Nico adjusted the lapels of his blazer and approached the executive assistant's office. The young lady sitting at the modern desk flashed him a graceful smile, light brown hair settling over her shoulders as she visibly sat straighter. Her newfound, bright expression pained him. But, he was glad that she at last found the strength to make such a notion.

"Hello, sir. Do you have an appointment with Mr. Kim this afternoon?"

He surveyed the pearls at her neck, then her shimmering eyes. Does she even recall where she got those from? Who gave those to her? Uncomfortably, Nico shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned forward almost imperceptibly. Nudging the dark energy lying dormant in his veins, he widened his eyes a tad and said, "Let me into his office, Rin."

Though her doll-like features scrunched in concern, she rose from the seat and strode towards Seokjin's main office. One tug from her thin arms, and the door opened just a crack. He slipped in, gifting her with a kind smile even though his compulsion wrapped around her dainty neck like an invisible snake. Besides, it wasn't like he enjoyed restricting other's free will so why not be polite while doing it?

"Thank you," he whispered. "Sit at your desk, and forget I came."

She nodded slowly like a child hypnotized by a magic trick. The door's heavy thud behind him echoed off the walls as he took a deep breath. He promised himself to hold his temper at bay, but staring at the back of Seokjin's head now assured him that it wouldn't be easy.

Before he took a step forward, Nico held his hand up and raised his voice. "Jungkook, I know you are in here. Show yourself."

His rigid silhouette may have fooled a human, but it would not pass Nico's detection. And true to his bet, the corner of the room with the least sunlight rippled as the young man stepped into the light. Jungkook clenched his jaw and leaned against a series of bookshelves.

Jin sighed. "Was it worth it? The hunt?"

"You sent her away," Nico seethed.

"I gave her mercy."

Nico chided himself to stay calm while his blood boiled. "Does that help you sleep at night? That you gave her to the demons so that they did not have to come and collect her from you?"

Jin shifted from the window, glaring daggers at his precious friend. If looks could kill, Nico thought. "I lose no sleep over the death of a human."

"That is why you send Jungkook to get rid of the ones he can find every night, yes? Because you have no empathy for the terrorized mortals they follow?"

Jin rolled his eyes, murderous anger radiating from him like sun rays. Nico ignored him. He said, "Seokjin, you have fought the darkness for this long. Why are you giving in now?"

His pale fist slammed into his desk. "There is only a matter of months, Nico. It's over and you can't see it!"

Nico sent a glance sidelong at Jungkook, who kept his attention on the floor. He didn't need to ask to know the young man listened to their exchange, added his own logic, weighed in internally. And in truth, all Nico could do was plant the seed in their heads. For one last time, give them the idea and watch it grow from a distance.

"All you need is a single confession."

:::

Grey fell back on her rear, inhaling shallow breaths. She threw the long branch she was using into the hedge bushes, yelping when a tiny piece of fine wood pierced her skin. Removing the splinter, she sucked the blood from her thumb.

For three hours, she scoured Harmony Park. Not only Solstice Gardens, but the open plains, Peace Grounds, and other subsections that she ignored in the past. When the other locations proved completely devoid of magical pulls and thunder rumbled overhead, she found her way back to the lake before the rain could start.

Every stone she tossed into the waves sank and never resurfaced. She'd hoped they'd be spat back out. After a while, she laughed at herself and remembered the rules of gravity. What the hell else did she expect?

Then again, how did one successfully locate a reality-bending portal?

If she wasn't going to fasten on goggles and take a dive, what was the damn point? This was delirium, and she understood it fully when she considered picking up the branch a second time and dipping it into the shore in the hopes of something yanking it out of her hand.

Perhaps these last few days were a painstakingly slow descent into madness.

Except, she was getting sick of conjuring excuses. It had been at least four days and in the back of her mind, she didn't feel half as crazy as she expected; every stretch of this journey through mirrored Seoul she took in confidence. The issue was not that she was unconscious in some hospital, but that she felt in her heart that she still knew what she was doing--that the situation was not completely out of her control. She just needed to learn how to handle it.

What terrified her was finding a way to do so. But she had to know, had to prepare herself for this place, this challenge, this version of Grey.

Because she wasn't going back today.

If the legends were true, then fine. This was a parallel world. No inch of her being or her soul would be compromised to better suit her circumstances. If anything, she wanted to face herself for who she was, wanted to embrace this place for what it had to offer. There was a lesson in this if only she could find it.

If she wasn't completely Grey back home, she sure would be more like Grey here. And now that she knew the parameters she set for herself, she had an urge to discover the truth about others.

A feminine voice purred at her side. "You are still here."

Sighing heavily, Grey nodded. "The lake won't take me back."

"It is all for a reason, Grey."

She scoffed, shaking her head once and looking down at Luca. "Promise me one thing, cat."

Luca meowed at the nickname, tail flicking this way and that. "When you fulfill your course in this realm, I will fulfill yours."

"Yeah, whatever that means," Grey rolled her eyes, "Is that a yes?"

Luca seemed to laugh at her. "What are you asking of me?"

"Help me find a way back home."

"Grey, I do not know if I can promise that--,"

"And another thing," Grey interrupted, "I believe you. I believe in everything you've told me. Help me understand what the hell is going on. With everything."

The bell tinkled as Luca padded forward, making sure to find Grey's eyes. Deep warning resonated in those jade irises. "Ignorance is bliss, Grey. The more I tell you, the more I fear you may become involved."

She tilted her head back to examine the gray clouds, how she couldn't see the blue behind them but saw the speed with which the storm moved. Life hit her that fast. Grey said, "Luca, I almost died last night. And you saw the way that Irkan shoved through random pedestrians to get to me. Chased me down like a dog after a steak. Whatever it wanted, it couldn't be found in anyone else. I already am involved."

"They hunt down other humans too. It has not been proven that you are a special case. Do not assert yourself where you do not belong."

"If I don't belong then why did you come and find me?" Luca's stunned silence was enough of an answer. Grey crossed her arms, not bothering to wait for a response. "I'll be the judge of what I can and cannot handle. I'll make the decisions. In the meantime, educate me."

Luca nodded curtly, bowing her tiny head. "As you wish."

Grey pushed off the ground, wiping mulch and sandy dirt from her palms and leggings. Luca tailed her heels as she strolled towards the entrance of Solstice Gardens. The cat panted in an effort to keep up. "Grey, I must warn you now. Do not share with anyone what you've learned. Knowledge of the Irkans and the others makes you and whoever you told visible to them."

She flippantly waved away the cat's complaint. If another nightstalker dared to come her way, she wouldn't freeze. She promised herself that much.

"Where are we headed?" Luca trotted through the floral archway that led to the rest of the park.

We. Grey chuckled softly, hiding her pleasant surprise. "The library."

:::

The Seoul Public Library was larger than Grey anticipated. Dangling ceiling lights placed white spots on the light wooden parquet floors where she walked. A glass staircase led up to a second floor, and from the balcony she spotted more readers pouring their attention into used copies or newly released novels. Paper white walls made the entire space brighter even though the beginnings of a sunset filtered through the tall windows. Surrounded by so many titles, she was unsure of which way she was heading. So, she followed all the signs that pointed to the supernatural.

Luca meowed. "Do you know what to look for?"

"Sure? I think?"

"Try searching the term Anaphiel."

Grey stopped, making the kitten bump into her ankle. She rounded a sharp left, digesting the bits of words she could glimpse from hanging laminated signs.

"You said they roam the sky. There's one thing I can think of that does that. And if I'm right in my guess, I'll make sure to check for it."

"Today," Grey went on, picking a row to shuffle through, "I saw it. Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, which they weren't because I very clearly saw their expression when they--," she rephrased immediately as heat crept up her cheeks, "The sunlight fell on them a certain way. Enough so that I noticed the rings above their heads. Halos."

She decelerated at the end of an aisle, studying the third shelf. Rising up to her tiptoes, she craned her neck and read the title aloud. "Angels: An Anthology and Encyclopedia of Holy Legends."

Bingo. That was a damn good place to start.

Except, she couldn't reach the binding. She grunted, extending as far as her shoulder to only graze the gold lettering of the title.

"Here, let me get that for you." A boyish, cool voice fluttered past the back of her ears. She froze, arm stuck idiotically in midair as a long arm secured the book and hauled it off the shelf. When she rotated to encounter her hero, the bible-sized book almost touched the tip of her nose. She peeked over the leather cover to light brown parted hair and black-rimmed reading glasses. His forest green mix of a cardigan and blazer whitened his bleached button-up.

His cheeks drew back in a cautious smile, revealing dimples the size of craters.

Nerds weren't supposed to be this sexy.

"Angels? You're into this stuff?" His dark chocolate eyes blinked once as he consumed her with a glance, evaluating, gauging.

"I am now," she presented her palms in a silent gesture that meant: give me the book.

He obeyed. The sudden weight in her forearms made her knees buckle. She swiftly recovered, blowing a stray curl out of her eyes with her bottom lip. Not wanting the silence to win out, she scrutinized the paperback novels under his arm.

"The Catcher in the Rye? How to Kill a Mockingbird? You're a literature buff?"

He tongued the inside of his cheek, shifting his weight to one hip. "They are classics for a reason."

"I'm sure," she squinted playfully, delighting in the banter. "I hope you don't fall asleep skimming those over."

"I won't if you join me at my table."

Suave. She hesitated before answering. If she was going to find answers, she'd need Luca the tour guide. And in perfect talking-cat fashion, the animal was nowhere to be seen. So, she shrugged and nodded. "Let's grab a table."

He led her to a pretty vacant seating area, the only patrons remaining glued to their pages with earphones blasting music into their ears. Her tome of holy information shook the table when it dropped, and the hot nerd took the seat across from her.

"What are you researching," Nerd asked, judging the random page she turned to in the middle of the hefty volume, "if you don't mind me asking."

Grey retained an inside voice, or whatever voice bookworms preferred in these types of places. "What makes you think I'm researching?"

He nonchalantly flipped through the pages of one of his paperbacks as though her were shuffling through a deck of cards. "There were several angel books where you searched. You picked this one, the largest and an encyclopedia. Plus, you got this look of fierce concentration as soon as you opened it. Entertainment readers don't do that."

She went back to observing her goldmine of information. "Okay, Nerd. You guessed right."

"Namjoon."

"What?" She regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

"Namjoon. Not nerd."

"Ah, I see." She pursed her lips then grinned. "Grey."

"Nice to meet you. Now tell me what you're up to. I might know a thing or two."

Of course the literature lover had a mental archive of worldly knowledge. A big brain that combined passive aggressive flirting and probably fun facts about ancient civilizations. More than she wanted to admit, she was glad the brainiac cared.

She ran a hand through her hair. "You would really help me?"

"Why not? I've got time. And I've dabbled in things like that..." She eyed the stack of paperbacks at his side, then eyed him.

"Alright Namjoon," she pointed to a word, "define this."

Nephilim. A long time ago read some urban fantasy novel about it, but for the life of her she couldn't recall just what it was.

Namjoon assumed a stare of intense concentration at the open book. In seconds, he rambled. "They're descendants of real angels. Not purebred, but in most cases special enough to inherit heavenly abilities. They're wingless, and tend to resemble humans more than their predecessors."

Okay, Google. Grey chuckled to no one in particular, flipping to the back of the book for the index. "I'm not going to ask how you know all that."

He winked, those dimples acting as sinkholes. "I told you, Grey. I dabbled."

"Then you believe in this stuff too," she blurted. Namjoon's glee wavered, his movements becoming stiller.

"I don't really."

"You wouldn't let me read the book alone, insisting that I let you help with the research as though you want a hand in it. An unprecedented level of enthusiasm went into that single definition. Not only that, you're as glued to the pictures in here as I am."

Checkmate.

His shock was evident on his handsome features, mystery towards her identity prowling in his gaze. She tapped a manicured finger on her chin, feigning pity. "You thought you were the only observant one at the table? Be careful with those assumptions."

"You're dangerous," Namjoon said.

She smirked. "So are you."

"Give me another one."

Grey thought of Luca's term. If she had a human Wikipedia in front of her, she figured she no longer had to claw through the book's index. Though she surveyed the "A" words, she tried Namjoon again. "This one may be a bit more unique... I learned about it a few days ago and it's been stuck on my mind."

The piqued curiosity behind those glasses was surprisingly intimate, as though not only was her request an answer to a riddle but so was she. "Can you define Anaphiel?"

That open-mindedness he displayed earlier shut down like a bugged computer program. Where the atmosphere between them had been cordial, carefree, witty, it was now cautious. His casual lean against the back of his chair was replaced by a rigid stance. "Where did you hear that?"

Careful, Grey. Thin ice. "This paper I'm writing is supposed to be quirky, original. I wanted to go deeper than surface level."

He measured her calmly, then sat back. He was on the defense from that gesture, and she resisted the urge to demand why. "That's some underground conspiracy type shit."

"What? How?" She forced herself to remain relaxed, appear clueless. Namjoon wasn't dumb. He saw right through it.

"You don't have to lie to me, Grey. I can tell you what you want to know."

:::

(A/N) Independent Reader,

6/5 (June 5th), is the next release date! It feels so good to have King Namjoon added to the mix.

This chapter is dedicated to all Namjoon lovers. He deserves so much love and I'm glad we're here for him.

Thank you for the read! Don't forget to share and vote or comment! Hearing from you guys is the best reward.

(EDIT 6/16/20: I've gravitated to Joon more and more with each passing day. Nothing has changed.)

With Love,

M