I thought nothing would change after our instant 'marriage'. But he changed...

Before, he used to call me either Angel or Eve. But after the day he put the ring on my finger, he changed the way he called me. He changed the way he behaved. He started calling me love, honey, darling, dear, beautiful, sweetie, moon pie, sugar, sunshine and many other different names including pumpkin, dumpling and strawberry! Wifey was his favourite. It was like he got a kick out of calling me names.

Not that I hated it though. In fact, I loved it. I felt closer to him like that. It was just that the change was too sudden. And after a while, I too started calling him by different names. His weren't as good as mine. I called him hubby, baby, idiot, dumbass, moon cake, caramel and a few other similarly odd ones. He didn't mind any of them either.

Calling me differently wasn't the only change he had. Black started increasing his efforts to please me more and behaved much more sweetly. It was like he was afraid I would leave him if he didn't put more effort. Before he would sometimes be lazy and stay on the bed, but after that day, he would always wake up before me to prepare breakfast. Black would try to steal a kiss from me every chance he got. But because of so many attempts, I'd see his kiss coming from miles away. He couldn't steal the final kiss. And neither could I. I wasn't getting any try at that. Other than these, Black would tell me he loves me at random times as if he was making up for all the lost time and every single time it would warm up my heart.

Black became even more passionate than he previously was. He became bolder and would try to grope me sometimes. I'd let him touch and then he would get embarrassed. I enjoyed that embarrassed look on his face. We started cuddling to sleep at night unlike before when I would wake up to see him cuddle me. We would sometimes go out for dinner, shopping, movies like a couple and he would always hold my waist in his arms as if he was eager to tell the whole world that I belonged to him. Even though I wasn't as outright as him, I wasn't any less romantic. I would do small things that would make him smile.

All of this happened away from the eyes of those two kids, though. We had decided that no touchy-feely in front of the kids.

Aside from all our newlywed things, Black would often be busy with the kids. He desperately wanted to solve their problem. He made the kids exercise to get their physical condition to perfect always. At times, he would have this eureka moment, and then he would ask the kids to unfold their wings. But in the end, he would only find disappointment.

At other times, he would research on Pandora's box carefully and try to reverse engineer it but he would fail. He wanted to create the box so that the kids won't lose their memory. Pandora's box wasn't his creation. He told me he got it from somewhere, but he wouldn't tell me from where.

The kids stayed in the room upstairs, along with the three devils.

Ah, those devils. No matter how I looked at them, they only looked scary. My fear did lessen a little while staying under the same roof. I got used to them walking around the house. But I wouldn't actively approach them. The kittens were always too lazy to move around, and that favoured me. My Black made a cat house for them upstairs. Feeding and cleaning up after the kittens became the duty of the kids. My Black named the kittens based on his favourite ice creams- Chocolate, Vanilla and Butterscotch. His naming sense was so weird. I wouldn't let him name our kids!

As for me, I spent the little of my free time studying for my graduation or experimenting with the abilities of the ring. With my constant efforts, I became proficient in using the ring. I could move stuff in and out almost instantly without closing my eyes. Arranging stuff inside the ring was more difficult though, and it required more concentration.

I found out the space zero was limited to a few hundred meters. Otherwise, moving the whole of the city inside would be theoretically possible. And using the ring a lot or moving large stuff like a bed inside the space zero would tire me up a little. If life was a game, using that ring to move stuff would lessen the stamina. Black told me that opening the gate through ring required the use of lifeforce and I was unconsciously using it which would tire me.

A week later, a little girl whose age was similar to Jeanne and Jean came to our house. From her appearance, it didn't look like she was doing well. She brought quite a few of those violet lilies Black had given me. Black said that the violet lilies remind him of the colour of my eyes and he wanted to plant them in the backyard. Black talked to the little girl for a while, and when the girl left, her whole self was radiating with joy and happiness. Black wouldn't tell me what they talked about.

Our sweet married life went on like this.

A couple of weeks after that, guests arrived. We heard the doorbell ring. At that moment, Black was cooking meals, and I was separating the dirty clothes in the laundry room.

"I'll check," Black spoke from the kitchen. I could hear the faint voice of his footsteps as he walked to the door.

He opened the door. I couldn't hear who Black was talking to from there.

"Wifey! Your friends are here!" Black shouted from the gate and took them in. It had been a long time since I met my friends. I pushed clothes aside at once and walked to the hall. Like always, they had made themselves comfortable on the couch as if it was their own home.

"Oh shit!" Black exclaimed and ran to the kitchen as soon as I entered.

"Wifey?" Mira raised her eyebrows and asked me with a slight smile. Amber too looked at me with a curious gaze.

"Yeah... I'm engaged," I proudly said and raised my right hand in front of them to show off my ring.

"Isn't that a little too quick!?"

"What sorcery did he do!?" Both of them were too surprised on the sudden revelation. Well, it was nothing much. Our sudden marriage was surprising to me too.

"I can hear you girls," Black shouted from the kitchen. He was dissatisfied that my friends thought he tricked me. I laughed up at his response, and my friends joined me.

"Told you he got really sweet voice," Mira told Amber.

"But you didn't tell me that her boyfriend is so sexy. I was shocked when he opened the door, you know."

"I didn't know it myself."

They bickered with me for not giving them a heads up when I sat to the left of Amber. It didn't take long for them to start complaining that I don't spend enough time together with them, followed by accusations that I don't think of them as friends anymore. I pushed the blame on Black. As my lover, it was his responsibility to share my woes. I told them that someone was keeping me busy in the past couple of days.

After a few moments, Black walked into the hall with hot coffee for all four of us. He sat to my left and started sipping from his cup. Like always, the coffee he brewed was too delicious to be true. My friends too complimented him, and I was so proud of it.

That's my husband for you, the best in the whole world.

A few moments later, both Mira and Amber had started asking him questions, trying to find out how he conquered me, the cold princess in a matter of weeks. Last time, I didn't tell them anything. So knowing things from Black was their only option.

To my surprise, Black told them a very similar half baked story about how we met outside at a park. We got well together in an instant, and it was love at first sight for him. I glared at him in anger. I thought he had read my mind without permission, but then he transmitted his voice in my ears that he didn't read my mind.

"Hey hey, you don't need to lie if you don't want to answer," Amber said with her mouth puffed up. Both of them were unhappy with the answers they got. But they were very understanding and let go of the questions. It didn't take long till Black became familiar with them and even though he was sort of an introvert, he tried his best to get together with them.

"We're back!" Jeanne and Jean spoke after they returned. Black had sent them out to play because he thought that getting all cooped up at home isn't good for kids. He gave them a device too. They were to call him instantly if they were in any danger.

"Don't tell me that you both have already adopted kids too!" Amber asked while waving her hands at the kids.

"You should take it slow, Evy."

"Nah. They're kids of my friend. Their parents are busy this month. So the kids are left with me," Black made up a good excuse.

And exactly five minutes after the kids returned, the doorbell rang again. This time, I got up to check.

When I opened the door, I saw a familiar face. Her crimson red hair fluttered along with the wind as she stood there. Her greyish eyes sparkled, and she sweetly smiled when she looked at me. It was Lilith, and damn she looked stunning.

A tall guy was standing behind her. He had long blond hair, and he wore a red cap. He too appeared to be in his late twenties. His eyes were dark, and they looked kind of unfathomable. I couldn't guess what he might be thinking.

"Won't you welcome us inside? It's cold here, you know," Lilith said.

"Come in," I welcomed them inside and Lilith walked ahead.

From the hallway, I could see Black was trying so hard to talk normally and my friends were laughing at his weird accent and stories. At that moment, that man with the red cap spoke up.

"Angelheart, you did a fine job taming this beast."