“Kill me then !” I spat in my mates face. “If you’re so through with me, put me out of my own goddamn misery and kill me!”

Baekhyun took long strides and hovered his face closely to mine. I crossed my arms, keeping my ground. He thinks just because he’s royalty and an angel he can just push me around? No way.

“So what will it be?” I asked, taunting the male further.

His lip twitched in anger. “I ing loathe you.” He snarled.

I roll my eyes and walk away, but not before I call over my shoulder and say, “Call me when you come up with something I don’t know.”

Today was a record I would say. I’m pretty proud of us, we made it all the way into the afternoon where we weren’t at each other’s throats. That was until I decided to make something for lunch and Baekhyun just had to find a way to annoy me. It was almost like his daily routine.

Going back to my original task, I ignore Baekhyun and enter the kitchen, cringing slightly as servants bowed lowly. I’ve been here for so long and I’m still not used to being treated with such respect. I should be the one bowing, not them.

So I did. I bowed and I was pulled up hastily by my shoulder right after.

“Stop doing that, you’re in a higher class.” Baekhyun told me as if I was stupid. I flicked his hand off of me and roughly walked past him. The next moment, I nearly fell, but Baekhyun caught me instead. .

I narrowed my eyes. “You did that on purpose you jerk!”

My mate raised his eyebrow, challenging me. “Oh yeah? Where’s your proof doll?”

I knew that he tripped me, but of course he had to be a about it. I pursed my lips and then I remembered the current position I was in. Baekhyun was holding me flush against his chest with one arm around my back and his other hand dangerously close to my .

“Get off of me.” I squirmed as I attempted to be freed from his grasp.

Baekhyun only held me tighter and it made it a little harder to breathe. He dipped his head low, “Only if you’ll admit that I’m the best mate you could possibly have.”

I scoffed in disgust. Was he serious right now? Him? The best? “You ing wish.”

“Fine then,” In a moment I was bent over the kitchen island with one arm behind my back. “Admit it.” He says in a sing song like way, his voice was an octave lower in my ear.

“I’d rather be eaten by lions.” I hissed.

He pressed me even harder on the counter, emitting a soft whimper from me. “You’re quite the stubborn one aren’t you?”

“Still fighting I see?” The both of us turn to look at the new person in the room. It was Minseok, Baekhyun’s eldest brother. Minseok shook his head. “That’s no way mates should treat each other.”

All of Baekhyun’s brothers were kind and gentle, some more playful than the others. Sometimes I even wonder why I’m not bonded to them when I get along with them way better than I do with Baekhyun.

I yelp when Baekhyun pushes me against the counter again. “I heard that you wench.”

“Good, I actually meant it.”

He growls. “I swear to God, I should just—.”

Minseok claps Baekhyun’s shoulder and peels him off of me. I stand straight and have to bite my tongue from insulting my mate any further. “Now, now, save it for the bedroom. No in the kitchen.” Minseok smiles naughtily and winks as he opens the refrigerator.

“Aw hyung,” Baekhyun whines. “You made me lose my appetite.” He throws the food down uncaringly on the counter and stomps his foot like a child would.

I shouldn’t feel offended because I wouldn’t want to be touched by him either, but I’m not ugly enough where I would make him lose his will to eat.

“Whatever.” I grumble, taking an orange and muttering curses at the male under my breath. “Not like you’re much of a dropper yourself.”

Baekhyun laughed. “Oh please,” He tuts. “I hear and see your every thought, you have quite the dirty imagination, I had no idea that you actually like when you’re bent over an-.”

“La, la, la!” Minseok screams as he plugs his ears. “Scream in each other’s heads, but leave me out of it.”

I stare at Baekhyun, but Baekhyun is already keeping my figure in a locked gaze.

I was about to leave the kitchen, but not before I threw a knife that shot right past Baekhyun’s ear and lodging into the wall behind him. Minseok stopped Baekhyun from retaliating and I huff, turning on my heel and walking away.

It was dinner time and everyone was gathered together. I, being the only human amongst this group, was always a tad intimidated by our company. All of which were angels. Baekhyun’s brothers all had different powers and his was the power of light. They aren’t normal angels either, they’re guardian angels. It’s actually rare, but Baekhyun and I are bonded and on top of that, he’s my guardian angel. How ironic.

“Are you two still going at it?” Sehun, the youngest, asks as he chews on a piece of meat.

I nod. “It’s not that easy.”

Baekhyun kicks my ankle under the table and I bite my lip to keep from screaming. I turn and shoot daggers at him, if only looks could kill and he wasn’t immortal, he’d be lying on the floor in his own pool of blood.

Suho chuckles. “You’ll eventually find each other in time.”

“I would assume it isn’t easy,” One of my sister-in-laws comments. “She is human after all, they’re like Neanderthals compared to us.”

“You’re right my dear sister.” My mate agrees. I can’t help but feel a little pinch, and Baekhyun notices it as well, but he does nothing.

It’s always been like this, ever since I was clinging onto life and my mate had saved me from the clutches of death, he’s treated me as if I’m lesser than him. When I was recovered enough, Baekhyun stayed by my side, but he didn’t like it, he hated it. He’s made it clear that he’d rather be someone else’s guardian, he’d much rather be someone else’s mate as well.

Maybe he shouldn’t have saved me that day.

For the rest of the evening I barely touch my food. I wasn’t in the mood to eat anymore and I was surely pissed at Baekhyun. When everything was cleaned up, Baekhyun and the rest of them wanted to stay and spend some time together, while I on the other hand wanted to go to bed.

“Why don’t you just stay for ten minutes?” Kai asks, moving over to make space.

I shake my head, politely declining and feeling a tad bit uncomfortable with all these pairs of eyes on me. “I’m tired, I’m just going to head to bed now.”

“You don’t mind if we keep your mate do you?” Chanyeol questions as he is already barely paying attention to me.

“No, that’s fine.” I smile. “Just have fun.”

I look at Baekhyun and see that he didn’t bother to even turn my way and acknowledge my existence. I climb up the stairs with a heavy heart, but why? Maybe it was the bond and since we knew each other’s feelings at every single moment, he knows exactly how I feel. We can’t be separated, I’d die. Baekhyun is immortal, he’d find someone to fill the void in his heart if I were to die.

I’m human, he’s a godly being. I’m nothing but some weak thing that always drives him crazy. Well, he makes me want to rip my hair out too. It was my destiny, my will at birth, to be with Baekhyun. But even with a mate that I will have for the rest of my life, I’ve never felt so lonely.

Today, I find myself feeling bitter and annoyed since I woke up this morning. Every little thing that Baekhyun had done irked me more than usual, I just wanted him to be away from me.

But where’s the fun in that?

“Hey,” I ignore Baekhyun for the nth time he’s called me. “Hey~” he drawls.

I scrunch my nose in annoyance and pinch the bridge of my nose. “What the hell do you want from me?”

He seems taken aback and raises his brow. “I was just going to ask if you wanted to go on that trip with everyone else to the house in Jeju for the winter holiday.”

I shrug and shew him off. “Then go.”

“You’d die?” He tells me because of just how obvious the fact is.

I look at him blankly. “Good, it’ll lessen your burden if I’m gone then.”

Baekhyun’s jaw drops and he looks at me with disbelief. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Do you want to go or not?” I snap, finally reaching the end of my patience. The prideful part of me wants him as far away from him as he can possibly get. But the string attaching our souls together wants him to feel sorry and actually want me around him.

The male purses his lips and sighs. “You’re coming with. They’re your family now too.” His tone was stern. I didn’t feel like arguing and as much as I’d love to say something back to him, I’ve learned to keep things to myself. And one of those was, you’ve never considered me family before, why start now?

I had wanted to the see the first snow this winter, and since we’re going near the beach, it’ll just be cold. Everyone had already gone without us, so we were the last to arrive. It was late, so Baekhyun decided it’d be best if we unpack tomorrow. Much to our surprise (and distaste) there was only one bed, which meant we had to share.

“Get the off of me.” I growl through my teeth as Baekhyun slings his arm around me in his sleep. We have to share one bed and Baekhyun is the type to take up most of the bed space, making my life a living hell. I lift his arm off of me and he only snores. Gross. I take a pillow with me and get comfortable on the floor.

I end up tossing and turning, but I eventually fall asleep, but I didn’t realize Baekhyun had stopped snoring and had woken up. “What are you doing down there?” Baekhyun peaks an eye open. He actually looks pretty cute like this, his hair sticking in all different directions and that cute pout on his lips. For a moment I let my mind slip and I stop myself seeing how Baekhyun can see and hear my every thought, so I roll my eyes and turn so my back is facing towards him. “You shouldn’t be sleeping down there, you’ll catch a cold.” I do not say anything. He calls my name, “Come back on the bed.”

“No.”

He sighs, the creaks and squeaks from the bed loud in my ear from him shifting around to sit up. “Stop being so stubborn.”

“You take up too much space.” I mutter quietly. “And you snore too loudly.”

Baekhyun climbs out of bed and scoops me up bridal style. I squeeze my eyes shut from the suddenness. He laughs, and I find myself enjoying the rasp laced in it. “You’re shivering you dummy.” He places me gently on the bed and I climb underneath the covers.

I’m still not warm and my mate notices this too. “Come here,” Baekhyun pulls me into him and as much as I hate to admit it, I feel a lot better, but I still try to keep as much distance as I can.

“Baekhyun.” I call into the darkness. No answer. I assume he fell asleep again. I sigh. “You deserve a much better mate than me.”

The next morning at breakfast was awkward, at least for me. Baekhyun wasn’t acting in his usual annoying way, he was actually being nice to me.

“Do you want more juice?” He offers me. It surprises me, and everyone else for that matter, so much so that Kyungsoo nearly chokes on his water. Baekhyun catches everyone’s eyes and grunts, “Do you want the juice or not?” There’s even a bit of a blush on his face too.

I slowly nod, taking the juice from his hand, unsure if I was still asleep or if this is actually real.

These nice acts continue on for the rest of the day. He helps me dress, attempts to braid my hair, even tries to talk to me civilly. This new attitude of his beginning to worry me, it was only because I was so used to his normal arrogant nature.

It was night by now and I was in our room, reading a novel I had brought along. I only notice someone came in when I heard the door shut. I thought it would have been Suho, but instead, it was Baekhyun of all people.

“I’m just gonna cut right to the chase,” The male fumbles over himself a few times. Opening his mouth and closing it, biting on his thumbnail, and scratching at the nape of his neck. He looked nervous, but what for? I hum, prompting him to keep going. “D-do you want to join us?”

It takes a moment to register what he meant, and it actually makes my heart skip a beat. Whatever happened over the last twenty four hours must’ve shook him to his core, because he actually wants me around.

I was about to answer, but he cut me off.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to…”

Closing my book, I smile a bit. “Are you sure?”

This makes him flinch, but he nods. Maybe one of his brothers are doing this to him as punishment.

At that, I get up from my spot on the bed and join the others downstairs with Baekhyun. He has a deep frown on his face and it makes me feel like I’m intruding, so I stop on the middle of the steps. When he notices I’m not following him anymore, he turns around and asks, “What’s wrong?” His tone wasn’t venomous or anything like normal, it sounded a little bored, but it wasn’t malicious.

“I just don’t want to be a bother to you is all, you don’t have to invite me. I know how you feel about me. Let me just stay out of your way.” I don’t even get to make it up three steps before I feel a light grip on my wrist, tugging me slightly.

Baekhyun clears his throat. “I,” A pause, and then he sighs. “I want you there.”

Surprised was an understatement, no words could even come close to explaining how shocked I was to hear what he’d just said. I want to ask him if he’s sure again, but I’m sure that’ll just annoy him and he’ll just say forget it. Silently, we keep walking to the living room, his grip still on my wrist, but lighter.

There isn’t much room on the couch, just an itty bitty space left for one person. Baekhyun and I look to each other, but we look away quickly.

“I can sit on the floor?” I offer.

My mate scoffs. “I’m not letting you sleep on the floor and I’m not letting you sit on the floor either.” He wedges himself into the last seat. “Just sit on my lap.” I can’t even protest, the words of refusal I was going to use turned into a small squeak when Baekhyun slid his arms around my waist and sat me on his thigh. Sehun was sniggering from the corner and it was only now that I realized that everyone else was watching that painfully awkward interaction. I was red before, but now I’m absolutely flushed.

“That was…awful.” Chanyeol bluntly observes, earning a glare from Baekhyun. He raises his hands defensively. “I’m just saying.”

Suho chimes in this time. “Leave them. This is progress, we should be celebrating instead of cringing.”

“He didn’t have a problem bending her over the counter the other day.” Minseok comments as he sips his drink.

Kyungsoo chokes on his water for the second time today as he asks, “What?!” Bearing the same flabbergasted look everyone else had, except for Minseok.

“I-it wasn’t like that!” I try to explain, but I only look more guilty with how flustered and how much I am stuttering. Baekhyun pats my thigh and that makes me stop talking.

He only shrugs. “It’s something we do.” That was it, no ‘Stop, it wasn’t like that’ or ‘It was only a joke’.

Everyone starts laughing, but I only feel like crying and hiding under a rock.

“We know they haven’t done anything, Baekhyun hyung doesn’t even like her.” It wasn’t meant to hurt, but Sehun had said it so casually, so confidently since it was very clear, Baekhyun doesn’t like me.

“Sehun!” Suho scolds him, smacking him upside the head.

The mood turned tense after that. I know he doesn’t like me, but hearing it from someone else made it feel that much worse. I swallow, lifting myself from Baekhyun’s lap. I sniffed and it was only then that Sehun realized the weight of his careless words.

“, I’m so sorry.”

Putting my hand in the air, I stop him. “You’re right. Baekhyun doesn’t like me.” And I was right, because once again, Baekhyun couldn’t say anything. Instead he watched the tears roll down my cheeks. “You don’t have to put up with me if your brothers put you up to this, you know. I liked it better when you didn’t care about me at all.”

I run back up the stairs and slam the door behind me. I slide down the door and bury my face into my knees, trying not to sob so loudly. From downstairs I could hear Sehun getting scolded by everyone there, and I could tell that he had felt bad, he was only telling the truth.

Then, there was a knock at the door, and my mate’s voice behind it. “Let me in.”

I sniff and rub my nose with the back of my sleeve. “No, go back downstairs.”

Silence, and then he says, “Please?”

No threats, no attitude, but something I’ve never seen from Baekhyun before. Concern.

I fumble with the lock a little, but I manage to open it. I stand off to the side with my head low when Baekhyun comes in the room with me. He sits on the edge of the bed and motions me to join him, hesitantly, I do.

He’s the first to speak.

“Do you remember that day? That day I officially became your guardian?”

It was an obvious question, of course I remember that day. It was a year ago, around this time of year. It was cold and the roads were slippery. My friends and I were coming back from a small party at school, my friend was driving and I was in the back seat. She hadn’t seen the black ice, but she lost control of the car and it flipped, colliding with a tree and totaling the car completely. Out of all four girls, I was the only one that survived.

I didn’t go unscathed, in fact, I was barely clinging onto life. It was when I saw a bright light and a beautiful figure approach me, that I felt safe. I felt warm, I felt like I was going to survive. I woke up in the hospital not too long after that with a visitor that I hadn’t known, but he was gripping tightly to my hand and even though my vision had been blurry from just waking up, it was Baekhyun.

We found out we were mates the day he explained he saved me. At birth, everyone is assigned an angel to protect them and it was my time for my angel to protect me. When he tried to leave, it was almost like a tug on my heart increased with each step he took. It only felt better when he stayed close to me and that’s when he knew we were bonded.

Angels are bonded with other angels, it’s once in an eon that an angel and human are bonded, but Baekhyun and I beat the odds, but it wasn’t a picture perfect fairy tale. For some reason, he hated me and in turn I could only cope with that with hate towards him. To be honest, I love him for what he did, and I feel so thankful for him saving my life.

I express the wish to see the snow, because maybe then I could see the smile of my friends faces one last time before they took their final breath. Each winter passes, and they’re still gone and sometimes I wish it could’ve just been me that didn’t survive.

I nod, beginning to tear up once more. “How could I forget?”

“That day, I felt like I was going mad.” He admits. “I saw you laying there, almost dead. I heard your thoughts, you wanted to live. I could hear you cry despite not being able to. I felt your pain, but I also felt your relief and your guilt. I felt it all.” Baekhyun takes in a sharp breath. “I heard you the other night, about you saying how I deserve a better mate than you.”

Oh, that’s why he’s been acting so strange. “It’s true.”

“No.” He snaps, but his features soften. He sighs. “I wanted to distance myself, to make myself hate you when I couldn’t. I wish you could’ve been bonded to a man so you could live and die with him, because one day, I’d lose you to death, and not even an angel can stop that from happening.”

All this new information swirled in my head, some making sense, some making me embarrassed. One thing was clear, “You didn’t have to be so dramatic and make it so we hated each other.” I laugh, trying to lighten the mood and it works. Baekhyun can’t help but crack up with me.

“Can I try something?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Sure?”

He wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly and burying his face into my neck. I reach up to wrap my arms around him as well and I melt into his grasp. He’s warm, his smell is blissful, and he feels like home. “I want to try one more thing.” Baekhyun pulls away and tilts my chin to look at him, slowly his lips press to mine gently. His hands are cupped on my face and I close my eyes, kissing him with the same amount of tenderness. My mate pulls away first and for the first time, I see him smile.

“I guess I owe you a lot of thanks and gratitude, huh?” I put my cheek against his chest and he places another kiss to the top of my head.

“No, you don’t owe me anything.”

I didn’t expect it to see little white snowflakes to fall in my room, it wasn’t even cold, but I guess it was Baekhyun doing this. “I saw your friend’s spirits before they moved on that day. They begged me to save you, they also begged you to not feel like you should’ve died with them.” A tear slips and Baekhyun keeps me against his body. “They went in peace, and they want you to live peacefully.”

It was snowing, and I pictured my friends. Not bloody and marred, but smiling. They were happy, and it’s my turn to be happy too.

That next morning, everyone was wary when Baekhyun and I came downstairs together hand in hand. Sehun kept apologizing to me at every chance he could get for last night.

“It’s okay, Sehun.” I dismissed, piling food on top of his plate. “Now eat.”

Beside me, my mate was pouting, wanting for me to pay attention to him as well. I smile and lean over to kiss his cheek, this time Chanyeol was the one that choked on his juice.

“What the was that!?”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “A kiss .”

Chanyeol pouts at his brother’s harshness and I comfort him by petting his head. “He’s just grumpy, Yeol. No need to fret over him.” This makes him giggle and stick his tongue out at Baekhyun.

To keep him from punishing Chanyeol (who flinched the moment Baekhyun raised his hand) I interlace our fingers together and kiss him once more and he is satisfied, but still grumbling under his breath.

There was something that I didn’t mention to Baekhyun last night, so I decided to tell him through my thoughts.

He hums when he hears me call for him. I rest my head on his shoulder and tell him,

“You may lose me to death, but you have to promise to at least see me off before I move on.” I scrunch my nose when Baekhyun leans to peck my forehead.

“I think that may be a little impossible, sweetheart.”

My heart drops, “Why?”

“Because I’ll always be by your side, to the very end.”

A/N: Wow! Okay i hope you guys liked this lol this was so rushed but so far ive gotten good feedback on it! this is for my winter one shot on the magazine so go check it out!

「AFF MAGAZINE」 || Winter Holidays Edition - Issue Nº 2

also! ive made an account on ask.fm so please send me questions! i want to interact with you guys <3

http://ask.fm/gamerbyun <-- come say hi, i dont bite!

alright, i'll see you next time xoxo