WORDS. |Kim Seungmin

Four.

The world we are living in today is a little bit different from how it used to be. It's not like Aria knew how it used to be since she was born in the current one. And honestly, she wasn't really fazed with how it was being handled.

It's just that the heavens were doing their job perfectly. Almost.

The world was way too damaged to be habituated anymore. People were being robbed midday on the streets, kids got strayed and families had to watch their beloved ones losing their lives. It was fucked up in every mean that not even police or whatever authorities could handle it.

Until punishments came.

The world today is much safer and quieter. No need for police or anyone to stop crimes. Balance was getting back to life once everyone started to get directly and magically punished upon every single bad deed.

But that somehow made people end up forming discrete groups. They were exactly three groups.

The Punished.

Those are people who committed crimes, even the slightest. They get punished right away and the punishment would be equivalent to what they committed. They would live the rest of their lives carrying a prominent punishment that would let people know that they committed something bad. Until they find the specific ones who can help them.

The Healers.

Those have the power of healing the Punished but within limits. Every Healer can only heal one Punished and that would never be any random Punished. They would be specific ones, ironically, just like soulmates. That category of people is hard to find as they usually don't have something in particular that would point out that they are actually Healers, which ends up with them always being mistaken for the third group of people.

The Normals.

Those are who were wise enough not to commit crimes or hurt people. That's why they are Normals. Nothing about them is special except having a normal life. Something that people started seeking in this world. Those Normals would live day by day, praying and hoping that they never get on the wrong side, cause just one mistake and they would be kicked from the Normals to the Punished.

Among those Normals, there was Aria. And among those Punished, there was him, the bubble tea boy.