Mr. No || NCT || Completed

20 - Where Renjun deals with trash

The second person from the list, Choi Donghyun from Sindang, had moved to Daegu after finishing graduate school in Seoul four years ago.

Renjun tried not to show his disappointment as they walked back to the subway station. He had known that going after the people from the warehouse files could be useless but still not being able to even meet the first two people was sort of discouraging. Maybe they could meet Choi if they'd venture outside Seoul after checking everyone from the list who was supposed to reside in the capital area.

"Where's our next target?" Chaewon asked. There was persistent spring in her step, and Renjun was quite sure that she was still trying to demonstrate to him how comfortable she felt wearing heels. "Maybe this time we'll actually get them."

Renjun shook his head and nodded towards the subway entrance. "We're done for the day. We'll go to other district tomorrow."

"But I remember writing down that one of the people lives near Bomun, right? That's only like ten-minute subway ride from here."
"She's in the second priority group", Renjun explained and let Chaewon take the escalator first. "We're going to go through the six most promising files first because the rest seemed irrelevant."

Chaewon hummed. "Do you think that the person you're looking for is amongst those people?" For some reason, she seemed a bit tense.

Renjun didn't answer.

Some people hurried down the escalator, almost running into Chaewon despite them standing on the right-hand side of it. "Are you going to tell me what we're looking for?" she asked, glancing at him and ignoring the people bumping into her, "I'm kind of getting curious."

"No."
"Why not? I'm good at keeping secrets."
"And then using them as blackmail material."

Chaewon grinned. "True. So, you won't tell me?"
"Didn't you say that you're okay with not knowing what we're doing?" Renjun's eyes narrowed.

Chaewon's face scrunched as she tried to remember, before a sad expression took over. "Oh. Yeah, I guess I did."

They followed the crowd down where the screens informed them that the next train was supposed to arrive in three minutes. It was relatively noisy, as there were a lot of students from cram schools and university, as well as tired looking office workers complaining to their colleagues.

"Here's a short line", Renjun announced and stopped behind two businesswomen.

Chaewon stood behind him but eyed further down the hall. "Can't we go towards the other side? There's space there too."
"Why?" Renjun turned to her, and noticed that she was fidgeting with her purse restlessly. He then followed her gaze towards the other end of the space that didn't seem any less crowded than the spot they were in. "This seems good enough to me."
"I just - ", Chaewon paused, searching for words, "I don't know."

Renjun shrugged. "I'm not stopping you from going."
"It's boring to ride subway alone. Maybe I'm just being paranoid", Chaewon crossed her arms behind her back, swaying on the balls of her feet and changed the subject, "I have a job interview tomorrow."

"The one to become a sales assistant?"

Chaewon's eyes widened. "How did you know? Are you stalking me or something?"

Polite female announcer informed the station that the subway would be arriving soon.

Renjun huffed. "You told me about it last week."
He felt a light touch on his arm and turned to look at Chaewon, who had placed her fingers on his coat to get his full attention.
"You remember that?" Her narrow eyes seemed rounder than usual.