Between Footsteps| p.jm

SEVENTEEN| --- .--. . -.

"What did he say?" you questioned the moment Jimin came into view; the male playfully tisking and rolling his eyes at your form of greeting.

You looked anxious, as if you had been pacing. You shook lightly and had been chewing on your nail in order to calm the nerves. Jimin's heart softened upon noting how anxious you had been in waiting for him.

"Hello to you too, peanut," he joked none the less, watching in satisfaction as your tense body loosened under the teasing.

"Sorry," you apologized with a light smile, "I was just worried, but you're OK so..." you poked the inside of your cheek with your tongue under the awkward tension while Jimin couldn't help a smile that hid his eyes as his heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, I told you. I'm fine."

You looked down and the space between the two of you grew hot before you looked up with curiosity brimming in your eyes.

"So...?" you questioned impatiently, referring back to the statement you had exclaimed upon first spotting him. He blinked and laughed a little, shaking his head at your returned enthusiasm.

"Alright alright. So when I first showed up, we talked about my individual performances for the next 10 days. I'm preforming on day 7, and he gave me some... suggestions. I have a lot to work on to prepare, it's going to be different than usual."

You weren't listening intently to this as you failed to see what the importance of bringing up his solo performances in such a time was.

"But what about us?" You blurted out, cutting him off. He tisked at your impatience and rolled his eyes.

"He OK'd us to continue as the duo. Said he wanted us to preform again anyway, and also under the same conditions as the last deal. We still get whatever memory we want at the end. We won't be performing for at least the next 10 days so that we have enough time to practice."

Relief and joy flooded your veins as you released a breath you hadn't known you'd been holding. Your mind was so focused on the fact that your plan was working that you barely noticed Jimin's pink cheeks as he continued speaking.

"But uh, he had some suggestions for us too, so-"

"We'll worry about that later," you cut in, waving him off as you threaded your fingers together in anticipation. "So, now we have an excuse to where we can enter the tent after hours without suspicion. Let's think, is there any way to guarantee that we'll be alone and that no one will walk in on us?"

Jimin hummed and narrowed his eyes in thought before speaking aloud.

"Well, the ringmaster usually isn't around after the final show. It's just something I've noticed. He's probably in meetings or something, he's super busy after all. But anyway, we can start dancing around that time, and if we have music going-"

"Then it will be less suspicious," you finished with excitement in your eyes. "You're saying if we keep playing the music while we're behind the curtain then we have a better chance of not getting caught because people will just assume we're dancing."

You were beaming and even felt your heart beat in anticipation while Jimin responded in a much lesser way at your exclamation. His eyes suddenly filled with hesitance as he thought over what you had said and shook his head before capturing your attention once more.

"Wait wait wait, back up," he spoke urgently with furrowed eyebrows. "Go behind the curtain? I thought we were just looking...?"

You blinked and fidgeted awkwardly at his incorrect assumption.

"Ah... no, at this point I'm just going full in. I might as well, you know?"

Seeing his expression made you feel guilty as you remembered how hard it had been to get him to agree with the plan to begin with. You sighed as you realized you probably appeared reckless and you noted the nervous light in his eyes.