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

by Con Template

  Sensing her journey into the land of misery, Tae Hyun casually suggested that they quit jogging and stop by the local bakery to treat themselves with dessert instead. Yoori agreed and languidly sat at one of the bakery’s coffee tables while Tae Hyun ordered them two big slices of his favorite cake.

  Yoori had just finished telling him how Soo Jin tortured the mother and killed the two children when he placed her cake in front of her. She was sick to her stomach with guilt. She couldn’t even eat her cake, hence the reason why Tae Hyun was scolding her.

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” Yoori retorted.

  She was thankful that the bakery was intimate. The tables were small, there was an aroma of warm pastries, and an abundance of shuffles of patrons’ feet. Her voice was drowned in the upbeat music and the constant buzzing of the people around her. No one, other than Tae Hyun, could hear her.

  With her legs crossed together over the wooden chair, she added, “You buying me a cake doesn’t mean anything. I will frown as I wish.”

  “Yeah well, it would be great if you could turn that frown upside down because we’re out in public right now and . . .” He looked around bashfully, shifting restlessly in his seat. He was dressed in a brown zip-up hoodie and black windbreaker pants. His hood was up, making him sinfully mysterious and handsome as he ate his cake. The deterrent to this enigmatic façade was the sight of him blushing from the condemning stares he received from the people around them. “And I think people think I’m abusing you or dumping you right now because you look so damn miserable. The Underworld already sees me as a heartless jackass; I don’t need the outside world to see me as a jerk as well.”

  “Oh Jesus . . .” Yoori laughed at Tae Hyun’s unintentional cuteness as he drank from his cup of milk. He metamorphosed from looking like a sexy wolf to an adorable puppy. She was positive that this was one of those moments where Tae Hyun’s tactic of endeavoring to “make-Choi-Yoori-feel-better” was to piss her off. No doubt he was trying to coax out her fiery wits so she would scream at him and forget that she was miserable. If any other guy tried that method with her, they would be looking at an early grave. However, Tae Hyun’s oozing charm allowed him to be the only one who could get away from such a grim fate.

  Regardless of his efforts, she couldn’t help but release another sigh. Her thoughts journeyed back to the mother and children. She was silent for several more moments before she started to finally eat her cake. A massive pit materialized in her stomach while she chewed. Yoori hesitantly peered at Tae Hyun. She wondered what his thoughts were on the conveyed information.

  “So,” Yoori drawled. “What do you think about everything I told you? You’re not the least bit disgusted with me?”

  He finished the last of his cake and stared at her with nonchalance. “Why should I be?”

  “Because . . .” She surveyed her surroundings and leaned in closely. “Well, you know why.”

  She killed children for goodness’ sake.

  The thought was sickening to her. It disturbed her every time she thought about it. She could only imagine how Tae Hyun must feel to be sitting across the monster who performed such an immoral act.

  “You’re not the same person,” he assured her with conviction. She could see the contemplation in his eyes as he thought about the woman and her children. At the same time, she saw the confidence on his face. “You and Soo Jin are completely different. I understand how guilty you must feel right now, but you also have to remember that it wasn’t you who did all those things. It was her and her alone.”

  “You really see us as being different?” Yoori tentatively inquired. Although she had asked Tae Hyun this particular question numerous times in the past, she had never wanted his reassurance more than now. “That what she did has no reflection on me?”

  Will you really forgive me for all the sins she committed? She wanted to add.

  “Yes, Nemo,” he confirmed, lifting Yoori’s heart up with hope. He then pushed the cake closer to her. “Now hurry up and finish eating. I’m done with my cake. I don’t want to sit around and wait all day for you.”

  Yoori furrowed her brows at her new pet name. He had called her that during the ball, but she thought it was an isolated incident. It was so strange to hear him call her that when he didn’t even know what a “Nemo” was the night before.

  “Are you seriously calling me ‘Nemo’ from now on as my pet name?” she asked offhandedly, throwing her plastic fork onto the empty plate. She grabbed her plate and gave him a quick glare before standing up and tossing it into a nearby trashcan.

  Tae Hyun shrugged with a hidden smile. He collected his trash and threw it away.

  “If I feel like it,” he drawled out with his sultry and smooth voice.

  “It’s not a sexy name though,” Yoori childishly complained as she stepped out of the bakery and onto the crowded sidewalk.

  She felt the icy, winter breeze lash against her skin. Just as quickly as the breeze picked up, warm, electric currents coursed through her body when Tae Hyun wrapped his arms around her hips. He gravitated towards Yoori and bestowed her neck with a quick kiss. Yoori smiled uncontrollably at this display of affection.

  “Nicknames rarely are,” he purred into her ear. He playfully bit and nibbled the tip of her earlobe, triggering an involuntary whimper from Yoori’s lips as they immersed into the crowd.

  “Tae Hyun!” Yoori mumbled halfheartedly, pulling away from his grasp. “We’re outside!”

  Although being teased to death by Tae Hyun was certainly one of Yoori’s favorite pastimes, she was still a prude at heart. How could he make her whimper like that when a kid could have heard her on the street?

  Unaffected by her reprimand, Tae Hyun merely chuckled at the rosy blush forming on her cheeks. Releasing a breathy sigh, he pulled up her velour hood to protect her against the cold and entwined the gaps between her fingers with his. Hand-in-hand, they sauntered down the street together.

  “What do you think they’re looking for?” she questioned as the frosty wind gusted past them. They instinctively moved closer together to avoid bumping into other pedestrians on the crowded sidewalk. Though her guilt had subsided after talking to Tae Hyun, she still had other things she wanted to address with him, especially matters pertaining to the mysterious item. “I know that by the time you took the reign, the Siberian Tigers were already exterminated, but have you heard anything about them? Things that they may have owned? Things that might be of importance to someone like Ju Won?”

  Tae Hyun stopped abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk to deliberate for a moment. “Before I took over the Serpents’ throne, Dong Min gave me some information about the Siberian Tigers. Apparently, in addition to the Scorpions family, the Siberian Tigers family was a family that Ju Won was close to as well. There’s not much more I can tell you apart from that. You already know that it was your brother who exterminated them, and we both know what happened to the extended family that night.”

  Yoori shook her head with resentment, recalling that her brother wouldn’t disclose more information last night.

  “He just won’t tell me more than that,” she groaned, reclining her head towards the overcast sky.

  They reached another dead-end in the conversation, and she felt unsettled with her emotions. Yoori understood that her brother hid this information away from her because he didn’t want to risk her remembering the past. Yet, she also couldn’t deny how enticing the secret was. She felt allured to its enigmatic secret and desired to uncover the truth. Although she wanted to closet her memories, she still had this innate desire to know what the mentally deranged Soo Jin was up to.

  “In about three days, I’m leaving to go back to the second Serpents’ estate,” Tae Hyun announced casually, stirring her from her thoughts. “I have business I need to take care of there.”

  “What do you need to do there?” Yoori asked, momentarily distracted with this new announcement.

  “Ju Won’s 65th birthday is near,” he expl
ained as they continued to walk hand-in-hand. His voice was weary and spent. “You’ve only been introduced to a diplomatic Underworld so far. Like it’s been previously mentioned, we’re all holding back on the bloodshed until his birthday. But once his birthday comes, this world will revert back to its old ways. I need to prepare my Serpents for the things to come.”

  “Oh . . . Oh okay,” Yoori faintly responded, disturbed that the current Underworld was considered peaceful. She couldn’t and didn’t want to envision what a “regular” Underworld would be like with the amplified bloodshed and internal warfare. The thought of the Underworld and Tae Hyun becoming more violent petrified her.

  She gazed at him, her thoughts migrating back to what he said about returning to the Serpents’ estate. She wondered if this meant he was leaving her for a while. It would suck to be alone in the apartment without him. “Should I stay at a hotel or something while you’re away?”

  “I actually want you to come with me,” he said instead, catching her by surprise.

  Yoori gawked at him. She was still floored that he would even share his first Serpents’ estate with her. She did not expect to be invited to the second estate. Being present for the secret initiation was one thing, but being privy to the second estate where the Serpents were trained was something else entirely. “But I thought I’m not allowed. Hae Jin told me I had to be initiated into the gang before I could go to the second estate—”

  “You’re allowed entry if a King grants it to you,” he informed her, his brown eyes softening on her. “And I want you to come with me.”

  “Why would you still do that?” she asked stupidly. “You already did that with the first estate.”

  He laughed, eliciting the careless charm that he radiated so brilliantly. “I told you before, I brought you to the first estate because I wanted you to know everything about me. I want every part of my life—all my secrets—to be open to you. This is not a store, Brat. I’m not picking and choosing when to be open with you. I want it to be consistent, and I want to share my second estate with you as well.”

  Uneasiness inundated her thoughts. His prerogative to be candid only reminded her of her cowardice attempt to keep the secret behind his mother’s death from him. Her brother’s damning words echoed in her mind, reminding her to ask Tae Hyun the dreaded question. She waved the question off in her mind. She could not deal with this right now.

  “You don’t have to, Tae Hyun,” she appeased feebly. “I understand that there are secrets I shouldn’t know about your gang. You don’t have to let me in on everything. I’m satisfied with being privy on how the initiation works. You don’t need to show me more than that.”

  “You don’t want to see if we can find something at the Siberian Tigers’ estate?”

  Yoori stopped in her tracks.

  She gaped up at him in confusion.

  “But—” Realization dawned in her eyes. Adrenaline gushed through her veins when she realized what was being insinuated. “Are you saying that the second Serpents’ estate was originally—?”

  “The Siberian Tigers’ estate,” he finished for her. “When I came into power, I wanted to move away from the old estate that my brother housed. The Siberian Tigers’ estate was abandoned, so it didn’t take me long to stake claim over the property and establish that estate as the main Serpents’ estate. It’s been a while; there might not be anything left there.” He shrugged again, readjusting his hood to keep it firmly above his head. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I’m just putting it out there for you.”

  Yoori’s eyes were beaming. She would go anywhere if she had the chance to discover something new.

  “Of course I’ll go,” Yoori coolly replied, smiling as something else came to her mind. Since they were already on the topic of being honest and open to each other, she couldn’t let this opportunity pass by. “I know we already discussed this, but can you come with me and have dinner with my brother the day after tomorrow?”

  The mood suddenly dampened. She had already invited Tae Hyun once and he had already declined her offer. They got into a heated argument about it earlier in the day. Yoori was upset that Tae Hyun wouldn’t give her brother a chance and Tae Hyun was upset that Yoori would demand him to, especially considering how Young Jae treated him the night before. The dispute was eventually settled before their jog, but as it appeared, the fight was ready to rear its ugly head again.

  A frown darkened Tae Hyun’s visage. He swayed his head agitatedly, unclasping his hand from hers.

  “You always know how to ruin the mood, don’t you?” he reprimanded, striding ahead of her.

  Yoori stared after him in bewilderment.

  “What a freaking jerk,” she muttered to herself when she realized he had just ditched her. All because she invited him to have dinner with her big brother? Well, she couldn’t accept his childish antics!

  Yoori picked up her pace and caught up with him. She was vexed, but she knew patience was a virtue that should be employed with an incredibly stubborn Tae Hyun.

  “Stop it. Just come have dinner,” she urged, nearly crashing into a little toddler as she struggled to keep up with Tae Hyun. He was walking inhumanly fast. She cursed under her breath at his stubbornness. “What’s the big deal?”

  “Why should I? Weren’t you there last night?” he snapped, quickening his pace. He was beside himself. “Your brother’s fucking insane.”

  “He’s just overprotective,” Yoori amended weakly.

  She understood the hostility on Tae Hyun’s part. After what took place, it wouldn’t have surprised Yoori if Tae Hyun completely wrote her brother off as a lost cause. Despite his qualms about her brother, Yoori hoped that Tae Hyun would still make the effort to get on Young Jae’s good side. After all, he was her boyfriend, and the universal rule for all boyfriends was that they should do everything in their power to get on their girlfriend’s older brother’s good side.

  “No,” Tae Hyun corrected swiftly. He finally stopped to face her. He wasn’t going to allow her amended categorization to go by without his input. “Overprotective is me telling Kang Min that if he hurts my baby sister, I’m killing him and making sure he dies a slow and painful death. That’s overprotective.”

  He shook his head disbelievingly.

  “But your brother is insane because it appeared that overnight, I became his most hated enemy. I mean, I met him briefly when I was crowned the King of Serpents, and at that time, he was actually civil with me. He didn’t seem to hate me at all. Hell, I’d even go as far as saying that your brother was nice to me when we met. But apparently last night, I became his biggest enemy because I’m seeing his sister? Do you not see how insane that is? I can handle it if the guy acted like he hated me from the start, but it’s like he flipped a switch and only decided to hate me so he could pull you away from me. There’s something about that guy that I just can’t—”

  When he glanced over and saw the disappointment in Yoori’s eyes, he relinquished his verbal thoughts and went silent. He had his own opinions, but he wasn’t keen on hurting her with them.

  Yoori closed her eyes at his nonsensical babbling. Normally she would let him have his way because she realized how stubborn Tae Hyun could be, but this was different. This was her brother, her only family member. She also couldn’t ignore the insinuating tone from the last part of his speech.

  “Where is this all coming from?”

  The muscles in his jaw bunched. He looked away. “I don’t want to say it.”

  “Damn it,” she commanded, grabbing his arm to have him face her. “Just tell me.”

  “I don’t trust him,” he finally shared, “or Ji Hoon.”

  Yoori expelled a tired breath. She should have known they were going to voyage on to this topic.

  She gazed up at him doubtfully. “Wasn’t it just last night that you and Ji Hoon showed each other an ounce of respect? What changed?”

  “That was before I had time to think about it in the limo,” he told h
er. “I can’t pinpoint what it is, but there’s something off about them and how they behaved last night.”

  When Yoori sighed, Tae Hyun became defensive.

  “I heard shouting,” he explained, sensing that she was ready to mentally block whatever he was trying to tell her, “in one of Ju Won’s rooms when I was speaking to some of the crime lords. Then I heard more shouting and a big commotion. Moments later, Ji Hoon came out and he was heading towards the west wing. From what you told me about what happened last night, I think he went straight to you afterward.”

  She folded her arms across her chest and feigned interest. “Did you see who else came out?”

  “No. I was too distracted with Ji Hoon. I think the other person slipped out while I wasn’t looking.”

  “So, Ji Hoon and my brother had an argument,” Yoori deduced logically. “Probably the same one about Ji Hoon trying to make sure I don’t regain my memories.”

  “But he was pretending he didn’t know it was Young Jae when we found you dancing with him.”

  “Tae Hyun . . .” Yoori wearily responded before Tae Hyun interrupted her.

  “I knew you were going to react this way,” he told her, his eyes emitting disappointment that she was categorizing his suspicions as trivial.

  “Look, I know you’re thinking that there’s something else to it, but stop being like this. My brother and Ji Hoon really care about me. They’ll never hurt me.” She exhaled before unthinkingly saying, “You’re just being paranoid.”

  “Paranoid?” He gaped at her incredulously. “This isn’t paranoid. In this world, there is no such thing as paranoid. I’m being careful right now.” His steel-eyes scrutinized her. “You’ve been introduced to another level in this world, Yoori. All the people we’ve met, they are masters of deception. Some of them are so good that even I get fooled. Last night, for example, I was momentarily fooled by Ji Hoon. But the thing I’ve learned—the thing that has gotten me to where I am—is my ability to find anomalies in their behaviors because even the best liar slips up. It’s up to the one being lied to, to catch those slips.”