Invisible Halos | San

41

Hongjoong re-enters Seonghwa's house. He looks around and takes a deep breath. He just made the biggest decision of his life and he feels confused about how he should truly feel.

He guesses he should feel somewhat upset that he just gave up his position in heaven. But for some reason he's feeling relieved and he doesn't know why. He watches Yunho and Mingi struggle with chess on the floor in the living room and it somehow makes him feel at home.

His eyes travel to Jongho who sits on the sofa watching them, and then to Seonghwa taking off his shoes beside him at the front door. Now he even has a family. His heart heats up when it occurs to him that he can finally live with Seonghwa freely.

He walks over to Jongho, his anklet dangling from his jean pocket. "How's Soojung? I don't like the way you forced me to stay at home because of my leg." He scowls. Hongjoong giggles. "She's great, recovering nicely. She's taking good care of herself! Unlike you." He says the last bit under his breath.

"Hey, I heard that!" He shouts, turning to punch Hongjoong's arm. He stops in his tracks when he notices the golden accessory hanging out of his pocket. Without a word, he quickly snatches it.

"What's this?" Jongho asks before it hits him. Hongjoong panickingly grabs it from the younger, but it's too late.

"You took off the anklet?" He asks, eyes widened. Hongjoong hangs his head in shame. "Y-Yes." He stutters. Jongho instantly jumps up into Hongjoong's arms. "Thank you so much!" He starts to sob into the older's shoulder.

Hongjoong softens after seeing Jongho so happy. "Were you that stressed about returning that you're crying?" He laughs while patting the younger's back.

"Of course I was! I was freaking out about it so much, thank you for making the right decision!" He cries louder.

Suddenly Hongjoong pulls away. "We should start looking for somewhere to stay then." He frowns a bit. Jongho also starts to think harder. "We'll probably need to earn money too..."

"I'm sure San and Wooyoung wouldn't mind more staff at their store!" Seonghwa replies.

"Actually, that can't happen." Wooyoung suddenly walks in through the front door. "I told you, stop walking in without knocking!" Seonghwa scolds, but his face doesn't show a hint of anger.

"San and I were thinking about something- wait we should have a meeting together first." Wooyoung says, ignoring Seonghwa much to his displeasure.

Seonghwa grits his teeth and takes a deep breath. "Anyway, you guys can stay with us!" Songhwa offers to the other two angels. They glance at each other with wide eyes. "Thank you so much for the offer, but we can't. We don't have money and we don't want to take up too much room." Hongjoong explains, and Jongho nods along in the background.

"About that, firstly it's really cheap to live with me. It'll also be benificial to live with another former angel to help you get used to life here. Secondly, I'm actually planning to move to a bigger house very soon." Seonghwa announces.

"What?!" Yunho and Mingi's heads whip up in the middle of their intense board game. "We're moving?"

"Don't worry too much, it's still going to be in Wonderland and your college will still be of walking distance."

A very much audible sigh of relief comes out of the two students as they comfortably look back to their chess pieces. They quickly grow excited and start theorising what the new house might look like. This gradually turns into the two boys betting money on the colour of the house.

Seonghwa slightly shakes his head watching them, but he holds in a giggle.

"But we can't possibly..." Hongjoong taps his index finger on his chin, deep in thought. Suddenly Seonghwa pulls the shorter towards him and looks at him straight in the eyes. They're so close that Hongjoong can feel the older's soft breath of his face. "You don't want to live with me?" He whispers, slightly pouting.

Hongjoong jumps back as fast as he can, face growing extremely red. "Fine, we'll take your offer."

Jongho scoffs in the background at how quickly Hongjoong changed his mind but even he feels relieved that they can have a life down on Earth now.

"Anyway I hope you guys know more about Earth than Soojung did, or else this is going to be tough." Seonghwa laughs, remembering all the times the poor girl discovered something new, even if it was the most common thing.

"Don't worry, I've studied about this for years now so I won't be much trouble." Hongjoong explains, automatically turning to Jongho to hear his response too.

"I also learned about it. I studied it in my free time out of pure interest, I had no idea it would come into use one day." A smile makes its way onto his lips. The situation is finally dawning on him. I really made it out of heaven...I can finally experience a new beginning with freedom.

Everyone sits upright when they hear the sound of the doorbell. Seonghwa confusingly walks over to the front door and opens it cautiously. He notices San in front of him and opens his mouth to ask why he's here, but before he lets out even a word, San shoves past him and enters the living room.

"Why does no one respect me anymore?" Seonghwa complains. To his horror, everyone ignores him.

San's eyes widen when he sees Wooyoung in the room. "What are you doing here? Forget that, it's better that you're here." He clears his throat while Wooyoung's puzzled eyes don't leave him.

"I have an announcement to make!" He conveys loud and clear. No one makes a sound, waiting for what he has to announce.

"We're going to shut down the supermarket!" He cheerfully shouts. San and Wooyoung hold bright expressions while everyone else is shocked. "Why? It was doing fairly well." Mingi pouts, already missing the snacks that he'd always get a discount on thanks to Wooyoung.

San smiles even wider as the memory of Soojung trying different pastries enters his mind.

"We want to open a new bakery with all you guys instead!"