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Yoo Joonghyuk marched into Metatron’s court, giving a quick nod to the angels that passed him by. He never stopped to chat, to catch up on the news about the outside world. Yoo Joonghyuk did not care because he was a warrior. The affairs of Earth were not his concern. Until now.
“Metatron,” Yoo Joonghyuk called out when he noticed the golden-haired scribe sitting at his desk, scribbling away in his records.
“Yoo Joonghyuk. What can I do for you?” Metatron asked without ever looking up from the scroll in front of him, one hand massaging his temple. He seemed stressed.
“Please give me another assignment,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, ready to get what he wanted and leave Metatron to his thoughts.
It was a simple request, accomplished in the snap of a finger. But as Metatron looked at Yoo Joonghyuk, dark circles under his silver eyes, he knew his request would be denied.
“I cannot. The orders came from the lord, and their word is final,” Metatron answered. “This is your destiny.”
Gripping the sheet of parchment with his assignment on it, Yoo Joonghyuk frowned. Instead of sharpening his blade and preparing for war, any war, he was to be a guardian angel. A task more suited for someone more gentle-hearted than Yoo Joonghyuk.
His ward was a young boy named Lee Gilyoung, who had been under the care of another angel for years. Until that angel fell from grace. An act committed willingly.
Guardian angels were the light that led the stray back onto the right path. Yet they could not intervene physically. No, they could only watch over their wards and act as their conscience, hoping they’d listen. If a human still chose sin, there was nothing the angel could do but watch as their ward slowly destroyed their lives.
To be a guardian angel meant to not only have a strong will but have enough love in your heart to forgive and accept that humans will always be flawed. The gift of free will would always be their downfall. So, for a guardian angel to give up their divinity was something that had not happened often.
“This boy needs help,” Yoo Joonghyuk said. By now, he knew everything about Lee Gilyoung, about his life and all the struggles he went through on a day-to-day basis. “He needs someone more experience and I–”
“He needs you,” Metatron cut him off. “There have been reports of a demon lurking around the boy. While we can’t say that it was he that forced the previous angel to fall, we need someone to keep him in check. Who better to do that than a wielder of the divine blade?”
When Yoo Joonghyuk did not budge, conflicted, Metatron sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“There are no more wars left for you to fight, Yoo Joonghyuk, at least not the kind that you excel at. If you wish to be useful, then you must serve the lord’s children. Go to the boy and make sure he doesn’t sign his soul off to hell,” Metatron ordered, his words final.
Clenching his fists, Yoo Joonghyuk looked down at his assigned, at Lee Gilyoung’s face and nodded. If this is what the lord wished off him, then so be it. He’d save the child and tear apart any demon that tried to get in his way.
Metatron’s heart ached as Yoo Joonghyuk walked away, the angel’s destiny before his eyes. Sometimes he wondered why he could not change fate when he knew it all too well. He wondered why the lord was so much crueler to the angels, his firstborn children, than he was to humans.
But as soon as the questions arose, Metatron pushed them away. After all, it was not his place to question his father. His duty was to simply obey.
It was just sad to see Yoo Joonghyuk leave, knowing he’d never return to heaven again.
Earth had changed significantly since Yoo Joonghyuk last saw it. The buildings were taller, the air more polluted, and the humans seemed more preoccupied with the small devices in their hands than they were with each other. He could not tell if humanity had improved or if they were driving themselves to the brink of extinction.
Not that he cared. By the time the end came, his ward would have lived a full life and returned to heaven.
Flying across the blue skies, Yoo Joonghyuk reached the playground where he could find Lee Gilyoung. Unlike the other children, he was kneeling in front of a tree, eyes focused on an insect.
Yoo Joonghyuk hovered by the boy’s side and watched as he scooped up the insect without squealing or screaming and put it in a plastic box. He didn’t smile, nor did he seem angry enough to use it to bully someone else. Instead, he had a look of concentration on his face. This was something he enjoyed.
An activity that Yoo Joonghyuk grew bored of soon enough. Without much to do, he looked around the playground to see children running around while their parents watched from the benches. There was no sign of Lee Gilyoung’s mother, which was strange considering how controlling she was when it came to him. But other than her absence, everything seemed relatively normal.
That was until Yoo Joonghyuk noticed him. The man sitting all by himself and staring right at the angel, an amused smirk on his face.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s dark eyes met the man’s star-filled ones, and he knew in an instant he was not looking at a human. That was a demon, the one who had been lurking around Lee Gilyoung.
If he were not a guardian angel, Yoo Joonghyuk would have drawn his sword and ended the demon right here, bringing an end to its atrocities. But without his title as a warrior, Yoo Joonghyuk could only grit his teeth and glare.
However, his actions seemed to amuse the demon as he walked over to where Lee Gilyoung was.
“Gilyoung-ah,” the demon called, catching the boy’s attention. “Did you get what you wanted?”
Lee Gilyoung, who had barely shown any emotion since Yoo Joonghyuk arrived, smiled at the demon and nodded.
“Yes, hyung!” he answered, happy to be in the demon’s presence.
“Then shall we get something to eat?” the demon asked, holding out his hand.
“Don’t!” Yoo Joonghyuk ordered, hoping his voice was loud enough for Lee Gilyoung to listen, for him to at least be worried.
But while he stilled for a second, confused by Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice which was nothing more than a mere whisper in his head, Lee Gilyoung’s hesitation was gone just as it came. Smiling still, he took the demon’s hand.
“Go home. We should go home,” Yoo Joonghyuk urged.
He could not allow the boy to stay in a demon’s company any longer. Unfortunately, Lee Gilyoung did not listen. He seemed to trust the demon wholeheartedly, something that confused Yoo Joonghyuk. So he did something he didn’t think he’d ever need to, he tapped into the boy’s emotion to understand how he viewed the demon.
As Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes fell on the demon, on his milky skin, rosy lips, dark hair and star-filled eyes, a wave of love swept over him. It latched onto his leg and pulled him under, warm water wrapping his body, and he felt safe for the first time in years. Yoo Joonghyuk knew that if he stayed under too long, he would die. The water would fill his lungs and close his throat. But even so, he was happy to wear the noose presented to him because these few moments of bliss were worth every second of life he lost.
Lee Gilyoung’s feelings for the demon were all-consuming, unwavering, as though the man before him wasn’t a stranger but a parent. Family. Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t know how things got this way, how the young boy fell so deep into a monster’s trap. But what he did know was that he had to pull away before his own heart was swallowed whole.
Never in his life had he seen a demon work itself so deep into someone’s life that they became dependent on it. And while Lee Gilyoung’s soul was ripe for the taking, the demon did not touch it. He did not taint it.
Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t understand why. So for today, just for today, he decided to watch so that tomorrow, he could win.
No matter how hard he tried, Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t put together the pieces that led Lee Gilyoung to this point in his life. As the angel watched the young boy sleep, he knew he had to figure out what the demon’s motivations were. But that was hard to do when the demon acted differently from its peers.
Instead of seducing Lee Gilyoung into committing unforgivable acts, the demon took him to an ice cream shop after departing from the park. In there, the two of them created the most ridiculous and sugary desserts for themselves and laughed as though they were old friends. The demon didn’t prey on the child’s weakness, nor did he strike up a conversation that would shake Lee Gilyoung’s resolve. Instead, he spoke of school and the beetle in Lee Gilyoung’s plastic box as though those topics were interesting to anyone.
Yoo Joonghyuk could only assume that the demon was behaving himself because there was an angel nearby. But something about Lee Gilyoung’s smile told him this was a normal occurrence.
Things only got stranger once the duo returned home. Instead of being afraid of stepping through the front door, Lee Gilyoung walked in with a smile, the demon following behind. From what Yoo Joonghyuk had understood from the boy’s file, he should have been deathly scared of facing his mother due to her higher standards and violent tendencies when her son didn’t deliver perfection. Yet, instead of screaming at Lee Gilyoung, his mother just sat on the couch, face blank, while her eyes were glued to the TV.
It was only then that Yoo Joonghyuk understood why the boy loved the demon so.
Now, as he watched Lee Gilyoung sleep, Yoo Joonghyuk kneeled next to his bed and placed his hand on the boy’s head. What he was about to do made his stomach twist, but it was necessary. While the demon seemed harmless for now, he would make his move sooner or later.
“Remember the days your mother loved you, the days when she held you in her arms and stroked your hair. When she called you her little boy. She may be difficult sometimes, but she is your family, Lee Gilyoung,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, manipulating the boy’s dream to pass his message along. “You are human, which is why you suffer. But it is all for a reason. God has a plan for you, and if you see it through, you will emerge stronger than ever. You will feel his love.”
“That’s a load of bullshit,” a voice said, and suddenly, the connection between Lee Gilyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk disappeared. “But I’m guessing you know that too.”
Suddenly, slim fingers wrapped around Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand, pulling him away from the boy. The demon smiled down at him, calm and amused.
“Hello,” he said, staring right into Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes. “I am Kim Dokja, you are?”
“None of your business,” Yoo Joonghyuk snapped.
But his irritation seemed to make the demon happy.
“I’m guessing you’re Gilyoung-ah’s new guardian,” the demon hummed. “What happened to the last one? Lee Hyunsung?”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know,” Yoo Joonghyuk accused. He knew the demon had something to do with Hyunsung’s fall.
Instead of accepting the truth, the demon continued to feign innocence.
“I actually don’t know. He just disappeared one day.” he shrugged. “I just assumed he had been called back to heaven and relieved of his post as a guardian angel.”
“Lee Hyunsung never came home,” Yoo Joonghyuk said as he got up.
He looked down at Lee Gilyoung one last time before leaving the room. If they continued to speak in the room, their conversation would bleed into the boy’s dreams, considering how perceptive children could be.
As if understanding his motive, the demon followed.
“Ah, I see,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “I will have to send someone to search for him.”
“Go yourself,” Yoo Joonghyuk said. By now, he would have killed the demon, but in his current role, he could not spill blood.
“And leave Gilyoung-ah alone? I could never.” The demon shook his head. “The boy needs me.”
“He needs nothing from you!” Yoo Joonghyuk snapped. “You can pretend to be good, but we both know where you’re here. You want his soul.”
“Do I?” the demon asked, amused.
“Don’t play with me, swine. I have fought enough demons to know your true motivations. Though going after a child is beneath even you.”
At first, the demon only stared at Yoo Joonghyuk wide-eyed, and then he started to giggle until he was laughing so loud that his voice bounced off the walls.
“Gosh, I think you might be the most uptight angel I’ve ever met,” the demon said as he wiped away the tears in his eyes. Then, the smile on his face fell as his gaze turned cold. “I won’t leave Lee Gilyoung’s side because I am doing something heaven refuses to do. I am protecting him.”
“His destiny–” Yoo Joonghyuk tried to retort, but he was cut off.
“Is not in your hands or in God’s. He is a boy. A child. He shouldn’t have to suffer day and night just to prove his innocence to an entity which no longer cares for his creation.”
“God cares!” Yoo Joonghyuk exclaimed. “If he did not, none of us would be here!”
The demon stared into Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes for a while before turning away.
“Alright,” he conceded, taking the angel by surprise. “You seem so sure of your words, so I’ll leave Lee Gilyoung’s side for one day. If your faith is unshaken by the end of it, you will never see me again.”
“What are you planning?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked, his eyes narrowed.
The demon smiled and stepped towards him until his breath was fanning against Yoo Joonghyuk’s skin, “I’m not planning anything. I’m just showing you that you’ll need me, angel. You’ll need me.”
And then he was gone, leaving Yoo Joonghyuk dumbfounded.
Since the demon"s departure, Yoo Joonghyuk couldn"t help but feel on edge. Throughout the night, he waited for the worst to happen, yet the ominous silence shrouding Lee Gilyoung"s room stretched out until his alarm clock blared in the morning.
When the boy woke, he seemed relaxed and happy, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. But his momentary bliss shattered the moment his door swung open.
"Gilyoung-ah! Why aren"t you ready for school?!" His mother demanded, her brows knit together, and anger pooling into her eyes.
Now that she was no longer entranced by the television, she became the overbearing woman she used to be once again.
"I–I–" Lee Gilyoung stuttered, brown eyes dancing across the room as he waited for someone to show up.
As he waited for the demon to save him. But sticking to his words, he never appeared.
Lee Gilyoung"s mother stalked into the room and sat by her son, barely raising a brow when he flinched away from her touch.
"Gilyoung-ah, you"re a good boy, aren"t you?" She asked, stroking his cheek.
Nervous, the boy just nodded. He was terrified, but there wasn"t a single thing Yoo Joonghyuk could do to help him. He was an angel, which meant he could only whisper words of encouragement to Lee Gilyoung. Not that they"d ever reach him.
"Then you need to wake up on time and go to school," Lee Gilyoung"s mother continued, hugging her son gently. "If you get good grades, you"ll be able to become a good man. Someone that your mother can be proud of. Don"t you want to make me proud?"
"I--I do," Lee Gilyoung said, trying his best not to tremble in his mother"s arms.
If he showed that he was scared, she would get angry.
"Good. Now, get ready quickly. I made your favorite breakfast."
With a kiss and a sweet smile, Lee Gilyoung"s mother left the room, leaving the boy to bat away his tears.
The day had just begun, and Yoo Joonghyuk already felt sick to the stomach.
Breakfast had gone by in silence, the suffocating kind as Lee Gilyoung"s mother watched his every move.
Thankfully, she didn"t have much to say. But that was probably because Lee Gilyoung had to go to school. Otherwise, things might have ended differently.
Yoo Joonghyuk was just glad to be out of that house. Away from his mother"s overbearing gaze, he could finally breathe and be happy.
He didn"t seem like it, though.
Despite being miles away from his house, Lee Gilyoung looked scared. His eyes remained glued to the ground as the bus rolled down the street.
Yoo Joonghyuk could only guess that this was probably due to the events that had transpired at home. How was he to know that there was another reason behind Lee Gilyoung"s fear?
Something had been off since the moment Lee Gilyoung stepped into the classroom. The children had stopped talking, and several eyes glued themselves to his body. It was like he was a dying animal, and they were vultures waiting to feast on his carcass.
It was only during lunch break that things took a turn.
As soon as the teacher left, a group of boys sauntered into the room. They whispered to one another, exchanged high-fives and laughed, though there was nothing innocent about it.
Even though they were children, Yoo Joonghyuk could see the malice that tainted their auras.
"Look who it is," the tallest of the boys said loudly, his eyes on Lee Gilyoung. "Bug boy has come back to school."
He then draped his shoulder across Lee Gilyoung"s shoulder and pulled him close.
"We missed you. Did you miss us?" He asked while his other friends giggled.
Lee Gilyoung didn"t answer.
The boy raised his brows and smacked him, so hard that there was nothing friendly about it.
Yoo Joonghyuk lurched forward, wanting nothing more than to push the boy away. But he stopped, reminding himself that this was Lee Gilyoung"s trial, one he had to pass on his own. Otherwise, heaven would turn him away when the time came.
"Answer me when I ask you a question," the boy said, and Lee Gilyoung nodded.
"I"m sorry," he weakly whispered.
Stroking Lee Gilyoung"s head in the same place where he had hit him, the boy nodded.
"You can make it up to me. Go get us as many snacks as you can in five minutes, okay?"
"Don"t," Yoo Joonghyuk said to Lee Gilyoung. "Stand up to them. Please."
Once again, his words went unheard.
Instead of telling the boy no, Lee Gilyoung started running, hoping to finish his task in the given time.
It was a sad sight to see. Within a few hours, the bright smile on Lee Gilyoung"s face disappeared as though it had never existed. And Yoo Joonghyuk couldn"t help but wonder if this was the right thing to do.
His purpose for existing was to always protect humans. Yet, he could not help Lee Gilyoung, at least not in a way that would actually matter.
So Yoo Joonghyuk watched as Lee Gilyoung did everything to please his bullies, only to still be beaten for it. However, instead of being horrified, he took every hit, knowing things could get worse if he didn"t.
And now Yoo Joonghyuk understood the demon"s words even if he didn"t want to accept them.
You"ll need me, angel.
It took Yoo Joonghyuk hours to convince Lee Gilyoung to fall asleep, to push through the venomous thoughts in his head, the anger and the pain, and finally be heard. Lee Gilyoung’s emotions were intense, far more than the angel had expected them to be. But then again, considering the day the boy had, could he be blamed for constantly questioning the entity that had put him in such a situation?
And even though it was his job to sit by Lee Gilyoung’s side, to convince him that despite all the cruelty he faced, God still loved him, Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t do it. Not when his own faith was shaken. Could a parent truly watch their child suffer and not say a word?
So, Yoo Joonghyuk, at his wit"s end, did something he never thought he would. He sought out the demon he was meant to chase away.
A task that was easy to do. Because while he had not shown himself to the boy, the demon had stayed close by.
He had been watching over Lee Gilyoung as though he truly cared for the boy, an idea that was unnerving for Yoo Joonghyuk. After all, it went against everything he knew about demons.
“I have to say, you held out longer than I expected,” the demon said, his intense eyes staring into an ocean of artificial lights.
“He just had a bad day today. Tomorrow will be better,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, trying to convince himself more than the demon.
“Tomorrow will be the same.” The demon leaned forward, wind sweeping through his dark hair. “And so will the day after that. And the day after that. It will never get better, not for him. But you already know that.”
The demon’s eyes met Yoo Joonghyuk’s, and for the first time in his life, he looked away, ashamed.
Through his immortal life, Yoo Joonghyuk had heard stories of destiny. He had heard that it was meant to be challenged, to be broken and shaped. Yet, there were rarely any humans that could deny the fate that God himself had woven for them. Cutting off the strings of the universe was never an easy feat to achieve. It was easier to succumb under the weight of it all than to crawl towards a promise of peace. A promise that wasn’t even guaranteed.
“God has a plan. For us all,” Yoo Joonghyuk whispered, repeating the words that had been told to him since his creation.
He had never seen the heavenly father. There weren’t many angels left that had. So all he had were years of teachings and unwavering loyalty that had kept him going. That had given him the strength he needed to fight for an entity that had supposedly given him his life.
And while he had held onto his faith for centuries, here he stood, in front of God’s enemy, questioning teachings.
All it took was a day.
“I believe there was a time when God was truly invested in the growth of his creations, and so, he reached out to them. He bestowed them with miracles to keep their faith strong and cast judgement when needed. But I think, now, he no longer cares. He’s turned away from this world, leaving us to carry out his duties,” the demon said, finally turning to look at Yoo Joonghyuk. “The angels protect while the demons punish, all in the hopes of being under his gaze once again.”
“He would not just leave,” Yoo Joonghyuk continued to defend his beliefs. Yet his voice was low and weak.
“Tell me, angel, when was the last time you felt his presence?” the demon asked.
Never.
Fear was an emotion that Yoo Joonghyuk rarely ever felt. In the countless battles that he had fought in his lord"s name, driving back demons to the depths of hell, nothing had ever shaken his bones. Nothing had ever made his heart hammer in his chest so loud that he could hear nothing but the beat of it. And in his years as an angel, Yoo Joonghyuk had seen the tortures of hell itself.
He had seen the broken bodies of the humans dragged into hellfire, limbs broken, skin torn, and innards spilled onto the ground. Through each step, each cut, they were forced to live, to feel their flesh sear in with no one to save them from their agony. That was true horror. Yet, for Yoo Joonghyuk, that sight had meant nothing.
Just another cog in the cosmos created by God.
For those who sinned were destined to damnation.
His one-track mind, eyes that only ever saw black and white, helped Yoo Joonghyuk carry out his duties without question. It helped him keep his faith and believe that, in the end, all of this pain and suffering was for the greater good.
That it all meant something.
Now, he didn’t know.
After all, children were not sinners. They were pure and innocent, meant to be protected from the darkness of the world. Yet that did not seem to be the case with Lee Gilyoung. Was he an anomaly? A strange case that had slipped through the cracks, his pleas unnoticed by everyone?
“You know, I used to be human once,” the demon suddenly spoke up, as if he could read Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind and see the battle raging within. “I was only a child when I committed a sin for which there could be no forgiveness. I stabbed my father right through the heart and ended his life.”
During his time in heaven, Yoo Joonghyuk had heard stories of humans who had fallen so deep into the depths of hell that the devil could do nothing but praise them. They defied god and all his teachings the devil loved them like they were his own children, proud of them for following a path different from what was destined. But despite being twisted into something that was no longer human, they could never be powerful. After all, their souls weren’t forged from the files of hell, and their flesh wasn’t split the devil’s skin.
Yet, in front of Yoo Joonghyuk was a human turned demon with so much power brimming inside of him, if he turned out to be the devil himself, the angel would not be surprised.
“You say we all have a destiny, a story written by God himself, so was that mine? To be born into a broken family where my father hated the very sight of me. He used to be so full of rage that every day, he would wake up and drink so that at night, he could lose his inhibitions and vent his anger out on me and my mother without any fear,” the demon continued. “He especially liked hitting my mother. Over and over again until her blood was spilled on the ground. The day he died, he was especially drunk and so very angry. Do you know the choice God gave me? I could stand by and watch as that monster killed my mother, or I could save her. Guess what I chose, angel.”
Yoo Joonghyuk felt his mouth go dry, his mind painting a vivid image of the demon’s words. He could see the moments play out. He watched as an innocent light was snubbed by the pressure of an impossible choice.
“God has to have a plan,” he finally whispered, not knowing what else he could say. After all, Yoo Joonghyuk had never known anything but his faith.
“Perhaps. But if he does, it all seems to be for his entertainment.
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the ground, wondering what he could do next. Everything that he ever was, that he ever believed in, was shattered in a single conversation. Now, he felt lost, without a home and without a purpose. He could always reject the demon’s words, but that would not get him far. Even if he returned to his duties, Lee Gilyoung’s life would always be a reminder that his teachings were a lie.
Suddenly, warm fingers pressed against Yoo Joonghyuk’s cold cheeks, startling him. As he drowned in his thoughts, he hadn’t even noticed that the demon had come closer, so much closer, than before.
“The truth is terrifying, angel, but it is also the one thing that sets us all free. You are free,” the demon said, staring right into Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes with unwavering determination. He believed every word he said. “And you will be okay.”
Yoo Joonghyuk wondered if this was how the demon had wrapped Lee Gilyoung around his fingers. By believing in him. By ensuring him that, somehow, his tomorrow would be better than his present. By crushing his self-doubt in four simple words.
Because that’s what he seemed to be doing for Yoo Joonghyuk.
“What is your name?” the angel asked, unable to look away from those starry eyes.
The demon smiled, “Kim Dokja.”
Kim Dokja.
Yoo Joonghyuk would remember that name until his last dying breath.
It had taken only a few days for Yoo Joonghyuk’s stagnant life to change rapidly, cutting away the decay in his faith and allowing him to see the world anew.
Kim Dokja was a demon. That was true. Yet he was so different from everything Yoo Joonghyuk expected him to be. Within a few hours of having the demon back in his life, Lee Gilyoung was smiling again, his lifeless eyes full of light, and it was a sentiment that Yoo Joonghyuk could relate to.
Somehow, this job he never wanted brought him to where he belonged. It had brought him home.
For him, Kim Dokja was everything he never knew he wanted, wrapped into a singular being. It was as if he was made for Yoo Joonghyuk, to fit into his edges and make him whole. A job that he did so perfectly.
But like any other living being, Kim Dokja had his faults. The biggest being the methods he used to make Lee Gilyoung happy.
From the moment Kim Dokja walked into Lee Gilyoung’s home, his mother was put into a trance, a state that Yoo Joonghyuk had seen her in before. Instead of being confused, he knew exactly what was happening to her. With a single look, a feat no lower demon could achieve, Kim Dokja had locked Lee Gilyoung’s mother in a repeating record of her worst memories, a constant emotional torture with no end in sight.
It’s what she deserved for hurting Lee Gilyoung. According to Kim Dokja, at least.
Thankfully, Yoo Joonghyuk was able to shorten her sentence after a few lectures and a stern glare. Instead of nightmares, Kim Dokja allowed her to see sweet dreams. But he refused to release her from her trance, and this was a decision that Yoo Joonghyuk could agree with.
After all, whenever she was awake, all the woman could do was hurt her son. Lee Gilyoung was happier without her presence in his life. Now, instead of cowering in his bed whenever the sun broke through the darkness, he smiled, spending his days in the park collecting different insects.
But as peace returned to Lee Gilyoung’s life, Yoo Joonghyuk was thrown into a battle for his life with Kim Dokja constantly testing him. Now, on most days, Yoo Joongyuk found his companion sprawled in his arms, head resting on the angel’s chest and listening to the way his heart hammered in his chest.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart had never raced before in his life. If it did, it was so long ago that he could no longer recall the feeling. So, even though this situation was new, he endured. After all, it was Kim Dokja.
Yoo Joonghyuk knew deep down that Kim Dokja could commit any crime, and he’d still stay by his side. Perhaps, he’d even help him cover his tracks and be his partner.
And that became very evident when he broke a rule that no angel was ever supposed to.
Every night Yoo Joonghyuk sat by Kim Dokja’s side on the roof, watching the stars and listening to stories of Gods and men, of myths intertwined in the foundation of everything: love.
On one such occasion, instead of properly listening, Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the way Kim Dokja’s eyes lit up with excitement and the tilt of his lips as he recited his favourite parts of the story.
"Why do you look at me that way?" Kim Dokja asked after finishing.
"Like what?" Yoo Joonghyuk"s brows furrowed together.
"Like I –" Kim Dokja started but then shook his head. "It"s nothing. Forget about it."
As the demon started to pull away, Yoo Joonghyuk grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. He was afraid that Kim Dokja would disappear, even though he never had before.
"Tell me," Yoo Joonghyuk urged as Kim Dokja"s eyes darted from one place to another, refusing to look at him.
A pink tint spread across his cheeks. A fascinating sight.
"Like you care about me," Kim Dokja finally finished. "Like you.. you.."
"Love you?" Yoo Joonghyuk whispered.
Kim Dokja"s body stilled, and he looked down at the ground. "But you can"t."
It was true. Angels could only ever love God.
"Can’t I?" Yoo Joonghyuk asked as he leaned in closer.
He had never imagined he’d ever have such a conversation, let alone ask such a question. But Yoo Joonghyuk knew that God had left his heart some time ago. Perhaps, he was never there at all.
"I"m a demon," Kim Dokja reminded.
"And?" He tilted Kim Dokja"s face up.
"You"re an angel."
"Mmhhmm."
"Yoo Joonghyuk!" Kim Dokja snapped, annoyed by the angel"s responses.
It was cute. And because it was cute, Yoo Joonghyuk leaned in to do something unthinkable.
He kissed Kim Dokja, shivering when the demon"s lips pressed against his own.
Surprisingly enough, the skies didn"t rumble with anger. God didn"t smite him right then and there. Yoo Joonghyuk continued to kiss Kim Dokja, drowning in his sweet taste, but the universe never cared.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not fall from grace. Perhaps there was a reason for that. After all, angels were born to love God, and Kim Dokja was his.
So instead of stopping, Yoo Joonghyuk carried on his duty. He loved Kim Dokja with all his heart, kissing him again and again and again.
As the days passed by, Kim Dokja grew braver and braver. He no longer shied away from Yoo Joonghyuk’s touch like before. What started as innocent glances and accidental brushes turned into hand-holding as they walked down the street, fingers intertwined and held tight.
Their shoulders or legs were always pressed together, limbs tangled even when they were sitting apart.
Yoo Joonghyuk knew that he was being led around by the demon, dancing to the tune of his whims. But he didn"t mind. Not when he enjoyed it all so much.
Angels had never been touchy in any sense, preferring to keep an acceptable distance. A handshake was the most Yoo Joonghyuk had received when he was in heaven. But with Kim Dokja, he could explore a whole new world. Discover things he never knew he could enjoy.
Lee Gilyoung was happier as well, away from his mother and his bullies. With no one to smother his light, he could finally reach his potential.
The way he was always supposed to.
Everything was peaceful, a dream come true.
Which is why it had to end.
The day had just ended when the ground beneath Yoo Joonghyuk began to tremble. Something was coming. Someone was coming.
As a bolt of lightning struck the rooftop, Yoo Joonghyuk pushed Kim Dokja behind him, protecting him from what was about to happen.
"Yoo Joonghyuk," a familiar voice thundered across the sky, and Lee Seolhwa stepped out of the light. Her usually gentle face was gone, replaced with anger and disgust, dark eyes flickering from Yoo Joonghyuk to the demon behind him. “You fool!”
She knew what Yoo Joonghyuk had been doing. She had been watching him. And now, here she was, doing what she could to fix her friend, save him from his corrupted mind. But Yoo Joonghyuk would not let her. After all, he had no intention of returning to his chains now that he had been set free.
"Go home," He said, hoping to avoid a battle.
If it came down to it, he would win. After all, he was a warrior while she was a healer. But despite his defiance of God, Yoo Joonghyuk did care for his friend. He didn’t want to hurt her.
Unfortunately, his words didn’t deter Lee Seolhwa. They only seemed to fuel her anger.
"Are you truly protecting one of them?" She asked in disbelief.
"You don"t understand," Yoo Joonghyuk started, but Lee Seolhwa shook her head.
She was still blinded by heaven’s promises, in her faith in a being that probably didn’t even know she existed. Lee Seolhwa was lost, just the way Yoo Joonghyuk was when he first met Kim Dokja.
“You have had your fun, Yoo Joonghyuk, but it’s enough now. You are not human and you have a promise to keep to our father,” Lee Seolhwa tried to reason. “Banish the demon so we may return home.”
“No.” Yoo Joonghyuk shook his head. “I will not be leaving Kim Dokja’s side. Ever. And if you try to hurt him, I will destroy you if that’s what it takes to keep him safe.”
His threat, however, didn’t surprise Lee Seolhwa. It was as if she was expecting Yoo Joonghyuk to turn her away. Instead, she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated.
“I wanted to do this the easy way. I didn’t want to hurt you but I see that I have no other choice,” she said. “The creature you’re protecting is no ordinary demon. He is a demon king, a human who clawed his way to the top by sacrificing countless humans. And he does not love you. You’re just his next mark.”
Yoo Joonghyuk stiffened at the news. He had always known that Kim Dokja was unnaturally strong. Too strong for someone who used to be human. But he didn’t question it, happy with what he was given. Even if he wasn’t, Yoo Joonghyuk would have never imagined that Kim Dokja was a demon king, the devil’s most trusted advocate.
That, however, wasn’t enough to shake his faith. If Kim Dokja had not told him the truth, it was because Yoo Joonghyuk had never asked. It was because the information just wasn’t relevant.
“I see that you’re not convinced,” Lee Seolhwa stated as Yoo Joonghyuk refused to leave Kim Dokja’s side. “Do you remember Jung Heewon? You fought beside her countless times in the past.”
Yoo Joonghyuk blinked. He didn’t know why Lee Seolhwa was bringing up a companion he had not seen in centuries. Especially not since she fell from grace.
And then it hit him.
“Yes, your beloved pet took her. She’s now a general in his army,” Lee Seolhwa finished his thought. “She’s not the only one he’s taken.”
“She’s not,” Kim Dokja spoke for the first time since the conversation had started. “I also have Yoo Sangah, Shin Yoosung and, the once archangel, Uriel under my care. Heaven abandoned them so I gave them a home.”
“Lies!” Lee Seolhwa hissed. “You corrupted them!”
“I understand,” Kim Dokja responded calmly. “It is easier to blame me for your loss than to see that your friends chose their own path. That they defied destiny because that was better than years of blind servitude. They may never see heaven again but at least, they are free. That’s something you’ll never understand, angel .”
Yoo Joonghyuk slowly digested the information being thrown at him, remembering the faces of all the angels that once used to reside in heaven. All the angels that had disappeared from his life at one point. He had never given them much thought after they were gone. He never had any reason to. After all, they had fallen from grace.
But now, he wondered if they had all looked at Kim Dokja the way he did. He wondered if they all heard his sweet stories, saw his beautiful smile, and touched his smooth skin. The thought didn’t make Yoo Joonghyuk feel hurt or betrayed. It just enraged him. Because even in all this chaos, he was tangled so deep in Kim Dokja’s web that he didn’t care he was lied to.
He just hated the idea of someone touching what was his.
So, instead of banishing the demon to hell for his crimes, Yoo Joonghyuk interrupted the debate by grabbing Kim Dokja by the hair and pulling his head back sharply, making him gasp out in pain.
“You are mine,” he reminded the demon, his voice laced with a tone he had never heard before. Jealousy. “How dare you let someone touch what’s mine?”
Kim Dokja’s shocked face slowly devolved into laughter, mad but sincere. He gently removed Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand from his head and placed it on his cheek, nuzzling his palm like a pup that had made a mistake.
“I am yours,” Kim Dokja agreed. “And I swear that no one has ever touched me apart from you. My body, my heart and my soul, they are all yours.”
Then stepping forward, he pressed a chaste kiss on Yoo Joonghyuk’s lips.
The conversation was far from over. Yoo Joonghyuk would rip into every story that Kim Dokja had to share and determine how he would punish the demon. He had lost one God before. He would not lose another.
But first, there was a situation he had to deal with. Lee Seolhwa.
“Have you lost your mind?” she asked when Yoo Joonghyuk turned to her, flabbergasted by what she had seen.
He did not answer her. Instead, he summoned his sword, knowing well that this would not end without a fight. Lee Seolhwa couldn’t be allowed to return to heaven.
Noticing the weapon in his hand, Lee Seolhwa began to summon her element to fight back, to protect her. Frost began to form on her fingertips, stretching to the palm of her hand and her wrist. But she was too slow. Too unprepared.
This is why it took Yoo Joonghyuk merely a minute to slice her body in two. As her shell shattered to the ground, he caught her soul before it could escape. Before, it could hide within a cocoon, allowing her to be reborn.
“Don’t kill her,” Kim Dokja said, gently placing his hand over Yoo Joonghyuk’s as he looked down at the soul in adoration. “We should take her back home with us.”
“She’s dangerous,” Yoo Joonghyuk reminded, and Kim Dokja smiled.
“She is but she won’t remember a thing.”
The idea that Kim Dokja was proposing was a cruel one. For an angel, their memories were everything. Evidence that they had lived, that they had served the Almighty creator and that they were his children. Without their memories, angels were mere shells without a purpose, a reason to be alive.
If this happened to Lee Seolhwa, she’d be dependent on Kim Dokja or whichever demon she was handed off to. She’d never go back to heaven, and she’d never find a place where she belonged, forever cursed to be lost.
And perhaps, for threatening Yoo Joonghyuk’s God, this was an apt punishment for her. She attempted to take away his everything. He was simply returning the favour.
Yoo Joonghyuk could have been kinder to her since they were once friends. But instead, he sealed away her soul until Kim Dokja remembered her.
“I love you,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, confessing his feelings out loud for the first time.
Kim Dokja was overjoyed.
“Show me,” he said, pulling the angel close, knowing exactly what would happen next.
But Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t regret a single thing. As his clothes dropped to the floor, as his fingers traced Kim Dokja’s milky skin, he was finally free. Divinity pooled out his pores as Kim Dokja’s nails dug into his pure white wings, grabbing onto feathers that were slowly rotting away.
A painful process was instead filled with bliss as their limbs intertwined, and finally, Yoo Joonghyuk fell from grace. But it was all worth it. He was finally one with Kim Dokja, worshipping him the way he deserved.
Yoo Joonghyuk would never be able to return to heaven, but he didn’t care. After all, with Kim Dokja, he was finally home.
Metatron first heard the news of Lee Seolhwa’s disappearance. After receiving urgent news from an unknown source, she descended to Earth without authorisation, an action that was bound to get her in trouble. And while her superiors waited for her return, she never did.
She was gone without a trace.
Her disappearance had sent the angels into a frenzy because clearly, she had not fallen from grace as her name was still in the Book of Heaven. Instead, a name beneath hers had burned away: Yoo Joonghyuk.
His was the 5th fall in two years, and that worried the archangels. Never had angels fallen this way since Lucifer’s rebellion. But Metatron was not surprised. In fact, being the Scribe, he knew this was bound to happen, a twisted destiny written in the stars.
What surprised him, however, was the disappearance of Yoo Joonghyuk’s ward. One day, Lee Gilyoung’s mother died due to mysterious circumstances, and the boy was gone. It was suspected that he had run away from home. Metatron believed otherwise. But he didn’t gossip, nor did he spread the news.
He simply closed Yoo Joonghyuk’s book and put it away, just as he had done so many before him.
God had made his decision, and Metatron had no right to question it. Even if he wanted to.
Taking in a deep breath, the Scribe took his place behind his desk and began to write a whole new story with a new set of characters. Each of them destined to fall.
But just as his quill touched the ink, he heard shuffling in the library behind him. Turning in his chair, Metatron saw him, a man with black hair and starry eyes, looking down at Yoo Joonghyuk’s book.
“Who are you?” Metatron asked, eyes narrowing.
The man – no – the demon smiled.
“Hello, Metatron.”