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<div class="credit">✦ Template by <a href="https://outoftheblue-if.tumblr.com" target="_blank">Vahnya</a> ✦</div>!Affodyle Present
In the park beside Foret University’s Gate, I was sitting on a stone bench while watching the sunset. Unlike any other day, today this famous park was quite crowded. It’s full of people holding colorful flower bouquets as far as I could see. There were roses, lilies, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and other flowers I didn’t know.
Looking at this scenery, a question popped up in my mind, //Is this a school or a flower garden?//
This unique phenomenon only happened twice a year: Graduation Day and Flower Day. Most people called February 14th Valentine’s Day, however, people in Fleur City called it Flower Day. On this day, people would express their love or gratitude by giving flowers with meaningful messages. They could send it to their lovers, families, or friends.
Today happened to be Flower Day, that’s why it’s a great day to sell flowers. Some students with entrepreneurship mindset instantly became flower sellers. The event was perfect for them to gain profits by selling flowers at a higher price. They were very diligent, they studied in class and learned how to do business at the same time. Their life was so busy unlike me, I only wrote inside and outside the class.
Suddenly, one of the flower sellers walked toward me.
“Hello! This is for you.”
Unexpectedly, the flower seller girl offered me a yellow daffodil flower.
I tried to refuse her offer, “No, thank you. I’m not interested in buying.”
The girl suddenly laughed, “Hahaha! No, it’s me who is wrong. Someone asked me to send this flower to you, so you don’t need to pay for it.”
I got surprised by her answer, “Who is it? Can you tell me?”
“I don’t know his name. He only asked me to send it to a cute girl wearing a sky-blue jacket.”
<<button "Next" "Chapter 2">><</button>>
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</div>I looked at the bouquet in my hand, it was a bright yellow daffodil flower. //Giving roses were too cliché, but I didn’t like yellow flower either.// Maybe the sender wanted to prank me or he didn’t know I hate yellow. I checked the bouquet again carefully. There was nothing attached to it, no messages or clues about the sender.
I tried to search for the meaning of this flower on a website through my phone.
!!!
<<textarea "$textareaVar" "Because it is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring, daffodils are seen as a representation of rebirth and new beginnings. They are also thought to represent inspiration, forgiveness, and creativity. Daffodil’s flower language is ''The sun shines when I'm with you''. ">>
//New beginning? What a coincidence!// I couldn’t think of anyone who would send it aside from him.
//Is this one of his tricks again? Did I think too much?//
Overthinking seemed to be a common problem of almost everyone who studied literature. //I couldn’t help it since I enrolled here, I needed to analyze every little thing.// My lecturer would ask me the meaning of poems and stories every day. One time I needed to explain why the author choose the blue color for the door in his story. //How could I know what he was thinking? Why did he choose blue and not red? Of course, I didn’t know anything. I couldn’t read the mind of dead people.// Nevertheless, I could finish writing more than 2000 words of report about it by simply writing nonsense.
While I was busy daydreaming, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I got so surprised that I almost fell down from the bench. Strong and masculine hands suddenly grabbed my shoulders so I didn’t fall.
A familiar voice resounded behind me, “Aster, What are you thinking about?”
My eyes got bigger because of the surprise, “Please stop doing this trick! It’s dangerous, you know?”
“It’s okay I will save you when you fall… As long as you don’t get fatter.”
I got so annoyed by his antics, so I replied “Thank you, I’ll be safe as long as I keep my distance from you.”
<<button "Next" "Chapter 3">><</button>>I stood up and started to walk toward Etudiant Area beside the park. Etudiant area was a big field surrounded by many small club rooms lined up next to each other. It’s the hub of students’ club activity.
This boy who was walking beside me had a strange name, Ixora. He was my junior high school friend. As a friend, this tall and charming boy may look good, but he was rotten inside. He was what everybody called a playboy. In the past, there was a rumor of him dating four girls from the same group. I heard because of him, now the girls were arch-enemies. I thought it was a malicious rumor made by the people who hated him until I saw it with my own eyes.
“Oh… You have a flower. Did someone confess to you?”, he asked me with a smirk.
[[“Yeah. His eyesight is good, unlike you.”]]
[[“I don’t know, someone sent it anonymously.”]]
[[“Are you sure it’s not one of your pranks again?”]]
We arrived at Etudiant Area, I sat on the bench near the committee room. I felt thirsty, so I wanted to open the water bottle that I brought in my bag. I tried to open it, but the bottle cap won’t move. I tried once again, but it still not opened. Finally, Xora took away my water bottle and opened it easily.
“Thanks.”
“Whenever you couldn’t open your water bottle, you would ask me to open it. Did you remember what you said in the past?”
“….”
“''You learned martial arts, so it would be easy for you.'' When I think about it again, you’re very silly. Even if I learned martial arts, I didn’t learn it to open your water bottle.”
I kept quiet and drank water to hide my embarrassment. //It really looked like something that I would say in the past. Maybe, it’s better if I changed the topic.//
“Why is the meeting so long?”
<<button "Next" "Chapter 5">><</button>>“I’m sorry. You’re not tall enough for me to see you. Wait, maybe it’s not your fault that you are born short?”
“I’m glad. You are also not my type.” I replied sarcastically.
“Then, what is your type?”
“Let’s see… I like someone who is loyal and will understand me. He makes me his top priority. When I need him, he will come to my side. It will be better if we’re each other first love.”
“… No wonder, your novel is unpopular. Your standard is so high, it’s unrealistic. I mean in this day and age, which man doesn’t have any first love? Unless he’s a monk who stay in the cave since birth.”
I got offended by his words, “Who said I haven’t met him?”
“Are you serious? Where is he now?”, he looked a bit surprised.
“I’ll introduce him. Say hello to my soulmate, Xiao Nai!” I showed him my phone’s wallpaper with my favorite game character on it.
He laughed so hard hearing my response, “Hahaha! You haven’t changed at all. “
<<button "Next" "Chapter 4">><</button>>“Wow, Thank God! This dwarf finally has a secret admirer!”, he joked.
“Yeah. I’m very popular, you know?”
“Then, what is your type?”
“Let’s see… I like someone who is loyal and will understand me. He makes me his top priority. When I need him, he will come to my side. It will be better if we’re each other first love.”
“… No wonder, your novel is unpopular. Your standard is so high, it’s unrealistic. I mean in this day and age, which man doesn’t have any first love? Unless he’s a monk who stay in the cave since birth.”
I got offended by his words, “Who said I haven’t met him?”
“Are you serious? Where is he now?”, he looked a bit surprised.
“I’ll introduce him. Say hello to my soulmate, Xiao Nai!” I showed him my phone’s wallpaper with my favorite game character on it.
He laughed so hard hearing my response, “Hahaha! You haven’t changed at all. “
<<button "Next" "Chapter 4">><</button>>He looked offended by my question, “Do you think I’m that low? If I make my move, you won’t be able to imagine it.”
“Oh… Really? I’ll be more than happy if you don’t use it on me!”
“Then, what is your type?”
“Let’s see… I like someone who is loyal and will understand me. He makes me his top priority. When I need him, he will come to my side. It will be better if we’re each other first love.”
“… No wonder, your novel is unpopular. Your standard is so high, it’s unrealistic. I mean in this day and age, which man doesn’t have any first love? Unless he’s a monk who stay in the cave since birth.”
I got offended by his words, “Who said I haven’t met him?”
“Are you serious? Where is he now?”, he looked a bit surprised.
“I’ll introduce him. Say hello to my soulmate, Xiao Nai!” I showed him my phone’s wallpaper with my favorite game character on it.
He laughed so hard hearing my response,“Hahaha! You haven’t changed at all. “
<<button "Next" "Chapter 4">><</button>>When I was about to turn around and walk away, someone crashed into my shoulder. The flower bouquet I held in my hand fell down. Just as I wanted to pick it up, I heard a loud crash coming from the committee room. Xora opened the committee room’s door hurriedly and stormed inside the room. I saw a fat old man lying down on the floor while holding his chest. //Wait, he’s not an ordinary old man, I knew him.// He’s Prof. Amar, the lecturer in charge of the annual cultural festival. I also saw Viona, my best friend, who looked shocked and stood still.
Xora was tilting Prof. Amar’s head back to check his breathing. Then, he started to give chest compression.
He yelled at us, “What are you doing? Quickly call an ambulance!”
I finally remembered to dial the emergency call. I tried to call it a few times, but it won’t connect.
“The line is busy. I can’t connect the call.”
“Help me to put him in my back. We need to go to the hospital quickly.”
I helped Xora to put Prof. Amar onto his back. He carried him outside when we met our committee leader, Daffa. Seeing the unexpected situation, Daffa looked startled and asked what happened.
“We need to move him fast. Do you have a car?”, Xora asked.
“Yes, I parked it nearby. Let’s go!”, Daffa answered.
I followed them until they got into the car. When I wanted to join them, Xora stopped me.
“No, just stay in your room and accompany Viona! I’m more worried about her.”
I nodded and said “Okay.”
<<button "Next" "Chapter 6">><</button>>The next day, I woke up from my bed. It’s still 6 o’clock, actually, I still had enough time to sleep more. However, I didn’t know why suddenly I felt so uneasy. I took a cup and wanted to drink water to reduce my anxiety. Unfortunately, the cup slipped from my hand and crashed onto the floor.
I looked at the fallen pieces of my cup silently and thought //'No way…'//
I finally cleaned the pieces of my broken cup and folded them with unused paper. Then, I put it inside a plastic bag. When I wanted to put it in the trash bin outside, I saw a familiar figure standing outside the gate of my boarding house. He was smiling brightly and waved his hand in my direction.
“What are you doing here?”
“What else? I wanted to meet you of course.” With the same sly smile, Xora answered my question.
“Don’t lie! There’s not any good news whenever you stood up outside before.”
Xora hesitated a bit, before saying “I… Can we talk inside?”
<<button "Next" "Chapter 7">><</button>>
I opened the gate and brought him to the sitting room in the center of the building.
“Now, can you tell me what happened yesterday?”
“I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
“Good news.” I answered.
“We arrived at the nearest hospital on time, and Prof. Amar’s condition got stabilized.”
“Thank God.” I felt relieved hearing the news.
“The bad news is it seems that he got poisoned.”
“What? How could it be?” I saw Viona who suddenly came out of her room, she looked very shocked upon hearing it.
“That’s why, I need to ask Viona about some things.” Said Xora.
“You… Suspect me as the culprit?” Viona looked very defensive and asked him.
“Of course not, I’m just trying to find out the truth.”
“How could you suspect your own friend? You know she isn’t like that.”
“It’s ok, Aster. I’m fine. I’m not the culprit, so why should I be afraid?” Viona tried to sound confident, but I could see her trembling fingers. She folded her fingers tightly, so she won’t tremble.
<<button "Next" "Question">><</button>>
“I'm not sure. We only discussed the preparation for a while. When Prof. Amar lights his cigarette and smokes, he suddenly has difficulty in breathing and falls down.”
"Why didn't you ask for help then?"
"Do you think I don't want too? I'm just too shocked so I can't think of anything!"
<<button "Next" "Question">><</button>>
“You know Daffa is busy gathering data for his experiments in the lab. As the vice leader of the committee, I need to do my duty. The others are also busy with their classes. Prof. Amar is even busier so he could only come yesterday. Didn't you know it too?”
"Well, no need to get offensive. I'm just checking the facts, ok?"
<<button "Next" "Question">><</button>>
“We talked about the preparation of the annual cultural festival.”
"What kind of preparation?"
"Just the report of how far our progress is."
"Anything else?"
"No, only that."
<<button "Next" "Question">><</button>>
“What do you want to ask?” asked Viona.
[[“What are you talking about with him before the incident?”]]
[[“Why are there only two of you in the room?”]]
[[“Did you notice something strange?”]]
[[“Wait! I need to take this call first.”]]
In the middle of this heavy atmosphere of questioning, suddenly Xora’s phone rang. I could see Kris’ name showed up on the phone.
“Bro, have you checked the school’s forum? It's so crazy, everyone is frantic.”
“What happened?”
“Didn’t Aster write a mystery novel called //The Boundary// before? It gets viral, they said she can predict the future.”
“What nonsense are you saying? I’ve read it, there’s nothing….” Xora suddenly stopped his words as if he realized something.
All of the sudden the silence got broken when notification sounds kept coming from my phone. I opened my phone and saw the notification was coming from the cultural committee group chat. I scanned the messages from the members and managed to see some keywords. “poisoned”, “vomiting”, “dizziness”, “headache”, and other similar words. The atmosphere turned cold and eerie, and no one spoke for a while.
I looked at Xora and Viona, “Looks like we have a bigger problem! Now, what should we do?”
!!Affodyle Present End
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