Written by Anna Michaela Balagot
A girl sits at the corner of the porch, hands stretched out upward, embracing the cold winds of that December morning. The cold caresses her face and she smiles a small smile. It had been weeks since she’d left the abundance of her home, stretching her wings of independence to her next adventure.
After a moment, she stands moving into the much warmer building and fastening her apron. She clips on the nametag bearing her name, ‘Hana’. The bell rings signalling the first customer for the day.
The smell of coffee sticks to Hana like a second skin. She walks through the crowd after an uneventful morning at work. Her class is starting soon yet she can’t find it in herself to care. She is starting to miss her family after days away from home and her apartment is too lonely a place for her to be fully comfortable.
Too fully immersed in her thoughts she does not notice a person barrelling towards her direction in full speed.
“Hey, HEY, move pleasE!” /BAM/
The stranger sits in between Hana’s legs clapping her hands together. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there till the last second. I swear! Well, I suppose you didn’t see me too since you didn’t move out of the way either that or have slow reflexes, not that- I mean, sorry!” Hana sits dumbfounded as the stranger bows down multiple times before she takes her hands, “It’s okay you don’t need to apologize, just uh don’t run too much. You might fall on somebody else.”
The stranger smiles cheekily at the comment, “Well, well, scared I’ll fall for someone else? Ha ha, just kidding,” they say while winking. “Anyways, my name is Kimi. Nice to meet you..?”
“Hana. Nice to meet you too.” Kimi stretches out her hand, helping Hana up.
“So, where are you headed? We might be going the same way.”
“I’m going to the uni around the corner to the left.”
“Huh, me too. What a coincidence, this must be fate. I met you after all!” Kimi says pulling Hana towards the uni. Hana couldn’t help but notice how she never let go of her hand.
“Welp, guess this is where we part. Unless, we go to the same class too?” Kimi says with a small smile. “If you have Chemistry class with Mr. Gimms, then sure.” Hana replies and Kimi pouts. “Darn, I don’t but uh surely you can meet with me later? At the shop right next to the uni?” Kimi says jogging in place. “Yeah sure, bye.” At that answer, Kimi whoops and starts sprinting opposite the direction of where Hana is heading. Hana laughs and lightly jogs to her own class, managing to slip in unnoticed.
Hana sits near the back of the room and she thinks a bit of Kimi. Kimi had a very bubbly personality, frankly it reminded her of her youthful days. She spent much of it bouncing around like a bullet, just the thought of it brings a smile to her face. Her brothers were always terrified of her loud personality, she wonders how she had lost that loudness to her character.
It is after school hours and Hana paces around the shop. Turns out that it was a flower shop filled with pots of colorful flowers and lush greens. The bell tingles and Hana looks to see Kimi who immediately waves at her, even her actions seem loud. “Hey! You’re here, didn’t think you’d come to be honest.” Kimi says walking closer as she scratches her cheek in embarrassment. “Well, you invited me. Who am I to say no?” Hana says bringing one of the smaller flowers close to her face. “You know that has no odor right?” Kimi says while pointing to the bundles of flowers on her hand. Hana flushes red and huffs while looking to the side, “Shut it, I wanted to look cool.”
Kimi laughs as she moves past Hana to the door that reads ‘Employee’s Room.’
“Hey, I’m gonna go change. Feel free to spend your time in the library if you want.”
“There’s a library here?!” Hana says whipping around with imaginary sparkles in her eyes. Kimi huffs out a laugh at her response and points to the left of the counter that reads ‘Library’, “You’ve been pacing around and you didn’t notice?” Hana stares at Kimi’s face noting the soft look she is giving her and calms herself down. “Yeah, sorry about the outburst.” Hana says with a slight blush while fast-walking to the library.
It’s funny to think she feels especially comfortable around Kimi. An emotion she hadn’t felt since weeks before when she was at home. She smells the library she stands in, it smells like spring and old books. Sitting down at the small table, she browses the shelf right next to her and finds it is a fantasy section. She picks a book whose cover she remembers seeing on tv as a child and starts reading.
It feels like hours before the door clicks again. Hana stares up at the sight of Kimi peeking through the door. “Hey, sorry I wasn’t here earlier. A customer came in to put in an order. They took a long time to pick a bouquet of flowers.” Kimi says while pulling a chair over to sit across Hana, putting her head on her hands and stares at the item in Hana’s hand.
“Interesting book you got there, I don’t think I’ve read it though.”
“Yeah, it's the book version of one of the shows I used to watch as a child. This book is like my childhood, can I take it home?” Hana says staring at Kimi and mustering up her best interpretation of sad puppy dog eyes. “Absolutely not, I’d love to but I will die by the hands of my grandmother who checks the books every night. You can come here everyday though. I could use the company.” Kimi says looking down and tracing circles into the table. Hana smiles.
“Sure, though I might not be here some days. I may be working by then, I’ll swing by whenever though.”
“Yeah cool, cool. Tomorrow?” Kimi asks as Hana stands and moves towards the door. Hana makes an affirmative sound and bids Kimi goodbye.
At night she dreams of her as a child passing by running towards a smaller version of Kimi. Small Hana cups her hands and whispers to small Kimi’s ears then takes her hand and walks around the field of flowers, never letting go. Hana looks down to her hands and wonders if it means that Kimi and her would become better friends in the future.
Hana goes to the flower shop almost everyday. After she had finished the first book, she took to reading some of the others yet she spent most of her time with Kimi in the flower shop. There she sits next to Kimi at the counter either reading a book (school-related and not school-related) or with her head resting on her arms conversing with Kimi about any mundane topic they can think of.
Slowly, her going to the flower shop becomes normal and she spends most of her days basking in the calm atmosphere of the flower shop by Kimi’s side.
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