Beastly Beauty ✓

36. The Reunion

Jungkook followed me out of the room, and he let me tug him down the halls until we were outside. With no sign of the others, he dropped my hand and stopped, causing me to turn around.

"Tell me what's going through your head." He was worried, but I couldn't tell if he shared my concerns or not.

"He said all three of them are here to protect me. They're the three we narrowed it down to—" my voice caught as I took a sharp inhale, heart beginning to race. If it's not them then we're even farther from the truth than we thought.

"Hey." His hands slid up my arms before pulling me into his chest. "Just breathe, alright? We'll figure this out. We can all meet and talk about everything and we will come up with a plan."

I nodded, stepping back just enough to look into his eyes. He offered a slight, sad smile.

"We need Jimin and Hoseok," I whispered.

"You worry about Jimin. I'll find a way to convince Hoseok."

* * *

It was late into the evening by the time Jungkook received Hoseok's text agreeing to come see us. Jimin had quickly met back up with the two of us earlier, and we'd gone straight to my dorm room where we sat and talked for a few hours.

Both of the men had insisted I take a nap while we waited to hear back from Hoseok because apparently my drained appearance was not only visible to me, but I refused. As much as it was needed, any sleep in my current state would've been miserable.

So we spent our time discussing whether Taehyung had told the truth or not. We turned music on to muffle our conversation to neighboring rooms, then we went over different clues, suspicions, analyzed past behaviors, tried to reason whether it made sense that the three of them were protecting me. But Jungkook suggested we wait for his brother before deciding anything.

Jungkook's phone finally chimed around eight o'clock, and not two minutes later, there was a light knock on the door.

My stomach fluttered with nerves. I was glued to the edge of my bed as Jungkook walked over to turn the knob. The door swung open all too slowly, but then he was there, tall and masked and clothed in black, and that amber instantly lured me under his magic.

While I mentally scrambled for words, he asked, "Are you okay?"

I was sure if the handle on my emotions slipped for even a second, I would've cried—from seeing him, from exhaustion, from fear.

Instead, I stood from the bed, taking two steps before running straight into his arms. Hoseok stiffened under my touch, but he gradually wrapped his arms around my frame, one hand resting at the small of my back while the other went to the nape of my neck—then it was my turn to stiffen.

Gloves.

He was wearing them again. The cool leather sent a chill over the skin they touched. Maybe I was reading too much into it since he'd always worn them, but after I'd burned him in the woods that night, it made sense. He'd explained before that the burning was a defense against his kind, a way to protect me, but we'd gotten beyond that. We were able to touch after I finally trusted him—

Which means he might think what happened in the woods—my burning him—was a sign that I stopped trusting him. That I'm afraid of him.

I knew what happened that night wasn't good. I knew the burn was something that hurt him, but I thought he would've figured out by now that it was just instinct. That it was from something innate within my power, not me changing my mind about him. That it had been out of my control.