Chanyeol had a nasty habit of staying alive.

It wasn't fair. He didn't consider himself part of humanity's plethora that deserved life. He ought to kick the bucket already, but the issue was that whenever he reeled back to take a swing at death someone inexplicably moved the bucket out of his foot's way.

He'd tried getting hit by cars, and crashing one. Jumping off a bridge. Intoxicating his lungs. Smoking. Drinking. Wasting the albino parlor of his forearm with scalding silver. Several times. His crimson and silver were no match for depression.

He was tall, built lanky but athletic, and had an elegant, Asian facial mien. Sweat, however, caked his skin. His hair was a wiry nest and his clothes were terribly mishap.

Chanyeol wanted to die.

"Do you believe in soul mates?"

His eyes glazed the stranger beside him, the one who'd spoken, a smoldering cigarette brushed between the newcomer's pastel lips. The boy was his age- somewhere in his twenties- but half-a-head shorter and adorned in a heavy leather jacket and skinny jeans. His head was crowned with an obsidian mop of hair, eyes small and bright. 

Chanyeol trembled with grief while observing the skyline- the two stood at the brim of a tall building somewhere in Seoul, Korea. Wind slapped Chanyeol's broad back as if it were itching to push him off. "Are you jumping too?" He inquired, moderately disinterested.

The boy pshawed and replied, "Been there done that. Death is so boring after the first time, you know? I'm Baekhyun, by the way, " a whisper of gray watercolors smoked up with his breath. "Sixth star of the Taurus constellation. I'm your guardian angel."

Chanyeol snuffled. "Yeah, and I'm Buddha. How's God?"

The boy wrinkled his nose. "I don't serve God. I'm a star, an angel birthed out of my soulmate's suffering. I don't know any 'God'."

Chanyeol squeezed his eyes shut; he didn't even deserve to die in silence. "So angels wear leather and eyeliner now?"

"And stereotypes still proceed my existence?"

"Forgive me, I'm not religious."

"Neither am I."

Chanyeol wondered if his last moments were to be spent with some gay loony. He tilted his head away from Baekhyun, a tinge of disdain evident in the tenor folds of his voice as he spoke, "Well, jump if you want. Live if you don't. You can have my oxygen when I'm gone."

Baekhyun sighed. "It's so hard. I've been bending over backwards keeping you alive for months. You could show some respect."

Chanyeol sniffled again and the urban air scraped his lungs. "Respect?"

"I'm your Guardian angel." Baekhyun sidled up to the taller, discarding his toxic paper roll to the side. "I know I don't have wings and run around in a white dress...sorry, I left my halo at home, too."

Pitiful. It was all so pitiful that Chanyeol began laughing. He laughed and laughed until his stomach ached and legs quaked. Tears burned the corners of his almond eyes, tears of waning moons. Sobs of laughter became soughs of crying, and he quickly covered his face. Only Baekhyun's warmth beside him kept him on the rooftop.

He ached. Hiroshima and Nagasaki relived in Chanyeol's chest. Atom bombs of regret churned and bit his intestines. He was a nuclear wasteland that he, himself, couldn't bear to live in anymore. "Why can't I just die already?"

Baekhyun silently and tenderly kissed the salty dewdrops on his cheeks. "Because I don't want you to."

As his skin came in sweet contact with Chanyeol's skin there was an occurrence of sugary zings throughout his body; so pleasant, so stable, so pure. So this is what the kiss of an angel feels like. 

Chanyeol's form quivered, an earthquake he created with his own faults tore at his soul; and they truly were his own faults. They were his own wrongdoings. He did this to himself. His knees buckled and bitterness coated his tongue. Baekhyun's arms cocooned him, the two just an inch from a cascade of light and death.

"It was an accident!" He abruptly weeped. "I didn't mean to! I killed a man, Baekhyun! I killed someone!" His voice broke with every word; he grasped the smaller's arms. "Why won't anyone do anything about it? I'm not even in trouble- I don't deserve to live! I killed someone!"

Baekhyun his greasy hair. "Chanyeol- "

"My life is distraught! I didn't even know his name!" The tall one fell limply to his knees and pulled Baekhyun with him, head buried in the latter's lavender-scented chest.

"Chanyeol- "

"Why can't I just die?" His swollen eyes pinned Baekhyun's lively ones, tone flowering into a scream. "If you're really my guardian angel then let me die!"

"Chanyeol!" A sheen of benevolence glistened over Baekhyun's orbs; a sense of adjusted grief fell over him. "Chanyeol...it was me. I'm the one that died."

Confusion, frustration, happiness, empathy, and agony all washed over the kneeling man. Baekhyun kissed away another tear before proceeding.

"I said, earlier, that I'm a star borne of my soulmate's suffering. Chanyeol, when you killed me I became your guardian angel."

"Soul...mate..."

Chanyeol wasn't good with these sorts of things. What exactly was a soulmate?"

"Soulmate." Baekhyun repeated, the other's cheek. "You and me, buddy."

"But...you're a guy," was all Chanyeol could say. Baekhyun grinned.

"And gender matters?"

No message could've been conveyed with such clarity and love. Chanyeol's sight wandered to the dancing cityscape below. "You're my soulmate?" He gripped Baekhyun tighter, and suddenly felt sick. "Oh my god, I killed my soulmate."

The Angel laughed. "Don't feel that way. Since we can't ever be together during the same lifetime, I'll protect you between my past and future one. I don't mind it."

"You're an angel of stars," whispered Chanyeol, "I don't deserve you. I killed you."

"You've nothing to be guilty of. Death is a step into another lifetime."

"If I jump we'll be together in the same lifetime."

"But you wouldn't have grown." Baekhyun's lips met Chanyeol's forehead, the grace of a celestial being. The kiss sent a cold, happy shiver down the taller's spine in spite of himself. "Grow and become wise."

Somewhat dazed, Chanyeol stood, and left the boy beside him on the cement. Windy fingers combed through his scalp and directed the path downwards.

"Baekhyun, do Angels fly?"

"Chanyeol?"

"I want to fly." He turned to face his guardian, tears unforgiving. "Will you help me?"

Understanding washed over Baekhyun in a tide. He slowly stood, making his way over to Chanyeol's side at the edge of the building once again. 

Angels weren't supposed to cry. Not of sadness, at least. That's what he had been told when he first was transferred to the stars. 

Angels weren't supposed to cry.

So why was there a tear on his cheek? 

Baekhyun tenderly reached out and slowly- very slowly, as to preserve this moment- he brought their two faces close together.

He had to both initiate and guide the kiss, because Chanyeol was far too scared to do so himself. The smaller massaged their mouths together and sealed the collective oneness of their souls in that single, lastly kiss. It was a beautiful kiss, one of songbirds and sorrows and wisdoms and naïvety. Although having dated plenty of junkies during his time alive, and despite the fact that Chanyeol was an emotional mess, it was still the most precious moment either one of them had ever had, let alone shared. The kiss was like a breeze brushing against your arms and tips of your ears, it was the tingle of tears in your eyes, the shiver that runs you down when you listen to a song that's just too good. It was the warmth of another human being touching your cheek, the zest of sweet lime on your tastebuds, the le of melted chocolate over your tongue. It was the twinge in your heart when you hear a mother crying and the the flutter of your chest at the sound of laughter. It was the intense rush of thrill and adrenaline when you slam down a roller coaster yet it was simultaneously the silken susurrus of soft, sleepy breathing in the dark.

It was a beautiful kiss.

Baekhyun hesitantly pulled away, appalled by his one, single tear, and tilted his head. "I love you, Chanyeol."

Chanyeol almost choked; he was so overwhelmed.

Baekhyun, he thought, Baekhyun, Baekhyun, Baekhyun...I love you too.

He couldn't say it out loud. His mouth wouldn't allow him.

But something in him knew the shorter had heard, for a twinge of a smile quirked the corners of Baekhyun's lips.

Instead Chanyeol wheezed something out like, "Don't forget to save me."

So Chanyeol jumped,

but he didn't fall.

He flew.