Chapter Text
“I’m telling you, guardian angels exist,” Mingi insisted.
Hongjoong rolled his eyes, burying his chin deeper inside his scarf as a freezing cold breeze came in from the left and messed up his hair. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“Hey, guys!”
Glancing over his shoulder and noting how much further back their line now stretched, Hongjoong found Jongho heading toward them, equally bundled up in a long black coat and, out of necessity, partially disguised with a large fluffy beanie and black mask. “Yo,” Hongjoong greeted.
“Yo,” Mingi echoed.
Frowning in confusion, Jongho cocked his head. “Yo?”
“You got the tickets?” Hongjoong asked, glancing down at Jongho’s empty gloved hands.
“Ah, yeah.” After some digging in his jacket’s inner pockets, he revealed three tickets, courtesy of San. “All VIP, all for the only showing of this special performance.”
Mingi frowned as he accepted his. “What do you mean ‘special’?”
Leaning in closer, Jongho shielded his mouth with his hand as if he were telling them some deep dark secret. “San told me he’d be performing shirtless today.”
With a snort, Hongjoong snatched up his ticket and started heading for the VIP line outside the performance venue they’d gathered in front of. “I can’t believe they’re making us wait in line like some common peasants. And in the freezing cold too.”
“Maybe the weather would’ve been nice if you started praying to your angel,” Mingi prompted, draping himself across Hongjoong’s shoulders who was quick to shake him off and throw him a threatening glare.
“Stop it with the angel stuff already!”
Back facing the people ahead in line, Jongho glanced between them, his confusion evident. “What the hell are you talking about? Did I miss something?”
“Don’t even get him started!” Hongjoong tried to warn but Mingi was faster: “I started receiving signs from my angel.”
Jongho’s disbelief was palpable.“Your what now?”
“It started with these repeating numbers but then I also started having random thoughts that didn’t feel like my own and I’ve been getting really intense gut instincts about all kinds of situations. Ever since, I’ve had much better luck and I even started making better life choices.”
“Congratulations, we call that intuition,” Hongjoong deadpanned.
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah, I don’t know, Mingi, that sounds kinda vague,” Jongho admitted.
“You’ll both regret not believing me one day, mark my words.”
Since that day, Hongjoong made the guardian angel thing a running gag in his life. Whenever something would go wrong, no matter how small, he’d berate his non-existent guardian angel. At first, he’d only done so around Mingi, just to mess with him, but as the weeks went by, the habit crept into his regular everyday life as well. He didn’t even think about it anymore, it would just slip out like a curse word.
Stubbing his toe… “Fuck you, angel!”
Forgetting what he’d opened the fridge for… “You’re not even trying to do your job well, are you?”
Running out of shampoo in the shower… “Ah, screw you, you pointless creature!”
“Let’s try it again but with stronger emphasis on the last syllable,” Hongjoong suggested before releasing the button on his producer’s microphone.
From the other side of the soundproof window and inside the recording booth, San gave him an “okay” to which Hongjoong rewound the last two lines in the song to give him another go.
Working with San was a dream. When Hongjoong went freelance, he could’ve never imagined getting a better deal than this. Being Choi San’s exclusive songwriter and producer meant steady paychecks, diverse work, a flexible schedule, getting to spend time with one of his best friends regularly and getting paid for it, and having his own fully equipped studio. There was literally only one downside: he was a workaholic. And a job like this only fueled this tendency.
For two years now, he’d only slept over at his apartment every other weekend while the rest of his time was exclusively spent in his studio. He lived and breathed music 24/7 and hadn’t taken a vacation since he’d signed the contract with San’s agency. They’d offered but he had declined.
Mingi, Jongho, and San all regularly told him he was insane and should go out more but Hongjoong disagreed. The majority of his life was just him working toward his dream and now that he was living it, they wanted him to slow down and waste entire weeks doing nothing? Where was the point in that?
“Can I listen back to both of those?” San spoke into his mic.
Hongjoong nodded and followed his request.
“I like the second one better.”
“Yeah me too.” Hongjoong took note of the preference and adjusted the tracks accordingly. “I think it’d sound nice if we added some harmonies.”
“Good idea, let’s try that.”
An hour later, they were wrapping up the recording session when the room suddenly went dark. All the equipment had shut off and, while he’d saved his work, he still had stuff to do before he could call it a day. “You useless angel!” He threw himself back in his desk chair and turned to face away from his desk. “I wasn’t done yet!”
“You’re still blaming that poor creature for your problems?” San sounded amused.
Hongjoong groaned in frustration and rubbed at his temple. “I could’ve sent the track off for review tonight and now this!”
“The deadline’s in two weeks, we’ve got more than enough time.”
“It’s about the principle of the thing!”
In the dim light coming from the hallway, Hongjoong could see San get up from the sofa and put on his jacket. “Come on, let’s go out to eat.”
“Nah, I’ll just head home.”
“So you can order in and eat alone?”
“No, so I can get my MacBook in case I get a good idea while the power’s out.”
“You make me sick.”
“No, I make you rich and famous.”
Sighing, San exited the door and headed down the hallway with Hongjoong trailing after him. “Your life is devoid of humanity.”
“Creativity is one of the most human things there is,” Hongjoong argued, mentally taking note of the buildings visible through the window at the end of the hall which were still lit up. It wasn’t a city-wide blackout then.
“The only people you ever interact with are your family, Jongho, Mingi, and I.”
“That’s plenty.”
“We meet up like once a month outside of work!”
“Your point?”
San groaned in exasperation which Hongjoong found pretty hilarious. “Don’t you wanna travel? Feel the sunlight on your skin? Go for a picnic? See the ocean? Meet new people? Get a boyfriend?”
“What I want is for your next comeback to be successful.”
Nobody could express frustration with their entire body quite like San.
Hongjoong didn’t like his apartment much. It was largely barren, the few pieces of furniture, sans the desk, had all come with the place and the white walls were void of decorations. But that wasn’t the part he disliked.
“I know you went to see her last night!” came the muffled shout through the wall.
A deeper voice responded but was too low to make out.
“Because her perfume was all over you! I do your laundry, did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”
With a souldeep sigh, Hongjoong dropped his coat on the nearby dresser and kicked the door shut behind him. “If you were any good at your job, I wouldn’t be living next to those people.”
His shoes toed off, he headed over to his desk where his MacBook was waiting for him among the rest of his home studio recording essentials. Pressing its power button, he let another sigh slip out and fell into the uncomfortable desk chair. There was no real reason for switching it on. No ideas had come to him yet, it was more of a habit than anything.
“You’re disgusting, you know that?” his neighbor shouted. “No, you are! Clean up your fucking stubble after you shave, it’s the least you can do!”
Hongjoong groaned in frustration. “Oh my god, angel, can’t you shut them up or make her leave her husband? Is that really too much to ask?” He pulled out his phone and dropped it on the desk, allowing himself to get more comfortable in his seat. “Seriously, why would she even stay with him? I’ve been living next to them for years and they’ve never gotten along.”
“Why would you even think I can interfere in other people’s lives?”
The appearance of a nearby foreign voice nearly launched Hongjoong from his chair. Suppressing a yell, he whirled around and stared at the stranger who seemingly spawned in the middle of his apartment. “What the- Who’re you? And what’re you doing here? Sir, get out! Right now!”
He snatched up his phone, intending to call the police while simultaneously being too scared to look away from the stranger for even a second.
“Wait, can you see me?” They seemed stunned by the idea.
“Obviously! You’re not exactly trying to hide!”
“Oh… what… but since when?”
Hongjoong could feel his right eye begin to twitch. “Since you just alerted me to your presence, obviously! What the hell are you getting at? Huh? What’s wrong with you? Why would you just waltz in here? How’d you even get in to begin with? Sir, are you a squatter? Were you here this entire time before I even came home today?” He tried to stop his hands from shaking as the idea cemented itself in his brain. “Oh, that’s so vile, what the hell is your deal?”
“No- I- What? I’m not some- some criminal !”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from some guy who’s literally in a stranger’s home without them knowing!”
“I’m your guardian angel!”
Hongjoong felt sick to his stomach. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
“I’m your guardian angel…” The stranger sounded unsure.
“That’s it, get the fuck out. Right now. I mean it.”
“You can’t kick me out!”
Hongjoong brought up his phone and was in the middle of typing 112 when the stranger suddenly appeared right beside him and touched the screen with just one fingertip at which it went black as if the battery had died. Hongjoong nearly flung the device across the room but managed to hold himself back by stumbling away from the stranger with a racing heart.
“What was that? When- How?”
“I told you, I’m not human, I’m your guardian angel!” the stranger insisted.
“No, you’re not!” Hongjoong backed toward the front door, hoping to keep enough distance between them so he could escape. “And you wanna know why? Because that kinda thing doesn’t exist! I think you need help, Sir. You should take yourself straight to the hospital.” Nearly tripping over himself in his hurry to get his shoes on, he hastily pocketed his phone and snatched up his jacket, which hopefully still contained his keys and dashed out the door. “You may let yourself out!” he shouted back over his shoulder.
As he was sprinting down the hallway toward the staircase, he couldn’t hear anyone following him but decided not to take any chances. Flinging the stairwell door open, he rushed inside and began flying down staircase after staircase until he reached the ground floor and burst out into the street. Wasting no time, he turned left and started gunning for the nearest bus stop.
“Public transport can’t get you away from me either.”
Hongjoong yelped as the voice popped up right by his ear. Stumbling over his own feet, he slowed down and turned around, only to find the stranger standing right there on the sidewalk with not even a single strand of dark hair out of place. His pastel flowy clothes served as a stark contrast to the overcast outdoors.
“What are you- Why are you- I don’t…” Hongjoong trailed off as a passing teenager looked at him with concern and walked right through the stranger. Stunned, Hongjoong fell silent. For a brief moment, he didn’t even breathe. “I’m… hallucinating.”
“Sir, are you alright?” a young pedestrian asked him to which he nodded wordlessly. “Alright then…” Luckily, they walked off without further commentary.
Hongjoong still couldn’t move. Had he really gone off the deep end like that without noticing any of the earlier warning signs? He couldn’t even recall having any auditory hallucinations or phantom touches. Could his brain really have launched straight into a full on hyper realistic interactable imaginary person like this?
“I’m telling you, you’re not hallucinating,” the stranger said in a calm tone as he moved just a slight bit closer, “I’m actually here. Most people just can’t see me because they’re not spiritually open enough to.”
“If you’re trying to get me sold on your lie, you should come up with something more believable,” Hongjoong got out despite his messy headspace.
The stranger winced. “Yeah, okay, you’re not exactly more spiritually open than the average person, I take it. I… actually don’t know why you can suddenly see me. You didn’t work for it in the slightest.”
Momentarily distracted, Hongjoong tried to put on a smile for a passing middle aged pedestrian who was eyeing him with open suspicion. “I need to get away from the public,” he mumbled to himself.
“We can return to your apartment,” the stranger suggested.
“Definitely not,” Hongjoong replied and waved awkwardly when yet another pedestrian side-eyed him. “We’re going to Mingi’s.”
“Aah, I see. Good idea.”
“What do you mean, you can’t see him?” Hongjoong complained, gesturing broadly at the stranger who was peacefully standing a foot away from him and swaying his shoulders as if none of this concerned him.
Mingi shrugged. “There’s just empty space there, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Frustrated and with an ever growing concern at the back of his mind, Hongjoong fell back into the cushions of Mingi’s giant couch. “I’m screwed.”
“No, you’re not.”
Hongjoong glared up at Mingi who stood just on the other side of the coffee table. “I’m hallucinating a whole ass human being, Mingi. And he can talk and teleport. How am I not screwed?”
“Well… is he nice?”
“Define ‘nice’. He just randomly appeared in the middle of my apartment, claiming to be some celestial being.”
“Your guardian angel,” the stranger corrected with a friendly smile.
“Oh, be quiet.”
Mingi crossed his arms. “I think you should be nicer to him.”
Offended, Hongjoong sat up straighter. “How can you say that when he’s clearly a figment of my own imagination?”
“I don’t think he is, that’s why!”
“You can’t see him so why the hell would you think that?”
“Because it makes no sense you’d start hallucinating so vividly outta nowhere!”
Hongjoong was getting tired of this.
“My name is Seonghwa, by the way,” the stranger offered after the first lingering moment of silence since they’d walked in.
“No offense but I don’t care,” Hongjoong replied.
“Don’t care about what?” Mingi asked.
“He says his name is Seonghwa,” Hongjoong repeated with disgust.
“Oh.” Mingi smiled at the space he viewed to be empty. “Hey, Seonghwa. Nice to meet you.”
Seonghwa returned the smile and waved. “Hi Mingi. Can you tell him I say hi?”
Eyes narrowed in disapproval, he muttered a “no” and ignored the subsequent pout on Seonghwa’s face.
“What does he look like?” Mingi asked.
“Seriously?” Hongjoong whined.
“Come on, let’s investigate this!” With newfound eagerness, Mingi rounded the coffee table and pulled out his phone. “Let’s call San and Jongho too!”
Hongjoong snatched the device straight from his hand before he could as much as unlock it. “We’re doing no such thing because we’re not trying to land me in the nearest psych ward, alright?”
“They wouldn’t rat you out, they’re your friends!”
As the weight of reality slowly but surely sunk into him, Hongjoong found himself looking over at Mingi with a heavy heart. Would he be okay if Hongjoong was locked away? He looked tough but was very gullible and easily sent spiraling when his feelings got hurt. Jongho and San were both busy people and often outside the country, they couldn’t be there for him as much as Hongjoong could.
“Please, Hongjoong.” The words were spoken in a soft voice and with a newfound hint of desperation. When Hongjoong looked at him, he found large dark eyes staring right into him and, for just a moment, he felt a strange tug in his gut as a tingling warmth spread from his core all the way to his fingertips. “Can’t you just believe me?”
“Are you okay?” Mingi’s voice drew Hongjoong’s attention back to reality.
“No, why do you ask?”
“You seemed really zoned out.”
“Can you blame me?”
Mingi sighed. “So what do you wanna do know?”
Hongjoong sunk back into the cushions. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Just listen to me,” Seonghwa urged.
“So you can tell me stuff about God and the spirit realm and celestial energies up in heaven or whatever?” Hongjoong replied.
Frustration was visibly creeping up on Seonghwa, judging by his narrowed eyes, but it lasted no more than a second before he returned to his friendly neutral expression. “No, so I can tell you the truth and help you feel less like you’re losing your mind.”
“What’re you guys talking about?” Mingi asked.
“He wants to make up some lies for us,” Hongjoong misreported.
“I really wish I could see him instead of you.”
Seonghwa inclined his head as his gaze traced over Mingi. “If his angel agrees, we may actually be able to make that happen.” He quickly looked back at Hongjoong. “Not the last part but we could maybe help him see me too.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Hongjoong complained.
“You snapped at me every time I opened my mouth!”
“Oh. Fair point.”
After a beat of silence, Mingi lightly smacked Hongjoong’s arm. “So? What’s going on now?”
“He says he might be able to make you see him.”
“Really?” Mingi was visibly close to bouncing in his seat. “When? How? What do I need to do?”
“He needs to ask his own guardian angel for help,” Seonghwa instructed.
Hongjoong passed on the message.
“And how do I do that?”
“His angel’s name is Yunho. By using it, his request should be easier to grant.”
After forwarding the information, Hongjoong observed as Mingi closed his eyes and clasped his hands like some movie child at bedtime. It was odd to just be sitting there watching so, after about a minute with no visible results, he slowly got up and moved closer to Seonghwa without really thinking about it.
Despite how much he despised this entire situation, Seonghwa as a person, being, hallucination, or whatever, didn’t give off any negative vibes. He more so emanated an aura of light and calm which he may or may not be using to lure Hongjoong into a false sense of security. The truth had yet to be uncovered on that front.
“Your thoughts on me are pleasant as always,” Seonghwa commented.
“Can you actually read my thoughts?” Hongjoong asked as he side-eyed the angel .
“I can only sense your emotions but if you were to consciously aim your thoughts my way, I’d be able to hear them, yes.”
“You can sense my emotions ? That’s so invasive! Why would any good force give you that kinda ability?”
“It’s so we can help in times of danger or distress and guide people’s souls toward their desired path in life.”
“Sir, I literally have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Despite being incorporeal, Seonghwa’s sigh sounded bone deep.
“I can’t believe you dragged me into your mess.”
Yet again, the sudden appearance of a new voice nearly had Hongjoong jumping out of his skin. This time, it was coming from a tall man in black cargo pants and a black knit sweater who was just standing there, right by the coffee table where Mingi had been mere minutes ago.
“No way!” Mingi called out as he jumped up. “Are you my guardian angel?”
The new stranger nodded with a gentle smile.
“Wow.” Mingi sounded awed. After a moment of nonstop staring, he blinked repeatedly and slowly crossed the short distance between himself and the stranger. “Your name’s Yunho?”
“And you’re Mingi.” The stranger’s tone was teasing but his expression remained calm and friendly. Hongjoong wasn’t convinced.
“Always mistrustful,” Seonghwa mumbled.
“Stop reading me!” Hongjoong complained. His volume quickly drew the attention of everyone in the room. “Ah, sorry.”
“No apology needed,” the stranger, no Yunho , said. “I gather, you’ve had a bit of a rough hour and a half.”
“I’m not even sure why I can see you when you’re supposed to be Mingi’s hallucination.”
“Ah, a good question indeed.” Yunho folded his hands in front of him as if he were holding a class presentation. “All guardian angels exist on the same plane, so when Mingi requested to see me, we both adjusted the same way you and Seonghwa did so now we’re all aligned and can see each other.”
“Alright, thanks.” That tells me absolutely nothing.
Beside him, Seonghwa failed to conceal his amusement behind his hand.
“You’re Seonghwa then!” Mingi gave Seonghwa a quick once over before he turned to eye up Yunho for a far more prolonged moment. Hongjoong wished this were a good time to make fun of him for it. “So, like, do all of you look like supermodels or is that just a coincidence?”
Yunho ducked his head. “No, um,” he cleared his throat, visibly trying not to laugh, “we just look like we used to the last time we lived on earth.”
“You were human once?” Mingi burst out.
“We’ve lived as humans before,” Yunho corrected.
Hongjoong didn’t care to understand the difference. “So how do I get rid of you?”
Yunho frowned. “You don’t. Your guardian angel is tethered to your soul.”
“So you’re telling me I’m stuck with him?” Hongjoong tried not to raise his voice but he wasn’t sure he succeeded.
“You’re not stuck with him, you’re bonded.”
“I don’t care what you call it, I care about the implications.”
“Wow, okay, ouch,” Seonghwa mumbled.
Hongjoong looked over at him and actually felt a small prick of guilt. “I’m not trying to offend you, but you’ve gotta understand my position here, right? I can’t just have someone hovering around me twenty-four-seven while I’m trying to live my life!”
“He’s always been there,” Yunho argued, “you just couldn’t see him before.”
“So how do I unsee him then?”
“Would that even make a difference at this point now that you know he’s there?”
Hongjoong pressed his lips together and began fidgeting with the hem of his sleeves as he tried to picture a future in which he knew an invisible Seonghwa was lingering in the corner of any space he happened to occupy, no exceptions, no escape. “Probably not.”
“I think it’s nice,” Mingi spoke up and didn’t even flinch when Hongjoong turned to look at him in stunned disbelief. “We basically just got new roommates!”
“Who don’t pay rent and follow you around no matter where you go!” Hongjoong tried to reason.
Mingi shrugged. “So?” He gestured toward Yunho. “My college roommate was far more ominous than this.”
Squeezing his eyes shut tightly, Hongjoong pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m surrounded by crazy people.”
A pleasantly warm hand patted his shoulder. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see.”
“Screw you, Seonghwa,” he whined.