Kdramas often have very extravagant fantasy and/or sci-fi concepts that don’t often explain why or how they came to be. This is because they all are building blocks to one source of power that connects and entwines them all together. In this essay I will-
- You understand that you made a mistake now?
- Yes, I get it now. If I was going to only face this kind of resentment, why should I have bothered? Even if you floated in the water for eternity, I should have just ignored you. Why was I worried sick for over two months... all by myself?
- Exactly. Why did you do that? You could have just worked hard in the hospital, date, and live well. Why did you do something like this? Why did you have regrets about this stupid comic, and be handcuffed and suffer through it all--
- Because I love you!
Read from beginning or find previous chapters here: Stories
CW for suggestive material/sensuality. The cut’s early for that reason tho it’s not particularly...well anyway.
This is like, the penultimate chapter?!?
The story is over. And now their new life is beginning.
Chapter 130 - The World Built Between Them (743 words)
She had pushed away her desire for him so long that letting it come was like a seachange. The tide crashed in when she told herself to not look away from him, to not stop herself from reaching for him. She was in a new world where she could taste Chul's skin, run fingertips over his scars and his hipbones. Draw him in toward her and not apologize.
He looked at her like he expected reality to break around him if he moved, and yet he chose to risk that to come to her. His heart beat fluttered under her palm. Her pulse answered in tips of her fingers. And their old worlds apart from each other did shatter--into remnants of a bad dream.
The joy they had been so scared to touch rose like a new sun on them.
-
Chul would have been happy to never leave the hotel suite ever again, but as he told Yeon Joo, when finally they brewed a fresh pot of coffee and ate some of the snacks in the fridge, he also was done living in places that weren't homes. "There's another apartment showing this afternoon. Should I cancel it?"
"No. Let's go and have dinner out somewhere, so we can hurry back here."
She was teasing him, he thought, but also herself.
"Is there anything you need to do?"
"Make an appointment to add you to my family register?" she said, innocently.
And even though there was a slight teasing to the way she said that, his already-full heart swelled again. He took her hand and kissed it, the easy affection now possible still a thrill.
"Should we see online if there are appointments today?"
"I doubt it," she said with a laugh. Then she stopped and eyed him speculatively. "Maybe if you check."
While it seemed irresponsible to mention aloud, when he found an appointment in the afternoon to do a registry change in Seoul on a Friday, she was pretty sure he still had a lingering surplus of a protagonist's luck. When they walked up to the flat he had a viewing of, she was certain of it.
His agent, a middle-aged woman with improbably black hair and a suit that didn't fit quite right, looked as astonished as Yeon Joo felt, which was explained when Kang Chul told Yeon Joo, "The director at the publishing house suggested I look at this place. His son is moving to Hong Kong for work."
The building was an unusual brick, along the lines of an American brownstone, with four levels that were separate apartments. The one opening up was the third floor, not the fourth, but otherwise it was almost amusing how much it fit Chul. Compared to his penthouse in the manhwa it was a step down, but that was architecture based on an artist's sensibilities and not reality. Anything real would be a step down. The ceilings weren't low, the kitchen had a long counter. It wouldn't come furnished, but the living area was large enough for a nice couch and TV on one side with a dining room set up as well. There were two bedrooms, and the smaller one had a nice view down the hill and would have light during the day to be an office.
"I don't have much sensibility about this kind of thing," Chul said. "Does it seem nice to you?"
"Yes, absolutely. How much was it?" she asked the agent.
Chul reacted to the figure with a comment on it being very doable, though Yeon Joo thought she'd really need to check in with Soo Bong to find out what his real-world situation was. But on their way out of the building, after bidding the agent goodbye, Yeon Joo said, "So you spoke with the director of the publishing house? That's not usual for an interview, is it?"
"I think they escalated me up. I applied for a PR position that was open that was entry-level, but they are considering me for an assistant director position."
Yeon Joo tried to hide her smile, but he noticed and asked why she was grinning.
"It shouldn't amaze me that you'd get this kind of reception in the real world, but it does. It's reassuring, but also...yes, I find it funny."
"I would have happily worked from the ground up," he said earnestly, and she assured him she believed him...but possibly being a director was a better fit.
"I spent two years in prison but it's only been a week here. I was worried that the time would pass at the same rate. I was worried you'd die of sadness in those two years. I was so relieved."
