(ENG) BTS-Short Stories

4 - Promise

When the music ended, my hand was on his chest, my eyes looked up into his, Jimin's hand was below my chin and his other arm was around my waist. Panting, we stood there, the sweat showing on our faces. The other members had gone back to the hotel hours ago, but Jimin wanted to go through the choreo for tomorrow with me again, because the video shoot was already there. The weeks had flown by. The clock face now showed 10:00 p.m. and the two of us were already well exhausted. Nevertheless, tonight we continued to push each other to the max with our own perfectionism. Jimin helped me back into an upright, more normal position. While I subsequently ran to the front of the room to grab my towel, Jimin lay down on the studio floor like a starfish and blew out an exhausted breath. "I slipped again, damn it!" Frustrated, he let his hand, clenched into a fist, drop to the floor. I let my gaze slide over his bare arms, their muscles trembling with exertion.

The studio was bathed in cold blue neon light that evening. Jimin and I had turned off the normal daylight. In this light I now saw his skin shimmering brilliantly. Slowly, I crossed the room until I was with him and held out his nearly empty water bottle. "Here, have a sip." At first, his head only lifted so he could look at me. Then he sat up and accepted the water. As he released the bottle from his full lips again, a small drop ran from the corner of his mouth down over his chin, toward his throat, before he noticed it and quickly wiped it away. Then he looked up at me. I held out my hand to him. "Again?" He grabbed it and I helped him up. He walked over to the recorder and started the song.

Instantly, the familiar melody of 'Black Swan' rang out. Jimin and I kept dancing through the whole song. I danced my way through my positions while Jimin moved to his position in the group choreography. I could dance this dance blindly by now.

I meandered through the imaginary members, flowing along as the song progressed and floating over to the duet part to Jimin. His open arms embraced me, swaying me back and forth. Then his hands closed around my waist, pulling it closer to his there, holding me tight. I stretched my torso in a half circle back down into the bridge position before commanding my abs to pull me back toward Jimin. When I reached the top, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pushed off. His hands levitated me for 3 seconds while they spun us once. He set me down and I turned my back to him. With one hand I reached behind me, gently stroking Jimin's mop of hair and cheek. His arms encircled me from behind and he cradled me to the side as I stretched one of my legs to do the splits. Then he let me spin out, putting a few steps of distance between us. With my arms, I imitated wing flapping. I did 5 pirouettes and fell into a short lunge, reaching out searchingly in Jimin's direction and then pulling him toward me in a grasping gesture as if by an invisible thread. His chest arched forward quiveringly as he trailed his arms and lower body as he followed me. When he reached me, I put one leg against his shoulder in a split. His hand started at the outside of my thigh and ran along it toward my shin. Then back again agonizingly slowly until it stopped just below my bottom. I swung my leg off his shoulder before turning my back to him again. There he already wrapped one arm around my upper body and the other around my thigh to swirl me around. In the process, his hand remained on my inner thigh and caused a real conflagration there, which seemed to consist of tingling bubbles. After he set me down, I slowly let myself slide on the floor. He lay down next to me, but remained facing me. He raised his hand over my chest and pulled my torso upward as if on a transparent string before opening his palm again and my chest slid back to the floor as if dropped. He switched figures so that he was now lingering above me in a planking position, before then launching into a push-up where the tips of our noses were only a few millimeters apart. When he then straightened up again in a flowing movement, he pulled me up with him by the wrist. The song was coming to an end. We circled each other like cats of prey. Finally, I shot forward and, after a sweeping motion of my hand, bumped into the center of Jimin's chest. Before I could pull it away again, Jimin put his hand on mine and I felt his powerful heartbeat through the shirt on his skin. The melody pushed it's way back to the forefront while the voice sang 'do your thang, do your thang with me now' as an echo in the background. Before the music faded out, Jimin and I stepped towards each other again in sync. My hand slid up his chest, his one hand pulled me towards him by the waist, and with the other he lifted my chin as if for a kiss. The music ended.

Motionless, we remained in the last position and looked deeply into each other's eyes. Our breathing was fast and panting. I felt the trembling of his arm holding me, as well as the strong throbbing of his heart under my palm. His lips, like mine, were slightly parted for more air supply that our bodies were so eagerly crying out for. I could see the scattered pearls of sweat running down Jimin's face and could also feel the tickle of beads on the back of my neck. Neither of us made any move to get out of position at that moment.

But when my cell phone rang, I cleared my throat and thus loosened our rigidity. We moved apart as if we had been burned. I rushed to the cell phone in my pocket and picked it up. "Yes?", I breathed, as I still couldn't catch my breath. "Sabrin, where are you?", I recognized Anna's voice "I..." I turned around and could just see that Jimin had not let go of me with his gaze. He reacted minimally too late and quickly tried to look elsewhere. "I'm still at practice," I replied. "What, so late?" "Yeah... tomorrow is the video shoot after all...", I replied hesitantly, but I was allowed to reveal that much information. Other than that, everyone knew anyway and the whole school was already feverishly anticipating the performance, which made my excitement rise. "Well, okay. I'm going to go get ready for bed - just so you know when you get to the room later." I nodded, even though I knew she couldn't see it anyway. "Well, pleasant dreams then" "Thanks, you too later." I hung up and looked at Jimin. "Didn't matter." He made a sound of understanding. Then he tilted his head and slowly stepped towards me. "You... Sabrin?" I lifted my eyes and met his gentle eyes. "Yes?", I asked shyly. He put a hand on my shoulder. "That was just our best rehearsal yet, don't you think?" Images from not even 3 minutes ago flashed through my mind and made me blush. I was glad he couldn't see that thanks to the blue light. But yes, he was right. That had been our best run. I nodded, but only managed an approving sound instead of answering properly. At that moment, something changed. His gaze slid over my face and lingered on my lips a tiny bit too long before looking me in the eye again. My fucking heart tripped at the sight of him. "Sabrin..." he murmured more softly now with an unexpected dark undertone in his voice. "Yes?", I breathlessly breathed. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Again his eyes flitted over my lips. Then he seemed to come to his senses. He shook himself slightly, as if to dispel a trance. "Shall we make a promise?" Without thinking about it, I nodded my head slightly. "No matter what, we're going through with this..." Although I couldn't quite follow him, I nodded, mesmerized by his gaze. When I finally answered, it was nothing more than a whisper. "We're going through with this." And again we stood frozen close to each other - our heads so close we could feel each other's tickling breath. And I found myself wishing that this moment would last forever.