It’s only been a few weeks, but Xu Minghao was beginning to get really, really, really bored of his job. One would think being promoted was a good thing, but he’s beginning to miss the days when he was just a guardian angel. At least during those moments, he was sure of what he had to do; make sure his human stays away from harm. He did a good job taking care of Kim Mingyu, if he had to boast, especially since the human boy was such a klutz.

The countless humans he has saved from a life of pain was enough to grant him his promotion, something he had been aiming for from the start. All angels dreamed to climb the ranks, after all. As a guardian angel, all you had was your human. Make it a level harder though, it was a whole different playing field, ultimately more exciting. He would have to handle a demon assigned to him, making sure no evil spirits were able to roam on earth.

His demon was named Wen Junhui.

Take a look at it this way—angel and demons weren’t enemies, per se, but they do work for rivalling causes, so they weren’t exactly friends, either. Heaven and Hell considered the earth as an equal playing field. For every angel, there would be one demon. Work, which is the best term for it, was simple for each entity. Demons brought evil spirits and sin to the world. Angels had to get rid of it, constantly.

For Minghao to be good at his job of banishing evil spirits, his demon had to be equally good at summoning them.

Wen Junhui was, inexplicably, bad at his job.

“Are you telling me you failed again?”

“Yup! Heechul’s gonna throw a fit,” Junhui said cheerfully, as if he wasn’t going to be nagged by his head demon once he gets back to the underworld. In the demon’s defense, it wasn’t completely his fault, at least not this time. He was assigned to a Sloth spirit after all, who just didn’t want to budge from his realm no matter how many times Junhui tried to bribe him. Most demons had a hard time with them, it was common knowledge.

The angel stared at the other boy in disbelief. It was the fourth time that week that Junhui couldn’t even summon Sin spirits properly. It’s not like he was given hard tasks, either. If he was successful in making his target extremely lazy, it would eventually lead to the girl’s mother getting angry. Wrath would then have to be involved and a fight would break out, which would spiral into Pride coming from both ends of the fight.

For Minghao, those were just three minor problems that he couldn’t even fix, since it never happened.

In retrospect, he should probably be happy that Junhui kept failing. It did mean less trouble for him, less chances of him failing at his job, and less worries overall. Technically speaking, Minghao could be considered good at his job, since in a way, Junhui just did his job for him. No evil spirits roamed around on his watch. He would have been okay with it, but the boredom just got to him. He had more fun stopping Mingyu from climbing trees and breaking a leg.

“This has to stop happening,” Minghao groaned. “Next time I get informed that you’re summoning something, tell me when you’ve actually succeeded.”

The blonde blinked, “shouldn’t you stop me before I summon?”

“And miss out on actually fighting something for once? I didn’t get promoted for nothing,” the angel said with a scoff. The thing is, they also weren’t supposed to meet up at all. The way Minghao heard it was supposed to go from his colleagues was that the angel shows up after the demon has let the spirit loose. They don’t get notified about these things immediately, so there was always time for the summoning to actually happen, which makes chasing the evil spirit fun, too.

Every time, without fail, Minghao would arrive at the scene to see Junhui still struggling.

This time, he had even already taken his time answering to the mission call. He had given the demon every bit of leeway he could possibly give. He even hung around the area, watching Junhui plead into the realm portal for the Sloth spirit to please just come out already, I have to do at least one job well, please. Eventually, Minghao approached once it was clear that Junhui was going nowhere, just as the portal closed.

“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” Junhui complained, pouting a little, far from how an intimidating demon should look. His blonde hair alone was a stark contrast against his black horns and dark clothing. Minghao knew his own raven hair was an issue, since most angels preferred to keep it a light colour to match all the white they wore, but he liked having his own style. Maybe Junhui was the same. The demon pouted further.

“Minghao, help me out here.”

“Help you?” the angel asked incredulously. “I don’t know how to summon an evil spirit, Junhui.”

The demon frowned, “I’m beginning to think I don’t either.”

“This is ridiculous,” Minghao ended up saying, snatching the purple book that was in Junhui’s hand. He flipped through the pages of the summoning book, flinching a little at the obvious evil that was leaking from it. Most angels would do anything to get a hold of the book, so they could properly burn it and make things harder for the other realm, but Minghao was having none of that. Plus he was beginning to think Junhui would get even sadder at that, which wasn’t an option for him either.

“Do you understand it?” the blonde asked a few moments after Minghao started reading.

“I don’t think I’m supposed to help you even if I did,” the black haired boy said eventually, giving the book back with a sigh. “I should really get going—“

“Wait!” Junhui exclaimed, grabbing onto Minghao’s shirt sleeve when the angel turned to go.

Demons were known to have a certain ability that could tempt anyone into doing anything. It just came naturally to them with the way they talked, the way they looked, even the way they moved. Speech was the main thing, though. Angels weren’t supposed to be affected by it—it was a human thing, to feel tempted, a weak thing even—so there was no reason for Minghao to have stopped when Junhui had asked.

Still, if he had to blame something, it would be that ability.

Really, just that.

“I have to try again,” Junhui said with a pleading voice. “If I can’t get at least one job right within the m