honor

one

"A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat."

Mulan has a thing for dragons, which may explain she has bought a pack of pins decorated in different designs of dragons only half an hour ago. Now she sits on the subway, patiently waiting to get to the New York Zoo for her job interview; she signed up for an internship there for the rest of senior year. This isn't a very bad idea, knowing that they have an exhibit for the Komodo dragon - it doesn't breathe fire, but close enough. Mulan did sign up for that particular job in the first place. 

Interrupting her thoughts, she realizes there is a boy around her age standing beside her, clearing his throat. 

"Excuse me, but can I sit here?"

"Oh, yes, of course," she moves her bag and scoots into the seat to the left of her. Mulan picks her phone up and starts to daydream while checking her Twitter feed, the latest time in a month. She concluded to plug back into the world, and attempt to rid of her dragon obsession. 

It hasn't worked yet. 

...

"The name's Li." So called Li sticks his hand out for Mulan to shake it. 

"I'm Mulan, nice to meet you." She blushes unintentionally. So much for first impressions when it comes to Mulan. She's as shy as it can get. 

"Nice to meet you too." Li replies, and gestures to her bag. "I see you like dragons," he raises his eyebrows. 

"Yeah," she giggles. Gosh, what is wrong with her today? First blushing, and now giggling; this is going to be a long day. "I don't know how it came to this, I just think they're cool." Mulan shut herself up before she started rambling about all of the dragon fact books she read in elementary school.

He hums. "That is pretty cool. I never really had an obsession with any animal, just Power Rangers. Heck, I was the red Ranger for three Halloweens in a row, my friend." 

Mulan laughs. "I know where you're coming from. For me, it was the Powerpuff Girls. My favorite was Buttercup." 

"Why Buttercup?"

"She was different in way, I guess. Why the red Ranger?" 

"Because he was awesome, that's why. The real question is, why not the red Ranger?" They laughed as the subway came to a stop. Listening to the intercom, Mulan stands. 

"Um, this is my stop." Li moves out of the way, and grabs her hand before Mulan could walk into the bustling crowds of Manhattan. 

"When will I see you again?" He asks with a goofy grin plastered on his face. 

"Well, we wouldn't want to end up like a cliche, now would we?" Mulan smiles, and hands him her phone. He enters the number, and texts himself. Shortly after, he hands it back. 

"I'll call you?" 

"No," Mulan says. "I'll call you first, because that's how much were aren't of a cliche." She playfully points to him and laughs. "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya," Mulan yells. 

"Same to you!" She hears before leaving for her interview.