CHAPTER 10

HONGSEOK

I kept looking at Adrestia through the front mirror, my control over the steering wheel had long disappeared with the presence of Adrestia… It was my first time seeing her as Adrestia, a Goddess… I've been already acquainted with her as Lee Su Min, an old childhood friend of Arin… but never once I thought she was some normal woman… something about her was extraordinary, I felt it in our every meeting… And after knowing all the past happenings from Arin, my entire view of life has begun to change slowly.

As an economics major and also a professor, these mythological, supernatural things are beyond my imagination. But, yet I will have to believe in them as it's me, my own eyes who are witnessing these incidents unfolding around me. Just like this moment… my car is being driven by an unknown force, through a misty, mysterious road surrounded with trees… It ain't even the road which leads us to our apartment… what can I do in such a situation? Absolutely nothing… as I'm a mere human being unlike Adrestia or Astrea… I don't even own any gifted powers from Gods like Arin and Iseul… The biggest regret in my life at this point is… me being only human in this whole messed up situation… How much ever I wanted to protect my wife, I couldn't… I was a mere helpless… powerless… human being who's been controlled by all these otherworldly beings. After all, I'm just a side role in this whole movie of Arin's life… my identity is just being Arin's, first love… Arin's husband... That's it… and it hurts a lot.

.

.

.

My deep slumber was broken with the gentle patting of Arin's hands over my face. I opened my eyes and saw Arin's worried face, she was holding the opened door of the car. As soon as she noticed me looking at her half-consciously, she bent forward near me.

"Seok-ah, are you fine? Feeling better now? I just told you to keep facing forward… how did you faint down while driving? Wait… that means the car was…"

"Was on auto-drive mode, there's quite a technology used in my car. Wifey, don't think much about it! Hmm?" I cleared up her mind which was completely lost in these paranormal situations.

"Oh really? Are you sure it was on auto-drive?"

"Yes Arin-ah, come on let's go up. I need some sleep after seeing so many weird things happening in this car today." I stepped out of the car while holding her hand and leaning on her shoulders as we walked through the main gate.

"You really need to stop with gym… what's up with these iron muscles…so heavy…" Arin teased me.

"Haww! Who was enjoying playing with my abs last night? Wasn't that you Miss Arin?"

She laughed out loud and hugged me tightly. I took out house keys from the pocket and opened the door while Arin kept clinging on to me.

"My sweet wife is being abnormally romantic tonight… am I dreaming? Arin-ssi?" Arin was pretty shy about this kind of stuff, so her present behavior really surprised me.

"Why would you dream? I'm your wife, I have full rights to cling over my husband! Like a panda!!"

"Panda?? Waah… now you're being really really weird, Arin! Did we drink too much of a cocktail? Oh my God… you look so drunk…" I picked her up and proceeded to our bedroom.

Just when we were about to enter the bedroom, I realized a trace of eyes on us… I placed down Arin on the bed and covered her up with a blanket.

"What? Lemme change the clothes at least?", Arin said with a seductive smile on her face.

I signaled her to be quiet by placing an index finger over my lips. She looked confused with my sudden change of attitude. I went out into the living room and closed the door of the bedroom behind me.

"Iseul! I know you're watching us. Come out!" I shouted in pin-drop silence.

She walked out of the darkness, lights were completely turned off in our whole house. Iseul stood in front of me, and raised her hand to touch my face… I shook away her hand in anger…

"Iseul? Have you gone insane?? What were you even thinking about?"

"About you… Oppa…" She said as if someone had taken over her mind.

"Iseul!!! Come to your senses! I'm observing you since you've returned back home… you seem so different… you're not the Iseul whom my Arin had saved from the Modo sea disaster! You're someone else… a person controlled by some deity…." I screamed over her.

"My Arin????? Who are you to call her My Arin??? She's MINE!!! Arin eonni is MINE!!! You're the one who is distracting her from me!!!" She screamed back at me.

Iseul confused the hell out of me… now, it means that she's behaving weirdly because of me? Because I'm taking away her Arin?? What in the world is even happening in my married life?

"Arin… is my wife, Iseul-ah…. If she's like your older sister, then she's my wife…. How could you? Wahhhh…." Iseul had left me speechless.

"No… she might be your wife in this life… but… she was my soulmate… Arisa was my soulmate… she still is… just that... You've distracted her…"

"Wait a min… Adrestia??? You aren't Iseul!!! Right?? You're Adrestia!!!"

Suddenly Arin started banging on the door from inside the bedroom.

"Hongseok!!! What's wrong??!! Let me out!!! Is Adrestia out there? Please don't talk with her! Don't look into her eyes!!!" Arin shouted loudly.

"Eonni! Calm down, It's just me and Hongseok Oppa out here. Go to sleep. Peacefully." Iseul said while staring at me. "Could you talk a little softer? My eonni is getting disturbed….", Iseul walked towards me placing her hand over my neck.

I tried removing her hand, but it was stone cold… I couldn't even lift up her one hand…

"Shhhh…. Oppa.. Don't try overpowering me! I've returned back from the hell realm… obviously, a mere human like you has no power to stop me … right? And… just to let you know, Adrestia has long gone to the underworld… This is, Park Iseul, the fragment of demon lord… now, enough of talking… allow me to commit my first sin, so that I can start my work as a propagator of underworld…hmm?" she approached closer to me.

I tried shoving off her face away… but all my efforts went in vain… she pulled my neck closer to hers… and placed her lips on my mine… I resisted her with all my force… she grabbed my hands tightly and pushed me down on the couch, sat over top of me, and began undressing me.

"Iseul!!!!! Let me out!!! What are you doing with Hongseok???? Hongseok!!! What is happening out there???? Hongseok!!!!!!!!"Arin cried loudly.

"Ahhh… Eonni… be quiet… I'm just trying to kill the only hurdle between us… don't worry... I'm not killing him physically… but your sweet married life... Hehehe…"

"Iseul!!!!! Wake up!! I know you're under influence of Adrestia's Lavendar Seductress!!! Stop it!!! He's not the hurdle between us… listen to eonni?? Let me out!!"

"NO! Shut up!!!" Iseul growled.

In the meanwhile, I grabbed over the glass flower pot beside the couch and as soon as Iseul turned her face towards me, I gathered all my energy and hit her face that glass pot!

That was an unexpected attack for Iseul… she fell down off the couch… I stood up and ran towards the bedroom, opened the door. Arin came out and ran towards Iseul, who was lying down on the floor. Her forehead was bleeding heavily.

"Iseul!!! Iseul-ahh! What should I do? Wait…. No… This cannot be happening…" Arin panicked over bleeding Iseul, placed Iseul's head over her lap.

"Arin… calm down... Listen to me… look at me! Calm down!! Let me just call up the doctor!"

"No… let us take her to the hospital… I am scared to even stay in this house anymore…"

"Okay, fine… let's take her to the hospital… Don't worry she's alright!"

.

.

.

.

Seoul City Hospital, 12 AM.

Outside the ICU.

I and Arin sat down on the benches, with our eyes fixed over the ICU door… waiting for the doctor to come out… I looked at Arin, her swollen eyes… her faded smile… she was just concerned for Iseul at this point… she's not even thinking about what could've happened if I didn't have taken this step… She has not even spoken to me since we have left the house… Was Iseul that much important to her? More than me? How long has it been…. Few months? Since Iseul has entered her life… how could she only think about her, more than worrying about our married life…. Which was on the verge of destruction a few hours ago?

"Mr. Yang? You're Iseul's guardian, right?" The doctor walked out of the ICU.

I stood up and nodded in yes. Arin ran towards the ICU door and looked inside from the glass pane.

"There's nothing serious, right doctor? I mean it was just a small hit of glass pot…." I asked the doctor hesitatingly.

"Nothing serious?? She has been seriously injured on her forehead! With just a few centimeters difference, her left eye was saved! And… if you're her guardian, didn't you have any idea what she has been eating for the past few days??" The doctor said in an extremely serious tone.

"She lives with us, so we eat the same food… what are you talking about?" I had no idea what Iseul was up to for all these days.

"After going through whole body checkup, it can be observed that Iseul was eating raw meat, insects for past few days. It has caused a huge imbalance in her body metabolism! The toxins from poisonous insects are spreading throughout her nervous system!!"

Arin and me… both of us were left speechless after listening to those words…

"Iseul-ahh…" Arin broke down crying and fell down on the floor.

"Arin!" I held her hand tightly, "We can find some way out of it!"

"Don't even say a word Hongseok!!! She was already struggling so much… I knew it… something was wrong with her ever since Astrea brought her back… Was it really necessary to hit her with glass so badly?? Seok-ahh?? I told you, right? To treat her as our own child??" Arin shook away my hands in anger.

"Arin… do you have any idea what she was about to do with me?? If I hadn't stopped her?? Why can't you understand me even a little bit??"

"She was under influence of Adrestia!! It was your mistake to lock me up inside the bedroom!!! I could've done something to stop her from attacking you! Why can't you understand me, Hongseok? These are not some random human emotions!! Iseul has returned back from the hell realm!! I know that she wants me… she's obsessing over me… I know, Hongseok… I've been through this pain before! I just want to help Iseul out of this mess… can't you please understand me?" Arin said while

"Ohh really Arin? Out of all the people, you're telling me that I'm not trying to understand you? Really, Arin? We have married each other… even after knowing all this supernatural, otherworldly stuff happening with us… we understood each other... We trusted each other… It wasn't ever easy for me to accept these things… but just because of my love for you, I've accepted these things wholeheartedly… Did you ever ask me before bringing a young teenage girl into our house to live together? No… but still, what did I do? I tried understanding you… Did I ever ask you why you would always lie to me before leaving for some fake projects?? No… I understood… Arin, I know that you want to help Iseul come out of this chaos, but will you ever put me as your first priority? Before it was Adrestia… Astrea… and now, it's Iseul… I'm just a small part of your story… a side character… powerless, with no Godly aura… an only mere human in your life… I just hope, you would never forget that this mere human is someone who truly loves you from the core of his heart…" I couldn't handle this tension between me and Arin anymore. I walked away from her… We had never experienced this kind of pressure within our relationship where we had to blame each other… Arin looked at me with teary eyes, and pulled my hand… I had no will to even look at her anymore… I was hurt, my heart was burning… my love, my alter ego was hurt with her words… with an idea of me remaining as a side character in a movie like life of Arin… I resisted her hands and walked away from her…

"Hongseok!!!! Stop!! How could you leave me alone in a situation like this??? Hongseok!!!!" Arin yelled from behind.

I kept walking away from her… my heart was burning like fire…. But a sudden hit on my back knocked me down on the staircase… Everything blurred out for a while… a human figure approached near my face… and my eyes closed in next few moments… darkness wrapped me around in its long scary arms…