The next day, Luhan and Irin stayed inside the room as it was raining outside. Luhan sighed as he stared outside the room. He took out a feather and stared at it. Irin who was eating an apple turned her head to the feather.

“My feather…” she whispered as she stared at it.

“Can I have that back?” she asked.

Luhan looked at the girl with a confused expression. “Back? This isn’t even yours,” he said.

“It is!” she tried to convince him.

“No,” Luhan remained firm in his decision.

“Why is it even special to you?” she asked.

“You tell me, why is it special?” he dared her. “Because it’s mine,” Irin simply answered.

Luhan seemed to be agitated by her answer. “No!” He sat up and kneeled on the bed as he held up the feather in front of him. “This,” he said as he signaled Irin to look at the feather. “This is the feather of an angel who had saved a lot of people. This feather is very special to me. This. Is. Not. Yours,”

Irin sighed as a sign of defeat. She could not convince the boy to give it back. As an angel, she is forbidden to lie. She cannot lie about the feather not being of an angel’s.  She would be damned if she told him that. One simple lie can turn into a spiral whirling vortex of even greater lies. And so, she just gave up for that day and would return this topic some other time for she needed the feather to return to heaven.

Luhan smiled in victory.

Days passed and Irin remained defeated in the hopes of getting her feather back. But in those days, she learned so many things about the boy. She learned how his age doesn’t match his mentality. And as she learned much more about him, they had gotten close. There was the constant teasing and chatting.

Luhan’s father could see how his son was getting happier each day and how Irin was the reason why.

Irin learned Luhan can finish a rubik’s cube in a quick time which amazed her completely. She tried to finish one but failed. Luhan had laughed at her for how she reacted when she did not know what row to twist next. She tried to finish one but failed again. Again and again and again.

“I’m gonna finish a rubik’s cube one day,” Irin promised.

 “Do you know that I want to be an idol?” he suddenly asked her as they watched the television. It was already night time. Irin turned her head to look at him. “I like to dance and sing,” he said with a smile. “Doing those things makes me feel that I’m free,” he continued.

“Well, that’s nice,” Irin commented with a smile.

“But I’ve been always here in the hospital since I was young. I want to do the things I want to. I want to do anything without thinking of the price of it. I want to be free,” He said as a tear fell down from his eyes. Oh, loneliness. Something had been triggered in Irin. She knew none of it but she was sure she was feeling something.

“I had always believed in angels because I was once told that they always look after me. They would always protect me from danger,” he smiled, yet the sadness was evident.

“If you believe in angels then do you believe in God and miracles?” Irin asked. “Yeah, I believe in them” he answered, as he wiped the tear away. “Then don’t just believe that miracles exist, believe that it’s already happening to you,” Irin told him.

There was a moment of silence before Luhan had spoken, “It is a blessing that I met you,” He turned to her with a smile. “Because of this feather, I met you. And with you here, I wasn’t that lonely anymore. I began to hope again, to believe that one day I will be free. Thank you, Irin,” he continued with his smile never fading.

Irin smiled, greatly moved by what the latter had said.

Irin stood from her seat and stretched.

“Alright, time for you to sleep,” she said.

Luhan stood up and went to his bed. It was quite surprising for Irin as Luhan would normally argue about wanting to stay up longer.

“About the feather…” Luhan spoke as he slipped into the blanket. “Don’t worry about it for now. Hold onto it for now. I’ll be by your side. Don’t worry,” she told him with a comforting smile.

Luhan was peacefully sleeping while Irin stared at the stars outside by the window. Angels don’t sleep. They continue to watch so that nothing will ever happen. Irin was wondering what her friends might have been doing by then when she noticed a shadow lurking in the corner of the room.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“You know why an angel of death like me would be hanging around in these kinds of places,” the angel in black cloak came out of the dark and revealed himself.

Irin’s eyebrows furrowed and started shaking her head.

“No… please, don’t,” she looked at Luhan.

“If it’s not me, who will guide him to heaven? You, an angel, know that if his soul gets into bad hands, I can’t get him back,” the angel of death replied.

Irin looked down and held her pendant. “Not yet…. Please,” she spoke. The angel of death looked at the latter’s angel. “Yes, not yet.” He said. Irin looked up at the angel.

“I still have to wait for your feather to disappear. But I suggest you retrieve your feather back. Once it disappears you’ll lose your ability to fly and be like us… me, a guardian of death,”

By that, Irin was struck with the dilemma.

If she let Luhan hold onto the feather until the end, she would end up being a guardian of death but if she retrieves the feather, Luhan will die sooner.

“I want to be free,”

She looked at the boy sleeping peacefully and fell down on her knees.

“Please…” Irin pleaded at the angel’s feet, her voice shaking.

To the amazement of the both of them, Irin broke into harrowing, heart-breaking uncontrollable sobs. Crying. She was crying. Crying is the ability only humans can do.

“Please…” she looked up to the angel. The angel shook his head slowly showing there was nothing else he could do.

She continued to cry on her knees with her fists clenching. She had to make a choice. A choice has to be made. Just then, in the midst of her cries, she thought of something. Something that would save her and Luhan.

She stood in haste and went to the drawer beside Luhan’s bed. The angel of death watched in the background as Irin opened the top drawer and saw the feather. The feather started to slowly fade. She grabbed it and turned to Luhan with her tear-stained cheeks.

“I’m sorry. But please continue to believe,” she leaned over and planted a kiss on the boy’s cheek. Tears fell from the eyes of the angel.

She placed the feather back in her pendant and in a quick second, her wings spread out. She flew in haste out of the room.

After the angel left, the machines started beeping. There was no one beside Luhan and his life was on the line. Luckily, his father had arrived from his work and was alarmed to see what was happening to his son. He quickly ran out of the room and called the nurses and the doctors. They started to rush in the room.

Luhan’s father waited outside the room, breathing heavily. He prayed that his son be saved. That his son may live. Luhan’s father wasn’t ready for his son to leave. “Please do not leave... Live,”

While in the corner of the room, the dark angel waited. He was waiting for the boy’s soul to leave the body but just then, he smiled.

“It’s not yet your time. Till the next time we see each other, till the next time you and Irin meet again,” He said before he vanished. The monitor returned to normal and the medical team started to calm down. One by one, they went out of the room.

“Don’t worry, sir. He’s back to normal,” the doctor informed Luhan’s father. Out of joy, he shook the doctor’s hand vigorously.

Months after that incident, Luhan started to heal much to the doctors’ surprise.