Drunk

The bus slowed to a stop. Ha-Yun and Death abandoned the warmth of the bus to the chilly air outside and walked side by side on the pavement and on a familiar path that stopped at the entrance of her tiny apartment.

Death continued to ask himself when would his hand be free from its imprisonment. Ha-Yun is yet to let go of his hands as they walk and the big smile on her face is yet to fade away.

"You know, I am your number one fan, right?"

'You are my only fan.' Death wanted to say but stopped himself and just nodded. Ha-Yun grinned this time.

"You didn't hear me at first, right? You weren't ignoring me but heard my last prayer first that's why you came over, right?"

Death stopped walking and Ha-Yun paused to see what was wrong. Why did he stop walking?

Death felt like he needed to tell her. He needs to tell her not to bother him when she feels like it but when she needs to. There is a difference and there is a need for moderation. He was so distracted today because of her. And it has never happened to him before. But something held him back by the look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

'You are distracting me. And your nonsense needs to stop.'

Death shook his head. "Nothing." And continued to walk. Why did he hesitate?

Ha-Yun held his hands without realizing how uncomfortable the God moving beside her was. She thought he liked it and she was scared he would become invisible the moment she let go.

"Oh, I'm starving," Ha-Yun announced. "There's a nice tteobokki restaurant nearby. Would you like to join me too?"

Death opened and closed his mouth. He wanted to tell this human that he couldn't taste human food and that it was not that necessary for him to eat since he was a God. But for some odd reason, he held back again!

Could it be because of the smile on her face or there was more to him holding back and letting this human have her way?

He answered her question with a small nod.

"Good! This way."

And he followed as she led the way.

Death eyed the humble tteobokki restaurant by the roadside and followed Ha-Yun to an empty table by a corner and they both settled down facing each other. Death leaned back a bit when Ha-Yun leaned forward with her hands folded under her chin grinning at Death like she's just won a lottery.

"Do you...smile like this... a lot?" Death had to ask.

Ha-Yun leaned back and said, "No. Just when I am around you."

It moved again. That feeling. Death felt it.

Death watched Ha-Yun order two servings of tteobokki and four bottles...after deciding on adding two more...it became six bottles of soju and she asked for beef as well. She thanked the woman who brought what they ordered to their table and paid immediately.

"If you want anything else, just let me know. Dinner is on me." She urged.

Ha-Yun opened a bottle of soju and poured some into the small cup placed in front of Death and later poured some too in her cup. Death glared at the strange liquid he had never had in his life and wondered what it would taste like if he could taste things made by humans. Is it even safe? Why does it look a lot like water?

Ha-Yun frowned slightly when she had a sip and another. Death decided not to touch anything on this table. What's the point if he can't even taste it?

Ha-Yun noticed he had not touched his tteabokki when she took her third bite out of hers.

"Don't you like the food?" Death locked eyes with her the moment she asked and sighed.

"It would be tasteless when I eat it." Death replied with a bored look.

Ha-Yun could not comprehend what he meant by that. She pushed another spoonful in her mouth and became even more confused by the peppery sensation she had. But how is this tasteless? She observed the stunning God sitting before her. And thought why would something this peppery and delicious be tasteless when he eats it?

"What about the soju? At least take a sip."

Death declined and took his hands off the table. Ha-Yun was awestruck by his behavior! Who would ever decline a cup of soju?!

"Ah, I get it now. You are on a diet because you don't want to get fat. You think having a tiny bite out of this tteobokki would tempt you back to the old ways that's why you lied it would be tasteless when you eat it. Also," She leaned closer to his disbelieving looks. "You don't have to be worried about being drunk after two cups in front of me. I don't usually judge people by how much they could their alcohol."She winked.

Death was slightly taken aback by the feel of her hands on his again. She took his right hand and gently wrapped it around the small cup filled with soju and raised it close to his mouth. Death watched her grab hers and clinked it with his.

She drowned the whole cup in one gulp and recoiled slightly at the taste.

"Now, your turn."

Death moved the liquid close to his lips but paused when Ha-Yun poured herself another cup and drowned it again in one gulp...she poured herself another...then another...and another...till she finished the whole five bottles and belched.

Death just stared.

She would smile again when her now lazy eyes would fall on him. She would twist and roll the strands of her hair and begin to sway slightly even in her sitting position.

Death observed her. She was drunk.

"What? Fire me? Why would you do that to me, Director Lee? After all, I've done for you and that company of yours?"

Death noticed how she waved her hands in front of him. Thinking he was this... Director Lee or something.

Then she swayed again.

"Why? Don't you like how I smile for you? Only for you?..." Ha-Yun moved again as she poured herself another drink and took it while some poured on her white top.

"Don't worry, you are not fat so stop dieting!" She laughed.

"You see, I was pretty convinced that you were ignoring me when I prayed to you several times to see your face..." She plopped one of her elbows on the table and leaned closer. "Why? Was I disturbing you? Playing hard to get?" She scoffed and smiled.

"I know...you know...we know..."She moved and leaned back a little. "The world could even guess!..." She paused, stared at him for a long moment then giggled. "That you are so beautiful!" She declared.

The almighty God, Death raised his eyebrows at her words.

"So beautiful." She added almost purring this time.

"Too beautiful." She closed her eyes and then opened it again.

"Now, listen," She waved him to come closer. "My mom used to tell me...oh, that's right. She died so she wouldn't be able to tell me anything, right? The dead can't speak, yes?"

Death didn't say a word.

'Her mom...died? When? Today?'

"C'mon say something. You should know." She whined.

Ha-Yun poured herself another cup, took everything in one gulp, looked at the God that had not moved his eyes from hers, and leaned close once again with a smile that reached her eyes.

"Now let me tell you a secret. Something I have never told...even my best friends...Tom and...that little tiny rascal. There are three things in this world that I like the most now. Ask me if you want to know?"

Death didn't want to engage her when he knew she was not really in her right state of mind. She might say something silly or absurd.

"What are they?"

He surprised himself when he didn't hold back this time. He wanted to know.

Ha-Yun almost climbed the table between them to say what she liked most in the world now!

Death stilled when their faces were almost touching. Only his eyes moved left and right in search of answers to his questions. 'What in heaven's name is she doing?'

"The three things that I like most in the world now is..." Ha-Yun chuckled and Death's body eased a little when he saw how happy whatever she was about to say made her.

"You. You. You."

Ha-Yun fell back and passed out on the table, knocking off a soju bottle in the process.

Death saw how uncomfortable she was and how her left hand dangled awkwardly beside her and under the table. He rose from his seat and moved to stand beside her.

"Ha-Yun," he called and tapped her lightly to wake up. She didn't move but groaned in protest. Death called again but got the same reaction from her.

Death stood straight and pinched the bridge of his nose as what to do became a problem.

Should he just...leave her here to sober up? Would it be a wise thing to do?

'Why did I even bother answering her call for me in the first place? This is ridiculous!'

The almighty God sighed deeply and returned to his seat before her. He would just wait and when she's sober enough to walk...he would leave. That was his plan.

Death looked around to see people entering and leaving. Eating and moving about and having fun.

But nothing interested him the most than the weird human sleeping before him. She was a big mystery to him. Her words sometimes frightened him and made him feel what he swore never to feel again.

Even though they both have the same looks and body, they affect him in many ways.

He saw how most of her hair covered her face and he reached out gently to push back the dark brown curtain but paused inches away from her face.

'What am I doing? Am I falling for that same face again?' Death withdrew his hands with a disapproving look on his face.

'This was a mistake. I should have never encouraged her fondness for me.'

'But isn't she just too weird?' Death leaned on the table to look at her again. 'She knows who and what I am! The bad God.'

His left hand moved and hovered inches above her hair-covered face.

'Are the rumors about me not bone-chilling enough for her?'

He slowly moved her hair from her face and tilted his head a little to have a good view of her.

She looks more adorable when she sleeps like this.

Death moved his plates of cold tteobokki to the side and placed his head gently on the table, facing her, with a smile.

The world around him seemed to fade away as he stared at her, noticing every frown and itching on her face.

"Seriously...I really...like you," mumbled a sleeping Ha-Yun.

The smile turned to a painful one. And Death's eyes lowered in hurt.

"Me too. I was once stricken by this same face. I loved it so much that it took me ten centuries to get over it." Death confessed as he held her hand in his lying on the table, his dark, leather gloves wrapped around her slender hands. "But I don't know if my heart could be strong enough to fall in love with you again."

Ha-Yun edged closer.

"You mocked me. Hurt me. Stole from me and made me this miserable."

Ha-Yun lips moved and Death's eyes fell on them. Bittersweet memories seized his mind as he did and tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"What we had was never enough for you. And you ruined everything."

The blue hair he once imagined on Ha-Yun dissipated to its original color. And Death blinked slowly in confusion. For a moment there, he thought she was the one again.

He immediately let go of her hands and was about to pull away but stopped when she held tight to his index finger and did not let go.

"You like touching me a lot, don't you, human?" Death breathed out and watched her try to open her eyes and focus on him.

Ha-Yun smiled.

"You never said not to and I assumed you liked it. What? You don't like it now?"

Death loved how she always replied to him in the...how should he put it? Strangest and heart heart-moving way ever!

"See, you'll look and feel better when you smile like you are doing right now. Don't you think?"

Death didn't know what else to do or say than to stare and explode again with this new yet familiar feeling of admiration.

***

Ha-Yun opened the door and staggered inside. She managed to get rid of her shoes, let go of her coat, purse, and bag so close to the door, and moved left and right without even locking the door.

"In-hae, are you at home?" She called while yawning and trying to rub off the dizziness swimming in her eyes. "I thought...I left a note saying you should let me know when you get home."

When no one answered, Ha-Yun suddenly felt thirsty. She tripped and bumped into several objects on her way to the mini kitchen. She presented herself before the fridge and it suddenly had seven handles.

"What..." Ha-Yun squeezed her face in confusion. "Shouldn't it have... thirteen handles instead?"

She was still drunk. Two things in this world get Ha-Yun super high. The first is sugar and the second is...you know what.

Ha-Yun blinked when she heard muffled crying behind her. Ha-Yun turned to see who or what was making that noise.

Two blurry images did a funny dance before Ha-Yun and it merged into one. In-hae, her friend, was curled up in a corner in the kitchen, head bent low and she was sobbing uncontrollably.

Her life had just turned a shade uglier when that jerk she loved and called a husband wrapped divorce papers in a brown envelope and had the guts to give it to her!

Though she was supposed to be happy because the divorce means she is no longer tied up to that monster, but...

In-hae drew her legs closer to her chest and cried like she had never done before.

Ha-Yun sniffed the air and it stinked of something burning. A pot of rice was boiling on the stove for a long time till the point of burning. Ha-Yun bent over to off the stove before the house she had yet to settle the rent for this month went up in flames.

She turned again to see In-hae still crying and it surprised her. It surprised her because she had never seen or heard her cry like this.

"In-hae..." Ha-Yun whispered causing In-hae to tense up a little. How did she not hear her enter?! Has she been crying for so long? "...why are you crying? What happened?"

In-hae slowly raised her head to reveal a pair of swollen red eyes and trembling lips. In-hae tried to hold it together. To stay strong and pretend as if nothing serious happened. As if that monster she loved and lived with didn't hurt her to the very depths of her bone and even wanted to drag her down to ground zero with the divorce papers.

They both stared at each other for a long time and In-hae tried swallowing down her tears, hurt, and pain with her saliva. But each lump she took was choking and it gradually felt too suffocating.

"Ha-Yun!!" She broke down in tears.

"Ha-Yun!" She said again as she clenched her hands into tight fists. Tears streamed down her face like water from a broken damn.

"Ha-Yun..." Her voice seemed to fade and tighten when she called out for the third time again. She placed her hand on her chest and cried out her pain. "It hurts!"

Ha-Yun who couldn't understand why she was in so much agony just moved closer and knelt before her sobbing friend.

"In-hae..." Ha-Yun reached out for her hands but hesitated. She lowered herself beside In-hae and rested her head on her trembling shoulders.

"In-hae," Ha-Yun said, "Don't cry."

In-hae just couldn't. She had tried so many times but it kept on coming. It felt like all the tears she held back when he beat, yelled, cheated, and never once reciprocated the so-called feelings he had claimed several times he had for her, all those times she took in his insults without saying a single word, the times he tore down her confidence and made her feel like she was the reason for their failing marriage...freed themselves from their dams. And she couldn't keep it in.

"Don't cry," Ha-Yun repeated all night till she fell asleep on her shoulders.

**

The monster, you never forgot was released not too long ago from a dead tree, and sat patiently in a gloomy cave with his wooden flute being teased by his eight fingers. He has been waiting all day and night in this cave like he was told to do by the one that freed him and his mind has been filled with thoughts of how his victims are going to suffer more than they did centuries back and before he was locked away by the Gods for being an abomination and the black dot in their perfect white web.

The monster stopped playing with his flute and glared hard at the thoughts of the Gods!

'If they were so perfect why did they make mistakes like him?!' The monster's large jaws clenched tight.

The sound of footsteps alerted him and the monster quickly rose to his feet to welcome a regular visitor of his.

The monster observed the mysterious figure clothed in nothing but white from head to toe and only its peculiar blood moon eyes were exposed to the world.

Both the sea monster and other monsters plus this monster standing naked before this figure have never had a glance at his face and looks. But they were all sure he was not part of the many mistakes the two Gods made. They were certain he was not a monster and his identity disturbed them to the very core.

The starving monster grinned when the blood moon eyes figure tossed the unconscious body of a man at the feet of the monster.

'Yes! Dinner!' The monster began to salivate.

The puzzling figure clothed in white from head to toe watched the monster quickly begin to eat and tear apart the unconscious human who later bled to death and said nothing but waited. Truth be told, he is yet to say anything and the monster also wonders why he'd set him free.

The figure stepped closer and the monster stopped eating to gaze at his lifeless blood moon eyes.

"It's time you thank me for your freedom and...for other privileges," the figure said and nodded to the monster's dead meal.

"I don't do charity and I hate beings that are ungrateful."

The monster growled slowly and said, "How do I thank you...for all of this?"

"Think. You have a brain, don't you?"

The monster doesn't do well with insults but the brain he was sure he had told him it was unwise to react emotionally to the insult. This figure looked and talked more powerful than him. The monster forced a smile instead. "My brain tells me that you didn't free me just to babysit and feed me daily with the best kind of food. You need me for something. Let me guess, to be so mannerless and instill lots of fear."

"Surprise me with how far you can go to make them cower in fear and I'll give you something better than your Dail bread and freedom."

The monster flashed the figure a set of ugly teeth.

The figure humbled himself to the monster's current kneeling position before his food and said, "The monster I freed before you was very disappointing and disobedient. She even fell for the vain promises of a Goddess...and it led to her death."

The monster growled in disapproval at the mention of the word 'goddess'. He hates the Gods.

"Your assignment is to have fun with their favorite creation, the kind you are having for dinner now, and impress me with how diabolical you can be...then I shall wait to embrace you with a reward."

The monster smiled once again. "Don't worry. I will eat and tear them one by one even if you never told me to. I will have the assignment done before you even know it."

"Good." Said the figure staring at the ugly creature before him. He stood straight and was about to leave when the monster stopped him with a question.

"I don't need to ask if you know who I am and what I am made of. But I would love to know who my master is?"

The figure sighed. "I am no one's master. Just another wronged soul seeking help to get my revenge."

'On who?' the baffled monster wanted to ask but decided it was never his business.

"But since you are the first monster brave enough to ask me who I am, I would gladly tell you after you give me a glimpse of how dangerous you can be." The figure said and left.

'I will show you. But I hope you will be able to handle it.' the monster smirked.

***

The following morning, Ha-Yun slammed the divorce papers on the tiny marble table in the kitchen when she had had enough of reading the nonsense boldly written on it.

She quickly poured herself a glass of water and drowned everything in one gulp. She sighed several times and she felt hot as her insides boiled in anger and disbelief.

"Seriously!" Ha-Yun shook her head as she read those words again on the divorce papers. "He is divorcing you because of robbery, manipulation, frequent misunderstandings, infidelity, and abuse?!"

In-hae who has not said anything since yesterday's breakdown took a small sip of the coffee in front of her and sniffed.

"How could they allow him to file for divorce without any evidence to prove these ridiculous claims?!"

'He must have bribed or given false evidence.' In-hae answered in her. She knew how far he could go to get things done for him. He could even go to hell if it means he gets what he wants. In-hae sighed sadly. How she had wasted her time, efforts, and most of her life loving that jerk.

"Wow. So he could even stoop this low? He has no shame at all after all you've done for that ungrateful piece of trash!"

In-hae sniffed again and Ha-Yun watched her move the divorce papers towards her and pulled out a black pen.

"What are you doing?" Ha-Yun asked.

In-hae gave Ha-Yun a 'what does it look like I'm doing look.'

Ha-Yun sighed and immediately collected the divorce papers from her and took the pen from her hand. "I am not letting that bastard win this time," Ha-Yun said as she forced the papers back inside the brown envelope.

"Ha-Yun..."

"No. You are not going to give in that easily after all he has done to you! To be honest, it should be you slapping him with a brown envelope of divorce papers like this on his ugly face and dumping his sorry butt!"

"Ha-Yun, I have to..."

"You are just going to let that devil mock you in the face the more if you should sign these papers without a fight? He is not even ready to let go of a single thing you both owned and worked hard for! Are you just going to let him get away with your money, shares, cars? Not want to see him pay for all the countless horrible and disgusting things he has done to you? Are you just going to let him use and dump you like it was nothing? Do you think things would be better for you not him if you should sign this? He would only move on with his life like nothing happened between both of you while you cry...then cry...and...cry..." Ha-Yun paused to stop herself from crying. She was angry as well as hurt! How could she allow her friend to get married to a monster like Man-hwi when she knew very well who he was?

"So..." Ha-Yun continued after blinking back her tears. "Don't sign this until I make the bastard to split the money equally between you two and he let go of whatever bank accounts he is still controlling. Also," Ha-Yun pointed to the brown envelope. "he has to make adjustments to his lies and reasons for the divorce. This time, I'll make sure he cries more than you did when I have a word with him."