After Ten Millennia in Hell-Chapter 74Epilogue - Epilogue

Cool winds blew on the apartment rooftop. Smoke rose from the meat on the barbeque grill at a corner of the rooftop and the scent of alcohol surrounded the outdoor table.

“Kaaah! That hits the spot! This is the life!” Cha Yeon Joo shouted as she wrapped the cooked meat in lettuce and gulped down a soju bomb. “Huuu. So, Kang-Hyun is going out with Si-Ah now?”

“Yup,” Oh Kang-Woo answered.

“Pssh, they’re not even ten and dating... tsk, tsk. Kids these days...”

“Man, are you sulking 'cause your son already has a girlfriend, Yeon-Joo ajumma[1]?”

“I’m not sulking! And I’m not an ajumma!”

“You have an almost ten-year-old son. What else would I call you?”

“Heh, have you seen an ajumma as beautiful as me?”

Yeon-Joo snorted as she posed like a magazine model. Although a little awkward, she looked amazing because she had the height and was slender.

“You look like a cross-dressing man because of your tiny tits— Ouch!”

“Is that any way to talk to your wife? Huh?!” Yeon-Joo stepped on Kang-Woo’s foot under the table with all her might and downed another soju bomb. “Haaa. It only feels like yesterday when he could only crawl.”

Yeon-Joo chewed on a piece of meat with a conflicted expression. She seemed to be feeling the same way as Kang-Woo.

“Fufu. Are you feeling sad?” asked Lilith as she patted the dejected Yeon-Joo’s back.

“Not really, but... I don’t know how to describe it. It’s complicated.”

“Hmm. I wonder when Lia will get a boyfriend~”

“I don’t think she ever will as long as Kang-Woo is around.” Yeon-Joo narrowed her eyes and turned to Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo chuckled and shook his head.

“Well, girls her age love their dads. I’m sure Lia will start being interested in other boys as she grows up.”

“I don’t know about that, considering how she acts,” Yeon-Joo remarked.

“How about this, then?” Lilith suggested.

“What?”

Lilith stared at Kang-Woo coyly and smiled. “I saw online that there is a dish known as oyakodon[2].”

“Isn’t that a Japanese dish?”

“Yes, that’s right. The oyako in oyakodon is the chicken and the egg... In other words, parent and child.”

“So...?”

“So, a parent-daughter threes—”

“Okay, that’s enough.”

‘The fuck is this crazy woman talking about?’

“Hohoho. I was just joking. You don’t have to make such a scary face, my love.”

“Nothing you say ever sounds like a joke, Lilith.”

Kang-Woo sighed as she grabbed his forehead as if his head hurt.

“That aside, how was Kang-Hee?” asked Han Seol-Ah as she placed a plate filled with cooked meat on the table and sat next to Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo smiled awkwardly as he recalled Kang-Hee screaming her lungs out as Kang-Hyun and Si-Ah kissed.

“Well, I think she was shocked, but... she has more or less accepted it,” he answered.

“What a relief.”

“Hehe. Were you worried, Darling?”

“Of course, I was.”

“Come on, whose daughter do you think Kang-Hee is?”

“No, I wasn’t worried about Kang-Hee... I was, umm... worried about Si-Ah.”

‘Oh, that side. Yeah, I don’t blame you.’

“Fufu. I’m proud of her. It’s not easy suppressing the impulses from her obsession,” Seol-Ah remarked.

She knew better than anyone how powerful an angel’s obsession was.

“Even now, whenever I see you and Yeon-Joo clinging together, I want to... oops.”

“What? What were you going to do to me?” Yeon-Joo flinched as she ate the meat Seol-Ah brought.

Seol-Ah smiled and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit! T-Tell me! What are you going to do to me if your obsession goes out of control?!”

“How do you expect me to say such a horrifying thing?!”

“It’s that fucking bad?!”

Seol-Ah and Yeon-Joo’s bickering had become an everyday occurrence. Kang-Woo smirked and filled his glass with alcohol.

“Right, stop fighting, and let’s drink to our son Kang-Hyun finally becoming an adult.”

“Psh. An adult? He hasn’t even graduated from elementary school yet. You don’t become an adult just from getting a girlfriend,” Yeon-Joo said.

“Well, then let’s say he’s one step closer to becoming an adult.”

Clink.

The sound from the hitting of glasses echoed and the bitter soju bomb lingered in their mouths.

“Haaah... Hubby...”

As the drinking party went on, the drunk Yeon-Joo staggered toward Kang-Woo.

She burrowed into Kang-Woo’s embrace and asked, “Do you think... I’m being a good mother to Kang-Hyun?”

“What? Are you drunk already, my wife?”

“I-I’m not drunk!”

“Anyone can tell you’re drunk right now.”

Kang-Woo smirked and patted Yeon-Joo’s head.

‘A good mother, huh...?’

He wondered if he was being a good father to Kang-Hyun.

‘I have no idea.’

He had been a father for almost a decade, but the role was just as awkward and uncomfortable now as the first day—it felt like forcibly wearing clothes that did not fit him. The weight of being a father was far heavier than his title of Demon King back when he ruled Hell.

‘I doubt I’m the only one.’

Yeon-Joo subtly trembling in his arms, Seol-Ah silently putting away the tableware, and Lilith elegantly sipping wine with one leg over the other were likely being crushed by the weight of parenthood—they simply didn’t show it.

“It’s okay,” Kang-Woo replied.

“Hmm?”

Kang-Woo hugged Yeon-Joo tighter and continued, “Even if we’re sometimes awkward and not enough...”

No one could perfectly do something the first time. Just like how their children were becoming adults step by step, they simply needed to become better parents over time.

“Don’t worry, Yeon-Joo. You’re doing fantastic.”

“What’s up with you...? It’s not like you to genuinely console me.”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“Ahem. I never said that.”

Yeon-Joo changed positions to get on Kang-Woo’s lap and kissed him. Her tongue and the bittersweet taste of alcohol stimulated his tongue.

“I love you, hubby.”

Yeon-Joo, far more sentimental than usual, kissed Kang-Woo on the cheek and smiled. She was either drunk or her emotions were in flux after hearing about Kang-Hyun.

“My~ I didn’t see you as the type, Yeon-Joo. You sure become as sly as a fox once you get drunk.” Lilith stood up from her seat as she smiled seductively, sat on Kang-Woo’s other lap, and caressed his cheek gently. “Don’t just console Yeon-Joo. Please console me too, my love.”

Lilith kissed Kang-Woo this time. The fragrant wine instead of bittersweet beer stimulated his tongue this time.

“W-Wait! No fair, you two!”

Seol-Ah stopped putting away the tableware and ran to Kang-Woo. Lilith smiled and yielded Kang-Woo’s lap to Seol-Ah.

“Hehe.”

Kang-Woo, having kissed all three of his wives, stood up and put away the tableware for Seol-Ah.

“Oh, I’ll do it, honey.”

“No, Darling. Get some rest.”

“There’s nothing to do even if I rest anyway.”

“Why don’t we clean up together, then?”

“Okay!”

Kang-Woo and Seol-Ah cleaned up while Lilith helped the drunk Yeon-Joo. They gathered the dishes to be cleaned at their home and picked up trash on the ground. Silence fell after that.

“Umm... honey,” Seol-Ah called.

“Yeah?”

Kang-Woo turned to Seol-Ah, looking up at the night sky with a faint smile.

“I get scared sometimes,” she remarked.

“About what?”

“About... whether it’s okay to be this happy.” Seol-Ah cautiously approached Kang-Woo and grabbed his hand. “I’m so happy that... I get scared that it would suddenly end one day. Haha. I’m sure people would criticize me for complaining while in a good place.”

“...”

Kang-Woo had thought the same thing many times. Every moment was so precious and he was so unbelievably happy that he couldn’t help but imagine it all going away.

“Don’t worry, Darling.”

Not even Kang-Woo, who acquired the power of the Primordial, could tell the future, but one thing was for sure. Even if time passed and his children became adults to have their own children who called Kang-Woo and his wives Grandpa and Grandma...

“The ending of this story will be a happy one.”

The Demon King Oh Kang-Woo had decided it.

“I’ll make it so.”

“Honey...”

Seol-Ah’s grip tightened. She pulled him toward her and placed her ear on his chest. His beating heart calmed her down.

“I trust you,” she said.

The uneasiness in her heart washed away.

“Honey~! Let’s go downstairs already and have more drinks!”

“The kids seem to be asleep so why don’t we do it all together?”

Yeon-Joo and Lilith were waving from the rooftop entrance. Kang-Woo was about to walk toward them when Seol-Ah suddenly embraced him.

“Oh, right. Don’t forget, honey,” she whispered, “We still have... two more to make.”

A page of a new story began at the end of the story’s final page.

[After Ten Millennia in Hell - Epilogue]

- FIN -

1. Ajumma is a term used to address a middle-aged woman. ☜

2. Stop. ☜