Beautifully Cruel

Chapter 31

TAEHYUNG

Though Jen asks why I'd need to know his name, I don't tell her. I just steer her into the closet so she can put on some clothes, then get dressed myself and wait impatiently for her in the kitchen.

She pads in, barefoot, wearing one of my white dress shirts.

It's her uniform now. Even when she studies, she has one of them on. Sleeves rolled up her forearms, hem hanging halfway down her slender thighs. More often than not, she doesn't wear anything underneath because she knows I'll rip it off, anyway.

She takes a seat at the kitchen island. I set a bowl of cereal in front of her. I watch her eat until she sighs and sets down the spoon.

"For god's sake, Taehyung, stop staring at me like that. My head's about to explode."

"Patience isn't one of my virtues."

She says drily, "Believe me, I know."

We gaze at each other. It takes considerable self-control not to walk around the island, grab her, and pull her into an embrace. I stopped counting how many things we had in common a while ago, because they kept adding up too quickly. But this...

This feels less like a shared experience and more like a sign.

I say, "I'm listening."

Her eyes darken. She chews the inside of her lip for a moment, then glances down at the cereal bowl.

"If we're never going to see each other after another three days are up, why does it matter?"

Impatience claws at me, but I keep my expression neutral and my voice steady. "It's important for me to know more about you."

She looks up at me, green eyes flashing, then says tartly, "Oh, really? That must be an uncomfortable feeling."

Holding her angry gaze, I say, "Okay. I deserved that. Please tell me anyway."

I can see she's startled by the "please," and curse myself for being such a bulldozer. I make a mental note to mind my manners better in the future, then try to wait with as much forbearance as possible as she decides if she's going to do what I asked.

It's extraordinarily fucking difficult.

Finally, she drags a hand through her long, dark hair, and takes a breath. She sits up straighter, squares her shoulders, and meets my gaze head-on.

"My family is poor. I told you that. I grew up on eighty acres in a farmhouse built by my grandfather that was pretty decrepit by the time I came along, because my dad has the opposite of handyman skills. If he tries to hang a picture, he'll smash the hammer onto his thumb. If he climbs a ladder to change a light bulb, he'll fall off. He's terminally clumsy, so the house was crumbling around our ears, but he's actually good at raising crops and animals, so we had enough to feed a family of ten."

"All the kids had their chores, but my brother Hyunjin took after my dad in the clumsy department. He was more a menace than a help. After he drove the tractor through the side of the barn the third time, my mother finally banned him from farm work for good."

She makes an impatient gesture with her hand. "Long story short, without his farm chores, and having just graduated from high school with no plans for college and no job, he had too much time on his hands. He started hanging out at a dive bar, fell in with the wrong crowd, and selling drugs to make money. Small-time stuff, pot and pills, but pot has never been legal in Texas. And getting caught smoking it was different than getting caught selling it...but getting caught selling it in partnership with the son of a local judge was the worst thing of all."