CHAPTER NINE - MISPLACED FOCUS
AS A CHILD, Namjoon had always been told by his mother that he needed to let people have their space. It was a difficult concept for his young mind to wrap around. He liked to talk to people. He loved asking questions, even if the person he asked happened to be a complete stranger. Was there something wrong with that?
Growing older, he had begun to take his mother's advice to heart. Maybe too much so; now, he could barely ask a pretty barista what her name was even after waiting for months to build up the courage.
After hearing Nouri's explanation of why she had such an infatuation with Seokjin, Namjoon felt guilty. If only he himself had mustered up the guts to just simply ask how her day had been going, she wouldn't have felt lonely all that time.
Maybe then, she'd like him as much as he liked her.
If only he had talked to her sooner. Why did he wait?
Each time he had walked into that shop where she worked, he had wanted to say something to her – something other than his drink order. Yet he had been focused too much on himself, and what might happen to him if he said anything to her at all.
He didn't know that she felt alone – so alone that she developed a crush on someone she barely knew, simply because he took the time to talk to her.
He was envious of Seokjin's open nature.
And he felt guilty because he had done nothing to help Nouri when she felt so isolated.
"Namjoon, come on! The taxi's here – we've got to go!"
He jolted out of his thoughts. Nouri stood in front of him, eyes full of anxiety as she held the taxi door open for him.
There was another thing his mother had always told him. He never seemed to focus on the right things at the right time.
He knew that this bit advice hadn't stuck quite as well, because here he was, wondering why he had been too nervous to talk to a girl he liked when, only a few miles away, another abduction had just occurred.
He apologized to Nouri and scrambled into the backseat of the cab. He scooted over to the farthest seat to make room for her, and within a few moments she was sitting beside of him and had given the driver their destination.
"Do you think this abduction is linked to the other one? The one on the bus?" She rubbed her throat, leaning forward to stare out the front windshield, almost as if she expected to catch sight of the criminal from her seat.
"I'm not sure, Yoongi didn't say We shouldn't make any assumptions yet." Namjoon felt his heart rate quicken. He hoped that this wasn't linked – that it was some type of crazy coincidence that another abduction had happened so close to the first.
Because if it wasn't a coincidence, then he and Nouri had gotten themselves into something far more dangerous than they had bargained for.
He watched as she practically clawed her throat, nails scraping over the skin. Brows furrowed, he wondered if this was something she did when her nerves struck. Regardless, it only served to make his anxiety sky rocket, so before he could even think properly about what he was doing, his hand had reached out and grabbed hers. When he pulled it away from her neck, he could see red lines down her pale skin. He grimaced.
Her hand was sweaty, but he didn't mind. He held it tightly, eyes locked onto hers with as much assurance as he could muster. "Nouri. It's going to be fine, okay?"
She took a deep breath and nodded. He expected her to pull away after that, but to his surprise, she squeezed his hand a bit and didn't let go.
In spite of the circumstances, he almost smiled.
The cab came to a stop as close to the university as possible. There was a lot of commotion that surrounded the area – police cars, ambulances, frightened civilians. Namjoon paid the driver and followed Nouri out on her side of the car. Once they were finally standing on the sidewalk, staring straight at all of the chaos before them, the grave reality of the situation began to sink in.
He felt sick to his stomach. Beside him, Nouri breathed shakily and stood close to him. Her shoulder pressed against him, and he could feel her trembling. He looked down at her and was able to see the unease in her expression. Without hesitating, he extended his arm to her. She quickly held onto it with both hands and pulled even closer to him.
"Sorry," she said quietly. She glanced up at him and tried to force a smile.
"Don't be," he said. "To be honest, I'm scared too. So, this is just as much of a help to me as it is to you," he explained, referring to her hold on his arm.
She laughed lightly at that, and some of the tension dissolved from her posture. "Thanks Namjoon. You really are a good guy."
He tried to hide the blush on his cheeks by turning his face aside. Luckily for him, a distraction came rushing towards them at the right moment in the form of a sprinting Yoongi, with Hoseok not far behind him.
"Yoongi!" Namjoon called, rushing forward while Nouri kept pace beside of him, still latched to his arm. Yoongi and Hoseok stopped running towards them, panting to catch their breath.
"You guys made it. Good," Yoongi said after taking a moment to compose himself. "We have a serious problem."
"Well I mean I assumed so. There's been another abduction," Namjoon said.
Yoongi glared at him, shutting him up.
"What Yoongi meant to say was that we have a much more serious problem than we originally thought," Hoseok explained, serving as a mediator like always.
"How could this possibly be any worse than we thought?" Nouri asked with wide eyes. "It's a pretty grave situation already, Hoseok."
Yoongi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. Namjoon could practically feel the stress radiating off of his friend.
"Yeah, well that's what we thought too, Nouri," Yoongi said. "But it's worse because of who the victim was."
"Who was it?" Namjoon asked, fear beginning to slowly clutch his heart.
"She was another member of the group you two were part of that went out to the arboretum that day of the first abduction," Yoongi said.
"So, it's possible that the two crimes are linked then?" Nouri asked, her voice small.
"We aren't certain yet," Hoseok explained. He and Yoongi began walking towards the scene, gesturing for the other two to follow. They did, sticking close to them and listening to Hoseok's words. "It is likely though. Witnesses are describing something very similar to the bright light that you all talked about after the last incident."
"And there were also gunshots," Yoongi added. "The victim was in her car about to drive off when her tires were shot, and then the light came, and then she was gone. Very close to what happened the other day."
"If it was the same person," Namjoon started, his eyes lingering on Nouri, "does that mean they're targeting the girls from our group?"
"Like I said, we aren't certain," Hoseok said. They all stopped walking once they had reached the yellow caution tape that marked off the crime scene.
"But, if we were to assume off the records – I'd say it's more likely than not that all of those girls are in possible danger." Hoseok glanced at Nouri, his eyes that were usually filled with sparkle seeming dim and fearful. "Including you, Nouri."
Namjoon gulped. Nouri's grip on his arm grew tighter.
He wanted to get her out of there, right then. It was clearly no longer safe for her to be involved in this – she was a possible target of a serial kidnapper, or worse. After all, they still had no information about whoever the culprit was. They didn't even know if the missing girls were still alive. He knew then more than ever before that they were way out of their league in this situation.
"I need some water." Nouri's voice was breathy and strained. The sweat that beaded across her forehead was out of place in the somewhat chilly night air. Fixed upon the car with its doors flung open, parked just beyond the bright yellow tape, her eyes were round with what could only be defined as fear as they took in the sight of blood stains all over the fabric of the driver's seat. She took a stumble backwards, her hands slipping off of Namjoon's arm.
He reached for her, not sure why she looked so sick all of a sudden but ready to help her without question. Hoseok, however, beat him to it – his arm wrapped around her shoulders and he began pulling her away.
"Let's go get something to drink, okay Nouri?" Hoseok began guiding her away, but not before Namjoon heard him quietly tell her, "It's okay – I felt sick during my first crime scene as well."
When the two of them had walked away, probably off to find some bottled water, Namjoon heard Yoongi sigh beside of him.
"You okay?" Namjoon asked.
The elder shook his head. His hand slid down his face, eyes full of exhaustion.
"It's a mess," he said with another shake of his head. "Namjoon, this could be way worse than we originally thought. This investigation – it's going to be much bigger than the four of us. Heck, I don't even know if you and Nouri should still be involved at all."
Just as Namjoon was about to agree, something caught his eye. He squinted, kicking a small shiny object lightly with the toe of his sneakers. He bent down and gasped slightly when he realized what it was.
"What are you looking at?" Yoongi asked. He crouched down next to Namjoon, who pointed at the silver coin.
Yoongi huffed, poking it gently with his thumb. "It's just a coin, Namjoon."
"Not just any coin," Namjoon countered. "It's a foreign coin – a Japanese yen coin, to be exact."
Still confused and somewhat unimpressed, Yoongi shrugged. "And?"
Namjoon reached into his pocket and closed his fingers around another round object – the coin from the scene of the first kidnapping. He held it out for his friend to see.
"Nouri and I found this – another piece of Japanese currency at the first crime scene. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but . . ."
Yoongi glanced back and forth between the coin in Namjoon's hand and the one on the ground, a small smile on his lips. "This . . . could be vital," he said quietly. His smile faded all at once, though, and his head snapped up, eyes locked accusingly on Namjoon's.
"You idiot! You weren't supposed to touch any of the evidence!"
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A bit of a shorter one this time guys - sorry if it's a tad boring! Things are about to start picking up pace, so stay tuned! I'm excited for you guys to see where this story goes.
Thanks for reading! Question: how do you guys feel about the way I write Namjoon? As this is an AU, and this is not an actual representation of the real Kim Namjoon, he is my own character. I'm still interested in what you guys think of him, so please, leave a comment! Advice is welcome ♡