by Con Template
“No,” he helped amend, “you just took a cat nap.”
“You’re enjoying this ‘morning-after’ moment, aren’t you?” she accused sourly.
“Very much so,” he admitted shamelessly. He nipped his nose with hers again. “For what it’s worth, I would’ve passed out too if I wasn’t so greedy and wanted more of you.” A playful grin appeared on his handsome face before he abruptly added, “You know what this makes us, right?”
Yoori curiously tilted her head at the odd question.
“Lovers?” she answered uncertainly.
He shook his head, his lips twitching as if fighting to keep from laughing.
Doing well to keep his face free of emotions, he nonchalantly said, “Friends with benefits.”
Yoori giggled girlishly, unable to help it. “You’re my booty call?”
“I’m your booty call,” Tae Hyun concurred disbelievingly, laughing with her.
“Was the wait worth it, my Illusionist?” Yoori prompted seconds later, curious to know how last night panned out for him.
He did not disappoint with his answer.
“Every splendid, euphoric, and magical moment of it.”
They smiled again, unable to help but stupidly grin at the moment they were having—the wondrous moment every human being spent a lifetime waiting for and a lifetime missing when it disappeared.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Tae Hyun then asked. “I know you didn’t get much sleep last night, if any at all.”
“Why aren’t you?” she challenged. “As I recall, it was the King who conquered all the cities last night.” It was only after asking something as playful as this did her rationale return. She lowered her eyes and appraised the guns in his hands. The humor from her face subdued faintly. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
“I wanted to see the sunrise,” he told her thoughtfully. He turned back into the direction of the lake and the dark morning sky. “Do you realize that for as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve never watched the sunrise together?”
Yoori thought back to all the sunsets and stargazing she had seen with him. She, too, recalled that never once during their time together did they ever sit down to enjoy the most peaceful time of day with each other: the dawning of a new day—a new beginning.
“The Underworld is active in the latter part of the day,” she said distractedly, her eyes lost in the skies above. “We stay up late and usually sleep in when the sun rises.”
His eyes wandered over the vastness of the scene before him.
“I don’t know why, but when I woke up this morning, I really wanted to see the sunrise.” He looked at her with warm eyes. “I was hoping I’d get to see it with you, but I didn’t want to wake you.” He laughed at the irony in that. “So much for that, huh?”
At that second, Yoori considered telling him how worried she felt when she woke up and discovered he wasn’t by her side. She contemplated telling him how afraid she was when she realized that his guns were missing. She wanted to tell him that the fear was unlike anything she had ever experienced, but she chose not to. She reasoned that Tae Hyun didn’t need to listen to her unfounded fears. Her paranoia was simply a result of residing within the Underworld for so many years. The last thing she wanted was for him to worry as well.
“What are you doing out here with your guns?” she managed to whisper out. She didn’t plan on discussing her paranoid wakeup call, but she was still curious as to why he had his beloved weapons with him.
His eyes still set on the twilight sky, he said, “Saying goodbye to a life I grew up in.”
Yoori paused. It finally registered to her what Tae Hyun was doing, why he was standing in front of their lake with his guns in hand.
He wasn’t going to take his guns with him to Paris.
He was going to leave it all behind—his power, his throne, and his Underworld—by getting rid of his father’s gift to him. The two silver guns were the last remaining symbols of his bloodline and his prestige in this powerful and volatile world. By discarding his beloved guns, he was finally solidifying that he was done with the Underworld, that he was never going back to his old life. He was after something else. He wanted a new beginning.
“Can you really leave this world without seeking your revenge on Ji Hoon?” she inquired when the gravity of what was taking place wrapped itself around her mind.
The perfection of this little escapism of a world was intoxicating, but she also knew how difficult it was to actually leave something like the Underworld behind. It was akin to being addicted to drugs. The user was aware of how bad it was for them. Despite this knowledge, they would continue to seek it because of the high it gave them. The Underworld was just like that. No matter how cruel it was, the power that came with it was an addicting feeling. It was a dangerous and toxic addiction, but an addiction nonetheless.
“Can you really leave this world without avenging your father? You’re at the very top of this society—a position that humans could only dream of being in. Can you really leave all that power behind?”
“I have two choices in life,” he answered thoughtfully, undeterred by her playing devil’s advocate. “I can either spend the rest of my life consumed by the shadows of the Underworld, or I can spend it breathing in the same air as you.” He smiled, turning back to her. His eyes were as gentle and as loving as ever. “I don’t want to be anywhere but with you.”
“Why are you so sure, Tae Hyun?”
“This time yesterday, I wasn’t sure if I was making the right decision,” he shared honestly. “I knew that I wanted to be with you, I knew that I would kill anyone who dared to hurt you, and I knew that I could never live without you . . . but there was still a part of me that lingered for the Underworld, for the life I led there. I wanted you, but I wasn’t sure I could leave all that I’d worked for—everything that I gave up my life for—behind. I didn’t know if I could leave my greed and my insatiable need for power behind to be something that I hadn’t been for fourteen years: human.”
He smiled at her while Yoori felt her heart warm.
“But when I held you last night, never feeling more human or more alive in my life, I knew there was no contest. Being a King—a God in this world—could never compare to being human with you. It would never measure up to having these moments with you, being distracted by you. I know without a doubt in my mind now that I’ve made the right decision. I would never regret choosing you over the world.”
He tilted his head at her, ready to pose the same question to her. “A million people would kill to have the status you have in life. You don’t regret giving up the throne and being with me instead?”
For the first time since their meeting, Yoori saw humbleness in Tae Hyun’s eyes. From that, she felt her own humbleness shine through.
“In my twenty-four years of existence,” she began truthfully, “I’ve seen more in my short life than a twenty-four-year-old girl should ever see in her lifetime. I’ve seen every cruelty there is to see, I’ve met all the awful human beings who exist in this world, and I’ve made every deal there is to be made with the devil.”
She inhaled shakily, recalling the faces of all the people she had killed, all the ones who had to die in order for her to become a “Queen” amongst heartless killers. If there was a balance of justice in this world, then that balance was surely faulty because she was undeserving of a wonderful man like Tae Hyun after all she had done.
“I . . . I don’t know how it’s possible for someone like me to find the type of love that even Gods envy. I don’t know how it’s possible for a monster like me to be so blessed when there are countless people out there—good people who would never torture or kill anyone—who would never know what it feels like to find this type of love. I don’t know how, through all the darkness in the Underworld, you came to me and found me.” Conviction illumed in her eyes as she stared up at him. “But know that I will never regret meeting you, I will never regret being with you, and I will n
ever regret choosing you over the throne. I could have a million Royals kneeling before me and none of that would equate to being here with you—to being human with you.”
He gave her a grateful smile before his eyes glanced down at the guns in her hands. “You’re still uncertain though, like you expect something terrible to happen right now that would ruin everything.”
She nodded, biting her lips to keep her emotions from getting the best of her. Leave it to Tae Hyun to figure out her fears, even when she did not want to voice them.
“Sometimes . . . I can’t help but think that the only way to keep you alive is to hold onto my old life, the life that’s so revered that people wouldn’t dare come after us.” She breathed in deeply, staring at his guns before honestly sharing what was on her mind. “If you get rid of those, then the last remaining symbol of your prestige in this world will die with them. You will be powerless when they come after us, and we both know they will come after us.” Her stomach coiled in unbearable knots at the knowledge of this. “The world we disappeared into last night is fleeting. They will never let us live in peace, they will always come after us, and we will always be on the run. Can you honestly live like that after being so revered in this world? Can you really become human like that?” She sighed, her voice quieter than she had ever heard it when she added, “Am I really worth all of that?”
His smile was soft when he gently reached for her necklace and pulled it out, revealing the ring that she had given him. The engraving of a serpent curling around the outer exterior of the ring came into view, as well as a circular sequence of duck footprints following after one another in the interior of the ring.
To anyone else, Yoori knew that they would never think twice—or understand—why she had the ring engraved in that manner, why she had the serpent and the duck footprints follow one another in the same direction. She knew that no one else could figure out why she did what she did. The only exception was the one she gave this ring to, the one she wordlessly gave her vow to.
“Wherever you go . . .” he started, confirming to her that he understood the meaning, as well as the promise, behind the ring.
“I’ll follow,” Yoori finished for him. She felt her guns grow heavy in her grasp as soon as she vocalized this.
“No regrets, Nemo,” he promised her. “Our past may be the most fucked up past one could ask for and our ending is as dark as the night is long, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it if it meant that there was a possibility that I wouldn’t have you by my side right now, standing here in my black hoodie after the magical night we had.” He stroked her hair, his eyes filled with love. “Whatever may come from this, know that I would gladly burn in an eternity of hell for these few stolen moments of heaven with you.”
Yoori nodded, wordlessly telling him that she felt the same way.
With that, Tae Hyun took one final glance at his silver guns, a final homage to the life he led and the life he was leaving behind.
Then, with no more reservations, he threw the guns, one by one, into the far distance of the lake.
The guns glided into the far depths of the lake, twinkling under the rays of the wakening sunrise. The sound of splashing echoed through the tranquil lake as the guns made contact with the surface of the water. Ripples ignited through the water from the impact. The discarded guns floated above the surface of the water for a few seconds before submerging into the depths of the lake, finally disappearing from sight.
Following suit with no hesitation, Yoori threw her left hand back and tossed her gun into the same direction. Her gold gun flew in the same manner as his and died in the same manner as his. Although throwing the first gun was easy, she couldn’t say the same for her second one.
Yoori felt nothing but confliction as she held the last remaining gun in her hand. With a heavy heart, she stared at the treasured gift from her father—the last lifeline, the last official string to the Underworld, and her last official symbol of status as the Queen of the Underworld.
Her greed and fear assailed her mind, begging her to not throw it away. What about the throne? What about Tae Hyun? How will you keep him alive without this? How will you instill fear into anyone’s hearts if you throw away the last remaining shred of your bloodline? How will you keep this dream alive without this? One by one, she could feel her coldblooded greed and her fears of losing Tae Hyun blind her logicality, urging her to hold onto a life she knew was poison to the future she wanted.
Her mind felt so congested.
She felt conflicted, until she raised her eyes to stare into Tae Hyun’s eyes. Everything fell silent the moment she grew lost in his gaze. His understanding eyes silently assured her that whatever decision she made, he would go along with it. He said nothing, and this said everything to her.
Being afraid of what was to come was overshadowed by her timeless distraction. She could feel the love he had for her and the love she had for him. As a result, any hardship that came with throwing the gun away ceased to exist. There were no more uncertainties, no more doubts, and no more fear.
For the first time in her life, Choi Yoori—and An Soo Jin—felt inarguably human.
She was irrevocably human again, and now, as the sunrise illuminated over them, she not only accepted her fate, but also embraced it.
Lifting her hand up, she kept her gaze on him as she threw the gun into the far distance. The sunrise appeared, spreading over the world around them and marking their new life together. Whatever may come from this moment, they had finally accepted their fates. They accepted that they were at the mercy of the world and that they were no longer Gods. They were merely human beings doing the best they could with the fate that they had been given.
The moment was perfect, absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect, blissful, and life-changing moment until—
Thump!
“Quaaaaaack!”
Yoori’s and Tae Hyun’s eyes widened at the ear-screeching sound.
Once they jerked their attention back to the lake, Yoori’s eyes bulged open even further. She covered her mouth in absolute shock. In the distance, she could see the dent the gun made into the newly lit golden water. And much to her own horror and disbelief, she could also see a white chubby duck floating on top of that golden lake, completely and utterly unconscious.
She had just smacked a duck with the gun!
“You just knocked a duck out with your gun!” Tae Hyun shouted, horrified.
“Holy shit!” Yoori cried into the hands covering her mouth. She was still staring wide-eyed at the floating duck and the ripples of water surrounding it.
“Can’t you go one damn day without hurting a duck?!” Tae Hyun blurted out, still in disbelief.
“Did it look like I had malicious intentions when I tossed the gun?” she shouted back. She couldn’t believe that an unconscious duck had just eclipsed one of the most monumental moments of her life. A duck so stupid that it didn’t have enough survival instinct to make any attempts to evade a flying object.
The once romantic and life-changing interchange they shared was outshined by the absurdity of the scene before them.
“That stupid duck shouldn’t have gotten in the way of a flying gun,” she growled, trying to take the accountability off of her. How the hell was she supposed to anticipate a suicidal duck getting hit by her gun? She bit her lips and stupidly added, “The other ducks should’ve warned him.”
“By saying what?” Tae Hyun asked incredulously, still gaping at the knocked out duck. “‘Hey fellow duck! There’s a flying gold gun coming at you! Duck!’”
Yoori was now beside herself. She had no more mechanisms for defending herself other than resorting to being angry with Tae Hyun. He always chose those feathery animals over her.
“You always side with those ducks,” she stated bitterly.
“You’re not the one knocked out cold in the lake right now, Choi.”
“Maybe I should knock you out and have you join your buddies, Kwon.”
�
�You always ruin the mood,” he retorted, amusement overfilling his voice. It was apparent that although Tae Hyun loved this species of animals dearly, he couldn’t deny that the situation they found themselves in was just ridiculous and utterly hilarious. His lips twitched to keep from bursting out into laughter. “Anytime we do anything and get romantic, you always manage to find a way to kill the mood.”
Yoori kept quiet because she knew it was true.
In her defense, who could have anticipated this? Tae Hyun had tossed his guns without trouble, and he had touched her heart and soul when he did that. Yet, when she tossed her guns after much contemplation, instead of securing herself a way in touching Tae Hyun’s heart, she wound up touching a funny bone in his body instead. The absurdity of life was too funny to her. If this didn’t make them human, she did not know what would.
“It’s not like I meant to do it,” Yoori grumbled under her breath.
As a response, Tae Hyun could only nod while both of them, with much curiosity, folded their arms and stood closely together. Their eyes were still locked on the poor floating duck. At that moment, there were other ducks quacking around it, poking at it with their beaks as if to say, “Dude! Wake up, you’re going to drown soon if you don’t!”
“This is our life,” Tae Hyun breathed out in amazement long seconds later. Above them, the morning sun continued to bloom over the land.
“This is our life,” Yoori repeated, sharing the same amazement. Their past and future were not ideal, but their present was just too wonderful to not be in awe of. “This is our silly life.”
No more guns, no more blood, and no more darkness—just ducks, boomerangs, and Paris.
Done with giving his attention to the duck, Tae Hyun turned away from the lake and rested his eyes on Yoori. A mischievous sensuality cloaked his eyes. It was a sensuality that had her entire body coming alive in wonder. Playful and pensive Tae Hyun had left the building while irresistible, charming, and seductive Tae Hyun was out of his cage and ready to play.