“Okay, this is Underworld business. I’m going to take it outside.” Before leaving, he turned to Yoori and whispered, “Boss, Kang Min needs some sense knocked into him about his relationship. I think he’ll listen to you. Will you talk to him?”
Jae Won stalked off with his phone pressed against his ear before allowing Yoori the opportunity to answer with an, “I don’t even know what the hell is going on” response.
“I hate you,” Kang Min said indignantly, glowering at Jae Won when he walked past him.
“Love you too, baby brother,” Jae Won replied with warm mockery. He purposely ignored the death glare Kang Min bequeathed unto him.
Pushed over the edge, Kang Min said the one thing he knew would push his older brother over the edge.
“Your ass is fat!”
A self-conscious Jae Won stopped grinning. Fire ignited in his eyes. He bestowed Kang Min with a death glare of his own. His voice rose to that of a roaring lion’s. “Why you little – !”
“Love you too, big bro!” Kang Min mocked in a high-pitched voice, satisfied with the reaction he pulled out of his brother.
“I’m going to fucking kill – ”
“Jae Won, shut up and go take your call!” Yoori shouted irritably. She was getting a headache from all their arguing. You know you’ve gotten too comfortable around certain people when you could yell at them with no fear. Though Yoori felt bad when she saw Jae Won fall silent, she didn’t regret yelling. How the hell was she supposed to talk to Kang Min and find out what was going on when Jae Won was arguing with him?
Jae Won made a disgruntled noise and bitterly obeyed Yoori’s commands. As he was getting ready to disappear out of the aisle, he reminded Kang Min, “Don’t forget that you have to go to Hae Jin’s place to help prepare dinner!”
That message delivered, he flew completely out of sight.
“Oh yeah…” Kang Min recalled slowly. His anger subsiding, he appreciatively shouted, “Thanks!”
Yoori gawked in deranged awe. It was amazing how quickly they could get into fights and how quickly they could make up. These two brothers would drive her crazy one day. She knew it.
She inhaled with anticipation when an air of peace fell over them. Satisfied that Jae Won was finally out of sight, Yoori smiled warmly and purposely approached Kang Min.
“So you and Hae Jin…” Yoori casually launched with a cheeky smile on her face. “As shocked as I am, I must say that you two make a very cute couple.”
“It’s not like that, Yoori,” Kang Min corrected, his expression firm.
“So I hear,” Yoori commented with equal sternness. The nosy bug within her was unwilling to back down. “Is Tae Hyun the reason why things between the two of you are complicated?”
“We shouldn’t be together,” Kang Min answered at once.
Yoori crinkled her nose at his brisk answer. “That wasn’t my question.”
“That’s my answer,” Kang Min replied stubbornly. He was determined to look unyielding. Though he was anything but intimidating for Yoori, she had to give the kid credit. He was one hardheaded cookie.
“Okay, you stubborn person,” she compromised, slapping a palm to her forehead. She placed a surrendering hand to her chin. “Can I at least get a little background info on you guys?”
Kang Min’s eyes turned into suspicious slits. He attempted to decipher what Yoori was up to. When he surmised that there was nothing wrong with a little bit of a history lesson, he obliged with her request. “Okay, fine.”
Yoori hid a sneaky smile when he gave in.
All I need is for you to let your guard down and then I’ll have you singing like a bird, she thought mischievously.
“You two met when you joined the Serpents, right?”
Kang Min nodded. “I was 15 when I joined the Serpents. Since we were the same age, Tae Hyun placed me in school with Hae Jin to watch over her. I basically started off as her bodyguard.”
Yoori smiled pleasantly at the reminder of Tae Hyun and his nice little deed.
“The ‘on-and-off’ started then?” she asked, getting back on topic.
Kang Min shook his head, his eyes lost in a reminiscing daze. “Hae Jin was cold to me in the beginning. She’d avoid me during class, ditch me after school, and yell at me a lot. I thought Tae Hyun was going to have someone kill me because I kept losing track of her whereabouts. I was convinced that she hated me and wanted me decapitated.”
“That doesn’t sound like Hae Jin,” Yoori observed out loud.
“I thought she was a spoiled brat. It wasn’t until Tae Hyun had ‘the talk’ with me that she started to come around.”
“‘The talk?’”
Kang Min elaborated. “You see, when you’re assigned to be someone’s bodyguard, you have to have a certain bond with them – the type where trust is heavily involved. With my first boss, I grew up with her, so we had that bond. With Tae Hyun, we have that bond – that trust. But with Hae Jin, she was very distant and Tae Hyun could tell. He told me that I needed to fix it. I needed to make it right or else.”
Yoori empathized by pursing her lips up in distaste. Those “or else” threats were the worst.
“After that, I thought for sure I was going to die a slow and certain death. But I guess after Tae Hyun spoke to me about it, he spoke to Hae Jin too.”
Yoori smiled. “Was that when Hae Jin started opening up?”
Kang Min confirmed with a relieved exhalation. “It started out slow, you know, like it always does. But she was making the effort because I guess she didn’t want it on her conscience that someone died because of her. Anyway, we got along really well. We understood each other and that bond began. One day, she shared with me the reason why she was so distant in the beginning and why she found it hard to trust me – or any other guy for that matter. Well…any guy with the exception of Tae Hyun of course.”
Clearly not wanting to get into the specifics, Kang Min merely spoke a sentence that provided her with all the information she needed. He, too, knew that Yoori had been enlightened with this important fact. “I joined right around the same time Tae Hyun took over the Serpents throne. It was right after their eldest brother died.”
Yoori understood the situation when she was reminded of their bastard eldest brother and how he raped Hae Jin when she was younger. Tae Hyun came home in time to catch his older brother committing that unforgivable act. They got into a fight and Tae Hyun ended up killing his older brother and thereby assumed the position as the King of Serpents. Yoori brushed off this memory and gave Kang Min a stiff nod to acknowledge her comprehension. She wordlessly gestured for him to continue. They didn’t need to go into that part of the story.
His jaw tightening upon being reminded of what happened to Hae Jin when she was 15, Kang Min continued with his story. “After she opened up, we started to become close. Not in the boyfriend and girlfriend sense, but as friends – best friends. But as the months went by, one thing led to another…there was this awkward tension between us because I realized that I might actually like her as more than a friend. I imagine she went through the same phase.” He sighed. “Long story short, we tried it and it didn’t work. It became this repetitive cycle of working and not working. It didn’t work when we were together and it definitely didn’t work when we weren’t together. So right now, we’re in limbo.”
“Hence your ‘on-and-off’ relationship,” Yoori supplied, understanding more and more. After a moment’s pause, she said, “Why didn’t it work? Was it because she and Ji – ” The words escaped her lips before she had a chance to filter them. Clamping her lips shut, Yoori blinked regrettably. What the heck was she doing bringing up Ji Hoon? The reminder of Hae Jin and Ji Hoon sleeping together would bring up bad blood—for Kang Min and her combined.
Though her efforts to move away from this topic were commendable, it wasn’t enough. Kang Min had the look on his face that said he wanted to address this topic.
His eyes darkened when he spoke. “You have no ide
a how pissed I was when I heard about that. I was livid at Hae Jin for being that naïve as to get drunk with someone like Ji Hoon. Her better judgment gets obliterated when she drinks because she can’t handle her alcohol.” He scoffed to himself. “But you know what pisses me off more? She was drinking because it was I who dumped her that night. We went through that phase where the secret of being together was killing us so I gave up – again. I broke up with her and left with another girl. So essentially, I was the one who threw her all that alcohol and I was responsible for causing her to get into bed with Ji Hoon.”
Kang Min raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. He took a moment to stare at the railing of the shopping cart before returning his gaze to Yoori.
“Do you see how fucked up we are, Yoori? When Hae Jin and I are together, there’s so much shit in our way because it has to be a secret that we’re in a relationship. And it wasn’t only because we had to keep it a secret. There were just too many obstacles. They kept appearing and wouldn’t stop. When it gets too hard, we leave each other, get wasted and sleep with the first scumbag or ho that comes near us. Then the next morning, we get back together. It’s a fucked up cycle that seems never-ending.” Kang Min laughed dryly to himself. “And you know what else is funny? The fact that I know this relationship isn’t going to work out but I keep hanging onto it because I can’t let her go. I – ”
He exhaled depressingly, realizing an inexplicable truth that he couldn’t escape from. “I’m in a doomed relationship with Kwon Hae Jin. That’s where I am. That’s why we’re ‘on-and-off,’ because we both know that we’re never going to end up together. I’m one of the sub-leaders of a gang for fuck’s sake. It’s almost guaranteed that I’ll die before I reach my 19th birthday. I – I don’t know why I bother to torture myself with this.”
“You’re in a doomed relationship if you give up. So it’s all the same,” Yoori said bluntly, her eyes scrutinizing Kang Min.
Kang Min gaped at Yoori, thunderstruck by her words. “What?”
She folded her arms and stared at Kang Min unsympathetically. The sternness in her voice remained. “I said that you’re in a doomed relationship all the same if you’re with her or not. Make the most of everything now. Be ‘on’ with her and be happy. The ending will come when it comes. If you die, you die. You can’t help what happens in the future. In the meantime, steal borrowed time and be happy with her. Why not, right? Like you said, you’re in a doomed relationship. You’ll end up with the same outcome no matter which path you choose, but at least you’ll be able to give yourself some happiness before you reach the end.”
“Wouldn’t the ending hurt more if I allowed myself to fall even harder for her?” Kang Min asked, absorbing what she was saying.
“Wouldn’t the ending hurt more if you realized that you purposely gave up? The world can fuck you over and you’d be fine with it, but the ending would be worse if you realized that you were the one who fucked yourself over.”
Kang Min blinked dubiously at her. A stagnant silence hung over them before Kang Min parted his lips and said in amazement, “That crock of shit actually makes sense.”
Though she was glad that she got through to him, Yoori frowned at Kang Min’s atypical compliment.
“I think there’s a stronger effect because you’re wearing glasses today,” Kang Min observed distractedly. He assessed her glasses. “I didn’t realize you had bad vision.”
“I don’t,” Yoori answered at once, adjusting her glasses. “These lenses are clear.”
Kang Min blinked dubiously again. “You’re weird,” he stated before also adding, “And you cuss a lot.”
Yoori bounced her head sagely. “Guys listen more when you cuss.”
In response to Yoori’s pearls of wisdom, Kang Min was about to say something else when his Blackberry alarm went off. Breaking from his train of thoughts, Kang Min took out his Blackberry and turned off the alarm.
“Okay, I gotta head over to Hae Jin’s to help make dinner,” he announced, placing the Blackberry back in his pocket. He looked at her. “You’ll be fine alone for a little bit, right?”
Yoori smiled. “Yeah, of course! Go have fun making dinner,” she urged, elated that Kang Min seemed to be feeling better. “Give Hae Jin my greeting and make sure to keep that ‘crock of shit’ in the back of your mind.”
“I will,” Kang Min said after a laugh. “Thanks for listening. I never thought I’d come out being so enlightened.”
“It’s the glasses,” Yoori supplied with an approving nod. “Now hurry up and go. Don’t keep her waiting.”
“I’ll see you later,” he said, taking his hands off the shopping cart. He started to walk off before he stopped in his tracks. He whipped around to face her. “And Yoori?”
“Hmm?”
“For what it’s worth…I trust Tae Hyun too.”
Yoori stilled and Kang Min addressed her confusion. “I wasn’t sure that night. But that was before I saw how awkward he was at the apartment.”
Now Yoori was more perplexed. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Kang Min shrugged, clearly not wanting to get into any specifics. “I guess it’s a guy thing. You might want to share that crock of shit with Tae Hyun. I think he needs to be enlightened too.” He shrugged again before venturing out of the aisle. “Just a thought. Anyway, see you later, Yoori.”
Seconds later, Yoori was left alone in the deserted aisle. Her mind reeled. Yoori didn't know how long she stood there, lost in a stupor while she pondered what Kang Min said.
Was Kang Min insinuating that Tae Hyun was going through the same internal conflicts as him? The only difference being that the girl on Tae Hyun’s mind was –
All of a sudden, like a cat being spooked at night, a rush of uneasiness surged through Yoori, causing her to instinctively whip her head to the side. Her eyes landed on the gap between the shelves that gave view to the other aisle beside her. She focused her gaze on a particular spot where she was positive she felt a pair of eyes stare at her. Yoori was spooked to find that there was nothing there, just a view of the coffee beans on the other aisle.
Huh… she thought uneasily, her breathing growing shallow. She surveyed the aisle around her. Was it her imagination? After staring at the vacant aisle around her for a couple more seconds, Yoori shook her head at her active imagination. Being in the Underworld for too long made her paranoid.
Yoori was in the process of dismissing her uneasiness as nothing when she felt her gut churn in worry – again. At the call of her second wave of instincts, an alerted Yoori twisted her neck to the side, expecting to see someone standing behind her. She was greeted with an empty aisle that had a view of other customers shopping in the far distance. Though she couldn’t see anyone near her at her vantage point, the worry in her gut told Yoori otherwise.
A swarm of chills crawled up her body. Her heart thumped in worry. She was really starting to freak out. It could be Jae Won who came back from taking his call, or Kang Min, or another nice customer, right?
Wanting desperately to rid herself of the uncertainty that plagued her, Yoori mentally nodded at her consoling theory. She forced a smile onto her face and concluded that she was indeed being paranoid. Yoori placed her hand on the railing of the shopping cart and began to push, ready to get out of this aisle.
Sounds of the distant thunder rumbling outside could be heard as she uneasily pushed her creaking shopping cart down the aisle. She shuddered from anxiety. The weather outside was definitely not helping her overexcited nerves. Despite her fears, she continued to mentally console herself. It’s okay. It’s just your imagination. It’s just your –
Before she was able to stop it, Yoori twisted herself backward to finally catch sight of whatever was behind her. After so many false alarms, Yoori was almost sure that she would end up seeing nothing.
The blooming fear in her eyes told a different story.
It happened for a split second when she turned, but Yoori was sure
that she saw a jet of black hair disappear behind the further end of the aisle beside hers.
OHHHH SHIT! Yoori thought fearfully, sounds of the roaring thunder somehow taking possession of her heart. She pulled her non-prescribed glasses down for a second to observe the area again.
There was nothing there.
The aisle was as she saw it seconds prior: completely void of anyone else. The only difference now was that she knew better. That jet of black hair wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Some might argue that it was since she was wearing glasses, but what she saw wasn’t her eyes playing tricks on her. The lenses of her non-prescribed, stylish glasses were clear for goodness sake!
Lifting her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose, Yoori began to shake when she detected the anticipatory breathing of another. Surely this wasn’t another figment of her imagination – Yoori knew that much.
Shit, she thought worryingly, retreating backward.
Her eyes were fully fixated on the area in which she saw the jet of black hair disappear.
Where the hell were her bodyguards when she needed them?
Her pace quickened with each retreating step she took, her unblinking eyes firmly set on the aisle walkway ahead of her. Yoori felt the rate of her heartbeat escalate when she realized the breathing was somehow drawing closer to her.
Closer…
And closer…
And closer…
And finally…
“Yoo – Ahh!”
“Get the fuck away from me!” Yoori shouted, interrupting the flow of the stalker’s voice. Whipping around, she grabbed the assaulted Cheerios box out from her shopping cart. With unmatched strength, she slammed the Cheerios box against the stalker’s forehead. Not done with her assault, Yoori followed that attack with an unforgiving fist to the chest, a move that had the stalker yelping in pain.
Sounds of a loud thud, coupled with the splattering of the Cheerios, could be heard as the stalker fell down with a scream that shook Yoori out of her defensive state.
Yoori's bewilderment escalated when she observed that the stalker, who was now twitching on the floor, looked much weaker than she originally assumed. Yoori gulped anxiously. She kept her eyes trained on the stalker, whose long bangs fell forward to cover her face. All that Yoori could hear was a distinctive moan of pain. The sound of the voice shocked her.
The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2) Page 9