Love and Hate

"Soul XXXXXXXXX90, From planet Earth (No: XXXXXX90)" A voice recited these words and I felt a pull.

Soon, my vision went blank and I was in some unknown place. It was calm and cheerful.

Mountains, as beautiful as I could ever think of.

Rivers and adorable animals. It was nature so beautiful that I had never seen it on earth.

While I admired the surroundings, a squirrel jumped from the tree and landed on my shoulder.

It had white fur and blue eyes. Unlike any other squirrel, it was quite huge.

Its tail started to rub on my shoulder and it rubbed its face on my neck.

"Kang-Min Seok, welcome to the rift." A person was floating in front of me as they landed down on the ground lightly.

The aura around that person was holy and so bright that I could only close my eyes.

"Who are you?" The very obvious question that anyone would ask was this.

But I didn't need any explanation as to who the person in front of me was.

Obviously, I died so it was surely the one that everyone meets after death.

I wasn't someone who would stay hungry for the whole day to pray to that God who never helped me. But it didn't mean I never believed god existed.

After all, my father died and it was this god doing.

"Why am I here? Is this heaven? Looks like something heaven would be."

Maybe they were surprised that a human was so calm in such a situation.

I would've flipped and screamed if my past self was here. Past as in, a week past.

Because that was the last time I lost hope that my mother would care for me. It was the day she called me and told me to sign the papers of legally disowning me.

Now not even god could surprise me. After being disowned by the one who gave birth to me, I more or so hated the entity humans referred to as a god.

"Your thoughts are valid Min. It is indeed true that your father left the world due to me. But when someone is supposed to die or not is not my will.

I have but created life and death. How early you leave the world or live in the world is up to you.

Unlike what my children believe, I don't write about anyone's life or death.

My goal was to give my children life and eventually death. When and how is all based on your luck, deeds and the way you live.

Your father was a good person but death won to life in his case and he met his end sooner.

And in your case, you succumbed to death yourself. So, I would like you to not hate me. It pains me when my child feels sad because of me." They had a calm voice and it reflected sadness.

An affection my mother never had in her.

Tears fell from my eyes and the squirrel on my shoulder started to rub my cheeks hurriedly.

Its soft fur comforted me a little and after I was done crying, the god continued.

"After one dies, it depends on their life on earth where they will head to.

If you have hurt people on earth and gained hate, the punishment will be that much longer.

And if you have been a pure soul, no punishment is placed on you. Heaven awaits you.

While there are rare cases that lead to reincarnation, only a few pass through it. Let's see where your destiny is led to." They swirled their hands and the brightness around them formed a ball that floated in the air.

Soon it was divided into two balls which were then converted into bars.

The bars reflected two different colours. One of them showed white colour while the other reflected black.

"As humans have mentioned white as good and black as evil all along through history, I will show you through such colour. The black one represents the hate you have received. And the white shows love.

If the white colour surpasses black even by 1 soul, you will be sent to heaven. And the same goes for black.

But if the black and white are on the same level, the route to reincarnation opens. But that is not possible as it rarely ever happens."

The white and black bar started to move and they stopped right after starting.

The number of haters was 4 and the white bar only had 2.

I chuckled. To have only 4 haters in this whole world where people hate each other more than love them, was laughable.

"Do not worry, child. It's not that you are unfortunate. These bars only show pure love and hate in the world. While many do have a lot of haters and the numbers even surpass lakhs and crores, you only have 4 which is good.

And the number of loved ones is also more for many but it barely ever surpasses 100. Even the purest soul ever had more than 100 haters and only 121 lovers.

True love is something when you are ready to sacrifice yourself for the other person. When you are ready to be with them whenever you want.

And here, the one extra person has been added as a hater. The old lady you scolded on the roads before meeting me is the one." The god told me.

'That's… nice. So there really aren't many that hate me.'

I thought. It was logical. After all, I never hurt anyone even after going through all those ridiculous times.

And I wasn't much involved with anyone for them to love me.

So now I have to be ready to enter hell.

"Oh, how wonderful." I heard the god's voice.

The bar of white colour moved and another number got added to it.

"Wh... Who is the new one!?" I couldn't help but ask.

"It is the girl you slapped. She was straying off her life and following the path that led to nothing but misery.

Because she felt humiliated, she decided to not make mistakes ever.

Aha! She still remembers you even on her deathbed."

I had an expression on my face surely, the god chuckled.

"I am an entity that can see into the future." It made sense now. I guess I really act dumb sometimes.

"And who are the other two?" I was curious. And I was sure one of them was my father.

"Yes, it is indeed your father. He is the very first one who loved you a lot."

"And the second person is Aera Gwan."

According to the god, Aera loved me. They refused to let me know why she never told me this or where she was when I was suffering. But they told me not to hold a grudge that I would regret later.

"Do you not want to know who the other 3 haters are?" The god asked me.

"No, I know who they are." I couldn't help but smile that the three haters there were my family. A brother for whom I had taken a beating from his bullies, a sister for whom I had embarrassed myself in front of her friends and a mother for whom I stayed awake countless nights just because she was a little sick.

The smile on the god's face was proof that I was right.

While I waited for them to put me in hell, the white bar moved and the number increased to 4.

"Oho, this is interesting."

"Wh... Who is it!?" I felt my heart getting heavy.

Was there someone else who liked me!?

"Hm, I can't tell you who it is, but it is someone close to you."

I couldn't think of anyone.

It seemed the god wasn't going to let me know who it was. I prayed for the one who liked me and let god continue.

"The cycle of reincarnation is not too long. It will be in a quick second.

The world where you are reborn will be selected randomly as per your luck. And no, this world will not be selected again.

I wish you luck, Kang-Min."

A huge clock appeared in front of me. It was royal and magnificent.

It had names on it instead of numbers. Numerous names.

The hands in the clock moved faster each second and soon stopped at a name.

'Earth, XXXXX79? What's that number?' I thought and looked at the god.

"That is one of the many earths in existence. It is also known as a comic or manhwa in the earth where you used to reside."

It was something I didn't wish to learn much. How many worlds there were? How the real world was just a comic in my world?

I didn't have any curiosity about it.

"Now, it's time…" The god's voice rang in my ears and I fell into a slumber. The only words I heard at the end were 'Live long'.

- - - - - - - - -

"Why did you not appear in front of your son?" The entity asked someone.

"If I did, he would have stayed here. He deserves better." The squirrel changed into a human in a flash. The man standing there was just like Kang-Min.

"Hm, understandable." The god nodded.

"And thank you for helping him."

"Hm? With what?" The god looked at the man who smiled again.

The white bar had pictures with names.

The first was the man in front of the god, Jae-In Seok.

The second was Aera Gwan. The third was Eun-Hye Kwon, the girl who was grateful for the lesson she had learnt from Kang-Min's slap.

And in fourth place was no name with the god's face.

"I do like him. He is also my child. Everyone has me as their lover in their life, you know that too Jae-In.

They all know." As the god said this, the animals around turned into humans and smiled.

Rift was a place where God resided and not in heaven. A place where God rested and many people who wanted to be with God stayed.

For people who never cared for heaven but wanted to stay in the gods' grace.

The people who were free of greed and envy.

(Kang-Min Seok, reincarnation on Earth, no: XXXXX79 successful!)

A melodious voice ran through the rift and the god smiled and disappeared.

'Stay well and happy, son…' Jae-In thought and turned to a squirrel again.