The world really has gone to hell these days.
The moment some controversy breaks out, people swarm in like piranhas that have scented blood and tear into it.
But I have no right to curse people like that.
Because I’m one of those piranhas too.
Only, there’s one thing that makes me different from the others…
“I listened quietly, and now you just won’t stop talking.”
I’ve always had a bit of a temper.
And recently, I’ve had plenty of reasons to be stressed.
Of course, that’s not exactly a good trait. You can tell just from the way curses live on my tongue.
So I have no idea why I mutated into an angel.
But I stared straight at the pastor.
Looking at the world through this changed body felt tilted, nauseating.
Was it because my field of vision had gotten lower? Sometimes it was enough to make me feel queasy.
But that didn’t mean the way I saw the world had changed.
“Oh, Angel! To think you truly are here…!”
“Apologize.”
“……”
“Go over to her and apologize.”
“…Even if it is your command, Angel, I cannot.”
“Bullshit.”
At my repeated profanity, the pastor’s expression stiffened.
When he had been smiling pleasantly, he’d looked like a kind man, but the moment his face went serious, even that impression collapsed.
The pastor took a step back and slowly shook his head.
“Angel. Look upon that poor soul.”
In an endlessly gentle voice, the pastor pointed at Sin Ayun.
“That is a wolf. Matthew 7:15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
“……”
Hearing that, I let out a small snort of laughter.
What a load of crap.
“Do not lend your ear to the whispers of that wicked beast. Angel, it seems you know nothing of doctrine, so please come this way. The path of learning is always open.”
“Ah, so that was your goal?”
“What do you mean…?”
The pastor tilted his head as if he had no idea.
The sight suddenly struck me as so vile that I let out a hollow laugh.
“I mean your goal. The reason you suddenly popped out, insulted her, and started spouting nonsense. It was because of me, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The pastor put on a smile, pretending to be composed, but he couldn’t fool my eyes.
That bastard was flustered.
Of course he was.
Who would have thought that someone called an angel would start throwing around vulgar words like shut your trap and bullshit upon their first meeting?
But I wasn’t an angel.
Only the shell was an angel. Inside, I was just a South Korean man in his twenties, one week away from enlistment and feeling so wronged I could die.
“Don’t play dumb. It’s obvious at a glance.”
I tilted my head crookedly and looked the pastor up and down.
“People like you are always the same. The world is in chaos right now, so you’re trying to use people’s anxiety to make a business out of it.”
“A business? How could you say something so blasphemous…!”
“But then the perfect material showed up, didn’t it? A real angel, right in front of your eyes. You must have thought, this is it. If you take me with you and put me up as your signboard, believers will come flocking in like clouds.”
I took one step toward him.
“And the werewolf beside me makes an excellent supporting role. An angel who drove away a wicked devil, and the pastor who assists him. Nice picture. Your offering baskets would be overflowing.”
“Y-you…!”
The pastor’s face flushed red and blue.
Was it because I’d hit the mark, or because I had belittled his sacred plan?
He gripped his Bible again with trembling hands and growled like a beast.
“How… How can you wear the guise of an angel and speak such devilish words? You have fallen into temptation! You have been deceived by that wicked beast’s—!”
“Hey.”
I gave a snort of laughter and continued.
“I told you, didn’t I? Shut your trap.”
The unfiltered words that burst from my mouth froze the air in the civil affairs office.
The eyebrows of the pastor, who had been wearing a benevolent smile, twitched.
The middle-aged woman standing behind him clutched the cross at her chest with a look of shock.
“A-Angel? What did you just…”
“Are you deaf? I said shut your trap. Who the hell are you to talk about someone else’s precious child like she’s some mire or mud?”
With my arms crossed, I glared crookedly at the pastor.
My body might have gotten smaller, but the spirit of a South Korean would-be soldier scheduled to be dragged off to Nonsan in a week hadn’t gone anywhere.
The pastor seemed taken aback for a moment, but soon steadied his breathing and began fingering his Bible again.
“Sister—no, Angel. I merely wish to convey the truth of the Bible. Look at that hideous form. How could that possibly be one of the Lord’s creations…”
“Hideous? Ha, fuck.”
I cut off the pastor and took another step forward. The pure white wings on my back trembled as if responding to my emotions.
“You didn’t see me save that old lady earlier, did you? Everyone here saw it. Then what kind of power was that? According to your logic, did I save her because I’m a devil?”
At my chilling question, the people gathered around began to voice their agreement.
As the murmuring grew louder, the pastor’s complexion turned pale.
It seemed he was hearing the sound of his social reputation being shaved away in real time.
Because this wasn’t a church. It was a community service center full of people with eyes.
“T-that is…”
“You can’t answer, can you? If the God you believe in really sent me here, then right now, by insulting my friend, you’re insulting me too. Isn’t that right?”
I stepped in front of Sin Ayun, who was trembling in fear.
“Apologize.”
“…Pardon?”
“I said apologize. To that kid. Right now.”
The pastor’s eyes shook violently.
He glanced at the middle-aged woman behind him, then, unable to withstand the stinging gazes of the people around him, reluctantly bowed his head.
“…I misspoke. If I wounded the sister’s heart, I apologize.”
A crawling voice. A servile apology without a single drop of sincerity in it, meant only to escape this situation.
“You heard him, right? Now get lost. Looking at you has used up all my faith for the day.”
I waved my hand as if shooing the pastor away. With his face flushed red and blue, the pastor hurried out of the community service center, and the middle-aged woman frantically followed after him.
“…Hoo.”
The moment they disappeared, the tension drained out of me and a sigh escaped.
“Um, excuse me…”
A cautious voice came from beside me. When I turned my head, the huge werewolf, Sin Ayun, was looking at me with her large eyes brimming with tears.
“Thank you, oppa… Really. I was honestly so scared.”
“It’s fine. You think I haven’t seen people like that before? They look down on you because you just stand there like an idiot.”
There are so many piranhas in this world.
But ironically, the only way to protect yourself from swarms like that is to raise your thorns.
If you don’t bristle, it’s all too easy for them to tear into your defenseless flesh.
The reason I’d just hurled abuse at the pastor was a kind of protective coloration too.
No matter how much I wore the shell of an angel, I had to imprint on them that I was by no means an easy target.
Sin Ayun wiped her tears and nodded.
The sight of a huge werewolf sniffling was strangely incongruous, but at the same time, it stirred an odd protective instinct.
“…You’ve been through a lot.”
The world had turned upside down, she had transformed into a monster, and then a cult-like religious man had latched onto her and hurled curses at her. It was only natural for her mind to be shaken.
I let out a sigh and looked around.
Even though the pastor and his follower were gone, the air inside the community service center was still heavy.
No, perhaps I should say it had become even stickier.
The gazes of the people who had witnessed the absurd sight of an angel cursing out a clergyman and driving him away.
They weren’t exactly gazes I liked.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh? Where…”
“Where else? Outside. I hate being treated like a monkey in a zoo.”
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my long padded coat and started walking.
Sin Ayun hurriedly followed behind me.
The automatic doors opened, and the cold air outside rushed in.
Only then did I feel like I could breathe a little.
The two of us walked in silence.
As the wind cooled my heated head, realistic worries finally began to surface.
…How many more people like that pastor, people who would reject mutants, would appear from now on?
Maybe it was only a natural flow of things.
Besides, it might not have much to do with me. I was fairly lucky, after all.
But how should I put it? Was it because I was a mutant too, and felt a sense of kinship?
Either way, it wasn’t something I liked very much.
“Um, excuse me…!”
Before I knew it, we had reached a fork in the road.
I realized it instinctively. We’d be parting ways here.
“Thank you… for today!”
Sin Ayun said that and headed down the opposite path.
I also gave a small smile, waved, and parted from her.
I had already gotten her contact information, so if fate brought us together someday, we would meet again.
If the day ever came when she was shaken by the storms of these chaotic times, I would reach out my hand to her whenever she needed it.