LUMINESCENCE | K.NJ ✓

IX - MISPLACED FOCUS

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.