Unexpectedly Regular | Kim Namjoon

23

That afternoon, Nara and Namjoon had kissed each other goodbye for the last time. The last time they did it, Namjoon couldn't believe he was living that experience. Now it was Nara's turn to hardly believe she was leaving behind someone she might have dreamed about but she would have never expect to have in her life. Because he was Kim Namjoon, the famous singer. But because he loved her and made his best to show her that. It was unbelievable. The feelings that he talked her about had been in her life in traumatic episodes before, and that scared her. But every time she closed her eyes to kiss him again, she let the insecurities behind. He stayed at the hotel room, arranging to get the footage from the elevator camera as Nara entered that same elevator again, this time, without his company.

At the reception, Siwon waited for her. She was ready to tour Nara around Seoul, as a goodbye present from Mr. Kim.

As she entered the car, Nara received a small notebook with a lock closing it. Siwon put a necklace with a key in Nara's hand and even before she said what Mr. Kim had recommended, the girl knew what to do. Carefully, she used the golden key to open the hard paper cover. Namjoon had written specific recommendations and stories about the places she would visit. She had no idea at what time he had prepared that gift, as he was always busy, but it was clear he had been planning that for a while. On the first page, he wrote that it was his way to spend the afternoon next to her when the two hours they had together would finish. Nara marked the pages she would read with the Polaroid photograph. During that afternoon, the driver took the girl to different touristic sights in Seoul and she had also been a great companion, giving Nara sometime to sink in the words written by her boss before she would start talking about each of the places herself. She had lots of memories and tales to tell about the places they've visited too. Through spoken or written words she had two special touristic guides with her all along.

Namjoon's words were sweet and simple, but there was a humble sophistication in his style she could recognize from his lyrics. It was as if his long-known voice was whispering those words in her hear, like a familiar melody bringing back memories and sensations she used to feel before Namjoon was a part of her reality. So, she recalled the moments in which his music had guided and inspired her, long before she met him in real life. As she looked at the amazing view of the last sight, she realized it would be easy to get used to have him far from her again. It had always been like this. Somehow, he had always been with her through the waves of his music and his words have always spoken to her, even though he didn't even know who she was. Now he would be a little closer to the heart, at the touch of her fingers on a phone screen and that was more than she ever needed before. Off course, she wished he was there physically with her, but it would be enough for a while to keep things like that.

The afternoon ended on the top of the town. Under the lights of the highest tower in Seoul, Nara read Namjoon's final words on that notebook. This time he hadn't written much about the place but rather about them.

"I wrote our names on the lock" Nara looked closer to see the letters in roman alphabet, at one of its sides, and hangul characters at the other, in both parts of it, they had been carved rustically on the metal surface. She smiled as the details she hadn't noticed before were seen. "We wrote part of a tale together while you were here. It was not the fairytale you might have deserved (which is fine because fairy tales only end with a kiss and we had much more than a kiss long before the end of it) and definitely, I wasn't a prince. I wasn't even charming as I wish I was, but it's our tale. I'm giving you this part of my story so you can decide what to do with that. You can keep that book closed and put it on your shelf. If you feel like reading it someday, maybe the story will still have its magic, but some of it might vanish, just like fairy dust. It may be a story that makes no sense to you by the time you open it again and you will wonder what part of that tale was magic before. But that's the thing with books. And relationships. Sometimes you just have to finish reading them, keep turning some boring pages until the part of the story when the princess kisses the prince comes. But in order for that magic moment to arrive, you mustn't close that book. So, you can also leave it open and keep writing what you want on those blank pages. If you believe this is a story worth being told and read, use the lock to make a wish at the tower. Despite of your decision, keep this notebook with you, anyway. This is a part of my heart you'll have in your hands, and I hope you keep its key at your chest. The same key that opens my heart opens this book. Every time you open it and read those pages again, you'll feel it pounding the same way I felt when I was with you. I know I said it all before and I know I repeat myself many times (hopefully, you still haven't noticed that, but I also hope someday you learn that and so many other things about me too) but I want the key and the book to be something you can hold on to when you feel like it's taking too long or when you don't believe we've been together. I'll never stop believing, cause if I don't believe in us, this us will die. Which brings me to another fairy. Thinker bell. If you don't believe in her, if you don't clap your hands for her, she dies. So I'm glad to know you've been clapping your hands for me, before I even know who you were. Your applause kept me alive until now, so even if we never see each other again, if this book never gets opened again, keep the applause. Not because what I do is great, but because it would make me glad to know that's a way in which I can still be with you.

Thinker Joon"

Nara looked at the lock again, removed the necklace with the key from her neck and opened it immediately. There was no way she would not put their lock between the thousands of other locks. She wished something so precious would go on forever. It was not a flawless relationship, as the distance between them and the difference in their lifestyles would be forever on their way but that was all they could have, so their encounter was their own type of perfection.

She closed her eyes, with the wish they could really fulfill their promises of being together again. The lock closed down and she kept the key with her. Nara felt the need to write something back to him. She looked for a pen inside her bag and used the blank pages of that notebook to write the next chapter of their story. As she sat at the bench, she observed the whole city lighting up. Taking a deep breath, she started her goodbye letter.

After a while, Siwon, who had been out buying them some coffee, had returned. Nara smiled at her and handled her the pages she had ripped off the notebook and asked if the driver could deliver it to Namjoon.

She admired Seoul for the last time, in silence, her fingers around the key in her necklace. She would still enjoy her last weekend in Suncheon with her friends. Then, she would return home as a new person, after her days there. She would still have old problems to face, but at least she would have a favorite story to read over and over again whenever she needed to escape.