home at last

xvi

Namjoon slowly took a bite of his rice, staring at Naeun, waiting for her to make eye contact with her. Her foot has been rapidly tapping the ground for almost ten minutes now, about the same amount of time her food has sat in front of her, untouched. Namjoon looked her up and down, able to tell she was hungry, but still, not eating.

That smell that Namjoon smelt on her earlier hasn't gotten any better. Namjoon may even dare to say it's gotten worse as time went by. It eased up during the banquet and speech part, but now with no presentations or, something big to focus on, it's gotten worse.

"The food is really good, Naeun." Namjoon finally spoke up, Naeun looking up at him quickly. "Why don't you eat?"

"I-I, uhm..." Naeun blinked several time, clearly frazzled about something. "I just..." Naeun reached for her glass of water.

Namjoon watched as her hand stopped just an inch from her glass, her hand quickly retreating back to her lap. His eyes went to her lips, watching her lick them again, trying to moisturize the chapped skin. Namjoon looked down at his food, the food he was really enjoying. But once his eyes looked back up at Naeun, he knew his decision was final.

Namjoon stood up and offered his hand to Naeun. "Do you want to walk around campus? I'd like to talk about the possibility of attending here in person next week."

"Yes." Naeun practically jumped out of her seat, hooking her arm with Namjoon's, leading them to the exit. "Thank you so much." Naeun thanked the dog hybrid as they passed him. "Everything was absolutely wonderful. We really enjoyed it."

"My pleasure." He bowed a little, waiting for them to leave before going to their table and cleaning up what they left behind.

"Naeun, are you okay?" Namjoon stopped their walk as soon as they got outside. He turned towards her, holding her hands, making eye contact with her. "You don't smell okay and you are definitely acting differently. You can tell me anything. I'm really worried."

"I'm just a little flustered from last night." Naeun lied, smiling up at him. "My date was pretty crazy and the date went all crazy and I overslept, I overslept a lot and that threw me for a loop, like, a big loop. And I haven't been paying as much attention to you as I should've been and that's really shitty of me and... yeah." Naeun sighed. "I'm really sorry. I don't want to ruin this day. This is such a big day for you."

Namjoon just stared down at Naeun. 'She's speaking so differently. She's usually so cool and composed and now she's repeating herself and using really basic vocabulary, just like when she was speaking with Mrs. Lin. She's lying to me. I know it.' Namjoon just smiled as well. 'I'm not going to get anywhere with her like this.' "You're not ruining a thing. I'm just so lucky to be here with you."

"You're so sweet, Namjoon." Naeun hooked her arm with him, turning towards the rest of campus. "Let's walk around and you can tell me about your schedule and attending college in person."

"I would love to."

–

Naeun nodded to herself as she looked at the photos Daeho had sent her. In the photo, her entire kitchen was in several trashbags. All of the food that could've been poisoned was now gone and away from her kitchen. Daeho had done everything Naeun had texted him to do.

He and his team purged her kitchen. They got rid of every bit of food and disinfected every possible surface. Then they replaced everything they trashed. Completely new food. Not contaminated food. Not poisoned food. Naeun was safe with this food.

Naeun blinked several times, looking down at the recipe she held in her hands. 'I can't even comprehend this.' Naeun shifted her weight, her feet killing her. "Uhm," Naeun glanced up at Namjoon, the lion hybrid holding two whisks and wearing an apron, standing at the ready. "Namjoon," Naeun smiled sheepishly, lowering the recipe. "Do you mind if I lay down for a little bit? I need to just recollect myself from last night and from the little tour we went on. It shouldn't take longer than thirty minutes."