Dissimulated One

11. What if the tiger ate you ?

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Suddenly , her surroundings changed again as she looked around and found herself in a beautiful grassland. The weather had turned cloudy as a cold breeze was blowing around making the grass and leaves of the tress flutter freely.

Chun-ja looked around and spotted little Yeon who was walking slowly through the area , glancing here and there every now and then as if she was hiding from someone. Little Yeon squinted her eyes scanning the area as she twirled around in order to have a close look at her surroundings. She sighed in relief when she didn't spot Lee Rang or the guards there.

" Oh my God ! Rang-ah and the guard uncles were not leaving me. I just wanted to come here. I love this forest so much! They were saying that they had seen some demons in this garden and Rang-ah told me that demons are bad people. They do worse things than stealing other person's sweets." Little Yeon said talking to herself , bobbing her head out of childish wont.

She walked ahead smiling ear to ear glancing at the environment in front of her. She loved nature. She loved the trees , the grass , the flowers , the animals and everything which nature includes. She always came to the garden and watered the dying plants and helped the injured animals as the Old Royal teacher - the Fairy Godmother as everyone called her - had told her , " God becomes happy if you help the ones in need and once you become God's favourite child then He will send you a big bag full of candies every Christmas. "

She was busy devouring the candies in her thoughts when her gaze suddenly fell upon something. 'Huh? What is that? ' she thought as she walked a bit closer in order to have a clear view of the thing but her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. Even , Chun-ja's eyes widened at the sight. It was a Tiger but it was not like the usual tigers Yeon saw in the forest everyday. The animals she was accustomed to , were cute and fluffly. The animals loved her as they all recognised their princess. Little Yeon was not afraid of even the big , carnivorous creatures such as wolves , lions or tigers, in fact , she cuddled with them as according to her " those caties were big but cute ." But this .... the tiger in front of her was way bigger than any carnivorous creature that she had ever seen. It was more than thrice her size and height as it stood on its four legs. The thing that scared Yeon was that it didn't look like it was from Heaven at all. In fact , it had a demonic aura around it.

However , it wasn't looking at Yeon , in fact its predatory eyes were fixated on a little , white rabbit who was busy grazing , unaware of the danger it was in but Yeon couldn't let that happen . Even though , she was a kid and too naive for this cruel world but after all she had royal blood in her veins. She knew that being a princess was not just a privilege but a responsibility. She had to save the rabbit. It was her duty. She can't see an innocent animal getting hurt in front of her. She closed her eyes as she mustered up her courage. She opened her eyes pretending as if she wasn't scared of the monster in front of her but her heart knew how she was trembling like a dry leaf does amid a tornado.

She looked around as she spotted a pebble. She immediately picked it up and aimed at the tiger's paw because she just wanted to distract it. She didn't want to hurt it by hitting the pebble at its head or face. As the tiger reached ten steps behind the rabbit and crouched down to pounce on it , Yeon immediately threw the pebble at its paw. The rabbit immediately ran away on feeling the disturbance in the peaceful environment. Yeon sighed in relief as she saw the rabbit running away safely but
suddenly she realized something as she froze at her place. Her head was still facing the side in the direction where the rabbit had just disappeared.

Little Yeon closed her eyes as she felt something breathing heavily near her as the breath fanned her neck. She felt her own breathing stop for a second. Beads of cold sweat formed on her forehead as she felt her heart picking up more pace by each passing second. By now , she knew that the tiger was standing close to her. Too close for her liking or safety. She let out a shaky breath as her lower lip trembled in terror , in fact her whole body was trembling in fright by now . She slowly turned her head towards the creature as she made direct eye contact with the tiger who was standing so close to her that they barely had an inch of a difference. She could feel her eyes getting glossy due to fear. Fear of getting hurt. She gulped down her saliva and slowly took a step back without breaking the eye contact with the tiger but as she took another step back , almost ready to turn away , she was tackled down by the monster. It hovered over her small figure , lying on the ground as the tiger let out a loud growl in rage. The growl was enough for the child's whole of the courage to drain away in a jiffy.

She closed her eyes and pleaded in a broken tone, " S-sorry Tiger-nim. I am really sorry. Please forgive me for going against you but being the Princess of Serenity , this rabbit was one of my subjects. So , I couldn't let you hunt it down like that. I am really sorry for disrespecting you like that. I will give you all of my candies . You can eat that and fill up your stomach. I know my candies are not enough to satisfy your huge belly but that's all I have got. I- " She was cut off by a male voice saying ," Shut up little girl. Stop blabbering and run away from here if you value your life ." She slowly opened her eyes only to see that the tiger was not there any more. She gasped as she stood up and checked herself.

She immediately closed her eyes and joined her hands and said out loud, " I am alive! Oh God , Thank You so much for protecting your favourite child. I love you , God." Meanwhile the boy rolled his eyes as he looked at the girl who was busy in praying to God. Little Yeon suddenly opened her eyes as she remembered the male voice which she heard a few seconds ago.

She looked around and spotted a boy sitting on the ground with his back resting against the tree as his head was hung low. She gasped and ran towards him feeling concerned for the stranger. " Sir? Are you okay ? Did you get hurt? Please get up and let's run away from here because a huge tiger is roaming here. " She said as she tried to sound as convincing as she can in order to save the stranger's life as she didn't want him to be in the same situation as her. She held his forearm , urging him to stand up. The said boy lifted his head up as he stared at the little girl with nothing but annoyance and anger.

He yanked her little hands away from his forearm and said , " Go away you little girl. The tiger will not do anything to me but I am damn sure he will eat you the moment he saw you again."

Meanwhile , Chun-ja who was witnessing all of this all along mumbled to herself , " This young Jungkook oppa is so different from the Mamma Oppa whom I have known all along . This one is so mean even to a little child."

"But.... Why? You- leave that ... Just come with me. I will not leave you alone in this forest. Do you even have any idea how dangerous the tiger was? He almost ate me but I don't know what happened that he spared me." Yeon rambled as she showed no signs of leaving Jungkook alone. Jungkook sighed as he closed his eyes in annoyance and mumbled to himself , " This is why I don't like kids. They are so annoying. Fine then , looks like I have to scare her away." He opened his eyes and smirked , " So , you will not leave me alone ? " He asked Yeon . She shook her head innocently as she held his big hand with both of her small ones and said , " I will not leave you alone. What if the tiger ate you ? " Jungkook smirked as he straightened up his posture and sat on the ground with his legs crossed.

" Okay then. Little girl , listen up. What if I tell you that I was the tiger all along ? See , I have never ever spared anyone. You are the first and last one. So , if you don't want to die then run away from here before I change my mind and change into my tiger form to chew you alive." He said as he smirked at her.

Little Yeon just blinked her eyes processing the information and slowly took a step back from him , releasing his hand from her hold. Jungkook smirked as he watched the fear in the little kid's eyes. It was his favourite thing to do after all but soon his smirk dropped. He looked at the girl confused because ........

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✓ Jungkook is 16 and Yeon is 8 , btw. Lee Rang is 14 ( in the flashback).

✓ Yeon. This royal Korean name means "little queen." ( Source : Google )

✓ Chun-ja (춘자)
Stemming from the Sino-Korean chun meaning 'spring' and ja meaning 'child', Chun-ja implies innocence and purity.
( Source : Google )