Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Dance Break

It was day three for the earthling ladies, and Escort Training with Kim Taehyung was in full swing. The lessons were taking place in a mirrored dance hall with warm wooden floors and bright lighting.

Doctor Jin was there, too, but to say that he was actually helping....

"How are you still getting this wrong!? This isn't alchemic physics, this is a waltz!"

The more subdued Tae and Shae had been reviewing the nuances of the bow as a greeting as compared to the curtsy, but Jin's outburst pulled them away from their study.

Tae and Shae gave a collective, "Here we go," under their breaths.

Ava's reddish-brunette hair was rolled up into a messy bun on top of her head, and her hands were propped firmly on the hips of sleek grey joggers she'd been given to wear. "Well, if you weren't so rude, maybe I'd be learning something."

Jin's plump lips pursed. "Your posture is lazy."

"Or maybe your execution is lazy." Ava fanned herself a moment to calm the heat that was rising into her lightly freckled cheeks. "If you had studied this dance as much as you keep studying yourself in that mirror behind me, then it'd show."

Just then, a deeper voice echoed through the room, "Weeeell, this sure sounds like fun." Joon. His voice made Shae's heart skip a beat—though she couldn't say why.

The fierce leader's pointed boots echoed off the wooden floors as he walked into the dance studio. His presence was even more imposing than Shae remembered from abduction day. She studied his stiff shoulders and lanky figure carefully, clothed in a flowing white shirt and skinny grey pants with his hands folded behind his back.

For Jin, silence reigned. He threw up his hands in a flurry and strutted out of the room, pushing into Joon's shoulder in a huff on his way out the door.

"I think the good doctor has had enough for today." Joon's authoritative voice sounded a touch worn. "Tae, why don't you step in for him?"

Tae ran a nervous hand through his auburn hair. His leader bobbed his head from where Tae slouched, to the center of the dance floor where Ava fumed, reiterating his suggestion. So Tae obliged.

"From start to finish," Joon clarified, as his long legs stalked around the dance floor to take a seat on a simple white box that was resting against one of the mirrored walls. Joon waved Shae towards him, summoning her to come and sit on the seat next to his.

Shae pursed her lips at his nonchalant brazenness, but obliged him.

Rude, bossy, and unapologetic, she thought. My perpetual worst nightmare.

Joon leaned his head of spiky white hair forward, held his chin with one hand over his crossed legs, and watched the dancing couple intently. Shae kept casting sideways glances at him, feeling uncomfortable in his sphere of intensity.

Meanwhile, at the approach of Tae's lightly slumped in shoulders and small movements, the opinionated Ava's fury melted a bit. There was just something innately calming about this strange, skinny young man. Tae's perfectly symmetrical face framed in such shaggy hair also didn't hurt.

"Sraighten up, Tae," Joon commanded.

Tae wriggled his shoulders a bit, pulled them back, and transformed into the perfectly formed Adonis he could so easily imitate. He gave a stiff bow in his gym shorts and white T-shirt, which Ava returned with a careful gym clothes-curtsy. Then he stepped forward to slide one hand on Ava's waist, and his other hand stretched out and cupped hers into it.

"Aaaand begin!"

At the sound of Joon's voice, Tae's inner metronome began. He had the precision of a clock, but with fluid and relaxed movements. Ava gladly forgot her fury and enjoyed getting swept up in Tae's flow.

"He's quite good," Shae said softly. Her voice made Joon shift slightly in the seat next to her.

"He is. Jin's too self conscious on the dance floor. Tae can switch it on and off."

Joon's eyes were sharp and intense as he stared towards, or perhaps past the dancing couple, Shae thought. Too intense. It made her wonder.

"Chim is the best ballroom dancer, by far," Joon went on, an absentminded smile barely marking his voice. "If he didn't have to step in and manage our security now that...." Joon cleared his throat. "Well, he'd have been able to stand up with you at your first gala."

"Oh? Then who will...?"

"You'll be standing up with me," Joon said brusquely. "And Ava, with one of our best operatives... if he ever makes it back for the event."

Shae couldn't think of anything more uncomfortable than being led around by this rigid fellow for an entire evening. "Sounds like a lot of 'what ifs' are floating around your orbit, Kim Namjoon."

Joon looked directly into Shae's eyes for the first time upon entering the practice room. In a surprising wave of shyness, he then looked down at his fidgeting hands.

"You could say that."

"I thought Chim was a treasure hunter. Is he not that?"

"Locating you and Ava was his last mission in that sphere for a while. We need someone capable to lead security, and we lost our defense expert recently."

"Oh? How did that happen?"

"An unfortunate misunderstanding." He sighed heavily, and for a moment Shea thought that kidnapper Kim Namjoon sounded human.

"I still have no idea why you needed Ava and I, of all people. OR why you had to be so rude about the whole ordeal when we first got here. Your explanations were... like you were just trying to be a superior ass, to be honest." Her words may have been sharp, but Shae's voice was soft and mumbling as she spoke them. She was surprised at the lack of antagonism in her own voice.

Surprisingly, Joon gave an airy laugh in her direction. "Yeah, I can be an ass sometimes when I see why an end goal makes sense before other people. Patience in that...I'm working on. It's a struggle." One of his hands dragged along the back of his neck a moment. "And I'm sorry if I scared you before. Being faster when jumping through portals keeps you from being tracked."

Shae kind of believed the sound of sincerity in his voice. A little.

"As to why Chim chose you both, I'm still wondering." He barked a genuine laugh at the annoyed look Shae flashed his way. "No, I know why. He said that it was because you both had a particular trait that would make you up to the task for what this new season at Noon Mool would bring."

Shae flushed for some reason. "Oh?"

"Yes. In here." Joon reached over and the tip of his pointer finger touched Shae just below her collarbone. The moment was soft, and a little scary; their eyes locked a moment too long to be nothing, then flickered apart again. Joon spoke quietly, "He said you're both marked by a fierce, loyal love for one another. True friendship."

Shae felt stunned at his words. At the unexpected touch of his hand. Her face felt so warm.

"More valuable than any treasure...a touch of that, it's what this new season really needs to be a success." Joon's voice was heavy with what Shae realized was...grief.

"Joon. What happened to the escorts before us?"

Joon swallowed hard. He had said too much, he realized. She shouldn't hear this. He stood quickly to his feet. "Tae's doing well with you both. It seems I've overstayed my welcome."

He left the room without looking back, leaving Shae to wonder how it was possible to dislike someone so much--and still feel the tender pang of empathy for them at the same time.

Meanwhile, doctor Jin was storming his way down the halls of Noon Mool feeling far from empathetic....