★ | #07 | lego flowers
"nice try, buddy."

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falling behind • laufey
"everybody's falling in love, and i'm falling behind."

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“WAIT, you're going out with some random guy who you just met? Seonmi, that's exactly how you get kidnapped.” Choi Soobin sighed, as the girl snickered, listening to her brother's voice from the other end of the call as she had him on speaker whilst doing her hair for her outing.

“Oh, relax. I'm grown and mature enough to handle myself. I'm not an idiot.” Seonmi spoke, tying two small ribbons at the end of her hair — of which she had put into two loose braids.

“I wouldn't doubt it.” Soobin countered, his tone of voice laced with sarcasm as Seonmi scoffed, shaking her head.

“Tell me more about this Sim Jaeyun, then.” Soobin egged on, as the girl pressed her lips in a thin line.

“Uhh, he's born in 2002, in November. He's Australian, and—” Seonmi started, only to be cut off by her older brother's laugh.

“Seonmi!” Soobin laughed, “Did you know that most serial killers are born in November?”

“What the actual hell, Soobin? How do you even know that?” Seonmi raised her brows in surprise, a huff leaving her lips as she finished her hair and lifted her phone off of her bathroom counter, taking it with her as she traveled through her small apartment.

“I heard it on one of those ‘creepy facts’ Tiktok slideshows.” Soobin replied, only to receive a laugh from the girl.

“Are you serious? And you believe that?”

“It's true!”

“God, you're so dumb.”

“Not dumb enough to go out with someone I just met and who was born in November.” Soobin replied half-jokingly.

“Soobin, you barely made it out of November. If mom wanted to, she could've had you a week earlier.” Seonmi grumbled, as Soobin mimicked her voice teasingly.

“You're so childish. I cannot believe you're actually older than I am.” Seonmi added on with a sigh, as the boy on the other end of the call chuckled.

“Oh, come on. I was joking, and you know you love me.” Soobin let out between giggles, shaking his head although she couldn't see as it wasn't a FaceTime call.

“Go out with that guy, do whatever you want, I don't care. But don't be dumb, and keep your location shared so you don't die please. Yeonjun would kill me if you got kidnapped and it would somehow be blamed on me.” Soobin scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, good. I can frame you.” The younger joked, huffing out a laugh.

“Choi Seonmi, be serious.”

“Okay, okay, fine. Mom.” Seonmi mumbled, scrunching her nose up lightly as her brother scoffed once again for the nth time.

“Hey! I practically raised you, you know.” Soobin pointed out, snickering as the girl shook her head.

“Raised me how? Soobin, you kept pushing me off the swing-set when I was younger and then proceeded to wonder why I'd start crying.” The girl recalled, pursing her lips.

“Kids these days. So ungrateful.” Soobin murmured to himself, though loud enough for her to be able to hear as she chuckled quietly and picked up her phone once again, bringing it closer to her.

“You're so annoying.” Seonmi smiled, adjusting her hair ever so slightly. “Anyway, I gotta go now. I need to leave soon.”

“Okay, okay. Share your location with me and the others, or else I'll just track you down myself.” Soobin threatened half-jokingly, as Seonmi snickered.

“Fine! K, bye, love you!” Seonmi let out, hanging up on her brother before he could even get a chance to bid his own goodbye.

The girl let out a sigh, eyes wandering around before reaching out and keys and wallet into her tote bag and slipping her arm through the strap.

She then slipped on her shoes and latched her hand around her doorknob, twisting it and locking it behind her. While walking to the exit stairs of her apartment complex, she looked down at her phone as she opened Instagram and clicked on her private messages she held with the boy.

Texting him that she was just now leaving and was on her way; as they both agreed to meet at the flower shop — nearly tripping down the stairs as she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking.

Seonmi huffed out a small laugh at her near-accident as she shoved her phone into her tote bag, hand wrapping slightly around the metal railing to the right of her as she hopped off of the final step, her shoes colliding with the hard concrete path leading out of the apartment halls.

With airpods in her ears connected to her phone, she shuffled her playlist on Spotify as she kept to herself, walking down the all too familiar streets as she took the usual route to the flower shop that wasn't too far from where she lived.

And whilst she could drive, and has on multiple occasions after learning a few years ago in senior year of highschool, she hadn't bothered getting a car as everything around her that she needed, she was fortunate enough to have them accessible in a walking distance.

In any other situation, she would rely on public transportation. Such as taking the subway, buses, taxis or ubers.

Humming softly all the way to the flower shop, it wasn't too long and too many crosswalks she had to walk across before the flower shop came into view.

Greeted with a warm smile, the boy shifted his position from leaning up against the small part of the building covered in brick, her footsteps catching his attention as he looked up to meet her gaze.

“Am I late?” Seonmi asked with a small smile, head tilted ever so slightly off to the side as Jake breathed out a laugh and shook his head in response.

“No, no. You're not.” Jake answered, as the girl stopped just in front of him, fingers pulling out her airpods and her freehand busied itself digging through her tote bag before pulling out the airpod case, putting the easy to lose earbuds away.

“Oh, really? I left my apartment a little later than I intended, so I kinda figured I'd be a bit late.” The girl muttered in surprise, her arms folded across her chest.

“Ah, I see. But no, you're not late, so don't worry. And regardless of whether you are or not, it wouldn't matter as we have plenty of time to do all the things we want to.” Jake pointed out with a shrug.

His eyes shifted down to the small bag he held in his hands, perking up as he was reminded of what he had impulsively bought.

“Oh, right, this is for you.” Jake said, raising the small gift bag up for her to take as she raised a brow.

“Oh? What is it?” Seonmi let out, her fingers hooking around the soft fabric of the white silk handles on the pale yellow colored gift bag.

Pulling it out of the bag, Seonmi let a smile spread across her lips as she looked at the reference image on the cardboard box stored inside.

“Uhm, I assumed you liked flowers considering you work with them. But, because of that, I didn't know if you wanted real flowers since you're around them all the time. So I got you Lego flowers instead.” Jake explained himself, as she settled the Lego box back into the small bag and peered up at him.

“Awe, thank you, Jake. That's actually really thoughtful. I haven't built Legos in years, so this'll surely be fun.” Seonmi said happily, putting the gift bag into her tote bag.

“No problem? You like it?” Jake raised a brow, wanting an honest answer from the girl who chuckled and nodded her head quickly.

“Of course I do! I saw these on tiktok a little while ago and I wanted to get some but they were always too expensive.” She spoke quietly before coming to a small realization, narrowing her eyes.

“Wait, how much did you pay for these?” The girl blinked, as Jake bit back a smile, waving the question off.

“Don't worry about that. It's a gift from me to you.” Jake dismissed lightly with that shake of his head, as Seonmi snickered quietly in response to his attempt.

“No, seriously, I can pay you back for it.” Seonmi egged on, narrowing her eyes as she brushed her fingers through her hair.

“I refuse to accept your money.” Jake breathed out a laugh. “But, I have one request as my payment.”

“And that is?”

“Be delusional with me and consider this as more of a date rather than a hang out.” Jake requested, as Seonmi raised her brows slightly.

“Really?” Seonmi deadpanned, giving him a playful eye roll as she sighed dramatically. “Fine, fine.” She uttered, scrunching her nose up slightly.

“Is this really how desperate you are?” She laughed, tilting her head off to the side as Jake shrugged.

“I mean, sure, I guess so.” The boy confessed with a lopsided grin, messing with the ring on his pinky finger.

“I’ll be honest, that's not really a good look.” Seonmi pressed her lips together in a thin line, watching as Jake perked up as soft laughter bubbled in his throat.

“Is it not? Well, oh well.” Jake breathed out with a laugh, shrugging nonchalantly.

“It's okay, I like them a little crazy.” Seonmi shrugged, a hum sounding past her lips as her feet carried her to walk slowly ahead of the boy, as he took a moment of realization before quickly following after the girl.

“Hey, hey, hey! You can't just say things like that!” Jake huffed out, a dusty pink color spread across his tanned skin; a result of spending time out in the sun very often.

“Hm? Stuff like what?” Seonmi teased, pretending to be clueless as she tilted her head off to the side, her expression coy as he snickered and shook his head.

“You realize you're feeding into my delusions, yeah?” He pointed out, to which she laughed quietly at.

“I love that you admit that they're delusions.” Seonmi let out a laugh, head turned to face him as he looked down instead of meeting her gaze, his arms resting at his sides as he smiled softly.

And although the bet he had placed over her without her knowledge, the immature act was pushed to the back of his mind in that very moment — genuinely enjoying the small little interactions shared between himself and her.

“I’m an honest guy.” Jake said ironically, rolling his eyes playfully. “Reason number one hundred why you should date me.”

“Nice try, buddy.” Seonmi smiled sarcastically, her hand rising to gently pat his shoulder.

“Did you seriously just buddy-zone me?”

“Yeah.” Seonmi admitted openly, nonchalantly. And although she appeared unbothered, she couldn't help but feel happy, having fun hanging out with the boy despite his desperate attempts to grasp her attention in a romantic term.

“I’ll have you know, this is the most I've ever been rejected before by the same person. Ever.” Jake confessed, arms folded across his chest.

“Ah, really? I don't exactly know what to say to that. But, uh, cool fact?” Seonmi tucked her lip between her teeth, head cocked off to the side as her brows raised.

“Humiliating fact.” He chuckled, correcting her slightly.

Diverting the conversation to a different topic, the two walked to the nearby subway station together, small laughs shared between them as they discovered new things about each other; getting to know each other better than before.

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★﹐authors corner ．﹗﹑ 1.9k words
guys the eclipse today was fun idk 😞

anyway i have been in the biggest writers block of my entire life i swear omg. literally have had this chapter planned kinda (??) and i knew what i wanted to write in it but actually doing so was miserable and tiring

i feel like i say that every time lol oops

also genuine question !! is this story boring or ?? like i genuinely can't tell and am having doubts so give me your honest opinions please 😽🙏

anyway, i've gotta go so !! byeeee thank you all so much for reading <3
april 8th, 2024 — 7:33pm.
not proofread.