♰ chapter three ♰

"So... Goodbye." Yoongi unlocks the door, opening it wide as he gestures out.

However, Jimin remains unmoving, staring at his cuticles instead. "We need to talk."

"You mean you in an interrogation room and me behind the one-way mirror? I agree." Yoongi pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Please, make sure to stay comfortable while I call the police."

Still unbothered, Jimin sighs. "That's a pointless thing to do."

"You want to stop being all badass and mysterious, and tell me why the fuck you're in my house?" Yoongi asks, annoyed now with how nonchalant the new kid is being. Where the hell did that guy with the bright eye smile go from earlier?

"I told you. We need to talk."

Yoongi rolls his eyes, slamming the front door shut. After believing he was going to be dead hardly five minutes, he's too done for the day to care about a stranger in his house. "Then get your lips moving."

"Sit."

"I'm good."

Jimin rolls his eyes, leaning back in the chair and finally raising his eyes to Yoongi's. "You want the long story or the short story?"

"Boy, why the hell are there two different versions? Are you about to sing me a gospel?"

"Short story, then." Jimin frowns down at his fingernails again. Is he past due for his manicure or some shit? "Congratulations, Min Yoongi. You've gotten yourself a guardian angel to protect you from the Devil as he tries to invade your body and use it as a vessel to reign Hell on earth."

Yoongi blinks at him.

"Right, so..." He taps in a number, bringing the phone to his ear. "Hi, yes, operator, I've got a psychopath in my house talking about the Devil—"

Yoongi's phone suddenly flies out of his hand, sliding across the kitchen table and into Jimin's hand.

Yoongi blinks again.

"This isn't a joke," Jimin says, a hushed anger underlying his tone. "I don't have time for this. You need to understand the peril you're in."

Yoongi ignores the fact that the world probably hasn't heard the word "peril" since the eighteen hundreds, and instead still tries to wrap his head around how his phone flew out of his hand.

He's too bewildered to form any words for a witty remark.

Jimin stands from the table, walking around to Yoongi. A bit shamefully, the blonde takes a wary step back, his heels hitting the door. Jimin holds up a necklace, a clear crystal hanging as a pendulant. "You need to wear this at all times. Even a second's separation from your body could lead to a disaster."

Jimin goes to put it over Yoongi's head, but Yoongi finally grasps enough of his wits to duck, giving the man a suspicious look. "Whoa, dude. Slow down. You literally just told me I'm a living portal for the Devil, all right, give me a minute."

It's ridiculous, anyways.

How dumb does this kid think Yoongi is?

It was just... it was Yoongi's imagination that his phone flew. Or maybe Jimin had wrapped a clear wire around it earlier and... somehow had the other end of it all day...

"Need more proof?" Jimin quirks a brow. "Mortals are so simple-minded," he grumbles under his breath.

Out of nowhere, a sword appears in Jimin's hand.

A fucking sword.

Yoongi jumps back, now pressed against the window. "What the hell?"

"Hold it," Jimin offers, holding the hilt towards Yoongi.

Yoongi looks at the metal, then at Jimin, then back at the metal. Is the dude literally insane? He contemplates swinging it at Jimin's head just so he can make a run for it to the nearest mental institution. It might be him that needs help.

Uncertainly, Yoongi slowly reaches a hand out, his eyes still going back and forth between the weapon and the psychopath. His fingers wrap around the hilt and—

The sword drops to the ground, snatching Yoongi down with it.

"Jesus," he grunts, trying to lift it again but the sword isn't budging.

So this Jimin kid is superhumanly strong now, too?

Yeah. It's definitely Yoongi that's going insane.

"She only allows people she trusts to carry her," Jimin explains.

Yoongi snorts. "She? This hunk of steel has a gender?"

"She's an enchanted object, you moron. Every angel receives a sword upon their initiation, and each sword obtains a different spirit to suit whatever angel they're assigned to."

Yoongi chuckles, shaking his head. "This is one hell of a dream, Yoongi," he murmurs to himself, dropping the sword and putting his hands on his hips. "I'm proud of myself for this one. Maybe I can get a bestseller with it, huh?"

Jimin picks the sword up like it's light as a feather, then it disappears. Literally. It's just gone. All Yoongi did was blink.

Seemingly aggravated with Yoongi's denial, Jimin huffs, his face screwing up. "This is the most intolerable thing I've ever been forced to endure."

"Dude, it's 2017. You can talk like a normal teenager."

"Fortunately, I'm not a 'teenager.' I would hate to be generalized in a category with your kind." He actually cringes. Visibly.

Yoongi clicks his tongue. "Well, fair play. We're a pretty shitty race. So how old are you then?"

"Angels are ageless in the sense of time. Our ideas of time is entirely different."

"You can stop calling yourself an angel. Sort of wearing out the title now. I'll have to note that when I wake up to write this."

"For the love of—" Jimin exhales heavily, trying to maintain his temper. "Fine. Believe it's a dream if you want. Just put on the damn necklace."

Yoongi glances at the crystal pendant, debating a second before shrugging. "Why the hell not? It looks cool, at least."

"So long as you wear it, it should prevent any evil from entering you."

"Whoa, now, creepy new kid. No one will be entering me," Yoongi says, holding a hand up. "I can assure you of that."

Jimin frowns. "I don't understand."

Yoongi purses his lips, hesitates, then says, "Wait, so... do... do angels not, you know, have sex?"

Realization brightens Jimin's eyes, then a blush fills his cheeks. "O-oh, no. Any sort of... interaction with the opposite sex is strictly forbidden."

"So heaven is heterophobic and not homophobic like all the religious extremists swear by?"

Jimin frowns again.

"Dude, really? You don't know what homophobic is? Do you even comprehend the idea of the same sex being in love?"

"I am aware of the concept," Jimin murmurs. "I do not frequent the human dimension. I'm not aware of all of its customs. When I was human, though, I never saw... such a sight."

"When you were human?"

Damn, Yoongi, you've got a complex imagination to be dreaming all this.

"Angels are granted the opportunity," Jimin explains. "When you die and—" Jimin abruptly cuts himself off. "Forgive me. I'm not allowed to speak of such things."

Yoongi groans. "Come on. You can't spoil what life after death is like?"

"Absolutely not."

"Typical," Yoongi huffs.

Holly suddenly makes his presence known again by whining in the kitchen, sitting on the floor as he stares at Yoongi. The dog has been so calm during the whole ordeal, Yoongi hates to say he forgot he was even here.

"Oh, boy, you haven't eaten," Yoongi says, almost in a panic as he hurries to the kitchen to whip something up. He forgot to go by the store for pet food.

"I meant to ask," Jimin says, leaning in the doorway of the kitchen. "What is... that?"

Yoongi furrows his eyebrows, following Jimin's finger. He's pointing at Holly. "You mean my dog?"

"Dog?"

"It's a pet... I thought you said you were human once?"

"That was very long ago. My memories of then are mostly nonexistent. I remember many beasts in my time, but I've never seen one treated as an equal."

"As an equal? Dude, he needs food to live. There's nothing equal about keeping him alive."

Jimin shrugs. "He could be out in the wilderness fending for himself, and yet you're giving him food, shelter, and love."

Yoongi gives him a look. "I... guess you have a point. Damn, I made up a really weird character."

Jimin rolls his eyes again at the thought of Yoongi dreaming all of this.

When Yoongi sets the food down for Holly, he finally gives himself a moment to think.

The new kid is in his house. The new kid is supposedly an angel. Yoongi is allegedly the Devil's very own puppet. The new kid is still in his house. The new kid is tentatively petting his dog. The new kid whipped a fucking sword out of thin air.

Truthfully, he isn't quite sure how to go about all of this.

How exactly is he supposed to be reacting?

"You know," Yoongi starts. "Is there an instruction guide for this situation? Because I really have—"

He turns around and cuts himself off.

Jimin is gone.

Yoongi presses his lips together, glancing around the living room. He's nowhere to be seen. He just...

Vanished.

And two seconds later, Yoongi's mom stumbles through the door.

Her eyes are bloodshot. Intoxicated, as usual.

She gives him a scrutinizing look when she catches sight of him in the kitchen. "What the hell are you doing?"

Yoongi is still too confused about Jimin, trying to decipher if any of it really was real, to care about his mother's attitude.

"I asked you what the hell you were doing," his mom repeats, raising her voice as she staggers into the kitchen, a half empty whiskey bottle in her hand.

Holly scurries out of the kitchen, undoubtedly running to Yoongi's room where he usually does.

Yoongi picks up the now empty bowl, placing it in the sink. "Nothing," he grumbles, knocking shoulders with her accidentally as he passes.

She smacks him upside the head with the back of her hand. "Don't fucking touch me like that, you little prick."

Yoongi ignores her, hurrying to his room as he slams the door. He could still care less about how his mother was acting; that's her normal state of mind these days.

What bothers him more is...

Is he actually going crazy?