Before I knew you

You Can Buy

"That was delicious!"

As they walked out of the restaurant, Myla was a little disappointed when she looked over at Namjoon and he was covered back up in his hat and mask.

"I'm glad you liked it."

"Dessert?"

Myla held her breath as she waited for his answer. As much as she loved dessert, her motivation behind asking was that she wanted to spend more time with him. They had spent dinner discussing art and Namjoon's passion and insight made her feel like a bad artist, but she enjoyed listening to him talk. He was so eloquent.

"Sure. Do you have somewhere in mind?"

"Umm... do you like pancakes?"

"Lead the way."

She led him through the busy streets of London unaware of his slight nervousness as he kept his head down. They reached a small side street which had a Japanese soufflé pancake cafe.

"I'll buy this time."

"You don't have to. I -"

"You insisted on paying for dinner, so I'm getting dessert, okay?"

Although she couldn't see his smile she could see the amusement in his eyes. He nodded his head.

"Okay."

As the cafe was small but popular, there were no empty seats so they decided to take their dessert and find a quiet place to sit and eat.

"How long are you in London for?"

"Only two more days."

Myla's eyes widened.

"Two days?"

"Yes, then I'm going back to Korea - for work."

"Oh... have you enjoyed your time here? You said you've been to London before, right?"

"Yes, but only briefly. I didn't have much time to explore."

"And this time?"

Namjoon let a big sigh and smiled.

"It's been much more relaxing."

"Good. What are your plans for your last two days?"

"See some more landmarks, visit a few more museums. What, um, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"I should probably get some work done."

"Was today your day off?"

"I'm a freelancer, so I make my own hours, and work when I want. Every so often I like to have a gallery day and do some drawing just for drawing sake, you know?"

"That sounds nice. Being able to take a break whenever you want."

"Hm, but if I get really immersed in a project I can go weeks without taking a day off."

"I can understand that feeling."

"Yeah? What do you do?"

"Oh, er, I produce music."

"Really? That's so cool!"

Namjoon nodded along, but quickly changed the subject. He felt bad for deceiving her, for not telling her the whole story, but he longed for just one more day of normalcy.

"So, do you have a lot of work to do tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"I was hoping to enjoy your company again."

"Oh, I, er -"

"You don't have to. It's wrong of me to ask you to take another day off for my sake."

"No, that's not, I mean, I'd like to. Join you. Tomorrow."

"Yeah? Awesome."

They smiled at each other shyly before focusing back on their dessert. Before parting ways they made plans to meet up the next day. Each of them left with the thoughts filled of the other and anticipation of seeing each other again.