>_____<;;

“Pfft!!” Namjoo snorted trying to walk away overwhelmed by it all. She mumbled to herself, “None of this is believable. This is a hoax, it has to be.”  

“If I didn’t come in time, you would have jumped.” Luhan continued following her, determined to prove himself. “Where do you think I came from?”

“Why do you think I would know that?” Namjoo flung her hands out. “You could be a stalker…or something.”

“Oh please! I’m a guardian angel, what use would it be stalking?” Luhan questioned then muttered, “Well I could do that without you even knowing.”

“You what!?” Namjoo raised her voice as she spun around to stare at him stupefied.

Luhan stared at her before letting out a helpless sigh. He moved toward her and uncertain of his intentions or his identity, Namjoo stepped back cautious.

“Just…just calm down,” he tried. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Namjoo frowned at him before she halted and allowed him to near.

“Give me your hand,” he said holding his out, patiently waiting while she hesitated before reaching hers out.

His hand was superbly warm and Namjoo saw a glow outlining his whole palm.

“So you think no one cares,” he said.

Anger filled her and she immediately tried to pull her hand back, but he gripped onto her hand in refusal.

“Stop it!” Namjoo thickened her tone. “You’re just making fun of me.”

“No one’s making fun of you,” his voice was still calm, relaxed.

Namjoo glared at him before he folded her arm back and placed her hand to her chest, against her heart. She let silence sink in and felt the sun warmly land on her. Inside her head she heard laughter of happy children, saw smiles, and suddenly felt warmth before realized she was seeing…feeling the happy moments she’d had with her family…only she had forgotten them.

“Feel that?” he asked before letting go of her hand.

Namjoo’s eyes helplessly watered up before she stared at him stunned. “How’d you do that? What are you?”

“Didn’t I say before?” he smiled proudly. “A guardian angel.”

“So you just came from up there?” Namjoo asked confused.

“No,” he shook his head.

“Then what?”

“I’m yours.” His voice became quiet. “Your guardian angel,” he finished when her stare burned into him.

>_____<;;

Chanyeol turned around from where he was sitting in his homey apartment when his phone rang. The fresh green walls he’d painted with Namjoo half a year ago were still new in color and he’d worked hard at keeping the little decorations she’d bought for him free of dust. A picture they’d taken together, a memorandum they’d taken on their first date to the movies, hung on the wall. He caught sight of it as he turned to grab his phone.

His heart jumped in joy when he saw that it was Namjoo calling. It had been a long week since she’d last called.

Chanyeol excitedly answered, “Namjoo?”

“Sorry, it’s me, Victoria.”

His excitement immediately died. “Oh yea...”

“Is Namjoo there? Did she contact you or anything?” Chanyeol detected a tone of worry and frustration in her voice.    

“No, why?”

“Well…we had an argument and she ran off. Do you have any idea where she might go? Any of her favorite places?” Victoria was ashamed to ask, ashamed of the fact that she knew nothing about Namjoo.

“I’ll go look for her,” Chanyeol suggested.

“No, no, I’ll do it.”

“She might come back in the meantime,” Chanyeol pointed out, “it’d be best if you stay home and wait while I look around. I have a few places in mind.”

“Thanks.”

Turning the boring TV off he rushed out. He drove from area to area worried and overly concerned. If he’d also said something to trigger Namjoo's anger, he didn’t want it to be the last thing that would happen between them.

He slowly drove by the bridge she frequented when she was upset, but no one was there. Chanyeol ran around the downtown area where she liked to shop, but didn’t get a glimpse of anyone that resembled her. After two hours of searching he finally stopped at the corner of a street to catch his breath. What if she did something regretful? Namjoo had talked to him once about one of her suicide attempts and it had scared him to bits. After that, he’d forced her to promise him to never do it again, but he wasn’t so sure she would keep her word now. 

“Where are you?”

>_____<;;

“What’d he say?” Chorong asked walking into Namjoo’s room where Victoria had been on the phone with Chanyeol.

“She didn’t go to him,” Victoria muttered running her hand through her hair.

“Great,” Chorong dropped her hand to her side, “I’ve got a dead friend to talk to, there are so-called Shadows in the house we need to get rid of, and the sister we need has disappeared. Just great! What a great day I’m having after a crazy visit from our dead grandma!”

Victoria turned around to look at Chorong with a tiny glare. She said through gritted teeth, “You’re not the only one having a hard time here, so don’t act like you’re the only victim.”

“At least I’m smart enough to know that right now isn’t the time to be arguing with you!” Chorong tried hard not to slap her hand against Namjoo’s dresser beside the door. “You could have acted like a better older sister!”

Victoria watched Chorong walk out and groaned before stomping her feet on the ground as she did so.

“Just because you’re the oldest, don’t think you’re always right 90 percent of the time! I have my own problems too. If you took the time to understand them a little you wouldn’t be such a pain in the about it!”

Victoria hated to think that Namjoo had been right about her. She had completely assumed everything about Namjoo. If she took a second to think about it, she didn’t know Namjoo very well…at least not anymore. It was as if she’d totally turned her back on her little sister the second she despised the way she acted. And again, Victoria had never taken the time to try to understand Namjoo’s frustrations…or the least of her problems.

So…what kind of problems did her little sister have? And why didn’t Namjoo ever come to her for help?

Well, duh! Victoria never took the time to listen without assuming anything in the first place. She helplessly let out a loud sigh before the top drawer of Namjoo’s dresser opened by itself. Victoria turned alarmed before she looked around paranoid. Shoving her paranoia away she slowly crept toward it and glanced inside.

Namjoo had messily tossed whatever jewelry she had into it and had left it quiet empty. Victoria spotted a tiny picture book sitting in the corner and reached for it.

Blowing the dust off it, pictures fluttered to the floor when she opened the book. Victoria turned to look at them and quickly bent down to pick them up. If Namjoo knew she had gone through her personal belongings another fight would be soon to come, and that was the last thing she needed right now. Victoria clumsily gathered the pictures, but slowly paused when she realized they were pictures of the three of them.

Forgetting about gathering them she began to look at them one by one. Most of the pictures had been taken when their mother was still alive. Namjoo had been around six, Chorong was eight, and she had been ten. The differences in their heights while they stood facing the ocean tides were relevant, but cute.

Yes, Victoria remembered, there had been a time when she cared for both her sisters overwhelmingly.

“I know this sounds unbelievable, but you will understand what you’re supposed to do in due time. You will be fine. I believe in you three. I believe the three of you will learn to believe in each other. You just didn’t come from the same mother, you share blood, you’re sisters. You need to stay together; you’re stronger as three than by yourself.”

Victoria let out another sigh, but this time this sigh was full of disappointment in herself.

>_____<;;

“How is it?” Woohyun asked when Chorong walked back into the sitting room.

She sighed and flopped down onto the seat across from him. “She didn’t go to him. Looks like we’re going to be quite helpless. But these things…you said they don’t attack when it’s dark, right?”

“Right,” he nodded.

Chorong glanced at her friend. “So you’re 17…17 forever, huh?”

He smiled. “I’d like to know how it’d feel to get old.”

“It’s not that fun,” Chorong replied.

Woohyun laughed before they transitioned into silence. Chorong wished there were more to distract her from feeling so down. She needed other problems to intervene…

“College was kind of fun,” Chorong spoke, in order to keep the atmosphere from falling. “Bars, guys, I mean, you could have gotten a girl.” She shrugged trying to amuse herself, “You could be married right now.”

But he was dead.

Helpless tears rose in her eyes and dripped helplessly from her face. She didn’t mean to…she hadn’t wanted to cry again.

“Chorong…”

“I can’t do it…” her voice cracked. “How do you want me to say goodbye to you? It’s unfair!” She frustratingly buried her face in her hands. “I should have died that night! Why did you do it!?” She suddenly tossed a pillow at him furiously. “Why did you save me, you idiot! You could have done so much more than me if you lived! Why…” Chorong’s sobs shook her so hard. She was furious…furious at nothing. “I was so lonely…it’s not fair…this isn’t fair…”

Woohyun watched her helplessly before he got up and walked over to hug her.

>_____<;;

“So everyone has a guardian angel?” Namjoo asked.

Luhan nodded in response.

“So everyone can see theirs?” she was curious. “Or do they only appear when we’re at our worst moments?”

He shook his head, which left Namjoo frustrated.

“Then what?” Namjoo wondered. “Why the heck did you appear in front of me?” Then she caught herself and slightly closed her eyes for half a second before reopening them, “I mean, why did you tackle me!”

“Better than you falling off and me having to fly you back up,” Luhan stated. “I was being smart.”

“Right,” Namjoo frowned at him before a group of high schoolers passed and glanced at them with much curiosity. She turned her head to watch them pass by before whispering, “Am I talking to myself? They can see you too? I have to make sure so I don’t seem like I need to be locked up in a hospital, you know…that kind of thing.”

He mused a smile onto his face, “Don’t worry, I’m completely in human form.”

She raised a brow and repeated stiffly, “Human…form….ok.” 

He only laughed at her, which she hardly found amusing.

“So…why…did you appear to me? Isn’t that…illegal, forbidden…or whatever word you use for it?”

He shook his head.

Namjoo almost groaned, “Can you, like, speak instead of shaking your head?”

“I chose to do it,” he answered before stopping at a red light. “It’s not forbidden.”

Namjoo turned to him with a frown and concluded that he wasn’t going to answer her directly.

“You should go home,” his eyes sat on the light ahead, “your sisters need you.”

Namjoo stared at him speechless by the sudden mention of her sisters.

“Trust me,” he turned to her with eyes that had no emotion.

“What are you going to do in the meantime?” Namjoo asked. He didn’t reply. “Are you just going to…disappear?”

A small smile scorched his face, “I’ll be back.” Then he added as if to assure her, “I am your angel.”

Namjoo turned when the light turned green, but when she turned back to look at Luhan, he was gone as if he was never there at all. She looked around confused, a little lost before she finally crossed the street.

The house she grew up in loomed over her some time later and Namjoo almost hated the fact that this was her home. She hated the thought of having to meet Victoria face to face again. Withholding her anger she walked up the steps to the front door.

Whatever they needed her for, she would do it quick and leave again. She couldn’t stay under the same roof with Victoria for long, and she wouldn’t force herself to deal with it. Victoria didn’t even think she was an adult to begin with, so why should she try to act like one in front of her?

She pulled the door open and walked into the home.

Footsteps rushed down the stairs at her arrival and a voice asked, “Where have you been?”

Namjoo looked up to see Victoria walking toward her. Namjoo replied coldly, “Here and there.”

Victoria narrowed her eyes before at her before Chorong and Woohyun stepped out from the sitting room. Namjoo felt all anger subside when she saw him.

“What…” Namjoo started before they cut her off.

“Finally!” Chorong let out a loud sigh of relief. “Are you ok?”

Namjoo shrugged, “Fine, but…what’s going on?”

“What’s been going on, is that this house and us – we’re going to soon be in danger if we don’t hurry!” Victoria slightly raised her voice.

“Victoria,” Chorong hissed before turning back to Namjoo, “just…lets take what grandma said seriously from now on. We need to get this over with.”

“Ok,” Namjoo bleakly replied walking forward. “But your friend…”

“Explain later,” Chorong shot quickly before turning to Victoria, “so where are they?”

“I don’t know,” Victoria shrugged and looked around. “Look at any place where there would be light…” she ran her eyes up the ceilings, “or we have too many lights on…oh my god! There!”

“Whoa!” Namjoo let out a stupefied gasp when she spotted shadows lurking around every corner. “What the heck…is that you?” she turned to her sisters confused.

“Didn’t I say before that something is in this house and we’re soon to become exiles?!” Victoria asked.

“Calm down,” Woohyun tried.

The three of them turned to look at him infuriated by their own panic and at his easy remarks.

“Easy when you don’t live here or have to fight them!” Chorong spat as the three of them ended up back to back in a circle.

“So…uh…what are we supposed to do?” Namjoo asked. “Didn’t you say we need to get rid of them or something?”

“But we don’t know how and Chorong’s friend doesn’t either, even when he knows of these Shadows more than we do!” Victoria slightly raised her voice in frustration, which she purposely directed at Woohyun.

“Well, it’s not his fault,” Chorong fought back.

“Whoa, are you two getting into an argument here?” Namjoo asked.

Victoria and Chorong grunted in frustration. One of the Shadows leapt out from the light and charged at them tauntingly, they dropped to the floor with Chorong screaming the hardest. Suddenly the lights flickered a few times before dying out. The Shadow seemed to die in the middle of its attack leaving the three sprawled on the floor over each other confused.

“Ok…who did that?” Victoria asked.

“Well, looks like someone moves things, I got fire, and someone else controls light,” Namjoo muttered before they heard a crack of lightning inside the house.

“Or lightning,” Chorong corrected. 

***As an expression, Victoria used to be her sisters' guardian angel, but that sense of what it is to be a family is no longer there. Victoria, Chorong, and Namjoo will have to work hard to get that warmth of what it is to be a family back. 

***Chorong's going to struggle saying goodbye officially this time to her dead best friend, but this will kick off her story with Suho later - you can bet on it. 

***So now we know: Vic has the power to move objects, Namjoo - fire, and now Chorong - Light/Lightning