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It was a calm and relaxed evening in the demon realm. As calm and relaxed as you get when Gwi-ma is constantly hounding you inside your own head. And evening in the sense that Jinu had just returned from the human world, where it had been the start of the evening. There was no daytime cycle in the demon realm itself. It was a sad and boring place in general, probably to go along with the aesthetics of eternal suffering, or whatever.
But today was one of the rare days when Jinu felt somewhat content. He was drowning in his guilt a little less than usual. He didn’t know where the feeling came from, but he was going to enjoy it while it lasted. Just this once.
There weren’t a lot of things to do in a place like the demon realm, so Jinu did one of the few things he could and started crafting a gat, a traditional Korean hat, just like he himself wore one to go along with his traditional clothes.
It reminded him of being human, even though these weren’t the kind of clothes he had been wearing for most of his human life. These were more like the kind of clothes he started wearing after he had already lost his humanity to Gwi-ma.
His first pair of clothes in the demon realm had still been from the human world, the palace more specifically, not exactly his, more precisely stolen, but that was the least of the things that weighed on his conscience. Nonetheless, even expensive, carefully crafted pieces like that did not last forever.
And Jinu has had nothing if not time, so he had learned to make them himself. Through endless trial and error, piecing together vague memories of his time alive, and probably butchering a few parts of the process so badly that professional artisans would faint watching him work.
But it was one of the few things he could do on days like these, where the guilt weighed on him a little less heavily than usual. The demon realm wasn’t really designed for anyone to have good days. It was made for eternal suffering. But sometimes, although rarely, Jinu did feel good. On really good days, he’d even sing and play his bipa like when he was alive.
But the guilt was still a little too heavy for that today, so instead he sat down and started crafting. His own hat was still perfectly fine, so he had resolved to make one for Derpy, a demon in the form of a tiger, Jinu had found unlikely companionship in. Derpy and Sussie, a little magpie, have been Jinu’s only company for most of his time in the demon realm.
He enjoyed the company of the tiger. It was, against all odds, what Jinu would describe as a sweet creature. He didn’t know how or why the tiger got here, and he didn’t really have a way to ask. He didn’t enjoy the company of the magpie as much, but he tolerated it because it was still nice company compared to other demons and seemed to get along with the tiger.
So Jinu sat there, on a random stone, weaving the bamboo for the brim of the hat, with Derpy next to him, his head laid in his paws and the magpie on top of the tiger’s head. And even though the guilt still weighed on him, he allowed himself to hum a little tune as he worked.
While the tiger seemed to be enjoying the nice atmosphere with a nap, Sussie was actively watching Jinu make the tiny hat, the magpie’s six eyes following his hands in their movements. The hat Jinu was making was significantly too small for Derpy’s head, but he didn’t believe his good mood would last, and he wanted to start something he could finish sooner rather than later.
And although there is no way to measure time in the demon realm, and Jinu had no way of knowing how long it took him to craft the hat, by carefully preparing, weaving and arranging his materials, he did finish before his good mood ran out.
The moment the placed the tiny hat on Derpy’s head, though, Sussie swung its wings, flew above the tiger and snatched the hat up.
Jinu tried, unsuccessfully, to recover it, but the magpie was as stubborn as a mule, and Derpy seemed to lose interest in the hat. The tiger stopped paying attention to Jinu’s pointless chase and rested his head on his paws to nap again, so Jinu relented and left the hat to the magpie.
After a few moments, the magpie slowly hopped closer again with the hat in its beak, nudging it against Jinu and blinking at him with all six of its eyes.
He gave one last performative sigh, before gently taking the hat from its beak, placing it onto the magpie’s head and tying the attached strings below the beak.
Sussie let out a few loud squawks, that made Derpy raise its head, and bounced around in what seemed to be a little victory dance.
Jinu sighed, he could basically feel the contentness draining from him and the guilt seeping back in, building up to be as strong as ever. But just for a few more moments, he could rest and watch a silly little magpie dance.