“SHE WAS HERE LAST NIGHT?!” The black haired girl exclaimed, nearly spilling the glass of water she was holding in her hand.

“Tiff. Please don’t shout. My head hurts,” Jessica said, almost pleading. Her hangover headache was made worse by the fact that she spent her night by the open window after calling out Sooyoung’s name at the top of her lungs for the few minutes that she managed to last in. “My whole body, in fact,” she added.

“Okay. Sorry,” the girl passed the brunette that glass of water after she put a few painkillers in . “I didn’t quite catch the part when she disappeared – did she actually jumped out of the window?” the girl quizzed, “I don’t think they found any dead bodies outside.”

“Yah!” Jessica hit Tiffany on her arm with the little strength she had left.

“Okay, okay! Sorry! I was suggesting that if anything happens to her, we would find out. So, most probably, she’s A-Okay,” she cupped her best friend’s cheeks, “So, stop looking dead worried about her.”

Jessica was wearing a pout on her face while she stared at Tiffany who’s flashing her a cheery eyesmile. She put the glass down beside her, and took Tiffany’s hands into hers, holding and staring at them. “But I don’t know, Tiff,” she said, her gaze lowered, “After last night, it feels weird. I feel like she’s…

…missing.”

“Missing? How?”

She sighed before replying, “Well… Usually I would feel that, somehow…” she stopped mid-sentence and added a remark, “Please don’t think I’m crazy,” earning an eyeroll from her friend. “Usually I would feel that somehow she’s with me. Like… um… how should I put it together… right now, it’s like my heart… or guts… or whatever you call it, knows that she is not here.”

“Here?” Tiffany repeated after looking around their room.

“Not here. But Here,” she pointed to a spot on her chest.

“There?” Tiffany diverted her gaze to the spot.

“Urgh.” Jessica grunted, “you can be ridiculously dumb sometimes.” She scratched her head, trying to find a way to make everything, the very least, relatable to Tiffany. “Let’s put it like this. Ummmm…” her eyes searched around for something, “Here!” she grabbed Tiffany’s sling bag. “You always carry this around right?”

Tiffany nodded.

“And everyday, you would bring this book, right?” she took out Tiffany’s pink diary before earning another nod from the girl. “No matter what you put in or you take out, this book will stay in here, right?” Another nod. “The book is a constant for this bag. For you. But one day, I decided to hide this book from you.

I bet you would instinctively know that the book is missing because you know how the bag weighs with the book in it. You don’t have to check. You just know.

Sooyoung is something like that to me.” Jessica looked at Tiffany who was still trying to comprehend the whole concept.

“But I can always check for the book, right?” she blurted.

“URGHHH~” Jessica grunted again, “Urgh. My head hurts even more now.”

Tiffany laughed. “I’m just kidding, bruh. So, what are you gonna do now?” she asked.

Jessica just stared into the void.

Sooyoung was never really 'physically' present with her all the time but, this – this is the first time she ever felt her absence. This emptiness in her heart, it makes her feel like a vacant room. Or should it be a ‘vacant heart’?

I’ve never really lived my life with you. But I wonder, can I live it without you?

“Jessi?” the black-haired girl pulled her back to reality.

She looked at Tiffany who was waiting for an answer, the answer she is still trying to find it herself.

“I don’t know, Tiffany.

I don’t know.”

- - - - - - -

“I don’t know.

Forgive me for my ignorance. But I don’t know.”

The archangel shot daggers with his eyes as he heard the answer from the angel who was kneeling before him.

“That is an answer, so unfit for an angel,” he commented, “only humans are allowed to be ignorant. Because they are learning. And in learning, they shall forgive and be forgiven. But you,” he caught her gaze as she lifted her head up to look at him, “you are an angel, Summer. And never have I ever been more disappointed with your answer.”

Summer hung her head low again, looking at her hands that were chained to the ground, along with her ankles. Only the fallen ones had seen this view, and look at me now. She shut her eyes in regret as she realized the damnation she brought upon herself.

“What shall be your answer to your Lord, Summer?” he queried.

The angel kept quiet, knowing she didn’t have the perfect answer, other than the truth. And the truth is, she didn’t know but like Michael said, that answer doesn’t make sense.

“Answer me,” the archangel insisted.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled under her breath, anticipating the wrath of the archangel.

“HOW DARE YOU, AN ANGEL, LIE IN THE FACE OF GOD!” his voice shook the whole Heavens, igniting fears they never knew they had. He unsheathed his holy blade and pointed it to the crown of her head as she hung her head low. “If you are the devil,” he paused, holding back his rage, “I would have sent you to the deepest pit of Hell. But no, you are not the devil. And He, the Most Merciful, spared you. How you could still lie.

Never have I ever been disappointed with you.” He said in a lower tone, as if expressing his hurt. He pulled his sword away from her and turned his back against the kneeling angel, before he heard her low plead…

“I’m not lying,” she spoke.

He listened closely to her but refuse to face the angel.

“How could I lie to Him when I know He is All-Knowing,” she continued.

“How could I lie to you when I know you are Michael, the Archangel, whom I love so dearly, whose mercy could bring out the stars in the darkest of nights?

But, oh, Michael, if only you knew.

I’ve asked myself a million times,

‘How can I not know why I am doing what I am doing?’

but I couldn’t seem to find the answer,” she choked on her tears.

Michael finally turned around to look at Summer, the same Summer that he adored. Once upon a time, he was her guardian - he taught her, what happiness is, and how warmth could melt a frozen heart. It somehow hurt him to look at her in the state she was in but he would never go against his duty as the archangel.

“Tell me a reason, Summer,” he spoke, impossibly close to begging.

That made Summer to look up and stare into his eyes. Azrael, finally, opened his eyes to look at both of them when all this while he was standing at the side, listening.

“Tell me a reason,” the archangel repeated himself.

“Tell me a reason so that I don’t have to punish you for what you’ve done. Or maybe I could reduce it for you.”

Summer couldn’t help but to cry, knowing that she is loved even after what she had brought upon herself. “I can’t,” she spoke in between her sobs, “I don’t know.

This Love has turned me to a fool that I never knew of,” she finally broke down and cried in front of the two archangels.

“If you can’t justify a reason,” Azrael finally spoken, “then, we shall have to take your Healing away.”

Summer closed her eyes in helplessness as the sentence was written on her. Almost immediately, she could feel her gift seeping out of her and vanished into the thin air.

“I’m sorry, Michael, for I have let you down.”

Michael sighed as he looked her - it hurt him, not because she was a fallen angel, but because she was a broken one. “Love is a beautiful blessing,” he said, “but what has it done to you? How did it hurt you this much?” He went down on one knee and leaned his head against hers. “how can it break an angel, so kind and dear?”

Out of the cracks and from the darkest of shadows, a deep voice broke the sweet solemn.

“Oh Michael, you little weakling.”

That voice made the archangel picked up his sword and stood gallantly waiting for a familiar figure to reveal itself, and soon enough, it did. The familiar stink of burning and rotten flash filled the Holy Chamber as his heavy steps charred the gold marbles.

“Oh, have I missed this beautiful chamber,” he said, “and after all this time, it still smells the same.

Oh. Or is it me?”

“Lucifer.” Michael called out a name. He leered at the figure. He was disgusted to see the snicker on the Devil’s face. “What is it that brings you here when you know you are unworthy of this Holy ground?”

“Oh, relax, would you? You are always so tense whenever I am around,” he mocked, “Look at Azrael. He’s okay with me, right, Az?”

The archangel just glared back at him, not saying a word.

“Oh, well,” he shrugged, “I am here for this little Summer actually.” He smirked as he looked down on her.

“Love,” he said, standing right behind Michael, “My old friend. The best of potions and the worst of poisons.

Love. My favorite trick. You mix it with a bit of fear, and your mortals would lie for it. Mix it with a bit of anger, they’ll kill for it. Mix it with a bit of vain, they’ll die for it. And mix it with Lust…,” he whispered it into the archangel’s ear, “…it will drive them Crazy.”

As Michael swung his blade to hurt the Devil, he was no longer there.

“But if you take it away, the world shall burn into ashes with only regrets left to spare,” he resumed. Michael clenched his jaws as he glared at the Devil as he stood behind Summer. “You know nothing about Love, Michael.

Look at your little Summer,” he wore a devilish smile as he knelt beside her, never taking his eyes of Michael, “Little that you angels know, Love is God’s Mercy and my most deceiving Whisper.”

Summer screamed as the Devil crushed her left ankle in a single grip, knowing that she could no longer heal on her own.

Michael was about to lunge at Lucifer but Azrael beat him to it. He ed his spear straight through the Devil’s guts and pinned him against the chamber’s wall. He dragged the Devil up the wall and left him hanging on his spear.

“Urgh,” the Devil grunted as he spit off his black, revolting blood as the wall was tainted with it, “what a good fix,” he scorned, “I’ve always wanted to hang on a spear.” Hearing that, Azrael ripped out his spear off the wall along with pieces of the Devil, splattering and staining the chamber's space.

“Oh, just you wait,” Azrael said under his breath, “When the Time comes, I’ll hang you on the highest wall of Hell till all your desire’s content.”

“And I shall bring all those weak mortals that you fail to save, with me,” the Devil added sardonically.

Azrael swung his spear one last time, destroying the wall of the chamber even though he knew that Lucifer would escape and he did. Azrael diverted his gaze to Summer and watched as Michael unshackled the angel.

She fell limp in his arm as the pain was too much for her to bear, especially now that her could no longer heal herself.

“That Devil,” Michael cursed, “I shall bring him Agony when the Time comes.”

“Get in line,” the latter replied.

* * * * * * *

Slowly, Summer started to feel the texture of the velvet sheet against her skin. She heard her hair ruffled against the soft sheet as she moved her head. It wasn’t long before the pain of her ankle shot her into a scream again. She sat up and started grabbing her ankle as the pain felt as if they never subsided. She clenched her teeth as she gripped on her flesh just above the wound. Her ankle burnt to its bones and her flesh that was touched by the devil rot as if they were dead for decades. She could see ember in her bones, burning them from the inside. She could feel as if the demon's teeth were gnawing on her flesh and bones.

“Arghhhhhhh,” she cried out, eyes shut tight, tears bursting from them.

She opened her eyes when she felt the pain was replaced with warmth. There she saw another archangel kneeling before her. He looked into her eyes with compassion and care as he held the wound in his hands. “Be strong, little Summer. I’m here,” he said before flashing a charming smile.

Summer nodded like a little kid, obediently listening to her father’s soothing words.

“You are still the little Summer I’ve always known,” he added, never lifting his hands off the wound. That managed to draw a little smile on Summer’s face as she remembered how Jessica used to hurt herself playing when she was little.

Jessica.

“Gabriel?” she called out.

“Um?”

“How long have I been unconscious?”

“3 days, my dear,” he replied.

Hearing that, Summer quickly jumped out of the crib, trying to get to where she was supposed to be. But as soon as Gabriel’s healing hands were lifted off her wound, she instantaneously fell to the ground and the pain started to immobilize her again.

“Summer,” he called as he saw the angel writhing in pain on the ground.

“I need… to go… Gabriel,” she croaked, “Jessica…”

“I know. But your healing powers…”

Summer remembered her sentence.

“But I need to go to her, Gabriel. Please.”

Gabriel looked into her pleading eyes, "You're going to get yourself into trouble again," he commented.

Summer remembered the last time she followed her feelings.

"What do I do with this Love I'm feeling, Gabriel?

Tell me."

Gabriel looked at her with empathy and smiled. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

Summer was puzzled by his action but she felt safe, which she really needed at the moment.

"Love is selfless, Summer.

It is giving without asking any in return.

When you can love her with all your heart, while possibly watching yours broken apart,

but still feel happy even only by seeing her smile, believing that all those sacrifices worthwhile,

then, you can say that you've undoubtedly loved her so true, and brag to her that 'I've waited a lifetime for you'.

And when that time comes, even after decades of hurt and pain, 

You'll love her and hold her close, knowing that you never will and never have to let go of her again.

Love her, Summer.

Love her."

He looked deep into her brown orbs as he saw a spark of hope reignited in them.

“Take my necklace,” he instructed.

“Hm?”

“I can’t lift my hands off your wound. So, take the necklace off my neck,” he explained.

Summer slowly did as she was instructed and handed the necklace to the archangel.

“Wear it.”

And she did.

Slowly, Gabriel lifted his hands off the angel’s wound. Summer flinched, before realizing that the wound didn’t hurt her as much as it did before.

The archangel sighed.

“That is a turquoise stone. It will help to slightly hinder your pain. But don’t take it off you or you’ll have to bear the torture of that,” he pointed to her wound, "okay?"

She nodded.

“Thank you, my dearest Gabriel. How could I ever repay your kindness?” she pulled him into a hug, totally forgetting the customs or hierarchy between them.

But Gabriel, being the Compassionate Gabriel, reciprocated the hug, and replied, “Just don’t go around making Michael mad again, okay?”

“I surely will.”

Hesitated but determined, Summer stood up on her two feet.

She limped heavily at first but she quickly rushed to where she was supposed to be.

Hoping that her Jessica is safe and sound.

Ola! :)

Some of you actually suggested that i add an 'angst' tag to the story. Is it that bad? :O

But yeah... tell me what you think! I'd love to know.

So, comments? Please?

Love, 

Hana :3