"Mom," I call, leaning on the grocery cart while my mom shops for rice and other products for our weekly Wednesday shopping day. "Can I get a fish?"
She turns, giving me a funny look, "you'd rather have a fish than a cat?"
"I only like Minho's cats. I hate any other cat. So yes, a fish over a cat. Cats are mean."
She laughs, "alright, sure. Do you still have your old tank?"
"Yup. All I need is food and maybe a plant or decoration," I say, rolling the cart forward and backward in boredom. "Then the fish."
"Okay baby. We'll look at them when I'm done," she says and I dance in victory. I didn't think she'd say yes so easily, then again, she knew how upset I was when my last fish died. He was one years old, a red betta. My fish before that was two years old, a blue betta.
I glance around the store, scanning the variety of foods. We walk around, my mom looking down at her grocery list a few times.
Finally, we make it over to the quite large section of fish. There were bettas, goldfish, angelfish, and lots of other species.
It would be cute if I could get an angelfish because of my nickname, but those need to be in groups, and my tank isn't big enough for that.
My mom points out a few fish, seeing that the orange goldfish were 10 for 10. I shake my head. I only wanted one fish, but I didn't want a betta. I loved bettas, but I wanted something new.
I stop at the black moor tank, squatting to look inside of it. The fish had large eyes, and a few had random spots of gold or orange scales. A single one caught my attention. He was in the corner, swimming smoothly by himself.
"Mom," I get her attention, "look at him."
I point him out, seeing him come up to the front of the tank, staring at me, "he's so cute, oh my gosh. He reminds me of Poco."
"Poco was my baby," she giggles, "I miss my pup. We should get a dog, but I'm working all of the time and so is your father. And you have school. I don't think leaving him along all of the time would be good. But this bub is adorable indeed. Do you want him?"
I nod, "I do. I already have so many names for him. He deserves a big, cute name."
"Alright, I'll call a worker. Stay here," she says, walking off and soon enough, finding someone.
He gets the exact fish I want, scooping him into a bag. He hands him over, smiling at me. I thank him, and then mom and I head up to the check-out after getting a small container of food and cute little glow-in-the-dark plant.
When we get home, I'm quick to find my tank and clean it out. Carefully slipping him in, I watch as he swims around the unfamiliar area.
"Mom, what about Moto? Or Wonho? Yang or Gabriel?"
"I think Moto. It suits him. But Wonho is adorable too. You choose."
"Hm," I state at him through the plastic, "I think I'll go with Moto."
I take him up to my room, sitting him on my dresser that I had cleaned off. I set the fish food next to him, turning on the tank light. Gosh, I love fish.
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•His real name is Bobby and he's my baby 🥰 Also thank you for 32k!•
