TO WHOM YOUR HEART BELONGS

Hyuk stared at Hongbin, then back at Ravi, walking over to take a seat beside him on Hongbin’s bed.

“What’s going on now…? Why didn’t you answer my calls, Dumbbin?”

He pointed to the screen. “So this is the friend you were talking about?”

Hongbin just stared dazedly at Hakyeon’s smiling face, not knowing what to say.

Ravi frowned. “He’s not a friend.”

“Yes, I am,” Hakyeon replied matter-of-factly. “Nice to meet you, Hyuk.”

Hyuk gasped, hitting both Ravi and Hongbin on the shoulders frantically. “H-his eyes…!”

Hakyeon’s pupils had turned bright yellow. It reminded Hyuk of Leo’s eyes.

Ravi leant in and cocked his head. “You…”

“He’s just like L-Leo!” Hyuk screamed. He turned to Ravi. “Who is he??”

“I…I wanna know too,” Ravi snapped, his eyes fixed on Hakyeon. 

“Well…” Hakyeon relaxed his lips a little. He leant back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling nonchalantly. “I am a Love Muse.”

He spun around in his chair. “And just like Agent Taekwoon – oh that poor boy – I work under Karma...”

He stopped abruptly and pulled his chair in, peering into the camera. “But my work concerns more than just mere mortals like you.”

Ravi gulped. Beside him, Hyuk stared at the screen with his mouth agape. Not another one…

“Did you know, that even deities have karma, too?” Hakyeon smirked. “But I hardly have to deal with that. A normal, well-behaved deity should be free from any karmic rules…but.”

The sickening smile vanished from his face. “Your poor lover chose to sacrifice everything for you, Ravi.”

“You…you mean that all this…was masterminded by you?” Ravi started. “All of those…those darned choices that he was forced to make? Because you’re in charge of his karma, too?”

Hakyeon shook his head. “Not exactly. He made those choices because of you, Ravi. Because he did not want to end your life even when death was your very destiny.”

“And because of his unyielding determination to save your life, he created all this,” he continued. “He bent the rules. He disrupted the order of the system. He killed so many…”

“He has his own punishments to face, his own sins to account for…soon,” he sighed. “But as for the mess he’d created here, I’m the one who has to clean it all up for him…!”

“But…but was your job, even?” Hyuk started. “Love Muse? Aren’t you guys only in charge of  the romantic affairs between people….?”

“That’s exactly the mess I had to clean up, my dear...Taekwoon had to leave everything behind. And by cutting ties with you, Ravi, he’d incidentally implemented a Class Five Punishment that you didn’t even deserve – heartbreak.”

“And it was something that was already beyond his jobscope,” Hakyeon sighed. “Causing anguish due to love – that was my job to begin with! And he had already left you with so much pain. I had no choice but to do something to remedy it.”

“So…the book?” Ravi started. “The book to get me to walk out of my past…?”

Hakyeon nodded. “I wrote it, Ravi. But the book’s not all.”

Ravi blinked. “What…else?”

Hakyeon grinned. “I spent so much time telling you about that idol of mine, Ravi. It was not just for fun, you know.”

“What? You’re talking about…Jaehwan? Ken?” Ravi narrowed his eyes. “You…planned this all along?”

He recalled the first time he had caught Hakyeon viewing a clip of Jaehwan’s musical. From then on, Hakyeon had ocassionally sent him links of his other performances – right during the moments he struggled with an onset of heart palpitations, brought about whenever he thought of Leo.

He recalled how Hakyeon had conveniently disappeared when he had wanted him to meet Jaehwan a few days ago. That was when he spent yet another day with Jaehwan – the day that truly established their friendship.

“He's the solution to the mess Taekwoon has created, Ravi. In case you haven’t already realised…who your heart already belongs to.”

“I…no…”

Hakyeon looked at Ravi expectantly.

“I…don’t…love him…not in that way.”

Hakyeon shrugged. “That’s what- “

“Wait. What the ,” a voice bellowed from behind.

All heads turned to face Hongbin, who had been silent the whole time.

“So all this while,” Hongbin started, sitting up in his chair and jabbing a finger at the screen. “You’d been using me…?”

Hakyeon fell silent.

“You came over every day. You’d even asked me to help create this sickening game,” he glared at Hakyeon in disbelief. “All just to help Ravi gain back the love he deserved?”

“What about my love, Hakyeon?” he clenched his fists in fury. “You ing…played with my feelings??”

Hakyeon shook his head. “It’s after all still part of my job.”

He stared back at the three faces on his screen. It pained him to see yet another face of grief – a whole life of making and breaking relationships still never managed to numb him of the painful reality of his work.

“It…it was coming for you, Hongbin. I’d received orders. You were in for a Punishment,” he began. “And since I was already getting so close to the both of you, I figured that I’d implement that punishment myself …the punishment of Rejection.”

Hongbin furrowed his brows, his fingers trembling. “Your logic is twisted.”

“Don’t be like this, please,” he replied. “I was just following instructions. It’s all part of your karma…it-it’s inscribed in your fate, Hongbin. Even if I’d refused to take on this task, someone else would have done it in place of me.”

“But what had he even done to deserve this?” Hyuk cried.

Hakyeon cocked his head at Hyuk and smiled.

“That’s not of any of our business, Hyuk. Not yours and not mine,” he replied. “All I know now is that he’s got a Reward coming for him – and I’ll be more than glad to gift him the love he now deserves.”

“I don’t want your love,” Hongbin snapped.

Hakyeon grinned and nodded. “Yeah, yeah. That’s true.”

He glanced at Hyuk. “That’s because you want his.”

Hongbin froze in his spot. “What? No- “

“Denial. The first stage,” Hakyeon smiled. He turned to face Ravi. “He’s just like you, Ravi…twins, you both are, after all.”

Ravi stared back at him. “No…Please stop.” He grabbed the monitor, his fingers pressing hard onto the screen. “Just tell me your ing purpose. What is the relevance of all this??”

“Is there a way to salvage everything??” he yelled. “What Leo has done – is there a way to reverse it??”

Hakyeon shrugged. His indifference was beginning to annoy him.

“You…You’re still meddling with his karma, aren’t you?”

“I can’t meddle with anything else outside of love, sweetie,” Hakyeon smiled. “My purpose here is to help you both move on from the consequences of his actions, and that’s all.”

“Move on??” Ravi screamed. “I just want to go back. Back when he had not screwed up, back when he had not foolishly chosen to take so many innocent lives just for me.”

“I…” his voice fell to a soft whisper. “I want back everything I’ve lost, Hakyeon.”

Hakyeon shook his head. “That’s not what you want. Trust me.”

“I- “

“You think you still love him, don’t you?” Hakyeon said. “Have you not realised that all that’s left is the feeling of helplessness and guilt?”

“I…What are you talking about?”

“You no longer have feelings for him, Ravi.”

Ravi shook his head and put his hands to his ears.

“The reason you want to go back…it’s because you feel traumatised by his decisions. But you have to face up to it, Ravi. You were supposed to die. And since you’re still alive, you have no choice but to live with the consequences. You can’t go back, sweetie. You don’t want to.”

“No…”

“From the moment he chose to save your life instead, your love was already over. It’s time to look forward, Ravi. You may deny it all you want, but the Imma assert that I wouldn’t have sold you that book for nothing.”

“I…I am not over the past,” he snapped. “That book…is meaningless to me.”

“That’s what you want to think. You’ve already walked out of that love, Ravi. Your heart no longer belongs to him.”

Ravi felt his blood boil. “Then how about offering a ing solution to all these? If you insist that I look forward, how do you suggest I get out of this mess that I’m tangled in??”

Hakyeon bit his lip. “Sweetie, the solution lies in the book itself.”

Ravi froze. What?

“Go and get it, Ravi. Get the book here and I’ll tell you what to do.”

-----------------------------------------------------

Jaehwan tapped his feet impatiently.

Should I just…go?

He listened as announcements echoed through the large hall, urging him to board his flight soon.

“Maybe,” he sighed. “I overestimated what he thought of me.”

He felt a tight clench in his chest. It hurts, he cried inwardly. It hurts when you’re in love with somebody…who is in love with someone else.

He glanced around for perhaps the last time, blinking back his tears.

“I think I pinned too much hope,” he mumbled. “On something that isn’t possible.”

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“Page three hundred and eighty-four.”

Ravi flipped through the book frantically. Beside him, Hongbin and Hyuk eyed the book curiously.

Ravi held his breath as he finally found the page. It was an unchartered territory – he had probably only completed a little over half of the story.

Taekwoon sighed and rested his back against the tree, poking the dead leaves around his feet with a small twig.

“Why do I still have to do this? Forty-nine lives. It’s enough. I’m tired.”

He gazed into the distance. But I’m so close already, he thought. I can’t give up now.

He clenched his fists tightly, snapping the twig into two.

“Car accident? Kidney failure?” he pondered. “Asphyxiation…?”

He looked down at the ground. Asphyxiation it is.

He picked up the broken twig and brushed away the dead leaves to reveal a patch of red soil.

Cause of Death: Asphyxia, he traced into the ground, Due to Abnormal Breathing.

His pupils glowed with blueness and a tingling sensation tugged at his fingers as he traced out the last few letters he needed.

“Intended recipient…” he mumbled.

He dragged the twig across the soil to form the numbers five and zero. He lifted the twig and dipped it into the soil again, tracing out the letters K, E and N.

Ravi felt his heart drop. 

“What??” he turned to the computer screen, his eyes wide. “W-What...does this mean...?"

“You know it, Ravi,” Hakyeon said quietly, his voice seeping insidiously through the speakers.

“The last Innocent to be taken. Number Fifty.”

-----------------------------------------------------

Jaehwan trudged in the direction of the gates, tugging his luggage behind him. 

"Stop it, Lee Jaehwan...stop hoping for anything. He's not coming."

He heard something. 

He froze and perked his ears up, listening more closely to the footsteps approaching him from behind. 

His eyes lit up. It’s still not too late, after all.

I...I worried for nothing. Perhaps I still mean something to him. 

He spun around, breaking into a huge smile.

“So you still came- “

His eyebrows shot up, stunned by the pair of narrow eyes that met his.

“L-Leo?”

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