after you love me | jjk

fifteen

─── ˚* ੈ✩‧₊☽₊‧✩ ੈ*˚ ───

"No fucking way, Narae is that you?"

Narae suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at the sound of her name being called out.

All she had wanted to do was get in and out of the corner shop quickly without being noticed by anyone. It was literally eight o'clock in the morning on a Saturday— no one who would have known who she was should have been up at this time.

Typically, she wouldn't have been awake either, but she had gone out the night before and always tended to wake up early the next day.

This morning her eyes had opened at seven on the dot, and rather than going back to sleep after gulping down a bottle of water, she had decided to pop round to her parent's house for breakfast with her dad as he was an early riser.

After sending him a message to confirm that he was actually awake, she'd showered and made her way over, stopping by a corner store first to pick up some plantain. It was when she got to the till that she had been recognized.

Dreading the inevitable dramatics, she prepared herself to deny their claim, but when she looked up and actually saw the person behind the register, she'd been momentarily confused. He looked so familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she knew him from.

She eyed the man up and down, taking into account his broad shoulders and lean physique that was visible through his fitted sweatshirt. He was the very definition of a dark-skinned beauty with his hair was cropped low, faded on the sides, and a small beard and moustache that emphasised his strong jawline and full lips. His thick eyebrows would have given his face a rather intimidating vibe, fit for the runway, if not for the fact that his laugh softened his facial features and made him seem approachable.

The niggling sense of familiarity prodded at a corner in the back of her mind, but it wasn't until he spoke again that her confusion was cleared.

"Nah, I knew it was you!" The man said before kissing his teeth and shaking his head in disbelief. "It's me, Daniel— Daniel Kolade!"

With a name to the face, Narae couldn't quite believe that the person before her was the same person she knew from years back, but also couldn't believe that she hadn't recognised him immediately.

The last time she'd seen him had been at least ten years ago, just before she had left London for South Korea. He'd been a part of Kemi's large friendship group and was always one of the nicer ones when she hung out with them. Though the man behind the register was a far cry from the skinny, fresh-faced eighteen year-old she had known before, his warm smile remained the same.

"No fucking way." Narae repeated his earlier words as she blinked rapidly before breaking out into a teasing grin, "Not the Notorious K.I.D.!"

All the boys around her at that age had various nicknames for each other and Daniel was no exception. Born from his love for nineties' hip-hop and his initials backwards, he had been referred to as the 'Notorious K.I.D.' all throughout his school years. Though many of them hadn't been particularly creative, the monikers that the older boys assumed had been the epitome of cool to a much younger Narae.

"Allow it, no one calls me that anymore!" Daniel laughed again as he leant back against the counter behind him, "What you saying b? Didn't expect to see you in these ends now that you've made it big and that."

"Normally I wouldn't ever dream of coming to "these ends", but my dad wanted plantain and you know they don't sell them in Waitrose." Narae rolled her eyes and placed the fruit on the weighing scale to her right before deadpanning him, "Be serious Daniel, I literally grew up here."