Brighter Days || Taekook

Part 44

Taehyung's leg bounces nervously and he can't bring it to stop. He's tried, but as soon as he forces himself to sit still, this urge to move takes over his entire mind and body. So he clutches his fingers to not start fidgeting with them, but as soon as he's occupied thinking about his fingers, his leg starts to bounce again on its own accord. He's given up taming it now, accepts that it shakes non-stop and that his calf feels on the verge of cramping already.

At least he's not compulsively rotating from left to right on his conference chair, forcing the furniture to squeak in agony each time, the way that Jimin does. Jimin, who's face is pale and who's hands are clenched to fists, doesn't look as if he's mentally present. His eyes are vacantly fixated on a spot, and even though his body moves with the chair, his head stays still.

Jimin.

After everyone had gone to sleep last night – surprisingly early for a bunch of boys in their teens, but all their energy had been drained by their heightened emotions of that day – Taehyung had stayed on the couch in the living room, wrapped up in a blanket because although the day had been filled with sunshine, night time still brought a wintery chill.

When Taehyung had thought that everyone had long drifted off to sleep and succumbed to his own thoughts; they really want to go through with this insane idea, really want to pretend that he's no longer a member, really plan on confronting PD-nim the next morning, all seven of them as a unit because for the first time something akin to actual unity blooms between them; a quiet voice had jerked him out of his thoughts.

"Can't sleep?"

Jimin stood leaning against the doorframe in an oversized white shirt and boxershorts, hair sticking in all directions suggesting that he had been restlessly tossing on his mattress before getting up again.

Taehyung hummed, and when Jimin shuffled closer he noticed the dancer shivering slightly in the cold of the apartment and offered a spot under his blanket quietly by lifting up one of the edges. Jimin accepted the invitation and quickly slipped under the blanket, sighing contently when he had adjusted it enough to be fully wrapped up in it as well. They were squished right next to each other on a couch that would have comfortably allowed both of them to fully stretch out without having to touch, but Taehyung didn't mind the contact. If he'd had a nightmare, he'd probably not be as willing to let Jimin cosy up to him, but there were no negative thoughts of a distant past lingering in his mind so it was okay; only the worry that he's even unofficially no longer going to be a member of Bangtan Sonyeondan starting from tomorrow gnawed at his thoughts.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Jimin whispered. There was no reason for him to speak so quietly, but Taehyung got it. The dorm was mostly dark safe for the light in the hallway illuminating the room and drawing shadows on the walls. Any loud noises would only disturb the comfort of the night.

Taehyung shook his head.

"I'm only scared this might end badly, for either you or me." His voice was as quiet as Jimin's.

"I wanted to tell you for a long time," Jimin confessed. "But I was scared that if Big Hit found out I told you, or wouldn't need me anymore after getting my hands on the videos, they'd kick me out."

Taehyung knew what that fear felt like, had lived through it a thousand times the previous year, and would live through it a thousand more times this year when their new plan would start unfolding.

"They're not going to kick you out now. You're a part of Bangtan," Taehyung promised quietly.

"And so are you," Jimin answered, a look gleaming in his eyes and an urgency to his voice that had Taehyung swallow.