Unexpectedly Regular | Kim Namjoon

32

Although Namjoon's smell was still on Nara's bed, he was not. She was no longer surprised by his morning habit of leaving the house either. She put on her glasses and said good morning to the only other person in the room: Jesus, who had spent the night watching too tired people falling asleep in each other's warm embrace, protecting each other from the cold outside the blankets.

Nara got up and couldn't find her mother either. So, she was all alone at home. She grabbed some capim-cidreira outside the kitchen's window and made herself some tea. Grabbing a tall mug of the sweet-smelled tea, she put on comfortable warm clothes and went outside. The chill winter breeze made Nara go back and fetch a coat. Finally, she placed herself under a spot of sun on the porch steps. Belinha, wearing a knitted pullover, joined her. For the first time after she got to her mother's house, she held the phone on her coat's pocket. She had made an agreement with Namjoon of not using the phone for a while, so that both of them could avoid the stress of the news. However, now she was now voluntarily extending that avoidance, in fear of feeling something similar to what she felt when she heard the news about their relationship had broken out. It took her a few minutes and a deep breath for her to finally press the button and turn on the black screen. She felt the sun warming up her body and the warmth of Belinha's small body on her lap, holding on to the comfort of those sensations before jumping in the unknown abyss of the World Wide Web. She had to know what was going on in the world someday, somehow. There was no escape. Her agent had promised to control the damage caused by the release of her pictures with Joon, but still, Nara had to be aware of the outcomes of it.

She wasn't ready to face social networks yet but she couldn't dodge from the direct personal messages that arrived. Although Nara had explained that her phone would be off, there were many calls from Barbara and twice as many messages. She cliqued on Barbara's name to open the texts of an overworked agent who had worked overnight. She was thankful to count on Barbara. Had not been her, she would have to deal with all of that personally and Nara knew she would not have the emotional strength to do so. Nara read her agent's messages slowly, one by one, letting the emotions that each one brought be sank in slowly. By the time she finished reading the long texts, Belinha jumped off Nara's lap to welcome back Namjoon and Margarida by the gate.

Namjoon carried the biggest amount of shopping bags. Although Nara thought it was amusing to watch the awkward interaction of very different people who didn't speak the same language trying to get along and doing things together, she couldn't enjoy that scene at that moment. She had problems to solve and she felt sorry for that. Nara was sorry that the problems were on her way to appreciate Joon's efforts to connect with his sogra and be a good genro. Nara was sorry that instead of giving herself sometime to figure out whether her mother liked Namjoon for who he was and not because he was not a girl, she had to worry about bigger problems.

-Bom dia! – Namjoon and Margarida said at the same time, making Nara smile.

Namjoon knew Nara too well to see her smile was a bit too weak. He realized, as soon as his eyes met the phone on Nara's hands, that things were not so fine. He dropped the shopping bags on the kitchen's table and returned to Nara's side while Margarida prepared breakfast. He didn't need to say anything. At the moment he sat next to Nara on the step of the porch and touched Nara's back with one hand, she started talking.

-Barbara said my book have been massively purchased in the USA. They want to make a second edition of the Portuguese version too and a Korean Publishing House wants to translate it to Korean, as there are people demanding the book of "Namjoon's witty girlfriend". Those words are hers. She said the public evaluations of my books are low and we can imagine why but the critics who have read it gave really positive reviews.

He was confused. All that she said were positive things. Why did her face tell otherwise?

-Aren't those good news?