I got home from work and instantly searched for a wine glass, almost filling it to the brim with red moscato. It was Christmas yet again, and I had nothing to do and nobody to spend time with. Fourteen years ago, when I was twelve, Christmas was ruined forever when my family and I had gotten into a car crash on the way to my grandparents house. Luckily I had survived, however, my parents didn't. From then on, I was raised by my strictly catholic grandparents. I never had the same freedom and opportunities to be a teenager like my other friends did. There was only a small group of my friends that my grandparents approved of and most of the time they kept me locked up in the house to get ahead in my studies. After all, it paid off. I had already graduated university and had a good-paying job as a computer programmer.
Even in university, I didn't have the will to be crazy or party. I was so used to being diligent in my studies, that I could always find an excuse to blow off going to parties or going on casual dates. I only had one serious boyfriend in my life when I was twenty-four. It only lasted around one year and he was my everything, since I didn't ever experience love until then. I gave him everything too--my heart, my time, my virginity, my vow of everlasting love. All of that, and in the end, he cheated on me with some girl he met at a bar because I was working too much. I was only working so much to support him, who couldn't get a job and refused to work at a retail or fast food job. Being cheated on in that situation was devastating and the worse betrayal I'd ever felt.
Due to this, my lack of friends, and my heavy workload, I feel like I'm not really living. I'm too scared to go back into the dating pool. It's scary to get to know someone so well and then think about doing it all over again with someone completely new. I didn't have any friends because there aren't many female employees at my job and I don't have many social situations outside of my job to meet other people. Life was just a matter of going through the motions. And now, just a few months ago, my grandfather passed away. My grandmother had already passed just two years ago, so now I really was alone. None of my other extended family cared about me anymore. So here I was, Christmas night and completely alone.
I decided to light some candles around my large bathtub and put in a bathbomb, slowly fizzing into nothing and turning the water into a milky-pink color. I grabbed a hair tie and gathered my curly, pastel blue locks into a ponytail, some strands of my hair falling around my face and bangs. I disrobed and grabbed my wine glass before carefully settling into the bathtub. The warm water and the aroma of cherry blossoms and rose slowly cleared my mind and relaxed my muscles. I'm sure the amount of wine I had already consumed also helped to speed up this process, but I wanted to believe that the atmosphere helped the most. I didn't want to admit that most nights, my wine was my only friend. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
I then opened my eyes and stretched a little. Out of the corner of my eyes, I thought I saw something and turned my head. I instantly screamed upon seeing a stranger sitting on my sink. He seemed surprised by my negative reaction, flinching at my shrill voice. I instinctively moved to cover my body before starting to interrogate him,
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kiyonori. But you can just call me 'Nori'," He responded calmly, giving me an angelic smile.
"Kiyo-what?" I asked, confused by the foreign-sounding name. As I looked at him closely, his facial features did seem very similar to that of an east-asian person. His name sounded like it might be of Japanese origin, but at any rate, he was a complete stranger, and in my bathroom.
"Kiyonori," he repeated, "But you can just call me 'Nori.'" His voice was smooth, like calm water flowing through a warm valley filled with flowers. I couldn't help but start to relax around him, yet I kept my resolve.
"Okay... Nori, what are you doing here and how did you get in here?" I kept my voice up, trying to make an intimidating demeanor. He averted his eyes for a moment, as if he were thinking about what he should say. In these few moments, I took in his appearance more. He had light strawberry blonde-colored hair that was slightly curly and reached his shoulders. His skin was very pale, yet radiant, almost as if there was a light within him. His body was thin, yet well-built. He was clothed in some sort of white and decorative suit. His facial features complimented each other, his eyebrows framing his slightly slanted eyes perfectly. His lips were small and tainted a light pink color. His jaw was well-defined and as he looked back at me, I noticed his eyes possessed a chocolatey color.
"Um..." he finally spoke up, "I'm not sure how I can explain that to you."
"What do you mean? I have a right to know how a stranger came into my house!"
"Well... to be honest, Minnie, I was sent here."
"By who?"
"Um... the heavens." He averted his eyes again, as if he knew I wouldn't believe him, and of course, I didn't.
"That's not possible. Heaven doesn't really exist, or at least, not that any human really knows. You're talking about Christian heaven, right? Like Jesus and God and all that?"
"No..."
"What the fresh hell are you saying then?" He met my eyes again and his expression turned calm.
"Let me prove it to you. I'm not here to hurt you, if that's what you're worried about." He jumped off of my sink and began to undress himself. I felt my face heat up as I took in the sight of his defined muscles as he had completely undressed his top half.
"What are you doing?" I asked, feeling a little shocked as he came closer to me. He knelt by me next to the bathtub, and I felt my heart rate increase upon seeing his handsome, yet boyish facial features this up close.
"Watch carefully." I looked at him and suddenly my eyes drifted to his shoulders, craning my neck to look behind him as I took in the unbelievable sight of white wings growing out of his shoulder blades. I covered my mouth as they kept growing, almost succeeding the length of the bathroom. "What... what are those?" I asked in complete disbelief.
"These are my wings. I use these to travel."
"What... How?"
"Like I said, I was sent from heaven, so I'm an angel."
