Chapter 7

"Caught in the rain"

The rain was pouring down and showed no mercy for Namjoon or Na Ri who were still running around outside while looking for the cat, slowly getting soaked and starting to shiver from the cold.

"CAT?" Na Ri yelled out but with a more faint and broken voice than in the beginning of the search. Not only was her energy being drained from all the yelling, but as her body turned colder she was finding it harder and harder to use her voice.

"C...at..." she yelled again but the word came out all blurred and she started wavering until she felt a hand on her shoulder, helping her keep her balance.

"Na Ri-ssi, let's stop for now," Namjoon yelled to overshadow the loud rain and harsh autumn wind, "this is of no use."

"NO!" Na Ri yelled and broke free of Namjoon's grip as she continued searching. Namjoon watched as she started crawling around on the ground, her pants getting torn and dirty from the mud and it felt like a knife being pierced through his heart. With her last strength she called out to the cat again and a few sobs could be heard in between.

"Na Ri-ssi... Na Ri you have to stop!" Dropping all the honorifics as Namjoon saw how the situation was evolving, he walked up to Na Ri and reached for her arm whereafter he pulled her onto her feet again.

"Na Ri look at me!" Namjoon yelled and Na Ri lifted her eyes to look at him but the desperate look in her eyes left a shock on Namjoon and made him unable to continue his sentence for a few seconds.

As he came to he quickly cleared his throat and then continued speaking:

"Listen to me, you HAVE to stop now, you'll get sick if you keep this up. It's dangerous." Na Ri just looked at Namjoon without breaking eye contact even for a second, as her current mental state made it impossible for her to worry about the things she normally would.

"Let's go," Namjoon then said and dragged Na Ri along with him, finally bringing her out of her daze.

"No let go of me!" Na Ri yelled but Namjoon kept a firm grip on her arm and he didn't look back even once as hr walked up to his apartment and closed the door behind him. 

As soon as the warmth hit Na Ri's body and she started coming back to her senses, she felt all strength leave her body and just let her legs give in as she fell to the floor.

"Woah easy there," Namjoon said as he caught her just in time and helped her stand up once again, "let me help you over here so you can sit down," he said as he walked Na Ri to his bed where he made her sit down and then got her a blanket he covered her in and brought a towel for her wet hair.

"Wait here for a second," Namjoon said as he quickly grabbed some dry clothes and ran to the bathroom where he got changed in less than a minute. He had to look out for himself first or he wouldn't be able to help Na Ri before he would start getting affected by the cold as well. After leaving the bathroom he walked up to Na Ri who was still sitting on his bed wrapping in the blanket he handed her earlier.

"Look at you, you're shivering," Namjoon said after squatted down in front of her and without any thought he grabbed her hand and began rubbing it to make the blood flow more quickly and make her body warm up quicker. Na Ri couldn't even depict what was happening around her and she just sat still like an ice sculpture as Namjoon kept warming her up.

"You have to put some warm and dry clothes on or you'll never dry up," Namjoon said with a sigh, "can you give me the key to your apartment? I'll go get you some dry clothes?" Namjoon looked at Na Ri but she just kept staring into the air, clearly still in shock and unable to answer any of his questions. 

Namjoon rubbed his temples while letting out another huge sigh until he got up and walked to his closet and took out a pair of sweatpants and a warm knitted sweater. He then walked to the bathroom and put them on the shelve whereafter he walked back to Na Ri and took her hand.

"Come, let me help you get up on your feet again," Namjoon said and Na Ri helplessly followed his guidance, "I left some clothes in the bathroom so change out of yours and change into that so you won't catch a cold or get pneumonia, okay?" Na Ri just gave a tiny nod and then walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

It took a while and Namjoon was slowly getting worried as he waited next to the bathroom door.

"Are you alright in there?" Namjoon asked after his worry got the best of him, but in the same second he heard the door unlock and Na Ri walked out dressed in his clothes which was at least one or two sizes too big for her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked and put his hand on her forehead, "you don't have a fever, but you could've easily developed one if you stayed in that wet clothes. Come I'll help you to the bed again and then I'll put your clothes on the radiator."

Time went by slow as a turtle while Namjoon went to dry up Na Ri's clothes and she just sat on the bed wrapped in the blanket as a tiny sushi roll. It wasn't until now that Namjoon realized he had a student, a female student sitting in his apartment late at night, and in his clothes. 

It was wrong. It was wrong on so many levels, but at this point he couldn't just throw her out. She wasn't in a state where she could be left alone and it was too late to call anyone. He didn't even know anything about her family, if they lived nearby and would be able to come, and he didn't know if she and Min Ji had become close enough for him to ask her for help. On a second thought it would probably be a terrible idea to call Min Ji no matter what. Her finding them in this situation could cause some serious rumors at school.

What are you doing? Namjoon internally yelled as he forced himself to think about something else, worrying like that won't do any good. Let's get this sorted out. 

He turned his head to look at Na Ri who was just staring blankly into the air. She seemed a little better, a little more mentally present, but still sad and worried.

She kept thinking about the poor cat caught somewhere outside in the merciless rain and the cold and harsh wind. She could almost hear it's cry for help, just as she had been able to the entire time she was searching outside, but she just couldn't find the source of it. She was a terrible owner. How did she ever imagine she would be able to take care of a cat on her own? She couldn't even take care of herself at this point.

"Here you go." Na Ri focused her vision that before had just stared into the empty space and noticed Namjoon who was handing her a cup. She didn't even ask what it was but just accepted it. The cup felt warm against her hands and the steam calmly brought the smell of warm tea to her nostrils which immediately got her body to relax. After blowing on it a couple of times she took a small sip and felt her entire body heating up from the inside. Only now did she realize that Namjoon was still sitting in front of her with a concerned look written all over his face.

"Are you thinking about Cat?" Namjoon asked and Na Ri realized she had been staring. She didn't understand what was going on with her right now, maybe it was still the cold and the shock affecting her. She gave a quick nod as a reply to Namjoon and he nodded understandingly.

"Try not to worry too much," he said in a gentle voice, "cats are build for brutal weather like today, it won't get hurt or be cold, and before you know it, it'll find it's way home again." Na Ri turned her head again and looked at Namjoon with eyes that somehow said "really?" and Namjoon sent her a reassuring smile.

"I promise, she'll be back before you know it." Namjoon smiled and then turned around and sat down. He leaned his back against the bed and Na Ri felt bad that she had taken the comfortable spot on the bed, but she didn't have the courage to speak up and tell Namjoon to sit next to her.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Namjoon asked and even though he couldn't see Na Ri's tiny head shake he just continued, "that episode of FRIENDS where Rachel has to look after the monkey Marcel and he runs away. But the difference is that you aren't yelling at me like Ross was yelling at Rachel for losing Marcel."

"Yelling won't solve anything," Na Ri said and Namjoon was shocked when he heard her voice for the first time since they entered his apartment.

"You're right," Namjoon said, "but you're still allowed to be angry and yell even if it doesn't solve anything." Na Ri didn't reply but just took another sip at her tea.

"The good thing is that they are able to find Marcel at the end of the episode, have you watched it?" Na Ri nodded and then took in a deep breath before saying:

"FRIENDS is my favorite show."

"Really?" Namjoon said and couldn't hide his happiness as he had found a fellow fan, "do you want to watch an episode? I have all 10 seasons on DVD." Na Ri lifted her eyebrows and suddenly looked more high spirited than before and quickly nodded along.

"Then let's watch 'The one where the monkey gets away', now I really want to watch it after talking about it." Namjoon took her silence as a yes to watch that episode and he quickly turned on the TV and put in the DVD. 

A little while they just quietly sat and watched the episode together, both of their faces glued to the screen without even taking notice of each other anymore. It felt like it finished before it had even begun, but to Namjoon's big surprise, Na Ri asked if they could watch a few more episodes, so Namjoon just pressed "play all" and they started binge watching the entire season without minding what time it was and without Na Ri giving it a single thought that she had her part time job along with a lot of homework the following day. 

Watching FRIENDS felt like coming home to Na Ri, she could forget all her worries for a while and she even forgot that she was sitting in her Professor's apartment in his clothes.

Namjoon was quietly laughing to himself at the funny parts, even though he'd watched it many times before it would still get him each time. He suddenly heard the sound of someone else laughing quietly, something the can laughter had been able to hide until now, but when he turned his head he saw Na Ri smiling widely at the screen, her eyes lighting up as she continued to laugh quietly and without a single care, just enjoying herself to the fullest.

When she smiled widely like that and laughed happily like that, she really was beautiful in Namjoon's eyes and for a while he couldn't take his eyes off her, until they unintentionally got eye contact and Na Ri quickly retained herself and put back on her stone face.

"No, please enjoy yourself," Namjoon said and felt bad he had interrupted her joyful moment, "just... pretend like I'm not here. I won't look at you I'll just look at the TV." Na Ri didn't say anything but after a little while he could hear her quiet laughter again and he couldn't hold back his own smile.

"I guess that was it," Namjoon said when the screen turned black as they had watched every episode on that DVD, "do you want me to put on another disc or-" Namjoon stopped talking as he turned his head and found Na Ri sound asleep on his bed, her head resting on his pillow.

With a smile on his lips Namjoon covered Na Ri with the blanket and then looked at his watch and screeched. He didn't even realize it had gotten this late. He walked to the radiator where he left Na Ri's clothes. It was all dried up so he should be able to wake up Na Ri and send her home to sleep in her own bed, but when he saw how peaceful she looked he couldn't bring himself to wake her up.

Well it won't hurt to wait a little while, Namjoon thought to himself, I should clean up in here.

As Namjoon started cleaning up the mess he'd made earlier, he walked around the apartment as quietly as possible so he wouldn't wake up Na Ri, but suddenly, he heard a sound coming from outside. He walked up to his door to get a better listen and he now clearly heard the sound. The sound of a cat crying for it's mother. And when Namjoon opened the door he was confirmed as he saw Cat standing just outside looking up at him with those big green eyes.

"There you are," Namjoon said and bend down to pick up the cat, "your mom was so wo- oh my you're very wet." Namjoon quickly carried the cat to the bathroom where he used a towel to gently dry up the cat.

"Shall we surprise your mom?" Namjoon said as he picked up the cat and looked into it's eyes, "alright, let's do this."

Na Ri was drifting in dreamland, not entirely asleep but not awake either. It felt like she was floating, being carried away on a warm and soft cloud while leaving all her worries behind. But the feeling of something sitting on her stomach made her return back to earth and to the bed she was sleeping on. She slowly opened her eyes, but before she realized what was standing in front of her, the displeased "MEOW" gave it away.

"Mm... cat?" Na Ri whispered and as she was able to focus her vision more clearly, she was met by those two green eyes that had mesmerized her from the first time she saw them.

"CAT!" Na Ri yelled out and sat up while picking up the cat, analyzing if it really was her and without realizing, a single tear of happiness left her eye and rolled down her cheek.

"I told you she'd come home," Namjoon said with a huge smile plastered on his face, "I guess she missed you."

Na Ri just kept her eyes on the cat and started caressing it on it's head and behind the ears and on it's stomach so it purred loud enough for even the downstairs neighbors to hear it. After a little while, Na Ri picked up the cat and got up from the bed. She found herself filled with newfound energy and she looked directly into Namjoon's eyes as she said:

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Namjoon said, "I was the one causing the problem after all, but I'm happy everything turned out alright in the end. Oh and you can just keep the clothes for now, here's your own clothes. It's all dried up." Na Ri had nearly forgot she was wearing Namjoon's clothes and she felt a sudden sensation of discomfort, but she tried hiding it and just accepted the pile of clothes that Namjoon was handing her. Na Ri politely bowed to Namjoon whereafter she walked out of the door, out in the dark night before finding her way to her own apartment. She closed the door behind her, put down the cat and the locked the door. 

She looked around her dark apartment and then looked down herself. It was as if the whole evening and night came rushing back to her and poured over her like boiling hot water burning her skin. She grabbed the rim of the sweater she was wearing and took in a deep breath. She could feel it now, yes she could even smell it now, that it wasn't her own clothes she was wearing.

In the brink of a second, Na Ri rushed to the bathroom and nearly tore of the clothes while turning on the water. Her entire body was shaking. She could still feel the clothes against her skin even though she wasn't wearing anything. She was about to panic and only the ice cold water could help keeping her calm. She wanted to wash off everything, all the germs and bacteria, along with the entire night and everything that had happened. All his touches, all his stares, all his kindness. She wanted everything to be washed off. She wanted everything to disappear, as if it had never happened.

She put the palms of her hands on the bathroom wall, using it as a support and only now did she notice exactly how much she was shaking. All the emotions she'd hidden away from the night while being in too much of a shock, was now pouring out in this moment and the only reoccurring thought she had was:

How will I be able to face him after today?

Hello everyone!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember to stay warm and eat healthy and take care of yourself. Stay safe.

Also, don't forget to leave a comment down below.

Love, Annalise~