The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2) (12 page)

In between the glare on Kang Min’s face and Jae Won’s smug expression, they turned to her and gaped at her strange hand motions.

Yoori ceased with the “time-out” hand gestures when she registered how silly she must’ve looked. “You guys have girlfriends?” she asked, bringing her hands down. 

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Kang Min blurted out again. His cheeks flushed in the tone of a tomato.
 

“She’s his on-and-off girlfriend,” Jae Won corrected, rolling his eyes at his brother’s sudden bashfulness. “And yes, boss. There
 
are
 other girls in our lives besides you.” 

Yoori growled quietly. She wasn’t trying to be territorial. She quickly relinquished the bitterness and got right back on topic. “You guys had a double date this past weekend?”
 

“Something like that,” confirmed a happy Jae Won.
 

“We’ve been off for awhile,
which means she’s 
not
 my girlfriend,” Kang Min clarified, still trying to clear the misunderstanding about him and his “girl.” “We’re just friends.” 

Yoori grimaced. Uh oh, where had she heard that before?

“Uh huh, ‘friends,’” Jae Won repeated skeptically. He turned to face Yoori. “My girlfriend and I are having another dinner date with him and his ‘friend’ tonight.” 

Feeling naughty, Yoori giggled and teasingly said, “Oooh, what a good
 
friend
 you are, Kang Min.” She playfully nudged his arm. 

Kang Min, who was blushing immensely, sighed in disbelief. “Not you too, Yoori.” He brought a frustrated palm to his forehead. “Can we move along from this conversation?”
 

“Yes, one last thing,” Jae Won said in an understanding voice. It would’ve been genuine if there
weren’t mischief in his eyes when he turned to Yoori and revealed, “His ‘friend’ is Kwon Hae Jin!” 

At that moment, three things happened: Yoori’s mouth formed into the shape of a capital
“O”, Jae Won, as if being pulled away from an oncoming semi-truck, dodged out of the aisle as Kang Min’s angry fist buried a hole into a nearby cereal box – the exact position Jae Won’s head would’ve been had he not moved in time. 

Streams of Cheerios flowed out of the listless box after Kang Min withdrew his irate fist. He scowled at his older brother like an angry lion.
 

“You just
 had to tell Yoori, didn’t you?” Kang Min asked indignantly, resting his hands back on the railing of the shopping cart. 

When he saw that the coast was clear (polluted Cheerios aside), Jae Won returned to the aisle with a satisfied grin on his face.
 

“Oh come on, baby brother,” Jae Won said thoughtfully, standing beside a shocked Yoori. Her eyes and mouth were still agape from bewilderment. “This is Boss Choi we’re talking about. She’s not going to tell anyone.”
 Jae Won turned to Yoori to confirm. “Right, Boss Choi?” 

“You – You’re Hae Jin’s boyfriend
?!” Yoori finally asked, her voice so high-pitched that it would’ve cracked glass. Her mind was spinning. Before giving Kang Min a chance to answer, she posed another highly anticipated question. “Does Boss Kwon Tae Hyun know?”

Her question was answered when Kang Min started to
worryingly scratch the back of his head. He avoided eye contact. 

“If the almighty King of Serpents knew, do you think our Kang Min would be standing there with all his bones intact?” Jae Won answered for his brother. He pointed at the crumpled cereal box that still had Cheerios falling out of it.
 “His head would be like that Cheerios box.”

Yoori briefly blinked in agreement.
Punching a hole in Kang Min’s head
did
sound like something Tae Hyun would do for his baby sister. 

“Good point,” she breathed out.
 

Kang Min groaned in agreement before eyeing the Cheerios box.

“Great,” he complained regrettably. He pouted and grabbed the Cheerios box he assaulted. He bitterly placed it into the cart.  “Now we have to buy this.”

Jae Won continued to speak. “But boss, they’ve be
en ‘on-and-off’ for 3 years now. Don’t you think it’s time for Kang Min and Hae Jin to officially be ‘on’ for longer than 2 weeks?” 

As he said that, Jae Won’s phone began to ring. He looked at the screen.
 

“Okay, this is Underworld business. I’m going to take it outside.” Before leaving, he turned to Yoori and whispered, “Boss, Kang Min needs some sense knocked into him about his relationship. I think he’ll listen to you. Will you talk to him?”
 

Jae Won stalked off with his phone pressed against his ear before allowing Yoori the opportunity to answer with an
, “
I don’t even know what the hell is going on
” response.

“I hate you,” Kang Min said indignantly, glowering at Jae Won when he walked past him.
 

“Love you too, baby brother,” Jae Won replied with warm mockery. He purposely ignored the death glare Kang Min bequeathed unto him.
 

Pushed over the edge, Kang Min said the one thing he knew would push his older brother over the edge.

“Your ass is fat!” 

A self-conscious Jae Won stopped grinning. Fire ignited in his eyes. He bestowed Kang Min with a death glare of his own. His voice rose to that of a roaring lion’s. “Why you little
– !” 

“Love you too, big bro!” Kang Min mocked in a high-pitched
voice, satisfied with the reaction he pulled out of his brother. 

“I’m going to fucking kill – ”
 

“Jae Won, shut up and go take your call!” Yoori shouted irritably. She was getting a headache from all their arguing. You know you’ve gotten too comfortable around certain people when you
could yell at them with no fear. Though Yoori felt bad when she saw Jae Won fall silent, she didn’t regret yelling. How the hell was she supposed to talk to Kang Min and find out what was going on when Jae Won was arguing with him?

Jae Won made a disgruntled noise and bitterly obeyed Yoori’s commands. As he was getting ready to disappear out of the aisle, he reminded Kang Min, “Don’t forget that you have to go to Hae Jin’s place to help prepare dinner!”

That message delivered, he flew completely out of sight. 

“Oh yeah…” Kang Min recalled slowly. His anger subsiding, he appreciatively shouted, “Thanks!”

Yoori gawked in deranged awe. It was amazing how quickly they could get into fights and how quickly they could make up. These two brothers would drive her crazy one day. She knew it. 

She inhaled with anticipation when an air of peace fell over them.
 Satisfied that Jae Won was finally out of sight, Yoori smiled warmly and purposely approached Kang Min.

“So you and Hae Jin…” Yoori casually launched with a cheeky smile on her face. “As shocked as I am, I must say that you two make a
 very cute couple.” 

“It’s not like that, Yoori,” Kang Min corrected, his expression firm.
 

“So I hear,” Yoori commented with equal sternness. The nosy bug within her was unwilling to back down. “Is Tae Hyun the reason why things between the two of you are complicated?”
 

“We shouldn’t be together,” Kang Min answered at once.
 

Yoori crinkled her nose at his brisk answer. “That wasn’t my question.”

“That’s my answer,” Kang Min replied stubbornly. He was determined to look unyielding. Though he was anything but intimidating for Yoori, she had to give the kid credit. He was one hardheaded cookie. 

“Okay, you stubborn person,” she compromised, slapping a palm to her forehead. She placed a surrendering hand to her chin. “Can I at least get a little background info on you guys?”
 

Kang Min’s eyes turned into suspicious slits. He attempted to decipher what Yoori was up to. When he surmised that there was nothing wrong with a little bit of a history lesson, he obliged with her request.
 “Okay, fine.”

Yoori hid a sneaky smile when he gave in.

All I need is for you to let your guard down and then I’ll have you singing like a bird
, she thought mischievously. 

“You two met when you joined the Serpents, right?”
 

Kang Min nodded. “I was 15 when I joined the Serpents. Since we were the same age, Tae Hyun placed me in school with Hae Jin to watch over her. I basically started off as her bodyguard.”
 

Yoori smiled pleasantly at the reminder of Tae Hyun and his nice little deed.
 

“The ‘on-and-off’ started then?” she asked, getting back on topic.
 

Kang Min shook his head, his eyes lost in a reminiscing daze. “Hae Jin was cold to me in the beginning. She’d avoid me during class, ditch me after school, and yell at me a lot. I thought Tae Hyun was going to have someone kill me because I kept losing track of her whereabouts. I was convinced that she hated me and wanted me decapitated.”
 

“That doesn’t sound like Hae Jin,” Yoori observed out loud.
 

“I thought she was a spoiled brat. It wasn’t until Tae Hyun had ‘the talk’ with me that she started to come around.”
 

“‘The talk?’”

Kang Min elaborated. “You see, when you’re assigned to be someone’s bodyguard, you have to have a certain bond with them – the type where trust is heavily involved. With my first boss, I grew up with her, so we had that bond. With Tae Hyun, we have that bond – that trust. But with Hae Jin, she was very distant and Tae Hyun could tell. He told me that I needed to fix it. I needed to make it right
or else
.” 

Yoori empathized by pursing her lips up in distaste. Those “or else” threats were the worst.

“After that, I thought for sure I was going to die a slow and certain death. But I guess after Tae Hyun spoke to me about it, he spoke to Hae Jin too.” 

Yoori smiled. “Was that when Hae Jin started opening up?”
 

Kang Min confirmed with a relieved exhalation. “It started out slow, you know, like it always does. But she was making the effort because I guess she didn’t want it on her conscience that someone died because of her. Anyway, we got along really well. We understood each other and that bond began. One day, she shared with me the reason why she was so distant in the beginning and why she found it hard to trust me – or any other guy for that matter. Well…any guy with the exception of Tae Hyun of course.”
 

Clearly not wanting to get into the specifics, Kang Min merely spoke a sentence that provided her with all the information she needed. He, too, knew that Yoori had been enlightened with this important fact. “I joined right around the same time Tae Hyun took over the Serpents throne. It was right after their eldest brother died.”
 

Yoori understood the situation when she was reminded of their bastard eldest brother and how he raped Hae Jin when she was younger. Tae Hyun came home in time to catch his older brother committing that unforgivable act. They got into a fight and Tae Hyun
ended up killing his older brother and thereby assumed the position as the King of Serpents. Yoori brushed off this memory and gave Kang Min a stiff nod to acknowledge her comprehension. She wordlessly gestured for him to continue. They didn’t need to go into that part of the story. 

His jaw tightening upon being reminded of what happened to Hae Jin when she was 15, Kang Min continued with his story.
 “After she opened up, we started to become close. Not in the boyfriend and girlfriend sense, but as friends – best friends. But as the months went by, one thing led to another…there was this awkward tension between us because I realized that I might actually like her as
more 
than a friend. I imagine she went through the same phase.” He sighed. “Long story short, we tried it and it didn’t work. It became this repetitive cycle of working and not working. It didn’t work when we were together and it 
definitely
 didn’t work when we weren’t together. So right now, we’re in limbo.” 

“Hence your ‘on-and-off’ relationship,” Yoori supplied, understanding more and more. After a moment’s pause, she said, “Why didn’t it work? Was it because she and Ji – ” The words escaped her lips before she had a chance to filter them. Clamping her lips shut, Yoori blinked regrettably. What the heck was she doing bringing up Ji Hoon?
 The reminder of Hae Jin and Ji Hoon sleeping together would bring up bad blood—for Kang Min and her combined. 

Though her efforts to move away from this topic were commendable, it wasn’t enough. Kang Min had the look on his face that said he wanted to address this topic.
 

His eyes darkened when he spoke. “You have no idea how pissed I was when I heard about that. I was livid at Hae Jin for being that naïve as to get drunk with someone like Ji Hoon. Her better judgment gets obliterated when she drinks because she can’t handle her alcohol.” He scoffed to himself. “But you know what pisses me off more? She was drinking because it was
 
I
 who dumped her that night. We went through that phase where the secret of being together was killing us so I gave up – 
again
. I broke up with her and left with another girl. So essentially, 
I
was the one who threw her all that alcohol and 
I 
was responsible for causing her to get into bed with Ji Hoon.”