Shinkai looked up when he heard the door chime. Customers. The bouquet he was arranging could wait.
Only, the customers weren’t customers – they were Shinkai’s friends. “Juichi, Yasutomo, nice of you two to drop by,” he said.
“I see you’re still working at this dump then,” Yasutomo – better known as Arakita – said as he and Juichi Fukutomi approached the counter. He didn’t bother looking up – too busy playing on his phone. Shinkai smiled, knowing there was no real heat behind his friend’s words.
Fukutomi was looking around the little flower shop when a particular flower caught his eye. Shinkai spotted him staring and moved to the flower of interest. “You like this?” Shinkai asked. Fukutomi blushed.
“Not for me,” he muttered before giving a subtle nod in Arakita’s direction. Said boy was still too busy typing away on his phone to notice the attention. Shinkai’s eyes lit up as he grabbed three of the pink flowers. He tucked the stem of one behind his ear, so the flower was sticking out through his hair, then he did the same to Fukutomi whose face had turned a shade darker than the pink flower in his hair.
Arakita jumped when he felt Shinkai touch him – he’d been too absorbed in his phone. “Eh? What do you think you’re doing?”
Shinkai laughed before tapping Arakita on the nose and finishing placing the flower in his hair. “Photo time!” he said. He whipped his phone out for his pocket, swiping to open the camera as he did. With a big grin on his face Shinkai pulled an aggravated Arakita and blushing Fukutomi in for a photo.
“Perfect,” Shinkai said once he’d taken the shot and set it as his new wallpaper.
“Ugh, you’re so weird Shinkai!” Arakita said before removing the flower, gently – a sight not many would ever get to see from the self-proclaimed bad boy – from his hair and handing it back to Shinkai.
“Keep it, it suits you. Don’t you think, Juichi?” Fukutomi was even redder, if possible, but managed to give a firm nod.
Arakita blushed and muttered a string of profanities as he carefully tied the flower to his backpack.
“So what brings you two here today?” Shinkai said.
Fukutomi looked to Arakita or glared back, ushering for his friend to speak. “We were, uh, looking for flowers to give to someone.”
“Oh,” Shinkai said – he hadn’t expected his friends to be actual customers. He clapped his hands together. “Well then, what’s the occasion?”
“A date – we want to ask them on a date,” Fukutomi replied without missing a beat.
The “we” did not go amiss from Shinkai’s ears. He’d always known that the two were close, but it was a surprise to him that they were letting another person into whatever their relationship was. In all honesty, he was a bit jealous.
“Okay, cool. Do you know what flowers they like?”
“No. Whatever you like will work.”
Shinkai nodded. “In this case I think going with the classics work well,” he said, and moved over to a bunch of red roses. He picked one and handed it over to Fukutomi. “A single red rose. Always a winner.”
“Pssh, I could’ve told you that, Fuku-chan,” Arakita said, finally having pocketed his phone.
“Bit of a romantic, huh, Yasutomo?” Shinkai said.
“Shut up, shithead!”
Shinkai chuckled as he moved behind the counter, Fukutomi handing him the right amount of cash for the rose. “Is that all for today then?”
Fukutomi and Arakita shared a glance. “Not exactly…” Fukutomi said.
Arakita sighed. “Just pass it here,” he said and grabbed the rose from Fukutomi with one hand and grabbed Fukutomi’s hand with the other, tightly by what Shinkai could see.
“We… err..”
“Yeah?” Shinkai prompted.
“This is for you!” Arakita said at once, thrusting his hand holding the rose to Shinkai.
Before Shinkai could respond, though, Fukutomi chipped in, “Date us?”
Shinkai smiled. “I’d love to.”