Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are hunters, and there are demons. Somewhere in-between, there is a Honmoon, bright, radiant, yet soft in every shimmer and glow, descending upon every inch of the Earth like a promise. It will keep out the demons, it will keep out the bad, and the chaos.

And then there is a theme park.

What… have they gotten themselves into?

The decision had been unanimous, really, the Saja Boys have to go to a theme park, just once. And who actually wants to stop Bobby from booking out the entire 4.5 square kilometers of park when it means a day all to themselves. No fans, no paparazzi, nothing.

But maybe, just maybe, they all forgot… the devils that could and would come out to play when no one was watching.

“Tell me again, Princess,” Jinu’s teeth are clenched and fighting not to be bared. “Why? Why this? Why us? Why?”

His arms, lean and covered to the elbows by the sleeves of his button-up, grip the thick metal pinning him down.

Scoffing, smirking, less concerned by a far mile, Rumi lounges against hard plastic.

The slow, slow crawl towards the sky is too much, the cranking of wheels below them echoes into what Jinu thinks is the worst moment of his 400 years. He could die from falling off, or maybe a heart attack, or a seizure, or all of the above.

“This,” Jinu whips around to hiss behind him. “Is all your faults! I hate each and every one of you!”

“Come onnn,” romance drawls back at him, two rows back. “It’s not even that bad, you struck it lucky with that front row seat.”

“No! Not lucky! How do we know this flimsy thing isn’t going to fly all of us back down to Earth?!”

Stupid Romance, stupid Abby, this is all stupid, he’s stupid too - Why, why, why did he let those two enter the same van? Just why?!

“And you!” He cranes his neck even further to catch sight of Baby. “What is that in your hands? Did you sneak hot sauce onto this thing? Are you blind? There was a SIGN!”

A square-shaped metal board with a picture of what jinu thinks is a ham… bur… ger… and a drink. With a straw. Yes. And a big fat red circle crossed right over it. No food and drinks. So. 

“WHY DO YOU HAVE HOT SAUCE?!?!”

Baby shrugs, tipping his head back, sucking on the bottle like his life depends on it, not bothering to give an answer.

“Heh, guess you aren’t cut out for this leading role,” Rumi smirks at him, the glint in her eyes suggests that she’s enjoying this way too much for Jinu’s comfort.

What was it she called this again? A roll… rolly… coster?

“This rolly coster is a contraption of pure evil! I can see why humans like warring so much!”

“Pfft! First off, it’s called a roller coaster. Second, you’re one to talk, slander against roller coasters is going to cancel you back into the grave!”

“Whatever,” Jinu keeps grouching. “But why do you have to pick the front row? Do you like watching death this much?”

“Not my problem I’m so unique,” Rumi flashes another smirk and a grin. “And hey, this wasn’t my idea, you should be thanking those two behind us that you’re getting to experience the joy of the world!”

Right, right. Joy. 

When this is over Jinu is coming straight for Abby and Romance, and they’d better watch out!

So they all piled into this big, anonymous van with tinted windows driven by Bobby that whisked them all to this entrapment called a theme park. And so Jinu let Abby and Romance sit together. And they could’ve just behaved and sat still until they got here, but nooooo, those two idiots just had to rile up the hunter with the long, pink hair and a glare that could’ve sent them all back to hell. Of course.

“This is retribution,” Jinu exclaims at the sky, releasing his iron grip on the bars to raise his hands to the sky.

“What, are you scared?”

The way Rumi looks at him, a smug grin drawn lazily over her perfectly kissable lips.

“No!” Jinu shoots back without thinking. “Me, a demon - scared? Puh-lease! ”

“Uh-huh,” Rumi drawls. “Sure, then I guess you won’t mind the drop that’s coming.”

What?

“Drop? What do you mean drop? Are we going to die?! I knew it, you’re insane!”

“That’s insane?” Mira says from somewhere behind, squished in-between Romance and Abby. She looks like an angry cat who’s going to bite their faces off if they poke her. “Then I’m going to the psychic ward. Stop watching me and look down, how about that? See the ground get further away until you feel like you’ll be sick. I don’t care.”

The last few sentences are directed at Romance and Abby, flanking her left and right, glaring at each other. A pair of dogs asserting dominance. They’re both failing horribly.

“Hah,” Abby had his chin on his thick, wiry arm. “Like a little height is going to- Ohhhh sweet moon, why are we so high? ”

“You baby,” Romance sneers, then he peeks over the edge and his eyes nearly die from shock. “I-I, I don’t mind it, not at all, not…”

Mira starts grinning.

“I have a great idea,” she starts. And the boys on either side of her stop in their turmoil and listen, attentive, hanging on every word. “You guys are so tough, prove it, I want silence on the way down.”

Silence.

Huh.

“Aren’t you being a little harsh?”

It’s Zoey, twisting in her seat. 

“What if they want to express their joy?”

Mira scoffs, eyes rolling, “Joy? These two big babies? Yeah, sorry Zoey, hard pass.”

Abby splutters, “Babies? We are not babies!”

He flexes his biceps to prove a point.

“Sure act like it though.”

Mystery says nothing, facing forward silently. No reaction. Just silence.

Zoey looks him up and down. Or maybe just his face. His silky, shiny hair obscuring everything but his nose and lips.

“Won’t the wind mess up your hair?”

But Mystery sits still, voice barely a quiet whisper, “Demon magic.”

Zoey gasps.

“No!!! Let the wind do its own magic, please please please?”

And before Mystery can say anything back, she starts reaching for his gorgeous face, trying to clamber over the demon himself to reach it, the only thing stopping her is the safety bar they all wear.

“Show me show me!”

The chant goes on and on as Mystery leans as far back as possible to avoid her clamouring hands, features never changing, never breaking a sweat.

So there it is, Jinu tries blinking in the hopes it’ll all snap back into place, reset. Maybe they’ll be at home, relaxing on the softest, plushest couch he’s ever put his butt on. Anywhere but here. 

Romance and Abby pretending they’re tough, Mystery fending off Hyperactive Zoey, Baby devouring a hot sauce bottle. On a roller coaster.

It’s climbing even higher now, every time he thinks, this is it, let this be it, let it not go higher . It keeps going. And Rumi’s devilish smirk keeps growing and growing. 

Jinu glares half-heartedly.

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I don’t,” Jinu agrees. “I actually love you to death and you look good and I want to kiss you so bad. And that’s exactly why I'm going to hell. Death by roller coaster.”

As if hearing his silent prayers, the contraption of heavy metal finally groans to a stop, perched at the very top of an equally heavy metal structure.

For a moment, everything is still.

Zoey smacks the back of Baby’s head. 

It was an accident. She was just trying to get Mystery’s majestic, soft hair out of his eyes and it got out of hand and her flailing arm knocked into Baby.

Baby, who had a bottle in his mouth. Had.

Right now, it’s being shoved out from between Baby’s teeth as he hacks and coughs on the spice that runs down his constricting throat. The bottle in his clenching hand crumples under the pressure.

Jinu watches the trail of red fly like he’s in a dream.

Abby tries to duck.

Mystery can’t see anything through his own hair.

The car tips.

Down they go, the wind rushing into Jinu’s eyes, drying them out in seconds, wind whipping against his face.

“MY EYES!” Abby screams.

“HIS HAIR!” Zoey shrieks, finally catching hold of Mystery’s dodging head.

Baby pounds a fist against his chest and chokes, “ Ack-! ”

In the chaos, Zoey’s fingers work fast, swiping thick bangs from Mystery’s forehead. Her eyes almost blind everyone around her, “THE FACE! THE BEAUTIFUL FACE!”

“YESSS!” Rumi is yelling and punching the air, all excited. 

Jinu’s clenching the metal bar so hard, he thinks his eyes almost roll back into his skull with how dizzy he’s getting, thrown back against the seat by sheer force of wind. He can’t take it anymore.

“PRINCESS, I’M SORRY! I’M NEVER LETTING THOSE TWO FOOLS BOTHER YOUR LOVELY, WONDERFUL HUNTRESS EVER AGAIN!”

He doesn’t care when he releases the suffering metal bar and latches onto Rumi instead, clutching her hoodie tight like his life depends on it.

“OH, SO YOU’RE DELICATE HUH?” He can hear her heckling him.

“I’m stuck with TODDLERS for a boy-band!”

“SAYS YOU! YOU LOOK LIKE A TRAUMATISED KOALA!” Romance screeches in response, but soon turns his attention to Abby. “We’re going to DIE! Abby, this is a truce! A truce!”

Abby nods his head, frantic, sleeves stained with bright orange, “Yeah, uh-huh!”

They both whip their heads and grab one of Mira’s arms.

“Wha-?”

“SAVE US,” both demons are pleading at the top of their lungs. “WE PROMISE NOT TO FIGHT ANYMORE!”

Jinu is still screaming.

Rumi is cackling.

Mira is trying to elbow one or both howling demons.

Zoey is wrestling Mystery’s hands in a battle of grip-strength and endurance.

“GET ME OFF THIS THING! ”

Chapter Text

Jinu never gets the chance to chase either Abby or Romance round the park, in the end. His legs are too busy giving up on him and he has to hobble embarrassingly along the flat path. 

One arm around his trembling waist, Rumi snorts.

“What happened to I’m a demon, I’m not scared! ”

She puts on this horrible accent and deepens her voice. Jinu’s right arm is draped over her shoulders for support.

“I don’t sound like that.”

“You totally do.”

Jinu thinks his eye twitches. He does the next best thing he can to get back at her, he drops like a stone. His act catches Rumi off guard and she goes down with him.

“What- Woah! ”

Rumi shoves him, “Get off me you big pile of rocks!”

There is a little poof and a cloud of pink before she’s jumping on him from above.

“Waitwaitwait I didn’t mean it!”

He tries to stop her, arms outstretched like it can actually save him as she lands and knocks the air out of his lungs.

Jinu gasps. Loudly, obscenely.

Zoey, picking at strands of Mystery’s hair, squints as she rubs at an ever-growing patch of hot sauce with a piece of wet tissue.

“This stuff is never coming out,” she declares. “You’re stuck with orangey hair now.”

Mystery lets her snap his head at random angles, even if it gets a bit unnatural after a while.

“You ruined my hot sauce,” Baby sulks, tossing said bottle into a trashcan without so much as a glance.

“Hot sauce?” Zoey squeaks. “What about the hair?!”

Baby shrugs, “Not my problem.”

“Yeah?” Abby grunts, still wiping at his eyes, blinking rapidly every few seconds. “How about the way your hot sauce blinded me?”

“The hairrr,” Zoey hisses, rounding on Baby.

“My eyes,” Abby squints.

“Okay, you guys are weird,” Baby takes a sidestep. Zoey and Abby follow. 

“Quit following me.”

Another step back, two more steps forward.

Baby runs.

“Get him!”

“THE SAUCE WAS NOT MY FAULT!” He yells over his shoulder.

“THAT WAS ATTEMPTED MURDER OF GLORIOUS BEAUTY!”

Mira doesn’t know if Zoey said that, or if Abby did, or both. As long as she has one less demon in her side.

“TURTLES!!”

Zoey abandons her chase as soon as her eyes lock onto an obnoxiously large stuffed turtle.

Abandoned is the wrong word, she has Baby caught in a headlock and Abby is carrying Baby’s feet so they look like they’re lifting a wooden plank.

Baby, the poor soul, gets dragged struggling to a game booth under the ogling eyes of a single member of the staff.

It’s the kind of game with the beanbags and a wooden board with a ridiculously small hole cut into the frame. It’s rigged, of course, but who cares?

With a single arm, Zoey launches three beanbags, one after another in rapid succession. The person manning the booth simply cannot fathom how each one goes straight into the tiny hole without missing a beat.

“Mira look! I got one!”

Mira might just suffocate with how up in her face the stuffed animal is. “It’s adorable,” she deadpans.

“Wanna know what else I saw there?” The eagerness in Zoey's voice has Mira raising an eyebrow.

“Polar bears.”

Polar where?!

Damn it, she was a little too obvious.

“I’ll get one for you,” there goes Romance jumping at the split-second of a glance Mira shot towards the game.

Split. Second.

“Only one?” Abby shouts, already rushing. “I’ll bring you the entire stock!”

“Not if I get there first!”

“Already losing!”

Ugh.

“I win!”

Someone shouts, but it doesn’t come from the game booth. It’s Rumi with her phone out, snapping pictures of Jinu who is sprawled out on the ground like a starfish, arms spread wide. The flash blinds him. What sorcery is this?

He squeezes his eyes shut as Rumi zooms in again and snaps another shot.

“This is going in my album of Jinu unglams.”

“Your what? Jinu un- what?” 

A sneaky grin makes its way across Rumi’s face. She dangles her phone in front of him. “My album,” she emphasises next to his ear, lips almost brushing. “Of unglamorous photos.”

She swipes at the screen as she says it, going through tens, maybe hundreds, of pictures. Each one is an unholy shot of Jinu, frozen in a stupid pose, action, look. You name it.

“Give me that!” He shoots up and tries to snatch the phone out of Rumi’s grasp.

Alas, she’s too fast, bombarding him with more flashes that send him reeling.

“Andddd that’s another five!” She triumphantly cheers.

“Noooo!”

Watching Abby and Romance hurl beanbags and miss, Zoey has only one comment.

“They really are bad at this.”

“They suck,” Mira says.

Mystery stares, from the game to Zoey, back and forth.

A minute later, he saunters into the picture, appearing behind the guys like some kind of quiet phantom.

“Gah!”

“Don’t do that!”

Mystery remains silent, but picks up a single baseball and aims at a stack of tin cans. Same prize, different game. 

“He’s doing it again,” Romance groans, hand running over his face. Abby rolls his eyes.

Stoic Mystery draws his arm back and releases the baseball with a flourish that is too large to be natural. The baseball whizzes through the air, crashes through the entire tin stack, then ricochets into another.

Two stacks.

He poses there with his fingers outstretched, facing the other way for dramatic effect, arm muscles flexing from the effort.

The one staff member behind the counter goes slack-jawed. 

Mystery walks away with not one, but two polar bears. Each one is so comically massive that one is actively being hugged, and the other is balancing on top of his head.

“Show off,” Abby pouts over the high pitched squeal coming out of Zoey’s mouth.

“He. Has. MUSCLES OHMYGAWD!”

“Woahhh, slow down,” Mira places a firm grip on Zoey’s shoulder to stop her from pouncing right onto the furry mountain that is Mystery.

Baby takes the opportunity to slip away.

“For you,” Mystery mumbles, not moving another inch. 

Zoey nearly loses it.

There is a loud crash and a shriek, followed by the distant sound of a cloth ripping.

“I GOT IT!!!” Abby’s screams come flying from the other side. He raises one soft, white bear above his head. A trophy.

“NO FAIR, CHEATER!”

It takes a moment for them to realise the shouting comes from Romance’s head peeking out from behind the fallen tin cans. He got flung so hard that the cloth backing the booth tore.

“The demon became a baseball,” Mira is not amused.

Or maybe she is. Just a little bit. It's a good thing Bobby told the park to just put everything on their tab.

“I am not taking that,” Mira eyes Abby when he comes bounding back.

Critical hit.

“What? But-”

Abby is shocked, flabbergasted, bamboozled.

“Ah-ah, nope, no, not taking it,” Mira smirks, very much enjoying this.

Abby wants to crawl into a hole and shed his despair.

“That’s kinda harsh,” Jinu appears, a magical creature.

The eyes narrowing up at him have him holding his hands up in surrender.

“I will send you on that roller coaster until you barf up everything you ate yesterday, and the day before.”

“Nevermind!” Jinu has changed his mind. “No judgement, carry on!”

“Jinuuuuu,” Abby starts wailing.

Jinu ignores him.

A voice rasps into his ear.

“I found… a restaurant…”

“Who-?!”

Jinu yelps, whirling around so fast he almost gets whiplash.

It’s Baby. Baby is trying to haunt him. Baby is trying to give Jinu an exorcism.

“Food where?” Rumi jumps on it so fast, Jinu doesn’t have the chance to retaliate.

“I know where,” Jinu glares at Baby. “Up this guy’s a-”

“Ooh, I see it, let’s go!”

He grinds his teeth and obediently follows.

By the time he goes through the double doors, Baby and Rumi are already at the counter, pointing at the menu.

“This, this and this.”

“Oh, and also this!”

So it begins, a long, endless line of plates parading from the kitchen, stacking the table so high that by the 15th minute, Jinu finally notices what they’ve done. 

“YOU LET HIM ORDER EVERYTHING?!?!” Jinu can barely contain his exasperation.

“Duh,” Rumi says like it’s obvious. “Why not?”

“Um, I don’t know, maybe because WHO’S GOING TO EAT IT?!”

“You’re underestimating us, Jinu,” Abby scoffs, coming in. “How can we not eat it all? We’re dem- mph? ”

Jinu has never slapped his palm across anyone’s mouth so fast in his life. This idiot! Is he trying to expose them?!

Romance gives the food pile a little test poke, only for Baby to instantly explode.

“DON’T TOUCH IT, IT’S MINE!!” Baby screams, arms around the mountain as though protecting it. Romance recoils.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“MINEEE!!! WHERE IS THE HOT SAUCE?”

…No. Absolutely not. Jinu let’s the sarcasm drip into his internal turmoil. This, this, is not his problem. Not now, not for the rest of the day. Not even if Baby gets up and starts turning the place inside out for a drop of that cursed hot sauce!

“I’m going to have a mental breakdown,” Jinu scowls.

“Mm,” Rumi hums. “I don’t know, I think this is funny.”

Jinu growls, “You try being me, then see what’s funny!”

“No thanks, my girls are clearly superior to your boys.”

As evidence, she jerks her thumb over her shoulder, where Mira is scolding Abby and Romance.

“Can you two just sit down and eat like normal people?!”

“But we’re not normal people,” Romance feigns a hair flick.

“Yeah, we’re gorgeous!” Abby puts his arms behind his head just so he can flex his literal abs.

“THAT’S IT!”

A nice little shaker bottle filled to the brim with pepper finds its way into Mira’s hands. She unscrews the cap and dumps the entire load onto a hot dog. Then she takes the hot dog by the bun and Romance by the collar and starts trying to shove the whole thing down his throat.

“HISH ISH AHOOSH!” Romance’s howls come out muffled. This is abuse!

“SHUT UP AND DIE FROM THE HEAT!”

“See?” Rumi grins. Jinu stops himself from face-palming in agony. The guys really must share a single peanut for a brain. Or half. Half a peanut.

“Where did Baby go?” He deflects, too tired to deal with this.

The next moment, he notes that Baby really did just disappear. He panics, for a bit, then a loud clatter rings from the kitchen.

“Did he go back there?”

“Yeah, five minutes ago.”

“You didn’t tell me?!”

“I'm not the blind one here, he literally dashed in front of you,” Rumi says.

Jinu rushes into the back, following pointers from visibly spooked kitchen staff. What did Baby do?!

As he turns a corner, Jinu stops short. He must be short-circuiting. He isn’t seeing this.

“BABY!!” He yells.

On the floor is a pile of red packets. Hot sauce, all of it, a mountain. Under the mountain is Baby, drowning blissfully. Willingly.

“BY THE STARS, WHAT DID YOU DO?”

They have to clean this up! Who’s going to do it? Of course Baby will leave the mess behind and force Jinu to pick it up. 

Baby lifts his head up, offering nothing more than an incredibly shit-eating grin.

“Hot sauceeee,” he hisses, submerging back into the pile.

Rumi comes in after him, snorting, clutching at her sides, doubling over.

“THIS IS NOT FUNNY! RUMI!”

Rumi pulls out her phone and snaps a photograph.

Chapter Text

Somewhere between escaping the restaurant and more games, Jinu makes a discovery.

Rumi… likes feeding him.

It sounds nice when he puts it this way, but oh, great moon. There is nothing even remotely romantic about it, not a smidge.

Jinu doesn’t mean feeding like he’s caught some ancient illness and gets to be bedridden for days while being spoon-fed like a baby. No. What’s really going on is that Jinu will blow up. 

Because.

“What is a pop corn?”

That was all it took, one stupid question and an even dumber tilt of his head. Corn is nice, corn is good, Jinu knows what corn is. But why does it need to pop?

He realised his mistake as soon as Rumi’s eyes went wide with incredulity and she gawked like she was coming to terms with the mere existence of such a question.

“How can you not know what popcorn is?!?!”

Full scale scandal.

Aha.

Rumi wants to feed him.

“Unacceptable,” she grumps, arms crossing over her chest as she harrumps. “You have to try everything before we leave this theme park, and there are so many! Churros, turkey legs - oh my god, have you even looked at an ice cream?”

“Is this another one of those junk food things?” Jinu raises his eyebrow. “This sounds unhealthy. For you.”

“Oho, not just for me,” Rumi hisses in mock hostility, a plan forming behind her calculating eyes. “I will stuff everything down your throat until it ruins that perfect figure!”

“Good luck with that, demons don’t get fat you know?” Jinu smirks back, gesturing to his form.

Determination weasels its way into the eyes darting from Jinu, to a colourful cart parked just metres from the group. Back and forth. The cart is filled with round little pieces covered in what appears to be a light golden-brown.

A declaration bursts forth.

“I am not stopping until I see a chubby Jinu!!”

Then Rumi’s hands are around his sleeve, tugging, dragging him towards the cart. He doesn’t know what it is she tells the young woman posted there, he zones out when the sentence gets too long and the words tumbling out of Rumi’s mouth twist into a jumbled swirl of unfamiliar phrases. 

The largest bucket size, drenched in butter - that’s too little, drown it in the stuff - salt, thank you, more sugar!

The woman’s jaw keeps unhinging, dropping further and further, getting wider every second.

Just what evil is Rumi about to inflict upon him?

Jinu feels faint.

He tries to tune out his impending doom, turning his attention to the rest of the group behind him. But maybe that’s a mistake too.

“I’ll go!”

“No, I will go!”

Romance and Abby have squished their foreheads so close that it genuinely wouldn’t be a surprise if anyone mistook them for a couple. What is the word again? Oh yes, that’s it.

Gay.

Jinu is learning.

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“I’m not going with either of you,” Mira looks ready to tear them limb from limb. “I will go with Zoey, I will go with Rumi, I will not go with you two. Never in a million years, and not today!”

“Maybe it’ll be fun?” Zoey supplies, ever helpful. And also hopeful.

“Fun? What part about babysitting sounds fun?!”

“It will so be fun!” Abby growls.

“It will be funner without you!” Romance bites back.

“It’ll be the funnest without either of you,” Mira deadpans.

The boys don’t seem to hear her.

“Wanna bet?” Abby somehow smushes his forehead even closer.

Romance pushes back, “Let’s bet!”

Without warning, suddenly working in tandem in the face of a common goal, they split apart.

“TO THE WATER RIDE!!”

What Jinu sees next will likely be the last time he ever lays eyes on Abby or Romance because they lift Mira into the air and start running off into the distance while she shrieks at them.

“I AM NOT GOING WITH YOU, YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!!”

Well, Jinu wishes them both a pleasant funeral. He’ll be sure to come and offer his grievances in… another hundred years.

Yellow fluff dances before his eyes, he blinks and glances down at the paper bucket shoved up in his face. The dancing bucket lowers a fraction, revealing Rumi behind it, shaking it so the contents jostle.

“Try some,” she urges, and the overly-sweet scent of melted sugar and all things unholy wafts right up his nostrils. 

Jinu wants to decline, possibly hurl the bucket far, far away while he goes to rinse out his lungs to cleanse them. But. 

He can’t.

He doesn’t have the heart to reject Rumi when he can literally see the sparkles in her eyes. Which, by the way, look so excited that he thinks he may just get infected.

Before he can change his mind, Jinu stuffs his hand into the bucket. In, grab, out, stuff his face. Gag.

“Hack-!”

Tears of regret prick at the corners of his eyes. Still, Jinu chews, forcing himself to swallow.

“W-Why is it so sweet?” He bites back a grimace.

“Hehehehe, I knew you’d say that.”

What.

“You- Did you do that on purpose?!”

“Nooo…”

Rumi giggles like the little gremlin she is, a dead giveaway. 

…The things Jinu will do for the devil.

“You snackaholic,” he mutters, loud enough so she can hear.

That’s another new term he learnt after hours of watching all three hunters demolish piles of unhealthy snacks in just a matter of minutes.

Two familiar pairs of shoes echo in the distance, growing closer every second. The shouting follows after another.

“YOU WENT THE WRONG WAY, DUMMY!”

“ME?! YOU’RE THE ONE LEADING US!”

“YOU’RE BOTH DUMB, PUT ME DOWN!!”

Jinu pretends not to see the walking pink flag as it zooms by.

“Looks like they’re having fun,” Zoey and Mystery have been trying to decide on what to do for the last five minutes.

“Food? Ring toss? Haunted house? Another roller coaster? More food?” Zoey rambles on, listing the possibilities.

Mystery nods along, patiently listening.

Zoey stops talking so she can stare at Jinu and Rumi in the distance. She can see them there, baffling some poor staff with whichever horrific concoction Rumi is hell-bent on making Jinu try. And Jinu just sucks it up and chomps through the pain anyway.

Mystery’s face popping into Zoey’s line of sight startles her. He stares.

What are you looking at?

“Heh, it’s nothing!” 

Another stare, longer this time.

Mhmmm…

“Ahahaha… I totally 100 percent was not thinking about how that food looks great because I’m totally not obsessed over snacking and actually, now I am thinking about it because I just said it and-”

A puff of pink smoke signals Mystery’s abrupt departure.

Uh?

Another puff announces his arrival.

It takes Zoey a whole 5 seconds to realise he’s holding a stick with a corndog impaled on it. The kind with either a hotdog or cheese - or both - on the inside and fried in batter, then dressed with sugar. It has squiggly lines made up of ketchup and mustard drawn on it.

The heat is already making its way onto Zoey’s cheeks when Mystery gives the tiniest head tilt.

Are you not hungry?

“Thanks,” she mumbles.

Zoey reaches for the stick to pick it out of Mystery’s hand but… he won’t let go. It confuses Zoey until she catches him glancing back towards where Rumi is shovelling a slice of cake into Jinu’s protesting mouth.

Does… he want her to just… eat it? From the stick in his hand???

And Mystery is just standing there, expectant.

Zoey tries hard not to combust on the spot, but at this point she might be incinerated because gorgeous Mystery will. Not. Stop. STARING and all things be damned because zoey likes it!

“Look, Rumi,” Jinu is driving an extremely hard case here. “I appreciate you trying to make me get fat, but if I even look at another piece of food, I swear to all the stars, I WILL ERRUPT LIKE THE VOLCANO YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN!”

As a 400 year-old demon, Jinu genuinely never thought he would experience a sickness such as this, too stuffed to take another lick, too weak to push away the cone in Rumi’s hands. He must’ve caught a curse somewhere, that must be it.

“Perfect,” Rumi grins. “This isn’t food, this is dessert!”

Dessert. This is dessert.

“THAT’S THE SAME THING!!” His arms go high in the air, thrown upwards.

Rumi snickers, “No it’s not, plus you’ll still eat it anyway.”

Jinu grits his teeth.

“Why are you always right?”

“I’m Rumi.”

“Of course you are. You’re also EVIL.”

“Says the DEMON.”

“EXACTLY, I’M A DEMON, NOT A BOTTOMLESS GHOST!”

And here Jinu hopes, he really does hope and pray and hope that there will be no more forced feeding. Please, please let this be the end.

He feels the dry wafer of an ice-cream cone pressing into his palm. Without thinking, he wraps his fingers around it.

“Did you just sneak this thing into my hand while I was praying for my sanity?”

Rumi’s smile twinkles at him, cheekily she moves closer, directly in front of him while she lifts her head to look. “Maybeee,” she draws the word out, shamelessly spelling out the facts. “‘Cause you’re my demon and you’ll do anything for meee!”

Oh, how Jinu hates that she is once again correct. And gods above, she’s so deathly adorable that he wants to smother her in a permanent hug. ARGH!!!

“What spell have you cast on me, you gremlin?!” Jinu jokes.

“Heehee,” Rumi leans down suddenly and takes a huge chunk off the top of the ice cream.

Nom.

“What in- Seriously?! Was that your plan all along, huh? Stealing my ice cream?!”

“Oh, so it’s yours now hmm?”

This girl, she’ll be the death of him.

Jinu crushes the rest of the ice cream between his teeth, arms up beside his head, fingers curled as if he has his claws out.

“Come here you little thief!"

Rumi jumps away from him, keeping just out of his reach, darting around as he chases after her.

“Pay for your crimes!”

“Neverrr!”

She squeaks when he warps into existence in front of her, having predicted her path in the middle of a small bridge. Jinu catches her as she tumbles into his arms laughing.

Dragging them both onto the ground for the second time that same day, giddy with this stupid game, fully invested in it, Jinu makes sure to cushion the fall.

“This is for my ice cream!” He exclaims.

“Heh, totally worth it!” Rumi grins right back and good lord, her fangs look so tiny and sharp and pointy all at the same time, peeking out from under her lips. Jinu can crumble away into pink dust right now and he’ll be happy.

His lips part, to tell her how beautiful she is, or how stupidly wasted he is.

Please bite me.

“Do you hear something?” She beats him to it, although it isn’t the direction Jinu wanted to take this conversation in.

He cocks his head, listening. He frowns.

“Is that… screaming? Where is it coming from?”

Jinu looks around, confused for a moment until he spots it. 

A small boat coming down a small stream of rushing water. 

In this boat are the buffoons Abby and Romance, clutching at each other and yelling something incoherent. Right behind them is Mira, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Oh, guess they finally got on that ride,” Rumi comments as the little boat continues travelling. “It’s kinda like the roller coaster from earlier but even better because it goes backwards for a bit and then everyone gets splashed near the end!”

Hm. Sounds like a horrid nightmare. No thank you.

They’re getting closer now, the screaming is actually starting to become intelligible. It sounds like mosquitos buzzing around his ears, begging for their lives.

Wait, why is that boat coming closer and closer?

“Uh-oh.”

Jinu glances down at Rumi, sitting in his lap on the floor.

“What do you mean uh-oh?”

“The ‘X’, where’s the ‘X’?!” Rumi sweeps the floor, alert.

What X?

Jinu checks under his thigh. There’s a nice, white cross painted conspicuously on the floor beneath the spot where they’re sitting.

“Is this it?” He asks.

Rumi starts panicking, “WE’RE IN THE SPLASH ZONE!”

What zone? Jinu wants to ask, but then he sees the stream, sees how it winds left and right and all the way under the bridge they are on and, all of a sudden, he gets it. Oops.

“QUICK, MOVE!” He starts panicking too.

Even as he says it, jinu can tell in his heart, they won’t make it. Already, the screeches of the three in the boat are crystal in his ears.

“TAKE THAT YOU OVERGROWN LIMBLESS GRASS!” Mira’s cackle whizzes by while she yells.

Abby and Romance fight for their lives. For the smallest fraction of a second, Jinu locks eyes with them.

No!

“JINU, SAVE USSS!!!”

But Jinu is also screeching at the top of his lungs, “NONONONONONO!!!!”

Too late.

A mighty splash erupts beneath his feet, a heavy wave crashes down on him and Rumi. She splutters.

In the van with the tinted windows, warming his butt with thick, fluffy towels, Jinu idly watches the cars pass by. One, two, three… five…

He feels like a drowned rat, button up shirt and jeans soaked through, himself drenched to the bone. Next to him, he’s pretty sure Rumi looks the same. Possibly worse, because she was wearing a hoodie.

After the first few minutes, she reaches into one of the side pockets and produces a familiar black and grey hoodie. Rumi tugs her own hoodie off and exchanges it for this new one. It’s suspiciously more oversized than usual.

“Is that mine?” Jinu turns to question. 

Rumi shrugs, “It’s comfy.”

Romance sulks like a child grounded. Abby is the same. Mira is very pleased with herself. 

Unlike the two demons, she actually brought a raincoat so she wouldn’t get soaked to the bone.

Mystery, true to his name, somehow shows up at the van with cotton candy stuck in his hair. The stick is in his mouth, being chewed on. 

Zoey is trying to hide incriminating evidence. Namely, her hands, sticky with melted sugar that she couldn’t wash away.

All the stuffed animals have been crammed into the boot of the van, round, beaded eyes peeking over the back of the seats, judging them.

What a sight they all make.

Bobby flicks a cautious glance from the rear view mirror overhead.

“So, uh… Are you guys okay…?”

Pin-drop silence.

Romance mutters something under his breath.

“What was that?” Mira catches him.

“We weren’t even that bad,” Romance snarks, louder. “You were just overreacting!”

“Overreacting,” Mira repeats, nodding, eye twitching. “Right.”

Wow, Jinu stares blankly, what a great way for Romance to say he’s sorry.

“Maybe I’ll overreact again and SEND YOU BACK ON THAT ROLLER COASTER!”

“You guys should chill, have a hot sauce.”

Ah, the missing puzzle piece found its way back to them. They’d all forgotten about Baby for a bit, no one really knew where he went, or when exactly he showed up again. Right now, he’s pulling hot sauce packets out of his pockets.

“Baby,” Jinu carefully deadpans, losing his cool almost instantly. “WHAT THE HELL IS HOT SAUCE GONNA DO?!”

Mira isn’t done screaming.

“BOBBY TURN THE VAN AROUND, WE’RE GOING BACK!”

Jinu feels his entire body lurch as Bobby steps on the accelerator and the van swerves hard.