Unexpectedly Regular | Kim Namjoon

7.

Nara and the guy had arranged to meet in Seoul. They have agreed to have dinner first, at a restaurant he suggested, than he would take her to a stroll by Han River and they would finally walk to the Tea House he had been looking forward to visit. Apparently, the idea of paying back for the tea would end up leaving Nara in even more debt. He offered a driver to take her to Seoul and he said he had found a driver that would leave her comfortable along the way. The guy also was kind enough to check previously if the restaurants would have meals that would fit to Nara's restrictions and he also said their dinner was on him. The reason for so much kindness seemed to appear at the last message he sent before she went to bed. "I'm looking forward to meeting you, I just don't know if I should call this a date."

Nara had been trying to avoid that matter. But she knew he might be feeling somehow attracted to her. She also felt he was being nice enough but she didn't want to call that a date, as it created an aura of expectations around that simple meeting of two people who liked talking to each other. Angie expected that since the beginning, but Nara's past with relationships made her deny it last till the last minute. Now he named it, she would have to say that was a date. It was not a problem at all to call it a date, because she had liked the idea of enjoying each day at a time, and being open to the possibility of dating a guy was a hell of a way to enjoy her days in Korea. So he could call it a date, it wouldn't matter that much. She was still just going to meet a guy she liked talking to and if that turned out to be a date, then it would be like that.

The next day felt like the others she had been in Suncheon. She had practiced the past tenses and new vocabulary and she had worked on her writing, so she had no time to think about the therefore named date she would have with a guy whose name she still didn't know. Although not knowing his name or face was not a problem so far, it was time to know it, a formality she had skipped and that now provided some fun as she had spent their last text exchanges trying to speculate the meaning of those three letters. K was for Kim, the first option of a surname, it was easy to guessed. She tried to guess the other combinations of syllables for his name but she didn't have the time to do so. Kim, as she now referred to him, said that maybe she should know his name before their date but she insisted on trying to guess. She would have until the moment they met to guess and if she did, he promised he would pay for the tea as well. They agreed to play that game and every now and then she sent some possible names for him. She was bad at guessing, as she had spent the day trying and now it was almost time to go to Seoul.

Nara was ready after her shower and she had just received his negative answer to the possible name "Nojoong" when the next message interrupted their game. "The driver is on the way. Wait for a black car on the main entrance of the university and look for Kwon Siwon, Mr. Kim's driver. The car will be there in 20 minutes."

Nara still found it odd to have a car waiting to take her to another city for a date. She didn't want to be a burden, but Kim said it was an advantage of his job position to have that kind of service available, so why not give her some comfort on her way? Nara looked at the mirror one last time and was saying goodbye to Angie when knocks on the door interrupted their conversation.

Gabi didn't wait for answers to get inside their bedroom, though, as she had arranged to meet with Angie there. They would spend the night watching a film, as Angie said some minutes before. They were taking things slowly, but surely their relationship was going somewhere. Gabi spent some seconds staring at Nara, impressed by her appearance.

-You look fantastic, Nara.

Nara shyly agreed and bowed dramatically and playfully, as if she was thanking a crowd for applauses.

-So, I hope Mr. Kim looks just as good as you look today. He will have a really pretty girl to please at the date tonight and he'd better be nice to you, or else I'll go to Seoul myself to kick his balls.