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Upon discovering his soul lingering in her sword, Rumi’s mission was a simple one: Get Jinu out of there. The ‘How’ of it was more complicated, but if he got in there, surely there had to be a way to pull him out.
Credit where credit is due, Rumi did succeed. Jinu popped out of her sword after two months of on and off attempts.
Just… Not the Jinu she expected.
—
It’s been harder to blend in with patterns on her face. Her hair could at least be covered up with a simple hood, but the patterns? Even concealer was dubious at best.
Rumi manages anyways. Thankfully, today’s outing is a relatively quick one thanks to the magic of delivery apps having the option to pick up the food at an allotted time. Carrying four bags of food from four different places is probably excessive for two people but whatever they don’t eat, Mira and Zoey will. Not to mention, Rumi… Doesn’t know what he likes. He was really unhelpful— said he’d ‘Eat anything’ and she really didn’t need to spend any money on him.
Unfortunately for him, that only made Rumi want to spend more on him.
She finds him where she left him, on the roof of their tower, staring down at one of the billboards down before. Rumi can’t blame him; it must be pretty weird to see a version of yourself you don’t remember being.
“Hey, I’m back.” Rumi says as a way of greeting. Jinu startles, then tries to pretend like he didn’t. His reply is cut off as he stares at the four bags of takeout in her hands.
“Uh.” His voice takes a high pitched and strained edge. “Is that… All food?”
“Yep.” Rumi waves him over to the blanket she laid out earlier. She decided they would eat outside after seeing how obviously overwhelmed Jinu seemed by their living room alone. Between the obvious display of wealth and unthinkable technology, the roof seemed like the better option. Still a lot but… Better.
The Jinu in front of her isn’t the one she knows. Not exactly. He’s… One she’s only heard of. The one Jinu himself hates.
Rumi can tell he’s the one from the palace. His clothes are on the nicer side, though still plain. He’s cleaner. Still thin but his cheeks are more filled out. He seemed to think she was yangban or royalty earlier. She’s not sure he’s stopped, actually.
The amount of food she brought back with her probably doesn’t help.
He sits across from her, but only at her insistence. This Jinu seems uncomfortable being on equal ground with her, like he thinks she’s trying to catch him doing something he's not supposed to. He sits stiffly, back perfectly straight, not quite looking at her but instead watching with increasing concern as Rumi opens up and displays all their food.
She didn’t know what to get him, so Rumi got as much as she could justify.
“These are fish cakes, you’re meant to dip it in this sauce but you can do whatever you want.” Rumi tells him. “That’s beef, that’s pork, and that’s chicken. I didn’t know if you had a preference. This is fried and filled with cheese— my manager loves these. If you like sweets, these are filled with brown sugar or chocolate depending on which you want, and this is just pure, melted sugar. I also got kimbap— that’s a favorite of mine.”
Jinu stares at her like a deer in headlights. Right, maybe she’s not helping with the whole ‘Overwhelmed by the modern world’ thing.
Rumi holds her hands up. “Eat whatever you want! Whatever looks good. As much as you want. Seriously.”
After a long pause, Jinu wets his lips. “You didn’t have to do all this.”
“You said you were hungry.”
“I… Did.” He rubs his face. Rumi recognizes the look of mild regret on him. “I can have anything?”
“Anything. All of it, if you really want. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t want to throw up, though.”
For almost a solid minute, Jinu does nothing. Then he seems to decide he has nothing to lose and picks up some dak-kkochi, biting into one of the pieces of chicken. His eyes go so wide that Rumi thinks it’s going to pop out of his head. He chews slowly, otherwise frozen in place. It’s only when he finally swallows that Rumi decides to speak up.
“How is it?”
“…I’ve decided,” Jinu says slowly, “This is a dream. Or you’re a dokkaebi who’s fattening me up so I’m tastier to eat later.”
Rumi glances down at the skewer in his hand and back again. “And in that scenario, you’re accepting the fact that you’re going to be eaten?”
“At least I get a last meal out of it.” Is his reply. “Better to be eaten alive on a full belly than to die starving to death.”
Abruptly, Rumi’s blood goes ice cold, because she knows Jinu is intimately aware of what the pains of starving to death feels like. Swallowing thickly, she gestures to everything. “I told you, I’m a Hunter and I care about you. I’m not going to eat you, so… Eat as much as you want.”
Obliging her, he takes another bite. “This is so… Rich. How do you expect to eat all of this?”
“Guess I’m used to it.” She opts for a pork galbi skewer and takes a bite. Jinu keeps his head down but he is eating, so… It’s a win, however minor.
“You’re taking this pretty well.” Rumi decides to tell him. Whatever notions Jinu has about what he thinks she is are briefly abandoned as he shoots her a look like she’s lost her mind.
“…I fully blacked out at least ten minutes after arriving here.” He says slowly. Rumi winces to herself— yeah, okay, he did have a bit of a panic attack, but it could’ve been worse. She tells Jinu as much. It earns a short, huffed laugh out of him. “I guess it could be.”
“Anyone would panic.” Rumi reasons. “All things considered, you’re pretty reasonable for that. You seem to be doing much better now?”
Jinu doesn’t reply to that, not quite agreeing nor disagreeing. He twists the skewer in his hand and glances over his shoulder before he finally asks a question of his own. “You said the ‘Other me’ that you knew was revered?”
“Pretty highly revered." Some of the Saja Boys hype has died down but there are still plenty of hardcore fans out there. If they came back with a new single or album, Rumi is pretty sure they could regain some of that hype back.
“And I’m in a group.” He continues. “The ‘Saja Boys’. A pun on the demon thing?” Rumi nods. She never told him before but admittedly, it is kinda clever. “And the other four..?”
Here, Rumi internally winces. They had a handful of meetings and maybe Rumi should’ve asked more questions but there was always something more pressing at hand. She doesn’t know what the deal with the other Saja Boys is. She doesn't know if they were friends or if Jinu only met them recently, or anything in between.
“They were… Other demons.” Rumi says slowly. “I didn’t get to properly talk to them, or ask you about them.” We killed them too. I’m sorry if they were your friends. Maybe they can come back too. And if they were enemies, then we can handle them the same way we did before.
Jinu nods, accepting that. He takes another bite of his food, then immediately covers his mouth with his free hand, eyes wide again like he forgot how it tasted the first time.
“Every day?” He seems to blurt out before he can stop himself, shooting a look at Rumi. “You eat like this every day?”
“Not exactly this but… Yeah. And you can too.”
There’s disbelief on his face at first, then discomfort. “I, ah… Appreciate your kindness, truly. It’s more than I deserve. But I’m not in the business of making any more deals.”
“Not a deal.” Rumi says quickly. “A favor.”
He’s even more taken off guard by the idea. “A favor?”
“You don’t know me, but I know you. Or, a version of you at least. And you don’t know this world very well, so no offense, but I don’t think you’d last.” Jinu’s gaze flickers away, clearly believing the same thing. “I don’t want to trap you here. I don’t need you to do anything for me. But I’d like to keep you safe. You didn’t ask for this, you got thrown into it, so let me try to make it up to you. Okay?”
Jinu’s fingers drum against his knee as he thinks about that. He exhales after some time. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
“You do, just… Not a lot of good ones.” Rumi agrees, apologic. “I’ll try to make you as comfortable as possible here.”
“I appreciate that.” Jinu replies. If nothing else, it sounds honest.