When A Ghoul Falls In Love

[Somewhere far away from K City]

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” The teen girl screams in horror when she sees the picture on the screen.

The door opens and a girl in her late teens walks in with a grimace on her face.

“Why are you screaming? Do you want to make people deaf?” The girl crosses her arms and puckers her forehead. She narrows her bright pink eyes on the item in the younger girl’s hands. “What is that thing? Isn’t that Did you steal it from Fourth Brother when he came home last time? You are lucky that Father and Mother aren’t at home.”

Belina climbs off the bed and runs to the door. She closes it and turns to her older sister. She speaks in a hushed voice, “I didn’t steal it from him, Seventh Sister. He gave it to me before he left. He said that this phone is specially equipped to work in both worlds. With this, I could watch or read anything from the human world.”

It’s prohibited to use items from the human world in this world. But there are many who smuggles items between both worlds. One of them is their Fourth Brother who brings useless stuff for his youngest sister whenever he visits, though he rarely comes home.

“You have had it since then.” Julienne raises her left brow. “He knows that Father hates these stuff, but he still gave it to you. How long will he rebel against Father?”

“That’s not what important is right now.” Belinda shows her the screen. “Look at this picture. Brother got married. He got married today. He is a married man. He married someone. Our brother is hitched.”

“Stop!” Julienne raises her hand. Her stupid sister is panicking. “Slow down. What do you mean by marriage?”

“Look here.” Belinda points at the phone’s screen. “I am following his accounts everywhere. He only posts his pictures once in a while. Today, he posted a picture himself with a woman. I don’t know why he’s cross-dressing again, but he wrote that he got married to the woman beside him.”

“Did he now?” Julienne leans down and looks at the picture with a grave expression. That’s her brother without a doubt. Their Fourth brother is the most beautiful one among all the members in their family.

There was a time when he wore female clothes and put on makeup for an entire month to keep away the annoying females who were pursuing him. That didn’t work out well because even the males started to pursue him. Even the second prince fell in love with him and asked for his hand in marriage. That didn’t end well.

“What should we do, twelfth sister?” Belinda bites her nails. Father will never tolerate this. What will happen now? Will they fight again? His brother might never come back.

Julienne stares at the picture of the woman. In the picture, the pale-haired woman is looking at her brother while he is holding the piece of paper in front of him with undisguised glee in on his face. She’s sure that she had never seen that kind of expression on his face before. Compared to her excellent brother, the woman is nothing special. Julienne purses her lips. In the woman’s hazel eyes, there’s no love for his brother.

But why would he go for a human marriage? Did he? Julienne pales. She has a bad feeling now.

“Twelfth Sister, I am scared.” Belinda paces around the room. “I don’t know what will happen to us.”

“Belinda, is there a way to find out who this woman is?” Julienne asks her. The woman in the picture is too simple. Maybe her Fourth brother is playing a prank again. But she has a horrible feeling that her intuition is right. Her rebellious Fourth Brother has done something again.

“Oh, wait!” Belinda takes back the phone and taps the screen furiously. “Give me some time. I can find out.”

It takes less than a minute for Belinda to find out who the woman is.

“Fourth Brother is awesome.” Belinda giggles. “He tagged her in one of the pictures. Her name is Nell Solomon. I wonder if she’s a demoness — What’s this? She doesn’t have a single picture of herself on her account. She posts snapshots of the excerpts from the books. — Oh, Brother posted more pictures — I should congratulate them — They are having dinner at a restaurant. Is he eating human food?”

Julienne grabs the phone and glances at the pictures. Her face is ashen. She’s sure now. Her Fourth Brother married a human.

***

His wife is mad. She hasn’t spoken a word since they left the civil office. She’s not even touching the food. He can’t deny that he likes to annoy her a little. But he likes it better when she expresses her anger. He shifts the chair closer to her and shows his phone to her. “Nell, so many people want to see our babies soon.”

As expected, she reacts to this. She fists her hand and slams the table. “Did you have to tag me on the post?”

“I want the whole world to know that I belong to you.” Eli leans closer to her. “You are so gorgeous. I am afraid that other men won’t stop vying for you if they don’t find out that you are married to me now.”

They probably won’t stop even after they find out that she’s married. But it’s better to let everyone know.

He never tried to flirt with a woman before. He wonders if he is doing a good job. She hasn’t smiled once. But then, she’s not like the other women.

“Don’t worry about that.” She picks up the champagne glass. “You are the first one in years.”

“There was someone before me?” He asks with a curious voice, though he already knows that there was someone.

The corner of her lips curls up. “Maybe.”

“I am jealous.” He whines, looking in the opposite direction to hide the ugly jealousy in his eyes. Someone still has a special place in her heart. Will he ever be able to replace that person?

“Don’t be jealous of a dead boy.” Her voice is cool and detached. The tone of her voice tells him that she won’t tolerate another question.

Eli smiles and leans closer. “Wife, I will guard you well. No one, whether dead or alive, will be able to woo you away from me.”

He hears her sigh. She takes a sip of the champagne. He notices that she’s not touching the food. Since she was silent, he was the one who ordered everything that she might like. Does she not like any meal on the table? “Do you not like them? Should I order something else?”

“You aren’t eating either,” She mumbles.

“I am not eating because you are not eating.” Eli blinks at her.

Slightly annoyed, she glances at him. After a moment of pause, she tells him, “I will eat then.”

Out of all the dishes, she chooses the salad. She doesn’t look at him. Her movement are slow and mechanical. There’s no change in her eyes as if she’s only eating the food for the sake of it.

Some things take time. Eli picks up the fork. When his phone rings, he puts it down. Who’s calling him? He frowns when he sees the number. Isn’t that his old number?

“Shit!”

His youngest sister must have seen it.

Nell stops eating and furrows her brows. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing.” Eli waves his hand. Damn! He shouldn’t have given his phone to his sister. “Wife, I am sorry, but I must take this call. Do you mind?”

“You don’t have to ask my permission.” Nell narrows her eyes. Eli apologizes again before he darts out of the restaurant.

Outside the restaurant, he looks back once before picking up the call.

[FOURTH BROTHER, DID YOU MARRY A HUMAN?]

He puts the phone away from his ear. Does she want to burn his ear away? “Belinda, you know that I still pay for the phone that I don’t use. If you want to continue using that phone, you must forget what you saw.”

[Too late. I already know.] Eli purses his lips when he hears Julienne’s voice. This is bad. He shouldn’t have posted those pictures. Why did he forget about Belinda? [Did you marry her because you want to eat her someday? She doesn’t have much fat. You better feed her a lot and get her some fat in her body.]

This situation is unexpected. Eli lets out a breath. “Julienne, keep it a secret.”

[Fourth Brother, you should confuse your instinct with your heart desire. I know that you hate Father, but marrying a human to spite him is too much.]

“I love her,” Eli replies with a straightforward voice. “If you tell him, you will also face consequences.”

There’s a silence. [I don’t tattle-tale, Fourth Brother. However, I don’t think that you can keep this a secret for long. Father sent Seventh Sister to the human world a few days ago. As much as I know, she’s going to visit you before she comes back.]

He feels a headache coming. Why her among all the siblings?

[I wish you luck, Fourth Brother.]

The call is ended. Eli looks up a the sky and exhales. “That one is a troublemaker.”