"My Guardian Angel"

The story of the last Grigori

EPILOGUS

A tall, handsome boy of 18 knelt on the grass and smiles at the cherub on top of a white tombstone. He lays a crown of white roses on top of the granite and lit a candle on a cake.

“Good morning, Hayi!”, he says. “Its my birthday today! I wanted to celebrate it with you. I have new kicks, see? Its Dad’s gift, along with everything I am wearing. Do you like it?”

He smiles tenderly at the tombstone, as if there was someone there. The wind suddenly blew hard and the candle’s light disappeared. He frowned.

“Not fair! I haven’t even made a wish yet and you blew my candle.”, he added in a joke. “Its been a while, hasn’t it? Do you still remember me? Do you still grow in heaven? It doesn’t matter though, because I think I’m still taller than you. But I’m sure you’ve grown prettier now and smarter. Now, you’re probably wondering why I came.” He paused and wiped a tear from his eye then took a deep breath. “Someone called to greet me a happy birthday and I immediately thought of you. Your voice, I still remember it. She sounded just like you. We came here on your birthday, last year. She’s my girlfriend now. Well, if she says yes later. I plan to ask her over dinner. She reminds me so much of how you could be if you were still here. She’s rather tiny but she isn’t afraid of me. Just like you. She encourages me the way that you did before.”. He let out a laugh and a wide grin plastered on his face. “And she’s better than me at anything. Again, like you. I don’t want to lose her, Hayi. Help me be a better guy for her?”

“Hello?”, a man says onto the receiver of his phone while his right hand flips on pages of a manuscript. “It’s Kwon Jiyong. I need to talk to the editor, please?” He pauses to listen with an annoyed look in his face. “All right, I’ll call again later. Thank you.”

He jumped when the door to his study opens and his sister smiles at him. “Good morning, Jiyong!”

“Chaerin.”, Jiyong sighs then sits down.

“Hey, I brought you breakfast! Be nice!”, his sister pouts. “And didn’t I tell you to call me CL?”

“Fine, CL, whatever. Don’t you have a restaurant to open?”

“Yeah, I do.”, CL answers smugly and props herself on top of Jiyong’s desk after putting a breakfast tray on it. Another knock came and Jiyong looks up to see his friend, Seunghyun.

“Don’t people work at this time?”, Jiyong asked and Seunghyun laughed.

“Jiyong, its nice to see you too.”, Seunghyun answers with a smile before drinking his americano. “I was on my way to work when I decided to drop by and met CL by the elevator. We haven’t seen each other for long. You’ve been away writing your next best seller. If I hadn’t bumped into Hanbin one time, I wouldn’t know you were back!”

“Sorry, Seunghyun. I’m just really on edge these days. I’m not even sure yet that the editors liked it.”

“Stop worrying!”, CL chastised. “Its your son’s birthday today. Give yourself a day’s rest from all your problems! Anyway, I already reserved our table for tonight and I have the menu prepared! Bom is excited and she wanted to help out. She even wanted to get balloons for Hanbin.”

“Hanbin is 18. No balloons or the boy might not be able to hold up his head in class.”

“I told her that.”, CL grinned at him. “But, as you know our sister is hard to persuade so I booked the club at the top floor and made it private for Hanbin and his friends later. That’s where we’ll put the balloons. And don’t worry, I said black and white to give it a more sophisticated aura than a kiddie party.”

“Well, you know these things better than I do. Thanks CL.”, Jiyong smiled at his sister who hugged him before leaving.

“So, how have you been?”, Seunghyun asked once seated across Jiyong. “Did you find the inspiration?”

“You knew where to find me, why didn’t you just come if you wanted to see me?”

“So you were at the cottage.” Jiyong nodded. “And it helped!”

“Yeah, it did. But I’ll never really know until I get the final manuscript from the editors today.”

“So that’s what’s keeping you on edge.”

“Pretty much.”

“Why don’t you just be like Hanbin?”, Seunghyun smirked. “Its not so bad to date, you know.”

“I can hardly keep myself together, let alone a relationship.”, Jiyong sighed and eased on the back rest of his seat. “An author is not the best person to date. He’s too caught up with his fantasies, its hard to meet expectations.”

“No offense but, I think most authors are pretty much in touch with their reality better than you are.” Seunghyun says. “You’ve been living in seclusion for too long, you need someone to talk to. What happened back there? How did you find the inspiration to write? What are you even writing about?”

Jiyong stayed still for a moment and Seunghyun let him be. The author leaned against the backrest of his seat and watched the sparrow on the window sill. Seunghyun noticed that Jiyong looked a bit perplexed but he waited for his friend to voice out his thoughts.

“You want to know the truth, Seunghyun?”, Jiyong says.

“Of course, I do.”

“I gave the manuscript to the editors without looking at it. Today, they said they will release the final edited copy to me before they publish. I’m a bit scared about what I wrote.”

“How come?”

“Because right now, I don’t remember any of it. I honestly don’t know what I wrote about.”

“Jiyong, are you serious right now?”

“That’s why I was calling my editor so early.” Jiyong stood up and got his phone. “I wanted to confirm if they really got it. I only have a note on my phone that says I am to expect the final edited manuscript today.”

A loud knock resounds from the mahogany doors of Jiyong’s study and in came three more men, lead by his best friend, Taeyang. “Saw these two looking for you and they couldn’t guess your code.”, he says while Seungri rushed forward with a brown envelope on hand.

“I was trying to contact you but I don’t know it says your phone cannot be reached!”, Seungri complained. The 3rd guy with them stood beside Seunghun, with a frown. 

“As your manager, I at least have to know where you are if you’re not going to show up at the studio on time.”, Deasung says to the actor who looked like a boy getting caught cutting classes. 

“I just found out that Jiyong is back so I had to see him!”, Seunghyun defended himself.

“You did not just sound like a whining girlfriend.”, Daesung raised a brow at him. “You were supposed to be at a magazine shoot today, but you’re just about an hour late.”

“Speaking of girlfriends, my girlfriend told me that she left something in your kitchen while she was preparing your breakfast. I better go find it and bring it to her asap.”, Taeyang tells Jiyong who nods and gestures for him to go. “I’ll see you guys later at dinner then!”

“What dinner?”, Seungri asks.

“Its my son’s birthday. You’re invited and you too, Daesung! If you’re gonna be with Seunghyun the whole day, might as well make sure he comes.”

“Then it’ll also be the best time celebrate your new bestseller!”, Seungri announced, applauding Jiyong who was still scanning through the manuscript. “They approve. They loved it! They even included the illustrations you made. Its gonna be sent to the printers after you have chosen the art cover. The editor says that you can schedule a meeting anytime but the sooner the better.”

A smile appears on Jiyong’s face and the other occupants of the room sneaked a peak on the manuscript he was holding. 

“So you still don’t remember it?”, Seunghyun asks and Jiyong grins.

“I do, now.”

“I really don’t know where you get your ideas, Jiyong, but keep it up! You almost made me belive angels are real.”, Seungri praised. “Now, I was in a hurry before coming so I couldn’t get champagne. Do you have anything else except water?”

“I have Bourbon on the kitchen counter. Bring it here.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter