Hell.

A place that, arguably, hated by most human beings.

But that’s not the point.

Or at least not the most important news at the moment.

Because there are much, much, much bigger problems.

Such as-

“He’s GONE?!” Lucifer roared, shaking the entire Dark Palace with the amount of anger cumulated just from the first word of this disturbing report. “Like gone gone? As in POOF… Gone?? How in My Name did you just now find that out???”

“Your Majesty, my deepest apologies for being incompetent. Please, punish me!” Asmodeus immediately dropped to his knees, eyes shining dark with something far beyond fear. Something more alluring and seductive. Well, he is the Sin of Lust. He’s always down for a good fu-

Lucifer rolled his emptied blood-red eyes in frustration. “This isn’t the time! How many days have he been gone?”

“Four days… His Highness left to the Mortal World…”

At this, the King of Hell screeched one more time out of overwhelming rage. “He left to where?! Mortal World? Is he out of his mind? He’s rebelling? WHAT. IS. THIS. Why would he act up like this? I don’t understand… I gave him everything he wants here. This is his home!” Lucifer stretched out his arms and spun around, taking in all the darkness around him, all the screams of the damned souls, all the pain and torture enveloping this literal Hellhole.

“It might not feel like a long time down here, but it’s been forty centuries up there in the Mortal World. I am afraid His Highness have already settled in with all those disgusting existence called Humans.”

Shaking his head, Lucifer decided he couldn’t just sit around and have this going on freely. Hell needs its Lord Commander. Needs its Crown Prince. “Asmodeus, follow my orders.”

“Your Majesty?”

“You will be taking over for the time being. Don’t mess things up. I’ll be back shortly.”

“But-“

With a devilish smile, Lucifer couldn’t wait. “I’ll bring my dear Damien back with me.”

^666^666^666^

It’s not everyday to see the usual casual-attired Detective Park in a fitting black suit. Of course, everyone turned their curious heads, wondering what was the special occasion. Sighing, the detective waved off his colleagues coldly, “Just got back from a department breakfast. Focus on the murder, please.” He approached the body and crouched down with eyebrows furrowed together.

“Handsome, huh,” the forensic technician commented with a satisfying smile.

“Any dead body is handsome to you, Youngjae-ah,” Detective Park smiled back before slipping on his gloves. “So who is this unfortunate young man?”

From another room come a beautiful man with jet black hair and deep red lips, looking like he’s not one to belong on this particular world. Because his beauty is unexplainably special. “Mark Tuan, thiry-two years old.”

Upon seeing his partner, Detective Park couldn’t help but brightened his smile. Who wouldn’t to such a powerful presence? Even for someone as strict and by-the-book as Detective Park, there’s no way to deny such beauty. “Good morning, Jaebum. So Mark? A foreigner?”

“Chinese mafia boss,” Detective Im sneered, “Poor guy. Such a waste of a pretty face.” Turning to Youngjae, Jaebum greeted with a bit more enthusiasm than he had shown this whole uneventful morning, “Hi, Youngjae.”

“Hey, Jae! Looking good as usual~” The twenty-seven-year-old looked up at Detective Im with such angelic eyes and delivered the warmest smile. “Whoever created you, I need to thank them personally.”

Jaebum chuckled and shook his head, “Oh, trust me. You don’t even want to meet them.” As much as Jaebum would love that Youngjae’s warm smiles directed only towards him, it’s hard to pretend that the Choi Youngjae doesn’t act like this with everyone. That’ll be wrong. Because Choi Youngjae is, literally, the happiest person at the precinct. Always so welcoming and vibrant. Always so lovely. And Jaebum really couldn’t resist such radiance.

“All right,” Detective Park reached over and smacked both of his team members with the file he’s holding, “Stop flirting, you two. Focus, please.”

Youngjae just laughed and went back to snapping pictures of the body. Detective Im rolled his eyes and turned back to his partner. “Cause of death was a gunshot through his heart at pointblank. From what Youngjae reported to the officers over there, time of death was roughly about six hours ago.”

“Any witnesses?”

“Nope.”

“Any enemies?”

“Jinyoung, he’s a mafia boss.”

“Right. Anyone we could talk to at all?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Does he not have underlings?” Jinyoung crouched down again to take another good look at the victim. “Youngjae’s right. He’s handsome. If he wasn’t a mafia boss, you’d think he’ll live?”

Jaebum crouched down as well, “Why? You like him? Think you could grab a coffee with him one day?”

Their heads turned. Their eyes met. They both shared a look. And burst out laughing. Jaebum pulled the sheet over the poor victim’s face. His eyes saddened for a bit. “Too bad he’s going to Hell. It’s a terrible place.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Just want to take another look at this rare specimen.”

Jinyoung laughed again, “You know, to be honest, I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, but,” he looked back at the body and tried to hide a little smile, “I think I just did.”

“You’re kidding.”

And they laughed together again like the perfect pair of partners and friends they are and will always be.

^666^666^666^

Seoul’s winter night could get a lot colder with the chance of snowing, but instead the winter weather wasn’t winter weather for a weird while. The whole city agreed that climate change was real, because there was no way it stopped snowing and heated up like it was summer season. Ridiculous. What even more weird was that the scorching heat lasted for about a couple of minutes before the sky sudden darkened and snowed again. No one could explain this.

But what does that have to do anything with the empty morgue room burning up like an oven on the highest of the highest heat? It doesn’t, right?

If all the corpses weren’t cooked up like roasted pigs, then what’s the point of making such a dramatic entrance?

The corpse of the young Chinese mafia boss lied motionless out in the open. The mortician probably was going to run some prints into the system before rolling him back inside his little cooler. Thank the Devil the mortician decided to step out for a quick midnight dinner. Now, the body of a handsome man was left unattended.

The lights twitched suddenly, flicking on and off for about three or four times before it went back to normal.

The corpse’s eyes snapped open.

Deep.

Deep.

Deep burning red orbs shone bright and magnificently.

Glancing left and right, the corpse smiled mischievously and sat up. Reaching around to touch his new body, the Devil couldn’t help but feel the growing excitement. “So this is how a human body feels like.” He got off the tray that the corpse was laying on. Walking over to the nearest table, he looked at the photos of the corpse, he supposed, sprawled out on the floor with a pool of blood. “Poor soul. I’ll thank you when I get back. Definitely going to give your kind spirit a pass on torments for a day.”

Tilting his head a little, the Devil studied the crime photos some more. After a minute, he looked down at the corpse’s, his, body and nodded. Slowly understanding something. With a snap of his fingers, he was dressed in the suit from the photos. Well, a copy of it. Setting the photos down, the Devil exited the morgue room.

Catching a glimpse of himself on the reflection of the windows, he couldn’t help but smiled at his new body. “I am quite a handsome fella,” he fixed his hair a little, “That’s good. The Devil should be a charming gentleman.”

^666^666^666^

Opening the door to his apartment, Jaebum sighed. Another day.

Another day of a failed attempt of getting Youngjae to notice his efforts. Honestly, at this point, why should he even keep trying? It’s not like his feelings were going to be reciprocate anyhow. Choi Youngjae was just too… Jaebum hated to admit, but heavenly was the most fitting word to describe someone like Choi Youngjae.

He’s been in this requited love for two years now. And obviously, Youngjae doesn’t know.

Jaebum doesn’t mind their friendly flirty jokes with each other, but he wants something more. Something he hasn’t been able to find for the past four centuries-

“HOLY -“ Detective Im almost jumped and pulled out his gun. “You…” He stared at the man sitting on his couch. “Mark Tuan?” The man scoffed and turned to stare directly into Jaebum’s soul. Even in a state of pure humane shock, Jaebum could never forget those piercing red eyes. His hands shook violently as his gun dropped loudly onto the floor. “Fa-Father?”

“That’s more like it,” the King of Hell stood up and buttoned his suit jacket, “Hello, my dear Son. I’ve been missing you, foolish child.”

“When…” The Crown Prince slumped down onto a nearby chair.

“Well, a soul was passing by me while I was on my way up here. I made a little deal, and here I am.”

“I knew it. I had my suspicions but wasn’t sure.”

The Devil quirked an eyebrow, “What suspicions?”

“You know it yourself you don’t give off a very human presence, Father. I don’t either. But it’s stronger on you, the Devil, the King of Hell, the Lightbringer, God’s favorite angel, Lucifer. Your awful celestial presence, despite being the ing Devil, stank up that whole crime scene. I should have realized earlier. If I did, I would have burn that body so you wouldn’t make it up here. But wait, you’ll probably find another vessel anyways. Everything is useless, am I right?”

“Firstly, very unnecessary to list all that out. Secondly, let’s face it, Son, I can make anything happen easily. No point-”

Jaebum laughed in disbelief, “I should have known I could never escape from you.”

Inching closer to his Son, the Devil started off softly, “Then must you keep running away, child? You’re my heir. Return home, Damien.”