By Zephyria A wildcat is not inherently a weak animal. As a proper apex predator, it possesses sufficient aggression. However, that is when conditions are favorable. In a cornered situation like this, even the strongest wildcat could only cower.
Yumin was no different. He could never have predicted that Tae-jun would go as far as to search for him on a highway bus. The shock was even greater for Yumin because he had let his guard down, believing he had finally escaped his grasp.
‘No way. How did he know?’
Yumin had moved discreetly, in his own way. Keeping even the slightest possibility in mind, he had only decided on Gangwon-do as his destination, choosing the specific arrival terminal that very morning. At the terminal, he had pulled his hat down low and spoken to no one. Yet, Tae-jun had managed to find him precisely.
An argument broke out between the men in black suits and the bus driver. Yumin swallowed hard, praying inwardly.
‘Driver, please make these people leave. Please.’
But whatever was said, the commotion quickly subsided. The men in suits, led by Tae-jun, now openly began searching aisle by aisle.
Sweat trickled down Yumin’s face as he kept his head bowed low. He felt as if the snacks he had eaten at the rest stop moments ago were all coming back up due to excessive tension. His vision swam, and his whole body trembled like an aspen leaf.
Yumin’s seat was in the second row from the back. He was still several rows away from Tae-jun. But it was only a matter of time before he was discovered. Yumin swallowed hard again.
His life flashed before his eyes. His days as a baby wildcat, not yet able to fully humanize, wrestling with his cousins; his middle school years, when he’d infuriated the adults by buying striped socks out of rebellion; his high school days, when he’d studied diligently to go into the human world and find his mate. It all unfolded like a panorama film in an instant.
What was the point of living diligently? If he was destined to end up on a dinner plate, he should have lived more wildly. He should have bought more flamboyant socks. Why be so timid with just stripes? Frustrated and suffocated, Yumin sniffled involuntarily.
It was at that moment. The voice he least wanted to hear at that moment sounded from above him.
“Found you.”
It was a cold, detached voice. But it held an undeniable joy. Yumin froze, as stiff as ice.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you tired?”
Tae-jun asked in a surprisingly gentle tone. Yumin was still hunched over. He didn’t have the courage to look up at him.
The sound of footsteps echoed, and he felt the men in black suits and passengers disembarking. Soon, only Tae-jun and Yumin remained on the bus.
Tae-jun casually sat in the seat next to Yumin. As Yumin happened to be sitting by the window, his last escape route was cut off. Fear finally brought tears to Yumin’s eyes.
“Yumin, why aren’t you answering?”
Tae-jun’s voice remained soft and warm. But Yumin could sense the hidden killing intent within it. Slowly, Yumin sat up straight, his head still bowed low. Tae-jun then wrapped an arm around Yumin’s shoulder. It was a warm touch after a long time, but to Yumin, it felt colder than Arctic ice.
“……Tae-jun.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t know what to say. What kind of conversation could he have with the one who was about to devour him? Begging for his life would be useless. Tae-jun had pursued him this far with such desperate determination. It wasn’t ordinary persistence or obsession. Such pleas would never work on someone like him. Yumin clamped his mouth shut.
“Let’s get off first.”
Tae-jun said, gripping Yumin’s forearm tightly and pulling him to his feet. Yumin, his strength gone, was dragged along like a piece of paper.
‘Mother, Father. Relatives. Please be well. I will never reveal the location of our home.’
Even then, Yumin was resolute. He was enough as a meal ingredient. He couldn’t put his entire clan in danger.
As he muttered it repeatedly, the words slipped out of his mouth. Tae-jun looked at him, puzzled.
“Home?”
“Ah, no! I don’t have a home!”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Kill me instead!”
Tae-jun was quite taken aback by Yumin’s sudden, strange outburst after being so quiet. Why was he suddenly talking about home, something he hadn’t even been asked about? And why was he asking to be killed? Tae-jun, completely unaware that Yumin was having a nonsensical misunderstanding, found the situation utterly incomprehensible.
“Yumin, what’s wrong?”
“Aaaargh!”
Yumin began to scream and thrash. It happened just as they were about to disembark the bus. Yumin’s flailing limbs, with all his might, caused Tae-jun to stumble. And Yumin didn’t miss the opportunity.
It was a tiny gap. A momentary lapse from the great apex predator. And for Yumin, it was the only chance to save his life.
Yumin lunged at Tae-jun. Though he was small and slender, his headbutt, fueled by every ounce of his strength, made Tae-jun stagger.
“Ugh!”
“Aaaargh!”
As Tae-jun groaned, Yumin let out a scream of his own. He didn’t realize it at the time, but it was an instinctive act to gain the upper hand. Of course, it wouldn’t make Tae-jun back down. He was surprised by the unexpected action, but fundamentally, a tiger and a wildcat were no match for each other.
However, the survival instinct of a wildcat on the brink of death gave Yumin courage he didn’t possess. Seizing the moment Tae-jun was staggering, Yumin bolted. He leaped down the bus steps in one go and, the moment his feet touched the ground, ran with all his might.
Tae-jun, regaining his senses a beat later, shouted Yumin’s name, but it was too late. Yumin ran madly, without looking left or right. He didn’t care about bumping into passersby. He just ran forward.
“Huff!”
But Yumin’s steps soon came to a halt. In his haste to escape in any direction, he had run into a dead end.
“Construction Ahead. Beware of Falling Objects.”
Yumin slumped down in front of a temporary wall with a sign. He looked left and right, but the wall blocked him completely. It seemed to be a renovation project for a store within the terminal.
“What do I do?”
He fumbled along the wall in desperation, but no hole magically appeared. Yumin was speechless, facing despair after a moment of relief.
It would be faster to turn back and find another way. If he was lucky, he might be able to slip out of the terminal without being spotted by Tae-jun. With that thought, Yumin turned around. But he was met with another immense despair.
He didn’t know when Tae-jun had gotten it, but he was slowly approaching, Yumin’s bag in one hand. Tae-jun’s footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. At that moment, a pale fluorescent light on the ceiling flickered, then went out with a thump. And in the darkness, Tae-jun’s eyes gleamed.
‘It’s over.’
His legs gave out. There was nowhere left to run anyway. Yumin collapsed to his knees. As he placed his hands on the floor, a chill crept up his arms. To feel this as the last sensation before death, even that felt pathetic and sad.
“Why do you keep running away? You’re upsetting me.”
Tae-jun, who had approached right in front of Yumin, spoke in a sinister voice. When Yumin didn’t answer, he knelt on one knee, meeting Yumin’s gaze. His eyes were still full of a fierce light.
“……Tae-jun.”
Yumin felt he had to say something before he died. Mustering his last bit of courage, Yumin opened his mouth.
“Yes? What is it?”
Even in the darkness, Yumin could feel Tae-jun smiling. Yumin swallowed and spoke to Tae-jun as if begging.
“We have a connection, don’t we?”
“A connection? Of course, we do.”
“So, I have a request…”
“Yes. Tell me.”
“Swallow me in one bite.”
“What?”
Yumin wanted his final moments to be painless. He thought that, given their history, he might grant such a request.
But for Tae-jun, it was incomprehensible. Yumin had been spouting strange things since earlier. Even trying to grab him and ask for an explanation was difficult, as he kept evading him as if to tease him. However, from the fragmented words, he could guess the situation to some extent.
If Tae-jun’s guess was correct, Yumin was having a ridiculous misunderstanding.
“Yumin, I don’t know what misunderstanding you’re having, but…”
“…Ugh.”
“Yumin?”
But this time too, the misunderstanding could not be resolved. Yumin’s body collapsed before Tae-jun’s eyes. Startled, he quickly caught Yumin, preventing him from hitting his head on the floor.
“Yumin, snap out of it!”
“Mmm…”
He quickly touched Yumin’s forehead; it felt like a furnace. Tae-jun’s heart sank. Without hesitation, he scooped Yumin up and ran down the corridor.
‘How did I find him? I can never let him go.’
Tae-jun’s eyes, gritting his teeth as he ran, even held a murderous glint.
Drip, drip…
‘What is this sound?’
It was an unfamiliar sound, so faint that it was barely audible unless one listened carefully. Yumin’s hazy consciousness began to slowly awaken. First, his fingertips, then his arms and shoulders, gained strength. As he managed to lift his upper body, Yumin groaned and shifted.
But something felt strange. It wasn’t the feel of the motel bed he had grown accustomed to over the past few days. It was much larger, softer, and the sheets smelled freshly washed.
‘What is this?’
Startled, Yumin’s eyes snapped open. His hands still fumbled with the bedsheets as he looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling. It was a place he had never seen before. It wasn’t Tae-jun’s officetel or a pension. It was undoubtedly a place he had never visited.
Tae-jun.
The name brought memories flooding back. At the same time, goosebumps prickled all over his body. He had finally been caught by Tae-jun. When he had confronted Tae-jun alone at the terminal, he had intended to find an opening and escape. He had even made appeals to their connection deliberately. He wanted to seize the moment Tae-jun’s gaze wavered.
But Tae-jun’s reaction was different from what he expected. It wasn’t that he was conflicted due to their lingering connection, but rather his expression showed he had no idea what Yumin was talking about. This, in turn, surprised Yumin.
It was one of two things. Either Tae-jun was an incredibly shameless actor, or Yumin’s words were far beyond Tae-jun’s comprehension. Either way, Yumin had failed to escape. And at that crucial moment, his extremely tense body had betrayed him.
His vision spun, and he lost consciousness. And when he woke up, he was here.
‘I’m ruined, ruined.’
He didn’t know where he was, but it wasn’t a hospital. As far as Yumin knew, no hospital room was decorated so luxuriously.
“Oof.”
But the location didn’t matter. It was more urgent to run away as fast as possible before Tae-jun appeared. Yumin managed to sit up, leaning against the headboard. He looked down at his arm and saw an IV drip attached. That must have been the source of the sound he heard just before waking up.
‘I need to escape quickly.’
His body wouldn’t cooperate. Lifting his upper body was the limit. Yumin let out a long sigh. He resented the years he hadn’t slept or eaten properly, constantly on the run. If he had been caught this easily, he should have gone further. Hiding in Jeju Island, or perhaps a quiet island village, would have been the path to survival.
After sitting for a while, his legs regained some strength. Yumin pulled out the IV line. A sharp sting followed, but it was bearable. Holding his other forearm with one hand to stop the bleeding, he got out of bed. Stumbling, he walked around the room for a moment and slowly approached the door.
As Yumin had suspected, this was not a hospital. Hesitating for a moment before the door, adorned with ornate carvings, he grasped the doorknob. Swallowing, he turned the knob, and the door slowly opened. It was such a luxurious and heavy door that it took a long time to open.
Yumin cautiously stepped outside. A carpeted corridor immediately appeared. The corridor stretched long to both the right and left. After a moment’s hesitation, Yumin turned left and walked.
Doors appeared intermittently, but they were all tightly shut. However, Yumin found a clue. Each door had a nameplate indicating its number.
‘It’s a hotel!’
The carpet in the corridor and the dim lighting were all explained. He still didn’t know the specific location, but it was better than being trapped somewhere unknown. Walking a bit further, he saw an elevator sign.
After a moment of conflict, Yumin ignored the elevator and headed for the stairwell. There was always the possibility of running into Tae-jun if he went down.
‘Okay. Now I just need to go down the stairs. And then I’ll bolt.’
It was at that moment.
“Where are you going now?”
“Aaaargh!”
Startled, Yumin screamed. He lamented his fate, unable to escape Tae-jun’s grasp no matter what. Overwhelmed by despair, Yumin collapsed.
“Why do you keep trying to run away?”
Tae-jun said, gently tucking him in. Yumin silently accepted Tae-jun’s patting hand. However, his heart, pounding with anxiety, did not calm down easily.
“This is a hotel owned by my family. I brought you here because I thought you needed to rest properly, after considering where to take you.”
Tae-jun said something, but Yumin didn’t hear a word. He just shivered uncontrollably with fear. Seeing him like that, Tae-jun sighed.
“Yumin.”
“Hic!”
Called by his name so suddenly, Yumin let out a hiccup. Tae-jun burst into laughter at the sight, finding it funny and cute.
He had a general idea of what misunderstanding Yumin was having. Yumin probably thought he was going to eat him. He had no idea where the misunderstanding had begun. He found Yumin’s absurd misunderstanding both amusing and infuriating. How could he have thought such a thing of him?
Given Tae-jun’s usual personality, he could have easily acted on it. Of course, since very few people knew Tae-jun was a descendant of the Tiger God, such a situation was realistically unlikely to occur.
It wouldn’t be difficult to clear up Yumin’s misunderstanding. But perhaps due to the fatigue from searching for Yumin, or perhaps due to the betrayal of Yumin not trusting him? Tae-jun didn’t want to take the easy route. He wanted to play with Yumin a little longer.