Old Friends and Fresh Rumors

The next morning, a blue truck bearing the large logo of the Eulju Flower Nursery rolled into the garden, kicking up a cloud of sandy dust as it came to a stop.

"Lee-seol!"

The man who climbed briskly down from the driver's seat was not Boss Jang, as usual, but his son—her old classmate, Jang Hyun-woo.

With the sleeves of his checked shirt rolled up to his elbows and dressed in cargo overall work clothes, Hyun-woo strode over and greeted her cheerfully.

Hyun-woo was one of the few neighborhood friends Lee-seol had kept through elementary, middle, and high school.

As the eldest son of Boss Jang, owner of the largest flower nursery in the area, he had enrolled at an agricultural university nearby to carry on the family business. Though his studies kept him away from Mt. Hyeonak and Eulju-ri, he still returned home most weekends to train under his father and learn the trade.

He was still tall and tanned, and the defined muscles along his bare forearms suggested he'd been training quite seriously in more ways than one.

Lee-seol greeted him warmly and opened with a tease.

"I thought it would be Boss Jang coming today."

"Dad threw his back out at work a little while ago. So I'm here in his place."

Hyun-woo crinkled his entire face into a grin. A lie. It was plain as day that he must have heard Boss Jang was due for a visit to Sehwawon and begged and wheedled his way into coming instead. All for the sake of an old friend, no doubt.

"Did you not sleep well last night?"

"...Sorry, what?"

"You look a little tired, is all."

At his words, Lee-seol's face flushed hot for no good reason. It was such an innocent bit of small talk, and yet last night's events came rushing back unbidden.

"Th-that's... anyway, today I just need you to take care of this side. I'd like it tidied up before the heat sets in."

Quickly changing the subject, Lee-seol gestured toward the garden trees that needed pruning. Hyun-woo surveyed the rows of shrubs and gave a crisp nod.

"Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say."

He unloaded the various pruning tools from the truck and laid them out neatly across the garden. He'd fumbled and flailed at first, but now his movements carried the ease of practice. Before starting work, he stretched his arms up long and said,

"Keep me company, will you? This gets boring."

"Sure, why not. I'll bring something to drink—wait just a moment."

Lee-seol hopped up from her seat and bustled into Sehwawon on quick feet. From the refrigerator she fetched two bottles of water and floated a single candied cherry tomato in each—syrup made from the cherry tomatoes she'd grown in the backyard, now ripe and preserved in sugar.

When she held one of the bottles out, Hyun-woo accepted it with a word of thanks. Eyeing the tomato bobbing inside, he twisted off the cap and downed it in great gulps.

He emptied more than half the bottle, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The sugared tomato was already rolling around in his mouth.

"This is good."

"Yeah?"

"You can't get this anywhere else, you know."

Hyun-woo bit down hard on the cherry tomato. The sweet-tart burst of flavor in his mouth seemed to please him greatly—it even drew a little "oh" of appreciation. Lee-seol tilted her head.

"It's not exactly hard to make syrup, you know. I just followed a video."

"Nobody else in this backwater has such an adorable hobby. Just you."

"You could do it too, Jang Hyun-woo."

"Ah—well, whatever. You really never let anything slide, do you, Shin Lee-seol."

Sheepishly scolded, Hyun-woo rolled his right wrist loosely in a circle and picked up the gardening shears. The landscaping began.

Snip, snip. The overgrown branches fell away cleanly under the pale gleam of the shears. Lee-seol sat on the bench, legs swinging lazily as she quietly watched him work, then spoke up.

"How's university life treating you?"

"It's fine, I guess. Midterms, finals, then break comes around. Then you repeat the whole thing every year."

"Are you dating anyone?"

"When would I have the time? I'm busy to death just studying."

"Everyone else seems to be losing their minds over romance."

The friends who had left for Seoul, for university, had left their social media accounts behind. The feeds filled with tales of rowdy drinking parties, the agony of exam seasons, photos from trips abroad. Every so often, someone would post a cozy snapshot taken with a sweetheart.

Lee-seol had a barren account of her own. She never posted—used it purely to follow others—and on days when her writing wouldn't come, she would occasionally drop in just to look at her friends' news.

The truth was, there wasn't much here worth showing off to anyone. Standing next to all their new and exciting experiences, she had nothing to hold up in comparison.

"They must all have too much time on their hands. Give it a few years and they'll have wrecked their grades and be sitting around embarrassingly drunk."

"Isn't that just what university life is, though?"

It felt a little absurd, perhaps, for someone who never even made it to college to be holding forth on the subject one way or the other. She was slowly rubbing the condensation on the water bottle with her thumb when—

"And besides, there aren't many girls at school as pretty as you."

Snip. A branch fell away with Hyun-woo's offhand remark. Lee-seol could only manage a slightly awkward laugh.

"You've really learned to lay it on thick, haven't you."

"It's true."

Pausing his cutting, Hyun-woo glanced back over his shoulder. Sweat beaded across his bronze skin in the morning sunlight.

"Jang Hyun-woo. Are you hot right now?"

"...A little?"

"You can take it easy, you know."

Looking again, his ears were a little red too. Lee-seol turned her head and took a mouthful of water. Saying it wouldn't take long, Hyun-woo silently turned away and set back to work.

It was Hyun-woo who broke the brief awkwardness and reopened the conversation.

"...That rumor. Is it true?"

"What rumor?"

"That the Haeun Group's grandson is staying at Sehwawon."

Snip. A freshly cut branch dropped at Hyun-woo's feet. Lee-seol blinked slowly, gazing at his sweat-damp back.

The gossip must have spread all the way through downtown Eulju-ri already. Come to think of it, Tongyeong-daek did seem to have picked up quite a bit from here and there herself.

Well, Woo Tae-shin had come to Eulju-ri under the official pretext of quelling the dongti that had broken out at the resort construction site—it was hardly the kind of visit that could stay quiet. If anything, the rumor probably suited him just fine. What better way to signal that the company was actually doing something about it?

And yet the one taking the hits from all sides was her. Everyone had nothing but praise for Woo Tae-shin—such a fine gentleman, so respectable. For some reason, it left her feeling a little put upon.

"...Yeah. It's true."

"People say he's incredibly handsome. What do you think of him?"

Lee-seol, utterly failing to read his mind, answered offhandedly.

"Curious what he looks like? Go sneak a peek on your way out."

"Why would I want to look at a man's face? I just—wondering, that's all..."

Hyun-woo trailed off and mumbled the Woo Tae-shin topic to a close. Lee-seol, who had no great desire to drag the conversation out anyway, just sipped her water and pursed her lower lips.

The remaining work was finished in no time. Under his hands, the garden trees that had grown ragged and unruly through the changing seasons looked far tidier.

"There." Rising from the bench, Lee-seol clapped her hands together. Clap, clap.

"Jang Hyun-woo, you're actually getting better at this."

"Yeah?"

Hyun-woo scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. From a distance, Lee-seol raised a hand to gauge the height of the roadside trees. They were cut perfectly level.

"Faster than before, too, and so even. Remember when you first came here alone? Granny Yoon-hwa tore into you."

The first time Hyun-woo had swaggered into Sehwawon to work solo, Granny Yoon-hwa had given him a proper scolding—what on earth was this supposed to be, calling it pruning? Unable to keep the heights consistent, he'd cut them so that from a distance the rows looked practically diagonal.

The whole fiasco was only resolved after Boss Jang came by to do damage control. He'd declared he would drill the boy thoroughly from then on, punctuating the lecture by pressing down hard on the back of young Hyun-woo's head, bowing it again and again. Lee-seol had nearly burst out laughing watching the whole thing.

"How long ago was that, anyway?"

Hyun-woo stretched out long and began gathering up the tools he'd laid out. He collected them into the toolbox, hoisted himself up with a grunt, and straightened his back.

"Call me if there's more work, Lee-seol."

"Mm. Get home safe."

With a low rumble, the bright blue truck rolled slowly out of the garden. Having seen him off, Lee-seol was just about to head back into Sehwawon when—

A quiet voice came from behind her.

"A boyfriend?"

It was Tae-shin.