Side Story Chapter 45: Nectar (1)
A week passed since Oh Kang-Woo witnessed the end of humanity. Kang-Woo had spent his days stuck in his room in Han Seol-Ah’s arms out of severe psychological shock. The trauma from Hell he had managed to forget about had come to haunt him, amplified twofold. Kang-Woo was curled up in bed, trembling in pallor, as Seol-Ah soothed him with a smile.
Lilith came to visit him as he was slowly forgetting about the trauma— in the form of Kurosaki Yurie, which was now hers.
“Come on, my king. I said I was sorry.”
Kang-Woo glared at Lilith with narrowed eyes.
Lilith kissed him on the cheek and winked. “I won’t ever show my tentacles in front of you. Okay? I also advised Yurie, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Really…?”
“Of course. There’s no way I would do something you hate on purpose.”
“But you did all this time.”
“Tee-hee.”
“Don’t try to act cute on me.” Kang-Woo frowned and lightly flicked Lilith’s forehead. “Haaa. Fine. Don’t you dare do it again, got it?”He couldn’t stay stuck in his room forever. He had shown an unsightly side of himself due to the overwhelming influx of trauma.
“Oh, are you forgiving unnie already?” asked Seol-Ah in disappointment as she pulled on Kang-Woo’s arm. She pouted and continued, “You could scold her a little more…”
“My, what do you think you’re saying about your unnie?”
Lilith narrowed her eyes as she caressed Seol-Ah’s body.
“Kyaah! P-Please don’t touch me in weird places~!”
“You’ve been monopolizing the king for an entire week. Don’t you think you should give your beloved unnie a turn?”
“Ngh…”
“Now, now, move over. Or, are you going to kidnap him again?”
“Y-You said you wouldn’t bring that up again!” shouted Seol;-Ah, her face as red as a tomato.
Lilith giggled as she pulled Kang-Woo, who was in Seol-Ah’s arms, toward her. Seol-Ah stared at Kang-Woo in disappointment but as Lilith said, she had monopolized Kang-Woo for a week. A disaster like before would happen again if she were any more stubborn.
“That aside, what happened with Balrog and Yurie?” Kang-Woo asked.
“Weren’t you watching back then? They’ve been practically inseparable lately,” answered Lilith as she placed Kang-Woo on her lap and hugged him from behind.
“He got a lover… just like that, huh?”
Kang-Woo couldn’t help but chuckle. He couldn’t imagine Balrog, whom Kang-Woo always thought had muscles for brains, having a lover.
“Hoho. Can you blame him? It was a body made by yours truly.”
“...”
Kang-Woo’s expression darkened, being reminded of the hellscape from a week ago. Noticing his disgust, Lilith lightly bit Kang-Woo’s ear.
“Urgh!”
“Forget about what happened back then.”
“Ngh…” Kang-Woo shook his head and stood up. “More importantly, since Balrog has a partner now, we should hold a congratulatory party for him, right?”
“A party?” Lilith asked.
“Yeah. It’ll also work to introduce Yurie to the others.”
“Mm. Is there a need to go so far for that muscle pig?”
“Come on, be nicer to Balrog.”
Although he had trolled more times than Kang-Woo could remember, Balrog was Kang-Woo’s longest and most loyal subordinate. Kang-Woo wanted to at least hold a congratulatory party for him since he had found a partner after a thousand years.
“Hohoho. Alright, my king.” Lilith nodded as she giggled. “In that case, I will send the invitations.”
“Oh, then I will prepare the food!” shouted Seol-Ah, raising her hand enthusiastically.
“Okay. I’ll leave the cooking to you, Darling.”
“Fufu. I’ll make tons of your favorite foods, Kang-Woo.”
“The party isn’t for me.”
“Oh… but Balrog can barely taste the food, can he?”
“I guess that’s true. He only likes alcohol.”
Balrog loved beer not because of its taste but its scent and fizziness.
“We’ll have to order beer by the barrel…”
Considering Balrog’s size and that he could chug an entire beer barrel, pints of beer wouldn’t be enough.
‘In that case…’
Kang-Woo took out his smartphone and sent someone a video.
“Hm? Did you just send a video to someone?” asked Seol-Ah as she tilted her head and peeked at Kang-Woo’s smartphone display.
“Do you want to watch too, Seol-Ah?”
Kang-Woo smiled as he played the video, showing a woman with red hair standing in a dimly lit street in the middle of the night.
- What’s this…?
- I-It’s not mine!!
- It fell out of your pocket., didn’t it?
- I-I mean, yes, b-b-b-b-b-but…!
‘Ahhh…’
It was one of the precious memories Kang-Woo had made with her— one so beautiful that he would never forget it.
“I’ll cherish it… always.”
Tears flowed down Kang-Woo’s cheeks. He hugged the smartphone as he remembered his treasured memories with the woman.
Whaaaaaaaam!!
Soon after, the front door that had been recently fixed ripped open again.
“OH KANG-WOO, YOU MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!”
Bash!
Cha Yeon-Joo stormed into Kang-Woo’s room and landed an uppercut on Kang-Woo’s chin.
“Gurgh!”
Kang-Woo slammed into the ceiling and then fell to the ground. Yeon-Joo kicked the collapsed Kang-Woo as she panted furiously.
“YOU!!! FUCKING!!! BITCH!!! AFTER ALL THAT TIME WITHOUT ANY CONTACT, YOU SEND THAT?! HUH?!”
“Y-Yeon-Joo!” Seol-Ah shouted.
“WHAT?!”
Yeon-Joo turned to Seol-Ah, her eyes bloodshot.
“U-Ummm…” Seol-Ah smiled awkwardly after having seen the video. “You see… Kang-Woo was just…”
She tried to think of an excuse, but nothing came to mind, no matter how much she thought. Even Seol-Ah thought Kang-Woo deserved the beating.
“I’m sorry, Kang-Woo…”
Seol-Ah turned away in sorrow.
“Huff, huff. So, why did you send me that fucking video? Huh?” asked Yeon-Joo as she caught her breath after kicking Kang-Woo to her heart’s content.
“Because I missed you, obviously.”
Kang-Woo smiled as he rubbed the places he was kicked and pulled Yeon-Joo toward him by her waist.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Whuuut?!” Yeon-Joo stammered with her face as red as her hair and stepped backward. “Wh-What are you talking about?”
She turned away from Kang-Woo as she twisted her body in embarrassment.
“Haaaaah~! My little sister is so cute!”
Lilith jumped at Yeon-Joo with her eyes shining.
“Ack! G-Get off of me!!” Yeon-Joo flopped around like a fish caught in a net. “Ah! Let go, Lilith!”
“My, my, you should be calling me unnie, right?”
“Ngh!”
“Now, now. Why don’t you call me unnie? Hm? We’re a family now, aren’t we?”
Yeon-Joo bit her lip. “G-Get off of me, u-u-unnie…”
“Kyaaa! My little sisters are soooooooo~ cute!”
Lilith shouted as she barraged Yeon-Joo’s cheeks with kisses. Yeon-Joo began to scream again as she struggled to get out of Lilith’s grasp.
“That’s enough, Lilith unnie.”
Seol-Ah pulled Lilith off of Yeon-Joo.
Kang-Woo took a step back and looked at the three women.
‘Is this the first time these three gathered in one room since that incident?’
Lilith was very busy and Yeon-Joo lived on another floor, so they had not been given the chance to gather in one spot.
‘I still can’t believe it.’
Kang-Woo stared at the three noisily bantering, illogically beautiful women. He might be slightly biased, but they were extremely beautiful even objectively speaking.
“Sniff.” Kang-Woo began to tear up.
‘My time suffering in Hell was worth it.’
He was in a relationship with not one but all three of those beautiful women at the same time. He was overwhelmed by enough happiness to blow his agonizing past away.
“That aside, did you actually call me over because you missed me?”
Yeon-Joo, who just barely managed to escape from Lilith’s grasp, glared at Kang-Woo.
“Yeah. Well, I guess there’s also something else.”
“Urgh, I knew it. So, what is it?”
“I’d like you to get some alcohol.”
“Alcohol?”
“Yeah. I want to hold a congratulatory party for Balrog for getting a girlfriend.”
“Oh, Balrog got a girlfr… Wait, what? What did you just fucking say? That lump of muscles got a girlfriend?!” Yeon-Joo grabbed Kang-Woo by his collar, her mouth agape. “Wh-Who?!”
“Her name is Kurosaki Yurie.”
“Eh…? Isn’t that the owner of Lilith’s body?”
“Yeah. Some things happened.”
Kang-Woo concisely explained the matter with Yurie.
“Wow… for real? Balrog fell in love with her at first sight?”
“Hoho. You should’ve seen that muscle pig’s face,” Lilith remarked.
“Argh! Why didn’t you film it, unnie? I want to see it so fucking bad!” Yeon-Joo stomped her feet in genuine disappointment. She then turned to Kang-Woo and asked, “Jeez, you always record anything when it’s to embarrass me, so why didn’t you do anything this time?”
“Uhh… mm.”
Of course, Kang-Woo omitted the part about the tentacles.
“Argh! I’m so fucking curious! Oh, Vaal Zahak would have footage, right? It’s his lab!”
“Don’t watch it,” Kang-Woo said firmly.
“Eh? Why?? It’d be fun.”
“Just shut up and take my word for it.” Kang-Woo covered his eyes to forget the nightmarish sight. “Fuuu. Anyway, I want to hold a party for him. He drinks way too much so I’ve been searching for someone who can get tons of beer.”
“And why is that me…?” Yeon-Joo asked.
“Because you drink a shit ton.”
“So what?” Yeon-Joo turned away as she crossed her arms. “I mean… it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I knew it.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Sorry.”
“Ahem. I mean, it’s no problem, but he wouldn’t get drunk, would he?”
“That’s true.” Kang-Woo nodded in disappointment.
There were many advantages to having the body of a god, but one disadvantage was that they couldn’t get drunk from alcohol.
“It would only bring memories of getting drunk…” Kang-Woo expressed.
It would be the same as drinking non-alcoholic beer. Yeon-Joo clicked her tongue in agreement.
“It’s like doing hip thrusts to get the feeling of having sex,” Yeon-Joo remarked.
“What’s with that comparison?”
‘You don’t even have one.’
“Haaah? Did you imagine something dirty just now?” Yeon-Joo asked.
“Not at all.”
“Heh. You’re no different from non-alcoholic beer at the moment, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about…?”
Yeon-Joo smirked and said, “You’re all talk but you’re probably tiny down th— Kyaaaaaahh!”
Kang-Woo charged at Yeon-Joo at the speed of light and grabbed her by the collar.
“YOUUUUUU!! YOU BIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!”
“Bwahahahahahaha!!”
“Stop laughing, you bitch!”
“Hihihi! That’s revenge for earlier, dammit!”
Seol-Ah pouted in dissatisfaction as she watched Yeon-Joo and Kang-Woo bickering and mumbled, “It may be tiny, but… it’s cute.”
“Haaa, haaa,” Kang-Woo panted.
“Ugh… but seriously, what a shame. I don’t even remember the last time I got drunk.”
Yeon-Joo sighed in disappointment.
Just then, Lilith clapped her hands together. “Oh, I’ve heard something from Layla once before. She said that even those with Deific Essence can get drunk when they drink nectar, the drink of the gods.”
“FOR REAL?!”
Yeon-Joo and Kang-Woo’s eyes shone simultaneously.