by Con Template
Shin returned my smile with a radiant one of his own. Tonight, he was wearing a crème-colored jacket and black pants that made him look more polished than I had ever seen him. His shoulder length hair was tied up in his signature half-ponytail. There was a calming aura to him that made me feel at ease. If there was anyone that I would tolerate disrupting my time alone, it was him.
He motioned to a group of four guys playing pool across the room. “I was hanging out with the guys, and I saw you. I just wanted to stop by and say hi.” His dark brown eyes appraised my sullen demeanor. Like the thoughtful person he was, he kindly tilted his head at me and asked, “Tough night?”
I gave an awkward laugh, finding it unnecessary to insult his intelligence by lying to him. “You could say that.”
He nodded in understanding. He looked at me and then to his friends again. “Would you like to come hang out with us? You know, to take your mind off of it? The guys and I are experts in helping girls forget about their problems.”
I laughed softly at the light sense of humor he injected into his offer. “That’s really nice of you, but I think I’ll stay here. You know, to sulk by myself.”
Shin grinned. Instead of leaving me to sulk by myself, he took a seat on the couch across from mine. He placed his soda on the coffee table between us. “Troubles with your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I said honestly. I had never once considered Eclipse to be my boyfriend, and I never would. This was not “boy” trouble—this was a Demon problem.
“I see,” Shin replied. “It’s just complicated?”
I bobbed my head absently, feeling bad that he was keeping me company because he felt sorry for me. I considered thanking him for his concerns and urging him to leave, but Shin didn’t strike me as the type of person who would leave when someone needed his help. So placing my own bitterness for Eclipse aside, I did my best to be social for someone who was kind enough to keep me company.
“Do you come here often?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed warmly. “When the guys and I don’t feel like doing school work, we come here and chill the night away.” He chuckled, shaking his head at me. “A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be sitting here by yourself. It gives creeps the opportunity to hit on you.”
Amusement laced my voice. “I’m lucky that you’re here instead of one of those opportunistic guys who are looking to bed me.”
“I don’t know.” A teasing grin quirked his lips. “Perhaps I am one of those horndogs who is looking to sweet-talk you. I’m not exactly known for being the angelic type anyway.”
I laughed. I agreed that in terms of outward appearances, he didn’t appear like he would be the angelic type. Then again, Shin had proven me wrong time and time again. He was just so kind, polite, and nice to be around; he definitely didn’t appear to be the bad boy player that he personified.
“So what has gotten you down in the dumps, Grace?” he inquired, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.
“I feel very lost right now and I don’t know what has become of my life,” I shared hazily, drinking my soda. I smiled cynically and leaned back in my seat. It couldn’t hurt to vent to him, if only minutely. “Not something you want to hear when you want to chill the night away, huh, Shin?”
“We all go through our phases,” he assured, never once making me feel like a burden to be around. “I’ve had days like that where I feel so lost that I don’t know what has become of my life.”
I inclined my head at him, struck by this admission. “You don’t seem like the type.”
“Appearances can be deceiving,” he replied, and I bobbed my head in agreement. “I know I seem like the type who doesn’t give a damn, but I have my days. The thing about being lost is that when you are found again, it’s the best feeling in the world—to wake up with a purpose rather than uncertainty.”
“How’d you become so enlightened?” I asked unthinkingly. Curiosity glowed in my eyes. With every passing second, Shin appeared more interesting and more mysterious to me.
“My part-time job,” he answered, pride present in the nuance of his voice. “In my free time, I work with my church.” His eyes lit up. “Let me tell you. If you should ever feel lost, all you have to do is turn to your church for advice and everything is put into perspective for you. Helping those who are less fortunate than you is one of the better purposes a college student could ask for.”
“Church?” I blurted, surprised.
He grinned, leaning back in his seat. He folded his arms over his chest with a playful look. “I don’t look like the religious type?”
I shook my head honestly. “But as of late, I’ve come to find that no one is as they appear.”
The expression on his face flickered enigmatically. “Well, I’m no saint so don’t throw me on your non-threatening list as of yet.”
I laughed quietly at his joking words.
Once my laughter died down, he regarded me seriously and said, “What happened, Grace? I’m not here to share my religious values or life story with you. You look like you need someone to vent to and I want to offer that type of solace.” He shrugged, grinning coyly to himself. “If you haven’t guessed, I like butting into people’s business and helping if I can.”
“You make it your own personal mission to be my Guardian Angel?” I joked lightly, remembering how he stood up for Sony and me at the grocery store.
Sony, a seven-year-old boy from a shelter I volunteered at, had dropped a pumpkin on someone’s foot. Instead of being understanding and gracious, the man decided to curse Sony out. While I was too spineless to stand up for Sony, Shin, who was a stranger at the time, was kind enough to defend us. I would never forget how incredible he was to me in my time of need.
“There’s something about you that draws me in,” he admitted, and I felt my heart flutter at his words. His shoulders rose into a shrug. “I’m very curious about you and”—he laughed—“I guess I like to play my part. Every guy jumps at the chance to be a beautiful girl’s knight in shining armor, and I couldn’t miss the chance with you.”
The fluttering of my heart increased with his last words. He called me beautiful. Despite our few interactions, Shin and I had always had a very flirtatious relationship. If I weren’t currently mind-fucked by a manipulative Demon, then I would’ve engaged in some unabashed flirting with Shin. Unfortunately, Eclipse, even when he wasn’t around, still had a strong presence in my life. I was too pissed off at him to even effectively flirt with Shin.
I was saved from having to respond to the last of Shin’s words when he glanced at my wrist. His brows drew down in intrigue. “Those are interesting looking bracelets. There are no clasps for them?”
My eyes trailed after his gaze. On my wrist sat the seven gold bangles that were glowing under the lounge lighting. I raised my eyes to meet his and shook my head in response.
Shin laughed with incredulity. “How on earth do you take them off then?”
“I’ve been wearing them for as long as I could remember. I’ve never taken them off.”
His dark brown eyes enlarged. “It doesn’t annoy you that you can’t take them off when you want to?”
“Oh no,” I replied, mindlessly playing with my bangles now that he had brought my attention to them. “I’ve grown up with them, so I don’t even notice that I’m wearing them sometimes.” I fondly grazed my fingers over my bangles. “They’ve become like another layer of skin for me. I only notice them when other people point them out.”
An amused chuckle poured from him. “It happens often?”
I nodded, thinking back to all the times where people would gush or ask questions about the jewelry on my wrist. “Girls always compliment them, asking me where I got them, and guys, who are usually looking to hit on me, ask about them as their opening line to get me to be comfortable with them.”
At my comment about the guys who hit on me, Shin guided the conversation right back to why he sat down in the first place
. “How did this guy screw up, Grace?”
I bit my lips, initially hesitant with confiding in him. But then, after feeling all these emotions bubble within me, I had to release them. I needed someone to vent to and Shin seemed like the perfect candidate. He was understanding, he was attentive, and even if I didn’t know him that well, I felt that he was also trustworthy.
“I found out that he’s been using me and I was too stupid to see it,” I revealed in one breath. “It all makes sense now. A part of me suspected this in the beginning, but like I said, I was too stupid to see it.”
“How did you find out?”
“Someone else.”
He crumpled his face in empathy. “That’s possibly one of the worst ways to find out. Have you at least confronted him about it?”
“No,” I answered before quickly adding, “I want to make it clear that this guy is not my boyfriend. I just don’t like being used in any capacity.”
Shin smiled in approval. He loved the answer I gave him. “You deserve better than him.”
“Grrrr . . .”
From beside me, OinkOink growled irately at Shin. I had forgotten that the puppy was beside me all along. It’d make sense that the little ball of fluff would get defensive if someone were to talk badly about his beloved owner.
Shin chuckled, staring at OinkOink with an entertained smile. “I don’t think your puppy likes me very much.”
I smiled apologetically and then glared at OinkOink. Upon seeing the disapproval on my face, OinkOink stopped growling. Almost fearfully, he whimpered and behaved himself.
“Sorry about that,” I said to Shin. “He’s usually a really friendly puppy. I think he’s tired. I’ve been running around with him all day.”
Shin nodded, showing no ill will towards the impolite puppy. “Of course.”
“There you are, you sneaky short girl!” shouted an annoyingly recognizable voice.
I whipped my head around and spotted Coco walking into the student lounge. Phix was by her side, rushing over to me as well.
“Ah, damn,” I moaned under my breath, not believing that the two baby Demons actually found me.
They indignantly stomped over to us, claiming the attention of all the students around us. Phix and Coco’s eyes darted from me to Shin. Their stares on him were laced with venom.
“She’s spoken for, buddy,” Phix said territorially.
Behind him, Coco added, “Yeah, so go check yourself.”
“Shut up,” I snarled at them before turning to Shin and giving him another apologetic smile. I was mortified that everyone around me was being so rude to him. “I’m really sorry about this, Shin.”
Shin merely ignored them and kept his gentle gaze on me. “It’s alright. I should get going anyway.” He got up, picked up his soda can, and warmly added, “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’ll be here, Grace.”
“Thank you for listening, Shin,” I said gratefully, standing up as well. “I appreciate it.”
“It was my pleasure.” He inclined his head and waved, walking back towards his friends. “Good night, Grace.”
“Look at him acting like he’s some Angel,” Coco gritted out to Phix as she stared after Shin. “He may be insanely cute, but we all know he just wants to get into Gracie’s pants.”
Angered by their sudden appearance, I flipped my attention back to the two Demons. With a growl under my breath, I roughly grabbed my bag and motioned for them to follow me out. I couldn’t risk them further making a scene at the student lounge.
“I’m not going home,” I told them inflexibly after walking out with them. We were now stationed at the stairs outside the lounge. Below us were students meandering around the grounds, hanging out with friends as the cool wind swept past us.
They exchanged exasperated looks before Phix cocked his head at Coco. “Leave first, Coco. Go watch his Dark Majesty. I’ll bring her home soon.”
Coco lifted a skeptical brow. “You sure you can handle her? Didn’t she beat you up the other day?”
“Didn’t she punch you a second ago?”
I had to hand it to Phix. He was quite possibly the only male alive who could deliver such a crass line to a woman and still appear naïve and innocent. There was a playful charm in his voice that made it difficult to be severely mad at him.
Though this charm appeared to bear no effect on Coco, she listened to his command anyway. Before making her exit, she made sure to impart me with a glare. The deepening bruise on her left eye made her appear scarier than before. After effectively striking fear into my heart, she gunned down the stairs and disappeared.
To be honest, I felt bad about punching her. Coco had been surprisingly cool—it was shady of me to sucker punch her like that. I made a mental note to buy her cookies as an apology.
“Gracie,” started Phix when it was just the two of us.
“I’m not going home,” I interrupted stubbornly, setting my heels in and refusing to move.
“Fine, fine.” He gestured his hand for me to follow him down the stairs. “Let’s just take a walk then.”
Seeing no harm in that, I nodded warily. I walked down the stairs with him as we started an impromptu late night stroll around campus.
Ivy-covered brick buildings, lush gardens, and world-class statues ornamented my beautiful campus. All around, there was a lingering scent of rain in the air. The ground was still damp from the storm and the sky was seemingly preparing for another downpour.
“Gracie,” Phix spoke up after a lengthy pause between us. Outwardly, he appeared composed, but I knew he was anxious for me to get back to the apartment. He was charged to watch over Eclipse and I, and because Coco was still considered a very young Demon, I knew he wanted to get back to my place so he could watch over all of us.
“Coco told me the truth,” I interjected, plucking a yellow rose out of the dying rose garden that lined the pebbled walkway. I began to mindlessly pluck out the individual petals, the remains trailing after us like shadows.
“Yeah, she told me,” he responded with distracted amusement. He laughed to himself. “She came into the apartment freaking out. It took me a while to decipher that she was saying, ‘I accidentally told her that his Dark Majesty was punished with her and then the midget punched me!’” His chuckle grew louder as he lowered his eyes to me. “You have a thing for abusing me and Coco, don’t you?”
I wanted to smile, but I didn’t have the energy. Instead, I continued to pluck the petals off my rose, imagining that I was peeling off Eclipse’s skin.
Phix smiled awkwardly, noting how distant I was being.
“We got along pretty well before you found out I was a Demon,” he prompted innocently, staring at me with puppy-dog eyes.
I returned that look with a firm stare. “Was this before you fucked up and nearly got me killed or when you pretended to be an old man to gain my trust?”
Phix winced at the reminder of his failures. That awkward smile of his grew into a hopeful one. “What about the vending machine?”
I remembered liking him a lot when I was interacting with him at the vending machine, but that felt like a lifetime ago. He had been charged to serve Eclipse, which meant that his true loyalty was with Eclipse. In the grand scheme of things, it also meant that he was against me. It didn’t help that he was well aware that Eclipse had been punished with me all along. I didn’t like Coco very much, but at least she told me the truth.
Reading my thoughts, he quietly said, “I know that you’re probably mad at me because I didn’t tell you about his Dark Majesty’s dilemma, but it wasn’t my place to do so. If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been fucking up around him a lot lately.” He sighed when I didn’t bother to respond to him. He went back to the original topic to try and win me over, or at least get me to converse with him. “I really liked you too,” he told me, the hopeful smile never leaving his face. “At the vending machine, when we were talking . . . I thought you were very sweet and nice. I felt like I was talking to my little s
ister.” His shoulders rose offhandedly. “If I knew how it felt to have one, that is.”
“I’m not a nice person in real life,” I finally voiced, for some reason ticked off that he believed I was a “sweet and nice” girl. “That girl you met at the vending machine, her charisma and her sweetness doesn’t really exist. In real life, I’m just a sick and disturbed girl who likes to enjoy people’s miseries.”
“I beg to differ,” he respectfully countered. “I would say that you’re a lot feistier than you look, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not the girl I met at the vending machine. Your propensity towards the more sadist sentiments of life aside, I think that you’re a genuinely nice girl.”
“Were you human as well?” I suddenly asked when the curiosity struck me. He had been talking about me being a nice person when he was a really sweet person as well. He was such a nice guy that I couldn’t fathom that he was a Demon in disguise. “Like Coco? Before you became a Demon . . . were you human?”
“No,” he answered coolly. “I was never human.”
“You’re very good at acting like it.”
I was amazed at how incredible he was at behaving like “one of us.” He seemed genuinely kinder than most humans I had met.
“You have this innocent and charming persona that gets people to put their guard down,” I continued. “You seem really human.”
“Not all Demons are gung-ho on power and not all Demons hate humans, Gracie,” he enlightened. “Some of us are more evolved than others and some of us are really indifferent towards your existence. For the most part, I couldn’t care less if any of you live or die. I am not offended by your presence, nor am I obsessed with it.” He stretched his hand out in the “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” manner. “This is me; this is my personality. I’m not faking it.”
“So, what did Coco ask for?” I asked, gradually finding myself becoming comfortable around Phix, just like I was when I first “met” him at the vending machine. I wanted to take my mind off Eclipse. There was no better distraction than rifling for dirt on a certain glaring hyena who seemed unreservedly offended by my existence. “Was it just for fame and fortune?”