Page 10 of The Last Tiger

My whole body is warmed by the heat and spice of the tteokbokki, making me forget my embarrassment. Somehow, the fresh food here on the street tastes so much better than anything I’ve had at home…

“You’re different,” Seung says.

“Yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear…”

We’ve stopped outside town, taking the quiet route along the river back toward my house. Toads are croaking; dragonflies flit through the air. The moon hangs in the sky, half brilliant, half draped in shadowy clouds.

Seung pauses, picks up a rock, and skips it across the creek. The stone bounces three or four times before falling below the surface and disappearing from sight. He reaches down and skips another easily; I marvel at his casual skill. He seems so carefree out here.

“No, I mean, you’re different from how I thought you’d be,” says Seung as he skips another rock. “From how you usually are. When you’re at home with your family, you’re always…a little uptight. No offense.”

“Isn’t everyone that way at home?”

The thought of home makes my stomach churn. If my parents find out what I’m doing right now, I’m done.

Seung shrugs.

“Not at my house. We’re pretty relaxed. It’s not like you guys, always so formal. But today you’re, I don’t know. Another person altogether.”

“How so?”

“The Choi Eunji I’m used to seeing is—quieter?

Just what you’d expect from the youngest daughter of the most powerful family in the Tiger Colonies.

Poised and perfect, always says the right thing.

You know. Honestly,” he adds, “if I hadn’t seen you at the Slaying Ceremony myself, I never would’ve believed that you were capable of sneaking out. ”

Of course he can’t see me as anything but obedient, sheltered. And, though it’s painful to admit, I fear that he’s right.

I try to copy Seung, skipping a rock myself. It plops straight into the water without skipping. Seung chuckles.

“Maybe I’m acting differently because…I feel different,” I mutter.

“What do you mean?”

I frown and try another rock. Plop again.

“I don’t know.” But even as the words come out, I realize I know exactly how to describe how I feel, out here, in the open air surrounded by the woods and the river.

Alive.

Narrowing my eyes, I focus on the task at hand, trying to skip a rock once again. The third stone falls straight into the water after the first two.

“It kind of bounced a little?” says Seung, leaning forward.

“No,” I say. “It dropped right to the bottom.”

But I’ve already bent down to pick up another stone. I try it again and again, undeterred by the repeated failure. Now it’s a game. I have to get it right. Seung crosses his arms, amused.

Finally—after like eight or nine tries—I get a stone to skip! It hops three times across the narrow creek before sinking to the bottom.

“I got it!” I cry, throwing my hands up. I do a little hop-dance. “I did it! Ha-HA!”

“Not bad.” Seung laughs.

The two of us throw stones until our arms grow tired. Afterward, we sit back on the banks under the half-moon light.

“What’s life like once you pass the Exam?” Seung asks after a while. “You’ve seen your siblings go through it, haven’t you?”

I sit up and look off into the woods. A distant, sad feeling echoes through me.

“After the Exam,” I say quietly, “you go to Adachi Training Academy, far away on the home islands of the Dragon Empire.”

Seung nods.

“There, a Dragon spirit bestows Dragon ki on you. Then they teach you how to use it. It’s basically a year of military school. You board there with a bunch of other students and the Dragon ki masters, training together.”

“You must be looking forward to it—being away from your family,” Seung says, observing me with a side glance.

I shrug. “Adachi doesn’t exactly mean freedom. It’s a military school.”

According to my eldest sister, Eunyoung, Adachi follows a strict regimen, morning to night.

And though many students, including girls, go on to become members of the Dragon Army…

for Choi daughters, getting into Adachi is just a checkmark on a list of things we have to do to prove our eligibility as brides.

Immediately after completing her training at the academy, Eunyoung returned home and married the eldest son of a mining magnate from Hannam City. Then she moved away, trading one confining household for another.

The next time I saw her was two years later, when she had one child on her hip and another in her belly.

Trying to put the thought out of my mind, I pick up a stone by my feet and rub it between my fingers, turning it over and over. It’s so smooth. Out here by the creek, I almost feel like I’m dreaming.

“You don’t look excited about it,” Seung observes.

“Why would I be?” I shrug. “It’s just one more thing I have to do. And it brings me one year closer to being married off to the most politically advantageous son of Father’s business associates.”

“How romantic.”

“It’s the way it is,” I say, grimacing. “The way it’s always been. I’m trapped, and I always will be. And I’ve accepted that.”

“Have you really?”

When I glance over, Seung is watching me intently, his mouth slanted in a half smile.

I clear my throat. “Of course I have.”

“Huh,” he replies skeptically. “If you say so.”

“Don’t believe me?”

He stares at me for another beat. Then he shrugs and turns back toward the river.

I toss the pebble I’ve been holding into his lap. “Hey.”

He picks up the stone and tosses it back. “Hi.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I gripe, a frustrated laugh escaping from my lips.

Seung chuckles in response. “Well, I don’t know. You just look so happy out here. Out on your own. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like you like this way more than being trapped inside. No?”

I follow his gaze out over the glassy surface of the creek. The reflection of the moon shines brightly there, distorted by the pattern of flowing water.

“I’m not really free,” I mutter. “It’s just an illusion.”

“Maybe,” Seung replies. “But what if you could be?”

I turn to look at him. He has a strange look on his face.

“Take me, for one. I never, ever thought I’d have a chance at passing the Exam,” Seung tells me.

“No way we could afford the tutors we’d need.

Not in a million years. I was resigned to that fate too.

But now…things are different. You showed me another path.

Now there’s hope. What if you could find that for yourself?

A version of the future you’re looking forward to? ”

“I don’t know what that would even mean…” I trail off.

“Why not? Just picture it—humor me, for the fun of it.”

“Father would kill me,” I blurt out.

But the idea sticks in my mind like a shining coin in the dark.

What if…?

“I mean…I suppose, if I could do anything …”

“Hey.” Seung’s voice has suddenly gone cold. “What’s this?”

“What?”

“Eunji, look.”

He’s bending down over the ground, observing something there.

I sit up and come around behind him, looking down at where he’s pointing. There’s something large and oddly shaped there in the mud.

A footprint.

It’s from some kind of large animal, with four big toes around a central pad.

Instantly my mind flashes back to the event a couple of weeks ago. The chains. The beast with the trembling eyes.

But this print is brand-new—there’s no way it could be two weeks old.

The two of us look up at each other.

“You don’t think…?” says Seung, looking straight into my eyes.

“Tiger.” I nod, feeling a chill passing through me. “For sure.”