56 The forgotten bet (3)

It was almost natural, the way we made eye contact. Perhaps too natural.

The moment I glanced at the other table he also glanced towards me.

For some reason his gaze felt familiar, extremely familiar, but I knew this was my first time seeing him…seeing Song Jae.

Song Jae's appearance was exactly what you would expect from a main character written by a boring women in her 20s…he was needlessly and uniquely handsome.

He had warm large doe eyes, one was dark brown with a hint of yellow, while the other was extremely pale and looked slightly purple. His hair was silky, the left side was jet black while the right was a pale white.

Yes, in the novel it was mentioned that Song Jae had partial albinism. It was another reason for Kang Ho to bully him in the story; childishly calling Song Jae names like "Dokkaebi". Of course the dumb name calling didn't effect Song Jae much, he was used to it.

Song Jae had spent his whole life being ostracised by others for his unusual appearance. It was another obstacle that he had to overcome in the early parts of the story.

Korea is a homogeneous country, and its citizens can often be ignorant towards those that look and act differently from themselves. Children are especially sensitive to even slight differences, and that leads to extreme bullying, school violence and harassment cases. If someone had such an obviously different appearance like Song Jae, one could only imagine the abuse he had suffered up until this point.

Yet for someone who should have been so traumatised by life he was confident and unusually nice.

The moment our eyes met he gave me the most unnervingly gentle smile. I had never met anyone so happy to see me, he just radiated warmth and joy…I was repulsed.

Such innocence. It didn't feel real.

You would think he'd lived a life of luxury and privilege that had never touched filth, but I knew that wasn't true. Song Jae must have lived on the border of poverty and he must have witnessed all kinds of depravity…yet he could still smile like that.

I hated that smile.

I grinned back at him, even raising my hand to wave slightly.

Anastasia immediately noticed my movement and whipped her head to look at Song Jae. The moment she saw him I noticed her eyes widen. Her jaw went slack as she quietly gasped. She stared with a dumbstruck expression, she was clearly transfixed by him.

She had never stared at me like that…I felt a foreign emotion…was that jealousy?

That wasn't right…why would I be jealous… it was like someone was giving me these emotions… they never felt like my own… they never felt right.

"Ohh you've seen him, the hottie" Mi-Kyong laughed, "with looks like that he's the only peasant I don't mind being here, I'll make him my bitch before the term ends."

"Really, and how do you plan to do that?" I leaned closer to her with curiosity.

She laughed, "Using the foolproof method I always do. Give the pet some attention, a few gifts and he'll be begging for me, poor hotties like him are all the same."

"That's it?"

"Huh! What do you mean?"

"I mean you could be a bit more creative. Buying gifts seems like you're the one wasting your time and money. You're the bitch, and if that's how you've been dealing with all your men, I feel bad for you. Respect yourself more, that's embarrassing."

The table fell silent.

Mi-Kyong's face flushed red, the blood rushing to even the tips of her ears.

Prince Misahito began to chuckle, "It's good to know you haven't changed Ho, your mouth is as venomous as ever. The media and public always praise you for being nice and charitable, if only they knew how mean you can be."

"Mean?"

I tilted my head with confusion, "I was being honest."

Prince Misahito laughed even louder, Mi-Kyong couldn't stand it anymore and stormed off, leaving the table, running to the powder room.

Internally I rolled my eyes, as I had grown older I had stopped filtering myself as much around people I didn't value.

While being nice and innocent was fine while young, with age, it was less valuable. Of course that didn't mean I could throw away all my defences, in fact more masks were needed.

"Umm sorry to disturb, but I want to introduce myself" Song Jae had approached our table.

The moment he came near us, Anastasia visibly become more alert; sitting up straighter and even fluttering her eyes at him.

He flashed a charmingly kind smile at us, "My name is Song Jae, I'm a First Year on the Gifted Scholarship Scheme. I hope we can spend a fantastic three years together!"

Before the others could react, I greeted him first, extending my hand to him. "Lovely to meet you, my name is Kang Ho, let's enjoy the next few years together."

Song Jae's smile widened into a beaming grin and he vigorously shook my hand.

His fingers were surprisingly tough. They looked like they would be smooth but upon shaking them I could feel the hard calluses of a working man.

"I know who you are!" Song Jae grinned, "I'm a big fan, and actually my Uncle used to be one of your nannies, although a really long time ago…"

As Song Jae continued to babble I began to feel lightheaded.

This entire day, since I had woken up, no maybe for the last seven years… or maybe from the beginning. Something had been wrong.

I had been waiting for this moment, the moment to meet Song Jae; to start twisting his life to prove a point…but why had I cared?

He was just some teenager…he posed no threat to me, he had no worth to me… yet I had been subconsciously following the story and looking forward to meeting him and antagonising him.

But wasn't he, like most beings, beneath me?

When had I started valuing such people? From Anastasia to the snobs around me…

I felt dizzy.

For years I had been forgetting something, something just out of reach…. and in that moment as I stared at Song Jae, it all came back to me.

This foolishly fabulous game.

"Well it seems wiping your memory will no longer work, you really do have a tough soul Daniel."

The people around me had frozen and time had stopped. The only one moving was Song Jae, but he looked different now, his mismatched eyes had turned bright dirty yellow and his teeth had become long and jagged.

The room became dark as his gigantic wings obscured the lights.

"Malacoda!" I yelled.

"No need to wear out my name dear, I'm right here."

I glared at the Demon and hugged my chest, I couldn't control myself, I was about to burst into laughter…how could I have forgotten this fantastic bet.

In the end I lost myself and raucous hearty chuckles erupted from my lips, "You nearly had me, I almost started believing that those emotions you implanted were really mine. That was really dumb of you."

"Dumb?!" Malacoda gnashed its teeth and slinked towards me, its sharp nails gripped my shoulders and dug into my flesh. "For 15 years you couldn't see through the fog, and you were on the path of reform Daniel. If anything I have succeeded and proven that you are capable of feeling. You're just like other mortals, nothing more or less."

I sneered, "You're really frustrated, I can tell."

The game had only just begun.