Chapter 155: Epilogue 3.2: Purgatory
Chapter 155: Epilogue 3.2: Purgatory
"Y-You!!!" Martha gasps. "The time-traveller!"
"Yes, yes." Kyuri nods her head proudly. "Didn't I make you guys overwork? I should have done more."
Martha shakes her head. "Why do you look young? You are supposed to die at the age of 98."
"Oh, I died at the age of ninety-eight." Kyuri flips her hair. "But I lingered around as a ghost with Si An. We had ghost honeymoons."
Martha creases her forehead and looks around. "Is your husband dead too? I can't see him here."
"He got the white ticket." Kyuri exhales. "Well, I did make him pay for his sins even after our marriage. We practised celibacy for a few years. He would always listen to me. When it was over, he attacked me every night."
Martha is least interested in listening but she doesn't say anything to stop the woman.
"I sent him to the white door." Kyuri looks at the black ticket with the VVVIP mark and sighs. "I was supposed to have fun in hell. What's the point of giving so much wealth away if I can't enjoy the VVVIP treatment in hell?"
"I understand your grievances." Martha, who seems like she will have a meltdown at any moment, clasps her hands together and bends down her waist. "But the situation is like this. We can't let you go to hell since hell has stopped its services due to the reconstruction. Though it will take hundreds of years before you can enter hell, please wait here. I will make special arrangements for your stay."
Kyuri wrinkles her nose. Her eyes turn dark. "You want me to wait here for near eternity while my husband spends his time in heaven. Do you not know what he did to me?"
"Oh, about that" Martha scratches her hair. "You see, he's a special vessel. Just like you have special privileges, he also has special privileges. Anyway, didn't you say that you punished him for a long time?"
"So what if I did?" Kyuri raises her brow. "I also suffered for a long time but I have to go to hell."
"That's because --" Martha rubs her hands nervously.
"Alright." Kyuri raises her hand. "Don't argue with this grandmother. Find out if he has already taken birth. He can be quite impatient."
"Sure, Ma'am." Martha rushes away from Kyuri.
Kyuri has noticed the ghost in a white dress standing little away from her. That ghost has been staring at her for a while. There's something about that ghost. She seems different. And she's shining brightly. Even Kyuri can feel a certain pull toward that ghost. She beckons the ghost to come to her.
The ghost woman comes to her. She seems a little nervous. When Kyuri gives her a signal to take a seat, the woman sits opposite her and smiles.
"You are shining." Kyuri tilts her head slightly. "Introduce yourself."
"I am Nakashima Wakana, a detective. I am twenty-five," Wakana answers her awkwardly. "Who are you?"
"Kwon Kyuri, I was a time-traveller." Kyuri raises her chin and smiles at her. "Maybe I still am. After all, I am supposed to lose my abilities in hell."
"Really?" Wakana widens her eyes, studying the woman in awe. "Did you turn back time?"
"I did." Kyuri starts telling her about her adventures. "It started with a murder"
****
Wakana listens to everything, enchanted by the story completely. When Kyuri finishes the story, Wakana asks her, "But you seemed like you wanted him to get more punished."
"I was just joking." Kyuri chuckles. "To be honest, I understood his rage toward me. He couldn't remember the thousand years that we spent together. I always met him and then, I left him. His soul must have been angry, frustrated, and miserable. Though he loved me, he must have accumulated a lot of stress. Though it doesn't justify what he did that day, I think that the pain of losing his child unleashed all the hatred that he had for me. But he regretted it all his life."
"I don't understand." Wakana furrows her brows, "You say that feelings turned to hatred. Then, how could you say that you still love each other after a thousand years?"
"I used to think that I was the only one suffered in those thousand years." Kyuri's gaze turns thoughtful. "I didn't think about him. He had to die in each lifetime. When he was Li Jun, he had to marry other women because he couldn't help it back then. His mind might have forgotten me, but his soul remembered me. So, it happened against his will. However, he was a medium to balance historical events."
"When he was Kang Si An, the same thing happened. He even had to lose a child again that was mine in the original timeline. So, he was grieving a lot. For nearly a thousand years, he didn't have any happiness either. But he loved me. And I know that he did. Can't we get mad at our loved ones? I was also mad at him though. For a long long time. Thanks to our daughter, I started to see him again. He wasn't completely Li Jun but he wasn't completely Kang Si An either. I realized that I love him. But I didn't forgive him because I love him. I did it because he truly repented. For my happiness, he was willing to let me go."
Wakana thinks about Choi Minho. That immortal also let her be with Sei, although he loved her.
"There are many kinds of love." Kyuri has a warm smile on her lips. "I am a lucky one for sure. I know that the Keeper also loved me. He also let go of me -- not once but twice because he knew me better than I knew myself. My best friend, Hana, was able to find happiness with her husband and children. We became in-laws later. What a beautiful life it was!"
A thousand years of bittersweet love. Wakana can't help but envy the woman before her. Is there someone who would love her in such a selfless way? She exhales. Choi Minho. However, she isn't like Kwon Kyuri who risked everything and turned back time. As much as she knows, it was Choi Minho who had gone to any length to protect her.
"I don't envy my husband who went to heaven. As much as I know him, I am sure that he's trying to get out of that place and come to me." Kwon Kyuri winks at her. "You look like you are thinking of someone."
Wakana rubs her nose and tells her, "There's an immortal human who is in love with me."
"Immortal?" Kyuri claps her hands excitedly. "Is he good looking?"
"He is." She gives her a soft nod.
"It seems like you also have a story for me." Kyuri props her chin under her hand. "Why don't you tell me?"
After a moment of hesitation, Wakana reveals everything to Kyuri. "So, I got tricked by a ghost and died."
"You are an idiot," Kyuri says to her in a beat.
"I know." Wakana lowers her head, depressed. "Dying wasn't my plan. I wanted to be a cool detective."
"I am not calling you an idiot because of that." Kyuri tsks. "You are clearly in love with him. Why are you still confused?"
Huh?
Wakana blinks her eyes. "How do you know that?"
"How would I know that?" Kyuri twirls her finger around the strand of her hair. "Okay, first, you should tell me why do you think that you don't love him."
She thinks about it for a long time. Choi Minho, the immortal human, is too good for her. Also, she might not have loved him. What if all that she felt was his emotions? How much was true?