by Con Template
Tae Hyun eyed her incredulously, holding back his laughter. He was dumbfounded by her reaction. “All I did was greet them,” he explained with a patient smile. “I didn’t ask for their hands in marriage.”
Soo Jin opened her mouth to snap back. She halted when she realized that she may have overreacted.
Noting her uncomfortable silence, Tae Hyun gave one final nod to the brothers before vesting his full attention on her. He appraised her black leather jacket, dark pants, and knee-high leather boots.
“I told you to pack lightly and you bring three luggage and cover yourself with a leather attire?” He stepped closer to her, the newly applied cologne from his shower wafting into her nose. “What are you trying to do to me, Soo Jin?”
“Nothing,” she enunciated, clenching her teeth tightly. Despite her guarded appearance, she was holding her breath to keep from inhaling the intoxicating cologne.
He chuckled, his charismatic laughter echoing into the sprawling estate. “Perhaps it will be more fun for me to unwrap you like a Christmas present on the plane.”
“I’ll cut off your fingers before you even come near me.”
“Um, okay,” Jae Won interrupted, clapping his hand together to garner their attention. It was palpable that he and Kang Min were feeling very uncomfortable with this portion of the conversation. It was also clear that he wanted to help Tae Hyun out by diverting Soo Jin’s anger. “Perhaps both of you can continue this conversation on the plane ride to Japan?”
“Good idea,” Tae Hyun agreed and soon turned to face his car. He strode to open the passenger door for Soo Jin. He inclined his head at her. “Are you ready?”
Soo Jin said nothing. She merely released a breathy sigh and ducked inside the car. She did not want to stand there and lose her composure with him. She simply wanted to get this over with.
“If you need anything, give us a call. We’ll be on the first flight out,” Kang Min informed Soo Jin.
“Stay safe, boss,” added Jae Won. He smiled widely, watching Tae Hyun as he moved to the driver’s side. “Please don’t kill each other.”
Soo Jin scoffed when Tae Hyun got into the car. “Tell me about it.”
As Tae Hyun waved goodbye to the brothers and drove off, he turned to Soo Jin with a dashing smile. He was excited to launch a conversation with her until he saw that she had just put her sleek, red Beats headphones on. She blasted the music to full volume, ignoring him as she stared out the window.
Tae Hyun busted out laughing when he realized that she was not going to make this trip easy for him.
“Oh man,” he said lightly, gazing at the dark road ahead. “This is definitely going to be an interesting trip.”
■ ■ ■
“This is a pretty good pair of headphones.”
Soo Jin roused from her sleep when she heard Tae Hyun’s voice drift into her ears. She opened her eyes and tilted her head to the side.
After getting on his private jet, she had isolated herself from Tae Hyun by immersing herself with her music. At first, he was eager to converse with her when they got onto the plane. However, when she sat in the furthest seat away from him and continued to place her headphones on her head, Tae Hyun got the hint and left her alone for the majority of the plane ride. For Soo Jin, the ride was so peaceful that she actually dozed off to sleep. Unfortunately for her, Tae Hyun was no longer the patient King who got onto the plane. After traveling for a long period of time, it was evident that he was bored and wanted to be entertained by her.
Tae Hyun was now sitting across from her in the next aisle. He was twisting her headphones around, eyeing it with interest.
“You have the audacity to take off my headphones?” she demanded firmly. The drowsiness shrouding her eyes was instantly replaced with icy ire. If she could shoot lasers out of her eyes, Tae Hyun would have combusted into flames.
Unperturbed by her hardened stare, he displayed an easygoing smile and placed the headphones on the seat beside him. He bestowed his full, appreciative attention on her.
“I was bored and wanted to know what was keeping you so entertained,” he explained casually. “Like I said, this is a very good pair of headphones.”
“Yes, it is,” she concurred dryly, uninterested in embarking on a conversation with him. “Now, give it back.”
His impish smile remained. He made no effort to reach for the headphones. “How about you let me entertain you now?”
“How about no?”
“I will not do anything to upset you.”
“The fact that you’re breathing is already upsetting me.”
Tae Hyun laughed, feigning a hurt expression. “You really go for the jugular, don’t you?”
“I don’t have time to play your little games.”
He nodded. “How about this,” he compromised, leaning forward with his arms on his knees. “We will land in Japan soon. How about for the remainder of our plane ride here, I give you my word that I will not attempt to seduce you or do anything of that nature. We can just have a simple conversation to keep ourselves entertained until we reach our destination.”
Soo Jin folded her arms, overtly showing that she wasn’t interested in his proposal. “And if I don’t want to talk to you at all?”
“Then you will be entertained by me anyway, and it will consist of me using all the charms I have to have fun with you.” He expelled an easygoing breath, his handsome face lighting up with charm. “Come on, Soo Jin. Don’t disappoint me with all this avoidance crap. I know you’re better than this.”
Soo Jin released a slow, pondering breath. She bitterly acknowledged that she was better than this. A Princess may be weak enough to play the cat and mouse game with Tae Hyun, but a Queen would stand her ground and challenge him. In this case, despite her reservations with speaking to him, she had to be the Queen she was raised to be.
“Fine,” she acquiesced, boldly initiating the conversation to show that she was not afraid of him. She peered out the window. When the city lights of Japan graced her eyes, she knew where to begin. “Do you visit Japan often?”
“Not as much as I would like to,” Tae Hyun answered, his expression pleased that she was finally playing nice.
Soo Jin canted her head at his answer. Curiosity gnawed at her. Now that she decided to bite the bullet and converse with him, she might as well quench her curiosity about him.
“Are you as beloved here as you are in Korea?”
Tae Hyun shrugged, not completely understanding her question. “I have a lot of good friends and mentors here if that’s what you mean.”
“Must be nice,” she remarked, her tone slightly resentful.
His brows drew together. “What?”
“To have so many friends while growing up.”
A curious glint crept into his eyes. He leaned in closer, his gaze perceiving her in a new light. “Did you not travel often during your training?”
Soo Jin lapsed into silence and averted her attention back to the window. Once a bitter smile adorned her lips, she began to unfold her story.
“Ju Won did not believe that it was important for me to be well-traveled nor did he believe it was important for me to have friends. My only companions were Jae Won and Kang Min and some of my trusted trainees. I did not travel the world. He felt that it was better for me to not be tempted by the weaknesses of the rest of the world. He believed the only things I should know were the throne, the coffin, and my training.” She laughed to herself. “I resented him for that until I was formally introduced into the Underworld. I realize now that he did not keep me away from the world to better my training; no, he kept me away because he wanted the rest of the world to revere me. I was not to be anyone’s friend or have other mentors. I was to be just that—a God amongst Royals.”
Her smile remained as she kept her eyes on the tiny speckles of light outside her window. Feeling like she was in a protective bubble that the rest of the world could not penetrate, she decided to reveal something that she had never
disclosed to anyone.
“This is where I will reign next.”
Compelled by her words, Tae Hyun’s eyes followed her line of vision and glanced at the speckles of light outside. “Next?”
“When Ju Won brought forth the possibility of me becoming the Lord of the Underworld, I did not envision simply ruling over Korea,” she explained, staring down at the world beneath her like a true God. “I wanted to be more than that; I wanted to have more power than that. What fun is it to simply rule over one country when I could have the rest of the world to preside over?”
“You want to become the Lord of all the Underworlds,” he summed up, looking at her with newfound amazement.
“A true God does not stop in just one country.”
Despite the fact that he was fascinated with her plans, Tae Hyun did not hesitate to play the devil’s advocate. “Korea loves you, but Japan loves your brother. You may be the crown jewel of our world, but the Underworld in Japan will always favor your brother over you.”
Albeit his argument was legitimate, Soo Jin was prepared with her response.
“Our world loves you, yet they are still willing to pit me against you. You are their favored King, the one they truly want to rule over their world. And despite their favoritism for you, they still sacrifice you to me.” She turned to him. “Do you know why that is?”
He remained quiet, and she enlightened him.
“Because they favor power more than they favor you. They will never allow their love for you to supersede what our society has been built upon. We are plagued with the never-ending pursuit of power, and the Underworld is only as powerful as the Lord who reigns over it.” Her face split into a wide, merciless grin. “My defeat over you will set the precedence for the rest of my reign. Once I kill you, I will go after Ji Hoon, and then I will kill my brother. I will kill anyone who stands in my way because this is not a democracy—this is a dictatorship. Once I stand alone as the sole Lord in our Underworld, then I will expand my reach.”
He smiled, nodding at her answer. After a pregnant pause, he revealed, “That was my long-term goal as well.”
Soo Jin nodded, unsurprised. The reason she told him was because she knew, at one point or another, he, too, had grand plans like this. This was how the Royal bloodlines of the Underworld were brought up to view the world. They were not raised to simply reside in one country; they were born to do everything in their power to preside over as much of the world as they can.
“What changed?” she inquired instinctively.
“I found something better.”
“What could be better than being an untouchable God?”
“Being a snob.”
She shot him a chiding glance when his answer scorched her like boiling water. He promised her that he would not use his charms—or anything of that nature—to upset her. As subtle as it was, using the term “snob” constituted as upsetting her.
Tae Hyun smirked at her reproaching stare and perceptively steered the subject on to a more serious note.
“Were you working with my brother?”
She eyed him critically. What the hell kind of question was that? “Excuse me?”
“I’ve been thinking about it more and more. I don’t understand how it was possible that he hid you. Based on your self-recording, it was obvious that you despised him. Unless something happened after you finished your video recording, I can’t see you two working together.”
“We didn’t,” she replied tightly, her eyes blinking in rage. She hated Ho Young. She would never work with him in a million years.
“Why do you think my brother hid you?”
Soo Jin pondered the question and expelled a weary breath.
“I don’t know,” she admitted honestly. “I was openly hostile towards him. Every time I saw him, I wanted to provoke him to fight me so that I could have an excuse to kill him. It baffles my mind to know that he was the one who hid me in Taecin.” She shifted slightly, casting a furtive glance to Tae Hyun when an unsettling question popped in her mind. “How long do you think they were working together?”
“You mean our brothers and Ji Hoon?”
Soo Jin nodded.
“It could not have taken place when my father was killed,” he answered with certainty.
“You don’t think Ho Young had a hand in your father’s death?”
Tae Hyun shook his head. “My brother was a sick person, but out of everyone, he loved our father the most. I don’t think he could’ve had a hand in helping to orchestrate our father’s death.” He continued to gaze out the window. “I think Young Jae was the mastermind behind the alliance. He was the only common link between my brother and Ji Hoon.”
After a lapse of silence, he faced her to hear her perspective.
“What do you think happened?”
Soo Jin swallowed tightly, formulating her own assumptions. “I think you are right when you say that my brother was the common link between them. I believe that he befriended them—or at least had some working relationship with them—at some point during their training. As much as I despise my brother, even I have to admit that there’s something about him that evokes trust from people. I think he used me as one of the bribes for Ji Hoon to work with him. At that point, I was not giving Ji Hoon the time of day and I’m sure, in addition to promising him sole power over the Korean Underworld, he promised his approval for me to be with Ji Hoon as well.”
She blankly stared out the window again.
“I don’t know how he managed to convince your brother to work with Ji Hoon though. If what you said is true, then Ho Young would’ve hated Ji Hoon with a passion. It did not make sense for him to work with Ji Hoon—or my brother for that matter. Among the three, Ho Young was the one with the most power. The fact that you were well on your way to presiding over the 1st layer only meant that even without Young Jae or Ji Hoon’s help, he would have still been considered the most powerful King. Having said this, it only means that there is something else that we’re missing in this equation—a power that Young Jae held over Ho Young in order to convince him to be part of this conspiracy.”
Tae Hyun smirked when the perpetual city lights started to morph into majestic skyscrapers. They have finally reached their destination.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Tae Hyun faced her again. This time, he wore a forewarning look on his face. “I want you to know that when we’re in Japan, if you try to kill Young Jae or Ji Hoon, I will stop you.”
Soo Jin snapped back her head to Tae Hyun’s direction, shocked with his declaration. She did not expect the conversation to veer into this direction. Although she found amusement with his statement, she would not tolerate anyone addressing her in such a brazen manner.
“You will have your hands full if you try to stop me.” She smirked, laughing to herself. “And who says I’m going after them?”
“I know you.”
She laughed out loud again. What a foolish statement for this guy to make. He may have known her human counterpart well, but he knew nothing about her.
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know you,” he emphasized again. His voice was sterner, more confident. “I was you when Ji Hoon assassinated my father. Just like you, the hatred I had for him was unrivaled by any other. It took me years to rein in my emotions; it took me years to realize that there’s a time and place for everything. In this world, we cannot exact revenge based upon whims; we have to do it strategically. We have to get revenge during a war, not a battle.”
When he saw the slight doubt on her face, he went on knowingly.
“I’ve heard about you from my brother, Soo Jin. Although he never went into details, he would always tell me of your hatred for him, your hotheadedness when it came to wanting to provoke a fight with him so that you could kill him. You finding out that Young Jae was behind your father’s death may have occurred a little over three years ago, but your amnesia has only recently been cured. Your anger is still fresh—it
is still raw. Not to mention, all of this is only exacerbated by the knowledge of Anna and Ji Hoon’s betrayal. I know that when we meet them, you will go after all of them—and I can’t have that. We’re walking onto Young Jae’s land—his Kingdom. We are simply there for answers. We cannot be the ones to break the ceasefire.”
Soo Jin nodded, thoroughly impressed. He was right on the dot with everything he said. In place of vocalizing her impressiveness with him, she asked, “Do you really think Young Jae will keep his word and grant us safe passage in Japan?”
“I do not trust Young Jae as far as I can throw him. Having said that, I trust his rationalization as a King. He knows there is a time and place for everything. Although I cannot say that he will make sure we come out unscathed from Japan, I can say that he will not kill us. He likes glory too much to kill us in such an underhanded fashion. No. If he tries to kill us, then it will only be when the entire Underworld plays witness to it.”
Soo Jin sighed, leisurely leaning back into the comfort of her seat. “You are right when you say that Young Jae will not break his word. As a King, he knows that killing us in front of the Underworld will serve him better. That being said, you forget that Young Jae is not just a King; he is a husband now. You forget that he tried to kill me when I was Yoori—he tried to kill me in a secluded restaurant with no witnesses. Do you know why he did this?”
Tae Hyun remained quiet, allowing her to enlighten him.
“Because he wants to protect his wife,” she elucidated. “Glory, as enticing as it is to him, is nothing compared to his wife. He knows how I am. He knows how ruthless I can be, how single-minded I can become when I want someone dead.” She gave a sadistic smile. “And he should be afraid because I will kill Anna. I will make sure they are in the same room, and when he is watching, I will gut her in front of him.”