The Fantastic Eight: Abnormals

chapter eight: namjoon loves animals enough to become one

Kim Namjoon considered himself to be a man of culture.

Coming from a family of marine biologists, you could say that his interest for sea creatures was almost his nature. He frequently visited aquariums with his parents throughout his childhood and teenage years. The sharks were his baby sitters and the crabs were his best friends. Thus he never really enjoyed sea food, but that's beside the point.

Namjoon hasn't been feeling all that well lately.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the doctor?" His mother asked. A fork laid elegantly in her right hand as she took a bite of the eggs his father had made for them that morning. She spoke with her mouth full. "Because I don't mind taking you there today before your internship at that aquarium. I don't want you to feel unwell during it, it won't be a good look to your superiors."

Namjoon caught himself before he rolled his eyes, "No Mother, I'm sure I'll be fine. I just want to get it done and over with. If I still feel unwell then I can take myself to the hospital."

His father stayed quiet at the end of the table, spooning the eggs into his mouth as he read a file Namjoon knew nothing about. Namjoon doesn't know much about his parents other than the fact that they were marine biologists and that they really valued outsider approval. Hell, he probably spent more time with the dolphins at their family aquarium than his own parents. It was an odd feeling really, he lived with his parents, had breakfasts and dinners and birthdays and Christmases with them, but he felt like he barely knew them. It was almost like they weren't even his real parents.

The closest thing he could use to compare his relationship with his parents is trying to establish an emotional connection to the drywall in his bedroom. Thus he felt  incredibly lonely for most of his life. Animals though, specifically marine animals, filled that hole in his heart. Filled the hole where the love and connection from his parents should've been. It was really the only reason he followed his parent's footsteps in marine biology in the first place.

A quiver in the muscle of his thigh brought Namjoon out of his thoughts once again. He's been feeling uneasy for the last week and a half. It started off as a small pit in his stomach, a feeling that began to grow until it took over his whole body. It wasn't a bad feeling per se, rather, a feeling of anticipation, as if some sort of event was rapidly approaching and Namjoon had no way of knowing what it was. The feeling had taken over his muscles, they were sore for most of the day and would spasm late at night. Against his better judgement, he had even resorted to searching up his symptoms on WebMD and surprisingly, absolutely nothing had come up.

And as a result, Namjoon was beginning to think he was going crazy. Which did not help lessen any of the symptoms he had been having throughout the week.

And out of all the days he'd been experiencing these medical anomalies, today had hit him the worst.

The muscle spasms that were once reduced to the night hours were now slipping into the early morning and Namjoon had a sneaking suspicion that it'll continue throughout the rest of the day. This would be a problem.

Not only did he have school today, he also had that fucking internship.

And as Namjoon shakily walked up the stairs, his muscles quivering and clenching. He could only imagine that today will not work out in his favour

*****

Namjoon's learned that he hates being right.