Sungchan couldn't smell his favourite scent that morningー not that he really wanted toー but he figured it was a smell that he only kept at home.

It would be simple. They would get to work, the day's job would wash away the morning's banter, and they'd be good by evening where they would then go for a walk.

Simple.

But no. Shotato remained with a frown all day, his protective glitter flying in uneven amounts but at least they were falling on the target this time.

There was no evening walk but Shotaro did indeed find a carving of an orchid on his doorstep. White varnish coating the petal part.

Strange.

Nevertheless, he smiled and took it in but the thought of who would leave an apology flower rung in his mind. He hadn't received a gift from his secret someone in a while and now that the white orchid appeared on his doorstep, he figured whoever it was, was apologizing for taking so long to leave him a gift.

It made sense.

But then it continued like that.

They didn't go on walks and suddenly, the gifts returned.

Shotaro, of course, had a hard time convincing himself to take the Elf gifts but he continued whether it was a fruit basket or flowers, he took them and left them for his Elf.

Wooyoung berated him repeatedly for what he did and although the Spring Fairy did eventually feel bad, he couldn't help but stay a distance. He missed their walks but his mind kept telling him that Sungchan was lying.

It was truly stupid of him to assume that the Elf had someone when he had previously spent all his time with the Fairy but sometimes, jumping to conclusions seemed like the best way to protect yourself. Besides, a relationship was too much work if you couldn't even bring yourself to trust your partner.

And he wanted to trust Sungchan, he really did but it was hard because in order to change something, he first had to change himself.

He just didn't know how everything would go back to normal thanks to his outburst that one morning at his parents’ house.

._._.

Hendery sat on Sungchan's bed, eyes closed as the Elf sat on the floor waiting for his best friend to speak.

Why was he always on the ground or on a lower surface?

"What ar-"

"Shut up."

Sungchan blinked. Rude much.

Hendery remained in his position as if he were meditating and then, praise the heavens, his eyes snapped open and Sungchan instantly sighed in relief as he waited for the other Elf to speak.

"I'm hungry."

"Bitc-"

"Shut up. Losers have no room to speak. Especially losers who make out with their crush and then manage to make them mad and distant right after."

"But I didn-"

"Shut up."

Sungchan sighed and nodded, heading to his nearly empty kitchen to find food.

It was nearly the end of Spring, which meant that Shotaro would be moved to a slightly shady area across the garden and that meant that they wouldn't be as close to each other as before.

He slapped together two nearly stale pieces of bread with jam and carried it up but as he passed by a frame he had hung on the wall with a pressed flower he had received from his secret someone, he was struck with an idea that he hoped would work.

"Hendery!" Sungchan yelled, now running up the stairs. "I have an ide-"

"Silence, young one. I know. You were struck with a shitty ass idea to win him back. Now tell me what it was," Hendery said calmly and really, Sungchan didn't even know what he was doing anymore.

"Oh fuck off! It's a good idea! And stop acting like that!"

"Who are you to decide that? Tell me first and I might go back to my ways of being a mortal."

Sungchan handed his best friend the mostly stale sandwich with a sigh and settled on his bed, a frown thrown at him before feet rested comfortably on him. 

He frowned.

The feet on his lap reminded him of when he laid on Shotaro's lap in the evenings.

No time to think of that though.

"So my idea is as follows," Sungchan began, clearing his throat. "On the last day of his shift in his current location. I'll get Wooyoung to have him stay back a little bit until I manage to escape from my post. I'll then hand him a bouquet of white orchids and take him out to that cute Nymph restaurant where I will then take him somewhere else and then confess. How about that?"

Hendery blinked, swallowing the sandwich heavily as he processed the information.

"Oh my dear Hesus! Sometimes you’re not completely stupid! I love it!" Hendery exclaimed, bread crumbs flying everywhere.

Sungchan was almost offended. Almost, but not quite. 

He had other things he wanted to focus on that were more important than Hendery's tomfoolery.

And so it went.

Shotaro would subtly glance at him while at work, his mind confused as he began to come to terms with how he reacted.

Illogically to the exact and he was starting to beat himself over it. He was feeling the guilt in the pit of his stomach and the more he ran off in the evenings to take his favourite Elf his daily gift, the more he felt that he needed to take him an apology gift as well.  The only thing mainly grounding him was the fact that after he’d drop off the gift, he’d take a cruise in the sky for several minutes before going home. It was sort of a mind clearer to be exact.

"Sometimes I think you're the biggest idiot to ever exist," Wooyoung sighed, stroking the white orchid carving.

"How and why?"

"I don't know. Maybe because someone apologized to you through a gift and neither can you figure out who it is or use that to give your Elf a gift in return."

"What are you saying?" Shotaro asked, puzzled, his hands absentmindedly twiddling together as he put lotion on. The lotion that 'destroyed' lives. "How am I supposed to know who it's from? And what do you mean by ‘use’ it?"

Wooyoung exhaled loudly, catching a whiff of the lotion on his inhale as his eyes widened.

That smell.

Very understandable why it drove the Elf crazy. It was an interesting smell that wasn't flowery nor fruity but simultaneously, it was.

Weird.

The Elf's sharp nose would figure it out instantly and to know that he only aggressively made out in a drunken state was amazing to Wooyoung who didn't know self-control.

"Stupid. Sungchan has obviously been leaving you shit just like you've been leaving him stuff."

Shotaro’s mouth slowly fell open, wings spasming in confused excitement as his eyes widened with a thousand sparkles.

"But-"

"No buts. It's obvious. Who else would leave you an apology flower right after tonguing you at a family dinner?"

Shotaro felt his face grow red. He was so painfully stupid to never piece things together.

"But tomorrow is my last day working right beside his station. I'll be moved closer to you now on the other side of the garden. Then it'll be harder to talk to him besides after work."

"Well, your ass better prepare him something. I don't know what," Wooyoung instructed, recalling that the Elf had begged him to hold back the Spring Fairy the following day.

They'd both confess the following day no matter what.