Waiting Game | pjm ✓

019. Vinnie

It was as if the whole world had teamed up in a weird, mind-puzzling conspiracy against Taehyung.

Ever since that day he had returned from downtown, things had started to go downhill for him, as if they hadn't already. Not that the business at his auto repair shop had been blooming before, but right now it was dead as ever.

People would still walk in and ask for his services, but the moment Taehyung would as much as pass them a card or their fingers would accidentally brush against each other, their eyes would snap as wide as it were humanly possible and they would run away horrified as if he were a giant cockroach threatening to eat them.

This would be how most of the men would react, though. There had been a couple of occasions when women would march in to ask a question and then, completely out of the blue, would throw themselves all over him, begging him to take them to bed and mewling all kinds of praises for him, from how handsome he was to how much they'd love to "give him the suck of his life." As thick-skinned as Taehyung was and as much as he had gotten used to never letting his surroundings bother him, he would be lying if he said he wasn't starting to get freaked out.

The psychotic glint in the eyes of these women was awfully familiar, reminding him of the night something similar got into Kiara and her demeanor practically shifted to that of someone seemingly possessed.

Speaking of Kiara, her absence in his life had started to become distinctly perceptible. From time to time, he would grow annoyed at how intrusive she was and how shamelessly she would invade his personal space by always getting in his business, but now that she was gone, he was starting to realize just how big of a difference her presence in his life made. When cooking, she would always bring him food as much as he told her not to bother. Occasionally, she would just drop by his garage once a day for a casual chat or to tell him a joke he would only roll his eyes at. As annoying as she was, it was still nice to know that someone cared for him, even if it was in such a motherly-meddlesome, obtrusive way.

Ever since that day she ran off flabbergasted, she hadn't shown her face. Taehyung was pretty sure she was avoiding him, but that didn't prevent him from going over to her place to check in on her. He wanted to tell her that whatever it was, she needn't feel ashamed in front of him or assume that he'd think differently of her. All he needed was an explanation.

However, she never opened the door even though the lights were on. This only left him more perplexed than before, wondering what the hell was going on with the world around him.

After many hours spent in deep thinking, he was led to the conclusion that someone must have cursed him. Taehyung had never been superstitious or a believer in spells or curses, but no other explanation made sense. Someone had definitely put a curse on him to make all the people he met go into a sex-crazed frenzy.

Recollecting the recent events, Taehyung was quick to deduce that it had been since the day he had went to collect his money from Lee Aera that everything had went wrong. Or to be more exact, the day her that obnoxious short bodyguard of hers paid up for her. He had been the first person in the eyes of whom Taehyung had noticed that maniacal gleam scintillating. Back then, he hadn't paid much attention to it, but now he was starting to grow doubtful by the minute.