I’m not there anymore. I’m not there anymore. I killed him. He’s dead. He won’t ever touch me again. I’m not there anymore. It wasn’t my fault.
It doesn’t matter. That man broke me. In the end, he had more control over me than I ever did over myself. My body betrayed me for years, over and over again it gave in and did the exact opposite of what I wanted. Why would that change now? It’s useless for me to even hope.
I exhale and let the arrow fly. All in all, it only took a few seconds to aim and shoot, but by the time the arrow thuds into the ground a few feet away from the target, my dick is soft again. Not a twitch or a glimmer of interest. The arousal drained as fast as it came, roughly shoved aside by the sour taste of my anger and memories, leaving me cold and vaguely nauseous.
Just like this morning, just like always.
“Hm.” Young-gi retreats. I feel a chill despite the warm sun shining all over his perfect lawn, in front of his perfect mansion,in his perfect life. “You could benefit from some practice. Kira is quite good; I’m sure she’ll teach you.”
The rest of the world returns to my awareness like a car crash of sound and sight. My pinhole vision expands and I remember who and where andwhenI am.
“I didn’t ask you for advice,” I say, attempting to keep my voice polite, but it comes out stiff and defensive.
“Hm,” he hums again, assessing me. “Kira is too good to be dating sore losers, or boys who don’t know how to be humble.”
It takes me a second of blinking at him in confusion to understand what he means by that.
He thinks I’m embarrassed about the arrow missing the target?
The thought is so ridiculous that I laugh, a short bark of dark amusement that maybe reveals more of my inner ugliness than I want. He stares at me, then tilts his head and furrows his brow like he just realized he skipped an important page in a book. I stare back, trying to look bored. Trying to be Tommy Claremont, instead of just Tommy.
No interesting pages here, just a blank book of nothing.
“Uncle Young-gi?” Kira joins us, only now realizing he’s here. She hesitantly comes to my side and takes my hand. The movement is stiff, a little awkward, but once I gently squeeze her fingers and smile down at her, she relaxes.
“How’d you do with the targets?” I ask her, dropping my useless bow to the ground. Thanks to the meddling of Young-gi, I’ve lost my chance to hit Brian. While Young-gi was distracting me, the dickwad went over to the drink tables, and it would be wildly improbable for my arrow to fire in that direction by mistake.
Besides, Young-gi just proved I probably couldn’t hit the side of a barn on purpose, let alone hit a moving person while making it look like an accident.
“She’s killer with a bow,” Lexie brags on behalf of her friend, jumping around me and pushing on my shoulders like she wants to use me to vault into the air. Then doing the same to Kira, who stumbles into me. I catch her easily and help her find her balance, placing an absent-minded kiss on her head like she’s a baby sister that I just helped up on the playground.
“I’m passable with a bow.” Kira brushes the compliment away, batting at Lexie’s hands, but I don’t allow it.
“No, no, come on, darling,” I urge her. “Show off for me, yeah? I bet you’re brilliant at it, just like you’re brilliant at most things.”
Her cheeks flame red and I grin at her. Lexie wolf whistles at me and fans her face with her hand, which makes me roll my eyes and ruffle her hair.
“Uncle Young-gi, are you going to practice with us?” Kira asks hopefully.
“I don’t have much time. I only came out here because I wanted to see you do better than everyone else,” he says. His tone is matter-of-fact, but there is a hint, just atinyhint, of a smile at the corner of his lips.
Is that his version of a joke?Hot. Wait, I mean… Pathetic. Yeah, pathetic.
“I have some business to attend to, but I had a spare moment between calls. I’d like to see you show off your progress, I know you’ve been practicing–”
The unmistakable sound of a phone ringing in his pocket interrupts him. Young-gi pulls it out with a sigh, checks the caller ID, and pats Kira on the head. “Speaking of business, I should take this. Blow them all out of the water, show them what us bastards are capable of.”
He spins on his heel and leaves, apparently unaware of the way she flinches. I scowl at his back, because even though I thought that was a really cool line, Kira doesn’t like that word.
“It’s okay Kira,” Lexie whispers to her. “You know he meant it in a good way.”
“Yeah,” Kira toys with her hair self-consciously. “I know.”
************
Young-gi
I’m staring at my hand as I sit in my office. I should be reading the proposals sent to me by my acquisitions department, but instead I’m just… sitting here.
