#celxgyuri

It was her most precious treasure and yet it was broken, turned into a dozen of clockwork pieces she would never know how to put back together. The music box was unique, a present from her father which included everything she loved most in the world, including her own world, the Tokki (토끼) Dimension.

She could still hear its carefully organized melody, Promise, one she had grown up with and made her close her eyes every single time because it was just not enough to listen to it surrounded by other things. This wasn’t the only reason why the gift was special though. It wasn’t merely a music box, but a watch as well, one that followed her into the small mirror on its inside and always told her to come back – basically, one of the few things that connected the girl to reality. Luckily, the mirror was still intact, so the dimension was as well. Gyuri would have cried if she wasn’t able to hide there anymore, if everything she had created inside of it was gone forever and there was no way to have it back. Because, just as in reality, once the only entry was broken there was no way in and no way out.

The Nephilim knew only one person that might be capable of fixing the music box. The man was a mechanic, not a specialist on that kind of thing. He had probably never even worked with clockwork machines, but it was worth the shot. Gyuri didn’t just trust her important objects to any stranger and this person was already a good acquaintance. Besides – okay, maybe this was the most important factor on why she was trusting him – he had told her he’d try and fix it for free. To Gyuri, this was like a candy given to her; she’d blindly accept it just like a little kid.

The mechanic shop was a dirty place as expected, reason why the Nephilim was happy to have brought her old bib and tennis. The noise was not pleasant, but the smell somehow drew her in. She looked at herself and nodded, then took a step forward and looked around.

“Hello?”, she called, walking into the apparently empty garage. There was a beautiful car just beside her – an old one, she wished she could say more but knowledge was missing. “Is anyone here? Come out or I’ll find you!” She grinned slightly once something moved from under the car and bent down to see who it was, straight hair falling over her face and preventing her from discerning the person. “Boo!”

celxgyuri

Jackson finally had a clue to start his search. It was all thanks to his parents, who warned him in the morning about a letter that they had received from Seoul, two days ago. The young man had no idea why his father took two days to actually tell him about this finding. In the beginning, Jackson actually had a bad feeling about it. A year and half had passed since he arrived in South Korea and until now, the man had never gotten any letter from the mysterious sender. The first time, it was when he was still in Hong Kong. The person had told him to come to Seoul as soon as possible and that was exactly what he did. After that time, Jackson hadn’t received anything else. Now, out of the blue, his parents got another letter.

Wasn’t this odd? Why didn’t the person send the letter to him, since he was already in Seoul?

After a few hours at thinking about this issue, the demon decided to ignore the warnings in his mind. It really didn’t matter because now he had a lead to find Tyler and he was going to grab this chance; even if this was some sort of trap or if this led to nothing, Jackson wouldn’t forgive himself for wasting such of a great opportunity. And he knew exactly who he needed to call to make everything happen.

{ ✉ sms → gyul } cheongdam-dong. 하모. you have 10 mins to be here.

The demon sent the message to her, waiting for an answer as he rested his back against the wall. From this side of the street, he had a perfect view from the building he was keeping an eye on. The movement seemed to be calm for now and this was an unbelievable reality, because Cheongdam-dong was usually a very crowded ward of Gangnam district. At this time of the day, the streets were usually very hectic, not only with the pedestrians, but also with the traffic. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the case today.

Standing away from the people, he was hidden in an alleyway. His black cap and the sunglasses were hidden his dark eyes and his features from everyone. Now Gyuri only needed to arrive and his plan would start. It wasn’t going to be nothing too difficult. If she used her powers and her beauty in the correct way, they would get out of there in a blink of an eye. Jackson was only hoping she would cooperate with him. But why wouldn’t she? After all, they had a deal and the demon had helped her when she needed him. Now it was her turn to do something for him.

Ravi was used to receiving spontaneous text messages from people who once knew Wonshik. He didn’t recognize the name from which the message was sent, and so, he simply ignored it, deleting the message so he didn’t have to worry about it later. His phone was crap for memory anyway. Music had priority over text messages. Unless of course those texts were just too entertaining to erase.

Chuckling softly to himself, he fixed himself a quick lunch eating it quickly before flopping back onto his bed to take a short nap before he would have to actually get up and be a productive member of human society. Or at least as productive as a demon could be. He would admit he wasn’t nearly as productive as the human inside him was when he was in control, but demons weren’t exactly renowned for efficiency. Out of the seven deadly sins, sloth happened to be one of the ones that had manifested in Ravi, next to pride and lust – because that was just the way Ravi worked.

A knock at his door dragged him from his doze. He sat up, fixing his bangs into a more desirable position before standing up, wondering bitterly who the hell was knocking on his door. He wasn’t expecting anyone to come over. Hell, he never invited anyone over. Wonshik was the one who did that.

Stepping over to the door, Ravi pulled it open, dark eyes staring into the face of a young woman he simply did not recognize.

“But, daddy, you really have to come! It has all the colors in the world!”

A loud shatter, and the floor around Gyuri’s feet is covered in splinters. She carefully opens her eyes, uncovers her ears. It is a music box, the one that would let them eat every day for the next week. Not anymore; the girl has to find another way.

She looks across the dimension, at her father whose hands are shaking and tears are running.

“Don’t insist”, he mumbles quietly, “you might break as well.”

Gyuri’s lip starts trembling. She knows he wouldn’t hurt her; he aimed the boundary behind her on purpose. However, the Nephilim’s face is twisting, turning into an expression of pain – as her mother has always told her, it’s ugly. She should smile instead, that is the trick, so she forces her mouth curve up.

“I’m sorry.” Her father’s apology is sincere, there’s no doubt. “Come here, take Bunny and let me be for a while…” He waves for her to approach him, and so she does. The marble floor echoes the clicking of her heels and Gyuri skips the black squares, stepping only on the white ones until she’s beside him.

“I love you, daddy.” The girl hugs her father and lets him wipe her wet lashes and hand over her stuffed rabbit.

“You’re a good girl.” He gently taps her cheeks and smiles – a dead smile, the only one she’s able to see ever since mommy left.

The Nephilim leaves her father inside the mirror, “Feather’s Paradise” as he has named it, and runs to the entry of their real home. She puts on her red overshoes, her polka dot raincoat, and rushes out to find the end of the rainbow alone. Well, not alone – she has Bunny. Small fingers tighten around the rabbit’s ear, the one she always uses to drag it around. It’s still drizzling, droplets sticking to her skin and brightening her hair. A tear falls down her face, gathers with the rain and disappears. But, what is a drop in the middle of a storm? That’s precisely how the girl’s face looks like right now: a stormy mess of tears and snot. Yes, snot – she can’t feel more pathetic.

The Nephilim wanders the streets, skipping everywhere the pavement lets her, ignoring the knot on her throat and humming a song her mother has taught her.

곰세마리가 한집에있어

It’s the Three Bears song and it is about her family (or so she thinks) – fat daddy, thin mommy and cute little Gyuri. Well done.

It isn’t well anymore though. Daddy is too skinny, mommy doesn’t even “is” and little Gyuri’s going from cute to dirty as she clumsily trips on her own feet and falls into a puddle.

The girl’s lower lip starts trembling once again, her shoulders drooping and arms numb, Bunny is drenched in mud. A hiccup, followed by a sneeze. The Nephilim blinks, but more tears don’t let her eyes focus. Another hiccup and another. For she first time, she lets herself cry and be the child everyone should except of her – no one does. At that moment, she realizes: she feels lonely. Not for too long though; someone is coming to change that.