Father - Namjoon

12. A lost child in a woman's body

Namjoon was standing outside the door to Bora's room. He had taken several days to go visit her daughter after not seeing her for a month.

He raised his hand to knock on the door but stopped. It was almost six in the afternoon, and the last time Bora had smiled at her was after he came to pick her up after Yoongi's band's last rehearsal. They went out to eat hamburgers, and she couldn't stop talking about how happy she was to be with him, driving him around all afternoon until the evening, when they returned to Namjoon's apartment in the city.

Next week was supposed to be the spring festival and music expo where he was going to perform with D-town, but the morning after rehearsal he found Minjong at his house, helping his daughter pack up because she apparently got lost. She had forgotten she had important errands to do at school.

Surprised, he tried to talk to her daughter telling her that he could take her after the event, but what he found was a completely different Bora than the previous afternoon.

"Leave me alone now!" She screamed at him desperately, falling into silence a second later. Namjoon watched her carefully, trying to get closer to hug her, but was bluntly rejected.

"Princess?"

"Stop calling me that..." he looked up, shedding a tear that he managed to hide. "I have to go."

"Please..." He managed to grab her by the arm but his daughter wouldn't face him "talk to me...can you?"

Bora turned to him, but only to free herself by force.

"Why would I?"

Remembering that afternoon affected him seriously, since Namjoon had long argued age with the fact that he was separating from his daughter irremediably, almost suddenly. He didn't know what to attribute it to, if it wasn't age then maybe time, distance, or...

"Dear?" Namjoon turned around suddenly to see Hyejung, arms crossed and, in a bathrobe, leaning in the hallway. "Aren't you coming to sleep?" Namjoon wanted to respond, but he couldn't, he didn't even stop facing his daughter's door.

"Yes, in a second."

Hyejung came up behind her, leaning on her shoulder with a smile.

"If you're so worried maybe this is the time to talk to her." Her words made him smile, and then he took her hand. "Now that everyone is going to Sokcho..." Namjoon turned her around to look into her eyes and kissed her sweetly. "You know, if you want, I can go with them too."

"You don't have to do that, so stay and..."

"No, as much as your mother loves for you to marry a divorced woman..." Namjoon chuckled and Hyejung smiled at him. "But seriously. I know that Bora doesn't accept me, and I understand it...you have it easier because my Sunhoo is only three years old, but she is almost a woman."

"She has to understand that you will be my wife." Namjoon argued, but his fiancée shook her head sweetly.

"And she will...I hope so." She sighed. 

Namjoon hugged her, letting the affection wash over him as always, before a noise startled them.

"That must be your mother," Hyejung smiled wryly and stepped out of her embrace, "I'd better get off her and help her make food for the trip." She started walking towards the stairs.

"Hyejung-ah." Namjoon called after her, stopping her. "Tell her I'll stay with Bora."

His fiancée smiled at him, then left completely.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Inside her room, Bora was reclining on her bed, hugging her pillow. Her dry, gray face reflected the sleepless nights. Her phone had been turned off for several days, confined by the fear of turning it on.
She would know that he would be full of questions about her lack of presentation, calls from her uncle and her friends...

It was terrifying to think what they would imagine happened to her, that maybe they already knew and would start asking questions. What would he tell them then what happened? No matter how much she thought, she couldn't find anything that justified her escape, her seclusion, her need to remain hidden. However, what scared him the most was the possibility that there was a message from Jungkook about what had happened.