Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The woods were alive. 

Not just the woods. The mountains, trees, and every single pebble you stepped on getting here. They, too, were alive. Watching. Whispering.

They knew your name even if you didn’t know theirs. Rumors spiraled through each blade of grass. They reached the ears of stalking predators and the fish in the streams. Your secrets were not safe anywhere.

Even the walls have ears.

Not much changed since you left for Seoul in your sleepy small hometown. The same mom and pop corner stores that you used to visit after school were still up and running. You remember it well. On especially hot summer days, you and your friends would excitedly hurry over to one, taking your pick of the colorful popsicles waiting for you in the freezer.

You would sit on the stairs discussing school. That math test you bombed. That one project that’s due at the end of the semester. That one teacher you swore had a vendetta against you. You’d sit as the cicadas filled the silence with their acapella hymns.

Those were the days.

The sun beat down on you from above, heating your scalp. You sit in the grass, one knee propped up as you twist open a green bottle of soju. The weather made you reminisce about your childhood, the days you would spend in the woods picking butter-yellow honeysuckles to replenish your energy. Every new scar, every new bug bite was another story to recount as your auntie would bandage and scold you for wandering in the forest so late.

‘You can’t see them, but they can see you,’ she’d say, wagging her finger in your face as you crossed your arms and pouted.

You never understood her many warnings, nor the rest of your family’s until you were older.

Don’t whistle at night.

Don’t look in the trees.

If they speak your name, don’t acknowledge it.

Silly superstitions like that have always plagued you. Even now when you bounce your knee absentmindedly, you can hear the voice of your mother reprimanding you.

‘It shakes away your good fortune,’ she’d warn as she laid a hand on your knee to stop it from shaking.

You wish you had listened sooner.

You poured the liquid into the clear shot glass on the small portable floor table, spilling some on the dark mahogany colored wood. You set it down next to the utensils, a colorful display of side dishes in front of you. 

You poured yourself one as well, before you took a shot.

You smiled before setting it down.

Chuckling, you sat with your legs crossed, preventing you from bouncing your knee again. Your movement caused the grass to shift, which was kept uncut and overgrown. Honestly, you could barely see your feet.

Your family’s headstones stared back at you, overgrown with moss and weathered from the elements.

You can still see them sometimes in your dreams. Mostly in your nightmares. 

You were raised religious. Your lineage consisted of mediums, psychics, and practitioners of the divine. Ancient folktales and traditions were gospel in your household, and the way of life in the countryside. Even the residents that didn’t believe in your family’s beliefs still took caution to their warnings.

You grew up surrounded by rituals, sigils and incense. Art of the old gods decorated the walls of your house, and there were almost always fresh offerings on the altars. You watched as they chanted spells under their breath, watched as they communed with the spirits that resided in your house. Most of your family was able to see spirits. Some in your family could speak to the dead. Others could detach their soul from their body temporarily, freely able to explore the spirit world. You’ve even heard stories of your ancestors letting their bodies be possessed by spirits, a dangerous and rare but powerful ability.

It was something about the wild and untamed energy present. Something untouched that the city didn’t have. 

You didn’t know how much of your family’s teachings were real, but you soon realized that perhaps there was some truth behind most of their fables.

You remembered that when you were young, you were never permitted to stay outside after dark. People had begun to disappear, most of their bodies never found. The ones that were found had been declared to have passed in their sleep. Homes began to grow vacant, and the tiny population of your hometown dwindled more and more.

You noticed it the most at school. Gossip spiraled. Everyday, there was a new empty desk. 

The strange part about it all was that there was no struggle. There was no trace of any of the families that had disappeared. Their homes were still vacant and preserved perfectly in time.

Your family knew that this was most certainly the work of something spiritual. They armed you with protection charms, random pockets of herbs and talismans just to walk to school. 

One day, you stayed out later in the mountains despite your family’s warnings. It was getting dark, and you had figured that if you had at least brought a protection talisman with you, you’d be safe.

It wasn’t even that far from the house. It was just the edge of the clearing. 

The trees and the forest had gone eerily silent before you had time to react. The birds ceased their chirping, and the wind stopped whistling.

A human-

No.

This thing wasn’t a human.

This… creature had crawled out of the glowing purple tear in the space behind you. Unfortunately it had taken notice of you. Its form was skinny and malnourished. You could easily count the ribs. Its skin was a dark midnight blue, and from what little you could see, its eyes…

Oh, you weren’t able to sleep properly the following nights after that. 

Only the irises had been visible, bright yellow rings in a sea of black. 

And the creature smiled.

From ear to ear, it only bared sharp canines.

You couldn't move. Couldn’t pick up your feet that seemed to have been made out of lead at that moment. You couldn’t even scream. It began to crawl towards your frozen form, deeming you as easy prey.

Run, you willed your legs. Please, run. Let me move.

It opened its mouth, its rows of teeth in full display as you felt your energy draining in waves. You could feel your previous fear being siphoned out of you as you felt what could only be described as heavy fatigue overtaking your body.

It was like you were suffocating. The air in your lungs felt as if it was being sucked out, and your mind was attempting to swim in a riptide current.

You collapsed to the grass, awaiting your death.

Your eyes shot back open when you heard shrieking from the demon, a blade hurling towards its chest as it evaporated into bright purple ashes. 

Your aunt dislodged the blade that was thrown at the demon out of the grass before checking if you were okay. 

You hadn’t noticed it before, but you could see it now. You could see a barrier. It blanketed the sky, the earth, everything. It undulated, reminding you of the slow calm waves of the ocean.

And something had just torn right through it.

She scanned you, studied every inch of your skin. Once you were verified to have no injuries, she promptly took you by the ear and yanked you back home.

It had turned out that the talisman that you had brought with you for protection had dropped out of your pocket a few hundred feet back.

You got the scolding of your lifetime that night.

They had explained later on that it was a shield that kept the spirit world and the human world apart. Occasionally, demons could tear through the weak spots to escape to the human realm.

Ever since then, you began to witness more and more things, things your family has told you that you didn’t believe in until you had almost died.

You checked the barrier everyday to see if new tears or holes had formed, paranoid that your soul would be taken again. Because of this, your family had decided to teach you how to fight against them.

They, however, taught you that you must not hate demons for what they do.

Why, you asked.

‘We cannot hate them when we ourselves don’t know the reason why they do what they do. There are things out there, in all those different realms, that we may never understand. Reasons that we may never know,’ they said.

Your family has told you that while they may be demons, they too, once had a soul. 

‘No creature, be it spirit or human or animal, is born innately evil.’

You didn’t understand. The demon that you had met had just tried to suck out your soul. That seemed pretty evil to you.

Since then, you were able to see more and more of them. Not just demons, but other spirits too. You could hear them stalking you, lingering around you, trying to get your attention.

Lighting a stick of incense, you placed it on the burner. The smell of dragon’s blood flooded your senses, the small line of smoke floating upwards and carried on by the passing breeze. Even still, after all of the protests, after all of the complaining about how annoying all their superstitions were, you still remember to obey most of them.

You still remember to put the mirror facing away from your bed. 

You still never whistle at night, even in the city.

You still never respond to anyone saying your name unless you’re sure that it’s them.

Maybe it was because it’s the only thing that you have left of them. The only important things that they, and the ancestors before them, had passed on.

You hummed, rooting through your bag to find a leftover orange that didn’t fit in the fruit bowl on your makeshift table. 

You peeled it, digging your fingers into the soft flesh of the orange to pick apart the sectioned pieces. You popped one in your mouth, and set it on your bag.

From the distance, you noticed it.

A lurking form. You stopped chewing, your gaze focused. Maybe they didn’t notice you. Or maybe they wanted nothing to do with you.

Its head snapped right to where you were sitting, its beady eyes zoning onto you. It began to crawl towards you, before it picked up the pace and lunged.

You were worried that this might happen again. 

You rolled your eyes, tilting your head back in frustration.

Shit, you were gonna miss your bus.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The train rocked back and forth as it sped across the tracks. The night can do very little to block out the city’s skyline, the silhouettes of the buildings visible from the wide windows that lined the walls of the train. 

You had gotten lucky to be able to take the last train of the night. If you were just a few minutes late then you would have had to cut off an arm and a leg for a taxi ride. 

It was quiet, and there was no one else in your cabin. Just the occasional sound of wheels screeching to a halt on the tracks.

“이번 역은: 잠실새내. 잠실새내. 내리실 쪽은 오른쪽입니다.” The automated message echoed.

You leaned on the pole next to your seat, one hand still on the handle of your suitcase. The entire trip had drained your battery, and all you wanted to do once you got home was to sleep. No time to shower or unpack or brush your teeth. Just collapse face first on your futon. Lord knows you can’t afford a bed. 

Surprisingly, you had missed your little basement dwelling in your part of the detached home. You got two rooms (which were practically closets), a small kitchenette, and a bathroom. Honestly, to have all of that for the price you were shelling out was a steal. Sure, there was a cricket problem and half the size of a standard apartment in Seoul, but it was yours.

And rent’s cheap…er.

You had found it back when you had looked for places to live for college. The landlady was a sweet elderly woman, who you occasionally conversed with when you passed her while going out. 

Your eyes glazed over and landed on one of the advertisement screens hanging from the ceiling. The hot pink and purple lights had caught your eye. It was for a girl group that you’ve seen rise to fame recently. You thought their music wasn’t half bad. You preferred them over the other girl groups that debuted recently. 

They looked about your age. It was refreshing to see a K-pop group that didn’t have underaged children debuting. Their skills were also nothing to scoff at. You couldn’t even dream of hitting notes as high as the leaders in some of their songs. 

You looked up above their heads at the name of the group: HUNTR/X.

Well, it’s not like you haven’t seen crazier names.

”출입문 닫습니다. 출입문 닫습니다.“

The train shook back to life, slowly accelerating to the next station. You settled on looking back outside of the windows as the view of the city was suddenly blocked by the brick wall of the tunnels.

Maybe you should listen to some of Huntrix’s songs. You were starting to get a bit tired of the white noise of the train. That and the deafening screeching noise of the vehicle coming to a halt.

And you were, admittedly, influenced by the ad. 

You scrolled through their albums and their singles, picking the most popular one. Popping in your earbuds, you began to zone out as you continued to stare out the window. The tune was catchy, and the beat was addicting. You couldn’t help but hum along softly to the melody.

As you began to drift off to sleep with your music still playing, you noticed that the lights in the train began to flicker on and off. You blinked your eyes open, slightly confused. Sighing, you pulled your luggage to your lap, unzipping it.

You really thought that being back in the city meant that there wasn’t going to be as many spiritual encounters, but of course almost as soon as you stepped back into Seoul the world had to prove you wrong.

Hopefully, this is just a false alarm.

You knew it wasn’t. It never was.

You just hoped that there really was no one else on the train. Then, things may be a little easier. You wouldn’t have to worry about collateral or the risk of being seen attacking a seemingly innocent human. Pocketing your phone, you waited for another flicker. You gripped your suitcase a little tighter. Couldn’t you just go one day without being attacked by a demon?

The lights had shut off, with only the advertisement screens illuminating the cabin. 

You felt it. A ripple in the barrier. A tear was nearby.

The presence of a demon. 

From the far end of the cabin, you sensed a being. You couldn’t exactly tell what from the darkness of the tunnel the train was in. The tunnel light that the train zoomed by helped you barely make out an unassuming middle aged woman. She was tall, her hair draped over her shoulders in loose, thin waves. Her smile was innocent, as if she wanted to ask if she could sit next to you. 

Of course, you knew better. You could see the glowing purple patterns on her neck. You only stared at her, knowing for a fact that she also hadn’t opened the door behind her. 

The train exited the tunnel, letting the moonlight shine. 

In the blink of an eye, she had morphed into an inhuman, uncanny valley monstrosity. 

Its scarlet skin was the first thing that stood out to you. The irises were a bright red, which harshly contrasted its pitch black scleras. It unhinged its jaw, which made the sharp tusks that jutted out of their lips much more visible to you. Its tongue lolled out, elongating past their chin and down towards its neck.

Its skin was like fabric, too thin and barely draped onto its bones. Nearly all of its veins were visible from where you were, sticking out in lightning patterns across their epidermis. Its lanky arms swung by its side, their knuckles nearly making contact with the floor.

Even to this day, their true forms never failed to form a pit in your stomach.

Its shadow grew, slowly lengthening towards your feet.  

You frowned as more demons began to crawl out of the purple hole in the floor, all equally as hideous as the first one. Their movements were harsh, and they contorted their bodies in jerks. They clawed at the linoleum floor towards you slowly. 

They waited. Waited for a hint of fear from your body. Waited for you to turn on your heels and sprint away. Waited so that they could lunge and tear you apart and leave  the husk of your corpse limp and bleeding out on the ground.

You could only rub your temples before you set down your luggage on the floor. Rising to your feet you sigh, both of the ritual blades that were in your suitcase were now in your grip. The old leather of the handles squeaked beneath your palms. The sharp curved edges of the metal caught the moonlight, which reflected back at your opponents.

You turned to face them, your eyes meeting theirs.

“다음 역은: 잠실. 잠실. 내리실 쪽은 오른쪽입니다.“

This better be finished before your stop.

Chapter Text

They were just as well kept and shiny since the day you had left your hometown for Seoul.

The blades, twice as big as a standard kitchen knife, fit in your hands perfectly. They were now lighter than when you had first held them as a child. You hadn’t seen them used like this since the day you had left home for Seoul a few years ago. 

The distance between the spine and the edge started out thin from the handle. They increased in size away from the pommel, and swelled at the tip, curving at the point. Tiny silver scratches decorated the belly from the rituals and wars against demons that had occurred long before you were born.

The handle was made from peach wood and wrapped in leather. The leather shone from the patina. Years and years of aging made the color a deep dark glossy brown. There were even little indents where the previous wielders’s fingers rested.

Despite its appearance and reputation, the blade itself was dull. It didn’t slice anything, but would be able to tear through flesh with enough force.

They were given to you after you had your first encounter with a demon. Your family taught you how to move with grace, how to use them as if they were an extension of yourself. Generations and generations of family history passed down and finally resting in your tiny palms.

It felt like a holy experience holding them for the first time.

They weren’t used for slaying demons. It wasn’t their original purpose at least. Actually, now that you thought about it, you couldn’t exactly remember what it was for. It just seemed to sit on the altar of your home, untouched. Maybe that was why it was kept dull.

Your family’s probably explained it once. Something about redirecting energy, maybe. Something to use during rituals, hence their name. 

Honestly, you were just stoked to be able to hold two mini swords as a kid.

What you did remember was that they were regularly cleansed and considered “blessed” items, which may have been the reason why they could exorcise demonic spirits. Even though the metal was blunt, it could still very easily carve through demon flesh as if it were sharp.

You hadn’t packed it when you were leaving your hometown for Seoul. You only just came back for it this trip.

Metal clashed with claws and teeth. Sparks flew when they both collided in a harsh screech. Pushed back by the sheer force of the demon’s strength, you realize that perhaps you may be outmatched. 

Even with your protection and strength charms, you were struggling significantly.

The red one lunged at you once more, a blood curdling scream escaped its lungs. Her sharp talons traveled through the air in a lightning fast blur, prepared to tear out your throat.

Her claws didn’t even go as far to touch a single hair on your skin before she had been launched backwards through the air from your powerful kick. Her back hit the wall, the sound of her body crashing onto the surface created a sickening crack which reverberated throughout the cabin. 

You winced for her, before turning towards the rest of the demons in your area. One began to crawl up towards the ceiling, its attention focused solely on you. 

You chucked your weapon at the demon closest to you, the dagger somersaulting through the air before it had sliced through its forehead. Instantly upon contact, the demon dissipated into purple embers.

The blade didn’t stop there, however.

The leather handle ricocheted off of the pole it had climbed on to, cycling through the air once more before it cleaved through the neck of the one on the ceiling. They bursted into violet sparkles as well, raining down on you. You reached out to catch the thin metal between your fingers before you flung it at your next victim that scurried towards you. They, too, were reduced to nothing but glitter. 

Before the red demon was able to pick herself back up, you had already begun to sprint your way to them, picking up your weapon that had clattered on the floor after eliminating the other demon. 

The train had other plans, though.

You were nearly tossed backwards when the train decided to brake in a fashion that was anything but graceful. Your body slammed to the ground, your head and the train beginning to spin.

“This stop is: Jamsil. Jamsil. The doors are on your-”

You didn’t need to be told which side the doors were gonna open before you kicked your discarded suitcase as hard as you could out the sliding doors. You scrambled to stand back up, but the sudden movement had disoriented your balance. Your body was halfway out the door before you had been ambushed.

The demon, taking a page out of your book, took advantage of your temporarily weakened state and leaped on top of you. You managed to push against her, your arm separating your bodies. Kicking her over your body, you were finally able to stand up as the train doors closed.

One thing you had noticed about her was that she was impossibly fast. Her movements were just blurs, and you could barely parry her attacks. 

You realized that she had noticed where you were weak. While your protection charms protected your soul, it did very little to protect your physical form. She could kill you physically first before taking your soul for herself.

She didn’t even move, you swore to god. She teleported faster than your eyes could follow her. The only way you were able to barely keep up with her was to track her glowing irises. They left streaks in your vision, creating a path to which direction she had darted off to. You were too late in noticing her before her leg had contacted your chest. 

You now knew how it felt when she had been thrown to the wall. Your back had slammed onto one of the ridges of the stairs. Your spine was (barely) intact at least, even though you felt like you were now paralyzed from the waist down. Honestly, after that collision, you were just about ready to crawl home on your hands and knees if it came down to it. Your weapons had escaped your hands a few feet away from you, far from your reach now.

The demon, triumphant, pinned your form down with one leg, before raising her claws once more above her head. You turned away, closing your eyes.

The pressure on your chest was suddenly gone. You opened one eye cautiously. What was left where she was standing was sparkles. 

Oh, and the tip of a curved moon sword.

You panted as you sat up as best as you could. The leftover adrenaline from the fight still coursed through your veins. You looked up, and you were face to face with one of the familiar faces that you saw on the train’s advertising screens earlier. 

Mira. 

They didn’t call her the ‘visual’ for nothing, you thought.

You two both stared at each other for a good minute, the same expression etched on your faces: shock and realization.

The same question lingered between you two.

‘You can see them too?’

The sharp pain in your spine brought you back to reality, hissing as you attempted to move.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She apologized, her gok-do disappearing into thin air. Mira held out a hand for you, which you took as you shakily stood up. “Do you think you can walk?”

You nodded, wincing as you rubbed your back. There was no doubt already a bruise forming. You were lucky that it was just a bruise.

The two other members of Huntrix weren’t far behind Mira, stopping when they saw you. 

Those posters and ads didn’t do them justice. They were even more stunning in real life.

“Oh my god!” The girl you knew as Zoey shrieked. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates, twinkling with stars as she ran up to you. “We saw the whole thing! We were in the train too, a few cabins away!”

You blinked in surprise, not noticing that you were still holding Mira’s hand. Zoey continued to ramble on, describing in detail how you had taken on the demon so bravely and so effortlessly.

You didn’t know what she was talking about. You got your ass beat.

You smiled awkwardly as Zoey continued to sing your praises, eyeing your now slightly battered suitcase and discarded ritual blades on the floor. You nodded every once in a while to signify you were still listening, really just wanting to go home.

If you had met Huntrix in different conditions, maybe you’d feel less inclined to want to bolt out of the station and find a hole to crawl into to die of shame.

“Oh, right! Here I am going on and on about you when I don’t even know your name!” Zoey flushed, her cheeks turning a light pink out of embarrassment. You gave her your name before walking around the group to pick up your dropped items.

”You can see them.” It was Rumi that had asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “How?”

You patted the dirt off of one of your blades before picking the other one up as well.

”I should be asking you three the same question.” You said. You opened your suitcase, placing your weapons inside before zipping it back up. They watched in silence as you propped your bag up, extending the handle so that it could trail behind you.

“We’re… demon hunters.” Mira hesitated before replying. There was no use in lying about anything. You all saw the whole thing. You frowned. Hunters?

”Like… a shaman?” You raised an eyebrow. It was the closest thing you could think of to a demon hunter. Shamans exorcised demons, but it was a very small part of what they did. You would know since you’ve grown up with a few.

”The first demon hunters were shamans, so… in a way?” Rumi shrugged. You nodded slowly, still perplexed that an idol group was actually demon hunters in disguise. How do they find time in their busy schedules to slay demons on the side?

”But what about you? Where did you learn how to fight like that?” Zoey questioned. 

You were about to answer her question when your vision veered to Mira’s direction. She looked wary of you, her eyebrows furrowing as she seemed to examine you. It made sense she was suspicious, considering you had just shown up out of nowhere and squared up with a demon. She had the right to be cautious. It was likely she had never seen any other person be able to see spirits.

Your eyes glanced at one of the tv screens that displayed the times the trains would arrive, reminding you of how late it was.

”I apologize, but I have to be heading home.” You bowed to them, cutting the conversation short. “I would love to chat about this more, but I’m sure you’re all busy. It was very nice meeting you three.” You began to drag your suitcase behind you, walking towards the elevator. You could hear the three of them whispering amongst themselves as you waited in front of the lift.

”Wait!” Zoey flagged you down. She held up her phone in her hand. “We should totally talk about this more at a later date. Can we get your number?”

· ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You closed the front gate behind you, descending down the concrete steps towards your basement home. Inputting the key code, your door opened with a friendly chime. 

Ah, home sweet home.

You took off your shoe and passed your kitchenette. You opened the door of your room with a bit of difficulty, as the humidity made the wood swell and stick to the frame. You turned on the TV as you took out your blades from your suitcase, making your way to your other room. 

The altar wasn’t nearly as fancy as the one at your childhood home, but it was the best you could do with the resources and money you had. 

You laid the ritual blades down on a piece of cloth, wrapping them up and placing them in the middle. Grabbing a stick of incense, you began to cleanse the blades of its bad energy.

You checked up on your small peach tree next to the door, still healthy and still green as ever. The budding blossoms indicated that fruit would be produced soon.

After you had unpacked fully and taken a shower, you grabbed a handful of ice from your fridge and made a makeshift ice pack with it for your back. The adrenaline had worn off only a short while ago, which meant that it felt as if your spine had shattered into a million tiny fragments. 

Groaning, you sat in front of the TV. More and more people have begun to go missing, the report said. Frustrated, you turned the TV off, your eyes landing on your phone. The last text you got was from Zoey, reassuring you that you must have a lot of questions. She had asked you when you were free so that they could all meet up.

There was one question that you wanted to get the answer to, and that was Rumi.

Whatever, you thought. You feel like you’ve been broken in half like a Kit Kat, and all you wanted to do was sleep.

You’re sure that you’ll get the answer to your questions soon.

Chapter Text

You four had agreed to meet a few days later.

How all three of them found any time to spend with you was a mystery. Surely they had more important things to do than to talk to a random stranger they met at the metro a few days ago. You could still feel the lingering phantom sense of the pain in your back. You seriously debated taking off of work that week, but money was more important. It was a miracle that you weren't paralyzed, you thought.

Honestly, if you had been paralyzed from that attack, you would have still pulled up in a wheelchair the next day. Money was tight, after all.

You leaned back on the bench, your left arm hanging over the backrest. Staring ahead to appreciate the serene view of the Han River and the indigo night sky, you couldn’t help but smile. You really did pick a great place to live. 

Maybe it was just because you had lived in the countryside your whole life, but you loved the convenience of the city. You could walk everywhere, for one. Anything you need is maybe a maximum ten minute walk. Entertainment and things to do were endless here as well, and public transportation was so helpful. Your home was also in quite a nice spot, which was also the reason why if you ever had a better paying job, you most likely wouldn’t move out. The metro was only a five minute walk, and the station was connected to one of the biggest tourist destinations in Seoul.

Not that you really visited it often. You never really had time nor the interest. You always liked to stay home. It cost no money to be in and it was away from work and school. 

And again, maybe you lived in a cramped basement but the rent was cheap for what it was.

You looked at your phone, wondering when they would arrive. The last text you got from them was a few hours ago, confirming the meet up. Maybe you had enough time to buy one of the snacks from the food stands nearby. The oden looked especially warm and comforting from when you passed by earlier.

There was also a convenience store nearby. Maybe you could buy more ramen. You’ve been working a lot of late nights, and honestly you were too lazy to make any real proper food when you got home.

“Hope you weren’t waiting long!” A familiar voice chirped. You looked up from your phone to see the Huntrix girls walk up towards you. They wore clothes that covered their distinct features. Mira wore a hat, Rumi wore sunglasses, and Zoey wore a mask. You smile at them, setting your phone back in your pocket.

”No worries.” You nodded.

”Wow. Usually Han River is packed, but I guess since it’s the nighttime there’s barely any people.” Zoey mused. It was true. Any time you come to any park next to the Han River, you’ve seen swarms of people.

It turned out that you all lived pretty close to each other. They lived a few stations away from you in Gangnam. 

You all looked out towards the river as the spirit barrier moved in tandem with the waves. It was a healthy cerulean today, with no holes as far as you could see. The only sounds between you all were the sounds of the water, and the occasional whoosh of the train passing by on the bridge.

”So, you never answered our question.” Mira spoke up first. You turned to look at her, but her vision was still fixed on the glowing barrier. You fiddled with your hoodie strings as you continued to soak in the atmosphere of the cool, calm night. “How do you know about it all? Who are you?”

You realized that this was the first time in a long while that you’ve spoken about your spiritual life. Where could you start? What should you tell them? Did they know more than you, or was it the other way around?

”I’m not a hunter.” Was the answer you settled on after a particularly long pause. It was the obvious answer, but you figured it was best to establish.

You didn’t hunt. It wasn’t your job to slaughter demons. Actually, it wasn’t your job to slay or harm any type of spiritual being.

There were things beyond your comprehension out there in all those different realms, in the vast afterlife, and in the universe. Of course there were things that you didn’t agree with, like when they steal people’s souls. You kill when humans are in danger. You kill when it’s your life on the line.

But you didn’t believe that anything was innately evil. You just believed that there were things about them that you don’t know and will not understand. 

After all, they were once human too.

You knew that there were things out there beyond your own realm and spiritual plane that you will possibly never find the answer to, and yet…

You still wanted to know why. Why did they steal souls? 

You weren’t able to get many answers in your search. Most of the demons that you’ve encountered couldn’t speak, or refused to talk to you.

Some of the ones that you were able to converse with…

They were afraid. Begged for mercy in their distorted hoarse voice.

But it wasn’t to you.

“I grew up with the spirits around me,” you continued. “They taught me things that I could never learn by myself. My family was well attuned to them, working with them, learning from them. They were practitioners, gifted with the ability to interact with them.”

The three girls turned their attention towards you, quiet and drawn in by your story. You didn’t turn to look at them and only focused on the vast river that you sat in front of.

“Our purpose was to be the mediators of the land of the living and the world beyond that. We didn’t hunt demons. We just protected the balance between the two worlds.”

You leaned forwards, your elbows resting on your knees. You’ve never been open about your family. There really was no need when you had lived in the country. Everyone knew who your family was and what they believed in. Some people respected them. Other families shielded their kids from you, worried that you may put them in danger.

Once you had moved to the city, there really wasn’t anyone to speak to about these kinds of things. It’s not like you went around flaunting your spiritual heritage. There really was no need. People that you’ve met and the friends that you had chalked you up to be just a bit superstitious.

Even if you were able to speak about your family and what they did, there were secrets that could never be revealed. There were things that you’ve witnessed that no one else could see.

It was strangely cathartic to speak about it, you realized.

”So, what do hunters do?” You asked. The girls snapped out of their trance, engrossed in your life story. 

“We do a lot of the same things actually, but like our names, we kill demons.” Mira answered. Zoey nodded along eagerly in agreement. “You seem to be more on the traditional side of it, though.”

”We protect the Honmoon. We use our voices to strengthen it so that one day, we’ll be able to seal the demons away forever.” Rumi explained. “It’s been our goal for centuries, and we’re the closest we’ve ever been to reaching it.”

You knew these girls were idols, but how long have they been hunting? Their whole lifetime? Were they able to see spirits from birth? Were they taught how to?

”Are you born as a hunter?” You questioned them. Must have been a difficult childhood, then. “Does your familial ties determine it?”

”Well, it depends. Me and Mira were chosen, but Rumi’s mom was a hunter!” Zoey clarified. “It doesn’t really matter though. Almost all the hunters in history were chosen and recruited.”

“What about training?”

”Well, we started training when we were all about nineteen? Since then, we’ve been strengthening the Honmoon with our music.”

It didn’t seem like the girls had any prior knowledge to the spirit realm before they had become demon hunters. You wondered if they were taught to see spirits too, or if they were just taught how to exorcise.

“What is the Honmoon?” You asked, dismissing the thought quickly.

”It’s a barrier that keeps the demon world separated from the human world. Our job is to repair the tears and strengthen it with our music.”

Ah. So that’s what it was called.

“You know, we should work together! We could really use an extra hand on our team!” Zoey lit up. You watched Mira knit her eyebrows as she took Zoey’s words into careful consideration. Next to her, Rumi frowned, seemingly deep in thought.

It was a big decision, not only for you, but for them. Could they add another member to their group? What about your current job? Would you have to move in with them?

”We can keep you on as a manager. Oh, you’ll totally love Bobby! He’s a huge sweetheart.” Zoey compromised. 

“Woah, hold on, Zoey.” Mira stopped before they all turned around to discuss amongst each other. You couldn’t hear their whispers, only fragmented pieces of the conversation.

“We barely know them!”

“We are short staffed…”

“They know our secret already!”

“Shouldn’t we talk about this with Celine?”

Zoey seemed more enthusiastic than the other two had seemed, who seemed a bit more wary. You could see that they thought that having more help would make their job a lot easier. You nervously laughed before standing up from the bench.

”You all seem very sweet, but I did just meet you guys a few days ago.” You began. “It’s not a no, but I’ll have to think about it a little before coming to a conclusion.”

You knew the payment would be much better than what you were getting paid now at your current job, though. The money alone made you nearly join on the spot.

”I agree,” Rumi nodded. “We should all think about it before we decide anything today. You can contact us if you change your mind.” 

And with that you three disbanded, walking in opposite directions as you all went back home.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You tossed and turned that night, the voice of the reporter on TV murmuring quietly as you laid on your futon. Staring at the stained wallpapered ceiling, you couldn’t sleep. You rolled to your side, the TV light dim as you observed the screen.

2 missing. Presumed dead.

You sighed. It was strange now, how in such a big city, things like this were less impactful. When you had lived in your hometown, almost everyone immediately took notice of someone’s absence. They even knew if someone’s dog had gone missing. 

You were glad that the girls at least had a proper childhood to enjoy before they became demon hunters. Seeing demons wasn’t the most enjoyable experience, and you also believed that when people were ready, they would be able to open their spiritual eyes without being terrified of what they see.

You eyed your phone next to you.

The way they labeled themselves as demon hunters had left a bad taste in your mouth. 

Did you really want to join them? To become a demon hunter and leave the rest of your practice and values behind?

Forget everything that your family has taught you about the two worlds?

But on the other hand you would be able to find out the real truth behind demons. Working with Huntrix and combining all of your knowledge together would make you all an unstoppable team.

Why were they so afraid? Who was the entity behind it all? What was their goal?

You were overthinking this. Huntrix has good intentions. They saved lives and brought joy to the people. 

You were sure that they were most likely just a little misguided in their intentions. You wondered who trained them and taught them to be hunters. 

They would have been the ones to teach them their hate.

You narrowed your eyes at the thought. Hate is taught. After all, they’ve just know what they’ve been told from stories that were passed down from centuries ago.

Well, whatever. It wasn’t a huge deal at the moment. They were just misunderstood.

Was being a hunter something one was predetermined to do before birth, you wondered. Perhaps fate?

Maybe you should have asked them more questions.

Maybe… you should ask more questions.

Your phone stared at you from your hand, tantalizing you to open the messaging app to text one of them.

You hesitated for a second, your thumb hovering over the black screen.

But wouldn’t this make you selfish? You were teaming up with them for your own personal gain. You didn’t even know if they would be open to your goal.

But on the other hand, you would still help them. You would potentially be saving people’s lives in the process.

Yes. No. Maybe.

Fuck it.

‘I’ve thought about it and I’d be honored to be one of your managers if you three are still open to it!’ Your fingers typed quickly on the screen before your thumb hovered over the send button.

Is this what you really wanted?

How much was your life gonna change after this?

You pressed the send button, the little yellow bubble appearing in the group chat.

Chapter Text

Present Day

It turned out the answer to your question was a lot.

Almost overnight, your life had changed significantly. For one, you could now afford an actual apartment unit instead of the basement that you had lived in. There was so much more space, and the addition of not having any more bug problems was a positive. 

The girls had offered for you to move into their penthouse apartment, but you had refused. You couldn’t accept something like that from them. It would have been too much. 

You could have gotten a whole floor to yourself, though.

But it would have been weird living in the same apartment as your bosses. 

Managing Huntrix was certainly the most tedious job you’ve had. You couldn’t imagine how hard Bobby had it when he was the only one managing them before you. You were constantly in and out, creating schedules, booking meetings, managing everything to go smoothly during concerts and interviews and fan meets and-

That’s not even counting your double life. In the day you were Huntrix’s manager, all planners and excel sheets and clipboards. At night you patrolled around the city, reporting tears in the Honmoon and slaying stray demons that preyed on any unsuspecting people.

You had significantly less free time but honestly, you liked your job. It was fun and exciting to hang out with the girls. You got to visit new places when they went on tour, making memories and experiencing things you thought you would have never experienced.

Huntrix’s fame grew exponentially larger in your four years of working with them, the number of fans multiplying every day. 

On one hand, the Honmoon was stronger than it ever had been before. On the other hand, you barely had any time to yourself left. You’ve practically become a workaholic. 

Well, it was strong until recently.

Rumi had pushed the release date on Huntrix’s new single right as the hiatus started. You still mourned the two week vacation you had planned then.

Then right before the Golden live show, Rumi’s voice had given out. 

Then, a new boy band had come from seemingly nowhere with their coordinated pastel color palettes and exciting catchy tunes about sparkling beverages.

Then, it turned out that the boy band was actually a group of demons disguised as an idol group to steal Huntrix’s fans and have been actively weakening the Honmoon.

Since then, all of you have been on damage control. This meant working overtime and coming home late in the dead of night.

Much like most nights, tonight you trudged home with your head pounding. You were sure that it was because of being tossed around by demons and totally not because of the stress.

This was a common occurrence, an almost nightly routine.

You exited the convenience store, the glass door closing with a chime. One of your hands held a plastic bag with instant ramen packs and the other held your phone up to your ear.

”Yeah, yeah, Bobby. I heard.” You confirmed, now holding your phone between your ear and shoulders. You scanned the receipt, confirming that you were charged correctly for your products.

”Saja Boys? What kind of name is that?” You scrunched your nose before painfully realizing that you had been bruised from the fight that you had earlier at one of the Honmoon tears. 

A cold breeze tickled your neck. You would have ignored it if you didn’t also feel like you were being stalked. Was it another demon?

You snapped your head behind you, your hand snaking behind underneath your jacket to fish out one of your blades. They were attached to your back by a brown leather harness that was covered underneath your clothes. The blades were covered in a sheath so you didn’t have to worry about cutting your back on them when sitting. It didn’t matter anyway. Even unsheathed, it was extremely unlikely that it could cut through human flesh.

Maybe with enough force it could.

Your eyes traveled around, searching every corner and every street lamp. You checked if you could see any tears in the Honmoon nearby.

And then you saw him. A tall masculine shadow on the roof.

“Hey, uh… are you still there?” Bobby’s voice rang from your phone.

“I’ll call you back.” You responded, your eyes narrowing at the figure above. You didn’t follow it. You didn’t take out your knives. You simply observed, waiting for it to make a move like you always did with other demons.

And just as fast as it had come, it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

You took a different route home after, making sure that you were not followed. You had just moved in, you weren't trying to get any unwanted visitors already.

You passed the unpacked still-taped boxes and the unwrapped furniture, stumbling towards your room. You didn’t even lay on the futon and laid on the floor, kicking the plastic convenience store bag that contained your painkillers across the room.

You had moved into your new apartment only a few days ago, and hadn’t had the chance to unpack at all. You hadn’t even put up protection charms or cleansed anything new of yours. All you wanted to do when you got home was sleep. 

When you slept, you dreamt. 

Usually they were nonsensical and you barely remembered any of them when you woke up.

Some showed your family, a taunting reminder of what you had before.

On rare occasions, you didn't dream. You had experiences. Ever since you were a child, you’ve had these reoccurring experiences.

You would be in a forest, much like the ones you used to roam as a child. You were always sitting on a log, tending to the campfire in front of you. The fire was lively, cracking and snapping at you every once in a while. Flecks of blazing ash would levitate upwards towards the star-filled sky.

On the other side was a silhouette, their appearance hidden by the trees. They sat across from you, their posture contrasting your normal hunched over position.

You realized quickly after the first two dreams that you must tend to the fire. As lively as it was, the fire would shrink to a flame, which would die into embers. You would wake up soon after that.

If you kept the fire burning for long enough, you were able to hear a voice. It was usually barely above a whisper, and sounded strangely familiar. They would tell you things that your family had never told you, things about this world and realms beyond Earth. They’ll tell you the truth to many secrets that people kept from you.

You had labeled them as a spirit guide of some sort. You had felt less confined with them, and it didn’t matter what you said in your dream, right? No one could hear what you would talk about.

You kept your guide secret from your family. To this day, they still didn’t know about them.

You hated listening to them now. Hated how everything you did was met with condescension and correction.

You poked the fire with a stick you found on the ground, the brightness and heat of the inferno making your head ache.

”People are going missing again.” The voice softly spoke. You glared, not just because of the fire, but because of how the shadow was very blatantly insulting you. You drew in an inhale, the fire totally becoming much more interesting and totally not because you didn’t really want to listen to the next condescending thing that the voice had to say.

“I don’t… understand. The Honmoon was stronger than ever just a few days ago.” You tossed the stick into the fire, watching as it was slowly engulfed in the greedy flames. You rubbed your temples in a smooth circular motion to try and relax your eyebrow muscles. “It just feels like things have been getting worse.” 

”Perhaps it's the stress between you all. Didn’t one of the huntress’s voices give out before the live performance? And not to mention how tired and ragged you’ve seemed to be recently. You’ve been neglecting sleep. They’ve been working you to the bone.” The voice seemed to taunt.

It was true. With all the promotions and the interviews and the preparations for the live performance, you and Bobby had work up to your necks. 

And it had been canceled.

And who had to deal with the aftermath?

You couldn’t help but feel a little frustration. When you had met the girls, you believed that you had found others like you. You thought that the huntresses' goal would bring balance to both the human world and the spirit world. When you had begun to fight with them, you realized how they really felt about demons.

Their viewpoint on them drastically contrasted yours. 

Then, you met Celine and everything started to make a bit more sense. 

It wasn’t that you hated her or anything. You also believed that she was a victim of centuries and centuries of tradition. 

They were all only taught to hate demons for what they were because it had kept the hunters in the past safe. It had kept countless humans safe. 

But things changed. Huntrix, up until recently, was the strongest generation of hunters the world had ever seen. They had the ability now to ask questions about demons. They didn’t think once to look more into demons and where they really came from?

You weren’t going to judge. You were once like that too.

So you let them be. Sure, you still voiced some of your concerns, but there really wasn’t any moment to. You were often sent alone to examine the new tears in the Honmoon and report back to the girls. There wasn’t any need to speak about it. You haven’t even spoken to Celine after your first meeting with each other.

Even if your views clashed with Huntrix’s sometimes, you all had the same goal: to protect humans.

And your goal to find out the source of all demons was no luck.

Admittedly at first, you had been using the girls to try and further your real goal, but they’ve begun to grow on you. They were sweet, and they were a friend group where you could talk about your spiritual journey freely with.

”I don’t need to hear this from you.” You turned away from the figure, scowling. “They care about me. I’d fight for days on end if it meant that they’d be comfortable. They’re my friends.” You didn’t want to admit you were tired. There was so much to be done, and you couldn’t rest until things calmed down at least a little bit.

”I only tell you what you need to know.” The figure mused as you walked away from them and the campfire. You stopped in your tracks, the leaves crunching underneath your weight. You refused to turn around, refused to look them in the eye.

Even after everything that you have done, all the things they’ve told you, it was ultimately you that had decided what to do with the information they had given you.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You woke up not long after the next morning with your body screaming in pain. It didn’t help that you slept on the floor and not your futon either. You rolled your body to stare at the ceiling of your room, your eyes threatening to close once more. 

Showering was on the agenda as soon as you were able to get up, of course. You had neglected to even undress yourself from your usual work clothes. You matched with Bobby (his idea), wearing the same grey blazer that he donned. Your innerwear and lower wear fluctuated depending on how you felt that day.

You had woken up early surprisingly, with enough time to shower, brush your teeth and look put together for the day. You made sure to cover up your injuries and bruises you sustained last night with makeup and bandages. Breakfast was almost always neglected as you usually ate at work. 

You set the convenience store bag on your counter before opening one of your kitchen drawers. You scanned the contents before your eyes settled onto a half used blister pack of painkillers. Popping one of the tablets open, you placed a pill in your hand. Throwing your head back, you swallowed it before chasing it down with a cup of water.

Today. Today, you were finally going to make time to tidy up your apartment.

…who were you kidding?

All the unfinished ikea furniture pieces littered the floor of your living room. You finally had the space and money for a couch and a bigger TV, but what was the point of getting them if you didn’t have time to lounge around and actually watch it?

Right now, it just looked like an eyesore.

You glanced at the boxes too. There wasn’t much to pack anyway from your old home, but unpacking and planning where everything went was just so much time that you didn't have right now.

You took your free time before the Honmoon was weakened for granted. You took it for granted and now you were begging and sobbing while grabbing it by the ends of its dress as you shouted for it to come back.

You loved your job. You loved your job. You loved your job…You checked your phone, scrolling on social media to start your day. Almost immediately, you were bombarded with videos of people doing the ‘Soda Pop dance challenge.’ 

The song came out yesterday.

You continued to scroll and scroll, only to continue being harassed by more Saja Boys and Saja Boys adjacent content. There were clips of them performing on the street, clips of them chugging hot sauce on a variety show, clips of Huntrix crashing the same variety show.

The girls had blown up the group chat, fuming about the Saja Boys and how “they weren’t even that good looking, just… just super dreamy and super hot and have you seen the guy with abs?”

And that they were demons that needed to be eradicated off the face of the earth.

Well, they didn’t exactly word it like that, but they might as well have.

You checked the time and realized that you might want to start heading out. Huntrix had an interview scheduled today at the TV studio for Golden. You wondered how that interview would go considering they had ditched their live performance a few days ago.

Eh, the girls didn’t have PR managers for nothing. You were sure everything would be figured out since yesterday.

This interview was a good chance to raise their popularity, though. Maybe people will start talking about Huntrix and the interview instead of focusing solely on the Saja Boys.

Maybe.

As long as this would cut your hours fighting demons, you were happy enough.

Chapter Text

It especially seemed like your fatigue was catching up to you today. 

You nearly knocked over a camera at the TV station.

You dozed off sitting upright while managing backstage with Bobby. 

You kept going to the bathroom to check if the bandages you put on your bruises were coming off.

Needless to say, you were very distracted.

So you breathed a sigh of relief when you took the opportunity to go on a coffee run for everyone to get some fresh air. 

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and even with the sun shining, the weather wasn’t hot or humid at all. It was one of those rare days where it seemed like the world was trying to make up for all the shit you’ve been through the past week.

Even the foot traffic wasn’t as congested today. You got to enjoy the atmosphere of the city as you made your way to the cafe.

You know, like the constant honking cars, the occasional police siren, and the random groups of people handing out flyers that you were sure were a part of a cult.

Typical city stuff.

It was a new cafe, one that got traction from social media only very recently. You’ve seen their posts, advertising colorful and beautiful pastries. You couldn’t imagine how much they were, though. From your experience, a lot of city cafes were known for many of their beautiful products, but their taste fell short from its presentation.

Maybe that was why there weren’t many small cafes in your hometown. They didn’t value looks, but what it provided. Not to mention that many of the residents didn’t see the appeal in overpriced bread or beverages.

You had ordered online before you left. You were trying to be in and out, but especially at this time of the day? Yeah, that cafe was going to be packed. You wondered if there would even be space to move inside the store. 

Removing your phone from your pocket, you opened up your navigation, looking around the buildings and the area to try and spot it. Man, that one store looked like the glass walls were about to crack from how many people there were inside.

You glanced back down at your phone map, the small arrow that represented you next to the location of the cafe.

Oh.

You grimaced at the line, which flowed outside of the store and stretched out around the corner of the building. At this point, you realized that pre-ordering online pretty much meant nothing. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea. You were seriously thinking about cutting your losses and just going back to the TV studio.

Buuuut, you had to get your coffee.

You even made sure to pick the strong shit. You’d heard rumors that on the menu, the Vietnamese coffee was the strongest drink.

Each drink had about maybe eight shots and a quarter can of condensed milk. If this wasn’t going to wake you up, then it’ll at least give you a wild trip to the bathroom that will.

You walked into the store, muttering out apologies as you squeezed past people who were practically standing shoulder to shoulder. From what you could see inside the store, it had the basic instagram cafe set up: the vine walls, the neon signs, and the fairy lights. Everything about it screamed, ‘post and tag us on social media!’ 

You weaseled your way towards the pick up counter (which also had quite the line behind it), and explained that you had already ordered your drinks online. The poor teenage employee that looked like she was having a worse day than you, forcefully smiled and nodded. She slunk back into the kitchen to fetch your order. 

You had quite the hefty amount of drinks you had to carry. Would you be able to carry them back to the TV station?

You were strong. Hell, you defeated demons on the daily! You could carry sixteen drinks, no problem! Light work, right?

The barista came back with four bags, each containing a drink carrier and four drinks. You gulped. Perhaps you may have overestimated your abilities a tiny bit. 

The biggest problem was how you were going to carry all of them. You wouldn’t be able to carry them all by their bag handles without the hot drinks tilting and spilling inside the bag.

Another option was to stack them all up on each other, but the varying sizes would have made it difficult to balance them all.

You were blocking the counter as customers pushed past you to grab their drinks. You could hear them swear at you under their breath as they left the store. Your skin pricked with heat and embarrassment as if you were being acupunctured with pure shame.

You at least tried to move your drinks to the corner of the counter so that the other customers could get their drinks freely.

You began to sweat, doing mental calculations in your head to see which method would be the most effective way to hold the drinks and make sure they don’t burst if they fell on the ground. 

You were not going to wait in that long ass line, even if your life depended on it.

Maybe, just maybe, you could balance one of the bags on your head-

“Need a hand, sweetheart?” A voice called from behind. You turned around as your eyes made contact with two pink haired men.

They were around the same height, but that was where the similarities ended. One had more of a deep hot pink tone to his hair, his bangs peeking out of the yellow beanie that he sported. The first and last two buttons of his teal floral-patterned shirt were unbuttoned, teasing the outline of his musculature. 

His features were quite sharp, you realized. Not just because of the angles and creases that sculpted out his chiseled body, but his facial features too. His nose was slightly hooked and his eyes were upturned, matching his uniquely shaped eyebrows.

The other man next to him was significantly leaner. His shirt was also half unbuttoned, a blue heart necklace displayed in between the yellow fabric. His hair was longer and more of a pastel pink, his bangs framing his head into a heart-shape. The rest of his hair reached his shoulders.

Their color palettes could be best described as… rainbow sherbet.

You’ve seen them before, of course. How could you avoid them? The girls were obsessed over taking them down. Their song played on every speaker across Korea. They appeared on every single variety show you put on the TV as background noise.

But it seemed like they didn’t know you.

You’ve kept most of your manager life a secret. Bobby was the head manager and was usually the face of Huntrix’s staff. You avoided the cameras when you could, trying to at least keep some privacy in your life.

If the girls found out that you had met the Saja Boys and didn’t slaughter them on the spot, they would most likely blow a fuse.

They were offering to help you, though.

Whispers swirled around the cafe, the customers pointing at both the men.

”Isn’t that Romance and Abby?”

”Aren’t they the ones that sung Soda Pop?”

”Who are they talking to?”

If you wanted help, then you were going to need to make a decision now.

”Actually, that would be a huge help, thank you.” You said, a little too quickly as you grabbed one of the bags.

Before the crowd could fully recognize the two idols, you all left in a hurry.

Mostly you. Romance kept blowing kisses to his fans and Abby kept flexing as you ushered them both out of the cafe.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“I just realized,” you began as you three made your way down the street. “You two never got your drinks.”

”Well, we couldn’t just leave a stunning individual such as yourself in distress like that.” Romance smiled, flashing all his teeth.

You held back what felt like a cross between a cringe and vomit.

“You aren’t subtle, are you?” You pointed out.

“He was just pointing out what he was thinking.” Abby shrugged. “But anyway, what kind of party are you going to to need this many drinks?”

“I’m actually on a coffee run.” You explained. “At this point, it’s more of a coffee marathon considering how long I’ve been gone.”

“Sweet. So you, like, an intern?”

“I’m a-“ You stopped yourself, hesitating for a moment. It still seemed like the boys hadn’t put two and two together on your identity yet. If you said manager, would that give things away? You were going to a TV station where they most likely knew Huntrix was having their interview today.

“I’m an assistant.” Short. Vague. Not a lie. They didn’t press on further.

“You know, we’re supposed to be interviewed here in a few days.” Romance mentioned as you three came up to the building. “I’m looking forward to it now if it means seeing you again.”

You shook your head, exasperated by his flirting as Abby opened the door for you two.

“Oh, there you were!” Bobby exclaimed, coming up to you three. “I was starting to get worried!”

He took two of the drink bags as Abby and Romance handed you the other two.

“Thank you two for your help.” You bowed. “I’ll pay for your drinks next time.”

“Oh, so there will be a next time?” Romance raised an eyebrow, teasing you. You looked away, fighting the urge to roll your eyes. 

You couldn’t tell if he was getting on your nerves.

“Keep behaving like that and we’ll see.” You warned.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Romance teased. You followed Bobby to the elevator, your footsteps echoing across the lobby. 

Hopefully, there won't be a next time, you thought. As nice as they were, you didn’t need more trouble in your life. Fraternizing with the enemy was just going to make your already stressful, convoluted life even messier. 

Also the fact you’re Huntrix’s manager and they would most definitely find out soon that you were one of their rivals.

You still had some time to worry about that, though.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Hunched over his laptop, Jinu typed away furiously as the chime of the door to the apartment rang out. 

He looked up briefly from over the computer screen, his eyes meeting the other two pink haired idols amongst each other.

“Where have you two been?” Jinu snapped, his focus leaving the computer screen and zoning on both Abby and Romance.

“We went to that one cafe that went viral on insta. I was planning on taking pictures and everything. I’m talking to the point where modeling agencies would see it and I’d be flown out to Milan yesterday.” Romance gushed in front of Jinu, whose glare only grew more intense. 

“Dude.” Abby whispered in a hushed tone as he elbowed Romance in the ribs gently for him to get to the point before Jinu kicked both of their asses.

“…when we helped this absolute angel struggling to carry their drink order. We carried their drinks to the TV station we’re supposed to be interviewed at in a few days. They said that when they see me again that they promised that they’d buy us another drink.”

Abby nodded along. “Which is great, cause I didn’t get the chance to try that weird purple butterfly pea drink Romance keeps raving about-“

They both stopped at Jinu’s wide eyed expression of surprise. 

“What did they look like?” Jinu asked, his attention fully on the story now.

“Oh, you know, devastatingly irresistible.” Romance sighed dreamily. 

“You fumbled bad, bro.” Abby snorted. 

Jinu raised an eyebrow, tapping his foot very patiently as he waited for an answer to his question.

Romance recalled every single detail of your looks, albeit with his own commentary on the side. He didn’t seem to notice how Jinu’s expression grew more and more intense as he went on.

“So like I said, devastatingly irresistible.” Romance finished.

“Jinu? You alright, bud?” Abby coaxed, his hand waving in front of Jinu’s eyes.

“Didn’t you two pay attention at all to what I told you? Huntrix had an interview there today, and you had the opportunity to speak to one of their managers! You could have gotten useful information out of them!” Jinu covered his face with his hands, debating on whether he should claw out his eyeballs while he was at it.

“Ohhhh, that was them?” Abby gasped, realization creeping in.

“You never told us how stunning they were.” Romance added. “Listen, I’m just saying if we ever need to spy on them…”

Jinu sighed. He had seen you fight floods of demons the other day, per Gwi-Ma’s request. Peeking his eye out between one of his fingers, he continued. “They’re not a hunter, but they know about demons. They handle tears in the Honmoon and hoards of demons by themselves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them fight with Huntrix.”

If he had to theorize, he would think that you were a backup plan for the girls. Jinu pondered how you learned how to fight like that. How you had become so strong against demons without being a hunter. You didn’t even have a glowing weapon, just those… swords? Knives? Blades?

“That’s so hot.” Romance whistled as if Jinu had just described you naked in bed and not brutally murdering their kind in droves. Abby nodded along in agreement with Romance, earning them both a scowl.

Jinu exhaled in frustration. It was still much too early for him to investigate you further, considering he’s never met you formally before. 

It was a tough decision. You were a weak spot in Huntrix’s team, but also the most riskiest. 

He’s seen the way you wait to kill demons. He’s seen you observe each and every demon you came across, only retaliating when they attacked you first. He’s seen the way you make every single kill quick, never drawing out their suffering.

You were… an anomaly.

And he intended to figure you out.

Chapter Text

Your job got a little more interesting after that day.

Make no mistake, you were still insanely busy, and the events you had to book just continued to snow ball. Huntrix had been booking events left and right so that they could successfully promote Golden over Soda Pop. 

Both songs had been competing for the number one spot for about a week now.

The girls were, needless to say, completely frazzled. You’ve seen cats look less stressed out after being told they were going to be bathed.

There were furiously scribbling in their notebooks new lyrics for a diss track towards the Saja Boys. You found the action slightly questionable. Why rush making a song and present a diss track at the idol awards when they already have a perfectly good one ready to go?

Also, you couldn’t help but silently disapprove of some of the lyrics. The sample beats that they had shown you were really good though, you couldn’t lie.

Well, it was a good thing that you weren't a part of the band, right?

Because of the extra workload on the girls, you volunteered to patrol more often. As much as you hated how much work you had, your love for the girls was tenfold. They may be your bosses, but they were your friends first. 

You struggled to get back up on top of the train, your ritual blade penetrating through the metal to keep you from falling onto the tracks. The momentum of the train made it difficult to haul yourself back up. Using the muscle in your very sore and very battered arms, you pushed yourself up as you hissed. Steadying and balancing yourself onto the top of the train once more, you dislodged the blade that was in the metal and readied yourself.

Their onslaught was merciless. They attacked you from all sides, attempting to crowd you towards the edge of the train once more. When you pushed one off of you, another would fling themselves towards your unguarded form.

You had no space to fight, let alone move at all. You just needed to hold them off for five more seconds before you could jump off the top of the train and fight them in the actual station.

The familiar chime of the train approaching the station echoed throughout the building. It began to slow dramatically, which was your cue.

You dived over the edge of the train and over the low platform edge doors, tucking yourself into a roll. 

The impact was absorbed through your shoulder blade, transferring diagonally to your abdomen as you made contact with the hard ground. Your eyes widened as you realized that during your landing, your pocket had gotten suspiciously lighter.

Your phone.

It flew through the air before landing beside you, screen first with a sickening crunch.

You flinched as if it was your own bones breaking, before you focused your attention back upwards towards the remaining demons. 

”Please watch your step. Please watch your step.“ The intercom rang out as people began to file out of the train. 

Could have gotten that warning a bit earlier, you thought to yourself as the remainder of the people began to file out towards the stairs. 

A yowl had your head immediately whipping around to the source of the noise. One of the demons leaped onto you, their teeth gnashing at the blade as you blocked them with it. You pushed the metal a little bit further, before you quickly slid it to the side as you removed it. It sliced open the mouth and cheeks of the demon before being dissipated into tiny pink sparkles.

One of your blades was knocked out of your hand as another immediately charged towards you. You twirled the other one by the handle before charging towards the demon behind it. 

You thrusted your blade into its gaping maw before the metal pierced through the back of its head. You continued to charge as the metal became more and more coated with the vicious, slimy fluid from the saliva of the demons. 

You cleared three demons this way, a fog of violet and pink glimmer surrounding you as you wiped off the clear liquid from the metal onto your blazer. It was due for a wash soon, anyway. You made your way towards your dropped items, sheathing your other blade upwards into the harness covered by your blazer. 

Now, for the big moment.

Carefully and hesitantly, your hand shook as you reached out for your phone. As if preparing for a jumpscare, you closed your eyes shut before flipping over your phone screen to access the damage.

Your phone screen was barely intact. The impact had practically shattered the screen, a giant web of white thread-like lines decorating the reflective black.

You huffed, pocketing your phone. You’ll get it repaired soon, you thought. As long as it worked, then it was good enough for you.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The atmosphere of the warm toned light radiating from the street lamps slightly comforted you as you trudged towards the convenience store. The harsh LED lighting clashed with the orange hue of the light outside, practically leading and inviting you in like you just walked up to the gates of heaven.

You didn’t really have time to cook anymore, so you mostly survived off of takeout. If you were in a pinch, you would stop by for cup ramen or pre-made bento boxes. 

At least you made good enough money to buy instant food and live comfortably now.

As you made your way to the store, you found out that your phone was still functional. You had a few missed calls and texts from the girls, who thanked you for your work and informed you that they had a run in with the boys earlier. 

You muttered a greeting to the teenager behind the counter, who most likely already knew you by name now because of how often you frequented. 

You went to the drinks first, examining the bottles behind the glass door when you stopped yourself abruptly.

Your beloved grey blazer had been torn in multiple places, your inner shirt peeking out through the tattered seams of your sleeve. Bright blue and purple contusions decorated your face, and claw marks littered your exposed skin.

Maybe you should start wearing armor or something. The amount of clothes you had to mend or completely discard was getting ridiculous.

You tutted as you removed your blazer, running your thumb over some of the tears as if it would help. Slinging it over your shoulder, you decided to just make your own drink with the juice pouches and the cups of ice in the small compact freezer near the door.

A familiar head of dark fuchsia towered over the aisles. Why, out of all places, did you have to meet one of them now?

It wasn’t that you were on bad terms with any of them, really. In fact, Romance and Abby had been very sweet to you during the first time you met them. It was just that things had become… a bit more complicated after they found out you were Huntrix’s manager. 

You avoided eye contact when you could, a small sense of shame digging into you every time you saw them. You didn't lie, technically. You were an assistant. 

It just turned out that you were the assistant to the people they were trying to kill to take over the-

“Hey, you. You been avoiding me?”

You were so distracted by your thoughts that you didn’t realize Abby had spotted you, coming over to where you were standing. He grinned, his body weight shifted to one leg. He held a bag of turtle chips in one hand and a bacchus drink in the other. 

From where you were, you could see that he was also in quite a disheveled state. His usually neat hair was tousled, and his baby pink button up was lacerated in several different spots.

You wondered if a demon specifically like him could get hurt. Could he potentially heal himself? Could demons do that? Were there injuries that you couldn’t see?

He scanned over your form too. The silence between you two said enough.

There was no use in asking what happened, or to feign innocence between each other. You both knew what had happened.

The real question that lingered between you two was what happens next.

”We don’t allow weapons in the store.” The cashier spoke up, pointing to your back. You instinctively looked behind you, realizing that the blades on your back were on display now. They were attached to the harness that you wore under your blazer. 

“They’re actually props.” You quickly improvised, sliding one out. “The metal’s blunt.” 

The employee didn’t even seem to care, really. They took a quick fleeting glance before going back on their phone.

You turned back to Abby, the silence once again weighing between you two. You knew he would most likely follow you home, or report back to Jinu, or both. 

You knew that it was also likely that he may try and fight you. It was the unlikely option between the first two, but then again, who was the one barely able to stand right now?

If he wanted to stalk you, then you weren’t going to just lead him to your home. 

And you weren’t going to be followed.

”I’m going down to Han River to eat. You want to come?”

He blinked. Then blinked again. You could tell that he was thrown off by your invitation, something that you had anticipated.

If he tried to fight you, at least you’d be able to have some space in the park without people noticing, right?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You lazily swung one arm over the backrest of the park bench as you shook your drink in your hand. Your head was thrown back as you tried to relieve the throbbing migraine you had.

Hm. The sky was so empty, you noticed. You never noticed how much you missed the stars blanketing the sky until you came to Seoul. The stars and moon were your night light back then, shining through your window and comforting you when you couldn’t sleep.

There was a time in your childhood when you had been constantly afraid. You only recently learned about the existence of demons, and you had realized how delicate human lives really were.

You never knew if it was going to be you or your family next.

You missed the days where you didn’t know anything. You missed being able to play outside without worrying about dying.

You missed when you were happy and ignorant and stupid and…

And a child.

”Alright, this should be ready to eat now.” Abby sighed as he plopped down next to you on the bench. You snapped out of your trance from the abrupt break in the silence. He had two cups of ramen in his hand, the steam escaping from the half-opened flaps. Abby handed one to you, the warm exterior of the cup contrasting your ice-cold hands from the drink. 

He put his ramen between his knees as he dug out a pair of wooden chopsticks. He broke the noodles apart with the utensil and began to noisily slurp. 

”Should you be eating that?” You pointed to his cup, which had Zoey’s face plastered next to the name. Abby froze mid-chew, his eyes wide like a deer in headlights as he spun the cup around to see what you were pointing at.

”What? It tastes good.” He shrugged before he swallowed the remainder of the noodles.

“It’s hamburger flavored.”

”Yours is ‘Superstar’!” He protested. “What kind of flavor is that even supposed to be?”

You couldn’t argue with him on that one.

You two sat in silence for a little bit, before you heard a crinkle noise from next to you. Abby had opened the bag of turtle chips that you saw him with earlier, tearing the bag down the middle to expose the chips and the shiny metal foil underneath. 

He set it down between you two, taking one and crushing it up in his fist to sprinkle over his ramen.

”Take some. You did pay for it.” He gestured towards the chips with his elbow. You did pay for it. It was expensive as shit.

Well, that’s what you got for going to a convenience store next to one of the biggest tourist sites in Seoul, right?

You two were fortunate that no one else but the cashier was in the store. You weren’t ready to take on running from fans again. 

“You don’t wear a disguise while going out?” You asked him. From what you had seen, he hadn’t worn a disguise when you two first met and it took fans a good while to be recognized. Your girls never left their tower without one.

”Well,” Abby swallowed his noodles before setting it back down between his legs again. “When I’m with the guys, I get recognized a lot. When I’m by myself, not really. 

Like, you don’t expect a random guy on the street that suspiciously looks like someone famous to actually be that guy, you know? Like uh… like Soup Man.”

You cocked your head slightly in confusion. Soup Man?

“You mean Superman?” You corrected him.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy!” He nodded furiously. “Oh, man, that guy’s awesome. He can fly at supersonic speeds, shoots lasers out his eyes, super strength and his build? Fucking amazing.” He flexed a bicep to emphasize his point. You couldn’t help but smile at his wonder. It was like seeing a glimpse of someone’s childhood self. 

“Yeah,” You nodded back, your grin still prevalent. “He is pretty cool.” 

You looked back up again, the sky pitch black. Goddamn light pollution.

You noticed Abby scoping out the night sky and river, too. You barely caught it, but there was a flicker of wistfulness that made its way across his face.

Right. Han River must have changed drastically since he’s been alive. Even in the last hundred years, Han River had undergone major changes. You wondered if he missed seeing the stars too, just like you.

How bright were they back then? Did they litter the sky, like salt on a black table sheet? Were they just as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach?

“Do you ever miss the past?” You whispered under your breath. You didn't know if it was meant for you or him. Perhaps a little bit of both.

Gradually, Abby’s face fell. It was very subtle, and it wasn’t as noticeable in the shroud of the night.

He popped a chip in his mouth, his molars crunching on the flaky layered snack. He chewed thoughtfully as he continued to look out towards the river.

“…what’s with the sudden deep question?” He answered finally.

You should have known that that wouldn’t be answered easily.

“Things change. It’s a given.” Abby said after a beat of silence. “Shit happens.”

His voice faltered on the last phrase, as if he was still trying to convince himself of that. You decided you wouldn’t pry further.

You analyzed his torn clothes, wondering if he had sustained any injuries again.

Just in case, you offered him your painkillers.

“No need since… well… you know.”

You nodded. He stopped eating, his swallows and chews slowing to a halt.

You knew that you two were both thinking the same thing:

Your teams were going to kill you two if they saw you guys like this.

“You know, a lot of people eat ramen by the river. It’s a must try experience for some tourists, apparently. Something about it being in dramas.” Abby cleared his throat.

”What, did you hear that from Romance?” You chuckled. They both seemed the closest out of all of them. Or maybe they both shared a single brain cell between each other. ”Didn’t know you were the type to be influenced so easily.”

“Hey, it just sounded like it would be fun!” Abby insisted. 

“Are you having fun right now?” You asked. Abby paused, watching as the cars on the bridge over the river raced back and forth. He looked down at his nearly empty cup of ramen and the chips that he placed between the two of you. His eyes flitted to the flecks of green onion and carrot in his ramen, which swirled on the surface of the red liquid.

And just like that, your little party with Abby got crashed.

“Where the fuck have you been? You were supposed to be in and out of the store!” The hiss from behind you two had you both turning around

Two very familiar figures walked down the hill and up to your bench. Baby and Mystery.

You didn’t even notice it was Baby at first. It wasn’t because his appearance looked any different. He was all smiles in public and on TV, but the scowl on his face right now practically made him unrecognizable

“Sorry, man. Got caught up in the view.” Abby half-apologized. He wasn’t even looking at the other two idols.

You gave a small nod to both Baby and Mystery. Baby didn’t seem to realize that you were there until you had caught his attention. He narrowed his eyes at you, shooting you a guarded expression before he continued to chew out Abby. Something about how Jinu’s been on his ass until he found Abby and brought him home. Mystery didn’t even seem to notice you.

So much for being polite.

“Relax, dude. I got your shit right here.” Abby patted the plastic bag next to him on the bench. “I’m leaving, I’m leaving right now, see?”

Baby huffed, calming down as he rooted through the bag and claimed a lollipop. He seemed to relax just a tiny bit as he unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth. You couldn’t help but hold back in a giggle.

Both of the idols walked away before teleporting in a puff of pink smoke. Abby began to tidy up his seat, throwing away his empty cup of ramen in the nearest trash can. You only awkwardly observed as he did, thinking about what’s going to happen next.

You knew for a fact that Baby or Mystery would most likely tattle on Abby to Jinu.

Okay, maybe you didn’t know for sure, but their reactions did inform you that they still very much saw you as an enemy.

Maybe they saw you as an even bigger target now. You didn’t try to kill Abby the whole night. Maybe they would take that as a sign of weakness and try to use that to their advantage.

Maybe they’ll tell Huntrix.

You hoped to god they wouldn’t.

“To answer your question,” Abby spoke as he grabbed the plastic bag from where he had sat. “I did have fun.”

He smiled a genuine smile, not the smug ones he flashes to the girls, or the ones he shows to fans. He turned and walked away from you to follow his friends’ path.

“You should probably finish your ramen.” He shouted as he disappeared into the night.

The only noise that now filled the air were the cars honking in the distance.

You picked up the ramen, now completely cooled down from the wait. You swirled around the now mushy and clumped ramen noodles, picking them up with chopsticks before slurping.

“Superstar.” You scoffed. “What kind of flavor is this even supposed to be?” 

Chapter Text

You should have known that Abby wasn’t going to be the only Saja Boy that would be sent to stalk you.

You had hoped, maybe prayed, that after the first failed attempt that Jinu would have given up.

Yes, Jinu. Who else could it have been? 

Abby hadn’t tried to kill you or follow you home a couple nights ago. You even had a little picnic with him at the park.

Mystery? Fuck if you knew. That man barely spoke two words to you, if he could speak at all. You still couldn’t get over the whole barking thing.

Baby? He didn’t look like he gave two shits about you. Just the knowledge that you were associated with Huntrix made you irrelevant in his eyes.

Romance? He was a little bit more questionable. You couldn’t deduce him. He was… somewhat unpredictable. 

For one, he flirted with everything and everyone. Admittedly, it was a great tactic of manipulation. It was actually quite impressive how quickly he could get someone on his side. 

He was a siren that walked the Earth it seemed.

You hummed, a case of tonics in one hand as you made your way to the Huntrix tower elevator. You knew Rumi’s voice was still recovering from the live show, and this was the least you could do.

That and picking up more patrol shifts of course, but that was an unspoken part of your job description.

You had picked up the hanyak tonics from all the way in Dondaemun. Zoey had raved on and on about tonics when Rumi had first gotten sick, but it had turned out that the clinic they went to was a scam.

You thought to yourself if these things actually worked. They were ‘traditional herbal medicine’, but what exactly did they even do? The price had practically burned a hole in your pocket, but as long as Rumi was healthy you were happy.

Well, at least it wasn’t grape juice. The deep dark brown of the liquid in the clear bags had proved that.

“Ugh, this is ass, you guys.” Mira groaned in frustration. You sat in the corner of the room, a fly on the wall as you observed the scene in front of you. Mira had draped herself over a keyboard pad. Zoey was buried in piles and piles of scribbled notebook paper. Rumi was glued to the computer.

”We got the lyrics down, but now we have to worry about how the songs are gonna sound.” Zoey blew a piece of paper that was dangling from her head onto the floor.

“Not to mention the choreography.” Mira added, her voice muffled from her cheek resting against the black and white keys.

”I’ve got a few sample tracks, but I don’t know which one would fit the song more.” Rumi lightly bit her fingernails, deep in thought. 

You swiftly took a glance at the notebook with the lyrics.

“A demon with no feelings don't deserve to live, it's so obvious,” You read aloud. You gritted your teeth, your eyebrows knitting together in thought. 

Of course they would think that.

Rumi slid the notebook to her side, blocking the words so that you couldn’t read anymore.

”Yeah.” Mira shrugged. “They steal human souls, wreck havoc…”

”Try to seduce us with their dreamy looks…” Zoey sighed, her attention now on the wall littered with Saja Boys pictures and darts. She shook her head wildly, dismissing the thoughts. “To try and kill us, I mean!”

You couldn’t help but notice that Rumi had gotten quiet. Her fingers quickly jumped from one key to another, but she didn’t seem like she was typing anything. Her face looked as if she was on edge.

You found that she reacted quite similarly to you when these topics were brought up, but unlike you, she wasn’t outspoken about it. 

You had made it clear several times that you were not a demon hunter. You took no joy in exorcising demons.

It was agree to disagree most of the time, though. You usually tried to avoid the topic, but in your line of work, it was very difficult.

”I think I’m going to take my leave now. Thanks for inviting me.” You excused yourself. “I hope your voice feels better soon, Rumi.”

There was no pressure in your voice, just comfort.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

It was one of those rare days where you had the evening off. You barely got to watch the sunset now, missing the cotton candy skies that would make your day feel just a little bit better.

You were off patrol duty tonight, which meant that you could actually start thinking about what you were going to eat today.

You should be a responsible adult and actually cook something that you could also meal prep for the next few days.

Or you could eat at that new restaurant at Starfield COEX mall in Gangnam that you’ve been dying to try recently. It was only a few blocks away from where the girls lived.

You could have lived near here too, but you liked your place in Jamsil. It was a convenient place near the biggest line in the Seoul Metro. That’s not including Lotte Tower or the Han River either. 

Yeah, you had a lot of fun whenever you had friends over.

Lotte Mall wasn’t Starfield, but it had Lotte World, and that was much better in your opinion.

The only downside was how Jamsil Station was right underneath Lotte World, which meant that you were fighting tooth and nail to get a space on the train to get to work.

Starfield Mall was ginormous. You’ve only gone once or twice, but you hadn’t been able to even look at half of the stores from how huge the layout was. You remembered that there was even a giant library inside, which had become a popular tourist destination.

But did you really want to waste your money at a fancy restaurant where the waiters would most definitely judge you for eating alone?

You could figure it out when you got there, you supposed.

You took the escalator down to the basement floor, squeezed towards the right side. With the directory pulled up on your phone, you began your search for the restaurant.

There were actually quite a few famous restaurants in the mall, but the one that you wanted to go to was fairly new. Actually, Bobby had been the one to mention it to you.

Speaking of Bobby, you had betrayed him this morning.

You showed up without your matching gray blazer this morning, and you could have sworn you saw the soul leave this man’s eyes. With the reaction he had, you would have thought that you had murdered this man’s entire family plus his dog.

No demon activity. You were the demon.

You made up some bullshit excuse about it, something about how your friend’s cat had torn it up. 

And Bobby, sweet-kindhearted naive Bobby, had believed you.

You could have sworn you were going in circles around this mall now. Your stupid directory must have been outdated, because you didn’t recognize some of the stores that were labeled on the map.

Your suspicions were confirmed when you passed a pillar decorated with plates for the fifth time.

Groaning, you decided to direct your attention to another goal: to find another grey blazer. You couldn't stand to see Bobby upset again (he probably wouldn’t be, he’s very understanding but you still felt bad.)

You found the nearest clothing store (there were at least four next to each other) and began to browse the racks. You had already taken a look through the windows to see if they had the style of clothing you were looking for. 

You promised yourself not to spend your money on anything else but food and your one blazer.

Oh, but those slacks would match so good with your blazer.

And those shoes too…

You spun on your heel, prepared to walk away from them both when your back made contact with another person. 

You turned, about to give the person next to you a lecture about personal space when your eyes widened.

You nearly didn’t recognize him, but the rose pink hair had given him away. 

Romance sorted through the hangers, one arm covered with about fifty articles of clothing hanging. He softly sang, pushing his slipping wire rimmed glasses up his nose. His hair was pulled back into a half up half down pony tail, and his normal heart-shaped necklace was replaced by a pink and gold Saturn-shaped pendant. You recognized the brand as Vivienne Westwood.

His fingers were decorated with thinner rings than usual, rose gold instead of his usual silver-banded ones.

Huh. Maybe Abby was right about the whole Superman thing.

He flinched when he realized that you were staring at him, nearly dropping his obscene amount of clothing onto the floor.

“Sweetheart, you scared me!” His voice raised up a few octaves. He laughed nervously, one hand on his chest. Romance cleared his throat, before he fixed his composure back to his usual, charming self.

”Fancy seeing you here.” You returned with one eyebrow raised. Your tone said otherwise, however. It was quite obvious that he had been following you around the mall and had gotten distracted. As much as you had liked to believe that you two had just coincidentally come into the same store, you still kept in mind that they were technically your rivals. 

Why else would it have been Romance? That man could syphon information out of people with his charm like it was his own bottle of banana milk.

But Jesus Christ, how many clothes did he pick out in the five minutes that you had been in the store? How were the racks not bare?

”It’s been so long since we had a proper conversation! Are you still buying me that drink you promised?” He smirked, his eyes surveying your form before pausing.

”Wait, wait.” He held you by your shoulders, tilting his head as he did a double take on your appearance. “What happened to your grey jacket you always wear? The one you always match with… what was his name? Robert?”

You removed his decorated ringed fingers from your arms with a frown. “Bobby. It got torn up. You just noticed I wasn’t wearing it?” For however long he was stalking you, he wasn’t very observant.

“I was too distracted by your dazzling aura, love.” It was his turn to frown. “But that’s a shame. I really liked it.” 

You sighed. Yeah, you liked it too. Mostly because of Bobby, and because they covered your weapons nicely. Romance seemed to have caught onto your disappointment, his eyebrows creasing before shoving the obscene amount of clothes in your arms.

”This won’t do.” Romance tutted. He sauntered around the store, examining articles of clothing, reacting with either a scowl or an expression of consideration.

”Romance, I’m kind of busy…” You began to protest.

He held up a button up to you, studying how it might fit on your body. His expression contorted into one of conflict before throwing it on the ever growing pile of clothes in your arms.

He was picking them out for you.

“Okay, so I want you to try on these clothes in these corresponding outfits.” He explained while typing on your phone’s notes app. He leaned against the doorframe in front of your fitting room while you began to hang the rest of the clothes up on the wall hooks.

He handed your phone back to you, watching as you began to sort out which clothes were yours and which one were his. You handed back the rest of his portion.

”…are you going to leave?” You prompted. Romance only folded his arms, as his toothy grin stretched from ear to ear.

“I’m here if you need help getting out of your clo-“

You slammed the door in his face.

If there was one thing about Romance, it was that he really did have an impeccable sense of fashion. You wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one that picked out all of the boys’s outfits.

“So what brought you to the mall, angel? Surely not because you knew I loved to shop?” He purred, one hand placed behind your back as you walked out of the store.

Oh, so he wasn’t even hiding the fact that he had been stalking you.

”I actually came here to try out that new restaurant, but got lost along the way.” You said.

”You know, I did hear promising reviews about it.” Romance remarked, before he fished his phone out of his pocket to check instagram. It seemed like he was also going to crash your dinner too. Well, at least you weren’t going to be eating alone. You also knew that he was going to pay as well. He insisted that he pay for all of your outfits, which you had objected to.

“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t pay?” He waved you off. He even carried the bags for you.

Once you got into the restaurant, he had already done thorough research on which menu items were the most popular. Ordering was a breeze, and small talk came naturally to you two. You realized that even if Romance was a bit of a flirt, he was a very fun person to talk to and be around.

You wondered if he had any other friends outside of the Saja Boys. Were there even opportunities to hang out in the demon realm?

Maybe that was why he was always looking for new places to go. It’s been forever since he’s explored the human realm, and many things have changed since the time he had lived.

What was he like before he turned? Was he popular? Did he hang around his friends, or even the people he flirted with like this?

”I’m so sorry but I’ve been meaning to ask this whole evening: are you Romance from the Saja Boys?” Your waitress had snuck up on you with the check while you were deep in thought. 

”That’s me! Did you want a photo with me?” Romance flashed one of his signature charming smiles as the waitress nodded rapidly. They both took a quick selfie together before she thanked him. He placed his card in the check cover, to which he handed it to the server.

“I’m so sorry for disturbing your dinner, I’m just a huge fan!” She apologized, bowing to the both of you.

”No worries, hun. Me and my date-“ He gave a strangled yelp as your heel collided with his toes.

”Manager.” You gritted through your teeth. “This is strictly a business meeting.” 

Your server had to serve the other tables in her section, scurrying off. Your plastered smile remained on your face until she had left.

“Romance,” you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “You can’t go around saying stuff like that. You’re an idol. Not to mention, it’ll ruin your whole ‘romantic’ image.”

Romance gave a long exaggerated sigh of disappointment, holding his face up with his interlocked hands. It was very clear that he wasn’t listening to a thing you said.

”Not to mention, I’m Huntrix’s manager and you’re a part of the Saja Boys. We aren’t supposed to be seen with each other. Our teams will kill us.” You could see that Romance’s face had quickly fallen, his eyes downcast as his voice grew quiet. He stayed like that for a while, fidgeting with one of the rings on his fingers before he responded.

”…then why didn’t you leave?” His gaze was now fixed on the condensation of his water glass. It was your turn to be silent now. You wanted to tell him that just because he was a demon and you worked with Huntrix, it didn’t mean that you completely agreed with them. You wanted to tell him about how you believed that underneath that seductive, charming, manipulative personality, you knew that that wasn’t all to him.

But you didn’t get the chance. Romance’s card had come back and he was already starting to gather his things to leave.

”Sorry, angel. Gotta run before our server posts that photo of me.” His demeanor completely changed from his previous almost vulnerable state that he had been in.

He shot you a wink, handing you one of your shopping bags before he hurried out of the restaurant.

You sat there in a slight state of shock. What was that about, you thought. You’ve never seen that side of Romance before, and it honestly gave you whiplash from the sudden change.

Granted, the only side you’ve ever seen of Romance was his persona on TV and in public.

You had bigger problems now, though. 

How were you supposed to walk home with the obscene amount of bags you had to carry?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Romance sauntered into the apartment and tossed his shopping bags to the floor before draping himself over the couch. His head rested in Jinu’s lap, an exaggerated sigh escaping him.

Normally Jinu would’ve pushed him off, but he was too engrossed in reviewing footage of their previous TV interviews on their flatscreen.

“I thought I told you to go out and gather information on Huntrix’s manager.” Jinu calmly stated, his eyes never leaving the TV.

”I did! I found out what type of jewelry metal suits their skin tone, their shoe size…”

”Romance.”

”What size shirt they wear, their pants size too…“

”Romance.”

”And their preference in-”

“Romance!” Jinu roared before he exhaled sharply. He breathed in and out, controlling his tone of voice and his temper. “Information about Huntrix.”

Romance gave a soft ohhhh. He couldn’t help but think about how you had treated him just like any other human, or about how you knew that he was stalking you and still didn’t try to run.

“…nothing important.” Romance concluded before he grabbed his bags and made his way into his room.

Jinu covered his face in his hands, dragging it down in frustration.

”And you thought sending him was a good idea.” Baby said from the floor, nursing a lollipop in his mouth.

Chapter Text

The night air was cool, a gentle breeze caressing you as you laid down on the steps of a temple.

You had come earlier in the day to explore, as you didn’t have as much to do today. No interviews, no concerts, no promo work.

It was extremely rare for you to have basically a free day, especially recently with the Saja Boys rivalry and the Honmoon barrier weakening. 

As much as you loved your job, you also wanted some time to yourself. You knew that the girls were eternally grateful for your help, and that’s all that mattered to you.

That being said: you weren’t going to fight demons unless your bosses specifically ordered you to.

Yes, a part of it had to do with your personal morals, but another part had to do with the fact that you weren’t going to slay demons on your break.

You were on your break. You haven’t clocked into the demon slaying shift of your job yet. Even fast food employees were legally required to take at least a ten minute break in their shift. You deserved it considering you were basically working two jobs.

Now that you think about it, maybe you should ask for a raise.

Your break spot today was Jogyesa temple. It was a popular tourist destination right next to another famed landmark, Bukcheon Hanok Village.

You haven’t visited a temple in a while, and barely any in Seoul. Many of them held mostly Buddhist beliefs. Some were mixed with Taoism and occasionally Shamanism.

One thing you did know about them was that most of them had spiritual shops surrounding them where you could buy paper protection talismans without having to make your own.

It wasn’t that you couldn’t make your own protection charms, it was just that you haven’t had the time to make any anymore. Your protection charms that you had guarding the house were still lying in a box somewhere. You knew you had to put them up soon before a demon or an unwanted spirit decided to attack you in your sleep.

The paper was almost neon yellow in color, with the striking red ink a dark contrast to the vivid background.

The great thing about it is that you knew that these talismans were most certainly real. You could feel its sacred energy through your fingers, a very similar energy that radiated from your blades. Of course a temple would never give out fake talismans.

One thing you didn’t like about it was how flimsy and easily torn it could be. Maybe you could laminate it or something. Maybe paste it on a piece of wood and make it part of an actual item?

The temple itself was breathtaking. The wood and vibrant paint have been worn from decades of weathering, the once bright turquoise of the walls now a dusty mint. Hairline fractures climbed up the maroon pillars, and the wall portraits of the Buddha looked down upon you.

You examined some of them. Some depicted stories of bodhisavittas. Some depicted gods. 

One specifically caught your attention. It was the story of a soul, gazing into what you read was the Mirror of Karma. It explained that when a soul dies, their life is played out in front of them before they are taken to the underworld to be tried.

The courtyard bloomed with lotus flowers, brilliant splashes of color in a sea of green leaves. There were stone statues and carvings spread around the area as well. The stairs and the patio itself were also stone.

It hurt your back when you laid down on it, your weapons and harness tossed next to your feet. 

No one had come to chase you off yet, so you decided to loiter behind after you had finished your little tour around.

It made for a great place to take a break. Demons couldn’t get into the vicinity because of its spiritual defenses. It didn’t mean that they couldn’t try, but their attempts would be futile. They were clawing at its entrance already.

You should definitely come back soon after hours, you concluded.

You surveyed the night sky, the city lights twinkling a few feet away from you.

Really broke the immersion of being a sacred and holy place being smack in the middle of the city, you thought.

A buzz from your phone had you reaching for your jacket pocket, fumbling around as you grabbed a hold of your still-cracked phone. You sifted through your notifications, before your eyes landed on the Huntrix Kakao group chat.

You wondered if they were witches too or something. They needed you to investigate Hanok Village for barrier tears.

Well, the good news was that you were practically right next door. You didn’t have to walk too far. Maybe this mission would be a breeze and you’d be able to get home in time to shower, or eat, or sleep decently.

Right, you could only hope.

But genuinely, how in the hell did the girls do this, you wondered. They were the ones that actually had to do the stuff you had to schedule and plan out. They needed that hiatus more than you, but they had sacrificed it to save more people.

They were better people than you, you thought.

Good thing you weren’t a hunter.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

If there was one thing about your hometown, it was that it was old.

Being part of the countryside, there was more spiritual energy. It was preserved in time, and untouched by urbanization. 

There were many structures and stores that looked like it still belonged in the last century. Technology was always at least a decade behind (although you wondered if that was more of an income thing rather than a country thing) and you had to travel to the other towns near you to buy certain things.

So it was strange when you found out in the middle of Seoul, there was a direct window to the Joseon era.

It was deliberate, but you couldn’t help but think if there were still houses like that in some parts of the Korean countryside too. There’s gotta be at least a few standing after the occupation, right?

Bukchon Hanok village was most known for its beautiful traditional style houses and its history. Many tourists rented hanboks for a day and toured the village to take pictures.

It was like stepping back in time.

The only thing that threw off the whole look was the streets. The black asphalt was unsightly next to the tan, white, and grey color pallet of most of the houses.

There were people still living in them. You couldn’t even think about living inside an actual famous landmark. Going outside would be hell, and the streets would be clogged with visitors. Not to mention the noise levels. 

You couldn’t even imagine the amount of money you would need to live in an authentic Hanok house. The area itself, while being a tourist destination, was a great spot to live in Seoul too.

The streets were barren in the night. There was a curfew rule that visitors had to follow. Since you were doing your job, you didn't really have the choice to follow them.

You just have to make sure to be extra careful and make your visit brief.

Sniffle.

You froze.

A sob.

The sound of a heavy plastic bag colliding with the asphalt road.

Your hand reached behind your back, your fingertips grazing the leather handle of one of your blades as you slowed your pace towards the noise. You pressed your back up against a brick wall of one of the houses, hiding in the shadows.

A little girl no older than ten stood a few feet away from you, staring upwards. Her eyes were wide with tears, streaming down her cheeks and staining onto her bright yellow t-shirt.

She began to pedal backwards, a long familiar shadow matching her pace walking towards her.

You sprinted between them, your eyes trailing up the shadow to its creator.

Its neck was elongated and thin, bending down to its chest from the weight of its head. Its eyes were absent, and its sockets were two endless black voids that matched with its stretched jaw.

You thought that if it made noise, it would have been less scary. Its silence was what you inferred had made it undetectable to the child.

It towered over you two. The streetlight wasn’t even able to illuminate its features properly.

You turned to the kid, kneeling down.

”I need you to close your eyes, okay?” You warned her. She nodded, her hands flying to her eyes as you turned back around to the demon.

Luckily, this creature didn’t look like it had the anatomy to be able to fight. Its neck wasn’t stable, and its head weighed down its side like a bowling ball attached to a bendy straw. 

But one whip of its neck had you second guessing. It used its head as its weapon like a flail.

You threw one of your blades at its chest, an easy end to the fight. 

“You can open your eyes now.” You said. She uncovered her eyes, the once terrifying demon now replaced by mere purple mist traveling through the air.

What you didn’t understand was how she could see it in the first place.

Your family was a special case. Most of your skills have been passed down or taught by your ancestors, who have been able to cultivate these abilities through lifetimes of study and dedication to their purpose.

You yourself were born with abilities that haven’t been seen in your family for generations. Because of the lack of information on the older generations, you were often left neglecting many of these skills. The contribution of demon activity becoming more and more prevalent in the modern times has left you investing most of your occult knowledge and talents to fighting demons.

It was very likely that you had abilities that even you had no knowledge of. As soon as you were exposed to the spiritual world, you were handed your two blades and forced to defend yourself against demons.

You hated this. Maybe you liked it when growing up, but it was because you didn’t know any better.

You still struggled to execute basic barrier protection spells and charms. You forget how your altar is supposed to be set up. Your family neglected to teach you the basics because of the danger that was outside of your house doors.

All of this and you were still told to never slay or judge other spirits so thoughtlessly. 

There are a handful that are able to see spirits without familial lineage:

Animals were the best example of this. There was a reason why many dogs in certain cultures could chase off evil entities. Cats were often depicted as guides and messengers from the spirit world.

Another example would be children. Babies possessed heightened intuition, and were able to perceive the supernatural. They do lose this ability as they grow, however.

But many people from long lineages of shamans and witches aren’t always able to see spirits either. 

Very rarely a child is born with no ties to the occult and are able to interact with it. Even then, it’s likely that in their past life they were a practitioner. 

The girl in front of you looked much too old to be able to see demons. She trembled under your gaze before whispering.

”You can see them.”

You sighed, crouching down again. You sheathed your blade back into your harness, before picking up the plastic convenience store bag that she had held.

”Yeah.” You nodded before standing up.

”No one believes me.” 

“… yeah.” You looked down towards the asphalt. You’ve been through it before, of course. Not everyone in your hometown believed in your family too.

”Can you walk me home?” She timidly asked, her hand holding out to reach yours. You hesitated. On one hand, you’d be able to protect the kid from any other demons. On the other, you didn’t know how that would pair well with her family. Being walked by a stranger home?

But you couldn’t just leave her alone scared like that.

You held out one pinky for her to grab before she was pulling you along the street.

“You were really brave! Are those swords real? Can I touch them?” Her questions left her lips faster than a machine gun.

”Thank you, yes, and definitely not.” You answered her just as quickly. Even though your weapons were blunt and were semi safe from giving human skin cuts, you weren’t just going to hand them to a child.

“Are you a ghost?”

”No.”

”A wizard?”

”…sure.”

”But you don’t have a wand!” She pointed to your blades, which were very much not wands. You two had reached her house, standing in front of the gates. You knelt down to her level again, your expression now dire.

”Look, kid. Things are going to get more dangerous now.” You explained, before swallowing a lump in your throat. Within fifteen minutes, you’ve grown quite attached to her. “You have to remember to be careful when you leave your house after dark now, and never leave without this.”

You dug through your jacket pocket to reveal a tiny red drawstring pouch. You took one of her hands, prying it open and folding her fingers over the pocket.

“The first rule dealing with any spirits is to protect your own. Attach it to your book bag. It’ll make it easier to remember.” You advised before standing up.

”I’m… scared. What if I see them again?” She began to sniffle again, wiping away her tears as best as she could. “Teach me to be like you and teach me how to kill them!”

You paused, your feet shuffling on the ground below you.

“There’s things about the other world that we’ll probably never be able to understand,” you quoted. “Every single spirit, every single ghost, specter, even demons have their reasons to do what they do. What if they’re also scared?”

You met her gaze again, your voice in a much softer tone.

“‘No creature, be it spirit or human or animal, is born innately evil.’ My family taught me that.”

Her eyes became wide with curiosity now, stumbling behind you as you made your way towards the city.

“What about you? How are you so brave? How are you not scared?” She shouted as you walked further and further away from her house.

Turning towards her, your lips hinted with a ghost of a smile.

”I am.” 

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The girl clutched tightly to the red drawstring bag you gave her, before she opened her palm to carefully undo the strings.

Inside was the slip of yellow paper, graffitied with bright red Chinese characters.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Your mission of scoping out the village and getting to go home early was a success. You even had time to make it to the metro today. Texting the girls, you reported the findings of your stakeout and began to make your way back to the modern era.

At least that was your plan until you realized that someone was watching you from one of the roofs ahead.

Come on, you just finished up.

The figure, seemingly realizing that they have been caught, dropped down from the roof to reveal themselves in the street light.

Mystery.

You stood there, no hand on blade, no ready stance. Just waited for him to make a move.

Or, you know, say something.

”Look. I’m not going to fight you.” You assured him. You slowly unsheathed your blade, which earned you a low growl. You tossed both of them to the ground and kicked it towards him, rolling on the asphalt with a clatter. ”See?” 

You two both stood in awkward silence before he crouched down to inspect them. Holding a finger out he poked the metal blade, immediately recoiling his hand as if he had burned himself.

”It’s consecrated.” You stated. He studied the blade closely on the floor, his head tilting to the side to see the thickness of the metal.

The metal was about three millimeters wide, barely able to do any damage to human flesh.

Maybe if you exerted a certain amount of force it could work. You would need to be willing to do a lot of damage to your opponent.

He stood back up, seemingly satisfied with his findings. Tension stirred up between you two once more.

”That thing you said…” Mystery spoke. You stood there paralyzed. 

This was your first time hearing him talk, and his speaking was just as melodious as his singing.

”…do you really believe it?”

You took a second to process. Demons have stalked you, made your job so much harder, and their existence had predetermined your life since you were born.

And yet…

”I do believe it.” You nodded.

It was Mystery’s turn to pause now. You wondered how he looked under his bangs. Flabbergasted? Angry? Was he going to tell you that you were foolish? Lunge at you?

But no. A look of what you could only describe as conflicted and bewilderment appeared before he disappeared into pink smoke.

You gathered your weapons, placing them in your harness before you skipped towards the city lights.

Maybe you should even treat yourself for coming home early by actually cooking today.

Chapter Text

Baby was an enigma.

You couldn't tell if he hated you or if he really hated you.

Your first real meeting with him was back when you had hung out with Abby, and he made it very clear that he wasn’t at all happy to see you.

He was still all hearts and smiles, playing up his cutesy act for the cameras.

But that wasn’t at all what he was like behind the curtains.

He was a little shit, but sometimes you saw him nudge one of his band members to give his water bottle when theirs was empty. He insulted them in the same breath, of course but it was the thought that counted, right?

Sometimes, you caught him wearing gifts that fans had given him. He vehemently denied this when brought up by Romance.

Also, he had a serious case of sticky fingers. He would mostly steal items from his group members while off camera. It was so swift that you wouldn’t have caught it if you blinked.

Maybe that’s why he wore a hat a majority of the time. To hide his little treasures.

You wondered how the band was able to get anything done with such different personalities. Jinu must run rehearsals like the navy.

He was flippant, and often insulted or ignored his other band mates. Almost ninety percent of the time though he was dismissive.

Baby was quiet, but not in the way Mystery was. At least you could tell that Mystery was listening when spoken to, making eye contact (?) with the other person.

But Baby? You might as well have whispered in another room. You would have gotten the same reaction.

It was no secret that he was going to be the last one sent by Jinu to stalk you. you just didn’t know when.

If at all, honestly.

From behind the cameras, you could see that the girls were less than comfortable sharing a stage with the boys. 

Of course, the boys knew this. They did nothing to hide their smug little smirks every time the girls’s eyebrows would twitch in frustration.

Bobby didn't seem like he was paying attention at all. It made sense considering he was the one doing most of the running around today. You kept getting distracted by the show itself.

“Okay, girls,” you started, spinning your pen between your fingers and you held up a clipboard with the Huntrix itinerary on it. The girls had just gotten off the stage, their glares still lingering on the Saja Boys. “Luckily today, you actually have some free time later. Your next interview is in three hours, so we need to start getting a move on now.”

The Saja Boys passed your group. Their smirks had never left their faces since the stage.

“Hi, manager,” Romance purred, waving with his fingers as he walked away. Abby gave an upward nod. Mystery’s lips tugged upwards into a slight smile. Baby just continued to type away at his phone.

“What-what was all that?’” Rumi pointed, narrowing her eyes at them. Zoey glared at the back of their heads so hard you were surprised that she didn’t melt any holes.

“I want to wipe their stupid smug grins off their faces.” Mira growled. 

You were surprised that they said nothing about Romance’s comment. Perhaps it was because they thought that Romance was deliberately ignoring them, and only addressing you.

Either way it got them off of your back.

You ushered them off the stage quickly, stealing a glance at Baby.

Just when would he decide to strike? How would he do it?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You could tell that the girls were distracted.

Takedown was rushing to be finished. They insisted that they spend their free time today to try and finish it despite your protests. It seemed like their encounter with the boys today fueled their motivation to continue working on it. 

You stopped by periodically to visit their penthouse. You were worried that they may have been neglecting their health and needs from the stress.

You know, much like yourself when you work two shifts nearly every day.

You bought convenience store snacks, things that they didn’t really get to eat. You made sure that you took more missions so that they could rest. Sometimes you bought face packs for them as well.

You wondered what Celine thought of all this. Surely, she could see the Honmoon breaking, too. Has she contacted the girls at all about it?

Scoffing, you tossed the thought aside. You respected that she was a seasoned demon hunter, or that she had most likely done what you’ve done for longer than you’ve been alive, but the way she thought had been influenced by years and years of tradition.

Her views were what you’ve pinpointed to be the source of the girls’s views on demons. 

You understood her, you really did. You knew demon hunting was a tradition with rich tradition, but did none of the hunters now once think about why? What was the source of all of this? The reason why demons were all terrified? To attempt to cease the endless slaying of damned human souls, eliminating possibly the little bit of the life and humanity they still had?

They were shells of their former selves. You didn’t know if they would ever be able to return to their previous state. As far as you knew, it was a permanent transformation.

It didn’t matter, anyway. She didn’t consider you a part of the group, let alone a demon hunter. You were completely fine with that.

Better than fine. You didn't really want to be associated with her in any way. 

You were at the temple again, lounging around on the steps. Earlier in the day, you visited Hanok village again. The foot traffic was certainly abysmal and you felt out of place in the sea of haboks.

It was much more beautiful in the daytime. You could actually see the color of the houses better. With more people in the streets, it looked like a real neighborhood rather than a staged tourist destination.

You saw that girl again. She was on her way back home from school, chatting with her friends.

She kept your promise, and the bright red drawstring bag dangled from a zipper on her backpack.

You bought another talisman today. You promised yourself to put up your charms in your apartment, but you always conveniently forgot by the time you got to your house in the late hours of the evening.

You really should. Something was going to break in if you weren’t careful.

While you did that, you should also finish unpacking too. You already got the furniture set up now, and all you needed to do was organize everything else.

You decided that it was time to leave the temple. You remembered the original reason for why you had gone outside of your house. Texting the girls, you informed them that you were going to come over with some gifts and you were going to be there in about an hour.

You set your phone down, only to realize that the demons that were itching to claw their way into the area had already set their sights on you.

‘Come on,’ you thought. ‘This was a holy place. There was no need for any unnecessary violence.’

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

‘Hmmm,’ you thought. ‘So many flavors… which one should I buy?’

You were on a late night convenience store run. Instead of shopping for your usual items like painkillers, ramen, and chips, you were craving something sweet.

You dug through the icy freezer and the assortment of brightly colored wrappings.

You settled on seven different popsicles, each for a day in the week.

Thanking the cashier in the front, you exited the store.

You had caught the last train home, an increasingly normal occurrence for you now. This time, there were many drunk college students that had squeezed themselves into your cabin. You wondered what kind of party they just came back from. All the fun clubs were in Hongdae, and that stop was quite a while back.

You should get home soon. You didn’t want the ice cream melting before you got there.

But it looked like you were going to have to stop your journey home for a second.

”Baby, I know you’re there.”

Like you had correctly predicted, Baby stepped outside of the shadows in the alleyway. He held a lollipop up to his lips, looking you up and down with a bored expression before continuing to suck on it.

There was barely any bit of candy left on the stick anyway. He was just chewing on it at that point.

He muttered a monotone “well, I tried,” before turning back to the opposite direction of you to disappear.

That was it? No fight? No insult, or some comment about how you looked like shit?

”Did you only do this because Jinu forced you?”

He didn’t even look back at you nor say anything else. Classic Baby. You looked down at your plastic bag. 

“You like ice cream?”

Now that got his attention.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You two sat on a set of swings at the playground a bit away from your apartment. It was late enough for no one to notice Baby, and also you weren’t going to let the rest of the ice cream melt on you. It’ll just be a quick conversation. 

You weren’t worried about Baby doxxing you either. Your apartment was semi-far away-not really from the playground. It was thirty five stories high, and you knew that even if they tried to break in, you’d be protected. 

Eventually. You’ll remember to do it today.

You handed Baby one of the ice creams that you bought labeled Bbongta, a blue soda flavored plastic tube of ice cream. The plastic itself was rectangular, with it narrowing around the top. 

It looked like the ice tube having no opening confused Baby, who only glared at it as if he was attempting to open it purely with his stare.

“You’re supposed to snap the cap off.” You explained, taking the ice cream away from him. You broke open the tube with a pop, handing the cap and the plastic back to him. 

He continued to stay quiet, examining the two pieces in his hand. The ice cream in the cap had begun to melt onto his skin.

”So that’s why it’s called-“

”That’s why it’s called Bbongta*.” You finished for him. You didn’t want to eat your popsicles just yet. You were trying to save them for a rainy day.

”You know, I haven’t done this in a while.” You said. “Eating ice cream with someone outside.”

Ever since the demon attacks and the missing peoples in your hometown, not many children were permitted to play outside. 

Ever since the demon attacks in your hometown, you had to sacrifice your childhood.

You turned to Baby, who you caught licking the inside of the cap and the melting remainder of ice cream liquid that traveled down his wrists. It didn’t seem like he was listening to anything you said at all.

”I don’t like it.” He concluded, smacking his lips after he finished catching every drop of the blue liquid. He handed it to you, in which you took. You weren’t going to let this just go to waste, you paid for it.

“Well, what do you like?” You asked, biting the tube to squeeze out the ice. You knew that if he didn’t complain about the flavor, then he would have complained about the packaging next. “Do you have a favorite flavor of lollipop?”

He took a moment to consider your question. You warmed up the popsicle between your palms to try and get the ice to melt enough to be able to suck it out.

“Strawberry, I guess.” Baby hummed. It did seem true, he was seen with a pink lollipop the most often.

You dug through the bag and fished out a popsicle bar. The wrapping had a smiling cartoon shark printed on it. 

“This is strawberry flavored.” You passed it to him.

“‘Jaws Bar’?” He peeled the popsicle open and raised an eyebrow at the shape.

“It’s supposed to be a reference to that movie. Jaws. The one about that shark.” You explained. It just seemed like you were making him more confused. He studied the ice cream, seemingly taking in every single layer of frost and small ice crystals that settled on the surface.

“It’s blue.” He stated.

“And it’s shark-shaped.” You added. You weren’t going to give him another ice cream if he hated it. He licked the blue coating before frowning once more.

You had to fight to roll your eyes.

“I thought you said this was strawberry. It’s orange.” He scowled.

“Eat it or don’t.” You shrugged. Too bad, so sad. You weren’t going to give him another ice cream, and you’d be damned if he threw it away after one lick.

He just held the popsicle stick between his fingers, the cold of the ice cream and the warm air creating floating water vapor that surrounded it.

”Did you do this because Jinu forced you?” You repeated the question from earlier. Baby gave you a look. A look that simultaneously said, ‘what do you think?’ and ‘why the fuck am I still here talking to you?’

It was quite a look.

You took that as a yes, raising your hands up in defense.

“You know, Baby...” You started. “As mean and as fucking bratty as you are to everyone behind the scenes, I think under all that, you’re a decent guy.” 

You drank the melted juices of the Bbongta, getting up to throw away both of your trash.

“I’ve seen you care for your mates.” You stood up, taking the plastic bag of ice creams with you.

“I mean, you insult them while you’re at it but you still do little things for them.”

You could feel Baby’s eyes lingering on you as you walked away from him.

“Oh, and tell Jinu that if he wants to talk to me, then to meet me. Not send you guys to me like he’s making me go through the twelve damn labors of Hercules.”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Baby sat on the swing, the only noise in his ears being the gentle quiet draft of the night.

He scoffed at the dumb Jaws bar. It didn't even look like a shark, except for the barely noticeable teeth prints in the middle of it. 

It was also orange, his least favorite flavor.

Well, he had already rejected one popsicle already, and he didn’t really feel like going to the corner store to get something else.

And getting one for free was better than nothing.

He bit into it annoyed.

Stupid popsicle. Stupid Jinu. Stupid Huntrix manager thinking they knew everythi-

He paused, a familiar flavor sneaking its way inside the ocean of orange.

Looking down, he noticed that the blue of the popsicle was just a coating for the bright pink that it concealed underneath it.

Strawberry.

Baby let the ice cream melt in his mouth, thinking back to what you had said about him.

Maybe he didn’t like orange, but he knew he liked strawberry. 

And okay, maybe the orange and strawberry combination wasn’t so bad.

It was worth eating.

Chapter Text

The boys were distracted to say the least. 

Jinu noticed it. He was sure his tiger and his bird noticed it. Maybe even the whole goddamn city.

They continued to fumble during rehearsals. They zoned out during their fights with Huntrix. They were distracted during interviews, shows, everything.

Maybe they were just trying to get on his nerves. He wouldn’t put it past Abby or Baby. Or maybe even Romance.

But when Mystery started spacing out? He knew something had to have been going on.

And he knew that it was all because of you.

You, Huntrix’s personal guard dog disguised as a manager. You might as well have been a hunter. Rumi just had to give you two glowing blades to match your current ones. You’ve managed to make his boy band of horrifying irredeemable demons into giggling, feet kicking, skipping school girls.

At least that’s what it felt like to Jinu.

Who else would it have been? 

You had to have a weak spot somewhere, right?

He had sent the others to stalk you because he believed that your looser connection with the other girls made you a liability. 

Maybe if the boys combined their strengths, they’d be able to jump you.

They had originally thought about kidnapping you, but after Jinu had witnessed just how powerful you were just by yourself?

Yeah, that made him rethink his decision real quick. 

Just how were you able to take down multiple demons that sometimes even Huntrix struggled with with just two blades and a pack of painkillers?

He expected the other demons to come home in cuts and bruises, and possibly a very mangled you.

What he didn’t expect was a relaxed Abby, a swooning Romance (although the man swoons at literally any living breathing organism), a bewildered Mystery, and… well, Baby was about the same.

Just what had you done to throw off the chaos that he was so very used to?

Did you intimidate them? Did you seduce them? Did you somehow convince them to make his life even more hellish by not being able to get their shit together?

He didn’t know. 

And that was what drove him insane.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Abby was a liar. 

Things didn’t change. Things never change. 

Of course he missed the past. Before he became a demon. Before all this fucked up shit. When cars were carriages. When his shirt was once his ratted old jeogori, ridden with holes and threadbare.

He loved the convenience, loved the fans, and how easy human life now seemed to be, but at least back then he wasn’t the servant of some overgrown house fire.

He laid in his bed staring at his AC unit. His arms were placed behind his head, the sensation of pins and needles in his hands crawling up to his elbows.

The apartment they stayed in was nice too. 

Running water? So nice. He didn’t have to draw it from a river.

Fridge? You could stick food in there for days and it wouldn’t spoil.

Do not even get him started on instant food. All the work, all the time and effort he used to have put into to make a meal didn’t even take half for instant food.

Oh my god, the sweets? The ice cream? The desserts? 

Those were a luxury for someone like him in the past. The closest thing that he had ever tasted to candy back then was honey.

And you could buy huge jars of that in the grocery store now.

Damn, he really was born in the wrong century.

Being an idol was fun! Sure, there was always the lingering threat of punishment and torture if they were to fail, but he can enjoy his fake life too.

He’s gotten close with the boys, thinking of them like his brothers. Maybe some didn't share the same sentiment (see: Baby and Jinu), but they all understood where they all came from:

A deal.

You.

You were something new.

He had known what to expect when coming to the human world. Gwi-Ma wouldn't shut up about the hunters before him and the rest of the crew had agreed to help him. He was aware of what they thought of people like him. It was a given.

The sneers, the scowls, and the venom behind Huntrix’s words were all things that he knew he would see.

It wasn’t like demons had the reputation of being nice to people.

But you spoke to him like you were his friend.

Were you two even friends? You only really talked to each other twice.

You didn’t gush over him. You didn’t draw your weapon on him. You didn’t even check out his muscles.

For a hunter or witch or shaman or whatever you were, you were pretty chill.

He hasn’t had that kind of connection in a long while.

There was no expectation on him when you spoke to him. He didn’t have to be the attractive fanservicing idol, or the strong bloodthirsty demon that everyone saw him as.

He could just… be him.

And that meant to him a lot more than you knew.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Romance sunk half his face into the water.

The whole bathtub reeked of rose scented bubble bath and bath bomb. Not to mention the presence of rose perfume and the actual rose petals scattered in the water.

Jinu walked in on him once and nearly suffocated to death. He had crawled-stumbled out, wheezing and coughing as he complained about how he could feel his eyes watering from it all. 

He swirled the rose petals in the tub with his finger, creating a tiny whirlpool as he thought about the little shopping date he and you had the other day.

You looked stunning in every single thing that he had picked out for you. To be fair, you always looked stunning in anything you wore, even that grey blazer you used to wear everywhere that he eventually learned to love on you.

It was easy to spot you when you wore it.

He had spent an obscene amount of money that day, and got an earful from Jinu. Something about how he damn near spent the same amount as their rent or whatever.

Trivial stuff.

The truth was, he couldn’t stop thinking about you either.

Sure he flirted around, slept around, been around, but you didn’t give a shit. You just spoke to him like you didn’t care who he was.

Not as a silver tongued devil, but as… just Romance.

You rolled your eyes every time he tried to make an advance. You pushed away his face when he would tease you.

And sometimes you warned him with threats that just made him want to push further and further.

Castrate him? So fucking hot. Literally.

Carve his still-beating heart out and feed it to him? It only beats for you, angel.

Because in the end, he knew that you were the least likely one to do that out of your whole team.

Make no mistake. He knew that you killed demons. He knew you were still supposed to be the enemy.

He really did genuinely find you attractive, was the thing. Romance had quite the reputation of being a casanova, but underneath all the charm and all the seduction?

He feared connection.

It was better to be liked by all than to be loved by few.

That day at that restaurant, he had asked you why you hadn’t left. He didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

Why?

He was afraid of what you might say.

Did you successfully play him and tried to lure him in your own trap? Were you going to turn on him right then and there, reducing him into nothing but magenta powder in the middle of the restaurant? Were you going to say something more than that?

Why did you show him mercy? Why were you so against him spoiling you when he had been with you? Didn’t people beg for that kind of stuff in relationships? He had fans that would have killed to be in your place!

And yet you still offered to pay. Still told him that he didn’t have to do all of this. You were respectful, holding his clothes without any complaint as he dragged you along the mall. You didn’t glare at the waitress that had taken a photo with him.

You were the calm in the sea of parasocial obsession and hatred he was stranded in.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Mystery crouched down on one of the rooftops, his eyes on the house of the little girl you had rescued.

The apartment was too loud most days, and he liked his peace and quiet. This often meant lurking around the night shadows of Seoul.

The cicadas screeched constantly, but he’d take the sound of cicadas over screaming fans anyday.

He crouched on the roof, his eyes trained on the house of the little girl you saved. You two barely exchanged two sentences to each other, but your actions had spoken louder than your words.

Not that your words didn’t also have an impact on him either.

It felt like a naive viewpoint to him. How had you not been killed by other demons thinking like that? Did you always hesitate before swinging your blade?

And yet he couldn’t help but be grateful at how merciful someone like you is.

He would see you sometimes with Huntrix and his band had collabs on shows. He’d see you at award events.

You looked so much more different when you weren’t fighting.

Fatigued. A soft but tired smile decorating your face when one of the girls or the other manager came up to you.

You laughed. Not often in front of the boys, but he caught it sometimes.

You weren’t anything like Jinu had described.

You weren’t the monster that he thought you were.

And he wondered if you thought the same about him too.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Baby dug through the freezer compartment of the fridge. He had demanded requested Abby to buy the guys more ice cream, but of course all of the ones that he bought were his own favorites and had conveniently left out his. 

Baby huffed, slamming the freezer door shut. 

Whatever. If he wanted something done right, then he had to do it himself.

He didn’t give up his lollipops, but the guys did start noticing that he had been eating them less and less for more Jaws bars.

It was always that same damn popsicle.

He adjusted his baseball cap and mask on his face as he made his way down to the corner store next to their apartment. 

Baby had sampled other ice creams of course, but the Jaws bars were just superior.

He tried the strawberry Screw Bars* Romance liked until he realized that the only reason why Romance liked it was because of the way it was eaten.

Pervert. The apple flavored part of it didn’t even taste that good anyway.

He didn’t even glance at any other aisles before making a b-line towards the ice chest.

Come on, it was one of the most popular popsicle brands. He swore if some dumbass kid had already bought them out, then he was airing out the whole store.

He smiled like a kid on Christmas when he found a pocket in the sea of ice creams that were just Jaws bars. He surveyed the store for the cameras before pocketing a few inside his jacket sleeves.

Triumphant with his haul, he scooped up as many as he could in both his arms and dumped them on the counter of the cash register.

He hated how addicting they’ve become to him. He hated how he was starting to like the blue orange flavored coating too. He hated how every time he ate one, your words would echo through his head. 

‘I think underneath all that, you’re a pretty decent guy.’

What the hell did you know about him, anyway?

And why the hell did he care so much?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

This was getting completely out of hand.

The whole band was completely distracted and the reason was because of you.

Abby wanted to talk to you again. Romance continued to scroll on social media to see where you two should go next if you both had the chance. Mystery hoped that Jinu would send him on another spying mission so that he could see if you really were true to your word. Baby didn’t show it, but deep down, he wondered if you really believed what you said about him. Jinu had pushed aside all of his behind the scenes idol work to try and figure out how to confront you considering the others had gotten zero useful information on you. 

The boys hoped that the next time they would be able to speak to you, you’d still treat them the same as you did when you met them.

Because the truth was that you were the only person to treat them like normal human beings in a long while. Especially with the knowledge that they were demons.

And that was something that was rare to come by.

Chapter Text

The Honmoon was getting weaker by the day.

You knew what that meant.

More late night fighting.

Your need for sleep was catching up to you faster than a freight train. Almost half of your paycheck goes to painkillers at this point. 

Bobby noticed more and more injuries appearing on your body, which you and the girls frantically explained away when mentioned. You decided maybe it was time that you started to learn how to color correct your bruises or something.

The number of missing people began to steadily skyrocket as well, and you were still nowhere close to finding out the truth behind demons.

Actually, you felt more stuck than ever recently. It felt like the world had been moving at light speed with all the fighting, the meets, the boys, the girls, the fans…

You occasionally saw the boys every once in a while whenever the girls would have events with them. Romance would shamelessly hit on you in front of the girls. Baby didn't roll his eyes or ignore you when he passed you. His acknowledgment of you evolved to a bored hum when he was addressed. Mystery nodded when he saw you. Abby would wrap and arm around you, slapping your back so hard you nearly fall over.

You knew that the girls began to suspect something, but they were too distracted to address it. Or maybe they were hoping they weren’t seeing what they thought they saw. Maybe they thought the Saja Boys were just trying to get close to you to get information, or because it was to get on their nerves. Did Huntrix even know that the boys knew that you were a shaman?

You were dreading the whole conversation, honestly.

You had to organize a Huntrix fanmeet with Bobby today. Finally, something that didn’t involve you having to slink around behind a camera or backstage.

You loved having privacy, but having to work the same events and the same type of variety shows was starting to bore you.

The wave of fans began to file inside the convention center, with you and Bobby trying to desperately organize a type of line. It was like herding a bunch of cats.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at the Saja Boys’s dramatic reveal. What were they posing for constantly? For the blurry unflattering pictures that the fans took of them and posted on their instagram?

And it was just awkward too. 

The girls whispered amongst themselves about how if the boys had their own table, they would have to split the fans.

But they couldn’t just kick them out either. It would be bad publicity.

”How about we do a joint signing?” You suggested. They looked at you as if you had grown two heads. You leaned in closer to the girls, your voice dropping to a hushed whisper.

”That way, you two can keep up your friendly public image and also not lose any fans.” You explained. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the best option we have right now.”

After a little more debate and bickering, you all eventually settled on your idea, to which you pulled up more chairs and joined tables. 

“Genius,” Bobby whispered as a tear streamed down his cheek.

You stood by the tables while escorting each fan up the line one by one. You heard both of the bands furiously muttering threats (Huntrix) and taunting each other (Saja Boys) which made you only groan with annoyance.

The fans were right there, and they couldn’t pretend to like each other for a few hours?

A tug on your sleeve had snapped you out of your frustration. Looking down, you noticed that it was a very familiar face that looked back up at you.

”Hi!” The little girl from a few weeks ago stared up at you. You couldn’t hide your surprise, your eyebrows shooting up in shock. 

“Woah, hey kid! I haven’t seen you in a while.” You kneeled down smiling. “Who’d you come here with?” You surveyed the sea of people, wondering if she had come with her parents. “I didn’t know you liked Huntrix.”

”I came here with my older sister! She loves Rumi!” The girl beamed, pointing to a teenager that looked to be about six years older. 

“That’s really sweet.” You said, ushering her to where her sister stood. “But we should probably stick with your sister today. Don’t want to get lost, you know?” 

“Wait! Can you sign my drawing too?” The girl fished out a sketchbook from her book bag, the same one with the talisman dangling on the zipper. The drawing was of you and her holding hands, you holding your blade out against a figure that you could only assume was a demon standing in your way. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere, but I couldn’t find you. I waited after school at the same spot to see if you’d come back.”

Your heart clenched at the guilt. You didn’t realize how big of an impact you had made in this girl’s life and she thought that you had abandoned her after that night.

”Oh, kid, I think you’re mistaken…” You nervously laughed as you held your hands up. “I’m not anybody important…”

Her face fell, taking back the sketchbook into her chest. Her voice lowered to a whisper as her eyes fell to the floor.

”You’re important to me.”

And with those words, you snatched a pen from Jinu’s hand and took the sketchbook from her, scribbling down your signature before you handed it back.

”Stay safe, kid.” You patted her on her backpack before standing up. She scanned the room for her sister, before she gasped and pointed to one of the boys.

”Oh! You’re here too!” The girl bolted towards the table. You attempted to pull her back, but you were too slow. You apologized to the fans that she cut through before cutting yourself.

”Kid, you can’t just run like that-“

”Hi, mister! Oh! This is the mystery guy that walks me home sometimes now!” She tugged on your sleeve pointing at the lavender haired boy band member.

”Mystery.” You breathed in realization. Of course. He had watched you two and had begun to take care of the girl when you had left.

”Mister! Can you sign my book, too?” She chirped, passing the sketchbook to him on the table. He gave a quick nod and a kind smile as he signed the paper.

A worried teenager came up to you, asking where her sister was until she saw her chatting with Mystery like long lost friends.

She was the one doing most of the talking. He was mostly quiet, giving short and sweet answers.

The line of fans was endless, and you just couldn’t wait to go home. You had to break apart hushed but heated arguments, only for them to continue passive aggressively bickering with steely gazes and glares.

Abby would pull you aside, wrapping his arm around your shoulders as he asked for a bottle of water.

And because you weren’t an asshole, you’d grab one from one of the cases off to the side.

”Thanks, babe. I can always count on you.” He winked, which earned you a confused glance from Mira.

You had to go out on an emergency pen run, considering you all hadn’t counted on the Saja Boys crashing your little fanmeet. 

Looking at your choices, you examined the contents of each pen pack.

The cheap ones were ideal, considering that they barely closed any money, but they were unreliable.

The gel ones would run out later, but they were more expensive, and there was less in the pack.

You put them both back before your eyes caught a set of beautiful glitter markers. The price was decent, there was a reasonable amount of them in a pack, and the glitter would really pop off of the page.

You grabbed about ten packs before you plucked a lollipop from the front register and paid.

When you came back to the convention, you dumped the pens into one pile before sorting them into color groups. You handed each respective member their colored pens, sliding over the lollipop you had snagged towards Baby.

”These are beautiful! You always have great taste in what you choose.” Romance complimented. You nodded absentmindedly, continuing to filter fans towards the table

It was so very obvious that the girls were staring at you in disbelief, even with your back turned. You could feel their eyes heating up your skin.

You couldn’t wait until this fanmeet was over.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

After dealing with screaming fans, a flirting Romance and Abby, and bewildered gazes from your bosses, you were so ready to leave the convention center. Freedom couldn't have come at such a perfect moment.

You only had one night assignment today, and it turned out that you didn’t even have to fight anything. You had written the strength sigils on your arm for nothing. 

Recently, you’ve been sampling older methods that you had used for demon hunting back when you were younger. The demons that poured out of the Honmoon now were much more formidable than the ones in your childhood.

You spent all morning trying to get the strokes right and everything. You didn’t use them often, as they were more advanced from your skill set. They also took a great deal of energy as well to activate.

It was a very potent defense, however. You used to only use it for emergencies back when you lived in your hometown. Because of your preference to use your blades now, you neglected using them.

You only needed to utilize your sigils once or twice during your time working with Huntrix. Afterwards, you booked the earliest appointment to the acupuncture clinic you could find.

After you reported the barrier tear, you made your way back home.

You had quite the stressful day today. Maybe you should eat one of the ice cream bars you bought a few days ago…

Punching the door code into the keypad, you kicked off your shoes while trudging inside. The cool vinyl of the floor felt so good under your sock-covered feet, dragging them to the freezer.

Should you eat a Jewel bar? Maybe you were feeling a Melona. How about an actual ice cream cone like a Bravo?

“You know for someone who works so closely with the hunters, I expected your apartment to be more protected.”

You whipped your head around, the fridge being the only light source in your living room. From the darkness, you could see a pair of golden cat-like eyes staring back at you from where your couch was.

Immediately, you flung one of your blades at the intruder, barely missing his head by a centimeter. 

“Woah, easy, easy!” Jinu gasped as he put his hands up in surrender. You advanced towards him, your pace slow but just intimidating enough to warn him so that he wouldn’t dare move from his spot.

You stood above him, your foot and your previously thrown blade caging him into the couch as you raised your other blade to his chest.

“You didn’t try to attack the others, but I’m an exception? Should I feel flattered?”

You pressed the point of the blade on his chest. Not enough to tear through his flesh, but enough for the metal to feet hot on his skin, threatening to burn. He replied in a series of little ow-ow-ows before you deemed him worth to waste your breath on.

“I think I’m justified to attack when I feel threatened. Especially in my own home.”

You narrowed your eyes. Jinu awkwardly laughed, pushing the blade away from his chest with one finger.

“Okay, okay, that’s true.” He acknowledged, before teleporting behind you. You lowered your blade, turning around to meet face to face.

“How did you find my apartment? How did you get in?” You knew that because of your lack of responsibility that Jinu was able to actually get into the unit, but he would have had to figure out your key code and which house number you lived in.

“Baby told me which apartment after he had spied on you, and when you were out, I scanned around to see if any units had any distinct spiritual energy signatures. This was the only one.”

That little snitch.

Jinu went over towards your peach tree, admiring the blossoms and the tiny fruit that was too young to pick just yet. He went to touch one of them, only for his hand to flinch back with a groan.

“Peach wood.” You pointed out.

Jinu sucked on his finger, nodding before he surveyed the rest of your apartment.

You sunk into the couch, the leather still warm from where Jinu sat as you closed your eyes. You were but a bag of skin and bones that wanted to rest and not be interrogated.

“How long have you been living here? A week?”

You opened one eye. “Three months.”

“There’s still a lot of boxes.”

“I’m lazy.”

Jinu walked to your altar that was now placed next to the TV. You realized that because you hadn’t put up your protections, the energy coming from all of your holy items (and just the existence of an altar itself) had given your spot away. 

You weren’t even going to warn him not to touch anything. Natural consequences. He should know better.

“You’ve been giving my boys a lot of trouble lately.” Jinu began. “They haven’t been listening to me more than usual.”

“Then train them better. Don’t blame me.” You retorted. Jinu let out a soft snort before turning back to your altar. His expression turned a bit more serious, his vision fixed on the dark red wood of the floor table.

“You knew they were demons, but you didn’t try to kill them.” His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Both of your eyes were open now, your gaze now on him.

“You could have landed that throw of yours, but you didn’t. You missed on purpose.”

He gestured to the blades in your hands.

“I’ve seen you. I’ve seen just how deadly you are when you slay demons. You’re quick and efficient.”

He walked towards you now, his eyes on you.

“But you wait. You wait and you strike when they attack, but you always wait to see if they will first. Every single time.”

His shins hit the couch, your legs between his.

“Why?”

You realized that maybe that’s why the boys had been acting strangely around Jinu recently. You also realized that this was why they had begun to warm up to you, little by little.

Because mercy was hard to come by in their world.

“…I’m not like them. Not like Huntrix.” You simply said.

You could see the question mark over his head forming again. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but stopped when you raised a finger for him to hush.

“Look, Jinu. You broke into my apartment after my two full time jobs. My social battery and energy is drained. I’m also very sleep deprived.” You dismissed him. “If you interrogate me in this state, I’ll consider it legally torture. I’ll call the girls over now and you won’t get the answers to the questions you want.”

Jinu nodded, understanding your frustration. He wanted this to be settled civilly as well, and was willing to compromise. 

“Okay. Let’s meet up and discuss soon. I’m sure you have a lot of questions too.”

Dislodging your blade from the wall next to you, you nodded before turning back at him.

But he was already gone.

Chapter Text

“You know, when you said we should meet up, I didn’t think that you meant all of you guys.” You chuckled, your hands inside of your pockets as you looked out the observatory deck’s many windows. 

You had arrived at Lotte Tower, just a stroll away from where you lived. It was strange that Jinu had picked such a public place to discuss things with you, but at least it meant that if anything went potentially wrong, there would at least be witnesses around. You couldn’t attack each other if you all didn’t want to get caught.

Everyone was wearing disguises. To you, they just looked like the Saja Boys but at a baseball game. 

At least it worked. If it worked, then who were you to judge? 

They all agreed to meet up at the observation deck at a certain time. Baby immediately sprinted off, not even acknowledging Jinu’s announcement. Romance insisted that you two have another shopping date while pulling up the mall’s directory, which Jinu had put a stop to real quick. 

Good thing. You couldn’t imagine how much money Romance had spent last time you two shopped together.

Mystery had disappeared… somewhere. You guys could have sworn he teleported away when you all weren’t looking. 

Abby followed Romance, to which they began to scheme with each other.

Seoul was stretched out as far as the eye could see. The Han River weaved in and out of the land, and the mountainous terrain raised the buildings and houses that it rested on like stagnant ocean waves. Greenery blanketed the mountain tops.

You hadn’t been to the observatory deck before, and you were surprised that Jinu was the one that suggested this place.

“It’s close to where you live.” He had shrugged when you pointed this out.

He had sent his tiger to your balcony, delivering a very wet post card that was very much covered in his saliva.

It took you about thirty minutes for you to actually read the letter. You were too busy trying to reorganize your herb pots after its massive size had knocked them all down.

Also hey, it was cute. You couldn’t resist giving it a few head scratches after it continued to headbutt your hand.

The magpie kept trying to eat your berries though. You gave it a few, but it kept trying to peck at you for more after it ate the rest of the fruit off the plant.

”There’s a hundred and twenty three floors. We won’t be seeing them.” 

Which was true. There were also about five different attractions in the tower too, so the guys would be kept entertained while you two talked.

Romance and Abby had attempted to spy on you two, but were caught at the ticket desk.

”Go somewhere else. The adults are talking.” You had waved them off. Jinu let out a choked laugh as they slunk away like kicked puppies.

“We agreed on a temporary truce, but you still brought protection talismans?” Jinu pointed at the yellow cloth peeking out of your pocket. You had bought a more durable one made out of cloth to pin it into your pockets when you wore anything.

“‘The first rule dealing with any spirits is to protect your own.’” You quoted. Jinu only hummed before he went back to the view of Seoul outside.

“You don’t possess the ability to repair the Honmoon. You don't have weapons like theirs. You don’t fight with them.”

Jinu recounted as he trained his vision to the horizon.

”You’re a demon hunter that works for Huntrix, yet the only similarity I’ve seen between you and the girls is that you kill demons.” His eyebrows creased together in thought before he turned towards you.

“No,” you cut through his deductions a bit too quickly, your voice sharp and abrupt. “I don’t want to be known as that.” 

Jinu nodded slowly at your demand, before he continued to focus on the city below again.

“A shaman, then?”

You nod. More like spiritually attuned, but shaman was still a good descriptor.

“If you’re not only a demon hunter, then what else can you do?” Jinu questioned. You hesitated. You hadn’t explored the depths of your powers too well, but you had a general idea of what you had inherited.

“Well, in my family, a few relatives could share their body with spirits. It’s a common one I’ve heard.” You explained. He nodded along, intrigued, but not pushing.

“I still want to know. Why didn’t you attack the others? Why do you wait before you kill? Is it pity?” Jinu said it as if he was in disbelief about the idea.

”If it wasn’t for pity, then you wouldn’t be here right now.” You countered. The air between you two was still, tense and awkward.

You sighed, easing up on your tone of voice and met his eyes this time.

”Years ago, people started to go missing in my hometown. Whole families would disappear overnight. Their bodies were never found.” You explained. “I lost many friends, and the population grew smaller and smaller over the years.”

Jinu only stayed quiet while you continued with your story. He began to chew on the inside of his lip, the view of the sky becoming more and more interesting by the second. Was that a plane he saw overhead?

”My family knew about demons. They taught me how to exorcise them. How to kill them. But never to hate them. I didn’t believe them until it was too late.”

”…too late?” Jinu prompted, his voice quiet now. You paused, knowing that both of you knew what you were going to say next.

”Oh… I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat.

”And I’m seeing the same shit happening today, in Seoul.” Your voice grew stern, but never raised in volume. Your eyes met his, your expression now serious. 

“I may understand that you all aren’t doing this out of your own will, but I will not just stand by and let people die. I will slay out of necessity.” 

You clenched your fist by your side, your nails digging into your palms.

”And I’m going to find out the truth behind everything. Not the centuries of tradition and oral folktales they feed to us, but the full truth.”

You didn’t even glance back at him. You only focused on the once-blue barrier of the Honmoon, which was now riddled in bright hot pink tears.

Jinu only paid attention to you. His eyes scanned your tense form as a look of guilt seemed to make its way across his face. He shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets before looking down.

”Gwi-Ma.” He broke the silence. “That’s his name. He haunts us all.”

You were listening, but you refused to make eye contact with him. Your firm expression softened ever so slightly.

”He came to me about four hundred years ago. My family lived in poverty, and he came to me. He told me that he could change my life.”

“…and you took it?” It wasn’t at all in a judgemental tone. Absolutely not. There were things that humans, especially humans like you who were practitioners, had to be cautious about. To work with spirits means that you must always remember that not every spirit has your best interest in mind.

You’ve listened to stories about people making deals with trickster spirits, only to realize that their wish was granted… at a price.

“It was either that or die on the streets. He gave me my wish, and my family had more than they could have ever wanted.”

He hesitated, his breath stuttering.

“But the patterns… they started to spread, and I was damned to the demon realm, prisoner to Gwi-Ma for eternity. I can hear him, hear his voice in my head. My family was worse off than before after that.”

You were quiet as you took in his words intently. 

“It was all my fault.” He whispered, shutting his eyes tightly.

“You didn’t know.” You finally responded. Your voice was as equally as quiet as his now.

“He uses your shame, your guilt into doing what he says. He makes you believe that what you did was wrong.”

You placed a hand on his shoulder, his patterns faintly glowing through his shirt as you made contact with him.

“When that couldn’t be further from the truth. You were just trying to help.”

You locked eyes with him, yours compassionate and soft while his was full of shame.

“He’s wrong, Jinu. You’re not a bad person. Don’t let him or Huntrix or anyone make you think anything else.” You removed your hand from him. “You can help me. Help me and Huntrix take him down and get revenge for every life he’s enslaved to harvest souls. You can make things right.”

Your face hardened from the injustice of it all. The demons that you’ve slain with your bare hands were all once humans. Humans that were taken advantage of, and are now forced to eternal servitude from their decisions.

They’re stuck getting the brunt of the blame when really, it was all Gwi-Ma’s doing.

He manipulated them. He controlled them with their shame.

“It’s not that easy. He’s getting stronger.” Jinu sighed. “Soon, he’ll gain enough power to gain a physical form in the human realm and destroy the Honmoon to rule over.” 

“It’s not going to be easy.” You confirmed. “But it’s not impossible. You know where to find me if you change your mind.”

With that, you turned to leave the deck, leaving him stunned as he watched you walk away.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“How naive you both are.” Gwi-Ma’s voice whispered. To Jinu, his words were omnipresent and echoed off every glass pane in the deck. He gasped, eyes widening as he felt Gwi-Ma’s hold on his thoughts.

“They don’t know anything about you. You can’t trust anything about you that comes out of their mouth.”

Jinu glared at his own reflection, as if Gwi-Ma could see anything through his furious golden eyes.

“Although, they shouldn’t be trusting you either.” He mocked.

Jinu balled his hands into fists by his side, the guilt and the shame from his past and his actions now consuming him whole.

You showed him mercy for his actions that he had lied about, and even offered to help him. You confirmed something that he hadn’t believed in in a long while.

But you were wrong. 

Jinu spent centuries regretting ever making that deal with Gwi-Ma. He had left his family behind at the palace doors as he spent his days with more wealth than he ever thought to do with. 

He didn’t know.

But he had a choice back then.

Centuries of being held prisoner, centuries of servitude and confusing his lies from his truths had broken Jinu into a shell of the man he once used to be.

He collected souls because Gwi-Ma demanded so.

He came to the human realm to break the Honmoon because Gwi-Ma had promised to erase his memories.

Jinu was selfish. He knew this. He always had been.

In the end, he still left his family behind and now was willing to let the human world suffer, just for a little less pain.

But you didn’t know that. 

You, the person he was tasked to follow by Gwi-Ma at first. You, the odd one out of the group. You, who he continued to follow that night on the rooftop, even after he figured out that Rumi was also a demon and Gwi-Ma decided would be easier to exploit. You, the supposed weak link of Huntrix. 

But Gwi-Ma was wrong.

You weren’t weak at all. You took down demons twice your size without breaking a sweat. You weren’t afraid to question your orders and Huntrix’s views. You always, always waited before attacking. 

You were smart. You were forgiving. You were understanding. You saw past differences. Even with your cold and seemingly stoic exterior, you were extremely empathetic.

And god damnit, maybe you could see past his differences too.

Gwi-Ma believed that any kind of compassion, any kind of kindness and understanding was weak.

The reason was because those things dismantled any type of manipulation and control that he had over any of them.

They’ve all been told the world was unforgiving to their sins, that they deserved their damnation.

And over time, they all believed him.

They all believe him eventually.

It was his fault that he was willing to sacrifice to Gwi-Ma just for the guilt to go away.

It was different before. Before, he was forced to harvest souls with the threat of punishment.

Now, he was willingly going to do it. Not even just one or two, but the whole population of Seoul.

The demon overlord was right. If Jinu wasn’t guilty then, then he was guilty now.

Jinu was in too deep. He was evil.

But the way you looked at him with such understanding…

He couldn’t get it out of his head. 

Maybe, just maybe, one day he’ll tell you the truth. He did hope that deep down, you would achieve your goal.

Maybe then he could be free.

Chapter Text

“You know, when you said we should meet up, I didn't think that you meant all of you guys.” y̶o̸u̶ ̸c̵h̵u̵c̷k̶l̷e̵d̴,̷ ̷y̴o̷u̴r̷ ̴h̶a̴n̴d̶s̴

y̴o̷u̴r̷ ̴h̶a̴n̴d̶s̴

y̴o̷u̴r̷ ̴h̶a̴n̴d̶s̴

zile iueqt

T̷h̵e̵ ̴f̸l̵e̴s̶h̶ ̴b̵e̸n̵e̷a̵t̵h̸ ̸t̴h̸e̷ ̵g̴l̵o̴v̶e̷ ̷w̴a̵s̴ ̷b̵u̷m̶p̷y̴ ̵a̴n̸d̴ ̸l̷e̴a̸t̷h̵e̷r̵-̷y̸

.

.

.

.

zil jflv fvjgbtyu gp vv giy jgsietfmk. cok apq pbv uir doiffx kb cy erwyi nhuza.

.

.

.

.

Hey, everybody. You must all be so sad about As Above, So Below ending soon. We are too. So, to cheer everyone up, we're going to give you all a special sneak peek into an alternate universe of As Above, So Below.

Don’t miss it for the world.

.

.

.

.

AS ABOVE, SO

SO MOTE IT BE (TEASER)

What if you met the Saja Boys first?

• · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Jinu was swimming in things to do.

He knew what he was getting into when he had proposed this idea to Gwi-Ma, but he at least believed that his teammates would help him with some of this stuff.

Not that they would have been much help, anyway. They were all from different centuries.

Jinu had found out just how rapidly Korea had changed in just the last hundred years alone.

The alphabet was at least somewhat readable, considering just how long ago he had read Hangul last. It didn’t take long for the boys to adjust to the modern one.

The convenient thing about modern Hangul was that it had gotten even simpler to learn. There was no use of Hanja in the alphabet, but there were still some characters in the middle of words that would pop up every now and then.

Not that anyone other than Romance could read it anyway.

But that wasn’t all that he had been working on. He was the one that had to book events, create the boys' schedules, and help promote their debut song Soda Pop.

He had been skeptical of the street performance idea, but it had been much more effective than he had anticipated.

He was able to even score an encounter with Huntrix, who had almost immediately pinpointed that they were demons.

But the hunters weren’t the only ones in the crowd.

You. One of their other targets in their mission.

Upon further inspection, they found out that you were a normal human. This led them all to believe that you were affiliated with Huntrix in some way. Perhaps some secret unknown hunter? Maybe an ally?

Nope. You didn’t even know that the biggest girl group in Korea was standing right next to you in their poor disguises during the Saja Boys’s performance.

You had even pushed them aside to get a better look at them.

You knew. They knew. You had narrowed your eyes at them when their glamour had slipped for just a second.

It was out of curiosity. Shock. Realization.

You didn’t seem aware of their presence when the rest of the boys had stalked you, though.

Perhaps the locations that you had chosen to conveniently visit while they were stalking you was a sign that you possibly knew that they were keeping tabs on you.

They were all sacred locations, churches, temples. Places where demons like them couldn’t step foot in.

Perhaps you were gullible. Maybe you had too much faith and belief in people.

If they could possibly coax you with their charm and their kindness, then surely they could pry some information on you.

Jinu had been following you around since you had left work to go home. During your journey, you had made a few stops. He wondered how you had the money to keep up with your transportation fees with how many stations you visited.

It was only supposed to be about ten stops away with a line change in the middle.

You had made about three detours during your way, all places that the boys had seen you in.

You weren’t at them for very long, though. You were in and out, and didn’t seem like you talked to anyone.

It was a good thing, too. If something had happened inside of the temple grounds then he wouldn’t have been able to see. He would have missed out on crucial information.

“I know you didn’t follow me for ten train stops and all the way into this neighborhood just to talk .”

His head whipped back towards the sound of your voice. He let out a forced smile, although it barely masked the uncomfortability in his expression.

You stood there, all smirks and smug. This was the first time that Jinu had ever heard your voice, and it was nothing like the meek little lamb character that he had imagined you having.

He had severely misunderstood you, and realized that maybe you weren’t the desperate human that he had thought you were.

He should have brought the others.

“I really thought you would have sent that big buff guy after me. He would have probably given me a little bit of trouble.” You continued to speak in place of him.

Not only were you bold, but you were arrogant.

“What, are you disappointed?” He countered. “You don’t think I’m good enough for you?”

You scanned him from head to toe, before letting out a dismissive laugh like he was a kid throwing a tantrum.

“Oh, I know you’re not good enough for me.” You doubled down.

That in itself had sparked a sense of competition in Jinu. He had already kept in mind that you were also expecting a fight and you most likely wouldn’t come peacefully.

Even if he tried to have a civil discussion with you, he felt as if he wouldn’t get many answers.

Although, maybe that was just a justification for him to accept your little duel.

“We can still talk about this like sensible people.” He reasoned.

Did you know that they were following you the whole time? Was his doubts about you correct?

You took off your glove with your teeth, before removing your jacket as well.

The flesh beneath the glove was bumpy and leather-y, shining underneath the streetlamp. There were small patches of pink on your hands, burns that haven’t quite healed yet. They were most prevalent around the fingertips.

Did you have any feeling there anymore, he asked himself. With how much scar tissue that surrounded it, he wondered if it had lost all sensation, the nerves destroyed and gone completely numb from the damage.

Okay, so they both were doing this.

If it was a fight that you had both expected, then a fight he would initiate.

Chapter Text

You decided to scour the giant tower to kill some time. You felt like it would be a waste to come all this way (a fifteen minute walk) without at least exploring the place.

Also you realized that the boys would most likely forget their little rendezvous time, so reminding them would also be ideal. 

You figured Romance would probably be in one of the stores, but there was about five hundred and fifty five meters of tower that you could look for him in, so you decided against that.

Maybe you should start with the big attractions first.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You weren’t going to go into Lotte World. For one, you didn’t feel like paying the sixty four thousand won to just look for someone and leave. Besides, that park was ginormous, and you were definitely going to get distracted.

You decided to try your luck with the ice rink. It wouldn’t drain your wallet to get in and it was significantly smaller than the actual amusement park it was under.

Also you weren’t going to skate. 

Absolutely not.

Before you spent your well earned money to try and find one of the Saja Boys, you figured that you should confirm that one of them was actually there. Looking over the railing that overlooked the ice rink, you immediately spotted a bright head of pastel pink hair.

Romance.

He wasn’t even wearing a helmet- which was against the rules- but he was flying around the ice.

He weaved in and out between skaters and at one point, even began to skate backwards without looking. 

What a show off, you rolled your eyes before making your way downstairs to buy yourself an entrance ticket.

You quickly stopped yourself before shouting his name. You would be giving away his anonymity (not that he cares too much about it), and you didn’t need people following you two around either.

You waved to him behind the wall, in which he zoomed past and waved back. You knew for a fact that he didn’t know it was you.

You were going to pull him by the ponytail and drag him up all of those stupid stairs to the observatory deck.

Begrudgingly, you spent more of your hard earned money to rent out a pair of skates. With caution, you began to propel yourself on the ice to try and find Romance.

You didn’t have to get very far when you felt someone crash into you with skeleton collapsing force.

”Oh! Sorry, sweetheart I-“ Romance dusted the ice flakes off of his clothes before realizing it was you. “Angel! So nice of you to drop by!”

The look that you shot back at him was enough to melt the ice around you both. Yeah, you were getting off.

You both skated off of the ice and sat on a bench while you untied your shoelaces. 

“I’m really sorry, angel. I promise that I’ll make it up to you, babe. How about that one My Melody cafe right next to the rink? I heard-“

You cut him off. “You need to meet Jinu on the observatory deck. I’m only here because I knew you all forgot.”

”Awww, so no second date?” Romance fake pouted. You sighed. You didn’t feel like spending money on an overpriced drink or bread and you had to find the other guys.

Well, it’s not like you had to get anything. You did have a little more time before the guys had to actually meet up, too.

Also, it’s your free day. Not like you were doing anything else.

With a groan, you agreed. 

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

”How did you learn how to skate like that?” You asked, swirling your drink around with your straw. He had insisted you got one. You refused, considering he seemed to keep paying for everything. Also the fact that you didn’t recognize half of the drinks on the menu was part of the reason why.

“Is that what that was? I just watched.” Romance shrugged, taking a sip of his own drink. You laughed, but the look on his face remained unchanged.

”Wait, so you just watched people skate and… did it?” You questioned incredulously. Romance kept his slightly stunned and confused expression, nodding slowly.

”But things like that take some time to learn, let alone do it well- we’ve been here for about an hour!” 

“What, are you impressed?” He smirked, sipping through his straw.

“Well… yes, but… maybe it’s because you’re a demon, right?” You attempted to explain away. For a moment, you saw his face flicker again, just like how it did back when you two were at that restaurant. Did you say something wrong?

”No, I just… have always been able to learn quickly.” Romance stated. You nodded. You didn't mean to make him upset by pointing out that he was a demon.

He seemed to notice this, and continued to speak. “Dancing, singing, writing poems and lyrics… ever since I was young, I learned fast.”

You paused for a moment. Romance was literate enough to write poems before he became a demon? 

It didn’t come as a surprise that he was most likely born with status back in his human life. With the way he spent money frivolously, it made sense.

But he had known how to sing and dance since before his transformation.

“My birth mother was a kisaeng.” Romance elaborated.

So that’s how he learned.

“She taught you well.” You confirmed. “She must have been good at the arts.”

You could see that Romance’s expression began to soften, but it wasn’t because of fondness.

No, it looked like pain.

“…I loved her.” It was barely a hoarse whisper, but it had reached your ears. 

Romance. His personality was in his name, but how much of it was real?

Anytime you tried to get close, anything to try and get to the real man underneath, he switches on his charming seductive facade again.

But he had just said something so human. It was nothing like the two dimensional flirt that you spoke with ninety percent of the time.

She would have passed after Romance had become a demon. 

“I’m sure she loved you, too. Her existence lives on inside you.” You watched as the people passed your window, your fingers fiddling with the paper wrapper of the straw. “The way you dance, the way you sing, the beautiful lyrics you write now… she’s there with you.”

You knew the feeling of loss. Perhaps his deal with Gwi-Ma was to do with his mother?

“Our family lives on through us.” You stood up, giving him a kind smile. “Their lessons become our beliefs.”

You walked towards the trash can, drinking the rest of your drink before tossing it.

“I have to go find the others. Remember to meet Jinu at the observatory deck in an hour and thirty.”

You waved to him before heading out of the cafe. You left him stunned, drink in hand and the words that you bestowed on him.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You could have sworn you've scoured every inch of that stupid aquarium to find him. If Mystery was likely to be in any attraction, it was going to be the one that was the most serene and silent. Just how hard was it to spot a man with bright lavender bangs that covered half of his face?

It was true that he was wearing a disguise today. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, his eyes still covered by his hair. He wore a muted indigo sleeveless hoodie, black headphones wrapped around his neck.

Damn Abby and his stupid Clark Kent theory. You couldn’t find him anywhere.

Okay, fine. It wasn’t your fault that you got distracted by the jellyfish. Or the sharks. Or the manta rays.

You placed your bet on the water tunnel this time, realizing that if you had the best chance of finding him anywhere, it was the place where the most people moved in and out.

Sure enough you finally found Mystery, his gaze transfixed at the marine animals in front of him.

“Mystery, there you are.” You breathed a sigh of relief. “Jinu’s been looking for you. He told me to tell you once I found you to meet him at the observatory deck in an hour.”

He didn’t even look at your direction. You stood next to him, trying to see what he was staring so intently at. You realized that it wasn’t any specific animal he was tracking.

It took you a bit to understand that this sort of thing must be foreign to him. You weren’t sure how old any of them really were but if you had to estimate based on Jinu’s age, you’d say they were all at least four to six hundred years old.

You wondered if he’s ever been to the sea, let alone seen it. You wondered if he had ever dug his toes in the sand, or if he’s ever ran towards the waves as the sea foam clung to the skin on his legs. Maybe he had a friend with him. Maybe he used to splash them with water when they weren’t looking, complaining when their clothes and hair got wet.

You both stood in silence, the chatter of the passersby drowned to nothing but murmurs. As far as you were concerned, it was just you, Mystery, and the animals in the tank.

“You… You helped that girl. You saw me take care of her.” You said. Mystery could only look forward, still silent. 

You wanted to ask why, but the words caught in your throat. They were mangled, and the only sound that could come out was a small gasp.

”Younghee.” You turned to look at him, a mixture of surprise and knowing crossing your face. “She looked scared.”

You weren’t shocked that he had helped someone, but had looked after the scared little girl that you had comforted. Did he kill demons that stood in his own way too when they came to her again?

You looked back at Mystery, who just seemed like he was taking it all in. You couldn’t exactly tell how he felt about what he was seeing though. His eyes being covered made it hard to tell what he was thinking. Was he even enjoying it?

A soft exhale from his nose told you everything that you needed to know. His face fell and his head lowered, a ghost of a frown gracing his lips. Pain. He clenched his fist, a sense of frustration emitting from him. His adam’s apple shot up quickly, before bobbing back down in a harsh swallow. You could have even sworn that his patterns flared just barely noticeable enough for your eyes to catch.

You thought back to what Jinu had said about Gwi-Ma, everything he had explained. How he had control over their minds and dictated every single action that they executed. Even their own thoughts weren’t safe.

You kneeled down, your attention turning towards a lemon shark that had darted through the tank. 

“You know, there’s this thing about sharks,” you began, tracing the animal’s shape with your finger on the glass. “They’re seen as these intimidating bloodthirsty monsters that attack humans. Unpredictable. Volatile. Violent.”

You stood up from the dark carpeted floor as the lemon shark continued to swim in circles. You could have sworn it started to chase its tail at one point.

”But that couldn’t be further from the truth. People just don’t care to understand.”

You faced him now while the sunlight beamed on his features through the rippling water of the tank. It engulfed him in a calm ocean blue, the beams of light dancing on his facial features.

A soft smile graced your lips before turning away towards the exit of the tunnel. He was left standing there with the fishes, the passing people, and his feelings.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You had no idea where you would find the next boy.

It was unlikely that Abby and Baby were in the bookstore. Man, if this mall had a gym or something, you’d know exactly where to find Abby.

But Baby? That man was still a mystery to you. You still didn’t even know if he liked you or not.

He did ignore you less. Not by a lot though. He responded in bored hums and grunts.

Loud music and bright lights caught your attention from across the mall. Was there a concert going on?

Upon closer inspection, the lights and music were coming from an arcade. You didn’t even know there was an arcade in the mall. It looked to be quite small, but you figured that if anything had a screen, then Baby was most likely to be glued to it.

You spotted him next to the Dance Dance Revolution machine, waiting for the person in front of him to finish their round. He looked bored, except for the small smile that appeared every time they missed a step.

“Baby! There you were. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You have to go to the observatory deck. Jinu’s waiting.” You informed before he cut you off by shoving all his belongings into your arms. Man, what was up with everyone just making you hold their stuff?

You set his things on the ground next to the dance pad, crossing your arms as you watched him pick out a song. Some pop track started to blare through the speakers attached next to the screen.

”You shouldn't dance with candy in your mouth. You’ll choke.” You scolded him. In true Baby fashion, he continued to ignore you. 

You opened your mouth to speak again until you realized just how fast the arrows on the screen were moving.

And Baby was matching every single one. 

He wasn’t even using the bar behind him to steady himself at all.

What in the actual fuck.

After you picked up your jaw from the floor and the song was over, he turned to you.

Removing the lollipop from his mouth, he gave a smile that could only mean that he was about to make your life miserable.

“Beat me in a round and I’ll go.”

And guess what your ego said?

You huffed, inserting a thousand won bill into the machine before stepping on the platform next to him. 

Now you already knew Baby was a little shit. You knew this wasn’t going to be easy at all. Hell, he had already turned the difficulty up to ‘expert’.

But maybe, just maybe, you’d be able to beat him.

Infinite bragging rights would be granted to you.

Within the first note, you immediately regretted your decision.

Baby’s feet were lightning fast, while you clumsily attempted to keep up. You kept receiving an assortment of insults from your missed arrows, a bead of sweat dripping down your scalp.

To no one’s surprise, you received a ranking of D and Baby was ranked a triple A. He didn’t say anything, but his patterns softly flared as he gave you a smirk that said it all.

You grumbled as you came off the dance pad. Why did he have to be so frustrating?

You could feel like watching you as you began to exit the arcade.

“Buy me a Jaws bar.”

You turned, raising an eyebrow. Baby stood still on the dance platform. It looked like he hadn’t inserted money yet into the machine.

“There’s two 7-Elevens next to the subway station in one of the basement floors.” You waved. He had legs. He can walk. He probably didn’t even try.

“I looked. Couldn’t find it.” He responded. You knew for a fact that he didn’t try well.

Fine. You both had time anyway. You gestured to him to walk with you, in which he gathered his belongings.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“I thought you didn’t like orange.” You recalled. He had complained about the flavor last time, and you were quite surprised that he had requested the exact ice cream.

You didn't pay for him, obviously. You drew the line at that. You already had to spend money on tickets to try and find the other boys.

”I like strawberry.” He answered, taking a bite out of the popsicle. “And they taste… okay together.”

You eyed the items on the spot next to you. They were all prizes that he must have won in the arcade. There were an assortment of plushies and keychains, things you didn’t exactly expect someone like Baby collecting.

You couldn't prove it, but you were sure that he cheated in the claw machines. There were too many small keychains for him to get in an hour. You had to slap away his hand when you were in the convenience store with him.

“You… like them?” You couldn’t hide your smirk. Baby, like his name, was very picky about his tastes. And you, a semi-member of his rival group that he seemed to all hate, the person that he glared at when he met you for the first time, had been able to get him to like something.

Huh, what do you know? He was full of surprises.

”No. It’s fucking disgusting.” Baby quickly retorted. You rolled your eyes, but you could have sworn that the corners of his lips twitched upwards just a tiny bit.

“Anyways, I have to find Abby.” You set the stolen goods aside. You stood up from the bench, searching for your next location before he had grabbed your wrist.

He slid out something from inside one of his sleeves. A very familiar blue popsicle wrapper.

”Take it or don’t.” He muttered. You hesitantly took the still-cold Bbongta (his sweater must have had really good insulation) from his hand, shocked.

Oh yeah, he most certainly didn’t pay for this.

But you didn’t want to be rude. 

Also come on, free ice cream.

“I saw him go into the folk museum when I was trying to find the convenience store earlier.” Baby hummed, sitting back down. You thanked Baby, before folding open his hand and placing a crumpled up five thousand won bill in his palm.

“Don’t steal next time.” You warned as you walked away, leaving Baby slightly stunned with his melted popsicle in his hand.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The museum was so much smaller than you expected. The admission fee was only five thousand won, which was good news for your aching wallet. 

You found Abby in the Joseon era section of the museum, whose eyes were glued onto the rusted and faded armor pieces behind the glass.

”I didn’t expect to see you here, out of all places.” You confessed. A bit startled, he turned around from your voice.

“Hey. Didn’t expect you to come looking for me.” Abby responded, grinning slightly. “How was your little date with Jinu?”

You nudged him, rolling your eyes. “You know it wasn’t a date. He needs you back at the deck in about thirty minutes.”

”Oh, I totally forgot about that!” He gasped. “Thanks.” 

But he didn’t move from his spot. You figured that he would eventually go by himself, so you began to take your leave.

”What you asked me, back at Han River.” You stopped in your tracks, spinning back around. Abby’s eyes didn’t leave the armor pieces. Inside of them, you could feel his loss.

Did he know where they were from? Did he know who they belonged to? Did he see them once shining and brand new, only to be disgraced with blood and rust over the harsh years?

”…I do. I do miss it.” He balled his fist up, his stripes climbing up from his palms to his wrists. ”It feels like things are… changing without me. Like I’m, like, stuck in the past. Stuck like this.”

Immortality. One of the curses of becoming a demon. He’s a stone in the passing river of time.

”Then change with it, Abby.” You whispered. “You can’t let your past actions define you. It’s what you do after it.”

You thought back to Jinu’s words, how they were all bound to some sort of guilt or some sort of shame. How Gwi-Ma used this to manipulate them into reaping would for him in all eternity. No one wished for servitude.

”I don’t know what you all have done to become this, to become a demon, but I know that it wasn’t because you all wanted to.”

You knew that Jinu was most likely going to tell the rest of the boys about your plan, whether he agreed with it or not. 

But that was okay with you.

”I know that in the end, you all will make the right decision.”

And with that, you left Abby in the museum, surrounded by artifacts of his past, and his weary heart.

Chapter Text

“You can make things right.”

Jinu typed away on his laptop, his eyes bloodshot and strained from the bright blue screen. He took one day off and now his schedules were unfinished and his to-do list had piled up.

Whatever. Anything to distract him from the two voices in his head. 

“Tell them the truth.” Gwi-Ma taunted.

Jinu grunted, his fingers halting on the keys. The worst part about Gwi-Ma’s words was that it was the right thing to do.

You deserved the truth.

Jinu only continued to type on his keyboard. How was it that a person he had only spoken to properly twice had a chokehold on everyone in the band? 

Sure, he had made small talk to you when prompted during interviews and events with Huntrix, but that was just to be nice.

And to get under the girls’s skin. It was just a small part of it, though!

With how merciful you had been to the demons that you slayed, he had imagined you more like Zoey: a person that seemed to sacrifice your own well being for others, even if it was to your detriment.

And, well, a massive pushover.

You were merciful, but you were cold. Stoic. Always keeping others at an arms distance.

But you never lashed out. You never pushed anyone back. 

Actually, it seemed like you did the opposite. He didn’t know what you had done to the others, but they had gotten quieter. Calmer. Just a little bit enough for him to notice.

Mystery began to speak more often. Before, it was only in short one word sentences. Now, he would speak full phrases. 

They all didn’t know too much about Mystery’s past life. They had all had an unspoken agreement that they wouldn’t pry about each other’s past lives. They only knew the things that they would share over a drink, or maybe over some distasteful throwaway joke.

Baby started to try more new things, which was a feat for someone like him. He began to accept help from others, only for little things that once seemed like if he asked, his pride would personally take a hit. He also appeared much less guarded than usual. Baby would swat away hands that came near him, much like a cat swiping its paw at its potential assailant. He had gone from an angry feral rescue cat to a slightly less grumpy domestic cat.

And he’s started to share. That was unheard of for someone like Baby. 

Romance was the same old Romance on the surface. It was hard to determine what he was truly thinking under his airheadedness.

But even that could have been intricately fabricated by him.

He was the most confusing of the bunch. He would shamelessly discuss with the boys the different historical figures he would sleep with one by one in chronological order but once in a blue moon, it was like his brain cells would all align to form one single intelligent thought.

But it wasn’t in the way Abby did it. Abby would remember that he was, in fact, a sentient being at times and utilize his semi-free will in very interesting ways.

No, there was something about Romance that was fleeting. His real personality was distant. It was a stark contrast to his persona.

Abby acted like a teenager most of the time. Granted, they all turned when they were in their twenties, but Abby liked to embrace his inner kid. He enjoyed kids' media, and Jinu even caught him once watching re-runs of an old superhero TV show.

The dialogue was flat, and the colors too bright for his eyes, but Abby was starstruck.

Surprisingly, Abby was the most affectionate out of all the boys. He had no problem in expressing his care and love for them, even if they tried clawing their way out of his arms (Baby).

He was the most paternal out of the bunch as well. He was always the first one charging ahead in battle. He was also always the first one to help the others in need when they were injured.

Abby brought home snacks from stores after fights, even when still injured himself. He would always brush his wounds off, stating that he had had worse and that it was no big deal.

He did always seem to be able to heal faster than the others.

The truth was that your existence had made the others discover things about each other. Maybe they didn’t all point it out, but it was noticeable.

“If you truly believed that they were just as kind and lenient as you think they are, then you should have no problem telling them the truth without worrying about your head.”

No. Gwi-Ma had caused so much suffering and destruction. If he accepted your help in defeating him, then he was lying for the greater good!

Even if he didn’t accept your help, he was desperate to be free from his voice. He was just trying to make them stop.

You didn’t need to know.

What you didn’t know wouldn’t hurt you, right?

…right?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The water droplets sprayed down from the shower head, coating Abby’s hair and skin in warm water. The drops traveled from his hair, down to the curves and angles of his musculature, and towards his feet down the drain.

All he could do in that steamy humid shower was think. 

He propped himself up with one arm on the cold stone grey wall, his head swimming in thoughts.

Thoughts of his past. Voices of Gwi-Ma. You.

”So eager to please. So eager to help, but you just can’t face the truth that you’re useless. You cling onto what once was, what you will never have back.”

Abby clenched his fist as the memories that he blocked out unwillingly flashed through his mind.

Courtesy of Gwi-Ma, of course.

”Shut up, man.” He groaned, shutting his eyes tightly.

“You attempt to relive the past through your teammates. How long before they die due to your incompetence too?”

”That’s not what happened-“

“If only you had gotten home sooner.”

He struck the stone tile with his fist, a crack resounding throughout the bathroom as he slid down to the floor.

Abby was supposed to be the strong one. Even in his team, he was the designated tank.

But he felt nothing but weak at this very moment.

You didn’t care about any of that. You cared about whether he got Superman’s name right, or why on God’s green earth he would ever eat hamburger flavored ramen. You worried for his physical injuries, ones that had long closed up before you had pointed them out. You even worried about his emotional injuries as well, quick to comfort him when he had been uncharacteristically vulnerable.

He was never vulnerable. 

Because if he wasn’t the strong one, who was he?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Romance slid the book back into its original place on the shelf. Disappointed, he scanned the aisles upon aisles of bookshelves that caved and towered over him. He had come to COEX mall again with Mystery, per his request. Something about an aquarium.

There just wasn’t anything interesting to read anymore. The classics that he grew up with now had only a quarter of the Hanja that he had learned, and even those looked a little unfamiliar.

Romance had learned only Hanja in his past life, which had made learning Hangul much more simple. Then again, he was always a fast learner.

Hey, he could be smart when he wanted to.

He still wrote in Hanja after he had turned, afraid that he might lose how to write it. Even during centuries and centuries of suffering, he kept his mind sharp.

Romance, much like Abby, clung onto the past as well.

He was afraid that if he lost any one of his talents, any one of the things that had shaped him into him back then, then he would have lost any remaining sense he had left to Gwi-Ma long ago.

“You didn’t love her.” 

Romance stopped in his tracks, dropping the books that he had under his arm down to the floor. 

“You lied to them, just like Jinu did. If you loved your mother, then you would have gotten the money some other way. Instead, you had killed. You murdered him in front of her eyes and called it an act of love.”

“She was in pain!” Romance hissed.

“She was scared of you. On that day, she must have been so terrified. So  disappointed. That’s why she ran from you, wasn’t it?”

“I just wanted her safe…”

“She was safer as that man’s concubine than you could have ever made her.”

“I tried… I tried so hard.”

“If there was one thing that manager was right about, it was that you’re her son.”

Romance sunk down the bookshelf that he was standing in front of, his spine pushing in the books deeper as he curled up.

He was her son. She was strong in her own way. She had taken care of him, even though she could have gotten rid of him long ago. His mother only gave him to a family of higher class so that once she could be free, she could come back for him.

She was smart too. She was the one that taught Romance everything he knew today, after all.

He tried so hard to embody her for such a long time, to the point he could never remember which version of himself he was mimicking anymore. 

But he always remembered how different she was outside of her work.

He just knew that his real self was insecure and that he never wanted anyone else to see.

Romance missed her, flaws and all. He just wanted to hear her poems again. He wanted to hear her music and see her dancing again too.

But maybe you were right.

Maybe she did live on in him. 

Whenever he wrote new lyrics, whenever he came up with new choreography, he felt a small sense of nostalgia over him.

Maybe it wasn’t the same as before. Maybe instruments were changed to technology. Maybe traditional dancing was changed into idol choreography.

Maybe he didn’t have to put on a facade in front of everyone anymore.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The lemon sharks in the enclosure darted around, not even sparing a glance towards Mystery.

He had requested to come to the aquarium when Romance had announced to the others that he was going outside.

This one was much bigger than the one at Lotte Tower. It was multiple stories big, and the tanks were quite literally ceiling to floor.

He had wondered how such beautiful creatures had gotten such a bad reputation to humans. 

Was that how you thought of him?

Was he still a human in your eyes?

You both had judgement towards each other before you two had met. He believed that you were a cold and merciless killer. You must have thought that he was just like what he was: a demon. A beast.

But when he met you, you had no fear in your eyes. No malice.

Instead, you had acceptance. You had surrendered immediately to him.

What he would have deemed as cowardly, he had not expected from you.

You saw him as beautiful. You saw him as kind. 

And damnit, he hadn’t felt something like that in so long.

“Younghee… she must be around the same age as that girl you used to take care of.”

Mystery didn’t believe reincarnation was real, but when he had seen Younghee he was immediately transported back to the slums of Hanyang. There was a girl that was the spitting image of her. Perhaps if it wasn’t reincarnation, it was her ancestor.

“How long before she sees you as a monster too? How long before that manager does?”

He began to walk away from the sharks. The thing that differentiated him from them was that they were innocent. They were curious creatures, and when they attacked, they didn’t truly mean it.

“It’s amusing how you believe that you are capable of such a thing as affection.”

Mystery’s not violent. He doesn’t know why he’s volatile.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Were all children’s playgrounds made to look like an artificial rainbow labyrinth?

Baby sucked on his lollipop as his feet dangled from one of the ledges of the structure.

Man. Back when he was a kid, he never had shit like this. City kids are so soft nowadays. Whatever happened to tree climbing? Rock climbing? Swimming in a river?

He’s sure that they still existed in Seoul, but they were all artificial now. Nothing beat the real thing.

Not that he ever had time to do that kind of stuff as a child.

He hummed, kicking his feet slightly in the air as he watched a few kids argue about blocking the slides on the other side of the structure.

He probably looked like a giant creep actually. Even his baby face didn’t cover up the fact that he in fact was not under the age of twelve. In his defense when he had arrived, he was alone.

Maybe he should go somewhere else.

“Look at you. So guarded. So terrifying underneath that adorable face.”

Baby only sped up, his steps turning into not so subtle sprint-stomping.

“Always so fickle. So avoidant. So scared someone’s going to take what you believe is always rightfully yours.”

“If you're going to insult me, just get to the point already.” Baby grumbled.

“They all know you do this because deep down, you’re a coward. There’s nothing underneath that mask of callousness. It’s all hate and fear and selfishness.”

”Yeah?” Baby said. He knew this. Having done his time longer than the rest of the boys, he had already given up on such things as redemption or getting rid of his suffering.

It was normal for him now. It didn’t mean that he didn’t still feel pain, but he’s learned to accept that things will never get better.

The best thing to do was to stay quiet and to himself.

There was truly nothing human left of him anymore.

He was honestly kind of horrible to you. He was a brat, self serving now because he never was able to back then.

But you still kept extending an olive branch to him. How could you not see that he wasn’t going to change? Were you naive or just stupid? Maybe all of the above?

But he found that his actions betrayed his words and thoughts.

Gwi-Ma was right. He already knew, but sometimes maybe his black little peppercorn heart still remembered how to do something nice.

And he would never admit the fact that you proved to him that he could be nice without being seen as some sort of pushover.

Chapter Text

The smell of child wonder and cotton candy filled the air as you toured the giant indoor amusement park. The skylight dome blinded your eyes, and the constant shrieking of the people on the rollercoasters became white noise to your ears.

Yes. You were jealous. You were here for a tour, not for actual fun.

Huntrix was supposed to perform on the Garden Stage at Lotte World in a few weeks and it was your job to scope out the stage and its mechanisms.

You wondered if Lotte World, being one of the largest indoor theme parks in the world, would be able to fit as many people as you were going to estimate to come inside of the park.

You had already come to Lotte Tower a few weeks prior to meet Jinu and the others. Their words had weighed on you, and you hoped that they would help you.

You felt selfish. For one, the girls didn’t seem to have a single idea that you were speaking to the boys outside of events and meetings.

Well, they probably did but they hadn’t said anything about it.

The rides tempted you and the food stands tantalized you, the smell outstretching its arms for you to come hither.

Jesus Christ. It was true that you didn’t have anything after this today. Maybe you could explore a little afterwards? You’d have to go buy a ticket first of course, but was five hours enough to explore the entire inside and outside of the park?

Not to mention how crowded it was today.

You’ve been here before with friends and it was no mystery that one of the most famous amusement parks in Seoul would be packed, but it looked like it had double the amount of people.

Thank god none of the boys hid in here when you had to go find them around the tower.

You jotted down notes and directions from the stage manager that was guiding you around the stage.

”And we usually have pop-up idol merch stores whenever a group performs here!” They presented. “This one is one from a group that performed today, actually.”

You didn’t look up from your clipboard, writing down the previous directions that they had blazed over before you finished.

”And that should be it for today. If you have any questions, please contact us! We look forward to working with Huntrix.” They smiled as they held out a hand for you to shake. You nodded, returning the gesture. You couldn’t hide your excitement as you pittered along the artificial cobble stone path past the fake village merch stands.

You shoved your clipboard in your bag, going up the escalator to buy your tickets on the second floor.

Man, if only you were in college again. You could have gotten a student discount on the tickets. You’ve seen many students wear their uniforms to the park for that same exact reason.

Although recently, many people began to rent out school uniforms specifically for the experience.

It must be strange for real students to see grown adults in school clothes. You can easily filter them out.

If they had brightly colored hair? They weren't a real student.

Especially if his hair was bright pink and reached down to his shoulders. 

Wait a minute.

”Angel! We keep meeting!” Romance outstretched his arms towards you for a hug.

You expertly dodged away, before dusting off your clothes.

”What are you even doing here?” You raised an eyebrow. Romance looked at you a bit stunned, before a smirk crawled up his lips.

”Oh, ouch. You're telling me that you don’t remember our group’s song?” 

What the hell was he talking about?

You whipped your head towards the nearest standing poster in front of the entrance, and sure enough the group that had performed earlier today was the Saja Boys.

You turned back to him, scanning his outfit. He wore a white dress shirt, his tie a baby pink that matched his hair. A sleeveless v-neck of the same color tied the whole outfit together. On his chest was the embroidered logo of the rental store that he had come out from.

He wore a headband with squirrel ears with a red bow in the middle, which matched the girl mascot of the park.

”And they let you perform wearing that?” You questioned. As you spoke, Baby had come up to you two, his uniform matching Romance’s except in his signature teal color. He even wore a frog eye headband as well.

”When did you get here?” He interrupted Romance to ask you.

”Not long ago. I had to do some work here, but I was just about to-“

”Leave?” The rest of the boys had filed out of the rental store, their uniforms in their respective colors. Jinu sported white striped tiger ears on his head, and Abby had chosen pink rabbit ears. Nestled in Mystery’s hair sat a pair of black cat ears.

“No, I was just about to-“

”Well then, since we’re all here now, we should explore!” Abby led the group, Romance hooking one arm over yours as they all ushered you towards the escalators down to the park.

”I was going to say, I have to buy a ticket first.” You finally managed to be able to wheeze out. 

The boys all stared at you for a good few seconds before Abby began to scramble up the downwards moving stairs, pulling you up with him.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“You’ve been here before, correct?” Jinu confirmed with you. 

“A few times with friends, yeah.” You nodded. “I can show you guys around if-“

You turned around to see that Baby and Mystery had disappeared and Romance was already straying away from the group.

“Oooookay. There are maps and signs around the park too if you guys… need them.” You rubbed your temples. Well, they weren’t your problem. They were ultimately Jinu’s future problem. And plus, as long as you stayed with at least one boy, then you can contact the other boys as well if you had to meet up.

“I’m going to find a paper map. I’ll be back in a little bit.” Jinu informed before running off in the opposite direction.

“This would look so adorable on you!” Romances cooed as he fixed a headband on you. You fought the instinct to shake it off your head like a dog and looked in the mirror of the souvenir stand that Romance had grabbed it from.

It was a plush shark with its mouth open that made it look like it was biting your head. You couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

“It is adorable.” You confirmed, adjusting the placing of the headband.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh.” Abby pointed out. By his reaction, you could tell that he very much found it nice.

“It does beat your constant scowling.” Romance added. “Although, I still find it sexy.”

He had paid for the headband while you had been distracted. You wouldn’t have been surprised if Abby had ganged up with Romance, considering how adamant you were that you wanted to pay with your own money. 

And you hated feeling like you were owing Romance constantly.

“Anyways, I was thinking about going on that ride with the blue track? The one that keeps coming by.” Abby pointed to the rollercoaster track a few meters above you three, where a cart zoomed by at light speed. The delayed screams caught up to you guys about three seconds later.

“Oh, that one? That’s a really good one. It’s called ‘French Revolution.’ It has a loop in the middle.” You responded. 

“Then we gotta ride that one!” Abby pulled you by the wrist, following the track to where the ride was.

“Romance, you coming?” You asked, who was still frozen in place. His eyes were as big as saucers, his hand frozen in front of his mouth into a permanent gasp.

“…Romance?” You prodded, now a bit concerned from his lack of answer.

“Y-you know, I think my hair would get messed up from the ride and I spent a lot of time on it this morning-“

“Come on, bro! Let’s go, let’s go!” Abby hauled Romance up, flinging him over his shoulder as he dragged you both to the entrance of the ride.

You assured Abby that the wait time for the ride was sure to be worth it. The inside of the building that the line was in was decorated like a French cottage.

Abby whistled. “It’s so crazy how much technology has advanced since we were gone, huh Romance?”

He slapped the other pink haired idol on the back, which made him almost fall over.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Romance gulped. You remembered when you passed the looped track that you were talking about while walking towards the line, Romance had turned as white as a ghost. “Just how much can technology have changed in the last four hundred years for this to be for sure safe?”

“Well, they wouldn’t have kept this ride up if someone died in it.” Abby shrugged. That statement didn’t seem to help Romance at all.

“Romance, if you don’t feel like you’re comfortable riding this ride, you can wait for us at the exit-“

The rollercoaster had come back from its trip already, and Romance clung onto your arm like a koala. His grip was deathly tight, and you were sure that he was leaving crescent nail marks on your skin, even through your sleeve.

You put your bag and both of the boys’s headbands inside one of the cubbies before choosing a spot on the ride next to Romance. Abby sat behind you two, his reaction a clear juxtaposition from Romance’s.

“I think I’m gonna throw up.” Romance winced.

“The ride hasn’t even started yet.” Abby piped up. You put the shoulder restraints over your head and motioned for Romance to do the same.

The cart gradually climbed up the track, giving you a stellar view of the fake buildings inside of the park. With each click and each bump, Romance flinched. 

You felt a hand grab yours as you both stopped at the top.

The ride sped up suddenly, weaving in and out of the tunnels before swooping down to a sudden drop. From behind, you heard loud laughter and whooping. From beside you, the whimpers that left Romance had turned into shrieks. They only both got louder as you felt your body suspended in the air from the loop. The screaming from Romance stopped abruptly, the momentum from the loop preventing you from turning your head. The grip on your hand loosened as well, which sent red flags through your head.

When you were upright again, you immediately checked up on Romance, who had passed out. His head rested on one of the shoulder rests.

“Romance. Romance.” You patted his face with your hand. Now you were on the verge of passing out too.

Romance gasped awake, much like a fish out of water. Or maybe one of your female relatives being woken up in the middle of the night. 

He panted, a hand to his chest as he blinked rapidly.

“Dude, did you faint?” Abby cackled from behind. Romance stuttered, unable to form words from the horrors he had experienced. 

The ride finally stopped at the docking point, to which the shoulder restraints lifted from off your chest. 

Romance only sat frozen in his seat, clearly traumatized from the whole experience. 

You frowned, before extending a hand out to him.

“Next time, let’s just stick with the teacups.” You smiled. His eyes flicked up from your hand to you, like he had just been in the presence of a saint. You could tell that he couldn’t even think of anything flirty or anything charming to say. He seemed so shaken up. Or flustered.

You held his hand and led him towards the exit, where Abby had skipped ahead.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“You went on French Revolution without me?” Baby pouted as you met him on the second floor with Romance. Abby had decided to go outside to ride the Gyro Drop, which you knew that Romance wouldn’t be able to handle. He held a rabbit shaped cotton candy, its ears pink and blue. There were even stickers for the eyes and mouth.

”If you would have stayed with the group, then maybe you would have been able to.” Romance taunted, picking at his nails as he leaned on you. Baby glared daggers at him, his cute baby blue attire and frog headband a stark contrast to his expression.

”How do you manage to convince him to wear that thing?” You whispered to Romance.

“He threatened to bite my hand off.” 

You sighed, before going up to Baby.

”Don’t tell Abby, but there’s a better ride outside. Atlantis. We can go on that one instead.” You compromised. He continued to glower, but began to lead you two out the building.

”Oh! Can you take a picture of me in front of the castle?” Romance perked up, shoving his phone into your hand before patting up in front of the railing.

”Baby, you want to be in the picture too?” He chirped, before pulling Baby next to him anyway. Romance framed his head in his hands, lifting one leg up as he made a kissy face. Baby continued to glare at the camera, his body hunched over as he held the cotton candy stick in a death grip.

”Uh… you’re not going to smile or…?” You started. You got no answer, and you could tell Romance was getting tired of the pose. Sighing, you counted down before taking two pictures.

Looking back at them, you couldn’t help but burst out laughing. You handed the phone back to Romance, who scolded Baby for ruining his photo. Baby only rolled his eyes, before waiting for you to stop wheezing.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“This line better be worth it.” Baby grumbled. The line snaked around the food stalls and the walkway. Romance went off to take more pictures in the park and inside the castle, leaving you both alone.

”It is. Why else would there be a huge line for it?” You pointed out. “This ride and French Revolution are the best rides in the park. The one Abby went on? Gyro Drop? It’s iconic, but it doesn’t hold a candle to this one in my opinion.”

You plucked the pink ear of the cotton candy rabbit, the sugar melting in your mouth. 

”Also, this ride is longer. It’s definitely worth the wait.”

Baby huffed, studying the rollercoaster tracks. You could tell that he still wasn’t impressed.

“It’ll speak for itself.” You hummed. The more you examined Baby’s look, the more you found it hilarious that Romance was able to wrangle him into it.

”Did you end up biting him?” You stifled a laugh.

”Got a few good puncture marks on his arm.” Baby responded. You did notice that he still kept the headband on, even though he claimed to dislike it.

The line finally dwindled down to just a few people in front of you.

”It doesn’t have shoulder restraints.” Baby frowned. You had learned to just tune out his complaints at this point. Pushing him towards the cart, you handed him your bag and your headband to place in the cubby next to him. You adjusted the lap bar on your legs, anxious for the ride to start.

”This ride doesn’t even have a loop, and you expect it to compete with-“

He got cut off by the sudden lightning fast speed on the ride, which nearly gave the both of you whiplash. The cart climbed up the tracks, before shooting through the twists and turns of the ride. It blazed through the dark tunnels, before plummeting down to the outside world. It sharply curved to the side, until the both of you were at a ninety degree angle and flipped over right side up again. 

It skidded to a near halt in front of a tunnel, to which it began to slowly move once more. A dragon statue peeked out from the side of the rocks as the cart steadily turned to reveal another one. 

Before Baby had the time to let out some sort of witty quip or even open his mouth, the ride shot back up the track once more. The drop this time was enough to make you feel your organs shift inside of your body, before delivering its whiplash twists and turns again.

The ride slowed to a stop for real this time, pulling up at the inside of the structure. Baby panted, his eyes wide and stuck open. You removed the lap bar from your legs, standing up.

You felt a hand grab your wrist before you could exit the vehicle.

”Again.” Baby whispered.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You had come back inside alone, searching for any sign of the other boys. Maybe you should eat something. All you had was a small piece of cotton candy after all. 

And you’ve already been on the intense rides so there really wasn’t any worry about puking.

You had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the kids section of the park. Searching for a way out, you began to turn back the way you came when you suddenly spotted a familiar lavender haired boy that stood in a line of children that were half his height. You waved, taking his spot in the queue.

”Have you ridden on any other rides yet?” You glanced at the one seater ride. It was a giant clock with flimsy metal seating, and it used its arm to lift the children up and around its circumference.

Would Mystery even be able to fit on that thing?

He nodded his head yes. You adjusted the black cat ear headband on his head as it was his turn to ride the ride.

You hoped to god there were no attendants.

Pulling out his phone, you began to record Mystery as he struggled with the seat. It was a miracle how his legs actually fit through the slim metal bars. The clock arm began to travel upwards gradually. Mystery slightly kicked his legs as the arm moved down slowly.

Suddenly, a series of loud popping noises came from the machine, which had been from the arm of the clock jerking downwards. It brought Mystery down with it, who had flailed as he was also brought down. You gasped before you quickly pressed stop on the phone, howling with laughter as you swiftly helped him out of the seat before an employee noticed.

You lead him towards another kids ride, holding his hand as you continued to giggle.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You had finally found the rest of the boys on the top floor of the park next to a ride called Pharoah’s Fury. 

“Jinu? Where have you been?” You asked. 

“I met up with Abby and Romance outside after I found the map.” Jinu answered.

“Any rides?”

“We went on a few slower paced rides, per my request of course, until Abby started to scream when the rides slowed down.” Romance explained. “So what kind of ride is this?”

”It’s fast paced, but nothing like the ride you went on with me earlier, Romance. It’s an animatronic ride, basically.” You assured him. “There are a few sharp turns and a tiny drop, but other than that, it’s mostly for looking.”

The inside of the rollercoaster building simulated a pharaoh's tomb, much like the theme of the ride. Baby commented how it looked like they completely ripped off Indiana Jones. You wondered how he even knew about Indiana Jones, but forgot about it once you saw the fake golden treasure and jewels on display.

It was definitely one of the most well decorated lines in the park, you thought. There were pillars with snake heads, statues of jackal headed warriors, and even hieroglyphs on the sides of the walls. You took some pictures of the boys as well. Jinu posed like a facebook dad, leaning towards the subject with both hands folded in front of him. Mystery kept looking away from the camera. You didn’t know if he could detect the camera pointing at him or what, but it was impressive how fast his reaction time was. Abby would flex. Romance insisted he take his own pictures, mostly consisting of duck faces and exaggerated poses. Baby threatened to break the camera when you pointed at him.

The ride cart was shaped like a jeep, and you confirmed that your party would fit perfectly inside. You, Abby, and Jinu decided to sit up front where Romance, Mystery, and Baby would sit in the back.

”We should all take a photo before getting on.” Romance suggested. “The decorations look so nice.”

You were the designated cameraman. You motioned for all the boys to get into the frame.

But then your nose started to itch from all the dust in the air. And probably on the decorations. And on the walls.

Seriously, who was going to clean every single dust speck on all the details of the ride building? It was ginormous first of all, and there was just too much clutter.

You had pressed the photo button during your sneeze. You looked back at the picture and still deemed it worth keeping. Only your headband was in frame. Jinu had blinked, Mystery’s head was turned to the side, only one side of Abby’s face was showing, Baby covered his face, and Romance was the only one looking at the camera mogging everyone else.

It was perfect.

You all sat in your designated spots, pulling the lap bar over your legs as the ride stirred to life.

The music and noise was deafening. You six drove by cave walls as animatronic serpents attacked you all from each corner. 

Romance kept snapping pictures, the flash seemingly blinding the others in the back as they complained.

Mystery whispered a small ‘nice’ when you all passed a human sized spider, mummifying a skeleton.

Romance flirted with a ghost girl, before yelping at the cave of fake bats.

You had to admit, Baby was right about the ride. It very much felt inspired by Indiana Jones and perhaps the Mummy. 

The ride soon came to a stop. You all exited the vehicle, already discussing which rides you all wanted to ride next. You all had at least one more ride you could ride before the parks closed, so you all decided to disband.

There was one guy that you didn’t get to ride with all day until now, and you still had some things you had to ask him.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“Have you thought about it?” You broke the silence between you two. You both were suspended over the park on a mechanical hot air balloon. Jinu only looked outwards towards all the attractions. You could see him tapping his finger on the basket.

”You know I’d love to help.” He responded finally. You narrowed your eyes. That wasn’t a good enough answer for you

”Jinu, I’m not trying to force you into a decision but the only alternatives in this scenario is that you all are slayed by the girls or be under Gwi-Ma’s rule forever.” 

You knew it was a tough decision truly. They all have been under Gwi-Ma’s control for so long that they perhaps don’t even remember a time where they weren’t. They were hostages. Slaves.

”Have you at least discussed it with the other boys?” You questioned. He nodded.

“They were also all hesitant. You have to understand-“

You cut him off by placing a hand over his.

”You know that I do.” Your voice went quieter, your eyes softening. Jinu opened his mouth as if to say something, but it seemed as if the words caught in his throat.

”I can set you all free.” You promised. “But I can’t do it without all of you guys’s help. If you guys could just… just believe in me…”

Your eyes locked onto his. Yours was desperate and earnest, his stunned.

”I promise that I’m not like Gwi-Ma. I won’t force you into a decision. If you decide that you don’t want to help me, then that’s okay. But you’ve seen what I can do. What I believe in. I’ll try to keep you all safe the best I can. If you want my help, then we need to trust each other and be honest first, right?”

Jinu blinked, his gaze fixed at you, then down towards his lap. You squeezed his hand, hoping and praying for an answer that you thought wouldn’t come.

“You… you really think that we’re worth saving?” Jinu finally said. You nodded.

”I want to help you all. I want Romance to be able to come out of his shell, teach him that it’s okay to be vulnerable. I want to help Mystery see that he’s more than the demon that everyone thinks he is. I want Abby to realize that he can move forward too. He doesn’t have to be just the strong one. And Baby, feral and hostile Baby, to realize that it’s okay to trust people.” 

Jinu paused again. You let go of his hand, letting him ruminate on his decision.

”We’ll help you.” Jinu confirmed. “We’ll call off the idol awards.”

Your lips broke into a satisfied smile before you could stop yourself. The ride stopped, the attraction guide singing their safety cheer to exit the vehicle when the cart came to a complete halt.

You both met with the boys in front of the castle outside, just in time for the fireworks. They all watched in awe as the sky lit up with colorful sparkles as Romance urged them all to take pictures. Even Baby seemed like he was into it.

You all leaned against the balcony as you guys enjoyed the cool breeze of the night and the beautiful sights.

You wanted this to last forever. All of you today didn’t have to worry about being enemies or anything about being famous demon idols. You all could just exist and be friends together.

And you hoped that maybe after all this, you could continue to have tender moments like these with them.

Chapter Text

Well, it was about time that you had a talk with the girls. 

They had sent you a cryptic text message to show up at their tower this morning, saying that they needed to discuss something with you.

Obviously, you knew what was coming. The question was how did it take them this long to find out?

And how did they find out?

Didn’t they see the boys constantly trying to talk to you every time they both had a collab together?

Your heart hammered on the way to the metro station. You almost dropped your wallet while scanning your card on the turnstiles. You didn’t blink a single way to Gangnam station, even when the train lurched forward to stop.

You considered possibly getting something for the girls so that maybe it would help to smooth things over.

“You wanted to see me, girls?” You hesitantly asked as you stepped off the elevator. 

The girls did not look the slightest bit happy. They sat on the couch next to each other, their faces stern as they avoided looking at you.

You knew that could only mean one thing.

“What is this photo?” 

Zoey didn’t even look at you. You knew she couldn’t. Her eyes were wide in disbelief, and her mouth was slightly ajar. In her shaking hand was her phone. On the screen displayed a picture of you facing Jinu on the hot air balloon ride a week ago. Your blood ran cold as your eyes widened. You realized that you had been caught red-handed.

In their eyes, you could see every single question that they had. How long have you been meeting them? What have they told you?

How long has it been since you betrayed us?

You couldn't even say that it wasn’t what it looked like because it was exactly what it looked like. Maybe if you had told them just a bit earlier, then you wouldn’t have had such damning evidence on your back.

You weren’t going to stutter. You weren’t going to excuse your actions. You were going to tell them the whole truth.

“I understand that you must be upset.” You started.

”Upset doesn’t even begin to explain it.” Mira frowned. 

“They came to me first. They stalked me.”

”You should have told us. We could have done something.” Rumi pressed. She looked the most concerned out of the whole group. You understood all of them must have been pretty angry, but it was because they could have lost you to them.

”But I talked to them. I talked to them, told them that I wouldn’t hurt them and they didn’t hurt me. They told me that they would help me.” You continued.

”And how do you know that they’re not lying? That they’re not using you to get to us?” Zoey said. 

“If they wanted to hurt me, then they would have.” Your voice lowered. “Demons… they all have something that they’re afraid of. There’s a higher power.” 

“And they told you this?” Mira raised an eyebrow. “Again, how do we know that what they’re saying is true?”

”I’ve seen it. It’s… it's true.” You sighed.

”You can’t ignore the fact that thousands of people have died already! They’re the cause of families disappearing! The population dwindling! The Honmoon breaking!” Mira exploded. 

And you couldn’t deny the truth. You weren’t excusing their actions. You knew that everything that they had done up to this point has been nothing short of awful.

But they agreed to help you. They knew that going back on their demon lord meant potential punishment. They knew that if you failed then they would be Gwi-Ma’s slave for all eternity. They wouldn’t have any more freedom.

And they were willing to sacrifice all that for you. They were willing to take that risk to make things right.

“They’re being forced to do this. Everything. They’re still part of the problem, yes, but they’ve agreed-”

”We can’t trust them. They're demons. They’re evil.” Zoey finished. You turned to the other girls, who seemed to share the same sentiment.

Except… Rumi seemed uncomfortable. Her face had no sign of anger, just… something of understanding?

Maybe you could get through to her.

”No. They’re not evil. They were once human too. They’ve made mistakes, and they’re victims themselves. Even if they aren’t human anymore, they still have some humanity left. ” You firmly stated. They only stared at you, stunned to silence.

”We all knew that we’ve never seen eye to eye on this topic,” Mira had grown quiet. “But Celine knows now. She was actually the one that contacted us about it.”

Celine. That damn woman. 

Your jaw tightened as you stood up from the couch. What had she said? Actually, did you even want to know?

”I don’t give a damn about what that woman thinks.” You seethed. If she had just been a little more open on her opinions, if she had just been a little more open minded…

But again, Celine was also a victim of long standing tradition. You didn’t hate her, just her ideals. She had knowledge about how you thought of demons, but she couldn’t set her differences aside and never considered you a reliable ally.

The girls bent the rules just for you, so why couldn’t they understand?

You stood up, effectively ending the conversation. 

“I apologize for not telling you guys about talking to the Saja Boys earlier, but I trust them. If anything happens, then I’ll take care of the consequences.” You assured them before leaving the penthouse.

You saw Rumi get up too, her hand outstretched towards you as if she were about to stop you.

But you didn’t stop.

And she didn’t move.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The apartment was cold, dark and unwelcoming when you got home. Kicking off your shoes, you slid around the unit with your socks on the vinyl floor.

Jesus fucking Christ. You needed a drink or something to forget about the whole conversation. The whole day. All four months.

You collapsed on the chair in your kitchen, a cup of water in one hand and a painkiller in another. At least you were sure it was a painkiller. One of your eyes was too swollen to see out of. It could have been a smartie for all you knew.

There were no missions today, but of course even on your demon slaying off days, there had to be a few demons that ruined it for you.

You grimaced as you lifted your arm up to drink from the cup. It was a wonder how you haven’t been found out yet. It was practically every single night that you got beat up by demons.

Maybe if you attacked first, then this wouldn’t happen. You had about a ninety percent chance rate that they would charge towards you first.

Every single time without fail, you gave them the benefit of the doubt. 

But that just made you look stupid to everyone else, huh?

The girls haven’t seen you fight in a while. You used to go with them during missions, but it was clear that you four didn’t work together as a team very well. 

It was most likely the fact that you were taught how to slay demons much differently than they had. They didn’t understand your hesitation, which often got you or the other girls hurt.

Your fighting style was unorthodox as well. You were quick and precise, keeping attacks and pain to a minimum. Everything was calculated. If you could, you defeated each demon with one strike. 

If you weren’t getting your ass handed to you, of course.

The water stung your bleeding lip as you began to drink. Your hand shook as you held the cup steady. 

Only the moon shone through your windows, the warm light flooding your living room and your kitchen table.

Everything hurts. Inside and out.

You liked the peace and quiet, but on nights like this when you felt nothing but weakness? Felt as if your life would be nothing but slaughter and guilt and helplessness?

It was so lonely.

Your family was never coming back. They had died long ago, and it was your fault. If you would have just listened to them then they might still have been alive.

You never realized how much you missed being bandaged while scolded. You deserved it, though. You used to do stupid shit all the time when you first started fighting.

Most days, it was a chore to heal your wounds. You figured it was easier to just cover them up the next morning than to properly sanitize and bandage everything.

Maybe it was because your family used to do it for you, and you couldn’t bear to do it yourself without thinking about them.

You couldn’t cry. Not anymore. There was no one to lean on anymore. Truly no one knew anything.

Huntrix. You wanted to tell them everything, how maybe the boys weren’t so bad and maybe they could dig just a little deeper to find out the real truth…

You remember thinking when you had first met Celine that she would have been warm and welcoming like the girls had been, but she was a cold and stoic woman. You didn’t care too much if she was or wasn’t like the girls, but your previous suspicions of her being the one that taught the girls their viewpoints were correct.

She asked you who you were. You responded with your usual script. She had narrowed her eyes when you had mentioned that you were not a hunter, but a practitioner.

“Like a shaman?” She questioned. You verified yes, a bit relieved that someone finally understood.

To your surprise, she didn’t seem at all satisfied with your answer.

You didn’t know at the time, but outside of your hometown, shamans and witches were not very well received in Seoul.

She must have thought that you were a fake. If not a fake, then just someone that was able to see demons and spirits.

You didn’t blame her for reaching this conclusion. Most that could see demons don’t realize that they can slay them either.

But when she asked you to prove yourself worthy to fight alongside Huntrix, you declined.

You didn’t want to be judged by the ability to be able to kill. You explained that you had no joy in slaughtering demons at all upfront to her. You only did it out of necessity.

Maybe things would have been different if you hadn’t stopped her. Maybe you wouldn’t be a secret Huntrix had to hide.

Perhaps you could have learned how to fix the Honmoon.

But you were their manager now. While you never showed Celine what you could do, she did agree that it would be a wise decision to hire a manager that knew about the girls’s double life.

And that’s where you fit perfectly for the role.

You were a practitioner that was able to slay demons. To Celine, however, you weren’t one of them.

You thought you were glad that you weren’t.

But it was lonely.

You laid your head down on the table, wincing when your bruised cheekbone made contact with the cool glass.

It was strange. 

The enemies that your allies were sworn to kill were so much more accepting of your views.

Obviously, it was because it benefited them more than it benefited your allies.

The thing was that they seemed to push it away rather than accept it. It made sense. They must have not felt acceptance in so long, let alone any type of independence.

It was easy to speak to them. You remember how simple it had been to ask about nostalgia to Abby. Jinu respected your title, never once addressing you by demon hunter after correcting him. Romance never saw you as any type of threat. He seemed to treat you better than he treated anyone else. Mystery didn’t talk much, but his actions spoke volumes. Baby hated everyone but he treated you less shitty.

You’ve been thinking about them a lot recently.

If they weren’t demons and you weren’t working for Huntrix, then maybe you all could have had normal lives together.

They were so human. 

And it hurts. And you knew it hurt them too.

Your eyes began to flutter closed, your breaths slowing and your body relaxing.

Maybe you guys could still lead that life after you all defeat Gwi-Ma together.

You spent your whole life fighting a war you were never meant to win. A war that predated you for generations and generations that you didn’t even want to sign up for. 

Maybe once you defeated Gwi-Ma, you could have what you’ve always wanted:

Peace.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You opened your eyes, immediately assaulted by the brightness of the fire in front of you. 

Nope.

You closed them back again, the inferno light shining through the thin barrier of flesh.

“There’s no use in pretending you’re not awake.” Your guide said.

“I’m sleeping. Don’t talk to me.” You answered back. You weren’t going to speak to them, especially today when you feel like extra shit.

“Those boys… do you trust them?” The voice asked. 

Well, at least they were asking you instead of questioning your decisions like the girls did. You opened your eyes, the fire now significantly much smaller since you’ve woken up.

Examining the space around you, you tossed a stick into the flames.

You could have said that they were your last resort. You could have said that you were only allying yourself with them because they were the only ones that actually were able to answer your questions.

“I trust them.” You firmly replied. The figure opened its eyes, their form stepping towards the light of the campfire.

It was you. Just like looking in a mirror. You’ve never seen your guide’s true appearance. They always took on your form.

You never knew why. You just knew that their true self didn’t actually look anything like you.

Perhaps their real form was terrifying. Perhaps it wasn’t something you could perceive yet.

“They’ll turn on you.” They finally said. You rolled your eyes. You didn’t need to hear this from them out of all people.

“I can still help you. I can help you find the demon king and kill him.” They continued.

You felt a hand on your shoulder, which prompted you to whip your head towards them.

“All you need to do is let me.”

“No. You’ve done enough.” You hissed.

“What you had done with my information was your decision. Never once did I force you to do anything you didn’t want. Your actions after my guidance are not mine.”

They returned to their original spot, on the opposite log.

You went to go pick up another stick to feed to the fire, only for your fingertips to meet a smooth and flat item.

It was a paper slip. A paper slip with your full name written in red.

You stared at it for a moment, taking a good long look at it before throwing it into the fire once more.

“I trust them. I believe in them. I… I care for them.” You admitted. Your own pair of eyes across from you widened slightly in shock, before a condescending smile curled up their cheeks.

“I’m sure they care for you just as much as well. With how you treated them and how close you’ve gotten with all of them, it seems like they’ve long gained your trust already. You’re wrapped around their manicured fingers.”

“I’d rather you would have just called me stupid.” You retorted. You were done with this conversation. You weren’t going to feed that fire more sticks. You were done.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Your guide mused, your body growing limp and fatigued one more. Closing your eyes, you felt the fire’s warmth slowly fade, the light disappearing as it dissipated into embers.

You had to trust them because if you didn’t…

Then how would you ever be able to again?

Chapter Text

Namsan Tower was one of the most famous landmarks in Seoul.

It was known for being the first radio wave tower in Seoul, but now is known as a popular tourist destination.

Yes. This was the auditorium that the Saja Boys were going to use to lure all of the city in to sacrifice their souls.

Except… their minds had been made up.

They still did the tour of the stadium, of course. It was rude to cancel at the last minute.

And Romance had begged to see the Lovelock Bridge. Something about it being one of the most romantic destinations in Seoul. A must-see.

The auditorium was indeed huge, almost as big as the weight and guilt in their hearts. In all honesty, they were ready to leave. They felt sick to their stomach, their hearts in their throats.

By the time they left, it had already gotten dark and the tower had long closed.They were all quiet on the walk towards the entrance of the bridge. It wasn’t exactly a bridge, but more so a bridge leading towards a giant balcony. The handrails were littered with a rainbow of padlocks, each decorated with names and dates. Locks of every shape and size were attached to metal. There wasn’t even a space in between the bundles of steel.

”How do people even find places to put their locks?” Romance questioned aloud.

”It’s likely that they remove them for space. It’s not possible that a place this famed would have enough space for every single lock left here.” Jinu reasoned.

”That’s sad, man.” Abby shook his head. “All those couple locks…”

”They’re just locks.” Baby rolled his eyes. “And it’s not like people come here regularly to check if their locks are still here. That would be fucking depressing.” 

Romance sighed as he held one of the locks, studying it underneath his fingertips. 

“Are we done here?” Baby sighed. “It’s just the same thing all the way to the top, right?”

”Patience.” Mystery muttered.

To answer Baby's question: No. No, they were not done.

A loud thud behind them caught their attention. On instinct, they whipped their heads around to the source of the noise.

The figure was hunched over, their face hidden as they looked downwards. Their back rose and fell between their haggard breaths. Blood dripped from down their temples towards the slope of their nose, before it spilled on the wooden planks of the bridge. Their sleeves were torn, barely hanging on the torso of their clothes by a thread to reveal sigils written on their arms with black ink.

What attracted their eyes first was the glint of both the blades in the figure’s hands. 

This time, not only was there another noise that had them all turning back around, but the whole bridge shook after it.

They all began to drop down from the balcony. A waterfall of demons.

And every single one of the demons on that bridge were staring at one thing.

You.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

It felt like you’ve been at this forever. 

Blood pooled down your strained eyes, blurring your vision. Your head throbbed from the wound, which didn’t help either.

You were dead on your feet. Your entire strength was being used to stand yourself up. Your breaths only came out in gurgled wheezes.

You lifted your face up, meeting the eyes of the boys. 

God, you didn’t want them to see you like this. 

Mercy was a weakness in everyone else’s eyes.

You stopped. You waited. You listened as you silently pleaded for the other demons across from you all to stop fighting.

A long, serpentine-like creature bared its fangs at you, a loud hiss escaping its maw. It commanded the rest of the demons to charge towards your group.

You extended out an arm to stop the boys from interfering with your fight, stumbling towards the flood. 

Sprinting towards the wave, you readied your blades before jumping on one of the rails. You ran, avoiding the demons in the front before reaching the middle of the pack.

You pushed off from the metal pole, leaping into the air before you beheaded a line of them in a single slice as you fell towards the ground. Using your other blade, you thrusted the metal through three at once before throwing it towards the other wave of demons. The sword traveled in a curve, which wiped out a majority of the flood before it met the stone wall and clattered to the ground.

You picked off the remaining flood demons and tossed your blade towards one that stood in front of the railing. The blade bounced off of the metal before you stepped out of the way for it to penetrate the skull of the one behind you.

But before you could pick up your weapons to fight the demon serpent, it had slithered to you at lightning speed, mouth open to display its sharp fangs.

With no other choice left, you forced its jaws open, taking hold of one top fang and the bottom jaw.

It pushed against you, the soles of your shoes slipping on the wood. 

You grunted, yelling out in frustration.

Yelling out in pain.

Yelling out in weariness.

Maybe you should take a nice vacation after all of this. That sounded heavenly.

You heard Busan was nice around this time of year.

Your heart rammed against the cage it called your body, the adrenaline overwhelming your systems as your arms strained against the serpent’s jaws.

The ocean, the salty breeze, the beach… what wasn’t there to see?

Gangwon-do didn’t sound so bad either. 

It was closing on you, and your arms began to lose strength. They were becoming increasingly sore.

The mountains were gorgeous, and taking a hike up one seemed accomplishing. 

The view up there must be insane.

With a shout, you pushed it away by its jaws, the drawn-on sigils on your arm burning bright before you were able to quickly pick up your discarded blade from the floor. The leather of the handle groaned underneath your grip as you swung it in an arc above your head, effectively decapitating the serpent.

The ink on your arm disintegrated into purple flecks, blowing away in the wind.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

They watched it all stunned.

They couldn’t even look away.

They have never seen you fight before. You, the only person that had welcomed them with open arms. You, the only one that accepted the fact that they were demons and were fine with it.

Now, they understood that it was all just an act of mercy.

You were brutal. Horrifying. 

A monster.

There was only one thing that had crossed all of their minds at that exact moment.

That those demons could have been them.

But when you turned to look at them with those weary bloodshot eyes, all of their fear was pushed aside.

Abby had begun to chase after you when he saw that you were struggling with the serpent creature. He had stopped in his tracks after you had beheaded it.

God, did any of them notice how tired you were anytime you met them? How many injuries that they skimmed over?

There was one thing that they did agree simultaneously with.

Even when you were terrifying, even when you were tired, even when you were at death’s door, you were still so ethereal.

You collapsed to the ground, one knee propping your body up. The rest of the boys rushed to your side, Jinu catching you as you collapsed in his arms.

They all didn’t say a word as they silently walked across the heart lock decorated bridge, before they took you to the hospital.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Well, you didn’t see the Mirror of Karma before passing out like that temple said, so that meant you weren’t dead.

You should have gone back again, even though the monks now knew you by name from how often you came by.

Actually, you revisited to specifically look closer at the artwork recently. 

It was incredible how art was able to communicate with the people with no words. 

One thing you hadn’t known back when you had first visited was that there was more to the Afterlife than you have been previously taught.

Reincarnation was suffering.

There was a way to escape it: Achieving Nirvana.

At least that was what the monks told you. It was an interesting concept, something you hadn’t given too much thought of. 

You knew reincarnation did exist, but you knew of other ways to escape the cycle.

One method you did know of was becoming an immortal being. 

Demons fell into this category, but immortals and deities do also.

You didn’t know for sure how difficult it really was to achieve nirvana, but you did know that achieving deity status, while rare, has been done.

You would know. You had family members that talked to them.

Not every god was born a god. Some were ordinary humans that have earned their place, usually by achieving a great feat representing the human and the spirit world.

But if you weren’t dead, and if you weren’t a god, then-

A single caw awoke you. One of your eyes was still semi-swollen from a week ago, which made it slightly more difficult for you to adjust to the brightness of the room.

And you realized that this wasn’t your room at all.

The three-eyed magpie stood on your chest before sitting down and perching. You ran your tongue over your teeth to check that you still had them from the fight, which you did.

“No lost teeth here. Sorry to disappoint.*” You rasped. The bird visibly frowned, before flapping its wings and landing on the tiger that curled up underneath your bed.

 A rustle from the seat next to your bed startled you. Jinu rose from the couch, the shadows under his eyes prominent from stress.

Did demons sleep, anyway? Jinu certainly looked like he hadn’t slept all night.

“You’re awake.” He sighed. You shifted in your spot, the tube from the IV in your arm swinging as you moved.

IV?

You were in the hospital.

You sat straight up from this realization. Oh god, you were going to get killed by the girls.

“I have an event I have to monitor.” You began as you attempted to take out the needle in your arm.

Jinu grabbed your wrist before your fingers could make contact with the IV.

“No. You need rest. You can call the girls, but you’re not going anywhere.” He sternly reprimanded. 

It was true. You were quite tired too. This was a great time to catch up on sleep.

“How long do I have to stay?” You asked after a beat of silence.

“The doctors said that you have a collapsed lung. A few days, at least a few weeks.” He recalled. You let your head rest on the pillow. Now that you thought about it, it was a lot harder to speak. You needed more breaths to wheeze out the words.

The silence between you two was deafening. You scrunched the blanket underneath your fingers, trying to soothe yourself with the soft fabric.

“Thank you. All of you.” You whispered out.

Even with your equal viewpoint, you just couldn’t help but worry about how they must have felt when seeing you like that.

“Where are the others? Aren’t you all busy?”

“We’ve agreed to take shifts when we have free time.” Jinu explained. “I don’t have anything for today.”

You knew that was a lie but instead of feeling betrayed, you felt a sense of appreciation.

They really were good people deep down.

You never had a doubt.

“Jinu. I appreciate what you’re doing. What you all have agreed to help me with.”

You put a hand on top of his, slightly flinching from the sensitivity of your fingertips.

You rotated your palm towards you. Sure enough, your fingers were swollen with angry red patches.

You had a feeling that this was a product of your own doing. Every time you activated sigils, every time you imbued a little bit of your innate energy into a talisman, you felt your body temperature rise.

It was why you preferred using your blades most of the time. They were what you were used to, and they only needed to be consecrated once in a while.

You did use a lot of your energy burning away those sigils back at the bridge, but you didn’t think that they would cause any damage to your flesh.

Your focus went back to Jinu.

“You’re willing to sacrifice and risk everything to help me. Not that I’m saying I don’t want your help, but I want to know what changed your mind.”

Jinu paused, seemingly deep in thought. You waited patiently for his answer as he opened and closed his mouth.

“Listen, I…”

Jinu paused momentarily before continuing.

“I want you to succeed.”

He finished.

It was a satisfactory answer. If you succeeded then he would no longer be under Gwi-Ma’s control. Your eyes shut closed as you nodded, slowly falling back into slumber.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The guilt was eating him alive.

During the time you were unconscious, his knee wouldn’t stop bouncing, and he couldn’t get Gwi-Ma’s voice in his head to shut up.

“What’s stopping them from hacking you into pieces once they find out that you lied to them?” 

Jinu shut his eyes tightly. He couldn’t risk waking you up from his struggling

“You really believe that they’ll spare you if they found out what you were doing to erase your memories? How many people you’re willing to kill for your own gain?”

He didn’t want to believe Gwi-Ma. No, you wouldn’t do that, right?

But he was worried that you may do something far worse if you found out.

The fear, the anguish, the guilt… everything about this plan was doomed to fail. The boys all knew this.

If you failed, then they would face punishment from Gwi-Ma. If they were found out, then you will most certainly kill them all.

If you win, then what? Do they lie to you forever?

You deserved so much better than that.

“Don’t forget, boys. I can always make those voices louder…”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The next time you woke up, you had awoken from a quiet trot song that streamed its way out from a radio on your bedside table.

Romance held your arm, his eyes shut.

“사모해, 사모해, 당신을 사모해, 강물이 바다로 흘러가듯이 당신을 사모해.”

The song continued on as you studied Romance’s face. How long had he been sitting on that uncomfortable rolling stool for? Was he the one that brought the radio in?

“사모해, 사모해, 당신을 사모해, 장미꽃이 비 오기를 기다리듯이 당신을 사모해.“

You moved your arm to open his eyes. His face immediately lit up once he saw yours.

“Oh, angel! I was so worried…” Romance stammered. “If we had just been a second later, then you…”

He shuddered out a sigh. You only blinked at him, unable to say anything. You’ve never seen Romance worrying ever.

He was always so calm, so put together and charming. Frazzled wasn’t something that came to mind when you thought of Romance.

It made him feel more human.

“I didn’t know you liked trot.” You gasped out. Your lung was returning back to normal bit by bit. Turning your head to the radio, you nodded towards it. “You might like Frank Sinatra.”

“I like this song.” Romance closed his eyes. “The lyrics are beautiful.” He fluttered them open, his soft gaze meeting yours.

You couldn’t argue with him, smiling.

“Words and lyrics have powerful implications, Romance. They can even be considered to have a spiritual essence, you know.” Your eyes turned to the radio again.

“Maybe they’re saying what I can’t say.” 

And there he was again. The real Romance. The raw, vulnerable, fleeting side of him.

For once, he was speechless. The smooth talking silver tongued demon was rendered silent.

You gave him a smile, closing your eyes as the next song began to play.

And you were sure that he did too.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Abby was actually the boy you saw the most often. Even when it wasn’t his shift, he still stopped by, dropping off food and annoying whoever else was on shift before leaving.

Today, Abby got you the turtle chips you both shared when you both hung out for the first time.

More like he fed them to you and held the cup of water up to your healing lips.

You were getting a little sick of the hospital food, so the food that Abby brought after coming from the gym or an event was a refreshing change of pace.

“I feel useless.” You stated when he held the glass up to your lips.

“What? Why do you say that?” Abby recoiled from the shock of the words.

“I can’t move properly. And it’s a bit damaging to my dignity and ego having you feed me like this. I can do this myself.” You groaned as you attempted to sit up better.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Abby assured you. “I’m doing this because I know you’re in pain.”

You said nothing else and let him take care of you. For someone so strong and intimidating, he was surprisingly very gentle.

You looked at the convenience store bag next to you on the bedside table. How many runs does he do in a week, you wondered. You knew that Abby did regularly buy stuff for the other guys.

Honestly, he was the most maternal out of the whole group, you realized. 

Well, yeah, there was Jinu, but he reminded you of a mom in the way that he nags at the guys constantly.

Abby was the type of guy that got the guys things because he thought of them. He knew all their favorites, and was very good at reading people.

Maybe that’s why he got along with Romance.

You wondered if they appreciated it, how many times they said thank you.

Or maybe he didn’t expect one in return.

“That night we met again,” you began. “You were hurt.”

”They were healed when you saw them.” He pointed out.

”The weapons that the girls have are much stronger than mine. It takes more time for a demon to recover from the injuries.” 

Abby went silent.

“Abby, I appreciate what you’re doing.” You let yourself rest in your bed. “You take care of all of us, but you’re not taking care of yourself.”

His gaze fell to your blanket, his hands resting on the guard rails of your bed.

”I have to be strong.” He only quietly whispered.

“You have to be strong for yourself first before you can help others.”  You sighed, sinking into the mattress. “Let us be strong for you too.” 

Abby froze at that statement. His breath seemed to hitch in his throat. You realized that maybe he never had someone to take care of him. Maybe he was the one always looking out after people, but no one looked out for him.

How lonely it must have been.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Mystery sat next to your bed, just like the others did. The only difference was that he sat a respectful distance away, enough for you to be able to get up and walk around. You had healed enough to be able to get around again.

Mystery didn’t speak. Well, it’s not like he usually does normally either.

But the silence wasn’t a bad thing. You enjoyed his company, and it seemed like he enjoyed yours too.

You had to start the conversation a lot, but you found that when you spoke to him, conversation was easy.

”That little girl… do you still walk her home sometimes?” You asked. Mystery only nodded in response. 

“And she still has that protection charm?”

Another nod.

“I’ve been meaning to ask… do you fight off other demons for her?” 

“…when she gets scared.”

It was a bit strange to ask, but you had to know. There were other demons that seemed to have retained less of their humanity, a cruel and painful punishment from Gwi-Ma.

Just how much suffering must they all endure under him?

You balled your fist in anger subconsciously, which Mystery seemed to notice.

You relaxed in front of him, unclenching your fist. 

“You’re doing a good deed, Mystery.” Your smile spread across your face. 

You continued. “I’ll be honest: I don’t know why you asked me if I believed in what I said that day.”

He turned to look at you. If you could see his eyes, you’d think that it would be wide open in curiosity. Tilting his head, he seemed to wait in anticipation for you to go on.

“You’ve already proven my words. Why do you seem to insist otherwise?”

You held no malice in your words, and yet his head hung low at your question like a scolded dog. 

You didn’t expect an immediate answer. You didn’t want to pressure them into answering anything that they didn’t want, anyway.

”Maybe they hide their nature.” Mystery replied.

You both knew that you would disagree. There was no use in stating it out loud.

”Mystery, I might not know what happened in your past, but what I do know is that you most certainly weren’t born a demon. Even if you were, you still wouldn’t be as evil as you think you are.”

You sat up, a soft groan escaping your currently uneven sized lungs.

”I only believe in what I see. And what I’ve seen is that you and many other demons don’t choose to do what you all are forced to do by Gwi-Ma.”

He said nothing. You were sure that your words have at least somewhat changed his mind. If not, then at least he would think about it a little, right?

“You’ve felt fear. You’ve felt sorrow and anger and these… these ugly and raw and real emotions that have torn you apart from the inside out.” You continued on, your voice barely above a whisper now. 

“But you’ve also felt joy, felt… love. Felt the way the breeze caresses your skin. You’ve felt hope seeing the sun after a thunderstorm.” Your gaze met his, your own eyes softening as you examined Mystery’s. Maybe he’s felt those things once before, but you knew that these feelings were seldom experienced now.

You took his hand in between yours before you could stop yourself, fingertips lightly brushing over the violet jagged stripped patterns that pulsed faintly on his wrist and knuckles. 

His skin was cold as ice. 

”너도 먼저 인간이었잖아.” 

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Abby might have visited you the most, but Baby was surprisingly the clingiest when he thought you weren’t looking.

You woke up once in the evening, having to go to the bathroom. 

You began to shuffle your legs out of bed when you realized that there was weight on your calves.

Looking down towards the end of the bed, you saw Baby hunched over, laying his whole upper body on the mattress as he sat on the chair.

His head was in his arms, his sleeping expression peaceful as he continued to unknowingly cut off the circulation in your legs.

“Baby.” You nudged him with your ankle. “I have to pee.”

“Hold it in.” He said without even opening his eyes. You rolled your own, proceeding to nudge him with your leg to try and shake him off. He continued to pretend to sleep.

When he wasn’t trying to cut off the circulation in your legs, you two barely talked. It wasn’t like Mystery where you both enjoyed each other’s company, but in the sense that talking to Baby was like talking to a wall.

He did speak sometimes. Usually to make fun of you or his other bandmates. Sometimes you get a laugh out of his jokes, though. You could barely see it, but the corners of his lips twitched upwards when he managed to draw one out from you.

“You could have died.” Baby said out of the blue once about your reckless decision on the bridge.

“Yes, Baby, thank you for the unwanted commentary that I didn’t ask for.” You deadpanned.

You could have sworn you caught a faint whisper.

”I’m glad you didn’t.”

You smirked.

”What did you say?” You prompted again, a shit eating grin spreading across your face.

“I didn’t say anything.” He huffed.

Abby wasn’t the only one giving you gifts either. Baby managed to sneak in snacks as well, specifically that one ice cream that he seemed to insist you liked.

You only liked it because Baby got it for you. You didn’t even have to tell him to stop stealing.

“Relax. I paid for it.” He murmured before handing it to you.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Of course the girls visited you two. They all pushed their differences aside to visit you, and to see how you were doing.

You felt bad for Bobby. He must have had a hard time managing everything by himself again.

You didn’t tell them that the boys would visit you almost everyday, but you all knew the real truth.

Today, Rumi stayed behind. You warned the boys in advance before Huntrix had come in so that they wouldn’t cross paths.

She stared at the lilies on your bedside stand, her expression apprehensive. It had been from one of your other friends outside of the whole demon hunting fiasco.

Ever since the Honmoon began to tear apart, you hadn’t been able to hang out with them at all. It was nice to know that even with your crazy life that they stuck by your side.

”I just wanted to say sorry about the other da-“

“Rumi, it’s alright.” You cut her off. “I understand why you all were upset. It’s the whole world at stake, and they’re working for the enemy.”

Rumi went silent, considering your words. It was things that you have already told the others.

“I trust them. They have so much to lose, yet they’ve agreed to help us.” You explained. “And we may not have agreed on it before, but I do truly believe that demons aren’t innately evil. They are not evil because they are demons.”

Rumi fiddled with the hem of her hoodie, her face twisting into one of deep thought.

“How? How do you know that they aren’t?” She quietly asked. Her concerned eyes met your kind ones.

“A mistake showed me. I’ve met countless demons, slayed them, interrogated them, and loved them. They’re in pain, Rumi. They deserve sympathy and help as much as we do.”

Rumi got up from the stool, her fingers dragging along the bed guardrails. Her gaze fell back on you, her mouth open to say something before closing it.

“I just wanted to tell you that… that…” She stammered. 

You looked at her quizzically, silently urging her to go on.

“That… we’re not singing Takedown at the Idol Awards. We’re going to sing Golden.”

You breathed a sigh of relief. You had your problems with Takedown from the very beginning, and finding out that they were going to sing a song better suited to their story and their connection to their fans made you worry less.

But as Rumi left your hospital room, you couldn’t help but wonder if she had anything else she wanted to tell you.

Chapter Text

You had made a full recovery just in time for the Idol Awards. 

Your hand had completely healed, and you could breathe properly once more. 

But taking it easy for a week didn’t exactly calm your nerves too much.

The day of reckoning had come, and yet you still didn’t have a solid plan.

You didn’t want to admit to yourself that in all honesty, you didn’t have a single idea of how your plan was going to go down.

It took you years to get the information you have on Gwi-Ma now. If it wasn’t for the boys, then you would have been still stuck back at square one.

Maybe… maybe they were wrong to put their trust in you?

No. You were going to figure something out. You had to. 

Because if you don’t, then this could be the end of your efforts and your relationships.

Never had you thought that this day would be this stressful.

You’ve been to the Idol Awards many times of course, but none of those other times involved the whole world being at stake. 

The only problem now was how you were going to defeat Gwi-Ma. If the Honmoon becomes golden, then you don't know exactly what will happen.

Would that mean that Gwi-Ma would die? At least that was what you thought. It didn’t seem like the hunters knew anything about it either. They were shocked when you had informed them about the existence of a demon overlord.

But as long as you found a way to slay him, then your plan would work. You knew Gwi-Ma was able to now travel freely from the human realm to the demon realm. He had grown exponentially since you had last discussed him with Jinu.

If you could find him before the Honmoon is sealed, you could slay him.

You were admittedly unsteady about your sureness in this plan.

Speaking of which, you also finally had an idea what it was going to be. The boys had agreed to perform first to your request, but you didn’t hear anything back from them yet. Jinu had discussed with you that since Gwi-Ma has a physical form and was under the impression that the boys were still under his control, then it was likely that he was already roaming the human realm.

If it came down to it, you were going to fight tooth and nail to try and go down to the demon realm to vanquish him yourself. Maybe your past astral projection experiences will come back in a clutch?

You and Bobby wore matching black and gold suits. He was ecstatic to see you matching with him again.

You had asked him if he could manage the Huntrix performance while you took care of some stuff, to his protests.

Man, you really needed to buy him dinner or something. You owed him too many favors.

Just like the boys and you planned, they had forfeited their turn to go first for the girls to be able to go. Before and during their performance, you were to search for Gwi-Ma.

It was strange though. How were you supposed to find a demon overlord? It wasn’t like he was an actual person either. It was unlikely he was just walking around in the street.

You decided to find a bigger tear to try and see if you would be able to travel into the demon realm that way if he wasn’t roaming around the human realm.

Maybe.

There were a lot of maybes in this plan.

But you had to trust them, right?

You couldn’t search the whole city alone. There was just too much ground to cover. You wished that they would have at least given you an idea of where to begin.

Actually, now that you thought about it, didn’t they have time to help you search? They already canceled their performance anyway.

Your feet stopped in the middle of the street. 

Surely, they would have helped.

But they didn’t.

But they wanted to help you in the first place.

They didn’t set you up for failure… right?

Gasps filled the air, the people that walked around you pausing as their eyes were trained on one of the billboards.

Deciding to follow their lead, you also looked up to the screen.

No.

You refused to believe what you were seeing. 

This couldn’t be real.

It was live footage of Huntrix’s performance at the Idol Awards, but instead of singing Golden like they all promised, they had cut the song in the middle. 

Instead, Takedown began to play. 

Rumi looked just as confused as you were about the situation, but Mira and Zoey?

You could have sworn that their eyes were glowing yellow.

One by one, they began to tear off pieces of Rumi’s clothes until she was in nothing but her white sleeveless crop top. They pushed against her, insulted her, humiliated her.

And when they moved aside, you had finally seen them.

Purple jagged stripes decorated Rumi’s body. Very familiar purple stripes that you’ve seen countless times on the demons that you’ve slayed.

You had to leave.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You hurriedly weaved through crowds, sprinting as if your life depended on it.

It did. The world depended on it too.

You needed to get the girls back together to at least repair the Honmoon or something. You had to do something.

Just something, anything.

You were desperately trying to connect two broken wires. If the girls couldn’t save the Honmoon, there was no one else that could.

But before you could find one of the girls, you spotted five very familiar figures.

The people that you trusted.

The people that you spared.

The people that betrayed you.

“You lied.” You spoke, your voice low and your speed slowing. They didn’t even turn to look at you.

“That’s right.” Jinu whispered.

”But I don’t understand.” You continued. They all turned to you. Jinu’s face was hardened, his eyes cold. Romance appeared the most guilty, but even still his expression remained still. Abby didn’t meet your eyes, darting around to stare at something else. Mystery could only watch Jinu. Baby continued to twirl his lollipop on his tongue, his face one of boredom.

Was this boring to him? The world at stake? The extinction of mankind? 

It pissed you off. Everything about them. Everything that you did for them.

Everything they did for you.

No.

They were afraid. They were only doing this because of Gwi-Ma. Their betrayal stung, and you most certainly had the right to be livid.

What you all had… it wasn’t all a lie.

”We have shame. That’s what Gwi-Ma uses to control us.” Jinu stated again.

”You didn’t do anything wrong. You tried to save your family. He’s been manipulating-“

”I left them to rot on the streets!” His fist clenched, his patterns flaring a bright lavender. His irises blazed a golden hue, his chest heaving from his ragged breaths.

‘Why? Why did you lie to me?’

The words died in your throat before you could form them. Instead what came out was one single sentence.

“I thought you wanted to be free.”

“My selfish decisions haunt me, torment me. I couldn’t take it anymore.” Jinu sharply turned his head, refusing to meet your eyes. “We made a deal with Gwi-Ma for him to erase my memories if we agreed to help him.”

”Sacrificing the world, you mean.” Your voice was no longer soft. The malice that you’ve buried, the anger and the effects of betrayal were no longer hidden. “You could have helped me.”

”Oh, please. With your flimsy excuse of a plan? With your blind optimism and your misplaced determination?” Jinu shot back. “There’s no escaping Gwi-Ma.”

You had no words.

He was right.

“Being demons never made you all evil.” You concluded. It was their actions after their transformations that did. You knew this from the beginning, but you were led to believe that they were all just being forcefully puppeted.

And you knew deep down that even if they lied to you, there was still some truth to that.

”You never understood.” Baby retorted. You flinched at his sharp words. You’ve been told that you were naive, that you gave too many chances, but to hear it from the people that you saw past their differences?

That was a whole new type of pain.

You offered them freedom, a second chance and what had they done? Spat and stomped on your proposal.

“Guys like us… we don’t get second chances.” Romance looked away, his guilty expression unwavering.

“We’re monsters. Demons.” Mystery spat, the loudest you’ve ever heard him.

“And we’ll never be anything else other than evil. No matter how much time passes.” Abby said. “We can’t change our past.”

You could feel your temper rising with each bullshit sentence that they piled on to you. You were so tired of excuse after excuse, the self-pity that these men laid on themselves.

Were you supposed to feel bad for them? Supposed to excuse their actions because they believed that their past defined who they are and what they did with their future?

”Your family was wrong about demons. You were wrong about demons.” Jinu finished. “They were foolish and got themselves killed.”

Your nails dug into the flesh of your palms, the temperature in your body rising as you could only feel blind rage.

In your impulsivity, you had unknowingly drawn one of your blades, resting it by your side.

“Look at you. You couldn’t even keep their words.” Jinu scoffed. “You never believed in what they said.”

You raised your blade to the air, winding your arm back to your ear…

And threw your blade to the side.

“I killed them.“

Five stunned pairs of eyes were now fully open, and trained on you. Romance flinched back in shock. Baby stopped licking his candy. Mystery finally looked at you, not Jinu. Abby, the strongest one of the group, appeared the most intimidated.

“I killed them… because they were demons.” You turned back, refusing to let them see you at your most vulnerable.

It was a shameful secret that you had kept, one that you were sure you would forever take to your grave.

“I will never be able to forgive myself.” You studied your breaths, in fear of if you breathed any more shallowly, then your diaphragm would start to spam from the tears that threatened to spill.

“That’s why I want to kill Gwi-Ma. So that no one would have to go through what they did. So that no one would have to ever be manipulated by him ever again. So that all of those souls he took will be free. It’s the least I could do to repent for my actions.”

Before any of the boys could interrupt, you sharply inhaled to try and keep down your instinct to cry.

“But what have you all done to try and change? They protected me. They cared for me. They loved me. They taught me how to kill their own kind, to hold my tongue, to be cautious of who or what I speak to, scared that I would also become one of them. That I would make the same mistake they did. I never found out what the deal was. I murdered them out of rage before they could explain.”

You figured long ago that since you yourself weren’t a demon, that the deal that your family had made with Gwi-Ma was after you were born.

A single tear escaped your eyes, traveling down your cheek as it fell to the floor.

”I wasn’t wrong about demons, I was wrong about all of you.” You growled.

You hesitated to walk away from them. You wanted to turn back, give them another chance that you knew they would refuse to take.

So you placed one foot forward in front of the other until your steps no longer felt as if you were walking in tar.

It didn’t take you long at all for you to find Rumi. She held herself, desperately attempting to rub the patterns off of her skin as she shook with fear.

You held out a hand to try and tap her on the shoulder, to which she drew her sword at you.

“Rumi, I’m so sorry this happened. I never thought that they would… they would…” 

You couldn’t finish the sentence. You really should have seen it coming. You knew that this was all your fault.

But you couldn’t fix this mistake by yourself. You had to gather the girls up… do something.

“I thought I could trust you. I thought that maybe if I could tell someone about what I was, who I am, that it would be you.” Rumi couldn’t even hold her sword straight. She trembled from her labored breaths and her sobs. “You killed your family. Your demon family.”

“Rumi, it’s complicated.” You began.

“Was everything you said about demons a lie? Did you ever believe what you said, or did it only apply to the boys?”

“Please. That’s all-!”

You paused, gathering yourself before you scared her off with your rising frustration.

“That’s in the past. Please, I promise you can come to me. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I’ve been trying my best to change!”

You held her hands in yours, begging, desperate. Just like her.

“I would never hurt you.”

She could only see your pleading eyes, your feeble attempt to try and get her to stay.

She removed her hands from yours gently, her now mismatched eyes full of fear before she stumbled back and ran away.

You were the real monster.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The boys were quiet after you left. They were supposed to make their way to Namsan Tower already, but the weight in their hearts rendered them immobile.

“We should leave.” Baby finally spoke up, turning towards the exit. The other boys only stayed behind.

“Oh, come on. The deed is done already.” He rolled his eyes. “We’ve betrayed them. They hate us. There’s nothing we can do now.”

The other boys continued to stay, unmoving, unfeeling.

“We should have taken their help.” Mystery quietly whispered. “But we were too scared.”

“Too ashamed of what we are.” Abby finished his thought.

“And they’re right. We’re about to sacrifice the world for our selfish gain.” Romance sighed.

“Get a grip!” Baby shouted. “We’re demons! We don’t get second chances. We don’t get reincarnation. We don’t get a redo! We will live with our shame forever.”

The rest of the boys didn’t say anything else.

”And they believe that we’re evil now, too. They would slaughter us if we came back crawling to them.” Baby concluded.

“You don’t actually believe that.” Jinu finally answered.

Baby hated that Jinu was right.

He didn’t believe it.

If you truly believed they were irredeemable and evil, you would have swung that blade and made sure it landed. 

But you didn’t kill them.

You let them live, just like how you let them live when you first met them.

You didn’t want them to die. You wanted them to realize that they, too, can still change.

And if helping you was the only way that they could keep you, they would do it.

Baby’s been alive for longer than the rest of the boys. He’s been under Gwi-Ma’s control the longest. Centuries of torment and control turned him into the apathetic, pessimistic, self-serving demon that he is today.

But he would be lying if he didn’t still dream of a second chance.

Baby stood in front of them, his hands balled up and his face softened from the glare that he wore.

It’s been so long since he’s felt care for another person. Since he’s felt anything for another person that wasn’t hate.

His past self would hate what he’s become.

He was willing to betray you, just like how he was betrayed.

He continued to walk towards the exit, before turning to the rest.

“Follow me or don’t, but I’m going to find them.”

He wasn’t going to let you go.

Mystery hesitated, picking up the blade that you discarded on the floor before following Baby as well.

One by one, each boy picked up their feet, getting lighter and lighter as they realised that hope was just within reach.

And the rest weren’t going to let you go either.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

So this was how the end of the world looked.

The Honmoon was completely falling apart in giant gashes. The barrier was now nothing but a giant torn blanket in the sky. You sat on a park bench, your blade still sheathed, and ally-less.

You have no idea where Rumi could be, the boys betrayed you, and it was likely that Zoey and Mira wouldn’t exactly want to speak to Rumi at the moment.

There was no hope.

You had given your trust and your kindness to the demons that were causing this.

What the fuck were you thinking?

They were humans first, that wasn’t wrong.

But it’s because they had lived human lives that they acted the way that they did.

Selfishly.

Cowards, the whole lot of them.

But even still deep down, you hoped that they would come to their senses.

It was never too late to make a change, right?

Maybe at least one of them would realize that they had fucked up and come back to help you.

But knew that saving everyone else was your priority. If they couldn’t see past their selfishness, then you would rather not have any help at all.

You wanted Gwi-Ma dead and you wanted to save the rest of Seoul’s population, even if it meant that you would die in the process.

Dying was a guarantee.

It certainly wasn’t an easy decision, but in times like these, you couldn’t be selfish.

You cared for the boys greatly, but if it meant you had to fight against them?

You wouldn’t have a choice. You had to put your feelings aside, no matter how you felt.

“I thought you might be struggling.”

Your eyes fixed on the puddle between your feet, the familiar voice grating your ears. You stared back at yourself crouching, your arms resting on your knees. Why? Why now, out of all times? Surely, they knew the world was ending.

Maybe that was exactly why they sought you out.

“You.” You sneered. “You come to me when I’m desperate and hopeless so that you could possess my body?”

Your guide chuckled. “You know I only want to help. You need to defeat Gwi-Ma, but have no resources or allies to help you.”

”I’ve already told you that I was going to do it myself. I don’t need your help.” You turned away from your own reflection in the water.

“Your actions after my guidance are not mine.” God, it was that same damn phrase every single time.

“You were the one that told me that my family were demons. From the moment I murdered them, you… you changed.” You gritted your teeth. “I used to look up to you. You were the only person in my life that would listen to my secrets. You taught me things that my family was afraid of.”

Your guide didn’t speak, seemingly calculating what to say next.

“Your family was selfish. They only had you to have a powerful heir.” 

Well, they did get their wish. You are considered to be quite strong in your spiritual abilities compared to the rest of your family.

Not that you ever explored any of your rare and powerful talents, much to your guide’s dismay.

“They loved me. They sheltered me from demons and demon hunting for as long as they could.” You countered. “They never wanted me to see that side of them.”

“And look at what happened. You killed them after finding out they were the very things that they taught you to kill.” Your guide calmly answered.

You didn’t have an answer to that.

You didn’t have an answer to anything.

You were alone.

But you could make things right. If you could kill Gwi-Ma, you could set every single demon free. You could avenge your family.

And you needed help.

“I didn’t have a choice then, but I have a choice now.” You answered them, your eyes back on the puddle. 

“Take my body.” You finally met the eyes in the image of yourself.

The world seemed to stop. The wind that had filled the silence was no more.

“Your family was selfish. They only had you to have a powerful heir. I know because I made sure of it.”

The streetlight overhead flickered, the only light source that wasn’t the moon or stars coming from the faint glow of the purple flames inside your reflection.

“…who are you?” Your voice was a low whisper, pleading, begging and hoping it wasn’t true.

This wasn’t how you wanted to find out.

This wasn’t what you wanted.

It felt as if a wave crashed into you, the water consuming you whole.

You were suffocating again, your body crumpling in on itself. You collapsed in on yourself, your chest too heavy and too full.

There was just too much in your body. Too much power all at once. Too many sounds, mostly screaming from yourself.

And then everything was quiet.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You didn’t want to hear it. They killed so many people. Your friends. Your neighbors. Their families.

They had offered up so many souls for you. 

“What could you have possibly done for you to do this?!” A guttural shout left your chest, frustrated and angry.

“Who? Who are you trying to protect me from?”

So many lives were lost.

They couldn’t answer. How could they? They had lost their souls long ago when they had offered it up for your strength, and you slaughtered what was left of them. A shell of what they once were.

And yet when they were confronted with this, they had stated it was to protect you.

…was this all your fault? Was your infant self the cause of everything?

They wanted you to have power, so they had given their souls. 

But even if you weren’t aware of the details of the deal, you knew:

Nothing is bestowed upon for free. Especially dealing with spiritual affairs.

You, the cause of the deal that they had made.

You turned your head away.

You knew what you had to do. You couldn’t let any other lives be taken.

“They were selfish. You can protect yourself, can’t you?”

Your guide’s voice was so loud.

Gwi-Ma’s voice was so loud.

You only knew after you slaughtered them that their words were true.

‘No creature, human, animal, or spirit, is inherently evil.’

They were only trying to protect you, even if it cost the lives of your closest friends.

You just didn’t know from what.

They could have fought back. They could have easily all overpowered you.

They knew what they did was wrong. They knew their deaths were coming.

And yet, they let you.

And you will never be able to forgive yourself.

Chapter Text

They couldn’t lose you. 

In the short amount of time they knew you, they knew that finding another that was just as accepting of their demon forms was impossible.

They had blown it. They had lied to you, and they knew that this was coming, yet it hurt more than they all anticipated.

They kept convincing themselves that they had no choice, kept making excuses, kept feeling sorry and pity for themselves. You had offered to help them, and foolishly they had not only turned you down, but betrayed you.

You were right. They were pathetic.

They were going to make things right with you by helping.

Maybe that way, they can redeem themselves in your eyes.

”Guys?”

It was your voice.

All five of them whipped their heads towards the source of your voice. Had you come back for them, just as they hoped you would? Had you come crawling back to ask for the help that you desperately needed that they would provide?

Romance began to step towards you. They all couldn’t believe it.

”You came back.” Romance breathed a sigh of relief as he outstretched his arms towards your sobbing and heaving figure to try and comfort you. 

“Please… I was wrong,” You pleaded. “I do believe that you’re all worth redeeming. If you all could help me defeat Gwi-Ma, we could all be together… forever.”

“Oh, angel, we were so worried…” Romance sighed, before he stopped in his tracks. The rest of the boys had already caught that something was not quite right about you.

You were no longer crying. There was no trace of the tears that had rolled down your cheeks.

Instead, it was replaced by a bone-chilling smile with wide glowing eyes. 

“…that’s what you wanted them to say, right?” 

Your words became distorted, a tone sinister and all-too familiar poorly masked by the voice they all knew so well.

Suddenly, your limbs began to elongate. You grew alarmingly gaunt, your bones protruding nearly out of your skin. Rot festered on parts of your body, exposing flesh and bone.

Parts of your skull began to elongate, twisting itself into a permanent crown on top of your head.

You were covered in purple fire, your skin blistering from the intense heat that it was exposed to.

Your body towered over the boys, your movements much more articulated than many other demons.

It was Jinu that broke the silence.

”We already betrayed them. We agreed to help you instead. Why are you doing this?!”

Gwi-Ma cackled. The worst part was that every time he spoke, the boys could hear your voice underneath, mocking them alongside their demon overlord.

“Don’t think I don’t know about the doubt that you boys hold in your heart. You were just about to seek them out, were you not?”

The boys went silent, their lips pursed in guilt.

”Did you really believe for a second in your selfish lives that if you did help them that they wouldn’t know that you were only doing it for your own gain?”

Gwi-Ma was a manipulator. He was an entity that preyed on the desperate.

So he knew manipulation and degeneration when he saw it.

“But it’s all alright now. You can’t help them even if you wanted to.”

He took a step forward, his movements not quite normal. It looked like someone that was trying to move the way humans do, but his movements were still slightly too harsh.

“I can hear them, just the way you could hear me in your head. They’re begging you to destroy this body, to destroy me and set everyone’s souls free.”

Gwi-Ma leaned into them, his spine lengthening as he hunched over to look down on them.

“But we all know that you all are too weak. Too self-serving. You’d rather have them like this, a mere puppet to me than to kill them. You’re again willing to sacrifice everyone just for your own sake.”

And he was right. They didn’t speak. They didn’t answer.

Everything that Gwi-Ma said was true. 

So what were they going to do?

Save you or save the world?

Were they strong enough, selfless enough to do the right thing? The thing that they know you would have wanted?

There was no guarantee that you would ever come back in both scenarios.

But at least they’d be able to hear your voice if Gwi-Ma was still alive.

They wouldn’t pull the plug, even when you were most certainly suffering horribly as you shared a body with that thing.

“What a pointless sacrifice. To save the world over yourself.” Gwi-Ma scoffed at your voice.

And they believed him.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

All of Seoul had come to see the end of the world. 

They just didn’t know it yet.

They were all lured in by the siren song of the boys, and met their demise by walking into the fire.

So many souls.

And no one came to stop them.

Not until they heard the faint hum of someone’s voice in the distance.

Jinu opened his eyes, his gaze falling towards the source.

Rumi began to walk towards the stage, her footsteps echoing in the near silence of the auditorium.

All eyes were on her.

She was the only one that hadn’t fallen for Gwi-Ma’s voice in her head.

She admitted to having lost. She admitted to not being able to fix herself. She admitted to the Honmoon being destroyed.

So that they all could make a new one.

One by one, the girls began to snap out of their trance. They followed the sound of Rumi’s voice this time, not the voice that Gwi-Ma had put inside of their head. Slowly, the rest of the people in the stadium soon followed. The hunters’s weapons materialized in their hand, their rainbow holy glow a stark contrast to Gwi-Ma’s violet fire. They made their way to the middle of the stage as they killed the demons that were summoned to stand in their way by Gwi-Ma.

The boys couldn’t move. They were supposed to stop them, but the threat of losing you to Gwi-Ma was enough for them to stay still and do nothing.

They were hopeless.

But when they saw your friends fight desperately against the odds, they couldn’t help but feel a little bit of hope too. 

They knew the attempt was likely to fail, but to see how your friends worked so tirelessly to finish what you had started?

They had to do something. This has gone too far already.

Gwi-Ma emerged from the fire, your body now twisted into something even more unrecognizable than before. He had grown in size as well, likely from the amount of souls he had consumed before the girl had gotten there.

Any trace of you that was left was made to taunt them, to use you as leverage against them. 

It seemed that the Huntrix girls realized it as well. 

They knew you were suffering horribly.

And yet, the girls still drew their weapons and charged towards Gwi-Ma.

Make no mistake. They did so with visible hesitation, dragging their feet on the floor before jogging and then sprinting. You were their friend and manager after all. You had helped them, been there for them, accepted them the way they were, even when your views clashed.

They were your true friends.

And they knew the only way for their goal to be reached was to kill you.

And that was what you wanted.

The girls got closer and closer to the boys, who turned towards Gwi-Ma. They turned towards the monster they helped create.

His voice boomed through the auditorium, a cruel and mocking sound. His body was engulfed in the rest of the purple flames that surrounded him.

“Surely, you all know it is futile to resist.” Gwi-Ma said. With a pulse, their past memories began to flood their minds. It physically pained them, their brains constricting from it all and collapsed to their knees.

There was nothing they could do. Nothing to escape their pain.

“…ight.”

The boys heard a faint voice from the overlapping past ones.

“Fight.”

They looked up, only to see the rest of Huntrix glaring down at them.

If they were that close, then why hadn’t the girls killed them? 

Did they trust you too? Did they believe in your words too?

“If you truly care about them, then fight for them.” Rumi narrowed her eyes. It was clear that her and the other girls still didn’t trust the boys.

Actually, they were most certainly furious that they had taken advantage of your empathy and stabbed them all in the back.

They should have been gutting the boys.

But maybe they also believed that deep down you might be right about demons.

And if the boys tried anything, then they could kill them on the spot anyway.

They weren’t going to throw away this opportunity. This time, they were going to truly accept your help.

No ulterior motives, no personal gain.

They were going to finish what you had started, even if it meant that they would most likely never see you again.

The boys got up from the ground in succession, before the hunters and demons all turned their attention towards the spindly colossal figure. 

It wasn’t easy to make their decision, but it was also certainly not going to be easy to take him down. 

Mystery reached into the inside of his black coat, your blade sheathed in one of his inner pockets. He held the weapon in his hand, still heavy, still dull, still burned when he touched the metal.

The boys had taken it to return to you, but they never thought that this was how they were going to do it. 

The girls began to vocalize, their voices intertwining together. The broken remains of the Honmoon began to flare, the gold slowly transforming into something brighter. Rumi’s patterns followed suit, the violet streaks replaced with a rainbow hue.

Mystery gripped your blade in his hand tightly, the leather underneath it squeaking as the others charged at the demon king themselves. 

Gwi-Ma closed his fist, the sigils on your arm activating as he raised his fist. Before anyone could react, his fist descended downwards. Pieces of the floor and the stage flew as a tidal wave of energy released from them.

They all had been dispersed, disoriented from the powerful strike. The blade from Mystery’s hand was knocked out. He felt around the surrounding area next to his body, only for him to spot Romance snatching it back up. 

Mystery looked out to the crowd, who slowly but surely began to wake up as well. 

Their souls that they had worked tirelessly to harvest began to glow, their voices carrying through the stadium.

Each individual voice, each person, each spirit was able to stitch together a new barrier. A new hope.

The energy weaved through the air, surrounding the hunters as they grew stronger. It intertwined itself around the boys as well. Their patterns, once a badge of shame now iridescent stripes that decorated their body. 

Gwi-Ma continued to counter each and every attack, although it was evident that his strength was waning.

Romance sprinted towards Gwi-Ma before being knocked back by an infernal attack. Abby caught the weapon, before continuing to charge forwards. He leaped, only to be shoved aside by the back of Gwi-Ma’s hand. Mystery seized the blade as he ran up the incline of Gwi-Ma’s arm, before bounding upwards.

He reeled his arm backwards.

The blade itself was dull, and couldn’t pierce human skin.

He had to exorcise Gwi-Ma. To do this, he had to separate yours and Gwi-Ma’s souls.

He had to break the shell that encased both.

That shell being your body.

He didn’t know what would be painful: the amount of force he would have to use to kill you, or the heartbreak he and the other boys would have to live with after saving the world by killing you.

He thought about Younghee, the girl that he had taken care of after you had helped her.

He thought of how you had accepted him with open arms, how you accepted all of them in different, but such intimate personal ways.

You told him that he wasn’t a monster.

But how could he not feel like one when he was destroying the very thing that they all loved the most?

As he flew through the air, his bangs brushed aside from his eyes. He never got to see you so clearly. 

Even in this distorted, twisted form Gwi-Ma had transformed you into, he still believed that you were in there, just as beautiful as ever.

And just for a second, he could have sworn that you had taken control, your eyes widening.

Was it shock? Fear? Awe?

A single tear traveled down from his own, before the blade struck flesh.

Almost immediately, he let go of the handle, making his descent down towards the stage floor.

The other boys caught him, their eyes fixed upon Gwi-Ma.

A burst of white holy flames replaced his own, spreading from the wound on his chest around his body. His body started to bubble with blisters, before they slowly charged.

His screams echoed through the stadium, the flames rising and twirling around his body.

The sky was no longer the dark night that Gwi-Ma had encased the world in. A beautiful aqua blue began to slowly replace the deep purple that had painted the city.

The new Honmoon spanned across Seoul rapidly, the strings undulating. Its pearlescent color of the shield shone when it caught the sun’s light.

The people swayed to the music, the beauty of the magic that they weren’t even aware that they had participated in.

Blue orbs began to float from underneath all of them, the souls of the demons now finally freed from Gwi-Ma’s eternal control. They flew up like lanterns up towards the sky to the heavens.

So many centuries of suffering was finally undone.

All of the boys and the hunters turned back at Gwi-Ma’s burning form, only to find you in the fire instead of him.

But the difference was, you weren’t charring. You were pristine, untouched by the flames.

Your fingertips began to disintegrate, the ash flying away as it caught the air. Your arms followed suit, your head tilting up towards the sky.

You tilted your head towards them as you gave them a kind smile.

“Thank you.” You whispered as the rest of your body was reduced to nothing but flecks of ash.

It was over now.

Everything.

The pain, the punishments…

Your love.

Your existence.

Your warmth, acceptance.

The girls had watched the entire display with open mouths, their eyes brimming with tears. 

The boys held Mystery up, with only their breaths audible to their ears.

Their friend, their lover had saved them all by sacrificing themselves.

And they had finally finished what you had started, upholding your ideals to the end.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You should have seen it. 

You should have seen every single decision you’ve ever made in your life, every single memory and every single right and wrong.

But all you could focus on right now was the phantom pain of the blade that had been lodged in your chest.

Weren’t you supposed to be in the gates of the afterlife already?

You were still in the human realm, actually. Right on Lovelock bridge. The dawn had broken from the lunar spell, the Honmoon now mended and illuminating a rainbow hue.

The girls did it. They had sealed the demon realm forever.

Your face fell. So what did that mean for your boys? Are they to eternally suffer, even after they have saved you? After they saved the world?

You were proud of them. More than proud of them.

This didn’t undo their lies and their betrayal, the selfishness that they had committed completely, but the fact that they had pushed everything that they had believed in for centuries aside for the good of the world was more than enough for a first step.

In the distance on the other side of the bridge, you could only see light.

It was almost like you were staring right into the sun, but your pupils couldn’t help but be transfixed by the golden glow.

You heard your name from them, and you knew why they had come.

You knew who they were.

“I am but a human. I’ve done nothing to earn this.” You said before they could continue. 

There was no audible voice. Their message only seemed to radiate, instead of being told.

Your fate since your birth was to be forever sealed away, to aid in breaking the barrier between the human realm and the spirit realms.

And yet, did you resent the people that were to lead you to your destiny? Did you slay mercilessly, in the justification that they had made a mistake that you hadn’t committed yet?

You saved them. You made it your mission to redeem countless demon and human souls since the day that you found the truth.

You knew you would die, and yet you still saw through it to the end.

You were deceived by the ones you trusted the most, yet you were able to redeem yourself as well successfully.

It started with you, and it ended with you.

Just not in the way it was laid out for you.

Just…

You stopped partway on the bridge. 

The weight of the choice laid heavy. If you crossed, you would leave your mortal life behind, in exchange for an eternal one.

If you turned back, you would stay with the people you loved the most. The very people that had held you up so that you were able to achieve acknowledgement from the immortals themselves. You will live out the rest of your human life in this realm.

And you knew that both sides were waiting for an answer.

You turned back to the other side of the bridge to see your girls and…

And the Saja Boys.

Your boys.

Instead of sorrow, only a sense of pride and awe radiated from them. It was clear that they were being strong for you, but the tears that welled up in their eyes was another story.

But you knew now with no doubt in your mind that your life was now fully yours.

And they knew this now too.

Your choice was yours to make, and it was…

”Not yet.”

You weren’t giving up on immortality just yet. You just needed more time.

You needed rest.

You needed a break.

”Thank you. Truly.” You began. ”It’s not a no. I just need a little bit of time.”

You’ve barely lived any of your life just yet, and you’ve only been able to experience true freedom and autonomy about five minutes ago when you were presumed dead.

Your gaze fell on your friends again. A waterfall of tears escaped them. The girls held each other, the mental walls they had built so that they could appear strong for you broke down at lightning speed.

They all hugged you, their tears staining your skin, your shirt, and them all.

You didn’t need to tell her that you’ve been there, that you’ve made the same mistakes.

You didn’t need to tell them that you forgive them. They didn’t need to tell you either.

It was a beautiful thing what mutual understanding and a world-threatening event could do to strengthen a friendship, you supposed.

But what about relationships that were more?

You couldn’t look the boys in their eyes. You too were a hypocrite.

You hid stuff from them as much as they hid stuff from you.

They had betrayed you.

They saved you.

You saved them too. You just didn’t know it yet.

“You… saved everyone.” Jinu chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck, his now rainbow transparent patterns decorating his hand.

You didn’t say anything. Only an expression of understanding etched itself on your face.

“It doesn’t mean that you all didn't do anything.” You finished. Without them, you wouldn’t have been able to save all of those souls. Without them, you would have still been Gwi-Ma’s vessel.

Without them, you wouldn’t have even gotten the opportunity to become what was essentially a deity.

“I’m proud of you all.” You smiled. “Really.”

”It was all because of you,” Rumi said. “I-I should have listened to you before but…”

”But now you know.” You finished for her. There was no need to reminisce over what if.

”We’re so glad that you didn’t like… take over the world? Or die?” Zoey’s voice sloped up in pitch, her eyes welling up with tears. You only chuckled in response, shaking your head.

”We thought we lost you. We’re glad to have you back.” Mira laid a hand on your shoulder.

You were well aware of the fact that the girls still did not have very good views on the Saja Boys.

You didn’t blame them at all really. You were actually wondering why they had spared the boys. 

Of course, you were grateful that they did, but it was more so the effect that you had on the girls that shocked you.

”We… we understand if you don’t want to forgive us.” Jinu spoke for the rest of the boys. 

But they didn’t look rejected. They didn't look exactly overjoyed either.

They seemed content, and you knew that whatever answer you chose, they would respect.

After everything that had happened the past few months, you were ready for a break.

Honestly, a great chunk of your life was dedicated to things like this.

Your attention went back to the boys. As much as you wished to brush this all aside, as much as you wanted to forget and start anew, pretend that this never happened…

You can’t.

At least, not now.

”I just need time.” You answered.

You… loved them.

And you might have not known it, but they loved you too.

Even if every second apart tore their hearts little by little.

If it meant there was no sorrow for the rest of your life, no more troubles, and no more tyrant entities trying to take over your body, then they were more than happy.

You had freed them, and that was the greatest act of love that you could have ever shown them.

And who were they to deny your request?

Chapter Text

The breeze up at the peak was gorgeous.

The sky was perfectly clear in the right places, but the sun still shone bright from behind the wispy, fluffy clouds.

The ground below was covered by the fog from below.

It was just like in the traditional paintings. You didn’t think that they would be this accurate, though.

Sure, your feet hurt. You shouldn’t have brought such heavy-soled shoes, but the pain throbbing in your feet and the suffering you endured from walking up all those steps was all worth it.

The mountains, just as you imagined them in your fantasies, were breathtaking.

”Dude, keep your chip bag closed!” Abby scolded Baby, who waved around his chip bag absentmindedly. The crumbs sprayed all over the stone of the mountain, which were sure to bring many unwanted feathered guests trailing behind.

Jinu shielded his eyes from the sun, squinting as he came up to you.

”I don’t trust that flimsy rope to keep people from slipping off the rocks.” Jinu commented. Romance and Mystery followed suit, their breaths catching as they surveyed the sight.

At least, you were sure Mystery was watching too. The small smile that decorated his face seemed to indicate it.

”I never doubted you once on this view.” Romance grinned ear to ear. 

Abby came next, and trailing behind him was Baby.

“While we’re up here, we should take a picture.” Mystery suggested. You all agreed, a bit taken aback that Mystery was the one to suggest. The view was just too good to waste.

You set up the tripod, picking the five second timer on the phone before you backed up towards the boys quickly.

Before the timer went off, Abby tripped over the rope that was supposed to prevent anyone from crossing dangerously off the mountain. A pigeon swooped towards Baby’s hands, attempting to snatch his remaining bag of chips. Romance ducked from the oncoming projectiles, and Mystery growled at the avian thieves. Jinu turned his head to witness the chaos that was unfolding next to him, and a bird flew in front of the phone camera, its wing covering your face.

It was perfect.

끝.