Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When all that Mira knew about Rumi was “daughter of a Sunlight Sister” and “going to be the lead of a girl group that was currently recruiting and that Mira was hoping to be a part of”, she was expecting firmness. Inability to compromise. A spoiled princess who refused to listen to others’ ideas, a girl who understood very well that she was K-pop royalty and acted accordingly.

She didn’t really have anything to base this on. But every other important figure in Mira’s life had proven themselves to be a struggle, every other relationship she had was a fight that taught her to always have her guard up. So she was used to expecting no less from anyone new, and her mind immediately leapt to the worst possible conclusions about Rumi, a person who would have such a strong position of influence over her life if her audition was successful, if Celine judged her worthy.

Zoey was expecting something similar, though not quite as bad. She was expecting a stereotypical popular girl, probably used to a gaggle of fawning admirers, but hopefully with room for a little bit of sincere affection in her heart. Too often, she’d been made to feel greedy just for wanting to be loved, for wishing the people in her life had more time for her. She understood her parents had been going through a lot, especially after they’d separated, and that they had more important things to do than pay attention to her ramblings. Zoey was a girl with a lot of energy, energy she wanted desperately to share with the people she cared about but her home life (or lives, rather) hadn’t given her much room to do so.

She was the sort to sometimes launch into an extremely animated monologue about the things she was passionate about, infodumping on whoever she trusted enough to be near. And if Rumi was the sort to let her do that even once without acting like she was a tiresome distraction, Zoey would happily be her devoted follower.

That was her hope, but she wasn’t expecting it. She saw no reason why Rumi wouldn’t be like everyone else she knew, felt it unlikely Rumi would be genuinely interested in her and her passions. When recruiting her, Celine had given her the same sort of smile she was all too used to receiving, one that spoke of false patience, and this was the woman who had apparently raised Rumi after all.

Neither of them knew who the real Rumi was. Not yet.

Mira was waiting for a challenge, expecting to butt heads from minute one. She understood Rumi was going to be the leader, she accepted that the group had to be disciplined and flow as one unit but she would be damned if she was going to let this princess walk all over her without a fight.

But the first feeling that seized her heart upon meeting the purple-haired girl was softer than that.

Her immediate impression of Rumi was that she was… lonely.

She gave Mira and Zoey an awkward smile on meeting them, introduced herself, told them they could come to her for anything and seemed to genuinely mean it. When Zoey had slipped into an excited ramble about how happy she was to be here, there’d been a moment of uncertainty, as if remembering where she was. Rumi had encouraged her to let it out if she wanted and had listened to every word, and Mira could practically see the youngest girl’s eyes shine like stars as a result.

But throughout their whole first day, as they were prompted to get to know each other, Rumi had walls that she never let down. She listened sincerely as Zoey and Mira talked and she’d either expertly dodged every question that came her way about her upbringing or answered them superficially, providing only information that was already publicly available or that could be easily reasoned (like that she was sad she couldn’t really remember her mother).

Normally, that would make Mira suspicious. But Rumi seemed so damn genuinely eager to make a good impression and be a good friend that Mira felt an instinctive certainty there was nothing untoward going on with her. She closed herself off, and efficiently so, as if with practice. And the glances Mira occasionally caught between her and Celine certainly seemed to hint at the source for such practice.

But Celine had been nothing but kind and welcoming to herself and Zoey, and Rumi didn’t have a bad word to say about her apart from implying with a laugh she was going to be a strict mentor, so Mira decided she could trust her.

A critical moment in Mira’s judgement of Rumi came when Zoey went to give her a high five and the taller girl had just sat there, a little confused. Mira had jumped up then, unwilling to leave Zoey hanging, and Rumi had quickly gotten the gist of it, enthusiastically returning Zoey’s next attempt.

Mira was familiar with fiction, and the stereotype of lonely princesses who never connected with anyone because all the girls around them were too aware of her position to try being a real friend. But she was getting the impression now that Rumi’s case was worse than that. If she didn’t know better (and she wasn’t honestly sure she did, with how guarded Rumi had been about her past), she’d guess Rumi hadn’t been around girls her age at all in her life.

So to sum up Mira’s initial feelings toward Rumi, the one that stood out the most was a sense of protectiveness. There was a shell she was hiding in; a later private conversation with Zoey confirmed she’d noticed it too, and they were both determined to one day coax her all the way out of it. And Mira already felt strongly that she couldn’t bear to see Rumi hurt.

She was always one to speak her mind and to defend what she cared about. And Rumi and Zoey had just made a spectacular debut on that list.

Zoey felt that today had been a good day. Rumi had exceeded even her most optimistic hopes. And Mira, while she’d seemed at first to be the judgey type Zoey was all too familiar with, there was a caring heart obviously beating beneath her chest.

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but Zoey was certain she’d just made the two most important connections of her life. She only wished Rumi wasn’t quite so closed off.

Zoey was used to repressing herself, or at least trying and failing to and hating herself for being unable to. Rumi may be much better disciplined at it but Zoey could still recognise the signs.

It wasn’t that Rumi necessarily had some big secret, but more likely that she was just a reserved kind of person. There had been snacks today, but Rumi had always subtly glanced around before taking one, making sure there were enough for the other two first. She almost never initiated any particular interaction, and rarely ever had made suggestions for anything based on what she liked or what she wanted, instead letting Mira and Zoey take the lead.

Not to say Rumi was just a passive lump, no, she’d participated in conversation and matched their excitement when appropriate. She’d been very intent on finding out what they disliked or weren’t comfortable with, and Zoey felt she could trust that Rumi would be very firm in ensuring these things didn’t come up for them in their K-pop career together. It was just that she didn’t seem to carry this same level of care for herself, as if she just didn’t consider herself a priority, or at least not as much as she did for two girls she’d just met today.

Celine had hinted that they had a great deal to learn very soon, about the world they’d just stepped into. And judging from Rumi’s expression during that (a kind of nervous apprehension, but with none of the curiosity or confusion there had been in Mira’s face, or her own), she knew what it was. Doubtless, Celine had already prepared her for it. Gosh, given what Zoey had heard about the lives of Idols, maybe she’d been ready for it since entering teenagehood. After she’d had some time to be a kid, at least, surely.

Whatever it was, likely just some kind of unusual training regimen from Celine’s Sunlight Sisters days, if Rumi knew about it then maybe this would be her opportunity to open up a little.

Zoey couldn’t wait for whatever it was.

So. Demons were real.

And not in a “God damn my parents are really harsh and cruel and my brother has grown to be super annoying” kind of way. It was a bit more of a literal “there’s an entity named Gwi-Ma that rules vast hordes of creatures and that some people sell their souls to, joining his ranks of monsters out of shame and looking to steal the souls of others in turn” kind of way.

Mira had trouble believing it at first. Who wouldn’t? But Celine was so serious talking about it and Rumi seemed so certain as she confirmed it that Mira had to pause and at least consider it. She may not have known Rumi very long but she knew already she wouldn’t lie to them. She might not tell them everything but if she was ever to actually say something to them like this, it would be genuine.

Still, Mira wasn’t quite certain it wasn’t a prank (or more likely, with the conviction that Celine and Rumi held, that these two were just actually insane) until that night. There was already that Honmoon thing Celine had “opened their eyes to” but that could just be some kind of intricate special-effects-heavy lightshow. Mira admitted it would be a lot of effort to go to for nothing but she wasn’t quite ready to give up her grip on the world she knew, unlike Zoey who apparently was more immediately accepting of anything told to her as long as it was Rumi telling it.

That night, Celine took them out into the woods. Just Mira and Zoey, no staff, not even Rumi. There was a man going for a late-night stroll and Celine instructed them to hide from his sight and to watch. She would handle this herself when she had to but for the moment, she just needed the girls new to all this to observe.

The Honmoon wasn’t perfect, Celine had told them. It deteriorated over time, requiring new generations of Hunters to maintain and strengthen it. There were gaps in the fabric of the world, through which Gwi-Ma’s influence could stretch. Fortunately, she’d said, if you’ve been in tune with the Honmoon as long as she had, you developed a sense for demonic presences, strong enough to sometimes know when they would come through.

And here one was. As the late-night walk enthusiast took a short break, a thing appeared behind him, beginning to reach for him.

It was humanoid, albeit short and scrawny, with blue skin and a single eye in the center of its forehead. And it was undoubtedly very real.

Zoey gasped and Mira’s eyes widened. The demon heard the gasp, quiet though it had been, and turned to face them, just as the walker decided to move on, blind to the threat he’d been exposed to. The demon let him go, its curiosity taking control as it slowly approached the bushes where the girls hid. Its mouth opened, revealing an unnaturally long tongue sweeping over razor-sharp canines. It sniffed the air, a thin trail of drool beginning to slip from between its lips. Apparently having locked onto their scent, its eye locked onto their position. Claws lengthened from its hands.

A smile spread across its face as it approached them confidently. Zoey was shaking and Mira wanted to reach out to her and comfort her, she really did, but she couldn’t move. Her blood felt it had frozen to ice and locked her body in place. The demon couldn’t see her, surely it couldn’t, but it seemed to be meeting her gaze anyway.

Mira felt a hand suddenly grip hers and found the strength to look down, away from the demon. It was Zoey, her face lined with fear and her body unable to stay still, but with a resolve to her that took Mira by surprise. Despite how obviously scared she was, she was still letting Mira know she was there for her. She didn’t doubt the younger girl would be willing to step in front of her, to do her best to prevent Mira from coming to harm. The only question would be if Mira, with a renewed inner strength that stemmed from the point where their hands touched, might step forward first.

They were both about to act, to do something even if they didn’t know what, to maybe distract the monster so the other could get away, when they were reminded that a third person was out there with them tonight.

Without warning, a long glowing blue blade was carving through the air, held in a graceful fluid motion. The demon didn’t even have time to turn its head when the weapon connected with its throat. Where the blade met flesh, the skin immediately began to crack and shatter, an effect that spread across the rest of the body in the blink of an eye. Between one breath and the next, the demon had become little more than sparkling confetti before that too swiftly faded into the air.

It was all over in a moment.

As Celine, who had somehow maneuvered behind the demon, dismissed her weapon into the mystical energies of the Honmoon from which it had come, Mira noticed she was breathing heavily.

“One day, you’ll be cutting those things down like they’re nothing,” Celine was saying as she approached them. “But for now, tonight, you just needed to see what you were up against.”

“Why wasn’t Rumi with us?” Zoey asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Celine glanced around, making sure there was no further threat. “She’s already familiar with the nature of demons,” she told them. “You heard her earlier; she knows about all this.”

“I’d still rather she was with us,” Mira said quietly, before she’d even realised she had something she wanted to say. “We’re meant to all be in this together, right? So we should stay together for these things. Always.”

At the last word, Celine’s expression morphed into something unreadable. It was gone before Mira could determine what it was, but it was there. Mira suddenly felt very curious about what had really happened with the Sunlight Sisters. Why weren’t all three of them still here, teaching the new generation of Hunters? She knew Miyeong and Yeji were both dead but how exactly? Had something driven them all apart?

This new world was a dark enough place without worrying about the possibility of her new friends being torn from her side. Mira found herself dismissing the idea; whatever had happened with the Sunlight Sisters, nothing like it could possibly happen with Huntrix. Her heart had already set itself too firmly on connecting with Rumi and Zoey to consider even the concept of their trio falling apart.

It had been a little while now. Huntrix was massively popular almost immediately following their debut, they were growing ever closer to making the Golden Honmoon a reality and they were able to take on whole crowds of demons with relative ease. The three of them were closer than Zoey had ever known anyone to be.

But there was something that just wasn’t clicking. Rumi’s reticence, which was still a thing even now, was causing problems. Not that she’d ever tell Rumi this, as her reaction would likely be to blame herself and hide away even further.

Zoey had too much love and affection and energy for any one person to handle. Mira needed more than one person to ground her. Together, the two of them could just about compensate for each other, but it was a little rough. They needed a third person to complete the unit but Rumi just wasn’t being that as much as she needed to be. Bless her, she tried, but she still had walls up that Zoey couldn’t break down.

They’d all opened up so much to each other and couldn’t imagine their lives apart. Whether it was hunting demons or performing onstage, they needed each other by their sides. The relationship the three of them had was already something that some people would kill for (or make deals with Gwi-Ma for). But if anything, it seemed just how close they were to something perfect, something so tantalising Zoey could practically taste it, made the imperfections stand out all the more, like a few grains of rough sand on otherwise-smooth tiles.

Zoey knows it must be hard for Rumi. Daughter of a dead demon hunter and K-pop sensation, trained basically since she could walk to follow in her footsteps. But she really needed to be more open; she rarely voiced her own wants, she never let anyone into her room, she always threw herself into danger first, she refused to let anyone else treat her wounds, she was always wearing sleeves and she held herself back from all the casual touching and snuggling that Mira and Zoey enjoyed indulging in. And Zoey knew it wasn’t because she didn’t want to, she definitely did (she could see it in Rumi’s eyes), but she just didn’t let herself. Too afraid of pushing a boundary she didn’t understand, Zoey let it be.

Another thing Rumi did was bathe alone.

“Look, I get it,” Mira said quietly, letting the hot water soothe her skin. “I see it too. But what are we going to do about it? What can we do?”

Zoey didn’t know how to answer that one so just looked down into the waters of the bath. Without intending to, Zoey and Mira had taken up positions across from each other, but not as far apart as they could have. If asked, Zoey knew Mira would say it was just because they were close. That the fact they looked like two points on an unfinished triangle was mere coincidence.

“Besides,” Mira remarked, her lips dancing into a smirk as she saw a way to steer the conversation toward more comfortable ground. “Even if you asked her and she was in a mindset to agree. Maybe she’d be able to tell that you just badly want to see her muscles.”

Zoey’s cheeks flushed crimson. “Like you haven’t been thinking the same.”

Mira froze for a second, considering Zoey carefully before answering, evidently trying to stay stoic and cool but there was an unmistakable blush on her own cheeks that she couldn’t hide. “We know she works out just as hard as us,” she reasoned. “Harder, even. We’ve seen how strong she is. I’ll always appreciate a good set of abs.”

Zoey drew herself up, setting her elbows behind her on the edge of the bath and noting with some pride the way she immediately had Mira’s full attention. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Mira coughed, her blush deepening as Zoey grinned.

They thought she didn’t know, when one of them would get up in the middle of the night and slip into the other’s bed. They hoped she wouldn’t mind, one day they were huddling too close to be platonic and only then saw her sitting in a dark corner nearby. They were relieved when she gave them her blessing, all smiles and support.

They didn’t know the way Rumi’s heart, already under so much strain, cracked. Just a little bit, not enough that her discipline couldn’t handle it, really just a minor strain. She really did love and support her girls, and she was happy Zoey and Mira could make each other happy.

But the damage was there nonetheless, a feeling of… disappointment. She knew she was able to not let it show, and she hated herself that her reaction to her two best friends getting together was anything other than wholly positive.

It was one crack in a million in the wall of the prison Celine had helped her build around herself. And one day, that number would be one too many.

She had no way of knowing that they too weren’t totally happy about it. They mostly were; they fulfilled and loved each other in ways no-one else could and it genuinely improved their lives.

But there was something missing, an element they didn’t have that stopped the relationship from feeling totally complete. They both knew, but never said aloud, what it was, or rather who.

They both hoped one day they could bring down her walls, or at least be invited inside them.

Chapter Text

Celine had taught them never to let a demon speak as their voices could damage the Honmoon. Many would manage to get out an “Oh no!” or “Damn it” or a maniacal laugh before they were killed, and that was just about acceptable. The damage would come if they were able to really get talking, spreading shame and despair and widening the gap for Gwi-Ma’s corruption to spread. For the most part, they prevented this.

But every so often, there was a demon that begged. 

Mira knew the story; it was the same every time. Some poor soul in a desperate position had listened to the seductive voice in their head that promised them their wildest dreams. They’d soon found they’d gotten what they technically asked for, but at the expense of something that really mattered to them. Their shame drove them deep into pits of their own mental making, further under Gwi-Ma’s power. A tragic story, but one that could only end one way.

Occasionally, Mira let herself feel a little bad for it, in the privacy of her own head, but she could justify it to herself in the same way she knew Zoey did. If they had the patterns, they had to die. No matter how they’d started, they’d ended up a monster (or were on the way to becoming one) and it was for the good of all that they be put down. In this way, they were no different to Dokkaebi or faceless demons or any other kind.

She wondered if Rumi justified it to herself at all, or if she didn’t ever feel the need to. She always seemed to go a little extra hard on those ones, as if their insistence that they still deserved a chance even if they had the patterns flicked a switch inside her. Which it seemed was for the best, tonight.

The seemingly-normal man they’d followed into a construction site near a bridge, after the group of Dokkaebi that seemed to be after him, had turned out to have the patterns, flushed purple as they always were.

Zoey and Rumi were handling the blue and red demons around the entrance, while Mira followed the man further in, after he’d bolted at the sight of them and their Honmoon weapons. She saw the patterns, she knew what she had to do.

But then she froze. The man, no, the demon, looked like her brother. Not perfectly exactly, but enough that seeing his face pleading for life gave her pause.

Which allowed the demon to get a lucky lunge in, taking advantage of her momentary distraction to sink rapidly-lengthening claws into her dominant arm. She hissed in pain, dropping her gokdo, and backed up. He prepared to attack again when suddenly Rumi was there, an elbow jabbing into the demon’s chin, sending it scrambling.

“You okay?” Rumi asked quickly. Her girls were always her first priority.

Mira just nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zoey approaching. The Dokkaebi must all have been dealt with.

“You won’t get me,” the demon snarled, vanishing in a puff of coloured smoke. But he was far from his full potential still, so he didn’t go far. The site was littered with junk; ready supplies of rebar and lumber practically spilling out of a makeshift shed that sat next to an orange excavator. The demon had teleported only as far as the cockpit of the excavator. Despite the pain, Mira rolled her eyes. He probably thought he was doing something very cool.

“Zoey, stair,” Rumi commanded, pointing at the wall of the shed. Mira tensed. This was a maneuver that hadn’t always gone so well in practice.

Zoey obeyed without question, throwing a knife where Rumi had indicated, even as Rumi was running toward the spot. The shin-kal was faster than Rumi was, thudding into the wall before she arrived at it. Meanwhile, the demon had just figured out how to turn the excavator on. Either a careless worker had left the keys in or this was some kind of new demon trick, controlling vehicles.

Probably the former, Mira figured, as she watched him struggle with the controls.

Rumi jumped, saingeom flaring in her hand. Mira and Zoey both stared, their breath catching in their throats, as she managed to land just the front of her foot on the blade of the shin-kal, before using it to springboard herself into an even higher jump. Mira let out a sigh of relief, seeing Rumi’s arc through the air as she gained more elevation she’d be able to manage on her own. Normally, she’d get Mira to hold her gokdo upright and use that to gain the height she needed, but with her arm the way it was, that probably wasn’t the best idea.

Rumi sailed through the air and Mira could see the strategy so clearly. As the demon fumbled in the cockpit of the excavator, Rumi would smash clean through the glass and drive her blade into his chest. It’d all be over with in seconds, and they could go back home relatively unharmed. Mira’s Hunter-enhanced healing would take care of her arm within a day or two and all would be well.

Then the demon figured out how a lever worked and the excavator arm spun suddenly, swatting Rumi out of the air like a fly.

“Rumi!” Mira screamed, watching her leader shoot through the air like a bullet. She crashed hard, through a neatly-stacked pile of bricks, then a fence marking the border of the site, and landing halfway through a parked car. The door of it crumpled like paper under the impact of Rumi’s body, almost wrapping itself around her. Mira already knew she was going to be hearing that crunch every time she closed her eyes from now on.

“Get her,” Zoey told her, her lips a thin line as she readied three more blades in each hand. “I’ll handle him.”

And she was off, blurring toward the excavator as the demon laughed. He tried to send the machine lurching forward aggressively, but only succeeded in driving it into an uneven ditch. He swore.

Mira wasn’t watching it anymore. She was hurrying over to Rumi as quickly as she could, her heart beating so rapidly she was afraid it might burst right out of her chest.

She reached Rumi and, very carefully, trying her best to force her hands and her injured arm to stop shaking, she removed her leader from the damaged car. Mira swallowed, trying hard to not think about how much blood was dripping down Rumi’s face.

Zoey killed the demon as he tried removing himself from the excavator and hurried over. Wordlessly, she helped carry Rumi, knowing Mira couldn’t handle it herself with her arm the way it was.

It was a long and difficult journey back home, navigating darkened streets without being spotted. As they walked, all Mira could think about was Rumi’s smile, awkward but sincere. The way she cared about them, about her, about making their little unit into something Mira in her most hidden dreams dared to call a family. She thought about Rumi’s hand on her shoulder and the way she hugged Zoey. She thought about Rumi’s laugh.

She thought about the sickening crunch as Rumi hit the car with her spine. She thought about the way Rumi felt so fragile as they carried her, like she was a sack full of loose potatoes that would all spill out if they dropped her. She thought about the way Rumi’s blood was painting her face in uneven crimson tones, the way her beautiful eyes weren’t opening.

Mira’s heart steeled itself. One moment of stupid sentiment, of thinking about her old family when she should’ve been focused on her new one, and that demon had managed to live just a few more devastating minutes. If she’d just acted immediately, if she hadn’t frozen for a single lousy second, they’d all be laughing right now.

You couldn’t let demons have anything. No moment, no shred of mercy. They don't deserve to live.

Mira couldn’t bear to see Rumi hurt like this again.

Rumi was starting to stir as they neared the tower, making it a little harder to keep a hold on her, but Zoey refused to let go. Even if Rumi stood up right now, and could demonstrate that she was capable of walking perfectly fine on her own, Zoey wasn’t going to let her. It was a miracle she was even alive; there was no way she would be allowed to do anything for the foreseeable future without her girls clinging on to each arm.

Zoey could see the expressions dancing across Mira’s face, seeing the same sentiment there. Her shield of stoicism, the cool exterior that had enamoured so many fans, always broke the moment anything happened with Zoey or Rumi and tonight was no exception.

Among the emotions she could make out, Zoey saw guilt. Mira blamed herself for this, laying the fault at her own inability to be a perfect killing machine. As if no-one was allowed to make mistakes. As if Rumi wasn’t going to be going out of her way to tell her it wasn’t her fault the moment she was able.

Zoey normally had no end of things to say but right now, she had nothing. She was full of feelings, fears and stresses she knew wouldn’t help anybody-

you’re too much

-but she had nothing to ease the situation, or to make anyone feel better. Nothing the people she loved would want from her.

and not enough

As they walked in uncharacteristic silence, Zoey cried over what she couldn’t provide. She cried over how badly Rumi was hurt and the way Mira looked at her with an understanding pity, shedding a few tears of her own.

“Guys,” Rumi murmured. Her eyes still didn’t open and her speech was slurred, such as might be heard from someone who was drunk. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” Mira said firmly, not meeting her eyes. Zoey wasn’t sure she was able to.

“Rest, Rumi,” Zoey added. “We can take care of you.”

“Mira,” Rumi whispered, before coughing up blood. Zoey’s eyes widened unconsciously at the sight. “Your arm.”

“It’s not as bad as what you got,” Mira snapped, before wincing at herself and continuing in a softer tone. “Shit, I’m sorry, it’s just… I know I need help. But you need more right now.”

Rumi seemed to drift off again as they neared home, leaving the group silent again in the elevator. Except Zoey could tell she was faking it, her breathing just a little bit too perfect to be natural. Zoey recognised the pattern. She’d mastered it when she was young, and loud voices had carried through her home.

So she kept a close eye on Rumi as the elevator doors opened and Mira, who insisted she could do it, carried her over to the couch while Zoey turned on the lights and ran to grab the first aid kit. She was loath to let Rumi leave her sight but it seemed her leader hadn’t moved by the time she got back with the kit.

Mira and Zoey set up beside her and took deep breaths.

“At least let me wrap up your arm,” Zoey whispered.

“It’s done all the bleeding it’s gonna do already,” Mira said. She tried to sound strong but there was a tremble in her voice Zoey couldn’t miss as her gaze fixed on Rumi’s face. “I need to focus on Rumi right now, and I don’t need anything restricting my arm.”

Mira reached out for the hem of Rumi’s shirt, wanting to pull it up but she winced as she did so, jerking her arm back instinctively as an unprepared muscle was stretched.

“Let me,” Zoey instructed and Mira, her cheeks wet with tears, just looked at her and nodded. Zoey’s own tears had dried now, and a quick brush with the back of her hand wiped away the stragglers. She needed to focus now. She needed to keep it all down. She could let it all out later but for now, she had a job to do.

First, Zoey wrapped a bandage around the injury on Mira’s arm, a thin one that could be removed later when it was time to properly clean and treat the wound. The dancer scowled, but offered no real resistance.

“Just making sure it doesn’t get worse,” Zoey explained softly.

“What about her?” Mira asked, jerking her head in Rumi’s direction.

Zoey hesitated as she finished with the bandage, glancing at Rumi. There really was a lot of blood. “I’m not sure there’s that much worse she can get.”

Mira’s arm handled for the moment, Zoey turned to her other patient. Carefully, she took hold of Rumi’s shirt and that was when her leader decided it was time to make her move.

After only being able to lift up the shirt for a second, enough to catch just a tiny glimpse of purple (from what must have been a really nasty bruise, if Zoey had to guess), Rumi sprung from the couch, darting around the unprepared Mira. Zoey, who had been ready for something, reacted quickly, standing up and grabbing Rumi’s wrist before she could dash away to her room.

“Rumi, what are you doing?” Mira demanded, stunned.

Rumi, for her part, was clearly not ready to be behaving like this. There was a look in her eyes that implied she wasn’t all there, and her legs were at the point of buckling.

“I need to go,” she said weakly. “I can do it myself.”

“Why won’t you let us help you?” Zoey asked her. Rumi’s gaze drifted to her, trying to focus but failing. Zoey’s heart lurched at the sight, and the way Rumi slowly shook her head. “You’re always taking charge over it when one of us is injured. You don’t need to-”

“I need to,” Rumi argued, only stopping the shaking of her head when it seemed to make her dizzy. “I’m the leader, I’m supposed to look after you. But I have to handle it myself.”

“Like hell you do,” Mira snapped, standing up. “Is that the only reason you take care of us, then? Just because you’re supposed to?”

“Of course not, I care about you-”

“And you think we don’t fucking care about you?”

The raised voices were starting to sound a little too familiar to Zoey, who felt her heart shrink. Her grip dropped from Rumi’s wrist, which twitched reflexively as if it missed the loss. Another sign in Rumi’s body language that she wanted so desperately to allow herself to succumb to their ministrations, to let them care for her, but there was something stopping her and Zoey could think of nothing more frustrating than not knowing what it was.

“You don’t get it. You don’t understand!”

“Then explain it to us! Tell us what’s stopping you from letting us love you!”

Rumi froze, her eyes wide, before glancing at Zoey, noting the way she’d slumped. Her voice softening, she reached out for Zoey’s arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Don’t use her just to avoid the subject, Rumi,” Mira said quietly, lowering her own tone as she also noticed Zoey’s discomfort.

“I would never use her,” Rumi gasped and from anyone else, it would’ve sounded sarcastic. But it was Rumi. Rumi cared. “Or you. For anything.”

There was a pause, as Mira looked away. “I know,” she whispered. “You wouldn’t.”

“I’m fine, Rumi,” Zoey mumbled. “It’s just you two that need help.”

Rumi gave her arm a comforting squeeze and let go before clearing her throat, leading to a few more flecks of blood splattering onto her hand. Hastily stuffing that hand into a pocket, she continued. “Alright, so, Mira, I can take a look at that arm now if you want, I’ll just need to make a call first-”

“Rumi,” Zoey said, with an authoritativeness no-one expected from the Huntrix maknae. “If you stay out here, we’re going to help you. We… we won’t let you stop us from caring for you.”

Rumi’s shoulders slumped as she looked at Mira, who slowly nodded her assent. They were giving her a choice. They weren’t happy about it, but they respected Rumi enough to let her turn away if that was what she really wanted.

And she did.

The hurt on Mira’s face nearly made Zoey start crying again as, without a word, Rumi turned and shambled into her room. The click as she locked it may as well have been a gunshot.

Zoey treated Mira’s arm, trying to ignore the phone call Rumi was making, muffled by the walls but still audible. Neither of them made a noise, other than the occasional hiss of pain from Mira, feeling like they weren’t allowed to until Zoey was done.

“Are you really fine?” Mira asked gently.

Zoey shook her head immediately. “She still won’t let us in, Mira.”

Mira reached out, drawing Zoey in for an embrace, and kissed the top of her head. “I know,” she whispered.

Half an hour later, Mira was asleep, forced into bed by Zoey’s determination that she rest. Mira had given in quickly, knowing there was no changing the mind of her girlfriend when she really got going on something.

Zoey remained awake, her body too full of energy to relax. And she could tell from the sounds of shuffling around that Rumi was still awake too, likely waiting on the result of her call. Just after Mira had drifted off, Zoey had gone to Rumi’s door and, despite her reservations about invading her leader’s privacy, listened in. The way Rumi had been crying and repeatedly muttering to herself “my faults and fears must never be seen” stuck in Zoey’s mind uncomfortably. She’d knocked, but gotten no response.

It had been a little while since the fight now, a fight Zoey had walked away from unharmed. A fact she felt guilty about now. If it had saved the others their pain, she would’ve gladly taken the claws to the arm, would’ve gladly slammed her head and spine through bricks and metal.

Zoey frowned thoughtfully as she sat down on the couch. Honestly, it was incredible Rumi was still alive at all, let alone able to do as much as she could. She obviously still needed help, she was still badly hurt, but it was miraculous she walking around so relatively soon afterward, even taking Hunter healing into account. She’d been lucky, Zoey supposed.

She exhaled slowly and silently thanked the Honmoon or whatever else might be listening for Rumi’s survival. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she lost her.

The elevator pinged and Zoey looked up as Celine stepped into her line of sight, returning her curious look with a warm smile and a greeting nod. She was a positive presence in Zoey’s life and always happy to see her, but she was clearly in a hurry.

“This is your whole medical supply?” she asked, gesturing to the first aid kit Zoey had left out. She’d been hoping Rumi would change her mind.

“That we have here, yeah,” Zoey nodded. “There’s more stuff at your estate but this should cover all the basics. The trouble is she won’t let us-”

“She’ll let me,” Celine said softly, gathering up the kit. She was poised to move to Rumi’s room when-

“Celine?”

She turned, looking back at Zoey. It was the concerned look one might have for a scared child, something Zoey was sick of having to prove she wasn’t but in that moment she almost felt like one. There was just too much going on right now and she didn’t know what to do about any of it. She was desperate for someone to give her something she could hang onto.

“You want to know why Rumi won’t let you examine her,” Celine concluded, reading her mind. Not that it was difficult, with the contents written over her face.

“She always helps us when we’re hurt,” Zoey said with a sudden volume. “We know she loves us and we love her too. She knows we would never, like, hurt her or judge her or anything. And she’s clearly upset by even the idea of us looking under her shirt and now Mira’s upset because it’s like Rumi doesn’t trust her even though that’s obviously not it and I’m upset because I don’t know what’s going on!”

Celine sat on the couch beside Zoey gracefully. “You’ve already realised it’s linked to why she doesn’t like to bathe with you,” she said carefully. An observation, not a question. “And why she always changes alone.”

“I thought she was just being modest,” Zoey confirmed. “But there’s modesty and there’s, well, this. She could’ve died, Celine. Even if I hadn’t seen a glimpse, I’d know those injuries were bad. She couldn’t walk away from it without help and Rumi can always walk away.”

“You saw a glimpse?” Celine echoed, suddenly still. “Under her shirt?”

Zoey nodded. “Just a glimpse,” she repeated. “She moved too quickly but I could see a deep purple colour there. I’ve never seen bruising have quite that shade, so it has to be real nasty.”

The colour had drained from Celine’s face so Zoey found herself adding quietly: “I know how important she is to you. But there’s no sugarcoating it, it’s bad.”

Celine sighed, and if Zoey didn’t know better, she’d swear there was relief in that mix. “Rumi is… sensitive,” she said at last. “You cannot ever let her know I’m telling you this now. But it seems you won’t rest without an answer.”

“Sensitive? What about?”

“Swear to me, Zoey. It is a betrayal of Rumi’s trust for me to say even as little as I’m prepared to; you cannot tell her I told you.”

Zoey nodded quickly. “I swear.”

Celine looked out the window for a moment, the Honmoon sparkling under her gaze. “She gets it from Miyeong,” she said wistfully. “Always so shy about her body. Rumi does not like to be seen that way, or touched that closely. Even as a child, too young to be trusted to bathe by herself, it was a nightmare to get her in the water. I’m the only person she trusts about it to this day, and I suspect often it is only because she begrudgingly has to trust somebody and I happen to be the one she grew up knowing.”

“Do you know why she’s like that?” Zoey asked. Curious. Wide-eyed. Trusting.

“I can’t say what flaw she sees in her body,” Celine shrugged. “Only that it’s deep-seated. And I think it’s best it be respected, at least for now. Maybe you can get her to open up more later. After the Golden Honmoon perhaps, when the world will have no need for Hunters and you can simply be yourselves.”

“Surely we can before then,” Zoey protested. “I mean, if it’s this serious. We love her, and if she has a problem like this, we owe it to her to try and help.”

“No,” Celine said firmly. “Until the world is free of demons, you are Hunters. Your faults and fears-”

“-must never be seen, yeah, I know,” Zoey finished. “But only to the public, right? And to enemies. Not to each other; we can’t be a great team if we internalise so much-”

“A Hunter needs to be strong,” Celine interrupted. “She needs to focus on what needs doing. Slaying demons, spreading her song, strengthening the Honmoon. Anything not directly in aid of serving that mission is a distraction.”

Celine stood, looking back and down at Zoey as if expecting a reply. When she didn’t get one immediately, she turned toward Rumi’s room and got a few steps away when-

“If that’s the way Rumi’s been taught to think since forever,” Zoey said slowly, raising her head to meet Celine’s gaze. “I think that’s why this insecurity has developed so badly.”

Celine blinked, as if a thought had just occurred to her. Then her eyes narrowed. “You swore to me, Zoey.”

Zoey raised her hands as if in surrender. “And I’ll keep to it. I… I trust you. I just think it’s possible to make a mistake. You see it in her eyes, right? She absolutely wants to be touched. She wants to be seen wholly the way she sees others. But she’s holding herself back. She doesn’t believe she should. And I think now it won’t be even the slightest bit possible to change her mind on that until after the Golden Honmoon is achieved.”

“I’ve… considered this,” Celine admitted, in a voice so quiet Zoey had to strain to catch it. “A few times. When I dare to think I could be wrong. But we have our paths now, and we’re set on them until they’re complete.”

There was silence for a few moments before Celine continued. “Thank you, Zoey,” she said, looking at her with a new understanding. “For trusting me. And for understanding.”

“I’m sorry if I said something I shouldn’t have,” Zoey replied. “I know raising Rumi alone couldn’t have been easy.”

Celine gave her a nod and then was gone. A knock and a quiet word later, she was behind Rumi’s door and Zoey yawned, finally feeling exhausted enough to sleep and thankful that Celine had talked to her. That was something they could always count on their mentor for; a helpful, truthful reassurance.

Zoey didn’t change, instead just curling up on the couch and drifting off as she was, fully out like a light by the time Celine left.

She didn’t wake up when Rumi left her room ten minutes later, almost immediately disobeying Celine’s strict instructions to get as much rest as possible. She didn’t wake up when Rumi draped a blanket over her, or carefully lifted her head just enough to slip a comfortable pillow underneath it. She did react when Rumi brought her favourite turtle plush over from her room, immediately taking firm hold of it in her sleep as a familiar comfort, but didn’t actually wake up.

If she did, Zoey would’ve seen the fond smile on Rumi’s face as she looked at one of her two favourite people in the world. And she would’ve seen the despair in her eyes at the latest reminder she couldn’t have the connection with them she so badly wanted.

Chapter Text

Mira’s arm healed only a couple days after the construction site fight, but Rumi took a little longer to recover. She tried to insist she was fine when Mira was but the winces every few steps she took ensured that Zoey and Mira put their foot down.

Huntrix was meant to go on tour in a week, but Rumi’s recovery threw that timeline off. Of course, she blamed herself, apologising for letting their fans down. Mira blamed herself instead, never letting herself forget it had been her own moment of hesitation that had let this happen. Zoey kept trying to tell both of them it wasn’t their fault while Bobby, told it was an unfortunate accident practicing some new choreography, blamed no-one.

Mira didn’t ask what Celine thought, even after she’d been appraised of the night’s events in detail. As much as Mira was already considering it her fault, she didn’t want to see Celine look straight at her and tell her as such. The older woman’s gaze burning into her as she shamefully avoided meeting her eyes was hard enough.

A statement was released, apologising for having to push back the tour by a further few days, explaining that Rumi needed rest after an accident. Miraculously, venues were able to move things around enough to make it work and tickets pre-purchased for the previous dates would still be considered valid. It made Mira wonder how they’d handle this if they actually cared more about profits, if they weren’t already filthy rich and more concerned with simply spreading their music as much as possible. She hoped it would be the same.

Most fans were understanding, especially placated by how good a deal they would still be getting. But a few didn’t take it so well. Contrary to usual policy, Rumi had insisted on being named in the statement to avoid anyone trying to blame Zoey and Mira but the consequence of this was that the frustrated ire was simply levelled at her instead.

“Can you believe this?” Zoey asked angrily one afternoon, staring at her phone as Mira collapsed on the couch beside her with a sigh.

“What is it?”

Zoey glanced in the direction of Rumi’s bedroom door, closed as it ever was. “There are people saying she deliberately hurt herself just to put off performing,” Zoey muttered, brows furrowed. “Or that she’s lying ‘cos she just felt like a break.”

“Rumi felt like a break,” Mira echoed with a snort. “That’ll be the day.”

Zoey just shook her head, tapping away at her phone with a fervour. “These people don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Well, we can’t exactly tell them how she really got hurt.”

“Obviously not, but people should know how hard she works! She’s always pushing herself, further even than she pushes us, because she cares about the fans so much. Rumi would take a bullet for these jerks and they’d probably say she was doing it for attention.”

“Zoey,” Mira said in a low tone, raising an eyebrow at the way the maknae hadn’t stopped tapping at her phone even once in her ramble. “What are you doing?”

“Replying,” Zoey told her shortly. “Don’t worry, I’m using a burner account; no-one knows it’s me.”

“Zoey.”

“Mira.”

“You know replying just makes them worse,” Mira groaned, throwing her head back on the soft couch. “They love it when someone gives them the excuse to keep ranting.”

“But I can’t just let them talk like this,” Zoey whined. “They’re so mean.”

“Let them be mean,” Mira offered, staring up at the ceiling. “You can’t do anything about them. They’re too lost in their own entitled worlds to see sense. Let them hate themselves to death.”

Zoey sighed and let her phone slip from her fingers. A moment later and she was pressed against Mira’s side, an arm across the dancer’s chest. Mira, still looking straight up, returned the favour, her own arm curling protectively around Zoey.

“You’re probably right,” she mumbled, letting some of her frustration go.

“Of course I’m right,” Mira said confidently, with a faint half-nod. “I always am.”

Zoey smiled.

They lay like that for a while, wide awake and comfortable in each other’s space. Mira supposed she couldn’t really blame Zoey for letting those losers get under her skin. If someone was being so horrible to Rumi in a forum where Mira could reply, she’d likely do something worse.

It never occurred to either of them just how much Rumi was well aware of her haters.

They were a very small minority compared to the crowds that absolutely adored her and Huntrix, but any voice sounds loud when it’s magnified and Rumi occasionally would spend an afternoon just scrolling through what they had to say. She knew it was unhealthy, she knew she had fans that loved her and she was so proud of their support, but she still just felt the urge sometimes to sink into a pool of hate and let their foul words wash over her. It was almost like an addiction, one that she couldn’t even pretend had some kind of benefit.

It often happened every time she started to feel too loved, every time she started to consider the idea that maybe Celine was wrong, maybe she wouldn’t be hated if she revealed herself to her girls. Her whole life was one carefully-constructed mask after another and she’d come to believe that anyone who truly saw underneath each one would recoil at what they found. Zoey and Mira lately were starting to give the impression that they could see the mask, and were desperate to see what was beneath it. They acted like they’d still be by her side no matter what it was, but Rumi just couldn’t trust that.

Rumi badly wanted to feel loved. But she was also familiar with a particular status quo, and any change that threatened it, even if it seemed positive, was scary. So after Mira and Zoey had been so patient with the way she needed time to recover, so understanding even when it delayed the tour, that instinct to immerse herself in mindless hate aimed at herself had resurfaced.

She spent hours with her eyes glued to the screen this time. So she was truly feeling like a complete waste of space when she left her room and saw the way Mira and Zoey were sprawled on the couch, seeming so perfectly content without her.

Maybe this will be what I need, Rumi thought. Maybe this time, I can keep the full extent of my feelings buried, and I can do a better job of not wanting to reveal my true self to them.

She hated herself for even thinking such a thing, and for again making Mira and Zoey’s happiness together about how it made her feel, feeding the never-ending cycle in the process.

And underneath it all, she hoped. The Golden Honmoon was closer to becoming a reality every day and when it did, then maybe, maybe, she could talk to them. About everything.

Rumi hoped.

Their tour was taking them all across South Korea and despite how much they loved their fans, and how seriously they took their duties in fighting demons, all three of them (even Rumi) had to admit that the several back-to-back shows they’d had lately were a little tiring. So it was with some relief when, after a spectacular performance at the Ulsan Sports Complex stadium, they let themselves collapse on the couch of their suite at the Shilla Stay hotel in Ulsan. They didn’t have any more shows scheduled for the next few nights, and there was no indication of demons making an appearance. For tonight, Huntrix could relax.

They maintained separate bedrooms, even here. Zoey had told Mira what she’d learned from Celine about Rumi’s extreme modesty problem, but it still stung that their leader kept to herself while Zoey and Mira shared. It wasn’t like Rumi didn’t want to share a room with them, Mira could see it in her eyes, but Celine had been firm about the need for Rumi to have her own room from the very start of their living together and Rumi had never done anything other than agree.

“She must have no distractions,” Celine had said and Mira’s cheeks burned at the memory, wondering now if Celine knew just how elaborate Mira and Zoey’s… distractions for each other could get.

Bobby was elsewhere, but he’d arranged for the girls to receive a gift basket, rewarding them for their hard work and knowing tonight was the best night for it. It contained flowers, sweets, cards from the backstage crew and a few small bottles of soju, of various flavours. Neither Mira nor Zoey would rank the drink among their favourite things of all time, but they’d discovered before that on some nights, after putting in a lot of work and looking to celebrate something, it was exactly what they needed.

They also didn’t really have any idea what Rumi thought of it. Apart from a handful of polite sips on their most celebratory occasions, they’d never seen her drink alcohol.

“Rumiiiiiiiii,” Zoey whined from her place on the couch as their leader tried to bid them goodnight, apparently favouring turning in early over the idea of a morning spent exhausted. “Stay with us.”

Rumi hesitated, her hair down and dressed in an oversized hoodie and baggy trousers. “I don’t know… The tour isn’t over yet-”

“And even when it is, we’ll still be busy,” Mira said, rolling her eyes. “There’ll always be more performances, and there’ll always be more demons.”

“Not always,” Rumi corrected, folding her arms. “K-pop Idols don’t last forever, and when the Golden Honmoon-”

“We don’t know how long that’ll take,” Zoey pointed out. “There’s been centuries of Hunters so far.”

“And, what, you plan to never relax until you’ve aged out of being a star?” Mira asked, incredulous. “Come on, Rumi, live a little.”

“Please, Rumi,” Zoey whispered, looking down at the bottle in her hands. “We worry about you.”

Mira felt suddenly emotional at Zoey’s words, eyes suddenly on her own bottle as she found she couldn’t look at Rumi.

And she wasn’t the only one Zoey’s quiet admission had an effect on. The last grains of hesitation drained from Rumi’s body, her resolve always feeble around her girls. She sighed in defeat.

“Okay,” she said and Mira and Zoey immediately looked up, eyes shining and smiles forming. “I guess I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to.”

“Hell yeah,” Mira grinned.

“On one condition, though,” Rumi said quickly, raising an index finger to emphasise her point.

“Name it,” Zoey nodded excitedly.

“You can’t…” Rumi swallowed, having to restart her sentence. “If I get… drunk, you can’t let me do anything I wouldn’t normally. It doesn’t matter what I say, you can’t see my body. And I have to sleep alone.”

Silence followed her statement as Mira and Zoey shared a glance. “I’m sorry,” Rumi followed up quickly, beginning to turn around. “Sorry, that was stupid of me, I’ll just go to bed-”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mira said softly, swiftly at her side with a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright. We were just surprised, that’s all.”

“We just want you to be comfortable,” Zoey insisted. “If you’re only comfortable with that stipulation, then we promise we’ll keep to it.”

Mira nodded, supporting Zoey’s promise with an affirming mmm that rumbled from the back of her throat. She watched as Rumi’s shoulders dropped, disliking the reminder of how highly-strung Rumi normally kept herself but happy to see her let go of all the stress, at least for a while.

She knew Rumi wasn’t going to entirely drop her walls for them just off one evening. But it warmed Mira’s heart that she was willing to do this much with them, quite aware how big a leap it was. There was maybe no-one else Rumi would trust to keep to a promise like that.

“And besides,” Zoey continued as the three of them gently slipped onto the couch together with Rumi in the middle. “It’d take a lot more soju than this to mess you up like that. This’ll just take the edge off.”

She proffered a bottle and Rumi gingerly took it, removed the lid and raised it to her lips, immediately making a face.

“Don’t like it, huh?” Mira smirked. “You don’t have to drink if you don’t want to. We just want you to hang out with us.”

“No, I want to,” Rumi said firmly, drinking some more. “It’s not bad, it’s just… different.”

“Just let us know if it starts feeling like too much, okay?” Zoey told her. “If it’s your first time and all, it could affect you more than you think.”

Rumi smiled faintly, touched. “Thank you,” she said softly. “But I’ll be fine. I’m pretty tough.”

Mira and Zoey shared a glance. Zoey raised her eyebrows in a questioning expression. Mira just shrugged in response.

As it turned out, Rumi was not one to handle alcohol well.

Three quarters of a bottle in and she was curled up on Mira’s chest, practically purring like a kitten as the taller girl stroked her hair. She wasn’t totally asleep yet, but her eyes were closed more often than not.

“She’s adorable,” Zoey cooed, her eyes wide, shining like stars. "She's like a cat."

“Yeah,” Mira agreed, smiling warmly. “But she also wanted to sleep by herself so we should probably move her now.”

Zoey nodded and Mira shifted, preparing to straighten up so she could carry Rumi to her room. But-

“Don’t,” Rumi mumbled, the moment Mira moved. “Comfy.”

“We’re just taking you to your room, princess,” Mira whispered, amused but full of care.

“I should stay here,” Rumi announced, her words nearly unintelligible. “What if Mira and Zoey see me like this?”

Zoey stifled a giggle. “What would be the problem if they did?”

Rumi curled up further, burying her face in the folds of her clothes. “They’ll want to take care of me.”

As if a switch had been flipped, the mood changed in an instant. Zoey and Mira exchanged looks, amusement exchanged for concern.

“They’re… your friends, right?” Mira said carefully. Zoey’s face tightened, uncertain about committing to the deception now that things felt serious while Rumi simply nodded slightly. “So what’s the problem with that?”

The response was a low murmur, accompanied by what was almost a growl. “They can’t get too close,” Rumi said quietly. “It would break me.”

Zoey reached for her shoulder. “They would never break you, jagiya,” she whispered, her heart breaking that Rumi could possibly think otherwise. Mira looked up at her, curious about the use of the nickname, one that Zoey had never used before but had now slipped out instinctively. Zoey ignored the look, all her attention on Rumi.

Rumi shook her head. “They wouldn’t want to,” she informed them. “But I love them. If they see the real me, they’ll leave. And even if they don’t, they still can’t… they wouldn’t…”

“They love you too, Rumi,” Mira told her, bending forward to whisper the words directly into her ear. Rumi just scrunched up her face and shook her head again. “So so much. They’d never do anything to hurt you-”

“They don’t love me the way I wish they would,” Rumi insisted and Mira and Zoey froze. She was crying now. “I love them. More than anything in the world, I love them, both of them. I’m in love with two people. That’s how greedy I am.”

“Maybe they could be in love with two people too,” Mira said boldly and Zoey’s eyes snapped to her, an unsaid What the fuck are you doing? written clearly in them.

“They love each other,” Rumi sobbed. “And I’m happy for them, really, I am. But I want… It hurts me I can’t be part of that.”

Zoey took a deep breath. “Have you tried talking to them about it?”

“No…” Rumi whimpered. “I can’t. They don’t know. They can’t know. No, no, no, no, no…”

The nos repeated, gradually decreasing in volume until Rumi drifted off to soundless sleep. Zoey and Mira sat there, shaken, unsure what to do. For the first time, they’d had a glimpse behind Rumi’s walls, and the enormity of the pain she was keeping to herself scared them.

“We have to take her to her room,” Mira said, trying to sound firm.

“What do we do?” Zoey asked.

“We take her to her room,” Mira repeated.

“I mean, about-”

“What can we do, Zoey?” Mira snapped. “We weren’t meant to hear that. We’re not meant to know it. If we act on it, it’ll be a bigger betrayal of her trust and privacy than we’ve already done.”

Zoey fell silent, standing up as Mira did. “I can’t do nothing,” she whispered.

Mira held Rumi so gently, like porcelain that would shatter if dropped, and looked at Zoey, her eyes apologetic and understanding. “I know. But we have to.”

Zoey held open the door to Rumi’s room as Mira carried her in, carefully putting her on her bed. She couldn’t help but look around as Mira pulled a blanket over their leader. Then she spotted something.

Wordlessly, she tugged on Mira’s sleeve and pointed, directing her attention to the two small carefully-wrapped gifts sitting atop Rumi’s luggage. One of them had Mira’s name written clearly on it, and Zoey’s was on the other. Both names were surrounded by hearts. It was early November at this point, and Rumi had always been one to prepare gifts for her girls well in advance.

Zoey heard a sniffle and looked up, only to find Mira beginning to cry. Zoey couldn’t blame her; she also felt deeply affected by the sight, especially after what had been inadvertently revealed to them.

“Come on,” Mira told her, a little rougher than intended. “Let her have her secrets.”

They decided to get further drunk. As drunk as they could possibly get. Enough to try and forget what had happened, the only responsible thing they could think of that conveniently also allowed them to try and escape their own feelings.

It didn’t work. When they woke up the next morning, they could still remember Rumi crying because she loved them. They both claimed they couldn’t recall even that much, but regardless the two of them decided to stop hooking up. It didn’t feel right.

Rumi claimed brightly and almost too smoothly that she didn’t remember anything after the first drink. She said she could recall vaguely that some kind people, who must have been hotel staff, must have helped her get to bed.

“I think that wasn’t the first time I’ve been drunk, actually,” Rumi said thoughtfully, the following morning.

Mira looked up at her, nursing a mug of tea. “Oh?”

“Celine invited me to, when I came of age,” Rumi nodded. “I didn’t remember much that time either, but she said I rambled a lot.”

“About anything in particular?” Zoey asked.

“Just nonsense,” Rumi told her. “Anything I said was worth dismissing. My brain just likes to make up crazy things.”

“Worth dismissing,” Mira echoed, her tone flat.

“Yeah,” said Rumi quickly, laughing perhaps a little too hard. “Drunk-Rumi can’t be trusted one bit.”

None of the three could really look at each other for the rest of the morning, and no further words were said. By the afternoon, they’d resumed their usual levels of closeness. By the next day, and especially by the time their next performance was scheduled, they were an inseparable in-sync unit once again.

They never spoke again about that night in Ulsan. They never forgot it either.

Chapter Text

Zoey didn’t know what to do.

She knew she had an unspoken rule with Mira to never ever bring up what Rumi had unwittingly admitted to them. But keeping this to herself was killing her.

Zoey had practice at seeming alright when she really wasn’t, so it wasn’t hard to keep Mira thinking she’d forgotten it, or to get Rumi to believe her painfully transparent lie the morning after. But inside, she was struggling.

Just one time, the day after leaving Ulsan, Zoey had tried to suggest to Mira that maybe Celine could help them. She’d been part of her own group back in the day, after all, and even if they weren’t a romantic throuple (as some internet rumours liked to suggest), surely she must have an idea or two about handling this kind of close bond.

“Maybe not,” Mira had remarked, unwilling to meet her gaze.

“But the Sunlight Sisters were inseparable,” Zoey had reminded her.

“Yeah, they were,” Mira had snapped, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. “You’re the big fan of them; remind me how they’re doing nowadays?”

“That’s not fair,” Zoey had whispered. “Miyeong and Yeji are dead. That’s not Celine’s fault.”

“I’m not saying it is,” Mira had replied, softening her voice. “I just think that maybe the group’s lone survivor for the last twenty years won’t be the best person to give relationship advice.”

Mira had a point, Zoey supposed. But it still didn’t feel right, and the idea that Celine could maybe help wouldn’t leave her. She’d always looked up to Celine, and she’d always had all the answers whenever Zoey needed them.

So it was with no small amount of trepidation that Zoey, in the middle of December, took a car up to the house, the one Celine had trained them in and had told them the Sunlight Sisters had trained in too. At this time of year, it was more likely she’d be here than in the smaller house she’d bought for herself further away from Seoul.

She hadn’t told Mira and Rumi where she was going, only that she just had a small errand she wanted to run. Rumi had frowned, asking if it wasn’t something Bobby could handle instead, but Zoey had insisted.

And now here Zoey was, standing outside the front door she used to live behind, afraid to knock. After a few uncertain minutes, she drew in a deep breath, and took the plunge.

Celine didn’t answer immediately, but she did eventually open the door.

“Zoey?” she asked, glancing around. “What is it? Are the others here?”

Zoey shook her head. “Just me. I need to talk to you, one maknae to another.”

Celine’s eyes narrowed, a mix of concern and suspicion. “I haven’t been that in years.”

“And I was kinda hoping you could tell me how that happened.”

“...That’s not the main reason you’re here, is it?”

Zoey shook her head again, taking a moment to shiver in the cool night air. “It might be related,” she offered. “But probably not. I know you won’t tell us that, but I need to talk about Rumi. And me. And Mira. And us. And if that can work.”

“Come in,” Celine sighed, opening the door wider to let her inside.

As Zoey expected, Celine didn’t say a word about what happened to Ryu Miyeong and Kim Yeji. She’d asked for years and gotten no real answer; she didn’t expect one now.

She’d find out one day, though, she was sure. A car accident was the public story, and one that Celine supported. But she’d always been evasive about it, like she was leaving some important detail out. And it was her right, Zoey supposed, but she still couldn’t help wanting to know.

After learning about the Honmoon and demons, she thought it must have been that they’d been killed by demons. That would explain why the official story rang untrue, and why Celine couldn’t just reveal the truth. But when Zoey had asked if that was the case, Celine had simply said ‘no’ and Zoey was back to square one.

Like she’d said, that wasn’t the real reason she was here tonight. But there was a very good chance that Celine’s old friends were going to be brought up and if there was a chance of wringing a detail or two out of her words, Zoey wasn’t going to pass it up.

She sat comfortably in an armchair as Celine brought in drinks, offering her one before sitting in the chair opposite her. She regarded Zoey carefully before speaking.

“I know you were seeing Mira,” Celine announced, fingers steepling. Zoey opened her mouth, about to ask how she knew, when she rolled her eyes. “I’m not an idiot, Zoey. I know what I was looking at. But you’ve stopped. Why?”

“I…” Zoey trailed off, unsure what to say.

“Zoey,” Celine said gently. “You came to me with this. And I understand if you suddenly feel uncertain but you can’t let these things that bother you stay buried. You have to talk about them.”

“Like Rumi does?” Zoey asked suddenly, her hands flying to her mouth too slowly to stop the words spilling out.

“Rumi is a special case,” Celine said slowly. “I hope you’ll understand one day, after the Golden Honmoon, when she feels free to tell you about it. But we’ve already discussed her… extreme modesty and how it’s so important to her.”

“But it’s not just that,” Zoey told her, the words nearly exploding from her as she thought properly again about that night in Ulsan. “She doesn’t just hide her body, she hides herself!”

“What do you mean?”

“She loves us!”

Celine paused, her hands falling to the arms of the chair. “Of course she loves you,” she said very carefully, with the air of someone trying to defuse a bomb. “All three of you love each other, as best friends and teammates. It’s why you work together so well-”

“It’s more than that,” Zoey insisted. “She’s in love with us! Both of us. And…”

“And both of you share that,” Celine finished, her voice barely above a whisper.

Zoey nodded fiercely. “I’m in love with both her and Mira. Mira’s in love with both her and me. And we all know it but we’re not… we’re not saying anything! So we stopped hooking up ‘cos we felt bad. And it’s hurting us because me and Mira can talk about it but Rumi’s trapped behind whatever walls she’s put up and…”

Zoey squinted. “How did you know we all love each other like that?” she added.

Celine shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Because I see it in your eyes,” she admitted. “And because I know what it looks like.”

Zoey sat silent and still, not daring to interrupt as Celine took a deep breath, and let it out as an old, tired sigh.

“Me and Miyeong and Yeji…” Celine said quietly. “We loved each other. As you three do. But we… we let things get between us.”

“Rumi’s father,” Zoey whispered and Celine nodded.

“He… was not a kind man,” Celine explained. “Miyeong was convinced she saw the good in him, so we tried to be patient with him. But he wasn’t good to her, and he left when he learned she was pregnant.”

“So that’s why Rumi never talks about him,” Zoey breathed and Celine snorted.

“She knows as much about him as you do,” Celine spat, her eyes suddenly vicious and burning. “He doesn’t deserve anything more.”

“What happened after he left?” Zoey asked. “If he was gone, then you guys could-”

“Swoop in?” Celine suggested. “Like vultures? No, we helped her pick up the pieces, and we helped with Rumi, but we never talked. Miyeong was saddened; she pinned too many of her hopes on the idea that a man like him could be different. Yeji didn’t have the stomach for a real, hard conversation about our feelings and I was angry. At myself, for my jealousy, and, to my shame, at the both of them. We all had our weaknesses and I raged at the way they separated us.”

Celine stopped talking for a moment, her eyes clearly seeing a time long past, about two decades ago if Zoey had to guess. Her face grew softer, as if the years just faded away. A fond smile graced her lips.

“We were at our best with Rumi,” she continued gently. “We didn’t argue when she was around. And she always made all three of us smile. She was the one good thing to come out of that mess of a relationship.”

“Does Rumi know that?” Zoey asked, moved by Celine’s memories. “She carries herself like she’s a burden, like she always has to put in a hundred and ten percent just to prove she was worth it.”

Celine clasped her hands together in front of her, her eyes turning sad. “I may have pushed her too hard,” she admitted. “I wish now I hadn’t but… I can’t change the past. This is why I want the Golden Honmoon so badly, Zoey. Not just to save the world from demons, but I want Rumi to have peace. I want her to finally be happy, and feel like she can show herself.”

“Maybe you could have this talk with her,” Zoey suggested but Celine was already shaking her head. “She can be softer and still do her duty as a demon hunter. Me and Mira did.”

“We’ve discussed this,” Celine pointed out. “Nothing will change for her until this whole thing is over. We’re in too deep to stop now, or to try a different path.”

“That’s bullshit,” Zoey exclaimed, standing suddenly. Celine blinked at her. “That’s just some sunk cost fallacy. You can change things, any time you want.”

“Zoey,” said Celine, her voice hardening. “I have thought about this long and hard for twenty years. I know what I’m doing.”

And Zoey blinked, realising what she’d done. “I’m sorry,” she said, bowing her head apologetically. Because at the end of the day, she trusted Celine and her judgement, and always would.

“It’s okay,” Celine told her, waving a hand loosely. “I understand the frustration. I hope you three can turn the Honmoon gold soon, for your own sake. I want you to find happiness.”

“We’ll try,” Zoey promised. “As hard as we can.”

Celine nodded and in that moment, there was a knock at the door. Zoey frowned.

“Are you expecting anyone?” she asked.

“I texted Rumi where you were the moment you arrived,” Celine told her. “Before I sat down. I imagine you didn’t tell the others where you were going, did you?”

Zoey shook her head sheepishly.

Both Rumi and Mira had arrived to pick up their girl, as it turned out. They hadn’t exactly been worried, knowing Celine’s was a safe place, but they’d still sped as if they had. Zoey mumbled a very half-hearted excuse about why she’d come here, and why she’d lied about it, and Celine offered them all dinner to lift their spirits and distract from the whole incident.

They slept over that night, and Celine waved them goodbye in the morning. As grown up as they were, as much as they were adults with their own lives and responsibilities they had to maintain, it still hurt her heart to watch them go.

Zoey’s questions last night had moved her. She missed Miyeong and Yeji more than she liked to admit and on mornings like this one, the memories hurt more than usual. She wondered if they’d be proud of the way she’d handled Huntrix. Or if they’d be disappointed in the way she’d broken Rumi before the poor girl knew how to count to a hundred.

She had to do what she did. Rumi’s patterns were a reminder of him, the man who had proven beyond a doubt that all demons were evil, that they didn’t deserve to live. They had to stay hidden, she had to wait until they were gone before revealing herself to the girls Celine had instilled the same demon-hating instinct in. It all needed to be over.

Celine hoped, when she let herself, that she hadn’t done something irreversible. The girls deserved to be happy together. More than she ever did.

She stood in her doorway until long after the car was out of sight, her heart hanging heavy. One day, it would all have been worth it. It had to be.

Christmas in South Korea was absolutely a thing, though it didn’t have quite the same vibe as Zoey described it having in America, where apparently it was pretty much the event of the year. There was cheer and togetherness and tacky ornaments but it was also often a time for romance. “Valentine’s with Santa” was a phrase Mira had heard thrown around a few times. It was a popular time for a date.

It was a fact that liked to sit in Mira’s mind when she thought about the way she’d spent nearly every Christmas of her adult life so far with Rumi and Zoey. It was a tradition that she dearly hoped would continue until the day she died. Not that it was altogether unusual for Christmas to be spent with friends and/or family, but it was that popular romantic angle that gripped her mind in these moments.

Tonight, she sat wrapped in a blue fuzzy blanket Zoey had bought her, drawing the fabric around herself comfortably. She in turn had bought Zoey a green bucket hat that the maknae was already excitedly wearing. They weren’t particularly expensive gifts, or elaborate. But they came with heart, and that was why they mattered. Besides, they were rich; whatever luxury they desired was already at their fingertips and they showered each other with affection all year regardless.

Rumi was cuddling a big grey cat plushy from Zoey, and on her wrist sat a bracelet from Mira, made from a shiny purple metal that had made Mira think of Rumi’s hair. Her eyes had shone upon receiving both gifts, and she’d already made it clear a hundred times just how much she treasured them.

“Okay, wait here,” Rumi said excitedly, standing up and putting the tiger down ever so gently in her place. “My gifts for you guys are in my room.”

Mira and Zoey shared a warm glance, happy to sit and wait for the few minutes it would take her to get the gifts. The fire they had going wasn’t a real one, but it illuminated them as if it was. The light flickered on Zoey’s face in a way Mira couldn’t help but find beautiful.

The sound of Rumi’s footsteps on the penthouse floor drew their attention back to her, and then to the presents she held in her hands. Mira’s breath quickened slightly in recognition.

“I’ve actually had these for a little while,” Rumi admitted, blushing as she sat down. She babbled on, unable to meet the gaze of either of them. “Since Ulsan, back in November. I saw Zoey’s gift in a shop and just had to get it immediately, and there’s a guy there who makes what Mira’s gift is who is, like, an expert apparently so I ordered it weeks beforehand and picked it up while we were there. Zoey, you first.”

Zoey eagerly grabbed at her gift. Rumi winced and Mira smirked when she almost dropped it in her excitement, but she recovered well, holding onto it until it was ferociously unwrapped. Then suddenly, she was gasping at what she held in her hands and Mira understood why Rumi was so anxious about dropping it.

It was a turtle figurine, ornate and transparent yet with a faint ocean-green tinge, like the sea had been turned into glass and the turtle had been fashioned from it. Zoey brought it close to her face, enough to touch its nose to hers.

“He’s incredible,” she breathed, her eyes wide enough to drown in. “Thank you!”

Rumi smiled softly at her reaction, eyes on the flickering firelight filtering through the figurine and painting Zoey in patterns of light. If Mira had ever doubted that Rumi saw the same things in Zoey that she did, she certainly didn’t anymore.

“Here’s yours,” Rumi whispered, dragging herself away from Zoey’s joy to focus on Mira with an intensity that made the dancer’s throat feel dry.

“Thank you,” Mira said, coughing slightly but deepening her voice briefly to cover it up. Rumi’s knowing smile informed her she hadn’t been quite successful.

Mira’s eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully for a moment as she held the gift in her hand, still wrapped. It was small, some sort of capsule that could fit in the palm of her hand. Delicately, she peeled off the paper, smiling at the way Zoey groaned playfully at her method. Zoey liked to rip and tear at her presents, but Mira liked savouring the experience, especially if it was a gift from Rumi. Her leader always worked so carefully to wrap her presents, and Mira enjoyed showing just as much care in return. She didn’t save the paper afterward, she just liked to show her appreciation for a craft.

As Mira unwrapped, Rumi spoke, explaining her gift. “I might be overstepping,” she said quietly. “And I’m so sorry if I am. I just… I noticed the way your contacts irritate you sometimes. And I get you need them onstage and dancing and whatever, but you still wear them at home, too. In private.”

Mira soon found herself in possession of a pale rose-pink case. Wordlessly, she opened it, revealing a simple pair of circular gold-rimmed glasses as Rumi continued.

“I know it’s because you don’t like the glasses your parents got you,” she added, and she was right. The plain black glasses from Mira’s parents were fine enough, but they weren’t a gift of love. They were a bandage, her parents’ effort to compensate for what they saw as a weakness in their daughter and Mira hated them. They never left their case. “So I thought I’d get you new ones. Pink’s your favourite colour and gold goes with that well so… I hope you like it.”

Zoey and Rumi both watched her with no small amount of anticipation as Mira gently raised the glasses from the case and examined them.

“Excuse me,” Mira said hurriedly, before standing and rushing to the bathroom, taking the glasses with her.

Rumi watched her go anxiously and Zoey found herself automatically reaching out, placing a hand over her leg.

“She’ll love it,” Zoey assured her.

She wasn’t sure if Rumi heard.

Mira removed her contacts, putting them away, and carefully putting on the glasses.

She looked at herself in the mirror, enjoying the way they accentuated her face. Rumi was right; the gold worked well with her hair.

Mira began to cry, her arms shaking as they held the edges of the sink. Of course this was Rumi’s present. Of course she’d seen what was bothering her and gone out of her way to fix it.

She took a deep breath and wiped away the tears. How could she not love her? And Zoey too, whose gift to her was already looking forward to a future where it would be well-used. They both adored her, prioritising her comfort and wellbeing, and there was no way she could do anything less in return.

Leaving the bathroom, Mira found Rumi and Zoey waiting for her exactly where she’d left them.

“They look good on you,” Zoey said brightly. Rumi looked like she couldn’t breath, desperately awaiting her reaction.

Mira walked across the room without a word, before kneeling down and sweeping Rumi into a hug.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “I love them.”

Rumi sighed happily, returning the hug.

“And they’re perfect,” Mira added, leaning back so she could look at Rumi through the lenses properly. “Like, seriously, how-”

“I memorised your prescription,” Rumi shrugged. “After I ordered them, I got so worried I’d remembered it wrong.”

Mira blinked, thinking back to the small chart of numbers and random words she’d first been handed by an optometrist years ago. “You… memorised that?” she asked, stunned. “When-?”

“You left it out once,” Rumi told her. “I don’t remember when. And I have a good memory, so…”

“You’re always taking such good care of us,” Zoey said warmly. “Thank you.”

Rumi blushed.

Mira and Zoey had both gone to bed, eschewing the traditional movie-watching in favour of an early night. They had a scheduled appearance on live TV relatively early the next morning and they needed to be well-rested for it.

Rumi opted to stay up a little longer, gazing out at the Seoul skyline and the pale blue of the Honmoon that coated it all. She was glad her gifts had been well-received. She’d been unsure, as she was every year. But just like every year, it had gone well. Every year, Mira and Zoey proved how much they loved her. Every year, the walls Rumi surrounded herself by and tried so hard to maintain broke down a little further.

Unlike every year, Rumi’s phone rang in the middle of the night.

She was on it instantly, not wanting the sound to rouse Mira and Zoey, picking up before she’d even glanced at the caller ID.

“Hello?” Rumi whispered. “Um, it’s the middle of the night so… maybe call again in the morning?”

“Hello,” said Celine.

Rumi froze, her eyes staring straight forward, out at the glittering Honmoon. “Sorry,” she said hurriedly. “I didn’t see it was you and I-”

“It’s okay, Rumi,” Celine breathed, a soft tone she hadn’t taken with Rumi in years. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“Your family.”

“Uh,” Rumi paused awkwardly. She was pretty sure she heard the clink of a bottle in the background. “You mean… him? ‘Cos I thought, quite understandably, you’d never tell me anything about him ever and-”

“And that’s quite correct,” Celine said quietly. “No, I mean your real family. Do you know what you have from your mother, Ryu Rumi?”

“That name,” Rumi answered, settling onto the couch. “I have that from her. I have her hair, though I know it’s not the same colour. And I have her mission. Slaying demons, establishing the Golden Honmoon, all of it.”

“You have her heart, too,” Celine told her, her voice growing fond. “Your mother loved… so much. And you have something of Yeji’s spirit, too. Her playfulness. Oh, she loved to dote on you and you loved to let her. If she’d still been around as you grew up, she would’ve made maintaining your discipline very difficult.”

“You’ve never said that much about Yeji before,” Rumi observed, and Celine sighed on the other end of the line.

“It’s… painful,” she said, her voice heavy with emotions and memories. “But you should have known her. She was your family too. You also have my steel, but I had to install that in you. Miyeong gave you resolve but I… I fear I fashioned it into something worse.”

“Celine, no,” Rumi said quickly, leaning forward. “No, you helped me. You… you raised me and trained me where no-one else could. You did so much for me and I owe so much to you.”

There was silence for a moment, broken only by Rumi’s heavy breathing as she waited on the edge of her seat for a response.

“You’re a good girl, Rumi,” Celine said at last. “You’re the best daughter any of the three of us could have asked for. And when the Honmoon is golden, when the patterns are gone, you need to show Mira and Zoey your whole heart. Only then, but when it’s time… you can’t let these feelings waste, or they will rot you from the inside out. Be happy.”

Rumi sat stunned, unsure what to say as Celine cleared her throat.

“I’ll let you get to sleep now,” she said firmly, almost too much, as if she was trying too hard to separate Celine-the-caring-mother and Celine-the-authority. “I know Huntrix has a live appearance to make early tomorrow. You need to rest for it.”

And just like that, the call ended. Rumi still held the phone to her ear for nearly a full minute before putting it down gently.

Her head buzzed as she walked slowly to her room, mentally replaying the conversation. She slowed as she passed Mira and Zoey’s respective rooms, feeling the familiar longing to reach out.

In some ways, Celine had been growing increasingly confusing lately. And Rumi hoped she could help in any way she could, but it seemed Celine just wanted her to keep doing what she already did; try her best to be the perfect daughter, the perfect idol, the perfect demon hunter, the perfect follower of her mother’s legacy.

She looked forward to when she could do what Celine had said. When her patterns were no more and she could let Mira and Zoey in. A huge weight rested on her shoulders, ready to drop the moment that happened and Rumi could only imagine the relief. The Golden Honmoon was a dream that was growing closer to reality with each passing day.

Rumi yawned as she slipped into bed. There was the live performance tomorrow, but shortly after that would be an increased intensity to their schedule. In barely six weeks, they were flying by private plane to a concert headed by their newest single, How It’s Done. There was still work to do, and Rumi couldn’t afford to waste too much time looking forward to the aftermath. Still, as she resolved to throw herself into her work extra hard over the coming months, she couldn’t help but feel a little brighter.

Reflecting on the night, both the conversation with Celine and her various exchanges with Mira and Zoey, Rumi found she was a little more hopeful for the future than she had been before.

Chapter Text

They’d been so close. Zoey and Mira, near opposite ends of the stage, had nearly been consumed by Gwi-Ma’s flames and they would’ve walked right in with bliss on their faces because it would have been sweet relief to all that had gone wrong. But then Rumi…

Oh, Rumi.

They’d raised their weapons at her. And they could tell themselves, correctly, that it was because they were afraid. Because they didn’t understand. Because the instinct to distrust those patterns had become so deeply embedded that the sight of them on this woman they both loved sent their whole world reeling.

It had felt awful to do. Mira had suddenly found herself feeling weak, taking everything she had to even lift her gokdo in Rumi’s direction. And the sniffles from Zoey ensured she lowered it the moment it was too late to take the action back.

No wonder she’d reacted that way to Takedown. They had always had the mission to slay demons but that song had felt particularly extra, especially with the lines specifically describing those who were hiding. Rumi must have felt so targeted by that; of course she’d retreated into herself.

Of course she’d seek solace in the one person who had claimed to understand. And who maybe did in fact understand, but had still used the bond he’d made with Rumi to target her with such a personal attack, one Zoey and Mira would never dream of doing.

Mira hated Jinu. It didn’t matter to her that he’d sacrificed his life to save Rumi; if that was what he needed to do to atone for whatever events had driven him into Gwi-Ma’s clutches, then so be it. At least it helped Rumi in a critical moment. But it didn’t make up for everything else. Rumi could mourn him or praise him all she liked, but Mira was never forgiving him. He was lucky he was dead; Mira wished she could get her hands on him.

But he was gone now, and there was no point thinking about him. Rumi, on the other hand, was here and real and warm and alive, everything Mira had ever wanted out of her and more. And no, not just because Mira had literally never seen her shoulders before and now was going crazy over the sight.

Though she couldn’t deny that it was also a very important point. She’d been right when she’d surmised, so long ago now, that Rumi’s muscles must be amazing. The only time Mira could remember being even briefly attracted to a man was that one Saja Boy with the abs, and Rumi’s workout routine clearly put his to shame.

Zoey was grateful that the Honmoon helped smooth over confusion. The crowd that had gathered, during evening, for the Saja Boys to perform only to find it brightly lit through the magics of a new Honmoon, and Huntrix at the center of it all, singing and flying (a temporary thing, Zoey learned, to her disappointment; a brief boost from the surge of power the three had conjured with their song and Gwi-Ma’s defeat), must surely have had questions in the back of their minds. But instead, they’d simply cheered. Zoey admired how adaptable everyone not connected to the Honmoon must be.

On the long, quiet drive home, while all three felt too exhausted to talk, Zoey mused over the new Honmoon. It wasn’t the cold blue of the old one, and the warmth of it reflected that. She wondered if it had the same spirit, simply transformed into new shape. It wasn’t golden, but maybe it didn’t need to be. The demon realm may be ugly, but it was still part of the world and she wasn’t sure if the world would ever accept a total division of itself.

It had come from love, Zoey realised, as she lazily drifted her fingers in circles through the ripples in the air. The old Honmoon had been built over a hatred of demons. And hating your enemies was all very well but it shouldn’t be why you fight. You fight for those you love. You fight to protect what, or who, you care about. And love, in the end, proved stronger than hate every time.

Bobby, bless him, hadn’t understood in the slightest what was going on. But he’d been overjoyed to see the reconciliation of his girls, and ecstatic at the enthusiastic response to their impromptu performance. The moment he got backstage, he arranged a quiet way out for them, and a car that would take them home, his eyes shining.

Zoey faltered for a moment, remembering just a few hours prior. Bobby hadn’t known what had happened then, either. He’d seen what he thought was Mira and Zoey being cruel, attacking Rumi at her lowest. He’d yelled at them for that, the only time he’d ever raised his voice at them, and they’d just stood there and taken it. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t explain the truth to him, about demons pretending to be them. They both felt rotten in that moment, like they deserved his anger. Nothing he said could match up to what they’d already directed at themselves.

There was a hand on Zoey’s arm suddenly, and she blinked at a concerned Rumi. She’d leaned over, noticing her facial expression the moment her unpleasant flashback had started.

“Are you okay?” she whispered, eyes wide and sincere. On Rumi’s other side, Mira leaned forward, also anxious to hear her response.

Rumi had never looked more beautiful than she did now. So much skin bare, her patterns glimmering a faint silver. She’d undone her braid, too, the moment she got into the car, letting her purple hair fall loose around her shoulders. She’d never been so open.

“I’m fine,” Zoey told her. “Really. Are… are you?”

“I feel free,” Rumi sighed, leaning back in her seat, closing her eyes for a moment. She started to withdraw her hand from Zoey’s arm, but the maknae grabbed at it, taking a firm hold. Rumi’s eyes opened again in surprise.

Mira took Rumi’s other hand, raising it to her lips to give the knuckles a soft kiss. “It looks good on you,” she said softly, her first words since the final notes of What It Sounds Like. 

Rumi blushed, and pink clouded the patterns that now snaked across her whole body. Mira smirked at the response.

“It’s like your whole body’s blushing, not just your face,” Zoey remarked, already resolving to find out what each colour could mean with the same energy she devoted to learning facts about her favourite animals. “Definitely no way to keep secrets from us ever again.”

Faint traces of purple returned to Rumi’s skin as she looked down. Old habits and beliefs were hard to break. “I could cover them if you prefer,” she said slowly. “So I can look more… I don’t know, more normal.”

“Rumi,” said Mira, her voice low. She moved slowly as she spoke, her face inching toward Rumi’s. “For as long as I’ve known you, I haven’t wanted you to look normal. You’re incredible, and you’ve always looked amazing. We're not letting you hide yourself anymore.”

She kissed Rumi on the cheek and at once, pink and a kind of deep forest green banished the purple from Rumi’s body.

“We need to talk more,” Zoey said quietly. “And we will, when we’re home. But for now, let’s just rest. And no matter what happens, Rumi, I’m with Mira. No more hiding, okay?”

Wordlessly, Rumi nodded, and Zoey rewarded her with a kiss to her other cheek, leaving her leader blushing all over again.

The elevator ride up to the floor of the penthouse that contained their living space felt longer than it should’ve been. With each glance shared between the three of them, each second passed agonisingly slowly.

Eventually, the doors opened and they all spilled forth, collapsing on the couch or the floor.

“Do we have to talk immediately?” Rumi asked from the floor, eyes staring up at the ceiling. “Can we eat first?”

Mira nodded. “Of course,” she said, already standing up and heading for the kitchen. “I’ll make dinner. Something simple.”

Zoey, on her back on the couch, rolled off so she could be on the floor next to Rumi, landing on her front so she could prop herself up on her elbows, chin supported by her hands. Her eyes were bright and her smile was warm as she gazed at Rumi. She had questions, but they’d agreed to wait. Right now, she just wanted to show Rumi she was loved.

Rumi couldn’t meet her eyes, embarrassed by the depth of her own feelings. Pink, silver and a bright yellow swirled across her patterns.

She told herself she couldn’t let herself get excited. Mira and Zoey may see the real her now, but that didn’t mean all her wishes would come true. It didn’t mean-

She remembered Celine, from not long before this whole Saja Boys mess had started. Ringing her in the middle of the night, telling her to open her heart and be happy when she could. To not let her feelings make her rot.

Standing, Rumi started to go to her room, pausing when Zoey suddenly frowned. “Where are you going?”

Rumi swallowed nervously. “To call Celine. I need to let her know I’m okay, and that you’re okay.”

“She knew, didn’t she?”

Rumi whirled, finding Mira standing with her arms crossed, her face thoughtful, a mixing spoon clutched in her hand.

“That’s why only she could help you when you were badly hurt,” Mira continued. “Why she always insisted you have a separate room from us.”

Zoey gasped. “She told me you were extremely shy about your body,” she recalled, her eyes wide. “She said… she said she didn’t know why, but she did. She… she lied to us.”

“I lied to you,” Rumi pointed out, feeling a rush of defensiveness sweep over her, following old instincts and throwing herself under the bus to defend a woman who wasn’t here to do it herself. Her patterns flared red. “Every day. I went out of my way to make sure you couldn’t see me-”

“And who taught you to do that?” Mira asked quietly, knowing the answer. “Who drilled into us that ‘our faults and fears must never be seen’?”

“You don’t know the whole story,” Rumi argued.

“She feels bad about it,” Zoey whispered, drawing both their gazes to her. She looked almost lost, seeing into the past with new context. “She tries so hard not to show it, so she looks strong, but she… she regrets it.”

“For someone who regrets it, she sure kept on doing it,” Mira pointed out, anger darkening her face at the realisation that she’d learned to trust a parental figure again, only for it all to come crashing down. As it always had before.

“We should hear her side of it,” Rumi attempted. Mira was about to say something further, but she was cut off before she could.

“I agree,” Celine said quietly, immediately the center of attention. They’d all been so distracted they hadn’t noticed her arrival. “With all of you. Yes, you should hear my side of it. Yes, I regret what I taught Rumi to do. And… yes. I let her down. I let you all down.”

“When did you get here?” Rumi whispered.

“I came as soon as I could,” Celine told them. “The whole world has seen your patterns now, Rumi, even if only we know the significance of them. I wanted to be here, I wanted to talk-”

“Couldn’t talk any earlier?” Mira asked, her eyes narrowing. “It’s a bit late to come clean.”

“Mira…” Zoey warned quietly, though she wasn’t quite sure why. She looked hurt, unsure if she could trust the woman she’d spent most of her life looking up to.

Something in the kitchen beeped, distracting Mira for a second.

“Wait here,” she instructed them all, already turning. “We’ll eat. And we’ll talk.”

Rumi sat at one end, with Mira and Zoey flanking her. Celine sat at the other end, though the table was too small to be properly dramatic that way.

They all had a small bowl of bibimbap in front of them, though only Zoey was going at hers with any real ferocity, the rest seemingly content to touch it occasionally between stretches of awkward silence.

“You really like my cooking that much, huh?” Mira asked, unable to stop a fond tone entering her voice.

“Hungry,” Zoey grunted, her mouth full. Rumi couldn’t stop herself laughing and Mira turned to look at her.

“You should eat some too,” she said softly. Her eyes stayed on Rumi as, under Mira’s encouraging gaze, she took a big bite of her food. Her patterns flashed a mixture of yellow and silver.

“It tastes great, Mira,” Rumi told her and Mira’s face flushed under the praise.

“I prefer your cooking to anyone else’s I’ve had,” Celine offered. “And I’ve paid for those believed to be the best.”

Mira’s expression dried immediately as she turned to look at the older woman, Rumi’s hand suddenly on her arm with a grounding touch. Mira sighed, burying her face in her hands as she composed herself.

“Are you finishing that?” Zoey whispered to Celine, gesturing to her bowl. Celine smiled and gestured for her to take it, which she gladly did.

“Okay,” Mira began. “First things first. How long have you had the patterns?”

“And to be clear, I get it,” Zoey said seriously. “We’ve heard Gwi-Ma in our heads now, we know how he could sound.”

Mira nodded.

“Forever,” Rumi said simply. “Since I was a baby.”

“Gwi-Ma tempted babies?” Zoey blinked.

“What, did he offer you milk and cookies?” Mira asked, raising an eyebrow. Zoey and Rumi both chuckled, and she joined them a few seconds later, unable to keep her cool for long.

“No, I mean, I was born with them,” Rumi corrected. Her expression sombered and her patterns pulsed purple for a moment before shifting to a calm blue.

“They’re the curse of her father,” Celine told them, and Zoey gasped.

“You told me about him!” she exclaimed, recalling the memory as Rumi and Mira looked at her curiously.

“She… told you…” Rumi echoed slowly, cogs in her brain turning but Zoey shook her head.

“Not that much,” she said quickly. “But she said he wasn’t kind, and that Miyeong wanted to believe that someone like him could be good. ‘Someone like him’ meaning-”

“A demon, yes,” Celine nodded. “He was a Jeoseung Saja, meaning he was once a human who had made a deal with Gwi-Ma. Miyeong believed the human in him could still be recovered.”

“She was right,” Rumi whispered, her mind on recent events. Mira snorted.

“Perhaps,” Celine said carefully, sharing a glance with Mira. “I remain unconvinced. Regardless, she wasn’t right about him specifically. Me and Yeji were patient with him, we gave him more chances than he deserved because Miyeong wanted us to. But he left, Rumi. He feared fatherhood, and he fled.”

“He’s not the reason why you had to raise Rumi, is he?” Mira asked quietly. “I mean, did he…”

Celine shook her head. “He was gone long before Miyeong and Yeji… passed on. But my jealousy, my anger at him never left and Rumi… Rumi unfortunately bore its weight. It wasn’t just that I hated demons, it was that I hated him. And the patterns were a reminder.”

“So it was all your idea to hide them,” Mira clarified, eyes narrowing again.

“All me,” Celine confirmed, looking down at the table shamefully. “She begged me often to let her reveal them to you, saying you would understand. And sometimes, I wanted to let her. But I was too deeply committed to my choice to abandon it.”

“Hey,” Rumi protested. “It may have been your idea, but I went along with it. I-”

“You were a child, Rumi,” Celine reminded her, looking up and giving the girls a glimpse of just how exhausted she was, in both body and soul. “You couldn’t even count all your fingers before I taught you to cover your arms. It was a mistake, and it shaped you. Your understanding of your patterns was defined by my failure. And look at you now. I’ve never seen you happier than now, with your girls, with no secrets between you.”

Rumi felt a dilemma inside her. Part of her wanted to forgive Celine on the spot. It was comfortable, and familiar, and she didn’t want to lose the woman who had raised her.

But, by her own admission, she’d done something terrible. Rumi should want to hold back on that. Not to say forgiveness was impossible but it shouldn’t be so immediate, should it?

Except that Celine had admitted it. She was proud and could be stubborn so it had taken her a long time to do it, but that time seemed to have taken almost as great a toll on her as it had on Rumi. And it had been after losing the two most important people in her life. Rumi wondered how perfect her own judgement would be if she lost Mira and Zoey.

Was forgiveness so bad? She knew Mira and Zoey and even Celine would understand if she didn’t feel like it tonight, or even ever. She knew she’d need time to shake the effect of Celine’s treatment of her patterns. But that didn’t mean she needed to hate Celine for all that time, not when she couldn’t really find it in her heart to blame her.

Rumi stood slowly, circling the table and approaching Celine.

“You made me feel like I was a mistake,” she said quietly, because some things were still important to admit.

“I know,” whispered Celine, standing. “You didn’t deserve that. You needed better than me. You needed a mother, you needed Miyeong, or Yeji, or… or anyone else. You were the best daughter anyone could have wanted, Ryu Rumi. And I… I’m sorry I didn’t cherish you with all the love you deserved.”

She turned to leave. Zoey and even Mira’s eyes were wide. They didn’t know what to do.

Rumi did.

She reached out, taking Celine’s hand in hers and pulling her back. Straight into a hug.

“I had a mother,” Rumi told her, burying her face in the fabric of Celine’s clothes. “I had you.”

“I did you wrong,” Celine said uncertainly, and Rumi shook her head because her mind was filling up with better memories. Celine treating her when she was sick, soothing her when she scraped her knee, making sure she was eating when she was sad.

“You did,” Rumi acknowledged. “But you still raised me, in the most impossible circumstances. You loved me, you just didn’t love the part of me that reminded you of who you hated and who you lost.”

Rumi drew her head back, so she could look properly into the eyes of a shaken Celine. “If you still love me,” she continued, her voice trembling. “If you’re willing to love all of me… then I want to give you the chance to. I don’t want to lose you.”

Celine cried and Mira and Zoey, following her lead, silently walked up and joined the hug.

The embrace lasted a few comfortable minutes, after which they were all too emotional to say anything to stop Zoey making sure all of Mira's cooking was well-appreciated.

They didn’t need to go anywhere tomorrow, so the three of them stayed up well into the night. Celine went home, wanting to spend some time by herself, but promised to call soon. They talked and laughed and reminisced, all of them ready to continue spending their lives together.

But one thing they were all still uncertain about was just how closely together they were going to spend it. Mira and Zoey had spent years waiting to see inside Rumi’s walls, and now they had. Now they were unsure if they were allowed to stay there.

The way Rumi lay across them now, her patterns shining a particularly glittery silver with traces of forest green, really should’ve been a hint. But they’d all been close for years, begging to be allowed to be as touchy with her as they were with each other. This didn’t necessarily mean anything. Or so they nervously told themselves.

Mira and Zoey now were sitting on the couch, with Rumi spread out across their laps, facing up. After starving for anything even approaching an intimate sight of her for so long, the casual comfort Rumi was displaying with them now was almost a sensory overload. Zoey tried to ignore the way Rumi’s legs crossed over hers, while Mira tried very hard to avoid looking straight down into Rumi’s chest.

Rumi giggled at them.

“What’s up with you?” Mira asked, eyebrow raised and carefully meeting her eyes. They were all tired now, a comfortable warmth spreading over their bodies as they imagined sinking into the pillows and blankets of their beds.

“Just you two,” Rumi said simply, smirking confidently. “You wanted to see me all this time and now it’s like you can’t handle it.”

“Celine told me something once,” Zoey said suddenly, staring thoughtfully ahead as Mira and Rumi looked at her curiously. “She said that she and Miyeong and Yeji… they loved each other. The same way we do. She also said she wanted us to be happy.”

“Does she… know the way we love each other?” Mira asked quietly. Zoey just nodded.

“What way is that?” Rumi asked, starting to sound unsure of herself, the green of her patterns disappearing in favour of a faint yellow. “I mean… I know you two are like… in love, like… romantically-”

“Do you know why we broke up, Rumi?” Mira said softly. Rumi shook her head slowly. “It’s because we were both in love with you too. It’s why we had problems, as a couple. We didn’t quite work with just us. There was an ingredient missing and we both knew what it was.”

“That night in Ulsan, when you got drunk,” Zoey said gently, pausing for a moment as Rumi’s attention switched to her. “You told us you were in love with us too. But we never talked about it, because we were afraid to. We stopped seeing each other ‘cos we knew how we were making you feel, and then we were scared of opening up to you when you had walls around yourself that would hurt us. We knew you weren’t opening up to us about something, and we didn’t want to open our hearts to you if you couldn’t open yours back.”

“We let things get between us,” Mira said, putting it another way. “Like the Sunlight Sisters did.”

The yellow faded from Rumi’s patterns, this time replaced by a small trail of pink as she smiled faintly. “Kinda the story of our life so far,” she remarked. “Or of mine, at least.”

“It is,” Mira nodded. “How do you feel about changing that story?”

For the first time in a while, Rumi was speechless as Mira slipped a hand underneath her head and guided her upwards, raising Rumi’s face right up next to hers; Rumi sat up in the process, her legs slipping off Zoey’s, who whined a little at the loss. Mira paused then, their lips agonisingly close.

“Do you want this?” Mira asked.

Rumi, impatient, didn’t take the time to nod. She took the initiative, crashing her mouth against Mira’s with an enthusiasm that took her aback, pushing her back against the couch. She came up for air a moment later, panting, with Mira smiling softly beneath her.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said happily as Rumi, still breathless, reached out and pulled Zoey over for a kiss of her own.

Mira’s eyes were on Rumi’s patterns as she and Zoey kissed above her. The markings on Rumi’s body almost seemed confused, pink and silver and green all appearing for a second or two. They seemed to settle on a brilliant blazing royal gold for a few moments, before returning to that deep alluring green.

Rumi had never looked as joyful as she did in those moments, so sincerely happy and light-hearted. And it was the best sight Mira or Zoey had ever seen. Then after those moments, when the green returned, a kind of desperate hunger settled on Rumi’s face and Mira and Zoey both sort of forgot any moment in their lives that wasn’t right this second.

Zoey stood suddenly, a firm grip on Mira and Rumi’s respective wrists. With no resistance from either of them, she dragged the pair off in the direction of Mira’s bedroom; Mira’s specifically because, as she remembered with a blush, she had the biggest bed.

It was a good night, as Rumi finally let herself love and be loved. And with the strength of their love holding them together, they knew they could look forward to many more like it.