When A Ghoul Falls In Love

Baek Joon Woo knows that the other person knows that he is standing in front of the door. The pressure in the air tells him to run as far as he can. His body is frozen. Although he wants to knock on the door, he can't even move a finger.

Clenching his teeth, he looks down and notices red eyes in his shadow. His heart drops to his stomach. Beads of sweat roll down on his forehead. It's not that he isn't aware of the other world. But he has never faced anything like this.

Inside the room, Nell Solomon comes out of the bathroom in a bathing robe. She finds Eli standing in front of the door, staring hard at it as if the door is his enemy. There is something off about him. Something dark. But it will never bother her.

"Are you in love with the door?" She breaks the silence. To be honest, she is sort of jealous of the door since it has so much attention from Eli. He hasn't even noticed that she has finished the bath.

"If I was, what would become of you?" Eli turns his head toward her. His voice is calm as his gaze falls over her wet silver locks. "Your hair is dripping wet."

"I shampooed." Nell bites her inner cheek. What the f.u.c.k is she saying? "Well, get me some change of clothes."

"Wear the ones you were wearing yesterday," He tells her.

"They are smelly." Talking to him feels like a chore sometimes. Nell complains, "I want to wear something fresh. I think you should also get clean clothes for yourself."

He heads toward the phone. "I will ask the receptionist."

"That is…" Nell pauses when she hears a muffled sound. She looks at the door with a frown. Baek Joon Woo? She isn't going to question her instinct. He is on the other side of the door. "Eli, why --"

He flashes to her side and leans closer as he pushes away the wet strands of her hair, "If you want him to live, stay inside the room."

Nell pinches her lips together. Her eyes burn with rage. She clenches her jaw and meets his eyes. "Are you threatening me?"

"If I say yes," Oh, look! How does she care so much about another man when her betrothed is right in front of her? Doesn't it please him? He wants to shred that man to nothingness. He smirks at her, "What will you do?"

"Eli." She blinks her eyes. Her rage is replaced by a look of understanding. "You have nothing to be jealous about."

Nothing? He scoffs. "I am not jealous."

"Sure, and I am the queen." She rolls her eyes. "I have been there and all. Jealous is just insecurity. Don't you have trust in me? Well, we did meet recently. But I trust you. You will never do wrong."

It does anything but pleases him. Does she think of him as a child? 

"Release him now," She commands him as if she owns him. Then, she tells him softly as if she is coaxing a child, "I will talk to him. He will leave. Let me do this in my ways, okay? Believe in me."

Eli Sanguine is irritated. He wants to choke this woman. He also wants to kill the other man. In one day, his world shattered and changed. He isn't himself and somehow, he feels things that he shouldn't be feeling. These feelings come like an unnatural force and push its way into the deepest part of him. However, he hates it. It is driving him insane -- and he wants to destroy something.

"Won't you?" She steps closer to him and raises her head. The scent of her hair wafts into his nose. He finds it comforting. Familiar. Like home. He cups her face and bends down his head to kiss her until she only remembers his name.

His lips brush against her palm. Eli narrows her eyes on her unhappily. 

"I will take you back with me and fix you," She says to him, "but for the sake of my sanity, I cannot do this. Although I want to do it a lot, I have to go back to you with you first."

"You are boring." Eli releases the man on the other side of the door. "You have ten minutes."

"You used to be less bossy." Nell misses the weirdo she is engaged to. "I knew that it was too good to be true."

She opens the door and finds Baek Joon Woo on the floor. Nell moves to his side and helps him sit up. His nose is bleeding. For a while, she doesn't know what to say to him as he stares into her eyes as if she has betrayed him.

Nell gathers her courage and asks him, "Baek Joon Woo, why did you come here?"

"Why did you come here?" He glances at her bathrobe. "To sleep with him? The man who looks like me?"

"It's not like that…" Nell sits down on her knees. This is going to be difficult. "Baek Joon Woo, I am sorry. I am truly sorry for everything that happened to you. If I could make amends --"

"Be with me." He grasps her hand. "For Nabi's sake. Don't break the family. You are distracted. We became parents too soon and we had to grow up early. You tried your best for the family. I know that it had been hard and you want to leave me because I couldn't give you the happiness that you deserve --"

Nell is shaken. Her lips tremble. How can she answer this man? It would have been better if she had never come to this place. Seeing Baek Joon Woo is the worst thing that has happened to her. A lost love. A family that could have been. A possibility but she will never be the same. 

"Go back to Nabi," Nell says as coldly as she can. "I am not her mother."

"Nell!" Baek Joon Woo snaps at her. "How can you say that?"

"I didn't give birth to her." Although she knows that she should handle this in another way, she can't deal with it anymore. Something bursts in her mind. Overwhelmed by everything, she yells at him, "I am not your wife. We never got married. Nabi was never born. None of this happened to me. The woman who was married to you was an illusion and you are also an illusion. I hate all of this. I want to go back to Eli! I want to go back to the reality I came from. I don't care how I got what I have, but I want to treasure it."

Baek Joon Woo wrinkles his brows. He can't understand what she's trying to say. This must be magic. That man with his face must have done something to his wife. He stands up and flounces into the room. 

"What did you do to my wife?" He rages at the man with golden eyes. "Take it back. Whatever magic you have put upon her… Take it back at this instant!"

"Baek Joon Woo, don't do this." Nell heads toward the room. However, the door shuts away. She pounds on the door hard. "Eli! Don't hurt him! Don't do anything to him. He knows nothing."

Baek Joon Woo's horrendous screams turn her blood cold. She steps away from the door as she covers her ears. 

She can't let this happen.

Nell grabs the knob and desperately struggles to open it. She can't let Eli harm Baek Joon Woo. If Baek Joon Woo dies like this, even if he is nothing but an illusion, she won't be able to forgive herself or Eli. She won't be able to look at him ever again.

Stinging heat rushes to the tips of her fingers, delving right into the metallic knob which turns white. White rays emerge out of her body as the shadows disappear. She hears the sound of the door unlocking. Nell rushes into the room and she finds Baek Joon Woo's bloody body on the floor. One of his eyes is ripped out. Blood drips from Eli's fingers. 

"I told you that you only had ten minutes," Eli whispers as his eyes glow brightly. "Ten minutes were over long ago. I can do anything I want."

"No." She stands between Eli and Baek Joon Woo. "You can't do this. If you kill him, I will never forgive you."

"I cannot let him live." Eli clicks his tongue. "He's like you and me. The man from your world. He's not an illusion."