The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2) (29 page)

"Well
, you shouldn’t have walked out the door and left in the first place!" she shouted again, unwilling to submit the white flag and forgive Tae Hyun for what he did. She shook her head at him. "How could you?" 

"I walked out the door…
but I didn't leave."

Yoori froze.

She stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. "You...you…you didn’t…you didn’t leave?"

"You asked me how I could leave you," he elaborated, his compelling eyes growing more poignant. "I walked out but I
 
didn't
 leave." 

Her mind was reeling. "Y—You—"
 

She stopped.
 

It was then that she understood.
 

"You were in the hall the
entire
time?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "What were you doing out there? I thought you left!" 

"I
 couldn't leave you,” he replied, his eyes filling up with something he rarely showed: emotions. Raw emotions; raw emotions that mirrored Yoori's. "I kept hearing your voice in my head, begging me to stay, and I couldn't leave." 

"Why…why didn’t you come back inside?" Her voice was strained and nearly broke.
 

She could feel the anger seeping out of her and a sense of relief taking its place.

Kwon Tae Hyun…

Kwon Tae Hyun…why was he doing this to her?

Why didn't he leave and why didn't he come back inside? 

"What do you want me to say, Yoori?" he shouted with the same frustration. His eyes brimmed with impatience. He wasn't impatient or irritated with her. He was frustrated with himself. "I'm not perfect. You threw a bomb at me and I needed time to clear my head. I couldn’t leave you, but I couldn’t go back inside either. So I just stood there and stared at the door while I tried to process everything."
 

"How long were you standing out there?" she asked thoug
htlessly, her voice faltering while her thoughts became scrambled. She couldn't even think.

"I stood in front of that door for 37 minutes," he said quietly, frustration brewing, not only out of his voice but from his posture as well. He was so confused that he didn't know what to do with
himself. "I thought if I could steal a few moments alone, then I'd be able to quickly process everything and figure out what was happening to me." He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, recalling what occurred. "I stood there and I couldn't even think. All I could hear was the sound of your voice before I closed that door. All I could hear was the sound of your voice breaking..."

He opened his eyes and ran a frustrated hand through the strands of his wet hair. He looked agonized as he stared at the dashboard.
 

"I didn't know what the hell I was doing…standing out there. It should've been so easy to leave but I couldn't. It should've been easy but I couldn't take a step away from that door. I stood there until I couldn't stand anymore. After 37 minutes, I fell by the wall beside the door and I kept thinking that I should leave. I didn't understand why it was so hard for me to leave so I just sat there. Everything inside me felt like it was being ripped apart and all I could hear, all I could see, and all I could think about was you."
 

His distressed eyes flickered to meet her thoroughly shocked ones.
 

"I had no idea what was happening. It was the first time...the first time in my life where I wasn't being rational. The realization ripped through me and ate at me as I tried to gather my thoughts. Nothing was coming together for me though. It got so bad that I rose to my feet and ran off toward the stairs. I figured it would've been easier to leave you if I physically distanced myself from you."
 

He shook his head to himself, a self-deprecating laugh whispering from his lips.
 

"But the further I ran down, the harder it became. I ran until I couldn't run anymore. I ran until my mind contained one thought, one realization:
 I couldn't leave you even if I tried. I turned around and I came back. I came running back for you. I came back and—" 

"I wasn't there," Yoori finished for him, regret vibrating in her voice.
 She felt fragmented, possessed with disappointment. She stared at him quietly, the anger dispersing out of her eyes as quickly as it penetrated them. 

They were silent, their panting chests breathing together.
 

Tae Hyun was quiet while
he stared at Yoori, his eyes urging her to say something else. Yoori was quiet as she stared regretfully at Tae Hyun, her frantic mind running through the events of last night like a movie. 

She could see it so clearly now…
 

She could see herself waiting in front of that doorway while Tae Hyun was outside…
staring at that same door. She could see herself crying against the wall when she realized she wasn't good enough for him to come back for when in actuality, she was enough for him to sit outside against the very same wall, agonized that he couldn't leave her in the first place. She could see it so
clearly as she walked out that door and stepped into the elevator with tears brimming her eyes… She could see Tae Hyun sprinting up from the stairs and back into the hall as she descended down the elevator. 

It was all so clear now, but one thought grew prominent in her mind.
 

She could see herself giving up on Tae Hyun when
 he didn't give up on her—when he
couldn't
give up on her. 

How terrible was that?

Her heart ached as this realization rooted itself within the core of her emotions. She could see it so clearly and she could feel all the disappointment bear down on her. She was no longer disappointed in Tae Hyun but disappointed in herself, disappointed in herself when she gave up on him. 

Dazed with regret and guilt, Yoori lowered her weakened eyes and quietly readjusted herself in her seat. She didn't even know what else to
do. 

"Can…can you drive? I don't think I'm up for it anymore," was all that she voiced out.

She didn't wait for his answer. She was already opening the door to her side of the car. Her mind was too blurred with thoughts. It was blurred with so many emotions that she couldn’t distinguish them from each other. 

With no contention, and understanding her frazzled state, Tae Hyun unbuckled his seatbelt, got out of the car, and promptly got into the driver's seat.
 

After Yoori situated herself in the passenger seat, Tae Hyun helped her by buckling the seatbelt for her. His visage was
overcome with concern when he placed a gentle hand on her cheek, holding her eyes with his. 

"Yoori—"
 

"Let's go home," Yoori interrupted.

It was her subtle way of telling him that she needed time to herself – that she needed time to think. 

She needed time to think about all of this.

“Just because you’re more powerful than
human. . .”

14: The Story of Boomerangs

Yoori was surprised when Tae Hyun agreed to her needs, withdrew his hand from her cheek, and began to drive home. She was surprised because Tae Hyun wasn't normally this compliant. He typically had a lot to say and would be fighting with her, forcing her to talk to him.

It could be that he was being understanding, it could be that he was doing all that he could to get her forgiveness or it could be both but Tae Hyun was quiet as he drove. He was quiet when they finally made it home. He was quiet when they took the elevator back up to the apartment. He was even quiet when Yoori, wanting a distraction, motioned for him to unbutton his shirt so that she could help wipe away the blood from his body. It bothered her that the blood had seeped through his shirt.
 

He was quiet while they stood in the bathroom for 15 minutes. He stood still while Yoori quietly wiped the dried blood away from his bare upper body.
 

He was quiet until he couldn't stand the silence anymore.
 

"Yoori, can’t you say something?" he urged tiredly, looking over his shoulder. Yoori wiped the damp, warm towel over a cut on his shoulder blade. "Are you still upset with me?" His voice was apprehensive. He sounded like a kid. It perturbed her to hear him like this. He sounded so fragile even though he was anything but.
 

She sighed, circling from behind his back. She stopped right in front of him, the towel whispering over the last dried blood on his hard chest.
 

"I'm no longer disappointed with you, but I'm still bothered by how you treated me after I told you the truth," she responded bluntly, narrowing her eyes on the ice pack that rested in the sink.

Though it was difficult to stay mad at him, Yoori tried her best to keep the anger flowing. If she were angry, then she wouldn't have to deal with other tempting emotions that were waiting to consume her. It was a lame and cowardly way out of dealing with her feelings but she didn't care. 

She picked up the ice pack and pressed it against one of the bigger bruises forming around his right torso.
 

"Does this hurt?" she asked, hoping the unexpected cold would distract him from trying to get her to talk about her feelings.
 

Tae Hyun sucked in a sharp breath once the cold ice pack made contact with his skin. His steel-like abs contracted in response.
 

"No," he lied, his wincing face saying otherwise.
 

She inwardly snorted at his obvious lie.
 

Standing there, pressing the ice pack against the area around his torso, Yoori used all the strength she had not to gawk at the sinfully eye catching aphrodisiac before her. She was so frazzled with her thoughts that she had less self-control than she would normally possess. She couldn't stop the hitch in her breath whenever she caught sight of the contours of his biceps, the ripples of his washboard abs, and his muscled chest. Even the stupid cuts on his body were adding some special effects to his overall sexual appeal. It also didn't help that wiping the dried blood away with the damp cloth left an angelic glow on his upper body.

Kwon Tae Hyun was a walking enticement and she hated him for that. 

Distracting bastard,
she thought bitterly, training her eyes on the ice pack instead of on anything else.

"Hey, Choi Yoori," he said firmly, pulling her out of her semi-perverted thoughts. He was unwilling to let the silence prevail.
 He grabbed the ice pack and threw it into the sink. He turned back and lowered his determined eyes on her. "Stop giving me the silent treatment and tell me what's on your mind." 

She frowned, peering up at him. Weakness of the female heart aside, she was ready to address all that had been running through her mind. Only one dreadful thought prevailed in her busy mind anyway.
 

"Did you think telling me that you never left me would make everything okay?" she asked blithely, fighting to keep her voice from breaking. She had to bring up the one topic that led to this whole nightmare. "You walked out because you were disgusted with the fact that I'm An Soo Jin. That fact hasn't changed—"
 

"Wait a second," he interrupted, his eyes enlarged in disbelief. He looked flabbergasted. "You thought I left because I was
 
disgusted
?" 

She bounced her head as if it was the obvious answer. "I could tell by how you were looking at me last night." Her tone was colder and more resentful as she instinctively backed away from him.
 

Her actions were stalled when she felt Tae Hyun rest his hands on her hips.
 

He shook his head and effortlessly pulled her closer to him.
 "There were a million things running through my head that night…" His eyes held hers. "But being disgusted with you for being An Soo Jin was never one of them." He furrowed his brows as if he couldn't believe her reasoning. "I mean…why would I be disgusted? I didn't even know the girl!" 

"Then you should've told me that when I was trying to talk
to you last night, you mute!" she shouted impatiently. It wasn't like he gave her much to go on last night. Regardless of the relief that he didn’t leave her because he was disgusted with her, it still wasn't a sufficient answer for her. She glared at him furiously. “What made you leave then?" 

He awkwardly looked away, visibly hesitant with divulging in that information.
 

"See?” she pointed out. “You're a mute again!"
 

Having had it with his silence, she struggled to pull herself away from him. She was getting so angry that she didn't even want to be around him anymore.

Despite her objection to his presence, Tae Hyun's grip on her moved to her waist and tightened. It wasn't strong enough to hurt her but it was strong enough to hold her in place.