Chapter Text
The sun has already set once Zhang Hao closes the front door after his friends. He can hear their talk and laughter echo in the stairs for a few seconds before it fades away and he’s left in silence. There are takeout containers in plastic bags littering the hallway that he’ll take care of tomorrow and boxes scattered all over the living room, but his new apartment is starting to feel a little more like a home.
He now has a couch, a table and a rug in his living room, and most of the furniture is new and free of any stains. The bookshelf that Matthew and Taerae spent way too much time assembling has yet to find its place and Hao decides to spend some time putting up his books and little trinkets on it before calling it an early night.
Matthew wanted the whole group to have a sleepover, to commemorate Hao’s first night living by himself, but since that would kind of defeat the purpose of living by himself, Hao vetoed it.
This place is his first real apartment, with an actual legit lease and located in a nice neighbourhood. His friend Jiwoong lives a few floors down and was the one who told him about it. Although he’s excited to live on his own, there’s a comfort in knowing that Jiwoong is so close, should anything happen. He knows that his friend shares the sentiment, and he keeps reminding him that if there’s absolutely anything he needs, he should call or knock on his door.
Hao decides to place the bookshelf by the wall next to his bedroom door and then gets to work. He’s got a lot of old textbooks from university that he’s been putting off selling, and some old novels he’s never opened. He puts them on the bottom shelf, to be forgotten. He puts some of his favorites at eye level, so that people will be able to spot them and see his good taste in literature as soon as their eyes fall on the shelf. The scented candle Ricky gifted him as a moving gift earlier this day also gets a spot, as do a cute ceramic vase Yujin found for him while thrifting.
When he’s done he grabs a glass of water from the kitchen and takes a picture of his work to send to the group chat. He sits down on his fluffy white rug and just breathes out. There are still several unopened boxes all around him filled with clothes, kitchen utensils and miscellaneous knick-knacks, but it’s slowly but surely coming together. Soon he’ll finally get settled down in a place he can call his own and start building a calm, peaceful adult life.
The days of dorm rooms, shared living, and crashing at Ricky’s place is over.
When he’s about to get up from the floor, his eyes catch sight of something he’s forgotten under the table.
It’s a book, bound in brown leather and with a title he can’t decipher written in golden letters.
It’s thick, and already at first glance it looks very old and worn. Hao doesn’t remember owning it, which means it’s probably a thrift store find. His friends had dragged him to multiple second hand stores and flea markets yesterday to buy things he didn’t really need. They have a lot of opinions regarding his decor and wanted to help him put together a grown up and sophisticated style which apparently included old books, hourglasses and vases. Hao thinks that part of it is because they themselves still live in cramped rooms without space for these useless things.
Hao curiously opens the book and flips through the first few pages, all filled to the brim with a language he can’t read. It’s not english, but since it’s old and utilizes the same alphabet he guesses it might be latin. He stops flipping once he reaches a page with an illustration on it.
At first glance it gives him a bit of a fright. It depicts a gruesome creature with sharp red eyes and even sharper horns sticking out of its head. It’s surrounded by messy strokes that look like a shadow. It’s unnerving, and Hao gets the feeling that this book wasn’t meant for his hands.
Underneath the illustration is a short accompanying phrase, which he clumsily tries out in his head before clearing his throat to carefully say it out loud.
As soon as the words leave his mouth, a chill runs through his spine and the lights flicker and go out. There’s a second of stillness after the apartment is drenched in darkness before the floor begins to shake violently. When the book begins to glow with a blinding, golden light, Hao realizes that its vibration is the source of the shaking. It keeps glowing for a moment before the golden light turns a burning red, like it’s on fire.
The flames engulf the book and Hao drops it on instinct to avoid getting burned. But there is no heat, and the flames soon die out. The embers form a white smoke which comes with such force it doesn’t take more than five seconds for the whole room to be covered in a thick layer of it. Hao can’t see anything, not even his own hands when he lifts them up close to his face. Then, in the blink of an eye, the smoke all seems to converge at the book and Hao gains back some of his vision as the smoke turns grey. Slowly, as if it’s carefully taking its time to make sure it’s done perfectly right, the smoke turns into a human-like shadow, only illuminated by the city lights outside the apartment.
Hao is frozen in his spot on the floor, half in terror and half in amazement, as the smoky shadow slowly solidifies into an inhumane creature, one with glowing red eyes and horns sprouting from its head. The same creature that was drawn on the page of the book.
It’s larger than the average human, its horns almost brushing the ceiling and for a split second Hao worries about them leaving scratches—that would probably not go over well with the landlord.
Except for its size, the horns, red eyes and ashen skin with glowing veins, Hao thinks that the rest of its features look almost human. But then it smiles, showing off a row of sharp, almost shark-like, pearly white teeth, and the thought immediately dissipates.
”You summoned me,” the creature says, in a rumbling, echoing voice. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Hao stares at it in shock for a second. It has to be a demon. There’s an actual demon straight from hell in his brand new living room, which is probably not allowed since he can’t even have a pet. This shouldn’t be happening. The demon needs to leave.
”Go back,” he says, still not fully having processed what just happened. Currently the only thought in his head is that he can’t afford to break building codes on his first night.
The demon looks a bit taken aback by Hao’s words, but soon recovers and smiles once more. ”I cannot do that, I’m afraid I have to fulfill your request and harvest your soul first.”
”My soul?” Now it’s Hao’s turn to act confused, because there’s just no way that this is a real thing that is happening. ”You can’t have my soul.”
The demon looks at Hao just as perplexed as he is.
”That is how it works, you summon me to perform an act of gruesomeness and in exchange I get your soul. Why else would you summon me?” He scratches his neck, and if Hao wasn’t still shaken, he’d find it a very comical action for a big scary demon to perform.
”I fear there’s been a misunderstanding here, um—” Hao doesn’t know how to address the demon “—Mr. Demon, sir, but I have no gruesome acts for you to perform and no soul for you to harvest.”
The demon looks doubtful.
”Really? No enemies to slaughter? No kingdom to overthrow?”
”Not really no, unless you count the postal service because my IKEA package has been wrongly sorted at the terminal for two weeks now but I don’t think that’s worth losing my soul over, I can survive without a bedside table for a few weeks.”
”I see,” the demon says, while still not looking entirely convinced.
Hao is emboldened by the fact that the demon hasn’t done anything even remotely threatening yet, except for existing of course, because he’s still emitting a very evil aura.
”Yes, so uh, it was nice to meet you? I wish you well in your future soul-harvesting endeavors but you can leave now.”
The demon doesn’t move from his spot. Hao tries to study his face in the limited light. He really does look human. He’s got eyes, a nose, lips, and even hair, all in the right places. Actually in the perfect places, if he’s being honest. He’s wearing a black robe which hides the rest of his body from sight, but from his silhouette, all of him reads as human.
”I really don’t know what to do in this situation, because I can only return back to hell once I've harvested your soul, but it seems unfair to do that without offering anything in return, that’s kind of the deal… This is quite the conundrum.”
Hao doesn’t know what to make out of this. His demon knowledge might be limited, but the statement contradicts everything he’s heard. Demons are supposed to be evil, tricksters, not to be meddled with. This one seems to have morals.
Either that, or it’s a ploy to make him let his guard down.
Anyhow, he still doesn’t want to have the demon in his living room. Losing his soul doesn’t sound that great, but neither does having a supernatural demon roommate who won’t leave until he’s finished his task.
They stare at each other in silence for a moment before Hao decides to break it.
“Could I perhaps think about it? You can go and do whatever it is demons like to do, while I figure out if there are any potential enemies I’d like slaughtered?”
In reality he just wants to go to bed. It has been a long day, and a part of him hopes that he’s just hallucinating, or that when he wakes up in the morning the demon will be gone and it will all turn out to have been a dream.
”Sure, we could do that,” the demon agrees. “But I don’t know if there’s anything in particular I like to do. Whenever I've been in this realm it’s always been on an assignment, and I haven't even been here for over a century.”
Great, Hao managed to summon a demon without a hobby.
”Why don’t you read this,” he says and hands over the book from which the demon was summoned.
The demon looks surprised again but grabs the other end of the book, carefully keeping his sharp claws from scratching it. The veins in his hand glow a faint orange, and they seem to emit smoke. The sight is almost mesmerizing, but Hao forces himself to look away.
”You can take a seat on the couch and make yourself comfortable,” he gestures towards his brand new cream colored couch and hopes the ash is only an illusion and not something that will leave stains. “And I will go… Yeah I’ll just go.”
Hao doesn’t really think about anything else except getting away as he scurries towards the front door. He doesn’t even bother with putting on shoes, he just sprints out of the apartment and down the stairs to frantically knock on Jiwoong’s door.
His friend opens the door and gives him a questioning look. ”Hello, is everything alright?”
Hao doesn’t bother with pleasantries.
”Sure, I’m alright. Quick question though, what do you do if you accidentally summon a demon and want him gone without him first taking your soul?” Hao asks, slightly out of breath.
”Can’t say that’s ever happened to me.”
”Come with me.”
Hao grabs Jiwoong’s arm and leads him to the stairs. If he is going to die, he’d rather die by Jiwoong’s side than alone.
When they enter Hao’s apartment the demon is sitting on the couch, flicking through the pages of the book just as he was when Hao left him a few minutes ago. Unlike when Hao left him, the lights are now back on, and with full illumination it’s easy to see the biggest difference. The demon doesn’t look like a demon anymore. He’s shrunk in size, and his skin isn’t ashy grey or veiny anymore. He looks fully human.
If Hao didn’t recognize his hair, facial features and robe, he’d think a bibliophilic robber had invaded his home.
The demon looks up from his book and smiles at Hao. It’s a bit uncanny.
”Oh, you’re back already!” he says and stands up a bit too enthusiastically for Hao’s liking. ”And you brought an enemy! How do you want me to decimate him? Perhaps some light torture first would be fun?”
Hao doesn’t say anything, so Jiwoong moves further into the apartment to stand in between Hao and the demon. He looks carefully at each of them, as if trying to read the situation. His gaze finally settles upon Hao.
”When I said I’d help you with anything, I didn’t mean demonic roleplay nor threesomes. I’m sorry but you’re on your own here.”
Hao opens his mouth to protest then closes it again.
”You know what, just leave. Thank you for coming, and I’m sorry for bothering you. Good night.”
Jiwoong looks like he’s got further questions, but he doesn’t voice them and instead goes to leave. This quality is why he’s one of Hao’s favorite people. Sure, he can be nosy and annoying sometimes, just like all of Hao’s friends, but he also knows when to leave things alone.
Hao slams the door shut behind him and locks it.
"No enemy?" the demon asks.
”No enemy,” Hao repeats, “friend.”
The demon, who doesn’t look like a demon anymore, seems to sulk. He looks younger in his human form, probably because he looks less powerful and more ordinary. If Hao had seen him on the street he’d guess he was around his own age.
In this form it feels strange to refer to him as a demon—although he undoubtedly still is one—and Hao is hit by the sudden urge to know if he has a name, so he asks.
“What is your name?”
The demon’s mood seems to lift almost instantly at being asked.
“It cannot be pronounced by the human tongue, and if you tried all sorts of unpleasant things could happen. But I did also take on a human one, should I ever come to need it, such as right now. It was the name of a man I once was tasked to hunt down and kill. He was awful, but I quite liked the sound of his name, so you can call me Sung Hanbin.”
Hao doesn’t have it in him to act shocked or appalled anymore, because too many strange things have transpired in this one night. Instead he just accepts that, for the foreseeable future, he’s stuck with a demon who named himself after one of his victims.
”Charming. I’m Zhang Hao.”