New Neighbor ✔️

26

"Well, background noise sounds fine."

"Why don't you put on the OJ Simpson thing?" I suggested. "I've seen it one thousand times, and it won't distract me from any kind of conversation."

He nodded and pushed play, setting down the remote right after. He then picked up the bowl offering it to me and I gladly took a strawberry. I noticed that he had also brought in the wine that was left outside and handed me a real glass this time. "Do you want some?"

"Maybe one more glass."

We watched the first half of the first episode, digging into the strawberries and sipping on our wine, but soon I felt bored with the show and turned to talk with Namjoon. "So, what kind of things do you do when you are bored?"

"I like to read." he said turning his body to face me, and I mirrored his action. "There is actually a room down the hall that we made into a library, and every day we get shipments of the books that were in my father's house. The ones we wanted to keep anyway."

"Can I ask you how he passed?" His eyes became sad, and he looked down to his fingers, and I instantly regretted asking. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You don't have to tell me."

"It's okay." he replied with a small smile. "It's just still fresh so sometimes it's hard to talk about."

"You really don't have to tell me anything." I said placing my hand on his arm.

He looked up to me and placed his other hand on top of mine, his thumb strumming back and forth. "He had a heart condition for a long time. His father had it too and passed from it, but my father was a very healthy man so he lived a lot longer. But he got sick and it just snowballed. His heart was too weak to handle the illness and finally gave out on him in his sleep."

"Namjoon..." I said softly. I lifted my hands to his face and made him look at me, his eyes soft as he looked back to me. "I'm so sorry to hear that."

He leaned forward and kissed me softly and when he pulled back I let my hands drop. "Thank you. But he passed quickly, and painlessly. It might sound horrible but I'm glad he didn't suffer long. He watched my grandfather die slowly and it really affected him. I'm grateful that Taehyung and I didn't see him suffer."

"That doesn't make his passing any easier."

"That's true. But it makes it easier to accept. He knew it was coming too."

"You don't have the same condition do you?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Neither Tae or I have the condition they had. We were lucky."

"What about your mom?"

"I never knew her." He replied. "I have faint memories of a women being around when I was very young, but as soon as Taehyung was born, she was gone."

"Did she pass?"

"No, she left us." he said in a bitter tone. "She was a very selfish woman and didn't want the responsibilities of being a mom or a wife. My dad told me about a year after she left, he received divorce papers in the mail. He had his lawyer look over it and she wasn't asking for any money or anything. She just wanted to be free from him."

"That's awful."

His eye brows came together and he searched my face. "No worse than what you and Jin went through."

"I don't think pain like that can be compared to someone else's. Being abandoned, even by just one parent is still hurtful."

He smiled. "True. But I've made my peace with it...so had Tae."

"That's good then." I smiled and took his hand lacing our fingers together.

"How old were you when your parents left?"

"I was 7 and Jin was 6." I replied remembering waking up to an empty house. "I was old enough to use the phone and I remembered in emergencies to call 911. The police came and found all of their clothes gone."

"What the fuck?"

I laughed. "Jin and I made our peace with it too." I replied. "And I begged them to put us in a foster home that would keep us together and I don't know how I got so lucky, but they did."

"Were you close to your foster parents."

I shook my head. "No. They weren't bad people, and they allowed me to paint, but they weren't cruel to us. When I turned 18, they gave me a choice to stay for one more year since Jin was younger, and I was going to. But then we got a visit from a lawyer and found out that our biological parents paid for both Jin and I's tuition when he was born. I moved out and Jin moved with me and I went to school for law, which was a 5-year program. I had to pay my last year on my own, but it was worth it. Jin had to go through much more schooling than I did, so we are still paying on his student loans but we can afford it." I shrugged.

He nodded. "Maybe I should have you look over a few of our contracts with our partners. Sometimes I think our lawyer doesn't know what he's doing."

"Oh, I'm not a lawyer." I laughed. "I'm too soft to be a lawyer."

He grinned and raked his fingers through my hair from the side of my face. "I love how soft you are."

I laughed taking hold of his hand and kissing it. "I meant my mentality, not my body."

"I was referring to both." He smiled and leaned forward kissing me.

I kissed him back and it quickly turned heated. He pushed me backwards so that I was laying down and he hovered over me, his lips brushing against mine. Our tongues moved against each other in slow delicate motions. When he pulled back from the kiss, we were both smiling and he leaned back taking my hand to pull me up.

"Sorry." he grinned. "I just really like kissing you."

"Do you see me complaining?" I asked with a raise eye brow.

"Ha, nope." he replied winking at me. "So, tomorrow is Sunday." he started, playing with the ends of my hair.

"True."

"Do you want to go to the beach?" He asked, hope in his eyes. "It's supposed to be really hot and clear of clouds."

"I'll fry in that much sun." I teased.

"I'll make sure to rub you down with sunscreen real good." he grinned, his voice rumbling with humor.

"That's a lot of sunscreen." I commented raising my brow.

"I'm committed to the offer."

I laughed and moved my body so I was leaning against him. "Sounds like fun to me. One condition though."

He wrapped his arm around me so that we were both comfortable and he rested the side of his head against the top of mine. "What's that?"

"I get to wear a bathingsuit this time."

He laughed loudly with a hearty chuckle and he took hold of my hand with his free one.

"I guess." he sighed dramatically.

I laughed and snuggled closer to him, my eyelids becoming heavy. I could feel myself falling asleep since his hands moved to play with the hair on top of my head and his fingers moved against my scalp. It was my favorite feeling and so very calming.

The last thing I remember from that night was drifting off in his arms. It was the first night of many that I spent with Namjoon, and my wall was no longer standing firm. Not even a crumb of a brick was left, and I was completely open. Open to his arms, and open with my heart.