by Con Template
In a move that warmed Soo Jin’s heart, about two dozen of her loyal Scorpions, the ones she commanded to infiltrate other gangs or form their own gangs, stepped forward. Her smile grew wider when she realized how much they had grown over the past three years. She hardly recognized them. Some had become leaders of successful, smaller gangs, while others had become high-ranking members in other established gangs.
With their appearance, murmurs of shock and bewilderment echoed through the ballroom. Displaying apathy to all the curses from the infiltrated gangs, they all stood proudly before her. As they prepared to fall to one knee before her, she held her hand up and motioned for them to stop.
“You will never kneel before me or anyone else again,” she proclaimed, smiling as her eyes scanned the room. Pride surged through her veins at the sight of her new soldiers. Once the news of the Siberian Tigers’ resurrection circulated, her army would expand exponentially.
Gesturing for them to stand, she sighed and sat back down in the comforts of her throne.
“Siberian Tigers,” she commanded loftily. “Spread the word. Find your brothers and sisters and bring them before me.” She glanced at Tae Hyun. “This world has been too damn peaceful for my taste, and I’m hungry for a war.”
With a respectful bow, over three hundred Siberian Tigers dispersed from the ballroom, ready to call forth the rest of the Siberian Tigers, who had been scattered throughout different regions of the country, and ready to recruit an army for their new Queen.
Soo Jin smirked smugly at the expressions of the various people in attendance. They were all staring at her in awe. In a matter of seconds, she went from having no soldiers to acquiring an army that would rock this world to its core.
Feeling satisfied with herself, she leaned her head against the chair. Now that she was done with one task, there was another bullet point to check off. Her vigilant eyes trailed up to the balcony in the far right-hand corner. She spotted a blonde Asian man—the one she knew was present as soon as she walked in.
“P.C., Jae Hyuk, Mike, Izzy, and Jess,” she greeted with a lethal, unforgiving tone. She watched carefully as P.C. and a few scattered men and women in the room shifted uncomfortably, bewildered that she knew they were there the entire time. “Tell my brother that I haven’t forgotten about him—or his wife.” Although her voice was calm, her eyes promised retribution. “Please send my regards and let him know that I’m dying to see him again. It has been too long, and there is unfinished business that I have to take care of.”
“With that said,” Tae Hyun began, never taking his eyes off Soo Jin. It was clearly evident he was tired of being around the rest of the Underworld.
“—The party ends now,” Soo Jin finished for him. Her eyes never left his as she whipped out her two gold guns and made sure they were in plain sight. “I want to be alone with the celebrated King.”
Before any protests could come about, Tae Hyun said, “Mina, Ace.”
At his call, both instantly handed Tae Hyun his two silver guns.
Scanning the audience again, he impatiently said, “This is the last time we’re saying this. I’ve been composed for long enough. If the Queen and I want to be alone, then our wishes will supersede any event tonight, which has already died. Again, with all that said, leave now before things get . . . messy.”
Since “the war” was to take place in a month’s time, Ju Won was hesitant to leave the revered King and Queen alone in the same room. He was afraid they would kill each other before the designated moment. Nevertheless, despite Ju Won’s opposition, he bit his tongue.
Then, in a show that had never been seen, the Advisors and the entire Underworld heeded their King and Queen’s stringent commands. They bowed slightly as a show of their respect, and in an instant, sounds of chattering were ringing in the air. The Underworld populace began to file out of the various exits, each throwing back lingering looks onto Soo Jin and Tae Hyun. They were all wishing that they could stay and enjoy the official confrontation between the two Gods.
They were aware that, despite the bylaws of their world and the agreement Soo Jin and Tae Hyun made, An Soo Jin and Kwon Tae Hyun were the type of King and Queen who followed their own laws and none others. They not only dictated their own laws, but if they chose to, could also initiate their own private wars.
And if the icy, merciless looks the King and Queen gave one another were any indication, then blood was definitely going to be spilled tonight.
Their own private war had already started.
“But the inescapable truth is that your blood belongs to this world.”
04: ‘Till Death Do Us Part
If there was ever another moment in her life where she felt so jubilant, Soo Jin wasn’t sure. The exhilaration that whipped through her was unrivaled by anything she had ever felt as she observed Tae Hyun. He was staring at her with such cold reserve that she wondered if he was feeling anything at all.
No longer finding the peace acceptable, Soo Jin decided it was due time to break the silence and get the night moving.
“Isn’t it funny,” she began in a flippant tone, “how even in a room filled with people who have made the biggest impact on my life, the only one I’ve been dying to see is you?”
Although he did not say anything, she knew he was listening to her every word.
Encouraged by the excitement streaming inside her, she continued to speak; the competitive fighter in her was thrilled to have finally met the one who made such an impression on her life.
“I spent my entire life training to meet you, Tae Hyun, even before I knew your name or knew of your existence.” She laughed, taking her eyes off of him while playing with one of her gold guns. “Other girls spend their entire lives wishing for their Prince Charming to come and sweep them off their feet. For me, all I prayed for was to meet someone as great as me—someone who was just as legendary and would give me the fight of my life. All that blood I shed, all those times the Advisors buried me alive in a coffin, all those times I nearly had my neck ripped off, all those times I laid in a pool of my own blood thinking that I was seconds away from death . . . I fought to breathe, to continue to live so I could finally meet you—the one person who had always given me such a purpose in life.”
“Should I be honored that I’m the one you’ve waited your entire life to kill?”
She didn’t miss his antagonism towards her. She shrugged, eyeing the gold guns that sat peacefully on the small counters that flanked either side of her throne. “I rarely think highly of anyone, so yes, I think you should take it as a huge honor.”
“How did you regain your memories?” he asked instead, getting right to the point. She knew all too well that he had been dying to ask her this as soon as she walked in. “Did it happen as soon as I walked out?”
She shrugged again, purposely trying to enrage him by being flippant. “Why wouldn’t you assume that I remembered everything all along?” A cruel smirk lifted on her lips. “That I was merely playing you and that there was never a ‘Yoori’ to begin with.”
When she saw a muscle loosen in his jaw at the reminder of her counterpart, Soo Jin jumped on that weakness with the brutality of a predator.
“I should thank you, Tae Hyun,” she launched, uninterested with perpetuating the lie that Yoori never existed. “Choi Yoori, as weak and as human as she may have been, was truly a force to be reckoned with in matters pertaining to you. God, the girl just kept holding and holding on until you . . . so cruelly . . . walked out of her life and pretty much kicked her to the curb.” Soo Jin shook her head at him, fully aware of the pain she was inflicting upon him. “What happened, Tae Hyun? I wouldn’t take you for someone who would trust Ji Hoon’s words, yet you believed what he said and kicked your beloved girlfriend out? Has hell frozen over, or is there a tidbit about your mother’s death that stuck out in your mind enough to convince you that I actually killed her?”
He swallowed tightly, speaking through bottled emotions that he was unwilling t
o reveal to her. “It was never divulged to the public that my mother died because she slit her wrists with the jagged edges of broken bottles. How my mother died should not have gone beyond my family’s knowledge. When I came home and inspected the bathroom, I knew something was off. Everyone thought it was a suicide. I shared my suspicions with my brother, but he told me that it was merely grief on my part. Despite this, I double-checked it anyway. Ji Hoon and Young Jae couldn’t have been there that night because their whereabouts were confirmed by the mentors they were with. There were few individuals who could bypass Serpents’ security and my Cobras, no less, unless they were highly skilled.”
He regarded her with impassive eyes. “I didn’t consider you as an option then because you never crossed my mind. I know the truth now. You were there, Soo Jin. You were there with my mother in that bathroom. You were the one who bypassed our security, you were the one who broke those bottles, and you were the one who helped her along.”
A proud smile curved on Soo Jin’s lips. Her bored eyes ran over the unfathomable pain that crossed Tae Hyun’s face when he acknowledged this truth.
“You are truly one of a kind, Kwon Tae Hyun,” Soo Jin said with genuine marvel. He never ceased to amaze her. She had high hopes for him, and he did not disappoint her. “You are truly the most gifted opponent I could ever ask for.”
She tossed her gun from one hand to the other as if she were playing with a child’s toy. “I see now how you’ve managed to acquire so much of Ju Won’s reverence in three short years. That menacing old man is rarely ever impressed with anyone, but I can see why you’ve become such a favorite of his and the majority of our Underworld populace.”
She then nodded, feeling as though she should respect him enough to tell him what he needed to know.
“Young Jae told me that in order to be second in command of the Scorpions, I had to kill someone of high status. As my fellow second born heir, it was supposed to be you who I killed that night. Yet, because you were out of the country, you weren’t an option.” She tilted her head as she stared admiringly at her gun. “But then Young Jae told me that he wanted me to kill your mother because he wanted to break Ho Young. I followed his command because I wanted to be the enforcer for the Scorpions. Additionally, because of my own devious ways, I assumed that after your mother died, Ho Young would break even more if he thought his mother had committed suicide as opposed to being murdered.” Her emotionless eyes locked with his. “You were right all along, Tae Hyun. Ji Hoon didn’t lie, my brother didn’t lie, and you didn’t leave the love of your life for the wrong reason. It was me. It has always been me.”
The anger in him was potent—she could feel it. By now, she could see him gripping irately at his armrest. Slowly, but surely, he was losing it.
To his credit, he did a valiant job of maintaining his composure when he asked her another question. “How much of the past three years do you remember?”
Soo Jin laughed. She knew he was thinking about Choi Yoori when he asked this. The thought of Choi Yoori pissed her off, and she used that anger as her fuel to push the buttons that she knew could only be aggravated whenever his beloved Princess was mentioned.
“I remember everything,” she told him uncaringly. “I remember the first meeting in the diner, I remember the handcuffs, I remember the park with the swings, I remember the lake house, I remember the Winter Wonderland, and I remember that elusive city . . .”
This was where her eyes grew colder.
“I remember everything, but I merely remember it like it was a dream. There’s no sentimental value attached to it for me because it was, after all, Yoori’s life and not mine.” She feigned a pout for Tae Hyun, who she knew was feeling every bit of pain she wanted him to experience. “If you asked that question because you wanted to see if your Yoori is still here, somehow ‘buried’ within me, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. Your Princess is gone. She was gone the moment you left her; she was gone the moment I came back.”
When she saw Tae Hyun do that painful swallowing he did every time a piece of his heart broke, Soo Jin decided it was time to move on.
“Do you know why I’m here right now?” she inquired, placing her gun aside while she pulled herself up from her seat.
In a fluid motion, she treaded down the steps. She walked on the marble tiles, stretching her arms out like she was preparing for an intense workout.
“Yoori wanted to give you your revenge,” she told Tae Hyun, who was still sitting in his throne, his hand clenching onto the armrest while his back was resting against his chair.
In spite of his calm demeanor, the raging fire in his eyes followed her like a shadow as she slowly made her way down the ballroom. She forged on, her voice taunting him. “She wanted to make things easier for you because she understood how much you despised me and wanted to kill me. She knew you would never be able to do it if she were still ‘here’, so she took care of it herself and pretty much let me out.”
A spark of shock flashed across his face at this revelation. “Yoori voluntarily let you out?”
“Fight me now, Tae Hyun,” she coerced, sensing his hesitation even though he was plagued with the duty to avenge his mother.
Tae Hyun was a man who could be a bit too honorable for his own good, but honor wasn’t what she needed from him. All she needed was for him to satiate her need for a good battle after three years of peace.
“I can’t wait a month from now to face you. I’ve been dying to meet you since I scarred your Cobras three years ago. I daresay that I’ve even lived for this moment. So screw any promises you made to Yoori. We both know that Yoori and I are as different as night and day. I don’t give a fuck that you promised her you wouldn’t fight me for the throne, or that you’d let me kill you if I wanted to, or that you’d always protect her. I don’t need those promises—they mean nothing to me. The only thing I want from you is my battle. Show me what you have in store for me a month from now; show me the God I’ve been waiting all my life to fight.”
When he didn’t budge and then had the audacity to turn away from her, she lost it and grew angry as she neared the center of the room.
“Don’t force me to bring Hae Jin into this,” she warned.
Triggering the wrath that she knew would push him over the edge, Soo Jin continued to pick at the wound. She was willing to use anything to coerce him to fight her.
“You wouldn’t touch her,” he stated, gazing at her unblinkingly. His voice was stern, yet there was no conviction in them.
Tae Hyun might have had a soft spot for his precious girlfriend, but he had no soft spot for her. He was realistic about his knowledge of what she was capable of. He was fully aware of everything she had done in the past, and Soo Jin was intent on showing him how far she was willing to go to get what she wanted.
“No, I wouldn’t touch her,” she placated before tilting her head mockingly. “I’m sure it would be more poetic if Kang Min was the one who touched her. Or perhaps, it would be even more poetic if he ripped her heart out—literally—”
Bam!
He was there before Soo Jin could even anticipate it.
Seething, Tae Hyun had already thrown his tuxedo jacket off, ran towards her like a speeding bullet, and wrapped a hand around her neck. He lifted her off the ground, pinning her against the gold pillar across the room before she could even blink.
Astonishment echoed through her.
Soo Jin could not fathom how Tae Hyun did all of that with such alacrity. All she knew was that she couldn’t keep the excitement from pumping in her veins. This was what she wanted . . . for Tae Hyun to be pushed over the edge.
As she felt air tread under her feet, Soo Jin did her best to regulate her triumphant smirk. She knew all too well that she only had to threaten the people he loved to provoke him.
Biting back a smile, she tried to breathe past the pain of not having enough air in her lungs and the pain surrounding her neck from his ironclad grasp. She stared at the fire brimming in
Tae Hyun’s eyes. She was pleased to finally begin to see the God she had wanted to come out.
“I didn’t get the typical training that every heir gets, An Soo Jin,” he warned her through clenched teeth. The inferno in his eyes intensified. “You were trained specifically by the Advisors, Ji Hoon was trained in Korea, Young Jae was trained in Japan, and my brother was trained in China . . . but I’m the wildcard in this mix. I’ve had mentors from all over the world, and I’m the best out of this group.” He leaned in closer, giving her a whiff of his enthralling cologne and the potent fury exuding from him. “You don’t know what I’m capable of, and you shouldn’t try to learn.”
“I know how skilled you are,” she whispered. “I fought your Cobras—”
“Then you should know that every master is a hundred times better than the students they teach,” he countered. “You didn’t even see me coming a second ago; you won’t be able to beat me. Stop forcing my hand, stop provoking me, and just stay away from my sister.”
Even with all the anger he displayed, the bunching of all the muscles across his body told her that he was only using a minute portion of his physical capacity—he was holding back on her. If he wanted to, he could’ve choked her to death or ripped her neck off before she could process what had happened. He was still treating her like a fragile china doll that he was afraid to break.
She had to change that.
“What are you going to do now?” Her voice was soft, smooth, and rolling with mockery. “Will I be free to go if I promise to leave your sister alone? Will I be forgiven for what I did to your poor mother?”
He applied a bit more pressure around her throat, further constricting the limited air that was reaching her lungs.
Soo Jin saw that she was close to forcing him over the brink of sanity, and she loved every second of it. This was the way it should be. A God should never be controlled. He should be liberated; he should be free to exhibit his true powers.