Angels may look young, but we've been here for quite some time. Especially the ones with wings, they've been here the longest and have everyone's respect dramatically thrown at them. But I've just learned that it's normal and you get used to it over time.

  Being an angel can be tiring. I mean, wouldn't you get bored of protecting the same reincarnation for centuries? I've been here ever since his actual, real life first breath. And he's technically been there for mine. As soon as he was born, the first time, I was sprouted from the hands of God and was sent off to protect him forever. I had no wings, I had no Halo, and definitely had no experience. How you lived so long the first time, I have no clue.

  Everytime you died, you came back into this world with the same face and a different name. To be honest, I lost count of how many times the boy's blood stopped flowing and the beats of his heart came to a slow end after three. Other angels, old and new, considered me reckless for it, but sometimes I enjoyed watching you grow up over and over again. Your forty-third first breath happened nineteen years ago yesterday, I bet you didn't know that. Technically we're the same age, but your youth gets renewed; did you know that the longest you've ever lived was 101? I loved watching you figure what to do with your life as you got older, it definitely entertained me.

  "Donghyuck?" My thoughts are interrupted by another angel, Wong Yukhei. He's one that hasn't been around for long, maybe sixty-two years? I remember when I was that age, it was your very first life; you lived it so well. Thirteen years later you would've left that life to be born again, however. Did I ever tell you how good of a father he had been? An excellent grandfather as well.

  "Yes?" I almost forgot about the much younger angel waiting for my response.

  "You've been called down to the Temple." My eyebrow lifts itself as I turn around to face the angel, my wings twitching from the cool breeze.

  "Oh? May I ask for what?" Yukhei rests his weight on his right leg and shifts his gaze down to his feet with a look in his eyes familiar to sadness, perhaps guilt.

  "God wants to assign you a new human."

  I've never stood up faster in my entire life. No proposal has ever been this shocking to me, never had I been wanting one quite like this though. 

  "What do you mean? Yukhei, tell me what–"

  "All will be explained in the Temple, please just try to remain calm. I'll guide you."

  Remain calm? Calm? How could I possibly try to even think about being at a standstill in a moment like this; being assigned a new human when I've been taking care if the same one for nearly three thousand years? It's just a big bag of hogwash, that's what it is. 

  "Why did they send you? You haven't been around long, if the Temple needed me they'd have sent Kun or–"

  Yukhei sets his hand under my halo on top of my head, doing the only explaining he should have to. I begin to walk with him.

  | | | | | |

  I was left alone at the huge golden gate, it was something about how only the requested may enter. Upon hearing that it made my legs shake, my eyes water and the wings hanging on my back shutter in fear. Should I really do this? Should I really waltz up in there and reject my Maker? Of course I shouldn't. I need to do this it's not a question, it's a demand.

  My bare feet move slowly getting slower and slower until I stop again, I don't want to do this. Shut up, Donghyuck, you need to. This is your mess and your fault, fix it before you have no toher option than to fall. 

  Bare feet begin moving again, faster but still careful to not trip over my dark blue robe. The tears that were once being held strongly onto are now streaming down my face leisurely, they're in no rush for anything. I barely notice they're there at first until I look up to see a blinding light. 

  "Thou art crying, young child. Bid me the reason behind thy drops of sorrow." The blinding light my reason for sorrow. God is my reason for the tears that keep falling.

  "I don't want a new human, Father!" I exclaim, a small breath of air being inhaled before I speak out again, "I don't need a new one, Markus Lee is perfect, Father!"

  "Mine own son," the light speaks again as I fall to my hands and knees, "the human isn't mine own w'rry. Tis thy loveth f'r the human."

  By now the tears have stopped due to pure frustration, this is unfair. This whole thing is totally and purely unfair! Has he no shame for not letting an innocent heart break?

  "Is it," my words shake and barely come out of my mouth, but they find their way, "is it because we're boys? If Mark were to be female would it be okay? Would it be okay for a lonely boy like myself to fall in love with a girl and not a handsome boy like Mark Lee?"

  There's a small moment of silence and for a second I think I might've said something wrong, or was that really the reason why I will be shunned from Heaven? I want to say more but no words can escape anymore.

  He speaks again. He finally speaks after making me wait for such a short while, "Loveth f'r the same gender is not a lacking valor thing not even a crime."

  "Then why?"

  "Angels art f'rbidden to loveth humans, mine own son. Thee has't known since thy creation." 

  My heart feels like it's being clenched in a steel fist, being punched and kicked and stabbed at the same time. It's an unpleasant feeling and one i never planned on having. It didn't even hurt this bad the first time Mark had passed; was it because I knew he would come back again? Because I knew Mark would return and my heart would stay fixed? Yeah, that must be it, it must be the reason.
I know that this is the end for me, for Donghyuck Lee. It's time to be sent to Earth and leave Jeno and leave Kun and even Sicheng, it's time for me to be labeled a fallen angel and be shamed.

  "I bid thee this goodbye, mine own creation. Beest not afraid to seek mine own help, may I seeth thee in new light." 

  And that's where it ended. That's where I ended.

  | | | | | |

  I can feel the air in my lungs get knocked away as I feel the air outside of them try to get pushed in. My eyes are closed but I can still see everything, I can see my body bruised and broken on the hard ground, my wings withering away but still leaving blood and horrendous scars. The only thing I don't see is me. Why can't I see me? I'm scared and I'm cold but I'm not even on the ground yet. I'm still falling, why am I still falling?

  Help. Help is the only word on my mind and the only thing I want. Help. Help is the only word on my mind and the only thing I can't have. Can Mark help me? What about Jeno, or Kun, what if I want Sicheng's help? Would he be able to make the pain stop for just one minute? Enough questions, I'm done with questions, I don't want anymore questions! I want answers!

  Why am I still falling? I got an answer when my body hit the ground.