/ January 25, 2014 /
"Have a good trip, young man. I hope you can introduce me to your family at some point," said the master as he bid me farewell from his house.
Today is the day I return to my family's home, as it has been 2 years since I sought the master to train me, and it has been a year since I recruited Eun Yuri. During this time, I did not limit myself to just training with the master; in fact, after discovering how to overcome my limits, I also traveled around the world and learned various martial arts to perfect my fighting style and took the opportunity to delve into the depths of the underworld.
"See you, master. I leave my disciple in your care. I won't be able to train her properly for a while, but I will come to visit on scheduled dates to measure her progress," I told him as I climbed onto the top of the war tank that the high command of the army kindly lent me after I bribed a few corrupt officials. Luckily, there is never a shortage of corrupt people in this world.
"You mean to say that you're pushing that headache onto me, God I hope the house survives, if it doesn't, you're buying me a new one," said the master, a bit exasperated. But I know deep down he adores Eun Yuri. This last year, their relationship has become like that of a grandfather and his granddaughter. And to top it off, she calls him grandpa.
"Don't worry master, I'll let you choose any house you want, no matter the price," I said, and the tank began to move.
The journey from Icheon to Seoul is not very long, only 27 km. But the war tank is quite slow and large, so getting through traffic and taking roads that allow the tank to pass freely took time; we ended up taking a little over 2 hours to get home.
During the time I was training with the master, I always kept in constant contact with my family and with Seonhwa, so they have been aware for several days that I am returning today. Communication with my family was almost daily, and I sent them photos of my 'training place and my military service comrades,' obviously these comrades were members of The Shadow dressed in military clothing that I had commissioned from a prop company for theater and cinema, the same company that made us X-men style suits and Men in Black getup, among others. The training place was of course, the master's training yard.
In the case of Seonhwa, contact was not daily; in fact, sometimes we went entire weeks without speaking. The reason is simple, she entered the Lost Paradise a few months after the master. She is also one of the first people from Earth to go there, and while she is there, I have no way to contact her. Obviously she doesn't know that I am aware of her going to Lost Paradise.
Whenever she returns from Lost Paradise and has to apologize for not communicating with me, she feels very sad and guilty for lying to me and making up excuses. For my part, knowing her situation, I do everything possible not to overwhelm her or make her feel guilty. But I also can't tell her that I know, that would definitely break Causality and all my plans would be ruined.
Her situation and the master's are very different. Master, although he trains many people and became quite influential in Paradise, he does not play a very relevant role in the Fate of Paradise. That only changes after he decided to train Seol Jihu in the novel, but before that, his participation is not important, and that is why interacting with him and revealing my knowledge about Lost Paradise will not cause many problems.
On the other hand, Seonhwa becomes one of the three most powerful people who go to Lost Paradise, and she, along with Seo Yuhui and Sung Shinyung, manage to accomplish a number of impossible tasks that greatly benefit the Lost Paradise in the immediate future. That is why I can't let her know about my knowledge of Paradise; any change, no matter how small, from the time she entered there can have terrible repercussions on Causality.
But leaving aside the matters of Lost Paradise, our relationship continues well, and we talk about all sorts of things and flirt over the phone whenever we can, and we can't wait to see each other again.
As I lost myself in my thoughts, we finally arrived home. At the entrance, the whole family was gathered; Mom, dad, aunt Seonmi, Jinhee, Seunghae, Hyung, and Hyo-ri Noona, who was holding my nephew, little Jungseok, named somewhat in honor of the uncle, whom sadly is yet to wake up.
Every week, I sneak into the hospital to continue treating him with mana so that his physical condition does not worsen, but apart from that, I can't do anything. Although I have improved my mana control to the point where I can now heal small wounds on my body without activating [Self-Healing], it is still not high enough to influence wounds that are not my own.
It's not like the wounds I can heal myself are healed quickly; it's even worse than when I first started using [Self-Healing], so I can only conclude that my mana control is still so low that I can't even develop healing as a skill.
The whole issue about uncle Jung makes me think back to Seonhwa. If my guess is correct, the reason why Seonhwa went to Lost Paradise this time when she has no need to do so unlike in the novel, is that she is looking for a cure for her father. I hope she can find it.
If she can't, I will find it when it's my turn to go. But for now, we can only wait. My biggest concern regarding uncle Jung is that in the accident where he suffered great damage to his head and brain, his soul may have passed on. If so, what remains of the uncle in this world is just an empty shell, like the clone bodies that were developed in my world, just empty shells, without a soul, and if that is the case, then there is no cure that can bring him back.
The family, upon seeing me arrive, was excited but super shocked since I was on top of a war tank. I did this to annoy Jinhee, who before I went to train, jokingly said that I would probably return on a war tank.
I got off the tank and pretended to bid farewell to my 'former service comrades' while they turned around and drove the tank away from the house.
"Oh my God Oppa, when I said you would come in a tank, I never thought it would be true! You're my hero! I have to upload this photo to my Facebook with the title 'My OPPA is the best.' I'm sure I'll get more than a million likes," said Jinhee as she ran off to prevent mom from taking the phone out of her hands.
My dad just facepalmed, and Hyung was laughing.
"It's good to have you back son. Go change and get comfortable. We will meet in the living room so you can tell us in detail how your service was," said dad, and I just exchanged greetings with the rest of the family as I went to my room.
I missed my room and I would like to say that it is exactly as I left it, but clearly it is not. There is evidence that someone has been staying here, and judging by the evidence, that someone is obviously Seunghae. At least it is not a complete mess, but the girl has always been careless since she was young, and there are a few pieces of clothing in random places and a few wraps of candy. I ignored those things and left my luggage on the floor, changed, and went down to the living room where everyone was waiting.
As I had already greeted them before, the first thing I did, and what I was dying to do for some time now, was to go and snatch little Jungseok from Hyo-ri Noona's hands. God, since I saw the photos of the little one who was born over a year ago, I was dying to hold and squeeze this little tender meatball. Look at those pink and fleshy cheeks, I want to pinch them. But I remembered the damn wild doctor who hit me when I was just born and refrained from doing anything that could hurt him, I just held him and said words in a funny way to make him laugh, and it worked.
The others were dying of laughter watching me.
Then we moved on to a great chat, even though we had been in contact daily, there were still many things to talk about and tell, and so we did. They told me many funny stories, like when Hyung had to go all over Seoul to find some mangoes for Hyo-ri Noona to eat because she craved them during her pregnancy. The problem was that they were out of season and finding them was quite an adventure for Hyung, and the worst part was that it took him so long that by the time he returned, Hyo-ri Noona no longer wanted them and had a different craving.
For my part, I told them stories about our 'military instructor,' obviously referring to master. I told them he was a fierce old man who carries a long stick as a cane, and that he doesn't need it to walk, but to hit those who don't try hard enough in training. Many of the Shadows were his victims when they wanted to slow down the pace.
During all this time we were full of laughter and the atmosphere was festive, but it was at the end that it changed by a 180° when Seunghae approached me and dropped the bomb.
"Oppa, I hope you didn't forget your promise, right?" she said, and to everyone's surprise, she jumped on me and gave me a quite daring kiss on the lips, even using her tongue, although very clumsily, like when Seonhwa and I started doing it without biting our tongues.
The kiss was short, maybe 5 seconds, but in that short time, the room seemed to have frozen. Dad was giving me a look he had never given me before, mom was surprised, auntie palmed her face and I heard her whisper, "God, what am I going to do with this girl." Hyung just sighed, Hyo-ri Noona covered her mouth with her hand while still making sure to hold and keep Jungseok safe with the other, and Jinhee covered her eyes with both hands but clearly had her fingers open to see everything.
The first to break the freeze was dad who said, "Seol Jihu, we need to talk, in my study now, Wooseok you come with us."
"Wait uncle, please don't scold Oppa, he didn't do anything wrong, it was me-" Seunghae tried to defend me but I stopped her and stroked her head to calm her down, in these 2 years she has grown and developed, before I left she was still more childish than mature, now it is the opposite. It hurt me to see her scared by dad's reaction, but I can't blame her, even I was a little scared. Never before had dad ever spoken to me so severely, but I understand.
I stroked her cheek and said, "I promised you, didn't I? I will take responsibility," I walked past her and followed dad and Hyung to his private study.
None of us took a seat, we entered and closed the door and Dad spoke, "You understand why we are here, right?"
"I do," I answered.
"Well, with how smart you are, I would think you are taking me for a fool if you had said no. I won't scold you or say nonsense, I know the girl is attached to you more than she should have been for a long time and it was my mistake to allow her to stay so close so as to develop those feelings, so I can't fully blame you for what was clearly more my failure as an adult at that time..."
"But it is still time to put an end to all this before you break the hearts of the two sisters and ruin the lives of the three of you. So go out that door, apologize to your aunt and make clear your rejection of the girl," said dad solemnly. There was no room for discussion according to his tone.
Hyung could only put on a helpless expression as if he didn't know what to do.
"I'm sorry dad, what you're asking me is something I'm not going to do, I'm not going to give up on Seunghae, I promised her that if she still had feelings for me by the time I returned, then I would date her and take care of her..."
"I'm not going to break my promise and if before I left I didn't have romantic feelings for her, that was because I had not made up my mind because of family circumstances, but after finding out about her feelings, I made up my mind and now I can say that I like her romantically and she likes me, so I'm not going to give that up.
If you want me to apologize to the family and to auntie for being a scoundrel then I will. It's what I am and they deserve the apology, but I'm not going to give up on Seunghae," I said firmly.
My dad looked at me as if he didn't recognize who I am, took a deep breath, and said, "Are you listening to yourself? Are you saying you're going to date Seunghae? Have you forgotten that you're in a relationship with Seonhwa? Or is it just that your love is worth no more than a few words and vanishes just because she is abroad and that is why you will break up and replace her with none other than her little sister? If you continue down this path I will stop recognizing you as my son and I will kick you out of the house," all those words he said trying to contain his anger that is clearly increasing.
"No, I never mentioned anything about breaking up with Seonhwa, I will take care of the-" I couldn't finish as dad hit me in the face. Although I saw it coming and could dodge it, I chose not to because I deserve it. I should have explained things well before I started saying what I said. Now that I think about it, I notice how stupid and shameless it sounds if you don't know the context.
I felt bad, not from the blow, I didn't even feel that. Even without the use of any ability, my physical durability is so high, that low-caliber weapons wouldn't even scratch me. What made me feel bad is that I think dad hurt his hand a lot with the blow, he's probably holding it in and trying to contain the pain.
Seeing that the pain lowered his anger a bit, I took the opportunity to clarify things "It's okay, I deserved it for not explaining things properly. Dad, I know that what I will say will sound horrible, but listen to the end," I said and began to explain to him all the circumstances behind my relationship with Seonhwa.
That before leaving I made it clear to her that I would have more partners in the future and that if she wanted to have a relationship with me she had to agree to that, that she took 3 years to make the decision to accept going out with me under those terms and that even she was aware of Seunghae's feelings for me and that she was okay with it if Seunghae still maintained those feelings for my return from military service and that we could date.
And I also told him that all the women in the family knew about all this.
Dad and Hyung were surprised. No, surprised is an understatement, at some point dad even stopped rubbing his hand and let himself fall seated on the floor and Hyung had his mouth open so much that I was worried his jaw would come unhinged.
"Are you lying? No, it doesn't make sense for you to lie, damn it, do you understand that even though the girls agree, this is not normal, right? They will have so many problems and obstacles to face. It's a thorny path. Society will look down on you, and you will suffer harassment, and even more so with the fame you have, it will only make things worse. Son, if the girls are okay with it and your aunt Seonmi knows and consented, then I will not say anything about your relationship, even though I'm not in favor of the idea. But I want you to tell me that you have already thought about all the problems and difficulties that may come your way and that you can deal with them," said Dad, calmer but clearly still doubtful about the whole situation.
"I'm aware of everything you told me dad. From the beginning I thought about all those problems and I have everything resolved. Neither the girls nor I will suffer from harassment and problems with society, I promise you," I immediately responded.
"Alright, if that is the case then I can only wish you the best. Still, I have known those girls since they were born and I see them as my daughters as much as Jinhee, so I have to punch you in the face for getting them into this situation.
One on my behalf and one more on behalf of your uncle Jung, the previous blow doesn't count. That was for another reason and you deserve it just the same, so I won't apologize," said dad, standing up.
"Clench your teeth," he said, and even though he clearly hurt his hand before, he didn't hesitate to endure his pain and clenched his fist and gave me two punches, which once again caused him more harm than me. "These punches are just for starting this, you better make it work. If you break their hearts, I will throw you out of the house and take away your last name," said dad.
Then he looked at Hyung expecting him to do his part.
"I won't say anything, I feel like I don't have the right to reproach you and I know you, I know you would never take advantage of Seonhwa and Seunghae. I won't hit you either, even though I think you deserve it, but I won't because I trust that somehow you will make everything work and you will make the girls the happiest in the world. And if I am wrong and you fail and break their hearts, then just like dad said, I won't recognize you as a brother. I will save my part of the punches for that moment that I hope never comes. So please Jihu, don't let us all down," said Hyung, looking at me as seriously as I've ever seen in my life.
"I will do my best, I promise," I told them.
With that, we left and found the girls again in the living room, apparently waiting for our return and they also had their talk, but they were calmer and happier. It seems they reached a more peaceful arrangement. Then Hyung took Jungseok and asked Hyo-ri Noona to check dad's hand, after that they bandaged it and he had to spend several weeks without using his hand.
And so ended another episode in our family life.