Delivered Sincerity || JJK✔️

|15|

"Youngie!" Jeongguk chirped from outside my house and I nearly choke on the water I'm drinking. "Come on, hurry up! We're gonna be late!" Why is he here in the morning?! Is he going to keep doing this now oh no please no;;

I grabbed my bag and put on my mask then briskly walked out, locking the door behind me. "You do know it's still seven in the morning right? school starts in one hour," He sheepishly smiled and said, "I just wanted us to catch up. I really missed you, you know? Everytime I went on overwatch, you were always offline so I stopped playing too. And I was too much of a coward to text you."

"Sorry... uhm to be honest, I stopped playing overwatch because you might be online too so," I shrugged and from the corner of my eyes, he frowned when I said that. Awkward silence took over us for minutes until I decided to ask him something,

"Are we going straight to—"

"C-can I hold your hand?—"

"Huh?" His face was crimson red as he repeated his question, "Is it o-okay if I hold your hand?" I blinked at him, shocked. My mind was still processing what he said so I just nodded, still unsure if I heard right. He slipped his hand on mine and intertwined our fingers, sending sparks down my spine, my heartbeat fastened and I looked away from him so he wouldn't see how red my face is.

He mumbled a small thank you before speaking again, "What was your question?" I snapped my head to his direction, completely flustered. "Oh! Uh—A-are we going straight to school or are we going to walk around first?"

"It's up to you, I'm fine as long as you're here," My breath hitched at that and I looked away once again, pretending like I'm looking around. I stuttered, saying that we should go straight to school.

The hallways were still deserted when we arrived. Only some school staffs were roaming through the corridors to open locked classrooms. Sun rays were beaming through the windows, birds could be heard chirping and the rustling noise of leaves as the wind gently blows through the trees enters my ears. This place was filled with nothing but tranquility and I couldn't help planting a soft smile on my face.

"Nice isn't it? I could get used to this," His grip on my hand tightened and he turned to face me, catching how red my face is. I averted my gaze from him and stammered, "I—uh—coul...used—yeah..." I cleared my throat, "yeah me too," how embarrassing.

"Cute," Can he please stop? I feel like my face is being cooked right now.

——————

"Ms. Lee, it's a shock you came to school today," My grip on the edge of the table tightened whilst looking outside, trying to hold back the tears that are threatening to spill from my eyes. It's a shock to see you come back for me after years of ignoring my existence too.

"I hope you'll break out of your shell someday Miss Hwayoung-ssi," I rolled my eyes, imagining her giving me a sad smile as if she had the rights to do so. "Anyway, since we're learning about flowers, how about I tell you all a story of a certain flower. I found this on the internet and thought I'd share an interesting story with you."

"This is the story of the flower Smeraldo, and the meaning behind it is 'sincerity that could not be delivered' why? Because a long time ago, in a place called La Città Di Smeraldo, there once lived a man who hid in a secluded castle filled with loneliness. He had received hatred since birth so he never opened his heart to anyone whilst growing up. His only joy was growing flowers in his garden,"

Oh wow my life in a nutshell. Yay.

"One day, a girl in ragged clothes jumped over the garden fence and stole some flowers. The man grew furious and guarded the garden the whole night for days but sleep always took over him and the girl kept stealing from his garden. Until one night, he pretended to sleep and watched the girl run away after stealing. Curious, he followed her one day and saw how the poor girl was, selling the flowers from his garden."