Minjoo feels like her work as Wonyoung’s guardian demon was way harder than her fellow demon peers.

 

Jang Wonyoung wasn’t a horrible person no, she wasn’t a murderer, she wasn’t even a vegetarian— she was just on another level of annoying.

 

Day by day, most of her decisions were just ‘should I piss this person off?’ and almost all the time, the answer is yes- and that was mostly because her guardian angel was Yujin Ahn, one of the busiest angels in the business.

 

Yujin Ahn was one of the higher ups in the ranking of the angels, even nearing the status of archangel, so she was often dealing with bigger problems in the world, like poverty and the ridiculous nerve of some people to detonate bombs left and right.

 

Minjoo isn’t even sure how she ended up having to become Wonyoung’s guardian angel.

 

“Hehe, Nako is coming- should I scare her?” Wonyoung asks internally, and if Yujin were here, she’d have to argue with Yujin about what they would influence Wonyoung’s decision to be- but since she’s not, Minjoo just sighs.

 

“Whatever you want kid,” Minjoo whispers, and Wonyoung giggles, heading over to the poor Nako, who yelps as Wonyoung scares her senseless.

 

“Minjoo,” a familiar voice suddenly calls, and Minjoo extends her wings, protecting herself from the new voice, which was more of a natural reflex than something intentional.

 

“Woah- don’t be scared, I’m not here to banish you from the heavens,” Yujin says with a chuckle, Minjoo letting her wings droop onto the floor.

 

“I’m a demon Yujin, I already am banished from the heavens,” Minjoo scowls, and Yujin smiles, grabbing Minjoo’s hand.

 

“Aren’t you going to give me a kiss?” Yujin asks, her puppy dog eyes at play.

 

“No, your halo might kill me,” Minjoo states, and Yujin’s mouth opens and shuts, the angel then making her halo disappear.

 

“Now will you?” Yujin asks with a loopy smile, and Minjoo sighs before looking at her counterpart, leaning in for a kiss.

 

Yujin quickly captures her lips in hers, only pulling away to kiss both the demon’s cheeks and her nose, the devil’s incarnate only pushing her off when she started to kiss her neck.

 

“Hey hey hey- be holy,” Minjoo warns and Yujin just laughs.

 

“What’s Wonyoung been up to?”

 

“What do you think? Pranking people and flunking tests- the usual,” Minjoo says casually, and Yujin groans at her words.

 

“Babe! Why didn’t you stop her?”

 

“That’s your job Miss Ahn,” Minjoo reminds, and Yujin sighs, but instead of chasing after Wonyoung to stop her from doing something stupid, she kisses Minjoo yet again, shocking the demon, who shakes her head in disbelief.

 

“What was that for?”

 

“That’s for not guiding Wonyoung to the light,” Yujin says in a tone that made it seem as if she’d hurt her or something.

 

“Excuse me? My job is to guide her to hell, and unlike you- I need to keep my job,” Minjoo states, but Yujin shakes her head.

 

“I do need to keep this job!” Yujin exclaims, and Minjoo squints, because why would this high ranking angel need to keep the most mundane of angelic tasks?

 

“It’s the only way I get to see you,” Yujin admits, and Minjoo rolls her eyes at her cheesy angel girlfriend, pushing her towards Wonyoung, to stop her from shooting a spitball at Nako.

 

Yes, they were dating. Minjoo isn’t even sure how she came to like Yujin. I mean, as a demon, Minjoo never really hated angels, though it was supposedly in her nature to, meeting and working with Yujin wasn’t that big of a hassle, but after having to repeatedly argue with her about what was best for Wonyoung’s wellbeing, she found comfort in Yujin’s angelic ways.

 

Minjoo thought her feelings were stupid, and obviously pushed them away every time they threatened to surface, but somehow, that wretched angel caught feelings for her as well.

 

“You’re different,” Yujin said, and Minjoo cringed at the clichè words.

 

“From what? Other demons?” Minjoo questioned, Yujin shaking her head.

 

“From other angels,”

 

“That’s because I’m not an angel Yujin,”

 

“You are,”

 

“To me,”

 

“Minjoo,” Yujin calls, and Minjoo snaps out of her daydreams of the past, looking to her girlfriend.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You need to hold back your influence on the baby!” Yujin complains, and Minjoo just laughs at her girlfriend’s defeat in disciplining their assigned human.

 

“I wouldn’t have that much of an influence on her if you just intervened,” Minjoo states, referring to Yujin’s lack of attendance in Wonyoung’s daily life. Yujin finds herself taken aback by Minjoo’s words, reaching out to hold Minjoo’s hand, but she doesn’t take it, only looking away from her angelic counterpart.

 

“And she’s seventeen now- just in case you didn’t remember,”

 

“Minju I—”

 

“Don’t call me that,” Minjoo spites, stepping away from Yujin.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says, looking downwards, not daring to say anymore.

 

Truth be told, Minjoo wasn’t always a demon. Once upon a time, she was an angel, but she had no recollection of her life as one, all she knew was her name, and that she was cast away from the heavens for a reason she could not, and did not want to remember.

 

Minju was her name as an angel, a name she couldn’t use anymore for obvious reasons.

 

“One more,” Yujin says, and Minjoo finally looks at her, questioning her words with her eyes.

 

“I have one more mission to do, then I can stay,” Yujin says, taking both of Minjoo’s hands, almost burning from the touch, but she holds on.

 

“You promise?” Minjoo asks, and Yujin is about to die from the hellish heat that Minjoo was emitting, something she did when she was serious or when she was mad.

 

“I- i promise,” Yujin replies, though she feels like her face is about to melt off.

 

“Are you alright Yujin? You look sick? If you can’t promise me you don’t— Yujin!” Minjoo almost screeches when Yujin passes out, falling backwards and onto the ground, Minjoo panicking in an instant.

 

“Yujin? Yujin what in the name of Lucifer happened?” Minjoo kneels next to the angel, looking for any possible reason why Yujin suddenly out despite being one of the most powerful beings in the heavens.

 

Then she spots the burn marks on Yujin’s hands, and she clamps shut with one hand, using the other to touch the grass on the ground, and as expected, it caught fire immediately, Minjoo only able to gasp in shock and panic as she stomped on it to put the flame out.

 

“I’m so sorry,” Minjoo says with a sigh. It was times like this that reminded her that they weren’t actually supposed to be together, but everytime Minjoo thought of the idea of breaking up, Yujin would come back, and things would seem to be okay yet again. It was a cycle, but it was through Minjoo’s favorite route.

 

“You’re an idiot,” Minjoo says as she waits for her body to cool down before she could drag Yujin into Wonyoung’s house.

 

“An angel with a good life and a perfect track record,” Minjoo says. “And you want to date the devil that was thrown out of heaven,” Minjoo scowls, laying down on the grass next to Yujin.

 

“Why?” Minjoo questioned, though she knew Yujin was going to be passed out for a while, since her halo wasn’t there to protect her earlier.

 

“And you made that promise,” Minjoo says. “Knowing fully well that angel’s can’t break promises- or else they’ll die,” Minjoo says with a chuckle at how fragile the life of an angel was.

 

When it came to honour, angel’s clearly had the higher status, but when it came to pure and raw power, the demon’s took the lead. Though to be honest, angel’s could reign infinite power if they wanted to, it’s just that they were too nice to actually do so.

 

“MOOOMMMM!”

 

A rogue Jang Wonyoung came running through the grass, a terrified look on her face as she leaped over the couple, looking back at whatever seemed to be chasing her. Minjoo sits up from her position to take a glance at what Wonyoung was so afraid of, and she almost chokes on nothing when she sees the horde of geese running towards her direction.

 

“Geese? She got in trouble with geese?!” Minjoo questions in distress at how big of a trouble maker Wonyoung was.

 

“I didn’t even influence her!” Minjoo sighs in disbelief as she lifts the angel off the ground, the geese passing through them as she used her wings to levitate off the ground, watching as Wonyoung banged on the door of her house.

 

“Mom!! Help???” Wonyoung begs, but Minjoo saw her mom walk out of the house to get to the store earlier, so Wonyoung was on her own.

 

Well, unless of course, Minjoo used her own other worldly powers to save her from geese.

 

ing geese.

 

Minjoo flies to the steps that led to Wonyoung’s porch, Yujin still curled up in her arms, she knew animals could see her, they just couldn’t interact with her unless she did first, so she floated right above the steps, revealing her true form to the geese.

 

Her face began to peel off, revealing the deep red skin with the stone-like texture, her horns beginning to extend. Only half of her face was left after she’d fully transformed, both her hands turning into talons with only some patches of regular skin, all in the name of scaring the silly geese.

 

The geese finally stop, looking at the demon in confusion, then fear, and then they ran off, which freaked Wonyoung out the slightest bit, but she was safe now, so she decided to just shrug it off.

 

“Hahah! Serves you right! Ugly geese,” Wonyoung says happily, and Minjoo just sighs, planting her feet firmly on the mortal stairs.

 

“You’re so hot when you go into demon time,” Yujin mumbles all of the sudden, Minjoo almost dropping her in the process.

 

“Yujin! You scared me!” Minjoo yelps, her voice 5 octaves lower than the usual, and Yujin just gives her a dopey smile, cuddling deeper into her arms.

 

“You should be scaring me with that satanic look, but I just think you look so y,” Yujin says, sounding high as a kite as she did, making Minjoo chuckle at her antics.

 

“Right, and I think we should get you to bed,” Minjoo says, floating up the staircase and into Wonyoung’s room, where she rarely slept anyways, since the human prefered to watch TV until she fell asleep, making the living room her bedroom.

 

She tucks Yujin into the bed at first, the angel snuggling into the warm human sheets. Minjoo follows soon after, her true skin very much soothed with the feeling of the soft duvet. Even better when Yujin slinked herself around the demon, speeding up the process of her return to her normal- not all powerful form.

 

“Minjoo,” Yujin mumbles into the crook of her neck, and Minjoo hums in response.

 

“I love you,” Yujin says, and Minjoo almost screams, but as soon as she wraps her head around the idea of being loved by Ahn Yujin—

 

She smiles.

 

She wants to say it back, everything in her is begging her to say it back, but she can’t find the courage to, because saying those three words in return- was like making a promise to Yujin- and though she wouldn’t, she felt that, if she were to break a promise with Yujin, she’d die.

 

Truth be told, when it came to Yujin Ahn—

 

Minjoo was just as fragile as the angels.

 

——

 

When Minjoo wakes up the next morning, exactly when Wonyoung wakes up- Yujin is gone. She feels around for the angel’s presence in the bed, but she’s gone. She sits up as quick as light, scanning the room for any note she’d usually leave whenever she went off to work, often on Wonyoung’s mirror, but there was nothing.

 

“Yujin?” Minjoo calls, but there was no response.

 

A sudden flash of light scares Minjoo out of her wits, and she sees the faint light from a halo from behind her, but the light was unfamiliar, and definitely not Yujin’s.

 

“Minju Kim,” the voice booms, and Minjoo tremors a bit at the use of her real name, but she turns around to look at the angel, Son Seungwan, an archangel who had the second highest ranking of all, which translated her to being Yujin’s boss.

 

Minjoo only looks at the angel’s feet, knowing well it was of extreme disrespect to have a mere demon look an angel straight in the eyes.

 

“Yujin was absent from her morning duties with her cohort today, I assumed she’d be with Wonyoung,” Seungwan says, and Minjoo just remains silent, since she had no clue where Yujin was either.

 

“She’s not here,” Minjoo says formally, and Seungwan clicks her tongue.

 

“Do you have any idea where she’d be?” Seungwan asks. “Her underlings said the last time they saw her, she was going to Wonyoung,” Seungwan states, and Minjoo just remains silent, because she was about as worried as Seungwan was about the wellbeing of the angel.

 

“I have no idea ma’am,” Minjoo says, shaking her head.

 

“Was she here yesterday?”

 

“Yes, I saw her until nightfall- by morning she was gone,” Minjoo says truthfully, but Seungwan simply sighs.

 

“Did you kill her Minju?” Seungwan asks straight, not beating around the bush for a second.

 

“What?! I would never!” Minjoo defends herself, the shock causing her to look up, straight into the angel’s eyes.

 

Oh .

 

She’s tossed back by an invisible force directly onto the wall, groaning as the sharp pain pulsated through her, the full power of an archangel no match for a lowly demon.

 

“Then why are you recovering from your true form?” Seungwan asks, and Minjoo, who was limp on the floor, finally saw her foot, which was still in it’s true, demonic form.

 

“I- I was scaring some geese for Wonyoung,” Minjoo admits, which makes Seungwan even more curious about the ex-angel than before.

 

“What? Don’t lie to me Minju, you have every possible motive to kill Yujin—”

 

“I DIDN’T KILL Yujin!” Minjoo insists, sick of being blamed for killing Yujin, of all people.

 

I love you.

 

“I didn’t kill Yujin- I swear on Satan’s name,” Minjoo says, her breath heavy as the invisible force pressed onto her chest.

 

“You do?”

 

“I do,” Minjoo says, begging Seungwan to leave her alone, her eyes trained on the archangel’s knees.

 

“Fine then- but if we find any proof- you’re as good as dead Minju,” Seungwan says, the invisible force immediately lifted from the devil’s chest.

 

“Goodbye,” Seungwan vanishes with a snap of her fingers, and Minjoo is left alone to ponder about her girlfriend’s whereabouts.

 

I have one more mission to do.

 

“What the are you doing Ahn Yujin,”

 

——

 

After hours and hours of worrying, Minjoo finally puts a stop to her train of thoughts, abruptly standing up from her spot in the corner of Wonyoung’s room, marching down the stairs and towards the front door. But a snoring Wonyoung (at 3.00 PM) stops her from making her next move.

 

Where the hell was she going? What was she trying to do?

 

She had no clue where Yujin was, and no idea if she were safe, in trouble or if she’d just gone out for a grocery run. She had no friends to help her out either. Well, she did have Irene, the leader of her cohort, but it would ultimately expose her for dating an angel, and that would be no good. All the thoughts in her head somehow take her back to the sleeping Wonyoung on the couch.

 

The kid did like adventures an awful lot.

 

“Wonyoung,” Minjoo calls, channeling a bit of her power, just enough to reveal herself to Wonyoung. It was a trick Irene had shown her while she was training, since demons often got bored on earth, especially if their human was a goody two shoes, scaring people was how they spent their past times.

 

Minjoo obviously doesn’t want to scare her, so she jumps on top of the human, proceeding to hover over her with her scaly wings.

 

She spends all her time with me anyways, how could she be scared?

 

“Wonyoung! Wake up!” Minjoo says, shaking the girl awake, now having channeled enough power to physically exist in Wonyoung’s world.

 

“Shhhh I’m napping mom,” she mumbles and Minjoo slaps her hard on the face, but Wonyoung seems unbothered, light snores coming out of her.

 

“Jang Wonyoung!” Minjoo screams in a demonic voice, the sound shocking the human out of her wits, the Ahn jolting awake, the sight of Minjoo with her horns and wings only making her scream in terror.

 

“OH MY GOD I’M GONNA DIE!!?” Wonyoung screeches as she falls off the back of the couch’s armrest, crashing onto the wooden floor with a painful thud.

 

“Wonyoung! You have to listen to me!”

 

“IT KNOWS MY NAME GOD IT KNOWS MY NAME!”

 

“No! I need you to help me find your guardian angel!” Minjoo retaMinjootes, but Wonyoung wasn’t one to listen.

 

“Pleaseeeee God, don’t take me now- I’m too pretty to die!”

 

“YOU’RE NOT DYING!”

 

——

 

It takes one whole hour and 33 minutes to explain to Wonyoung the entire story of Minjoo’s life- from who she was, what she was, what she was doing here, who Yujin was, what Yujin was, who Yujin was to Minjoo, it was all in all, a horridly frustrating ordeal, but Wonyoung was Minjoo’s only hope of getting proper help, so perhaps- it was worth it.

 

“So let me get this straight, your angel girlfriend, who’s my guardian angel, is missing- and you need my help to find her,”

 

“Yes! Exactly,” Minjoo cheers victoriously, though Wonyoung still seemed to be questioning something.

 

“And you’re the demon that tells me to do bad things,”

 

“Oh I don’t tell you to do bad things, you get the ideas, I encourage them,” Minjoo clarifies, and Wonyoung nods in understanding, though she was still very much bewildered by the entire situation.

 

“So you need my help to find her?” Wonyoung suggests, and Minjoo nods, very much begging Wonyoung for her help.

 

“Please,” Minjoo says, for possibly the first time in her life, and Wonyoung just clicks her tongue.

 

“Well, don’t you have any idea of where she could be? She said she’d go on one more mission right?” Wonyoung asks, and Minjoo nods, trying to crack her head on whatever mission Yujin could be on.

 

“She did,”

 

“Didn’t she give any other clues?”

 

“I don’t- I don’t, know,”

 

“Have you ever thought of it?” Yujin suddenly says, Minjoo only able to look at her in confusion. They were laying on Wonyoung’s bed, watching the ceiling fan spin around and around, the couple amazed at the technology humanity had managed to conjure.

 

“If we could be together- for real, not trapped within the four walls of Wonyoung’s house,”

 

“You want me to go to your house? In heaven? You know I’ll just disintegrate,” Minjoo says with a chuckle.

 

“No I mean—”

 

“Mine in hell? You wouldn’t like it, it’s small and hot- and I’m pretty sure you’d disintegrate as soon as you’d step into—”

 

“No, Minjoo” Yujin says, wrapping a firm hand around her waist.

 

“The human world,” Yujin says, making Minjoo laugh even louder.

 

“You’re nuts,” Minjoo says, knowing the only way to become human was to face the Three Jury’s of Life, and make a deal with them, which was proven to work only once, and if you couldn’t come up with a deal that they deemed fitting, you’d be damned for eternity in The Jury’s Court, suffering for their entertainment.

 

Yeah Yujin was definitely nuts.

 

“No,” Minjoo says in disbelief, looking directly at Wonyoung. “There’s no way,”

 

“What? Don’t tell me she’s on a deadly quest that involves her turning human for you?” Wonyoung’s guess matched Minjoo’s assumptions almost exactly, making her stare at Wonyoung in shock.

 

“Was I right? Hah! I know, I’ve read the books before,”

 

“You read books?” Minjoo questions and Wonyoung nods.

 

“Once in a while,” Wonyoung shrugs, and Minjoo bites her tongue, because Yujin was always the one that enticed Wonyoung to read.

 

“So? Where do we need to go?” Wonyoung asks, pulling out a box of orange juice from the refrigerator.

 

“Do you like apple?” Wonyoung asks, holding up a box of apple juice. Minjoo has no answer, because she’s never tried human food before.

 

“Why am i asking? You’re a demon of course you like apples,” Wonyoung says, tossing the box of juice to Minjoo, who catches it with her tail.

 

“How do I-” Minjoo bites on the box, fangs nearly piercing through the box.

 

“No! No no no,” Wonyoung scolds, circling around the island to pry the box out of Minjoo’s mouth.

 

“Like this,” Wonyoung teaches the demon, pulling out the straw and pressing it into the little hole. She hands the demon the juice box, and Minjoo, still clueless, simply gnawing on the straw.

 

“Noooo, the straw,” Wonyoung tells, and Minjoo tries doing it, a sip of water passing through her lips and down .

 

A funny taste, but it was good.

 

“Good,” Minjoo says briefly, even harder to finish the drink- the box becoming crumpled because of the demon’s aggressive breath control.

 

“Well that was quick,”

 

——

 

“Is this hell?” Wonyoung asks, looking around at it’s very red interior, fanning herself from the bare minimum of heat.

 

“Not yet, this is just the city of hell, where all the demons live,” Minjoo says as they travel through the other dimension, as it were the fastest way to The Jury’s Court.

 

The Jury’s Court lay in the absolute centre of the dimensions. If you forgot which door you came in, you’d probably end up exiting to another dimension. Luckily, demons had excellent memory, which unfortunately led them to hold grudges very often.

 

“You live here?”

 

“Yeah, in some alleyway over there,”

 

“Hell’s not as bad as they say, it’s just about as hot as a summer day,” Wonyoung hums, but Minjoo shakes her head.

 

“No- you are not going to hell- this is the demon center, so obviously it’s not as hot, but the torture centers? You never want to go there,” Minjoo tells, and Wonyoung pouts.

 

“Can’t I just live with you in hell? You are my guardian demon right?” Wonyoung requests, and Minjoo finds it funny how this human actually seemed to take a liking to the depths of hell.

 

“Yeah, when you’re alive! When you’re dead you’re on your own,” Minjoo says. “You’re better off living with Yujin in the 7th heaven anyways, she’s got a big house and all,” Minjoo suggests instead, and Wonyoung seems to like the idea as well, so she changes the topic.

 

“Why is everyone in hell so ugly? How come you’re pretty?” Wonyoung demands, and Minjoo doesn’t actually have an answer to that, since things were always like that, demons were relatively ugly, and angels were—

 

“It’s because pure demons in hell mostly use their true form, which is meant to be scary, not ugly,” Minjoo explains, and Wonyoung nods, but she doesn't seem completely satisfied with the answer.

 

“Then? Why are you pretty? You’re not a pure demon?”

 

“No, I was an angel- then I became a demon, and I'm not that pretty if you see my true form,” Minjoo says casually, but then the thought crosses her, her cohort leader, Irene, was a known beauty and she was a fallen angel as well. Her entire cohort, as a matter of fact, were all made of fallen angels. No wonder Satan gave them the odd jobs, they were the damned cohort of mistreatment.

 

“You were an angel?! What happened?” Wonyoung exclaims, forcing the demon to clamp shut with one of her wings.

 

“Sshhh! Being an angel isn’t exactly a good thing in hell,” Minjoo hisses, to which the younger just pouts.

 

“Ugh, your wings are so scaly,” Wonyoung says in disgust, to which Minjoo just rolls her eyes.

 

“They’re meant to be, it’s supposed to be scary,”

 

“You’re not really scary though, I mean- I’m taller than you!” Wonyoung teases, and Minjoo slaps the back of her head with her wing, the human scowling at the demon’s rash actions.

 

“Minjoo?” Taylor, one of the higher ups in the demonic ranks suddenly calls out her name, and she quickly turns and bows, greeting her superior. Taylor was one of the most convincing demon’s in the history of devil’s, as she was the serpent that convinced Eve to eat the apple, making her very popular amongst humans, angels and demons alike.

 

“Hello Ma’am,” Minjoo bows yet again as she says this, Wonyoung smart enough to follow suit.

 

“Who is this demon? I’ve never seen her before,” Taylor says, pointing to Wonyoung.

 

“Oh she’s new, I got her from the incubation center,” Minjoo lies casually, since she was a demon, sinning came easy to her.

 

“Really? When was she born?”

 

“50 years ago, no horns and wings yet,” Minjoo says quickly ,and Taylor nods.

 

“Cohort?” Taylor asks, clearly asking Wonyoung.

 

“Pride 3,” Minjoo answers for Wonyoung, who just smiles sheepishly.

 

“She’s pretty shy for someone from Pride,” Taylor says with a chuckle, and Wonyoung just smiles.

 

“But she’s smiley, and all those Pride kids are like that,” Taylor says again. “Good luck child,” Taylor says with a small smile, and she dissolved from sight, allowing the two to let out a sigh of relief.

 

“Pride? Are the cohorts named after the seven deadly sins? What’s yours?” Wonyoung asks excitedly, and Minjoo just sighs, because even in hell, Wonyoung had to be the most annoyingly curious little sprout she’d ever seen.

 

“And fifty years? Isn’t that too much? How old are you?” Wonyoung asks repeatedly, and Minjoo slams her wings against Wonyoung’s mouth, making her shut up immediately.

 

“First of all, yes, the main branches are named after the seven sins, I’m in Lust 13,” Minjoo answers her first question. “50 years is really young for a demon, I basically called you a baby, and I’m 5670 years old? I think,” Minjoo states, and Wonyoung gasps as Minjoo lets free.

 

“Five thousand six hundred and seventy? You’re so old,” Wonyoung says, and Minjoo shrugs.

 

“In human years I’m only 25,” Minjoo says casually, and Wonyoung pouts.

 

“Do the angels have cohorts? What’s Yujin’s cohort?” Wonyoung asks again.

 

“Chastity 1, and she’s the leader,” Minjoo says with a prideful smile on her lips.

 

“The leader of the first cohort? You’re a loser compared to Yujin, why does she like you?” Wonyoung asks, Minjoo smacking the back of her head yet again.

 

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask her when we find her,” Minjoo suggests, and Wonyoung nods, proceeding to walk for a few minutes in silence, and they finally arrive at hell’s immigration checkpoint, a place that wasn’t as red as the rest of the city.

 

There were two gigantic doors and no guards whatsoever, but there were a lot of people, most of them suddenly disappearing as soon as Wonyoung looked at them. Wonyoung was about to ask Minjoo another question, but a terrifying creature spawned in front of the duo, shocking Wonyoung, but Minjoo remained unfazed.

 

“Hello Eric,” Minjoo greets, and the winged bat-like creature smiles with his eyes.

 

“This is Eric the demon of lies, so don’t ask him any questions,” Minjoo tells, and Wonyoung nods aggressively, deciding to shut up while Minjoo dealt with the scary devil.

 

“What you passing through for Minjoo?” Eric asks, cocking a furry eyebrow.

 

“Looking for my human’s guardian angel,” Minjoo says truthfully, and Eric nods.

 

“Why?”

 

“To maintain balance, my human’s a bit out of control,” Minjoo says with a smile, and Eric nods in understanding.

 

“Of course, you’re free to go Minjoo and her friend!” Eric says happily, and the door suddenly opens, revealing rows and rows of white marble columns, extravagance only added with the marble floors that danced across the flooring.

 

“Please be here,”

 

——

 

Each step they take echoes against the marble, the duo hiding behind almost every marble column, looking out for the Ahn. Wonyoung is crouching behind her, fists ready to attack anything that would threaten her on her mission to save her guardian angel.

 

When Minjoo spots Yujin, she almost cries.

 

She was in a large cage, her halo flickering like mad as her wings and limbs were being stretched out with chains that were made from hell’s iron, the only iron that could kill an angel, her lips trembling from the pain.

 

“Yujin Ahn, the greatest angel of Chastity, leader of the first cohort of Chastity,” a booming voice says, and Yujin just breathes heavily, clearly too tired to respond.

 

“You? Of all angels?” The voice questions. “You want to become human? Yet you give us no reason,” the voice says, Yujin sighing at the demand.

 

“I’ve fallen in love with someone,” Yujin admits, and Minjoo shakes her head, her hand reaching out to stop Yujin from putting herself through that kind of hell.

 

“A human?” The voice asks, and Minjoo wants to scream at her to not admit, to never let the words leave that she’s fallen in love with a demon.

 

“A devil,” Yujin says, and it’s like her words are echoed for eternity, because now there was no turning back, whether Yujin would succeed or not, it would ruin her. The heavens would never accept her again.

 

After what felt like aeons of silence, the voice speaks.

 

“Minjoo, isn’t it?” The voice asks, and Yujin sighs, coughing out a bit of blood as she nodded.

 

“Of course- even when she were an angel, you were already infatuated by her,”

 

“How could I not? She’s beautiful,” Yujin says with a dopey smile, blood tainting her teeth.

 

“She gave up everything for me- she lied for me,” Yujin says with a smile, though her eyes were hollow.

 

“So I could be safe, she lied, she broke her oath as an angel, she went to hell,” Yujin recalls things that even Minjoo didn’t know, the devil’s mouth going agape as she heard the stories.

 

“You’re an angel of Chastity, in love with the fallen angel damned for eternity for the sin of Lust,” the voice says. “How ironic,”

 

“It was me, I was her sin,” Yujin stressed, letting out a low growl as she did. “I fell in love with her first, I pursued her, I SHOULD’VE BEEN THE FALLEN ANGEL!” Yujin’s volume increases with every word, Wonyoung’s eyes widening at her first official meeting with her guardian angel.

 

“But, but she did it,” Yujin says, getting tired from her brief screams. “She took the blame, and- and, the very last thing she told me—”

 

“Was that she loved me,” Yujin says, her eyes starting to gloss from the overwhelming flow of emotions she felt as she recalled the day she lost Minjoo for the first time.

 

“I, I need to make it up to her,” Yujin says, determination starting to shine in her tone.

 

“In a world where, I can love her, with everything I have,”

 

“It’s all I need from you,” Yujin says, and Minjoo is about to run to Yujin, to tell her that she doesn’t need to do all that, and that she loved her regardless of anything that happened in the past, or would happen in the future. She’s stopped by Wonyoung pulling her back, gripping her wrist tight.

 

“You’ll die,” Wonyoung whispers, but Minjoo shakes her head.

 

“I have to stop her,”

 

“No- I can’t lose both my guardian angel and my demon on the same day,” Wonyoung says, and Minjoo wants to reason with her, but nothing can come out of .

 

“You’ll get a new one,” Minjoo says, but Wonyoung shakes her head, pulling Minjoo towards her so she wouldn’t run off.

 

“They wouldn’t let me bother Nako everyday like you do,” Wonyoung says, but Minjoo shakes her head.

 

“I won’t die, I swear,” Minjoo says, giving Wonyoung a soft smile.

 

“On God?” Wonyoung asks with a matching smile, but Minjoo just laughs.

 

“On Satan,” Minjoo says with a smile, pulling herself away from Wonyoung, turning to run to Yujin, but just as she does, Yujin is released from the chains, the 20 meter drop making Minjoo scream in horror.

 

“Yujin!” Minjoo screams in terror, using her wings to surge forward, but just as she’s about to catch Yujin, the angel uses her own wings to hover just above the hard marble.

 

“Minju? What are you doing here?” Yujin asks, her eyes wide as they landed on the demon.

 

“Fine, I’ll grant we will grant you both your humanity,” the voice booms. “So long as you beat our champion in a fight,”

 

The ground begins to rumble, Yujin landing gently onto the floor, eyes not leaving Minjoo despite the chaos beginning to ensue around them.

 

“How are you here? Who’s taking care of Wonyoung?” Yujin questions, and Minjoo replies by taking her hand.

 

“Demons have good memory, and Wonyoung is-” Minjoo explains briefly, pointing to the kid, who waved at Yujin enthusiastically.

 

“You brought Wonyoung?! She’s just a kid! Who’s gonna take responsibility if she— OH !” Yujin yells as a creature crashed through the marble flooring, pieces of rubble splattering all over the court.

 

“Yujin,” Minjoo calls, distracting the angel from the creature. “Look at me,” Minjoo says, Yujin abiding as soon as Minjoo said so. The demon gives her a quick kiss on the lips, which leaves the divine one bewildered for a moment, but the roaring of the creature pulls her back to reality, and just before they get a clear view of the beast, Minjoo says—

 

“I love you too,”

 

The creature appears to be a Chimera, equipped fully with it’s impenetrable fur, it’s lion head, and not to forget it’s goat and snake friend it insisted on bringing everywhere it went.

 

“Guys!! I found these on some statues!” Wonyoung suddenly calls, wielding two swords in each of her hands, trying her best to hold them up.

 

“You are not fighting little missy,” Yujin scolds, to which Wonyoung pouts, but she tosses the swords in their direction, and Minjoo catches it with ease, the demon chuckling at her counterpart, who barely catches the sword.

 

“Ready love?” Minjoo asks, the sword immediately catching fire from it’s hilt to it’s very tip.

 

“Are you showing off?” Yujin asks as her halo begins to glow, and Minjoo only winks at her, running off to charge at the chimera.

 

“HEY BUDDY!” Minjoo calls the beast, swinging her sword, the bright flames enticing a strong sense of anger in the monster.

 

“You got a name?” Minjoo asks, trying to aim for any chimera’s ultimate weakness, it’s mouth.

 

“What if I named you Azzo? You like that?” Minjoo asks, managing to slice at the lion’s nose, causing it to roar in pain. Azzo retaliated by extending its claws, slicing at the demon, rage emitting from it’s constant sneers and growls.

 

“I take it you don’t like it,” Minjoo says with a forced smile, and she almost screams when the chimera breathes pure fire into her face- and this was painful fire, the ones demon’s weren’t immune to.

 

She barely dodges the flames, sliding underneath the chimera, trying to burn through it’s skin, since only it’s fur was made to be heavy duty.

 

“Yujin! It breathes the kind of fire that will kill you! Get away from it’s lion head!” Minjoo yells as she meets Yujin on the other side of its body, the angel very much busy with the snake head.

 

“Thanks babe but i—” Yujin can barely finish her sentence as Minjoo arrives by her side, cutting straight through the snake's mouth, causing the tail to go limp.

 

“You are showing off!” Yujin says with a chuckle, Minjoo shaking her head.

 

“I won’t be if we die,” Minjoo says. “You take Azzo’s goat friend, I’ll deal with the lion,” Minjoo says, flying off as soon as she did, leaving Yujin with the goat head.

 

“Why do you even need a goat head? Goat’s are useless!” Yujin sighs, using the light from her halo to blind the goat, the ridiculous head bleating in distress as Yujin tried to pry it’s mouth open, yet the goat wasn’t cooperating with her, only showing off it’s horrendously yellow teeth.

 

“Yujin! Catch!” Wonyoung suddenly intervened, throwing a bag to the angel, who swiftly caught it with her wings.

 

“What is this?!” Yujin asked, fending from the goat’s horns with her sword while she opened the bag with her wings, tossing one of it’s contents into her free hand.

 

a P P l e j U I c e

 

“Apple juice?!” Yujin questions, briefly glancing at Wonyoung, who nodded aggressively.

 

“Goats love apples! I learned that in biology!” Wonyoung exclaimed, and Yujin smiles, because she does remember that class- it was one of the few Yujin managed to convince her to focus on.

 

Yujin uses her wings to throw the boxes off apple juice directly into the goat’s mouth, damaging it so it would spill into the goat’s mouth, and after a few agitating throws, the goat finally seemed to sense that the contents of the box were apples, and it opened its mouth, giving Yujin the opportunity to shove even more boxes into the goat’s mouth, choking the farmhouse enemy in the process.

 

As soon as the goat stopped bleating and began to make choking noises instead, Yujin flew upwards and stabbed Azzo’s friend straight through the throat, blood and juice splattering out from its mouth, Yujin smiling at the small victory.

 

Then she hears a strong wind.

 

“Minju!” Yujin screeches as she flew to where Minjoo was, barely making it in time to shield Minjoo from the flames with her wings.

 

“Yujin!” Minjoo screams as the angel staggered into her arms, her wings and back completely burnt.

 

“I- it’s okay, I won’t need wings when we become humans,” Yujin says with a genuine smile, showing off her dimples.

 

“You’re nuts,” Minjoo says with a chuckle, hoisting Yujin up on her two feet.

 

“I have a plan,” Minjoo says, pulling Yujin with her as she dodged the chimera’s flames, trying not to burn Yujin anymore.

 

“I’m all ears,” Yujin says weakly, and Minjoo nods.

 

“Use your halo, to its maximum, and blind the chimera- then force it to look up with your sword, from above, I’ll stab it,” Minjoo says with clarity, and Yujin nods.

 

“But you might die from the halo,” Yujin reminds, but Minjoo shakes her head.

 

“I’ll close my eyes,”

 

——

 

“Now!” Minjoo yells, and Yujin breathes in, and the light surrounding her begins to glow at an inhumane brightness, Minjoo flies upwards, looking straight up as she kept her eyes shut, trying to fly as far away from the source of the halo.

 

As soon as she felt the light disappear, she let herself fall, shooting straight down to where Azzo bellowed, roaring in pain as it shut its eyes tight, Yujin pushing the beast’s neck upwards with all her might, Minjoo folding her wings into an aerodynamic position as she extended the hand that held her sword, falling even faster than before.

 

When she reaches the Chimera’s roaring mouth, she sees the fire, creeping out of its throat, and it was as if everything had fallen into slow motion. Minjoo bit her lip as she plunged the sword straight through the beast’s throat, yet the fire still came, engulfing Minjoo’s head in flames, and her ears could only hear static, her vision went black, and then came the pain of death.

 

“Minjoo!”

 

——

 

The chimera lay dead in front of Yujin, but so did Minjoo.

 

“J- Minju,” Yujin whimpered as she pulled the demon close, her face revealing her true form, as all demons did when they passed.

 

“Y- you- you’re gonna come to the human world with me right? You’re not going to leave me? Minju? Minju?!” Yujin screams for her love, shaking her body, but to no avail. Her breathing becomes raggedy, her hands trembling as she wrapped them around Minjoo, pulling her close.

 

“You can’t leave me, Minju,” Yujin’s voice cracks as she says this, a single tear sliding off her cheek.

 

“Yujin,” Wonyoung says solemnly, placing a soft hand on the angel’s shoulder.

 

“J-Minju,”

 

“Congratulations, Yujin Ahn, the greatest angel of Chastity, leader of the first cohort of Chastity,” the voice booms, though Yujin didn’t feel congratulated the slightest bit.

 

“Y-you, you’re going to bring her back right? You promised the both of us humanity, you’re going to bring her back right? Right?!” Yujin demands, her eyes showing signs of insanity as she demanded her answer, the voice only chuckling.

 

“That, is the decision of the jury,”

 

“Ahn Yujin,”

 

——

 

“Are you sure this is the place?” Yujin questions, her hands gripped firmly around the steering wheel, leaning towards the passenger's seat, where Minjoo also leaned towards the window, looking at the green field, a single house in the middle of it all.

 

“You know I have great memory,” Minjoo assures, caressing Yujin’s hand gently, her face inching closer to Yujin’s.

 

“You’re showing off again,” Yujin says with a smirk, rolling her eyes.

 

“Aren’t you going to give me a kiss?” Minjoo asks, and Yujin does as expected, kissing Minjoo gently on the lips.

 

“You happy now?” Yujin asks, raising her eyebrows, to which Minjoo nods enthusiastically.

 

“Let’s go see her,” Minjoo says, and they both exit the car, walking hand in hand as they walked through the grass towards the house, Minjoo smiling as she recalled all their memories at this very plane of green.

 

When they were reborn on earth, Minjoo was reborn with all the memories of her life as a demon, and she kept it with her, until the day she found Yujin again.

 

Though Yujin, on the other hand, remembered nothing of her past life as an angel, but that didn’t matter to Minjoo. All that mattered was that she would fall in love with Minjoo again, as Minjoo did with her all those years ago when she was cast to hell as a fallen angel.

 

“Do you know this place? We spent all our time on this grass- in this house, our first kiss was, around there,” Minjoo tells, pointing to an area near the little stream that circulated around the grass.

 

“I didn’t know, but now I do,” Yujin says with a soft smile, the couple continuing their casual stroll towards the home, and as soon as they arrived, Minjoo took a deep breath.

 

Minjoo was 23 now, so Wonyoung- Wonyoung would be 40 years old this year.

 

She rings the doorbell, and she hears footsteps coming as soon as she does. Once the door opens, she’s greeted by a surprise.

 

“Nako?” Minjoo questions, and both Nako and Yujin look visibly confused.

 

“I am so sorry, but, do I know you?” Nako questions, and it snaps into Minjoo’s head that Nako had never actually met Minjoo before, despite their constant running into each other, as Nako was the number one victim of Wonyoung’s pranks.

 

“I’m Minjoo- an old friend of Wonyoung’s, um- does she still live here?” Minjoo asks, and Nako breaks into a smile.

 

“Baby! An old friend of yours is here! She says her name is Minjoo!” Nako calls, turning towards the inside of the house to do so.

 

Baby???????

 

“Minjoo?! Minjoo Kim?!”

 

Oh my Satan her voice didn’t change the slightest bit.

 

“Are you sure she’s your friend baby? She looks so young,” Nako asks, intending for it to be a whisper, but Nako was always bad at that.

 

“What? Nah, she’s like five thousand, six hundred and ninety three years old!” Wonyoung exclaims, and Nako looks even more than confused, and Wonyoung finally comes into view.

 

She looks older, like an actual mature adult now, but there was still a mischievous look in the way she smiled. But what took Minjoo by absolute surprise, was the little boy in her arms, slurping on a box of the classic apple juice. Wonyoung quickly hands the boy to Nako, who accepts the other woman with ease, and Minjoo just can’t ing believe it.

 

“Hello Wonyoung,” Minjoo says, trying to hold back a full smile, but she finds that she can’t hold herself back anymore when Wonyoung lunges forward to give the both of them a bear hug, Yujin squealing in the process.

 

“Hello two ladies I don’t know!” The boy chimes, waving at Yujin and Minjoo, Yujin managing to wave back enthusiastically through Wonyoung’s iron grip.

 

“Oh Yujin! I can’t believe you did it! Hihi, and Minjoo! You didn’t die!” Wonyoung blabbers as she kept the two in a chokehold rather than a hug, but the couple enjoyed the oddly famiMinjoor embrace regardless.

 

“Actually I did die—”

 

“You know, I was super worried about you two, I thought about it for months! Eventually I just pushed it to the back of my head, but I never forgot you!”

 

“Also!! You know Minjoo, my new demon ! I became an honour student after you left,” Wonyoung said with a pout, finally letting the two go, Minjoo laughing as soon as she did.

 

“Maybe you just got a better angel,” Minjoo says, and Yujin pokes her, causing her and Wonyoung to laugh yet again.

 

“Angel? Demon? Hello? Am I missing something?” Nako questioned, her eyebrows scrunched together, the boy just playing around with Nako’s hair.

 

“Oh! This is my wife, Nako, by the way- that’s my son, Minju,” Wonyoung says with a happy smile, and Minjoo is smiling from ear to ear, giving Wonyoung a playful shove.

 

“Of course you married Nako,” Minjoo says with a chuckle, shaking her head in disbelief.

 

“Hello? Am I supposed to know her?” Nako questions for the nth time that day.

 

“Remember that story about the angel and the demon who fell in love? And then they requested help from their amazing human friend to help unite them forever?” Wonyoung asks, slipping a hand around Nako’s shoulder.

 

“Yeah? You tell that story to Minju every night,” Nako says, Minjoo perking up at the mention of her real name, turning a bit red when she realized Wonyoung named her son after her.

 

“YEAH! That’s the best story!” little Minju adds, pumping a tiny fist into the air.

 

“Well- buckle up,”

 

“That story was a hundred percent real,” Wonyoung announces, tiny Minju gasping at the truth. “I should know,”

 

“I was the amazing human friend,”