Welcome to the Underworld (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 1)

by Template, Con

  The brothers shook their heads, harboring the same unanswered questions.

  "We have no idea,” said Jae Won. “But we think she never gave the information to him.”

  Kang Min nodded, lifting up his gold gun. "Ju Won returning this gun wasn't a gracious act. It was his subtle way of reminding you that a favor is still owed to him."

  Yoori breathed heavily, her heart nearly stopping in fear. "Because he thinks I'm An Soo Jin."

  She understood now why Ju Won said, “There's still unfinished business left on the table.” He wasn’t done with Soo Jin – not by a long shot.

  "Ju Won immediately recognized Jae Won as a former Scorpion," Kang Min continued at once. "But he didn't recognize me – not at first. No one ever really does because I looked much different when I was 15. But when he saw you in the meeting room, I guess everything fit together for him. Jae Won and I going after Jin Ae to make sure she kneels before you and us being overprotective – I can't imagine him viewing you as anyone else but An Soo Jin."

  Having understood why Ju Won said Soo Jin left being on his bad side, Yoori wondered about their history. "W–what was his relationship with Soo Jin?"

  "Seo Ju Won had very close ties to the Scorpion family,” said Jae Won. “He only had one student that he mentored."

  "And that student was Soo Jin?"

  Jae Won nodded. "That's the reason why her status in the Underworld was elevated to such high levels even before she made her first official appearance into the Underworld society. Everyone knew about the Princess of Scorpions who was trained, not only by Seo Ju Won, but also the Shin Brothers—the most infamous and revered crime lords in the history of the Underworld. The Advisors revered her and that meant that the Underworld revered her as well."

  "And now you think Ju Won is coming after me for the information he thinks I have because of my resemblance to Soo Jin..."

  "That's why we were worried for you when we saw you walking in," said Jae Won. "Ju Won, as kind and friendly as he may appear, is calculating and scheming beyond words. If he wants something, he'll do whatever it takes to get it. He has no qualms about using others and pitting them against one another. In the end, all that matters is that he gets what he wants."

  Taking note of her shivering state, Kang Min added, "Aside from a select few in this world, there is no one you can trust. Chances are, Ju Won already has them wrapped around his fingers, ready and willing to do his bidding."

  "We're the only ones you can trust, Yoori," said Jae Won, his expression severe.

  In that second, Ju Won's pearl of wisdom appeared in her mind concerning Tae Hyun and Ji Hoon.

  "But what about Tae Hyun and Ji Hoon?" She recalled the scene where they both rushed over to her after she exited the meeting room. "I mean…they both have been looking out for me and – "

  "We're still not sure about Tae Hyun. That's why you can't tell him about your resemblance," Jae Won replied candidly. “But right now, we trust that he's the best one to take care of you. He's the only one who doesn't seem whipped by Ju Won."

  "But you can't trust Ji Hoon at all," Kang Min emphasized, staring at her dead in the eyes.

  She gazed at him in amazement. She couldn’t trust Ji Hoon at all?

  "Why would you say that?” she inquired. “Wasn't he Soo Jin's boyfriend? They were in love."

  "We never trusted him,” said Kang Min. “Even when he was with her, we never trusted him."

  Yoori was lost in a fog of confusion. "Has he done something to make you think he's not trustworthy?"

  "It's more of a gut instinct," Jae Won provided. "We're unsure of Tae Hyun, but we don't trust Ji Hoon. There's no evidence or proof, just human gut instinct."

  "What does your gut instinct tell you, Yoori?" Kang Min asked patiently, noting the uncertainty in her eyes.

  The limo came to a slow stop in front of the hospital, a prelude to the curtains falling onto their conversation for the night.

  She spoke without hesitation. "That I can trust both of them."

  The brothers nodded in silence, offering no outright objections to her prerogative.

  As the limo came to a complete stop beside the curb, Yoori’s head bounced slightly forward. Like an ocean wave had collided against her, she recalled the last thing Ju Won said to her before she left the meeting room. They were simple words that held a world of meaning now.

  Coldness seeped into her at the realization.

  "Before I left the room," Yoori began quietly, claiming Jae Won and Kang Min's attention. Her eyes were lost in an unblinking stupor as she stared into space. "Ju Won said to me, ‘I had always favored you.'"

  An upsurge of shock and understanding flickered in the brothers' gaze as she continued, their breathing growing slow in unison with hers.

  "I didn't think much of it until now, but I think that for their deal, in exchange for what happened in the club that night…Ju Won promised An Soo Jin the Underworld."

  “But just like all things in life . . .”

  35: Disappearing Act

  Breathe in.

  Breathe out.

  Breathe in.

  Breathe out.

  As Yoori laid in the enveloping darkness of Tae Hyun’s bedroom, she found herself completely and utterly consumed with thoughts of what occurred before Tae Hyun’s personal physician treated her at the hospital.

  Her mind raced.

  Ju Won now saw her as An Soo Jin—as did everyone else who knew Soo Jin (with the exception of Ji Hoon of course – whom Jae Won and Kang Min adamantly informed her that she couldn’t trust).

  Soo Jin gave up her gun as a promise of a favor to Ju Won.

  Ju Won returned the gun as a gesture of reminding her (Yoori) that she still needed to return the favor.

  “There’s still unfinished business left on the table...”

  Ju Won now expected her to take care of the unfinished business. The information Soo Jin gathered from the night she tortured and killed an entire family…Ju Won still expected Yoori to give it to him. And finally the most troubling recollection of all, the one that occurred seconds before she walked out of the door after her initiation.

  “You should know that...” Ju Won had begun softly, sitting on his chair as she came to a halt. “I had always favored you.”

  Ju Won groomed An Soo Jin to become the Lord of the Underworld, but before he gave her the Underworld, he needed her to perform a favor. He needed her to torture and kill the family in the club to gather information for him – information that Soo Jin never gave to him because she was supposedly too plagued with guilt from torturing and killing the family.

  Yoori closed her eyes in agony, her heart pounding against her chest. The pit in her stomach grew deeper as every image came into her mind like a movie.

  Her initiation...The fights...Her heightened sense of hearing...Her quick instincts when it came to avoiding bullets...Her agility to perform backflips and spin kicks that she had never done before in her life...

  As she laid in silence, her eyes welling up with tears, Yoori couldn’t help but finally gasp softly, the sound of her voice ricocheting into the darkness. With her heavy heart as her guide, Yoori knew then that she could no longer ignore it. The impending flood of wretchedness thrashed against the walls she had built. Biting her lower lip as a teardrop slipped down from her eye and onto the pillow, she knew that the evidence was becoming irrefutable…

  She – she was really An Soo –

  No!

  Yoori shook her head stubbornly. No, she would not think it. It was a damning acceptance that terrified every fiber of her body. She thought about the hatred she would have for herself if she really were An Soo Jin. She thought about the overwhelming guilt that would rain over her if she had to accept Soo Jin’s unforgivable sins as her own. She thought about all the misery and pain she would experience if this possibility became true.

  The tears of desperation in her eyes said it all: if there should ever come a time where she had to truly admit she wa
s someone so awful, then Yoori didn’t know how she would be able to live with herself. Would she even be able to live?

  Deep in the subconscious crevices of her mind, Yoori knew it was foolish of her to continue to believe that there was a slight chance that her resemblance to An Soo Jin was a mere coincidence. All the evidence pointed to the contrary.

  She knew it was foolish.

  It was a foolish desperation in a foolish girl’s heart to fight something that was so obvious – to fight the fact that she truly was An Soo Jin. Despite her acceptance of her foolishness, she continued to fight –she continued to avoid the inevitable.

  Would it be so wrong to kneel in front of that dam and block out the flood of truth for just a bit longer? Would it be so wrong to lie to herself and try to hold onto the slight chance that she wasn’t An Soo Jin? Would it be so wrong to try and save herself from the pain and misery that came with being An Soo Jin?

  Her chin wobbled.

  It was wrong.

  It was so wrong but Yoori didn’t care.

  Someone once told her that denial was a human being’s best friend and she couldn’t have embraced that fact more now, when she was at her lowest point in life. She was too agonized to care if she was being foolish. She was too desperate to care if she was only delaying the inevitable.

  So there she continued to fight, kneeling as she pressed her hands against the dam that kept away the wretched waters. The water fought to break through. She could hear it. She could hear it calling out to her. It wanted to drown her, to swallow her whole. But she wouldn’t let it – not if she could be in denial for a little bit longer, not if she could hold out and save herself from the pain for a little bit longer. Just a little bit longer...

  Finally closing her tear-filled eyes, she decided to seal this prerogative by embarking onto a long slumber. Yes. If she slept, then she could forget about all of this and start anew in the morning. She’d continue to live as she was living now, clueless but happy with herself.

  And that was what she did.

  As Yoori drifted off, she vehemently decided that denial was going to be her best friend for as long as she could keep it. The truth would come when it needed to come but for now, she would escape into her dream world where she was still the innocent Choi Yoori…

  She dreamt about Tae Hyun as she slept. She dreamt that she heard him open the door. She dreamt that he came and kneeled beside her. She dreamt that he wiped her tears away while gingerly stroking her hair. She dreamt that he kissed her in her sleep.

  “…Tae Hyun?” she whispered, looking at him through heavily lidded eyes. She was so exhausted.

  Tae Hyun appeared in her field of vision, sitting on the other side of the bed. The sky outside was pitch dark – making it appear as if the world around them was sleeping with her. If he wasn’t stroking her hair, making her feel good all over, then she would’ve deduced that she was actually awake.

  She decided it was better to be safe and ask.

  “Is this a dream?” she asked sleepily, blinking at him lethargically.

  Tae Hyun nodded, his smile so breathtaking even in dreams.

  He lowered himself and then scooped her up in his arms. While still sitting up, he was careful not to aggravate the pain in her body as he gently laid her on his hard chest.

  Taking advantage of the dream, Yoori laid her chin on his chest and gazed up at him.

  For a long moment they laid there like that, Tae Hyun stroking her hair while Yoori gazed up at him. His fingers gradually slid from her hair to the cut and bruises near her lips.

  “How long have you been crying?” he finally whispered, wiping away the residual tears.

  “Since I got home,” she murmured distractedly, so sleepy that she couldn’t even focus on staying alert for her dream.

  He nodded, staring somberly at her for a couple more seconds.

  After what felt like an eternity, he whispered, “I’m sorry for everything.” He held her gaze, his finger lightly caressing the bruises on her face. “I didn’t know anything like this would happen. If I knew, I would’ve never dragged you into this world.”

  “Not...not your fault...” she simply whispered, slowly finding that this dream was about to come to an end. She was about to leave for another dream.

  “Everything is my fault,” he responded softly. A resolve unlike any other filled his eyes. “But I promise you – I will never let this happen to you again.”

  “How can you make such a promise?” Yoori smiled sleepily before answering her own question. “Because you’re a King in this world?”

  Tae Hyun smiled. “Because I am a God in this world – because they will all kneel before me soon. And when they kneel before me, I will have them fall to their knees for you as well.”

  “Why do you care about protecting me?”

  Tae Hyun’s smile remained – if not warmer and more doting than ever. Rather than answering, he stroked her cheek, watching knowingly as she drifted further away.

  “Are you leaving me for another dream already, assistant?”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “I know you don’t,” he said soothingly.

  “…Hold me until I go,” she said softly.

  He obliged. He held her close to him and lifted the covers over them as Yoori drifted further into her next dream.

  “I will make it up to you,” he whispered, his lips caressing her ear. “Starting tomorrow, I will make it up to you.”

  “How?”

  “We’re going to pull a disappearing act.”

  Yoori smiled at the simple statement before closing her eyes. As she left for another dream, she relished in the sensation of how beautiful this dream was – how incredible it felt to be held by someone like Tae Hyun – even if he was only a figment of her dream.

  “I will see you tomorrow then,” she murmured before drifting away, her subconscious completely forgetting about Tae Hyun’s promise, completely forgetting about this beautiful moment and completely forgetting that this dream ever occurred.

  “See you tomorrow,” said Tae Hyun before she left him for another dream world. “Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty.”

  “You should know that what goes around comes around.”

  36: Clash of the Gods

  The meeting room was quiet after an unusually busy night.

  The “guests” had left, the Kings were gone, and the snipers had vacated. Other than the scent of blood, one would not have surmised that the room hosted a vicious five-minute initiation that would’ve killed hundreds of others in a heartbeat.

  In the midst of this stillness stood Ju Won.

  He lingered at the center of the floor, leisurely staring at a large projector that was split into three screens. The center screen showed a video of Ji Hoon fighting six men and using his kendo stick every so often to knock the life out of them. The screen to the right showed Tae Hyun fighting with dozens of men. Holding a sword, he swung at the masses with enviable agility. The screen to the left was grainier. It showed a clip of a third figure standing on a stage with two guns in hand. Before that third figure kneeled hundreds of people.

  “I never thought I’d live to see the day where An Soo Jin would be standing across from me again,” Ju Won finally said when the two elder brothers stepped in the room behind him. They had cleaned themselves up.

  “Why did you return her gun?” Dong Min asked, wiping his hand with a tissue. His eyes were on the projector.

  “I did not want her to forget what she promised me.”

  “She doesn’t remember anything,” stated Jung Min, staring transfixed at the projector as well.

  Ju Won smiled, watching as the third figure in the video clip stepped into the light, revealing the face of An Soo Jin.

  A face that looked just like Choi Yoori’s.

  “Her past is littered across this city. She may have found solace in blocking out the truth, but she cannot escape from the legend of her existence.”

  Ju Won smirked, wa
tching as the scene changed to a clip where the infamous Queen beheaded three fully-grown men. There was a satisfied smile on her angelic face as she kicked the heads away, demanding another round of executions.

  Ju Won’s eyes then slid over to the scene where Tae Hyun was fighting with a sword, displaying unmatched skills as he sparred with his enemies. There was no question that he would emerge from the battle alive and victorious.

  “What an interesting turn of events. The favored King and the infamous Queen.” He turned to the other Advisors. “Between the two, who do you think will win if they fight to the death for the Underworld throne?”

  They remained quiet and Ju Won smiled. He turned back to the projector. On the screens, the favored King and the infamous Queen were both wiping blood from their faces, looking like young Gods walking the earth.

  Ju Won laughed.

  His smile turned merciless as the clip of Yoori and Tae Hyun together just moments prior came on, overtaking Ji Hoon’s screen. The video clip displayed Tae Hyun cupping Yoori’s face, whispering something to her before her initiation commenced. The video was a polar opposite to the violent clips on either side of it. Whereas on the left and right screens, the King and Queen looked like living Gods, the center screen showed them as, oddly enough, humans.

  “I do not know either...” Ju Won said, amused. His anticipation for their inevitable war further lit up the cruel smile on his face.

  “All I know is that it will be the battle of a lifetime...and I cannot wait to witness every moment of it.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Con Template currently resides in California. When she is not occupied with daydreaming about traveling around the world, she relishes in being able to enjoy one of her greatest passions in life: conning realities.

  Welcome to the Underworld is her first novel.

  The Fall of Gods, Book 2 of the Welcome to the Underworld novels, will be released on August 31st, 2013.

  You can follow her at contemplate13.wordpress.com or twitter.com/contemplate13.