SHTDN Week

Day 2 - Flowers

"You always seem to like coming back here, Goyou," Agape remarked. He continued following Goyou into the rose garden file, looking around at the giant rose bushes around them.

To Agape, the bushes felt a bit like hedges, or more like high walls in a giant maze. He had seen it all before, with the roses in shades of red, pink, and orange giving him no interest. The only thing interesting to him was the reaction of the antivirus in front of him.

Goyou touched the top of the flowers, running his hand over the petals as he smiled. Most notable was how he kept his hand near the very top of the flower, trying to avoid the stem after Agape had explained thorns to him. Goyou began listening more after he pricked himself once.

"Hey, Goyou. Let's go sit in the gazebo for a bit," he suggested, flying past the antivirus as he looked up.

"Gazebo...?"

"It's what the type of building in this file is called. Has no walls, has structural pillars and a roof, it's over there. Come on," Agape impatiently called. With a small sigh, Goyou left the rose he was touching and went into the middle of the file.

Once he was in the gazebo, Agape landed on the ground and sat down. He looked down the path towards the structure, where he could see Goyou arriving. The antivirus sat down with him, looking around at the structure around him.

"Ahh~ Isn't this relaxing? Sitting in the shade on a peaceful day, surrounded by roses..." Agape sighed as he kicked his feet out in front of him. He smiled as he leaned back, lying on the floor of the gazebo.

Goyou continued to sit cross-legged as Agape relaxed beside him. "It is a little relaxing. I can see why humans like these flowers so much. And a gazebo, it's a good place to sit down and see them all," he spoke.

"Well, humans like roses for many reasons. But a gazebo is for sitting down and relaxing in. Some humans bring tables in here too, something like the kind in the dining room, and they have picnics," the angel explained.

Goyou remembered the file of the picnic that he and Agape came across and nodded, pleased that he understood a little more. "I saw a rose in the restaurant file, the one where you said humans keep important logs in. Are they used for that too?" he asked.

Agape stretched his wings, then turned onto his side to face Goyou. "Well, roses can mean many things in human culture, but they commonly represent love. So when they're having a fancy dinner with someone they love, they might have a rose at the table. Some humans get roses as gifts for their loved ones too."

"That's interesting. Do other flowers mean things to humans?" Goyou continued to question.

"Well, from what I've seen... Sunflowers mean loyalty and happiness, red spider lilies mean death or loss, and wisterias mean longevity and resilience. They can also mean lost love too," Agape recalled. "Getting the flower doesn't mean that those meanings suddenly become TRUE in a human's life. Humans just think so."

"Ah. So even if they get flowers with good meanings, those things might still be FALSE," the antivirus summarized.

"That's right. Flowers don't automatically fix things, but humans like them as gifts." Agape turned onto his back again, staring up at the roof of a gazebo with a smile. "I've heard that giving flowers is 'romantic', and that it means love. But I could never find out what love is from that alone."

Agape heard some movement from beside him, but he didn't feel bothered enough to look up. He closed his eyes as he let the sensation of the warm spring day envelop him. Even if this was just a simulation in the real world, even if he had felt it a dozen times before, resting in this kind of environment was always peaceful.

He heard the sound of movement coming back towards him, and he opened his eyes. Right in front of his face was a pink rose, being held by Goyou. The antivirus didn't seem awkward, happy, embarrassed or anything.

Agape sat up quickly with wide eyes. "H-Huh?! Why did you bring me a rose?!" he exclaimed.

"You said that roses mean 'love'. Maybe it's the one given the rose who feels that? I'm not really sure," Goyou explained. He tilted his head a bit when he noticed the angel's expression. "Hey, what are you making that face for?"

Agape froze, not knowing why he was reacting pretty severely. In the end, Goyou didn't look like he was feeling anything out of the ordinary by giving him a rose, so why was he acting like this? Agape wasn't sure what kind of name to put to the feeling, so he put it aside for now.

"Ahaha... Goyou can be really naive sometimes," Agape sighed with a smile. He quickly decided to redirect the conversation elsewhere. "But that rose, you got it from the bushes, right? Look at you, telling me not to mess with anything but doing it yourself!"

Goyou's face looked sad at this revelation. "It was just from a corner, I didn't think it was visible...I'll revert the picture back to its original state after."

"Nah, no need to get worked up over it. It's unlikely that your owner's coming back anyway," the angel sighed. He didn't expect Goyou to get upset at that. "Sorry, I forgot how much you like to keep things orderly. Let's head to another file."

Agape got up from the ground and began flying again. Goyou gave him an uncertain look, but he quickly fixed the file. Without anymore words, the antivirus began his walk from the file, with the angel following behind him.