[ Kim Dokja knelt on his knees, blood running through his fingers as they tried fruitlessly to put pressure on his wound. His mortal enemy loomed over him, the figure imposing and exuding nothing but strength, while the woman he loved was desperately clutching his enemy's arm like a lifeline. Kim Dokja's whole body was trembling, but not because of the blade that was currently plunged in his heart.
He was about to pass out from the amount of blood loss. It hurt too much, both his wound and everything else.
At first he could only let out an amused gasp, but eventually broke out into desperate giggles. His lips were quivering, and his blood-stained hand was on the sword's blade.
Kim Dokja could always see how the woman he loved looked at his enemy, with her smile and eyes sparkling with a fiery passion, as if challenging the world to even attempt to separate them. It was a stare that he loved and disdained, knowing that no matter what he did, he'd never be on the receiving end of it.
Now, as he locked eyes with her, he couldn't see any emotion in her face, as though she didn't care what happened to him. He wants to scream at her, to make her regret never even acknowledging his feelings for her, but he already knows that his impending death is only the result of his own actions, for betraying her and the empire.
" Ha... "
With everything else in his life being forfeit, all Dokja wanted to do was sleep, he's exhausted from everything.
He smiles at the girl and observes. Her hands were shaking, yet she still tried to put on a brave face . His rival pulled her closer, quietly reassuring her. They really did make a good pair.
"Did I mean anything to you?" Dokja asked. The girl's frigid expression remained on her face as she refused to respond, after all the answer was already in front of him.
"Why aren't you able to look at me the same way you look at him?" he softly asked her again, but she was unable to respond, still at a loss for words.
"Don't worry; even if you can't love me like how you love him. I'll still continue loving you in the afterlife, you're still my world..."
As he spoke, he could taste his own blood in his mouth, with it quickly filling his lungs and throat, restricting his ability to breathe.
Before closing his eyes and disappearing from the mortal realm, he gave his love one final glance and a smile as if he was content that she was the last person he would ever see before he died
"In every universe, I will always love you...."]
"GOD DAMN IT!!"
Kim Dokja shouted out in frustration and plopped down in his seat. Pursing his lips and taking deep breaths, he tried calming himself down, but after reading such a disastrous ending there was probably nothing he could do to relieve his anger.
As if he wasn't already having a shitty day.
Right from the start, as soon as he'd entered his workplace he'd been accused of embezzling from the business. Sure, he was poor, but he wasn't desperate enough to do such a thing. He'd been getting by just fine with his expired convenient store kimbap and cup noodle, even if he did have to chug down cups of water to stop his midnight hunger pangs.
Dokja didn't even know how he came to be implicated; the CEO had called him in to ask if he'd any idea where the business's missing money had gone. Of course, when Dokja denied knowing anything about it the CEO quickly turned angry, claiming he was a liar, thief, and even resorted to bringing up his family's troubled past.
In the end he was fired, but who cares? Since he didn't have any kind of relations with his coworkers no one could be bothered to come to his defense. They'd always either ignored him or gossiped about him when they thought he wasn't listening. Dokja had thought his mother's story would die off when he finished high school, but his hope was in vain as it clung onto every aspect of his life like a parasite. No matter where he went, he'd always be seen as the son of a murderer.
Shaking his head to clear out his depressing thoughts, Kim Dokja stared at the sky and tried to appreciate how beautiful the weather was with the sun shining brightly in the cloudless skies.
The man had only been able to bear with the constant misfortunes in his life by escaping into the various web novels he found online, but it seemed as if the universe was really out to get him today, with the web novel he'd held so much hope for being a massive letdown.
He'd just finished reading the latest chapter of a web novel called The Survival for the Crown, or TSFTC.
Honestly it really wasn't a good story. He was mainly reading it because he shared a name with one of the prominent characters. He thought that perhaps he could find some amount of reprieve in another Kim Dokja being able to find happiness within his own story. But of course, his hopes were crushed yet again when he realized the web novel's author seemed to love abusing the character Kim Dokja just as much as the universe liked to abuse him.
At first Dokja had liked character, since he appeared to have the resources around him to accomplish anything he'd wanted to; being born into royalty, blessed with a loving family and a dear friend who wouldn't exchange him for anybody. But he wasn't without his faults.
The character Kim Dokja was the first child of the Ducal family of the Underworld, with his privileged upbringing making him vain and arrogant. While these qualities had remained at bay during his childhood as he was surrounded by his loving friends and family, they reared their nasty heads and grew tenfold when he'd fallen in love with a girl at his coming-of-age celebration.
After attempting and failing to court her, Kim Dokja had found out that she'd already surrendered her heart to the Crown Prince of the empire. Prince Dokja already disdained the Crown Prince from his younger years, since he seemed to always lose to the Prince when they competed. His pride had greatly suffered at the reality of being beaten by someone younger than him; having the woman he'd fallen in love with stolen from him marked the final straw for the character, kickstarting his obsession with destroying the Crown Prince.
Being downgraded to the two-dimensional villain of this story, it's obvious that his various schemes always inevitably failed, with his constant failures only making Prince Dokja's disdain grow to pure hatred.
Even in the face of all the evil schemes, the Crown Prince never seemed to react to Kim Dokja's attacks, as if nothing he did mattered. The only response the Crown Prince would grace him with were blank, impassive stares, which made him even angrier.
For the Crown Prince, Kim Dokja was merely a worthless insect who was making a hissy fit over not getting everything he wanted. While he was perfectly content with Prince Dokja going after him, all possibilities of a peaceful understanding between the two were thrown out the window the day Kim Dokja had decided to wound the Crown Prince's sister, one of the only people he cared about. For that, The Prince would make sure that he'd suffer.
So when the Crown Prince had found out that the object of Kim Dokja's affection had fallen for him instead, he was quite pleased, and planned to use her feelings for him as leverage against the Underworld prince in any way he could. But in the end, the Crowned Prince also developed feelings for the girl and abandoned all of his goals in order to pursue her.
Prince Dokja, despite betraying the empire and losing his family, ultimately ended up aiding the Crown Prince without the other's knowledge after coming to terms with the fact that his love wouldn't be returned. He was only motivated by the prospect of giving the woman he loved a prosperous life, even if it was spent with another man.
All this buildup ended up being in vain as Prince Dokja died at the hands of the very man he was trying help as he jumped to protect the woman he loved.
Even in his frustration at the character's pitiful death, his last words still rang deep to Kim Dokja.
"In every universe, I will always love you."
At least he didn't regret it; he adored the woman until his last breath.
Dokja stared at his phone, reading the final chapter of the novel even though the only character he was invested in had passed away because, well, why not? He merely groaned.
[If you are reading this, then perhaps fate has a plan for you. Good luck on your journey through life and may you endure the trials and tribulations to find your own happy ending.
A/N: Ps no side story sorry
End]
…
What the f*ck is that, then? Are you kidding me? It isn't even April Fools' Day, it's still March!
Dokja tried to see if there was any part of the chapter he'd missed, but to no avail. After giving up on that, he looked to the comments to see if perhaps there was a joke he wasn't in on or something.
User 81: Huh why is the chapter like this?
User999: Is this really the end?
User4951: Is my phone broken or something?
…well so much for that, Dokja thought, as he pocketed his phone and continued walking along the riverside at a crowded park.
What happened next was too sudden for him to fully comprehend.
"HELP!!!"
After hearing a loud splash, Dokja turned to see a child flailing in the river. Panic rushing throughout his body, Dokja sprinted as fast as he could to the river, diving in before he was even able to form a coherent thought. The only thing running through his head was that he needed to do something, anything. Swimming to the boy as fast as he could, he managed to pull the boy up before he completely submerged. Wrapping his arms around the boy's waist to keep them both afloat, Dokja began swimming backward to the riverside, the boy coughing and heaving in his arms the entire time. Before he made it back, he noticed another man had jumped into the river and was making his way towards Dokja. Based on his looks, her was probably the child's father. Meeting him halfway Dokja quickly handed the boy over to him.
"Thank you" the father uttered gratefully as clutched tightly to his son, his eyes filled with tears.
Dokja would have responded, but then a force suddenly grasped his leg and started to drag him down. He could only let out a yell before his entire body had submerged. He tried resist, kicking and flailing his body around, but the force would not let up. With his body getting weak from the useless struggle and his lungs rapidly losing the remaining oxygen supply, there was nothing more Dokja could do.
Looking up longingly at the surface of the water, Dokja could make out the sun shining above, slowly being obscured by the incoming moon. The once beautiful sky had been obscured in grey clouds. His vision slowly faded to black as water filled his lungs.
He was plunged into blissful darkness.