Chapter Text
A sleepy idol is usually clinging onto one of their bandmates.
That was you. You were the sleepy idol, and today your ‘victim’ was your favorite girl - Zoey. She was soft, much like a childhood blanket, and happily gave out hugs to other girls of your group as well.
You were almost purring in content as you hugged both her arm and your giant pillow.
The privilege of getting to nap anywhere is a great one for a K-pop idol, many other groups would never allow any member to sleep like this.
Coming in and out of consciousness, you lazily closed and opened your eyes to look at the fans that had gathered before the table.
“...will sit with us,” you barely noticed how off Rumi sounded.
Your cheek was pressed against Zoey's shoulder as you absently listened to the background noise with your eyes closed.
“-not sitting with no Saja bo- wassup…,” you were pushed to the side and hit what you thought was a solid wall.
You blinked, confused at what happened and noticed that you were rudely separated from your pillow buddy.
And the wall you hit… was just abs personified. You held back the urge to hiss as the buff dude had the audacity to wink when you looked his way. Much like Mira and Zoey you were smushed against the enemy demons. It fueled your annoyance just slightly.
The other guy blocking you from your bandmates was some pervert, as his bangs covered his eyes. There was no way to know where exactly he was looking, therefore you dubbed him as a creep. Much like the ones you saw in Zoey’s ‘romance’ comics.
Still, you knew that there was one way to escape situations like these - sleep. So, you hugged your pillow harder and shut your eyes.
Unfortunately, one of the girls needed the exact opposite. “Full focus, give it your all,” Rumi whisper-yelled your way from across the table.
At that command, you pushed down the pillow to your lap and pinched your arm, hard. You held back both a hiss at the pain and a groan at this moment.
The phrase Rumi just used was a secret code between you two.
See, you were allowed to nap as much as you wanted, but there were moments or days where the girls needed your full commitment and attention. This exact sentence was engraved in your mind as a command to awaken you and keep your focus at maximum capacity.
Funnily enough, it worked like a signal for a sleeper agent.
Although, today, it wasn't just that this command that kept you up; you were also furious at the boys next to you for interrupting your nap time. There wasn’t enough time in the day to sleep, especially when Rumi decides to interrupt breaks for surprise debuts or photoshoots. You adore each and every part of her, but that girl is too hyper at times.
You were especially angry at the silver one, who you suspected was the one to push you to the side, right into the abs, which were the exact opposite of a soft pillow. They may look like soft marshmallows, but they were more like a burnt steak upon touch.
Determination to show them up fueled you. Well, it actually fueled the majority of Huntr/x.
As you signed each and every item that was presented to you, even someone's face, sudden barking startled you into jumping up and hitting your knee on the table.
You hissed in pain and dropped a poster.
After locating the culprit, you immediately swatted multiple times at the head of the demon mutt next to you, while Zoey hit him with a pen while scolding him verbally. You wished you could’ve joined in, but pain mixed with frustration kept your lips closed.
Mystery was shocked at being attacked from both sides, so he froze. Zoey sighed, while you huffed before going back to signing fans’ merch.
This moment engraved itself in your memory as your knee was in pain for the rest of the day from this ordeal, you couldn't fall asleep even when the Saja Boys left.
A low, continuous, guttural sound escaped from the back of your throat as Mystery brushed his hand on your shoulder while getting up. This was the first time you expressed your anger so strongly, this openly, so fans who have seen this, latched onto this interaction.
Later, on the way back home, Zoey showed you a couple of fanarts that were made, while you openly glared at any of the pieces that featured the pervert mutt.
Supposedly, a portion of the internet has decided that Mystery and you were love rivals, fighting for Zoey while the other side was much more shipping-motivated. You don’t even want to think about the ships that you were forced into because of today.
With crossed arms, you shut your eyes to fall into a frustrated slumber. Honestly, this was probably the most energy you had, during the day, this year. You almost wanted to grumble.
At your unwillingness to talk about Saja Boys, Zoey turned to Mira to discuss the female lead and the male lead of the show that they got hooked on recently, so you had the perfect moment to doze off.
In the moment of peaceful silence, a hand moved to hold your own.
“Hey…,” Rumi whispered next to you, causing you to crank open one eye, “thank you for today.” She squeezed your hand in gentle appreciation, you felt the pulse of her heart through your fingers.
“It's nothing at all. I always respond to the command ,” you explained in a matter-of-fact fashion, but your tone was too soft.
“Still, the fact that you take it so seriously is reassuring. Today, we really needed to do our best, especially with them around,” it seemed like Rumi also had her mind occupied with those boys.
“Rumi,” you decided to stay awake today for a while longer, even if you knew you were approaching your limit, “I'll do my best to pummel those ‘Soy Boys’ into the ground.” The other girl didn’t correct the title you gave them and instead was grateful that you trusted her judgment.
“That's reassuring, than-,” you finally passed out, energy completely exhausted for today. You laid on Rumi's shoulder, muttering under your nose as you escaped into dreamland.
The leader of your group sighed with a smile before patting you on the head and pulling out her phone.
You needed to conserve your energy for tonight, as always.
Any person, no matter who they are, deserves a moment of solitude.
With that belief in mind, you always waited until the very midnight to escape the apartment when the girls were asleep.
To recap, in this group you were known as the sleepy idol, promoting a large amount of ‘sleepy-time’ merch like total body pillows or sleep masks.
Well, you didn't like the sleep masks since they featured Huntr/x eyes in an uncanny valley way, but the body pillows were made in the highest quality possible. Even professional sleepers were buying the merch pillows instead of professional ones.
One could say that you had bodies in your closet, seeing as a large portion of it is filled with different body pillows. There're so many types of filling that it would be odd to only have one.
You unfortunately had to part from both the pillow and your bed as your clock struck midnight.
The energy that you've spent today was fully replenished and you were ready to head out, like you did most nights.
This ‘ailment’ of yours was unknown to most, especially to Zoey and Mira, but Rumi seemed to be aware that you were sneaking off at night. You did the very same thing in your childhood when it was just the two of you and Celine.
Everyone had their secrets, some… were more unusual than most.
There was a good reason for your sneaking off. A giant apartment like this was… uncomfortable to sleep in. You'd rather nap around your group, or go spend time under a very familiar bridge, more on that later.
You were very light on your feet and your eyes were fully adjusted to the lack of light.
The cans in your bag lightly knocked into each other, almost waking up Zoey who fell asleep on the couch after bingeing her and Mira's favorite show.
You stepped around the plastic wrappers of various snacks, all littering the floor. The cleaning staff came later in the morning, so there was nothing to be anxious about. Mira was completely knocked out on the floor, so you stepped around her as well, biting your lips to stop the laughter from coming out as you saw the pool of saliva cover the floor.
It was somewhat disheartening that you were fully active at times where you could share your energy with the girls. Well, except for the times where the command was used.
You hear snoring from Rumi’s room, leading to a big internal sigh of relief to escape you. Out of curiosity, you lean your head through the doorway to see what position caused her to be so loud.
Only her legs were laying on the bed, while the rest of her body was glued to the floor. The bed sheets were also crumpled up on the floor. No one in this place has a proper sleep schedule or sleeping habits that fit the norm.
Maybe you can suggest to your leader to invest in an Alaskan King-sized bed to minimize the risk of her waking up on the floor.
Rumi still had her hair tied up, with her cheek smashed to the ground; while you didn't want to wake either of them up, you still put the bag down and kneeled next to the sleeping girl.
With the slowest speed possible, you untied her hair and pulled out a few pins. If you were a bit stronger, you'd probably try to move her back onto the bed, but you were a bit lacking in the muscle department.
Despite the need to leave as quickly and quietly as possible, you still returned to Mira and Zoey to lay two blankets over them, making sure once more to not step onto anything crunchy.
With all the members taken care of, you finally escaped this building.
Once finally outside the apartment, you let out a loud sigh of relief. God only knows how long you kept yourself quiet.
It didn't take long to arrive at ‘your place’. It looked the same as it did in your childhood, but now it housed many more lives than it did before.
When you were just a little child, there was only you, your blanket and a single mama cat. Now, the bridge hid away a colony of cats who were the children of the older animal.
Celine took you away from that place for years and you missed the moment those little ones were born, so you were now devoted to keeping them fed whenever you could.
As you walked closer, many glowing eyes bloomed from the shadows, like stars at dusk. The kitties were aware that you've come.
You joined them in the darkness, pulling out multiple cat bowls from your bag.
Unsurprisingly, you were covered in a feline blanket as many of them bravely jumped into your shoulders, or your head.
One by one, you opened each can and fed each cat. At the end of it, a few cans remained uneaten.
“Did I miscount?” Usually, all the cans would be devoured and even then, the cats would be greedy for more. “I didn't, I counted each one.”
You picked up Duke, the biggest glutton of them all. He was chunkier than the last time you were here.
“Did someone else feed you?” You asked the cat who pushed your head away with his paw. “So, you have another sponsor now. Why didn't you say so before?”
“Ah,” a voice behind you startled you into dropping Duke, who ungracefully landed on his paws, his tail swatting at you in frustration.
You turned around to see a familiar demon…
The perverted mutt demon known as Mystery.
All your muscles tensed at this encounter as you moved to attack. You jumped with full force at where he was standing, prepared to deal the first hit, but paused midway as you noticed something in his hand - a bag full of cans.
The demon tilted his head as you froze then tried to blink as many times as humanely possible.
“Are you the sponsor?” You question, causing the demon to get even more confused.
“Huh?” He finally spoke up.
“Are you the one feeding the cats?”
“Yeah.”
You were uncertain if he was telling the truth, a demon is a demon. They weren't supposed to care. A demon shouldn't care if they were liked by random cats under some random bridge, right?
Still, you allowed him to walk up to the cats, watching him carefully, much like the Mama cat used to do.
Turns out, he was telling the truth as the strays showed signs of familiarity with the demon.
He revealed that with his new ‘freedom’, Mystery didn't spend each and every time of his ‘life’ by Jinu’s side. Instead, he exploded the town they performed in, blurry memories reminding him how to get to certain spots.
It was a pure accident that he met these cats, but he decided to win them over with a demonic amount of canned food.
Only when he fully explained his situation, did you decide to walk over, also deciding to be peaceful, even if your knee did still hurt.
“I won't attack you,” you stated, “here. Feel free to see this place as a makeshift safe haven.” There was a slight displeasure inside you, but you really disliked the idea of fighting here and endangering the cats. “Got it?”
“Yeah… got it.” He wondered where your oversized pillow was.
Mystery was confused by how differently you behaved, even if your anger was exactly the same when you hit him this morning versus how you threatened him here.
For now, you allowed the Saja Boy to pass his time here, but did lecture him on the amount of food that a cat needed. He also got an order from you to purchase flea and tick medicine; it was another requirement to keep peace around here.
You have no idea how long this demon has left, since the Huntr/x are constantly demon hunting, but you'll let him be if he's alone.
This privilege could be easily revoked by you, but you doubted that he'd ever do something to warrant such an action, for now.
“Why do you come here every night?” His voice was soft, almost silent as he slowly asked his question during one of the meetings. It was one of the very few questions he asked you since the first meeting.
“Why?” You repeated his question, then took a moment to think about it. “...It's like an urge to go visit your childhood home.” And you didn't elaborate on that further, at least during that meeting.
It was surprising that a dog would want to befriend cats, especially the ones that swat at him.
Much time has passed since then, as you silently escaped the apartment every night, sometimes bumping into Rumi who did the same thing, but for a different reason. You swore to her that you’ll pummel those demons, but you hesitated when one was completely alone - a perfect prey for a hunter.
Although, it seemed like she met the very same dilemma. ‘Perhaps, we can let this one go?’ is what both of you silently wondered about your own ‘companion’.
There was yet another silent agreement you took - don't ask, don't tell. You felt bad, as Mira and Zoey were completely unaware of how others entangled themselves with demons.
You often found yourself crouching next to this demon as you fed the cats.
It was uncertain when exactly Mystery entered your moment of solitude completely. At one point, all the felines began to warm up to the inhuman being, even if they scratched at him once or twice. And even the cat who hit their knee on the table seemed to forgive him for that barking stunt.
In this comfortable silence, you often went deeper than you first wanted to - referencing your past where much like the strays here, someone came up, gave you some food and later asked if you wanted to come with them.
“Celine,” your voice was slower as you spoke about the past, “and Rumi who held onto the hem of that woman's skirt,” you recounted the first meeting with the girl whose ancestors were entangled with demons. Yes, you knew of her own ‘ailment’, even if the other woman wanted to keep you unaware.
Perhaps, it was your care and trust in Rumi that made you want to extend the olive branch to other demonic beings. You also knew that these chats with Mystery were dangerous - it gave the enemy more ammunition, each one more lethal than the last one.
This was the curse of humanity, the need for companionship and connection. Dear, foolish humanity.
Honestly speaking, a therapist would've been better, but what person could you tell about demons? And you could only stay awake at night, which limited the number of people you could hire for these very secretive conversations.
The only other person was… Celine. For some reason, getting too close felt… uncomfortable, like a pillow with a hard spot. Ever since you knew that the woman was opposed to you knowing Rumi’s secret, you felt distrust in that woman.
Mystery wasn't much of a conversationalist but paused petting the cats whenever you began to talk, listening as you revealed more and more about yourself. Well, there were parts that you’d never reveal, especially that girl’s secret… or how Mira is actually obsessed with fictional men that would completely coddle their girlfriend and even lock them up.
“I suggest you stop here,” he finally spoke up about it, “anything more and I'll be forced to reveal it to Jinu,” and you were aware of that.
In a way, you felt grateful to him.
“Okay,” you complied, sitting down by him while Duke laid on your lap.
Until the Saja Boys made their next move, you spent most of your night-time under this bridge, always silently accompanied by this dog-like demon.
There was always unsaid tension filling the space under this bridge whenever it was time to leave. Neither of you knew when the other group would make their move; a serious, very lethal move that would end the other side.
“Same time tomorrow?” He was the first one to ask tonight.
You silently nodded, no smile present as you stood up, gathering uneaten cans.
The river lazily moved forward, pushed by the cool wind, as the two of you departed from this place, neither of you looking back, but both wanting to.
He almost said something, and so did you, but no words came to mind. No ‘watch your back’ or ‘take care’ as you weren't friends, more like reluctant enemies whose weapons were sheathed for just a moment. Much like cats and dogs brought into the same house.
The two of you were walking away in completely different directions.