*Just come right in, ok?*
I knocked.
"Nara?"
"I told you to come right in!", comes a muffled voice through the door.
The door opens a moment later and a young woman stands in soft clothes, scowling.
"Good to see you too"
"Arrsh!"
Perhaps a combination of argh and aish. I'm not complaining.
I held up the polythene bag in my hand.
"I brought snacks"
"Oh", she takes it from my hand and examines the contents. "Thank you~". Head still in the bag, she steps aside, letting me in.
"Tacos, Yay!"
She makes it so easy, honestly.
"Where should I put this?"
She looked at the overnight bag I had brought along, noticing it for the first time.
"Ah", she raced to the kitchen and came back empty handed. She pointed with her hands to the second bedroom. "I prepared it just this morning", she grinned and stepped into the room, holding the door open. I followed, coming in and setting my bag on the end of the bed. I slipped out of my coat, looking around the minimalist decor.
"I didn't know you had a brother"
She sits on the mattress with a tiny bounce.
"Shane Ahn. He's like a male version of my mom. Doesn't look Korean"
I nod while taking out necessities from the bag.
"He's a doctor"
"Oh. That's cool. He must be smarter than you"
She narrowed her eyes. "He's smarter than you"
"Yeah?"
"Taller too"
I laughed. "Okay"
She pulled up her feet, crossing her legs and holding her ankles, rocking gently.
"How long are you gonna stay?"
"Two days"
She pouted suddenly.
"What?"
"Nothing", she said and pursed her lips.
Okay.
She shifted positions again, lying on her stomach with her chin on her palms, elbows propped up on the mattress. Just watched me unpack, eyes following every object. She giggled at the koya pyjama set. I smiled. She took a pillow and placed it under her stomach.
"Did you have breakfast yet?"
"I did, at the dorm. Didn't you?"
"I did. Debby brought me fruits as a farewell gift"
"She really won't be back?"
"Nope", she popped the 'p'. "Says she doesn't need to"
"Well", I said but decided no to continue. If she said she didn't need to, that would mean Nara doesn't require her services any longer. That's good. I looked at the girl. "All for the best, hm?"
She nodded but sighed. "I think I'll miss her"
She definitely will. She confided more in Debby than she did in her own bandmates.
I held her face with both my hands. "It's ok". I leaned to plant a kiss on her head. "You have me right?", I withdrew only to have her drop her head and bury it in the mattress. She let out a pained sound. I poked her arm. "Everything alright?"
The sound intensified.
I chuckled and retreated to place my toothbrush in the bathroom.
Put my clothes in the wardrobe.
Slippers on the mat.
Towels.
"Towels?"
"Should I use yours then?"
"No! Yes? I mean...", she twiddled her thumbs, "if you nant- weent-...arrsh!". She covered her face with her palms.
"Want? need?"
She nodded behind her hands. Slender porcelain hands half covered by sweater sleeves. Pastel. Clean natural nails.
Comfortable.
She showed me photographs. We both lay on our stomachs on her bed as she leafed through a very worn vintage album, most likely out of production today. Photos of her childhood in london, her foster family. Her birthdays till fourteen.
Fancy celebrations, all of them.
"These are only till you were fourteen?"
"Uh-huh"
She flipped a page. "I came to Busan after that"
"Oh", I folded my arms and laid my head on top of them.
"You know..", she drawled, turning back all the pages one by one. "I don't miss them"
I watched her face. She looked calm. At peace. She closed the album shut and smoothed her hands on the cover.
"Your family?"
She nodded. "I thought I would, but...I don't"
She looked at me, eyes searching.
"Okay", I said.
She frowned. "Okay?". Her lips set in a scowl, brows pushing further together. As if she thought I was lying.
As if I could ever lie to her.
I reached out to touch her arm and smiled comfortingly.
"You don't have to feel guilty about it. That part of your life is tied up with other things...your, uh bad memories. Your brain doesn't want to remember them by revisiting that place"
She stared at her hands.
"It's okay, Nara"
She sighed, placing her head down on the closed album, hair falling over her face. And maybe it will never be okay.
But that's okay too.
.
.
"Do you wanna go out?"
"But I wanna cook~", came a muffled voice from between the cabinets.
"Lizzy said you can't cook"
"Allegedly"
I laughed. "Come on. Let me take you somewhere nice"
Nara removed her head and whirled around, dusty spatula in the air.
"After what happened last time? No thank you!"
The tips of her ears were red.
I looked at the ceiling, going through the events in my head.
"It wasn't my fault"
"ItWasn'tYourFault?!", she screeched. "You stole a car!"
"I didn't steal the car, I borrowed it"
"It's called stealing!!"
"I literally asked my manager of thirteen years if I could borrow his car"
"You wore glasses!", she raised the spatula dangerously near to my face.
I leaned back to avoid being hit. "You started the footsie!"
She gasped in horror. "You spilled the wine! I was trying to keep my feet out of the puddle!"
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have dressed up so nice!"
"Maybe you should've left your dimples in the car!"
"Now that's unfair. What about yours, then?"
"Well I Paid The Price, Didn't I?"
I paused. "..what?"
She relaxed, bringing down the spatula. She leveled me with a calm look.
"You plucked them out of my cheeks, remember?"
You, Kim Namjoon, are a screwed, screwed man.
"In the back of the car?", she continued, "...with your lips?"
I unconsciously bit my lip, trying to contain the gallop of my heart.
"Somebody even took a picture and put it on a tabloid", she smiled innocently.
I inhaled deeply. But she wasn't done playing games and snapped her fingers cockily.
"Now, Ramen!"
She turned on her heels and marched deeper into the kitchen.
I followed.
We burnt a pot of water, melted the plastic salt shaker and singed off a good portion of Nara's hair.
.
.
We ordered in and set up the TV while we waited.
"I was thinking"
"hm?"
"maybe we could do this more often"
"This?"
The blue light of the T.V. highlighted her features. She looked so ethereal. So homey.
"Eat together. Have sleepovers", I shifted closer. "I could take you out for dinner. Make out in the car again"
"Burn our dinner", she added.
"Yeah"
Get married. Have children. A little house on the hill. I bit my tongue.
She grinned, but ducked her head shyly. It was a moment before she lifted her head and looked at me again. "We could", she said quietly then in a bout of shyness, turned on her side and rolled away from me. Rolled all the way under the sofa and stayed there.
The bell sounded and I got up to take our order. She still hadn't moved when I came back. The coffee table was broken for some reason, one of it's legs discarded so I could only place the parcel on the sofa. I brought out clean utensils from the kitchen and put them beside the food. Since it didn't look like she was coming out any time soon, I made myself comfortable in front of the television.
"Tell me when you want to eat", I called out, setting up the pillows and lying on my stomach.
She rolled out from under the sofa, freshly cut hair flopping in every direction. She stopped only when she had completely pressed herself to my side, then slowly parted her fingers, peeking from her hands covering her face.
"...cuddle?"
I wordlessly slid down so I could be parallel with the floor and turned on my side. I put an arm around her waist and she snuggled closer into my chest.
I placed my chin on the top of her head.
A little house on the hill.
We slept through dinner.
A/N
Why are you still reading this?