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In the back of her head somewhere, Rumi remembered that Jinu said he’d made Sussie’s gat (well, Derpy’s gat, which Sussie stole) and yet it hadn’t clicked in her mind that Jinu could sew.
Until now.
Riiiiiiiip.
“Oh my god, my shirt!” Zoey yelped, gripping the sleeve of her shirt that had just split at the seam around her arm. “My sick guns ripped it!”
That was a designer shirt from a VERY famous designer that was going on a VERY famous magazine cover modeled by the VERY famous HUNTR/X and now it had a very obvious tear. The rest of the crew on the photoshoot went into panic mode.
“Where’s the sewing kit?” someone yelled.
Items flew through the air as people scoured every surface and drawer for something to fix the tear. Bobby tried yelling orders at everyone to calm down to no avail. Rumi’s, Mira’s, and Zoey’s heads whipped back and forth trying to digest the chaos. Rumi was almost dizzy from watching.
“I know we had one! Where did it go?”
A finger pointed at an intern. “Someone has to go buy a new one! We’re running late!”
“But I still have to handle the—”
“Wait, does anyone here even know how to sew?”
Mira and Zoey both glanced at Rumi, cheeks puffed with stifled laughter. Rumi rolled her eyes. OK, it was a tiny bit funny to watch people run around like slapstick movie extras, but it was time to calm down before someone got hurt!
“Hey everyone—” Rumi tried to interrupt, soothing words on the tip of her tongue borne from years of photoshoot experience.
“Found it,” a voice she wasn’t expecting spoke up. Jinu held the sewing kit over his head. “It was in the makeup cart.”
The crew cheered. Bobby even side hugged Jinu which was a serious step forward in their relationship. Rumi felt her heart flutter, nearly swooning at the sight of her handsome boyfriend who was smiling and saving her whole day. And the day of everyone in the room. He was so great. Even Mira was clapping, albeit slowly.
The photoshoot director moved in front of the crowd, tragically blocking Rumi’s view of Jinu.
“Ok girls, change into the next outfit while someone fixes this thing.”
Zoey immediately yanked the ripped shirt over her head (she was wearing a camisole under it) and balled it up. She drew her arm back, lining up her shot. “Who’s fixing it?”
No one raised their hands.
After a confused beat, Jinu slowly raised his. The next second, he had a face full of Zoey’s shirt and tripped over his own feet. Rumi was by his side in seconds.
“I’m fine,” Jinu groaned as she helped him sit up. Then he made the most ridiculous smirk and leaned in close to murmur, “But if you want to kiss it better—ow!”
“Hey Bobby?” Rumi yelled, standing up and “accidentally” stepping on Jinu’s foot. “I have a question!”
She tried very hard to control how red her face was as she fled. Damn Jinu! Such a menace.
—
Since Rumi was getting changed for the photoshoot, she completely missed actually seeing Jinu sew the shirt back together. What she did see was… red.
When she and the girls got back in their next outfits, her boyfriend was surrounded by scores of women oohing and aahing over the shirt that looked like it had never been ripped at all. Jinu even had the nerve to blush in front of them. The brat.
“Rumi! Nails!” Zoey whined, trying to claw Rumi’s fingers off her arm. She hadn’t even noticed clenching them. Mira smacked her hands to make Rumi let go. Rumi’s eyes stayed narrowed in irritation though.
“I think it’s time to send Jinu on a very long errand.”
Purely to keep his ego in check! Rumi wasn’t worried about those other women, no way.
Mira smirked. “Dibs on telling him he has to make a snack run.”
—
“Not gonna lie.” Mira held the shirt Zoey had been wearing up close. They were done with the shoot and back in their street clothes. She squinted at the sleeve, trying to remember where the shirt actually tore. “I didn’t think he could do it.”
“I believed in him,” Zoey said, quite seriously. Mira, now holding the dressing room door open, stared at her. “I believed in the Rumi who didn’t stop him, anyway.”
They started making their way to Bobby and the car.
“Yeah, why didn’t you?”
Rumi felt a strange thrill and tried very hard not to sound as smug as she felt when she revealed, “He made Sussie’s gat after all.”
Was it stupid that Rumi felt proud of knowing something about Jinu no one else did?
Yes. It was.
Because all Zoey did was say, “Cool,” and Mira let out a sarcastic, “Woo, Jinu.”
God, would Mira ever let Rumi live that down?
If the smirk she sent Rumi’s way said anything, the answer was nope.
Revenge was a sweet, sweet thing though because Jinu teleported directly behind Mira and said, “Thanks,” jump scaring the hell out of her.
The four of them piled into Bobby’s van, a red handprint still visible on Jinu’s smirking, idiotic, hot face.
If Rumi held his hand on the way back, it was purely out of pity for that smack!
—
“So why can you sew?” Zoey asked, pressing the elevator button for the penthouse and scanning their security card. The doors closed and they started their normal ride back home. Zoey was practically bouncing on her feet with excitement. “Also, can you teach me? I have soooo many outfit sketches I wanna turn into real clothes.”
Jinu shrugged. Rumi’s arm got jostled as well where she was holding his hand. She was a little worried about him, feeling his hand tense as he prepared to talk about some of the worst times of his life. Rumi squeezed his hand, trying to show him some support.
“Well,” Jinu shrugged again, “You couldn’t exactly trash a whole outfit if there was a tear in my day. Fabric was expensive. You mended your clothes until they wore out.”
“‘In my day’, he says,” muttered Mira. Rolling her eyes, she leveled Rumi with the most unimpressed look she’d ever seen. “Rumi, why are you dating a senior citizen again?”
Rumi bristled and clutched Jinu’s hand harder.
“Stop calling him that!”
The elevator doors dinged and they were home. Mira headed straight to the couch and flopped down with a satisfied groan. The others followed, all sighing at the magnificent feeling of couch, couch, couch sinking under their butts. Rumi snuggled into Jinu’s side. Zoey squished a throw pillow in her arms. Mira even put her feet up on Derpy who was napping on the floor. Sussie gave an irritated caw at having her own nap disturbed from the movement.
“Oh yeah,” Zoey said, straightening up and eyes shining bright at Jinu. “Rumi said you made Sussie’s gat. Can you sew anything else?”
“I made all the clothes in my family.” Then, so quietly he might not have even meant to say it out loud, “My mom was usually too sick to do much more than the mending.”
The room went quiet.
Neither Jinu nor Rumi had told the others much more about his background other than that his family had been poor and Gwi-ma made false promises to lift them from poverty. It was true enough without spreading Jinu’s personal business about his soul around. Rumi sank even deeper into his arms, not sure what other comfort to add.
Although rare, Jinu would talk about his family now and then. Rumi knew firsthand how difficult it was for him.
And now, apparently Zoey did too because she let out a high-pitched noise, trying very hard (and failing) to sound nonchalant in swerving the conversation out of the danger zone.
“Ha HA, you know what? You should…” Zoey trailed off, face red, eyes flickering around the room for some kind of sign of what to say next. They landed on Derpy and Sussie. “So like, you should make Rumi an outfit! Yes! And Derpy! Then you can both match with yours and Rumi’s fur and feather babies and your whole grim reaper getup. We’ll take pics! Won’t that be cute? No one can be sad then!”
That… did sound really cute. And fun. Rumi was already perking up.
“A good photoshoot is healing to the soul,” she agreed. Zoey nodded, flashing two thumbs ups.
“We could also just rent something,” Mira pointed out. “Instead of making him do all the work. Traditional clothes aren’t hard to find.”
A smug grin spread across Zoey’s whole face. Mira paled, realizing her mistake far, far too late. “Wait!”
“‘We’?” Zoey elbowed Mira. Her grin somehow got even wider. Mira spluttered, trying to back away. “Sounds like you want to go shopping together and be in the family portrait too, don’t you, my fellow pet auntie?”
“Family portrait?” Rumi choked out. Then proceeded to internally combust as she belatedly realized that Zoey had called Derpy and Sussie her and Jinu’s babies what—
Jinu jolted next to Rumi and snapped her out of that spiral.
“Family?” Jinu breathed, eyes wide. Rumi’s heart exploded and raced and she knew her stupid patterns were glowing again like they always did when she got extremely embarrassed around Jinu. God, she and Jinu, family, a family together, a family of Rumi and Jinu oh jeez the rujinu shippers were right the whole time.
“Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself!” Mira pointed at Rumi’s hand, scowling. “I still don’t see a ring from you, mister!”
“Yeah!” Zoey added. “If you wanna be my big brother-in-law I expect you to spoil Rumi within an inch of her life! Like, a three-month’s-salary-ring level spoiling! Also, I already found a studio that lets you take traditional style family photos and rent hanbok. Derpy and Sussie can sneak in, right? It says you can bring your own photographer and Bobby knows all about demons now anyway so he can be our photog. You’re probably still going to have to make Derpy’s outfit though. I’m guessing the studio doesn’t carry guardian spirit tiger sizes.”
“Sure,” Jinu said, an actual smile on his face during a conversation about family. It felt like a miracle. Rumi threw her arms around him, not even sure how else she could express how happy and relieved she was. Zoey and Mira were starting to get excited, already swiping through the studio’s selection of dresses on Zoey’s phone.
Jinu, meanwhile, was smirking behind Rumi’s back where no one could see him. He sure was glad he already had a good ring hidden from Rumi. He’d already been trying to plan how to give it to her.
He knew how he was going to do it now.