Unexpectedly Regular | Kim Namjoon

39

Nara closed her heavy coat over her layers and layers of warm clothes and yet she still felt coldness sneaked into all that fabric somehow. Although she had spent the last Christmas in Seoul with Namjoon's family, she was not used to winter in Korea yet. Snowy weather was something she had learned she couldn't stand, but she would have to overcome that on the upcoming years. Unless she was planning to spend the winters to come locked in the apartment Namjoon had just bought for them.

She had the option to wait inside the car as well and drink some coffee with Siwon as they waited for Joon to leave the headquarters. But Nara was too excited to stay still. She hadn't seen him for four months and they barely talked to each other, as part of his duties included being partially isolated from the rest of the world. She hadn't noticed any signs of fans or people with cameras as well, so she could freely hug and kiss and squeeze him without the embarrassment of being watched for others. Well, the only pair of eyes on them would be Siwon, but she was friendly enough to pretend she didn't see what her boss and her Brazilian friend did. She could understand that they missed each other too much and that Nara had different perceptions of proper behavior which Kim Namjoon didn't mind acceptancing.

Nara waved at him as she distinguished his tall figure from the other men, all of them still dressed in Army apparel, leaving the building. His bright smile could be seen from the distance and they walked towards each other. When they met halfway, a tight, warm hug made both of them forget how cold it was that day. Nara looked around once more so she could kiss his lips. He grabbed her tightly but his lips were not as eager as his arms and hands. She always found it curious how Joon tended to unconciously keep his affection private in his country, as if he was being watched all the time. Indeed, most of the time he actually could be being stared at, filmed, photographed and so could Nara be. Not that it was so different in Brazil, but at least there, he behaved as a freer person. As if that behavior was contagious, she was cautious of her actions. Even so, she knew she was much more touchy and clingy than the people around her normally were.

His clothes were poorly prepared for the unexpected low temperature, so Nara removed her scarf and wrapped his neck with that thick layer, covering the necklace with the key that he would have on his possession until he could be dismissed from his duties, in three months. As they knew that wouldn't be enough to keep his tiny nose from getting red as the cold wind blew against his face, they moved.

Nara intended to go faster so he, and in consequence, herself as well, could escape the cold weather, but Namjoon strolled hand in hand with his girlfriend, as if the weather was pleasant.

-I wanna enjoy the nice weather with my girlfriend! – he explained.

-The weather is terrible, Joonie.

-It doesn't matter. It's great because you're here.

Nara appreciated how he showed his affection with words more often when he contained himself physically and, curiously, the reverse process happened when he could act otherwise. She smiled at the fact she always felt, somehow, that he loved her and enjoyed her presence.

She hated winters, but they could take a stroll under those grey skies and cold breeze that time. However, as soon as she made her decision to walk her way to the parking lot calmly, a family stopped them. The mother was apparently embarrassed, but she encouraged her daughter, a girl who was about twelve years old, to start a conversation. As she lightly pushed the small girl in glasses, Nara noticed the girl had tears in her eyes. It was probably because of Namjoon, so Nara stepped back, giving him an opportunity to talk to that young fan. The girl, however, stepped closer to Nara. As she woke up from her initial trance, she started moving fast. She opened a backpack she had on her back and with shaking hands, she took Nara's second, freshly released book and a pen.

The young man started a relaxed conversation with Namjoon and as Nara smiled at the scene she could overhear that he was acquainted with her boyfriend. When he bragged about being friends with Namjoon at his division, his younger sister got wild. Not because of Namjoon, but because the author of her favorite books dated him and maybe she could see Nara and ask for an autograph. So, as the young soldier explained, he asked Namjoon who would pick him up at their leave and as soon as he knew it was Nara he told Mirae about it.

Nara looked at the girl. Mirae was embarrassed and a bit shocked, but along with her teary eyes, she showed a wide smile of contentment. Nara held the book in her hands. The book was new, and a bookmarker indicated it wasn't finished yet, but Nara could see lines, circles and highlight marks in some of the pages as she opened it. She asked the girl, in Korean, about her favorite part of the book. The girl took some seconds to engage in the conversation, but as Nara signed the book, she had enough time to describe how she loved the part when the main characters first went to São Paulo, after living all their lives in the North of the country. It was, in Mirae's words, just like the first time she came from her hometown to Seoul.

Nara closed the book and gave it back to Mirae. She asked whether she wanted a hug or not and after looking at her mom as if that moment was a dream coming true, she finally gave in and hugged Nara tightly.

Mirae's mother and brother stood next to Namjoon watching that scene quietly. As they said goodbye, the girl walked away with her mother, still looking back at Nara. He didn't need to ask anything to know from his girlfriend's expression that she was happy to be recognized. Not because she wanted fame, but because that meant her work was relevant.

He remembered her struggles to believe that her writing was worth being published or that the raise in the sales of her first novel were because she deserved it. He loved to see moments in which she could be sure that her work was worth it. The first time he watched such a scene was one day in São Paulo when they were riding bikes at a park on a sunny Sunday. Nara was still learning how to deal with her sudden fame and she was not so sure her work as a writer was really being recognized or if she was just becoming relevant because she dated Namjoon. She couldn't complain about the money, which would be of good use, but that doubt still haunted some corners of her mind. Nara was parking her bike behind a park bench and Namjoon was drinking water from a bottle and relaxing. An excited teenage girl in her uniform passed by and greeted him in Portuguese, but soon she turned to some compliments in English and finally said a shy "Saranghae" as her embarrassed mother pulled her arm so they could keep walking. Namjoon was just answering her when, to everybody's surprise, the girl burst into tears. Even her mother was surprised and then, even more embarrassed, as her daughter could not explain why she was crying. "Eu te amo!" she said, but instead of turning to Namjoon, she opened her arms and wrapped them around Nara, who had just turned around to watch the scene. Even though that was unexpected, Nara calmly looked in the girl's eyes and cleaned her tears with her own sleeves. The teenager calmed down, although tears still streamed down her face. With a trembling hand, she opened her side bag full of textbooks and noteboosk and took off a wasted Portuguese edition of Nara's first novel. Nara was unprepared for that, but the mother, more in a hurry than happy to fulfill her daughter's desire immediately shoved a pen in Nara's hand so she could give her an autograph. Nara looked from the book cover, where the illustration showed a dark-skin toned, curled hair young woman, side by side with her native-Brazilian companion, to the teenager right in front of her. Apart from her glasses, the girl and the books protagonists looked the same. By the mother's accent Nara guessed they were from the north of the country, just as the main-character. Nara signed her name and dedicated the book to Luana, the avid reader in whose face she could now see a bright smile. As soon as she said goodbye to her fan she called her own mother to tell her about her first fan. She had written that book so more people could know the stories her mother used to tell about her people, the place her family came from and the traditions and legends of an unwritten population. Back at that time, in São Paulo, Nara got motivated to keep writing. A couple of years later, her motivation led to that scene in Seoul. Namjoon was nothing but proud.