“Sehunnie! Time to wake up!"

Sehun woke with a start, sitting up in his bed. He was back in his cottage in Heaven, and Kyungsoo was sitting on the edge of his bed, shaking him gently awake. Seeing that he had succeeded, his roommate beamed at him before standing up and leaving the room, calling over his shoulder, “Breakfast’s on the table!”

Sehun blinked his eyes, groggily rubbing the sleep—as well as the image of Kai’s face—from them, before rolling out of bed and following Kyungsoo out of the room into the kitchen. Sitting at the table were Joonmyun, Luhan, and Minseok, who all looked up as he entered and emitted a chorus of cheery “Good morning!”s. Sehun returned the greetings sleepily and plopped into his seat, as Kyungsoo placed a plate of pancakes in front of him.

“Eat up,” Kyungsoo commanded, pouring syrup onto his plate. Sehun obligingly picked up his fork and took a bite out of his pancake (which was, of course, delicious), before looking around the table once more.

“Where’s Yixing?” he asked.

“In the gardens,” Joonmyun replied. “He left earlier this morning; your own shift starts after noon.”

“Oh, okay,” Sehun said, internally resolving to confess to Luhan before then. At that moment he looked up—and caught Luhan staring at him. Their eyes met, and the other boy blushed and giggled, quickly looking away.

After about five more minutes, when Sehun was halfway through his pancakes, Luhan and Minseok got up from the table and left, retreating into their shared room. Sehun quickly shoveled the last few pancakes into his mouth, thanked Kyungsoo hastily, and excused himself, hurrying after them. He stopped abruptly outside the door, hesitating with his hand on the doorknob. His heart was beating unnaturally fast and his palms were sweaty with nerves. Come on, Sehun, he told himself bracingly. You can do it.

Steeling himself with the thought of Kai once again visiting him in his dreams to demand how his confession had gone, Sehun took one last deep breath before throwing open the door, his mouth open and ready to declare his affections. The words died in his throat at the sight before him.

Luhan and Minseok were sitting together on Minseok’s bed. Luhan had his hands in Minseok’s hair, and Minseok’s arms encircled Luhan’s waist. They were exchanging chaste little butterfly kisses, giggling in between each one, and it was completely innocent—yet Sehun felt his heart shatter into a thousand pieces all the same.

At the sound of the door opening, Luhan and Minseok jumped apart and stared at Sehun, who stood there with his mouth open, one hand still on the doorknob and the other held limply at his side. “U-uh—’’ he stuttered, blinking very quickly. “S-sorry, I just…wanted to…” And without another word, he turned and dashed from the room straight out of the cottage. Kyungsoo and Joonmyun called after him in bewildered voices, but Sehun ignored them, swinging the door shut and taking off in frenzied flight, his eyes stinging with disappointed tears.

He should’ve known this would happen. He should’ve known better than to trust the judgment of the devil—known that coming up here in the first place thinking that he could get an angel to fall in love with him was foolish, known that he would never be cured of soul atrophy, known that he would never get his angel’s kiss.

And yet, he hadn’t; he’d truly begun to think he fitted in here, with real angels. He’d begun to forget that he was merely an imposter—and that if his friends knew what he truly was, they would recoil in disgust.

Sehun blinked and found himself hovering over the roses in the garden, staring down at Yixing. Yixing gazed back up at him worriedly, a forgotten watering can clutched in one hand. “Sehun?” he said at last, in a small voice. “Are you alright?”

The sight of his friend’s kind brown eyes made something break in Sehun, and the next moment he had flung himself into Yixing’s arms, sobbing outright on his shoulder. Yixing took this all in stride, patting Sehun comfortingly on the back as Sehun cried. After a while of this, Sehun took a deep breath and struggled to speak.

 “I was g-g-going to do it t-today,” he struggled to say through his tears. “I was going to c-confess to L-L-Luhan.”

 At these words, Sehun thought he felt Yixing stiffen, but he continued speaking anyway.

 “I went up to his d-door and t-told myself I was going to d-do it,” he gasped, his tears soaking into Yixing’s white robe. “B-but when I o-opened the door…I saw L-L-Luhan kissing Minseok!”

Yixing jumped away from Sehun, who stumbled a little in surprise, the tears still streaming down his face. He stared at his friend, sniffling. Yixing’s face was devoid of its usual calm—in fact, it was blazing with an anger that made Sehun shiver.

“So now you know how it feels, huh?” Yixing said, his voice filled with bitterness. Sehun’s mouth was open, and he stood frozen in the flowerbed, unable to process what was happening.

“Being rejected, I mean. Finding out that the person you love is infatuated with someone else—to the point where they don’t even notice you.” The words were tumbling out of Yixing’s mouth, as though he had been meaning to speak them for ages. “Don’t you remember, Sehun? Yesterday in this very flowerbed, when I was about to tell you something before Luhan and Minseok got back from their trip? Well, I was going to confess to you how I feel. That I like you way more than as a friend, that I’ve never felt this way about anybody else…” Yixing’s voice broke, and he took a deep breath, his eyes now filled with angry tears as well. He looked Sehun in the eye, his voice shaking. “But you only ever had eyes for Luhan. Of course; I should’ve known it was stupid to think you might actually feel the same way. Well, I won’t make that mistake again.” And with that Yixing took off in flight, streaking away towards the gates out of Heaven and leaving Sehun standing behind in the garden, feeling completely and utterly wrong-footed.

A/N: things are starting to pick up...let me know what you guys think in the comments!

oh, and happy holidays. the next update will be on christmas! ＼(^▽^＠)ノ