WITHOUT YOU ||Vmin ff

CHAPTER 9

The next day i talked to miss lee, went through the audition, and become Jimin partner. Jihyun by the way, wasn't upset at all. In fact, i could tell he was actually relieved about the whole thing. When Miss lee asked him  if he'd be willing to let me be the partner of jimin, his face sort of relaxed right there and one of his eyes  popped back open. "y - y - yes, a - a - absolutely," he said, stuttering. "I - I - I un - un - understand." It took him practically ten seconds to get the words out.

The rehearsal began at three o'clock, and jimin knew all his steps the first there, which wasn't really surprising. What was surprising was that he knew all my steps, too, as well as everyone else's. We'd be going over a step, he'd be  dancing so gracious fully and I'd be looking at him Amaze.

My noble feeling about doing dance had worn off by the second day of rehearsal. Even though i knew I was doing the "right thing" my friends didn't understand it at all, they'd been riding me since they'd found out. "You're doing what?" Jungkook asked when he learned about it. "You're dancing partner with park jimin? Are you insane or just plain stupid?" I sort of mumbled that I had a good reason, but he wouldn't let it drop, and he told everyone around us that I had a crush on him. I denied it, ofcourse, which just made them assume it was true, and they'd laugh all the louder and tell next person they saw. The stories kept getting wilder - by lunchtime I'd heard from jisoo that I was thinking of getting engaged. I actually think jisoo was jealous about it. She'd had a crush on me for years.

I began to forget my dance steps for next few days, not really even attempting to learn them, and occasionally I'd crack a joke or two, which everyone laughed at except for jimin and miss lee. After the rehearsal was over I'd home to put the dance out of my mind, and i wouldn't even bother to learn it. Instead I'd joke with my friends about the weird things jimin didn't and tell about how it was miss lee who had forced me into the whole thing.

I was out with Jungkook on Saturday night following. We were hanging out eating alot of food and watching people cruising their cars, when I saw jimin walking down the street. He was still a hundred yards away, turning his head from side to side, wearing a sweatshirt again. It must have been nine o'clock or so which was late for him to be out, and it was even stranger to see him in this part of town. I turned my back to him and pulled the collar up on my jacket, but even yoongi who had Banana pudding where his brain should have been was smart enough to figure out who he was looking for.

"Taehyung, your boyfriend is here."

"He's not my boyfriend," I said. "I don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend."

" Your fiancé, then."

I guess he'd talked to jisoo too.

" I'm not engaged, " I said," now knock it off. "

I glanced over my shoulder to see if he's spotted me, and I guess he had. He was walking toward us. I pretended not to notice.

"here he comes, " yoongi said.

"I know," i said.
Twenty seconds later he said it again.

" He's still coming." I told you he was quick.

"i know, " I said through gritted teeth.

I glanced around again, and this time jimin knew I'd seen him and he smiled and waved at me. I turned away, and a moment later he was standing right beside me.

" Hello, Taehyung," he said to me, oblivious of my scorn. " Hello Jungkook, yoongi. . ." He went around the group. Everyone sort of mumbled " hello".

Jungkook was holding a beer, and he moved it behind his back so he wouldn't see it. Jimin could even make Jungkook feel guilty if he was close enough to him. They'd been neighbors at one time.

" How are you doing, Jungkook? I haven't seen you around much recently. " He said this as if he still talked to him all the time.

He shifted from one foot to the other looked at his shoes, playing that guilty look for all it was worth.

"Well, i haven't been here lately," he said. Jimin smiled that glittery smile. "Well, that's okay."

"You want a beer?" Yoongi asked. I think he was trying to be funny, but no one laughed.

Jimin put his hand to his hair, tugging his hair back." Oh. . .no, not really. . . Thank you, though. "

He looked directly at me with a really sweet glow, and right away i knew I was in trouble. I thought he was going to ask me off to the side or something, which to be honest I thought would turned out better, but I guess that wasn't in his plans.

" Well, you did really well this week at rehearsal," he said to me." I know you've got a lot of steps to learn, but I'm sure you're going to learn it soon and thank you for volunteering, You're a real gentleman."

" Thanks, " I said, a little knot forming in my stomach. I tried to be cool, but all my friends were looking right at me, suddenly wondering if I'd been telling them the truth miss lee forcing it on me and everything. I hoped they missed it.

"Your friends should be proud of you," jimin added, putting that thought to rest.

"Oh, we are," Jungkook said. Very proud he's a good guy, that Taehyung, what with that volunteering and all."

Oh no.
Jimin smiled at him, then turned back to me again, his old cheerful self." I also wanted to tell you that if you need any help, you can come by my house anytime like we did before and go over your steps if you need to. "

I saw Jungkook mouth the words " like we did before" to yoongi. This really wasn't going well at all. By now the pit in my stomach was as big as bowling ball.

" That's okay," i mumbled, wondering how i could squirm my way out of this. "I can learn them at home. "

" Well, sometimes it helps if someone's there to read with you, Taehyung, " Jungkook offered

I told you he's stick to me, even though he was my friend.

"No, really," I said to him, "I'll learn it on my own."

"Maybe," Jungkook said, smiling, " you two should practice in front of the children, once you've got it down a little better. Sort of a dress rehearsal, you know? I'm sure they'd love to see it."

" Do you think so?" He asked.

Jungkook nodded seriously. " I'm sure if it. Taehyung was the one who thought of it first, but I know that if I was an child, I'd love something like that, even if it wasn't exactly the real thing."

" Me too," yoongi said.

As they spoke, the only thing I could think about was betrayal

"It was Taehyung's idea?" He asked, furrowing his brow. He looked at me, and i could tell he was still mulling it over.

But Jungkook wasn't about to let me off the hook that easy. Now that he had me flipping on the deck, the only thing left to do was guy me. "You'd like to do that, wouldn't you, Taehyung?" He said.

It wasn't exactly something you could answer no to, was it?

" I reckon so," I said under my breath staring at my best friend. Jungkook, despite the remedial classes he was in, would have been one hell of a chess players.

"Good, then, it's all settled. That's if it's okay with you, jimin." His smile was so sweet.

"Well . . . Yes, i suppose i'll have to talk to miss lee. If she say it's okay, i think it would be a fine idea."
And the thing was, you could tell jimin was really happy about it.

Checkmate.

The next day i spent fourteen hours memorizing my steps, cursing my friends, and wondering how my life had spun so out of control. My senior year certainly wasn't turning out the way i thought it would when it began, but I had to perform for a bunch of children, i certainly didn't want to look like an idiot.