Book 1: The Magic Shop | A Jeon Jeongguk BTS Fan Fiction (Completed)

Nira

Jeongguk looked back at the door. The flip sign indicated that the cafe was open for business, but she was once again nowhere in sight. He walked in and knocked on the counter. Still no answer. Except for the radio playing, there was no sign of life. Seriously, he thought, this girl will easily get robbed.

He decided to walk up to the wall with all the notes, drawings, and photographs, willing to wait until she returned. They must be family photos, he thought. Many of the pictures show the same people through time. In the older ones were a couple. There were several of them with a little boy. The little boy was older in some of the photos and in others, the same boy was a man with his wife and a baby girl. There were more of the girl in colored pictures. "Nira's first recital, age 4" one of them read. Maybe this is her, he thought, studying the baby's eyes closer if it resembled the counter girl's.

The little girl in the picture was in a ballet suit and a tutu. Cute. Jeongguk smiled to himself. He then took note of the different sketches and paintings. There was also intimate portraiture of different people in the photographs, but none seem to be of the little girl in the tutu in later years. His eyes then settled on the tiger lily - a white lily looking upward, alone in a sea of bright orange lilies facing in different directions. He remembered noticing it the first time he entered the Magic Shop. 

Beside it was a framed mirror. His reflection caught his eye and he looked at himself before he noticed an inscription at the bottom. It read: "You can be whoever you want to be."

"My grandfather used to say that to me all the time," the girl's familiar voice said from behind him. "He wrote it there so I will remember every time I looked at the mirror."

He turned to greet her. "Did you draw this?" he asked pointing to the flower, a little embarrassed that he was caught looking at the collection of artwork and photos on the wall. She nodded and looked up at him. Thankfully, she didn't seem bothered. 

 "A self-portrait," she said. He studied her at that moment. She had one foot in front of the other resting as she swayed turning her body at the hip. Realizing he was staring too long, he pointed to the little dancer in the photos. "Is this you?" She nodded again. He was expecting her to ask his name but she did not. Instead, she walked back to the counter. He followed. When she turned back to face him, he stepped up and reached out his gloved hand. "My name is Jake," he said.

She tilted her head sideways slightly, her eyes looked as if she was trying to make out the rest of his face behind the mask. She realized he was nervously holding his breath while waiting for her to respond. She hesitantly stretched out her hand and shook his. "Annyeonghaseyo. I'm Nira-eyo. It's nice to meet you." She replied. They asked each other's age and found they were the same.  She slightly crinkled her nose as she always does when she is being playful... "So what will you have today, Jake-ssi?" she asked. 

-----

The van was waiting at the end of the block as usual. He took his time walking up to the van knowing that once the door opened, the spell would be broken. It was an amazing day. When he decided to hide his identity, he did not expect it would also give him the sense of freedom to be relaxed and comfortable around someone other than his fellow members and staffers. It was a nice feeling. He remembered the inscription on the mirror. He felt it gave him the permission he needed to be whoever he wanted to be in The Magic Shop. Today, he became Jake.

He was able to tell her about himself this time. They talked about their interests and he had shown Nira some of the footage he had taken from windows and car rides. He liked capturing strangers walking by. He wondered where they were going and what their lives were like. He wondered about who they were meeting and where they were headed. He didn't have much of that growing up. "I feel the same way about looking into people's apartment windows when I'm on the bus." she said without looking at him. "It's like standing in front of a hundred TVs, doesn't it?" He smiled. Yes, it was just like that for Jeongguk.

When he debuted at a very young age, he traded quiet anonymity for the chance at his dream, and he reached it when people his age were just about to try and make something of their lives. Behind the windows, behind the lens, he was removed from that scene of everyday life, but today he was in a scene of his own. If anyone was looking through the window, they would only find a regular boy in a quiet cafe laughing with the girl behind the counter.