The Rice Pot Next Door | LISKOOK

SPECIAL CHAPTER 4

       -𝙉𝙖𝙢𝙟𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙧-
                                                                                                   
Third person's POV.

∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞∞♡∞

That night, Namjoon sees a picture on Rosé’s page. She has uploaded a picture 38 minutes ago, of a little fish looking innocently at the camera with the following caption: I can no longer afford to keep you so cooking is the only way. Come, take a last picture.

That lunapig! How can she bear to cook such a cute animal? He does not know why he even think twice about this picture but surely, it is too much of a coincidence? He has just bought her a box of shrimps and the next moment, she is announcing her intention to make double-boil fish and shrimp soup. If her reason for doing so is to keep the shrimps for herself, does it not make him an indirect murderer?

He calls her and she beams when she sees his name on her phone. “Hello Boss kim, is anything the matter?”

“Rosé, your fish is so cute-looking, do you really bear to eat him?” At her silence, he continues. “Are you worried that he will eat too much shrimps? If so, I can buy you another box on top of the one I gave you this afternoon.”

“Um….no, Boss Kim. You see….”

“See what? Do not tell me that you have already eaten him?”

“No, of course not! Are you nuts? I am only making a joke I would never cook my baby. How can you believe it?”

Namjoon thinks that he must be crazy. Perhaps that is what happens when you hangs out with lunatics and gets infected by their loony juices. He orders her to forget that he has ever called and hangs up.

The next day, Rosé decides to buy lunch for Chanyeol to thank him for his help. There is a food court near their office where staff usually go, which offers a wide variety of food at only 20 or 30 RMB per dish. Chanyeol suggests going to another more upmarket restaurant and Rosé agrees, despite feeling a little pained for her wallet, until he explains that he has a food voucher for the restaurant. The voucher is about to expire, and won’t it be a waste if they do not utilize it? Rosé thinks that Chanyeol is really nice to share his voucher and they set off for the restaurant.

When they were about to be seated, Namjoon happens to walk in. After some polite mumble-jumble by the staff and some polite jumble-mumble back by the boss Namjoon followed them secretly, Namjoon sits down next to Rosé, much to everyone’s surprise.

Chanyeol is the first to recover and quickly signals for the waiter to add another set of cutlery. When Namjoon hears that Rosé is buying lunch, he does not seem to consider himself an outsider at all and starts ordering from the menu with gusto.

As the waiter walks away with their order, Namjoon takes the chance to study Chanyeol. He looks like someone in his late 20s and has clean, clear features and is very tall. He wears a pair of frameless spectacles and Wu Wen notes that his polite smile never slipped throughout their conversation. Despite his harmless appearance, Namjoon instinct tells him that there is something fishy about this guy, but since it is only a hunch, he decides to reserve his comments.

Their dishes arrive quickly and the 3 fall into polite chatter. Since the boss is here, Rosé dares not grumble about work and tries to find some neutral topic so she asks Chani about himself – where he graduated from, where is his family, what his hobbies are, if he has a girlfriend, etc.

Namjoon puts down his chopsticks and smiles at her half seriously. “I say, do you think that this is a matchmaking session?” Chanyeol nearly chokes on his food while Rosé looks at Chanyeol, then at Namjoon, before leaning close to Namjoom.