Minnie doesn’t know why she feels so sad walking along the road together with a pretty girl while the sun is setting. In theory, she feels like she should feel ecstatic because she’s going on what is basically a date with an unbelievably beautiful girl like Miyeon. On a temperate night like this, the perfect weather for a date where it’s not too cold or not too hot, she should feel lucky—like the stars have aligned. Yet, she can’t help but feel that there’s a part of her that’s missing. It’s confusing because it’s not like her heart isn’t skipping a beat as she feels her fingers entwine with the other girl’s. There’s something amiss, but she can’t quite wrap her head around it.

 

“Say,” Minnie says, “Miyeon, why do you think this sunset feels so sad.”

 

“Why do you ask that, are you sad?” Miyeon returns the question.

 

Staying silent for a bit, Minnie thinks about if she really is upset. She notices that she has been rather quiet and has felt rather defeated more than usual in the past week or two. Staring ahead as she watches the red sun fade into a dark clear sky with few clouds, Minnie sighs. She wonders if it’s because she’s grown more impatient and agitated with her lost memories. Who she was before, her identity, and her real name were all things she didn’t know. It still scared her when she woke up sometimes, if she would one day wake up and not remember everything all over again. Or maybe, perhaps, these feelings belonged to the ‘Minnie’ she couldn’t remember. 

 

Shaking her head, Minnie tells Miyeon, “Yeah, for some reason that I can’t tell, I feel sad.”

 

Miyeon squeezes her hand, and offers her a few words of support, “Well that’s okay, we don’t really need a reason to be sad, sometimes feelings just come to us and we need to feel them. And after we feel them, even if we don’t understand why we feel them, we have to let them go.”

 

“But doesn’t it bother you when you don’t know,” Minnie argues.

 

“It does,” Miyeon admits, “But sometimes feelings are not meant to be solved.”

 

The usually sickly mage stops in the midst of her tracks and takes a second to take in what the other girl said. She was right in a way, that feelings were complex and that there would be times where she couldn’t figure out the root of them. And just maybe, Minnie thinks, she should let those feelings go so she can fully enjoy what she has now. But, as the saying goes, it’s always easier said than done. 

 

As the edge of the sun falls adjacent to the edge of the ground, Minnie absentmindedly lets go of Miyeon’s hand and resumes their walk. The accursed angel notices but chooses to stay quiet in the meantime, silently following behind the so-called mortal who is seemingly lost in thought. Minnie sighs, stuck in her dilemma of wanting to let go but not wishing to give up at the same time. She wishes that she didn’t have to make hard choices like these in her life, she wishes that things were simpler. Then again, doesn’t everyone? 

 

“Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt your train of thought, but do you have any idea of where we’re going?” Miyeon snaps her out of her trance.

 

Stopping in her tracks, Minnie turns to face Miyeon and catches a glimpse of a pixie fly by. She realizes that it’s getting a little late as the little mischievous creatures are typically active during the night.

 

“No, I actually don’t,” the girl who was previously deep in thought replies, “It hadn’t occurred to me at all.”

 

“With all that thinking you were doing, it would seem like it would cross your mind,” the angel disguised as a traveler jested, “If you have time, would you like to go on a short adventure?”

 

“Yes,” Minnie accepts the invitation as though the simple word can’t help but slip out of her lips.

 

Despite knowing how late it was getting and not having sent Yuqi or Soyeon an owl notifying them of her tardiness, Minnie couldn’t help but want to spend more time with Miyeon. There was this strange allure drawing her to spend more time with this ‘new’ girl in town. She figures they wouldn’t be too alarmed or worried because she had spent nights staying after at the music shop just playing piano before. They would probably think she was doing that because they knew how long her sickness had kept her away from the store recently and how much she loved playing sad melodies.

 

“Perfect,” Miyeon beckons to her as she turns and heads towards a different path than they were originally on, “follow me.”

 

Before Minnie can reply, Miyeon is already a few paces ahead and she has to quicken her pace to catch up. The archangel then glances back playfully before she picks up her speed telling the other girl to catch her if she could. With a foolish grin, Minnie picks up the challenge and runs after her. It doesn’t take too long for them to reach the stone bridge just over the tiny river that bordered the town. Out of breath and coughing a bit, the ‘mortal’ calls out for the angel to pause there. 

 

Miyeon complies and stops, leaning against the bridge, but also teases, “How does it feel to lose a challenge?”

 

“Like the wind has been knocked out of me,” Minnie says between huffs of breaths.

 

“Nice one,” Miyeon laughs and walks over to her.

 

“Thanks,” Minnie answers, leaning against the side of the stone bridge to try and regain her stamina.

 

“My pleasure,” the other girl playfully responds, “if you would like, I know a shortcut to the place I want to show you.”

 

“Really?” the winded girl asks.

 

With her back faced against the moon, Miyeon nods. Minnie is lost in awe as the light reflecting from the moon and on Miyeon’s back makes it look like she’s glowing. It’s almost like there’s a halo surrounding the girl, she looks so otherworldly that it’s almost like she doesn’t belong in the mortal world. 

 

“But if you would like to take my secret shortcut, you have to close your eyes,” breaking the silence, Miyeon whispers to her, “Would you do that for me?”

 

“Sure,” the other girl agrees.

 

Closing her eyes, Minnie becomes more aware of the gentle breeze gently billowing through her robe and the musky scent of the river. She notices that the water in the river runs rather smoothly, she doesn’t feel many droplets of water splashing against her. Instead, the slow and steady sound of flowing water soothes her. She feels a bit tense now that she’s been waiting a bit and she has no idea what Miyeon is doing.

 

“Do you trust me?” Miyeon asks.

 

“I don’t know why, but somehow I do,” Minnie tells her.

 

The accursed archangel smiles and she whispers enchantments in low murmurs. She walks behind the ‘mortal’ girl and wraps her arms around her waist. Minnie can feel them starting to ascend and her feet slowly lift off of the ground. She feels like she’s flying but it’s not the same familiar feeling of zipping through the air on a broom. Before her curiosity seems to get the best of her, Miyeon whispers something and a silky ribbon seems to fasten around her head, covering her eyes.

 

“I’m sorry, but I have my secrets to keep,” Miyeon murmurs.

 

With that, Minnie is left to only imagine what the other girl has done as she feels her body gliding through the air. Miyeon, however, knows everything as her wings are outstretched against the star speckled sky. With pure white feathers fluttering against the gentle night breeze, she flies over the empty fields on the outskirts of town where no one else can see. She wishes that she could snap her fingers and have then there already but she figured that would raise too much suspicion. It would be easier to explain away flying, she could hide under her disguise as a telepath and explain how it was a secret creature she had called.

 

She looks at the girl in her arms with a gentle smile resting on her face. With the glow of moonlight on her soft skin and dark brown hair, Miyeon can’t help but marvel at how perfect her beloved was. She wants nothing more but to whisper sweet nothings to her; to gently cup her face and plant a soft kiss on her lips; to tell her how much she misses being together with her. Minnie seems to tense in her arms as time passes though, seemingly growing more anxious as she is being kept from seeing the truth.

 

“Are we almost there?” the blinded girl asks with a bit of shakiness evident in her voice.

 

As Miyeon spots her little dainty cottage below, she begins to descend, and replies, “Yeah, just a bit more.”

 

With that, Minnie seems to relax a bit in her arms as they gradually approach the earth again. In moments, she feels completely relieved when she feels her weight shift from Miyeon’s arms to the ground again. Her vision still impaired by the ribbon, she reaches to pull it off. In a single smooth pull, the black ribbon unravels and it takes a few blinks for Minnie’s eyes to adjust her vision. Even though her sight was still slightly blurred, the girl swears that she sees a white feather floating in the air. But when she blinks again, she could not seem to find a fallen feather anywhere near their vicinity so she shrugs the thought away.

 

“I can’t say that I’m not a bit curious,” Minnie jokes, turning her attention to the other girl.

 

Miyeon smiles and explains, “A telepath makes friends with many creatures.”

 

“Is that so?” the other girl responds.

 

“I’m only going to tell you that much,” Miyeon teases her, jokingly sticking her tongue out at her.

 

“No fair!” Minnie pouts and stomps like a child.

 

Miyeon cannot help but giggle a little at that sight, she was just too adorable. Taking out the apple that she had picked earlier from her robe, she holds it towards the pouting girl.

 

“Would you accept this as an apology?” She offers the apple.

 

Stopping in the midst of her sulking, Minnie widens her eyes and takes the apple from her hand. She takes a moment to observe the deep red skin of the apple, which seemed perfectly ripe and of perfect size. Taking a bite, a sweet juicy flavor fills as a satisfying crispy crunch leaves her satiated.

 

“You are truly a woman of many talents,” Minnie compliments in between taking bites of the apple.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Wordlessly, Miyeon brings her to what seems like a rather quaint house that’s in the midst of these vast empty fields. On the side of the house, there seems to be an apple tree where she had obtained the apple from. She finds it quite soothing to have such a strong sturdy tree right by the house that sits in the middle of what looks to be never-ending fields. It definitely makes it feel less lonely than it probably was. Minnie wonders if this house is somewhat of a reflection of how Miyeon’s life is, to live almost all alone. She takes the last bite of the apple before throwing the core away and it seems to be slightly less sweet than all the other bites, bitter even.

 

“So is this where you live?” Minnie asks her as she follows Miyeon into the small wooden house.

 

“Yeah,” Miyeon tells her, “I quite like it, it’s rather peaceful; the only sounds that you hear are the howling wind or rustling leaves and grass.”

 

Minnie can’t help but think of how there’s a hint of loneliness in her voice when Miyeon tells her that she lives there alone. She wants to comfort her and tell her that she doesn’t have to be alone anymore, but at the same time maybe Miyeon really does like the peace and quiet. It might be offensive if she voices her concerns of the other girl. So, Minnie decides to keep quiet and instead follows the other girl to a tiny table with two chairs. Miyeon pulls one of the wooden carved chairs and motions for her guest to sit.

 

“You seem like a person that’s hard to get to know,” Minnie observes after she thanks her and takes a seat.

 

Miyeon, taking a seat across from her, looks at her curiously and asks, “Why do you say that?”

 

“You have so many secrets,” Minnie explains, “And you don’t seem to have much company as there are only two chairs in this house.”

 

“That’s a fair point,” the accursed archangel acknowledges, “Would you, perhaps, want to get to know me better then?”

 

Staring at her alluringly, with deep brown eyes with a hint of auburn, Miyeon looks at Minnie invitingly. With curiosity continuing to build and a mysterious gravity that seems to pull her to the secretive girl, it was almost impossible for the ‘mortal’ to not accept this tempting invitation.

 

“I would love to.”

 

As the other girl’s lips curved upwards ever so slightly, Minnie begins to feel a bit of uneasiness grow in her stomach, like she’s gotten into something that she shouldn’t have. There was something quite devilish behind her smile, perhaps it was the fact that she didn’t know much about this girl in an unknown place that was quite a hefty distance from her home. Yet, she also couldn’t help the excitement building up inside of her and a weird sense of safety in the other girl’s presence. It was a strange combination of feelings to have to say the least.

 

“Well, is there anything you want to know particularly about me?” Miyeon nonchalantly poses a question to her.

 

Fiddling with her fingers, Minnie thinks for a few seconds and recollects some of her thoughts from before. She still feels unsure if she should ask this, but whatever question she tries to think of keeps coming back to this one. So, she takes a deep breath, and ponders how she might phrase the question so it doesn’t sound rude. Noticing the wrinkles that are starting to furrow on Minnie’s forehead, the archangel takes note of the distress the other girl is feeling. She reaches out to squeeze the other girl’s hand, assuring her that whatever question she had would be.

 

So, with slight hesitation, Minnie asks, “Why do you like to be alone?”

 

Miyeon laughs and responds, “What made you think that?”

 

“No no no no, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Minnie says, flustered.

 

Interrupting the other girl in the midst of her frantic panic, Miyeon assures her that she hasn’t said anything wrong. 

 

“No, don’t worry about it, I just didn’t think it was that obvious,” Miyeon elaborates, “But seriously, what gave me away?”

 

“Well, I noticed that you only have two chairs so you must not have a lot of guests over and that this house is quite far into the fields,” the formerly frazzled girl points out.

 

“That’s fair,” the accursed angel jokes, “I didn’t know that it seemed that obvious, maybe I should build myself a sofa to keep up more of an illusion.”

 

Minnie giggles and responds, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, maybe I’m just observant.”

 

“Oh really?” Miyeon says, raising her eyebrow, expressing rather sarcastic disbelief.

 

“Give me a break,” the other girl sighs, exasperated, “Besides, aren’t we supposed to be talking about you now.”

 

“You’re right,” the sly girl acknowledges, “Now where should I start?”

 

Pondering for a few moments, Miyeon decides to tell her a story about how she came to be an angel that also became a devil. Of course, she would leave out details, but she felt most compelled to tell her how it was like. Perhaps it was because she wanted to let her beloved know who she was again, to like she was completely known by someone again like how they were in the past.

 

“Believe it or not, I was a person who was very loved and looked upon to when it came to dealing with the matters of the deities,” Miyeon recalls, “I guess I was always the favorite among people that I lived with as I was a person of many talents, but then I was granted a big responsibility to keep people in order. Some might say that it shouldn’t have been possible that I had that much weight to carry without so much oversight, they started to resent me.”

 

Minnie frowns and interjects, “It sounds like they were jealous.”

 

“It could be,” Miyeon notes before continuing her story, “But one day I met someone, and I guess you can say that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought but her. She was my sanctuary, I always felt that I could be myself with her, that I could be less than perfect. It was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know I needed until I met her, and I couldn’t let go of her now that I knew how it felt to be understood like that.”

 

Minnie can feel the quivers laced into her voice as the other girl progresses deeper into the story. 

 

“And I guess you can say that I started to break some rules because of my selfishness,” the lonely girl confesses, “When I wasn’t careful enough and she found out something she shouldn’t have ever known about my identity, and some powerful people were angry with me because of it. But they didn’t take it out only on me, they had punished her too. It would’ve been better if it were just me that was involved, but they felt that she too was a fault. She was an unknowing accomplice in my crimes, who was punished for something out of her control.”

 

“That doesn’t seem fair,” the other girl interjects.

 

“Perhaps it wasn’t, but that it was the divine punishment they chose for me to face. It was not for me to decide,” Miyeon says, “Though, I was able to negotiate the punishment though. To save her from damnation, I was able to make a deal to give her a little more time but, of course, it came at cost. They had sent her away and I wasn’t allowed to see her until it came time that I had to carry out the promise I had made with them. And so, ever since then, I was at their mercy and traveled to far lands to carry out the tasks they had assigned me. I became used to being alone the moment she was sent away though. Without her, even if I had someone else traveling with me, it never felt like I was someone that was understood or known.”

 

The visiting girl feels her face drop into a pout upon hearing this story. The sadness in Miyeon’s voice is so apparent and she feels like she can somehow relate even though she doesn’t remember something like that happening to her. Her heart pangs and she wants to tell the girl who is reminiscing that she feels for her. And somewhere, deep inside, Minnie believes that she and that girl would be fine in the end although she has no idea where that sense of security is coming from. Instead of telling her with words, Minnie decides to interlock their hands together, silently comforting her instead.

 

Forgetting about her roommates at home, Minnie stays with Miyeon for a long time just talking about their feelings, their experiences, and random things that just came up in their minds. Although Minnie had felt a bit of hesitation about the girl before, actually talking with her dissolved any of those feelings of discomfort with her. As the night went on, the stars in the sky seemed to get brighter as the sky became darker. Slowly, Minnie became more and more tired as she talked with Miyeon, but at the same time she didn’t want this moment to end. Something was telling her to cherish every last second of it that she could. And so Minnie stayed with her until she was overcome by exhaustion and began to slowly drift to sleep.

 

Miyeon, noticing the girl drifting to sleep but not wanting for them to stop talking, had softened her voice into low murmurs. She couldn’t help but smile watching the girl slowly slip into slumber with eyes drooping like a cute little cat. When she finally seems to be overcome by sleep and slumps over the table, the accursed angel picks her up in her arms. Carrying her beloved in her strong arms once again with tears welling up in her eyes.

 

 

 

 

A/N: You guys seriously make my heart flutter with all the support, thank you.