Hairstyle | nct

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

I wasn't sure if he was looking at me.

I was going down the escalator with my head craned towards the direction of where he was working but he didn't notice. The escalator wasn't that far away from his work place but you'd need to turn your head to see the people going down the escalator. And he wasn't looking, so I was safe.

But once I was on the first floor, I contemplated. I haven't seen him in five months. Sure, we occasionally talked over on KakaoTalk but that was different from real life. I stopped talking to him ever since he decided to ghost my messages and left them on read.

But he wouldn't recognize me. The last time he saw me, my hair was reaching my belly button. And now, here I was with short hair that were above my shoulders. Everyone said I looked different so he wouldn't be able to recognize me.

But then I was standing too close to the store that he had noticed me. But instead of hearing a "Hey, Jinseo!" he said, "Hi, ma'am. Are you looking for a specific type of Oppo brand?"

I felt my cheeks flush red. He didn't recognize me. Not with my new hairstyle.

I shook my head but felt my mouth go dry. "Ah—no. Um, hi Lucas."

He looked surprised that I knew his name and he leaned closer—not to close or it would look creepy—to examine my face. After a while, he blinked and fell a step back, surprised yet again. "Nam Jinseo?"

I tucked my strands of hair behind my ear and cleared my throat. "Hey, Lucas."

"You cut your hair," he noticed. Which was a good thing because back when I was a kid and I first cut my hair, my maths teacher didn't notice until three months later. "You look different. Good different. W-what are you doing here?"

"I have a part time job now," I said awkwardly. I didn't know why I was feeling so nervous. My feelings disappeared a long time ago. Was it because I was feeling ashamed of being in front of him, right here and now? Even after he ghosted me and we haven't chatted in five months?

"You do?" He sounded so surprised. "Congratulations! Where do you work?"

"Um, somewhere upstairs..." What kind of conversation was this? It felt so awkward. "...near the food court. You can't miss it. We sell stickers."

"Ah." He snapped his fingers. "I know which one. Cool. That means we'll be seeing each other often, huh?"

"I guess." I hoped not. After he ghosted me, I sworn to never fall back ever again. "You'll see me come down all the time for toilet breaks. Ha." Why was I telling him this? "I didn't know you were still working here."

Lucas nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Can't wait to see you around!"

I didn't know what else to say but a "Yeah, see you around too."

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I was sitting back on the plastic chair and staring out of the gaps, observing people. There weren't any customers around and I was getting used to the silence in the store. And playing the waiting game.

Renjun nudged my shoulder. "Are you going to tell me?"

I snapped out of my daze and looked at him. "What are you talking about?"