Heaven. Time Unknown. 

 

“Are demons our enemies?”

Her sister is quiet for so long as they walk along the pristine gardens of Heaven that Yongsun wonders if she should repeat the question. 

“What makes you ask?” The older angel finally replies, taking a turn until they reach a fountain surrounded by white columns. Yongsun watches the water glitter against the ethereal light all around them, there are other angels here, some talking amicably, others on their way to join the Host. She thinks about her answer.

“It just seems like an obvious thing,” she finally says, for lack of better reasoning. “A dog’s natural enemy is a cat, so an angel’s natural enemy is a demon. They fell from Grace so they must be evil, therefore we must be against them. Right?” Yongsun looks at Yonghee. The truth was, she really doesn’t know the answer. So far, in all her time under Yonghee’s metaphorical (and literal) wing, her older sister had only ever drilled her on the basics, that angels were there to grant blessings, and provide light and peace to humans. She just wants to know where demons fit into the equation.

Yonghee smiles, lifting a hand to fix a few loose strands of hair that had gotten tangled up in Yongsun’s wings. “You don’t think cats and dogs can learn to get along together?”

“Okay maybe my example wasn’t that--”

“What are demons made of?”

Yongsun is taken aback. She flounders for a bit, not sure what the answer was. Yonghee’s smile is teasing but patient.

“You said it yourself you know,” Her sister finally says, taking pity on her, “demons are just angels who fell from Grace. If you think about it, they’re almost the same as us.”

“Yes but--”

“Our other angelic brothers and sisters might disagree with me on this point, but I think demons have just as important a role as angels do in helping the humans understand how to use their given free will.” Yonghee says; she is staring out at the fountain now. “Whether it’s an angelic blessing or a demonic temptation, it all comes together in the great balance, and that’s what matters in the end, no? That the balance is maintained.”

Yongsun nods slowly, trying to see things the way her sister does. She wonders if she’s still too young of an angel, or perhaps still too naive to see how demons could ever be of any help to mortals, but she trusts her sister’s words. That would be enough for now.

“You’re very wise, Unnie.” Yongsun says, at length. Across from them the fountain water keeps cycling back around and around.

 

Goguryeo. 20 BC

 

With every crunch of her bare feet on grass and soil, Yongsun feels her excitement grow. Everything is so lush, as if each little thing is into stark contrast when before all she knew was pristine whiteness. Even the scents are stronger, and she takes a deep breath, holding it in her lungs so she can keep the smells of wet earth, of dry leaves, of living wood, of wild flowers deep inside her.

When they reach the outskirts of what looks to be a simple settlement, Yongsun has new smells and new sights that take her breath away, things like crackling fires, livestock, and ageing meat. She can also hear the humans this time, communicating with one another, and the sight fills her with a deep love that spreads out from her core.

“There have been many angels before us,” Yonghee says, looking elsewhere, playfully waving at a group of children who are staring at them from a stone hut, “and there will be other angels even after we move on from this village. The important thing is that they know you’re here for them.”

As if on cue, a woman comes running toward them, pulling Yongsun and her sister inside a hut where a small girl is lying on a woven mat on the floor. There’s a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead and her neck but what draws Yongsun’s attention is her left leg which is swollen and dark from what looks like a nasty bite wound. 

The flesh around the wound is practically black and angry and as Yongsun approaches she can smell the metallic tang of blood and something sour in the air. The child whimpers weekly from the mat, but does little else, she doesn’t even acknowledge their presence. 

Yongsun kneels beside  the little girl, hands gentle as her fingers trace the raw skin around the wound, her skin is feverish to the touch. The child clenches her eyes shut tighter and the softest of sobs escapes her lips. Yongsun looks up at Yonghee, who gives her an encouraging smile and two thumbs up.

“Go for it!”

She plucks the halo off her head, taking care to make her movements slow and gentle as she passes it over the little girl’s wounds. Her first ever miracle. In the aftermath, all that’s left is reddened skin, still a bit raw from the healing, but aside from the dried and cakey streaks of blood and pus, no other trace of the wound remains. 

“Feels better right?” Yongsun says, in a low tone for just the two of them. The child looks up at her with wide eyes, suddenly shy. She lifts a tiny hand, tracing it over the tips of Yongsun’s wings, feeling at the soft down of her feathers. When she pulls her hand away, there’s a tiny smile on her face and she bows low and deep to Yong and her sister before standing up to hug her mother’s side. 

Just as they leave that house they’re invited to another, and another after that, and another, and another. At the end of the day, resting in their own hut, Yongsun reaches for her sister’s hand in the dark.

“Thank you, Unnie.”

Even in the dark, Yonghee’s smile is bright and she rubs calming circles into Yong’s wrist. “Proud of you little Yong. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.”

The next day, the village is ransacked by bandits, and in their midst is a demon. 

In the aftermath, Yongsun is furious but her sister is a picture of melancholic calmness. “Little Yong, do you remember what I told you about demons?”

The bandits and their demon are long gone by now, and Yongsun finally deflates, glaring balefully at her sister, “I don’t know, something about cats and dogs?”

Yonghee laughs. “No. I told you that demons have their own contribution to the balance. The demon didn’t force those bandits to pillage this village, he just gave them the means to. People have the free will to choose whether they will do good or bad, and that’s why we’re here, Yong. Hopefully to inspire them to choose to be good.”

Yongsun lets out a long frustrated breath, but eventually she nods. Her sister’s words aren’t what she wants to hear, but she sees the wisdom in them and that will have to do for now.

They spend the rest of the day helping the village recover, and by that night she’s tired again, staring up at the ceiling of their hut, contemplating.

“I think humans are good,” Yongsun says out loud into the darkness, apropos of nothing. “They’re good to their core, and without something influencing them to do bad, they wouldn’t choose to do wrong. That’s what I believe.”

It is this thought that grounds her into the moment, solidifying what her purpose would be on Earth for many years. 

 

Goryeo, 927 AD

 

Closing in on her first millennia, she still feels the same. Which is why it’s probably a sick joke from the universe that, at a few decades shy of the turn of the millennia, with Goguryeo long in the past and Goryeo already well risen from its ashes, Kim Yongsun, angel of heaven, meets the demon Moon Byulyi for the first time.

She and her sister are currently in a village that’s been suffering from a drought in the last year. The soil in the surrounding farmlands is sour and dry, leaving the people starving and on the brink of desperation. The day they arrive, they immediately find their hands full trying to help heal the village’s sick children that they don’t even have time to bless the soil.

So when Yongsun wakes up the next day to the villagers crying in disbelief and joy at their crops finally sprouting from rich, healthy soil. She’s immediately suspicious.

It takes her a while, weaving through the various huts, before she finally spots a pair of horns lounging by the hut of the village shaman. The demon’s eyes widen at the sight of her but otherwise she looks unbothered.

Yongsun feels her frown deepen as she walks toward the demon. “What have you done?”

The demon starts, but the shocked expression quickly morphs into a smirk, “Well hello to you too.”

Yongsun refuses to be deterred. “What did you do?” She demands, indignant. 

The demon looks around, at the villagers still exclaiming and marvelling at the sight of crops in their soil, before turning to look back at Yongsun, her smile fully smug now, “I think I just saved this village.”

Yongsun scoffs, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes, “Demons don’t save anything.”

The demon’s mouth twitches just a bit, “What’s your name, angel?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Fine, don’t.” The demon stretches her arms over her head, over her distinctly black horns, and leans back against the hut’s outer wall, a picture of ease, “I’m not the one who stomped over here accosting poor innocent demons and ruining their morning.”

Yongsun flounders for a second, unsure how to act. In the past, all the other demons she’s encountered were either entirely rude or entirely dismissive. She doesn’t quite know how to deal with one who is neither. 

“Kim Yongsun,” she says at last, trying for all the world not to sound like a petulant child. The demon smiles, sitting up again and offering her own hand. “Moon Byulyi,”

Yongsun stares at the proffered hand, flummoxed. The demon--Moon Byulyi--blinks at Yongsun for a few seconds before she says, “Oh, you’re supposed to shake my hand!” as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “It hasn’t quite caught on yet, but just give it a few more centuries and everyone will be greeting each other this way.”

“You’re very strange for a demon,” Yongsun says, because it’s the truth. Byulyi shrugs and lowers her hand “And you seem pretty young to be an angel.”

“I’m not-- I,” Yongsun stammers for a moment before she manages to properly school her expression into a disapproving frown. “I’ve been helping humans on Earth for almost a thousand years. Which is more than I can say for you or any demon.”

Byulyi just smiles, teasing, “Whatever you say, Yong.”

“Don’t call me that!” Yongsun says, indignant, before she decides to ask, “Why did you heal the soil?”

Byulyi just jerks her head to where the shaman woman is busy talking to the other villagers, “I was summoned to. There’s nothing much else to say.”

Yongsun nods her head, a little glad that at least her notion of demons still holds true, “So you didn’t want to help the humans, you did it just because one of them told you to?” 

“Why are you pressing this issue?” Byulyi asks, her tone edging towards exasperation. Yongsun feels a twinge of pride at finally managing to wipe that devil-may-care grin off her face. 

“Because you demons are all the same!” She says, “I bet if someone else had summoned you to help them slaughter everyone in this village, you would have helped them do it. Am I wrong?”

Byulyi just shrugs, which Yongsun finally takes as her cue to leave, “I better not catch you influencing these humans to do bad!” She calls out. As she walks away she feels the demon's eyes follow her the entire time.

When she finally finds her sister again, Yonghee is in the midst of helping the villagers work out the irrigation for their newly sprouted crops, a task that Yongsun applies herself to with a single minded focus that eventually wipes the demon from her thoughts.

Later though, while Yongsun and her sister are enjoying a quiet dinner under the stars, the topic gets brought up again.

“It’s lucky that the villagers now have better soil, hm?” Yonghee asks, her smile a bit too serene and her tone a hair too innocent. Yongsun frowns into her dinner, the memory of Moon Byulyi the demon coming front and center in her mind. It also calls to attention the conflicted emotions swirling inside her as she looks out at what are now healthy and thriving farmlands.

What really annoys her is the fact that Yongsun feels lost. In all her years on Earth, it feels as if she has always been working to undo the harmful influence demons have on humans. She’s not quite sure how to react in the face of a demon actually doing good. There’s something unsettling about it that leaves Yongsun in an uncanny valley of emotion, disrupting the careful foundation of things that she knows to be true. 

Yongsun shakes her head, pushing the thoughts away, “Is it really lucky if the demon that caused it didn’t do it for the good of the villagers?” She says, indignant.

“Hmm,” Yonghee leans back, taking a deep breath of cool night air. “Does it matter if the humans benefit anyway?” Her sister asks in return.

Yongsun isn’t sure what to say because it’s the same question she’s been asking herself since she spoke with Byulyi. She isn’t sure why she’s so upset or why she’s been feeling restless and on edge since the morning, but one thing is for certain. Moon Byulyi is to blame. 

“All I know is, demons bring out the worst in humans,” Yongsun says, hoping that if she says it out loud into the night air that it will make it more convincing to her own ears, “One act of goodness doesn’t erase all the potential for harm that demon could do in the future.”

“You’re probably right,” Yonghee says, “perhaps with another human, Byulyi will be the cause of the fall of civilization as we know it. Right now though, she helped save this village, so she can’t be all that bad.”

Yongsun scowls, fully ready to sulk into her meal when she suddenly sits up straighter, staring at her sister suspiciously. “I never told you the demon’s name was Byulyi.”

Yonghee just laughs, palms up in surrender, “You were so angry when you came to help with the water that I had to go see for myself. She seems nice!”

“I can’t believe you!” Yongsun shoves at her sister’s arm playfully, feeling a bit betrayed. Yonghee’s still laughing though, and Yongsun tries and fails to keep her own smile in. “I thought she was a bit annoying actually. Weird for a demon.”

Her sister shrugs, “Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Yongsun shakes her head, already ready to be done with the conversation. “Whatever, it’s not like we’ll see her after today anyway.”

 

Seohae-do Province, 1247

 

As it turns out, she does see Moon Byulyi again.

They’re in the middle of the fourth Mongol Campaign and Yongsun can’t even fall asleep.

She and Yonghee had been healing soldiers badly wounded from battle with a handful of their other angelic brothers and sisters. The sight of so many of them, broken and bloody left a deep ache in her soul that she couldn’t quite shake even when she closed her eyes, the very image of it imprinted in the darkness behind her eyelids.

So she lies awake.

“Is she over there?”

The voice outside catches Yongsun’s attention and she sits up, head tilting. She knows that voice. With sleep an obvious moot point for tonight, she gets to her feet and peers outside their house. The night is cloudy and a thick fog has settled right as the sun was setting so it takes a while for her eyes to adjust to the murky darkness, but she can just make out a familiar pair of horns following another human through the different houses. It’s Byulyi.

Yongsun frowns and she sneaks quietly out of the house to follow the demon. She feels a sort of righteous fury coursing through her so she keeps hand poised by her halo just in case she needs to stop the demon from doing anything to hurt these people further. 

Byulyi and the human一a man一finally stop near the edge of the village, by the river. Yongsun opens to say something, but closes it again, watching. There’s a woman lying just a few paces away from the water and even from where she’s standing Yongsun can smell the sharp tang of blood in the air. 

“This is your wife?” Byulyi says, crouching low by the woman. Yongsun dares to move a little closer, hiding in the shadow of one of the houses. This close she realizes that the smell of blood is coming from the man. There’s a dagger in his hand and a dark gash on his palm. He summoned Byul.

“She’s dying,” Byulyi says, and her voice is so matter of fact that Yongsun winces.

“Save her please,” he begs. 

“There are angels all over this village,” Byulyi says, laying a thin hand on the woman’s forehead. Yongsun watches the woman’s labored breathing, there’s an almost pallid look to her skin that she’s sure isn’t from the cold or the fog. “You could have asked any of them to save her”

“They’re too busy helping the soldiers,” the man says. Yongsun recoils from the accusation in his voice. “Please. She’s not strong enough to last the night. I summoned you, so you have to do what I say right?” The man’s voice is raw, desperate, and Yongsun feels a part of her break.

Something in Byulyi’s expression shifts. “That’s the deal,” Byulyi agrees. Yongsun watches her eyes glow black and her baser, angelic instincts are telling her to stop things before they go too far. It’s only her sister’s voice, soft in the background of her mind, that stays her for the moment. She thinks about the balance, she thinks about Byulyi saving that village the day they first met. She waits.

It’s like the air around Byulyi and the couple begins to thin, Yongsun can feel the demonic energy tingling against her skin. The force of it brings the man to his knees. Already, the woman is looking better, healthier, her breathing turning more normal and Yong feels silly for even lingering this long. She should really--

There’s a sudden snap of a twig from across the river and even in the darkness, Yongsun can see the shadows of several vampires approaching the embankment, drawn by the smell of the man’s blood. 

She doesn’t realize she’s moving until she’s already pulling the halo from her head and throwing it at the vampires. There’s a flash of bright light and then her halo plops down just a few yards away from where Byulyi is healing the woman, five vampire bats caught in its ring.

When she picks it up, she doesn’t even hesitate tapping the halo once against the heel of her hand. The vampires disappear with a ‘pop’, off into the ether. 

She’s blown her cover though, so she takes a deep breath and looks over to where Byulyi is. The demon removes her hand from the woman’s forehead and turns to look at Yongsun, her expression unreadable. Yongsun opens to say something again, but this time it’s drowned out by the husband’s cries of happiness as he hugs his wife, one of his arms reaching out to pull Byulyi into the hug too.

The sight is endearing and not a little bit funny and Yongsun feels the corners of her lips pull up into a smile before she can stop herself. There is also the added bonus of the sudden group hug pulling Byulyi’s attention away from her. Yongsun takes that as her cue to leave, and she darts back into the shadows of the village as quickly as she can. 

Right before she turns the corner though, she looks behind her and sees Moon Byulyi craning her neck every which way, looking for her. 

For reasons she can’t explain, Yongsun can feel her heart pounding hard against her chest, and by the time she reaches the house she shares with her sister, there’s a steady blush on her face that she tells herself is because she ran all the way back. 

She ducks inside and waits, straining her ears to listen for any oncoming footsteps, but there aren’t any.

“What are you doing?” Yonghee’s voice is thick and hoarse with sleep and Yongsun feels her heartbeat begin to slow.

“Sorry unnie,” she says, moving to lie down beside her sister again, “I couldn’t sleep.”

Never again, she tells herself as she falls asleep. Never again.

 

Gaegyong, 1388

 

It’s a beautiful spring day in the city. The cherry blossoms are finally budding in the trees and the sunlight is warm and inviting for the first time in months. Which is a huge contrast to the underlying tensions across the major provinces in the last month or so. It feels as if everywhere she goes, whispers of riots and a new invasion are in every street corner.

Yongsun is passing through a main road on her way to a merchant’s house to help the family with an illness that’s been plaguing them for the past weeks when an arm darts out from an alley and grabs Yongsun by the crook of her elbow, pulling her into an alley.

“Ow! Stop--” Yongsun gets over most of the shock to realize that her kidnapper is Byulyi. “You!” She wrenches her arm away from Byulyi’s grip and puts as much distance between her and the demon as possible. “What do you want?”

“I need you to save someone.”

The words sound so absurd coming from the demon’s mouth that Yongsun has to take the time to parse through the sentence again in her mind. Just to make sure she had heard right. “You want me to--what?”

It doesn’t escape her notice how Byulyi’s jaw clenches just a bit, biting back at frustration. The demon takes a deep breath and tries again, “I need your help, Yong. I need you to save someone.”

“Wha--don’t call me, Yong. We’re not that close.” Yongsun stammers out and she must catch Byulyi off guard because the demon’s eyes widen a bit and there’s a quick flash of disappointment there that Yongsun chooses to ignore. “What are you talking about?”

Byulyi pauses, as if choosing her words a bit more carefully. There are several warning bells going off in Yongsun’s head but she stays silent for now. Willing to listen.

“Something will happen and people will be hurt and I can’t be there to save them so I need you to do it.” Byulyi finally says.

Yongsun crosses her arms across her chest. Truthfully, a part of her does want to help. If the request had come from anyone else, she would have agreed in a heartbeat, but that’s the rub isn’t it? It isn’t just some run of the mill mortal asking this of her. It’s Byulyi, a demon, and despite having seen her help mortals twice now, the little voice in Yongsun’s head is still wary about trusting someone whose purpose is to lead mortals astray.

“Why can’t you do it?”

Byulyi’s eyes flash dangerously for a second and her chin tilts upward in defiance. Out of some baser angelic instinct, Yongsun holds her ground and stares the demon down, feeling herself start to be stubborn on purpose. “What’s this really about Moon Byulyi?” She says, harshly.

“Goryeo will fall tonight. Yi Seong-gye won't be invading Liaodong with his troops, He’ll stage a coup and overthrow Choe Yeong and all his ministers.”

Yongsun closes her eyes and lets the disappointment and sadness wash over her. She’s seen empires rise and fall and rise again, always the same story with the same people, just different names. Still, that doesn’t keep it from hurting when she sees those people make the same mistakes again and again through the centuries. Never learning.

She already knows the answer to her next question, but Yongsun has to ask anyway, “Why do you know this will happen?”

“Because Yi Seong-gye summoned me to help him do it.”

She feels her blood boil under her skin, the very feathers of her wings seem to twitch with anger. There’s a bitter taste rising from and she absently realizes it’s the sharp sting of betrayal. It’s a good thing she’s too angry to closely examine why she might feel this way “I knew it.” Yongsun snarls, “I knew all you demons were the same!”

Byulyi’s eyes flash a deep black, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means all you do is cause harm!” It feels like a dam is breaking loose inside of her, unleashing all her pent up anger and frustrations built up from centuries of being on Earth. “You help them be selfish and greedy and that makes them hurt other people and it just goes on and on and on with nothing getting better!”

“What would you know about it?” Byulyi snaps back, “why can't humans be selfish from time to time?”

Yongsun takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. She can feel her fingers twitching for her halo and that’s probably not the best way to solve this problem. She switches tactics. “You’ve done good in the past Byulyi-ssi. I don’t see why you can’t just keep doing good.”

And it’s true. She has seen the demon Moon Byulyi do good and she hopes that if she appeals to Byul’s better nature, maybe she can convince the demon to call off the coup. Maybe.

Unlucky for her, it seems to have the opposite effect. “It must be nice up there in your high tower, Yongsun-ssi, always getting to go wherever you want and help whoever you choose while the rest of humanity just falls by the wayside.” Byulyi sneers.

Yongsun feels her wings spread out behind her, a reflex in an attempt to channel some of her anger. She balls up both hands into fists, feeling the sting of her fingernails dig into the meat of her palms. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me.” The air around Byulyi feels thin again, like it did that night, but there’s a layer of menace to it that Yongsun has never felt before. Something purely demonic. “You’ve spent so long on this Earth but you still don't understand humans at all.” Byulyi spits out, her eyes fully black now, “If angels are doing so much good why do you think the mortals even bother summoning demons, huh?”

She hadn’t realized she had been grinding her teeth until she feels the pressure and click of it in her jaw. Yongsun glares back at the demon, “I don’t have to--”

“Humans have always been both the bad and good ones,” Byul says, the menacing air is still there, but her eyes have faded back to normal now. “--and if the powers of Heaven aren’t there to help them then they turn to us. And honestly I can’t blame them. This world is cruel and bitter and if I get summoned to help another mortal reach for their own happiness, no matter how selfish it may be, then I’m going to help them do it.”

The words sound suspiciously like her sister’s from long ago, but placed on a different lens, a different perspective Yongsun had never thought to see from before. She hates how it sounds reasonable in her own head. Her hands are still balled up into fists and when she releases them, the absence of her nails against her skin is an even sharper sting. 

“Well don’t expect me to help you out now just because you got pulled into a contract you didn’t like. I would never help a demon and I'm not about to start now.” Yongsun’s voice is rising by the second. She’s sure the humans can hear every word they’re saying. 

“Then why did you even bother helping that night?” Byulyi’s voice is even louder and it stuns Yongsun into silence. Not because she hadn’t been expecting the demon to lash out, but because she’d been asking herself the same question for over a century.

Every time she looks back on that night, it’s colored in confusion, like a painting done by a child. Too many warring colors that clash and don’t fit together. What really picks at her thoughts however, is the absolute knowledge that she doesn’t regret helping at all.

“I don’t--”

“If you’re so against my kind you could have let the vampires stop me from saving that woman. So why didn’t you?” Byulyi presses on. The demon raises herself to her full height and a part of Yongsun registers that, without the horns, Byulyi is just a centimeter or so taller than her

“Because I--” She feels a traitorous flush creep up her neck and hates herself for it because really, how can one demon be so infuriating and so confusing at the same time? Instead she tilts her chin up, trying to school her features into a glare again. “I didn’t do it for you, I did it for the mortals!”

It’s like someone flips a switch. The menacing aura surrounding Byulyi is gone. All that’s left is an arctic silence and Yongsun does her level best not to buckle under it. “Goodbye Yongsun-ssi.” Byulyi says, her face totally expressionless. The demon turns to leave, only to stop just a few paces away.

Yongsun braces herself for another fight, instead she sees Byulyi’s shoulders slump forward just a little.

“There’s a concubine at the King’s palace.” The demon says, her voice is quieter now, all the fight gone out of it. “She summoned me once to help her gain favor at court and I’ve been looking out for her ever since. With the coup tonight, it’s likely she’ll be captured and killed or worse. And I won’t be there to help her.”

Byulyi turns to leave again. Yongsun feels at war with herself, which is probably why, before her brain can so much as give the words a passing wave, she hears herself say, 

“I’ll help her.”

Byulyi pauses but she doesn’t look back, and Yongsun thinks that’s probably for the best. Eventually she’s all alone in the alleyway and she takes a few moments to herself, breathing and calming down the roar in her ears before she’s running back to the house to get her sister.

They have people to save.

The coup happens just as Byulyi said it would, and much, much later, in the early hours just before dawn, Yongsun looks at the handful of people she and her sister managed to save. Most of them were members of the palace staff and their families, those who would have been helpless in the face of Seong-gye’s army. As she sees their shell-shocked faces, she feels a deep sadness down to her soul, for all the others she couldn’t save, for the hundreds of other lives she probably had to ignore because she was busy cleaning up yet another mess caused by a demon. 

Byulyi had never actually told her which concubine she had wanted Yongsun to save, but just as the invasion started, she caught sight of one woman running from the upper levels of the palace with chalk on her hands and the faint line of an old scar against her palm. Yongsun manages to whisk her away just in time.

It’s this person that Yongsun is staring intently at, so much so that she doesn’t even hear her sister approach until she feels Yonghee’s wing feathers brush up against her own.

“I’m proud of you, Little Yong.” Yonghee says, and the words grate on her, making her feel uncomfortable. She tries to think about why that is but comes up blank, so instead she replies,

“Moon Byulyi told me about the coup.”

Yonghee blinks, clearly not expecting that answer, “Well then we should probably thank her.”

“She told me about it because she was the one Seong-gye summoned to help bring it about.”

Her fight with Byulyi has been sitting heavy on her mind since she left the alley, so before she can help herself, Yongsun tells her sister everything, all the things Byulyi said, and all the things she had said in return.

Yonghee stays quiet for the most part, just nodding and listening. When Yongsun is finally done, she feels more worn out and tired than when she had been ushering people to safety. 

“She has a point you know,” Yonghee says, softly, calmly, in a tone that Yongsun recognizes as one her sister uses when she’s about to say something she knows she won’t like. She still feels her hackles rise at it.

“Unnie, how can you say that after everything we’ve seen over the years?”

“It’s precisely because of all the things we’ve seen that I can say it.” Finally, Yonghee turns to her and her sister’s expression is not a little sad, “I know you love the mortals, that you think the best of them. But that love of yours needs to come with an open mind. They aren’t as pure and as good as you keep saying they are.”

Yongsun refuses to reply, even as her world view seems to be crumbling around her, she holds on to the last tendrils of it with a white-knuckled grip and refuses to let go. She looks for the concubine amongst the refugees again and sees the woman staring absently at the scar on her hand. 

“Chin up Little Yong,” her sister says, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “If anything, this should strengthen your resolve to do good. There are still thousands of mortals out there worth helping, and we may not be able to reach them all, but if you show kindness to one, who’s to say they won't spread that goodness elsewhere?”

She takes a deep breath, trying to calm the tempest of her thoughts, and just nods. Yes. That’s what she’ll do. Just focus on doing good until everything else makes sense, until Byulyi’s words slip from her memory, until this bitter pill swelling inside of her goes away.

 

Hwanghae Province, 1446

 

It is sweltering. The heat is an oppressive thing that settles in the air all around them, so much so that even though, logically, Yongsun knows she can’t ever get sick, her skin feels feverish with it. It’s not ideal, and it certainly doesn’t help with her mood.

The slight wisp of a breeze from the river just beside them offers little help, and when a stray leaf happens to flutter near Yongsun’s ear, she swats it away with enough force to kill a lesser being. Beside her, Yonghee bursts out laughing.

“What did that leaf ever do to you?”

“Unnie please, it’s too hot for this conversation. Or any really.” Yongsun mutters. She’s on her stomach, cheek flush against the grass with her wings fanned out behind her. If she reaches out just enough, the tips of her fingers lightly skim the river’s surface. 

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Yonghee is sitting just at the river’s edge, bare feet in the water. “This might be one of the hottest summers ever.”

“The one back in 1066 was hotter,” Yongsun says, just to be contradictory. 

“Hmm, was it?” 

She knows her sister is being obtuse on purpose, but Yongsun refuses to rise to the bait. Instead she turns her cheek so that she’s facing away from her sister. Yonghee laughs some more, poking at the curve of Yongsun’s wings where they’re the most ticklish. Yongsun takes great pleasure in snapping her wings out to push her sister’s hand away.

“Come on, don’t be that way.” Yonghee says, going for a cuter approach. Yongsun resists the urge to roll her eyes. “You’ve been in a bad mood these last few years. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

Yongsun stills. Has it really been that long? If she thinks about it, her sister must be right because she can’t remember the last time she wasn’t snappish or on the verge of picking a fight with the closest living creature. She takes a deep breath. In and out.

“Sorry,” she says and means it. “Maybe I’ve just--”

She lets the last part of that sentence die in because there’s no way she’ll let herself say it out loud.

What she really wants to say is that she’s been on Earth for so long now, she feels as if it’s leaving a stain on her. Almost like a thin film of dirt that refuses to be washed away. But saying that would be admitting defeat, which is something Yongsun refuses to do. She will not give up on humanity no matter what. 

So instead, she shakes her head, and focuses on the river. It’s quiet for a few more minutes before Yonghee finally says, “Is this still about that fight you had with Byulyi?”

Yongsun tenses. It’s been a few decades since she last saw the demon but the memory of that alleyway is still fresh on her mind. Nowadays, she tries not to think too much on the whole good and evil thing, only focusing on helping as many as she can. 

Her silence must be telling though, because she feels her sister reach out to pat her shoulder. “If it bothered you that much, just go and apologize.”

That has Yongsun rising out from her current position to forcefully push her sister into the river. Yonghee falls in with an undignified yelp and a splash that just barely misses Yongsun’s knees. When her sister emerges, every part of her is sopping wet and Yongsun can see that her wing feathers have been weighed down by the water. 

She collapses to the ground and starts howling with laughter. She feels more water splash by her side, probably courtesy of her sister, but Yongsun can’t focus on much past the tears in her eyes and the gasping squeaks she’s starting to make in between her laughs. 

“I’d pull you in here but one of us has to be the mature one,” Yonghee says, and when Yongsun turns to look at her sister, Yonghee is smiling.

“Does this make you feel better?” Yonghee asks, wringing out the water in her long hair before clambering out of the river. She shakes her wings out in Yongsun’s direction and really, it’s only fair. Yongsun nods, still chuckling. 

“I feel so much better now, Unnie.” 

Yonghee smirks but walks away without another word. 

After her sister leaves, Yongsun waits until her laughter dies down and when it does, she lies down on her back and holds her hands up against the harsh sunlight filtering in through the canopy. For the first time in decades she does feel a lot better, but there’s still that nagging, Byulyi-sounding voice in the back of her mind talking about the world being bitter and people being cruel and she can feel her good mood slip away again.

“Stupid demon.” She mutters, to no one in particular. 

She must have drifted off at some point because when she opens her eyes again, the sun has moved across the sky and it is blessedly less hot than it was earlier. There’s also an innocent roll of parchment just by her ear. Yongsun stares at it for a few seconds, blinking the hazy fog of sleep away before she reaches out to unfurl it slowly.

It’s...a word. Well. Yongsun assumes it’s a word. It must be, but it’s in characters she’s never seen before in all her centuries. She squints, turning the parchment every which way, as if the right angle will reveal the mysterious message. Nope. Nothing. 

She thinks about throwing it into the river, but hesitates. Finally she rolls it back up and takes it with her. Maybe her sister was the one who left it. 

“I did not leave you this.” Yonghee says later that evening, staring at the piece of parchment curiously, thin fingers tracing the foreign characters. “And it isn’t in any Earthly script I know how to read.”

The mysterious parchment remains on her mind for a few more hours until Yongsun puts it away, at a different corner of their house and subsequently forgets about it for the rest of the week. Then, one day, another one appears. This time, with a longer message, still in the same rounded blocky characters she has no idea how to read.

“Perhaps you have a secret admirer in the village,” Yonghee teases and the statement makes an odd flush creep up Yongsun’s neck, but not for the reasons her sister thinks. That day she wanders around the village, looking for someone , but no one is acting more out of the ordinary than usual and aside from her and her sister, there were no other supernatural beings around. 

The week after, another one appears. Then another one a week later, and another and another and another for the next few months, until she has a small chest full of them. By the time the twentieth roll of parchment arrives, Yongsun is nearing her wit’s end

“Who is doing all this?”

“It’s certainly making our days a little more exciting though, right?” Yonghee laughs when they come home from a long day of blessing crops to find another rolled piece of parchment waiting by the door of their house.

“It’s frustrating.” Yongsun says, instead, staring helplessly at the scroll for the week. She still can’t understand anything and the letters--she doesn’t know what else to call them except that--have only gotten longer as time drew on. “I just want to know who’s sending them.”

“Good things to those who wait,” Yonghee intones wisely and with a mocking smile curling up the corners of . Yongsun sighs but stows the newest addition away along with all the others. She had thought briefly about just ignoring them and throwing all the letters away after the tenth one arrived, but the mystery of it all keeps her from doing so. Plus, she has to admit, the suspense of waiting for a new letter every week has certainly distracted her from the dark cloud of her own inner conflict. 

Between that and the letters, Yongsun is confident she would choose her mysterious, albeit, frustrating, one-sided pen pal any day. 

She’s looking over the most recent letter the next day, eyes tracing each character until she almost has it committed to memory. She’s still in the middle of it when the Yangban arrives, interrupting her peace to ask for her and her sister’s help in disseminating some news from the King.

Yongsun hastily stuffs her own scroll away, “What is this about?”

“Our most honorable King has created the Hunminjeongeum and thus forth it will be the way our people write for centuries to come.” He says as he hands Yongsun several rolls of parchment. “He seeks the assistance of all Yangban in the land as well as the angels to help his subjects adjust to this great change. These should help you teach it to the rest of the village.”

Yongsun’s outlived hundreds of monarchs, she knows better than to assume something will last just because one King has the sheer gall to say so, but she’s polite enough not to say that out loud. So she smiles, accepts the rolls and bows as the Yangban leaves.

Her sister is out for the day, paying a visit to a family with a sick mother, so Yongsun takes the chance to peer at this new proclamation from the King by herself. Once she gets past the general proclamation, her eyes go further down and before she realizes it, she’s running back inside the house, to the chest of letters.

This was it! The writing in all the letters she’s been receiving for months. She pours over the King’s missive again and again, trying to learn as much as she can before she pulls out the letter from that morning and tries reading it anew. It takes a while, and she has to look back at the King’s missive every now and then to check a character, but she deciphers enough to realize that it’s a poem.

She reaches for another one, and tries again. Another poem. It takes a few hours to read most of them but she slowly realizes they’re all poems, and not even particularly sad or romantic ones. One is about a rabbit enjoying the spring. Another is about the innocence of children during the winter. There’s even one about puppies playing in a field. They’re all poems about life and before she realizes it, she’s grinning from ear to ear, surrounded by dozens of snippets about life on Earth. All of them are beautiful. 

When she peers into the chest again, there’s only one parchment scroll left, and Yongsun already knows which one this is. She steels herself before reaching for it and unfurling it with slightly trembling fingers. By now she’s learned enough of the King’s new alphabet that when she sees the words from that first scroll, the one she received by that river all those months ago, she can already read it at a glance.

I’m sorry, it reads. 

 

Jeolla Province, 1597

 

“I’m so sorry little Yong, we’ll see to your wings when I get back! I promise!” Her sister is saying, already halfway out of the house they were staying at. 

They were along the southern coast this time around helping the poorer fishing villages recover from raids and other attacks. It had already been a miserable few months but when she woke up that morning with a mat full of feathers and a freshly molted pair of wings, Yongsun knew she was in for a rough day.

 Opening the portal to Heaven to recharge her angelic spirit had been the easy part, however, right before her sister could help her with the keratinous bumps that came with regrowing wing feathers, a raiding party began pillaging the village next to theirs

After that, it had been one villager plea after another and Yongsun had spent the day with horrifically itchy wings that were only made worse by the humid, salty sea air. And just when she thought they could finally get a moment to themselves, her sister had been called away to the next village where a family she had been caring for had fallen ill again.

That was a little over half an hour ago now and Yongsun is certain she would rather rip her wings off than spend another second trying to live with the itchiness.

She makes the effort to get water from the nearest well, and settles down for what is about to be an uncomfortable evening of contorting her body and her wings into awkward angles to get at the scaly bumps. And because the universe seems to enjoy getting a kick out of messing with her, at that precise moment, Moon Byulyi exits the hut right beside theirs.

There is an awkward few minutes of silence where they just stare at each other. There was a time when Yongsun would have immediately jumped to the conclusion that Moon Byulyi was probably to blame for the second wave of invaders in the country. But that was before she had a chest full of carefully preserved poems back in their house.

In those scant seconds Yongsun realizes that she had spent the better part of the last several centuries assuming the worst when it came to Byulyi. And well, maybe she can...not do that quite so often.

With a sigh and a tentative smile, she beckons the demon over.

“Hello Yongsun-ssi,” Byulyi says, eyeing her warily and, okay that’s fair. Yongsun was never the most civil when it came to her, but she’s lived through enough conflict to know that forgiveness had to begin somewhere. 

“Hello,” she says back, her smile turning a little sheepish as she holds up the washcloth she had gotten from the house. “Would you mind, uh, helping me out?”

Byulyi’s eyebrows raise, almost to her hairline, but eventually the demon smirks and plops down beside Yongsun, accepting the proffered wash cloth and dipping it into the waiting bucket of water between them. “Couldn’t last another second, could you?” she asks.

“It was pure torture!” Yongsun agrees, her voice coming out in a whine. 

“Shouldn’t your sister be doing this for you, then?”

“Normally, but unnie went to go help a family in the next village.”

“Lucky for you I was in the area, huh?” Byulyi says, and Yongsun can’t see her smirk, but she can hear it in the demon’s voice. 

“I’m surprised you know about this, actually.” 

“Unlike some, I don’t wear my prejudice on my sleeve.” Byulyi says and Yongsun feels her go still and she understands that too. The demon is probably waiting for her to get mad which just serves to underscore how new this all is for both of them.

Again, she reminds herself not to assume the worst, “That’s a good trait to have.”

She feels the way Byulyi relaxes behind her too, and she lets herself smile at that, glad at least that her face is hidden from view. 

When Byulyi begins cleaning out her wings, she’s a little heavy handed with it, but that’s probably to be expected from a demon who’s never had to groom wings before. Still, she hisses through her teeth when Byulyi picks at the larger bumps, wincing at how the cloth tugs at her feathers.

“Don’t rub so hard. I just grew those feathers back!” Yongsun just barely stops herself from smacking Byulyi in the face with her wings. That wouldn’t do for this tentative truce they have this evening. 

“Aish, stop twitching then!” Byul says, and then it's followed by a much softer "sorry." Yongsun feels the demon’s hands gentle as the cloth she had been using continues to wipe at the remaining bumps hidden amongst the feathers. That simple act tugs at a tangled knot behind Yongsun's rib cage and loosens something within her.

They’re silent for a few more minutes, nothing but the gentle whisper of the ocean and the tang of salt in the air. Finally she asks, “So what brings you to this village?”

“The woman in the hut over there summoned me earlier this year to undo her infertility. She summoned me again tonight to make sure that she would survive the birth of her son.” 

She nods, “That’s nice of you.”

It must take the demon by surprise because Byulyi’s hands freeze for a few seconds before she moves on to a different section of Yongsun’s wings entirely. “Thank you Yongsun-ssi.”

Yongsun tries to muster up the courage for what she’s about to say next. The ball is in her court after all and after the poems it’s only fair that her own olive branch be just as magnanimous.

“You don’t have to be so formal with me.” Yongsun says, striving for teasing but probably missing the mark by a mile.

Still, she’s rewarded by Byulyi’s soft chuckle before the demon says again, softer this time, “Thank you, Yong.”

And, okay. This is nice. Yongsun can admit that much to herself. She hadn’t realized how much of a burden it was, using Moon Byulyi as a conduit for her imagined rage against demon kind, until she had finally learned to let itt go.

It takes a while, but blessedly enough, Byulyi is very thorough, and once all the bumps are gone, Yongsun flutters her wings behind her in relief. “Ah, thank you.”

“No problem,” Byulyi stands up, and Yongsun half expects her to leave. Instead, the demon scuttles over so that they’re sitting shoulder to shoulder, staring out at the village. 

This close to the sea, the breeze turns cold very quickly for the time of the year. Out of instinct, Yongsun folds her wings inward to protect her from the worst of the cold. Beside her, Byulyi shivers too, and Yongsun hesitates. Should she offer her a wing, or would that be awkward?

The demon saves her from herself. Byulyi snaps her fingers once and a thick blanket appears around her shoulders. Yongsun blinks.

“I definitely did not know demons could do that.”

Byulyi laughs. “Stick around, I’ve got lots more tricks up my sleeve.” This is followed by a salacious waggle of her eyebrows and despite herself, it’s Yongsun’s turn to laugh.

“That’s gross,” she says, nudging at Byulyi’s side with her elbow.

The seconds tick by, both of them simply basking in the comfortable silence of the night around them. Byulyi turns to look at her and suddenly Yongsun feels as if she’s standing on the precipice of something , heart beating too fast. It is a very human feeling to have and the presence of it unsettles her.

“Uhm,” she says, awkwardly scrambling to her feet, wings just brushing against Byulyi’s side. “I should--uh.”

“Yeah,” Byulyi says in response, looking up at her. The expression on the demon’s face shutters off, going blank. Her shoulders are stiff beneath the cloak she had wrapped around herself to keep warm.

“Okay!” Says Yongsun, a bit too enthusiastically, “I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Okay,” Byulyi says, still not moving.

“Okay,” Yongsun agrees.

They stare at each other for another handful of heartbeats before Yongsun swiftly turns on her heel and makes her way back towards her house. There is a bitter feeling trapped in , but she can’t pinpoint what it is over the uneven hammering of her heart against her ribcage so she marches onwards.

 

Hanseong District, 1895

 

Time marches onwards too. 

Yongsun didn’t see much of the demon in the following centuries, but she didn’t exactly see little of her either. A conversation in passing here, a walk along the river there, they all usually came with the occasional smirk or flirtatious comment and that was slowly growing normal to Yong now too. She practically expected it with every meeting. They still weren’t friends, or at least, Yong didn’t think they were. Not yet anyway, but as much as she hated to admit it, if a decade passed without so much as a sighting from Byul, her thoughts would wander to the demon. Wondering where she was, what she was doing. 

She’s started to understand her sister’s perspective a little bit more, aeons ago, back in heaven. Perhaps cats and dogs could learn to get along. With time. The truth was, her millenia on earth had slowly robbed her of her own naive assumptions that demons were evil influences. With each decade she spent amongst humans, she felt something in her shift further from absolutes and closer to nuances. 

Nowadays, the world and humanity just seemed gray to her. Like a watered down ink painting done in overlapping . The subtleties in the shades were what made all the difference. 

She finds Byul by a bridge, staring out into the roaring river underneath.

Byul’s hair is short this time around, cut close around her nape. The weather is colder too, winter finally chasing away the last of the leaves. Despite that, Byul doesn’t even have any outer layers, just the jeogori and baji. She doesn’t look around as Yong approaches, staring out at the water impassively.

Yong comes to a stop beside her and waits for Byul to acknowledge her presence. She doesn’t.

She tries to be subtle about sneaking a glance at Byul, but she isn’t sure she’s entirely successful. The demon is...rumpled to say the least. Her shoes are badly creased from use, and caked with mud. Up close, Yong can see that her hair is mostly disheveled, several strands and tendrils hanging limply from her horns, like she’d been running her fingers through it over and over.

This was new, the silence. Yong didn’t know what to make of it, she fidgets, drumming her hands on the cool stone of the bridge. “Byul.”

She didn’t reply. Yong flounders, trying to think of something to say. She realizes that in all their time together, Byul was always the one that made things feel easy, the one to start up a conversation and keep it flowing at Yong’s own pace. She isn’t quite sure what to do in this scenario.

“Do you ever...get to know them?” Byul asks, finally speaking. Her voice is hoarse to Yong’s ears.

Yong closes her eyes in relief and considers the question, “The humans, you mean?”

Byul nods. She’s holding something, Yong notices, it looks like a silk ribbon.

“I’ve been around here longer than you, remember? Yong says, her tone teasing, “I think I know humans pretty well by now.” When she turns, she sees that Byul isn’t smiling at all. A sinking feeling grows in her gut. Sure enough, the demon shakes her head.

“No, I mean--” she finally turns to look at Yong and the angel is surprised to see that the skin around Byul’s eyes is blotchy and red, her face a bit puffy. “--do you ever...do you ever stay long enough to actually Know them?”

Yong hesitates. She thinks about the people she had helped during the worst of the invasions or that little girl whose bite mark she healed with her first miracle. The truth was she has no idea what’s happened to any of them. After she had helped them she and Yonghee had moved on, to the next family or the next village that needed them. Byul turns back to the river, reads the answer on her face clear enough.

The demon attempts a chuckle but it falls horribly flat. Yong tries not to miss the rich sound of Byuls full-bellied laughter. “It’s for the best,” Byul murmurs, “You always do the smart thing, Yong.”

She isn’t sure what to say to that. She takes a breath to speak, but lets it out just as quickly, the words escaping her. Byul meets her eyes again and Yong can’t quite school the concern on her face into something more neutral.

Byul frowns, turning away again. There’s a tense line to her shoulders now, and a hard set to . This, at least, Yongsun can read well enough. Don’t , her body language says, I don’t want your pity.

Yongsun clears , she can give Byul this small courtesy. She turns back to the river, “You must be cold.”

Byul looks at her arms and her legs with new interest, as if only now realizing that she’s a few layers short of the appropriate winter attire. “Oh. I’m underdressed aren’t I?”

“You’re lucky we can’t get sick,” Yongsun tuts, shrugging off her own po and tossing it over Byul’s shoulders the way she’s seen mothers do for their children. She makes quick work of the sash around the Byul’s waist, trying not to think about how thin the demon is these days. When she finishes, there’s a lost expression on Byul's face. Yong pretends to flick away some dust on Byul’s shoulders, “Is it worth it?” she finally asks, keeping her eyes on the fabric, “Knowing them?”

Byul is silent. Yong resists the urge to look at her.

“No,” Byul says at length, then with a sigh she amends, “Yes,”

Byul moves half a step away and works at tying the ribbon she had been worrying around her wrist, looping it again and again before tucking the end in on itself. The color of the ribbon doesn’t match anything Yong had ever seen Byul wear at all. She tries not to think about what that might mean. 

It is then that Yong realizes how much she wants to comfort the demon. She swallows thickly, quashing the desire down before she does something foolish, like inviting Byul to stay with her and her sister back at the capital. Cats and dogs , she reminds herself. Just because they can learn to get along doesn’t mean they should start cohabitating. 

So instead she takes a step back and hugs her arms to herself. Luckily for her, she can easily blame the gesture on the cold, now that her outfit was short one outer layer. 

“Thank you,” Byul says, expression shuttering off again. She clears , straightening, the sleeve of Yong’s po hides the ribbon around Byul’s wrist from view. “I’ll be going now.”

“Uh. Yeah. Right.” Yong says. She grips at her own clothes a bit tighter. The urge is still there, threatening to pull her under. Briefly she wonders what it would feel like to have Byul’s thin frame in her arms. She chases that thought away too.

“See you around Yong,” Byul says, turning to walk in the other direction, fingers fluttering in a half wave.

“Goodbye,” Yong says, a beat too late, watching as Byul’s figure grows smaller and smaller, until the demon turns into a path and finally vanishes from her sight. 

When Yong turns back to look at the river, the sky above her has already turned gray, the water below her is gray too.

 

Korean Empire, 1902

 

One day, Byul appears unannounced at their house with an invitation to go out.

It really is a nice day outside, there are families strolling along the streets, and couples going for a walk outside. Ever since the vampire and werewolf accords with the very last King, Yong has been seeing more supernatural beings walking the streets out in the open. Byul must be thinking the same thing because Yong catches her staring at a pack of werewolf teens laughing by a bridge, pointing at something in the water. 

“The world has changed a lot, huh?” She says. Byul turns to her with a grin even as she ducks her head. “The world is still the same,” Byul replies, “but people have changed a lot.”

She’s right, Yong realizes with a start. When she thinks about the people who had been around when she first came to Earth, and the people who were around now, she can barely reconcile the two. It was night and day. Even with the millennia she’s spent walking amongst them, it’s difficult to trace the line of where things began to change. 

She’s so lost in her thoughts that she barely realizes Byul had stopped walking until the demon stills her with a hand on the crook of her elbow. “We’re here!”

They’re outside a large building, Yong would have mistaken it for a temple if not for lively music she can hear coming from inside. Being around for as long as she has, she’s no stranger to the various forms of entertainment that people have come up with over the course of several centuries. This though, looks to be something else entirely. She turns to Byul with wide eyes and the demon’s smile grows wider, happier.

“Hyŏpyul-sa!” Byul says, giddy, as she loops her arm through Yong’s “humanity has changed a lot since you and I first walked the Earth, but I’m always going to love how they innovate. Right?”

Her mind is still reeling at the grandeur of everything, but also, at the demon beside her, who had surprised her at her house so she could bring her here. She must be silent for a beat too long because Byul’s own smile dims just a bit and she takes a step back, “Yong?”

Yong snaps back to herself and smiles, tugging at Byul’s arm still looped in hers. “Let’s go?”

The show is beautiful . Yong can barely keep her eyes off the stage, her chest swelling with pride and joy and multiple other feelings she can't quite pin down for how light she feels. She only turns away once, to catch Byul’s eye, there’s a tiny smile quirking up one side of her lips and she bumps their shoulders together in solidarity.

When it’s over, Byul is walking her home and Yong can still feel herself vibrating with the thrill of the show. 

“And the music! Byul-ah did you hear? I mean it’s always been beautiful since the humans finally learned how to properly harmonize, but to hear it like that with the acoustics and the singing!” Yong turns to look behind her where Byul is following just a few steps behind.

“It was beautiful,” Byul agrees, and there’s a rueful smile on her face and her eyes are crinkling in such a familiar way that something tugs pleasantly in Yong’s chest.

“Thank you for taking me,” she says instead, spinning on her heels to face forward again. “You were right earlier you know, about humans. They’ve come a long way.”

She sighs, her thoughts from earlier returning, “Do you--” Yong’s mouth opens and closes for a bit, unsure, before she eventually decides on the truth. “Do you ever worry about how much they’ve changed?”

“What’s there to worry about?” Byul’s tone is as easy going as ever, Yong feels a little jealous of it, wishing she could share that sentiment.

“Sometimes I feel like, the more they progress, the more I get left behind.” She says, and it’s true. She thinks about everything humankind has achieved in the last few centuries alone, better medicine, politics, education. As they move forward she feels less needed, unmoored. What good is an angel if she has no one to help? The idea of it scares her.

She must have stopped walking at some point because all of a sudden Byul is right in front of her, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. “I’m going to say something,” the demon says, “but you have to promise not to get mad.”

Yong rolls her eyes, resigned, but she can feel herself start to smile. 

“Do you remember what I told you about being selfish?” Byul says, soft, gentle, as if afraid to spook her. 

She can’t help the way she stiffens, just a bit. There may be nothing left of Goryeo now, no pillars of its temples and only dust and grass where it’s great leaders once stood, but if she tried, Yong is sure she could still find that alleyway where they fought. She nods.

“It isn’t fair to you to tie your happiness to how much the humans need you.” Byul says, “The less they need of us should be a good thing, because now that means you can chase your own happiness.”

“Be selfish, you mean?” She asks. Her heart is a bird in a cage and was that a flash of hope that crossed Byul’s face, or just a trick of the light? “Exactly.” Byul says, softer still.

“I--” There’s something Byul’s trying to tell her, she knows it, but Yong isn’t sure she’s ready to hear it, so she opts out. She looks away from Byul, ducking her head, embarrassed, “I don’t--”

“It’s okay,” Byul’s answering smile is kind and her grip is warm when she loops her arm through Yong’s to continue their journey to her house. “You have time to figure it out for yourself.”

 

Bongjeongsa, 1910

 

Time, as it turns out, doesn’t help her figure out how to be more selfish, but it does make Byul a semi-permanent fixture in her eternal life.

These days she can’t even recall what it felt like to bear a grudge against Moon Byulyi, and essentially, all of demonkind. She’s stopped wondering if that makes her a good angel or a bad one. Maybe Byul and her sister had been right all along and it didn’t matter and angels and demons were just beings utilized by humans for their own selfish needs. She’s still trying to work out the selfish part on her own.

These are the thoughts she’s entertaining as she stands idly about, waiting for Byul outside the temple. The weather is turning cold again and out of reflex she curls her wings inward, unto herself to shield her from the cold. That’s when she hears the pop and flash behind her.

When Yong turns, Byul is right there with a camera all set up on its tripod and pointed directly at her. The demon looks up from behind the cloth and winks.

“Another mortal innovation you’ve grown fond of?” Yong teases as she approaches. Byul is already tucking the camera away into a bag, and folding the legs into a separate case.

“It’s amazing, right?” Byul looks up and her eyes are shining so bright with excitement that Yong has to blink for a few seconds to clear her head. “If only they had invented this sooner,” Byul’s tone is wistful now and for reasons she refuses to look too closely at, Yong feels go dry at the sound.

She clears instead, the sound of it grating, “Is this why you were late?” She asks, nudging at Byul with her arm as they begin down the dirt path and away from the old relic.

“No, I got summoned,” Byul says easily, as if it were just a run of the mill thing, but the words make Yong stop. She can’t quite remember the last time they’ve talked about their respective angelic and demonic duties. On her part, it’s mostly because she isn’t needed all that much anymore.

But It isn’t until that very moment that Yong realizes she really doesn’t want to talk about them, afraid that this friendship they’ve built won't stand up against a clear reminder of their true nature.

She tries to swallow down the panic while beside her, Byul isn’t even aware that anything’s wrong. She finds she can't bring herself to let it slide though, so she schools her expression into something more neutral before asking, “How did that go?”

Byul surprises her for the second time that day by shrugging and saying, “Not sure, I walked away before they could make their request,”

She what?

Yong stops walking entirely. It takes the demon a few seconds before she notices but when she turns around, Yong still has the same shocked expression on her face.

“You--” she says, not sure how to even process, “You walked away?”

Byul shrugs, not quite meeting her eyes. “Yeah, it’s no big deal, Yong, really let’s--”

“Why?” Why now, she wants to ask, why couldn’t you have walked away before when Goryeo fell? Why do you keep confusing me?

She really doesn’t know where that last one came from so she ignores it in favor of waiting for Byul to reply. The demon looks nervous which doesn’t help the riot of thoughts in Yong’s head at all.

“I didn’t think it would work at first,” Byul says, “but I tried once, about fifty years ago, with some jerk who summoned me to kill his parents so he could inherit their fortune. I thought there would be some demonic force that would have compelled me to follow through, instead I glared at him and left him where he stood. Today, it happened just as I was about to meet you, so the moment I was summoned, I left without even hearing them out.”

“So, all the things you said,” Yong begins, “about--”

“I still mean that,” Byul says, her eyes are suddenly wide and desperate. She closes the space between them but stops just shy of actually touching her. “But I--I’ve changed since those centuries too.”

Yes, Yong thinks, yes you have, and the thought leaves her feeling oddly warm. 

“I don’t want--I.” Byul hesitates, brunning her fingers through her hair and past her horns, a sign that she was growing frustrated. Finally, her expression turns determined, “There are people who deserve a leg up, and those who don’t, and I’m just trying to balance out the scales.”

Balance. Yong laughs once, humorlessly, because the irony isn’t lost on her. Byul eyes her warily, “You’re not angry with me are you?”

She pauses to really think about it. By all rights she probably should be, but instead when she meets Byul’s eyes Yong is overcome with the urge to smooth the worry lines away with her  hand. She sighs, “No, I’m not.” The way Byul visibly relaxes makes her smile. Maybe she hadn’t been the only one worried about this discussion ruining their friendship. “I am hungry though,” she adds, just to tease, and her relief when Byul’s expression finally lightens is too great to put into words.

“Good,” the demon says, slinging her arm through Yong’s and leading them onward. At some point during their walk she realizes she's pressed closer to Byul than was strictly necessary. 

 

Hyesan, 1940

 

When Byul eventually finds her, she’s probably one more bottle away from total inebriation. Nevermind the fact that she’s only had one other bottle since she sat down at the bar. The point was...it was… She loses her train of thought entirely, everything going pleasantly warm and fuzzy around the edges.

“Yong,” even Byul’s voice sounds far away but the familiar timbre of it rouses Yong from the thick, drunken, haze she’s subjected herself to.

The war took no one by surprise, not with tensions in the entire continent building up in the last decade. While humanity had indeed advanced in the last few centuries, their bloodlust and penchant for warfare grew right along with them. Eventually, the general despair becomes too much for Yong to handle. So, this.

“Yong.” Byul’s voice is a bit louder now, a bit more insistent, and it’s accompanied by a firm hand shaking her shoulder.

Yong finally looks up from the half-drunken remains of her second soju bottle. She has to blink a few times for Byul to come into focus but when she does, there’s an unreadable expression on her face. 

“How many have you had?”

feels cottony when she tries to talk, and the words won't seem to come so she lifts up a single finger and s her whole arm towards Byul’s face. She hears the demon sigh, like the ghost of a chuckle, before the chair opposite her scrapes against the floor and when she looks up again, Byul is sitting across from her with her own bottle.

“What’re you do?” She slurs, the words tripping their way past her tongue. Byul just laughs before clinking her bottle against Yong’s. “No one should have to drink alone.”

The demon takes a long pull at her own drink and they two just sit there in silence for a long while. Occasionally Yong will take periodic sips from her own soju, wincing every time the liquid burns down . Byul though. The demon downs her first bottle in less than a minute and the second one soon after.

Yong frowns at her, “Why’re you good at that?”

Byul’s responding smile doesn’t reach her eyes, “I’m a demon, we practically invented vices.”

“Meanwhile, I can’t even--can barely--I’m already drunk after just one.” Yong glares at her still unfinished second bottle because surely it must be the culprit for why she can’t seem to talk tonight.

She’s not sure what her face is doing, but Byul bursts out laughing, for real this time. “Cute!” the demon coos, reaching over to poke at Yong’s cheeks. She swats her hand away.

“M’not cute.” Yong says, or tries to at least, “M’sad.”

Byul stops laughing then, and eventually the demon sighs and walks over to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Come on, Yong. I’ll take you home.” 

She nods and lets herself be pulled to her feet. She feels a little bad for Byul, who has to bear most of her weight, but not bad enough to pull away. The demon’s solid warmth is strangely comforting. 

When they finally make it out of the bar, the cold night air, especially this far north, clears her head a bit, and she takes a moment to steady herself. She realizes, after a while, that Byul still has a hand on the small of her back. It stays there throughout the whole walk to her house. 

It takes a while for her fingers to dig through her bag for the house keys and Byul has to take over but once they get the front door unlocked, Yong feels the weariness hit her all at once because before she can help it, her eyes are closing and really, Byul’s warmth at her back is so nice so maybe if she just leans into it just for a bit-- 

When she opens her eyes again, she’s already in her bedroom. In pajamas. The sudden change jolts her into both wakefulness and sobriety all at once and at a speed that leaves her head spinning. She practically jumps out of bed, wings and limbs akimbo, in the process colliding with something soft and warm just beside her.

“Augh!” It’s Byul, who apparently had been lying down next to her, above the covers. The demon rubs at the spot on her chest where Yong’s elbow must have dug into her in her mad scramble to get up.

“What-?” Yong looks down at the demon, then at the room around her, then back down toward the pajamas she certainly does not remember putting on. “I don’t--”

“You passed out at the front door,” Byul says, still wincing with a hand to her chest. “And Yonghee-unnie isn’t home, I think, so I sort of just carried you inside.”

Yong nods. Ever since the fighting began at Manchukuo, she and Yonghee have been taking shifts at the hospital, helping the soldiers in much the same way as centuries past. Her sister had opted to take the night shift alone that evening. All this, she remembers, but the pajamas--

Byul must see her growing confusion because the demon lifts one hand slowly and mimes snapping her fingers. Right, Yong nods to herself, demons could do that. 

“You stayed.” Yong said, dumbly. Byul shrugs, “I didn’t want to leave you alone like that.” 

She’s glad that it’s dark so Byul can’t see the blush that’s steadily creeping its way up her neck. She nods again, “Uhm. Thank you Byul-ah.”

The demon waves a hand to say, ‘don’t mention it’, before she goes to rub at her chest again. “That really hurt Yong. I think you literally broke my heart.”

Normally she would have shoved Byul for a comment like that. She must still be drunk then, because she’s sure that if she were sober her lips wouldn’t curl up into the goofy grin she has now. 

Eventually, the silence between them grows thick enough that Byul rises from the bed and goes about tucking Yong back in. She even snaps a glass of water into existence and places it on the bedside table before finally stepping away.

“I’ll just crash on the sofa until Yonghee-unnie returns,” Byul says, and Yong just nods, right before Byul opens the door, she hears herself saying, “You were right.”

Byul turns around and the expression on her face is so kind and patient and after everything, it makes Yong almost want to cry. Almost.

“The humans. They’ve always been the bad and the good ones and they haven’t needed angels for a long while now.” This is the real reason she had been at that bar this evening, because finally, after so long it feels as if she’s seeing clearly for the first time. The truth of everything coming to blows with an outdated dogma she’s held onto for much too long.  When she had taken a sip of that first bottle, it was to mourn the angelic purpose she had been clinging to for so long.

Byul walks back and brushes the hair out of her face. “I’m sorry that it hurts,” the demon says, so softly, “but someday you’ll find your own happiness without them. Look forward to that instead.”

Yong nods, and Byul stays for a few seconds more before eventually leaving her to rest.

Sleep doesn’t come so easily this time though. Probably because of conflicting emotions clashing in her mind. When she reaches an arm out, she can feel warmth from where Byul had been lying down and the urge to press against it for comfort threatens to pull her under. 

No. She can’t . That’s what she tells herself as she stubbornly turns to the side and clenches her eyes shut.

It’s not a problem. She can do this.

 

Jeju Island, 1985

 

She absolutely can not do this. Yongsun has stared down the maw that was her complicated view on humanity that went hand in hand with her equally complicated feelings for the demon Moon Byulyi and she has come to the clear conclusion that she cannot make it out unscathed.

“You okay back there, Unnie?”

She comes back to herself. They’re in Jeju. A few weeks earlier she had mentioned to Byul in passing that she had wanted to go to Jeju for a while, just to get away from the city. In reality, though, she wanted a distraction from the fact that for the first time in centuries, she isn’t needed by humans. Byul had simply nodded, and said “okay, I’ll go with you.”

So here they are.

They’ve spent the last week or so just enjoying the seaside; eating and sleeping in every day. For the most part, Yong lets herself forget that they’re an angel and a demon on vacation together, weird as it sounds and despite all the strange looks they get in passing from fellow beach-goers who come across them along the shore line. Easier still is to just focus on the vacation for what it is. Some time alone with her best friend.

Because that’s what Byul is isn’t she? It’s been centuries since they’ve actually fought. Besides, humans do it all the time, go on vacations with just their friends. So why can’t she, an angel, enjoy this time with, arguably, the only best friend she has on Earth who just so happens to be a demon? 

Except Byul had decided that today would be a good day to teach her how to take artsy pictures from a film camera and Yong had spent most of the day with Byul’s camera in her hand taking countless pictures of the sea, of their bare feet along the shore, of dogs playing in the sand and children playing with dogs. And now, with the sun setting in the distance and Byul sitting on the sand just a few feet in front of her, knees hugged to her chest, Yong points the camera at her, framing it just right so Byul is a silhouette limned in gold light as the sun dips below the sea. The sight has her heart pattering wildly in her chest and going dry and---

Oh no , Yong thinks, lowering the camera after she takes the shot, I love her.

The realization of it all hits her like a freight train. If she thought coming to terms with being unneeded by humanity was a jarring change, that was nothing compared to this. All of a sudden she feels so unmoored from everything she thought she knew about herself because now there was this and there would be no going back. Without meaning to, Yong breath hitches which draws Byul’s attention. The demon turns around a fraction of the way, palm digging into the sand.

“You okay, Yong?”

“Yes!” Yong says too quickly, straightening and looking back down at the camera so she doesn’t have to meet Byul’s eyes. She fiddles with the reel that winds the film, focusing on the clicking sound until there’s nothing left to wind. 

“Did you get the shot?” Byul asks.

“Yes,” Yong can feel her cheeks burning and something in her chest pulls in an oddly pleasant way. A soft, bittersweet thing that she realizes she has been carrying for far longer than she cares to admit to herself.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes!” Traitorously, Yong can feel her eyes watering, and she furiously tries to blink the tears away. It isn’t fair, it just isn’t fair . Why now?

“Is that the only thing you’re going to say to me all night?” Byul laughs. Yong can hear her getting up to sit beside her so she wipes at the tears still in her eyes and clears .

“No!” She says, defiant, hoping Byul doesn’t hear the crack in her voice, “I just had sand in my eye is all.”

“Hmm,” All of a sudden, Byul is right in front of her, one hand cradling Yong’s cheek carefully as she peers into Yong’s eyes. Their faces are barely an inch apart and the distance is making Yong’s brain swim. 

Oh no, Yong thought, feeling her heart pick up the pace and jackhammer nervously about her ribcage. No, no, no, no, no.

How did this happen?

“Do you need me to blow on your eye?” Byul asks, moving just a bit closer still. Out of reflex, Yong shoves Byul’s face away, laughing at the undignified squawk Byul makes as she tumbles back down on the sand.

“It’s fine, stop intruding on my personal space!” Yong says. She’s thankful the sun is all the way gone now, making it just dark enough to hide the blush still on her cheeks.  

Byul laughs, moving to sit beside her and slowly lowering her head until it was resting at the juncture of Yong’s neck and her shoulder. She even bothered to make sure the angle was just right so her horns weren’t digging into Yong’s cheeks. Yong shifts her arm a bit lower so Byul can get comfortable.

“ that we have to go back tomorrow, huh?” Byul says, and Yong still doesn’t trust herself to speak so she just nods.

“I suppose this is how humans must feel.” Byul continues, her tone contemplative now, “when they whine about not wanting to go back to work after a long vacation.” From the corner of her eye Yong can see Byul drawing tiny shapes in the sand between them. She keeps her own hands on her lap.

Later that night, Yong listens to the sounds of Byul sleeping as she lies awake, their beds separated by a single nightstand. Here in the silence, she slowly picks apart at the mess of her feelings. It scares her a little to realize that she can’t even pinpoint where these feelings for Byul began. In their long history together, she’s always felt strongly for the demon, whether it was strong irritation or otherwise. Now though it's much, much different.

She surrenders herself to the undertow and the force of it overwhelms her. How long has she loved Byul so strongly? When did these feelings start going beyond the boundaries of their friendship? Beyond even her own inherent love for mortals and other living things. That’s what scares her most of all. She’s an angel , loving and caring for humanity is supposed to be her sole purpose, but now she doesn’t even have that. 

Oh the irony, she thinks to herself.

All she can feel is a restlessness simmering just under her skin, rustling at her wing feathers, a gentle pull in her chest, and a happiness that feels like it might explode out of her at any given moment. 

Things, she realizes, she wants to keep feeling for the rest of her immortal life. So this is selfishness, she thinks, the yearning and the ache are so sweet that she can’t even bring herself to resent anything.

What if Byul doesn’t want any of that all?

The tears come back, and Yong doesn’t bother keeping them at bay this time, letting them seep into her pillow until she eventually falls asleep.

Their trip back to Seoul the next morning is a blur but by the time Byul pulls up at the house Yong is living in with her sister for now, the demon has a suspicious look on her face. “Yong are you--”

“Just tired,” she mumbles, before Byul can even finish the question. She moves to get out of the car but pauses when she feels Byul’s hand on her shoulder. When she turns her head though, her cheek collides with Byul’s waiting finger, the demon poking at her cheek with a laugh.

“Got you!” Byul says between chuckles. Yong swats her hand away but can’t help her own laugh either. She rolls her eyes, trying and failing to keep the smile from spreading on her face.

“I’ll be seeing you Yong,” Byul says, her voice infinitely warm and fond, and Yong hates that she can recognize that now. Once again her heart leaps into , so she nods and ambles out of the car.

She watches Byul drive away before making her way toward the house where she can make out the silhouette of  Yonghee waiting just behind the door. The moment she enters and meets her sister’s face, something in Yonghee’s expression shifts and her lips lift up into a knowing sort of smile.

“Did you have fun, little Yong?”

She nods again, schooling her expression into a brighter smile, “So much fun! We should live by a beach again, I’ve missed seeing the sea everyday.”

“Now that’s an idea,” Yonghee says, smile growing a little wider, “how was Byul?”

Yong stiffens for a fraction of a second as she’s unpacking all the dirty laundry from her trip. She’s sure her sister doesn’t notice it. “Same old Byul,” Yong says, “We should go to Jeju next time, Unnie, you and me!”

Yonghee passes her, patting fondly at the juncture of Yong’s wings and her shoulders. “I’d love that!”

The next month, however, Yonghee surprises her with the keys to Room 1031 and the news that she will be going back to heaven while Yong will be staying permanently on Earth. 

 

Seoul, 1991

 

After her sister ascends back to Heaven, Yong spends a few years on her own. It’s not that she’s actively avoiding Byul, but she doesn’t seek the demon out either. Eternity is a long time, she thinks, she could stand to spend a few years finally getting to know herself on her own terms.

She starts with the apartment. The first time she enters Room 1031 it’s practically bare and not even the meager possessions she’s saved over the centuries is enough to make the space feel like home. Which is why there’s a strange sense of fulfillment when she goes out to buy furniture on her own for the first time. She’s never really put down roots anywhere and the motions of it grounds her in a way to this new chapter of her life.

Yong learns that she enjoys walks along the Han, especially in the early hours of the morning, when it feels like the city isn’t fully awake yet. She develops a love for tteokbokki that borders on the obsessive. She also takes the time to learn all about the neighborhood, until it becomes as much a part of her as her own halo.

Her neighbors seem all too eager to welcome her as well, which is a nice bonus, as much as she’s sure it’s more the fact that they now get to live next door to an angel than it is anything else. There’s still an unceasing comfort that comes from helping the old woman in the adjacent building bring her groceries in, or offering to dogsit for the couple in the unit below hers. Like flexing a muscle she hasn’t used in so long. 

It’s only at night, in the stillness and the dark that she lets herself think about Byul, about a collection of old poems that she’s since encased in glass to protect them from time. About centuries’ worth of conversations and tentative smiles that have only grown surer with time. About a sweet ache in her chest that’s only grown stronger since she finally acknowledged it’s presence. 

Finally, on a not so special day, late in the spring, she uses her angelic energy to draw a sigil on her window, then goes outside her building to wait.

It takes an hour or so, but eventually, she sees a familiar pair of horns rounding the corner. When Byul finally catches sight of her she goes still, eyes locked on Yong’s and not daring to move a muscle.

The demon still looks much the same as she always has. Still that same pair of horns, still those same twinkling eyes on that striking face. Except now there’s the added bonus that Yong feels her pulse race and go dry just at the sight of her. 

She sighs and smiles and beckons the demon over.

“Have you been avoiding me?” Byul says as she approaches, and her voice is teasing but Yong can see the real hurt underneath coupled with a wariness that she hasn’t seen since that night by the sea. 

When she’s finally near enough, Yong stands. “Hello, Byul.”

“Hello, Yong.”

They’re quiet for a handful of moments, until finally the demon jams her hands in her pockets and takes stock of the building, eyes squinting against the light while she tilts her neck all the way up. “So this is where you’ve been hiding all these years?”

“I haven’t been hiding!” She shoves at Byul’s arm but there’s no real force behind it. When they lapse into silence again, she clears “I’ve uh--my sister went back to Heaven.”

That must take Byul by surprise because her smile fades instantly and the wariness is back tenfold. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Yeah? She smacks herself internally for that one. She should have thought this part through a bit more because it’s only now just dawning on her that she has no idea how to do this. Some of the panic must show on her face too because Byul’s expression shutters off a bit more and no, no, no this is all going so wrong.

“And you called me to tell me you’ll be going back too, huh?” Byul isn’t looking at her anymore but the pain is clear in every line of her body and that must jolt something inside of her because Yong is shaking her head and taking another step forward.

“No!” She says a little too loudly, but it’s worth it to see Byul’s eyes snap back to hers. “Byul I--” She looks down at their feet and takes a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said before. About finding my own happiness for myself.”

Byul takes a step forward and Yong looks up just in time to catch the flash of hope in her eyes. “Being selfish?” Byul says.

“Yes.” 

“How’s that working out for you?” There’s a hint of a smile tucked away in the corner of Byul’s mouth, and Yong eyes dart to it before she looks up again. 

“I’m not that good at it yet.” She says, and she’s smiling now too, “So I thought, ‘who’s the most selfish person I know?’”

Byul breaks out into a laugh, and it’s the most beautiful sound in the world. She must have moved somehow because they’re directly in front of each other now. “And?”

Yong takes a deep breath and reaches out to take Byul’s hand, “--and.” she says, “now that you’re here, my happiness is too.”

Byul’s answering smile is brighter than the sun and it warms Yong to her core, blinding as it is. “Finally,” Byul whispers, and Yong can feel Byul’s breath against her own lips and she smiles just before she leans in to press their lips together, then, finally, finally.

It’s so soft at first, but not all tentative. Just the warm press of lips, slow and sure. The world around them holds still and time does too. All the centuries behind them finally coalescing into this perfect moment and Yong wishes she could stay in this point in time for a few more eternities.

When they pull apart, they’re both a little breathless, and there’s a blush on Byul’s cheeks that Yong kisses before she pulls her into a hug. Byul relaxes into it instantly, wrapping thin arms around Yong’s waist, right behind her wings. 

The rightness of it all fills her up, more than anything she’s ever done in all her centuries ever had and maybe that makes her a bit of a bad angel. It’s a good thing the world doesn’t have much use for angels or demons anymore. 

Byul’s cheek presses against hers. “Does this mean I should call you, Unnie?” she murmurs, breath tickling Yong’s ear. A shiver trips up and down her spine so she just laughs and nods and holds on. 

It isn’t until later, much, much later, after they’ve sat and talked about a few more things, like Byul moving in with her, like what exactly they plan to do from now on, like getting jobs , that Yong realizes she never really said the words out loud. 

Which is why she’s more than a little distracted when they’re both getting ready for bed. She doesn’t notice that Byul is snapping herself into a pair of pajamas and already tucking herself into the sheets. So much so that when Yong sits on the bed, she forgets to be careful with her wings, and ends up accidentally pushing Byul off the mattress entirely.

They both yelp at the same time, but the reality of everything comes crashing into Yong all at once. The sheer joy of finally being together and the force of her own love for this demon overwhelming her so much that her body responds in the only way it can: she ends up laughing. She laughs until there are tears streaming down her face and she can feel her sides cramping.

Across from her, Byul picks herself up off the floor and glares, but there’s no real heat there. Instead she clambers back onto the bed and wrestles Yong into a tickling match, both of them now shrieking and giggling together. When it’s done, they’re both grinning from ear to ear and facing each other. 

Before Yong can even register the movement, Byul leans in quickly, to kiss her once before saying, “If you weren’t my great love in this and every life, I would sleep in a different room for that.”

And, oh, that has her going warm and she must be smiling goofily again but Yong can’t bring herself to care less. She smiles, and makes an exaggerated show of rolling her eyes, “If you keep saying things like that, I might just make you sleep in another room.”

Byul chuckles, low and soft before scoots a bit closer so she can wrap an arm around her waist. “Good night, Yong.”

“Love you too, Byul.”

Around them the night settles, and Yong relaxes into sleep better than she’s ever had, finally sated with the knowledge that this, this was her purpose, and the rest of eternity is just theirs for the taking. 

 

FIN