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Chapter 1: L side | You taught me
Byulyi was an angel, or she had been. Before Hyejin, before Wheein, before Yongsun.
One might say the name and the very existence of Moon Byulyi had been created by the great scheme of the universe. But internally, she (and they) had always believed in the power of what was called accident.
Every soul and creature in this world was created, nurtured, and grown by accidents and accountants. She recalled what Gabriel once said and she once did not understand. It went all the way back to when she went by the name "Lailah".
***
Lailah was the name, the definition, the ruler of the night. She was there before the Dawn of Time, calmly covered the world with her dark curtain, and occasionally lit up stars and moon and planets to guide the way.
She was a watcher, not a healing angel nor a warrior. Which made Gabriel her boss.
Gabriel, the youngest of the four Archangels, was another version of his brother Lucifer with all the franking, destroying, and annoying.
One time, he gathered everyone in the main hall and lit up the holy oil ring to trap them there. Another time, he secretly created tons of weird creatures behind God's back and released them in the garden. A garrison had to fly back from Earth to catch them and put the weird animals in that place that later was Australia.
The differences between Gabe and the devil were her boss had good intentions (occasionally, or no intention at all), and a bad habit of swallowing every sweet he laid his eyes on. She remembered what Raphael, one of the bigger brothers, explained to her while repairing the lance they had broken after stealing from the other big brother, Michael.
Mike was the warrior, Raph the healer, and Luci and Gabe the watcher, all in order of age and importance (Gabe gave everyone nicknames and Lailah got caught up with his habit). While Luci despised his job, Gabe was fascinated with humanity.
Long story short, Lailah had to admit, serving the sarcastic, sweet-tooth powerful being was tiring, but had its own charm. The messenger of God was weird, demanding, and definitely not the kind of boss to be messed around. But on the bright side, he was a better storyteller than Luci. She would rather hear ridiculous jokes about how lame Adam and Eve were than terrifying hatred about humans. At least he cared.
***
Then came the war, The War between the big bosses and the dragons happened. Luci rebelled, Mike followed orders, Raph helped him. They fought. Hell was created and humans came to Earth.
To welcome the new era, Lailah led the burning sun to the sky to guide foolish humanity. She stepped back behind her curtains and watched. She watched Lucifer build his hell, watched Michael and Raphael rule their own heaven, watched God leave, then too, Gabe.
“You are leaving?” Till this day she still flinched everytime she recall how naïve the question came out.
“I’m sorry.”
So much for a caring boss.
“No, you’re not. We’re not. We aren’t supposed to.”
To have feelings like sorry, to be leaving. That was not how angels were created.
“Always the serious one, Lailah,” he chuckled, “okay then, I’m leaving.”
Then Gabe left. He hid himself from Heaven and Hell, fought some here, killed some there.
At nights when his grace was worn out from all the running and fighting, Lailah put on her darkest curtain to cover his trace.
They never talked. After all, watching was all we'd ever done.
***
She continued her job peacefully. Almost boringly. Then one day she met a dragon.
Not the big bad kind of dragon that followed Lucifer. No, it was a Korean dragon, a sky dragon to be specific.
Okay, maybe not not big. She was an enormous green-scaled dragon, with wings, and claws, and probably had the ability to spit fire too.
They crashed into each other one night when Lailah was wandering in that very country’s sky. They crashed with all the mighty holy arrogant behaviors both had.
“Ouch, what the hell.” It was a strangely pouty voice for a mighty dragon.
“More like what the heaven,” Lailah mumbled. “Where are your eyes, you stupidly huge dragon?” she angrily spitted out.
“Oh yeah? Where are your eyes, you pathetic small spark?”
“Who you're calling small, lizard?”
Most of the time, angels didn’t have vessels in any shape. They were the light, heaven’s power, God’s grace, whichever name. Only the most powerful ones could create their own figures how they wanted to be. Gabe was a cheerful-looking white man with mischievous champagne-colored eyes. Lailah had enough grace to pull that trick, but to be honest, it was a pain in the ass to transform and unnecessary for a good night walk.
Anyway, the fight continued throughout that night. Being powerful old creatures defined the universe of each religion, neither of them apologized.
***
Ridiculous enough, every night after that, Lailah found herself in the same sky, bickering with the same dragon. They slowly became friends, which didn’t mean the bickering would stop.
This was one of their typical arguments.
“Lailah, my name is La-i-la-h, which means the night in Hebrew. Say it right you stupid creature.” Lailah said annoyingly.
“Hey, I’m older than you you self-centered religious idiot. Speak carefully.” The dragon growled back. Some smoke came out of her nostrils.
The range of their power and knowledge depended on the number of their own religion's believers in the area within a certain radius. Therefore, her power was nowhere near the dragon’s when they're in Korea. Besides, Lailah had to admit, the dragon looked horrifying compared to the spark of light she chose to appear. So, Lailah toned down her voice.
“Fine, unnie,” the stupid Korean term the dragon made her use. “But it is basic moral to say the other’s name correctly in every country and culture,” she pointed out.
“Ok, Lele.”
“Lailah.”
“Leleay.”
Lailah thought she might have forgotten her phone in heaven, maybe she should go back home and never talk to this creature again. Or any kind of valid reason humans made up in these situations.
“...Leilea,” the dragon tried once more then sensed the angel's discomfort. They both stayed silent for a while.
“How about a Korean name?” the dragon suggested.
“That’s disrespect towards my Father, with a capital F, unnie.”
The mention of the absent God made her sound more bitterly than she intended.
“No, it’s not. I would be the only one who called you by the name. Lele is still your so-called angel name or whatever. Consider it as uhm... a nickname, a friendly term between us two,” she explained with a smile in her voice.
Nicknames. That was Gabe’s thing.
Lailah played with the thought of having a nickname called by a foreign culture’s creature, then decided not to be against it.
“Ok, what do you have in your mind?”
“Bam, which means night like your own name.”
“You must be a crackhead to think I would accept that sound to represent my existence.”
“Dal, the moon.”
“Don't like the sound of it.”
“Moon itself? I can perfectly pronounce that.”
“Too cliche.”
“Haneul, the sky.”
“Sounds like a certain lesbian couple's daughter’s typical imaginary name.”
The dragon was one step away from swallowing the bratty light. More smoke coming out of her nose.
“Byul, the star.”
Byul. Simple enough, Korean enough. She approved it. She told the dragon as much.
“Are you male or female?” the dragon asked.
“Angels don’t have gender. But Lailah is a feminine name.”
“You have a weird god. Okay, I’ll call you Byulyi.”
She decided she liked the sound of it. Even though angels weren't supposed to like or hate.
"I want to give you a nickname, too. Friendly term. Not just unnie. A quarter of this country calls others unnie.”
“Every dragon here’s named Yong.” The dragon shrugged.
“At least we have proper names,” Byulyi grumbled.
“How about Yongsun?”
They became Yongsun and Byulyi for each other.