Strike A Match ✓

ELEVEN

Taehyung's heart palpitates, jumps to his throat and for a small second the boy is afraid the organ would jump out of his mouth to voluntarily hand itself over to the man in front of it.

His cheeks and ears turn bright red and he chokes on the lack of air.

"Why would you out of all people care if I got hurt?" He mumbles, desperately needing to know the answer.

Jeongguk clears his throat, releases him and ruffles his own locks as he proceeds to take a step back, keeping quiet.

"Isn't that your friend over there?" He suddenly says, causing Taehyung to gasp again.

He rushes over, hissing at the sight of him yanking one of the weapons out of his arm.

"Those.. those fudging mother truckers! That hurt!" The man spits, groaning out in pain as he pulls yet another one out of his stomach.

"So.. our plan kind of failed.." Taehyung trails, biting on his lip when the male gives him a short glare.

"Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't noticed," He bitterly voices, exhaling in relief when he pulls the last weapon out of his thigh. "Now what?" He exclaims, and both of the angels turn to look at the giant crowd of demons and humans, including the devil himself surrounding them, all staring right back at them.

Taehyung clears his throat, somehow naturally finding Jeongguk's eyes again.

"We sort of came to retrieve a pair of humans─" He starts, watching as the male throws his head back whilst keeping the gaze.

"Come on, again?" He groans, "Just say you missed me and go."

"Who misses you?" Namjoon sourly spits at him, disliking the arrogance. "Certainly not us."

"No?" The devil repeats with a smirk, one eyebrow higher than the other whilst he takes a peek at the smaller angel who blushes and looks away.

"Who did you come for this time?"

"Mister Caddle and Barlowe. Also, there appears to be a dog?" Namjoon almost questions at the end, failing to understand it himself.

"A dog?" Both Taehyung and Jeongguk repeat after him in the same tone, watching him shrug.

"Don't look at me, I just got notified."

"Looks like father isn't the only one making mistakes, then." The devil chuckles, heading over towards a group of humans getting pushed around by some martyrs.

At the same time, Taehyung turns around at the sound of barking. For what seems like the hundredth time today he gasps, bending down to take the black and tan coloured, fluffy and small dog in his arms.

"Hyung! Look!" Taehyung gushes in happiness, a bright smile taking over his mouth revealing his pearly whites.

He fails to see the devil witnessing it, his own lips tugging up in disbelief at the sight.

"That is one special dog." The elder chuckles, glad to have found it so they could take it back.

"Ahem."

They turn their heads.

Namjoon furrows his eyebrows,

"You're just going to hand them over like that? What about the life threateningly statement 'Don't ever dare to show your filthy face again?'"

Jeongguk groans, yet can't help but continuously glance at the smaller angel.

"Yeah, like that made any sort of impact. You know I can't kill you even if I wanted to. Just take them and get out."

"Very well then! Come on, Taehyung." Namjoon happily exclaims, turning on his heels and taking the humans along with him.

The boy hums, yet strangely enough finds himself lingering behind.

He turns his head again, for the millionth time locking eyes with Jeongguk because it feels as if that's all he can do.

"Thank you.." He mouths, not even sure why.

But at the sight of a small grin tugging at the man's lips, he couldn't help but feel oddly elated.

"You're welcome." He mouths back, sending him a wink that causes him to squeak.

"Taehyung! Hurry up!" Namjoon shouts at him from a little farther ahead.

The last thing the angel sees is a singular white feather hidden between tons of jet black ones, as Jeongguk turns his back and walks away from him into the opposite direction.

And for some reason he almost feels bad for getting rid of the one he had gotten.

With a jumpy yet strangely heavy heart, the white haired angel runs after his friend.

The moment they arrive back home, Namjoon pulls him in for a short hug.

"Thank you so much for your help, buddy. I don't know if you've lost or if you're going to lose another rank because of me, because of this action─ but I want you to know that I am really grateful for your assistance. I couldn't have done it without you. I owe you one."

Taehyung shakes his head, "It's alright hyung, you don't have to. You got hurt back there, that's my fault. The plan was dumb and naive.."

"Don't say that! It wasn't your fault, we tried. We tried, and we succeeded. Yes, it was a bit rough, but hey! We did it. We pulled through. I'm proud of you, and if I were him, I would be too." He points up, smiling at the other angel.

"Thank you.." The younger shyly says.
"I'm going to take a look at the ranking to make sure nothing changed. Have a nice day, hyung!"

They bid their goodbyes and as said, the boy slowly nears the familiar hall.

He inhales deeply, searching for his name on the board.

Unanticipatedly, he isn't as shocked, sad or even angry to see he once again, moved down the board.

He isn't too far away from the red area now, and he knows exactly what that would mean─

Those who end up in the dead zone get cast down to hell, to spend the rest of their eternity elsewhere.

Wierdly enough, he really thought he would've been more afraid of that happening.

For some reason, that does not sound like it would be the end of the world anymore.