“Are you sure we don’t need to go to the hospital?”

 

“It will heal after a good rest. It’s late. You should go now.” Moonbyul spoke politely.

 

“Thank you, Lily, for saving us tonight. Thank you too, Hannie.” Solar thanked her fellow guardian angel and the human she was looking after.

 

Lily clasped Solar’s hands and begged, “Sol, I can talk to our seniors and persuade Our Father to take you in. You know, don’t you?” Solar signaled to hush and Lily stopped to look at Moonbyul, who was confused.

 

“What is it?”, Moonbyul demanded to know.

 

Lily replied with an annoyed tone, “Take care of her. I don’t trust you but if Solar trusts you, then I will try to co-operate. You know she is not in a good condition without you. Don’t ever go out in the night again. The warrior angels are here to execute the Rus.” She exhaled, “However, they are having trouble finding it. Someone is hiding it. So, be careful. Since it appeared before you tonight, you could be a target or maybe not.”

 

“Lily, I am sure she knows that too.” Hannie tried to cover for Moonbyul.

 

Lily glaring at her, “Just because you are a crazy fan doesn’t mean you should back up for her. Should I abandon you?” And the two started their squabbling. Moonbyul sighed at the God-knows year old angel and the sixteen-year-old while Solar was worriedly trying to calm them down.

.

.

.

Solar hold the door for Lily and Hannie. “Be careful you two.”

 

“Don’t worry about us. I will report this and hopefully everything will be okay.” Lily gave Solar an assured smile and transformed to a white cat. “We will get going then.” Hannie picked up Lily and bowed to Solar.

 

Solar return back to the living room and opened the bag from the bakery store. “No, the cupcakes are ruined.”

 

“We can buy them again.” Moonbyul climbed down from the couch and pull Solar in her embrace. “I am just glad that you are okay.”

 

<<<

 

[Earlier]

 

The time stopped; every moving object froze including Moonbyul and Solar. A bell jiggled and white feathers fell everywhere. The golden halo luminates and the two large white wings folded in. With light steps, the angel walked towards Solar who was stationary on the ground. The angel taps lightly on Solar’s forehead and Solar unfroze.

 

“Help.” Solar gasped for air. At the sight of long garments and bare feet, Solar scanned from the bottom to top and her eyes stopped on the smiling baby face.

 

“Sol.”

 

“Lily?”

 

A gust of tear overflowed from Solar’s eyes. It felt like an eternity since the last time she saw a fellow angel and they had come to her rescue. There was so much she wanted to say but the words did not come easy. Lily, the guardian angel who can control time, was a close friend of Solar while she was in Heaven. Lily helped Solar to stand up but her weak knees trembled and slipped from Lily’s grip.

 

“Sol!”, Lily worriedly picked her up again. “Don’t push yourself.”

 

“LiLy!!!”, a girl called out as she rushed towards them. She bent over and breathe heavily to catch her breath. “Don’t leave me- ha- like that- ha- AGAIN!”

 

“This is an emergency. Do you expect me to carry you on my back?”, Lily narrowed her eyes.

 

Hannie finally stabled her breathing. “Well, yes. If you could.”

 

Lily ignored Hannie and walked over to Moonbyul who was frozen before the immobile Rus. Lily instructed Hannie to stay near Solar. Hannie looked with confusion to Solar. ‘Why is she looking so tired and devastated? What happened here?’

 

“Are you okay?”, Hannie took Solar by her arm so Solar could lean on her.

 

“Yes. Thank you.”

 

Hannie blinked as her mind went through her memory to remember this familiar voice. She gazed at Solar whose face was half covered by the mask under the night sky.

 

Lily took a close look at Moonbyul. Those ruby eyes were something. The more she looked in it, the more she was into it. Lily shook herself off and touched on Moonbyul’s forehead to unfreeze her.

 

Moonbyul gasped for air and seeing a stranger by her side, she swung her sword by reflex. Clang. Solar gritted her teeth at the shrilling sound of the swords clashing.

 

The silver sword and the white golden-handle sword clashed in between Moonbyul and Lily. “I cannot hold the Rus for that long to deal with you first.” The sternness on Lily’s face made Moonbyul to back down.

 

Moonbyul was no fool to mess with an angel in her state. She looked at the immobile Rus before her. ‘How did it happen? Is this because of her?’ Moonbyul suggested that they should kill the Rus right there.

 

“I will take care of this.” Lily swirled her sword to exterminate the Rus. As soon as she lifted her sword, a portal suddenly appeared and in the Rus, vanishing into thin air. “What?”, Lily stood there dumbfounded.  

 

>>>

 

The four of them retuned back to Solar’s apartment. Moonbyul hurt her left hand badly but she did not want Solar to worry, so she kept it hidden.

 

“SOLAR! MOONBYUL! Are you kidding me? OH MY GOD! I can’t believe this.” Hannie hold onto her chest as she stared intensely at the two idols. The two idols put on their business smile at the drooling sixteen-year-old. “I knew it. Your voice sounded familiar before.”

 

Lily smacked Hannie on her shoulder and pulled her down harshly to make her sit. “Stop it. You are making them uncomfortable. Have some shame, girl.”

 

Hannie let out a guilty laugh and apologized.

 

“Anyways, I think someone was watching us before.” Moonbyul brought back the topic.

 

“Maybe. Or that someone summoned the Rus back.” Lily answered.

 

“Rus? What is that?”, Hannie asked curiously. She was always fascinated about these unnatural things. It was due to her curiosity that led to her discovery of Lily’s disguise as her pet cat.

 

The three of them looked at Hannie with different looks on their faces. Moonbyul’s face absolutely said ‘why is she here again’, while Lily’s said ‘what is wrong with her’. Solar asked Hannie if she didn’t see the Rus back then.

 

“No. I didn’t see anything. Except you three.”

 

“Interesting”, both Moonbyul and Lily said in unison. Lily rolled her eyes to which Moonbyul sighed at the immaturity.

 

Moonbyul turned to Hannie and asked what they were doing around the area. Hannie gave a shy chuckle and looked away. “Well, we were able to save you thanks to this girl childishness.” Lily remarked.

 

Moonbyul almost face-palmed in front of them. She wondered if both of the them knew they were the same.

 

Hannie continued, “Well, I got angry with my mom. So, I ran away. I didn’t know Lily was following me. We live at Block C apartment. I saw my brother looking for me and I ran into a lane. That’s when we heard your scream.”

 

Solar thanked Lily and Hannie once again for saving them. She reached out her hand to pat at Moonbyul’s arm but Moonbyul grunted to the pain. Solar quickly reacted to check on her injury. However, Moonbyul gave a weary smile and told her not to worry since it was a minor injury.

 

 

>>>

 

 

The next day, Hwasa frantically sprinted towards the practice room. She bust open the door and rushed in. “Where is Yong-sun unnie?”

 

After getting her answer, Hwasa quickly made her way out and ran to the washroom. She called for Solar and Solar came out hastily. “What happened?”

 

Hwasa relayed the news of Moonbyul that she fainted while recording. The news made Solar to panic even more. She quickly rushed to hospital where the staffs took Moonbyul.

 

When Solar reached there, Moonbyul has already gain her consciousness. Moonbyul’s manager left the room so they could talk to each other. Moonbyul had a cast on her left hand. Seeing Solar was worried about her, Moonbyul joked. “Now you have to feed me.”

 

Solar pursed her lips to restrain from smiling. “It’s your left hand.”

 

Healing injuries in the human realm consumed a lot of energy. Moonbyul was able to heal the injury but the loss of energy made her fatigued, resulting to her faint. By the time she woke up, the doctor was examining her. Moonbyul wanted to make sure her hand was perfectly fine so she requested the doctor for a check-up.

 

The result showed Moonbyul had a light ligament injury. The manager frowned on the news. Moonbyul knew she must put up with the company since she got hurt on her own. Solar could not stop worrying about Moonbyul and kept thinking if the company would scold her. However, things worked out quite alright although Moonbyul must continue with the schedules despite the injury. Moonbyul agreed to do it since she didn’t want to be a hinderance to the group members.

 

“You sure are a true devil.” Solar simpered.