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It was an understatement for Namjoon to say that people were nothing but a nuisance, but it’s not like he cared either.
Say, their heads were on fire, would he care? No. As long as it wasn’t his, he saw no reason to pay a heart.
Taehyung was an exception.
Namjoon had his life organized. Not a single thing leaked out of his control since he was the captain of his ship. He had his hands on the deck, everything was falling into places perfectly and he’d fire a cannonball if his ship was getting hijacked. He was merciless for absolute success, and to set his life sail in a path he wanted, he was willing to sacrifice.
While his friends – no, Namjoon doesn’t do friends. He thought they’re manipulative and burdensome, he preferred to be a lone wolf any day. So while his acquaintances went on dates and chased young love, he bleed himself in room battling with variables and equations, furiously refusing to bow down to his own exhaustion. While they enjoyed their youth to the fullest, Namjoon didn’t feel ‘left out’ like what they said because Namjoon was in control. Namjoon had always been in control.
And Taehyung was an intruder.
Taehyung was a tornado in Namjoon’s life – a mapped out plan Namjoon had perfected and made sure it will fall into places perfectly. Taehyung was a chaos knocking at his door, and what pissed the youngster was that the latter turned his orbit upside down.
Blaming it on Taehyung was easy, Namjoon thought. He wished he could make Taehyung responsible for all the mess Taehyung caused in his ship, but then he remembered that he was the one opening the door when Taehyung knocked. Blaming himself was another level Namjoon’s pride wouldn’t let him to play.
So there he was, his dignity felt like it was stepped on and ripped as he stood there outside a dance studio, rigid and stiff. Sure, his rational thoughts had slap him a couple of times, but it wasn’t like he was in his right mind either – and Namjoon still blamed in on Taehyung.
‘Talk to him, man. You look pitiful.’
Hoseok’s presence made the dazed out man jumped. Namjoon hated whenever the shorter male did that, but whenever he confronted the grumpy elder, he was replied with a confused stare. Namjoon eventually stopped complaining, but never stopped cursing either. It was only because he liked Hoseok a little bit more than acquaintance, almost a friend.
‘I look decent.’ Namjoon grunted, pride yet again wounded.
‘You look like a lovesick ass. Talk to him.’
‘You know I can’t do that. And I’m not lovesick.’
‘But you can’t stand here forever and you know that.’ Hoseok replied. ‘Look, man. If you’re not going to make a move, he’s going to be out of your league forever.’
Namjoon squinted his eyes. ‘Don’t you dare.’
‘Race you to him!’
‘Hey! I called dibs!’
What Namjoon didn’t know, and definitely didn’t plan to happen was that he would ended up with a dripping sweat all over his temples and breathing pure fire because Hoseok, goddamn the latter sprinted faster than a lightning. Or maybe it was just his wobbly legs weren’t designed to run. Whatever the reason was, it forced Namjoon to bend and rested his weight on his knees, murdering the floor with his glare. He was going to kill Hoseok for this.
Except, when he looked up, it wasn’t Hoseok.
‘So,’ the voice boomed in Namjoon’s ear and if it weren’t the angels singing then Namjoon didn’t know what is. ‘Are you Namjoon?’
Namjoon had to look up and actually squinted his eyes so he could get a proper look at the figure who was standing in front of him. Maybe it was the backlights that illuminated Taehyung – Namjoon knew it was Taehyung, it had to be – or maybe it was the sun penetrating the windows, but then again, Namjoon couldn’t care more because Taehyung was looking at him and fucking glowed.
Taehyung suddenly shifted and kneeled so that he was now looking up at Namjoon and Namjoon, well, he forgot how to breathe.
‘Are you alright?’
The universe was cruel, Namjoon thought. How could it expect Namjoon to answer when he could barely inhaled and exhaled?
‘He’s fine.’ he heard Hoseok chirped. ‘He’s just out of breath.’
Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows and stood up. ‘Why?’
‘Oh nothing big, really. Like I said, he’s just out of breath. He ran like a bitch.’
Namjoon officially wanted to commit a crime.
The desire to slaughter Hoseok burned when Taehyung laughed. ‘He can join the dance class, it’ll fix his endurance and stamina. Accuracy too, actually.’
There was a tensed silent in the air and even if Namjoon could already breathe, his chords wouldn’t vocalized.
‘Of course!’ Hoseok demolished the silence. ‘He’d love to, right Namjoon?’
‘Great!’ Taehyung didn’t give Namjoon a chance to even glare. ‘Would you like to start now or?’
‘Nah.’ Hoseok patted Namjoon’s back as he stood up, which made the younger choke. ‘I think he’ll start tomorrow, he needs – air.’
‘Ah,’ Taehyung nodded, now shifting his gaze to the taller man in front of him. He gave Namjoon a bright smile, a trademark of his that Namjoon had come to memorize. Seeing it from afar was something Namjoon could handle, but seeing it directed to him, up-closed like this, was another thing Namjoon’s soul could not handle.
‘Tomorrow sounds good?’
It sounds like my funeral.
‘Sounds good.’ Hoseok said anyway. ‘We’re off.’
Hoseok had backed out and aimed for the exit door, and Namjoon was also about to turn and leave and go back to the safety of his room, back to the equations and variable because for god’s sake that was the only thing he’s good at, when Taehyung reached out his arms and waited for an embrace.
‘See you.’ He said.
That night, Namjoon could only feel the heat on his hand where Taehyung’s fit perfectly.
Sleep be damned.
---
Turns out that Namjoon didn’t join the dance class.
He did though, at his first day.
Which turned out to be his greatest humiliation and embarrassment of all time that he decided to kill Hoseok for the hundredth time on his mind. Namjoon refused to tell Hoseok what had happen in his first day because the elder wasn’t there and Namjoon thanked the universe that Hoseok had a date that day, except for one tiny bitsy problem.
Hoseok wasn’t there, but Taehyung was.
‘Hyung, it’s not that bad, let’s try again.’ Taehyung had said to him with a face trying to contain the laughter. Namjoon profoundly refused.
What hadn’t change was the promise – That Namjoon will be in the dance class, just not dancing.
What had change was his life.
It’s been a week or two since the promise and it was now his daily routine to choose Taehyung over the homework he had store in his desk, convincing himself that he could do it tonight or maybe in three in the morning.
It’s been a week or two that Namjoon had sit on the very same spot like he’s in right now, back against the gigantic mirror the dance studio supplied.
It’s been a week or two that the coldness of the mirror was defeated by the fire blossomed on his chest whenever Taehyung danced and swayed with the music.
When Taehyung danced, Namjoon’s mind stopped thinking and for the first time, he enjoyed the blankness of his brain. Namjoon felt like his world revolved around the latter who often glided his arms on the air and pulled it back on his chest, a gesture that implied suffocation and a throttle. Taehyung danced and Namjoon was held captive by the way his legs carried his rawboned body with fluidity and grace, but also powerful and deadening. Taehyung danced and Namjoon knew everything was too late, that this wasn’t just a simple attraction like what Hoseok had said because when Taehyung danced in sync with the beat where he showed his true self and completely set free, Namjoon had fallen.
‘Liking what you see?’
Namjoon didn’t know he had been tranced until Taehyung’s voice was a waking.
‘Don’t be so confident.’ Namjoon looked away, caught right handed.
‘It’s the truth.’
‘You wish.’
Namjoon could feel Taehyung grinned, and honestly, that scared him. Had they been so close that he knew Taehyung was grinning without looking?
‘Really, hyung?’ Namjoon jumped a little, Taehyung was suddenly in front of him, towering him and looking down at him. Never did once the thought of being submissive crossed his mind, but there he was, caged by Taehyung’s presence. ‘If it’s not the truth, then what is?’
The background music was upbeat but it was nothing compared to Namjoon’s beating heart. Taehyung watched the man across him with eyes so piercing that Namjoon didn’t dare to stare back, but Taehyung backed out and laughed it off, for he himself nearly couldn’t handle his heart crawling on his throat when he saw Namjoon turned a shade darker.
The younger decided to start dancing again since the music changed into his favorite song to jammed on, but when he was on the climax where he should’ve be in his most powerful state, strength abandoned him just like that because –
‘I like you.’
It was faint. A whisper, even, to the loudness of the song but it was a bomb out of the blue to Taehyung’s ears as they were ringing quite violently now.
He turned his head to Namjoon, who already stood on his legs and stared directly at him. Taehyung decided that he must’ve stared too long because Namjoon moved closer.
‘You wanted the truth, right?’ he asked. ‘I like you, Taehyung.’
Namjoon would be lying if he wanted to disappear right now, but he wasn’t the type to run from a challenge nor taking things back. So he waited, in tormenting silent seconds for whatever Taehyung had in store to say and Namjoon itched for the younger to give a reply faster, but he wasn’t complaining. He could wait, he would for Taehyung.
What Namjoon didn’t prepare himself was that Taehyung lurching forward into his chest and burying his face in his scent, much less hugging the life out of him.
He hadn’t properly breathe when Taehyung said, ‘What took you so long, hyung?’
The youngster tightened his arms around his hyung’s waist without actually know what he was doing, but then again his mind was racing so fast there was no guarantee he was conscious of his own position, resting his body entirely to Namjoon’s strong, securing arms. Taehyung decided that it’s been a while he felt so much at ease as he was right now.
Namjoon, in the other hand, prayed hard that Taehyung didn’t hear his heart trashing against his ribcage wildly and he as well prayed for his self-restrain to comeback. But he did not stop his own fingers crawling on Taehyung’s back, nor did he aborted the urge to smell Taehyung’s scent. Taehyung smelled fruity, not to Namjoon’s surprise.
Taehyung also smell like morning coffees and midnight hot chocolates, and that made Namjoon unconsciously planted a chaste kiss on the shorter male’s temple.
‘I’m sorry.’ He whispered, lips still brushing Taehyung’s skin. ‘For making you waiting. I should’ve come sooner.’
He could feel Taehyung shook his head. ‘No, it’s alright. Though Hoseok hyung kept checking me out.’
‘I’m going to kill –’
‘Shh, hyung.’ Taehyung looked up, his nose touched Namjoon’s chin. ‘There’s no need to get so worked up.’
‘But Hoseok –’
‘Doesn’t own me.’
‘What.’
Taehyung only smiled and nuzzled his head back to Namjoon’s neck. It fit just perfectly and he couldn’t be happier, at least not until the future dates and kisses. But for now, this was enough. This was more than he could ever ask for.
‘Nothing, hyung.’
‘Taehyung, I don’t get it.’
‘I don’t get it either.’ He grinned.
‘You’re making me confuse.’
‘And you’re making me crazy.’
‘Are you sure you’re not talking about Ho –’
‘Hyung.’ He looked up, eyes twinkling and peck! Taehyung left a burning sensation on Namjoon’s lips. ‘Remember that my heart belongs to you.’