Note: play this for a more atmospherical visualisation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6Jwcye01U

Insanity; in sanity, we rejoice. To stand outside your virtue, no one can ever hurt you, or so they say. Through the looking glass of Paradise we see that she has painfully visited again.

Café Egg, Samcheong-dong, Seoul, South Korea, Asia, Earth

Bom was in the deserted coffee shop again, holding her third cup of Americano coffee. She in her breath then blew on the brim of her cup and sipped it in. “Hot-hot-hot! Aiiyooo.” She fanned her tongue as her body flailed about. Bom finally put the cup down abruptly and the unnatural silence was broken.

Sunggyu, who had been watching her ever since she came into his shop, came to her side and handed her a few napkins from the pockets of his apron. “Sorry miss, I’ll get you a new one if you’d like.”

She took the napkins to wipe her lips, thanked him, upholding eye contact with him. He suddenly shivered, as if he just experienced déjà vu. “It was the coffee cup’s fault; bad coffee cup!” She let a poignant smile creep across her face as she stood up to leave. “I’m going to leave now, okay?”

She was there for a considerably long time under the supervision of the only worker left; the son of the café. Sunggyu excused himself and stood behind the counter. He leaned on his left elbow, presumably for support, since he was suspiciously writing something down in his note pad. He’s a fairly young man, in his early 20s, she acknowledged. She was leisurely walking, not really bothered by ephemeral time.

Sunggyu always had a plate of corn available for his most cherished customer, her; a 28 year old woman of unique persona and a façade of mystery. No one outside of Seoul knew who she was, what she did or who she was related to. No one except for him, her land lady and her accomplice Chaerin knew of her existence. It wasn’t that she was a ghost or anything; nonetheless, she wasn’t exactly human. Supernatural is a way to describe it, but it is still a mystery to Bom herself.

The pendulum swing of the grand-father clock struck 11p.m at exactly the moment her phone vibrated. Bom suddenly went back to her seat and sat back down again with her legs apart. Thank goodness she’s wearing jeans, Sunggyu exhaled, shaking the erted thought away.

“Hey you, uhh—where are you?” Bom’s land lady, Dara, asked over the phone.

“Australia.” Bom answered.

“Ha-ha, no seriously, where are you? Chaerin’s been searching through wardrobes looking for your lost soul. She practically went corn ball when she found out that you have been supposedly missing for three whole hours.”

Bom didn’t reply, instead she leaned back on the wall and heaved a sigh.

At the mention of her name, Lee Chaerin came bustling inside the shop completely drenched from head to toe with a broken umbrella at hand. “I’m never buying my umbrellas from that thrift shop with the Hello Kitty mat ever again.” She tried to close her umbrella but it inverted itself, “Freaking useless piece of crap.” She gritted her teeth in frustration. “Ah Bom-ssi, you’re alive!” Chaerin beamed as she walked over to the wall. Bom slid her arms around her waist to reel her into a tight hug.

“Ah man, you know you could kill a person with your hugs woman!?” Chaerin brought her to sit down at a table close to the entrance door. “Ah, that seriously hurt my ribs. I was worried sick about your well-being and now you’re trying to freaking suffocate me. Oh my God, I am never coming to pick you up again”. She realized that Bom fell asleep in the process of her pointless lecture. 

Sunggyu appeared at their table, Chaerin looked up curiously, and then he scooped up Bom in his arms and carried her on his back. After Chaerin took a while to grasp the situation they were in and that he was 'kidnapping' Bom, Sunggyu disappeared behind the shop with Chaerin cussing after him. "HEY YOU THERE— no one kidnaps my best friend, you bastard!" She kicked the backdoor open and was greeted by a man in a black tailored suit, leaning against an expensive matching black Lamborghini. "Aiish, you're the loud bastard here," he was a valet; she noted after a quick glance at his personalised name tag. It read 'Kim Myungsoo'. Myungsoo smirked at her and gestured his hand in the direction of the open car door.

The nerve of this guy! Chaerin grinded her teeth for the second time that day, "Hah! You wish jelly-fish. You can't kidnap both of us- where is Bommie anyway?" Chaerin glared into Myungsoo’s eyes, waiting for a response, but all she got was a fixated stare in return. She gulped. Where was she? She couldn't be in the car; there was nothing and no one in there. She twitched her eye, suddenly aware of her friend's suspiciously quick departure. The symptoms of cold sweat awoke inside of her. For every step she took back, he took two forward, until her back finally hit the cold brick wall and there was little to almost no space between them. She closed her eyes, he pressed two fingers on her forehead and she lost all consciousness.

Unknown Division of Paradise, the in-between of heaven and hell

There were two silver coins placed next to each other on the pillars of the premises. The pillars stood in the what would be known as the 'middle' of Paradise. The walls were covered in malt paint, they were ancient, crusty matted walls, with encrypted symbols imprinted in them. But the surroundings were plain and almost 'white' in a sense of transparency and emptiness.

"Oh God, I'm in Paradise," Bom dreaded.

"Your tone indicates that you've been here before Park Bom." A trivial voice said.

She carefully scanned the area that she was in; there were neither entrances nor exits. She was trying to find the source of the airy voice, but instead she commented, "No Einstein." And plopped herself on the floor. The voice to which it belonged to was revealed by a dramatic entrance from the son of the cafe; the corn provider: Sunggyu. He was indeed not only a waiter, but also the part-time apprentice of Death; the grim reaper.

He managed a faint wave at Bom and she shifted the opposite way. “Do you want the real explanation or the false alibi?” he said dryly. By the time he sat down, they were sitting back to back, he waited patiently for a response and after a few minutes she began to show some expression. In spite of her unblemished skin, a deep crease formed in between Bom’s brows. She cleared , and asked for the real explanation, awaiting the reason to why she has been virtually invisible since she turned sixteen.

“How are you still alive?” He whispered. “In those times of pure angst and adolescent depression, your faith was still strong. What connection do you have with the present world that has kept your lingering soul on it for over a decade? You were supposed to die as soon as you came of age and I have records to believe you know why.”

Bom replayed the words over and over in her head until they felt like hallucinations, had she lost her mind like this before? Too many heart-breaks in the past, she thought despondently to herself. Was that why? Or was that one of the many reasons how she came close to death.

“I-I cheated.” Her words came out in a fearful stutter instead of a coherent sentence like she would have wanted. There was a brief silence in which Sunggyu had to take a few second to absorb those two words in.

“How many times?” He exhaled.

“6 times- I cheated Death six times. At first it was depression because I wanted to kill myself because of some dumb boy, being the emotionally unstable and fragile person I am. But then I was ‘saved’ by Sungjong--I’m guessing he was a guardian just like you, but was probably expelled from this place for interference, and so this happened another five times, which is also why Myungsoo got demoted to a valet. They were all for stupid reasons you know?” 

Sunggyu couldn’t help but smile when she finished recollecting her past. He sat up straighter, fully support Bom's back.

 “You know so much about this realm. No wonder you’ve escaped it so many times.” He said as he continued to admire her strong will.

“The other members of your little circle must love me so much to risk their positions of Death for me.” Bom blatantly joked. 

“The grim reaper was really peeved off the last time I entered this realm because Woohyun was trying to seduce me the whole time. I swear he looked like he was going to kill me!—again.” She added wryly.

The silver coins were spinning anti-clockwise as they were speaking. “Bom...” Sunggyu groused, fighting the urge to face-palm. “...You don’t even know why I've been chosen this time.” He stood up and led her to the dark midnight blue door with a long golden handle that seemed to materialize out of thin air. 

She took a deep breath in and began her tirade, “Yeah and why is that so important for me to know? I’m entering my death for the sixth time. I think I’ve got more important things to worry about before I die, like I don’t know—but where the hell is Chaerin? And who will look after my younger sister Minji, since my dad and step-mother don’t even know that I’m alive. Why do parents divorce anyway? There is no point of getting married if everyone eventually lives to tell the tale of how we die alone some day. Why--Why do we fall in love, Sunggyu?” Her face was red from her rage; her body heaving. 

“You have to leave now.” He pleaded, leaving all the questions unanswered.

“Let me get this straight, do you want me here?” She looked at him expectantly. He calmly patted her on the head, being a head taller than she was, and his eyes formed two crescents, “Of course I do. But you still don’t remember why.”

She cocked her head to the side, the atmosphere thickened and the air was musky with the scent of lifeless particles floating in what was claimed ‘air’.

“I was the reason why you almost died the first time. A part of your subconscious mind had been erased because of the past facets of your life. I was a memory that caused you that first heart break, which led to your now deadly apathy.” He emphasized the word ‘deadly’ out of the fact that it was a nuisance to deal with such an honest person.  

“So you came to repent as Death’s apprentice?” She began to fume even more as she regained some aspects of their memories together. “Going out with the blunt me, you were probably tired because of me right? All I did was nag, I even nagged more than you did, I remember that now. But I’ll promise you one thing; don’t worry about me and go away, I’ll disappear, no strings attached.” She placed her hand on the icy metal.

“ you destiny.” Bom cursed under her breath as turned the knob, but her passage way was blocked by Sunggyu, she looked up and was very close to punching his chest as she was in the right range to do some damage to his heart.

Instead, she let him speak.

“Hey, wait a second, I only looked at you even if I didn’t act like it, I’m always paying attention, it’s constant, there’s no change, and you’re a fool who puts her everything in just words. It’ll become lighter, as we struggle through each and every year, but with whispers of encouragement, you’ll never be sad. I’ll change gradually with those words I cherish, without change," Sunggyu brushed her fringe away and softly pressed his lips on her forehead. "I’ll stay by your side." 

Bom pouted lucidly, she wondered if this was making or going to make any sense at all. Sunggyu chuckled and sighed, "You see there’s no real ending; it’s only the beginning.”

I don't think this one shot was meant to make total sense. O______o

Here are some key clarifications for the confused:

• Bom suffered 3 heartaches which led to meeting Sungjong and Woohyun in Paradise. She wanted to take the easy way out of all her confusion and suffering, so she tried taking her life.
• Sungjong prevented Bom from killing herself because of reasons that only he knew, but Death overlooked them because Sungjong lacked credibility in his actions.
• As for the other 4 times she had 'cheated' death, it was because of reasons that are closely related to her youth. 
• Yes, that means that Bom met all the Infinite members. :P
• Yes, you can die from a heart break. It's called Cardiomyopathy.
• She's not human, she's not a ghost. She's somewhere in between.
• Paradise is a metaphorical aspect. It could be real, I don't exactly know. But what I do know is, there is something powerful out there, some place us humans wander off to if we have a strong connection with the living. 
• Dara is essentially Bom's subsitute mother, as she mentioned that her parents are divorced.
• CL was Bom's 'accomplice'; a guide sent down to Earth just in case Bom's existence became troublesome. She is not human either.
• Bom was supposed to die at age 16, hence why she carries the 'deadly' emotion of apathy. (We all feel emotionless around this age, it's human nature) 
• Sunggyu was Bom's first love that broke her heart because he knew that she was destined to die. The way he knew is because he had been Death's apprentice for a fair while, and had documents to prove it.
• Death = Grim reaper; the dude that supposedly greets you the instant you die. But he does not have time to visit everyones death, only the ones with a dangerous relationship with the living, and those wanted as apprentices.
• The last few paragraphs are evidently lyrics from 2NE1 & Infinite. (Go away - 2NE1 & Real story - Infinite)
• Yes there is a cliffhanger. I don't like happy endings. XD

And 'How do you cheat death?', I hear you all ask. Well, one can try herbal medicine to achieve mortality, but in all seriousness, I do not know how. You can leave it to your imaginations. :)

Did the pairing Bom x Sunggyu gain any new shippers? Also, were any of you completely lost out of your mind? If so, drop a comment down the rabbit hole- comment box.

Thank you fellow subscribers for subscribing~ & silent readers too! You all rock. *_*

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