Chapter Text
“So you met your soulmate.”
Jimin hummed in acknowledgement without looking up from his plate of food.
“And he asked you out.”
“Mmhmm.”
“And you rejected him.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Taehyung made a series of incoherent noises.
“Why?!”
“You used to say it all the time,” Jimin muttered, stuffing more pasta into his mouth. “Stranger danger.”
“But this is your soulmate!”
Jimin let out an exasperated sigh and looked at Jungkook. “Tell your boyfriend to stop.”
“Stop,” Jungkook said to Taehyung, who shot back with an offended No! The boy looked back at Jimin, and shrugged. “Oh well. I tried.”
Jimin jabbed at his pasta, glaring up at Taehyung. “You should know better than anyone why I don’t want to be in a relationship right now.”
Taehyung seemed to pause at that. His scowl softened. “But Jimin—this is your soulmate. The one you’ve been looking forward to meeting all this time; you finally get to meet him, but you refuse to be involved with them romantically? I just… don’t understand?”
“I refuse to be involved in a relationship I don’t even know stems from real feelings,” Jimin said, stuffing a forkful of pasta into Taehyung’s mouth. “He and I were in a relationship together without the soulmate bond, though he felt stronger toward the soulmate. Maybe it could be the other way around; maybe Hoseok would realize that despite being soulmates, he prefers someone else. I don’t think I can handle being rejected by my soulmate after a non-soulmate dumped me for their soulmate.”
Taehyung chewed on the pasta in his mouth thoughtfully, swallowing heavily before tangling his feet with Jimin’s. “That’s understandable…”
“Good, now eat.”
Clatters of forks against plates were the only sounds in the kitchen. After their meal, Jimin got up to wash the dishes (it was his turn of the week), and as he soaped them all up, Taehyung came to stand next to him, rinsing the suds off before putting them on the drying rack.
Jimin tensed. He knew that the brunet had understood his reasons as to why he doesn’t want to be romantically involved with Hoseok, but nobody knew when he’d hit you with a question you least expected. He visibly relaxed at the words that came from Taehyung’s mouth.
“… Was your melody nice?”
The smile broke out before he could even suppress it.
“Yeah.”
Yet more silence followed.
Jimin inhaled deeply before speaking again.
“Tae.”
He paused in the middle of cleaning, causing Taehyung to stop his motions too, looking at the shorter in curiosity.
“I think I want to try dancing again.”
Taehyung nearly dropped the plate in his hand, managing to catch it in time and placing it on the rack before grasping Jimin’s hands tightly, eyes shining.
“Do it,” the brunet urged, practically shaking with excitement. And with each word of encouragement, Jimin felt more and more confident about his decision.
Well, he felt confident until he was actually in the dance studio Hoseok told him about.
It was all so overwhelming; seeing the mirror-clad walls, the speakers, the faint stench of sweat still lingering in the air despite the attempts at clearing it out.
His knee throbbed as the bottom of his shorts legs brushed against it.
He was about to turn away, tell Taehyung that he couldn’t do this after all, shove the stupid decision far, far into the abyss of his mind, when a hand on his shoulder had him flinch.
“Fancy seeing you here,” mused a familiar, bright voice.
Jimin turned around to see Hoseok, his golden-brown hair hidden under his cap, his body clad in a simple white T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
“I thought for sure you wouldn’t come.”
I never thought I would, either, Jimin muttered in his head.
“Er… I thought…” Jimin stammered before calming himself and fidgeting with the loose string on his shirt. “Well. You heard the melody, right? It just… I guess it inspired me to take up dancing again?”
Hoseok’s grin seemed to brighten at that.
Gosh, he really needed to stop that before Jimin went blind.
“But I think I’m not really ready for it yet,” Jimin quickly followed up before Hoseok said anything. He felt a little bad when Hoseok’s face fell, but he didn’t regret saying it. It was the truth, after all.
He caught the elder’s eyes shift toward his right knee—which was beginning to throb and ache uncomfortably again.
“I know you don’t like talking about it, but,” Hoseok began, coughing uncomfortably. “If it’s because of your leg… well. We can start with small things? The basics?”
There was really too much hopefulness in tone of that question that Jimin had a hard time trying to think up of excuses to deny it. He ran a hand in his black locks, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth, before nodding reluctantly.
“Okay. Basics, and basics only,” he mumbled.
Hoseok’s sunny smile let him know that he had said the right thing.