Shadow | Huang Renjun

15

After the awkward encounter in the café, Eunah and the residents of Hell managed to leave without seeing the waiter again. Miyeon thinks he got fired.

It's now getting late and the group are walking past a river, Donghyuck and Miyeon in front holding hands. Behind them, Renjun and Eunah follow a little apart from each other, the Angel sipping a vanilla milkshake.

The soft rays of golden hour highlight her rosy cheeks and the gentle slope of her nose, bringing out honey hues in her eyes and hair. If her pristine white wings were present, they would fully enhance her angelic appearance.
She mouths the words to a song playing through one half of her earphones, distracted by trying to walk along a coloured row on the pavement.

Not looking where she's going, she comes close to walking right into a passer-by, but is pulled out of the way by the arm. She stumbles sideways into Renjun, who exhales in disappointment and shakes his head.

"You'll end up getting run over, idiot."

"Sorry..."

But I can't die like Humans? Why does he care?

He doesn't. Well, not as much as one would expect from that. He cares about not being incinerated by Satan for losing their only chance at an inside informant.

"Stay here, you're a liability," he instructs, holding her next to him by her arm and walking faster.

"I can walk by myself..."

"Clearly not."

She huffs, pulling her arm out of his grip.
"You don't need to baby me."

"Then stop acting like a distracted child."

Miyeon and Donghyuck have slowed down a little, listening to the two bickering. They share a look, Miyeon snorting when the Angel lightly slaps Renjun's arm.

"How long do you think they'll take?" she mutters, smirking.

Donghyuck shrugs, knowing his friend well. Renjun doesn't like him and Jisung sometimes, let alone an Angel.
"I think the world would end before he admitted anything to anyone."

Going back to the bickering duo, Eunah is glaring at the Demon boy while sipping the last of her milkshake. He glares back, scrunching his nose in disgust at the sight of her.

"C'mon you two, stop flirting."

Miyeon's interruption of their glaring match causes Renjun to hiss at her in complaint, while Eunah flushes warm with embarrassment.

"We're not flirting!"

"Yeon, don't..."

They say this at the same time, briefly glancing between each other before looking away. Renjun scoffs, rolling his eyes, and folds his arms over his chest as he walks past the couple. He glowers at Miyeon on the way, who shrugs and grins.

One day, Eunah will go more than a few hours without feeling embarrassed.

~~~~

She decided to tell Mark and Jeno about the book. It was probably a mistake, but she feared not informing them would be detrimental to their friendship.
They've never explicitly made her feel that way, they've always been supportive and kind, but experiencing rejection at the smallest mistakes (or lack thereof) from her old friend group made her sensitive to it. Yijun contributed a lot to that fear.

As promised, she sent photos of the two authors' work to the Demon group chat, and is now waiting for a result. Mark has been hovering over her shoulder ever since, asking if she has an update on the situation.
He seems a little more protective too, constantly checking up on her and finding every excuse to be by her side.