OUR LOUD MINDS → bts fanfiction

Chapter Thirty-Nine

☁︎

Namjoon

"Are we allowed in here?" Anna asked me in a low voice.

I shivered and jerked back slightly at her sudden closeness, turning back to face her.

"Uh, Yeah," I murmured in reply, pressing the elevator button.

The air of this lofty business building was stiff and formal, and I almost regretted bringing her here. But I needed space. Real, empty space. The only to get that was coming here. Seeing Min Yoongi was something I should have been more prepared for. But I hadn't been. I could be stupid like that.

The elevator dinged and a few suited adults stepped out, their faces serious and lifeless. Or maybe they weren't lifeless. But I didn't know. I just knew that once I was forced to inherit this company, I would become one of these people. Dressed in suffocating, black attire and the life drained from my eyes.

"Are we getting on?" Anna asked me, moving past me towards the open elevator.

I blinked and looked at her.

"Y-Yeah," I said, stepping on after her.

We were silent as the machine carried us up, higher and higher. People got on and off on different floors, all as bored looking as the rest. Anna still stared ahead with slightly furrowed eyebrows in confusion. And when the elevator got to be too crowded, Anna would shift to the corner, keeping from others so as not to be touched in anyway. I'd almost forgotten about how she hated physical contact. Especially from how easily she'd been pulling me around since that morning. Why was I different?

I wasn't sure, but the thought of being treated differently, more comfortably, made me shift towards Anna and act as a wall whenever too many people were with us. Silently shielding her from the others. Maybe also from seeing their lifeless eyes. I didn't want her to see what would become of me after school was over. What I was already becoming.

Finally, we got to the highest floor the elevator could carry us to, and I gently pulled Anna off, dodging the workers moving past us. The elevator didn't go up to the top two floors, so I led her to the echoey, cement staircase next.

"Namjoon, are you going to tell me what we're doing here?" She asked again as I nudged her up the steps. "I feel like we're trespassing or something."

"Just trust me," I urged. "I'll explain once we're there."

"Whatever you say, Class President," she muttered under her breath.

And then finally, after what seemed like an hour long ascent, we made it to my destination. The heavy, metal door sat before us, and I reached for the handle. But then I stopped. Suddenly hesitant. Did I really want to show this place to Anna?

I'd shown her so much of me already, way more than I ever thought I'd be able to reveal to someone. I'd begun to give away pieces of myself that I hadn't even known I had to give. After all this time, Anna, the most mysterious of the two of us, had been the receiver, the one accepting what I was. But I still sometimes felt as though I barely knew her. She could be a completely different person with each new day. She could hide random siblings and a phobia of touch. But then touch me over and over again. She could act so serious and cold to others but then smirk and snort and joke around with me. She could push me to show off who I was and yet fall back deeper into herself.