Invisible (Namjoonff)

Chapter 6: Call Me Maybe

Ki walked across the park to their table. There was a pit in her stomach. She didn't want to admit it, but today felt like goodbye. She was going back to work on Monday. 

She worked for KBS. It was intense and demanding and consuming and she loved it. She loved the rush of being handed a tip for a story and then searching for sources and quickly writing the report, all within minutes of handing it to a reporter that would share it with millions of people on live television. She loved hearing her words spoken on the screen. No one knew her name or her face. She was invisible. And yet everyone knew her words. She wondered if anyone at work even noticed that she was gone. Maybe Crystal. She had mentioned she'd overheard one of the reporters complaining about the scripts the past few days. She was flattered that someone had noticed. 

This week had been an anomaly. A strange and bizarre set of circumstances that made no sense and certainly couldn't be replicated. Monday was back to the real world. Not the world of reading for hours in the park with a tall mysterious stranger. 

The table was empty. 

Maybe he wouldn't even show. Maybe it had only taken one day to forget her. Maybe he was scared away by her nonconsensual hand holding. Could she even claim they were friends? Had she any claim to him at all?

She plunked onto the bench and sat her backpack down next to her. She unzipped the top and lifted her water bottle out. As she turned to place it on the table, a silicon matt made a sudden appearance in front of her. 

"Oh!" She let out a small gasp in surprise.

"It's a desk matt. It keeps things from rolling away."

She looked up to see Joon standing over her. Cap and mask  and hoodie as always. Right in front of her, but on a planet of his own.

She looked down at the matt.

It was a picture of the idol group BTS.

"BTS? Really?"

"I.... had an extra one around the apartment."

"An extra one? You had more than one of these? Are you a fanboy?" Ki looked at him playfully. She was about to say he didn't seem the type, but then she realized she didn't actually know what type he was. 

Joon shifted his feet, "I've found some real healing through some of the lyrics."

Ki looked off into the distance melodramatically, "Yes, fake love seems a little appropriate right now."

"I don't understand."

She looked startled. "Did I say that out loud?" She slapped herself in the forehead. "Why do these things just fall out of my mouth? I just meant, you and me. This isn't real. This...... is actually.... I don't even know.... I hang out with a guy in a mask. We don't really talk. I don't know his last name. I've never seen his face. He gets to see MY face, but do I get to see his, no. Whatever it is, this thing, it's not real, it's fake, it's a chapter in a book that ends with goodbye," she paused and continued, "Right?"

Joon's shoulders shrunk. 

Ki attempted to straighten the perfectly straight BTS silicone desk matt as a distraction. Seeing his reaction only confirmed the pain in her chest.

"It's ok. We don't need to feel sorry. We both had a need for each other and that need is no more. I go back to work on Monday and you, well, you go do whatever it is you do behind that mask," She said with finality.

She picked up her water bottle and shoved it back in her back.

"I want to go home now. My chest hurts. I'm tired. I think I'm hungry. Am I hungry? I really want my mom. Or at least the leftovers she made me in the fridge. " She looked down at the matt.