By The Han River - Kim Namjoon

November

There she is once again.

The light breeze plays with your hair. Your shoulders curved inwards, too focused as you're scribbling down on an old notebook that lays delicately on your lap. Your hand holds a thin pencil that dances around your fingers, your eyes focused on the piece of paper you were working on, frowning every time the evening sun met your focused eyes.

Namjoon has never seen something so beautiful in his entire life.

He steals glances every time he finishes a verse of his book, thinking how he can make every word he reads about you. I'll bring a less complicated book tomorrow, he tells himself as he sighs frustrated. He realises he's absorbing nothing from the philosophy book between his hands.

Every day for the past week, Namjoon has been sitting by the Han River to read all of his favourite books, enjoying the last few weeks of fall before the cruel winter came and made it impossible to go out and enjoy the weather. The first day he came to the park, he sat down on the long bench and looked around before diving into his book, but that's when he saw you.

He spotted you sitting right across from him, the quiet stream river putting distance between you. You were drying your tears as you held your phone to your ear, sobbing quietly as you mumbled words he wishes he could have heard.

He couldn't understand how someone so beautiful could look so broken, so sad. Your tears made him feel like he was experiencing sadness for the first time, overwhelmed by the sight of you.

All he could wonder about was about the reason behind your tears and if he could somehow make it better.

You were a complete stranger, and he was certain he has never seen you around in the last six years he has been coming to this park. So, where did you come from?

Suddenly, your teary eyes send a sharp ache to his heart when his worried hazel gaze meets yours. Namjoon's face turns pale and his mouth dry. He is scared of moving, scared that it could somehow make you more upset. You eyes met for a little longer than a minute as you kept speaking on the phone, yet he refused to move. He blinked a couple of times, frozen in place as he focused his eyes on your lips.

I'll call you later, Namjoon could decipher that last sentence from your lips before you hanged up the phone, drying your tears and standing up quickly. You started walking long steps towards the exit of the park, leaving him with a million questions.

Who are you? Where did you come from?

Why were you so upset?

Why did you leave so suddenly?

Did he scare you?

He kept asking himself all these questions as he biked back home, determined to go back to the park the next morning with a different goal than usual.This time his goal wasn't to read, but to see you again.

And he succeeded.

There you were the next day, sitting on the same bench you've been seating everyday for the past week. He knew that every time the sun tinted the sky with shades of red, and it blended the day with the night, he would be able to find you sitting on that bench until the colours mixed into a beautiful purple sky that for some reason reminded him of you.

You are now looking at him, his stream of thoughts interrupted when he sees your lips curve into a smile. Were you smiling at him?! 

He gathered some courage and waved at you, a half smile appearing on his lips.