The World That Fell Once

I had no idea what he meant by “take care of it,” so I stood there in confusion.

Do Jiwan pointed at the puppy.

“That’s Number One.”

“……”

“You’re Number Two.”

Number One.

Number Two.

As I stood there baffled, he explained.

“This little bastard is my dog Number One. You’re my dog Number Two.”

“……”

“This is your superior. Got it? Serve him well.”

No… but as a former angel and current human, how was I supposed to serve a puppy as my superior?

I looked down at it.

Its black eyes, calmer than before, sparkled up at me.

‘…Whatever. It’s cute. Fine. You’re my boss.’

It was better to have a cute puppy above me than a temper-inducing superior like Do Jiwan.

‘From now on, your name is Kongseol.’

Its white fur and bean-like black eyes and nose reminded me of kongbaekseolgi.

Before I knew it, I was planting kisses all over its damp little nose.

Do Jiwan let out a faint laugh.

When he had told me to kill it earlier, I had wondered if everything I was doing was pointless.

‘He’s definitely become milder compared to before.’

When we first met, I had agonized over how to reform him.

After all, I had given up the position of next Archangel to descend to the human world.

To explain why I became human, I have to start here.

First of all, this world was destroyed once.

The world perished.

Justice was broken.

The hero fell to evil.

The seed of evil sprouted and became the Demon King.

And just as the darkness he summoned was about to devour all life—

God turned back time.

If everyone forgot the future that had become the past, the calamity would simply repeat.

So within the rewound time, God sacrificed Himself, leaving the memory with the angels before disappearing entirely.

The final chance gained through His sacrifice.

The angels of heaven, while scrambling to fill God’s absence, sought to eliminate Do Jiwan—the future Demon King.

“He is, quite literally, human trash.”

“The world would benefit more from his death than his survival.”

The angels spoke in unison without emotion.

Having experienced how powerful and wicked he became after the seed of evil bloomed, their vote to eliminate him nearly passed unanimously.

However, one angel opposed it.

“Yet we cannot know if God desired Do Jiwan’s death.”

God created the world and the angels who would follow Him.

But they did not understand emotion and acted solely on reason.

Seeing this, God felt sorrow.

And so He created humans next.

Unlike angels, humans followed emotion rather than reason.

They committed acts that made no sense rationally, and within that chaos, they found order.

“Do Jiwan resembles us.”

Without emotion, he knew not love and could not empathize.

If angels carried out good without emotion, Do Jiwan carried out evil without emotion.

“There must be a reason he became that way. If God wished him dead, He would have ordered it before turning back time.”

But God did not.

He had ample time to say so.

“Then… can he change?”

“If circumstances made him that way, then the possibility of change is not zero.”

To angels, humans were incomprehensible beings.

With a small act of help, they overcame great hardship.

With a bit of care, they grew.

If Do Jiwan could change as well?

“…But it is an extremely dangerous gamble.”

“This is our last chance.”

There were no more opportunities to wager everything on a gamble.

Yet the angels found it difficult to speak of Do Jiwan’s death so easily.

‘If God gave us another chance, perhaps He also gave Do Jiwan one?’

As silence lingered, the angel who had first defended Do Jiwan raised his hand.

“Then I will grant him that chance.”

“You? And what of your place as the next Archangel?”

“That is not more important than God’s will. And if he does not seem capable of repentance…”

Then the plan the angels first intended would be carried out by his own hand.

Thus, Do Jiwan was granted a single opportunity to repent, and a fragment of holy divinity fell from the heavens to the earth.

For various reasons, I could not descend in an angel’s body.

So I left my body in heaven and sent only my soul to earth, which meant I needed a vessel to act through.

I could not steal the body of someone still alive.

So I selected someone who was destined to die around the time of my descent.

That person was Shin Jiho.

‘Shin Jiho. Twenty-one years old. D-rank Hunter. College dropout. Orphaned. Burdened by his father’s business debt and made a poor choice.’

He was the most suitable candidate available.

I couldn’t very well chase Do Jiwan around in the body of an eighty-year-old man.

‘Since you have abandoned this body… I shall use it for world peace.’

Thus, I fell toward where Shin Jiho’s body lay.

As I descended, I briefly watched his soul rising upward past me.

Then I plunged into his open mouth.

The organs that had stopped began moving again.

“Gasp!”

Air flooded into my lungs and my eyes flew open.

Then nausea overwhelmed me.

“Uweeegh!”

Only yellow stomach acid and half-dissolved pills came out.

Even after emptying everything, the retching continued.

After several dry heaves, I collapsed.

When I awoke later, my body felt slightly better.

The holy power flowing from my soul had partially repaired it.

‘Still not completely healthy.’

This was my first time experiencing a damaged body.

An angel’s body was always filled with holy power and remained in peak condition without food, drink, or sleep.

Feeling I needed to eat something, I crawled to the refrigerator and opened it.

It was completely empty.

Not even a bottle of water.

‘Shin Jiho truly intended to die.’

And he did.

That is why I entered this body.

As I stared into the empty fridge, tears suddenly streamed down my face.

The first emotion I felt was sorrow.

“Ugh… h-hic… waaah!”

Sadness.

Misery.

Self-loathing.

All negative emotions far removed from happiness.

Overwhelmed by these unfamiliar feelings, I rolled around on the floor like a child, crying loudly.

“Waaah! Why! Why is there nothing!”

In one corner of my mind, a calm voice observed.

‘So this is emotion.’

My once tranquil heart was now tossed about by waves of feeling.

How could I not marvel at it from a front-row seat?

Anyway, as I writhed and cried, a loud bang came from the wall.

The neighbor was protesting the noise.

But swept away by emotion, I could only think, so what?

Crying was the only way to release it.

After some time, heavy footsteps approached and my studio door burst open.

“Hey! It’s loud!”

A man I had never seen before stormed in.

Still sniffling on the floor, I barely reacted.

“Sniff….”

“…What? What’s wrong with you!”

Seeing the vomit-stained room and me collapsed before the fridge, concern crossed his face.

When he asked if I was okay, I sniffled and said,

“…I’m hungry.”

“What? Hah… seriously.”

His eyes scanned the empty fridge.

He told me to wait and shut the door.

Soon he returned with a convenience store bag.

“You do have a microwave.”

He heated instant porridge and filled the fridge with drinks and water.

When the microwave beeped, he stirred the porridge to cool it and held it out to me.

“Eat.”

The smell filled the room and my eyes had already glazed over.

The moment he gave permission, I lunged and shoveled it into my mouth.

The mild, savory chicken porridge was delicious.

Why didn’t heaven have food like this?

“Sniff…”

“Why are you crying again?”

“It’s so good….”

Mumbling with a mouthful, I cried.

While I ate, he cleaned my vomit and opened the window to ventilate.

Unlike the dim room, the sky outside was blue and clear.

‘Wow… this is strange.’

Just earlier, I had wanted to die.

Now that my stomach was full, I could notice the color of the sky.

‘Humans live like this? Swinging back and forth? That’s pitiful.’

And now I had to live like that too.

My future felt utterly dark.