Towards the end of the day, when her last patient had left, So-ah sat at her desk, finishing up some paperwork. It had been a successful and busy day, but nothing too eventful. She had gotten quite a few new clients over the past few months, and many of Hu-ye's employees still sought her out to deal with their stress. It had certainly relieved a lot of her stress as well, being able to keep her clinic open and pay the rent each month. She'd even given Sang-yoo a raise as a wedding present, somehow managing to convince him to wait until she was able to before getting married.
The sound of her door opening caught So-ah's attention, and she raised her head to see who it was - Sang-yoo had left a little while ago, a bit reluctantly and after much insistence on her part that she would be fine for the night. To her great surprise, she saw that it was Min Chul.
"M-Min Chul!" So-ah exclaimed, a sense of deja vu coming over her; she sounded almost exactly like she had this morning. She rose from her seat. "What are you doing here?"
Min Chul stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, shoulders slightly hunched. "When I came here earlier," he said after a while, "it wasn't to see Sang-yoo. I came to see you."
So-ah pushed away from her desk, a little wary. "Me? Why?"
There was another long pause. "Because I know he's inviting you to the wedding, and I want to convince you not to come."
So-ah stared at him, taken aback once more. A spark of anger lit inside of her - who did he think he was, coming into her clinic and telling her not to accept an invitation, one that he hadn't even sent? But she took a breath to keep her cool, and replied, "I don't see how that's your business if I come or not. If Sang-yoo doesn't want me to come, he should tell me himself -"
"He would never do that," Min Chul interrupted, scowling at her. "Even after all this time, and all the terrible things you put him, put all of us, through, he thinks he needs to take care of you. That he owes your father something." He shook his head, as if in disbelief. "Your father...your father was an amazing man, and if he could see how cold-hearted you are, he would be ashamed -"
"Min Chul!" So-ah snapped, rising from her chair, glaring at the man with a matching ferocity. "This is - that's - you know what? Did you hear that I wanted to get all of you together?"
Min Chul looked at her suspiciously. "Yes."
So-ah walked around her desk, getting closer to him, anger making her bolder. "And you know why I wanted to talk to you? I wanted to - I wanted to apologize to you all. I - I know, now, I know now, that I..." she swallowed, trying to find the words she thought she would at least have another day to find, "that I wasn't good to you, any of you, during childhood. I...was wrong. And I was even more wrong, taking so long to realize it. So, I'm sorry, Min Chul. I'm sorry. And I will say it to Sang-yoo, and Hyung Sik, and everyone else when I see them. Tomorrow, the day after, before the wedding, or after, I don't care which...but I will be going. You're not going to convince me otherwise."
Min Chul, for his part, seemed a little surprised at her words. But his expression quickly smoothed, and he continued to regard her a scowl. Finally, he nodded. "Well. At least you've realized it. It took you long enough, stupid woman." He pulled his hands out of his pockets, letting them dangle by his sides. "And fine. I guess I'll see you at the wedding then, if not before." Then he turned and started up the stairs, heading to the exit.
So-ah blinked at him, startled by his reaction, or near-lack of one. "W-wait!" she called after him. "Is that all you have to say -"
He slammed the door on her.
So-ah stared at the door for a long time, a bit insulted. He hadn't even given the most perfunctory of bows, simply turned on his heel and left. And...had he even accepted her apology? It didn't seem like it. Well, she'd done her part, she didn't need him to fall all over her in thanks.
She shook her head and removed her doctor's coat, hanging it on the provided hook. She didn't have anything else that couldn't be done in the morning, and besides, Habaek would be waiting for her. He was probably going to chide her on coming home so late, but it's not like she could help it. As she went out the door Min Chul had passed through only moments before, a small frown formed on her lips.
"How rude," she murmured to herself. "Sang-yoo should get some nicer friends."
...
Just as she predicted, Habaek had stayed up for her, leaning against the wall by their front gate, dressed in the white shirt he'd pulled on this morning and a pair of black slacks. He had his arms crossed over his chest, a pensive look on his face; when he saw her, however, it disappeared, replaced with a relieved smile.
"Late again," he told her as she reached him, taking his hands in hers and interlocking their fingers. "What was the reason this time?"
"No big deal," she answered. She released one of his hands to push open the gate, pulling him along. Entering the house, she answered, "I just had to talk to someone."
"Someone? A patient?" They were in the kitchen now, and with these words he pressed her against the counter, his hands on either side of her. His head was tilted to the side slightly, and the sight made her giggle.
"Oh, no, not exactly," she said breezily, deciding to push his buttons a little. "Just a human...male...well, not really a friend, I'd say more like...an acquaintance? No, more than that - anyway, a man I have an long and interesting relationship with."
He frowned, head no longer tilted, and leaned in even closer to her. Her breath hitched slightly, and warmth spread through her. His eyes were mesmerizing, and she got so lost in him so quickly, she nearly started at the sound of his voice.
"Who," Habaek said, slowly, clearly, to make sure she heard him, "do I have to worry about now?"
So-ah smiled at him, a little, and in a gentle, completely serious tone, she told him, "No one. I was kidding. It was just...someone that I wronged, a long time ago. Someone I needed to apologize to."
Understanding dawned in his eyes, and he pulled back, nodding. "Ah. I see." Then he frowned. "I didn't appreciate your joke, though."
"Oh, come on, it's so fun seeing you get jealous!" So-ah exclaimed, pushing him back lightly. She tilted her head, a sudden thought coming to her. "Oh, but...this has made me think...what is family like? In the world of the gods, I mean?"
Habaek looked startled, blinkng at her. But soon he straightened up, recovered, and looked at her. Then he made his way over to the couch, saying over his shoulder, "Make me some tea, and I'll tell you."
She sighed, but did as he asked, putting the pot on to boil. After a few minutes, she had two mugs filled with tea, and, one in each hand, brought them over the couch. She handed one to him, then sat down, keeping her own clasped between her hands, soaking up its warmth; little tendrils of heat wafted up from the mugs, like smokestacks.
Habaek took a sip from the cup before placing it down on the table. "What do you want to know?" He smirked at her. "More on our marriage practices?"
So-ah scowled at him. "No! No, I - well, I guess, anything but that. Do you have parents? How are you born? Can you have siblings? What are other gods born to do, if not be king?"
A thoughtful look crossed the god's face, and he nodded at each of her questions, taking them in. "Gods are not born like humans," he began. "We are nature, created to fill a need in the spiritual world. When we come into existence, we have a predetermined destiny that must be fulfilled, that we are born to do. I was born, I was created, I came into existence in order to be the god of water, and to be king of the gods. That is my fate."
So-ah nodded, knowing that already. Habaek continued, "We do not have parents like you do, either - other gods don't create us. But we can still form those types of relationships. Bi Ryeom, I told you, was born from the back of the love goddess - that was both their fates, I suppose - and so the goddess took him under her wing and considered him her son."
So-ah put her cup down and twisted her body, so she could see Habaek better. "What about you? Do you have parents?"
Habaek nodded. "Yes. I was raised by Seowangmo, goddess of beauty, love, death, torture, and cruelty."
"Oh...well...of course you were," So-ah responded, blinking. Habaek nodded seriously, seeming not to have noticed the hint of sarcasm in his lover's voice.
"Yes. She and her husband, Dongwangkong, were nearby when I emerged from a body of water, which eventually grew into Water Country. We came into existence together, you see."
"Ah. I see." She paused. "Is that why you said, one time, that you couldn't imagine Water Country without you? Because you're like...twins?"
Habaek stared at her, perplexed by her choice of words. "We are inextricably linked, yes. Water Country cannot be without me." Suddenly he smiled, and leaned in, forcing So-ah down against the arm of the couch. Habaek loomed over her, and she felt her heart racing again.
"H-Habaek?"
"But, do you know what I cannot be without?" the god asked.
So-ah took a deep breath to steady herself, inhaling his scent. "No," she said. "What is it?"
"You." Then he leaned down and kissed her. Without hesitation, she returned the kiss, and any other thoughts about about godly families - wait my future mother-in-law is the god of torture? - left her head completely.
...
Much later, when So-ah lay sleeping on the couch, legs pulled up to her chest, Habaek sat in the chair, watching her. He smiled, thinking how grateful he was that their fates had been so entwined. To think he'd spent so much of his life ignorant of that fact, generations and generations before she was even born. A funny thing, fate was.
The god stilled then, lips twisting into a frown. He rose from his seat, and went to the door to his apartment, crossing that room in a few strides and exiting onto the roof. A harsh wind was blowing, rustling trees and making the laundry on the line snap and billow in its wake. It was colder than was seasonal, and something in the air seemed...wrong to the water god. Bi Ryeom couldn't possibly be playing a strange prank now, could he? He had always gravitated towards storm clouds and lightning strikes rather than rushing gales, though. And what other god would dare approach his house and stay unknown, like a thief in the night?
So, after a few long moments out there on the roof, sensing nothing, Habaek finally turned and headed back inside. He went through his room and went down the stairs, settling himself not back on the chair but on the couch, carefully placing So-ah's legs on his lap. She had moved in her sleep, facing the back of the couch now, one arm flung over her face as if shielding her eyes from a light. Habaek smirked at the strange display. Even in sleep, she could be so strange.
He shifted himself slightly, getting more comfortable, readying for a long night. The feeling of foreboding he'd gotten probably meant nothing, especially since he couldn't detect anything on the roof...but it couldn't hurt to stand watch for the night.
