Hyunseung kept walking through the market with just a thought, a thought that kept playing on repeat since he remembers. They wouldn’t fight against us…they’re us and we are them…we are all the same in the end. He couldn’t help but think that way, he knew he would get scolded if he voiced those thoughts so he was going to keep them to himself, at least for now. He would always think that way after his morning patrol in the market. They, we, those concepts didn’t have a place in that world, in spite of the war, the forgotten grudges and the ancient hate they were still the same, angels. While he was in his own thoughts he didn’t notices that was going to bump against another guy, he was able to see just his jacket before running into the other.

“Excuse me, I was a little distracted and…” He started to apologize with a little bow.

“You should look where you’re walking, kid” Said the other while he kept walking without even turning around.

He couldn’t help it: the scent of bitter almonds would always remind him about the fate of the impossible love.And that always made him moody and grumpy. In addition, even though he was a legendary warrior, he had just bumped against a kid not older of 15 years old who had crashed against his last war wound, inflicted by a demon no more than 5 minutes before the crash and it was still unhealed. He kept walking, thinking about what had gone wrong, what had he done wrong for this low-leveled demon to hit him on his shoulder, but he was unable to think of something. And that was making him even grumpier.

He wanted to leave the market behind as soon as possible so he started to walk faster. All those human emotions surrounding him were overcoming his senses and he was starting to feel vulnerable. He couldn’t understand why God gave him the ability of feeling all those human emotions so clearly, although they felt them as something external, like someone watching a movie, it was pretty annoying. He would never understand why he needed to help humans. His mission was to stop the advance from the fallen angels and to fight against the demons that could appear, but every time he was called by one of his bosses they would tell him that he needed to get involved with humanity. He then remembered the last meeting he had had with Dongwoon just a week ago.

“Junhyung, don’t you think that you could have avoided it? Don’t you think that God gave you that skill so you could avoid this kind of tragedies? That girl didn’t deserve what happened to her.” Said the angel with a sad face, but Junhyung wasn’t answering, he kept his head straight and emotionless.

Dongwoon sighed desperately. Since the beginning Junhyung proved that he was one of the best soldiers from Heaven, but his lack of empathy towards human beings made his bosses to worry. They didn’t know if it was a good idea to leave him alone in a patrolling zone. They knew for sure that demons weren’t going to defeat him but they also knew the warrior angel enough to know that he wouldn’t get involved in anything related with the human nature, and that was the only flaw they could tell about him.

“Junhyung-ah… Can you answer something for me?” Said Dongwoon, trying to figure out what was going on inside his subordinate’s head.

"I’m sorry, Dongwoon, but I think it’s not my job to get involved in a street fight” He answered emotionless, causing the archangel to cringe in desperation.

“Street fight? ¡Junhyung! ¡They were a little girl just inches away from where you were! And I don’t mind if you think that’s your job or not, God gave us the empathy skill to avoid these things, not to just stick to the rules without even sparing a look to those around us.”

There was a thick silence after Dongwoon’s outburst and both angels kept staring into each other’s eyes, a pair full of confusion, and the other pair completely empty. In the end, it was Dongwoon who was unable to keep it up.

“Can I go now? I still some business to take care of, and I should go back to my zone right now.”

“Yeah, right, you can go back, Junhyung-ah. But don’t forget that we are constantly watching you or that you are an angel from Heaven.” Said Dongwoon, finishing their meeting and feeling uneasy because of the angel he was sending back on Earth.

Junhyung came back from his thoughts. He still couldn’t understand why he needed to help humans with their own issues, he had been brought up as a watcher, angels don’t have to interfere in the lives of humans, they have his reason skills to know what to do and why. But since Yoseob became God’s right hand the Heaven ways had changed drastically and angels had become the humanity’s baby sitters. He decided that he wasn’t in the mood to work so he walked straight to the only place where he knew he could calm down, the only place where he wouldn’t have to hide his true nature so he could spread his numb wings and see how the wound was healing.

The angel walked towards the parking below the building where he his office was and jumped into his car, heading as fast as he could towards the outskirts again. After half an hour of dreadful traffic he finally arrived to an almost invisible track that would lead him to a small lake. He arrived there quickly since he couldn’t wait to throw away his human mask. He took off all of his humans clothes and allowed his wings to spread wide. He just kept his sword, ready to use it if needed. He hanged his Armani suit in the usual branch and entered the crystal clear water, feeling refreshed immediately. He needed to freshen up his ideas too. It was then when an image appeared on his mind like a forgotten memory, big, black eyes, a small hand burning him. He looked his wounded shoulder and gasped. Next to the healing wound there was the mark of a small hand, like branded in his skin. Who did that? He remembered then those big eyes again, his small hands… That kid was a fallen angel! How did he missed him when they were so close?

However, his momentary annoyance was interrupted by a noise near the shore. Junhyung came out of the lake slowly and put his trousers on again. He focused all his senses in the presence he was feeling while trying to hide himself. And he saw him again, big, dark eyes, small hands, red, spiky hair… He already knew who he was, or what he was, a fallen angel, but he wasn’t giving him the same dark waves that the rest of his kind always did. Junhyung was a little surprised by this and lowered his guard without realizing. He knew he was in front of an enemy and that he had to fight against him, but he couldn’t understand why we wasn’t able to move and inch of his body. He came out of his hideout slowly and get near the black angel, who was kneeled in the shore, just looking at his reflection. The angel couldn’t help but kneel beside her, looking straight at his face and startling the youngest angel.

“What are you doing here?” He asked trying to sound fierce.

“You don’t have to say it like that, this is a public place” Said the other tilting his head cutely and looking straight in Junhyung’s eyes.

Junhyung felt, out of a sudden, that he was talking with someone way older than him. There was something hidden in the eyes of the falling angel that gave him the feeling of being talking with something bigger than himself. Hyunseung stood up, always looking at the angel. It was the first time he was really looking at the other and he couldn’t help but notice that the angel was pretty attractive. His hair was still wet and his bangs covered one of his golden eyes. He kept lowering his stare till he stopped in the other’s wounded shoulder and he recognized easily his own mark.

“It seems like it’s not our first meeting. I’m sorry about this.” He said while touching lightly the mark once again.

Junhyung was still kneeled, lost in the blue eyes of the fallen angel. But when the other touched his burned shoulder his warrior instincts made him act the way he was taught since he was a kid, he drew the sword and threatened the fallen angel’s throat with it, but the other kept looking at him with a small smile and nothing more. Hyunseung kept staring at the handsome angel with his clear blue eyes. It was like he wasn’t seeing the angelic sword almost slitting his throat. He kept the burn with his little hand and he kept going up, first the other’s throat, face and he lastly removed his still wet bangs from his eye, an eye marked by another scar that he gently .

“It seems like you are leading a hard life. When did you get this one? Was it from a demon? It seems like Dongwoon is not taking care of you as he should.” There seemed to be real worry in the fallen angel’s voice. Junhyung thought that he even caught a glimpse of concern in the other’s blue eyes.

But Junhyung became aware of what the fallen angel had just said. Did he say Dongwoon? That fallen angel was acquaintance of Dongwoon? But he didn’t have any idea of who the other was. He hadn’t seen him in his whole life, he wasn’t one of those dozens of fallen angels he had fought with nor one of those ancient ones that they studied in their books.  Then why did he know him? Was that fallen angel there just to meet him so the previous meeting was not as casual as it seemed to be? With this idea, Junhyung came back to his usual self. What the hell was he thinking? His worst enemy was there, touching him! He pushed the sword again against the other’s skin, making a superficial cut. He saw, pleased, blood starting to flow and stood up finally.

“Don’t you ever touch me again, demon!” Muttered the angel.

Hyunseung take his hand away from the other’s face slowly and took a step back while two enormous black wings appeared at his back. The previously clear eyes became tainted with pain, as if the rejection from the angel had cause him real pain, but Junhyung was sure that it wasn’t the case. He knew how the fallen angels were, he was sure that the other was faking his concern and tenderness, the reality was that he was just another demon trying to corrupt an angel. But that wasn’t going to work with, he had spent too many centuries fighting for his mission to be tempted by a demon, even though his appearance looked more angelic than his own. That’s how he regained his fighting position, waiting for him enemy to draw his own sword. But the black-winged angel didn’t seem willing to fight. He didn’t change his position even after seeing Junhyung ready to fight, he just kept staring at him, with his hurt eyes. Instead of attacking he just stood there, vulnerable and ready to take the blow. But the blow didn’t reach his aim either and Junhyung didn’t know why. It hadn’t even passed an hour since his last fight against a demon, something that had a lot of similarities with a fallen angel, and now he was finding it hard to even maintain his sword on place in front of the small angel, who was still bleeding by his throat, even though he seemed to not pay attention at the open wound.

“Why?” Asked confused the white-winged angel “Why aren't you fighting back? This is our nature, I have to kill you and if I don’t do it, it has to be because you have killed me first. That’s how our world works and that’s how it has to be.”

“And why does it have to be like this?” The kid lowered his gaze and his voice became tinged with sadness. “Why can’t we be like humans so we can live all together without the need of attacking each other?”

Hyunseung felt his chin being upped by a warm hand and Junhyung was looking at him with a smirk on his lips, but with emotionless golden eyes.

“Because we are not humans, we are just god’s failed experiments. And we are fated to always play along with his war game because of that. Maybe, if some day he’d decide to leave us alone, maybe we could rest in peace and wake up a day as one of his precious humans”

“You’re probably right. Maybe when day we will wake up as something better, but we will have to stay as angels until that day.”