Minho didn’t know when he fell asleep but all that he knew was that he was most definitely dreaming now. Because everything was so blindingly white. There is no way that anything this white could exist in real life! Heck, even the trees and the grass he was standing upon were white. There was no need for sun at all. Everything was so white that Minho couldn’t imagine that this place ever had a night.

Minho looked down to check himself. Surprisingly, he was in all black. Head-to-toe he was dressed completely in black and he stood out like a sore thumb in the all-white background. Well, at least he wasn’t blinding himself with too much light reflection.

“I see that you made it in time. But then again, I made you come so of course you had to come. Oh how I amuse myself sometimes….” came a female voice Minho would recognize anywhere.

He turned around to face the direction where the voice came from, simultaneously calling out the name of the owner of said voice.

“Gwiboon?”

That was right, It was Gwiboon. She wore a white dress that was just as blinding as the background and she had her long hair done up in a very elaborate braid. She looked like a goddess that made Minho want to literally fall at her feet and worship her. He didn’t though- what would she think of him?!

“Yes, I am. For now. I am not all the time though. I could be 6.974 billion different people if I wanted to. But I am not. That’s too tiresome a job, don’t you think?” she answered, causing Minho to blink at her stupidly. He didn’t understand at all what she was going on about.

“Where are we now, Gwiboon?” Minho asked, trying to remember what happened before he came here. What made him come here?

Then, it hit him. Jinki. Anger that he hadn’t felt earlier when Jinki had disappeared, boiled up now in all its fearsome glory.

“Calm down, Minho. You’re not still mad at me, are you? I brought you here to give you an explanation so please be patient until I am done…”

Minho looked at her with curious eyes.

“Why would I be angry with you, Gwiboon? I don’t understand…”

Gwiboon smiled, coming forward to him.

“It’s not Gwiboon that you are mad at. It is me. The unfair one that took something away from you…”

And as Minho watched Gwiboon take the last step to stand right in front of him gracefully, it dawned upon Minho. His eyes widened in disbelief.

“God?” Minho whispered.

Gwiboon’s smile widened at that.

“The one and only…”

Minho thought that he must have lost his mind. That or God had taken up his proposition to be punished in Jinki’s stead even though it was too late and now he was going through the briefing session of how his eternity of a new kind of torture would take place.

All of that might be able to explain what was going on as he walked with God in Gwiboon’s form on his side. This cannot be really happening, right?

“Okay, let me ask you this again,” Minho stopped walking and turned to face Gwiboon. She stopped as well, turning to him with her hands clasped at the back.

“You’re God,” Minho stated.

Gwiboon nodded.

“And you’re talking to me now.”

“Apparently I am.”

“Why?”

“All in good time, Minho…” Gwiboon (God?) was very patient with Minho’s incessant questions.

“As Gwiboon?” Minho asked, completely confused.

“Why? Am I not allowed to? He can be a She too, you know?” Gwiboon answered, looking haughty. Now, this really looked like Gwiboon.

“But Gwiboon?”

At this, Gwiboon smiled again, striding over to a white bench that appeared the moment she decided to sit. She patted the space next to her, inviting him to sit. She was sitting down like that was her throne, legs crossed, back straight, exuding a royal aura. Minho took wobbly steps towards her, the knowledge of being in the presence of a superior being making his knees go weak by itself.

“I took the form of the one person you had looked to as a stronghold in your latest life. You would listen to whatever Gwiboon said, wouldn’t you?”

Minho wasn’t really sure about that (Oh who was he kidding! Gwiboon had the power to make you obey her even if you didn’t want to), but he nodded in agreement anyway. The Gwiboon in front of him laughed as though she had heard his inner thoughts. Maybe she really did. She is God, after all.

“You and Lee Jinki, really gave me a tough time making a decision, you know?” Gwiboon stated, attracting Minho’s attention to what he had been called for in the first place.

“Am I be-“

“Do not interrupt me when I am speaking,” Gwiboon said sternly and for the first time since Minho met God, he truly felt the fear surge inside him.

She was smiling sweetly again the next moment but Minho never relaxed.

“I am generous, you see? I give my subjects what they wish for and I allow them to deal with the consequences because there is no better teacher than experience to teach you that what you wish for is not always what you need…” Gwiboon spoke, her eyes lighting up with glee as a couple of white butterflies fluttered above her head. She played with them for a while, totally ignoring Minho. Minho said nothing though, having learned his lesson earlier.

After a while, Gwiboon turned to his side by chance and noticed that he was waiting.

“Oh right! I was speaking with you,” Gwiboon said, looking like she really just remembered that he was there.

“I know I made some of my subjects more self-sacrificing than the others but you two really pushed that trait to the limit, you know? Both of you asking for forgiveness, both of you asking to be punished for the same thing, both of you giving up each other so nobly. I could not grant you both your wishes- not when you were both asking for the same things but for each other,” Gwiboon said.

Minho looked down at his lap, wanting to ask questions but afraid of being told off again.

“Speak up, son. You have the permission to now…” Gwiboon said gently, understanding his inhibitions.

“Why did you grant his rather than mine then? Is it because you hate me?” Minho asked, hesitantly. Gwiboon laughed out loud at his words.

“Oh my subjects! How you all amuse me with your ability to read so much into a simple thing! The only reason I granted Jinki’s wish is because he asked first. He was quicker. Early bird gets the worm…”

Minho frowned at that, having objections towards God’s nonchalant reactions to something so serious to Minho.

“Go on. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘why is God so irresponsible?’, aren’t you?” Gwiboon asked, pointing an accusatory finger at him teasingly.

“I was just thinking that it would be the more logical thing to do to punish me. I was the one who disobeyed you in the first place. I was the angel who didn’t serve you properly. Why punish innocent Jinki?” Minho asked, a little more courageously.

“It doesn’t work that way, Minho. I do not like punishments. I give second chances. Those rebirths that you two went through, those were your chances to make right of your wrong. But life after life, you two made the same mistake,” Gwiboon said, tilting her head back as though to enjoy the imaginary sun.

“Why did you make us love then? In a way, we really had no choice but to make that mistake again and again…” Minho said, knowing that he was saying the right things for the right answers. Gwiboon turned her face to him and gave him one serious look.

“Whoever said that falling in love is the mistake, Minho?” she deadpanned.

“There’s something else that we did?!” Minho asked in shock. They have committed other sins that were the reason for the endless cycles of rebirths?

“It’s rather something that you two didn’t do…”

Minho waited for the explanation to come, not