Taekook and the ECLIPSE

26 | Just Let It Fall To the Ground

"How do you feel?" Taehyung asked as we drove away.

"Irritated."

He chuckled. "I meant your hand."

I shrugged. "I've had worse."

"True," he agreed, and frowned.

Taehyung drove around the house to the garage. Hobi and Rosé were there, Rosé's perfect legs, recognizable even sheathed in jeans, were sticking out from under the bottom of Hobi's huge Jeep.

Hobi was sitting beside her, one hand reached under the Jeep toward her. It took me a moment to realize that he was acting as the jack.

Hobi watched curiously as Taehyung helped me carefully out of the car. His eyes zeroed in on the hand I cradled against my chest.

Hobi grinned. "Fall down again, Kook?"

I glared at him fiercely. "No, Hobi. I punched a werewolf in the face."

Hobi blinked, and then burst into a roar of laughter.

As Taehyung led me past them, Rosé spoke from under the car.

"Suga's going to win the bet," she said smugly.

Hobi's laughter stopped at once, and he studied me with appraising eyes.

"What bet?" I demanded, pausing.

"Let's get you to Joon," Taehyung urged. He was staring at Hobi. His head shook infinitesimally.

"What bet?" I insisted as I turned on him.

"Thanks, Rosé," he muttered as he tightened his arm around my waist and pulled me toward the house.

"Taehyung . . . ," I grumbled.

"It's infantile," he shrugged. "Hobi and Suga like to gamble."

"Hobi will tell me." I tried to turn, but his arm was like iron around me.

He sighed. "They're betting on how many times you . . . slip up in the first year."

"Oh." I grimaced, trying to hide my sudden horror as I realized what he meant. "They have a bet about how many people I'll kill?"

"Yes," he admitted unwillingly. "Rosé thinks your temper will turn the odds in Suga's favor."

I felt a little high. "Suga's betting high."

"It will make him feel better if you have a hard time adjusting. He's tired of being the weakest link."

"Sure. Of course it will. I guess I could throw in a few extra homicides, if it makes Suga happy. Why not?" I was babbling, my voice a blank monotone. In my head, I was seeing newspaper headlines, lists of names. . . .

He squeezed me. "You don't need to worry about it now. In fact, you don't have to worry about it ever, if you don't want to."

I groaned, and Taehyung, thinking it was the pain in my hand that bothered me, pulled me faster toward the house.