And here she is again, waking up under her blue duvet with aching pain in her head. Only this time, when her eyelids flutter open, she sees a girl with a stunningly beautiful girl sitting next to her bed with perfect skin. Minnie furrows her eyebrows, thinking to herself, that the girl seems awfully familiar. She’s sure that she’s seen her before, perhaps, she might have even known her for a while. 

“Who are you,” she groans as she tries to get up, only to wince yet another sting of pain that seems to be coming from her arm.

“Oh you’re awake,” the pretty girl notes, turning around to face her.

Minnie’s eyes widened as she certainly did not expect to see the young girl in her house. On second thought, she should’ve known it was her from her pitch black hair and delicate skin.

“Shuhua!” she exclaims, “What are you doing here?”

The younger girl gives her an apologetic look as she explains, “Well, I kind of ran into you yesterday… literally.”

“Oh,” Minnie responds as she begins to recollect the events of yesterday, “That was definitely a bad day for me.”

“I’m really sorry,” Shuhua apologizes, scratching the back of her head nervously, “is there anything I can do to make up for yesterday?”

“No, you’re fine,” Minnie elaborates, “It’s just that a lot happened yesterday so I’m sorry if I made you a bit worried. And you didn’t even have to stay here and wait for me to wake up, you could’ve apologized later.”

“Still, it didn’t feel right,” Shuhua insists, pouting, “I couldn’t just leave after crashing into you like that.”

“I appreciate it, really,” Minnie tries to persuade her and tries to hide her struggle to sit up in an attempt to appear energized, “See, I’m okay; we’re good.”

“You don’t seem okay,” Shuhua bluntly blurts out.

“Okay, I’m not,” Minnie admits, wincing at the pain she felt after getting up, “But why are you here, don’t you have work to do at the bath and beauty shop?”

Shuhua visibly shrinks in her chair at the mention of the bath and beauty shop. She seems to look down rather awkwardly and her body tenses up, she fumbles with her feet and fiddles her nimble fingers around. The injured girl wonders if she’s accidentally struck the wrong chord. And it seems that she clearly has when Soyeon walks into the room, with Yuqi holding onto one her arms like a tiny imp clutching onto gold, and starts to explain the situation to her.

“Shuhua recently lost her job at the shop being the klutz she is,” Soyeon explains, in which Shuhua flashes a glare at her and looks like she’s on the edge of picking a fight with her, “So she’s currently in training to become an intern at the mage’s clinic that I am an assistant at. Although, I doubt she’ll make it with how she’s been lately.”

If stares could kill, the clumsy girl definitely would have beheaded Soyeon by now. Her grip on the edge of her chair has visibly tightened and her eyebrows nearly twitched into an arch. The murderous intent is so thick that one would think that they could cut through it with a scissor. Song Yuqi, though a trickster by nature who normally loves to push the buttons of her friends and acquaintances, absolutely hates atmospheres like this. It brings her great discomfort whenever there is any serious form of conflict because what Yuqi likes the most is to have a fun time and this was certainly not a good time.

So the trickster does what she thought was best and decides to pull a little prank. She knows that maybe it’s not the best time, but she doesn’t like it when Soyeon is like this. And so the girl sets tiny flames between the two witches that are on the brink of dueling it out right in their precious little home. 

“Let’s not add gas to the fire!” Yuqi cheerfully quips, receiving glares from both of the mage clinic hires.

But thankfully Minnie bursts out laughing, she always appreciates how Yuqi lightens up the situation (figuratively, not literally; definitely not literally because that has always been a disaster). Not being able to help herself because of how infectious and bright the injured girl’s laughter was, Shuhua and Soyeon burst into giggles as well. Soyeon curses between her laughs and Shuhua, like the strange child she is, giggles maniacally.

“Everyone, I’m just here to apologize and try to make things up,” Shuhua tries to bring to their attention as she struggles to catch her breath again, “Nothing more, nothing less.”

The three roommates eventually catch their composure again and nod, acknowledging the youngest girl’s intent. Soyeon, though still irritated by the girl, also simply grumbles something under her breath, seemingly accepting the situation but adamantly refusing to apologize for earlier. 

Yuqi quickly picks up the slack of her beloved roommate’s stubbornness and makes an offer to their visitor, “Forgive, Soyeon; she’s just feeling slightly grumpy today. And perhaps you can help us around with the stuff we need to do, if you think that would be a proper exchange for Minnie’s troubles.”

Shuhua’s demeanor seems to brighten up a bit and she readily accepts, “Of course, I don’t mind! I’ll be happy to help… if Minnie is okay with that.”

“I think that’s a suitable price to pay,” Minnie agrees, smiling at the plan that Yuqi has set out.

“Well that’s set!” Shuhua merrily declares and hands Minnie a tiny whistle, “Just blow the whistle when you need me, it’ll send a magical message to me, letting me know when you need my help. Oh, and by the way, I left your herbs on the table and made sure with the really pretty and nice lady at the shop that nothing was missing.”

The older girl thanks Shuhua as she bids her and Yuqi farewell, ignoring Soyeon entirely as she silently bits her lips and fumes in the corner. Their beloved visitor then frolics out of the door, as though it was totally normal so the others don’t question it. But she doesn’t forget to tell Minnie to rest more before she completely disappears from their view.

‘What a peculiar child,’ Minnie thinks to herself as she lays on her bed to rest again. 

She hasn’t been feeling her best lately and with this incident suddenly playing out, she certainly thinks her body needs a good rest. After persuading her roommates to leave her room and that she’ll be fine, a common and regular activity in her daily life, she slips into deep slumber once more.

Shuhua, on the other hand, as soon as she’s sure that no one can see her anymore, snaps her fingers and vanishes from the mortal world. Now she is in the realm of angels, standing before the steps up to the throne of the archangel. She waits patiently, peering up at the tall ionic columns that held up the temple of angels. Everything was so perfectly polished and made, it pleased Shuhua to see how everything was so well fit every time she reported back to the realm of angels. However, a glimmer of gold catches Shuhua’s attention, there’s a goblet sitting on the marbled table next to the throne. Although angels are no stranger to gold, as they often wear gold embroidered gowns, she finds it strange that the archangel would leave an empty goblet right there. She likes to keep her space simple and clean, so it seems strange to Shuhua that the woman would misplace her treasured goblet.

“Shuhua,” a voice echoes through the room, “What brings you here today?”

The young angel looks to her side and sees the archangel walking towards her in the distance. With deep respect, see bows her head to the leader as she strides over to take her throne. The older angel simply waves it off, telling her to raise her head and go on with whatever she has to report.

“I’m here today to report on Minnie again,” Shuhua tells her.

Miyeon’s eyes soften at the mention of the name, there’s this sense of fondness and sorrow she has attached to it. 

“Go on,” Miyeon softly commands the younger angel.

Feeling a bit sympathetic, Shuhua gives Miyeon a sullen look before breaking the news, “Her accursed illness seems to have worsened and there’s something really strange that’s happened today Miyeon.”

“And that is?” Miyeon inquires, raising an eyebrow.

Shuhua shuffles her feet and hesitantly continues to report, “Well, she has the scent of the devil on her again and her roommates are strange. I can barely sense the mortality in one of them, the short one named ‘Soyeon’ scares me. She claims that the deities, either one of us or the devils, gifted her the magic of healing at her birth but that happens so rarely.”

“Indeed,” Miyeon agrees, sinking back against her throne as if she’s in deep thought, “it is rare that we gift a mortal such an ability.”

“I’m quite suspicious,” Shuhua explains, “that she is also slowly stealing bits and bits of Minnie’s life away.”

“Are you insinuating that she is a devil?” Miyeon enquires, clasping her hands together.

The younger feels pressure as the archangel sees to be staring at her with piercing eyes. She feels almost as though Miyeon might rip her soul out and throw it away, pulling it out from heaven's gate and throwing it to the depths of hell. She takes bites her lips and she nods ever so slightly; she doesn’t dare pull her eyes away from the woman staring at her.

“Are you sure?” Miyeon whispers as she leans forwards towards Shuhua, stopping inches in front of her ear.

Shuhua stammers, feeling shivers run down her spine, “No, but I’ve given Minnie a bell if she needs help and to keep a closer eye on her.”

“Very well,” Miyeon accepts and leans back on her marble throne, “You may return to the mortals for now, I’ll see you soon.”

“What do you mean?” the young angel questions.

The archangel doesn’t answer. Instead, she picks up her golden goblet and starts to walk away from the other angel. 

As she dislikes being ignored, the ill-tempered angel mutters with frustration, “She should at least give me a response.”

Miyeon pauses abruptly, interrupting her gait, purposefully letting Shuhua know that she had heard what she said. Yet, she does not look back nor does she give her the pleasure of a response. She merely continues walking after a few seconds before snapping her fingers to teleport herself out of the temple and into her beloved little paradise. Miyeon sighs as soon as she arrives on her comfy wooden porch of her secret house, she looks over into the distance and marvels at the flowers following the flow of the billowing wind. There are no clouds today, just the way she likes it, and everything sounds so serene. The sound of shifting leaves and tiny critters fill the clean fresh air, and Miyeon smiles to herself.

She sets down the golden goblet and whispers a few soft words that filled it with rich red liquid. Bringing up to her lips, she takes a ship of it and lets the flavor fill . She wonders if she had made the wrong decision though, to make Shuhua an angel. The girl and her filthy mouth would have certainly made for a very good little devil—that is, very bad. The archangel shakes her head, it’s not like she can do anything about it now that all the angels in the realm have accepted her as their own. That decision was already made. Miyeon frowns, the sweet nectar she was drinking seconds ago started to leave a sour taste in . 

Looking down into her goblet, swishing the liquid ever so slightly, she sees the blonde girl again. This time, she is not looking at her though, instead she looks slightly disturbed as a familiar pale skinned angel is uncomfortably close to her. Miyeon feels her blood starting to boil and tosses the goblet across the green fields in front of her humble cottage. The red liquid splashes over as the cup soars above the fields, clashing against the blue of the sky. When the droplets of the red liquid eventually reach the ground, upon touch, grass and flowers wither and break apart into black ashes. The goblet though, rests unscathed and unstained, as it has always been.

“Yeh Shuhua,” Miyeon hisses, “Not only are you incompetent at your job, but now you’re getting in Soojin’s way.”

It is then when the sky turns grey and an angry rumble of thunder can be heard in the distance. Not too soon later, rain starts to pour down from the sky, loudly splattering against any surface it touches. Miyeon tries to calm her rage but it is to no avail, it looks like mortals will be having rather dreary weather for the rest of the day. She’s rather fond of her cottage in the mortal world and is not in the mood to depart from it, and she does have business to handle here after all.

---

Minnie wakes up to a flash of lightning that seemed to appear just outside of her window. She definitely feels better than she had earlier after a nice restful sleep but she still feels a bit weakened. Perhaps, she had caught a cold; that would explain why she hasn’t been feeling the best recently. Regardless of what it is, Minnie was absolutely ravenous and parched, her stomach growled like the hungry beast it was and her scratchy throat was desperate for even a drop of water. It has been a long time since she has eaten or drunken water due to her prolonged slumber.

After she rises out of her bed, she immediately makes her way towards the kitchen. She pours herself a hot cup of water and decides to make herself some stew. Recalling that she is unwell and Soojin had recommended her to try the forget me notes, she decides to go fetch her bag of herbs. Having retrieved her herbs, Minnie decides to drop a few dried petals into her cup of hot water. She looks curiously at the cup of water as it turns a riveting deep red.

“That’s a strange shade,” Soyeon points out as she walks by, “I would’ve never thought that blue petals would turn your water red.”

“Yeah,” Yuqi agrees, care-freely following Soyeon into the kitchen like a lost puppy.

“It is quite strange now that you guys mention it,” Minnie acknowledges, “But I trust Soojin.” 

Soyeon shrugs and she simply comments, “I don’t know her well, but she seems to have been helping you medically for the last few months so I have no objections to you trying that. It’s just not like anything I’ve seen before.”

“Can’t never hurt to try, right?” Minnie nonchalantly remarks, bringing the drink up to her lips.

She takes a sip and instantly a sweet flavor seems to completely take over . There’s the light airiness to it, yet there’s this tastefulness to it as well. It didn’t feel as though it was too much or too little, it was a complete sort of flavor. Minnie feels refreshed and takes another sip, closing her eyes she feels all the remaining aching pains in her body melt away. And as she tries to savor the flavor, she swears she sees a woman in a white dress flash before her. The figure seems to be the same girl from her dreams; she seems to be holding a golden goblet in her hand, ready to throw it away. But before Minnie can see what the mysteriously familiar woman does, she comes back into reality.

“Minnie,” Yuqi calls to her, “Can you hear me? Minnie?”

The daydreaming girl snaps out of her vision and response with a hint of confusion in her voice, “Yes? What were you saying?”

Yuqi pouts, probably disappointed and slightly hurt from being ignored, and informs her, “I was asking you if you would like for me to heat up some dragon sirloin stew, we made some for you earlier but didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Oh, I would love to, thank you,” Minnie thanks her, “I was just a little bit absorbed by the taste of the new herbs Soojin suggested.”

“I know,” Yuqi says, “You finished it so quickly and you looked like you were in bliss!”

Unaware that she had finished the drink already, Minnie looked down at her cup to find it empty. She thought she had only taken a couple of sips; in fact, she was quite sure that she had only had half of the cup at most. Yet, there was not a single drop of the red liquid left in her cup. Had it been that good that she had absently finished it in the midst of her daydream? She shakes her head and looks up to ask Soyeon for advice, but she isn’t there anymore.

“Yuqi,” Minnie gains her attention by grabbing on to her arm and asking, “Where did Soyeon go?”

“What do you mean?” Yuqi says with concern laced into her voice, “You waved goodbye to her when she said she had an emergency at the clinic and needed to be there as soon as possible.”

“Did I?” Minnie questions herself, rubbing her chin, “Maybe I’m still out of it.”

Yuqi puts a hand on her shoulder, and in an attempt to comfort her, she tells her that it'll be okay.

“Don’t worry about if for now, just rest,” Yuqi coos, “I’ll tell the magical musicians store that you’ll be taking a few days off and ask Soyeon to check in with Soojin if the new herb she gave you has any side effects.”

“Thank you,” Minnie murmurs.

“Of course,” Yuqi beams and starts to warm up the stew for Minnie.

Meanwhile, Minnie sits there in a daze and starts to feel a sour taste creep up her tongue. She then hears the distant sound of metal clashing against the floor, but Yuqi has not dropped anything. Befuddled, the dazed girl sits there in silence and starts to wonder if she’s going insane.

And in moments, feels like it’s burning.

A bitter acrid taste is left lingering on the tip of her tongue.

A/N: Probably aiming for weeklyish updates, can't promise much because of exams.