Jeongguk is sitting on the sofa, eyes closed with a glass of champagne in his hand, when he hears soft footsteps padding down the stairs. Jeongguk slowly opens his eyes, searching for Taehyung, and the first thing that comes to mind when he sees the hybrid is that he looks pretty, now that he's clean. Sharp almond eyes, a straight nose, and full lips. Anyone else would find him intimidating, but not Jeongguk. There are bruises all over his body, deep and painful ones on his arms and wrists, a cut on his cheek, and a scar on his forehead that appears to be healing slowly. They walk out of the store together, Taehyung trailing behind Jeongguk, dejected. “Are we going home now?” he asks as Jeongguk comes to a halt in front of a seating bench and turns to look at Taehyung.

Hoseok heaves a sigh. “Alright. Taehyung-ssi, could you please wait for us outside? I need to talk to Jeongguk alone for a moment." Taehyung is clearly nervous about going to the clinic right now, but he doesn't express his displeasure. He's deafeningly quiet, and Jeongguk can sense his distress radiating from him in waves. I could have waited for you a little longer! I hope you didn't rush over for me,” Taehyung says, and Jeongguk clenches his teeth as he realizes he did, infact, rush over for the hybrid. He broke all the traffic signals and almost caused an accident. He completely lost control. It is just pity , Jeongguk tells himself. An abused, starving hybrid begging for his life, begging to be freed from his cruel owner, is incapable of evoking any other emotion from Jeongguk other than that.

Come here,” Jeongguk says firmly, leaving no room for discussion as he pats the empty space beside him on the bed. “I'm not going to touch you if that's what you're afraid of.” He wouldn’t have left me otherwise,” Jeongguk says, his eyebrows furrowing. It’s true, Taehyung would have fought, begged and whined if Jeongguk had simply told him to leave. Furthermore, the hybrid already considered Jeongguk to be his owner. Jeongguk crouches down to retrieve the gun. “If you feel regret creeping in, remember the way you suffered because of him. The way he starved you while eating his own meals. He was neither a good owner nor a good human. You're free now, and that's all that should matter.”

Taehyung purses his lips, and Jeongguk notices how his ears fold over his head as he stares at the ground, hesitant to respond. He left him around 1:00 PM, and now it's 12:00 AM. Jeongguk feels his heart sink at the thought of how much longer the hybrid would have sat like this, alone, waiting for him. So unwaveringly patient and trusting. The second reason is that I just really don't like the story. We have seen this generic "office love" between a superior and an employee type of thing many times before, it's nothing special in my opinion. Taehyung's voice is hesitant, almost sulky, as he responds, “I would have if I had known your name.”Tell me your full name?” Jeongguk asks, crossing one leg over the other and taking a sip of his champagne. Taehyung pauses, his ears twitching as he slowly sits up. “Can I,” he begins, averting his gaze from Jeongguk shyly, “sleep here?” Jeongguk stands up and empties the rest of his bullets into the man. Taehyung closes his eyes and presses his hands against his ears as Jeongguk shoots his owner once, twice, and four times, until he drops dead in a pool of his own blood. Usually, predator hybrids have excellent qualities such as enhanced hearing, speed, and even healing. They're difficult to tame, and they're rarely obedient, so I was surprised when Taehyung listened to you. In most cases, they don't unless they have an extremely strong bond with their owner. Tiger hybrids are extremely rare, and Taehyung is most likely one in a million whose animal is still dormant. He's just a regular human with ears and a tail. He's basically a house cat right now."