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It’s only been a few weeks, but Xu Minghao was beginning to get really, really, really bored of his job. One would think being promoted was a good thing, but he’s beginning to miss the days when he was just a guardian angel. At least during those moments, he was sure of what he had to do; make sure his human stays away from harm. He did a good job taking care of Kim Mingyu, if he had to boast, especially since the human boy was such a klutz.
The countless humans he has saved from a life of pain was enough to grant him his promotion, something he had been aiming for from the start. All angels dreamed to climb the ranks, after all. As a guardian angel, all you had was your human. Make it a level harder though, it was a whole different playing field, ultimately more exciting. He would have to handle a demon assigned to him, making sure no evil spirits were able to roam on earth.
His demon was named Wen Junhui.
Take a look at it this way—angel and demons weren’t enemies, per se, but they do work for rivalling causes, so they weren’t exactly friends, either. Heaven and Hell considered the earth as an equal playing field. For every angel, there would be one demon. Work, which is the best term for it, was simple for each entity. Demons brought evil spirits and sin to the world. Angels had to get rid of it, constantly.
For Minghao to be good at his job of banishing evil spirits, his demon had to be equally good at summoning them.
Wen Junhui was, inexplicably , bad at his job.
“Are you telling me you failed again? ”
“Yup! Heechul’s gonna throw a fit,” Junhui said cheerfully, as if he wasn’t going to be nagged by his head demon once he gets back to the underworld. In the demon’s defense, it wasn’t completely his fault, at least not this time. He was assigned to a Sloth spirit after all, who just didn’t want to budge from his realm no matter how many times Junhui tried to bribe him. Most demons had a hard time with them, it was common knowledge.
The angel stared at the other boy in disbelief. It was the fourth time that week that Junhui couldn’t even summon Sin spirits properly. It’s not like he was given hard tasks, either. If he was successful in making his target extremely lazy, it would eventually lead to the girl’s mother getting angry. Wrath would then have to be involved and a fight would break out, which would spiral into Pride coming from both ends of the fight.
For Minghao, those were just three minor problems that he couldn’t even fix, since it never happened.
In retrospect, he should probably be happy that Junhui kept failing. It did mean less trouble for him, less chances of him failing at his job, and less worries overall. Technically speaking, Minghao could be considered good at his job, since in a way, Junhui just did his job for him. No evil spirits roamed around on his watch. He would have been okay with it, but the boredom just got to him. He had more fun stopping Mingyu from climbing trees and breaking a leg.
“This has to stop happening,” Minghao groaned. “Next time I get informed that you’re summoning something, tell me when you’ve actually succeeded.”
The blonde blinked, “shouldn’t you stop me before I summon?”
“And miss out on actually fighting something for once? I didn’t get promoted for nothing,” the angel said with a scoff. The thing is, they also weren’t supposed to meet up at all. The way Minghao heard it was supposed to go from his colleagues was that the angel shows up after the demon has let the spirit loose. They don’t get notified about these things immediately, so there was always time for the summoning to actually happen, which makes chasing the evil spirit fun, too.
Every time, without fail, Minghao would arrive at the scene to see Junhui still struggling.
This time, he had even already taken his time answering to the mission call. He had given the demon every bit of leeway he could possibly give. He even hung around the area, watching Junhui plead into the realm portal for the Sloth spirit to please just come out already, I have to do at least one job well, please . Eventually, Minghao approached once it was clear that Junhui was going nowhere, just as the portal closed.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” Junhui complained, pouting a little, far from how an intimidating demon should look. His blonde hair alone was a stark contrast against his black horns and dark clothing. Minghao knew his own raven hair was an issue, since most angels preferred to keep it a light colour to match all the white they wore, but he liked having his own style. Maybe Junhui was the same. The demon pouted further.
“Minghao, help me out here.”
“Help you?” the angel asked incredulously. “I don’t know how to summon an evil spirit, Junhui.”
The demon frowned, “I’m beginning to think I don’t either.”
“This is ridiculous,” Minghao ended up saying, snatching the purple book that was in Junhui’s hand. He flipped through the pages of the summoning book, flinching a little at the obvious evil that was leaking from it. Most angels would do anything to get a hold of the book, so they could properly burn it and make things harder for the other realm, but Minghao was having none of that. Plus he was beginning to think Junhui would get even sadder at that, which wasn’t an option for him either.
“Do you understand it?” the blonde asked a few moments after Minghao started reading.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to help you even if I did,” the black haired boy said eventually, giving the book back with a sigh. “I should really get going—“
“Wait!” Junhui exclaimed, grabbing onto Minghao’s shirt sleeve when the angel turned to go.
Demons were known to have a certain ability that could tempt anyone into doing anything. It just came naturally to them with the way they talked, the way they looked, even the way they moved. Speech was the main thing, though. Angels weren’t supposed to be affected by it—it was a human thing, to feel tempted, a weak thing even—so there was no reason for Minghao to have stopped when Junhui had asked.
Still, if he had to blame something, it would be that ability.
Really, just that.
“I have to try again,” Junhui said with a pleading voice. “If I can’t get at least one job right within the month, I’m going to end up demoted. I can’t go back to tending the Fires, Minghao, it’s literally hotter than Hell. Even if it’s in Hell. Please, you have to help me. Even if it’s just this one time?”
“If you’re gone, I could get assigned to a different demon,” Minghao pointed out, which seemed like the most logical reason for why he should say no, but the moment the words slipped out of his mouth, he was met with sad eyes. Why would Junhui be sad about that? Most of all, why would he care that a demon was sad to begin with? Could demons even be sad? There were a lot of norms that Junhui just seemed to love breaking; this seemed like one of them.
Eventually relenting, the angel sighed again.
“I guess I could help. Just this once. Give me that book again.”
There were a lot of ways Minghao imagined his job would be like. He has heard the stories from his senior angels, too. Most of them absolutely hated their demon, whose goal seemed to be to make life living hell—pun intended—for their angel. That was fine. It was normal, even. Some did somehow get along with their demon, seeing it more like a necessary job thing than anything else. He’s never heard of an angel actually helping his demon out before, though. He was definitely the first.
If anything, this wasn’t a story he could tell them once he got back. Actually, Minghao wasn’t sure if these were grounds for violation. He wasn’t doing the summoning himself; he was just guiding Junhui to make sure the demon did it. Technically, helping others out was a good thing, which must be why Minghao felt okay doing so. Also technically, he was helping out with something bad, which may have cancelled that out.
Things were, ultimately, weird.
The demon himself also grew weirder the more Minghao got to know him. When they had first met, Junhui had smiled brightly and even offered to shake his hand. The greeting quickly turned into a short hug, ending only because Minghao pulled away quickly. Every succeeding time after that would be the demon’s failed attempts. Whenever they would meet up though, the two would make small talk now and then. It felt almost like they were friends.
Friends who helped each other so that they could be friends who stopped each other.
Weird.
“Let’s not summon the Sloth spirit again,” Minghao suggested. “They might not want to be disturbed. It says here you only have ten minutes before the portal closes.”
“I’m good with portals!” the blonde said proudly. “Mine can last a little longer.”
“Not enough to summon a spirit, apparently.”
Junhui gave a petulant little frown, “you’re mean for an angel.”
“Mean? Is this what I get for helping you? Just make your portal. Let’s summon a Lust spirit instead,” Minghao said after flipping through the book a few times. Lust spirits were among the easiest to summon, it said, especially in the presence of good looking people. Now, the angel didn’t want to brag, but he was good looking. Junhui was definitely handsome as well, even with the gap between his looks and his personality, but that was fine.
Giggling a little, Junhui replied, “do you have a crush on me already, Minghao?”
The angel whacked him lightly on the head with the summoning book.
“As if it’s going to affect me ,” he said, scoffing.
The thing with angels is, they can’t lie. No matter what they did, so most angels—the ones like Minghao, who were a little less uptight and righteous—usually got away with it by twisting their words a little. He knew what the answer to Junhui’s statement was if he had went with a yes or no; an agreement or a denial. The thought made him question, quite frankly, a lot of things. A lot of things also began to make more sense.
“Okay, the sign’s good to go!” Junhui said brightly, gesturing towards the shape he drew on the ground. “What do I need to say for the portal?”
“I’ll repeat it to you,” Minghao said. It wasn’t like he could accidentally trigger anything, anyway. “Most of your problems also lie with messing up the words, right?”
The demon pouted a little, “yeah, I think I need glasses.”
“You think?”
Minghao began to repeat the words as carefully as possible, which Junhui also repeated with equal care. Soon, there was a glowing red and black portal that grew over the symbol. The demon quickly began to say something different, which Minghao hoped wasn’t going to ruin anything, but then there was a bigger flash of red and the portal closing. In its place was a Lust spirit, like they had hoped.
The black shadow was oozing sexuality, which made Minghao wince a little.
“We did it!” Junhui exclaimed happily, oblivious to the angel’s discomfort. He looked truly happy, all bright smiles and jumping around. The Lust spirit remained hovering; if a shadow could look confused, the spirit definitely looked confused. All evil spirits had to latch onto a source sooner of later since they can’t really wander without a form forever. Honestly, Minghao should have known what was going to happen next.
In a flash, the shadow zoomed towards Junhui’s body, whose eyes grew wide before he could do anything.
“Junhui?” Minghao asked, rushing towards the angel with immediate concern. He watched as Junhui’s body stiffened, before relaxing. He blinked his eyes a few times; they were red, which Minghao was sure wasn’t the colour they were before. It shouldn’t have been surprising that an evil spirit could merge with a demon, but the demon should overpower it. Right?
“He’s no longer in control,” a voice spoke from Junhui’s mouth, nothing like Junhui. It was deeper, sultrier, and overall just… wrong.
The angel glared, “look, you’re only out here because of him. I’m here to get rid of you in the first place, so you really shouldn’t be acting so cocky.”
“Why would you want to get rid of me?” Junhui said, smirking a little. He eyed Minghao up and down and licked his lips, as he began circling around the angel, a glazed look in his eyes. It was almost like the spirit knew that Junhui looked good to begin with and just used it to its advantage, slowly approaching Minghao as he spoke again.
“I can see the way you look, little angel,” he began to say. “If you leave me in this body, this very willing demon would do anything you desire. What do you say?”
If angels could be tempted, Minghao was beginning to think, this would probably be how it would go. He knew it wasn’t completely impossible; Hell was created for that very reason. He also knew that the Lust spirit wasn’t entirely bluffing. It could sense lust, sure, but angels also don’t have lust within their system. It was probably sensing the general attracting Minghao felt for Junhui. For the weird, blonde demon he had grown so accustomed to.
The demon that was, also, not in control of his own body.
“Nice try,” Minghao said, already planning how to get rid of the spirit without hurting Junhui’s body too much. “But I wasn’t promoted for nothing.”
He decided not to use his full force in the process as he began to raise his hands. Getting rid of the spirit lasted shorter than he expected as it easily left Junhui’s body at the presence of bright, glaring light. It didn’t take long before the Lust spirit disappeared completely, as Minghao then turned his attention back to Junhui. The demon was still kneeling on the ground from the impact of the spirit leaving his body.
“Are you okay?” the angel asked, extending his arm towards the other boy to help him up. Junhui took his hand with his own shaky one, as Minghao pulled him up. “My bad. I should have gotten rid of it right away.”
The blonde shook his head, “I was weak. I could have deflected it, too, but it was… whispering these things, and I…”
He paused and immediately looked away from Minghao with what looked like a very obvious blush on his features.
“Please ignore me.”
“No, I want to hear it,” Minghao couldn’t help but say, a teasing smile appearing on his features. “I think it’s only fair to hear what you went through after I had to face the Lust spirit myself.”
Junhui blushed even deeper, “it’s nothing appropriate for an angel to hear.”
“Try me.”
“Can we please change the subject?” the demon whined, covering his face with his hands.
The angel relented only after laughing at the whole situation, which really, was pretty bizarre to think about in the first place. He was an angel; Junhui was a demon. They clearly had something going on, but also, nothing just yet. They weren’t supposed to have anything going on. The rules on that were just a little bit hazy. Minghao wasn’t sure if there were any, actually.
“Fine,” he said, grinning at the sight of the flustered demon. “Next time we summon something, let’s be more careful.”
Junhui visibly perked up, “next time we summon something?”
“Sure. I have to keep helping you if you want to keep your job, right?” Minghao said, looking away from Junhui’s shining eyes before the demon could read his mind—he couldn’t, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. He probably already knew where Minghao was going, if his shy, yet bright smile was anything to base on. “I wouldn’t want to end up partnered with anybody else.”