Flower Fiancé Chapter 43

“Sure, not difficult. Which side are you curious about? Personal life?”

“Everything. The more personal, the better.”

“Ah, that’s my specialty. Just leave it to me, hyung.”

Minhyeok nodded as if it were no big deal and readily agreed.

“But this is unusual. You’re moving personally.”

“There are things that require it.”

“Shady.”

“What is.”

“You’ve always kept your distance from people like that. What happened?”

As expected, there was no way Choi Minhyeok, who couldn’t stand not knowing, would let it pass without asking. He took a few more drags of the cigarette in his mouth, then stubbed it out in the ashtray.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Tsk, did this bastard maybe mess with your lover, hyung?”

When Minhyeok said it as if testing the waters, Choi Moohyuk shot him a look.

“There’s a rumor going around that you’ve got a lover at the company.”

Choi Moohyuk looked at Minhyeok with one eyebrow raised and clicked his tongue.

“Anyway, you don’t do your work and have too much interest in useless things.”

Quick-witted Choi Minhyeok noticed Choi Moohyuk’s expression wasn’t good and swiftly changed the subject.

“That’s just how it is, right? Why are you being so sensitive? Anyway, whoever it is, that bastard is damn pitiful. Of all people to get caught by, he had to get caught by you.”

As Choi Moohyuk listened to Minhyeok’s blustering chatter, his expression was about to loosen.

— Buzz, buzz.

Just then, a vibration rang from the desk. Since it kept ringing without stopping, it seemed like a phone call. Choi Moohyuk rose from his seat and walked to the desk.

Picking up the phone that had been face down, Choi Moohyuk’s expression hardened rapidly the moment he saw the name on the screen.

It was a call from his father, Chairman Choi.

∞ ∞ ∞

Ji Yeonwoo straightened his back after dragging a flowerpot as big as his own body. A dull ache spread through his entire body along his spine. Letting out a groan, he balled his small fist and tapped his back. Unlike the gesture of rubbing his back, he sniffled and looked around the interior, a faint smile on his face.

“It’s good that they’ve recovered a lot.”

The first thing he did after arriving at work was to check the condition of the conditioned flowers. It had only been a day, but hoping they hadn’t deteriorated too much, the emergency treatment he’d applied seemed to have worked, and Ji Yeonwoo felt relieved seeing the flowers not wilting further.

He stored the newly brought-in flowers in the flower showcase, arranged the pots, and moved without rest, so the shop was visibly returning to its original state.

Turning around to look at the well-organized Flower Fiancé, Ji Yeonwoo felt his nose getting stuffy again, so he pulled out a tissue and blew his nose.

“Am I going to get sick at this rate?”

He’d taken medicine right after coming to work, but his throat only felt rougher. If it were a mild cold, the symptoms would usually subside a few hours after taking medicine, but this time there was no sign of them subsiding at all. He thought about going to the hospital, but today there were customers coming in sporadically, so it was awkward to leave his spot.

“Is Managing Director okay? He seemed like he didn’t sleep well.”

He recalled what had happened the previous night. He wasn’t sure if it was a dream or reality, but he heard Choi Moohyuk talking on the phone with someone. He couldn’t remember exactly what was said, but he could feel the fatigue in Choi Moohyuk’s low, raspy voice.

After that, Choi Moohyuk kept tossing and turning, and Ji Yeonwoo also lost sleep because of it. Since he was sensitive about sleeping arrangements and had always slept alone, even the slightest movement beside him would wake him up.

Contrary to his worry that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep easily, unexpectedly, it was only after Choi Moohyuk lay down behind him, wrapping his body around Ji Yeonwoo’s and pulling him close by the waist, that Ji Yeonwoo was able to fall asleep as well. He couldn’t tell why. Whether it was because of the warmth, or because the gentle heartbeat transmitted through his back felt like a lullaby, Ji Yeonwoo was able to greet the morning feeling refreshed, belying the hours he’d spent tossing and turning.

Like a stream of consciousness, Ji Yeonwoo had been thinking about everything from before falling asleep to coming to the shop and up until parting with Choi Moohyuk, when he paused and opened his eyes wide.

“Ah, right. Come to think of it, earlier with Managing Director…”

He remembered kissing Choi Moohyuk in front of the shop door as he opened it. It was an awkward position, with Choi Moohyuk standing right behind him and Ji Yeonwoo tilting his head back to kiss, but none of it felt bad at all.

Normally, he wouldn’t have even dared. If any of the neighboring shop owners, who firmly believed Ji Yeonwoo was an ordinary beta male, had seen that scene, it would have been perfect for misunderstanding him as gay. But at the moment of the kiss, all he remembered was how good it felt, to the point where he couldn’t think about any of that.

Even amid all that, Ji Yeonwoo was worried about Choi Moohyuk.

It was a cold that wouldn’t easily go away even after taking comprehensive cold medicine, and on top of that, if they’d kissed, he was worried he might have passed it on to the Managing Director.

“I should have said no because I’d pass on the cold. I got swept up in the mood and didn’t even think about it.”

Ji Yeonwoo, muttering to himself, picked up his phone from the counter.

“I should at least call to see if Managing Director is okay.”

Looking at the cracked, shattered screen, he let out a small sigh and pressed hard on the unresponsive screen to call Choi Moohyuk. Thinking he should get his phone replaced before coming to work tomorrow, he put the ringing phone to his ear.

— Rrrring, rrrring.

But as the ringing tone stretched on, Ji Yeonwoo’s expression began to harden as well.

[ The customer is unable to take your call. Please leave a message after the beep… ]

“…Huh?”

Ji Yeonwoo pulled the phone away from his ear with awkward movements, and a flustered expression spread across his face. Choi Moohyuk hadn’t answered. Until now, no matter what, Choi Moohyuk always answered when Ji Yeonwoo called, so this was strange. Perhaps because it was so unusual, an instinctive wave of worry rushed over him.

“Is he very… busy?”

Well, recalling that just a few days ago he’d said he was insanely busy, it made sense on one hand. Or maybe he was in a meeting. Staring at the cracked screen and forcing himself to shake off the anxiety, Ji Yeonwoo put the phone down on the counter and focused on work again. He figured that if there was a missed call, Choi Moohyuk would call back.

But even as evening approached, there was no call from Choi Moohyuk.

“…Why isn’t he contacting me.”

Ji Yeonwoo sat on a chair, folded his arms on the counter, rested his chin on them, and stared at the silent phone. It was unthinkable for a modern person not to have checked their phone for six hours. No matter how busy he was, if he’d seen the missed call, he could have at least left a message saying he’d contact after work because he was busy. The Choi Moohyuk he knew was more than capable of that.

But the fact that there wasn’t even a single message for over six hours bothered him somehow. Had something really happened? Just as his worry was reaching an extreme—

— Buzz.

The phone vibrated. Ji Yeonwoo grabbed it as if he’d been waiting.

The corners of Ji Yeonwoo’s lips slowly sank as he checked the screen.

It was an unsaved number he didn’t recognize.

‘Answer the phone. Unless you don’t want to see my face.’

A bad memory, etched into his mind, quickly flashed through his head.

Surely, it couldn’t be Lee Hyunjoon calling?

He’d already blocked the calls coming from Lee Hyunjoon, so there was no guarantee that the owner of this number was Lee Hyunjoon.

But if he answered and it was Lee Hyunjoon, what then?

Ji Yeonwoo hesitated, staring at the phone that wouldn’t stop ringing, and bit his lower lip hard. No. Even if the caller was Lee Hyunjoon, nothing would change.

There was no reason to avoid it. If it really was Lee Hyunjoon, instead of avoiding him, the priority was to answer and find out why he kept calling.

After hesitating, Ji Yeonwoo pressed the call button.

“…Hello?”

As he spoke in a trembling voice, from the other side of the phone,

[ Oh? Isn’t this Flower Fiancé? ]

a woman’s voice was heard.

‘Ah, it’s not Lee Hyunjoon.’

Only then did the tension release, and Ji Yeonwoo slumped heavily into the chair. His legs felt like jelly and were trembling.

“Yes, this is Flower Fiancé.”

[Boss, do you happen to have light pink ranunculus?]