Banished Divinity: Learning to be Human

A Note from B.R. LEE

💖💖 Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for reading Sera and her family’s story! 💖💖

Just a quick update: Due to my busy work schedule, I’ll be returning to posting one chapter a day. The release timing will remain the same as the second publishing schedule.

I sincerely apologize, as I truly tried to keep up, but reality decided to throw a curveball at me—one filled with endless reports and overwhelming expectations. Honestly, I can now understand how our Celestial Being feels when she gets overwhelmed too. 🤭🤭

Thank you once again for being here, and let’s continue this journey together with our hilarious celestial being! 🤭🤭💖💖

"Jaehyun."

"Black hair. Dark eyes. Very tall. Very intense. He's been—" She made a vague gesture with her hand. "—interested in me. For a while. And that night, at the concert, I was supposed to give him my answer."

I thought about the boy at the gates. The one who had caught me when I was falling. The one who had looked at me with dark eyes and said I've been looking for you.

"The one with the black hair," I said. "He's the one who caught me today. At the gates. When I was going to faint."

Human Sera's face went even pinker. "He caught you?"

"He caught me. He said he'd been looking for me. I thought he was talking to me. The celestial me. But he was talking to you. He was looking for you."

"Oh." She looked down at her hands. "Oh."

"And then Yuna happened."

Human Sera flinched. Actually flinched. Her translucent body flickered, like a candle in a draft.

"Yuna," she said, and the name came out small.

"Yuna," I repeated. "The one with the expensive clothes. The one who pulled my hair and kicked me in the ribs and told me to stay away from Jaehyun because he's 'mine.' That Yuna."

"I can explain—"

"There is a logical explanation, I assume. For why I got beaten up by a jealous mortal girl because of a mortal boy I don't know and a situation I didn't create."

Human Sera winced. "Well. Yes. There is a logical explanation. It's just—"

"I'm waiting."

She took a breath. Which was interesting, because she was a ghost and didn't have lungs, but apparently old habits die hard. Along with the people who had them.

"Jaehyun is—he's—" She made a frustrated noise. "He's been following me around for months. Not in a creepy way! In a—a—"

"Stalkerish way?" I offered.

"No! In a—in a—" She threw her hands up. "Okay, yes, it's a little stalkerish. But he's not a stalker. He's just intense. And Yuna has been trying to get his attention since freshman year, and he's never looked at her, not once, and then he started looking at me, and she—she didn't take it well."

"She took it out on me."

"Yes."

"Because I’m in a body that is currently being operated by a celestial being, who is me and who has no idea what's happening and is just trying to pass economics."

"Yes."

I stared at her. She stared at me. Moo Moo made a small, sympathetic sound from the bed.

"And what about the other one?" I asked.

Human Sera blinked. "The other one?"

"The one with the brown hair. The one who pushed me. The one who called me a piglet. The one who sat beside me in economics and explained supply and demand like I was a child."

Human Sera's face did something complicated. It was the same expression she had worn when she talked about Jaehyun, but different. Softer. More confused.

"Minjae," she said, and her voice was different too. Softer. Smaller.

"Minjae," I repeated. "Yes. Him."

"He's—" She paused. "He's been nice to me. Since freshman year. Really nice. He's in my economics class. He's in a lot of my classes, actually. He always saves me a seat. He shares his notes. He—" She stopped. "I think I like him."

"You think you like him?"

"I don't know. I've never liked anyone before. Not like that. And then Jaehyun started paying attention to me, and Minjae was already there, being nice, and I didn't know what to do, and then the concert happened, and I was supposed to give Jaehyun an answer, but I didn't know what the answer was supposed to be, and then I was dead, and then you were in my body, and—" She was speaking faster now, her words tumbling over each other. "—and I still don't know. I don't know what I want. I don't know who I want. I don't know anything."

I stared at her. This ghost. This girl who had been alive and breathing and making terrible decisions about boys and concerts and windows. This girl who had died, who was dead, and who was standing in my room worrying about which boy she liked.

"You're an idiot," I said.

She stopped. "What?"

"An idiot. You're an idiot. You died. You're a ghost. You're standing in my room, translucent, barely visible, and you're worried about boys."

"I'm not—"

"You are. You're standing there, in a concert t-shirt, worried about which mortal male you have feelings for, when you should be worried about the fact that you're dead."

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out. Typical Mortal.

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