Beelzebub unhesitatingly jumped down the cliff. He saw that it was one of the demon whom he thought he had killed by falling off the cliff. He found out the person was hanging on thread by gripping his hand on the edge of the cliff and after pulling Esther down, he also fell free on the bottom of the cliff, disappearing in the darkness. 

Beelzebub didn’t have time to care for an unnecessary person and grabbed Esther’s head close to his chest, his wings spread wide to bring them soar upward when all of a sudden an arrow was shot toward his wings.

Beelzebub cursed underneath his breaths. Even as he fell and tried to wreck his mind on protecting Esther before herself while looking upward when he saw the shadow of the same person who had hid and shot him. 

Beelzebub continue to fly using his wings regardless of the pain he had endured with his wings wounded. As flying upward to the sky was difficult, he decided to dampened the fall.

The world was spinning above them and death was close to their door; regardless, Beelzebub pulled his arm to bring Esther closer to him. 

“It’s okay,” Esther heard him whispering.. When their eyes met, she found him smiling sincerely from the bottom of his heart. It was a sweet smile— a smile which Esther first ever saw.

Esther wrapped her arms around him, feeling the wind rushing toward her body before closing her eyes.

There was still many things that she wanted to know about him, thought Esther. But perhaps they won’t have such time again. If she had known better, she wouldn’t have been stubborn.

She should have been nervous in such a moment where death was close to her; but when Esther felt the warmth of Beelzebub’s body, all those nervous flew from her as though it had never been there in the first place. 

The silence grew as they fell into the black abyss.

Time passed and when Esther opened her eyes again, she found herself in the middle of a barn land full of cracked rocks. 

After falling free from the cliff, everything rushed in her head. She questioned where she was before recalling how she had fallen off the cliff with Beelzebub. She noticed she was inside a cave.

Esther pushed herself from the ground, rushing to find where Beelzebub was. Her head turn dizzy as her view tilt before her eyes with the sudden action she took. As she was about to fall, Esther managed to hold a grip of herself by holding to the large rock beside her. 

“So feisty when you just woke up,” spoke Beelzebub. His voice quickly snapped Esther awake. 

She rushed to find him with her eyes and when she did, her blue eyes showed traces of water. Beelzebub was leaning on the back of a larger rock inside the cave, holding one of his knees while burning a campfire in front of him.

Esther rushed next to him and sat two steps away from him. Looking closely at Beelzebub, she asked, “Are you alright?” She saw there was no trace on him but she couldn’t still be at ease. “You are not bleeding anywhere are you? Did you hurt yourself anywhere?” 

Beelzebub shielded her as they were about to fall down from the cliff. She could feel some part of her body aching from the fall but to Beelzebub who had guarded her from the fall, he should be suffering from more pain compared to her. 

Beelzebub smiled while looking at her, causing Esther to tilt her head. “What’s funny?”

“Nothing,” Beelzebub answered. “I just realized how dumb I was.”

Esther still couldn’t comprehend his words when he added, “I am alright but you might be in a little pain. When we fell, the branches from the tree on the sides of the cliff reduced our falling impact but I wasn’t able to protect you from the scratches of the branches.”

“I am fine,” Esther brushed away. “There might be bruises here and there but it’s nothing dangerous. You are alright, aren’t you?” She asked to make sure. 

“Never better,” Beelzebub stared at her, “Cold?”

Esther awkwardly pushes herself backward when she realized how close she had gotten next to him. “No, I’m good. Did you see who had shot the arrow?”

“No,” Beelzebub responded, his eyes narrowing as he tries to recall the face that he had seen. “It was too dark for me to see anything and we were almost halfway to the bottom of the cliff when they attacked us.”

“I see,” whispered Esther. When silence came between them, she fiddled her hands together. 

How did they talk when they were alone? She had never been so conscious of what she had to say so she won’t offend or poke a wound on Beelzebub’s heart, making her confused on what the right conversation to speak about.

In the first place, wasn’t she supposed to be angry to him?

Yet how can she ever be angry toward him when he had saved her?

“In my life, my parents were important to me,” Beelzebub suddenly spoke, surprising Esther. She kept a close ears to his words as he continues, “Then came someone who I consider as a friend, an aunt, someone who I can share secret with. But when I lost them all, I stopped keeping treasures. I stopped making people to be important to me.”

“Is this about earlier?” Esther confronted.

“I lied to you,” confessed Beelzebub. The light that shines on him turn golden to her eyes. “I approached you indeed because I was curious about you but I can promise you I don’t approach anything that piqued my curiosity. I told you, I don’t keep anything as my treasure. I don’t approach things knowing that they can be a treasure to me. But you—”

Esther gulped down while staring at him. 

“—I can’t help but to come to you despite in my mind I know the consequence that can happen between us.”

“You are back to being sweet again,” Esther replied with a frown between her eyebrows. She didn’t want to hurt herself again or let herself to be hurt once again. She had been rejected not only once but twice or maybe thrice.

Beelzebub looked at her. He didn’t move but reached out his hand toward her face. He could have touched her if he had moved a little closer but he didn’t; as though he was stuck to the cave wall.

“Haven’t you realized, Esther? I am nice only to you. No one would describe me with the same word you had used because never once have I been sweet to anyone around me.”

“I can’t trust you. When you are sweet to me, once again you will push me away—” Esther hadn’t completed her words when Beelzebub had pulled her by her hand, bringing her close to his embrace. Her head lifted up to meet his eyes when he grabbed her by her chin to look into her eyes. 

“It was my foolishness to make you lose your trust in me, but I learned my mistake. When we fell together to the abyss, I understood how fearsome regret is more than greed.”

Esther couldn’t reply to his words when his lips wrapped around her. He kissed her slowly with light kisses before prying her mouth opened. Esther wanted to resist due to her overwhelming emotions but alas in front of her love, she wasn’t one to refuse the passionate kiss. 

His tongue was warm to her lips. Perhaps because her body turn cold from the air inside the cave or perhaps because Beelzebub had a higher body warmth compared to her. 

Beelzebub continue to stare at her who had closed her eyes as they kissed. When he tried licking her front lips and brushed the back of her ears at the same time, he was responded with a sweet sigh from her lips, urging him to elicit more of such noise from his beloved Esther. 

His hand couldn’t help but go lower from her chin, sliding toward her neck.

Esther responded to his kisses well, biting his lips in response when his naughty hands tried to go lower over her collarbone.

Her tongue licked her lower lips when she pulled for a brief moment to regain her breaths. But the small break took only five seconds before they continue to kiss again. Esther pushed herself forward, catching his lips, and licking his tongue that tickled and aroused her.