The sun dazzlingly shone in the blue, like a diamond glimmering in the cerulean sea. With a light bounce, Uriel skipped his way home chewing some gum, kicking a few pebbles on the way. Despite nearing the demeaning mansion he called home, the toothy grin never once seeped away. His less than stellar report card clearly didn't bother him all too much. Good for him.   Seeing his mother, he prepared himself for the conversation mentally, aware of the next sentence.   'I'm probably getting home-schooled.'   "You're getting home-schooled."   "Meh." Uriel saw it coming anyways.   It was obvious, all things considered. She had been egging it on for the past few weeks, and this term's report card was undeniably the tipping point.   "He'll be coming to assess you in two hours. Freshen up," she finalised, flinging her full length navy dress away from her feet,

"You need to stop being pessimistic." "Look, all I'm trying to say is, you can't bloody jump off the Burj Khalifa and not get some kind of permanent damage, if you even miraculously survived." "I don't need that kind of negativity, Erin," Uriel scoffed, walking a little faster through the virtual town. "I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic." "Whatever you say, Pessimistic Park." "You're too stupid to be scared of things you're supposed to be scared of," Erin murmured. "Too stupid," Uriel pointed, "or too smart?" "I feel like they're the same thing for you." Running to catch up with

Just before Gihyun had logged onto Erin's character, the brothers were reaching their first heated argument in a while. Erin was beyond Gihyun, absolutely downright refusing the mere idea of listening to him. He felt as if he lost his senses.   "Erin, I'm serious. You need to get another round today, you can't keep putting this off; especially not for some stupid game," he asserted. "Your health is irrefutably worth more than that, so stop being difficult," Gihyun tutted. It didn't make sense to him, or to Erin, for that matter. Why put off the very thing you've worked ever so hard for?   "Please, at least wait a few more hours; Uri's waiting for me to do a mission, I promised him yesterday-"   "Uri this, Uri that," he mimicked distastefully. "Can we just get this done first, I think he'd understand perfectly fine that you're trying to avoid death, no?" he glared.   "No, really, it wouldn't take long

Uriel had finally reached inside the plane, cosying up to the window seat. The plush seats cushioned his lean frame, and he swore he could've curled up and slept as easily as dozing away on his little couch back at his parents' house. The engines roared and the winded buffeted, it was his sky-born cradle, rocked by the winds far above the ground. Even as the engines turned, his brain relaxed into dreaming mode, there were thousands of miles to go and all he had to do was let this technological bird fly him there. The plane moved onward into the hallowed space between the heavens and Earth, the graceful bird of silver-wing. Soaring above the cotton clouds was something Uriel forever felt thrilled by. To be so high up made him feel as if nothing on Earth mattered anymore. Every second passing by only made him that much more impatient to see Erin. Dipping lower, the airplane landed upon the brightly lit tarmac, wheels kissing the earth with a small, joyous bounce.

"Uriel..?" It's the calm after the chaos, the peace after the war, the settling of the dust after a violent explosion. It's the first ray of sunshine after a brutal rainstorm, the stillness after an earthquake, the first new leaf sprouting from the ground after the devastation of a wildfire. The blooming flowers after a harsh winter. The promise of tomorrow, after the destruction of everything they thought they knew until yesterday. Uriel was unsure if he was even breathing, maybe even immobile. Erin couldn't quite function, either. Not a single particle of air could enter or escape their lungs right now. The entrancing pull they had felt with each other had tightened in an ultimate lock, unable to be broken. Erin swore a small glimmer infiltrated his ears, the sound of windchimes in a light breeze. Uriel stared at the boy's face a little longer, absolutely bewitched. He was even more fascinating in