"Kiss me, quick!" [ ` whispers keep it pg before cackling and rolling out ohp- ]
Kiss me, quick!11. Knees.
The boy finds that it’s quaint, living with Naeun in her studio apartment (he doesn’t have anywhere else to live or a job that brings in cash; such is the life of a traveller). Yet it is also an adventure in its own right. An adventure in domesticity. An adventure he was so sure he would never have, one that he didn’t really care for to begin with.
But there are times when such an adventure rattles him to the bones, so much so that he is sure he must flee. His ability is a part of him, travelling is a part of him, and sometimes Jongin feels that even someone like Naeun can’t make him feel otherwise. Can’t coax him into staying, because staying means stripping away a part of him that feels so ingrained into him that it would be much too painful.
So, recently, he left. For a second, they are lounging together watching a movie, Jongin getting up and muttering something about getting more popcorn. Once he makes it to the kitchen, the urge takes over—the want to just leave, to escape this situation that feels like an adventure one day and a cage the next. So he does, without a word of goodbye or a warning even.
He travels to Japan, to India, to the future where all the continents in the world have drifted together once more like he was taught about in history and there are violent disputes over what the name should be, who should rule, the type of government that should be put into place—he never travels to South Korea. It’s a month in that he allows himself to think of her again (even though she has always been trapped in the deep recesses of his mind, pushed and shoved there but still there, waiting as always).
Jongin travels to South Korea, around a time he knows she will be alive and know of him and her eyes might even light up when they rest on his figure.
He doesn’t find her. He goes to Austria two days later.
Months afterward, he bumps into her on the streets of Seoul. She looks young. He had almost forgotten the contours of her face, the sound of the breath that leaves her lips just before she begins to talk, the soft, comforting curve of her cheek.
"You left," is what she says. "Two weeks ago. When we were out talking pictures."
He thinks back to all of the times he has left. It takes him a minute or so, but he soon remembers the instance. It was before, a year at least, he says he’s going to get more popcorn but never returns from the short trip to the kitchen.
"I always do," he tells her, and then his arms wind around her and he hugs her to him. There is some hesitance but soon she is sinking into him like he is the vast ocean tide; falling into his embrace and unable to resurface for breath until it is too late. He doesn’t save her from drowning because he needs her.
She takes him back to her studio apartment. Not much has been changed apart from the TV and couch, which she will reposition in the future. They watch a movie though not the same one they will watch about a year from now. The popcorn runs out but Jongin doesn’t get up to get more, instead he continues sitting on the floor, near Naeun who is sitting on the couch and running her fingers idly through his hair. They are quiet but it’s a nice quiet, no matter how it makes Jongin fidget for reasons he doesn’t know.
After some time he rests his head on Naeun’s thigh, continuing to watch the movie with half-lidded, disinterested eyes, and impulsively kisses the exposed knee he can continuously see from the corner of his eye. Her fingers that are still running through his inky locks pause, the muscles underneath his cheek bunching, before she eventually relaxes and the ruffling of his hair continues.
Jongin finds his eyes falling closed and he drifts off to sleep, almost unable to hear Naeun’s soft, “Goodnight, Jongin.”
He is content. (For now.)
