Copyright © 2023 Nikie_Sterling_27 All Rights Reserved
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"Beware the seductive allure of dangerous love, for it can lead you astray and into the depths of despair."
Doom.
Hope.
Hate.
Love.
The world worked in contradiction and in balance. One can't have one with the other. To hate you must love first. To destroy you must create first.
That's how it was always explained to me and my "twin" Myeol Mang or in English "Doom". We existed to contradict, to balance, to oppose but also harmonize with each other. It's why we were there at the same place at the same time.
~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~
"Is this one human really worth taking the whole day to find?" Love, aka Ae-ri, asked her "twin" Doom, aka Myeol Mang,. "I'm bored of just walking around and following you."
Her "twin" rolled her eyes at his complaints and looked back at her. In her bubblegum pink knee high boots, slip on white dress, hot pink purse and her newly dyed head of blonde hair she looked like a brat to him but he knew everyone else would fawn over her and beg to give her their phone numbers. She blew a bubblegum bubble, popped it and ate it again in his face with a bored look on her face which made his eye twitch at her lack of respect. If he wasn't so busy with his own task he'd argue with her, for what would be the 1,302,468th time, about how he was older and she needed to respect him as such. She would argue back that neither actually knew who was "born" first so the argument was void and pointless and how he needed to loosen up.
"You know why I'm here. Find some heartbroken idiot or a dying plant to save." He told her, turning his head back forward and looking around for his human.
"And get told off because I didn't keep an eye on you for a few seconds?" Love asked, sounding annoyed just by the idea of it. "Yeah, no thanks. I like my ears not bleeding thank you very much."
"Aw, just admit you. You love your big brother," Doom teased her, flinching when what felt like a stone hit him in the middle of his back. "Quit it, Love. Are you trying to make me lose use of my legs?"
"We're in a hospital. I'm sure there's a human or two capable of reversing what I do to you." She retorted calmly, spitting her gum out into a wrapper and throwing it into a nearby trash can.
The bickering "twins" momentarily stopped to continue looking for Doom's human so they could leave sooner. If either noticed the eyes that kept looking onto them they didn't point it out as they could read every human's mind about how good everyone thought they looked. Love could see Doom glowing over the empty compliments meanwhile she ignored them as they were nothing she hadn't heard millions of times in differing levels.
"What if your human ends up getting transferred to another hospital?" She asked, after seeing no sign of the human her twin described.
"You really think I would waste our day like that?" He asked in return, getting a side-eye from her in return. "Ok I would but not this time. This time it's actually rather important that I get what I want."
"It doesn't really matter to me either way." She retorted, as a human woman with bangs and long brown hair bumped into her "twin" and nearly fell over.
Her "twin" easily caught the woman giving her the same smile she'd seen him give any woman he thought was worth flirting it. It made her sick and want to punch him for disrespecting her purpose so blatantly.
"I know I'm handsome, but I'm a little busy," Her "twin" told the woman, before turning to her. "Come on, Love."
"Yeah," The blonde said, turning to the woman with a charming smile on her face. "See you. Be careful, now."
'Wow. She's so beautiful. She looks like a princess.' Love heard the woman think to herself as she stared at the blonde with a bit of awe.
Love said nothing as she followed after her twin to the emergency floor. She watched her "twin" look at a specific mind, seeing him mentally counting down on a self-timer, as the sound of multiple ambulances pulled up to the hospital. She looked up at the nearby tv and frowned at the latest news story.
'MIDDAY STABBING RAMPAGE
IN GUSIN-DONG 5-WAY INTERSECTION'
"Of course you'd be so interested in someone so clearly twisted." Love said, looking at the tv in boredom as chaos exploded on the floor.
"You mean interesting. Wait out in the waiting room for me. I'll be done soon." Doom told her, as he kept an eye on all the stabbing victims were brought in stretchers.
"As if I'd stay and risk getting blood all over this outfit," She told him, making sure her purse was resting nicely by her side. "I'll go and offer my services to a few people whose loved one just died. Broken hearts need to be mended and all that."
Her "twin" waved her off as the human he was looking for was strolled in. With rhythmic and light footsteps she exited the emergency floor and headed off to find some heart-broken humans who needed healing.
~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~
"Time heals all wounds. But what really helps to speed up the process is the presence and warmth that comes from others. People who have been affected by the same tragedy are usually the ones who know best now to heal each other."
Once she was in the clear, Love let out a tired sigh and sat down on one of the waiting room couches. She opened her purse, taking out her matching hot pink wallet, opening it and counting how many business cards she had left. A so called love therapist like her with the slogan of "able to heal any and all emotional wounds to the heart!" made it so that she constantly had to print out new ones and give them away all the time. She was down to her last five and Doom still hadn't come back from collecting his power that the human was borrowing.
'How much longer is he planning on making me wait?' Love thought, crossing her legs, putting her elbow on her knee and resting her hand on her half closed fist. Her dangling, jeweled, Ruby red heart earrings quietly jangled as the air from the air conditioned blowed throughout the room.
"He knows how impatient I am and still makes me wait. What a nasty little brother he is." Love muttered to herself, tapping her foot in the air to a beat she thought up of.
"Oi, it's big brother to you." Doom said, suddenly showing up out of thin air.
"There you are. I was beginning to wonder what was taking you so long." She said, watching him walk over to where she was sitting.
"You just like annoying the hell out of me," He said, before gesturing up to the roof. "I'm going to talk to her. Head home if you like."
Love's eyes locked on to the blood pool on his borrowed doctors jacket and squinted at it. He let himself have fun again. She would have something to say about it no doubt.
"I'll come and talk to her then. She likes me more and I'm more of the people person between us." Love said.
"Are you the one she says is the butterfly in her garden?" Doom asked, sounding annoyed by the unfitting nickname. "I don't even know what she means by that. Docile god. There's no point in you being there when your never the one causing problems."
"Don't be an attention hog. If I come then—"
"Just listen to me for once will you?" Doom cut her off and began walking off to the roof without so much as a look back.
She frowned at his retreating figure and kicked an imaginary rock on the floor. Stupid Doom. Why was she even surprised that he couldn't be nicer to her on this one day?
"Happy birthday to you too... asshole."
~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~
Red. Blood red. Steaming red. The kind that's been boiling under the surface for awhile and was now exploding like a volcano. That was the red she had to deal with now.
"Now, now. There's no reason to get all huffy in a public place with this. Especially not with the delicate position you're in." Love spoke up, making the two women turn to her and her beaming smile.
"What?" The woman wearing white asked, clearly still angry.
"What do you mean what?" Love repeated, walking up to the table and taking the two glasses so neither one could be used again as ammo. "I'm just pointing out how illogical your argument is to take out your anger on your husband on some girl who he clearly never told her about you. All you're doing is embarrassing yourself and her like this."
The woman wearing a blue sweater and seemed... oddly familiar started quietly chucking to herself before looking off to the side. Clearly, she was either amused by the situation or lost her marbles.
"So that's what this is about." She uttered to herself, but could still be overheard. "I see. I understood it right away."
"I heard you two first met here." The angry woman said, still letting out steam.
"Hey," Love said, sounding cold and a bit annoyed now. She handed off the two classes to some passing by staff member who looked at her in confusion before walking away. "I told you there's no point in arguing about this in such a public place. You want to argue, take it outside. It won't make your husband love you or appreciate you all of a sudden or undo what happened. Today I'm supposed to be relaxing but instead I'm dealing with you. Shut. It."
"Half chocolate - half vanilla birthday cake!"
"Oh, that's me!" Love exclaimed, suddenly bubbly and bright again. She turned back to the angry woman and gave her a cold dead stare. "Stop arguing with the poor girl and deal with your cheating husband yourself. It's the 21st century, women don't need to depend on men anymore and you look well off enough to support yourself and a child. Deal with your problems and move on."
And with that the blonde bombshell walked away with her cherry red painted lips in a bright smile. Tak Dong-kyung stared at the blondes back in confusion as she walked away.
Wasn't that the same woman she saw at the hospital just a few hours ago?
She then watched as the previously steaming woman seemed to be as meek as a mouse now. The older woman picked up her purse and hurriedly walked out of the cafe without so much as a second look back.
A butterfly flaps it's wings a beat too early...
The wind from its wings knocks over a domino piece...
Love enters the stage and in its hurricane sets off motions and prevents motion...
Unknowingly, a seemingly sick little girl on a rooftop let's out a sigh as they watched the "good" twin cause trouble just like her brother. Oh well. Small events like this will actually help the flower and the sprout grow quickly but... she got lucky for now.
~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~ ~ ❦ ~
Ring!
Ring!
Ring!
Ring!
"Hello?" Love asked, as she lounged around on her "twins" expensive black couch. Honestly, despite them having been eternal room mates he kept furnishing the place like he lived alone.
"Ms. Venus Vermillion?" Oh her pen name for her books. There must be an issue with her editor over at Life Story since this didn't sound like her usual female editor.
"Yes, this is she," Love said, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder. She stared down at her fingernails, wondering if black triangle nails would look good, and watched as they magically turned the shape and color she wanted. "Whose calling may I ask?"
"Ah, Ms. Vermillion my apologies. Your editor has been... busy with her other meetings and hasn't been able to meet with you... Again." The male voice over the phone told her.
Ah, right. She's been trying to meet up with this Dong-gyeong woman for almost a month now but every time their appointments happened to be close she suddenly couldn't attend.
"Oh, I see. Well then, I guess my current version of The Butterfly Keep isn't being picked up if my editor keeps not wanting to meet with me." Love said, angling her new nails to see how they would look in the light. Maybe some smiley faces or star shapes would make them look better.
"No! No! We at Life Story would love nothing more to read your manuscript!" The male voice exclaimed, making her wince and something over on his end fall over. "I was simply calling to see if you would be willing to meet with another editor instead. He is extremely reliable! Knows his craft! Honest to a fault! And has yet to fail!"
"I don't like working with men. They never seem to understand my characters, my story, or my overall vision. I've spent more time having to explain myself to them a hundred times instead of getting feedback. I'm tired of it."
"Ms. Vermillion please! I swear on my company itself that he won't let you down! Romance happens to be his strong suit!!"
Love let out a hum as she looked over her now black and silver nails. These were rather cute now. Surely, even Doom had to see her effort in trying to make their birthday this year actually enjoyable.
"Fine. I'll meet with this new writer but only because you're making him out to be this god amongst editors," Love said, ignoring the sigh of relief coming from the man on the other end of the line. "If he doesn't meet up to my standards or flakes out on me like the last one, I'm taking my stories elsewhere where they're appreciated. Bye."
And with that she abruptly ended the call and threw her phone down on the couch... she should have gotten the name of that loud man. Oh well, too little too late. At least she finally could meet with an editor and hopefully get some kind of feedback.
She laid down on the couch and began wondering when her "twin" would be getting back. Already it was getting into the late afternoon, the sun had already nearly vanished and he hadn't come back yet. She didn't want to go out looking for him but wasn't above it. Even on their so called birthday all he could do was cause some hassle on her end to deal with.
'Why am I even surprised?' Love thought with a near pout on her face.