Unexpectedly Regular | Kim Namjoon

17

Nara looked at the mirror, admiring the astonishing golden embellishments along the frame of her new glasses. One day after she had tried them and Namjoon had paid for them, the glasses were delivered to Nara's dorm. Although they were beautiful and perfectly fitted her face, it has been hard to make their expensive frames and lenses match her character. Although her previous pair used to be broken, repaired and even after that they were a little crooked, they still seemed like a perfectly suitable part of her. She felt the same about Namjoon. She was still getting used to see life with him through a new perspective. That reality he lived in was so visibly different from hers. No matter how good it looked or how comfortable it was, it was still... strange. Even though both of them had initially decided to live in the present, there were some plans of making their time together get longer. So, just like the new pair of glasses, she would need time to adapt to that other life. At least for the weeks they still could try to get along.

It was hard to fit in some weeks to a mentality he might have taken years to get used to. Her new glasses, for example, may have costed as much as all her possessions but Namjoon insisted on gifting her those. The amount of money he paid for the paintings he bought some nights could maybe buy her an apartment. Including the tea they drank in Seoul that she had offered to pay for, Namjoon had been paying for all their meals and Nara imagined the hotel they spent the night might have been just so expensive she couldn't even figure out how much he had paid for the night. Yet, the things he wanted to do with her were so simple. Drinking beer, going out for dinners, having sex, having breakfast together the morning after that, and lots of non-stoping talking. He showed and spoken about how her company was the only thing he wanted from her. Sometimes Nara thought her company was not enough to pay back for all the money he had spent on her. Then, one second later, she wondered if maybe the simple fact she was beside him had more value to Namjoon than all the money he had spent. He could buy any of those things so easily that he could not really value them anymore. He could not buy genuinely unpretentious company, though. It was also clear he had an attraction for the averageness of her life. He looked for beauty in those simple things they could do together and although money could, so far, buy them both a whole lot of conveniences, without it everything between the couple would have been pretty much the same. So, sometimes, Nara was able to believe he liked her for real.

She started to understand that Namjoon liking her and caring about her was a possibility after the night they spent together. Not only the morning after was affectionate, but all the time after that he tried to keep the connection between them constant. Although he had been rehearsing and taking part in recordings, whenever he could he initiated kind conversations over the phone. It was amusing to realize he found her life more interesting than his. Even though he was busy most of the time, he was also pretty honest about his lack of actually useful time in which they could meet. Calling Nara was his way to be with her more often. Although time was an issue, he had some plans in his head and it was not hard to see he was trying to find ways in which his money could facilitate their meetings. He offered to pay for hotel rooms, send drivers and everything that could be required for her comfort. Not only they were both busy, they were also far from each other, but also he seemed to want her to be as close as possible before they were an ocean, an hemisphere and some continents apart. He would try to arrange more meetings, but frustratingly, his free time wouldn't be enough to commute and still spend a reasonable time together. He kept trying and she felt his frustration was higher than hers, and they had to recall their motto of doing what they could and nothing more.

As he seemed to understand that justifying his actions were necessary, Joon kept explaining himself, which made Nara's mind change in some actions. He respected her whenever she said, that no matter how much money he had, there were things money couldn't buy and some things she would need to do anyway. Studying and writing were some of those things. He also learned that respecting that would be a way to value her efforts to make this studying trip worth it. His openness to hear her not only surprised Nara but also made some of her concerns involving the differences in their genders, cultures, social and economic status disappear. They were both showing signs that it was perfectly possible to adapt and fit to each other's backgrounds. But that was still a dream, pretty far from coming true.