Death's Bow (Golden Child TAG X Female OC)

Ch. 23: The Blood-bound Reaper

"I heard you almost harmed Bae Suyeon while you were out alone..."

When Minho had approached him, starting their conversation like that, Jeongin could find no proper way to respond other than to hang his head and admit it.

"... How did you know?"

Minho didn't respond as he stood in front of the younger Messenger, and as he did, Jeongin could feel his gaze on him. Not that he could what kind of gaze it was exactly, but judging mainly from the fact that it's Minho, it was definitely most likely either one of concern or disappointment.

"I didn't mean it."

"I know."

"I was bored, and I figured I could go out to the mall on my own. It's not like it's everyday that someone bleeds in those kinds of places."

"You're lucky it was Youngtaek that was there."

"... And Hyunjin, too. He found me after I ran away."

Again, Minho stayed silent for a moment as he just looked down on Lunacy, the latter still keeping his head down, not wondering what will happen from this point on. Murder is never really clear with his intentions, not that the other Messenger's aren't like that either, but still...

Will Murder give him a punishment or a solution? The Messenger that had ended up becoming Lunacy's main caretaker after being the one to take the boy's soul in his past life was definitely just about a parent to him, already, and Lunacy both feared and respected him. If only he could tell what Murder is thinking at least just half the time.

"You will have your training with your apprentices tonight, won't you?"

"... Mm."

"I will be watching over then. Make sure to come and don't go anywhere else."

The conversation that had occurred between the two Messengers this morning was supposed to be both a reminder and a warning to Jeongin. It was some sort of a test, too. If he failed to do it, why should anyone ever allow him to be going anywhere alone?

Tonight, he was supposed to meet his apprentices, but even if he were just going to a certain place to meet someone, he definitely needed someone to go with. And well? Let's just say his companion for the journey just turned out to be a rather unexpected one: Grim.

To be fair, Jeongin didn't expect this either. He had expected that Grim would be busy somewhere, making immoral deals with humans or messing with Death, and yet here he was, flying through the city with him, his dark eyes glowing... particularly bright tonight.

"I think, I can handle going on to the park on my own from here on out. It's pretty close already anyway," Jeongin mumbles in his discomfort and fear as he continues flying, his eyes turned as far as possible away from Grim but taking a split-second to steal a glance at the black-eyed Messenger's reaction.

Grim grins in response to Lunacy's suggestion, making the younger reaper even more uncomfortable as he quickly turned away. "Nonsense! I can bring you all the way there if I want to. After all, as the Second Messenger, I should at least be responsible enough to take care of the less fortunate of us, don't you think?"

The more words came out of Grim, as much as he seemed to be trying to sound friendly however, Jeongin only felt more uneasy. Grim had never really done anything without any payment in return. Whatever Grim had planned, he really didn't want to be involved or else he might just end up in even more trouble. Not to mention, the Messenger's brightly glowing eyes were giving him no reassurance.