When Win first learned that he’s gonna be an angel, he fainted. As soon as he entered the gates of heaven looking lost and confused, a cute angel approached him giving him a “Welcome, New Angel!” greeting. He didn’t even know he had died already.  Is he actually dead? Or is he dreaming? He tried to remember anything that could explain what was happening but got a headache instead. The last thing he could remember was him playing with his dog but that was it. No more, no less.

 

But really? An angel? Him? He totally freaked out with the thought. He didn’t even expect they are actually real and now someone is calling him one? He tries to process this but blacks out after seeing baby angels flying above him.  

 

When he woke up, a group of angels were surrounding him, all smiling. Win doesn’t know if he’s gonna faint for the second time but he’s lucky he managed to speak before it happens again. 

 

“Where am I?” he asked nervously. 

 

“You’re in Heaven. In the Main Gate, to be exact.” the angel smiled at him. She looks really sweet with her wide smile and perfect teeth. Her hair is cut just above her shoulder and her face looks really small with sparkling big round eyes and cheeks that are full and pink.  In short, she is breath-taking looking almost... unreal. 

 

“You fainted earlier when Gun greeted you. It happens most of the time. Don’t worry too much.” the other angel explained. So that was the angel’s name earlier. 

 

“I’m Newwie by the way, and this girl right here is Neen and this is Gun, the one you met earlier at The Entrance. You’ll meet more of us once you become one.” Newwie definitely has that angelic look Win imagined. He looks really warm and friendly. 

 

Wait. So he’s not an angel yet? He thinks to himself. This day couldn’t get any more confusing for him. He sighs. 

 

“What do you mean? I don’t understand what’s going on.” 

 

“Can you stand up now? We have lots of angel things to do. I’m so excited for you. I’m sure you’re gonna love it!” the angel who they call Gun exclaims with excitement. He is short and cute with very noticeable nice lips. He looks harmless, really. All angels are probably like this. 

 

“Gun will be your Guardian for the meantime. He will explain everything to you but first, let’s go down to The Hall and eat. I’m sure you’re hungry as well.” Newwie adds. He was right. He was actually feeling hungry that’s why he fainted earlier aside from the shocking things he saw. 

 

“So angels still get hungry and eat?” he asked innocently, causing the three to burst into laughter.

 

“Of course, silly. We’re still the same... but also different in some way. You’ll know it more but come on follow me let’s eat first.” Gun ensures as he leads their way down to The Hall. As they exit the room where they were, Win tries to observe everything they passed by. This is definitely not the heaven that was on his mind. It looks more like a big city with an old auditorium on every corner. 

 

He also noticed the angels that he assumed. They look normal except that everyone looks warm to him and everyone’s eyes are sparkling. He wanna know if his eyes do too but he’s too shy to ask Gun. They all wear a white outfit as well, and he suddenly gives his thanks to God because they aren’t wearing robes, just plain white shirts and pants. 

 

When they entered a room in The Hall, he was astounded with the amount of food in front of his eyes. There are long tables everywhere and so many more angels enjoying their food together. And although he has no memories from his past life he was sure he’s never seen anything like this before. 

 

“Metawin, let’s go this way! I’ll introduce you to our friends.” Gun excitedly grabbed his hand as they headed towards the last table on the corner of the room. 

 

“This is where we always sit when we eat or just want to hang out. You know. Angels get bored too when God has nothing for us to do.” he said 

 

“Hey guys.” Gun started to slap the table softly to get everyone’s attention. 

 

“I want you to meet Metawin. He’s a newbie! and my mentee.” Currently there are around ten pairs of sparkling eyes staring at him and Win, who has never been a fan of the attention, blushed. 

 

Gun started to introduce him to the others one by one and to be honest he couldn’t remember everyone’s name but he just pretended he could. 

 

“Hello. You can just call me Win.” he smiles awkwardly. He’s lucky that everyone looks friendly and welcoming. 

 

Angel things.

 

“Now that you’ve met everyone, let’s now eat.” Win was about to look for the food when Gun sat down and grabbed him by his shoulder so they sat beside each other.

 

“Now close your eyes and think of the food that you want to eat the most right now.” Before he could even think of, a plate of spaghetti magically appeared in front of Gun. 

 

“That’s how we do it here. You can eat anything you want. God wants us to enjoy everything since we always carry a task with us for him, you know like a compensation.” he explained. 

 

Amazing. If only he knew things work this way here, he should have —-

 

“What are you waiting for? Try it. Close your eyes.” and he did.  But his mind was blank; he was too excited about everything that he could try for free. 

 

“Really? A boiled egg?” Gun laughs at him. He couldn’t think of anything. Besides, you can never go wrong with eggs. 

 

“I love eggs.” he stated shyly. 

 

“Well, if that’s what you want.” he smiles at him before bringing the spaghetti onto his mouth. Win started eating too and boy, it was the best boiled egg of his life. He never knew a boiled egg could give a million flavors in his mouth. God really works wonders. The chickens that laid the eggs are probably angels too. He thinks to himself.

 

---

When they finished eating, Gun accompanied him to his so-called house now just three blocks away from The Hall. It was not big nor small. Just enough for one or two to live. Nevertheless, Win likes it. Gun said that it was his dream house in his past life when God designed it. Yes. He was shocked because his house was literally designed by God.  Unlike the ones he saw earlier the structure in the area is very different. Some look modern and sophisticated, some look old and antique, it really depends on the preference of the house owner. 

 

“Are you settled?” Gun asked after he gave him a tour around his house. 

 

“I think so.” he says as he sits on his new comfortable bed.

 

“Okay, I think I can explain it to you now.” At this point Win doesn’t know if he actually wants to know what is happening to him right now or stay clueless. He had a hard time processing what happened earlier and his headache barely left but he guessed he had no choice when Gun started talking again

 

“So Win, you know you died already, didn’t you?” Of course, as if he needs more emphasis on this, he wanted to roll his eyes on Gun but the latter is too sweet for him and is surely undeserving.

 

“The reason you are here is because God chose you. He saw that you’ve been good on Earth that’s why he took you here. Not everybody ends up here, you know? We are very lucky. Most are in The Middle there’s nothing much there and some are actually in Hell.”

 

So as much as heaven is true, so are the middle and the hell. He tries to act cool not to disturb Gun who looks very serious right now. 

 

“As I was saying, you are in Heaven but you are still not an angel until you are fully equipped but don’t worry because you’ll naturally become one as time passes by. That is also the reason I am here as your Guardian angel, literally.” He laughs at his own joke but Win stays still. 

 

“Each of us was tasked to help you, newbies, to become more prepared to carry God’s mission by yourself once the right time comes and also to help you be more familiar here. You think I’ve seen everything here but to be honest, I have probably been to almost only half of Heaven.” Gun confessed. Win was listening intently, his questions could wait until later so he asked Gun to continue. 

 

“The Heaven is divided, like on earth, into different regions and every region there are leaders that keep everything in order.”

 

Gun pulled out something that looked like an iPad from his bag. Win was amazed that the technology in Heaven is more advanced than the ones on earth.  A holographic map appeared from that thing that looked like an iPad and Gun proceeded to teach him.

 

“So we are here. We belong in Zone 6 and tomorrow I’ll bring you to The Capitol, to meet our leader.

 

There are a total of fifteen zones and each carry a different task. Each was designed by God depending on their purpose. Some are literally assigned to be human’s guardian angel and they can roam around on earth. Can you believe that? We actually had guardian angels in our past lives. They are in Zone 8. If we can get permission we can visit there if you like.”

 

For some reason, Win thinks that he probably pissed off his guardian angel when he was still alive. 

 

“What about the others? What do they do?” he asked curiously. Gun continuously showed him the map of the Heaven while pointing 

 

“Well I am not sure about most of it. God still has his secrets and some zones are prohibited but from what I visited like in Zone 1 they do most of the planning for all the construction in the entire Heaven, like your house. God gives them instructions so you can get whatever you like. Then the chef angels in Zone 5! There are real angels who made that egg for you. You can't actually think it’s from a real chicken, right? It takes years to practice their magic, that's why they are highly respected and that’s why everything you eat here is beyond delicious.  Then some, I think from Zone 12, are actually singing angels but they are also healing angels, you know we can still get sick and feel pain while we are here but of course we can’t die unless you leave heaven. So if you’re feeling pain, they could sing for you and you will heal.”

 

Gun stopped like he was waiting for Win to ask another question?

 

“What?”

 

“Are you not going to ask what we do?” Gun asked in disbelief, like he was disappointed.

 

“Oh! Sorry I forgot about it. What do we do then?” Win asked shyly 

 

“Glad that you asked angel! We got the coolest job here! Unless, you don’t like the office jobs on Earth?” Win stared at him blankly. How would he know? He doesn’t even know what he did in his past life.

 

 “Oops, sorry I forgot you don’t have your memories. But back to our business, our job is to peek at humans’ lives on Earth. Cool, right? We are assigned to monitor the human points, you know? adds one when they’ve been good or deducts ten when they’ve been bad so we know where to send them.”

 

“Oh.” It was cool like what Gun said. But also a bit disturbing. 

“So like we get to decide who to bring here or who should be sent to hell?”

 

“Yes and no.” Gun answered as he sat next to Win who was now lying down on his bed. “God  used those points to monitor the good things you’ve done in your life but it doesn’t get you a free pass. He still sees things that we can’t see, like if the person was actually genuine with the good deed  they’ve done or if they actually intended to do a bad thing. He still has the final say. 

 

Fair enough. Win thinks to himself. 

 

 

“Do you have more questions?” Gun asked as he looked at the clock hanging on the bedroom wall. 

 

“I have more but I think I’ll save it for tomorrow. I’m really tired.” Win said with his sleepy eyes. Everything that happened here since he arrived was too much for him to take and he needs some time to process all of this. 

 

“I understand. I’m actually glad you didn’t black out again, I fainted three times on my first day.”

 

That was a relief. At least he was not the only one who had a not so good reaction from all of this. 

 

“I’ll let you rest now. But before I forget here’s your compact.” Gun hands him a small gadget that looks like a watch. “If you need to call me, just press this thing here and it’ll notify me, like a call or something.” he gave him a smile again and pats his head. 

 

“If you get hungry, just press this, and they will send you food. No need to close your eyes, it only works when you're at The Hall.”

 

“Thank you Gun. For everything.” If it wasn’t for Gun who was so sweet to Win, this day would not be as bearable as it is. He is thankful that this angel was the one who was assigned to him.

 

“Why! It was nothing. It was actually my pleasure. Don’t sweat.”

 

“I mean thank you for taking care of me. I probably would have fainted more if you didn’t take care of me well.”

 

“Forget it. I’ll leave now, okay? Don’t forget to ring me up if you need something. I still have a lot to teach you tomorrow so save your energy.” He pats him again on his head and gives him a hug and Win was thankful because he felt the comfort and warmth that everything will be alright from now on.

 

Win slept soundly that night.

 

--

 

When Win woke up the next day, his headache was gone and he was feeling a little cheerful. Gun messaged him a little bit earlier that he will pick him up later afternoon so he started to prepare himself. He fixed his bed and started to play a song on a cd player on his bedside table. He was surprised that even the songs on his cd were also of his taste. Gun was definitely not lying when he said that from the biggest down to littlest detail God has purposely created this house for him to feel comfortable, safe and at home. He couldn’t remember the title of the songs but Win finds himself singing every now and then. Surely these are what was on his playlist on Earth. 

 

He presses the button that Gun asked him to do if he was hungry and was startled when a hologram of an angel woman appears suddenly from the compact.

 

“Hi! Good Day! You’ve reached the Divine Kitchen. What would you like to have today?”

Win was lucky she offered him a very calming smile, if not it would be embarrassing to faint in front of a hologram.

 

“Uhhh… Do you have pancakes and bacon? And also eggs? And fruits?” he muttered shyly

 

“Of course. We will gladly prepare it for you. Would you like anything else?” 

 

“Uhh. It’s more than enough. Thank you.”

 

“Glad to help you. You’ll receive your food in about a minute or two. Thank you.” The angel smiled again before going offline. His food was gone as fast as it came. Win could never have enough of the food here if he is being honest. If God can give Michelin Star to the Divine Kitchen he could probably go over five.They deserve it.

 

He took a bath after and got a fresh pair of pants and shirt on his cabinet. It smells like baby powder and fresh flower petals, his favorite scent. And although it seems like everything in here was perfectly created for him, Win can’t explain the emptiness he feels. Maybe because he has no one to talk to? No one to share his food with? He shakes off the thought and grabs the book by his shelf. 

 

 Not an hour later, he was surprised to see Gun arrived in front of his house with a scooter. 

 

“A scooter. Really?” Gun squinted his eyes then stared at him.

“Not even a Porsche or an Audi? In this Technology? Makes sense.” He teases the shorter one.

“I think you forgot that we actually have wings.”

“Oh my bad.”

“I just brought this because you don’t have your wings yet. I’m sorry for thinking of you.” Win was shocked by the sudden seriousness in Gun’s face. Thankfully the angel was only playing with his jokes. 

“Gotcha.” he broke into a smile and pinched the newbie’s cheeks. 

“Let’s go, I’ll bring you to The Capitol to meet Sun.”

 

They met Sun and Win was amazed how calm and serene he looked. For a leader, he looks like he had never been stressed in his entire service. He just welcomed him and signed him few papers to get him ready for the work

 

“Do all angels look like that?” he asked Gun when once they were outside Sun’s office.

“Like what?”

“You know, like you wouldn’t hurt a fly?”

Gun laughs at him amusely

“There are no flies here, but yeah, he’s really just like that.You’ll meet more angels soon so you have to see for yourself. But just a reminder, we’re not perfect, we still have flaws.”

“Hmm. I see.”

 

 

---

 

Right now they are back at The Hall for their dinner. Win was happy to see Neen again but she was so close to Newwie, that he couldn’t talk to her. Gun was out for a while to meet someone named Off who Win has not met yet. And now he was sitting next to another angel, who’s name is Gulf. He was quiet, Win could almost hear the food he was chewing on his mouth. 

 

“Hey. I’m Win.” he stated giving the angel a smile

“Yes, I’ve heard.  you’re quite the talk of the town yesterday.” the angel,Gulf, said. He was looking at him awkwardly and Win felt uncomfortable with his stare.

“Don’t worry. They just find you really attractive that’s why.” Win almost spit the water on his mouth. 

“I don’t have many friends yet aside from Gun and those two.” he pointed at Newwie and Neen who were now feeding each other with kiwi. 

“Can you be my friend?”

“I’m not sure you’d like that.” Gulf smiles bitterly

“What? Why?” Win asked nervously. He didn’t want to pry but Gulf just looked like the saddest angel he had seen here.

“It’s better if you don’t know. But yes, I can be your friend if you insist. You look like a good guy and I don’t bite, don't be scared, it's just my eyebrows, and no I am not angry all the time.”

 

Win smiled at his newly found friend. Sun said that he could start working next week, so he probably should take his free time to make friends before going there. 

 

“So you mean we can go visit The Middle?” Win asked after listening to Gulf’s stories about himself. He learned that his new friend has been an angel for 3 years already and had many adventures in both Heaven and The Middle. He is quite bold, probably that’s why he has a different aura compared to the other angels he met. Nevertheless, he still has that soft feature on him. This is probably what Gun meant when he said he has to see it for himself. Gulf may look tough on the outside be he is definitely a soft baby inside

 

“Yes sure. Every month God allows us one day to visit The Middle to check the humans there. Those who are there can still become angels so God still wants us to check up on them once in a while but of course he doesn’t allow us to use our power there. It was prohibited, you know.”  

 

Oh God and his unlimited chances. Win thinks to himself. 

 

“But be careful though, some demons also watch over there.” 

“Demons? They are real?” Win asks in disbelief.

“Well not the demons that you’re thinking of. They don’t look like monsters. They look just like us so don’t be deceived.” 

“Hmm.”

“What exactly is in Hell?” Win was scared but he asked it anyway.

“Well from what I heard they said the demons had snakes and wolves as their pets and once they get bored they eat them. I’m not sure though. It was forbidden to ask God about that I just heard it from some angels.”  Win shakes the thought off. It was unpleasant enough to hear about demons more so about them eating their pets that are snakes. 

“I should’ve not asked that. It was disturbing.”

 

Gulf laughs at him. “True. But don’t think about it that much. You’re safe here in Heaven.”

 

 

Win wasn’t sure if it was a memory from his past life or just a nightmare but he surely didn’t sleep well that night as he remembers himself screaming asking for help.