Minwoo exhales through his mouth, frustrated at what Eric had promise on his behalf again. “Why did you promise I will be here?” He asks despite already having an answer. His friend acts as if Minwoo is asking him something as casual as the weather. Eric continues cutting his pancakes as he answers simply, “The man who found her phone might be dangerous.” He places a small piece of pancake into his mouth and chews on it gracefully. Minwoo swears to himself he will never bring food from his café over again when he is pissed with Eric.

“But isn’t he coming over to return the phone? It is not as if Eunjung is meeting him alone!” Minwoo barks at Eric’s forced explanation.

“What if he needs her to leave the building?”

Minwoo rolls his eyes, resisting the temptation to push Eric’s head into his food and let the man have a maple syrup facial. Eric has used his ultimatum – he cannot travel out of the compound – and Minwoo cannot say no to that.

“I don’t feel what you feel for Andy. He does not feel any bit like her to me Eric. You have to stop doing this!” Eric raises his head and studies him with a stolid expression. Then he lowers his head and continues with his pancakes, obviously not convince. Minwoo is getting mad but before he can do anything, he hears the cheery voice.

“Hi Minwoo hyung, Eric hyung!”

His heart stops abruptly but Eric’s face breaks into a wide smile and his friend waves to the owner of the voice behind Minwoo. Minwoo hears footsteps and Andy comes up beside him, too near for his liking. The young man places a lunchbox on the counter. “Sorry Minwoo hyung, I didn’t know you are here so I only brought one extra cabonara for Eric hyung.” Andy looks at him with apologetic eyes. “I will cook again for you next time!”

Minwoo sees Eric’s eyes on him, waiting for him to either prove or disprove his earlier claims. “I don’t like cabonara.” He answers flatly.

Eric frowns. The man places the blunt knife on his half eaten pancakes and stands up, pushing the lunch box into Minwoo’s hand.

“Andy-ya, if you don’t mind I’ll give this to Minwoo first. He will change his mind about cabonara once he tried yours!”

“No problem Eric hyung!” Andy replies with a dimple smile. “I’ll go up first.”

Eric beams at Andy as the young man climbs up the stairs; and Minwoo dislikes the affectionate gaze Eric has on his tenant.

“What are you trying to do?!” Minwoo hisses when Andy is out of sight. “I don’t agree he feels like her, but even if he really does, what do you want from me?”

Eric turns in to him, his earlier expression replaces by something painful. “Minbong, I want you to let go of the past. I want to see you start treating Andy like how you treat everyone else instead of acting as if he is poison.”

The words hit Minwoo hard. His fabricated “reality” shatters, and it becomes crystal clear his lies are only for himself. The more he tries to cut Andy from his life, the more it shows Andy means something to him.

***

“Noona!” Andy calls out as he unlocks the door and enters the house. He is not aware of the angel in front of him, looking at him with a tinge of heartache. Dongwan stretches out his hand and brushes Andy’s hair softly so that the man will think nothing more than it being mere wind blowing through the window. The angel hears Eunjung coming out of the room and quickly retracts his hand.

“Andy-ya, you are back!”

“I brought cabonara! Cooked by the famous chef Andy!” The man waves the food with his stretch out hand while trying to remove his shoes with the other. “Damn shoelaces!” Andy murmurs.

Eunjung chuckles and took the plastic bag from him. “Don’t tire yourself out. Focus on your studies!”

Andy hops around a little on one leg, still struggle with the shoes. “How could I do that if my sister never replies to any of my messages for half a day?” He finally takes them off.

“Omo!” Eunjung pauses her steps to the kitchen and turns over guiltily. She is so absorbed in not being able to talk to Dongwan that she has forgotten to inform Andy. “I am so sorry Andy-ya. I dropped my phone.”

“Oh…do you need me to accompany you to get a new one?” Andy asks, removing his overcoat and hanging them up.

“It’s ok. Someone found it and offers to send it over tomorrow.” Eunjung replies. The man’s voice over the phone plays in her mind again. It sounded so angelic…Hyesung’s face appears in her mind and she immediately convinces herself it cannot be him.

“He is sending the phone over?” Andy looks over, surprise. Eunjung smiles and nods, showing her cute dimples.

Dongwan does not know if he should shift nearer to the siblings when they have dinner, chit chat and watches television programmes together. He feels the power radiating from Junjin’s charm, and he knows his pain is being suppressed. If he could, he is willing to give anything for Eunjung and Andy to hold on to this simple happiness. But he knows the happiness is as fragile as a piece of thin glass.

“Noona!” Andy shouts urgently when he goes into Eunjung’s room. “Have you been into the store?!”

“No. Why?” Eunjung walks to her door and looks at Andy. His face is as white as a sheet of paper. Her gaze follows Andy’s and lands on one of Hyesung’s posters.

“Where did you get these?” Andy voice quivers as he turns over to Eunjung. His limbs are weak at the thought of Eunjung seeing what is inside the store.

“I…I bought them again.” Eunjung lies. Andy’s eyes remain on his sister while numerous thoughts tick in his mind. He exits the room and marches towards the store. Andy twists and turns the knob, like what Eunjung said, the door is locked. Andy closes his eyes and tries to compose himself while his mind churns through ideas to explain his actions. “I thought you found the keys. There is something I want to get from inside.” Andy mutters.

Silently, unknown to both human, a drop of angel’s tears fall to the floor. Dongwan only wishes for a chance to appear in front of and speak to the young man.

That night, he sits silently by Eunjung’s window, his gaze on Junjin’s charm around his hand. He has a sudden urge to remove it and feel the full blow of the pain; to lose his mind and confess his secret. But the orange glow contrasting the white light from his bracelet keeps his heart in fear. Even if he is not looking at it, he can feel the last spell of the fallen one.

 “Dongwan?” He turns over and sees Eunjung pushes herself into a sitting position.

“You are still awake.” He says in a tender voice.

“What did you see in the store when you get the posters for me?”

Dongwan blinks twice, contemplating. “Nothing much.”

“Is there things like cigarettes or drugs in heaven?”

Dongwan is a little startle by the abrupt change in topic. “No. Of course not.”

“Then you wouldn’t know if there are such things in the store right?” Eunjung says worriedly.

Dongwan chuckles at Eunjung’s imaginative mind. He stands up and walks over to the side of the bed, placing his hands on Eunjung’s. The angel locks his gaze with her. “I promise I will look out for Andy.”

***

Andy takes the lift down, too mentally drain to use the stairs like he always did. Why did he have such a huge reaction seeing the posters? It is impossible that his sister never notices how afraid he was when he thought she saw what was in the store.

The lift door opens and Andy treads out lifelessly.

“Andy-ya…”

Andy lifts his head and is surprised to see Minwoo instead of Eric at the lobby. “Hyung…”

Minwoo scowls, detecting the young man’s distress. It is past midnight and Eric had requested him to send Andy back to his dorm thus he is here. “Did something happen?”

Andy gives a gentle smile and shakes his head. Minwoo bites his tongue and resists from digging further. “I will send you back to the dorm.”

Before Andy can decline, Minwoo wraps his arm around Andy’s wrist and pulls him out of the building.

There is no conversation on the way to the dorm. A thousand thoughts keep replaying themselves in Minwoo’s mind as his hands tightly grip the steering wheel.

A different face, a different physique, but why does he feel like her? Why does Andy give the illusion that she is back, even when he knows there is no chance of him being her reincarnation?

The memory portal opens and Minwoo is brought back to the moment he lost her…

Minwoo kneeled in front of the angel, pleading and begging. His desperateness was driving him to the brink of his sanity, but the angel only looked at him with emotionless eyes.

“Please…” Minwoo begged. The voice that came out was hoarse and soft. He was too psychologically exhausted. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Eric being held down with his hand behind his back. But the man’s eyes were stubborn. “Please…” Minwoo repeated as his tears fell to the ground.

But the angel remained cold and hard. Minwoo saw the hand raised, and he witnessed her flying into the angel’s grip. It happened so fast that he did not have time to grab her or even blink. And the next instant her lifeless body fell to the ground. Eric’s eyes widened; the stubbornness gone as horror and agony took over.

“No…” Minwoo whispered in denial of what just happened. He swallowed the lump in his throat and crawled towards the body, trying to hold the tender hand; deceiving himself that she would react to him.

“Her soul had left…” The icy voice drifted into his ears. “You will never find her soul again…”

Minwoo feels a tap on his arm and he snaps back to the present. “What?!” He asks tersely.

Andy retracts his hand bashfully. He does not wish to interrupt the older man, but they have stopped at the traffic junction for more than 20 minutes and the light had turned red and back to green thrice already. “Minwoo hyung, the light is green.”

Minwoo raises his head and mumbles an embarrass “okay” before continuing the drive. It was over two in the morning when they finally reach the dorm. After Andy disappears at the entrance of the building, Minwoo parks his car and alights to get some fresh air. He appreciates the greenery still preserves in the university. Minwoo sits on a boulder at the grass patch behind the car and looks up into the vast sky.

His mind wonders lightly if she has reborn and if she is looking at the same sky as him this very moment. He sits there, reminiscing about the once happy time he had with her and Eric until he hears a noise. Minwoo raises his head and sees Andy walking out of his dorm. He looks at his watch, it is only five in the morning. The young man could not have more than three hours of sleep. He scowls and stands up, following silently behind Andy.

Why does Dongwan's heart need to be protected by Junjin's charm? What is his secret and why he wants to speak to Andy?

A little peek into Minwoo's and Eric's past and why angels induce fear in Eric (Chapter 4). Anyway if I haven't make it clear enough in the story, Minwoo is irritated because he feels like Eric is pushing him to Andy. xD

And why did Andy leave his dorm so early? What has he got to do?? 

P.S: My baby Andy really hates shoelaces xD I got no idea why he loves shoes but hate shoelaces.