⊱Un danseur meurt deux fois. D'abord quand il arrête de danser...⊰

A dancer dies twice. First when he stops dancing...

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"Enjoy your drinks."

Jimin thanked the waitress while she placed the hot chocolates on our table, and I was about to as well until her wink at the blonde man put me at a loss of words. I would have felt invisible if Jimin didn't flash an awkward smile at her and quickly settled his gaze on me.

After she left, I breathed out a chuckle. "Was she flirting?"

He took a sip from his drink and shrugged before squinting his eyes and looking out the window. "Can't say I don't enjoy the attention."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you do. You were very popular among women as a celebrity."

"I guess I still am?" He giggled and turned to look at me again. His gaze was a mixture of curiosity and desire. "You said you liked me, didn't you?"

My breath hitched and something crawled up my insides. The skin on my arms crawled, twitching and jittering, but I kept my composure and played along.

"Not liked. Like. I still like you so much."

Somehow, saying it after a while of getting to know him seemed easier than the first time I said I liked him. The words rolled off my tongue more naturally and my stomach wasn't twisting in queasiness.

Clearing my throat, I turned my attention to the hot chocolate sitting on the table, untouched, and took a sip from it. The taste that I was hoping for didn't come, and if it came, at least I didn't recognize it.

"Ugh, this tastes bland," I exclaimed in disappointment. "I guess this is to compensate. I can eat and drink whatever I want but at what cost?"

Jimin snorted and drank from his as well.

"I'll just have to deal with it because I can eat as much meat as I want with no consequences," I sighed, stirring the drink and mixing the whipped cream with the chocolate.

"What if I'm vegan?"

"Unfortunate," I said and stuck out my tongue when he looked offended.

Our conversation dragged more and more through the day even though we weren't talking about anything important. The snow was starting to fall outside and I checked the time to realize we had spent hours chatting.

Telling Jimin that I had to go, I walked out the restaurant and headed to the small log cabin I bought to keep some things I couldn't bring to heaven with me. When muffled crunching sounds of snow were heard behind me, I realized he was following me and saw his teasing smile when I turned around my head.

I sighed. "Why are you following me?"

The blonde weirdo widened his smile. "I'm not?"

"Stop following me."

The crunching sounds continued as we neared the cabin located far from the village.

"The fact that you tell me to stop makes it so much more enjoyable."

I shut my eyes in exasperation and took a deep breath before opening them and watching the house become bigger until I reached the door. Hiding something would be useless since he was often with me. Not caring that he was standing behind me, I opened the wooden door and walked inside.

He was about to come inside as well before I spread out my arms in defense and hissed, "Hippity hoppity get off my property, demon."

His eyes, however, were focused on something behind me. "Are those... bunnies?"

I looked behind me and at the dozens of bunnies hopping around the living room. Scratching my neck, I drawled, "Well..."

"From those cosmetics experiments, I presume?"

It was obvious to him that I saved- Well, technically, stole the bunnies from the laboratories that conducted experiments on them since he was there with me to watch the torture.

"I couldn't help it," I said in a small voice and walked to the living room to pet one of the bunnies. "I couldn't just leave them like that. I made it seem like a robbery."

"They'll just get new ones to experiment on, you know?" Jimin sighed and came up to kneel beside me and pet the bunny as well. "This isn't the way but... you want me to help you take them to animal shelters?"

I whipped my head at him with wide eyes. At that moment, he held so much warmth in his eyes as they locked with mine. He seemed more human than ever since we met and a dangerous thought crossed my mind. I wondered if he was still the Deadly Sin of Greed or a normal man whom I had grown close to.

The whole day passed with us spending time together, partaking in the small pleasures of life as normal people. As crazy as it seemed, it made me want to hold onto my belief that he was someone I could trust. He was someone with whom I was enjoying my time with.

I broke into a smile, nodding. "I'd like that."

The time we spent taking the bunnies to animal shelters was not long. After the last one was safely accepted to a shelter, I sat myself on the small couch in my living room and Jimin followed me as well, slumping back beside me.

"Thank you," I said, grabbing his attention when he was scanning the room. "I know you used to do many charity works and stuff, but doing them now as a... Sin... I'm really surprised."

His eyes flitted away from mine and he was silent, lost in thought for a moment. I was afraid that I might had offended him in some way until he spoke.

"I like doing the right thing- I want to do the right thing." A beat of silence passed as he tried to organize his thoughts or so it seemed. "I was wronged a lot of times when I was alive and I didn't want that happening to others. I wanted happiness for others and I worked a lot to please others... I wanted people to like me in the end. I thought they'd like me if I did what they wanted."

With empty eyes staring off into the distance, Jimin never looked as vulnerable as he did now. His words were leaving him in painful whispers and I didn't know what to think when he was showing me this side of him.

"'They' as in your fans?" I asked carefully, becoming more in tune with his smallest moves, with the way he was intaking every breath.

"Everyone. My fans, my company, my family. I danced and danced until I fainted every time. I accepted everything my company made me do. I was overworked but that was the only way I could be accepted and liked. The smallest mistake was detrimental and everyone liked seeing me be perfect."

The air felt heavy as his words weighed me down. Tying his worth to others' attention was destructive on its own and I couldn't imagine how he felt while living.

"Your company..." I wondered out loud. His company was owned by my father. "Snowberry entertainment?"

He nodded slowly, still not meeting my gaze. "Apparently they didn't care about my health that time. The owner of the company demanded and only cared that I be squeezed out, until my life ran out, into more money since I was getting more popular. I ignored whenever I hurt myself while dancing but in the end, my body hurt too much that I couldn't move. I was hospitalized."

A gasp left me. All this time, I assumed that he was in the same hospital as me because of a minor problem. More than that, I couldn't believe that my father had pushed him to such a state.

He couldn't... He wouldn't...

"I had a spinal cord injury," he whispered and his voice started shaking, struggling to let the words come across. "I was told that I could never dance again..."

My hand flew up to my mouth and I couldn't say anything as I watched his eyes grow dull and move lower.

"My family saw no more value in me and I knew I lost my fans that day... But the most horrible thing was... losing the ability to dance felt like my life had just ended right there. Dancing was my everything." He drew a long breath to calm his ragged breathing and closed his eyes. "Days passed when I was in the hospital but I felt like I was dead. Since I lost everything, I wanted nothing else but to end everything... And that's what I did."

Hearing him, I was reminded by what Humility told me about my father. He was responsible for Jimin's end because of his greed and I felt like the whole world was spinning as my vision started blurring. My throat was clogged up and I suffocated, struggling to take in air.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he suddenly said and I looked up to see him looking at me in worry.

"No," I managed to say and lifted my legs to kneel on the couch, facing him. "I'm so sorry. I'm- It hurts me too much to know you suffered so much because of that."

He twisted his body to face me with one leg folded under him and offered a soft smile. "You don't have to say sorry. Not you at least. Unlike others, you like me without me doing anything even when I don't do what you want... and that makes me happy."

A pang of guilt knocked the air out of my lungs and I dropped my head, unable to face him.

His hand suddenly came up to cup my cheek and he whispered, "I just hope you'll keep liking me and be with me."

His touch still lingered when he disappeared and his words left a deep scar in my heart.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop," a familiar voice spoke and I snapped my head up to find Kindness standing before me.

"Are you okay, Sae?"

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Dun dun DUUUUUN

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