9. My life is nothing but a bad memory I no longer recognize

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By the time Bora was nine years old, she had stopped fantasizing about her mother's arrival. She decided it was best to leave it behind now that she was a big girl, and she told herself that she didn't need her as much as she thought after all.

Her father had finally decided to move out of Uncle Yoongi's apartment, but not to a bigger place, but to her grandparents' house, outside of Seoul. Bora remembers how sad she was the day she had to leave Sowon and Minji, her best friends from school, when that afternoon her father put everything in a truck and calmed her crying by talking to her about how great grandparents' home was.

They were a strict couple, and still lived with her father's brother, Minjong. This was a man who looked like a clone of his father physically: tall, with dimples, but with hair a little less curly and dark. Bora was moved to see him and wanted to hug him, but she soon realized that the one they insisted she call 'uncle' was very far from winning her affection.

Dad hadn't been able to change jobs, so he was still in Seoul all week and visiting on weekends; and Bora hated when he was away. Minjong made her play in the garden, made extra homework assignments, and didn't let her watch television.

Her grandparents were no different: Grandma taught her how to knit and cook some things, but it turned out to be useless, since in addition to a striking physical resemblance to her father, Bora had also inherited Namjoon's incredible lack of culinary talent. After trying a lot, she ended up finding her grandfather, who was more relaxed than her. They had a small bookshelf in the house and Bora liked to spend time reading next to it.

Grandpa was sick (according to Minjong from talking to his wife), so he had lost the ability to speak. Surprisingly, instead of bothering her, Bora loved it; She talked for hours with her grandfather and read to her during the afternoons; Grandpa almost never reacted, except sometimes when she smiled at him or blinked so slowly that she almost looked like a cat.

On her tenth birthday, her father gave her a phone. Since then, Bora spent her time talking to her uncle Yoongi about everything, asking about his band and for him to visit her soon and to bring the guitar. However, due to the spiteful attitude of her grandmother (who remembered a troublesome young man for her son), it was much easier for Bora to sometimes sneak in with her father and spend the week in her uncle's old apartment. During those days she took the opportunity to go see her old friends and play... until it was inevitably her turn to return, and her father had to face scolding from her grandmother for letting Bora miss school for playing in the city.

It was one of those times, the getaways to Seoul, that it occurred to Namjoon that he was old enough to go with Yoongi to a small concert. This is how she left her with her uncle, who at that time was already appearing at major public events, so that she could walk calmly after the end-of-year exams; while he took the opportunity to finish the last double shift before his vacation.

Namjoon's office was close to downtown, and his work was regular. In the office he had one or another acquaintance, and several friends. Around that time in March, however, the company decided to hire people for a new export department. Of those who entered, Namjoon became close with at least three: Seokjin, a recently married wisecracking accountant; Taehyung, a guy who boasted every day that he had graduated with honors from his marketing major; and Hyojung, sent from headquarters and who was a representative of the foreign relations department.

It was with these three that, after the double shift, he thought it would be pertinent to go out for a drink to celebrate the incorporation of the company's new facial care line, of which the advertising campaign had been attributed to the team of the three.

They went to a canteen near the office, and after an hour they were already smiling.

"This is the last one, gentlemen, or my wife will kill me." Seokjin warned, despite being the one with the most beer cans around him.

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