"Nice to meet you, Aerri." Ai smiled as she shook Aerri's hand. Ai looked thin and pale, but it was still obvious that she was a beautiful girl. Now Aerri understood why Seunghyun once said that most people wouldn't guess that Ai was a bookworm on a first glance. Usually people would automatically assume that a girl as good looking as Ai would be the social butterfly type than the bookworm type. But then again, people can't just rely on the first impression, can they? One thing for sure: if Ai was really as awesome as what Aerri had heard, then life is really unfair in distributing people's positive traits.

"Nice to meet you too, Ai." Aerri smiled back at the girl.

"It's nice to see a friend of my brother. He never brought any of his friends here, you know. I'm starting to think that he's a caveman that has no friend." she laughed.

Aerri just smiled along with her, glancing at Seunghyun in confusion as she didn't understand what Ai was saying. Why would she thought that Seunghyun was her brother? But Seunghyun just nod at her, silently asking her to play along. So she did.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Ai asked Aerri.

"Um.." Aerri glanced back at Seunghyun, not sure of what to say. Should she stay? Her need to tell Seunghyun or anybody about her encounter with Jiyong disappeared a few minutes before. And Aerri wasn't sure if she should stay there.

"Yes, she is. I got some food here." Seunghyun said as he put the bag he got on the table.

"Oh, great! I'm starving. It's like I haven't eaten in days!" she said in excitement as she sat on the dining table. Aerri had a major suspiscion that Ai really did haven't eaten in days.

So they enjoyed their dinner together, like a weird invisible family amongst the living. If any of the living burst through the door at the moment, he or she would probably get freaked out to see dining utensils floating in air, clinking and clattering as they were being used on invisible food by invisible Cupid and Reapers. The situation was really weird, especially since Ai was talking cheerfully to Seunghyun and Aerri, while Aerri didn't know what to say to the banished Reaper.

After they finished dinner, Ai looked so tired that Seunghyun told her to get some rest at his room. But she insisted to wash the dishes, not allowing Aerri to help at all. So Seunghyun helped her clean the dishes while making small jokes to lift her spirit up. Aerri watched them from the couch at the living room, marveling at the heartwarming scene. They looked so good together, even though Ai looked a bit sick.

It only took a little while for them to finish cleaning the dishes. After they were done, Ai bid goodbye to Aerri, saying that she would just going to take a short nap in the room. Then she walked slowly towards the room, looking as if she couldn't even move her legs. Aerri couldn't imagine how much fatigue the girl must have felt, considering she had been banished for 2 years.

After Ai went inside the room, Seunghyun took a seat beside Aerri and said, "So I guess you have a lot of questions in mind. Ask away."

Seunghyun was right. Aerri did have a lot of questions in her mind. How long have he been keeping Ai here? How come he hasn't got caught for breaking the rule? Why was Ai looking so sickly? And of course, Aerri was curious to know why Seunghyun took that big risk of being punished or even banished just to help Ai. But probably that last question was the one that Aerri feared the most, simply because she could imagine what kind of answer she would get. People don't simply risk themselves for someone else if they didn't care for or love that person. The revelation was just another sign that showed how important Ai was for Seunghyun.

Aerri couldn't grasp any of the questions that swirled inside her head. So she just spew out the first thing that managed to escaped from her lips.

"It's weird how things work for us souls, huh? If we were not in our human form, we could only eat food from the dorm, but we can still use and hold and move regular objects. Why is that?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, that means lost souls and banished Cupids and Reapers could touch and move regular food, but they just can't eat it. That is just so cruel. It's like, they can see and touch regular food, but they can't eat them." Aerri kept on rambling.

"Aerri.."

"These punishments are just too much, don't you think? What could be more cruel than the punishment of a never ending hunger? I mean, I know we're not supposed to break the rules. But why would those powerful beings above are punishing Cupids and Reapers who had worked so hard for God knows how many years just because of some rules? And what do those bosses above expect anyway? Do they expect a Reaper to just simply pick up the soul of their brother or sister or their loved ones without putting up a fight?" Aerri still couldn't stop the rants out of .

"Aerri..."

"I don't know how you do it, Seunghyun. You pick up dead people every day but you're still so excited to be alive again. If I were a Reaper I'd probably quit on the second..."

"Aerri!" Seunghyun's voice and his hands on her cheeks, forcing her to look at him, finally managed to stop Aerri's rant. She didn't even know why she felt so awful for Ai. She was jealous of the girl, for having Seunghyun to take care of her so lovingly. But she also hated the situation that happened to her. Deep down inside, if Ai's situation happened to her, Aerri knew that she'd probably be doing the same thing.

"Are you ok?" he asked her gently.

"Yes." she whispered.

"Then why are you freaking out?"

"I just.. hate the situation." She wasn't lying. She hated the whole situation. Aerri hated how Ai's familiarity betrayed her and made her found out about her brother, Aerri hated how Ai was tasked to pick up her brother, Aerri hated how Ai was punished just because of trying to save someone she cared so much about, and more. And to top all that, she hated how she managed to feel jealous of a banished Reaper who can't eat and rest. Seriously? How pathetic can she be?

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. But if you have any question, you can ask me, ok?" Seunghyun said again. Aerri wished that he would stop being so gentle with her. It only gives her unnecessary flutters that needed to be stopped before it went haywire.

So she brushed off his hands from her cheeks and looked away from him, afraid of looking into his eyes any longer. "How long have you been keeping her here?" she asked him.

"Since not long after she was banished. It took several days for me to find her."

"And she had been staying here since she was banished?"

"Yes. Her brother used to live here, but he moved away a few months after she was banished. So I took over the rent of the apartment immediately before it got rented to someone else. By that time, Ai was already starting to lose her sanity, so she couldn't help but act as if she was still alive. If someone else moved here and she started moving things and stuff around like she does now, people would think the place is haunted or something."

"But she wasn't here the last time I was here."

"I took a risk of taking you here the day you were punished because I know she wasn't going to be here. There's a pattern of her visits here, for instance every Monday and Thursday on the first week of the month, and so on. I've learned to recognize it so that I'd be here and give her some food whenever she was here. I think she used to visit her brother regularly when she was alive, and she's just unconsciously following that pattern too now."

"So she only get some food and rest whenever she was here? What is she doing when she's not here? Why not just stay here all the time?"

"She had lost her mind, Aerri. She even thought that I was her brother. In her mind, she was still alive. So I don't know what she was doing when she was not here. Most probably she was just getting through the days as if she was still alive, doing chores, going to school or work. She's not even bothered by the fact that no one could see her and no one could interact with her."

"Seungri told me that after being banished for a while, their mind started to distract them from their hunger an