Lingering Eyes: KNJ

PART 1

Y/n POV

Lingering eyes. That's the first time you noticed it. The restaurant in the arcade with your older brother, Yoongi, and his best friend, Namjoon. They had just come home for the summer from college, and you all went out to find a little fun. Under neon lights and music that played just a little too loud for your taste, your brother and his best friend's faces were illuminated by shades of blues, greens, and pinks.

As you reached for another piece of greasy cheese pizza, you noticed Namjoon staring at you. You blinked it away and downed the slice, but as the waitress refilled your water, more lingering eyes. Those eyes that you found familiarity in all your life. This look, though, you'd never seen this look.

You'd known him as long as you could remember as he was Yoongi's childhood best friend, but his gaze had always been playful and lighthearted, glancing past you during games of Monopoly or when you ran into each other in your kitchen. But this was different. Different than it ever had been before. That night at the arcade, his thin stare remained on you in a distinct way that you simply didn't recognize. Lingering eyes.

You hadn't thought too much of it that night. You'd thought Namjoon was cute and everything, but he was always just Yoongi's best friend, never anything more. He was like a second older brother, but the more you thought about it, he was everything you'd want in a man. Kind, generous, funny, and incredibly handsome. Now that you were older, maybe, in your pre-sleep fantasies at least, he could look at you as more than just Yoongi's bubbly younger sister.

But you shook those thoughts away as unrealistic. The way you thought he had looked at you was all in your head. The dim lighting of the arcade created the illusion of the heavy-lidded stare.

But then it happened again. This time it was in your backyard, your friends along with Yoongi and Namjoon all huddled around a bonfire. The summer air was sticky, and you didn't like sweating, so you leaned back away from the flames while everyone pressed forward to roast their marshmallows. From over the orange licks of heat, you sensed his stare. Dark and dim yet subtle all the same.

You looked up to meet his gaze. Your first instinct was to immediately look away, but something about his peer made you keep the eye contact. After a few moments, much longer than you ever would have held with anyone else, his eyebrow raised slightly. He looked amused.

Burning under his observance, you looked down to your palms. Soon enough your name was brought up in the conversation with your friends, forcing you to join the group's discussion. The rest of the night was a cat and mouse game of feeling his eyes on you, looking to him, and him glancing elsewhere. It was frustrating, but now you knew it wasn't in your head.

That night, you stood on your driveway in the early June heat and waved goodbye to your friends. Barefoot, you wrapped your arms around yourself and turned back for the house. About to walk through the front door, you realized you had forgotten your phone in the backyard.

You walked through the freshly trimmed grass into the back and made it to the firepit before picking up your phone from your chair. For just a moment, you stopped and looked down at the simmering embers. Still bearing a touch of glowing color, the ash and scraps of wood crackled as the heat slowly went out.

"You got new friends while I was gone."

Startled by the voice, you whipped around. Namjoon stood several feet away and you quickly wondered how he managed to sneak up on you. You swallowed looking the tall man up and down. He had obviously started going to the gym while he was away at school. It showed in all the best kinds of ways and places.

"Well, Joonie, someone had to keep me company while my two big bros were off in college."

He chewed on the inside of his cheek without the trace of a smile. You wondered if you had done something to upset him.

"Who was that boy?" he asked looking up from the ground.

There was that stare again. Shadowy and inky, you couldn't quite make out the whites of his eyes as he glared you down. You were surprised by the question but didn't think much of it.

"Sam? He's just a friend. I'm allowed to have them y'know."

His eyebrows raised in a kind of surprised manner, but his sarcastic tone made it clear the astonishment was fabricated.

"Really? The way he was looking at you all night made me think you guys had a thing. Practically undressing you with his eyes," he scoffed, breaking his stare and looking off behind you.

You blushed and glanced down at your feet. You hadn't lied, Sam was just a friend, but it made you feel a funny, jittery way knowing Namjoon took note of it enough to confront you. The hints of interest on his part gave you confidence.

"Is that jealousy, Joonie? That's a new look on you," you teased.

With your joke, his expression lightened a little, but there was still seriousness shrouding his words. "I just don't want to see you fall into the hands of the wrong guy, Y/n," he chuckled.

"And Sam was the wrong guy?" He was silent at your response, so you decided to stop poking fun at him. You started to walk towards the house, right past him. Brushing his shoulder as he stood still, you put his mind at ease. "Like I said, just a friend."

You thought you heard him say "good" as you slipped in the back door, but you couldn't be sure.

After washing the smell of bonfire smoke off yourself in the shower, you laid in bed and thought of Namjoon. His question were odd, and you didn't quite know what to make of them. Maybe he really was just worried about his best friend's younger sister falling into the grips of a bad boyfriend, but maybe there was more truth behind his reasoning.

Wrapping yourself in your comforter, your mind began to wonder to a place it hadn't before. You imagined his arms snaking around your torso. You thought of how it would feel if he pressed kisses down your neck, or how warm he would be if he slept next to you. You bit your lip and knew if Yoongi found out about these thoughts you were having; he would kill you. Or Namjoon. Or both.

You couldn't get him out of your head, though. Just the way he carried himself made you melt into a pool of mush. His big hands could mold you like putty, and you absolutely longed for them to.

You'd never thought of Namjoon this way. Never. But now that was the only way you could think of him.