IF I WERE THE DEVIL ; YANG JUNGWON

CARD VIII: You are slowly getting on my nerves.

"Park Sunghoon said the exact same thing." Her focus laid fully on him now. "Woah, you both could be platonical soulmates," she exclaimed enthusiastically.

In an instant, the way Sunoo looked at her completely changed. "You keep on associating him with me." His face features forcefully kept his act, but there it was, the corner of his lips twitched.

"I mean, you are playing for him," she stated like it had been from the beginning on a given fact, obliviously supporting her head by placing her chin on the back of her hand.

"What?" He smiled in disbelief, red flickering in his golden-brown orbs.

"Isn't that what this is all about?" She raised her eyebrow as if she had been given the wrong script.

Sunoo exhaled while running a hand through his silky hair. "I told you already that I merely play with you to avenge myself," he gritted through his teeth. "Why would I do anything for the one I hate the most?" He interjected frustratingly to her ridiculous claim.

A smirk was drawn on her lips, but soon dissolved as she sighed. "Do you know when someone lies the best?" She sounded so excited suddenly. "When they lie to themselves."

"What are you implying?" He asked, not letting show the instability of his fragile emotions. This had to be one of her bluffs, an attempt to trick him, like she had down to others before. How would a demon be tricked by a human? Ludicrous.

"You repeat it over and over, convince yourself again and again." She raised from her chair, supporting her figure by resting her hands on the table. "You are obsessed with the thought of hate, disdain, despise because you know for whatever reason you can't feel it. You can't hate him."

You can't hate him.

Those four words were suddenly echoing in his ears. The more he tried to hide his true feelings, the more it pierced into his soul.

"But you are overtaken with the desire to. So, you play along, although you will never be able to make this play perfectly work." She shook her head with pity even.

"Unable to differ between your real and fake emotions, you didn't even realise how you lost your true self and turned into this." She walked over to him, her hand suddenly brushing over his hair.

She felt a sudden rush of regret and familiarity.

A cursed image crossed her mind. A boy sitting on a table. Behind him was her shaking him, trying to show him the truth, to save him, to wake him up from the spell of demonic nature, but she never made it.

Would she have been able to save Mino from the darkness if she just hadn't been such a weak angel?

If she had played in his place as a human?

Could she have saved him then from his tragedy, from his demise by losing himself?

"A mask with no soul." Her finger brushed over his cheek. "Eyes unable to portray any emotion besides fake ones." Eyun's head fell sideway, looking at him with sincere sorrow. "A tragedy suffocating in the illusion of being a comedy."

He was just watching her, unable to react or express anything. Her words. Why did it affect him so much, when it was nothing but a bluff, something untrue to manipulate his decision-making?

She sat on her seat again. "That's why you can't admit that you do this whole game solely for him. That you seek revenge for him, knowing he will never be able to do it himself." Eyun brought her focus back to reality as she ran a hand through her brown hair, rather proudly. She could perfectly see the inner conflict he had been thrown into.