Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Its been about a month since the saja boys returned, no ill intentions this time, and ofcourse within the first week of them being back, Jinu hast slept over at Rumis.

Zoey sighed, having Jinu around all the time only made her feel more lonely. Like she was missing something. Was it possibly the feeling of Rumi paying less attention to her and Mira? No, she was still her, just that now Jinu was in the picture too.

They were still the group, they were still huntrix. And it was all good. Except for that damned feeling of Zoey missing something.

The three were on the couch together, going through old notebooks of Zoeys, chuckling about some of the past lyrics the group wrote that never made it into the songs. They reached the era where the saja boys started appearing, finding the lyrics of Golden aswell as Takedown. Was that.. a ripped page? Zoey doesnt remember having ripped it out, oh well, it was probably unnecessary anyway.

“Remember how fast Golden made it to place one?” Rumi started talking, Mira nodding. “It was crazy, the way thousands of people waited for the first performance.”, As always, she kinda sounded unimpressed but the girls knew that she was.
“The idol awards performance too.. Atleast what we had of it..”, Zoey quickly shut up when she remembered what hapoened at the idol awards. Yes, they sealed the honmoon, but his face flickered infront of her eyes.

The way his eyes looked at her, almost afraid while she was surprised at how much he was her type. The long pastel hair, those eyes, his voice when he sang..

“Earth to Zoeyyyy”, Mira groaned.
“hm? sorry.” She quickly apologized. Rumi and Mira looked at each other, knowing something was up. But they knew Zoey wouldnt talk about it, she never wanted to bug anyone with her own problems. People pleaser after all.

The black haired yawned, it was already dark out. She knew Jinu would be there any second- and there the ding of the elevator sung. Out stepped the tall man, earning himself a wave from Mira and a “heyy” from Zoey, while Rumi jumped up and hugged him. They havent seen each other in like 4 days.

“Hey jinu?”, Zoey spoke up as the couple walked over to zoey and mira again.
“yeah?”
Zoey suddenly didnt know how to ask the question without sounding too.. invested in a certain someone.
“Do you know what the others are doing? Like, do you and the rest of the Saja boys live together again or-?”
Jinu raised an eyebrow at the question, and so did mira and rumi. “Yeah, we live together again. I mean we all have seperate jobs, Baby saja is a fashion designer, Romance and Abby work at the downtown bar together and Mystery is a cook in the ramen place downtown. The one me and Rumi always visit.”, Jinu explained calmly.

Zoey couldnt give less fucks about the others, but she knew she had to go to the Ramen place. At the same time Mira groaned. “ughhh we were planning on going to the downtown bar soon.”
She was still scarred from the pictures on twitter. Mira x Romance x Abby, she gagged.

“Youll get discounts Mira~”, Zoey grinned.
“We dont need discounts.”, Mira frowned. The three were stupid rich.
“what if we all go there together?”, Jinu asked almost carefully as he looked to Mira.
“Us four?”, Rumi asked calmly.
“Us six on a night when Romance and Abby are working.”, Jinu corrected. Zoeys eyes seemed to light up.
“Itll just be a bit hard to convince Mystery..”, Jinu thought out loud.

———————————————————————

Mystery accepted the invite immediately when Jinu told him who came. Jinu was confused but he decided not to question it.

The evening came along and there Mystery was, sitting infront of his closet, quietly thinking. Although they didnt have ill intentions, they were still demons, and so he sat there, purple with his patterns, deciding what outfit to wear.
This one would fit the vibe more, but that one would fit Zoey more.. He thought to himself. He couldnt get her out of his head since the signing. Since she called him a “bad saja boy”.

“personally id go with that one.”, Jinu said. He was standing in the doorframe, going unnoticed until he said something. Mystery flinched and looked at Jinu, who was pointing at the fit that matched Zoey more.
Mystery nodded and collected the clothes, throwing them on his bed.
“Thanks.”, he replied. There was a rasp to his voice, there always has been. He was a smoker back when he was still human, now he occasionally smoked on his balcony. It didnt do anything to his health anyway.
When jinu finally left, he took on the outfit and examined himself in the mirror.

A pair of light blue baggy jeans, Black tight longsleeve and a open button up with short sleeved on top. He matched it with a good amount of jewelry, leaving his bangs infront of his eyes but putting a bit of his hair in a small ponytail. He had gotten a bottom lip piercing recently, which he slightly regretted but also liked.

They all agreed on meeting up at 10pm at the bar, and since the girls werent there at 10:05pm yet, Jinu and Baby already went inside, while Mystery lit himself a cigarette. Crowds made him nervous. Just as he exhaled the last bit of smoke and flicked off the finished cigarette, he saw the girls arrive. Zoey looked as perfect as ever, her slight makeup accentuating her freckles. Mira and Rumi barely noticed Mystery, but oh Zoey did.

She waved at him, acting as if her heart wasnt about to explode from the sight. The way the smoke still exited his mouth, the way the jewelry glowed from the light coming from inside the bar, that soft looking hair..
He waved back.

Rumi and Mira already entered the bar, but Zoey stayed outside with Mystery.
“didnt peg you for a smoker.”, she smiled at him. He tilted his head. Right. He barely talks. Probably barks more.

“Soo.. You planning on going inside?” Zoey asked, trying to somehow talk to him, having him talk back, but he simply nodded and walked towards the entrance. The smell of his cologne filled Zoeys nose, and god she could bathe in it. It smelled expensive, nice, and mixxed with the slight smell of the cigarette, it was so perfect in a way.

Mystery opened the door, but he didnt enter. He looked at Zoey, and even tho she couldnt see his eyes, she knew they lingered on hers. “Ladies first.”, he calmly said. This mustve been one of the first times shed hears him actually talk and her cheeks burned. His voice was so.. nice.

Chapter Text

zoey barely remembered last night. Most of it was blurry as she woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, her hair open and wearing a pj. She doesnt remember putting it on- well she barely remembered anything from last night.

The last thing she remembered was when Mystery left to get some fresh air and Mira handed Zoey another Cocktail. Mightve been one cocktail too much.

With a loud groan, which only made the headache worse, she slid out of bed and to the kitchen, making herself a coffee. She did not wanna eat, if she did shed probably throw it right back up. While the coffee machine took wayy to long to start, she finally looked at a clock. 8:27am it read.

Once her coffee was finally done, zoey sat down on the huge couch, not even starting the tv to watch something, her headache was too heavy for that. Instead she almost fell back to sleep within 30 minutes, but then she heard a familiar voice.

“good morning zoey.”, Mira looked similarly hungover, grunting at any sound that was a tad bit too loud.
“morning. When did we come home?”, She asked innocently.
“You left at like..1:20? We sent the sober guy with you.”, Mira explained, but it was clear she barely wanted to talk.

“Who?”, she asked quickly. “Mystery.”, zoey shortly answered. Weird, usually mira would be on a mission for Zoey to stay as far away from demon boys as possible, Rumi was half demon anyway she can do what she wants with them, but Zoey??? She was too hung over to question it.

Later that day, the three girls were each in their room, doing their things. While Rumi was cleaning, Mira was laying in bed and Zoey was sitting at her desk, brushing out her hair and put it up in buns. She decided that she was gonna get food for the group as they still havent eaten. The black haired girl put on some comfortable clothes and exited her room.

“ill be back in a bit!”, she told rumi and left. Without thinking, she went into the downtown ramen shop, knowing they also served some to go foods. At the shop she ordered three packs of rice dishes and a side portion of gyoza.

The shop was nice and cozy, working with an open kitchen and the smell of fresh cooked food filled the air. When she looked up she spotted the glimpse of pastel purple hair and she felt her face heating up. Zoey had completely forgotten that he worked here. And there she was, watching him work until her order was done, cooked by him.

Yes zoey always appreciated food but this one she appreciated especially. Was she obsessed with him? Yes. Was the obsession valid? Yes. Did she barely pay attention to the rest of the girls while eating, remembering the very few words he had spoke to her last night? yes. Oh he was taking her focus away.

Chapter Text

Almost an entire week has passed since Zoey last saw mystery, at least in real life. In her dreams, he would keep appearing, sometimes just shortly, sometimes they’d interact, butt he never talked again. But he did seem so kind in her dreams..

She’d also watch most of the streams he would appear in, aswell as the music videos. Oh she was getting obsessed, and when Jinu invited the three girls to come over to his place for some games and just hanging out as a group, Zoey was sooo down.

At the boys place, which was unusually clean for 5 boys living together, they decided to play just some group games, nothing too special. When rumi and mira were fighting about monopoly, rumi framed mira for pocketing some money from the bank, Zoey was just sitting there, eyeing mystery tap his hands on the table, similar to that time at the joint signing. She found it sooo cute, but mystery barely payed any attention to her.

He didnt talk all game, his eyes covered by his hair, but he was visibly paying a lot of attention to the game itself. He felt her stares, which kind of creeped him out but he wasn’t better himself in any way. He always payed some extra attention to not make any mistakes or embarrass himself in front of her, he didnt dare talk in fear she’d hate his voice and sometimes he’d check himself in the black screen of the to so his face wouldn’t be exposed. Yeah, she called him her type on stage once, but in his own head, he was anything but someone’s type.

And so, he decided to always shut everyone off. Except for his boys. Well he kind offf shut them off too, but not really. Since the night he brought Zoey home, he was too embarrassed. He didnt even do anything to her, he was just scared of the boys asking him if he did. Well he might’ve eyed her quite a bit, which romance obviously noticed.

“Drinking games?”, jinu broke the fight.
“What is it with you and alcohol?”, Abby asked back. But jinu just shrugged, he liked rumi obviously, but she noticed her being less on edge when under the influence. Obviously, he didnt wanna promote her becoming an alcoholic in any way of course, but it was also funny to see how much more calm mira would become around romance and Abby.

Just a couple minutes later the group was sitting in a circle on the ground, cups infront of everyone and a bottle of whiskey in the middle. Rumi held her phone in her hand, reading out never have i ever questions.

“Never have i ever.. stalked someone.”, she read out loud. Mystery took a shot.
“Oooo who????”, babe asked with a grin, but mystery just shook his head in response. He didnt want to answer. He was.. embarrassed. Zoey raised an eyebrow, but given he didnt answer baby’s question, he probably wouldn’t answer hers either.
“Never have i ever drunkenly made out with someone.”, rumi read out with a grin, looking at jinu.

Jinu, Abby, Zoey, rumi and romance all took a shot. Mystery just slightly looked at Zoey for a sliver of a second, which Zoey didnt even notice. But the stare Mira gave Zoey was visible. “story, right now.”, she said almost shocked. Zoey got red and fidgeted with her fingers, but the rest of the group was intrigued too.

Given the look rumi and jinu gave each other before taking the shot, their story was clear, Abby was self explanatory aswell, but zoey???

“It’s nothing special, it was back in America, i was invited to a party for the first time and got wasted. Not to get left out you know.. anyway there was a guy who i was interested in n anyway, we played spin the bottle and it landed on us. One thing let to another and instead of just a kiss it got out of hand and we made out heavily..”, Zoey explained ashamed.

She barely noticed when mystery left to go to the balcony. “Hes getting some fresh air.”, jinu said at the questioning face of zoeys. Rumi nudged her from the side with a knowing smirk, to whoch Zoey hid her face which was growing red. “He always goes for a bit of fresh air when hes getting stressed or like jealous,”, romance spoke up. “I think hes stressed by the amoun t of people around for so long, after he brought you home he didnt return either.”, romance finished his explanation looking at Zoey, but Juni had the other reason in mind. Hes noticed mystery developing a thing since the evening they went drinking.