Serendipity: The Amazing Journey Of A Soulmate

70. Sweet sacrifice

REEA

This weekend I chose to get some time for myself and I left the house, going for a bike ride. The Han river is close so I took advantage of this warm September day to just ride and relax. The place looks empty, somehow, although it's full of people. I've been associating nature with a person for a while now. The calmness of the water reminds me of him.

I'm counting the days until Jungkook will be back. Annoyingly, I started to think about him often and sometimes....well, most of the time, I find myself worrying about him. Is he eating well? Is he resting enough? I hope he didn't push himself too much on the stage until the point of collapsing. I checked the weather in Paris and it showed rain. I hope he won't catch a cold. Over and over again these thoughts would cross my mind, to my frustration because they'd stop me from properly doing my job. Why am I being like this? I don't even know. Maybe those walls I thought were still standing have fallen a long time ago. Or maybe I just grew so used to his stubbornness and persistence that I find it strange without them. I spoke to him last night. He was exhausted after a concert and was struggling to fall asleep as his whole body ached from effort. Dance practice, song recording and writing, actual concerts...they all drain him. Yet he is always positive and always making time to sneak in a message. He's trying to hide it from others, though. Namjoon, he said, is feeling down these days and being so obvious around him will only amplify his misery. Just as my trail of thought was going to Inna, Namjoon and the situation they are in, my phone starts ringing so I stop the bike to pull out my phone and answer. I'll never try doing it while riding. Not after I lost control of my bike once and fell on the concrete, bruising my knees and my self esteem. The name on the screen makes me alert.

"Steve, what's up?" I greet the person on the other end of the line. He is my colleague at the UK Interpol Bureau, the one I asked for information for my investigation.

"Reea, hi! I'm sorry for reaching out to you so late, but I got caught in some work," he apologises.

"No problem. Did you find something on what I asked you to?"

"Oh, I did. I found your guy. I sent you everything by email," he announces and I am suddenly overwhelmed with excitement.

"That's great news! Thank you, Steve. You're the best, but you already knew that!" I say, chuckling. Steve is a few years older than me. When I first started my training with Interpol, he was around often, especially at the fighting zone. He is a big guy, always kicking my ass during training. But we got along because he never tried to hit on me or made me feel uncomfortable like other guys. He saw what a wreck I was when I arrived there and pushed me, instead of pampering me. I needed that so I can become stronger, both in spirit and body.

"Of course, darling. I know my own value," he says cockily, but then bursts out in laughter.

"How humble!" I mock and roll my eyes playfully.

"The meek will never inherit the earth, you know what they say. Okay, I have to go now. I'm on a mission," he says solemnly.

"A mission? I thought you don't do missions anymore," I furrow my brow. Since his wife gave birth to their first child, he decided to step away from risky missions. I guess being a father made him less reckless.

"It's the hardest mission I ever had, Reea. Is terrible," he sighs heavily. Now I'm even more confused.

"Don't tell me they sent you to Afghanistan!" I exclaim.

"Worse! I'm at Aldi's, buying tampons for my wife," he complains and I can already picture his enormous muscular figure standing before an even bigger shelf of tampons and pads at the women's aisle. I laugh at the thought.