What is work? Because honestly most jobs are bull. The work that creates real value - childcare, research, building, teaching, art - is barely paid at all, while the banksters and lawyers rake it in. It's no wonder the world is in a negative spin, it's the polluters and the economic-leeches that get fat in this rigged game of some eighty years, the one we call economics.

Chaeyoung thought to herself, completely overworked after a long day at the some job she's had since high school.

I say take away the money and let us play, because I tell you that once the bull is gone art is play, science is play, maths is play and engineering is play. Once the stress is gone, once the power play and attitude problems of the entitled elite is gone - almost anything can be play. Your fancy cars and vacations don't give me the time I need to care for myself, or be there for a friend; they're the gold handcuffs I can do without.

We should make a world that rewards things that make living healthier, happier and more worthwhile. Polluting earth, creating stress, strutting puffed up egos while others go hungry isn't life, it's barely human. Maybe universal basic income is a start, but it ain't the end, the end is true liberty without the bribe currency brings. I'm not a donkey needing a carrot; I'm an awful lot more than that.

After a frenetic night at Dominoes, Chaeyoung sank into her armchair. It was a little after midnight and even the birds were quiet. There wasn't a car on the lane within a three mile radius and the dog as asleep on her bed.

She drank in the silence through every pore, soothed by it's meditative quality. Each time a worrying thought emerged she mentally jotted it down on a notepad, wrapped it around a stone and threw it away into the abyss.

When her anxieties had finally leached into the void, she moved her aching limbs up the stairs to bed. Then she lay there wrapped in her duvet, cocooned by the thick protective buffer of the absolute quiet. She wanted slumber to take her away already and shortly after closing her eyes, it overtook her.

When Chaeyoung opened her eyes she was on a river bank. Cool water flowed by, eddying around the twigs of a fallen tree branch. In the distance, there was a willow tree, exactly the same as the one she used to sit by with her mother and grandmother as a little girl. 

Across the way sat a kingfisher, its blue plumage resplendent it what must be the light of summer, though early in the morning. She casted her eyes up to find the sun but it wasn't there. Odd.

Then she recalled going back to her apartment, feeling dead tired and falling asleep. So perhaps this was a dream. A pretty nice one at that.

Chaeyoung dipped her hand into the water and brought it out, watching the drips form their ever increasing circles on impact. So vivid.

She held her wetted fingers to the air, there was a breeze, just softly. There was much to see about this ethereal environment. A radiant energy seemed to surround this place, as if acting like a shield to keep you safe and guarded.

Chaeyoung found herself sitting under a mango tree, a warm breeze blowing her long bangs just enough that she could see the ocean beyond. Every facet was as good as a mirror and a different hue of blue.

How odd she thought, that she'd never noticed how many shades of blue there were. It occurred to her that she was a good deal older than she felt, her limbs hadn't been without pain these past ten years yet she sat slumped like a fifty year old elder, her legs jutted up like coat-hanger wires.

She stared off into the distance, intrigued by a sudden mist creeping on the shoreline. This drew Chaeyoung's attention for awhile, watching the fog get thicker and thicker.

Her eyes caught a dragonfly briefly before she heard light footsteps coming her way, hollering from up the sandy path.

 After a time she became aware of a glowing up ahead too low and too white to be the sunrise and she squirted her eyes to meet it. She stopped.

Through the gathering mist came the form of a woman, nearing, not human, but human form. It was not reflecting the morning light, but emitting it, actually glowing from within. Her skin was almost metallic, bronze perhaps and she was tall, taller even than Chaeyoung.

Her eyes were like fire, reds, oranges and yellows that flickered and sparked. Despite the sand on the walkway the figure's white robes were quite spotless, even her shoes.

A girl approached her from the beach, moving over the sand in great strides. Black haired, beautiful, looking like M—the name was right on the tip of her tongue but she couldn't even think of it. She smiled at Chaeyoung and her heart stopped for the second time that day.

No-one smiled like that but Mina.

So this was heaven. Somewhere here were other angels, even Jeongyeon's dear Bbosong. But all that could wait. Mina was close enough to touch.

"Hey watcha doin' down there lazy bones, where's my kiss?"

Chaeyoung couldn't believe the sight in front of her. Yet, she jumped to her feet, hardly daring to touch in case her hand went right through the girl.

Heaven, Mina, mangos...

"Heaven," Chaeyoung breathed,"this must be heaven."

Chaeyoung wrapped an arm around Mina's shoulders and pulled her close, gently rubbing her arm. Despite the heaviness in her stomach, it fluttered at the feeling of her little body pressed against her. She sunk into the warmth of her side, appreciative of the simple gesture. Mina's touch made the atmosphere warmer somehow, seeming a little less bleak. Like the fog had suddenly cleared.

"Hello, my Chaeyoungie," Mina whispered into Chaeyoung's ear. Even her whispers sounded like a sweet melody. 

In that moment the arms squeezed a fraction tighter and Chaeyoung breathed more slowly, her body melting into Mina's as every muscle lost its tension to the spring air. It wasn't real, but it felt like it.

"M-Mina...you're here. You're actually here." 

Mina continued to wrap Chaeyoung in a warm swaddle of her chest and arms. She sadly smiled at the sound of the shorter one's distressed tone.

Chaeyoung didn't want to leave. It felt as if when she was in get arms all her pain went away - mental and physical, mostly the depressing pain. If she could only stay in her arms forever, safe from the world's harmful people. One could only hope.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to reach out to you, love. You know, this whole angel stuff isn't easy as they made it out in the books." Mina tried to release an easy chuckle, to soothe the tense baby cub in her arms.

"I missed you so much. I've been feeling really lost without you."

Chaeyoung buried her head into Mina's nape and let the tears flow. Mina did expect this. The tears. Seeing Chaeyoung broken to bits by her death. But Mina did not cry with her lover, it was all about Chaeyoung and her pain that she had to endure. She didn't have much time until the next meet.

They both sat down under the mango tree. A new set of fresh breeze flowed right through them. Even at this