The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2) (41 page)

“Yoori…” he began, his eyes never wavering from hers. “When I kissed you, I realized that I had
 never been as happy as I was at that moment. In all my years as a God…in all my 23 years of existence, I had never been happier than the moment I held you in my arms and kissed you. When I kissed you…I wasn’t a God…I wasn’t the King of Serpents...and I wasn’t a crime lord…I was just Kwon Tae Hyun. There was no complexity to it. I was just Tae Hyun kissing Yoori. I was just a guy kissing a girl who drove him crazy. I was just a guy…who realized he has never known true happiness until that moment.” 

His gaze grew more poignant on her. Yoori struggled to steady her breathing as she listened to words that w
ould forever engrain themselves into her mind. 

“Do you realize how
 damning
 
that is for an Underworld King? To realize that even as a God…he has never truly known heaven? To realize that the one moment he chooses to give into temptation…the one moment he chooses to be human…he found heaven? I couldn’t speak to you afterward because I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened. I was still trying to figure out how I lost all the control I once had.” He smirked at himself. “I figured I was just drugged emotionally…that all I needed was time and it would all fade away. I figured I’d find faults in you and you’d fade away and I wouldn’t be weak anymore.” 

Another self-mocking laugh came before his next statement.
 “The world was cruel when it sent you out to the balcony to find me. It was so cruel when it sat you there next to me. I hate that no matter how hard I try to avoid you, all you had to do was blink and I’d give you all the attention in the world. I hated it even more when you told me you were An Soo Jin, when you told me that you were starting to remember everything again. I should’ve been happy then. I should’ve been happy when the world gave me the fault I wanted from you. You being An Soo Jin should’ve been the clincher for me. It really should’ve been. But...I never could’ve imagined the pain to follow when I wasn’t disgusted, but worried that I would have to let you go now. It was then that I realized it was finally time to let you go. I have been living on borrowed time with you for too long and it was time to return you to the world I stole you from.” 

He took in a sharp,
 painful breath. “I never could’ve imagined how hard it would be to just walk away from you. How hard it was to see you in so much pain…how hard it was to ignore you as you followed me, trying to talk to me with your voice softer and more broken than I’ve ever heard it. I could’ve never imagined how heart wrenching it would be to open that door and have you tell me that you needed me and beg me not to leave. Those seconds I stood there with my back turned to you were the most miserable seconds of my life. The hardest part was just walking away, knowing that I couldn’t take care of you when I should’ve – when I wanted to.” 

Yoori took in a sharp, agonizing breath
and continued to listen.

“You would think after all that, it would’ve been easy for me to leave but I just stood there. I just stood there thinking about nothing
 but you.” He briefly closed his eyes. “I knew as I stood there that I was screwed. I knew then that I had fallen and was no longer a God. I knew as I fell beside that wall, the pain ripping me apart like none I had ever known, that I was finally human again. Against all odds, I fell for the biggest weakness – the biggest temptation – of all and became human again.” 

He opened his eyes and called for her.

“Yoori…”

“Hmm?” she asked, still dazed with everything she had just heard.

Tae Hyun wasn’t the only one who was drunk on that bench. Yoori was drunk too. Drunk on alcohol and apparently on Tae Hyun. Her mind was everywhere yet nowhere.

“You’re one of my best friends…you know that, right?” he slurred, a smile taking over his now carefree face. “I care about you…
a lot
…so don’t you ever forget it.” 

She nodded dubiously, thankful that they had returned to the carefree portion of the conversation. God knows she needed to absorb everything when she was sober, not when there were endless amounts of alcohol swimming inside her.
 

“And you’re one of mine,” she said genuinely.
 “You know that too, right?”

“How much do you care for me?” he asked, gazing up at her with anticipation.
 

“More than I should,” she said honestly, stroking the piling snow away from his profile.
 

He nodded, more than satisfied with her answer. He closed his eyes and began to nuzzle closer to her.
 

“Do you see what I mean now when I say that I’ve been living on borrowed time?” Though his eyes were closed, he was still speaking directly to her.
 “This is your chance now, Yoori…your choice. If you want to go back to your world, I’ll take you back now. I’ll send you to another country and I’ll make sure no one in the Underworld is able to find you. I’ll make sure you’re safe…even if I’m not there to watch over you. You just have to let me know though…do you want to go back to your world?” 

“You’re so drunk right now, Tae Hyun,” she commented delicately, not wanting to answer his question.
 

“I’m not,” he in
sisted, his eyes still closed while he laid one side of his cheek on her lap. “You didn’t answer the question…” 

She sighed, stroking his defined jawline. “We’re both living in the same world, Tae Hyun. I
f you return me…you still have to come with me. Do you know why?” 

“Why?”
 

She smiled sadly. “Because you’re not the only one living on borrowed time…I am too. Why do you put so much pressure on yourself to be the one to let go when you have none of those powers in the first place?”
 

He was quiet, listening intently as she went on.
 

“You don’t get to decide whether or not you can keep having me around.
 
I
 decide if I want to stay or not and if
I
want to leave so badly, then I’ll run away again…it’s not that hard.” 

“You’ll always come back to me,” he warned with a charming smirk on his sleeping countenance. “You know why, right?”
 

“‘Cause I’m your boomerang?”
 

He shook his head. “
‘Cause you fell for me…just like I did for you.”

Panic blared inside her at his blunt answer. The walls around her began to form when she realized how true that statement might’ve been.

No.

She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t fall for Tae Hyun. No. They would never work
out…no. 

Trying so hard to maintain her composure, she stiffened up, swallowed tightly and said, “Well
, that was an arrogant statement on your part.” 

“It’s alright, assistant,” he easily appeased in his drunken state. “It’s okay that you fell for me. You’re actually pretty amazing to have held out for so long.”
 

Her heart raced some more.

She couldn’t have this.

Enough was enough!

“Get off, get off, get off,” Yoori demanded, attempting to push Tae Hyun’s head off her lap. “I refuse to listen to all of this. You weren’t even drunk when you said all of that, were you?” she accused mindlessly. Her main intention now was to get away from this topic. “Which parts were lies and which were truths?” 

“No, I was just kiiiiidding!” Tae Hyun slurred, referencing to him saying that they fell for each other. He was not even listening to Yoori’s accusatory questions. She kept trying to push him off. He pouted and fought to sleep on her lap. He nearly fell off before a panicked Yoori caught him in time. She wanted him off but she didn’t want him to get hurt.
 

“Damn it! Why did you drink so much?” she shouted, knowing now that everything he said was a mixture of truth and over-exaggerated drunkenness. He was messing with her. Even when he was drunk, he was messing with her.

“I can’t believe you’re so drunk that all you want to do is sleep on my lap and joke about us falling for each other. Don’t you know that’s a no-no in BFF land?” 

“Are you cussing at me?” he suddenly accused, his eyes widening in outrage.

“Am I—wh—
what
?” 

“What the hell is ‘BFF
’?” 

“Oh! ‘Best Friends Forever,’” she explained. If this were any other situation, she would’ve laughed at him for his cuteness in not knowing the acronym. However, this was definitely not the time considering she had other worries coursing through her already heavy mind.
 

“What the fuck…” he remarked bewilderingly. “Why would I want to be your best friend
 
forever
? I thought it was just a stage.” 

“A – A stage?” she stuttered dubiously. “Like there’s another level that comes after that title? What the hell did you think comes after being my best friend?”
 

“You’re so confusing,” he replied, already closing his eyes and falling back asleep.
 

“Hey Kwon Tae Hyun! You know that you’re talking to Choi Yoori, right?” she shouted, so confused as to what was going on. Did he know he was speaking to her and not someone else? “You’re not harboring some pent up feelings for some other mystery girl in your past and telling me all this stuff because you’re confused
, right?” 

Silence met her.

He had already fallen asleep. 

Now it was Yoori who was left downright unsatisfied.
 

Bitterness gushed through her and her heart raced in confusion. Her eyes held his sleeping countenance in its gaze, never faltering its attention to anything else.
 Yoori concluded that it was probably better that he had fallen asleep. She would be able to have some peace to herself and her own thoughts.

She thought back to his words.
 

Everything that he said…were they really true or were they just exaggerated lies?
 

The silence mocked her as she waited for an epiphany.
 

Nothing came.

The only one who could really answer her question was asleep and who knew if his drunken self would even remember saying all that stuff to her? 

She sighed, stroking the snow away from his sleeping face and from his jacket.
 She casted her attentive gaze over to him again. She gradually found herself lost in just staring. 

The snow was still falling gracefully around them. The soft glow of the moonlight speared dimly through the white tipped trees, its affectionate rays kissing over Tae Hyun’s perfectly crafted features.
 

One would think Yoori would use the peaceful time wisely and use it to recollect her thoughts. Yet, all she could think about was
 him, the handsome devil sleeping like an angel on her lap. 

Kwon Tae Hyun, Kwon Tae Hyun, Kwon Tae Hyun….

She was lost, so lost in an enrapturing daze… 

Before she could catch herself, her fingers had already ventured onto the contour of his jaw. Ever so slowly, she slid her finger down the defined line and rested it on the skin of his smooth cheek.
 

Yoori couldn’t decide why, despite all her gripes about him, she was so fascinated with Kwon Tae Hyun.
 
Do I like him because he’s handsome or do I like him because he’s Kwon Tae Hyun?
The question may appear redundant but it posed as a significant query for Yoori. She had always thrown her attraction for Tae Hyun as nothing but a crush because he was more than easy on the eyes. She accepted the fact that she may be a bit superficial but if that were the case, then wouldn’t she have the toughest time choosing between him and Ji Hoon? Her attachment, loyalty, and feelings were all given to Tae Hyun and to this day, she didn’t know why he commanded such an unyielding attachment from her. 

There was an off-handed charm that Tae Hyun possessed, which made him more alluring and addicting for Yoori. She thought about all the qualities he possessed –
good and bad. Tae Hyun could be sweet when he wanted to be but he could also be a jackass if he wanted to be. It was funny because she actually felt that she could handle the asshole side better than the sweet side of Tae Hyun. At least with the asshole side, she could have enough sense to argue back. But on reserved occasions where Tae Hyun threw his charms at her, there was never a moment where Yoori didn’t feel weak in the knees and completely lose all her senses. 

She exhaled
, her eyes straying onto the contents of his sexy lips.

What an enticing moment.

My, my…how inviting they look under the glow of the soft moon... 

A naughty thought occurred to her. She knew she shouldn’t do it because it was like playing with fire but yet…she had the biggest yearning to do it.
 Why not, right? He was asleep. It wouldn’t count as anything. 

Yeah,
 her confused and tipsy self urged. Her eyes were still marked on those enticing lips of his. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if she did it fast. It wouldn’t hurt if she just –