Biawog: Hi! :) Yay, I'm glad you read, reviewed, and liked it! ^^ And lol about the favorite character order! Those are my top three boys too~

Chocobaby: Ooh, angsty Saeki fic? I love TMGS angst for some reason. xD I look forward to reading it, and all your other future fanfics! (8

Thanks lots for the reviews and for reading!

( This is written in Masaki's POV. )

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Four

By the Gloxinias: Masaki

When you've worked at Anneri Floral Shop for a while like I have, you notice a lot.

I've noticed a lot during my days here. But there is one prospect – or rather, two – that happen more often than the rest, and they never cease to chomp away at my nerves. Or sanity. Well no, I'm not going crazy here… Anyway.

You see, many…attractive girls come into the shop. I don't complain about that, really. It's just that sometimes, there comes across a customer who really…distracts me from my job. But, unfortunately, there's more to the story.

Once or twice I've seen one that really catches my attention. Ignoring Arisawa's all-knowing eye-roll – I've become so used to it that I can feel her eyeballs spin behind my back – I am extra polite to the girls anyway. That is, believe it or not (I know Arisawa doesn't but don't listen to her), my expert way of flirting – but can you blame me? I am a man, and some of these girls are really, really cute.

That is, until they go to the counter to ask about the flowers.

"Um, excuse me? I'd like to ask a question…"

I respond with my oh-so-charming self, not-so-subtly hiding it in my politeness. "Sure, what is it, ma'am?" The "ma'am" doesn't make them smile as much as I want them to, though. But that's not the point here.

"I heard the guys secretly love receiving flowers… Could you," she takes a breath here, flushed with embarrassment, "suggest some flowers for me? I want to give my…um, my crush some for his birthday."

Original. I haven't ever heard of a girl giving flowers a present to someone they like before. (Can you sense the sarcasm? You probably can. When I'm disappointed, I tend to be a bit bitter.)

Guys? Flowers? Where'd this chick hear that? Guys don't want flowers from pretty girls. They want the pretty girls.

But I continue to fake-smile, because Arisawa would kill me if I was all sour to a customer. I keep my cruel jokes to myself.

"Describe it a bit more, please. Does he know you feel that way about him or is it a secret for now?" I did not want to hear the embarrassed gushing that would of course follow with my questions, but it was my job to deal with this kind of stuff. So really, I'm at fault. Don't blame the cute-but-apparently-taken girl.

"H-he doesn't know yet," the girl says shyly. "I'm going to tell him when I give him the flowers, though."

Flowers and a confession of love? That's more like it.

"Hm," I pretend to be in deep thought. "The camellia seems best. I'll have you pick out the color yourself. White says, 'you're so cute', red says, 'you're a fire in my heart, baby' and pink says, 'I'm aching for you'."

Her eyes widen and her face turns even redder, but thankfully, she doesn't faint. "Thanks," she murmurs, heading off in the direction of the camellias. Not waiting for my "you're welcome", eh?

Sighing, I look around the flower shop, watching numerous girls and their friends giggle as they assort various flowers into bouquets. They're all blushing. I take those red cheeks as a sign that they're taken. Why would a girl blush if she was giving flowers to, say, her sick grandmother? That would be…disturbing…

A rush of wind and the sound of the bell ringing signal a customer stepping into the store. I look to the door, and there is a girl, staring curiously at the gloxinias. She has short brown hair, a decent figure in an oddly familiar school uniform, and bright eyes.

She wasn't as pretty as the other girls in the store, so why was I smiling so wide? Why were my feet automatically taking me there?

"Welcome to Anneri Floral Shop. I'm Motoharu Masaki, you can call me Masaki. And you are…?" No, no. I wasn't allowed to start conversations with customers like this. It was supposed to be, "Welcome to Anneri Floral Shop. I'm Motoharu-san, how may I help you?"

The girl looks up from the flowers, blinking at me. Then she smiles – is there a smirk in her grin?

Huh. She was smirking at me.

"I'm Shiroi Megumi," she says. "Does that ring a bell?"

It does, but I can't seem to remember. I am far too distracted by…the girl near the gloxinias. Before I can say anything, however, I feel Arisawa's eye-roll behind me.

"Masaki," she scolds, stepping aside me. "Shiroi-san's not a customer you can flirt with; she's the new worker."

"You can call me Megumi," she chirps politely, but I can see that she's satisfied with herself.

"Ah," I see. Customer, worker, I was certainly flirting with her. I didn't understand why I wanted to – she was fairly average in looks and that was it. What was it? Her smile?

Arisawa leaves before loudly sighing at me. I ignore her.

"So," she says, putting on the Anneri green apron. Hm, it suits her. "Are you going to flirt with me some more or what?"

Oh. Now I see why I'm so attracted to this not-so-attractive person.

It was that personality of hers. She hadn't been with me long enough so I can fully make it out, but I can already see it.

She was interesting. Definitely not another blushing, "flower-for-my-lover" type.

"Actually, I'm done flirting," I reply, to which her eyebrows rise slightly. "Do you want go for some burgers after work?"

Was it moving too fast?

Nah.

I just wanted to already make progress.

She smiles mischievously. How cute. "I think I'm free tonight," she says. "But you'll see later." Sending me a wink, Shiroi Megumi flounces away.

As I return to my job, I notice one last thing. The gloxinias that'd caught her fascination.

If I'm not mistaken, they represent love at first sight…

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I know I said the fourth one was either going to be on Amachi or Shiba, but as I was playing the game I got this idea for Masaki.

Two updates in one day! Yay~?

Like always, thanks a bunch for reading! (: