When he first met Lee Byunghun, Minsoo had been rushing to get to school on time because he had missed the bus earlier. The other had been eating ice-cream – vanilla bean to be exact. Running at top speed, Bang Minsoo turned the corner and crashed right into the younger; as a result getting ice-cream smeared all over the other’s face.

“O-oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Minsoo apologized to the blond-haired stranger he had coincidentally bumped into, looking down at his feet as if he was embarrassed, which he partly was.

“It’s alright.” The voice was calm, soothing. Minsoo’s chin was lifted up by the stranger, who was now standing with an unexpected grin on his face. To Minsoo, it was almost like a smirk. The stranger’s hand dropped back down to his side. 

Minsoo stared in awe at the other’s beautiful face for a moment before snapping from his daze, realizing that he was staring at the other.
“Aren’t you late for school?” The blonde asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Oh.. OH!” Minsoo quickly checked his watch on his left wrist with a panicked expression. “Oh, I AM… But, your face…” He gestured slightly to the ice-cream still on the other’s face. 

“Just go.” The other said with an angelic smile on his face. He even gave Minsoo a slight push to let him know that he should be getting to school.

“I’m really sorry!” Minsoo bowed curtly before dashing off in the direction of his school again. 

He ended up being late anyway.

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The day after, Minsoo was walking to school this time instead of running because he had made sure he woke up early in order not to be late. Humming a song to himself, he turned the corner on the way to school, only to stop in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice.

“I see you’re not late today.”

Snapping his head towards the source of the voice, Minsoo found the same blond haired boy leaning against the lamp post at the edge of the sidewalk.

Minsoo managed to blurt out a reply only after a moment of shock,

“I see you’re eating vanilla bean ice-cream again today.”

The blonde boy just shrugged, holding out his ice-cream cone. 

“Want some?”

“What? Oh, n-no, it’s okay... I’ve got to get to school...”

“Alright then, see you!” After giving a small wave, the stranger went back to his ice-cream.

After pondering the other’s odd behaviour for a bit and starting to walk away, Minsoo turned his head back to the other boy.

“W-wait. I didn’t get your name.”

“Byunghun.” A smile. “Lee Byunghun.”

“I’m Bang Minsoo.”

“I know.”

“Wait, what?” Minsoo turned his body fully to face the other boy. “How do you—“

“See you!” The boy – now called Byunghun – abruptly turned and left, giving another small wave as he walked away.

Minsoo was left, gaping at his receding figure, until he remembered to glance at his watch.

“Oh sh—I’m going to be late again!”

 

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Minsoo woke up extra early the next day just to have a talk with Byunghun. He was certain that he would see the other again; he just had a feeling he would. He was extremely curious as to why a complete stranger like him would know his name already. Perhaps he was a stalker? He was definitely going to find out. 

All those thoughts were running through his mind as he turned the very corner on his way to school, grinning slightly as he caught sight of the blonde leaning against the lamp post once again. He walked right up to the other; it was only now that he realized that Byunghun was shorter than him. He grinned inwardly at that.

“Hey. Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did. Need to ask another?” A smirk formed on Byunghun’s lips, his eyebrow raised.

“What?” Minsoo crossed his arms in front of his chest in frustration, but shook his head in defeat. “Fine. I just wanted to know... How did you know my name already?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker.”

“... That’s nice to know.”

“For now, just think of me as psychic.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Oh really now?” A smirk.

Minsoo rolled his eyes, speaking up again. “Why are you here everyday? Don’t you have to go to school?”

“Oh, I don’t go to school.”

“Isn’t that… against the law?”

Byunghun shrugged, his face indifferent. “So?”

The elder of the two let out a sigh.

“Well, I should get to school now…”

“Mhmm. See you!”

Byunghun gave another of his small waves as Minsoo started walking away, also giving a smile that Minsoo swear made his heart stop for a moment.

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Minsoo would be lying if he said that he wasn’t looking forward to seeing the blonde boy again on his way to school. To tell the truth, the other’s personality… intrigued him, in a way, and possibly, made his heart beat faster? However, the reason that he had stopped in his tracks this time around was not because Byunghun was there again, but it was because it was the opposite. Minsoo found no one there, no one waiting for him, and absolutely no Byunghun eating his vanilla bean ice-cream. 

“Hm. Maybe he’s busy. Or he doesn’t want to deal with me.” He gave out a low chuckle before continuing on his way to school.

 

He most definitely wasn’t late this time.

 

On the next day, it was the same. The lamp post was deserted, and Minsoo found himself heaving a loud sigh, upon finding that corner of the street empty of the smirking blonde boy.

The next day, no one.

And the next? Still empty.

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This continued for days before Minsoo was convinced that Byunghun had definitely disappeared off somewhere. He couldn’t get the other out of his head though; his smile, his personality, and of course, his smirks. He was smacked in the head by his teacher’s book a few times because he was always so lost in his day dream world, like that one time where he answered an English question with “52”.

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A week after and Minsoo had given up hope on ever seeing Byunghun again. On this particular day he had woken up late again, and after running around “the” corner without a passing glance, he made to cross the street. 

It all passed by in a blur.

The sound of the car horn, the screeching of the tires, bracing for the impact that never came.

Instead when he came to his senses and opened his eyes, he found his own face only centimetres away from a certain someone’s, the other’s arms wrapped protectively around him.

“B-Byunghun?”

“Are you okay, Minsoo?”

“I’m fine.” Minsoo roughly slipped out of the other’s embrace but grabbed his arm afterwards, dragging him down the sidewalk.

“Hey, don’t you have to go to school?” 

Minsoo rolled his eyes. Why did Byunghun seem so calm and collected even when someone was dragging him off somewhere?

“I’m skipping.”

“Isn’t that against the law?”

His only reaction was to stop and turn his head to the blonde with a glare. “Look who’s talking.”


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“So, why the ice-cream shop?”

“Figured you’d want some vanilla bean ice-cream. And y’know, to pay you back for saving me.”

Both of them settled down with their respective ice-cream cones and while the blonde set out on finishing his ice-cream, Minsoo chose to just stare while the other ate.

It didn’t take long for Byunghun to notice Minsoo staring and he looked up and stared back with unblinking eyes.

“What? I have ice-cream on my face?”

“Where were you the past week?”

“Hm. Missed me?” Another one of Byunghun’s smirks formed on his face.

“What? No. NO. I just... I just happened to notice that you weren’t at the lamp post in the mornings...”

 

Byunghun gave a low chuckle. “I had some... matters to attend to.”

“Matters? What matters?”

“Curiosity killed the cat, Minsoo.”

“But I want to know!” Without being able to contain himself, Minsoo had leaned over the table to stare at the other. When he had realized he’d done so, however, he quickly sat back down in his seat, clearing his throat. “I-I mean... I’m just curious.”

“Exactly.”

Minsoo was about to open his mouth to say something when the younger pointed his finger at his ice-cream, causing him to stop whatever he was going to say and look down at the now melting ice-cream cone in his hand. 

“Dammit!” He quickly stood up and ran to the counter for napkins, leaving a chuckling Byunghun at the table.

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Time flew by quickly and by the end of a few months, Minsoo and Byunghun had become inseparable. Sure, Minsoo would get lectured by his parents for skipping school every so often, but at least he could still keep up his above average grades. They were together while biking, together playing soccer, going shopping, and there were quite a few occasions where Byunghun would sleep over at Minsoo’s house. The younger would be praised highly by Minsoo’s mom for his politeness and she would often exclaim, “Oh, you’re such an angel, Byunghun! Why can’t my son be as nice and polite as you?” earning a scowl each time from Minsoo. 

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“You never told me why you only eat vanilla bean ice-cream here.”

The two were sitting at their usual spot beside the window at the ice-cream shop. It was a national holiday so Minsoo was glad he didn’t need to go to school, calling Byunghun first thing in the morning to see if he wanted to go anywhere.

“Well, it’s an ice-cream shop. What else would I eat here? Pizza?”

Minsoo nearly facepalmed at his best friend’s response.

“I mean, why do you eat only that particular flavour?”

“I don’t know. I just like it.”

“You don’t like chocolate?”

“Nope.”

“Strawberry?”

“Nah.”

“Fudge—“

“Minsoo, eat your ice-cream or it’s going to melt onto the table before you name all the flavours on the menu.”

“Oh. Right.”

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“Hey! Leave him alone!”

Minsoo had been strolling back home from school when he had passed an alleyway, hearing shouts for help down in the darkness. It turns out that some thugs from school were beating up a scrawny kid. The reason why, Minsoo didn’t know. He just suddenly had an urge to help the kid and ended up running into the alleyway and kicking the first guy he saw in the stomach.

Before he knew it, punches landed on his face and stomach, his own fists colliding with whatever he could see moving in the darkness. After kicking another guy in the chin, he looked around; the small kid seemed to have ran away a while back. He didn’t have time to think before he felt pain in the back of his head and grunted as his face hit pavement. Turning back up to the person who had hit him, he saw a dark silhouette of someone holding a raised baseball bat and raised his arms up to his face as his only defense.

The pain he expected never came, and instead he heard a thud on the wall opposite of him and took away his arms from his face to see the thug from before slumped onto the ground.

“Are you okay?” A familiar voice said, breathless.

“Byunghun? Is that you?"

 

 

 

 

“Come on, let’s go.” He felt a hand grabbing his wrist, pulling him up and together the two best friends didn’t stop running until they reached the front door of Minsoo’s apartment.

“Are you parents home?” Byunghun asked as Minsoo unlocked the door with his keys and opened it to a dark apartment.

“No, they’re out of town.” He flipped on the lights.

“Oh. Okay.” Byunghun kicked off his shoes and made his way to the bathroom to fetch the first aid kid while Minsoo collapsed on the couch.

“Why’d you do that?” Byunghun settled on the couch beside Minsoo, opening the white box on his lap.

“Well that kid needed help—ow!” Minsoo winced at the stinging of his wound on his forehead as Byunghun cleaned it.

“You could’ve called the police you know.” Why did Byunghun always had to seem so calm about everything?

“Well, I don’t think that fast okay?”

“Just, don’t get involved next time.”

“What am I supposed to do, watch him get hurt?”

“I don’t want to watch you get hurt!”

Silence fell between the two as the stared at each other through the dim light from the lamp overhead. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but it wasn’t comfortable either.

Byunghun’s hand dropped from Minsoo’s forehead where he had applied a bandage.

“I’m sorry.” Minsoo whispered as he leaned in slowly, watching for any resistance from the blonde boy before closing the distance between them.

Their lips stayed connected for a few moments before Byunghun reacted, moving back and falling back onto the couch and scrambling to stand up.

“I-I... have to go home... important matters...” Byunghun kept on mumbling something about having to leave before making his way quickly to the door, putting on his shoes and promptly leaving and slamming the door behind him.

The sound resonated through the whole empty living room and Minsoo sat on the couch, head turned towards the door in shock.

A sigh left his lips as he stood up, ignoring the pain in his stomach to make his way towards the bathroom for a shower.

Why

had he been so stupid?

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Minsoo never saw Byunghun again. He waited from him everyday at the corner of the street until he couldn’t anymore. There were even countless times where he was late for class and got yelled by his teacher.

He thought it was funny that his mom never asked him why she hadn’t seen Byunghun in a while and one day decided to go up to ask her about it.

“Mom... have you seen Byunghun around?”

“Who’s Byunghun?”

“Mom... the boy, the blonde boy who was always with me?”

“What do you mean? Are you sick, Minsoo?” She reached out to feel his forehead. 

“My best friend, mom.”

“Honey, the only best friend you have is that kid on the soccer team with you. Daniel, was it?”

A sigh.

“Nevermind mom, I’m going out for ice-cream.”

 

 

“Have you seen Byunghun around? You know, a short blonde boy who always orders vanilla ice-cream everyday?”

Minsoo had gone to their favourite ice-cream shop (without Byunghun, he hadn’t been there in days) and went up to the cashier to ask him if she’d seen Byunghun.

“Short blonde boy...? I’m sorry, I don’t think I know anyone like that.” She gestured to the tub of vanilla bean ice-cream. “The tub’s still full, barely anyone likes vanilla bean ice-cream so I would know if there was someone who would order it everyday...”

“What the hell? Why does it seem like he disappeared off the face of the earth?” Minsoo mumbled to himself quietly.

“Excuse me?” He looked up to see the cashier eyeing him with a worried look.

“Oh. Nevermind. I was just talking to myself. Thanks anyway!”

And with that, Minsoo ran out the door of the shop, straight home, and into his bedroom while slamming the door closed. 

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He collapsed onto his bed but jumped a little when his cellphone started vibrating. He quickly pulled it out, clinging onto some small hope that it was Byunghun calling, only to have his hopes crushed as he eyed the words on the screen, “Unknown Number”.

“Hello?”

“Uhm, excuse me, is this Bang Minsoo-sshi?”

“Yes, it is. Can I help you?”

“Ah, your photos that you ordered are ready for pick up.”

“Photos? Oh. The ones he and Byunghun had taken together at the amusement park!”

“Oh, thank you sir! I’ll be there to pick them up in a few minutes.”

After hanging up, Minsoo sprinted out of his room again, off to the photo place that he was glad was only a block away. 

Slowing down to a stop as he got to the door, he stepped in cautiously and walked up to the counter.

“I’m Bang Minsoo. Here to pick up photos?”

“Ah, the kid on the phone, now was it?” It might have been his imagination, but Minsoo swore that the man behind the counter was giving him an odd look when he gave him the package of photos.

“Thank you!” Snatching the package and not forgetting to bow slightly, it didn’t even take Minsoo ten minutes to be back in his room, sitting at his desk. 

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Ripping open the package (carefully) he turned it upside down and watched as the couple of photos spilled out onto the wooden surface of his desk, a flurry of colours. He picked up the first photo he saw, jaw dropping when he saw what it contained. It was supposed to be a picture of Byunghun and him, eating cotton candy, he knew for sure, but there was only empty space beside where Minsoo was standing in the photo. 

Panicking, Minsoo picked up another photo, the one they had taken in front of the amusement park’s tallest roller coaster; and again, the blonde was nowhere to be seen. 

Minsoo went through the pile photo by photo, heart breaking every time he saw that each was void of Byunghun’s presence. With shaking hands, he was about to stuff them all back into the envelope when a photo he hadn’t noticed before, at the edge of his desk, caught his eye.
Picking it up gingerly, he read the messy writing on the back written in black marker.

“Minsoo, I’m sorry. Guardian angels aren’t supposed to fall in love with humans.”

Minsoo’s heart rate picked up as he recognized the writing to be Byunghun’s.

“What did he mean by the fact that guardian angels aren’t supposed to fall in love with humans? Was he...? No, but it couldn’t be... They don’t exist, do they?”

He quickly flipped the photo over, forehead creasing in thought as he recognized it as the photo which Byunghun had deemed his favourite; the one with them sitting on the ferris wheel with the sun setting behind them. Only, like all the other photos, the only one sitting in the ferris wheel gondola was Minsoo.

It took a while for everything to seep in.

It all made sense now. The near car accident and the incident in the alleyway were not the only events in his memory. Byunghun had also saved him from drowning that time he had a leg cramp at the beach. And also the one time where he was cornered by a drunk thief on his way back from a late party. There were countless more memories, each flooding and going through Minsoo’s brain a million miles per minute.

Tears fell from Minsoo’s eyes, cascading down his cheeks as he held the photo in his shaking hands, rereading the message on the back over and over again.

He didn’t know what emotions to feel. Anger? Sadness? Loss? Confusion?

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...

“But are humans allowed to fall in love with angels?”

 

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