The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (57 page)

Ji Hoon did not allot them time to prepare for his attack.

Before Yoori could
even think to do anything, Ji Hoon violently knocked her to the side.

Unable to balance herself
, she tumbled backward against a barstool. Her head collided against the marble of the bar before falling to the ground with a loud crash. Stars exploded in her darkened vision while pain acted as a jackhammer puncturing into her skull. She could scarcely breathe from the sudden attack.

While Yoori lay on the floor,
struggling to see past the blurry vision that left her unable to stand up, Ji Hoon’s knee connected against Kang Min’s gut. Kang Min tried to raise his gun and shoot at him, but it was too late. A pained gasp tore out from Kang Min as Ji Hoon followed his attack with a punch across the face. Blood spurted from Kang Min’s mouth. Unable to maintain his grip on the gun, Kang Min’s hand involuntarily tossed the gun into the air. It flew across the room, rendering it useless to Kang Min, who was too inexperienced when compared to a powerful King like Ji Hoon.

Ji Hoon sm
irked, following after Kang Min.

Kang Min
was staggering to keep himself balanced. Blood drizzled from his swollen mouth. Though hurt, he was still resilient.

“Soo Jin had always been so proud of her
two favorite Scorpions,” said Ji Hoon, stalking after Kang Min like a lion. “I should’ve known if anyone were to catch on to the small details, it would be you.”

“You bastard,” Kang Min retorted with revulsion, sp
itting out blood from his mouth. “I knew it was you as soon as I heard that your name was involved in this.”

Ji Hoon
laughed with mocking amusement.

“Why do you give a fu
ck anyway, Kang Min?” He walked in circles around Kang Min like the predator that he was. “Lee Chae Young belonged to Jae Won, not you. As far as I’m concerned, she shouldn’t have been worth it for you to come here and fight against me of all people.”

“First of all,
she’s my brother’s girlfriend. She doesn’t belong to him. Secondly, I love my older brother. You don’t touch anyone my brother loves.
That’s
why she’s worth it, you piece of shit!” Kang Min yelled, suddenly lunging toward Ji Hoon.

He attempted to deliver a punch across the face
, but Ji Hoon was quick to block. Unperturbed, Kang Min jabbed an uppercut and then punched him in the eye before grabbing Ji Hoon’s neck and locking his hand around it. He bashed Ji Hoon’s head against the small round table behind them. The table fractured under the attack, nearly breaking apart.

Rage seared in Ji Hoon’s eyes.

“Then you can die for them, you naïve fuck,” Ji Hoon sneered, enraged that Kang Min had managed to get a few punches in.

Growling, Ji Hoon
placed his hands under the table and proceeded to flip it. He allowed his body to plunge to the ground while jabbing the rough edges of the table’s feet against Kang Min’s solar plexus, leaving him to stumble across the room at the sudden force.

Flinging
the table aside, Ji Hoon charged at Kang Min, his eyes hungry for blood.

He was near Kang Min until
. . .

Boom!

The force of wood crushed against Ji Hoon’s back, causing him to crumple to the floor, only inches from Kang Min and inches from Yoori, who had just broken a barstool over him.

Wrath cloaked her eyes. She was
hurting herself, but the adrenaline and determination to hurt Ji Hoon distracted her from the otherwise unbearable pain.

Only keeping
the broken wooden leg, she discarded what was left of the barstool. Yoori rocketed toward him at full speed and kneed him across the face before he was able to spring up. She followed suit by propelling the wooden leg into his gut. When he groaned in pain, she flipped the leg in midair, caught it with her opposite hand, and delivered an uppercut against his chin with it. Though she was quick, Ji Hoon was quicker. He lifted his chin up before the wood could pierce through his head.

Pissed off at the
presence of another fighter, Ji Hoon seized Yoori’s wrist and slammed her hand against a wall. Yoori screamed, losing her grip on the wooden leg. When her weapon slipped from her grasp, he pushed her away and then skirted around her.

He had someone else to take care of before he dealt with Yoori.

He charged for Kang Min like a bull. Kang Min stood his ground, rallying everything he had to fight. He proved to be no match for Ji Hoon. With a merciless kick, Kang Min was sent whirling across the edge of the room. He flew straight toward an alcohol shelf behind him.

“No
!” Yoori screamed.

Kang Min never saw it coming.

Ji Hoon was as quick as a bolt of lighting. He hooked his hand behind the heavy black shelf and pushed it forward, aiming it toward Kang Min. The gargantuan alcohol bottles from the shelf tumbled forward, breaking upon Kang Min’s skull with loud cracks. The shelf came with it, eventually landing on Kang Min with a thundering crash.

Boom!

Silence emanated from Kang Min as he lay buried beneath the shelf.

Only Ji Hoon and Yoori were left standing.

Panting for breath, Ji Hoon’s cold eyes met Yoori’s.

A firestorm of fury engulfed Yoori as she gazed at Kang Min’s motionless body.

“
You fucking bastard!” she screamed, spotting her gold gun on the floor. She was going to kill Ji Hoon. She was going to kill the motherfucker!

Her f
ingers were an inch away from the gun when his leather shoe kicked the gun away. Having one option taken out, Yoori leapt up and attempted to punch him across the face. He easily blocked her attack. He held up her wrists and then pushed her against the wall, leaving her unable to do anything while his cruel eyes bore into her.

“This is all your fault. I
f you want to blame someone, then you should blame yourself,” he told her, finally showing his true colors. There was no adoration in his voice or gaze. He was sick and tired of her.

“Why?
Why did you do this to Chae Young? What the fuck is wrong with you?” she screamed. Unfiltered hatred swept through her and she was sure she would die from it.

She
tried to fight him, but he denied her efforts and kept her pinned against the wall.

He stared at her without guilt.
“I had those scums go after your friend because I knew she was the only one capable of luring you out alone—without Tae Hyun. I figured if you came in time to see them rape her, then you’d be helpless and I could swoop in to save you. But your friend
. . .
” He shook his head disbelievingly. “Your fucking friend was so loyal to you. She wouldn’t call you in fear of them hurting you, so she endured the raping and all the abuse, just so she didn’t have to call you. I knew then that I had to resort to Plan B, which was to have them rape her all night long and leave her alive so that you would be able to see the damage
. . .
so you could break, free that anger, and allow Soo Jin to come out while you tried to find her rapists.”

He shrugged with apathy.
“And of course, I framed Jin Ae because she was the obvious suspect. If I had known that Tae Hyun’s Cobras were scattered around Seoul, then I would’ve never shown my face at the alley to check up on those gang members. The plan got fucked up when you came later that morning to find your friend and became even more fucked up when Ace apparently spotted me.” He leisurely canted his head to the side to stretch his neck. “I suppose it’s for the best. I was getting tired of playing the lovesick puppy.”

He
elicited a sigh, lowering his hands and placing them on her hips.

Yoori wanted to throw
up once he started to touch her, molest her.

“It’s pretty amusing to see you attempt to come at me, as if you had the physical capabilities to fight me.” H
is laughter ridiculed her. “You’re no match for me, baby. The only reason why your head isn’t ripped off by now is because I still have hope that you’ll remember everything soon and that Soo Jin will come into play.”

“You wanted
. . .
” Yoori started brokenly, not believing how cruel this person in front of her was. “You wanted me to regain my memories the entire time?”

“I didn’t want you to in the beginning, when I thought for sure that it was going to be an easy task
to pull you away from Tae Hyun.” His voice grew angrier while he tightened his grip around her throat. His eyes became more menacing. “You fucking bitch. I hate losing anything and I hate it even more when I lose to Kwon Tae Hyun. It fucking killed me to see you with him when all I wanted to do was take you back for myself. I spoiled you rotten with affection, yet even with all the charm I threw at you, you never once faltered from him.” Scorn poured into his voice. “You were so resilient, so in love with Tae Hyun that you didn’t even give me the time of day. I didn’t want you to remember in the beginning because I didn’t want to deal with that stupid plan of yours.” He shook his head. “But after it was clear that I’d be losing you for good if I didn’t pull some other tricks out of my sleeve, I knew what I had to do. I had to bring Soo Jin back and what better way to do that than to piss Choi Yoori off and bring out that little killer instinct that you keep locked away?”

His disgusting words dispensed over her, but
Yoori couldn’t hear most of what he was saying. Her mind was only on Chae Young now. She still couldn’t believe it.

“
You had them rape her
. . .
one by one
. . .
while she begged for death
. . .
so you could get me back in the end? You ruined her life
. . .
just so Soo Jin would come back
. . .
just so you could reclaim your prized possession?”

I
t was when she peered into his emotionless eyes did Yoori grasp how wrong she had been. What a fool she had been. All these months, she felt sorry for him because she felt guilty that he had lost the one he loved. But as she stared at him, disgust heaved in her stomach. Lee Ji Hoon may think he loved Soo Jin, but he never truly did. He merely saw her as a possession and a trophy. What human being would send eleven gang members to rape an innocent girl for their own selfish needs? And why did he do that? So he could continue to play the part of the brokenhearted prince and steal her away from the only one who mattered to her? Just so he could resort to “Plan B” and provoke Soo Jin to come out of her?

“You bastard. You
fucking
bastard,” she gritted out, repulsed that she was in the presence of someone so revolting. Yoori could not fathom how she allowed him to fool her for so long. “I should’ve known. I should’ve known you were a fucking bastard when we were on that roof. I should’ve known how morally fucked up you were when you spoke ill about Tae Hyun’s father and continued to taunt Tae Hyun about what you did with his sister!”

“This is all your fault,” Ji Hoon told her with conviction. “With any other stupid bi
tch, all I had to do was smile and they would eat up everything I say. All I had to do was speak and they would get on their knees and worship me like I walked on water.” He glared at her. “But you
. . .
all you see is fucking Kwon Tae Hyun. I’m twice the man that bastard is and you can’t even spare a fucking glance in my direction whenever he’s around!”

Yoori shook as she th
ought about him and Tae Hyun. For so long, this world had tried to embed in her mind the difference between the two—that Ji Hoon was the brokenhearted Prince Charming while Tae Hyun was the sadistic monster who would sacrifice anything for his own benefit.

She saw it all
clearly now.

She recalled all those moments
where Ji Hoon played his part well, where he pretended to be heartbroken, like he was the innocent one in all of this. Tae Hyun was right. Ji Hoon was truly more ruthless than him. Instead of being the type of man that Tae Hyun was, Ji Hoon resorted to pretending to be weak, pretending to be human so that people in the Underworld would underestimate him. It was a genius plan because he had the element of surprise. When he finally showed his true colors, the ones deceived would never see it coming.

Ji
Hoon was the best actor there was, and judging by the lack of regret in his eyes, he really didn’t care about the well-being of Chae Young. He didn’t care that he would’ve been “kinder” if he killed Chae Young instead of allowing eleven men, one after the other, to rape and torture her. He didn’t even care about breaking Yoori. He didn’t care about anyone but himself.

He was unlike Tae Hyun, who had to endure
all the bullshit because he saw Ji Hoon’s true colors. He had to endure Yoori being stupid and constantly giving Ji Hoon chances. He had to endure her listening to Ji Hoon’s instigations and alienating herself from him. He had to endure being labeled as the “other guy.” He had to endure taking care of her while Ji Hoon broke her soul apart. He had to endure so much, and it was all because of Ji Hoon.