He stared at the large screen in front of him, a frown set on his face as he watched the Guardians safely lead the Angel out of the Demon lair. He continued to keep his eyes on screen as the picture switched to a split screen of the inside of two vans. He didn’t know how much more he could take when the Guardians and Angel piled into the two vans and all he heard was a deafening silence as they drove through the forest.

He let out a groan and buried his face in his hands.

“How could this happen again?” he growled and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“It’s not your fault, Kris,” Hyerim placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze, “What could you have done?”

“I could have not gotten myself killed,” he muttered, staring at the monitor mounted on the wall with so much intensity that he could have created holes through the plasma screen.

“If I didn’t let my anger cloud my judgment,” he continued, “I would still be there with them, Miyoung wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped again, and that other Angel wouldn’t be held captive.”

Hyerim’s lips formed into a line and she reached over Kris’s lap, grabbing the remote and turning off the screen.

“Kris,” she turned him by the shoulders so he was facing her, “What’s done is done. You know the guys don’t blame you for what happened. And do you know why?”

Kris sighed and gave her a lopsided grin, already know where she was going with this, “Why, Hyerim?”

“Because they never blamed you to begin with,” she stated simply.

“Oh, that’s right,” he nodded, “I seem to forget from the other hundred times you told me. I’ll try to remember next time.”

Hyerim gave him a look and lightly whacked him on the shoulder while rolling her eyes.

Kris gazed at her lovingly as she let out a soft sigh and stared down at her feet. Although he would never admit it, he did feel a little better after hearing he little proclamation. True, he would never forgive himself for abandoning the Exo boys. They were his best friends, his brothers. But if there were to be anything good that came out of his death, it was that he was able to be reunited with Hyerim, his one and only love, in the Afterlife.

The first few weeks in the Afterlife were pure bliss for Kris. He was able to spend every waking second with the love of his life with no Demons trying to capture her for her blood, no Archangels trying to tear them apart, no Guardians interrupting moments they had together. It was as if it was just the two of them and no one else existed.

After a little more than a month in the Afterlife, reality set in. The remorse, anger, and pain started to eat Kris alive. How could he let himself get killed? How could he leave the M boys without a leader? How could he just dump the responsibility for leading ten Guardians on soft hearted Suho? So when Hyerim told him that there was a way to watch the Exo boys and the Demons, Kris immediately jumped at the chance.

When he first started monitoring them, everything was going smoothly. They would go on Demon hunting missions as usual and train with each other through capture the flag. Sure, they would have their little arguments and spats, but that was normal with any group of people who lived together. Kris was actually quite surprised and proud of Suho would step up and take charge when the boys had to make decisions.

But he didn’t expect things to turn this bad this quickly. He wanted, needed, to talk to them, even if it was just for a minute. He could give them some strategy tips, tell them how sorry he was, and that he would always be watching out for them. That’s the one thing that he wanted over everything else.

“Hey, are you okay?” Hyerim asked softly, pulling Kris out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” he looked up at her and realized that he was still sitting on the bed in his room, “Oh, yeah. I’m fine, I was just thinking.”

“Well don’t think too hard, I don’t want you hurting yourself,” she teased with a giggle.

Kris lightly flicked her on the side of her head, a small smile gracing his lips.

He gave her a questioning look when she jumped off the bed and stood in front of him.

“Why don’t we go for a walk?” she suggested, “We haven’t been on one of those in a while since you’ve been cooping yourself up in here all day watching the boys like they’re in a drama or something.”

Kris rolled his eyes and stood up from the bed and laced his fingers through hers before pulling her out of his room.

---

A light breeze rustled the leaves of trees that seemed too tall to be real. Kris took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes, tipping his head towards the sky as he enjoyed the fresh air and silence of the secluded path.

“I have something to tell you,” Hyerim said suddenly as she swung their intertwined hands.

Kris opened one eye, still keeping his head angled toward the sky, and looked down at her suspiciously, “What is it?”

“It’s nothing bad,” she shook her head casually, “But you might freak out.”

Kris lowered his head and looked at her curiously, “Okay, but I’m still a little scared.”

Hyerim pursed her lips and cocked her head slightly to the side as she collected her thoughts, “What if I told you there’s a way to talk to people on Earth?”

“Then I’d call you crazy,” he responded.

“Well, call me a lunatic because it’s true,” she said seriously.

Kris stopped walking and stared at the girl next to him in disbelief.

“What? I don’t think I heard you right,” Kris closed his eyes and shook his head, “Did you just say that there is a way to communicate with people on Earth? Which also means that there is a way to communicate with Guardians on Earth?”

“Yup, that’s what I just said,” she nodded once.

“Hyerim!” Kris exclaimed, throwing her hand out of his.

“What?” she looked up at him in confusion. Wasn’t he supposed to be happy to hear about this?

“Why didn’t you tell me before?!” his voice echoed through the rows of trees.

“Because you’re not supposed to know about it, you dummy!” she yelled back at him.

Kris stared at the small (by his standards) girl in front of him, shocked by her outburst.

She took a deep breath and pushed some hair out of her face.

“It looks like a giant mirror thing but works like a webcam. Its purpose is to let the Archangel know that those who have passed have made it to the Afterlife. But only former Angels can turn it on,” she explained.

“Oh,” he mumbled and bit his lip.

Hyerim smiled when she pretty much hear the click in Kris’s head when he realized what she hoped he would.

“Wait a second, you’re a former Angel,” he stated slowly.

“Yes, Kris, that has been established long ago,” she laughed.

“And you said that only former Angels can turn it on, but you didn’t say anything about them being the only ones that can use it,” Hyerim almost laughed out loud at the concentrated look on her boyfriend’s face.

But instead, she patiently nodded her head and waited for him to continue.

“So, that means that you can turn it on … and I can use it to talk to the Exo boys?” Kris questioned, looking at her like a little lost boy.

“Ding ding ding!” she chimed, “We have a winner!”

The brightest smile that Hyerim has ever seen appeared on Kris’s face as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground in celebration.

“Took you long enough to figure that one out,” she laughed when he set her back on the ground, “Come on, I thought you were the leader of Exo-M.”

“Shut up,” he rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand before pulling her down the path.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she tried to keep up with his long strides.

“You’re going to take me to that mirror thing,” he said, keeping his eyes straight forward, “Right now.”

---

And I'm back! A lot of you were wondering if Kris was ever going to come back and here he is! I actually planned to write him into the story from the beginning so I'm glad that a lot of you were hoping that he was going to be in the story. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

~Admin Kelc