Chapter Text
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“Good afternoon! I brought you the newest release of Harper’s Bazaar, because they have Kai on the cover. You better appreciate it, I fought a girl over the last issue they had.” Jaemin twirled into the room, waving the magazine “Though I must admit, I see where she and you are coming from, he really is quite the handsome young man, isn’t he? Not as handsome as, you, of course.”
Jaemin giggled to himself and put the magazine on the table, before pulling the desk from the corner of the room next to the bed. The furniture loudly scratched over the floor. Jaemin always did that, so he could be closer when he did his homework. “Injunie sends his regards, he has ballet practice, but you know that. We both envied you big time during the unannounced test today, god, Mrs Kim was out for blood, I’m telling you. We had to label a whole map of China, like, there was only the outline and then which cities and rivers we had to find. If Injunie sees my paper, he’ll never talk to me again. Meanwhile, you get to chill and no take these godforsaken exams.”
Jaemin dramatically dropped on his chair, as there was no answer. There never was. And truly, neither he, nor Renjun really wanted to switch places with their best friend. But making jokes about it was easier than reminding themselves of the harsh reality. The reality, that the doctors had said the chanced of Lee Jeno waking up were slim when he didn’t come back to consciousness two weeks after the accident, after the surgery, after everything that turned their lives upside down.
That had been five weeks and three days ago, at this very day. Jaemin had been counting. Over seven weeks since he had bid Jeno goodbye after they had left he Noraebang to head home, hearing his voice for the last time, having him smile his bright smile, that made his eyes turn into crescents for the last time.
“Third grade is only a few weeks old and already kicking our asses. So, what else happened? Oh, yes, Chenle got the main part in the musical the school is doing this summer, but that’s no surprise, I mean, I didn’t audition, or it would have obviously been me, but he’s the next best guy for the part. I don’t know if you remember, but they’re doing this modern take on Sleeping Beauty, where the prince is the one in need of rescuing?”
Jaemin unloaded his binders and books, sorting them by subject. “Surely you remember, because we argued over which option they were choosing from was the best and I still insist the one where they’re a lesbian couple would have been gold, but no, that’s too progressive for the principal. Old geezer. So, yeah, Chenle will lie on a bed and look pretty for half the story. He’s ecstatic. We still have four months until the performance. You should make sure you’re up and running by then. Renjun’ll be dancing. I’m sure you’d rather watch that, than sleep.”
Jaemin opened his calendar and looked what homework he had to get done for tomorrow. Sleep. That sounded much better than coma. Like something nice and harmless.
At first, he kept telling small things from school over the questions of his homework, like the cafeteria running out of rice, or that the girls from Jisung’s class had made a ranking of all the guys of their class and Jisung had made first place, as reported by Chenle as the other blushed bright red, unable to speak. But eventually, there was only the sound of the machine that kept track of Jeno’s heartbeat humming in the background. It actually helped Jaemin focus, he found. Because as long as it was just humming, he knew Jeno was fine.
At some point, he had to turn on the light, and at seven, the nurse came inside.
“Oh, Jaemin, you came again today?” she smiled, pushing her cart along. Jaemin quickly marked where he was in his text, before looking up.
“Of course. I have to keep Jeno up to date, don’t I?”
She smiled brightly “That’s wonderful! I’m sure he appreciates it a lot. Jeno, I brought your dinner, I hope the taste is good.”
Jaemin started closing his books, as she hooked the liquid nutrition to one of the many tubes that were on Jeno’s body. It was fine. No one could eat while sleeping. The most important thing was, that he was breathing and his heart beating.
“Alright, your hydration is looking very good, tomorrow, we’ll have a change of tubes, so nothing gets too dirty. I’ll come and change your position in an hour, together with sister Lee, so you don’t get uncomfortable. Eat well until then. Jaemin, remember visiting hours only last until seven thirty.” The nurse smiled at him, already rolling her cart back outside.
“Of course, I’ll get going.” Jaemin was already finished with packing up. Most days, it was her looking after Jeno and she was Jaemin and Renjun’s favourite. All the nurses talked to the patients as if they were hearing them and Jaemin did the same. There were many cases of people knowing what they were told once they woke back up. He wanted to make sure Jeno was kept in the loop, that he knew he wasn’t alone, they didn’t forget him.
He pushed the table and chair back where they belonged and shouldered his bag. Jeno’s face was peaceful and even, and Jaemin reached out to ruffle his hair, stroking over his temple “Come on, Jen-no-jaem. We miss you being lame.” The words were just a whisper and Jaemin had to take a deep breath. No more crying. He and Renjun had a pact and he wasn’t going to break it.
When he looked up, there was suddenly someone sitting on the end of Jeno’s bed. A blond guy, dressed in all black, with a choker on, scrolling on his phone. Jaemin wanted to ask what on earth he was doing here and who he was. But his arm was wrapped around a tall scythe, that was as black as his outfit, the blade shining dark blue, looking sharp and deadly.
Death angel!
“No!” Jaemin leaped forward and pushed the guy, who looked up from his phone the second he felt hands on himself, face completely and utterly surprised. He lost balance and fell off the bed, onto the floor, phone and scythe clattering on the floor next to him. “You can’t… you can’t, I…”
Jaemin pushed himself between the stranger and Jeno’s bed, trying to protect him.
“Oh my… that was unexpected.” The guy on the floor mumbled, reaching for where his phone had fallen, then for his scythe, and then looked up at Jaemin. He looked a lot less like what Jaemin would have expected a death angel to look like and a lot more like someone ready to hit the clubs.
Jaemin was looking for words, but they wouldn’t come out, his throat choked up. He just shook his head, staring at the guy pleadingly.
He got up and twirled the scythe, so he could lean it onto the floor comfortably. “So. You can see me and touch me. That’s… uncommon. I take it you hold a very deep bond to this young man?” the stranger’s eyes travelled behind Jaemin, to where Jeno was lying.
He nodded.
“Ah, I see how it is. I’m sorry, I meant to wait until you were gone. This is messing with my plans, but… Lee Jeno, he’s my assignment. Tell him goodbye.”
“No! No, please, please don’t, can’t you pretend you already finished your job? Just, you know, turn a blind eye? Please, I’m begging you.”
“What’s your name, young man?” The blond guy stepped closer, but Jaemin didn’t move.
“Na Jaemin.”
“Alright, Jaemin. Life and death, it’s a delicate balance. You can’t just pretend you collected a soul and leave them in the living world. He could never pass over and once his body gives out for good, he’d be trapped here. Death isn’t an end, like you humans think it is…”
“I don’t care. He can’t die yet! He just can’t! The doctors said his body was fine, that he could wake up. I can’t lose him, I’d rather die myself.” Jaemin cut in, voice cracking as he hurried to say what he wanted to.
The stranger looked conflicted now, tapping the handle of his scythe. “I can’t do that.”
“Please, whatever it is, I’ll do it. Just say it, if I can keep Jeno… I will give you my soul, I will give you whatever.”
The guy sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Well, you said the magic words. There is indeed something you can do, or rather… a way out of this. But I strongly advise you against it. Playing with the devil… it hardly ever ends well.”
The air next to him had started vibrating, moving, like it did on a hot summer day, when reality seemed a little altered. Jaemin blinked and when he opened his eyes, there was another guy, arm around the man dressed in black, leaning into his space with a smirk on his lips. It looked like he was going to kiss him, and things were becoming a bit weird. But he spoke, instead.
“Now, now, is it nice to taunt other people’s name, when they aren’t even there to defend themselves? You know my deals, they’re fair and square, so don’t try and chase away my clients, Kun.” His voice was a purr, as he spoke right into the blond’s ear, stones in his ears reflecting the light as he moved.
It was mesmerising. He was mesmerising.
Jaemin hardly even dared to breathe. The first guy, he was dark, sure, but he seemed approachable. This guy was something else. His aura screamed of power and of temptation. He turned his eyes to Jaemin, and the blood red orbs seemed to pull him in. It took all his willpower not to walk over and snuggle against the man’s side, for some reason.
“Ah, I like this one. What’s your name, pretty boy?”
“Jae-Jaemin. Na Jaemin.” Jaemin stuttered, still feeling the strong urge to get closer to this man. Who was he even? What had the death angel said? The devil?
“And you want to keep your… lover?”
“Best friend.”
“Hm… This won’t do. I don’t make contracts with liars.” He smiled sweetly, showing a set of sharp teeth.
“Please, don’t pretend like you don’t tell the boldest of them all.” The death angel snorted.
“Aw, of course I do, that’s my business, Kun-Kun! But I never lie about contracts. Now, Jaemin, I have a weakness for pretty things, so you may have another chance: you want to keep your beloved?”
Jaemin swallowed “I do.” His tongue felt heavy, as he confirmed out loud what was supposed to be a secret between him and Renjun.
“Wonderful.” The man held out his hand and a tablet computer appeared. “Then let’s talk about details. It’s always the details that get you in the end. I can make Kun over here drop your Lee Jeno off his list, at least for now. Well, I can make Kun’s boss do that, we all know the death angels are nothing, but small little servants to the big guy. But that’s beside the point. Eternity is a long, long time. And you know what happens, when you live forever?”
Jaemin shook his head.
“I get bored!” the guy yelped, like it was obvious, starling Jaemin. “Very bored. So, I won’t just march over to the big guy for free. I want… entertainment. And you’ll give it to me. You know the seven deadly sins?”
Jaemin had watched the anime, but he wasn’t sure if that was what this man was referring to.
“Lust, Glutton, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. No worries, you can sin as much as you want, I only get your soul when you sell it to me. We have a different approach. For each of these seven, I will send you a challenge, you have to solve. Complete all seven and you’ll get your friend back. Fail one, and your friend is Kun’s. Fail two or more, and I get your soul on top. Sound fun, right?”
His smirk was so wide now, it was almost splitting his face, like a horrifying mask. Seven challenges? How hard could that be?
“Alright.”
“Marvellous. One extra condition, though: you cannot tell anyone about this, about me, about Kun, anything, or you automatically lose. And no help for the tasks, it has to be all you, or, again, you lose.”
“No telling and no help, if I solve all seven, I get Jeno back.”
“Smart boy.”
Jaemin glanced over to the death angel, who was biting his lip, but staring at the other stranger rather intensely…
“I agree.”
“Perfect. Now, sign here and we’re all done.”
The man turned the tabled so Jaemin could see the contract pulled up on it. There was a line under which his name stood. On the other side, it was already signed, 10 Lucifer. Weird name. Was there ten of them?
Jaemin felt like this was the advanced version of “agree with terms of service”, as he quickly looked over the simple text of the contract, then scrawled his name under it. The second he pulled away, the tabled disappeared into thin air again. Something seemed to pull in his chest, like someone had hooked a line into his sternum, but it was gone a moment later.
“It was a pleasure making business with you. I’ll let Kun give you the specifics about the time, but our game starts…. Right now. Look forward to my beloved delegates finding you soon. And remember, I want fun!” The air started looking weird again, and with a small cracking noise, the man was gone.
Kun twirled his scythe, so the blade was back up. “You have three months, Jaemin, exactly from today on. 22nd of June is your deadline, if you haven’t finished until then, the contract will be invalid. Though… not doing anything will not get you out of this. One last word of advice… think outside the box. Good luck.”
He hurled up his weapon and seemed to cut the air, stepping into an invisible to Jaemin door and was gone, too. A piece of paper slowly sunk down to the linoleum floor where he had stood seconds earlier.
Jaemin stepped forward and picked it up. I looked like the kind of parchment he would have expected to sign a contract on that’d give away his soul, rather than the tablet this “10 Lucifer” person had used. “3 months” it said, in red ink. Below were seven empty circles. Jaemin swallowed and ran a finger over the writing.
So, this was it. He felt like he should suddenly feel regret or realise it was unbelievably dumb to sign away your soul on a whim to a scary, charismatic guy with red eyes and fangs.
But he turned and his eyes fell onto Jeno’s face, still peaceful, the machine keeping track of his heart moving quietly. No. He didn’t regret it at all.