Minami Naoko & Kaori
Naoko - Grey ; Kaori - Maroon
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Naoko - Grey ; Kaori - Maroon
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Naoko leaves the greenhouse with her heart fluttering in her chest, a smile on her face that betrays the nostalgia she feels. She appears on the ground floor, spooking the young mother who had rung the bell, and helps the woman find an anti-clumsiness charm for her daughter. As soon as the transaction is complete and the woman has left, Naoko pulls a piece of paper from the front desk and brushes her hand delicately across it from top to bottom. Characters sprout in perfect strokes beneath her fingers- words silently stolen from Seongjae's letter. xx
Naoko looks down upon the letter and her heart flutters again, her now gone husband's handwriting staring up at her like a relic of the past. And there, beneath the nostalgia and soft fluttering of her heart, is a strike of confusion. Because Naoko has no idea who Kyung Minseung is. She has never heard his name, not in the sixty years she and her husband had been together. She doesn't even recognize it from the old letters, school notebooks, and paperwork that had been left behind after her husband's death. If this man was so important to him, so dear, why only now does she learn his name? Deep down, Naoko feels slight betrayal. xx
"Naoko-sama!" Naoko slips the duplicated letter into her pocket and turns to greet Seongjae with a soft smile. She raises an eyebrow when she finds him alone, rather than with Kenji, but she says nothing. "Yes, dear?" "Thank you, once again, for your hospitality. I was actually just looking for you! I was just wondering, what kind of work can I do to help out around here? You've been so kind, so I want to start making it up to you as soon as I can." xxxx
"Well, why don't we start with a tour of the shop? If you're going to work here, you must know where everything is." Naoko holds her hand out for Seongjae to take, and when she does, magic transfers from her hand to his just as the words from the letter had transferred from her hand onto the paper. A birds-eye map of the entirety of every floor flashes in Seongjae's head, information now stuck in his memory. Naoko purposefully leaves out her map of the greenhouse. Call her meddling, but she wants Seongjae to explore that floor on his own. If she can manipulate her grandson into human interaction, she will. xxx
And then, because it still helps to see things with your own eyes, she leads Seongjae about the first floor, explaining which sections are for which products and which products will be sought after the most. She refreshes him on levitation charms to help retrieve things, shows him how to manage the spells that lock the doors each night, even teaches him the very transfer spell she'd sneakily used on his letter not much earlier. Naoko encourages Seongjae to interact with a few customers throughout the tour, carefully watching as he explains how to use a type of magic dust, or tells the story of why she's showing him about the place. He's charismatic and cheerful, a welcome change from her too-sarcastic granddaughter and her too-frank grandson. She's already enjoying having him around. x
Naoko is in the middle of explaining her teleportation alchemy to Seongjae when she senses Kaori. The familiar fire-feeling in her belly has her turning toward the elevator, and sure enough, the gate opens moments later to reveal Kaori, still in her school uniform and practically boiling with excitement. Over what, she has no idea, but she'll know soon. Kaori can't keep a secret to save her life. "[color=#maroon]Obaa-chan, I'm home! Guess what we did today in class? We're doing our necromancy section of the textbook and Sensei brought in an actual necromancer, they brought this dead frog to life and- oh I'm sorry. Customer.[/color]" xxxx
Naoko chuckles at how Kaori's tirade had come to such a screeching halt. "No, actually. This is Seongjae, darling, he's going to be working here for a while and staying with us in the main house." Kaori's head tilts to the side, eyebrows raised as she looks Seongjae over. "[color=#maroon]Staying with us? Why? Is he homeless or something?[/color]" "No. Your grandfather apparently sent for a student many years ago, and Seongjae is simply the first to respond." Kaori's face falls, and she looks at Seongjae with almost a jealous expression, but the sad kind of jealousy that holds no real malice. "And as your grandfather is no longer here, I have taken it upon myself to house him. Your brother and I have both shown him about to a degree, but I believe you two will get along, if you'd like to introduce yourselves." Naoko takes in Kaori's unsure expression, chuckles at her utter doubt when she mentions Kenji having helped at all. xxxxx
"Well, if it's what oji-chan wanted, it must be for good reason. I'm Kaori, by the way. You're Seongjae? Is that Korean? Did you come here all the way from Korea? Just for a letter? Because if you did, that's pretty damn ballsy. Especially since you're, like, a kid. And probably broke and homeless." xxx
Naoko looks down upon the letter and her heart flutters again, her now gone husband's handwriting staring up at her like a relic of the past. And there, beneath the nostalgia and soft fluttering of her heart, is a strike of confusion. Because Naoko has no idea who Kyung Minseung is. She has never heard his name, not in the sixty years she and her husband had been together. She doesn't even recognize it from the old letters, school notebooks, and paperwork that had been left behind after her husband's death. If this man was so important to him, so dear, why only now does she learn his name? Deep down, Naoko feels slight betrayal. xx
"Naoko-sama!" Naoko slips the duplicated letter into her pocket and turns to greet Seongjae with a soft smile. She raises an eyebrow when she finds him alone, rather than with Kenji, but she says nothing. "Yes, dear?" "Thank you, once again, for your hospitality. I was actually just looking for you! I was just wondering, what kind of work can I do to help out around here? You've been so kind, so I want to start making it up to you as soon as I can." xxxx
"Well, why don't we start with a tour of the shop? If you're going to work here, you must know where everything is." Naoko holds her hand out for Seongjae to take, and when she does, magic transfers from her hand to his just as the words from the letter had transferred from her hand onto the paper. A birds-eye map of the entirety of every floor flashes in Seongjae's head, information now stuck in his memory. Naoko purposefully leaves out her map of the greenhouse. Call her meddling, but she wants Seongjae to explore that floor on his own. If she can manipulate her grandson into human interaction, she will. xxx
And then, because it still helps to see things with your own eyes, she leads Seongjae about the first floor, explaining which sections are for which products and which products will be sought after the most. She refreshes him on levitation charms to help retrieve things, shows him how to manage the spells that lock the doors each night, even teaches him the very transfer spell she'd sneakily used on his letter not much earlier. Naoko encourages Seongjae to interact with a few customers throughout the tour, carefully watching as he explains how to use a type of magic dust, or tells the story of why she's showing him about the place. He's charismatic and cheerful, a welcome change from her too-sarcastic granddaughter and her too-frank grandson. She's already enjoying having him around. x
Naoko is in the middle of explaining her teleportation alchemy to Seongjae when she senses Kaori. The familiar fire-feeling in her belly has her turning toward the elevator, and sure enough, the gate opens moments later to reveal Kaori, still in her school uniform and practically boiling with excitement. Over what, she has no idea, but she'll know soon. Kaori can't keep a secret to save her life. "[color=#maroon]Obaa-chan, I'm home! Guess what we did today in class? We're doing our necromancy section of the textbook and Sensei brought in an actual necromancer, they brought this dead frog to life and- oh I'm sorry. Customer.[/color]" xxxx
Naoko chuckles at how Kaori's tirade had come to such a screeching halt. "No, actually. This is Seongjae, darling, he's going to be working here for a while and staying with us in the main house." Kaori's head tilts to the side, eyebrows raised as she looks Seongjae over. "[color=#maroon]Staying with us? Why? Is he homeless or something?[/color]" "No. Your grandfather apparently sent for a student many years ago, and Seongjae is simply the first to respond." Kaori's face falls, and she looks at Seongjae with almost a jealous expression, but the sad kind of jealousy that holds no real malice. "And as your grandfather is no longer here, I have taken it upon myself to house him. Your brother and I have both shown him about to a degree, but I believe you two will get along, if you'd like to introduce yourselves." Naoko takes in Kaori's unsure expression, chuckles at her utter doubt when she mentions Kenji having helped at all. xxxxx
"Well, if it's what oji-chan wanted, it must be for good reason. I'm Kaori, by the way. You're Seongjae? Is that Korean? Did you come here all the way from Korea? Just for a letter? Because if you did, that's pretty damn ballsy. Especially since you're, like, a kid. And probably broke and homeless." xxx