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"I was wondering, why you knowingly stole your friend's boyfriend. Now I understood. You're the type to get excited about the smallest gestures of kindness and confess your feelings impulsively," Shin-yu threw those accusations at Hong-jo, who was standing before him with her widened eyes in agony.
He never thought that she would be an opportunist, who went for people with nothing but benefits. Since he witnessed the confrontation before her and his girlfriend, Na-yeon he felt nothing but detest for the civil servant.
"What do you even know about me?" She countered with the same eyes, not backing off from her point.
He couldn't deny her questions, however still decided to stick to his observation, "What? I just said what I saw."
Hong-jo grinned sardonically and gazed directly at him,"Okay fine. Even the smallest acts of kindness excite me and make me happy. Because nobody is kind to me. Happy now?"
He felt stinging sensation in his chest as soon as those words rang into his ears. Before he could respond, she left the place without looking back at him. He stood still while gritting his jaw.
******
"Your destiny can't be severed. Accept it."
A Love Spell ruined his life. He couldn't function normally. His body didn't listen to him anymore. Mind was a complete mess. Even he started seeing her hallucinations now. His mind got enraged. He had a beautiful fiancée, bright career, money and stuffs that others envied of, but peace. He hated it. He hated this situation. He hated these growing emotions. The culprit? Lee Hong-jo.
"I've a girlfriend. I call her Na-yeon, but others call her a goddess. So, why would I like you, when I have someone like her?" He blurted out those venomous words before her, while having conflict within himself inside.
However, he didn't give in, as it was a fact. Hong-jo didn't say much to his remarks rather looked at him in sorrow. His heart throbbed sensing it. Needless to say, he brushed off it aside.
She meant nothing to him.
*********
"...When you talk about your father, I thought my heart was going to melt. I don't cry for others. But when I look at you, I want to cry. I can't sleep either. All day long, I'm curious about what you're doing. It's so annoying that you live in the same house as Jae-gyeong. But still, I like you. Do you really think it's the Spell's doing?"
Alcohol was blurring the line between rationality and impulse. His mind didn't hold back them, which he felt for a long time. His anticipated eyes were on her. Her eyes rolled in conflict; lips twitched in between. Afterwards those composed orbs fell straight on him.
"Yes. It's the spell."
His heart skipped a beat in worry. Irony was that it wasn't him this time, but her.
However, he didn't give up, "No. It's love."
His eyes didn't shift from hers, neither hers did.
After a pause, she broke silence, "Those weren't your true emotions, Jang Shin-yu-sshi. Once the spell breaks, you'll be back with your contempt for me in no time. That is the real you."
His heart sank in his stomach. The woman before him seemed to have no faith in him. If this, Nullification Spell successfully enchanted on him, she would never come to visit him again. He would be all alone in his shell with no existence of her. He didn't dare to want it. He loathed it.
Meanwhile, her eyes were cold, as she processed to say those last words for tonight while walking away from him.
"Why would you like a person like me, when you have a Goddess like Na-yeon? Goodnight, Jang Shin-yu-sshi."
"No! Come back. I'm not done yet. I WON'T DO THAT NULLIFICATION SPELL!" His shout didn't bring her back; moreover his body gave up in exhaustion in the end.
*********
"You just want to get rid of me and get together with Jae-gyeong," Shin-yu sulked, while giving Hong-jo an pouty face.
She grinned a little and sat down on the ground to perform the final ritual of Nullification Spell for him, "Even so, I'm truly grateful to you in many ways."
Shin-yu turned his face, hearing it from her. There was a certain change in her voice, that made him unable to look back.
"You ate with me, called me, walked me to home and accompanied me in many occasions. Your existence made me less lonely in those days. Even though, they were all lies, you still said such sweet word to me, complimented me in your way. I'm thankful to you,"
She smiled at him in gratitude. He felt his heart began beating faster. However, not the way he felt when he saw her in general. It was an inauspicious palpitation that gripped his chest.
"So, you're ultimately pushing your inseverable destiny away," he scoffed turning away his face in disappointment.
"Ill fate exists too, Jang Shin-yu-sshi. Considering how our lives have gone downhill, that's the only conclusion I can draw. Some people shouldn't cross paths. We belong to the category," those words brutally pierced diggers in his heart; he couldn't utter a single word in reply.
"Don't worry. Once the spell begins its effect you'll be free from those unwanted sensations, and me. Just hold a moment more," she closed her eyes, engaging herself in the rite.
With heavy heart he followed her instructions, while expecting nothing.
*********
It worked. He began gaining control over his body. Life was slowly shifting back to normal, before they met. The disease seemed to be curing too. The red hand didn't bother him anymore. Mornings began with work and sweet words from his girlfriend. Night ended with congratulations from his peers of his new office. However, he wasn't happy. Day and night all he felt was emptiness, as she wasn't there with him anymore.
Afterwards of the ritual, she put her guards up; restricted him from any kind of personal contacts with her. Even in the office she never met her eyes with him. He became a stranger that never ever existed in her world anymore. He was hurt. It really hurt. Seeing her talking to others even with his assistant, but not him, hurt him. It penetrated his heart. The spell didn't in effect, yet the love didn't vanish.
He spent sleepless nights thinking about her. He skipped meals worrying about her. He felt jealous thinking about others, whom she made conversation with everyday. He despised everything that bothered her. To sum up all, he couldn't live without her. His memory from his drunken night had recovered. He remembered how he confessed and how she dismissed it. He wanted to have her, but couldn't have her.
I've a girlfriend afterall...
That was the last pitiful excuse he had, unfortunately.
*********
"I should be loyal to the person whom I'm in a long term relationship with," he said with a long face as Eun-wol gave him a sympathetic stare.
"Tsk, tsk! Being loyal alone is a foolish thing."
"What can I do? If this love spell fiasco didn't happen in the first place, I would have been with her by now."
"I doubt. The way you treated her before it, was highly awful. I would have rejected you too in her shoes."
Shin-yu couldn't say anything, just remembering how his girlfriend found out about his almost kiss with Hong-jo and confronted him two days ago. It didn't concern him as it should. Rather, he was more worried about Hong-jo being stalk by some weirdo. After the consultation with his closest colleague, he hired a private detective to follow the cues, even though it was unknown to both Na-yeon and Hong-jo. He was already messed up in his mind. This one wouldn't change something drastic.
"Do you also think those emotions have come because of the spell?" Shin-yu desperately wanted someone to dismiss this possibility.
He didn't want to believe that it was only the potion. It might have started with it, but it was his own growing sentiments that he felt for her. It was the only possibility that he wanted to be true.
Eun-wol didn't say a word to the tormented man, who was equally fighting with himself and the world for his budding love for his beloved. Nevertheless, he needed to be guided and he had no guide other than her. Thus, she processed.
"Love Spell has no ability to create emotion. It just exposes the existing ones to the drinkers,"
Shin-yu's heart skipped a beat.
"Your emotions were always yours. Authentic and natural!"
********
The detective did a great job in keeping track on them. Not only he found his girlfriend slapping Hong-jo in front of her house, but also how she used to bully her in school days. The rest was known.
Shin-yu was supposed to be devastated, finding his long term girlfriend's infidelity with his enemy behind his back. However, he was more upset how Hong-jo was insulted for not forgiving her abuser by him. No wonder, she never opened up to him nor choosed him to close with and why she was avoiding him now.
"I know one thing for sure. The reason why you eat alone. The reason might not lie on other people."
He clutched his fist in anger remembering his own infuriating, insulting words towards her. He needed to apologise to her. Whether she accepted his feelings or not, he needed to apologise. He didn't even hope for getting forgiveness at all.
But before that, Na-yeon deserved a fabulous break up from him.
**********
"Lee Hong-jo-sshi has left the company last weekend. You didn't hear the news from the gc?" Park Ki-dong exclaimed his surprise at Shin-yu, who lost his ability of logical understanding after getting the news.
She finally gave up before the harassment of this place in the end. He didn't know when his body moved itself towards the office that belonged to the mayor. He needed to find her. He needed to make her safe. She didn't have anyone in this world. If she had disappeared he would lose her forever. He would rather die than let her dissipate.
No! She couldn't leave him. She needed to be found by hook or by crock!
*********
Health was declining. Dark circles prominently marked their territory under his anxious eyes. He stopped sleeping and began his search everywhere. The detective was working day and night to get any information of her. It had been 3 months since he last had a sight of her existence. At this point anyone would think that she didn't live in this earth anymore. However, he knew that she was here nearby, breathing, alive. Otherwise he would have died long ago.
He had faith in the destined bond that they shared together.
In between when everything was uncertain, the detective found the trace of Hong-jo in the place, where Shin-yu predicted as his last hope.
No wonder we're each other's inevitable destiny.
******
It took him a while to get the exact location. The sky got darker, stars were twinkling over the sky. His car reached at the sea beach, where he decoded the truth of their fate. He parked the car and desperately began his search, only to be encountered with a sight that he wasn't prepared of.
Lee Hong-jo was holding Kwon Jae-gyeong's hand, while he was weeping her tears. Both were gazing at the sea. He was comforting her, adjusting the winter coat around her delicate body and there seemingly was no place for Shin-yu beside her.
His eyes welled up. Tears rolled down on his cheeks. Chest was filled with grief, remorse and the regret of not trusting his heart's call, neglecting the beautiful destiny, that his fate had brought before him.
He didn't know how he would face the consequences of his past deeds in the future from Eun-wol's prediction.
However, he was indeed facing the Karma of losing the moon while counting stars.