Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Devil's Advocate

The room was quiet, save for the soft, dreamy tune of a piano playing that echoed from the very walls and down over the Victorian, ornate lounge space with a small wooden bar, matching billiards table, and series of plush seating suitable for an expensive photoshoot or a museum.

Shae leaned against the billiard table, her hands gripping part of the edges of it and arms pressed in tightly against her sides. She wasn't often one for dresses and frill, but today she wore a simple powdered blue knee-length dress with a sweetheart neckline and her blue eyes carefully accented with a dusting of makeup that made them look more profound than usual. Her short hair was pinned back on one side with a glinting silver hairpin, and the tips of her sandaled feet fidgeted nervously up and down in a messy rhythm.

She thought she'd been meeting Joon for lunch, but that wasn't quite so.

"You could have just said you wanted to talk to me about something," Shae said, confused and a bit hurt by the deception.

Taehyung was leaning against an opposite wall, his eyes closed, his face a chiseled fixture of concentration. He wore pastel pink pants, a barely-blue collared shirt that hugged his features, and tan shoes. He, too, looked dressed for an early afternoon picnic—but that wasn't what he was here for.

"Tae."

He opened his eyes and looked at her with the sternness of an older brother, annoyed at their sibling's unwanted interruption.

His naturally low voice was laced with sternness. "The thing is, Joon is failing to address with you the situation that the two of you find yourselves in. It's not as simple as it may seem. For the sake of Noon Mool and everyone in it, and for the sake of my friends, sometimes it's my duty to protect them from their own blind stupidity. So, here we are."

Shae was quiet. She had no idea what Kim Taehyung was talking about.

Tae went on, no irony in his voice as he said, "You're a good girl. I'm confident that once you stand to reason, you'll be fully compliant with my proposition."

"And what proposition is that, precisely?"

"That you take a step back from," he gave a vague gesture towards her appealing appearance, "all of this. And consider a more platonic relationship to Kim Namjoon than a romantic one."

Shae's cheeks flushed at such directness. She and Joon had hardly become anything! What was Tae's angle all of a sudden?

"You're wondering why in the world I've invited you into this conversation in the first place."

"And why you tricked me with a note, pretending to be Joon, in order to get me to meet you on the freaking other half of this fortress." Shae folded her arms. Her features were uncharacteristically cold and guarded. "I mean, I almost got lost trying to find this room by myself."

"My apologies. My intent was not to offend you, but to protect you and Joon. Just hear me out. Please."

"I'm listening," she grumbled.

"Look, you're a nice girl. But Joon needs more than just a nice girl. He needs someone who's not going to put his position in jeapordy. And what, with your against-the-law rune, and us not really being able to figure out what it is you are... that makes you a liability. A liability to all of us."

"How exactly is that?"

"What if, let's say, you don't just cause a mini earthquake next time someone holds a knife to your throat? What if next time they burn up in a flash of lighting?"

"That's ridiculous."

"So is you having that rune in your arm in the first place. But you are whatever you are, all the same. And this is a problem."