Wild For You

17. Not Your Time

"What kind of sucker do you take me for?" asked Yoongi as he looked at Namjoon. He was more irritated than he had been originally after hearing Namjoon's explanation.

"It's the truth!"

"You expect me to believe that Tae is actually this man Kim Taehyung who has been cursed into being a tiger for the last several decades, and that he is only human around my stepsister for some unknown reason."

"You just summed it up perfectly," said Namjoon as Yoongi let out a snort.

"Take me to my stepsister right now. After today, she's not coming back here."

"She's old enough to make her own decisions," argued Namjoon.

"That may be true, but you and Tae have a screw loose if you expect me to believe any of this."

Yoongi paused in reaming Namjoon out when he heard his phone ring. Moving to slip his phone out of his pocket, he saw that Gemini was calling.

"Gemini, where are..."

Yoongi paused when he heard her worried voice on the other end.

"Wait...wait, slow down...Where are you?"

Namjoon looked at Yoongi as he took the call, noticing that his features were getting more and more furrowed by the second.

"I'll be right there. Just don't move..."

Yoongi hung up, moving towards the door without looking back at Namjoon.

"What's going on?" asked Namjoon.

"Gemini just said the coffee shop she went to with Tae was robbed and that Tae turned into a tiger..."

Yoongi sighed as he looked back at Namjoon who was already moving to the door so that he was right on Yoongi's heels.

"I'm coming with you," insisted Namjoon.

Namjoon shut off the lights, flipping the 'open' sign to 'closed' as he locked up the book shop and followed a disgruntled Yoongi to his car.

- - -

Taehyung ran until he felt like he couldn't anymore. It reminded him in too many ways of what had happened when he had first been cursed. He was going to run back to the book shop initially, but was worried that - if the police were on his tail - he'd get Dal in trouble for harboring an exotic animal.

Taehyung knew he needed to find a place to lay low until he thought it was safe to sneak back to the book shop. He barely made it behind a dumpster just as his limbs decided to give out on him completely. The pain he was experiencing raced through his whole body. As he turned his head, he could see how he bore strips of brilliant maroon now that dripped off his body and onto the cold asphalt beneath him.

'I probably ended up leaving a trail,' thought Taehyung as he laid there, 'But probably by the time the police find me, I will be dead anyway.'

Even though he didn't want to entertain the thought, he had a feeling that he wouldn't make it back to the book shop. He felt like he was about to die by the dumpster like the piece of garbage he was.

'I deserve this,' he thought. 'I don't deserve to be given a second chance. Chan-mi didn't get a second chance. She is dead because of me.'

Tears glistened in his eyes as he gazed down the alley where a bright light had suddenly appeared. It was a light that rivaled the sun. Taehyung wondered if this was the first sign of death coming for him, watching as an angelic figure stepped out of the light. She was dazzlingly beautiful from head to toe; her brown hair cascading in waves about her head. Taehyung didn't know who this angelic woman was, only recognizing her when she stopped to crouch down right in front of him.