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❝everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die❞
-unknown
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chapter one
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june 06, 2019
nam ming was a rookie grim reaper. he finally got his first solo job after fifteen years of training. for the past fifteen years he had tagged along a senior grim reaper who he was assigned to watching and learning. he had the whole soul reaping process memorized; go to the location, find the soul, and then reap the soul once the time is right.
it was a rainy day the drops falling past nam ming as he made his way to the location in the envelope in his hands. Daegu General Hospital. the reaper made his way through the crowded streets invisible to the human eye. the time was now five forty five in the evening fifteen minutes before the death of his assigned soul. he quickened his steps as he neared the hospital. during his training he had visited hospitals, clinics a lot. these places are always swarming with dead souls waiting to be reaped and also souls that are suffering for eternity paying for the sins they committed when they were alive. hospitals are also places where you see grim reapers the most as it is a place where death took place almost daily.
nam ming stood outside the hospital entrance exactly five minutes before six. he flipped open once again the envelope inside which a square piece of paper read:
min yoongi, 17 years
6:00pm on june 06, 2019
6th floor, daegu general hospital, south korea
ming memorized the details before entering the hospital and making his way to the sixth floor of the building. he stepped out of the elevator which was right opposite the information desk. behind the desk was a general information board which explained the hospital rules and at the bottom giving directions to the different rooms on the floor. this was the VIP floor of the hospital which was located at the highest floor. the difference in atmosphere and the architecture of this ward was vast. the surroundings were luxurious almost like a five star hotel. nam ming walked right through the glass doors reading the directions hanging from the ceiling; the left side of the floor was for x-ray and the right side was private VIP patient rooms. in the death card there was no mention of any room number meaning the death would take place either on the hallway or the roof top garden visible through the glass door. it was already a minute to six so ming made his way towards the garden breezing through the empty hallway except for a few nurses who were doing their work.
ming entered the garden with fifty seconds to spare. it was almost empty except for a group of students. high school students from the uniform they wore. a group four were standing in front of a chubby, pale high school student with his glasses on the floor. the boy was trembling from ming's position he could read the name tag on the uniform 'min yoongi' well here is his mission. once you become a grim reaper you don't feel emotions which is one of the reasons why reaping a soul was easy. reapers had no empathy so they didn't feel any sympathy for people who died.
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the boy leaned his heavy body against the small railing trying to get away from the bullies.
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his weight made it hard for him to balance himself making him stumble back over the railing.
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the bullies face morph into shock as their victim falls over the metal railing.
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the four boys try to jump forward to help but its already too late. min yoongi was falling from the sixth floor of the hospital to the empty concrete floor below.
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min yoongi closed his eyes as he fell into darkness his body shutting down. an on looker on the ground floor who saw the body fall calls for help.
ming stared at the un-moving body as min yoongi's soul stood next to him staring at his own still body.
"am i dead?" the boy asked. quite a common question among the dead people.
"yes" the reaper answered as the watch on his hand struck six. "i will reap your soul now and another reaper will explain you everything once you are on the other side" ming continued before placing his hand on the boys's dark hair and chanting something he had practiced and done several times. he waited for a few seconds removing his hand waiting for the soul to move on. he frowned when nothing happened. he doesn't remember making any mistakes but he decides to try again just in case.
nothing happened. it had already been twelve minutes and the doctor had stopped doing cpr.
"Time of death 06:12 pm," the man in doctors robes spoke before leaving the scene letting the nurses handle the rest.
"you are min yoongi right?" ming asked the soul next to him who nodded his head as a yes. this was so confusing. so he hasn't reaped the wrong soul but something was wrong. he grabbed the envelope from the inside of his black coat pocket. the card inside was not empty. usually when a soul was reaped the details would disappear leaving the paper blank. instead now the letters were a bright red meaning that the soul was still alive exceeding its time limit.
in the midst of this confusion a portal opened in the air next to the scene and a man dressed in black assembly walked out. only ming and yoongi could see the man as he made his way towards the two.
once the man was in front of the two ming gave a ninety degree bow of respect poking yoongi to do the same. the man had sharp features with dark hair and cold eyes. he looked to be in his mid thirties now his icy eyes targeting on the newbie reaper. ming knew from previous encounters not to speak until spoken to.
"nam ming it appears you have reaped the wrong soul" the man spoke his voice just as cold as his eyes making yoongi who was unfamiliar with the man shiver. wait, reaped the wrong soul. That means he is supposed to be alive.
"what do you mean mr. kim? the name right here is min yoongi" yoongi nodded his head in confusion as well.
mr. kim gave a sigh his irritation very clear. "did you check if there are any other min yoongi's present in the sixth floor? and this boy fell on the ground floor not the sixth floor" the man explained to the two. both ming's and yoongi's face dawn with realization upon mr. kim's words.
"so you are saying he killed me when i am supposed to be alive?" the now-dead overweight boy questioned accusingly however he was ignored as mr. kim walked inside the hospital building making the other two follow leaving behind the dead body surrounded by nurses and curious people.
"well, technically i didn't kill you. you accidentally fell and almost died. but, it is too late to put you back in the body since the doctor already declared you dead and i tried to reap your soul," the newbie grim reaper explained as they ran after the fast walking figure ahead of them.
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mr. kim is responsible with looking after the grim reapers in a way he is like the vice-president of a company while the president is death. mr. kim only answered to one person that is mr.d aka death. he took the assignments from mr.d and then assigned them to different grim reapers who are divided into different sections based on the area they covered. whenever, a reaper messed up a job or had trouble with an assignment it was mr. kim's job to come and fix it or assign someone else for the job. since, the man himself was here nam ming knew he messed up big time. his dream had been to climb up the ranks and become the youngest reaper to be a senior grim reaper and work in the office so he didn't have run among the humans collecting souls. well, goodbye dreams because it would be blessing if he gets past another training assignment in the coming half a century.
nam ming dutifully followed the older man making sure the dead human was with him as well. next thing he would need is a lost soul walking in the halls of the hospital. soon, the trio were on the sixth floor where in the middle of the hallway a group of nurses and doctors were gathered. they were surrounding a bed upon which a pale boy of about seventeen years old was lying. he was thin with dyed blonde hair which fanned around his head against the light blue pillow. the doctors were busy performing cpr while the nurses ran around grabbing equipment trying to keep him alive.
mr. kim simple walked around the crowd and stopped next to the foot of the bed where a boy stood in his hospital gown staring at his still body on the bed.
"min yoongi-shi?" at mr. kim's question the boy looked at him finally someone who could see him. at the boy's positive reply the man placed a hand on his pale hair chanting. the young boy tried to remove the man's hand but the man held on tightly.
"w-what is happening?" the voice brought ming back to present. he turned to his left where the other min yoongi stood.
"that is the correct min yoongi" ming explained as he looked at the death card as the letters vanished on it as the boy also started vanishing in a light blue glow.
"wow" the other boy exclaimed his voice a quite whisper. yeah, wow indeed.
"mr. min yoongi, it appears that our new reaper had made a mistake of one in a million possibility and from the orders i have received you will have a chance of a second life. so, if you would like i have the power to bring you back to life. however, be ware you will not be going back to your previous body. you will have a new identity and life. do you agree?" mr. kim asked the high school student in front of him. he stood tall with his hands behind his back as he waited for the other to reply.
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the last few hours of the day had been a roller coaster ride for one min yoongi, seventeen year old high school student in the city of daegu. the day had begun just like any other day for the high schooler. a rainy and gloomy day where he had eaten four portions of chicken soup from the ajumma's shop he always frequented for breakfast as usual before going to school where he had spent the day trying to get through the school hours without any of the usual humiliations. he may be top of his grade in school but that didn't stop the bullies from making him their target. it was a thursday, so he could get away with giving away his snack money without any extra trouble.
yoongi's mother left him and his father when he was only ten years old. she left the two for a man with more money and a better home. since, then yoongi's father had done his best to make his son's life better. the owned a small laundry shop right above which they lived. the income wasn't much but it helped pay the bills and cover the monthly expenses. yoongi grew up eating fast food and from restaurants rarely eating a home cooked meal. even his father was home the man cooked yoongi's favorite dishes which were all food with oil and fats. so, it was no surprise when the teenager grew up to be overweight with the lack of exercise. he spent most of his hours in his room studying and then playing video games leaving him with no time for any exercise. his excessive size and shy personality (unless you were really close to him) made him a very easy target for bullies.
the day had ended with yoongi leaving the school just without his snack money and no other trouble. he was on his way home when he received a call from kim jaewon probably his only friend in school. however, the person on the other line wasn't his friend it was their bully. he could hear the other boy pleading in the background telling him not to come. but min yoongi is a loyal friend and when the only person he considered a friend is in trouble he wasn't going to leave him.
that's how yoongi found himself at daegu general. from the gist of it jaewon had come to visit his sick grandmother who was admitted to the hospital when he had run into the group of four who had come to get treated after a shuffle outside the school. when yoongi had reached the rooftop they had let the other go cornering the chubby boy against the railing. the bullies had started their usual taunting making yoongi try to get away from the them until he was on the edge of the railing his back against the metal which reached his lower back.
the next second before he could comprehend he fell. he was falling down six floors to the cold, hard floor beneath. yoongi didn't know when he had come up here in a hurry this would be his last time on earth. he didn't even say goodbye to his father. the poor man would be waiting for him at the shop since they planned to have a nice meal tonight to celebrate yoongi getting first place in the essay competition at school. his father would be worried and will be waiting for him. his thoughts came to a halt as he hit the ground and immense pain came through his body. he could feel his own blood flowing from the gashes on his body. he let himself drift into darkness as the hospital stuff ran to the boy lying on the ground.
next thing he knew he was standing next to his own body along with a man dressed in black both invisible to everyone else. yoongi had watched enough supernatural shows to know that he was indeed dead and the man next to him was probably some one associated with death.
after clarifying that he was indeed dead the man placed his hand on yoongi's head and started chanting in a language he had never heard before. yoongi closed his eyes waiting for whatever next ti happen but nothing happened which seemed to confuse the other as well since he tried again with no results. yoongi was about to ask about the matter when the air split a few feet away like opening a tear in the air and a man walked out. he was dressed similarly and apparently of higher position since the man next to yoongi did a ninety degree bow while giving yoongi a poke with one of his fingers to follow him.
according to the man yoongi was not supposed to die and there was another boy named 'min yoongi' who is actually supposed to die today. wah! what a coincidence. two people with the same name at the same place and experiencing death at the same time except only one of them is supposed to actually die.
min yoongi that was supposed to die was lying in a hospital bed surrounded by stuff trying to revive from a cardiac arrest that occurred on the way to get an x-ray. similar to his own a boy much smaller than him with dyed blonde hair was standing at the edge of the bed observing the proceedings. the older man placed his hand on the other boy's head similar to how the other reaper had done prior and started the same chant. this time however unlike before a bright light appeared and then faded away leaving the spot where the boy stood before empty.
"wow" yoongi couldn't stop those words from leaving his lips. it was truly fascinating. so since he died before his time he wasn't able to pass on like the other boy.
yoongi turned his attention to the oldest among the trio when he started speaking, "mr. min yoongi, it appears that our new reaper had made a mistake of one in a million possibility and from the orders i have received you will have a chance of a second life. so, if you would like i have the power to bring you back to life. however, be ware you will not be going back to your previous body. you will have a new identity and life. do you agree?"
the man was giving yoongi a second chance. a chance to not be the overweight, bullied min yoongi who crawled through life scraping his knees instead of running like everyone else. yes. the words were at the tip of his tongue when he thought about it. his father, the man who worked day and night to keep him fed would be all alone in this world. but, the man had to work so hard because of yoongi. to feed him, buy clothes, buy video games and books he liked. without him the older man would be free. he might suffer for a while from heartache but he would get through.
so, yoongi made his decision.
"yes"
"very well, there are a few things you must know. your life as min yoongi is over. you will be whoever you will wake up next as. however, you will retain your memories along with new memories regarding the person who you will wake up as. under no circumstances you are supposed to share these events with anyone. the moment you do the balance of nature will be imbalanced and you will experience a tragedy beyond your imagination. do i make myself clear, mr.min?"
"y-yes", yoongi stuttered the words out getting nervous under the others cold eyes. wait, did he say memories of someone else. does that mean i'm going to wake up in someone else's body?
"w-wait i-" yoongi's words were cut off as the older reaper placed his palm on the boy's head turning his world black.
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i will post this story in wattpad as well and it would be wonderful if you could check it out there and give a vote as well. my wattpad account is @__rainbowgalaxy.