⊱Danse avec le diable⊰

Dancing with the devil

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A pensive sigh escaped me for the twelfth time as my feet stuck to the floor, unmoving. The longing and yearning to do something I used to love and laze about was betraying my sense of duty as my eyes scanned the poster once again, the words on it already committed to memory without me intending to.

"Saengel."

The whisper tickled my ear, making me jerk away in disgust with my fists up. "What the-!" Calming my heart, I frowned at the blonde snickering man. "What are you-? Stop stalking me, that's my job!"

Jimin rolled his eyes. "But you never follow me." He turned to the movie poster I was staring at and gestured at it in confusion and mild astonishment. "Horror? You're into this sort of thing?"

"I like the thrill and shock I get while watching since I rarely had anything interesting happening in my life back when I was alive," I explained bashfully, a little embarrassed that I was admitting it to someone whose life was like a movie. "I used to want to feel different emotions all the time. It just made me feel alive. I guess I got addicted to it at some point."

Jimin hummed in understanding, his eyes never leaving me while I explained. It was a while since we sort of made up and started getting along better than before. He was becoming more attentive to me or maybe I was getting more focused on him and his actions. It was making me feel vulnerable somehow.

"I mean, whatever," I brushed it off in the end.

"If you want to watch this movie, just go in. It's a weekday and it's empty save a few seats anyway." He shrugged and looped an arm around mine to drag me to one of the auditoriums. "It's there."

Squeaking in surprise, I grabbed his bicep, which was firmer than I expected under his suede jacket, to stop him. "Wait! I have to pay for my ticket. I can't just barge in."

Halting his strides, Jimin turned his head to me with a frown, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes lost and questioning me.

"I'll pay first and then go in," I stated before he could argue and pulled him to the cashier. He was confused about my actions but silently watched me untangle my arm from his and make my ticket purchase. The cashier lady was zoned out before I walked up to the counter and seemed like she didn't want to be there from how sluggish she was and how she was scowling at me for no reason.

While she was handing me the ticket, her eyes suddenly widened as they darted to something behind me. Her expression switched to a flirtatious one in a blink of an eye that I had to do a double take before turning around.

"One ticket for 'Cursed Manito', the upcoming screening that's gonna happen now, thanks."

Jimin went around me and up to the cashier with money in his hand. She seemed to caress his hand while taking the money with a coquettish glance from below her fluttering eyelashes, but her eyes popped when he said, "Any seat beside hers," jotting his chin at me.

"Are you two together?" She blurted and I was about to nervously rush out a 'no' before Jimin beat me to it with a rather... sharp response.

"I believe it's not your concern." He snorted humorlessly with an eyebrow cocked. "Mind your own business and give me my ticket, will you?"

The cashier lady flinched and rushed to type in something on her computer before handing him the ticket with a shaky 'thank you'. Jimin turned to me with a broad grin that squished his eyes into crescents and looped his arm around mine again.

"Let's go in, angel!" He chimed and practically ran to the auditorium.

I was musing on what just happened that I didn't realize he was going to watch it with me, too. When I did, we were taking our seats in the dark room that was filling up to the full unlike what Jimin predicted. The movie was popular among horror fans like me so it wasn't too surprising.

"What was that about?" I finally asked him as he made himself comfortable on his chair.

He glanced at me and smiled softly. "I just hate it when people try to stick their noses in my private life. When I was alive, privacy was a foreign concept."

I nodded with a hum and silence grew in the room as the intro of the movie started playing on the big screen before us. Some children were chatting in the front, squealing about blood and gore that I had to shake my head.

Time flew by as I let myself relax and enjoy the movie like I did when I was human. It wasn't too hard and soon enough, I felt like I was taken back to the old times. Even though the movie was a new one, nostalgia washed over me. After watching any movie, I would always talk to Ria about it.

I wondered if she was living well now in her new life.

Caught up in my thoughts, I got startled when a jump-scare appeared all of a sudden and flung my body to the side like I used to. This time, however, there was someone beside me, and I realized that I threw myself at Jimin.

I had my hands gripping his shirt and head buried in his chest, and his arms wrapped themselves around me before his fringes brushed my forehead as he leaned down to me, murmuring, "Are you okay, angel?"

Clearing my throat, I pulled myself back as far as his arms around me allowed and looked up at him. He had a small smile while gazing back at me.

"I'm fine so, um, let me go?"

Chuckling, he retracted his arms and let me go. "As someone who likes watching horror movies, you're scared of a jump-scare like that? Cute."

I pouted and forced myself to stay still while watching the rest of the movie. Luckily, there was no other sudden scenes and the movie was mostly psychologically scary which I enjoyed.

After the movie ended, we walked out of the room along with the crowd who chattered about the plot twists. I flinched when a group of girls walking in front of Jimin and I giggled loudly while sneaking glances at him not so secretly.

My skin jumped when Jimin flung his arm around my shoulder as we walked. The giggles died down fast and I felt small under the sharp eyes of the girls now directed at me.

"Do you mind?" I asked Jimin, frowning.

"You need to go to the toilet, baby? Okay, I'll wait outside," he said and I looked at him dumbfounded.

"Ugh, he's taken," one of the girls groaned loudly and Jimin swerved us to a different direction before laughing.

"I just realized we can't urinate." He led us back to the front door of the building after changing direction again but not taking his arm off me. "So did you feel alive watching that film?"

I hummed, looking up at the evening sky, thinking. "Not really... It felt good though. I think we're wired to not feel much so..."

"Do you truly want to feel alive? Want to experience night life then?"

Before I could question what he asked, we suddenly teleported to the back door of a night club I guessed from the loud bass booming and trap music shaking the place.

"Welcome to the dark side," Jimin said with a smirk and walked us into the club where I feared that I would go deaf.

Disco neon lights illuminated the dark place, swirling over dancing bodies. I had only seen such places in movies and scared was an understatement of what I was feeling.

"I shouldn't be here," I whisper-yelled to myself and Jimin somehow caught that.

"But you're not teleporting."

Yes, I wasn't. I was intrigued since I had never been to a club before. As much as I was scared, my legs were taking me deeper and deeper into the crowded place, letting my eyes roam free.

"Want to dance? Letting loose in a place like this where no one would see you was how I used to de-stress," Jimin said, loud enough to be heard over the deafening music and spun me around to face him. "You'll feel free and alive."

"You do realize people can watch you and creeps watch girls all the time, right?" I frowned and he burst out laughing, leaning forward from the force. "How no one saw you in a club is an enigma. If I were there, I would-"

Pursing my lips, I slapped myself internally for nearly presenting myself as a creepy fan. Sure, I liked him as a dancer and I was a fan, but he didn't need to know that.

"You would..." Jimin came closer to me and lowered his head to my level, hair brushing my forehead and hands coming up to my cheeks to lift my head. My heart jumped when I realized our noses were nearly touching. "You would what?"

"I-I would... I would see you...? Yeah, see you," I stammered and moved back to put some distance between us. "You said I'd feel alive, what is this? I don't feel alive."

He smiled and pinched my cheek. "You're not dancing, genius."

I squeaked out when he pulled me back to himself and our bodies collided. He moved to the rhythm of the music and urged me to do as well with his hands interlocked with mine. Today was somehow an odd day where I wanted to do whatever I wanted. With a foolish smile, I followed his steps and danced with him like I would with a friend. Our smiles were illuminated by the colorful lights and like he said, no one but us had our eyes on each other.

It was strange. When I started approaching him out of my personal issue, I didn't expect that I would feel this comfortable with him.

"Saejin?"

I gasped internally when I heard a familiar voice and jumped away from Jimin as if I was scalded. Turning around, I stood face to face with Temperance who was bewildered to see me.

"I- I was just here to, um, for research, Bada. I'll show myself out," I blabbered and dashed out of the place.

"A balance is good." Jimin ran beside me with an amused grin and sparkling eyes that held too much glee. "Work hard play hard-"

"Oh, shut up."

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Here's an update omg 😭 👉👈

And not me making a reference to my future book as a movie being shown 🙈

Thank you for reading 🌸