Work Text:
nunchi (눈치)
(n.) lit. “eye-measure“; the subtle art and ability to listen and gauge others' moods; the awareness of your surrounding that allows you to read the atmosphere and react to it appropriately
|Korean|
It's not that he doesn't care. He does have a heart, thank you very much. It's just that he has learned not to care any more about the cities they're sent to. Chris, of course, cares. And cries. Every time they have to cut a town's budget (all the time so to speak) or shut down an office or two (not every time but most times), Chris cries and comforts those affected. Chris is nothing like him. And Chris fits into this new city they've been assigned to. Pawnee. What kind of name is that, anyway? But yes, Chris belongs here. He stepped into the room and all eyes were on him. Of course they were. Chris just is the type to get everyone's attention.
And what did he do? He grabbed his suitcase as if it were a lifeline and he was desperately drowning. But in the end, it doesn't matter because he gets to decide what happens to the town, to the people. So it really isn't important for people to like him. (Actually it's easier if they don't.) Usually, he doesn't like them all that much,
But this time, this time, it's different. Everything is. This time, when he walked into City Hall, his whole body noticed something was different. And now here he is, with her and all of her colleagues and the need to shut down the government and her. He cannot quite pinpoint what it is about her that makes him so furious, so angry, so desperate, that makes him fall for her so hard that he is afraid he might crash. He just knows there is something in her eyes, in the way her entire body lights up when someone mentions work. (Or waffles.)
And he knows that eyes don't live but he swears to God that hers laugh and cry and talk to him. That there is something in them, that makes him lose himself. (And here, he was going to compare her to the sun and the moon and the entire fucking galaxy but in the end, all there's left to say is that she is so damn perfect.) And that she is oh so very, very much too good for him.
He feels like a little kid that is in love with his elementary school teacher, always close but never close enough to touch. He is also afraid that she'll get cut on his edges, on his roughness. (But then again, he is also deadly afraid of cops and there's no logical explanation for that, either.) But there is one for the former. Because he isn't good with relationships. He's messed up all of them. Given that they lasted longer than a couple of weeks. But in the end he always managed to screw it up.
And she deserves someone who would give her the world, not that he wouldn't try it for her but he knows he can't. And even though he barely knows her, he'd like to take the memories with her and wear them as clothes if that was possible because they are warm and cozy and so full of love and understanding that sometimes he feels like crying just thinking of her. And every time he says something mean to her or about her (or the government), it's just because otherwise he'd be spilling out his love for her. Which is ridiculous, given that they've only known each other for, what? A couple of
Up until now they've only lasted for a moment but he wishes, they would last forever. Because he doesn't think this is just love, this is Leslie Knope.