[CHAPTER 44]

“No Way Out”

The young man who showed up as Hyuk's substitute teacher, the same man who's the same age as Hyuk and the same person who stood in front of them is now referring to himself by a different name.

"Klotho?" Hakyeon was baffled by the unfamiliar name on a familiar face.

"It can't be..." Taekwoon stood up, but barely able to balance himself. He was dumbfounded by Sungjae's appearance.

"Well, it is. I'm glad to finally meet you face-to-face, Taekwoon-ah," Sungjae greeted Taekwoon, hoping for a handshake but the latter was still trying to grasp the situation and froze up completely.

"But h-how?" Taekwoon couldn’t stop himself from stuttering.

"I've been here on Earth for awhile now, actually."

"Huh?"

"You haven't been able to hear me nor my siblings' voices from awhile now, right?"

Taekwoon nodded.

"Well, one of the reason for that is because I've been here on Earth," Sungjae said.

"Wait! Someone explain to me what's going on. If you're not Sungjae, who are you exactly?" Hakyeon interrupted them.

"One of the Goddesses of Moirae, or fate," Wonshik steps in. "He's Klotho, the one who winds the thread of fate. The creator of all fates."

"The same person who decides who is born and reborn," Jaehwan comments. "But I don't get it, no one has ever met any of you three except for some of the council even Hyoshin and Taekwoon have only heard your voices."

"The voices I heard were females' though..." Taekwoon commented.

"We, Goddesses of Moirae, don’t actually have a gender. We're called Goddesses just because but to be honest, we can take form of either gender," Sungjae told them.

"I see. But then, why are you here all of a sudden? You guys have never revealed yourselves to us before... all these years of research and even Hyoshin said he's never met you all in person before," Wonshik mentions.

"It's because we can't."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"It's true that I'm the one who used to create fate and wields the power of birth. But that was when I had limitless power. When humanity was first created, and fate was placed in all their stories, there weren't a lot of humans. It was all fun and games for me and my siblings at first but eventually, human intelligence became too much for us to handle. Humans started to develop a mind of their own, rewriting fate as they pleased and changing their fate to what they truly desire. Cha Hakyeon is a prime example of that too," Sungjae looked at Hakyeon directly.

"Is that why you wanted to end his fate when it went beyond your controls?" Hongbin asked.

"We tried. But Hakyeon isn't the first one to be exact. And actually, we've failed multiple times in the past when trying to attempt the exact same things. As humans evolve, our powers started to diminish as well. We can no longer reside or take form in Moirae's Edge; hence we could only communicate with those who can specifically hear our voices. Our attempt to set fate back within our control ended when Hakyeon changed his fate alone. We realized that we no longer have the power to do anything. Ironically speaking, those who created fate ended up being powerless against it."

"Is that why you're here on Earth than?" Hakyeon asked.

"Kind of. To be honest, me and my siblings are rather bored at always trying to please the Gods' wishes so I guess you can say that when we lost control of fate, it was a relief. Actually, I've always wanted to live here on Earth where it's so free and unpredictable. Not knowing what to expect, it's kind of exciting don't you think?" Sungjae laughed. "I guess it's a good thing you out-powered us."

"Then what about Hyuk? Can't you do something about Hyuk's condition? This isn't what his story was supposed to do right?" Hakyeon's voice cracked a bit just looking at the younger's condition getting worse and worse by the minute.

"That's right. If you came all the way to reveal yourself, it means you have some sort of solution to all of this, right? Why is Han Sanghyuk behaving like this? When I entered Hakyeon's story, this never happened to him," Taekwoon asked desperately.

"That's because Hakyeon's story was different since the beginning. Hakyeon's life and fate wasn't exactly created by me. We just so happened to come across it one day," Sungjae said.

"What?"

* * * * * *

Klotho, the one who spins the thread of fate.

Lakhesis, the one who draws out the thread.

And Atropos, the one who cuts the thread.

The three of them are the Goddesses of Fate. In other words, the founders of Moirae’s Edge.

Their roles in Heaven wasn’t always a glorious one though and it never was. They were not as powerful as the almighty Gods above nor were they beautiful enough to entrance the skies. They had no particular roles to play in the Heavens and all they had was one another.

However, that eventually changed.

When humanity was first created, the Gods needed a way to monitor mankind. But they were already too busy with the affairs of the Heavens that they had no time to study those who reside on Earth. So, they gave the three bored siblings a role to play.

They granted the three of them tools to weave human fate.

A golden thread spinner, and a pair of golden scissors to cut those threads. Each thread that was drawn out would eventually become a single fate. But fate was much more complicated than just a simple thread. It required more than just a spinning wheel and a pair of scissors to keep humanity in place.

So, the Gods created another set of tools with their powers for the three Goddesses.

A fountain pen and a blank book.

“What are we going to do with these?” the three siblings looked baffled at the strange tools they weren’t familiar with.

But once they learned how to use these tools, they became ecstatic. They thought about all the stories they could write and tell since no one would listen to them in the skies. They had the brightest of ideas when it came to creating and telling stories so when they could do something so simple with just a of a pen, they were rejoicing.

They started to create one fate after another, one generation to the next. It wasn’t some make-belief story that was derived from their imagination, but those stories were also reality. Except, that reality took place on Earth, the land of mankind.

One book led to another and eventually, the Goddesses wrote too many to maintain. So, they simply let humans do their own job. The three of them laidback to watch after writing each book. Klotho would give each book it’s beginning. Lakhesis would write the stories of the books’ encounters and happenings whereas Atropos would determine the end of each story. Everything else that happens was whatever to them.

Things worked out for a long time but due to the numerous amounts of books that were eventually written, the three Goddesses asked the Gods one final favor.

“Help us create a land far from mankind and far from the Heavens so that we can focus on creating the fate of humanity,” eventually became a dimension that’s now served as Moirae’s Edge.

It was an easy and simple task, so the Gods didn’t question anything about the three’s request and created a separated world for them. Of course, since it was still a land created by the Gods, they have to have a way to connect the dimensions together so that they can see what the Goddesses were up to from time to time. Hence, the gate between the worlds were placed at the very top of the Library of Fates.

Moirae’s Edge was a simple excuse thought for the Goddesses to become free finally. Being in a separate dimension of their own meant that the Gods were notice them less and wouldn’t be able to control their actions. They could do whatever they wanted.

And with a little help for the Heaven’s powers, a small society was created on Moirae’s Edge. They were neither Gods nor humans. They simple exist for the sake of fate but never questioned it.

Monitoring the small number of fate was not a hard thing to do at first. Most of the time, the stories would find a way to start and end on its own. This continued for centuries and the Goddesses no longer had to do much anymore. They could be as laidback as they’ve always wanted. They sent some of their own powers to the facility’s library which automatically writes a new story on its own. In a way, the library was behaving in a way as if the three lazy Goddesses would if they actually worked.

But things started to go far from they had planned. The Goddesses realized that the library was starting to publish books that were beyond even its control. The Goddesses panicked for the first time ever and tried to prevent the unpredictable from happening.

One unpredictable event caused a plague to wipe out an entire village. Another one caused the world to go against each other in several world wars that prolonged for years. None of this was what the Goddesses had in mind.

They tried to stop all of those events from happening, but thousands of fates started to rewrite itself all at once. The stories were changing by themselves as if they had a will of their own. Though the Goddesses were able to manipulate and rewrite some of the fate, they couldn’t rewrite every single one of them.

They could change a few fates here and there, but they couldn’t change all. That’s when they finally realized that humanity have evolved into a number that was beyond what they could control. The human brain started to think in a more advanced manner that the Goddesses could have never imagined the future to be. Things got so out of hand at one point that the three of them went to beg Mother Nature to wipe out all humanity and restart from scratch. But they were asked this – what happens next? Won’t the exact same thing happen again?

That’s when they expanded Moirae’s Edge into a larger society of its own. Each that was born on such a place was had a mindset of keeping human fate in place without questioning their own existence or roles. The facility grew just as humanity did and those who were selected to be a part of the council had other knowledge of their own. They could hear the voices of their creators and access to tools of their own so that the Goddesses didn’t have to appear anymore.

But because their knowledge was just as vast as humans’, the Goddesses placed a rule that no one from the dimension of Moirae are allowed to meet those on Earth because if they did, humanity could become a threat to all other beings, even those from above.

Things worked out and the facility was operating successfully and peacefully again. The Goddesses thought that all their hardwork finally paid off. Until one day, the most frightening thing happened,

The researchers found a book lying on the floor of the Library of Fates one day. He was terrified by the appearance of the book and the dark aura that emitted from it. The story was contaminated by the unpredictable even though every book of fate had a full and completed story, this particular one didn’t.

The facility was in an uproar. They tried multiple ways to stop such an unwritten fate to the point where they had to unseal the gates and descend onto Earth for the very first time. They had to change fate in person.

The first time they did this, they were able to prevent such an ill-fated story from continuing but several more times later, they realized that there was nothing they could do. They begged the Goddesses to help them countless times but the Goddesses themselves, didn’t have the powers to control humanity as they once did.

The Goddesses became tired and stressed, pressured by the Heavens to fix the problem. The three siblings’ freedom was eventually taken away from them and was forced to solve the issues immediately before mankind wipes out completely, at least that’s what they believe. The Goddesses did all they could, and they did many things in order to fix the problem, but nothing worked. So, they gave up.

They found another book within the Library one day, behaving just the same as all the others that were previous to this one. One last time, was all they thought of.

That particular book happened to be Cha Hakyeon’s.

The Goddesses sent out one last mission. If they succeed, then they succeed. If they didn’t, well, it’s not like they could do anything about it anymore. If humanity is affected because of this one final jinx, then it’s too bad for both worlds.

After all, the three Goddesses are no heroes of any story. They’re known to be lazy.

* * * * * *

“It’s not like we didn’t try. But everything we did kept backfiring at us. The stories that were created within the Library of Fates is now way beyond our control. My siblings and I are tired of all this. We just wanted to be free and have fun,” Sungjae said. “When we accepted this job from the Gods, we thought it’d be easy. But this is far from being easy! I’ve grown a few white hairs because of this!”

“So, are you saying that Hakyeon’s book was going to be the last one you guys would try to manipulate whether it succeeds or not?” Hongbin asked once more to confirm.

“Pretty much. I mean, com’on! We tried, okay?”

“Because Hakyeon’s story went back to normal, it means you guys are no longer in control, right?” Taekwoon commented,

“Yup! We’re out of a job so, I thought it’s finally my chance to come down here on Earth, chill and have some fun since we don’t have a job anymore. I’ve been wanting to retire while I’m still young anyways,” Sungjae said in a lighthearted tone.

“Then, what about Han Sanghyuk? Can’t we do something about this? His body won’t be able to withstand the corrosion any longer. He’s going to die,” Taekwoon raised his concerns.

“Well~ I did come here to meet you guys for that exact reason. I didn’t come exposing myself just to say ‘hello’, you know. Anyways, there’s a solution to brining Han Sanghyuk back but~ there’s going to have to be a few sacrifices.”

“S-Sacrifice? Like what kind?” Hakyeon grew concerned just hearing those words.

“You guys were smart enough to think that even if you went back to Moirae’s Edge, what’s done is done. And you’re right. They’re no reversing the effect on an ill-encounter even if you all returned right now. The memories are still there and so are the connections. So!-“

“We have to cut them…” Hongbin knew right away what Sungjae wanted to say.

“Exactly! But that doesn’t only involve Han Sanghyuk but also everyone who’s in this room right now. Meaning! Every single one of you in this room is responsible for this situation, one way or another.”

The atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Everyone looked at one another nervously.

“Wait! Does that mean I’ll forget Hongbin again?!” Hakyeon lashes out in anger.

“Kind of.”

“But what if I end up remembering him like I did the first time? Wouldn’t things just end up the same way as it is now?”

“The only reason why you remember him before was because he remembers you.”

“Huh?”

“Even if one of you forgets, the other will still remember. No matter how distant you are, no matter which dimension you’re in, you’ll always be connected by a thread of fate. So, in order to prevent this from happening again, we need to cut all ties entirely. That way, it’s a complete reset,” Sungjae told them.

Hongbin and Hakyeon looked at each other, this time it wouldn’t just be one of them forgetting but both.

This also includes everyone else in the room.

“Are you saying I’ll forget Sanghyuk as well?” Taekwoon asked.

“Of course. If you didn’t come here and rewrite his story, none of this would’ve happened in the first place so~” Sungjae’s expression and tone of voice suddenly changed into a sterner one,” you have no rights to complain.”

Taekwoon flinched.

Everyone went quiet and there was nothing they could say to argue with Sungjae. As lighthearted as Sungjae is, he can still be strict in some aspects and especially to those that have broken the laws of fate, no one could argue otherwise.

“After coming all this way, to think that we’re forced to reset everything…” Jaehwan commented as he sat in the living room along with Wonshik, Taekwoon and Hongbin.

“We’re going to have to forget about everything… about everyone we’ve met here? Isn’t this too cruel?” Wonshik sighed in disbelief as well.

“Are you going to be alright?” Taekwoon patted Hongbin who sat quietly next to him.

“I… don’t know. If I say that I’m alright, that’s a lie. All these memories that took us so long to make, suddenly to be told that it’s going to go away…” Hongbin looked out at the patio where Hakyeon stood outside and talking to Sungjae in private.

The feelings that Hongbin had was the same for everyone else. Everyone who was involved in this case were suddenly told that they had to let go now. All the memories, all the secrets, and the friendship they built with one another were now in danger of being erased.

There’s no way around this anymore, is there? Hongbin tried so hard to keep his tears hidden inside of him. It pained him so much just to think about it, so what about Hakyeon? Is he feeling the same way as him or has the older finally moved on from caring?