A/N So sorry, I published chapters 6&7 before this one. Sorry for any confusion! 🫰🏽
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Truly, I was not thirsty, but I decided to hunt again that night. A small ounce of prevention, inadequate though I knew it to be.
Namjoon came with me; we hadn't been alone together since I'd returned from Denali. As we ran through the black forest, I heard him thinking about that hasty goodbye last week.
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In his memory, I saw the way my features had been twisted in fierce despair. I felt his surprise and sudden worry.
"Taehyung?"
"I have to go, Joon. I have to go now."
"What's happened?"
"Nothing. Yet. But it will, if I stay."
He'd reached for my arm. I felt how it had hurt him when I'd cringed away from his hand. "I don't understand."
"Have you ever...has there ever been a time..." I watched myself take a deep breath, saw the wild light in my eyes through the filter of his deep concern. "Has any one person ever smelled better to you than the rest of them? Much better?"
"Oh."
When I'd known that he understood, my face had fallen with shame. He'd reached out to touch me, ignoring it when I'd recoiled again, and left his hand on my shoulder.
"Do what you must to resist, son. I will miss you. Here, take my car. It's faster." He was wondering now if he'd done the right thing then, sending me away. Wondering if he hadn't hurt me with his lack of trust.
"No," I whispered as I ran. "That was what I needed. I might so easily have betrayed that trust, if you'd told me to stay."
"I'm sorry you're suffering, Taehyung. But you should do what you can to keep the Jeon child alive. Even if it means that you must leave us again."
"I know, I know."
"Why did you come back? You know how happy I am to have you here, but if this is too difficult..."
