ENCHANTED, kim namjoon

vi. the life that i have

VI. THE LIFE THAT I HAVE

With her sitting right behind him, Namjoon pedaled through the streets of Vienna.

Even though they were on a bike, that never hindered the flow of their seemingly endless conversation. The boy went slow, pointing at posters, and spoke with her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Baram took a while to get comfortable behind him, but after a few minutes, she grew used to it and went back to her usual talkative self.

The streets were dimly lit, but their presence shined through the dark of the night. It wasn't late, so it was inevitable that they encountered people who would gaze after them as they would pass by them on the street. The stares were nothing but blurred images to them, both too engrossed in their own little world to bring themselves to care.

"If there was a place you would have visited here if we got here sooner, which one would you have gone to?" Namjoon asked.

She tightened her grip on the back of his jacket as she thought of an answer. "If I had to choose only one, it'd be the Austrian National Library. Something about libraries excites me. Have you ever thought about how we're looking at the same moon that some of the greatest artists in history stared at? It's the same feeling for me when I enter old libraries. There's always that lingering question at the back of my mind. 'How many minds as curious as mine ran their fingers along the spines of these old books?'"

He smiled, slowing to a stop in front of a wide set of stairs that led up to a church. Maria am Gestade was the name of the church, if he wasn't mistaken. Turning back to Baram, he raised his eyebrows to silently ask her if she wanted to go inside. She nodded and got off the bike so they could climb up the steps while Namjoon hovered the front slightly so he could go up the stairs with ease.

"Old libraries are beautiful, but they remind me a lot of the Library of Alexandria, especially the, like, really old ones," he stated, eliciting a quiet hum from Baram. "Imagine yourself walking through there with an insatiable hunger for a certain piece of information and find yourself diverging from that topic because you saw something about time travel or something."

"You want to learn about time travel?"

Namjoon shrugged, "Doesn't everyone? If I had a time machine, I would go back in time to that one time my little brother was adopted. He walked in with our parents and I was just in my underwear. I was young and stupid and I wasn't overly fond of how much he got along with our big brother. I looked up to my older brother a lot and it used to make me jealous of how his attention was always on my little brother."

"So you acted like an evil stepsister from Cinderella?"

He laughed, shaking his head, "It was more like I ignored his existence entirely, only interacting with him when I had to. Wish I didn't, though. It was like that for three months after he was adopted. Turns out he looked up to me more than I ever have to my older brother. He always asked my parents about my achievements and awards, and he kept telling them how he'll work hard just to be cool enough to be my baby brother."

Baram placed a hand over her heart and pouted, "That's freaking adorable."

Amused by her censorship of the swear word because they were standing before a church, Namjoon laughed. She smiled back at him with a sheepish smile as he went on to lean the bike just inside the wall. There was no one else in sight outside the church, so it was safe to say that the rented bike had low chances of getting stolen.

"I mean, we're in front of a church," Namjoon started, staring at the bike, "Surely no one would be so heartless to steal in front of a church, right?"