Day Five: Desire

This fic shall forever be known as my "Flower Shop Competitor Modern AU", aka in which I had an idea and ran with it without thinking about the actual prompt. At least it kind of fits?

Yona stared across the street with her hands on her hips. Beneath her fists, her dress crumpled and folded in on itself, likely leaving crease marks that would have to be ironed out. She didn't care. Hak stood smirking back at her, his blue eyes in sharp contrast with the white and red that surrounded him.

Hibiscus Syriacus. Mugunghwa. The Rose of Sharon. Also known as eight feet tall, six feet wide shrubs, the other flower store owner had planted not just one, but two of them on either side of his door. Even just one of them would have drawn attention from sheer size and vibrancy, let alone four of them. It was outrageous, annoying, and completely and utterly Hak.

Holding back a snarl, she smirked back at him before spinning on her heel and storming into Flowers of the Dawn. If she wanted to counter the latest sales tactic of Hak's Flower Beasts, she would have to call in some beasts of her own.

"Oh, Yona, dear," Jae-ha sighed. He stretched his legs out and braced his hands behind his head, cracking his back and moaning. "You know he's just -"

"Antagonizing me, I know." Yona nodded firmly, cupping her chin in her palms and resting her elbows on the table. "He's done it since we were children; it's nothing new."

Zeno coughed, drawing their attention to where he sat on the counter criss-cross applesauce. "I don't think that's what Jae-ha meant, Miss."

"He's a peacock flaring his feathers," Kija declared. Next to him, Shin-ah nodded emphatically. Ao munched on a flower.

Yona stared at them, then jolted as the bird choice hit. "Peacocks!" she exclaimed. "Kija, you're a genius!"

It took two weeks and calling in a favour with An Lili, but eventually Hak came outside to watch in obvious disbelief as six ten feet tall, red-orange Peacock Flowers - Caesalpinia Pulcherrima - arrived at Flowers of the Dawn. Yona beamed at him and waved as she directed the shrubs to be placed on either side of her door. They mirrored Hak's hibiscuses perfectly, though they did outnumber them by two. The white flower with the red star-burst may draw attention, but the way the dawn-colored flowers matched her store's name might just edge him out in sales for the week.

"Doesn't she get it?" Hak asked Jae-ha. "I'm flirting. I want to date her. I've been in love with her ever since I moved in next door, and I haven't exactly kept it a secret."

"Trust me, I know," his roommate grumbled. "And me and the old gang have tried telling her, but it's like we say one thing and she hears something else entirely. You can blame Kija for the peacock flowers, by the way. Though Lili deserves at least some of the blame for providing them."

Hak dragged his hand over his face, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. Of course Yona's old college roommate had had a part in it. He was just thankful Yona was as oblivious to her love declarations as she was to his. Transferring ten feet tall shrubs from the Americas to South Korea at a moment's notice wasn't exactly subtle. Though - "I would have appreciated a warning about those, you know. She won our sales contest for the first week since I brought in my hibiscuses."

Jae-ha laughed. "Where would be the fun in that?"

A week later, and it was once again Hak's turn to smirk. His old man had managed to send him Moraea Villosas from Africa. While comparatively smaller - not a shrub, the flower came in at not even one and a half feet tall - it appealed to the eye. Another plant nicknamed "peacock", Mundok had managed to find a kind that was pink with blue eyes. A perfect blend of the dawn and the beast.

Watching Yona pick up her jaw after seeing the sea of them outside his store, Hak murmured to himself, "'Where would be the fun in that,' indeed."

Staring across the street at the blue, yellow, and purple forest dominating Yona's storefront, Hak decided he would have to call in reinforcements. She had pulled out all the stops with Gentianas and Clematis Chiisanensises. The star-like flower paired well with the Lemon Bells, but the variations in colouring and height made them especially attractive. It was time to fight dirty. He would have to call in Tae-jun, their old neighbour, competitor in the flower business, and someone so blatantly in love with Yona that even she knew it. If he said something, she would have no choice but to believe it.

Yona looked between Tae-jun and Hak curiously. While the two men respected one another, and might even call one another friends nowadays, it wasn't often they were together. So why…?

"I didn't want to be here," Tae-jun began loftily. He shot Hak a glare. "What I'm about to do goes against my every instinct. However. While I would like to believe there is still a chance for us, I'm smart enough to know that's just a dream. So. Yona. Hak is -"

"I love you!" Hak blurted.

Yona nodded, then froze. "EEEEHHHH?"

"He loves you," Tae-jun said. She thought she heard him mutter, "What did you even need me for?"

"He loves me," Yona repeated. Her brain felt like a slushy, whirring in frozen circles before oozing to a halt. "Hak loves me. You love me?!" She looked at Hak.

Her childhood friend - her oldest friend, besides Soo-won - had a blush up to his ear tips, but he met her gaze evenly.

"I love you," he said again. There was no inflection; he might as well have said 'I'm going to buy lettuce'. And yet… and yet, she thought she could hear it: The sound of dawn lighting up the flowers, of peacocks ruffling their feathers. Of love.

"You love me," she murmured, fists clenching in her dress. Yoon had finally wrestled it from her and ironed it the other day. He wouldn't be happy to do so again, but… "You love me. Hak, I…" I don't know what to say.

"You don't have to say anything," Hak said. "Just know that I love you, and if you ever want to give us a chance, I'll be there. I've loved you practically since we first met. I'm not about to stop anytime soon."

Yona looked up - when had she looked down? - just in time to watch him walk out the door. Tae-jun patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and followed. They left Yona alone, with nothing but what she had just learned to distract her.

"He loves me," she murmured. "But do I love him?"

Why yes, Yona. Yes you do. Also, spoiler alert: it takes a few months, but eventually a Hibiscus Syriacus sits in front of Flowers of the Dawn.

Note: any and all flower knowledge is drawn from frantic googling. If I got anything wrong, please let me know so I can fix it!

I definitely didn't mean to go into any kind of confession (nothing can beat the actual canon) but it ended up happening anyway. I hope you all enjoyed, and please review!