= Chapter IV =

Purrhaps a Purrince

Please stop, someone stop me.
At this rate I’ll fall

Jinki lessened his hold on Hyejin and broke their kiss, joining his forehead with hers, examining her eyes.

He felt extremely well and strong, full of energy and only with a kiss, but he had no idea of the effected it had on her. Did he overdo it? Did he drain too much energy from her? At least she wasn’t kicking him.

Besides her heart beating fast, the taste of her emotions was a little confusing to him which meant that she was confused too.

That was better than feeling disgusted or angry so he smiled slightly which made small wrinkles show between her eyes and she pushed away from him making him release her.

Hyejin swallowed hard and raised a hand to clean her tears but he was quick and did it for her, his touch lingering on her skin making her heart jump again.

Oh he did it! He affected her in a way that she was already having a hard time hiding.

“It’s the kissing spot!” Hyejin said pulling his hand away from her and releasing it “Don’t get a wrong idea of what happened just know. It’s only a thank you kiss.” She cleaned her lips with her fingers as if she wanted to erase the memory of his against hers. The only thing she did was make him look at her lips, at how red they looked, the proof of the passion they just shared.

That kiss beat the previous kisses they had and all the kisses she ever had with anyone and that was unsettling.

“This was a big thank you.”

His comment made her blush and she stared at the ground embarrassed and he grinned finding it adorable. He never saw her react like that. She only acted cute with Minho and now, now he was able to make her cheeks become red too.

“Your heart is beating very fast. You are still weak on your knees too.” he pointed out a little worried. Maybe he overdid it but he couldn’t help it, she tasted delicious, well her emotions and tears did and he felt wonderful when he touched her. If only he could taste her more…

“What are you talking about? No, it isn’t!”

He ignored her angry words and pulled her chin up so she would face him. He used both his hands to clean her wet cheeks and smiled gently at her.

The last thing he wanted was to bicker with her. She was still sad over what happened and she needed someone that lifted her spirit.

“Want to go drink with me?” He asked.

Hyejin blinked her eyes and he took his hands away waiting for her answer.

She was going to drink alone when he showed up but actually being with him made her feel better. Someone was actually willing to be beside her in one of her worst moments, listening her crying or whining about everything and everyone. Besides he was sweet to her so he deserved a yes.

She bit her lower lip and nodded her head “Yes.”

Jinki placed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and started to walk down the street. He didn’t manage to go far because she grabbed his jacket making him turn around.

“Before we go…” She looked away and her fingers grasped the sleeve of his jacket. “Can I ask you something?”

She raised her humid eyes to him and he swallowed hard knowing that he would never be able to deny anything from her.

“Sure.”

“Can you…”She mumbled something “…again?”

“What?” Jinki leaned forward and she spoke louder.

“Can you hug me again?” She pursed her lips and spoke more confidently “I really need a hug tonight. Please don’t make fun of me or mention it anymore or smile like you always do!”

He didn’t say anything and tried to control his lips. Instead Jinki opened his arms. Hyejin turned her head and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his shoulder.

Slowly he caressed her back and she closed her eyes.

Sometimes, when she was in the darkness of her bedroom she wished she could be small again and hide in her father’s arm.

She rubbed her face again Jinki’s chest inhaling his cologne. She didn’t need to be small to hide on his. He had a wide chest and strong arms and his hugs were so good that it made her blush.

Maybe she shouldn’t be weak and get attached to another man like her father but for just that night she would let go of all her defenses.

Hyejin wrapped her arms around Jinki’s neck that was piggy back riding her, and then moved her hand on his face giggling, completely drunk. Jinki groaned and shook his head so she would take her hand away from his eyes which worked but she also took her arm from around his neck away and almost fell from his back. He tried to hold the best he could and grabbed her better.

The motion of him walking with her made Hyejin close her eyes and she hugged him tighter.

“You truly drink a lot for such a small tiny person.” Jinki remarked remembering how the table was full of bottles of soju that she drank.

Hyejin giggled rubbing her lips on his neck making him trip in his feet and almost fell with both of them.

The truth was that he didn’t stop her. He said he would drink with her but he held back and watched her drink most of them time, letting her drown her sorrows with alcohol.

“Jinki is cute!” She poked his cheek and smelled his neck and he had to restrain himself from placing her on the ground and kiss her. He would if she didn’t stop being cute with him.

“Jinki is handsome and kisses like a god!” She said “KISSING GOD JINKI!”

Her scream echoed on the silent street and Jinki panicked.

“Be quiet. Someone might call the police!”

“Your kisses are illegal! They better call the police!”

“We are almost there.” he said finally reaching her door, smiling to himself even though she was being embarrassing.

He placed her softly on the ground and she frowned at him before climbing the stairs.

“How do you know where I live?”

Jinki was following her up which was a good thing because she tripped on the stairs and he had to hold her.

Hyejin poked his chest waiting for an answer and he was getting ready to lie. He didn’t have to though because she burped and then leaned her head against his chest almost unconscious.

“Hyejin?”

“I’m sleepy.” She mumbled against him and Jinki grabbed her in his arms bridal style and walked with her to the door. He inserted her code, trying to balance her in his arms while doing so and walked inside her house, for the first time as a human.

He stopped in the middle of the living room in the darkness, the darkness that for whatever reason scared her so much but for him was always comforting.

How he wished he could do that with her all the time, show her that she shouldn’t be afraid of the unknown, of what she couldn’t see, not when she was with him.

She hummed seeming asleep, rubbing her head against his shoulder making him smile all smitten. Minho grabbed her like that before and Jinki was so jealous and now, now she was in his arms and feeling safe, rubbing herself against him like a cat.

Oh, the things he wanted to do to her! If only she would let him…

Jinki walked with Hyejin to the bedroom and was going to place her over her bed when she spoke again.

“You smell so nice…”

He could say the same back to her. Her scent made him go crazy for several reasons, sentimental, physiologically, ually…

Jinki placed her on the bed gently and she turned to her side and fell asleep almost immediately. He the moon shaped presence light and stood watching her for a while.

He had to hide his clothes, change back into his feline shape but at the same time he didn’t want to tear his eyes away from her.

10.......9……..8

She counted slowly to herself like her daddy taught her to do.

7……6…….5

Mother was always the best one at hiding but she wasn’t with them. Daddy told Hyejin that they were out on a vacation.

And now she needed to hide and count down from ten because he would come and get her when she was finished.

4……..3…….2……1

Hyejin took her hands away from her face and opened her eyes.

She was in the dark inside the closet like her daddy told her, hiding. She stayed in silence like she was told to and kneeled inside the closet.

It had a weird old smell so she moved her hand in the dark and grabbed one of her daddy’s shirts and pulled it closer to her. The hanger on the rack made noise and she froze when she heard a noise from outside.

It was a weird noise as if a big dog was outside but they didn’t have any pet.

Hyejin placed her hand on the door and was ready to push it open to peek outside when she heard the sound of something sniffing the door. She was scared, took her hand slowly away and then gasped when the sound of nails scratching against the door was heard.

Whatever was outside was trying to get to her and maybe eat her.

Her father told her stories about mystical creatures, wolves, tigers and all kind of wild animals that would eat little girls.

“Daddy…” She cried out scared moving her hands in the darkness.

Her voice made whatever was outside stop and she held her breath and pushed the door.

Her heart was beating fast and she was never that scared ever in her whole life.

The door opened slightly the light entering the closet and Hyejin pushed it a little more so she could peek outside.

Big scary eyes and white teeth showed up covering the light and she screamed, the door being closed on her again, darkness falling over her.

Hyejin closed her eyes shut and curled into a ball screaming, the sound of nails on the door restarting.

The sound of her phone ringing woke up Hyejin and she sat on the bed still scared by the nightmare she could barely remember, her heart beating fast.

Onew raised his eyes to her and smelled the air tilting his head curiously looking at her.

She rubbed her eyes sleepily and swallowed her saliva frowning with the bad taste in .

She drank a lot the previous night, she drank so much that she had no idea how she came back home.

The last thing she remembered was playing a drinking game with Jinki and trying to dance the Macarena with a complete stranger from another table but Jinki pulled her back to their table.

So embarrassing!

Hyejin placed a hand on her forehead and run it through her hair before she picked up her phone.

Onew yawned too. He didn’t drink as much as her – one person needed to be responsible – but he was also very sleepy.

Hyejin wasn’t surprised to see that it wasn’t her mother. She probably forgot to wish her happy birthday. “Yes.”

“It’s me Seoyeon! Happy birthday!”

Seoyeon was one of her oldest friends. They went to school together but their paths drifted apart and now they barely saw each other.

“You remembered!”

“Of course I did! I do every year! Silly Hyejin! You are always the same! What are you up to?”

“Well, the usual.” Hyejin pouted her lips thinking about what the common mortals her age and often did. “You know working, going out to have some fun…dating!”

Onew rubbed his head on the bed and closed his eyes. Why was she always like that?!

“Dating?” Seoyeon laughed so much that even Onew could hear her from where he was trying to sleep “As if….”

“I swear. I even went out with a guy yesterday. He is so into me!”

That made Onew move his ears and he raised his head listening to the conversation with more attention. If he tried hard he could hear her friend.

“Really?”

“Yes. We went out to drink.”

“Did you two have already?”

They could have if she let him touch her. Onew grinned showing his teeth but Hyejin missed the cat’s reaction.

“What?!” Hyejin seemed shaken with the question.

.

Only that word pleased him. He was half animal after all and he liked it. He didn’t have in a while either, ever since he met her.

But with Hyejin. Only the thought made him die of happiness.

Kissing her lips for as long as he wanted, touch her intimately, smell her, her skin, bury himself in her…

“We didn’t have ok? We kissed and hugged and held hands!”

Now that she was saying it out loud she realized that she did with him many things that took her ages to do with her previous boyfriends. How did that happen?! How did she let things go so fast with a man she didn’t have feelings for?

“That’s great. Sometimes I’m worried with you Hyejin. You were always like this, hiding what you felt and I know you are lonely. It’s good that you have someone.”

“I’m not lonely. I’m really ok.”

“I hope you have a good day.”

Her friend hang up and Hyejin placed her phone on the bed beside her and laid down again.

She had nothing to do that day so she sighed.

Alone again.

“I think I’ll buy a cake.” She mumbled to herself “What do you think?”

She moved her head in the pillow so she could look at the cat sleeping beside her over the covers. He blinked his eyes slowly as if he was saying yes and Hyejin got up from her bed and placed her feet on the floor before she pulled her pajama sweater over her head.

HOLY HEAVENLY GODS!

Onew jumped down the bed immediately and run away to hide below the table of the living room.

She was making it very hard for him to avoid seeing her .

His wish to see her was the size of Mount Fuji and lately she was always getting beside him.

Not even a cat or tiger can take it!

She passed by him completely in the direction of the bathroom to shower and Onew had to cover his eyes with his paws again so he wouldn’t see more than her legs when she passed.

Jinki was home alone since Hyejin left to get herself a cake. He hoped he got to eat it and normally humans don’t give cake to their pets but Hyejin had zero notion of what humans do with pets.

He took that chance alone to do the laundry instead. Hyejin seemed to have given up on finding out about who was doing it, still blindly thinking that she was doing it during the night so Jinki wasn’t worried anymore.

She was very silly sometimes, believing in fairytales and it was cute how she could balance so well that childish side of her with the real world.

The previous night she was full of aegyo because she was drunk.

He was the one who was beside her when she passed out over the table at the bar, the one who piggyback rode her home the one who put her to sleep, who watched her for a while until he also fell asleep.

When Hyejin drank she was defenseless and he could pass through all the barriers she built around her. She told him the previous night that he was cute, handsome, that he kissed well. She liked his smell too.

He giggled grabbing another piece of clothing from the basket of washed clothes to tidy away.

The soft silky material and the size of the piece of cloth made Jinki move his eyes down to it.

It was a pair of purple and he raised them eyeing it carefully.

“Hyejin’s .” He said to himself not sure what to do with them. He needed to place them inside her underwear drawer – that he knew where it was – but he didn’t dare to open it.

He was going to place them back in the basket but wouldn’t it be weird if she checked it and only her underwear was still in it.

“I’m so doomed!” He raised the again, grabbing them with only two fingers and looked at it grinning.

They were y.

He placed them over the bed on what he decided to call as the pile of Hyejin’s and bras.

Jinki finished tidying up all the laundry and then grabbed his phone from one of his hiding places, behind the dying plant, and sat on the floor.

It ringed a few times and he frowned wondering if she was ignoring him but she end up picking it up.

“Hyejin!” He smiled brightly as if he didn’t see her since the previous night “Did you miss me?!”

“No.”

She was still mean as ever apparently but Jinki didn’t mind. He knew that she liked his smell, that she found him cute and handsome.

“Want to celebrate your birthday with me?”

“How do you know it’s my birthday?”

Right he forgot that. His feelings for her sometimes blinded him and he didn’t think things through. “You told it to me, yesterday when you were drunk!”

Luckily he was a fast thinker.

“Aish….”

“Let’s go have fun together!”

She didn’t answer immediately and he had the feeling she would say no like always.

“Yes. Let’s spend the day together.”

A very Jinki did a happy dance in the middle of Hyejin’s living room.

Hyejin came out from the dressing room eyeing the way the blue dress moved around her legs, hearing the sound of her white shining shoes clacking on the floor.

She looked like a princess from a fairytale and it was all thanks to that idiot Jinki.

He was the one who brought her to that gym, that told her to change clothes and shoes and meet him inside the room.

She had no idea what he prepared for her but he said it would make her smile.

He didn’t lie, she was smiling already and she hasn’t done anything yet.

Hyejin walked into the room that wasn’t empty like she thought. Several women dressed similar to her were inside the room with their partners, wearing beautiful suits as if that was a party. She frowned confused until she saw Jinki.

He looked like a prince which dazed her. His hair was still falling over his eyes clearly needing a cut but it actually matched with his black suit and white shirt. He moved his feet shyly and then called her to come to him.

She did, not able to take her eyes away from him.

Where was the bum she met?! That man in front of her had nothing to do with the one she met for the first time inside the palace.

“Are you surprised?” He asked sliding his hand over his coat “I look handsome right? Almost illegal!”

He laughed remembering what she said about his kisses but she looked at him not understanding the joke.

“I would say you are beautiful but you are always beautiful to me.” He touched the strands of her hair that were falling around her face “even after you woke up with no makeup.”

“You never saw me like that.”

Right! There he was messing up again. “I mean I would if I saw you in that situation.”

She took his hand away from her hair “You won’t.” She looked around “What are we doing here? Who are these people?”

“It’s a dance club. They practice several dances here. Today is the waltz one. I know the owner and he let me in and for one hour we can dance all we want.”

“Ow.” It all made sense to her now. The blue beautiful dress that made her look like a princess, the white shoes as if she was Cinderella.

“It’s my birthday gift to you.” He explained once the music started.

“But I can’t…I’m not sure I remember it. It was a long time ago.”

“Well there are a lot of professionals to look at here.”

She followed his gaze to the several couples already dancing and then back at him “I still can’t, I don’t have a partner…oh…”

He interrupted offering her his hand. “Would you give me the honor?”

Hyejin placed her hand in his. Since she was there, why not?

He pulled her gently closer to the other couples and then raised her right hand with his left, placing his right one on her back.

“You only have to imagine that you are inside a box.” He said moving his body, leading her slowly.

She stumbled with her feet and he chuckled doing it slower so she could look down and see how it was done.

“Count until 3 and follow my lead.” She did as he said and he held her firmly on her back. “Relax, let me lead you.” It didn’t seem to work since she was still very stiff trying to see what she was doing with her feet.

Jinki smiled and then added softly “Hyejin, look at me.”

Hyejin did as he said and as if it was magic she started dancing it the right way.

“I’m doing it. I still can do it.”

“Of course.” He fastened the pace and then raised his hand making her turn, grabbing her back in his arms again making Hyejin laugh.

Her father used to do that with her and it was one of her most loved memories of him, one that she was so scared to lose. Knowing that somehow what he taught her was still printed inside her made her extremely happy and Jinki felt it, feeding from her happiness which also made him happy.

They danced for a while, getting more confident, doing more turns and smiling at each other, truly enjoying it.

It was perfect. She was truly a princess, one from the real world and he couldn’t get enough of her, of the way her heart beat matched his, of her beautiful smile and the way she giggled when they did a beautiful step, of how it felt to have her in his arms, to lead her, to pull her to him every time they moved in the dance.

He really didn’t want to let her go but that gift to her and blessing to him, had the duration of one hour only.

If the first part of her birthday went well the second was a little gloomier. Jinki took her out for lunch but she was barely looking at him playing on her phone, or sighing watching the life outside of the window.

She was sad again and the smile he placed on her face with the waltz was now gone. Probably because her mother still didn’t call. Jinki doubted she would anymore.

“Are you not hungry?” He asked with a piece of kimchi on his chopstick.

“I’m full.” She lied and he lost his appetite too, looking at her.

She sighed once again and he wondered what she was thinking.

“Do I bore you that much?”

She blinked her eyes and looked at him “Not at all. I’m just thinking about things. How I could be spending this day with someone special.” She froze realizing she was being rude and corrected her words “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t mind being with you. We are friends right?”

He didn’t like that either but it was an improvement. After all he was only the annoying ert guy before.

“You mean Minho?”

“Oh no, he has a girlfriend. Minho is a prince!” She smiled thinking of him and moved a finger on her phone “He is so warm and sweet. The perfect man for any woman, a true prince! Of course he isn’t single and wouldn’t spend the day with me!”

Jinki moved his lips angrily but she barely noticed playing a game on her phone which made him sad.

He was trying his best to make her happy but if she didn’t want to be with him there was nothing he could do. There seemed to be only one person that could make her smile and Jinki wasn’t him.

He was always very close to his mother. She was the one who taught him to dance the waltz and the one who always tried to pass to him several life lessons that she found out important for a future leader.

She was the one that told him the story about a little kid that loved butterflies so much that he would catch them in jars. They would die after a while so the boy learned that when we love someone very much we have to let that someone be free.

Her happiness was more important than his pride.

When Jinki spent a lot of time at the palace as a cat he heard many things and Minho talking on the phone with his friends was one of them. He knew what he had to do!

Jinki cleaned his mouth with the napkin and stood up. “Let’s go. I have another gift for you!”

“Really?” She widened her eyes surprised and he pulled her with him from her seat barely giving her time to grab her bag.

“Why are we here? Are we playing soccer next?”

Jinki ignored her and pushed her down by her shoulders making Hyejin sit on the bleachers, the soccer field right in front of it.

“He comes to practice here.”

“Who?” She asked tilting her head but Jinki didn’t say anything and walked away.

She watched him confused for a while and was going to follow after him when she saw Minho on the field in front of her, kicking a soccer ball to another man, probably one of the friends he played soccer with.

How did he found out about that?! Minho didn’t even have Facebook!

Hyejin turned her head to look at Jinki that was sitting on the bleachers a few meters away looking at her, giving her space alone and yet still there.

What she didn’t know was that he wasn’t giving her space; he simply couldn’t take it all. Watching her fawn over another man and absorbing that energy was too much for him.

Hyejin felt grateful to Jinki but at the same time she felt awful.

He clearly had a crush on her and yet he brought her to see another man, thinking that she wasn’t happy to be with him.

It was a lie. She enjoyed the time she spent with him. She never laughed as much as she did the previous night even though she was crying inside, she felt free and refreshed dancing with him and she liked the restaurant he took her.

She was just tired, thinking about how her mother and father should be the ones with her and not a man she met a few weeks ago.

Hyejin’s eyes got humid with tears and she no longer could see Minho clearly. He didn’t even know she was there, he wasn’t looking her way. Jinki was but she didn’t dare to look at him again.

When she came to work at the palace Minho was one of the first people she saw. He was breathtaking walking in her direction, the sun shining over him. He smiled at her even though they never met and then greeted one of the employees politely. She remembered how she hold her breath when he approached her to talk with her and how nervous she felt. She never met anyone like him, anyone like the characters of the books her father read to her. And then it happened. He sneezed cutely rubbing his nose saying he was allergic to the sun and she fell.

She fell like Alice, down the rabbit hole and into love.

Maybe if he fell for her too she would be a princess like her father used to call her.

Hyejin cleaned her wet eyes and gave one last look at Minho.

He was truly a prince like the ones from the fairytales, out of her world, stuck inside another reality. He wasn’t by her side, Jinki was and she was going to look at him and have fun with him that day because he was the only person who truly wanted to be with her and she actually wanted to be with him too.

Hyejin turned her head to look at the place where Jinki was before but he wasn’t there any longer so she stood up and went to search for him.

She ran down the bleachers worried that he might have gone away without her, searching for her phone to call him – she didn’t save his number but he was the last one to call her.

However Hyejin didn’t have to call him because he was outside the soccer field beside a food vendor eating a sausage, smiling delighted.

She crossed her arms and walked to him trying to hide her smile and look upset.

“Why did you bring me here?”

He turned his eyes to her and she saw that he was surprised to see her there so soon. He didn’t expect her to end her “date” with Minho so soon. What both didn’t realize was that she end up choosing Jinki over Minho.

“It was for you to eat right?”

He chewed slower not answering, with a bit of ketchup in the corner of his mouth and she cleaned it with her finger it after.

“Want one?” He asked cutely “It’s delicious!” He bit on it, his lips getting red with ketchup again as if he was a kid and she scolded him.

“Are you a little kid or what?! Eat properly!”

“I am eating properly!” He his lips taking the ketchup from them and Hyejin watched his actions feeling a little weird, the memory of the kisses they shared still present on her mind.

He ate the rest of the sausage dirtying his lips again but this time she didn’t say anything and instead pressed her lips against his.

Jinki widened his eyes stopped chewing and she used her tongue to clean him, tasting the ketchup on his lips.

She blushed as much as the ketchup and Jinki swallowed the rest of the sausage.

“I was only cleaning you.” She explained and he chuckled.

“With your tongue?”

“I don’t have a tissue!”

He eyed her bag being sure that he saw her place paper tissues inside it before she left home.

“Are you sure? I think you were trying to take advantage of me.”

“PLEASE!” She walked away “I’m going home!”

Jinki grabbed the bottle of ketchup and placed a little of ketchup on his finger before he rubbed it on his lips. He the finger clean and then run after her.

“Look! Look I have more ketchup!”

She looked back and he pointed at his dirty lips.

“Jinki stop!”

He opened and closed his mouth, the ketchup sticking to his lips as if he was a clown wearing lipstick.

“Oh please…” She laughed at him finding it hilarious and he smiled back. She was laughing, truly laughing like when he took her dancing.

“I only cleaned you because I feel thankful to you.”

“You do kiss me a lot because you are thankful. Do you kiss everyone because of that?”

“No. Only idiots like you!”

He pulled at the sleeve of her blouse “Aish just one kiss.”

Since she wasn’t giving in Jinki groaned and his lips clean, using his fingers to clean the rest, it after. His attitude changed almost immediately and cute Jinki seemed to disappear. “Give me a real kiss Hyejin.”

She didn’t know what he meant. The kiss they shared was completely out from a fairytale even though it was as real as a kiss could be.

“You still have a little bit of…” she pointed at the corner of his lower lip where a bit of ketchup was still there and Jinki the wrong corner trying to clean it.

She was going to correct him but then her eyes fall on his. He deserved more than one kiss, he deserved so many kisses after the day he gave her.

“Forget it!” She grabbed him by his shoulders and then tiptoed to press her lips against his.

He kissed her back, wrapping an arm around her as if they were going to dance the waltz again and her tongue his lips clean just before she opened to let him kiss her deeply.

There it was again, that burning energy running through her body as if it was electricity. He held her close as if he wanted to be sure that she wouldn’t lose strength and he was the first one to break it also, moving from her lips with his eyes closed.

Hyejin stepped back eyeing his lips. They were absolutely clean. Good!

“It’s done!” She mumbled turning away, walking fast so he wouldn’t see the effect he had on her.

He didn’t have to see anyway.

Jinki opened his eyes slowly and grinned.

Her heart was exploding inside her chest, blood pumping wildly through her body.

He was truly a kissing god!

Hyejin moved her spoon in the rice absent mindedly while her coworkers were having lunch beside her gossiping about the ghost.

“It’s truly weird how it disappeared.” One said.

“You have no idea if he did disappear. Just that no one saw it anymore.” Said another.

“I wonder if the ghost got scared when he saw Hyejin!”

They all laughed and Hyejin barely moved her eyes from her rice to them. Lately she was so lethargic as if nothing truly cheered her up. The only time she was happy was when she was playing with her cat or laughing at Jinki’s silliness. He now came every day after work to accompany her home and sometimes they would go out to have dinner together. He made her smile.

“What did you say?” Hyejin asked smiling softly thinking about one of Jinki’s silly jokes.

“Nothing!” One of the older girls, older than her, that was sitting in front of her said “By the way. I’m going on a blind date tonight. Want to come? He has a friend. They both work at a nice company.”

“Oh really?”

“You are good at dating right?” The woman pointed out “Please come with me and help me!”

Hyejin was going to say no since she wasn’t in the mood to do so but why not? She was single. She wasn’t dating anyone. What happened with Jinki was only a thank you kiss and Minho had a girlfriend.

A look of confidence brightened Hyejin’s face and she raised her thumb at her coworker. “Let’s do it!”

Onew jumped over the sink of the bathroom and stopped right in front of Hyejin moving his tail making it hit her, his eyes on the mirror.

“Can you stop that?! I’m trying to do my makeup.”

He didn’t stop and instead meowed and turned around on the sink rubbing himself on her, filling her clothes with fur.

“Ya! Stop that!” She stepped away from the sink and he looked at her with deep brown eyes. “I gave you food. Why are you so upset?”

He sat over the sink and then stood on his back paws and placed the front ones on the mirror covering her vision.

“HEY THAT’S MEAN!” She pushed him away from the mirror and he growled at her. “I need to get ready for my blind date.”

Her attention was back on the mirror or she would have noticed the way he was looking at her.

Why was she going on a stupid blind date when she had him?!

He meowed out loud and then did it a few more times with urgency as if he was in pain and Hyejin had to cover her ears. “What is wrong with you?”

She placed a hand on his head and caressed Onew “Do you feel sick?”

He didn’t answer of course but moved his tail slowly and she took that as a no “Then you don’t want to be alone?”

He meowed and she kissed his head “Don’t worry. I’ll be back early. I need to do this. I need to get on my feet again. Stay here and behave!”

She left the bathroom and Onew jumped down the sink and then to the window outside.

When Hyejin came back holding another pouch where she had her lipsticks he wasn’t there anymore.

“This cat is so impetuous.” She barely had time to put the lipstick on and smack her lips against each other when her phone rang.

She grabbed it from over the kitchen table when she saw it was Jinki.

He always had the worse timing to enter her life.

“Yes?”

“Hey! What are you doing?” He didn’t give her time to answer though “Want to go out with me today? Let’s go eat chicken and drink!”

“I can’t tonight.” It wasn’t as if she had to see him every day now “I have a date.”

“No. Why?”

“Because I’m single and I want to meet possible eligible man to be my boyfriend?”

“But you have me!”

Hyejin took a deep breath “Bye!” She turned off the call, turned off the light of the bathroom and grabbed her coat.

She barely had climbed down the stairs of her building when Jinki showed up panting.

“What…how…”She didn’t even remember telling him where she lived and why did he arrive so fast? Was he superman or something!? “How did you found out where I live? Are you stalking me now?” She raised her bag ready to hit him if he tried anything but Jinki waved his hand trying to speak.

“No. I was walking close by and…I brought you home when you were drunk. Just that.”

“Ok then, go home! I’m too busy to play with you now!”

She passed by him, her perfume invading his space and Jinki had to close his eyes briefly before he followed after her.

“Hyejin don’t go on a date with another man!” She groaned annoyed but he didn’t stop following her “Why are you going on a date when you have me. You have ME!” He pointed at himself and she glanced at him “I’m like…”

“A god?” She laughed at him and he nodded his head.

“Yes I’m like a god!”

“You are such a conceited ert!”

“Why ert?” She could call him conceited since she didn’t know he was saying the truth but why ert?!

“Because you are always asking me to kiss you!”

“I’m not. The last two times you were the one who wanted to kiss me!” He jumped in front of her cutely and stretched his arms on each side of him blocking her way “Anyway don’t call me names or I’ll call you names too!”

“Oh really?”

“Yes if you are rude to me I’ll be rude to you too.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest “Show me!”

“Well you are stubborn and…too pretty and...” He sniffed her which made her step back “You smell deliciously!”

“Hey!” She wasn’t a piece of chicken! Yet his words made her embarrassed.

“Sorry I guess I can’t really be rude to you. I like you too much.” He pouted cutely and blinked his cute small eyes at her “Go out with me Hyejin. Forget this stupid double date and go out with me! You have fun with me don’t you?”

“Jinki we are friends! Don’t mistake those kisses we shared as something more.“ She actually felt bad for hurting him but she had to. “There is nothing going on between us. I have to go now! Don’t you dare to follow me or I'll block your phone number!” She pushed him away and he stood in the same place watching her walk away.

Lee Jinki was extremely upset.

Hyejin took off her heels and walked barefoot inside her apartment. She the light before closing the door of the house and then called her cat's name but nothing happened. He was usually sleeping over her bed but he wasn’t there either or anywhere she searched so she sat over her bed worried.

It was rare for Onew to not sleep home. She took off her clothes and put on her pajamas and then let herself fall over the bed. Her double date was so boring. The guy was nice but he didn’t get her sense of humor and laughed at her when she told him about a story from the Joseon period. History was no laughing matter and she got pretty offended with that and after it the date was totally ruined.

The only thing Hyejin wanted to do was sleep but she was worried with the stupid cat so instead she stood up and decided to walk around the neighborhood to see if she saw him. She didn’t have to leave her bedroom because a pair of brown shining eyes showed up at the door.

“Onew!”

He raised his eyes to her and she had a weird feeling as if he was hurt with her. Those were the eyes of a betrayed upset cat.

“What’s wrong?”

He walked slowly swaying a little and she stood up from the bed worried “Are you sick?”

He wasn’t sick at all. Jinki was seeing everything moving around him. Maybe he shouldn’t have drunk so much and then turn into a cat. That never goes well and most of the times he wouldn’t transform completely. There was that time he went drinking with Taemin and they changed into tigers but it didn’t work and Taemin had only tiger ears and Jinki the tail. They laughed so much with it and end up falling asleep looking like half tiger half human.

Their parents didn’t find it funny when they woke up the next morning and found both sleeping in the living room.

It was too dangerous to turn when they were in that state and yet Jinki did it because he didn’t want to spend one night away from her.

He walked the best he could in the direction of the bed and then jumped but he measured the distance wrongly and fell on the floor.

“Onew?” Hyejin’s worried voice made him sit on the floor with no energy and she grabbed him in her arms. “What’s wrong with you?”

Her voice was echoing inside his head giving him a huge headache and he meowed in pain hiccupping after.

“My poor thing. Did you eat poison or something? Were you run over by a car?”

She gasped placing him over the bed and easily turned him with his tummy up.

Jinki couldn’t move or complain; instead he closed his eyes and stood there while she moved her fingers on his tummy and down to his lower parts.

Whatever! He just had not energy to move. His god energy was slowly ending and very soon if he didn’t fed he had to go hunting for human emotions. All the transformations between cat and human form were draining him.

Hyejin released him not finding any bruises on his furry body and he rolled to the side his lips. A taste of worry was in his mouth and he didn’t like it.

“Onew you can’t get sick…” She caressed him, moving her fingers behind his ears, her touch was filled with love, and he slowly fall into sleep. “I can’t lose you.”

Hyejin ate her kimbap in silence thinking about her cat. He was still fast asleep when she left for work and it worried her. He also threw up in the middle of the living room so he probably ate something he shouldn’t have.

“Hello!” Minho sat beside her on the bench and Hyejin looked at him with a piece of kimbap halfway to . He smiled cutely at her and then grabbed the piece of kimbap from her hand. “Can I try it?”

“Sure.”

Take the kimbap, her heart body and soul, anything!

“Hum.” He ate it in one go and looked at her with his cheeks full. Normally Minho was like a prince, collected, handsome and mature but she knew that he also had a childish side to him.

“It’s really good. Did you make it?”

“No. I bought it.”

“Oh!” He seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to praise her but Hyejin liked that even more. He was doing an effort to please her.

“Why are you here having lunch alone?” He asked taking another piece of kimbap from the recipient on her lap.

“I’m worried with my cat.”

“Why?”

“He came home late last night and seemed very weird.”

“Did he went out with a pretty kitty and got drunk?” Minho laughed with his joke and for a little while the idea actually made some sense. He did seem drunk.

Maybe someone gave him beer pretending to be water and the cat drank it?! Was Onew that dumb?!

“No. But he did look drunk. He was walking weirdly and failed to jump on the bed and this morning he was sleeping like a rock. He was even snoring. I had no idea cats snored.”

“Hum.” He raised his fingers and touched the corner of her lips with them. “You had something there.”

The gesture was so similar to the one she shared with Jinki but this time Hyejin didn’t know how to react.

“Did he eat catnip?” Minho asked.

“What is that?”

“It’s a plant that makes cats act weirdly, as if they are drugged.”

“Wow! My cat was high last night then!”

“He probably was.” Minho laughed nodding his head “Did you find a name for him already?”

“Onew.”

“It’s an interesting name.”

They stood silent and Hyejin stared at the box in her lap. It was empty and she was still hungry so she should be upset with Minho for eating her lunch but she wasn’t. He was still there beside her even though there was no reason to anymore.

She glanced at him shyly and he caught her looking at him which made both of them giggle.

They were like two silly kids together and she sighed happily.

Maybe she should tell him something, ask him something. Jinki did say that she should ask him about his girlfriend so she could be sure of his relationship status.

Hyejin played with the box in her lap. Why was she thinking of Jinki again?

“It’s such a beautiful day today.” Minho remarked and Hyejin looked at him. He was smiling admiring the trees above him. Jinki did the exact same thing on the day she fell into the lake.

Both of them looked very ethereal under the sun.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” He looked at her and she nervously tried to say the words.

“Do you perhaps have a…The other day I was out with a friend and…”

“Jinki?” He asked almost immediately as if he was reading her mind and Hyejin struggled with the truth.

“Yes but we went out as friends only.”

“I see. So you were out with him and?”

“And we saw you. I saw you with a beautiful woman.” His eyes widened a little and he seemed a little nervous with her observation but he quickly recovered.

“Ah really?”

“Is she your girlfriend?” Hyejin placed her hand over the stone bench and griped the side of it.

“No.” Minho placed his hand beside hers their fingers touching briefly “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Choi Minho was single. Park Hyejin too.

Hope lit up inside her and both looked at their hands so close together. A few more centimeters and they could touch each other.

Hyejin couldn’t ignore Jinki for longer and that day after she left work he was there like usual under the same tree waiting for her.

She was the one who walked to him but before she could greet him he spoke “Let’s eat chicken!”

To his surprise she smiled brightly at him. “Let’s eat all you want! I’ll pay!”

“Why are you so happy?”

“I’ll tell you!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of the closest chicken store. “I did what you told me to.”

“What did I tell you?” He did tell her a lot of different things “Wait you are going to date me?”

“No you idiot!“ She released his arm but he kept walking beside her like an excited kid waiting for the news. “I asked Minho about the girlfriend.”

“And?” His smile faded since her good mood could only mean one thing.

“He is single. He doesn’t have a girlfriend. We had lunch together Jinki and he smiled at me so much.” She giggled hugging herself like a woman in love and Jinki’s emotions were exactly the opposite.

“Why do you like him so much?”

He didn’t get it. Minho never showed any affection to her. He was nice yes but he was like that to everyone. Just lukewarm.

“Why do you like chicken?” She asked back.

“Because it’s delicious and it makes me happy!”

“Exactly! Minho makes me happy.”

“And I don’t?” His question made her stop walking and she turned to him. He saw doubt crossing her features. “I made you laugh on your birthday and I’m absolutely sure that while you were with me you were happy.”

“It’s different!” It had to be.

“What about the blind dates?”

“I’m not going on any of them anymore. I’m going to focus on Minho for now!”

She walked away and he followed after her like always. He was getting tired of it. Yes he promised her he would be beside her and make her open up to his feelings but nothing he did seemed to be working. He did think things would change once she kissed him and he was sure she had feelings for him or her heart wouldn’t beat like that every time he touched her but she was still stuck on Minho.

“Then I can leave?”

His question made her raise her eyebrows “And miss on the chicken I’m paying?”

“No Hyejin, I don’t mean leaving now. I mean leaving for good.”

Her smile disappeared completely and he tried to identify the emotions he tasted. It was hard to do so in the middle of the street with so many people walking by, their emotions being mixed with Hyejin’s.

“You mean that you will stop talking to me?”

“I mean I will cut all ties with you. You won’t see me anymore.”

She bit her lower lip and looked at the ground seeming a little lost.

It wasn’t like it was the first time anyway. If he wanted to leave then he could. She would be fine. She didn’t need him. Who was him to her after all?! She said he was her friend but they didn’t know each other that well.

“Fine! Go!” She almost yelled but he could see in her expression that she was lying.

He was there, inside her heart, he was sure of it. She wouldn’t be that taken aback with what he said if he wasn’t. There was still hope for him and it wasn’t as if he could step away now. He promised he would stay with her.

“I’m kidding!” he laughed out loud wrapping an arm around her, one that she tried to take away but he pulled her with him down the street. “As if I can leave you! Where would I go?”

He laughed next to her and she gave up on taking his arm away, hiding her thoughts to herself, glad that it was all a joke.

Jinki’s teasing and easy going nature was back but Hyejin’s good mood was gone already.

She should be happy because Minho was single but what Jinki just asked of her, that silly joke of his, hurt her deeply. You don’t enter a person’s life, make her depend on you, believe that she will find you waiting for her after work and then disappear without a trace.

She was stupid. She actually looked forward to see him every day and he was the first person she wanted to tell about Minho.

“Are you upset?” He asked noticing the way she avoided looking at him.

“Yes.” She took his arm away and pushed him “I’m pissed at you! How dare you joking with a thing like that? Do you know that sometimes people disappear and you don’t know of them for years? They could have died or just abandon you and you have no idea! You don’t joke with things like that!”

She took a deep breath and Jinki joined his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry Hyejin.”

“My dad abandoned me when I was a kid. One day he simply left and never came back. My mother and I we have no idea what happened to him.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“So if you want to leave do it now.” Before she got more attached to him than she already was “Just leave and never come back.”

He didn’t dare to look away from her even though she was avoiding looking at him waiting for his decision.

“Can we go eat? I’m hungry!” he grabbed her hand, intertwining his fingers in hers and pulled Hyejin with him. “I’m so hungry I could eat for 3 today! By the way do you know that I went drinking last night? I met an old drinking buddy and drank so much that I could barely walk home!”

She raised her eyes to him and he grasped her hand tighter even though she didn’t try to take it away still speaking fast.

“I slept the whole night and morning and had this dream where I was back to the hospital. I miss working! Maybe I should go back!”

He glanced at her grinning and she smiled softly back thankful to him.

Why did she feel so safe around him? As if she could let go of her defenses and just lean on him. She even told him about her father, she shared with him her fear of being abandoned and yet he didn’t say anything. He simply stayed.

“Are you really a doctor?” She asked with humid eyes and a sweet soft voice, the one she normally saved for Minho which made Jinki giggle happily.

“Yes. I told you!” He looked so proud and even stick out his chest “I’m a pediatric specialist.”

“Really? Do you like kids?”

“Well I was scared of them at first but after I went to college I decided that I should help there. Who else deserves more to be saved than kids?”

She agreed with him and kissed his cheek. “Your parents must be very proud of you.”

He was a little taken aback for a while which she found adorable.

“Well…not exactly!” His father didn’t stop him when he told him he was going to be a doctor but he didn’t seem that happy either. “The destiny the gods set for me was for me to be following the family business so drifting away from what I was meant to do doesn’t make them that happy.”

“There is no destiny settled by the gods!” Hyejin believed “You make your own destiny. You are your only true god.”

He liked it. He liked that idea that you can truly do whatever you want with your life.

“No one has the right to tell you how you can live your life not even the gods. So if you screw up it’s also your own fault!”

“Well they are the ones who gave you life.”

“No. The ones who gave us life were our parents and not even they have the right to tell us what we have to do. Besides if you lead a good life, if you do well I believe that the gods let you have your own way. How can you explain good people having a hard life? Shouldn’t the gods settle a good life for people like that?”

“Well…”

“If you want to be a doctor then you are!” She said firmly and he laughed.

“Ok then Hyejin! “

“Do you have any brothers? My mother has a son of an old marriage!”

She was suddenly the talkative one, excitedly making questions about him and opening up about herself and Jinki realized that she craved for something like that for a long time now. A true friend, someone she felt comfortable with.

“I have a younger brother.”

“Do you get along well? My brother completely hated me.”

“Really? Me and Taemin used to be pretty close.”

“Used to? Not anymore?”

“I ran away.”

She laughed at him “How old are you? How can an adult run away from home?”

“I wanted to be free. I didn’t want the gods to rule my life. I did what you said Hyejin. If I want to be a doctor then I would be! I just wanted to be normal like everyone else.”

“Normal? Normal people aren’t doctors. Normal people have miserable jobs.” He didn’t laugh with her joke and she remembered how he told her before that he wanted to be a normal man. Now he was saying the same old thing and it made her frown. What did he mean by normal?! “What do you mean as normal? What makes you…not normal?”

He sighed deeply facing the sky and then looked back at her. “I like chicken too much to be normal.” She stared at him feeling stupid for taking him serious “I like you too much for it to be normal!”

“STOP!” She turned around releasing his hand but she quickly regretted it, missing his warm touch, her heart beating faster with his words and the way he looked at her. He wasn’t even lying even though he was joking.

It came so easy for him to say what he felt when it was so hard for her to do it.

“Let’s eaaaaat!” he sang adorably running to catch up with her and she saved her thoughts and feels to herself once again.

“There you are!” Hyejin kneeled beside Onew in her bed. He rubbed his head against her arm and she caressed his back. “Not feeling sick anymore? I was worried with you.”

She cupped his head with her hands and made the cat face her. He blinked his eyes but looked back at her and she had a weird deja vu, as if she saw those eyes before.

They had a curious shade of brown that sometimes seemed to shine and she wondered if all cats were like that.

Maybe she truly had a special species of a cat or maybe he was a mutant cat that run away from a facility where they did experiments on cats.

“Someone did my laundry again.” The cat didn’t blink still watching her “Was it you Onew? Are you a special cat?” She released him “Cats don’t do laundry but even though I never had a cat I know that there is something special about you. Are you a mutant cat Onew?”

She felt stupid for asking, it wasn’t as if he would answer even if he was mutant cat.

Onew blinked his eyes quickly and then raised his paw revealing his tummy to her. Hyejin lifted one eyebrow and Onew placed his tongue out before sneaking his head between his legs, cleaning himself.

“Ok ew I get it. You are just a cat! I’m going crazy!” She stood up from the bed and Onew quickly took his head away from his lower parts disgusted.

However she didn’t move away and he had to raise his leg again ready to pretend once again that he was washing himself.

“Aigo you are so cute sometimes. Look at that cute tummy!” As a cue she caressed his tummy and chest, moving her fingers on his fur.

If he was a normal cat she would be bleeding already but he didn’t mind her touch. He didn’t mind that she was once again beside him on a bed, caressing him and saying he was cute.

He couldn’t wait for her to do that to him in his human form.

Hyejin was in the middle of a dinner with all her coworkers and the palace staff and most importantly Minho.

She was the luckiest because he sat in front of her and she could look at his face all the time but also the unluckiest because she had to act proper, eat less and drink almost nothing during the whole dinner which seemed to confuse some of her coworkers that used to be her drinking buddies.

One of them was now filling her cup with soju.

“No, no it’s ok. I don’t want more!” She sent her junior an evil look that made him sat back on his chair scared.

“Oh it’s ok to drink a little bit more on special occasions like this. We didn’t have a dinner all together in a long time.” Minho said stuffing his mouth again.

He loved to eat and she loved to see him eat. It was perfect!

“I’ll drink it then!” She grabbed the glass with both hands and drank it cutely like a lady, slowly even though it almost tasted like water to her.

Her junior was with his open mouth staring at her, probably trying to connect that lady by his side to the woman that did a drinking battle with him and then danced over the table when she won.

Hyejin placed the glass on the table and writhed with the taste of the alcohol. “It’s so strong.”

“You are so delicate Hyejin.” Minho’s comment almost made flowers bloom in her eyes and Hyejin giggled tucking her hair behind her ear.

Minho ‘s phone rang at that moment and he stood up to get the call. Hyejin followed him with her eyes until he left and then turned to her junior.

“Stop looking at me like that!”

“I’m just surprised…I mean…noona is so good at drinking and…”

“If you don’t tell anyone about it I’ll owe you a favor!”

“Oh. I want Jiwoo’s phone number.”

Hyejin glanced at Jiwoo that was a few chairs to her left and then back at him “She has a fiancé.”

“I don’t care. I only want to talk with her. “

“Ok. Deal! Don’t say anything scary to her or I’ll kick your !”

She was going to grab her phone to give the number to her coworker when she remembered Jinki. Usually he would wait for her every day after work and most of the times they would catch the bus together and walk half the way back to their places – she often ran when they reached the kissing spot and avoid being on it with him – others they would go to eat together. That night was different and she left work earlier and didn’t even get to tell him. Maybe she should have sent him a text. Was it possible for him to still be waiting for her?

She panicked raising her eyes to the window. It was night already and it seemed like it was going to rain soon.

He couldn’t be there right?!

A cute Jinki with bunny eyes under the tree, hugging himself frozen because of the cold and pouting his lips came to her mind.

“Oh no what have I done?!”

He was like a pet always following her around and in a way she felt responsible for him.

“But he is a man…” She mumbled to herself.

“What?” He coworker asked wondering why she was talking alone but Hyejin tilted her head thinking.

The way he held her in his arms and kissed her…That was no pet. That was a wild sensual and absolutely ic man.

“Oh he is a man indeed. He wouldn’t wait…no…”

Her eyes fell on her coworker and she smiled forcefully before turning around in her seat.

In dramas the guy that has a crush on the main girl always waited.

Just in case she was going to text him but she didn’t want to seem like she was desperate or worried with him.

“Noona my phone number…” Her coworker said on her back but Hyejin ignored him.

Maybe she could mention what she was doing; maybe she could talk about the food and seem casual.

“Noona?”

Hyejin shushed him staring at him and he slumped back on his seat a little scared.

Quickly Hyejin wrote a kakao message to Jinki and sent it.

“I’m eating delicious food with Minho and everyone from work! <3”

She stared at the screen waiting for him to answer. He had a cute icon with a dog with bunny ears and she scoffed at it.

What was he doing anyway? Did he went and eat chicken again? They already visited so many chicken restaurants together. Was he sleeping? Maybe seducing ladies…

She was a little upset now. Why wasn’t he answering?!

“Ah did you finish eating?” Minho was back and she turned to him still holding her phone.

“I’m full!” Her stomach didn’t agree with her on that.

“You eat like a bird!”

A fat bird inside an ostrich.

“Waiting for a message?” Minho asked and Hyejin looked at her phone. There was a message from Jinki.

“Good. Eat well!”

WHAT?!

She probably seemed very surprised because Minho frowned looking at her.

He didn’t even react even though she told him she was with Minho. Worse, he didn’t tell her where he was.

What was he doing?! Was he upset with her? Did she break his poor sweet and soft heart?! Was that idiot ignoring her?

“Don’t you find it weird that the ghost disappeared?” Someone asked and Minho’s attention drifted from Hyejin that was still staring at her phone feeling betrayed. Jinki made her look as if she was desperate for attention when he was the one always jumping after her.

“Have you heard about the old gardener’s theory?” Someone said.

“You mean the old gardener from the palace?” Minho asked.

“Yes. He says that the ghost was always a magical creature, one that takes an animal shape when he wants. He can be either a human or an animal.”

“Like werewolves?” the coworker beside Hyejin asked.

“No. He says he is a tiger!”

“A tiger at the palace what a joke!” one of the girls laughed but Minho rubbed his chin his eyes shining.

“A tiger…how interesting.”

He glanced at Hyejin again but she wasn’t listening anything, sulking in her seat staring at her phone.

Jinki read Hyejin’s message and quickly answered to her.

She seemed to be having fun and he was glad for her. That night he decided to walk further away from the neighborhood they lived and eat closer to home. His tiger home.

It was dangerous in a way since you can meet people you are trying to avoid but there was someone in his mind that he wanted to see.

“Here is your sweet crispy chicken, sir. Thank you!”

Jinki grabbed the plastic bag, payed for it and walked back to the door.

He smelled the young man way before he saw him but it was ok. The man waiting for him also knew that he would do it. They were part of the same clan, they had the same curse or blessing of being an Earth God; and above all they shared the same blood.

Also the chicken Jinki just brought was meant to be eaten with that man. It was his favorite, Jinki preferred spicy chicken.

Jinki stopped outside, a few drops of rain falling on his head but the young man raised the transparent umbrella over him, offering it for Jinki to hold. He did and once the young man was free he wrapped his arms around him giving him a warm hug.

It was a long time since the last time he was hugged like that by someone that cared for him.

Hyejin was the exception; even though she said she hated him he knew she was faking it.

“I’m so glad you come Hyung.”

Although Jinki said nothing that man knew that he came to see him.

“How have you been Taemin? Let’s eat dinner together.”

“You really don’t have to drive me home.” Hyejin lied walking beside Minho flashing a smile at him.

“I insist. It’s going to rain really soon and I don’t want you to get sick.”

Hyejin eyed the ground while she walked thinking to herself how that drama cliché was a nonsense. No one truly got sick for walking in the rain for a little while.

Whatever! She would go along with it for the sake of living her drama fairytale romance.

“Let’s go quickly before it rains.” Minho said placing a hand on her back and pushing her softly with him. It was comforting and she felt as if he was taking care of her. Minho was always like that, a gentleman, worried with everyone around him.

However they only took a few steps before Minho stopped, his eyes on something ahead of them.

Hyejin moved her eyes from his face to the front. A very beautiful and elegant young woman was in front of her, the same one he was with at the coffee shop, the one she mistook as his girlfriend but also could be his younger sister since she seemed very young.

“What’s wrong?” Hyejin asked eyeing the woman suspiciously before glancing at Minho.

“Nothing just…”

The woman strode in their direction and before Minho could say or do anything she slapped him.

Hyejin gasped and Minho stood there speechless looking at the woman as if she went insane, his cheek very red.

“You cheating bastard!”

Oh no! Hyejin couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. Did that mean that Minho lied to her too and he truly had a girlfriend?

“Who is this…woman?”

The way she said it made it seem as if Hyejin was everything but a woman.

“Hey wait this is not what you think!” Hyejin tried to hold a coherent conversation but the way that woman was looking at her and the way Minho was motionless beside her saying nothing made her lose focus “I’m his coworker…I mean we don’t have any kind of relationship. We are friends…well barely and…”

“Let’s go!” Minho grabbed the woman’s arm and pulled her with him, glancing at Hyejin in an apologetically way.

“How do you dare to hit on woman from work when I’m your fiancé!” The woman accused Minho and his expression darkened. He looked extremely upset with her but his eyes settled on Hyejin instead as if he was truly sorry that she was hearing that.

“But you said you had no girlfriend!” Hyejin mumbled and Minho pulled the woman that was trying to take one of her heels off to hit him with it.

“I’ll explain it to you tomorrow. I’m sorry Hyejin!”

He pulled the woman away that was still screaming at him and Hyejin stood alone in the middle of the street.

Damn it, he was going to give her a ride. He was going to accompany her home and confess to her that he loved her for a long time. They were going to kiss and then she would invite him to enter her house and…something M rated would happen. Then they would marry and have kids and she would have her happy ending.

A few droplets of rain started falling and Hyejin raised her eyes to the sky just when it started to rain heavily.

It was as if the gods Jinki seemed to believe in, were punishing her for something.

“Ok I get it! You hate me!” She brushed her fringe away from her forehead “But why?”

Taemin gave another beer to Jinki and then ate the last piece of chicken from the box.

It was always like that. Jinki as altruist as he was he would always put the needs of the ones he loved above his.

“I’m sorry we are eating inside your car.” Jinki apologized.

“It’s ok.“ They couldn’t see anything outside anymore, the windows of the car was foggy. “You didn’t want to eat this at home.”

“It’s better this way.” Jinki quickly changed the subject “What are you doing now?”

“Studying not much more.”

He couldn’t avoid it forever though and they already used all the conversations topics of the night.

“How is mother?”

“She is sad. Her first baby doesn’t come back home to see her.”

“Someday.” Jinki drank his beer in big gulps “How is father?”

“The same. I’m sorry!”

“He can never forgive me for running way.” Jinki rested his head against the passenger’s seat.

“He says you are a coward.”

Jinki glanced at Taemin “Am I?”

“No. You just want to live your life. I get it and I want to do the same but…there are responsibilities that we can’t run away from and you know that.”

“Taemin please…”

“It’s ok to be scared!”

“I’m not scared.” Jinki scoffed.

“Yes you are. Scared of doing the initiation ritual and failing it, to not be accepted as a member of the clan. Just because your fur is different it doesn’t mean you aren’t one of us.”

“I'M NOT SCARED!” Jinki lost his temper and Taemin looked away. “I’m sorry but I’m not. And I won’t ever be a part of the clan, with initiation or not. You know what they whisper about my fur. “He leaned forward looking at Taemin “They call me a curse. I’m a punishment from the gods. I’ll end up killing the whole clan.”

“It’s ridiculous. It’s just ideas with no reason. No white tiger ever hurt a member of the clan.”

“That’s because there has never a white tiger in the clan. Ever! I’m the first Taemin I’m an anomaly.”

“Then you are a good one.” Taemin grasped the steering wheel “You always were the best brother and the best son and you help so many people. Everyone who knows you ends up loving you. I’m sorry but I can’t believe that your existence is a curse. I simply can’t.”

“You are my brother that’s why.” Jinki looked away embarrassed, touched with his little brother’s words.

“Come back home. I told you that I don’t mind being the chief if it’s too much for you. Just do the initiation.” Taemin grabbed the remaining can of beer and played with it; since he was going to drive he wasn’t drinking. Jinki knew he was being serious but he also knew his brother didn't want to be the chief.

“I can’t. I’ll have to choose a wife and I’m not choosing one.”

“There are so many beautiful single ladies in the clan. The tiger blood is strong and magnificent.”

“Taemin I’m not like you.” Jinki eyed Taemin’s hand playing with the can and he took it away. Taemin was known for ruining everything he touched. “You met Seo ah and you fell in love and it’s perfect because she is one of us. You only have to do the ritual and seal your fate. But I’m different I don’t want a woman from the clan.” Jinki his lips “I have someone I like.”

“A human?”

“Yes.”

“Father won’t ever accept it.”

“I know. That’s why he will never find out and I won’t ever go back.”

Taemin groaned “You can’t do that and you know it. There are repercussions when you run away from your fate.”

“No one can tell what my fate is. Someone told me that if I wanted to be a doctor I could, that I was my own god.” Jinki opened the door of the car “Besides I’m already cursed. What else can happen to me?”

Taemin didn’t find Jinki’s joke funny.

“At least show up once in awhile, visit mom.”

“I will.”

Taemin grabbed the umbrella from the back seat and offered it to Jinki.

“Take it. No wet tigers walking around.”

Jinki blinked an eye at Taemin and closed the door.

Taemin slide his hand on the front window so he could see his brother opening the umbrella and walking away disappearing in the night.

Jinki was lost in his thoughts walking back home – Hyejin’s home – when he saw her coming out of a bus. She was all drenched, her clothes sticking to her body and her hair wet.

He ran to her and covered her with the umbrella a gesture that came too late and yet she looked at him as if he was saving her.

“What happened? You could have called me. I would have picked you up.”

“You sounded busy!” she mumbled to herself and started walking back home and he walked with her trying his best to cover both, which meant sticking very close.

He slide an arm around her, groaning because she was freezing and was getting him wet but at least she didn’t push him away. She walked as if she was a big piece of ice, even her eyes seemed cold.

“What’s wrong? Did the dinner go badly?” He ran his fingers in her wet hair worried. “You can catch a cold if you walk around wet like this. Let’s go home and get you warm.”

She glanced at him a little confused and Jinki realized that he was speaking as if he actually lived with her. Well he did but she didn’t know yet.

“I mean you should go home and get warm.”

“Your gods hate me!”

“What?” He laughed “No they don’t. They sometimes hate some humans and make their lives miserable but that only happens with the bad humans and…” His voice trailed off “nasty ones.” He laughed awkwardly “I’m just kidding!”

“I don’t feel like laughing at all! Minho has a fiancé and she showed up after the dinner and slapped him and called him a cheater!”

“Really?” Jinki titled his head thinking. Yes Minho was too good to be true but he didn’t seem like the lying cheating type. Besides Jinki did spy on him a lot when he was a cat at the palace and not once he heard Minho mention a fiancé or talk with a woman for long “He lied to you then?”

“YES!” She grasped the handle of her bag “How could he do this to me?! He was supposed to be a prince. All men are liars.”

“Hey wait a minute.”

“I bet you are lying to me too!”

Jinki clenched his teeth and smiled at her, caressing her shoulder. “Of course not.”

She looked at him suspiciously and he looked away feeling guilty. She was going to hate him once she found out. Well she probably would hate him already because he was a tiger.

“However sometimes we have to lie. Sometimes there is a part of us we don’t want the person we care for to know it because we know that that part will scare them away.”

“What do you mean?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest “Are you bipolar? Have an evil twin brother? No wait!” She hit her forehead as if she realized something “You are a vampire!”

Jinki swallowed hard afraid that she would keep guessing but apparently she gave up and fastened her step.

He closed the umbrella since it wasn’t raining any longer and tried to accompany her.

Once again she was running crossing over the kissing spot which made him frown and walk slower.

She waited for him when she reached a safe zone.

“Why are you always avoiding our place?!”

“There is no our place. It’s just a stupid intersection of two streets with a view to a highway. It’s not even that pretty.”

“You are not romantic!”

“I am when it is romantic.” She sniffed still upset “All men are liars anyway. Romanticism is dead; they only want one thing from a woman!”

“What?”

She wasn’t sure he was joking but he did seem curious, pouting his lips cutely as if he was a kid.

Hyejin chuckled “Please don’t pretend to be innocent. That’s all you want too, with this kissing spot thing of yours!”

If a kiss had that power over her body, made her weak on her knees and forget everything around her than she didn’t want to imagine what with him would do to her.

“What do I want?” he truly seemed clueless “A kiss?”

“You really don’t know?” It couldn’t be. He wasn’t that innocent and he was a good actor.

They reached her door and she didn’t even notice that he followed her all the way to her place.

He climbed the stairs after her and Hyejin stopped at her door turning to him.

He was smiling, seeming happy with something but she had no idea what. For Jinki taking her home – a conscious Hyejin - like Minho did before, was making him extremely happy.

“You don’t want it now?” Hyejin asked nervously touching the door behind her. She was feeling a little weird now that she was thinking about and Jinki in the same line of thought. It was something new to her. She felt attracted to other men before – Minho had a perfect body – but Jinki, he sweep her off of her feet with only a look.

“Now?” He placed his hand beside her head on the door and her back hit the door when she tried to step back. He wasn’t acting innocently anymore and she wondered if he lied to her all that time pretending to not know what she meant.

“If I asked you inside, what would you come?” What was she doing?! Did she truly want to ask him inside?!

“Hum.” Small wrinkles appeared under his eyes while he thought “To dry your wet hair?”

He chuckled at his joke and she placed a hand on his chest and tried to push him away but he barely moved. She widened her eyes feeling his hard chest under her fingers.

“W-what would you do?” She asked taking her hand away.

“Probably drink with you? Talk?”

“You can’t be this innocent.” Not when he was looking at her like that, when his body was so close to hers. He was playing with Hyejin, he had to be playing with her.

“Have you ever been with other women?” She asked feeling her cheeks hot even though she was soaking wet.

“Have I ever had you mean?” He smirked playing with her, hearing the effect his words had on her body, savoring the taste of the ual need that was slowly growing in her. Hyejin was getting aroused with that game and consequently he was getting too.

“Why are you saying it out loud?” She seemed shocked and he smiled. How could an experienced woman be blushing like that at the mention of the word .

“Yes I did have …” he lowered his voice saying the word “With other women. It’s the natural thing to do. It’s basic instinct, the way species reproduce. “

She covered his mouth “Ok just shut up!”

Jinki grabbed her hand and took it away from his lips but he didn’t release it. His hand was burning against hers and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. His eyes were so beautiful, shining brightly and she couldn’t control the way her body was answering to his touch, to his words.

“I can’t lie to you. You said all men are liars but I’ll tell you the truth” He leaned forward not a trace of cute Jinki anymore and whispered against her ear, his hot breathing making her shiver “I want to have with you.” He moved away rubbing his nose on her cheek and she glanced at him, almost no distance between them. She parted her lips, her breathing accelerating and wished for a kiss that didn’t come yet. “I want it very, very much.”

She gulped making him smile cockily and he intertwined his fingers with hers pulling her hand up with his and against the door behind her.

She moved her eyes from him to her hand and back at him when he cornered her again, his lips inches from hers, her head against the door, no space to run away.

The worse thing was that she didn’t want to run away. She wanted that kiss more than anything and that ual energy between them was making her go crazy.

“But before having with you I want to kiss you. I love kissing you.” He rubbed his lips against hers and she closed her eyes waiting for it. The way wild Hyejin was succumbing to him made him tingle inside and he caressed her cheek with his free hand. She even leaned against his touch and he groaned losing his self-control.

Jinki crashed his lips against hers and Hyejin grasped the hand he was holding, her free hand grabbing his sweater while he kissed her. It was more intense than the last time and she wasn’t sure she would survive it. Luckily she had a solid door behind her or she would have fallen completely defeated at his feet.

Jinki caressed her cheek that was no longer cold and smiled against her lips tasting her ual energy and the mixture of feelings that she was experiencing. He could hear her blood pumping crazily and he broke the kiss his lips.

Damn. If kissing her was like eating a delicious piece of cake, having with her would be the most delicious meal ever and he wanted it. He never wanted someone so much in his whole life.

If it was another time, if he was another tiger he would have taken her. But he was more human than a god, he cherished her, he would never force her into anything.

Jinki closed his eyes pressing his lips softly against hers and Hyejin parted her lips kissing him. She was giving herself to him without even noticing. Demanding more of him and he opened his eyes and increased the distance between them, just enough for both of them to calm down.

She was panting already and he barely touched her, he didn’t even start pleasuring her.

Jinki was actually afraid to hurt her. She seemed so fragile and he could get very wild if he was hungry. Luckily he fed that afternoon. When he visited Taemin Jinki passed by a cemetery. It was a good place to feed from sadness. Not the most delicious thing but it was enough to let him change shape a few more times and enough to keep Hyejin away from his ual and feeding impulses.

Kissing her, the emotions he activated in her, seemed to be enough for him to satiate part of his hunger, enough to prevent him from hurting her.

Jinki released Hyejin’s hand softly and she let her hand slide down the door and her arm fell beside her.

“Hyejin are you ok?”

“Yes…” She mumbled still in shock. She felt as if an earthquake passed through her and she wanted more, she needed more. She was like a junkie and his kisses were the best of drugs.

She couldn’t take her eyes away from his soft and plump lips and he didn’t seem to notice her struggle. Why was Jinki always so infuriating, doing the opposite of what she wanted.

Kissing her when she didn’t ask – not that she regretted it happening – and not kissing her when she wanted.

“Do you want me to go inside?”

His question made Hyejin widen her eyes slightly.

Did she truly want to have with him?! She didn’t know him that well after all. She never saw where he lived, she didn’t know much about his family and what he truly did for a living and yet, she trusted him; she wanted to be in his arms. When did she become a crazy weak girl like that?!

Hyejin moved her head against the door and slide her hand to the buttons beside her door trying to insert her code.

Jinki took that as a yes and giggled because she was failing to put the code, barely moving her eyes from him.

He was cute laughing at her, wrinkles under his eyes and Hyejin almost slide to the floor her knees getting weaker. She tried to compose herself and moved her body away from the door clearing .

He eyed the buttons pursing his lips because he knew the code and unfortunately couldn’t use it in front of her.

“We can go inside to talk.” She said placing her fingers over the buttons again but before she could insert the code Jinki gave her a wet kiss, her lower lip. Clearly he wanted more than talking.

“Meet my cat too!” Her comment made him flinch and she finally was able to take that moment to insert the code “You don’t like cats?”

“I do! I do!” He answered eagerly, too eagerly and she pushed the door open.

He hesitated at the door and she did the same, darkness around her.

She always closed her door after she turned the light of her living room on and he knew why. She was afraid of the darkness so she would only cut the light coming from the street lamps outside, once she had another light over her head.

Jinki smiled to himself happy that he was finally being invited by Hyejin to visit her house in his human shape. He grabbed her hand in his and entered the apartment closing the door before she the light.

If she was with him she had no reason to be afraid.

Hello ~

First of all don’t judge Minho yet.

Finally Hyejin is opening up to Jinki and things are heating up. I told you it would! u.u

Taemin showed up to yay!

I hope you liked it!

Bye ~