IQ148 // namjoon ✔️

__MAY__

May; 2014

“Why do you sit in the corner?” The question slips out before NamJoon realizes he was thinking out loud.

JungMi breaks her trance from the new book she had just started this morning, “Huh?”

“Why do you sit in the corner? Isn't it uncomfortable?” He continues.

She seems to go back into a trance as she thinks over his question, “I guess… I never really thought about it…”

It's not really a personal question, but she ponders over it relatively long as if it is. Did NamJoon think over this more than she did? He always tends to overthink things…

He tries to break the deafening silence by pointing towards the door to the courtyard, “There's a table in the courtyard with two stools. We can sit there. There's also a seating area inside the bookstore. Or we can maybe even sit in the café next door. It might be more comfortable.”

JungMi ponders even longer after hearing his suggestions. In the end, she only shakes her head, “I can't… I sit here for a reason.”

So there is a reason… This insight peaks his interest.

“What's that?” NamJoon tries to hide how intrigued he really is.

JungMi glances around the room attentively and peeks between the spaces between the book spines, making sure that the empty aisles truly are empty. There's no one around to hear and someone walking in on them is highly unlikely, but she still takes her time in scanning beyond the bookshelves and for people passing by the open window.

When she's satisfied, JungMi twists her torso to face NamJoon, who is sitting next to her shoulder-to-shoulder. She places one hand on his shoulder and uses the other to cup around his ear.

The hairs on the back of NamJoon's neck jolt up in response to the touch of JungMi's breath on his ear. He can feel the heat of her whisper on his neck when she ends his eagerness with an answer, “I sit in the corner to spy on people.”

NamJoon turns his head in bewilderment once he no longer feels her breath on his neck, “Spy?”

“Yeah,” JungMi leans back against the wall, “The corner hides you from others. It allows you to see them without being seen yourself.”

NamJoon mentally throws away his original conclusion to the mystery of why she sits in the corner: it's not the mental aspect, it's actually the physical aspect. It's the specific placing of her body to be out of sight from others.

“Why do you have to spy on people?” He asks.

“I'm an author,” She replies bluntly, “I like to make up stories… For instance,”

JungMi points out an older woman, probably in her mid thirties, who is rummaging through the display of books on the other side of the store. NamJoon takes notice of this woman's expensive taste in style; a designer bag, big, drooping earrings that reach her neck, and clothes that NamJoon knows he would fail to pay for with his current paycheck. She’s made the ambitious fashion  choice of wearing her sunglasses indoors. She looks out of place as a modern woman inside a historic building.

JungMi watches this woman move around the environment and watches how she interacts with her surroundings. After a while, JungMi moves her lips, “... She's the heir to a conglomerate, but doesn't want to inherit her family's business. She wants to live a normal life of solitude away from the public eye.”

As she describes it, NamJoon feels as if he can see the woman's whole life laid out for him to read from. The truth of the woman's life is uncertain, but what JungMi makes up sounds fitting of her character.