Mrs. Right

Bicycle Ride

I walked a couple of blocks to the Han River and started to stroll along the riverfront. The cool breeze blew through my hair. I sipped my caramel macchiato and thought back to where the trouble all started. My husband had called it my midlife crisis. I called it finally taking steps to see the world. The memory caused my heart to ache.

I shook my head and brought my mind back to the present, then stopped and turned to look out onto the Han. My eyes grew wet and a tear rolled down my cheek. A man on a bicycle stopped near me and got off of his bike. I looked over and watched him crouch down and inspect his front tire. I quickly wiped the tears off my cheeks hoping he hadn't noticed. Looking back out onto the river, I took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly as if I was blowing through a straw.

"Breathing exercises?" a deep voice asked me in English. I jumped out of my skin. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

I turned my head to acknowledge him. He was standing back upright and looking right down at me. "That's alright." I laughed lightly. "Yes. It's such a beautiful day. I'm taking it all in." He didn't need to know the truth. Remember, Addy, no oversharing this time around.

"Is it flat?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Your tire. I saw you inspecting it. Is it flat?"

He placed his hands on his hips and looked down at the tire. "It's a little low--probably a slow leak. I should be able to make it back to my place." He looked back up and smiled.

There was something familiar about this young man. Did he work at Hybe? His sunglasses shielded his eyes, but his dimples were adorable. He hopped back onto his bike. "Good luck! I hope you make it back home," I smiled back.

"Thank you. Enjoy your breathing exercises. You're right, it's a beautiful day." With that, the young man pushed off, taking his cute dimples with him.

Namjoon POV

My bicycle didn't feel right. I stopped and got off to take a look at the front tire when I heard a strange hissing sound. It wasn't coming from the tire, though. I looked up and saw a woman looking out onto the river. I realized she was exhaling slowly. She was petite and had long, loose strawberry blonde curls. I don't know why, but I was compelled to talk to her. Maybe it was her flushed cheeks. It looked as if she had been crying. I took a wild guess that she spoke English.

"Breathing exercises?" I asked in English. I startled her, making her jump. I quickly apologized and she laughed it off. She confirmed she was doing breathing exercises, but her sunglasses hid her eyes from view, preventing me from getting a read on her. My gut told me there was more to her story.

We engaged in a brief exchange of pleasantries. I don't think she knew who I was. I set back off on my bike to head back home, but she lingered in my mind. She was a bit older, but I still felt an attraction to her. She wasn't skinny, but she was fit and had a nice figure. She had a natural beauty about her, and I could tell she was a kind person. I had interrupted her train of thought, and she allowed me to invade her privacy. She didn't need to engage in a conversation with me, she chose to. I hoped to see her again someday.

The next day I went to the dance studio to work on the choreography for a song we were adding a dance break to. Hobi, Yoongi, and Jin were there, huddled together and looking at Yoongi's phone. Taehyung and Jungkook were bent over laughing and slapping their legs. Jin suddenly let out his loud windshield wiper laugh. Meanwhile, Jimin was off to the side glaring at all of them.

"Namjoon hyung!" Jungkook said. "You've got to see this! Come look at this picture on Yoongi hyung's phone!"

I walked over and grabbed his phone to look at the picture. "So, it's a photo of Jimin's butt. What's so funny about it?" I asked. With that, Taehyung and Jungkook fell to the floor and rolled around laughing.

"Just wait!" said Hobi. Yoongi zoomed out to show it was actually a picture of a woman. I looked closely and my eyes grew wide. It was HER--the woman at the river.

"Guys! I met her!" I said in shock.

"What?!" Jungkook sat up, propping himself up with his hands, his legs sprawled out in front of him.

"When I was out for a ride on my bicycle yesterday, I stopped to check my front tire because it seemed a little low. She was standing near me looking out onto the Han and I started a conversation with her."

"What was she like?" asked Taehyung.

"She was kind. She sounded like she's from the U.S. Actually, I felt kind of bad because I startled her when I talked to her because her back was to me, but she was really nice about it."

"What did you talk about?" Jungkook asked.

"Nothing much." I saw no reason to share the mundane details of our conversation with the guys considering the state they were all in.

"Did she know who you were?" Hobi asked.

"I don't think so. She seemed a bit . . . preoccupied."

"Tell them, Namjoon. Jibooty looks really good on her, doesn't it?" Yoongi smirked. The others all burst out laughing with the exception of Jimin, whose face had turned bright red.