Chapter 2
He wrapped an arm around the white shoulder of the angel who was just tilting his glass, and leaned in. The body that flinched in surprise felt just like holding a small bird in his hand, he thought, as he reached for the glass the angel was holding.
***
“Huh…?”
Before he had even taken a sip, Yuri followed the glass slipping from his hand with his eyes and turned his head.
The first drink he had been given since coming to the club was precariously perched on the fingertips of a man who had approached him without his noticing.
The man, having downed in one go the drink he had taken without permission, smiled languidly and held the empty glass out to the man who had given it.
“That was mixed strong.” “…”
“Were you trying to knock him out and take him away?”
“…Ah, fuck.”
“Can’t you tell he’s a kid who doesn’t know anything? Take it easy, will you?”
The man, sticking out his tongue to lick his lips and curling the corners of his mouth, said it in a voice that was somehow cold. The man who had given the drink stiffened his face and chewed on a curse.
What is going on here?
Yuri curled the fingers that had been left awkwardly hanging in the air. He looked back and forth between the man standing behind him as if wrapping an arm around his shoulder, and the man who left with an irritated face.
…
Is this just what the atmosphere is like here? It’s fascinating, but it’s hard to get used to. When I heard about it from other angels, I thought it would just be fun.
Yuri swallowed an awkward breath, fidgeting with his hands, then glanced sideways. The man who had by now sat down beside him was leisurely drinking ice water, then held out the water that was about half left to him. His gaze, as he swept back his silver hair and looked at him quietly, seemed somehow intrigued.
Yuri carefully took the cold water the man offered and drank it down at once, then wiped his wet lips. Then he stared right back at the blond man who was resting his chin on his hand and gazing at him.
“You’re here for the first time, aren’t you?” …How did he know?
The man’s laughing tone was calm and gentle, as if stating the obvious. Yuri nodded and answered yes. The hazy smoke he had been breathing in made his mood grow more and more dreamy, so informal speech came out naturally, but the man laughed aloud as if he didn’t care about that at all. There was a slight metallic edge to it, but it felt quite clear.
“Right, so that’s why you were about to take a drink from a strange demon without a second thought.”
“…”
“Without knowing what could happen on a day like today.”
Colorful lights glittered over the face of the man speaking with his head tilted. His leisurely expression didn’t change in the slightest, as if he weren’t even dazzled.
He’s a demon, this man. The man, exuding a somewhat coquettish air, looked every bit a demon even to dull Yuri.
His black pants, torn to shreds, and the rider jacket draped loosely over them, the silver piercings dangling in profusion from his ears and the lightly curling platinum-blond hair, and even the languid gaze beneath it, were all things seldom seen in angels. And his voice, speaking so smoothly as if teasing, and his red lips, all of it.
Yuri, staring blankly from the man’s head to his toes, somehow felt short of breath. Why am I so breathless?
Rolling one piece of ice left in the glass around in his mouth, making his cheek bulge, he soon crunched the shrunken ice up and swallowed it.
He had come to his senses for a moment, but once the ice was gone he grew hazy again. His body felt as if it were loosening, melting away. Sitting on the tall stool, spinning it left and right, his mouth blankly shut, Yuri suddenly looked up with a start at the white hand wrapping around his wrist.
“You’ll pass out if you stay any longer.” “…”
“Let’s get out of here for now.”
“…Where to?”
“Anywhere.”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you once we’re out.”
“Can’t you tell me here?”
“Wow, you’re surprisingly stubborn.”
He looks so guileless, I thought he’d be obedient. The man swept back his hair and snorted as if it were absurd, but it didn’t feel as if he were mocking him.
What should I do, what do I do? A hazy hesitation floated up in Yuri’s mind, but it soon scattered into the dreamy feeling.
The man looked at Yuri, who had stopped again, and let out a laughing sigh. Then, with a gentle movement, he reached out a hand. As the man’s hand wrapped around his waist and he was suddenly pulled to his feet, Yuri swallowed a gasp, “hup.”
Because he stood up so suddenly, his hazy body swayed greatly. The man wrapped Yuri’s staggering waist in a thin, firm arm.
Seen standing upright, the man was just a little taller than him, and so their eyes, meeting at a similar level, looked endlessly languid.
“You’re a lot of trouble, you know.”
Are angels usually like this? The man’s voice, tilting his head as he spoke, was leisurely. Yuri, leaning his weakened body against him blankly, suddenly set his eyes in a sharp, aggrieved angle. And he pushed firmly at the man’s shoulder, which he had been clutching so as not to fall until just now.
“It’s because you stood me up so suddenly that I’m swaying.”
“What, is it my fault?”
“…Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Despite Yuri’s stubbornness, the man answered as if it were nothing and laughed, then took his hand and pulled him along.
“Where are we going? I came to the club to play today…” The man didn’t even pretend to hear Yuri’s sulky words and led the way to the entrance. Not knowing what it was, but with his head dizzy, Yuri soon pressed his lips together in dissatisfaction and followed unsteadily behind the man.
***
A small park hidden in the busy district was quiet, as if cut off from the noisy street. Only a few couples hiding in the darkness sat on benches, giving off an intimate air. Without even imagining what kind of beings the two who had just entered the park were.
Ian looked slowly around the park where the sound of leaves rustled, then leaned against the seat beside the angel sprawled on the bench. The angel, who had been panting in ragged breaths, grew quiet now that his senses were returning. His face, which had been hazily loosened, gradually cleared as well.
Ian, resting his chin on his hand and gazing at the angel, burst into a small laugh. The angel, looking at such an Ian, shifted his posture awkwardly.
“Are you coming to your senses?”
“…Yeah.”
“Can you listen without being stubborn now?”
At the teasing, playful words, the angel’s face turned sulky again. Ian laughed lightly and tilted his head.
“If you’d stayed there any longer, you would have passed out.”
The angel, hearing Ian’s words, opened his eyes round with a puzzled light. Why? Ian barely swallowed the laughter at the tip of his tongue at how innocent the face asking blankly was.
“Today is the day only demons gather. In human terms, Wednesday. Thursday is the day only angels come, and the other days are all mixed.”
“I was told I could come any day… That’s what I heard.”
“It’s no problem. If you want to play around promiscuously.”
“…”
“That smoke you were breathing in as soon as you came to the club, that’s all aphrodisiac and hallucinogen. For demons it’s just enough to feel good, but for an angel like you it must be strong.”
That was why he had no choice but to sway more and more hazily as time passed. The hazy smoke that the club pumped out from the noisiest hour until dawn made demons’ bodies subtly heat up. For an angel, it was too potent to keep one’s senses, and even fatal.
There was no problem with it. Wednesday was only demons anyway. Since it’s a species that loves lewd things to begin with, there was nothing bad at all about spending one night thoroughly. On days mixed with angels, there were also beings who held only curiosity about meeting another species, but on a day when only demons gathered, they gathered precisely because they wanted that. Only, when an angel dropped in on such a day, the excitement was amplified.
Rumors overflowed even among demons. An angel came on the demons’ day and it was incredible, angels are more lewd than demons when they put their minds to it, an angel you meet on Wednesday is much more fun than on a mixed day, and so on.
With curiosity added to vague rumors, everyone couldn’t help but smack their lips.
Ian had also seen an angel appear on a Wednesday besides the one before his eyes. That angel was smiling brightly among the demons surrounding him. The angel, giving his body over to hands reaching out from all over, caught the eye in his own way, but Ian had never been interested in the species called angels to begin with. He didn’t even know what was different about them from demons, and he also liked the sharp, cold atmosphere unique to demons.
The angel before his eyes now, apart from saying things that didn’t fit, was the exact opposite of his taste. And yet his gaze kept going to him, and he found him intriguing, which made him wonder if he was a demon after all.
Ian looked at the angel nodding slowly and quietly lifted the corners of his mouth.
“So, that drink you were about to take without knowing anything was dangerous too. If you’d drunk that too, you would have collapsed right there.”
“…You’re a demon, so it’s fine for you to drink it?”
“When you were about to be gang-raped in turn, that’s what you’re curious about?”
The angel made an “ah” with a blank face, as if he hadn’t thought that far, and fidgeted with his fingers. Ian laughed lightly, looking at the angel’s slender fingertips drawing his gaze. Anyway, it seemed the angel, abruptly dragged out of the club, had been explained enough to understand this situation. Taking a slow, low breath, he leaned back against the bench.
A cool breeze blew in. Ian, his eyes half closed, turned his head at the sound of a deep sigh that suddenly reached him. What’s wrong with this kid now?
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