The training continues for the next few days before they all get a day off. Kyungsoo, to his horror, still doesn’t feel sad towards all the deaths. But he could see how the training has affected the sweet angel. He prays after every life lost. He gets especially sad when it’s a young soul.

Baekhyun has probably noticed too because he bites down his sarcastic remarks and taunts during the training.

Kyungsoo, unsure of how to lift the angel’s spirits, decides to cook again. He realized that the angel has a sweet tooth. But he couldn’t cook something too sweet for the reaper doesn’t really like sweets. 
So, he decides to make sweet potato noodles. He needs ingredients but is unsure of how to get them. Last time he made dinner, Jongdae has forced Baekhyun to get the ingredients and fill up the kitchen for him. But there are no ingredients now and Kyungsoo must ask Baekhyun, as much as he doesn’t want to.

He doesn’t want to ask Jongdae. He hopes he could surprise the angel. He supposes he has a soft spot for the angel because the latter was genuinely nice and cheerful. He somehow feels protective over that personality. Like he wants to protect the innocent angel from all the bad things in the world.

He could laugh at the irony. Him protecting his guardian angel.

He waits for Jongdae’s weekly update meetings with Junmyeon to go to Baekhyun. He slowly knocks at Baekhyun’s bedroom until he hears a loud, annoyed, “WHAT?”

Kyungsoo sighs inwardly, already regretting it. “Baekhyun, may I come in please?”

A grunt followed by a very reluctant ‘yes’ is what he hears in response. Slowly, he opens the door and steps inside.

The scene before him stills Kyungsoo for a few seconds. The walls are were all black. The curtains and the roof too. But hanging on the roof was the brightest, whitest chandelier he has ever seen. The room follows a constant theme of black and white, the latter being the minority.

It’s the most elegant room Kyungsoo has seen. It made him feel melancholy yet awed. Funny, it was exactly Kyungsoo’s style. He didn’t ever think the reaper and him would have something in common.

Before he could observe anything else, Baekhyun starts talking, “Are you going to say something or are you going to continue standing there with your mouth open?”

Scowling, Kyungsoo focused his eyes on the subject of his misfortune. Baekhyun sits on the stylish black armchair, legs crossed lazily on the matching ottoman.

“I wanted to know how I can get groceries. I am planning to cook tonight,” Kyungsoo tells him.

Baekhyun chuckles mockingly. “You want to cook again? And what makes you think I’d help you?”

“I want to cook for Jongdae. He seems very sad, with all the deaths he had to watch this week,” Kyungsoo answers honestly, not patient enough to entertain the reapers taunts.

Just as he suspected, Baekhyun’s sarcastic smile drops and he thinks for a few seconds before nodding. “You just take your black card with you. The one I gave you when we started training. It works just like a normal debit card. You get the salary for the work you do as a reaper into the card. You wave your card as you leave with the groceries and it pays from your card.”

“Of course, humans can’t see all this. Everything you touch will be yours in spirit form,” he finishes.

Kyungsoo thanks him and leaves. That’s right. Baekhyun gave him a card which looked very similar to human cards, only it was shining black.

Happy that the reaper didn’t give him much trouble, he sets to the nearest grocery store, smiling at how Baekhyun seemed to have a soft spot for the angel too.

That’s the second thing they have in common.

Kyungsoo finds it pretty comforting to do the grocery shopping. No one can see him, and it just feels liberating for once.

It’s also interesting to now view everything as a spirit. Once he pays for the food he takes, physical forms of the perishable items would suddenly start to go bad. The packaged stuff would go through little mishaps like being torn, etc. It was probably to maintain equal exchange even if he is not human.

Everything which seemed circumstantial or random now paints a different picture. It’s like seeing two sides of the coin. He had only ever known one side.

Once he got all the stuff needed, he returns home and heads into the kitchen. Cooking is one of the two things he genuinely enjoys. The first was singing. But he was never told he could chase that dream as a child. And at some point, he’d stopped believing in it.

Of course, he was never told he wasn’t good at it. But the fact remains that no one around him thought he could turn it into his passion and career.

They would laugh, amused by his young words. They would nod, agreeing with him. But even as a child, he knew. He knew those were just empty assurances. The adults, they didn’t believe him. They probably didn’t even realize how much he liked to sing. They were proud of him when he won in singing competitions. They were always happy for him. But he also knew they only thought of them as extracurricular talents. The praises he got for his test scores were much higher than his singing talents.

And for the younger, more impressionable version of himself, these empty words hurt more than anything. He just wasn’t meant to be an artist. And so, when he found his second passion in college, he didn’t tell anyone.

He wanted to keep his new passion to himself, safe from the world.

“You’re really good at it,” the familiar voice of the reaper breaks his thoughts. Kyungsoo turns around to see Baekhyun slowly making way to the counter.

“Thank you,” he replies with a pleased smile. “I like it.”

“You don’t seem like an art kinda guy… but I suppose you can’t judge based on looks,” Baekhyun says as he watches Kyungsoo cook.

Surprised at the comment, Kyungsoo looks back again. “Arts? You mean cooking?”

Baekhyun nods. “Isn’t it? You create something from limited basic ingredients and everyone’s final product differs even if they use the same ingredients.”

Kyungsoo stills, speechless as he blinks at the reaper. “That’s – that’s – “

“Hey! The food!” Baekhyun cries, gesturing to the stove.

The soup was boiling too much and spilled some out of the pot. Kyungsoo hurries to fix it. Once he’s done, he faces Baekhyun and manages to mutter out a ‘thank you’.

Baekhyun frowns at the boy’s tone. It seemed too sincere for just a compliment.

“What’s going on?” a third voice comes from the front door. Jongdae approaches them and beams once he realizes there’s going to be a dinner.

Kyungsoo smiles warmly at the angel. “You’re here. I’m about done. Would you both mind setting the table please?”

Baekhyun scowls and reluctantly follows Jongdae’s lead, muttering about how he did not sign up to do housework.

Jongdae beams and brightens as soon as he sees all his favorite food on the table and the three sit together to eat dinner in peace for once.

Maybe Baekhyun wanted to keep the dinner peaceful too. Or maybe he was genuinely getting along with Kyungsoo finally. No matter the reason, it was the first time they all got along without any arguments for that long. And Kyungsoo is glad for it.