Three more months and Jaejoong would turn twenty, and his apprenticeship in Lightside Inc. would end. The past several months had not been easy for Jaejoong. It was downright hard! He had been shuffled from one department to another. Everyone was trying to suppress his demon nature. He was given stricter rules to follow than the nephilims. And accompanying those rules were punishments. Lightside seemed determined to beat his demon nature out of his body.

In spite of his much better abilities and powers than the other apprentices, the works usually given to him were menial and boring. No one trusted him enough to give him important jobs. If Lightside Inc. really wanted to encourage him to choose them at the end of his four-year apprenticeship from both companies, the methods they were using were so wrong! Nothing in his almost two years of apprenticeship with Lightside made him want to work for them. The only reason he hadn't yet declared his intention to join the Midnight Corp. was Hyuna. His pride would not allow him to join her side after everything she did to him. Hyuna lied to him, and he knew everyone else in Midnight would do the same. At least, here in Lightside, everyone always told him the truth.

It was during times like this that he missed his guardians, Hyesun and Minho. They were always there to help and provide answers to all of his questions. But even as a boy, he never was under any illusion that his guardians really cared for him, he knew they were with him because it was their job. Proof of this was the moment he turned eighteen, both simply disappeared from his life. Neither one even said goodbye. In their place, an angel appeared and brought him to the main office of Lightside Inc. to begin his apprenticeship.

When his apprenticeship with Lightside began, he also had to leave his foster parents and siblings. His connection to them as well as with all the humans he had known and grown up with for the past eighteen years were cut. These also included all the people he had interactions while living in that small island in Korea called Jeju. All their memories of him were erased. He was the only one who remembered his life with them.

Not that he would miss his foster family. All of them had been under a spell. The spell made them believe that he was part of their normal family. The spell also compelled them to take care of him, provide him food, a roof on his head and proper education. But they never really became his parents. The ones who filled those roles were the angel, Hyesun, and the demon, Minho.

His two guardians were always bickering and fighting that when Jaejoong was young, he thought the two were a married couple.

But that kind of life was over. He was now an adult. Once he reached his twenty- second birthday, he would need to decide whether he would side with the angels or with the demons. Both Midnight and Lightside believed that his decision would change the balance of power in the world. But he was still not sure whether he could really make the corporation he chose stronger.

Truth was, he still wasn't sure what he was or what he really wanted in life. He just knew he was different, and two powerful unearthly corporations wanted him and would use him to defeat each other. Sometimes, he would feel alone. But it was not in his nature to feel sorry for himself. Such feelings or sadness he would simply set aside and continue doing what he needed to do in that particular time.

Jaejong looked like a normal nineteen-year-old human male. And unlike the employees from Midnight and Lightside who had two forms, he was stuck to one form all his life. He sometimes envied the sondoms and the nephilims who could appear like humans and then change to the form of an earthly demon or an ethereal angel. But his nature and the powers he possessed made him very unique and the only one of his kind in all three worlds. He was alone and different.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. He grimaced when he saw who was calling.

"Where are you, Jaejoong?" demanded the loud and baritone voice of Sean. Sean was Jaejoong’s immediate superior and at the same time, the head of the Guidance Department of Lightside. "Your desk is overflowing with your unfinished work. Just because you are suspended from field work doesn't mean you have all the time to relax. There are plenty of works waiting for you on your desk. Don't forget that you are still an employee of Lightside and has duties and obligation to do!"

The Guidance Department's main purpose was to guide people who had lost their way. These were humans who were forced by circumstances to commit sins. The employees working for Sean were known for their unwavering belief in the goodness of humanity as well as boundless patience. Jaejoong had neither of these qualities, so he was sent to the Guidance Department in order to learn these important traits. But basing on Sean's tone of voice, it seemed he, like the other superiors Jaejoong had worked for, had also lost his patience. None of Jaejoong's former Lightside superiors liked him because of how he handled the few assignments given to him. Their foremost complaint was that Jaejoong never did anything according to the rules.

Sean also disapproved on how Jaejoong brought back lost souls to the right path and turned them into productive human beings. Jaejoong's handling of Park Jin-young's case resulted to his getting chained in boring desk work. Sean realized that having Jaejoong suspended with much free time on his hands was more dangerous than putting him back to work.

Jaejoong found his present assignment tedious and monotonous. All he did was update the data and information on the computer records of the Guidance Department. He was bored with his desk job!

"I am almost there, Sir Sean," Jaejoong calmly answered his superior. "If you didn't take away my wings, I wouldn't have to commute and walk to the office."

"If you have left your house early, you wouldn't be late at all!" Sean snapped back.

"You are out of touch, sir. In the human world, there is this thing called traffic. No matter how early you leave the house, once you get stuck in traffic, there's no way in hell you'd arrive on time. And since as punishment, you have also barred me from using the corporation's teleportation facilities-"

"Just get here as fast as you can, Jaejoong!" Sean ordered him before cutting off the line.

Jaejoong once thought that his guardian Hyesun's attitude was unique. But it seemed all angels were bossy and pushy! They only used different methods, but in the end, they would push and nag until you do the right thing. They were like a loud conscience that wouldn't leave you in peace. These angels never accepted any excuses or reasons. Once you made a mistake, you would be punished. And they always believed that they are right and any contradictions to that belief were always wrong.

Jaejoong sighed. Three more months. He must survive three more months working in front of a desk. He started running toward the direction of their office. Since he was visible to humans, he had to control his speed. He discovered at age thirteen that he could run faster than any car in full speed. He used this ability to win all the foot races in their school's sports competitions. When he began beating even the older and much bigger students, his guardians put a stop to his athletic career. His dream of becoming the first Olympic Athlete to win the Korea a gold medal went down the drain.

Hyesun, in her angelic wisdom, explained that winning in these competitions constitute cheating and therefore evil. Minho disapproved of his sports career for a totally different reason. Minho simply didn't want him to get a lot of attention since more people becoming aware of his existence would mean more work for the Midnight Corp. because the latter was the one tasked to remove his existence from the memories of the people he had encountered for the past eighteen years.

Both Midnight and Lightside also feared that the presence of his guardians could be jeopardized if he caught the attention of people and media by becoming a star athlete. Though his guardians were invisible from human eyes, sometimes cameras and videos managed to capture an angel or a demon's image. This was a big no-no. Angels and demons preferred to remain an enigma to humans. The mystery they have created and perpetuated about themselves all throughout the centuries added more to their credibility and prestige which in turn made people believe in them more. Humans by nature tended to believe more on things that they couldn't see and explain hence in spite of not really having any tangible proof about the existence of angels and demons, people truly believed in them. Their beliefs relied more on faith or fear. And these beliefs translate to popularity. And both Midnight and Lightside wanted that popularity to increase their believers.

Jaejoong couldn't understand this logic nor could he grasp the reason why Lightside and Midnight continued to fight each other over the souls of humans. There were plenty of souls for both companies! And since humans continued to multiply, both would have as many souls as they wanted. Which added another question? What did the angels and demons do with those human souls? He tried asking, but the only answer he got was that he was too low-level to get the answer for such a question.

Jaejoong dismissed such thoughts and concentrated on getting to the office. He was a block away from the Guidance Department branch office when something caught his eye. He stopped running and studied the glittering firefly. It was weird since fireflies rarely appeared during the day and when they did, their light was barely visible because of the powerful glare of the sun.

There was only one answer to this mystery. This was no o