Jimin watched her as much as he could as she walked back to her seat. He was thankful the next fan was having quite the intense discussion with Hobi. His eyes followed Nari as she returned to her seat and he felt nervous when she opened the book. For several seconds she didn't move and then her head looked up and he took in a sharp breath as her eyes met his.
Jimin licked his dry lips and then tore his eyes away from hers. He fiddled with his pen, moved in his seat, all in a desperate attempt to calm his racing heart. She had read it. He pulled in his bottom lip slightly and worked it between his teeth. He was suddenly very nervous. Looking down the table, he noticed there were only a few fans left and he felt a wide smile spread across his face.
Time couldn't move fast enough.
* * *
Nari was puzzled as she walked back to her seat. She didn't even remember what she might have said to Taehyung and Jungkook. At least she didn't forget to give them their teas. She sat down in her seat holding the photobook tightly in her hands. What could he have written that she was meant to read immediately?
She kept her head down and glanced around to see no one was near or paying attention. She slowly opened the book to his page and saw the yellow post it with a clear message, unlike his previous scribbled answers.
"Don't leave right away. I need to talk to you."
Her brow furrowed a bit as she pondered the message. She felt someone was staring and she put her head up to immediately lock gazes with Jimin who looked away after a few seconds. She smiled softly as she watched him become flustered and try to act like she didn't catch him staring.
She sat back in her seat, putting her book and things into her bag. These books would be going into a small memorial box she had started for Nana. As she waited for the fansign to end, she thought about the box. It held a few special pictures she had taken with her sister, a small poster of Jimin and some of his photocards, and the other two photobooks from the past two fansigns. A couple of albums, the letter she had written to Nari but never sent, and the ticket stub from the concert. Some of these were memories Nana had intended to make but didn't have the chance to.
Nari looked up at the seven men who were now moving out from behind the table and to the front of the platform. She smiled as she watched them interact with each other, joking, teasing, and laughing. She began to see some of the draw Nana might have felt for these seven men. True, they acted like boys sometimes, but in all reality they were men.
She felt her eyes fixate on the shortest one, his pink hair making him stand out. She had seen Nana's posters on the walls. His hair had been many different colors, all of which were very nice on him. She liked the pink. It almost reminded her of Gina's hot pink hair. She giggled softly as she made the comparison in her mind. She froze when his eyes found hers again and he smiled slightly, quickly turning his gaze to Taehyung instead. She felt a little disappointed when he pulled his eyes away, but she figured he was trying to avoid drawing undue attention to her. Her heart raced at the thought of his small acts of thoughtfulness towards her.
The fansign finally ended and the group was offstage. Fans began gathering their belongings, chatting, laughing, and sharing their personal experiences with each member. Nari slid her arms back into her coat and placed her bag in her lap, letting everyone file out before her. No one had come to get her and she wondered what exactly she was to do. She felt awkward sitting there till the last person walked past her row, and feeling almost embarrassed for staying so long, she quickly stood and walked down to the end of the row.
She followed the straggling fans up the stairs and to the back door. They were just far enough ahead that no one thought to hold the door for the last girl who was walking towards it. Nari put her hands on the cold handle and then looked back one last time to see the door next to the stage crack open. She thought she saw a little bit of pink but she shook her head. She was silly to think he was serious with his message. She turned and walked out, letting the door close on its own behind her.
* * *
Jimin nervously fidgeted as he waited to get the all clear that the auditorium was empty. Well, almost empty. There should be one girl left. He looked around and saw all the managers busy with either their phones, or the other members, and he frowned. No one was going to be able to give him a status update if they were all here. He sighed and left the dressing room and walked back to the stage door. Cracking it open a bit, his eyes quickly scanned the seats. Empty??
His eyes caught movement at the top of the stairs but it was dimly lit and he couldn't exactly see who it was. The woman stopped and turned slightly. He gasped as he realized it was Nari. I asked her to wait!
She seemed to pause and then after a moment's hesitation she turned and walked through the door. Jimin's eyes widened and he rushed back to the dressing room. He scrambled around looking for his coat and mask. He ignored the questions from the staff and other members as he raced out the door and down the hall, struggling to put his coat on as he ran.
"Jimin-ah!" His manager ran after him yelling his name. "You shouldn't go out there alone!"
Jimin froze and grimaced. His manager was right but he had to catch her. "Come with me then because I have to go. I can't stop. Sorry, Manager-hyung." He quickly spun on his heel and resumed his jog to the back exit. He heard his manager stomping up behind him and he merely gave him a nod before shoving the door open and running up to the front of the venue.
There were some lingering fans who were dispersing in different directions down the street. Jimin glanced around, looking for anything familiar. He saw a flash of white and pink, and he raced up behind the lone woman who was walking slowly towards a bus stop. He smiled widely behind his mask as he recognized the scarf she was wearing as Nari's. Her one hand was wrapped around the strap of her bag and the other stuffed deep into her coat pocket in an effort to kept it warm. He slowed down and followed behind her, smiling at her small movements and wishing he could be the one to keep her hand warm. How can I be a pocket? He giggled softly at his fan-inspired thought.
He stopped abruptly as the woman in front of him stopped and looked around. Did she hear me? He thought about speaking but she startled him when she quickly spun around, bag now raised menacingly high in the air.
* * *
Nari walked out of the venue, feeling a bit stupid and a tiny bit sad. Stupid because she took the note seriously for no reason, and sad because apparently it wasn't going to become reality. She trudged down the sidewalk, the streetlights casting a depressing yellow glow on her pathway. She felt really dumb. Her head hung down and she felt herself blushing at her own ridiculousness. No one even saw it or knew of her embarrassment, but yet she still blushed.
The only sounds around her were the infrequent passings of cars. She had decided to take a small side street and it was quiet and lonely. When her ears picked up on footsteps behind her, she felt her pulse quicken and adrenaline rush through her system. The footsteps followed her for a while as she kept walking straight ahead. This person was really following her, slowing and speeding up whenever she did. Her hand gripped the strap of her bag tightly and in one fluid motion she slung it off her shoulder and spun around, holding the bag above her head. Her eyes widened as she saw a masked character behind her.
"Whoa! Wait! Wait! Nari! It's me! Jimin!" The man backed up and quickly ripped his face mask off.
Nari's eyes widened as she searched the eyes of the man in the dim light.
Jimin saw her struggling and yanked his beanie off as well, revealing his shocking pink hair. He watched as her arm slowly relaxed and she dropped her bag to her side.
"Park Jimin-ssi ," she exclaimed before collapsing onto a nearby bench.
He chuckled slightly, and looked back to see his manager holding his face in his hands, relieved to have avoided a physical assault on his charge. Jimin turned his smiling eyes back to the woman who was trying to calm her nerves. "I'm sorry, Nari," he said softly, moving to sit beside her.
She chuckled and smiled. "It's alright. I'm just glad it was you and not some stranger. Sorry for almost whacking you with my bag." She pulled her coat tighter so he could sit beside her.
"No apology needed. I shouldn't have been following you like that." He smiled and took a deep breath. "I asked you to wait. Why did you leave?" He turned his eyes towards her while pulling his beanie back onto his head to cover his hair.
"No one told me what to do. I thought it was maybe something you wrote but didn't mean." She looked down at her shoes and felt her embarrassment creep up again.
"I meant it," he said softly. "But we can't really talk here. Will you come with me?" His smile made her heart flutter and she seriously questioned her judgment at that moment.
"Sure," she said quietly.
"Manager-hyung, can we get a taxi to go back to the company building?" Jimin leaned forward and his eyes begged his manager to say yes.
The manager sighed and quickly placed a call to his coworkers letting them know that they would go back a different way. He then phoned a taxi and one pulled up quickly.
Jimin held the door open for Nari and she slid into the backseat. He slid in beside her and then attempted to shut the door, only to find his manager holding it, trying to climb in beside him. "Hyung! Use the front seat!" Jimin giggled as his manager looked flustered but then realized what he had attempted.
When everyone was securely in place, the taxi sped off. The ride was uneventful. Nari was too shy to speak and Jimin didn't want to talk with other people around.
They arrived at the company and the manager asked the driver to pull around the back, letting his fares off at the back door. Nari followed, remembering this way from the time she and Nana had come before.
Jimin led her down a hallway to a small meeting room. He opened the door and gestured for her to go first.
Nari smiled slightly and walked into the room, surprised to see him shut the door on his manager. "Shouldn't he be in here? You know, to protect your reputation or whatever? Or maybe even mine?"
Jimin laughed and unbuttoned his coat, sliding it off and laying it beside him on a chair. He shook his head. "No. He has no place in here right now. Care to sit down?"
Nari nodded and sat down across from him at the table. "I'm sorry if this sounds rude, Jimin-ssi, but why did you want to speak with me?"
Jimin smiled and looked down at his hands. Should he say it was simply to just spend time with her? Or to ask where her sister had been? He clicked his tongue and began to speak. "Well, I have a couple of reasons but let's start with this one. Your sister had messaged me a while back and said she had gotten into thee fansigns. However, I haven't even seen her at one of them. Is she sick?"
Nari's head went down and she felt her eyes heat up. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about Nana and quite possibly cry again, but he deserved an answer now. The promotions were over and the fansigns were too. She really didn't have to worry about sadness effecting his fan relations at this point.
"Nari, is she okay? Look, you can talk to me-"
"My sister died about two weeks ago," she said, breathing out her tension.
"Sorry, what?" Jimin felt he hadn't heard her right.
"Nana...my sister, died." Nari kept her tear filled eyes trained on her hands in her lap. She felt tears splash down onto her hands and she hated her emotions at that point. She heard Jimin's chair creak, indicating he had sat back in it.
Jimin blinked several times and thought about what she had just said. "How?" he whispered.
"Brain aneurysm. She'd had it for a long time apparently, but I never knew. When she and my mother came to Seoul recently, she was actually here for two reasons. To protest on your behalf and to see a doctor about her head. She had been scheduled for surgery but it was too late, I guess. None of us expected it. She'd had it for so long. She was fully intending to come to these and see you guys. It was her dream. The concert ticket was hers. The fansign opportunities were hers. I've been trying to fulfill her dreams for her, in her absence." Nari had begun crying somewhere in the middle of her speech and her hands were now awash in tears. However, it felt good this time to talk about it. Maybe because it was to someone Nana cared so much about or maybe it was Jimin's kind ways that made it easy, either way it actually felt cathartic to her. She raised her head and smiled through her tears. "Thanks for giving me an opportunity to tell you. I wanted you to know but I wanted to wait till you were in the midst of promotions. I felt bad seeing your messages to her on Twitter, knowing you didn't know."
Jimin glanced around the room for a tissue box and found nothing. He whipped out his scarf and handed it to her for her to dry her tears on.
Nari took it from him and held it in her hands. "She put so much work into this for you. I'm glad you were able to get it from her before..." Her hands tightened around the scarf and she felt a hand cover her own with warmth.
"Nari, it's okay to cry." His own voice sounded tight and his words were whispered. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I guess it's both our loss since she was such a loyal fan of mine. I'm so sorry I didn't know before, I would have gladly paid my respects somehow." He was now kneeling beside her on one knee, watching tears flow down her cheeks.
"It's alright. It was my decision to not tell you," smiled Nari weakly.
"I understand why you did it. Thank you for being thoughtful." He wanted desperately to raise his hand and brush her hair away from her damp face. She looked so sad. If he could only wrap her in his arms and take a way the pain she was feeling, he would gladly do it. Instead, he held her hands gently in his own, amazed at how soft and small they were.
"Your sister has a wonderful sister. I'm sure she's happy you are trying to fulfill her dreams for her. But honestly, I have been so happy and honored to see you at so many events of ours lately." He smiled up at her tenderly.
"I only went because Nana had the tickets to go." Nari sniffed and wiped away the last remaining tears with her hand. "But I have enjoyed them," she said, smiling.
Jimin stood up and leaned against the table. "Perhaps sometime I can thank your sister." He folded his arms and looked down at the pretty pianist.
"Maybe," chirped Nari, feeling better by the second. Talking to this man had done her heart some good for whatever reason. Nana was right to "stan" Park Jimin. He seemed to be a kind soul. "You mentioned you had a couple of reasons for needing to talk to me tonight. Besides my sister, what was the other reason?"
Jimin looked away immediately, his face turning a light shade of pink. He stood up from leaning against the table and walked away to the middle of the empty floor.
"Jimin-ssi?"
"Ah, no need to be formal anymore," he laughed nervously.
"Alright," she said, watching him pace around the room a bit. She could see he was nervous about something. His ran a hand through his hair at least three times since he moved away from the table.
Spinning around he looked at her, his eyes anxious. "Nari, would it be okay if I..." He paused, thinking about his next words. He couldn't just come out and say, "Hey, Nari! You're beautiful and I know I don't know much about you but I kinda like you so is that okay?" His mouth opened and closed a few times as he would start to speak and then stop.
"Jimin, what in the world are you trying to say to me right now," said Nari, clearly exasperated with his delays.
Jimin sighed and put his hands behind his back, intertwining his fingers tightly because of his nervousness. "Nari, would it be okay if you and I were...friends?"