Bridging Destinies

Chapter 27: Nothing to Be Done

The rest of the day had been tinged with melancholy for Namjoon. He knew that Felina was aware of it, as she often gently touched him along his back, shoulders or arms, or took his hand, weaving her fingers with his as if to reassure him. She would kiss his cheek softly in front of his brothers, or pull him into a room to kiss him breathless and then move out of the room just as quickly. In a way it was exciting, but also frustrating. She tantalized and teased him by her very presence and he wanted her to stay. Knowing that she would be gone from him bothered him much more than he wanted to admit to himself. He guessed that she was keeping him on his toes and distracting him from her inevitable departure and he realized with chagrin that he needed the distraction.

He couldn't believe that he had grown so attached to her so quickly. Though he had previously agreed with her that their closeness was inevitable after thinking about each other for months after their initial meeting, he knew that he didn't really know her from then until now, despite their intimacies. Knowing she was not human was only the surface of things. He wondered if she was a kind of addiction but scoffed at the idea. He was not a person that would succumb easily to addiction. There was an undeniable appeal, though. He knew that she was to him like a fragrance on the wind that he followed because the scent drew him as a bee to a flower and he wanted to sink into her bed of pollen.

When she had left in the mid-afternoon, he had watched as she said goodbye to his band mates, then turned to him, embracing him with a firm kiss on his lips and a gentle word. He noticed the tears in her eyes that she would not allow to fall and pulled her to his body, holding her tightly. He felt her pain, mirrored in her eyes, deep in his heart. He felt as if it was a final goodbye and did not want to let her go. When she finally extricated herself from his arms, he watched her leave and then silently went to his room, locking his door. In passing he told Seokjin, "I am going to nap. I am tired." When he did not come out of his room for dinner, the others were worried and discussed what might have happened.

~~~

Early the next morning, almost certain that Namjoon had not left his room, Yoongi decided Namjoon's isolation was over and knocked on his door, "Hey. Joon-ah. Can I come in? I want to talk." He said through the door. After a space of silence, he continued, "I know you are awake. I can hear music." He waited and after several long moments, Yoongi heard the door unlock, but it remained closed. With a mental shrug he turned the knob and entered the room.

The room was dark and Namjoon sat against his headboard holding a plushie in his arms. The faint light from the window as the dawn grew into day shone through the curtains, casting a gray pallor across the room. There was no indication that Namjoon had stirred from his place, but the bed covers were disturbed, so he assumed the other man had at least slept. Yoongi sat at the side of the bed in silence with his friend, waiting for Namjoon to speak, but when he didn't, he prompted, "So what's going on, Joonah?"

Namjoon sighed and looked at Yoongi, then took a deep breath and blew another out his lips in almost a violent expression of his frustration. "Nothing much." He shrugged, "Lina is gone and I don't know when she will return." He spoke to the other man.

Yoongi watched Namjoon curiously, "But you have her number. You can text or call her, can't you?" He asked, thinking his question was obvious. Namjoon shrugged and tossed the plushy to the side, "I don't know, actually. She said she wouldn't be available much." He explained.

"So you can't talk to her?" Yoongi questioned, then continued his commentary, not waiting for a response, "That's not weird at all." He said dryly, sarcasm tingeing his voice.

Namjoon looked at him with an impatient grimace, but said nothing. When he remained silent, Yoongi asked, "Do you really like her, then? I mean, it's obvious, but you barely know her."

Namjoon snorted through his nose at his friend's comment, "I know, hyung. I know." He pulled his phone from the bedside to look at it, the bright screen lighting up his face. He looked at his notifications but did not see a message from Felina and put his phone face down on the bed. Yoongi waited in silence for his friend to say more, almost feeling an explanation building in the man. When Namjoon finally spoke, appearing to fight internally with himself, Yoongi listened. Namjoon unburdened all of it to his brother, knowing that the man would be a vice, saying nothing, if he asked him to.

When he was done, Yoongi sat in silence for many moments, while Namjoon peered at his friend. When he finally spoke, his words were slow and deliberate, "I knew there was something weird and alien about her." Yoongi ran his hands through his hair as he continued to speak, "But that is much weirder than I expected."

Namjoon laughed without humor and stated, "It was weird for me, too. She does this thing she calls glamour. She hides her true self, so people don't realize she isn't human. I think it's instantaneous, too. She was her true self in front of me, and when Jin came into the room the other night, she was changed again to look more human. I looked away from her to open the door and in the next moment, when I looked back, she was wearing a kind of invisible mask. I wouldn't have known it was a mask if I hadn't seen her true face."

Yoongi grunted in response and pondered, "So do you think she did something at the accident, too? If she can do that, is she able to heal people too? There was a lot of weirdness around the accident and she and her friend were both there."

Namjoon frowned, considering the other man, "Maybe? I never got around to asking that question."

Shifting on the bed, Yoongi grunted again, but said nothing, appearing to be deep in thought. Namjoon allowed the silence to settle between them as he lost himself in his own thoughts. After several moments he spoke again, wanting to exact a promise from his friend, "But hyung, regardless, this needs to stay between us. Okay?" He requested, "It can't get out. She said that if people knew about her kind, it could be dangerous for them."

"So we can't tell the others?" Yoongi asked. When Namjoon shook his head in the negative, Yoongi nodded and assured his brother, "Yeah. I won't say anything. But you come talk to me, if you need to." He instructed the younger man, "Okay?" When Namjoon nodded in agreement, Yoongi felt reassured and patted his brother's shoulder, "We've got a tight schedule today, so I'm going to shower. You are going to be okay?" He asked, making sure Namjoon was back to at least a semblance of himself.

The other man nodded and grabbed his phone, "Ya. I'm good."

Yoongi nodded, not quite sure that Namjoon was as good as he said, but he seemed better, at least and that was something. He patted the other man's shoulder again and left the room, leaving Namjoon to his thoughts.

Namjoon picked his phone up again and looked at it. He opened up the chat function, determined that he would at least let Felina know that she was in his thoughts, even if she did not respond. He typed out, 'I'm thinking of you. I hope you are okay.' He hit send, half glared at his phone for a moment longer, as he stood from the bed, then tossed it back to the bed, when no response was immediately forthcoming. 'Hopefully,' he thought to himself, 'She would respond soon.' But if he were honest with himself, he wasn't sure that would happen, even if he hoped it would.