Black Market | Kim Taehyung ✓

ten

[the next afternoon]

"Tell me some things about yourself, kitten," Taehyung said out loud in his family's private library.

Jae looked up from reading a book. "Oh—most facts about myself were said at the bidding."

Taehyung shrugged and flipped the page on his own book he picked out. "Tell me something new. Something that wasn't said at the bidding."

Jae thought about it for a moment, feeling nervous at Taehyung's hard stare. She could hear her own heartbeat. "My favorite color is purple. I don't like my tail. My favorite animals—not shapeshifters—are bunnies. I love the smell of lavender and fresh wood together."

Taehyung nodded in acknowledgment. "Why don't you like your tail?"

Jae stayed silent, not knowing how to form what she wanted to say into a sentence. "It...makes me feel dirty," she whispered.

The library was silent and had great halls and crevices that allowed the smallest of sounds to be heard. Taehyung heard exactly what she said. His hearing had always been good and precise since he was a child.

"Why does it make you feel dirty?" he asked.

Jae shut her eyes as if she was trying to remember the scene to form sentences of what to tell him. She opened her eyes. "Because they would always play with my tail. It makes me sick whenever I think about it and I've wanted to puke so many times."

Taehyung closed his book and leaned forward in his seat. "Were they fucking you when they touched it?"

He was so open and blunt, and it hurt Jae's esteem. Jae nodded, looking down at her lap.

Taehyung raised her chin up from across the table with his index finger. "There's no need to be ashamed. If they touched your tail, that only meant they liked it. I like it. It's cute. Besides, I've heard that shapeshifters' tails are one of the most sensitive parts of their bodies."

Jae didn't like where he was going with it.

"How old were you when you lost your virginity?" Taehyung asked. "How did it feel?" he added.

Jae gulped. "I was twelve," she whispered. "And it didn't feel nice at all. It hurt and I cried. He liked it when I cried."

Taehyung blinked and leaned back. "Was it rape?"

"It was," she responded with no hesitation.