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The first time Sua noticed the devil, she saw that she was too following the same human. The human that she had been assigned to guard was a twenty- seven year old girl, - Hyuna. She sat alone on the balcony of her apartment, knees tucked under her chin as the city glowed amber with scattered lights under the setting sun beneath her. Sua stood over her, unseen by the living. Her white, feathered wings folded around her as she listened to the quiet breathing of the girl.
Across from her, perched carelessly on the rusted railing was a young pink haired woman, horns showing through her dark hood. Her face showed bright eyes and a smile too sweet to belong to something from hell. Her attention belonged to the same human, who was still watching the city below. Sua's eyes met with the woman, and she raised a hand in an almost friendly wave. The angel returned the gesture with a confused expression forming.
Every lesson she was taught in heaven says that this should have become a battle. Angels protected life, while devils corrupted it. This script was older than time itself, yet neither being moved.
The young girl below sighed and rubbed her tearful eyes, getting up to leave her spot on the balcony, unaware of the two immortals following her into the room. The devil beside Sua decided it was time to speak:
"She's stubborn," she remarked with an amused tone. "I've spent weeks trying convince her to skip lessons, tell off her boss, just do something reckless. She just apologizes instead."
Sua frowned, unable to understand how a creature from hell sounded exasperated rather than malicious.
"You speak." The angel stated quietly.
The devil blinked, then laughed- a strangely bright, surprised kind of sound that echoed through the silence of the room.
"Well yeah! It gets quite lonely talking to someone who can't hear me."
Sua glanced away to the floor, "I guess that i could understand that." she muttered under her breath.
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Sua really should have reported such an encounter the moment that she returned to heaven. Yet the words were trapped behind her teeth. Well the devil did not attack, no soul stolen, no violence that would have caused her to draw her blade- there wasn't much to tell. There was only that irritating, smiling girl who shares the same human as her.
The devils sweet appearance and kind words unsettled her far more than open hostility would have. Devils were never meant to just sit watching in silence, they weren't supposed to stop when their temptations failed with no more than just disappointment to take away. And they most certainly were not meant to wave goodbye before returning to hell.
This horned creature was different from any she'd seen before.
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When the next day came around and Hyuna had woken up, still unaware of who followed, and stopped at the same coffee shop she does everyday. She orders the same cheap coffee as she usually does and looks at the food deciding whether she has enough money to afford a pastry. Eventually she discovers that she does not.
Sua watched with a frown on her face, resisting the strong urge to nudge some good fortune in her favor. Guardians could not interfere unless their humans life was truly in danger. Sua has always believed that to be such a cruel rule to follow.
"That's the one she wants." Whispered a familiar voice from behind her.
"Excuse me?" The angel questioned.
"The strawberry one," the devil replied with a smile, "She's been thinking about it for three minutes now."
Sua ignored this, she watched Hyuna counting the few coins in her hand and settling for just the coffee alone.
"You know, angel," the girl began to speak, "everyone thinks that a devils job is to get our human to make terrible decisions or cause harm to them. But really, all we have to do to hurt them, is to wait and watch as they find that they're not worth something as small as a pastry." She smiled through the words, but this time it didn't quite reach her eyes, those looked more sympathetic than usual.
Sua's expression remained calm yet her thoughts were all but that.
Neither immortal spoke for awhile, just watching as Hyuna raised the paper cup to her lips and took a sip, once finished she stepped back outside into the morning rush of traffic. Her dark hair was lost in the hurried footsteps and loud cars passing by.
Sua looked at the pink haired woman and asked:
"Why torture her like this, devil? Why not hurt her like any other would?"
"It's Mizi, I'm not just a devil. I don't want to hurt her, it's my job," She answered with a sad look. "but why didn't you help her, that's your job is it not? You could've made another customer drop their change, or whispered to the cashier to give it to her for free. But you didn't!"
Sua remained quiet for a few seconds before quietly saying, in such a low voice even Mizi struggled to hear her, "I could've, yes."
Hearing this, Mizi smiled and let out a small laugh, "Hell doesn't reward kindness like heaven does, angel! Hm, would have been nice though."
They crossed the street together side by side as humans streamed past them not noticing their presence, their lives intersecting for a split second before continuing on.
The girl paused as she got to the other side of the road, returning a large shopping basket to the elderly woman that she had carried it for and smiled as she received a kind "thank you!", causing Mizi to let out a long and dramatic sigh, shocking Sua causing her to step back.
"You see? This is what i have to deal with!"
The angel glanced sideways towards her. "You're really frustrated because she's kind?"
"I'm frustrated because she's impossible! She'll happily inflict every miserable thought onto herself but never onto the others around her." She dramatically threw her hands in the air. "Between her and you, honestly its like you're corrupting me."
Against her better judgement, Sua let out the smallest laugh. It slipped free before she could stop it after hearing what the devil had to say.
Mizi stopped mid-step, frozen on the spot staring at Sua as if she'd just whitenessed some kind of miracle.
"You laugh?" She asked with genuine astonishment in both her face and voice.
Sua looked embarrassed and retaliated what the devil had asked with a quick, "No I did not!"
"You absolutely did!" Mizi shouted back, pointing at the angel with theatrical accusation. "I've been trying to get you to react to something I say since yesterday! Is that what does it? Me admitting I'm losing my edge?" she asked with a cocky laugh from her victory over the angel.
Sua continued to follow her human, looking forwards and quietly mumbled, " Well, i guess you are... different from what i expected."
The devil's smile returned, more real this time, lacking its usual mischief. "I'll take that as a compliment!"
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Their days together began to fold into weeks then into months, and against every instinct drilled into her since creation, Sua found herself not just expecting Mizi's presence, but excited for it too. They both appeared wherever their human wandered, watching over humanity. Although their jobs are opposite they stayed together through it all.
Sometimes the devil would sit trying to temp the girl to give in to her harmless indulgences: spending her savings on a beautiful dress, telling arrogant customers what she really thought about them, something different to her usual kindness. Sometimes she gave up after only five minutes, dropping down dramatically onto the nearest rooftop to complain as Sua stood by her, patiently listening.
Neither of them noticed that they had stopped acting like enemies a long time ago. They simply watched the same fragile life unfold day by day.
As time grew, it seemed that the distance between heaven and hell had become smaller than a sidewalk.
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One cold evening, Hyuna lingered on an empty bridge to watch the sun set, as the river below glowed in broken ribbons of gold. The pink haired devil sat on the edge, while she slowly started swinging her boots over the water, trying to convince her to take a train to somewhere she's never been before.
"She has enough money." Mizi stated.
"Not for long." Sua replied in her usual calm demeanor , but with an obvious sadness in her voice. "She won't."
Mizi sat silently, she had given up on convincing Hyuna of doing anything reckless for once, instead simply said, "I know." No mischief, no humor, no smile, just 'I know'.
"You've stopped trying as hard." The angel observed.
"Do angels ever get attached?"
The words were spoken lightly but still echoed again and again in the silence of the empty bridge, settling heavy between them.
Sua didn't answer.
Guardians weren't ever supposed to love the soul entrusted into their care, yet Sua couldn't help but care greatly for Hyuna, she wanted the best for her. Affection clouds judgement. Greif weakened resolve.
"We're told not to..." The dark haired angel finally answered, her wings wrapped around her tighter as soon as she uttered the words.
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Yet another winter came around, snow dusted rooftops and piled on the floors. The dark haired girl laughed exactly once that season, she had nearly slipping on an icy pavement before catching herself on a lamppost that was conveniently placed nearby. The sound surprised both of the immortals. Mizi smiled instinctively, genuine and pure. Sua closed her eyes for a moment, committing the rare sight to memory before it disappeared into the cold air to be buried in the snow.
At this point of the unlikely friendship between Mizi and Sua, conversations had become effortless yet comforting. Yet through all of their talks they had never spoke of the future. Neither being wanted to admit that eventually this assignment would end, sooner or later, one way or another.
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On yet another snowy morning of winter, the girl left home earlier than usual to get to work, she needed the money so had decided to go in for every shift she could. She put on a scarf and tucked it into her coat to stay warm, then headed to the same coffee shop as she usually does. She once again chose the cheapest on the menu but longed for something more as her guardians watched with pity shown on their faces. One gloved hand help the paper cup as she took a sip of the warm drink.
Mizi yawned dramatically and complained about it being too early as she followed her human, flying overhead while Sua remained on the ground keeping the same pace, keeping her attention dixed on Hyuna walking through the busy streets.
It happened so fast it was hard to comprehend, as if time had just been fractured.
There was no warning from heaven, nor a whisper from hell. There could never have been anything that would have prepared them for it other than the sharp hiss of an arrow cutting through the frozen air, through the crowd and straight into Hyuna's chest. The force spun her sideways as the cup was thrown out of her hands, the dark liquid dissolving the snow it landed on. Less than a heartbeat later she followed, collapsing onto the white street, letting out a cry and a strangled gasp as crimson bloomed out of her coat, staining the once bright ice.
The street errupted into screams.
Sua reached out to the body and dropped onto her knees. Her hands hovered hopelessly over the bleeding wound, shaking. Every instinct was begging for her to heal the girl before her. She couldn't. Angels couldn't heal mortal flesh, they couldn't undo death. They could only watch in horror as the life drained out of the humans eyes.
Across from her, Mizi stood wearing an expression Sua had never seen before- utter disbelief. She began to run, looking for someone, something, anything to blame, curse, temp, whatever she could do, but there was only panic and blood.
Hyuna's soul slowly slipped away, forever out of their reach, all they could do was witness it. When the girl took her final cold, desperate breath, everyone continued as normal, yet it impacted the immortals more than thought possible. Sirens wailes in the distance, it was too late.
Sua stared at her empty hands, unable to understand why they had been told to protect an already doomed life she never had the power to save. Beside her, Mizi sank onto the frozen pavement, shoulders shaking with a laugh full of hurt that broke halfway into something resembling a sob.
"All this time," she said cried, "I thought if I couldn't corrupt, temp her, or even break her spirit," she paused letting out a snall wail, "then maybe you could save her, heal her from my doing. I was wrong."
For the first time since they met all that time ago, angel and devil, saint and demon, heaven and hell stood together with nothing separating them- not duty, not centuries of inherited hatred. Only failure.
They had watched over the same fragile human for so long, believing that opposing one another meant something, that their roles could change this girls destiny.
In the end, temptation had been irrelevant.
Protection had been useless.
A single arrow, shot by mortal hands, had accomplished what neither heaven nor hell had control over. And as paramedics picked up the body, carrying the corpse into the ambulance the falling snow covered Hyuna's dark hair with a white coat, Sua and Mizi understood, with devastating clarity, that immortality had never meant power. It had only given them forever to remember the lives they could never truly change, over and over this fate was repeated and they were forced to watch.
Hell or heaven, it's still the same fate.
Both just as helpless, both just death.
𓏲🪽˚. ˖ . ݁