A/N: Just a heads up. Rang is really possessive in this chapter in a way that could be construed as romantic but is really just selfish and manipulative; however, I think that he genuinely cares enough about the people he cares about to stop if he realizes how much he's hurting them. This is a really tricky thing to balance, but I'm trying lol
The next chapter will be in Ga Eul's POV.
Rang was quite happy—yes, he was proud, pleased, even thrilled—with the transformation that had taken place in his guest room during the past few days. The room had not been designated as a guest room before. When he'd gotten the apartment, he'd figured he'd use it for a vague something, but he hadn't thought too hard about it until Ga Eul announced she would be going back to school soon.
Now where the floor had been bare, there was a fluffy light blue carpet, its color matching the shade of blue in the blue and purple butterfly prints hanging on the walls. A full-sized bed of light wood, furnished with crisp white bedsheets and fluffed up pillows, took up the center of the room, to the side of which was a small white writing desk and a circular white nightstand. A white ceramic vase of fresh-cut flowers sat atop the nightstand, and an elegantly crafted wood pencil holder decorated the desk, with an assortment of brightly colored pens and pencils sharpened to fine points filling the holder. A cat calendar, similar to the one in Ga Eul's office, hung over this desk, and a decorative set of wooden blocks spelled out the day's date. On the right side of the desk sat a small white desk lamp. If Ga Eul looked inside the desk, she would find erasers, a stapler, a stationary set, a planner, a notebook, and plenty of other miscellaneous office supplies. Rang supposed Ga Eul kept so many office supplies at home because of her job, but then, she did like to be organized and even wrote the times and locations of their dates in her planner, so maybe she enjoyed having that type of stuff stocked in her room regardless. It was the only information Rang had to go off of when designing her room, so he'd gone ahead and bought anything he thought she might like, even if she wouldn't be needing it in the future.
Besides all this, Ga Eul had plenty of storage space in the drawers underneath her bed and the tall chest of drawers in the corner of the room. A round white woven basket lamp hung over the bed, providing plenty of light at night, while the floor to ceiling windows would give her ample light during the day. A few strings of decorative lights, in the form of butterflies, hung behind her bed, and a cheery stuffed fox sat in the middle of her bed, ready to greet her when she arrived in—Rang checked his watch—less than ten minutes.
Rang shut the door to the bedroom he'd set up for Ga Eul and resumed his task of heating up the dishes he'd had delivered for their dinner. He set out two wine glasses and a bottle of the best cabernet he had. He lit the two candles on either side of the table, the same small table where, the last time she'd been there, Ga Eul had wanted to trade him a charm for truth. That seemed to be ages ago now. Obviously, she'd won that round of favors.
Just as he finished arranging the dishes, a knock on Rang's apartment door announced Ga Eul's arrival. When he opened the door, she greeted him with a warm hug and thanked him for inviting her to have dinner at his apartment. Rang answered this by kissing her deeply and trapping her against the door until she squirmed away, laughing and protesting that she needed to put down the bags hanging from her arms—her purse and what looked like a small cake from a local bakery.
Reluctantly, Rang let Ga Eul free herself. He took the bags from her and helped her out of her coat. That evening, she wore a flattering black dress with long, billowing sleeves and a tight waistline that flowed out into a full, pleated skirt, cut so that the front was shorter than the back. Her smudged red lipstick and upswept hair made her look older and more sophisticated than she did in her usual cardigans, knitted sweater tops, and pleated skirts; he could see the shape of her face and the graceful arch of her neck better, and the whole effect made her look sexy as hell. Rang immediately felt underdressed. His outfit was more casual—but hopefully inviting—in appearance: a black and white patterned sweater and black pants.
"Wow. You've really decorated the place since I was here last time," Ga Eul noted, surveying the décor he'd added to the main living space of the apartment. A bookcase here. A potted plant there. Some brightly colored throw pillows and a fluffy blanket perched on the seat of the couch, ready for use. Even in the living space, he'd picked and arranged everything himself instead of hiring a designer.
"Do you like it?" he asked, with more confidence than he felt.
"I like it." Ga Eul turned back to him with a dazzling smile. "You must be more comfortable now."
"Would you care to see the rest?"
"As long as you're not trying to lure me into bed before dinner. I'm actually hungry, and the food smells good." As if on cue, Ga Eul's stomach rumbled, and she placed her hands on her abdomen self-consciously.
"I promise, I'll let you eat first. You have a long night ahead of you. You'll need your strength," Rang answered with a mischievous grin.
"Oh, well...thanks for warning me, at least."
"Come on. Let's go see the guest bedroom." Rang gestured toward the room in question and started walking that way, but Ga Eul turned in the opposite direction and headed for the door to Rang's bedroom.
"If that's the guest bedroom, then this must be your bedroom," Ga Eul called out. She swung open the door to his bedroom and flicked the light on. When he reached her, she was peering into the room, which looked pretty much the way it had at Yu Ri and Shin-joo's, save for Soo-oh's toys that had always invited themselves inside and had been found weeks later tucked away beneath Rang's bed or stashed in his wardrobe. Now the room only held Rang's personal items.
"I like it," Ga Eul said. "It looks cozy." She crossed her arms and swayed on her bare feet. Her black dress fluttered around her, as delicate as a butterfly in flight but black as night. God, she was gorgeous.
"Are you sure you don't want me to lure you into bed now, then?" Rang asked hopefully. "Dinner can be reheated."
"No." She gave him a knowing smirk. "You can show me the rest of the apartment now. I just wanted to see your room first. But you were going to show me the guest room, right?"
Rang nodded.
"I've recently had it furnished. There was nothing in it before."
"Oh? Am I the first person to see it?"
Rang nodded again.
"Ooh, I like being the first person to see things," Ga Eul commented excitedly.
"After you then." Rang held out his arm to indicate that she could go first, and she did, walking back to the opposite end of the apartment and stopping by the bedroom nearest the kitchen. First she cracked the door open, then swung it wide. He waited impatiently behind her, eager for her reaction. He hoped she liked the butterfly accents and the blue and purple ribbon draped over the white curtains on the windows. Those were her favorite colors: blue and purple. Butterflies were her favorite insect, and foxes were her new favorite animal. She'd told him so.
She had to like the room. She had to like it. If this didn't make her want to stay with him, he didn't know what would. But why wasn't she saying anything yet? It had been nearly a minute since she'd opened the door.
"So...what do you think?" he ventured.
"It's...it's really pretty," Ga Eul said in a confused tone. "You said this is the guest bedroom? Like, for when you have company visiting?" she asked, turning around to face him.
"I lied," Rang announced enthusiastically. "This...is your room."
"Oh, so it's...for when I come to visit?" Ga Eul smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "That's sweet."
"Guess again."
"Sorry?"
"It's so you can live here. I picked out everything just for you," Rang explained, and Ga Eul's smile faltered even more.
"Sorry?" she asked again, her eyebrows furrowing, so Rang decided to explain further.
"You have to work to make money, right? To pay for your apartment?"
"Um...yes?"
"If you live with me, you won't have to pay for anything, so you won't have to work." There. Perfect logic. Ga Eul had to see the sense in living with him, if nothing else.
"So suddenly"—Ga Eul began carefully—"I'm quitting my job and living with you. Why?"
"So we can be together all the time," Rang explained, though that should have been obvious. "You like being with me every day, right?" He smiled encouragingly.
"Uh...well, yes, but—"
"I already have plenty of ideas about things we can do together once you're living here, since you won't have to work. I made a list. I planned a lot of human dates, even some overnight trips. I have a lot of money, actually, so we can do anything you want."
"But what if I don't want to quit my job?" Ga Eul frowned. She'd been studying him with an inscrutable expression, but now he could see that she was unhappy with his suggestion, and he didn't understand why. What type of human wanted to go to work if they didn't have to? They'd been happy together for the past month, and who would want to stop being that happy?
"Did it ever occur to you that I like my job?" Ga Eul was saying. "I mean, yeah, I need money, but I actually like what I do. Working with kids is really fulfilling. I also like having my own apartment."
"That's why I gave you your own room," Rang countered, ignoring her other objection entirely. Humans were always talking about being 'fulfilled' like if they could find some greater purpose to dedicate their slavish existences to, then their short lives would mean something; the truth was that most human accomplishments were swiftly forgotten and impacted little in the chaotic scheme of the universe. Here was Ga Eul's chance to impact an immortal being, and she was throwing it away.
"Having a single room in someone else's apartment and having your own place aren't the same thing," Ga Eul argued. "You know that, or you'd still be living with Yu Ri and Shin-joo. Which, by the way, I'm not a replacement for them. Seeing me every day doesn't mean you shouldn't make up with them."
"I never said you were a replacement. I'm just trying to make your life easier," Rang replied exasperatedly. He said nothing of Yu Ri and Shin-joo; he didn't want to think about them right then.
"If you wanted to make my life easier, we would be having a nice dinner right now," Ga Eul said. "You're starting to freak me out a little. I mean, you get how insane this is, right? We've only been dating for a month, and you did all this stuff without even talking to me about it first." Ga Eul gestured to the luxuriant room Rang had fixed up for her. The room was fucking perfect, but she didn't look happy about it at all. She looked pissed off, and she was beginning to piss off Rang. Still, Rang forged ahead, perplexed by her response.
"Yu Ri and Shin-joo got engaged after dating for a month," he insisted.
"Well, what does that have to do with us? We're different people." Ga Eul shrugged her shoulders.
"You're right. We are different. We're soulmates," Rang spat, his irritation getting the better of him.
"Just because we're soulmates, it doesn't mean we shouldn't take time to get to know each other before—"
"What the hell have we been doing for the past month then? Wasn't that the point of all those pointless dates? So we would get to know each other? So your nervous little human heart would feel more at ease?"
"That's not—"
"Besides, I've slept over at your apartment. What's the difference between that and you sleeping here?"
"The difference is it's my apartment. The difference between me having a job and not having a job is that I can take care of myself."
"You can't take care of yourself! You nearly died!" Rang cried out, referring to her assault some weeks back.
Ga Eul stayed silent for a moment, seemingly taken aback by his outburst. He thought he might have gotten through to her, but she simply replied, in a quiet, shaky voice, "I can take care of myself, Rang. I was taking care of myself long before I met you. What is wrong with you today? I thought we were going to have a nice dinner. You said you were making the dinner yourself."
"I lied again. I didn't cook dinner. It's takeout. I never cook."
"Well, see, that right there is why I can't move in with you. I don't care that it's takeout or that you never cook, but there's no need to lie about it. Look, I don't know if you realize it, but you're being kind of selfish and a little mean. Are you that upset that I have to go back to work? You've known I had to go back to work since we started dating. You met me because I was working at the school."
Rang didn't answer. He scowled at his slippers and at her bare feet.
"Look, why don't we just eat dinner and try to calm down? I don't want to quit my job, and I don't want to move in here, but I also don't want to break up with you, and I don't want to keep arguing pointlessly. So let's eat dinner, okay?" Ga Eul touched his arm, but he jerked it away. He waited for her to move on to the table without him, and eventually she did, sighing as she went.
Rang stayed where he was, staring first at the floor, then into the room that was supposed to be Ga Eul's that she didn't want. Hot tears blinded his eyes—angry, disappointed tears. This was not the way the evening was supposed to have gone.
Rang stalked past the kitchen where the table was set up and over to the couch where he plopped himself down, tossed those stupid new throw pillows to the side, and mindlessly turned on the news.
"Rang?" Ga Eul asked softly. "Aren't you going to eat with me?"
"If you want to leave, then leave. If you're going, just go," Rang responded coldly. He wanted her to stay, but he also wanted her to go away so he could be miserable by himself. Mostly, he wanted her to stay, but she wasn't going to do that anyway. She was going back to work, back to her actual life, and she was right. She could take care of herself. She wasn't helpless like Soo-oh, and she didn't owe him like Yu Ri. One day she would be going, so it was better for her to go now. Just go so he could get used to being alone again.
Unfortunately, Ga Eul didn't go. She didn't even respond at first. Despite that the food must have gotten cold by then, he had to listen to her chopsticks tap-tap-tap the bowls she was eating from and the bowls themselves scrape their way across the table. The sounds grated on his ears until suddenly all the noise stopped.
"I don't want to leave. Do you want me to leave? You're acting like you do," Ga Eul said. "I don't get it. First you want me to move in with you, and now you don't want me here at all. What happens if I move in? You think I'm going to leave every time we argue?"
Rang said nothing. He stared at the local news, not registering anything the reporter was saying.
A moment later, he heard Ga Eul marching towards him. She walked around the sofa and stood in front of him so that she blocked his view of the TV.
"I'm watching the news."
"You're not watching the news."
"Aren't I?" Rang shot her a challenging look, and it was a mistake. He saw tears in her eyes.
"You care about the rising cost of human health insurance?" she asked doubtfully.
"Well, if I injure someone, they'll be less likely to go to a hospital, won't they?" Rang smiled viciously.
"You said you wouldn't kill any more humans."
"I said I wouldn't kill any more humans. I never said I wouldn't mess with them."
"Are you messing with me then?"
"What?"
"Are you messing with me, or do you really not want me here?"
"You're the one who doesn't want to be here. So leave."
"I do want to be here. You're twisting my words around just because I don't want to do exactly what you want me to do. I'm not a butterfly for your collection, Rang."
"You're right. You're not a butterfly at all. How could a feeble, pathetic being such as you aspire to be something so perfect? You are just an insignificant human destined to wipe snot from the noses of whiny brats your whole life, and in seventy or so years you'll be dead, and whatever you did won't even matter." The words flew out as arrows, barbed with cruelty, and they hit their target skillfully, piercing her one by one. Rang had not known, until that moment, that he could watch an entire heart break in the fading warmth of someone's eyes. He'd never seen the light leave the eyes so fully, not by death of the body but death of something else. Trust. Hope. Ga Eul shattered in front of him, tears springing up and running down her cheeks unchecked, and he shattered with her. The butterfly pendant around her neck winked at him, betrayed.
He hadn't meant that. He hadn't meant any of it, but it was too late. She was running for the door, snatching up her purse and coat as she went.
He cut her off before her hand reached the door handle.
"Wait! Ga Eul…"
"Let me out! Rang, let me out of this apartment!" Ga Eul choked out through her tears.
"I'm sorry." He grabbed her shoulders, but she was looking down at the floor as she shoved against him. She wouldn't look at his face. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I didn't mean it."
"Let go of me." She twisted in his grasp.
"Don't go. Please, don't go. We can eat if you want. You don't have to leave your job."
"Let go of me. Let go of me," Ga Eul pleaded, writhing as she tried to break away from the death grip he had on her arms. She should have known it was pointless. He could hold her there indefinitely if he wanted to. She simply couldn't compete with his physical strength. Slowly, she seemed to realize this and stopped fighting, but she started crying more and curling into herself. Nothing he said helped.
"I lied again. You shouldn't trust anything an evil fox says. Of course, you can be a butterfly. You can be anything you want."
"Rang, let go of me, please," she said. "I want to go home." Tears splotched her face.
"But I don't want you to go home."
"Well, I want to go home. Can't I do anything I want to do?" she begged, panic rising in her voice.
Unfortunately, Rang couldn't let her go home. Not now. He just knew if he sent her home now, she wouldn't be back. He had to salvage the evening somehow.
An idea struck him. It was a bit risky and possibly idiotic, but wasn't that the theme of the evening already?
"Hey, remember when I said I can give you good stress, like a cat?" he asked.
"Huh?" Ga Eul's voice was thick with sobs, but she finally lifted her gaze to him. Her lip quivered. Her red-rimmed eyes, glazed with tears, seared him all the way down to his gut.
"I can be a cat." Rang smiled encouragingly.
"What?" Ga Eul stared blankly at him, not understanding. One tear leaked out and rolled slowly down her cheek.
"Here. I'll show you. Watch." He freed Ga Eul's arms, grateful when she didn't immediately try to bolt for the door. He lowered his hands, then took a deep breath, and in an instant he'd transformed himself. Cat Rang dropped several feet to the floor and peered up at Ga Eul, swishing his tail.
Rang willed Ga Eul to understand the cat's body language: See? I'm just a cat. I can't hurt you anymore. I'm cute and soft, and I never say mean things. You like me, yes?
But Rang had made a miscalculation, another one. Ga Eul stumbled back, wide-eyed, and screamed.
