Eli POV

As soon as I had sensed Hoon’s presence, I knew it was best to make myself scarce so I ran for cover in the nearby forest. I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to fly off undetected until Hoon left so I patiently watched and waited. I could barely make out their figures in the dim light of the fire I made to keep Autumn warm. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their body language said it all. Hoon hugging her and wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her forehead; I almost busted out laughing when she pushed his arms off of her waist.

Finally Hoon left, taking Autumn with him. I mentally cursed him for this; he was not entitled to her, I mean I wasn’t either, but still. Autumn and I have more in common than that “perfect” angel anyway. Making sure the coast was clear, I flew back to our castle. I didn’t even bother to talk to AJ or Kibum; they were probably already asleep, tired from this evening’s “battle” with the angels.

I went straight to my room and fell asleep, thinking of her.

Autumn POV

The next morning, I woke up to someone’s arms wrapped around my waist. I could hear, or more like feel, their breath next to my ear, forming goose bumps on my skin. I figured it was Hoon, being mischievous and daring by disobeying Soohyun’s rule about “no funny business”, but when I rolled over to face the mysterious person, I wasn’t met with a Hoon face, but a Kiseop face; one that had a sleepy, yet angelic smile on it.

His eyes were closed, to make it look like he was asleep, but I had a feeling that he wasn’t really asleep. I poked his cheek with my index finger, but no response so I poked it again, only this time harder; not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to wake him up. Instead of opening his eyes, he just grabbed my hand and held it at my side.

“I give up”, I whispered to him. I then turned back on my other side so that my back was against his chest and just laid there. I could feel his chest rise up and down with each breath and even if it wasn’t Hoon, it was still comforting; that was until I felt something that I could have gone my whole life without feeling from Kiseop; I think everyone knows what I’m talking about so I don’t need to explain it.

When that happened, I immediately sprang up from bed and rushed out the room, almost tripping on the rug that lined the hallway. I stopped outside another door to catch my breath. Only when my heartbeat had returned to normal did I hear beautiful music coming from the door behind me. I quietly opened it and saw a piano in the middle of the room, with someone playing it. I opened the door enough to sneak in and silently shut it behind me. Only then did I see that Hoon was the one behind the wonderful music that filled the room; it literally put me in a trance.

He must’ve seen or heard me because the music stopped and I could see Hoon looking up at me with blushed cheeks. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you”, I said quickly. Hoon just gave me a lopsided grin and patted the bench seat next to him.

I sat next to him and watched him play for what felt like hours, but was only a few minutes. The way his fingers moved so gracefully between the keys was absolutely breathtaking. I had never been into instruments or playing them, but I was certainly taken aback by Hoon’s hidden talent.

“So what do you think”, Hoon had asked me when he had finished playing. I was awestruck and speechless. “It—everything was beautiful. How did you learn to play like that?” “Well, when you live forever, you pick up on a few things. One day I started playing and I couldn’t stop. At first I was terrible and didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but after time, and with a few music lessons from Kevin, I can play almost any song.”

Just as I was admiring how perfect he was, Hoon’s face went blank and returned to normal within seconds. “Whose thoughts were you picking through now”, I joked. He just laughed. “Your’s if you must know”, he said with a big, bright smile. I could feel my face burn with embarrassment. What had I been thinking about just a few moments ago? Nothing too revealing I hoped.

“Come on, you have your first trial in a few hours and we need to get you prepared”, he said holding out his hand. “What happens at these trials”, I asked taking it and letting him lead me out of the piano room. “From what Alexander tells us, you have to train for a short time with each of the fallen angels, as well as us angels and try to learn our powers. If you have even the least bit of immortal in you, you will be able to use these powers if there ever comes a time you need to. After that, I don’t have a clue what happens, but I guess you’ll find out.”

“Lucky me”, I thought. Hoon must’ve read my mind because he chuckled.