Jaemin the Icy Prince on Campus - Na Jaemin NCT

53. Need

He keeps texting me. Every day.

Stop, I text him. I need time alone.

I love you, he texts. I miss you. I haven't seen you for a week. Please, Mina. I need to see you. I'm going crazy without you.

Go away, I reply. I ignore the beeps, and trudge to the supermarket two blocks away. It's 3.00 pm, and it's getting dark. There's a light drizzle, but it's stopped snowing.

I grab a cart and head for the rear of the store, pushing past the bottles of Organic Cleansers and laundry detergents and brooms and mops. I throw seaweed cookies and baked chips into the cart and head for the ice cream aisle. I pass a woman wearing a shirt that says, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Turning down the ice cream aisle, I shiver.

"Cold?" I yelp, and swing around so fast my shoulder upsets a display of waffle cones, piled high into a triangular mountain.

I watch him pick up the boxes one by one, stacking them swiftly and efficiently. He smiles at me, his eyes amused.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The jerk. His eyes are dancing. He totally meant to freak me out.

"What are you doing here?" I narrow my eyes suspiciously at him. "Are you - are you stalking me?"

He laughs.

"Really. I don't know who you are. I've never seen you before in my life. I just happened to be in the neighbourhood. And I just happen to want to buy..." His eyes skim over the shelves. "...Thai chilli crisps." He grins. "My absolute favourite." His hands are in his pockets and he is bouncing up and down on his heels. "And seaweed cookies." He was totally stalking me. He drums his long fingers on the shelf. He is nervous beneath the brashness.

He's playing some kind of game with me. The Let's-Make-Like-We-Don't-Know-Each-Other game. We used to play it all the time, back when we were teenagers in love. I feel my heart start to pound.

"Do you live in this neighbourhood?" he asks politely. His eyes are wicked.

"Yeah." I smile slowly. Let's see who cracks first.

"My girlfriend lives here." He grins.

"Really?" I widen my eyes. My feigned surprise makes him laugh. "So," I say casually, opening one of the coolers. I pretend to stare at the tubs of ice cream. I frown in concentration, and he sniggers. "What's your girlfriend like?"

"She kind of looks like you actually," he smiles. "Very pretty and cool and smart. I'm crazy about her."

I snort. His shoulders are shaking with silent laughter.

"So why are you chatting me up when you should be..." I wave a hand vaguely, "wherever... you know, with her?"

"Ah." He leans forward, and murmurs in my ear, his shoulder almost touching mine. I feel a delicious tingle ripple down my arm, all the way to my toes. "She’s confused." I stare at him. "Yeah, confused." He nods sagely. "She wants to take a break," he taps his head, "to think. About us."

"Oh," I say nastily. "Then perhaps, you should let her do that, assh - I mean, mister." I glare at him.

"No, no, no." He sighs. "She's crazy about me, too. She's just...stubborn..." He smirks, watching my lips. "But that's one of the reasons I'm so crazy about her. Because she's so damn stubborn..." He stretches his hand, and lifts a strand of my hair off my shoulder, and tucks it behind my ear. I stop breathing.

"Would you like to grab a cup of coffee?" he asks. “I can fill you in on my whole sob story." The tingle at my feet works its way up my body.

"No," I mutter. "I can't. I'm um, busy."