After Seungri talked a little with Jung Min and Daesung, he opened once more the window, transformed into the same snow owl and left flying through the strong wind. Yuri closed back the window right away and went on to prepare for sleep while pushing us out of her room. Jung Min also came after us and I was about to ask him why wasn’t he sharing a room with Yuri. I really try to help them. Before I could say something, Jung Min told us that he had to go and ask around for that rogue reaper, so we could start the search without aimlessly wandering around the city.

I wasn’t so thrilled with the mission anymore.

“Hey Daesung,” I stopped the blonde kid as he fixed his pillow and blanket in the living room. He turned to me and smiled. I love it when he smiles, though I felt it wasn’t sincere. And that me as odd. “Is there a shield around the house?” I remembered the snow not being able to enter and I figured it was the only logical answer. That or the weather was drunk.

“Oh, yeah,” Daesung confirmed my suspicion. So it was only normal for my brain to put two and two together until the final image looked extremely strange.

“So how could Seungri get inside?”

“Ohhh, I forgot!” Daesung slapped his forehead and pulled out from under his T-shirt a small round medallion. He popped it open and inside was a small white feather. “He’s my partner,” Daesung proudly grinned while closing back the medallion.

“Partner?”

“What, are you jealous grandma?”

I was not! I’m a curious creature, so shouldn’t I put questions like that? I almost smacked him, but I had no force left inside of me. I was nearly deaf, my eyes would drop soon out of their sockets right in my mouth and my bones made funny creaking noise every time I moved my head around.

Thankfully, Daesung was willing to tell me all about it without me making a scene out of it.

He explained that after he woke up, the city unlocked after the demon’s failed attempt to unite the three worlds. Whatever blocked everybody from the outside to enter had disappeared along with me and the blue energy. The first thing that Daesung saw was a legion of reapers coming to clean up the chaos. They restored all the stolen fresh souls back to their vessels and erased everybody’s memories. They also wanted to erase everything from Daesung and Yuri, but Seungri stepped in and pleaded not to since they were both Red Priests and that could be to their advantage. He also argued in their favor when some reapers suggested it was better to kill them off – you know, they could be controlled by the demons like Yuri had been and they shouldn’t take any risks.

After that, the city fell under Seungri’s jurisdiction. Daesung told me that it was his punishment for going against higher orders to help them and if anything were to happen because of them, Seungri would be put at fault. I have to admit that reaper sounds better than most – unless he has an ulterior motive, which kind of exists in every single reaper. Though, Daesung was so convinced that Seungri was one of the good guys that I shut my mouth and didn’t stop him.

He started detailing how Yuri agreed to train him and suggested he should train with Seungri. And that was pretty much how their relationship started. Ever since then, Daesung and Seungri had the same bond me and Jung Min had in the past. Seungri visited him often since the house we were in was positioned exactly in the middle of his daily routine. Since Daesung had one of his feathers, it was only normal for Seungri to be able to bypass the shield.

Daesung added that Yuri built the shield and since it wasn’t directly connected to her, that house was the safest place to be since the shield wouldn’t go down even if she died. That worried me a little because I didn’t want to lose her a second time. The first was because of my fault. I still felt guilty about it and I still had to find out how Yuri didn’t die in the fire along with the demon.

I spent my entire night listening to Daesung and I couldn’t help see the way he spoke was better than... well, three years ago. He still had the same excitement, but his face turned serious when it was necessary and returned to his jokes when he’d describe a funny situation. I laughed a couple of times to scare sleep off. I missed spending time with him.

Before dawn, Daesung and I shared the couch as we both fell into slumber and had the same blanket wrapped around ourselves. The blonde was actually comfortable and quiet to sleep on. We’ve been through so many that I kind of trust him more than anybody else – even more than myself.

Daesung is my best friend and the only one I’ll ever allow to see me cry again.

I promised in my sleep to become stronger, to be better and if I truly lost all of my abilities, then so be it. I still had a lot of knowledge in me, I still knew much about the three worlds and my expertise was good enough in periods of urgency like those. Not to mention that I perfected my herb magic - and so on - so much, that I could beat even Yuri.

Okay, I’m not so sure about that last one, but I’m good damnit!

Around noon, a noise startled me. I woke up scared of what it might be. I found myself alone on the couch. Ugh, they probably started without me. Thinking I was alone, I crawled to the kitchen to drink something.

I heard the same noise.

Whoever it was, I was ready to kung-fu their !

That’s when Jung Min appeared from under the cupboard with a carrot in his mouth, munching on it while giving me the most innocent look I had ever seen.

What in the world happened to him? He was acting like an idiot. Did Jung Min and Daesung switch personalities while I was gone or what?

“You okay?”

He snatched the carrot out of his mouth and nodded. As he came closer and offered me a bite, I saw something that shocked me.

His hair grew.

I was so damn sure about it, I had to touch it and feel its texture under my fingers.

“What are you doing?” he asked and pushed my hand away, offended by my sudden touch.

“Your hair... is longer... how is that possible?” I uttered. Jung Min shrugged and took another bite from the carrot. “Where’s everybody?”

“Yuri had to do some shopping and Daesung went along to help her.”

Help? More like do all the hard work. I was certain that Yuri would take advantage of having another pupil and just torment him until he’d no longer be able to make the difference between day and night from all the sleep he’d get after fainting.

“Hey, Jung Min,” he stopped and stared at me. Should I call him father now? Really, it’s kind of annoying, so I’d rather go with whatever I was used until the shocking truth. “What happened to your wings?”

“Oh,” he smiled “Want me to show it to you?”

“It?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged.

“I can’t see it anyway...” I said defeated and he patted my head. It felt so strange. He’d done that countless of times, but only then really bugged me for some reason. “So you’re saying... that you can’t fly?”

“I’m saying that I can’t go back to the other world.”

“Can’t you ask a reaper to take you there?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” he mumbled and chewed on the carrot. “I’m trapped here and for some reason, my appetite tripled in these last three years. And as you’ve seen,” he poked his hair with the carrot “My hair’s been growing. Heck, I feel weak for no reason. I don’t know...” he stared again at me and then shook his head. “It’s not like I’m becoming human anyway. It just feels weird.”

I remembered something. I didn’t know from where, but it was there, in my mind, and I had to pretend not to be too affected by his words.

“You’re still the same Jung Min, no matter what,” I kissed his cheek “and now that I’m back, we’ll make the best team ever.”

“Daughter and father team?”

I frowned.

“No. Sooyoung and Jung Min team.” I stole his carrot and took  a bite too “We’re SooMin, remember?”

“That sounds weird.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Whatever, I need to go ask around again.” He let me take the carrot, winked and off he was.... on the front door like a normal human, dressed with thick clothes that in theory should protect him from the harsh early winter outside.

I put the carrot away and sighed.

Demons came from reapers and reapers came from demons.

I was afraid that Jung Min might become a demon.

It terrified me.

But he still had one wing, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

If only I could find a way to get him back to the other world where he’d up on all that pure energy and regenerate his lost wing.

Ugh.

I sniffed my armpits.

Being human is so hard. Iwent to take a long shower. At least washing my hair wasn’t as hard anymore.

My poor, poor hair!

---

With Yuri, Daesung and Jung Min out, I tried to heat some leftovers or cook a fast meal, but my mouth demanded something more specific, so I just gave up and went for takeover.

It wasn’t that cold. The sun warmed me enough not to tremble my way to the city center. That or I actually dressed well for once.

Still, what should I get? Anything fatty with a big drink to the side was great. Maybe I should visit that fast food up the corner where they have this really cute stuff named...

Oh, no.

A guy bumped into me. Hard.

I was ready to show that stranger why messing with me was a very bad idea, especially since I learned to scream my lungs after the previous night. I turned to see his ugly face aaand goodbye insults.

There was something extremely sensual from the way he looked me.

Alright, I sound like a crazy old woman seeking for some pleasure, but there was really something out of this world in his eyes. He had blonde hair (why do I always get in trouble with blonde guys?) and a coat similar in fashion with mine.

Eyeliner, eyeliner... was that the new fashion or was he also a reaper? He smiled at me before bowing his head as an apology. I let it go and continued to walk towards the center.

Meh, it was kind of slippery anyway. Maybe he just...

Wallet.

Where’s my wallet?

I checked my coat’s pockets.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

THAT ING THIEF!

I turned around and saw his figure in the distance.

“HEY YOU!” he stopped and turned to look at me “GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET YOU SON OF A !”

Annnd he ran.

Yeah, smooth move Sooyoung.

I dashed after him.

I'll be very tired tomorrow, but I hope I'll be able to deliver the daily update T^T Sorry if things are so slow for now, I just need to put some things in order before we kick into the plot...s. Okay, there might be more than one thing at work xD; (thing, thing, thing... -_____- I need to expand my vocabulary). Thank you, you guys rock! <3

And yes, before you comment (yes, you, I know you'll comment you nice person) that SooMin was because of you! Haha xD