[3] Code: REBIRTH || KTH

Ch19: "I Promised You A Dance"

"Fucking animal!"

"The camps should've killed you all!"

A car passes by with the windows rolled down as two men hurl insults and slurs, and I turn around to curse back at them, but Taehyung pulls me back towards him.

"Ignore them," He says to me.

And before I know it, the car is gone, but not before splashing us with the muddy rain water on the side of the street. I inhale a sharp breath when the cold water slams into us, colder than the rain that is falling. Cursing under my breath, I look up at Taehyung who has his eyes closed in defeat.

"You should've let me say something!" I exclaim as I step back, taking in our dirtied clothes.

"It's useless," He says calmly.

"They ruined our romantic dance!" I throw my arms in the air. "Those assholes."

Taehyung chuckles, taking my hand in his and dragging me to the car. "Don't let it ruin your day. I'll dance with you again when we get home."

I sigh as I get in the car, my hands still shaking in anger. Now I'll have to take the car for a deep clean cause our clothes will definitely soil the seats.

"How are you so calm about this?" I ask as I put my seatbelt on.

Taehyung goes quiet for a moment. "You're all worked up because you've never dealt with such a thing before."

I feel a ting in my heart as it sinks in, this is definitely not Taehyung's first time having slurs thrown at him in the streets, neither will it be the last. Maybe hearing these kind of words too much has made him numb to them, or he knows that cursing back at them won't change anything, especially their unjustified hatred towards him.

"Let's just go home," He adds, his head turned so he's looking at the window, "I'm tired."

---

I smile as Taehyung approaches with a bowl of popcorn and hands it to me. I wait for him to sit beside me on the couch before cuddling into him. He puts his arm around me as we watch a romcom. His hair is a bit damp from taking a shower earlier, and I can smell my shampoo on him.

"I met Jimin the other day," He says.

"How did it go?" I ask, my head on his shoulder.

"Better than I expected." He lets out a sigh. "He said he didn't like me, but he also thanked me, so I guess there's progress."

"He'll come around," I assure him, "I know he will. He just needs some time."

"You think time heals pain?"

"Not all pain can be healed by time." I shrug. "Sometimes time only helps us realise that we can live with the pain and that it doesn't have to kill us."

He doesn't reply, and we watch the movie in silence, but my thoughts are somewhere else, so I don't grasp anything the actors are saying.

"I promised you a dance," Taehyung says out of the blue.

"You did."

Taehyung gets up, turns off the TV, and plays music on his phone. It's a slow song with a soothing melody, played by a piano and a saxophone, perfect for a dance. He takes my hand and pulls me in, and I close my eyes to savour the moment as he intertwines his hand with mine and rests his other on my waist. I hear him yawn so I look up at him.

"Are you sleepy?" I ask, squeezing his hand.

He hums in response.

"Then let's go to bed."

"But the danceㅡ"

"We'll dance later." I drag him to my bedroom.

Taehyung sleeps once his head hits the pillow, and I chuckle to myself at how fast he slept. He must have been really tired, I think to myself, although we didn't do much today. Maybe dancing in the rain exhausted him. Jungkook used to get tired easily before he died.

I push the last thought to the back of my head, trying not to think about it as I remind myself that Taehyung had always slept fast, but my thoughts keep me up for a while, so I play with his brown locks with the sound of rain hitting my window in the background. I hear a low hum of music and realise we forgot to turn it off , but I'm too lazy to get out of bed, so I let the song lull me to sleep.

---

A/N: you guys are NOT prepared for how this will end