Once I felt all of the negative feelings disappear from my mind, I straightened up and stretched a little. “Aren’t you uncomfortable like that?” I asked Jungsoo.

He lifted his head and his face tightened a little. “A little.”

“Come on.” I moved closer to him and carefully moved my arms under his upper back. “Sorry about this. Once you’re on the couch, then I won’t touch you anymore.”

“That makes me sad.” He pouted a little, and I tried to not be completely taken by it.

“It’s good for you.” I pulled him up a little and helped him sit down on the couch.

“What are we supposed to do while waiting for the priest?” He looked up at me.

I thought for a moment, then my mind finally registered that I had to go to work tomorrow and had gotten none of my previous reports finished because I found Jungsoo in the dog café. I cursed under by breath and turned to run into my room.

“Youngwoon?” I heard him ask.

“I have to do something important.” I pulled out my laptop from the bag on my bed and returned back to the living room. “I have to write some reports for my job and they’re due tomorrow.”

He chuckled a little. “You got a job?”

I gave him a strange look. “Why are you asking like that?”

“I’m just surprised.” He was grinning at me. “I never pictured you as having a steady job. I’m proud of you.”

I stared at him for a moment longer than sat down in front of the couch and opened my laptop. The report I was working on was still on the screen with around two or three more pages that needed to be filled.

“How else am I supposed to pay for things?” I asked under my breath, staring at the screen to see where I left off in the report.

He didn’t answer but I felt the couch sink a little as he moved to lie down. I felt a small breath of air flow past my left air and I immediately flushed again. “What are you doing?” I glanced around at him.

“I can’t lie down?” He asked too innocently.

“Hyung, I need to work.” I sighed.

“I’m not stopping you.”

“Yes you are.” I mumbled. “I can’t concentrate if your face is so close to mine.”

“But I want to see what you’re writing.”

“It’s nothing important. Just a statistics report.”

He hummed quietly and I tried to concentrate harder.

After around ten minutes, I added the last finishing sentences to the first report and relaxed my shoulders. Jungsoo had been silent for the time so I glanced behind me once again.

His eyes were closed and he was breathing in and out very faintly.

I was about to continue onto the next report, but something on his face made me take a second glance. His expression was peaceful, but there were certain lines on his face I didn’t notice before. They traveled from the bottom of his eyes along the sides of his nose. I thought they were face crinkles, but it was my first time seeing them so close that they almost looked like hunger lines. Like his figure was malnourished.

At that moment, I put down my laptop and moved toward the kitchen. I wasn’t much of a cook, but there were still enough servings of ramyun to feed both of us. I filled up a pot with water and put it on the burner. As I turned the stove on, my cellphone rang from my room. I looked up and moved quickly into my room, glancing at Jungsoo as I went. He didn’t seem to hear the ringing.

I grabbed my phone and turned it on, not bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Mr. Kim?” The voice of the priest ran in my ears and my heart immediately burst with adrenaline.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, unable to hold in my excitement. “What did you find out?”

There was a moment of silence on the other line. “…Mr. Kim, how is Jungsoo’s condition?”

I blinked and turned around to look at the couch. Jungsoo was staring at me with half-open eyes. There was a fatigue in his eyes that made me extremely uncomfortable.

“Um…” I slowly turned back around. “He seemed fine about ten minutes ago, but now…he seemed different.”

“How different?”

“…he seems weaker.” It hurt for me to say those words.

“I see.” The priest’s voice was quiet. “Mr. Kim, if you want to save him…then you have to think of a way yourself.”

I stared ahead of me. “…What?”

“I checked many versions of the Bible and did some research online…but all of my resources turned out the same. Jungsoo cannot be saved.”

I couldn’t respond to that and I ended up just standing still like a statue.

“It is not in God’s plan to save angels, only humans.” The priest added.

“But…but he’s not an angel anymore!” I said with a cracked voice.

“No, but his soul is still bound to God and He can still give him punishment.”

“So you found no way to break that connection!?” My voice raised a little.

“There is no specific way written in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean his situation is completely hopeless.” The priest replied. “Like I said, you have to figure it out yourself.”

“How can I possibly do that!?” I was getting more and more upset.

“Have faith.” The priest said calmly. “Don’t ever give up on Jungsoo. Fight until the end, and then maybe a way will be presented to you.”

“That’s really all you have to say!?” I was now fighting back tears. I felt all of the color on my face fade away.

“I’m truly sorry…I really wish I can give you a clear answer, but what I said is all I have to offer.” The priest said.

It felt like my body was breaking down and I couldn’t move anything.

“…may I talk to him?” The priest asked.

Without answering, my feet slowly turned me around and I walked over to the side of the couch, holding the phone out to Jungsoo, not looking at him.

Jungsoo looked up at me questionably and took the phone. “Hello?”

As the priest talked to Jungsoo, I slowly made my way back to the boiling pot of water on the stove, preparing the rest of the ramyun with no life on my face. I wanted to die. I didn’t even hear what Jungsoo was saying but after a few minutes, there was a stagnant silence in the air that felt like a dagger in my heart.

Once the ramyun was cooked well, I poured some in two bowls and brought them over to the side of the couch.

“Can you sit up?” I asked. My voice was slightly raspy.

He looked up at me and slowly moved his arms toward his shoulders, trying to push himself up. He succeeded but I could see all the pain in his tightened eyes.

“Here.” I held out the steaming bowl to him, too broken up to look at his face.

The bowl remained in my hand and the heat was starting to get uncomfortable for me. “Take it, it’s hot.” I mumbled.

“Youngwoon.”

I kept my eyes on the ground, not wanting to look at him.

“…I need something to eat it with.” He said quietly.

I sighed a little and retraced my steps back to the kitchen to get two sets of chopsticks. “What did the priest tell you?” I asked as I made my way back over to him.

He took the steaming bowl and chopsticks but didn’t eat anything. “He told me to not lose faith.”

“What a coincidence.” I replied bitterly, remaining standing.

“…he also said I should eat a lot of food and get a lot of rest.” He slowly looked down at the steaming bowl in his hands and picked up the chopsticks. “…thank you.” He said quietly.

“This isn’t fair.” I almost whispered.

Jungsoo looked up at me questionably.

“…the priest said…there’s no clear way to break your connection with God…we have to come up with a way ourselves.” The anger in my eyes was making the muscles surrounding them sore.

“…then that’s a good thing.” He said. “There’s still a way. We just have to figure it out.”

“But how!?” I finally looked at him. “How are we supposed to break a connection with God!? Huh!?”

He shrunk a little. “I-I don’t know.”

I saw the nervousness in his eyes immediately felt ashamed, but the anger remained in my eyes. “…I’m sorry.”

He continued to stare at me in silence.

“Eat.” I motioned to the bowl in his hands and went back to the kitchen area of the room to put my bowl down. I suddenly wasn’t feeling very hungry.

There was silence between us and I slowly leaned against the countertop. Doom was starting to settle into my heart and I could feel my body getting weaker as a result. I spent the next minute forcing myself to think of ways to break his connection with God and I only came out feeling even more frustrated and hopeless. I already told him I wouldn’t give up but the more I tried to think…the more depressed I became.

I heard the far-off sound of footsteps in the living room but a loud whooshing noise and low groan seemed to snap my mind back to reality. I turned around and saw Jungsoo on his hands and knees and his head lowered.

“H-hey, what happened!? I ran toward him and knelt down, keeping my hands around him but not actually touching him.

“You’re upset…” His arms were shaking a little.

“Why are you on the floor like this!?” I bit my lip and gently moved him so his back was against the couch. “Did you try to stand up?”

He slowly looked at me. The look of pain in his eyes was now being shared with a chilling look of fatigue. “I wanted to hug you…”

I leaned back a little. “H-hyung…” His face was truly giving me chills. He looked so tired that he could fall asleep at any minute.

“Please don’t be upset.” He said quietly. “We can’t lose hope, okay?”

I continued to stare into his eyes even though a part of me wanted to look away. Somehow they were giving me strength and courage to keep holding on. In only less than one minute, all of the anger I was feeling disappeared from my eyes and heart.

“…Okay.” I nodded. “We won’t lose hope. We’ll find a way.”

He smiled again and it made my heart surge.

“But seriously, eat.” I motioned to the bowl of ramyun on the couch. “You look terrible.”

“That’s interesting.” He chuckled. “I don’t feel terrible.”

“Don’t lie.” I muttered and picked up the bowl from behind him.

“I’m serious.” He continued to look at me.

“Alright.” I didn’t feel like fighting as I picked up some noodles with the chopsticks and held them up. “Eat.”