Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

They’d come to an accord, Jinu and Rumi. The Saja Boys would purposely lose the Idol Awards, Huntrix would sing Golden and the Honmoon would glow and seal away all demons. Whether she could keep Jinu here on this side of the barrier and erase her own patterns...neither of them truly knew if it would work.  

So, they decided to make the most of possibly their last night together.  

Rumi grabbed the front of Jinu’s shirt and pulled him down to kiss her, hard and fierce, all the passion she’d been denying since the day they met. His arms wrapped around her, his warmth, his scent enveloping her, cocooning her until the rest of the world didn’t exist.  

“Come with me,” she said, taking his hand in hers, fingers interlacing. Her urgency slowed when he tugged on their joined hands and brought them up to his lips to kiss the back of her hand, and then each knuckle. He smiled that annoyingly, perfect grin that made her knees weak.  

“We might not have the rest of our lives, but we do have all night,” he said. “We can still take our time.” He pulled her back into his arms and she let herself be held.  

They rode Derpy back to the Huntrix penthouse, Sussie perched on his enormous head like a hood ornament. It felt like flying when they were this high above the city streets, where the sounds became a comforting, familiar buzz of life. They passed by Seoul Tower lit up green against the night sky and on they went until Derpy landed on the balcony outside of Rumi’s room.  

Derpy and Sussie disappeared, sinking into the ground. Derpy’s eyes staring at them, unblinking until they were swallowed up.  

“Is he always so.....” Rumi made a non-committal gesture with her hand.  

“Creepy? Yes.”  

Rumi took Jinu’s hand and led him into her room. To her bed and there her confidence faltered. She bit her lip, not sure how to voice her inexperience and her growing embarrassment at realizing just how out of her depth she was. She could preform a sold out show in front of 50,000 fans but was nervous in a room alone with a boy. A demon. Whatever he was, it didn’t matter.  

“Are you okay?” Jinu asked. He held both of her hands in his and when she felt herself on the verge of a panic attack, he gently squeezed them. His fingers tracing circles on her skin.  

She took a deep breath, “I-I’ve never done this before,” she said, gutting the confession out of herself.  

His mouth opened in surprise, but he didn’t look like he wanted to change his mind. “Okay, do you want me to take the lead?” he asked.  

Rumi squeezed his hands back. She squeezed three times, letting the feeling of him ground her in this moment and settle her anxiety. “Yes, please,” she whispered. And then he was kissing her, slow and firm and it was.....perfect. He was perfect.  

Jinu laid her down on the bed, and kissing turned to roaming hands and clothing being shed. He was patient and thorough, leaving no inch of skin untouched by his lips. And what Rumi expected to be awkward and mildly painful was instead an evening that made her understand the term, making love.  

Rumi felt like it was a cliche to say it was the best night of her life. And when she fell asleep wrapped in Jinu’s arms, her head resting on his chest, his heartbeat thumping wildly beneath her ear. The sound of it as it slowed and his breathing evened with sleep.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

A few hours later, not long after midnight. Rumi awoke disoriented. Feeling like she was in the middle of a world tour, waking up in a hotel room unsure what country she was currently in. Her hunter senses usually snapped her into focus after a second, but nothing seemed to be working. Which should have worried her a lot more than it did.  

There was warmth all around her and when she tried to move the warmth tightened. Was she trying out weighted blankets again? She moved her hand and hit warm skin that didn’t belong to her. That wasn’t right? The night before should have come back to her in a rush, but it didn’t. Another sign that something wasn’t right but the order of the world felt so distant.  

She made a sound. At least she thought she did. It was her mouth that moved, but the wounded whimper that came out of her was foreign. Weak.  

“Rumi?” A familiar voice. She made another sound and winced when the bedside lamp was turned on and she was overwhelmed by the harsh light. She closed her eyes and tried to bury herself in the broad chest beside her. She keened when it moved away from her and hands came up to touch her face. She opened her eyes and above her was Jinu. Jinu? Slowly, their night trickled back into her memory. His mouth was moving, saying something....but it wasn’t reaching her ears.  

Her body ached all over, but she was too disoriented to do anything about it or even tell Jinu. And above her the concern on Jinu’s face became greater and greater. He was panicking, looking near to tears. And then he looked at her and she felt naked beneath his gaze, probably because she was naked beneath the comforter.  His eyes were glistening, his mouth set in a determined line.  

Jinu bent down and kissed her. A surge of energy flooded through her, lighting up her body, synapses firing in her brain beating back the fog. She gasped and clutched at Jinu’s shoulders, finally having enough control to move her limbs. The energy was too much, too fast, it hurt. Her pulling hands pushed him back and he went sprawling onto the bed.  

They were both gasping. Rumi felt freezing and like she was burning up, she clutched the comforter to her chest. “What the hell was that!” she yelled at him, and winced hoping Mira and Zoey didn’t hear her. “What the hell was that?” she whisper seethed.  

Jinu righted himself. “I passed some of my power to you to get your head back on straight. Whatever was going on before that I have no freaking idea.” His hands were shaking.  

“Your power?” Rumi looked down at her arms where her usually light purple patterns were a few shades darker against her pale skin. “Why did you-” Rumi was cut off, the breath knocked out of her by a pain deep in her gut that radiated out to the rest of her body. Jinu was instantly at her side again.  

“Rumi, what is it? What’s happening?” he tried to hold back the panic from his voice, but it was a losing battle.  

She clutched his arm, fingernails digging in and breaking skin. “I-I don’t know.” she said through gritted teeth. And as quick as it started the pain vanished and Rumi caught her breath in heavy gasps. “I-it’s like pain, in my gut.” Jinu grabbed the comforter and ripped it off Rumi.  

They stopped breathing, stopped thinking, stopped existing altogether for a moment. Because what they were looking at made no sense. It was impossible and definitely couldn’t be what it looked like.  

Jinu’s mouth had gone dry and it took him three tries before he finally was able to say, “You....you’re-”  

“No, I’m not!” Rumi said. In direct response to her denial, she felt a firm thump come from inside her belly. It was strong enough to be visible to both Rumi and Jinu. They turned to each other, then back to what looked like a seven month pregnant belly.  

Rumi gasped, hunching forward as the pain began again and watched in horror as her belly grew . She opened her mouth to scream but Jinu covered it before any sound could escape. She tried to bite his palm but ended up clenching her teeth and straining backwards, trying uselessly to get away from the thing that was causing her pain.  

She focused all her energy on not screaming when Jinu took his hand away so he could cradle her in his arms. But the pain was so intense, tears ran down her cheeks and broken ragged sobs escaped her mouth. After a minute the pain vanished and she breathed deeply, in and out, feeling like she was coming down from the panic attacks she used to have as a kid.  

She looked up at Jinu, who while definitely still panicking about what was happening, he no longer looked confused. “What is happening?” her voice frail.  

Jinu turned to her. “I’m sorry, you’re only half demon.....I-I didn’t think this was possible.”  

“What is it?” she asked.  

His brow furrowed. “A baby,” he said slowly, like that should have been obvious.  

“Clearly!” she said, smacking him on the chest. “How is it happening?”  

Jinu blew out a long, slow breath. “You are having a demon pregnancy.”  

“What. The. Fuck. Is. A. Demon. Pregnancy.”  

“They’re rare-ish, like one in every 100 demon women, and I-I didn’t think it was possible, you’re only half demon,” he repeated, slowly leaning away from Rumi and the wrath he saw building in her eyes. “They usually are over in a few hours, it probably started right after we...you know.” he gestured vaguely.  

Rumi counted to ten in her head, and then did it again, trying to focus her mind on something other than her instinct to kill Jinu.  

“How long do I have before....before its born?” she asked, and nearly started hyperventilating at the idea that she would have to birth whatever creature was growing inside her and unlike most women she didn’t have nine months to mentally prepare for it.  

“Uh....I think you’ve got one growth period left, so....30 minutes,” he said, slowly crawling to the edge of the bed.  

“30 minutes!” Rumi tried to follow him, to kick his ass, but her center of gravity was not where she’d last left it and she had to thrust her arms out in front of her to keep from tumbling over. She braced herself on her bed, her belly a distended weight out in front of her. Jinu came back to her, his hands on her arms steadying her. “I can’t have a baby,” she whispered.  

Rumi looked up into Jinu and the expression in her eyes broken. When they’d battle in the bathhouse and he’d seen her patterns, she’d been scared. This...this was pure terror. He pulled her to his chest, and wrapped her protectively in his arms.  

“It’s going to be horrible, and painful,” he said and Rumi gave an indignant sound. “But it’ll be quick. That’s the one good thing about demon pregnancies, they go very quick. Most people barely feel the first half of the growth periods and don’t feel pain until the end. You’re a champ you slept through most of them.” Rumi gave him a broken laugh. “Now we’ve got a few choices to make and a very short amount of time to make them. First-”  

The final growth period started and Rumi arched back in Jinu’s arm, feeling like she’d lost all control of her body. The pain was so intense she’d gone past the point of screaming, her mouth hung open a hiss of air escaping as she prayed for the pain to stop. Jinu was talking to her, trying to comfort her.  

This time with the end of the pain, came an unpleasant feeling of pressure in her pelvis. She put her hand on her belly that had grown even larger, the skin tight beneath her palm.  

“Do you want to do it here in the bed, or in the bathroom?” Jinu asked.  

It took Rumi a few seconds to catch back up to what they’d been talking about. “The bathroom,” she said. She didn’t know much about childbirth, but she knew it was messy. And she was glad to skip any going to the hospital nonsense, that was obviously out of the question.  

“Can you walk?” he asked.  

“I can try.” Jinu helped pull her to her feet and stayed at her side as they walked across her room. It was one of the oddest experiences of her life. She felt so...heavy was the only way she could describe it. They went through her walk in closet and into the ensuite. Her bathroom was the farthest room away from any living space Zoey or Mira might inhabit.  

How would she explain this to Zoey and Mira. And tonight, fuck they were supposed to preform at the Idol Awards tonight and she was walking into her bathroom to have a fucking baby. The universe was playing some sick joke on her.  

She shook her head, she’d deal with all that later. First and foremost, she needed to get this baby out of her and not die in the process. She was half demon, she could survive having a demon baby. Her mother couldn’t, but she would.  

Jinu helped her into the walk in shower and sat her down gently on the walk in shower’s built in bench. He disappeared back to the hallway and a minute later returned with a stack of towels that towered over his head.  

“What are you going to do with those?” she asked.  

He set them down on the countertop. “Honestly, I don’t know. We should have something to wrap the baby up in, right? Should I be boiling water? We should sterilize our hands, right?” He was rambling at this point, turning the sink tap on hot and starting to scrub his hands. The rising steam showing how scalding the water was. “Do you have any names?”  

Rumi couldn’t explain why but she started laughing. It was just so ridiculous . Fourty-Eight hours ago they’d been at each others throats and now they were having a baby together. But her laughter got choked in her throat when a gush of fluids came out from between her legs. Jinu stood frozen, drying his hands on one of the many towels he’d brought.  

The first contraction brought Rumi to her knees.  

She collapsed forward onto the granite tile, her kneecaps hitting the stone with a hard thwack . Jinu was there holding her as she shook and keened, trying to hold in her screaming so the entire building didn’t wake up because it would if she let out just how much it fucking HURT.  

She’d thought the growth period was bad, this was like something ripping out of her, because something was ripping out of her. She waited for the contraction to end, but it didn’t, it kept going and going, building stronger and stronger.  

“B-belt.” she choked out to Jinu.  

“What?”  

She had to focus on the pain, focus on her breathing, focus on not summoning her sword and cutting this thing out of her to make the pain stop.  

“F-from my....closet. L-leather belt,” she gritted out. Jinu was gone and back in an instant. Rumi took the belt and shoved it in her mouth between her teeth and finally let herself scream. She kept going until her voice was ragged and she had nothing but broken sobs.  

The contractions kept going, forcing the baby out in one endless contraction and then on top of it all came the sudden, unbearable urge to bear down. Rumi reached for Jinu’s hand and squeezed it hard enough to hear the bones inside creak and snap. He yelped but didn’t try to pull away.  

She felt Jinu’s other hand touching her, feeling for the baby. He’d grabbed a towel and laid it down over the edge of the granite bench to make it more comfortable for her to brace her back against.  

“It’s coming out,” he said. “I think it’s crowning.”  

It burned. It fucking burned. Rumi found herself pushing harder to get it over and make the pain stop. Jinu tried to urge her to slow down but she would do whatever it took to get this over with.  

Another great, crescendoing, burning pain, and then relief.  

“The heads out,” Jinu said.  

“Just the head!” she said the belt falling from her mouth. There was a minute of rest as the contractions abated.  

Jinu kissed her forehead. “You’re doing amazing. All that’s left is the shoulders and then you’re done. Okay? You can do that, you’re the most kickass woman I’ve ever met, and this by far is the most badass thing you’ve ever done.” Jinu grabbed another towel, he’d moved the stack to just outside the shower at some point. “I need my hand back so I can catch the baby.” Rumi let him go, feeling like she was losing her lifeline.  

She lifted herself up against the bench until she was squatting and just as she got into position the contractions started again. Just as bad the last time and she was bearing down, pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing.....and then she wasn’t. She felt it slip away and out of her body.  

And then it was crying, and Jinu was crying, and she was crying.  

“It’s a girl,” he said, lifting the baby up for her to see.  

She was tiny, and red face, and covered in....things that Rumi didn’t want to identify. Her hair was black and slicked back and her face was scrunched up in anger as she cried. And she was the most beautiful thing Rumi had ever seen.  

Jinu helped her up to sit on the bench and she held out her arms to take the baby...to take her daughter. Jinu had wrapped her up in a soft blue towel and placed her in Rumi’s arms. Instantly she stopped crying. Her furious red face, relaxing and calming down to a natural shade. Her eyes opened and dark brown eyes stared back at her.  

“She’s....she’s....”Rumi didn’t know what to say.  

Jinu touched the baby’s face and she grabbed his finger, holding it in her tight grasp. Jinu laughed. “She’s perfect,” he finished. Rumi nodded and shifted an arm free so she could touch their daughter’s cheek. Her skin was soft beneath the grime that covered her.  

They sat in silence watching their daughter watch them.  

Their daughter.  

“I’m a mom,” Rumi said. She looked away from her baby and up at Jinu. “You’re a dad. That’s crazy.” He nodded his agreement, his eyes flicking between her and their daughter.  

“I guess I’ll have to start brushing up on my dad jokes,"  

“Oh, please no,” Rumi said rolling her eyes.  

Jinu chuckled. “Oh, I got one. Why do Melons have weddings? They cantaloupe!” Rumi smiled and Jinu grinned at her and kissed her on the mouth. He leaned to kiss the baby’s forehead, saw all the gunk still covering her and gently wiped her forehead with the towel before he kissed her.  

“She needs a name,” Rumi said.  

“That can wait,” he said. “Let’s get you both cleaned up and back in bed so you can rest.”  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Daylight spilled in through the open curtains into Rumi’s bedroom. She stared up at the ceiling as she came awake, feeling every ache and pain that radiated through her body. She looked to her right. Jinu was sleeping curled around a wicker basket that laid between them. She could just see her daughter’s face over the lip of the basket.  

Slowly Rumi sat up, her lower half screaming at her to lay still and not move....ever.  

She sat back against her headboard and watched them sleep. A few days ago she wanted to kill him and now they shared a baby, and all she wanted to do was curl up against his chest and let him hold her. Hold them.  

She stared down at her hands, at her patterns that now extended down to her fingertips. Apparently they’d been flaring and growing the entire time she’d been in labor, but she’d been so out of it and in so much pain she hadn’t noticed. Even when her baby was in her arms, she couldn’t spare a glance to her own skin to see the change.  

It wasn’t until Jinu was cleaning them both up and helping deliver the placenta that she’d seen them covering her from head to toe. And she felt....nothing. They were as much a part of her as being a hunter was. She should never have felt ashamed of them, they were beautiful. Just like they were on her daughter.  

She only had one mark so far. It was in the middle of her back, the same place that Rumi’s first mark had grown from.  

Rumi would not put her daughter through the same life of fear and shame that she went through. She would be the example she wished she’d had as a kid, the mom she’d wished she had. There was no more hiding, not after today, not ever again. Her, and Jinu, and......she really needed to come up with a name for her daughter. She was already stumbling at the first motherhood hurdle.  

At the bedside the alarm went off, Jinu and the baby both woke up. Rumi shrieked and hurriedly smacked it off. At the sound of the crying Jinu was instantly awake and hovering over the basket looking the fussy baby over.  

“Give her to me,” Rumi said. Jinu carefully picked her up and set her in Rumi’s arms. The crying stopped and Rumi cradled her to her chest, stroking her forehead and humming to her. Jinu came up to sit beside Rumi and tucked her into the crook of his arm.  

“It’s insane how much I already love her,” Rumi said. “Like it should be concerning how okay I just am with this. I never even thought about having kids before.”  

“I’d like to say its your human motherly instinct, but I think its your demon side calling the shots on this one,” he told her. She looked up at him eyebrow raised. “We demons are notoriously, bloodthirstily protective of our offspring. We bond with them almost instantly, probably because of the rapid pregnancies its some kind of biological necessity so we don’t abandon them.”  

Rumi shook her head, “I couldn’t imagine abandoning her,”  

“Me either.”  

“What do we do now?” she asked. Jinu shrugged. “I have to tell my friends today, I can’t hide this and I definitely can’t preform at the Idol Awards tonight. I’m not sure I could walk unassisted to the bathroom, let alone get up on stage and do a choreographed dance routine while singing some killer high notes.”  

“How about first off I run to the store and grab some diapers and baby necessities before we’re cleaning poopy off of your comforter.”  

Rumi snorted. “Poopy? You did not just say poopy.”  

“Hey, I’m a dad now, I can say poopy.” Rumi rolled her eyes.  

Jinu left and Rumi......planned.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

By the time Jinu had returned half an hour later with a shopping carts worth of baby provisions including a car seat....Rumi had fed the baby and made a gameplan.   

The first step was to get the one person who already knew her secret here. She texted Celine.  

Critical Huntrix meeting ASAP, need you here at headquarters.  

Her phone pinged a minute later.  

I’ll be there in twenty minutes.   

“She’s on her way,” Rumi told Jinu.  

He nodded. “Do you want me here?”  

“It would probably be better if you weren’t here, but stay close by. I’ll call for you when I think they’re ready for that part of everything,” Rumi said, glancing down at her sleeping daughter.  

“Alright, well we’ve got twenty minutes, which means more time for snuggling,” he said, hopping into the bed and wrapping his arms around Rumi and the baby.  

In the next hour shit was going to hit the fan, but for right now.....they were a family of three who got to enjoy a beautiful morning together. There were no demons plotting against them, no hunters out to kill them, and no honmoon to worry about. They would be okay, Rumi knew it.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Celine came off the elevator in Huntrix tower twenty minutes later. She walked into the main living area to find Mira and Zoey eating ramyeon in their pajamas watching television, some reality dating show that was popular. They didn’t even notice her, too busy arguing about a couple on the show that was in the middle of a cheating scandal with one of the shows producers. These girls had grown too comfortable in the safety of their tower that they were letting their guard down. She’d trained them better than that.  

“So, do you just let anybody enter your home?” she said and both girls jumped off the couch whirling around to face her. At least they had enough wherewithal to not pull their weapons on her.  

“Celine!” Zoey squeaked. “What are you doing here?”  

Celine narrowed her eyes at the two and noted Rumi’s absence. There was a beat of silence that stretched too long and left both of her former students fidgeting on her critical gaze.  

“I’m here for the meeting,” she told them. Mira and Zoey looked to each other both clearly having no idea what she was talking about.  

“What meeting?” Zoey asked.  

Mira pulled out her phone and started scrolling, “I don’t have anything on my calendar. What was it about?”  

Celine sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “Despite what you all seem to think I do have a life of my own and I don’t appreciate this tug of war. I’m talking about the one Rumi called this morning,” Celine said, pulling out her phone and reading Rumi’s message.  

“We haven’t seen Rumi today,” Zoey said. “She hasn’t come out of her room.”  

“We figured she was resting before tonight's show,” Mira said. “She’s been kinda stressed out lately, so we’ve been trying to give her some space.”  

“Stressed out?” Celine questioned.  

Mira sighed, “Yeah, this whole Saja Boys thing has been getting to us all but Rumi’s just been kind of.....” She trailed off not sure how to describe Rumi’s behavior. Weird, yes, but it was beyond that.  

Zoey went to the intercom on the wall and hit the button for Rumi’s room. “Rumi, are you there?”  

It was almost ten seconds before they got a reply. “Yeah, I’m here.”  

“Okay, well, Celine’s here,” Zoey told her, glancing back at their former teacher who's eye was struggling not to twitch in annoyance. “About the meeting we’re supposed to be having?”  

More silence from across the line. “Okay, can you all come to my room for it?”  

“Sure, we’ll be right there,” Zoey said and released the intercom button.  

“Why does she want to meet in her room?” Mira asked.  

Zoey shrugged. “You know as much as me.”  

The trio walked across the penthouse and down the hall that led to Rumi’s room, passing framed posters of their concerts over the years that lined the hallway. Celine took led and when they reached Rumi’s bedroom she knocked firmly three times. The two younger women didn’t like deferring to her, it reminded them too much of their years of training and made them feel like kids again....but they were too afraid of her to go against her.  

“Come in,” they heard Rumi say from inside.  

Celine pushed opened the door and the trio walked into the room. It was mid-morning, but the room was cloaked in darkness. The tiered chandelier overhead was turned off and the two walls that were entirely floor to ceiling windows had their curtains pulled shut, except for one by Rumi’s bed that let in a beam of light on the far side of the room that highlighted her unmade bed, comforter half on the floor.  

At first none of them could see Rumi. They saw her desk, her bed, and the sunken conversation pit on the far left of the room with its wrap around couch. It was only once their eyes adjusted to the dark that they spotted hersitting  on the edge of the couch facing away from them. Rumi didn’t turn to greet them or stand to meet them half way, just sat on the couch.  

“Rumi?” Zoey said, looking to Mira. Something was....wrong. Both girls knew their teammate and this was weird....even for Rumi. None of them moved farther into the room, waiting for Rumi to give some kind of signal for them to approach.  

“What’s going on, Rumi?” Mira asked. “What’s with this meeting?”  

Rumi sat up straighter on the couch but still didn’t face them. “We have to cancel our performance for the Idol Awards tonight.”  

Zoey gasped. “Why! I thought your voice was getting better.”  

“What’s wrong with her voice?” Celine asked.  

“You can’t be serious, Rumi,” Mira said.  

Zoey took a step forward and Rumi’s posture went rigid. “Rumi, what’s going on? We were already starting to get worried but now you’re kind of freaking us out.”  

“I can’t perform,” she said. 

Celine was done with her pupils antics. She’d raised Rumi since she was a baby and had never tolerated games like this. She walked forward, crossing the room in three strides. On the first step into the sunken sitting area she saw Rumi’s face. She faltered, stumbling on the step, and having to catch herself on the railing. She gasped, standing frozen in front of Rumi.  

“There’s no hiding it now,” Rumi told her, staring at her former teacher and foster mother.  

“Hiding what?” Mira said, frustrated and just done with whatever this was that was happening. She walked forward, Zoey on her heels.  

Celine moved to block them, but Mira side stepped her jumping down into the sitting area. Mira finally got sight of Rumi and gasped, stumbling back away from her. Zoey got around Celine, pushing the older woman out of her way to get to her friend.  

“Oh my god!” Zoey said, hand coming up to cover her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. “Rumi, what happened to you?”  

Rumi sat on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her covering most of her body, leaving her patterned face and feet exposed. She looked to Celine. “I can’t hide it anymore. I can’t perform tonight.”  

“H-how do you have patterns?” Zoey asked, staring at Rumi like she was a stranger....worse, a demon. Rumi hunched her shoulders, curling in on herself.  

She looked up at Zoey and Mira, taking a deep breath and bracing herself. “I’m half-demon,” she told them. “That’s why I have patterns....why I’ve always had them.”  

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mira asked, her voice tight with emotion....with betrayal.   

Rumi squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply to control her racing heart. She knew this would be hard, but the ricochet of emotions bouncing within her was threatening her ability to keep composed. She’d wanted to tell her friends her secret for years but now that the moment was here she just wanted to curl up in her bed and disappear.  

“I wanted to,” she said. “I almost did, so many times, but every time I brought it up to Celine, she convinced me not to.” Instantly all of Zoey and Mira’s betrayal and ire was redirected to Celine.  

“You knew!” Zoey accused.  

Celine took a startled step back. “Well...yes, of course I knew. I raised Rumi.” She looked confused more than anything on why she was on the receiving end of Zoey and Mira’s furious gazes. “You wouldn’t have understood, it was better to keep her patterns hidden.”  

“What did you think we’d do! We w-wouldn't have-!” Mira had to cut herself off before she exploded. She turned from Celine and toward the wall, paced a few steps snarling at the wall like she wanted to punch it before turning back and standing back at Zoey’s side. “That was not for you to decide.”  

Zoey was vibrating with her anger, her fists clenched so tight they’d gone white. She looked ready to spring on their former teacher and tear her eyes out. Rumi had never seen her so upset and she wanted to reach out to comfort her friend, but instead tightened the blanket around her.  

“I don’t care that Rumi’s half-demon,” Zoey told Celine, baring her teeth at her in a feral growl. Then she turned to Rumi, all her fury evaporating and eyes softening into the understanding, caring friend Rumi knew her to be. “I don’t care that you’re half-demon Rumi. I promise, I don’t. And I’m so sorry Celine made you feel like you couldn’t tell us.”  

Tears gathered in Rumi’s eyes and she had to free one of her hands from her blanket to wipe them away. She didn’t know why she was surprised they were accepting her, she knew Zoey and Mira, and they would have never turned her away, never turned their backs on her. They were her friends, her sisters.  

“Thank you, I don’t-I should have told you earlier,” Rumi said, voice catching on her words.  

“Oh, Rumi,” Zoey said, tears falling from her eyes. She was at Rumi’s side in an instant wrapping her up in a hug, and Mira was their too wrapping both of them up in her arms. They were a huddled, crying mess as the years of tension and secrets finally unraveled.  

But from within Rumi’s blanket wrapped body came an indignant squawk. The sound cut through the crying and had Zoey and Mira pulling back from Rumi and looking at her body that was still firmly wrapped up in the blanket, she hadn’t even freed an arm to hug them back.  

The squawk came again, louder this time.  

“Uh...Rumi?” Zoey questioned.  

Through her tears Rumi smiled. “My patterns didn’t just go haywire for no reason,” she told them as she shrugged off the blanket. Cradled in her arms was a squirming bundle of fabric that went from squawking to full blown crying. She shifted the baby so her face was visible and her friends fully released her, falling back on their butts.  

“Rumi...what...where did you get a baby?” Zoey asked.  

Celine who had been standing in the background stepped forward to get a closer look. She rubbed at her eyes, convinced the baby was some kind of stress induced hallucination. When it didn’t disappear she stood mouth open, shocked to silence.  

The baby kept fussing and Rumi adjusted her. “Hush...shhhh....it’s alright, we were just getting a big hug. A little squishing didn’t hurt,” Rumi said to her, bouncing her lightly until she stopped crying and closed her eyes again.  

“Rumi,” Mira said, drawing her attention back up to her friends. “Whose baby is that?” Rumi looked back down, smiling at the baby and brought her closer to press her lips to her forehead.  

“So....funny thing about demon anatomy,” she said. “Apparently, that whole nine month pregnancy thing humans do was too slow for them, so they shortened it to a few hours.”  

Zoey and Mira’s mouth’s fell open. Celine was even further convinced that she was hallucinating.  

“This is my daughter,” she told them, beaming with pride.  

Celine spluttered, “N-no way, that’s not possible!” Rumi glared at her when the exclamation caused the baby to start fussing again. She cuddled her close to her chest, the baby breathing in her scent and calming once again.  

“So, you just randomly gave birth to a baby?” Zoey asked.  

“Like an immaculate conception type deal?” Mira asked, shuddering at the idea.  

Rumi shook her head. “No, it started the same way that....any normal human pregnancy would.” And she tried, but she couldn’t keep the blush from her face.  

“Oh my god,” Zoey squealed and immediately quieted down when she remembered the baby.   

Mira smirked. “And I thought I was supposed to be the trouble maker.”  

“So, who’s the dad?” Zoey asked. “Do we know him? Is he cute?”  

Rumi bit her lip. This secret was easier to reveal than her patterns, but it had a much higher chance of causing bloodshed. “Promise me you won’t freak out....well, actually don’t promise me that because you will freak out. Promise to hear me out and not attack him.”  

“I promise,” Zoey said instantly holding her hand over her heart like a scout.  

“I promise too, Rumi,” Mira agreed.  

Rumi looked to Celine and raised an eyebrow.  

Celine scoffed and sat down on the couch across from Rumi. “I’m supposed to promise too?” Rumi nodded. “Fine. I promise not to attack your baby’s father.”  

“Thank you.” Rumi turned toward the door of her walk-in closet. “You can come out now.”  

The door opened and out walked-  

“Jinu!” Mira and Zoey yelled at the same time, immediately on their feet and summoning their weapons on instinct. Rumi shushed them both and frowned at their weapons until they dispelled them.  

“You can’t be serious,” Mira drawled, pointing a lazy finger at Jinu. “This guy, he’s the father?”  

“Hey! I’m a great catch and I’ve been told I’m pretty good looking,” he said, winking at Rumi. She rolled her eyes. He walked to the conversation pit and jumped down to sit on the edge above Rumi.  

“Wait. How did this happen?” Zoey asked. “When did you guys become a thing, because obviously you’re a thing, you have a baby together.”  

“And you’re a demon,” Mira pointed out.  

Zoey eked and quickly added. “Which is totally okay, no worries from us or judgement. You two make a cute couple, it’s just kind of sudden.”  

“Actually....” Rumi said a guilty lilt in her voice.  

“Actually?” Mira deadpanned.  

“We’ve kind of been meeting up in secret for a while.” Zoey was nearly frothing at the mouth from excitement and Mira looked neutral to the information. Rumi sighed. “Back during that fight in the bathhouse Jinu ripped through my gear and saw my patterns. And one thing led to another....and here we are.” She looked up at Jinu who was watching her and the baby with single focused adoration. Rumi looked away blushing.  

“Oh my god,” Zoey breathed, jumping up and down. “You’re in love, this is amazing. Mira, Rumi’s in love,” She cooed grabbing Mira’s arm and squeezing it until Mira shook her off.  

Mira let out a long breath, looking Rumi and Jinu over. Her critical gaze forcing goosebumps to pop up across Rumi’s arms. Finally she said, “I’m happy for you.” Zoey squealed and had to hug Mira so hard she lifted her off her feet, Mira flailed frantically and Zoey set her back down. Celine sat silently in the corner left behind from the conversation she didn’t want to be a part of.  

“Oh!” Zoey exclaimed turning back to Jinu and Rumi. “What’s her name?”  

Jinu and Rumi looked to each other, then at the baby, and back up to Rumi and Zoey. “Well....” Rumi said. “We haven’t exactly picked one out yet.”  

Zoey’s jaw fell to the floor. “What! How can she not have a name?”  

“I didn’t exactly have nine months to prep for her like normal people. I went from conception to birth in less than 4 hours and that was only about 4 hours ago,” Rumi told them. “I'm not naming her the first thing that comes to mind. If I did that she’d be call ‘Kimbap’.”  

“Do you want some kimbap?” Jinu asked.  

“Always.”  

Jinu disappeared in a puff of red smoke.  

“Cool, he’s a delivery service,” Zoey said, and then redirected her attention to Rumi. “So any ideas for names?” Rumi shook her head.  

Celine decided she’d had enough of sitting silently in the corner and rejoined the group. Immediately reigniting the tense atmosphere that had dissipated when she demanded. “How are you okay with any of this? You have a baby with no warning and you just....accept it. Does he have you under some kind of spell?”  

Rumi rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not under any spell.”  

“I do have to question it to, Rumi,” Mira said. “Sorry, but if I was in your situation I’d be freaking out.”  

“It’s not a spell....well, not unless you count my demon biology as a spell,” she told them and immediately regretted the wording because now they all looked mildly concerned. “Apparently, only 1 in 100 demon women can carry children and they all occur the same as mine did, start to finish in a few hours. And because they happen so quickly its an evolutionary, biological, hormonal thing that the parents bond with the babies instantly.”  

“.....and you’re just okay with that?” Mira asked.  

Rumi shrugged, “For now? Yeah, maybe it’ll wear off and I’ll freak out later but for now....I love her....I love her more than I’ve loved anything.”  

“Your mom was the same way,” Celine said quietly. “She’d had months to prepare and she spent so much time worrying about whether she’d be a good mom or if she’d love you enough....and then you were born.” Celine looked at the baby and then at Rumi. “From the first moment she saw you something in her shifted, like a piece of her soul she was missing was finally with her.” Rumi’s eyes started to water. She knew so little about her mother, aside from the public facts, Celine found it so hard to talk about her mother she’d almost become a taboo in their house when she’d been growing up. “She didn’t have long with you, but she loved you with all her heart for the brief time you were together.”  

Rumi struggled on her words, “T-thank you for telling me that.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. And then Celine was there, hugging her and Rumi was wrapping her free arm around Celine’s back.  

“I’m sorry for making you hide your patterns from your friends,” she said. “You should have had them to confide in and ease the burden.”  

Rumi shook her head. “They’re not a burden, they’re part of me. Please don’t think of them like that.” Celine pulled back and gave a tight nod, not full acceptance but they could work their way there.  

Nearby there was a whooshing sound and Jinu’s voice calling out, “Food delivery!” Jinu jumped down into the sitting area. “Trade you?” he said extending the grocery bag full of kimbap and various other food stuffs and gesturing to their daughter.  

Rumi groaned. “I don’t want to eat here. Can you help me to the bed?” Jinu nodded. Rumi looked at Zoey and Mira, “Does one of you want to hold her?” Zoey’s eyes might as well have turned into giant read hearts.  

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Zoey squealed. Zoey hovered over Rumi on the couch and carefully transferred her into Zoey’s arms. The baby cried for a moment before settling and snuggling into the soft fabric of Zoey’s pajamas.  

Jinu set the grocery bag down on the couch and offered his arm out to Rumi. She grabbed it with one hand and the armrest of the couch with the other, before visibly bracing herself and struggling to her feet. “Fuck,” she cursed under her breath, grimacing as a wave of pain ran through her. Jinu had to steady her and hold her up while the pain settled and she got her bearings.  

“Woah, Rumi, are you okay?” Mira asked, looking her teammate up and down, checking for injuries.  

Rumi clung to Jinu, breathing harshly. All her appetite gone as a sudden wave of nausea hit her. She groaned and buried her head in Jinu’s chest, breathing until the nausea abated.  

“Do you want me to carry you?” Jinu asked.  

Rumi shook her head. “Let’s get this over with,” she said, and started toward the steps out of the sunken sitting area. She glared at the steps as her and Jinu made the first one together. Then the second step and the third, and then they were on the floor level. Rumi had to stop and Jinu wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her on her feet.  

“Hey, I’ve got another joke,” he said. “What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef!”  

Rumi huffed out a laugh. The joke wasn’t funny, but she appreciated his attempt at distraction. She started walking again, gritting her teeth through the pain and didn’t stop until Jinu was helping her into bed. In the blink of an eye, Zoey and Mira were at her side wired with concern.  

“Girls, I’m okay I promise,” she told them. “I just had a baby, which was incredibly painful on its own. People don’t talk enough about how much it hurts right after.”  

“Should we call a doctor?” Zoey asked.  

“And tell them what? Hey, one of the biggest idols in the country who was definitely not pregnant last week just had a baby? The tabloids would go ballistic,” Rumi said. Jinu appeared with a dinner tray with an array of food spread out across it and set it down beside Rumi on the bed.  

He went to Zoey, “I can take her.” He held out his hands for his daughter. Zoey hesitated, looking over to Rumi and then back to Jinu before handing the baby to her.  

“Can we talk later?” Rumi asked. “I’m starving and exhausted.”  

“Yeah, okay,” “We’ll be around if you need anything,” Zoey and Mira said, heading toward the door. Celine followed them out, her gaze not leaving Rumi until the door shut behind them.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Rumi ate a breakfast feast of kimbap, ramyeon, bulgogi, and pajeon until she physically couldn’t eat anymore and was on the verge of burping everything she’d eaten back up. Sated she laid down to sleep and managed to get about 20 minutes in before baby girl decided she wanted second breakfast. 45 minutes later Rumi was finally able to get back to sleep while Jinu burped the baby. 

Jinu didn’t need sleep, so he laid on the bed beside Rumi. The baby slept soundly on his chest, his hand resting on her back tracing patterns into the fabric of her onesie. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, her tiny nose, her little fingers, her coiffed black hair. She was already taking after him with her perfect, effortlessly styled hair. He ran his thumb  along the underside of the small indent of her chin. 

She reminded him of his sister. 

Jinu rested his head back on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. The last curtain had been pulled shut and he laid in complete darkness, except for demons there was no true darkness. His senses....all of their senses, were perpetually sharpened. If he had to write a list of all the demonic attributes that were slowly driving him into insanity....that one would be number five. Above the constant accidental lip biting from his fangs and below  the frustration of how hard it is to open a bag of chips with his clawed demon hands. 

Beside the bed a portal opened and out rose Derpy and Sussie, Derpy’s glowing eyes illuminating the room. He stepped closer to the bed until his eyes went crossed as he stared unblinking at the baby, then up at Jinu and then back to the baby. This repeated five more times. Jinu reached out a hand and petted Derpy’s head to stop him before his eyes rolled out of his head. 

“Demon pregnancy,” Jinu whispered to them. Sussie rolled their eyes. Derpy went back to staring at the baby. Sussie chortled and lightly pecked the top of Derpy’s head. Derpy’s mouth opened and out fell Jinu’s saliva covered smartphone. “Ewww,” Jinu gagged as he wiped it on the bedspread. Maybe he should stop sending messages that way. 

He turned on his phone and was immediately greeted with nearly 400 hundred missed texts and phone calls. All of them from the other Saja Boys and.....their manager. Somewhere in his mind he could hear clawed fingers scraping across a chalkboard. The Saja Boys wouldn’t really care about canceling their Idol Awards performance because they were just along for the ride. He’d promised Rumi last night they weren’t preforming and he was sticking to that agreement. But......their manager was another story. Honestly, it was his own fault, he’d decided they needed the full Kpop idol image and that included a hard-ass manager to counteract the bubbly fun image of the Saja Boys. And their manager was a very....method demon. 

Jinu shook his head and started strategizing. He couldn’t just disappear without a word because that wouldn’t stop the performance, they could improvise and throw another demon in his place as a stand-in. The Saja Boys were enjoying their time back in the human world, so as long as they were given the same assurances to stay above the honmoon seal they wouldn’t go against Huntrix.....their manager was again a problem to deal with. He was going to have to call in a few favors. Which was going to be tricky to arrange without going to the demon realm. He hadn’t heard Gwi-Ma in his head since last night and he didn’t know if it was Rumi or the baby keeping him at bay but whatever it was he was grateful. Going to the demon realm himself was out of the question, he wasn’t going to test fate by serving himself up to Gwi-Ma like a trussed turkey. 

Jinu slowly sat up careful not to wake the baby and got up from the bed, holding her to his chest. He stole a note pad and pen from Rumi’s desk, scrawling a note across it and placing it inside Derpy’s mouth. “Take this to my contact in the Demon Syndicate.” Derpy stared at the baby as he and Sussie sank back into the ground. 

His contact owed him a big favor and knew this was pushing the boundary of what Jinu had a right to ask, but he was desperate. It would have to work. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

When Rumi woke up it was a little past one in the afternoon and she was laying in pitch blackness. She panicked for a moment scrabbling for her bedside table to turn on the light. She winced as the sudden influx of light blinded her and sat up frantically looking around. Jinu was no where insight, but there was something new in the room that hadn’t been there when she fell asleep a few hours ago.  On the other side of her side table was a crib. 

Rumi got to her feet and gingerly walked over to the crib and found her daughter sleeping soundly within. She breathed a sigh of relief and laid her hand lightly on the baby’s back feeling the gentle rise and fall of her breathing. With that anxiety relieved she started hunting for Jinu. She’d admire the beautiful hand-carved wood crib later. 

She followed the light coming from the open door to her walk in closet and found him inside on the floor folding baby clothes and storing them in a dresser that matched the crib in her room. 

“Looks like you’ve been busy,” Rumi said. 

Jinu looked up at her and smiled. “Hope you don’t mind. I don’t really sleep and I thought I'd try and get us caught up on all this baby stuff. I can’t believe how much stuff they need.” Rumi smiled and gestured for him to stand. He jumped to his feet and Rumi walked to him wrapping her arms around his torso. Jinu smiled and wrapped his arms around her pressing a kiss into her hair. “How are you feeling?” he asked. 

“Everything hurts,” Rumi mumbled into the fabric of his shirt. 

“You probably should get checked out by a doctor. The baby too,” he told her. Rumi groaned, she hated doctors. It was bad enough seeing Healer Han about her voice. She’d spent her life avoiding doctors because she didn’t want to have to explain her patterns...but, there was no avoiding that now.  

Rumi pulled back and looked at the patterns running up her arms and down her legs, accepting them for herself and showing them off to strangers was a different thing. Jinu took her hand in his and brought it to her lips. He kissed the patterns on her hand and kissed each pattern up her arm until he found her lips. Rumi hummed into to the kiss, smiling and trying not to laugh. 

“Hey, calm down, we literally just  had a baby,” Rumi said, pulling back from him, “I’ll go talk to Mira and Zoey later to see what they think we should do. We have a Huntrix doctor on the payroll, but this is definitely not in their scope of practice and if we use them it’ll get back to Bobby,” Rumi told him. Bobby was a whole other can of worms she didn’t want to think about at the moment. He put everything he had into making them the great Kpop group out there, to be the envy of all others, and canceling this performance was....she knew they were disappointing him and it killed her to let him down after everything he’s done for them over the years. 

From back in the bedroom came the soft mewls of their daughter. Jinu chuckled. “We really need to come up with a name for her,” he said. 

“I know,” Rumi agreed. “That can be our goal, she needs a name by the end of the day.” 

Jinu pulled back and went to a grocery bag on the ground, pulling out various items, bibs, baby wipes, diaper cream, and...a book. He passed it to Rumi. 

“A baby name book?” she said. “Good call.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“Why do I hate every name?” Rumi asked as she flipped through the book. 

They’d fed the baby and settled her back in her crib. In the afternoon light Rumi appreciated the Huntrix sheets Jinu had put on the crib mattress. She didn’t even know they made baby merch. While Rumi perused the baby name book, Jinu sat at the foot of the bed reading the instruction manual of a car seat. 

“You could name her after your mom,” Jinu suggested. 

“No, I don’t think I want to do that,” Rumi said shaking her head. It was a nice gesture but she didn’t want to think about the mom she’d lost every time she looked at her daughter. Everyone deserved to be their own person and not wear the name of another’s soul. “Any names from your family you like?” 

Rumi saw Jinu’s shoulder stense, but she couldn’t see his face. It was a few seconds before he answered a firm, “No.” That wasn’t suspicious at all, but Rumi chose to let the matter drop.....for now. She looked back in the book. There were literally thousands of names to pick from and she didn’t like a single one of them. 

Their was a soft knock at the door. 

“Come in,” Rumi called out. The door opened and Mira and Zoey’s heads peaked in. They saw the lights were on and that both new parents were awake. They opened the door all the way and came fully into the room. 

“You look a lot better, Rumi,” Mira said. Her and Zoey were still in their pajamas. It had been universally decided it was a comfy clothes day in Huntrix tower. There was a direct correlation on how cozy their clothing was to how crazy their day was, and today no one was considering putting on actual clothes. 

“I got some sleep,” Rumi said. “Despite someone’s best efforts.” She pointed a finger at the crib. 

“Oh my god, she’s got her own bed,” Zoey said, racing across the room to look into the crib. “She’s so cute.” Zoey was near to tears from cuteness overload. 

“Yeah, now she just needs a name,” Rumi said, waving the book. 

Mira sat down on the bed beside Rumi while Zoey stood over the crib gushing over how cute babies in general were but how extra super cute this one was compared to all others. “How are you feeling?” Mira asked. 

“Out of my depth, but I’m okay with it. Does that sound weird?” Rumi said and Mira shrugged. 

“We just got a call from Bobby, the Idol Awards have officially been cancelled for tonight,” Mira told her. Rumi’s head drooped. Once again Bobby was putting out wildfires they started and trying to save their reputations. They couldn’t keep doing this to him. “Huntrix pulled out this morning and an hour ago the Saja Boys dropped out too.” 

“Was that you?” Rumi asked Jinu. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I promised you last night that I would.” 

“Thank you.” 

Jinu smiled and nodded his head to her. “I owe you far more thanks.” 

Rumi agreed and then tossed the baby name book at him. “Thank me more by picking out a name.” Jinu looked down blankly at the book and then back up at her. 

“Seriously?” Jinu, Mira, and Zoey all said in unison. 

“I am overwhelmed and I’m delegating this task to you,” Rumi said. “Pick a name and that will be her name. You’ve got the rest of the day to-” 

“Nari.” Jinu said. All three girls stared at him. “What? You said to pick a name. I like Nari.” 

“Nari?” Rumi repeated. 

“Do you not like it?” he asked cautiously. 

Rumi stumbled on her words. “N-no...t-that’s...I-I....I love it. I just wasn’t expecting you to pick one immediately, you had one in mind this whole time?” 

Jinu shrugged, “I had a few ideas, but I think she looks like a Nari.” 

Zoey made a thoughtful noise looking at the baby, “Agreed, she’s definitely a Nari.”  

Mira nodded, “Its cute, but strong.” 

Rumi slid off the bed and went to the crib beside Zoey, looking down at her daughter’s sleeping face. “Nari?” she touched her daughters head, stroking her soft black hair. “Nari it is.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Somewhere else in Seoul the rest of the Saja Boys were enjoying their downtime at their apartment before the performance, because no one had told them yet that the performance was cancelled. The entire rest of the city knew but they were haplessly oblivious. Mystery was growling at a shifty looking houseplant in the corner, Baby was laying on the couch playing with a pack of rubber bands, and Romance was sitting on Abby’s back while he did push ups. 

None of them had seen Jinu since yesterday and no one had seen their manager in about two hours. The former of the two they were mildly concerned about but the latter’s disappearance had them internally celebrating. She’d been driving them up the wall with all the dancing and singing practice. They knew she was enthusiastic about her new role but did she have to drag all the fun out of it for the rest of them? 

Baby threw the bag of rubber bands on the coffee table and started sorting them by color. “I’m bored,” he whined. “What’s on TV?” He dug the remote out from between the couch cushions and flipped on the TV as he idly continued sorting the rubber bands. He skipped over several drama shows before stopping on a news station that had his and the other Saja Boys faces plastered on it. 

The news anchor was mid-sentence “And Seoul is rocked by the cancelation of this years Idol Awards, an unheard of catastrophic event that has fans collectively mourning over social media!” 

“What!” They all exclaimed. Abby’s arms went slack in shock, sending him teetering off balance. Romance flailed and they both went sprawling onto the hardwood floor, groaning and cursing. 

Abby went into the bedroom he shared with Romance to retrieve his phone, tripping over the clothes Romance refused to pick up off the floor. He’d been calling and texting Jinu all night and into the morning, he’d given up on getting a response around two am. That was when their manager had taken up the torch and had started flooding Jinu’s inbox. Abby knew Jinu would show up when he felt like it. He did his own thing, even when other peoples lives were at stake, that was just the kind of demon he was. He called Jinu again...and once again it went to voicemail. That jerk. 

“Do you think this was Jinu’s doing?” Romance asked. 

“Well, it definitely wasn’t you know who,” Baby said, thrusting his thumb at their manager’s closed bedroom door. 

“But when she gets wind of this, and if it was Jinu....” Abby started and shuttered. “She’s going to kill him and maybe us.” 

“Why would she kill us?” Mystery asked. 

“We’re his accomplices,” Abby said. 

“But we didn’t do anything,” Mystery said, which was true. 

Abby made a face like it was obviously why they were on the chopping block. “She’s not going to care whether we were involved or not. We allowed it to happened and she’s going to rip us into a million little pieces and then throw us into a blender and drink us as a smoothie.” 

Mystery laughed. “Exaggerate much.” 

“Am I?” Abby turned on him. “Am I exaggerating?” They all took a moment to think about it and realized that wasn’t a stretch for what she might do to them. He’d prefer facing Gwi-Ma's wrath to hers. 

“We need to find Jinu,” Baby said and they all agreed. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

The boys spent about an hour walking through the city, half-heartedly looking for Jinu before they stopped at a ramyeon shop for food. They’d donned sweatshirts and sunglasses and were moving about the city unnoticed. Everywhere there were fans in Huntrix and Saja Boys gear milling listlessly and checking their phones praying there’d be some miracle and the concert would go on. In another lifetime they would have relished the attention but right now it was a hollow experience.  

“Should we go back home?” Baby asked as he slurped his second bowl of spicy noodles. 

Abby sighed. He’d known Jinu longer than the rest of the Saja Boys and knew that if Jinu didn’t want to be found he wouldn’t be. Searching the city for him was more an excuse to get up and do something than it was an actual achievable goal. They could stay in their apartment and sit around doing nothing waiting for Jinu to decide when they got to be let onto whatever scheme he was hatching or they could do something to occupy their time. 

“Why don’t we go to the mall,” Abby suggested. 

“Do you think Jinu will be there?” Mystery asked. 

No. “Anything’s possible,” Abby said. He paid for their food and the quartet headed off deeper into the city and into a deserted alleyway. Halfway through and Abby’s senses were sending goosebumps racing up across his arms. Abby was instantly on edge and the others immediately moved into formation around him. 

Ahead of them Jinu’s tiger rose from the ground, the magpie perched on its massive blue head. The tigers glowing eyes trained on them like they were tasty pieces of meat. A shiver ran down Abby’s spine. The tiger stalked toward them, the alley cloaking further in shadows around them. It stopped in front of them and opened its wide mouth, a slobbery postcard falling out. 

“Eww,” Romance said. “So gross.” 

Abby grimaced and picked up the postcard by one of the less damp corners. His fingers still got wet and he had to fight down the urge to gag. The postcard had a black and white water color of Gyeongbokgung palace on one side, and on the other a short message that read as follows: 

Keep a low profile 

Manager has been dealt with 

Will come and get you soon 

“What’s it say?” Baby asked. 

Abby sighed. “Let’s go home,” he said. 

“But I wanted to go to the mall,” Romance whined. His pleas fell on deaf ears as the group turned around and headed back to their apartment. Leaving Derpy and Sussie to their own devices in the alleyway. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Back in Huntrix tower, Mira and Zoey were having a meeting in Zoey’s room. They’d just left Rumi, Jinu and Nari back in Rumi’s room after ensuring that Rumi and Nari were both doing well and that Jinu wasn’t up to any demon mischief. So far....he was just acting like a...dad. It was weird and neither of them trusted it, but Rumi did. Neither of them knew what to make of any of this. 

Celine had left immediately after Rumi’s big revelation and they hadn’t heard from her since. Zoey and Mira had both gone to their separate corners of the tower after Celine had left to give themselves time to think everything over...and now, after their check-in with Rumi, it was time to put their heads together and make sense of all this insanity. 

“A demon with no feelings, don’t deserve to live, it’s so obvious,” Mira read out the lyrics she’d written and then slammed her face into the coffee table. “No wonder she didn’t want to tell us.” Her voice muffled by the tables surface. 

“And why she backed out on preforming it, even before she had Nari,” Zoey said from her beanbag chair. 

Mira sat back up, the imprint of the tables pattern stamped into her face. “And why she always wears turtlenecks.” 

“And why she would never go to the bathhouse with us!” 

Mira slumped down and laid on the floor, “We’re both idiots. I mean it wasn’t obvious she was half-demon, but it was obvious she was hiding something.” Mira grabbed a pillow off the couch and smothered herself with it. Zoey let her asphyxiate herself for a few seconds before reaching over and taking the pillow from her hands to throw it across the room. 

“ And Celine knew the whole time. The whole time !” Zoey raged. “Rumi’s probably got some demon complex because Celine made her hide it this whole time.” 

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Mira replied.  

“She must have felt so alone all this time,” Zoey said quietly. Zoey couldn’t help the tears that were forming in her eyes, and when she looked up she saw Mira struggling too. And once she saw the tough, impassive friend breaking their was no hope for Zoey, she wrapped her arms around Mira and the two cried into one another's shoulders. 

Once their tears had run out and their sobbing hiccups abated, both women settled back onto the couch, completely wrung out. This was not how their day was supposed to be going, they’d woken up pumped and ready to perform their best show yet and now they were sobbing their broken hearts out. Well...at least their was an adorable baby on the premises to ease their heartache. 

“Okay, so our best friend is half-demon,” Zoey said, releasing Mira from her death grip hug. “That’s not a big deal. She’s the same person she’s always been, now she just doesn’t have to hide from us.” 

“Honestly, her having a baby feels like a bigger deal than her being half-demon,” Mira said. 

“Right?” 

“It’s just insane, I never pictured Rumi as the mom type,” Mira said, still trying to get her head around the idea. She was having more trouble coming to terms with it than Rumi seemed to. 

Zoey shrugged. “I mean she’s always taken care of us and taken charge in crisis's. She’s like the mom of our group already, and this is like a mini, baby situation for her to handle and she’s kickass at it.” 

“It’s like those women who have cryptic pregnancy’s and they suddenly have a whole baby and their mom instincts just kick into gear.” Mira said. “Her motherhood demon instincts are on point.” 

“Hmmm,” Zoey said thoughtfully. “Cryptic pregnancy? Do you think we could use that as a cover story?” 

Mira made a face before slowly replying. “Well....she was belting some killer high notes and doing intense choreography in a crop top in front of 100,000 fans a week ago so.....no, I don’t think anyone would believe that. And how would they explain Jinu as the dad? They literally just met.” 

Zoey buried her head in her hands. “Who knew the simple part of our lives was when we were just doing concerts and killing demons.” Mira huffed a laugh. 

“What do we do about the honmoon?” Mira asked. 

Zoey blew out a long breath, “I think....I think we wait and discuss it with Rumi. The Saja Boys aren’t actively trying to steal are fans and wreck the honmoon, so we’ve got a little time to figure things out.” Mira nodded. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was something. 

Mira stood and offered Zoey her hand. “Come on, lets go find some trashy romance movies to watch and eat popcorn.” Zoey squealed and took her hand, running off with her into the main area to enjoy the rest of their day before everything got serious again. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Bobby wasn’t stupid, he was just selectively delusional.  

He knew his girls weren’t normal, even by KPop Idol standards. He’d done that circuit two decades earlier himself and knew the ins and outs of this world. The highs and lows of fame, the stress of preforming, the intensity of the fans. He’d lived it, loved it for a time and realized that long term it just wasn’t for him. He preferred his life behind the scenes, helping the next generation of Idols take to the stage.  

So, when his girls preformed some death defying arial acrobatics and he complimented the cable crew after the show, and they had no idea what he was talking about....he chose not to investigate.  

When the girls went from being on a plane 2,000 feet in the air to on stage in front of him in less than five minutes, he chose not to ask.  

When their serious expressions and tense conversations turned to bubbly “Hello’s!” the moment they spied him walking into the room, he chose not put much thought into it.  

When three girls he loved like daughters kept secrets from him, it hurt. There was no choice in that, it did hurt, but he did everything to make sure they couldn’t see that. They trusted him to run their concerts, their fanbase, their social media...their lives. And if they could trust him with that much, then he could extend that same show of courtesy to them.  

But.....  

He could tell the difference between his girls acting weird and something being wrong....and something was wrong .  

So, he provided them support where he could. Made sure they had the best snacks, best dressing rooms, best backup dancers. He did his best to take away all the outside stress that could drag his girls down so it would give them more time to settle the issues they were having that they weren’t telling him about.  

Canceling their first live performance of ‘Golden’ after all the time they’d spent promoting it had been a hard blow, but he weathered it and kept their reputations in tact. All this feuding with the Saja Boys had been mixed for their fanbase, and he honestly didn't understand why the girls seemed so against them. They seemed like nice enough boys and their song was catchy. He kept having to force his shoulders to stay still every time ‘Soda Pop’ came on the air.   

But, canceling their Idol Awards performance....  

When Mira had called him to say they had to back out....Bobby wasn’t proud to say he didn’t handle it well. Before he called the show’s producers he’d spent a half-hour on the floor of his bathroom breathing into a paper bag trying to prevent a panic attack. On the flip side, he was proud of how steady he’d been when he’d finally made the call to the producers. That was why his girls trusted him. When crap hit the wall he would be the one calmly grabbing a mob and a bucket and cleaning it up.  

When he heard an hour later that the Saja Boys were also pulling out of the concert, he’d nearly melted into the floor of his apartment in relief. Huntrix wouldn’t be forced to forfeit now, so there was no winner or loser. And the producers didn’t announce who backed out first, the press statement they released stated clearly that both groups had chosen not to perform due to undisclosed reasons. Given the situation, that was the best outcome Bobby could have hoped for.  

There was one massive, glaring problem though, the fans were in an uproar. Both Huntrix and Saja Boys fans were inconsolable. He’d had to put his phone in the freezer to keep off social media. The initial messages concerned about both groups well-being had turned to finger pointing and calls for both groups to release official statements on what was going on. And Bobby had no statement to make because his girls were giving him no information. Their only saving grace at this point was that the Saja Boys hadn’t made a statement either.  

Bobby took a deep breath, walked out onto his apartment balcony and flopped down onto his favorite deck chair. Maybe he was getting too old for this manager thing....Maybe it was time to....  

No.  

He would not let thoughts like that in. His girls needed him. He’d been with them since they debuted when they were 18, and he’d stay with them until they retired. When his balance faltered and his eyesight failed, he still planned on being back stage in his wheelchair cheering his girls on. They’d have to cart him to a retirement facility to get rid of him and even then he’d still find a way to escape to make it to their concerts.  

They were the most important people in his life. No....they were his life.  

They’d weather this storm and come out on top. He’d give the girls some space and call them tomorrow. They needed to make some sort of statement to the press at some point....preferably before the fans went feral and started knocking down the doors at Huntrix tower.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

The rest of Nari’s first day of life was largely uneventful. She slept in her Huntrix themed crib which now had a poster of her mom stuck to the wall above her crib, with a cut out picture of her father from A Saja Boys poster glued next to Rumi. Per Jinu it was “Important for development”, because apparently he’d skimmed through a parenting book at some point in between putting the crib together.  

They managed to get around seven hours of sleep that night in-between cycles of Nari crying herself awake because she was hungry, or needed to be changed, or just crying because she felt like it. Once the first had been ruled out Jinu would take over and let Rumi sleep while he walked back and forth in the walk-in closet trying to calm their daughter. Rumi was immediately reveling in the fact that Jinu didn’t need to sleep and Jinu didn’t mind the crying, he soaked in every moment he got to hold his daughter in his arms.  

“You’re very vocal for a person who didn’t exist 24 hours ago,” Jinu said to Nari as he looped the closet for the third time. Rumi really did have an absurd amount of concert outfits. Nari continued crying as Jinu bounced her lightly with each step. “Just to be clear, you are the most precious thing on the planet and I would burn the world for you, but that doesn’t give you free reign to throw tantrums like this.” His normally seductive, menacing voice undercut by his use of baby-talk sing song. The crying didn’t stop.  

Jinu hung his head in defeat. “Do you like singing?” he asked. He cleared his throat and started singing her a soft lullaby. “ You’re all I can think of, every drop I drink up, you’re my soda pop, my little soda pop. ” Nari’s crying grew louder and higher in pitch and Jinu looked around frantically for help. “Shush....shush.....” He tried to calm her, but nothing worked.  

A minute of Nari screaming at the top of her lungs passed before the door to the bedroom opened and Rumi came in wiping sleep out of her eyes and glaring at Jinu.  

“ What are you doing to our daughter?” she asked coming over and taking the baby from his arms.  

“Nothing!” he said. “She’s been crying for the last half hour, and I was trying a new tactic to get her to sleep.”  

“Were you telling her more dad jokes?” Rumi asked.  

“No,” Jinu said indignantly and then deflated when he admitted, “I....I was singing to her.”  

A choked laugh escaped Rumi before she could cover her mouth. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, but the apology didn’t match her glowingly amused eyes.  

“This is no good,” Jinu said. “We’re KPop idols and our baby doesn’t like music.”  

“What did you sing to her?”  

“Soda Pop.”  

“Maybe she only likes good music,” Rumi said.  

“Hey!”  

Rumi chuckled and ran her thumb over the angry raised creases on her daughter’s forehead. Jinu settled her in Rumi’s arms but the crying didn’t stop. “My turn,” Rumi said. “ I was a ghost, I was alone,” Instant silence. Rumi’s look of pride would have been biblically damning. “ Given the throne, I didn’t know how to believe, ” She continued to the end of the song, even though Nari fell asleep on the fourth verse.  

They walked back to the bedroom and Rumi laid Nari down in the crib. They stood watching over her. Jinu wrapped his arm around Rumi and she laid her head into the crook of his neck.  

“I always loved ‘Golden’, it’s a near perfect pop song, but somehow hearing it as a lullaby made it even better,” Jinu said, and kissed Rumi’s temple.  

“Near perfect?” she questioned, the only takeaway she’d gotten from his statement.  

Jinu sucked in a self-important breath, “Yeah, too bad the concert got canceled. The Saja Boys had a performance ready that would have stolen the show.”  

Rumi rolled her eyes, “Oh, please, you wish.”  

“I think I would have gotten you too, I would have been your idol ,” he told her.  

There was only so much Jinu egotism Rumi could handle in one day. She disentangled herself from him and went back to bed, crawling under the covers. It was three in the morning and she had a few more hours of sleep she could get in the night. She raised an eyebrow at Jinu and lifted the comforter to him. He took the hint and crawled into bed next to her, wrapping her in his arms.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

In the morning, Jinu, Rumi and Nari made it out to the main living area for breakfast. Zoey and Mira were eating at the kitchen island bar stools.  

“Good morning!” Zoey said, smiling as bright as the sunlight coming in through the windows.  

“Morning,” Mira greeted with her usual deadpan, but a smile snuck onto her face when she spotted Nari in Rumi’s arms.  

Rumi returned their greetings and went out into the living area to sit down on the large sectional couch. Zoey and Mira grabbed their plates and followed, sitting down on either side of her on the couch. Jinu wandered the kitchen, opening up cabinets and drawers and taking stock of the items in the fridge. There were a half-dozen to-go containers in the fridge and he started rifling through them and plating items he thought Rumi would like.  

When he entered the living area with a plate of steaming food, the girls paused their quiet fussing of a sleeping Nari. Rumi put Nari in Mira’s arms, despite Mira’s firm refusal, “She’s so tiny, what if I drop her, or squeeze her too hard?” Rumi batted away all her objections and the second Nari was placed in Mira’s arms, Mira’s unexpressive face melted into a tender smile, and she started softly talking to Nari. “Oh my god, I will destroy your enemies.”  

Rumi took the plate from Jinu’s hands and started munching. Jinu sat awkwardly across from them at the bend in the sectional, a fifth wheel to the three women and baby who were completely immersed in each other. Their dynamic unchanged despite the complete 180 degree turn their lives had taken. Jinu couldn’t keep up with the change in topics as they jumped from clothing, to television shows, to Nari, to a concert they performed in Japan three years ago, to song lyrics, back to Nari.  

“Oh!” Rumi said excitedly. “She loves Huntrix, I sang her ‘Golden’ last night and she loved it.”  

“Really!” Zoey gushed.  

“She fell asleep,” Jinu pointed out, all three women turned dagger eyes at him.  

“She started screaming bloody-murder when you sang Soda Pop,” Rumi said, and Zoey and Mira had their hands over their mouths holding in their laughter.  

Jinu pouted, “It wasn’t that bad.”  

“Oh, Mira, I need your help with something,” Rumi turned to her.  

“What do you need?” she asked.  

“Nari and I need to get checked out by a doctor,” Rumi told her. “Can you use your connections to get one that isn’t affiliated with the Huntrix label and won’t talk?”  

Mira nodded, “On it, and I’ll get an NDA drawn up too.” Mira’s family had near limitless connections with every type of business, and the money to make sure things were done quickly and discreetly. She’d been sneaking them in contraband for years under Bobby’s nose, and behind Celine’s back when they were still in training. With Bobby it was mostly first aid kits and their fighting gear, and with Celine it had been junk food and magazines.  

Mira regretfully passed Nari off to Zoey who was more than happy to take the baby and ramble sweet nothings to her. Mira grabbed her phone and walked off to her room to make a few calls. She’d be able to get a family doctor hear within the day, Rumi was sure. She watched Mira’s back so intently she missed what Zoey said to her.  

“What?” Rumi asked.  

Zoey giggled. “So, how exactly are things going with....?” she gesture to Jinu who’d walked over to one of the floor to ceiling windows across the room and was staring down at the city below. Zoey waggled her eyebrows.  

Rumi made a gagging face. “Come on Zoey, I just had a baby,” Rumi pointed at the baby in question. “We’re not doing anything.”  

Zoey rolled her eyes, “Of course not, but like what are you guys like? Is he nice to you? He better be. Is he your boyfriend? Does he like ramyeon? How is he in bed?”  

“Zoey!” Rumi hissed.  

Zoey wasn’t perturbed, waiting patiently for her answers. “....well?”  

Rumi glanced at Jinu who was still staring out the window, but had the faintest smirk on his face. He could definitely hear them. Stupid demon hearing. Rumi took a breath before answering and pointedly looked away from Jinu and back at Zoey. “We’re...just us. He’s very nice. We haven’t put a label on anything yet. I don’t know. And...” A blush crept up her neck and across her face, “Amazing.”  

Zoey squealed and Rumi shushed her. “I mean I know he’s a demon, but still he’s gorgeous, and he’s....”  

“Got great hearing,” Rumi told her, nodding to Jinu who was still facing the window, but his ear to ear grin was visible in the reflection.  

Zoey let out an ‘epp!’ sound. “He heard that?” she whispered.  

“Yes!” Jinu called back in answer. Zoey’s face went beat red. Jinu rejoined them on the couch, smiling like a cat who’d just brought home a mouse.  

Zoey looked him up an down, appraising him. “So....how does the whole demon thing work?” she asked him.  

“Zoey!” Rumi chastised.  

“What? I’m just curious,” Zoey said. Rumi opened her mouth to say something else, but Jinu raised a hand to stop her.  

“It’s okay,” he assured her. Rumi softened. “It’s just kind of a personal question, that’s why Rumi’s jumping to my defense.”  

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” Zoey said, and then reconsidered her words. “That’s not true, I do mean to pry."  

“What are we prying?” Mira asked, rejoining the group. “Did you forget the code to the safe again?”  

“That only happened once,” Zoey said. “Okay, twice....three times.”  

Mira looked to Rumi, “There will be a family doctor here in three hours who’ll be able to see both you and Nari. I’ve given them limited info just to make sure they bring the correct medical equipment. They’ve already signed the NDA and won’t be able to talk about anything they see here without threat of permanent financial ruin.”  

“Cool,” Rumi said, giving her a shaky thumbs up. Mira was terrifying when it came to ensuring their privacy.  

“So, what were we prying?” Mira asked.  

Jinu cleared his throat to draw the attention back to himself. “Zoey was asking how my whole demon thing works.” Mira sat back down on the couch, interest piqued. Jinu glanced at Rumi...deciding how to tell his story. He’d already lied to Rumi, a problem which he planned to rectify when they were alone....he didn’t want to start this off lying to her friends too. “How do you think demons are created?” he asked them.  

Mira and Zoey glanced at each other. “Uh, they’re created in the demon realm by Gwi-Ma,” Mira said. Then looked at Rumi and Nari who proved that idea was incorrect just by their very existence. “....or something like that.”  

“There are some who are born as demons....but that’s not the case for most of us. I was human before I was a demon....but, that was a long time ago,” Jinu stopped and took a breath. “You all have this belief that we can’t feel, that we’re these emotionless zombies...but that-that's bullshit!” Jinu winced looking at Nari. “Sorry.”  

Rumi moved to sit beside him and took his hand in hers. Jinu let the tension fall away from him and continued on, “I was born 400 years ago and my family was poor. Not used clothes poor, we were starving, living beneath the eaves of others homes to stay out of the rain. I tried to make money the right way, busking on the street, but no one was interested in a destitute beggar. Then I heard his voice, and overnight my fate changed and I was playing for the Emperor, living in a palace, eating more food than I’d seen in my life. It was luxury I’d never known, and it was greed, and I....I made choices I regret.”  

“That’s when you became a demon?” Zoey asked.  

Jinu nodded. “Gwi-Ma feeds on our shame and insecurities and I....had plenty of them and the stronger they get the faster you become a demon and the stronger his control becomes.”  

“That’s why my patterns have grown so much over the last few years,” Rumi told Mira and Zoey. “Most of my childhood they were only on my arm and parts of my back, but the closer the three of us became the more I had to hide, the stronger the shame became.”  

“Oh, Rumi...” Zoey said. “I’m so sorry you felt that way. Celine was wrong, we would have understood. You’re our friend, we’ll stand with you...and with Nari.” Zoey said, glancing down and smiling at the baby still sleeping peacefully in her arms.  

“So, can you still hear Gwi-Ma?” Mira asked Jinu.  

Jinu shook his head. “No, I can’t explain why, but it must have something to do with Rumi. We sang a duet together the night before last and then....” Jinu trailed off and nodded to Nari. “Ever since then its like....my connection to Gwi-Ma is just....gone.”  

“Does that mean you’re not a demon anymore?” Zoey asked hopefully. Jinu responded by teleporting to the other room in a puff of red smoke.  

“Okay, definitely still a demon,” Mira said. Jinu walked back over to the girls and retook his seat beside Rumi.  

“Whenever Gwi-Ma has wanted to speak to me he’s just summoned me and pulled me down into the demon realm, I’m assuming for some reason he can’t do that because if he could he would have already done it. There’s no way he doesn’t know about the performance being canceled, and....I....” Jinu swallowed. “He’s probably taking out his anger on the demons trapped down their with him.”  

“Does he do that a lot?” Zoey asked. “Take his anger out on all of you?” Jinu laughed but it was brittle.  

“We’re his playthings to use, to do whatever he wants with. We have to do what he wants and if we don’t he’ll turn up the voices in our heads until they drive us to insanity,” he told them.  

“So....” Mira said slowly. “All of the demons we’ve been killing, all this time, didn’t have any choice but to fight us?”  

Jinu sighed. “I’m not gonna say it’s all Gwi-Ma's control. A lot of us have been trapped down their for centuries, or millenniums because of the honmoon. We’re angry at the hunters who’ve kept us trapped down their just like we’re angry at Gwi-Ma.....like we’re angry at ourselves for allowing us to be drawn in by him.” Zoey and Mira looked ill.   

“I’m so sorry,” Zoey said. “We...we didn’t know.”  

“Yeah, that’s not what we were taught,” Mira agreed, but not defensively. She could hear the truth resonating in what Jinu was saying, and it broke her heart. “I’m sorry too,” Mira told him.  

“It’s not your fault. You’re the legacy of the hunters, and I don’t blame the first ones for what they did. Demons are terrifying and its not like we have pure intentions, we’ve been stealing souls as long as you’ve been saving them,” he told them, no hint of resentment in his voice. Which baffled Zoey and Mira, and even Rumi a bit, if the positions were reversed they’d be furious.  

“How can you just....” Mira said. “Keep going?”  

Jinu smiled. “What choice do I have? We all have our coping mechanisms to rationalize what we do. Our....hope for something better,” he told them and looked to Nari. “I was fighting to forget my past, but I think I’ll start fighting for a better future.”  

“Woah,” Mira said. “You sure you weren’t a poet in your past life, that’s deep as hell.”  

Jinu chuckled, grinning like a demon. “Well, I’ve spent most of my life in hell, so....”  

“So, you can usually just hear Gwi-Ma's voice in your head?” Zoey asked.  

“Not exactly, Gwi-Ma's a sadist. It’s his words, but he says them using our voices. So it’s my own voice in my head telling me, ‘you’re a failure’, ‘you’re not good enough’, ‘you’re...you’re the reason they’re dead,” Jinu shook his head. “It’s like that for all of us.”  

Zoey and Mira looked to Rumi, “Can you hear him?” Zoey asked her.  

Rumi shook her head. “No, I’ve never been able to hear him.”  

“He told me has no power over you,” Jinu told her.  

“He did?” Rumi questioned.  

“After ‘Soda Pop’ became a hit, he pulled me back down to the demon realm. He said ‘one of the hunters bears my mark, but I have no control over her.’ That must have something to do with why I can’t hear him anymore,” Jinu guessed. “You’re interfering with his control somehow.”  

“Cool,” Mira said. “Not exactly the way we were hoping to take down Gwi-Ma but it works.”  

“But it’s never worked on any other demons,” Rumi said. “Why does it work on you?” Jinu raised an eyebrow, and then gestured with both hands to their daughter. “But you stopped hearing him before she was born. It was when we sang together you stopped hearing him.”  

“Demon duets!” Zoey said excietdly. “Demon karaoke to save the world.” Zoey said enthusiastically bouncing in her seat. The rough movements woke Nari and she started fussing in Zoey’s arms. “Oh, sorry, sorry,” she said trying to rock Nari back to sleep and failing.  

“I’ll take her,” Jinu said and Zoey stood and passed her into Jinu’s arms. He cradled her to his chest and she calmed back down, her eyes open staring blankly up at her father.  

Mira considered Zoey’s idea, but....she didn’t think it was right. Just singing with Jinu hadn’t been what took away Gwi-Ma, it was more than that. She and Jinu had a connection, it had been there since they first met, as much as she’d wanted to deny it. From that first meeting in the alleyway with the other Saja Boys, he’d hardly left her thoughts, his presence was like a beacon drawing her in. And the way he acted around her....it was like he felt the same. Love? That felt like too simple a word to describe how she felt when she was with him.  

“I think...I think we did something that halted Gwi-Ma's control, but I don’t think the singing had anything to do with it,” Rumi said.  

“What did you sing?” Zoey asked, the lyricist in her always frothing at the mouth for a new song. Rumi and Jinu looked at each other and wordlessly agreed.  

♫ “I tried to hide but something broke....”  ♫ 

Zoey and Mira were instantly on the edge of their seats, enraptured and by the end of the song they were holding each other sobbing. And before Jinu had a moment to prepare both women who had previously tried to kill him were wrapping him, Rumi and Nari in a huge group hug. All the girls, including Nari, were crying and Jinu sat there feeling like a turtle trapped in a group of bunnies. Which Zoey and Mira seemed to sense because they released him and focused all their hug energy on Rumi while Jinu quieted Nari back down.  

“Okay, I get it now,” Mira said through her tears. “No judgement at all on the falling for a demon thing.” Rumi laughed.  

“Yeah, the having a baby thing is still weird but I understand how we got their now,” Zoey said. “How could you not drag him into your bed after that.”  

“I didn’t need to be dragged,” Jinu said, but they weren’t listening to him.  

Zoey and Mira struggled to let Rumi go and sit back down on the couch. They’d never gotten to have girl talk with Rumi like this and they wanted to soak up the residuals of all the sweet romance Rumi was having. They were not ashamed to live vicariously through her. They new human men who were less respectful and earnest than Jinu. This was a once in a lifetime thing with Rumi and they wanted to be with their best friend through it.  

“Do you think we could do the same for the other Saja Boys?” Zoey asked, her mind drifting to Mystery.  

“Yeah, what do they think of all this?” Mira asked.  

“Well....” Jinu said. “I haven’t actually told them.”  

“What?” All three women said. Rumi had assumed he’d gone to talk to them at some point while she’d been sleeping.  

Jinu rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I mean I used Derpy to send them a message, but I haven’t actually told them anything.” In the background Zoey quietly asked Mira, ‘who’s Derpy?’. “I was planning to go to them today or tomorrow after I figured out what I was going to do with them.”  

“Are they loyal to Gwi-Ma?” Zoey asked and Jinu laughed.  

“There are very few demons who are devotedly loyal to Gwi-Ma, most of us serve him because we have no choice,” he told them. “None of the Saja Boys are loyal to him, I wouldn’t have gathered them together if they were. Our manager is, but she’s not a problem for now.”  

“You guys have a manager?” Zoey asked. They’d never seen one at any of the broadcasts or performances before.  

“It’s a long story, Gwi-Ma appointed her to keep an eye on us, but she’s been taken care of,” he told them. “She’s back in the demon realm and shouldn’t bother us.” He hoped.  

“Would the Saja Boys come to our side if I gave them the same offer I gave you?” Rumi asked.  

“What offer?” Mira questioned.  

“To...to stay on this side of the barrier when we seal the honmoon,” Rumi told them and rushed to say. “I know its dangerous, I know it was crazy for me to offer that, but Jinu doesn’t deserve to be trapped down there. He deserves to be free.” Neither Mira or Zoey argued against it.  

“Can we talk about it?” Zoey asked, looking at Mira and cocking her head toward their bedrooms.  

“Yes, of course,” Rumi said. Mira and Zoey stood and left the room, heading into Zoey’s bedroom. “Here, can I take her?” Rumi asked, and Jinu transitioned Nari into her arms.  

Jinu looked at the closed bedroom door and stood. He listlessly wandered the living area, putting the girls discarded breakfast plates in the dishwasher, checking out the contents of the pantry, playing a few keys on the piano, rifling through magazines. Rumi watched him try and uselessly vent his restless energy.  

In all honestly, Jinu hadn’t known the other Saja Boys very long. Well....in the scope of his life they were pretty recent acquaintances. It’d been about ten years since he first met Abby, and the three others had trickled into his circle as Abby introduced them to him. It was odd being brought into an established group of friends. And even if he wasn’t particularly close with any of them, he’d convinced them to go along with his harebrained scheme and dragged them up hear and given them a taste of the human world again. He was responsible for them.  

After about ten minutes Zoey and Mira came back into the living area. Mira stood flat and expressionless, and Zoey was bouncing from foot to foot in excitement. They instantly knew the verdict they’d come to. Jinu sat down on the piano bench in relief and leaned back, playing an ungodly combination of keys as his elbows hit them.  

“You can make them the offer,” Mira told them. Jinu stood back and went to her and Zoey, and bowed deeply to them.  

“Thank you,” he told them.  

“But,” Mira said, raising a finger to halt him. “We have a caveat on this offer.”  

“Anything,” Jinu said.  

“We can’t trust them to wander around the city without supervision,” Mira told him. “We’re trusting you, but they haven’t earned that. We want them-”  

“They need to move in here,” Zoey told him. Mira scowled at the interruption. “You were taking too long,” Zoey said.  

Jinu blinked at them, and looked back at Rumi for confirmation that he’d heard them correctly. Rumi looked just as baffled at the request. “....okay,” Jinu said. “I don’t think they’ll have an issue with that. I’ll go talk to them later today when the doctor comes to check out Rumi and Nari.”  

“Great!” Zoey said, and grabbed Mira’s arms to drag her back over to Rumi and Nari on the couch.   

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

After breakfast Rumi and Jinu had retired to her room to get cleaned up before their respective tasks for the day.  

But, before anything else Rumi first and foremost needed a shower. She’d done a haphazard and honestly mildly painful one right after Nari had been born, but had been too exhausted to undo her hair and actually wash it. After they’d finished devising their master plan regarding the Saja Boys, Rumi had asked Jinu to help her shower and he was a little too enthusiastic about the prospect of it.  

Once they got into the bathroom, having left Nari in the care of her new favorite aunties, Rumi realized the real reason Jinu had been so excited....her hair. Jinu teleported to ....somewhere and returned with a plastic fold up chair that he placed in the center of the bathroom. Rumi sat down, and Jinu began meticulously unbraiding her hair. Rumi sat slumped against the back of the chair as Jinu’s hands worked, unbraiding every strand, combing through every knot, massaging her scalp. She was half asleep by the time he was finished. Jinu helped her up and she began stripping off her clothes until she was completely bare. Jinu following suit.  

Rumi stood staring at herself in the large backlit vanity mirror. She saw herself....but also a stranger. Her patterns, dark against her pale skin, streaked across her arms, legs, and face and swirled around her belly. Her belly that had a lot more loose skin than she remembered.  

She’d known it was there. She’d caught glimpses of it in-between changing clothes and using the bathroom....but that didn’t mean she’d wanted to acknowledge it. She’d had enough body dysmorphia to last a lifetime when it came to her patterns....this was different though. She’d spent her life training and honing her body until it was a weapon....and she’d do it again.  

Rumi smiled at her reflection and turned around to join Jinu in the shower.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

“So....” Rumi said. “You want the Saja Boys to move in with us?” It was like she’d just record scratched Zoey and Mira’s brains the way both girls gave her comedically flustered, half-formed excuses.  

Mira cleared her throat several times, before declaring, “We have to keep an eye on them for the good of the world.” But the slight tint of pink to her cheeks said otherwise.  

“Yeah,” Zoey agreed. “We need to uphold our sacred duty and make sure those demons- Not you demons! Them demons! -from causing trouble on our watch.” Zoey stood straight, head bobbing with conviction. The goo-goo eyes she had made it clear she was thinking about Mystery.  

“Uh-huh,” Rumi said. She was looking forward to watching whatever drama this was going to cause unfold in front of her. And, it would take the attention off her and Jinu’s relationship.  

Mira coughed and evasively changed the subject. “So, how are we going to explain this to Bobby?” Mira asked. Neither Zoey or Rumi had any helpful suggestions. “We’ve got a baby out of no where, Jinu, and four other boys who are going to be living here....if they agree.”  

It was just past noon and Jinu had left ten minutes earlier to go talk to the Saja Boys. The girls were currently sitting on Rumi’s bed, waiting for the doctor to arrive. Mira had an unmarked car going to pick her up and escort her to the building through the private underground garage beneath Huntrix tower where she was going to be thoroughly patted down and checked for contraband before coming up to meet them. There was no such thing as too much security in Mira’s opinion.  

Rumi was freshly showered and dressed in some loose fitting pajamas. Jinu had rebraided her hair into two long Dutch braids, after he’d spent a half hour thoroughly  (obsessively?) combing it out. She kept getting surprised by all the things he knew how to do. Apparently, he hadn’t been idle in his 400 years in the demon realm.  

“Bobby’s going to flip out,” Zoey said smiling, but it faltered when she saw the look of dread on Rumi’s face. “B-but, he’ll make it work and he’ll love Nari,” Zoey assured her.  

“I think its time we tell him about....well, everything,” Rumi said.  

“Demon stuff included?” Mira asked.  

Rumi looked down at the purple patterns that ran across her entire body, “Yeah, demon stuff included.” She glanced over at Nari’s crib where she was sleeping. She’d had a blowout and when they’d redressed her, Zoey picked out a Huntrix onesie. They now had about 500 photos, each, in their phones of her in it.  

“Oh, by the way, I was thinking....well, about everything, but concert wise,” Zoey said. “It would be so cool if we took a gold glitter eyeliner pen and traced all your patterns. You’d look amazing!”  

Rumi snorted. How could she have ever thought these girls wouldn’t accept her? “I think I’m pretty far off from performing on stage, but loving the enthusiasm. Who knew it would take childbirth to actually make me follow through with one of our hiatus’s.”  

“Wait.....” Mira said. “Can normal humans see your patterns?”  

Rumi opened her mouth, but paused. “.....yes and no.”  

“What does that mean?” Mira asked.  

“When I’m not thinking about them, they seem to kind of fade into the background for everyone else, hunters excluded. But when I’m thinking about them, trying to hide them, or feeling intense emotion they become more visible to ordinary people around me,” Rumi told them. “And I was always self-conscious about them, so....” She shrugged her shoulders.  

“But, you’re okay with them now, right?” Zoey asked.  

“Yeah, I’m okay with them now. I have to be. I’m not letting Nari grow up ashamed of her patterns like I did,” Rumi said, tracing the patterns on her knees.  

“So....” Zoey said, going into full hypothesis mode. “Humans can’t see patterns on demons who are in human form, unless they go full demon mode. Although at that point they’re usually so distracted by the demon form they don’t even notice the patterns. You are half-demon, does that even mean you have a full demon form, or is this the extent of it?” Zoey gestured to Rumi’s pattern covered body. “And if that’s the case are your full body patterns visible to humans if this is your ultimate form?”  

Mira and Rumi looked to one another. “I guess....we’ll just have to wait and see,” Rumi said.   

Mira’s phone pinged and she glanced down and read through her messages. “The doctor’s car just pulled into the garage.”  

Rumi’s anxiety peaked and the three of them watched as her patterns rippled pink across her skin. “Huh, that’s new,” Rumi said.  

“So, stress and emotions affects them,” Zoey said and started scribbling in her notebook.  

“Are you taking notes?” Rumi asked.  

Zoey looked up, her eyes wide and innocent, “Just for scientific purposes.”  

“Jinu said my patterns went haywire when I was in labor, but this is the first time they’ve flared since then,” she told them. “But, when I was explaining everything to you two an Celine I was stressed out and they were fine then. It doesn’t make any sense.”  

“Maybe you were in shock,” Zoey theorized. “Doesn’t that happen after traumatic events? People will be in car accidents and afterward they’re completely calm, and you were like weirdly mellow given everything that happened.”  

“Yeah,” Mira agreed. “If I randomly gave birth to a baby 4 hours after having sex for the first time I’d be freaking out.”  

Rumi blushed. “Do we have to make a big deal out of it being my first time,” she mumbled.  

“Yes!” Both girls replied in unison.  

“And we will discuss that later,” Mira said when her phone pinged again. “But, in the meantime, do you want us to stay with you while the doctors here?”  

“Yes, please” Rumi replied instantly. She'd spent too much of her life shutting her best friends out of her life and hiding her fears from them. No more. If they were willing to help ease the burden, she’d let them.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

“So, you had no idea you were pregnant?” Dr. Mok asked. She was a slim, black-haired woman in her late 50’s who was apparently a master in facial expressions because Rumi had no idea what she was thinking behind those inscrutable eyes. It was like being watched by an omnipotent hawk.   

“Not until like twenty minutes before she was born,” Rumi told her truthfully.  

“She thought she was just having really bad period cramps,” Zoey piped up, doing her best impression of someone who wasn’t lying through their teeth.  

Dr. Mok looked to Zoey and back to Rumi, narrowing her eyes, “And when was she born?”  

“At around three in morning yesterday,” Rumi told her.  

Now there was definitive visible judgement in Dr. Mok’s eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose, “So, you gave birth yesterday morning without any medical assistance in the bathroom of your apartment and I’m the first person to examine you and your baby?” she asked.  

“....yes.”  

“Okay, let’s get started,” Dr. Mok said.  

Dr. Mok was professional, and while the entire experience was thoroughly awkward, especially with Mira and Zoey there, it was reassuring to know her and Nari were being well taken care of. Also knowing that Dr. Mok was contractually obligated to keep all of this a secret eased her stress. The last thing she needed right now was the fans banging down her door for baby pictures and creating wild conspiracy theories about where Nari came from.  

Throughout the three hours Dr. Mok spent with them, examining both Rumi and Nari, she never once commented on their patterns. So that answered whether they were visible to normal people. However, at one particularly painful part of the exam, Rumi’s patterns flashed pink and they saw Dr. Mok’s eyes catch on them before her eyes glazed over and she looked away.  

Interesting.  

“All things considered, you and your daughter are both healthy. But I will not hide my displeasure that you waited as long as you did before seeking medical attention. You and your daughter are both very lucky. Do you understand?” Dr. Mok said sternly, but not unkind.  

“Yes, ma’am,” Rumi said, bowing her head. “We both appreciate your diligence and concern.”  

Satisfied with her patient’s health, Dr. Mok gathered her medical bag and the rest of the supplies she’d brought and Mira escorted her out. Rumi had no doubt Mira was personally assuring that Dr. Mok would never speak about what she saw today. Zoey stood by the window, cradling Nari in her arms and singing to her softly.  

She’d planned to talk more to her friends about....everything, but when she laid back down in her bed and nestled into her pillows...staying awake was a losing battle. She blinked slowly at Zoey and Nari, smiling at them and then she was asleep.   

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Jinu returned to the Saja Boys apartment like a teen coming home two hours late after curfew. He’d teleported into his bedroom and slowly, quietly slunk out of his room and into the living room. Abby, Romance and Baby were sitting on the couch and Mystery was sitting on the floor, all of them watching the television and eating from a buffet of snacks laid out on the coffee table. All their eyes turned to him and an immediate range of emotions affronted him. 

Mystery didn’t care. Baby was annoyed. Romance was curious. And Abby.....Abby was pissed. 

“Dude! What the Fuck!” Abby said, standing to his feet and stalking to Jinu. He shoved Jinu into the wall and Jinu let him. Jinu righted himself and side-stepped the punch Abby tried to throw at him, sending the fist through the wall behind him instead. While Abby extracted his hand from the drywall, Jinu retreated to the other side of the room. 

“I can explain,” he told them. “I have a good reason, please just let me explain.” 

Abby pulled his fist free from the wall and Romance went to him, taking his hand and checking it over for injuries. Abby yanked his hand back and Romance’s face fell, but he rearranged it to a mask of indifference. 

“It better be a damn good explanation,” Abby spat. “Gwi-Ma’s gonna have our asses for dinner and what do you mean you dealt with....her!” He pointed at their managers door. 

“I can’t hear Gwi-Ma anymore,” Jinu told them, and the room went silent. Baby had just muted the television and dropped the remote at this statement. It clattered to the floor, the sound as loud as a gunshot. 

“W-what do you mean you can’t hear him?” Romance asked. 

Jinu moved back to the middle of the room, now that he was sure Abby wasn’t going to try and hit him again. All eyes followed him. “I haven’t heard him in two days,” Jinu told them. 

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Romance said. 

“I cancelled our Idol Awards performance that would have guaranteed the destruction of the Honmoon. If he could contact me, he would,” Jinu said flatly. They didn’t argue that. “I’m not one hundred percent sure why he can’t, but I have a working theory.” He paused, considering where to start. He’d thought of a half-dozen different ways to explain his relationship with Rumi. Now the he was standing here, his mind had gone blank. 

“And that would be?” Abby huffed impatiently, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his well-defined chest that was struggling to be contained beneath his tight shirt. 

“Rumi,” he blurted out. 

The other boys looked at each other and then back to him. “Rumi?” Baby echoed. 

“What does the Huntrix girl have to do with this?” Mystery asked. 

Jinu opened his mouth and out came the half-formed stutters of, “So, Rumi and I....we’ve kind of been....well, I mean nothing happened until the other night....but....well-” 

“Oh. My. God!” Romance said, his face going into a comically giddy expression. “You and a Hunter, canoodling? Is that where you’ve been all this time?” 

Abby slapped a hand over his face and slowly dragged it down, “Tell me you didn’t do something that stupid,” he begged. 

“It was definitely stupid in the moment,” Jinu said, “but it’s turning out okay.” 

“How can fooling around with a hunter not turn into an absolute shitstorm!” Abby yelled at him, turning and punching the wall, this time on purpose. He spun back and stalked up to Jinu. “You’re gonna get us all killed by Gwi-Ma because you were lusting after some forbidden romance.” 

“Honestly, gotta respect the grind,” Romance said, making a heart shape with his hands. 

Abby whirled on Romance. “Not helping!” 

“Rumi is half-demon,” Jinu interrupted. 

Abby stared at him blankly, “.....she’s....what?” 

“Half-demon, I was shocked to,” Jinu told them. “I found out back at that first fight in the bathhouse. I tore the sleeve of her gear and saw her patterns underneath.” 

“How can she be half-demon?” Mystery asked. “She’s a hunter....that-that doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Yeah,” Baby agreed. “Are you sure they’re not pulling a trick.” 

Jinu bit his lip to keep from laughing. After everything that had happened in the last 48 hours, the idea that it was all some elaborate scheme by Huntrix was so ridiculous that he would have lost any amount of authority he had over the Saja Boys if he let them see how much he wanted to bust a gut laughing. He took a deep breath, and even still a choked laugh he tried to disguise as a cough escaped. 

“Yesterday morning, Rumi experienced a demon pregnancy,” Jinu told them. 

It was like a nuclear explosion went off. 

“Holy shit.” 

“YOU’VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!” 

“You knocked up a hunter!” 

“What kind is it?” 

They all turned to Baby. 

“What kind of question, is ‘what kind is it?’” Abby asked. 

“Like boy or girl? Human or demon?” Baby asked. ”Don’t pretend that’s not a good question.” Abby opened his mouth to argue, thought about it and turned to Jinu. 

Jinu couldn’t hold in his proud dad smile as he said, “I have a daughter.” 

“Awwwww,” Romance said, hands clasped over his chest. “That’s so sweet. Does she have a name?” 

“Her name is Nari, and she is the cutest baby that ever existed in the entire world,” Jinu told them. “And yes, I’ve put us into a dangerous position with Gwi-Ma, but if going against him means protecting my daughter, then that’s what I’m going to do.” 

Romance, Mystery, and Baby looked to Abby, and Abby pinched the bridge of his nose. This was not what he signed up for when he agreed to help Jinu with this boyband thing. This was supposed to be a straightforward mission to destroy some hunters, get to spend some time topside again, and gain Gwi-Ma's favor....but, apparently they were going rogue. 

“What’s the plan?” Abby asked Jinu. “You better have one, for our sakes and yours, because at some point Gwi-Ma's gonna get demons up here to kick our asses.” 

“I have a plan....well, Huntrix made the plan, but I’m endorsing the plan.” 

“Zoey and Mira know about all of this?” Mystery asked. 

Jinu nodded. “They didn’t know before. About Rumi being half-demon, and me....her relationship with me. She’d hidden it her whole life because....it’s complicated. I’m not getting into her whole life story.” 

Abby rolled his eyes. “Can we circle back to the plan?” 

“Right! So, Rumi offered me a deal, this was before the whole having a baby together thing. She was going to let me stay above the honmoon when it was sealed, and Zoey and Mira agreed to offer the same deal to all of you,” he told them. 

“Seriously?” Abby said, an edge of hesitant hope in his voice. “They....they really offered us that?” Romance grasped Abby’s forearm and squeezed, like he needed purchase to make sure this was real. 

“We won’t have to go back down to Gwi-Ma?” Baby asked, and turned to his bandmates. “Is that...is that even possible?” 

Jinu shrugged. “All we know is that something about mine and Rumi’s relationship is keeping him from contacting me.” 

“Why hasn’t he contacted us?” Mystery asked. Jinu didn’t have an answer to that. All he could guess was that Gwi-Ma didn’t think they had any useful information to provide him. Gwi-Ma knew Jinu was leading the group and given his history Jinu wasn’t likely to share sensitive information with others. 

“He doesn’t think we matter,” Abby said bluntly. “Jinu’s the front man and we’re  the fodder. We’re expendable in his eyes, so why bother interrogating the grass when the cow goes missing.” Romance deflated at the analogy. “Not you,” Abby assured him quietly.  

Jinu looked uncomfortable, “Anyways....there was one other thing. A....condition from Huntrix in order for them to agree to let you all stay topside.” 

“What? Promise not to do any demon mischief?” Mystery asked, smirking wide enough to show the glint of his fangs. 

“Well, obviously they want us to stop stealing souls for Gwi-Ma, but that’s not their condition. They want all of us to....move into Huntrix tower,” he told them, and waited for the second nuclear explosion. 

It didn’t come. 

“.....they want us to move in?” Abby repeated slowly. “ US .” 

“Are you sure they didn’t get traumatic brain injuries the last time we fought them?” Baby asked. 

“Hey, I was as surprised as you on this one. It was Mira and Zoey’s idea,” he told them. At this, Mystery, Abby and Romance perked up. 

“Zoey wants us to move in?” Mystery asked, his excitement leaking through his usual distant demeanor. 

At the same time, from Abby and Romance, “Mira wants us to move in?” 

Jinu blinked slowly, not sure who he wanted to address. He chose the only one who didn’t look on the verge of breaking into a celebratory dance. Baby was indifferent to the idea, though he was certain that Huntrix tower had access to better food. “They’re still figuring out the details on where you’ll live in the tower, so once we’ve got that all settled, we’ll figure out a move in day.” 

None of them said a word. Abby and Romance looked like their minds had been sucked into a black hole because their was nothing going on behind those himbo eyes accept a slideshow of them living with Mira. Mystery on the other hand, he couldn’t tell what was going on in his head behind his curtain of hair, but he was sure Zoey was there. 

“So....do we have an agreement?” Jinu asked. The question broke the spell and they all looked at him blankly. “Do you agree to their conditions?” 

A chorus of affirmations met his ears from Abby, Romance, and Mystery, with a firm nod from Baby. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Jinu ran a few errands around Seoul before returning to Huntrix tower with takeout dinner for all the girls, who’d set up an action movie marathon in the living area. Zoey squealed, Mira gave a nod of approval, and Rumi gave him a firm kiss. Then they proceeded to set upon the takeout containers with the gusto of lionesses on an plump antelope. Nari slept peacefully in a purple bassinet that had been set up by the couch. Jinu had no idea where the bassinet had come from, but he was assuming Mira and Zoey had arranged for it. 

It was only once they were full that they asked Jinu about how his talk with the Saja Boys went. 

“It went great,” he said. “They agreed to your terms.” 

“So they’re moving in?” Zoey asked, and it was clear she was physically restraining herself from bouncing in her seat. 

“Yes.” 

Zoey had to bite her lip so hard to keep from squealing, they saw blood trickle out from the corner of her mouth. Mira wasn’t fairing much better. Her face was passively neutral, but her fingers were digging scratches into the couch’s upholstery. Rumi wondered if this is what she’d looked like when she was still denying her attraction to Jinu. 

Rumi and Jinu didn’t stay for the end of the movie. They retired back to Rumi’s room and settled Nari in her crib. The sun outside was just starting to set, and even though she was tired, she wanted to put off going to bed a little longer. Jinu was a nervous ball of energy, flitting around the room. 

“What’s going on?” Rumi asked. Jinu paused at her desk where he was fiddling with a cup of pens. 

“Hmmm?” Jinu said turning to her and accidently knocking over the cup of pens. He tried to catch them and instead hit the cup with his hand and sent the pens flying in all directions across the room. Rumi laughed so hard her body hurt as Jinu picked up the mess. Jinu really was an uncoordinated dork trapped in a hot guys body. 

“Get over here,” Rumi said, once he’d got all the pens back in the cup on her desk. Jinu went to her, bending down to kiss her. Rumi wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down to sit next to her. He had a dopey lovesick grin on his face, and Rumi hated to see it go away....but, she knew he had something on his mind. “What’s going on?” she asked. 

His love addled mind sobered. Jinu pulled back. He looked down, interlacing their fingers together and flipping them over to see her pink painted fingernails. 

“Jinu?” 

“I lied to you.” 

Rumi’s whole body tensed like an overworked muscle. She forced her mind to go blank, to not think up every worst case scenario. She’d told her fair share of lies to the people she loved, she wasn’t going to let herself jump to conclusions. “About what?” she asked slowly, calmly. 

Jinu’s hand squeezed hers. “I left them behind,” It came out barely above a whisper. 

“Who?” 

His eyes shut tight. The memory of his mother and sister calling out to him, reaching out to him, begging him not to leave them, flashed across his mind. The wound he’d spent years stitching shut, forced wide open. The betrayal and disbelief on their faces as the doors shut on them, severing them from his life. The way he turned his back on the door and went to his new life, happy to forget where he’d come from. The luxury that had turned to torture. The fine linen that had scratched his soul raw, the decadent food that turned to ashes in his mouth, the plush beds that had left him with an exhaustion he’d never escaped. 

“My mother and sister, I-” his words cut off when a sob escaped his throat. He covered his mouth with his hand, trying to shove the emotion back down. He had no right to mourn them, not after what he did. He ducked his head, not wanting to see the shame in Rumi’s eyes. “I only made a deal with Gwi-Ma to get myself out of that miserable life. I left my sister, my mother, alone while I slept on silk sheets in the palace with my belly full every night. I left them.” And he couldn’t hold back  the sobs anymore. He waited for Rumi to push him away, to say she was disgusted with him, but.....instead, she was pulling him closer, wrapping her arms around him, pulling his head to her chest to cradle him. “I left them. I left them,” he kept repeating it, over and over again like if he said it enough times it would change what he’d done. 

Rumi didn’t let him spiral downward into his anguish alone. She’d spent her life isolated with no one to cry her fears and regrets out to. Jinu cried until his voice went hoarse and his ears were ringing, and only then did he go quiet, his head resting in Rumi’s lap as she carded her fingers through his hair. 

“Do you want me to go?” Jinu asked quietly. 

“Go where?” Her fingers never stopping their movement in his hair. Jinu glanced up at her. Their was no hatred in her face, just....understanding. 

“I lied to you. I abandoned my family. I’m a terrible person,” Each sentence a statement. “Don’t you want me to leave?” His voice full of terror. 

“No,” Rumi gave him a sad smile and bent down to kiss his temple. “You regret what you did?” 

“Everyday.” Every second. “Gwi-Ma was going to erase my memories of them, of what I did, in exchange for taking down the honmoon.” 

Rumi made a pained sound in her throat, but when Jinu tried to sit up to check on her, she flicked him on the temple and pushed his head back to rest on her lap. “Do you honestly think it would be better to not remember them at all?” Jinu didn’t answer. “If Gwi-Ma erased them, then the only thread keeping their memory alive would be gone. Do you want that?” 

“No,” he said. 

“Good,” Rumi said. “You can keep their memory alive by telling me and Nari about them someday, when you’re ready. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Jinu agreed, and this time when he went to sit up, Rumi let him. “I’m sorry I lied.” 

“I know you are.” She’d been in this very position yesterday. Know matter how noble the intentions of the lies, telling the truth can hurt far more than just being honest in the first place. “Let’s go to bed.” Jinu nodded. 

Even knowing everything he’d done, she still wanted him there. She still felt safe enough with him to let him hold her while she slept. She still trusted him with their daughter. Jinu crawled into bed behind Rumi and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing tight and burying his head in her neck. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“Calm down, Rumi,” Mira said from her spot on the couch. “You’re going to wear a rut into the floor.” 

Rumi did not stop her pacing. She was quietly muttering to herself and wringing her hands, her patterns continuously flashing pink in waves across her body. She was so wound up she’d barely managed to finish half her kimbap for breakfast. She didn’t understand how she was the only one of them that was taking this as seriously as it deserved to be taken. 

“Bobby will take all this in stride,” Mira assured her. “Stop worrying.” 

Rumi halted her pacing and turned on Mira. “Let’s list things we have to explain to him. 1) Demons are real. 2) We are the latest in a long line of demon hunters. 3) I’m half-demon. 4) I’m in a relationship with a full-demon. 5) Said demon is also a Saja Boy, who themselves are all demons which is why we’ve been so against them. 6) I had a baby. 7) All said demons are moving into the tower.” Rumi took in a deep breath. “How is all that not going to put him into a coma?” 

“Honestly,” Zoey said, from her spot in the kitchen where she was making herself a cup of herbal tea, the only sign that she was stressed out. “I think Bobby’s going to handle everything great....until he finds out about Nari. That’s gonna take him over the edge. We should probably arrange some pillows around him in case he faints.” 

“Good idea,” Mira agreed. Rumi let out an exasperated groan. 

“Still not here?” Jinu asked, coming into the room holding Nari. She was being fussy and had decided the only thing that would quiet her down was Jinu walking her around. She’d been wide awake for the last hour, and had finally fallen back asleep. 

“It’s 8:58, he said he’d be here at 9,” Rumi said. 

“Which means he’ll be coming off that elevator at 9 on the dot,” Zoey said, blowing on her steaming cup of tea and joining Mira on the couch. 

Jinu carefully set Nari down in her living room bassinet like he was trying to avoid setting off a landmine. Once she was down, he slowly walked backwards until his legs hit the couch and collapsed backward, sinking into the plush couch. He didn’t have the ability to sleep, but he’d kill for a nap right now. 

One minute to go. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

It was 8:59 and Bobby was entering the elevator on the garage level of Huntrix tower. He'd arrived ten minutes ago in his SUV, and the security guards had smiled at him and waved him on through. He’d passed them a box of sweets he’d picked up at the bakery next to his apartment as he passed through the checkpoint and they’d thanked him liberally. 

“Not a problem, I want to make sure that you’re thanked for your diligent service,” he told them. 

Now he was riding up the elevator, hopefully to finally get some answers on what was going on with his girls. He’d gotten a message for Mira first thing that morning asking him to come up to meet them at 9 am, which on its own was strange. One that it was Mira contacting him instead of Rumi, and two that they were willingly planning an early morning meeting. Usually he was dragging them out of bed in their pajamas for morning meetings, even when the meetings were in the same building they lived in. 

He’d been trying to get answers from his eyes and ears in Huntrix tower, but what little info he’d been able to glean was only giving him more questions. The cleaning staff, who were never allowed into the main Huntrix penthouse had seen an increase in items coming through the garbage shoot. And the security guards had let through an unmarked car yesterday that had been okayed by Mira. When Bobby had them run facial recognition on the woman who’d gotten out of the car, it came back that she was a notable doctor in the area known for treating wealthy families. 

So....one of the girls was injured and they were trying to hide it? 

That didn’t make any sense. He knew his girls were accident prone. They always had bruises and scrapes, and on more than one occasion had looked half-dead when they showed up to rehearsal. He’d asked them about it once, and Zoey had quickly said that they were trying out MMA fighting. He’d sternly, but kindly warned them against such dangerous hobbies. 

He sighed, and leaned back against the wall of the elevator. 

They were private, his girls, even with him. He knew that. He understood that. Everyone was entitled to privacy. He just wished they didn’t keep so much from him. 

As the elevator neared their floor, he straightened and stood tall, a smile on his face. The elevator dinged and he stepped out. 

“Good morning, girls!” he called. 

“Good morning, Bobby!” They greeted in unison. 

Rumi was standing in front of the couch in her usual oversized hoodie, and Zoey and Mira were sitting on the couch behind her, and next to them was..... 

“Jinu?” Bobby said, his smiling face morphing into a look of pure confusion at the sight of the leader of the Saja Boys sitting in the middle of the Huntrix living room like it was a perfectly normal occurrence. “Girls....what’s going on?” 

And then a baby started to cry. 

Jinu was on his feet in an instant going to a bassinet that Bobby hadn’t noticed because he was so distracted by Jinu. All the girls had turned to look at Jinu and the baby, before slowly turning back to Bobby. Suddenly, pink lines started to glow on Rumi’s skin. Bobby took a few more steps into the apartment and had to stop to steady himself on the kitchen counter. 

All the girls rushed to him, Mira and Zoey both carrying pillows that they tossed on the floor behind him. Rumi grabbed him before he managed to hit the floor and eased him down onto the pillows. He wasn’t unconscious, but his mind had essentially shut down due to the sheer inability to process the improbable things before him. 

“Is he okay?” Jinu asked, Nari cradled in his arm once again. 

“I think so,” Zoey said. “Well....relatively.” 

“We should move him to the couch,” Rumi said. 

“Alright, I got his legs, you grab his arms Zoey,” Mira said, cracking her knuckles and getting into a lifting position. 

“I got it,” Jinu said, then proceed to lift Bobby up effortlessly with one muscular arm while he cradled the baby in the other. He gently deposited Bobby onto the couch. The girls crowded around him and Jinu stood off to the side holding the baby. 

Who’s baby was that? Was the main question going through Bobby’s mind. Yeah, Jinu being here and Rumi glowing were also big questions, but why was their a baby in the girls apartment? 

Bobby tried to talk, but his mouth had gone dry and all that came out was a rattling squeak. Zoey disappeared and returned with a bottle of water. Bobby used all of his available brain cells, the ones that weren’t actively lighting themselves on fire trying to rationalize everything around him, to unscrew the lid from the water bottle and take a drink. 

“I-I don’t....what....what....who....,” he pointed at Jinu and the baby and then to Rumi, whose skin was still undulating pink. 

“Well, this is going great,” Mira deadpanned. 

“Okay, Bobby,” Rumi said, sitting down beside him and taking his hands in hers. Mira and Zoey followed suit, covering their hands and surrounding Bobby on either side. “Demons are real and we three are demon hunters.” 

The single brain cell that Bobby had left working, shorted out. 

Demons. Demons? Demons! 

Out of everything his girls could have told him. Demons were not on his short list. Heck, it wasn't in his index of possibilities. Were they joking? What if they weren’t? How could Jinu of the Saja Boys, a baby, and Rumi glowing like a concert light stick possibly be related to demons! 

Bobby started hyperventilating. 

There was a flurry of movement around him and two sets of the hands holding him disappeared. A paper bag was brought to his mouth and he started rapidly breathing into it. Around him his girls were speaking calmly, reassuring him that everything would be alright, and guiding him to take slow, steady breaths. Bobby was shoving down a panic attack that was threatening to take him over, and his girls were artfully pulling him away from it. 

It was almost ten minutes before he got his breathing back under control and he laid exhausted back against the couch. He looked at Jinu and the baby, and then at each of his girls. Rumi’s skin was no longer glowing....so, at least there was that. 

He took a deep breath and asked the most important question, “Where did that baby come from?” Whatever the demon stuff was could wait. That baby, he had a burgeoning suspicion, was going to become the center of fan conspiracy theories for years to come. Was this finally going to be the scandal that caused his hair to start falling out? 

Rumi let out a nervous laugh and her skin flashed pink again. She gestured for Jinu to come forward, he knelt down in front of the couch and Bobby got his first real look of the dark haired baby that was wide awake and staring around the room. “Bobby, this is mine and Jinu’s daughter, Nari. I gave birth to her two days ago.” 

The sound that came out of Bobby’s mouth was closer to a pterodactyl screech than it was human language. 

Rumi rushed to explain, wanting to get it all out while Bobby was still coherent. “Again, demons are real. Jinu is actually a demon,” she gestured to him and he waved. “All of the Saja Boys are demons, which is why we hate them, or at least we did....more on that later. We were trying to kill the Saja Boys, but then Jinu and I started meeting up in secret because he found out I’m half-demon.” 

“That’s why her skin’s going crazy,” Zoey chimed in. “Those are her demon patterns.” 

Rumi nodded. “And Jinu and I well, we sort of....got together.” 

“Had sex,” Mira clarified and Rumi glared at her. 

“And, it turns out demons can go through an entire pregnancy in a few hours, so....I had a baby. That’s why we had to cancel our Idol Awards performance,” Rumi finished and looked to Bobby for understanding, acceptance, anything....but Bobby sat there like a statue. 

In Bobby’s head it was like a molotov cocktail had been thrown and his brain cells were frantically running around. They weren’t making any effort to put out the fire, no they were just bouncing off the walls of his brain, screaming. So....much....internal....screaming. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Mira was waving a hand in front of his face and snapping her fingers. He blinked and his brain restarted. 

“....okay,” Bobby said. His voice its normal calm, collected tone. “So...demons are real, Rumi’s part demon, and you had a baby. Those are the big items, right?” 

“Yes,” Rumi said. 

“Okay, okay, I can...I can deal with that...I think,” he said, his mind already working publicity damage control. There were worse scandals than demons, they didn’t have to disclose any demon related issues to the public. Nari, was a different issue entirely. “How do you plan to explain....?” he pointed to Nari. 

Rumi shrugged. “Got any ideas?” she asked him. Bobby choked on a laugh. He had a playbook of options in his mind to spin scandals, affairs, crimes....not baby’s though. He’d taught his girls better than that, he knew they had access to plenty of preventative measures to avoid this scenario happening, well....not this exact scenario. 

“Let me think on it,” he replied. He had a lot to process. 

“We’ve got time,” Rumi assured him. “We’re officially on hiatus and no one outside of this room knows about Nari.” 

“The doctor knows,” Zoey noted. Panic flashed across Bobby’s face. 

“I had her sign a steel-clad NDA,” Mira assured him. He breathed out a sigh of relief and wiped sweat from his forehead. 

“The Saja Boys also know,” Jinu said. “But they know not to say anything.” 

“Do you want to have a few minutes to yourself, Bobby?” Rumi asked. Bobby nodded numbly. “Okay, we’ll be in my room. Join us when you’re ready.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“That could have gone better,” Mira said as they shut the door to Rumi’s room behind them. 

“It could have gone worse,” Zoey said, ever the optimist. 

Nari was finally asleep again and Jinu put her back into her crib, where he prayed, she’d sleep for more than five minutes. They congregated in the conversation pit, lounging across the couches. Jinu sat down beside Rumi and wrapped her up in his arms. All things considered, from his opinion, he’d thought telling Bobby had gone great. 

Mira glanced up behind where Jinu and Rumi were sitting and was immediately jumping to her feet and summoning her gok-do. Without hesitation Zoey was on her heels summoning her shin-kal. Jinu whipped around to see what the threat was and was on his feet in an instant stepping in front of Mira and Zoey. 

“Woah! Woah! They’re cool!” Jinu said. 

Zoey and Mira shared a look, and then glanced at Rumi who was standing and walking up the steps and out of the conversation pit. Jinu could handle explaining things to Zoey and Mira, she hadn’t seen Derpy and Sussie in days. She knelt in front of Derpy and wrapped her arms around his thick neck, burying her face in his soft blue fur. 

Jinu gestured to Rumi, “See, harmless....well, they’re harmless to you guys.” Zoey and Mira banished their weapons and put their hands on their hips. 

“Any other demon things you want to clue us in on?” Mira grumbled. 

Jinu opened his mouth to say no, when a thought occurred to him. “You guys know I have a demon form, right?” 

“I mean, I assumed so,” Mira said. 

They migrated up the stairs to where Rumi was still suffocating herself in Derpy’s fur. Sussie cocked his head and looked sharply over Mira and Zoey. Mira in turn looked critically at the bird. Sussie didn’t blink, his six eyes now specifically staring Mira down. Mira tried to compete, but her rapidly drying eyes forced her to blink first. Sussie chortled in victory and flew off of Derpy’s head to land on Mira’s shoulder. Mira tried to jerk away and shoo Sussie off but the bird only moved to her other shoulder. This repeated again and he regained perch on the original shoulder. 

“Jinu, tell your demon bird to leave me alone,” Mira said, glowering at Sussie. Jinu was giggling behind his hand, and so was Zoey. 

“No can do,” he said. “They like you.” 

“Why on earth would you like me, you stupid bird,” she seethed. Sussie responded by pecking her ear. Mira gave a frustrated shout and spun around to try and dislodge him, but Sussie didn’t budge. Mira crossed her arms and sat down on the edge of Rumi’s bed, quietly grumbling to herself. 

Rumi missed the entire exchange which had left Jinu and Zoey laughing so hard their sides hurt. Derpy was purring happily and nuzzling the side of her head. She’d missed him in the few moments she’s had were she hadn’t been thinking about Nari. Derpy and Sussie had become her silent companions and she missed talking to them and watching their antics. 

“Alright, that’s Derpy,” Jinu pointed at him. “And the bird that has decided to empathetically bond to Mira is Sussie.” 

“His names Derpy!” Zoey squealed and joined Rumi on the floor, hugging Derpy. “Oh, you’re such a good boy aren’t you! Such a fluffy boy!” Derpy’s purring grew louder. 

Rumi finally extracted herself and kissed the top of Derpy’s head and bopped him on the nose. “I missed you. You’re creepy, but you’re mine,” she told him scratching him under the chin. 

“Actually, he’s mine,” Jinu said. 

Rumi didn’t turn to face him as she said, “No, you’re mine now.” She kissed Derpy’s head again and he hummed in approval. “Oh, you need to meet Nari. Of course, now she’s actually asleep.” Zoey let go of Derby and they walked over to the crib. “Derpy and Sussie I want you to meet Nari, she’s mine and Jinu’s daughter. Can you believe it?” Jinu didn’t have the heart to tell Rumi that they’d already met Nari, and he was proud to watch the two play along and act like it was the first time they were seeing the baby. 

Meanwhile, the novelty of Jinu’s demon pets had quickly worn off for Mira and she was ready to move on from them. “Hey, Jinu, what was that you were saying about your demon form?” she asked. 

Rumi looked to him, eyebrow raised. 

“I have a demon form, like all demons do,” Jinu said. ”The occasion hasn’t felt right to show it to you.” 

“Is now the occasion?” she asked. Jinu glanced at Zoey and Mira. 

“I’d prefer to do it in private.” 

“Ooooh,” Zoey said, waggling her eyebrows. 

Rumi gave her a disgusted look. “We will not be doing that ever again.” Jinu pouted and all three girls laughed. 

There was a knock on the door. 

“Come in!” Zoey called. 

A much more composed Bobby opened the door and froze, his eyes locked on the giant blue tiger that was sitting on its haunches next to his girls. A guttural cry came out of his mouth. The tigers glowing eyes fixed unblinkingly on him. 

“Oh, this is Derpy,” Zoey said. “He’s cool.”  

Bobby numbly nodded. Well....there went any question of the girls exaggerating about the whole demon thing. 

He stood in the threshold, unable to move forward. Zoey took pity on him. She walked over and took him by the hand, leading him forward and placing his hand, palm up in front of Derpy’s head. Bobby was rigid like a mouse beneath the shadow of a hungry cat. Derpy sniffed his palm, closed his eyes and leaned his head into Bobby’s palm. The breath Bobby had been holding rushed out of him. 

“Okay, this is....I don’t know what this is. I’m so out of my element,” Bobby said. Derpy licked his palm and Bobby blanched. 

Rumi patted Derpy and told him to go lay down, he picked Rumi’s bed, that creaked in protest beneath his weight. The rest of them moved back down to the conversation pit to strategize with Bobby. 

“Okay, so I’ve got a few ideas to explain Nari. Thankfully, the whole demon thing is a behind the scenes problem which we won’t have to address. Oh, how long have you all been fighting demons?” he asked. 

“We’ve been training since we were teenagers, but officially since we debuted as idols,” Rumi told him. “We are the latest in a long line of demon hunters that have protected the human world from demons by strengthening and maintain the golden honmoon which is a shield that keeps demons out.” 

“Basically, the more fans we have that resonate with our music the stronger the shield becomes.” Zoey said. “You can’t see it but the honmoon is over the whole world. It’s like a net to trap demons in the demon realm beneath us.” 

“Demon realm,” Bobby echoed. “Noted. And the Saja Boys are demons too.” 

Mira snorted. “Understatement. Those jackasses were trying to steal the souls of our fans to feed Gwi-Ma.” 

“Gwi-Ma’s the demon king,” Zoey told Bobby. “He’s like the all powerful demon, aside from the fact that unlike lesser demons he can’t leave the demon realm.” 

“Great, a demon king, this just keeps getting better,” Bobby said. This was definitely going to be the year where he started going bald. “But, you’re not doing stealing souls anymore, right?” He directed this question to Jinu. 

“No, we’re not working with Gwi-Ma anymore. I’m out from under his control and the other Saja Boys have agreed to stop fighting Huntrix. So, we’ve got a truce going on right now.” And he’d do everything in his power to make sure those boys stuck to the agreement. He wouldn’t risk Rumi and Nari. 

“Okay, I’m going to shelve demon matters for now and revisit the topic of Nari,” he said. “I’ve brainstormed a few options for when she is discovered, and she will be eventually.” 

“What have you got?” Rumi asked. 

“The easiest option we could go with, that would raise the least amount of questions, would be to say you adopted her,” Bobby suggested. Rumi made a face of horror at the concept. “But, I didn’t think you’d agree to that one, I just wanted to float the idea.” 

“Absolutely not,” Rumi said. “She’s my daughter, and I went through the horrific experience of bringing her into the world and I want to claim that.” 

“I thought so,” Bobby said. “My only other plan would be to say it was a cryptic pregnancy, but....the fans would never believe it.” 

“Yeah, me and Mira talked about that,” Zoey said. “But we didn’t think it would work out.” 

Rumi thought about it, and was met with the mental image of fans combing back through thousands of photos and videos of her from the last 9 months and them resolutely calling bullshit. She’d seen her fair share of conspiracy theories related to them over the years, but this one would send their fandom over the edge. They might even lose fans over it. Their fans were dedicated to an obsessive level, but they weren’t going to stupidly believe everything they were told when they could clearly see at her concerts, fan signings, Q&A, livestreams, interviews....that she wasn’t pregnant. No amount of core strength would have kept her belly that flat at nine months pregnant. 

“How about we table that for now, and just enjoy our hiatus,” Rumi said. “We keep a low-profile, stay in the tower and hope a solution comes to us.” Bobby didn’t look pleased but he agreed. 

Now there was just one other thing they needed from Bobby. It was an idea Rumi, Mira and Zoey had come up with earlier that day, actually it had been Zoey’s idea. One of about forty different ones she’d been pitching regarding the Saja Boys moving in, but unlike the one about locking them in the bathroom for the entirety of their stay...this was a great idea. 

“Bobby....we do have a favor to ask,” Rumi said, and Bobby knew that tone. That was the tone that had them add three extra last minute tour dates a week before their sold out shows in the United States last year. “We asked the Saja Boys to move into Huntrix tower.” 

Bobby bristled at the idea of boys living in Huntrix tower, especially boys who were being relentlessly shipped with his girls. He might not have any personal beef with this supposed demon boyband, but that didn’t mean he wanted them living with his girls. There would be no hanky-panky on his watch. He glanced at the crib where Nari was sleeping....that one didn’t count, it happened away from his watch. 

“We wanted to ask if you would move into Huntrix tower to help us keep an eye on them. We’re going to put them in the guest rooms on the floor beneath our penthouse rooms, so there will be some separation. What do you think?” Rumi asked. 

As politely as he could, Bobby said. “I don’t think this a good idea.” 

“Well, it’s happening either way,” Mira said. ”This is a forgiveness over permission situation.” 

Bobby had a migraine forming. He rubbed uselessly at his temples. “So...essentially, you want me to be their house mother?” 

Mira snorted. “Yeah, basically.” 

Bobby knew theoretically he had a choice in the matter, but....these were his girls. He’d jump through every hoop for them, no matter how insane it was. So, really....he didn’t have a choice. He'd do anything for them. 

“Okay, let’s do it.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Huntrix was officially on hiatus. 

Bobby had arranged a press release the day after his meeting with the girls. It stated that due to an unfortunate injury the day of the Idol Awards, Huntrix had been forced to cancel their performance. The injury had been severe and it was expected it would take several months to properly heal. They thanked their fans for their concern and asked that they respected their privacy so they could focus on healing. 

The fan base was in an uproar, but it wasn’t as bad as they expected. At that point their complete radio silence after the canceled performance had left the fans desperate for any kind of information. Now that they’d given them something to nibble on, they would hopefully back off. Or, redirect their energy toward the mysterious disappearance of the Saja Boys. 

Onto the most pressing issue at hand: move-in day. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Nari was one week old the day the Saja boys moved into Huntrix tower. 

Huntrix tower was a mini city in itself. Below ground was the garage. The first ten floors were a mixture of offices, board rooms, conference rooms and general work areas for all the staff that ran their brand. Above that were storage areas for their concert costumes, props, memorabilia they couldn’t bring themselves to get rid of. Then their was the dance studio floor, the stage floor for rehearsals, the training floor, and above all that the top five floors which were residential areas. The topmost penthouse floor being the Huntrix homebase. 

The Saja Boys and Bobby would be moving into the floor just below theirs. 

Bobby tried to ensure they had everything and anything they could possibly need. He didn’t know much about demons, so he relied on info from Jinu to know how to steer the boys away from causing mischief. They had the basics, a fully stocked kitchen, all the current gen of video game systems, private access to the training floor and the stage floors of the building....and access to Bobby. 

Completely unrelated, Bobby had been having nightmare stress dreams every night that week.  

His room was at the head of the hallway, and glancing out his door he’d have eyes on all of the Saja Boys bedrooms. Which he’d thought was a great plan, until Jinu informed them that as demons they didn’t need to sleep....so, to counteract that he had about thirty more security cameras installed on the floor. Along with more fire extinguishers, first aid kits, and got himself a senior citizen safety alert necklace that was directly linked to the girls phones in case there was an emergency. 

He still in no way felt prepared for what was coming. 

Rumi and Jinu on the other hand had completely settled into being parents. The Huntrix tower was littered with baby items and at any time Nari was being held by at least one of them, the poor girl rarely got time to herself. Bobby was in an active war with Zoey and Mira every time Nari was available to be held. He loved his girls....but, Nari was different. He’d always felt protective and paternal over his girls and that extended ten-fold to the newest member of their pieced together family. 

He’d had the majority of his possessions moved into his new bedroom because by the look of it this move was going to be indefinite. As a welcome gift Mira had gifted him two ornate daggers. For his protection. And now after an intense training session with Mira he had minimal knowledge on how to wield the daggers and he prayed he’d never have to use them. He far more enjoyed the boxes of chocolates Zoey and Rumi gave him. 

He’d done everything he could think of to prepare, now he just sat at the kitchen island in the penthouse, drinking a cup of tea, and waiting for the chaos to begin. All things considered he was handling having his world turned upsideown fairly well. Demons weren’t that big a deal, he’d been tackling network executives and industry snakes for decades and they were worse than demons. 

Zoey and Mira were moving about the penthouse like they were patrolling a prison. Their guards were up and they were jumping at every stray sound. And, Bobby noted, in brand new outfits that showed off more skin than he thought was appropriate. Bobby didn’t know what was going on between them and the other Saja Boys, he hoped it wasn’t along the lines of the thousands of fan made media he’d been seeing the last few weeks. The fans did successful predict Rijinu though....he’d have to explain the rules to those boys when they showed up. There would be no more babies born on his watch. 

“Alright, I’m going to go get the boys,” Jinu said, coming into the room, Rumi just behind him holding Nari. Jinu disappeared in a puff of red smoke. Bobby still needed to get used to that. 

He’d been noticing plenty of strange things over the last week. Rumi’s patterns were now completely visible to him, even when they weren’t pulsing. That first day, every time he looked at Rumi it was like something was directing him to look away, but that feeling had faded. Jinu had explained that because Bobby was now consciously aware that demons existed on the same plane as him, he could see things most humans couldn’t pick up on.  

Yay for him! 

Five minutes passed before Jinu reappeared with four other puffs of smoke in tow. 

Bobby saw the boys look around the room curiously. Abby and Romance were standing side-by-side and when they caught sight of Mira they stood to attention. Mystery looked to Zoey, and gave her a smile bookended by sharp fangs. Baby broke from the group and flopped down onto the couch, finding the remote and turning on the television. Everyone turned to him and watched him flip through movies before settling on an American musical from the 1950’s. 

Abby shrugged and stepped up to stand beside Jinu. “Thank you for your hospitality, we will respect you and your home.” He bowed his head and the others followed suit, including Baby who didn’t turn from his movie. 

“If there is any funny business their will be consequences,” Mira told them. 

“Like punishment?” Romance asked, a cheeky smile splitting his face. Mira glowered at him, a faint blush rising to her cheeks. Jinu glared back at him. 

Rumi stepped forward. “We want this to be a show of cooperation, so if you can be a little less of a smartass we’d appreciate it.” In her arms Nari shifted and pressed her face into Rumi’s sweatshirt. 

All demon eyes were drawn to the sight of the baby. Baby had paused his movie and was now turned around leaning on the back of the couch. 

“So you weren’t messing with us,” Baby said. “There’s really a kid.” 

Jinu shrugged sheepishly. “I told you guys.” Romance reached into his pocket and pulled a handful of thousand won notes and passed them to Baby. “Seriously?” 

“I thought you might be having a nervous breakdown,” Romance said defensively. Abby followed suit, also handing Baby a wad of money. 

“Can’t blame a guy,” Abby shrugged and then proceed to stretch his arms, causing his tight button up shirt to ride up and reveal the perfect V of his hips and the bottom half of his abs. He looked straight at Mira as he did so. 

Rumi took another step forward and had to sidestep the popcorn that was now all over the floor. “Bobby and Jinu are going to take you all down to your rooms. We will be checking up on you throughout the day, and Bobby will be reporting to us if you break any of our rules. We didn’t make this offer lightly, and we won’t offer it again if you screw this up. Do you all understand?” 

There were a few quiet agreements. 

“I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” Rumi said again, using the drill sergeant voice Mira and Zoey only ever heard when it was crunch time before the start of a world tour. 

“Yes, ma’am!” They said in unison. Satisfied, Jinu and Bobby headed with the boys to the elevator. 

When the elevator doors shut behind the boys, Rumi turned back to Mira and Zoey. Mira looked down at the popcorn covering the floor and sighed, doing the walk of shame to the pantry to get a broom and dustpan. Rumi and Zoey locked eyes and had to bite their lips to keep from laughing. Rumi was surprised how composed Zoey was with Mystery in such close proximity and she said as such. 

“Oh, you know me,” Zoey said. “I’m grace under pressure.” 

Mira returned with the broom, “Yeah, sure, I totally didn’t see you pop a Xanax ten minutes ago.” 

“Mira!" 

“Zoey!” Rumi chastised. 

“Can you blame me?” Zoey said, gesturing to Mira who was sweeping up the last of the popcorn. Mira glared at her. 

“This was such a bad idea,” Rumi said, for the millionth time in the last week. “You two need to keep it together.” 

“Like you did?” Mira laughed, gesturing to Nari. 

“Hey!” 

“So....” Zoey said. “I’ve kind of been avoiding asking, but....would you be mad if we...make a move on one of the boys?” 

Mira groaned. “Those boys are below us, we can do better. This shouldn’t even be a conversation.” Zoey deflated. 

“I don’t mind,” Rumi assured her. ”I’d be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I said don’t go for it. Besides, I think Mystery likes you too.” Zoey blushed bright red, her hands coming up to hide the smile on her face. 

“Whatever,” Mira said and headed down the hall to her bedroom. Once they heard the closing of the door, Zoey and Rumi turned to one another. 

“She’s in such denial,” Zoey said. 

Rumi sucked in a breath, “yeah, this is gonna be a rough first few weeks.” 

“It’s gonna be great to watch.” 

“Oh, absolutely.” 

  🌺🌺🌺🌺 

On the floor below Bobby was helping the boys settle in. Baby and Mystery had each claimed their own rooms, while Romance and Abby chose to share a room despite having enough available to have separate rooms. 

“We stay together,” Abby had stated matter of fact, and that was that. 

Abby and Romance were busy setting up their room, music from their radio drifting out into the hall through their open door. Baby had raided the fridge and was heating up some ramen on the stove, while he watched the musical he’d started up on the girls TV. Mystery was....smelling his way through the apartment. Bobby watched him as he went. He smelled the floor, the curtains, the fridge, his own bedroom, the bathroom and then ended up back in the living room sitting down beside Baby on the couch. 

“It helps him feel more comfortable in his environment.” Bobby jumped a foot in the air, whirling around to see Abby standing behind him, a bored expression on his face. 

“W-what?” Bobby squeaked. 

Abby pointed at Mystery. “He’s not great with new spaces, smelling everything settles him down. Just let him do his own thing....he hasn’t been adapting well to being topside.” 

“Topside?” 

Abby rolled his eyes. “Back in the human realm. We’re usually trapped below because of the honmoon.” 

“Oh, okay, thank you for letting me know.” Bobby turned back to Mystery who was now slouched over, reading a magazine that had the girls featured on the front cover. “Is there anything special I should do for him?” 

Abby shrugged, “We’re kinda playing it by ear with him,” he said and then thought for a moment. “Don’t give him coffee or chocolate.” Abby left without giving him an explanation on why those foods were off limits. 

Baby and Mystery started laughing and then without warning they were transforming, their skin turning to a light purple and their patterns flashing across their skin. Bobby yelped. Both boys turned to him and gave him grins that were meant to show off their sharp fangs. 

So....that’s what the girls meant by demon forms. 

Bobby made a mental note to ask for a raise at his next contract renewal.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Back in her room, Mira was debating whether or not to fling herself from her balcony. Why on Earth had she thought this was a good idea! The Saja Boys moving in, she must have been out of her mind when she pitched that idea to Zoey. And Zoey was too overcome by her attraction to Mystery to think straight.  

And the way those INFURIATING pink haired-sinister demons had looked at her. She wanted to scream! So she did. Mira threw herself onto her bed and screamed into her pillows. She’d hoped for some kind of cathartic numb to over take her afterwards, but instead she felt even more wired. 

She needed to be better and not let those demons get to her. This was all some kind of game to them and she would not let them toy with her heart. So, what if they’re hot? So, what if Abby had abbs you could grate cheese on. So, what if Romance had the face of an angel. So, what if they looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. 

From his perch Sussie chortled and Mira flipped him off. That stupid bird hadn’t given her a moments peace in days. It had taken up residence in her room and made a nest on top of her dresser out of her hair scrunchies. And no matter what Mira did the bird wouldn’t leave! She’d tried everything: shooing it with a broom, destroying its nest, insulting it, spraying it with water. The latter of which had resulted in several slashes across her forearm from its beak. 

The stupid thing had even gone into her bathroom and flushed her contacts down the toilet while she was sleeping. She’d had to go full four eyes for three days before a new shipment of lenses got their that morning. Those stupid boys would have never let her live that down. 

Mira took a deep breath. She had to be strong. 

She left her room and headed to the elevator to head down to the training room. She needed to decapitate a few training dummies. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Not far away in her own room, Zoey sat at her gaming computer her dual monitors each displaying two separate camera feeds from within the Saja Boys living room. Both of which displayed Mystery sitting on the couch gnawing on the sleeve of his shirt while he watched TV. Zoey stared at him open mouth, drool pooling in the keyboard beneath her. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Bobby genuinely thought it would be a good idea. 

Now Abby had a knife sticking out of his hand, a window on the top floor of the high-rise was broken, and there was a moderate sized fire. 

He’d never seen a card game go so wrong. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Earlier that day 

It was now day three of the Saja Boys living in Huntrix tower....and everything was going...fine. Knock on wood. 

The two groups had largely kept to themselves with the only crossovers being Bobby and Jinu. Bobby reported to the girls every morning and every evening on the boys activities. Aside from the mildly concerning amount of television that Mystery and Baby watched he had little to talk about. Romance and Abby mostly kept to their room, Bobby would have thought they were doing something untoward if they didn’t keep their bedroom door open at all times. Every time Bobby walked by they were typically doing one of three things: reading a book, scrolling on their phones, or just laying side-by-side on the bed. The pair reminded Bobby of two bonded cats that his family had when he was a kid. 

Considering they were demons, they were relatively easy to watch. Of course they all had their own little quirks, but so do humans. Romance handwashed his clothes in the kitchen sink every morning and dried them on the balcony, even though they had a fully functional washer and dryer in the apartment. Abby only read one book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and he restarted it every morning. Everyday from three to five in the afternoon Baby would sit on the balcony and stare out onto the city. Mystery....was always being weird but in a way that was somehow normal for him. 

Abby was clearly the leader of the group, while Jinu was their figure head. They would do what Jinu asked, but only after getting a nod of confirmation from Abby. It was a....strange dynamic. 

Now that they were three days into their new living situation, Bobby decided it would be a good time to test the bounds of their environment. 

He was met by general enthusiasm when he suggested a game night, aside from Baby and Mira. Mira was vehemently against it, and only relented after Zoey pouted her into submission. Baby simply didn’t care. Bobby could light the couch on fire and Baby would calmly stand up and move to another seat, his gaze never wavering from the television.  

Bobby and the boys headed as a unit to the elevator and up to the girls floor. The boys had been practically bouncing off the walls for the last few hours in anticipation of game night. 

“You’re the best manager, Bobby,” Romance said. “I get why the girls like you so much.” 

“Yeah, and we know bad managers,” Baby said, and was promptly elbowed in the ribs by Abby. Bobby opened his mouth to question that statement, but that was when the elevator arrived on the girls floor. 

“Good evening, girls!” Bobby greeted as he stepped out of the elevator. 

“Good evening, Bobby!” 

“Hi guys, happy to have you all joining us for game night tonight,” Zoey said, smiling brightly at them. Behind Bobby, Mystery stumbled on his next step. Zoey’s smile turned to a toothy grin as she turned and went to the couch. 

They’d pulled a large circular coffee table out of storage and surrounded it with decorative pillows to sit on. Their were a dozen different board games stacked on the table. Zoey had made it her mission to find the best game possible to great a fun, happy atmosphere. Her instinct was clue, because what’s better than a murder mystery? Nothing. But, that had a max of six players and there were nine of them. 

And although she’d laid out all  the games like there was a choice. Zoey had a particular game in mind. 

“Okay, everyone!” Zoey said, waving everyone over to take their seats. Rumi and Jinu were side by side at the top of the table, a sleeping Nari in the bassinet behind them. Bobby sat across from them with Mystery to his left and Baby to his right. Zoey had taken the spot in between Mystery and Rumi with Abby and Romance sitting between Baby and Jinu. Mira’s stanch refusal to participate had left her as the last one to pick a seat, and now she was stuck with only unfavorable options. 

Romance scooched closer to Abby, “We’ve got space right here.” 

“No.” Mira said, voice as sharp as the snap of a whip. 

Mira looked to Zoey who was pretending to read one of the board game boxes, her eyes flicking to Mystery every few seconds. Mira rolled her eyes. No help there. 

“How about here?” Bobby asked, sliding to the left, forcing Mystery and Zoey to sit closer together. A situation that neither of them minded. Mira huffed and took the offered spot. 

The room lapsed into silence and they glanced to Zoey who had thus far taken charge. Bobby cleared his throat and she jerked to attention. 

“So....I’ve got a great game we can play,” She said, all smiles and dimples, the picture of innocence. Rumi, Mira, and Bobby were instantly on edge. From beneath the coffee table Zoey pulled out another game. 

“No!” Rumi protested. 

“Absolutely not!” Mira agreed, slamming her fist on the table. 

Zoey pouted, her wide puppy dog eyes instantly filling with tears. 

“I want to play,” Mystery said. 

Mira turned on him. “Do you even know what that game is?” 

“....No....but I want to play it,” he said. 

Zoey’s lip quivered dramatically, “Pleeeeeeaaaassseee.” 

The boys had no clue what this game was but the fact that Rumi and Mira were so against playing it piqued all of their interest. Meanwhile, Rumi and Mira had played it with Zoey dozens of times and had the mental trauma to go along with it. But....they couldn’t stand seeing Zoey upset, so they accepted defeat and agreed to play.  

“Yay!” Zoey squealed, and then her face morphed into a mask of seriousness. “Boys, this is......cards against humanity.” 

Mira and Rumi groaned. Bobby looked horrified. He’d walked in on the girls playing this game before on tour and each time had promptly retreated from the room. At one point he’d had to ban the game while they were on tour because Zoey kept torturing the girls with her....unique....card combinations. He couldn't think of a more mortifying game to play with the girls. 

Zoey gave the boys a brief explanation of how the game worked, and then began dealing the cards, instructing them not to look at their white cards until the first black card was read. Between Zoey, Rumi, Mira, and Bobby, it was determined that Zoey would be the first card czar. 

Zoey picked a black card and read aloud, “She’s just one of the guys, you know? She likes beer, football, and _______.” And Zoey watched in glee as all of the guys looked at their white cards and started to read them. 

“WHAT THE FUCK!” 

“Who’s Laura Dern?” 

“I have many questions.” 

“What does that even mean?” 

“Is this a sex thing?” 

“I don’t want to play anymore.” 

Zoey held in her maniacal laughter with a tight lipped smile, and made grabbing hands for the white cards.  

Jinu leaned over to Rumi and showed him one of the cards, “What does this mean?” 

She glanced at the card, “Don’t play that, its racist.” Jinu looked at the card panicked. 

“You can swap it out,” Zoey said offering him a new white card. He discarded the old one and took the offered one gratefully, until he read it and reddened in embarrassment. Once all the white cards were placed. Zoey took them in hand and shuffled. This was her favorite part. “She’s just one of the guys, you know? She likes beer, football, and _______.” 

“Lumberjack fantasies. Okay, nice. My dead son’s baseball glove. Dark, and a backstory. Butt stuff. Simple, boring. Dick Cheney? I don’t know who that is. Not believing in giraffes. They are the outliers of the animal kingdom. Men? You guys aren’t even trying. A lifetime of sadness. Realistic. Leprosy. Simple, but funny. Pretending to be one of the guys but actually being the spider god. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!” Zoey held aloft the spider god card. 

“Yes!” Rumi said, taking the black card. 

Next was Mystery to be the card czar.  “_____is a slippery slop that leads to ______” 

The winner of that round was Bobby. Who to everyone's horror had played the combination of waiting till marriage and a salty surprise. Bobby did not look proud at any point during that round and was actively trying to smother himself with a pillow. 

With the exception of the first round, Rumi never got another black card. The two in the lead were Zoey and Bobby. Everyone else had 2 or 3 black in their possession. Zoey had expected everyone to become lighthearted and care free once the laughter started, but she’d underestimated how competitive everyone was. Except Baby. And Bobby kept winning by accident because he was naturally funny. 

The card that tipped the scales and brought catastrophe. 

This the prime of my life. I’m young, hot, and full of ______. 

Abby was the card czar, and took this duty very seriously. “My buddy Jeff. Cool. Oompa-Loompas. I don’t know what that is. Licking the toilet as Mistress commands. That’s a mental image. The devil himself. Not entirely wrong. Spectacular abs. Entirely right! Bad emotions I don’t want. Too sad. Unfathomable stupidity. Haha. Completely unwarranted confidence. I think its pretty warranted.” Abby looked at the cards like he was pretending to be debating his choice, before he unsurprisingly raised the abs card. 

“YES!” Zoey yelled and took the card. 

“Are you kidding me!” Mira yelled at Abby. “My card was way better.” 

“Gotta play to the czar,” Zoey said with a shrug. 

“Nu-uh, my card was way better, you just picked that because you’re a preening peacock who can’t go two minutes without complimenting yourself!” Mira accused. She threw her cards down and stood. “I’m done.” 

“Oh no, come back Mira, we were having so much fun,” Zoey said, her pout on full display. Mira refused to turn around to look at her.  

Mira stalked to the kitchen and started going through the fridge, looking for a leftover gilgeori she’d gotten for lunch. She pulled out the to-go container and turned back to the counter where Abby was now standing. She ignored him and went to the microwave. She heated her sandwich and went back to the counter to cut it. 

While Mira resolutely got her food, the game group had drifted apart. Rumi and Jinu were checking on a fussing Nari, who’d had a complete blowout and ruined her outfit and the bedding of the bassinet. Baby was turning on the TV and tuning into the local news. Bobby and Romance were flipping through all of the unused white cards, their faces vacillating between horrified and amused. And Zoey and Mystery were sitting on the piano bench facing one another and talking to each other. 

Mira saw red at the sight of her friend fraternizing with that demon boy, she clenched the knife in her hand and slammed it down to stab the countertop, unknown to her Abby had moved closer to her and placed his hand in that exact spot. He screamed and Mira whipped around, knife still in her grasp, jerking it further into his hand. 

“Let go!” he screamed. Mira did and stumbled back. 

At the scream Mystery and Zoey shot to their feet. Mystery shoved the piano bench in his haste to get to Abby, but had used the full force of his demon strength and had sent the bench crashing through the window behind them. Zoey rushed to the window and jumped out of it, shooting downward to catch the bench and the shards of glass before they hit people on the street. She reached the bench and kicked it back toward the building, sending it hurtling through another window and back into the building fifteen stories down. Zoey reached the ground before the glass and pulled two bystanders out of the way of there path. The two people in Huntrix gear were so distracted by Zoey they didn’t even notice the sound of the glass hitting the sidewalk behind them. 

Back in Huntrix tower, Baby had started making instant ramen in the microwave just after Mira had heated her sandwich. He had gotten so distracted by Mira stabbing Abby that he forgot to add water to his ramen and it was currently smoking in the microwave, unnoticed by everyone in the room. Baby, confident in his cooking ability, had wandered back into the living room to watch TV. Romance and Abby had gone to the bathroom to patch up Abby’s hand and remove the knife that was still embedded in his skin, Mira hurrying after them, her resolution to ignore them forgotten. 

It wasn’t until a small fire was smoldering in the microwave that Bobby noticed the smell and screamed. Zoey was just coming off the elevator after her harrowing rescue of their two fans on the ground, who she’d showered with selfies and signatures. 

“Fire!” Bobby yelled, rushing to the kitchen. 

Everyone jumped to attention, noticing for the first time the growing fire in the kitchen that was now engulfing the microwave. Zoey pushed Bobby away and went for the fire extinguisher under the sink. She pulled the pin, aimed the nozzle, and squeezed the trigger. 

“Aim for the base of the fire!” Rumi yelled. She shoved Nari into Jinu’s arms and pushed them toward her bedroom and away from the fire. 

“The base of the fire is inside the microwave!” Zoey yelled back. 

“Unplug it!” Bobby yelled, and then came closer to do it himself, only to realize the microwave was built into the wall and they couldn’t access the plug. 

“What is with all the yelling?” Mira said coming back from the bathroom, her mouth falling open at the absolute chaos she walked into. She stepped forward summoned her gok-do and shoved it into the paper thin space between the cabinet and the wall, cutting through the power cable to the microwave. The microwave shut off and Zoey finally managed to put the fire out. 

They all stood there, not saying a word, the noise of the TV the only sound in the room. 

“I think we call that a night,” Bobby declared. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Rumi was shocked they hadn’t heard from Celine since the day Nari was born. She’d expected regular check-ins from their mentor what with.....frankly, everything....Rumi was now a mother, there was a baby in Huntrix tower surrounded by people with no experience with babies, and there was a demon living with them. The silence was so uncharacteristic for Celine that Rumi had briefly worried that something terrible had happened to her. She’d done a drive by of Celine’s house on the outskirts of Seoul two weeks ago and was relieved to see her in her garden weeding her flower beds. 

Although Rumi knew Celine would be at the tower in an instant if she knew the Saja Boys were living there, and she would have made it clear without even saying a word how stupid of an idea she thought it was. Rumi got a flashback to her teen years when her life had been filled with judgmental silence. A shiver ran up her spine. She had to shake away the ghost of Celine’s gaze. 

The Saja Boys had now been living in Huntrix tower for about two weeks, and aside from the disastrous hiccup of their game night....there had been no further conflicts. If anything....Rumi wasn’t much of a gossip....and Zoey and Mystery deserved their privacy. Not that either of them was particularly good at being discrete. 

Rumi was by herself laying on the living room couch, Nari asleep on her chest, a drama show playing quietly on the TV that she was mostly watching via the subtitles. Zoey was in her room and Rumi doubted she was alone. Jinu was in their bedroom working on a secret project he refused to tell Rumi about, but she’d snooped a few days back and discovered that Jinu was hand sewing Nari a hanbok for her first birthday. Rumi had gone through half a box of tissues upon discovering it. 

Mira had left the tower that morning with a backpack saying she had things to handle, mysterious as always, and likely wouldn’t be back for a few days. And as far as Rumi was a aware, Bobby and the rest of the Saja Boys were in their rooms a floor below her. All of the Saja Boys had been affable roommates and aside from the incidents at the game night had been perfect gentlemen. 

Bobby had a construction crew there the following day after the windows were broken and they’d all been scrambling to hide every baby related item before they arrived. The girls had made themselves scarce while the crew was in the tower, not wanting to give them any ammunition that would get back to the fans. The broken windows had already been noted on several news stations and had fans speculating online. Bobby gave no statement to the press. 

As Rumi’s thoughts drifted back to Celine, the elevator dinged. Rumi sat up as her thoughts turned into a reality. She watched Celine take in the transformed living room. The bassinet, the baby toys, the babyproofing that was everywhere. There were caps on every sharp corner of the room, latches on the cabinets and fridge and covers on all of the outlets. A bit of overkill in Rumi’s opinion for a baby who couldn’t support the weight of her own head, but Jinu, Zoey and Mira had gone through the whole apartment like a safety tornado. 

“Hi, Celine,” Rumi greeted and Celine’s gaze snapped to her. Rumi sat all the way up, carefully cradling Nari to her chest, trying not to wake her. Nari yawned and stretched, shifting as Rumi moved to cradle her. Nari’s small fists grabbing on to the fabric of Rumi’s shirt. 

“Good morning,” Celine greeted, walking further into the apartment, her eyes now tracking Nari.  

Rumi held her daughter tighter. Celine noticed. She forced herself to relax and awkwardly asked. “What’s new?” 

Celine took a breath. “Not a lot. I wanted to come and see you. Both of you.” She gestured to Nari. “Check up on how you’re doing.” 

“We’re doing good,” Rumi said, bending down to kiss the crown of Nari’s head. “She’s a good baby.” 

“You’re adjusting to everything okay?” 

Rumi nodded. “Yeah, I am. Jinu is too. It’s weird how....natural it all feels.” 

Celine sat down on the couch a few feet from Rumi. “Some people have that natural motherly instinct. I sure as hell didn’t.” 

“You did your best,” Rumi told her. 

Celine shook her head. “No, no I didn’t. You needed a mother, not a mentor. I'd never so much as held a baby before the day Mi-Yeong died, and then you were there and you were entirely my responsibility. And I failed you.” 

“Celine-” Rumi started. 

“I’m sorry,” Celine said, looking down at the floor. 

“W-what?” Rumi stuttered. 

Celine took a deep breath and raised her head, staring Rumi straight in the eye. “I am sorry for what I did to you. I am sorry for the way I made you feel. I am sorry for making you feel ashamed of yourself. I am sorry....for everything.” And Rumi watched the strongest woman she’d ever known begin to cry. 

Rumi panicked. She’d never been great at offering others comfort. She rushed forward to hug Celine, Nari still cradled in her arm, but that seemed to make things worse. Celine’s shoulders heaved under the weight of her tears, though barely any sound came from her mouth. Even while she was breaking down, she was still trying to stay composed. Barely a minute of crying and Celine was pulling back, wiping her eyes, and forcing herself back into her box of emotional detachment. 

“Why now?” Rumi asked her, not angrily, just wanting to understand. “Why apologize now?” 

“I....I’ve been keeping my distance these last few weeks to give myself time to think over everything, and your mom would have been ashamed of the way I raised you...the way I made you suppress yourself,” Celine told her. “You’re an amazing young woman and I tried to dull an important part of you. I can never undo what I did, and I’m not asking for forgiveness because I haven’t earned that and probably never will. I just want you to know that I’m sorry.” Celine pulled Rumi back to her chest for one last tight hug and then released her. 

“Thank you, Celine,” Rumi said. “For telling me this. It does mean a lot.” 

Celine smiled. “You can also thank, Bobby,” Celine told her. 

“Why?” 

“He came to my house the day you all told him everything and yelled at me in my garden,” she said, her lips quirked up in a smile. “For such a short man, he can make....quite an impression.” 

Rumi bit her lip to suppress a smile. “He’s effective.” 

“Yes, I’d hate to be going up against him. You should have seen him back during his Idol days, he had amazing stage presence,” Celine told her. 

“Really?” 

“Oh, yes, before you were born all three of us Sunlight Sisters went to one of his concerts in disguise and our jaws were on the floor watching him,” Celine told her. “The confidence was astounding, especially knowing he was such a nice person behind it all.” Rumi agreed. The conversation lulled and Celine cleared her throat. “I also have another reason for coming.” Celine had a bag slung over her shoulder and she opened it, digging through it until she found what she was looking for and pulled out....a photo album. 

She handed it to Rumi. “What’s this?” She opened it and was confronted by a picture of her mother and a man she’d never seen before, but instantly knew was her father. 

“I found this about two years ago. It was underneath a floorboard in your mom’s old room in my house,” Celine told her. 

Her mother was young in the photo. It was clearly before Rumi was born. Her father looked human in the photo, he must have been in disguise when it was taken. It was a close up shot of them, standing in a park, her moms arms wrapped around her fathers neck and his hands on her waist, so unabashedly in love.  

Rumi flipped to the next picture. Her mom was sitting on a couch, looking about eight months pregnant with Rumi. She was smiling, cradling her belly. Rumi’s father was standing behind the couch, smiling at the camera, in full demon form. His grey skin covered in patterns and his dark purple hair pulled up in a bun. 

The next photo was Mi-Yeong, she was covered in sweat, exhausted, and smiling like the sun, a newborn Rumi cradled in her arms. 

The next photo. It was Rumi’s father, holding her to his chest, a gentle smile on his face. 

Tears ran down Rumi’s face and she wiped them away ineffectively as new ones took their place. She rocked Nari in her arms, burying her face into her daughters hair. Rumi flipped to the next page, only to find it empty. There were no more photos. 

“His name was Dohyun,” Celine told her. 

“Dohyun,” Rumi repeated. 

Celine nodded. “I....I met him a handful of times before your mother died, before I knew he was a demon. He was....he was a nice guy. He presented to us as a fan, and your mom was taken with him, and they were running around in secret together for almost two years. Your mom told us she was keeping him in the shadows to protect him from the paparazzi and fans. Then she got pregnant and we thought it was ridiculous she was still keeping him a secret, and then you were born and I found out he was a demon. I thought it was all an act and he’d used your mother to break us apart....I thought that until recently....but now....I think he did love her.” 

“What was he like?” Rumi asked. 

Celine thought for a moment. “When we were on tour Mi-Yeong used to get secret deliveries of food and flowers, all the time. We’d come off stage after a grueling concert and there would be a spread of food and roses across her side of the dressing room, and I always wondered where it would come from. I know now it was Dohyun using his demon powers to sneak it in.” 

“Do you know what happened to him?” Rumi asked. 

“No,” Celine said. “He was there the day you were born, that’s when I found out he was a demon. Mi-Yeong had been in labor for almost a full day and she still had the energy to pull her weapon on me and force me to leave when I tried to fight him,” Celine sighed at the memory. “I should have been there supporting her and I just made the whole situation worse.” 

This was not an easy topic for Celine, but she had to force her way through it. “I only saw him one time after that. You had just hit your 100th day of life the day before, and I came by to bring a gift. Mi-Yeong and him were sitting in the garden, you were cradled between them. He kissed you both and then vanished in a cloud of red mist. Mi-Yeong died a week later.” 

“He didn’t come to the funeral?” 

“Not that I saw,” Celine told her. “They both loved you. I deluded myself for years thinking he was playing games or doing Gwi-Ma's bidding, but I was wrong.” 

Rumi held Celine’s hand squeezing it tight within her own. “Thank you for telling me this and giving me the photo album.” 

“I should have given it to you when I found it two years ago,” Celine said. Rumi didn’t disagree. 

“Please don’t avoid coming here,” Rumi told her. “You’re still welcome to visit us....just be aware that we have a much higher demon presence in the building.” 

“I can handle Jinu,” Celine said. 

Rumi sucked in a breath. “Well.....all of the Saja Boys are kinda living here now.” Rumi watched Celine’s brain crash into a wall. 

“........what?” 

“Its....a long story, but they’ve been living here for about two weeks. They’ve been well-behaved,” Rumi assured her. “We made a deal with them and they’ve stuck to it.” 

Celine clearly had many questions, but instead of asking them, she took a deep breath and trusted Rumi’s judgement. “Okay, if you feel that’s what’s best, you have my full support.” Celine looked like she’d been stabbed in the gut with each word. 

“Thank....you,” Rumi said, unsure how to reconcile Celine’s words with the person who’d raised her, having no input to the fact that her proteges were living with five demon boys. 

“I should get going,” Celine said standing and heading to the elevator. “Have a good afternoon.” 

“You too,” Rumi said. “And Celine....” Celine turned back to her. “Thank you for coming.” Celine smiled and left. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Nari was officially one month old. A massive achievement that deserved all the pomp and circumstance that came along with it. Rumi didn’t think it was a party worthy milestone, but she was out voted by.....everyone. And if they were making this big a commotion over Nari being alive for only a month, she could only imagine what they were going to do for her 100th day and for her first birthday. 

Jinu, Mystery, and Baby were all floating off the ground, hanging streamers from the ceiling of the living room. Zoey was strategically placing bundles of colorful mylar balloons around the room. Romance and Abby were incognito somewhere in the city picking up a cake and snacks. And Mira had returned from her trip an hour earlier and walked straight into the midst of the party planning, she’d quickly hurried to her room before a task could be designated to her. Derpy was currently sleeping on the extra large doggy bed they bought for him in front of one of the large floor to ceiling windows. 

“Cake delivery!” Romance announced, spinning as he came off the elevator and set the cake down on the kitchen counter. Rumi snuck forward before Zoey could shoo her away and caught sight of the glittery pink and purple cake, covered in frosting flowers. 

“Rumi!” Zoey shrieked. “That was supposed to be a surprise!” 

“It still will be, for Nari,” Rumi told her. 

Zoey put her hands on her hips. “Nari can’t eat it and doesn’t know what cake even is.” 

“I still don’t know what flavor it is,” Rumi pointed. Zoey grinned and grabbed the cake, spiriting it away before Rumi could cut out a piece when no one was looking. 

Romance and Abby broke from the group in the kitchen and went to the living room where Nari was asleep in her bassinet. The natural chaos in her home had made Nari a great sleeper. She slept on her stomach in a white onesie covered in unicorns (a gift from Zoey). 

“How does she keep getting cuter?” Romance asked Abby. He held onto Abby’s forearm and Abby let him. Romance leaned into him, resting his head on Abby’s shoulder. 

“Especially coming from Jinu. She must have got all that from Rumi.” 

“Hey!” Jinu yelled from the other side of the room. Abby snickered. 

“She’s 75% demon, I’m surprised....I’m surprised she looks so human,” Romance said. Abby grunted in agreement. “All the children in the demon realm looks so....” he trailed off. 

“That’s the poison of the demon realm,” Abby said softly. His years in the demon realm flashed across his mind like shrapnel from a frag grenade that bled into their transition back into the human world. Their first few weeks topside hadn’t been the joyous reconnection they’d hoped for.....their manager had made the experience.....a less than pleasurable one. Abby gritted his teeth, and forced his focus back onto Nari’s sleeping form to drive the memories away. He refused to let his time topside be wasted dwelling on a past he couldn’t change. They were free for the time being, no Gwi-Ma watching their every move, no voices in their heads, no bleeding themselves dry trying to keep their sanity in tact in the demon realm. They were free. 

Like a magnet drawing them in, Romance and Abby’s heads turned to the hallway where Mira was exiting her room. She got a few steps down the hall before she froze like a deer in headlights at the two sets of eyes on her. On her shoulder Sussie chortled and pecked her ear. She snapped out of it and glared at them, they noted though, that the usual malice she directed toward them had dimmed. She flipped her hair as she passed them by and went to assist Zoey with putting out place settings on the dining table. 

“I think she’s warming up to us,” Romance whispered to him. Abby could only nod in tentative hopeful agreement. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

The party was in full swing by mid afternoon. It had branched off into a game night part two of sorts with the room breaking off into two groups. Mystery, Zoey, Rumi and Jinu (and by extension Nari), and Romance, Abby, Bobby, Baby and Mira. Group 1 was playing Clue and group 2 was playing the Game of Life. 

“Nari’s turn,” Zoey said. Rumi, who was playing as Colonel Mustard for herself and as Mrs. Peacock for Nari in her stead, glanced at her daughter’s cards. Nari was laying in a bouncer, and she’d been changed into appropriate part attire. An adorably frilly pink dress with a large glittery bow on her head. 

“Nari suggests that it was Miss Scarlett....with the lead pipe....in the conservatory,” Rumi said. Jinu passed, Mystery passed....and Zoey had the Miss Scarlett card. Between her own notes and the notes Rumi was taking for Nari, Rumi knew Mrs. Peacock was the murderer. One month old and her daughter was already a blood thirsty killer. Nari smiled at her and gurgled. Rumi smiled back and then grimaced, realizing that was a fart smile and not a happy smile. 

“Ewww, Nari,” Jinu said pinching his nose dramatically. Rumi swatted him on the arm with her cards. 

Derpy rose up from his doggy bed and came to join their game, squeezing in between Rumi and Zoey and dropping to the floor like a content sack of potatoes. He instantly received pets on either side of his massive head from both girls, and gushing compliments of what a good boy he was. 

From the other game, there was muffled yelling and Mira pushed Abby. He keeled over on the floor in mock pain. Mira rolled her eyes and muttered something about him being a Baby, which caused Baby to protest the word association. Zoey and Rumi grabbed their hands and had to cover one another's mouths to keep from squealing when they saw Mira actually smile at Abby. 

Sussie sat in the game box comfortably nestled among the fake paper money. While Bobby had explained the rules to Baby, Abby, and Romance, Sussie had sat reading and flipping through the instruction booklet. The bird had proceeded to claim the game box and become the Defacto banker, dolling out money and the blue and pink people pegs whenever a player got married or had a baby. It was concerning how good Sussie was at math.  

After a few tense final turns, the game of life ended with Romance winning. He held his pink car aloft filled with its brood of children and tossed the fake paper money in the air, letting it rain to the ground around them. Sussie cawed angrily at him and pecked his hand. Romance yelped and glared at the bird. Sussie set about collecting the money and putting it neatly back into the box so they could sleep on it. 

Bobby stood, stretching his aching muscles from sitting for too long. He checked his phone and sighed. “Alright, everybody, I’ve got to head out,” He told them, and there was a chorus of protests. “Sorry, I’ve got a plane to catch.” Bobby had a series of meetings with their executives in the Japanese market the whole next week. There were a lot of disgruntled people in the industry upset about Huntrix’s prolonged Hiatus and Bobby had some international fires to put out. 

"Behave, all of you,” Bobby told them sternly, before he grabbed his suitcase and headed for the elevator. When the doors shut behind him, the two groups that had been merging into one turned to each other. They had never been left on their own without Bobby’s supervision. 

Rumi turned back to the game, “Your turn Jinu.” The game continued, until inevitably, Nari was declared the murderer, but by that time she had fallen asleep. They got a cute picture of her sleeping with the cards laid out above her head. Mrs. Peacock with the revolver in the Ballroom. 

Zoey tried to get another game of cards against humanity started, but it was a resounding agreement from everybody else that that was a terrible idea. Zoey pouted and then took Mystery by the hand, disappearing into her bedroom with him. Jinu and Rumi bit their lips, holding in their giggles. Mira just gave an exasperated sigh and shook her head. It was good to see her accepting the reality of what was happening. To her right, Abby and Romance gave her a ‘come hither’ look and Rumi was proud to see Mira walk away with a scoff instead of punching them. They were slowly but surely making progress. 

Celine stopped by for a few minutes, her eyes warily tracking the demons that had taken up residence in the building, and they watched her with equal caution. She cast her critical gaze to Jinu, who stood firm. Rumi was proud, she’d seen plenty of men cower before Celine. To Rumi’s surprise, Celine presented her with a storage tote filled with baby clothes. Rumi opened the tote....and was surprised to realize they were her baby clothes. 

“Y-you kept these?” Rumi said her voice catching. 

“I thought you might want them one day,” Celine said casually. Rumi ran her fingertips over a knitted sweater she’d only seen before on pictures of her as a baby. Celine’s mouth was a hard line, but she couldn’t hide the glossy moisture in her eyes from Rumi. 

“Thank you.” Celine nodded and left without another word, never one to bask in sentimentality. 

Jinu took the tote of baby clothes to his and Rumi’s room to sort later. As he walked down the hall, he passed by Mystery and Zoey who were exiting Zoey’s room. “Enjoying the party?” he asked them. They both jumped. 

“Yup! Yup, it’s great!” Zoey said. “Just wanted to show Mystery my....m-my gaming set-up. He wants to get one like it.” Mystery nodded his agreement, and Jinu noted that unlike when Zoey had entered her room, she was now wearing a high-collared sweater with a turtle embroidered on the front. 

“Uh-huh,” Jinu said. It was a good thing Celine had left already. 

Zoey and Mystery rejoined the party, both of them so enamored with each other that they missed the double take every other person in the room did when they noticed her sweater. Mira threw her hands up and looked up at the ceiling like some deity was going to give her guidance for the absolute insanity that her life had become. Zoey and Mystery went to the couch and sat a few feet from Baby to watch the movie he’d just put on. It was some 90s crime film set in Minnesota. 

When the first murder happened, Baby turned to them and said, “It’s a comedy.” 

Around seven o’clock as the sun was starting to set outside the tower, it was finally cake time. Zoey had forced them to wait until it was a “reasonable dessert time” for some reason. They all gathered around the kitchen island and in lieu of Nari, Rumi and Jinu blew out the candles on her cake. 

Jinu clapped Nari’s hands together. “Yay! Happy 30 days to me!” He said in a high-pitched girly voice. Rumi laughed and pulled him in for a quick kiss. 

Zoey started cutting the cake and divvying out pieces. Abby, Romance, and Mira were in a light-hearted war for the only piece that had a bright pink frosting flower. Baby had taken a break from the television and was enjoying his own piece. Mystery and Zoey were whispering to each other as they shared a piece of cake. Rumi and Jinu fed one another a corner piece of cake, while Nari watched them. 

“Oh, I’ve got a new joke!” Jinu said. Everyone groaned. They’d managed to go almost a week without one of Jinu’s horrendous dad jokes. “What do you call a toothless bear?” He allowed for an anticlimactic silence. “A gummy bear!” 

“That’s terrible.” Abby whined, but he was smiling. 

“Your sense of humor is malfunctioning.” Baby said. 

“Rumi, you seriously find this guy attractive?” Mira asked, pointing at Jinu with her fork. She’d won the piece of cake with the flower. 

They all laughed at their mutual agreement that Jinu would never have a career as a stand-up comedian. And the laughter at Jinu’s expense would have continued, if not for the- 

CRASH! 

The group went dead silent. 

BANG! 

They all turned to the elevator where the noises had originated. Metal screeched and they all had to cover their ears as the elevator door was ripped open from the inside. Rumi, Mira and Zoey instantly stepped forward bolting directly in front of the elevator and summoning their weapons. The doors peeled backwards and revealed a woman in a red dress. She was so tall she nearly touched the top of the elevator door frame as she stepped through it. 

“Oh shit!” Abby cursed, dropping his cake to the floor and stumbling backwards away from the woman. 

The woman’s head snapped to the right where all the boys were gathered around the kitchen island. She opened her mouth and licked her tongue across a set of razor sharp teeth. A demon. All of the Saja Boys backed away from her, their faces stricken in pure terror. She ignored the Hunters and took a step towards the boys. They all stepped back, pushing Jinu behind them to protect Nari who let out an angry cry in his arms. 

Rumi, Mira and Zoey stepped between them, weapons raised. “Who the hell do you think you are!” Rumi yelled. The woman’s eyes snapped from the boys to the hunters standing guard in front of them. She stared at them, eyes dilated to pinpricks and unblinking. A predator who’s kill was being interrupted. 

“I’m Katerina,” she said, her thick Russian accent rumbling her words across the room like thunder. “I’m the Saja Boy’s manager.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

If any of the Saja Boys had the ability as demons, they would have voided their bowels.  

“You’re in my way,” Katerina growled at the girls. 

“Well, you’re in our home, threatening our friends,” Rumi said, her sword poised to strike Katerina in the heart if she moved. “So, I think we’re well within our rights to defend both.” 

Katerina stood unnaturally still like a store mannequin. Her six foot height made even more imposing by the high heels she stood on with such grace they seemed part of her body. She stood taller than every person in that room, even Abby, towering over them like a giantess. Zoey felt like an ant compared to her. 

“I have revenge to enact,” she said and lifted her hand to point at Jinu. This is when she noticed Nari in his arms. “Why the fuck do you have a baby?” 

“Uh....” Jinu said. 

“She’s mine,” Rumi said, and now the full force of Katerina’s attention turned on Rumi, her eyes tracing the patterns on Rumi’s skin. Goosebumps pebbled across Rumi’s skin in the wake of her gaze. 

Katerina’s grin widened, showing off the full pristine of her pearly white, shark teeth. “A demon hunter who herself is a demon?” She cackled. “That's fantastic. That’s rich.” 

“Yes, I’m half demon,” Rumi said. “And I’m sure as hell not letting you touch Jinu or our daughter.” 

“OUR!” Katerina’s laughter turned maniacal. The boys huddled together in fear. “Is that-” Katerina struggled to get her words out through her laughter. “Is that why you tried to get rid of me? Oh, Jinu, you thought you could do away with me just like that and I wouldn’t ever find my way back up here to seek my vengeance?” 

In less than the blink of an eye Katerina was across the room, a clawed hand locked around Jinu’s throat lifting him in the air. Jinu let go of Nari on instinct to try and pry Katerina’s hands away, Abby dove beneath Jinu’s dangling feet and caught Nari, skidding across the hardwood floor and away from Katerina. 

“Nari!” Rumi screamed, and the boys parted as the girls charged with their weapons, but Katerina turned around putting Jinu’s body between them as a personal shield. 

Katerina tutted. “Such a pretty neck, it’d be a shame to snap it.” Jinu didn’t need to breathe like humans did but that didn’t mean he’d survive having his head separated from his body. “Now, Jinu, while I’d love to hear the story of your romance with the hunter and the subsequent child. I’d like to first talk about how you had me imprisoned.” Jinu made a choked reply, his windpipe crushed beneath her claws. 

“Just let him go,” Rumi said. “And we can discus this civilly.”  

Katerina laughed. “Civil! What makes you think I’m interested in something like that? No. I want to play with my food before I eat it.” She pulled Jinu back against her body and licked his cheek. Jinu took the opening to kick backwards into Katerina’s stomach, she grunted and dropped Jinu. He disappeared in a cloud of red. 

Rumi, Zoey, and Mira lunged for her, slashing with their weapons, but she was quick. She dodged them with ease, laughing as she did so, moving out of their way like it was an effortless dance. Katerina spun on her heels toward them like she doing ballet, dodging and forcing herself into range to strike them with her claws. 

“Fuck,” Mira hissed as Katerina’s claws cut through her shirt and tore through the flesh in her forearm. The hunters were forced to retreat backward, losing ground as she backed them into a corner. 

Jinu reappeared in a cloud of red mist behind Katerina an object in  each of his hands and threw them at her. So focused on her fight with the hunters she didn’t notice the objects until they hit her. The bolas wrapped around her feet and torso sending Katerina crashing to the floor. She screamed and hissed, spitting like a feral cat. She tried tearing them off  but the strike of her claws against the metal chains of the bolas only sent sparks flying around her. 

“Not this fucking thing again!” She screamed and turned to Jinu, hissing at him. Katerina let out one last shriek and laid back on the floor, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the fight gone from her in an instant. Apparently, she wasn’t above breaking into their tower to seek revenge, but she wouldn’t stoop to crawling and writhing on the ground to try and kill them while she was immobilized. 

Zoey and Mira kept their weapons trained on Katerina while Rumi rushed to Abby who was holding Nari. Jinu was at their side in an instant, checking over every inch of their daughter for injuries. They both breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from a little bit of spit up on her dress, Nari was perfectly fine. Jinu took her in his arms and held her tight. 

Katerina sat up and scooted back a foot so she could lean back against the kitchen island. She glared at them. “Well?” 

“Well, what?” Zoey asked. 

“Are you going to kill me or just stand their with your thumb up your ass?” Katerina asked, and Zoey made a scandalized sound. 

Rumi rejoined them, sword out and put it to Katerina’s neck. Katerina didn’t look scared, she looked....thrilled. A smile on her face, her eyes tracing the sharp edge of Rumi’s sword like it was the body of a beautiful lover. What was wrong with this woman? 

“So, where exactly have you been?” Baby asked. The boys had come up to stand in a half circle behind the girls. Katerina’s eyes flicked to him and Baby regretted drawing her attention. 

“Your illustrious leader didn’t tell you?” She said. Her accent slowing her speech to a deep drag. “He made a deal with Geoul and had me trapped inside a mirror. A little golden compact, it was actually quite beautiful. Until it got shattered.” 

Abby turned to Jinu, “Please tell me you didn’t trap Katerina of all people in a mirror.” He wanted to slap some sense into Jinu. He’d have to do a few dozens slaps to make it effective though.  

“They’re supposed to be impossible to break out of,” Jinu defended.  

“She’s Katerina! She’s the witch of the demon realm!” Katerina gave another toothy grin. 

Jinu had been told by Geoul that it was nearly impossible for a demon trapped inside one of his mirrors to break out of it, that it almost always had to be broken by an outside force. Geoul swore Katerina would be safely tucked away. He’d rightfully balked at the idea of trapping Katerina in the first place, but had relented because of the massive favor he’d owed Jinu which they now agreed was settled. But....if anyone had the strength of will to shatter a mirror from the inside out....it would be Katerina. 

“I’m one of Gwi-Ma’s inner circle, do you honestly think something as trivial as a mirror could hold me?” 

“Well....” 

Katerina glared at Jinu. “That was rhetorical!” 

“Hold up,” Mira said. “You’re part of Gwi-Ma's inner circle? He has an inner circle?” 

Katerina rolled her eyes. “Of course he does. He’s the all powerful demon king,” Katerina said in a mocking tone. “Do you think he handles all problems in the demon realm himself? No, he has people he delegates the lesser problems to. The same thing human kings have done for millenniums.” 

“Which is why we can’t trust her!” Romance said, and cowered behind Abby out of her sight. 

Jinu nodded in agreement. “She’s loyal to Gwi-Ma, everyone knows that.” 

“I’m not loyal to Gwi-Ma," Katerina scoffed, offended at the accusation. 

“You do his bidding,” Zoey pointed out. 

“We all do his bidding,” Katerina sneered. “We don’t have a choice. Remember? His voice constantly yapping in our heads. I can’t believe he’s letting you all run around up here unsupervised.” 

“Neither can we,” Jinu muttered. “We haven’t been able to hear him in weeks.” 

Katerina narrowed her eyes at him. “You can’t hear him, at all? That makes all of you liabilities, why hasn’t he pulled you back down?” Katerina’s voice dropped to a near whisper as she spoke, the gears in her head visibly spinning. “You defied him and ruined years of planning. Why hasn’t he ripped you all back down there to be punished?” Katerina’s clawed hands had morphed back to her human form and her red painted fingernails tapped thoughtfully against the hardwood floor. 

“Can you just kill her already?” Baby asked. 

Rumi pulled her sword back, ready to plunge it through Katerina’s heart. 

“Wait!” Katerina said. “I know why you can’t hear him.” Rumi paused, sword raised to strike. Rumi gestured for her to continue. “As cliche and pathetic as this will sound.....you’re falling in love or already in love, right?” 

“Yes,” Rumi said. She loved Jinu, and she knew Mystery and Zoey weren’t far behind them. Mira, Abby, and Romance were....complicated, but they were definitely in the process of becoming something. 

“There are very specific rules against demons fraternizing with humans, you boys all know that. Not just to make sure we’re using them as fuel to feed Gwi-Ma and break the honmoon, but to keep us segregated. So long as the shame fills us, Gwi-Ma has us under his control. All that lovey-dovey acceptance crap from humans can weaken Gwi-Ma's connection to his demons. That’s why you haven’t been able to hear him. And with so many of you congregating in one area, it’s likely made this tower a blind spot for him,” Katerina told them. Then looked at them all like they were a bunch of poop-flinging apes. “Did you all seriously not question why he hasn’t come after you? Have you all just been freeballing it up here?” 

“We.....hypothesized that it was something along those lines,” Jinu told her. 

Katerina looked like she wanted to smack her forehead. “Naive children.” 

“Hey! I’m older than you,” Jinu said. 

“Then it must be true about girls maturing faster.”  

“If you’re so mature and important, you crazy witch, then why did Gwi-Ma make you our glorified babysitter,” Jinu mocked, poorly mimicking her accent. Katerina fumed. 

In turn, Katerina mocked his accent, “Well at least I have a personality other than one-note pretty boy.” 

Rumi watched them utterly baffled. Katerina was delighted to trade barbed banter with Jinu, but the malice was gone from her voice. It was like they were trying to goad each other into a fight that neither of them actually wanted to follow through with. It was like watching siblings pick on one another. 

“OH MY GOD,” Mira drawled interrupting the two. “Why should any of this keep us from killing you?” 

Katerina grinned, the maniacal glee returning to her eyes. “For the same reason Gwi-Ma keeps me around. When shit hits the fan, you want a grenade in your arsenal.” 

The girls glanced back at the boys to get their input. 

“Terrible idea,” Abby said. 

“She’ll turn on us first chance she gets,” Baby said, and Mystery nodded in agreement. 

“Wow, thanks for the glowing references,” Katerina said. “Like I wasn’t the one scheduling your concerts, TV appearances, and drilling the choreography into you. Ungrateful.” She huffed in annoyance. 

“We’re not actually entertaining the idea of letting this witch live?” Abby said, like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. Katerina didn’t look offended. 

“Gwi-Ma will come for you eventually,” Katerina told them. “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he will come for you. You need allies and I’m loyal to no one but myself. I’m not stupid enough to turn down the chance of staying up here free of Gwi-Ma in this tower rather than stuck down their serving as his slave.” 

The girls glanced at one another and slowly lowered their weapons. 

Abby groaned and put his head in his hands. “This is a terrible idea,” he told them. “No, inviting us to stay here was a terrible idea. This is just plain stupid.” 

“Can we trust you?” Rumi asked. 

“No,” Katerina told them. “Only a fool would trust me.” 

Mira gave an exasperated look. “Aren’t you supposed to be talking us into not killing you? You’re doing a real shitty job.” 

“I won’t actively work against you. It’s in my best interest that you all continue....whatever the hell you’ve got going on here.” She made an inappropriate gesture with her bound hands, that had the rest of the room blushing. “Oh, and sorry about the baby dropping thing. I’m a monster but even I draw the line at hurting kids.” 

And with that apology, everyone’s opinion shifted minutely. Zoey and Mira vanished there weapons and Jinu stepped forward, he touched his fingers to the bolas and they fell away from Katerina, clattering to the ground around her. She stretched and stood up, towering over the girls. 

“Stupid fucking demon metal, that shit hurts,” she said to Jinu. “Don’t do that again.” 

“Don’t give me a reason to.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺  

Rumi had been having nightmares. Now, this wasn’t new for her. She’d been having nightmares most of her life, almost always related to her demon nature. Celine had spent the majority of her life convincing her the best thing she could do was suppress her demon side. Years of stress and tying herself up in knots to keep those she loved from seeing how much she was struggling underneath the facade she put on each morning. The nightmares that resulted from that were frequent and usually left her gasping awake in the middle of the night. But, the ones that she’d been having since Nari was born....were different. 

Worse. 

And they always ended the same. Nari engulfed in flames and Rumi watching helplessly just out of reach. She woke each time in a cold sweat, her sheets sticking to her and Jinu at her side pulling her into his arms. Her shaking uncontrollably and him whispering sweet nothings into her ear and placing soft kisses on her forehead. They were infrequent, at most once a week, but when they came Rumi would spend the morning in bed being pampered by Jinu and holding Nari in her arms until she felt the impending sense of doom abate. 

Jinu had taken to reverting to his demon form when they were alone and it always brought her comfort to see their patterns lined up together when she laid in his arms. Something a younger version of her would have never thought possible. What had once been a sickly purple disease was now a warm afternoon glass of grape juice with her boyfriend and daughter. 

“She’s okay, she’s healthy, she’s right here in my arms, why am I so afraid?” Rumi asked Jinu. 

“It’s called postpartum anxiety,” Jinu told her. He’d read through several parenting books over the past few weeks. “It’s normal and it will go away eventually.” 

Rumi knew what the books said, she’d read through that chapter herself, hoping it would give her some kind of mental relief. Which it hadn’t. She’d lived with anxiety her whole life, it had been a constant companion for years and this wasn’t that. She knew Jinu wouldn’t think she was crazy if she voiced this, but something inside her kept her from speaking up. 

She glanced at the photo album that Celine had given her that had found a home on her nightstand, trying to find comfort in the photos of her mother and father. She thought back on the conversation she’d had with Jinu a few days earlier. 

“Do you recognize him?” She asked Jinu. 

He shook his head. “What was his name?” 

“Dohyun.” 

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know him, but I’m not surprised,” he told her. “The different regions of the demon realm are kept very isolated. You can’t overthrow a tyrant demon king if the population is kept apart and don’t have a way to organize an uprising with demons in the other regions. Gwi-Ma may be a sadistic bastard, but he’s smart.” 

Rumi just had to accept that she may never get answers to her questions and hope this feeling of dread would disappear with time. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

After their confrontation in the Huntrix penthouse, Katerina had taken up residence on the floor below the Saja Boys. The entire floor. When it came to picking battles, this was one none of them wanted to touch with a ten foot pole. Katerina might not work against them but that didn’t mean she would lay down like a tame dog. Pushed into a corner, she would bite the hand that feeds rather than be starved by it. 

Unfortunately for the other inhabitants of the tower, Katerina’s sudden appearance and claiming of the empty floor meant their was no food in her kitchen, and Katerina’s hunger rivaled that of even Baby’s. Twenty four hours after she’d arrived, all fridges had been wiped clean and the pantries were left with only ingredients that weren’t edible in their base state. Katerina looked at a bag of flour, contempt in her eyes. 

“Can you like, stop eating all of our food?” Mira asked her. 

Katerina cocked her head to the side, studying Mira, “Would you prefer I eat you?” 

Before Mira could open her mouth, Abby and Romance were jumping to her defense, pushing Mira protectively behind them. “Do not eat her!” Abby told her. “She’s off limits.” Mira wasn’t sure if she should be offended or flattered. She could handle herself, but they were jumping in the path of someone they were clearly afraid of. 

“Can you just not be the witch of the demon realm, and just pretend to act like a normal human,” Romance suggested. 

Katerina looked amused. “I wasn’t a normal human when I was human so my frame of reference is a bit skewed. You two know my story.” They couldn’t fault her on that. Katerina only had one mode, 100% dedicated intensity. That’s why they had to stop having her meet executives in person to arrange their Saja Boys appearances. She kept scaring them. The only time she’d had a face-to-face meeting an executive at the network actually wet himself. 

“Why do they call you the witch of the demon realm?” Zoey asked. 

Katerina gave her a toothy grin. “Oooooh, so they haven’t been telling tall tales about me in my absence?” 

Jinu and Baby puffed into room the in a cloud of smoke, their arms weighed down by bags of to go containers. They divvied them out among the occupants of the room, two entire bags going to Katerina. Rumi appeared in the room, a portable baby monitor clipped to her belt to keep track of a sleeping Nari in her room. Everyone gathered around the kitchen island, grabbing their food and fanning out to other parts of the room. Rumi, Jinu, Katerina, Mira and Zoey at the island, Abby and Romance at the dining table, and Baby and Mystery at the couch. Aside from Jinu the Saja Boys kept a healthy distance from Katerina at all times.  

Katerina opened a large domed container to find an entire roast duck, meat still clinging to the bones. She didn’t make any illusion to using silverware, ripping into it with her pristine red painted fingernails. The juice dripping down her fingers and onto the countertop. Everyone aside from Mira looked on with horror. Mira had a growing respect for this no nonsense demon who didn’t give a shit about the way she was perceived by those around her. Mira absentmindedly fed Sussie a piece of chicken on his perch on her shoulder. 

“What is your story?” Mira asked, keeping her voice neutral while inside she was choking on her awe. 

“What did they tell you?” Katerina, her mouth full. 

“Uh, literally nothing, aside from the fact that they used to have a manager, ” Zoey said. “We didn’t even know your name until yesterday.” 

“And now we know you’re Russian,” Rumi said. 

“Soviet,” Katerina corrected her. 

“Huh?” Zoey said. 

“It was the Soviet Union when I was human, not Russia, so that’s the demonym I’ll keep,” she told them. 

“Soviet Union,” Mira repeated. “So, that’s like World War 2, right?” 

The boys all groaned, while Katerina grinned, bits of duck meat sticking out between her teeth. “Don’t get her started on the war,” Abby pleaded, his hands clasped together in prayer. “I’m begging you.”  

Mira was in the mood to torture. “Please, what was the war like? Tell me in great detail what your political opinions were and your place in it all.” 

Katerina ripped one of the wings off the duck and pointed to Mira with it. “I like you,” Katerina said and she turned to Abby and Romance. “She’s too good for you two.” 

She took a bite of the wing, grease dripping down her mouth. “Have you ever heard of the Soviet Night Witches?” All the girls shook their heads. “We were an all female bomber regiment in World War 2. They gave us the oldest, junker planes that the army had leftover, the ones that weren’t good enough for the all male regiments, and we destroyed those Nazi fuckers with them.” 

The girls leaned forward, food forgotten. 

“I spent most of my time in the co-pilot seat in charge of the armaments, but....I did things a bit different than my sisters did.” Katerina finished eating the duck and moved on to her side of jangajji. “I made a deal with Gwi-Ma back in....1943....I wanted to tear those Nazi bastards apart, and he let me have the time of my life doing it.” 

“What did you do to them?” Rumi asked. 

“The strategy of the Night Witches, and the reason we got our nickname was because we’d fly close to the German planes and idle our engines so the only thing they heard on our approach was the wind. They would say we were like witches approaching on broomsticks. We could get close enough to spit on those Nazi fuckers....or, in my case, close enough to jump on their planes. I’d tear the copilot apart and then move up and rip the pilot apart, and when the plane started falling from the sky, I’d jump back to my awaiting plane.” She leaned back, smiling at the fond memories of men screaming for mercy. 

“You tore them apart with your bare hands?” Zoey asked, vibrating in excitement. 

“My hands?” Katerina smiled wide, and licked her tongue slowly across her razor sharp teeth. “No....not my hands.” Rumi, Zoey and Mira looked at her with a reverence that should only be allocated to deities. 

“Oh great,” Abby said. “Now, we’ll never get rid of her.” 

Katerina rolled her eyes. “Men are afraid of powerful women. Don’t let those asinine infants keep you from reaching your true potential.” 

“Thank you for not calling us babies!” Baby called from the couch. 

Abby had finished his food and was back in the kitchen throwing the plastic containers in the recycling bin. “Just remember she’s a demon,” he warned the girls and didn’t shrink beneath Katerina’s withering gaze. “She’s got a reputation for ruthlessness, even in the demon realm.” 

“Should we not trust you either,” Mira countered. 

Abby leaned on the counter across from Mira and took her hand in his. To the room’s amazement, she didn’t pull away. Abby gave her a smoldering look, “I think you should know by now that you are my number one priority.” 

“Oh my god,” Mira groaned and yanked her hand back. “Do you honestly think that will work? You’re not gonna win me over with pretty words.” 

“Then how do we win you over?” Romance said, gliding in behind Romance and draping his arm across his shoulder. Mira’s eyes flicked between the two. 

“Uh, you....you....I-I’m going to the training room,” Mira shot to her feet, Sussie squawking at the sudden movement, and all but ran to the stairs to head down the ten floors to the training room (they were still waiting for the elevator doors to get fixed). 

Abby sighed “You scared her away.” 

“You were teasing her, you know she doesn’t like that,” Romance said, and pulled Abby down to kiss his cheek. “Haven’t you realized yet, she likes the cat and mouse game. Now, it’s our turn to chase.” Romance took Abby’s hand and pulled him toward the stairs after Mira. 

Once they were gone, Katerina turned to Rumi and Zoey, “What the fuck is going on there?”  

“An unrequited attraction,” Zoey said dreamily, loving the romance of it all. 

Rumi laughed, “It’s not unrequited, that would mean Mira doesn't return their affection, which is definitely not the case. She’s got it bad, she’s just in denial.” 

“I thought unrequited meant like forbidden? Like Romeo and Juliet.” 

“No, they’re star-crossed lovers.” 

“Star-crossed! That’s what it is, we’re all star-crossed lovers,” Zoey squealed and then in dramatic voice. “Three couples, predestined to be enemies, circumventing the universe to become star-crossed enemies, and they all lived happily ever after. Not like Romeo & Juliet. No one is dying in this story.” 

“Hopefully not,” Rumi agreed faintly, her mind drifting to her nightmares. Jinu, who’d been sitting at Rumi’s side the whole time, quietly enjoying the morning, piped up when he saw the cloud drift across Rumi’s face. 

“And then there’s Baby over there,” Jinu said, jerking his thumb back toward Baby on the couch. 

“What about me?” Baby asked. 

“We’re all in relationships, or almost, and you’re just chilling,” Jinu said. 

“I’m just happy being the eighth wheel!” he slurped his ramen noisily. “You won’t get any complaints from me so long as the fridge is kept stocked and you pay the bill for all the streaming services.” 

“That one’s hopeless,” Katerina said. “Although....I thought he was too,” she pointed at Jinu. “Maybe another miracle will happen.” 

“You know that’s technically a thinly veiled insult to you,” Jinu told Rumi. “If I was a hopeless case, you must have taken pity on me.” 

“Oh sweetie,” Rumi said, squeezing his cheeks in her hand and pulling him in for a kiss. “I did take pity on you.” There was a round of raucous laughter from around the room, but Jinu didn’t mind, not when Rumi looked at him like that. 

Katerina glanced at them disgusted, “I was wrong, you two are perfect for each other.” 

Jinu used his baby talk voice, “Oooh, does someone get upset seeing two people in love.” 

“Love is overrated. Been there, done that," she waved the idea away flippantly. “Love is an overrated detour for fools when the real purpose of life is power....and sex. Sex is probably the only thing that makes life as a human tolerable.” 

“That’s pessimistic,” Zoey said. Mystery had abandoned Baby to his shows and joined the main group in the kitchen. Zoey made a show of leaning back against Mystery’s chest and letting him wrap his arms around her middle. Katerina gagged. 

“Katerina’s the queen of pessimism,” Jinu said. 

“I am not!” 

“Yes, you are. The only time I’ve ever seen you happy is when you’re making other people miserable.” 

"That’s because torturing people is fun!” 

Jinu threw up his hands, “Ask the people who you’re torturing next time what they think about it.” 

“What do their opinions matter when they were stupid enough to get in a situation where I would be torturing them.” 

“Woah! Time out you two,” Rumi said putting her hands up. The two paused their tirade to look at her. “What the hell...is this?” she gestured between them. 

“What is what?” they said at the same time. 

“This!” Did they honestly not see it? “The way you two argue and taunt each other, it’s like you’re family.” They both looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “Seriously? You’re both constantly winding each other up, but don’t follow through....aside from the choking thing.” 

“Yeah....were you actually going to kill me?” Jinu asked Katerina.  

She shrugged. “I thought about it, but.....” she shook her head. 

“Ooooh, you really do care about me.” 

“Fuck off.” 

“See,” Rumi said. “This is what I’m talking about. What’s the history here?” 

“Did you guys have like a thing?” Zoey said. Jinu visibly paled, and Katerina felt bile rise in her throat. 

“Absolutely not!” 

“Gross!” 

“Jinu used to be under my command,” Katerina told him. “I’m a rare case when it comes to the inner circle. Most other demons spend hundreds of years slogging along to get to that position, but Gwi-Ma instated me when I was first brought down to the demon realm.” 

“He’d just killed her predecessor and had a vacancy in the inner circle,” Jinu supplied helpfully. 

“Yeah, and Jinu was the first demon Gwi-Ma put under my command. He was my scribe for.....two decades?” Katerina said. 

“Sounds about right,” Jinu agreed. “But Gwi-Ma got sick and tired of listening to us argue every time he had to meet with Katerina. I was her scribe so I was always tagging along to take notes, and they wouldn’t get anything done because we were always fighting each other.” 

“It got so bad Gwi-Ma had to separate us. And then they assigned me Nadia,” Katerina said, saying the woman’s name with a high-pitched regal lilt. 

“Ugh, Nadia sucked,” Jinu said. 

“She was the worst,” Katerina agreed. 

“Was she bad at her job?” Rumi asked. 

Katerina scoffed. “No, she was perfect. Annoyingly, perfectly perfect. She always showed up on time, and took careful notes, and did what I asked. She was so boooooooring.” 

“Yeah, and when miss goody two shoes took my spot, I got booted to another region. That’s when I realized how good I had it in your region. You were an easy boss compared to Tien. Only good thing that came out of getting reallocated to Tien was meeting the other Saja Boys.” 

“Who’s Tien?” Zoey asked. 

“He’s Gwi-Ma's right hand man. He does all of Gwi-Ma's dirty work and is probably the only demon who’s actually loyal to Gwi-Ma,” Jinu told them. 

“He’s a fanatic,” Katerina said. 

“He would drink the Kool-Aid. No questions.” 

“He’d be the one mixing the Kool-Aid and cyanide together and handing it out to everyone,” Katerina said, laughing at her own joke so hard that bits of food went flying out of her mouth. 

“Tien’s in charge of Demon distribution up here,” Jinu told them. 

“Demon....distribution?” Rumi said, eyebrow raised. 

“Basically he picks which demons come up here to fight you,” Katerina said. “He’s the mastermind behind every demon battle you’ve had. He may be a zealot, but that fucker is a expert battle strategist.” 

“He’s not much of a genius considering we always win,” Zoey said, she and Rumi fist bumped. Katerina couldn’t argue that. Although the demon realm was working at a severe disadvantage. “And he’s kind of slacking on his job lately. We haven’t had a demon attack in a month.” 

“What?” Katerina stopped eating. “There’s been none?” 

Zoey shook her head, “Not since the attack on the train last month. It’s been dead silent since then.” Katerina made a thoughtful sound and started slowly eating her food again. 

Rumi’s phone dinged. A message from Bobby. 

Why has your food bill quadrupled in the last 24 hours? 

Rumi sent back. 

Complicated. Explain when you get back. 

Rumi glanced up at Katerina. Complicated was an understatement. At least the Saja Boys had the presence of mind to keep quiet and out of sight, Rumi had a feeling it would be a lot harder to keep Katerina contained and out of the public eye. Maybe if they found a task to keep her occupied it would keep her out of trouble. Rumi would have to think more on that. They had six more days until Bobby came back from Japan, so Rumi would do her best until he was back to manage the situation.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

A week of living with Katerina brought fourth all the worst case scenarios that hadn’t come to fruition when the Saja Boys had moved in. In one week....she had started four fires, had flooded her entire floor twice when she forgot she was running a bath, had clogged the garbage shoot four times, and had “accidentally” punched a hole straight through a structural column. She wasn’t a walking disaster, she was walking destruction. 

As a group they’d decided to include her as much as possible in their activities. If they had eyes on her then she couldn’t break anything else....they hoped. Abby spent far too much of this group meeting soaking in the unacknowledged knowledge that they were living in a present that he’d actively tried to dissuade them from and had been ignored. His ego was practically glowing. 

And while the boys made their complaints frequently and loudly (out of Katerina’s ear shot), the girls had taken to her like she was the cool older aunt their parents didn’t want around because she might be a ‘bad influence’. Katerina had infinite interesting stories from her decades in the demon realm that somehow always circled back to her time fighting in World War 2. She would find a way to bring that topic up in any conversation no matter how unrelated. The girls were doing their best to steer her toward different topics, the current subject was the inner workings on the demon realm. 

“So, there’s eight regions in the demon realm?” Mira asked. 

Katerina nodded. They were sitting with her on the couch in the penthouse, all of them beneath blankets as a romantic comedy about an actress and a boring British guy falling in love played on the TV in front of them. The guys had wanted to join in on the movie night, but the girls movie selection had driven them downstairs. Along with Nari. She was getting to enjoy an American action movie about men flying fighter jets with her dad and uncles. 

“Yeah, and I’ve got the second smallest region,” she told them, her hand diving into her bowl of popcorn and shoving it into her mouth with hedonistic abandon. Between that and her glass of red wine, it looked like a massacre. “But....as much a bad rep as I get, I have the highest citizen satisfaction rating.” 

“You guys poll your citizens?” Rumi asked surprised. 

“During the local elections,” She said. They all turned to her incredulous. “Oh, all the elected positions in the election are rigged, but we do keep track of the answers to the non-rigged poll questions.” 

“Huh, so it’s not that different from up here,” Mira laughed. “I know, I know, not funny, but it kind of is.” 

Katerina shrugged. “Most of us demons were once human, makes sense we emulate each other. Shit, I’m out of popcorn.” 

Mira tried to duck beneath her blanket before Zoey flashed her the shirtless photo of Abby, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her eyes exploded into popcorn and the girls dove to try and catch it in their empty bowls. Katerina managed to spill her glass of red wine in the movement and sent it spilling onto the couch and floor. Zoey shrieked and grabbed the stain remover spray from beneath the coffee table (they’d had it on standby at all times since they discovered Katerina’s love for the face-puckering dry red wine). 

Derpy lifted his head from where he’d had it smushed into his bed in the corner of the room, enjoying a nice evening nap while the girls watched their movie. Sussie squawked angrily as they were jostled from their perch on top of Derpy’s head. They flew a circle around the room, picking up a few pieces of popcorn and returning to Derpy’s head once he’d settled back down to sleep. 

Mira rubbed the salt and butter out of her eyes and took a drink from her own glass of wine, forcing herself to choke it down. If Katerina could stomach this trash then so could she. She’d kill for some soju. Zoey had someone gotten through almost two glasses of Katerina’s wine and didn’t seem to be suffering from the horrific taste in any way. Rumi was enjoying a cup of sujeonggwa, and at the look on Mira’s face as she sipped her wine, Rumi winked and stuck out her tongue. Mira glowered. 

“So, there’s you and Tien, and six others in the inner circle,” Zoey said, laying out the facts she had so far. “And according to you, everyone else in the inner circle are....useless tools?” 

“And aside from me and Tien, the general populace doesn’t know who the other members of the inner circle are. They all like to run things from the shadows, while Tien and I have always preferred them to fear us on sight,” she told them. “What’s the point of having power if you can’t abuse it to torment those beneath you?” 

They gave her tight smiles. Katerina’s intense and brutal honesty had endeared her to them over the last week, to the point that they kept forgetting that she was a psychopath with a sizeable body count. Although the majority of them were Nazi’s, so....... 

“So, how long were you a demon up here before Gwi-Ma pulled you down?” Mira asked. 

“Just over two years, he yanked me down on the 30th of April 1945. I was so pissed off until I found out that the war was pretty much over from that point on,” she poured her entire glass of red wine into her popcorn and started eating the soggy mixture. Mira had to look away to keep from gagging. “Then there I am on his self-righteous pedestal being talked down to be a giant campfire and he’s telling me I owe him and he has a job for me. Fast forward I’m thrown into all this bureaucratic demon bullshit and have to manage thousands of demons who don’t have any interest in being managed.” 

Zoey’s phone dinged. She picked it up, and the immediate dopey smile told the other three the message was from Mystery. Mira rolled her eyes, but Zoey caught the motion when she glanced up. 

“Problem?” Zoey asked her. 

Mira mumbled something unintelligible and Zoey leaned in cupping her hand to her ear. “Say again?” 

“Do you have to be so blatant about it?” Mira gritted out. 

Zoey’s cheeks puffed out as she held her laughter in. “Me? You can’t be serious. She who kicks stones in her glass house should do some reevaluating.” 

“What?” Mira crossing her arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. W-we're talking about you here.” 

Zoey took a deep drink from her glass of wine, letting the liquid courage fuel her. The drama show of Mira, Romance, and Abby that her and Rumi had been patiently watching for the last month had been dragging on for too long. This storyline needed a resolution before Zoey’s fangirl heart fell into a coma. 

“Oh, really? No idea you say? She says she has no idea,” Zoey said. “Hmmm, that’s strange, because last week when you went down to the training room and Romance and Abby followed you, we didn’t see the three of you for over four hours.” 

“They came down. I kicked them out,” Mira said nonchalantly, turning away from them and eating a handful of popcorn. 

“Ah-ha! No you didn’t!” Zoey said, trapping Mira in her blatant web of lies. 

Mira reddened and sputtered. “Yes I did! W-why wouldn’t I kick those jerklords out? They’re infuriating.” 

“Really? Because the security cameras outside the training room tell a very different story,” Zoey said. Rumi ate her popcorn, the movie completely forgotten. Katerina didn’t like the movie and was more here for the social aspect, and this by far was more entertaining. 

“T-they teleported out.” 

“Yet...somehow they walk out with you four hours later.....hmmm? Strange....don’t you think so, Rumi?” Zoey asked. Rumi froze, popcorn in hand. Mira glared at her and when Rumi nodded, that laser beam glare burned a blackspot onto the couch behind Rumi. She yelped and dove to the floor, popcorn flying everywhere. 

Mira crossed her arms and slouched back angrily into the couch. “It’s none of your business.” 

“Mira, we want you to be happy, and it would be a lot easier for that to happen, if you would just let yourself be happy,” Zoey said, and against Mira’s protests, wrapped Mira in a tight bear hug. Before Mira could get out of her hold, Rumi grabbed Mira from the other side and they trapped her between them. Zoey’s opinion was if they hugged her hard enough, some of her melancholy would squeeze out and then Mira would have some room available for love to blossom. 

“Alternatively,” Katerina said. “You could just kill them and then they won’t be able to bother you anymore.” Rumi and Zoey glared at her, and Mira....didn’t jump to a witty deadpan remark like usual. She sat quietly in their grasp, pensive to the point that they realized she’d shut down on them. They’d pushed too hard. 

“Oh! Let’s do face masks!” Zoey said, releasing Mira and upsetting the balance of the hug so her and Rumi toppled off the couch and went flailing onto the floor. Katerina cackled and turned back to the movie that she had completely zoned out on. 

Zoey returned a few minutes later with fluffy headbands and a dozen beauty masks in shiny packaging. She dumped them across the coffee table and claimed one with a turtle shape for herself. Rumi grabbed a strawberry one, and Mira groaned and rolled her eyes before choosing a panda one. They managed to convince Katerina to put on the tiger one that advertised a youthful, enchanting glow. 

“Am I not already youthful?” She said as she skeptically opened the peel pack and used a mirror to apply the mask to her face. 

“Yes, of course,” Zoey said. “Especially for your age.” 

Katerina raised an eyebrow and leaned forward into Zoey’s personal space. "How old do you think I am?” 

“Uh-uh....thirty,” Zoey said in a panic. Then slapped her hand to her face, it stuck to the face mask and she had to carefully peel her hand away so she didn’t rip the mask off. Katerina snickered. “I mean, I think you were around that age when you became a demon, but you must be at least 100 years old.” 

Katerina leaned back and brought her popcorn bowl to her lips and drank the dregs of the wine from it, crunching the popcorn kernels that were left at the bottom between her back molars. “ I’m 108. I was twenty-five years old when I became a demon and that’s the appearance I'm stuck at.” 

“Twenty-five?” Mira repeated, an edge of disbelief in her voice because Katerina did not look twenty-five. Early thirties at a minimum. 

Katerina gave a quiet reply. “War ages people." And she said no more on the subject. 

On the TV the couple they had been watching for the last hour and a half reunited at a press conference and got their happily ever after. Rumi, Zoey, and Mira were tearing up, and Katerina looked at them like they were crazy. “You can’t be serious? You all fall for that junk?” 

“Hey, Rumi, look,” Zoey pointed. “We found someone even more pessimistic about love than Mira.” 

“You try spending decades in the demon realm and not come out a cynic. Although....that might have started during the war....eh, that actually might just be my default. There’s nothing wrong with being a pessimist,” Katerina defended, pouring herself another glass of wine. 

Zoey leaned into Rumi and whispered, “Do you think we could squeeze the pessimism out of her?” 

“I think she’d tear our throats out if we tried,” Rumi whispered back. 

“No, I’d give you humane deaths,” Katerina sloshed her wine onto the front of her dress and screeched. She hurried to the kitchen sink to wipe her dress off. The wine was already seeping into the slinky silk fabric, creating a blotchy stain. “You ungrateful wine, I give you the gift of being drunk by me and this is how you repay my generosity.” She scrubbed ferociously at the front of the dress, darkening the green fabric. 

While the girls had opted for pajamas and fuzzy socks, Katerina was in her customary tight short dress and heels. Apparently, that was the only form of clothing she would allow to touch her body. The look of derision she’d given them at the mere suggestion of wearing comfier clothing for movie night had left them scurrying to change the topic. 

The girls followed her into the kitchen, piling their bowls and glasses into the kitchen sink. 

“What should we do tomorrow?” Mira asked. Rumi shrugged. “All this time we’re spending in the tower is making me feel cooped up. We need to go out and do something.” 

“You sound like Rumi,” Zoey joked. 

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. After Katerina’s dramatic entrance last week, they had finally gotten the doors fixed the day before. They expected the boys to come spilling out with Nari, but instead Bobby emerged. 

“Bobby!” The girls greeted excitedly. They hadn’t expected him back from Japan until tomorrow morning. 

“Hi, girls!” he greeted back, freezing when he spotted Katerina standing behind them. 

Katerina breathed in deep, her demon senses taking in the whole of the room as her pupils narrowed to slits. Her entire focus on this small man who’d just entered the room. “Who is that?” she asked, voice cool. 

“That’s Bobby....” Zoey said. “Our manager, we’ve told you about him.” 

Katerina bared her teeth, not a smile, an unmistakable show of dominance. From the corners of her mouth saliva began to drip down her chin. Her voice came out a breathy, purr, “Bobby....what a pretty snack.” 

The girls stared at her open mouthed and said in confused unison, “.....Bobby?” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“How about- living everyday like we’ll never see the sunset?” 

“I like it,” Mystery said, and Zoey blushed. “and waking every sunrise with your love engraved in the bones shielding my heart.” 

Zoey couldn’t decide if she wanted to squeal or melt into a goopey love puddle on the floor so instead she leaned over on the oversized bean bag chair they were sharing and kissed Mystery. He dropped the notepad he’d been writing on to the floor beside them with a clatter and pulled Zoey to him. They made out lazily for the next hour, completely lost in one another. 

Mystery nipped Zoey’s lips a little too roughly and drew blood, Zoey regretfully pulled back, wiping the drops of blood from her mouth. Mystery always wore his demon form when he and Zoey were alone, and this was far from the first time his fangs had gotten in the way. And despite how many times Zoey said she didn’t mind....Mystery did mind. He had to forcefully hold in his apologies. 

“What do you want to do for the rest of the day?” he asked. Zoey was slowly tracing a heart over his chest. They were sunk down low in the massive bean bag chair they’d been cuddling in all morning. It had mysteriously appeared in Zoey’s room the day after they’d shared their first kiss a few weeks earlier. 

“I just want to do this,” she said, interlacing their finger together. “I just want to be together, all day, everyday.” Mystery wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. “I want to snuggle and write music and never go outside again.” 

Mystery kissed her forehead. “I want that too.” She tilted her head and stretched to kiss his forehead which was visible thanks to the glittery barrettes she’d used on his hair to pull back his beautifully unruly bangs. 

Zoey’s phone dinged. She strained to reach for it where it rested on the desk and managed to knock it on the floor. Mystery grabbed it for her and set it in her waiting hands. She thanked him with another kiss and groaned when she saw who the text was from. 

“What is it?” Mystery asked. 

“It’s my dad,” she said. 

“What does he want?” 

“Oh nothing, he’s just doing his monthly check-in to see how I’m doing and update me on his life. He contacts me just enough to be able to say he’s active in my life, even though I see him once a year at most,” Zoey sighed and typed back a short reply, not actually noting anything substantial that was happening in her life. 

“He’s still living in Burbank, right?” 

“Yeah, he just couldn’t give up that California sunshine, at least that was his excuse for breaking up our family....well, that and the secretary he was cheating on my mom with,” she said. Mystery hissed in a breath. 

“Seriously?” 

“Yeah, so my mom and I didn’t feel so bad about picking up our lives and moving back here when I was a teenager. We were upset and angry and we just wanted to get away from him for a while.” That was a toned down version of events. The custody battle had gone on for almost a year, with her mom only coming out on top because she had a better lawyer who was able to provide circumstantial evidence that her father was an unfit caregiver. Since then their relationship had mostly been through texts and short phone calls on birthdays and holidays. “What were your parents like?” Zoey asked. 

“Uh....they were,” Mystery got a look on his face, like he was struggling to concentrate on the question, “They were nothing worth mentioning,” he finally said. “Why don’t I go get us some snacks?” Before she could answer he was up and out of the bean bag chair and heading out her bedroom door and to the kitchen. 

Zoey sighed and ran a hand down her face. She’d done it again. Why did she keep stupidly asking him about his life as a human? Every time she did it ended with him changing the topic or him finding an excuse to leave the room so he didn’t have to answer. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! When would she learn to mind her own business? Zoey laid in the bean bag chair, curled in on herself and swirling downward in the unsavory stew pot her mind had created. 

Mystery returned with a smile, an ice cream bar in each hand. He paused in the doorway, watching Zoey as she spiraled. He immediately sprung into action, launching himself onto the bean bag chair and jarring Zoey back into reality. She laughed and pushed him off her. “What are you doing,” she couldn’t keep away her giggles. “Are you trying to squish me?” 

“Absolutely,” he said and kissed her soundly until her worries were forgotten. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

In her own room, Mira laid in her bed, sandwiched between two hunky demons. Two hunky naked demons. She’d been laying there for the last ten minutes trying to catch her breath and waiting for the feeling to return to her fingers and toes. She’d been trained most of her life to fight demons...and that had in no way prepared her for.... 

“Any critique?” Abby asked from her right and she could hear the smile in his question. “Anything we need to improve on?” 

Mira’s eyes flicked to him, his cheeky grin soft and supple on his face. “N-no....you....that was....” she struggled to string together a few coherent words. 

“Love, we've left her speechless,” Romance said from her left. He leaned over and kissed Mira and then leaned further to kiss Abby. 

Mira closed her eyes and dozed for a while, drifting on a sated cloud. When she woke next, she was wrapped in a warm cocoon of arms and legs. Their heads rested above her on the pillow as they softly spoke to one another, trying not to disturb her slumber. 

“But what if....” Abby said. 

“Don’t think that way, love,” Romance said, and Mira felt a shift in the bed as Romance brought his hand up to cup Abby’s cheek. He kissed Romance’s palm. “I know you feel like everything is you’re responsibility, but it doesn’t have to be. We’re free, we’re happy, we’re in love....let’s just be in love.” 

“I guess you’re right,” Abby said reluctantly. “I've spent too long with dread hanging over me. I need to focus on our life now.” 

“That’s okay, you can learn. We literally have an eternity to work through our issues,” he said. 

“Where’s my place in that?” Mira asked. They both jolted. 

“How long have you been awake?” Abby asked softly.  

“Not long, so.....” she said, chewing the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to ruin the light mood they were reveling in, but she couldn’t stand the unknown lingering over her. “You two will always have each other. What about me? What am I to you? Am I just the human girl you like to fuck?” 

Both boys flinched at the last word. “No,” Abby said firmly, shaking his head. “You are not some fling that we’re going to ditch next week. You....you’re.....” Romance chuckled. 

“Let me help. What he’s trying to say, is that we don’t do this when its just the two of us....not unless we get really worked up. We learned years ago that we don’t have what it takes to be in a committed healthy relationship when its just the two of us,” Romance told her. “Our early attempts were.....” 

“A shit show,” Abby finished. Romance looked annoyed at the crude language but didn’t correct him. 

“We work best as a throuple, not a couple,” Romance said and shimmied down to press his lips to the hollow of Mira’s collarbone. “So....if you’ll have us we’ll happily kneel at your feet and worship you like the goddess you are for the rest of your life.” 

Your life. 

The words sent a shiver down her back. 

“What about when I’m old, and crusty and wrinkly?” Mira asked. She might be a pretty face now, but fifty years down the road....they’d have better options to pick from.  “When I’m hunched over with a cane and I’m on a dozen medications to keep my body functioning.” 

Abby had scooted down to nip playfully at her ear as his hand roamed her bare chest. “Darling, if there’s one thing you should understand about us, we take things in stride and we are stubborn as mules. When you are an eighty year old silver vixen, I’ll happily spend my mornings organizing your pills for the day and then in the evening we’ll take a walk in the park and you can lean on me when you’re unsteady.” 

“And I’ll scrape the bunions from your feet and then I’ll-” Romance leaned in and whispered into Mira’s ear. She blushed a deep scarlet and shoved him away. 

“Oh my god, that’s so gross! You would not do that to an old lady!” she said. 

“It wouldn’t be any old lady,” Romance said. “It would be you.” He gave her that sweet smile that had gotten them into this predicament and kissed her until she forgot about how disgusted she’d been by him moments before. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Rumi, Jinu and Nari were walking incognito among the general populace of Seoul. Not that Nari needed her incognito baby gear, which consisted of baby sunglasses and a bucket hat, but they thought better to play it safe. Jinu and Rumi wore matching sweatshirts, their hoods pulled up and sunglasses on to conceal their faces. Nari laid happily in her cot stroller staring up at the bright blue sky above as Jinu pushed her. 

They walked along the Cheonggye stream on the stone footpath that surrounded it on both sides. They were just another family among dozens of others that were making use of the beautiful day. They serpentined down the curving walkway, following the natural path of the stream. A little boy ran passed them and a younger girl, his sister presumably, chased after him. Their mother hurried to keep up with them, calling and laughing at them to slow down. 

“Do you want more kids someday?” Jinu asked. 

Rumi shrugged. “Maybe, I always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling....I think I’d like that for Nari.” At Jinu’s giddy expression she emphasized. “Someday.” He leaned in and kissed her. 

They lulled into silence as the world buzzed around them, children playing, tourists taking photos, teenagers skipping classes to have a fun day out. And they walked anonymous, two of the biggest popstars in the country and no one around them gave them a second glance, aside from a few older ladies who cooed at Nari in her cot. 

“So....,”Jinu said. Rumi turned to him. “I was wondering, with all this talk of somedays and possible future children-” 

“Children? Just how many more are you picturing?” The question had the desired frazzling effect as she watched Jinu’s brain stutter and crash into a wall as he tried to smoothly recover from her teasing. 

“Of course, that is entirely your decision. You-you're doing all the work and I’m here to support. I think one or two more kids would be nice, but we don’t have to....” he trailed off, face red as he saw all he was doing was entertaining her with the way he was fumbling over his words. 

“So, what were you going to say?” she asked. Jinu shook himself and pulled to a stop next to a tree that was growing along the stream. 

Jinu looked off into the distance as he built back up his courage to say what he wanted to say. “Is there....is there a foreseeable future where you see us getting married?” 

“Hmmm....this is all just so sudden,” Rumi teased, rubbing her finger across her chin thoughtfully. “We only love each other, live together, and have a baby together.” Outwardly she was calm and collected like this was an everyday question, but inside she was a firestorm of emotion. Jinu had all but proposed to her. 

Jinu took her hands in his, cradling them like he did Nari when he was rocking Nari to sleep at night. “What do you think of the idea?” he asked gently. 

“I....I think,” she bit down the light-hearted teasing that made up so much of their conversations and let herself speak on the undeniable truth she was feeling. “I would love to marry you....someday.” Jinu bounced on his toes, ready to shoot off into the sky like a rocket. Rumi held tight to his hands to keep him on the ground. 

“Should I go pick out a ring?” Jinu asked. 

Rumi laughed. “Hold on there Romeo. We haven’t even known each other for three full months yet. Let’s give it a bit more time before we start planning our trip down the aisle.” 

“Are you sure I can’t talk you into trying on wedding dresses?” 

“Hmmm....I think that could be fun, what kind of dress will you be wearing? Ballgown?” 

“I don’t think I’ve got the shape for a ballgown. Mermaid though, I think I could rock that.” 

Rumi made a face. “Mermaid! You’re a walking stick and have no hips, it would fall straight down.” 

“I do to have hips,” Jinu retorted. They started down the path again, and inside her cot Nari yawned and fell asleep. With one hand Jinu pushed the stroller and with the other he held Rumi’s hand. She leaned into him and watched their daughter as they walked, all the while they talked, making ‘hypothetical’ wedding plans. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Everyone was busy having sex or doing that falling in love nonsense he didn’t understand, so Baby enjoyed free range of the girls kitchen and entertainment system to watch a nonstop chronological order Star Wars marathon that included all of the movies and live action shows. He’d made it to The Return of the Jedi and was laughing as he watched Boba Fett fall into the Sarlacc Pitt. 

It had been quiet in Huntrix Tower....too quiet. Which was generally a bad thing when Katerina was involved. Baby thought about investigating where she went, but....he didn’t want to. Instead he chose to mind his own business and laid back, turning up the volume as Leia chocked Jabba with her chains. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Katerina may not have all the answers in life, but she was sure about one thing....a good fuck could do a hell of a lot to improve a bad day. Especially, when said fuck....was so delicious. 

Bobby laid beside Katerina, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. He was alive....at least he was pretty sure he was. He couldn’t move anything and he was certain he’d lost a lot of blood over the course of the last.....six hours? The room was considerably darker than when they’d begun. He could feel the bite marks stinging mildly across his entire body....but they didn’t hurt as much as he thought they should. 

Katerina curled up against him, moving him into the position of the little spoon. "I think I’ll keep you,” she said. 

“O-okay,” he croaked. He wouldn’t have argued even if he’d had the energy to. Katerina had been making blatant advances on him since they’d first met two days ago, and he wasn’t normally this kind of guy.....but Katerina was persistent....and she was incredibly beautiful....and scary. Apparently, he was into that. Even at his age, he was still learning new things about himself. 

Katerina purred and buried her face into his neck, biting another mark into his shoulder. His blood was a delicacy, it felt like she was gorging herself on a five course meal. She could get used to this. Her gluttonous hunger filled for the moment, Katerina closed her eyes and slept, and soon Bobby joined her. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Celine didn’t like to admit that she was lonely. Not even to herself. She was a hunter and had their motto drilled into her since she was a teenager: your faults and fears must never be seen. For so many years of her life the fate of the world had been crushing down on her shoulders and even now, years later, that weight still pulled at her. And the nights where she sat home alone, drinking in her kitchen had become worryingly frequent. 

Her mind flashed back to her days training to become a hunter. In many ways it had been worse than fighting the demons themselves. With almost forty years of hindsight she was sure that was the point, to simulate an environment that would break them and force them to keep going in spite of it. That way when they were in the field fighting, they would be prepared for anything the demons threw at them. Rumi, Zoey, and Mira were not delicate by any sense of the word, but the teaching methods of the Sunlight Sister’s mentor had been far....harsher than her own. 

Her mentor would have never allowed Rumi to live. 

If the decision had been left at her hands when Rumi was a baby, she knew without question her mentor would have ended Rumi’s life. And she wouldn’t have given the action of killing a baby a second thought. 

Celine walked around her house, her morning coffee spiked with a generous amount of whiskey. The entire house was pristine, not a spec of dust, nor loose piece of clothing, or crooked painting. It was a house that could have ben featured in a magazine, and had been....twice. But lack of mess, meant a lack of life. The house hadn’t felt alive since the day Rumi moved out and Celine could count the number of times Rumi had returned to visit her here on one hand. 

She finished her coffee and went outside, walking the worn pavers to sit on her mat beneath the great tree that spanned her property. The fabric tied to its great boughs swayed gently in the wind. When Rumi was a child she’d told her it was a wishing tree and each strip of fabric was a wish someone had made, but in truth they were tokens of protection to ward off demons. 

Celine sat beneath the canopy to meditate, around her a gust of wind blew through rustling the leaves and fabric above her. The buzz of the whiskey floated through her making the meditation more dizzying than normal. She cracked open and eye and glared at her coffee cup that she could see through her kitchen window sitting innocently on her countertop. She didn’t typically drink this early in the morning. 

She sat there meditating for hours until any lingering effects of the alcohol disappeared. It was a stupid decision on her part because she had errands to run today. It was around when noon she called a car and had them take her to Huntrix tower. She passed through the security checkpoints and used her keycard to ride the elevator up to the penthouse suite. 

She expected to find a few familiar faces when she stepped off the elevator and into the living area....but all she saw was the back of one blue haired boy who was watching Star Wars. 

“Uh....hello?” Celine said. Baby turned away from the screen and looked at her. He gave her a small wave in greeting and turned back to the movie. “Where is everyone?” she asked. 

Baby sighed and paused his movie. He’d managed to go the last nineteen hours without seeing another living person because everyone was off playing tonsil hockey. He grimaced at the mental image that affronted him. He couldn’t escape their relationships even in his own mind. 

“They’re busy,” he said and went to unpause his movie. 

“Do you know when they’ll be done?” Celine asked, having trouble keeping the annoyed tone from her voice. 

He shrugged. “My guess, not any time soon.” Instead of leaving like Baby hoped, Celine continued to stand there waiting for....something. “Why do you need them?” he asked. 

“I’ve got a few projects around my house I needed help with,” she said. “I was hoping Mira or Zoey, or even Bobby might be available to help me.” 

“No help wanted from us demons?” Baby asked. Celine didn’t look put out by the direct question. 

“Considering how many of your kind I’ve killed, I can’t imagine any of you would want to help me,” she said. 

Baby turned off the TV and stood. “Well, you’d be wrong on that account.” He walked past Celine and grabbed a jacket from one of the hooks by the elevator doors. It was Romance’s jacket and hung off his frame like he was a child. He turned to Celine who stood watching him. “Well?” 

“Well what?” she said. 

“I can only watch so much TV before I get bored, and I thought you said you needed help,” he said, and enjoyed the momentary slackening of her jaw before Celine composed herself. She walked past him to the elevator and hit the call button. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

The ride to Celine’s house was filled with tension without either of them having to utter a single word. Baby kept his hood up, sunglasses on, and face obscured from the driver. There had been a few dozens fans lingering outside Huntrix tower when they’d exited through the employee entrance and gotten into the unmarked car. Nothing drilled up public speculation more than blatant silence. 

The car pulled up to the gate outside Celine’s house and they got out and walked on foot up to the side door and she key coded them in. They stepped through the door and onto a set of concrete stairs. Up they went to a landing and around a bend to another set of stairs to a grassy opening where Celine’s house finally came into view. Baby was hit by an overwhelming wave of deja vu and stopped in his tracks. He was frozen on the front steps, staring at the house in awe. Celine’s house was like a carbon copy of the house from the movie Parasite. Celine turned back to him annoyed when she realized he was no longer following her. 

“What?” she asked, her tone clipped. 

“Your house looks exactly like the one from Parasite,” he said, eyes tracing the sharp edges of the roof and walls, the windows, the wood paneling. The grass was immaculately trimmed and so cheerily green it look like it had been spray painted. 

Celine rolled her eyes, “I hope so, it was the inspiration.” 

His eyes snapped to her, “You're joking!” he couldn’t hold back his astonishment nor his excitement at the idea that he might be standing in the shadow of one of the coolest houses in cinematic history. 

“You’ve seen the movie?” Celine asked. 

Baby scoffed. “I’ve seen every movie, it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve done since I came topside. Romance and Abby say I’m a cinephile.....which....fair.” Celine hummed a non-committal response. “Have you seen Parasite?" He asked. 

“Of course I have, I sat front row at the premier. Bong Joon Ho came to my house for a party two decades back and out of the blue years later he contacts me wanting to swing by for a visit and take reference photos for his upcoming movie. I was intrigued by the idea,” she told him. Aside from the great tree at the back of her property and the dense forested area behind it, the similarities of the houses and the surrounding property were uncanny. 

“Woah,” Baby breathed out. “That's so cool.” Celine refused to let herself bask in the compliment. 

“This way,” she walked on, unlocking her front door and punching in another security code that undid the interior latches on the door. When you’d killed as many demons as she had, security was a chief concern. They went inside and Celine locked the door behind them. Baby walked forward in a daze, taking in all the details of the house like he was in a waking fever dream. 

“You must really like that movie,” Celine commented dryly. 

Baby numbly nodded. ”It's one of my favorites. Dark humor movies are my favorites, but that one is in a league of its own.” 

“Well....we’re wasting daylight, lets get going,” Celine said and charged forward into the house. Baby hurried after her. She led him up a set of stairs to the second floor and then to a hall closet where their was a ladder that accessed the roof. Only once they were standing on the houses flat roof, a stunning view of Seoul’s high-rises and skyscrapers in the distance did Baby realize he never actually asked Celine what she needed help with. 

“What are we doing up here?” he asked. 

“We’re going to clean out the gutters.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“Why don’t you hire someone to do this for you?” Baby asked. They’d been on the roof for almost two hours cleaning out Celine’s ridiculous fancy gutters that were made to be invisible to the naked eye so that her house looked sleek and modern from the outside, but had the massive draw back that they were stupidly complicated to clean. 

“I try my best not to let outsiders onto my property, you never know which one will be a demon in disguise,” she said. Celine was holding up the cap for the gutter and Baby was floating in the open air in front of her holding the garden hose. 

“So that rager party you threw two decade ago was what....a lapse in sense?” Baby asked, holding down the hose nozzle and spraying the inside of the gutter. They reeled back from the blowback of the spray. Celine wiped debris from her hands and face, shaking out her hair like a wet dog. 

“Watch it with the power on that thing,” she said glaring at him. “And....yes. It was a sponsored event by a magazine that had just showcased my house for a spread on modern South Korean craftsmanship and it was in the agreement that they’d be allowed to throw a party at the house to celebrate the success of that issue....never expected that to snowball into a movie centered around my house.” 

“Damn good movie though,” Baby said, and Celine nodded absentmindedly. Baby turned off the hose and floated down to see if the water was running out of the downspout below. It was not. “No luck,” he told her, floating back up. 

“Dammit,” Celine cursed. 

“Now what?” 

“Now, I go and get a drain snake from the basement and we shove the thing through until everything is cleared out,” Celine said and started back to the stairs to head inside. Baby floated down to the grass and went through the front door, meeting Celine in the living room. 

“Does your basement have the secret room?” He asked, following on her heels down the stairs. To his utter delight he spotted the shelves from the movie, he immediately went to them try and trigger the mechanism to open it, but unlike the movie there was no mechanism to find. He turned back to Celine who was digging through a pile of junk in the corner, noting she never answered his question. “So....secret room?” 

She sighed deeply, shoulders dropping. “I need to stop letting men into my house,” she muttered. “You’re too damn nosey.” 

“Does that mean there is a secret room?” 

She turned on him and all but snarled, “I’m a hunter, of course there’s a damn secret room!” She went back to her search, annoyed by his persistent questioning. 

“How do you open it?” he asked. He was already playing with fire, he might as well get answers to all of his questions before he was burned alive under the fury of Celine’s temper. 

Celine knocked over a cooking pot and sent it clattering to the floor with a loud bang. And on the floor where it landed, beneath a dusty side table was the drain snake. She grabbed it triumphantly and set the cooking pot back in its place. Without another word she left Baby standing in the basement and she headed back upstairs. Baby chased after her, thriving on the fact that he was getting under her skin. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

It was dinner by the time they were finished with the gutters and back inside sitting in Celine’s kitchen. She brewed them each a cup of tea and sat down across from Baby at the kitchen table. She was nothing if not a respectful host and she was not going to throw Baby out on his ass after he did her a favor. No matter how much she wanted to. 

“So, are you going to show me the secret room?” Baby asked again, for the fifteenth time today. Celine had started keeping count. She was tempted to, just to get him to stop asking, but each time he almost wore her down she forced herself to remember that he was a demon and the last kind of person that should know where a secret room in her house is. 

“No.” 

“There aren’t any scary madmen living in it, are there?” 

Celine snorted and then looked disgusted at herself for making that sound, which made Baby laugh so hard he started choking on his tea. Celine didn’t rescue him and watched as he struggled through a coughing fit. 

“You’d really let me choke to death?” he wheezed. 

She shrugged. “Doesn’t require much effort on my part.” 

“After I was nice enough to come to your home and slog through cleaning the nasty gutters on your house?” he said. 

“Sure, you did that our of the goodness of your heart,” Celine drawled, rolling her eyes. “You’re a demon. You must be getting something out of this, but I for the life of me can’t figure out what it is.” 

Baby went oddly quiet, staring down at his half drunk cup of tea. “Do you really want to know?” he asked quietly. 

“Know what?” she asked skeptically. Sure this was all some kind of scheme to scope out her home for some nefarious demon motive. Although, if that was true, he was a good actor when it came to his movie obsession. 

“Why I agreed to help you,” he said. “Do you even care, or am I just some disposable tool? Just because you live up here and wall yourself away from the rest of the world doesn’t mean there aren’t people who can relate to you.” 

Celine was ready to shoot back a cutting remark, but paused when she saw Baby’s downcast eyes trained on his teacup. Her mind became a living camera wheel full of moments watching Rumi grow up where she’d seen that same look and instead of addressing Rumi’s fears and comforting her....she’d chosen to teach Rumi to hide her fears, to hide herself. For the millionth time in the last month, Celine felt like a piece of shit. 

Celine sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Why did you agree to help me?” she asked. 

“I....I always say I’m fine being the eighth wheel....but it gets hard being alone when everyone else around you is overflowing with love and happiness and giving you those sympathetic puppy dog eyes, that say they want you to have the same thing they do. I mean....I’m not ungrateful, but its hard to always be around people who don’t understand that you don’t want what they want.....who feel bad for leaving you out, when you’re fine being on your own, when....” he trailed off, struggling to put his feelings into words. 

“When you’re with people who don't understand that not everyone wants romantic companionship,” Celine said. 

“Yes! Exactly!” Baby said. “The amount of demon chicks they’ve tried to set me up with in the past, and guys.....and because they’re all walking sex for brains they just don’t understand that I have no interest in any of that.” 

“Try being in a world famous girl group and having men on every continent throwing themselves at you constantly,” she said, shuddering at the memory. “The amount of pick-up lines I had to suffer through. I had to get very good at controlling my facial features to keep the look of disgust off my face.” 

“And it’s not even that the people are unattractive most of the time....it’s just a complete lack of interest on my part,” he said. 

“Do you have any idea how many celebrities I’ve unintentionally offended by turning down their advances,” she said. “That’s where my frigid-bitch reputation really started because I kept turning down these model physique men and women and they would think that I thought I was better than them.” 

“And when you try and explain how you feel, people look at you like you’re crazy!” 

“And they see you living alone and they think its because you’re incapable of finding love. Then they start doing those pity blind dates that you have to escape like damn laser motion sensors,” Celine said. Baby and Celine both broke down into laughter, deep belly laughs that hurt their ribs. 

Once they’d both calmed down, Celine asked, “so....you’ve never been interested in anyone?” 

Baby shook his head, “You?” 

“Ehhh....yes and no,” Celine said. Baby leaned forward, head resting on his hands ready for the gossip. “I had an interest in Rumi’s mom Mi-yeong,” Baby opened his mouth in a scandalized ‘O’, but Celine barreled on before he could comment. “We had one drunken kiss, years before Rumi was born....and I felt nothing. I was infatuated with her for a while....I thought I was in love with her....but I was wrong. Very wrong. I did love her deeply and I’d mistaken that love for the romantic kind.” 

“Wow, that’s crazy,” he said grinning. “I won’t tell.” 

“Thank you,” Celine said, and hesitated a moment before saying. “And thank you....for today. You were better company that I was expecting, especially for a demon.” 

“Damn, that’s the compliment of the century coming from you.” he said. 

Outside the sun was starting to set and Baby’s stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten in hours. Celine noticed and pulled out her phone. “I owe you for your help. I'll order take out from wherever you want,” she said. 

“Ooooh, and lets watch Parasite,” he jammed his thumb back at the living room. “It’s your favorite movie, isn’t it?” he asked, a knowing smile on his face. There was no way a movie based on her home wasn’t her favorite movie, Baby didn’t think Celine’s ego could have allowed for anything else to take that spot. 

“Alright,” she agreed. “That sounds like the most enjoyable evening I’ll have had in years.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Baby’s phone rang just after midnight. Celine and him were side-by-side on the couch, wrapped in blankets and eating from a shared bowl of chips as they watched what had turned into a Bong Joon Ho movie marathon after they’d finished Parasite. 

The caller ID read: Abby. 

He picked it up on the third ring, “Hello?” he said. 

“Dude, where are you?” Abby asked. “We haven't seen you in hours and we just realized you weren’t in the tower.” 

“Oh, I’m at Celine’s house,” he said. 

“You’re at Celine’s house!” Abby said, voice filled with spitting disbelief. And where there had been the din of several voices in the background beyond Abby, there was now sudden silence, followed by multiple voices all talking at once. 

“Why’s he at Celine’s house?” 

“Did you mishear him?” 

“Did she kidnap him?” 

“Is she torturing him?” 

“What the fuck?” 

“Why are you at Celine’s house?” Abby asked. 

Baby opened his mouth to explain the events of the day....at least partially....but another idea popped into his head. What kind of demon would he be if he didn’t act as an agent of chaos every once in a while? “Oh, we’re snuggled up watching a movie together. I’ll be back home tomorrow. Have a goodnight!” he said cheerfully. He heard a cacophony of confused screeches on the other end of the line that were abruptly cut off as he ended the call. 

He had to pause the movie because he and Celine started laughing so hard. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

30ish Years Ago 

AhJoon sat on the couch in their shared communal kitchen and living room staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring. On the outside he sat calmly, composed, not outwardly acting like this phone call would determine their future. No...he wasn’t a tortured ball of anxiety that wanted to scream into the night air. He breathed in ....one....two....three....four....breathed out....one....two....three....four. 

He jumped when a hand touched his shoulder. It was AhRin smiling down at him, his hand squeezing his shoulder in support, silently telling him that they would be okay whatever the result of this phone call would be....but AhJoon knew that if the call wasn’t what they wanted....what they needed....their lives would be ruined....and it would be all his fault. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Abby was alone in the training room running on the treadmill, trying to run himself to exhaustion so that his brain would shut off. He’d become a master at blocking out unpleasant memories, but they refused to relinquish his hold on him today. A passionate night rolling around with a lover would usually wear him out enough to keep them at bay, but tonight it hadn’t worked and he’d been forced to leave Romance to snuggle a sleeping Mira. 

This wasn’t Gwi-Ma berating him in his head, at least then he could have told himself he didn’t actually feel this way, that it was all Gwi-Ma's doing....but no....the voices that plagued him tonight were actually his own. And they wouldn’t shut up! 

He turned up the speed on the treadmill and ran until the sun started peaking over the horizon. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

The phone started trilling a high pitched whine of a sound and Su-Jin and Jae appeared from the doorway of their shared room. AhJoon fought the tremble in his hand as he answered the call and put the phone on speaker. 

“Hello boys,” their manager said, his voice was tight, emotionless. That wasn’t good. “Are you all there?” They all answered their assent. “The chart numbers are officially out. Your single has charted, but you’re at the very bottom, number 100 and its expected to fall off the charts completely next week.” 

“No...” AhJoon whispered hoarsely. 

“I’m sorry, boys, but the agency can’t keep providing funds on an investment that just isn’t giving us the desired results, so as of today we are disbanding your group,” their manager told them. 

“No, please,” AhJoon lurched to his feet, staggering and AhRin had to grab his elbow to steady him. “We can still be a success, we just need more time!” AhJoon knew he was begging, he knew there were tears in his eyes, and he felt the shame for them as they fell. 

AhRin was distraught but more so at seeing AhJoon nearly falling to his knees in grief for the death of their dream of fame. Jae looked stricken and afraid.....and Su-Jin sat their expressionless his thoughts a complete mystery to the rest of them. 

“The only way the agency would even consider keeping you boys active was if your single somehow went number 1 next chart week, but that’s impossible and I’m sorry boys....I really am,” he told them. “You’ve got a week to arrange other living arrangements and then you’re expected to be out of the dorms.” The line clicked and the call ended, and the four of them were left standing in defeated silence. 

He’d failed them. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Abby joined the rest of Huntrix and the Saja Boys for breakfast. He’d taken a quick shower before heading upstairs and the only ones who looked up when he exited the elevator were Mira and Romance who were snuggling on the couch. They opened their arms in welcome and he dashed across the room to join in their embrace. They rearranged themselves, Romance tucking himself into his side, Abby’s arm wrapped around his shoulder while Mira sat across both of their laps. 

Rumi, Jinu and Nari were at the other end of the couch, snuggled up together. Mystery and Zoey were laying on the carpeted floor, facing one another and talking softly. And he assumed Katerina and Bobby were down on Katerina’s floor doing something horribly unspeakable that would scar them all for life if it were to be witnessed. The last time they’d spotted Bobby....which was about two days ago at this point, he looked like he’d been mauled by a wild animal....but also like he was having the time of his life.... 

The only person unaccounted for was Baby, who had been visiting Celine’s house with increasing regularity over the last week. A fact which not a single one of them understood.  They were all horrified when they thought it was a sex thing, but they were even more confused when Baby explained that it wasn’t. Celine was objectively attractive, even at her age, that at least Abby could have understood....but, just....hanging out together? It was weird! What the hell did they even do together if they weren’t having sex? 

“Where were you this morning?” Mira asked him, covering her mouth as she yawned. “We missed you when I woke up.” 

Abby shrugged. “I was feeling restless, so I went down to the training room to work out.” Mira accepted the answer, but Romance gave him a skeptical look that thankfully Mira didn’t see. 

“What should we do today?” Mira asked. She looked at her phone, it was Tuesday and the calendar was empty. Just like it had been every day for the last month and a half. She was thoroughly enjoying her blossoming relationship with Abby and Romance, but a girl could only spend so much time in bed. 

“Oh, I’ve got plans for all of us on Thursday, so nobody plan anything,” Zoey said and a minute later they all received a calendar invite that blocked out that entire day with an event titled: SURPRISE GROUP TRIP!!!! with so many emojis following it that it maxed out the allowed character limit. 

“Cool,” Mira said. “That solves our Thursday boredom, but what about our Tuesday boredom?” 

Zoey started to shrug, but then the light of an idea came into her eyes. “We could right new music!” she suggested, her brain already running wild with ideas. “New Huntrix songs, or Saja Boys songs, or, or! hear me out on this, duets, or even all eight of us singing together!” 

They all smiled at the song writing gremlin that was taking over Zoey’s brain as she spouted song idea after song idea. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

AhJoon was expected to pack his entire life into two cardboard boxes. He sat on his bed staring at the boxes and the closed drawers of his dresser that still held all of his clothes. Everything he owned was in this room and he didn’t have anywhere to go after this. He’d bet everything he had on their success as a boy band. All of his time, money, blood, sweat....he didn’t have anything left to give. 

He was silent as the tears started to roll down his cheeks. 

He worked so hard. SO HARD! Just to let everyone down. He’d convinced them they’d be selling out stadiums and rolling in so much money they wouldn’t know what to do with it all and instead they were being thrown out on the street like beggars. He'd spent years convincing AhRin that this farfetched idea would work and now....now.... 

It’s not your fault. 

AhJoon had spent the last few hours since the phone call in a self-deprecating spiral, so he had no idea where the positive voice in his mind came from. 

Those people out their just don’t know good music. 

AhJoon nodded to himself and wiped the tears from his face. He was right. Their music was amazing, it wasn’t his fault that the general populace didn’t get their style and message. They were SIGNATURE, they were four boys with spectacular talent and that wasn’t going to change just because their label didn’t have faith in them. 

I have faith in you....that is....if you’re willing to make a deal....all of you. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

They had migrated to the Huntrix recording studio that was next to Zoey’s room, seven of them....plus Nari who was in a fresh onesie after a projectile spit up that had also caused Rumi and Jinu to change their clothes....and put down a towel over a now hazardous section of the couch. 

Zoey was holding Nari in her arms, rocking and squeezing her favorite niece to her chest as she rambled off song ideas while Mystery watched her every move with heart-shaped eyes. Mira and Rumi were both in the recording booth, recording nonsensical background notes messing around to see if they stumbled on something cool they could use in a song. Nari’s eyes were scanning the room looking for her mother, whose voice she could hear coming faintly through the speakers. Jinu watched Rumi in the booth while the other boys were lounging across beanbag chairs. 

“We could do some kind of metaphorical spin on the parallel on your lives as both humans and demons. What were your lives like as humans?” Zoey asked, and the silence that followed was broken up only by the muffled sounds of Rumi and Mira belting out strangled high notes in the booth behind her. 

It wasn’t Zoey’s fault that they clammed up at the mere mention of the topic of their human lives. All the boys had their own issues they hadn’t fully worked through yet. Jinu glanced at the other three boys, somehow he was the only one among them who was even close to self-actualized. He had Rumi to thank for that....and Nari. 

“What?” Zoey asked, her eyes going wide and face draining of its joyous rosy color as she realized she’d said something wrong. “Is...is that a bad idea?” 

“No...it...it’s a great idea,” Abby forced himself to say. “It’s just....” he didn’t know what to say and Mystery who’d started fidgeting in his seat suddenly stood and walked out of the room. Zoey moved to go after him, but Abby and Romance stood to intercept her. 

Mira and Rumi emerged from the booth where they had been watching, unsure what had happened because they couldn’t hear anything that was happening outside of the booth, but knowing the atmosphere outside had shifted. Jinu took Nari from Zoey’s arms and she collapsed to the floor in a heap. Mira and Rumi were instantly at her side. 

“What happened?” Rumi asked. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“Boys you’re number 1 on the charts, I can’t believe it!” The disembodied voice of their manager said over the phone speaker. “From number 100 to 1 in a week, i-its astounding! I don’t know how this happened, but all the stations are playing your song, people can’t get enough of it! You guys knocked the Sunlight Sisters out of the number 1 spot! SIGNATURE is officially on the map!” 

AhJoon had tears of joy in his eyes. They’d done it. They’d done it! “We tried our hardest, sir and we are receiving are recognition for it,” he said. “We are so grateful to the fans.” 

“I’m in talks with the stadiums, they want to do a three night concert and they expect you all to sell out! I’ll be in touch, you boys stay put and we’ll get this all worked out. You boys are going places!” Their manager offered another round of congratulations and they all bowed respectfully to the phone. 

“We did it....we really did it....” AhRin whispered, his eyes glistening with tears. He reached for AhJoon’s hand and they held tight to one another. 

“This is so cool, we’re actually famous,” Jae said. He turned to Su-Jin, “This is cool, right?” Su-Jin shrugged. Even when they were on the cusp of becoming the next big thing in South Korea they could barely get a response from him. 

“We should celebrate,” AhRin said. “Let’s go to that karaoke place we like!” 

“Should we go in disguise?” Jae asked. "What if we get mobbed by fans?” 

“Smart idea,” AhRin agreed. Grinning like idiots, they donned hats and sunglasses and headed out into the street for a night of partying.  

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“What did I do wrong?” Zoey asked. They settled her into one of the chairs and Mira had gone to the kitchen and returned to the studio with a hot cup of calming tea for her. She'd done a cursory search for Mystery while making the tea and had found no sign of him. 

Abby ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing, you didn't do anything wrong....Mystery just doesn’t like it when we bring up our human lives.” 

“Why?” Zoey asked. "I’ve tried to bring it up before and he always dodges my questions....I-I love him and I want him to know he can trust me...b-but he won’t open up to me.” Zoey struggled to speak through her hitching breath. 

Abby and Romance shared a look, before Abby slowly began to speak, “Zoey, there’s something you should know about Mystery....actually, it’s something you should all know about demons in general.” Zoey dried her eyes on her shirt sleeve and looked up at them with red rimmed doe-eyes. “Most demons remember their human life, at least in part. Gwi-Ma allows us to remember the things that were most important to us, so that he can use them against us....but when we came down to the demon realm....Mystery was like a blank slate. He couldn’t even remember his human name,” Abby told her. 

“His name?” Zoey repeated, a pit opening in her stomach. 

Abby shook his head. “Even before we became demons, Mystery....was a mystery to us. He was with us physically at rehearsals and concerts, but mentally he was....somewhere else.” 

“We tried,” Romance said, “To get him to be part of the group, to do things he was interested in, order foods he like, but...nothing worked. It was like he wasn’t interested in anything.” 

“He doesn’t remember his life as a human, because to him, there was nothing in it that was worth remembering,” Abby said. 

Mira and Rumi’s jaws slackened and they turned to Zoey, whose eyes had managed to stay dry for about 30 seconds before they were once again overflowing. “N-not even his family?” she asked, words trembling out of her mouth. Her parents might not get along now, but there had been a time they'd been a happy family. She couldn’t imagine forgetting everything about them. 

Romance shook his head. “He had a bad relationship with his parents. We know he got involved with the Idol world as a way to get away from them, anyone else in his life....he wouldn’t talk about it with us.” 

“But, if his life really was that bad for him behind the scenes....maybe it’s a blessing for him not to remember it,” Abby said. 

“And anyway, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him,” Romance told Zoey.  

“I am?” Everyone had to bite their lips to keep from spluttering because the positive influence Zoey had had on Mystery was so obvious. 

“Are you kidding?” Romance said. “I've never seen him be this open with anyone, ever, and we’ve known him for thirty years. He didn’t act this human even when he was human.” 

“Yeah,” Abby agreed. “He loves the crap out of you and maybe you don’t recognize the signs, but we do and he would do anything for you. He gets all squirmy when you ask him about his human life, simply because he’s uncomfortable with the fact that he doesn’t remember any of it....and you’re all bright and sunny and happy-” 

“And he knows that he’s a gloomy sad boy with issues,” Romance interjected. “Moral of the story, you’re causing those storm clouds that have been dominating his life the entire time we’ve known him to part and let some sunshine through.” 

“Really?” Zoey said. The insecure quaver in her voice brought Rumi and Mira to either side of her, wrapping her up in an inescapable bear hug. She leaned into her friends letting their familiar embrace melt away her anxiety. “I’m okay,” she finally said, slinking out of their hold like a snake. “I’m going to go talk to Mystery. I think I know where he’s hiding.” Zoey left the room, off to find her wayward boyfriend. 

Mira looked over at her lovers, an eyebrow raised. “Are you two missing memories too?” she asked. 

Rumi and Jinu shared a sidelong look. They were apparently the only couple of the three that had actually discussed this part of their demonhood. Rumi knew that Jinu was missing almost all of the memories from his childhood with only a handful that survived the transition, with everything regarding his mother and sister having been left glaringly intact. Anything that made him vulnerable to Gwi-Ma's influence was left for him to remember. 

Romance looked to Abby, who stood stock still beneath Mira’s gaze. Finally Abby gave a quiet response, “....it’s complicated.” 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

AhJoon was the first to hear the voice. He realized after the first day that it wasn’t truly his own and something from the great beyond was trying to make a deal with him....and he was desperate enough to forget those warnings his grandmother used to give him about trickster spirits. He couldn’t fail....he had nothing to fall back on. And he knew AhRin, Jae, and Su-Jin were in the same boat....this was an all or nothing gambit for all of them. 

He’d told AhRin about the voice a few hours after it started talking to him and he’d wanted to walk him to the mental health clinic down the street. It was only when the voice started talking to AhRin too that the idea was put to rest. 

“This isn’t right,” AhRin told him. “Deals like this always come with a price and the cost is always too high.” 

“What’s the alternative?” AhJoon asked. “Living out on the streets? Come on, realistically we have no useful skills. We might be able to get jobs delivering food but we’ll be destitute.” 

AhRin sat eyes cast down on the floor, worrying his lip between his teeth. “But....do you think this is a good idea?” 

“Absolutely,“ AhJoon said. He ignored the feeling deep in his gut that warned him otherwise. They were out of time and choices. This had to work. 

Together they approached Jae and Su-Jin. They told them about the deal the voice offered them....and convinced them to follow its lead. Su-Jin agreed easily, but Jae took a day to think on it before he too accepted the offer the voice gave them. 

And from there....their fates were sealed. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

“I remember all of my memories that have Abby in them, which go back to when we were kids,” Romance told them. 

“You knew each other when you were kids?” Mira asked. 

Rumi and Jinu felt even more awkward standing in the room with the throuple because Jinu had already told Rumi the majority of Romance and Abby’s history. They slowly started inching along the far wall toward the door. Nari was thoroughly occupied putting the buttons on her father’s shirt in her mouth and paid no mind to anything that was happening. 

Abby nodded. “We were in the same class when we were kids all the way through secondary education when we graduated.” 

Rumi, Jinu, and Nari managed to escape the room and quietly shut the door behind them. 

“Yeah, and they always sat us near each other because our names were so similar,” Romance told her. “That’s how we ended up become best friends at age five.” 

Mira had so many question, but first and foremost. ”What do you mean your names are similar?” 

“Well....Romance and Abby weren’t are human names,” Romance told her. 

Mira didn’t know why she was shocked. Any parents who would have legally named their child Romance would have needed a wellness check. Abby wasn’t egregious but it wasn’t a typical name for a boy. “What are your names?” Mira asked. 

“Were,” Abby corrected. “What were our names. They aren’t are names anymore because we aren’t the same people.” 

“Okay, what were your name?” Mira said, trying to keep her tone under control. There was a vein bulging in her forehead and both men knew they needed to answer her question before she tore them apart. 

“My name was AhJoon,” Abby said. 

“And my name was AhRin,” Romance told her. 

“AhJoon and AhRin,” Mira repeated, and the names felt wrong on her tongue. She looked at the two men in front of her who didn’t fit those names. “And you’ve known each other since you were five?” They nodded. ”How much exactly do you remember of your former lives.” 

Romance shrugged. “I remember AhJoon, every memory he’s in I still have and all of our time when we were in SIGNATURE.” 

“SIGNATURE?” 

“It was the boy band we were in back in the 90’s, with Jae and Su-Jin, Baby and Mystery” Abby explained. “We weren’t anything special. We sure thought we were hot shit back then, but our music was barely a blip on anyone's radar.” 

“We released two albums that barely charted and got one song in the top one hundred,” Romance said. “That song did go to number 1 but only because we’d made a deal with Gwi-Ma for it. The following week it dropped off the charts like it had never existed and Gwi-Ma came around to collect our souls and drag us down to the demon realm.” 

“We asked for fame, but didn’t specify how long we wanted to have it which gave Gwi-Ma his opening to rip the carpet out from underneath us,” Abby shook his head. “I was young and stupid and I convinced my friends to make a deal with the devil.” 

“We all agreed to do it,” Romance told him sternly. Mira got the sense this was ongoing argument. 

“I was the leader of our group and I pressured you all into it.” 

“We weren’t children! You-” 

“Enough,” Mira didn’t have to yell for the force of her tone to bring their argument to a grinding stop. “Abby, whatever happened, it’s clear none of them hold any resentment toward you about it. You made a bad call. We all do that, hell, do you think Rumi’s perfect? She’s made plenty of mistakes, but we stuck with her through them and they made us a better team.” 

“We’re family,” Romance told him, taking Abby’s hands in his own. He ran his thumbs across the back of his knuckles trying to soothe away the lingering guilt that had haunted Abby for decades. “Don’t drown yourself when everyone around you is throwing out liferings. We love you.” 

Abby pulled Romance forward into a tight embrace and buried his face in the shorter mans shoulder. Mira came to their sides, placing gentle hands upon their backs. They parted for only a moment to envelope her into their hug, holding her as tight as they’d held on to each other. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺

Chapter Text

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

Thursday morning Zoey had them all up at the crack of dawn. She was bouncing like a ball off the walls in excitement, so ready to show them all the surprise group trip she’d been secretly planning for the last week. They ate a hearty group breakfast as they waited for Celine to arrive. Somehow, her and Baby had become a package deal overnight and she was now being included in all future group activities. Half of everyone's interest in the day trip was directed toward just seeing what Baby and Celine would do all day. What did they even have to talk about? 

Katerina and Bobby both had bowls of jjigae and were spoon feeding it to one another on the couch in a way that was making everyone uncomfortable. The girls weren’t even sure that Bobby was aware that there were other people in the room beside himself and Katerina. Whenever the two were in the same room together they acted like they would starve for oxygen if they weren’t intimately pressed against one another. It made the girls want to vomit. It gave the boys a new respect for Bobby. 

They’d collectively thought Katerina was just using Bobby for sex, and that may be how it started, but now....they were watching it turn into something else. They couldn’t tell if it was love or just a mutual fanatic obsession. Either way, they were all steering clear of any interference. They were both grown adults and could figure it out themselves. 

Celine came off the elevator in a more casual look than they were used to, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater and a pair of aviators on top of her head. “Let’s get this over with.” With that enthusiastic call to action they all stood and piled into the elevator. 

They split off into three SUV’s with thick partitions to block them from the drivers view. Everyone was decked out in full head-to-toe disguises (aside from Celine). The girls all wore realistic wigs and general outfits that would let them blend into a crowd if necessary. Rumi was particularly happy with her bootcut mom jeans. The boys were a mix of glasses and hats. And much to Mira’s dismay, Abby was sporting a comically bad false mustache that had already fallen off twice. They were a far cry from two famous KPop groups. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

In SUV #1 were, Rumi, Mira, Zoey, Nari and Katerina. Rumi and Zoey were squished in the third row with Nari in a carseat between them, and Mira and Katerina sat in the second row just behind the partition. They’d forcefully separated Katerina and Bobby for the ride so no one would have to suffer through watching the pair fondle one another. 

“Aren’t you just the cutest dumpling in the whole wide world,” Zoey cooed to Nari, tickling her across her belly. Nari smiled and gurgled. 

“She got that from Rumi,” Mira said. 

Katerina snorted. “With any luck that child will have all of Rumi’s attributes and the only thing Jinu will have contributed will be her hair color.” 

“Katerina!” Rumi scolded. She’d been doing that more, especially when people started swearing around Nari. She was living up to her position as the mom of the group. And unlike Jinu, she wasn’t constantly being mocked for it. The Saja boys were merciless each time he went into dad mode. Talk about a double standard. 

“Speaking of children, are you two planning on procreating?” Katerina asked Zoey and Mira. 

“Are you?” Mira responded cooly. 

Katerina snorted. “I couldn't imagine a worse mother. That kid would be fucked up, mentally and emotionally.” Katerina shuddered at the idea. “You’d probably be pretty good at it, though,” she told Mira. 

Mira wasn’t sure what facial expression to  make and it came out a mix of disgust and disbelief. “Me? A mother? Are you joking?” 

“No, no, I see it,” Zoey said. “You’re all tough on the outside, but you’re cuddly like a panda bear on the inside. I think you’d be an amazing mom.” 

“And you?” Mira asked Zoey. 

Zoey smiled. ”Mystery and I have already talked about it. Neither of us is really interested in being parents, at least not now, maybe we’ll change our minds a decade down the line....but for now we’re content with the way things are.” 

“Jinu and I have already talked about if we were going to have more kids,” Rumi told them. 

“Really?” Zoey squealed. 

“Really?” Mira and Katerina drawled. 

“Yeah....” Rumi said and debated a moment whether or not to reveal the other topic that had come up during that conversation. “.....we also discussed the possibility of getting married.” 

There was a moment of silence before Mira and Zoey shrieked so loudly that the car swerved because the sound had startled the driver through the patrician. In the confined space Mira felt like she was standing on stage with frantic fans down in the pit screaming at her. She covered Nari’s ear and winced as Mira and Zoey hammered her with question after question not bothering to take a breath in between. 

“How could you hold out on us?” Zoey demanded. 

“Yeah, getting engaged is kind of a big deal,” Mira said. 

“We’re not actually engaged,” Rumi told them. “We just decided that in the future we would get married, but we’re going to wait a while. We don’t want to rush in.” Mira and Zoey both gestured to Nari. “That was unintentional.” 

“Do you plan on doing a traditional or western style wedding?” Zoey asked. “Oh! If you do western style, do we get to be bridesmaids?” 

Rumi waved away her questions. ”That's so far down the line, Zoey. He hasn’t even properly asked me, and I expect all the formalities: the romantic setting, he needs to get down on one knee, he needs to get me a ring. If we’re doing it, I want it all.” 

“Yeah, if you have to pick one, don’t settle for subpar treatment,” Katerina said. “Make him work for it.” 

Mira braced herself for a change in topic that none of them wanted to discuss but as concerned friends needed to address. “Speaking of....what is going on with you and Bobby?” 

“And please don't go into any details on sex stuff,” Zoey added quickly, terror in her eyes that Katerina might tell them anyways. She eyed the car doorhandle and ran through the logistics of tucking and rolling onto the street if she needed a quick escape. 

“I don’t know....he’s....he’s....” Katerina was at a loss for words. “I’ve fucked all flavors of people and usually I’m a one and done kind of gal....but something about Bobby.” she shook her head. “Something about him just keeps me coming back.” There wasn’t even a suggestive eyebrow wiggle when she said that, Katerina as much as them seemed confused by her interest in Bobby. 

Rumi sighed, “Katerina, we like you, you’re fun and dangerous which fits in perfect with the three of us, but if you break Bobby’s heart we’re taking his side in the divorce.” Katerina snorted. 

“I don’t have any interest in breaking his heart, but....that doesn’t mean I won’t do it accidently. He’s a sweet man and I’m a fucking disaster. We’re not a great match,” she said. 

“Doesn’t mean it can’t work out though,” Zoey said hopefully. 

“That doesn’t happen to people like me,” she said quietly. 

🌺🌺🌺🌺 

In SUV #2 were all the Saja Boys; Baby and Mystery in the second row and Abby, Romance, and Jinu in the third row. 

“So, explain to me your thing with Celine,” Abby asked Baby. 

Baby sighed and let his head fall back to the headrest as he rubbed his temples. How many times could he explain the same thing over and over again? This was why he was hanging out at Celine’s house so much now, they couldn’t interrogate him if he wasn’t around. “We’re just friends,” he told them. 

“No sex....at all?” Romance asked. 

“NO. No sex.” 

“Then what do you do at her house all day?” Abby asked. 

“We talk and hang out or watch movies or I help her out with projects around her house,” he told her. “She’s my friend, that’s it.”