forty-three

They sat down around the coffee table in the living room, and Changbin folded his wings so they didn't take up too much space.

Jisung found himself glancing at them from time to time since he had never seen anything so majestic like them.

"Us angels have the power to sever bonds," Changbin began seriously, his hands wrung around each other as he gazed at Minho and Jisung.

"I see. How does it work?" Minho asked, suddenly more interested in the angel than he had been before. He kept his face guarded and didn't give away what he thought of the matter.

His voice was emotionless as well, so Jisung had no way to tell what was going through his mind.

Changbin titled his head and grimaced. "I guess you won't like this, but I can use divine magic to purify the mark and eradicate it from Jisung's body. Consequentially, your bond would be broken."

Jisung saw Minho stiffen slightly at the mention of divine magic and wondered if it was dangerous to demons. "Does it hurt?" He asked Changbin who was about to answer, but Minho interrupted him rudely.

"It does not," he said and sent Changbin a smoldering glare to shut him up. "What kind of compensation do you want for helping us?"

"Nothing," he grinned adorably.

"Typical angel," Minho sighed, rolling his eyes. "Great, then if that's the case, let's do it right away."

"Wait," Changbin exhaled sharply. "You... you guys don't even know the side effects of this yet-"

"I said let's do it," Minho said with a sour tone in his voice and stood up from his seat. His eyes were red but his face was blank, mouth set in a straight line as he waited impatiently for Changbin's answer.

Jisung looked at him in shock and didn't know what to say. He didn't understand why he was suddenly so keen about getting rid of the bond when they didn't even know the consequences it would lead to.

He was distressed, and he knew that Minho was well aware of his emotional pain but even so, he didn't react to it.

He felt betrayed, he didn't understand why he was suddenly behaving this way. Minho hadn't acted this coldly around him in a very long time—and he was not used to it at all.

Changbin hesitated and regarded both Jisung and Minho for a while without saying anything. "Are you sure that you want to do this? I think you should think about this carefully first. Breaking a bond isn't something to be taken lightly," he said gravely.

"After I remove the bond, you guys will always feel like something is missing for the rest of your lives or even worse - lose memories of each other. The side effect is either of those two."

To be continued...

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