Where No One Can Chase Us

Jimin felt his body move like the music was an extension of himself.

Taehyung squeezed Jimin's hand as they walked into the first floor of Seoul's Performing Arts' dance studio. The practice rooms inside were massive and covered in both steal and glass designed specifically for dance majors to rent the spaces out. SADA currently occupied not one, not two, but every single room in the building to hold the first dance auditions for the two hundred students rushing.

There were only twenty spots to fill.

Each room had a group of around fifty where an upperclassmen SADA member was going to evaluate a combo that the pledges all had the opportunity to learn beforehand. Taehyung and Jimin memorized both the up-beat jazz choreography and the more solemn contemporary number over the summer when SADA first posted the choreography online.

The boys had danced each number over and over and over again until their parents had yelled to stop making the ceiling shake from jumping around upstairs. Jimin and Taehyung had to put their scrawny teenage bodies to use pushing all of Taehyung's couches and bed out of the way to make enough room to practice in the first place. It was a make-shift studio, but it did its job.

They never practiced at Jimin's. His mom would get quiet whenever Taehyung left and the music stopped. So for almost a week before college Jimin practically lived at Taehyung's house while they learned the audition material.

Jimin squeezed Taehyung's hand back, checking that color was still in his friend's cheeks.

"How are you feeling?" Jimin asked and Taehyung's box smile slipped the smallest bit before climbing back up on his tan face.

"Excited." Taehyung answered, ignoring Jimin's real question. Jimin pouted and Taehyung gave his hand another squeeze, this time his smile was real. Kind. "We're a team. You had my back and I have yours. Let's focus on getting through the audition tonight instead, yeah? Then we can play Mario Kart when we get back or buy that weird ice cream hybrid you like."

"Froyo?"

"Yes. That. Strange. Like pudding. It just doesn't make sense."

"It's frozen yogurt, Taehyung."

"And yet it's not frozen or yogurt."

Jimin snorted and Taehyung smiled at that, a different gleam in his eyes. Jimin poked his tongue lightly in his cheek and tried not to furrow his brows. Something had changed between them this morning and he didn't understand why or how to undo it.

Taehyung woke up and had started acting just a little weird. He kept staring at Jimin and shaking his head with that dumb box smile causing him to look like a cat mid-sneeze. They didn't talk long about last night, about Taehyung accidentally ingesting a drug that could have - well - could have made the night a nightmare. Taehyung said he didn't remember much and that he was grateful for Jimin and that was that. But then Taehyung realized Jimin took care of him despite their argument, lugged his ass back into bed, and even changed him into pajamas.

Jimin looked away, shifting uncomfortably as he dropped to check that his dance shoes were sitting properly on his feet. Honestly, his feet ached to dance bear, but he didn't know how well that'd go over with the judges. He was hoping his friend would start acting normally around him again with time.

"It's starting." Taehyung whispered and Jimin stood up.

"I can't believe we got the same audition slot." Jimin answered and Taehyung nodded, eyes again too bright. You'd think Jimin saved the dude's cat from a semi-truck.

"I know. Out of two hundred pledges to get the same room?" Taehyung said. "Who should we thank? Taylor Swift?"

Jimin tried not to snort. "Why Taylor?"

Taehyung shrugged. "I dunno. Feels right."

Jennie Kim, a recruitment leader and judge for the first audition, shot Jimin and Taehyung a look sharp enough to shut both freshmen right up. Jimin swallowed. Right. They had to perform. Only a couple hours after the first dance the pledges would have to perform solo - so Jimin just had to get through the next hour and hope that Jennie Kim didn't eat him or Taehyung alive.

Taehyung mirrored the same sentiment, giving Jimin a wide eyed look as Jennie sat down, her eyes half hidden by a front facing grey hat that matched her sweatpants. With a clip board in her hand and perfectly done pink dusted nails, Jennie cleared her throat and watched as the pledges scrambled into place in front of her.

"Well." She said and Jimin could see everyone's spines straighten. "Dance."

* * *

Jimin fastened the SADA pledge golden masquerade mask onto his face, tugging at the delicate ribbons at the end. The mask felt heavy on his face as he tied it, the intricate gold leaves and roses decorating the fabric felt like bricks. He bent down, checking his pale dance shoes. God he wished he could just dance bare foot.

His heart raced. It'd be a lie to say he wasn't excited for the solo audition. SADA rented out the campus main opera house for it. The theater was old, older than anything Jimin had ever stepped foot in. Built like a cathedral the walls were lined with pillars that spiraled up to a ceiling that could scrape against the sky. Rows upon rows of green velvet chairs lined the black marble floor and recent renovations filled any cracks in the ancient stone walls with solid gold.

Jimin was alone, standing in a room just off of the main stage which was surrounded by dark green velvet curtains. They were heavy and encompassing, cutting Jimin off from any light while he waited for his turn. In front of him was a glass table that reached his waist where a thick piece of paper laid.

Jimin turned it over in his hands, reading the dance combination over and over again. The second audition was much harder than the first - usually the make or break for pledges rushing the frat; they were given no prior information for it.

Jimin bit his lip as he read over the written choreography and one word description for the emotion of the piece. The tempo and style were added underneath and Jimin almost doubled over in relief when he saw contemporary in thin letters. His jazz audition had gone smoothly earlier with Taehyung, both boys receiving high scores, but Jimin's heart sang when it came to contemporary instead.

His thumb brushed against the single word written on the other side of the card, flipping it over to the thick, silver inked letters making up his emotion: Nostalgia.

SADA took secrecy to another level. The walk backstage Jimin had done in a blindfold, trusting the members leading him not to push him down some stairs. He had to wait for a bell to take the blind fold off. The second ring he could turn over the combination card. He wasn't sure how much time he had to memorize it before the third bell would ring, signaling his time to perform.

Jimin smirked despite the nerves as he heard Jungkook's voice call SADA a cult. If only he could see what they were putting Jimin through now. Jimin bit down a laugh, he couldn't wait to see his face when he told him.

He ran through the combination again, feeling time start to run out.

Breathe, Jimin could hear Jungkook say somewhere in the back of his mind. He blushed, remembering how close they had sat last night. How the world felt so small and safe when their hands brushed. It wasn't fair, Jimin knew, to think of Jungkook as more than a friend, but sometimes when he thought back on the moment he wondered if he should have tried to lean in and -

The third bell rang and Jimin jumped, his face heating. He wasn't finished running over the card yet, he needed more time.

The bell rang a second time and Jimin had no choice - he had to perform. So he left the card behind and repeated the theme over and over and over again pretending he was Ren McCormack walking into a town that needed to remember the joy that dance, that life, had to bring; a town that needed to remember everything it's forgotten.

_______

A/N:

RED. HOLY CRAP. THE VAULT SONGS???

I'm crying over all of them. SO SO GOOD.

Also, UPDATE, I'm going back to only posting on Mondays! I wanted to test out double posting but with the holidays and school it's a little too much. So I'm going to go back to posting once a week on Mondays !

- Violette