Chapter Ten

They headed out of the restaurant after she finished her cold noodles. She keep on staring at him, his words echoing on her mind. They headed towards their car, and entered it. 

She was strapping on her seatbelt when he did it for her. She look up only to see him gazing at her, intensely. “You still doubt me?”

Yeon Joo doesn’t know what he means by that. She look down on her fingers, and said, “I don’t. I’m just confuse. Why are you telling me this things?” 

He sigh before pulling her hand towards his. “I wanted you to trust me. I know that I act too rashly and was different from the last two versions of your husband but I am still the same. Let me do things for you. Let me remember who I really am.” He kiss her softly. His mouth lingered on his forehead as he whispered. “You’ll come to know it very soon, that I’m way better.”

*

They arrive at the park as she have requested him to do so. They walked hand in hand. Yeon Joo couldn’t help but look at her husband. Until now, she couldn’t believe that he was no longer bound by the predetermined settings or the fate that comes inside the manga. He is just a special person who comes and goes between two worlds. Whenever he likes to go he will go. 

But after the incidents that have happened, she couldn’t help but worry. What if the baby is the one who is bound to that fate?

Her hand automatically goes to her stomach. Chul notice her action making him ask, “Wae, what happened? Are you in pain?” 

“Ani. I’m just worried.” They sat on the nearby bench as Yeon Joo continue. “You used to be bound inside the manga. Your fate used to lie on my father’s hand,” Chul stared at her, urging her to continue. “What if our baby is bound by that fate now that you have escaped it? What will happen—” Yeon Joo was interrupted by her phone which is ringing. She pulled it out of her bag and answered. 

“Yeoboseyo?”

“Noona!”

“So Boong-a, wae--?”

“Noona, your—”

“What? Tell me , So Boong-a. What’s the matter?”

“neo abuji-ga…wa-wasseo...”(Your father, he’s here.”)

“Mwo?!” Yeon Joo stared at Chul and he understood. They got up from their seats and headed 8towards the parking lot. Chul drove as Yeon Joo tried to contact So Boong. Every time the line went dead, her anxiety doubled. Chul assures her by holding her hand, “Gwaenchanha, we’ll be alright. You just need to hang on, okay? We’ll be alright.” He held her hand  tight and smiled at her. She tried to smile back at him but her anxiety wins her out. She anxiously bit her lip, looking out the window as she tried to distract herself.

 Chul swiftly passed through the city. He made his way towards her father’s house and stopped in front of it. Chul was about to open her door when she suddenly got out. Yeon Joo rush inside their house only to find So Boong who has fainted. She checks the rooms and saw her father there, sat on his bed. He looks very disheveled, and tired. His eyes were out of focus and he was sweating profusely. 

“ My daughter, why are you here?” Yeon Joo’s father asked her and she couldn’t help but cry out. Chul arrived on her side after a while and hugged her close. “You both, why are you here?” 

“Appa.” Yeon Joo brush her father’s hair and cried, “You are alive. I thought you were gone. I didn’t know how…I am just, “ she pulled her father out of the bed and hugged him close. “I’m so glad that you are alive. I do not care how it happened but I am happy.” 

Yeon Joo asked Chul to prepare some towels and hot water on a basin. She dab the towel on her father’s hand, rinsing away the dirt and grime. Sung moo looked like he had stayed out for a year. His hair is so long and he has grown a beard. His cheeks are sunken and he is so thin. 

Chul almost felt pity on him but he remembered how this man had once manipulated his life. Now, Seong Moo was now able to experience it too.  

As Oh Yeon Joo continue to attend to her father’s need, Chul was distracted. He began drifting back to the past as he  starts to remember past timelines. He is becoming one with the human world. His memories rearrange themselves, clear and vivid. He pulls Oh Yeon Joo out as he felt theel pull. As he closed his eyes, his body was transported back to the manga. Not only that, Oh Yeon Joo was also in. 

Oh Yeon Joo stared at him as they both stood in the middle of the living room where they stayed at the manga. “Mwoya? Chul-a, Eottoghe?” Chul took her hand on his and they return to the real world. 

Both of them are confuse. 

It was her Father’s call that distracted them from their reverie. They both settled on Seong Moo’s side as he said, “I am very sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to come back but I have to warn you. They are coming. They are resurfacing. I have to go back I have to finish all of this” He push the blanket off of him and stood. 

He  walk towards his cabinet and open it. Chul watch as Seong Moo turn a dial and there, inside the depths of the abandoned cabinet is the tablet; The one who had given the fantasy world a life of its own.
Seong moo explain to them how the tablet has its own life like the world of the manga. He told them that it is infinite and independent of its characters. Though heroes and villains exist with a purpose. Now that Chul is gone as the hero of the manga, the manga looks for a new leader and in this instance it choose the baby. 

Yeon Joo’s hand automatically shielded her stomach as she listened. Chul noticed the way she protected the baby and couldn’t help but feel guilty. If he hadn’t tried to come back this wouldn’t have happened too. He is the one to be blame because he is the one who got curious first. 

“There is a much bigger problem though,” Seong Moo sat on the chair. His shoulders sagged, his eyes sad as he continue, “the real world and manga world are merging in and it is unstoppable unless the baby dies because he serves as the connection of both world. The reason why all the villains are resurfacing and the other characters appearing.”

“But, my baby….” Yeon Joo rocked herself back and forth. She couldn’t loose the baby. How can she lost something she is about to have. “It’s not fair.”

Chul couldn’t take it anymore. He held her hand as she tries to hold a sob in. He pulled her up from her seat and cradled her on his arms. He whispered soothing things to her but as he looks up, Seong Moo was gone. Chul hug Yeon Joo tight as he summoned themselves back to the manga world. 

계속