The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2), Page 4

  Yoori snorted disbelievingly. Now she knew he was bullshitting her. “That’s surprising, seeing that I ate three big plates of lasagna for dinner.”

  His smile persevered. “I guess my own three plates offset it.”

  They smiled warmly at one another, the hatchet on their stupid argument burying instantaneously. Side by side, they continued to walk as they neared the bank of the lake. Tae Hyun had his hands in his pockets and Yoori’s hands were still holding up her skirt. In the distance, Yoori could hear the ducks splashing around in the water. She could also hear faint sounds of kids screaming in glee as they chased after one another. It was a euphoric sound to her. Everything was so carefree. She felt at peace.

  “Tae Hyun…”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thanks for a really fun day,” she voiced quietly, the warm and appreciative tone in her voice as genuine as the sun shining above them. “I really enjoyed myself.”

  Tae Hyun sighed at her words. “Don’t be in such a rush to say your thanks, Choi Yoori. The day is far from over.”

  Just when Yoori was about to nod in agreement, a white wooden boat distracted her. It sat peacefully on the field of grass ahead of them, beckoning them to use it as the magnificent sun illuminated the soft shine of its paint.

  Yoori smiled disbelievingly at Tae Hyun. He had already approached the boat. He began to pick it up and push it into the lake. In the middle of doing this, he grinned and extended his hand out to a mystified Yoori.

  She was in love with his surprise.

  She shifted her gaze from the boat to Tae Hyun. To her, he had never appeared more otherworldly. His features glowed under the gold/pink hues of the glorious sun, making it appear like the beauty of this world was created for him to inhabit.

  Wonderment suspended over her. She assumed that his surprise would have something to do with eating ice cream at the dock or something crazy like shooting ducks with guns. She never anticipated this.

  It was much more…romantic.

  Not that she was complaining of course! It was a nice change to be treated like a princess—especially when her evil boss typically enjoyed spending his time torturing her.

  Man oh man. She was a fan of company retreats now.

  “I’ve never been on a boat,” she admitted, trying to hide her cheeky smile. She grabbed his hand and sat in the boat. She took a quick glance at her surroundings. She really regretted not bringing a camera to chronicle this moment. It was all so picturesque.

  After she was settled, Tae Hyun pushed the rest of the boat off the sleeping grass and onto the calm lake. He hopped in before it drifted off. He had a smirk on his face when he grabbed a wooden paddle. He penetrated the silky lake with his paddle, alternating between sides and stirring the water.

  He gazed up at the sunset colored sky and laughed. “I knew I’d have you sailing off into the sunset with me sooner or later,” he commented playfully, raising his brows with interest.

  “Hah!” she replied with warm sarcasm. “Oh yeah, your constant courting has finally paid off, my dear friend.” She took in a deep breath after she ended her spell of laughter. She glanced around the rose colored lake, admiring everything within her circumference. “This is so nice.”

  It was probably how the rays of the sunset favored him but when Yoori returned her focus to Tae Hyun (who was also staring off at the lake) she could’ve sworn she felt her heart skip a beat. She liked how the light, instead of layering over him, somehow radiated over his smooth skin. Yoori couldn’t deny it. Kwon Tae Hyun looked damn sexy paddling the boat as he stared off into the distance, his poignant gaze lost in a world of its own.

  Everything was okay for a stare-fest – that was until he broke her trance when he averted his eyes back onto her. Noting her awe-like stare on him, he gave her an awkward look.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “You,” she answered mindlessly.

  Her eyes bulged when she pried herself out of her unwarranted stupor.

  Shit!

  “I mean – you – you!” She struggled to find a plausible alternative for her blunt and unfiltered answer. Ahhhh, she thought. Her panicked mind ran in circles.

  She then caught sight of a duck waddling beside them.

  A flickering light bulb turned on.

  This was definitely not her best alternative but it was the only one she could think of in her state of panic. She was going to sound so effen stupid –

  “You—You—You stupid duck! Go faster! You’re in our way!”

  “Quack…” was all the duck said as its big eyes gaped at a frenzied Yoori. Allowing a couple more soft quacks to escape its beak, it swam away in a panic, obviously terrified of Yoori. Not that she blamed it.

  And a stunned silence was all that Tae Hyun said while he gawked at her in bewilderment. He was probably contemplating throwing her psychotic self off the boat. She didn’t blame him. She was contemplating it too. This was what she got for mentally admitting that the guy was sexy.

  “What the hell was that?” he finally asked, watching the duck disappear into the distance.

  “I—I—I was afraid we were going to hurt it,” Yoori lied, shaking in her seat. She could see the flickering light bulb self-destructing in her state of awkwardness.

  “This isn’t a motorboat, assistant,” Tae Hyun deadpanned. “We’re going .7 miles per hour right now. I could’ve stopped the boat if you asked me to.”

  “I—I know…” Yoori responded dimly, already contemplating suicide. She cursed her stupidity.

  When he took inventory of the burning humiliation on her cheeks, a sneaky Tae Hyun hid a knowing smile. He pulled the paddle into the boat and proceeded to lay it beside him. Shortly after, he laid himself across the boat.

  Suspended in the center of the lake, where different groups of ducks and geese were playing and swimming in the near distance, he casually said, “I can’t believe you made yourself look like an idiot because you didn’t want me to know you were staring.” He smiled shrewdly at Yoori. “You’re a real class act, babe.”

  Yoori clenched her teeth. All this time, he allowed her to act idiotic when he knew? She tried her best to do damage control.

  “I—I was not staring,” she combated, her cheeks burning at the embarrassing dilemma she found herself in. She went on clumsily. “I was moving my eyes and I stopped on you for a little bit longer than I should. That’s not staring. That was just me being lazy with my eyes and— ”

  Okay, I should stop now, she thought to herself, feeling like a blubbering fool. Oh how she wanted to crawl into a hole and die right now…

  Luckily for her, it didn’t even appear as if Tae Hyun was really listening anymore.

  Laying his head against the foundation of the boat, he gave a sigh of relief after he fully situated himself across the boat. When he was done, he angled his head toward Yoori.

  “You’re blocking the view,” he noted bluntly.

  “I’ll block your view with my fists if you don’t leave me alone,” Yoori muttered threateningly. She was resentful that he allowed her to behave like an idiot. She could feel it in her knuckles. She was ready to punch something—Tae Hyun being the primary candidate. Tae Hyun and maybe a couple of ducks.

  “Wow,” he responded coolly, nonchalantly patting the empty space beside him, a gesture for her to stop arguing and settle beside him. “My precious little assistant is such a thug. Scary.”

  Yoori rolled her eyes. “I’m glad we can find some humor in the success of my initiation.” She threw him a dirty look. “And why should I go to you?”

  “‘Cause you’re not sitting in the right angle to get the best view. Now come here before I ask you what you were thinking about while you were staring at me.”

  No! Under no circumstances was she going to share with him that she thought he looked sexy.

  Acknowledging that she had been backed into a corner, Yoori gave in before she accidentally blurted out anything else. Throwing up her white flag, a very
bitter Yoori carefully moved to the empty space beside Tae Hyun. With one leg outstretched, she sat beside him, her hair ruffling slightly when a gentle wind flew past them.

  “Lay down,” he directed, flashing his brown eyes up at her. “We can share an equal view of everything this way.” When Yoori hesitated, he added, “The sky is about to become more beautiful and you’ll only hurt your neck from craning it for too long. Might as well prevent the trouble. It’s not like you don’t have enough pain rummaging through your body.”

  It was probably a psychological thing, but when he mentioned the pain in her body, she began to feel the aches in her neck.

  “There she goes…” Tae Hyun stated idly, his eyes reflecting the rays of the sunset.

  Excited about the beautiful view and convinced that it was only for the good of her body (even though deep down, she knew it was something else), Yoori settled herself beside Tae Hyun and allowed her head to rest on the smooth base of the boat.

  Both resting their hands on their stomachs, Yoori and Tae Hyun smiled in awe at the magic of the nature before them. Her perfume and his cologne mixed together while they watched in serene silence. It seemed at that moment, the whole world stopped to stare up at the heavens above as well.

  “Do you know what’s crazy?” she found herself asking, her attention becoming lost in the skies above.

  “What?”

  “Do you realize that our whole lives, every decision we’ve made, all the roads we’ve chosen—good, bad, big and small—everything has led us to this very moment in time?” Yoori had a tendency to get philosophical when she was outside long enough. The scenic world had that enlightening power over her.

  “What a crazy thought,” Tae Hyun murmured, his eyes roaming the picturesque sky.

  Yoori nodded, proud of her crazy, simple, but somewhat mind-boggling observation. Another thought invaded her mind.

  “Tae Hyun,” she launched excitedly, her eager eyes focused on the majestic streaks of color ornamenting the once blue sky.

  “Hmm?”

  “If you weren’t a gang leader, what would you be doing right now?”

  He paused to mull over the answer. It threw Yoori off when he said, “What do you mean?”

  His slightly bewildered voice said it all: he had never been asked that question before. And based on the tightening of the muscles in his arms, Yoori was sure that he was very uncomfortable with the question.

  “Well…you weren’t first in line for the Serpents throne,” she began carefully. She was reticent with bringing up his older brother, but she was eager to know his answer since he hadn’t dismissed her question yet. “Before you found yourself as the King of Serpents, what were you planning to do with your life?”

  When Tae Hyun fell silent, Yoori assumed that he dismissed her question. Just as the silence was about to eat away at them, his voice permeated the fresh, cool air.

  “The 1st layer is where I’m supposed to be right now if everything went according to the original plan,” Tae Hyun shared unsteadily, his voice more delicate than she had ever heard it.

  Yoori nodded, pleased that Tae Hyun contributed to the conversation. It may have been because he felt nostalgic in the lake they were in—the solitude they found themselves in as the only thing keeping them company were the distant ducks, the dancing water, and the glorious sunset. Or it could even be because of her company. Whatever the case, Tae Hyun seemed more at ease when he spoke to her.

  “I was raised to take over the 1st layer. The original plan was to have my brother in the 3rd layer, myself in the 1st layer and Hae Jin could choose whichever layer she wanted to be in. I never once thought that I’d spend any real time in the 3rd layer—let alone rule it.” He smiled dryly. “I remember being so excited to take over the 1st layer. Going away to business school was one of the best times of my life.”

  His smiling eyes relived the glory of his college days.

  “The world was my oyster and I was excited for the life to come. I wanted to make a name for myself in the corporate world. I wanted to build my own empire and I wanted to bask in the freedom of living the life I created for myself. There's a certain independence you get from the 1st layer. It is different than the 3rd layer in a sense that a lot of your power comes from knowing the right people. It worked to my benefit that I had endless businessmen/politicians who wanted to be my mentors and endless friends who were the soon to be heirs of their own respective empires.

  “That’s why I had so much power and support when I took the Serpents throne 3 years ago. It is unheard of for the younger brother to kill the older brother for the leadership position, even under the confines of the Underworld. There’s still a particular code of honor that you should abide by—loyalty being the highest one. But I was ‘pardoned’ because of my close relations to the Corporate Crime Lords and the mentorship I received from Shin Dong Min. That’s how the Underworld works. The 1st and 2nd layers don’t have as much power as the 3rd layer, but their influences—especially in large quantities—help to sway the pendulum of power.”

  He laughed bitterly to himself. “Being crowned the King of Serpents without an uproar was inevitable after that.” He turned to Yoori. He smiled when he added, “You would like it in the 1st layer, Yoori. Life is much more carefree in that layer. There’s still the struggle for power that involves Underworld business but the majority of the time, you’re allowed to get lost in your own world.”

  “Do you regret becoming the King of Serpents?” she blurted without filter.

  The pause was a short one that felt like an eternity for Yoori. Tae Hyun regarded her silently. She tried to scrutinize his poignant eyes for some emotion with the question she posed. It didn’t take her long to deduce that the question may have been unexpected on her part, but it was quite possible that it was a question Tae Hyun may have already asked himself.

  His gaze on her remained. He parted his lips. “Would you regret becoming a God, Yoori?”

  She paused. "A God?"

  When Yoori found herself unable to answer, Tae Hyun went on. “I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it felt that first day when I walked into the Serpents estate and everyone in that room got down on one knee and kneeled before me. I also can’t tell you how wonderful it felt when I walked into an arena that housed the entire Underworld and everyone bowed their heads down in respect – and fear – of my presence. I am everything that people want to be—”

  “—better than human,” Yoori finished for him.

  Tae Hyun nodded. “There’s no point in regretting things that have already happened, things that are beyond your control. I became a crime lord under unusual circumstances but continued to be a crime lord to quench my thirst for the ultimate power and for my own survival.”

  “Survival?”

  “That’s the curse of being a gang leader. You can have as much power as God but you are never truly God. Regret isn’t a luxury that I’m given. The moment I regret anything is the moment I make myself vulnerable to death. People in the Underworld are quick to revere you and they are just as quick to kill you. Regret doesn’t transcend in this world but power does. That’s the number one rule, Choi Yoori—you can’t regret anything. The moment you do, you might as well kill yourself because someone else will be on your tail and ready to do it for you.”

  Yoori nodded, her mind venturing onto something else. “You know, you paused when I asked you if you regretted being the King of Serpents.”

  “Yeah?”

  “But you didn’t look surprised when I asked. The reaction in your eyes was something of familiarity with the question.” She smiled weakly, noting the cautious intrigue in his eyes. “This might not be the case for you, but sometimes, when you ask yourself if you regret something enough, even if you say you don’t, sometimes that could be your own subconscious way of telling yourself that you do.” She gazed into his eyes. “Do you ask yourself that question enough?”

  Tae Hyun immediately shook his head at her question—too
immediate for Yoori who felt that she must’ve hit a nerve within him when she stated that observation. Determined not to allow a tense air to fall upon them, she smiled and nodded, accepting his wordless reply as her answer. She didn’t want to push it. He was beginning to open up and she didn't want to scare him away.

  Tae Hyun, relieved that she didn’t venture further into that topic, turned his head forward, closed his eyes and lounged under the cascades of light that fell upon him. A breath later, he opened his eyes and turned to Yoori again. Curiosity reveled in his gaze. It was his turn to ask the questions.

  “What were you planning on doing with your life before I busted in and stole you from your world?”

  Yoori smiled. Normally, she’d avoid going into the deep and personal stuff with Tae Hyun because they’d always danced around those types of things, both holding up a wall and only allowing the other in when the trust was built high enough. Much to Yoori’s obliviousness, she had already started to take her wall down for Tae Hyun—and him for her. It was a natural progression in their relationship that occurred so subtly that they didn’t even notice it was happening.

  Because of the serenity they found themselves in (or the fact that Tae Hyun opened up a bit more to her first), Yoori found herself at ease. For the first time, she actually wanted to let him in—but only slightly.

  “When I was living in Taecin…I was…really sick,” Yoori shared warily, not divulging her amnesia to Tae Hyun. It wasn’t the time to tell him—not that she thought there would ever be a time.

  Tae Hyun nodded, listening intently as Yoori went on.

  “Being sick doesn’t really allot you the opportunity to be ambitious, especially not in Taecin because there’s nothing there.” She smiled to herself. “I had really big dreams. The long-term plan of coming to Seoul was to further my career. Working at the diner was a way to make ends meet so I could pay for my apartment. In all honesty, I wasn’t supposed to work there for more than a year. I was only supposed to stay for a couple of months and go find a job elsewhere. But one thing led to another and I became really comfortable there. It was my own little bubble.”