I spend the weekend making a grand total of fifty-three phone calls towards my prime target, all in vain. The Principal and the other Prefects band together and nobody budges: they spend the entire weekend at school, covering the transition papers for all the students and faculty and refurbishing the long-forgotten dormitory quarters behind the football stadium for students who just live too far away.

And I’m not allowed to help at all except to give Jihoon my password to access my files. It’s safe to say I spend the weekend grumpy and pouty, listening to rainy emo soundtracks on my laptop.

“I hate you,” Jeonghan tells me. He’s been lying on the ground next to my bed for a solid five hours now, throwing a tennis ball towards the ceiling and seeing how many times he can catch it. I think he stopped counting around the three-thousand-and-fifty-something mark.

“I’m perfectly aware,” I grumble back. “You can go and entertain yourself outside if you want. I’m not stoppin’ ya.”

He turns his head to me, and I expect him to be pissed off like he’s been the last fifty times I’ve said it, but this time he’s not angry. He just looks at me with an upset kind of guilt. “Can’t,” he says softly. “What if you get hurt when I’m gone?”

The concern in his voice disarms me a moment. “…’s not like I’m not protected,” I mumble.

“…I don’t want to take the chance,” he tells me. “Hey. Why don’t we play a game?”

“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with Jeong and ending in Han Is So Bored He’s Almost Dead.”

He groans at me and gets up suddenly. “No, seriously. You’re a damp rag and I’m not going anywhere. Do you have an oujia board? Calling up spirits is fun as a demon. They get so pissed off.”

“I do not indulge in witchcraft. Ask Jihoon.”

He sits down, folding his legs under him, sitting up straight. He obviously hasn’t let go of the idea. “Okay, we can, uh… play cards. Do you play poker?”

“I don’t gamble,” I mutter.

“We don’t have to gamble. Just the game would be enough.”

I give him a look.

“Uh, we can pull out the Xbox. You’ve got some neat games. How about-”

“Jeonghan!” I finally bark, losing my cool. “I don’t want to play a game with you! Go entertain yourself if you’re that bored!”

“How?!” he shouts back.

“I don’t know, go if you have to, just leave me alone!”

He gives me a single look of resentment and then bullets out the open balcony door to, presumably, go do some demon stuff.

It’s a little more comfortable like this. Sometimes the house just gets so stuffy with Jeonghan so close, and I wish he’d just get his together and move in to the apartment next door so I wouldn’t have to be so close to him all the time.

“Hey.”

“…DK!” I jump up and proceed to hit him as hard as possible on the shoulder. I know it won’t hurt him. “How did you turn up on my balcony?”

“I’m an angel, remember? I’ve got wings, remember?” He gives me a toothy grin and puts his arms around me in a warm hug. “I finished up my duties so all is ready for tomorrow. I heard you were having a hard time, so I came to say hi.”

“…hi, ,” I mumble, leaning in to hug him back tightly. I press my face into his chest. “How is Seungcheol doing?”

“Oh, he’s fine. Not a scratch on him. Don’t worry. Demons like that are no match for Wonwoo and me.” He just can’t stop grinning. “How about I take you out? I know you’re bored. We’ll go grab some snacks and eat in the park.”

I sigh in relief with a smile. DK always knows just how to make me grin. “I’d like that. Thanks.”

The sound of his giggles make me smile more and more. I love the way Joshua laughs. He’s like a fairy, if they existed. He makes me feel light and airy when he laughs. Because as long as Joshua is laughing, then everything is right in his world, and that’s all I want. It’s all I ever wanted to start with. And especially now, now that I know I could get rid of all the demons around him…

Somebody as good as Joshua shouldn’t be surrounded by people like that.

Joshua marvels at my wings and laughs at the feeling of gliding through the air. I have to hold him tightly, and sometimes he presses his face to my chest to breathe right, but it’s great. Joshua holds on to me, and to be honest, the feeling of his arms around me is a blessed one.

We land in an alleyway and his legs are shaky but he’s still laughing, almost hysterically as he shakes it off, walking and squatting here and there to stretch his legs again. “That was amazing!” he beams. “I wish we could have done that years ago. Thanks, DK. It was a trip.”

I can’t help but smile. I love it when Joshua is happy. The happy twinkle in his eye is something I could almost live for. Live off. I want it to be there, always.

“Now I just have to buy you ice-cream and you’ll be my slave,” I joke.

“That’s right!” He puts a hand on his heart. “If you buy me ice-cream I’ll be your slave until 10 PM. But then I have to go back home. Curfew. Tomorrow’s Monday.”

I shake my head in fondness and pull him along to the convenience store. If that ain’t Joshua.

DK buys me my ice-cream, taking me as his slave for another couple of hours, and I don’t mind at all. He just puts his arm around my shoulders and forces me to come play in the park with him for a while.

DK’s right. I need this. I’ve been miserable all weekend.

He ends up pushing me on the swings, which isn’t half the fun of holding on to him while he flies, but is infinitely easier to breathe properly on. And to be honest, in my condition I should be taking care of myself, except I’m not, because I made out with a smoker for like, a full half-hour on Friday without even second-guessing it.

“Hey… you know what?”

I slow down so that when he sits in the swing next to me we can talk. “What?”

“I wish we could live every day like this,” he smiles peacefully. “Playing in the park like we used to. Eating junk food. Being happy. It would