⊱Amère réalité de perdre et de souffrir⊰

Bitter reality of losing and suffering

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"Thank you for visiting us and gracing us with your appearance today, Kindness."

"Yes, we can't thank a sweetheart like you enough for saving us from going astray."

Offering the heaven residents a soft smile, I shook my head. "No. You're all here because you saved yourselves. I don't have the power to do that, it's all you."

"Still, you can't deny that you're an angel, Kindness," a small girl chimed while holding my hand.

Angel...

Beaming at the child, I squatted down and stroked her soft cheek. "You are an angel, too, cutie pie."

She smiled bashfully and ran towards her mother before waving me goodbye.

I bid them all farewells and took off with Charity as she ran towards me and gushed about how adorable the children were to which I agreed wholeheartedly. Still, their overstatements about me were lingering in my mind, having me doubt my existence.

"I don't deserve to be called angel, Saejin... I make people suffer, too," I sighed, trying to find consolation in her as we walked. "To spark kindness in people, I inflict illness and pain to many. Do angels do that?"

She sighed, probably tired that I always ask her questions like this. "It's all about the cause, Seoyun. You never asked to have such power but it was given to you by God, so it must be necessary for you. And hey, you're a benefactor to doctors!"

Charity chortled, causing me to laugh as well. Her laugh was just so pure. Compared to me, she was more angelic. Her looks, her words, her personality... everything was just so ethereal.

"Speaking of, a little bird told me that our Virtues' art teacher had created a new painting," she drawled in a teasing tone, giving me a playful and comical smirk.

That blue bird...

"Fried bird feast sounds great," I grumbled, crossing my arms.

"Spare my baby Temperance," she giggled, but it soon died out as she flashed me an apologetic smile. "Did anything happen after you took that celebrity here? Did you meet him?"

Sighing softly, I looked up at the azure sky free of any other color tainting it. The wide and free expanse allowed me a breather. It was a nice day, but not a nice one for me.

"Nothing new. Envy still hates me. Maybe even more now." The words were heavy as they rolled off my tongue and my heart sank further when I admitted it.

"My son! Where is he?!"

A desperate cry in the distance made us halt in place. One of the heaven residents was shaking Patience with her hands clutched around the girl's wrist as she begged for her son.

"Is that...?"

"Yes," Charity answered with a pitying expression, "her son died recently but he was sent to hell because he sinned."

"I can't accept that! My poor son can't burn in hell! My baby doesn't deserve such cruelty!" The woman kept screaming with tears staining her pained face. "Please bring him to me! I beg you!"

Others walking around the two were whispering to themselves and watching them with sympathetic eyes. Patience was struggling to calm her but had tears in her eyes herself.

"I'm going to work," I whispered to Charity and she nodded, telling me she was doing the same.

I didn't want to witness a sight like that because of myself.

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"Yes, mom, I'm eating well," the chuckling man played with his styled purple hair as he spoke into his phone. "You and dad should take care of yourselves, okay? I'm fine, just preparing for the new album."

Waiting for him to finish the call, I paced around the large practice room with wall mirrors reflecting only him. The place reeked from sweat, or rather, sheer hard work as him and few other guys practiced their new choreography until midnight. They were only taking a break at the moment.

"Yes, mom, you'll be proud of me when the album gets released," the panting man stated with a grin and ended the call after saying, "I love you, too. Bye."

He was just a man wanting to accomplish something and make his parents proud. It was endearing to think but when I recalled what I knew before coming here, it was pitiful.

He recently became the center of hatred of thousands, if not millions.

Even if I didn't want to use my powers, I had to do it for the sake of his life. It was either have him suffer temporarily or fall into damnation eternally.

With a single touch of my finger on his thigh, he started writhing in pain, grunting and clutching his leg. I flinched backwards, wincing and chanting apologies.

At his pained cries, the other guys ran inside and surrounded him in a flash.

When I turned around, unable to watch him, Taehyung was standing before me, making me freeze. His eyes shifted from the crying man behind me to my wide ones. His eyebrows were knotted in disappointment.

"Doing something unnecessary again, Kindness?" His voice was as deep as ever and spiteful as ever.

I bit the insides of my cheeks, narrowing my eyes at him. "Leave him alone, Envy."

He sauntered towards me with a wicked smirk. "Or what? You'll slap me again?"

Before I could deny, the grueling man offered me his left cheek. "Go on."

Vexed by his taunts, I slapped his cheek, not too harsh but not so soft, and he flinched back with his almond eyes widening into round orbs in disbelief.

"What the-"

"Before you attack me, you offered your cheek to me yourself, genius," I cut him off, planting my palms on my hips. "And I'm disappointed in you making this man a target of hate like you did to Miss Oh. Must I remind you again that you shouldn't be doing this?"

"And must I remind you again that I don't give a damn?" He stepped closer, his taller body flush against mine. "Have him fall ill however many times you want. You can't let him escape envies of others."

A wave of emotions heaved up my chest and I huffed, "Why can't you let them live?! They never did anything wrong but you're pushing them to the edge and into the pit of hell! Someone being a celebrity doesn't give others the rights to attack them, Tae. Being the center of attention doesn't, either. It's like saying it was the girl's fault for wearing a short skirt that she was violated!"

Staring at me in silence, Taehyung wasn't trying to fight back.

I soon realized he was thinking about his own life.

"Then where was the Virtue when I was suffering?" His confidence faltered, voice breaking.

My heart broke at the glimpse of anguish in his eyes. I couldn't answer him.

"Envy violated me so why can't I do the same to others?"

With trembling hands, I grabbed his cold ones and pleaded him. "Please, Tae... I'm here to save people like you and I want you to see the truth."

"Save people like me but not me, right?" He muttered in low voice that dripped with resentment before snatching his hands out of my hold. "No thanks. If that's so, I don't want you doing that."

Stepping backwards, he looked at me with overwhelming amount of hatred in his eyes as they flashed emerald, making my breath catch in my throat. "Tae-"

"In fact, I don't want you running into me. I want you gone."

My throat started burning and my whole body shuddered at the weight of his cruel words, knees buckling and chest constricting excruciatingly. "P-Please, Tae-"

"It's Envy to you," he stated before disappearing and I finally fell to the floor, clutching my chest, struggling to breathe.

My vision was blurring.

It was the second time I felt a sensation like this.

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