“Do I, really? What’s your plan then?”
She’d stumped him. So he said the first thing that came to mind, “I’ll go with you to confront him.”
“And then? Are you going to come back to my apartment with me and stay the night to protect me when he comes over in a rage at three in the morning?”
“No. You can come stay with me. He won’t be able to find you then.”
Was he insane? He didn’t even know this girl. Why had he just said that?
The truth was he hadn’t thought this out. Not really. He’d put all his energy into solving the mystery of her whereabouts. He had simply been desperate to find her. To convince her to save herself. But that was proving harder than he’d imagined. She was testing him.
“So I’m just supposed to relinquish all control of my life then? Either to him. Or to you?” She speared him with that disconcerting two-colored stare.
“No,” he blew air out in a steady stream between his tight lips. “I didn’t mean that. You’d be free to come and go. I—I, honestly, I haven’t given the answer to your dilemma that much thought. I was busy trying to figure out how to find you. I hadn’t realized that you already came to me until this morning. After I got your third letter and put two and two together.”
“I didn’t mean to come to you. I just went to Starbucks. It was an accident that I met you.”
“Was it, really?” His gazed pierced her.
Her eyes grew wide. “I had no idea you’d be there!”
He nodded. “I believe you. I just wonder how on earth we found each other in Starbucks after you wrote me two letters. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was kismet.”
“Either that or we’re two protagonists in the same drama,” she grinned.
He couldn’t figure this strange girl out. One moment she was suspicious of his motives; the next, she was cracking a joke. But could he blame her for being cautious? She’d trusted one man, and now he was beating her.
“You can’t go back to him. You can’t move in with him. Please. Promise me you won’t.”
Yoongi was holding her eyes steady with his own. Despite her doubts, his heart was moving hers.
“Why do you care so much?” she whispered finally.
“Because I knew a girl like you once.” He paused, and his eyes moved away from her face to stare into the distant past. “And no one helped her.”
It was all he said. But she felt the finality of those words. They crawled over her skin with an odd premonition of her own fate if she ignored his warning.
