Far Away (Namjin)

Keep Looking

Seokjin was all packed and ready to go. He had the habit of walking around, checking everything before he left any place. On his way out, the old flask caught his eye; the only thing from home he had held on to for the longest time. The only thing he had of Namjoon. He smiled at the flask's direction and stepped out of the door.

The train ride seemed too long for his patience. He thought after all those years of waiting for letters and replies, he would've gotten a bit more patient but he was proven wrong with every second that passed. Having to switch trains in the middle did not help either.
"Wow I never thought we were this far away." He thought to himself.

Hours later, which felt like weeks, the train reached it's destination. The whistle sounded so relieving to Seokjin's ears as well as worrying. Lots of thoughts rushed into his head. "Is anyone going to be there when I stepped off the train? Will it be Namjoon? But I never told him when I'd come. He doesn't even know. Should I have told him? What if this was a prank? What if..."
Seokjin finally dared to step into the station only to find nobody waiting for him. He had Namjoon's invitation in one hand and his old bag in the other.

It was hard to find train tickets that time of the year. He got lucky he could get a ticket for the exact day Namjoon had mentioned in his invitation.

Without wasting any more time, he started walking in the city's streets, asking around about the address he has in his hand. The city Namjoon was studying in was way bigger and way more modern than where Seokjin was. People had fancier clothes and seemed to be more arrogant when you talked to them. Some of them smelled very nice though.

After half an hour of asking around, Seokjin finally found himself at the door of a two story building with the word "Gallery" painted on it's front wall. He had a small flower bouquet in the hand he was holding his bag with. He realized it would be pretty weird to show up after almost four years, having only brought his shy face along.

Seokjin glanced at the address in his hand once more "it wouldn't hurt to double check" he thought to himself, then followed two other people that entered and walked up the stairs of the building. They seemed like intellectuals, why not follow them?!
The chatter sound got louder as he moved up on the short staircase. As he arrived, a young girl, around his age, came to greet him.

"Hello. Welcome. Thank you for coming." She sounded friendly. Not the kind of fake tone that shopkeepers tend to speak to you with only to deceive you into buying more butter. She sounded genuine. Seokjin smiled subconsciously.

"Can I take that off your hands?" The girl pointed at Seokjin's bag

"Oh...yes...if it isn't any trouble"

"Not at all. Can I take that too?" She pointed at the flowers.

"This is actually meant for..."

"It's meant for Namjoon of course." She cut him off quickly. "After all he is the one in charge all of this. I can put those in a vase if you like though."

Seokjin gave up insisting to keep the bouquet. He didn't see anybody else holding some weird supermarket flowers wrapped in a pretty mediocre ribbon. "Okay. Thank you"

He walked into the open door of the gallery. He briefly looked at the paintings hung with short distances from each other on the four walls; but he could admire them later, after he saw what he came here to see; Namjoon's face.
He started overthinking again, how Namjoon's might have changed and how he might not even remember Seokjin, his old friend's face.

Almost sweating from his own stressful thoughts; Seokjin felt like he heard a familiar voice.

"Thank you for coming, it's truly a pleasure."

He looked down from the walls and started looking around in panic. His heart started beating faster eventhough he had been preparing himself for this moment since he got the invitation. "I had this coming" he thought to himself.

The place the gallery was held in was rather big and crowded.

Seokin kept looking.