#and i think it's even more interesting how that effects Lee Jihye's relationship with Kim Dokja after what happened with her and Na Bori!

[your--isgayrights]

Hi!! for the ficlet thing, would you do Kim Dokja and Na Bori, if they meet in the underworld?

Oooh this is a good one... Like a little niche but I really like Na Bori and feel like there's good stuff there... hmmm. I haven't read underworld arc in a while, so apologies if it's hard to line up with cannon!

The fields of asphodel were a cornerstone of the Underworld's landscape according to greek myth. Or, at least, according to the cursory web browser search he has performed upon reading that phrase in Ways of Survival for the first time.

That chapter came out when he was around eighteen years old. It was easy to remember, because in January he would be legally old enough to visit his mother in prison without the consent of his relatives, and he was thinking about it at the time that Hades had put his hand on Yoo Jonghyuk's shoulder, and called him 'son' as they looked over the Underworld kingdom together.

Kim Dokja idly wondered if Yoo Jonghyuk would gain the favor of the underworld in this regression, too. He hadn't in the original third regression, but at this point who could say what ideas the crazy bastard would get into his head...

Regardless, finding the answer to such questions wasn't why Kim Dokja had traveled to the Underworld today.

Nor was it why he was halted in his tracks, stood still in the middle of the fields of asphodel at that very moment.

Kim Dokja had stopped not because something written in Ways of Survival, but by something that deviated from that very text.

In the novel, the fields of asphodel were described as crowded with faceless, unremarkable souls that blended into a general misery of having once been alive.

Yoo Jonghyuk had seen every face as generic, and unrecognizable, as if the souls were so lost in death that even their physical forms were forgotten.

But Kim Dokja swore that he recognized this young girl standing next to him in the crowd.

She was about the same age as he had been when he read that chapter about the Underworld. Eighteen. An oversized school uniform. Bruises from hand prints splayed across her neck.

Then, Kim Dokja saw the emblem on her uniform was the exact same as Lee Jihye's. And in that instant, he knew who this girl was.

This was Na Bori, the girl who always died in the first ten minutes of the scenario.

And she was looking right back at him.

"Do you know me, sir?" She asked him a question that she wouldn't know the answer to no matter how he responded.

"Do you even know who you are?" He asked back, almost reflexively. After all, the shades of Asphodel were always described as having walked through the river Lethe, forgetting everything about themselves in the process.

This girl, however, tilted her head to the side, as if considering his question intelligently.

"My memory of myself is defined by the form I took here." She told him eventually.

"When I look down at these bruise marks on my neck, I feel sadness, and how scared I was." The girl's hands went up to her collar, as if going to defend her neck from future assailants. "But I also feel a little something like love, and like pride."

Kim Dokja could now recognize in her gesture not only an instinct to protect herself, but also a need to cherish and carefully hold this mark that served as her only memory.

"I Just don't know why. I can't remember her, I-" Something flashed in Na Bori's eyes, as if she was trying desperately to hold onto something. "Her, I-."

And then in an instant it was gone, and that mild melancholy once more came to reclaim her features.

"I don't remember anything." She told him. "That is why the only thing I know for certain is that I am in hell."

Kim Dokja frowned at that remark. "You know this is the Underworld, not the Demon Realm, right?

"It doesn't make a difference." As the girl spoke, Kim Dokja saw that her eyes started to go past him, as if she couldn't even recognize a person in front of her anymore, or remember why they were speaking. "Because that is what it means to die."

She looked back down at her neck.

"You don't make a difference, anymore." The girl said. "You can no longer do anything else for the ones you love. And you can't even remember that you loved them."

With that final word, the ghost's hands fell from her neck, and she looked down at her feet. As if speaking to him hadn't even been worth the effort of trying to remember herself.

Kim Dokja found it hard not to be disturbed by her final words, but his feelings about it were easy to settle down into something milder.

This sort of injustice in death... It didn't originate from this world alone. It existed before everything changed into the world of Ways of Survival. It was natural, and would continue to happen. Getting too bogged down in the details would only slow his progress.

That's right, Kim Dokja told himself these things as he continued through his long trek through the fields of asphodel, no longer stopping to look at shades, even if he thought he recognized them.

After all, he had a mission here in the Underworld, and plans for the future, that hinged upon not heeding that young ghost's words of warning.

[tamaharu]

small orv details i picked up on my re-read

lee sookyung had (according to her own testimony, unable to be otherwise proven) been released from prison for a indeterminate "while" by the start of the story, and had merely been visiting seoul. kim dokja was aware of the fact that she was released (so he likely knew the broad length of her sentence) but never bothered finding her after she was released

han sooyoung picked up VERY EARLY to the fact that kdj is unreasonably suspicious of yoo joonghyuk. when they first met up prior to meeting shin yoosoung, hsy mentions that hes being harsh of yjh, considering from what she read, hes "fighting for the people." kdj, naturally, hits her with a "fake fan"

(harder to gauge due to wonky translation but) yjh kicked kdj in the nuts once

hsy and gong pildu got sent to peaceland by getting run over by a truck and falling into han river respectively

kdj didnt have a dick the entire time he was at the constellation banquet

uriel initially saw kdj as the top in the relationship and was greatly distressed over the idea he'd become an eunuch (a lot more happens to kdjs dick than i remembered. thats like, four things to do w kdjs penis? five if you count his little black book of sex in his mind palace)

yjh and kdj were holding hands the entire time they gave the nebulae announcement awwwww

lee jihye saw kim dokjas real, actual face without any form of censoring when he first rescued her in the dark castle (its most likely the censoring went back into effect soon after i think? its never really clear on it)

hsys clones didnt have genitalia. do you think 49 kdj had genitalia or...? dammit, i was hoping i wouldnt have to think abt kdjs dick anymore

when exiting paradise, hsy called up clones w kdjs face to practice fighting against. she made sure to punch his dick. (sigh..)

lee jihye calls shin yoosoung "little beast" THAT IS SO CUTEEE 🥺

when hsy and kdj are discussing his fate, kdj gets caught up in the fact that hsy is like... really pretty... not to the same detail as he gets abt yjh lol but more detailed than he usually is. its because hes in love with her.

in the 1st regression, yjh protected paradise and was screwed over for it (did he initially become a protector before being betrayed and fed to it? did he voluntarily offer himself up to protect paradise? some mixture of the two w/out him actually dying in paradise? doesnt clarify!)

for how much kdj likes to go onnn and onnn about how hes an emotionless powerhouse who only saves ppl bc they may be useful to him later, even early on the other characters are very influenced by his selflessness. in dark castle, when lee jihye stills thinks hes dead, she attempts to get shin yoosoung and lee gilyoung to evacuate and leave her to deal with the demons, which she very explicitly links to kdj. additionally, in paradise, when the destruction first happens, yjh spots some of kcom helping evacuate citizens and muses on the fact that this is the influence of kdj. in these two examples, you can very clearly see the link of kdjs selflessness sliding into suicidality by outsiders emulating this behavior. interesting!

i love yoo joonghyuk so much. (just a general thing, but prompted due to yjh coming to the realization that his regressions had chipped away at his sense of love and care for the world and people. seeing kcom in action, defeating reinheit, having the people of paradise thank him... it all reminded him that he truly is a person who loves people. that there truly is no point to the world if he cannot protect people, even in attempts to get to a "perfect scenario." and, upon coming to this realization, he links it back to kim dokja with a budding appreciation and love for the man and his ideals, and gives kdjs name to the survivors of paradise. its all very good. kdj is immediately incredibly suspicious of yjh because of fucking course he is.)

in the love meter chapter (MY BELOVED) yoo sangah is doubtful to the idea that kdj loves her the most, and while denying it she gets self-conscious and relegates herself to nothing more than his ex-coworker and "someone he helps." while it is later shown that shes more willing to think of them as friends than kdj is, theres some edge to this. she becomes much more confident as the story continues, but she does have lots of doubts about her strength in the team and as a friend of kdj. SHE sees him as a friend, but has undoubtedly picked up to the fact that he seperates himself from her. yoo sangah.......

hsy cried at kdjs dick explosion death (under proof of lie detection) awww

the place he and his mother met after his death was styled after their old house, to the extent that there are kdjs old child-sized shoes set by the front door.

i mentioned in the first fact that kdj didnt search her out, but on the other hand, kdj didnt know the exact length of her sentence and raises the question: why didnt she search him out after she was released?

fuuuck. [My mother refuted, "This isn't a novel. There is no ending like 'Everyone lived happily ever after' in reality." "I will see it to the end. In addition, when did I say I wanted that ending?"]

in the fight against the devourer of dreams, cheok jungyeong offers to have the demon who brought 41st shin yoosoung to their world transport kdj out of the scenarios. kdj, the bleeding heart, refuses upon realizing his friends would die if he left them.

hsy did NOT want to fight the demon king. kdj had to literally tie her up and drag her over. he likes her awwww❤️

he teases the fourth wall by imitating it AWWW everythings cute if you put your mind to it

i thiiink jang hayoung was transported into the body of aileens younger sibling! they share a last name. thats very cute.