Finally...Us [BTSxReader]

Chapter 33

"Can't believe how awesome and frightening you looked the moment you stabbed NamJoon! That look on your face still gives me chills when I think about it!" Kiki raved about the play throughout the walk to the closest bar to celebrate the end of the surprise play Felix and Chan's group did for the college festival.

NamJoon could only shake his head as he heard Kiki and Lexy hype M about the role she played on stage and how amazing of a job she did. He agreed with them. In reality, he would have never guessed she was ever going to step foot on a stage, in front of hundreds of people, and put on an act that good. But after he read the script, he understood why she accepted it. Her character went through emotional turmoil from the beginning, and slowly went insane, and he could see the psychology major in her want to experiment with such a character, to dig deep into her psyche and manifest the side she needed for the play. And manifest she did, especially in some parts he knew collided with her real life.

"NamJoon, I have to ask though" Jin turned to him, a puzzled expression on his face as he was eyeing his friend "how did you get to play in this too? You never said anything about it, and I do remember you saying you could not come with us." he asked, and NamJoon could only grin at his older friend.

"Well, Jin, I was not expecting to be stabbed either or asked to play on stage" NamJoon replied, taking a sip of his beer while watching the theater group interact with his friends and their colleagues.

It was a large group in the bar, and Felix and Chan started hyping the entire play in front of everyone, telling them how they came up with and how they recruited people. Still, his eyes strayed to M's profile, who seemed to shift between amusement and embarrassment whenever they brought her and her contributions to the discussion. She was a different person on stage, he could see it even from the rehearsals, and she tried her best to make the character come to life, to let everyone in the audience feel her conflicted emotions.

When M approached him the first time about him joining the group, he thought she was joking, as he did not see her as someone who could ever perform. She was too honest in her motives, her actions giving her away most of the time. When it came to emotions, he knew she could hide them away, but to portray emotions that were not even hers, he did not think she would be able to pull it off. Then she asked him to do it so they could mend their somewhat awkward friendship. And the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. She was serious about it. And it was going to be therapeutic in a way. So he said yes, and then he got the script. His role was to play her husband, a cheater even. And the more he read about it, the more he understood why this would help them somehow.

The rehearsals were not bad, and M always took them seriously, especially the part where her character had to confront him for the last time before his death. He could see how much she struggled and shifted through expressions and stances until she finally settled on the one she felt was perfect for their story. And that is when he saw the M from the beach coming back, sad and broken, mixing with the insanity in the character she was performing. Her running towards him while pretending to scream always made him want to not move, to let her stab him until she was satisfied and all her rage dissipated. But his character did not deserve or earn redemption, so he always paused between actions, which got him a scolding from Chan every time. His mental self conflicted with his character and neither knew how to act, as M and the character became inseparable in his eyes.

Then, the big evening came and she whispered to him to go with the flow, no matter if he needed to adlib or perform differently than the rehearsals. He felt M had a trick up her sleeve, and he wanted to ask, but at the same time did not want to spoil her surprise. Until his death scene, where she confronted him, everything went without a hitch, no out of character performance. Then she stepped on stage, fake knife in hand, her eyes glassy, like a doll. And she laughed, and laughed, broken, insane and crying. That was the part where she found out what he did behind her back, how he tried to poison her to get rid of her, and then take her money and her child and move in with his mistress. And she reacted differently than the rehearsals, and he was frozen on the spot. The shock was written on his face as she ran for him, knife in front, ready to stab him again and again as the script said. But where this should have been a brawl for his life, and try to stop her crazy self from killing him, he was rooted to the spot. The tears streaming down her face rendered him motionless and before he knew it, her weight pushed him to the ground, the knife clipped into his coat, one swift strike in the center of his heart.

He died in seconds, shock still on his face, trying to adlib everything that was happening as a reaction to her acting. She was still kneeled over his body, still holding the knife into his body, still crying at what she just did. And without anyone noticing, she whispered to his ear, her hair covering his reaction 'And with this, it's all over'. He could only look at her, her eyes serious as she gazed into his own, and before she started getting up from his dead body, she sent him a small smile, then she immediately started laughing like she went mad. The rest of the scenes went accordingly to the script, just his death scene was changed, but Chan could not be mad about it. The heartbroken wife killed her husband, not in a fit of madness, but a fit of sadness, anger, broken heart, and fear of losing the only person whom she loved more than anyone else in the world, her child. And the audience reacted spectacularly to his death scene, so no one could berate them for changing it up.

The fact that they were just characters who appeared on stage as means for a flashback on the hero's story, the child who grew up watching his mother throw herself off a cliff in front of his eyes, made it even more surprising as the audience felt more in tune with the heartbroken woman. And they felt the husband got the ending he deserved, a stab of surprise, no time to fight for his life, the same way the news of his plan shocked the woman to her core.

NamJoon could only smile as he watched the theater group interact with everyone, M turning from them to send him a smile, acting the way she usually did before everything blew up, before he started acting like a douche. And he understood what that whispered line finally meant. With his death on stage, she killed the last resentment and pain she had from what happened, and she could finally begin anew as his friend. She wiped that slate clean, and she was going to take it slowly into trusting him again as a friend. They were ok once more.

Watching Yoongi approach her from the large crowd in the bar, NamJoon could only sigh, reaching for his beer once more, knowing that from now on, if he did get drunk again, he should call Jin or Taehyung to help him get back to his room. And with that thought in mind, he was intent on going back to celebrating his performance and debut as an actor. And maybe tease Jin about him getting some competition in the drama world.