Dazzling Light | Kang Yeosang

1

"I'm ready when you're ready!"

You put on your helmet after grinning at your best friend, kick-starting your bike, accelerating it a bit before looking back at her.

"On your mark, missy!"

You both stood at the line where you were going to start racing- you two weren't professionals, but this long road was empty and you both just wanted to race a bit, test your new bikes which you'd bought together.

As soon as you said the countdown, the two of you accelerated on a steady speed, hooting and laughing at each other, side by side as you drove at the empty road framing the hill. You went that extra notch by accelerating to a higher speed, ignoring your friend's warning with a shake of your head indicating that it was okay, and really, everything was okay, until-

Until a car drove straight at you from the sharp turn and you only had time to skid your bike away a little to avoid a crash, resulting in you plummeting down and crashing in a tree, your fall cushioned from the soft grass, only enough to save you but not enough to avoid a fracture or two.

But your accident wasn't painful- the crash you heard of vehicles colliding right after you fell was the most horrible sound you'd heard in your life, and your eyes went wide in horror as you realized-

You woke up drenched in sweat, muffling down your scream.

Your breathing was uneven as you turned your neck to look at the time- half past 5 in the morning. You shook your head, burying your face in your hands as you took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm your heart down, the ache in your leg growing. But it was no use.

Your life was a mess. Everyone was still waiting for an opportunity to get rid of you.

As you lay down and shut your eyes, you decided it then. You'd finally give up. There really was no point in living anymore.

-------------------

"What a day to be alive."

Yeosang stood at the edge of the roof of the 60-story building, looking ahead at the vast sky stretching endlessly with the sun shining through the fluffy clouds, instead of peering down at the traffic. He took a deep breath, inhaling in the fresh air, shutting his eyes close, revelling in the peace until he heard an ashy sound in the air and opened one eye to look at the message on a piece of paper.

Last mission. Save her from killing herself. 7 o'clock.

Yeosang raised his eye at the message, reading it again before burning it to ash with a simple wave of his fingers.

This wasn't an unusual order- as an angel, Yeosang had saved many from an untimely death, never questioning why he was saving only certain humans- he supposed they had a greater purpose to fulfil, something that would either change the course of time or wouldn't affect it entirely- as wrong as it sounded, because that made him wonder if certain humans were worth more than the others.

But this was his last mission. After a century and a half of maintaining a perfect record, always completing his jobs in the best way possible and abiding by the rules, he was finally given his last mission after which he could move on to the afterlife.

Yeosang sighed, trying to calm the nervous roiling in his stomach, which he was trying to convince himself was because of the anxiety of the last mission and whether it would go well, but really, he had a gut feeling that something was going to go very, very wrong this time.

Yeosang willed his wings to spread wide, spreading his hands and dropping down, almost diving down before finally flying upwards, wondering if he would ever be able to fly so freely in the sky again, wondering what the afterlife held for him, an abstract concept he'd been blindly following ever since he came into being as an angel with no past- or no memories- if he had one.