Shadow Dancing | K.TH

For the Better: Forever

"I brought a surprise!"

The moment V walks in the door after me, several things happen simultaneously.

Jin drops the plate he was washing, not even seeming to mind as it shatters on the floor. Beside him, Jimin nearly trips on the table leg as his eyes fix on the man behind me.

On the other side of the room, a large crash echoes throughout the living room as Namjoon tips over the flower vase that Jin had so carefully filled with fresh casablancas.

"V HYUNG!"

I barely manage to sidestep in time to avoid the maknae as he literally flies past me and crashes into V. A smile lights my face as I hear V laugh, struggling to get to the kitchen table with Jungkook latched onto him.

I'd brought a surprise greater than the ice cream, which nobody pays no heed to. After all, the one who had brought them was the real treasure here.

"Jimin, I hope you're eating." V remarks as he finally gets Jungkook to stop suffocating the air out of him.

How in the world did he know?

Jimin nods, trying to bite down a smile but failing terribly. He's so happy that he nearly steps into the mess of water and glass that Namjoon had created.

"Hold on, hold on." Jin says, waving his hands wildly. When everyone grows quiet and looks at him in question, the eldest stares at V.

"You won't get in trouble for this, will you?"

V shrugs as he lets Hoseok smear some ointment onto the cut. "Yes, they won't know about this. I make sure— I don't take risks, just in case they try something that I'm against."

Did that mean they could hurt him?

"It's going to be fine, Kook." V says, obviously aware of the fixated stare Jungkook was giving him. "This isn't the last time I'm going to be here."

"So," Namjoon asks, eyes alight with intelligence and curiosity. "How's it like at Hells Angels? Are the assassins there improved from the last time?"

V shakes his head, and the memory of Park Samuel and him flashes back to the surface of my thoughts.

"They're still amateurs— there's not one who can even do a kill shot properly."

"Uh, V," Jimin interrupts. "Nobody can do your kill shot properly. It's just impossible— even Kook couldn't do it."

"All you do is pull the trigger."

Jungkook widens his eyes and looks at me, shaking his head slowly from side to side in disagreement.

"Since V's here," Yoongi says casually, looking at Jin hopefully as he claps his hands together. "Should we get the strawberries out?"

Ugh.

The strawberries.

"My God, Yoongi." Jin sighs at the minty-haired man, still looking hopeful. "Remember the last time we got those things out?"

Me and Jungkook immediately look down at our feet, the memory still sharp in our minds. We'd both gotten drunk— although it varied in degree.

I still remembered Jungkook begging me not to die as I rolled on the ground, plagued by a vicious migraine.

A shiver goes up my spine.

Terrible memory.

It makes me happy that I make V happy.

He laughs, looking at the two of us fidget. Hearing him do so, an unconscious smile blooms under my shadowed lips.

But knowing this happiness wouldn't last makes the smile disappear, and all I can do next is to hope that no one noticed my weird bipolar transitions.

His words sound heavy as his eyes flash to the clock. Looking at that, I've never wanted anything more than to take it down— it might've stalled him, even if it was only by a few seconds.

I can feel the air flatten as V purses his lips, all eyes on his mouth and the anticipation next.

"I need to leave."

My mouth curves downward, reflecting everyone's own. Only Jin is mature enough to hide his feelings as he forces back a smile for him.

"Well then. You know where to find us."

"Of course I do, hyung."

V speaks slowly, his eyes holding mine until the door closes, taking him away like everything else in this world.

The house is silent, not in a suffocating way but resembling something like tension, about to break.

But things have changed for the better.

Jungkook leaps onto the couch, his eyes sparkling as he pulls out the gaming controls.

When he hands a console to Jimin, it breathes life into the room.

Hoseok starts unpacking the ice cream, commenting how delicious it looked while Yoongi starts whining to Namjoon about the replacement of his ruined beanbag chair.

"I want to play, too." I reach for another Jungkook hands me, feeling the sleek coolness of the control.

The house seems alive again, although it's missing components. It will never be the same— not without the assurance of permanence. But this is better.

It's better than before, when nobody made a move to talk and everything seemed cold and distant.

This is better.

"Noona, wake up! You're going to get me killed!" Jungkook complains, and it's such a normal thing to come out of his mouth it stuns me.

We needed normality.

Maybe we finally had it.

"Right— sorry." I say as I work the controls, my eyes darting to the front door. Something in me kept flaring the hope in my heart that he'd come back through the door, and say something impossible like he was staying.

Forever.

Then a series of thoughts flash by my mind, clouding everything else with the impossible possibility.

Would he be mad if he found out that I was trailing him?

Would he find out?

If I was careful— if I—

The game console suddenly drops from my hand, and a plan forms itself in my mind as I hurry to stand up.

Jin is the first to notice.

"Where are you going?"

I hated to lie, but sometimes it was necessary.

"Just to get some air."

He believes me— and I internally thank myself for making that a habit ever since V left. The house had seemed small and suffocating when he wasn't here— except for this time that wasn't true.

But I usually left the house to take a walk, which made it to be nothing new to the men.

On my way out the door, I snag a dark cap from the hook and feel my phone in in my pocket, mentally going over the battery percentage just in case I got lost on the way out.

It wouldn't be any harm to find out where he went, would it?