Louder than Bombs | KNJ

The College Years

~9 years ago~

Lara Jeon worried about her big sister a little. She'd never seen her sister so happy and radiant. Lara and Namjoon talked a lot about Jin and Ginny, each of them expressing worries that if something happened, it could end poorly.

Lara had found Namjoon to be a bit off-putting the first time she had been introduced at a friend of Jin and Ginny's house party. Afterall, Namjoon had managed to spill his drink down Lara's dress and then had tripped over himself trying to get her a towel. Which had knocked Lara into Blair, who had fallen into Yoongi and split both of their drinks as well.

But Namjoon had spent the rest of the night, following Lara around the party, trying to think up new ways to apologize. Finally, to get him to stop, Lara had inched up, onto her tiptoes, and kissed him.

Joon had taken the kiss barely moving to breathe in case he disturbed Lara and caused her to stop. Then leaned back a bit and scrunched up his eyes like he was contemplating something deeply. He'd set his cup down on a nearby cupboard, then taken her cup from her hand and set it down as well.

Then he'd thrust his fingers into her hair and cupped her head and the nape of her neck drawing her closer.

"Why don't you come here and try that again when I'm paying attention," he'd whispered against her lips. His lips tasted hers, then went back again for seconds and thirds until Lara wasn't sure that Namjoon was nearly as clumsy as he'd pretended to be before. She wasn't even sure of her own name, everything about his kiss caused her brain to blur slightly. His kiss had eventually caused Lara to moan into his mouth involuntarily, embarrassing her as she heard her own voice. Joon had merely hummed and pressed her closer until her arms wound around his waist, but he didn't stop kissing her all the while.

When he'd let her up for air, gasping a little himself, he'd leaned back and looked down at her. Lara, unable to do much at all except stare back at him wide eyed and blinking, until finally he'd just grinned at her. Lara shook her head a little.

"So, you're only sometimes clumsy," she murmured making him laugh out loud.

He'd leaned down again and drew another kiss from her and then stood up and handed her back her drink.

"Only in certain occasions. Other things, I have well under control," he said with a teasing grin. Then he picked up his drink and nearly walked into the wall trying to get out of the kitchen, making Lara laugh until she cried. They'd been together ever since.

Namjoon had started his university career in criminal justice thinking that he would become a public servant like millions of other Koreans and had quickly found that he didn't like the idea of being bogged down in constant paperwork. So, in the middle of his freshman year, he made a shift from criminal justice to business management. At least the paperwork had a meaning here, and it was applicable to a lot of different jobs.

He picked up courses in art appreciation and art history, dragging Lara to every gallery opening he could find.

Lara adored this side of Joon. On the outside, he was so much taller than she was and by the start of their second semester, Namjoon had seemed to realize exactly what the weight room in the gym was for. Within a few months, he transformed from her Namjoon, tall, gangly, clumsy AF, into this beast mode of a man, who was exquisitely careful around her. While Lara certainly appreciated the changes when they could get some alone time, the number of girls she had to convince to back off from her Joonie was a bit much.

Those girls just saw that he was buff as hell. They only saw the muscles and not the brain that was inside. Sometimes, when they found an out of the way park bench next to the river, and he would lay his head in her lap. Namjoon would read out loud to Lara from one of the books on philosophy or art history that he was studying this week, which made Lara just close her eyes and smile. And to say Lara took absolute delight in the idea that none of those other girls knew that Joon preferred to spend his time outdoors and away from people, or on art walks through the city was something she held to herself. That was just for her and Namjoon, and no one else.