Chapter 123: First Kiss
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: First Kiss
“That’s right. They were bastards.”
She meant the Murim Alliance had taken her parents hostage.
Ahyu let out a laugh, one that held no pleasure.
Then, as if she didn't want to say what came next, her eyes slowly drifted to the floor.
“But you know, Domi-oppa. I’m Shin So-ra, the one who possessed Cheon Hong-ryeon. My training as the Heavenly Demon might have changed my speech and mannerisms to the point I can’t fix them, but that training never included a mother.”
To Shin So-ra, Do Hwa’s mother wasn’t her own.
Even if that woman had given birth to her body, her mind was still Shin So-ra’s.
“So I just laughed at the Murim Alliance’s pathetic attempts and crushed them all. Then they brought out the Sword Empress and held her hostage before me.”
“And then?”
“I killed her. Cleanly. Along with the bastard who was holding her.”
There wasn't even a tremor in the hand Ahyu held mine with.
If anything, her eyes were cynical.
It was as if the life she had lived was too harsh to regret every single thing.
As she recalled that moment, her eyes held no anger, no sadness, no emotion at all.
“In the end, I thought of her as a stranger. I’d already killed more than ten people who shared the Supreme Cult Leader’s blood with my own hands. A mother, now of all times? I didn’t feel a thing.”
Countless acts of slaughter had rendered death meaningless to her.
“But at the very end, she asked me something. She asked if I was getting along with Do Hwa.”
And for the first time, a faint tremor ran through Ahyu’s hand.
“My real parents were on Earth, so I never once thought of her as my mother. But for some reason, I couldn’t forget those words.”
After killing the Sword Empress, she must have returned.
And she must have come face to face with Do Hwa, who was there as an envoy to the Demonic Cult.
“When I came back and saw Do Hwa… I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. In his eyes, his half-sister had just returned after killing his mother.”
I thought of my own sister.
Did Do Hwa look at Ahyu the same way I used to look at my sister?
Though the situations were different, I could tell how unwelcome that feeling was for Ahyu.
“So, from that day on, I just started to get tired of it all. No, I was already tired. It’s more accurate to say that’s when I finally realized it.”
“So that’s why you returned.”
“Yeah. It all became meaningless. I could go back, so I wondered why I needed to obsess over Murim.”
The moment the things she had built her entire life felt meaningless.
She must have felt a terrible homesickness.
Her life as Cheon Hong-ryeon must have felt like a lie.
And long after Cheon Hong-ryeon left, Do Hwa grew on his own and followed her here.
“I didn’t know until then. Just what a terrible thing I had done to Do Hwa.”
A self-mocking smile hung on her lips.
“When I came back to Earth, I looked for my parents. Stupidly, with my body still wrapped in Magi. They weren’t from a martial arts world, just ordinary people with no inner energy. There was no way they could withstand my Magi. But I’d spent so long in that world that I didn’t even know that, and I just hugged them and cried.”
Ahyu had returned because she felt the Murim world she’d been thrown into was meaningless.
“And because of that, my parents were soon consumed by my Magi and passed away.”
But in the place she returned to, she had erased the very meaning of life she had found with her own hands.
“After that, that Iron-Blooded woman showed up, and I just worked for the Returnee Association in a daze. She knew my situation and probably put me to work to keep me from causing trouble elsewhere. What a cunning woman.”
Having erased her own meaning, Ahyu must have had a reason to find a new one, no matter what.
That must have been why she worked for the Returnee Association.
But I knew.
That, too, would soon become meaningless to her.
In that other world.
And back on Earth.
Ahyu had lost her reason to live in both.
Having lost all meaning, how was she supposed to live?
“Was it around then? I think so. The first time I played a game. A returnee I knew dragged me out, and I was just walking aimlessly through a department store. We were passing the games section. The game being advertised was Lord of Academy. I was looking at it, and…”
Then, as if she remembered something, she lifted her head.
“Oh? Domi-oppa, I remember now.”
Her eyes widened.
When I looked at her quizzically, she covered her mouth with her free hand.
“Kang Ma-ri, your older sister. She spoke to me back then.”
“What?”
Her next words made my eyes widen as well.
Why is my sister suddenly coming up?
And there, of all places?
“Wait, Ahyu, why my sister?”
“Well… I’m sure of it. Back then, while I was looking at the game, she told me it was fun. Fun enough to find a reason to live, she said.”
Advice that was delivered at the perfect moment.
For Ahyu, the words “fun enough to find a reason to live” were impossible to ignore.
Hearing that, I stared blankly at her.
…My sister had intentionally arranged for Ahyu and me to meet.
It was because I had realized that fact.
Ahyu’s eyes and mine met for a long moment.
Our meeting had been orchestrated by my sister. How would Ahyu feel about that?
Wouldn’t a relationship created by someone else’s intent hurt her?
I started to worry.
“…I should thank her later.”
But Ahyu lifted our joined hands and enveloped mine with both of hers.
“Because thanks to her, I met you, Domi-oppa.”
And for some reason, those words made my heart ache.
It didn’t matter to Ahyu whether my sister had intended it or not.
She cherished the connection we had more than anything else.
“Domi-oppa, do you know what a person needs to live?”
Ahyu asked, squeezing my hand tightly.
As I looked at her, a faint smile graced her face.
“People. It was always someone who destroyed my reason for living, and it was someone who gave me a reason to live.”
I could feel the warmth from her hand, as if she never wanted to let go of mine.
“That day, I impulsively bought the game. I was wandering around the in-game town, thinking, what am I even doing, and taking a break. That’s when I overheard two people in front of me talking.”
She let out a small laugh, as if recalling that moment.
“My memory’s a little hazy, but I think they were badmouthing returnees. They were saying all sorts of things, like how returnees have no guilt or shame for coming back, knowing the dimensional gates that open cause accidents and casualties.”
“What? Those bastards. Who were they? I’ll find them and teach them a lesson.”
“Pfft, don’t worry. You were the one who gave them a piece of your mind.”
“Huh?”
I blinked.
I already scolded them?
“Honestly, I didn’t feel much while listening to them. But then, someone passing by suddenly stopped in his tracks.”
“Was that me?”
“Yeah. That fool was you, oppa.”
She’s calling me a fool.
“That fool started arguing with them. He asked if returnees had to feel guilty just for coming home, that the problem was the dimensional shifts and they were the victims. He told them if they were going to blame someone, they should at least get the target right. He just went off on them like crazy.”
I covered my face with my other hand for a moment.
Back then, I was so worn down by the unfairness of the world that I would go crazy on anyone I heard talking about returnees.
Since Kwak Sa-yeon had ruined my reality, I vented my frustration that way.
Doing so, I could console myself, thinking that at least I was standing up for returnees, even in my pathetic state.
It truly was a pathetic version of myself.
“But that fool said this. That no one had the right to ridicule those who had survived all sorts of hardships in a foreign world, knowing nothing and no one.”
Ahyu laughed as if she found the memory incredibly amusing.
“So the guys who were talking trash asked him. Why was he defending returnees so fiercely?”
Those rotten bastards. I should have scolded them more.
If it were now, I could get physical, too.
“And that’s when the fool said it. ‘Shouldn’t there be at least one person to welcome them back, to be happy they’ve returned?’”
“…I am a fool.”
“Yeah, you were a fool. A real, true fool. The people who were talking trash eventually got tired of arguing and ran off. But what that fool said stuck with me.”
Ahyu looked at me.
The emotion in her eyes was filled with deep affection.
“So I sneakily followed you, and I saw you were recruiting guild members.”
That was back when Juksim and I were trying to gather members.
Ahyu was the very first person to join our guild.
“After that, I jumped right in, played the game, and we hung out, laughed, and talked every day.”
Ahyu closed her eyes, a pleasant smile on her face as she reminisced.
“The meaning of life is surprisingly simple, you know?”
She had been too exhausted to do anything.
And by choosing to do nothing, she was able to live again.
Just as my own life, worn down by the struggle, had eventually broken.
Though the exhaustion and hardships of our lives were different, we both met in a game, and because of that, we were able to live again.
“Being next to you is fun and happy, Domi-oppa. So everything else just started to not matter.”
“I had fun and was happy playing with you, too.”
“Heehee, so we were a huge plus for each other, huh?”
“Yeah, I’ll never deny that.”
The time I spent with Ahyu in the game was deeply meaningful to me as well.
Other than Juksim, no relationship in my gaming life was as long as the one I had with Ahyu.
“And then it appeared. The meaning of my life.”
Ahyu looked straight at me.
A blush colored her cheeks, and her face was undeniably lovely.
“Domi-oppa, I like you.”
The words flowed from her lips.
“My reason for living is you now, Domi-oppa.”
And Ahyu smiled more beautifully than ever before.
“So I want to be with you forever.”
“Ahyu.”
As I was about to open my mouth, Ahyu stood up.
I instinctively rose to my feet to follow her, and she buried her face in my chest.
“I know what’s going on with you, Domi-oppa. That your sister is missing, and you feel guilty, thinking you can’t be happy all by yourself. That’s why you’re hesitating. Because you’re too kind.”
“I’m not that kind.”
I’m a selfish person.
If I were truly kind, I would have given her a clear answer.
Even now, the greed nestled in a corner of my heart kept poking at me.
This greed only grew larger the closer Ahyu got.
“I just need to be by your side. I don’t want to lose my reason for living anymore. So.”
She stood on her tiptoes and pulled my hand, which she was holding, downward.
As my body was pulled toward her and I leaned forward, Ahyu’s face was right in front of mine.
The moment our eyes met, she gave me a gentle eye-smile and pressed her lips against mine.
A soft smooching sound echoed once.
It was the most forward she had ever been. As I stood frozen, Ahyu, her face as red as a beet, smiled shyly.
“I’m calling dibs.”
My first kiss.
Was in a hospital break room.