Banished Divinity: Learning to be Human

When I arrived at the park, I had to admit—it was beautiful.

The flowers were everywhere. Not the structured, orderly gardens of the celestial realms, but a wild explosion of colour. Pink and white petals drifted through the air like soft snow, carried by a gentle breeze that smelled of earth and sweetness and something I couldn't name.

I caught a petal in my hand and looked at it.

In all the realms I had visited—through dimensions of fire and ice, through kingdoms of shadow and light—I had never seen anything quite like this. Simple. Mortal. Beautiful in a way that didn't need celestial magic to exist. It was breathtaking and beautiful.

Then, right on cue—like something out of a romantic drama that Human Sera had definitely forced me to watch—a figure appeared in the distance.

He was walking slowly toward me, a soft piano music playing at the background, his back to the setting sun, a bouquet of flowers in his hand. The light caught his silhouette, making him look almost... celestial.

He reached me.

I looked up.

Behind me, I heard a record screech. Except records didn't exist in this moment, so it was probably just my brain breaking.

It was Minjae.

"LIKE, WHAT THE HELL?" Human Sera shouted, appearing beside me so suddenly that even I jumped. "WHERE IS MY DARLING? WHY IS GATE-RAMMER HERE?!"

“I thought you like Minjae too? If I recalled when we first met, you said it.” I whispered.

“No, like ew… After much time spending with you as a ghost. I came to realise I like him as a sibling, and we have always had this sibling thing going on. But Ewww…” Human Sera gaged as she spoke.

"What are you doing here, Gate-Rammer?" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "School gate not enough for you? Need to expand your territory to parks?"

"Wow. Relax." Minjae raised his free hand in surrender. "I am not here to make you angry. I am here to pass this to you." He held out the bouquet. "Jaehyun said he was not able to meet you. His dog fell sick. He tried messaging you, but you didn't reply, so I took it upon myself to pass these from him to you. He sends his apology."

I quickly pulled out my phone and scrolled through.

Fourteen missed messages. Three missed calls. All from Jaehyun.

"OH SHIT!" Human Sera huffed. "We were so busy getting dressed that we totally forgot to check your phone! You should have put it on ringtone instead of silence!"

"Shut up," I said. "You should have told me to check."

"What did you say?" Minjae asked.

"Nothing."

We stood there.

It was awkward.

The kind of awkward where neither person knows what to do with their hands or their eyes or their existence. The flowers were still blooming. The petals were still falling. The romantic atmosphere was completely wasted on two people who had approximately zero romantic chemistry.

"Erm... well," Minjae said, scratching the back of his neck. "You look really nice, Sera. I mean, I like the dress. It reminds me of a shade of purple I've seen before."

"OMG! He really likes you!" Human Sera screamed.

I ignored her.

"I mean, I have known him for so long, and he never once complimented my dressing or anything," Human Sera continued, her voice rising in panic. "Just a 'hmm' here or an 'orh' there. Never like this. OMG! SHIT! I have a thought—if Minjae likes you, that means he likes me... and I like Jaehyun... OMG!! Sera, this is getting so complicated!"

Human Sera began twirling in the air like a ghost who had lost all grip on reality.

"So," Minjae said, shoving his hands into his pockets like he was trying to hide them from a crime scene, "do you have anything going on now?"

"Nope." I sighed dramatically—the kind of sigh that was meant to convey cosmic despair but probably just made me look like a tired whale. "Since Jaehyun is not here, I guess I should be heading home and stare into the void."

"The void?" He raised an eyebrow. "That sounds... depressing."

"The void is not depressing. It is existentially neutral. There's a difference."

"Right. My mistake."

"Well," he said, scratching the back of his neck—which I had noticed he did whenever he was about to say something he thought was clever, "since you have nothing—and I mean nothing, because staring into the void is not a plan, it's a cry for help—want to go somewhere else and try some food? I mean, have you eaten outside before?"

I thought about it. Really thought about it. Like, really thought about it.

"Outside?" I repeated slowly. "You mean... beyond the walls of my home? Beyond the sacred boundaries of my parents' restaurant? Beyond the questionable meat products served in the school canteen?"

"Yes, Sera. Outside. The place where the sun lives. And birds. And other people who are not related to you."

I considered this.

"Nope," I said finally. "Other than home, my parents' restaurant, and sometimes the school canteen—where the chicken fingers are suspiciously bouncy, by the way—I have never eaten outside. Not once. Not ever. I am a culinary virgin."

"A... culinary virgin?"

"Yes. Untouched by the flavors of the outside world. Unsoiled by street food. Unblemished by restaurant service."

"That's... that's the weirdest thing I've ever heard anyone say about food."

"I am a celestial being. Weird is my baseline."

Minjae's eyes lit up like I had just offered him a gift from the heavens. Like a puppy who had just been told there was an unlimited supply of belly rubs. Like Dad when Mum said he could buy another lawn mower.

"Well," he said, practically vibrating with excitement, "let's start with pizza then. Have you tried pizza?"

"Nope." I tilted my head. "What is that? Is that even food, or is it for some creature of the deep from another realm? Because I once fought a being in the Umbral Depths that ate something called 'za' and it was not a pleasant experience."

"It's... it's bread. With cheese. And tomato sauce. And toppings."

"Bread? With cheese?" I gasped. "That sounds like something the gods would eat."

"It's actually something college students eat at 2am while crying over their grades."

"Even better. Emotional eating. I approve."

"Oh, you would like it," he said, grinning. "Let's go. Then maybe you can try some dessert."

He turned around and started walking.

And then I noticed it.

Gate-Rammer was beaming.

Like, actually beaming. His face had softened into something that looked almost... happy. Genuinely happy. Not his usual smirk. Not his usual sarcastic grin. Just... a smile.

A real one.

It was disturbing.

"Oh, like, ew..." Human Sera floated beside me, her translucent hands pressed to her ghostly cheeks. "Minjae is happy? Like, seriously happy? What is wrong with him? Did he get hit on the head? Is he possessed? Should we call someone?"

She started giggling and singing in a terrible, off-key voice: "🎵 Somebody like somebody... somebody like somebody... 🎵"

"Shut up!" I whispered.

"What did you say?" Gate-Rammer turned around, still beaming. Still happily beaming. It was like watching a cat smile. Wrong and unsettling.

"Nothing," I said. "I said nothing. I was talking to the air. The air is very chatty today."

"Right." He didn't look convinced. "Are you coming or what?"

"Fine." I stomped past him, my shoes slapping against the pavement with unnecessary aggression. "Lead the way, oh great Gate-Rammer. Take me to this... pizza."

"It's actually this way," he said, pointing in the opposite direction.

I stopped. Turned around. Stomped back past him.

"Now it's this way," I muttered.

Human Sera was laughing so hard she was doing flips in the air. "You are blushing! Your face is the colour of a tomato! A very embarrassed tomato that just got caught staring at a boy's smile!"

"I am not blushing," I hissed. "I am experiencing a temporary increase in facial temperature due to—"

"You're blushing."

"I am celestial blushing. It's different. It's more dignified."

"There is nothing dignified about your face right now. You look like a beet in a purple shirt."

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"You're a ghost! You have no mouth!"

"I HAVE ENOUGH MOUTH TO SING!"

"🎵 Somebody like somebody... 🎵"

I walked faster.

Minjae was still beaming.

This was going to be a long day.