With Chaeri and Taehyung as main, the prompt chosen is: "Wow, I really can't speak, huh? Must be because of how pretty you look"
❒ words: 972
❒ summary: In which Chaeri uses Tae's beauty to her benefit
❒ genre: Slice of life
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PTD On Stage in LA | Day 3
She was never good with words. She preferred facts: solid, reliable, hard to misunderstand. Words, on the other hand, always seemed elusive, ungraspable, especially when she had to use them in English. The situation worsened drastically when she found herself in front of thousands of people, right after singing for two hours non-stop. What was so difficult about a simple 'thank you'? For her, it was a real mystery. In fact, she didn't believe a speech was necessary to express the emotion she felt every time. Hearing her songs sung by so many voices, with different accents, but with the same passion she put into them... she was sure it was evident during her performances how much she appreciated and was grateful for everything.
But it should be considered that those who cause their own misfortune should weep for themselves. She knew that day would come. She had all those years of experience and a highly competent team to ignore the inevitability of that moment. She could have taken the time to prepare a few sentences in English, memorize the pronunciation, and say them on stage. Instead, look at that, she had done nothing and couldn't even remember why
In just a few seconds, all the times she had literally fled the room when she saw the English coach enter came back to her. It was almost like a scene from a cartoon: he came in one door and she scurried out the other, as if her only purpose in life was to avoid that conversation.
She had to refrain from slapping her forehead for being so stupid and irresponsible. She was still on stage, under the gaze of thousands of people.
Tae had just finished his speech. His English was insecure, his pronunciation questionable, but at least he had said something.
That evening, he stood out among the other seven, entirely dressed in red with a mask on his face, he had fun dancing and singing in a costume inspired by the Squid Game series, which had conquered the world in record time. And the crowd was ecstatic. A true show genius, born to capture attention: that's who Kim Taehyung was.
A shiver ran down her sweaty back, a testament to the hours spent jumping and running, reproducing the choreographies she knew by heart for that performance.
It was her turn to speak.
With an uncertain gesture, she brought the microphone to her lips. Embarrassed, with no idea what to say or how to formulate a coherent speech, she searched the most remote areas of her brain for a foothold, a memory, or anything that could help her find the right words.
Then, suddenly, the screams of the crowd became so loud that they overwhelmed even her chaotic thoughts.Behind her, on the huge screen, appeared Taehyung who had removed his mask.
And, damn, he was breathtakingly beautiful.
At that moment, a fleeting memory from a few days before came back to her: she remembered Namjoon, visibly irritated, trying to watch an episode of Friends. The younger members of the group were making noise around him, forcing him to restart the same part of the episode several times because he couldn't hear the lines.
Yes, that line she had heard repeated at least five times was perfect, and luckily, it had stuck in her mind.
She turned towards Taehyung, just a few meters away from her. The blue lenses of his eyes shone under the reflection of the multicolored stage lights, accentuated by the glows of the armybombs not far from them.
"Wow, I really can't speak, huh? Must be because of how pretty you look"
The crowd roared in approval, shouted for the interaction, clapped for the way the boy's cheeks turned red, almost as red as his costume, because of the unexpected compliment.
The rest of the members burst into laughter, teasing Taehyung, while she realized that the attention from her speech had successfully been diverted elsewhere.
What a perfect end, she would have shaken her own hand in congratulations.
Later, in the backstage
"Chaeri-yaaaaa, you made me blush like crazy out there. Did everyone notice?" said Tae, walking beside Chaeri, an arm around her shoulders and almost all his weight leaning on her, partly from the exhaustion of the evening, partly because he loved to tease her.
"Every single person here saw how red you got" Jimin replied with an amused smile before the girl could, taking the perfect opportunity to tease his group mate when he was usually the butt of the jokes.
"Aish" Tae sighed theatrically, faking a look of devastation "my reputation as a tough guy is ruined because of you, Chaeri-ya."
Chaeri raised an eyebrow. "When have you ever had a tough guy reputation?" she said with a playful tone.
"Hey, you" a sarcastic, accusatory tone came from Namjoon as he approached the trio who were dragging their feet, destroyed by now, along the floor, hoping to reach a place where they could sleep for hours. Many hours.
"Don't think I didn't realize you did it to avoid the speech you were supposed to prepare for tonight" He looked at her with a look that said it all, the look of someone who raised you and knows all your little tricks.
"Oops?" she looked at him, softening her eyes and curling her lips a bit to look more innocent - which she wasn't - and more forgivable - her behavior was absolutely unforgivable -.
"So you didn't think for real that I was so handsome to leave you speechless?" Tae had pulled away from her half hug to look her in the eyes, his tone high-pitched.
"If it makes you feel better, I really think you're the prettiest of us all"
"Ha! Did you hear that, Hyung? I really am the prettiest"
