Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Celine saw Rumi disappear like that, after what she had said, she thought the world had come to an end. She thought all the efforts she had made in her life would be in vain.  

That she had lost the war, and her legacy, like that of the Huntresses, would be destroyed. After all, what could they do against Rumi?  

When she realized that Honmoon had been destroyed, she thought the worst. She thought Rumi had been consumed by her inner demon. That Mira and Zoey… were no longer there. And that she was the only person in the entire world who could fight against evil.  

Thinking the demons would come for her, Celine tried to summon her two daggers, but not even a small glimmer appeared. As it had been since… since Mi-Yeong had died.  

It had been so long since Celine had even thought of that name that just remembering it made her chest ache. But this was no time for lamentations. She was sure that, any second now, the demons would appear, trying to devour everything, and she had to be ready to fight them.  

She had failed to create a new group of Huntresses. She had failed to entrust that mission to Rumi, and now, it was the world's last chance to…  

Celine forced herself to stand, arms outstretched, even as the pain in her chest became unbearable. Maybe without weapons. Maybe without strength. But if she was going to die, she would do so fighting.  

Then she felt it.  

A buzz, like a vibration under her skin. As if the entire world was holding its breath. The air changed, and the sky began to clear of the dark, gloomy atmosphere that had formed.  

It was then that Celine felt it. The warmth emanating from the earth, as if it were alive. The wave of energy that swept across the ground, protecting everyone and everything, preventing any cracks that would allow demons to enter.  

But instead of rejoicing, Celine paled. She fell to her knees as she realized what she had done, the foolishness she had thought. She had thought Rumi would… Rumi had done nothing but create a new Honmoon.  

Her hair fell like a veil over her face, and she refused to witness the marvel happening before her eyes, simply because she was unworthy of it. While the entire world celebrated and seemed to calm, her lips trembled, and her head spun.

What had she done? She asked herself, filled with shame. How could she have thought such a thing of Rumi? How could she…? How could she have doubted her?  

Was it because she had seen her demonic side? Was it because she truly believed that side controlled her? Rumi… she had arrived just minutes before, almost begging to be killed… and Celine… Celine hadn’t even been able to touch her to hug her.  

She had raised Rumi, taught her everything even before she was old enough to hold a wooden weapon. She taught her to fight, to protect, to endure. But never… never did she teach her to be free. To trust herself. To choose a path other than the one she had obsessively laid out.  

She had seen the fire in Rumi’s eyes many times. A fire that not only burned but illuminated. But Celine, blinded by her pain, by the old wars, by the memories she had with Mi-Yeong, did not understand. She feared it.  

And when she should have trusted her the most… she judged her. She had thought everyone would be like them… failing to recognize the people she had seen all her life.  

Her fist clenched tightly against the earth. She couldn’t protect Mi-Yeong. She couldn’t save her former Huntress sisters. She couldn’t keep faith in Rumi, the only one who truly believed in a different future. And yet… Rumi had created a new Honmoon. A new network. A new root. A new opportunity for all.  

If Mi-Yeong could see her, she would undoubtedly be proud of her daughter. But also of Celine.  

Celine lifted her gaze to the sky, now tinged with warm hues, as if a dawn were breaking through the disaster. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks.  

"Forgive me…" she said to the wind. To Rumi. To Mi-Yeong. To herself. For doubting. For trapping the girls she loved in the mold of the women she had lost.  

Her heart screamed at her to run to where Mira, Rumi, and Zoey were. Her girls, whom she had raised. But her thoughts were faster. She could imagine the moment when, if Rumi saw her again, she would stop smiling.  

She wouldn’t be able to bear seeing her face filled with disappointment and disillusionment, as she told the other girls what she had done, revealed the truths of all those years. As she swore never to see her again.  

Celine squeezed her eyes shut. The lump in her throat grew so thick she could barely breathe, and for a moment, she allowed herself to imagine such a scene.  

She could see Rumi, still trembling from all the emotions she had experienced in such a short time. From despair to sadness, and from sadness to acceptance and love. She didn’t know if she was exhausted, hurt, or wounded, but something told her all her physical wounds would be secondary. It had always been that way.  

She would be beside Mira and Zoey, smiling. Both at her side, holding her, supporting her, something Celine had never done with her own. Being better people than she had ever imagined.  

She imagined herself stepping toward her girls, heart in hand and voice broken. Wanting to apologize. Wanting to hug them and tell them how proud she was that they had succeeded.  

She wanted to say she never doubted they could do it, but she soon realized that would be a lie. Of course she had doubted, even regretted giving them that responsibility. And it was then, in her imagination, that Rumi turned, looked at her, and her expression changed.  

The light in her eyes vanished, her smile shrank, and the fire that guided her went out.  

Instead, Rumi’s gaze hardened. Like a child who had stopped waiting for her mother to return, an animal that had finally understood it had been abandoned on the roadside, and its family would never come back for it.  

It was the worst feeling Celine knew. The feeling of disappointment. It was hearing Rumi say she had already done everything and didn’t need more pain inflicted upon her.  

It was Rumi turning away before Mira stepped between them, with that protective instinct she always had. And then Zoey backed her up, preventing Celine from getting close to Rumi or even seeing her.  

They were the girls she had trained, watched grow up, seen in their toughest moments, when they faced their families… and now they were turning their backs on her too.  

Celine gripped her arms tightly, as if she could contain the stabbing pain in her stomach, the emptiness in her chest, the trembling in her fingers. After all, it was all her fault. She was the one who had broken her connection with Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. She knew that once they found out, they would walk away.  

None of them needed her anymore. Rumi no longer trusted her. She would never see her as a teacher… as her mother again. And the worst part was that Celine couldn’t even blame her. Because everything Rumi had just done, she had done in spite of her. Not because of her.  

She had done it by going against everything Celine had taught her.  

She fell forward, pressing her forehead against the warm earth, as if she could bury herself there, as if the guilt could seep through her skin and leave her in peace. But it wouldn’t. Not yet.  

The ground no longer trembled. The world no longer screamed. It was she who found no peace. And in all that silence, Celine wondered if she had the right to ask for forgiveness, if she had the right to see those unbroken eyes again, if she had the right to be alive when she had lost so much of what she loved out of fear.  

All she knew was that if Mi-Yeong were alive, she would be deeply disappointed in her.

When the Huntresses created the first Honmoon, they thought they had found all the answers Honmoon could provide. They believed they had uncovered all its secrets and that nothing would surprise them.  

They were wrong.  

The new Honmoon was not a simple reconstruction of what once was. It wasn’t a copy, it was something entirely new, in every sense of the word. Born from ancient roots, yes, but woven by different hands, different hearts. It didn’t arise solely from power or tradition. It arose from love, from trust, from the decision of three girls who refused to give up, even when everything pointed to their end.  

And Honmoon, in its deepest essence, understood.  

The living roots spreading through the earth whispered in a language none of the ancient Huntresses would have fully comprehended. Something no one had ever truly understood.  

The earth had felt the pain of its Huntresses, the love they held for one another, the sacrifices they were willing to make to fulfill their duty. The forgiveness for past mistakes and lies. And it chose to respond to that act.  

Miles away from where the girls slept peacefully, the earth began to tremble softly. It was as if it were stretching after a long slumber. The air grew thick, dense, as if charged with energy.  

And then, deep within the sacred cemetery of the Huntresses, where the grass always grew green even if no one tended to it, something impossible happened.  

A grave began to glow.  

At first, it was a faint glimmer, barely noticeable. A thread of light seeping through the cracks in the stone. Then, that glow grew stronger, steadier. A golden blue, as if the very essence of Honmoon ran through its veins.  

The runes carved into the headstone lit up one by one, as if ignited by an ancient memory. As if something, or someone, was answering the call.  

The wind blew gently, rustling the dried flowers adorning the grave. The surrounding earth began to crack, not from destruction, but from life. It was as if something beneath was beginning to breathe.  

After all, Honmoon didn’t just protect the world from demons and fill human souls with hope and happiness.  

Honmoon also remembered the people who had been loyal to it, and protected them from their own demons. And when it remembered, Honmoon was also capable of returning what had been lost years ago. 

Whatever it took to heal the wounds of those who had given so much to protect it.  

After the emotions of the day, Rumi thought that, that night, she would collapse like a sack of potatoes onto the floor, fast asleep.  

But, surprisingly, she couldn’t. And it was surprising because she always fell asleep in Mira’s arms, feeling the warmth of Zoey’s body when the three of them slept together.  

Simply put, Rumi knew she had spent hours tossing and turning in bed, and she just couldn’t sleep. Maybe that was a good thing, because it meant she heard when a noise started coming from the balcony.  

Rumi sat up carefully, trying not to move Mira’s arm, which rested on her waist, or push Zoey, who slept with her cheek against Rumi’s shoulder. Their breaths were slow, heavy, as if the world had finally given them a break. It was a perfect, warm scene. But something unsettled her.  

That sound.  

It wasn’t loud. Just a soft tapping, like flowerpots falling to the ground… or clumsy paws tripping over ceramics.  

Rumi slid the sheets off carefully and got up. She grabbed one of Mira’s hoodies, pulled it over her pajamas, and walked barefoot toward the balcony in silence, searching for the source of the noise.  

She gently pushed the sliding door open, and the night breeze brushed her face, fresh and alive, carrying the scent of damp earth and nocturnal flowers. And there they were, the two animals Jinu had introduced her to.  

"Susy!" she whispered, unable to hold back her smile.  

The crow looked at her from the edge of a broken flowerpot, its gaze as guilty as it was proud, as if it had pulled off a glorious mischief. Beside it, a large striped body curled between the balcony’s flowerpots. Derpy. The tiger looked at her with its big golden eyes and let out a small huff, twitching its ears.  

"No way…" Rumi brought her hands to her mouth. "I thought… I thought you hadn’t made it."  

Relief flooded her chest immediately. She had thought the two of them had been trapped in the underworld, that Honmoon had locked them away too, but there they were. Susy, shamelessly pecking at fallen flower petals. Derpy, nudging a flowerpot as if trying to fix what it had broken, though it was only making it worse.  

Rumi knelt in front of them, laughing silently, wrapping her arms around Derpy’s thick neck as Susy climbed onto her shoulder and affectionately pecked at her head.  

"You’re okay…" she murmured, her eyes filling with tears. "I thought I’d lost you too."  

But then, Derpy suddenly lifted its head. Its ears pricked up, and its body tensed. Rumi felt it. The change was instant. The calm vanished in a second.  

"What’s wrong?" she asked softly.  

Derpy simply raised one of its paws and carefully set it down on the ground… then looked toward the dark area of the balcony.  

Rumi could see a shadow among the plants and knew they weren’t alone. For a moment, her chest swelled, and a tingling sensation ran through her body. Could it…? Could Jinu be there!? Was Jinu alive!?  

Rumi squinted, trying to focus through the dim light of the plants and the shadows cast by the moonlight. Something was moving among the leaves rustled by the wind.  

Her heart stopped for a second at the mere thought that it was possible. That slow, deliberate gait was almost unmistakable. The way it moved, as if it knew every corner of the place… as if it had been there a thousand times before. Her chest filled with an inexplicable warmth, and she couldn’t help but smile.  

"Jinu…?" she whispered.  

The figure didn’t answer, only kept walking. With each step, the air seemed to thicken, as if the world itself was holding its breath.  

"Jinu?" Rumi repeated, firmer this time. She took a step forward, her heart pounding like a runaway drum. "Is that you?"  

The figure finally crossed the threshold of the shadows, stepping out from among the ferns and the flowerpots Derpy had broken. The wind blew just then, parting the branches, illuminating the face of the one who had arrived.  

Rumi felt the ground give way beneath her feet.  

It wasn’t Jinu. No. It was her.  

It was the face she knew perfectly, because it was always beside her nightstand, in the photos all over the company. The same hair, now covered in dirt and leaves. The eyes… just like hers, but with a different depth. Weary, distant. And yet, alive.  

Impossibly alive.  

"Mom…?" she murmured.  

And her entire world seemed to stop.

Chapter Text

"Mom?" Rumi's voice began to crack as she tried to process what her eyes were seeing. This had to be a bad joke.  

However, she wasn't the only one thinking this. Mi-Yeong didn't understand what was happening. She had woken up in the middle of nowhere, on one of Seoul's streets, and hadn't had time to react to what had happened before a small tiger and a magpie appeared, trying to coax her onto the tiger's back.  

Now, they were at the top of that penthouse and in front of a girl, who had first mentioned someone else, and now called her "mom."

Mi-Yeong considered it for a moment. That girl had purple hair, exactly like her baby, but… No, it was impossible. Her little Rumi wasn't more than a few months old. And when she saw the marks on her body, she immediately knew what was going on.

"Demon!" Someone got ahead of her, and she looked up. A girl with pink hair and another with jet-black hair appeared at the entrance to the balcony.

The air on the balcony grew heavy, as if every particle vibrated to the beat of an invisible drum. Mira barely took a second to react; before anyone could blink, she'd summoned her Goku-Do, which appeared in her hands, while Zoey formed her Sin-Kal, crackling with pure energy, like two claws of light slicing through the darkness.

"Get away from her, demon!" Mira stepped forward, the blade pointed straight at Mi-Yeong's chest. "We won't let you hurt Rumi."

Mi-Yeong, for her part, raised an eyebrow and clenched her fists. She didn't know where she was or how she'd gotten there, but if those girls were going to attack her, she wasn't going to stand idly by. She might have only seen demon marks on the purple-haired girl, but it didn't matter; she was going to defeat anyone who decided to face her.

After all, Mi-Yeong might not have known how the demons had managed to summon weapons from the Honmoon. Not even her husband had managed such a feat. But it didn't matter. With a swift, fluid gesture, her fingers moved over the Honmoon, a greenish glow erupting from nowhere, taking shape, and the blade of her weapon appeared. The metal emitted a warm pulse, so characteristic of the Honmoon that even the air around it felt different.

Mira and Zoey stopped for just a moment.

"How…?" Zoey narrowed her eyes in surprise. "That… that's not possible.”

But there was no more time for questions. The first thrust came like a volley. Mira's Gok-Do collided with Mi-Yeong's blade, producing a flash that lit up the entire penthouse. The metallic sound echoed like suppressed thunder. Zoey launched herself from the flank, her Sin-Kal slicing through the air in swift, deadly movements.

Mi-Yeong spun around, blocking the blow and returning a slash that forced Zoey to flinch. The clash of weapons not only released sparks, but also a surge of energy that vibrated through the balcony floor, as if Honmoon herself were responding to the battle.

Rumi was paralyzed. Her mind screamed that this was absurd, but her eyes couldn't ignore what she was seeing. The stance, the angle of the feet, the way Mi-Yeong tilted her head just before attacking.

They were identical to the ones she remembered… The movements she had memorized as a child, seeing them in an old training session etched in her memory like a distant echo.

"No… it can't be…" she muttered. "That guard… that step back…"

Mi-Yeong dodged a downward strike from Mira, spinning to block Zoey at the same time, her movements fluid, almost dancing, never losing control. Mi-Yeong's eyes, warm and dark, opened just a bit wider than they should. A flicker of recognition crossed them, even though it was impossible.

"Mom…" the word came out as a sob. "It's my mom!"

The weapons stopped, and in that instant, neither the sparks nor the sound of metallic clashing mattered. Only the tremor of an impossible truth that had been before her all along.

Mira and Zoey stood still, gasping, shocked at what they were hearing.

"Rumi, it has to be a demon's delusion," Zoey assured her. "After all, Mi-Yeong died, remember?"

"I'm not dead," Mi-Yeong interrupted, touching her body. "I feel very alive, actually."

It was then that Zoey vanished her weapons, finally starting to believe what she was saying and realizing the reality, Mi-Yeong, Rumi's mother, and her beloved Sunlight Sister, was alive. 

"It can't be true," Mira murmured, smiling. "Life can't be so good to Rumi, without giving her her mother back." 

"But... How is that possible?" Rumi finally asked, feeling her legs go weak. "I... I saw it. I went too many times... I saw your grave! How is it possible that you are here?"

Mi-Yeong didn't know what to say. Dead? Had she died? She didn't remember, she didn't remember any of it. She only remembered that her husband had died protecting her from an attack by Gwi-Ma, and then, heartbroken, she had fled to Celine's house to ask for help...

And that's when everything was confusing and she couldn't remember anything else.

The girl standing right in front of her, was that really her daughter? Was that her Rumi?

"I think... we all need to sit down," Zoey suggested, slumping her shoulders. "Why don't we go to the couch and... I'll make some coffee?"

Mira didn't quite agree. She didn't let down her Gok-Do, much less her guard, but she nodded, leading everyone else to walk into the penthouse.

There was a lot of explaining to do.

"Look, please, you have to relax," Rumi pleaded, massaging Mira's shoulders. "Come on, put your weapon down. It's not going to hurt you.”

Mira, however, seemed unfazed. She never took her eyes off Mi-Yeong, and neither did Mi-Yeong take hers off Mira.

"Not until we confirm who she really is. And what's going on. For all we know, it could still be a hoax," Mira muttered, gritting her teeth. Rumi could only roll her eyes as Mira got something stuck in her mind...

Mira remained motionless. There was nothing in the world Rumi could say to convince her to lower her weapon.

"Mira, please..." Rumi sighed, with that mixture of affection and exasperation she only used when Mira was being unbearably stubborn. "She's just sitting there, she hasn't done anything. She doesn't have a single mark, it's obvious she's not a demon."

"We took a ten-hour trip with some demons before we realized they were that and the crew of an airplane. I'm not going to make the same mistake at home. No," Mira replied, without moving a single muscle.

Rumi pursed her lips. It wasn't the first time she'd seen Mira like this, but she'd rarely managed to soften her when she was in this mood. She leaned behind her, resting her hands on her shoulders, and began massaging them with slow movements, pressing where she knew knots always formed.

"Come on... put the weapon down, it's not going to hurt you..." she insisted, but nothing. Nothing. Not a blink. Mira's Gok-Do was still there, bright and threatening.

Rumi puffed out her cheeks. She didn't want to come to that, but she had no choice. Mira had decided this way.

"Okay, plan B..." she murmured to herself, before leaning to the side and planting a quick kiss on Mira's temple.

Then another on her right cheek. Then one on her forehead. The next on her left cheek, and the chain continued. One on her nose, one on her jaw, just below her ear... And so on, one after the other, as if she were drawing an invisible map of affection all over Mira's face, but carefully avoiding her mouth.

Mira began to tense up less with each kiss, though her eyes remained on Mi-Yeong. She soon began to shift her attention to Rumi instead. Which helped, or she would have noticed the look of shock and surprise plastered across the older woman's face.

"Rumi..." Mira demanded, halfway between warning and resignation. "No, Rumi, no..."

"Shhh," Rumi interrupted, placing another kiss on the tip of her nose. "This is an ancient relaxation method. It's just what you needed."

"That's not a method... It's deliberate manipulation," Mira muttered, but she didn't sound as dangerous anymore. Finally, her weapon had disappeared.

Rumi smiled to herself, continuing the procedure. Another kiss on the forehead, another on the cheek, one more by the hairline. She could almost feel the tension in Mira's shoulders melting away beneath her hands.

"There's one spot missing," Mira blurted out suddenly, in a low voice, with a mischievous glint in her eyes that hadn't been seen for a while.

Rumi raised an eyebrow. Of course, she knew what Mira meant, but instead of granting her wish, she just shook her head.

"No," she said, tapping Mira's nose with her index finger and letting out a small laugh. "Not there."

"Why not?" Mira asked, tilting her head slightly, her smile beginning to look too much like the one she wore when she knew she was winning.

"Because," Rumi replied, giving her one last kiss on the cheek and taking a half step back, "you're grounded."

"Punished? For what?" Mira asked, blinking, completely confused. "What did I do to be punished?"

"Distrusting my mom," Rumi said, crossing her arms theatrically. "And threatening her with your weapon when you saw her."

Zoey, who was coming from the kitchen with the steaming cups of coffee, smiled, placing each one in its corresponding place.

"I wasn't the only one," Mira complained. "Zoey attacked her too, don't forget."

Grimacing, Zoey walked over to them, dropping into Mira's lap.

"I just followed what you were doing," she defended herself, putting her arms behind Mira's neck and looking into her eyes. "Don't try to make Rumi punish me too."

Mira looked away, feigning annoyance. "So I'm the only one who deserves to go without kisses?"

Rumi nodded smugly. "Yes, you are."

But Zoey didn't let it get any further. Before Mira could complain, she quickly gave her a quick kiss on the lips, relaxing her.

"If Rumi doesn't give it to you, I'll give it to you," she assured her, smiling. "After all, you're not grounded as far as I'm concerned. You didn't attack my mother."

"We're still not sure she's Rumi's mother," Mira reminded them, but kissed Zoey back. "She could still be cheating on us."

"Okay," Rumi chimed in, raising a hand as a referee in a fight that was already straying into something else. "If you want to be sure so much, we can ask her a couple of questions to confirm that she's my mom."

Mi-Yeong blinked slightly, not understanding what was happening. Why were those three girls acting so strangely? Were they a couple? All three of them? Her supposed daughter was in a threesome!?

If that was the future, a lot had definitely changed since her time. And she didn't know what to say.

"Fair enough," Mira replied.

Zoey, for her part, rolled her eyes and took a sip of coffee.

"Perfect, a family interrogation in the living room. It's all very normal," she said ironically, but she settled down to watch the scene.

At that moment, Mi-Yeong blinked several times, as if emerging from a long trance. The tension on her face changed; she no longer looked lost, but rather began to sharpen her gaze, as if she suddenly understood exactly what kind of terrain she was treading on.

After all, nothing assured her either, that it wasn't a trap by Gwi-Ma, who had discovered who her traitor's lover was.

"A couple of questions to see if I'm telling the truth?" she repeated, leaving the untouched cup in front of her. "Okay... but I have the right to ask questions too, don't you think?"

"What?" Mira asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Two can play the same game," Mi-Yeong replied, crossing her arms. "If you want to make sure I'm not an imposter, I also want to be sure that you aren't... I don't know... demons taking the form of my supposed daughter and two humans with a very strange relationship."

Mira and Zoey felt like they should be very offended by that comment.

Rumi blinked, as if a bucket of cold water had suddenly been thrown on her. "Mom... do you really think I could...?"

"I don't know," Mi-Yeong said with complete seriousness. "I just woke up in the middle of a street, not understanding what happened for... well, apparently years. Then I'm taken to the top of a building and attacked by two strangers. Sorry if I don't feel at home yet. Besides, you have the marks, although they don't."

Zoey couldn't help but smile a little.

"I like her..." she whispered under her breath, receiving a nudge from Mira. "She's quite perceptive."

Rumi sighed. If they wanted answers, they were going to have to give in. "Okay... Who goes first?"

"Me," Mira said immediately, as if she had been waiting for that permission for half an hour. "Who created the first Sunlight Sisters song?"

Zoey instinctively wanted to raise her hand. After all, she was one of the Sunlight Sisters' biggest fans. It was silly of her not to know that.

In fact, Mira had asked too easy a question.

Mi-Yeong smiled wryly.

"For the public, it was said that Celine wrote the song," she replied, and Zoey smiled, satisfied, before realizing what was going to happen. "But the truth is, I wrote it. I gave it to Celine so she wouldn't get in trouble with the company. After all, she was the one on trial to stay in the group."

"Excuse me?" Zoey slammed her coffee cup onto the table with a thud, her eyes so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of her head. "What do you mean, you wrote the Sunlight Sisters' first song?"

She turned to Mira and Rumi, almost as if she'd just discovered her entire life had been a lie.

"You... knew? And you didn't tell me anything?"

Mira raised an eyebrow, unfazed. She knew they'd have this conversation one day, and she'd prepared for it her whole life. "Yes."

"YES?" Zoey threw her hands up to her head. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Rumi just pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. She, too, knew that day would come, and she was enjoying it, too much.

Mira took a sip of coffee with a calmness that only served to irritate Zoey further. "Because Celine told it once, before you came from the States. She said we shouldn't repeat it, or you'd never stop asking questions.”

"I'd never stop...?!" Zoey stood up from the couch as if she had to immediately go and ask everyone for an explanation. "Of course, I'd never stop asking questions! That's musical history! That's...!"

"Zoey." Mira gave her a firm look that miraculously made her stay still. "Sit down."

Zoey frowned, but obeyed, still muttering things like "unforgivable" and "manipulation" as she sank back onto the couch.

Mi-Yeong, who had been watching the whole scene with her arms crossed, somewhere between amused and suspicious, tilted her head slightly. "Well, now for my question."

Mira frowned, but didn't say anything. She knew she was right.

"What are their names?" she asked, crossing her arms. She knew that demons didn't have names, at least not most of them. Not the ones who hadn't been transformed from their past lives, of course.

So if they took longer than necessary, Mi-Yeong would know immediately that...

"I'm Rumi, your daughter," Rumi said almost immediately, pointing at herself. "This is Mira and Zoey. We're in a K-pop group called Huntr/x."

"And that's all they are?" Mi-Yeong asked again, raising an eyebrow.

The three girls blushed immediately.

"It's our turn to ask!" Zoey said immediately, finding a way out of the predicament. "During the Starlight Memories tour, on the third date in Osaka, what happened just before they started singing Eclipse Over You?"

Rumi rolled her eyes. For some reason, she wasn't surprised Zoey was asking a question like that. Turning to look at Mira, she realized she was thinking the same thing. Zoey got way too fanatical when someone mentioned the Sunlight Sisters.

However, Mi-Yeong smiled. And it wasn't a fake or calculated smile. It was the smile of someone who remembered something so vividly that she could still feel it.

"Ah... that's easy," she replied. "Just before we started, Celine's microphone stopped working. As always, she panicked and started worrying about ruining the show. So, to calm her down, I sang the first two lines just for her, off-mic. The audience didn't hear it... but she did. And she calmed down."

Zoey blinked several times, processing what she'd just heard. "Exactly!" she exclaimed, banging the table. "I have no doubt, it's impossible for a demon to know such a specific fact. It's real! You're the real Mi-Yeong! My God, you're real!"

Rumi glared at her. "Was that your test? Are you really asking something like that?"

"Hey! This is a historic moment for anyone who considers themselves a Sunlight Sisters fan, like me," Zoey protested, but she already looked satisfied, as if she had just confirmed that she had been standing in front of a living legend this whole time.

Mi-Yeong, for her part, leaned back slightly in her chair, but her gaze sharpened again. "Now it's my turn."

Rumi gulped, with every passing second, she became more and more convinced that she was standing in front of her mother, and answering her questions about her life, honestly... It scared her.

"What year is it?" Mi-Yeong asked with a seriousness that chilled the atmosphere. She definitely knew how to ask questions. "So... How do you know Celine?"

Mira, who had maintained her composure all this time, clenched her jaw. After all, the day Rumi had finally agreed to go to the baths with them... She had told them quite a few things. Among them, everything Celine had said and done to hide her marks.

And as she had almost provoked, Rumi to commit the greatest folly of her life.

"That bitch isn't invited to this house. We're not talking about Celine anymore."

That comment made Mi-Yeong look at her for several seconds, evaluating not only her words, but the way she'd said them. Then, to everyone's surprise, she smiled with a hint of nostalgia.

"Celine can be quite an idiot sometimes," she replied, staring off into space. "But she's a good person, she has a very good heart."

Mira just raised an eyebrow. She doubted Mi-Yeong was telling the truth about that. Zoey and Rumi just exchanged a nervous glance. It wasn't the best time for the woman to find out the whole truth.

The tension that had weighed on everyone began to loosen. After all, the doubts had been cleared. Mi-Yeong leaned back and let out a small sigh.

"I don't think they're demons, honestly. I believe every single word they're saying."

And then, without warning, Rumi stood up and crossed the distance between them. Mi-Yeong barely had time to open her arms before her daughter threw herself at her, hugging her with desperate strength.

"I thought I'd never get to see you in person..." Rumi murmured, her voice breaking. "I had nothing but old videos of you. I... Mom, I missed you so much. I missed you so much."

Mi-Yeong held her as if she wanted to memorize her shape, her scent, the way her heart beat against hers. And although she didn't understand how time and life had separated them, she knew she wouldn't let go of her in that moment.

Rumi clung to Mi-Yeong with desperate strength, as if afraid that if she let go, her mother would vanish into thin air. The tears she had held back for so long finally broke free. She sobbed into Mi-Yeong's shoulder, her pain so pure it gripped the others' hearts. Disbelief and fear had dissolved, leaving only the emptiness of years of absence.

Mi-Yeong hugged her tenderly. Her hands ran down Rumi's back, a soft, familiar caress that enveloped her in a wave of memories and conflicting emotions. Rumi's voice, breaking with each word, was the ultimate proof. There was no trick, no lie. This was her baby, the same one she had cradled in her arms, now a full-grown woman. A woman who had grown up without her, who had lived and suffered in her absence.

Mi-Yeong's heart sank as she thought of everything she had missed. Her first steps, her first words, her teenage years, the journey that led her to the person she was now.

She looked at the other two girls. Zoey, her mouth slightly open, moved by the scene. And Mira, who had completely let her guard down, was watching her girlfriend with a mixture of relief and unusual tenderness.

The sound of Rumi's sobs filled the room. Zoey stood up and approached them, her eyes watering. She placed a hand on Rumi's shoulder in a silent gesture of support. There was no need for words; her presence was enough.

Mira joined them, putting her other arm around Rumi, creating a protective circle around the mother and daughter.

The world had stopped for the four of them. The music, the battles, the years of waiting. Everything had vanished. Only they existed, in that penthouse, in an embrace that tried to heal a pain so deep it seemed impossible to heal. Mi-Yeong realized that not only had she gotten her daughter back, but that Rumi had a family. Two girls who loved her and were willing to protect her. The same kind of loyalty Mi-Yeong remembered from her own life, but with two other girls, and a demon...

When Rumi finally pulled away, her eyes swollen and her nose red, she apologized between hiccups. Mi-Yeong just smiled at her, wiping the tears from her cheek with her thumb.

"You don't have to apologize, my love," she said, her voice soft, but her eyes shining. "Now..." Mi-Yeong said, her voice firmer, but her eyes still shining, "I think it's time you told me what all this K-pop stuff is about, and why my daughter and her... friends... have a group... Or something more..."

The three of them looked at each other, knowing that Rumi's mother's interrogation was just beginning. The night was going to be long.

"And above all... What do you have against Celine?"

Chapter Text

Mi-Yeong couldn't imagine the things the world could change in twenty-four years. It felt like a world that didn't belong to her. One she had never been in.

Was this what it felt like to wake up from a coma? Because Mi-Yeong wasn't enjoying it.

However, what hurt her the most, without a doubt, was knowing that she had lost all those years with her daughter, and could never get them back. Her first steps, her first words, the first time she picked up her weapon, what she liked... Her entire life, everything was lost.

However, Rumi didn't seem to care. It seemed that the happiness of having her back seemed to be greater than the fact of having lost her. She had said that she was going to show her her current life, and make up for all the time they had lost.

And then, there was the whole thing with those girls.

Honestly, if she had been with Rumi all that time, she was almost sure she wouldn't have let her become an Idol. She hadn't listened to her daughter at the time, but the life she had led for years was something she wouldn't have liked to share with her daughter. So many schedules, standards, a way to follow to be an artist...

Which, made her wonder what was going through Celine's head when she decided to create a group that revolved around her daughter.

Not only that, with those girls as companions. They seemed to be so different from each other, that she didn't understand how they got along. But worse, they seemed to be in a relationship, a three-way relationship.

Was that even possible? Was it legal? Mi-Yeong wasn't sure, at all. Was it the best for her daughter? She wasn't sure either. But she suspected that this was nothing more than her maternal instinct speaking for her.

The only thing she could say after one night was that her daughter seemed to adore those girls, and that feeling was reciprocated.

But Zoey and Mira, as she had been told they were called, seemed to be good people. Strange, weird in their own way, but good people.

Rumi opened the door with an awkward gesture, as if she didn't know how to behave. But hey, in reality, she didn't know how to do it. She had never been in the presence of her mother. It was strange to see her nervous, almost childlike, but at that moment, she was.

"I..." She swallowed, rubbing her hands against her pants, "I prepared a room for you. It's one of the ones we have and don't use, Celine used to use it when she came to stay, so it doesn't have great things, but... Now it's yours."

A shiver ran through Mi-Yeong's body when she heard that it was Celine's room.

You can stay in my room... You know, it's the biggest one, so you'll be comfortable before... giving birth.

She remembered how they argued over trifles, how Celine would cross her arms and roll her eyes, but then she was the first to approach with an awkward gesture of reconciliation. She remembered the warmth of her hands, the way she always managed to make her laugh even if she tried to stay serious.

There had been so many things. Allies, rivals, accomplices... and something else they never dared to fully name. But the affection was there, intact, beating like a scar that never disappeared.

Mi-Yeong said nothing at first. Her gaze wandered around the room. It was definitely something Celine would decorate her room like. Simple, but warm. Rumi had tried, despite everything; that was obvious. There were fresh flowers in a vase, a desk with neat papers, and a bed covered with clean sheets that smelled of soap. As if the simple act of folding the fabric could transmit a piece of lost affection to her.

"Thank you, Rumi." The words got stuck in her throat. She didn't know whether to hug her or stay still. She didn't know whether to call her by her name, for what she was... Her daughter. She wanted to, with every fiber of her being, but at the same time she was afraid that her daughter would push her away, like a wounded animal that still doesn't trust.

She couldn't blame her, in any case, for not wanting her to call her that.

Rumi lowered her head, stroking her arm, before finally speaking again, whispering.

"I don't know if this..." She interrupted herself, searching for air, "I don't know if this is real. That you're here, I mean. I've dreamed of this so many times that I'm not sure that if I close my eyes, you'll still be here."

Mi-Yeong took a step towards her. Her legs were trembling, but she managed to extend a hand and caress her hair, as she would have done with a small child. Something she hadn't been able to do in the past.

She didn't know if her daughter had been a mischievous girl, or withdrawn. She didn't know if she liked to be caressed, or it bothered her, she didn't know anything about her.

She only knew that Rumi seemed to relax with that act.

"It's real, daughter. I don't know how, or why. But I'm here." She smiled with a hint of sadness. "And you are too. That's enough and it's sufficient."

Silence stretched between them, loaded with a thousand words that neither knew how to pronounce. Neither knew where to start, what words they had to say, what they had to do. They couldn't change the things that had happened.

It was as if they were two strangers... But who had waited too long to finally meet.

"I missed everything." Mi-Yeong's voice broke, and suddenly she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. "Your laughs, your cries, your angers, your triumphs. I missed them all. I wasn't there when you needed me, and that is..." she stopped, clenching her teeth, trying to maintain her composure. "That's what hurts me the most."

Rumi raised her head abruptly, with shiny eyes, and shook her head hard.

"No!" She exclaimed. "It's not your fault, mom. It's not!" Her voice trembled, as if fury wanted to cover up fear. "I never had the chance to meet you, I always spent my time wondering what you would be like and... I... I just wanted to meet you. I don't care how or when. I just wanted to have that opportunity..."

Mi-Yeong, unable to resist any longer, hugged her.

Rumi was rigid at first, as if the contact had surprised her. But then she collapsed against her mother, burying her face in her shoulder. The room filled with the sounds of both holding back tears and, finally, letting them out.

"I'm so sorry, Rumi." Mi-Yeong whispered to her between sobs, stroking her back. "If I could give you those years, I would. If I could go back in time..."

"I don't want the past" Rumi interrupted her, holding her tightly, as if she feared she would vanish again. "I want you now. Here, mom. I need you now."

The confession pierced Mi-Yeong like a sweet and cruel dagger at the same time. It was everything she had wanted to hear, and at the same time, what tormented her the most. It was the certainty that her daughter had learned to live without her, and even so, she needed her with a fierce urgency.

They stayed like that for a long time, until the sobs turned into long, heavy breaths. Finally, Rumi pulled away just enough to look her in the eyes.

"There's something you have to know." Her voice was barely a murmur, but it carried the weight of someone who had kept secrets for too long, and had no desire to do so with her mother. "I'm not alone, mom. I was never alone, even though I sometimes felt it. They were there. Zoey, Mira... even Celine, in her own way. They are..." she hesitated, biting her lower lip. "they are my family now too."

Mi-Yeong nodded, although a shadow of doubt crossed her eyes.

"I saw them. And I saw how they look at you, Rumi. As if you were the center of their world." She paused for a long time. "It's hard for me to understand... but if they love you, and you love them, then..." she took a deep breath, forcing herself to swallow her own prejudices. "Then it's okay. You'll have to tell me a little more about them."

The sparkle in Rumi's eyes appeared, finally, before she laughed a little.

"Tomorrow you'll have more time to meet them, but now..." She smiled, before standing up, and opening the door. "I think it's a good time before going to sleep."

As she opened it, she saw Zoey and Mira stuck to the wall, with red cheeks and wide eyes. For an instant, they looked like frozen figures of mischief, and before Rumi could say anything, they lost their balance and fell with a thump onto the rug.

"Ouch!" They cried out in unison, rolling and gently bumping into each other.

Rumi let out a laugh that started softly and ended in a burst of laughter.

Zoey sat up, rubbing her head and looking at Rumi with the mix of embarrassment and mischief that always seemed to accompany her.

"Uh... we're sorry. We didn't mean to... it's just..." She stammered, laughing nervously.

Mira interrupted her, with a mischievous smile and her hands raised in a sign of surrender.

"Yeah, yeah, guilty. It won't happen again. We swear..." She murmured, although her smile betrayed that she wasn't sure of that.

Rumi just looked at them and laughed again.

"It's okay, it's okay, you can go. It's nothing. Just... don't fall next time." She winked at them.

The girls nodded quickly and scurried away, leaving Rumi alone with Mi-Yeong. The mother, still sitting on the improvised bed in Celine's room, looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and curiosity.

"Are you really going to sleep with them?" Mi-Yeong asked, surprised. "After everything that happened today... so much trust, so much closeness..."

Rumi shrugged, with a shy smile.

"Well, I love them, and they love me. We've slept together since before we even finished understanding our feelings. I can't sleep unless it's with them, mom. I need them as much as they need me."

More memories began to run through her head, confused by her daughter's words. She definitely needed to know more about that relationship.

"Tomorrow we have presentations at several local schools, so I hope you can get a good rest for it."

The three girls nodded, while their manager, a middle-aged man with brown hair, opened the door to their room.

Disappointed would be an understatement for the rest of them when they saw what they had. The room was a barely acceptable size for one person, and... Only one bed? How were they supposed to sleep there?

"I know it's a bit... Small." The man began, looking away and touching his neck, slightly uncomfortable. "But... Well, that's what we have in the budget right now. You'll have to adapt."

The air in the room became dense when the door closed behind the manager. The sound of the lock was like a reality check. That tiny space was the best they were going to have in several days. It was that, or sleeping on the street.

"This..." Poppy was the first to break the silence, looking around with her big eyes. "Are we really going to sleep here? All three of us?"

Mi-Yeong blinked, still trying to process the situation. She knew what was coming when she had agreed to become a youth artist. She knew they couldn't expect success from one second to the next, or a life of luxury, much less when they were going to have a second job as demon hunters, but... This was almost ridiculous.

Mi-Yeong's gaze swept over the single bed, the small nightstand, and the rickety closet that looked like it would fall apart with a single push, and she had no choice but to give her best effort not to cry.

Celine sighed, crossing her arms in resignation. The place definitely stank. Although, in her case, she had lived in worse places to know that, at least, it was a well-kept place, and she was not going to let herself fall due to discomfort.

"Well... if we want to achieve something big, we'll have to get used to these things." She tried to smile, although in her dark eyes there was a glimmer of frustration. "No one said it was going to be easy."

"I already knew that," Mi-Yeong replied, pressing her lips together. "But I thought we would at least have... I don't know, a bed for each of us."

Poppy dropped to her knees on the mattress, testing it with a couple of soft bounces. It was hard, too hard to be comfortable.

"Mmm... well... it's not so bad." She tried to sound optimistic, although she then added in a low voice. "It's worse than I thought."

Mi-Yeong looked at her with an incredulous face and almost started to laugh, but before she could say anything, Celine raised her hand, imposing her decision

"That's it. You two sleep in the bed. I'll stay on the floor."

"What?" Mi-Yeong and Poppy exclaimed at the same time.

"It's not a discussion." Celine added, already looking for an empty corner where she could spread a blanket. "I'm the oldest, I'm used to it. Don't worry about me."

Poppy opened her mouth to protest, but Mi-Yeong stopped her with a gesture. She didn't know her well yet, after all, they had only been introduced a couple of days before, and to announce the group's union, but she could see in Celine's eyes a mixture of pride and stubbornness that was not going to change no matter how much they insisted. So she simply nodded, although inside she was not at all convinced.

The lights went out shortly after, and the room was enveloped in darkness. Outside, the noise of Seoul barely seeped through the poorly insulated window. You could hear car engines, distant voices, a city that never slept. In a way, it was more lulling than an uncomfortable and absolute silence.

Poppy was the first to fall asleep, breathing softly by her side. And Mi-Yeong was trying to do the same, she really was. Maybe, at some point, exhaustion overcame her, because she remembered that everything had gone dark. But, she woke up again. Maybe it was the fault of the sound of an ambulance, or something like that, but something didn't leave her alone.

And that's when she barely turned her head and saw her. The light from the only desk they had was lit with a dim light, and Celine was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall. She had an open notebook and a pen moving without a pause. She didn't make a sound, but the light illuminated her tired features.

What on earth was she doing? Mi-Yeong turned to look for a wall clock, and soon realized the time. 2:15 AM.

Mi-Yeong sat up in silence and leaned towards her, getting her attention.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, more worried than angry.

Celine looked up, surprised to have been discovered, and then looked away.

"I didn't want to wake you up." She replied, and Mi-Yeong assumed that was her way of apologizing. "I was just... writing ideas. Things we could improve on in the presentations. If we manage to stand out soon, the company will have more budget, which they can invest in us."

"Plans?" Mi-Yeong frowned, wrinkling the sheet with her hands. "It's two in the morning and you're... working?"

"It's not working, it's... preparing." Celine lowered her gaze, but her tone was firm. "If I don't do it, no one will. I don't want us to spend months like this."

Something in those words squeezed Mi-Yeong's heart. She saw the dark circles under her eyes, the tense shoulders, the determination that was confused with exhaustion. It wasn't fair. She didn't know Celine, but... No one should be working themselves to exhaustion like that.

She got up from the bed with a jolt, making Poppy stir a little in her sleep, and stood in front of Celine.

"Stop. You can't keep this up." She assured her. "You have to sleep for a while, or you'll collapse from exhaustion in the middle of a presentation."

"Mi-Yeong..." She tried to protest, in the days they had lived together, Mi-Yeong had been the one who had made the most effort to get to know her. But Celine had put up enough barriers so as not to be hurt.

"I told you to stop." She gently snatched the notebook, closing it and setting it aside. "There's no point in killing yourself now. We need you to be okay tomorrow, do you understand?"

Celine opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Mi-Yeong took her wrist and pulled her towards the bed. Celine struggled for a second, but the other didn't let go.

"Hey! What are you...?"

"Shhh." She gently pushed her against the mattress and, before she could resist anymore, covered her with the blanket.

Poppy, still asleep, mumbled something incoherent and rolled to one side, leaving space. Mi-Yeong took advantage and got in too, staying in the middle of the two. Then she put an arm over Celine, preventing her from getting up again.

Celine was rigid when she felt her so close, with the warmth of her body, sharing the minimal space of the bed.

Was that girl crazy or what the hell was wrong with her!?

"This is ridiculous..." she whispered, in such a way that only Mi-Yeong could hear her

"Maybe." Mi-Yeong replied calmly, resting her head on her shoulder. "But now you're going to sleep. And if it's necessary, I'll stay hugging you all night to make sure."

Celine let out a brief, nervous laugh, and then fell silent. She could feel Poppy's calm breathing by her side, the firm weight of Mi-Yeong who didn't plan to move, and suddenly all the accumulated exhaustion hit her like a wave. Her eyes closed before she realized it, surrendering to sleep for the first time in days.

Mi-Yeong didn't move. She held her there, stubbornly, until she heard the slow, deep rhythm of her breathing. Then, she allowed herself to close her eyes too.

"Sunlight Entertainment sure has changed over the years." She murmured, as she saw the enormous offices the girls were taking her to.

If Mi-Yeong appeared in the middle of the company out of nowhere, it would definitely cause a couple of fainting spells, and they would have Dispatch before you could say a flash trying to get into the company for a photo, so... They had to be careful to be able to take her to see a day of their work, without her being discovered.

Luckily for her, Mi-Yeong was the same size as Rumi. So she could use her same hood, with which she would never be recognized.

Zoey nodded, excited.

"We moved from here after winning the idol awards for the second consecutive time. The prize was quite good." She explained, as if she were a scholar. Or maybe, just a fan who could talk all the time with who had been her idol in her youth. "We were growing and we needed a better place that showed what 'Huntr/x' was."

Their old manager would be proud of what they had achieved. Maybe she would have to look for him to find out what had happened in his life.

"And how many have you won in total?" Mi-Yeong asked, with curiosity and nostalgia in her voice, as if she still hadn't finished processing that she was standing in the future, in front of everything that her sacrifice had helped to sow.

After all, she knew the industry too. She knew that a girl group dominating the industry was almost impossible. They, after all they had worked, had barely been able to win an Idol award, before...

Before her fall.

However, Zoey held up her fingers, mentally counting them with a proud smile.

"Six." She answered without hesitation.

"Six?" Mi-Yeong's eyes widened, incredulous. "It's not possible... When I... when I was still... We had barely dreamed of a first one."

"Well, you set a standard. We just continued the legacy you started." Zoey puffed out her chest, as if she were the one who had been on those stages from the beginning.

"And how did you get them? I mean... Wasn't there competition? And... Were there really six?"

Zoey nodded, amused by the insistence.

"Yes, six. The last one was... weird. Technically, the Saja Boys, a band of demons that came out of nowhere and caused us a lot of problems, won it. They never appeared again because..." Zoey blushed slightly, looking away. "Well, you know. The point is they didn't show up to collect the prize. So... well, the organization decided to give it to us."

A smile formed on Mi-Yeong's lips. A demonic boy band? Gwi-Ma must have been working then, he must have been very desperate.

"I would definitely like to know more."

Zoey just laughed, unable to contain the energy.

"It was iconic! That was our sixth, can you imagine? Six! Sometimes I think that not even in my best trainee dreams would I have believed I would be in the group that has won those awards the most times. And with you here...!" She looked at her like a child looking at her superheroine. "You were my bias all along, you know? Since I was thirteen, I would look in the mirror and try to sing like you."

The ex-idol blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected such a direct confession. Her lips curled into a soft, almost maternal smile.

"Really... that much?" She asked her, and Zoey nodded frantically.

"Of course!" Zoey put her hands to her face, laughing at herself. "I had posters of you on my wall, I carried my discs everywhere, and I listened to your music until I fell asleep. I even think I learned to do the same eyebrow movement you did in "Midnight Eclipse"... Do you want me to show you?"

Mi-Yeong let out a sincere laugh, something she hadn't done in a long time.

"Let's see."

Zoey tried it in front of her, exaggerating the gesture with so much enthusiasm that it looked like a caricature. Mi-Yeong ended up laughing even more, covering her mouth. It was impossible not to see the purity in that admiration, the way that girl radiated affection for the group she had been in.

"But that's enough fangirling about me." Mi-Yeong said, still smiling, although her eyes softened with a certain seriousness. "I want to know about you... about the group now. About what you are."

Zoey straightened up, as if she had just received the most important question in the world. Maybe it was, she had to show Rumi's mother who she was, how worthy she was. If she was really enough for her.

"We're family. That's the first thing." Her voice changed, and became calmer, deeper. "Rumi brought us together when Huntr/x began to exist. We've saved each other in our worst moments and... We don't see this group as a job, but as our dream come true. Rumi is the heart of Huntr/x... And we love it."

The name resonated in Mi-Yeong's chest, was her daughter adored in that way?

"Rumi?" she repeated, although she already knew.

Zoey nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes. She... I don't know how to explain it. Sometimes she seems stronger than all of us together, as if she could carry anything... and other times, she's so fragile that she reminds me how human all this is." She softened her gaze, like someone confessing a secret. "I admire her so much, Mi-Yeong. Sometimes I think that... I don't know, that if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be anything in this world."

Mi-Yeong looked at her in silence. Her heart was shrinking with every word. It wasn't just the emotion of knowing that Rumi had followed her path, but seeing, through Zoey's eyes, the love she awakened in others. A genuine, protective, admired love.

"You love her." She finally blurted out, not intending for it to sound like an accusation, but as a certainty.

Zoey blushed, looking away.

"I... well, yes. I guess so." She laughed nervously, like a teenager who had just revealed a secret. "I know it can seem very complicated to understand... but yes. I love her."

And at that instant, Mi-Yeong knew it, there was a way Zoey talked about Rumi, about her daughter, that no one else could. It was an admiration she had never seen, very different from admiring an idol.

It was almost as if she heard herself talking about Celine and... Poppy. How strange.

"Oh! Come on, this is the dance room." Zoey said, radically changing the subject. "We have to go with Mira, you're going to love it!"

Mi-Yeong just let herself be dragged along.

"You must be the main dancer. They told me you would be here, your name is Celine, right?"

The girl stopped her dance for a second when she heard someone watching her. She turned her head, before meeting the girl who had her hair in a braid.

"Yes, I am." She replied, a bit sharply, still panting from the dance. Her cheeks were flushed, not only from the effort, but from the annoyance of having been interrupted. "Why do you ask?"

Mi-Yeong was not intimidated. She couldn't feel afraid of a girl she was going to live with for, possibly, the rest of her life. She walked a few steps into the studio, and closed the door softly behind her.

"Oh, it's just... I'm Mi-Yeong. Main Vocalist. I wanted to introduce myself" She said with a calm smile. "The way you mark the rhythm, how you hold the energy in your arms... Not everyone can do that."

Celine frowned. She turned around and walked towards the stereo to stop the music. Silence filled the room, only interrupted by her still-accelerated breathing.

"I see..." She said without turning, adjusting the ponytail in her hair. "I'm busy. I don't need distractions, much less talks from someone I don't even know."

The hardness in her voice was clear, but Mi-Yeong simply tilted her head, without erasing that smile that seemed made to disarm any barrier.

"That's okay, you don't have to know me yet." She replied, crossing her arms. "But, since we're going to be in the same group, and we're going to be... you know, life partners, well... I want to know you."

Celine rolled her eyes and sighed. She took a few steps towards her, hoping the gesture would be intimidating enough for her to leave.

"Listen, I'm not interested in making friends right now. I have goals, and I don't have time for..." She paused, looking for the right word. "Distractions. No distractions."

Mi-Yeong blinked, as if she were analyzing each word with patience. In just a couple of seconds, that girl had already captivated her, and stolen all her attention. No wonder they had chosen her, there were many things to talk about.

"Goals, huh?" She repeated. "I guess that's why you dance until you run out of air. That's why your gaze doesn't dim for a second, even though it sounds exhausting."

The words made Celine tense up. There was something about the way that stranger was watching her, as if she saw more than she showed. And she didn't like it.

"You're right." She finally replied, coldly. "And precisely because I don't dim, I don't need someone to come in here and try to read me. So, if you don't mind..."

She pointed to the door, hoping Mi-Yeong would get the hint.

But instead of leaving, Mi-Yeong took another step closer. She didn't invade her space, but enough so that Celine's attention couldn't flee from her.

"I understand." she said softly. "I just want you to know that I'm not going to give up on someone who has so much passion in their eyes."

Celine opened her mouth to reply, but found no immediate words. The discomfort turned into a strange mixture of irritation and... something else, something she didn't want to name.

She turned around abruptly, took her water bottle and drank, hoping the gesture would make it clear that the conversation was over.

But Mi-Yeong just smiled again.

"Come on, come with me. We have to look for our third partner."

"She looks a lot like Celine."

Upon hearing those words, Zoey couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"Mira better not hear you say that, or she'll want to kill you... Again."

Too much, Zoey!

However, Mi-Yeong let out a small laugh.

"And in that she also looks like her."

The echo of the footsteps, the rhythmic beat of the feet against the floor and the incessant rhythm of the music filled the practice room.

Mira was in the center, with her backup dancers around her, repeating the same sequence over and over until the sweat shone on her forehead. She didn't need to raise her voice too much; a firm look, a specific correction with the movement of her hand, or that very straight posture of hers that transmitted natural authority was enough.

Mi-Yeong watched everything from a corner, with Zoey at her side. And, although at first she had only wanted to see how they worked within the company, what surprised her the most was the number of similarities she could notice between them.

"She looks a lot like Celine." She murmured again, this time with a hint of awe in her voice.

Zoey snorted, amused, trying to maintain her composure.

"I already told you, don't say that too loud. Mira has a short fuse and the last thing I want is for her to pounce on you... although," She laughed softly. "I'd agree with you."

But Mi-Yeong didn't laugh, at least not like Zoey. The woman's gaze remained fixed on the way Mira corrected one of the dancers, approaching with that feigned calm, but at the same time with that precision of someone who doesn't tolerate half measures.

"Even the way she walks... the posture. Celine also frowned that way when something didn't go well."

Zoey tilted her head, unable to avoid smiling at seeing her so absorbed in her observations.

"Do you really notice it that much?"

"It's not just that I notice it." Mi-Yeong lowered her voice, with an air of nostalgia that broke her just a little. "It's as if I were seeing her again, years ago, when she rehearsed until her feet couldn't hold her anymore."

The music stopped abruptly and, after a couple of claps, Mira ended the sequence. The backup dancers sighed, exhausted, but grateful, and withdrew to the side to get water.

She, however, walked directly towards Zoey, without noticing Mi-Yeong's fixed attention.

"Were you watching this whole time?" Mira asked, with that demand and care that seemed characteristic of her character when it came to Zoey.

"Of course, what did you expect?" Zoey answered in a playful tone, leaning a little towards her. "If you weren't up to it, I'd tell you."

Mira raised an eyebrow, but couldn't help but smile, softening her hardness. She extended her hand to dry the sweat from her face with the towel Zoey offered her, and that's when Mi-Yeong noticed it even more strongly. That way of accepting a simple gesture, as if behind the seriousness there was someone who allowed herself to care and be cared for in silence.

"In that too..." Mi-Yeong whispered, almost to herself.

Zoey turned her face towards her. "In what?"

"In the way she talks to you." Mi-Yeong's voice was soft, but it didn't tremble. "She seems tough, but she's not. She just wants things to go well. And with you... with you she's different. She protects you even in the smallest things. Celine also did that."

The name hung in the air like a distant echo. Mira, who had managed to hear it, frowned with a slight flash of discomfort.

She didn't say anything, but her eyes rested on Mi-Yeong, as if wanting to decipher what kind of comparison was being made. Zoey, on the other hand, sighed, scratching the back of her neck with a nervous smile.

"Well... yes. I guess there are things in which we are similar to you, more than we would like."

"Why don't we go look for Rumi?" Mira asked, finishing gathering her things. "She must be finishing her photo shoot."

Even in learning the schedules exactly, Mira was too much like Celine.

Celine arranged the blanket over Mi-Yeong's shoulders, making sure to cover the belly that already showed the marks of her seventh month of pregnancy. The teapot was still steaming on the coffee table, and the tea she had served was barely warm in Mi-Yeong's hands, who didn't seem willing to drink it.

"You should drink it before it gets cold." Celine spoke with that dry voice, without looking at her, as she collected the used breakfast cups.

"What do you think he'll be like physically?" Mi-Yeong repeated, as if she hadn't heard her. Her eyes were still lost in the horizon, behind the windows. "Do you think he'll look like him?"

Celine clenched her jaw, the plates in her hands began to tremble, realizing that, even dead, Mi-Yeong was still thinking about someone like him. That she still didn't realize all his mistakes.

What he really was. How much it hurt her... That she was thinking about him and not her.

"Hopefully he won't inherit anything from him." Her answer was so blunt that it cut the air like a blade.

For a moment, she thought Mi-Yeong would flinch, as she used to when someone confronted her. But no; she just sighed, as if Celine's words slid off her, or as if they hurt so much that it wasn't worth reacting.

"He was..." Mi-Yeong began to say, and Celine put the plates down hard on the sink, interrupting her.

"He was a demon, Mi-Yeong. A demon who tricked you, who dragged you to ruin, who almost destroyed us all. Why do you keep talking about him as if he were... someone who deserved to be remembered? In all these days, you haven't even asked about Poppy, or about how we've..."

Mi-Yeong lowered her gaze to her belly, stroking it with an automatic, almost protective gesture. Celine was sure she had barely heard anything.

"He deserves to be remembered, Celine." She murmured, with shiny eyes. "And there's still a part of him left in here. And I don't know how I'm going to be able to love this baby without remembering him."

That confession broke Celine in ways she didn't expect. She felt rage rise like fire in her throat, but underneath that rage, something else was hidden. Fear.

A deep and icy fear that Mi-Yeong, whom she had once admired as the most powerful voice of the Sunlight Sisters, would be consumed even before bringing that creature into the world.

With a brusque gesture, Celine snatched the cup from Mi-Yeong's hands and held it in front of her mouth.

"Drink it. I'm not going to repeat myself." Her gaze was hard, but at the bottom, one could read the plea. "You need to have strength for all this."

Mi-Yeong took a sip, obediently, and as she did, her eyes filled with tears.

"Why are you still here, Celine?" she asked with a trembling voice. "If you hate me so much... if you hate what I am now... why don't you let me sink alone?"

The question hung in the air. Celine closed her eyes tightly, holding back everything she wanted to spit out. That she did hate her, that she had ruined her life, that she had dragged the group to dissolution, that she had made her lose years of effort and dreams.

But when she opened them, what she saw was a broken woman, who had been her friend, her leader... and who was now nothing more than a tired body struggling to keep breathing.

"Because someone has to make sure that baby is born alive." She finally answered, coldly. "After that, and if he's born like him... we'll see."

Mi-Yeong remained silent, while she instinctively stroked her belly. And Celine, sitting in front of her with her arms crossed, kept her gaze fixed on nothingness, trying to convince herself that the rage she felt was enough not to break down.

Really, Celine wished Mi-Yeong had never been happy in that way. She preferred her to be unhappy with her... Than for her to have lived that false happiness.

The room where the photo shoot was taking place looked like a modern temple. Powerful lights hanging from metal structures, cameras on tripods surrounded by cables, makeup artists running from one place to another, and an army of assistants taking care of every detail. Mi-Yeong stood still at the entrance, observing the spectacle.

"All this production for a photo shoot?" She whispered, surprised. "In my day... It wasn't like that."

In front of her, Rumi shone as if that entire place belonged to her. She posed with an almost dangerous confidence, every movement of her body calculated to the millimeter, as if she knew that even breathing could be art. The flashes chased her, hungry, and Rumi fed them with intense gazes, soft gestures, a magnetism that seemed to consume the air.

Mi-Yeong felt a void in her stomach, one that didn't come from hunger or tiredness. It came from pride, from fear, and from melancholy that mixed in a single knot impossible to untie.

That's how the world sees her. As an icon. As someone unreachable.

As she turned her head, she noticed how Mira and Zoey were watching her from a corner. They didn't even blink.

Mira, with her arms crossed, had her jaw tense, as if she was holding back the need to intervene every time a photographer asked Rumi for something a little more daring. Her eyes, however, shone with pure devotion.

Zoey was no different. Leaning forward, with her hands clasped in her lap, she seemed to hold her breath with every pose, as if it depended on her.

They are dying to see her. To have her. To belong to her.

Mi-Yeong closed her eyes for an instant. And there it was again. The shadow of Celine, the echo of her presence. The same strength that Rumi radiated, the same way of dominating a space without asking for permission.

That's how she was when she danced. That's how she was when she entered a room and everything revolved around her silence, her dark eyes, that intensity that no one could stand for too long.

Time did not erase the comparison; on the contrary, it made it more painful. The same. The same aura, the same way of making everyone love her, even when she rejects them.

The flashes stopped. A murmur ran through the room when Rumi left the set, still with her makeup intact and the shiny clothes that seemed designed for someone unreal.

Everyone bowed to her, as if she were a queen in a parade. But Rumi did not return their attention, her eyes looked for her mother and only lit up when she saw her.

When the lights finally went out and Rumi left the set, with her makeup still fresh and her hair perfectly styled, Mi-Yeong waited for her in silence. Her daughter seemed radiant, with the energy of someone who had conquered another summit, and she immediately launched herself towards Mira and Zoey, who received her as if she were the only person in the room who really mattered.

Mi-Yeong observed that scene with a heavy heart. Everything was so similar. Too similar. Everything was like what she had, like what she barely remembered, like before...

Then, without thinking twice, she raised her voice. There were no more doubts, after all she had seen.

"Rumi, I think your heart has chosen very well." She murmured, once they were left alone, and she could pull down the hood that had protected her identity all the time, although that broke the moment between the girls. "These girls adore you, and I don't think anyone could deserve you more than them."

Zoey and Mira blushed, lowering their gaze. In part, it was a point for them, satisfied that they had been able to give that image. However, Mi-Yeong did not stop talking.

"Rumi..." The young woman turned to her, still with her smile intact. "I want you to take me to see Celine."

The air seemed to stop between them. The request fell like a glass shattering on the floor. Rumi looked at her with bewilderment, Mira frowned, and Zoey tilted her head in an uncomfortable silence.

But, it was what her heart dictated. She had to see her again... And know what had become of her.

Chapter Text

"Before we go see her... There's something you need to know, Mom."

Zoey stopped the car immediately, while Mira did her best not to turn to look at Rumi and Mi-Yeong, imagining it was a private conversation.

"Rumi, we can..." Zoey tried to speak, letting go of the steering wheel and turning on the hazard lights, but Rumi interrupted her.

"No, stay, please." She begged, closing her eyes tightly. Rumi began to clench her fists tightly, and her patterns began to glow purple. "I need you for this."

Mi-Yeong, noticing the anxiety in her daughter, stroked one of her thighs, trying to comfort her. Rumi felt a shiver remind her of the body. After all, she wasn't used to feeling her touch.

"Are you okay, honey?" She asked, also stroking Rumi's shoulder. "If this is too hard, we can..."

"I asked Celine to kill me." She blurted out, without any explanation. "After a concert, I ran to her house and begged her to kill me with my own weapon."

A shiver ran down Mi-Yeong's spine, and she paled. Of all the news she could have expected, she hadn't imagined something like this. She tried to turn to look at Zoey and Mira, hoping they would tell her it wasn't true, or that it wasn't as serious as she was imagining, but she didn't find it.

Zoey was holding the car lever so tightly that anyone would think she was about to break it. And Mira only glanced sideways, stroking Zoey's arm calmly, trying to reassure her.

So it wasn't a lie.

"Rumi... Why?" She asked her, taking her hands tightly. The strength she didn't have to look her mother in the eyes at that moment.

There was a long talk they needed to have.

Celine wasn't expecting anyone that day. And, honestly, she didn't want to see anyone either. She hadn't seen a single person since the day Honmoon was formed, and she knew she'd stay that way.

She was fine. She could convince her brain that the situation with Rumi had never happened, if she spent the whole day collecting plants, taking care of her crops, or reading in her library.

They didn't even need her at the company. Just a day had passed, Celine had raised Bobby's salary to 7%, in exchange for him starting to take on responsibilities as CEO, and apparently, he was doing very well.

She was having a quiet and delicious coffee, when she saw a black car park right in front of her, and she knew her tranquility was over.

She paled, but she forced herself to remember that she had already mentally prepared for that. It was impossible that it was Rumi, that was for sure. As sure as Rumi must have already told her friends things, and now they were coming to confront them.

Would it be Mira? Would it be Zoey? Would it be both? Honestly, Celine didn't know which option could be worse. Those two girls, with all the love in her heart, were explosive, and you never knew how they might react.

She wasn't going to go out. No, definitely not. Not until they knocked on her door, and with all the calm in the world, she was going to...

Then she saw Rumi get out of the car, and her coffee cup fell to the floor.

"It's better if I go first." Rumi murmured, once Zoey parked at the entrance of Celine's house, far away from the bustling city.

She still had traces of tears on her cheeks, and her eyes were slightly red, but at least, her voice no longer sounded cut off when she spoke.

"No." Mira said sharply. "You're not going near her alone."

"Your... Mira and Zoey are right, my love." Mi-Yeong supported Mira, although, for some reason, she still had trouble referring to the two girls as her daughters' girlfriends. "You're not going to see her alone."

"Please." Rumi insisted, not looking anyone in the eyes. "If we show up there with you, Mom... Celine is going to have a heart attack. We might not have the best relationship right now, but... I'd like to talk to her first, see what her plan is, and then... Make them both see each other."

It's not like any of them completely agreed. But they also knew that they wouldn't be able to make Rumi change her mind.

"I'll be fine, I promise. Besides, if you see things get ugly, you can always come down."

They watched Rumi get out of the car, and as if it were destiny itself, Celine opened the door and walked straight towards her. As soon as she saw her, she ran towards Rumi, extending her arms.

"Rumi!" Her voice broke, as if she had been holding back the urge to say her name for centuries. "Oh, I thought I was never going to be able to..."

But the girl took a sharp step back, almost as if a weapon had been put in front of her face. The movement was so cold and calculated that Celine's heart sank in a second.

"No." Rumi's voice sounded deep, trembling, but firm. "Don't touch me. Don't think you can do it now, but when I needed it, you didn't."

Celine was completely frozen upon hearing those words, and she forced herself to lower her arms. She hadn't forgiven her, Rumi hadn't forgiven her.

Why was she there if she still held so much resentment in her heart? Was she coming to torture her more? She swallowed, trying to make her emotions not visible.

"Rumi, I didn't mean to do that that night. I just wanted..." She tried to speak, to explain herself, to say each and every one of the ideas and thoughts she had had throughout all those days, but Rumi didn't allow her.

"You wanted what?" She interrupted her, lowering her breathing, and her patterns began to glow, scaring Celine. "You wanted to pretend that nothing happened? That that night didn't exist? That you didn't refuse to touch me? To ask me to hide who I was again and lie to the people I love the most? To not be able to look me in the eyes!?"

Celine's eyes filled with a silent pain. Mistakes, she had made many mistakes, which now hurt her as much as she had hurt Rumi.

"Rumi, I..."

"Don't say my name as if you still have the right to say it!" Rumi yelled, and the patterns on her skin began to glow with an incandescent purple.

From the car, Zoey jumped when she saw them, while she gritted her teeth and held back the urge to run out. Mira was in the same situation, and Mi-Yeong was already grabbing the door.

Celine took a deep breath, seeking calm, thinking it was no use to explode at that moment.

"I did it because I thought it was the best thing. I didn't want Mira and Zoey to reject you when they found out, or for you to be able to harm others..."

Bad choice of words.

"And what did you do then?" Rumi spat out each word with fury. "You condemned me to hide what I was, to feel ashamed of myself! I spent entire years looking at my arms in the mirror, hating them, hating myself, wondering why I couldn't be like everyone else. And all because you convinced me that I was a monster who had to cover every inch of her skin. And now you confirm that you were afraid I could harm others..."

Celine closed her eyes tightly. Of course Rumi was going to interpret her words that way.

"I never said you were a monster." She tried to clarify, in vain.

"You never had to say it!" Rumi yelled again, her hands trembling, and her fists clenching so hard that her knuckles turned white. "I felt it every time you told me to hide the patterns, every time you forced me to cover up even in summer, when you couldn't look me in the eyes when I begged for a little understanding! You were the one who should have loved me the most! You should have taken care of me!"

Celine's face broke, unable to hold her daughter's gaze.

From the car, Mi-Yeong felt her heart break into a thousand pieces. She was seeing, in the flesh, everything she had suspected. Mira was clenching her jaw, full of rage against Celine, while Zoey covered her mouth.

Celine finally raised her face, trembling every second. How could she defend herself that way? How could she talk to Rumi after everything that had happened?

"Rumi, I did what I could with what I knew. I'm not perfect, but I tried..."

"You tried what?" Rumi advanced a step. "You tried to love me? To take care of me? Well, you failed! You're the worst thing that happened to me in my life, Celine."

That was what Celine couldn't tolerate.

How could Rumi dare to say something like that? She had sacrificed her entire life for Rumi! If it weren't for her, Rumi would be in Gwi-Ma's clutches. If it weren't for Rumi, she would be dead.

It was her, Celine, who had given Rumi the life she now had. She had taken care of her, she had raised her, she had fulfilled each of her wishes and whims, just because she didn't know how to say no to her.

If Rumi was a K-pop star, it was because Celine had educated her for that. If Rumi had Mira and Zoey by her side, it was because she had found them so they could form their group, and the new generation of hunters.

Rumi owed her entire life to Celine. If Rumi was happy now, it was because Celine had given her all the tools for that. She might have made mistakes, yes, but Rumi had not the slightest and remotest idea of what it was to suffer.

Rumi didn't know what it was like to have parents who kicked her out of her house and did everything in their power to trip her up and prevent her dream. Rumi hadn't suffered blows, just to learn the lesson. Rumi hadn't sacrificed her own health, just so she wouldn't see the people she loved suffer.

Rumi had no idea about anything.

The silence was absolute. Even the trees seemed to hold their breath. And then, in a single second, the world shattered.

SLAP!

The slap echoed in the air like thunder. Rumi's head spun from the force of the blow, and she stood still, with her red cheek burning and her eyes wide open.

That's when Mi-Yeong couldn't take it anymore. She jumped out of the car. Zoey and Mira looked at each other, and followed her, running towards where Rumi was.

"Celine!"

Celine's skin turned white as paper, the moment she heard that voice. Her eyes opened wide, and she lost all ability to speak. Her breathing accelerated, and her heart began to beat hard.

It had to be a joke. It had to be a hallucination from her brain, a joke in poor taste. It had to be... A lie.

It couldn't be her. Her prayers couldn't be heard right at that moment. What she was seeing there couldn't be real, she had to be dreaming. It was as if the years hadn't passed for her. Maybe they hadn't, in reality.

It was Mi-Yeong, just as she remembered her, just as she was before she died. It was... It was a dream. She had to be dreaming.

"Mi... Mi..."

Celine felt as if the ground was sinking under her feet. She stopped breathing, she wasn't thinking, she wasn't processing anything, it was as if time itself had stopped. Nothing else existed at that moment, except for that figure, walking towards her with the same face that had haunted her in each of her dreams and nightmares.

The person who had ruined her life.

It was impossible, but real. Mi-Yeong was there. It wasn't a hallucination, nor a trick of her mind that loved to play with her when there was pain. No. It was her, real. At that moment, the strength and the protective layer with which Celine had covered herself and with which she had protected herself for twenty-four years, disappeared, collapsing as if they were nothing more than ashes.

"H-how can it be possible that you...?" She stammered, without remembering how she was supposed to speak. "It can't be possible... No..."

But, Mi-Yeong didn't care that Celine's knees were about to falter and collapse on the ground, or the tears that were accumulating in her eyes, or the lack of air she felt.

The only thing she cared about was that she had seen Celine hit her little one, her daughter. She had slapped her, and she hadn't even regretted it. Had she been like that her whole life?

She felt frustration at not being able to remember anything beyond that day's arrival at Celine's house, why couldn't she remember? Why was Celine the one who had taken care of raising her daughter? How could she have hurt her so much and in that way?

The person she had in front of her looked nothing like the friend she had in her memories. Celine had aged, the gray streaks in her hair and the wrinkles on her face, although few, gave her away. She wasn't the girl who always held her hand and gave her inspiration. With whom she fought side by side, just to defeat demons.

She wasn't her Celine. She wasn't the Celine of her memories.

"How dare you?" She snapped, taking one more step closer, her gaze fixed on Celine, and on that hand that was still trembling from having hit Rumi.

Celine's expression broke. She wanted to step back, but she couldn't. Her knees seemed made of glass.

"I... I didn't..." She tried to defend herself, but the weight of those words crushed her throat.

"How dare you lay a hand on my daughter!?" Mi-Yeong yelled, with a rage that Celine had never heard, not even in her darkest days. "After everything that happened, after everything she carried alone, you still have the nerve to raise your hand to her?"

Celine clenched her fists against her chest, as if she wanted to stop the pain that was tearing her from the inside.

"No... I didn't mean to..." Each word came out stifled, choppy. "It wasn't like that, I just..."

"You hit her!" Mi-Yeong didn't let her continue, her voice breaking between anger and sadness. "The same girl for whom you swore to give your life, the same one you promised to protect when I wasn't there. And that's what you do? That's what you teach her?"

"Hasn't all the harm you've done to her been enough?" Mira yelled, taking the word, while Zoey approached Rumi, who was in complete shock, and caressed the cheek where Celine had struck her. "Can you not sink any lower?"

And there it was. The complaints from Mira and Zoey that she had been waiting for so long. Only now, there were too many things for her to be able to handle them as much as she had planned.

"Celine, why?" Zoey asked, with the calmest voice of the four. "We trusted you, Rumi trusted you, why did you do all this?"

"I didn't do anything wrong!" She defended herself, trembling uncontrollably. "I did what I had to do to protect all of us! I'm not a monster!"

"Celine." Zoey insisted. "You're being cruel. Can't you realize what you did?"

"What did I do?" Celine didn't want to say that. In reality, she didn't want to say anything. But it was her way of defending herself from each of the attacks she was receiving at that moment. It was the way her brain protected itself from pain. "Because, as I see it, I haven't done anything but give you the life you enjoy so much."

Mira was about to let out a laugh upon hearing that.

"Celine, please..."

"If it weren't for me, you two would never have met!" She snapped, pointing her finger at both of them, Mira and Zoey. "How dare you turn against me? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be together."

"You can't take credit for us meeting each other!" Zoey claimed. "It's not thanks to you that we're a couple now, you didn't make us love each other the way we do!"

"If it weren't for me, you would still be a failed girl in the United States who would work in a bar and release unsuccessful songs that no one would listen to!" She yelled at Zoey, making her take a couple of steps back, letting go of Rumi.

Zoey stepped back two paces, her face livid. Her throat closed, but not because she didn't want to respond, but because Celine's words had touched fibers she thought were dead.

"You have no right..." she whispered, almost voiceless.

Celine, with overflowing tears and a broken voice, took a step towards her.

"Oh, I don't? I have no right? Weren't you the one who cried in my living room saying that your life in the United States was trash? That no one wanted to listen to you, that no one believed in you? Wasn't I the one who gave you a place, a purpose, a family, when you ran away from your parents? And now you come and make me out to be a villain when without me you would still be begging for someone to listen to your damn songs!"

Zoey was trembling, her voice was stuck in her throat. But before she could reply, Celine turned her gaze, now charging against Mira.

"And you?" She looked at Mira in such a deranged way, that she didn't seem like herself. "Are you going to point at me too? If it weren't for me, you'd still be trapped in that rotten family that was breaking your soul. Have you already forgotten the nights you begged me not to send you back, because you preferred to die than return to that hell? If you're free now it's because I fought for you, because I got you out of there! And this is how you pay me? Looking at me as if I were the worst thing that could have happened to you. Hypocrite!"

Mira clenched her fists, and her entire vibrating body began to tremble with rage. Celine was touching wounds that hadn't healed yet.

However, Celine didn't stop. Her breathing became erratic, and her gaze seemed to be on the verge of madness, as if all the pain of twenty-four years had exploded in that single instant.

Neither Mira nor Zoey had the courage to speak. They were unable to say a single word, scared of what Celine was saying to them. And Celine saw the perfect opportunity to move on to her other victims.

Mi-Yeong and Rumi.

"And you, Rumi?" Her voice broke, but the poison remained. "Are you really going to stand in front of me and say that I'm the worst thing that happened to you? That I never took care of you, never loved you? Who do you think was there when you had a fever and cried all night? Who worked until they bled to pay for your whims and everything you asked for? Me! It was me! I broke myself into a thousand pieces so you could shine, and now you spit in my face as if I were worth nothing!"

"She shouldn't have had to go through all that!" Mi-Yeong claimed, seeing her daughter clench her teeth, and her patterns begin to shine. "My daughter should never have gotten into an industry like that, you should have prevented it! Prevent her from suffering what we suffered!"

And then, Celine's gaze fell on Mi-Yeong. The air seemed to freeze. Her voice dropped, bitter, full of a pain that crawled from the depths of her being.

"Suffer?" Celine's eyes shone like fiery embers, burning. "And what have you suffered, Mi-Yeong?! You have no idea what pain is! Betrayal! You abandoned us... You abandoned me! You left me all your responsibilities, all your guilt... And you dare to question me? Where were you when I had to carry everything alone? When I was the one who cried in silence because I didn't know how to raise a half-demon daughter, without you, without anyone?"

The silence was unbearable. The air was dense, unbreathable. Zoey had covered her mouth, trembling. Mira seemed on the verge of lunging at Celine. Rumi had her fists clenched, and Mi-Yeong, with her face soaked in tears, took a step forward, looking at her as if the woman in front of her were a stranger.

Celine was gasping, as if every word she had spat out had been a knife that also went through her. But she didn't back down. She couldn't. Everything she had kept silent for years was now out, raw, bleeding.

"I want you to leave this very moment." She murmured, lowering the intensity of her voice, but not her hatred. "Leave."

"Celine is right." Rumi said, taking Mi-Yeong's arm, who hadn't taken her eyes off Celine. "It's better if we leave now, Mom. It's not the time to talk to Celine."

Mira and Zoey lowered their heads, they were still trembling, but they agreed with Rumi, they couldn't continue like this.

However, upon hearing her, Celine began to laugh. To laugh so hard and frantically, that it scared all those present.

"In more than twenty-four years, I was always Celine to you." She said in a low voice, still cackling. "And now, in such a short time, you decide to call her mother?"

She laughed even harder, making them all uncomfortable. They weren't laughs of amusement, that was for sure.

"Celine..." Mi-Yeong tried to speak, but Celine didn't let her, pushing her away.

"The worst thing of all is that I didn't even want to be a mother!" She exclaimed, grabbing her stomach. "But I had to be because of you. You got me entangled in all this!"

Mi-Yeong tried to take a step towards Celine. 

"I didn't mean to..."

But when she was close enough, Celine pushed her.

"I don't know how you're alive, and I don't know what you're doing on earth... But, Mi-Yeong, it would have been better if you had stayed dead." She blurted out. Her body was trembling and she was out of her mind, she didn't realize the words she was saying, or the gasps of pain she was causing. "Leave at once. I don't want to see you around here, get out!"

Without turning to look at them, Celine turned halfway and walked back to her house.

Watching her leave, Mi-Yeong could only think, Where was her Celine? What had happened to her girl?

When Celine closed the door, the wood echoed in the empty house. The silence enveloped her like a cruel echo, and as soon as she took two steps, her knees gave out. The blow against the floor was brutal.

A guttural shriek came from her throat, not from emotional pain, but from physical pain. It was that incalculable pain that had accompanied her for years, burning her bones. Her knees burned as if red-hot iron had been embedded in each joint. Her whole body was trembling, and the tears she had held back in front of them now poured out uncontrollably.

"Ah!" The moan tore through the air, as she clenched her fists against the wooden floor.

She doubled forward, resting her forehead on the floor, trying to breathe, but each inhalation was a punch in her chest. The chronic pain she carried with her was always there, like a silent reminder of the wounds that had never healed, but on that day, it was simply unbearable. It wasn't just her knees. It was her soul. It was as if all the tension accumulated over twenty-four years had found the perfect moment to collapse her.

Her breathing became erratic. The memory of Rumi with her eyes full of anger, of Zoey backing away as if she were a monster, of Mira with that silent rage, and above all... of Mi-Yeong looking at her as if she no longer recognized the person she once loved. Everything pierced her at the same time, like knives stuck in every corner of her body.

Mi-Yeong... Mi-Yeong was alive. Mi-Yeong was alive. Mi-Yeong had returned... Just to get revenge on her. Her worst nightmare had come true, and now it was collecting for each of her mistakes.

"What... happened to me?" she murmured with her voice in pieces, clutching her stomach as if she wanted to stop that feeling of emptiness that was expanding inside her.

The pain in her knees didn't allow her to get up. She could barely move. Each attempt to straighten up made the sting multiply, radiating towards her hips, towards her back. She brought her hands to her legs, pressing with desperation, but it was no use. The pain was a monster that was devouring her.

"I didn't want this!" she yelled, with her throat torn, hitting the floor with the palm of her hand. The echo of her voice reverberated off the empty walls. "I didn't want to be this!"

The physical and emotional pain became confused, until she no longer knew which of the two was worse. She only knew that she was broken. That nothing she had done, neither the sacrifices, nor the lies, nor the sleepless hours, had been for anything. Because in the end, she had been left alone.

With her face buried in the floor, she sobbed until she was voiceless. The pain in her knees was unbearable, but the only thing more unbearable was that emptiness that was tearing her heart out.

She knew what was happening to her. It wasn't the first time in her life that it had happened to her, surely, it wouldn't be the last either.

Instinctively, as if it were an ancient mechanism, she raised her hand and looked for the Honmoon. She closed her eyes, and let her fingers brush the air in front of her, which gave her peace and calmed her. Something that Mi-Yeong herself had taught her.

It had always been like that. She might not give her a weapon anymore, but the Honmoon always responded when she needed it, giving her strength when she thought she no longer had it.

Only, at that moment, there was no response at all.

It was the coldness of her fingers that told her she wouldn't find what she was looking for. Then, like a distance that stretched between her heart and what had sustained her for years. She called one more time, but nothing moved. No luminous current crept between her hands. No echo. The light that normally danced from her palms to the floor refused to be born.

Celine moaned, more out of rage than pain. She awkwardly sat up, supporting herself with her hands on her knees; the movement hurt her and she winced. She looked around, as if the physical world could explain why. Everything seemed alien to her, as if someone had changed the pieces of her life while she was looking away.

"No..." She whispered against her own palms. "Answer... please..."

The room responded with a silence that smelled of abandonment. It was then that sadness, that dense layer that had been accumulating over the years, turned into shame. She had failed in the eyes of her daughter. She had built her life with sacrifices and half-truths, and now those truths had exploded in her face.

A panic rose in her throat with the speed of a tide.

What if it was that? What if she no longer had a voice in the Honmoon? What if everything she did had corroded her right to belong? She remembered, with a clarity that burned her, the first time the Honmoon had vibrated to her call and how she had felt like the owner of the world for an instant. Now she had lost it, surely forever.

The pain in her knees mixed with a deeper one and the feeling of failure crushed her until she broke. Her hands, now damp, sank into the floor as if they were looking for new roots and found nothing to hold on to.

I failed. I failed with Rumi. I failed with Mi-Yeong. I failed with everything I promised not to be.

It was then that she saw a small bottle of Soju on her kitchen shelf, and she knew that she had nothing more to lose, and a lot to forget. Because, at another time, someone had been there to comfort her and help her get out of the bad streak.

And now, she was completely alone.

"Failure."

Celine felt chills upon hearing the woman's voice in that tone, but she forced herself to remain silent. It was what she deserved.

"It's all my fault." She replied. "I was the one who allowed those demons to take control in that theater, it won't happen again."

Celine did her best not to fall and writhe in pain, right at the moment the woman hit her on the knees. She forced herself to remember that this was what she deserved.

She was going to carry the guilt, the remorse, and the punishments. She wasn't going to let Mi-Yeong or Poppy suffer any of that woman's punishments. She wasn't going to say that it had been Mi-Yeong who ignored the attack on the Honmoon, thinking it was a false alarm.

She preferred to be tortured with blows, rather than live with the conscience that she had allowed one of her girls to be harmed.

"And even if it weren't your fault!" The woman exclaimed, before giving her another blow with the wooden cane. "You're the leader, Celine. Mi-Yeong may have outsmarted you in the group, but you are the leader of the hunters, and it is you who pays if the demons win!"

Another blow. Celine's strength began to falter, but she refused to give up.

The cane descended again with a dry sound, as if the wood was bursting against her raw bones. Celine gritted her teeth, stifling the scream that rose in her throat. The echo of the blow was still vibrating in the room when the woman spoke again, without a trace of compassion.

"Leader!" She snapped, raising the cane once more. "That title is not an ornament, nor a crown that you wear out of pride. It means you carry every life, every decision, every mistake on your shoulders. Do you think it's enough to cry or apologize? No! A leader has no right to be wrong."

The cane fell on her other knee, tearing an muffled moan from her. Celine leaned forward, sweat began to fall on her forehead, and her entire body trembled.

"It... won't... happen again" She managed to say, with a broken voice, clinging to those words as if they were the last shield she could raise.

The woman looked at her harshly, as if she was trying to break something beyond her body, as if she wanted to reduce her to ashes to see if something worthy of carrying the title would be reborn from there.

"Your knees are already trembling, Celine." She said in a biting, almost mocking tone. "How do you expect to hold your group, the Honmoon, if you can't even stand on your own feet?"

The cane descended again, this time with such force that Celine fell sideways, gasping. The cold floor bit her skin, and for an instant darkness clouded her vision. She wanted to give up. She wanted to let go of everything. But she thought of Mi-Yeong. Of Poppy. Of the others. Of what it would mean if any of them were in her place and she forced herself to raise her head, despite her eyes burning with the tears she didn't want to show.

"I... can take it." She spat the phrase out brokenly. "Give me everything you have... but don't touch them."

The woman stopped, slowly lowering the cane. She looked at her in silence, as if evaluating whether that declaration came from courage or simple stupidity. In the end, she sighed.

"That's the only thing that saves you, Celine." She said in a harsh whisper. "That at least, although a failure, you are still willing to bleed for the others."

She bent down and gave her one last dry blow, more symbolic than devastating, directly to her back. The echo resonated like a final seal.

"Leave." She ordered coldly. "Crawl if you have to, but I don't want to see you here until you are able to show me that you deserve the title you carry. And if you fail again..." she leaned in enough for Celine to feel her icy breath next to her ear. "It won't just be your knees that I break."

Celine, gasping, with her arms trembling, forced herself to move. Every muscle in her body screamed, every blow burned like hot iron. But she didn't ask for help. She didn't look at her. She stood up clumsily, staggering, before leaving the place.

The worst thing of all was that she knew that it wasn't the last thing that awaited her that day.

When she arrived at the small bedroom she shared with the girls, they were already waiting for her. Poppy was sitting on the bed, holding her knees, as if she was afraid to look her in the eyes, and Mi-Yeong... Mi-Yeong was on the edge of the bed, indicating where her space was.

They couldn't know. They couldn't know that she had gone to see her mentor. They couldn't know that she had been punished, to the point of almost breaking her knees. They couldn't know that she was writhing in pain.

She would survive, she had to. She could hide it, of course. She would heal later, alone, when no one was looking. When Mi-Yeong wasn't looking.

"You were late coming back." Poppy mentioned, gathering courage. "We were worried about you. After the attack you ran out and..."

"I'm sorry." She replied, not expecting her voice to come out so deep, and sitting next to Mi-Yeong. "I needed to clear my head for a while. Time passed faster than I expected."

"It's okay, Celine." Mi-Yeong said, taking her hand. "Everyone has bad days. And I know you're disappointed about the sales of our debut album, but..."

Celine tensed up at the warmth of Mi-Yeong's hand on hers. It was a small, tender gesture, but at that instant it was as if her skin was burning. The pressure on her knees, the burning in her back, the pang in her chest... everything she had been holding in spilled out uncontrollably.

"Bad days?" She repeated with a broken laugh, which sounded more like a choked sob. Her shoulders began to tremble, and the words escaped in a torrent. "Do you understand what it means that we are failing? That all the work, every sacrifice, every sleepless rehearsal... that nothing is worth it? If the album doesn't sell, if we don't show that we're better, if we don't..."

Poppy's eyes opened with genuine fright. She had never seen Celine like this.

"Celine..." She whispered. But Celine couldn't stop anymore. The knot that had been tightening her throat for years had broken.

"What do you think is going to happen if we sink? It's all over! The contract, the opportunities, our life as a group, the Honmoon..." She buried her face in her hands, stifling a scream. "I can't allow it, I can't let this die before it starts. Not after everything we've already lost."

The tears finally escaped, rolling down her face. The physical pain, mixed with the pressure in her chest, made her slowly slide to the floor, with her back against the wall. She buried her face in her hands.

Mi-Yeong was the first to react. She knelt in front of her and, without thinking twice, moved her hands away from her face to force her to look at her.

"No." She said softly, but forcefully. "You are not a failure, Celine. And we are not going to fail."

Poppy, with tears in her eyes, immediately joined in, kneeling on the other side and taking Celine's hand.

"We always have each other. Even if the whole world turns its back on us, even if no one buys another single album, we will be here."

"Don't you see it?" Mi-Yeong caressed her cheek, with a sweetness that broke the darkness that was suffocating her. "It's not the sales that define us. It's the three of us. You, Poppy and me. That's what matters."

Celine sobbed hard, letting her head fall forward, feeling the warm fingers of both of them surrounding her. For an instant, the echo of the cane, the pain in her knees, the cruel voice of her mentor, were blurred in the warmth of those hands, in the certainty that she was not alone.

"I... I'm trying..." She whispered. "I'm really trying..."

"And you're doing well." Poppy squeezed her hand. "No one else could take care of us the way you do."

"We are a team." Mi-Yeong tilted her forehead against hers, in an intimate and fraternal gesture. "And as long as we are together, we will always find a way. I promise you as the leader of the Sunlight Sisters, we will always be together."

At that moment, Celine truly believed it.

Mi-Yeong had a lost look on her face on the way back home. Mira was now the one driving; she said it was the best way to vent the anger and rage she felt at that moment.

Rumi was resting on Zoey's shoulder. She wasn't asleep, but she was drowsy. The fight with Celine had taken all her energy for the day. Zoey caressed her hair and cheek, which had turned red, and would probably have a small mark for a few days.

None of them had the strength to talk about what had happened. In reality, none of them really knew what they had to say. They hadn't expected everything to end like this.

The silence became so dense that the sound of the engine seemed to thunder in everyone's heads. Mi-Yeong, with her eyes fixed on the road that was lost among lights, took a deep breath before letting her voice fill the space.

"Celine wasn't like that..." She finally said, although her voice was barely audible from how low she was speaking.

The three of them looked up at her, surprised. Zoey stopped the movement of her fingers in Rumi's hair for a moment. Mira barely turned her face, without letting go of the steering wheel, but her frowned brow revealed the tension she was carrying.

"What do you mean she wasn't like that?" Zoey asked, carefully, not wanting to sound accusatory.

"I don't know..." Mi-Yeong pressed her lips together, thoughtful. "When I met her, she was different. She wasn't so... broken."

Mira let out a bitter snort, not believing what Mi-Yeong was saying.

"Broken? It seems more like she enjoys what she does."

Mi-Yeong shook her head.

"No, you don't understand. Before... before she was like you, Mira."

The steering wheel squeaked a little when Mira suddenly gripped it. She turned her face towards her, once she stopped the car. "Like me? Don't compare me to her! Rumi, she may be your mother, but I'm not going to allow these disrespects!"

Rumi, with a dull and drowsy voice, intervened.

"I think she means it in another way, Mira. Let her explain..."

Zoey nodded, gently stroking Rumi's shoulder.

"Yes, Mi-Yeong. What do you mean she was like Mira?"

Mi-Yeong lowered her gaze, almost as if she was ashamed of what she was about to tell. She ran a finger over the fogged-up window, as if she was trying to organize her memories before putting them into words.

"What I mean..." she began slowly "...is that Celine also had that fire, that stubbornness that made her want to carry the world alone. The same way of facing everything head-on, even if it hurt. She was so much like Mira... that sometimes I forgot which of the two was in front of me."

Mira clicked her tongue, but did not reply. The atmosphere tensed even more, until Zoey, in a soft voice, asked again.

"And what happened to her? What changed her?"

Mi-Yeong closed her eyes for a second, resting her head on the seat. That was exactly what she wanted to know.

"I guess we need to know the full story, to have the full change..."

Only that was a long, and very painful story.