Chapter 8: A Devil That Looks Like an Angel
A Devil That Looks Like an AngelMinnie has always loved Miyeon.
For the moment she stepped foot into the realm of angels, she was entranced with her beauty. And when she started speaking to her and having little secret rendezvouses, it almost felt like she was alive again. They had consulted each other on the deepest and most heartfelt feelings they had. Minnie felt like they knew each other perfectly, that one of them would not be complete without the other.
So when she saw her with her wings spread, one pure white and the other completely black, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Back then she had sprinted out of shock and even remembered screaming, “It was you. Of all people, it had to be you.”
It was not that she was scared of Miyeon or anything, or that she hated her. Minnie merely didn’t know what to think of the truth now that her beloved was not who she thought she was and the realm was not as the heart of all divine had described. She had uncovered a truth that she probably shouldn't have. As she ran further down the hall and out of the tall marble structure that seemed so immaculately sculpted she saw the heart of all divine. It emitted a blue glowing light that seemed to be chasing after, with fear growing in her chest, Minnie started to run faster.
But it was too late, as soon as the blue light had touched the tip of her body, Minnie knew it was hopeless for her. She watches the darkness crawl up from the tips of her fingers all the way up to arms as she continues to try escape the heart of all divine. When she breaks from the realms, she finds that her wings are blackened as she tries to stop herself from falling directly into the ‘mortal’ world. With widened eyes, Minnie recognizes the town, she knew it all too well. Something seems out of the ordinary though, she picks up as she sees an alarming amount of smoke rising into the sky.
Minnie starts to panic.
Today, she was supposed to see her brothers again and watch over them as they had when she was still a ‘mortal’. She was supposed to bless them with good fortune and protect them from tragedies such as great flames as their guardian angel. What a bitter joke that was, now she would bring nothing but misfortune to the town as she falls from her grace as an angel.
“Come back,” a voice from a blue cube emitting light commands her, “You have discovered something you shouldn’t have and disturbed the balance between angels and devils, you must suffer the consequences.”
The fallen angel doesn’t even bother to pause as she dives down to visit the town that she grew up in once more. She wanted to see her family for one last time before they perished and she turned into a devil. Desperately, she had searched for them as the black darkness started to consume even more of her and she could feel it starting to rip out her soul.
Minnie remembers that as mortal that although her brothers would , they would also take turns treating her like a little princess. They stood up for her like knights of shining armor when the other kids tried to . She remembers her dad’s brilliant grin and her mom’s fond smile as they rushed over to protect her but her brothers had already done the job.
“You shouldn’t deny our orders,” the booming voice calls from above again, “you will regret it.”
“Maybe I will regret it,” Minnie shouts back at them as she continues her search to see one last glimpse of her family.
With pieces of burning buildings crashing down, the fallen angel starts to feel desperate. She feels the darkness seeping into her chest and wonders how much longer she’ll be able to withstand the heart of all divine. As her strength starts to fade, she sees her brothers running in the distance with their parents. She sees the building adjacent to them crumble and she turns away and closes her eyes. As the darkness comes her heart and her mind slips away, Minnie whispers one last phrase to them:
“I’m sorry.”
Meanwhile, the accursed archangel was set into a state of panic left behind in the realm of the angels. Miyeon knew what it meant for her to have angels discover her identity, it was disruption in how life worked. Angels were supposed to give life and see the happiness that came with it while devils were punished with the task of taking the lives of mortals, watching the devastation of how death destroyed people over and over again. The two deities were to stay in different realms and were not disturb each other unless the heart of all divine had plans for them. What was different about the angels and devils though was that angels still had a chance to become mortal again, to live and experience mundane joys.
And on a similar note, devils are torn from their souls once they fail as angels, no longer shielded from the horrors of the world by the divine love of the heart of deities. Knowing how both sides worked, Miyeon didn’t want her beloved to lose such joys because of a simple mistake of hers. If she had been more careful, Minnie would’ve been able to live as a mortal again and not have to ever face the horrid jobs of a devil. Yet perhaps being a devil wasn’t so bad, their friend Soojin seemed accustomed to the job, completely unbothered by her everyday tasks. She didn’t seem to pay a speck of care to the souls she was reaping; to her, it was just a natural part of life. And, best of all, Minnie could still see her and she wouldn’t have to hide anything this time around.
But there are things worse than becoming a devil.
That is to say that Minnie’s existence could very easily be erased if the heart of all divine wished for it. The thought of that possibility made the accursed angel’s heart fill with anxiety, she couldn’t bear the thought of a reality where her beloved didn’t exist anymore. So Miyeon snapped her fingers and found herself in the realm of the damned where ashes fell and piled up like snow and the sound of flames crackled in the background as it scorched the blackened ground. Walking down deeper and deeper into the depths of the realm, to the center of this hell, Miyeon knelt down and stared into the cube emitting a pulsing blue glow.
“Please, I beg of you not to punish Minnie too harshly,” Miyeon requests of the core of divinity, “What she discovered was a simple accident on my part.”
“That cannot be done,” the cube’s voice booms, “it is too late.”
Miyeon’s starts to feel her palms get sweaty and nervously questions, “What do you mean?”
“She has chosen to deny orders and has failed to protect the balance of life in the town she was assigned to,” the heart of all divine’s voice resounds through the burnt fields of this realm, “She has proven untrustworthy to us, she must be destroyed.”
“But there must be some other way,” Miyeon had implored, begging them on her knees almost in disbelief of what was just said, “This isn’t fair, she didn’t know the rules.”
“Nothing else can be done,” the voice resounded through the room, “The order of life must be protected.”
“What if I make an exchange,” Miyeon asks in a cry of desperation.
After a pause in the air the cube emits a strange glow and its voice resonates through the depths of the realm, “And what would you exchange?”
The accursed angel hesitates, but she offers them all that she has, sacrificing what was perhaps seens as most sacred and valuable to others. Yet, she would give it all up in hopes that it was enough to save her beloved because she valued her more than anything across the realms. For all those years she’s held the balance between the realms, for all those years she yearned to protect what she was giving away. She was so close to reaching her goal, but what does it matter if she wouldn't be happy after achieving it?
Minnie was her happiness, and she wasn’t going to let her be erased.
As the cube’s glow seems to dull again and the silence remains longer for a few seconds, Miyeon nearly loses hope. However just as she’s about to leave to mourn her beloved the cube glows in brilliant blue and accepts the offer.
“Very well,” it’s voice reverberates through the room, “I will take what you offer and restore Minnie’s soul so that she can live in the ‘mortal’ world for a few more years. Of course, I’ll make the adjustments you’ve requested as well. But, you must know that when the time comes, you must be the one to reap her mortal soul, do you understand?”
Biting her lips, Miyeon doesn’t know if she would be able to do that, to watch her beloved in agony and be the cause for it all over again.
“If you agree with the terms, take this goblet and drink the red liquid with her. She will forget and start anew, that will be the beginning of the clock to our deal.”
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As Miyeon races to find Soojin in the ‘mortal’ world, the deal she makes echoes in her head once more. She saw it with her own eyes, the pulsing redness seeping into Minnie’s eyes but she didn’t want to believe it. She knew it was time, but like Soojin had said, Miyeon didn’t know if she could do it.
When she reaches the cornerstone herb shop at the side of the village, she feels the desperation flowing through her whole body. Opening the door to the shop, the accursed archangel was about to unravel all her concerns but she quickly shuts when she sees the youthful angel standing at the counter.
“Shuhua,” Miyeon exclaims, “What are you doing here?”
The young angel jumps at the unexpected call for her while Soojin is unbothered, continuing on with whatever she is doing.
“I’m just getting to know the town better,” Shuhua tries to come up with a lame excuse.
“Whatever it is, you should get back to work,” Miyeon says with emphasis on certain words, “Perhaps, you should report to the higher ups.”
And with that Shuhua quickly excuses herself with clear uneasiness painted on her face.
“Yeah maybe I should,” she mutters under her breath, “killjoy.”
Miyeon decides to let that last statement go as the younger brushes past her and soon exits the realm, she has more important and pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Soojin, who remained composed before, now has an expression of concern on her face as she knows that Miyeon is not one to act so rashly all of the sudden. She snaps her fingers and decides to lock the shop so no one can walk in on their conversation and discover something that they shouldn’t.
“What the hell is going on Miyeon?” Soojin questions with assertiveness clearly ringing in her voice.
“It’s time,” the accursed archangel says, “And you were right, I don’t think I can do it.”
And with that, Soojin gives her a sad knowing look. Miyeon already knows that the devil could do nothing to help her, but she needed some support right now, for someone to tell her that it would be alright. Even if it didn’t come from the lips of the person she yearns to love and protect, Miyeon needed someone to lean on.
In the meantime, Minnie had awoken from her slip of consciousness and stood up to take a look at herself in the mirror. Her wings seem to have detracted and her skin was spotless once more. Quietly, she made her way to the kitchen again and sat there with no expression in her eyes. She didn’t know what to think about her own situation really, she was having trouble processing it all—she simply didn’t know what to make of it.
She looks at the petals of forget-me-nots and looks at how they’ve withered. When she pours a handful of them in her palm and they so easily disintegrate into black ashes. ‘How interesting’ she thought to herself and let the ashes fall to the floor. At that moment, she hears the sound of the front door creaking open and soft footsteps. With a relaxed and carefree expression on her face, Soyeon soon walks into the kitchen. She jolts in slight surprise to see Minnie already home, unaware of her presence as she did not hear the usual cheery ‘hello’ from the girl.
“Oh hi Minnie, I didn’t know you were home already,” Soyeon starts the conversation, “Did you feel sick today and have another one of your strange dreams again?”
“Yeah, I had another dream,” Minnie responds in almost complete monotone.
Soyeon, sensing that something is off, questions, “Was there anything wrong in that dream?”
“Everything was wrong Soyeon,” Minnie says, her voice cracking upon saying her name, “And I don’t know what to do.”
“Did you remember?” Soyeon takes a step closer, asking the girl who seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown.
“Yes,” Minnie softly admits, “But I really wish I hadn’t.”
“And why is that,” Soyeon continues to probe the older girl.
But this time, Minnie doesn’t answer immediately, she looks down instead and looks as though she’s in a daze again. When the magical clinician is about to speak up, the other girl seems to snap out of it. She looks at her with eyes filled with some type of sorrow and Soyeon can almost guess what’s coming next.
“You need to go back, don’t you,” Soyeon guesses, “You have someone waiting for you.”
With a sad smile, Minnie nods, “Something like that, will you tell Yuqi I said goodbye?”
“Won’t you come back?”
The older girl pauses and she doesn’t want to answer her because she knows that they both won’t like what she has to say about that. At the moment, Minnie understands why Miyeon decided to erase her memory and let her start anew for a few years. To remember, Minnie feels that isn’t the most painful because of the sad memories that she saw. At least that she can accept and get over, but to remember all that she cherished and made her happy but not be able to ever have it again, she wouldn’t know how long she would be able to handle that. Perhaps it was easier to live without knowing a part of herself, because that part of herself would’ve hurt her then.
“Goodbye and thank you for being my family.”
Before the younger girl can say anything Minnie snaps her fingers.
The ashes of the forget-me-nots on the floor disappeared as did Soyeon memories of her.
Minnie snaps her fingers again and she erases any traces of herself from the house, teleports herself to the entrance of the house. There she sees the doorknob turning open and Minnie closes her eyes, trying to keep in the tears. When the door flings open she sees Yuqi still covered in charcoal and dirt as she usually is after finishing her work blacksmithing.
With a cheerful smile the younger girl greets her for the last time, “Hey, how was your day Minnie! My day was really great, I got to do a lot of cool things you know!”
Minnie couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s boisterous entrance back home, it was things like this everyday that had made these last few years great. All these tiny bits of happiness gathered together, she was grateful for them.
“My day was great,” Minnie put on a brave face and lied to her, “Keep being this cheerful even when I’m not there.”
“What do you mean?”
The older girl doesn’t answer her, instead she slips a hand over her head. The next thing Yuqi knows is that the door is closing shut and it feels like she forgot something important. She swears she hears the faintest goodbye being said to her but she can’t recall anything about the owner of the voice.
Minnie walks onto the familiar stone cobbled streets, she looks at the sun glowing red and starting to descend for the hazy blue sky. She understands why she feels so sad looking at the sunset now, especially with Miyeon. How could she not be sad when happy things have come to an end?
Walking through the streets, Minnie hears the laughter of children who were playing pranks on each other and the light scolding of their parents. Her steps were grim and heavy as she continued on ignoring the bits of mundanity that she would miss. Some time later along her walk, she hears a chorus of the boisterous greetings of her neighbors just like how they would greet her everyday for the past few years, none of them were addressed to her. In this town she was a stranger now, a ghost that they would have phantom memories about but never see.
Minnie thought it was funny that for how quickly it took to get acquainted to the town, it was even quicker to become a stranger. All she had needed to do was snap her fingers and, in less than a blink of the eye, no one knew her anymore. A familiar type of the laughter started to creep up , it was the type where she knew she was doomed but she could do nothing about it.
After all, Minnie had just lost her family and home for the second time.
Finding herself at the edge of town, Minnie lets out a laugh of self pity that almost sounds like a cry before she continues her walk as night starts to fall. She walked through the tall stalks of grass where pixies scattered at her presence and fireflies zoomed away. She wonders what it must’ve been like for Miyeon to remember everything and then try to recreate moments they had together as she gets closer to the cottage in the midst of the vast fields.
The accursed archangel watches the figure of her beloved slowly become clearer as Minnie came closer from the depths of the fields. She took a deep breath and to remind herself to trust the words that Soojin had promised to her. Without further ado, Miyeon then started to walk towards her beloved to see her whole again for one last time. With the glow of the moonlight and speckled stars, the spotlight seemed to be on them tonight.
Reaching her in the middle, the two lovers paused and looked at eachother. It had been so long since they looked at eachother like that, knowing and remembering everything about one another. Miyeon raises her hand and tucks a strand of Minnie’s hair behind her cheeks before leaning in to kiss her. It was soft and as sweet as honey, Minnie couldn’t believe that she had ever forgotten such a wonderful feeling. And as their lips parted, Minnie faintly whispers to her the three words Miyeon’s been longing to hear for all these years.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Miyeon responds without any hesitation, “I missed you so much.”
“I know, ” Minnie says, wrapping her arms around her beloved, “you did well, thank you.”
Holding her in her arms like this again, Miyeon didn’t want the moment to end. To be in love was to hope that moments like this would stay forever, it was delusional and unlikely but who could argue with their own heart?
“Miyeon, I know what you have to do,” Minnie whispers to her softly, “it’s okay, you’ve suffered enough.”
“Can’t we stay like this a little longer?” Miyeon mutters, holding her tightly in her arms, “the damned cube can wait a bit longer.”
“The promise Miyeon, the divine heart told me everything in the dream before I remembered everything,” Minnie reasons with her, “It’ll be worse for me and you both if you don’t do what you promised.”
Pulling apart from her beloved finally, Minnie guides Miyeon’s hands above her chest where her heart was. She couldn’t deny that she was nervous for how fast her heart was going, but she needed to be brave for the both of them. With a smile on her face that’s so precious that it makes Miyeon’s heart melt, the girl so easily breaks her heart with the next few words that she says.
“Miyeon, take my soul away,” the other girl tells her, “let me die.”
With great hesitance, Miyeon puts her hand over her beloved’s heart and starts to pull her soul out her body. She feels Minnie’s hands lay softly but firmly on top of hers and looks at her beautiful gentle smile. Even now, after all she has been through, Minnie was still kind to her. Miyeon watches as the darkness starts to climb her lover’s body and how her eyes start to slowly turn red again. She can feel the light in her eyes slipping away as she continues to tear her soul away from her body. The accursed angel wants to stop, she almost lifts her hand away but Minnie looks at her and weakly shakes her head, holding her hand above her heart.
“It’s okay,” Minnie tells her with a soft and sweet voice, “I’ll be okay.”
Miyeon bites her lips and nods as she continues her task, she watches as the darkness starts to consume almost the entirety of Minnie. It was crawling up her beautiful skin and flowing through veins, engulfing every last bit of her. Yet, to Miyeon, Minnie still looked so angelic to her, with the weak smile on her face and her soft touch on her hands.
“You will always be my angel,” Miyeon whispers to her beloved devil, leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together.
Smiling until the end, Minnie closes the gap between their lips and plants a sweet kiss on her lips before she feels her body go limp once more.
A/N: :)
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