Something Peculiar

2.9

In-guk couldn't fix Wooseok because that wasn't how his abilities worked. When I went upstairs after my talk with Hye-kyo, I had to send Wooseok down for her to fix him. I could've gone with him, but I figured Hye-kyo had had her fill of me for the day. In-guk went to his house to get some rest, and I thanked him for everything he'd done. Without him, I'm not entirely sure we could've gotten out. Even though Oren's security was lax, it was In-guk who had gotten in and kept the trolls at bay. Wooseok had started getting Taehyung settled in one of the spare rooms down the hall from mine. I went to see how he was doing, and Mino seemed far too content to follow at my heels. It took a lot of convincing, but I managed to get him to wait outside. Mino didn't trust Taehyung because his human, but if he was going to be my tracker, he had to learn to deal with it.

Taehyung stood in the middle of the room looking lost, and he'd never been the kind of guy who got lost. He'd changed into a pair of sweatpants that fit okay, but his T-shirt was snug, so I assumed he'd borrowed them from Wooseok.

"How are you doing with all of this?" I asked, closing the bedroom door quietly as I came in. I knew Mino was keeping his post outside, and I didn't want him listening. Not that I planned on saying anything secret. I just wanted a moment alone with my brother.

"Um . . . great?" He gave me a sad smile and shook his head.

"I don't know. How am I supposed to be doing?"

"About like this."

"None of this seems real, you know?" Tae sat down on the bed and sighed. "I keep thinking I'll wake up and this will all be a very strange dream."

"I know the feeling exactly." I remembered how confusing and scary everything had seemed when I first got here. It still seemed that way most of the time.

"How long am I staying here?" Tae asked.

"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it." I came over and sat on the bed next to him. Honestly, I wanted him to stay here forever, but that'd be selfish. "I guess until this all blows over. When the Vittra stop being a threat."

"Why are they coming after you?"

"It's a very long story, and I'll tell you later." I wanted to tell him, but I didn't have the strength for a lengthy explanation. At least not right now.

"But they will stop, won't they?" Taehyung asked, and I nodded as if I actually believed it.

"Until then, I want you to stay here. I need to know you're safe." I said, I wasn't sure how Hye-kyo would feel about that, but I didn't care.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," he said with an edge to his voice, and guilt tightened my heart.

"I'm really sorry, Tae."

"You could've told me about all this."

"You wouldn't have believed any of it."

"Jennie. This is me, okay?" He turned to face me, and I finally looked at him. "Yeah, this is really hard to believe, and I know that if I hadn't seen it for myself, I'd find it even harder. But I've always been on your side. You should've trusted me."

"I know. I'm sorry." I lowered my eyes. "But I'm glad you're here and that I'm telling you stuff now. It was hard for me, keeping things from you. I don't wanna do it again."

"Good."

"But you should call Jessica," I said. "She needs to know where we are, and she can't go home. Not now. I don't know if they would take her to get at me."

"Are you safe here?" Tae asked. "Like, really safe?"

"Yeah, of course I am." I said it with more conviction than I really had. "Mino's outside standing guard right now."