Archive of Our Own ^beta

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…”

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry but, can I like, touch you?” A young girl asked with all the reverence of a churchgoer.

“I - why?” Romance stammered.

“It’s just…everyone said you guys were a holo band, so I just wanna know, if I…” she trailed off, looking ashamed.

As much as he and the other Saja boys found fan interactions - and human interactions in general - draining, sometimes it made him feel just a bit warm and fuzzy to see their earnest desires. So he summoned up the will to assume his persona and leaned forward til his bangs brushed against the girl’s ear, whispering, “I’m as real as you want me to be, girl.”

He regretted the close proximity after the earth-shattering screech she made before collapsing into a puddle of flesh and bones, but he couldn’t help but enjoy the impact he had on these simple creatures.

“You’re so corny,” Baby scoffed.

“I’m Romance, it’s what I do,” Romance said as he sat back down. He looked up at the penthouse. “You think they’ve noticed us?”

“They’d be stupid not to,” Baby said, reclining in his chair and signing another photo.

“You know what, I used to hate this part, but it’s not so bad anymore.”

“Maybe because Gwi-ma isn’t screaming ‘get back to work you lazy bums’ in our heads the whole time?”

“I actually didn’t think about that,” Romance marveled. It was true, though. Every day without Gwi-ma was something new. He was enjoying a fan meet, he was actually starting to care about Baby, to miss the others. Existing had some kind of meaning beyond getting Gwi-ma his next meal.

“E-excuse me,” a tiny voice squeaked. Romance and Baby turned to the source of the sound to see…a human child? Maybe? It was short, had a terrible hunchback, wrapped in a hoodie with long hair peeking out alongside big, wet eyes.

Baby looked at Romance with a raised eyebrow. Romance shrugged. “Hey, do you, uh…have something for us to sign?”

The human child (?) fidgeted with its hands. Well, they assumed it did. The hoodie’s sleeves were so long they couldn’t see its fingers. “No, I just…wanted to say thank you…you guys, you’re really an inspiration to us, you know?”

Baby’s eyes narrowed. “Who is ‘us?’”

The big, wet eyes darted back and forth a few times. A long claw slipped out of a long sleeve and tugged down on the hood, revealing a glimpse of a sheepish water demon. “We just love you guys so much!”

Baby shot to his feet, and Romance had to grab the back of his sweater and pull him back down. “What do you want?!” He asked, flashing fangs.

The little demon’s eyes doubled in both size and wateriness. “N-no! Nothing bad! I just wanted to thank you! I swear I’m not with Gwi-ma!”

Romance looked around at the gathering crowd. “Hang on everybody! This little guy wants to take a picture! Just, uh, 100k won! Per member!” A renewed shriek from the crowd (and deeply annoyed glare from Baby) followed the two of them around a corner, where he grabbed the little demon by its drawstrings. “How did you get here?” Romance hissed.

“I don’t really know,” the demon stammered. “Gwi-ma was really mad and killing demons left and right, and I was hiding, and then I saw a gap in the honmoon? So I went through and I was here. And I just love you guys so much, I wanted to talk to you, and - “

The crowd’s noise intensified to a fever pitch. Romance turned to see Baby suddenly sitting bolt upright, eyes even bigger than normal. He turned to Romance mouthing something that looked suspiciously like “Oh, shit.”

Romance followed his gaze to see two very irate hunters in casual wear pushing their way to the front of the line, eyes alight with murderous intent. “This looks familiar,” Romance muttered. He shoved the little demon’s away, hissing “hide” before he walked back to Baby. What would Jinu do in this situation, he wondered. “H-hey! Look everyone, it’s our special guests we definitely always planned for, Huntrix!”

“OMG It really is them!”

“Wow, they’re so supportive of their hoobae!”

“I can’t believe we get to see them together again!”

Watching the pink one - Mira, he remembered, wow she was pretty when she got mad - force a smile to crack through the angry face was endlessly amusing, and neither Romance nor Baby could keep themselves from cackling through their terror.

At that point, the purple one arrived, rushing to put herself between the two Saja Boys and her friends. “Hey guys! Sorry I’m late to our second joint signing!” She said through clenched teeth.

“Yes. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have this second totally planned and very desired joint signing with the Saja Boys.” Mira grunted back - but then she heard the fans squeal and softened somewhat.

Romance led the girls behind their table. “Sorry we only have two chairs, but you can always sit in my lap,” he teased. Having the upper hand, however briefly, dragged out his need to flirt.

Mira stamped on his foot and stole his chair. “Fat chance.”

Romance pouted and dropped into Baby’s lap instead, causing Baby to almost swallow his lollipop. “No thanks, I’m comfy.”

“Aw, Mira and Romance are still cute without Abby! Romira!”

“Forget Romira, look at Romance and Baby!”

“Oh, wow! Rombaby!”

Romance looked down at his bandmate, who was blushing furiously beneath his turquoise hair, and made to get back to his feet, but Baby recovered quickly and wrapped him up in a hug instead. “‘Scuse me, sitting in laps is a Baby thing. Stay in your lane.”

“DID BABY JUST TALK?!”

“Woah, his voice is so deep…”

“This is all too cute, I’m gonna die!”

Romance wasn’t sure what this feeling was. He’d pulled Baby into his lap dozens of times, especially since becoming demon exiles. But something was different about this, in front of all these fans and the hunters. On top of that, Baby’s voice was deep, he knew that in an abstract sense, but he was really playing it up today; having it in close proximity, vibrating his ribs, was a new experience. He scrambled to his feet, dusting himself off with a nervous laugh while Baby smirked below.

Well, at least he could play it cool. Romance felt like a mess. “H-hey, girls, maybe we can take the load off our lazy partners at the tables and walk around to do some signings?”

“Good idea!” Purple said, grinning, but there was something deeply unsettling about it. “I’ll go with you. Hold down the fort, girls!”

“Aye aye, captain,” her bandmates said in unison with the expected levels of enthusiasm.

Purple steered the demon away from the table, greeting fans at the back of the line, taking advantage of their star-struck distraction to interrogate Romance. “What’s your game, demon? Get talking!”

“What game? There’s no game, you’re just being para - ow!” Purple’s boot had found its way to Romance’s heel, “accidentally” stepping on him. “Okay, there is sort of a game, but not a bad one. See, we kinda got stuck on this side, which is actually a good thing, only now we have nowhere to live and are sort of just hiding in alleys and sleeping in boxes, so we hoped maybe you could help?”

“That better be true,” Purple growled. “Okay. Say I believe you. What do you think we could do?”

“I don’t know…but I figured, hey, we can’t live in hiding forever, better to let the hunters know, right?”

“And you chose this instead of just trying to reach us like a person?”

“How would a person even reach you? You’re superstars, getting a message from a single person would be impossible! Besides, Baby thought if we met in public, you would be less likely to kill us on sight.”

“And you didn’t think it would seem a but suspicious to see you wooing fans again given we know what you’d planned for them before?”

“No, I did not,” Romance admitted, and he moved his foot just in time to avoid another heel-stomp. “But surely that speaks to our pure intentions! We never even considered harvesting these lovely people!”

“You guys are so…stupid,” Purple said, still grimacing, but she snapped into a happy face for her fans. “Thanks for coming! Love you!”

“And the Saja Boys love you more!” Romance said, earning an elbow to the side for his trouble. “Stop that! Yes, we’re stupid, okay? Jinu handled everything, we were barely even puppets. We’re totally hopeless. Please, please help us!”

“What do you think I’m doing right now,” Purple hissed. “Fine! Let’s wrap this up and get back to the stupid penthouse so we can…find somewhere to put you, I don’t know.”

Bobby was quickly summoned from the penthouse along with some security (and extra chairs). A perimeter was established, and new arrivals turned away, as the crowd slowly winnowed down until everyone already present was served. The girls swept Bobby up in a group hug (with whispers of an extra 3%) and the boys gave their deepest bow before being whisked into the elevators and into the penthouse. The two demons, unaccustomed to being manhandled, looked at each other with mingled fear and confusion as they were tossed into chairs and tied up with extension cords, decorative curtain tassels, measuring tape, whatever long, flexible detritus the girls could uncover until they were a pile of cords on chairs.

“Are you done?” Baby drawled as the hunters finally dropped onto their couch, breathing heavily.

“I think you’ll find we’re asking the questions here,” the small one wheezed. It was somewhat less intimidating than she’d hoped.

“Look, we - “ Romance looked at Baby, who was reticent as ever behind his lollipop, “I am willing to tell you everything we know, but I swear it’s not much.”

“Shocker,” Mira panted.

“Yeah, that one told me they’ve been hiding since the concert,” Purple said, first to catch her breath. “Romance Saja, right?”

Romance nodded. “At your service?”

Mira rolled her eyes. “I’m not calling you that. That can’t be your real name.”

“It might as well be,” Romance said, looking between the girls and hoping for a glimpse if sympathy. He found none, but still thought Purple was the softest target. “We had names at some point, but Gwi-ma, I guess you could say he took them. Jinu gave us these names.”

“Gwi-ma…took them?” Purple betrayed a flicker of sadness. Perfect.

“That’s the best way I can put it. Jinu was always special. Gwi-ma almost treated him like some kind of protege, or favored pet. Everyone else, like us, Gwi-ma wore us down with his whispers until there was nothing left. We were only able to act independently up here, and even then it was mostly what Jinu told us to do.”

“Can you hear Gwi-ma now?” Purple asked.

“Not even a little. It’s strange, but…good.”

Purple let out a breath he hadn’t realized she was holding. “Okay. The honmoon must be working for the most part. But how did it let you two stay?”

Romance shrugged. “Maybe we ran far enough away?”

“It covers the whole world, silly,” Tiny said, shaking her head as her buns wiggled. “I guess it really only banished Gwi-ma. Mira and I got Mystery and Abby, Jinu…did that thing he did, and Gwi-ma ate up the rest. So maybe it really would have just kicked out Gwi-ma.”

“Good thing we got those two, then,” Mira groused. “Wish we’d been more thorough.”

“Disagree,” Baby said, clearly provoked. “They would be here with us not causing trouble either, you didn’t do shit.”

“How do we even know you haven’t been causing trouble?” Mira snarled back. “We have your word? What’s the word of a demon worth, anyway?”

“Hang on, Mira,” Purple said. “I know Jinu jerked us around a lot, but he did the right thing eventually. Plus there’s me, and maybe my dad. We should know by now demons are more complex than we thought.”

To Romance’s utter shock, Mira seemed cowed by her friend. “Yeah. Sorry. Seeing these two just brings back some memories. Takedown Mira wanted a go.”

“Never thought I’d see someone wrangle Mira,” Romance chuckled. “Between her and Jinu, you’ve got a knack for winning stubborn hearts, Purple.”

“Purple? Purple?!” Rumi gasped. “My name is Rumi, ‘Romance’.”

“Sorry, sorry! Maybe we need a reintroduction. Romance here. That’s Baby. I know MiraC of course,” Romance said, winking shamelessly like he wasn’t strapped to a dining chair with dozens of accessories. “You’re Rumi, and the last one…?”

“Zoey,” Tiny said helpfully. “You’re really gonna stick with Romance and Baby?”

The two demons looked at each other and shrugged. “It’s the name we had when we got our freedom,” Romance said. “It’s as good as anything else.”

Rumi frowned. “I’m sorry Gwi-ma took so much from you. I guess I’m glad you got a chance.”

“If we give you one,” Mira interrupted, calmer but no less wary. “You say you haven’t caused any trouble. Have you taken any souls since the new honmoon was formed?”

Romance squirmed beneath his bindings. “See, Jeoseong Saja, we don’t really consume souls, we just carry them, but we can’t bring them back to Gwi-ma, so…”

Mira’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not an answer. How many souls have you ‘carried’?”

Romance cleared his throat. “First of all, let me start by saying we didn’t want to, it was to protect us from you, so if anything, it’s kind of your fault - “

Mira and Zoey’s weapons were drawn, and it was only Rumi holding them back. “Stop making excuses. Explain fast.”

“We kept getting recognized, and taking their souls was the best way to hide!”

“Can they be returned?” Rumi asked, forcing calm.

“Of course,” Romance said, and two out of three girls relaxed, Mira remaining incensed but still. “But they’ll remember being attacked by the Saja boys, so…”

“Too bad,” Mira growled. “Cough ‘em up before we rip ‘em out.”

“No one will believe them, most likely,” Rumi said, mollifying in her way, “And as long as you restore them, we’ll back you up if they try to make an issue out of it. We can work out details later.”

Romance looked at Baby, who unhelpfully shrugged. “Keeping them for too long makes us sick, anyway. Sooner or later they would have to be released or guided back to the Underworld.”

“You’ll have to untie us first,” Romance said - bluffed, really.

“Bullshit,” Mira called - accurately.

“We’ll see about that later,” Rumi said. “Now, the other Saja Boys. Are they back too, somehow.”

“Not that we know of.” Romance said, unable to keep some bitterness out of his voice.

“Almost like we saw them butchered in front of us,” Baby added, less willing to hide his feelings.

“They were attacking us. Helping Gwi-ma,” Zoey protested, but Romance could see a hint of regret in her expression.

“We know. But remember, they probably didn’t know they had a choice,” Romance said. He wasn’t lying, per se, but he was certainly making wild extrapolations. If he was going to get the girls to come around, he needed to pressure guilt out of the two more sympathetic members. “It took a while for Gwi-ma’s influence to fade. I didn’t realize we were free until after I watched Abby get cut to pieces.”

Mira scoffed. “Yeah, watched is right. Didn’t even try to help. Some teammate you are.”

“I’d taken a honmoon-enchanted pommel to the gut and my boss had just died protecting my enemy from his boss, it was a complicated evening,” Romance said, defensive.

“I wouldn’t let him,” Baby chimed in.

“Right,” Romance nodded. “Baby is the one who realized Gwi-ma was too distracted or weakened to control us, so we took the chance to escape.”

“So maybe…I didn’t need to kill…” Zoey said, voice wavering.

Baby wasn’t having any of that, however. “But you did. With a smile.”

Zoey looked away, squeezing her eyes shut. Mira grabbed her shoulder and rounded on Baby. “What did you expect her to do? Hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake, you expected her to take prisoners?”

“Yeah. Isn’t that what you ‘heroes’ do? Act like you’re better than us?”

“Baby,” Romance said, wishing he could reach out to his friend. “She’s not wrong. It sucks that we don’t have our friends here,” (he was really stretching the definition of friend) “But if we swapped places with Mystery and Abby, we would have fought too. I would have fought, and probably died. You were the one that saved me. Just…be glad you did that, okay?”

Baby batted his enormous eyes to Romance and back to the girls, who were looking suitably chastened - Mira included. Baby finally caught on, and looking stricken, cast his eyes down at his bindings. “Yeah…I’m glad we have each other.”

Baby’s eyes worked a charm as always, Romance thought as he watched the girls soften further, Zoey’s eyes starting to shine a bit. He would feel bad for manipulating them if not for his dead compatriots. And, well, it’s not as if he wasn’t truly grateful to still have Baby, and hopefully vice versa. “We’ll do what we can to make things right. Please don’t leave us hanging. We won’t ask for much.”

Zoey poked at Mira, flashing her own big, sad eyes. Mira shut hers, steeling her resolve. “I still don’t think we can trust them completely.”

“No,” Rumi said slowly. “Even Jinu took a long time to come around, and he still had memories of being human. Do you two?”

Romance shook his head, then looked at Baby, who did the same. “I think we were human. We definitely look more human than most demons. But you would have to ask Jinu. Or Gwi-ma.”

Everytime Jinu’s name came up, Rumi’s resolve to hate them wavered a bit more. “Were all demons human, once?” She pondered.

“No,” said Baby with shocking authority. “I don’t remember much, so don’t expect a lot, but I know most demons are made. Humans becoming demons directly is fairly rare.”

Rumi pursed her lips. “Jinu said he sold his soul.”

Baby nodded. “That’s probably not the only way, but yeah, it’s one.”

“Sorry we can’t be more helpful,” Romance said, and there was a speck of honesty there, if only because having more useful information made them less killable. “We were basically mindless down there, and that sort of prevents us from remembering much.”

“I remember Jinu torturing us,” Baby mumbled.

Romance couldn’t help but laugh despite their situation. “Choreography isn’t really torture.”

“Hard disagree,” Zoey whined.

“Alright, alright,” Rumi said, waving away the mirth despite her own half-smile. “So the other Saja Boys aren’t here. Are there any other demons?”

“Not that I - oh,” Romance suddenly recalled his friend, likely still hiding outside. “There was one little guy. I swear he’s harmless, though.”

Mira looked unconvinced. “Three ‘harmless’ demons in one day seems unlikely.”

“You’ll get it if you see him,” Romance said with a dry chuckle. “If you untie us, I can release these souls and take you to him.”

The three girls looked at each other, then back at the boys. “Girl huddle,” Zoey declared, and the girls skittered to the other side of the room in a tight ball of whispers and grumbles.

Romance looked over at Baby, who had somehow managed to get a fresh lollipop into his mouth. “Thought you’d mess that up for us.”

Baby’s laugh was hollow. “Please. Jinu basically made me to manipulate people, it was all according to plan.”

“Uh huh,” Romance said, rolling his eyes. Baby looked like he wanted to spit the lollipop at him, but refused to waste it.

“Alright,” Rumi declared, leading the other girls back from their huddle. “Romance. We’re letting you go, under Mira’s supervision, IF you release the souls. As long as there’s no business with you or this other demon, Baby can go when you get back, on the same terms, and under my supervision.”

Romance frowned. “And then you send us back to the streets?”

“We’ll figure something out,” Rumi said. “We need to keep an eye on you, like we said. So no sleeping in the streets, at least.”

“Then I guess we accept,” Romance said, looking over at Baby, who once again shrugged.

Mira raised her weapon. “Hold really still,” she suggested. “Or don’t, that would be more fun.”

Romance tensed and shut his eyes as the weapon came down, but he felt the cables and assorted detritus fall away and he could move his arms freely again.

“You could have just untied him,” Rumi chided. “What if we need those extension cords?”

“Have Bobby pick some up,” Mira said, dismissive, smirking down at Romance who couldn’t suppress a scowl. “Come on, lover boy. Cough up the souls.”

Romance rose from the chair, stretching luxuriously and making sure his shirt rode up just a tiny but too high, nothing with satisfaction the blush on Zoey and Mira’s cheeks. Then he let out a deep breath and expelled the souls he’d consumed over the last few weeks. The group watched as they drifted back to where they came from. “That feels better, actually,” Romance sighed.

Rumi and Zoey, glad to have their trust rewarded, smiled by the glow of the freshly released souls. “Thank you, Romance,” Rumi said, so honest it hurt.

Suddenly Romance understood why Jinu had been so swayed by this half-demon. She really was just a genuinely kind soul, and he felt a twinge of guilt knowing he had manipulated her. To be fair, he thought, they genuinely weren’t planning any mischief. But in turning her guilt and uncertainty against her, he’d taken a page out of Gwi-ma’s book, and that wasn’t a great feeling. “Yeah, well, I told you,” he said lamely. “So…let’s go get our next guest.”

“I’m coming too!” Rumi said as she rose to join them. “Just in case your friend is less nice.”

Romance chuckled. “That’s gonna be so funny when you see him.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, uh, buddy,” Romance called softly, walking through the debris from the fan sign, “Little guy? You still there?” Rumi and Mira lurked behind, clutching their weapons. Romance turned to them, wary. “Could you put those away? You might be making him nervous.”

Mira clung to her weapon tighter, but Rumi withdrew hers and put a hand on Mira’s. “We can get them out if anything happens. Let’s see how this plays out.”

“We’re taking a lot on faith here,” Mira said through clenched teeth.

“This is just having faith in us. We can handle them. I won’t let anything happen to you, you know that,” Rumi whispered, squeezing her hand.

Mira sighed and dismissed her weapon, folding her arms.

Romance meekly flashed a thumbs up. “The scary girls aren’t gonna hurt you, buddy. But also, if you don’t come out, they might think I’m lying and hurt me instead, so…”

Two big, wet yellow eyes peeked out of a bush. A hunched figure slowly came out behind them. “Are you okay?” It asked, shaky.

Mira grimaced. “Is that a water demon?”

“Looks like,” Rumi whispered. “But it looks weak. And kinda…pathetic.”

The demon’s eyes flicked to the girls and back to Romance who tries to smile reassuringly. “I promise they just wanna ask some questions about down below. They’re as confused as we are. You okay to come with us?”

The little guy nodded and waddled out. “I’m not sure how much I can help, but…I’ll try for you.”

The awkward group returned to thenpenthouse to find Zoey and Baby, unbound and laying supine with his legs up on the chair, surrounded by notebooks and chatting amicably. “Hey, guys!” Zoey said, cheery and without an ounce of shame.

“Zoey,” Rumi and Mira moaned in unison.

“What? He let all the souls go,” Mira said, all innocence. “And I thought maybe, you know, I never have any other rappers to run over my lyrics with, so we made a deal!“

Mira rubbed her temples. “Zoey, the first thing we learned about demons was not to make deals.”

“He’s been good, I swear!”

“Super chill,” Baby said without looking up from the notebook.

Romance shook his head with a tiny, fond smile. “See? We can be good.”

But Mira still wasn’t having any of it. “You can be as good as you want, you’re still responsible for thousands of deaths.”

“But Gwi-Ma - “

“Ate the souls, got it,” Mira interrupted. “Souls he never would have gotten without you to deliver.”

Romance looked around the room for help, only to find Rumi nodding in grim concurrence while Zoey had seemingly found her shame. He had to get them off this topic. “So! Little guy, um. What’s the situation in the underworld?”

The water demon looked around at the tense situation, meeting Zoey’s curious eyes and Baby’s doubting eyebrow raise. “Gwi-Ma is really mad,” he began. “He started purging demons that used to be human, like he doesn’t trust them anymore after Jinu.“

Romance looked at Baby, whose relaxed gaze concealed a hint of fear. “Did you see the others down there? Mystery, Abby…Jinu?”

The little guy shook his head. “No, and he was looking for them too. Anyone who even mentions Jinu is destroyed on the spot, former human or no.”

“He’s gonna run out of demons if he keeps that up,” Baby muttered.

“Not likely,” Mira countered. “No shortage of desperate people out there, and he can always make his own.”

“I don’t think he can reach beyond the new honmoon at all,” the little guy said. “No one can, it seems like.”

The girls looked at each other for a moment before Rumi thought to ask “Then how did you get here?”

“I wish I knew…I just wanted to get away from Gwi-Ma, and I really wanted to see the Saja Boys again…and suddenly there was a gap I could get through,” the demon twiddled his claws awkwardly before continuing. “But usually the gaps are pink, and you have to press through them like you’re coming out of water. This one was just sort of an opening, almost like a curtain lifted to let me in.”

“That’s definitely weird,” Rumi muttered. “Did you know any other demons that got out?”

The little guy shook his head. “I barely even know how I did. I just wanted to leave and there it was.”

“And you haven’t taken any souls? Hurt anyone?” Rumi asked, hopeful.

“Of course not, look at him!” Zoey cooed, crawling over the couch to get a close look. She reached out to pinch his cheeks while he froze in terror. “He’s so cute!”

Mira gagged. “A water demon? Cute?”

Rumi couldn’t help but giggle - and somewhat agree with Zoey. “Is there anything else you can tell us about Gwi-Ma?”

He shook his head. “He’s real mad.”

“Purging potentially disloyal followers,” Romance recounted.

“The Honmoon is letting some demons through, seemingly on its own,” Rumi surmised.

“And any weakness will eventually be found and exploited by Gwi-Ma,” Mira finished. “It sounds like we need to keep working on the gold honmoon.”

“I know you don’t care about our opinion,” Baby interjected, “But your golden honmoon would trap every demon down there with an angry, demonicidal Gwi-Ma.”

Mira cast a dismissive eye at him. “And?”

“Would you leave cuties like this down there to die?” Romance said, kneeling next to their water demon friend where Zoey was now squishing his cheeks.

“Actually…” Rumi began.

Mira groaned.

“We do know that demons can be redeemable, you know? Plus, I wanted a new honmoon for a reason. I didn’t really know what that meant, but…I guess we can find out.”

“Find out how?” Zoey asked from where she sat braiding the water demon’s hair.

Rumi ran a hand through her hairs “We need to keep finding demons that slipped through like this guy - “

“Ooh! Can I call you Slippy?” Zoey asked.

“ - find out why and how,” Rumi continued, more amused than annoyed. “Hopefully they can also help us find out if Gwi-Ma is getting any closer to figuring it out himself.”

“I was thinking Jelly,” Romance said, oblivious. “Because of his big, sad eyes.”

“Guys,” Rumi interrupted. “I’m strategizing here!”

“Find more demons, track Gwi-Ma, figure out the honmoon, got it,” Mira looked down at the demon. “Sorry Zoey, Jelly is a better name.”

“Jelly is much better,” Baby agreed. “I also wanted to add to your list: find out what happened to Mystery and Abby.”

“And Jinu, if we can,” Romance added. “He ‘gave you his soul’ or whatever, can you…feel him, or anything?”

Rumi chewed on her bottom lip like she always did when Jinu came up. “Sort of, if I close my eyes and think of him, I can almost feel him behind me. Holding me. But…it’s not like I can talk to him or anything.”

Baby looked like he wanted to retch. Romance waved him off. “You’re part demon. Maybe we could teach you to release him, like we did?”

Rumi’s eyes lit up at the possibility, more energized than they had been at any point that night - or, in fact, for several weeks. “It’s worth a try.”

Zoey, having finished her braid, jumped to her feet. “Alright! Detective squad time! Let’s solve this thing and save Mystery! And the uh, other guys, and the Gwi-Ma stuff.”

Mira groaned. “I’m on board, but if we find Abby he needs to wear shirts that fit. Preferably turtlenecks.”

“Good luck with that,” Baby drawled.

“And we need to figure out what to do with our guests,” Mira added, casting a still-wary eye at Baby.

Rumi pursed her lips. “As long as one of us is with them at any given time, it should be okay.”

Mira nodded grimly. “What about when we’re on tour?”

“That won’t be for another two months,” Rumi reminded her. “But…if we still have to take care of them by then, I guess they can tour with us as support crew.”

“Or an opening act!” Zoey suggested, suddenly excited.

Mira rolled her eyes. “Yeah, let’s let the demons who steal souls with music do some music.”

“Oh, right,” Zoey said, chagrined. “Jelly! Do you have any ideas?”

The little demon - Jelly - looked shocked to even be considered, already huge eyes widening. “Oh, um. I’m. Glad to work with you guys? Please don’t kill me?”

“We could never!” Zoey gasped, hugging him by the neck as Mira simultaneously disagreed.

Rumi chuckled. “So everyone has some kind of spirit pet but Mira now. You want to adopt Romance?”

“Okay!” said Romance.

“Fuck off,” said both Mira and Baby.

It was agreed that their “detective group” (Mira and Baby strenuously objected to the name and concept but were overruled) would get to work in the morning: Rumi would handle babysitting and try to work out the whole soul-releasing thing, Mira and Zoey would go out to try and rustle up demons.

That left the matter of their sleeping arrangements. Romance tried to tease Mira about getting into her room, but Baby stomped on his foot before he could get it out. They were relegated to a guest room sometimes occupied by Bobby (Mira pondered aloud about installing a lock on the outside). Jelly, meanwhile, was given a cozy place in Zoey’s bathtub. He was so happy they could have filled it with his tears.

Baby, however, was decidedly less happy.

Laying his eyes on the room, Romance whistled. “Wow, even the guest room is rich as hell.”

It was exceedingly well appointed: king plus sized bed, massive armoire, television, desk, glittering in similar pinks and golds as the living room. The bed looked exquisitely soft.

Baby seemed unimpressed. He shucked off his clothes, stripping down to his boxers before flopping under the covers, back to Romance.

Romance was used to Baby being standoffish. Hell, it was his brand, but Baby was never this standoffish, not with him. Not to mention Baby was always at his clingiest at bedtime, and wouldn’t even consider closing his eyes until Romance was wrapped around him. Romance started to undress as well, sitting on the edge of the bed. It was large enough that there was still significant distance between them.

Romance pulled his legs up onto the bed. “I was right, huh? Silly humans, so trusting.”

Baby grunted. “Turn off the light.”

Romance complied, returning to bed and finally slipping under the covers. “So…why do you think the demons can get through the honmoon?”

“Who cares,” Baby spat. “Go to sleep.”

“Yeah…okay,” Romance mumbled. He rolled onto his side and tried to move closer to Baby - who immediately scooted away.

Romance tried again.

Baby scooted even farther.

Romance tried one more time.

Baby was at the very edge of the bed. Thinking he’d won, Romance reached out to throw his arm over Baby like they had every night -

Baby rolled out of the bed, hitting the floor with a resounding thud.

“You demons better not be up to something in there!” Mira shouted from across the hall.

Romance shook his head, then leaned over to see Baby curled up on the floor, arms folded, resolutely facing the wall. “Will you get back in bed?” He asked, exasperated.

“I’m comfy,” Baby lied.

Romance sighed. They were getting nowhere, slowly. “Will you get back in bed if I move to the other side?”

Baby looked at him briefly but didn’t respond.

“And if I also look away?”

Baby started to move and Romance took that as his cue to roll to the other side of the bed and face the wall, saying absolutely nothing until his companion was back under the covers. When he rolled onto his back, he caught Baby peeking at him where he laid back as well.

“You’re mad at me,” Romance said.

“No I’m not.”

“Baby,” Romance groaned, rolling to face Baby, whose eyes remained stubbornly heavenward. “If you don’t tell me what I did, I can’t fix it.”

“You’re so stupid,” Baby hissed. “You know what you did.”

“Yep, that’s me. Totally stupid. Hopeless,” Romance said, chuckling, but almost pleading when he added, “You’re gonna have to help me with this one.”

They lay in silence for a long time. Were it not for the fact that he kept his eyes locked on Baby’s completely still face, he would have thought Baby fell asleep. But finally, finally, Baby spoke. “Why do you keep flirting with Mira?”

Romance couldn’t help but laugh - full-bodied, reckless, incredulous laughter, enough to earn a shrill “GO TO SLEEP!” Screech from Zoey before he settled down.

Baby’s face was so violently red it was glowing, and he sat up, reaching for his clothes to put back on without a word before Romance lunged across the bed and swatted the clothes away. The fell back into the bed, a tangle of grunting and, on Romance’s part, giggling limbs. “Get off me,” Baby growled, and Romance sensed he was serious when he felt Baby’s claws struggling against the honmoon.

Romance loosened his hold. “Promise me you’ll stay.”

Baby went still, but still noncompliant, turning into dead weight. “Fine.”

Romance slowly released Baby, then moved back to his side of the bed. “I’m sorry I laughed, Baby, really, it’s just…it’s crazy to think of you being jealous.”

“I’m not - “ Baby started, sitting up again, eyes alight, but he stuck out his bottom lip and retreated under the covers. “So what if I am?”

“Oh, Baby,” Romance cooed. He wrapped himself around the blanket lump currently containing Baby, who emitted an incomprehensible, muffled noise. “Remember, Jinu made me this way. I flirt, it’s what I do! I was made to get into their heads, and she’s REALLY easy to throw off. It’s like I can’t help it.”

Baby grumbled something from beneath the blanket.

“I can’t hear you, stupid,” Romance said, giggling.

Baby squeezed his head from beneath the covers. “I thought we were trying to be more than what Gwi-Ma and Jinu made us.”

Romance’s laughter died out and he settled into a pout matching Baby’s. “I don’t remember being anything else.”

“That’s why I said trying. Trying isn’t easy.”

“You’re not trying very hard to not be a pouty baby,” Romance pushed back.

“I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?”

Romance sighed. “Alright, fair. I can stop flirting. But,” teasing slipped back into his voice, “Only if you tell me why it bothers you.”

Baby leered at him, blue eyes practically glowing. “I just told you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t buy that,” Romance leaned over Baby, undeterred by the harsh glare. “I sorta do, but…you seem real mad, like, too mad for that to be the reason.”

Baby scrunched lower. “You’re stupid.”

“Am I?” Romance asked, leaning closer to Baby’s face, which was now halfway under the covers but prevented from further retreat by Romance’s arm.

“Very,” Baby grunted.

“Quitting flirting is gonna be kinda hard,” Romance mused. “I gotta wean myself off slowly. I wonder who I can flirt with to get it out of my system…you think Zoey would be cool with it?”

Baby leered at him, unamused.

Romance leaned closer still. “No, she’s too excitable. No sport in it. Maybe Rumi? She’s got some walls.”

Baby’s firm pout was starting to wobble.

“No, no, Jinu would hate that,” he pondered. “Gosh, you think Jelly - “

“Oh, shut up,” Baby hissed, erupting from his sulky coccoon and dragging Romance, cackling, beneath it, where Baby wrapped himself, sloth like, around Romance’s torso.

“Poor Baby,” Romance crooned softly. He ran his hands through Baby’s down-soft hair. “Sweet Baby. Jealous Baby. Always wants to be the center of attention.”

But as Romance felt Baby give in to his cuddling desires, rubbing his plush cheek against Romance’s firm chest, he wondered if it was that simple. Baby wanted so badly to grow beyond the childish need for attention, after all; why would he backslide into a temper tantrum?

Thoughts for another day, Romance decided. Baby’s warmth was too relaxing, and he felt himself surrendering to it. He was so relaxed, even the gentle press of lips to his chest, and the resulting smack, did little to disturb his rest.

Chapter Text

Huntrix had long since ingrained into themselves the habit of waking up preposterously early. It was the inevitable result of often having to take hours to get into makeup and costume, catch a flight on time, and inhale a pre-show meal in time to perform. Typically, Zoey would be up first, followed by Mira, and the two of them would go together to pound on Rumi’s door like the living dead.

Truthfully, Rumi was already awake when her friends came, she just liked waiting for them. It also gave her time to sit and daydream, or, as of late, pretend Jinu was holding her and have a nice, cathartic cry. It was quite astonishing how real it felt since she’d taken in Jinu’s soul; she could feel his breath on her neck, his legs tangled with hers, his strong chest against her back. The heavy warmth made getting out of bed a little harder, but opening her eyes caused the illusion to dissipate. She sighed, wiped her eyes, and shuffled out of bed to meet her girls.

“You look like crap in the mornings lately,” Mira said unhelpfully.

“Love you too,” Rumi yawned.

“Oh my god, guys, you have to see this,” Zoey whispered, eyes gleaming with mirth. She beckoned the two of them to the guest room door that sat slightly ajar.

Mira sighed. “Zoey, were you creeping on our prisoners?”

“Guests,” Rumi corrected. Heedless of privacy issues, she crept behind Zoey’s shoulder.

“It was already opened,” Zoey put her finger on her lips, then pointed into the room.

Rumi had to stifle a gasp. Inside, the two demons lay in the fetal position, both facing each other, foreheads touching, with their limbs hopelessly entangled in a knot of affection. “They’re so…”

“Cute!” Zoey whispered, and Rumi was impressed with her restraint: it took a lot to keep her from squealing at a pitch that would shatter the windows.

The two girls peeked at Mira, expecting a rebuttal, only to see her with a sly grin, holding up her phone for a picture. “Yeah, that’s…pretty cute, I guess.”

“Mira, no,” Rumi hissed, grabbing for the phone, though Mira was taller and stronger, holding the other girl off easily. “That’s a privacy violation!”

“Rumi, girl, they killed like, thousands of people,” Mira replied, shamelessly taking snap after snap of the demonic cuddle knot. “Plus it’s our house, we get to decide what privacy means.”

“Oh, Mira,” Rumi groaned, but her friends had already sped off cackling over their prize. Rumi had to admit, the two demons looked shockingly content. It reminded her too much of the fantasy she’d been embroiled in mere minutes earlier, and she was a little jealous. If she hadn’t known demons were capable of love (she hoped) from Jinu, this might be enough. She felt her resolve to trust them strengthening.

Zoey’s grin, where she hunched over Mira’s shoulder, in the living room, bordered on the maniacal. “You think they’re dating, or…?”

Mira seemed dubious. “Do demons date?”

“Well, I can confirm at least Jinu knew what a date was, though he struggled with interpretation,” Rumi added, sharing a sad smile at the memory.

Zoey and Mira exchanged a look. They never knew quite how to respond to Rumi’s feelings about Jinu, but they tended to default to generally supportive. “Well, maybe he told them,” Zoey said awkwardly.

Rumi shook her head fondly. “What are those pictures for, anyway, Mira?”

“Leverage,” she said with a slightly vicious smile. “If they’re bad, we can maybe use it to hurt them. If they’re good, we can use it to lovingly torment them. It’s a win-win.”

“Ooh, we can cover their bedroom door with them,” Zoey giggled.

Mira gagged. “Ugh, you’re making it sound like they already live with us.”

“Yeah, one step at a time,” Rumi chided. “By the time I’m finished babysitting today, I should have a good idea of where they’re at.”

“I don’t know if I like the idea of you being alone with them,” Mira cast her eyes down the hall to the bedroom. “I know you can handle them, but demons can be tricky. If they get the jump on you, they might stand a chance.”

Rumi grinned, then whistled, causing first a hat, then a bird, then two wide, thoughtless eyes and a big fluffy head to emerge from the carpet. “No worries! I have four extra pairs of eyes.”

“Three, anyway,” Mira said, waving her hand in front of a totally disinterested Derpy.

The instant Derpy’s body was fully incorporated, Zoey launched herself at its neck, wrapping around him tight. “But this little fluffball won’t hurt a fly.”

“No, but at the very least, they’ll make it almost impossible for those two to get the drop on me,” Rumi said. She smiled at the smug look on Sussie’s face as the bird started to preen. “Plus, I want to see how the boys - the demons, I mean - react. These were Jinu’s pets, after all.”

Mira nodded. “Psychological warfare. I like it.”

Rumi laughed, playfully shoving Mora, who budged not an inch. “Come on, let’s get breakfast ready. The wicked can rest for once.”

“We have to cook for them?!” Mira looked somewhere between scandalized and furious.

“Do demons eat?” Zoey asked through a mouthful of fur.

“They’re our guests,” Rumi said with a shrug as she began rifling through cabinets. “Look, if they don’t eat it, Bobby can. Now help me or starve.”

*

Romance awoke to the smell of eggs and a face full of blur hair. Baby was incredibly soft and smooth in his arms as always, the gifts given to him by Gwi-Ma (or Jinu, Romance couldn’t recall) for which Romance was eternally grateful. It made Baby the perfect cuddling partner. Well, that and the other things that made Baby the perfect cuddling partner.

He slowly wiggled himself loose from Baby, getting just loose enough to see Baby’s sleeping face and wipe some drool from the corner of his mouth…and a quick trace over Baby’s plush bottom lip, somehow even softer than the rest of him. He wondered how it might taste -

A set of shockingly sharp fangs sank into Romance’s finger. “Baby, why?!”

“‘Cuz it’s funny,” Baby said, grinning wickedly as he licked a few drops of blood off his teeth. “And you taste good.”

Romance pouted, holding his mildly injured fingers, the skin barely broken. “At least ask next time,” he mumbled.

Baby’s eyes seemed to take on a slightly darker hue. “Noted.”

A knock on the door dissipated the tension. “I heard you screaming so get out and eat,” Mira said. “Or don’t eat, but either way, get out before I have to come in.”

Romance sighed. “Baby, if you ever doubt that I care for you, I want you to think about this moment. Mira told me to come somewhere, you know what I could have done with that?”

Baby narrowed his eyes. Then he smirked a terrible, evil, vicious smirk, and in a perfect imitation of Romance, responded: “We’ll come wherever you send us, Mira.”

Romance had exactly one second to look scandalized at Baby’s audacity and hypocrisy before the door exploded open and he felt the hot blade of a honmoon-enchanted glaive press against his throat. “It wasn’t even me, it was Baby!”

But Baby was already had his defenses up: two blue-green eyes wide open in betrayal. “How could you say such a thing,” he whimpered, raising his voice a few octaves.

“No one else is as gross as you,” Mira growled.

Romance couldn’t believe this was his life now. But, he figured, in for a penny: “Well, now that I’ve got you in my room, how about we - “

“Ugh!” Mira growled. She swing her glaive around and knocked Romance off the bed with the pommel before storming out in disgust. “I’m throwing away your eggs!”

(“The hell you are,” Rumi called from the kitchen, “I put effort into this meal!”)

Romance rose from the floor to see Baby sat cross-legged on the bed, fully dressed and looking smug. “I hate you so much right now.”

“No you don’t,” Baby sang. “Consider it your karma for all that flirting yesterday.”

“We’re demons, why are we discussing karma,” Romance grumbled, rising from the floor. He pointed to the growing bruise on his side. “See that? Your fault. My perfect skin, ruined.”

“Perfect fake skin,” Baby teased. Then he crawled across the bed, leaned over the edge til his face was centimeters from Romance’s lean torso, looked up with those big eyes of his, and pressed a single, gentle kiss to the bruise. “There, all better.”

Romance felt a shudder run all the way from the base of his spine straight to his heart at the sensation. He knew full well the bruise would be gone in hours. It didn’t, and, in fact, couldn’t possibly hurt - but he felt Baby’s lips like they were made of electricity.

“Close your mouth before I find something to stick in it,” Baby teased. “Come on, let’s go see if Jinu’s widow is a decent cook.”

The two walked fully dressed into the kitchen. In addition to the fried egg and rice portioned out for them in a bowl alongside banchan, there was also an enormous pile of scrambled eggs sitting in the middle of the table, which covered most of Zoey’s plate.

“Smells good,” Romance admitted. Baby grunted an affirmation as they took their seats.

“Do demons need to eat?” Zoey asked around a mouthful of eggs.

“Don’t talk around your food in front of guests,” Rumi hissed, poking a suitably chastened Zoey with her chopsticks. “But, yes, I guess it would be nice to learn more about you, if you don’t mind.”

Baby was looking at his food with mounting suspicion. Romance took it upon himself to be the taste tester, quickly gobbling a mouthful of yolk-soaked rice. Feeling distinctly un-poisoned, he gave Baby a quick smile. Baby shook his head, but his eyes were unmistakably fond as he started to poke at his food. “It’s hard to answer exactly. We get tired if we don’t eat, but I don’t know if we would die, exactly. These are human bodies for all intents and purposes, but it would be silly if we could keel over from hunger and thirst, wouldn’t it?”

“Jeoseong saja aren’t immortal,” Baby said after swallowing his first bite. “We can get killed, as you well know.”

“We can get killed, but we can’t just die, probably, if that makes sense,” Romance added unhelpfully.

Jelly’s head rose from the sink. While the boys were waking up, the girls had discovered Jelly could travel freely through the pipes, as well as any roughly Jelly-sized pool of water. He’d been having fun with it all morning. “Demons really only die-die if they get consumed,” he added, shuddering. “It’s not pretty.”

“Someone looks cozy,” Romance said, smiling despite the tension. This weird little guy was charming, in his way.

Jelly chuckled awkwardly before draining back down the pipes.

Derpy, who had wandered into the room, bumped his head against Romance’s knee. He looked into those slightly lopsdide eyes and felt a little spark of fondness in his memory. “Whoa, what are you doing here?” He said, and he grabbed both sides of the beast’s head and rolling it back and forth.

Sussie fluttered out and perched on Baby’s head. Without even flinching, he reached up and placed a piece of seasoned vegetable into the bird’s beak like he’d done it a thousand times

Zoey made a squeaking noise Romance could only assume indicated fondness. “Looks like they remember you!”

“I should hope so,” Romance said, leaning over the breathe in the beast’s fur. It still carried Jinu’s scent after all these days, and the smell itself was enough to remind Romance what melancholy was.

“I don’t know about you guys, but anyone these animals are sweet on seems like a good person to me,” Zoey said sagely, or at least as sage as one could be while stuffed with scrambled eggs.

“They may be sweet, but they are technically demon animals,” Mira cautioned. “Of course they like other demons.”

“They’re guardian spirits,” Baby corrected. “No clue how Jinu got his hands on them. They probably know, but, well, look at that cat’s eyes. He barely even knows where he is. And this little bastard isn’t telling either.”

Sussie looked very smug at this acknowledgment.

Zoey, who had been using her off-hand to scribble notes under the table, laid down her chopsticks. She seemed unbearably, explosively excited, eyes glittering wildly. “We’re learning a lot about demons and the underworld already and we’re just getting started.”

“Makes you wonder what Celine kept from us,” Mira all but growled.

Rumi’s face fell at the name. “She might not know these things either, if only because she didn’t care to learn them. Learning about something makes it much harder to kill.”

That though hung heavy over the table as the last few bites of food were cleared.

Once breakfast was done, almost the entire plate of scrambled eggs having been shoved down Zoey’s very willing throat, Mira and Zoey headed out to split search for additional prisoner-roommate-friends, splitting up to cover ground. Rumi, Baby, Romance, and even Jelly sat in a circle in the living room.

“Alright, Rumi,” Romance said, rubbing his palms together. “You ready to learn how to use your demon side?”

Rumi shook her head sadly. “Whatever it takes,” she said, and her concern rapidly crystallized into determination. “Let’s do it.”

Chapter Text

“So, you have Jinu’s soul in there,” Romance asked, squinting as if he could see through Rumi if he only looked hard enough.

“Seems like it,” she replies, shifting uncomfortably beneath his gaze.

They sat in silence for a while. Romance was walking around Rumi, squinting, periodically pausing to kneel down and look at her intensely, while Baby spread out on the couch watching in total disinterest. “What in the infernal name of Gwi-Ma are you doing over there?”

“I’m trying to…sense him?” Romance threw up his hands in frustration. “Look, I’m running on instinct here, it’s not like Gwi-Ma handed out ‘So Now You’re a Demon’ leaflets in orientation.”

Rumi was starting to question if this was a productive use of her time. “Can you sense him or not?”

Romance avoided eye contact and turned to the sink. “Jelly, can we sense souls?”

Jelly quietly drained himself back to the tub.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Romance sighed. “Okay. So. Try and. Kick him out.”

“…How?”

“I don’t know! I don’t really have to try, I just. Open my mouth and release them and they go away. Do humans have a way of expelling things they consumed?”

Rumi pursed her lips. “I’m open to suggestions.”

“Okay,” Romance stopped pacing in front of her. “How about you just try and focus on his presence, like you said yesterday?”

Rumi closed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. She imagined Jinu behind her, suppressing laughter at the absurd behavior of his fellow demons, wrapping his arms around her waist, and leaning over her shoulder. “Done.”

“Alright…now picture yourself pushing him away.”

She really didn’t want to. But she threw up her arms, imagined knocking him back, imagined the silly look his face as he flailed around, imagined him shaking his head knowingly, as if to say this wasn’t going to work. “I don’t feel any different,” she said, opening her eyes. She looked behind her just to check, but Jinu wasn’t here.

Romance continued to look befuddled. “Maybe we can…scare him out?”

“What on earth - hey!” Rumi objected as Romance seized her by the shoulders.

“Jinu! Help! Gwi-Ma is attacking us!” He yelled, shaking Rumi wildly.

Nothing.

“Jinu, your family hated you and thought you sucked!” He tried again, shaking harder.

Baby decided to “help”, adding, “Jinu, your half-demon lover ditched you for a lesbian throuple and has sworn off men forever!”

Romance and Rumi both looked at him, one with confusion and one with utter disdain. Romance weakly shook her one last time before she slapped him away. “Is it working?” He asked lamely.

“It’s annoyed the hell out of me and knocked my braid loose, does that count?” Rumi grumbled, feeling around her hair for stray pins.

“Sorry,” Romance muttered. “Like I said, we’re pretty bad at the whole demon thing. I mean. We know how to take and carry souls, that’s about it.”

“We can try taking it,” Baby again “helped”.

Rumi was now almost completely positive this was not a productive use of her time. “That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“He’s definitely just saying that to be an asshole,” Romance began, throwing a napkin from the table at his partner, who wholly ignored its collision with his cheek. “But…you know what…”

“No,” Rumi began.

“Look, seriously, if I can’t like, DETECT it, then I have to SEE it, right?” Romance tried to look as harmless as possible.

“You could literally kill me.”

“I’m not gonna take it all the way out,” Romance stammered, growing uncomfortable beneath Rumi’s suspicious gaze. “Just enough to uh. Look. And then I’ll put it right back. No different than picking up a piece of rice and putting it back down!”

“Except people usually don’t get murdered and removed from the cosmic cycle because they dropped a piece of rice!” Rumi shot back.

“I won’t drop your soul,” Romance insisted. “Here, take out your sword. If you think I’m going to take it, you can kill me.”

That got Baby sitting upright. “Don’t be stupid.”

Rumi shot a look at him that would make most men faint. Baby returned it. “Oh, so you’re totally fine with him stealing my soul, but heavens forbid I try to protect it.”

“First of all, I wasn’t being serious, my idiot partner here just decided to roll with it,” Baby began, “Second, no way in hell am I letting you take away the only thing I have left just because you don’t trust him.”

“Only if he tries to steal my soul!”

“Like we could trust you to know the difference,” Baby spat. “You’ll just gut him the second you feel slightly uncomfortable and all he’s doing is trying to help you, help all of us, get Jinu a second chance.”

“I’m not so pathetic I would kill someone at the slightest feeling of discomfort,” Rumi huffed. She was willing to try just about anything to get Jinu back, to at least talk to him, if she could. She looked across her current company: Baby, furious, Romance, confused, Derpy, derpy, Sussie…was that really the most trustworthy individual in the room? Rumi sighed. “Sussie, you think I can trust them to help us?”

Baby looked mortally offended. “Really? The bird?”

Sussie cast Baby a withering side-eye(s), but then looked at Rumi with what she chose to interpret as confidence.

Damn, she really wanted Jinu back bad.

“Alright,” Rumi said. She drew her sword. “I’m willing to do it this way.”

Romance smiled, but shook with nerves. “Great!”

“Hang on, idiots,” Baby grumbled. He slid off the couch and knelt next to Rumi. “Here. Use me as the hostage instead.”

“What?” The other one-and-a-half demons gasped. Even Sussie seemed confused.

“If you freak out and stab him while your soul’s out, who knows what will happen to it,” Baby reasoned. “Plus you’re making him nervous, would you trust someone to do surgery at gunpoint?”

Rumi balked at the idea. “Okay, is this surgery or picking up rice, because you two are sending mixed signals on the difficulty here.”

“Baby is exaggerating the danger because he’s a little drama queen,” Romance said, glaring at his partner. “You don’t have to do this.”

But Baby was unwavering. “The hell I don’t. I’ll lie on her sword if I have to, I’m not letting you get hurt.”

As she looked between Romance and Baby, she remembered the way they’d held each other that morning. There was something there, she was sure of it. Baby Saja made such a show if not caring about anything, even when he was tied up. Now the small chance of Romance getting hurt or banished or whatever was prompting him to risk his own well-being.

Not for the first time, Rumi found herself wishing demons came with instruction manuals. “Let him do this, Romance,” she said, meeting Baby’s gaze. She wasn’t sure if she imagined a slight upturn at the corners of his lips. “He’s right, you’ll be better without having to work around a sword.”

“We could also just not do the sword part,” Romance offered, but both Rumi and Baby looked at him like he was the dumbest thing in the room, which hurt all the more with Derpy present. “Alright, fine. I don’t think this will hurt, but it’s definitely not gonna feel good,” Romance began. He leaned towards Rumi and opened his mouth impossibly wide.

A blue glow started to emit from Rumi’s chest, the light slowly growing and moving away from her as she felt a gentle pulling sensation. It was subtle enough she might have dismissed it if she didn’t know exactly what was happening. Adrenaline shot through her, but she kept her hand on the blade steady. Baby Saja was too amazed at the sight to worry about getting cut down - his lollipop was dangerously close to falling out.

Rumi watched her soul move as Romance continued to tug gently at it. He was certainly moving it slowly, she thought. Eventually, enough was out for her to get a decent look at it: the blue orb with a streaking tail she had seen come from Jinu, only two of them, entwined from tail to tip, like an enormous, ethereal corkscrew. Rumi felt herself start to weaken and gripped the hilt of her sword. Romance gasped and slammed his jaw shut, and the soul returned to its owner. All three present let out a sigh of relief they hadn’t realized they were holding.

“So…was that normal?” Rumi asked after a moment, flexing her fingers and checking her vitals.

Out of all of them, Romance looked the worst for the wear. He was haggard, out of breath, and struggling to his knees. Baby rushed over to prop Romance on his shoulder, clinging to him like a life raft. Rumi couldn’t miss the panic in Baby’s eyes that only faded when he had Romance in his arms. “Not at all. For starters, it was really…heavy.”

“Souls aren’t heavy,” Baby objected. He was stroking Romance’s hair.

“It was, though,” Romance insisted. He sat up a little straighter. “And on top of that it was fighting like hell to get away.”

Rumi was fascinated but also wanted answers more quickly than she was getting by them. “What does any of that that mean?”

“No telling how much of that was you being a hunter or a demon,” Romance started. “But it didn’t look like a normal soul, either. It’s like the two souls are completely tied up in each other. Not fused into one, just sorta stuck together.”

“Like magnets,” Rumi mused.

Romance and Baby looked confused, but Romance chose to press on. “I wasn’t able to take just one. They’re a package deal now. And before you ask, I don’t know what that means.”

“Of course,” Rumi groaned. “I’m sorry, I don’t say that to be mean. I’m grateful you tried and also that you…didn’t kill me, I guess, I was just hoping for answers.”

“Sorry,” Romance said. He squeezed Baby’s arm in gratitude and sat up on his own. “We just really don’t know anything. Is there somewhere we can look?”

Rumi rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, let’s see if Mira and Zoey come back with any more…knowledgeable demons. If they don’t, I know one person we could ask, but…”

“But you decided you’d rather us risk our well being than talk to this one person?” Baby fumed.

“It’s complicated,” Rumi muttered. “We’re not on good terms, and I don’t trust she would tell me even if she knew. But we can check, of course. Is there anyone you can think of?”

“We don’t know anyone we could ask,” Romance said, but he sounded more hopeful than ye had any right to, “But I have an idea of how we could find one.”

Baby regarded his partner with suspicion. “Who?”

“Well…we want to learn about soul collection, who better to ask than a real jeoseong saja?” Romance suggested as if this wasn’t a casually suggested kidnapping.

Baby gaped at him. “And I thought you taking my bad idea seriously was stupid enough. You want to kidnap an afterlife official?”

“Kidnap is such an ugly word,” Romance waved it away like a fly. “We just need to ask him some questions. Plus he can help us understand what we are a bit more, right?”

“How would we even get one?” Rumi asked.

“Oh, come on,” Baby whined. “How am I the one advocating for responsibility here?”

Romance looked over at Rumi, whi wasn’t nearly as scandalized as he’d expected, and a moment of understanding passed between them. They smiled. “We’re desperate,” he said. “Besides, it’s not like jeoseong saja are great warriors or something. They’re bureaucrats. Surely a hunter can take one easy.”

Baby laid his head in his hands. “Rumi, is it too late to ask you to kill me after all?”

“I don’t know,” Rumi said, fighting a grin. “You may be too useful to kill now.”

Baby flopped dramatically onto the floor, where Derpy approached, laying himself across baby like a blanket and settling in for a long nap. Baby made no effort to resist.

“Well, that keeps him out of our hair for a moment,” Romance sighed, impossibly fond. “Rumi, what demon abilities have you been able to harness?”

“Demon abilities?” Rumi was confused and a little offended at first before she remembered. “I did manage to teleport when I, uh. Destroyed the honmoon.”

“Do you remember how?”

“Not really. I just wanted to be somewhere, and then I was.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Romance sighed. “So much of what we do is down to intent and instinct. That way we can act even when Gwi-ma has wiped us clean. You were connected to your demon side, you wanted to be somewhere, you were. End of story.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because we haven’t been able to. And that raises a couple of concerns, not just that we can’t travel much, but also that the underworld maybe totally cut off.”

“How?”

“Demon travel is technically slipping back into the nearest entrance to the underworld and immediately exiting at the one closest to your desired target. One reason we can’t teleport may be that the honmoon has completely cut us off.”

“Isn’t that good? You don’t want Gwi-Ma finding you.”

“Yes and no. He can’t find us, but we also can’t go find the others there, and if a bad demon slips up here, you may not be able to send it back.”

Rimi pursed her lips. “Yeah, alright. We really need to find out what’s up with the new honmoon.”

The girls came back later in the afternoon with lunch and a few extra tagalongs. The demons all had a story similar to Jelly: they were cowering from Gwi-Ma, cornered, and overwhelmed with the need to escape, only for the honmoon to suddenly part just long enough to let them through. The girls hadn’t caught them at any particularly harmful activities either: one had been posing as a magician, another as a birthday clown, and yet another was engaging in some petty vandalism. None of them had caused harm to any living thing. At worst, they got up to some light mischief: standard dokkaebi behavior.

“So the honmoon is letting demons out, but not in,” Zoey noted. She had taken to scribbling thoughts and observations from all their questioning in a notebook. “And it seems to know either when someone is in danger or if they need to get somewhere?”

“Which is looking more and more like our problem,” Mira groused, watching two demons tumble around their living room. “Hey! No horseplay! Don’t make me stab you!”

Zoey looked like that had given her an idea. “Guys, our Saja guys, do you know what happens when you die?”

“Haven’t had the pleasure,” Baby said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice.

Romance squeezed Baby’s arm and leaned closer to him. “When a mortal dies, a jeoseong saja is meant to lead them to the underworld. When a demon dies…I don’t know. I guess they need to be led to the underworld like everything else.”

Zoey kept scribbling. “So, the other Saja Boys…”

Romanced frowned. “Are probably somewhere in the underworld? Either they went back to Gwi-Ma or…well, they didn’t have souls, so it’s not like they could be brought to King Yeomra for judgment. So they’re…somewhere between here and there.”

“Not great options,” Baby muttered.

“Gwi-Ma would eradicate them on the spot if he found them.”

“Yeah…he hasn’t found them yet,” Jelly confirmed from the sink, having found it a safe place to observe the chaos.

“So we should find them before Gwi-Ma does,” Rumi finished.

Mira raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Why?”

Rumi shoved some rice in her mouth and shrugged.

“Gwi-Ma would grow more powerful if he consumed their remaining essence, for one thing,” Baby offered, glaring at Mira, who completely ignored him.

“Plus, if we can save them from Gwi-Ma, they can help with the rest of what we’re planning,” Romance hastened to add. He didn’t know how true that actually was, but he was willing to bet bet he could at least get the others on board if it was a choice between oblivion or this weird human-adjacent life. They couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to expect Gwi-Ma’s forgiveness.

“We need to find some way back across, then,” Rumi added.

“Why are we humoring this?” Mira demanded. “They’ve been here less than a day and already we’re doing seriously weird stuff. What’s going on?”

“So let me preface this by saying I had everything under control,” Rumi began, and Mira moaned pitifully in anticipation. “But if these guys wanted to betray or even kill me, they had a good shot at it earlier and didn’t even try to take it. They also seem to care about each other, a lot! These are things we’ve been told demons don’t do, alongside being told all demons are totally evil.

Zoey nodded. “Now we have a cutie pie in our sink in top of a clown, a magician, and demon Bart Simpson in our apartment, none of whom are trying to hurt anyone. We can’t keep acting like what we were taught was perfect in the face of all this.”

(”What’s a ‘Bart Simpson’,” Baby whispered. Romance shrugged.)

Mira looked around the room as if she was expecting trouble, but saw only the usual chaos. “You’re right. Man, I really want to talk to Celine and find out what else she’s been hiding from us, but…”

“No, you’re right,” Rumi said. “I don’t want to see her, but we don’t have anyone else, and things are getting strange.”

Zoey looked concerned. “Mira and I can - “

“I appreciate it, Zoey,” Rumi interrupted, and she reached out to squeeze her friend’s hand. “But I need to talk to her. You two can stay with our guests. Romance had an, um, interesting idea that you might enjoy.”

Before they could ask him what she meant, a knock came from the door. “Girls, it’s me!”

“Oh god, it’s Bobby,” Zoey whispered. “What do we do?!”

“I got this,” Baby said with shocking confidence. “Hey, demons! Sit down and shut up!”

The bass in his voice was enough, apparently, for the rowdy demons to stop playing. Baby gestured to the door.

“Don’t the need to hide?” Mira asked, looking around at the mess they’d made.

There was a click at the door as Bobby inserted his keycard. “I can hear you chatting, so…girls, what happened in here?!”

The three of them leapt to their feet and swarmed their tiny manager with a united squeal of “Bobby!”

“Don’t Bobby me,” he said, squeezing out of their hug. “This place is a mess! What have you been up to all day?!”

The girls looked around at the various demons frozen in place throughout the room, including a deviously happy Baby. Rumi was first to speak. “So it’s. Just a little messy?”

“A little messy?!” Bibby stomped right up to one of the demons and lifted a broken lamp from the ground. Neither he nor the demon so much as flinched. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you girls had a whole party up here.”

“Nope,” Zoey said, smiling in a way that no one could possibly believe was genuine. “Just us three girls!”

“Of course,” Bobby said, looking around the room and completely passing over the half dozen or so demons present. “Well, I came to ask about dinner, but maybe I should go call the cleaning service first. Goodness, you girls, this is what you get up to after a month off? No wonder we don’t do hiatuses…”

“Yep, that’s us,” Mira said through clenched teeth. She seized Bobby as gently as she could by the shoulder and steered him towards the door. “You better go place that call now, thanks Bobby! Bye!”

As soon as the door snapped shut behind him, every human sighed in relief and the demons resumed their hijinks. “What was that?!” Rumi demanded.

“Humans are stupid,” Baby said simply. When the girls kept staring at him for an explanation, he continued, “Humans can only see us if they WANT to see us. We had so much trouble hiding because everyone was looking for the Saja Boys, but if it weren’t for that, we never would have needed to come to you. Most humans don’t want to see us. You hunters are the weird ones here. Also some shamans. And monsterfuckers. We don’t make the rules.”

“That does explain a lot,” Mira mumbled. Zoey returned to scribbling furiously in her notebook.

“You think I could do that?” Rumi mused.

“If you were disguised as something other than a mega famous pop star, maybe,” Romance said. “Go put on your street clothes, the kind you use to hide in public. I wanna try something.”

Rumi complied quickly, since she would need them to travel to Celine’s anyway. She tucked her head and hair inside the hood of her jacket and slipped on a massive pair of sunglasses. “Ready,” she said as she returned to the living room.

Romance pointed at Mira. “Call that human back in,” he ordered, adding “please” when she refused to budge.

Mira rolled her eyes and called Bobby back in. As they waited for him to come back, Baby leaned over to Rumi. “Alright, don’t make any sudden moves where he can see you and be quiet. Don’t even think loud. Just relax and exist, quietly.”

Bobby strolled back in. “Hey Mira, what did you need?”

Mira couldn’t help but glance at Rumi standing right behind him. “N-nothing.”

Bobby looked over his shoulder, right at Rumi. “Is…is something behind me?”

“Nothing!” Zoey said a little too quickly. “Totally safe in here! No one behind you at all!”

Rumi threw up her hands in frustration. Bobby spun around but still apparently saw nothing. “Wait a minute…where’s Rumi?”

“Snacks,” Mira said.

“Bathroom,” Zoey said at the exact same time.

Bobby turned back to Mira with a sly grin. “Wait a minute. Is she hiding somewhere waiting to scare me?”

“Yup,” both girls said in unison. “You’re too smart for us, Bobby,” Mira added.

Bobby shook his head. “Silly girls. This apartment isn’t haunted, just messy. I’ll get facilities up here. Maybe we can get dinner later?”

“Sure,” Zoey said, rushing him out the door, completely ignoring Rumi’s frantic headshaking. “See you later!”

With the door shut safely behind him, Rumi shook her head out of the sweater. “Alright, that’s pretty cool. But you know you’ll have to reschedule that dinner, right? We have work to do tonight.”

“But he’s gonna be so sad,” Zoey protested. “Poor Bobby, ever since his spa week ended he’s been desperate for something to do.”

“Send him the clown,” Baby said unhelpfully.

Romance wanted to slap him around, but settled for a crushing hug instead. “You can’t be mad at him, he’s the only one to successfully teach you a demon trick today.”

But Rumi wasn’t remotely annoyed. If anything, being with these boys had reminded her of Jinu: goofy for sure, and perhaps a little lost, but surprisingly intelligent and powerful. “So, girls,” she began, “How do we feel about some light kidnapping?”

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Zoey and Mira had relatively few concerns about kidnapping. It wasn’t even a kidnapping, Zoey decided, more of a catch and release. Baby’s first suggestion was for the girls to summon their “pet human” and kill him “just for a second” to lure one in, but this was predictably shouted down; his protests in favor of the plan’s “efficiency” were met with repeated kicks and punches until he went to sulk somewhere else.

Before Rumi left to speak with this Celine woman, they had to deal with the newcomers. It was decided that they would be placed on a sort of “parole system”, where any escaped demons would meet with Jelly on a regular basis in the sewers beneath Huntrix tower. In exchange, the demons would work to get any others who escaped to join the system. Over time they hoped to make the area somewhat hospitable so the demons had a place to stay within their jurisdiction as well. It was risky, but with the seemingly semi-permeable nature of the honmoon, the decision was that any stolen souls, if that were to happen, would be easy to reclaim.

The more immediate plan, the kidnapping, was quite a bit simpler by comparison. Have Zoey pretend to be sick (she was a far more believable actor), get checked into a hospital, and have the boys hang around a dying patient until they could snatch the soul and lure the pursuing jeoseong saja into Zoey’s private suite.

“Damn, this is the kind of treatment you get in a Seoul hospital with money, huh?” Romance lowered his pink sunglasses and looked around the wood-paneled, spic and span hospital room. The TV was hardly any smaller than the one in the penthouse.

“Meanwhile we passed what, a hundred hospital beds crammed into one wing?” Baby stretched his arms out, enjoying the room. “But one pampered little pop princess, she gets a whole wing.”

“You guys,” Zoey protested. “They’re just taking care of me because I’m really, really sick!”

“No you’re not,” Mira sighed. “And they’re right anyway.”

Zoey looked scandalized. “Mira, did you just…agree with the demons?”

“Agreeing with demons seemed more amenable than agreeing with someone raised in the States’ opinions on healthcare disparity,” Mira teased.

Zoey did her best pout, but ultimately slid back onto her bed. “Fine. I’m donating half my royalties to free clinics from now on.”

“That’s the spirit,” Mira said with the barest hint of enthusiasm. She opened her duffel bag and tossed out two sets of scrubs, complete with masks and hairnets. “Alright, boys. Suit up.”

Baby held up the hairnet between his thumb and forefinger with a look of utter disgust. “We’re demons, we don’t need disguises.”

“Famous demons,” Mira corrected.

“She’s right,” Romance said, taking the offered clothes. “We were able to be snuck in on the VIP route, but out there with the public, someone will be looking for the Saja Boys, and there goes our camouflage.”

“Being famous sucks,” Baby grumbled, taking the scrubs. “Unless you’re sick, apparently.”

Romance had his shirt halfway over his head before Mira called him out. “Bathroom! Change in the bathroom!”

Zoey was less concerned. “I mean, he’s already started - “

Baby pulled the bathroom door shut behind them with a final click. “I just got you to stop flirting, now you start stripteasing?”

“Strictly business, babe,” Romance said, carefully folding his silk shirt and folding it with the heart over the pocket pointing up.

“You just like to show off.”

“I see no reason why I shouldn’t,” Romance said, flexing one unfairly long arm. Baby’s eyes raked over every inch of Romance’s torso, long and lean with broad shoulders and a lethally slight waist, the appearance of someone fit who didn’t dedicate their whole lives to a gym, unlike Abby. Romance felt himself flushing in the chest and up his neck to his cheeks beneath the gaze of his fellow demon.

“What are you getting embarrassed about, weirdo?” Baby asked, though his cheeks were tinted as well. He slid out of his sweater and the accompanying shirt, baring his own impossibly slender and smooth, baby-soft body. They had both been crafted with a purpose, after all.

Romance reached out to squeeze Baby’s shoulder. “You’re so soft, it still makes me jealous.”

“At least you get to have muscles,” Baby pouted.

“We’re all equally strong,” Romance reminded him, struggling out of his skinny jeans. “I really miss being able to change my outfit just by thinking about it.”

“Same,” Baby grunted, though his baggier clothes were far easier to deal with. “Well, being able to do it without having a headache for hours after, anyway.”

The two of them stepped out of the bathroom looking like proper little surgeons - so long as no one looked too hard at Baby’s big, soft eyes.

“Not bad,” Mira said while Zoey quietly applauded. “Here, take my burner phone. I’m checking in every twenty minutes, and if you miss one I’m finding both of you and pulling your asses out through your mouth.”

“Noted,” Romance said while Baby scoffed. Once they slipped into the hallway, not one person paid them any mind, just walking around them like they were part of the furnishing. “Intensive Care. That’s where Zoey said we would have our best chance. Let’s go!”

“Why are we trusting the opinion of someone who got her knowledge of hospitals from medical dramas?” Baby groused.

“It’s a hospital. There are dying people everywhere.”

Predictably, it wasn’t that simple. They had to be there at the precise moment of death: stealing a soul too early risked the body disappearing along with it, and waiting too long risked the jeoseong saja claiming it before they could...and people liked to die slowly up here, it seemed. The two demons thought they’d caught a break when they heard a doctor say a patient had “an hour at most,” so they sat with the woman’s family waiting…and waiting…and waiting…until Mira got impatient and told them to move on. They wandered down to a different section of the hospital only to come back minutes later, empty handed, and find she had expired moments after they left.

“Can we just unplug their damn machines,” Baby growled through clenched fangs.

“I wish,” Romance sighed. “But we don’t know if that will mess up the process. We need a natural death.”

“If we trip someone into traffic, does that count as natural?”

Romance waved away his complaining. “It’s just a matter of time, babe.”

“You keep calling me that,” Baby mumbled. Romance looked behind him to see a hint of blush creeping past Baby’s mask.

“Should I not? I thought it was a cute nickname. I can stop if you don’t like it.”

“N-no! I do,” Baby said, avoiding eye contact, “But like…why that one?”

“I mean, it’s your name but shorter,” Romance began, “Plus it suits you, y’know? It feels right.”

“Isn’t that what you call someone you’re dating?”

“You don’t have to be,” Romance said with a shrug. “Some people call everyone babe.”

“…But not you.”

Romance cocked his head. “No. I mean, I guess that seems like a me thing. Should I start - ?”

“No,” Baby interrupted, firm. “It’s just for me.”

“Sure thing, babe,” Romance said, flashing what was sure to be a killer smile, completely wasted behind the mask. Baby kicked him in the back of the leg, but then stepped up to wrap around Romance’s side and stay there, enjoying the warmth. Romance leaned back into him, squeezing him even closer. Baby made a noise of soft contentment.

Their moment was disrupted after another few minutes, just before Mira’s next check-in, when alarms began to blare from one patient’s monitors. The two rushed over to see doctors and nurses pouring into the room, frantically attempting a resuscitation - but the soul was gently hovering above the body already.

“Finally,” Baby groaned. “He’s toast, let’s get it and go.”

But Romance hesitated as the orb started to struggle back towards its owner. “Wait…if we take it, they won’t be able to revive him. What if it’s working!”

“Romance, it’s been hours,” Baby hissed. “This guy’s a hundred years old and he looks like a damn skeleton already, let’s take his shit and go!”

Mira’s phone started ringing. Romance looked between the three of them - the phone, Baby, the struggling soul - uncertainty froze him to the spot. Who knew how many more hours they would have to wait? And if they did wait, what were the odds it would be the same person again? How much angrier would Baby and Mira get if things dragged out? And every second without answers was another second the other Saja Boys potentially slid further away.

“Fuck it,” Baby growled, and he seized the soul before it could struggle any further, leaving the struggling medical team behind. “Let’s get back to our wardens already.”

Romance answered Mira’s call. “We got one,” he said flatly before she could complain about the time. “We’re coming back up.”

Back in Zoey’s room, Baby released the soul. With no body to return to, it waited patiently for guidance to the afterlife, hovering peacefully at chest level. “It’s so pretty,” Zoey cooed.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a miracle,” Baby said, still sore about Romance’s hesitation. “Lie down and pretend to be dead, we need to set this trap.”

They led the soul to hover just over Zoey’s chest as they covered her face like a corpse. The boys continued to pretend to be doctors while Mira hid in the closet, The two hunters were sort of key to the plan - even if it was an empty threat, it was likely their weapons were the only thing a jeoseong saja would fear.

“Ah, just think,” Baby sighed. “How happy our past selves would have been, standing over a dead hunter! What might have been…”

“Mean,” Zoey protested from beneath the blanket.

“Quiet, honey, corpses don’t talk,” Baby chided.

“Honey?” Romance protested.

Baby raised an eyebrow. “I was being sarcastic.”

“Well, if I don’t get to call anyone babe - “

“Shut the hell up,” Mira hissed from the closet.

It didn’t take long - just another few moments of silence before a tall figure in familiar dress came drifting through the window. It approached the bed as if the two “doctors” weren’t even there and wordlessly reached out to touch the soul -

“Now!” Romance shouted, and Baby swiped the soul just as Zoey sat up and Mira burst from the closet, weapons drawn.

“Heaven’s sake,” the figure cried, stumbling backwards. “What is the meaning of this?”

The jeoseong saja looked like a perfectly ordinary human, really: pale, messy dark hair, pinched, irritated expression, no discoloration or marks the way the Saja Boys had. The only thing differentiating him from an average-looking male mortal in period dress was the blue glow of his eyes, which radiated in the dimly lit room. “Underwhelming,” Baby said, taking off his disguise at last. “I was hoping he would at least be as hot as us.”

“Your standards are too high,” Romance chided, doing the same.

Their captive’s eyes widened. “What do you humans want? You shouldn’t even be able to see me!”

“How much do you know about Gwi-Ma?” Romance asked as casually as one might remark upon the weather.

“Gwi-Ma…the traitor spirit? There’s a name I haven’t heard in a few centuries. King Yeomra cast him out ages ago, literally. Why do you mention that one?”

“Cast him out?” Baby echoed. “Cast where?”

“Wherever bad spirits go?” Their captive said, shrugging.

Romance looked at his fellow kidnappers. “So you don’t know Gwi-Ma is still around?”

“I’m sure he is, somewhere,” he said, dismissively, “But what matter’s is he’s not in King Yeomra’s realm mucking things up anymore.”

“Yeah, no,” Mira growled, stepping forward with her weapon. “Gwi-Ma has been terrorizing the mortal realm for centuries.”

“That’s quite impossible,” their captive protested, eyeing Mira’s weapon uneasily. “King Yeomra would never be so careless - “

“Careless or not,” Baby interrupted, shifting into his demonic form with a wince of pain, “Here we are.”

“Baby, be careful,” Romance whispered as the honmoon flickered around him.

“Look at these marks,” Baby said, revealing his collar. “Gwi-Ma made them, and he used them to control us before these girls were able to seal him away again.”

“But you’re - “ their captive dropped to his knees, lost. “You’re jeoseong saja? But I don’t recognize you at all. And these two girls, they can’t be one of us, what are they?”

“Hunters,” Zoey added helpfully. “We use music to keep Gwi-Ma’s forces at bay! Uh, except these guys. They’ve been kinda helpful. For now.”

“Think of us as criminal informants,” Romance said cheerily.

Their poor captive was having a hard time coping. “I’m sorry, but. No, I’m not sorry! None of this makes any sense! Gwi-Ma is banished, humans cannot hold power over the underworld, and there’s no such thing as evil jeoseong saja - “

“Hey, I object to that term,” Romance protested.

“Yeah, we’re not evil, we’re morality-curious,” Baby interrupted.

“You were pretty evil until a few weeks ago,” Mira countered. “Look, uh, guy - “

“Charlie,” Zoey suggested. “He looks like a Charlie.”

“Charlie,” Mira began again, “Gwi-Ma may have been banished from the underworld, but clearly he found some kind of loophole. He’s been stealing souls from humans for centuries. In fact, he came dangerously close to taking over not long ago.”

“But King Yeomra would never make such a grave error,” Charlie stammered, having no apparent objections to his name amidst his personal crisis. “This must be some sort of prank. You must be very cunning dokkaebi to pull off this trick.”

“What kind of dokkaebi could perfectly impersonate a jeoseong saja,” Baby scoffed. “I’d love to take you right to Gwi-Ma’s realm to prove it to you, but one, he would kill me on sight, and two, these hunters were a little over-enthusiastic and got us stuck out here.”

“Sorry for doing our jobs,” Mira scoffed.

Charlie shook his head. “Oh, this is above my pay grade.”

“I think we told him too much, too fast,” Zoey said, concerned. “Don’t we need him to answer other questions for us?”

“Not sure how useful he’ll be,” Baby said dismissively, looking at the cowering figure on the floor.

Romance sighed. “Alright, buddy, we need to talk to your manager about some things. Is there a way to get an audience with Yeomra?”

Charlie barked out a harsh, shrill laugh. “An audience with the King? The busiest being in the cosmos? Not even I’ve managed that and I’ve worked with him for centuries.”

“How far down the ranks are you from Yeomra, then?”

Having seemingly regained himself somewhat, Charlie rose to his feet and puffed out his chest. “I’ll have you know I’m a sixth-level bureaucrat now. Just got promoted eighty years ago. That means King Yeomra is my supervisor’s manager’s overseer’s boss’s boss.”

“This is gonna be a headache,” Baby groused.

“Can we at least speak to your supervisor?” Romance sighed.

“Well, if you fill out the right forms, I’m sure he can get to you in three to six business decades.”

“Business dec - “ Romance shook his head. “Is there some other way we can speak to your supervisor?”

“Of course not,” Charlie said. “Unless…”

“Unless…?”

“He would come looking for me if I didn’t return in a timely manner with the soul,” Charlie finished before holding out his hands in protest, “But you don’t want to mess with him! He’s a fifth level bureaucrat! He has powers you can’t even fathom!”

Romance had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes. “And how long would it take him to notice you were missing?”

“I, uh,” Charlie stammered, eyes flicking from the drawn weapons around him to Baby’s wicked claws, “I don’t know, it’s never happened before. But surely not that long!”

“Can’t we just kill him,” Baby asked, glaring at their useless captive. “Then if his boss comes to collect his worthless hide we can talk to them.”

“No killing,” Mira said, firm. “Let’s take him back with us. He can meet the other demons and see if he still thinks Gwi-Ma is gone then.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “But if I’m late with this delivery I might get demoted! Do you know how long it will take to get back to level six?! I’ll be escorting your great-grandchildren before that happens!”

Romance was starting to agree with Baby more and more. “What if you went back without the soul? Would that be better or worse?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never failed a delivery before,” Charlie stammered, full of terror. “They might strip me of my rank, they might send someone else, I don’t know!”

“Useless,” Baby growled. “So we send this loser back empty handed and hope they send someone to back to talk to us, or we hold him here hoping it takes less than a ‘business decade’ to get a search party sent? You think if we torture him a little it would speed up the process?”

“No torture,” Mira insisted. “Not yet, anyway. Look, we - most of us - don’t want to hurt you. No ill intentions. We just want to fight Gwi-Ma, and it seems like you know someone who knows someone…etc…who can give is information. What is the best way for us to meet that person?”

“I guess…I could take one of them back with me,” Charlie said, gesturing at the two demons. “If they had the soul, they might be allowed in as just another jeoseong saja on a delivery.”

“One of us?” Baby spat. “No way. Take us both or we keep you here til you’re a grade negative a thousand.”

“It’s one soul per reaper per trip!” Charlie protested. “And you could wait for another one, but there’s no guarantee they would be from my division. The underworld is really, really big.”

Romance sighed. “Hand over the soul, Baby.”

“Like hell,” Baby snapped. “I’ll go.”

“I say this with all the love in the world,” Romance began, prompting Baby to roll his eyes, “But you don’t have the patience for long discussions needed here. Let me take the soul and I swear I’ll get what we need and come right back.”

Baby glowered first at Romance, then at Charlie. “He can come back, right?”

“I can take him out on my next assignment. Probably.” Charlie offered.

“Probably,” Baby spat. “This is stupid. Let’s just keep this little idiot and wait for his boss.”

“But Baby - “

“I’m not losing you,” Baby hissed. His wide golden eyes were watering and red at the edges, shocking Romance into silence. “What if they don’t let you come back? What if Yeomra eats you up on the spot, or makes you work for him? Did you not stop to think what would happen to me if I never saw you again?”

“Oh, Baby,” Romance cooed. He threw his arms around the smaller demon and pulled him in tight, tighter, tightest but still somehow not tight enough, “I get it. I feel the same way about leaving. But there’s two things. First, we need to learn what’s happening fast, or we lose everyone. And second, absolutely nothing in the underworld will keep me from you. Even if I have to spit in Yeomra’s face and cut down hundreds of his men, I will get back to you. Understand?”

Baby sniffed and clung to Romance even harder, lifting a hand to stroke Romance’s chest absently. “You’re all I have left. All that matters to me. If you don’t come back, I - “

“Come in after me, then,” Romance teased. He rubbed his face into Baby’s soft hair, inhaling the honey-sweet scent like it was his last breath. “But give me time. In and out. Just a few hours. I swear.”

“I hate you,” Baby sniffled. “Can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

“Doing what?”

“Making me have all these gross feelings,” Baby sobbed. “You better come back. If I have to carve my way into Yeomra’s domain no one’s coming out alive.”

“Don’t I know it,” Romance chuckled. He slowly, reluctantly, released Baby and stepped back still holding his clawed hand. As he looked at Baby’s watery, bloodshot eyes, he felt like there was something missing - something he should say, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what. As he struggled for the words, Baby closed his eyes and transferred the soul across their joined arms.

“Come back to me,” he whispered, giving Romance’s hand one last squeeze.

(Behind them, Mira looked over at Zoey, who was quietly bawling her eyes out at the tender display, as if she were watching a premium drama. Mira started to roll her eyes, but then Zoey made eye contact with her, and Mira felt a lump rising in her throat too - they were sweet, weren’t they? Demons couldn’t be like this. It just didn’t make sense.)

Romance lifted Baby’s hand to his lips, placing one delicate kiss to each finger. “Of course,” he whispered. He released the hand with great reluctance, turning towards a very pensive looking Charlie. “Shall we go?”

“What? Yes. Sorry,” Charlie stammered. “It’s just…come on, let’s go before I change my mind.”

“You’ve got one day,” Baby shouted, voice shaking, as the two of them gathered together to part the realm. “One day before I storm the underworld and tear apart every stupid little soul I get my hands on!”

Romance’s smile was impossibly fond as he looked back at his partner, who was shaking with the effort of holding back his emotions. Incredible to think, really, Romance thought. Weeks ago even forcing a smile would exhaust them, now it came so easily. “Baby, I…I’ll come back to you. Always.”

“You better,” was the last thing Romance heard before everything went white.

Chapter Text

The walk to the shrine was longer than Rumi remembered.

Granted, last time she had been here she traveled via teleport, but still, she could wear the shrine and the tree it surrounded it weren’t all that far apart. Especially considering her legs were longer now, shouldn’t the walk be shorter? Damn anxiety-driven time dilation.

She hadn’t given Celine any kind of heads-up about this visit, but she knew Celine would be home. Worse, she would be home waiting for Rumi to come back to explain herself and her behavior or, heaven forbid, apologize.

For most of her childhood, Celine had truly been a warm and caring mother figure. Rumi once had no complaints about her rearing. It was only in retrospect that she realized how much Celine had loved only part of her, suppressing the rest with barely-contained loathing. Every smile, every warm, sunny training session, every song they sang together was tainted by memories of barely-concealed hateful gazes, a pile of sleeveless shirts thrown out and burned, baths where Rumi scrubbed herself raw and bleeding in the attempt to remove her shame.

Rumi couldn’t being herself to knock directly on Celine’s door. Instead, she went to kneel by the tree at the heart of the complex, knowing Celene would come by dusk at the latest. It was easy to get lost in meditation here, so close to what was once the heart of the honmoon, now moved, for better or for worse, to the foot of Namsan tower. She could still feel the connection here, touching deeply into the root of the honmoon, feeling for vulnerabilities and finding none, reveling in the strength of a honmoon that was all her own, even if she knew nothing of what that meant.

Her meditations were interrupted by arms thrown around her in a crushing hug, accompanied by the smell of ginseng and incense she had come to associate with her caretaker. “Rumi,” Celine whispered. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

Rumi turned into Celine’s embrace, enjoying the warmth despite her churning emotions. “Hello, Celine.”

Celine rose to her feet, taking Rumi with her, where she held her out at arm’s length for inspection. “You’re looking well,” she said, though her eyes hesitated on Rumi’s arms. “Sleeveless shirts? Isn’t it a bit…cold?”

Rumi stepped out of her embrace. “I like the feeling of air on my skin,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument.

They stood in silence a moment while Celine studied the ground. “The last time I saw you, I was worried what you might do. But the honmoon is stronger than ever. How did you do that?”

“I wish I could say I knew,” Rumi admitted. “It’s stronger, but it’s…exhibiting some strange qualities. That’s one of the things I wanted to discuss with you.”

“Oh,” Celine said, finally raising her eyes to meet Rumi’s. “I thought you came here to…”

Rumi matched her gaze fiercely. “To what?”

Celine withered. “I was…hoping we could catch up. So much has happened, and I feel a bit…out of the loop.”

I wonder why, Rumi thought. “What do you want to catch up on?”

Celine’s eyes flickered over her patterns again. “Why don’t we start by catching me up on the instability of the honmoon these last months?”

Rumi sighed, but she gave Celine the short version: the rise of the Saja Boys, the near-dissolution of the trio, the final battle with Gwi-Ma where they created a new honmoon made all the stronger for their understanding. She left out her meetings with Jinu and her acceptance of her heritage, for now. They needed Celine’s help, she reasoned, and getting into a confrontation would jeopardize that.

But Celine was unconvinced. “These Saja Boys - they were all defeated?”

“Defeated,” Rumi confirmed, hollow.

“Destroyed, or trapped beneath the honmoon?”

“Most of them,” Rumi admitted. She was never going to be able to lie to Celine, but she could certainly evade.

“Most?” Celine asked, raising her voice just that slightest fraction of a decibel: not enough to reveal a heightened emotional state, but enough to ensure she was heard. “What does ‘most’ mean?”

“Mira and Zoey eliminated two of them. Their leader…was destroyed as well. But two escaped.”

“Then they need to be hunted down,” Celine insisted. “Even separated from the pack, these two demons were powerful enough to bring down the honmoon. They cannot be allowed to remain here.”

“They aren’t a danger to anyone anymore,” Rumi replied, firm, but she couldn’t maintain eye contact.

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll just have to trust me,” Rumi said. “This isn’t what I’m here for. The new honmoon is behaving strangely. We’ve spoken to multiple demons that escaped Gwi-Ma’s hold - “

“You’ve spoken to demons?” Celine asked, voice rising just a touch higher. “Why would you do such a thing? They need to be eliminated or returned, not spoken to.”

“These demons,” Rumi pressed on, “Claimed they were trying to escape Gwi-Ma, and the honmoon allowed them passage. But it also won’t allow them back through, if they even wanted to go.”

“The honmoon doesn’t ‘allow passage’,” Celine pressed, clearly vexed. “What did you do to it, Rumi? It was so close to being golden, to shutting them out forever, now it’s letting demons through because they, what, asked nicely?”

“I’ve spoken to these demons,” Rumi interrupted. “They don’t want to serve Gwi-Ma, and they’ve never had a chance to escape before because of the honmoon. Now Gwi-Ma is weak and the honmoon is allowing them to choose their side. Shouldn’t we be willing to take allies against him?”

“We don’t need demon allies,” Celine insisted. “We need a golden honmoon. All demons, banished forever. No questions.”

“You don’t listen to me,” Rumi sighed. “I said I was glad to see the old honmoon gone and I meant it. I wanted, the girls wanted, a fresh start. Our embracing of our faults, at least of those things we were told were faults, created something new.”

“Embracing faults created something faulty,” Celine shot back. “‘Our faults and fears must never - ‘“

“Stop!” Rumi growled, demonic energy flaring. The honmoon no longer flickered when she did so remaining resolutely prismatic. “Who decides what a fault is anyway, you? Do only those who pass Celine’s purity test get to exist on the side of the golden honmoon?”

“Rumi,” Celine snapped, patience clearly wearing thin. “I’m not speaking for myself, this is the result of generations of wisdom. Centuries of work you threw away in a temper tantrum! We got lucky that you were able to create something so strong, but now it seems it doesn’t even work - “

“A temper tantrum,” Rumi spat. “Is it so beyond your comprehension that demons can seek a life beyond Gwi-Ma? That some of them might want to do good?”

Celine scoffed. “What got into your head, girl? What demon tricked you into thinking they could be saved?”

“Jinu,” Rumi admitted. “The leader of the Saja Boys. He didn’t…I won’t say he didn’t trick me, but in the end, he proved that demons can be more than their sins. I knew what he was, but I also knew that wasn’t all there was to him. We never would have made the new honmoon, never would have banished Gwi-Ma, without his sacrifice.”

“A boy,” Celine groaned. “Heavens, never in my darkest nightmares did I think you would get this of all things from your mother.”

Of course it came back to that. “If you were so terrified I would repeat her ‘mistakes’ maybe you should have given me some idea of what they were.”

“It was the same old thing. A handsome demon, a few charming words, and suddenly they were ‘lost souls needing to be saved’,” Celine spat, mocking.

“And you didn’t trust her enough to even consider she may be right?”

“Would you trust Mira or Zoey if they suddenly went against everything you’d ever believed because of one pretty face?”

“I would hear then out, at least!” Rumi shouted, finally losing the last of her cool. “They know all about my patterns, about my history, and they love me all the more for it. But hiding that from them almost destroyed us, destroyed everything! You want to blame the destruction of the honmoon on my so-called ‘temper tantrum,’ but if we had been able to accept each other from the beginning the honmoon would have been complete ages ago!”

“You don’t know that!” Celine shouted back. “Generations of hunters lived by the idea that their faults and fears must never be seen and the world had peace all the while. You think one upstart generation can change all of that?”

“Peace? Gwi-Ma has been corrupting and stealing souls the whole time while the honmoon struggled to hold him. Have you ever considered that instead of doubling down on a barely working strategy for centuries on end a little change in perspective might improve the honmoon?”

“Improve it like what? This false honmoon that apparently believes the lies of demons the same way you did, the same way your mother did?”

“The demons it’s allowed through have no desire to harm anyone!”

“You only have their word for that!” Celine looked like she wanted to grab Rumi by the shoulders and shake her, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to close the gap. “Demons lie and deceive, it’s what they do, what they have done for centuries!”

“Not all of them,” Rumi insisted. “Humans lie and deceive too, should we condemn them to an eternity of suffering where all they see is their darkest sins, until nothing is left of their greatest virtues? We believe even the worst people can get better, why can’t we extend the same courtesy to demons?”

“Because they’re not human, Rumi! Humans can change, demons are trapped by their nature, it’s what they are!”

“How would you know?! Have you ever spoken to one?!”

“I don’t have to,” Celine shouted, tears welling in her eyes, “I saw what happened to your mother!”

There was a sudden shift, a change in light and in sentiment, as if the sun had set specifically over the grove, turned from them and left them in darkness. “What happened to my mother?”

Celine shook her head. “She was so like you. She believed demons could be changed, that they were prisoners of Gwi-Ma. In her misguided efforts at salvation she met one she believed loved her, that they had a place together, that we could let them through, defeat Gwi-Ma, and live in peace.”

“What happened, Celine,” Rumi pressed.

“She made me promise not to tell you,” Celine said, eyes shining with regret and swimming in misery the way they always did when Ryu Miyeong was involved. “But if it means keeping you from the same mistake, I think she…”

“Celine, please. Tell me the truth,” Rumi whispered. She couldn’t stand seeing her powerful, serene guardian like this, it seemed so wrong.

Celine sighed and closed her eyes, seemingly steeling herself. When she opened them, she was resolved, like she had finally made a decision long delayed. “Your mother insisted demons could be reformed. She started talking to them instead of fighting them, giving sanctuary to those who chose not to fight. But Gwi-Ma got wind if this and sent a demon to seduce your mother, to play to her feelings and ultimately betray her. I, we, tried to warn her, but she was so stubbornly convinced she was right. We fought constantly, and eventually she disappeared.

“Much later, she came back with you in her arms. Barely more than a year old. She told me the demon had forced himself on her, kept her prisoner. She begged my forgiveness, said I was right all along, that her lover had been overtaken by Gwi-Ma. But then he came for her. She told me to run, to save you, that she would defeat him herself. She did, but…the injuries, her own broken heart, it was too much. Your auntie and I buried her and swore to raise you, and we did until…she couldn’t tolerate your heritage the way I did, and I told her she could leave forever or die by my hand.

“I’m sorry, Rumi,” Celine sobbed, seeing Rumi’s shattered expression before her. “I know it’s terrible, that’s why I never told you…but you have to see, this path you’re on, it can only end badly. The golden honmoon is the only way.”

Every word of the story tore at Rumi like demonic claws. So much of it seemed familiar: the charming demon, the betrayal, the gathering of seemingly well-intentioned demons…it was a haunting reflection, but still, Jinu - unlike her father, Jinu had done the right thing. Had chosen seeming oblivion over servitude or betrayal. To go back to the golden honmoon, to ignore everything she had come to learn.

“You…you’re wrong,” Rumi insisted, snuffling. She stepped back. “Even if what you say is true, I still believe…and with the new honmoon, Gwi-Ma can’t corrupt any of his escaped followers.”

“You can’t know that,” Celine insisted. “Rumi, please, I can’t lose you the same way - “

But Rumi shook her head. “It’s not the same. My - Jinu, he died for me. This story can’t and won’t repeat. If demons can be saved, I’ll save them. If they can’t, I’ll stop them. But the golden honmoon is gone. I’ll find a new way forward, even if it kills me.”

“Rumi…”

“And you, when you say all demon do is lie and kill, that they have no feelings, no souls…my whole life, you made me believe that about myself.”

“Not you, Rumi, never you, just your demon side - “

“My demon side is still part of me! A part I can’t ever get rid of, and I don’t want to anymore. I’m tired of feeling ashamed. Jinu helped me see that because he was swallowed up by his shame, too. Only it’s not Gwi-Ma who made me feel that way, it was you.”

“But Rumi, I told you, that part of you…it came from something, someone evil. You don’t deserve to carry his sin with you. And the golden honmoon will fix it, I know it can!”

“Celine,” Rumi asked, not looking at her erstwhile guardian, “How did you know for sure that the golden honmoon would banish my markings?”

“Of course,” she said. “No demon could exist on this side - “

“Would it have banished my markings,” Rumi began, struggling to finish the question, “Or would it have banished me?”

“Just your markings,” Celine said, firm. “I was sure of it, you have to believe I had every confidence - “

“You were positive there was no chance it would trap me with the demons? Completely?” Rumi pressed.

Celine paused. “Rumi - “

“The truth,” Rumi growled, feeling her demon side flare up.

“I was confident it would only banish your demonic markings,” Celine began, “But…“

Rumi couldn’t even look at her. “Any chance,” she said, “Any chance should have been too much.”

“Rumi…”

“Thank you for everything,” Rumi said, walking away, holding herself together as best she could. “But I think it’s best if we no longer associate.”

“Rumi, please,” Celine cried, suddenly desperate. “You’re all I have left, don’t - “

“All you have left,” Rumi echoed, “But you truly believed a chance at curing me of my ‘imperfections’ was worth losing me forever.”

Rumi heard Celine’s knees hit the ground. “I would have found a way to save you.”

But Rumi had listened to all she could. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to,” she said, and she left the grove as fast as her legs would carry her.

She was most of the way back home when her phone rang. Tears hadn’t stopped falling in what felt like hours, but no matter how dehydrated she got, more seemed to come. Still, she wiped her face clean before answering the call.

“Hey Rumi,” Zoey said, chipper as always, “We just got back to the house and - wait, what happened?!”

“N-nothing!” Rumi said, covering the camera with her thumb.

“What happened?” She heard Mira ask in the distance. There was a scuffle and Mira’s voice was coming in clear. “Rumi! Show me your face!”

“No, it’s fine!”

“Rumi, show me your face before I go find Celine and shove her faults and fears somewhere they’ll never be seen!”

And despite everything, Rumi laughed. Laughed harder than she had in days. She slowly uncovered her face as the cackling petered out, giving her worried friends a watery smile. “I might be okay with that,” she said. “But let’s worry about that later. How did things go?”

Mira looked like she wanted to fight the subject change, but Zoey pushed past her to reclaim her phone. “We got a little information, but we sent Romance off on a solo mission to get some more.”

“Solo mission?!”

“He can’t be trusted,” Celine’s voice said to her. “It’s a trick, he’s going back to Gwi-Ma, just like I said. You failed us.”

“Not quite a solo mission,” Mira said, cutting into her train of thought. “He’s with a real jeoseong saja, so he has an escort, sort of.”

“He seems useless to me,” Baby muttered in the background.

“Good, good,” Rumi replied. “I’ll be home in a few minutes. Warm up some ramyeon for me, okay?”

“You got it!” Zoey said. Mira loomed over her shoulder, concerned.

“You sure you’re okay?”

Rumi flashed a thumbs-up. “Nope! But we can talk about it soon.”

“Alright,” Mira said, clearly unsatisfied but willing to wait. “Murder’s still on the table.”

“I know,” Rumi said, chuckling to herself. “I love you girls.”

“We love you too,” they both said in unison, sincerity echoing through her heart, radiating through her luminescent patterns.

Rumi ended the call, relishing the warmth it left her with, pushing Celine’s stricken face to the back of her mind. This would work out, she was sure of it - and even if not, they could damn well fix it themselves.