#arakiel

Being home after everything was comforting, a sense of weight being lifted off Jae-min’s shoulders as he finally found himself back in the company of friends and family. Truthfully you’d think being missing for so long would have more of an impact on his life, on the way people saw him, on anything, but it was rather simple for him to find himself a place back in the world. The only major change initially was his announcing that he wouldn’t be participating in water polo as a sport anymore to pursue higher education. All things considered, given recent events and all, there wasn’t much pushback to this. It was true that the olympic team had lost a star player and in no way was it going to be a smooth process in finding somebody to replace him, but with the support of his brothers, Jae-min was happy to pursue his next steps in life. About a month passed after coming home, most of it was spent looking into moving overseas to be with Erisu, as it turned out her situation would take her back to japan. His family was rather supportive of this step in his life, his mother and sisters especially, while Jae-min’s relationship with his father became rather tense early on. Over the course of the game, Jae-min had learned much of his fathers behaviour and attitude towards women was rather harmful, and there was a certain level of resentment towards the man for pushing him into the life he had pursued. If he had not been convinced by his father that his bullying was a healthy pursuit, he wondered if he would have the thoughts he did now. It wasn’t something worth considering for long. Despite the time and effort Jae-min put into becoming better overall, it wasn’t like he was a different man. The cruel and unpleasant thoughts were still there, he still enjoyed the pain of others, he still was a bit of an asshole, and that much wasn’t going to change. He could wish he was different all he wanted, but what really mattered was how many of those thoughts he expressed and how healthy his outlets were. 

While still within Korea, the final thing that Jae-min ensured he did was to provide some support to Ae-ra’s family. He had no intentions of getting himself involved mind you, he didn’t need to meet her brother that was for sure, but he did feel the need to make amends, so he made an anonymous and rather sizable donation to her family and left it at that. It couldn’t bring her back, but it was the most he could do to say he was sorry. Every now and then, Jae-min would return to Korea to see family and he would visit her grave whenever possible. He couldn’t bring himself to speak to any of the dead in the virtual world, he simply couldn’t get past his feelings that those were not the people he had known.

The move to Japan was a lengthy process, but after a month or so of work, Jae-min moved in with Erisu in a small home in rural Japan.

Things weren’t exactly perfect at first obviously, there was still the fact she was on house arrest and was helping deal with the aftermath of the Erika fiasco, but at the very least he felt comfortable being close to the person he loved most in this world. That was enough for him. \

Five years of house arrest meant a lot of time together, and over those five years, a lot happened. The first was the discovery that Erisu was pregnant with her first child, which as it turned out wasn’t even his, but rather Erika N Danger’s, a notable development which certainly made Jae-min anxious, but not so much because he was upset with the development, he really didn’t mind the fact it wasn’t his, he just knew this meant potentially raising a child. After long talks, END decided it would be best for the child to be raised by Jae-min and Erisu while she sorted out her life back home, resigning herself to the position of cool aunt who was around from time to time. The child could be informed of the truth at a later age. This however, naturally, meant despite not being his, Jae-min would need to be a father to this child, which he had anticipated anyways. A lot of the anxieties of fatherhood were mostly vented out to Erik A and Byrne who were thankfully still both willing to remain close to him after the events of the game, but were more than helpful in keeping him calm through the whole process. Nine months later, Akari was born. Raising a child did put things on hold somewhat, but with Erisu pursuing her career in Vocaloid and being able to stay home, this didn’t interfere with his plans of going back to school, which he delayed one more year to ensure he could be there for the child during that time. As time passed, eventually Jae-min found himself not only applying for school for a degree in neuroscience, but also seeking out some level of therapy due to the many promises he made to Erik A after the fact.

Speaking of Erik A, it wasn’t like the two of them were growing distant by any means, sure they had to keep up their social life through the internet mostly, but Jae-min had gotten rather used to talking to people through group chats surprisingly, and was happy to interact with the other on a semi-daily basis. Byrne was also somebody he kept in close contact with, not quite as often as Erik A mind you, but at least weekly catching up and talking about life and how it was progressing. Truthfully the only hard part of it was having to improve his english skills which were rather lacking. If Byrne wanted, he was happy to invite him to visit sometime in the future once he and Erisu had their life sorted out, and in exchange, Jae-min promised to do the same.

School was good for him, he opted for hybrid courses, and only really needed to travel to the school itself every now and then for work that couldn’t be done online. A lot of his classes however were a breeze, he was an intelligent man, always had been, and this was a field that he had taken new interest in after everything that had happened. One could argue the killing game gave him some level of advantage that he wouldn’t have otherwise had, so that was one positive for him. Therapy was also helpful, he was able to get a far better handle on his urges than he was able to in the killing game itself, which was helpful enough.

Life continued to go well for him, he cut his hair, got more piercings, and even started wearing shirts for once in his life, though even that was still kept to a minimum. Eventually five years came and went, and Erisu and him were still plenty happy together, living a comfortable life. He even made a rather notable effort to at least be on normal terms with Erisu’s sisters, mostly in the form of being friendly and not holding too much of a grudge for the whole killing game experiment thing. It wasn’t that difficult for him to let that go though, given how his brain tended to work that way.

During this time, Byrne visited now and then, mostly while in the process to visit KOKONE, which was a rather convenient situation truthfully. Having a lot of friends in Japan meant visiting it more often, and Jae-min was happy to help the others with any costs should it have been necessary. He was still making a lot of money through shockingly advertising work. He was strong, impressive looking, and conventionally attractive, he made a great model for sports advertisements. This allowed him to stay in the sport scene, which he did eventually feel a calling to return to to some degree, and also to maintain his fanbase by capitalising on their interest in him. Not to mention surviving the killing game netted him a lot of press attention after the fact. He was by no means a small celebrity, but he kept his life with Erisu as private as possible. He also started getting back into swimming after going through intensive therapy, and started competing competitively once again, though only as a hobby, he had no dreams of making it a career anymore. He would mostly sign up for local and city competitions for swimming races, deciding that Water Polo just wasn’t for him.

Speaking of Water Polo, Jae-min and Seung-yoon Ryu became closer than ever after he moved to Japan, staying in touch through texting mostly at first, before the other received their Ultimate title in Water Polo and decided to call it quits immediately after, having achieved the highest honour in any field. Following in his brother's footsteps, Seung-yoon moved in rather nearby to Jae-min and Erisu, and they became local friends once again, and would remain so for the rest of Jae-min’s life. Once her house arrest ended, the two decided that they were comfortable enough with their financial situation as Jae-min graduated with his PhD and pursued work in the science field, that the two of them were ready for a second child. Another nine months passed, and Yukari was born.

Almost six years or so had passed by this point. Jae-min had done a lot, he had achieved a lot, and now with two children to his name, life was going well. Some time after Erisu was free from the burdens of her past, no longer being bound to their house, Jae-min and her got married. The marriage was unavoidably large, with his side of the family being rather loud, as well as invitations to close friends of both of them. Byrne in particular was important to have on Jae-min’s invitation list, as a thank you for inviting him out to his own wedding, but also for sticking with him through everything. 

As time passed further, and the kids began to come into their own personalities, the two were just about as chaotic as one might expect from being raised by two eccentric and somewhat unhinged parents. Yukari was something of a trouble maker, they got into trouble a lot and by no means did they get along with their peers. That being said, as far as their parents were concerned, Yukari could do no wrong. This of course only enabled the child further into a somewhat delinquent-esc personality. In addition to this, they were rather sporty, which was mostly influenced by their father’s interest in the field, and Yukari found themselves taking Kendo classes in school. On the flipside, Akari was a bit of a go-getter, very reliable, good grades, and being six years older than her baby sibling, rather protective of her. She took after her mother (and aunty END) far more than she did Jae-min, and as a result was a little more down to earth than the chaos that was Yukari.

Notably, at some point in Yukari’s early life, Erik A ended up coming by to visit to meet the family and also catch up given how much time had passed since they had last met each other in person. This manifested in a rather notable event where Yukari being how they were… they bit Erik A… and in response for the sake of comedy Erik A bit Yukari’s hand in return. This of course only encouraged Yukari to bite harder, and required Jae-min to pry them off of Erik A. This thankfully didn’t ruin the trip at all, but it sure did shape the vibes for the rest of the trip. Yukari needed to effectively be child leashed around other people most of the time.