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Chapter 3 ^^

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Chapter 3  - Falling

I visited the hospital Junho was brought to every week, asking how he was doing, but never visited him. I didn’t know why, but I had the feeling that it was better if he didn’t get to know me.

After I’ve ‘saved’ Junho, more visions of people having an accident happened, and I’ve been able to save almost every one of them.

I believed that I had those visions in order to save those people from their fate.

It felt good seeing them alive once I hurried away from the scene. It was an indescribable feeling. I always felt kind of proud after succeeding and kicking death into its fat arse.

I really thought that I was doing the right thing.

However, I changed my mind after my 25^th birthday.

I and my friends were enjoying ourselves in a club. We came in order to celebrate my birthday. It was already March, but since I was busy at work and it was not different for my friends, we only managed to celebrate one month after my birthday. I didn’t mind. I was glad that they set up this whole thing, showing me that they cared for me.

Actually I’ve intended to get drunk and celebrate like they wanted me to. However, I’ve reached the club half an hour later than agreed. I’ve lost a battle against death this day. I haven’t been able to safe the young girl that had been hit by a drunk driver, thanks to me not running fast enough.

I wasn’t in the mood to drink, but I still looked forward to meet up with my friends.

They always managed to raise my mood, and this day was no expectation. And even if I wasn’t drunk as intended, I was still drunk enough when I decided that it was time for me to go home.

Stepping out into the chilly night, looking at my car, I decided that I would not drive. I knew what could happen. No person should get harmed by me just because I wanted to reach home as fast as possible.

Smiling to myself I turned right and started walking, enjoying the cold air while feeling myself sobering up.

My steps slowed down as a headache started to build up and my sight got blurry. A vision.

A tall man was slowly walking towards a bus stop, nearing the crosswalk. He wore a black coat and a brown scarf. He seemed to walk without thinking or seeing the things in front of him, as if he was in trance. And thanks to that, he didn’t see the car coming.

Blinking in sheer shock, apparently coming back to his senses his head turned, but it was already too late and the car hit him, throwing him through the air.

I blinked, and just when I turned my head towards my right side, I saw yellow headlights before pain hit me and I felt the coldness creeping into my bones when my body made contact with the cold asphalt.

And again I’ve been too late to save someone this day.

Myself.

Guess how surprised I was when I felt warmness surrounding me and the pain fading away.

When I opened my eyes I lay on the ground, facing the yellowish night sky that was starless like usual in a city.

For a second I lay there, wondering what the hell had happened as suddenly a young woman popped into my vision.

Her blonde hair tickled my nose as she squatted down next to me and checked if I was awake.

“Oh, good. You are awake.” I realised she was talking in another language, but somehow I understood her.

Furrowing my brows I sat up and she immediately moved back and gave me room in order to get on my feet.

“What happened?” I asked her, touching the back of my head.

“Oh, a car hit you.” She told me, smiling as if it was the most normal thing to tell a person you don’t know.

Raising my brows I looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

She herself looked at me as if I was some dumb fellow who didn’t get what she was telling me. And actually, that was the case.

When she pointed at me I wanted to tell her to stop since it was rude, but then a cold shudder run down my back and by instinct I turned as I realised she wasn’t pointing at me but at something or rather someone behind me.

When I turned I froze in place, my eyes widening as I saw myself lying on the ground. My limps turned and twisted in a very ugly way and a pool of blood forming around my body, framing my body.

Whenever I’ve imagined how I would react when my time has come, I pictured myself getting emotional and trying everything to change the situation.

But now, now that I, or rather my body – was really dying, I just stood there staring.

“I know it’s hard to accept, and I would really like to explain everything to you, but I can’t.” She hummed, her voice a gentle whisper, while my eyes were still glued to my body.

“I can’t, at least not now.” She then announced and placed a hand on my back, slowly pushing me towards a grey light that seemed to pop out of nowhere.

“I was really mad when they told me to bring you to them without explaining you everything. That’s not how you should treat a new member, even if you gave me a hard time, saving all those people. But I guess they had an eye on you.” She sounded a little curious as she told me all of this, and a little agitated since ‘they’ seemed to have rushed her. “The boss looked rather happy when he heard that you were hit by a car.” She rambled and we stepped through the grey light.

‘Why would someone be happy that I’ve been hit by a car?’ I wondered while blindly following her.

I had no idea why I followed her in the first place. But somehow I felt myself not belonging to this part of the world anymore. To the part of the world I’ve spent 25 years in. It was as if the body that had been hit was no longer connected to me, or my soul.

And with a dark feeling that started crawling into my limps and body, I realised that I’ve just died.

For real.

Walking through the fog felt like hours. However, after a while the grey fog started to fade and I found myself in a very sterile looking office. A giant desk was located in front of me and the girl gently pushing me towards the lonely chair that stood in front of it.

“He’ll be here in a second. I’ll wait for you outside. I bet you’ll have man questions afterwards, so feel free to ask me everything you want to know once you are finished.” She smiled, waved and left the room in a hurry.

I looked at the door that closed behind her when someone with a very dark voice startled me.

“Hwang Chansung. The Fate Destroyer.”

I turned around and looked at a handsome looking man who took a seat behind the giant office desk.

I just stood there and stared at him, till he pointed towards the empty chair and without me noticing it, I was suddenly sitting in front of him. As if he had moved me there like a puppet.

“I wondered how long it would take for you to take a seat on this very chair.” He hummed, leaning onto his right hand, looking at me with interest glinting in his eyes.

“Sorry that I’ve let you wait?” I asked, not really sure what to say in the first place.

He just smiled and leaned back in his black leather chair.

“Hired.” He suddenly announced. And as if all those things weren’t already crazy enough, he just clapped into his hands and suddenly I was wearing a black coat while a scythe floated in front of me.

“Okay. Now I’m more than confused. Is this some sick dream?“ I asked, closely looking at the item that floated in front of you.

“Long story short: From now on you are working for me. Thanks to you my work got a lot more complicated over the past few years.  You’ve brought some trouble to my business and now that you are mine you’ll need to make up for it.” He announced, standing up.

Could you get a headache after you just died? Because, it felt like I was developing a really strong one. This was simply too much information in such a short amount of time, I guessed.

“Wait…” I said, standing up. „Could you just explain all of this to me? I’m feeling kind of lost.” I said weakly, feeling the headache of my life building further up.

“You’ve saved people whose time was up. They HAD to die. But thanks to you they survived.” His neutral face darkened as he saw a tiny smile on my lips. “That’s nothing you should be proud of! Thanks to those actions other people died. That’s the circle of life, Chansung. You have to correct you’re actions, make up for them. Until then, you’ll work for me.” He announced walking towards the door that was located behind his desk.

Starring at him I suddenly had the feeling that he wasn’t just someone.

“Who are you?” I asked, hoping that I was wrong.

“Me? I’m your boss from now on, Chansung. You can call me Father Death.”

Junho had been the first one I’ve saved from death. With him everything had started.

I’ve had left the white room with a giant head that throbbed like crazy, not knowing what the hell was actually happening with me.

When I looked up, the blonde woman from before was smiling at me with understanding glinting in her eyes.

“Your head will get better. Your soul is bruised because of you dying. To be honest your last sand corn hadn’t fallen in your hourglass. But I guess your actions have promoted your death. Your soul was too young to die and it’s still struggling to accept what you are now…” She said softly, grabbing my arm and pulling me along.

“…and what am I now that I’m dead? Because I don’t have the feeling that this is heaven…” I muttered, suddenly my eyes widened as shock ghosted through my body.

“Don’t tell me this is hell?!”

She giggled and shook her head.

“When you die there is no place like ‘Heaven’ or ‘Hell’. There is just this place. I like to call it ‘Hereafter’, because you are here after your human life. When you’ve stepped into Hereafter, you can create your own personal heaven or your personal hell. It depends on the person.” She further explained.

Funnily my headache was getting better, even thought she was talking really fast and it was hard to follow her since the way she was speaking was so unfamiliar to me. I wondered from which country she came from and why the hell I could understand her.

“Hmm, so what about me? He said something about working for him.” I mused.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t seen your working tool?“

Turning towards her I was about to ask what she was talking about as I saw the scythe from before floating next to me, in the corner of my eyes.

Glancing towards it I was asking myself why the hell a scythe would explain all of this. The fact that it was flying wasn’t bothering me too much.

When I heard a loud smack I turned towards the woman again, figuring she had just slapped her hand onto her forehead.

“Come on. Are you really that slow?” She sighed, poking my chest.

“Am not…” I pouted, but I really had no idea what she was referring to.

“Dark clothes, a scythe and working for the Death himself doesn’t ring a bell?” She asked amused and a smile appeared as understanding crossed my face.

“A ing Grim Reaper?! You must be kidding…” I was about to burst out in laughter, but her serious face told me that she wasn’t joking.

Snipping her finger a giant Scythe appeared out of nowhere which she took in her skilful hands as she whirled it around her body.

“Am not. And even if Master Death is our boss, I’m still your trainer. You should take this more serious, otherwise Hereafter will not be pleasant for you.”

Since that day I was under Enn’s wing, learning from her how to become a good Grim Reaper. Because I wanted to enjoy my days in Hereafter and pay back my debt.

Enn was like my supervisor at work. She was strict but also very loyal and sincere.

She even managed to convince Master Death to release me from my duties when I’ve payed back my debt. I had no idea how long it would take or what I had to do in order to make Death release me from this job, but I was continuing to do my work.

Not because he had ordered me to be a Grim Reaper or because Enn’s become like a sister to me.

No, it was because of the knowledge that thanks to me people had died.

When I saved someone, some other person died. Like Master Death had said. Life was like yin and yang. Someone lived and someone died.

I’ve realised what I’ve done and that it was indeed nothing to be proud of.

The screeching of a chair that was being pulled backwards awakened me from my thoughts.

It was Junho taking a seat across from me, looking at me with a gentle smile while placing his cup of coffee in front of him.

“You are here early. Seems like you’ve finished your job rather fast today.” He said, looking at me curiously.

“Yeah. So, what’s up?” I asked him, smiling gently as I saw the earpiece on Junho’s right ear. He sure was inventive. He had bought it in order to talk to me in public without being labeled a weirdo who talked to himself.

“Nothing. I was just looking forward to our meeting.” He admitted with a gentle smile.

I felt my usually very slowly beating heart speeding up. Which it only did near Junho. It was letting me frown, like always.

It’s been only a few months since I’ve met him again. Since then we were regularly meeting. It was not something we’ve agreed to do. It just naturally happened. It was as if we were drawn to each other by a magnetic field. And that was what confused me highly.

I was dead, or something similar to it, and he was a not.

We shouldn’t meet, we shouldn’t get along well and I, I shouldn’t feel my heart speeding up whenever he was near.

It was wrong, so very wrong. But I couldn’t bring myself not to come to this coffee shop.

I knew that if this continued, I was surely to fall for him…

‘If I haven’t already…’ I inwardly smacked myself at that thought.

I couldn’t help but to chuckle humourlessly. That was some cruel joke, for sure.

He looked up from his steaming cup of coffee, raising a brow at me.

I on the other hand just shook my head.

“Grim Reaper joke…” I hummed.

It was now Junho who shook his head, reaching for his cup of coffee, intending to take a sip.

I was just about to warn him about the hot liquid and that it was probably still too hot for him, but it was too late.

He cried out in pain and nearly slammed the cup onto the table which let some coffee spill onto his hand. Junho then pulled his hand away, pain showing all over his face.

I on the other hand had jumped up and hurried to his side, grabbing his hand and whipping away the burning liquid with the hem of my black shirt.

When I looked up I was expecting to look into Junho’s eyes, but he was simply staring into the complete other direction, nodding his head apologetic.

For a second I wondered why, but then I understood what had happened.

I had jumped up from my seat that fast that I had taken the chair with me. I hadn’t even heard the loud sound it had made when it came in contact with the tilled floor.

I had been too worried about Junho.

“Seems like I kicked the chair without intention. Sorry…” He muttered to the staring people who soon turned away again.

I on the other hand stood up from my kneeling position, staring into nothing.

I watched people die. Watched them when they had an accident. Mothers, children, fathers and many other people. But I never worried about them. I didn’t care about them.

But I cared about Junho. And I knew this was fatal. This was something that shouldn’t happen. Never.

I was so in my thoughts that I only realised Junho had stood up when he gently pushed passed me, lifting the chair from the floor.

He then motioned me to sit down again, smile present on his lips. A happy one I noted.

“Seems like you are a really caring Grim Reaper.” He noted when I had taken a seat again.

“I am not caring.” I shot back, staring at him intensely.

“I see. Then you are only caring towards me. How nice.” He beamed at me. Even if I knew I should deny it, but I couldn’t.

First because I loved this kind of smile and second because he was right.

I only seemed to care about him.

I tried to tone down the caring and my beating heart, but the more I met up with Junho, the more I seemed to fall for him.

And at one point I knew that it wasn’t a simple adoration or friendship blooming between us, but something more. Something very dangerous.

Love.

Till then I believed it was only me, feeling that way. And I was hoping that I was right. Because I knew it wouldn’t end well when we both felt that way.