A Tiger Rolled Into My Life, Bringing Chaos With It - Chapter 26

Most people would find the desire to repay kindness admirable, but Cher was different. He didn’t just see it differently – he found it extremely annoying.

‘Trying to repay me just to ease your own conscience.’

Such gestures weren’t gratitude but merely another name for a sense of debt. The immediate urge to lighten the burden. She seemed overwhelmed, but that was actually good. The more burdened she felt, the more she would consider his stay here as natural. Whatever she might call the emotion she was feeling, Cher had no intention of relieving even 1g of it.

Just let her try to repay him. At that moment, he would return the favor with things that would easily surpass all his expenditures so far. Would Tinya surrender first under the burden, or would he? The winner was obvious without even looking.

“Don’t you get bored staying at home? Something to pass the time…”

“Time passes quickly with cleaning and laundry. And for the remaining time, putting together puzzles is enough.”

“Then should I buy you another puzzle?”

Tinya’s voice rose eagerly. Ready to head to a store immediately, Cher quickly refused.

“The house is already small, and having two puzzles would make it cluttered. Besides, I haven’t even finished the current one, so adding another would just leave things incomplete, which I don’t like.”

As he said this, Cher had already completed the puzzle and deliberately scattered it before Tinya returned from work, repeating this N times. From the beginning, he had chosen the puzzle merely as rough evidence that he stayed home while she was gone, not because he particularly liked it.

Tinya became dejected at his firm refusal. She was discouraged because even the one thing she had thought of was rejected. Her voice trailed off with a mumbled “Then…” that never finished.

Cher’s eyebrows narrowed. While he had no intention of easing her emotions, he didn’t want her excessive burden to make her act unpredictably. He threw out a justification to somewhat console her.

“If I go back as I am now, there will only be people trying to steal my money. Rather than that, it’s much better to spend it on you, who provides me with a home.”

Tinya’s eyes widened as she carefully placed the clothes on the floor, avoiding the puzzle. All that just because he had become smaller? For Tinya, who could change her size at will, such ruthlessness was hard to imagine. Were all carnivorous shifters like this? Or was it just tigers?

“Tiger shifters pursue strength. If I return in this state, I’ll be obsolete and eventually discarded.”

The weight of those words she had heard that day became real. Questions like “Are you okay?” or reassurances that things would get better swirled in Tinya’s mouth, but they didn’t come out. The situation he was in was heavier than the weight of words, making it difficult to speak easily. The same went for suggesting alternatives.

“Let’s fold the laundry after eating.”

Did he take her silence as agreement? He casually changed the subject. Tinya hesitantly got up and headed to the kitchen. She took romaine from the refrigerator and washed it, and no conversation passed between them until they finished eating. Only when they settled down to fold the laundry after the meal did Tinya speak.

“If you ever need anything later… please make sure to tell me then.”

Was that what she had been keeping quiet for? Cher glanced at Tinya’s seriously stiffened face and replied calmly.

“Of course I will.”

That won’t happen.

Not knowing Cher’s true thoughts, Tinya’s serious expression gradually relaxed. Then she followed Cher in neatly folding the clothes. As she worked through the pile of clothes one by one, Cher’s pants came into her hands. While turning the inside-out pants right side out, she suddenly sensed something strange.

‘Why is there nothing inside the pants?’

Tinya remembered clearly. The size of what had been between his legs. Since he carried around something like that, she naturally thought there would be a separate storage space inside the pants. But no matter how she looked, she couldn’t see such a space. It wasn’t much different from the inside of her own pants. Her gaze unconsciously moved toward his center.

‘Is it slightly bulging? No. It seemed bigger than that.’

The loose cotton pants made it impossible to even guess what was inside. If it had been obvious, she would have checked and moved on, but not being able to figure it out made her even more conscious of it. Noticing her repeated glances, Cher frowned.

“Why do you keep looking? Do you have something to say?”

“Ah, no.”

Tinya quickly turned her gaze straight ahead. Unresolved curiosity stirred within her, but she tried not to think about it while mechanically folding the laundry. However, even until the moment she fell asleep, she couldn’t figure out where that large thing was.

***

It was the fourth day of contemplating where exactly Cher’s g******s were in his pants. Despite secretly looking several times during this period, she still couldn’t pinpoint the location. Wondering if perhaps only the pants she had seen that time lacked a storage space, she carefully examined his other pants as well, but they were all equally ordinary.

What began as light curiosity snowballed until it eventually appeared in her dreams. In front of her, shouting to know where on earth he put it, he merely showed his throbbing c*ck without ever revealing the answer. Even though she knew it was a dream as soon as she opened her eyes in the morning, she clenched her fist in annoyance.

While she was struggling with this at home, there was no particular change at work. Even the brother Leona had promised to introduce hadn’t shown up. Despite the lack of news, Tinya wasn’t impatient. Grooming was basically a one-hour task, taking two to three hours depending on size, so one needed some free time to visit the shop.

He’ll probably come within two weeks.

Tinya truly didn’t mind, but did the heavens take pity on her? Instead of Leona’s awaited brother, there was one shifter she had been encountering without fail for the past few days. Just as she was thinking, ‘Surely not today too?’ a familiar face caught her eye.

“You’re here again today.”

Tinya’s voice, initially armed with tension and kindness, had somehow changed to a slightly disgruntled tone at some point. For good reason – except for the first day when he was seen sleeping in a tree, he had consistently been lost.

Sure enough, today he was still standing in one place, unable to find his bearings. He scratched his head and admitted.

“Yeah. I definitely went the way Tinya told me yesterday, but why can’t I find the path?”

The man, with whom she had exchanged names in the past few days, naturally spoke Tinya’s name. She, too, called his name familiarly.

“Bell. I told you to walk with this tree on your right. Right now, you’re standing on its left.”

“Huh? This was that tree?”

He knocked on the tree he had been leaning against. For reference, this tree was by far the most noticeable and largest in the forest. With just a bit of careful observation, there was no way to confuse it.

“How do you manage to find this place every day when you keep getting lost elsewhere?”

Tinya’s tone mixed incredulity with genuine curiosity.

“The peace zone fence is visible from far away. I walk toward it, hoping to find a familiar path, and somehow I end up in this forest. That makes me wonder, could this forest be cursed? Isn’t it strange?”

The cursed one is your pathfinding ability. The strange thing is your carelessness.

His face, looking as if he truly believed this, appeared so serious that it was even more astonishing. In Tinya’s view, his biggest problem was his optimism. Getting lost was fine, going hungry was fine. Such an attitude exuded from his entire being. Still, he must have had some sense of crisis, as he tried to seize opportunities when they arose. This was how Tinya had become his guide.

“Follow me. I’ll guide you to the edge of the forest.”

“Thanks~”

His light voice made Tinya sigh involuntarily. He trotted over and stood beside her. Now familiar with his sweet, subtle scent, they moved together. The path that had eluded him for hours appeared in just a few minutes when he was with Tinya.

“It’s amazing every time. How do you find your way so well even in places that seem blocked?”

I find it more amazing how you get lost in this forest, Bell. Tinya swallowed this uncomfortable truth and just shrugged to convey “Is that so?” Bell suddenly tilted his waist diagonally to meet Tinya’s eyes. His gently curved eyes were soft.

“How about becoming my personal guide?”

“I’m sorry. I have a job.”

“That’s too bad. By the way, is the bus stop this way or that way?”

His gesture, pointing to two different directions, completely missing the actual bus stop direction, was dizzying. She had already told him twice, but he seemed confused again. She considered just giving him directions, but since she also needed to go that way, she decided to guide him.

“I’ll take you there.”

“You will?”

His quick acceptance was strangely annoying. She was beginning to think that perhaps he wasn’t really running away from home but simply couldn’t find his way back due to being lost? And he was just framing it as running away. If they were closer, she might have asked, but given their ambiguous relationship, she kept her speculation to herself.

After walking for a while, the bus stop came into view. Since Tinya’s destination was along the path past the bus stop, she continued walking with him. Her gaze naturally went to the bulletin board next to the bus stop. As her eyes skimmed over it, one printed notice caught her attention. Tinya stopped in her tracks, and Bell also halted alongside her.

< Looking for Missing Shifter >

The missing person notice contained a facial photo, age, gender, height, and district of residence. What caught Tinya’s attention was the age range. 30s. Neither young nor old. Next to it was another missing person notice. This time it was for someone in their 20s. Tinya’s expression turned serious.