Author's Note: I usually wait until I get a review because sometimes I don't know what's going to happen next. I get a lot of inspiration from reading the comments. Then there are times when I just get going and can't stop. This is one where I have to figure out what I want to do with it.
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Baye stuck her toes in Tim's fur and wiggled them around. What had he just said? She understood the part of about Darklings and Guardians, but the crap was a Wild Power and why was she designated as one?
She had made the point of never getting involved with her mother's lifestyle because it hadn't interested her, but her mother had dragged her along to many of her meetings. She knew the inner workings of a Guardian group. She knew how the operated and how many were in leadership positions. She knew by default that Jun Pyo was the leader here.
But this was the first time she had seen so many leaders in one group. It was obvious that F4 as they were called were in charge but ultimately it was Goo Jun Pyo who made the final decision. Had he told them to protect her? Who made it Jeongmin's position to follow her?
Jeongmin watched as her mind raced. She was intelligent but she didn't know how to hide what she was thinking. She had pulled her bottom lip into her mouth as she worried her foot in the monster dog's fur. She really hadn't heard anything about Wild Powers while she lived with her mother.
"I have racked my brain, but I haven't come with anything. What is a Wild Power?" she asked. She was taking it really well.
"I don't know much about it, but from what Jun Pyo and Shinhwa Group told us there are only four born every five hundred years. The Guardians and Darklings rush around the world to find them because they're not just born in Korea. The Darklings have the ability to steal a Wild Power's power and use it as their own. It makes the Guardians' jobs that much harder," he explained.
She held the cup to her lips as she let it sink in. "So how many are left?"
Jeongmin looked down into his cup. This wasn't the news he wanted to tell her but things were really progressing too quickly. She had the right to know.
He looked at her. She was watching her feet as she waited for him to answer her. He didn't think she was daft, but she wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. She didn't know that he was looking at her.
He wondered how long it would take for the others to track down the others that had caused them to run. He wanted to leave because if he stayed in the house with her for too long his mind was going to wander. Since he had met her and concluded that she wasn't going to back down from his mouth, he had settled into bantering with her in and out of class. She was honest and witty and he enjoyed arguing with her.
If he wasn't careful, there was going to be an even bigger rumor about a teacher and student than was going around. Already some of the students were talking about how Baye was close to F4 and the kids that hung out with them. It would be even worse if she was suddenly connected with a student and people believed they were in a relationship while she taught him.
"Jeongmin?" she asked, pulling him from his thoughts.
He sighed as he realized he had to actually tell her the truth. "The other Wild Powers have been tortured and killed for their powers. We're still not sure how they were caught because those three knew how to use their powers."
"So I'm the only one left." She said it with an airy sigh. She was resigning herself to the fact that this was real. "How long will you have to protect me?"
"I'm not sure. We're the largest Guardian Group in Asia. We have nearly two thousand men and women in our group so we should be able to do this, but I don't know how they're beating us to you guys."
"Is there any way you can predict when and where the four people will be born?"
Joengmin shook his head. "No, because it's random no matter what we do. This time around in September of 1984, four children were born on the same day at the same time on the same day. That's the only thing the children have in common. We can't plan that even if we tried."
"We won't be alive to see it." He shook his head, feeling horrible for telling her. "I have an idea though."
He turned to look at her. "What is it?"
"Find a hidden space. It's easy to get lost in this area. They already know where we live. Find somewhere they don't know about and convert it into a temporary base of some sort. You can't watch me while we're all separated."
It made sense. As it was right now, they were all separated into five different houses. The six younger ones lived together, and F4 had their own houses obviously. The largest one was Jun Pyo's but he didn't want to bring it home. Woo Bin would be next but his niece and nephew lived with them while his sister was overseas with her husband. Yi Jeong's house was filled with too many art pieces that were getting ready to go on sale and his girlfriend was a bit stingy with him when he was off work. Ji Hoo's place was too small for the eleven of them and two dogs. He looked at the giant beasts as they snored. They were so oblivious to the fact that there was trouble.
His phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out. A new message from Ji Hoo flashed across the screen.
/Don't leave the house tonight or tomorrow. We'll handle Baye's lectures and your classes. Don't set foot outside that front door./
He stared at the phone long enough that she noticed something was up. She pulled his hand over so he could see what was so fascinating. She read the message then huffed at the screen, muttering something about idiot men and being bossy before getting up and going to the kitchen.
Jeongmin didn't know what he should do. Baye was going to be madder about being locked in the house than anything else. The only place she could go outside was in the back yard with her dogs. He was pretty certain those monsters wouldn't let anyone near her.
Irritated, Baye started pulling things out for a stew that would feed them for a couple meals. Potatoes, carrots, chicken, green peas, sugar snap peas, and tomatoes landed on the counter in a giant heap. She pulled out a large chopping knife and made short work of the vegetables. They were in the giant pot within a few minutes.
Jeongmin was left watching woman as she set about doing random chores. She vacuumed which was pointless because of the furry behemoths lying in the floor. She scrubbed down the kitchen and dusted the rest of the furniture. Then she started on the laundry. She was trying not to be agitated, but it wasn't working out so well.
"Why! Why do I have to listen to the four of them? It's not like they have done anything worthwhile. They could have told me what was going on. They could have been completely honest. They could have said something but no! They kept their mouths shut!"
He knew the danger before it even registered, and he was up out of his seat before he even realized it. The multicolor spark was dancing in her eyes again. She was that angry.
He grabbed one wrist and pulled it across her body as he slid behind her and grabbed the other. When he had her in an effective restraining hold, he pressed his temple to the back of her head and waited. But he knew he couldn't hold her for long. An unchecked Wild Power was really dangerous.
"You need to listen to me. If you don't rein in your temper, you're going to burn the house down and kill me and the dogs. I know you don't care too much about me, but your furry beasts depend on you," he appealed.
It took a moment, but she started calming down. Her hands shook in his and they burned him a little. Most Wild Power's effectiveness came from their hands. By restraining hers, he had stopped her fire but had gotten burned in the process. The electricity he could generate would cauterize any open wound that he held, but he couldn't do that unless his hands were free.
Baye tugged at her hands and he let them go. She didn't step away from him though. Instead she turned and looked up at him. He met her eyes steadily and watched the blue flame dance in the darkness. She tilted her head slightly and looked at him.
He lowered his head slightly and his eyes fluttered between her eyes and mouth. She didn't move like he thought she would. He needed her to say no because if she didn't, he wasn't going to be responsible for what he did.
"Let me see your hands," she said barely above a whisper. Completely off guard, he did what she asked. She flipped them over and inspected them. "They're not terribly burned, just slightly blistered. If you take care of them, they shouldn't get infected."
She smiled up at him and he knew it was all over. Anyone who got close to her without proper reasoning wouldn't like the outcome.
He grabbed her wrist as she started to turn away. She looked up at him again with an open expression. He pulled her towards him until her feet were wedged in between his.
"Jeongmin," she said.
"From now on, don't move without me knowing. Don't leave your house, your classes, your office or campus without me knowing. If something happened to you, if the Darklings get their hands on you, it's all over. And I'm not going to call you Professor Lee anymore, Noona," he said.
"You can't demand that from me," she argued the flame rising in her eyes again.
He tightened his hand and pulled her a little closer. "You can't control your power. They know when you use it. It's like a beacon to them. If you want to stay safe, listen to what I say. Because if something happens to you, it will be on my head that the blame is placed."
"I'm your teacher."
"No, not in this house or any safe house. You are not a teacher. You are a powerful woman, and you're a friend. You don't have to be anything else outside of the school. You don't have to use honorifics or bow down to anyone. You are the highest power in the Guardians. We have to listen to you. It's part of our nature."
"Then why are you bossing me around?"
He stalled at the question. He knew the answer, but there was a possibility that she wouldn't accept it. The last girlfriend he'd had, had broken up with him when they had started college. She had said that his mouth and temper had been too bad and that she hadn't wanted to stay with him until he had learned to control it. Since that day, he hadn't had any other experience with a woman until now.
But Baye wasn't a normal woman. First she had been his teacher, but since he had abolished that, she was just a woman who was the last Wild Power alive. He had an obligation to protect her, but doing so meant he had to be close to her. And she literally set every hormone in his twenty-one year old body on fire, literally and figuratively.
"Answer me," she urged.
"You are the most precious thing we have. We have to protect you. That means I am, and everyone else, is going to boss you around. Get used to it."
"Do you always fight with your superiors?"
"When I know I'm right, yes. Now go check on the stew. It may be ready."
Baye watched him disappear down the hallway where the bathroom was. He was persistent and annoying, but he wasn't wrong. If she really was a Wild Power and she couldn't control it, she was a danger to everyone. If the Darklings got their hands on her, it didn't matter how tough she could be. They would torture and kill her for her power that she wasn't convinced she even had.
She went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of bowls from the cabinet. The spoons were already in the drainer so she just pulled them along with a ladle. She was serving out the bowls when Jeongmin returned from the bathroom. He had bandaged his hands for the time being.
"Roscoe, Tim, out," she said. Tim was the first one out the door and he immediately started chasing a butterfly. Roscoe took his precious time. As soon as he was by the door, Baye kicked him in the butt with the inside of her foot. "Hurry up, slow poke." He turned to huff at her before his big butt went out the door. Once outside he laid on the wooden deck and watched Tim chase the butterfly.
"Does he always do that?" Jeongmin asked as he looked out the window over the sink.
"He's not the brightest bulb, but he enjoys those butterflies. They get the better of him though. Then he changes to birds. He caught one once, but he didn't hurt it." She settled herself on the barstool. "Sit down and eat before it gets cold."
He had already ticked her off and had nearly paid the price for it. He sat down like she had asked and started to eat, not really surprised that the stew tasted really good. He was slowly learning that she could do just about anything she wanted. And that was really dangerous for him. In the end one of them was going to get killed if he couldn't control himself.
