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lily-blue · 1 year

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It’s always a delight to CU

☆ characters: shop assistant!xukun & customer!you ☆ genre: meet-cute, strangers to lovers au ☆ request: 18. from this prompt list ☆ summary: you have the perfect height for Xukun to help you reach the upper shelf and he is positively smug about it ☆ words: 1,6k ☆ dedicated to: @dat-town ♥ and that lovely anon who asked about the possibility of a future xukun fic a couple of months ago ☆ taglist: @soobin-chois

You had started to get suspicious when even your favorite snacks had been put on the upper shelf in your go-to convenient store that was located barely five minutes from the company where you did your internship for your masters degree. You knew basic marketing; in fact, you had taken numerous classes in the past few years regarding fruitful and failed marketing strategies all around Asia, Europe, and the United States. Thus, no one could have convinced you that putting the season’s most popular candy bars anywhere else but the middle shelves was normal. Especially because they had been pretty much in your eyeline up until you had started to stock up on them for your lunch breaks.

However, you obviously couldn’t have called anyone out on your inconvenience without any evidence; you had to go into full detective-mode to figure out what was really going on. Were you paranoid or your gut feeling was telling the truth and someone was messing with you?

During the next one and a half months, you checked where certain products were placed before and after you started purchasing them regularly, whether any of them changed place depending on what time of the day you visited the store, and kept track of the employees, too, just in case it was a personal vendetta against you. You honestly doubted you had ever met these part-timers outside of the shop - there were four of them in total, all of them close to you in age -, but one could have never known for sure, plus you could be a bit grumpy when you were starving, so it could have easily been about an apology you owed one of them. If that had been the case, you would have done it without hesitation. After all, you were aware you weren’t alway in the right.

The puzzle pieces came together slowly, but on a sunny day, after a long day at the company, one look at your favorite Oreos on the upper self brought you enlightenment. You looked at the shop assistant from above your shoulder, let out a tired sigh, then stood on your tiptoes to grab a package. You were so ready to call him out on his bullshit once you stood in front of the counter.

‘I’ll get it for you. The classic ones, right?’ A deep voice asked, and your shoulders tensed as you took a step away from the self on instinct. You weren’t really afraid, but this was the first time someone stood behind your back to help you out; thus, it took you off guard.

You looked up at the boy who already had a package of classic Oreos in his hands. Although, as soon as you realized that he was the shop assistant you were rightfully suspicious of, you shook your head.

‘Thanks, but I can get them myself,’ you insisted, totally disregarding the snack in his hands to prove a point. It didn’t matter that you could hardly touch the price tags on the edge of the upper shelf with your fingertips in your high heels, or that standing on your tiptoes barely gave you another centimeter. You had to show him that he had picked on the wrong person.

‘It didn’t seem so from there,’ he pointed at the counter with a smug smile, urging you to turn towards him with your entire body and poke his chest a few times with your index finger in order to intimidate him.

But that would have been childish. Therefore, you put your hands on your hips instead and narrowed your eyes.

‘Well, I got them just fine the other day when Jungha was behind the counter,’ you showed him one of your most mocking smiles, not backing down from the challenge when instead of apologizing, he started a staring contest.

You didn’t like the clear amusement on his face. It irked you, and made you more certain that you had done nothing to him that should have triggered his vendetta. He was either doing this to gain your attention or he was a weirdo who liked watching other people suffer. With your luck, you wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been the latter.

‘Doesn’t it go against some kind of store policy or what not when an employee plays tricks on the customers?’ You broke the silence before he could have thought he had won. It might have been stupid of you, especially if he had been a creep like you suspected, but you wanted to show him that you weren’t easy to play with.

You could have always shopped at another store if things had gone south this time, right? Not to mention that you had a can of pepper spray in your tote bag. Worst case scenario, the book you were currently reading weighed almost half a kilo. You could have slapped him with your hard copy of Game of Thrones and run if he had tried anything funny.

‘Dunno,’ he answered with a nonchalant shrug, not making any attempt at decreasing the distance between you two. You wondered whether your thoughts were written on your face. Did you look afraid of him? Because you weren’t afraid! He was just a bit too tall, and he had chosen the worst way to initiate a conversation with you when he had sneaked up on you. ‘But if it did, it should depend on what kind of tricks. Don’t you agree?’

You mimicked his nonchalance and shrugged. He didn’t look too muscular, but you obviously couldn’t have told for sure when he was wearing a shapeless uniform. Plus, you weren’t too strong, either.

‘Maybe,’ you retorted with confidence, earning a genuine-looking smile from him with your answer. You counted to one, two, three, then decided to call him out on his actions now that you were having an actual conversation. ‘Or maybe you should stop misplacing my favorite snacks when you’re bored.’

The boy scoffed, but it didn’t sound annoyed or irritated. If anything, his reaction reminded you of your roommate, Yuqi, and how she clowned you whenever you forgot to buy instant noodles or certain veggies when she had a concrete recipe in mind for the weekend.

‘Please, it’s not like it’s illegal to put products on the upper shelves. It doesn’t hurt you in any way. And the faces you make when you act like you’re tall enough are cute,’ he reasoned, his logic flawed on many levels.

‘I’m tall enough!’ You spat, feeling a little stupid a second later when you realized that he had a point. But still, you weren’t acting anyhow. Because even when it took you some time, you always managed on your own. High shelves couldn’t beat you.

‘Nah, you’re short. Get over it!’ He waved you off like you were a child who still lived in her own fantasy world. His endeared chuckles made you pout, then you pouted a bit more since you had proved him right once again without meaning to. ‘Oh, come on! I’d miss your pouty face. It’s adorable.’

You would have liked to think that you were unaffected when it came to sweet talkers like him - Xukun, as his nametag suggested -, but you could feel your cheeks getting warmer the softer his smile became. You cleared your throat to steal a moment for yourself before you opened your sealed lips for a coherent comeback.

‘Aren’t you too old to flirt like a kindergartener?’ You asked with one of your hands still on your hip, head slightly tilted and slim eyebrow raised high.

‘Maybe I mistook you for one the first time and it stuck with me,’ he teased, rendering you speechless despite the flames his retort ignited in you. You wanted to tell him off so badly, but on the other hand, you couldn’t change the fact that his chin could have grazed the top of your head if he had taken two steps forwards.

You understood exaggeration. You didn’t have a stick up your ass that made you fight over mere semantics. Still, you groaned as lacking a better idea, you took the package of classic Oreos out of his hand.

‘Leave my Oreos on the third shelf and I’ll consider giving you my number next time,’ you claimed with enough confidence to not stutter despite your heart beating in your throat. So what if you had misread the signs and he wasn’t actually flirting? It wasn’t that you needed to shop in this particular store all the time just because it was located at the perfect spot, five minutes from your workplace and one from the subway line that took you home.

You threw the snack into your shopping basket, then walked past the boy to show him you wouldn’t wait for his answer desperately if he was only joking around.

The corner of your lips twitched in amusement when he jogged after you.

‘Deal!’

It would have been a lie to say you weren’t a tad bit doubtful when you left the store, but the next time you visited the shop, the Oreos were on the third shelf; thus, you took your time to introduce yourself at the counter. Although you left that day without giving him your number, Xukun didn’t push you, nor did he break his promise, calling you out on doing so first. Instead, he appreciated your attempts at getting to know him and reciprocated your fun facts about your life with his own.

It took you almost a month to fulfill your part of the bargain, but you eventually did give him your kkt ID. After all, he needed to be able to contact you before your first date in that amusement park you had chosen together.

(Because yes, no matter what he said, you were tall enough to ride roller coasters.)

the end.

#xukun x you #cai xukun #xukun scenarios #xukun x reader #xukun drabble #xukun #ssbyme #strangers to lovers

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