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Chapter Text

Ants. 

Lower life forms made to be exploited, killed, consumed by the demon lord.

Corrupted.

Disgusting.

But so delicious.

That was what human souls were to Gwi-Ma. 

If humans were the ants, then the demons were the spiders. They were quick. Cunning. 

They spun their webs to catch their prey, only for their catch to be collected by the higher lifeform.

What a sorry display, Jinu thought, his eyes scanning the vast dark realm before him. An assembly had gathered around the fiery mountain, and on top was the blazing purple inferno they called their king.

Progress had just started. A demon boy band wasn’t just going to miraculously build itself, wasn’t it? Jinu had only about one percent of his plan finished, and that was to propose his idea and recruit demons that were… somewhat willing to go through with his plan.

The incentive of having their memories erased was most certainly a big factor in why most of them had joined.

The human realm had drastically changed since they had been damned. They’ve seen glimpses during soul harvesting, but they were never able to stay for very long to enjoy any of the sights. 

But damn, the more they enjoyed modern conveniences, the more that they fell into their greed.

The food? So much better. There were so many foreign foods they could just… buy. They could just walk five minutes to the convenience store, which had just about everything they needed in one tiny room and buy it.

The transportation? Screw walking, they never had to walk more than a meter away from their apartment. Now, they could flag down giant vehicles made of metal and rolled on rubber to get to their destination. They could hail taxis, take a high speed metro system, or go on buses.

Technology. This was surely the most convenient thing to ever come out of their mission. With just a second of contact on square glass that met wire and electricity, they could order food, order a ride, speak to each other at long distances, with endless entertainment at their fingertips.

Gwi-Ma was sure to remind them of their place, of course. They were here for a reason. They were here to take down the newest generation of hunters and destroy the Honmoon once and for all.

Jinu didn’t know all too much about the new hunters. He only possessed the knowledge that they have gotten the closest to achieving the golden Honmoon, a sentence that would surely curse them all to the demon realm for all eternity.

To stew in their own suffering even more. To waste away at the hands of their creator.

Jinu scowled at the very idea. He didn’t think, he knew, that he wouldn’t be able to live with his guilt and baggage any longer.

It wasn’t their only objective for the mission. While yes, destroying the Honmoon was one of the main targets, they’ve been assigned another.

Specifically, a person.

They were given little information on them, only that they knew of the existence of demons, despite not being a hunter or a demon themselves.

Even more intriguing was the fact that they knew of Gwi-Ma’s existence. To Jinu’s knowledge, not even the generations of hunters knew about the demon lord. If they did, they most likely didn’t know him by name.

A human? What made you so special that you knew about demons? How could you possibly know anything about Gwi-Ma himself if you weren’t a demon?

He decided to pocket the information for later. If you knew about demons, then despite not being a hunter, you most likely have some ties to them.

He would focus on the girls first before getting to you.

But even before then, he had to weave together an award winning, chart-breaking boy band to overthrow one of the biggest K-Pop girl groups in the entire world.

No pressure.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

HUNTR/X.

Everyone in Korea knew them by name. 

Their songs would play everywhere, during any time. They broke records, shot up the music charts, and their ads would play on every single screen.

But even pop star royalty had their own problems.

They were an internationally famed girl group by day, but demon hunters by night.

Little did two of the members know that there was a demon hiding amongst their own group.

No matter how hard she sang, no matter how hard she scrubbed her skin raw from frustration, no matter how hard she worked to free herself from her demon heritage, she would always be one.

At least until the hunters could seal the Honmoon. 

Once they do, then she would be free of those patterns, and she will live her life as a normal human being again.

No more secrets, no more lies.

All her life, she’s had to hide who she truly was from the world.

And it seemed like it was starting to catch up to her.

The patterns that had once only circled her upper arm had infiltrated most of her body, now climbing up towards her throat.

Her voice had become affected by this, when she was so close to fixing everything.

Oh, how cruel the world was.

If there was just one person that would be able to understand, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.

If she could just tell her friends…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Hums echoed across the chapel walls. The hymns and the continuous journey of the notes painted an auditorial picture of the grace of the Lord.

The chapel itself was sparse. There were only about a handful of people inside, some kneeling on the floor rests, rosaries clasped between interwoven fingers.

Prayers escaped their lips, ones of forgiveness and mercy.

Prayers in hopes of an everlasting life.

Reincarnation was suffering.

It was a small church. Nothing like the lone churches that were surrounded by the city buildings, their dark bricks out of place with the bright grey and white color palette of the rest of them.

Actually, it wasn’t even its own building. It was the top floor of a mixed use establishment. Underneath it rested a naengmyeon restaurant.

The windows gave the illusion of stained glass, which was really just stick colored window film. Some of the corners have even begun to curl into itself from time.

You sat on the dusty pew, one arm propped over the backrest. Your single leather gloved hand ran a finger over the wood as you lazily hummed with the hymns.

You tugged your sleeve over the peeking flesh underneath.

It was too hot in the chapel. You were steaming alive in your long sleeves, and it didn’t help that the air conditioning unit was broken.

You’ve never been inside a real church. You grew up spiritual, but not exactly religious. You could see the world beyond, spirits and demons alike.

But you didn’t worship anything. You never gave your spirit and faith to any sort of god. Coming into any type of place of religion were recent experiences for you. 

There were so many rules, so many restrictions, and so many willing patrons that subscribed and submitted to all of them. 

It was one thing if they have ever truly witnessed their deity’s presence,  not just by their belief, but you’ve learned first hand from a young age that these types of laymen were guided by only their blind faith.

And if their deity was perhaps real, where does their dedication end? Will they give their lives up to them, even if their merciful god weren’t how they were spoken to be?

You pitied them.

Belief was a flexible thing, a lesson that you learned long ago.

Your power was an inherited gift from your family line. A gift that you had invested your entire life into. 

And you excelled at what you could get your hands on.

You were never the type to be tethered down to one specific thing. You wanted anything and everything.

You had to know. Had to have it all.

And even after you lost almost everything, after you realized that everything had been a lie, you were determined to gain every single thing you once had all back.

Standing from the pew that you sat on, you turned away from the altar. You didn’t even bother to genuflect as you exited.

You needed no god. 

You were the closest thing that came to one.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Advertising wasn’t easy. 

The guys had been able to gather a small team to handle all of their bigger tasks, leaving most of the scheduling, the rehearsals, and the booking to Jinu.

He was the one that approved everything in their brand and his word was final, much to the dismay of the other boys.

Of course when he had proposed his plan to them all, some fought for his leadership position. Once they realized how much work needed to be invested in a plan such as this, they had yielded to him.

The boys wandered around the streets of Gangnam, killing time and handing out the remainder of their fliers until they were supposed to debut in the middle of the plaza.

He had to wrangle the boys in the group together. Romance and Abby were especially easily distracted, what with the amount of stores and the bright city attractions.

It had only been about a week since they had arrived in the human realm. A week was all they needed to prepare a makeshift boy band to top the charts and successfully dethrone Huntrix.

Despite some of the minor conflicts that arose between the boys, they had been able to put together the bright bubbly future song of the summer. 

Jinu was aware that Huntrix’s penthouse was somewhere in the area. He had deliberately chosen the streets of Gangnam, one of the most influential and popular places in Seoul for their debut. If their street performance wasn’t going to get their attention, then surely their appearance on the game show later tonight would.

They had to stick the landing here. 

Jinu suggested a detour through the alley. They were going to be late, and the agenda for today was much too booked for them to be anything but punctual. He wasn’t going to let his plan be a complete waste of their combined efforts.

He and the rest of the boys knew that centuries of torment would finally be able to come to an-

A single footstep did more than break all of them out of their trance.

A wave of overwhelming dread had crashed into them, so powerful that it flooded the surrounding atmosphere.

They all fixed their gaze forward, their focus zeroing on the person walking past the alley they were about to enter.

No. A layman like that surely wasn’t the source of all that power.

They ran a finger across their nose with their singular gloved hand, seemingly unaware of the boy group walking up to them.

As they passed the guys, they unknowingly revealed the poorly disguised girl group in the alleyway.

So that was where all that power was coming from.

It did make sense, considering that this generation of hunters was the closest to achieving the golden Honmoon.

The boys were admittedly intimidated. If this was the power that the hunters wielded, then they were extremely outmatched.

No matter. With this performance, they would weaken the Honmoon and steal their fans, too distracted to stand up to them face to face.

If the boys couldn’t keep up with them, then they would drag them down to their level.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

If you thought the chapel was hot, then the outside was one giant frying pan.

You were being cooked alive, sweating like a pig in your much too long sleeves and glove. 

You had checked the weather app this morning and it had most certainly lied to you. Fake news. 

Not like you could wear anything else other than long sleeves, though.

God, what were all of these fliers on the street? Why were people just littering now? There was no more respect for the planet nowadays.

You tore one off from one of the electric poles. The colors on the paper were neon and garish, an amalgamation of abominable colors. You fought the urge to cover your eyes with your hands.

After you got over the design, you realized that it was a pamphlet for a new boy band. You nearly flung the paper over your shoulder when you noticed that their debut performance was going to be in the middle of the plaza.

You were already heading there anyway. Might as well.

You didn’t even need to pay attention to the directions. The music was so loud that all you had to do was listen.

Maybe you should have come quicker. The crowd was forming quickly and if you didn’t secure a good spot now, then your trip here would have been a waste.

Pushing through the ocean of people, you shoved your way through. 

You made your way to the front and weaseled to the spot next to a girl with pink hair, wire rimmed glasses, and a black baseball cap.

Damn. If you were sweating in your outfit, then those boys should be dead of heatstroke. 

Especially since they were dancing around too.

They weren’t half bad in your opinion. It was a bright fun song, and it suited the tropical colors of their whole band.

The girls next to you were constantly murmuring. You couldn’t quite catch their conversation, nor did you really care that much.

It wasn’t until you spotted a quick flash of stripes on one of the boys’ skin.

Very familiar patterns.

Ah. They were demons.

You swallowed, your throat tight and your eyes narrowing.

It was terrifying how human these demons are appearing. You hadn’t fought a demon in a while. The last time you had encountered one, you remembered that they barely had a grasp on any type of human culture. They tended to stay out of sight to most humans as well, even with their disguises.

Their disguises were always a bit too distorted. Their eye shape wasn’t quite right. The way they smiled was too wide, and their appearance would shift noticeably every time you blinked.

They were also very poor at hiding their patterns at all.

Yet here these five were, jumping and prancing around the streets as they advertised their new boy band.

They had still set off your uncanny valley senses, but it wasn’t because they seemed flawed in any way.

Quite the opposite, actually. They were too perfect.

Too real.

They looked like dolls, completely inhuman.

And yet look at the people they managed to attract.

With glamour as flawless as that, they must be one of the more stronger demons.

Actually, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that they were most likely the strongest demons you’ve encountered so far.

You began to turn back around, pushing through the crowd once more.

Gwi-Ma must be getting desperate. 

And he had sent them after you.

Chapter Text

You didn’t think the train would be so crammed today.

Well, it was the weekend. You should have expected that students would want to hang out with their friends outside of school.

There were also people like you, who had the weekends off from work as well.

Your nearly weekly temple visits were most certainly taking a toll on your wallet. They were the only people that could, embarrassingly, help you with your situation.

Being one of the most popular temples in Seoul, Jogyesa temple was one of the first places you had seeked out for mystical help.

You didn’t really have a choice in the matter. If you did, then you would have gone to a different location.

Preferably one that wasn’t such a huge tourist destination and closer to your house.

The good thing about it was that they took no money. It wasn’t really a surprise to you, but you still made sure to pay them for their efforts.

The train skidded to a halt, declaring the station name and the line it is conjoined with.

You stepped off along with a good chunk of the cabin’s population. Swiping through your phone to check the next train’s arrival time, you absentmindedly scanned your wallet on the turnstiles.

There was an arrival time you had to meet, and you couldn’t miss it. The monk that you were in cahoots with had a strict schedule, and he was already spending his time on helping you.

You stepped into the next train, securing a handle before you continued on your phone.

There was quite an influx of people today. You had to stand shoulder to shoulder, constricted between backs and stomachs.

Even if you had paid attention just a little bit, you still wouldn’t have noticed Abby and Baby flinging themselves between the shutting doors of the train.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Baby shivered as he padded out of the train, patting and dusting himself off. Abby followed suit, stretching his arms over his head. His bones popped back in place as he moved his arms and shoulders in circles.

”That train was suffocating.” He groaned. 

”Come on, we’re losing them!” Baby hissed. He grasped Abby’s wrist before pulling him up the stairs.

They remained a far enough distance from you to be hidden in the crowd, but close enough so that they still had an eye on you.

They all had managed to find out information about you through some basic background research. Now that establishing their existence in Korea had been checked off of their list, their next objective was to find out who exactly you were.

You weren’t at all in contact with the hunters. It became much more difficult to find you after discovering that.

They also believed that there was a very small chance that you were hiding from them. 

Walking out of the station to ground level, they couldn’t help but linger on every single food stand and shop.

Abby adjusted the glasses on his face. They both had to dress inconspicuously to follow you after all.

He decided on a dress shirt with a black tie, even with a grey blazer to match. He had directly stolen the outfit of one of his favorite comic book characters that he had only recently started to read, to which Baby scrunched his nose at.

Jinu had pointed out that the outfit wouldn’t exactly work in his favor, considering that his hair color was a bright magenta.

Baby had leaned into his youth for his disguise, much to his dismay. He had dressed himself in a school outfit. Jinu also pointed out that his hair would not be appropriate in a typical school dress code.

Baby would be damned if he had to wear another goddamn beanie, especially in weather like this. He adjusted his name tag before he pulled Abby away from one of the vendors.

”Dude. Didn’t Romance tell you that that name is a dead giveaway?” Abby pointed to the name.

”Who cares what he thinks?” Baby rolled his eyes. He had chosen it from one of Romance’s books, thinking that he could have gotten away with it.

It must have been some sort of famous name or something because when Romance saw it, he couldn’t hold back his snicker.

”Me. I’m not trying to get my ass busted ‘cause of you.” Abby countered. Pairing them both up together was deliberate on Jinu’s part. They all knew for a fact that if Romance and Abby had teamed up together, they would have lost you in the first minute.

And somehow all their money.

And maybe their way back home.

Speaking of losing you…

They sprinted towards your disappearing form, before they started to explore again.

”Yoooo, check out these Tal*!” Abby gasped, rushing to run his fingers on the wood of the masks. “I haven’t seen one of these in so long! They still make this shit? Wait, do you think they still do shows?” 

Baby snatched it away from Abby’s hand, placing it back on the display before actually getting a good look at them.

They were all actually quite nice for a replica. True, they were most likely mass produced, non-authentic, blah blah blah, but he was also quite surprised that they had been persevered to the twenty-first century as well.

Strange. He thought that the ruling class would have surely erased its existence from history.

While rolling his eyes again, they landed on another booth.

Baby watched in fascination as a man held what looked to be a clear solid blob in his hand. The vendor began to stretch the solid into a band, its shape becoming elastic and thin. He repeated this process of stretching, twisting around, and stretching until the solid became a collection of thin, hair-like strings.

Was he spinning wool, Baby wondered. Has technology advanced that far to be able to spin wool with just your hands?

The man began to place an assortment of nuts before folding the strings over themselves into a cocoon.

That was it?

Baby tilted his head up to the sign above the stand. 

Dragon’s Beard Candy, it read.

Candy.

Baby bolted towards the stand, leaving Abby standing by himself in front of the mask store.

“How much for a box and how many are in one?” Baby questioned.

“It depends. We have our chocolate variant and our matcha variant if you’re interested in those. Each box comes with ten.”

“I’ll take every single one of them.” Baby eagerly responded. The vendor gave out a chuckle as he finished up the last candy. He began to sprinkle chocolate powder over the open box next to him.

“This might be a weird question, but have you come here before? I think I’ve seen you around.” He asked.

Baby froze, the hairs on his neck standing upright.

“No… this is my first time here, actually.” He hesitated. The vendor nodded in response before he handed Baby three flimsy cardboard boxes of Dragon’s Beard.

“Well, I hope to see you around Mister… Hong Gil-Dong*? That's rather… unexpected name.” 

“I told you so.” A voice behind Baby interjected. Baby stomped on his foot, before flashing the vendor an innocent smile as Abby groaned in pain.

“Thank you so much.” He completely ignored his comment, his smile sweeter than the candy he was holding in his hands.. Baby grabbed Abby’s wrist before hurrying out to not get their cover blown.

“If you hadn’t distracted us, then we would have been able to follow our target!” Baby groaned. 

“I took, like, three seconds!” Abby argued. “I spent the rest of the time looking for you! Besides, I know where they went. They were headed to the temple.”

Baby immediately picked up the pace, dragging Abby behind him.

“There. They’re entering right now.” Baby pointed as they both hid behind a building. They couldn’t enter the temple gates, as they were unholy beings. His head snapped to his side as he heard a crunch. 

Abby had torn open his box of chocolate dragon’s beard and had bitten into the nutty center. Chocolate powder littered his lips as he stared wide eyed, realizing that he had been caught.

Baby snatched the box of candy away from him with such ferocity that two had fallen out and rolled into a puddle, the sugar dissolving from the water until all that was left were the nuts that were encased inside.

“This is why Jinu should have paired Mystery with me.” He grumbled before popping one in his mouth too. You continued to speak with the monk before you entered the actual temple.

“Wait, are they, like, an important guest? Visitors don’t usually get to talk to monks.” Abby thought out loud.

“That’s about as much important information we’re gonna get.” Baby sighed, placing another sugar floss cocoon into his mouth. “They’re religious. Or something.” 

“If we wait a little more, then maybe we’ll be able to see why they came.” Abby urged. 

Baby’s patience was waning by the minute. He decided that the both of them had already had too many dragon’s beard candies, and hid them in his bookbag. 

The temple itself was breathtaking. Lotus flowers were planted around the actual temple, a symbol of rebirth. Baby was never religious in his past life. He never believed in wishy-washy superstition, only to be turned into a part of it.

They both twiddled their thumbs, complaining about the heat and almost everything else they could complain about.

Mostly Baby. Abby occupied his time doing pushups.

It took you much less time than they expected to come out of the temple. Maybe you had said a quick prayer and left? Maybe that monk that you knew was some sort of old friend?

They didn’t have much time to think about it before you set your journey off towards the main street.

Weaving through the sea of people, they finally halted far enough for you to not see them.

You had chosen to stop in front of Gwanghwamun gate, sitting on one of the railings leading towards the gate. 

Both Baby and Abby stopped as their breath caught in their throat. They hadn’t ever gotten to see Gyeongbokgung Palace back when they had been human. They only heard rumors about the grand palace of King Taejo.

The white brick spanned across the street. Everything save the gate itself was an ivory color. The roof swept up, the colorful paint on the inside displayed by the sun. The actual courtyard seemed to span for miles from where they were.

Two Haetae statues guarded the entrance of the stairs.

It was strange that they now lived better than the king with modern technology and the money they earned from their fame.

They turned their attention back to you, who hadn’t moved an inch. You typed away on your phone with your non-gloved hand, paying no mind to the tourists passing by.

You had only broken your eye contact with your phone when a passing calico cat had cried out from below you.

It sat in front of you, its tail swishing from side to side as it tilted its head curiously up to meet your eyes.

You waved it away with one hand, half-heartedly attempting to shoo it away. It didn’t move an inch from its spot. Instead, it collapsed onto its back and exposed its belly.

They both watched as you gave in and began to scratch the top of its head.

Wow, you gave in easily.

There was nothing much more worth noting in their investigations. You knew a monk, you most likely visited often if you were on a friendly basis with them, and you were nice to animals. You were also most likely religious.

With all this evidence, they concluded that you must be quite a friendly person.

But they were no closer to finding the reason why you knew Gwi-Ma.

Perhaps you knew about the existence of demons. Maybe you were spiritually aware in some way.

Or maybe they were looking too much into it. It was strange how someone that knew Gwi-Ma would be so… unlike him.

Baby hadn’t expected someone so ordinary, let alone nice, to be the one that was supposed to help Gwi-Ma bring the end of humankind. You were intriguing, but not in the way that he had expected you to be.

He looked up to see where you were sitting, only to realize that you had disappeared along with the cat.

Chapter Text

Hm.

It wasn’t professional at all to keep people working for you waiting.

It was also unprofessional to completely ghost without any notification.

If they didn’t want your help, then they could have just said so. You had waited thirty minutes in the chapel for them that other day.

And yet, look who still came back.

As cheap as your rent was, the cost of literally everything else in Seoul was skyrocketing at an alarming pace.

For what, anyway? Less space? Less job opportunities?

What was the point of graduating from a Seoul university if it didn’t help you get any jobs?

If worse came to worse then there was always an office job.

At least you got paid more than what you would get paid with, say, a food service or retail job.

Also you were well suited for jobs like these, even if you weren’t what you used to be.

It stung much more than you liked to admit. 

You were much too overqualified, even in your weakened state for most spiritual aid jobs. You did almost everything in the field, a perfect mold for any type of metaphysical job that needed your help.

The only problem was your stubbornness.

You didn’t adhere to just one belief. You practiced what you witnessed. Most of your practice came from the spirits themselves.

This had been the source of many disagreements with your co-workers, when you had been assistants to other people of the occult.

Now, you work for yourself. Because mediumship was the thing that came the easiest to you, you mostly interacted with different spirits. 

You had a gift. You were blessed with many when you were young.

The countryside was your home, a wild and super biome that harbored an abundance of spiritual energy. There was never a moment where you were alone.

To you, spirits were just another species that interacted with the human realm. They were no different from humans.

Your family line consisted of many spiritual practitioners such as shamans, mediums, and witches.

With every generation that had passed however, their powers grew weak. What once was a flourishing family line of spiritually gifted occultists had dwindled to a handful of only spiritually aware humans. The most powerful abilities ran dry somewhere along the tree, now fables and ghost stories in the town that you had lived in.

But you were different.

You had been the culmination of everything that your ancestry had lost.

You had been recommended by some of your clients to expand your services to local churches. 

From your knowledge, Christianity didn’t have much of a positive view on people like you.

If you were going to be kept waiting again then you weren’t going to have such a positive view on it either soon.

As tempting as it was to look for work at a megachurch, you knew that most were cults. You’ve seen fliers that they passed around, ones with absurd conspiracy theories and poorly photoshopped images.

They wouldn’t like people like you the most.

Even coming to a smaller church wedged upstairs in an unknown building was a risk. Cults didn’t just depend on size.

But with the amount of people that minded their business during prayer last time you were there, you had just a little bit more trust.

You dressed a bit better today. This was your version of a job interview after all. You were who temples and other practitioners hired to investigate.

It was a lot better than being cooped up in a building all day. Your schedule was also quite flexible as well, allowing for space for free time. 

All you needed to do was report your findings and take care of exorcisms.

The bottom line was that they were taking credit for your work.

You were willing to keep quiet. After all, you were helping the ones that couldn’t take care of their work for them.

For your own gain. Money, namely.

It was quite frustrating at times. There were many things your clients couldn’t see or haven’t witnessed. Because of this, you were often accused of being uneducated.

But they could sense your dormant power. Your understanding of how to transfer life energy into holy energy so seamlessly. It was the reason why they were so quick to hire you.

And yet when it came for you to display your abilities, they often felt deceived.

Some still did agree to work with you. In turn, they treated you lesser, as if they were the ones doing all the work.
 
Even if you weren’t like how you used to be, it should be you getting all the credit.

You weren’t really going to get a deal like this anywhere, though. You loved doing things by yourself. There were no worries about dragging others behind you, no need to teach the most elementary fundamentals. 

If things weren’t the correct way, then you wouldn’t accept it.

You’ve often been accused of being selfish and arrogant, when you were simply just right about the things you were speaking about. You didn’t understand why the others couldn’t see you for who you really were.

Some people believed too much. Some not at all, cursing your power and your ego.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“Baby and Abby got to go to Insadong but we’re stuck in some random neighborhood?” Romance scowled. Mystery only gave a soft hum in return to his statement.

”I bought a camera for all the historic places! Phones simply don’t capture the beauty of architecture like that!” He continued to complain. “Not to mention the art galleries and museums. And do not even get me started on the food, too.”

”Do you even know how to use the camera?” Mystery pointed out.

”I read the instructions, but I realized that I could easily figure it out myself.” Romance waved off. Mystery only continued to set his sights on you. 

He much preferred the quiet neighborhood than the loud and crowded tourist attractions. It showed a domestic calm side of Seoul that he wasn’t really able to explore since he got here.

And, well, the boys never shut up.

Unfortunately, he was paired with one of the biggest perpetrators today.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Romance. It was just that he liked his peace and quiet. 

It helped him think. 

What didn’t help him think, you might ask?

Romance prattling away about his ruined plans.

They both stopped, hiding behind a wall as you turned to walk up the stairs next to the building. After you had disappeared into the darkness of the stairwell, Romance and Mystery had hurried to catch up with you.

When Mystery reached the third floor, he stopped in his tracks. An overwhelming pressure flooded his senses, the room almost spinning.

While it was a particularly hot day today, it almost felt as if he was being cooked alive.

He knew that it could have been maybe because of the rising heat from below, but something about this heat felt unnatural.

He outstretched an arm in front of Romance, preventing him from going any further.

”What’s wrong?” Romance questioned. Mystery said nothing. A low growl rumbled from his throat as a warning.

Romance pushed his arm to the side before he bounded upwards a step.

Immediately, Romance’s fingertips erupted into white flames. Before Romance could cry out and give away their presence, Mystery swiftly slapped his palm over his mouth to dampen the sound.

He leaned over his head to scan for any clues to where they were.

A sign had stood in front of the door you had disappeared behind.

‘All newcomers welcome to the parish!’

It was a church.

Evil spirits weren’t allowed in holy places.

Romance clutched his fingertips in his other hand, gritting his teeth from the pain. Mystery wasn’t all too worried about the injury. It would heal soon anyway.

The confusing thing was that the others were under the impression that you were Buddhist. Were you also Christian as well? Were you sampling new religions?

Also to him, it didn’t make sense that you would be any religion at all, really. Maybe you were a layman, traumatized by learning about Gwi-Ma’s existence.

The question in all of the boys' heads is how.

And they were nowhere near learning the reason. 

Actually, did you know they were stalking you? You seemed to always attend holy places. It was the only place that you seemed to go in all honesty.

They knew nothing truly about your personality too…

They could only go off of assumptions, which was quite risky. What if you were putting up a front? What if you really did know that they were following you?

Or maybe Mystery was overthinking this whole thing.

Jinu’s plan was to interrogate you for information, but the boys first had to gauge what kind of person you were. From their evidence, there really shouldn’t be any struggle to get information out of you.

If there was any?

Well, they weren’t exactly going to give up so easily. However desperate you may be, the boys were even more so.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“I’m sorry for being tardy last time.”

The priest apologized as he sat next to you in one of the pews. You wondered if there wasn’t some sort of office that you two couldn’t do the job interview in.

You couldn’t help but hope he wouldn't try to convert you during this, especially because of the fact that this church specifically needed your help exorcising spirits. It was definitely not a very good look.

”We’re attempting to hire new priests at the moment, and it’s been quite hectic.”

Well, if they had enough time to interview new priests, then why did they even need you then? Was it just to waste your time?

”But you can see that we are quite a small church. We opened quite a bit ago, but because of our quite open beliefs, we do not have many people in attendance.”

Sad, really. Thank the stars you didn’t have to worry about stuff like that.

You didn’t speak on topics you didn’t know much on, especially if it was about a religion, but wasn’t Christianity quite particular on how their followers practiced their religion?

What did they mean when the church had open beliefs, you wondered. 

Did it mean that they hired people with mediumship/shaman backgrounds to help them vanquish evil spirits?

You knew that in Korea, even the most famous megachurch pastors went to shamans for advice.

Well, at least this church seemed to be open to these things. You wondered if they would give you credit too.

It was a long shot, of course.

On the bright side, it looked like the church at least cared for its members to hire actual exorcists and spiritual consultants, whether they be trained under Christianity or not.

You were going to make sure that you prevent any repeated ones. What was the point of letting problems fester and grow if you could fix it now? You didn’t know if the money you would be receiving would be from the tithes the people donated or if it would be from the people themselves.

Exorcisms and spirit consulting was expensive enough as it is already, and you didn’t want to see repeating faces.

And you know, you didn’t want them to spend more money. 

It would be a waste of a trip to someone’s home too if you only came for one thing.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

In your opinion, you think that the interview went quite well. 

They told you they would send over their cases soon through your email.

You wondered why they didn't just text you like the rest of your clients, but you supposed you couldn’t dog on them too much for being behind on technology.

The sun was setting as you stepped out of the stairwell, walking towards the main road. 

Night would come soon. Even in the city, you didn’t risk going out after dark.

You didn’t know what kind of creatures the night harbored. 

It wasn’t that you couldn’t hold your own ground. It was just that you couldn’t be bothered to.

Not unless you had some pursuers that caught your interest.

And you knew that they were planning on catching up to you soon.

And you were fully prepared for them.

Chapter Text

Jinu was swimming in things to do.

He knew what he was getting into when he had proposed this idea to Gwi-Ma, but he at least believed that his teammates would help him with some of this stuff. 

Not that they would have been much help, anyway. They were all from different centuries. Even Mystery, who had been born three hundred years prior, had been just as lost as the rest of the guys when they had asked about the modern world.

Jinu had found out just how rapidly Korea had changed in just the last hundred years alone. 

The alphabet was at least somewhat readable, considering just how long ago he had read Hangul last. It didn’t take long for the boys to adjust to the modern one.

Except Baby. He had to be taught from scratch. It wasn’t his fault that he had been condemned to the demon realm right before King Sejeong had created it.

The convenient thing about modern Hangul was that it had gotten even simpler to learn. There was no use of Hanja in the alphabet, but there were still some characters in the middle of words that would pop up every now and then.

Not that anyone other than Romance and Baby could read it anyway. 

But that wasn’t all that he had been working on. He was the one that had to book events, create the boys' schedules, and help promote their debut song Soda Pop.

He had been skeptical of the street performance idea, but it had been much more effective than he had anticipated.

He was able to even score an encounter with Huntrix, who had almost immediately pinpointed that they were demons.

But the hunters weren’t the only ones in the crowd.

You. One of their other targets in their mission.

Gwi-Ma had barely told any of the boys anything about you, other than the fact that you were aware of his existence.

Obviously when he had said that, Jinu had automatically assumed you were a demon just like them.

Upon further inspection, they found out that you were a normal human. This led them all to believe that you were affiliated with Huntrix in some way. Perhaps some secret unknown hunter? Maybe an ally?

Nope. You didn’t even know that the biggest girl group in Korea was standing right next to you in their poor disguises during the Saja Boys’s performance.

You had even pushed them aside to get a better look at them.

You knew. They knew. You had narrowed your eyes at them when their glamour had slipped for just a second.

It was out of curiosity. Shock. Realization. Nothing like hate.

You had watched them so intently, but not in the way everyone else had. You didn’t scream. You didn’t seethe. 

You judged them under your hawk-like gaze, scanning, examining.

Actually, it almost seemed like you knew what they wanted with you already.

Jinu had bigger problems than you, though. The difference between you and Huntrix at the moment was the fact that they were actively hunting them down, when they should be hunting you down.

You didn’t seem aware of their presence when the rest of the boys had stalked you, though.

Perhaps the locations that you had chosen to conveniently visit while they were stalking you was a sign that you possibly knew that they were keeping tabs on you.

They were all sacred locations, churches, temples. Places where demons like them couldn’t step foot in.

Baby and Abby (aside from a box of dragon’s beard candy) had come back empty handed.

Romance and Mystery had even less information on you, as they found out that temples weren’t the only holy place that they couldn’t step in.

He couldn’t make sense of why. Did you truly know that they were watching you? Was it just a stroke of bad luck that you had visited those places when stalking them?

With the amount of religious places you go to, you must be really susceptible to cults, he thought.

Perhaps you were gullible. Maybe you had too much faith and belief in people.

If they could possibly coax you with their charm and their kindness, then surely they could pry some information on how you knew about Gwi-Ma. What made you so special?

They weren’t getting anywhere with Huntrix either. Jinu had realized that Rumi was half-demon, and had attempted to set up a meeting with her.

She had rejected his invitation, which left him back at square one.

If there was one good thing that came out of the last month, then it was that their band had been skyrocketing to fame.

They had leverage on the hunters.

And they knew that you were a human. Powerless. Likely desperate, searching for some sort of belief to ease your suffering.

If it had to come to it, then the boys could kidnap you. Not before trying to pull some more information about you.

The problem was that you knew that they were demons already. Would you be open to having any sort of conversation with them?

Maybe he should have thought of that before he sent everyone to stalk you.

And really, what kind of connection did you have as a human to know anything about the demon overlord? 

He couldn’t lie and say that you didn’t intrigue him a bit. He’ll get the answers to his questions once he interrogates you.

Jinu had been following you around since you had left work to go home. During your journey, you had made a few stops. He wondered how you had the money to keep up with your transportation fees with how many stations you visited.

It was only supposed to be about ten stops away with a line change in the middle. 

You had made about three detours during your way, all places that the boys had seen you in.

You weren’t at them for very long, though. You were in and out, and didn’t seem like you talked to anyone.

It was a good thing, too. If something had happened inside of the temple grounds then he wouldn’t have been able to see. He would have missed out on crucial information.

You resumed your journey back on the train, your focus on your phone. You didn’t even seem to notice him five seats away from yours, trailing behind you as you exited the train and scanned your card on the turnstiles.

There was no looking back. No turns. No peek over your shoulder.

You just hopped away like a clueless bunny.

He had still made sure that you couldn’t see him by migrating over to rooftops to continue stalking you.

You stopped in the middle of the neighborhood, looking around almost cluelessly before you had begun to open the front gate of the house you were standing in front of. Your body was hidden out of view from the overhang of the roof, to which Jinu took the opportunity to drop down from his hiding spot.

Much to his surprise, you weren’t there. Actually, the gate wasn’t even open at all. It had never been unlocked.

“I’m sure you didn’t follow me for ten train stops and all the way into this neighborhood just to talk.”

His head whipped back towards the sound of your voice. He let out a forced smile, although it barely masked the uncomfortability in his expression.

You stood there behind him, your expression conveying what looked to be… confusion? Judgement? Focus?

This was the first time that Jinu had ever heard your voice, and it was nothing like the meek little lamb character that he had imagined you having.

It was strange how what came out of your mouth didn’t match up with your demeanor. You certainly embodied friendly and nice, but were you really?

He had severely misunderstood you, and realized that maybe you weren’t the desperate human that he had thought you were.

He should have brought the others.

“I thought you would have sent that big buff guy after me. He would have probably given me a little bit of trouble.” You continued to speak in place of him. You said it in a way that almost seemed disappointed. Jinu could have sworn that you had falsely pouted, even.

Or maybe he was thinking too hard about the way you acted.

He totally was.

Not only were you bold, but you were arrogant.

“What, are you disappointed?” He countered. “You don’t think I’m good enough for you?”

You scanned him from head to toe, almost like you were genuinely examining him to gauge his prowess. He felt oddly exposed, perhaps a bit underprepared.

After a minute of complete quiet, you had finished your silence by focusing back on him.

“Do you think you can stop me?” 

That stupid innocent and confused look remained on your face as if you didn’t just insult him.

That in itself had sparked a sense of competition in Jinu. He had already kept in mind that you were also expecting a fight and you most likely wouldn’t come peacefully. 

Even if he tried to have a civil discussion with you, he felt as if he wouldn’t get many answers.

Although, maybe that was just a justification for him to accept your little duel.

“We can still talk about this like sensible people.” He reasoned. “What’s your relation with Gwi-Ma?”

“If we were sensible, then I would be calling the police and you would have asked me to meet you face to face instead of stalking me for two weeks.”

You completely ignored his question. Jinu hated how you were right. He also abhorred the fact that you knew exactly what his plans had been from the start and that you had most definitely lured him into a trap.

Did you know that they were following you the whole time? Was his doubts about you correct?

Okay, so they both were doing this.

If it was a fight that you had both expected, then a fight he would initiate.

He couldn’t let you just leave, not when he finally had you in his grasp. Not when the answers to his questions could be revealed.

As soon as you turned to walk away, Jinu lunged, his claws unsheathing and his patterns materializing from the tips of his fingers.

You took off your glove with your teeth, before removing your jacket as well. 

The flesh beneath the glove and sleeve was bumpy and leather-y, shining underneath the streetlamp. There were smaller lighter patches, places that haven’t quite healed yet. They were most prevalent around the fingertips.

Did you have any feeling there anymore, he asked himself. With how much scar tissue that surrounded it, he wondered if it had lost all sensation, the nerves destroyed and gone completely numb from the damage.

He lunged forwards. Your reaction was quick, grabbing his wrist before he had sunk his talons into your shoulder.

His eyes widened as the arm that you had used to apprehend him had begun to glow through your sleeve. The little bit of skin that had peeked through the gap between the cloth and your flesh had exposed a single sigil on your arm.

With one squeeze to his wrist, the arm burst into blue flames.

Jinu was able to teleport out of your grip, a few feet away from where you had both stood. He rubbed his wrist, hissing from the licks of the flames.

His freshly burned, blistered, and absolutely angry skin took its time recovering. If this was how damaging your power was from just a split second of contact, he wasn’t able to fathom the amount of damage you would have been able to do if he had been directly hit with an attack like that.

He didn’t have much time to react again when you charged at him, your left hand clenched into a flame-surrounded fist.

Upon further inspection, he realized that you had multiple glowing sigils decorating your arm, spanning up towards your shoulder. 

They didn’t seem to be inked on, but they didn’t look like tattoos either. 

With each time you swung and clenched your fist, a handful of them would begin to illuminate, charging up a blow.

In his luck, you had miscalculated your aim and hit the asphalt. Where Jinu’s head had been on the ground now spanned multiple cracks in the road. The longest one stretched a few meters, splitting the asphalt in half.

You had tsked before you began to target him again.

With each attack that missed Jinu and hit something else, a few of the sigils dissolved until there was no trace of them having been there.

Reeling your fist back once more, you both charged at each other. He braced himself for a block while you struck his forearms. The impact of you both colliding sent you two flying in the opposite direction.

He managed to sprint past as you attempted to redirect your aim to his path. Before you could react, Jinu had pounced on you just as you separated both of your hands.

“Still don’t think I’m good enough for you?” He couldn’t resist the urge to sneer.

You seemed to close your eyes in defeat.

Jinu had celebrated his victory much too soon. Blinding fire struck his face and burned his right hand, causing his head to jerk back suddenly. He stumbled back, covering his face with his hands. Jinu’s vision had repaired itself just enough to make out a blurry image of a transparent you, before you fell backwards to collide with your physical form on the ground.

Immediately after your body had regained your soul, you rolled back onto your shoulders, before you flung yourself upwards back on your feet.

Once again, Jinu’s jaw had been caught in the crossfire.

Right, of course. Why was his face in the way of your foot, silly him.

The concentrated blow of the previous hit and the added kick had stunned him enough for his world to go completely black, the last thing in his vision being you.

He despised the fact that you were right.

In his final moments of consciousness, only one regret ran through his mind. 

He should have sent Abby.