see me in a crown

Sunwoo jumps, breath tumbling out of him as if he’d been punched in the stomach. He doesn’t expect the sudden peal of laughter, and he’s not quite ready for what’s supposed to come next. Laughter from an enemy almost always means things are about to hit the fan; he’s learned that one from experience. He braces himself for the worst, and when it doesn’t come, Sunwoo stares. “Wait, really?” It isn’t much, but it’s the barest glimmer of hope Sunwoo’s found since this conversation started and he latches onto it. “No, I mean— I’d love for you to keep coming. If you— If you really like the fish, yeah!” His voice is still trembling, and there’s a thin film of water threatening to spill from his eyes, but now his heart is pounding with something else entirely. Maybe he’s a little excited that this threatening figure thinks fish are cute. Maybe he’s hoping he’ll get to talk about fish a few more times before he ends up stuffed on someone’s wall. “If you don’t hurt anyone— yes, yeah, absolutely. You can come here as long as you’d like. Just… don’t hurt anyone?” He’s still staring, dumbfounded, and before the other man can get a word in he quickly says— “You really think the fish are cute?”

The kid looks like Shu pulled a gun on him and then announced it’s fake. He might as well have done the metaphorical version of that, honestly. Still hilarious.

Obviously he’s processing a lot, and Shu graciously lets him get it all out. He’s counting two requests to not hurt anyone, and maybe four stutters. Not bad.

“If I’m not given a reason to hurt anyone, then no one gets hurt,” Shu assures him without... really assuring him of anything besides don’t piss me off. In the longrun though, it does seem his aquarium trips will go on as usual.

Immediately, Sunwoo blanches and decides alright, change of plans. He’s aware—has been since this all started, actually, that he isn’t the best at this whole ‘intimidating gang member’ schtick. It’s very, very possible that he’s among the worst, actually, and now that his fish facts are being played against him he has very few cards left up his sleeve. He has his fists (a non-option), and— well, that’s about it. Could he appeal to emotion with this guy? Try to negotiate… whatever it is they’re negotiating? Sunwoo glances sidelong at the guy and decides… probably not. “Is that why you’ve been coming to the Aquarium lately?” he says, voice barely above a whisper. He can’t help the pout in his voice, not when everything he’s said has been turned against him thus far. If he keeps humoring the guy, he’ll end up backing himself further into a corner. “Has it been for… reconnaissance, or something?”

The look on fish boy’s face makes every single step Shu has taken in this aquarium worth it. Even the ones he hasn’t spend idly threatening various bodily undoings upon the boy.

But the conclusion the other comes to after all this...

Renshu honest to god laughs, and it’s not the kind that would preface a sudden stabbing. He’s been told sometimes his laugh invokes that feeling.

He coves his mouth to stifle the sounds, but he’s still smiling when he runs a hand through his hair and sighs. “No, I just like fish. One of them blows bubbles at me. It’s cute.”

Which is far cry from subtly implying he can taxidermize little Nemo.

He’s glad to be down an emptier path, away from customers who could get hurt in the crossfire, but the further down they go the more Sunwoo’s eyes dart over his shoulder to check for an ambush. 

“Nemo swam out, too,” he refutes weakly. He can’t tell if his face is red but it’s definitely burning. “He got caught, but he made it out on his own. He was fine.” 

He’s handing the guy open ammunition at this point. A physical fight he can at least try to handle, but Sunwoo’s entirely out of his depth here. He considers keeping his mouth shut, but he can’t risk instigating conflict; it took him four years to get this job, and he isn’t throwing it away now. 

And even if he keeps quiet, the guy could probably find a way to toy with him regardless. He seems intent on watching Sunwoo flounder.

“And his dad swam across the ocean by himself. You should rewatch the movie. We might have a copy in the gift shop, if you want to stop by there.”

He was fine.

Renshu glances at fish boy, and decides to mercifully hold his tongue. Nemo certainly doesn’t sound fine, to his ears. But this is turning out to be awfully fun, and he can’t help milking it for a little more than it’s worth.

“Maybe I will. I haven’t had the urge to visit the shop; fish are much more interesting when they’re not lifeless and stuffed. Don’t you agree, Nemo?” He looks at fish boy and smiles.

Sunwoo winces. This is why they don’t let him talk during missions. Or at meetings.

But no punches have been pulled yet, and the last thing Sunwoo wants is to start something where the fish can see. He’ll play along until the cards come come out, and then — well, he’ll figure that out when he gets there.

Sunwoo glances at him from the corner of his eye and swallows. “It depends,” he says as evenly as his voice will allow him, feeling as though he’s treading thin ice. “There are around thirty different species of clownfish. Most people think of the ocellaris clownfish — Nemo — but it’s… It’s not the only one. But they can live over ten years.”

“They’re also known as anemonefish, because they form symbiotic relationships with anemones, which — which use the toxins in their tentacles to keep the clownfish safe. So you wouldn’t be able to interfere with their lifespans. You’d have to get past the anemone.”

Or you could catch the clownfish when its alone, but he elects to omit that information. "Is that all you wanted?”

Fish boy lives up to his name, and Renshu actually pays attention to what he’s saying beyond simply humoring him.

“Fascinating,” is all he comments, and no matter how much sincerity is actually there he can’t help if everything out of his mouth tends to be colored patronizing. Even when fish boy goes a little further and speaks about anemone, a safeguard and poorly veiled metaphor, Shu doesn’t mind. It’s a very silly medium to conduct their conversation on, but at the very least it’s fitting for their surroundings.

“Speaking of Nemo,” Shu elects to move on, evading the question. “His mother died, didn’t she? Recklessly swimming out of from the safety of the anemone when she knew the barracuda was right there, if I remember correctly.” They’re approaching a split path, and Shu takes the liberty of deciding which way they go next. The less inhabited one to the left. He directs fish boy with a hand at his back.

He stands at the railing and frowns into a tank of water.  “Stupid,” he mutters to himself with a shuddering breath; he isn’t sure if he is referring to the situation or himself. 

Because before the approach, before he’d locked eyes with the figure from last week, he could feel the hair prickling on the back of his neck, and he knew he was being watched.

“Stupid,” he says again in resignation — and then, without a moment more to think on it, he turns and matches his gaze with the other man’s.  In that moment, with his heart hammering in his ears like a joiner’s mallet,  Sunwoo realizes two things. First, that he’s unarmed, and second, that he’s on his own. They’re going to capture him, maybe hold him hostage, handcuffed in the back of some warehouse and left to rot until the manager pays his ransom. And that’s best case scenario. If he’s less lucky, they’ll beat him bloody and toss him into the piranha tank.  Inhale. He can do this. Exhale. He has to do this. After a beat of stunned hesitation, he nods and falls into step. “You— You’re a regular, right? I can’t right now, we’re closing soon, but I can give you a discount on your tickets. If you want to attend tomorrow’s exhibit, I mean. Or next—" Exhale. “Ah, next weekend’s.” 

Sunwoo bites at his lip and tries not to cringe. His voice hitched a few too many times in that sentence. Not a good look. "You don’t want to talk about fish, though.”

When he imagines gangs, the seedy underground, generic hoodlums, the first thing he thinks of isn’t an aquarium. But he himself isn’t a walking stereotype, so that’s a pass.

A bumbling idiot, however, that can’t get a whole sentence out smoothly, that’s just embarrassing. Shu sets the pace of their strides and fish boy lets him, and by the sounds of it he’ll have no trouble dictating the tone of their conversation either. It won’t be anything at all to lead this kid by the nose. Amazing.

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PROFILE LOADED • • • 《 WANG RENSHU 》

“On the surface, WANG RENSHU is an UNEMPLOYED twenty-eight-year-old. Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover that he’s also an EXTORTIONIST and PROSTITUTE that goes by the alias SQUIRREL. His allegiance lies with LYNX.”