나의 수호 천사

"My Guardian Angel"

The story of the last Grigori

NOS OBVIAM ITERUM

“WE MEET AGAIN”

After painstakingly searching for the recipe and acquiring burns on their hands, Taehyun, Jinwoo and Seunghoon managed to make a decent breakfast for the little girl which she gladly ate with them. Seunghoon also warmed some milk for her and she thanked him with a smile.

“Hayi, what would you say to Seunghoon?” Mino asked.

“Thank you!” She replied, happily.

“How about us?” Taehyun asked. “We deserve some milk too!”

“All right, all right!” Seunghoon said but Hayi pushed her cup towards Taehyun. “No baby, that’s for you. I’ll go get them their own milk.” Hayi smiled at him. Seunghoon even got another cup for her guardian angel and Jiwon looked at him as if he wanted to cry. “No, stop. Don’t cry!” Seunghoon warned and Jiwon smiled.

“Can she see you?” Seunghoon asked the angel but he shook his head. Hayi seemed to be busy feeding Mino, Taehyun and Jinwoo to notice the extra cup, floating mid air as her guardian angel drinks.

“I remember her…” Jinwoo says while touching Hayi’s curls. “When she was growing up with us…”

“She was a handful. Always running around and making us chase after her.” Mino joins in reminiscing.

“And how she would always stop crying whenever Mino carries her.” Taehyun adds, sitting on the little girl’s other side, wiping spilled milk on the side of her lips.

“I wish she never grew up.” Jinwoo says. Hayi drunk from her cup again and finished it all in one gulp before she burps so loud, everyone turned to her.

“Wow…she burps like a boy.” Seunghoon says then the little girl squirms from her seat and walks out of the kitchen. “Jiwon, maybe we should start looking for that address.” The guardian nods.

“We’ll clean up.” Taehyun volunteers.

“I’ll take care of the kid.” Mino says, already following after Hayi. “And take care of the store!”

Jiyong was getting impatient. He parked the car at curb and turned to Bom. “Why did you stop?”, she asked. “Do you see her?”

“Stay in here. I’m not going to tell him anything.” Jiyong tells her and before Bom could protest, Jiyong was already out of the car and into the building to Bom’s right. She was about to follow but stopped and sunk deeper into her seat when she sees Seunghyun and Jiyong talking on the side walk. “Jiyong, you bastard!” Bom muttered but both men didn’t talk long and Jiyong immediately went back to the car while Seunghyun walked to the opposite direction.

“What did you tell him?”, she asks as soon as Jiyong was back in the driver’s seat.

“I just asked if he saw Dara and Hanbin walk by or if he heard from them.”

“You didn’t mention Hayi?”

“I might have mentioned her.”

“You did what?!?!”

“But he said they didn’t pass by, all right? Stop freaking out!”

“Jiyong…”

“Bom, if Hayi knows who her father is, I really think it will be wise to tell them, both, Hayi and Seunghyun.” Bom looked away but Jiyong didn’t stop. “What are you so afraid of? You are married to someone who loves you and knew that Hayi has another father! Hayi loves you more than anything in the world! She wouldn’t just forget that you’re her mother. You won’t lose Hayi, I’m sure of it.”

“Just drive, Jiyong.”

“I like this!” Hayi points to a pink rose then Taehyun gets a small rose bud and places it behind the girl’s ears. “Am I pretty?”

“You’re very pretty.” He smiles. Hayi takes another rose and puts it on Taehyun’s ear then she giggles. A customer arrives and all three angels stands up and bows in greeting. Hayi mimics them right after, in a very loud voice and a low bow, she says, “Good morning!”

“Hello there, little girl.” Their customer smiles and pats the girl’s head. “Another relative of yours?”

“No, I’m their princess!” The little girl declares. Seunghyun chuckles.

“I’m afraid Seunghoon is out at the moment. Is there anything you need?” Mino says, Taehyun glares at him while Jinwoo sends a telepathic message to their dux. His distaste was quite evident or was it only because they all knew.

“I think you can help me pick out some flowers. Seunghoon must be very busy.” Their customer turns to the girl again. “Can you help me pick out flowers that a lady like you, will like?”

“Those are very pretty!” Hayi points to the yellow tulips on the rack. “My mother loves tulips!” Hayi says.

“I know someone who loves tulips too. As a matter of fact, you somehow remind me of her.” Seunghyun says, oblivious to the fact that they were both talking about the same person. Ignorant that they are all blood related. Seunghyun checks on his watch then smiles at the girl. “Would you like to arrange the flowers with me?” He asks and Hayi smiles, completely pleased at the idea.

“For Dara again?” Mino asks while he prepares the ribbons and the lace. Taehyun and Jinwoo rolls their eyes at him.

“No, this time its for someone I want to apologize to.” Seunghyun admits and Mino brightened up a bit. Taehyun turned his back away from him while Jinwoo signaled Mino to just shut his mouth.

Seunghyun was busy with a group of rose buds that he took from the bucket and began sticking them into a flexible wire. Taehyun sits with them and observes. “You seem to know how to make flower crowns.”

“A friend of mine taught me how. On the funeral of his mother, I helped him make flower crowns for her grave. By the way, don’t forget to put these in my tab.”

“Its all listed.” Mino says from the counter. “But of course, you get a discount.” Seunghyun smiles then turns to Hayi. The girl blinks up at him then he puts the flower crown on her head. “Now, you’re a real princess.” Taehyun hands Hayi a mirror and her glee was evident. “Do you like it?” Seunghyun asked.

“I love it!” Hayi declares. “Thank you!” She says then kisses his cheek.

“Should we start?” Seunghyun asked then Hayi nods. While the unassuming father and daughter works on a small table in the corner, Mino feels a presence beside him and when he turns, he finds Chaerin. She winks at him.

“This one’s all you?” Mino asked and Chaerin nodded.

“He just needs a little bit of push.” Chaerin whispers back then moved away to sit with Seunghyun and Hayi to work some of her magic on the father and daughter. Before Mino can contemplate further on what Chaerin said, the door opens again and a beautiful brown-haired girl enters. Taehyun attends to her at once.

“I’m looking for roses. Pink ones.” She says and Taehyun leads her to the corner where the pink roses were. The woman follows, her walk graceful, her smile friendly, her eyes, drawn to Taehyun. A simple human would be entrapped to the charm emanating from the new customer however, Taehyun seemed to be immune.

“Would you like long stemmed ones or should I cut them for you?” He asked.

“I like those large ones. Give me about 3 of those.” She says. “Maybe you can cut a bit of the edges? I’d want them to look fresh.”

“Certainly.” Taehyun answered with a smile. He takes the flowers then began doing as she wished. “Would you like me to wrap them…”

“Oh, no!” She smiles and touches his arm. “Just bundle them up with a white ribbon.” Taehyun nods and again, does as she says however, while in the process of stacking the stems together, Taehyun’s finger gets pierced and he winces at the pain. “Be careful.” The girl says before taking his hand and Taehyun couldn't move as she brought his injured finger to her lips and drops a kiss on it. “That should be all right.” She smiles and Taehyun hides his blush by looking down and binding the ribbon to finish his work.

“May I know your name?” She asks after she has paid for her purchase, the flowers tucked in her milky arms.

“I’m Taehyun.” He says then she extends a hand which he shakes amiably.

“I’m Ahreum. Nice to meet you, Taehyun.”

“We should stop.” Dara suddenly says and Hanbin looks up at her.

“Why?” Hanbin asks.

Dara couldn’t explain it but there seemed to be a tug from inside her. She winces as the tug become a piercing pain. Again, she hears the sound of chains wanting to be released.

“Get away from here!” Dara hears a woman’s voice but she looks around and saw no one talking to her but Hanbin. “Dara!”

“What?” Dara asked and Hanbin tugged at her hand.

“Are you all right?”

“Did you call me?”

“No…”

Dara in a breath as the pain becomes intense that she had to lean on the wall and her hand goes to her heart while her other hand was held tightly by the little boy. He vision doubles from the pain she feels in her head.

“Dara, you look sick.”

“Let’s just rest for a bit, Hanbin.” She says, her breathing becoming shallow and rapid. Hanbin hears a clink of metal that was dropped on the street and sees a cage on the sidewalk before turning to the girl that approached his nanny. 

“Miss, you look really pale.” Someone says from beside Dara. “I’m Ah Yeon. Let me help you. You need to sit down.” Ah Yeon takes Dara’s arm and leads her to a sit on a bench outside a restaurant. She asks for water and gives it to Dara. 

“Thank you, Ah Yeon.”

“Dara, should we go home?” Hanbin asks.

“No baby. I’ll be all right.”

Across from the restaurant where Dara rests, Hayi stands up from her seat. “Can we put some of those?” Hayi points to the lilly of the valley. I think they look nice.” At Seunghyun’s nod, she immediately goes to the flowers. “I got it!” She tells Jinwoo who was prepared to help her.

“You’re doing very good, Hayi!” Jinwoo praises.

“I like making things pretty!” She declares then the doors to the flower shop opens as Seunghoon and Jiwon arrives.

“We found it but no one was home.” Seunghoon says. Suddenly, Hayi drops the flowers as her eyes widen at what she saw from outside.

“Hanbin!” She says, running outside, past Seunghoon and her guardian angel before anyone could stop her. The street was empty for now however, the traffic lights were about to turn green.

“Taehyun!” Jinwoo calls out forcefully, having foreseen the danger Hayi is in.

“But…” Taehyun looks at Seunghyun however, the latter was already out of his seat and out of the shop to run after Hayi.

“He’s not going to get there in time!” Chaerin says then Taehyun concentrates hard to use his powers. Mino also gathers his psyche to give Seunghyun a bit of speed so that he’d be able to save the girl from the incoming car.

Across from them, Dara feels the surge o