A Blessed Child (1)

"My child, are you sure about this?" asked God who was sitting on a rocking chair, drinking a glass of lemonade, while watching an episode of Family Dude.

"Yes," Michael responded. 

"Okay. If that's what you want then go ahead," said God, materializing a colorful marble made with all the colors in the world, even the colors that most creatures could not see.

God flicked the marble over to Michael who grabbed it out of the air.

"Whenever you're ready, just swallow that," God said. 

Michael nodded his head and was about to swallow the marble when he was stopped.

"Woah. Relax my child. Do you not want to say goodbye to your brothers, sisters, and friends first?" asked God, his eyes hadn't moved away from the TV screen the entire time.

Michael had been so excited that he had momentarily forgotten about it.

"Right. I should probably do that," he said.

After bidding farewell to God, his father, and his creator, he first went to his fellow archangels.

Long story short, he had to listen to them cry and beg for him not to leave heaven.

"Why Michael? Why!? Just stay here with us. There's no need to go down there with the humans."

"Michael, you're making a mistake my brother. Just... relax and think about it for a second."

"Brother, please don't go. Please."

Then he went to the lower angels who were his friends and subordinates. They were even worse than the archangels because some of them grabbed his legs and arms, trying to prevent him from leaving.

"Nooooo! Don't leave us!"

"Don't abandon us! We'll change! We'll do anything!"

"Is it because I stole your apple juice that one time? I'm sorry! I'll pay you back a thousandfold. Don't let us, please!"

It was good to see that they all cared so much about him but there was nothing that was going to stop him.

He had to leave. He had to see it for himself. He had to become a human to truly appreciate the human experience that he had fallen in love with over the centuries.

In a room surrounded by hundreds of angels, he uttered the word, "Goodbye," and tossed the marble into his mouth.

Once he swallowed it, he became this. blinding white light.

The angels watched as the light slowly died down until finally, it was gone and nothing remained where Michael had been standing a moment ago.

"He's gone. He's... really gone."

"Why did he need to go? They're just humans."

"I love mankind as well but is there a need to become one of them? Michael... why?"

At the same time, in a hospital in the middle of the city of Seoul.

"Congratulations. It's a boy," said the doctor, handing the baby over to the mother, Kang Hyojin.

Holding her baby in her arms, shedding a tear, she couldn't believe how beautiful her son was. Admittedly, she was biased because it was her child but that didn't matter.

Neither she nor her husband knew their child's gender because they wanted to be surprised.

Sung Daeho sat down on the hospital bed beside her and looked down at his son.

"Look at our son," he said with a huge smile on his face.

After hours of intense pushing and screaming, it was finally over.

"Doesn't he look like an angel?" asked Kang Hyojin who was still crying from happiness. Sung Daeho took his index finger and used it to wipe away her tears.

"Yeah. Our little angel."

Because they didn't know the gender of their child, they had prepared two different names.

Now that it was confirmed to be a boy, they were prepared to call him by the male name.

"Sung Minho, welcome to the world," said the father. 

A week later in the family's single-bedroom apartment, an hour past midnight.

"Look at him. Isn't he adorable?" asked Gabriel who was floating in the air as this speck of light. 

The parents were sleeping while Sung Minho was still awake but instead of crying or making any sounds, he just laid on the bed silently, looking up at the speck of lights.

"Sung Minho, nice to meet you. Or should I should, good to see you again," said Uriel, also a speck of light.

There were three specks in the room, all archangels. Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. 

It took a little while because they were busy with their angel duties but the three of them had hurried up their work and managed to free themselves enough time to visit their brother who was now a human baby.

"I can't believe he's actually doing this. I always thought that he was just joking," said Raphael, shaking his metaphorical head. As a speck of light, he didn't have a head.

"You know that Michael is never one to jest around lightly about serious decisions like this," commented Uriel who sat down on Sung Minho's forehead.

Gabriel wasn't interested in their conversation. Instead, he was just admiring his brother's face.

Just like Michael, all angels loved humans. The ones who didn't became fallen angels.

Gabriel thought that all humans were good-looking since they were built in the image of God but perhaps because it was his brother that made him think that this was the best-looking baby to ever exist on Earth.

He wasn't supposed to interfere with Michael's life because Michael wanted an authentic life as a human.

But the thought of this human, this baby, this brother of his getting sick, he couldn't bear to witness it.

While the other two were talking, he gathered what blessing he was capable of giving in this small and weakened form of his and he handed it all over to Sung Minho who was still silent, watching the three lights with interest.

"Gabriel? What did you do?" asked Raphael who finally noticed what just happened.

"Nothing," responded Gabriel. "I just gave him a little blessing to ensure that he never gets sick."

"But isn't that breaking your agreement with Michael?" asked Uriel.

"Yes, but I don't care. I don't want to see my brother get sick."

Raphael thought about it for a second and he agreed. "You're right. Since Michael is technically gone, why should we listen to his words if he didn't listen to ours?"

"Because—" Uriel tried to intervene but he was silenced.

"Shush! I'll also give Michael what little blessing I have right now," said Raphael, granting Sung Minho mental resilience, meaning that even through tough times and adversity, he'd remain positive and optimistic.

Not wanting to be left out, Uriel also joined in.

He granted Sung Minho the gift of being naturally athletic. Meaning that even if he doesn't try or work out, he'd naturally be better than everyone else at sport.

"Time is up," said Gabriel. "Let's return before Father gets mad at us."

The three speck of lights disappeared and Sung Minho finally fell asleep.