Brush Strokes ✓

27.

Taehyung had a constant smile on his face as he went through the schedule. It started with dance practices. He was so happy, it showed through his dance. He looked amazing as he danced. Even during recording a song, he made no mistake.

It's true what they say. The performance of a person improves greatly when they are in a good mood. The reason for his good mood was known to everyone by now. He just couldn't stop talking about it and checking the clock every five minutes.

By the time lunch time neared, Taehyung had dropped everything and was waiting near the reception. He was biting his nails anxiously, giving the receptionist a nervous smile everytime their eyes met. He realised, he had never been so excited to see a friend coming to visit him at work.

But then, other's weren't her and she was certainly a lot different than anyone he had ever met. She was almost like him, weird, loud, often clumsy but innocent and insightful. Most importantly, she listened to him and wasn't afraid to let her opinion known. If it was any other person, they would have surely let him do whatever he wanted but not her. She treated him as her equal, not a superior. In this line of work and after achieving such success, people often forgot they were humans too, just like everyone else.

She was a good friend even before being his crush.

Taehyung felt his heart beating faster as the door opened and in came a woman, bowing to the receptionist respectfully.  It took her time to notice him as she looked around herself, her big eyes taking in the interior as if seeing something like this for the first time. It made him chuckle softly. It also made her look at him.

Aera squealed, her lips breaking out in the brightest of smiles Taehyung had ever seen on her face. It didn't even take her a moment to run and launch herself over him. The man grunted with the force of their collision, his arms instinctively wrapping around her back protectively and lifting her off the ground and swinging around. It elicited giggled from both of them, drawing attention to themselves but the staff distracted themselves from the adorable sight.

"Wow, I'm taller than you for once," Aera said, squishing a smiling Tae's face in both of her hands. He laughed, "Oh, trust me. There are a lot of times when I feel shorter even while standing infront of you."

"You are just adorable, you know that?" Taehyung blushed at her unexpected words of compliment. He looked away, hiding his face as he let her down but kept his arms around her.

"Adorable?" he scoffed with fake anger, amusing the woman even more. "I'm not adorable, I'm sexy. Have you never seen me properly before?" Like the expression king he was, Taehyung quickly hid his shyness behind a serious, smoldering gaze. He didn't fail to notice the way her eyelashes fluttered and her ears turned red.

"S-sexy," she scoffed this time, hitting his chest lightly. "Don't fool yourself, Mr. Kim. Jimin and Jungkook are more sexy. Namjoon is the sexiest of them all."

"What!" he exclaimed, his amusement gone as shock and an unexpected but familiar wave of jealousy hit him. "You mean to say I'm not sexy? Just you wait, Lee Aera," he said, distancing himself from the giggling woman. "I'll show you just how sexy I can be one day."

"Forget it," Aera rolled her eyes, teasing him even more. "You can't prove anything. You'll always be an adorable baby." He turned around, scowling at her as she followed behind him. Catching up to him, she clung to his arm, pouting and making his scowl disappear immediately.

"I've got a good news," she changed the subject, her eyes lighting up and showing just how excited she was. "What is it?" She told him all about the visit of Miss Kwon to her studio before, telling him in detail just how big of an opportunity it was and she was shit scared of messing up as he tried giving her a short tour of his work place.