// EMERGENCE. //

Jinu wasn’t really entirely concerned or curious about the Hunters. They’ve been thwarting Gwi-ma’s plans for years, even more years before he became a demon. 

But Gwi-ma’s talking about them again. If it wasn’t bad enough that he could hear Gwi-ma’s voice inside his head, propelling a continuous cycle of bad memories, it was even worse to continue hearing him roaring and complaining in the Underworld. 

So, naturally, Jinu becomes curious.

As a demon under Gwi-ma’s control, though he can’t control their every move, he vaguely knows where each demon is. He’s not too concerned about it when he slices a rift in the Honmoon, gathering enough strength to cross to the other side. He makes sure to take on a more human form—fewer patterns, and colors—and roams around the streets of Seoul.

The Hunters, or as the masses call them, HUNTR/X , have taken over on a worldwide scale. Their posters, billboards, and ads were everywhere, and even people who passed by him were talking about them. He stares at a nearby poster plastered on a wall of a building. 

Three girls and more than seven centuries later, Gwi-ma is still unable to get rid of them.

Three girls and more than seven centuries later, the Honmoon still isn’t gold.

More than 400 years later and Jinu is still being plagued by the memories of his mother and sister.

Jinu clicks his tongue and rips the paper from the wall, disappearing within the Honmoon.

// ORCHESTRATED. //

Jinu isn’t that worried about catching the Hunters’ attention, after all, being hunters and them, being demons, of course, a Hunter would immediately recognize them.

Still. It isn’t a bad idea to get their attention from the get-go.

Which is why they’re here now, walking past the Hunters, whose eyes couldn’t look away from them. It’s a smug and ego-boosting feeling, but Jinu stays quiet, watching as the two Hunters look at the other demon men like they were eye candy. Most of them were, anyway. His eyes scan the three girls, intrigued by the purple-haired woman next to them.

She’s staring at him dumbly. Jinu finds himself liking it and, as planned, intentionally bumps his shoulder against hers. She falls sloppily, surprisingly, and funnily enough, so do her packs of… medicine? Jinu isn’t too sure, so he makes Mystery grab one, unbeknownst to the girls.

In pretense, he stretches out his hand to her, who appears to be getting ready to accept his hand.

He completely shuts it down, brushing off the nonexistent dust on his shoulder. “Aish,” he eyes her with a roll of his eyes and walks away. “Watch yourself,” were his first words to the girl, which weren’t in his internal script at all.

The gasp of indignation from the girl has him smirking the whole way to the central market. 

“Watch your…? Watch yourself ! Ugh. Look at this mess!”

She’s dumb, is his first thought about her. He’s amused, that he can give her.

She’s funny, is his next thought about her when he sees her from within the crowd as they perform Soda Pop. He takes this moment to drink the medicine he had snatched from them. The girl fumes, which Jinu would have enjoyed if it weren’t for the confusing taste of grape on his tongue.

She’s cute, is his last thought before they disappear, when he sees the girl frowning and glaring with a scrunched nose and bunched up shoulders.

Too bad he’s a demon and she’s a hunter.

// PROVOKED. //

The next time he and the Saja Boys see the Hunters, Jinu has completely memorized their entire existence. The shorter girl was Zoey, and the one with long pink hair was Mira. Their leader, whom he had messed with just earlier in the day, was Rumi. It’s funny, Jinu thinks, hearing the girls’ shushed conversation and sneaking steps behind the stage as they continue with the variety show.

The entire variety show is honestly stupid, at least to Jinu. Seems like the other Saja Boys are just willingly going with his plans, which is fine enough; it makes planning easy with them being cooperative. Baby apparently has a high spicy tolerance. It’s a weird thing to know about a fellow demon.

Jinu glances behind to where the Hunters are and is immediately granted the chance to embarrass them. 

It goes well, and if it weren’t for his current image as an idol, he would have laughed out loud.

They run away before the Hunters are even aware.

Just as expected, the Hunters follow them into the bathhouse. 

“Oh, wow,” Jinu greets them, a smirk on his face. It’s amusing to see them startled. “Did you really follow us in here?”

Abby– one of the demons he somehow managed to coerce into this concoction of a plan– said something. But everything feels distant the moment Jinu locks eyes with Rumi. 

He just knows she’s going to be a pain in their asses for a while.

Which gets proven just seconds later when Jinu unleashes the water demons on the Hunters. As expected, Rumi goes after him. She’s fast, with the way she’s swinging her sword at him nonstop. Jinu thinks, if he were another normal human being, he would have been sliced already. Then again, if he were human, Rumi would have no reason to run after him.

Her sword swings closer to his face. “Woah! Mind the face!” He barely dodges another one, albeit using teleportation this time. “I need it to steal your fans.”

The Hunter doesn’t reply to his taunt. Figures.

Instead of continuing to dodge, he takes on his demonic form, attacking the Hunter. He might not have had formal training in fighting, but every demon has the urge to kill Hunters, as if Gwi-ma’s hatred itself was within them, motivating them to do so. 

He gets a good scratch–at least he thinks so– tearing out a part of her leather suit. There is anIt’s tough; the material is made to withstand the barest scratch from a demon. In return, she gets a good kick at him, trapping him under her blade.

She’s strong. Exceptionally strong. A strength you can expect from a Hunter, especially a descendant of the Sunlight Sisters, the previous Hunters. Jinu used to watch Gwi-ma throw a tantrum because of those sisters, starving and hungry for many years, until now.

“You’re strong,” and beautiful, Jinu’s mouth almost slips. Up close, with the shine of her sword, underneath her, Jinu feels almost as if he were alive. That is, until his eyes stray away from her face, attention focused on the familiar patterns on her arms. He gasps out of surprise, which makes her follow his gaze.

It’s almost slow motion – the way her face turns from angry to a horrifying realization. She backs away willingly when he pushes her. She’s scared, Jinu knows, but he can’t help but stare at the similar purple marks. “A Hunter…who’s part demon ?”

She looks at him, pitiful and scared. She nearly seemed to be pleading.

The wall collapses before that could happen.

It’s her friends–struggling to stop the onslaught of water demons he sicced on them. Any other time, he would have smiled in glee, but as he watched Rumi appear much more terrified than she had just been, Jinu moved. He doesn’t know what made him do it.

He grabs a bath towel from the ground, enveloping Rumi in his arms to shield her from her friends’ gazes. He wraps her arm as fast as he can and disappears.

He’s transported just outside the bathhouse. He doesn’t know where the other Saja Boys went to but he has a hunch. Unfortunately for them, he doesn’t feel like seeing Gwi-ma anytime soon.

Unfortunately for him, however, he has no time to think about Rumi’s demonic patterns.

He faces Gwi-ma and has an urge to glare at him.

The demon king almost sounds proud. Jinu decides right then and there that he despises it.

As he watches the souls come one by one, his stomach twists.

He shouldn’t– he’s made a deal with the demon king. The Hunters cannot do anything about the voices in his head, nor erase his past mistakes. Right now, all he can do is lure them in and break them apart.

What a way they would go, Jinu thinks, imagining the same horrified face on Rumi.

His chest almost hurts.

With a stroke of his brush, he writes a letter for Rumi.

It’s informal and direct–probably the kind of messages Rumi likes.

He almost laughs. How should he greet her later?

// INVITED. //

The sun is closer to rising than falling when Jinu sees the shadow of both the tiger and the crow, along with Rumi’s shadow…who, if it were anyone else, would say it was stealthy. Unfortunately for Rumi, Jinu has made his preparations. Just thinking about it almost makes him cackle in glee. He wonders how she would react. Fortunately for him, he doesn’t have to wonder about it for too long.

He watches silently, hidden in the shadows, as Rumi comes up around the corner. She’s wearing a worn-out hoodie and…pajama pants, ones that had bears and trains. It looked weird and strangely endearing. She barely makes a sound, and he watches in wonder as she expertly cuts his neck. Well. The mannequin’s neck. She basically beheaded him. He shivers. Thankfully, he hadn’t been standing in the position where the mannequin was. 

“Wow,” Jinu watches as the headless mannequin falls off the roof. “I wasn’t expecting a hug, but–” He sees her advancing at the corner of his eyes, and he immediately backs off when her sword comes up right in front of him. 

He raises his hands, hoping to look innocent enough. “Jeez. Okay, okay, calm down.” He jumps away from her, watching in amusement as Rumi grits her teeth and glares at him.

“I thought the mannequin was gonna be a fun ice breaker, but I see I was wrong–” He jumps again, this time trying to dodge the relentless slashing and swinging. 

“Whoa, whoa !” Jinu only manages to barely move away. “Hey. Hey ! I just wanna talk.”

She follows him flawlessly on another rooftop. “ Talk ?” Incredulous is the right word for her tone. In fact, she almost sounds offended at the mention of talking with each other. Jinu supposes it’s normal; if there was one thing that was well-known within the Underworld, it was the fact that hunters only knew how to kill demons, definitely not conversing with them.

Jinu raised an eyebrow, hands still in the air. “About your patterns?”

“Uh, but first, I wanna talk about those pants,” he points down at her pajamas. She's looking down at where he's pointing, looking astonished and confused.

He grins. “Teddy bears and choo-choo trains? Really?” She gazes up at him, confused. Jinu has this urge to hold her face in his hands. 

“ Choo-choo, ” Jinu knows he’s about to see her sword swinging again with the way he’s teasing her.

Rumi immediately swings her sword down, even more enraged. “You were supposed to be dead by now!” 

“Whoa!” He stands back. “Hey!”

Jinu stops her, not expecting her to do so, as she swings again. “I could’ve told your friends what you are.”

He teleports to the other side. “But I didn’t, did I?” 

“Because…” he looks up, watching fear cross her face. “They don’t know.”

The shock and hesitant expression on her face makes him grin. She tightens her grip around the hilt of her sword, eyes calculating his every step and gauging the distance between them. She gasps, and Jinu grins, knowing he was completely correct. “Ah,” he watches as she moves opposite him, her face contorted in a terrifying glare and frown. “I did guess right.”

“A demon girl, also a Hunter, hiding, walking around free in the human world,” as he says these words, it gives him a bit of time to think. He knows of pure-blood demons– ones who were created by Gwi-ma, born as a demon from the very start– and of demons like him, the forged ones– demons who were made and lured into being demons by Gwi-ma, who used their egos and shame to make them, but never a half-demon and half-human.

Jinu wasn’t even aware demons could… copulate . With humans.

“Just Hunter!” Rumi almost sneers her next words. “ Not demon.”

She’s still in denial. Jinu looks at her. “Then how’d you get the patterns?”

Her reply is immediate and cold. “That’s none of your business.”

It might not be his business, he thinks. But he wants it to be. “Huh,” he answers, scoffing in disbelief.

“I know what it feels like to have them–” Jinu thinks of all the times the patterns have done nothing but harm. Whenever Gwi-ma summons him, whenever he is plagued by his words, and whenever he takes on his demon form and remembers he, like the rest of the demons under Gwi-ma, are nothing but tools for him to feed on. 

“Feel?” She’s saying it in the same tone again: incredulous, disbelieving, and mocking. “You’re a demon . Demons don’t feel anything .”

Jinu feels both surprised and offended by her statement. “Is that what you think?” It was obvious it was, with the way she was looking at him, firm and cold. “That’s all demons do. Feel .”

“Feel our shame. Our misery. It’s how Gwi-ma controls us.” Jinu thinks he can let a bit of truth slide. Just a bit. Rumi appears to be less guarded, clinging onto every word he’s saying. “Do you not hear him in your ear?”

She’s clueless. She doesn’t know anything. She was a half-demon who could not be controlled by Gwi-ma. Jinu would give everything just to be in her place.

“You’re lucky.” And she was, is lucky. Jinu has forgotten the feeling of never hearing Gwi-ma in his mind and ears. The only things he had were the memories of his family, his past mistakes, and his guilt. 

So, of course, the natural thing to do here is to tell his sob story.

By the time he finishes recounting the events, albeit a bit skewed, just to gain her trust, he wants to cringe. It’s too close to the truth; too close to the sin he committed. 

Jinu glares at the marks that covered his hands. “ These are a constant reminder of my shame. A shame I can never escape.”

The Hunter has dropped her sword, and her body language and expression seem to convey both uneasiness and skepticism. It’s exactly what he needs from her. As he approaches her, she remains motionless before turning away from him. He steps closer, hesitant. She still hasn’t let go of her sword, and Jinu has come too far for him to be sliced with a Hunter’s magical sword.

As if experimentally, he reaches out his hand. Rumi stays still, her eyes accompanying his every move with furrowed eyebrows. 

His touch lights up her patterns– “Yours are a reminder, too. Of a shame of your own.”

“You don’t know me.”

She was right; he doesn’t. 

“I’m nothing like you.”

She’s right, again. She was everything demons were not.

Somewhere deep inside, Jinu is relieved that she wasn’t a demon like them. And, somewhere deep inside, Jinu wants to know more about her.

// DELIBERATE. // 

Jinu doesn’t know what the point of Music Shows is, honestly.

Apparently, it takes weeks for K-pop idols to promote their new songs.

If Jinu weren’t a demon, he would have felt physically tired from all the performances they’ve had to do this past week. The only things that amused him here were Rumi and the fact that everyone was asking where their manager was and if it was possible for them to contact one another. Funnily enough, no one asked about their lack of bodyguards and make-up team. 

In the first week, they’ve had three performances. Thankfully, the other Saja Boys didn’t look tired.

As if they would be. Jinu was the one who stayed up all night with his bipa , writing their next hit.

“So, every week, there will be one winner?” Romance asks, curious. 

Jinu stares at him, deadpan. “I told you guys about it. We had an entire meeting.”

“No need to get snippy,” Abby says, playing with a ball he snatched from some other group’s room. “I tuned you out most of the time.”

Jinu pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yes, there will be a winner every week.”

“How long do we have to do this?” Mystery asks silently, sitting perfectly still on the sofa provided. 

“I don’t know,” Jinu sighs. Even though he promised Gwi-ma that it would be soon, he clearly means when Rumi finally accepts his offer to meet. He wishes he knew how they could buy a phone – when you’re a demon who’s working an idol without a single company backer, you’re basically broke. It’s not like Rumi would give him her phone number, either.

“It’ll be finished soon, it’ll be fine–”

“Oh, there they are.” Romance points at the television right in front of them. It’s HUNTR/X. 

They’re performing Golden.

Rumi shines like no other.

He hears a laugh from one of the boys. “You’re doing it again.”

Jinu blinks, not realizing he had been staring at the television screen for the entirety of the performance, only realizing that it was already finished. He whips his head at them, glaring at the matching smirks on Romance and Abby’s faces. Saja was playing on a phone– how did he get a phone?

“What?” Annoyed, Jinu turns back to his sheet of lyrics. 

Romance hums. “Which one did he like again? Is it our dear Mira?”

Jinu thinks Mira would rather punch the living daylights out of them than listen to them say their name. Jinu stays silent, scratching and writing in the lyrics. 

Abby laughs. “No, no, I think it’s that cute little girl. Zoey.”

Of course, Mystery perks up like a dog at Zoey’s name.

“No, no,” Romance shakes his head, sounding pitiful. Jinu promptly ignores it, glaring at the piece of paper in his hand. “I think it’s their leader… what’s her name again?”

“Yeah, Jinu,” Abby says, teasingly, with a grin. “What’s that girl’s name? The one with the long braids? The half-demon?”

He admits, he might have glared at Abby while he said that.

“Rumi,” Romance purrs, getting into his space. Jinu elbows him, even though he knows he probably won’t feel it. Romance stays firm near him, putting an arm around him. Abby joins their crowd.

Mystery sighs as the two start goading him.

Jinu almost thanks every god in the sky when a staff member knocks on their door. The staff pokes their head in, none the wiser. “Awarding in five minutes. Please get ready to enter the stage.”

Sighing, Jinu stood up. “Act normal. We gotta attend the awarding part of this show.”

“Ooh,” Romance replies, unwarranted. “I hope we win.”

Abby almost cackles out loud. “Can you imagine their faces?”

They do win. 

“This week’s winner is Soda Pop by the Saja Boys!”

Jinu’s surprised himself. A week-old boy group beating a sunbae ? A very famous and popular one at that?

Jinu smirks at Rumi, who only gives him the stink eye. Was that enough to make Rumi accept his invitation to meet?

A few days later, Tiger comes back to him with the same invitation letter he had given him. He sighs. He hopes they win the next one.

“And this week’s winner is Golden by HUNTR/X!”

They don’t win. The looks on the girls' faces are both amusing and funny, especially Rumi, who looks at him with a smug smile and tall shoulders. Jinu thinks it’s almost cute. Almost. Except the plan is foiled again, and not everything is cute when Gwi-ma keeps summoning him, asking for progress.

HUNTR/X holds a fan meet. 

Jinu thinks this is the best time to test her patience. He drags the other Saja Boys at night, giving them sleeping bags so as not to attract any attention or rouse any suspicion from any of the Hunters. While Romance and Abby are chatters, seemingly incapable of shutting their mouths, Jinu is half grateful that Mystery and Baby barely talk.

Jinu can almost imagine the disbelief and anger on Rumi’s face.

It brings out a laugh from him.

Mystery nudges him. “Are you thinking about your Hunter again?”

Jinu elbows his face. 

Romance and Abby laugh out loud. Even Baby lets out a little laugh.

Once they’re inside, Jinu is filled with glee. Evil glee. Glee that demons feel. Whatever.

Rumi looks stunning — the thought invades his mind like no other. She looks the same, with the same braid and accessories, but Jinu hasn’t seen her in a few days, only sneaking a few glances from Baby’s stolen phone. 

Jinu calms down.

“And who should I make this out to?”

The Hunters were definitely not happy to see them. Well, at least Jinu thinks so. But he can hear the other Hunter—the short one—giggling over Mystery.

Jinu immediately takes his seat beside Rumi. She’s frowning. 

“I didn’t think you liked sharing,” He makes sure to whisper, wary of the numerous fans in front of them.

Rumi barely glances at him, busying herself with signatures. “I love sharing.”

“Oh, so you shared your secret with your friends?” At the mention of her friends, Rumi sneaks a look across the table, quickly assessing if the other two girls had heard what he said. Jinu grins. He’s purposely being quiet, even though he knows it would be easier to reveal Rumi’s secret now, but it’s not time yet.

Jinu follows her gaze. Mira’s busy cussing out Romance and Abby. Romance winks at him when their eyes meet. He promptly ignores it. Zoey’s stealing glances at Mystery and Baby is… dutifully signing the posters. “Should I tell them?”

Rumi glares at him, puffing her cheeks out in a pout. “No, I’m gonna tell them… Eventually.” She murmurs the last one, perturbed by his behavior. Jinu finds himself enjoying how ruffled her feathers are.

But of course, whispering next to each other has its consequences. The fans notice. He notices the distance between them, too, but he doesn’t acknowledge it, not when Rumi’s shoulder feels warm against his. 

“You can’t even talk about your patterns–” Not when even her stomping his feet has him laughing out of disbelief and pain. 

“You wanna talk about my patterns? I hate them. Just like how I hate all demons! How I hate Gwi-ma.” Rumi looks furious and honest, but she’s not mad at him, not at all. 

They have one thing in common, at least: their hatred for Gwi-ma. He almost feels sorry for her. He’s had 400 years to accept his demonic nature, and while his hatred for both Gwi-ma and his existence knows no bounds, he has learned how to get used to it.

Jinu looks at her, pitiful. “If hate could defeat Gwi-ma, I would have done it a long time ago. Trust me.” He knows he’s throwing around the word trust, but he lets himself be honest. Even just today. Even if every time they meet, all he’s done is spit honesty.

Rumi almost looks taken aback by his words. As if she couldn’t believe he hated Gwi-ma.

A small girl hands him a paper. He stares at it.

“Maybe , ” Rumi leans in, even closer than they were before. “Listen to those voices, instead of the ones in your head.” She’s smiling– and… Jinu can’t take it anymore.

Jinu, you have a beautiful soul.

Yeah, right . He leaves with a bitter taste in his mouth.

// INEVITABLE. //

The next time they see each other, it’s in… a sports event. 

“ISAC? What is that?” Mystery asks, somehow feeling talkative after meeting with the Hunters a few days ago at their fan signing event.

“Idol Star Athletic Championships,” Jinu answers reflexively and automatically. The other boys have been asking him, too, so he wasn’t surprised when Mystery asked. 

Romance sighs. “This is not my forte.”

Jinu doesn’t know how he does it, but he puts a stop to the incoming imaginary migraines that demons definitely cannot have. “It’s just sports. Do what I told you to do, and we can agitate them more.”

The tiger and the crow have been coming back empty-handed. At least regarding a reply from Rumi. He knows the life of an idol is busy and difficult, but was one meeting too much to ask? Tiger has also been disappearing as of late, and Jinu knows exactly where they are. The thought of the tiger and the crow knowing more about Rumi scratches him weirdly.

The crowd welcomes the Saja Boys warmly. Jinu sees Rumi before their group gets announced. Her striking purple hair is tied in its usual braid, and funnily enough, their trackwear is similar to the pajamas he’s seen her with. It’s almost comical. 

They line up right next to them. Jinu pushes Abby back further in their line, matching the same position as Rumi. Rumi glances at him, glares, then looks away with a frown. Jinu can’t talk, not when Mira’s throwing daggers at him. Zoey’s… busy. Looking at Mystery. Jinu ignores that, just as he has been ignoring most of the Saja Boys these days. He still has a song to finish.

The Saja Boys and HUNTR/X are separated. Jinu steals a glance at Rumi, who’s happily waving at their fans.

For a while, the Saja Boys focused on their assigned sports. Jinu isn’t surprised that they’re winning the relays, walks, and hurdles. After all, no human except the Hunters could beat a demon. He and the other boys have also gotten into the habit of checking the HUNTR/X girls’ reactions each time they win. The girls are fuming and glaring at them so openly that Jinu wonders how the fans could ever miss those glances. 

Rumi’s eyes meet his. 

She’s not glaring, and Jinu thinks this might be the perfect time to steal her away. Jinu winks at her.

She looks away, her ears resembling a deep red.

The Hunters also win some other sports, completely dominating the aerobic and rhythmic segments. 

During the archery segment, they still continue to be in separate courts, but the courts are close enough for him to see Rumi absolutely crushing it. Rumi’s acing each and every shot with her bow, and Jinu thinks he’d rather sit in his chair and watch her do the entire segment without moving. 

Baby nudges him. 

Jinu sighs. It’s his turn. Unsurprisingly, the target was almost empty, save for the attempted shot from Abby in the far left corner. The other arrows were on the ground. Jinu expected this; even if they were demons, they couldn’t learn archery in a single week. 

Maybe for them, but Jinu had enough experienced sneaking out of his rooms too many times to count to join the drinking parties of the nearby soldiers within the palace back in his time. He’s had the displeasure of holding every single weapon available at that time, even archery. 

He pulls the string back and breathes. 

He gets a 9.

His eyes seek Rumi almost immediately. 

Rumi’s glaring at him with hunched shoulders and a scowl on her pretty face. Jinu grins. Rumi pointed at the target Mira was currently shooting at and pointed at herself, as if saying, Watch and learn. Jinu could almost hear her voice.

Of course, he’s not as good as Rumi, who was trained in the arts of Demon Hunters. While Jinu knows her talent with the sword, Rumi looks just as gorgeous wielding a bow. If she were born 400 years ago, she would have had enough talent to be recognized by the king. 

During a long break, Jinu meets Rumi’s eyes. He nods to an empty entrance hallway. Rumi gives him a doubtful look, eyeing him suspiciously. Jinu moves first, telling the other Saja Boys that he was going to the bathroom. He doesn’t look back to see if Rumi is following. She can follow when she’s ready.

She appears five minutes later, disgruntled and uncomfortable.

“What do you want?” She looks cute, grumbling. Jinu almost doesn’t want to talk.

We need to talk about your patterns. And if you want to join us , that's what he had practiced to say to her. “Tiger’s been a bit sad you haven’t been letting him inside,” is what he says instead.

Rumi is, of course, surprised. “You… You wanted to talk about the tiger,” Rumi says, monotonously. “Because he’s complaining I won’t let him inside?”

Jinu shrugs, appearing to be nonchalant. Except his dead demon heart is beating way too loudly, and he has to cover it up by crossing his arms. “He gets cold easily.” Lies , but Rumi doesn’t have to know about that. And he’s doing Tiger a favor; he has been complaining— whining , more like—about Rumi not accepting his invitations, hence less time with her.

Since when did Tiger become so fond of this demon Hunter?

“You’re kidding,” Rumi glares at him. 

Shrugging once again, he pushes himself off the wall. “Well, if you want to do that to a poor, innocent cat…”

“He’s a tiger.”

They have a staring contest. Rumi looks good. Despite the fact that she’s wearing a tracksuit that has an ugly shade of green.

Rumi sighs. “Fine. Whatever. This doesn’t mean I’m accepting your invitations. Go get a smartphone.”

Jinu makes a show of emptying his already empty pockets and shrugs animatedly. 

Rumi pinches the bridge of her nose. “Demon and broke. What happened to the merch?”

Jinu wants to say none of them actually hired anyone to sell merch, but he lets Rumi believe they have enough money. Rumi sighs and shoves him lightly. “I’ll let him inside. He’s cuter than you, anyway.”

Jinu freezes.

Rumi’s ears turn bright red, and before he could say anything, Rumi dashes out of there, joining her group while covering her face with her jacket. 

That means I’m still cute, right? Jinu thinks.

And if he completely misses the target, that’s all Rumi’s fault.

// ANTICIPATED. //

Jinu has no idea why Rumi wanted to meet with him today. Tiger had come back late at night yesterday with an invitation, matching his old invitation letters, that was titled ‘Save the Date’. He’s not entirely sure how he’s supposed to save a date, but it does contain three words.

‘Tomorrow. 5 AM. Naksan Park.’

He’s not sure why it’s so early, but he’ll take it.

The next morning, he’s at Naksan Park. He wonders if Rumi could see him, given how big the park was. He made sure he was right on time, arriving at the park three minutes before 5 AM, the agreed time. He’s also pretty sure it’s past that said agreed time. He looks around, sighing when he finds no trace of Rumi anywhere.

“She wants to meet,” he glances at the invitation, playing with it impatiently. “And she’s late?”

Jinu never really doubted Rumi’s skill in stealth, but what he didn’t know was her penchant for sneaking up on people. He jumps away the moment he catches sight of Rumi’s face right in front of his, clutching at his dead heart. It might as well have been alive, with the way it was struggling to calm down. Jinu gasps for air, “You made me come all the way out here just so you could jumpscare me?” He asks, incredulous. Rumi just grins mischievously and jumps down.

“Follow me,” Rumi says, leaving no room for complaints as she strides. He scoffs.

Jinu catches up in two steps. “Well,” he glances at her. She’s covering her neck now. “I’m glad you’re finally ready to talk.”

Rumi doesn’t give in to his words, side-eying him instead. 

“Although,” Jinu looks around, tilting his head. “You could have picked somewhere nicer for a date.”

This time, he gets a reaction he’s been thinking about since last night.

Rumi whirls around, disgusted and enraged. “Date?! No! Ew –what are you talking about?”

He holds up the invitation she gave him. Rumi, befuddled, shakes her head. “That isn’t what…” She cuts herself off, opting to sigh loudly instead with the words, “You’re so old.”

If Jinu was a vain demon, he would have countered that.

She snatches the invitation, scowling. “This is strictly a business meeting.”

Amused by her reaction, Jinu lets it pass, passively lifting his hands up. “ Oka-y , loud and clear.”

“What if I told you there was another way to get your freedom?”

She talks about winning the Idol Awards and how sealing the Honmoon would guarantee his freedom. It makes him doubt—how can sealing the Honmoon save the very thing it’s trying to keep out? Demons like him?

She senses his doubt, further explaining. “Gwi-ma will be permanently cut off, and all demons will be gone from this world.”

Jinu watches her look towards the city, her home. Jinu looks back at her. She’s already staring at him, but that isn’t what catches him off guard. She speaks so confidently and powerfully, like no demon could ever face her. 

In the soft light of daybreak, she almost looks like an actual hero. 

“You can be on this side when the Honmoon is sealed–away from the Demon world, away from Gwi-ma.” The moment she says these words, Jinu becomes tempted, tempted to trust her, tempted to let her handle things, tempted to let her save him. He looks away, unable to look her in the eyes. “You can be free from those voices. Forever .”

He wants to believe. “What makes you think the Honmoon can save a guy like me?”

The truth comes crashing down once again. Rumi talks of him as if he was righteous, as if he just made a mistake that can be easily forgiven. “You made a mistake, Jinu.”

He flinches, scoffing. “It’s not that simple–”

“But I am a mistake.” She says firmly, and Jinu has no choice but to look at her. She looks heartbroken, pitiful, and lost. Jinu feels his arms twitch; the urge to gather her in his arms is a bit stronger this time, after knowing what it was like to have her wrapped in his arms. “Have been since the moment I was born. So I have to believe because if there’s no hope for you..”

She looks up at him. She looks like the sky—purple, pink, and beautiful —and Jinu gulps.

“What hope is there for me?”

Jinu wants to say something, but the words won’t come out right, so he stays silent, admiring her in all her solemn attitude.

“Bracelet for your beautiful girlfriend?”

Like a lightning strike, Jinu shakes his head furiously. “Oh, no. Haha , we’re not– uh ,” A nervous laugh comes out. He can’t even say girlfriend . Jinu wants to disappear. “She’s not even my type!” He blurts out of nervousness.

“Excuse me?” Rumi turns to him, offended. “I’m everyone’s type!”

You sure are , Jinu thinks, suddenly glum. “You can’t even show up on time!” He throws back, not letting her have the last word, no matter how right she was.

“See? We’d never work–” The ahjumma comes up close to him, scrutinizing. 

The small lady hands Rumi a bracelet. “Here. Free one. Go find yourself a better boy. This one’s–” she eyes him, calculative and judging. “ – hopeless .”

“Well. There’s your answer: Hopeless.”

Rumi sighs, reaching out the bracelet towards him. “That choice belongs to you.”

Jinu’s surprised. He didn’t think he was being offered such a chance; a chance for redemption, for freedom. Rumi eyes him and rolls her eyes. “Fiiine . Your loss–”

Jinu’s sudden urge to touch her comes back full force. He doesn’t want to see her back when she’s leaving. He doesn’t want her to leave at all. So he grasps her wrist unconsciously, staring at her with the same wide eyes she has on her face.

She feels warm. Like she was just waking up from a good sleep—how would Jinu even know? He barely remembers being human, and he wonders how good she looks when the sunlight’s streaks are on her face.

The sudden silence has him flinching away. “Oh. Uh. I was just trying – the bracelet.”

A little consolation: Rumi is as flustered as he is. “Oh. Yeah. Right. The. The…bracelet.” She hands it over to him quickly, and Jinu mourns her warmth already. That’s one thing when you become a demon… You forget what warmth felt like.

Jinu looks away, feeling himself flush. The bracelet in his hands felt soft and carefully and expertly woven. It’s as beautiful as the braids on Rumi’s hair. “For what it’s worth…” He looks at her and sees her wide eyes, surprised that he was talking first. “I don’t think you’re a mistake.”

He’s telling the truth this time. He might be a demon, and he might lie most of the time, but this time, he can’t help but be honest in front of Rumi. It’s becoming a habit, honestly.

The words might have been too heavy because Rumi’s turning away with a stiff, “Okay. Bye.”

Startled, Jinu waves halfheartedly. “Yeah, uh. B- Byeee ,” Jinu wants to die. Again. “Ugh.” Jinu rubs his face. Why can’t he do anything normal in front of this woman?

// PURSUED. //

The next time they met, neither Jinu nor Rumi planned it. 

Tiger had made its way back to him earlier than usual with Crow, as usual, in tow. He would usually prefer to stay with Rumi until late at night, only coming back when the sun finally rises. So, imagine his surprise when Tiger appears before him through the Honmoon, ears and tail down. 

He looks at Crow, who merely sighs. At least it sounds like one.

Jinu gets up from his seat, sitting next to the sad cat he brought into this plan. “Hey, bud,” Jinu awkwardly starts, but Tiger barely reacts to his words. “What’s wrong? Is Rumi not letting you inside again?”

When did he ever call her Rumi?

He shakes himself out of these thoughts, attentively watching Tiger respond solemnly. Tiger sighs, his ears going farther back, and looks out the window of the empty apartment he had been staying in whenever Gwi-ma didn’t summon him forcefully back into the Underworld. Jinu stares at Tiger, then at the window. The thing about Tiger and, perhaps, Crow, also, is that they have been with him for as long as he can remember. They became somewhat his companions when he refused to talk to any other demon the first time he was dragged to the Underworld.

(It had something to do with pride; one of the many emotions he could not get rid of even before he turned into a demon.)

For as long as he had known these animals, he had gotten used to their way of communicating. “Is she outside?” Jinu asks, feeling another wave of an emotion he hasn’t felt in years: worry. Jinu knows Rumi and the other two girls would patrol the streets at night, but as he glances at the clock, it is only 4 PM, and usually Rumi would never go out unless he asked her to meet.

Did something happen? The start of his thoughts became jumbled and messy with worry. Did Gwi-ma feel impatient and send another wave of demons? Was it only a demon Rumi could handle? Where are the other two? Was she okay?

Clicking his tongue, he stands up. “Take me to her, Tiger.”

At this, Tiger perks up, purring loudly. Crow sighs and flies over to Tiger’s head. 

He follows as Tiger seemingly walks on air. He refuses to let him sit on his back. Jinu doesn’t take it to heart; he does not let anyone ride his back. 

The travel is a bit farther than Jinu thought it would be. He thought Rumi would go to a nearby samgyupsal restaurant or even a convenience store, but as the minutes went by, it was almost nearing 30 minutes. He wonders if he should have just taken a bus; that way, he wouldn’t even have to exhaust his demonic powers. 

Just like humans, demons get scraped, hurt, and can feel, and just like humans, they do feel a version of their own exhaustion, though it takes much more effort than an average human. Tiger stops at a long and big bridge with a metal arch. Seeing a nearby sign, Jinu reads it as the Seogang Bridge. 

Now, why would Rumi be here? It’s almost an hour away from Seoul. 

Jinu stays in the shadows, watching as the cars go by. Tiger stops and looks up at the arched bridge. 

“She’s here?” He furrows his eyebrows, confused. He doesn’t see Rumi—wait. Jinu follows Tiger’s gaze as Crow lets out a shrill, which is focused on the place above the arch. Maybe he’s hallucinating…but he can see the spots of a familiar purple hair swaying in the breeze. 

His heart sinks.

He teleports up the arch, each time taking a step before teleporting. He runs up the arch, wondering what he’ll see. Every step feels like damn torture. He’s tired, exhausted, and his mind is a mess, but all he can think about is Rumi. 

Rumi, beautiful, talented Rumi . Who is quietly sitting with her legs dangling off, staring at nothing but the setting of the sun. She looked like she was in a daze, her eyes empty. Jinu could also see the almost-dried tear stains on her cheeks, and he wondered who put those on her. She didn’t even hear him or notice him running up to her.

Jinu, panicked, doesn’t even think twice about grabbing her arm. “What are you doing?!”

Rumi blinks, startled. She takes one look at him and wrangles her arm away from his. “Jinu?! What–What are you –” She almost stumbles, making Jinu reach out again to help her be more stable. She ends up sitting, circling in on herself, and pulling the hood up. 

“What are you doing here, Jinu? Came to recruit me in your boy band?” Rumi asks, snippy and cold. Jinu glares at her. 

He opens his mouth to say something, maybe something equally snippy, but Rumi takes over the conversation. “We didn’t even schedule anything. How did you even know I was here?” Rumi mumbles as she tightens her hold around her legs. 

All of the exhaustion and panic leave Jinu the moment he sits down behind her, back to back, supporting her weight. Her back is warm, even through the hoodie. “Someone likes you a little bit too much.” Jinu knows what those words are implying, thankfully, Tiger and Crow appear at the right time. Tiger looks ecstatic, running to Rumi and purring all over her face. Rumi instantly laughs, threading her fingers on the fur of Tiger’s back.

“Is it you?” Rumi asks, delight obvious in her tone. Jinu almost wishes he hadn’t sat this way. He wanted to see her. “You guys like me the most, huh?”

Jinu whirls around rather quickly. Too quick that he doesn’t seem to realize when Rumi topples over him. “No one said they like you the most –”

Rumi’s no longer in front of him. Rumi’s head is on his lap. Rumi blinks up at him, confused at the sudden turn of events. 

Tiger purrs.

This time, it’s Rumi who moves fast. Rumi sits up, her back turned to him, and Jinu is slowly enjoying the way her ears turn red, that not even the orange glow of the sun could hide it. Jinu feels the laugh bubbling out of him. Rumi turns to him, glaring and frowning despite the redness on her cheeks. The sight of her makes him laugh harder.

“You’re crazy,” She says in a deadpan tone. 

“Maybe,” Jinu answers after a moment of laughing, wiping tears from his eyes. He finally gets a good look at Rumi, who’s currently pouting and hugging Tiger for emotional support. “So… what’s wrong?”

Calculating eyes cast their gaze on him. “What?” She doesn’t seem keen on sharing.

But Jinu can’t help but be curious. “You know…” Jinu scratches his neck. “Whatever’s bothering you.”

Jinu thinks Rumi almost wants to say, You . Instead, Rumi sighs and turns around once again. “Don’t know why I should tell you but…” Rumi glances at him, her small smile hidden in her arms. “Since you asked…” Rumi sighs, her shoulders slumping. “My voice…”

She hides her face within her hoodie. “I’m losing my voice,” the words come out strangled and strained, like she’s on the verge of crying again. “We were practicing today, and it just. It won’t come out. It even hurts to sing sometimes. And now I have to cover up even more. All I’ve been doing is wearing a jacket and pants. Mira and Zoey choke it up to me being conservative and shy, but–” Rumi gasps, taking a breath. “I can’t even tell them. I can’t let other people see. I have to make sure– the..the… The Honmoon will–I want to believe–”

“Rumi.” 

Jinu watches as she keeps gasping and shaking. He doesn’t think twice about taking her in his arms this time. “Rumi,” he says as softly as he can. “You’ll win this. The Honmoon…I.. I believe you.”

Rumi looks up at him, eyes wet with tears and hair in disarray. She still looks beautiful. 

“ We’ll win,” Rumi corrects him after a minute of silence. 

Jinu nods, hesitant. “And we’ll be okay.”

Rumi nods and leans on his shoulder. “Can… can you stay? You know. To talk about our plan.”

Jinu doesn’t have the courage to look at Rumi, but feels himself nodding. “Yeah,” he croaks out awkwardly. “Yeah. I can stay. To talk.”

As quiet as the sky above them, they watch as the sun falls and the sky changes from orange to blue.

// SERENDIPITOUS. // 

Jinu sees Tiger before he can fully emerge from the shadows.  Tiger looks content as he plops down next to him. Crow lets out a squawk, uncomfortable with the sudden action, and flies away. Jinu watches as Crow flies somewhere else. He has just sent another invitation to Rumi, and from the looks of it, Rumi has accepted. She probably kicked him out to sleep. 

Rubbing Tiger’s chin, he coos, “Good job, buddy. We’ll meet with her soon.”

When he goes to the human world the next day in the afternoon, he looks around. They agreed to meet at the same spot where they first met, so he’s expecting it to be a quiet and serene afternoon with Rumi. That is, until he arrives at the spot. The place is bustling with activity and people; he’s not used to it. 

The second he steps in, he hears whispers.

“Is that Jinu from Saja Boys?” 

Oh, fuck.

He completely forgot how rabid some of the fans are because now, he’s running at his full demonic power, and still, the fans are hot on his heels. He makes a sharp turn and an abrupt slide into an alley, watching with relief as the fans pass by through a rush. 

“Wow, you’re really famous.” 

If Jinu had a heart—a working, human heart—he was sure he would have ended up in the hospital, with the way he could feel something beat in his chest as he jumped away from none other than… Rumi. Of course. Rumi looks smug, grinning, and crossing her arms like she won something. She wore a mask, which was tucked under her chin. Her hood was down, and just like the first time they met, Rumi wore a coat over it and big pants. 

Jinu hates that it looks good on her.

“What the hell, Rumi,” Jinu clutches his chest. “You’re going to get me in a hospital one of these days.”

Rumi snorts, apparently amused. “You’re already dead.” She cringes as she says it. 

Jinu shrugs, taking no offense. “Still feel alive.”

Rumi sighs. She’s about to say something until they hear a shout. 

“I see Jinu!”

“Wait, there’s someone with him!”

Rumi quickly puts her hood up and clicks her tongue. Jinu looks back, panicked. He’s about to run the other direction when Rumi grasps his wrists and starts pulling him to run with her. He lets himself be pulled by her—it’s not like he has any choice; the fans are just right behind them, and Rumi’s hand is warm against his skin. 

The wind blowing on his face isn’t what makes him shiver. The Hunter, holding his hand, is holding onto him tightly, taking him to places he could not recognize. He might have had many chances to visit the human world, but even he couldn’t memorize the streets of Seoul at this pace. Rumi, however, has already planned out their escape route, running faster than she ran for them back in the bathhouse. Jinu wouldn’t say that out loud unless he wanted a sword run through him.

“Here!” Rumi finally says something, dragging him to someplace and making him stand still. She looks up at him and, in quick succession, she pulls both their hoods up and pulls at the garter, putting their head down as she pulls out her phone from her pocket. Shocked, he doesn’t move. He looks at her phone, which now has its camera app open.

Jinu blinks at his reflection, then at Rumi’s reflection. She was looking away, wary and cautious. Jinu hears the numerous footsteps of their fans behind him. It disappears in the distance. Rumi waits for a moment, then sighs, all relieved as she slumps her shoulders and lets go of his head.

“What just happened,” Jinu asks, though it doesn’t sound like a question with how dry his voice is. Rumi looks at him, deadpan. “Apparently, people go crazy over you.”

Somehow, those words take him out of his daze. He grins. “Are you one of them?”

Rumi doesn’t blush this time, nor does she stutter like the first time he teased her about having a date. Instead, she smirks at him. “You wish ,” she counters, not looking back at him as she hands out a few bills to the counter.

And fuck it, Jinu does wish. He focuses on the present. “Wait, what are you doing? Why are we going inside here?”

Here is a big building. Really big building. There are kids running around with their parents in tow, couples looking around with smiles on their faces, and… everyone is somewhat wearing something fish-related. Here is a big aquarium zoo. He didn’t even like fish. Fish and seafood were for kings. He was only lucky because some lords and ladies liked him enough to share their food. 

When he looks at Rumi, she has an expression that says it should’ve been obvious. Which wasn’t. Not to him, at least.

His face must’ve expressed the same feelings because he heard Rumi sigh. It’s becoming one of his favorite sounds.

“We can talk here without people recognizing us,” Rumi says, pulling up her mask. “It’s dark here, and most people don’t really care to listen to other people. They’re too busy looking at the fishes. And it’s dark in here.”

It is, in fact, dark in the aquarium. Jinu knows what an aquarium is. It’s just… He’s never been inside one. And Rumi is right once again, people are too busy looking at the fishes.

Him included.

“So we can just go over there and– Jinu?”

Woah . What was that colorful fish?

“Ji–!” He hears Rumi cut herself off, running to his side. He spares her a glance before looking at the fishes. There’s one who looks like Rumi. 

“Jinu,” Rumi hisses quietly as she tightens her hood, warily looking around. “You can’t go off alone! We’re supposed to be talking,” Rumi grits her teeth. She’s most likely glaring at him, but he’s staring at her reflection and looking at the fishes while also listening to her. He’d say he’s pretty good at this multitasking thing.

Jinu simply shrugs. The annoyance is visible on Rumi, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. “We can talk now .”

He watches Rumi through the reflection, her eyes wandering. “We can’t talk here . It’s too public.”

A kid bumps his leg. He panics. Luckily, he manages to catch the boy before he falls on the ground. Rumi was also on high alert, reaching her hands out to catch the boy. The boy, who was laughing before this ordeal, blinks up at him, then blinks up at Rumi.

Who now had her hood down.

“Is that Rumi from HUNTR/X?!”

Shit.

Rumi makes sure he catches her glare before they both run in the same direction. Jinu laughs, making sure to hold Rumi’s hand. He hears Rumi yelp as they run all around the aquarium displays. He’s also pretty sure the security guard is chasing them, but he couldn't care less when Rumi’s running next to him, focused and serious as her eyes calculated every path they took.

It’s almost like she memorized this place.

She pulls him to a corner, pressing their bodies together. Her warmth against him makes him freeze up. She’s so close; Jinu could feel her heart pounding against his chest, her warmth, her skin on his. He looks at his side, watching as the roll of their fans goes the other direction along with the security guard. Well. Lucky them.

Jinu glances at Rumi and finds her already looking at him. 

Oh. She’s red. 

Rumi pulls away from him frantically. Jinu follows, grinning. “Miss Hunter has some moves,” Rumi glares at him, pulling at her hood, further hiding herself. Her cheeks are red, and Jinu knows that isn’t makeup – maybe. Maybe he’s hoping the mighty pop royalty of a demon Hunter was blushing because of him.

As if to distract herself, she looks around. There’s absolutely no one in this part of the aquarium. 

“What are you looking around for? No one’s here.” It also makes Jinu look around. Nothing. Just an empty space.

Rumi hisses, “You never know with sasaengs .”

Jinu shudders at the thought of stalkers. Right. He completely forgot about those. Now he misses the people chasing him and Rumi. “It’s okay,” Jinu’s eyes take a sweep of the surroundings. He can hear the other people in the other parts of the aquarium, but so far, only the two of them were in this area.

He sights an Under Construction banner at the side. That’s why.

“We’re alone,” Jinu says firmly this time and watches the way Rumi’s shoulder slumps in relaxation though she still looks as sharp as ever.

“So…” Jinu starts, even though he isn’t sure what he’s about to say.

It catches Rumi’s attention, though. “So? You have an answer to my proposal?”

“I wasn’t aware I was proposed to,” He grins from the way Rumi’s eyebrow twitch in annoyance. In response, he blinks and flutters his eyelashes in innocence. Rumi glares. It seems it’s the only way she wants to communicate today. 

Rumi sighs, walking over to one of the aquariums. There’s little fishes in this big tank. Jinu wonders if they’re lonely. 

“You know what I’m talking about, Jinu,” she says it softly, her eyes big and glistening. “I want to know if you’re on our side.”

Jinu huffs, looking back at the big blue tank. He thinks about it. While he has no desire to answer her, he knows he has to. The problem, however, is his shackles to Gwi-ma. 

Shaking his head, he stops every single urge to turn his head and face Rumi. “It’s not that easy, Rumi,” he starts, watching the fishes swim away. “I’m still Gwi-ma’s slave. You’re still a Hunter. I’m still a demon. And you’re…” He makes the mistake of glancing at her.

She’s taken off her mask, pulling it down below her chin. Her eyes reflect the water and everything about her right now feels ethereal. She meets his eyes; she always does, never one to back away. “I’m what?”

Turning his head around, he sighs. “I can’t , Rumi.”

Rumi’s face hardens, forming into a more resentful glare and scowl. “Why did you even call me here? Huh? Chat me up and get me to join you demons? Tough luck, Jinu,” She hisses, backing away. “I’m never going to be one of you.”

“And I’m glad you aren’t!” The words spill out of his mouth faster than his brain could comprehend. Rumi also appears to be surprised from his outburst. Jinu feels his face heat up from embarrassment. “I just…” His shoulders slump in exhaustion and defeat. “I don’t think I’m the right person to help you.”

He has been thinking about this particular thought. A lot.

“Jinu, I…” Rumi reaches out for him. He doesn’t stop it. Was it selfishness or desire? He wasn’t sure. The warmth on his hands instantly lifts his mood. Rumi has her eyebrows furrowed, worried and concern marking her features. “I… You’re the only right person. I… I’ve been lying to my crew, my fans…my friends. My whole existence…my body,” Rumi cringes at the glowing marks on her hand.

“My soul …it’s ugly. Tainted .” Rumi hugs herself, scared.

“Rumi…” He sees her eyes; wide and shameful. He wants to comfort her but the only words he can say is her name. “Rumi.”

Rumi shakes her head, not wanting him to say a word. “This is the only way I can fix it, Jinu,” she says it with so much sadness, showing defeat and frustration. “Fix me .”

His hand moves before he can fully think of anything. He cradles her face. Jinu half-expected Rumi to lean away, be surprised or even disgusted, but she only looks away, pushing her face closer to his hand. He sucks in a breath. 

Her hood has fallen down, letting out the locks of her hair out. She looks beautiful in the blue light, despite coming off as forlorn and disappointed. Jinu wants to kiss away all her troubles. 

Her hair is as soft as he thought it was. Her braid must have come undone when they were being chased, only leaving messy and wavy hair in its wake. Still, Jinu doesn’t stop himself from carding his hands through her hair. Just a bit.

Rumi. Beautiful, wonderful, and kind. A saint, that’s what she was. Rumi still has her eyes closed, as if afraid of rejection. 

Who could simply reject this extraordinary woman? 

“You should let your hair down sometimes, Rumi,” Jinu whispers, closing their proximity bit by bit. Rumi startles but otherwise stays still, gazing up at him with a certain feeling of expectation. Rumi opens her mouth, most likely to reply to him, he doesn’t let her. 

“As far as I’m concerned,” Jinu smiles, thumbing her cheek. Her lips look divine—something so ethereal that it shouldn’t be tainted by the likes of him. But here he is. “You’re just as beautiful with the cracks showing.”

Their lips meet slowly, excruciating slow. Rumi kisses like a beginner—awkward, eager, and nervous—and yet, Jinu has no problems with it. They take it slow, kissing like they didn’t have Gwi-ma targeting them, like he and Rumi had no secrets, as if they weren’t a demon and a Hunter. 

Jinu thinks this might be how it feels to be human. 

He’s overflowing with so much emotions. He feels, and feels, and feels .

He feels Rumi’s desperation put into their kiss, alight with the same tenderness and adoration he has poured into. She tastes like kimbap and eomuk tang that it has him laughing into the kiss. This, apparently, is the wrong move.

Rumi pulls away, red in the face. “What? What?! Why are you laughing?!”

She’s hysterical, which only makes him laugh harder.

“Was it bad?” Rumi asks, shy and ashamed. It turns angry in just a second. “You should’ve said so–!”

“ No , Rumi,” he comes back from laughing, cradling her face for the second time. “I loved it.” Oh. Too close.

“Oh,” Rumi echoes his sentiment. You , Jinu thinks silently. I think I love you , Rumi.

“Well.” Jinu thinks this is an accomplishment: reducing Rumi into one liners.

“I’m.” Rumi points at her back, shocked. Jinu grins. “I’m gonna go.”

Jinu watches her leave. Rumi looks back at him. 

“I’ll… contact you.”

She disappears and Jinu stays where he is.

He falls to the ground, covering his face. 

Oh, fuck.

Shit, fuck.

Fuck.

Jinu groans into his hands. 

This is it.

He has absolutely and undoubtedly fallen in love. With a human. Who is a Hunter. Who hunts demons like him. Who is also a half-demon. 

Jinu finds himself not regretting every moment.

// PREORDAINED. //

Tiger comes to him with a pep in his walk, his tail swaying languidly and comfortably. He opens his mouth, and what falls is another invitation from Rumi. He sends a look at Crow, who only rolls its eyes at him, then looks back at the invitation dropped at the floor. Jinu wasn’t expecting another invitation to meet so early, so soon, not when they had just seen each other two days ago. Albeit it was a short one, with Rumi needing to go back quickly after… what happened between them.

Jinu has to force down the heat coming to his face. He’s neither a teenager or a virgin. 

He still remembers Rumi’s teary eyes on the bridge with a small, wavering smile before she left with Tiger, and he stayed there until the sun rose when they met four days ago. He still remembers the blue light from the aquarium, the way her hair felt soft and smooth in his hands. He still remembers the way she closed her eyes, how her eyelashes touched her face; gentle and free. He still remembers her lips—soft and–

Jinu sighs, interrupting his own train of thought and lets his head hit the wall.

“Oooh, another invitation,” Romance sneaks up next to him. He barely reacts except for the well-deserved eyeroll. Romance pays that action no mind. “Your girl must like you that much.”

Abby appears at his other side, grinning from ear to ear. “Have you been meeting her behind our backs? I’m hurt, Jinu-yah.”

He hasn’t even opened it. Jinu glares at both of them. “Go away. Practice your dance or you’re off the group.”

Baby snorts at this. Jinu didn’t even know he was listening in when he was so busy playing with his stolen phone. This is why he was going to stay as a demon; of course, none of them could turn back into humans, no matter how much they tried. Jinu pushes Abby’s invading face, as well as Romance’s, and opens the letter.

‘Woljeonggyo Bridge. 9 PM.’ 

“Wow,” Romance says, tone full of fake pity. “Cold much?”

Mystery, who’s been dancing alone this whole time—Jinu is quite thankful for him. He’s a demon, but he’s diligent, apparently—drags Abby to join him. Abby complains but dances the entire choreo. Snapping the letter closed, he then hits Romacne on the head.

“Ow,” Romance says. Monotone. Liar.

“Okay, come on,” Jinu says, standing up while sighing. He sounds like an old man. “We need to finish this practice.”

Baby groans, throwing his phone on the couch, and standing up. At least he listens. “You guys can go back in the demon world once we’re done,” Mystery doesn’t seem so keen on doing the former, as well as the other guys. Well. It’s not his job to look after these four demons every day, anyway. They can do whatever they want in the human world.

Jinu ends their practice after three more practices.

They all go their separate ways. 

Jinu ends up at the arranged place earlier than expected. He has nothing to do besides roam around the place, undetected by the passersby. The lights are already on, surrounding the bridge with so much light and glow, Jinu felt almost blinded by it. 

Except. Jinu thinks it’s beautiful. It’s almost a waste that this world would be ruined by Gwi-ma and his greed. 

Jinu stays near the railings, looking out to the vastness of the water. Rumi would love this view. Is that why she invited him here? As he thinks about it, he also wonders what the topic of their conversation will be today. He hasn’t made progress with her – she refuses to join them, and she’s slowly luring him in instead. 

He’s not dumb, but he can attest that he’s absolutely weak for Rumi.

(He thinks of her shiny eyes in the dim light of the aquarium. He thinks of the roughness of her face mask, and how he could feel the warmth radiating off from it when he held her face. He thinks of her hair, down and free from her usual braids. He thinks of her marks and wonders how far down it goes.)

He wants to believe her. How badly he wants to believe in her every word. Mabe he already does. Should he tell her now? That he was willing to go along with her plan? That he had no doubt she could defeat Gwi-ma and save him in the process? The thought of being free… with Rumi, free from Gwi-ma, is the most tempting. 

Just like every moment of his excruciating existence as a demon, he wishes his mother were here. Even the little thought of his mother triggers unwanted memories. He could barely remember the time before he became a demon, the times when he was the happiest, the times when he had a family, the times when all he could think about was his guilt as he was fed delicious foods, slept in silk sheets, and indulged in every fantasy he could ever think of in the palace.

In this current time, however, he has no time to think about such thoughts.

The crowd is getting smaller and smaller by the minute, most of them opting to go home. It leaves Jinu all alone with his thoughts. He thinks of his family whom he abandoned, he thinks of all the demons who are being oppressed by Gwi-ma, and most of all, his thoughts have been occupied by a certain Hunter. Rumi, who was fierce and strong, like every Hunter before her, and yet, she was even more than that.

“You busy?”

Speak of the…Hunter and she shall appear. This time, Jinu barely flinches. Barely.

For a moment, he stares at her. Her hair is neat, unlike two days ago when they were in an aquarium. Today, she seemed a bit more cheerful, though Jinu had no idea why. At the end of the day, Gwi-ma was still getting souls even without his help, ordering ordinary and individual demons all around Korea. And she was still a Hunter, who roamed the streets, patrolling and killing demons like him. 

Rumi, ever the angelic woman she is, grins at him, and Jinu wonders how he even came to like this annoying woman.

Not like was totally thinking about their kiss. Totally not.

“Wow,” He makes sure there isn’t a slip of emotion in his voice. “You’re actually early.”

The grin turns sour, and he is once again the focus of those glaring eyes. Jinu finds himself bathing in the attention pathetically. Ugh, Rumi was right. He was pathetic.

“This still isn’t a date,” Rumi counters him, even though he said nothing of the sort. Jinu raises his eyebrows at her, to which Rumi replies with a blush on her face. While crossing her arms, all Jinu can think about was how endearing she was. “I’m allowed to be late.”

Right. Not a date. Totally not a date when they’ve kissed. God, is this how the modern humans are dating? How do they even court one another?

“Yes, your Highness,” Jinu teases and dodges Rumi’s fast hand. He almost got hit.

Rumi nods to him. Jinu follows like a dog.

“So… I guess you’re not on our side?” Rumi asks, wary and staring down at his hands. Jinu, confused, looks at his hands. He can see nothing wrong with his hands. At his clueless expression, Rumi sighs, rolling her eyes, seemingly tired of him.

Before Jinu could ask what she was talking about, Rumi pointed to his bare hands. “The bracelet. You accepted it.”

Jinu raises an eyebrow. “I thought that was you courting me.” He was half-joking. Of course. Maybe. Kind of. God, he needs to get his head straight.

He’s blessed with the same blush from Rumi.

Rumi pushes at his face, turning away with her face red and expression, embarrassed. Jinu, of course, couldn’t let this slide. 

The grin becomes undeniably hard to resist. “ Oh , miss Rumi . I didn’t know you were so into me. Proposing to me… courting me… asking me on a date.”

Jinu sees the moment Rumi turns a shade darker. He’s absolutely enjoying this, and he knows Rumi is absolutely despising every second. Good thing there aren’t any more people, with the way Rumi summons her sword and sends him flying off to the other end of the bridge.

His grin transforms into something more akin to his demonic nature—feral. Rumi glares at him, and it alights him within. She looks great underneath the moonlight, with her face red and her useless glare that doesn’t work on him. The aquarium’s blue light on her was nothing compared to how the moonlight shone on her. Busy with his thoughts, he didn’t notice her lifting her sword up to him.

Despite being amused and all his instincts tell him to fight back, he becomes lax, both in his posture and nature. “I was just teasing,” Jinu says, which is closer to the truth, anyway. Rumi narrows her eyes, disbelieving. Jinu is almost hurt. “Come on, Rumi . We already…”

He doesn’t even finish his sentence when he sees it. Maybe it’s the light, or maybe Jinu’s seeing things, but Rumi’s face becomes even darker, if that was possible.

“Don’t!” Rumi practically screams. Jinu abruptly shuts his mouth, waiting in silence as Rumi mutters to herself. Pacing back and forth, Rumi barely acknowledges Jinu. He uses this to his advantage, taking a step closer every time she was preoccupied with her thoughts.

“Jinu, I need you–” She startles. 

Jinu can admit that was his fault. Flinching in surprise, Rumi looks up at him with a kind of urgency mixed with nervousness. “You– Jinu–!”

“Need me for what?”

At this proximity, Jinu can’t mistake the redness of her cheeks. Rumi purses her lips which is both a blessing and a curse of an action; it only makes Jinu focus on them. “To give me an answer, Jinu,” she says firmly, voice holding no arguments. “Are you on our side or against me ?”

He averts his eyes. “Look, I want to believe in your crazy plan, but, Rumi, I won’t be any help.”

“You already have,” Rumi pushes him a bit, her glare softening. “I spent my whole life keeping this secret, this shame of what I am,” Her demonic marks light up the moment she says it and she cringes at it. “And the more I hid this shame… the more it grew and grew until it started to destroy the one thing that gave me purpose…” 

She faces him. It’s those eyes again, full of sorrow, shame, and pain. It’s the same face she showed two days ago. And Jinu still wants to kiss her.

“My voice,” her hand comes up to her throat, where he can see the underlying purple marks near her collarbone. “But since I’ve met you,” their eyes meet, and Jinu feels like taking her in his arms and let her stay there, here and now. “And the more I talk to you, I don’t understand it, but somehow… my voice has healed.”

Jinu wants to ask what that means. How, how could a demon like him help her? He did nothing but try to kill her and her friends, as well as manipulate her. Even now, she still doesn’t know. He should tell her. Right now.

“Jinu,” Rumi’s voice snaps him out of his thinking. When he sees at her, her eyes shine with nothing but sincerity. Jinu gulps down the self-hatred bubbling inside him. “ You healed me.”

As if to prove her point, she sings. Jinu has heard her sing. Multiple times. He’s heard her sing through a screen, has watched her stages like a hawk every time they were pitted against one another in a music show, and yet, this is the one moment he thinks she almost sounds angelic. 

“ But here with you, I can finally breathe,” She says it so easily, so carefree. As if Jinu didn’t feel the same way. As if he didn’t forget his plan to take down the Hunters once and for all, as if his shackles to Gwi-ma disappear every time he’s with her. “You say you're no good, but you're good for me.” But he really isn’t, and he almost thinks of stopping Rumi, to prove her wrong.

He watches and listens instead.

“I've been hoping to change, now I know we can change. But I won't if you're not by my side,” Her expression looks hopeful as she glances at him, gazing into his soul.

“Why does it feel right every time I let you in? Why does it feel like I can tell you anything?” Jinu’s desperate to say he feels the same. He follows her as she walks with Tiger by her side. He’s taken to her side more than his. While he feels a bit of betrayal, he can’t blame the little one. Not when he would and is doing the same thing.

Rumi looks at him like he’s kind, like everything he has done was just a mistake, like he could repent. Rumi looks at him with hope , he realizes. 

Tiger manages to get a pet from Rumi, but his eyes only stay on Rumi’s, who laughs and strokes Tiger’s ear with no problem. The moon shines on her once again – a reminder for Jinu to hold his breath, lest he ruins everything. “What if we both tried fighting what we're running from?”

Maybe… Maybe Rumi is right. Maybe they can defeat Gwi-ma together.

Rumi ends up at the edge of the roof, climbing effortlessly like the time they first met. Jinu follows her as she smiles towards the skyline of the city. “ We could be free, free ,” She smiles at him, shy. From his position, he’s almost thankful they weren’t touching. He swears he heard his already dead heart beating. “We can't fix it if we never face it. Let the past be the past 'til it's weightless.”

Her eyes search his, awaiting and expectant. 

So he tells her. He tells her his fear, his fear of a pain-inducing hope, his fear of how fast she has stolen his heart, and his fear of the sudden attack of human emotions within him, ones that he thought he had already lost to the darkness. But Rumi… she was the embodiment of both darkness and light in harmony. 

“Ain't no choice when all these voices keep me pointing towards no end,” He walks and stops next to her, just right at the edge of the roof, and looks back at her. She appears to be grateful, with the way he’s singing with her. “It's just easy when I'm with you,” It’s one thing to admit it, but Jinu is glad for whatever urge that was summoned inside of him for him to stretch out his hand when Rumi beams at him like the sun. 

He floats, showing his intentions.

Rumi eyes his hand, then looking at him floating, before smiling and putting hers on top. “I don’t trust it, but I want to–” 

Jinu grins. “I keep coming back to–”

The Hunter clings to him the moment he takes her up. “Why does it feel right every time I let you in?” Rumi clings to him the way someone who is unafraid of heights would. She barely holds onto his shoulders, as if his arm around her waist was enough for her to trust him. Rumi laughs. Jinu feels almost breathless. 

“Why does it feel like I can tell you anything?” The girl in his arms shows unabashed happiness as her hair sways in the wind. The higher they float, the brighter the moon shines on them, moreso on Rumi, who moves her head up at the moon.

“We can't fix it if we never face it,” Rumi finally looks at him, smiling softly. Right now, however, he’s unable to do the same, entranced by the way Rumi smiles at him. 

“What if we find a way to escape it?” Jinu spins them, eliciting a laugh out of the girl. Jinu wishes this could last forever.

We could be free, free.

Rumi pulls herself away from him, just a little bit. This action shakes him as he stares wide-eyed at the woman who is suddenly pushing him away. She smiles, reassuring him with the tiny action and floats .

This time, it’s she who stretches her hand out to him. “So take my hand, it's open–”

Without hesitation, Jinu holds her hand. She flies, pulling him around, swaying into the night. She grins at him like there is nothing weighing her down. Jinu smiles at her, wishing there was nothing weighing them down. “What if we heal what's broken?”

“I tried to hide but something broke,” Jinu could feel her warm hands on top of his cold ones. She peers up at him through her eyelashes, hopeful and happy. He stares, mesmerized and amazed. Her voice is perfect, Jinu doesn’t know what she exactly means when she said he helped in healing it, but Jinu takes every moment in, memorizing the timber of her voice. “I couldn't sing, but you give me hope.”

That’s the thing– Rumi shouldn’t. He’s not a good person, not enough to be someone who gives hope to a person like Rumi. And yet, she sang it firmly and easily, like it was the easiest thing to admit. 

We can't fix it if we never face it

Let the past be the past 'til it's weightless.

They stay afloat, smiling at one another. Rumi makes the mistake of looking down. Her eyes widen in horror. “Oh god!”

She stumbles and he hurries to catch her, only for Tiger to catch her right at that moment. She chokes out a laugh, shocked, and tightens her hold around Tiger. Rumi focuses on the animal, giggling when Tiger takes the time to rub his face along her cheek. Sussie

Tiger brings her to him, with Crow looking back and forth between them. 

Rumi falls to his arms, clutching onto his jacket. Jinu can’t help it– he laughs. Rumi continues to stumble into him as she steps on his feet. “You aren’t even scared of height, Rumi,” His voice feels quiet but it doesn’t matter when his words were only for Rumi to hear. Rumi glares up at him, unaware of his inner turmoils with how close they were. 

“I know. I’m just… surprised.” Rumi blinks at her feet. “I can fly?”

Jinu snorts, “You wish.”

Silence envelopes them until Rumi gasps, her hand coming up to her throat. “My voice…” Her eyes snap up, surprised. “It’s…”

Jinu blinks. That’s right. She was singing beautifully and gracefully despite her saying she had problems with her voice. With a quick glance at her throat, he could see the marks receding, except her hands are now covered. What does that mean? 

His mind is also awfully serene, spared from the countless memories and voices. 

“I…I don’t hear his voice…” What did that mean? Can he truly be saved from Gwi-ma and his voice? With Rumi?

Rumi looks happy for him. “I’ll make sure the Saja Boys lose tomorrow,” he blurts out, weak to her stare. Rumi rewards him a relieved breath and smile, squeezing one of his hands. He stares at it. 

“Then we’ll both win,” Rumi says with confidence, smiling. She makes a move to turn around, to leave, and Jinu can’t have that, not yet, not when everything is peaceful and she’s become his only salvation–

“Rumi,” He blurts out, catching her attention. Oh. This is it. He should– “Wait, I…”

Say it.

Say it.

Say it!

Jinu closes his eyes. “Can… can you stay?” 

He cringes right after the words leave his mouth. He should probably open his eyes. Oh, god, what if Rumi didn’t want to stay? How embarrassing. He hasn’t even said the words and he would be rejected already? He really is pathetic–

When he opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is Rumi’s eyes, wide open. Her cheeks have taken to being red once again. Rumi blinks, then blinks again. “I…” she hesitates, looking back. From here, they could see their penthouse tower. For a moment, Rumi’s shoulders appears to be tense, before slumping in relaxation when she turns to him.

“Yeah,” she smiles. “I can stay.”

Tiger purrs at this, which pulls her attention from him. Jinu watches in amusement as Rumi glides her hand on Tiger’s fur, rubbing and petting. “Okay. So, I’ve been meaning to ask…” Rumi grins with a glint in her eyes. “Why does the bird wear a tiny hat?”

Crow, as if sensing that they were talking about him, perks up. 

Jinu doesn’t take his eyes off of her. “I made it for the tiger, but the bird keeps taking it.” He makes sure Crow sees his glare. The bird only smirks at him. At least that’s what he thinks it is. 

At this, Rumi laughs. He’s been hearing her laugh the entire time.

It’s easy. When he’s with her.

Time goes by, and he and Rumi share laughs and stories back and forth. In this light, Rumi feels the most relaxed. Her face shows different smiles Jinu didn’t even know people had. They get closer. And closer. Each minute, Jinu dreads to be apart from her.

“Well,” Rumi is staring up at the sky. Jinu doesn’t do the same. “I gotta go.”

“Oh,” Jinu blinks, nervously watching Rumi get up from her seat next to him. “Right now?” He asks. Like a dumbass.

At least it gets him a laugh. Rumi laughs, looking at him with crinkled eyes and a smile. She almost looks fond. “Yes, Jinu. Now,” Tiger appears right before them, like he was called by Rumi. Or maybe he had just impeccable timing. Rumi walks away from him and Jinu fears .

He fears this will be the last time they will ever feel like this. He fears that this will be his last time seeing her. He fears that he will be her downfall.

Say it.

Say it.

Say it!

Oh, fuck it, Jinu thinks before running after her. Rumi is barely next to Tiger before he grabs her wrist and pulls her to him, his other hand coming up to her waist and holding it securely.

Probably whiplashed, Rumi gapes at him. “Jinu! I–”

Unrelenting, his hands find solace on her face. Rumi gasps. “Please,” Jinu pleads, pride be damned. “Please tell me I can kiss you. Please .”

Rumi stares at him with a gaping mouth and a tension in between her brows. He can feel her grip on his clothes; tight and hesitant. For a minute, Rumi barely makes a sound, her eyes searching his. For a moment, Jinu thinks he might never be able to kiss her.

Her hand comes up to his cheek, warm and comforting. “We might regret this,” Rumi whispers, eyes locked with his.

Jinu agrees. “Yeah, I know,” He sounds breathless, inching closer.

“We might hate each other after this,” This refers to whatever happens to Gwi-ma. Jinu also agrees.

“Yeah. Maybe.” Another inch.

Rumi’s lips are barely touching his when she talks. “Jinu…” Her voice wavers in anticipation. “Just kiss me, bastard .”

Jinu follows her wishes. He has inevitably ruined her hair, messing it up even before they could kiss. He kisses her with more fervor than the last time they kissed. He kisses her like this would be their last. Without even knowing it, Rumi has wrapped her arms around his neck, clingy. 

When she kisses back, Jinu could almost see stars behind his eyelids. Oh. He closed his eyes.

Rumi’s lips are still soft, with a hint of taste of her cherry lip balm. Her skin on his feel right.

A shrill behind them breaks them apart. Rumi is panting and Jinu wonders if she’s ever breathed this hard during one of their practices. Maybe when she has danced too hard in a music show. Or maybe, it’s his kisses that drive her wild.

Her eyes finally open as she continues to breathe.

“Jinu…” Rumi licks her lips. Jinu’s eyes trace it every second. Rumi leans in again and Jinu accepts the brief peck of a kiss. Rumi pulls back shyly. “I gotta go.”

Say it.

Say it.

Say it!

“I…” He gulps. “I can’t wait to see you on stage tomorrow.” Rumi beams at him. Jinu watches her hop on Tiger’s back. He watches as Tiger hops on air with Rumi on his back. Rumi tilts her head and looks back. 

Jinu smiles.

And then Gwi-ma happens.

And he wishes Rumi was here.

// DESTINED. //

Rumi is gorgeous . 

She’s walking every step with hesitance and doubt within her and yet, her voice is even more powerful than the night before—she looked almost divine, with her patterns glowing on every inch of her body. Not the same purple that demons were accustomed to. No , this was Rumi’s own colors. 

“It was real! What we had was real! I know it was!”

Her voice, along with many others, haunt him. Her voices echoes around the stadium full of souls and every eye is on her. It’s the same with him; his eyes only seem to focus on this one woman whose very existence is a contradiction, a paradox.

“I am a mistake. Have been since the moment I was born.”

And yet, she was here, standing before Gwi-ma, defiant and confident. Her sword has killed thousands of demons and Jinu wonders if any of them has felt a sense of relief and peace at the end of her sword. Jinu seems to think so.

“You’re a good person, Jinu.”

Is he, really? When Rumi is struggling with blocking Gwi-ma’s attack and he’s… just standing. He’s watching her. She might die. As a half-demon, she could be with him in the Underworld. With him. Maybe they could….Maybe they could–

He moves.

You’re crazy, Jinu. He’s surprised he could still feel pain. The pain doubles the moment Rumi gasps, finally seeing him. 

“No, no, no,” Rumi whispers, horrified. Jinu smiles, wincing. 

“I’m sorry…for… everything,” Jinu manages to finally say through pained breaths. She couldn’t touch him, not without feeling the same flashing pain of Gwi-ma’s attack. “I…” Oh. She’s crying. Jinu wants nothing else but to wipe her tears and take her in his arms again. “I wanted to save you.”

400 years he’s lived, and not one person has cried for him. “You did,” He smiles and he could also feel a tear streaming down his face. “You gave me my soul back, Rumi.”

Rumi chokes on a sob. Until now, she looks magnificent. “Not like this, Jinu. Not when…”

Jinu shakes his head, effectively silencing Rumi’s words that only sobs and shuddering gasps come out from her. “Now, I give my soul to you.”

Say it.

Say it.

Say it!

Rumi, with her shaky hands, hold his face. Her eyes are full of tears as they close and inch herself closer. Their lips meet. All the times they’ve kissed and Jinu has memorized every feeling. The first time were like fireworks, the second time was natural as if the world was finally in the right place and now… it feels too bittersweet. Jinu doesn’t regret a single thing.

“I love you, Rumi.” Jinu says the moment they part. Her eyes shine with so many things—tears, sadness, adoration, pity, heartbreak—Jinu wants to kiss her again.

Then he disappears.

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At least that’s what he thought so.

He wakes up in an empty space. Jinu doesn’t know how long he’s been here. Everything was white. All around was white.

“You always were a hopeless romantic, oppa.” 

Jinu startles from the sound of a voice behind him. He whirls around to see a familiar face— too familiar. 

“Sook-hwa*,” Jinu gasps. She looks different from his memories—frail, dirty, and sad—instead, she has grown up, reaching almost his height, but she is still the same Sook-hwa, whose smile lights up the entire room. Her eyes are sharper than it was before, her stature grown into a woman who has seen the horrors of the world. 

She grins from hearing her name and steps forward.

Jinu steps backward. 

Sook-hwa frowns. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No!” Jinu blurts out quickly, taking a hesitant step forward. “I…” He wraps his arms around himself, shrinking. “I’m… You shouldn’t…” The marks on him glow bright purple. “I’m a demon .”

“And you’re my brother,” Sook-hwa nods, her smile unwavering. 

“No, no,” He shakes his head, making the distance between them greater. “You shouldn’t. I’m a demon, Sook-hwa-ah. I shouldn’t even be here. Why are you here? I don’t exist. I’ve already given my soul to–” He blinks, staring at his marked hands. “Rumi…”

Sook-hwa appears in front of him, grinning and startling him once again. “Do you love her, oppa?”

“What?” His head hurts. “I…”

She doesn’t let him finish. “You do. You said it. You told her!”

He does. He did. He told her.

Can demons even get migraines?

“So? I’m gone. It doesn’t matter.”

Sook-hwa shakes her head, frowning. “You’re lying, oppa. It matters a lot. To you and me.”

“What?” Jinu furrows his eyebrows. “Why does it matter to you? Sook-hwa-ah, what’s happening–”

“Tell me, Jinu,” Sook-hwa sounds far away, disembodied . “Do you love this Rumi?”

He cowers because that’s the only thing he’s worth doing. “I can’t,” he rasps, unapologetic with his answers. This seems to dissatisfy ‘Sook-hwa’ who visibly frowns and glares at him. “I shouldn’t,” he corrects himself, closing his eyes as memories of Rumi flash through his eyes.

“Tell me, Jinu.”

Her hair, flowing in the wind, purple and shining. Her face, unblemished by the hideous and shameful patterns that cover her body. Her smile, rueful and full of pity. She’s beautiful.

“Tell me, Jinu.”

Her hair, tightly and neatly woven into a braid. Her face, shining with iridescent patterns that make her her. Her smile, confident in everything she believes in that moment. She’s bewitching; beauty unmatched in all he has seen in the human and Underworld.

“Tell me, Jinu.”

“I do,” he says, defeated. “I love her even after the second death.”

‘Sook-hwa’ smiles. “Then I suppose you can love her even after your third.”

Jinu turns to her, surprised. “What? What do you mean?”

This ‘Sook-hwa’ only smiles. Then she reaches her hand out to the unknown white. “You can thank Sook-hwa next time.”

Whiteness turns into darkness.

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Jinu has lived 25 years alone. Well, he did have an adoptive family, but even then, Jinu could never feel as close to them than he thought he could when he was a kid. It wasn’t as if they treated him badly; his adoptive parents treated him fairly along with his other siblings. For years, he thought maybe he was the problem.

That maybe his soul is somewhat… incomplete.

In his teenage years, he tried to fill the hole by having friends. He tried everything; from sports, to games, to arts, and even playing bipa. That filled something, somewhat. His family felt a bit unusual towards him playing bipa at times. His siblings have called him old for choosing an old instrument to master. He could care less.

He sometimes wonder how he picked up on playing the bipa so fast. Sometimes, he has dreams. Dreams of a sister. And a mother. And a song stuck in his head. He wakes up only to forget all about it again.

Before college, he tries filling the hole through romance. He dates people. He kisses them. He has sex.

All of his relationships meet failure. In college, whether he was in a relationship or not, he dreams of a voice; closer to an angel. He dreams of purple hair and shiny eyes. He dreams of warmth on his hands. The moment he wakes up, he mourns.

So, his relationships fail. Because none of them could fulfill his incompleteness. Not his needs or his wants.

He doesn’t even know what he wants.

So, when he turned 18 years old, he went to America, living a life he thought could fulfill him, could fulfill his soul, and maybe, maybe, complete him.

Even after 7 years, he feels neither fulfilled nor complete. 

Some told him, ‘Calm down, you’re still young.’ Others told him, ‘What more could you want?’

He didn’t know.

When he stepped back in Korea, he felt a sense of relief. He persuaded himself that he didn’t feel any sense of home in Korea, nor did he actually miss it. But standing on its soil, right now, he could feel like he can live here with no worries. 

Maybe he would have to live with an incomplete soul. Forever.

His adoptive mother and father greeted him with welcome arms, his siblings amicably.

“You’ve grown so well,” his mother tells him. 

“You’re tall,” his siblings tell him.

“You’re a good man, Jinu,” his father tells him. That one is less believable.

So, he roams Korea. He goes to places he’s never gone to, places he thinks could give him a semblance of life.

Seoul is still… Seoul. He never knows what to expect here. The ramyeon is still delicious, yet boring. The parks are greener than ever, but dull. The people are nice yet stiff. The place is full of life, yet uneventful. 

Jinu sighs, taking his eyes off from the big screens on top of the buildings. He should probably start walking now or he might miss his friend’s comedy show. He steps into the alleyway and hears voices.

“Oh, come on, Mira. We’re in disguises. There won’t be fans! Trust me!”

“Last time we trusted you, you showed us to a scam.”

“I was scammed! And this isn’t a scam! It’s an artist I’ve really been into for a while now!” A girl in blue and a hat starts pointing at the entrance way he needs to go through.

“And they’re playing underground?”

“Oh, come on, Rumi. I’ve dragged you guys to underground shows before.”

“They also have a comedy show going on. Kinda wanna check that out.” The girl with pink hair says, eyeing at the posters posted on the wall next to the door.

“That’s the spirit, Mira!”

He burrows his head deeper into his hat. “Excuse me,” he says, only for them to startle and scramble behind their other friend, who was wearing a hoodie and a coat over it. Weird, but he thinks nothing of it, not even when he feels how familiar this is.

Unknowingly, he bumps into this girl.

“Hey!” The girl exclaims, annoyed and already on the ground, rubbing at her hip.

Jinu averts his eyes and stretches his hand out. “Sorry, are you okay–”

The hand that grabs him is familiar, soothing, and makes his skin feel on fire. He recognizes this warmth–he looks  up. The hoodie has come off, letting out the messy purple hair, this time, untied and flowing. Her wide eyes shine with something more, her mouth agape as she stares at him.

Oh.

This was the woman his heart was singing for.

This was the owner of the other half of his soul.

“Jinu,” she breathes in awe.

In the distance, he can hear an indignant shout coming from either two of the girls. Right now, however, it was like every memory rushed to his mind, filling the missing holes with every single one of them.

“Oh,” he gasps, tears trickling down his face. “Rumi.”

Of course, he thinks. 

There could only ever be one who his soul belongs to.

Rumi.