Book 2: Seven Demon's Hearts

Episode 70: Monster

Episode 70: M o n s t e r

"Pride." His name came out in a whisper from her lips. 

Solmi was certainly surprised by his appearance, but after hearing everything Jungkook had said about his plans, she felt unable to initiate a proper conversation. 

His palm pressed against her cheek before he untangled his hand from her hair and pulled away. "He'd dare kiss my woman." A faint red flush appeared across his cheeks as he turned his face away from her. 

"But you're finally outside now," Solmi smirked, relieved to see him again. "Pride, I--"

"Where are we?" He stood up, taking a look around the room with slight interest. "This place is completely sealed off."

"Yeah, I know. I use it as one of my hideouts. Thanks to you, I had to clean up the mess you left behind for Jungkook to deal with alone."

He glanced back at her and snickered, looking down at what he was wearing. "What the fuck is this. He'd let my body wear something so gross!" Angrily, pride took off Solmi's oversized shirt and threw it away. 

"Hey, those are my clothes by the way! You should be thankful I let you borrow them. At least Jungkook was."

Swirling around he quickly hissed, "don't compare me to that weakling. He couldn't even manage to bear a few corpses in front of him." 

Solmi stood up, glaring back at Pride. "A few corpses?" She growled. "Listen, I couldn't really do anything about it in front of Jungkook because I know he had nothing to do with what I saw. But you're here telling me that an entire building of innocent people was nothing but a few corpses to you! Why, Pride?! Why did you do it?" Unable to answer, he stood still and quiet, looking away. "I know they weren't sacrifices." His eyes suddenly flashed a brighter blue, glaring back at her. When Pride saw that she wasn't looking at him with that hostile expression she had on in the hotel anymore, a wave of relief washed over him. "I understand now. Jungkook helped me understand what your job is." 

"My job?" He angrily scoffed, narrowing his eyes. "Is that how he made it sound?" 

"Pride," Solmi placed a hand on his shoulder but he shrugged her off. 

"Don't. I won't forget how you looked at me before. You were so terrified and disgusted." He scowled, his eyes full of pain. 

"Pride." She repeated, standing in front of him at a closer distance, this time placing both her hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry," Solmi tilted her head apologetically. His eyes widened in disbelief and slowly, his face turned to slightly peek a look at her sincere expression. "I fucked up this time, and now I'm admitting it. I'm sorry that I didn't allow you to help me understand what it all meant. Back then I just didn't think clearly about it. I was so hurt because I thought that you were intentionally hiding it from me for whatever reasons. I thought that we were a little closer, so I was angry you didn't share the truth with me. It's just that, after all, we've been through, after sharing most of our vulnerable moments together, I felt shocked that I didn't know something so important about you, Pride. I really just wanted to help." 

"And how do you think I felt the entire time you were gone without telling me what you were planning or where you even went?" He didn't let that one slide by. "Didn't you think I was probably dying on the inside wondering if you were okay or not? Didn't you think I wanted to help you too?" Her actions did sound extremely selfish, but that was a different comparison in her case. 

"Well, what I was doing had to be kept a secret--no matter what. If I had said anything, then I would have risked the entire thing from going well. I even--we even abandoned that little girl for this. Hell, I would have risked my very life to protect it too. And, truthfully, I do feel sorry that Sera had to experience such shitty company--and I feel even more sorry for Hanul because she trusted me enough to care for Sera in her place, but I let them both down. And now you too. I-I couldn't even be a better older sibling the second time around. I'm just horrible when it comes to responsibility, I never learned how to really care about anyone besides my own self. Growing up with my mother taught me a lot of things about prioritizing my own survival, and that shouldn't have been the case for a young child but then again, I can't even fully hand her the blame considering what shitty fate our family had as Demon Slayers." She scoffed with slight disappointment. "But believe me, when I say this Pride, I just couldn't ruin everything we've done to finally get to our goals."