Before Her Very Eyes

Chapter 72 [THE END]

"You know who it is, right?" Jun asked.

Arin knew. It didn't take much time to see it clearly, to understand those confusing sentiments in her heart for that cursed man. It was like everything had finally fallen into place, and everything made sense. She was in love with Jeonghan, who had been her soulmate all along.

As she came to terms with that, she felt embarrassed. How could she not see something that was before her very eyes the whole time? And why had Jun made her believe in a lie for so long? Why had he told her that her soulmate was Jihoon, when it had been Jeonghan since the start?

Arin frowned at him, demanding an explanation from Jun and Jihoon. Why had they kept something so important from her? What possible motivation could they have to mislead her like that? And why did Jihoon know the truth before she did...

"We first met in the hospital, remember?" Jun began. "Jeonghan was admitted, and you were there with him. It was then that I saw that you two were connected. But I also knew you hated him then, because you didn't know he was cursed yet. If I had told you that you and Jeonghan were soulmates, you would have never believed me. I needed you to trust me, so I withheld that information.

"When I met you again outside the building, I needed you to willingly want to follow me and join us at MRS, so I fabricated a lie and said that Jihoon was your soulmate. I thought that would scare you into wanting to follow me, to get as far away from that guy as possible before your curse took him. It was stupid, and thinking back, I shouldn't have lied like that, but I was desperate. Sangbin was dying.

"I wanted to tell you the truth afterwards, but it never felt like the right time, and I didn't want you to stop trusting me. Later, you and I were doing the sessions together, I didn't want to tell you because of jealousy. I didn't want you to realize you loved Jeonghan, so I was being petty. After that, I didn't want to say anything that would ruin your relationship with Jihoon. I just wanted to stop interfering at that point."

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Arin," Jun said. "I feel like I let you down. I understand if you're angry with me, but please don't be angry at Jihoon. I made him keep it a secret. He found out when we had to track you down using Jeonghan's thread. Even Jeonghan knows, by the way..."

Arin was not angry. She felt a lot of things, but anger was not one of them. She was embarrassed to not have realized it earlier, but she was also relieved; she was not confused anymore. Her feelings for Jeonghan finally made sense to her, and that was a liberating feeling.

She did not have time to be angry at Jun or Jihoon. She was too busy thinking about Jeonghan.

"Look who I brought..." Hoshi said from behind Arin, startling her. Behind him walked Jeonghan, who frowned and crossed his arms as Arin stared at him with newfound passion.

She was in love with him and she knew it. She loved the scent of his perfume. She loved the way he flicked his hair and the way he stood with his back straight. She loved the way he looked at her, with love that he tried to mask with scoffs and derogatory names like 'Missy.' He was beautiful. He was perfect. He was magical.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Missy? It's ugly," Jeonghan sputtered with reluctant malice. Arin saw right through it.

Hoshi, Jun, and Jihoon shuffled out of the glass room to leave them alone. Yoonsa closed her eyes and absorbed all of the magic.

There was so much magic. It was all around Arin, concentrated in her throat in the form of his name. Jeonghan. She really wanted to say it. She was aching to say it, in the same way she was aching to get closer to him.

"Your hair is ugly," he muttered. "And that sappy voice message you sent made me want to hurl!

She stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

"You smell like shit. When's the last time you showered?" he said as he leaned his head into her neck. He didn't push her away, nor did he hug her back. Still, it was enough. She felt his sincerity in the slowness of his breath on her neck, and the pace of his heartbeat against her chest.

-

Arin had two layers of contact lenses embedded into her eye, so if one fell off, there was always a backup. Further backup included the glasses she always wore. With those barriers before her eyes, the curse was silenced.

She only ever took off those barriers during Extraction Sessions, where she and Jeonghan were stuck in a room together, playing their curses against one another.

It was in one of those Extraction Sessions that Jeonghan asked her to move in with him, in a very subtle, Jeonghan-like way.

"The stairs in the building are very dirty," he mumbled. "I need you to come back with me and clean them, Missy. And after you clean them, I need you to do my laundry, and clean my bathroom. And since you're so slow and calling you is such an inconvenience, I need you to stay with me, in the same apartment! Also your dumb cat can come too."

Arin agreed, but she never cleaned the stairs again.

She moved all of her belongings into the apartment on the 11th floor. Jeonghan mercilessly made fun of all the Chilli merch and posters she hung up around the place. It was a good way to deflect the pain when he showed dashes of kindness, like when he made her food. Or bought her gifts. Or when he was gentle when he kissed and touched her, as opposed to the rough, hungry, and sometimes painful way he usually expressed his intimacy.

She learned to speak his language. She learned to never take his vicious words to heart, and to appreciate the scarcity of his tenderness.

-

Jihoon continued to be a part of her life. He was her neighbor, her friend, and as it turned out, a colleague at MRS.

There were some things MRS could never solve with magic, and Jihoon could help them solve it with technology. His computer expertise earned him a place in the The Recruitment Unit with MRS, where he helped them track down more cursed and blessed people around the city.

The influx of people meant more magic, and more magic led to the reversal of Larali's curse.

Next in line was Jeonghan.

-

A/N: wow I can't believe it's finally over! TT

Gahhh it feels so bittersweet. I don't wanna let it go!

Was this ending too fast? for me, it just felt right to wrap it up at that point. I really hope it was satisfying ;;

It ended up differently than I originally planned, but I think it came together really nicely. I honestly really enjoyed writing this story, and I also learned so much from it. Of all my stories so far, I think this is the story that helped improve my writing the most because it taught me what not to do next time I plan a story lol

Anyways, thank you all sooo much for sticking through with this messy and complicated story until the very end. I really hope it was worth your time in the end.

No matter if you've commented consistently or if you were a silent reader, I would love if you could give one comment about your overall honest impression of this story! Also I wanna respond to each and every one of you and thank everyone individually, so please do leave a final comment for old time's sake :)

As for future projects: currently, I'm going to go back to working on Heart of Ice. I'm totally rewriting it and getting it ready for publishing. That might take a month or two. Afterwards, I'm definitely going to start planning a new story, starring none other than our lovely Joshua (since he always gets the short end of the stick in all my stories lol). Look forward to it!

If you guys want updates on Heart of Ice publication or when I post a new story, you can follow my author twitter @NuNeenFic

Anyways, in keeping up with tradition, I will end this story the same way I end all my stories, and that is by saying STAN NU'EST!

With love,
Nuneen :)