The Ringleader | knj

52

"Seoyeon?" a muffled voice rang in my head. I decided to ignore it and nuzzle up closer to my sheets.

"Seoyeon!" it rang louder, this time a faint shadowy hand accompanying it as it waved in front of my face.

"WAKE UP!"

I bolted upright, startled by an already dressed Namjoon that was casually peering over me and my drool-covered face.

"Ah, you're up! Good morning," he smiled up at me. I groaned as I noticed the skyline was still an orangey pinky colour.

"You said my flight would be at dusk, not dawn!" I lazily rubbed my eyes, awaiting an explanation for the unnecessary disturbance of my sleep.

"Yeah but there's something we need to do before that," he said, crouching down besides me.

"What's that?" I raised an eyebrow, yawning a little.
He chuckled tapping his nose.

"Just get ready quickly and you'll see. I've already put your bags in the trunk so just focus on changing," he said, quickly jogging past me. I smacked myself in the head with a pillow as I groaned loudly.

Great, just my luck that Kim Namjoon happened to be a morning person.

"Chop chop!" I heard him call from downstairs and I wearily began to run my eyes and stretch out my arms.

After getting ready I quietly tiptoed downstairs so not as to wake Namjoon's sleeping relatives and began to silently walk around the house in attempts to try and find where he had gone.

However, something else on the mantle piece caught my eye instead.

It was a collection of photographs, all of which appeared to be Namjoon's aunts prized memories of her and her children.

I smiled as I recognised a small boy in one of them, two cute little dimples in his small cheeks as he stared merrily in front of the camera, a little baseball cap upon his neatly combed hair and cute little sandals placed upon his feet.

Namjoon as a kid.

He used to be so happy back then; so carefree and cheerful.
My smile slightly faded, realising that the poor child in the photographs had no idea that the future would bombard him with such hardships and roughness.

"That was when we went to Disney land," a quiet voice whispered besides me. I turned around to see Namjoon smiling brightly as he delved back down memory lane to when that photograph was first taken.

"You looked so adorable as a kid," I smiled, making him chuckle.
"Yeah but my fashion sense was very questionable back then," he laughed, pointing out the problematic combination of socks and sandals he was wearing in the photo.

I laughed, a big smile upon my face as I watched him smile back at his past.

Hopefully one day, he could smile back at his current present, and see it as a past he'd finally managed to overcome.

"Let's get going then," Namjoon said and I nodded, slowly following him out of the front door and into the car.

The journey was silent for a while, the mystical colours of the dawn sky making me stare in awe as the car turned down various roads and streets. The serenity within the atmosphere was so comforting, the softness of the early morning breeze brushing against my face as we drove down the deserted highway up ahead of us.

I yawned a little, remembering that I hadn't really managed to get much sleep last night.

"It's going to take some time to get there so catch up on sleep in the mean time," Namjoon murmured whilst keeping his eyes closely fixed upon the road. I took his suggestion greatly, and rested my eyes for a while.