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As the days pass, Geonhak finds himself improving in whisper projections. He’s able to break some of Hwanwoong’s whispers albeit not entirely, he is able to instil guilt in Hwanin’s heart every time Hwanwoong’s whispers manages to get to him. The doubts he harbours from the beginning starts to slowly disappear. He sighs as he closes the link to Hwanin.
“Yeay!” He hears a cheer from a distant. He sighs again. He turns to the sound expecting to see the small devil Hwanwoong in his teasing mode, as he usually does on days where their work time clashes. To Geonhak’s surprise, he’s not alone.
“What are you doing, hyung?”
He walks towards Hwanwoong who is currently sitting down, scrolling through his phone. Behind him is Youngjo, his mentor having his arm around the devil, with his chin buried in Hwanwoong’s hair. He learned a while ago that the two were acquainted with each other, which Geonhak assumes from working together like he is now, but he never wonders how close they are. The contrast of Youngjo’s suit to Hwanwoong’s makes Geonhak wants to laugh, but he holds his tongue.
“Good job today too, Chickie.” Hwanwoong says, eyes not leaving his phone.
“Stop calling me that.” Geonhak whines and plops down next to Hwanwoong and Youngjo. Hwanwoong gave him that nickname after learning that Leedo is not his name and dramatically confronts him and accuses Geonhak for not trusting him when he never did anything bad (yet). “What are you guys doing?”
Hwanwoong hums as he shows the phone screen to Youngjo earning a small giggle from the angel. “Oh, just watching some human singing show.” He shows the screen to Geonhak. He sees a few men singing and dancing, the camera angles were not very consistent and Geonhak has no idea where to focus. Then the camera pans to a man who flirtily looks at the camera and changing his expression fluidly as he move. “Amazing, isn’t he?”
Geonhak snaps out as Hwanwoong moves the phone away. “I’d love to be assigned to him, imagine what he can do with that face.”
“What are you thinking, Woongie?” Youngjo finally voices out, still in the position Geonhak found him in, only his hand reaches up on Hwanwoong’s head to fix his hair. Geonhak had known Youngjo for years but every now and then, the angel would do something that makes Geonhak questions if he ever truly knows Youngjo. If Geonhak could find a word to describe his housemate which is also his mentor, it would be whimsical. But not as much as his other housemate, who he could only describe as insane. Whose entire drive is impulse.
Hwanwoong leans back, pocketing his phone and positioning himself snugly in Youngjo's arm "Oh, just how many different ways I can ruin him from the inside. I'm curious about his inner demons. And that face..." He smacks his lips.
"That face. The many ways one can use that face to break others." Geonhak witnesses as the demon's eyes darkens as he gets deeper into his thoughts. Again, he feels chills in his spine.
"But I can tell, he reeks of your kind. A lost cause." Hwanwoong scrunches his nose in disgust. "Glad to know I'm not associated with the devil that is assigned to him. Embarrassing!"
"What if he's new, like Geonhak?" Youngjo asks.
Hwanwoong jumps up and stretches. "Then, the mentor is at fault." He smirks at Youngjo.
Youngjo looks up at Hwanwoong with a glint in his eye. "Oh? So you think the mentor is unreliable? There's only so much that mentors can do. Maybe it's the academy's fault." And Geonhak decides to call it a day before it escalates. Youngjo is not the type to get agitated easily and Geonhak does not think that he is agitated. The back and forth between Hwanwoong and Youngjo is playful. Almost flirty? Definitely the cue for him to report back to HQ and go home.
Before he could take another step, he feels a hand grabbing on to his wrist. "Not so fast."
Geonhak stares at the colourful side dishes that were served in front of him. He purses his lips as tight as possible and consciously control the amount of saliva he swallows, it would be a lie to say that he is not tempted to dive in and finish everything. He is hungry. He looks to his left and see Youngjo silently downing a glass of water, the bottom of his rice bowl is almost visible.
They are currently in a private room in a restaurant where Hwanwoong has rented for the evening. It is not the fanciest restaurant in town and the room is not exactly big or sound proof, they can still hear the rowdy atmosphere from the customers from the different private rooms and also the public dining area at the front of the store.
Then, he looks at Hwanwoong, in front of him, slowly trying to clump his rice, meat and vegetables together before attempting to lift it of his bowl. The devil notices his stare. "Eat up, Chickie. What are you waiting for?"
"Is this okay?" He asks.
"Of course. Go on. Eat. It's getting cold."
Hwanwoong sees Geonhak slowly lifting his rice bowl. Hesitating. "Chickie." The devil sighs. "You know I don't like awkward situations. I brought Youngjo-hyung along and you're still wary of me?"
"Can you pass me the sauce?" Youngjo asks. Geonhak pushes the sauce that was on his side along the table until it reaches Youngjo's rice bowl. Never lifting his head to face the devil front of him. "Thank you."
"Sorry. I'm just not used to this." He takes a bite of meat that he took earlier. As the meat touches his tastebuds, Geonhak unconsciously moans, eye wide open. "This is so good."
Hwanwoong chuckles. "You're shyer than what you lead on, Chickie." Geonhak's ears burns. He does not say anything back but immediately cuts in when Hwanwoong tries to reach for another piece of meat and brings it to his own bowl. "Hey!"
"Hwanwoongie-hyung!" The sliding door to their rented private room opens and a young man clad in black, a full black suit with proper dress shoes, another devil appears. The devil notices that Hwanwoong has guests, he nods at them and runs to sit next to Hwanwoong. The man, Geonhak notices, is youthful, probably way younger than any of them. He has his eyes on Geonhak for a short while before turning to Youngjo and avoid eye contact to either of them altogether. He hears the young devil whisper (complaining) to Hwanwoong about him having guests and angels on top of that.
Hwanwoong takes a sip of drink. "This is Dongju. My cute junior. Dongju, you know Youngjo-hyung." Hwanwoong introduces and Dongju greets Youngjo. "And this is... Geonhak-hyung. My current colleague."
Geonhak nods to greet Dongju. And Dongju reciprocates. "Where is Dongmyeong?" Hwanwoong asks.
Dongju whines, annoyance apparent on his face. "Hwanwoongie-hyung, listen to me. Dongmyeong is such a know-it-all, he thinks he's all that just because he's older and gets into the workforce earlier than I do. I hate him."
Hwanwoong calls for the restaurant helper and asks to add another portion of rice for Dongju and Dongmyeong. "He is your mentor after all. He's just doing your job." The reply earns another whine from Dongju and a slap on the shoulder. Dongju continues to complain about Dongmyeong who Geonhak learns to be his own twin brother while eating. Youngjo interrupts him sometimes to give some insights from another mentor even though they are from different departments. Geonhak finds himself agreeing with Dongju most of the time but he does not really keep an eye contact with any of them. Hwanwoong teases Dongju about the issue bothering him so much that he just rants away despite being very shy with strangers.
"I have to rant because he is going to finish his meeting soon. Why can't you be my mentor. You did possession once when-"
Hwanwoong snaps his head in Dongju's direction. He mouths a few words to silence Dongju. Another devil makes his way into the private room and Geonhak assumes that it is Dongmyeong but he is not truly sure. The devil wears an altered form of the suit worn by Dongju, the pants are skintight and made out of leather. The devil also wears sunglasses. Geonhak sees Dongju rolling his eyes when the devil loudly greets them and introduces himself.
Hwanwoong tries to call for the restaurant helper again but Dongju stops him and hands Dongmyeong his quarterly eaten rice bowl. The twins argue for a bit. "And take that tacky sunglasses off." Dongju says.
Dongmyeong did exactly that, revealing his thickly lined eye which may or may not be the reason why the angels could not believe that he and Dongju are twins. "Hwanwoong-hyung." Dongmyeong whines, which gives the angels deja vu from when Dongju was complaining earlier. He tells the table a detailed story of his walk to this restaurant from the HQ and how he gets mistaken as an angel thrice. "Can they not see my uniform? My boots? My eyes?"
Geonhak lets out a few chuckle, throughout the night. They are now joined by another devil, Harin who Dongmyeong promised to meet after he ate with his housemates; Hwanwoong and Dongju. Hwanwoong grumbles about the number of people meant he has to pay a bit more than intended. Youngjo offers to pay half of it before disappearing into the night. Geonhak still could not figure out where his housemate disappear to even though he has been living with the older for a couple of years. And the twins has decided to run off with Harin while Hwanwoong and Youngjo is paying.
"I am going to kill them when I get back." Hwanwoong mumbles before joining Geonhak who is leaning on the railing in front of the restaurant, looking out to the people minding their own business around the city.
"How's that for a welcoming party, Chickie?"
"For a devil to organize a welcoming party at all, you're a really strange one." Geonhak replies.
"It's not intended to be one. I thought of just asking you out for dinner today but Youngjo-hyung drop by and then Dongju also finishes work and was all distressed and keep on calling and it just escalates."
"Don't get used to it. I'm just repaying that time you helped me with Hwanin's sister. It's going to be just this one time." The devil warns.
Geonhak turns to look at the small devil, leaning his back onto the railing. Hwanwoong the devil, whose whisper projection so powerful it works almost immediately, whose whisper he cannot break just yet. Hwanwoong the devil, who in many times is able to instill fear in him when he's angry. Hwanwoong the devil, with a reputation of being the best in the business and one of the company's pride. Hwanwoong the devil, who panics when Geonhak arrives a bit later for work because his task was to whisper Hwanin to hit his sister (he wants Geonhak to stop him). Hwanwoong the devil, who is strangely soft when it comes to little kids. He thinks Geonhak couldn't see his adoring smile whenever Hwanin passes a toddler. Hwanwoong the devil, who always starts a conversation with him because he can't stand awkward silence. Hwanwoong the devil, an interesting one. Geonhak is aware that devil and angel are just names deriving from the nature of their jobs. Nothing to do with their personality. He has not known that many devil as much as he knows angels. He knows some angels can really be nasty and they were the reason he almost gave up on his dream. Funny how the one making him feel comfortable and happy where he is now, is a devil among other angels that he trusts.
"What?" Hwanwoong asks. Geonhak notices the devil blush, flustered and realizes that he had been staring. Geonhak apologizes and Hwanwoong laughs. "It's kinda hot."
"You said the same about me glaring at you the first time we met too. Is that kind of your thing?" Geonhak asks.
"Thank you." Geonhak continues without waiting for the devil to snide at his remark. "Really, thank you."
Hwanwoong studies Geonhak's face before commenting and rolls his eyes. "Don't get sappy now. And that's not how you'll get Dongju's number from me."
Geonhak chokes on air. "Dongj- His number? I don't- What does that have to do with anything?"
"Oh nothing. I just thought the both of you are cute tonight." Hwanwoong laughs as Geonhak slaps on his butt.