⊱Esclave du passé⊰

Slave to the past

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"I offer this to thee."

Slurring his words and grinning from ear to ear, Gluttony presented me with another glass of reeking liquor filled to the brim, and I couldn't help but scowl at the drunk man whose face was as pink as his hair.

"Bro, tone it down, will ya? What good will getting drunk do? We're not even humans," I scolded him, snatching the glass to throw it away somewhere in the darkly lit hall room. He wasn't even fazed since he could use his power and bring out another drink out of thin air without breaking a sweat.

"Intoxication never discriminates," the older man proudly stated, earning cheers from the other four Sins who weren't entirely sober after chugging a few glasses. "Just because we're not humans doesn't mean we can't be deprived of our senses once in a while. This is liberation, Taehyung, embrace it."

"Liberation be damned," I spat, lifting my legs up to cross them over the dinner table. "Sooner or later you'll sober up and drown in your misery again. What's new?"

Since when did our 'family dinner' tradition turn into 'take a shot every time you feel sad' party? It was pitiful. Us, Sins were pitiful.

Hell creatures who led humans astray, having them commit sins to torment them in the end — that's us. Frozen in time, unable to escape the endless pain of regret, despair and condemnation — that's also us. If we lost one of these, we would be losing our sanity. We would be losing ourselves.

The sole purpose of our existence was to make people sin. If we couldn't, we wouldn't be needed anymore.

"Centuries of service is still better than burning in hell," Sloth sighed, seemingly the most sober out of all of us, staring into the distance with a ponderous look, features delusively placid. "... or being erased from existence like her."

"Don't speak of her," Greed adjured, eyes boring holes in the dark haired man's head. If anyone was deeply affected by her disappearance the most, it was him. "We agreed to never do that, didn't we?"

The elated buzz in the air dampened instantly. The dim lighting of the chandelier above us seemed to have dulled, each of our grim expression darkened the room. Unspoken words lingered among us, silence occupying the deafeningly quiet room.

And here I thought I could take a break from the noises of my mind with this dinner.

"Who's up for charades?" Wrath spoke up, standing up from his chair and glancing at everyone with pleading eyes.

"Taehyung will use his shapeshifting and cheat again," Greed whined, pointing at me with a pout. "No powers this time."

A rumble of laughter left me and I eyed everyone who was pretty much sober at that point with a taunting smirk. "Please. You will bite dirt even if I don't use my power."

"Oh, it is on," Pride chuckled, all pumped up, but if I were to be honest, he was the worst at this game.

Le point de vue de Seoyun

Seoyun's POV

Heaven was divine.

Of course it was divine.

At the gates of heaven, millions would shed tears, thank the lords, and hope to be cradled in all the good things in the world after taking their first steps into this safe haven. It was a place where despair was forgotten, misfortune erased and contentment found.

A reward for living your life righteously.

At the gates of heaven, I didn't feel any of that.

All I felt was guilt.

Guilt for entering this divine place, guilt for being bestowed with a lifetime of bliss.

And desperate hope that I would somehow find him however impossible that was.

I felt the worst I had ever felt in my whole life when I finally found him. His shimmering eyes were dulled, his gleeful smile gone, his hair painted green, and his soothing warmth faded. It wasn't him.

The him I knew was supposed to be here in heaven with me. Not condemned to eternal despair.

After beholding his changes, I cried and cried for him, unable to accept his fate, and I desperately asked for God to help him for many many years. But he was bent on not doing that because the man whom I was trying to salvage was one of the seven deadly sins. A soul who only cared about striking his own misfortune on others. The worst of the worst.

The complete opposite of me.

I was chosen for the Virtue of Kindness while he was the Sin of Envy. And it tore my very being to witness him as the embodiment of his sin.

My last encounter with him was still consuming my mind. The intense hatred in his emerald eyes, the threatening snarl his slightly chapped lips formed and the hurtful words he said to me were a plague to my already agitated mind.

He hated me and I hated that. Our meetings were always dreadful to me. Must it always be that way?

Times like this when I felt greatly troubled, I found solace in the breathtaking view of the dazzling sun seeping its warmth and golden palette into the layers and layers of clouds under the lilac expanse of the sky right outside my room. This moment just before the whole canvas was painted peach would remind me that I was still existing, that the warmth I was feeling was certainly real.

I was still standing.

With a soft sigh, I brought my eyes back to the painting before me and gently trailed my brush over it as a finishing touch. The orange beam of the sun falling on it enlivened my painting, evoking wistful memories of the past I had been dreading of remembering.

"Kindness?"

Flinching at the sudden intrusion of one of the virtues, I unintentionally hurled the brush at the wall and whipped my head up to see Temperance standing in the middle of my room with an amused smirk. I jumped up from my stool and covered the easel with my body, flashing a grin at the blue haired girl.

"Hi," I squeaked, my voice cracking slightly. "Did you need something?"

Her smirk grew, watching me embarrass myself. "Nice painting. But who is it? I had never seen such black haired deadly sin before."

She obviously figured out who it was, it was her teasing nature that emerged to interrogate me and wanted to see me embarrass myself further. With or without green hair, the man in the painting looked no different.

"A guy who wants to see me burn," I sighed, stepping away to show her the painting. "Black hair suits him better."

"You would look good with black hair, too," Temperance whispered, rubbing my back and I turned to give her a small smile.

"Maybe I used to," I whispered softly to myself and turned to face her. "What's the emergency, Miss Ocean blue hair?"

"Right. It's your turn to attend the newcomers. Diligence is trying to work overtime as usual," she sighed, rolling her eyes, and tugged my arm. "Come on. Let's go."

Chuckling, I took one last glance at the painting and teleported to the gates with Temperance.

"Taehyung, right? Kim Taehyung?"

The boy momentarily looked up from the notebook on his desk to acknowledge my presence with a silent nod and focused back on the task before him.

"Okay," I murmured to myself and closed the door before walking to the chair in front of him and sitting down, facing him.

Seconds turned to minutes as he heeded no attention to the girl sitting in front of him and simply continued scribbling on the stacked papers. I wondered if I offended him in any way before or if he was withdrawn like this with everyone.

"Why don't other students interact with you?"

Taken aback by my intrusive question, he froze for a moment before continuing to grade the papers, still silent. Still, I wasn't falling back.

"Do you see ghosts?"

His head jerked up at me, bangs falling over his slightly wide eyes, and a snort left him, his lips curling up slightly.

"No," he finally said and I never expected his voice to be so so deep, a stark contrast to his ethereal appearance.

"Well then, are you a NEET? Chronic gamer? Thug? Weeb?"

His smile widened but he bit his lips, suppressing it. "No. You're weird."

Being called 'weird' would have hurt in any other situation, but when he said that word, I couldn't help but smile at him.

"You're the nerd of this class, right? They were just possibilities," I defended myself with my hands raised. "I never see you talk to anyone else, why is that? You don't seem to be a bad person."

His grin faded, lips pressing into thin line.

"Ah, is it because they're jealous of you?" I thought out loud after carefully studying him.

Taehyung slowly lifted his head to focus his gaze on me with an unreadable expression. "What?"

"They intentionally outcast you because they're jealous of you and only interact with you when they need something from you?"

Without uttering a single word, he kept eyeing me, and I swore I took a glimpse of sorrow flashing in his dark orbs. I became sure of it.

"Wow, so this happens everywhere, huh?" I leaned back to stare at the ceiling that had the hues of the setting sun. "I transferred here to escape such discrimination and yet... I can never escape it, can I?"

Settling my gaze back on the boy, I gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry you're treated like that... I always wondered why someone like you was being outcast..."

"No need," he meekly stated, returning to grading the papers.

"I don't befriend others just like you but maybe we could take care of each other's backs," I whispered, leaning close to him, but he didn't jerk back, watching me in silence instead. "We're the same after all. It's better to have someone else by your side, don't you think so?"

Before seconds could turn to minutes, Taehyung slowly nodded his head, whispering, "Sounds interesting."

With a huge grin, I pulled back, properly sitting on my chair. "I'm Seoyun. Jang Seoyun as in the best Seoyun."

He broke into laughter, eyes softening for the first time. "I know. You transferred recently and quickly became popular in our class."

"Nice to meet you."

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