Chen shot his human mind decipherer another glare, which was lost on the human because the human just gave another sigh to the ground. He knew that Baekhyun was paying attention to where they were going, considering he looked both ways before crossing streets and avoided being hit by other humans on the sidewalks, including the small ones who almost ran into his knees.

But Baekhyun hadn’t told him anything besides listless short phrases of greeting or instruction. Chen didn’t even know where they were going to do this ‘socialization,’ and his human mind decipherer was practically dragging himself across the concrete in gloom.

The reason was easy enough to guess. The initial yes that Baekhyun had gotten from his friend turned into a rejection. If the doctor’s friend was actually an angel, then he probably got caught up with the overflow and disorganization of Soul Crossing Day.

Usually, the joint legion-glory collaboration of Sha’are Mavet and Malakim and various volunteers had firm hands on the event, but this year had apparently been a mess. He rolled his eyes listening to Yixing and Luna rant about all the inconsistencies and miscommunications and the number of stray souls their areas had to deal with. Chanyeol, however, was a bit quieter, especially when all three angels learned that all those assigned would have to work through the human weekend to make up for the problems.

The chaos was a bit odd and even unsettling after adding Kai and D.O’s report. Hayong’s aura turning something similar to Kai’s didn’t make sense, and Yixing’s worried look didn’t reassure him.

Chen swore that if the spatial demon got hurt one more time on this mission, he would fry him himself, but his cheeky unitmate just laughed and to try. Whatever odd thing between him and D.O seemed resolved, if Minseok elbowing Chen and gesturing not-even-inconspicuously to the other two demons with a smile wasn’t a dead giveaway.

His guardee was strangely happy for what happened on the autumn festival day. Chen, for one, despised the fact that none of his family showed up and that Minseok accepted his disappointment so easily. And then while they sat on the steps, he hated the situation he couldn’t change and rip to shreds.

Words had burned in him to be said, and Chen had tried his upmost best to not offend Minseok with his words like last time. The result was surprisingly very pleasant. The hug—or half-hug since it was only his side touching his guardee—felt… nice. He initially thought that Minseok was in danger again, but that time, he was completely relaxed against him.

They spoke a little after that, mostly Minseok saying little stories of his brother, his parents, and his university friend. His guardee eventually fell asleep, and Chen wasn’t supposed to let him do that, but he lost track of time as he was indulging in Minseok’s scent and warmth.

Chen shook his head. Anyways, his guardee wanted to see how the angelics managed soul crossing day, and since he would have to know its basics as a demon, Yixing took him for that Saturday. Sunday they trained his body and aura—he was improving on how to imbue and turn his intentions into control—and now he was back at work. Chen managed to lump him with Yixing and D.O for the lunch hour, and his human mind decipherer was lollygagging. Probably gloomy-gagging.

He did lead them to a place though. They arrived at a spacious park. Humans and sometimes pets ran around or lazed on the grass. Several large hills and a ring of trees made up the area, and a cement sidewalk looped around the edge, leading to an outlet of busy stores and tables to sit at. Baekhyun led them around until they stopped at an unoccupied bench under some tree shade, sat, leaned back, and sighed.

Chen frowned at him and sat. The doctor was usually all composed and fine, but he supposed that that was because they usually talked about Chen’s problems and not the doctor’s. Their previous meeting hinted the reason his soul was true neutral though, but with the way gloom shaded his aura darker and darker, it probably wouldn’t stay that way for long. Alright, he would step in—as part of his contractual duties.

“Did he say why he couldn’t make it Sunday?”

Baekhyun sighed again and lolled his head across the bench to look at him.

“Was I that obvious?”

“Yes. Answer the question.”

“Ugh. He just said that work came up.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s a bodyguard, kinda like you.”

“I’m not usually a bodyguard. I was assigned the task in my overall mission. Besides if he’s an angel, then of course he’d say something as pretentious as that.”

The doctor shot him a look and lolled his head back to look out at the park. Chen rolled his eyes.

“The soul crossing this year had a lot of problems, like posts being closed even though they were supposed to be open and vice-versa, and souls straying from the markers and paths because they heard the wrong instruction from somebody. All the angelics on duty had to work extra days because of how much of a mess it got, so your friend probably had to cancel.”

“How do you know? You mentioned angels and demons before, but I don’t really see what’s that got to do with you or my friend.”

“I’m just guessing. And my team is affiliated with stuff like this.”

Baekhyun ran his hand through his hair, tapping his fingers at the back of his neck.

“So was there a really crowded event and there were fans tailing the people they’re supposed to protect or something?”

“Sure.”

He sighed and closed his eyes to the sky, thinking, so Chen decided to give him thirty seconds to do so. He looked out to the park and finally noticed what the humans were doing. A couple walked past them while walking a dog, a group of males were throwing a flat piece of plastic around and catching it—frisbee, was it?—and a little closer to the bench, two humans were sitting on a checkered blanket.

They had food, and the one with long wavy hair fed a bit of sandwich to the one with short hair. Chen didn’t think much of it, but then he saw how they were sitting—close together, their hands supporting them up but also wrapped around the other. Chen tuned into their words as they giggled.

“Do you like the sandwich?”

“Of course. You’re the sandwich master, remember?”

The long-haired moved to grab a grape and pop it into , except she kept it in between her teeth. Just as Chen wondered what the point of that was, she leaned to the side and fed—kissed?—it into the short-haired’s mouth. Her cheeks turned red, but she leaned in and pecked the long-haired back.

Hmm. Humans have gotten bolder in public over the years.

He almost looked away, done observing and noting that thirty seconds probably passed already, but he didn’t. The two leaned against each other, one tucked against the other’s neck, playing with the long locks. He and Minseok did that.

“At least be inconspicuous while you look.”

Chen whipped his head to the doctor, but Baekhyun looked like he hadn’t moved at all.

“So what’d you observe?”

“Humans playing, walking, and eating.”

“Out of each other’s mouths.”

“Yeah. Did your species pick up some ornithic behavior when no one was watching?”

“Ha ha. Very funny. But I saw you looking. What was interesting about what they were doing?”

Chen looked back at the two now lying down on the blanket.

“They were doing a half-hugging thing and petting each other.”

Baekhyun jerked upright, his eyes flying open, then to the ground.

“Uh, ‘petting’ is like, for pets and animals and… if you’re into that sort of thing.”

Chen didn’t get that last part, but he was a cat, so the petting part still must’ve applied.

“Anyways, yeah, you’re right. The person on the right was playing with her partner’s hair. It’s a sign of affection. Some people don’t like to be touched or only allow certain touches from those closest to them. Actions like that—hugs, kisses, playing with one’s hair or face—people have certain boundaries for them because they can be categorized as intimate. There are other reasons, of course, like invasion of privacy, but I’m trying to teach you basic human intimacy signs and boundaries in thirty minutes, so we’ll keep it simple. Some people don’t mind being touched and some do, so it’s best to ask and be understanding if the person doesn’t want a certain line crossed.”

The doctor squinted out onto the park before he nodded towards the humans playing frisbee. One of them clapped his teammate on the back and stole his water bottle, holding it above their heads and spewing the water at them both like rain.

“Let’s pretend that they’re friends. Are they playing?”

Chen nodded.

“Now let’s pretend that they’re lovers. Are they playing?”

Chen tilted his head. “Yes.”

“Wanna tell me why?”

“Lovers can play and tease each other too.”

“Correct-o-mundo.”

“Then what’s the difference? How do you know when it’s one or the other?”

Baekhyun chuckled.

“It can be tricky, especially if one party starts to develop feelings past just, let’s say, friendship. A lot of things are unspoken, so when things start to get serious, then it’s better to be clear with the other of what labels and boundaries you both would like, if you want them.”

“When is serious?”

“Depends. Some people a different person every night but only let certain people hug them and know their secrets. Others don’t want to hold hands or arms until they label their relationship as officially partners. And others still don’t want a label because it’s an unspoken rule that their intense relationship is meant to fade. Sometimes it’s just easier that way.”

Chen glanced over at Baekhyun. The lightness in his voice weighed down towards the end. Did he have a label-less relationship? Maybe with that friend of his, and it bothered him?

But his thoughts strayed to that question he asked Minseok. He didn’t get why he asked it. Yixing had just asked for Minseok’s preferences out of his weird angelness and habit of trailing off as he spoke, but Chen had latched onto that question and needed the answer. He got it too, but surely the answer was just to satisfy his curiosity. But a little puff had filled him, different from regret and different from his reaction towards Baekhyun’s imagined story from last time.

Was it hope?

Blegh! No! He didn’t hope. He was a freaking demon, and he always had certainty in his choices, his actions, and his deductions.

…But Minseok’s preferences he didn’t have any control over, and it didn’t really matter if Chen was just guarding him, did it? They were guard and guardee, and Minseok had no obligation to see him as anything else but.

That night of the autumn festival flashed back in his mind, and Chen rubbed his cheek, where Minseok’s hair had tickled his skin. Since Minseok was panual, he could see him as something else aside from just his guard. That deduction wasn’t related to the mission, and neither was it supposed to be his concern. Chen just… liked the thought.

“Wow. You can smile without it being a smirk.”

Chen looked to the human and narrowed his eyes at him.

“Your explanations aren’t helpful. They’re all so vague or dependent on something.”

“That’s how humans are.” He shrugged. “I’m just saying that you should be communicative and ask instead of just observing. You might get confused if you rely solely on what you see.”

“How?”

“Hmm. Let’s say that Person A keeps making signs that they want to be closer to Person B, but when Person B tries to reciprocate, A pulls back. B is confused, but so is A. While B is confused that A’s signs aren’t the interpretation they assumed, A is confused because they like being with B, but they think it’s wrong to be with them.”

“Why would it be wrong?”

“People have their reasons. So are you going to blame Person A or Person B for the other’s confusion?”

Chen saw the purpose of communication for Person B, and he supposed that Person A could’ve had dangerous circumstances. He shook his head.

“Why?”

“Because you humans are like ing pendulums, indecisive and always swinging back and forth.”

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow.

“Urgh, and because it’s not that A is a bad person if they don’t want to be with B out of wanting to protect them.”

“Oh? I didn’t say anything about protection. What was your take on it?”

“If A thinks it’s wrong to be with B, then obviously it’s because they think that they’re… or their circumstance will put B in a bad position, and they don’t want that.”

Baekhyun laughed, a wide sound with more shout than breath or voice. Chen let out a low growl, then lifted his chin at the human’s quieting and the slight tint of fear in his scent.

“Are you trying to fool me?”

“No, of course not. It’s just that I was talking very hypothetical and vague, and you came up with something to fill in the gaps. Now I have a pretty good idea of how you see the world, and I just wondered how it would fit with your guardee.”

Chen blinked, then huffed.

“It wouldn’t.”

“Really? Well, if it doesn’t then it doesn’t. The interesting thing was that you assigned A as someone who believes that they’re not good for B, but what if it was that A thought that B wasn’t good for them? Hmm, but I guess the even bigger question is, if this situation does match your relationship with him, then, between you and Xiumin, who is A and who is B?”

Minseok wasn’t someone who would see Chen as bad for him. He would think himself bad first, even if it wasn’t true. He would be Person A—but only if A thought that they were the ones bad for B.

Unless Minseok didn’t think that way. Did he think that Chen was bad for him? No way, because Chen was his guard, and he half-hugged him and told the secrets Chen always wanted to unravel out of him, and because he fell asleep against him.

Oh, but he didn’t grow up knowing angelic culture. But sleeping with others must’ve had some implication to humans too, right? But if Minseok was really tired—which he shouldn’t have been since he stayed up for a couple weeks successfully already—then he could’ve just fallen asleep regardless. But Minseok didn’t suggest needing to sleep in his clean bed—

Chen growled, not bothering to do it quietly, and gripped the bench’s edge, scratching his nails into the wood. He shot a glare to Baekhyun, who chuckled a little.

“You little mind er.”

“I thought I was a human mind decipherer.”

“You are, but you’re doing a terrible job.”

Baekhyun barked out another laugh, but Chen heard no malice in it. The doctor was a bit like a puppy when Chen thought about it.

“I’m a counselor. It’s my job to make some things hard and confusing because that means you’re getting closer to understanding yourself and your relationship. Plus, counseling and psychiatry are the psychology branches of mind-ing people for the better. You signed up for this.”

The doctor gave him a little smirk. This human was interesting. Definitely.

He was also more aware and smarter than most humans and a little similar to Minseok. Chen would never admit it out loud, but after Minseok fell asleep that night, a question formed in his mind that he wanted to ask the doctor. Minseok respected his opinion and told him that it would be nice if he could think about his situation in the way that Chen saw it. He wanted to try changing his perspective about his family’s deaths, but guilt didn’t leave so easily.

Was there a way to make it leave? Chen figured that Baekhyun would know best if such a method existed. But because the doctor seemed to share similarities with his guardee, he had to be careful in not breaking his human mind decipherer. He broke Minseok once, almost broke Baekhyun not too long ago, and Chen honestly didn’t like seeing either of them look so close to despair.

So he chose his words carefully and cleared his throat.

“I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“I told you that you’re a little like my guardee and that he blames himself for his brother’s death.”

He stiffened but nodded. Chen reworded his words again.

“Is there a way to resolve that blame?”

Baekhyun frowned a little as he bit his lip. A long moment passed before he made a little sigh.

“Possibly. Grief makes guilt a hard thing to come to terms with. It and blame muddle together until appeasing one causes the other to inflame. That’s the cycle. I don’t know your guardee and helping with grief isn’t my expertise, but going by what you’ve told me over our sessions, he needs to look at the source of his guilt and find his own healthy way of atonement or accepting reality. That’s not easy, especially if he wants to seek forgiveness from someone who has already passed, but with support, I’m sure that he can find acceptance if not closure.”

Chen absorbed every word, but at a certain mention of forgiveness, he gained an idea. Minseok could ask for forgiveness from someone who has already passed. Yixing knew where the brother’s killer was, so he probably had looked into where the rest of his family was too. He honestly didn’t think that Minseok should be the one to apologize, but… that wasn’t his place. He agreed with the guardian angel when he said that a stranger of bad intentions wasn’t Minseok’s fault, and he thought that Minseok’s family had their own faults, but if getting forgiveness from them would help, Chen would do what he could to arrange their meeting.

A tiny question of why popped into his head, but he dismissed it with a true and easy answer—Minseok was his guardee, and he had to protect him, whether from external dangers or internal.

Tappings around him made him flick his gaze around. Low-classes were slinking around them. They kept their distance but watched this way. Pulsing out a warning, Chen checked Baekhyun next. The gloom had returned. Blessings and wards had their limits. They were strongest if the human had no major shifts in their soul, and true neutrals, having neither bias, had one foot in both aura types. Chen also admitted that he was the one who brought up the topic for himself, knowing that Baekhyun could’ve been affected, so he cleared his throat again.

“What do you need?”

“…What?”

“What do you need for that… closure thing?”

Baekhyun didn’t respond right away. He leaned his head back, looking at the sky.

“Is this so you can fulfil your part of the contract? I’ve probably already broken a dozen counseling rules, so you don’t have to be so strict with the ‘contract’ now.”

“Humans still taking their freedoms for granted. Just answer the question.”

“I appreciate the gesture.” He chuckled, but the joy in it faded quickly. “Before I became a relationship counselor, I was actually studying to be a psychiatrist, you know, for mental health and such. I changed it last minute because… well, you read my workplace’s pamphlet. I failed to help my friend, and like a rational human being who also can’t face what they’ve done, I switched to relationship counseling to help others where I couldn’t help my friend. It was a conscious decision that unconsciously tries to make up for that time even though it can’t.”

Chen nodded. He knew that Baekhyun was a very aware person. Baekhyun though, looked a bit surprised.

“I thought you’d be judging me or telling me that I shouldn’t feel bad since I probably made up for it by now. Those’re the most common responses that I get.”

“I’m not human.”

Baekhyun gave him a look, then a resigned sigh.

“You’re not going to explain that to me, are you?”

“No, I’m unallowed to. What did you do and say to your friend?”

He his lips.

“To be honest, your guardee’s situation is actually scarily similar to my friend’s... Well, I don’t know if he would call us friends anymore, but I would. I met him in university during my second year while he was almost done. His brother was also murdered by a serial killer, but he was— I knew for a fact that that brother didn’t give a about—”

His sigh hissed out his frustration, and the anger from his scent faded. Mostly.

“In my opinion, my friend did everything for his brother and his family, and none of them—not even his parents— They didn’t treat him with the same kind of care and attention that he gave them, and he would come to me and— it was like watching him slowly fall apart while trying to keep his apathetic family together. No matter what I said or tried to reason with him or how much he stressed, he would defend their actions. And I… wasn’t as understanding or willing to be rational as I am now.”

He took a shaky breath.

“One day, I snapped at him. I told him that they didn’t love him, or if they did then it was some twisted and wrong version of it. He snapped at me back, of course. He never was one to get angry, but I crossed the line that day. Our fight was really bad, and in the end, he said that maybe he was the one who loved them wrong.”

Chen swiveled his head to him. That—he knew those words. Minseok had said them before during that sunset on the construction tower.

“We stopped talking. The next time I hear anything about their family is the news report about the caught killer. I couldn’t reach my friend for two months after that, then out of the blue I was called by a hospital telling me to pick him up. They didn’t allow overnight guests, and he wasn’t coherent enough to even make it home by taxi.”

“Why was he there in the first place?”

“That day, there was a ten-car crash on the highway. His parents were the only deaths.”

Chen bristled. The situation was uncannily similar to Minseok’s. He had also mentioned a university friend before. If he got a name from Baekhyun, and then asked his guardee, he could confirm.

Clacking sounded from Baekhyun’s left side, and gray fuzz climbed up onto the bench armrest, mouth opening into a small cave of teeth. Chen flicked out his wrist and zapped the creature. It squeaked as it writhed away in ash. The name had to wait—the priority had to be stopping Baekhyun from attracting anymore low-level demons. The doctor also had this tired and sorrowful look that Chen didn't like to see on him.

“What happened after?”

Baekhyun blinked slowly, then again, before looking at him, dazed. He sighed.

“We ended up fighting again. I… was even more insensitive considering what just happened to him. I tried apologizing but—” He looked at ground, thinking. “I think he accepted it, but he wanted to be alone. After that, we just drifted apart.”

“Would you find him again?”

To his surprise, the doctor chuckled.

“Of course, I would. This might be hard to believe, but I’m not someone to just leave things alone even if it’s easier to. I texted a lot after two weeks, then every other week just to check in on him. A year after, I tried reaching out to him again, but his number changed.

“You didn’t take that as a sign that he wanted to cut off contact?”

“No, because he had been planning on doing it for a while since he kept getting spam calls, and I guess that I always have a little bit of hope.”

Chen stared at Baekhyun running a hand through his hair, but he heard Minseok’s words in his head. When Minseok was getting sleepy, he said something about accidentally breaking his phone and getting a new one and number, which got rid of spam calls but lost his friend’s contact. Too much of a coincidence.

He almost asked, but a presence fluttered from behind them, close. It felt familiar but—

“I broke so many counseling rules. We’re not supposed to reveal anything personal about ourselves unless it’s to establish credibility or if it’s generic enough.” He sighed in a bit of relief. “But thank you for listening to me. Hey, it’ll be great practice for when you gain Xiumin’s trust and he tells you his secrets. Oh, you said that you only have a lunch hour, right? We can start heading back.”

Baekhyun hopped off the bench, starting down the sidewalk. The presence moved even though Chen hadn’t. He stood and slid next to the doctor.

“Has anything advanced between the two of you, by the way?”

Chen paused for a split-second and tucked his chin down.

“He actually told me about his family and his regrets. That’s why I asked you that other question.”

“EYYY, that’s great! And how did you respond?”

Chen slowed to a stop, Baekhyun having to backtrack a little. He had spoken with respect to the possibility of not knowing the whole picture and held in his anger as best he could. Minseok also seemed okay with the half-hug even though neither of them asked for permission. Chen felt how his guardee relaxed against him, so he must’ve liked it, and he didn’t say or smell anything that indicated that he regretted that night the following days. He smelled pretty happy, actually.

“Good, I think. I told him my opinion and said that it was based on what he told me, so I could’ve been wrong. He almost didn’t listen, but we didn’t have to agree, and he let me speak. I didn’t think that it was his fault but a culmination of circumstances and misfortune. He considered what I said and even wanted to try thinking about it like that instead. …He leaned on me in the end and fell asleep.”

Baekhyun elbowed him in the arm with a grin. It was rectangle-shaped, rounded at the edges—interesting. Minseok had more of a wide gummy smile.

“Congrats to you. You asserted your opinion while staying respectful. You didn’t blame him, but you didn’t just try appeasing him either. That’s good and real. Oh, no wonder you were staring at that couple a little longer. You were thinking of you and Xiumin, weren’t you?”

He drummed his fists against his arm, and Chen batted him away.

“Should I buy you something before you leave as a celebration present for achieving a goal?”

“I don’t need to eat. You can save your money.”

“Okay, I still don’t get this not eating thing, but you can eat, so I’ll get you something. Over there has good ice cream.”

Baekhyun took them closer to a sweet-smelling shop with a crowd outside. The presence flickered, nearing closer than before, about a building’s space away. Afraid of losing a target, huh?

“Fine. Buy it. I’ll be outside.”

He pushed Baekhyun into the store and stepped out of the crowd. Entering one of the mini alleys, Chen stepped through until the shadows enveloped him. Then he blended into the shade and waited. The presence hesitated, moving back and forth between where Baekhyun was and where he hid in the alley, before moving towards Chen. He let out a chuckle and dashed away. He rounded the stores and slipped into the flock of humans, weaving between them. The presence flared out, panicked, and glided after him. Too easy.

Chen shot towards the park. They followed him over the grass, then into the trees, but Chen zipped around once they stopped in confusion and tackled them down. They tumbled out onto the grass, and heat blazed under his hands, but Chen forced a little aura into their disguise, just enough to disrupt their aural invisibility. The grass shimmered as a deep voice grunted, fire searing out of their body, but Chen didn’t mind. In fact, he knew this fire, and he didn’t get what it was doing here.

“Chanyeol?”

The fire snuffed away as the angel looked up at him, his eyes widening.

“Chen? Oh, .”

Huh, an angel cursing? Moreover, Chanyeol cursing? The angel was about as pure and holy as heaven’s light. Although he had been acting strange lately… Easing off of him, Chen helped him up.

“Why were you following me?”

“Uh, I was just in the area! And—”

“We both know that angels are terrible liars. What were you looking for?”

Chanyeol gripped his shirt, panic filling his eyes. If angelics sweated like humans, Chen guessed that he’d be coated in a thin layer of it by now. He physically couldn’t lie to him because Chen knew his true name, so he really must not have wanted to reveal his intentions here.

“Jongdae?” Baekhyun called. “Where’d you go?”

Chen heard the doctor, but he knew that Chanyeol didn’t, the angel now attempting to come up with something vaguely true like how most angels did to avoid answering questions they didn’t want to answer. They were halfway across the green, and Baekhyun had wandered to the edge of the crowd. The presence had been Chanyeol, who only moved when Baekhyun had. A curiosity nudged Chen, so he took Chanyeol’s shirt and dragged him towards the humans, waving at Baekhyun. The doctor spotted him and started walking over, while the shirt in Chen’s hand pulled the other way.

“C-Chen, wait—”

A family walking their dog intersected him, so Baekhyun stopped, smiling at the small humans. In the precise moment he looked away, Chen shot a bolt into the angel’s aura. He spread it enough to disrupt his physical blending before making it leave his body, not wanting to magic poison the angel. Chanyeol groaned just as a certain doctor’s steps slowed to a stop before them, his face blanking.

“Yeol?”

The angel flinched and looked up, freezing in plac