A solid layer of snow had wrapped around every corner of the gray city, like a naive hero trying to embrace a villain and show a different way of existing. Morning frost, the coldest visitor of January, had binded the soft white and blue snow to the black branches of bare trees, to monotone rooftops and heavy pavement. It was a coat of nothing more or less than warm light in a contradicting form of ice, letting each covered inch to start living again, preparing everything for blossoming in spring. A similar light had wrapped around TaekWoon.

He had lost all hope to ever feel whole, to be happy or content with being where he was, but now every day he awoke feeling more and more complete. The tragically and mercilessly ripped void in his being was filled bit by bit, like cracks in the pavement by the clear light of snow. His eyes no longer had the habit of looking at the time stealing clock on the wall nor at the sad looking apartment building behind the window. They didn’t search for his phone and didn’t already long to close for another cycle of sleep. They looked for the white winged figure somewhere around the studio, a wave of quiet content washing over TaekWoon when he found what he was looking for.

Either in the kitchen, the wings tightly against his back due to the small space, or in his favorite spot in front of the grand window, observing the world he had only seen directly from above - HongBin was there since that day mid December. His very presence was a part of the space around TaekWoon and even though it had been a mere month he no longer could see it missing the light radiated by the angel. It didn’t even take him that long to understand how desperately and instantly his heart had begun to depend on the celestial stranger. New Year’s night was the breaking point two weeks in the past, his dreams painting the scene so vividly, TaekWoon was as if reliving it again.

“Who knew all these colors were so bright. They seemed so dull from above,” HongBin spoke, his eyes locked at the fireworks lighting up the city behind the window. An explosion of green, red, purple, yellow, blue and million shades of these colors played in the sky as the new year had made its way here, but TaekWoon cared very little about what was behind the window. What was before him was far more beautiful, far more breathtaking than the lights in the sky.

The sparkles of thousand color shades danced across HongBin’s skin and in his wings. The untainted white made each accent of color to pop, to be far more alive than the festival of sound and brightness behind the window. Each feather as if swallowed the dots of the light coming from the fire flowers behind the grand window and radiated a color so clean from within TaekWoon could swear he had never seen anything so beautiful in his life and he would probably never see it again.

It was not only the color play he admired. No, it was the being next to him that had his head filled with so many thoughts, his heart filled with everything he had missed out on feeling till the very edge. It was beyond the looks from another realm, it was beyond the calming sound of his voice, the kindness of his smile, the absolutely adorable habits the celestial being possessed making him almost human like. The brunet had an effect so foreign yet pleasant TaekWoon didn’t know how to explain it as something strong and vaguely familiar was mixed with something foreign and overpowering.

The raven hair silently wished the time that didn't show any mercy on him would give him enough to understand what it was, to have HongBin around for long enough to grasp the reason for his feelings. Why his mouth went dry when the angel smiled, why did his heart race when their eyes met, why did the same heart he thought had long been dead skipped its beat when as much a feather from other’s wing brushed against him. Yet he couldn’t know when a chance to return would be given to HongBin and in a way each morning, each evening after work was gamble of weather the winged man would still be there.

A memory like dream of the New Year’s night slowly fade away from behind TaekWoon’s closed eyelids along with thoughts and concerns gathered in four weeks. As a rapid flashback all HongBin’s stories of the world somewhere between clouds, right above all grey and ordinary, run through his thoughts. A world so light, so white it missed color just like the grey city. A realm so monotone and bright in it’s essence HongBin refused to call it ‘home’. A place so heavy to him he had forgotten was he once a human or was he created as an angel, how old he was or where exactly did he came from. Surprisingly, it seemed just as smothering as the grey TaekWoon had been stuck in until HongBin appeared. Maybe meeting TaekWoon was a change HongBin needed too?

Thoughts kept on rushing through TaekWoon’s fibers, his already thin morning sleep not promising to become any deeper. It was weekend, he knew that, and nothing obliged him to wake up, but his mind was too restless. He slowly opened his eyes, ready to face the window and snow covered city behind it, but instead a face no less than from his dreams greeted him.

HongBin was mere inches away from