Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Pan Prepares to Strike

"Ahhh, Joonie, look at your young dish today." It was Petra the pest joining Shae and Joon in the box suite.

At the sound of that sultry voice, Shae felt Joon's body go rigid next to her.

"Petra," Joon said gruffly as the insufferable woman approached.

"I won't linger, I've a few people left to terrorize this morning before I head to our private box. You'll be joining me there, of course," Petra said flippantly. "I expect nothing less from the leaders representing my aliance, after all."

"Of course," Joon answered stiffly.

"Grand." She beamed devilishly. "Well don't let me keep you from enjoying your last day together. Don't be too rough on her, Joon, I need her in good condition tomorrow." Petra gave a devilish wink and Kim Namjoon clenched his jaw menacingly.

"I'll see you two later." Then Petra walked away while her long, slinky dress was hugging her curves just right. The silvery glitter of the material made for one stylish exit.

Shae looked around for an open railing of that box suite-on-stilts. She needed a minute.

The awning flapped over her head in the cool breeze as she moved to lean into the railing at one edge of the suite. Everything down below them was vibrant in the hot sunlight, while they breathed in the cool, comfortable shade.

Shae tried to focus on the busyness of countless people in motion below, walking through sandy aisles in their suit and tie attire. Shae tried to focus on all of this commotion, to help her pretend like she wasn't as bothered as she felt by, well, everything.

Joon stepped up to the railing next to her, the sleeves of his suit jacket crinkling around his elbows as he folded his arms and propped them up onto the railing as well. He had to lean over a bit more to do so.

He wasn't looking down at the stands or at the stadium spectacle below them, though: where the prisoner fighting had taken an intermission, and a horse-and-rider obstacle routine was being set up.

No, he was watching Shae's face. "I am sorry, you know."

Shae finally looked at him. She didn't really know what to say, or where to start.

He went on, "I am. This isn't what I wanted to happen at all, Shae. You and Petra. You...."

Shae looked away from him, towards the enclosed sandy arena where a man was propping a spiked beam up between two posts, for horses to jump over. The gruesome look of it made her shudder.

"It's not like you owe me any explanation, Kim Namjoon. I thought that yesterday made that pretty clear."

He sighed. "Dammit, woman."

"Are you swearing at me again? This is a new level of ridiculous. I should be the one swearing at you." Shae turned her face fully away from him now, her eyes burning slightly—but she wasn't going to give into this feeling.

Joon just couldn't stop staring at her. The flicker of her short blonde hair around her perfectly soft face, the concentration in her swimming blue eyes, the curves of her skin in that tiny black dress. His heart moved and leapt: "And yet you're gorgeously calm and sturdy. Just like the first day I stole you away to Noon Mool. You woke up from that lab table and it was like you were completely unfazed by the craziness."

She still didn't look at him. "Not completely."

He became painfully aware of the feeling of her bare arm brushing against the elbow of his suit jacket.

Shae sighed into the wind. "Joon, I really don't know how much more of this I can keep doing."

Her words stopped the breath in his lungs. He waited in the heavy silence until she spoke again.

"This craziness with Petra... or with you.... You say one thing with your words, with that look on your face, and then you do something that seems so contradictory. One minute you say how much you want to do the right thing, how sorry you are for compromising. And now here you are..." her sad and angry blue eyes found his, "compromising. Do you realize how much that hurts, Kim Namjoon?"

His silence remained. He waited longer, letting her take a few minutes to breathe slowly and regain her composure. They were, after all, not alone.

Then he reached over and tucked strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. When she didn't flinch away from him, it sent a pang into his chest.

"I don't know, Shae," he answered. "There are moments when I just forget. I forget about my responsibilities, I forget about Petra, I forget about this hell I feel stuck inside of. When it's just you and me, I forget, and it feels so good that I fight hard not to remember for as long as I can."

Joon wished their audience would disappears in a puff of smoke, along with the entire stadium around them. He wished for a few more holy moments of silence, of aloneness, with no one else but Shae. But he feared he may never have any such moments again.

"You make me feel like I can want things. But if I give into that, if all I see is you, is that want, then it could hurt a lot of other people who are counting on me." Joon sighed heavily. "I just wanted to say that. Even if things with Petra make all of this... difficult."

Shae felt so torn. She wanted to reach out to him, hand-to-cheek, and be a comfort. She also didn't think her heart could take it any longer. "I think you mean 'impossible.'"

They stood shoulder to shoulder in silence for a long while after that, just looking out over the crowd.

____

Unbeknownst to them, Hoseok's hawkish gaze spied Joon and Shae from down below the box suite. Hoseok had found himself a comfortable set of chairs in the shade, and he sat with his sandaled feet propped up on a wooden stool. He was wiggling his toes in a set rhythm in his decorated flip-flops and humming contentedly to himself.

"Another Apple Martini?" a smiling waitress asked.

"Yes please!"

The waitress eyed the small Geji knife that Hoseok had in one hand. He'd been whittling away at a tiny block of wood. Hoseok felt her staring and turned to her with smiling eyes and a goofy grin.

"I'm making a horn for the races! To cheer on my friend. He's really good!"

Her concerns melted away. It must not be a Geji knife after all, she thought to herself. How could it have made it through security, anyway? She beamed at him and made her way to go make him his drink.

His features became sharp as he watched the back of her head bobbing its way towards the bar.

Whenever the waitress walked back to his table with an Apple Martini in hand, the ostentatious Jung Hoseok had disappeared.

____

"Can we stay up here the whole time?" Shae asked.

Joon answered softly, "Soon we'll have to head to Petra's box suite to join her team. Unfortunately."

Shae leaned her head onto Joon's shoulder, looping an arm through his. She gave a bittersweet sigh. "Ok. But in a minute."

It took everything in him for Joon not to crawl his way into Shae's space right then and there, in front of everyone, and pull her skin-to-skin. He settled for her head on his shoulder and the feel of her arm curling around his in the cool breeze.

____

Hoseok saw his targets making their way down the stairs of the box suite now. He padded his way on light feet through the crowds, ahead of Shae and Joon's sure trajectory towards Petra's private box.

His red crimped hair and seeing narrow eyes were electric with mischief. He'd removed his plumb-pink suit jacket and wrapped it around his waist, with his white collared shirt rolled up at the sleeves. A grey mask was wrapped around his chin in case it would be necessary.

Hoseok pretended to be vying for a better view, shielding his forehead for a moment and scanning the crowds. Then he wedged his way into a narrow alley space between sandy white buildings and crawled up onto a large trash bin. His body became lazily pressed against the wall—flattened and hidden but relatively unsuspicious.

He waited quietly for his prey to approach.