𝐴𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡𝒉𝑖𝑛𝑒 // 𝐿𝑒𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝒉𝑜

twenty three.

// tw: pain/suffering //

She wasn't sure she'd ever been more bone chillingly petrified than at that moment.

     The intense heat was sucking the life from the room, her potted plants slowly beginning to wilt as Haneul swallowed dryly, trying to form her reply in a way that wouldn't cause her any harm.

     "Yes, we did. What did you do?"

     Haneul was already shaking like a leaf, and her voice was no better: trembling and unsteady, audibly saturated with uncertainty. No shift occurred in Minho's attitude, and his eyes never left hers.

     "I decided to check up on you... and your friends."

Her blood ran cold.

"As a demon, I'm familiar enough with how idiotically naive angels are, but I never assumed their stupidity so great as to not even try to conceal their auras when having a private meeting with a human."

The primal urge to run and seek shelter injected itself into Haneul, but her legs refused to move, even as Minho rose gracefully from his seat.

"What did you think they could accomplish for you? You think an angel could do a better job than I've been?" he murmured, scorching breath pluming towards her. "I heard what they said, 'whether or not your guardian is fit to continue protecting you'. Do they really think they can rewrite divine law?"

Haneul's jaw fell open, not to speak, but gasp sharply as Minho's glowing eyes were suddenly inches from her own.

"Are you actually willing to try?"

Even if she attempted to, Haneul wouldn't be able to talk Minho out of this tirade. He was growing more and more irate, chest heaving and causing the temperature to steadily rise.

"Minho, I swear I just wanted to know what they had to say," Haneul promised, faltering back as he cornered her. "If they knew anything about what's happening to me, or who I really am–"

Eye twitching, Minho loosed a humorless chuckle. "What do you mean, 'who you are'? You're nobody, you mean nothing. You're just a mortal that I got stuck with protecting until you finally die."

It felt like she couldn't draw breath. This, this was betrayal.

"It was a mistake to act with such normalcy around you," Minho hissed, finally avoiding her gaze. "To pretend like–like these things I feel for you aren't more than a byproduct of this soul contract we're under. I don't care about what's going to happen to you, I don't."

Panicked tears were streaming down her face, nearly turning to steam in the infernal heat the demon was causing.

"You want to see what will happen to me, even you, if those angels try and change our fate, huh? I'll show you."

Minho gripped Haneul's wrist, but surprisingly, his skin wasn't more than regular body temperature. Before she could utter another sound, reality was ripped from Haneul, the ground falling from beneath her feet and becoming wind and chaos.

     When it all stopped, Haneul was lying on the ground, struggling for breath as her body regained consciousness. Ringing filled her ears, and she fought against the violent nausea roiling in her stomach.

The demon was standing a few feet away, scoffing as he watched her recovery. Though he acknowledged her to an extent, Minho's gaze was fixed on something else, his jaw set harshly.