Chapter Text
Romance had an excellent viewpoint for his bandmate’s brutal murder from the floor of the concert venue.
Well, murder wasn’t the right word, necessarily. But the method, so terribly barbaric! And these girls called THEM demons.
Before he could get up and try to avenge his comrades, a clawed hand was tugging him back to the floor. Baby’s face loomed over him, a claw pressed to his lips. Romance tried to stand again, but Baby shook his head, then tapped his ear.
So Romance listened for a moment. All he could hear was music. What did Baby expect him to - “Oh.”
Baby made a face that can only be described as saying “Well, duh!” as he started tugging Romance towards the nearest exit.
From the moment the hunters had appeared, a chorus of “STOP THAT SONG!” had been echoing through the skulls of the Saja Boys. They held back as long as they could because Jinu did, but eventually joined the fight and left him behind. Now, though, Gwi-ma seemed to be too distracted to keep up his bellowing, a rare chance Baby was apparently using to get as far from him as possible.
Once they were free of the venue, Romance shook Baby’s hand off. “Why are we just sneaking off instead of, you know, going home?”
“Hedging my bet,” Baby said. “Just wait.”
As the two demons cowered outside the stadium, a new honmoon erupted from within it: prismatic rather than blue or even gold, and it rapidly expanded to cover the area as the two demons slammed their eyes shut in anticipation of their one-way ticket back to the underworld, to have their minds overwhelmed by Gwi-ma’s impotent fury…but after an agonizing moment, heard only silence. Romance opened his eyes slowly to a tuft of turquoise hair. Baby was clinging to his chest, having tackled them into the grass, as if they could hide from the honmoon. Romance patted his smaller companion on the back, feeling the softness of his fluffy sweater - but that meant they were back in their human disguises? Somehow, the honmoon crashing over them had washed away their demonic forms. Romance could still feel the thrumming of magic in his not-veins, so despite the lack of Gwi-ma’s muttering, he was definitely still a demon but…try as he might, he couldn’t manifest it.
“What is happening.”
Baby grunted unhelpfully.
“So the honmoon is back…”
Grunting again.
“…Gwi-ma is gone…”
Still grunting.
“…but we’re still on this side?”
Baby grunted once more, then slowly pushed himself off Romance’s chest, looking askance at their surroundings, “Bet paid off, I guess.”
Romance wan’t sure if he wanted to scream, slap him, or cry. “What bet?! I have no clue what’s going on! I can’t hear shit anymore, and Jinu is gone, Abby is gone, Mystery is I don’t know where, I’m stuck looking human, and you’re like, talking, and I don’t get any of it!”
Baby sighed. “Calm down already…it’s not that complicated. Yeah, Jinu, Abby, and Mystery are all gone. The little one, she was so distracted by Mystery’s face she didn’t notice me getting to you. I was too late for him or Abby, but the tall one, she must have thought she killed you when she pushed you away.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Romance muttered, rubbing his temples. “And Gwi-ma?”
“Used too much strength trying to destroy the half-demon and couldn’t keep control of all of us, so now he’s sealed away again, or dead, I don’t know. And I guess the new honmoon is strong enough that it suppressed our demon side.”
“Gwi-ma must have been extra loud for you if you’re suddenly talking.”
Baby shrugged.
“Oh, now you’re quiet again,” Romance mumbled. He flopped back into the long grass. “I’ve never had my mind to myself for this long before. It’s weird. I don’t…well, it’s not that I don’t like it, I just…we always had Jinu or Gwi-ma telling us what to do. Now they’re both gone. What do we do? Where do we go?”
“You’re saying you want me to give orders now?” Baby asked, smirking despite his being in the same situation.
“I would take it over nothing,” Romance grumbled. He looked above the stadium to see the hunters floating there like some kind of divine beings. “Ugh. Let’s just get out of here before they figure out we’re still around.”
“Wait a minute, are you one of the Saja Boys?!”
“Ugh, not again,” Romance groaned. To the fan, though, he put a finger over his lips, using his other hand to beckon the human into the shadows.
In the last few weeks, despite clinging to shadows, traveling by night, and hiding in dark alleys by day, they could barely go twenty-four hours without being recognized. Having fifty million fans would do that, Romance supposed. But it was getting to be more than just irksome. Each encounter raised the chances of them being found by the hunters considerably: if they let the humans live, word would eventually got back to the hunters and they would die; if they just murdered the humans, they would leave a trail that the hunters could follow if they were even halfway competent and they would die; if they kept harvesting souls, they would eventually leave a target on their backs too big for the hunters to miss and they would die. This left them in the unenviable position of living in back alleys and slowly, slowly siphoning any captive souls. Jeoseung Saja didn’t normally consume souls, just harvest them. Consuming souls increased their strength, but also left them with the spiritual equivalent of a tummy ache.
“I hate this,” Romance growled, tossing a freshly trussed-up victim over to Baby. “We were royalty above and below. Now we’re living like hobos. What’s the point?”
“Could be worse,” Baby said. He dug around the human’s pockets, taking his wallet and any other valuables before draining his soul.
“Eternal torture, blah, blah, blah. I don’t think this is much better.”
“Quit bitching or I’ll drink this one all for myself.”
“You can have him, I’m still sick from the last one,” Romance groused. He looked up at the imposing Huntrix tower on the skyline. “I’m getting real tired of running, that’s all.”
Baby rolled his enormous eyes. “What other choice is there? We can’t go back.”
“Think about it…we’ve been acting like getting captured by either side means death, but between the two, who’s more likely to show mercy: the hunters or Gwi-ma?”
Baby grimaced. “It sounds like you’re asking me to choose between death or eternal torment.”
“But does it have to be death?” Romance asked, a bit of desperation creeping into his voice. “What if, maybe, we go there, ‘oh, have pity on us, we were under the control of Gwi-ma, give us a second chance!’”
“You only say that because you didn’t see the little one kill Mystery. The little one cut him open with a smile on her face, and she’s the sweet one.”
Romance scoffed. “You of all people should know that being the ‘sweet one’ doesn’t guarantee anything.”
“And was the angry one any gentler with Abby?”
Romance slid down the wall of the alley, plopping onto the filthy ground in his well-worn designer jeans with a groan. “I’ll take a spear to the gut at this point.”
“Living like this isn’t so bad that I’d rather be dead.”
“You call this living?! We’re bums getting by on scraps!”
“But we get to be ourselves.”
“Whoever ‘ourselves’ is,” Romance muttered. He rolled onto the floor and laid on his back, looking up at the sky above their cramped alley. “What’s being an individual worth when we don’t remember who we are or were?”
“Just listen,” Baby said, lying down next to Romance, hands behind his head. “It’s so…peaceful.”
Romance wouldn’t give Baby the satisfaction of saying it out loud, but it was nice not hearing Gwi-ma’s constant nattering. “Peace makes me uncomfortable,” he said instead. “Like I should be doing something.”
“Just enjoy it. You know, if we go to those girls and they kill us, what if we go right back to Gwi-ma? You want to be a dumb zombie again?”
“You think Abby and Mystery are back there?”
“Being a zombie’s not much of a change for Abby.”
Romance laughed for the first time in weeks. “Yeah, but…Mystery would appreciate the peace more than me, I think.”
“And he would talk less.”
“Shut up,” Romance said without any real heat, swatting at Baby. “So…what about Jinu? He gave his soul to that girl. What does that mean?”
“Ask King Yeomra.”
“Yeah, the keeper of the underworld. Busiest being in the universe. Helpful.”
“Welcome.”
Romance swatted at Baby again, who took it without complaint or retaliation, just smirked behind his lollipop and kept staring at the sky. “Do you, y’know, miss them?”
Baby’s stare intensified. “I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“I don’t know what that feels like. Missing someone.”
“Well, obviously, it’s…” Romance stuttered out. “I wish they were here right now. That’s missing someone, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
Romance sighed. “For example, right now, I wish literally anyone else were here other than you, because they would at least pretend to have feelings.”
“Even Mystery?”
“…well, he would pretend to have them, but wouldn’t talk about it.”
“And he’d probably be more on board with your suicide plan, too.”
Romance sighed. “Look, I don’t think we have much to lose. It shouldn’t be too hard to get the girls’ attention. Can’t we just try?”
Baby didn’t answer, just kept looking up at the sky, city lights gleaming in his enormous eyes. Romance had to admit they were breathtaking up close, so reflective, expressive. Baby’s conflict was written all over them and Romance could read every line.
Romance reached down to grab Baby’s hand, threading their delicate fingers together, chipped paint and all. I know you don’t want to go back. I don’t either. But I don’t want to live like THIS forever either. We won’t get any kind of peace until those three are off our back. So let’s at least try to work out a truce, yeah?”
Baby’s long eyelashes fluttered closed. “If they attack us, I’m throwing you at them and running.”
“Of course,” Romance said. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow. Let this meal sit for now.”
Baby grunted his agreement, and the two of them lay in silence awhile, looking at the city lights and listening to passerby.
“You ever think about who you used to be?”
Baby turned to look at him.
“I know I can’t remember. Jinu could. I wasn’t sure if you were the same.”
Baby studied Romance’s profile, eyes hidden behind bangs at this angle. “Same here.”
“Sucks,” Romance said. “Well, maybe not. Jinu never seemed to have much fun remembering.”
“But he was himself.”
“Right, right,” Romance said, unconvinced. “What did we do that was so terrible Gwi-ma took it from us?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Baby grunted.
Romance scoffed. “I wish I could be as simple as you.”
“I’m just a baby,” he said with utter sincerity. “I get to be simple.”
“And romance is complicated,” The other demon sighed. “I guess we’re both babies, really.“
Demons didn’t really need to sleep - but it passed the time. Romance could swear that he was feeling tired more and more since they became permanent residents of the human realm, though, and with full bellies it was easy to drift off under a pile of stolen clothes abandoned by their now-absent owners.
Baby turned towards him and laid his head on Romance’s broad chest, who turned towards him in response, wrapping the smaller demon up tight. The Saja Boys had always been touchy, leaning on or hanging off each other, giving piggyback rides, whatever they could manage. Jinu had drilled that behavior into them, but even when the cameras were off, they found their touches lingering. None of them remembered what it was like to experience that kind of intimacy, so they wound up enjoying it. Especially Romance, who could never get enough of it, always hanging on someone like a pretty little ornament. Baby was more standoffish, but still liked to keep in contact, even if it was just leaning against one of his taller companions.
In their cold nights on the street, the contact became even more meaningful. Romance found himself looking forward to wrapping Baby in his arms more and more as the temperature dipped, and from the way the usually distant demon wriggled towards him, burrowing farther into his arms, Romance figured Baby would agree. He allowed his face to nestle in Baby’s soft curls, breathing deep the honey-sweet scent he exuded, before falling into a peaceful slumber.
*
The official story went like this:
The Saja Boys were an experiment. A holo-band that the label never expected to become so successful. Since they didn’t have any real performers signed, they decided to use the Saja Boys’ sudden success to bolster Huntrix further. Huntrix’s breakup was real, but born from misunderstanding, and they were able to work it out quickly. The label came up with a way to solve both problems at once, giving the Saja Boys story a conclusion and bringing Huntrix back. No demon murders at all.
Not that anyone sat down to make that the official story. Netizens did it on their own. One might think Hunter life required a lot of damage control, covering up their second lives and hiding demons from the people, but…humans were simple creatures, really. The moment they could cling to a “rational” explanation, it became fact, and just about anything could be explained away.
Though there were always the anti-fans, who maintained that Huntrix used and abused the very much real and far superior Saja Boys as a prop to cover up their drama because they were such manipulative monsters who hated their fans, obviously.
“I hate the antis so much,” Zoey fumed as Bobby broke the news. “I swear just wanna take ‘em and,” she started jabbing chopsticks into her bowl with superhuman ferocity. Mira nodded solemnly in agreement.
“Oh, but they’re so sad,” Rumi said, all sympathy. “This is like, their whole lives, making up this stuff. Just let them have it.”
“You’re too nice,” Mira groused.
“She’s right, though,” Bobby said, mollifying as always. “No one’s even listening to them. The real story is perfectly satisfying. I can’t believe you coordinated all of that with the label! Loop me in next time, girls.”
“Yeah, sorry Bobby, it was all very last minute, Um, Jinu came up with it,” Rumi stammered.
(They had tried telling Bobby the truth - multiple times - but it never seemed to stick. He was always convinced they were pranking him and eventually they’d given up trying to pop his innocent little bubble.)
“Oh, so he was real? Was he the one who made the Saja Boys? Could we work with him? He seems crazy talented.”
Rumi felt that innocent question run right through her heart. Luckily, Zoey was on top of it.
“Oh, he just wants some time to himself right now! It was a lot of work, you know? Bobby, here, look at these lyrics I came up with, I want to know if they’re a good fit for our next step…”
Mira leaned gently into Rumi’s shoulder as the other two wandered off. Rumi leaned back into her friend’s warmth.
Jinu had given his “soul” to her or whatever. But what did that even mean? She didn’t feel any different. She couldn’t see or hear him, either, and not for lack of trying: she’d tried talking to him almost every night until the lump in her throat strangled away any words. If she concentrated and focused on her memories of him she thought maybe she could feel him there holding her hand again, but as far as she knew that was just wishful thinking. She tried doing research, but the internet was predictably unhelpful with its multitudinous contradictory answers, and the only person she could go to for any reliable information was Celine, and she had no intention of seeing her erstwhile guardian anytime soon.
Rumi sighed. “You remember like, a month ago when this job was simple?”
“Was it ever simple?” Mira asked, poking at Rumi’s faded marks.
“Remember when we pretended it was simple?” Rumi corrected, prompting Mira to snort. Rumi giggled in response, and they both laughed themselves back into a comfortable silence - until a notification from someone’s phone pinged.
“That you or me?” Mira asked, unwilling to move.
“You,” Rumi said. “Mine’s in my bed somewhere.”
Mira groaned and slowly sat up. Rumi ignored her and closed her eyes, sitting back again, relaxing -
“Oh, hell no. Literally, HELL no.”
Runi groaned. “What now?”
“Look!”
Rumi opened her eyes to a phone screen inches from her face. It slowly slid into focus on a tiktok of - “A Saja Boys signing?!”
“Yeah!” Mira scrolled to the next video, where Baby Saja and Romance Saja were posing with a starstruck fan in their usual sickly-sweet fashion. “It looks like it’s just those two.”
“Didn’t you kill them?!”
“I mean, I got Abs! And I thought I got Romance. The other two were Zoey’s responsibility!”
“YOU GUYS!” The hunter in question stormed through the door with Bobby behind her halfway to a panic attack. “THEY’RE BACK! Or they never left?! Well, some of them anyway! But what do we do?”
Mira rushed over to her bandmate and started shaking her by the shoulders. “Zoey! I thought you took care of Baby Saja!”
Zoey grabbed Mira right back and started shaking the other way. “I thought you took care of Romance!”
“I did!”
“THEN WHY IS HE STILL HERE!”
The two of them quickly turned into a shrieking, vibrating mess until Bobby and Rumi pulled them apart. “Girls, it’s alright!” Bobby said, panting, a still flailing Zoey in his arms.
“Yeah, seriously,” Rumi said, giving Mira what she hoped was a soothing pat on the head. “Listen, we can deal with this! Let’s just find out what they’re up to and if it’s bad we can get ‘em!”
Mira and Zoey slumped over like dolls with their strings cut, then wriggled free of their captors to hug each other. “Alright,” Zoey said (into Mira’s shoulder), “Let’s get those Saja Boys!…again.”
“Yeah! This time I’m gonna stick that Romance guy’s perfect hair up his perfect butt!” Mira growled. “Where are they?”
“Uh, girls,” Bobby said, standing at the window and clearly afraid of what he was about to say. “Take a look down there.”
The three girls came from behind Bobby so quickly and with such force he was pressed against the window like a stuffed toy. “They wouldn’t,” Mira hissed.
“They couldn’t,” Zoey gasped.
“They did,” Rumi sighed. Right in front of their tower, in clear view of the penthouse, a giant sign: SAJA BOYS HALF REUNION SIGNING!
Rumi heard a weapon materializing behind her, turning to see Mira with fire in her eyes. “Oh, they’re so dead.”
Zoey wasn’t faring much better, fists clenched and seething. “On our turf! How dare they!”
“Guys, wait - “ Rumi could barely get a word out before the two had vanished into the hallway and down the stairs. She sighed, then knelt down to help Bobby off the ground. “Sorry Bobby…thanks for the heads up, though! Love you!”
As she ran off, Bobby struggled to stay on his feet. “Yeah, love you too…my ribs maybe don’t, though…”