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Chapter Text

17 Years After The Events of KPop Demon Hunters

“Demons have always haunted our world. Creatures, bound to the Great Flames, hunted by those sworn to protect humanity from the souls they steal.

“We- and now you- are those hunters. Fight to protect this world from those who refuse to yield- and grant mercy and freedom to those who do.” Celine stared out at the three girls before her. “Do not make the mistake I did in thinking demons have no soul, but do not make the mistake of thinking that they do not have a choice.”

The three girls all exchanged glances, nodding in agreement. “Yes, Celine.”

“Remember,” she said quietly. “The Honmoon was made to protect humanity, not to condemn demons.” There was a pang of regret in the old woman’s face as she looked at the three hunters of the future.

The first was Kim Iseul, who had long, pitch-black hair that went down to her back, eyes like chocolate, and a smile that could light up a room. She was their choreographer and visual. They had found her after she had been kicked off of a survival show. In fact, two of the three members were from the survival show. She was best friends with the other one.

The second was Jung Hae-Won. Her hair was a brownish red that faded to a vibrant yellow color at the ends. It was much shorter than Iseul’s, closer to a bob. She had blue eyes- the only member of the group who did. She was their rapper and lyricist. She was also the eldest, at 16 years of age. She’d been in the modeling industry before being brought here to become a hunter, which surprised people as to her not being the visual, but she really didn’t want to.

The third was Choi Aera, the daughter of Huntrix’s Maknae, Choi Jae-hee; a.k.a Zoey. For everything the girl had been through to get to this point, she was set. She was 14, fresh out of both a modeling incident- how she met Hae-Won - and a survival show- how she met Iseul- and she was the maknae. Things were looking up. She was their center and lead vocal as well, and easily the most popular. Sure, she had an unnamed skin disease that caused immense amounts of pain occasionally. But she was her, surrounded by people that cared. And they were her teammates. Her best friends.

She was going to debut with them.

And all of that was good and nice, but there was one thing that really set them apart. They were hunters. Hunters without weapons. None of them could form any meaningful connection with the Honmoon, even after Iseul and Hae-Won had tried the hunter’s chant. They were officially, as Celine had put it, ‘The first Hunters to be unable to hunt’. A little insulting, but they made it work.

Aera’s entire life had been a series of ups, downs, and expectations. Her whole life, she’d been told she would be a hunter, since before she could even walk. Hell, since her mother first laid eyes on her, practically the first words she’d said about her were “You’re going to make a wonderful hunter one day.” She was surprised she hadn’t been named Hunter for how much it had been drilled into her head.

Imagine her immense disappointment when she not only couldn’t summon a weapon from the Honmoon, but that she couldn’t even see it. Not that she knew what it was supposed to look like anyways. They’d never told her about anything other than bedazzling color, but she always saw color, because of her condition. That’s what it was called. A condition that nobody had a name for. It caused the silver lines on her skin, the occasional bursts of pain she experienced, the grey streaks in her hair, and the color she always saw- as she’d described it as a kid. “It doesn’t make any sense,” the doctor had said. “She has the normal amount of chromosomes. There are no genetic abnormalities, and there’s no traceable bacteria or virus causing this.”

That wasn’t exactly true. Her mom had a very strong hunch she knew exactly what was causing her ‘skin disease’, but she chose not to say anything. And if she did know, she never chose to share that information with Aera.

That didn’t matter now, though. None of that mattered. She was there, with her friends. And they would be the Flame Chasers, a group dedicated to eradicating the Great Flames who sent demons after their world, especially Gwi-Ma. Gwi-Ma held primary domain over Korea, where the three of them lived, and it was their duty to drive him back.

“We’ve got this, guys.” Iseul nudged her two friends affectionately, grabbing their hands. “We just need to pick some regular, plain old metal weapons so we can fight demons that way. I choose…” she pretended to think about it. “The ring blades.”

“Of course you’d choose those,” Hae-won teased affectionately. “I think I’ll pick last. What do you want, Aera?”

She hesitated. What did she want? The first thing that came to her mind were the escrema sticks. It wasn’t a particularly traditional Korean weapon. In fact, the weapon she wanted didn’t even originate from Korea at all- it originated from the Phillipenes. She had gone there once when she was younger and was fascinated by it, but she had to pick something different. Something they actually had. Her second thought was a staff. A simple weapon that could be used in a lot of different ways, but that probably wouldn’t work either. Her third thought was that it would be even cooler if she could combine the two and use them together. But that was definitely also out of the question. So instead of saying what she really wanted, she lied through the skin of her teeth and said, “I’ll just use a saingeom.”

“Rumi’s weapon?” Hae-won said, a little surprised. Even Celine, who had been watching them, seemed a bit shocked. “Not Zoey’s shin-kal?” The question caught her off guard. She had never really thought about using her mother’s weapon. It hadn’t even surfaced in her mind. “I didn’t expect that, but I respect it. I mean, the saingeom’s a really cool weapon regardless.”

“Would you rather me use an unggeom?” Aera inquired, sparking mock offense from Hae-won, who had tried once to use the single-edged blade and nearly dropped it on her foot from holding it wrong. It had been one of her friend’s more embarrassing moments, and Hae-won now refused to go anywhere near the weapon.

“No, I’ll pass, I don’t need you showing me up again. And my weapon is a pyeongon, for anyone that asks. I wanna hit people with a stick attached to an even bigger stick.”

“That is a very crude way of describing a pyeongon,” Iseul muttered, ever the weapons fanatic of the three. “I don’t even think that’s how you use it.” Hae-won stuck her tongue out at her, and the two got into a small but playful bantering argument while Celine turned to grab their requested weapons from a shed she kept nearby the main compound the girls trained at.

Aera decided to follow her, leaving her friends behind. She, unlike the other two girls, was barefoot, although she was a bit lighter on her feet so it worked. It didn’t help her posture that she always stood on her tip-toes, but it was something she was trying to work on. Celine let out a hum of approval as Aera walked softly behind her, hardly even disturbing the dirt as she moved. “You’re almost as quiet a walker as Rumi was. I’m impressed. It could use a little work, but nonetheless, you’re very talented. Especially for a 14 year old. I’m proud of you, Aera.”

“Thank you,” she replied curtly, staring into the weapons shed as Celine grabbed the requested gear. She took the saingeom without much complaint, but it felt wrong in her hands, as if the very act of holding it was a mistake. From the knowing gleam in Celine’s eye, she had a feeling the older woman knew exactly what weapon she really wanted, but chose not to say anything. She hadn’t seen any escrema sticks in the shed anyways.

“You know, we could always order a custom made set.”

“No, thank you,” Aera responded, even though it pained her to do so. “I’d rather use the sword.”

“Very well then. If you’re sure that’s what you want.” Celine let out a disappointed sigh, closing the shed door. “I messed up with Rumi. I don’t want to make that mistake with you.” 

“You won’t,” Aera whispered quietly, remembering the reluctance Rumi had had originally to allow her to be trained in combat by Celine.

After a quiet moment shared between Aera and her grandmother, Celine decided to brush some of Aera’s hair out of her face. “I believe in you.” And with that statement, the two walked back to Iseul and Hae-won, who were now fighting in the dirt. “Girls, please. I’m asking for just a little bit of civility? You’re going to be idols. Get it together.”

The two immediately shot up. “Speaking of that, we need to work on our debut song!” Iseul looked panicked.

“Let’s ignore the fact that the perfect debut song for our group was already performed twenty years ago for a TV show by a global group,” Hae-won added, teasing her. “But we could always do a cover of it for that part of the show… You’d need to come up with some choreography that references the show, of course, but we could do it…”

Celine stared. “Pardon?”

“There’s this song by this old global girl group, Katseye, that, like, perfectly fits our group’s vibe,” Hae-won explained tragically. “They sang it for an animated show. Jentry Chau vs The Underworld? Yeah, the song is called Flame. And we’re the Flame Chasers, so… Pure tragedy. If it hadn't been written already, I definitely would have written it.”

“Okay, you aren’t that good, girl,” mumbled Iseul.

“You’re just saying that 'cause you’re an EYEKON,” Hae-won replied snidely.

“Well, yeah, who isn’t an EYEKON? Only someone who’s absolutely and thoroughly insane. Which, now that I think about it, you are definitely insane, so I don’t even know why I bothered.”

“I am an EYEKON! That’s not even what insane means! You’re totally using that word wrong!”

“Well, yeah, but you also said you’re a Hunter!”

“I can be an EYEKON and a Hunter! I mean, you’re a ONCE, you should literally know that!”

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on the song and not whether TWICE, KATSEYE, or Huntr/x is better?” Aera murmured, and the other two girls exchanged glances.

“Oh. Yeah. Let’s- uh, let’s do that.” They both nodded.

After a bit more back and forth, they all came to a consensus on their first song and what it was going to sound like. “I think we’re almost ready,” Aera told Celine. “All we need is choreo, some publicity, and a little bit of luck.”

Celine smiled weakly. “I can help with the publicity. Can’t do anything about the choreography or luck, though. I’ll be here to support you three, no matter what.”

“Alright.” Aera turned back to her friends- her teammates- to do their little group chant that they’d agreed on, for probably the first time ever. “Ready? Three, two, one, Chasers!”

Besides, who knows? Maybe then she’d be worth something. Worth something more than just gold.

6 years later

Kyoung stared into the mirror, her expression flat. The mask on her face sat comfortably, covering up her left eye, which she couldn’t see out of. The choker on her neck, alternatively, was a little tight, but there was really no way to loosen it. If she had been their lead singer it might be a problem, but she was the bassist, so it truly didn’t matter. The rest of her outfit consisted of a black crop top with white text, a matching skirt, and thigh high boots. Her lavender hair was pulled back into a braid.

One might mistake her for an off brand Mira cosplayer, even though it had been roughly three and a half years since Huntrix officially broke up. The reality of her appearance was slightly different than that.

Mira was her adoptive mother.

She wanted to be just like her. Talented. Effortless. Cold, but determined. Everything, perfect, precise, and exact. She summoned that familiar blade, Mira’s gok-do, feeling it in her hands. It wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t wrong, per se, either. The only difference was the mask.

The biggest difference between Huntrix and Perfect Glamour was the number of members. The second was the fact that not only were they all anonymous, but they didn’t even know each other’s identities. Well, except for Areum, who knew all of them. The third biggest difference was genre. They were a rock band.

There was a knock at the door, and Kyoung dismissed her weapon back into the Honmoon, making sure her glasses were hidden behind the egregious amounts of makeup she kept on the table of her dressing room. She opened the door to see Green, as she went by, her hair swooped cleanly to one side, black and white layered outfit perfectly ironed, her guitar slung neatly over her shoulder, and her mask covering most of her face except for her forehead and her mouth. It was probably the best face cover the group had, in all honesty, but nobody had ever figured out any of their identities anyways so it was fine.

“We’re live in ten, Pink,” Green told her, a halfhearted smile on her face. She adjusted the black and white frog hat she wore on her head- Green’s obsession with frogs was more than a little concerning- and turned on her heel to leave the room. “And don’t forget to grab your bass like you did last time.”

Kyoung’s cheeks turned as pink as her mother’s hair. She still remembered that time, and it was so embarrassing, forgetting an entire instrument in her dressing room when playing the bass was literally the only thing she did other than backup vocals. “Right. I won’t. We’re still all going to dinner after this, right?”

“I think so.” Green closed the door, once again leaving Kyoung alone with her thoughts. Their most recent album had miraculously done well. Rock had never been particularly popular in Korea until Perfect Glamour’s debut. Yes, it had grown more popular over the years, but they as a group had solidified its official ranking of popularity. It also didn’t help that she had made a ‘public’ explanation for her hairstyle being so similar by claiming she was a huge fan of the group. Obviously, if Mira of Huntrix’s daughter was such a big fan of this group, people would be much more willing to listen. And listen they did. And now their current album was going to be one of the biggest rock albums in Korea ever.

It was called Eulogy of a Dead Girl. Other than their hair color, all the girls were dressed in black and white to provide this very funeral-style look. Their instruments were customized. They had practiced for hours and hours, until Kyoung’s fingers were numb, until Red’s keyboard keys stuck, until they needed to replace Green’s guitar strings, until Blue’s drumsticks broke and Areum’s voice was hoarse. All of it, to make this album absolutely perfect. This beautiful, devastating album that they had poured their hearts and souls into.

She stepped out of her dressing room, being sure to grab her bass and a pick. She noticed Blue was also in the hallway. She was pacing around, and Kyoung guessed she was having a conversation with her family based on her tone. “I can take care of it. All four of them-” She looked up when she saw Kyoung, her expression shifting to a much more calm one. “Hey, Pink. Ready to go?”

She nodded, smiling. “Yep. You got your sticks?” The short-haired girl held up two drum sticks with black stripes winding around them. “Perfect. We’ve got this. See you in three.” Blue nodded at her, and she kept walking.

She hummed the harmony of their featured song, Patterns, to herself. It was one of the few songs that everyone in the group sang in, and she was a damn good harmonizer. And then she was in place, and the lights were blinding, and suddenly the only thing that she could do was strum the bass and play the music, and the world faded to white and she was there, perfect, and shining.

“Hold me like I’m broken

Let me have my moment

I’ll break free (don’t stop, let me burn brighter)

If you really love me

You would have thought of me

But now you’ll see (don’t stop, let me burn brighter)

“But now I’ll die

In your arms, tear me apart

Throw me out, sound the alarm

In agony I scream, these patterns repeating

If you trust me, let me go 

There’s so much that you don’t know

Just end my suffering, don’t let me keep bleeding

So light me up

“Washed up on the bottom of the ocean

나는 무엇입니까?

If not the only reason (don’t stop, let me burn brighter)

You’re killing me slowly

You know that you owe me

Nothing but the best of wishes

Don’t you get it?

나는 기억나지 않는다

The last time I felt free

“But now I’ll die

In your arms, tear me apart

Throw me out, sound the alarm

In agony I scream, these patterns repeating

If you trust me, let me go 

There’s so much that you don’t know

Just end my suffering, don’t let me keep bleeding

So light me up

“Light me up

How could you stand there and let me bleed?

How could you point your weapons at me?

How could you lie straight to my face?

How could I trust you with my real name?

How could you stand there and let me bleed?

How did you know I want to be free?

How do you take a step

“But now I’ll cry

In your arms, keep me together

Hold me tight

In relief I breathe, these patterns ceasing

If you trust me, let me stay 

For now I’ll tell you everything

You ended my suffering, won’t let me keep bleeding

So light me up

Break the pattern”

The Honmoon rippled golden as she gazed out at the area around her. This was it. This was their moment. Not once had they ever considered that they would be enough to turn the Honmoon golden, that their voices were strong enough to draw millions of people in to be willing to give up everything to protect the world. It was how they played and sang and moved and the energy that they put into everything, all the time. And as the last note of the last song was played, she knew, deep down, that this was it. This was her calling. She was a Hunter. She was a star. She was so much more than what anyone had ever wanted from her, than what anyone ever expected of her. The realization of the reality of it all hit her suddenly, like a ton of bricks.

She was just. Like. Mira.

Nabi dropped her axe in sheer exhaustion. That was more demons than most of them had ever seen, let alone fought at once. They had been attacked on their way to go get dinner after their wildly successful concert, once again having driven Gwi-Ma to desperation. The Golden Honmoon had been a fantasy, not an intended goal, and certainly not an attainable one. But they had all seen it- well, Pink, Blue, and Red had; she wasn’t sure if Areum could see the Honmoon or not. Sure, she could summon weapons from it, but…

Regardless, the Honmoon was going to be sealed. She wasn’t sure how to feel. How would they free the demons who didn’t want to work for the Great Flames like Gwi-Ma? It wasn’t as sunshine and rainbows as many previous hunter generations may have thought.

Next to her, Red was laying on her ground, hands loosely attached to her dangpa, which was shimmering in and out of existence. “This is so exhausting,” she groaned. “Can I quit?”

“Lowkey kind of agree,” wheezed Blue. While she could see the Honmoon, she still hadn’t grasped summoning a weapon from it, so she had these circular-ish blades that she kept on her forearm for up close stabbing. She said she preferred long range, but none of the long range weapons they had were cool, so she went with that instead. Areum said nothing, holding her saingeom, summoned from the Honmoon with the utmost precision. Even if she couldn’t see the Honmoon, she could still interact with it. “Like, holy crackers, that was a lot.”

“No way you just unironically said ‘holy crackers’,” Pink replied in a playfully condescending tone. She waved her hand and her weapon, a gok-do, disappeared. “Anyways, we are so late it’s not even funny. We need to go, because I need to be home by midnight, or else my mom will have a heart attack and think I was brutally murdered by demons.”

“You told your parents about the demon hunting thing?” Nabi grinned. “Bold of you. I haven’t even told my dog.”

They all burst out laughing, gathering together and making sure the area was clear. Aera looked tense, but she, too, was amused by Nabi’s joke, cracking a faint smile in the process. “Now,” Pink said, straightening her back, “What do you say we go get some barbeque?” They all let out cheers, and Nabi ignored the cold shivers that ran up and down her spine as she followed the girls towards where they would be having dinner together.

She didn’t really discuss it with anyone, especially after her step sister became a part of the mix. “I’m going to die when I’m thirty” isn’t exactly the best conversation topic, especially when you were supposed to hunt demons. In fact, she hadn’t really told any of the girls about it yet, even though they were her best friends. There was a way to fix it, sure, and her family more than had the money, but her father refused to pay for it because it meant that when she died, everything could go to her half brother. 

His name was Dae-Seong. He wasn’t around much. In fact, her brother wasn’t around at all, so much so that he probably wasn’t at the house there even now. He was too busy either being at school, or studying. Nabi had been homeschooled, so she didn’t have that experience. And of course, there was her step sister, Min-Ji. Nothing would go to her, obviously, but she could be there at her funeral and cry a little bit to make the family look good. Min-Ji was also never there, and also really, really condescending. She knew something was wrong, but still somehow found a way to be mad at Nabi all the time. At least Dae-Seong had the nerve to pretend like he cared.

But tonight wasn’t about magical surgeries that could cure a life-threatening illness that Nabi didn’t even know the name of; it was about spending time with her friends, her girls. They, too, knew something was off, but they were still supportive every time she couldn’t get out of bed to go to practice or when she was too cold in an outfit they’d already decided on weeks prior. They’d even rescheduled two or three actual live performances because of Nabi, but they never, ever made her feel bad about it. They were accommodating. They were everything her stupid family wasn’t. They were what she needed.

“How are you guys going to eat if your masks cover your mouth?” inquired a confused server as they entered the restaurant. The server was likely referring to the fact that Pink and Blue both had masks that covered the entirety of their mouths. Whenever they went out for dinner, usually they’d get a smoothie or something. But tonight was special.

“We’ll figure something out,” Pink said smoothly, and Blue probably smiled from the way her eyes crinkled up. They all sat together, in their regular formation. Nabi on the far right next to Blue, who was next to Areum. Areum was in between Pink and Blue, and Red was to the far left, next to Pink. There were a few silly attempts from Pink and Blue eating through their masks, some successful and some not.

Then there were the subtle things that Nabi really only noticed. She wasn’t stupid. She saw how close Blue was to Areum. Saw the nudges, the way Areum’s face lit up whenever they talked to each other. Neither Pink nor Red seemed to catch on to the light teasing that went on between the two. Or maybe they did, and they simply didn’t care, but that wouldn’t have made since because they’d agreed that there’d be no dating each other within the group. There was also the fact that they had revealed their faces to each other. She didn’t know how, or when, or even why she was certain that it had happened, but the way Blue leaned in to Areum implied that they were much closer than the other girls and had at the very least trusted each other with their identities. At first, she didn’t think it was anything romantic. After all, it was not uncommon to have close relationships like theirs between friends in Korea. And maybe she was reading too far into things; but there was at least some sort of connection, even if the two noticed it or not.

It was funny, even if Areum only ate the rice. She remembered the girl’s excuse for why she really only ate rice or soup every time they went out to eat. “My voice isn’t tied with the Honmoon like all of yours. I need to keep it in shape,” she said, as if that explained everything away. “I need to be prepared to sing at the drop of a hat.” Then she had dramatically pulled Nabi’s hat off of her head and dropped it, causing the other girls to laugh, especially when she started singing some silly song about frogs.

Oh. Right. Frogs. Nabi adored frogs. It was why she’d originally dyed her hair green. They were the cutest, goofiest animals she had ever seen in her life. Her entire room was decorated with things frog related, and all of her outfits had at least one or two references to some variation of the creature. She could probably list over a hundred and fifty different species of frogs if you’d let her, but alas, not even her friends were interested in six hour’s worth of frog facts. 

The other thing she loved was Mira from Huntrix. The choreographer had been an inspiration to her when she was little, and she could do almost every single one of Huntrix’s songs because of how often she had played the pink-haired woman’s dancing parts on repeat, over and over again. When Huntrix had broken up, Nabi was devastated, but there was nothing she could do to change how things had gone down.

“Hey, watch this!” Blue said, reaching for Areum’s cup of water- the only one with ice in it, as the rest of the girls weren’t heathens like she was- scooped an ice cube out of it, shifted her mask just enough to slip it in, and stuck it in her mouth. She immediately regretted it. “Cold! Cold! Holy crackers, that’s cold!” Nabi snickered, before full on laughing, the other girls quick to join her.

“Again with the crackers. Why are they so holy?” teased Pink, and everyone started laughing even harder. However, a sudden wave of cold washed over her, and Nabi shivered, which Pink noticed. “Oh, you look cold.”

Blue noticed, too, slipping out of her hoodie and offering it to her. Nabi immediately felt warm, both emotionally and physically, after putting the hoodie on. These girls really did care about her. Red even flashed her a reassuring smile. It didn’t matter that she had been wearing three layers of clothes already, they hadn’t even hesitated.

It meant the world to her. “Thank you, all of you.” Blue adjusted her mask so it sat properly on her face, and she melted. These were her best friends, alright.

“It’s the least we could do for you, Green. I know what it’s like to have health issues. And I’m glad that you trusted us enough to tell us to begin with.” Areum sounded genuine, her smile wilder than Nabi had ever seen before. “I feel like- just tonight, I can relax with you guys. Pass the beef, please- I absolutely despise chicken and I don’t know why you all ordered so much.”

“Excuse me?” Pink sounded offended. “Chicken is the best protein to have ever walked this earth in its death.” While Nabi wouldn’t agree with her on it being the best, she certainly liked it a lot.

“That’s your opinion,” Areum replied. “An opinion that’s clearly wrong.” Their teasing arguing continued long into the night, even involving an argument between her and Red about which color was better, and by the time Nabi finally, finally managed to get home by sneaking through the window, it was nearly one in the morning. Pink’s mother was going to freak out, probably.

She opened her phone, noticing that social media had blown up again. Apparently, their performance had done numbers. She even saw a clip of one of her favorite parts in Patterns, where she had shredded the guitar and slid across the stage like an American rock star. The world itself seemed to have everything good to say about her, the world it self seemed to assure her that it would all be okay, that she was a star. She smiled as the Honmoon glowed at her fingertips with a silent reassuring hum.

Everything was perfect.

Cho Min-Ji was named after Minji of New Jeans. It was one of the only solid facts that she knew about her mother; that she was a KPop fanatic. Pop had never really been her thing in general, so she wasn’t exactly the most pleased to learn of the origins of her name, but what can you do? The other solid fact was that despite how nice of a person she tried to ask like she was, her mother was a gold digger. That much was made apparent when she married into this upper-class family with more money in their bank account than Min-Ji had ever seen in a lifetime. They were snobby as all heck- especially the daughter of the man her mother had married.

Min-Ji noticed the looks of disgust from the green-haired girl. How much she clearly thought she was better than her. Ae Nabi, her name was. The only thing they had in common was their love for rock music. But their parents both insisted on making them friends with each other, and that led to some of the most awkward situations she had ever been in.

But she could escape that weird place whenever she was with the other members of Perfect Glamour. She could play the keyboard, watch her teammates soar to new heights, sign things for fans, all whilst being unknown, all whilst being loved like a star. Sometimes she wished people would just love her for her and not the mask she put on, figuratively and literally, but what could you do.

“Min-Ji, please focus on your dinner,” her mother said calmly as she poked at her food. Nabi sat across from her at the table, picking at her kimchi like it was too basic for her. She gestured at her stepsister to point out the hypocrisy, but not before being cut off. “You know Nabi can’t handle spicy foods.”

Min-Ji privately wondered if Nabi would be able to handle her fist to her face. However, instead of voicing that thought, she choked down the rest of dinner- it’s not that it was bad, she just didn’t have an appetite- and excused herself as quickly as humanly possible. As she passed by on her way to her room, she also noticed her half brother in the door of the study, staring at her with that same sense of superiority that he always did before turning back to his books. When he wasn’t looking, she gave him the finger.

She hated this. Hated being here. It was why she hadn’t unpacked her boxes or things. But her mother wouldn’t let her leave until she ‘found a suitable husband’ or whatever, so she wouldn’t disappoint the current family that she had been forced into. She was twenty one. She should get to do what she wanted. But she bit her tongue and did what her mother asked. Because what else could she do, really? Nothing. The answer was nothing.

“You can always talk to me,” her mother said. “Tell me how you feel.”

But she couldn’t really tell her mother that she wished she had spent more time with- or even lived with- her dad. She couldn’t really tell her mother that her staunch refusal to understand that she didn’t understand why she messed up her tone, or how she had done something wrong. She couldn’t really tell her mother that while she loved her to death, she really couldn’t live with her. Eventually, it created this rift- one that her mother thought she could bridge, she really did, but her ignorance to Min-Ji’s plight had left her staunchly stuck on the other side.

She screamed into her pillow, turning over and staring at the painted black ceiling. The entire room was black and dark red- her two favorite colors. A little morbid, some said, but they complemented each other nicely and the darker reds weren’t so bright that she couldn’t focus.

Speaking of bright, she reached out to the Honmoon to summon her dangpa. It filled the room with a soft white glow. She aimed it at the ceiling, throwing it up and watching it vanish into the Honmoon with a ripple. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine a world where she had stayed with her dad, got to keep all her friends, and didn’t have to pretend like she was better than everyone now. She was still in Perfect Glamour in this world, because it was the shining high point in her life. But eventually that faded with a knock at the door, and she sat up to see her mother standing there, a mixed expression on her face. The glow of the sunset filtered into her room’s only window, casting a harsh yellow light on her mother’s face that made her look more than a little terrifying. Min-Ji sat up, making room for her mother to walk in and sit next to her on her bed.

“We need to talk about you sneaking out,” her mother said, her voice even. “You can’t keep doing that, Min-Ji, and I do keep noticing. I need you to tell me what’s going on.” She couldn’t exactly tell her mother about her endeavors as a hunter and a protector of the Honmoon, now could she? “Talk to me, please, I want to help you.” There was no good honest response that she could give her mother.

So instead, she said, “I have a boyfriend.” Her mother’s mouth opened and closed, her face shifting from willing understanding to almost scornful, and after a moment, she let out a resigned sigh, stood up, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her a little harder than necessary. She pulled out her phone, sending a text into the group chat that she may or may not be in a bit of trouble. She received no reply.

She turned back over to once more scream into her pillow. Usually, they were there to support her, but it seemed like today they were busy. Or maybe she had been too weird during dinner last night, and they never wanted to talk to her again? Okay, maybe she was being dramatic, but it was a semi-genuine fear until her phone lit up with a text message from Green. Wanna talk? It was so simple, so defining, and yet it meant the world to her.

She considered it, standing and moving towards one of the several keyboards she had scattered about the room, playing an except from one of their songs. Did she want to talk? Or did she just want to know someone was there for her, even if she didn’t want to? She pondered it for a moment, willing herself silently to come to a decision before Green retracted her offer.

Finally, she came to a consensus.

Yeah, she sent back, walking away from her keyboard, sliding open the window once again. She grabbed her mask, rested it on her face, and slid out through the window, careful as she climbed down from the third story of the house. Yeah, her stepfather was that kind of rich. They met a little while later, just the two of them, walking down a nearby street. It was a little suspicious how close the street was to her house. “So what’s bothering you?” Green asked her.

“It’s my step sister,” Min-Ji admitted, looking at how her teammate’s hair gleamed in the light. It looked exactly like her step sister’s hair, the same shade of green, the same length- the frog hat- and a pit formed in her stomach in quiet, cold realization. Why else would the meeting spot be so close to their house? On nearly the same street, even? How else would she have gotten there so quickly? But she didn’t say anything about that, instead saying, “She hates me. And my mother thinks she’s perfect.”

“I- I get that,” Green- Nabi, most likely- said, a weak smile on her face. It made Min-Ji wonder why she’d chosen that style of mask. Maybe she was a fan of some other group. “I have a step sister too. She- uh, she doesn’t like me very much.”

“Really? How so?” Min-Ji inquired, staring at her, her voice almost challenging. Nabi flinched, and she relaxed. “Sorry, I’m just tense today. But talk to me.”

“She hates me,” Nabi blurted out. “I can tell from every look she gives me she thinks I’m some high class entitled brat. She doesn’t even bother to get to know me. Every- everything she says, it’s always some slight towards me or just- I think she hates me because she knows about my health issues, and she thinks she can get away with hurting me for it.” She flinched. That wasn’t true. “I just really, really wish she’d just leave me alone.”

Min-Ji chose to say nothing. It wasn’t her place to interfere. “Yeah? That sucks, I totally get it. My problem is I just- I wish I had someone to really talk to, someone who knew me, knew my face, and- and that I didn’t have to hide around. Not necessarily talk- that’s the wrong word, just someone to be there and listen. That’s all.” She didn’t want to tell Nabi that she definitely was not that person. That she wasn’t fully sure whether she could trust Nabi now.  She also didn’t want to tell Nabi that she understood how she felt now and that she’d try to change, because that would jeopardize her identity. Well- she did want to tell her that. She just couldn’t. “I don’t think your step sister hates you, though.” Well, scratch that, she did. But she didn’t want Nabi to know that. She didn’t want to jeopardize the group. She would keep her grudges out of this. This was Green, not Nabi, even if she knew for a fact that they were the same person. Even if she still didn’t fully like Nabi, at least she knew how she was feeling. But Green was someone different. Green was her friend and teammate. Nabi was her stepsister. “Like, maybe she dislikes you a little, but I don’t think she hates you.” 

“I- I hope so, I hope it’s just a misunderstanding.” Green took a deep breath, then looked up at Min-Ji. “I’m sorry. I made all of this about me. You were the one who needed to talk, and I feel like I just stole the spotlight.”

“No, no, you’re good.” Min-Ji smiled. “It- it almost helps, knowing that we’re going through something similar. I mean, it’s not comforting, but it’s certainly something inspiring.” They both started laughing.

Admittedly, she found it more than a little ironic that both her and her step sister had a connection with the Honmoon, though. She would never have expected an axe out of Nabi, though. That was actually pretty cool.

Another realization rapidly set in that explained a lot, thinking back to the times that they had to reschedule their performances. If Nabi had some sort of persisting condition that caused her issues, that might be a large factor as to why her mother insisted on accommodating her every command, which was kind of funny in hindsight because Green described herself as relatively self-sufficient despite her illness. But that also made her feel infinitely worse about her subtle jabs at her now. Biting her lip, Min-Ji smiled, turning to her stepsister. “Thanks, N- Green,” she hastily corrected herself. “Thank you, really. This- uh, this actually helped me, like, a lot, so I’m quite glad that you were so close by for me to be able to talk to you. And I’ll always be able to do the same for you.”

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Nabi- no, Green, said casually. “Anything for a friend.” Friend. She saw Min-Ji- she saw Red, as a friend. That actually hurt a little. She flashed Min-Ji a smile that she’d never seen aimed at her before, and probably never would underneath the mask, and then turned back in the direction of their shared house, leaving Min-Ji standing under a lamp that flickered on as the sun finally sank below the horizon and night stretched out endlessly before her.

They found her in the dirt by the tree.

Okay, hold on, back it up a little bit, no suicide or death or murder or anything, Jae was just napping. Well, not really napping, but sort of dozing. She had returned to the small house at the outskirts of the city where she and Areum lived. The place was kind of tiny, having just a couple of rooms, but it was just big enough for the two of them. However, even more than this tiny house, she loved the outdoors- love, love, loved them, so it was a therapeutic experience to just lie here under the stars. Sure, it was hard to find places in Seoul where you could see the stars in the sky. But this was one of them, and it felt like home to her.

There were very few stars out currently, though. The sun was kissing the horizon, casting this beautiful orangish-pinkish-purple glow that filtered through the leaves and branches. It was comforting, being able to sit here and shut out everything, forever, and always. 

It was comforting because it allowed her to ignore her father’s voice, echoing in the back of her mind that she had been reckless taking off her hoodie, potentially showing them his patterns, the ones he had given to her to remind her that she would never burn bright enough to be free of his control. Potentially revealing that while yes, she was a demon, she chose to work with him, she chose to steal souls and feed them to the demon king, she chose to be evil, she chose to be a monster with no regard for how people could get hurt from it.

Gwi-Ma. He was her father. If one could call him that because she really didn’t have a mother, she was just an offshoot of flame that had gained sentience about nineteen and three-quarters years ago. She was not just a demon, she was the worst of them. They might be able to understand the demon part, but they wouldn’t understand Gwi-Ma being her father.

But Areum made it alright. As the girl walked out to the tree Jae was napping under, she sat down, gently stroking the demon’s blue hair. They were intertwined, the best of friends. She couldn’t forget her duty, her responsibilities, and everything her father demanded of her, but just for a while, lying there with Areum right next to her, Jae knew it was all going to be alright. Even if Areum didn’t know. But she didn’t need to know.

The honmoon shimmered as she reached out for it, letting it shift between her fingers and wrap around her like a shield, like it would somehow protect her. From the pain, from the lies, the suffering and the wrath, his voice always in her head, his voice always reminding. She stood up, looking down at Areum, at her dyed white hair and the vacant expression that reminded her that she was the spawn of the reason the girl had lost herself in the first place.

She walked inside, barely paying attention to the crunch of the leaves between her feet, even though it was spring, not fall, looking at the pictures of Areum’s family that had been broken apart, fragmented, shattered because of her father, because her father wanted to break her. And even though she had pulled herself back together, Gwi-Ma wanted to break her again. And again. And again, until she had no other choice but to turn to him and then he would win and control the Honmoon and everything.

Jae was his second chance to break her. To break the hunters. Her connection with the Honmoon was fleeting for a reason. She didn’t deserve a connection with the Honmoon. She didn’t deserve the friends she had, the love she’d found- any of it. She couldn’t tell Areum that after four years of- of whatever this was, this closeness that they had found, her heart had started beating for her.

If she even had one. Sometimes, Jae wasn’t fully sure she did. But she had been staring at the pictures for too long, and the light in the sky was gone, replaced with bright white dots that sparkled. The stars. She’d never seen stars before coming up to the surface, and now she loved them. She closed the door to leave Areum to her thoughts, to leave her heart to the silence, to ignore the pain and confliction. She walked down the hall and into her room. Her phone vibrated on her nightstand, and she noted that there had been some sort of conversation going on between Red and Green. Thanks for the talk, Red had sent.

She wasn’t able to help Red. Guilt shot through her, but it was fleeting, and she also knew that she had no choice. Her father wouldn’t have liked it if she tried to help anyway. She sat down on her bed, looking around this room that was so quiet and comforting. Her drum set sat in one corner. A bookshelf sat on the wall. A large window on the far wall. Everything was exactly how she liked it. Exactly what she needed.

She put a text reply in the chat, Sorry I couldn't help, having a personal moment. Just taking care of myself is all.

No worries, Red replied. And that was that. What she found curious was how Green and Red had been the ones to help each other even though they clearly despised each other in their daily lives. She found that very funny, actually. 

What she knew about the group was more than anyone realized. She’d picked up on how Areum talked about each of the members. She had pieced together their identities, and she knew how to get to them. Knew how to separate them. She didn’t know everything about them, but she knew enough that she could break them.

 They were her friends, though. They were everything to her. They were what made everything worth it in the end.

She couldn’t ruin this. She didn’t want to. But she had to.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured almost to herself, glancing at the mirror in her room, which she often struggled to look at. She stood up and walked toward it, as if it would somehow go away if she looked at it for long enough. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I have to- I have to do this. I don’t have a choice.” Maybe she did, but she couldn’t see that now. “This is- this is my only option. I’ll never burn bright enough to be free unless I do this.”

 You’re going to break them, Jae, her father hissed in her ear; in her reflection, she could almost see the faint glow of his flames. Make them bleed. Pull them all together, offer them what they need, and then cut them down. Make them rely on you. Make you be their anchor. Don’t let them get away from you, don’t let them see anything other than you. And then strike. Break them apart from the inside. Turn them on each other. Make them question everything they know. Destroy the hunters. We’ve done it once before, with Huntrix, we just have to do it again. Because it’s us or them, Zoey told you they’re going to destroy us, and we can’t let them do that. You know what you have to do.

“I know what I have to do,” she added in a whisper, a single tear running down her face.

So yeah. They found her in the dirt by the tree. But the tree was withered and dying, and she had killed it, and she was still here and alive and crying for it all.

Chapter Text

Kyoung sat on her bed, strumming her bass mindlessly and waiting for her mother to finish making dinner. She was pretty sure she was making naengmyeon, but she also had really no way of telling because the penthouse was freaking huge, and her room was soundproofed, which meant the walls were thick as all hell. The ceiling of her room was really high, which also didn’t help because that meant the ventilation was up high too. She wondered if there was a reason her room was this tall. A wrongly played note snapped her out of her thoughts, though, and she sighed, getting up and hanging the instrument up on her wall. Several other bass guitars sat at various heights, and copies of album records from the Sunlight Sisters, Huntrix, and Perfect Glamour decorated one of her other walls. 

The only other thing of note was an old, faded family picture from roughly seven years prior. Half a year after Mira had officially and legally adopted her, Kyoung had just finally gotten into the idea of a family. She was ten in the photo, and despite the scar over her left eye she had a stupidly wide grin on her face. Beside her on her right was Rumi, and on her left was Zoey, with Mira standing behind her with a firm but comforting smile. Her sister kneeled on the ground in front of her. Back in the days where Huntrix was together. Where everyone was happy.

She stared at the picture again. When she was younger, she looked so much like Mira, even in facial structure. But as she’d gotten older, she looked more like Rumi. Which was only bad because Rumi looked like her father. And her father- well, Kyoung didn’t want to go there. In the picture, Kyoung’s eye was covered by an eyepatch. She’d worn it because Mira said it looked cool on her. Now she simply covered up the scar with makeup and put in contacts. In full honesty, she wished she looked like she did when she was younger. Mira was so cool, so much of everything Kyoung had wanted to be. Mira had saved her, and she wanted to be someone’s hero just like her. But back then, Kyoung had only looked up to her. She hadn’t connected the dots that to be like Mira, she had to be like Mira.

She collapsed onto her bed, summoning Mira’s gok-do, remembering her mother’s ecstatic expression when she had said she had wanted the same weapon as her. They had spent hours painstakingly reaching out to the Honmoon to try and get her to summon the same weapon.

Now it was like second nature to her, even if the weapon itself felt unnatural in her hands.

Her phone vibrated from somewhere nearby. After a little bit of searching, she found it. Some random social media post that she had been tagged in. It was on her Perfect Glamour account, not her regular one that she used. When she opened it, it was just some fan mentioning her recent performance and commenting on how she had written Broken In Three. Another song on their album. It wasn’t as popular, and it wasn’t really rock like their other songs, but it was catchy in its own right, and she had poured her heart and soul into writing it.

Publicly, Kyoung and Pink were two separate people, with Kyoung being a ‘huge fan of the group, the Bassist is my bias, so I style my hair like her’. The reality was, of course, more complicated than that, but it wasn’t like she could be honest about it. The only person who knew was-

“Hey, dinner’s ready.” Mira had gently pushed open her door. “Sorry for entering without knocking, you know I hate doing that, but I called you, like, three times.” She still had Mira’s contact on silent from the performance.

Kyoung forced a smile. “It- uh, it’s okay, mom, I’m good.” She pursed her lips, standing up and tossing her phone onto her bed absentmindedly. Social media frustrated her. She was already such a public entity- she was pretty much on the face of every modeling brand that wanted to be ‘progressive’ enough to feature someone with a visible scar on their face but not progressive enough to actually have her do anything other than cover it up with copious amounts of makeup and pretend it was fainter than it actually was. Had this led to several accusations of her faking being half-blind? Yes. Did she particularly care? No.

The two of them sat at the counter, eating in silence, before Mira said, “So… how was your day the other night? You came back pretty late. Just wanted to make sure everything was alright, and I- well, I was busy for the past few days-.”

“It went fine, mom,” she replied curtly. Mira raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything about her attitude. She was far from the best mother to have ever walked the earth, but all things considered she had done pretty good. One of those things she did well was have a relatively decent response to rude responses, especially if they were unintentional. She was good at reading Kyoung’s emotions. “We didn’t mess anything up, and I remembered my bass.”

“I noticed.”  Mira took another bite of her food. “Anything else? How’s your boyfriend?” Oh. Right. Kyoung had essentially forgotten about him. He was another public model- although he didn’t have any scars. His sister had also been in the industry but- well, that was a story for another day.

“He’s fine,” Kyoung said cautiously. “I haven’t seen him in two weeks, though. How about yours?” Mira’s face twisted in surprise. “What, you don’t think I haven’t noticed? I’m more observant than you give me credit for. I’m happy for you, mom. Yeah, I still wish all-” she paused, choking over her words, “five of us were still here and as a happy family, but you’re allowed to move on.” When her mother didn’t say anything, she smiled sadly, the realization setting in. “You haven’t moved on, though, have you?”

Mira opened her mouth to speak, but Kyoung cut her off. “It’s fine, mom. You should tell him, though- in case he wants something more serious. Leading him on isn’t fair to either of you. Also, we almost turned the Honmoon golden the other night, so… we’re winning, I guess.. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She stood up, put her now empty bowl in the sink, and left her mother sitting in quiet shock.

“Your mom got a new boyfriend?” Green sighed. “I can relate, my dad got married recently.” All five of them were together as a group at this little ice cream shop that was surprisingly close to the Huntrix penthouse. Pink was currently talking about her home life. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, though.”

“Yeah. I barely talk with him. We mostly date for publicity. I think he’s gay.”

“Publicity?” Min-Ji raised an eyebrow, taking another bite from her ice cream. “Okay, work it, famous girl.”

Areum was rapidly devouring her third bowl of frozen yogurt. This was probably the only thing they had ever seen her eat so much of that wasn’t rice or that one time she drank a whole bottle of slightly warmed honey as a dare from Blue. “I’nna geh anoher won,” she said in English, before finishing her food and mumbling once more in Korean, “I’m going to get another one.” Areum always switched to English whenever she spoke nonsensically for some reason, and even though she assured all of them she was born in Korea, she spoke English like someone from L.A. She offered no explanation for this.

“You good girl? Going through a bad breakup?” Green teased, elbowing Areum. Min-Ji couldn’t help but snicker.

“I like frozen yogurt,” Areum said defensively.

“No, no, we’re not- we’re not saying it’s a bad thing,” Min-Ji said softly. “We’re just glad you’re comfortable with eating around us. You usually eat the least, so it’s good to see you eating a bit more for a change.”

Areum seemed startled, as if she hadn’t expected them to say that. Blue squeezed her hands assuringly, and Min-Ji stood up and walked over to hug the girl. She stiffened under the hug before relaxing. “Thanks, Red.” Green and Pink joined them in the hug, and while Min-Ji felt a little awkward realizing, dang, Nabi was hugging her. “Thanks, all of you. I- I know cold stuff isn’t good for my voice, but-”

“You’re a space heater,” confirmed Blue. Which became a little more apparent as they remained in the hug and Min-Ji realized yeah, Areum was hot. Not attractive hot- although she probably was- but straight up burning. “This is almost unhealthy, actually, are you sure you don’t have a fever?”

“I’ve always run hot,” Areum murmured. “Even doctors find it strange. They never really figured out what’s wrong with me.”

“I run hot too,” Blue added softly, brushing a bit of Areum’s hair out of her face. Min-Ji frowned slightly as it hit her. There was definitely something going on between the two of them. It couldn’t have been more obvious, really. Which countered their original agreement of ‘not dating within the group’. “Just- not as hot as this. Are you sure you aren’t sick?”

“Positive,” Areum murmured, leaning into the other girl’s neck (a little awkward, considering how much taller than Blue Areum was, but oh well). All three other girls, Min-Ji included, let out quiet teasing ‘ooohs’ as Blue pushed her away. She chose to give her the benefit of the doubt. Areum winced. “Hey. It’s not like that. It’s just, we live together and Blue probably doesn’t want to get sick-“

“You live together?! That means you guys know each other’s identities- oh my god you two are actually genuinely so-“

“Jae doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” Areum cut Min-Ji off with a quiet yet firm voice. “She- she doesn’t have any living family. So I offered her a place to stay. I know the rules, I came up with them. No dating inside the group. Besides, we should be talking about more important things. Such as the fact that we almost turned the Honmoon gold?”

“But we wanna talk about your love life,” Pink whined, causing everyone to once again burst into a fit of giggles. “Okay, but seriously she’s right we should be talking about that because how?? It literally took over 400 year’s worth of Hunters to even see a hint of gold the first time. How did we manage to do it in less than 3?”

“We’re just built different, I guess,” Min-Ji said as Areum excused herself to go get another bowl of yogurt, which earned her a glare from the 15 year old currently running the counter. “Oh-while you’re there, can you get me another cone? I don’t want extra sprinkles this time, though.” Areum gave her a thumbs-up. “But- have we thought about what this entails?”

“It’s great,” said Blue excitedly, “We’re going to lock away those horrible, disgusting demons forever!” Pink flinched, and Green looked at her like she was insane.

“We’re- we’re trying to free the demons from Gwi-Ma, not eradicate them,” Min-Ji told her. “Why- why would you think that?”

“That’s what Zoey told me a Hunter’s job is,” Blue murmured, and they all exchanged glances. They’d known Zoey and Rumi had been… tense ever since the Huntrix breakup, but they never expected her to actually teach a Hunter that sort of mindset. Each of them had been trained by a different Hunter, except for… well, Pink, and herself, since they were both trained by Mira. Green was trained by Rumi, Blue was trained by Zoey (obviously), and as far as they knew, Areum- who initially had gone by White but now no longer did- had been privately trained by freaking Celine herself.

“That’s not- that’s not our goal,” Min-Ji told her, and she could see in real time as Blue’s face shifted from surprise, to relief, to something that looked… almost a little guilty. Areum returned, handing Min-Ji the chocolate cone she had asked for. “Areum, did you know that Blue thinks our goal is to eradicate all demons?”

“Isn’t it, though?” Areum said, and all of them fell silent.

“Did- Did Celine tell you that?”

“No. Quite the opposite. I came to my own personal conclusion and opinion,” she said slowly, before once again taking a bite of her yogurt like nothing had happened. Blue’s face had shifted again, to an expression of almost hurt and dismay. “Anyways. Right. The golden Honmoon.”

Min-Ji narrowed her eyes but chose not to say anything. She had a feeling this was a very touchy subject for Areum, and she didn’t want to say anything.

“Actually, I wanted to discuss something else,” Pink said. “I was thinking about dying my hair. Shifting away from lilac pink to more of a hot pink. Less purple in my hair, feels more on brand. What do you guys think?”

“Hmm, couldn’t hurt,” Min-Ji admitted. “Some people have jokingly called you ‘Purple’ because of your hair color, so you’d probably benefit from a more strikingly pink shade.” The other members nodded along in agreement. “So yeah. If you wanna dye your hair, go ahead, girl, we’re all here to support you no matter what. Unless you go rogue and steal one of our colors. That- uh, that’s a no.” Again, more laughter. This always happened when they were all together, just hanging out and being friends. Inside jokes, laughter, fun- they were truly a group. All the more reason why Nabi couldn’t find out Min-Ji’s identity- it would literally and figuratively tear them apart. Suddenly, her phone lit up. It was her mother. “Ugh, one second. I told my mom I’m out with my ‘boyfriend’ just so she wouldn’t find out my identity, and now she’s all like ‘omg use protection’ like no. I don’t think I will. I’m already wearing a mask, isn’t that good enough?” The other members snickered. Okay, maybe she had sort of lied, but she didn’t want them to worry about her. You aren’t out with your boyfriend again, are you?

No, mom, I’m just going for a walk, she sent back. “Let’s go, guys, before my mom checks my location and realizes I haven’t moved in the past thirty minutes. Sorry for cutting this short.” The group all stood up in agreement.

“Aren’t you, like, twenty one? You still live with your mom at that age?” Green inquired, and Min-Ji grit her teeth.

“Yes I do. But it’s not like I could use the money from the group account to move out, because she’d ask questions, and then she’d figure out who I was. Besides- there are other people in my life who, if they found out my identity- it would jeopardize the integrity of the group. And it would be pretty obvious if I moved out because they’d definitely notice. I’m really backed into a corner here.” Gods, things were so much easier before her and Nabi’s parents had gotten married. Back then, they didn’t even know each other. Back then it would have been so much safer to move away from her mom, back in with her father, back to her old friends. But it wasn’t possible now. Despite being happy with her place in the group, she wanted time to herself.

“That makes sense.” Pink smiled kindly at her. “I’m sure whoever you are in real life, you’re a great person. I- uh, I wish you the best of luck. Despite being forced to live with your mom.”

“Hey, I’m 19 and my dad literally won’t let me move out. So we’re kinda in the same boat. Like yeah, he wants to keep me close, but at the same time, he couldn’t care less if I died as long as it doesn’t damage the brand.” Green smiled softly at her. “So- uh, at least there’s that?”

Min-Ji stared at Nabi. That didn’t sit well with her. By now, they had all started walking together in no particular direction, and Min-Ji’s ice cream had begun melting. The idea that Nabi was literally only still around in that house because her father saw her as a liability otherwise? That really sucked. Everyone else seemed to collectively agree, based on their concerned expressions.

Areum, however, was thinking of other things. She turned to Min-Ji and pointed at her ice cream cone. “Are you gonna eat that?”

Kyoung was finally, finally going on a date with her boyfriend. But it was to get her hair done. She hadn’t expected him to offer to get his hair done  along with her, but here they were. And it was so, so dang awkward. He was getting a simple haircut, and she was getting her hair fully dyed, so there was going to be a huge amount of time where he was just sitting there doing nothing. Which made her slightly more positive that he was at least a little bit gay. Jung Hyeon was his name. Oh, also, they were in the penthouse, since she got it done privately.

“Well this is… entertaining,” he said, looking around the room. “You get it privately done by a hired professional? That’s, uh, actually kind of cool.”

“...yeah,” Kyoung agreed, and the silence was deafening. She looked at Hyeon as he scrolled through his phone, and held up a photo of the haircut he wanted for the stylist. When the stylist turned to her, she raised a picture of Mira. “My mom’s color, please.” They didn’t have the exact same shades of hair- Mira’s was a darker shade of brown than hers, she was pretty sure- but she did know they were dyed in a similar way.

“I got you this.” He held up a small box of chocolates, offering them to her. “As dark as humanly possible, just the way you like it.”

She absolutely hated dark chocolate. But Mira liked it. And she wanted to be like her. So she ate dark chocolate. Because what else could you do? She took a piece from the box and ate it, smiling weakly. “T- thanks.”

“…okay. So we need to talk,” Hyeon said quietly as the person doing his hair took a comb to it. “I like you. I think you’re a great person, I really do, but-“

“You’re breaking up with me,” Kyoung said calmly. Hyeon winced. “I don’t mind, seriously. We haven’t hung out in weeks, and we’ve never particularly been super romantic. Besides, I’m always busy and you- you’ve got a lot going on, especially since they’re only now doing the service for your sister. Brings up old feelings, and-“ she took a deep breath. “I get it. I do.”

Hyeon smiled quietly. “I’m glad you understand.” For a while, they sat there in silence, the only noise being the occasional snip of hair. Kyoung took it upon herself to open her phone, where she was somehow trending on social media after someone drew some goofy ship art of her with… herself. Well, her and Pink. She snickered, and the person doing her hair- she’d never bothered to learn their name, honestly- glared at her.

“Sorry. Just saw something funny.” There was a whole argument in the comments about how ‘disrespectful it was to ship idols’, but she had pretty much explicitly stated she didn’t mind already, so she just liked the post and moved on. It would probably keep the fandom talking for a while.

“What was it?”

She showed Hyeon the picture and he started laughing as well. He was one of the few people who knew her identity- he kind of had to, considering they’d been dating for a year- and he, too, found those sorts of posts funny. He didn’t know about the demon hunting, though, and the sudden shift in the Honmoon- while she was getting her hair done- was not pleasant. “Oh, darn, I have to go-“

“You will not,” the stylist scolded her.

“I will not be going,” Kyoung reflected, wisely reconsidering her choices. She decided to open the group chat. Demons near Huntrix tower, she sent, Can’t get to them because I’m getting my hair done, and was immediately hit by a ping from Areum who said she was on her way. Also sorry for distracting from our talk of the Honmoon and how it’s turning golden.

It’s good, Areum replied, We can talk about it later. There’s time. Time. She’d never had that before. 

“So where’s your mom?” Hyeon asked.

“Photoshoot. Yeah, Huntrix is still filthy rich, buttt they’re also still in the public eye even after their breakup. Might as well, right?” He only nodded in reply.

After a good three hours of casual conversation, Hyeon left and her hair was done. (The only thing left to do was wash it) Her mother, who had been out doing some promo thing, also came back while she was in the shower. 

Ever since she’d joined Perfect Glamour, life had been complicated. Hide your identity, become famous, and act as an idol all while hunting demons? Not to mention the fact that by day, she was a model, and she was friends with all of the girls. She’d never really had time to herself. It was a nice change of pace to just be alone for once. Excess pink dye ran down her back and into the drain, which would be hell to clean up later, but oh well. She was a multi millionaire, it would (probably) be fine.

She stepped out of the shower and got dressed, casually pulling on one of Mira’s old polar bear shirts. “Hey, mom,” she said absentmindedly as she walked out of her room to the main part of the penthouse, grabbing a bag of shrimp chips out of the cupboard. One of her favorites, and probably the only thing she would go to war over Mira for.

“We need to talk about yesterday.”

“Mhm.” She stuffed a few of the chips into her mouth, sitting down on the couch (couch!!) and relaxing. Finally. She had an official break from the promos, the ads, the running around, the hiding away, the covering up. “Whatcha wanna talk about?”

“About the golden Honmoon. You- you’re sure you saw gold?”

Kyoung paused with a frown. “We all did, you could talk to Red since you train her too and she’d tell you the same thing. Hey- can we get some tteokbokki?”

“It’s just-“ Mira sat down next to her, looking at Kyoung with concern. “Have you really thought about how this will change things? If it really is golden?” She stopped her snacking to stare at her mother blankly. “How it will affect Rumi?”

“No,” Kyoung said coldly, and Mira stared at her in surprise. “And to be quite frank, I don’t care. I’m trying to enjoy my short break, thank you.” Her mother tried to speak, and she held up her hand. “Trying to enjoy my break, thank you.”

“We don’t know how it could affect Rumi, and-“

Kyoung whipped around to glare at her. “Rumi left. She’s gone. She’s not coming back, she left you, she left me, she left us. I don’t care about her because she’s not part of our family anymore.” Mira’s expression shifted.

“You don’t get it-“

“I get it plenty, mom, I do. I get that she’s gone and she’s not coming back. And I don’t have to care about her anymore.”

“Not everything is about you and how you feel, Kyoung,” she yelled suddenly, causing Kyoung to shrink into herself. Immediately, panic washed over her. Of course. She should have known that this would be Mira’s breaking point, because she’d told her time and time again that her girls were the most important thing in the world to her. Kyoung would always come second. She wasn’t a part of that. And if she was a threat, she’d get hurt, she’d be a nuisance like always. Mira seemed to realize that she’d snapped, and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you-“ and she noticed Kyoung’s trembling form. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

Kyoung didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to make Mira even angrier. 

Mira put a gentle arm on her shoulder and Kyoung shoved her back, stumbling away from the couch and summoning her gok-do. “Don’t- don’t.”

Mira had never yelled at her before.

And she seemed to realize this, standing there in quiet shock before slowly backing away, her hands firmly pressed to her side. “I- I’m not going to hurt you, Kyoung, remember? I promised you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t really believe you right now, Mira,” Kyoung said with a shaky breath, still holding the weapon tightly like it was a lifeline.

It had been a good long time, maybe five years, since she had called Mira anything but mom. She noticed the pained expression on her face as she allowed Kyoung to tensely walk to her room. “…we’ll… we’ll talk later,” Mira said quietly.

“No we won’t.”

“We won’t,” Mira amended, pausing. “Do- uh- let me know if you need anything.” The slam of a door cut her off. “…I guess you don’t need anything.”

Kyoung collapsed onto her bed, dismissing her- no, Mira’s- gok-do, staring at the ceiling and feeling like she was going to cry. Had she overreacted? Probably. But at the same time, she had been terrified. That was the same expression her biological father had the first time it happened. The same tone of voice, the same way he yelled- everything, almost down to the words.

She grabbed one of her pillows and squeezed it tightly. It didn’t help.

Eventually she did start crying, tears spilling down her cheeks and being wracked by quiet sobs. She hated this. She wanted so badly to forget that part of her, the part that made her flinch every time someone raised their hand or their voice, the part that made her terrified anytime she did something even remotely wrong. She thought she had. She thought she was doing better. She pulled up her phone, half tempted to apologize to her mother, before giving up and dropping it to be lost somewhere among her mattress again. She wanted to be like Mira, so why was she so afraid of her?

A voice whispered in her head. Mira wouldn’t be afraid. You want to be like her, don’t you? But you’re just a pathetic coward who’s almost nothing like her. But I can help you be like her. I can help you become her.

It terrified her.

“You’re not weak.” Nabi cut a demon in half, watching it dissipate into pink and vanish back to the demon realm. “That’s a perfectly fine response to have, girl. And your mother- whoever she is- handled it well. You both did the best you could in that situation.” She was on call with Pink, currently engaged in combat with some demons while Rumi, her former mentor, watched. “Who cares if you overreacted? It was a trauma response. That’s something serious. It affects your daily function. People have to be accommodating of that. If you wanted someone to tell you that you’re the worst person ever for being disabled, the sick and frail Victorian child probably was not the best idea.”

“You are not a Victorian child, Green,” Pink replied from the other end of the phone.

“I’m half white! For all we know, I could be.” She swung her axe at another demon and he exploded into sparkly confetti. “Anyways I gotta go, Rumi’s giving me the stink eye. Well, not really, but she’s clearly not pleased.” Pink let out a grumble, and the call ended. Nabi stood up, straightening as the last few demons were dispatched by Rumi’s saingeom. After a stern glare, the two began talking.

“You’ve massively improved.” She smiled fondly, despite her stern expression. “I’m proud of you, Nabi. Especially for being able to fight despite you sometimes not always being able to get out of bed.”

“It’s a genetic thing. It’s not fully understood yet, but it’s technically fixable.” She shuddered, still cold despite her several layers of clothing. “With enough money. Which my father definitely has. But, y’know, it’s much better for the business if my brother inherits everything, so I’m left to drop dead.”

“…I could pay for an operation to fix it.” Rumi allowed her weapon to vanish.

“No, no, you don’t have to.” Nabi smiled softly. “I’ve sort of come to terms with it. Besides- other people out there could be suffering from the same thing, or at least something similar. I’d rather people who don’t have the money get the operation before I do. Money can always fix everything. But most people don’t have it.”

Rumi chuckled. “You’re a good kid. Just remember- martyrdom is good and nice, but it means nothing if you die for nothing. Anyways, that concludes today’s training.” Currently, according to what she’d told her father, she was in a meeting involving ‘private investment with the idea for a potential raise’ in her ‘job’ that he would never approve of. But, you know, baby steps. “You should stay for dinner. I’m making sundubu jjigae.”

Nabi paused, opening and closing her mouth. Unfortunately, Rumi’s cooking skills were… extremely subpar. But that was better than spending time with her father. “Ah… thanks. I’d have to text my dad and tell him I’m… working overtime.”

Rumi snickered. “I’ll back you up on that if he insists on calling.”

After sending that particular text to her father, she got a very dry ‘okay’ as a response. She also got a few texts later from her stepmother while waiting for dinner that Min-Ji was out with her boyfriend or whatever so go ahead and do whatever if she wanted to, earning a wry smile. For once, Min-Ji being annoying was for her benefit. She slowly trailed after Rumi on the way back to her apartment. Like the heathen she was, she requested ice in her water, earning an unusual glance from the purple-haired woman.

“What is it?”

“Oh. It’s just that Zoey used to ask for ice in her water, is all. You… remind me of her, in a lot of ways. You’re both half American, you’re both obsessed with water-based creatures, you both have freckles…” Rumi trailed off.

“I understand.” Nabi took her water- with ice in it- and drank it. By the time dinner was over, she’d probably had four glasses of water trying to choke it down. They hadn’t talked over dinner much, an unusual event, but something that happened nonetheless. “Th- thank you, Rumi,” she murmured, standing up. It had been a long time since she and Rumi had actively engaged in ‘training’ sessions, now they were mostly just progress checks, just like with the other Hunters, but every time she felt like a beginner just recently reaching out for the Honmoon and trying to summon her weapon. It was partially because of how talented and effortless Rumi was, but it was also because she got nervous under pressure.

“No problem.” Rumi smiled softly at her. “If you ever need a place to stay, go ahead and stop by, no questions asked. I’ve always got your back, Nabi.”

“That’s… a nice sentiment to have.” More awkward silence. She summoned her axe, examining it closely because she was bored. “Do you know where the weapons of the Honmoon originate from? Why we have them? Why they’re picked? Do we pick them, or do they pick us? Because- I know I wanted an axe. It wasn’t what I picked, but it was what I wanted.”

Rumi chuckled. “I’m not sure. I knew when I got my weapon, I wanted a sword like Celine’s two swords, but not exactly like it. I wasn’t as… knowledgeable… on traditional weapon types as, say, one of the original-“ she cut herself off. “…as one of the others, but it was certainly a big help that Celine was.”

“What about the global hunters? Like America? Or- I think there are some Brazilian hunters, right? And I think there were some Slovaks- I don’t, um, fully remember the list-“

“I don’t know about them,” Rumi replied curtly. “I’m not a big fan of the American hunters, though.”

Nabi had a feeling that particular conversation was over, just like the dinner she had finally finished choking down. “Have you ever thought of getting Huntrix back together?” She blurted, and Rumi froze halfway through grabbing the dishes. “Like, putting aside your differences and being friends again?”

“…we weren’t just friends,” Rumi said quietly. “But you know that. I don’t- I don’t think we can go back to the way we were before,” she finished. “I still love both of them, and I didn’t want to leave, but- Zoey didn’t handle-“ there was a sharp intake of breath. “Nevermind.”

“I’m sorry for asking,” Nabi said softly.

“No, it was a valid question.” Rumi smiled tightly. “I just… didn’t expect it after three years.”

“No, it- I-“

“Please just let it go,” she begged softly.

Nabi decided to drop it. She bowed, left the apartment, and knew that the awkwardness of the conversation was probably going to haunt her for the rest of her life.

“I feel like- like I failed her.” Min-Ji had came for their biweekly check in, not to listen to Mira of Huntrix bawl about how she felt like a horrible mother, but she supposed it could be worse. “She was afraid. Of me. She looked at me like I was going to hurt her- she hasn’t done that in years, not since- not since a little after I first adopted her- god-.”

“It’s okay,” Min-Ji said soothingly, patting the older woman’s back in reassurance and thinly holding back her joking reply of ‘which god’. Darn her polytheism getting in the way of conversations. “We all make mistakes. You said you’d never really yelled at her like that before, right? Neither of you knew that would evoke that particular reaction.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled,” Mira murmured.

“You shouldn’t have,” Min-Ji agreed. “But what’s done is done. You’re not inherently evil because you messed up one time. It’s not like you advocated for murder or something. Now, it’s your move.” They were currently playing chess, not one of the best pastimes ever, but it was either that or tuno and Min-Ji would much rather play chess instead of throwing sticks at a pot and hoping they made it in (in case you hadn’t guessed, she had shockingly bad aim). Mira miserably moved her piece, and then Min-Ji moved hers, and it was over. “Checkmate.”

Mira started sobbing uncontrollably. “I’m a horrible mother.”

Min-Ji just sighed. “Can we play something else?”

“Thank you again, Jae,” Zoey murmured, looking downright exhausted. “I- I don’t know what I’d do without you.” It had been one of the first trade offs they had made. Zoey would train Jae, and Jae would help her babysit. Babysit who?

Two of the current biggest persisting secrets (held by a private citizen) in probably all of this part of South Korea: Chae-won and Seong, twin children of the three members of Huntrix. A girl and a boy respectively, the two of them were tornados of disaster everywhere they went. Zoey absolutely could not raise them alone and train Jae at the same time, so there had been a trade off that she would train her in exchange for her help. And now they were here, with Seong and Chae-won asleep, and Jae here once more for a check in. Over the years, as the members of Perfect Glamour had grown more skilled and practiced more, they were less likely to need training, so now they all just did check-ins.

“It was really no problem, Miss Choi,” Jae said in reply. She should have told Zoey she was a demon. She should have told her she was working with Gwi-Ma. She should have told her- no, not that, that wasn’t her secret to share. But really, she should have been honest. Yet instead, she said, “We’re about to turn the Honmoon gold.”

Time seemed to stop. “What?”

“The other night. We were performing Patterns- our hit song from Eulogy of a Dead Girl- and we saw gold.” Zoey didn’t even listen to their music. Didn’t even know that every song, every lyric that she and Areum had written were so, so ironic. That the very name of the album, which the two of them had lyrically hand-crafted from scratch (barring one song Kyoung wrote), was so damn ironic it was almost painful. Didn’t even know that the solution was just out of reach.

And Zoey said the worst thing she could have in the moment. “Good riddance.”

Jae closed her eyes. What would Zoey say when she was gone? When she was, like every other demon, like Rumi, presumably, trapped underneath an impenetrable barrier? Would she scoff and act offended, like a demon had the audacity to pretend to help her and be her friend? Or would she cry like she had for her daughter, dead but not, stuck in a state where there was nothing anyone could ever really do to bring her back, something that she hadn’t known because really she was dead, really, she was, and she was never, ever anything else.

“I am sorry,” she said quietly. “For your loss.”

She had never really told her that before.

Zoey did not reply at first. How could she? So they sat there, nothing and everything being felt at once, her words holding so much meaning and yet very little meaning at all all at once. Tell her, her father insisted. Tell her the truth. That you are a monster. That you will tear them apart at the chance to live. Tell her how brightly you are willing to burn just to see her, and everything, forever, reduced to ash and nothing. “I am sorry,” Jae repeated, because really it was her fault, and she had done it, and the blood was on her hands and she hadn’t yet washed it off because somehow she thought that if it was still there, plain as day, they could put it back and fix it. But they couldn’t fix it.

“You have been an angel, Jae, you have no need to apologize for anything, ever,” said Zoey quietly. How ironic that she be compared to an angel when she was a demon. How ironic that Zoey did not know the oxymoron in her words.

“I am simply doing what I can,” she replied, instead of opening her mouth. A lie of omission, her father’s familiar voice hissed. It is arguably one of the worst kinds of lies.

“Have you managed to connect to the Honmoon yet? Summon your weapon?” Zoey asked with mild concern. She lived in an apartment, far outside of Seoul in some nearby city that Jae had forgotten the name of but walked to so many times that it stopped mattering after a while. There were very few demons out here but plenty of room to train. They had spent time practicing on the roof back when Zoey had just begun teaching her.

“No, I have not.” And you never will, because you will break them apart and the Honmoon will be gone, her father told her. You will never connect to the honmoon because you are a demon, a monster, a mistake, a piece of me. You are my daughter, and you will do as I say, and you will destroy them all for me if you ever want to burn bright enough to be free. “I’m fine if it never winds up happening, in honesty.”

“Are you sure?”

No. “Yes.”

Zoey smiled softly, “Don’t worry, I took the longest to figure out how to summon my weapon as well. It wound up being perfect for me, and I was the fastest to figure out how to use it.” Zoey didn’t add in that it hadn’t taken her three and a half years, more like three and a half months. She didn’t need to. But Jae couldn’t be honest with her, couldn’t tell her that it would never, ever happen.

 So Jae excused herself, to go wash her hands, even though she had no reason to.

On the long walk home, she thought about Zoey. When she had first met Zoey, she was whole, a glowing, energetic ball of love and hope and happiness. “Thank you,” she had said, smiling with relief, “for saving her.”

Her. Her daughter. The one that Jae currently refused to name because she was dead but not really. She had watched that expression fade in real time. Watched that joy and love turn to devastation and sorrow, sadness and pain, and it was all her fault, she had killed her, so why not kill the rest of them too.

Jae reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of drumsticks. It wasn’t the kind she used on stage. It was one of her older sets, not as sentimental as the first, but not as important yet young as her recent ones. It was a pair she would fidget with when she couldn’t sit still. She held them tightly- they were made of wood- and let go of her thoughts, letting her fathers’s whispers fade to nothing. But then her entire body burned, as if it were on fire, as if it were ablaze. And then so did they, in this subtle sense of glory as the smoke rose from her hands and her father’s patterns- not her own, she was never her own person anymore- crawled up her neck and towards her face. As the sticks burned in her hands, she noticed the flame’s blue-green shade, and the edges of the blue dangerously flickering to purple. After a while, the blue was gone, and so was the gentle green, now burning purple, hot as could be, her father’s color. Eventually, they were ash, and eventually even after that there was only fire left, the ashes long since having been burned away by shame and control and fear.

She closed her hands and the fire went out.

1 Month Later

They were in a hotel, writing songs. It was a little over a month after they’d first seen gold. Spirits were high, but their productivity was low. Like, very, very low. The room was frighteningly cold, and Green was wrapped in about seven different blankets just to keep herself warm. Min-Ji would have laughed if she wasn’t so concerned. It sucked, because both Blue and Areum loved the cold and Green- Nabi- absolutely hated it viscerally. Unfortunately, two outranked one, so she was simply bundled up to an insane amount as a solution instead.

Double unfortunately, it was too cold. “We should write a song about how much it is freezing,” Pink said, shivering herself. “Baby, it’s cold outside. Wait, somebody already wrote that- gosh darnit.”

“Well, we could do that for a Christmas cover,” Green mumbled, risking darting her hand out of her blanket fort to grab a cup of warm tea. “Or, we could turn down the thermostat.”

“It is a little absurd,” Min-Ji agreed. “I had no opinion before but I definitely have one now. How are we meant to focus under these conditions-“ she paused. “Wait, that’s a song lyric. ‘How am I meant to focus’… write that down.” Areum did as asked, the lyric perfectly spelt in English. Blue, who had her own little mini electronic drum kit, tapped out a beat.

“That works,” sniffled Green, sneezing into her cup. “Gosh, now I’ve caught a cold.”

“No, you’re just allergic to dust,” mumbled Min-Ji, “and this room is covered in it.” She earned a weird look and remembered she’d technically never been told by Green that she was allergic to dust. But she had been told by her mother that Nabi was. “Presumably, of course. Isn’t everyone allergic to dust to some degree? Or am I just tripping?”

“I think you’re just tripping,” Green replied. “However, yes, I am, in fact, allergic to dust and- achoo- I’m going to make it everyone else’s problem.” She paused. “Hold up- that’s lowkey fire. ‘I’m allergic to you, and I’ll make it their problem’, what do you think of that?”

“I believe we are, as the children say, cooking,” Areum said drily, and everyone lost it. “I mean, yeah, that’s old slang but it’s making a comeback I think.” She wrote down another lyric, tapping her pen thoughtfully against the paper. “Okay so we have , ‘How am I meant to focus under these conditions. I’m allergic to you, and I’ll make it their problem.”

“There’s nothing they could do except hope they can solve ‘em?” Blue raised an eyebrow.

“That’s what you get for letting me go,” Min-Ji suggested. Usually the others weren’t as active in the lyric process, so this was new to her, but everyone seemed to be nodding along so she added, “Naleul gidaliji ma, I’m not meant to be remembered. You gave up your one chance with me because you’re so self centered-”

“‘Cause I was broken without you, but I picked up the pieces,” Areum hummed along. “Don’t even remember why I gave you my attention. Ij-eoss-eo? Nan hangsang deo ganghaess-eo, but-

“That’s what you get for letting me go,” Blue finished. There. They had it. An idea. And it grew from there. Areum and Blue worked together in quiet whispers on the rest of the song while the three of them- Min-Ji, Pink, and Green- sat together in silence, sipping tea.

“You think they’d notice if we turned up the thermostat?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Green confirmed, taking another sip of tea, this time from Pink’s cup, since she was out of her own tea by now and still shivering from the cold. “Hmm, we should play a game. Or talk about something, I don’t know, I’m bored.”

“Celebrity crushes,” suggested Min-Ji. Green went pink, and Pink, well, chuckled at that particular reaction. “I’m guessing that from Green’s reaction, that’s a good idea?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Pink agreed while Green retreated into her blanket brigade once again. “I’ll go first. That one guy- I know it’s not very descriptive, I forgot his name, though- from that new idol group? I think it’s like. Ahnjong. He’s literally so hot, like, seriously.”

“Okay, based,” Min-Ji agreed. “I don’t even like pop and I can agree he’s extremely attractive. I- I don’t really have any celebrity crushes, if I’m being honest. I think it would benefit me to just date like, a normal guy. My mom already married into this sucky high class family, I don’t need any more expectations put on me.”

“Then why’d you suggest it?” Pink raised an eyebrow.

“I wanted to hear your guys’ answers,” Min-Ji admitted. “Get to know you guys more. Even after three years- yeah, we’re super dang close, we would die for each other and the like, but I don’t actually know anything important about you guys.”

Her stepsister let out a soft meep from inside of her blanket pile. “I- I guess I’ll share,” she said quietly. Both Min-Ji and Pink turned to stare at her with rapt attention. After a bit of hesitation, Green spoke. “I- my celebrity crush is Mira’s daughter, Ki Kyoung.”

Min-Ji sat in dumbfounded silence. Areum and Blue stopped talking. In fact, Areum straight up dropped her notebook, her face somewhat akin to someone who wanted to commit murder. Everyone was looking at her, except for Pink, who had a complicated expression. “You- you have a crush on her? Isn’t she, like, a minor?”

“Wha-” Green blinked. “There’s a two year age gap! It’s not- I- god, it’s not like that! I’ve liked her ever since I was younger. I was a huge fan of Mira back then, and then I met her once when my dad took me on a business trip, and she was so nice to me- and the rest is history,” she finished. “I hope that’s not weird- god is it weird?”

“No, I was teasing you about that,” Areum said, calming down after a minute. Min-Ji didn’t know why she’d gotten so pissed, but she had a feeling it had something to do with Areum’s identity that she wasn’t willing to share. “I, uh- good luck, I guess, although I think Pink has her heart all things considered.”

“I look up to Mira too,” Pink assured Green after a long moment, “But I don’t look up to her that much.” She paused. “Okay, I do, arguably more actually, but not like that. Yeah, by the way, Mira, I want to marry into your family.”

“I never said I wanted to marry her!” Green cried out defensively. “Maybe go on a date or two and see if we’d even work as a couple.” Min-Ji chuckled. This was going to be fun to tease her about when they got home, she supposed.

“At least her crush is realistic?” Blue offered.

“Yeah.” Areum straightened her spine after bending over and picking up her notebook. “Speaking of realistic… realistically, what are we going to name this song?” She showed everybody the lyrics and they all exchanged glances.

“I don’t know,” Min-Ji said. “It might take a while to release it, though, so we can always put it on the backburner.”

“Actually, I might have an idea,” Blue said. “I mean, just look at the lyrics. I’m thinking… My Attention.”

“Not the most iconic song name ever, but not exactly horrible. It’s not going to get any All-Kills like Two-Way Mirror did, but it’s decent enough that I can at least guarantee we’d make the charts.” Areum smiled at Blue, that same smile that she never gave to anyone else, and Min-Ji immediately clocked it. Based on the quiet humm she heard from Nabi, her stepsister had clocked it too. “Thank you, again, Blue, and all of you, for coming together for this silly impromptu session.”

“It’s not silly,” Pink said.

“You’re right, it’s not, but- I really only called it because I wanted to see you guys again.” Areum’s eyes were pink, and everyone let out mumbled embarrassed appreciation. She anxiously paced back and forth, taping her fingers against her slacks. Min-Ji always wondered why she never wore shorter clothing, considering she was hot all the time, but she chose not to question it. After about five minutes of just sitting there, Areum sighed and said, “A-anyways, productive session, guys, let’s- uh. Go home.” She started rambling to herself about something unintelligible.

Min-Ji pressed a key on her keyboard, fidgeting with a melody. The others didn’t even bat an eye at her interruption. She waited for Areum to finish talking before working a bit more on the melody, shifting back and forth between two chords. “No point in leaving now, we have the room for the whole night.” Everyone finally, finally looked at her. “Well?” More silence. “Oh, for gods’ sake, let’s write the rest of this thing.”

And they were going to, really, they were, but they were suddenly interrupted by a ripple in the Honmoon.

Chapter Text

“This is not how I expected to spend this week,” mumbled Nabi, swinging her axe at a demon. The demon ducked, only to be speared through by Red’s dangpa. Another one tried to attack Red only for her to whirl around, block, and put some distance between them before counterattacking. She was nearly caught off guard watching her fight by a demon appearing next to her, before it was slashed in two by Areum’s saingeom.

“Watch it,” their leader warned, before turning into a whirlwind of destruction, slicing through the demons like they were paper and she was a pair of scissors. Nabi had never fully understood Areum’s hatred for demons, seemingly silent and yet fearsome and driving her. Areum had never outright said I hate demons, but it was strongly implied based on both the way she talked about them and the way she fought them. She granted them no mercy, no second chances, and it was a little disturbing how firmly that frame of thought sat despite the other’s best efforts. However, she supposed it only made sense; she was trained by Celine. And they all knew what Celine had done. Nabi couldn’t hold it against her. Her axe embedded itself in another demon.

“They’re getting desperate,” said Blue, slicing through a demon with her metal blade. Instead of dissolving into pink, it gushed this ugly black blood and melted. The demons gave her a wide berth- understandably so. She was the other one who seemed to hate demons, but even Nabi could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. Nabi realized there was a demon behind her and turned around, cutting it in half. It exploded into pink sparkles. “They know we’re close to turning it gold.”

“I hope they don’t try and do something like the Saja Boys again,” Pink murmured. “Or with-”

“They won’t,” Blue said firmly. “If anything, there’s too many of us. They’d try and tear us apart from the inside. Trust me.” Nabi had to agree that it made the most sense. “Besides. We’re the best group ever. We’re perfect. They’re not gonna get to us.”

Areum muttered something to herself. Everyone looked at her expectantly, and she sighed, throwing her sword in a way that arced through the last remaining demons. The tear, along with her saingeom, vanished. “Go home, guys. I’m serious.”

So Nabi walked home, in the dead of night, following a path that only she really knew. No demons attacked her. It was kind of lonely. She reached into her pocket- she had a bajillion of those- and pulled out the spare key that she had stolen from her dad some years ago to make it easier to sneak out. She took off her shoes, took about four steps in, and was immediately stopped by her father. “Where were you.”

“At my job. Emergency shift.”

“Quit lying.”

“You can call my employer,” she said smoothly, “She’ll give you the same answer.” It’s not like he could say she gave him a friend’s number and pretended she was her employer. Rumi’s phone number couldn’t be found anywhere in the regular private citizen phone book (which was considerably old to have, but her father, despite his youth, was old fashioned in that way). He had tried to prove her wrong, oh, he had, but he never could.

“I just did, actually, she said she had no clue where you were. So try. Again.” He was bluffing to get a response out of her, and Nabi knew it. It didn’t help that she’d forgotten to take off her mask. But she also knew that Rumi would lie for her if necessary, if not to preserve her identity.

“Call my employer,” she repeated. “Or would you rather I call her?” Her father cocked his head in mild amusement. This wasn’t going to work. She took off her mask, setting it down on the table. “I’m serious, dad.”

“And I’m serious. Tell. The. Truth. Or I’ll ground you.” Nabi caught a flash of movement that she recognized to be her brother, sleepily moving from his study to his bed. She looked her father dead in the eye.

“I’m the guitarist in a rock band called Perfect Glamour. We’re world famous, and I just got back from a hotel brainstorming music ideas.”

He snickered. “Okay, if that’s the lie you’re going with. Give me your phone. Now.” Nabi shrugged, pulling the phone her father gave her out of her pocket. It was dead. She never charged it. “Also, no guitar.”

Now that? That was unacceptable. “I told you the truth. I don’t know what your problem is,” she said coldly. “Unless you were the one who was lying?” He froze, staring at her with bewilderment.

“We can’t have you tarnishing the Ae family name,” he said, his voice low. “Your siblings noticed you’d been sneaking out and came to me about it as a private concern.” Anger, white-hot, flashed through her. Of course Min-Ji had something to do with this. “Now- I allowed your… preference… to slide. I am not going to allow you to sneak out and be promiscuous about it.”

“You think I was out seeing a woman?” Nabi said in disbelief. She was, in all honesty, thoroughly offended. “I- I never- I didn’t- what?” She was so baffled, so thoroughly shocked, that her father seemed just as surprised as her, although more about her reaction than anything else. “First of all, no, I was not out seeing anybody of any sort other than my bandmates. Second of all, you don’t need to be so homophobic about it every damn time you speak. Third of all, even if I was, I’m going to die in like, five years. Who cares. Any damage I do to the family name can easily be undone by my brother once he becomes the heir. Like you want.”

Suddenly, her face burned, and realization set in. Her father was standing up, glaring at her, and he looked pissed. He- he had slapped her? Of course he had. So she looked him dead in the eye and slapped him back. “I’m an adult,” she said coldly. “Self defense.” He opened and closed his mouth, looking at her with pure rage in his eyes.

“If you’re an adult, you can sleep outside, hmm?” And he stood up, turned, and left. She ignored him, instead walking back up the stairs as exhaustion set in. She opened the door to her room, glancing around the inside, before walking in and closing it, hard. After a while, she collapsed into her bed, plugging in her other phone. The one she really used, that even her father didn’t know she had. She pulled up another social media site, watching the amount of fans that excitedly squealed over her performances or tried to mimic her riffs to an exact degree. Usually, that was enough to calm her down, but her frustration just didn’t fade.

Suddenly, she heard arguing faintly through the wall, loud enough to get her to stand. Muffled yells of you overreacted and she’s a guest in my house and the family name and but she’s your daughter and since when did you care about either of our children. And it set in that this was Min-Ji’s fault. Her stepsister had done this. If her stupid step sister hadn’t have gotten in trouble for sneaking out, and then likely outing Nabi for sneaking out to save her own hide, none of this would have happened.

If only her sister just wasn’t there. An idea formed as she listened in on the argument, a horrible, bad idea that could really only end in a very, very, very bad way for all parties involved. Except for her, of course. Just as she intended. She grabbed her phone again, scrolling through her contacts. She needed to tell someone about this, anyone. Some notification from her calendar reminded her she had an event, likely hosted by her father the next day. If she went and represented without complaint, then maybe, maybe he’d leave her be. And that would be the perfect time to execute her plan. She opened the contact for Blue, knowing that there was little to no chance that she knew Blue in real life, or even knew anybody that knew her. Areum in that way was similar, but she’d never go for it.

Hey, she sent. You know how I’ve been having problems with my step sister? She got me in major trouble with my dad, I might not be able to practice because of her.

Blue sent back a halfhearted, Bummer.

So I’m going to get my stepmom to divorce my dad. That way she’ll move out and I don’t have to deal with Min-Ji anymore.

Good idea. I don’t want to get too involved, but I can support you from behind the scenes. Not what she expected, but she could at least respect Blue’s honesty that she didn’t want to be involved. A quiet thought hit her at the back of her head, what if it wasn’t Min-Ji who was responsible, but she brushed it off. Of course she was. Her stepsister hated her. And even if she wasn’t, her stepsister was still partially responsible for making her life even more hellish than it was before. It was only fair.

The only question was- how was she going to do it?

Kyoung did not actually want to be at this event. Unfortunately, Mira had to go, which meant she also had to go because nobody was stupid enough to expect Mira to go without Kyoung. The moment she had gotten there, she left her mother, and decided her best course of action was hiding in the corner. She wasn’t dressed up all fancy like some of the other people here, but there were also a lot of people dressed casually, so she wasn’t too out of place.

The only reason Mira was here was because Bobby had told her it would be a good idea to go, and her mother almost always listened to Bobby. She didn't even know what it was about, and she highly doubted Mira did either.

She was by herself when a girl with long hair pulled into a braid, not like hers, but starting at the base of her neck instead of the top of her head, walked by. She wore a sleek silver dress, a matching jacket, and she also looked extremely uncomfortable despite her fake plastered smile.

“Hey,” said Kyoung, catching her attention. The girl turned, and froze, looking at her in complete and total disbelief. “Trying to look for a way to avoid other people? Hide in the corner.” She didn’t particularly want to talk to her, but she also didn’t just want to leave her hanging.

“My father would not approve. He kind of grounded me, and I’m here to try and convince him to un-ground me.” Kyoung stared at her, and then she explained, “I got in trouble for something I didn’t even do. Sneaking out to see a girl- I don’t even have a girlfriend. I was just- I was just plain sneaking out in general. Going for walks and the like.”

“Oh. That’s- that’s funny. Uh, I’m- I’m Kyoung.” She didn’t know what to say.

“As- as in Ki Kyoung?” The girl replied, her jaw on the floor. “Wha- how- oh my- I-” she seemed baffled for a minute. “Oh my god, that’s-” Finally, the girl seemed to gather herself and pick her jaw up off the floor. “I- I’m Nabi. Ae Nabi.”

Kyoung had heard things about her family- that they had quickly worked their way up the ranks in society via increasingly shadier deals, that the idol group they owned (a much more recently starting group whose name Kyoung had honestly forgotten despite their popularity) was treated better than most groups except that they were paid less, and-

Kyoung froze, realizing Nabi had asked her a question. “Um… pardon me, but what was that?”

“I asked if I could have your phone number,” Nabi replied. “Ah- don’t tell my father, I’m not supposed to have my phone, so I’ll just put it in my burner.”

“I’d rather have yours.” The two exchanged glances, silence stretching on far more than was actually necessary, and then it hit her. “Wait. You were flirting with me, weren’t you?”

“Whaaat. No, definitely not. But hypothetically if I was would you go out with me?” Nabi replied, her words all coming out in a rush in such a way that made Kyoung laugh aloud.

“I- I mean, we kind of just met, but… yeah.” She cocked her head at her. “Although you do seem familiar-”

“We’ve met before. When we were younger, my dad took me with him on a business trip- you were a lot more shy, though,” Nabi said quietly. “I was- uh, you didn’t like me very much. Thought I was snooty for spending all my time away from the other kids. Until you realized I just wasn’t saying anything so my dad wouldn’t yell at me. Then you started talking to me, and, no offense, but you just wouldn’t shut up.”

“Oh, that was you?” Kyoung was surprised. She hadn’t remembered that- Nabi had looked so different. Her hair was black, not green, and she had been wearing a t-shirt that had some pun about poison dart frogs. “You said your name was Butterfly-” she paused. “Oh. You- you-”

“I’m half American, so I was giving a rough translation of my name. I did not, in fact, realize that I had spoken my name in English and I was far too terrified to correct you.”

Kyoung snickered. “Okay, that’s- uh, that’s kind of cute.” Nabi blushed, and she added, “I don’t really think we’re like, a thing, but I wouldn’t be adverse to going on a date at some point to get to know you more. Well- more than when we were eleven and thirteen respectively.”

“Yeah. That- um. That’s not a bad idea.” Nabi jumped at a shout that sounded vaguely like her name. “That’s probably my father calling me. Later, Kyoung!” She sighed, turning back into the crowd and disappearing into the wave of bodies that moved back and forth.

Kyoung stood there, somewhat baffled, trying to process in full what had just happened. She’d gotten a date. Then she turned to go find her mother, also mixed into the crowd. When she found her, she noticed Mira’s bored expression and made effort to copy it. “Why are we here again?”

“Publicity. I don’t know. Huntrix isn’…. Isn’t even together anymore, I don’t know why Bobby thought this was a good idea. I’ve had seven people so far ask for my autograph.”

“A girl asked me out,” Kyoung said calmly. “Well, she asked for my number and then suggested we go out. Her name is Nabi.”

“Ae Nabi?” Mira raised a joking eyebrow. “Leave it to you to pick probably the richest person in this venue to be friends with. I could never.” A disappointed pang shot through her gut before Mira mumbled, “I’m teasing. Back before I was in Huntrix, Celine- ah. Nevermind. You’re more like me than you think, kid.”

But not as much as you hope, hmm? Kyoung’s back stiffened as that stupid voice returned. You said you wanted to be just like Mira, but close isn’t good enough. I can help you be enough.

“Shut up,” she snarled. Mira flinched, and Kyoung realized that her mother probably thought she was referring to her. “No, wait, that’s not what I…” she sighed. The damage had already been done. Quietly, though, she heard at the back of her mind the voice again. Mira would tell her parents to shut up. Don’t feel sorry if you want to be like her.

She bit her lip. “You know what? Screw you.” Mira turned back to stare at her, looking baffled as she once again disappeared into the crowd. But she didn’t feel very good about saying that at all.

Jae shuffled the solitaire cards, once again dealing the set on their dining table while Areum poured over song lyrics. “You know, the song isn’t going to get any better the more you rewrite the lyrics. It was completely and totally fine originally, you really don’t need to change it.”

“I’m experimenting,” Areum replied, scrunching up her nose at Jae. “And anyways, it’s not permanent. We were recently reached out to by some festival or something, they want us to perform and in exchange they’ll give us free tickets and food waivers or whatever. I want to make sure we’re all set for the performance and I’m wondering if we should drop a new song or something.” The entire label of Sunlight Entertainment was basically allowing them the most artistic freedom possible, thanks to Celine’s assumption of the position of CEO some odd years ago.

“I love fairs,” Jae said dreamily, remembering the last time she went to one. It was more like a demon market than it was a fair; every demon there was selling something. Some traveled from other ‘demon realms’, others were putting on shows for tips, and a few were ‘advertising’ soul work for Gwi-Ma. Steal this person’s soul, win a cookie. But there was one thing that had made her adore them more than anything. They had always been the best place for Jae to show off her skills. Her favorite was lighting herself on fire in the color of her father’s flames, because she never had her own color, and watching demon’s faces in awe when she stepped out unscathed. She’d collected her own small following of demons once, fifteen or twenty who believed in her more than Gwi-Ma.

Until he had publicly executed them, and she never went to another market again for fear of other demons being harmed.

Regardless, she was excited. “Please tell me you accepted.”

“I did-” no sooner did the words leave Areum’s mouth than Jae had tackled her into a hug; she let out a quiet squeak as the blue-haired girl hugged her even tighter. “Yep. Doing. It. Need. To. Breathe.”

“Thank you,” she said, in quiet exhale. There were plenty of words left unsaid, just the two of them in each other’s embrace, for a very, very long time. Areum hated hugs, usually, but from Jae she seemed to almost welcome them. Jae tried to shut out Gwi-Ma’s voice in  her head, just for a little bit, to allow herself to think. All she could think about now, though, was how soft Areum’s hair was, and how much warmer her friend was in comparison to her, and how she smelled like cedar and pumpkin spice- a comparison Areum would hate, because she hated anything pumpkin related. “It means more to me than you realize,” she said, finally just starting to pull back- just as the door opened.

“Wow. Did not expect that.” Celine’s voice was low and amused, and both girls stood up in quiet tandem as she walked in- mostly because separating quickly would make it look worse than it actually was, and neither of them were stupid enough to do that. “Please, next time, give me fair warning before walking in on such scandalous behavior.” Areum’s ears went pink at the teasing, but Jae stood at a quiet neutral, her patterns pulsing slightly. “Hmm, guessing you didn’t like that kind of teasing. I’ll keep that in mind in the future.”

“Celine-” Areum tried to say, but her mentor held up a hand.

“You both know the rules. No dating inside the group. I will not let feelings and affections get in the way of a third hunter group.” She glanced between them. “But you two are not dating. That much is clearly established. Although I do not think your relationship is entirely platonic-” she once again shot Areum a look to shut her up, interrupting her potential statement, “I also think that it is not inherently romantic either. You two need to work out how you feel.”

“Jae is my best friend,” Areum said simply. “Many times, relationships between friends can blur the lines between romantic and platonic. It doesn’t matter.” Jae nodded her head in agreement, ignoring the quiet pang in her chest as the other girl spoke. “You, of all people, should know that, Celine.”

Celine pursed her lips in combined bitterness and amusement. “But does Jae know that?”

Areum looked at Celine weirdly. “Of course she does. She’s a demon, not American. Although- actually, those two can be synonymous with each other sometimes, ignore my poor metaphor. The point is, both Jae and I understand the difference between close relationships and romance. There’s not a hard line. But does that ‘line’ in general really matter? No. We are friends, not anything else, because that is how we choose to define ourselves.”

“It’s not as if we’re kissing in secret or something,” Jae grinned. “Unless you’re saying we can?”

“Absolutely not,” Celine and Areum both replied sharply.

“Joking, joking. Great mother of Gwi-Ma-” Do not invoke my mother’s name in such a manner, child- “do neither of you have a sense of humour?” Silence from all parties involved. “Either way, that’s neither here nor there. What the heck are you doing here, Celine?’

“Hmm. Good question. I was also wondering that,” Areum admitted, turning back to the dining table and pulling out a chair for her. “Unless- have I done something wrong? Or perhaps, much more favorably, have you found a place for Jae to be able to stay on her own, where she is still close to Seoul and can still view the stars?”

“No, and no,” Celine said softly. “I am here, in fact, to discuss Kyoung.”

Areum raised an eyebrow. Jae knew she meant Pink, but Jae also knew that Areum didn’t know she knew any of the other member’s identities. So Jae pretended to look confused, and Celine politely gestured for her to leave the room. As she left, she noticed the two talking in quiet whispers, and if it weren’t for their height difference and how Areum dyed her hair, Jae might have almost confused them for the same people.

Celine had always been very similar to Areum, that much was obvious to anyone who knew them- they had similar values, Areum’s natural hair was the same color and fell the same way when she let it be, their faces were shaped vaguely the same way and they had similar eye shape. But Celine came with this emotional calm that stemmed from years of grief and hurt; she too, could be unhinged at times. Areum, quite the inverse, was someone who was easily able to lose herself under a mask of cold emotion when in reality, she felt little to nothing at all. It was something that Jae had always found interesting, that despite the visual similarities and their behavioral similarities they were somehow still so vastly different.

When Celine expressed amusement, it was because she was letting that mask slide; when Areum expressed amusement, it was because the mask was becoming her. Too often, Jae had watched Areum sit in a vigil of silence, being everybody and nobody all at the same time, feeling everything and feeling nothing. Quite the contrast, but that was the only way she could quantify the blank look on her face whenever she was left alone with her thoughts for too long. After everything that had happened, she remembered that one time when Areum had pulled her aside.

“You saved me,” Areum had said quietly, “you are the only reason I’m still here. I lost myself, and you- you’re an anchor.” Jae had left for a week after that. She didn’t know what happened, but she did know one thing.

She’d made her eat those words.

After the conversation that Jae tried (and failed) to listen in on, Areum walked back over to open the door. “Celine is staying for dinner,” she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world and as if dinner wasn’t just soup or instant noodles like it was every night. “Also, she’s making it.” Then, Areum made some cider- non alcoholic, but she despised coffee- and sat down with more notes scribbled all over their lyrics.

“I need to speak with you as well, Jae.” Celine looked calm as she stepped to the side, a hand on her shoulder. “I wanted to thank you.” Her voice suddenly went low. “For everything you do for Areum. I- I never thought I’d be thanking a demon for anything, but here we are. You- along with Rumi, but that’s different- have greatly changed my outlook, on both being a hunter, and life in general. So this is a thanks for both Areum and me.”

Jae smiled tightly. She wouldn’t be saying that if she really knew, her father hissed. But go ahead, and say that they care about you. If they knew I was your father, they’d do everything in their power to kill you and tear you apart. Jae wasn’t sure how true it was. But… Remember. Areum hates demons. You’re the exception, and she’d still kill you if she thought it would get her somewhere. That- that one Jae was certain of. But she continued to look at Celine with her forced smile and said in a way that was much more calm than she actually felt, “It was my pleasure.”

Was it really?

Dinner commenced with little words. Jae ate her usual- instant noodles; Areum ate her usual- some odd variety of soup that Jae couldn’t be bothered to name; and Celine looked in their cabinets in horror and moderate confusion before eventually settling on reheated rice and a few extra things rolled into a halfhearted attempt at kimbap.

“Neither of you have particularly that much food variety.”

“We have a system,” Areum said calmly. “It works for us.”

“She’s leaving room for the ice cream in the freezer,” Jae teased, eliciting an amused snort from Celine. Areum was about to protest, before quietly leaning back in reflection that Jae was, in fact, right. For a moment, things almost felt normal. Her father’s voice was a faded memory in the back of her head. “Anyways- so, I just wanted to say, could you stop by more often? It gets sooo lonely when you’re only allowed to spend time with one person, ever.”

“She has a point,” murmured Areum around a mouthful of soup, even though they all knew she would rather be left alone and not spend time around anyone ever. Her mental health really did mean they couldn’t do that, though. “Even if I- if I’m not a real hunter-”

“You are a real hunter, A-” Celine paused, then took a deep breath and corrected herself from whatever she was going to say originally. “Areum. You’re an incredible one at that. You’ve beaten me in hand to hand combat before with ease. Let alone the hundreds of demons you’ve killed?” Jae flinched at that. They weren’t dead, not technically. But she had killed demons with the metal blades she kept up her sleeves at all times. She had killed her own kind. How pathetic.

“I can only summon a weapon from the honmoon via punching a hole in it, and it hurts like all hell every time I do,” replied Areum. “No true hunter would do something like that.”

“Are-“

“You are dismissed, Celine.”

Those words were blatantly final, in a way that made Jae uncomfortable. She’d never seen Areum order Celine around like that, and clearly Celine hadn’t been expecting it, because she stood there in contemplation. That was when, ever so subtly, she heard Areum’s breathing shift and spike in pain. She bent over, gripping the edge of their table. Celine immediately stepped up, resting a hand on her shoulder. “You need rest, Areum. You’re pushing yourself too hard-“

“Celine,” she murmured, and Jae felt like she was witnessing a conversation that had happened a thousand times already. 

She decided to act as well. “Celine’s right. You do need rest.”

“It’s chronic pain. Resting won’t help if it decides to randomly flair up,” she murmured. “I do plenty of resting. Besides, demons don’t rest.”

“We do,” Jae said sharply, but Areum shook her head.

“You’re different. You’re not like them.” She doesn’t see you as a demon. But she would if she really knew, that same voice whispered. “Like, literally. You’re one of the Great Flames.”

Oh. That’s what she meant. “I know,” said Jae calmly. “But I also know that demons need rest. Most of us are nocturnal, actually- why do you think so few attacks happen during the day?”

Areum looked at her weirdly. “Huh?”

“Right. When’s the festival?”

“Six days from now,” her friend murmured.

“Great. Six days of mandatory rest. Thank you, Celine, I’ll take it from here.”

Celine chuckled. “Well then. I did not expect that. Take care of her, Jae. And- again, thank you.” She glanced at Areum. “And yes- rest.” With that, she left, leaving the two to sit there in contemplative silence.

“Jae,” Areum pleaded, but she had already started walking outside. She followed her, only to realize Jae was sitting under the tree again. “What are you-“

“Look up at the sky,” she instructed her friend. When Areum complied, she smiled. “See those stars? You can barely see them anywhere else in the city. Right?” Areum nodded slowly. “But I can. We can. Just like how only I can see you.” She smiled softly at her. “But stars can burn out. Many of those stars are already dead as their light reaches us.”

“What’s your point-“

“They’ve burned out. Just like you will, if you don’t rest for a while. You’re as bright and beautiful as a star but if you keep pushing yourself, eventually you’re going to get hurt more than just the regular amount.” Jae reached out, gripping her friend’s hand.

“…you think I’m beautiful?” Areum teased in amusement. Jae went red, and she smiled. “Do you know something else about stars? They’re giant balls of gas and flame that burn. I think that makes you more like a star than me. Stars are the center of their systems. Just like you are.”

“The center of your life?” Jae said quietly. Areum paused and looked at her silently. “Are you hitting on me? After we just had that conversation with Celine-“

“No,” said Areum quietly. “I’m not. I- I’m mostly trying to thank you. I love Perfect Glamour, and- you make it better. If I was alone, I don’t… think I’d still be here.”

“And yet you still hate all demons and think we deserve to die,” Jae replied. Areum didn’t.

“I don’t think you all deserve to die,” she finally said slowly. “I just… what happened- you were the only one that wanted to help.”

“I know.” She looked at Areum quietly. “But not everyone knew. And even if they had, not all of them could have helped without dying.” You’re making excuses, Jae. The only reason you helped her in the first place is by my command. You know full well they all work for me. You know full well that she’s right. But I will always have this control over you. “Whatever,” she murmured, trying to brush off Gwi-Ma’s words. It wasn’t working.

“...yeah. Whatever. …I should tell the other girls about the fair.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

They sat there for a little longer, just looking up at the sky and watching the stars sparkle gold.

Min-Ji was really excited for the fair. The only problem was her mother was watching her like a hawk, and that meant that she couldn’t sneak out.

The other night, Areum had messaged them all in the group chat to inform them that they’d be performing at the fair, and since then, so many good things had happened other than her mother’s insistent hostility that it was funny. After finding out that Nabi had been grounded, and, consequently, ungrounded, meaning she could practice playing guitar, and as per her request her stepfather actually got her a new piano so she could also practice, and Dae-Seong deciding he was finally going to do everyone a favor and move out (which pissed off Nabi’s father for about one point five seconds until he realized that it was because he intended to spend more time at school), and Nabi was actually leaving her alone and not being rude.

It was disturbing, so she should have known her mother would have been a helicopter on the one day she needed autonomy more than anything else. She couldn’t sneak out because her mom was expecting that. Pressing the piano keys in no particular order, she began to play some random made up melody. The more she listened to it, the more she thought about how much the song resembled another one of their songs, Two Way Mirror. So she instead stopped and began playing her part in that.

Halfway through, she switched to a composition of Nabi’s part instead.

She didn’t notice her stepsister standing in the doorway. “...where did you learn that?”

“Hmm?” Min-Ji looked up with a startled expression. “I- uh- I have a good ear. I listened to one of my favorite members from a band I like on repeat to pick out the guitar parts and then crossed it into a piano piece. It’s not exact- the guitar is much more intense, but-”

“You’re a fan of Perfect Glamour?” Nabi had a complicated expression on her face. “And… your favorite member is Green? Their guitarist?”

“Yeah.” She looked at her stepsister for a long while. Despite her short hair- which she styled usually differently, but sometimes forgot to change- and its incessant bright red color, she wasn’t as easily recognizable as she presumed the other girls were. Plenty of fans of her had cut their hair short and dyed it red, it had almost become a bit of a trend for a while, so she’d always been able to play it off as going along with the trends. But now she realized she didn’t have plausible deniability as to why her hair was the way it was without claiming she was also a fan of Red. “I also like Red. But I can never seem to grow my hair out very long-” which was true, actually- “So I style my hair like her. But Green’s my bias.”

“Huh. Blue is mine.”

Well, that stung a little.

“Have you heard they’re performing at that one festival that’s being held? Apparently, usually festivals are a seasonal thing, but I guess someone just… wanted to make a festival, and now they’re doing a show there.”

That was it. That was her plan. She could just tell her mother the truth. “Yeah, I’ve heard. I plan on going- if my mother will let me.”

Nabi wrinkled her nose. “Do me a favor? Don’t.” She turned and walked out of the room coldly, leaving Min-Ji to sit in shock.

She sighed, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. It was no use sitting there in confusion. She needed to talk to her mom, because they performed tonight, and making sure she could actually go was pretty damn important in her most humble of opinions. She stood up from the bench, closing the fallboard on her piano (she was a stickler for making sure the keys weren’t exposed to air and potential dust, and got frustrated every damn time someone left it open, even with her older ones), and walked awkwardly down the hall. Her mother was sitting at the dining table, having an argument with her stepfather. “Mom,” said Min-Ji, “can I go out tonight to that festival nearby?”

Her mother scowled. “Absolutely not, you’re probably just going out to see your boyfriend or whatever.”

Really, she had backed herself into that corner. “If I swear upon my new piano that I won’t, will you let me go?” Her mother opened and closed her mouth, knowing how important Min-Ji’s piano was to her.

“Yes.”

Oh thank the gods, because sometimes she actually hated how unreasonable her mother was. Finally, she could actually, actually, do something. Like, actually, it was quite a bit more absurd. Her mother had especially gotten even more strict in the past year and a half.

“On one condition,” her mother added, “Nabi goes with you.”

“No problem,” Min-Ji said smoothly, knowing Nabi would ditch her to go perform the moment they got there.

Her mother eyed her suspiciously, but then waved her hand to dismiss her. “Whatever. Don’t get either of you in trouble.” And she went back to her argument with Nabi’s father, their hushed but angry whispers fading into meaningless chatter as Min-Ji walked away. She even wound up walking past Nabi again, on her way into the same room, presumably to ask the same question.

But when it came time to leave an hour later, Nabi was standing, leaning against the wall, watching their parents argue still.

“Ready to go?” Min-Ji asked. Her sister let out a scoff, and she narrowed her eyes. “Wow. Rude. Okay.”

“I’m not talking to someone who tried to get me in trouble on purpose. The only reason I’m doing this is because I want to go to the festival too.”

She frowned. “I didn’t-” but Nabi had already started walking.

“Keep up.”

Kyoung stood in the bathroom, her hair styled differently than the usual braid. For years she’d gotten her hair done like Rumi. But Rumi was gone, and Mira was still here. So she’d changed her hair, and now she looked even more like her mother than before. She wore her same black and white outfit, the one she’d wear for when they finally went on stage. But something about her just screamed Mira. It wasn’t enough.

I can help it be enough. You know you aren’t even close.  She bit her lip. “Okay,” she whispered to herself, guilt and… something else washing over her. Suddenly, the door opened, her mother standing there, hair perfectly done.

“You ready to go?”

“Can you just, like, leave me alone?” Kyoung snapped at her. “I’m not a kid anymore. I know what I’m doing.” It felt horrible, snapping at her mother like that, but not as bad as before. It was a necessary sacrifice if she wanted to be like her, after all.

Mira recoiled like she’d been struck. “Excuse me? What did I do to you?”

Kyoung shoved past her, ignoring the unease churning in her gut. It was time to go to the festival, not worry about whether or not she’d hwurt hwer mothwer's feewings. By the time she got to the festival, the guilt about what she had said had faded. It was time to have fun and perform, not lament. The car that they always traveled in had a bass in the back, which she kept for emergencies, so she grabbed it out, knowing it was stylized just perfectly for their performance. She put the mask on her face, smiled at the driver, and turned to walk towards the stage where other performers sat.

She arrived there just as Red did; they were the last two people to get there. Green looked emotionally pained, Blue was bouncing on her toes in excitement, and Areum was staring firmly at the ground, her usually slicked back hair looking a little frazzled.

“What- uh, what happened to you guys?”

Everyone started talking at once. “I finally managed to ditch my stupid stepsister,” Green said.

“I- uh, my mom actually let me go for once so I was taking the whole thing in.” 

“I’m excited to perform!” Probably Blue, based on the overeager high pitch in the voice.

“I started my period.” That last one was Areum, and everyone turned their heads to look at her. “What? Did you think I was some infallible main character blessed with lack of bleeding? I may be perfect, but I’m not a Mary Sue.”

Blue blinked. “Huh. You didn’t tell me that.”

“Well yes, I was more frustrated by the fact that we ran out of hairspray and you didn’t tell me,” Areum replied, her voice sharp. “My natural hair is much… not poofier, but much thicker than this, and it can only stay like this with water for so long.”

“I have some hairspray on me,” Green said. “Some of the pricier brands, but- it’s fine. I can afford it- I used it the other day, but other than that it’s untouched. My hair doesn’t braid easily, and I was at an event.”

Kyoung stopped, a chill running down her spine. That particular comment made her think of Nabi; her hair braided and dyed that same shade of green. That same length, too… But it was most likely a coincidence. Maybe Green was Nabi’s favorite member of Perfect Glamour. Like she claimed to be a fan of herself.

That was probably it.

Areum took the hairspray without a word. “Kyoung, I have a question. Do you wanna solo Broken in Three tonight?”

Kyoung paused. They’d never performed Broken in Three before, it had usually been deemed too personal by both her and her bandmates. But based on the complicated look on Areum’s face, she knew at least something was off with Kyoung and that maybe, she needed to get a little personal. So Kyoung nodded slightly. “What other song do we perform?” They all exchanged glances in silent agreement; a song not even from their Eulogy of a Dead Girl album but from an earlier album by the name of Effervescent. In fact, they debuted with Effervescent and it was their third most popular album to date. It was a much more lighthearted and somewhat whimsical album than Eulogy of a Dead Girl, and perfect for a concert like this. “Dissociation.”

They all nodded. Dissociation was perfect. It was one of those songs where the lyrics probably didn’t make much sense, but people still seemed to find it emotional and resonate with it. Also, it was just a little catchier than they’d expected. Not one of their top songs of the album- that one went to Long Words, the first song and probably their song with the most Korean, but it was popular enough to be recognized by fans in the crowd. Usually, they knew what song they were performing beforehand, but it was probably easier to just wing it this time around.

They sat in silence.

“We go on in a few minutes.” Areum shifted uncomfortably. “Is everyone ready?” They all nodded their heads, with Kyoung being the last one. She took a quick drink of water, stepped onto the stage, and waited for the lights to turn on.

The song started with the bass, and slowly the other instruments joined in. Areum’s voice cut through the space and the applause from the audience, clear and precise and perfect, as it always was- no lyrics yet, but a call. To action or to music, Kyoung was never sure, but it was a call nonetheless. The honmoon itself glowed gold with a quiet, pleased hum. The chants and cheers of fans made it all worth it. Green went all out on the guitar. It was all so exhilarating. And then, the lyrics flowed, and Kyoung, despite partially being unable to hear them, still knew every word by heart.

“Burn on my skin,

Hand on my heart

We’re falling apart

Like nobody’s watching

“Coiled up like

A shed snake skin

Spreading thin

Like a fragment of fire

“So I cry on

And you watch from a distance

As the darkness falls

And the world is clueless

You’re soluble in blood but not water

But I remain unbothered

And you ignore the change of phase

“We reciprocate and dissipate

The way you breathe is like agony (to me)

I ask you why

We’re out of time

Your reply

Dissociates on the wind

“Ice on my skin,

Right to my heart

Break it apart 

Like nobody’s watching

“Wound up like

A chemical reaction

So condensed

Like a base down the drain

“So I carry on

And you watch from a distance

As the darkness falls

And the world is clueless

You’re soluble in blood but not water

But I remain unbothered

And you ignore the change of phase

We reciprocate and dissipate

The way you breathe is like agony (to me)

I ask you why

We’re out of time

Your reply

Dissociates on the wind

“We belong to different worlds

You are not human

An uncanny, despicable figmentation of congruence

A demon, impure, eternal and shameful
언리얼, broken and faithful
I ask you why
We’re out of time
And your reply
Dissociates on the wind
Oooh, the wind”

The world fell silent on that one final note, and the lights, brilliant and shining, faded to a soft but simple glow. Green looked at her, then lightly took off her electric guitar and replaced it with an acoustic one. This time, it was for the lyrics that came from Kyoung’s heart, not the lyrics they had written to impress random people they would never know personally. It was just her and Green, on stage, with this song. She looked up at the audience and introduced herself. “Hey, gang, it’s me, Pink. Today I’m here to perform my song. You know the one. Broken in Three. Try not to laugh until the end, okay?” she joked, eliciting a few chuckles. It wasn’t a funny song. “Parents who are fans of me, don’t worry, it’s the clean version. Not as fun, but we have to keep it family-friendly for a public venue, so.” She shrugged. “You know. Suffering.”

More chuckles. “Okay,” she said softly. “Let’s go.” The sound of guitar strings being played immediately told her her cue. The right note, one, two beats later and- “One, two, three.” She closed her eyes. “For too long, I’ve listened to our melody on repeat, waiting for you to come back to me, wondering if you also feel incomplete. All of you, and all of me in harmony- With nothing left, except to tragically wish for death, and the words that you’d speak under your breath-” she thought maybe she heard a few sniffles from people in the audience. Yeah, this one resonated with more than a few.

“잊었니? Promises of relief of suffering. Truthfulness and honesty are fleeting; waiting at the door for something…” The sound of the guitar drowned out everything else and for a moment all she could do was focus on singing.

“Don’t you get it? I can’t breathe when I’m alone- why couldn’t you warn me you had to go? Why couldn’t you let us be whole?” Her words were for Rumi and Zoey. That had always been what the song was about, wasn’t it? She felt something creeping over her. Regret. Anger. Shame. Awe. Any of those worked. Mira hadn’t left. She wanted to be like Mira. She didn’t want to leave. “작별 인사 to my heart, integrity- fragmented. Don’t you get it? I’m alone, I’m really so sorry you had to go, come back so I can be whole…”

She wanted to stay.

Inside her, a fire burned, and a pattern grew.

“That was amazing!” Green nudged Pink. “Like, seriously it was so good.”

They had finally finished their performing. Currently, Jae had her face full of cotton candy, Areum was eating flavored shaved ice, crunching on it like it was some sort of lifeline, Red was quietly enjoying some kimbap that she got from one of the higher quality stalls, and Pink and Green had nothing except a teddy bear that Green had won from a silly game.

“It was very impressive,” murmured Areum, before using the scoop to shovel more ice into her mouth. “Vhemy nmoice.”

Everyone stared at her. She corrected herself. “Very nice.” Honestly, she hadn’t been able to just let go in a long while. Even when she was alone, she usually found herself going back to the way she was before, staring off into space and losing herself in missing th- no. Don’t think of it. 

She was so terrified of losing them too. 

Kyoung- Pink, she presumed, considering she wasn’t very good at hiding it, had been having some problems lately with Mira. Mira, who knew. Her exact conversation with Celine rang true in her mind.

“I’m concerned. Lately, she’s been tense and skittish, and behaving more rebelliously. She’s also taken to once again attempting to imitate Mira, even if it’s subconsciously. Also, she and Mira got into an argument. She thought Mira was going to hit her.”

Areum had tensed, knowing how scared Kyoung was of that happening even likely to this day. At some point she wanted to break her biological father’s kneecaps from the grave. Thank the Honmoon he was already dead, or so help her- but that wasn’t the point, not really, not at all.

“I’ll work with Pink. I’ll make it worthwhile. She’ll be okay- I’ll let her sing her song at the festival, I know how much it means to her.” Celine had heard the song. She knew. “Trust me.”

“I do,” the much older woman had replied, looking at her with a gentle but tired face. 

But now she was here. Jae begged them to stop to play some darts game that was probably rigged. Areum honestly couldn’t care less. She took another large bite of shaved ice. It was cold. She liked cold. Cold was consistent. It was lethal. It countered the burning heat that made her feel like a warm fire to the touch.

“I’m really cold,” Green shivered, despite being in three layers of clothing. “Does anyone have-“ Red pulled a blanket seemingly from nowhere and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Some fans approached them, and Areum quietly nodded at her teammates to go sign stuff.

“This isn’t what I expected,” Jae told her, staying back from the other girls. “I expected a festival, not a fair.”

“I’m sorry,” Areum apologized, bowing slightly. “I didn’t-“

“I’m teasing. It’s even better now.” Her grin could light up the world.

But suddenly, gut-wrenching pain washed over Aera. A second, much less painful but still quite strong, hit her as well, and both had her struggling to stand. She gripped her head, feeling like she needed to get out, to go somewhere, anywhere.

“You good?” Pink’s voice cut through the silence, supporting her. Everyone was looking at her with concern, although Green was more understanding than the others.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Areum mumbled, pushing past her friends, still clutching her head. During that time, her mask had come loose; and panic shot through her even more. Don’t let them see you. Don’t let them know. “I just need a sec- to fix my mask. I was caught off guard.” She was burning up again, and she could tell they didn’t believe her, but what can you do.

After reassuring her friends, she stumbled through the fair, walking into the nearest private bathroom and slamming the door shut. After an anxious moment she finally let her mask fall off, falling to the ground. She took a shaky breath, trying to calm her rapid, anxious breathing. She even unbuttoned the top layer of her shirt, revealing silvery shimmering lines that now pulsed an angry, violent red. Her hair was coming out of the tie it was in and her hairspray was wearing off, going back to its original, far more organic form that cascaded down her shoulders. She nearly fell forward, catching herself with both arms on the sink, exhaustion washing over her as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

The girl who looked back was Ryu Aera, center of the Flame Chasers. And she was supposed to be dead.