Page 12 of The Last Tiger

Now my thoughts are racing. The reward for catching a tiger is staggering, rumored to be upward of 500,000 yen or more. It’s an amount of money that could change my life, and the lives of my entire family, forever.

Exam aside— this might just be the lucky break I need.

I race through the undergrowth, followed by the cursing officers, mentally weighing my options. I’m pretty sure I can find my way back to the cave where I last saw the tiger. I could lead these soldiers directly to it. Collect my reward.

But as I lead them forward, a flash passes involuntarily through my mind—

The soldier raises his blade, his face twisted in an expression of hate—

I stop in my tracks. Then I turn around.

“I—I’m sorry,” I tell the soldiers, shaking.

They stumble after me, cursing as they swipe away branches from their faces.

“Where is it?” the younger soldier gasps.

“I…must’ve been seeing things.”

For a second, I doubt myself. It’ll hurt to lose that money.

But I just can’t let them kill the tiger. Not again. Not one more.

And besides—if we manage to make it back alive tonight, I have my own path now. I don’t need to collect the empire’s money; I have a deal with Eunji. I’m going to pass the Exam. I’ve taken my fate into my own hands now. And I don’t need to help myself at the cost of an innocent life.

The younger soldier drops his arm, aghast, letting the lamp down by his side. The older officer with the harsh-looking scar steps up, close to me, an awful look in his eye.

“You think this is some kind of joke, boy?”

“N-no, I swear—”

It happens so fast I don’t even register it. The blow strikes me down to the ground as a searing pain cries out in my cheek. The officer lifts his foot back and kicks me twice in the gut, hard. I double over. The taste of blood fills my mouth.

He kicks me again, and I feel an explosion of pain in my chest—

“Whoa, that’s enough, man. He’s just a kid,” the younger soldier says. My ears are ringing; his voice sounds distant.

“He’s Tiger spawn ,” the hard-faced officer curses. He spits; I feel the spray hit my cheek as the slur falls out of his mouth. “We’re wasting our time. I’m finishing up my shift and going home.”

He kicks me one last time; with his ki, it feels like a steel rod has rammed through my chest. I groan, seeing stars.

The younger officer raises the lamp again, his somber face flickering in the shadows.

I watch dimly as the light bobs off into the woods, the soldiers making their way back to the river.

I grimace, lifting a shaking hand to my cheek, and wipe away the officer’s spittle. My stomach turns; I lean into the ground, blood and spit pooling from my mouth into the dirt.

Have to get back—I have to find Eunji—

Somewhere nearby in the woods, I hear an animal noise. The sound is feral and deep; the hair stands up on my arms.

The purring sound grows .

I try to stand, but I’m too weak. It feels like one of my ribs might be broken. Desperately, I struggle to move. A pair of golden, gleaming eyes appears in front of me as the tiger emerges from the bushes.

I’m totally helpless. I’m sure I must look like the world’s easiest meal.

The tiger pads so close I can see its enormous, white-and-black striped face hovering above mine. I want to scream for help—anything—but I’m paralyzed, my body’s numb, and I can’t seem to breathe quite right—

The tiger lowers its head for the kill…

Above me, the moon flashes. A powerful moonbeam falls straight into the woods, casting the forest in a bone-white stream of light, growing in intensity.

Something warm and soft and…wet touches my shirt. I crane my neck, confused. The tiger hasn’t attacked me. It’s only lowered its head…until its nose is touching my chest, just above my heart…

From somewhere far away, I hear the jangling of what sounds almost like…music. I hear the beating of drums, and in the far distance, a woman’s voice, singing fully, with abandon, her song warbling and trembling and rising high to a crescendo—

“Ari-rang, Ari-rang, A-ra-ri-ro…”

What’s going on? What’s happening—and why do I feel—

The light dissipates; the moonbeam disappears.

I lie there on the ground, stunned. My chest is glowing with warmth. As I look down at myself, a brilliant white light fades away from my skin, my shirt returning to its normal color. I look back up just in time to see the tiger’s retreating tail as it disappears back into the woods.

I sit up, touching a hand to my chest, astonished.

The pain has completely disappeared. My ribs are fine, nothing broken.

I look up and around, full of wonder.

My hands run over my chest, my face, but I can’t find even the slightest hint of a bruise. It’s as if the soldier never even touched me.

What’s more, my senses are strangely heightened—the air on my skin feels intensely crisp, and around me, the forest has suddenly come alive, practically pulsing with animal sounds I could barely hear before.

I hear now the humming of insects in the woods, the thrumming chorus surrounding me; I hear the swoop of an owl’s wings as it flies above the trees, settling onto one of the branches.

By my feet, I can almost feel the presence of a tiny beetle diligently making its way over the soil.

I squint, taking a second look at the beetle. There’s some kind of aura around it—a light brown halo. I blink again, rubbing my eyes, but the shimmering light is still there.

Something rustles the leaves at the edge of the clearing. I scramble to my feet, prepared to run.

“Relax, it’s me,” says Eunji, breaking through the trees. She still has a few leaves stuck in her hair. “Whatever you did worked, because the Dragon soldiers left. Come on—let’s get out of here.”

Shakily I nod.

Eunji tilts her head to the side. “You okay? You swallow a roach or something?”

“No. I mean—yeah,” I stammer. “Totally fine.”

I throw a thumbs-up for emphasis.

When I look back at the ground, the beetle is gone.

I scale the wall of the Choi family manor, reaching back to help Eunji climb over.

I haven’t said a word about what happened out there. I honestly don’t know how I would begin to explain it.

We drop down behind the wall over the live-in-servants’ quarters, then sneak past the window, where Moonhee’s silhouette blows out a candle.

When we make it to the western compound, I open Eunji’s window latch from the outside.

She swings her legs over and lands in her room with a soft thud before turning around to peek back over the edge at me.

I feel terrible, having risked her life. Both of our lives. Maybe she’ll never want to see me again.

“I’m so sorry, Eunji,” I tell her. “I had no idea the night would take that turn—

“Are you kidding?!” she interrupts me, grinning from ear to ear. “Seung. That was the most exciting night of my life.”

For a second, I can’t speak.

Eunji’s cheeks are flushed. Her brow is slick with sweat, and her dark hair is tangled, running wild. There’s one last little leaf that neither of us managed to spot sticking out from her hair.

But her smile is what shuts me up.

It’s the purest grin of joy I’ve ever seen on anyone’s face. In some way that’s hard to explain, Eunji looks the most like herself that I’ve ever seen her. Something flutters in my chest as I flush with happiness, seeing how wonderful she feels. My breath hitches.

“Seung? You all right?” Eunji raises an eyebrow.

I flinch, shifting my gaze to my feet. What am I thinking? This is Choi Eunji —the youngest daughter of the most powerful Tiger family in Kidoh, possibly in the colonies.

And me? I’m the guy who gets paid to clean her house.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” I paste on a polite smile.

Eunji regards me in silence for one painstakingly long moment. Then she leans out the window and briskly says, “I’ll see you next Monday, okay?”

“All right,” I say, bowing.

Eunji wrinkles her nose. “Don’t do that, Seung.”

I pause, uncomfortable. Another moment passes—until Eunji waves me off.

“Get home safe, okay?”

She smiles at me one last time before shutting the window, leaving me standing out in the night. I turn, pull myself over the back gate, and circle around to the front of the manor. Then I begin weaving back through the streets, on the path toward home.

When I finally arrive, it’s beyond late and I’m exhausted.

I’ve picked most of the leaves and twigs out of my clothes and tried to ruffle my hair back into shape, but I still look like a terrible mess.

My shirt has a giant rip in it where I tore it on a stray branch, and my pants are stained with mud. Ugh.

Cautiously, so as to not wake anyone up, I remove my shoes and slide the front door open—

Only to find that I’m not the only one still awake. A lamp has been left on the table, burning itself down.

I frown. Something isn’t right here.

In the center of our one-room house, Mom and Hoyoung are still up—they’re kneeling over something, with their backs to the door. Confused, I slide the door closed and creep up quietly, joining them.

Mom turns her head and just puts her hand on my back, without saying a word. I feel a jolt of shock seeing that there are tears running down her cheeks.

Not comprehending, I look down at the floor.

Dad is lying there beneath a worn blanket. His face is thin and pale, and his eyes are closed in sleep. He inhales weakly and then exhales, his ragged breath catching and choking into a series of coughing fits. The rattling coughs rack his thin frame.

“I think it’s pneumonia,” Mom whispers, turning to press her lips fiercely to my forehead.

A deep chill runs down my spine.

Pneumonia is a terrible disease. For families like ours that can’t afford the right medicine, it’s a very, very bad diagnosis.

And Dad has weak, brittle lungs; years of working in the mines will do that. Even a cold can lay him low for days.

Dad isn’t just sick. He’s dangerously sick.

“What happened?” I manage, my eyes filling. “When…?”

“Do you remember the rain a week ago?” Mom says softly.

Last week feels somehow like a lifetime ago. “Yes,” I reply finally. Of course I remember. That was the night I saw Officer Hiyoshi out in the woods.

“Your father was coming home from the night shift that day when he found a man by the side of the road in the cold and rain. He was naked and shivering half to death—apparently he’d been robbed.

Your father took off his coat and gave it to that man, before helping him home. But he got soaked on the way back.”

A terrible feeling of dread passes up my spine, as if a finger made of ice were tracing its way along my back.

With her other hand, Mom strokes Hoyoung’s head. My little brother is uncharacteristically quiet, standing stiff as a plank beside the bed.

“Your dad caught a cold that day. At some point it must have developed into pneumonia.”

Dad found Officer Hiyoshi in the woods that night.

But he stopped to free the man who had stolen from our family, the very man who threw him into the wall. Dad gave our enemy his only coat to keep him warm. And in return for showing kindness to someone who stole from us, Dad got desperately sick himself.

How could he be so stupid? My eyes fill with tears.

I squeeze Mom’s hand tightly as the lantern on the table flickers, sending our shadows moving over the wall.

What little light it gives off casts the room in a warm, homey color.

The lantern is running low on oil, though; I can already tell.

Once it runs out, we’ll be plunged into darkness for the night. I can only pray that it will last.