Chapter Text
Halloween season is a very busy time. For humans, it’s fun. The costumes, the candy, the parties, and all the debauchery that came with it. For demons, it’s an extremely chaotic time, a Black Friday type of thing if you will.
The list of souls meant to reside in Hell increases tenfold in comparison to any other festive time. Demons, on the clock 24/7, non stop back and forth between realms. This is also one of the times Yoongi despises most. He has no qualms about being the leader of Hell. He loves it, in fact. He enjoys being the one to make sure the machine is running smoothly and is well oiled. The thing is, Yoongi dislikes the headache that comes with a heavy income of souls, it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Too much paperwork and sorting to do. It’s always been assumed that an evil or corrupt soul just pops into Hell and proceeds to be tortured. In reality, it’s much more involved.
Despite being in charge, Yoongi still has a list of souls he has to lead to Hell. The demon sinks back into his chair, rubbing his tired face. He has been doing paperwork for so long, his hand starts to cramp up. Yoongi breathes a deep sigh and looks over at the big, black, leather bound book on the shelf next to him, before he grabs his clipboard. He glances through the different files of each person.
Each file gives a history of what they’ve done in the past, and what they’ve done or will do to end up in Hell. There isn’t too many intimate details about any one person, as to avoid a demon from feeling empathetic or growing attached. Any attempts to change a person’s fate results in death or imprisonment. Yoongi’s never liked it, but that’s just the way things are.
Yoongi stands up from his seat, tucks his clipboard under in arm, and starts making his way out of his office and through the different sectors. Hell is broken up into different sections, like a normal city is. He checks in on how things are going with fellow retrievers, a nickname to denote soul guiders. Yoongi looks over his clipboard again, but before he can fly up to the overworld, one of his new trainees, Jeongguk comes barreling over.
“Hi Boss!” he shrieks. Yoongi winces at the loudness, before he sighs again.
“I told you to just call me Hyung,” The elder continues, “What’daya need Kook-ah?”
Jeongguk looks down, scuffing his feet in the gravel. He fidgets with his fingers for a moment before he says, “I need your advice.”
“Oh?” Yoongi hums in astonishment. Jeongguk’s face seems pinkier than before.
“I-it’s about… about,”
“Spit it out already,” Yoongi huffs, no malice behind his words.
“It’s about Taehyung… I mean I know I shouldn’t b-because, of work but… but,” Jeongguk rambles
“Oh for Azazel’s sake, ask the man out already!”
Jeongguk looks up at Yoongi and beams. He hugs the elder and runs off. Yoongi chuckles and shakes his head. The demon sprouts his wings and flies towards the surface world. As he ascends, he opens a portal.
The one problem with opening portals while in flight is one won’t know where one’ll end up; Yoongi never seems to learn his lesson. The demon pops into an occupied bathroom stall of a coffee shop. The occupant screeches in horror, while Yoongi rolls his eyes and grimaces in disgust. He has no time to deal with this. Yoongi opens the stall door and waltzes out of the bathroom, hands in his pockets.
One of the positives of being on the surface is coffee. In Hell, coffee doesn’t exist. Sure, there’s substitutes like it, but nothing compares to the bittersweet taste of coffee. Yoongi walks over to the counter where one adorable barista stands. The demon leans into the counter and gazes at the man a few feet from him. He’s around Yoongi’s height, ashy blonde hair, big doe eyes, and luscious lips. The barman comes over with a bright smile on his face.
“Hello, Welcome to Sugar and Spice! What can I get for you?”
“I’d like a coffee, black, two sugars please,” Yoongi says
“Alright, one black coffee with two sugars comin’ right up!”
Yoongi smiles. He isn’t normally affected by humans, but this one felt different. Not even five minutes later, the barista comes back over and slides a black mug over the bar.
“Thought the black mug would fit your aesthetic more.”
Yoongi looks down at himself for a moment and grins. The demon is wearing a black button down, black slacks, red suspenders, and black boots. His hair is a white blonde, drastically contrasting the rest of his look.
“Thanks.”
“So, what brings you to town? Don’t think I’ve seen you around,” the man chirps. Yoongi wasn’t one for small talk, yet something makes him want to.
“Ah, yeah, I’m here for work.”
“Oh, cool! What do you do?” Yoongi stopped in his tracks for a moment.
“I, uh, I work in the funeral business,”
The barista's smile falters for a split second. “Oh.”
“What about you? What are you doing in this small town...”
Suddenly gunshots ring from outside the shop, screams of terror follow not soon after. Everyone in the cafe ducks down under their tables and chairs.
“Shit,” Yoongi grits, he didn’t know why at first, but the demon had a feeling this was related to his work. He looks over at the man, who’s crouched behind the bar, looking up at Yoongi in fear. The man motions for Yoongi to join him, but the demon turns and runs out of the coffee shop.
A little ways down the street, the shooter is being surrounded by police. Yoongi lurks in the shadows, watching. He summons his clipboard and flips through the pages. He was right, this guy was one of the souls he had to retrieve. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the right time to step in.
The police keep trying to get the man to comply, with no luck. One of the officers makes the call and shoots the gunman. As soon as the man falls to the ground, Yoongi jumps in. He freezes time and kneels in front of the shooter. He places his hand over the man’s face and chants in tongues. Then, like routine, he feels the soul circulate through his body. Yoongi puts his other hand on the ground and chants something different. He feel the soul pass through his arm as it seeps into the Earth, making its way towards Hell’s gate. Before the soul is gone completely, Yoongi severs a piece of the soul.
Yoongi pushes the piece of soul out through his hand and looks at it. He closes his eyes and twitches his fingers around the soul fragment, forming a new shape. He summons his leather bound book, which he uses to collect pieces of every soul he guides. It’s not something the other retrievers know of, it’s something personal he does for himself, meant to stay private. The demon then rises and walks away from the scene. Once he’s far enough away, he snaps his fingers and everything starts up again. He hears the officers reporting through the coms, as he walks back to the coffee shop.
Once the demon arrives, he’s met with a bunch of news outlets, crowding the shop interviewing witnesses. Yoongi grunts and shields his face with his arm and he walk into the cafe. He makes a beeline for the counter, where he sees the dashing blonde from earlier leaning over it, clearly shaken.
“Hey, you alright, kid?” Yoongi asks, the barista flinches and looks up. Then, it hits Yoongi, like a punch in the chest. This man is special, he can feel it. Those big doe-like eyes are just boring into his soul, or, lack thereof.
“Y-yeah,” He man lets out a shaky breath, “Why the hell did you run out there like that? You could’ve gotten hurt!”
Yoongi quirks a brow, perplexed. It’s not often a human shows genuine concern, in Yoongi's experience anyway. Humans always seem to want Yoongi for something, yet this feels different. A complete stranger, actually caring about whether he was alright.
“Aish, it wasn’t anything I haven’t seen before,” Yoongi replies lazily. He stops for a moment and remarks, “By the way, I never got your name.”
The blonde smiles softly, although still an emotional mess. He answers, “I’m Jimin”
“Yoongi, pleasure to meet you,” Yoongi bows slightly, causing Jimin to laugh and mimic him.
They chat for a while, just getting to know one another over several more coffees. Jimin finds out Yoongi’s two years older than him, at least that’s what Yoongi makes him believe. It’s near closing time when they part ways. Yoongi pays for his tab, though the younger insists on covering it. Before the demon can leave, Jimin tugs on his sleeve and hands him a piece of paper.
“C-call or text me sometime, yeah?” The barista stutters bashfully. Yoongi grabs and lifts the blonde’s hand and places a kiss on the back of it.
“I think I can do that. Until we meet again.”
Jimin flushes and nods, not sure how to respond. Yoongi takes the paper and leaves the cafe. Something about this man really strikes Yoongi and he can’t wait to learn more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next few days are busy ones for Yoongi. The demon’s days are jam packed with guiding souls down to Hell. It’s quite tiring, having to do multiple retrieves, but the time Yoongi spends with Jimin at the cafe each mid afternoon make it worthwhile. Everyday since they met, Yoongi shows up at the coffee shop and orders the same thing. He chats with Jimin, in between him serving customers.
It’s actually fun! Yoongi’s never connected with a human like this before. They even casually flirt, even though they’re still just getting to know each other. Although deep down, Yoongi knows it’s wrong. He knows he shouldn’t get attached or lead the human on, it’ll hurt them both. Yet, everyday, for close to two weeks, he goes to the shop and talks with Jimin for hours. Yoongi did almost slip a few times with his cover story.
It was just so easy to get lost in conversation with Jimin. He’s so easy to talk with, to open up to. It’s a nice change of pace, Yoongi feels. He even discussed some of his encounters with Jimin to Jeongguk, the few times he’s popped back in to check up on how things are.
The next two weeks pass and the couple starts to meet up outside of Jimin’s shifts at the shop. They hang out, go to an ice cream parlor, stroll around a local park, and the like. They didn’t dare call them dates, because then that would mean there was something more. They just… hang out.
Once day, while they were in the cafe, in the midst of their not so subtle flirting, Jimin questions, “Hey, would you want to I don’t know...” the man then bursts into laughter and waves off his question.
“You always do that, just ask me whatever’s on your mind,” the demon chuckles.
Jimin tries again, “Well, my friend Hoseok is throwing a Halloween- or as he calls it, ‘Hallow’s Eve’- party this coming Tuesday and I-I was wondering-”
“Yes,” Yoongi cuts in. Jimin looks at him, flustered. Yoongi laughs, again. “If you were going to ask me to go, absolutely! I haven’t been to a party in eon- I mean, ages.”
Jimin smiles that big, bright smile that caught Yoongi attention almost a month prior. He wasn’t a party or crowd type of person, but if it was with Jimin, he could make an exception. Plus, he was almost done with retrieving souls. He only had a few stragglers that were due at the end of the month.
“Great!” Jimin cheers, “I hate to cut us short, but I gotta go, doctor’s appointment.”
“Ah, okay. See you Tuesday,” Yoongi hums as Jimin clocks out and leaves the shop.
Tuesday night rolls around and Yoongi’s panicking. He’s trying to decide what to wear to this party. Not that he really cares what he looks like, but he wants to take Jimin’s breath away. He contacts Taehyung, the demon who’s also the biggest fashionista he knows.
“Just wear something you’d normally wear. It’s obvious the kid likes your aesthetic already, from what Ggukie told me.” Taehyung reasons, to which Yoongi whines at him.
“Damn it, Jeongguk!”
Taehyung just snorts in response, then suddenly things get really quiet.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea though, Hyung?”
“What do you mean?” Yoongi inquires, knowing what the younger meant.
“You know,” Taehyungi sneers, “You’re leading him on and it’s going to end badly.”
“I know, but this feels different, I really feel a connection,” Yoongi explains.
“You said the same thing about Namjoon and look what happened.”
“Hey…” The elder warns, “That was different and you know it.”
“Was it though?”
Yoongi huffs, “You know, I really don’t need this from you right now. I’m looking for support here, can’t I just be happy?”
“You know I’ve done nothing but support you, but as a friend, I’m just telling you what I foresee happening. You know as well as I do, happy endings and love don’t mix well with our line of work,” Taehyung defended.
Yoongi laughs dryly, “That’s ironic coming from you,” Dead silence, again.
The elder demon is about to cut their communication off when Taehyung questions, “Have you finished retrieving yet?”
“No,” Yoongi snaps
The younger sighs in aggravation, “You should really get that done, instead of foolishly screwing around with some human’s emotions,”
“Oh, fuck off, and watch your tone with me!!! You call me foolish, yet you're the one whose been hopelessly pining over Jeongguk-ah for the past two months” the elder jeers, causing Taehyung to stutter. Yoongi continued, “I’ll get to it, when I get to, alright? Besides I think this last soul isn’t due till the end of tonight ,anyway.”
“Whatever…” Taehyung mutters. Yoongi cuts their communications before he can have the youth badger him any further.
Yoongi winds up picking a white button down, that he tucks into his dark purple slacks, and tops off the look with his trusty black boots. He looks in the mirror and runs his hand through his hair a couple of times before sighing.Yoongi re-reads Jimin’s text, telling him to meet him at the coffee shop and they’d go together. He leaves his rented hotel room, anxiety filling inside him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yoongi arrives at the cafe early. He mentally slaps himself for feeling so eager. He can’t help himself though, he just really wants to have a good time with Jimin. He’s really grown attached to the human, despite the rules. He doesn’t care about any punishment he could get, he wants to be with Jimin. He just has to figure out how to make it work.
The blonde shows up roughly 10 minutes after the demon, apologizing for making him wait. Yoongi waves it off and they begin to walk. They chat along the way, but Yoongi’s not really paying attention to the conversation. He’s so infatuated with Jimin’s get up, he can’t keep his eyes off of him.
The youth is wearing a red frilly blouse, which is tucked into tight fitting pleather pants. His shoes are a pair of black, low heeled boots. The clothes hug the blonde in all the right places, make him ten times as attractive as before.
Soon, they reach the party and enter the house. Jimin leads Yoongi to the kitchen, to get them drinks. They bump into Jimin’s friend and host of the party, Hoseok. The younger introduces them to one another and continues to drag Yoongi towards the alcohol, not long after.
“What’s your poison, Hyung?” Jimin asks. Yoongi still gets flustered over the honorific. It’s nothing to to him though. Taehyung and Jeongguk use it all the time, yet when Jimin does it strikes the demon differently.
“Whiskey.”
Jimin grins, “Good choice! I know where Hoseok keeps the good stuff.”
The younger proceeds to rummage through his friend’s bottom cabinets, explicitly bending down or over in front of Yoongi, giving him a nice view of… everything. The demon glups and tries to avert his eyes, before he’s caught. Jimin stands upright and turns to face Yoongi. Holding a bottle of fairly pricey whiskey.
“Found it,” Jimin sighs
The blonde grabs a clean glasses from somewhere and pours them both some whiskey. He hands Yoongi his glass and hold up his own, for a toast.
“To us,” Jimin says,
“To us,” Yoongi parrots and they click their cups.
After that, they chat some more, drink about half the bottle of whiskey, and Jimin convinces Yoongi to go dance with him. The blonde’s flirting has also gotten much bolder than in previous encounters. Yoongi kind of likes this side of Jimin, it’s cute.
Jimin leads them out to the living room, where the ‘dance floor’ is. It’s a bit packed, so they’re super close together. This doesn’t bother Jimin though, in fact he turns around and presses his back into Yoongi’s chest. He places the demon’s hands on his hips and he grinds back into Yoongi. The elder doesn’t really know what to make of the situation. On one hand, he wants to participate, but he also feels like he’d be taking advantage of the human.
Yoongi knows Jimin’s drunk, or at the very least, extremely tipsy. The blonde starts to giggle and teases, “Hyuuung~ Come on, lighten up! You’re so stiff. Although bein’ stiff down south ain’t so bad!”
Yoongi blushes It could just be the alcohol but, being a demon and all, he finds that least likely. Jimin pushes himself into the demon even more and starts to whimper and whine. Yoongi groans lowly, hoping the music will disguise his sexual frustration. Jimin catches it though because he untangles himself from Yoongi and faces him.
The blonde leans in and kisses Yoongi sloppily. The demon takes a second to realize what’s happening, but kisses back. Before things get too heated though, he pulls back. Jimin whines again, followed with a pout. Yoongi looks down and sighs, still resting his hands on the youth’s hips.
“I-I can’t Jimin-ah. I really want to but-”
Jimin cuts him off, “It’s alright, Hyung, I understand. I know you don’t like me that way, but I figured I’d try..”
Yoongi looks at him in confusion, then in guilt. He groans again and trips over his words, “No- I- you- ugh… Come with me,”
The demon takes Jimin’s hand and pushes through the crowd to get outside. They sit down on the steps in front of the house, enjoying the cool crisp air.
“I’m sorry,” Jimin mumbles
“You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s me, I-I can’t because…” Yoongi hesitates, “B-because of work. I’m going to be leaving tomorrow or the next day and I don’t know if or when I’ll come back.”
“Oh…”
“I just- don’t want to break your heart. I tried not to lead you on because, I was so worried about hurting you.” Yoongi looks up at Jimin, tears welling up in his eyes, “I-I’m sorry.”
Jimin cups the demon's face and rubs his thumbs over his cheeks, giving him a soft but sad smile. “It’s okay Hyung, I understand. Please, don’t beat yourself up.”
Yoongi looks down, unable to look the blonde in the eye. He sniffles and inquires, “C-can I kiss you again, just one last time?”
“Of course.”
They close the distance for a soft, but loving kiss. When they finish, they stand up and give each other a hug. Yoongi holds back his sobs. He has to be strong, if he cracks he won’t be able to leave Jimin.
“I’ll walk you home, if you want me to that is,” Yoongi mutters shyly.
Jimin giggles and nods replying, “I’d love that, Hyung.”
Yoongi intertwines one of his hands with Jimin’s and they start to walk in the direction Jimin points to. They joke about random things they see as they pass houses, just to fill the painful silence.
Jimin’s still a little tipsy and he’s in quite a silly and playful mood, despite everything they had discussed earlier. He releases Yoongi’s hand to run into the empty street, dancing around like a child. Yoongi laughs and tries to get Jimin to come back over, so he doesn’t get hurt.
Then, it happens…
Out of nowhere, a car comes speeding down the street, swerving all over. Yoongi sees the car coming and tries to get Jimin’s attention.
“Jimin! Look out!” The demon shouts, but he’s too late. Jimin looks over at him, but doesn’t realize there’s a car coming up on him. The vehicle hits him and spins out.
Yoongi dashes over to Jimin’s body, holding him in his arms. He’s alive, but barely. The blonde tries to reach out for Yoongi, but shrieks in pain, most if not all of his bones are broken. There’s no way he’s going to make it to a hospital. He’s bleeding from several places, deepening the color of his shirt. He’s going to die in Yoongi’s arms and there’s nothing the demon can do.
Yoongi’s insides feel like they’re being shredded and burned every time Jimin screams; it’s the most heart wrenching things he’s ever heard. The demon just whispers sweet nothings to the blonde and pecks him on the lips, cheeks, and nose.
“It’s okay Jiminie, I-I’m right here. I’m right here, baby, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay.” Yoongi’s heart hurt worse, knowing he was lying to Jimin.
“Y-Yoongi- Hyung! I-It hurts so bad!” Jimin wails.
Yoongi starts to sob and cradles the younger. He does his best to hush Jimin, to calm him down, “I-I know baby, it’s okay, I’m right here. I’m not going to leave you, I’m going to stay with you okay? I’ll stay with you, I’m not going anywhere.” The demon continues to kiss Jimin, “I-I love you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t... s-sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”
“I-I love you, t-too, Hyung,” Jimin cries. He settles, but he starts to fade. Yoongi sobs harder; Jimin is dying. Soon, Jimin stops struggling, stops talking.
“No… ... No no no no, Jiminie, please!!!” Yoongi sobs. He’s gone.
The demon wails for what feels like hours. It dawn’s on Yoongi to look at his watch. When he does, it reads ‘11:58 pm’. Yoongi suddenly remembers his conversation with Taehyung earlier, about the last soul he has to retrieve.
“I’ll get to it, when I get to alright? Besides I think this last soul isn’t due till the end of tonight anyway.”
Yoongi summons his clipboard and goes to the last page. Sure enough, there was Jimin’s information and photo. Another set of wails rip from the back of the demon’s throat. He holds Jimin closer to him and rocks him.
“Y-you didn’t deserve this,” To Yoongi, nothing in Jimin’s file could constitute him being sent to Hell. The demon glances at the file beside him, but nothing sticks out. Jimin was a good kid, with dreams and goals. He didn’t do anything that would get his soul damned to hell, he shouldn’t be on the list. Then, to Yoongi's surprise, Jimin's file starts to change. Something new burns into Jimin's file before the demon's eyes. Under the cause of soul corruption, it reads,
'Fell in love with a demonic being.'
Yoongi lip trembles, this can't be happening. He was the reason Jimin, a perfect man, was sent to Hell. He's the one that's causing Jimin's suffering, he is to blame. The demon's heart hurts, guilt weighing heavy on him. Finally, Yoongi decides to do the only thing he can do, guide his soul to the gates of Hell. He covers the man’s face with one of his hands and puts the other on the ground, just as he had down hundreds of times this month. He chants the chants and just before the soul leaves his body, he takes a piece of it. Yoongi closes his and takes his time to form the perfect stamp. He forms a big rose, but he hardens it into a wax-like substance. The demon summons the book and molds the stamp into the front of the book.
“Now you’ll be with me, no matter what.” Yoongi murmurs into Jimin’s hair. He holds the man a little bit longer, before he calls the police and files a report. If nothing else, he wants to make sure that Jimin’s family can give him a proper funeral.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the funeral does eventually happen, Yoongi lurks near the man's grave. Once everyone leaves, he goes to sit in front of the headstone and just rambles, about anything and everything. He still visits every so often, whenever he feels particularly lonely. He never tells Jeongguk or Taehyung, though they know something happened that night. Yoongi never talks about it, because in his mind if he does, that’ll make Jimin’s death real in his mind.
One day, while finishing up some backed paper work, Yoongi finds Jimin file and other paperwork relating to him. The demon breaks down and can't continue work that day. Everytime Yoongi sees the stamp/seal on the front of his book, he's both happy and torn up all over again. He makes sure Jimin’s soul is sorted into the best sector of Hell, the paradise sector. There, his soul could be at peace and Yoongi can watch over him there, though he can't reach out in any way.
Days turn into months, which turn into years, but Yoongi never forgets Jimin. He never falls in love with another human, nor gets involved with another whatsoever. He can't bear to go through what he's gone through in the past. A part of himself doesn’t want to move on either, he truly believes Jimin was his true love, who met a tragic fate.