Mr. No || NCT || Completed

5 - Where carps don't become dragons

"Why are you here?" Renjun's accusing question broke the silence that had fallen between them.

Chaewon sucked in her cheeks and, for a moment, she almost looked like a carp that was searching for food.

Her face even reminded Renjun of his grandmother's story about a carp swimming upstream the Yellow River before leaping over a waterfall and transforming into a dragon. Grandmother had always been one to tell stories and mythical tales but, in general, Renjun didn't pay much attention to them. He was surprised that he could even remember the general idea of the carp story.

But, to get back to the matter in hand, if Chaewan was a carp, she would be very normal and basic one - not the dragon kind. She was just a human girl and human girls weren't dragons.

Though, it was odd that she had run into him for the third time in two days.

Renjun frowned.

"I could ask you the same thing", Chaewon answered, interrupting Renjun's train of thought that was filled with carps leaping over waterfalls. "But I used my superior deduction abilities and came to a conclusion that you are here to buy slippers."

Her light, joking tone didn't gain Renjun's approval. "That didn't answer my question", he pointed out. After a moment of consideration he continued, "are you stalking me?"

"Huh?" the confusion in Chaewon's voice sounded genuine. She looked around surreptitiously, scanning the otherwise empty shop before returning Renjun's stare. Her eyes narrowed slightly and then she took a small step backwards. "Are you stalking me?"

Renjun's mouth gaped open. "What? No!"

Had Renjun thought about how the hypothetical conversation with his hypothetical stalker would go, this wasn't it.

Smile lit up Chaewon's face the second she heard Renjun's words. "Okay, cool!"

Renjun kept staring at her, baffled by her behaviour, as she stepped closer to the slipper selection and started looking through them meticulously.

A moment passed.

Chaewon had gone through the first row of shoes and had started humming along the upbeat song playing on the background.

It was Hello, sung by Red Velvet's Joy.

Renjun shook his head. This wasn't the moment to get distracted. He was still waiting for the girl to explain why she had followed him to Daiso.

After one more chorus, Chaewon stopped humming and started speaking instead. "I was thinking about getting just black or grey ones but then I saw the ones you have - the ones with a dash of green - and I really like them too."

Renjun was going to remind her of his question but her remark on the slippers in his hand broke his concentration. He looked down at the black pair of shoes with coloured details.

"This is blue", he corrected her, lifting said pair of slippers so that Chaewon could see them. The details were clearly midnight blue and there was nothing green in them.

Chaewon leaned to the side to look at the shoe again. "I'm bad with colours", she shrugged after staring at it for a moment. "But anyway, they look nice. Do you think they are comfy?"

She looked up from the slippers, meeting his eyes. She was almost the same height as him, only missing a couple of centimetres, but appeared even shorter because of her relaxed posture.

"You avoid my question", Renjun said. Chaewon looked lost again. Renjun wanted to hit her with the shrimp snacks he had in his shopping basket. "Why are you here and did you follow me?"