Chapter 3
The angel had his clear face drooping sulkily. Then, with lips turned sulky, he muttered as if aggrieved.
“I was looking forward to it so much, what is this. I even picked the wrong day…”
“You can come again next time.”
“That’s true, but it was my first time. I thought it would just be fun, but I didn’t even get to play, and since it’s the demons’ day I can’t even go back into the club…”
Ian suddenly thought. Come to think of it, what was I like at first?
Now he had played enough that he only dropped by Midnight when he thought of it, but when he first went to the club, it seems he found it very interesting. Angels he had only brushed past now and then, and demons from other districts, and everything with an atmosphere similar to the Underworld yet somehow different.
Now he preferred wandering other places in the human world, but that was probably because he had enjoyed those enough too. This kid’s first memory had ended clumsily.
“I’m sad to go home already.”
The angel’s sigh deepened. Ian, who had been lost in thought for a moment, soon smiled silently and leaned toward the angel.
“What did you want to do at the club?”
“Just drink, and since I’ve never seen a demon, I was curious about that too.” “And?”
“Listen to music, dance, and spend a night…”
Ian suddenly burst out laughing and bowed his head, his shoulders shaking. Ah, how can he say something like spending a night with a face like that? The angel, his mumbling mouth pressed shut, looked at him with a dissatisfied gaze, but Ian had to laugh for a long while after that.
Ah, this kid is really funny.
Taking a deep breath still full of laughter, he met the angel’s gaze.
“They say angels are as promiscuous as demons, so even if you just grab anyone and spend a night, you don’t get punished?”
“Why would I be punished? As long as you don’t feel anything negative, it’s all fine. It’s not as if angels don’t do that kind of thing.”
“Right.”
A brief silence flowed. When Ian said nothing, the angel, mumbling, added as if making an excuse.
“…That doesn’t mean I wanted to do it with a lot of people. I don’t have any experience yet.”
“I was just curious…”
The angel, trailing off, looked at Ian, who only laughed quietly, and pressed his lips shut with an embarrassed face. No matter how he thought about it, he seemed sad and aggrieved, his expression not good.
Drinking, dancing, spending a night. What’s so hard about that?
Ian stretched out the arm he had been draping over the bench and tapped the angel’s cheek. The sulky face slowly turned toward him.
“Drinking and dancing, you can do those somewhere else too. Want to come along?”
“…Really?”
“Really.”
“…”
“And since I’m a demon, you can look at me all you want. That settles it, right?” The angel suddenly rolled his blank gaze. Then, saying, but why would you do that for me?, he gave an absurd answer. You’re stubborn in really strange places. Ian let out a faint sigh and tilted his head.
“Just because you’re fun.”
“…”
“Or, because I want to stay with you a little longer?”
He drawled the end of the sentence playfully in an insinuating voice. The angel, gazing at him, seemed to think for a bit, then nodded. Whether he had forgotten the danger at the club, or again agreed without suspicion, the angel was both absurd and funny.
He trusts other people so easily, what am I going to do with him? I have no intention of doing anything dangerous myself, so it doesn’t matter, but if this angel comes to the club on another day, he’ll surely be in danger just like today.
Ian rose leisurely and held out his hand to the angel. The angel, having now shaken off his sulky mood, took his hand with sparkling eyes again. Ian took the angel’s hand, which came to him carefully, adjusted his grip, and walked down the street full of neon signs.
***
Yuri stuck close behind the demon’s back and looked over his shoulder. The demon, paying familiarly in human currency and packing up goods, was nothing but fascinating. He himself was carefully avoiding even passing humans, afraid his being an angel might be discovered, but the demon before him naturally went into a convenience store and bought something. When he looked with sparkling eyes, the demon laughed lightly, asking what was so curious.
“It’s fascinating. Aren’t you scared?”
“Of what? Contact with humans?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m out and about a lot.”
The demon’s voice felt somehow relaxed. His back, walking unhesitatingly down complicated streets, also looked practiced. I wonder if I’ll become like this if I come down often too. An insinuating expectation welled up in Yuri’s mind, but unlike that feeling, his body hesitated, avoiding people. The demon laughed as if that were funny.
The building they arrived at after walking the night streets a little was quiet. The demon got on the elevator and pressed the top floor, and even after getting off at the highest floor, he went up one more floor by the emergency stairs.
“How far are we going?”
Yuri grumbled in dissatisfaction as he climbed the dark, quiet emergency stairs, but the demon only smiled and held out his hand.
“We’re here.”
The door, firmly locked, unlocked with a click the moment the demon touched it, and swung wide open with a creaking, rusty sound. Following the demon pulling him along, Yuri stepped outside the door and opened his eyes round at the wide, open space. His pouting lips fell slack in a daze.
“Wow…”
The view seen near the railing was distinctly different from looking down from Heaven. It was far clearer, and lights of many colors glittered. The great river visible far away had countless car lights moving quickly, and when he looked up at the night sky, a round moon hung brightly. Stars shone here and there between. There were far fewer stars than the ones seen from Heaven, but the night view before his eyes was beautiful enough.
“Do you like it?”
A quiet voice wrapped around his ear. Yuri, his face full of smiles, turned his head. The demon’s bright hair fluttered coolly in the river breeze. Yuri looked at his finely curved eyes and nodded greatly. Yeah, I like it. The demon smiled leisurely as if he had known it would be so.
“Right below here there’s an LP bar. A place where people drink and listen to music.”
“I see…”
“At this time they leave the windows open, so the music carries well. It was a place only I knew, but coming here with you is fine too.”
Yuri took the demon’s slowly extended hand and sat side by side on the precarious railing. The railing, not high, was dangerous enough that one wrong step would send you falling at once, but it didn’t matter. Since both the demon and he were hiding wings that couldn’t be seen, it was fine.
Only white moonlight fell on the wide rooftop. Yuri, looking at the dizzying depths below with eyes full of curiosity, swung his dangling feet. The demon beside him rustled as he pulled a bag toward him, then held out a beer can to Yuri.
Yuri took the cold can and tilted his head in puzzlement. He knew what it was, but seeing it in person for the first time, he examined it this way and that in a quandary.
…What is this, how do you do it?
After tapping the firm cap side with his fingertips, Yuri soon sighed with a dissatisfied expression. The demon, who had been watching leisurely with his chin on his hand, reached out a hand with a light laugh the moment Yuri grew sulky.
“Come to think of it, you really are high-maintenance, you know?” His laughing tone sounded just like teasing. Yuri, taking back the beer can that had opened with a cool sound, stuck out his lower lip sulkily and glanced at the demon.
“It’s because it’s my first time. Were you good from the very beginning?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
“I was good from the very beginning.”
“Damn…”
He wanted to say something, but this demon beside him, laughing leisurely, seemed as if he really would have been good at everything from the very beginning, so he was at a loss for words.
Mumbling his lips in dissatisfaction, Yuri held the beer can that had not yet been opened and closed his mouth with a determined expression. Remembering the movement the demon had just made to open the cap, he raised his fingertips.
His heart was set on it, but his fingers, flicking off clumsily with tick, tick sounds, fumbled for a long time. Without even noticing the demon tilting his head and smiling subtly as he watched his fingertips, Yuri concentrated for a long while.
“Shall I do it?”
“No, I’m almost there. I’ll do it.”
“Put your finger in the gap that’s opened there and pry it a bit wider.”
“…Like this?”
“That’s right. And put some strength into it, pull.”
In an instant, with a fizz, the carbonation burst. Yuri smiled brightly, looking at the white foam rising. With a proud expression, he straightened his back and held the can out to the demon. The demon, who had been bowing his head as if holding back laughter, took the can and met his gaze.
“Good job. Thank you.”
Looking at the face steeped in laughter, Yuri somehow scratched at his ear, which felt oddly ticklish. What is it, why is it so ticklish…? He had been wearing a strange smile from the start, but the face he had just seen somehow wouldn’t leave his sight. The demon’s languid expression, eyes lowered as if praising him, seemed to rush into his mind with a whoosh.
Cooling his hot cheeks, Yuri suddenly looked at another beer can tapping against his own can and raised his head.
“It’s called ‘cheers.’”
“Before drinking?”
The faint vibration from the light clink felt good. It seemed to tickle from his fingertips. So this is called cheers. Yuri smiled brightly at the demon tilting his beer can and held out his can again.
“Let’s do it one more time. Cheers, one more time.”
The demon, having leisurely swallowed the beer he had been holding in his mouth, raised the corners of his mouth and held out his can again, and Yuri whispered “Cheers” and clinked his can. The first carbonation he had ever tasted popped and tickled inside his mouth.
Yuri thought that this strange beer, popping with each sip, was similar to his body right now, being with this demon. Ticklish and tingling, pop, pop.
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