Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rumi awakens to singing she’s only ever heard through recordings.

That’s what she mistakes it for at first, anyway.

But the sound of the voice is a little too clear. A little too raw. A little too present. A little too live .

And then she notices her bed is not her bed. The ceiling is not the one of her tall penthouse bedroom. And her window outside is not one overlooking the rest of Seoul from one of the tallest buildings in the South Korean skyline.

“Rumi! It’s time for breakfast!” the formerly singing female voice calls. 

Rumi bolts up from her pillow. She blinks a couple of times, so as to reassure herself that she is awake and even sticks a finger in one of her ears to make sure nothing flew into it during the night that’s causing her deceptive hearing. 

Because what she’s hearing does not make sense.

She looks around as she does so, and the familiarity of the setting hits her. The smallness of the room, the barren walls, the minimal wooden furniture, the grassy landscape outside the window. She’s in her old, childhood bedroom on Jeju Island. 

How did she even get here? Again, it does not make sense.

“Rumi!” the voice calls out again, sounding closer this time. A quick knock sounds from her door, but does not open. Instead, the voice waits outside to ask, “Rumi, are you awake?”

She knows that voice. But, that shouldn’t be possible. Maybe there was some damage to her hearing the last time she had gone out fighting demons?

“Yeah,” Rumi answers, despite herself. She slides out of her bed, bare feet meeting cold floor, and she catches sight of herself in the standing mirror.

She can’t help but gasp and reach a hand out to her face before eyeing her right arm. She yanks her shirt over her head and finds…

Nothing.

No patterns.

Not even a scar. 

Nothing. 

She stares at her own bare, patternless skin for the first time in her life.

Her stupor is only broken by the sound of the voice on the other side of the door, “Rumi, you’re going to be late if you don’t get up now.”

Rumi glances at herself in the mirror again, and then at the clock (7:00 AM it reads), before her eyes finally pause at the doorknob. She pulls her shirt back on and cautiously makes her way over to it. 

That voice speaking to her was impossible.

And yet, she no longer has patterns, and she woke up in her old bedroom. 

Nothing makes any sense. She needs answers, and there’s only one way to get them.

Rumi takes a deep breath in, and slowly opens the door.

Her heart comes to a stop.

In front of her is a woman she’s only seen on album covers and dusty picture frames. In front of her is the namesake of the gravestone she visits every year without fail ever since she could walk. In front of her stands the iconic lead visual, dancer, and choreographer of the Sunlight Sisters.

“Good morning, my sweet daughter,” Mi-Yeong greets, a warm smile on her face. 

The late Ryu Mi-Yeong.

Her mother .

What?

“I was getting worried about you for a second there,” Mi-Yeong says. She reaches out and cups a hand around Rumi’s cheek. “Are you feeling okay?”

Rumi can only nod. The rest of her is frozen, but her mother’s touch is warm and soft and loving and real . She does not know how to process this, nor can she even begin to formulate any sort of response. Because her mother is standing before her, breathtakingly beautiful and impossibly alive.

Mi-Yeong seems to notice the lack of response from Rumi as her eyes soften and she suggests, “Why don’t you take work off and just hang around here with me today. Does that sound good?”

Rumi forces herself to croak out a strangled “Yeah.” in response. She’s aware that she needs to pull herself together, but how can she? Her mother was alive. 

Her mother is alive. 

Thankfully, Mi-Yeong flashes her a smile, accepting the answer, “I’ll call in for you. Breakfast is almost done so come join me when you're ready, my dear.”

With that, Mi-Yeong pulls her arm back and steps away, humming quietly to herself as she disappears around the corner to the kitchen. 

It takes everything in Rumi not to collapse in the hallway. 

***

Rumi doesn’t exactly know how she didn’t just succumb to a mental breakdown and lay prone in her bed the rest of the day, but she suspects it’s because her bed is not her bed and she is too curious not to investigate further. Because somehow, her mother is alive. 

Her mother is alive and is waiting for Rumi to join her for breakfast. 

So, Rumi somehow manages to pull on a t-shirt (and tries her best to not dwell on the lack of patterns on her skin) and some jeans. And she tries to make herself somewhat presentable in the bathroom, but given that her mind was running a mile a minute, she can’t get her fingers to cooperate in braiding her hair correctly. After a couple attempts, she gets impatient and gives up, settling for a messy braid instead. 

As she heads for the kitchen, she can hear the soft singing of Mi-Yeong, and she pauses before she can fully round the corner. Rumi can’t help but just watch, taking in the sight of the woman—her mother —from a distance. 

As she noted before, Mi-Yeong is stunningly beautiful. Rumi’s always known it, Mi-Yeong was known for being the “It Girl” of the 2000s, the reputation even spreading internationally. Furthermore, the Sunlight Sisters were known as The Girl Group of the new millenium. Which meant that practically every business had their poster, Mi-Yeong front and center in practically every one. And now, seeing the woman 20+ years older than her depiction on the posters, Rumi thinks Mi-Yeong looks even more beautiful. 

Mi-Yeong is wearing an easy smile as she sings softly along to one of their classic Sunlight Sisters’ songs playing over the radio. She dances gracefully around the kitchen island to deposit the last of the food in her pan on a plate, her voice never wavering as she does so. As Mi-Yeong returns the pan to the stove and goes to wipe her hands, she spots Rumi hovering by the corner.

Mi-Yeong raises an amused eyebrow at her, “Need some help?”

“I-I…” Rumi stutters, having been caught, not knowing what her mother is referring to until Mi-Yeong comes up and points to her messy braid. “Y-yes please,” she says meekly to which Mi-Yeong chuckles as though this were a common occurrence. (And maybe it was.)

“I’ll fix it while you’re eating,” Mi-Yeong states as she takes Rumi by the shoulders and guides her towards the table, “I made your favorite.”

When Rumi sits down, she finds a bowl full of gyeran bap in front of her, fresh and steaming. Her mother comes up from behind her and untangles her messy attempt at a braid, moving to start a new braid when she notices that Rumi has gone still, not even reaching for any of the kitchen utensils laid out in front of her. 

“Are you sure you’re alright, sweetie?” Mi-Yeong asks, the concern apparent in her tone. 

And no, Rumi is not alright. 

Because her mother knows her favorite breakfast dish and knows that Rumi was unhappy with her braid. Because her mother goes beyond just knowing and makes her favorite dish and offers to fix her hair. 

Because her mother knows her, but she does not know her mother. 

Rumi turns in her seat, her loose hair slipping away from Mi-Yeong’s fingers, and she hugs her mother for the first time in her life and cries.

“M-mom.” Rumi tests out the word. She's never used it before. Even in her prayers or in front of the grave, Mi-Yeong had been a stranger and it never felt right to Rumi to use the term. Except now.

Mi-Yeong, only temporarily caught off guard, hugs her daughter back, cradling Rumi’s tear streaked face under her chin. 

“Oh, Rumi,” she only says softly, but doesn’t push. 

Rumi does not know her mother, but in the few minutes she’s met her, she is already learning. Mi-Yeong, who was merely a ghost to her when she went to sleep last night, is someone patient, someone attentive, someone kind, someone motherly… someone Rumi wishes she’d known her whole life. 

After a few minutes, Rumi feels the tears start to dry up. She hasn’t had anything to eat or drink yet so she’s running on less than empty already. She starts hiccupping and she feels her mother let her go, only to come back and offer her a glass of water.

“Here, sweetie, drink this,” says Mi-Yeong, having grabbed a napkin as well to wipe away Rumi’s tears. Rumi lets her do so once she is done gulping down half of the water in the glass. In any other scenario, Rumi would be berating herself for being pathetic and crying in the first place, but this is the first time she’s experiencing her mother wipe away her tears, so she gladly accepts it.

Only once Rumi has calmed down and finished the glass of water does Mi-Yeong speak again.

“My dear, of course I’m not going to press, but something seems to be weighing on you all morning,” Mi-Yeong voices aloud, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Rumi shakes her head, “No, no, I’m just… I’m just glad I get the chance to spend the day with you.” To prove her point, she grabs a spoon and scoops a mouthful of food into her mouth. Damn, that’s good.

“Thank you for the meal, m-mom.” She hopes she can get used to saying that last word.

Mi-Yeong only sends her a fond smile and begins working on the braid. Another Sunlight Sisters song plays on the radio and the two hum along softly, enjoying each other’s company.

***

The rest of breakfast is a peaceful affair, Mi-Yeong having finished braiding Rumi’s hair in a way that left Rumi a little stunned—in a good way. (Rumi was very specific in how her braid sat on her head, and because of this, she was the only one who could braid it correctly, no matter how other people tried to help her with it.) The two had been cleaning up when Mi-Yeong had gotten a phone call and excused herself, leaving Rumi to finish drying off the dishes. 

Rumi, of course, starts spiraling. 

What happened between the course of last night and this morning that she woke up in a world where A) she no longer has patterns, and B) her mother is alive?

Two things she could only wish for, and suddenly they’re both true. 

She tries her best to rewind what she remembered from the previous night, and comes up with… nothing. She doesn’t remember if anything special happened the night before, she doesn’t remember feeling any different before she fell asleep, she doesn’t remember interacting with the Honmoon in any unusual way, and she is certain she didn’t try to mess with her demonic powers in any way to end up in this situation. And even if any of those things would have happened, she had promised she would no longer hide and face it all together with—

Mi-Yeong returns, “Well, since you’re hanging around with me today, I think you’ll be pleased to find out a certain someone is stopping by in a few minutes.” Mi-Yeong sends her a grin as though that alone would be enough to clue Rumi into the identity of the third party joining them soon.

Rumi nods her head like she knows who her mother is talking about, “Oh! Yeah… I can’t wait. …?”

Mi-Yeong raises an eyebrow at her response, and Rumi wonders if she should have faked more enthusiasm. Luckily, she is saved when the doorbell goes off. Her mother sends her a look that Rumi can only interpret as an invitation to answer it. So, Rumi tries her best not to give her reluctance away as she makes her way to the front door. 

For the second time that morning, Rumi stares at a closed door, wondering just who could be on the other side of it. 

She gulps to herself and opens it, and finds herself wrapped up in a hug by the last person she had expected. 

“Rumi!” the voice of the second Sunlight Sister says. 

She finds herself in the arms of no one else but the mother figure she’d been raised by. 

Celine. 

Celine, who could not look her in the eyes. Celine, who wrapped Rumi in a cloak and told her to hide. Celine, who could not accept her. Celine, who she had not heard from since that night of the Idol Awards. Celine, who didn’t even try to contact her during her birt—

Celine, who is smiling brilliantly at her. Celine, hugging her in a way that Rumi could only dream about. 

“Celine!” comes Mi-Yeong’s voice. Celine lets go of Rumi to give the other Sunlight Sister her own hug. 

Rumi watches, speechless as the two rock each other playfully in their embrace. 

For the third time that day, Rumi has had one of her deepest wishes fulfilled. 

(She tries her best not to cry.)

“Oh, Mi-Yeong,” says Celine, still smiling after they finally let go of each other, but still wrapping one of her arms around Mi-Yeong’s shoulders, “Remind me to schedule more breaks during my tour so I can visit the both of you more often.” 

Celine glances at the expression on Rumi’s face, one full of surprise and curiosity, and laughs. (Rumi does not remember the last time Celine has laughed around her.) She reaches up a hand and pinches Rumi’s cheek. 

“I didn’t think you’d be home today, so I was planning to surprise you at your work,” Celine says, her tone light and her eyes full of mirth. (Expressions that Rumi’s never seen before on her except from old video recordings of Sunlight Sisters’ interviews.) “But you know what, this is better. You get to spend the rest of your day with your good ol’ Aunt Celine.”

She pulls Rumi in for another hug, and Rumi can barely remember that she can move her own arms and hug back. This time she, embarrassingly, does start to cry into Celine’s shoulder. 

Celine looks over at Mi-Yeong, a little taken aback but still holding the purple haired girl in her arms. ‘Is she okay?’ she mouths at Mi-Yeong. 

‘Just a little emotional,’ Mi-Yeong mouths back.

Celine pats the back of Rumi’s head, “Aww, it’s okay, RumRum. You can tell your best friend all about it—”

“—An almost 50 year old woman is not her best friend—”

“—Shut up, Miye. Shhh, don’t listen to her, she’s just jealous we pinky promised to be best friends when you were 4 years old and not her.”

The two’s playful banter snaps Rumi out mid-sob, and she can’t help but laugh. She lets go of Celine to wipe her face with her hand. “Sorry,” she apologizes, clearing her throat, “I just… I missed you.”

And it’s the truth. 

She’d tried so hard not to think about Celine since that night of the Idol Awards. Sure, Celine hadn’t contacted her, but she also didn’t take any initiative to make contact with her. Though that last part might be because any communication between the two would first be handled by—

“I missed you too, Rumi, so much,” Celine says freely. Rumi has to stop herself from launching into another sob. “I even got you a present,” Celine adds, “It’s in my car, though.”

Mi-Yeong laughs, “We’ll help you bring your stuff in and Rumi can get you set up in the guest room.”

***

Rumi looks down at the kadupul in the box and feels her eyes watering again. They had just finished bringing in Celine’s stuff into the guest room when Celine had carefully brought over a rather large box and placed it in her hands. 

The Queen of the Night. One of the rarest, most expensive flowers in the world. One that even she had a hard time tracking down with all of her wealth and influence as an id—

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner,” says Celine, taking a seat next to Rumi on the guest bed, “But, I hope this makes up for it.”

“What do you mean?” Rumi can’t help but ask now. 

Her Celine has rarely apologized to her about anything, her Celine has only given her a handful of gifts over the years, her Celine who never asked and probably never knew about her gardening interests. But this Celine brings her the flower she’s wanted for the longest time. This Celine is freely, willingly apologizing for something that Rumi does not know about. 

Celine sends her a soft look, “It’s not every day you celebrate your 25th birthday, Rumi. I’m sorry I couldn’t fly in a day earlier to spend it with you and your mom...”

She doesn't hear the last part, because it hits Rumi all at once. 

A cake. 

A candle. 

A wish. 

She remembers waking up on her 25th birthday, catching a glance in the mirror at how her patterns had glowed an eerie magenta. She remembers thinking ‘this is how I’m going to look for the rest of my life’.

She remembers the way she’d hovered around her phone the whole day, waiting for a message from the only mother figure she’s known her entire life. She remembers how heartbroken she was at the end of the night that Celine didn’t reach out to her the whole day. 

She remembers playing with the seaweed soup in front of her during breakfast, no one to honor for it. 

She remembers the cake brought to her before bed, a candle lit, and being urged to make a wish. 

She remembers wishing to herself, ‘I wish I don’t have to hurt anymore.’

She remembers being asked what she wished for. 

“Nothing,” she remembers lying, “I have everything I could ever wish for.”

She remembers going to bed. Alone. She remembers crying to herself in bed, like she usually does. She remembers hoping the universe will show her mercy and grant her wish, just for once, before she falls unconscious. 

“—be here tonight for your belated birthday party… Rumi?” comes Celine’s voice. 

Rumi blinks a few times, just registering that Celine was talking to her. “Hmm?”

What was she remembering again?

Celine only chuckles fondly, “I see you haven’t stopped being a dreamer.” (Her Celine never liked it when she caught Rumi daydreaming.) 

Rumi blushes, “Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t apologize for being you,” Celine scolds mockingly. (It’s the first time her tone even remotely resembles the Celine that Rumi had grown up with. But even then, Rumi does not flinch since it's undercut with a loving message.) 

Celine softens her tone as she wraps an arm around Rumi’s shoulders, “I’m so glad I can spend some time with you again. Maybe, I’ll just cancel the rest of my tour and live with you and Miye, here. What do you say, Rumi? Would you like to have your Aunt Celine living the rest of her life only a shout away when you need her? You just have to say yes, and I’ll do it.”

Rumi knows she’s joking, but she can’t help but smile. 

She’d missed Celine so much.

She remembers that she’s missing something else… She remembers that she’s missing two other things, actually, but she can’t put her finger on it.

***

“SURPRISE!”

The last door-related reveal flings open the front door hours later, and Rumi finds herself staring at the final member of the Sunlight Sisters. 

“Jeong Kim, get over here!” shouts Celine, appearing from the hallway, her arms already outstretched towards the woman at the door. 

Kim, however, chooses to ignore Celine and makes a beeline for Rumi instead. 

“RuRu! Happy Belated Birthday, kiddo!” Kim exclaims, “I can’t believe you’re 25! You know it’s never too early to debut, so if you want a career in the industry, you just let your Auntie Kim know, okay? OMG look at your hair! It’s so long! And you’re so tall now, oh my god! And so so so beautiful ! Have you ever thought about modeling? I bet you would look great on the front of a magazine. Oh! Speaking of, are you still working the store front—?”

Rumi can’t keep up with what the other woman is saying, especially as she finds herself struggling for oxygen from the bone crushing hug delivered by said woman. 

“Lord help her, let my daughter breathe!” Mi-Yeong calls out, coming out from another room. 

Kim lets go of Rumi, and again ignores Celine, and goes to hug Mi-Yeong instead. (Rumi has to turn away to snort at the affronted look on Celine’s face.)

”It’s been too long since I’ve come by,” says Kim, releasing Mi-Yeong from the hug, “I’m sorry about that, Miye.”

“I get it. I get it. My two older sisters think that we’ve grown up too much to check up on their maknae,” Mi-Yeong says with a faux pout, side-eyeing the two women cheekily. 

Celine and Kim gasp. 

“Now hold on!”

”You know that’s not true!”

The three start bickering as Rumi watches them on, her cheeks burning from smiling so wide. 

The Sunlight Sisters. Three women that she should have grown up around, but ended up only knowing them as well as the rest of the world. Sure, from time to time, her Celine would share a short story about them before promptly shutting herself off in her office. Or, she’d occasionally get an email to call first dibs on a song from the famous producer, Kim Jeong aka K.Jae, in America. Or, some older idol would tell her about how great it was to work with her mother. But essentially, these three women were all strangers to her in their own ways.

And yet, there’s something that nags her brain about how they interact. There’s a familiarity in how they are with each other. Honestly, it kind of reminds her of her dynamic with—

“Okay, okay, I know I’m late, and we only have less than an hour until sundown,” Rumi hears Kim say over Mi-Yeong and Celine’s voices, who immediately quiet down and listen. Wow, such is the power of the unnie. “So why don’t we go to the Spirit Tree before it gets dark out to pay our respects, and then come back to celebrate Rumi’s belated birthday?”

Rumi and her mother smile and nod in agreement. They all look at Celine who’s had her arms crossed the entire time they’ve been bickering.

Celine sighs, “Fine, I’ll agree to that, just… give me a hug first. Kim, please.”

Kim laughs, finally conceding and wrapping the tallest Sunlight Sister in a similar bone crushing embrace.

After a few minutes of bringing the rest of Kim’s stuff inside, the four make their way out of the house and up the hill behind it that leads towards the familiar graveyard where the Spirit Tree was located. 

The trek up would be at least an hour’s long affair to ordinary civilians, but Rumi was conditioned to run up and down this hill since the day she could walk. She could sprint up to the top in mere minutes if she truly wanted to. But she doesn’t. Because it is the first time she gets to walk up the hill without the ever present reminder of her mother’s grave that was buried a short distance away from the Spirit Tree. Because right now, her mother is alive and she is animatedly talking with the mother figure she grew up with and the one she never got to know. Because as they go to pay respects to the dead, Rumi has never felt more alive. 

They make it to the graveyard with the sun halfway below the horizon, dusk starting to settle in, but only a couple minutes are needed for the four women to set everything up. 

“Alright, I think everything’s set,” says Mi-Yeong, dusting the dirt off of her pants as Rumi helps her mother up from the ground. Celine and Kim nod in agreement, and they all join hands so that Mi-Yeong and Celine are in the middle, and Rumi and Kim are on the ends.

Celine, with her perfect pitch, sings the starting note. It’s not one that Rumi would usually use, so she figures she’ll fall back and wait to see what the other two women sing. 

As Celine sustains the note, Kim jumps in with the lower harmony, with Mi-Yeong adding the higher harmony last. And it is then when Rumi gets the final surprise of her day. 

Her breath catches in her throat.

The Honmoon flares bright, and it flares gold .

Rumi understands now.

Everything she’d been working towards. Everything she’d wanted. Everything she’d wished for. Everything that had been torn from her grasp that one night…

It was all here.

It was all in her reach.

So that’s what she does. 

She reaches.

Rumi reaches out a hand, and touches the threads of the Golden Honmoon. 

And in doing so, she forgets.

A life where she’d hidden half of herself to everyone around her. A life which was defined by death and sacrifice. A life where all she’d felt was shame and pain and hurt. 

(A life where her soul is intertwined with two others.)

She forgets, so she can remember a life where all she knows is love. 

Chapter Text

“I don’t know Mira, maybe we should have gotten her a bigger cake. Ooh! Or maybe even one of those sparkly candles.”

“I don’t think so. The girl lives for that minimalist aesthetic. Plus, she hates it when we acknowledge her birthday. I think any more frosting would have scared her off.”

Mira and Zoey sat around the kitchen island taking turns picking at the birthday cake with their forks. They had brought over the cake to Rumi’s door a little over an hour ago as a last minute surprise, hoping that they could cheer her up before the day was over. However, the girl had only blown out the candle at their insistence and then told them to enjoy the cake for her as she had been feeling tired and wanted to turn in early. 

Mira cursed to herself. She and Zoey had been trying hard to show Rumi how much they loved and appreciated her the whole day. But at every turn, they could see something weigh down on Rumi.

For instance, Mira had gotten up especially early to cook seaweed soup for Rumi. She had gotten the ingredients the day before to make sure she could have it ready by the time Rumi got up, and she was proud to say she had managed to time it just right. She had been pouring the soup into the bowl just as Rumi had exited her room, and had been delighted to see the look of surprise on the leader’s face. 

“Mira, you shouldn’t have,” Rumi had said, all choked up. 

Mira had only smiled in turn, “If no one else is going to do it, I’m more than happy to make you seaweed soup for your birthday from now on.”

Maybe she should have phrased that sentence a different way because Mira had seen the way Rumi’s smile faltered ever so slightly. She mentally smacked herself in the head. Giving the girl soup that was traditionally a way to honor their mothers during their birthday, and her calling into attention that the girl’s birth mother was deceased and the mother figure she was raised by was absent to serve said girl the soup… yeah, she should’ve been more careful about her words.

“Rumi!! Happy 25th birthday!!!” Zoey had screeched from down the hall, tackling the other girl in a hug as soon as she had reached them. Once Mira had finished setting up breakfast for the three of them, she could see how the purple haired girl was only halfheartedly pushing around the soup with her spoon, only really eating it when she had noticed that Mira was looking over in her direction. 

The rest of the day was dishearteningly uneventful, Rumi having vetoed their suggestions to go out or host a last minute party. The purple haired girl had eventually agreed to at least take a walk around the neighborhood and then sit down and watch her favorite movies once they had gotten back. But even then, all throughout the walk and during the movies, Mira had caught glimpses of Rumi looking over at her phone, waiting for a notification from a specific someone. Mira’s stomach turned, having known who Rumi was waiting for, and at the same time knowing just how small the chances are that it would happen.

Celine. 

Rumi had confessed to them just days before about what had happened between her and Celine that night of the Idol Awards. How she had begged her mother figure to end her existence. How she pleaded on her knees with her sword offered up to her. How Celine had— thank goodness —denied Rumi’s request, but also, at the same time, denied Rumi in accepting her demon side, even going so far as to suggest that Rumi lie again and cover up. 

Mira was angry at herself for turning her weapon on Rumi, but she was even more angry at Celine who conditioned them and told them that all demons were irredeemable. Celine, who kept Rumi from telling them the truth and would have prevented her from pointing her gok-do at Rumi in the first place. Celine, a person she had looked up to her entire life, now the person Mira wanted absolutely nothing to do with. 

But here was Rumi, having been denied again and again by this woman. Here was Rumi, still waiting on a single message from Celine. 

So when Rumi had excused herself to take a shower, she and Zoey had gone and grabbed the small cake that they had hidden in the mini fridge in Zoey’s room in hopes that they could make her smile one more time. And she did… but Mira could see that Rumi’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“What did you wish for?” Mira had asked after Rumi blew out her candles. 

“You can’t ask her that, Mira!” Zoey had said, smacking Mira’s shoulder. Mira would have smacked her back if she hadn’t been holding the cake. “Or else her wish won’t come true.”

“Stupid wish rules,” Mira had grumbled, which made Rumi giggle. That alone had made Mira want to do the stupidest things if just to hear the other girl laugh again. 

“Nothing,” Rumi had assured them, having come up and inserting herself between the two before placing her arms around their shoulders, “I have everything I could ever wish for.”

Something had nagged in the back of Mira’s mind. Was Rumi lying—?

The thought was cut off by the feeling of Rumi’s lips on her cheek. Mira had felt her entire face erupt in a blush and had to immediately turn her head so that the other two couldn’t see how red she was. She felt Rumi lean over to Zoey and do the same before letting go of their shoulders and walking back into her bedroom. 

“Why don’t you guys go ahead and enjoy the cake for me. I’m feeling pretty tired, so if you cut it up, I can have a slice for breakfast tomorrow.”

“S-sure thing, Rumi—”

“Yup for sure, for sure, we definitely can do that—”

“Thanks guys, you’re the best,” Rumi had said before gently closing the door on them. 

Once the door had clicked shut, Mira had looked over at Zoey who had one of her hands reverently touching her cheek where Mira suspected Rumi had placed her lips upon. The two made eye contact and had only sighed at each other before they walked to the kitchen to cut the cake. 

Which was where they were now, chewing and sadly contemplating what other ways they could have gone about the day. 

“I’m still mad at you for not letting me get her a gift.”

“You already traumatized her last year, or do I need to remind you what happened?”

“…No.”

“Exactly.”

Mira sighed. 

There really wasn’t anything much they could do this year given the events that had happened only a couple of weeks ago at the Idol Awards. Sure, they now knew that Rumi was a half-demon and their acceptance of her was a big factor in vanquishing Gwi-Ma. But there were so many issues that were shoved to the forefront that day—issues that they were still in the process of working through. 

There were certain days where it felt like all three of them were walking on eggshells with each other. And those were also the days that Mira wanted nothing but to barge through Rumi’s door and force her to talk to them. Of course, Mira never did. She was aware that each of them sought to solve problems in their own ways, and Rumi’s was to keep any and all cards as close to her chest as possible, only revealing any information when it was needed. She understood, but that didn’t stop the feelings of impatience and anxiety from creeping over Mira the longer they avoided getting to actually talk. 

It was as though Rumi was hoping that if she waited long enough, that they could go back to how things would be. To when she could hide from them again, despite all of her promises that she wouldn’t. (For god’s sake, the girl still wore long sleeves around the house and had been disappointedly disinterested in exploring her new demonic powers despite Mira and Zoey’s own curiosities.) It, frankly, made Mira nervous. If they didn’t talk soon, they might not get to talk at all and lose out on the opportunity to get Rumi to fully open up to them. Because then, maybe she and Zoey could finally tell Rumi how much she meant to them. How much more they wanted to mean to Rumi, if she would have them. 

So with all of that going on, in combination with the fact that Rumi, notoriously , hated celebrating or even acknowledging her birthday, (they’d only found out after begging Bobby for Rumi’s birthdate three years ago when he’d first become their manager) Mira knew that trying to do anything more for the other girl was already pushing it.

After a few minutes of eating what they could, Mira cut up the cake per the birthday girl's request. She started putting the cake away in their main fridge when she heard a crash. 

Almost banging her head on the fridge’s ceiling, she looked over to Zoey who was now also on her feet, looking in the direction of Rumi’s room. 

“Do you think she’s—” Zoey started saying when they both felt it. Their new Honmoon rippled around them in confirmation. 

Demons. 

In less than a second, they summoned their weapons from the Honmoon and made a beeline for Rumi’s bedroom door. 

“Motherfucker, ” Zoey cursed in English, having gotten to the door first. She turned to Mira, “It’s locked.”

“Alright, move,” said Mira, pulling Zoey away from the door. “Rumi, we’re coming in!”

With a swift kick, the door swung open and Mira and Zoey leapt inside to find a terrifying scene. 

The Saja Boys—or more specifically, Romance and Baby—standing over Rumi, holding a black plant looking thing with tendrils to her chest. 

“Get away from her! ” Mira roared, launching herself at Romance while Zoey immediately threw her shin-kals at Baby’s head. 

Annoyingly, the two remaining Saja Boys were able to dodge their initial attacks and booked it for Rumi’s balcony door.

“Mira! Shooting Star!” Zoey called out from behind her.

Hearing the combo’s name, Mira immediately dropped into a wide stance, and turned her gok-do horizontal. Grabbing the blade end, she waited until she felt Zoey’s weight on the other end of it. Just as she felt the change in weight, she used all of her strength to swing the gok-do forward, launching Zoey through the air at unimaginable speeds. Flying over the two Saja boys, Zoey did a spinning flip to reorient herself to face them while throwing all six of her shin-kals at the two. In a ruthless move, Baby stepped behind Romance, letting the pink-haired Saja Boy take the full impact of all six of Zoey’s shin-kals. Seeing this, Zoey landed and quickly summoned one more shin-kal, throwing it right at the last Saja Boy. However, the skin-kal did not hit its target, having been caught by Mira only mere inches away from Baby’s face.

“Wait!”

Zoey looked at her in disbelief as Mira handed her the singular shin-kal back. The pink haired girl had the mind to keep her gok-do’s blade pinned against the demon’s body as she did so. 

“Why are we waiting?” Zoey asked, summoning another five while positioning herself to block the door. 

“We need him to tell us what they did to Rumi,” Mira said before directing her full attention to the last remaining Saja Boy, “You. Talk.”

“Heard it was her birthday,” Baby shrugged, his hands up in surrender, “Figured we’d deliver a little present. Something that should make her feel like the queen that she deserves to be.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Mira demanded. 

“It means that you should have killed the rest of us back at Namsan Tower when you had the chance,” said Baby. Before she could process what he had said, the last remaining Saja Boy stepped into the blade of her gok-do.

“May the Queen have mercy on her soul.” He smirked, giving them a mocking salute before disintegrating back into the demon realm.

“Son of a— ” Zoey threw her shin-kals to the floor in frustration. 

Mira would’ve been inclined to agree with the sentiments, but instead had her attention focused on the thing wrapped around Rumi’s torso. Zoey followed her gaze and they both slowly approached the bed. 

There Rumi laid, a peaceful expression on her face. Clearly, she didn’t hear the altercation. And clearly, that was the work of the mysterious black demonic plant wrapped around her torso. As they got closer, Mira could see that Rumi’s patterns were glowing that otherworldly magenta. She also noticed that the spiky flowers on the plant glowed the same color. It wasn’t one continuous glow either, both the patterns and flowers brightened and dimmed in a constant rhythm together. The speed at which the glowing was synced mimicking a steady heartbeat…

“What is it?” Zoey asked aloud. 

Mira shook her head, “I don’t know, but we’ve got to get this thing off of her.” 

She moved forward to grab it, but hesitated. Maybe she shouldn’t touch the obviously demonic looking plant directly. 

“I can try to cut it off of her?” Zoey suggested, re-summoning one shin-kal. 

Mira nodded and watched as Zoey sat at the edge of the bed next to the sleeping Rumi. Slowly, Zoey moved her shin-kal over one of the tendrils wrapped around Rumi’s arm. They held their breath as Zoey slowly cut into the plant. 

Rumi—who had been the picture perfect image of a Sleeping Beauty before—started seizing. Her back arched from the bed as if possessed. The glowing rhythm of Rumi’s patterns and the plant’s flowers became erratic. 

“Zoey, stop!” 

“Oh, shit !”

Zoey tore her shin-kal away from the plant and immediately Rumi’s body dropped fully back on the bed, the glowing of her patterns and the flowers steadying itself after a couple of seconds. 

Mira and Zoey breathed heavily, the severity of the situation now settling in. 

“We can’t get it off of her if that happens every time,” Zoey said, panic seeping into her tone. She looked up at Mira and in a small voice said, “We might kill her.”

“We won’t let that happen,” assured Mira who racked her brain for solutions. She landed on one, though it was not one she was looking forward to. She sighed to herself. 

Of course. 

“We’ll have to call Celine.”

***

“Girls!”

Zoey and Mira jolted awake from their spots next to Rumi’s bed. The two looked up, finding Celine standing at the foot of Rumi's bed with her arms folded. 

“I thought you were on watch last,” Mira hissed at her. 

Zoey groggily rubbed her eyes, “No I wasn’t.”

”Yes you were!”

Zoey blinked, the events that transpired hours ago catching up with her. 

“…I might have been on watch last.”

Looking out the window, Zoey could see that it was still dark—the sun hadn’t even attempted to break through the horizon yet. It must have only been a couple hours since they reached out to Celine then. They weren’t expecting her until closer to late morning.

Zoey voiced the thoughts aloud, “We didn’t expect you to get here until later.”

“I pulled some strings,” replied Celine, cautiously moving closer to Rumi’s sleeping form. Zoey and Mira watched as she reached out and tucked loose strands of Rumi’s hair behind her ear. Zoey stayed silent, knowing just how complicated the pair’s relationship was now. 

“You know, she waited for you to reach out all day yesterday.” Unfortunately, Mira had no such qualms. 

“I was… busy,” Celine muttered, never taking her eyes off of Rumi. 

“ Bull —“ Mira started but was stopped by Zoey tugging her sleeves. 

Zoey glared at her. Not now. They had to figure out what this demonic plant thing was and as much as she also wanted to argue with their (former?) mentor, Rumi had to come first. 

Celine rubbed her temple, “How long has she been like this?”

“We found her like this only a couple minutes before we called for you,” answered Zoey, checking her phone. 4:00AM. “Probably around 5ish hours ago.”

Celine nodded, a determined look in her eye, “Okay, we have time then.”

“So you know what this is?” Mira questioned. 

Their mentor took a deep breath in before responding, “Yes. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this situation.” Mira and Zoey exchanged a look of curiosity before Celine continued, “This is flora from the demon realm called the Demon Queen’s Crown. Also known in other mythologies as The Black Mercy.”

Sick name, but that didn’t give them much to work with. 

“What does it do?” Zoey asked. 

“The Demon Queen’s Crown is a parasitic demonic plant that first feeds off of the psychic energy of its victim,” answered Celine as though she was reading off of a textbook, “It is able to do so by trapping the victim in a dream they would never want to escape.” Zoey felt her stomach drop. “Once it is able to fully extract all of the victim’s psychic energy, it can go on to extract the victim’s soul for the Demon King.”

“Rumi’s gonna die?!” Zoey exclaimed.

At the same time, Mira demanded, “How do you know all of this?”

Celine chose to answer Zoey’s question, “She’s not going to die immediately. We still have time to get it off of her.” 

“We already tried,” Mira said, “All it did was cause her to have a seizure."

“The plant attaches itself to the victim’s nervous system while it feeds,” Celine explained. The cold, sanitized tone of her explanation was starting to grate at Zoey. “Any attempts to remove the plant externally from its victim causes physiological distress to the victim.”

“Wait," Zoey said, catching a specific word in the older woman's statement, "You said ‘external’ removal of it hurts Rumi. Does that mean we can remove it internally somehow?”

Celine winced, “Yes.” They waited to see if she would say anything else, but Zoey noticed as Celine’s gaze turned distant, as though searching for the answer herself. Zoey watched as her mentor’s gaze roamed around the room before it froze on something next to Rumi’s headboard.

Ah. Right. It was the picture of Rumi’s mom. 

”Jeong Kim…” Celine started so suddenly that Zoey almost jumped. Celine cleared her throat before beginning again, “It was some time after Rumi’s mom died and Kim and I... We weren't doing so well. Some demons had managed to sense that weakness and trap Kim with The Black Mercy.”

Suddenly, it hit Zoey that there was probably a reason that their mentor insisted that their faults and fears must never be seen.

Celine continued, “I was able to go into her mind and save her, of course, but I wasn’t prepared for what scenario the plant had come up with to trap her.” She swallowed, her voice tight but pushed on. “In Kim’s dream, Mi-Yeong was still alive and I… I almost joined Kim, staying in that dream just to be with her again.”

Zoey and Mira awaited with bated breath.

“Mi-Yeong was alive, yes. But then I found out that Rumi wasn’t.” Celine revealed, gingerly taking hold of the sleeping girl’s hand, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “She didn’t exist in that world. And no matter how much I wanted Mi-Yeong to be alive again, I couldn’t leave Rumi. I knew I had to break out and get back to her. She was just a baby back then, after all.” 

A few stray tears did end up spilling from their mentors eyes who hurriedly wiped them away. “Kim wasn’t able to look at me the same after I broke her out of the dream, and I’ve always suspected that was one of the reasons she left and continued her career in America instead.”

Silence settled between the three after Celine’s heavy revelation. 

Zoey—and practically the rest of the world—knew that the break up of the Sunlight Sisters was one of the biggest losses of the music industry. They had been climbing so far up in popularity both in Korea and overseas. And when it was announced that Ryu Mi-Yeong was pregnant, the entire world celebrated, waiting for the baby’s birth. But then the Sunlight Sisters went radio silent around the time the baby was supposed to be born, causing speculation to go rampant. It didn’t help that the day the Sunlight Sisters broke their silence, they announced the death of Ryu Mi-Yeong and the immediate disbandment of the group. The whole world mourned the loss, but the Honmoon held strong, homages to the group and their deceased member played everywhere. And years after when the world finally settled after the fact, Celine finally introduced Rumi to the rest of the world. Little Rumi—a new hope to continue the legacy that had hastily been left behind. 

And now they were facing the same threat that had been the nail in the coffin for the Sunlight Sisters. 

“How do we get Rumi out?” came Mira’s voice, softer now but still determined.

Celine took a steadying breath. “All three of your souls—they’re linked.”

Standing up, Celine hummed softly. Although the Honmoon was new, it would never forget a Hunter. The threads of the Honmoon showed itself and Celine reached, grabbing two threads. She offered one to each of them. 

“You have to tie it around your soul and use your connection with Rumi to bring yourselves into her dreamscape.”

Zoey listened carefully, gingerly wrapping the thread around her chest—and by extension her soul, Mira doing the same next to her.  

“Once you’re in there, Rumi’s deepest wishes will have been fulfilled,” Celine explained carefully, “You have to break her out of it. But it has to be her choice. Her free will. Once you do, the plant will let go of her. But if you don't… all three of you will die.”

“Oh, okay. No pressure. Just entering the mind of the same girl that has shut us out for practically the entire time we’ve known her. No biggie.” Zoey laughed nervously. Although she had said that, none of that was actually going to stop her from trying. She’d gladly follow Rumi off the edge of the world if it came down to it. 

“I wish I could go in your place…” Celine started but Mira cut her off. 

“Definitely not. You have your own issues to solve regarding Rumi. We're not letting you get anywhere near her mind. Get over yourself and figure out how to apologize to her before we get back or I swear to god Celine, this is the last time you’re ever laying your eyes on her.”

A defeated sigh escaped Celine’s lips. “Noted.”

Zoey looked over at Mira and held her hand out. “Ready?”

Mira nodded, taking her hand. “Ready.”

In a move that felt natural, both girls climbed on to Rumi’s bed and each took hold of one of her hands. Closing their eyes, they did what they always did whenever they wanted to interact with the Honmoon. 

They sang. 

Their notes vibrated through the threads of the Honmoon and almost immediately they were able to find it. Rumi's soul. So far away despite the fact that they were holding her hands in theirs.

But it was there. 

The last third of their soul.  

So. They reached for her with nothing but their own voices—nothing but their own souls.

(They would always reach for her.)

They felt her reach back.

And they were pulled in.

Chapter Text

“You both felt the disturbance two nights ago, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, and it made me feel even worse that neither of us were able to make it here sooner.”

“You’re here now,” Mi-Yeong says as she reaches over and lays a comforting hand on Celine’s shoulder, “Both of you. That’s all that matters.” Celine can only muster a half smile in response. Kim joins them a moment later, speed walking back from the counter with all of their drinks in her hand. 

She shoots a raised eyebrow at Celine, seeing Mi-Yeong’s hand on her shoulder, but thankfully chooses not to say anything as she passes out their drinks. 

“Are you both talking about the Honmoon?” she asks instead as she pulls up a chair to the table. Celine answers with a nod, taking a sip of her drink. Kim looks straight at Mi-Yeong, “You said that whatever triggered the disturbance felt close to you. Was there anything weird about it?”

Mi-Yeong’s eyebrows furrow as she takes a sip of her coffee. “Now that you mention it, it had felt a bit strange.” 

“How so?” Kim asks. 

Celine watches as Mi-Yeong bites her lip, the younger woman doing her best to recall what she remembered the night of Rumi’s birthday. After a couple seconds of contemplating, she answers, “It didn’t feel like it was demons that caused the disturbance.”

“That makes no sense,” Celine says and Mi-Yeong rolls her eyes at her. 

“It felt like the Honmoon… shifted. Rather than it rippling when it gets triggered by demons,” Mi-Yeong explains, catching the incredulous look on the two older women’s faces. “Don’t look at me like that. We’ve all been hunters long enough to know if something feels weird with the Honmoon.”

“To be fair though, the last time something weird happened with the Honmoon was almost 25 years ago when we turned it golden,” Kim pipes up to which Mi-Yeong huffs in response. 

Celine shakes her head at their youngest before a particular head of purple catches her eye. “Speaking of 25 years…” She starts waving as though the girl wasn’t already making her way over in their direction, “Rumi!”

“Hey!” Rumi says, approaching their table. They were sitting outside the cafe, and Rumi would have had to pass them on her way to the door anyway. “What are you both still doing here?” she asks as she gives each woman a hug in greeting. 

“Aww. Pack it up Celine. RuRu wants her aunties gone already…” Kim teases. 

“No! No! That’s not what I meant!” Rumi says in panic but relaxes when Kim and Celine only laugh. 

“We thought we’d stay the week,” answers Celine who suddenly gets self-conscious and adds,  “...if that’s cool with you?” She hears Mi-Yeong mutter from beside her, “I’m the one that owns the house.” Celine only nudges her with her elbow. 

“Of course!” says Rumi, a bright smile on her face at the news. “I love having you both around.”

“What brings you around here, sweetie?” Mi-Yeong asks. 

“Oh, one of the employees—Jinu—forgot to bring lunch, so I offered to go get some for the both of us before the lunch rush began,” says Rumi, slowly making her way over to the door.

Kim jumps up from her seat, “Oh my god! Let me pay for lunch then.”

“Auntie Kimmmm.”

“Shhh,” shushes Kim as she leads Rumi inside, “As long as I’m here, your meals are free.”

The door closes behind them and Celine directs a pointed stare at Mi-Yeong. “I’m surprised you managed to keep our hunter activities a secret from her for the past 25 years,” she says. 

Mi-Yeong shrugs, “I don’t see a point. Ever since we turned the Honmoon golden, we’ve been less and less active. And it’s not like she needs to know.”

Celine rolls her eyes at her now. “What about her patterns?”

“What about them?” Mi-Yeong retorts, “They’ve been absent ever since the Golden Honmoon, and she hasn’t said anything about patterns popping up.”

Celine snorts, “Knowing Rumi, she’d probably freak out and try to hide it.” She looks over and sees Mi-Yeong glare at her. She sighs, “Look, Rumi might not be involved in all our Hunter business but she was still born a half-demon. I think we’ve been lucky that nothing has happened in the last 25 years for her to figure it out. But what about when you’re—when all of us —are gone? What if she has to learn about it all on her own for some reason?”

“And what? Tell her that her mother occasionally risks her life to kill supernatural beings from hell? The same beings that make up half of what she actually is?”

“Well… I mean if you put it like that…”

Mi-Yeong sighs, “Look Celine, all Rumi’s ever wanted is an ordinary life. She’s never expressed any desire to follow in either of our footsteps. Singing, dancing, anything that will put her in the spotlight—nothing. At least that part is easy to wrap one’s head around. And then to bring in something even more extraordinary? Hunting, demons, magic… all things she can’t even interact with—”

“Are you sure? I could have sworn I had seen her trying to touch the Honmoon last night at the Spirit Tree.”

“Me too, but I asked her what she was doing and she just said she thought she saw a firefly,” Mi-Yeong answers. She rubs at her temples. “Point is: Our lives as hunters are almost done. Rumi doesn’t have a reason to learn—nor has she ever been curious about—her heritage. She doesn’t need to feel any unnecessary shame that might arise from learning what she is.”

Celine crosses her arms and falls back in her chair. “I still don’t like this.”

“How about a truce, then,” Mi-Yeong suggests, taking Celine’s hand. “If for some reason, Rumi ever comes to ask about anything relating to demons or the Honmoon, you and Kim will come and help me tell her the truth. But until then, we keep quiet.”

Celine regards the hand in hers for a few seconds before finally conceding, “Alright fine. We’ll do it that way. She is your daughter after all.”

Mi-Yeong smiles at her brightly. “You are her best friend.” 

The two are smiling at each other when Rumi and Kim reemerge from the door. Kim and Rumi share a knowing look before the two other women notice them, quickly pulling their hands back to themselves. Celine sees the brown paper bag full of food and a drink carrier holding two drinks in Rumi’s hands.

“Goodbye everyone, I’ll see you all after I get back from work,” says Rumi, already starting to cross the street, “Love you all!”

“Bye Rumi! We love you!” three voices shout after her.

***

They land in a trash bin. 

“Ughhh,” Zoey groans, “Couldn’t we have landed in a mattress store?”

“We would have hit roof before we hit mattress.”

“Good point.”

The two dig themselves out of the trash bin, Mira chucking a banana peel stuck to Zoey’s shoulder. The two spot their respective hats in the bin and grab them before they finish dusting themselves off and taking a look to see where they ended up. It looked like they had landed in a trash bin in a random alleyway, nothing to really signal their location. It doesn’t really matter, they just need to find Rumi. 

Mira says as much and offers her hand to Zoey who takes it immediately. Just like they did just minutes before, they close their eyes and harmonize.

Their souls reach out… and out… and out… and keep branching out in separate directions. As though Rumi was everywhere but nowhere specific. 

The two girls’ eyes fly open in confusion, and what they see completely startles them. 

All around them the Honmoon blazes bright, responding to their voices. All around them are the Honmoon’s threads, blanketing every surface in their vision. All around them are the threads of the Honmoon glowing a majestic gold.

"What the—“ “How—“ the girls sputter simultaneously.

Mira looks over and sees Zoey sporting the same incredulous expression on her face that she herself is wearing. 

“It’s gold ,” Zoey says as if saying it makes it more real. Mira can only nod dumbly. 

They stand there taking it in, trying to wrap their minds around it. If she was being honest, Mira always thought the existence of the Golden Honmoon was just a myth. Sure, they’d seen flashes of gold weaving through the Honmoon before. And sure, it had gotten so close that one night during the Idol Awards. (Before tragedy struck.) But to see it fully golden? To see it stable and unwavering as it was? She never really fully believed that it could happen. And here it was, in front of her. 

“Mira, look!” Zoey exclaims and Mira turns her head back to Zoey to see what she’s pointing at. Zoey’s pointing at her. Well not exactly her . But the thread that wraps around her soul, extending far into the sky, vanishing into the cosmos above. However, unlike the golden threads around her, this one is Iridescent. The same kind of iridescence that Mira associates with starlight. Right next to hers, she sees a similar Iridescent thread wrapped around Zoey’s own soul as well. 

“I wonder…” Mira says as she reaches to summon her gok-do. Interestingly, the Golden Honmoon does not respond. But the weapon does manifest, just from the Iridescent Thread itself. Zoey does the same, also pulling out her shin-kals from the Iridescent Thread bound to her soul. 

Zoey cocks her head in a way that Mira knows means she’s curious to try something out. Wordlessly, Zoey throws her shin-kal at the alleyway’s walls. It embeds itself in the brick of the building and stays there. Zoey sighs in relief. 

“I thought they would disappear once it left my hand,” Zoey offers in explanation. 

Mira never thought of that, so she smiles at the other girl for thinking far ahead. But something catches her eye and she squints. Zoey follows her gaze and they both find that the Honmoon in the area under where the shin-kal was buried, which was once a golden sheen, started giving way to the same Iridescent color as their threads. Mira turns her gaze down and sees that the blade point of her gok-do that had been resting on the ground was also having a similar effect to the golden threads of this world’s Honmoon. 

“This is so weird,” Zoey says right next to her and Mira completely agrees. 

Everything since they’d landed here was weird . The unexplainable Golden Honmoon. Their own separate Iridescent Honmoon. And the fact that they were unable to pinpoint Rumi’s whereabouts. They’d only just landed here and Mira can already sense just how much more complicated things were going to be than from what they’d initially expected. 

“If we can’t find Rumi through the Honmoon, then we’ll have to do it manually,” Mira thinks aloud, “That means finding out where we are.”

The alleyway doesn’t give much in terms of location, so they move to step out into the street to see if they can find something recognizable. Maybe they’ll be able to see the skyline and triangulate their location from there. 

They do so, and both girls furrow their eyebrows in confusion once again. They are not met with the familiar Seoul skyline. Instead, they spot a familiar looking hill in the distance. A particular hill they could never forget after countless hours of training, running up and down its slopes while singing to build stamina. The streets around them start looking more and more familiar.

“Are we on Jeju ?” Zoey asks, disbelief in her voice as though they hadn’t been hit with a boatload of surprising discoveries in succession already. 

Mira nods hesitantly, “I think so.” She needs to double check. 

She reaches for her phone to check her GPS and finds—nothing. 

Her phone is missing. And it seems like her wallet is as well. Great.

Another thing on the already long list of complications. They’re on the other side of the country with no idea where to start searching for Rumi, and have no money and no phone on top of it. 

It makes sense. The dreamscape—which Mira’s taken to calling—no matter how freakishly real everything looked and felt , is nothing more than its name: a dream. So wherever their souls were pulled into, of course it wouldn’t leave them with their material goods. (She’s just thankful they still had clothes on and that her glasses didn’t break from the impact.) 

It’s fine, Mira tries to convince herself. They were Hunters. They had been trained for worst case scenarios.  

“Let’s see if we can find an ATM and get some cash,” Mira suggests. 

Fifteen minutes later, they’re both staring at a dimly lit ATM screen that reads in bold letters: ACCOUNT NOT FOUND . They had tried their own other accounts and still the same screen pops up. 

Alright. No existing bank account to get cash. Got it. Mira chalks it up to being a consequence of the dreamscape.

Mira can’t help the sigh of frustration that escapes her mouth from the lack of resources at their disposal. Zoey rubs her shoulder in an attempt to comfort the pink haired girl. The younger girl’s fingers suddenly tighten around her shoulder and Mira sees the gears turning in the other’s head. 

“If we’re on Jeju,” she begins cautiously, “Maybe it means that The House is here as well?” 

Oh right. The house that Rumi had grown up in and where they had first met to begin their Hunter and Idol training. The one they’d affectionately dubbed “The House” capital letters and all. The House which sat at the base of the hill. Quite a distance away…

“I don’t know, Zoey…” Mira says hesitantly. There’s no guarantee they’ll find anything there. It's quite a ways away and yeah they can walk—they have legs—but they have no money or resource to pull it from, so it was a risk spending their energy to get there and worse if they find nothing at all. Not to mention, they still don’t know where to start looking for Rumi. She tells Zoey this much and watches as the other girl thinks up of a solution. 

A light seems to go off in Zoey’s head and she runs back into the alleyway, coming back with an empty bucket, an empty water jug, a discarded paint brush, and a broken wooden spatula. 

Zoey grins. 

“We’re going busking.”

***

Zoey is no stranger to busking. 

She’s done it a bunch of times before on the streets of Burbank, to her parents’ disapproval. She didn’t care. There was something about the thrill of it all, getting the chance to perform her lyrics to a crowd who didn’t yet know her name. The shower of compliments and money she’d get from those who watched until the end of a set. The encouragement she used to get from strangers telling her she’d make it big someday. And she did. Ironically, it was because she was busking that she got noticed. 

She doesn’t exactly know how it happened, but she was busking on her usual street corner one day—she’d had better equipment of course—but a woman hidden behind sunglasses and a hat had come up to her, her head tilted in curiosity. And Zoey had felt it back then, there was something different about this stranger from everyone else. The only details Zoey managed to remember about the woman was her twin afro buns and her Korean accent. She’d come up to Zoey after Zoey’s cover of her favorite Sunlight Sisters song and asked if she’d ever thought about auditioning as an idol. Zoey only bashfully declined, saying that it was too expensive. The woman promptly dropped $500 in her hand, shoved a business card in the other, and told her to give the number a call before walking off grumpily muttering under her breath about how ‘—nter business kept following her around’. And when Zoey called, she’d found a direct line to none other than The Celine of the Sunlight Sisters who for some reason offered her an all-expenses paid trip to Korea for the chance to audition. The rest was history.

(Actually, now that Zoey thinks about it, that woman did look a lot like K.Jae… wait. diD SHE MEET K.JAE AND NOT EVEN KNOW IT ???)

Their set up is a lot more crude than what she’d had to work with, but really it’s just a challenge for Zoey. 

She sets them up by dividing the items between them. Mira with the bucket and the spatula, and her with the empty water jug and paintbrush. She can tell the other girl isn’t sure this would work, but it just means that Zoey gets the chance to impress her if anything. Despite the other girl’s reservations, she learns the beat that Zoey teaches her and Zoey takes it away from there. 

Since it’s been a while since she’d done this, she performs a cover of a tried and true song.

“NOW SOMEBODY ANYBODY EVERYBODY SCREAM.”

Mira throws her head back and laughs heartily at her. 

Zoey grins and winks at her (the other girl immediately sports a blush) as she begins one of the best songs from her favorite cartoon growing up. Mira joins in every so often, having memorized the song from when Zoey had made her watch the animated show with her. They’re having fun despite everything they’d learned since they landed here and that was exactly what Zoey was going for. 

Their timing is lucky. They started busking close to the beginning of the lunch, so by the end of the song, the lunch rush is coming in. People are coming up and watching, checking out the duo and start throwing them cash in Zoey’s upturned bucket hat. Soon, they have a good crowd going and at the peak of the lunch rush, they have more than enough to buy a burner phone and a meal. 

Zoey decides to do one of their own songs in hopes that A) they can get recognized and get even more money and B) they can have enough funds to stay overnight in one of those 24hr bathhouses if they desperately need it.

“You wanna get wild? I’ll fucking show you wild.” 

(Rumi would never let her get away with the lyric change if she was watching.)

At some point in the song, Mira gets up and lets Zoey take over the beat, and then starts breakdancing to the enjoyment of the crowd. By the end of it, they’re both out of breath but they feel so alive. 

It’s been a couple weeks in the real world since they had gone on hiatus and they were already starting to miss the rush of performing in front of a live crowd. 

“Whoa!” a girl comes up to them, throwing a bill into the hat. She looks to be around middle school age. “Was that an original song?”

Zoey, who is the closest to the girl, tilts her head. “It’s ‘How It’s Done’ by Huntr/x,” she states in a confused tone. It was #1 on Korean and International Charts for a record breaking amount of weeks straight until they had released ‘Golden’. 

The girl matches her confusion, “I’ve never heard of them. Are they a new girl group or something?”

Zoey is left gaping as the dots connect in her mind. Suddenly, their lack of a bank account makes sense. 

“Ohmygod, Mira!” Zoey hisses to get the other girl’s attention. Mira waves the kid away as she approaches. “We don’t exist here!” Zoey whisper-screams at her. 

“What do you mean?”

“I meannn,” Zoey stretches out the ‘n’, “There’s no such thing as Huntr/x here.” She sees Mira process the information and connect the same dots she had just moments earlier. 

“Oh no.” She hears the words slip from the pink haired girl’s mouth. 

The crowd, noticing that they’re not continuing the set along with the fact that lunch is about to end, starts to disperse. Zoey’s eyes dart around in panic at the fleeing crowd. If there is no Huntr/x, then they really do have no resources to access. And if that’s the case, then they need more money. Which means she needs to play something now before everyone leaves. 

She doesn’t wait for Mira to finish processing the information and starts counting off “1, 2, 3, 4!” when she spots it. 

A long purple braid a street over. Retreating away from them with the crowd. 

“Oops! Nevermind everyone, that’s the end of our set. Thanks for watching! We’ve got to go! Hopefully we’ll catch you again soon!” Zoey exclaims all in one breath. She hurriedly stuffs their well earned money in her pockets and grabs Mira’s wrist, snatching her in the direction of where she last saw that purple braid disappear to. 

“Zoeyyyy!” Mira stumbles after her. 

“I thought I saw Rumi!” Right away, Zoey no longer feels any resistance and instead finds the other girl already starting to outpace her despite the fact that she doesn’t know where she’s going. 

Again, Zoey spots a flicker of purple turn a corner and she has to yank the taller girl before she has the chance to overshoot the turn. Unfortunately, they make the turn and find no signs of the purple haired girl. 

“God fucking damnit,” Zoey swears as they investigate possible turns the purple haired girl could have taken but with no luck. “I think we lost her.”

Mira is using Zoey’s shoulder to support herself as she catches her breath. “Are you sure that was even her?”

“I swear it was.”

Zoey drops to the ground in a defeated squat, thoughts running wild. 

She hasn’t had anything to eat since last night’s cake, and she knows she’s in a dreamscape but the hunger feels real. The exhaustion from the few hours of sleep they’d gotten and the heat from the beating sun above feels really real . And on top of that, she just found out that they don’t exist in this already strange world. She’s handled worse as a hunter and as an idol, but that doesn’t mean she’s not above crying about it. (Especially when she remembers that they’d faced aforementioned worse scenarios together as the three of them. )

Mira must notice how silent she’s gotten and she feels the taller girl pull her up slowly, wiping away hot tears that have escaped down her cheek. Zoey feels Mira lightly press her lips against her own for only a brief second, but it is enough to pull her out of her spiral. 

“Hey. This just means she’s probably around here somewhere. We can look around more after getting some food.”

Zoey nods, wiping the remaining tears as she lets the other girl lead her into a nearby convenience store. While they would have preferred getting food at an actual restaurant, the amount of money at their disposal is limited and this is the best option they had. 

They already have a cup of ramyun in each of their stomachs by the time they emerge, having taken advantage of the hot water provided by the store. Mira’s carrying the bag full of food and drinks they ended up stocking up on, which should last them until the next time they’ll have to busk again if it comes down to it. They find a park bench under the shade for Mira to set up the burner phone she bought from the store. 

Thankfully, the heat has calmed down and Zoey is feeling a lot calmer about the situation. She thinks she might pass out from the full belly and soft wind blowing through her hair when she spots it again. 

“Mira, Mira, look!”

There.

They spot her across the street in front of a florist shop. Rumi is wearing a dark green gardening apron and handing a bouquet off to a child and his mother, waving them off with a warm smile on her face. 

There’s a flower crown on her head, no doubt a product of the child, and it looks ridiculous but it's what gives the both of them pause. They watch as Rumi retreats into the store before they look at each other, matching expressions of bewilderment.

They scramble to their feet, throwing everything they had splayed out on the bench back into the bag, and practically run to the store front. Zoey’s half a second from ripping the store’s door off of its hinges when Mira's hand stops her and she sees the other girl gesture for her to tame her excitement. They don’t know what they’re going into and while Zoey has great reflexes, it probably wasn’t the best idea to go in tunnel vision and all. Zoey takes an exaggerated deep breath if only to appease Mira. It does. They slowly open the door, and step inside together.

A familiar voice calls out to them. “Welcome to Sunlight Bouquet! I’ll be with you in a second.”

***

Rumi rubs her temples in annoyance as she watches Jinu press each button reverently on the cash register. 

She doesn’t know what prank he’s playing, but it’s starting to get old, and for some reason he still hasn’t dropped it.

She looks at the time on her watch. 

12:45.

She sighs, catching his attention. At least he has the nerve to look somewhat embarrassed, but she doesn’t know if this is part of the prank. 

“Look, Jinu, I don’t know why you’re pretending you’ve never worked a day in your life, but I’m going on my lunch,” she states, grabbing the food her Auntie Kim had paid for her earlier. She has half a mind to take his food as well, but he might end up annoying her even more for it later. “You can handle yourself, right ?” She phrases the question rhetorically, but he looks up at her in panic. 

“No wait, Rumi—!” he calls out to her, but she’s already out the door. 

Rumi breathes in the fresh air and she feels her nerves calm down a bit. She loved being surrounded by the plants, but sometimes, the humidity of the greenhouse gets suffocating, so she usually takes this time to go on a stroll around the area. She unwraps the sandwich in the bag and takes a few bites of it when she realizes she forgot her drink back at the store. She huffs, debating on whether or not to go back for it, and then decides that she would not. Again, Jinu’s being more annoying than usual, and she was already at her wit’s end with him.  

She deviates from her usual route around the block and decides to stop at a convenience store to grab a drink. The lunch rush is in full swing, so there’s a bit of a line to check out, but Rumi doesn’t particularly mind. Once her drink is all paid for, she steps out of the store and goes to walk back towards the florist shop when she hears something that catches her attention. 

Across the street, a crowd has formed watching a pair of two girls—probably about her age by the looks of it—banging on empty buckets and water jugs. Despite their crude instrumental set, they’re doing pretty well in creating enough variation to make a funky little beat. But it’s not really the beat that the girls are making that catches her attention. No. It’s their singing. 

You see. Rumi has grown up around three of the top vocal artists in the world. She likes to think that she knows what to listen for, despite not being a singer herself. And maybe Rumi’s just partial to listening to the Sunlight Sisters’ songs, but never has she been this captivated by another person’s voice—much less two of them that are currently covering that godforsaken ‘Gnarly’ song of all songs. 

The crowd parts temporarily for Rumi to catch a better glance of the two girls and her breath catches in her throat. 

In the front, confidently performing the choreography stands a tall pink haired girl that looks way too much like a model that Rumi would find on the front of a fashion magazine. Her legs go on for days and her face looks like she could easily cut glass just by glaring at it. She’s hitting each move with assured precision, all while nonchalantly regarding the crowd before her, as though she knows no one in the crowd could challenge her up there. (As she should, Rumi thinks to herself.) 

The only other person that could conceivably challenge her marches right up, a water jug under one arm and an upside down paint brush in the other, incredibly keeping the beat as she joins in executing the footwork with a practiced ease. The girl is shorter, her black hair pulled into twin buns, and she knows she’s just as attractive as the pink haired girl dancing behind her as evidenced by the playful smirk on her lips. (Lord help me, Rumi prays.) In contrast to the pink haired girl’s cool attitude, this dark haired girl has a fire to her… both of which Rumi can’t help but be pulled into. 

“MAKING BEATS! FOR A BORING DUMB BITCH FUCKING GNARLY.” “Gnarly.” “DON’T TALK TO ME.”

The sheer abrasiveness of the line snaps Rumi out of her stupor and she notices that she’d squeezed the contents of her drink to the ground. 

Dangit. She is still thirsty. 

Regretfully, she marches her butt back into the convenience store and buys the same drink, daring the cashier not to say anything to her. 

She steps out of the store a couple minutes later, and hears the pair of buskers starting up another song. 

“...You wanna get wild? I’ll fucking show you wild,” cackles the shorter one.

(Rumi’s eye twitches as though she’d just heard an incorrect lyric. But she doesn’t know this song. How would she know what was correct?)

She’s able to get a better view of the performance and finds herself somehow mouthing the words alongside the two girls. (Again, she swears she’s never heard this song before in her life.) When the song ends, she joins the crowd in applause and it sounds like it’s the end of their set. She’s starting to dig into her wallet to hand them some bills when she glimpses the time on her watch. 

13:14. 

Dangit. She’s lost track of time. 

She abandons her search for bills, chugs down the rest of her drink, before she practically sprints back to the florist shop. 

To her horror, she arrives to a line out the door and Jinu cowering under the counter. 

“Jinu!”

Ten minutes later and five minutes of yelling at Jinu in the back before sending him on his lunch, she’s able to finish ringing up the queued customers, leaving only a mother and her son browsing around in the store. She had first seen them already browsing when she had come back in, so she takes it upon herself to approach the pair. 

“Excuse me. I hope you don’t mind, but could I perhaps help you with your purchase?”

“Oh! Yes, that would be nice!” the mother exclaims. It turns out that the customer had previously asked Jinu for help in arranging a bouquet of flowers with specific criteria for what each flower needed to mean. However, the man had just asked her to wait for Rumi, saying something about how she’ll be a better help than him. (While that last part’s true, it confuses Rumi in that Jinu always brags about knowing a certain flower's meaning better than she did, so she doesn’t know why he would lie and pass that off to her.)

As she helps the mother pick out the flowers, she shows the boy how to make a flower crown with some Gypsophila they had lying around. It only takes five minutes of work, but they manage to find all the flowers they need and Rumi rings them up. 

She carries the bouquet outside for them, chatting idly with the mother about the purposes of the bouquet in her hands when the child beckons her to his level. 

Dutifully, Rumi gets down on one knee and allows the little boy to place the flower crown on her head. She smiles, ruffling his hair as she stands back up and hands the bouquet off to the mom. 

“Thank you, Rumi, you’ve been a great help.”

“Of course. It was my pleasure,” she replies before she waves them goodbye and goes back into the store. 

She really did mean it, though. 

Despite the irritation that Rumi occasionally runs into with the job, she always comes back, even though she didn’t really need to. Money was no real trouble to her as her family could fund any expense she wished, and her employment at the flower shop was entirely of her own will. If she wanted to, she wouldn’t have to work a day in her life. But that was the problem. Rumi loved to keep busy. And Rumi loved plants. So what was better than keeping busy in a place where she could take care of plants the whole day? 

Perhaps she was made for something more, but under the banner of the Sunlight Bouquet she was happy. She was content. And at the end of the day, she had a loving mother waiting for her at home. What more could she wish for?

Rumi is in the back cleaning up after Jinu’s mess and pondering if she should just send him home early when she hears the bell above the door to the shop ring.

“Welcome to Sunlight Bouquet! I’ll be with you in a second!” she calls, finally locating her favorite watering can.

She’s smiling as she makes her way to the front counter when she sees them.

The insanely gorgeous pair of street performers she had been watching earlier. 

Staring like they’ve been waiting for her their whole lives.

Rumi squeaks and drops her watering can.

Chapter Text

Jinu likes to think that nothing could surprise him at this point. 

He’d lived 400 years a demon, convinced the demon king to support his demon boy band, discovered the only known demon-hunter hybrid in the process, and sacrificed his soul to her to end the demon king’s reign. And at the end, he finally found peace. 

Or at least, he was supposed to. 

He’d expected peace to feel like nothingness. Non-existence. A calm non-awareness. 

Except, that’s not what he finds. 

No. Instead, he finds himself gasping awake at the sound of an alarm blaring right next to his ear. 

He bolts up and finds the source of the alarm. 07:00 it reads. His eye twitches and he turns off the godforsaken sound. 

The space around him goes quiet and he drops his head in his hands in relief. He grounds himself with a few steadying breaths, taking this time to get used to the feeling of finally being alive again. 

After a few minutes, he finally peaks an eye out from the space between his fingers and surveys his surroundings. He’s in a bedroom, walls painted a forest green, the window cracked open letting a cool breeze inside, random items only slightly disorganized. In the corner of the room, something catches his eye. It’s his bipa, propped up in its own designated stand. 

Huh. 

Jinu slides off his bed and slowly makes his way over to it, cautiously plucking it from its stand and strumming a note. 

“Jinu!”

Before he can process the sound of the voice, he’s tackled to the ground in a hug by a small body. 

Jinu blinks. A little girl? 

He blinks again. Recognition after 400 years dawns on him. 

His sister?

"Yu-Seung!” calls another voice, approaching quickly. 

Jinu whips his head to the direction of the new voice and his eyes widen in surprise as a figure emerges from the doorway. His mother?

Was this an afterlife? 

It doesn’t feel real , but it also doesn’t feel like an afterlife either . (Again, he expected nonexistence. He never expected to go to a heaven of all places. He never expected to reunite with them again. He never expected that he would deserve it.)

“We were trying to get breakfast ready before you got up for work. Come on, Yu-Seung, let’s let your older brother get ready on his own,” his mother coaxes, prying his giggling little sister from his body. 

The memory of the last time he saw them flashes in front of his eyes. His mother prying off his sister from him as they’re held back by guards, her crying voice crying out for him on the steps of the palace as he turns his back on them. It’s that specific memory that haunted him desperately for 400 years straight.

Before she could get any further, Jinu reaches out and pulls them both in for a hug. He doesn’t deserve it, but he refuses to make the same mistake again. 

“Can I… stay here with you?” he asks, his face buried in his mother’s shoulders. 

His mother pulls away from him only far enough to regard him in concern. He doesn’t say anything. The last time his mother’s gaze had been on him, it had only held a look of defeated acceptance at his betrayal. But she’s looking at him now, as though he’d never chosen to leave them. As though she was confused as to why he would ask for permission in the first place.

He expects her to tell him no. That they’d moved on without him. That a consequence of him finding his peace after all this time is that he can never join them again. 

But her eyes soften and she tells him, “Alright, Jinu. I’ll call Bobby for you and let him know you can’t make it.”

***

Jinu ends up spending the rest of the previous day learning about this afterlife he’s been thrust into. He learns that he no longer has patterns and doesn’t seem to harbor any other traits that signal that he was still a demon. He learns that he’s on Jeju Island—a place he’d never visited before in his 400 years of existence (most of it having been bound to the demon realm before Gwi-Ma had let him and his Saja Boys venture into the surface after his surprisingly successful proposal). He learns that his mother and his sister live with him in a nice townhouse a couple streets away from the downtown area. He learns that his sister is about to start her last year of elementary school and loves kpop girl groups. He learns that his mother works at a cafe downtown, but works the later shift. He also learns that he has a job working in a flower shop named Sunlight Bouquet and that he has a manager named Bobby.

The man’s name is familiar, but Jinu can’t place where he knows it from until he begrudgingly walks into his place of work the next day. 

He blinks. He’d know that long braided purple hair from anywhere. 

Rumi. And right next to her, the manager of Huntr/x… Bobby…who is also now his manager?

At his arrival, the pair turns to him, Rumi raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Bobby said you also called out of work yesterday?” she asks in lieu of a greeting. 

Jinu doesn’t respond, too stunned at the appearance of the girl before him. This doesn’t make sense. He’d tried to rationalize that he was in a heaven of sorts. A second chance scenario in the afterlife where he’d get the chance to make peace with the two people that he left behind—two people that were long dead. But Rumi? He’d given her his soul to save it. To make sure that she got the chance to move on from the past and continue living her life as she’d finally started to embrace it. So if this was the afterlife, then what was she doing here? 

“No matter,” Bobby says, waving his hand, “You’re both here now. I wouldn’t be manager if I couldn’t hold this place down by myself. Oh! Jinu, check it out, Rumi was just showing me the kadupul she got from her aunt. Can you believe it? A kadupul!”

Jinu still doesn’t know what to say or what even a kadupul even is, so he just stares between the two with a confused expression. His silence leaves an awkward gap where the two expected that he would fill so at his lack of response, Rumi clears her throat and addresses Bobby again. 

“Hey Bobby, since it doesn’t seem fair that you were working all alone yesterday, why don’t you take the day off? Jinu and I can run the place ourselves for the day,” she suggests.

“Are you sure?” Bobby asks.

“It’s only fair.”

After further insistence from the girl, the manager eventually agrees and makes his way towards the door of the flower shop, patting Jinu’s arm and telling him that he was ‘glad he was feeling better’, before exiting the shop. That meant that Jinu and Rumi were left alone.

Dashing over to her side behind the counter, he hisses, “What are you doing here?”

Rumi only sends him a look of bewilderment, “What do you mean?”

“You’re supposed to be alive. What did you do that you ended up here?”

“I am alive and I work here—what are you on Jinu? Is this some sort of prank ?” she fires back. 

Everything he’d tried to make sense of in the past day since he woke up here now doesn’t make sense. Why would he have a second chance at life like this? Why would his second chance scenario be in the modern times at a place he’d never visited? Why would his mother and his sister be here with him? Why was Rumi here with him? And why the hell did he work in a flower shop with her? 

Rumi is still waiting for his answer and he realizes that she’s probably caught up in whatever this is, too. And judging by her reaction, he’s not going to get any proper answers from her either.

He steps back and feigns an excuse. “Sorry, haha, yeah you caught me. Pranking you. Good job,” he says.

Rumi just stares at him as though he’s grown three heads and he just smiles back as convincingly as she could. She gives him a once over and sees that he’d entered the store empty handed.

“You didn’t bring lunch?” she asks him, raising an eyebrow at him for practically the millionth time since he’s come in.

“I was supposed to?” 

“Ugh, you’re lucky that I was just about to go buy something. Just stay here and get the store ready to open.”

With that, she leaves and Jinu is left alone to process the contradictions to everything he thought he’d figured out.

A second passes when he realizes: Shit. He’s never worked customer service before.

It can’t be that bad… Right?

***

They’re in the marketplace after having left the cafe to help Mi-Yeong out with buying ingredients when Celine feels it. A shift in the Honmoon. She immediately makes eye contact with Kim across the aisle who is already looking over at her. A second later, Mi-Yeong appears at the end of the aisle having come from the produce section.

“You both felt that, right?” their youngest asks, an onion in her hand.

Kim nods, “Yup. It was exactly like you said. A shift.”

“Let’s go,” says Celine. They practically run out of the store, shoving a comically large amount of money at the cashier to which Kim only shouts at them to ‘keep the change’, and pile into Mi-Yeong’s jeep. They peel out of the parking space and drive, eyes alert for any signs of demons.

***

Rumi likes to think that she has some amount of charisma.

She’d always had friends throughout her time in school. And, she’s occasionally accompanied her mother and aunties to high profile events and managed to charm the other high profile eventgoers despite not being in the industry herself. So, she must not be completely deficient of it. 

So if that’s the case, then where was it?  

Because she just, honest to god, squeaked.

All because of the two very pretty street performers she just so happened to see on her lunch break had decided to come walking through her door. 

She’s utterly mortified and very gay and they’re staring at her like they’ve been waiting for her their whole lives and the only thing that comes out of her mouth is: 

“Hi.”

God she wants to smack herself in the head. Really? Really ?

“Rumi ?” they both say in an incredulous tone, as though this was not the first time they’d said her name from their lips before. Perhaps these were old classmates from years ago. Rumi rackets her brain, trying to remember each class she’d been in. And while the two seem familiar, she cannot—for the life of her—remember if she’d ever learned their names. 

“How do you know my name?” she asks, almost accusatory. 

She thinks she sees a brief moment of panic on their faces before the shorter of the two glances wordlessly at her apron. And as though it were the first time she’d become aware of it, Rumi follows the gaze to the nametag pinned on the breast pocket of said apron. In the same location she’d pinned it since she’d started working here all those years ago. 

She realizes just how defensively she’d said that last sentence, and opens her mouth again to amend it. 

“Oh right. Yes. Hi… I’m Rumi.”

Can she be so fucking for real right now?

“Hi,” the short, dark haired one says back before tilting her head and pointing at the floor, “Uh… do you need to get that?”

Rumi does a double take because she completely forgets that she just dropped a completely filled watering can onto the floor and now all the water has collected into a big puddle around her feet. 

“Nope.” 

She kicks the watering can to the back somewhere. She doesn’t care. What she does care about is that she needs to salvage this interaction somehow. She clears her throat and in the best customer service voice she can muster at the moment she asks, “How can I help you today?”

The tall, pink haired one furrows her eyebrows at Rumi. Rumi can see she’s analyzing her from top-down, and she gulps nervously at wondering what the girl will find. A beat passes when she finally says something. 

“You don’t know who we are?”

If any other street performer who’d wandered into her store asked that same thing, Rumi would have labeled them as condescending. But the girls before her are looking like they’ve seen her— known her —from somewhere before, and Rumi has really been trying to dig through each instance she’s had in her past where she’d met girls as utterly breathtaking as these two. (It was exceedingly rare, and she certainly would have remembered their names if she’d been given it.)

Rumi chooses to answer the taller girl’s question with the truth, “Apologies. I don’t think I’ve ever caught both of your names. But I saw you both performing out there. You were really good.” She adds that last part in hopes that it lessens the blow of her not knowing their names.

The two share a look of alarm and Rumi can see wordless conversation flying between the two. And Rumi wonders for a moment how it would feel like if she were the thing shared between the two—Her brain freezes and she vigorously tries to blink away the intrusive thoughts that she really should not be thinking about two strangers she’s just met. The two still haven’t said anything, and the silence is starting to get awkward so Rumi starts saying words in hopes of moving the conversation forward. 

The two look like they could be idols and Rumi means to ask them if they’re doing some weird sort of street performance promotion around the area. 

However, what comes out is: “You’re both very pretty. Do you two come around here often?” 

She really should have just kept her mouth shut. 

Rumi starts panicking and she really hopes they don’t notice how red her face is right now. Maybe she can chalk it up to the heat. After all, the pair of them were also looking particularly red as well. 

“You think we’re pretty?” the short, dark haired one says, twirling a lock of hair with a twinkle in her eye. 

At the same time the tall, pink haired one regards her with a smirk. “We can come by more often if you want?”

Rumi does not know how to respond to either of those two questions, so she just chooses to move on and attempt to salvage whatever’s left of her pride and her job right now. 

“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Is there anything you need help finding in the store?” she practically pleads at that last part. 

They, thankfully, seem to take mercy on her as the taller one starts navigating the pair towards the door. “No, no, it’s good,” she responds with a shake of her head, and then says cryptically, “I think we found what we were looking for.” (They’d never even looked at a single plant the entire time they’d decided to step into the shop, so it makes no sense, but the interaction is already strange enough to Rumi as it is.)

The shorter one seems to realize that they were leaving so she waves at Rumi. “Goodbye, Rumi! We’ll see you around!”

Rumi blinks at the abruptness of their decision to leave and they’re already halfway through the door at that point. She can’t help but call out, “I don’t even know your names…”

The pink haired one turns around with a raised eyebrow and an amused quirk on her lips but supplies her name anyway. “Mira.”

The dark haired one sends her a cheeky smile and wink. “Zoey.”

A second later, they’re out of the store, the door clicking closed right after them. 

‘ Mira and Zoey.’ Rumi tests the names in her mouth. ‘Zoey and Mira.’

Huh.

The names bring a smile to her lips and she feels something alight within her. 

(She also feels the cold water of the large puddle she’s still standing in the middle of start soaking into her shoes and she has to remember that she’s only halfway through her shift and still has to decide whether or not to send Jinu home early.) 

.

(She doesn’t end up doing so. Even when he ends up getting back late from lunch, her mind is too preoccupied thinking about the two girls to pay attention to him for the rest of the shift.)

***

Zoey likes to think that if she plans well enough for any scenario, she can accomplish anything. 

While Rumi was the leader who made the final decisions and Mira was their voice of reason, Zoey was always the one thinking two steps ahead, planning for anything and everything that may come their way, no matter how ridiculous it may be. Except, now they’d been thrown into a dreamscape courtesy of a demonic plant, and all she’s been able to do is come up with on-the-fly answers to each new revelation about this world that set them back rather than the long-detailed-multistep plans she was used to making in her notebooks. 

From Celine’s brief recount of her experience in Kim’s dreamscape, Zoey expected that there may be some changes to the reality to keep Rumi complacent in staying there. What Zoey didn’t expect was that almost nothing about this reality was the same. Golden Honmoon? No Huntr/x? And Rumi worked in a flower shop, apparently??

But the most shocking revelation to her was not that this world’s Rumi was a florist. It wasn’t even the fact that this world’s Rumi just outwardly flirted with them. No, it was the fact that this world’s Rumi did not know who they were.

Mira and Zoey practically run out of the store after this revelation and are about to start freaking out about the fact that the last third of their soul absolutely held no recognition of them when they run right into a body. 

All three fall to the ground and Zoey hears a man’s voice go, “Aw, c’mon!” She’s already about to start apologizing when she looks up and can’t help but gasp.

“Jinu ?” 

“You two ?” he exclaims with the same level of revulsion.

They’re grabbing him by the arms and dragging him into a random alleyway in the blink of an eye. They pin him to the wall by each of his wrists and summon their weapons from their Honmoon when he starts shouting.

“Whoa whoa whoa! No! Put those away!”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill the demon that betrayed our best friend and almost doomed the entire world,” Mira growled. 

“Wait. You guys know that I used to be a demon?” 

Huh?

“Agh!” Mira is about to bring down the blade end of her gok-do on his face when Zoey drops the shin-kal in her hand and grabs Mira’s arm to stop her. She looks at Zoey, outraged. “What the hell, Zoey? Let me at him.”

“Hold on,” Zoey bites back at the other girl before she turns her attention to the man in question, “You said ‘used to’. What do you mean you ‘used to be a demon ’?”

“I mean that I’m not a demon anymore,” he grits out in annoyance, “Check it. I’ve got no patterns.”

Zoey sends Mira a pointed glare until the other girl relents and drops the gok-do’s blade away from Jinu’s face. Once she does so, Zoey does as he says and pulls down one of his sleeves and finds… nothing. Not even a trick of light that could indicate patterns. 

“What are you playing at?” Mira sneers. 

“Will you let me go?!” Jinu demands instead. He tries to struggle against their grip, but it looks like he really isn’t a demon anymore with the way that he can’t overpower either of them. 

“No! Not until you tell us what you’re doing in Rumi’s dreamscape,” says Zoey. 

That gets him to stop struggling and he blinks. “Dreamscape?” he echoes. Realization dawns on his face. “Oh… that makes so much more sense.”

Zoey and Mira share a look of confusion. Jinu sighs, no longer attempting to fight his way out of their grasp. “Look, can you guys let me go? I’ll tell you everything I know. Cross my heart.”

“Like you have one,” Mira scoffs but ends up letting go of his wrist anyway, Zoey following right after her. 

He rubs his wrist and sends them a disgruntled look but starts talking. “I woke up here a day ago and found out I was no longer a demon. So then I thought I was in the afterlife. But then you said we’re in Rumi’s dreamscape so that leads me to believe that Rumi fell under the influence of the Demon Queen’s Crown. And if you both know this is a dreamscape and that I used to be a demon, then that means that you guys came from the real world.”

Zoey raises an eyebrow at him, impressed that he’d put it together all so quickly. 

Mira only rolls her eyes at him and fires back, “Okay, so if you know that we’re from the outside, then how did you get in here?”

“Probably has something to do with the fact that I gave my soul to protect her that night of the Idol Awards,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Which means the Demon Queen’s Crown isn’t just trying to get to her soul, but my soul as well. We’re doomed!” He laments, falling to his knees. 

Zoey pulls him up from the ground and smacks him, “Hey! Stop that! We just found out that Rumi doesn’t know who either of us are, so maybe the key to getting out of here is getting her to remember us.”

“Getting her to choose to leave this world is how we get out of here,” Jinu harshly reminds them as he yanks his shirt from her grasp, “Besides, even if you do get her to remember you, what’s to say she doesn’t have anything else keeping her in this reality?” He tries to smoothen out the wrinkles she’d left in his shirt, but Zoey’s barely paying attention to him anymore.

What if you aren’t enough? he essentially tells her. Zoey takes a step back at the implication.

The past few weeks since the Idol Awards have been tough, Zoey’s not the first one to admit it. Rumi’s acceptance of her patterns has been… slow, and she and Mira had been doing their best to give her the time and space to figure things out at her own pace, but they’d been at a standstill of sorts. And Zoey can plan and plan as much as she wants for every turn a conversation could go, for every possible way that Zoey could broach the topic of her and Mira’s love for the purple haired girl extending beyond that of friendship—but what’s the use if the conversation is never started in the first place?  

“What if… what if we can offer her more than this reality?” Zoey says in a quiet voice. She feels Mira’s hand squeeze her shoulder in comfort as Jinu softens, catching the vulnerability in her voice. 

“Look, if what you’re saying is correct and that Rumi doesn’t remember you, then that means this dreamscape erased you two for a reason,” says Jinu, “But it probably gave her something else in return. Something that she’s going to have to choose to let go of. And take it from someone that—regretfully—exploited her shame; it’s probably something that’s going to bring her a ton of pain.”

Zoey felt her heart sink. It wasn’t a secret anymore that the real world had brought nothing but struggle to Rumi ever since she was born. So what exactly were they up against that was keeping Rumi tied here?

“Do you know what that could be?” Mira asks. 

Jinu shrugs, “Like I said, I only woke up here yesterday. And I’d only just found Rumi today, and uh… I haven’t exactly left the best impression around her.”

“Great. So it seems like we’re still the only ones doing the investigating anyway,” Mira comments with a huff, “C’mon Zoey, let’s go find an internet cafe and see if we can find anything online on Rumi.” 

Mira starts tugging her away from the alleyway when Jinu catches both of their wrists. “Hey wait! Didn’t you hear? My soul’s in trouble, too. I wanna help out!” Before Mira or Zoey could brush him off with a denial, he asks, “If you don’t exist here, then where are you both going to sleep for the night?”

“I think we have enough money from busking to stay overnight at a bathhouse,” Zoey answers.

He shakes his head. “How about this: You can both crash in the spare bedroom at my place while you’re trying to figure out how to get us out of here. You guys can still go do your investigating stuff and then meet me here after I get off of work in three hours.”

“You work ?” the two girls ask him at the same time, identical tones of disbelief.  

“Yeah, in a flower shop with Rumi. Can you believe it?” he says, laughing as though he couldn’t wrap his mind around it either.

They only stare at him incredulously before shouting at him. “What are you doing here then!?” and “Go help her out!”  

“Okay! Okay! Jeez!”

***

A couple of hours later, Zoey finds herself in the spare bedroom of Jinu’s townhouse, a notepad in front of her with all of the information they had so far on Rumi’s dreamscape. Jinu wasn’t able to get anything out of Rumi for the remainder of his shift, and disappointingly, their investigative internet research on Rumi had yielded little results as well. The only thing they could concretely find on her was an old wikipedia article that contained one line which only stated that ‘Ryu Rumi is the daughter of the former Sunlight Sister, Ryu Mi-Yeong.’ with the rest of the article only containing broken source links. Zoey shouldn’t be too surprised by the lack of information on the girl if it is the case that there was no such thing as Huntr/x in this world. Even in the real world, Rumi was the most private of them, rarely posting anything online that wasn’t Huntr/x related. It makes sense how little there is to find of her if she really is just an ordinary girl in this world, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. 

Zoey taps her pen against the side of the notepad, scanning for anything she may have left out. 

Things we do know:

• no Huntr/x here :( 
• Rumi doesn’t know who we are :(((((
• not a famous idol    D:
• she’s a florist??? (i wonder what her favorite flower is)
• Jinu is her coworker ← booooo
• Jeju island (is The House and spirit tree still there?)

Things we do NOT know:

• what else is keeping Rumi here?
• does Rumi know about demons?
  • do demons even exist in this world?
• do Hunters exist in this world?  → well duh, there’s a golden honmoon. they have to exist. Maybe???
• is Rumi still a demon?
  • *Note: didn’t see any patterns. maybe she’s hiding them again?
• does Rumi sing? 
• does Rumi like dancing?
• Jeju island noise ordinance for street performers—how long can we busk until the street police tell us to leave?

 

Zoey sighs, frustrated that the second section takes up more space than the first one. The door opens and Mira enters the room, giving a quick bow to someone in the hallway. 

“...thank you again, for your hospitality,” says Mira with a towel draped over her shoulder.

“Of course! Of course! Any friends of Jinu’s are always welcome here,” Zoey hears Jinu’s mom say from the hallway. “Let me know if you girls need anything else. Have a goodnight.”

“You too,” says Mira, giving one more bow before closing the door. She spins around quickly and locks eyes with Zoey. 

“I can’t believe we have to be known as Jinu’s friends,” she says as she plops down on the bed next to Zoey. She raises her eyebrows at the notepad in Zoey’s hands and scans it over Zoey’s shoulder. “I think you’ve got everything,” says Mira a couple of seconds later. 

“Yeah! A whole lot of nothing!” Zoey cries out before she feels herself pulled from behind and down on the bed, her back up against Mira as Mira spoons her. 

“Hey, we’ve had a long day since we got here,” Mira says, kissing her temple as she reaches over Zoey to turn off the bedside lamp, plunging them into the dark. Mira adds, “We can do more investigating after we get some rest.” Mira lays back down and Zoey curls her body around the arm underneath her. 

Zoey knows the other girl is right, but it doesn’t stop the millions of thoughts running through her head.

“Mira?” she whispers minutes later. 

“Hmm?”

“Do you think the reason Rumi forgot us… is because she doesn’t want us?”

The other girl goes silent for a moment before she answers, “I don’t know… Or maybe it’s because she doesn’t know it’s okay to want us.”

“I want her so bad, Mira. And I miss her so so much.” 

“Me too, Zoey. Me too.”

***

“Mom?”

Mi-Yeong looks up from her book and finds Rumi by her doorway, a contemplative look on her daughter’s face. 

“Are you okay, honey?” she asks, closing her book as Rumi makes her way over to sit at the edge of her bed. 

Rumi nods in response, but Mi-Yeong can see there’s something else on the girl’s mind. She scoots over and Rumi takes the invitation to get closer to her. She rubs her daughter’s back as she patiently waits for the girl to tell her what’s plaguing her thoughts. 

“Is it okay to want two people you’ve never known before?”

At the question, Mi-Yeong can’t help but think about the time before her, Celine, and Kim had become known as the Sunlight Sisters. Before they had started training to be hunters. She thinks about the time before they had even met. And how once she had found them, she had realized just how much of her life was spent wanting to meet them. 

So she answers, “It’s perfectly alright, sweetie.”

“Really?”

Mi-Yeong nods as she tucks a stray strand of hair behind her daughter’s ear, “Uh huh. Why? Did you meet those two people today?”

“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know,” her daughter rambles, “But… I want to get to know them.”

“Then go for it, dear.”

***

Mira likes to think that she’s someone with a good amount of emotional intelligence. 

Coming from someone who’d only had been raised in a cold, cutthroat family such as hers, she was proud of the work that she’d done in building said emotional intelligence. She was quick to identify her own emotions, even if sometimes she couldn’t regulate it, she at least knew what she was feeling. She also liked to think that her emotional intelligence extended to identifying what others were feeling before they even knew what was going on. So yeah, she’d like to say she was emotionally intelligent.

Except when it comes to matters of love. 

You see, when it came down to Mira and Zoey, how they had come about realizing their feelings for each other was anything but a straightforward affair. It was about a year ago when Mira had been caught up in a dilemma. Zoey and Rumi. Two of her best friends. Two of her best friends that she had feelings for. She had kept fumbling every social interaction and uncharacteristically ducking out of any scenarios that could require physical contact with the both of them for a week straight, all while lamenting on how she could go about conceivably choosing between the two. That was until Zoey marched straight up to her door one night, kissed her, and reassured her that it was okay. That Zoey had been waiting for one of them to realize, and that they could wait for Rumi together. 

So that’s where they found themselves now. Waiting for Rumi. To clock into work, apparently. 

It’s been two days since they had first arrived at the dreamscape, and they (meaning Mira, Zoey, and unfortunately, Jinu) had decided that the best way to figure out what was going on around the other girl was to get close to her and learn more about her. That ended up with yesterday being… interesting—to say the least. 

It went like this: 

***

[7:00 AM]

Mira and Zoey insisted on accompanying Jinu on his walk to the flower shop. Apparently, he was supposed to open this morning, meaning that Rumi wouldn’t be in until later. 

They all spend an hour trying to figure out what chores could possibly be involved in opening up the flower shop, when Rumi comes in with a confused look on her face. 

“Jinu, aren’t we supposed to be open no—hEllo!” she says, her eyes landing on Mira and Zoey in the store. She gives them a panicked grin but hisses at Jinu, “Jinu, why aren’t we open yet? We already have customers here.”

“Oh no no!” Zoey pipes up, “We’re, uh, friends of Jinu. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I-uh… no I don’t mind,” Rumi answers, clearly flustered. “It’s Zoey, right?” Zoey beams at her in confirmation. 

Rumi turns to Mira, “And you’re Mira.” Mira just sends her a wink in response. The girl immediately goes red at that. 

Jinu speaks up. “Now that you're all intimately reacquainted with one another… you two, get out. Don’t you need to practice for your street performance or whatever?”

“Fine, fine, we’ll get out of your hair,” says Mira, already making her way to the door. 

Zoey marches up to Rumi and takes the already blushing girl’s hands in hers. “You’ll come watch us, again. Won’t you?” she asks, batting her eyes at the poor girl. Rumi can only enthusiastically nod back. Zoey grins at her and gives Rumi a cute little wave before exiting the store, Mira following right after her. 

Rumi stares after them, feeling her heart beating out of her chest. She takes a couple deep breaths to calm down before she turns a glare at Jinu. 

“You!”

“Wha—Hey, wait—!”

***

[12:30 PM]

Their set up is much better than the day before, having found actual instruments in Jinu’s house which included an old keyboard and a tambourine (Jinu absolutely refused their request to use his bipa, calling it one of his most prized possessions). The lunch rush is in full swing and they’re halfway through their set when they spot Rumi in the crowd. They finish the song and Mira steps up. 

“Alright! Time for the dancebreak everyone!” Mira says, queuing up a song on Jinu’s laptop (that they stole) that starts playing on Jinu’s speaker (that they also stole). 

“This is for you, Rumi,” Zoey says, pointing to the girl in the crowd. A couple of ‘oohs’ by cheeky onlookers can be heard and Rumi’s already turned part tomato by how red she gets from the attention. 

The intro to Killin’ it Girl starts playing, and Mira ducks behind Zoey as Zoey starts playing an imaginary cowbell.

“You are now: Tuned in!”

Immediately, the lunch crowd loves every bit of it. They hit every beat, their energy is at a 100, and by the time the partner section in the song comes on, the crowd is already going ballistic. 

The two hit the move in the song that essentially requires Zoey to essentially grind on Mira. They do so, making eye contact with each other and then right at Rumi at the last second, identical smirks on their faces. The dance then transitions to Zoey patting down Mira from behind as Mira points directly at Rumi in the crowd. From there, she keeps intense eye contact with the purple haired girl for the entirety of the phrase until the ending sequence which required her and Zoey to do more face to face partner work.

They hit the last pose, pointing in Rumi’s direction again, but the purple haired girl is nowhere to be found, to their confusion.

Meanwhile, Rumi has already sprinted down the street, trying to stop the nosebleed she’d gotten from watching the pair of them dance like that.

***

[1:30PM]

Mira enters Sunlight Bouquet an hour later, with a bouquet from another flower shop uptown. She had gotten the bouquet after she had run into Jinu going on his lunch, the man essentially telling the pair that Rumi had come in a few minutes before, trying to cover up a nosebleed. 

Mira feels bad and thinks that it might have been too much to point her out in the crowd. Maybe the girl has stage fright in this universe or something. So she ended up going to a flower shop uptown while Zoey was out getting lunch for them. She told the florist there that she wanted the bouquet to say something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry if we did something wrong’ and ‘I want to get to know you’, ignoring the weird look the florist had given her.

She finds Rumi at the register, eyes wide as she lays down the bouquet on the counter. Rumi looks at it, blinks, and then starts sputtering. “What—Mira—what is…”

Mira shrugs, “It’s for you. I got it from the flower place up the road.”

“Do you know what it means?” Rumi asks. 

“Yeah, I had it specifically picked out,” answers Mira. 

“Oh,” Rumi only says, her face going the darkest shade of red Mira had ever seen on her before, “Um, can I give you a raincheck on answering this?”

The question confuses Mira, but the girl looks like she’s about to pass out from all the blood rushing into her face, so Mira gives her a slow nod yes anyway. 

“Cool!” Rumi says way too enthusiastically, “I’ll take this to the back, then.” She doesn't wait for Mira's response as she dashes off with the bouquet to the back room, leaving Mira entirely bewildered by the other girl’s behavior.

Later, she’s eating lunch with Zoey outside when Jinu comes up to them. 

“Alright, which one of you got her the bouquet?” he asks.

“Me,” says Mira, raising her hand, “Why?”

“Do you know what it means?”

“Yeah, it’s supposed to mean ‘I want to get to know you’ and ‘I’m sorry if we fucked up’. Why does everyone keep asking me that?” 

Jinu pinches the bridge of his nose as he delivers the news. “Because with that specific combination, the bouquet you gave to Rumi actually means ‘Would you be down to fuck each other?’”

Zoey is already doubled to the ground in laughter once Mira finishes processing what Jinu had just told her. 

“I ASKED HER WHAT NOW?”

***

[3:00PM]

“Wassup.”

Rumi whips her head around from where she’s trying to hang a potted plant and sees Zoey, leaning against one of the tables, nonchalantly sniffing a random flower from one of the displayed bouquets. 

“Oh! Zoey!” Rumi exclaims, turning to face her, but forgets what she’s doing and drops the plant she’d been trying to hang on her own head. "Ow.”

“Oh my god, Rumi, are you okay?” Zoey asks, immediately running right up to her in concern. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m all good,” says Rumi unconvincingly with a wince but trying to save face, “Is there a reason you’re back again?” Rumi pauses and realizes that she might be coming across as annoyed, so she rushes to correct herself. “I mean! It’s not that I don’t like having you around! I just saw you this morning and at lunch and it’s not like I don’t want to see you multiple times. As a matter of fact, I want to see you!” Rumi covers her mouth, realizing what she just said.

Zoey is trying to bite back a giggle and says under her breath, "Thought you'd never ask." The other girl looks at her as though its taking all of her willpower not to melt into a puddle right there. Sh e decides to take mercy on the poor girl and says, “Relax, Rumi. I just wanted to come by and ask if you wanted some boba. I was going to get some for me and Mira.”  

Rumi blinks, “Where is Mira anyway?”

“Running back the stuff we took from Jinu’s apartment before he realizes we stole them.”

“Hey!” Jinu’s voice comes from behind the counter, both girls forgetting that he was still there. “What did you say you did?”

”Oh whoops! Looks like I gotta go, Rumi. I’ll bring you back your favorite, taro with lychee stars and no ice!” says Zoey, hurriedly running out of the shop as Jinu shouts for her to ‘get back here!’.

Rumi stares right after her, wondering how Zoey knew what her go-to boba order was. She doesn’t get to think about it too much, when she feels her head throb from the potted plant hitting her head. 

***

[5:00PM]

Jinu and Rumi are closing up the shop together when Jinu asks her, “So… what do you think about my, uh, friends?”

Rumi wonders why they always hesitate before referring to themselves as friends.

Unless. 

“Oh my god, wait. Jinu, are those your girlfriends?” she stares at him in shock. Had they been flirting with her, trying to get her to be the fourth person in their polycule??

“What?! No! Ew!” Jinu exclaims, looking at her in mortification. Rumi feels relief hearing that the two girls weren’t his girlfriends (but at the same time some disappointment that they apparently weren’t asking her to join a polycule with them).

“I was just asking if you thought they were cool,” Jinu explains further as they step out of the store, “People you’d like to get to know more.”

Rumi doesn’t answer right away as she locks the front door and spots a drink container of purple boba on the ground, next to the door. She picks it up, and it still feels cold, meaning that it was just recently dropped off. She looks across the street to the park and sees the pair in question waving at her and she can’t help but send a small wave back. Zoey is pointing down at the lid of her own container, as though motioning Rumi to do the same and Rumi looks down to find a number scrawled in permanent marker on the lid of the boba container.

She smiles, already taking out her phone to plug in their number. 

“Yeah. I’d like to get to know them more.”

***

[Present day]

So now it’s their third day in the dreamscape and they are watching the door to Sunlight Bouquet for any sign of the purple haired girl… from the bench across the park where they had initially spotted her. 

Well, Mira is the one doing most of the watching. Zoey is next to her flipping through a notepad full of plans that they could use to approach Rumi with, all while muttering to herself how certain ones ‘will never work’. 

“We said we’d play it straight this time and just ask her questions,” Mira reminds her. They’d discussed the plan last night after realizing they just ended up overwhelming the poor girl the entire time yesterday.

“These are all possible contingencies!” Zoey just exclaims, to which Mira rolls her eyes at her fondly.

Mira focuses her attention back to the flower shop’s door when she spots the purple haired girl come into view from the sidewalk. According to Jinu, Rumi’s set to open by herself today, so Mira figures they should wait until she settles in before the pair of them greet her for the day. Not five minutes later, a white delivery truck pulls up in front of the store, blocking her view. She notices the driver and a passenger climb out and head immediately inside the store, neither one of them staying to unlock the back of the truck.

Huh. Maybe they were getting a restock of flowers. Still, something doesn’t seem right.

“Hey, Zoey,” Mira calls out, already standing up and walking towards the flower shop. Zoey follows right after her, tucking her notepad in her jacket pocket. 

And then they feel it. A ripple. And it’s coming from inside of Sunlight Bouquet. 

They break into a sprint, all the while Mira’s thinking how it shouldn’t be possible. It’s a Golden Honmoon. That should mean that demons weren’t able to cause a tear through it and cause a ripple. And yet.

They round the truck and find the door to the flower shop wide open. They run inside and find two figures behind the counter as Rumi is backed into the back wall of the store. One of the figures has its sleeve up and Mira sees patterns shimmering across its arms. 

Demons . 

“Please,” she hears Rumi plead, “I can open the cash register. It’s really no problem.”

“The problem here is that you smell of hunters,” she hears one of the demons reply, “And that payment has to be made through blood.”

They’re already halfway through the store when the demon finishes its sentence. The only warning of their arrival is Rumi’s eyes widening up at them as they leap over the counter and tackle the demons head on. 

It’s chaos from that point. 

Mira’s wrestling the demon away from Rumi when sees her knees give out, the purple haired girl curling into a scared ball where she once stood. Mira lets out an angry grunt, taking the demon by the horns and tossing it over the counter. She grabs the broom next to her before she leaps off the counter again, diving right after it. From the corner of her eye, she can see Zoey aim a kick before grabbing a stack of terra cotta clay saucers, frisbeeing her own demon’s face with deadly accuracy. 

Her demon is able to move out of the way of her swings and is about to bring its claws down on her when she blocks it with the broom. However, the broom snaps in half from the creature’s supernatural strength. She falls to the floor at the impact and is left with two broken halves of a broom. She tries to crawl away from it while pointing one of the broken ends at the demon in an attempt to create some distance. The demon snarls and is about to come down on her, when it’s batted away with a metallic clang. Mira looks up and finds Rumi shaking, holding that goddamn watering can. 

“Rumi, run!” she says, grabbing the watering can from her as she pushes the girl behind her. The purple haired girl hesitates and Mira knows that she doesn’t want to leave them, but she really needs Rumi out of sight to properly deal with this demon. 

“Go to the back and call the police! We’ll hold them off,” she says as she bashes the watering can on the oncoming demon’s head again. Rumi nods her head quickly and she runs to the back to do exactly as Mira said. 

Thankfully, once she sees the girl disappear into the back, Mira calls forth starlight from the thread of the Iridescent Honmoon. Her gok-do materializes in her hand, and for the first time since the fight started, she sees fear in the demon’s eyes. She twirls the polearm with a snarl. 

“You chose the wrong girl to attack,” she says before she runs at the demon and brings her gok-do down in a wide arc, disintegrating it into a cloud of pink dust. 

Across the room, she spots Zoey, having summoned her shin-kals, throwing all of the shin-kals at the demon before her, and sending it back to wherever it came from. 

The two dismiss their weapons as they catch their breath, taking in the flower shop’s state of disarray. Rumi reappears again from the back. 

“I called the police! They should be here any minute now!” she exclaims, still expecting the two figures to still be in the store with them. “W-Where’d the robbers go?”

“Ran off,” Mira says, making her way over to Rumi. 

“Yeah, they were getting embarrassed that we were beating their asses,” supplies Zoey as she joins them. 

Mira gives the purple haired girl a once over. “Are you okay?” she asks. She grabs Rumi by the shoulders, but all she can see is that her braid had been slightly messed up from the chaos of it all. She smooths back a stray hair on Rumi’s head absentmindedly. 

“I-I…” the girl stutters looking up at her, and Mira just now realizes how close she had stepped into the other girl’s personal space. Muttering a quick apology, Mira steps back, letting the other girl recalibrate. 

“D-did you just ask me if I’m okay? What about you two?” Rumi questions once she processes what just happened. Zoey and Mira jump when she smacks both of them unexpectedly in the arm, “What if they were carrying weapons? You both can’t just throw yourself into danger like that!”

“They were going to hurt you, Rumi,” Mira says, looking her in the eye, her tone serious, “We couldn’t let that happen.” 

“We never want to see you getting hurt,” adds Zoey, gently laying a steadying hand on Rumi’s arm. 

Rumi regards both of them, as though they’ve said something that she couldn’t quite believe. “Still I… How can I make this up to both of you?” she asks.

Mira shakes her head, “Seriously, Rumi. There’s no need.”

“We’re just glad to have gotten here on time,” says Zoey. 

Blue and red lights appear from outside the store’s window and a second later, a handful of police rush inside. After reassuring the police that there was no immediate danger anymore, each one of them is pulled outside one by one to give their statements with Mira and Zoey going first. They wait for Rumi on the sidewalk as she finishes giving her statement, also deciding to close up for the day as advised by the police. When she joins them again, there’s a determined glint in her eye and a slip of paper in her fingers. 

“How about this,” starts Rumi, “Why don’t you both come to dinner at my place later as a thank you for saving me?”

“We can’t possibly—” “There’s no need—” the two start but are cut off. 

“Please,” Rumi says, offering a piece of paper with an address to them. “I insist.”

Realizing that she isn’t going to take no for an answer, Mira gingerly plucks the note from the other girl’s fingers. 

“Alright. We’ll see you later, Rumi,” Mira says. 

She beams at the both of them. “Great! Come by at 7. And don’t be late,” she says, already walking off, “I’m going to tell my mom and aunties you’re coming by since they’re cooking.” 

.

.

Oh. So that’s what they were up against. 

Chapter Text

They had been at the Spirit Tree when Kim had felt it. The impossible feeling of supernatural dread prickling all over her skin. A feeling she hadn’t felt in 25 years. 

A ripple. 

Kim and the other two women had raced down the tall hill, her lungs burning from the exertion that she also hadn’t felt in over two decades. Once they had made it down, barely catching their breaths, Mi-Yeong had sprinted inside, immediately reemerging with keys to the Jeep that she had tossed right at Kim, who had been closest to the driver’s side door. All three had climbed in and as soon as the car’s ignition started, Kim had already had her foot down on accelerator, speeding them out of the estate and towards town. Celine, in the passenger seat, had hummed a low note, trying to figure out where the ripple had originated from. It had taken them fifteen minutes just to reach the edge of the town, and once they had, dread had started pooling in all of their stomachs once all of them had realized that the Golden Honmoon was leading them towards the downtown area. 

Suddenly, Celine stops humming. 

“What’s wrong?” Kim asks, relying on the other woman to tell her which way to drive. 

“I… I can’t feel it anymore,” Celine says in disbelief. 

“What do you mean?” Mi-Yeong presses. 

“I mean… I can’t feel the ripple anymore,” Celine says,  “It’s as if there aren’t any more traces of the demons. Either that or the Honmoon isn’t telling me something.”

“Should I keep driving, then?” Kim asks. 

All of a sudden, she feels Mi-Yeong grip the back of her seat. Their youngest speaks, her voice closer. She must be leaning over the center console. “Keep going, Kim. Take a left up there,” she directs. Kim hears the strain in her voice and does as she’s told. 

Their stomachs drop when they turn the corner and spot the red and blue lights in front of the familiar flower shop. This isn’t about the ripple anymore, this is about Rumi. Before any of them could start spiraling, Kim spots her. 

Rumi, who is walking away from the shop and towards her car parked on the street. Perfectly okay. 

“There!” she calls out, directing her two younger sisters’ attention to the sidewalk instead of the police lights. She swerves and the tires screech loudly on the pavement as the Jeep comes to halt right next to the purple haired girl.

“Rumi!” exclaims Mi-Yeong who practically leaps from the barely stopped car, hugging her daughter tightly in her arms. 

“I’m okay, mom, I promise,” says Rumi, hugging her mother back. 

All three women let out a collective breath of relief, and Kim reaches over to the passenger seat and finds Celine’s hand. The other woman takes it and gives it a firm squeeze. 

Once Mi-Yeong stops finally squeezing her daughter half to death, their youngest starts looking the purple haired girl over, despite Rumi's insistence that she was fine. 

“Rumi, what happened?” Celine asks.

“There was an attempted robbery,” Rumi explains and then quickly adds when she sees the alarm on all of their faces, “But I’m fine! I promise. Two of my… new friends took care of the robbers.” At that, Kim sees a slight blush grace the girl’s cheek as she nervously plays with the end of her braid, all while staring fondly down at the sidewalk in front of her, as though her thoughts were elsewhere. She narrows her eyes. It’s all too reminiscent of the way Mi-Yeong would describe something Celine did that Kim wasn’t present for. 

Before she can question the girl on these new ‘friends’ of hers, Rumi ends up adding, “Oh! I hope you guys don’t mind. I invited them over for dinner as a ‘thank you for saving me’ kinda thing.” 

Kim cracks a grin, a plan already forming in her head.  “Well then, let’s head to the supermarket and get more ingredients,” she tells them. Rumi and Mi-Yeong nod at her as they climb into the back seat. Kim starts driving in the direction of the supermarket when she says, “So, Rumi. Tell us more about these two new friends of yours.”

***

They sit in Jinu’s car, the three of them silent the entirety of the ride to The House—or rather—Rumi and her mom’s house at the bottom of the hill. There’s still some time until they’re expected to make their way up those familiar steps and announce their arrival. 

Jinu, in the driver’s seat, uses the car’s rear mirror to look at the pair of girls sitting in the back seat, staring wordlessly out at the estate from the car’s windows. 

He clears his throat, breaking the quiet of the car. 

“She’ll come around,” he says. He’s not sure if he says it to reassure them or himself, maybe it’s both. 

“I’m afraid to—” starts Zoey, barely a whisper. Jinu sees her clutch Mira’s hand like a lifeline as she shakes her head, correcting herself, “No—I don’t want to have to ask her to choose.” She makes eye contact with him through the car’s rear mirror. “Because if that’s really her mom inside there…”

“...it would be cruel to ask her to choose us,” Mira finishes, her voice devoid of emotion. 

Jinu shakes his head. They’re right. It is cruel. He just got his mother and sister back. But he knows the truth, so he must remind them as well. 

“It’s not real,” he says to them softly. 

“To her, it is,” Mira replies, but again, Jinu shakes his head at that. 

“Maybe,” he contemplates, “Though, no matter how real a dream may feel at the moment, at the end of every dream, you need to wake up. And you both need to make sure that she does. So that when she does …” He pauses, reminiscing about the girl who he so willingly gave his soul to save. The girl who gave him hope. The girl who freed him. And the girl who has yet to discover what else the world has to offer beyond that what she could give it. “...When she does wake up,” he continues, “You both need to be there to give her the world.” 

Something that I could never do.

He feels a pair of hands rest on his right shoulder, and he looks back at the two of them as they give his shoulder a single squeeze. We’ll do our best , it promises. Not necessarily for his sake, but he’s alright with that.

Jinu clears his throat again as the two girls let go and step out of the car. 

“Hey,” he calls out before they can shut the car door. They turn and look back at him. “Tell Rumi I said hi. And you have my number to call in case you need me to pick you both up, right?”

Both Mira and Zoey give him a nod. “We do, Jinu,” Zoey answers. And then. “...Thank you.” 

The two offer him small smiles and close the car door behind them, and Jinu can see them take each other’s hand as they ascend the steps to the house. 

Jinu lets out a deep breath before he decides to pull out of the estate. 

He can feel it. Something is going to go down tonight. Something is bound to happen to the dream. And if it does, he’d rather be at home holding his mother and his little sister in his arms. If only for tonight just once more. 

***

It wasn’t often that Mira got nervous. It was even less often that she would show it. 

But standing here in front of The House, about to meet the legendary Ryu Mi-Yeong of the Sunlight Sisters— the Ryu Mi-Yeong who is also Rumi’s mom —there’s something about getting to meet the long, dead parent of someone that makes up a third of her soul that ends up destabilizing her. 

She shifts her weight between both feet. She’s been feeling off balance ever since Rumi had extended them the invite a few hours ago. She knows she should raise her hand and knock, but her palms are clammy and she keeps trying to wipe the sweat off on the seam of her pants.

Speaking of, Zoey, the normally more antsy of the two, takes notice of Mira’s hesitation and gives their still linked hands a squeeze. 

“I’ll do it,” says Zoey. Mira nods and Zoey hands her the plastic bag she had been holding—a couple of sweets courtesy of Jinu’s mother from the cafe. Now with a free hand available, Zoey raises her hand and knocks. 

Knock. Knock. Kno—

By the third knock, the door suddenly flies open.

“Hello! You two must be Rumi’s friends!” 

Mira blinks. In front of them stands the internationally acclaimed producer and songwriter known as K.Jae. The third Sunlight Sister who had run off to America. The Jeong Kim. It was one thing to expect her, it was another to finally meet her in person. 

Mira and Zoey immediately go to work in giving her a formal bow and Mira opens her mouth to greet the older woman when another voice cuts her off. 

“Auntie Kim! You’re supposed to be in the dining room!” Rumi chides from behind Kim. Kim turns her attention to Rumi who wedges herself between her aunt and the front door. 

Kim only laughs as she lets Rumi take over in welcoming them inside. “Sorry, Rumi. I’ve never had the chance to meet your friends before. ” Mira swears she sees the older woman wiggle her eyebrows at them at the word ‘friends’. “I’ll be in the dining room,” the older woman calls out giddily before disappearing behind a corner. 

Rumi turns to them and they have barely even arrived and she’s already blushing. 

“I’m sorry about that. She snuck past me before I could get to the door.” she says, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment, “I hope your drive up was fine?” She looks past them and furrows her eyebrows at their lack of a car. “How’d you get here?”

“Jinu,” the two answer at the same time. Rumi only tilts her head at that, but doesn’t ask any further questions. 

Mira clears her throat and raises the arm holding the bag, offering it to Rumi. “We brought some sweets.”

“Oh! Wow. T-Thank you,” she says to both of them, stepping up to accept the bag. As she does, she hesitates in stepping away from them. Her arms are bunched up by her sides, her shoulders are taut, and she looks like she’s debating on something, but Mira has become familiar with Rumi's body language over the years that she knows the other girl is debating on whether or not she should ask them for a hug. 

Mira rolls her eyes. She may have been nervous, but Rumi is the one playing host between them and her family. The girl must be a ball of anxiety at this point. 

“Come here,” Mira says, taking mercy on her and pulling all three of them into a hug. She hears Zoey giggle next to her and feels Rumi relax into it, if only for just a slight amount. 

When they release from the hug, Mira sees a bashful smile on Rumi’s lips. “Here, why don’t you two come in,” she murmurs as she steps to the side. They do so and they step into the living area as Rumi closes the door behind them. 

A wave of nostalgia hits Mira as she looks around. 

Ever since they were recruited, all three of them had spent every day in this house—training, eating, sleeping, bonding— up until three years ago when they moved out into their penthouse in Seoul. They rarely ever came by anymore, and when they did, it was usually under the solemn context of accompanying Rumi before she went on her annual solo march to her mother’s grave. Rumi had never let them join her to the grave itself, but they could always hold her hand in the before and in the after when Rumi would finally come down from the hill. So, yeah, this is the first time that they’ve been back where the house feels alive . More so now than ever before because she can hear them. Three distinct voices in the distance talking, laughing— something that’s never been heard in the house that didn’t come from the three of them .  

“Thanks again for saving me back there,” says Rumi, drawing their attention to her once more, “And also thanks for coming by. I know I just met you two a couple of days ago, but, um…”

“It feels like you’ve known the both of us your entire life?” Zoey offers the words to the other girl. Rumi nods, stunned by the fact that those were the exact words she was looking for.

“We feel it too,” says Mira, giving Rumi a supportive nudge on her arm. And it’s true. The moment she first laid her eyes on the two girls in front of her, something inside of her felt like it clicked into place.

“Rumi! Dinner’s ready!” calls a voice from the kitchen. It’s not Kim’s, and it certainly isn’t Celine’s.

“C’mon,” says Rumi, “I can’t wait for the both of you to meet everyone.”

As Rumi walks on ahead, Mira takes a peek over at Zoey and the two share a nod of support before they follow after the purple haired girl. They turn the corner to the dining room and find three pairs of eyes awaiting their arrival—one pair familiar, the other two they’ve only ever seen on a screen. 

Before Rumi can even begin to introduce them, Kim, who was sitting behind the table jumps up and pulls the two of them in for a hug. Both of them are clearly not expecting it, and they send a panicked look at Rumi who only gives them a flustered shrug in response. 

“Hello!” Kim exclaims, pulling away from them and giving the two a couple pats on the cheek, “Nice to formally meet you. I’m Rumi’s Auntie Kim. You can call me Kim or Kimmy or what the heck just call me Auntie Kim as well. Sorry about earlier, I just wanted to meet the two people who managed to save our little RumRum from trouble—”

“—Auntie Kim!—”

“—You girls are so gorgeous! Wow, Rumi wasn’t kidding when she was telling us about how pretty you both are when she was describing your street performances—”

“—Auntie! Oh my god!—”

“—And you must be so talented! You’ll have to let me know the next time you do a set, I would love to watch it. Actually, have you two ever thought about becoming kpop idols? I don’t know if you know this but I’m a pretty famous producer myself—”

“—K.Jae!” It's Zoey who’s looking pretty starstruck at the moment, “I’m such a big fan of your work. You’re one of my biggest inspirations.”

At that, Kim positively beams. She points at Zoey and looks back to Celine, who is sitting on a barstool by the counter, a smug look on the producer’s face. “Did you hear? This one knows who I am.” 

“It’s not like we’re famous or anything,” Mira hears Celine mutter under her breath. Mira feels the edge of her mouth quirk up upon hearing the response. She may be mad at Celine—and yeah this Celine might not be her Celine—but the other woman’s rare and unexpected moments of sass were always hilarious to her. 

Kim seems to hear Celine and makes a point of rolling her eyes at her. “Grumpy over there is Celine,” Kim says it so casually as though the other woman wasn’t the number one solo artist on the charts and in the middle of a sold out international tour right now. Mira spots Celine’s eye twitch at the older woman, and she has to bite back a smile. 

“I’m Zoey,” says Zoey, and Mira spots her shaking Kim’s hand before the youngest remembers her manners and gives the auntie a bow. 

Mira follows after her, bowing to all three older women in the room. “I’m Mira.” She gives Zoey a quick smack on the arm when she sees that the younger girl is still shaking Kim’s hand, most likely out of nerves. 

Kim doesn’t seem to notice. “Zoey and Mira. Ooh, I like it. I like it. Do you two have a group name?” 

‘Yeah, it’s Huntr/x.’ Mira wants to answer but it doesn’t feel right to use the name when one of their members doesn’t even know she is a part of it. Mira looks over at Zoey who has always been quicker at thinking on her feet. 

“Um!” Zoey’s eyes wander around the room and Mira sees her eyes land on an instant cup of ramyun in the back of the room, “...spicy…burger?” (How Zoey manages to pull those two words from looking at a plain cup of ramyun, Mira does not know.)

“ Spicyburger ?” Kim repeats the name and Zoey and Mira can do nothing but double down and nod at the on-the-fly name. “You know what, I dig it. Your english is really good by the way.”

“Oh yeah, Zoey grew up in America,” pipes up Rumi who pauses, then frowns before adding, “I think.”

Wait. Zoey has never told her that here. Mira realizes. 

Zoey doesn’t seem to notice as all she does is nod and supply, “Burbank.”

“Burbank—!” Kim lights up and is no doubt about to go into another rant when she is cut off. 

“Kim, can we please get some food in the girls’ stomachs before you tell them about America?” the voice calls from behind the counter. The woman has an amused smile on her face as she makes her way around the counter to greet them. 

It’s the first time she has spoken up since they’ve entered the room and Mira can’t help but feel her heart sink at the sound of it. Because the first impression that Mira has of the woman’s voice is that it’s motherly . It’s motherly in a way that Mira craves for, because while her mother is very much alive, her mother has rarely ever talked to her in such a way. And it’s motherly in a way that Rumi never had—in a way that Rumi deserves . 

Ryu Mi-Yeong smiles at the both of them and Mira understands why she was the visual of the Sunlight Sisters. 

“Hello,” she says, wrapping an arm around Rumi as she addresses them, “I’m Rumi’s mother, Mi-Yeong. I wanted to personally say thank you, both of you , for protecting my daughter.” She looks at Rumi as though Rumi is the embodiment of all the pride and joy she’s ever had in her entire life. It’s as though her accomplishments in making up one-third of the most famous girl group in the world only pale in comparison to having the chance to raise Rumi into the beautiful young woman that she is. That if they hadn’t been there to save Rumi when they did, that this woman’s world would have ended the moment Rumi took her last breath. But that’s a sentiment that Mira can share with the other woman, so she responds in earnest. 

“We would gladly do it again,” Mira says. She knows this woman is not real, but Mira can’t help but let her know that she would always fight to protect her daughter, even if it cost her everything.

That earns another smile from Rumi’s mom. “Come, girls. Let’s eat some dinner,” she says, ushering everyone towards the table. 

***

The majority of dinner is a fairly casual affair and for the most of it, it’s Kim and Zoey doing most of the talking. The dining table itself is small—Mira and Zoey sit on one side with Rumi sitting at the head of the table to Mira’s left, and on Rumi’s left sits Celine then Mi-Yeong with Kim at the other end of the table closest to Zoey—which meant that any conversation had easily carried over to the other end of it. For the most part, Mira stays silent, only ever contributing a couple of words when Zoey looks to her for help. She’s more interested in observing the three women sitting in front of her anyway. 

Kim is energetic. She’s the oldest of them all here and her life is filled with chasing her curiosities, always quick to offer to others what she can share. In a way, she reminds Mira of Zoey and she can’t help but wonder if this is truly how the woman is in real life, or if it's just a product of the dreamscape. Maybe if they manage to get out of here, the two girls would be down to visit the third, forgotten hunter in America. 

Mi-Yeong, as Mira had described her earlier, is motherly. Ever since they’ve started eating, Mi-Yeong is constantly offering her and Zoey different dishes their eyes would briefly land on. But in addition to her being motherly, Mi-Yeong is also the glue. Celine (as Mira is highly amused to witness) is easily baited by Kim. The two women have already started two separate arguments since they had begun eating, but each time, Mi-Yeong would step in between the two and redirect their attention elsewhere. It’s easy to see why her passing would have the effect that it did between the two other women in real life. 

And finally for Celine. The only word that Mira could use to describe Celine in this world is: jarring. Because this Celine is very much like the Celine that she knows but more. Her Celine is reserved and this Celine is too; however, when prompted by either one of the Sunlight Sisters, this Celine opens. Her Celine is intense and intimidating and as is this one, but this Celine shows that she has a soft side, especially at one look from Rumi’s mom. And finally, her Celine raised Rumi and has always shown great pride in the girl (before they had known about Rumi's demon half), but this Celine straight up adores her. 

At some point, this Celine gets caught up in telling a story about how she had almost kidnapped Rumi when she was younger to go on Celine’s first tour with her (to Mi-Yeong’s shock since this was the first time she was hearing about this) that she starts laughing and Mira really can only count a handful of times she’s heard Celine freely laughing in her presence. Another story that Celine manages to bring up is her pinky promise to a 4 year old Rumi that she would be her best friend and the different ways she’s tried to honor that promise over the years. Mira almost forgets that this is the face of the woman who constantly withheld affection from Rumi, denied Rumi the acceptance she desperately begged for that night of the Idol Awards, and didn’t even have the balls to wish her adoptive daughter a happy birthday through text. So yeah, it was jarring. 

Still, coming to that conclusion about this world’s version of the woman doesn’t seem to prepare Mira much for Celine’s sudden line of questioning.

It happens towards the end of dinner, and Mira must have been quiet for a little too long that it attracts the woman's attention. 

“So, Mira,” Celine addresses her directly, “Rumi tells me that you both just started performing downtown three days ago. Is that the reason you both came to the island, or have you been here longer?” 

Mira recognizes the tone Celine is using. It’s suspicious, it’s interrogatory, it’s protective . 

(It’s the same tone she adopts when an interviewer drops a deceptively innocent question with ulterior motives that Mira is usually the first to pick up on.) 

She has to pick her words and her tone carefully now. Because her Celine has always been pretty good in picking out their lies, and if that’s the case, then she should expect that this Celine should be able to as well. 

“Rumi’s right, we did just arrive here three days ago,” Mira answers, figuring it would be smart to stay as close to the truth as possible. She continues, “We had some time before we could meet up with the friend that we are staying with, so we ended up putting on an impromptu performance for the people of downtown. It was pretty fun and got us some extra funds, so we figured we’d keep doing it while we have some down time on the island.”

“Oh?” Celine responds, “So I take it your reasons for coming here were just to visit your friend then?”

Mira can see where this is leading. She gives a noncommittal shrug. “Partly. Zoey and I were thinking about doing some of the more tourist type activities soon,” she lies. She looks over to Rumi and attempts to redirect, “We could use somebody who’s familiar with the island to show us around.”

Rumi blushes at this and murmurs, “Sure.”

Unfortunately, Celine still probes. “Are you on the island for long then?”

“We’ll stay around for as long as we want to,” Mira replies. She internally winces at herself. That came off a bit too defensive. 

Celine raises an eyebrow, “So what responsibilities wait for you back on the mainland then? Or do you have none?”

“ Celine !” Mi-Yeong hisses at the older woman, but Celine just gives her a sign to ‘hold on’. 

“We’re both performers on the mainland,” Mira says, coolly. In reality, she barely managed to keep herself from just gritting the response through her teeth. “Just on a hiatus.”

“Were your street performances some sort of promo for when you both go back?”

“Like I said, we were just doing it for fun and a little extra money,” says Mira. She feels Zoey’s hand reach for hers under the table and she grabs it as discreetly as she can. 

Celine seems to make a show of pondering for a moment before she starts up again. “I wonder: How does a pair of full-time performers have the ability to stop a robbery?”

“That’s a little bit of a hypocritical question to ask, don’t you think, Celine?” Kim mutters from the other end of the table. Celine ignores her and just stares straight at Mira.

“We take some martial arts classes now and then,” Mira replies, matching the intensity of the older woman’s stare back at her. Mira decides to add, “You can never be too careful these days, can you?”

Celine blinks, as though she didn’t expect the pink haired girl to fire back. 

“I suppose not,” Celine responds. Celine looks like she wants to keep pressing, but she catches the warning look on Mi-Yeong’s face, so instead she ends up just leaning back in her seat, and Mira takes that as a sign that the older woman has decided to back down. She knows better than to show any indication of relief, so instead she just squeezes Zoey’s hand in hers. 

Rumi, who Mira had not looked over at since the start of the discussion, abruptly stands up in her seat. “Why don’t I go show my room to my friends?” the purple haired girl basically squeaks out in suggestion. 

“I think that’s a good idea, Rumi,” says Mi-Yeong. Mira sees most of the food from the table already gone by now, so thankfully they hadn’t managed to cut the dinner off too early. 

Mira lets go of Zoey’s hand before standing up and bowing to the three older women, Zoey following after her. 

“Thank you so much for the food and letting us eat dinner with you,” says Mira, “It was nice meeting all of you .” She says the last word looking directly at Celine. 

“Likewise,” is all the woman says. 

“We’ll be around so let us know when you girls decide to head out,” says Mi-Yeong, “Don’t worry about cleaning up, we’ll take care of it.” She offers them one more smile, as though apologizing for the other woman’s behavior before she makes shoo-ing motions with her hands. 

Taking that as their leave, Mira and Zoey follow Rumi out of the dining room and towards her room. 

***

“I’m so sorry about that,” Rumi groans as soon as she shuts her door behind them. 

Mira just shrugs. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Her eyes wander around the room. Back in the real world, she had rarely ever stepped foot inside of Rumi’s childhood bedroom, and while newly recruited Mira may have chalked it up to Rumi being stuck up and weird, older Mira now knows that it was probably a byproduct of Rumi hiding her patterns from them. 

“Still! I just never expected her to be so…”

“Protective?” Zoey offers before Mira can respond with anything rude, “It’s okay, Rumi. She’s probably just looking out for you.”

“I guess, but Celine’s always been so chill—”

“Yeah, around you,” Mira interrupts, picking up a framed photo of Rumi with her mom and two aunts. It’s a photo of Rumi in a graduation gown with Kim on her left and Celine and Mi-Yeong on her right. Mira raises an eyebrow at the closeness of Celine and Rumi’s mom in the photo and plays back instances of the dinner where Celine and her mom would have side conversations, as though they were in their own little world. 

Mira spins around and points to the photo. “And your mom. Am I wrong, or was I picking up something going on between the two?” she can’t help but ask with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. 

Rumi only rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll be honest, those two are constantly dancing around each other. I don't even know what to call it at this point,” she says. 

“I’m surprised you even managed to clock it,” Mira hears Zoey mutter under her breath. Mira has to cough in her own hand to stop her laugh.

“What?”

“What? I didn’t say anything. Ooh! Are those baby pictures?”

“Oh my god! Don’t—!”

***

They end up spending a good amount of time in Rumi’s bedroom doing nothing but talking. It’s been a while since all three of them had had the chance to just sit down and talk about nothing important, and even though this Rumi doesn’t have all of her memories, talking to her about inconsequential topics is still all the same. By the time Mira looks out the window, the sun has already gone down and the sky has gone dark. She looks at the time on the clock and sees that it’s getting late. 

They had only just been invited for dinner, so she is starting to feel bad for potentially overstaying their welcome. She stands up and helps Zoey get up from where she was sitting on the floor. She pulls out the phone to call Jinu when Rumi speaks up. 

“I don’t want this night to end,” confesses Rumi. She’s sitting on the bed, her hands propping her up from behind, her sweater sliding down her arms to reveal sleeveless skin, and she’s biting her lip as she’s looking up expectantly at the two of them standing before her. Mira’s breath catches in her throat and beside her she feels Zoey freeze. 

There’s implications to that sentence. “Rumi…?”

Rumi blushes, turning her head to the side to look away from them. “I’m sorry. If you have to leave, that’s fine,” she says. 

“We won’t leave if you want us here, Rumi,” says Zoey. She’s a little breathless, as though she can’t believe what the other girl is implying. 

Rumi looks up at them again, hope in her eyes. “Really? You’ll stay the night?”

The two nod enthusiastically and are about to make their way towards the bed when Rumi rises from it. Both of their eyes widen in confusion, but Rumi is already opening the door, smiling at them brightly. 

“Good. Because the sky is clear tonight, and I know the best place to go stargazing.”

Rumi pads her way out of the room to grab a picnic blanket. 

A beat passes before Mira can even bring herself to look over at Zoey. The two make eye contact and only sigh at each other. 

Of course that’s what she meant. 

Still. They’re happy to follow after her anyway. 

***

“You want to tell me all of that was about during dinner?” Mi-Yeong asks her. Celine watches as the younger woman makes her way back to her side of the loveseat next to Celine after Mi-Yeong had just returned from sending off Rumi and the two girls up the hill with the picnic blanket to go stargazing. Celine hands her back her wine glass and explains herself. 

“I’m not going to apologize,” she says, “Do neither of you think it’s suspicious that those two showed up right after the second shift in the Honmoon?”

“That’s probably a coincidence, Celine,” says Kim from the recliner across from the loveseat, “Besides, nothing else showed up during the first shift, at least nothing that we could find.”

“Okay, how about the ripple we felt earlier?”

“What about it?” asks Mi-Yeong. 

“It was leading us to Sunlight Bouquet—”

“You said you couldn’t trace it,” Kim interjects. 

“Yeah, but it was basically leading us there before it disappeared.”

“So, what, you think those two girls somehow defeated demons posing as robbers?” Kim challenges, “I know we haven’t been at it in a while, but in case you forgot, we’re the only ones who can access the Honmoon to kill demons. Why would demons even go after Rumi anyway?”

“I mean, we’re all here. Perhaps Rumi smells like hunters to them,” Mi-Yeong proposes. Celine gestures in a way that says ‘See!’ but before Celine can comment on Mi-Yeong taking her side, Mi-Yoeng adds, “But we can’t look over the fact that whether it was demons or robbers, those two girls saved Rumi today.”

“What if they did something to make the demons appear? I don’t know. Something doesn’t add up with those two,” says Celine, crossing her arms with a scowl. 

Kim speaks up, “I think you’re just being overly protective of Rumi, Celine. This is the first time she's brought anybody around, much less introduced us to them. It’s okay to admit that you just want to look out for her. You don’t have to confuse it with your hunter duties.”

“I can do both!” exclaims Celine. She looks straight at Mi-Yeong, “I can’t believe you’d trust two strangers with your daughter.” 

“I trust Rumi and Rumi trusts them,” Mi-Yeong says to her, “So at the very least, have faith in Rumi. She’s more than capable in handling herself.” Celine scoffs and pouts harder, but she recognizes when she’s been outnumbered so she relents for now. 

Except, Kim manages to rile her up again, “You know this kind of reminds of the time when Rumi was going off to university—”

“Hey! This is not similar—!”

***

Zoey has never been a big fan of the trek to the top of the hill. Where Mira grew up a dancer and had crazy stamina and endurance, and Rumi grew up basically running up and down the hill everyday, Zoey grew up in the public education system of America where the physical education classes were a joke. So when she was recruited to join Huntr/x, it wasn’t a surprise to her that she was always the last one done doing laps up and down the hill. She got better over time of course, but still her feelings about climbing the hill never changed.

So when she found herself at the base of the hill, looking to their destination—the Spirit Tree—at the top, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. 

She feels Mira give her a pat on the shoulder. “You’ve got this, Zo.”

Zoey only rolls her eyes at the pink haired girl. Mira would say that to her all the time during training. 

“You don’t have to climb if you don’t want to.” It’s Rumi, surveying the climb before them. 

“Oh! It’s okay, I can do it. Besides, I don’t want to miss out on the view of the night sky like you were telling us about,” Zoey assures. She moves to start going up the hill but finds her wrist caught in someone’s hand, tugging her back to where she was before. Zoey turns and finds that it’s Rumi who has a hold of her wrist. 

It seems that Rumi just realized she had reached for Zoey’s wrist without permission because she quickly drops it and blushes so hard that even Zoey could see it with the little light the sky above offers them. 

“No, I mean. If you don’t want to, I can carry you up the hill?” Rumi phrases the statement as a question, looking bashfully up at Zoey. 

Zoey blinks. 

“All the way… up there?” she points to the top. Rumi only nods. 

“I carry a bunch of gardening stuff up there all of the time, it’s no big deal,” says Rumi with a shrug. 

Zoey is still a little dumbfounded by the offer from the other girl. “I’m heavier than gardening supplies, Rumi.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just… pretty sure I can carry either of you up there. If you want , of course. I’m not going to make you. I just thought I’d offer…”

“Zoey, if you don’t take the chance to get on the Rumi express, I will,” snorts Mira. 

“Rumi. Carry me up there.” Zoey practically shoves Mira away from them. Mira just starts laughing at her at this point.

In response, the purple haired girl hands the rolled blanket over to the laughing Mira before she takes off her sweater revealing toned biceps they have rarely ever gotten to see. She turns her back to them to fold her sweater and they can see her back muscles rippling under the loose tank top she has on. 

Zoey hears Mira stop laughing and mutter in her direction, “ Lucky .” Zoey gulps and nods her head in agreement. 

Rumi, unaware of the gay crisis going on behind her, just hands Mira her sweater before she positions herself with her back facing Zoey’s front, bending down on one knee and looking back at her. 

“Hop on.”

Zoey steps up and carefully places her hands on Rumi’s shoulders as she brackets Rumi’s sides with her thighs. Rumi just reaches and grabs the back of her knees before hoisting the both of them up in one clean move. Rumi does it so steadily and confidently and it’s a little dizzying to Zoey. She moves to wrap her arms across Rumi’s shoulders and in front of her neck to further stabilize herself before Rumi begins the trek up the mountain with what is essentially a Zoey-sized backpack on her back. Mira follows right behind them to prevent any potential injuries from tripping backward and rolling down the mountain. 

“Rumi, just let me know if I’m too much,” Zoey whispers in her ear as they get a couple of steps up the path to the top. 

The purple haired girl just tightens her grip on the youngest and shakes her head. 

“I don’t think you could ever be too much,” Zoey hears Rumi mutter. 

Zoey feels her own face flush and she smiles to herself.

Oh Rumi.

***

“You know, one of these nights, and only for that night, it’s gonna bloom,” Rumi tells her. Zoey tilts her head while looking at the kadupul planted in the dirt by the tree. It doesn’t look like much really, and it’s kind of a little alien-looking, and if she hadn’t seen what the Demon Queen’s Crown looked like, she might have said that the kadupul as the most off-putting plant she’s ever looked at, but she won’t tell that to Rumi because the other girl had perked up when she realized she would be able to show both her and Mira the plant she had always wanted.

It makes Zoey a little sad, if she’s honest. They hadn’t known much about Rumi’s interest in plants before they had entered the dreamscape. To be fair though, Rumi had never brought it up in front of them, choosing to sneak in the plants onto her part of the balcony in secret. The only reason Zoey had become aware of it was the first time Rumi had to go on a trip without them and had sent a special gardener up to their penthouse to water her plants. It was just Zoey who happened to answer the door at that time. When Rumi had returned, Zoey had come up to her offering Rumi her assistance in taking care of the plants next time, but all Rumi did was look embarrassed—as though getting caught having a secret garden was embarrassing to her—and then told Zoey not to worry about it before running off. 

(Zoey had tried to surprise her with a boatload of bouquets later, but had found the purple haired girl running around late into the night muttering about ‘ how was she going to take care of all of them?’ and that  ‘ she didn’t have enough planters for all of these flowers ’. Zoey had figured it was probably best not to give the girl any more flowers from that point on.)

“Why don’t you plant it closer to your house, then? So you don’t miss it when it blooms?” Zoey asks. 

Rumi shrugs. “There’s something about making the climb up here, hoping to see if it will bloom. And then one night I’ll arrive and there it’ll be. In its full glory under the stars. It seemed right to be able to enjoy my two favorite things at the same time.” She pats the blanket tucked under her arm. “For now, we can enjoy at least one of those things.”

Rumi leads them to a patch of grass a little ways away from the tree and the flower and unrolls the blanket, and turns to both Mira and Zoey.

“After you,” says Rumi with a mock bow, offering the both of them first pick on where they would want to sit. Zoey giggles and moves to sit down first. 

“Dork,” Mira snickers as she takes a spot on Zoey’s left. 

“Fine, I’ll just sit on the other side of Zoey then,” Rumi fires back. Zoey just hears Mira go ‘wooowww’ from beside her as the other girl lowers herself on the spot on Zoey’s right. Rumi just pokes a tongue out at the pink haired girl and Zoey would be hard-pressed to believe that Rumi had lost all of her memories of them just three days ago. That they weren’t just complete strangers to her three days ago. 

The three lower themselves to their backs and fully take in the sky above them for the first time that night. Yes, they had seen it on the trek to the top, but Zoey was all too lost in the feeling of being carried to the top by Rumi to fully process it. Until now.

It’s mesmerizing. 

Every corner of Zoey’s vision is filled with stars so magnificent, so bright , and she just now realizes that the entirety of the land around them was illuminated solely by the glow of the stars above. The moon does not shine, for it is simply new tonight. 

They don’t get to see the sky like this in Seoul, and even on tours they would perform in cities that created light pollution for hundreds of miles around them, and it's been a while since they’ve been up here, but Zoey swears it’s never been like this .

Maybe it’s Rumi. Zoey thinks to herself. Maybe it’s because it's her dream. Maybe the reason the stars above are shining so brightly is just for Rumi. Because if Zoey were a star, she would shine so bright that other celestial bodies would stand no chance, if only Rumi asked her to. 

“Do you guys know any of the constellations up there?” asks Rumi. 

Zoey hears Mira go ‘nope’ from beside her. Zoey shakes her head, she doesn’t know either. 

“Will you tell us, Rumi?” Zoey asks.

“Of course,” answers the purple haired girl. 

It feels like they spend hours under the stars like that. Maybe they do. Rumi would point at a group of stars and both Mira and Zoey would take turns guessing the constellation’s name. After all three of them would laugh at the absolutely terrible guesses made by the two, Rumi would say the constellation’s actual name before stating the brief mythological or historical story behind the origin of each one. Then Zoey or Mira would ask a follow-up question or two before they all moved on to the next one. 

By the way Rumi would talk in depth about each constellation, it becomes more and more apparent to Zoey that this was one of the things that Rumi has memorized by heart, and just like her love for flowers, (and just like her patterns,) Rumi had managed to hide it all hide from the both of them. But it’s okay. They’re learning now and they’re listening intently as the purple haired girl goes on about each collection of stars in the sky before them.

Zoey thinks that it would be nice if this could go on forever. 

All three of them, just laying under the stars like this.

If she gives in, then maybe it could be possible to do just that.

But she knows it can’t.

She knows better.

(She had given in once before. On that one night of the Idol Awards. And she regrets and regrets and regrets. She will not do it again.)

She knows they’re just experiencing a dream. 

A wonderful dream of a wonderful girl.

“Rumi?” Zoey calls, her voice small. She keeps her eyes on the breathtaking view of the night sky above. 

“Hmm?” The girl responds, having somehow run out of constellations to name for them. Or maybe she, too, had just wanted to enjoy the moment like Zoey had been moments ago.

“Do you dream about anything?” Zoey asks carefully. She’s aware both Mira and Rumi are looking at her right now, but they’re both too blindingly beautiful to look at without losing her train of thought, so she keeps her eyes trained on the sky above instead. 

“What do you mean, Zoey?” Rumi asks. Never dismissive. 

“Your life here,” she begins, “You seem to have everything in your life you could possibly want. So I was wondering… if you have everything, then do you ever dream about wanting something? Something more? Something that you never thought could be possible?” 

On the other side of her, she feels Mira thread her fingers through hers, as though to say ‘I understand what you’re asking’ and ‘I’m here’. 

Zoey swallows and she gathers the courage to finally look over at Rumi, whose eyes are now far away, deep in thought. The purple haired girl contemplates for a minute before she’s ready to answer. There’s a soft smile on her lips when she does. 

“I don’t think I have everything I want… not yet, at least,” Rumi says. Zoey can’t help but notice the way her eyes—just briefly—glance over to her and Mira. 

Oh.

“But if you’re talking about impossible dreams,” Rumi starts again, looking up at the night sky, “Sometimes, I dream that if I reach hard enough, I can one day touch the stars.” 

Rumi laughs to herself. “And then, once I do that. If I want it hard enough—if I wish for it hard enough—maybe one day, those stars will be mine.” 

Rumi is looking back at her now with a soft smile on her lips. Gentle. Hopeful. Patient. 

Oh. 

The entire time since they had entered Rumi’s dreamscape, Zoey’s been trying to figure out what more they could offer her. What more could they offer in order to save her? Because at every turn, everything that had chained down the girl was gone. Her patterns, her duties, her isolation, none of that existed here. Every death and sacrifice that tormented her, simply did not happen here. Rumi has only ever known love here. And it was because of that fact that they thought that they were going to lose her here—to a dream.

For what could they even offer to a girl who has everything? 

There is ever only one answer to that question: 

Nothing else but the heavens above. 

So Zoey reaches.

And she summons Starlight . 

***

The impossible happens before her. 

Rumi watches as Zoey opens her hand and in it gathers iridescent threads of light. The lights swirl, and spool, and spiral around itself until it solidifies into an object. A singular blade of light. A blade made from the light of the stars above. 

“I can’t give you the stars, Rumi,” Zoey says, almost a whisper, “But I can give you the next best thing.”

And then Zoey—sweet, beautiful, impossible Zoey— extends her hand, and offers her Starlight. 

“What…?” Rumi starts. Her eyes have not left the impossible blade since Zoey had called it forth, but now she glances up to look at their faces and her breath catches in her throat. 

Because what more she sees in front of her, she cannot comprehend. 

She sees a light shining from Zoey and Mira’s chests. She sees it reacting— resonating —with the blade of starlight held out before her. She sees an iridescent thread, one end tethered to that light inside their chests, the other end extending out into the stars, as if they were connected to the heavens themselves. And then she sees them, looking at her, waiting for her as though the heavens meant nothing if she does not want them. 

So, what else can she do but reach for the Starlight offered to her?

As soon as her fingers touch the blade, she remembers.

She remembers and she burns.  

***

Mi-Yeong drops the wine glass in her hand and it shatters on the ground below.

A shift . 

“The Spirit Tree,” she hears Celine gasp next to her. Celine was always better at locating the warnings of the Honmoon. So once she says it, Mi-Yeong’s stomach drops to the floor. 

“The girls,” Kim realizes.

“Rumi.”

***

She remembers. 

She remembers solitude. She remembers that she has known it at an early age. She remembers waking up to an empty house. She remembers how she had no real concept of family. She remembers how the one who raised her could not do more but set up her future. She remembers how the one who lived far away could do nothing for her present. She remembers how she had no one, how she had nothing. Because all of their pasts are haunted by one. How do broken pieces fit together when the glue is no more?

She remembers. 

She remembers doing everything to hide her patterns. And she remembers how hiding eventually becomes a pattern. She remembers withholding herself from fully experiencing the rest of the world. She remembers being jealous of the two other thirds of her soul. Of how bright they shine. She remembers coming to an agreement with herself. Once the patterns were gone, then she could finally show herself. She can finally shine as bright as them. But the patterns do not disappear. So, where does that leave her?

She remembers. 

She remembers the weight of the world on her shoulders. She remembers how one mistake could mean the end of it all, either on stage or on the battlefield. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she had to be perfect. Or else it would be all for nothing. Who does she think she is to let everything that the generations before her have worked for go to waste?

She remembers. 

She remembers how close it was to becoming golden. She remembers how she was a second away from being free. She remembers how she was cut off, just a second too early. She remembers hearing the voices of the imposters, teasing, taunting her on stage. She remembers the violence in which her jacket is ripped off her body. She remembers being exposed to the entire world against her will. She remembers begging. When did she falter for her to deserve this?

She remembers. 

She remembers how her knees connect with the dirt. She remembers lowering her head. She remembers offering the sacred sword to the one who raised her. She remembers how Celine knocks the sword away. She remembers how Celine begged her to lie once more. She remembers begging Celine for acceptance. But Celine denies her. Just like she always does. What did she expect?

She remembers. 

She remembers arriving at Namsan Tower, fully intending to do anything it required to free everyone from the demon king’s grasp. She remembers her conversation with the demon king. She remembers the demon king laughing at her. She remembers the intensity of the demon king’s fire. She remembers pushing back against it, and she remembers how close she was to being overtaken by it. She remembers how it took Jinu instead. She remembers how he gave his soul for hers. He was supposed to be the one who was free. It was supposed to be her. Why couldn’t it have been her?

She remembers. 

She remembers how Jinu is not the only death that defines her. She remembers how her hands have been stained with blood her entire life, starting from the moment she was born. She remembers that she was raised in the absence of her mother. She remembers asking herself: Am I just the moon reflecting the light of a dead sun?

She remembers and all she knows is shame .

She remembers and her fingers holding the Starlight turn into claws.

She remembers and all she feels is pain . 

She remembers and her flesh sears as patterns travel up the arm holding the Starlight. 

She remembers and she just wants it to stop .

So she does. 

She stops. 

She lets go of Starlight. 

And then. 

“Zoey. Mira. What did you do ?”

***

The two watch as patterns crawl up Rumi’s arm from the moment she touches Starlight. 

Angry. Purple. Jagged. Accompanied by the smell of burning flesh.

They watch as the Rumi drops the blade of Starlight. How the blade made of Starlight hits the ground and bits of gold from the Honmoon floats away like dust in the wind. How the Starlight unwinds itself back into nonexistence. How she stands up and scrambles away. How she stares at the patterns in horror. How she looks back at them as though they had betrayed her .

The look on her face looks too much like how she looked at them in the sickly green light of the backstage when they had pointed their weapons at her. Neither of them can speak. It was too soon to see her looking at them like that again.

“I was happy.” The words are spoken by Rumi, her gaze unfocused. “I was finally happy.”

She turns her eyes towards them.

They’re all standing up now.

Rumi is standing too far apart from them now.

“Why?” She looks at Zoey. She looks at Mira. “Why did you make me remember?” 

“Rumi?” asks Zoey. 

“How much do you…?” Mira starts.

“Everything.” She chokes back a sob. “Why do I have to remember everything?” 

Rumi pleads for an answer from the both of them. Mira steps forward, wanting to comfort the other girl, but Rumi just steps back. Mira chooses to ignore the way her heart breaks at the distance between them. 

Mira answers, but she says it like an apology. “Because this world is not real, Rumi. It’s just a dream.”

Zoey remembers the conversation from the car. She adds in a quiet voice, “You need to wake up.” 

“And when I wake up. What then?” Rumi asks, “This will all be gone? I’ll have patterns again?”

Mira looks away. Zoey only nods. 

Rumi shakes her head, stepping away even further.

“I don’t want to remember anymore.”

“Rumi!” the both of them exclaim. 

“No! You’re asking me to trade this world where I finally get to be happy, for a world where all I’ve known is pain and guilt and shame ?”

“Rumi, if you stay here, you die .” Mira’s voice wavers at the end.

“Well fine! That’s what I asked for anyway! ”

“You don’t mean that.” Zoey says, her voice breaking. “Rumi , you don’t mean that. ”

“I do! I do!” 

Otherworldly magenta ripples through the threads of the Golden Honmoon.

Stunned silence falls between the three of them. 

“We can’t lose you, Rumi.” Zoey says past her own tears, “Please.”

Rumi cannot bring herself to respond to that, nor wipe the hot tears running down her face. Instead, she ignores Zoey’s plea and asks another question.

“Was it my dream that made me think that the two of you were interested in me?”

“What?” Both of them are startled that she’s asking them this now. 

“Or was it the dream that somehow made the both of you pursue me?” Did the dream project her want for them onto them? She would throw up if that’s the case. 

Mira interrupts that train of thought. “No, Rumi, we’ve always wanted you.”

“We were waiting for you,” says Zoey. “But you never seemed ready.”

“Then, why now?” she asks them. 

Was I just too wrong in the real world? Was my heart not worth fighting for before? Rumi thinks to herself. 

That question gives them pause. She’s right. Why had they been more forward with their feelings to her here? They think to themselves.

Mira can’t find the words, but luckily, Zoey does.

“You seemed more free here,” Zoey tells her, “And I think we were braver because of that. And we’re so sorry, Rumi. We should have tried sooner.”

“Please, believe us, Rumi,” Mira begs her, “Please, let us try.”

Maybe it’s because Mira never begs. Maybe it’s because it’s Zoey's apology for waiting too long.

But Mira does not need to beg. And Zoey does not need to apologize. Yet, they do. Because they still want her—despite the fact that she had been the one to shut them out. It was easier, now that she admits it. To shut them out. To fall back into the pattern of hiding. She knows it now, but she’s still afraid. Afraid of what it would mean to wake up from such a lovely dream.

So, she confesses. 

“I don’t want to hurt anymore.”

Mira steps forward again. This time, Rumi does not step back.

This time, Mira finds her words. “We can’t stop the hurt from the past, Rumi. But we can be there for you so you’re not alone in it. And if you’ll let us… we can do our best to protect you from whatever may hurt you in the future.”

“Just let us in, Rumi.” Zoey says. “We miss you. We love you.”

”How could you both love me?” Rumi asks. 

She’s aware that she’s at the last of her defenses. But she has to ask. She has to make sure.  

“You’ve only known half of me.”

The two look at each other and understanding passes between the two of them. Mira links her hand with Zoey’s and they both offer her a smile.

“That’s the best part though, isn’t it?” starts Zoey.

Mira finishes, “We get even more of you to love.”

Both Mira and Zoey offer their hands to her. 

Both reach for her. 

And Rumi wants to believe them. 

She wants to reach for them. 

So, she extends her hand and—

“Rumi, you need to get away from them!”

Something glints in the distance and Zoey and Mira barely manage to step back in time before a knife cuts the air where they used to be. A kitchen knife buries itself in the ground a ways away. 

The three older women make themselves known. 

Celine has her body pitched forward. She was the one who had thrown the knife. But she was not the one who spoke. 

No. 

That voice belongs to Rumi’s mother. 

Anger burns in her eyes as she looks at Mira and Zoey. 

“Get away from my daughter.”

Mi-Yeong reaches.

And she summons Sunlight .