His training has started the next day and Kyungsoo almost wishes it hasn’t. He’s not the sensitive type by any means. He loves watching crime and thrillers. But seeing them through a glass, as he realizes, isn’t the same as seeing through your eyes.

Baekhyun takes him to his first collection appointment late in the evening, Jongdae accompanying them both. The sun is almost out of the sky and there he sees, a young woman in ripped clothes, gnarly bruises covering her face and the exposed body. A giant figure looms over her, in the dark abandoned street.

Kyungsoo’s body reacts before he thinks. But Baekhyun and Jongdae both stop him with a hand on each shoulder. Jongdae shakes his head when Kyungsoo looks at him in confusion.

“You can’t interfere. You’re not a human anymore. I know you get the urge to help, but you can’t even touch them, Kyungsoo. I’m sorry,” Jongdae says sympathetically.

Kyungsoo balls his fists in frustration as he watches the man continue to hit the girl. She begs him to let her go, to save her. But the angry, drunken excuse of a human pays no heed. After some agonizing seconds which seemed like hours, the girl’s body limps and the man stops, leaving without sparing a glance.

Frozen in shock, Kyungsoo watches as a shimmering, dull blue replica of the girl’s body wakes up from the body lying still on the ground. The soul, as he deduces, looks at them scared and confused. She then looks at her still human body and gasps. Shaking, the girl’s soul mutters a series of “no’s “.

Baekhyun walks towards her, his face softening a little. Producing a scroll out of thin air as he did for Kyungsoo himself, he proceeds to read the data.

Su-Ah. Her name was Su-Ah. She was only 17 years old. So young.

Kyungsoo doesn’t know how to define what he’s feeling. A mixture of anger, sadness, guilt, and pity. It’s strange. Leaves a bitter taste him his heart.

Jongdae rubs his shoulder, probably realizing Kyungsoo’s shocked. It helps, if only by a little.

Baekhyun then proceeds to tell the girl some comforting words and then asks if she wants to witness her funeral before she leaves.

“People whose body will be found within a human day are given the choice to witness their funerals,” Jongdae explains to Kyungsoo’s unspoken question.

The girl refuses. Says she can’t bear to look at her family’s reactions. The reaper proceeds to give her a glass of some liquid out of thin air again.

She slowly takes it into her hand, gives one last look at her human body and gulps it down. Not even a second later, the soul starts to glow a bright blue and disperses like a pretty firework.

Baekhyun turns back to the duo and walks towards them. He looks at Kyungsoo’s face.

“I thought you didn’t think death is sad,” he says, a little challengingly.

Kyungsoo comes out of his thoughts and looks straight at Baekhyun. “It’s still not sad. But when someone doesn’t want it and is forced to go through it in the most painful way, it’s worse than just sad.”

Baekhyun starts to say something but the angel interrupts. “Alright, this was a very difficult first experience, so I’d say Kyungsoo has seen enough today. Let’s get home if you don’t have any other soul to collect, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything and simply nods. Jongdae has a solemn look on his face and Kyungsoo hasn’t looked before, but he can tell the angel felt as horrible as he felt while they watched the scene earlier.

“Where was the girl’s guardian angel? I couldn’t see him anywhere,” he asks them instead to stop thinking about it.

Jongdae purses his lips before answering. “We don’t stay with the wards in the last moments of their life.”

“Why?”

“Watching the human we watched over all their life dying is painful even for us. Besides, we don’t stay because reapers and angels being in the same place can cause some disputes during the wards death,” Jongdae explains.

Kyungsoo nods, replaying the new information in his head.

Kyungsoo then turns to Baekhyun. “You didn’t seem to hate humans back there.”

“I hate humans who deserve it. Not every single one I come across,” Baekhyun scowls.

Kyungsoo smiles. As he guessed, Baekhyun isn’t as bad as he pretends to be.

Once they reach their house, Baekhyun goes straight to his room while Jongdae sits across Kyungsoo in the living room.

“How was your first experience witnessing soul collection?” he asks.

Kyungsoo shrugs, trying to sound nonchalant. “It was okay. I learned a lot, despite it being very… hard to watch.”

Jongdae smiles sadly. “It was indeed very heartbreaking. The second hardest thing I had to watch.”

“What’s the first?” Kyungsoo asks before he can help himself.

Jongdae stares at him for a few seconds before replying. “Watching my human jump.”

It felt like someone squeezed his heart. Kyungsoo still doesn’t feel regret for taking his own life. But he does feel guilty for making the angel watch. He didn’t know someone was watching. If he did, would he have still jumped?

He doesn’t know.

But he can’t imagine what it feels like to watch someone you cared for take their own life in front of you and not be able to do anything.

“Don’t feel bad, Kyungsoo. We don’t view death the same way you do. It’s not sad for us,” Jongdae assures, breaking his thoughts.

Somehow, the tiny smile the angel has while saying this didn’t seem very truthful.

The door to Baekhyun’s rooms suddenly barges open. The reaper strides towards them and throws a book at Kyungsoo which he barely manages to catch.

“This has all the things you need to know for when you go soul collecting. Read it well because I don’t have the patience to baby you on duty,” he says sternly. Before going back to his room, he gives the same look to Jongdae.

Laughing after Baekhyun’s door closes, the angel exclaims, “Guess I’ll have to brush up my knowledge too!”