Black Silk ✘ Minsung

Chapter 1

  Tightly gripping his books, he looked around the hall, the devils and angels all around. It was obvious these two species did not go along despite having the same fate as everyone else here had. The rivalry was so evident that Jisung could almost smell it in the air.

  Everyone was chatting though as if all of this was a normal thing. Some of them are over 300 years old, of course, it is normal for them, he reminded himself. They were getting ready for another day of recruiting lost human souls and deciding their fate based on their life. Jisung was still very new to this, so he needed a lot of training and studying.

  How ironic.

  Making his way towards a room at the end of the hall, he noticed a loud group of devils sitting near the entrance. He recognised one of them, of course — satan's son. His blonde hair was slightly slicked back into a ponytail with two strands freely hanging at the sides of his perfect face. Jisung felt very intimidated just by looking at his side profile but when he turned his head and their eyes met, Jisung found himself almost tripping over his legs. Hyunjin gave him a small smile, his eyes momentarily turning to a goldish colour which left the angel speechless as he shook his head and made his way to the room.

  I'll never get used to this, he said to himself as he pushed the large door open, revealing a large library with multiple tables in the middle. There he was sitting. His fringe slightly falling over his eyes, smile plastered on his face. But the thing that always catches his attention is the boy's wings. They are different from everyone else's. The sun was shining on them, giving them a very glittery effect. Jisung liked and admired that.

  This boy was his mentor. He got specially chosen by the head of the facility. From what Jisung has heard, Seungmin was born as an angel which is very rare. Supposedly, someone with pure angel blood is born once every few thousand years. And Jisung felt very nervous around the boy even though he was the kindest person he has ever met, in this afterlife even in his previous life.

  Their eyes met and Jisung smiled. His fingers began to tremble every time he was able to scan the boy's face. From his lips to his brown eyes that turned icy blue when he was extremely excited. He moved towards him, clutching his books closer to his chest if that was even possible. He sat down and greeted him, receiving back a smile.

  "Good Morning, Han Jisung," he smiled as he bowed, Jisung mirroring his actions. Seungmin was a very polite person. He never spoke informally even to his friends which might be the manner he has learnt and grown attached to only because he never experienced human life. Jisung feels sorry for him, his parents — the heads of this facility — never allowed him to even see the human world. Therefore his life was spent studying and educating newcomers on things that they might encounter and how to protect themselves even though he never really left the safe space of his home, which was this horrendous building.

  One might think, how does heaven look like? Jisung does not know. Is it the paradise of acceptance lots of people imagine it as? No, not really. Looking up towards the glorious skylights that made the library look like it came out straight out of a fairy tale, he saw a bunch of sun rays. Apart from that, it was quite dull. He could say the same thing about heaven. The academy building is built in a place they call Imperium, for some reason. It is not heaven, it is not hell either — it's somewhere in the middle. Isn't that the human world, you might ask. Yes but not exactly. Confusing, right? That is what Jisung feels every day when he receives these lessons.

  It was over as quickly as it started. Despite the constant confusion, the lessons were fun. Jisung just keeps thinking that it's funny that even in his afterlife, he has to study and then undergo an important examination that might take a few days. How is he supposed to remember 600 rules of the academy and the whole afterlife world if he wakes up every day, thinking all of this was just a fever dream and he never died and never became an angel (or almost one, at least)?