The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (50 page)

“I’d kill any bastard who dares to touch you,” Tae Hyun snapped, the muscles in his body rippling with tenseness. The sight of this caused the breath to stall in her lungs. How the hell was it possible that she hadn’t slept with the guy yet? He was
built to give women pleasure.

“Possessive much?” she teased, swallowing tightly to regulate her breathing. Damn. She was tempted to abort the whole “be a normal couple and make normal memories” plan and bond with him in bed instead.

“Just jealous,” Tae Hyun corrected tightly, throwing Yoori off with his candidness.

Yoori gaped at him like she had just heard the Pope curse. Kwon Tae Hyun admitting that he was jealous was something that Yoori never thought she’d hear. And goddamn, she loved hearing it.

He forged on, unaffected by the surprised look on her face. He was strong as ever, even as he admitted his weakness. “It is a rarity for any other guys to evoke any jealousy from me, but it took me a little over an eternity to convince you to be my girlfriend. I’ll be damned if I let some other bastard hold hands with you or cuddle with you.”

Yoori grinned teasingly, her heart elated at her boyfriend’s admittance to a weakness and how prideful he continued to look even after admitting it. “
Does that mean you’ll be my date today then?”

There was more to what she was leading on in terms of what she wanted to do with him. She thought it was best to only tell him after she made him jealous about her non-existent suitors.

Knowing her too well, Tae Hyun arched a suspicious brow. “What are you up to, Nemo?”

Yoori beamed, reaching underneath her pillow and whipping out silver handcuffs that were once in the drawer. She shook it suggestively, naughtiness contrasting the innocence in her doe-like eyes.

“Let’s have some fun.”

Any other alpha male would have been thrilled at the sight of handcuffs. In Tae Hyun’s case, his latest experience with them prohibited any arousal that would’ve worked its way through his body. Unenthused and actually somewhat cautious, Tae Hyun’s eyes morphed into hard slits. He knew her too well to fall for any tricks.

“You suck at life so I know I can’t get my hopes up. Whatever it is we’re doing, I’m sure it doesn’t involve me handcuffing you to the bed while ripping all your clothes off. So tell me, my little prude, why are you smiling like that, and what are we doing with the handcuffs?”

■
■
■

“Is all of this still necessary?” Tae Hyun sullenly asked later that night.

They were walking on the busy winter street, and he was freezing under his long black trench coat. Tae Hyun shivered while one hand held his cookies and cream ice cream con
e and the other held Yoori’s hand. Their wrists winked with silver under the city light. They were handcuffed to one another while they dawdled down the sidewalk.

Dressed in a long white coat with white furry earmuffs to shield her from the cold, Yoori smiled sheepishly at Tae Hyun. She squeezed his hand for encouragement while licking her own ice cream cone. In the background, cars, people, and bicyclists whizzed past them in the hectic night.

For the majority of the day, much to Yoori’s delight, the itinerary she mapped out had gone exactly as planned. Though Tae Hyun was a relatively good sport all day, he was becoming quite unruly as the night lingered on. He didn’t complain much while they were eating ice cream in the afternoon, but now that dinner was over, he was becoming bitter that he still had to eat ice cream in the cold. He was also seemingly bitter that they were still handcuffed together while they shook under the mercy of the winter cold.

It surprised Yoori that he hated the cuffs so much. She brought out the cuffs because she wanted to reminisce with him about the good old days, which ironically didn’t appear like good old days to her when she was living through it. Who would’ve thought their boss and assistant days were some of her most favorite memories? The reminder of the “innocence” of those days brought a genuine smile to her face.

Such a happy moment was polluted when someone said:

“Give me your watch and no one gets hurt.”

What the fuck?

Yoori came out of her reverie in disbelief. She stared at the young teenager before her, shock hitting her at full force.

He looked like he was about seventeen. He wore a red beanie and had a baby-like face that reminded her of Kang Min. He was standing in front of them, wearing a big black coat with a gun pointed at them—or more specifically Tae Hyun, who was still holding his ice cream in indignation.

It took her a few moments to realize that they were being held up at gunpoint.

It took Tae Hyun a few moments longer to realize the same.

“Are you deaf?” the guy said irritably. His chapped lips shuddered in the cold. He gestured his black gun at the expensive Rolex blinging off Tae Hyun’s wrist. It glimmered under the city lights, letting everyone know just how spectacular it was. “Give me your watch or I’ll shoot!”

Tae Hyun looked dumbfounded and then seconds later, annoyed.

He looked at Yoori, his eyes outraged that he had been reduced to this state in life. She could only imagine how insulting it was for the King of the Underworld to be held at gunpoint by some teenage street thug.

“Is this really fucking happening?” he breathed out to Yoori, clearly unable to grasp his embarrassing reality.

Yoori merely blinked at him in shock.

She couldn’t believe this crazy shit either.

“Is this fucker really doing this to me?” he went on manically. “In my own city? While I’m holding a
fucking
ice cream?!”

“Don’t hurt him,” Yoori said a second later, afraid that Tae Hyun’s wrath would be the kid’s demise. Her chin wobbled under the flurry of snow. “He’s just a kid.”

“I won’t hurt him if he gives me his damn watch!” screamed the kid, thinking that Yoori was talking to him.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

Beside her, the King that had thousands of soldiers at his disposal was getting angrier and angrier by the second.

“He’s a little asshole that’s trying to mug me,” Tae Hyun growled back to Yoori, his eyes glaring at the kid like a shark in the night.

“We’re supposed to be normal,” said Yoori through clenched teeth.

Across from her, the kid was still pointing the gun at them, looking around edgily to make sure there were no witnesses. He clearly didn’t anticipate this mugging to take so long. He also didn’t anticipate Tae Hyun to be so scary.

Yoori glared at Tae Hyun sternly, ignoring the kid. “You promised me a normal day.”

“Normal people don’t get mugged on a normal day,” gritted Tae Hyun, his eyes never straying from the attempted mugger. “I should teach the little fucker a lesson.”

Yoori could see that the guy was beginning to regret holding them up. He obviously did not expect to be threatening some psycho who looked like he could rip his head off at any moment.

“Look,” the attempted mugger said, trying to not appear fearful of Tae Hyun. “I don’t want any trouble. I just want your watch.”

“I’ll give you mine,” Yoori offered diplomatically, extending her wrist to offer the silver Rolex Tae Hyun gifted her.

“A lot of people want what I have,” Tae Hyun growled, gently pushing Yoori’s extended arm down while keeping his eyes on the attempted mugger. He inched closer to him, his eyes becoming scarier. He only stopped when the cuffs anchored him to Yoori. Tae Hyun did not appear less intimidating with the handcuffs. If anything, he looked like a ferocious, caged lion that could attack at any moment. “You should know that no one ever gets to have what I have.”

The guy stared fearfully at the handcuffs.

“What
. . .
What is that?” he asked unsteadily, clearly wishing he held someone else up.

“Couples’ bracelet,” said Yoori while Tae Hyun said, “Handcuffs.”

The guy became shakier. Despite his obvious fear of Tae Hyun, his curiosity won out. “Why
. . .
Why are you guys wearing handcuffs?”

“Shoot me,” Tae Hyun said instead, not deigning to answer the guy.

The attempted mugger’s voice rose to a high-pitched sound.
“What?”

“What?” cried Yoori as well, tugging at Tae Hyun’s wrist. “Did the ice cream give you a brain freeze? What’s wrong with you? Why would you say that?”

“Shoot me,” ordered Tae Hyun, staring unblinkingly at the attempted mugger. “I will give you one shot. If you get a bullet in me, I’ll give you my watch. If not, I will wrap my hand around your neck, squeeze the life out of you, and just when you think you’re going to die, I’m going to let go. Then, I’m going to rip your flesh off with my bare hands, and when I’m done, I will break off your bones and pick my teeth with it.”

A wash of silence hung over them.

For a long time, all that could be heard was the sound of falling snow.

A long pause later, Tae Hyun straightened his back and finally said, “Do you still want my watch?”

The teenager shook his head, looking like he couldn’t have regretted being born more. He did not know who Tae Hyun was, but he now knew he wasn’t someone to mug.

Tae Hyun nodded, still holding his ice cream. Throughout this entire scene, never once did the ice cream ruin his authoritative stature. If anything, it made him look more psychotic. 

“Now get the fuck out of our sight,” he commanded. He pointed a warning finger at the guy. “And if I see you holding anyone else at gunpoint, I
will
kill you. I will find out where you live, I will throw you in a coffin with hungry rats, I will stand by and listen to them devour your flesh, and then I will end your life. Got it?”

The boy nodded with a bow before taking off like the wind.

Throughout this speech, all Yoori could do was stare in awe.

After a gust of wind hurdled past them, she said, “That was so cool!” She took a step forward while licking her ice cream. Her eyes glistened in admiration for how her Snob handled this situation. Although he looked like a crazy fucker, it was awesome that he didn’t resort to violence. “How’d you get so cool?”

“I can’t believe I just got held up at gunpoint,” Tae Hyun muttered to himself, still not over this embarrassing fact. He looked at the ice cream in his possession. He swayed his head in disbelief. He clearly hated his life right now. “I can’t believe I just got held up at gunpoint while holding an ice cream cone.”

Yoori laughed, pressing herself into him. “You handled yourself well.”

“I threatened to kill him,” Tae Hyun corrected blandly.

“Yeah, normal people do that,” she said with another laugh. She paused. “Well, actually normal people put their safety first and give up their watch, but when it comes to you, I suppose the most normal thing was to scare the mugger shitless.” She tugged at his arm, very pleased that this did not ruin their night. “Shall we continue this wonderfully normal day?”

Tae Hyun groaned, and Yoori tugged him on, disregarding his petulant moans. She got right back to their innocuous conversation before they were so rudely interrupted.

“You know what this night reminds me of?” Yoori asked nostalgically, trying to get Tae Hyun’s mind off the mugger. 

“What?” he asked, taking one huge bite of his ice cream before contorting his face at the iciness the little dessert offered. He was struggling to eat it (and forget about the mugger) to help make her day perfect, and he couldn’t have looked more adorable doing so.

“Oh goodness, it felt like ages ago,” Yoori shared whimsically, remembering the memory that left her warm with fondness. Her face lit up with delight. “But this night reminds me of the night where this insanely hot gang leader came into my life and pretty much handcuffed me
and abducted me from my own home.”

She smirked to herself while taking a bite of her ice cream.

“But he had such a bad attitude.” Yoori was on a roll, earning a frown of discontent from the “hot gang leader” beside her. He was offended that she dared to speak so badly about him.

She plowed on like the energizer bunny. “You should’ve met this guy, Tae Hyun. You would’ve wanted to beat his ass down—just like that mugger you scared shitless. I had to sequester myself in my own apartment for
eight days because I was waiting for him to come to my apartment with machine guns. It was kind of lame if you think about it. I should’ve just ran out of town—”

“Eight
days?” Tae Hyun asked incredulously.

Yoori realized that she had never shared with Tae Hyun her thoughts on what happened those nights after she ran away from him.

She nodded to confirm.

“You paranoid freak,” he said with adoration. He took the last bite of his ice cream in delight. Thoughts of the mugger vanquished from his mind. Being enlightened with her side of the story obviously made him happy. “I can’t believe you hid yourself in your apartment for eight days.” He gazed down at her with hilarity gleaming in his eyes. “How did it all work out for you, smart one?”

“It didn’t.” She feigned sourness while she lifted her ice cream up to his lips, silently instructing him to help her finish it.