Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Beneath a sky of ashes and orange fury, Rumi sat. The rock beneath her was large, a single mark against the barren land stretching for miles around her. Even the dirt was coarse, coloured red by the flames licking the sky.

Heavy paws padded up behind her, fur brushing Rumi’s fingertips as a wave of striped blue entered her vision. Derpy rumbled in contentment as she gave in, scratching under his chin, behind his ears - anywhere he demanded.

“I still don’t think this is fair.” Another voice broke through the silence. Not hers. Another demon, male, annoying in a way Rumi recognised only too well.

Jinu stood behind her with his arms crossed, glaring at Derpy as though the tiger owed him money. “He’s my spiritual guide, why does he like you more?!”

“That’s because I’m the better parent,” Rumi scoffed, continuing to pat the top of Derpy’s head. “Sussie agrees, don’t you, Sussie?”

The magpie perching atop Jinu’s shoulder shrieked.

Jinu scowled, shooing Sussie off. “Traitor.”

He rounded the giant rock, seating himself next to Rumi.

“So,” he started. “Be honest, is Gwi-ma reaching his breaking point yet?”

Rumi frowned at the mention of the name. It wasn’t one she liked hearing often. She supposed she could put up with it when they were discussing the demon king’s recent failures.

“I wish,” Rumi muttered. “Twenty scouts gone just like that.”

The demon court cowered before Gwi-ma’s raging flames for two days after the news reached the king’s ears, reports of the new generation of hunters growing stronger.

Rumi couldn’t honestly say she cared. 

One thing she would always share with Gwi-ma, apart from the pink flames coursing through her veins, was the fear. Other demons shied from her presence if they so much as saw her, scattered like the non-existent wind if she so much as moved her lips.

All because of her voice.

Rumi’s voice was, well, a voice. It spoke for her and could sing for her. But it was also… a voice. 

No other demon had ever pushed the barrier between the human and demon realms with just their voice. It wasn’t possible, but it was for her. Rumi was fifteen when she first split the Honmoon and slipped through the gap to the human world. She was still fifteen when the other demons learnt to run from the notes announcing her presence. The tear was hers to use and hers alone. 

She screamed the first demon to wisps of pink smoke.

Rumi’s voice was something of a terror to the demon world, a howling screech capable of grinding any demon to dust.

She was a living demon, with blood in her veins and a voice gifted to her by a human mother, yet she never needed to eat, neither food nor human souls managed to rile her appetite.

Rumi hated Jinu when she first met him, kneeling before Gwi-ma with his head bowed low even as Gwi-ma mocked him. A coward just like the rest of them. Then she had seen the scowl souring his face as he turned around to storm down the steps and was instantly intrigued.

Jinu had frozen as he caught sight of her watching him, throat bobbing nervously as he recognised the demon who had caught his displeasure. But Rumi had said nothing, simply letting him leave.

The next time she saw Jinu, he sang a stupid song in front of the entire demon population about Gwi-ma’s flames dying out and Rumi had never been more glad to witness the demon king’s anger in person. She shot out a laugh that cut crisply through the masses like a knife, not caring that Gwi-ma was right there.

Jinu’s brows had lifted under his gat, clad in his tattered black hanbok and hye shoes, and the demons only feared her more for daring to joke at the king’s expense and getting away with it.

Rumi was a living demon, with patterns scrawled into her skin, yet the king of demons could not control her. 

She couldn’t give two hoots about what Gwi-ma was planning. It wasn’t any of her business, and she never wanted it to be her business. The less she had to do with him, the better.

“The realm is smoking today,” Jinu mused, observing the orange hues mixing with swirls of grey.

“I hope he burns his court down with him,” Rumi grumbled.

“I bet you hope he takes his crumbling crown with him too.”

“Better if he lets his own fire go out.”

Rumi’s lips were twitching when Jinu snorted.

That song Jinu wrote and his molten defiance were the reasons Rumi liked him. He was perhaps the only demon, high ranking or otherwise, who would look her in the eye and trample over her title. Publicly shaming Gwi-ma was just the icing on top.

Jinu did not escape unharmed for doing it, either.

“At least he didn't eat my soul like the glutton he is,” he said as he materialised in front of her a day later with a chunk of his hanbok still missing. Rumi had summoned him from the long line of demon souls waiting to be reconstructed. It had essentially been like cutting in line, except no one dared to say anything about it because she was the one who dragged him to the front.

That day, the demon realm decided that Jinu was not a demon to be trifled with. 

“You know, I heard a rumour,” Jinu leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, even with no one around for miles on end. “That the new generation of hunters has only two people.”

“Thank you for the insight that I already had and didn't need,” Rumi drawled, sarcastic. “I heard about it yesterday. The hunters can’t find their third.”

Jinu hummed. “He’ll take advantage of it.”

“Of course he will.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

“About what?”

“The hunters have never been missing a piece before, this is historical. You’re telling me you don’t want to see for yourself?”

“No,” Rumi said shortly. “You’re the one who wants to see and I’m just your ticket out of here.”

Jinu grinned sheepishly, arms raised. Caught.

“Come on,” he pleaded. “I’ll let you have Derpy and Sussie for a week!”

“As if they aren’t already glued to me.”

“Rumiiii…”

Rumi rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you’re the biggest man-child I’ve ever seen and I hope you know that. How are you four-hundred years old and still a baby?!”

“Preservation of the mind, Princess, I’m forever stuck at the age of twenty three!”

“Twenty-three is literally older than me,” Rumi blandly pointed out, lips twisting into a scowl. “And don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you anything you want or don’t want if we go now.”

“Suck-up.”

The notes were already making their way past Rumi’s throat, stirring in her chest. The music poked at the air in front of her, finding strands of the Honmoon and latching on, tugging.

A seamless gap appeared before them, the other side a picture of daylight and blue, cloudy skies.

They stepped through and Rumi promptly sealed the tear.

“It’s the same season as last year,” she noted as cool air hit her frame all at once. Chilly, not freezing. “We’ll have to dress for it.”

With a quick snap of her finger against thumb, a grey hoodie draped itself over her, the colour inconspicuous among the crowd, hiding her purple braid. She wasn't going to cover everything, as long as her long braid wasn't nearly dragging on the floor, it would be fine. She could keep maybe two or three of her decorative gold piercings, but the trim donning her ear would have to go, as would her patterns. All of it was just for keeping up appearances in the demon realm, anyway.

Jinu chose a similar hoodie, though his came with another black jacket over it. Like her, he whisked his patterns out of sight, the light purplish-blue of his skin giving way to a pale canvas. Unlike Jinu, Rumi's skin was only ever a pale white.

Now they looked as human as anyone else.

“Is that literally the same thing you wore last year?” Rumi eyed his clothes.

“It’s a good fit.” Jinu only shrugged.

Moving attention away from Jinu’s repeated clothing choice, Rumi could see that not much had really changed about the human world since they ventured up here a year ago. The roads still looked the same, the shops still colourful, streets still bustling.

“How are there even more cat cafes now?” Jinu was saying.

He wasn’t wrong, there were two right across from one another. Blatant competition. And they were both light pink or white in some way with cat pictures on the respective signboards.

“Dog cafes, too,” Rumi said as she caught onto a doodle of a dog. 

“All that plus cafes for humans? This might as well just be one big, live-in cafe already.”

Rumi couldn’t help but agree.

“At least the billboards are different,” she offered.

This year, there was a picture of two girls on it - models, maybe? She didn’t pay them much attention. Edited to perfection, most likely.

There was no sign of the hunters as they walked the streets of Seoul. To be fair, that was to be expected when they chose broad daylight to cross the border. Plus, neither of them actually knew what the new hunters looked like, so they were running on basically nothing. They could be anyone, even that short person with the yellow bucket hat across the street. It still managed to get Jinu sulking like the toddler he was.

“And somehow, you’re going to turn around and make another song about Gwi-ma.” Rumi sighed.

"And you are going to love it."

"I'm going to love watching Gwi-ma destroy half his court after he burns you to ash. Loving the song though? Debatable."

The sun had slipped over the horizon, leaving only darkness and faint moonlight in its wake. The streets were filled with glowing neon lights, be it from shops or signboards. 

The longer they walked, the narrower the streets became, cutting down from two car lanes to just one. Eventually, they reached a quieter part of the city, where human traffic was a thing of the past.

“I give up,” Jinu admitted at last. “We can go back now.”

Rumi turned off the main street into a small alley, one where they could open a hole in the Honmoon without anyone seeing.

The back of her neck prickled not even nine steps in.

Jinu felt it too, leaping at the presence whittling down from above. He plucked the demon right out of the air, wrapping his claws around its neck.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jinu growled, slamming the demon into the brick wall beside him.

It was a dokkaebi, a small one with only one eye and a single horn at the top of its head. Larger than a faceless, but small nonetheless.

Rumi refrained from rolling her eyes at the sudden change in Jinu's demeanour. 

Ugh, now she would have to play it up just to match him. Dummy. Why couldn't he just have gone for the quietly intimidating route?

“Show yourselves,” she commanded, voice reverberating in the darkness. “Or I will drag you out by your teeth.”

As irritating as it was to have to act like this, it kept the higher demons off her back and the lesser demons completely away. Most times. Apart from right now, obviously.

The threat did its trick, six more dokkaebi slunk out from the shadows, all in various shades of red or green, looking anywhere but at her. Clearly, it had been an honest mistake, these demons couldn't possibly have known who they were until seconds ago. That still didn't mean she was going to excuse them, which was essentially what Jinu was here for.

His snarl had them cowering on the spot.

“How dare you attack Her Highness,” he was nearly roaring now. “Do you all wish to die tonight?”

The demons flinched as one.

Personally, Rumi thought it a little bit exaggerated, but that was the price that came with being left alone by the entire demon population. Demons either feared you, or preyed on your weakness.

Good thing Rumi had spent the last eighteen years of her demon life perfecting the very image the realm shook before.

She knew her eyes would be a brilliant gold when she bore down upon the lesser demons with a rumble, shaking the alley with its echo.

“You would interrupt our journey,” she spoke in such a way that ensured her canines glinted under what little moonlight managed to hit them. “And insult us like this?”

Her own voice was vicious in her ears and she wanted to stick her tongue out in exasperation. Best to get this over and done with, the easiest option was to simply shove these demons back through the Honmoon once she was done shaking them up a bit.

“You will keep your souls, and you will get out of my sight.” Rumi hummed and the Honmoon trembled.

Slowly, much slower than she would’ve liked but slow all the same for dramatic effect, Rumi cut a rip in the starlight. The demon world rushed beyond the gaping hole.

She was halfway to pointing at it when a figure clad in black dropped down into their midst and struck out in a spinning blow.

Chapter Text

The penthouse was quiet. Outside, clouds dotted the sky in white puffs, blocking out the sun. Inside Zoey’s room, the carpet was soft, cushioning her feet as she paced.

It was done. It was finally done. After ten months of flying around the world in a private jet that may or may not now be in pieces, they were done.

No appearing on variety shows, no impromptu signing events, no brand photoshoots - nothing. Huntrix was officially on hiatus for the next three months and Bobby had assured them that there would be absolutely, one-hundred percent, no interruptions.

In Zoey’s hands, a sleek phone pressed warmly against her palms, screen lit in an array of colours that kept switching every few seconds.

Life as an idol was nice, but life as an idol with loads of free time was infinitely better. Now she’d get to explore all the crazy places popping up on her instagram feed, even if they were on the other side of Seoul. Wait, no, especially if they were on the other side of Seoul!

And she absolutely had to show Mira this new gelato shop that had only just opened a week back. She was positive Mira would be down to go as long as she could convince her to get off the couch.

Zoey found her leaning into the plush cushions of their white couch, stretched out in a lazy sprawl.

Before she could take two steps, Mira stirred. “I can feel you vibrating over there, Zo, what is it?”

Zoey squeaked.

Not that she hadn’t expected this, but it was still so weird and cool at the same time how Mira always managed to know.

It had always been this way, ever since the first meeting almost eight years ago. 

Mira had been this strange, impenetrable fortress glaring at her to stay away. 

Zoey had been a jar with its lid on too tight, fresh out of a divorce that had left her tearing down the middle, constantly biting down the words threatening to spill over her tongue and out of her mouth in a never-ending stream.

For the first few months - yes, months, because it turned out Mira had been avoiding her too - Zoey made it a point not to do or say anything that could get her wrapped up in… situations. Swaddled in bubble wrap already shredded to pieces, not a single bubble left untouched by the time she was forced to transfer schools from Burbank to South Korea.

Fragile goods could only be protected so much before the next insult, the next jab, started to leave ugly, staining bruises.

They spent a good amount of time skirting around one another, chipping away at walls and glass until concrete tumbled and the jar broke.

Zoey hadn’t yet gotten completely used to it.

Well, if the opportunity was presenting itself, she might as well take full advantage.

“So um,” she started. “I get that we kinda just started our hiatus, but like, I just found this-”

“Gelato?” Mira cut her off, smirking.

Zoey spluttered. “Wha- How did you-?”

She used to pause halfway, just in case Mira wanted to say something, a habit drilled into her very bones by experience, but Mira never did. The constant worry of rambling too much swiftly became a thing of the past.

“You’ve been drooling over your phone all day. It would be weirder if I didn’t know,” Mira dryly pointed out.

With Mira, Zoey learnt to be blunt. That it was okay to be blunt at times. Never as blunt as Mira, but now she didn’t always have to speak in circles for fear of messing up whatever relationship had begun to bud between them.

“Be rude if you have to,” she remembered Mira insisting. “And if you do have to, it’s probably everyone else’s fault for not listening.”

It had struck Zoey hard, how easy it could be to speak entire, messy loads of a brainwave. All while Mira took it all in without interrupting once. 

And Mira used to be a prickly pear. A spiky thing adorned with sharp needles that would poke you if you got too close. That didn’t stop Zoey from trying, anyway. She tried, got thousands of spines stuck in her skin, then came back to try again.

She was nothing if not incredibly determined.

Zoey huffed, arms crossing over her chest. “I can’t believe you made me work up all that courage just to tell me you already knew! And I don’t drool, I tastefully observe.”

“Sure, whatever you say. As if you weren’t planning on seducing me with that look of yours.” Mira shot back.

“What look?”

“The one where you look like a kicked puppy so you can guilt-trip me into doing stuff.”

“Because I know it’ll work?” The because was stretched out like a piece of dough. “Is it working?”

Mira was still a prickly pear. Except now Zoey had already absorbed so many spines that they were no longer enough to make her blink. She was on the other side of the barbed wire. The soft, underlying side shielded carefully from the rest of the world.

Zoey had spent so long desperately trying to bury herself that she hadn’t even considered the possibility that the sharp looks could’ve been their own shield, too.

Mira’s only answer was a long, indulgent sigh before she was up and off the couch, an indent in the cushions where her back had been. Zoey’s fists met the air above her head.

Victory.

The streets of Seoul were packed at this time of day, somewhen between the bustle of late afternoon and dusk. Mira briefly complained of the bucket hat atop Zoey’s head. A bright yellow so naturally eye-catching, it was a wonder how no one had yet noticed them.

“You don’t get to say anything,” Zoey told Mira. “If they don’t see the pink hair, they won’t see the yellow hat!”

“I should just let you walk into a lamppost,” Mira said. "I'm pretty sure no one would notice that either."

Because Zoey had been glaring at her GPS for the last fifteen minutes, with her head so far down she wouldn’t have been able to stop in time if she tried.

“Uh-huh, but then you won’t have anyone left to drag you out, so.”

Zoey led them further down the street, squinting closely at her phone the entire way. According to the map, there was only one more turn to make, then they just had to go straight from there.

“I think it’s right around this corner,” Zoey mumbled, watching the blue dot slowly inching forward as they walked. “Okay! Now we just have to go straight down this street and we’ll be right there!”

The gelato shop they were looking for was having a promotion at the moment, a one-for-one if Zoey remembered correctly. Sure, she and Mira were basically filthy stinking rich and decidedly did not need free food, but hey. The gelato came with little chocolate ears and little chocolate whiskers and was basically too cute not to get.

Zoey would have to lock herself up in solitary confinement if she ever passed up a cat shaped gelato cone. Not in a million years.

She saw the signboard first, a large cutout with two huge, floating cones printed on it. The thing was almost taller than her.

“Mira,” Zoey made up her mind on the spot. “You have to get me a giant ice cream cone some day.”

“And let you get sent to the hospital for a self-inflicted brain freeze? No thanks.”

Yet, Zoey knew that Mira had already filed that information away for future reference.

The shop was moderately sized, with a pair of double doors and a little bell above it that announced their entrance. The interior was a splash of baby blue and white, swirling together to resemble a half-filled cup of milk if it were to be swirled around.

“Not bad,” Mira commented, eyes darting to get a full look. “Are you ready or do you need a minute?”

Zoey did not, in fact, need a minute. She fired off both her and Mira’s orders in a string so long and fast that it took the masked man behind the counter two tries to get it right. Mira translated half of it.

They paid and left shortly afterwards, just in case standing around for too long got them recognised.

The gelato didn’t last long, Zoey took one singular picture, declared it good enough, and then bit right down on the top half.

“Cold!” She flailed her arms, refusing to regret the move.

So what if she was an international superstar? She would eat like a little gremlin and be proud of it.

“Slow down,” Mira attacked her cone much more gracefully. “You’ll choke.”

Mira saying it must have made the situation manifest somehow because in the next second, Zoey felt the gelato going down the wrong pipe. She hacked until Mira landed a solid smack on her back.

“What kind of… demon sorcery-” Zoey struggled to pull oxygen into her constricted lungs. “Was that?!”

Mira chuckled. “Hush, you’ll jinx us.”

“Wait, no, I take it back! Touchwood or whatever - Uh, where’s the wood?”

There was no wood. Just a wide, crowded street and people watching her because of the choking-on-gelato point. Like that guy on the opposite sidewalk lifting his brow and the girl beside him who was probably his girlfriend.

Wait.

Zoey did a double take, neck snapping forward with so much force and speed she suspected she’d given herself whiplash.

Okay. First of all, the dude was really tall, and he was the textbook image of perfection with that jet black hair and high cheekbones. But the girl standing next to him...

Zoey was fairly sure her voice was trembling when she reached blindly out to grab at Mira’s arm.

“Mira,” her eyes remained dutifully locked. “Mira shut up and look over there.”

Mira hadn't actually been saying anything, but that was beside the point.

“What? I’m gonna drop my cone if you keep shaking my arm like-”

The rest of Mira’s sentence died off, lost to passing traffic.

The girl across the street had her back to them right now, but if she just turned her head the slightest bit… There! Exactly like that!

Mira’s throat visibly bobbed.

“Holy shit.”

Zoey seconded the sentiment wholeheartedly.

That girl had to be some sort of ethereal being because she was the most stunning person Zoey had ever laid eyes on. She had large eyes that rolled as the guy next to her said something, and full lips that pursed as she smacked him on the shoulder.

“What are the odds she’s in our industry, or something similar? Because I’m pretty sure that braid was like, professionally done.” 

Mira’s eyes were wide. Really wide. The only time Zoey could remember seeing Mira gawk was the one time she broke her arm skateboarding.

To be fair, the snot mixing with the tears running down both sides of Zoey's cheeks as she blubbered unconvincingly about being fine probably hadn't helped. Still, something to think about.

Except Zoey knew without a doubt that she looked like an exact copy with the way her jaw hung loose.

“We’re going to look like creeps if she catches us,” she joked, eyes still glued to that purple braid hidden down the back of the grey hoodie the girl was wearing.

Mira cleared her throat, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Let’s get going before you jinx us again.”

Neither moved until the purple-haired girl very abruptly turned, gaze sweeping in their direction. Passing, landing on nothing. Zoey was already craning her neck awkwardly in some random direction and Mira was doing the same.

Luckily, the girl didn’t seem to notice, moving away after another moment, the tall guy following.

“...So.” Zoey coughed, voice slightly strained, not daring to turn back to look just yet.

“So.” Mira parroted, cheeks tinted ever so slightly.

“Leaving.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

They made their way back to the penthouse after that, weaving through the evening rush of home-goers. By the time they stepped out of the elevator, the sky was almost dark.

Still, the lump in Zoey’s throat hadn’t completely vanished. It remained stubbornly lodged no matter how many times she tried to stuff it down.

That… that was… she-

“We were basically thirsting over someone’s possibly-girlfriend,” Mira deadpanned, a croak squeezing past.

For the second time that day, Zoey choked, this time on a lungfull of air.

“Mira! Oh my god.”

A hundred different excuses flocked to the forefront of her mind, ready to be spat out at a moment’s notice. A thousand overlaying voices shouting over each other at the same time. Zoey opened her mouth, tongue already curling.

A wave of solid pink bloomed over the city below.

“Seriously? Now?” Mira was the first to dart over to the glass panel overlooking neon lights, muttering under her breath about karma, or something along that line.

The glass walls of their penthouse were large and wide, ideal for keeping an eye on the Honmoon and the city. Not to mention incredibly aesthetic. 

“I actually jinxed us.” Zoey groaned, long and loud.

Right when she’d been looking forward to another night of invading Mira’s room, too. She had a plan to steal all the blankets and everything. 

Far down in the streets below, the Honmoon’s net sported a pink, glowing patch. It had only ever meant one thing - a tear. 

They’d been seeing lesser tears ever since they debuted a couple of years ago, the Honmoon strengthening with every song they released, every concert date they revealed to the public.

Recently though, the tears had been coming every few days or so. 

If Zoey had to guess, she would say the demons were getting antsy with how fantastic of a job she and Mira were doing as hunters. For a group missing an essential third piece, they were doing surprisingly well.

Oops, she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about that.

“Meet you on the roof?” Zoey shot the words out quickly.

Mira slipped away with a thumbs up.

They would be just fine.

They both knew that hunters worked in threes, had known it from day one and let the knowledge sit in their bones, untouched. Threes. 

Except Celine had long impressed upon them the hard fact that the Honmoon hadn’t chosen anyone else, and would likely never.

So much for three-part harmonies. No one even knew if the third and final hunter had ever existed in the first place. According to Celine, something like this had never happened before in the history of hunter trios. Never.

But they were still doing fine.

A semi-loud bang rang through Zoey’s room as she flung her cupboard doors wide open, exposing the lineup of outfits inside. She scanned the row, snatching one in particular.

Zoey’s hunting suit was a gorgeous suit of black leather, fit for the stage. That was the whole point, anyway, in case of the unlikely event that they slipped up and got spotted in public while wearing the costumes. Hers came with an extra hood that she may or may not have goaded Mira into sewing on.

“Why do you need a hood?” Mira had pursed her lips at the time, sceptical.

“I don’t, but it’ll look so cool - Pleaseee?”

The way Mira had grumped while taking the costume into her hands would forever live in Zoey’s head rent free. And the hood did look cool, Mira's work had been very precise.

They arrived on the roof at roughly the same time. Mira had already calculated an entire route by the time Zoey approached.

“Good to go?”

“Yep.”

So they went, keeping to the shadows, darting quickly when there were none. Anyone else would have mistaken them for figments of the dark. The further they got from the penthouse, the quieter it became, from jam-packet roads to single lanes with only the occasional cyclist or two.

Once they were close enough, they found a small, square shaped rooftop to take stock of their surroundings. The Honmoon could guide them towards a tear, but it wouldn’t pinpoint it for them. It was a bit strange, in Zoey’s humble opinion, but then she supposed this was their job, after all.

“I don’t think the tear was huge,” Mira poked her head over the ledge, peering down. “There’s nothing down there.”

The same was true on Zoey’s end, leaning down to check her side of the roof. “Nothing. I’ll try over there.”

She made her way over to the other side of the roof, fully expecting emptiness. It was alleys all around, and Zoey highly doubted anyone would want to be in one at this time of night. No humans usually meant no demons, either. They might have to go a bit further than this.

A scrape of something hard on bricks had her ears pricking in rapt attention.

“I think there’s something there,” she mumbled loud enough for Mira to hear. She would really appreciate an extra set of eyes right now.

“Demons?” Mira came over.

A small shape flashed by at the end of the alley, the silhouette distinctly like a tiny human. With add-ons.

“Definitely. Looks like Dokkaebi.”

“Come on, we’ll see where they’re going.”

The small dokkaebi seemed to be following something. Best guess, it was more dokkaebi. Smaller ones liked travelling in groups for easier hunts. It was easier to tail this one, then pick them all off together.

The demon led them over a few roof jumps, nothing too wide that they couldn’t easily cross. It didn’t veer off into bigger streets though, which was definitely weird, but who was Zoey to question when it meant there wouldn’t be any people around to interrupt?

It didn’t take long for the dokkaebi to pause, head swivelling, before diving decisively into yet another narrow alley.

That had to be it. No doubt, there would be other dokkaebi once they turned the corner.

Sure enough, there were two of them crouched atop a metal stairwell, three more hidden behind dumpsters and another clinging to the brick wall. The one they’d been following was scaling said wall to join it.

“Do you think that’s all of them?” Zoey kept her voice low so as not to attract attention.

“Should be,” Mira agreed. “I’ll get the ones on the stairs?”

“Right, and I’ll take out the ones by the trash. What about the wall?”

“We can both get them on the way down.”

That sounded good, a solid plan. Zoey put one foot on the edge of the roof, preparing to jump.

“Wait!”

She halted with her knees already bent, a long arm stretching out in front of her chest the only thing stopping her from tumbling.

“Woah,” she said, regaining her balance.

Hastily, Zoey looked to Mira for an explanation. Her gaze was fixed at the entrance of the alley. Zoey whipped her head to look. What had Mira seen?

“Crap.”

There were two people entering the demon-infested alleyway. 

Well, that wasn’t good. It was actually very bad. Why were there even people passing through here? What happened to self-preservation?!

Step into a dark, gloomy, sketchy little alley without knowing who or what was waiting in there for you. Yeah, sure, go right ahead. Why not.

Now they needed a way to deal with the humans.

The pair appeared somewhat familiar, even if Zoey couldn’t put a finger on it specifically-

Wait. Wait no. She knew who they were.

“Am I the queen of jinxes or what?” She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. “It could’ve been anyone else, but noooo. Of course not.”

“Oh, it’s them.” Mira dumbly supplied.

Them, the girl with the purple hair from earlier today, and the guy who was still with her. Were they joined at the hip, or something? 

Irrelevant thoughts.

“Great,” Zoey grumbled. “What now?”

“Look,” Mira tried to reason. “If we don’t kill those demons, those two idiots die. Not much of a choice if you ask me.”

Sadly, Mira was right. And as it turned out, they didn’t need to think up the next step, because they got to witness it unfold firsthand.

When the humans got close enough, one of the demons on the wall lunged.

Zoey’s lungs seized, muffling the squeak rising up her throat. Those people were about to get their souls sucked out unless they got down there right now.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

…Huh?

Zoey froze, muscles tensing as she scrambled to pick up on the sight before her.

No people were dying, the little dokkaebi was dangling in the air, crushed in the taller person’s grip. She could've sworn she’d just heard him growl. And he was talking to a demon. 

Humans didn’t talk to demons.

What was happening right now?

“Show yourselves,” a second voice rose beside the first. 

Fuck, if that wasn’t the smoothest voice Zoey had ever heard in her life. It was also the only voice Zoey had ever heard that shook without the use of special effects.

Oh. Oh no.

“They’re demons too.” The stiffening of Mira’s shoulders told Zoey all she needed to know. 

“Did she just say she’ll drag them out by their teeth?” Zoey repeated the female demon’s words.

Okay… So apparently demons had personal beef. Who knew?

They continued to watch as the remaining dokkaebi stepped out of their hiding places.

“That’s… not normal.” Zoey observed.

Demons usually worked together no matter the kind or size, yet these dokkaebi seemed… afraid. 

Not normal at all.

“...Do you all wish to die tonight?”

Ah, she’d missed some of the dialogue.

Rings flared to life in the demon’s eyes. The female. Why in Honmoon’s name did she have to be a demon?!

“You would interrupt our journey, and insult us like this?” The demon boomed, voice curling around Zoey’s ears. A shiver ran down her spine. That was hot. And so not the time.

“You will keep your souls, and you will get out of my sight.”

All at once, a single, beautiful note drifted, sharp against the Honmoon. The most gorgeous note Zoey swore she had ever had the pleasure of hearing…

Wait. What?

The demon had a killer voice. The demon’s voice was stabbing the Honmoon.

“Mira?!” Zoey panicked as soon as she saw what the demon was doing. But Mira was equally stumped, lips parted slightly with nothing coming out.

That was a tear.

Without a second thought, Zoey leapt, propelling herself off the roof.

“Hey!” She heard the male demon yell as she landed on the ground below.

Zoey spun, aiming for the female demon with the heel of her boot.

The demon blinked, surprise evident even within her golden eyes. She reacted quickly, jumping back. Zoey’s heel went right over the space where her head had been seconds ago.

She took that moment to glance at the tear. 

It was surprisingly clean, no demons crawling through yet, thank god, but there would be soon if they didn’t stitch it up.

A body twisted somewhere to her right, the male demon pouncing, abandoning the dokkaebi in his grasp.

“Oh no you don’t!” 

The pole of Mira’s gok-do came slashing down, blade clashing with the floor as the demon yelped, deflecting.

The female demon’s focused gaze widened at the sight.

Why was she just standing there?

Zoey frowned, keeping her guard up all the same, shin-kal fanning out in her palms.

The demon in front of her eyed the weapons, locking eyes for only a brief second before she suddenly turned her head, determined.

“Jinu.”

Jinu - the male demon - straightened, backing warily away from Mira’s blade, pointed firmly at his chest. Not once did he take his eyes off it.

Zoey braced for whatever the male was planning to do.

Instead of attacking head-on, he growled out to the dokkaebi. “Get the hunters!”

There was no hesitation from the dokkaebi, all seven leaping into action at once. Zoey slashed one to dust with her blades, hurling a shin-kal at another before it could get off the ground.

Mira’s gok-do spun beside her, dispatching its own fair share.

Seven small dokkaebi were no match for two of them together.

When Zoey chanced another glance at the tear, the female demon had stepped through it, the male one foot in.

The last dokkaebi was cut down with a quick swipe. 

Zoey readied a shin-kal, winding her arm back. She sent it sailing through the air, towards the demon who had yet to finish crossing.

The demon’s shoe disappeared through the gap, the entire thing vanishing. The shin-kal zipped by, dissipating upon impact with the wall behind.

“What the hell?” Mira cursed, gok-do still in hand. 

“Did they just… Seal the tear?” Zoey gaped, more in shock because the tear had just healed itself, rather than the fact that two demons had just gotten away.

“Looks like it.”

The tear had been open long enough for at least a small hoard of demons to come through. The fact that not a single one had emerged was nothing short of a miracle.

Not that Zoey was about to complain, no demons was always a good thing.

Maybe they got lucky.

“Those two were clearly important,” Mira said, willing her weapon away.

Zoey nodded. The dokkaebi had been like mice in front of the two escaped demons. There was a good chance those two were higher demons. A very good chance.

“Why did they run?” She decided to voice the obvious question.

“Maybe they decided it wasn’t worth it.” Mira offered. “Or they’re planning something else.”

“Hopefully that’s not it, that would take up so much couch time.”

A beat of silence passed between them, then Zoey spoke up. 

“She was pretty though?”

Mira scoffed. “Pretty dangerous, Zoey. You’re gonna end up as a hunter kebab if you keep trying to date demons.”

“As if you weren’t considering it before we found out they were actually demons.” Zoey shot back.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mira feigned ignorance, turning to go. 

It was quiet for a few more seconds before a light shade of something brushed over Mira's cheeks. That was pretty too and-

Anddd now she was thinking things about Mira. Bad brain. Shut up, brain. 

A faint mutter passed Zoey’s ears. 

“She sounded good.”

“Ha!”

“Who said that?”

Chapter Text

Rumi’s chest hadn't stopped pounding after the tear sealed, the drumming behind her ribcage refused to quiet. She could hear her own breaths.

It had been too close, just a second later and Jinu’s foot wouldn’t have been the only thing missing.

To say she was surprised when she’d dodged that well-aimed kick would be accurate, the thoughts had instantly begun to circle - Who is this, a weirdo? Should she just knock this person out?

The person had a flawless stance and could probably fight, but a person was still a person. Compared to a demon, they were no match for her. 

She held that thought up until Jinu jumped to help her and a second person came barreling down with a hiss and a long weapon topped with a blade of blue.

In that single moment, Rumi had known exactly who those two were.

“Technically, we got what we were looking for.” Jinu was panting, eyes still wide. He hadn’t calmed down either.

“Congratulations,” Rumi told him flatly. “I hope nearly dying was worth it.”

The look Jinu shot her was close enough to apologetic.

She'd been okay watching the hunters from afar, not up close preparing to be skewered.

They had gotten lucky back there, if the Dokkaebi hadn’t been around, they wouldn’t have been able to simply walk out of that fight.

The seven Dokkaebi who were all dead now. They wouldn’t be getting their souls back.

“They looked familiar,” Jinu said.

Rumi had to agree. She was positive she’d never met the two hunters in person before, but their faces rang a distant bell.

She felt like an idiot.

Those two were hunters, there was no way she could’ve met them before. She would remember. Because in that little alley with just them and the Dokkaebi and a wide, gaping hole in the Honmoon, Rumi had frozen.

And then, only because there were Dokkaebi present and she couldn’t afford to appear stunned, she had thrown responsibility to Jinu.

She hadn't known what he'd do, staring down the sharp end of that glimmering blade with her lungs seizing and her feet glued to the stone floor, but she trusted him to make a decision without her telling him. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Jinu cast her a worried glance. With good reason.

He knew.

“Fine.”

“You sure? If you need space or…” Jinu’s arms made a few circular gestures of uncertainty.

“Space?” Rumi stared at him, unimpressed. There was nothing but space where they were at.

“You know what I mean,” Jinu grumbled, insisting.

Rumi did.

She just wasn’t going to acknowledge it.

She still let his words sit for a while, to show him that she wasn’t just throwing it out without considering any of it.

“I’m fine.”

At last, Jinu nodded, concern wiped clean, leaving no trace.

That was how it always had been. Jinu pushed until he could be sure that he didn’t need to push further. Then they would both act like nothing had happened.

"I got this idea while we were up there," Jinu piped up suddenly, a gleam entering his eyes.

Great. What dumb thing was he scheming now?

Jinu's "ideas" were as unstable as his relationship with Gwi-ma. Very on-and-off. Thirty percent chance it was a genuinely good idea, seventy percent it was the stupidest thing Rumi had ever heard.

She swore every new thing he came up with kept getting worse than the last.

"I'll see you later once I have it figured out."

With that, Jinu disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke.

Hours later, he came back grinning, his expression smug as he dramatically announced, "Behold, the latest popular K-Pop boy band!"

At the same time, four more clouds of pink popped into existence, each one manifesting a separate demon.

Not just normal demons, all of them were Jeoseung Saja in the same black hanbok Jinu wore.

Rumi was not impressed. "K-Pop?"

"It's the music the humans like-"

"I know what K-Pop is." Rumi cut Jinu off. "I mean why are you turning demons into a boy band."

She eyed the four Jeoseung Saja separately, turning back to Jinu next. "You brought four random Saja, who I'm guessing you only just met hours ago, into my place?" 

"Uh, I mean, your place is basically just one giant plot of land-"

"Two." Rumi corrected him, very much annoyed.

"-Two giant plots of land, and it's not like I could make them sit at the border while I try to convince you to go out and see them."

"Jinu." 

Jinu winced and rubbed his ears at the echo of her voice. Behind him, the four Jeoseung Saja twitched.

"Yes?" Jinu's chuckle came out wobbly. Awkward.

"Explain." Rumi glared, still in the same voice. "Now."

She hated using that voice. Jinu had to know this, and he still chose to invite four randoms here, the one place she was supposed to be able to drop the disguises without anyone seeing. These demons felt like an invasion.

An unwelcome invasion she would not hesitate to throw out if Jinu didn't come up with a very, very good excuse.

It would be so easy, just raise her voice a little and let the shockwave carry them.

"Hear me out." Jinu took a breath. "K-Pop is obviously important to the humans, therefore it's also important to the hunters, because the hunters have fans. So I figured - Why not hit them where it matters the most?"

Rumi took a moment to internalise. 

"You think," she repeated, just to make sure she hadn't heard wrong. "That's it's a great idea to turn them into performers. To steal the hunters' fans."

She gestured vaguely towards the four demons who still hadn't moved. She couldn't even see their eyes, hidden beneath their gats. Probably on purpose, so they could avoid making eye contact.

Jinu gave her a nod that was entirely too pleased with himself. "I may have told them you'd allow them to stay here while I prepare them for the gig. Just a tiny space near the edge, on the other side of the river. They won't go anywhere else."

Rumi glared harder. "This land may be stupidly huge, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just let you build a training school."

She could see why these demons would agree to join Jinu on his quest, a spot in her land meant being unbothered by other demons. Who would be foolish enough to cross into this area, frequented by her?

The answer was no one.

Rumi had long suspected that there were other demons like Jinu, who hoped to escape from Gwi-ma's clutches, although she had never met any of them. Jinu just happened to get lucky. 

"We can use them as decoys for when we go back to the human world. If the hunters are busy going after them, they won't have time for us." Jinu smirked. Clearly, he had thought this out.

Curse him. Did he think she wanted to go back to the surface after their close call with the hunters? Once, the hunters could overlook them. Twice? They would be on their tail.

But then, if she really thought about it, staying here wasn't any better. And the surface was further away from Gwi-ma than any place here could be. Plus, with four Jeoseung Saja as decoys...

"You're lucky I have my own reasons for going up there," Rumi hissed. 

Jinu looked hopeful. "Does this mean you won't blow their heads off?"

One of the four demons shifted, breaking the still wall of black cloth.

Rumi let her eyes drift, taking them in. 

There was one with tusks, large things curling out past his lips. Another was stocky in build, with broad shoulders. The third had pink hair reaching past his neck. The fourth had turquoise tufts peeking out from under his gat.

"Human form?" She tilted her head slightly, asking.

Grin spreading over his face, Jinu raised his arm and snapped.

At once, the four Saja struck out into different poses.

The one with tusks now bore a pointed earring. The stocky one held a pose that Rumi was sure was supposed to flex whatever muscles he had underneath the hanbok. The one with turquoise hair had large eyes that would've appeared innocent to anyone else. The pink-haired one was still that.

"Your plan is to make them look good so the fans go crazy," Rumi deadpanned.

"See, you get it!" Jinu was pleased.

Rumi got it, alright, she got that Jinu could be an absolute oaf.

It was still an excuse to go to the human world.

She growled, half in warning and half in irritation that Jinu had a point, even as a giant oaf.

"Fine," she said to Jinu, knowing the four Saja were listening closely. "They can stay next to the river. And while we're up there, they will keep out of our way. Completely."

She could see their relief in the way their shoulders sagged an inch.

"Do not," she addressed them. "Venture where you have not been allowed."

They all nodded frantically like their lives depended on it.

"Go."

The demons teleported away, leaving just Jinu.

Rumi turned on him in an instant. "What was that? You just brought them here without telling me first? I should've turned them and you into a big pile of dust."

"Sorry," Jinu muttered, genuinely seeming so. "I got caught up. I didn't stop to think."

Rumi grunted. "Have you told Gwi-ma?"

"Not yet, I wanted to run the idea by you first."

"What are you going to call them? You'll need a band name."

"You're not mad now?"

"Oh, I am. That was dumb and invasive, I still want to send you back to the waiting line, and I won't help you cut to the front," Rumi snapped.

Jinu was silent for a few moments, thinking over possible band names. "I have nothing now. I'll come up with something soon."

Rumi accepted this, moving on. "What are you going to tell Gwi-ma?"

There was no way the demon king was going to let Jinu parade around on the surface with a group of Jeoseung Saja without some kind of benefit to himself. 

"I'm planning to stage it as a way for us to collect souls," Jinu said. "He won't be able to resist."

At least Jinu had that part planned. 

"Are you sure this will work?" She didn't really care, but if Jinu's plan failed, there was a good chance Gwi-ma would try to eat his soul. Plus, "You know the hunters will come after us."

"I know. It's still better than staying down here." Jinu pulled a face. "It's so boring."

It took Jinu two days to train the four Saja. By the beginning of the third day, he presented the newly formed group to Rumi, proudly showing off their first song.

"It's catchy," she had to admit. "I'm guessing the cringe is intentional?"

"The humans will love it," Jinu seemed sure. He had already sent the group away.

"They'll love a song about demons wanting to eat them. Yes."

The humans wouldn't hear the song that way though, the most they'd get from it was a double meaning that wasn't exactly child-friendly.

The plan, as Jinu told her, was to perform the song in a busy town square where there were sure to be many people about.

"I also booked a spot on a variety show tonight. Apparently, humans like watching other humans do funny things." Jinu said.

"Just don't drag me into anything and we'll all keep being peaceful," Rumi said in return. 

All she had to do was stand back and watch while Jinu handled everything. Simple enough. 

"The stage and the music are already set, we're good to go. Can you call them back?"

Rumi sighed, summoning the rest of the Saja Boys to her. Their new name, chosen by Jinu. According to him, the name also meant lion. It could also mean messenger and dead person.

The tear was already open and waiting. She could see their eyes widening at the sight as they fought the demon urge to rush into it.

They still understood what they could and could not do.

Only when she nodded did they surge forward.

The place Jinu chose for the group's debut was familiar, one of the busier town squares she remembered being in the last time they crossed the Honmoon.

For this occasion, Rumi insisted on choosing what the group wore. Jinu had the fashion sense of a bug at times. At least with her planning the outfits, they would actually appear somewhat desirable to the masses.

For herself, she chose to go with a pair of dark green joggers and white sneakers, and another hoodie - because they were comfortable and she couldn't be bothered to hide her patterns underneath, not because she had horrible fashion sense.

This one was pink with a black jacket over it. 

Even she had to admit Jinu's usual dressing choice had some taste to it. Only because said choice was actually a copy of a mannequin in a shop window.

She drew the hood up over her face, to hide her purple hair this time. They wanted the humans to pay attention to Jinu's boy band, not her purple braid.

Jinu put his magic to work from the start, loud music carrying through the street without a speaker in sight. The stage itself had been set up only moments ago. Humans were weirdly gullible creatures to not be noticing a stage appearing out of thin air.

She zoned out when Jinu appeared on it, peering at the crowd from the side. He was right, the song was a hit with the humans. None of them even paused to question when plastic hearts landed at their feet. She saw a few get hit in the face.

Self-preservation instincts of a biscuit.

There went another heart now.

Oh, someone actually caught it this time.

Nevermind, the following heart still found its mark-

Rumi's gaze was yanked back as though caught on a snare.

What.

Holding her breath, she looked again. Those were... Pink hair under a baseball cap and... Yep. 

They might not be in the same makeup or black leather costumes as last time, but the faces were the same.

What were the hunters doing here?

She remembered the shorter one wielding a glowing set of shin-kal. 

Okay. This wasn't good. They wouldn't do anything with so many people watching, would they?

The taller one was glaring at the plastic heart in her hand, a pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, slipping slightly. The other staggered upright.

They were holding a discussion, shooting sideways glances at Jinu's group, arms waving occasionally like they were debating something.

Rumi chanced a glance towards the stage. The song was almost done, just a little more and they could leave. She'd just keep an eye on the hunters until then.

She still hadn't figured out why they looked so familiar.

She startled when she looked back and found two pairs of eyes trained on her. Not at the stage. Her.

The pink-haired hunter observed her with an unyielding gaze, giving away nothing, her mouth set in a firm line. The other displayed surprise - curiosity, maybe - before she schooled her expression and then they were both staring.

She stared right back, frozen in place, hands tucked into her pockets, hood still pulled tight over her head. The crowd kept moving, pieces jumping about, obscuring her view of them every few seconds.

She hadn't even been doing anything to draw attention to herself.

So why had they noticed her?

She kept up the eye contact, refusing to look away first, trying to keep her heart from leaping up her throat. Even as the song died off and Jinu began announcing something over the cheering, she didn't blink.

Rumi wasn't afraid of the hunters. No, no… She wasn’t. She might be a demon and the very thing they were training to kill but she had never feared them.

She just didn’t trust them. Which demon in their right mind would? But hers was different. Deeper. Personal.

Because they had taken something from her. The hunters. Not this generation, the one before it.

Her only chance at a life that wasn’t completely based on an image. Her only chance at being more than just the demon king’s daughter. Long ago.

They killed her mother.

Not even a demon, a human mother.

And for what? Нaving a child with the demon king. Of course.

Rumi understood, it had probably made sense to them at the time.

That didn’t mean she had to forget about it, because no matter how she tried to see it, she would still resent them in some way.

There were times Rumi imagined how different growing up in the human world would’ve been.

She was only five when she learnt - rapidly, very forcibly - just what would happen if she let her guard down for even a fraction of a second.

Surviving meant being big, a wall of flames ready to burn any demon who got too close. And she built her image fast, because she couldn’t rely on the demons’ own assumptions about her to keep them away.

At five years old.

Rumi wasn’t sure if that was young by human standards, but compared to Jinu’s four-hundred years, she was practically a newborn.

She couldn’t remember anything from before she turned five, only the following eighteen years. Not even a glimpse.

She supposed then, there was the question of how she learnt about her mother’s death.

Rumi learnt from Gwi-ma.

The blood - flame? - bond between them prevented him from lying to her... No, he could still lie, but she'd be able to tell. So Rumi believed that, at least.

Anyway.

These new hunters could not have known any of this. Still, Rumi did not trust them because their training came from the hunters before them.

"Rumi?" Jinu's voice sounded beside her ear after a beat.

Rumi could tell when he saw them, there was a soft intake of breath that he held.

"I told you they'd be onto us," she said, without ever taking her eyes off them.

"Let's get out of here." Jinu watched them warily.

She didn't respond for a moment, stuck.

"Rumi."

She nodded, almost absentmindedly. Without another word, she let the pink smoke wrap around her, pulling her away.

She materialised on a pavement a few streets away. Jinu followed shortly.

"I didn't think they'd show up." he ran a hand through his hair, combing it back. It fell forward immediately after. "I mean, I knew they would eventually but not right now!"

"They were already there when you guys started." Rumi guessed. Then, in an attempt to take her mind off them, she joked. "You have the most terrible venue choice I have ever seen."

"Speculation." Jinu shot back.

"Coincidence, more like. Who was it who chose to go into the same alley that the hunters were literally sitting on top of?"

Jinu's response was unfortunately lost to the noise of passing traffic.

"Where did the others go?" Rumi asked him. 

"I told them to explore the city. Don't worry, I also told them not to steal any souls unless they wanted to die."

"You're gonna have to get more creative than that, I think that's the third time you've told them the same thing."

"Fine. I'll tell them that we'll feed them to the hunters if they take any souls."

Rumi hummed appreciatively. "Better."

There were still a couple more hours before the Saja Boys were due to attend that variety show. 

The hunters would show up, Rumi knew. They all knew it. At this point, Jinu was banking on the possibility that the hunters wouldn't attack in front of an audience.

Jinu made a quick change of clothes, swapping his open collared shirt for his hoodie.

"Again?" Rumi stared.

"We can all agree I prefer copying styles instead of creating new designs from scratch." Jinu held his arms up in surrender. "Where do you want to go today? I saw a cafe I want to try out."

"We can go there." Rumi agreed.

Might as well use the time until the variety show to explore more of Seoul. Better than filling her head with hunter thoughts.

They walked, because that was what normal humans did. Walking. Until Jinu stopped in front of a glass door, declaring that this was it. A cozy space with brown wooden panels and beige walls. There was only one barista and by luck, there was only one other filled table.

The cafe was otherwise empty.

The menu was wildly complex for such a tiny place, and instead of some over-complicated drink, Rumi simply pointed to the glass display with a tag that read "Cheesecake".

Jinu fully believed in his ability to order something sane. 

Ten minutes later, he was sniffing at his cup, ogling it like it held an entire species of alien in it. "I have regrets," he mournfully said, trying to take a sip anyway.

He gagged, mouth twisting in disgust.

"You do this every time," Rumi rolled her eyes. "I keep telling you to check and you never do."

Jinu's scowl twisted deeper. As if to prove a point, he lifted the cup to his lips and took a huge swallow.

He winced, pushing the cup a little further away.

"Dork." Rumi huffed, handing him a tissue from the tiny box on the table.

Jinu wiped his mouth, dumping the used tissue into an equally tiny metal basket next to the tissue box.

"Hey," he said, eyes on the tissue box. "Isn't that them?"

"What?" Rumi turned the box around so she could see what Jinu was talking about. "Oh."

On one surface sat the same faces she had seen not too long ago. Stage makeup, performance attire. Beneath their faces was a word.

HUNTR/X.

"Wait, I got it!" Jinu stood suddenly, chair scraping against the floor. "They were on that billboard outside!"

That was why the hunters looked so familiar. Their faces were literally plastered on the giant billboard they had first seen a few days ago.

Now that she was really looking, instead of worrying about whether or not someone would hurl a Honmoon knife at Jinu on stage, Rumi could see their features properly.

Pink locks framing the taller hunter's face, sharp and angular, painted in bold, smoky makeup. 

Freckles dotting the shorter hunter's nose and cheeks, with her twin buns and piercings lining her ears.

The photo was taken with lighting filters in place, certainly, but not edited to perfection. And they were definitely not models as she had originally assumed. Or maybe that was a side profession of theirs.

She hoped she wouldn't have to come across them too often.

Jinu slowly sat back down, noticing the weird look the barista was giving him. The other table had vacated the cafe a while ago.

Rumi put the tissue box back on the table. 

It was just them left as the sky turned orange, then pink, then it was dark outside.

Chapter Text

What the hell.

There were hearts. Flying hearts. Pink, plastic, three-dimensional hearts. And a yellow stage shaped like a giant canned drink. And doodles sliding across the walls of buildings. 

It didn’t matter what age the people around them were, the crowd was eating it up.

Cameras. Screaming. More screaming.

Like a solid punch to Mira’s gut.

She was there, in the middle of a hyped up crowd, with a fake heart she wanted to squash in her grasp, offering her arm for Zoey to take. After the girl - young woman - took a heart to the face. 

Girl felt more natural, though, the word wouldn’t leave Mira’s mouth now that she’d used it for so long. That was a problem for future-her.

Again, what the hell.

Mira hauled Zoey off the ground, onto her feet.

“Thanks.”

The heart in her palm went flying over her shoulder. A distant “Oof-!” sounded from somewhere behind. She winced on behalf of whichever unfortunate soul that was. She didn’t turn around, the person wouldn’t have registered the impact with… all this… going on.

Demonic perception, or whatever. 

Zoey didn’t let go of her arm, shaking it hard. “That’s the guy from the other night! I mean the demon! He’s part of a boy band?”

“A demon boy band,” Mira gritted out, eyes narrowing at the poppy movements of the five figures on stage.

The stage that just rose right out of the ground. The ground paved with bricks, might she add.

“This is a problem.” Zoey’s smile was strained. “Obviously, they’re coming after the fans.”

“We just started our hiatus,” Mira groaned. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Okay, cool, we’re coming out of hiatus for this. There’ll be photoshoots, and promos, and fan signings! So really, not so cool!” Zoey counted her fingers as she listed. She topped it off with a laugh and a knot between her brows.

“Zoey, relax. Bobby’s not gonna let us ruin our break for this. We both know it.” Mira sucked in a cold breath, trying to get her brain cells pumping under all the noise. “They’re demons, right? So we’ll kill them. Crisis averted. Simple.”

“But we can’t just-” Zoey waved her hand frantically towards the stage, miming a throwing action. “With so many people around!”

Mira’s jaw clenched in frustration. Zoey was right. Not where everyone could see. 

She surveyed the venue, searching for a possible blind spot. If Zoey threw one of her shin-kal from somewhere hidden, it’d be easier for the crowd to see an exploding demon as special effects.

There were a couple of windows, but those were all belonging to shop houses. They couldn’t just break into someone’s home and go, “Hey, we need to borrow your window for reasons we can’t explain.”

And what about the other demon? The female? Was she here too? She hadn’t made an appearance yet, and the band appeared to be made up of solely male demons. 

Something in Mira’s gut told her she’d be here.

That night in the alley had given her confirmation, those two demons were definitely working together. Surely, if one of them was up there dancing his butt off, the other would be watching, somewhere.

She just had to find her in this sea of colour.

One of the four corners of the square, maybe? That was a good place to start.

To the right side of the stage, there was nothing, just more excited people screaming their lungs out.

The left side was much the same.

No, hang on, not completely the same. Mira squinted, shifting when a head or two got in the way. 

She was there again. The same pale skin and the same large eyes. The same thick purple braid, hidden beneath a hood of hot pink. It wasn’t visible, but she knew it was there.

She didn’t even know what compelled her to turn her head away from the dancing demons. All those people jumping around in the crowd, vibing to the music and she chose to notice the one person who wasn’t.

Perhaps that was what made her stand out.

Well, that was assuming demons even had a specific gender, because most dokkaebi and the like all came off as distinctly male. There were females, of course, but it was difficult to really tell one from the other unless they spoke first. And even then it could just be a male with a particularly high or whiny voice.

This demon looked female and sounded female, so yes. Mira was going to keep thinking of it as a female.

“Hey, Zo,” she said, keeping her voice even. “Guess who’s here too?”

Zoey tore her eyes away from the performance, “Who?”

A few seconds of silence. 

“Do you think she’s leading them?” Zoey suggested.

“Leading them how? If anything, that Jinu guy is probably the leader here.” Mira flicked her gaze to the black-haired demon. That was his name.

He had produced a can of soda from god knows where and was chugging it mid-performance.

“Just… a hunch.” 

Mira took a second look. If Zoey had a hunch, there’d be a reason. There it was right now. 

“You may be right,” she had to agree. “He keeps looking at her. All of them are.” 

The five demons would flash a few grins, sing a couple of lines, then cast glances off-stage so subtle that it took tracking their eyes for several seconds to really catch it.

“So we have six demons on our list.” Mira summed up.

She turned back to look at the mentioned sixth demon, Zoey following. Or maybe it was the other way round.

The she-demon had stopped observing the crowd. Now, she had her face turned towards the stage. Then she turned it directly towards them and stopped.

She knew they were watching her. How did she know? Had she felt their eyes?

No point hiding it now.

Mira kept her stare clean, sharp, meeting the demon’s gaze head-on.

Yes, we see you. 

The demon didn’t look away for a second. She didn’t even move, or take her hands out of her pockets. Her stance was so relaxed, it had Mira struggling against the urge to narrow her eyes.

It wasn’t quite like saying bring it, but it was clear she wasn’t going to back down, either.

And then the song ended. 

The demon named Jinu announced a variety show. Tonight. 

He hopped off the stage under cover of a billow of smoke, coming to stand beside the demon they were locked in a staring contest against.

Mira watched his lips move, a frown gracing his features when his partner failed to respond. He trailed her gaze, eventually landing it on where they were standing.

Mira hardly paid him a glance.

He said something else, more words than before, eyes darting between Mira and Zoey. Bouncing back and forth like he expected them to do something at any moment.

Mira saw him nudge the other demon, a firm look settling on his face. The female - she really needed another way of referring to her -  finally nodded, slowly, continuing to stare as pink smoke enveloped both demons, tugging them away in a swirl of tight air.

The crowd started to disperse, filing out of the square one at a time. No doubt videos of the performance were already circulating. 

“Maybe we’re both right,” Zoey said. She hadn’t moved. “Maybe both of them are the leaders.”

Mira shifted her eyes off the spot where the demons had vacated. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter. We’re still gonna get them.”

“All six of them? That’s… a really big group for Jeoseung Saja.”

…Right. They couldn’t just rush into this. Two had been bad enough, now there were triple that number. Great.

“Not much of a choice if you ask me.” Mira grunted. “It’s either we kill them, or they’ll eat our fans.”

“We’ll just- be careful.”

Mira nodded.

If this didn’t work, they’d have to text Bobby about rescheduling their hiatus. Bobby would have to fly back from wherever in South Korea he’d gone for his vacation. She really didn’t want to have to do that.

“Tonight after the variety show.” She decided.

“We can wait for them to come out, then we jump them.” Zoey caught on fast. “Easy-peasy.”

It was not easy-peasy. Not at all. It was more lemon-squeazy, if anything. 

Because the entire situation was just sour and also, yes, very squeazy.

Mira would combust before she even got out of this bathhouse.

And why the mens’?!

Not the main issue right now.

The plan, she recalled as she raised her gok-do again, had been to ambush the Saja Boys after the variety show ended. Outside on the narrow street with a car or two parked nearby. Back entrance, that sort of thing.

Somehow, now they were in a bathhouse, surrounded by water demons and a bunch of random old men who wouldn’t even notice what was happening thanks to some weird demonic effect.

The Saja Boys weren’t even here anymore.

The water demons were tall and lanky, with webbed hands and feet, and long limbs to go with their equally long hair.

And as if it couldn’t get any worse, more tears kept springing up before the existing ones could close.

This was decidedly very bad. Why the hell were there so many of them?!

Every time Mira slashed one away, two more appeared to take its place. More still were crawling out of the unsealed tears littering the tiles of the bathhouse. And they were closing in. 

Not great, not great at all. They were struggling.

“We can’t hold them!” Zoey’s panic reached her through the snarls of the demons.

“We have to.” Mira grunted. She spun her gok-do, blade thrusting into demons left and right.

Take that one’s head off, stab that one in the face. Repeat.

Not enough.

Her back met Zoey’s, shoulder blades bumping, desperately pushing back against the swarm of demons scrambling to reach them.

Fuck, they were so screwed.

The tears had stopped producing demons, at last, but there were already too many to count. 

They could die here, right now. It was not a comforting thought. They couldn’t even rely on anyone to help them because there wasn’t anybody else.

“Zoey, throw me one!” Mira kept her arms steady on the pole of her gok-do, reaching around with her palm open.

The shimmering of a shin-kal went up in the air.

Mira kicked hard once, shoving her boot into a demon’s chest to push it back. She let one palm free, reaching up.

The weight of something small pressed into it. When Mira brought her arm back in front, the shin-kal sat in her grasp.

With the gok-do barring the demons’ gaping jaws, she brought the shin-kal down and stabbed.

Once, twice, five times. Each stab, another demon gone. She kept going until the demons at the back hesitated to come forward, not wanting to be the next ones dead.

“Swap with me.” Mira called over her shoulder. 

Zoey peered around, seeing the gap she had created in the horde.

“Now!”

At the same time, they both spun, taking each other’s place. 

Zoey’s shin-kal flew outwards, bombarding the water demons who had yet to fill in the gap. Mira swung her gok-do in as wide an arc as she could, demons vanishing in the process.

This could work, there was a small circle of free space widening around them now. They’d fought back with less before, they could do this now.

Keep at it.

The circle kept widening. That was good. 

Slash.

Wider.

Stab.

Wider still.

“Swap!”

So the demons didn’t get used to the pattern.

Boom.

That was not the pattern.

The demon in front of Mira paused, its bulging eyes widening. She struck it down without a second thought. Any hesitation was welcome so long as she wasn’t part of it. She whirled, ready for another set of claws in her face.

There were none.

“Mira.” Zoey’s voice, winded but otherwise still, had her stopping to look.

It wasn’t just that one demon, it was all of them. Just… standing there.

“Why did they stop?” Mira eyed them, not trusting the sudden lull in the slightest. She kept her gok-do pointed, waiting, chest heaving.

The snarling cut like a puppet from its strings, the bathhouse filled with live statues.

“Do… Do we move-?”

A ripple started. One drop in the Honmoon. Then another, and another, until the Honmoon was thrashing. The water demons shuffled closer together, inching away from the pulsing lines. 

And then there was a note.

A literal singing note slamming down on the Honmoon and the demons, passing right over Mira like she wasn’t there. It sank through Zoey in the same way.

The water demons exploded into a flurry of movement. Limbs, teeth and claws. Hair.

Zoey gasped. Mira tightened her grip on her weapon.

The demons didn’t touch them, surging aimlessly around. 

No, not aimlessly. Pink lines began to rip through the Honmoon. All at once.

“More tears?! We could barely manage like, ten!”

Mira’s jaw clenched, bracing for another wave. 

The ringing voice hadn’t stopped, it seemed to drive the water demons into a frenzy. No more demons emerged from the tears, instead the ones running around were fighting to crawl back in.

What?

Mira blinked, blinked again. 

There were teeth snapping, webbed, clawed hands shoving. 

“They’re… running away.” 

She didn’t let herself relax just yet. Whatever these demons were running from had to be powerful enough to evoke such a reaction. She wasn’t sure if she should even count the demons retreating as a positive sign.

The singing kept going.

Where was that sound coming from?

The note held until not a single water demon was left, the tears stitching themselves up in the same way they had appeared. Together. 

The singing stopped.

It was abrupt, silence returning to the bathhouse, nothing to suggest a demon had ever been here.

Then from outside, two voices. Small, getting louder the closer Mira got to the entrance. A set of double doors.

Carefully, she pushed it, opening a small crack for the voices to seep through.

“-on Earth made you think that was a good idea?!”

It was a girl. Mira couldn’t see her through the tiny gap. She sounded angry, like she was scolding someone.

The second voice was more familiar, a guy defending himself. Or trying to. “Rumi-”

“Don’t Rumi me,” the first voice snapped again. “I don’t care if they were inside, there were people who could’ve gotten killed!”

A short growl punctuated the sentence, furious.

“If the guy is Jinu, then that’s gotta be her,” Mira muttered to Zoey, who had her face similarly pressed to the gap.

“Only one way to find out.” Zoey shrugged.

The door went from opened just a crack, to blown wide open.

The bang cut sharply through the darkened street.

The two arguing demons froze on the spot, heads snapping towards them.

One of them was Jinu, as expected, posture stiff, arms out in front in a placating gesture.

The other was the demon with the purple braid. Her hands were fists at her sides, two glowing eyes glaring at them, teeth bared in a half snarl. She looked ready to bite the other demon’s head off. 

So her name was Rumi.

But as Rumi registered them there, her shoulders drew tight, stiffening all over.  

Mira didn’t have a plan beyond finding out who the voice belonged to. Well, that part was done, now what?

Jinu stepped forward, snapping out of his stupor. He made it half a step before there were fingers tightening around his forearm.

“Stop,” the purple-haired demon growled again, the sound making Jinu grimace. “We are leaving. Right now.”

The firmness in her voice left no room for argument. Jinu stepped back, jaw clenching, and dipped his head.

Like before, the two demons teleported, a puff of smoke descending where their feet had been.

The effect of the demons’ absence was instantaneous, Mira let out a long, shaky breath she hadn’t even noticed she was holding. She released her gok-do, the weapon melting back into the Honmoon.

“That was her voice, right? I mean, the tears were all… the same.” Mira tried putting into words what she had in her brain.

The first night in the alley was still Crystal to her - A demon opening a tear in the Honmoon by singing at it? Who could forget it?

“Yeah,” Zoey said. “And what was up with those water demons? You saw it too, right? Like, I’m not losing it right now?”

“I saw it.”

It had to be her, the thing those demons were running from. Rumi. Finally, a name to put to the face.

“So a demon who scares demons, who also has weird powers.” A nervous chuckle left Zoey. “We might be cooked.”

“Technically,” Mira pointed out. “She helped us. Or the wrinkly old men inside the bathhouse that I am not going to see again. Ever. Point still stands.”

That harsh reprimand they’d stumbled upon moments ago hadn’t been an act, that much was clear. They could at the very least deduce that this Rumi hadn’t been in on the bathhouse plan.

If Mira was willing to dig a little deeper, she’d say that Rumi cared about the people inside, but that would mean the existence of a demon who didn’t steal souls. Not possible.

Demons didn’t have feelings, not unless it was the fear of death.

“Maybe she’s nice,” Zoey said after a while. “Or just not… a soul-eater.”

Mira scoffed, although it came out less sure than it should’ve. “What demon has ever been nice?”

Plus, stealing souls was literally the entire purpose of the new demon boy band. Somehow, Mira didn’t think Rumi was the kind of demon to lead this group, then turn around and be furious at them for pulling this stunt just because of a bunch of people.

If this was all a big, giant trick, it was a good one.

“You were definitely right,” Mira backtracked to one thing they could be sure of, based on the exchange they had witnessed. “She’s the one calling the shots.”

Zoey hummed. “The bathhouse for sure wasn’t one of those shots.”

“Supposedly.”

Mira let her eyes travel over Zoey’s figure, checking for possible wounds.

“You checking me out over there, Mira?” Zoey cheekily flashed a grin.

Mira didn’t miss a beat. “Making sure you’re not hiding some fatal claw mark from me.” 

She knew Zoey, this girl would try to hide a stab to the gut on the grounds of “not bothering anyone”. Utter bullshit, in Mira’s opinion.

Zoey helpfully spun a full circle. “Happy?”

There was nothing.

“Yep.”

The journey back to the penthouse was quiet, partly so that no one would look up and see them jumping over rooftops, partly because there was a lot of thinking to do.

By the time the elevator pinged and they stepped out of it, Mira’s hunting suit clung to her skin, and she was eager to get out of it. The only reprieve against the leather was the cool air passing through parts made of mesh.

They went through the usual motions - grab some clothes, shower, order food because there was no way either of them were cooking after all that. Grab the takeout bag from the person who sent it upstairs, send them off with a polite word of thanks.

Eat the bulgogi they ordered. Sit in silence. Nice, peaceful, quiet.

“What if she’s like the demon version of a vegan?”

Mira paused mid-chew, swallowing blankly. “A vegan.”

“What if she’s sworn off human souls?”

“What about the others? You know, the ones who got us into the whole bathhouse mess? Sound familiar?”

“I know, I know.” Zoey waved an arm. “Near-death experience, would not recommend. But! Just think about it, she obviously knew we were in there fighting demons. And yeah, she got super mad about the normal people in there too, but we’re hunters. We’re probably like giant walking trophies to them and she just… gave that up.”

Hm.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think,” Mira admitted. “That was the most confusing battle we’ve been in so far.”

Zoey giggled. “She was way more helpful than our missing person.”

“You mean our missing ghost,” Mira deadpanned.

It had been a long time since she stopped waiting for a third hunter to appear. All that talk about hunter trios being like a family. Theirs was like… divorced, except they’d never been married in the first place.

Whatever.

Screw this mysterious person, neither she nor Zoey had made it this far by hoping for someone to magically swoop in and save them.

For Honmoon’s sake - A literal demon had managed to save them before any third hunter could.

“There are so many weak spots. It hasn’t even been one day!” Zoey’s chopsticks were abandoned, lying on the cover of a takeout container. The container itself was still half full.

They’d been watching the Honmoon through the apartment’s windows for the last hour or so. Every few minutes, a patch of pink seemed to grow larger. Like an infestation.

“It’s that variety show,” Mira said, frustrated. “After those Saja Boys went on it, it’s like their entire fan base just sprung up out of nowhere!” 

The Saja Boys were good. That was the problem. And the fans were flocking to them, moths to flame. 

At the rate this was going, they’d have no choice but to push their hiatus back. 

Sorry, Bobby. Duty calls.

“There’s gotta be something we can do to heal the Honmoon that doesn’t involve our hiatus,” Zoey said, tipping her head back against the couch.

It was behind them. They were sitting in front of it, on the floor, using the coffee table for the food.

Mira had to agree. If they suddenly came out of hiatus after just going into it, it’d only look like they were becoming active again because of the Saja Boys.

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” she regretfully said. “We can fight demons, but if those guys get more fans than they already have, things are just going to get worse.”

Putting it this way, they were pretty doomed. Of course the Saja Boys were about to get more fans, just look at the number of TikToks with their song on it.

“Best case scenario, we’ll get rid of them before they do too much damage to the Honmoon.” Mira shot Zoey a look. “And we will not doom scroll over it.”

Zoey froze, her phone already lifting off the table. She offered a sheepish grin, slowly setting it back down.

“No, you’re right,” Zoey took a deep breath. “I’ll just end up getting in my own head. Again. How do you even resist the notifications? You’re like a magician.”

Mira smirked. “That’s because I actually have self-control, but no worries, I’ll just confiscate your phone if I catch you searching up tags about the Saja Boys.”

“What?!” Zoey squeaked, clutching her phone. “Over my ramyeon! You’ll never catch me!”

“Ramyeon, huh?” Mira grinned, smug. “Guess that means you’re serious.”

“Duh. That’s only the third most important thing in my life. Hello?”

“Oh?” Mira raised an eyebrow. “What’s the first two?”

“First item on the list is me,” Zoey pointed towards herself. “Second item is… uh-”

She cut herself off suddenly, sputtering to a stop.

“What?” Mira was curious now.

Zoey coughed. “Nevermind. Let’s not talk about my list of important things.”

That was… suspicious.

“Okay…” Mira squinted. “Where’s the Honmoon on that list?”

Zoey mumbled something unintelligible in response, eyes darting to the side.

“What was that?”

“Fourth.” Zoey repeated, louder now.

“...Fourth.” Mira blinked.

Huh.

Zoey put ramyeon above the Honmoon. Mira nodded to herself. That sounded like Zoey.

“Ahaha… Please never repeat that to Celine, we don’t live with her anymore but I swear she’ll find some way to ground me.” Zoey grimaced.

“Or…” Mira let the word drag. “I could just-”

“I’ll tell Celine we thought a demon was hot.”

“Kidding!” Mira raised her palms. “You know you’ll get in trouble for that too right?”

“Uh-huh, and so will you.” Zoey said, cheerful in the way that meant she had things figured out. She picked her phone up again, waving it around. “See this? One-way ticket to Hunter Jail.”

Celine’s contact was there on the screen. Staring at Mira. One word. Just one word. How did a single word manage to look so ominous?

“Zoey.” Mira blandly said. “Zoey put the phone down before you butt-dial her.”

Zoey lifted a finger at the screen, an impish twinkle glimmering back at her.

The finger descended. Mira lunged.

Zoey cackled, half standing, lifting the phone high above her head. “We’re going down together, Mira!”

“Like hell we are.” Mira scoffed, clinging to Zoey’s elbow. “Give it-!” 

Beep.

They both seized, wide-eyed.

The phone started ringing. One of their own songs.

“Holy-” Mira screeched. “Did you actually butt-dial Celine?!”

“It was not my butt!” Zoey squawked. “What do I do?!” 

“Hang up!”

Zoey frantically jabbed once, jabbed again.

Doot.

Mira took a moment to collect herself. “I think- I think now’s a fantastic time to text Celine and explain the butt-dial.”

“It was my thumb!”

“I believe you,” Mira said, tone so light that there was no way in hell Zoey actually bought it.

“You were right there! You saw!”

“Mhm, but you know, there was a lot going on. Eyes are tricky.” Mira continued to feign ignorance.

The next thing Zoey did was to fling herself at her in retaliation, colliding in a tangle of limbs. Mira ended up sprawled with Zoey straddling her abdomen, wind knocked out of her.

“It’s… a miracle-” Mira choked out, struggling to shove Zoey off. “My eyes are fixed!”

“They better be.” Zoey pointed in her face, still sitting there. “Now I’m gonna text Celine and tell her that my thumb slipped. Not a butt! There were no butts!”

She got down to it immediately, fingers flying over the phone screen.

Mira considered asking Zoey to please let her up, she did not want to turn into a pancake, then decided against it. Lying there and staring at the back of the phone case. She could only hope Zoey didn’t drop that phone on her face, the impact would be a bitch.

Chapter Text

Rumi was seething. She had not seethed in a long while now, a hot, angry mess pacing to and fro while Jinu watched. 

He’d stopped trying to placate her a while ago, now he stood rooted to the spot in silence. 

Rumi rounded on him again. The third time. It could’ve been the fourth, she wasn’t counting. “I can’t believe you did that! What were you thinking? What was I thinking?!”

Jinu was an idiot. A huge, annoying idiot. 

And now, she might be one too.

More than just being disbelieving of Jinu’s momentary stupidity, Rumi couldn’t believe herself. Questionable decisions had been made based on equally questionable morals.

The hunters had gotten tangled up in Jinu’s little trap. She saw them struggling in that trap. She watched them fight tooth and nail to get out of it, working in tandem, knowing each other like the backs of their hands.

They were like a tornado carving its way through the chaos.

She could see why the demons were having trouble taking them down.

A curious thing had happened then, observing the tandem they worked in, movements so fluid they were like slicing through melted butter. At the very top of Rumi’s spine, a buzzing quietly kicked into motion, making its way down her back, over her shoulders. Down again, to the tips of her fingers.

She chalked it up to anger, in the moment.

And then… then she’d gone and sped up the process and driven the water demons into a frenzy.

Why had she done that?

The hunters were more than capable of taking care of the horde of demons themselves, they had not needed help, they had not needed saving at all. 

Technically, Rumi had not helped them. She had watched them through the slim panel in the door and seen them impressively recover. Waited until she was sure the demons stood no chance.

So no, she hadn’t helped them.

Jinu should’ve known better than to summon so many water demons while there were humans around.

It didn’t change the fact that there was no real reason for Rumi to have done what she had. She could’ve just let the hunters finish the water demons on their own, no need to get involved. 

A low rumble settled at the base of her throat, bubbling there. 

It was because of the normal humans soaking in the hot water. That was it.

By some merciful stroke of luck, Jinu didn’t question her. He waited patiently for her to be done pacing and then spoke up.

“I just want you to know, that idea was all me,” he said, serious. “The others had nothing to do with it.”

Rumi tried to focus on something other than her raging brain cells. “I know. That’s why you’re here and they’re not.”

She had been clear about it from the start, if they stayed out of her way, she would stay out of theirs. Fortunately for them, this was all Jinu.

Said demon heaved a small sigh of relief. 

Jinu stuck around her a lot, most of the time, but when he wasn’t here, he was hanging out with the rest of the Saja Boys. The five of them were close in that way, Rumi could tell, she would catch them goofing around at times. They always sobered up when they saw her watching.

She didn’t like to watch much - What was the point, if they were always careful around her?

When Jinu wasn’t busy keeping up the idol facade, he’d drag her around Seoul to try new things. They’d even hailed a taxi just for the experience. 

Imagine the driver’s shock and horror when Jinu opened the passenger door while the vehicle sped through an intersection.

The very next day, Rumi found herself walking into the bustling underground space of a subway station. She expected some rushing, running to catch the train, maybe. What she didn’t expect, was to bumble into a clothing store not five minutes in.

Turns out, subway stations weren’t solely for public transport. Many tunnels had shops lining the sides, some filled to the brim with K-pop merchandise. Others had mobile phone cases, snacks, clothes, and a whole bunch of other things.

By midday, she had watched a woman burst into tears and break up with her boyfriend. Right there. On the spot. In front of an underground cafe. Why the heck were there cafes down here too? The underground had everything, at this point.

The subway station was a very lively place to be.

The actual train ride itself came later, a welcome break from all the walking they’d done so far.

The clanking of the train wheels vibrated through the floor, a rhythmic, muted rolling as tracks zoomed by.

Every stop the train made, passengers got off, and more got on. There weren’t too many people yet, a few held on to handles attached to metal bars near the roof, or simply attempted to balance while the train car swayed.

“As long as nothing weird happens, this is actually nice.” Rumi sighed, sinking a little further into her seat. It was made of plastic. All of them were.

“I don’t know why we didn’t try this earlier.” Jinu wouldn’t stop peering out the window at the passing buildings. 

To achieve this, he’d twisted a hundred and eighty degrees in his seat. There was a kid across from them side-eyeing him.

They didn’t have a destination in mind. Again, they were doing this for “the experience”, because they were demons and demons knew how to teleport.

“Look at that,” Jinu said, jutting his chin at the phone of the person sitting next to him. 

On the screen, a video was playing. A person facing the camera, moving their shoulders up and down in a single-shouldered shrug that kept on switching sides. Rumi recognised the move as a part of Jinu’s recent choreography. 

The video swiped away. The next one was the same thing, just with a different person.

Soda Pop, Jinu called the song. It had taken off fast.

Just out of curiosity, she chanced a glance down at another phone, a woman sitting on her right. Same dance. In fact, just about every person on this train had their head down, eyes glued to phone screens.

A tunnel enveloped the train car soon after, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling powerful against the near pitch black outside the windows. Rumi let her head fall back against the cool glass of a window, briefly shutting her eyes.

Being on a train was nice. She’d have to do it more often, sit there and watch the world go by, feeling the vibrations of the train tracks through the seat, buzzing lightly over skin.

Hang on a minute.

Rumi’s eyes flew open. She drew herself upright, frowning. She shifted in the seat, leaning forward.

That buzzing… wasn’t coming from the train.

She could feel the train’s rhythm still, churning over and over and passing through the soles of her shoes. 

It wasn’t the train.

Carefully, Rumi scanned the train car. Nothing looked off, or gave off distinctly not-correct vibes, and she couldn’t really see anything outside the windows save for the occasional glow of tunnel lights.

“What’s wrong?” Jinu had noticed.

“Do you feel that?” 

“Feel what? The air conditioning?” 

“What? No. There’s buzzing.”

“The train’s moving, of course there’s buzzing,” Jinu said, confused.

“No,” Rumi said, impatient. “I mean real buzzing. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just there.”

Jinu gave her a once over. “Are you sure you’re not imagining it?”

“I’m not.” She pursed her lips. 

What else could she say to convince Jinu? 

There is strange energy coming from this train car. 

She’d sound like a shaman.

The woman on her right shifted a little further away. The man on Jinu’s left darted his eyes.

Rumi couldn’t even say they were the weird ones because she was starting to think being in the human world was causing her to see things. Or make things up. Or go insane. She glared suspiciously out the windows at the flashes of concrete running past.

“Nevermind.” She huffed and leaned back against the hard plastic of her seat. “It’s probably nothing.”

It’d better be nothing.

A minute went by, she knew from the little screen playing an advertisement above the train doors. The buzzing wouldn’t stop, in fact it had spread from just her back to her front, climbing slowly up her chest. Her eyes were closed in an attempt to determine the source.

Maybe, she thought, in a moment of absurdity, this was a human thing and being in the human world for this long had triggered it. 

A very faint, very light tapping had her perishing the thought in an instant.

“You can’t tell me you don’t hear that.” Rumi turned to Jinu again, determined to make him notice the sound if he hadn’t yet.

“It’s probably just tiny rocks hitting the roof or something, you’re being paranoid again.” Jinu waved an arm dismissively.

Rumi opened her mouth to tell him that no, she wasn’t being paranoid, she wasn’t imagining things, and she was fairly certain that tiny rocks didn’t start raining on train roofs inside a tunnel.

A thump cut in before she could get a word out, metal on metal. More thumping followed, and in the next moment, she watched a streak of purple tumble off what must’ve been the roof of the train. 

“Are you serious?” Rumi eyed the window, half expecting another purple shape to hurtle past.

“Alright, fine, so you weren’t being paranoid.” Jinu conceded.

“What are the Faceless doing here? This is a moving train, for goodness’ sake. I thought this was supposed to be relaxing!”

Said train exited the tunnel at that very moment, tree leaves swaying beyond the windows in blurry greens as if on cue. 

Now might be a good time to start grumping. Faceless demons never moved alone. Ever. Now that she’d already seen one, there were definitely more crawling over the train cars somewhere. 

Rumi cursed internally. Were demons drawn to her, or something? She was not a demon magnet. She was supposed to repel them.

Was that what the buzzing was? Maybe it had been warning her, very nicely, that her peace was about to be rudely interrupted.

“Well, it’s not like they knew we were gonna be crashing the party,” Jinu mused, trailing the thumps on the roof with his eyes, a line of movement.

“Stop it,” Rumi grumbled. “There is no party. If you jinx it, I’m coming after you.”

“Mm…” Jinu hummed. “A little late for that, don’t you think?”

He nodded his head towards the door of their train car, urging her to lean forward so she could see past the threshold.

The car next to them was empty - by that Rumi meant there were no demons - and so was the car next to it, and the next. Only near the front of the train could she just make out a speck of purple.

“No,” she blankly said. “No way. You guys seriously have to pick someplace else to spawn.”

She said it all knowing the Faceless were still too far away for her words to be heard. The small speck of purple was slowly growing into a dot. A messy, writhing dot that was also turning into a distinct mass.

“Great. All the trains available today and they just have to pick this one.”

“Relax,” Jinu said. “We can just teleport out of here.”

Rumi threw the other passengers a quick side glance. None of them seemed to have heard anything. They were completely unresponsive.

“Look at what your song did.” She pointed accusingly at a random phone. The phone’s owner didn’t react. “It’s putting them into a trance. Gwi-ma probably sensed their souls and this is basically a giant buffet.”

Jinu rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry our song is amazing and just that good.”

At this point, Rumi was just thankful that the humans couldn’t hear them. Even if they screamed right in their ears, they wouldn’t hear them.

Well, this was fine. It was just a swarm of Faceless targeting the entire train. Totally fine.

Except it wasn’t. Rumi had already spent all last night dealing with a horde of water demons, today was supposed to be a quiet, demon-free day. And what was that inching down the train cars towards them? 

Oh. Demons.

“I give them ten seconds once they reach this train car to notice us.” Jinu chuckled. Clearly, he was finding this funny. 

Absolutely not. There were plenty of other trains around for them to devour, those demons would have to fight her to get her to move. Or, actually, she could send Jinu to do it for her. 

The idea cycled around for a while. Technically, he didn’t have to, but also technically, his song was the one causing this. Yeah, this was a Jinu problem.

“Hey.”

Jinu was watching the Faceless mass advance. He made a one-eighty to face her. As soon as he did, Rumi could see the suspicion creeping into his narrowing eyes. Her cheeks were getting a little stretchy, she might’ve been grinning.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing,” Rumi cheerfully said, getting up.”

“What are you doing?” Jinu tracked her carefully.

Instead of answering directly, Rumi stretched her arm towards his shoulder, placing it there. 

Jinu’s gaze darted anxiously from her hand, to her face. “Rumi what-”

She lit his jacket on fire.

The tiny flame whooshed to life in a burst of pink, dancing along the fabric.

“What the hell?!” Jinu yelped, swiping at it, frantically trying to put it out. “Why the jacket?!”

Rumi watched the flame continue to spread. It didn’t matter how much smothering Jinu tried to do, he’d never be able to extinguish it. It wouldn’t hurt him, though, it wasn’t capable of spreading further than she wanted it to. It was more like… giving him a heart attack. 

Considering the bathhouse last night, she’d call it even.

“Relax,” she told him, mimicking the drawl he’d used earlier. “You’ll be fine.”

“Okay?” Jinu continued smacking the pink travelling over his clothes. He did not sound very okay. “So why did you just set me on fire?”

“Apart from the fact that it’s funny?” Rumi snickered, earning herself a glare. “I’m using you as a guinea pig.”

“Wow,” Jinu's sarcasm was thick. “Thanks for having no filter. It is such an honour.”

“You’re welcome.”

His face twisted. 

Rumi grabbed him by the hoodie before he could say anything else, one hand on either side of his folded down hood, dragging him to his feet. 

“Woah.” Jinu’s eyes widened in surprise as his weight lifted off his seat, caught off-guard. He found his footing quickly.

The flames were down to his knees now, wrapping around him like a glove. 

“You’re going to set the whole train on fire.” Jinu stared at his reflection in the window. 

Rumi spun him around to check on his back. The flames had reached all the way behind him.

“Perfect.” She nodded in satisfaction.

The look Jinu shot her was as incredulous as it was confused. A string of protestations began streaming from his mouth.

The next thing she did was to grab him - again - and shove him towards the sliding door.

“-What’s so perfect about me being on fire-?”

The sensor picked up on his burning figure as he stumbled across the threshold. 

Silently, Rumi watched, counting down the seconds until the Faceless got close enough.

Normally, when dealing with blind demons, she’d just do something so stupidly loud that it was impossible to miss, and while it worked like a charm, sending Jinu was way funnier. She could see him muttering to himself as he stood there, then stormed ahead.

The thumping of… something on the roof seemed to move with him, somehow, surging overhead. Which… was definitely weird and completely in the wrong direction when the Faceless were coming from the front.

She wouldn’t be getting into that right now. 

Even if whatever was up there had to be a little too heavy for a Faceless. Probably another type of demon.

Speaking of Faceless, Jinu had almost reached them. They hadn’t yet noticed him stalking up to them, what with having no eyes and all. Knowing him, he’d wave his arms around and yell at the top of his lungs. 

Sure enough, Jinu entered the next car at the same time as the Faceless, on opposite ends, screaming something. All Rumi could hear was the distant echo of his voice bouncing off the train’s insides, the rest of it muffled by layers upon layers of closed doors.

A few Faceless closest to him picked up on the shouting immediately, heads cocking upward while they attempted to recognise Jinu’s voice. The problem was the ones right behind, who hadn’t stopped to properly listen.

Rumi snorted when the swarm of purple swept right past Jinu like he wasn’t there. He turned around, indignance written across every inch of his face, only to be thrown off balance by more Faceless colliding with his back.

There were a couple of flailing limbs as the demons made contact with the fire still spreading along Jinu’s person, burning away into smoky wisps. Otherwise, the swarm buried him in seconds, squashing him beneath the tangle of arms and legs.

Rumi allowed herself just another moment to appreciate the situation at hand. The Faceless horde, now swelling around Jinu’s burning body, hesitated as if pushing against an invisible barrier. The heavy thumping on the roof hadn’t gone any further, either, apparently unable to proceed.

One thing she could be sure of, there was definitely someone up there. Perhaps more than one, judging by the number of simultaneous footsteps she was picking up on. There was another, much heavier set of feet as well, something much larger. Filling the spaces was a messy cacophony of light pattering with no rhythm whatsoever.

What was it humans liked to call these situations? Straight out of a horror movie, or something? There was even the whole “light getting blocked out” thing going on with the Faceless plastered on the window panes. 

Oh well.

Shrugging lightly, she made her way over to where she knew Jinu was getting trampled. When she was close enough, she let the air in her lungs sit and stir before letting it out in one smooth, whispering sigh.

A narrow wave shot forward, fanning out the further it went, grabbing hold of any demon unlucky enough to be caught in its grasp. The path before her cleared on its own, a narrow lane splitting down the train’s centre.

With an entire chunk ripped out of the horde, the remaining Faceless sensed the change almost immediately. If they didn’t, then they’d certainly heard it. And while Faceless didn’t have faces, the panic taking hold of them was unmistakable.

It was with a collective effort that the entire horde dug in their claws and frantically began to backtrack. Overhead, the largest footsteps stumbled, turned, and retreated the way they came.

The blanket of dark purple peeled back bit by bit, eventually revealing Jinu, spreadeagled on the floor, chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. 

The wheels of the train kept turning, the only audible sound filling the spaces in the train cars. 

Rumi went up to him, leaning forward so that she was in his line of sight. She’d be upside-down to him. 

“Hi.”

She gave him a little wave, extinguishing the flames at the same time.

Jinu didn’t respond, gazing up at the ceiling. His clothes were horribly crumpled, his hair tousled.

“Bye,” he said after a beat. “You did that to get back at me.”

“You’re right,” Rumi readily confirmed. “You also deserved it.”

Jinu lifted his head off the floor to assess his clothes. “At least I still have my shoes.”

Rumi scoffed. “When have I ever lied to you about fire? Come on, let’s go sit down before these people wake up.”

She gestured around them as she spoke. The passengers would be coming out of their trances soon, and she was mostly positive that lying on the train floor wasn’t normal.

“Is this where I bring up that one time you told me I could touch a stove?” Jinu quipped as he hauled himself up.

Rumi turned to walk back to their seats. “That’s purely on you. That grandma told you it was on. Just because you didn’t see any flames didn’t mean it wasn’t hot.”

“Modern people keep coming up with weird things,” Jinu dismissively said. “Why would anyone not want to know if the stove is on?”

It didn’t take long for them to settle back into their seats, agreeing to get off the train at the next station.

“My beautiful hair,” Jinu mourned, picking at a lock of it. He fixed it in a single snap, the click sharp in the air.

Rumi merely hummed in acknowledgement. She’d like to say that with the Faceless taken care of, all was well, but she couldn’t. 

The truth was, she could still feel that same, incessant buzzing from earlier. Now it had spread over her shoulders and halfway down her arms, stirring in the pit of her stomach.

She still didn’t know why she felt it. If not because of the Faceless, then what?