Blaze

Discovered

~_____~

Namjoo would be up in less than four hours, but even as she lay in bed she couldn't find sleep. A bright hue was floating in from the moon's shine, but as her left cheek hit the cold pillow she saw an image of Kris sleeping on the empty space to her left. It had disturbed her for a week when the thought entered her mind, but she felt like it was nothing new now.

Her mind remained blank with data, but heavy with weight. Namjoo sighed at the thought of the jobs assigned to her on the team and from Donghae and her secrets with Suho. The urgent promise to find Hyukjae before Donghae could locate him remained at first priority in her mind. Then along with it, worries about Tao and his overwhelming emotions for her stabbed its way into her head.

Tao liked her, she knew that. He'd said it again to her, but she didn't know how to reply to him. Deep within she knew he was a good person, but she didn't know what else. Donghae wanted her to take care of Tao because he believed she had to ability to. Namjoo didn't know where this belief stemmed from nor could she defy Donghae. He'd taken care of her ever since she started working under him and Namjoo owed him for that too. Then Kris was the other bigger problem.

Namjoo was a bit worried. Her period hadn't come at all. Maybe she should have regarded it as an alarm, but she thought stress could also make a woman's period come late...but it had been 5 days now.

Biting her tongue she dug her head back into her pillow. She did feel good now that Kris didn't seem as held back and wary with caution around her. The incident in Daegu had been weighing down his mind. The thought of a relieved Kris relieved her mind as well and maybe it was because she'd missed his gestures toward her. Truthfully, she didn't know how to communicate with him without a small argument.

Shifting onto her side she curled up and closed her eyes for a bit. The need to clear her mind in order to fully relax stole her over. A moment later her eyes opened and she finally got up. Switching the light on she found the bag with Kris' shirt sitting beside her desk. Namjoo reached in and pulled the shirt out, rubbing her thumb over the fabric. The scent of the newly sewn shirt drifted up into her nose as she looked it over.

Would Kris like it? What was his favorite color? She then thought she should have bought a shirt of his favorite color instead of randomly choosing something she liked. It worried her to think of his reaction once he received it. Thinking about it made her quite nervous.

Folding it and placing it back into the bag she walked out of her room to grab a cup of water. For half a week now she hadn't been able to sleep comfortably and she didn't know the reason why. It was irritating because work was heavy and required a lot of moving around. It took a lot of energy out of her and one time she had thought it was hard running back and forth from city to city so often. Though it had been something she'd always done with Donghae and Suho she'd never felt as tired as she did now.

Setting a glass of water in front of her she plopped down onto one of the chairs by the kitchen table. Instead of drinking out of it she just leaned against the table and stared at the fridge. All her worries rushing in and out of her head at once.

~_____~

Instead of heading back home at once Kris had the cab drop him off in front of Namjoo's apartment building. The urge to go in was so strong it was hard to fight it. Since it was late, instead of heading in he tried to depict which window belonged to her apartment and spent a few minutes walking around strangely. When he thought he came upon the right one he stared up at the lights that were still on.

Did it mean Namjoo was still up? Or did she leave the lights on at night anyway? Was Namjoo a person scared of the dark? He couldn't recall.

Deciding that this was all he could do for tonight he settled for watching her apartment for a long time.