"Isn't this what love is about? Falling for someone nobody else thinks deserves love but you?"


You are wrong.

Kyungsoo not only hears you, he feels everything.

Right back where he comes from, his senses sharpen again and he feels all the brokenness and sorrow that's tearing you apart, including his own.

He buries his face dejectedly with both hands resting on his knees.


Baekhyun approaches the despondent angel to see his wings still wide stretched, splendid white feathers light and fine like manna now resting by the sides.

"Kyungsoo."

The called angel doesn't respond.


"You know you're wasting energy with your wings spread out like that." He tries again.

Kyungsoo is a sensible and practical angel, but Baekhyun's reminder now only incites a low mumbling, "Maybe if I expend all my energy then I won't have any left to miss her."


Baekhyun sighs.

"I just received _________ 's mom."

This statement somewhat convinces Kyungsoo to remove his hands from his face, receding his wings a little in the process.



"She's with Him at the welcome party." Baekhyun smiles, albeit awkwardly.

"That's... good." Kyungsoo gives a passive expression and returns his gaze to the glass wall where he sees you lying on the floor having cried yourself to sleep.

"I seem to have made things worse."


Baekhyun hums through his nose.

"There's nothing you can do now."

"Can't I?" He peers at his fellow angel.

"You've done everything you could, Kyungsoo, now you just have to... wait." Baekhyun lowers his eyes. "It's... torturous to say the least, but it can't be helped."

"Why do you keep talking like you know what it's like when you don't?" Kyungsoo is exasperated.


Baekhyun is mum for a minute.

"Because I do."


"What?"

"I do know how it feels like. I've gone through it before."

Baekhyun sits down beside Kyungsoo who has to collect his wings completely to allow him space.


"You know Chanyeol is my first mortal."

Kyungsoo just stares at him.

"And he isn't always so happy, when he's on earth. He's a bipolar, he smiles too much to hide the sadness beneath and when I didn't receive the order, I knew he's going to do it if he loses that guitar competition. Suicide is a straight ticket to hell, but he didn't believe in heaven. He only believes in god. Just... another god. A god that's somewhere between himself and an idea that he conjures up. He knows the ten commandments... Thou shalt not murder, but he forgot that includes yourself. I had 7 days... And I befriended him, participated in an audition with him... I sang, he played the guitar and..."

Baekhyun throws Kyungsoo a triumphant look.

"We won."

Kyungsoo gives a faint smile.

"Yeah, I told him to keep winning, for me. He did."

"What... happened after that?"

"He died in a car crash two years later. But he believes in heaven then... And the proper God." Baekhyun snickles.


Kyungsoo returns the smile weakly.

"I'm not sure it'd be the same for her though..." He glances at the glass wall again, where you are getting up and heading towards the door.

"She's going out."

He says it like a judgment.

___________________


You wake up feeling sore both inside and out, not knowing why you unlock the door and venturing outside. You only know you want to feel the wind beneath your fingers now.

Something to breathe.

Something.

Anything.


You want to go up but someone has pressed the first floor's button and you let yourself be taken to the lobby, walking out of the apartment in a daze and onto the sidewalks.

The air is still. Most shops are shut and there's only the littering of streetlights casting gold and gloomy visions for the few and forlorn passing cars.

You stretch out your hand and the night breeze takes it, swirls around it, cools and numbs it.

A car flashes past, too dangerously close.

Just a step.


You are just a step away from the road.

You don't lower your hand.


It's numb, but so is your entire body. Your heart. Your soul.


__________________


"What is the time now, on earth?" Kyungsoo swallows.

"Almost 12 midnight, why?"


"I understand now. I have to go back." He stands up in resolve.

"What?" Baekhyun quacks.


"She needs me." He makes to go. Baekhyun grabs his arm.

"No! You don't understand! You can't disobey the 7 days order!"

Kyungsoo reels to eye him.

"Against love, there is no law, isn't it?"

"Patience is fruit, Kyungsoo."

"So is love."


"How do you know this is love and not some needless crush? You don't have the order and you don't know what's going to happen to you if you fall! Is it worth doing this instead of waiting?"

"No, Baekhyun," Kyungsoo's voice is calm and settled. "I finally get it. When He told me, if I exceed 7 days, things can get difficult. I don't know what it means before, but now I know. It is difficult because, without love, I won't be able to do this. But now..."

His eyes twinkle as his lips spread into a smile. A heart-shaped smile.

"Isn't this what love is about? Falling for someone nobody else thinks deserves it but you?"


Baekhyun doesn't stop him when he next unfurls his wings, handsome and throbbing into a span of white and blinding majestic glory, because this time, instead of a mule or bambi, he truly looks like an angel.