Beautifully Untamed

Chapter Sixteen

“Watch out!”

Jolie was always tripping. This time around it was different. You see, she had been carrying a cup of ice coffee, and she had smacked her face into the chest of a man- with said man also receiving a cold coffee bath. “I’m so sorry!” Jolie apologized as she noticed what she had done.

She looked around, panicked, especially when her friends started to inch away from the situation.”It’s okay,” the guy said, smiling at her. “No harm done,”

Jolie blushed, looking up and for the first time clearly seeing his face. The man was handsome, and young to boot. His hair was a light brown color, his skin a gorgeous tan, and his face so beautiful like an angels. “Except to your shirt,” she muttered, entranced.

“Right,” the man laughed. “I’m Gaho by the way, what’s your name?” Gaho was laughing on the inside.  He knew Jolie because he had watched her. He knew her habits—and this time was different because he had planned it. 

Jolie smiled politely as she introduced herself. “I’m Jolie,” she nearly whispered her name, her heart racing as she looked down at her lost cup. “I’m so sorry,”

“If you really are, then why don’t you go out on a date with me?” He offered, a smirk appearing on his face when she stuttered over her words. She seemed to think about it aloud, all of her thoughts revealed to him before she nodded her head and stayed silent. “Is that a yes?” he pressed, needing to hear her verbal response.

“Yes,” she sweetly said, her cheeks painted so rosy that she was adorable- even more so then and there.

That was their first official meeting. The first time that Jolie knew that Gaho existed, despite not knowing what else he was. The two of them had fun on their first date, and he asked her out again.At first Gaho had promised himself that it would only be one date. That it would only be one kiss. That he wouldn’t ask for more if he could just spend one day with her—but he was wrong.

He couldn’t get enough of her.

He wanted to see her all the time.

He missed even before they said their goodbyes.

He was hooked.

“You are still seeing that girl?” Boss crossed his arms, glaring at Gaho, “If the higher ups find out, you are so dead,” the worry for his friend was clear, but Gaho shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s alright, it’s not like I am hurting anyone with seeing her!” he insisted, preparing once more to descend onto earth. He tucked his wings away and looked at his appearance once more, turning for a moment to look at his friend.

“Angels are not supposed to fall in love,” Boss stressed the words.

Gaho smiled at his friend, “That’s what they have told us, but you don’t understand, being in love is incredible,” Gaho got a dreamy look in his eyes. “It’s so hard to describe exactly what it’s like, but it’s definitely soft, and it is definitely warm.”

“Even so, you should stop!” Boss insisted.

“Just one more time,” Gaho pleaded.

“That’s what you always said,” Boss sighed, in defeat. “Just go,” Gaho grinned at him, before dropping down to the land that was known as Earth.

“Are you still dating that guy?” One of Jolie’s friends asked. She was there when that guy had asked her out and couldn’t believe it had happened. It was defiinately a scene that gave hope that love might still exist, and Jolie knew that her friends were wishing her the best. She couldn't help but feel warmth burst deep in her chest at the thought of Gaho.

“Of course!” Jolie got a smile on her face. “He’s so different from everyone else in the world. You know, he’s the kind of guy that every girl wishes for. Thoughtful, funny, kind, and badass all at once- and I don’t have to ask him to do anything- he just does it,”

“Lucky, guys like that never appear to anyone! They are like a rare myth.”

“Right!” They all laughed, “It’s like perfect guys only exist in mangas or in stories! You never hear of a guy treating you like a princess in real life,”

“Unless you are lucky like me,” Jolie teased, making her friend whine at her for life being so unfair. She couldn’t help but smile happily. It truly felt like a prince had come from heaven just for her and she was already so in love with him.

Gaho very quickly came to wish that he could have everything with Jolie. He wanted to be mortal and live out his life with her. The thought of growing old with her was somehow romantic. With every day that passed his love for her grew, and he decided that he was going to renounce being an Angel, to be with her. He didn’t tell God of his plans. No one knew what he planned, but Gaho didn’t want to be told no. He didn’t want to be lectured, and he didn’t want to hear anything about what was right and what was wrong.

He just wanted to love Jolie forever.

“How do you think that one turns mortal,” He asked Boss absently. The dark haired Angel had been busy filling out his paperwork that he himself answered absently.

“The fruit of life, of course,” He scoffed, “Such a thing created though, ahh, but God always said that life needs to have balance. If there is mortality, there is immortality. If there is life, then there is death. If there are monsters, there are hunters for them, kind of a scaled world if you ask me!” he laughed.

“Truly scaled,” Gaho grinned, and thought about the world some more. For everything that went up, it was bound to go down. So there was no doubt that he could become mortal. He went to the library soon after saying his good bye to his friend and read up on the topic about the fruit of life.

It was created a long time ago; it was what created mortals in the first place after what would be considered the first humans ate it. It seemed humans were magical beings in the past, creatures created to roam the lonely lands of earth but they disobeyed. For every misbehavior, there is a punishment and he knew that for his actions there would be consequences.

But his desires outweighed his worries about what those consequences would be. “I’ll be alright, I’ll probably never be an Angel ever again if I do this, but that’s a price that I will pay!”

With his mind set, he waited three long days before he was able to go to the tree of life. There he picked some of the enchanted fruit, and made a final prayer as he took a bite. His wish to be mortal came. Time for him had started again. The lost of his wings was probably the most painful thing that he had experienced at the time—but he had done it all to be with her.

The pain had knocked him out. “Ugh,” Gaho groggily sat up. He looked around himself and found that he had fallen back to earth. The tree of life was gone from sight, and he had no doubt that reaching the world of heaven would be hard for him to do once more. Although, he knew that there was a way to reach it from here on earth if he ever needed something.

He closed his eyes, and sighed. Boss would definitely kill him for doing this! And he knew that everyone would be mad once they realized what he had done! He could nearly laugh with what he had gotten away with. Standing up, he groaned as every bone in his body ached—a feeling that he had never felt before.

The world felt different around him, more muted to his senses. The air was not as sweet as it used to be, but he still shivered when it caressed his warm face. He laughed, jumping for joy as he celebrated. This is how humans perceived things after all! He quickly made to leave.

He couldn’t wait to ask Jolie to marry him.

“This is your apartment sir,” the landlord said as he unlocked the door to a shabby apartment. Gaho looked it over again, and nodded his head.

“Thank you,” he said.

“No problem, here’s your key,” the landlord handed him the key and moved to leave, “Just also remember that the rent is always due on the last week of the month, don’t be late now,” and he left. Gaho nodded, spinning around in his new apartment, and dropped the only bag that he had of freshly bought clothes.

This was great!

His life as a human was set.  He had covered everything from forging papers for an identity, to living in an apartment, and having a job. The job was something that he had gotten about the time that he had made his decision.

“Just a little more, and then I will ask her to be mine,” he whispered to himself, and pulled out a box from inside of his pocket. The black velvet box opened to a large diamond ring, and he admired it once more. He had chosen Diamond to ward off any bad luck. For once he felt like his life was truly starting.

After three months of being a human and living as one, he asked Jolie out to a fancy restaurant. One that he had saved every penny to be able to bring her here. Jolie was amazed, and looked like she would squirm right out of her chair. “I can’t believe that you brought me here!” she said in breathless awe. “You really didn’t have to!”

“I wanted to,” he smiled at her, “I wanted to be able to spoil you just a bit!”

“More like too much,” she sighed, and looked at him again, “Thank you Gaho! Thank you for doing so much for me, you have no idea how happy just being with you makes me. I really don’t need all these fancy things, just you,”

He reached for her hand, and held it tightly, “Then I suppose that you wouldn’t mind if I asked you to marry me?” The look on his face was hopeful, watching her with a sharp eye as her eyes widened with disbelief.

“Gaho!” she cried, squeezing her eyes shut as if she couldn’t believe what she just heard. “Are you serious, are you being honest? You are not teasing me are you?” she asked, unable to believe it all at once.

Gaho chuckled, got to his feet, and in that same fluid movement dropped down on one knee before her, the ring box opened to the glittering diamond found inside. Yet, her eyes were not on the diamond, but on his eyes, looking at him with shocked awe—looking only at him! “Jolie, since the day I met you I knew that you were the one for me. Will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you marry me?”

Jolie cried, speechless as she nodded her head vigorously. “Yes,” she sobbed, placing a hand over at how happy she felt at that moment. “Yes, yes, yes, a million times,” He grinned, getting to his feet and into her arms where she moved to hug him tightly into her small frame. He kissed her.

The world around them exploded in sudden cheer and claps that nearly startled them out of their own little world. Yet, they didn’t let go of each other, and they didn’t stop smiling throughout the whole night.

How could they?

Life seemed to be going just like how they always dreamt.

Gaho was the happiest man alive when Jolie said yes when he asked her to marry him. The two of them got married the next summer, and lived happily in a new home together. It felt like their love was strong. It felt like this dream was never going to end—but Gaho started to feel the weight of his secret and the lies that he carried.

“Is that the last of the boxes?” She asked him, looking at everything that he owned with a critical eye. Jolie was still unable to believe the amount of things that Gaho claimed to own.

“Yes, that’s everything,” He smiled at her, raising an eyebrow when she started to tap her foot to the ground. “Something wrong?” he asked her.

“No nothing,” she frowned, and bluntly said, “you own so little! I feel like everything in the house is filled by my stuff than yours!”

“Ah, yeah, I’ve never been one for owning too much. I left a lot behind when I lost my parents,” he offered her a small smile, his eyes nearly pleading for her not to ask any more questions-- Because that was a lie.  He knew it was, but it wasn’t like he could tell her that he was an Angel, and that Angels tended to not own material things. Although he found that lying was hard, and he didn’t like doing it, he had to.

Jolie gave him a soft smile, “yeah, I see, sorry for making you talk about that,” she moved to hug him, kissing his cheek as she held him. Apologizing in her own way, while he himself softly apologized to her in his own way as well-

He wished he didn’t have to continue to lie.

It had started with light nausea in the morning and perhaps a dizzy spell here and there during the afternoon, but nothing that would cause Jolie any worry towards her health. She took a deep breath, and continued about her day. These symptoms had been going on for the past week, and although they worried her a bit, it was not enough to make her go see a doctor. She would take a deep breath and tell herself that everything was going to be okay, and that it was nothing.

It was perhaps the heat.

Or she ate too little that morning.

Or she was just nervous for no reason! It was probably all in her head and she really didn’t want to cause anyone any trouble.

“Are you alright?” a coworker asked her one afternoon when she saw her pause, and press a hand to her temple.

“Fine, just a little head ache, I think,” Jolie said, and smiled softly. “I’ve been having a bit nausea, and sometimes just a little headaches,” she said it all as if it was no big deal. The woman looked at her thoughtfully.

“Have you checked if you could perhaps be pregnant? We’ve all been working so hard so it must be wearing you down if you are, and you should take care,” The woman smiled encouragingly while Jolie stared wide eyed at her.

“It had not crossed my mind that I might be pregnant,” she nearly whispered the words.

“You should check!” The woman urged, “Just to be sure.”

“Yeah, I should,” Jolie nodded her head. “I’m probably not though! I’ll probably go to the doctors soon, and have myself checked out,”

“Yeah, definitely do!” with that said, both of them moved to go back to work. Yet, all that afternoon Jolie thought about what her coworker had said and actually headed to a pharmacy after work. She bought herself two pregnancy tests, in case she did the first one wrong and headed home. She sat for perhaps two hours in the bathroom, her eyes trained on both sticks reading negative.

She had tried to remember when she last had her period. She was the kind of person to have an irregular period, and also the type to not write down or care to remember the last time she had a period. At that moment she wished she had been more attentive to her own body. “Should I go see a doctor?” she whispered to herself.

A knock suddenly came at the door, bringing her back to reality. “Jolie?” Gaho called from the other side. In tears, she stood up and opened the door and threw herself into his arms. Jolie cried, saying she needed to see a doctor. Gaho didn’t hesitate to make an appointment, or skip work just to go with her. It was a quiet time for them. They walked into the doctor’s office, and they sat, they followed instructions as tests were done—and there it was.

Jolie was pregnant.

The doctors had assured them a little sickness was normal. But the thing was that as the pregnancy progressed into its third month, the worse Jolie got. Jolie grew tired and slept most of the time. It worried him, and it made him curse himself because as an Angel he could have made her feel better already. But he was simply human now and there was nothing that he could do about it.

“Just go ahead and sleep as much as you want,” Gaho told her, having her take a maternity leave from her job. Jolie nodded, thankful to be able to rest easy.

“Don’t worry too much about me! I’m strong! I’ll be fine. You better get to work,” she whispered in her tired voice, yet sounding so strong and positive. Her eyes shinned with happiness, and Gaho felt drawn to her strength. She truly was a strong woman and he loved her so much.

“Fine, okay,” he moved towards her, pressing a kiss to her forehead, and then one to her lips. “Call me, for whatever be reason! And I’ll come running,” he pressed several more kisses to her lips, causing her to giggle and a little relief to burst in his chest.

“I will, we’ll both be here when you get back,” she whispered, her hand pressed to the center of he rounded belly.

He squeezed her hand and pressed a kiss at her belly. Yes- this was his family and what he had always dreamt of. He had to have hope that everything was going to be alright. A moment later he was out the door and heading to work. Traffic was a jam, and he was late. He was rushing to his work station when he received the dreaded phone call.

Jolie had been taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Gaho regretted going to work that day. Because he left Jolie alone to herself, she had been scared and confused when sharp pain settled in her stomach and she lost their child. There had been so much blood; she had called for help at a hospital in hopes to save their child. The baby didn’t even have a chance, and he came to the hospital to find her in tears, her face twisted in pain and several nurses bustling around her and refusing to allow him in too close.

A hand landed on his shoulder, “Sir, are you her husband?” The clinical tone of a doctor made Gaho turn his head sharply to the serious man.

“Yes!” he nodded his head, hoping that he would allow him to go in and hold her.        

“I am afraid, that she remains in critical condition and there is a high possibility that she will not make it,” The doctor gave him the bad news. “She’s lost too much blood as it is, and she continues to lose blood. We can’t find where she is losing blood and believe it might be internally. We have to go in with surgery to try and save her life…”

“Please! Do anything that you can to save her!”

“We will try our best, now please answer these questions for us,” The doctor went through a list, asking for Gaho’s signature of consent in Jolie’s place. Jolie was now subdued, there was no way she could make a decision herself. He barely got a glimpse of her tearful face as she was rushed past him, and to who knows where- because he was not allowed to follow.

He was just allowed to stand in the waiting room and wait.

Gaho was desperate; he didn’t want to see her dead. He could not stand there waiting to see if she lived or not! He had to know for sure that she was! Gaho headed back to heaven’s gate and called for Boss, his best friend. “Boss, please! I know what I have done has caused a lot of anger but please, you have to help me. She can’t die!”

Boss glowered at him. “What do you think God will say when you plea him?” he asked.

“I’ll pay for what I have done, so long as she gets to live!” he growled with conviction.

“You do realize that, when your life started as a human, Jolie’s life was ending?” Boss asked, his voice harsh, “What were you thinking! If you loved her you should have kept your distance. God will punish you.”

Gaho already knew that he would be punished, but at the very least he could do something so that Jolie would get to live! That is what he wished for, and he didn’t care if his life ended. “Please, I have to see him,”

Boss nodded his head, “Open the gates,” he ordered, and the gates were opened. Boss then led Gaho to God. It was cold where he was, and he closed his eyes as he bowed. Boss didn’t step inside as he closed the doors and stood outside, waiting to see what would happen. He feared for his friend, because he cared a lot for Gaho. He closed his own eyes and prayed.

“God all powerful, God be merciful. Please forgive me for I have sinned against you,” Gaho whispered under his breath, “I have come to confess myself to you, and ask that you forgive my mistakes, for you to allow me to atone, and make up for it all,”

“Gaho,” The voice was powerful, resounding even deep in his chest, where his heart jumped and nearly stopped. Gaho thought hard, his eyes anywhere, but finally swallowed the lump in his throat and looked up- time to confess.

God had been angry with him.

God told him the big mistake he had made. How he disrupted the balance by turning himself human when he was not meant to be one. Jolie had to die- alone and without him. Gaho remembered this part well, because he had felt the moment that her soul had entered through the gates of heaven and been redirected. No memories of him would ever come to her, but she would get to be reborn in the next life like every human was allowed to.

They could never be together ever again—and that perhaps was the worst part of his punishment.

Gaho on the other hand, could not be human, and he could not be an Angel again. Instead he got turned into something lower. He was turned into an animal that was neither dead nor alive. He just was and he existed as a sort of guide to lost souls that had made mistakes in life that were similar to his. Yet, no matter how many he met, no one had ever committed such a huge offence to be warranted no return back to earth and another chance to find their loved one. They were not punished as severely as he had been.

Not until one day, a blond boy by the name of G-dragon appeared before him. G-dragon had long blond hair, and tears in his amber colored eyes as he sobbed. They looked almost like softly burning flames than irises in his eyes. His clothes were ripped, and he looked like he had been through hell and back.

Gaho had been left in awe by how his eyes glowed with so much pain that he wondered for a moment what he was. From the very moment that he saw him he knew that it was not a human that he was looking at. Yet, he recalled, everything was a creation of something much bigger than them and thus G-dragon was not different in that sense.

He was just a lost child- another one that he had to guide back to the right path and he would. That much he knew he would.

God appeared then. Gaho knew God to never come in person for anything, and placed a hand on the hysterically crying boy. G-dragon fell asleep. A warm light surrounded him, offering what little comfort it could. 

“From now on, keep an eye on him and guide him to what he has lost so that he may return to living his life,” God had said. “When he wakes up, he’s not going to remember much, he’s been through too much, it’s up to you to help him,” and with that, he placed the sleeping boy over a white pedestal in the middle of nowhere land. Vast solitude left, right, forward, and back- no matter where Gaho looked- simple emptiness- and nothing but time.

Gaho sat back, watching G-dragon restlessly sleep for the years to come.

“Have you seen her again?” Ji Yong asked his tone soft as he watched Gaho cry until he had no more tears. Gaho shook his head, swallowing hard as he contemplated what he was going to say. Ji Yong didn’t push him, simply watching him as his mind raced through and through everything that he had just heard. Gaho finally took a deep breath, bowing his head as he spoke.

“It’s hard, so I have not seen her since the first time she was allowed to be reborn,” Gaho wanted to shrug his shoulders, but there wasn’t much that he could do in the body of a puppy. He missed his real body so much. “She doesn’t remember me anyways; all I can do is just wish her so much happiness with whatever life she is leading now.”

“But you know, every time that she has been reborn, you know don’t you?”

Gaho didn’t say anything; he simply turned away from Ji Yong. It was an obvious way of saying that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Ji Yong growled, his hands—he couldn’t just drop the conversation right there.

Ji Yong frowned as he called Gaho’s name to no avail. Finally he just said what was on his mind. “Maybe she’s being punished just as much as you are. I don’t remember anything, and I sure as hell feel like it’s a punishment,” Ji Yong growled softly. Gaho stared hard at the floor before him, feeling as his heart shook at those words. “Whether I remember or not, I know a lot of me is missing, and I want it back Gaho. It hurts not to be all of me,”

That would be wistful thinking—would it not be? - To even dream that out there Jolie was missing him as well. She didn’t remember him, there should be nothing missing from her life. But—He did want to see her. He wanted to see her again so bad. “Impossible,” he whispered.

“You should go see her,” Ji Yong pressed, as if he had not heard Gaho.

Gaho turned, ready to snap but instead gapped at the smiling dragon, who for the first time in a long time actually looked very appeased. Gaho had been so worried about being unable to help Ji Yong that he had not noticed that the glow in Ji Yong’s eyes had somewhat already returned. 

Alright, I hope this chapter came out well! :) 

Thank you to everyone still reading and having the patience with my slow updating.