Of Knobbly Knees and Wilted Flowers
OF KNOBBLY KNEES AND WILTED FLOWERS (EXO Cheese Challenge Day 5)
SuYeol
G | 465 words
Suho was so done for the day, but what a day it had been so far.
Tonight was the reception for the Asian Literary Prize and Suho had won an award for his first novel, What is Love?
"I really hope I didn't look that bad during my speech..."
He scrunched up his nose, recalling his embarrassing mishaps while spewing out the names of all the people he had to thank before he was rushed off stage by the MC himself.
None other than--
"Congratulations, hyung." A deep voice interrupted his thoughts and whispered into Suho's ears. All the author could see were red, yellow and pink petals belonging to roses that were shoved towards his face.
"Oh!" Suho slightly jumped with reflex. "Chanyeol. You didn't have to. You already gave me flowers on stage."
"Yeah, but this is from boyfriend Park Chanyeol." Chanyeol grinned. "You were so cool up there, my darling author."
Suho rolled his eyes but smiled up at the younger man, who was staring as if he was waiting for Suho to say something sweet too.
"...And you were so endearing, my charming and suave MC with knobbly knees."
"Hey!"
Suho laughed, looking at the bookshelves in the living room, trying to think of where he could possibly place his trophy...and his already-wiltering flowers.
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"Did I tell you that these flowers were from Baekhyun's personal nursery?" Chanyeol said excitingly a couple days later.
Suho rose a brow and took a glance to the jar on the table next to him. The rose petals were curling up with dark edges around them.
"Really?...He has a really green thumb."
"Oh! I'll be sure to tell him you said that. He'd be super happy to hear that." Chanyeol's voice faded as the younger man walked to the kitchen.
"I bet." Suho chuckled, picking up a petal from the table and began to twirl it.
He thought about how long it took for him to write his first book, the effort it took to finally be at this point of his life with Chanyeol. Suho smiled to himself, remembering Chanyeol's different expressions as the younger man read through earlier drafts of his novel. How easy it was to read Chanyeol's face like a book.
How, if someone told him five years ago that this is where he'd be today, he'd be an award-winning author--and that he'd even have a published book--he would laugh and shake his head in disbelief.
"It's still hard to take in." Suho smiled to himself and twirled the petal one last time.
He then stuck it in his book to mark his place and dropped the book on his chair as he stood up.
"So what's for lunch?" Suho piped up, walking toward the kitchen to join Chanyeol.