Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Crimson was absolutely a breathtaking shade of red. 

There were numerous things that were crimson. The ceremonial robes that he saw the royals wear sometimes back in the Joseon Dynasty, gochujang paste...

...and, of course, the viscous fluid that now leaked out of the dead man’s open mouth as the corpse lay near the man’s feet, sprayed on the ground and walls of the alleyway he had lured the man to.

Normally, it was rather easy to suck the soul out of someone and wouldn’t nearly have required this much effort. However, tonight’s victim was much more...special than the others.

He had dared to touch what belonged to Jinu.

And Jinu didn’t take kindly to those who tried to touch what was rightfully his.

The four-hundred-year-old demon kicked the corpse with his foot to make sure it was actually dead. He wished he could have made the man suffer a bit more—maybe he could have slowed down the blood flow just to have more time to torture the man to death—but oh, well. There was always a next time.

He had already managed to suck out the soul—Gwi-Ma was going to be pleased with him.

“Goddamn, hyung.”

Jinu turned to his left, staring at the turquoise-haired boy who had just stepped out of the shadows. The latter wore what the leader liked to think of as his ‘resting bitch face’ as he took a sip from his bottle. “Not. A. Word.”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything,” said Baby unconvincingly as he finished his bottle. The leader cocked an eyebrow, to which the youngest responded with “But that is a lot of blood.”

“No shit.” Jinu glanced around the alleyway, assessing the area. He had to admit it would be all the more suspicious if the police, as stupid as they were, found a dead body in this alleyway, especially since half of the manʼs skull was caved in—it would surely be ruled as a homicide. And he would like his plan to run as smoothly as possible. Not that it would be a major problem if the authorities decided to tape this area off to the public (it would be a minor inconvenience at best), but he liked to pace back and forth whenever he needed to clear his head.

“Hey, uh, not to alarm you, hyung, but you got a little...something right there.”

“Do I really?” the oldest asked in a faux polite tone as he turned to face the newcomer, who was in between two others. “How nice of you to join us, Abby, I was beginning to think you were too busy spending your time admiring your abs in the mirror again.”

“Okay, rude. Romance keeps hogging the bathroom mirror in the morning,” the short-haired demon scoffed as he stepped over the blood.

“Fuck you too, Jesus—”

Jinu thinned his lips, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He swore, it was like taking care of a child, taking care of these four. “And you wonder why I’m the leader and not any of you.” He held up his hand, silencing any future arguments any of the four other demons might try to make. “Ah-ah-ah, you know I’m right, you all would be hopeless without me.”

“Asshole.”

“I heard that.”

Blood swirled down the drain as Jinu continued to scrub his hair and skin. He knew if the (h/c)-haired demon woke up, he wouldn’t suspect anything—after all, he knew that the leader liked to take midnight showers from time to time. He might not have known the reason, but the demon had chalked it up to one of those things that didn’t have an explanation, per se, but it was simply something that Jinu did.

A sinister smirk curled his lips as he made sure to scrub underneath his fingernails—the viscous liquid had found its way underneath his nails from time to time and it had caused some questions occasionally, but he was always able to brush it off as evidence of a project that was currently in the works. Still, he would like to keep the questions to a minimum.

Turning off the shower, he grabbed his towel from the rack and dried himself off before changing into his pajamas. With a snap of his fingers, the blood disappeared from his clothes, making them look as good as new. Making his way to his room, he passed by the (h/c)-haired demon’s room, and he paused before throwing his day clothes over the railing and pushing the slightly ajar door further open.

The object of his affections was sleeping soundly, soft snores emanating from the male’s mouth as his chest rose and fall steadily. Stealthily, Jinu made his way to the bed, sitting on the edge and running his hands through the silky strands that spilled over the white pillowcase.

Humans weren’t deserving of such ethereal beauty, he thought scornfully, scoffing. How dare they act like he was theirs to touch, theirs to love, theirs to…

But then again, he shouldn’t really blame them. Humans were stupid creatures at the end of the day, but there were only so many chances that Jinu could let slide before he snapped on a poor fan.

That day would come even sooner if the Huntrix kept poking around.

His teeth clenched as his free hand fisted the bedsheets tightly. ‘Fucking hunters.’ They ruined all their fun. 

No matter.

The leader closed his eyes before forcing himself to relax, opening them to focus on him. His eyes softened at once, and a smile crossed his face.

‘Stop the Huntrix from forming the Golden Honmoon, and he’ll be all yours.’

That was all the others wanted, at the end of the way. And if things kept progressing the way they were…

…well, that day would come sooner than he expected.

Gwi-Ma would be pleased at the progress they were making, Jinu thought.

The male leaned his head into the touch, nuzzling into it, and with extreme difficulty, the dark-haired demon forced himself to extract his hand and stand up, making his way to the door. On his way, he managed to steal one of the other male’s possessions—a black obsidian watch.

In the doorway, he took one last glance at the sleeping demon, and a smirk curled his lips.

He would have him, no matter what happened in the end.

Chapter Text

𝐬𝐨𝐨-𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧

400 years ago...

Everything was more silent now. 

But she had long since grown accustomed to the solitude. Ever since she had run away from what she was supposed to be, she had devoted herself to protecting and cherishing humanity instead of demolishing it like her demon brethren tended to do. Things were more silent than they had been when she had stuck by her kind.

Like now.

Silence flooded the alleyway as she stood there, shoulders heaving and falling steadily as she tried to catch her breath. She leaned back against the wall, trying to get oxygen back into her veins after the confrontation, and she stared blankly at the empty space in front of her where the newest demon had confronted her, hissing expressions she had heard before (“Traitor, wretched girl, embarrassment to demon-kind”). As she said before, all things that had been repeated to her face multiple times, and she never gave it much attention, but still. It would be nice to have some originality from time to time. 

She rolled down the sleeves of the hanbok she wore, successfully concealing the patterns that trailed down her arms from her shoulders as she walked away from the alleyway. Being the only demon Gwi-Ma couldn’t control, she supposed, had its perks and downsides. 

Starting her long walk home, her teeth sank into her bottom lip, her shoes thudding against the cobbled road as she started to get lost in thought. For a few weeks now, she’d had strange dreams—they didn’t feel like dreams most of the time, though. They felt like memories—memories from her human life, back when she hadn’t sold her soul, back when she hadn’t run away from Gwi-Ma. The dreams were fragmented pieces of memories from her childhood and early life, but there was always another person with her. A boy that looked to be the same age and height as her, perhaps a few inches shorter than her. He wore his (h/c) hair in a traditional sangtu and the traditional men’s clothing for the time, but his face was always blurred, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out who he was. He seemed oddly…familiar, though. These thoughts wound around her like a red string of curiosity that was snaking up into her head and trapped her brain in a web of unanswered questions, begging for her immediate attention.

As she headed through the marketplace, a serene smile took over her face as she glanced around, looking at all the different stalls. She had some spare change in her pockets, and she could most definitely go for some nourishment right now. There was no need for these…perplexing thoughts. 

If only she could push them to the back of her mind while she continued to go about her everyday life.

Unfortunately, that was much harder than it seemed. 

Present time

Soo-yeon hurriedly buttoned up her midnight black jean jacket that covered her patterns; ever since the Joseon Dynasty she’d traded out her hanboks for flashy glamorous stage outfits. She’d gotten better at hiding her patterns, but still, she took the saying ‘you can never be too careful’ seriously. It was either take precautions or die, and she refused to die.

Heading out of the bathroom after splashing some water on her face, she peered out of the window of the jet as the rumbling of the aircraft filled her ears, picking out the specks of lights that were emanating from the lightsticks in the venue the four members of HUNTR/X were supposed to be performing in. Thousands of feet below them, she could imagine the fans screaming their hearts out for their favorite members, ready to see them perform live once again.

“Okay,” said Rumi determinedly as Soo-yeon settled into the couch behind the other three. “This is our biggest show yet.”

“The most songs.” Zoey’s lips curled up in a smile of determination.

“The most moves.” Mira’s eyes were narrowed with the same determination. Her voice was much more intense than Zoey’s, but she still had that cocky, smirk on her face.

“Which means the most carb-loading!” Rumi finished excitedly, holding up a packet of chips and tossing one to Soo-yeon with a big smile on her face.

As she watched the rest of her members dive into the meal set out on the table for them, she adjusted her jean jacket so that her shoulders weren’t visible. Celine and Rumi were the only ones who knew she was fully demon (the latter being part demon herself) and she fully intended to keep it that way. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Mira and Zoey; she did. She adored them with her whole heart, but Celine had instructed her to do whatever it took to hide her patterns, and she fully intended on obeying her mentor.

“I need ten thousand calories just to survive the choreo.”

“A thousand percent,” Mira said through a mouthful of chewed food. “A gajillion percent.”

“Man, that’s not even a real number!” Zoey shot back as she scrambled to stuff more food in her mouth.

While the other girls continued to stuff their faces with food, from the corner of Soo-yeon’s eye, she could see one of the flight attendants looking at the four unsurely from over her shoulder, holding a jug of coffee with a plastic smile on her face. She attempted to mouth a quick apology, but she turned away before she could do so.

The girl raised an eyebrow at the flight attendant’s retreating back. Something was definitely off here.

“Okay, time for our pre-game ramyeon!” Rumi held up her own cup of ramen excitedly. Every one of the four girls’ cups had their own special nicknames to them; Rumi's read ‘popstar flavor,’ Mira’s reads ‘spice queen,’ Zoey’s read ‘hamburger’, and Soo-yeon’s read ‘sparkler.’

“Ready?” she asked, picking up her cup and holding it out.

“So ready.” Zoey picked up her cup immediately, almost knocking over a dish in the process. 

“You are a disaster,” Mira remarked as she reached over to steady it before it could fall onto the ground and create a bigger mess. A smart move, in hindsight, Soo-yeon supposed, since she and her girls had probably annoyed the flight attendant enough already.

“Happy fans, happy Honmoon!”

The four members of HUNTR/X immediately clinked their cups together like they would toast someone, and Soo-yeon’s worries were wiped away, ready for the comforting smell of hot, warm broth to hit my nostrils, but as they peeled back the top of the cups, the noodles lay there, sad and dry.

“Aww, there’s no water in these!” Zoey pouts like a sad puppy, an adorable look on the younger girl.

“I thought you asked for water?” asked Mira in a whisper, directing the question at Soo-yeon and Rumi, placing her elbow on the table and leaning her head against her hand.

“Maybe she didn’t hear us...excuse me, miss?” Rumi raised her hand politely, addressing the flight attendant.

Almost instantly the flight attendant twisted her head to look at the four members, in a way that reminded Soo-yeon in that scene in every horror/slasher movie Mira had dragged the girls to see where the killer turns their head before attacking their victim. Her smile was a touch too strained for the other girl’s liking. “Yes, Miss Hunter...ix?”

The (h/c)-haired girl took note that the flight attendant was pouring coffee into a decorative plant. 

“We asked for hot water,” she said, holding up her cup, choosing not to pay attention to the strange behavior. “And we didn’t receive any—”

The attendant, noticing her gaze toward her, quickly pulled the coffee pot away from the plant as if she hadn’t been doing anything of the sort in the first place, her smile becoming even more strained. “Right away. You’re welcome! Arrideverci. Goodbye!”

Right as the rose she was watering wilted, she turned and quickly walked away.

“Right...” Soo-yeon lowered her eyebrow, and turned toward Rumi. “So, did she seem strange to anybody else or is it just..?” She left the question hanging in the air, willing for anybody to answer her.

“No,” Mira answered slowly, narrowing her eyes at the flight attendant’s retreating back. “No, something is definitely up.”

Before any of the four girls could offer any more insight to the situation, Rumi’s phone immediately started to buzz, and after a quick glance to confirm, Soo-yeon spotted Bobby’s name flash up on the screen.

“Hi, Bobby!” the four of them said happily as they slid into the frame.

“Yeah, hi! Um, what are you doing?”

Soo-yeon’s smile faded a tinge at the sound of their manager’s concerned voice. What could be the matter? Surely the fans hadn’t gotten this rowdy so soon? Then again, they were HUNTR/X, so it wouldn’t be that far fetched.

Rumi tilted her phone to show the ramyeon cups. “About to eat our pre-show ramyeon.”

“Pre-show? What about the show-show?” Bobby panned the camera to show tens of thousands of fans showing their merch and holding up cute little signs that showed their support. Immediately, a couple of the fans snatched Bobby's phone, to which he indignantly replied, “Hey, that's my phone!”

“We love you!!” the three girls in the video squealed, making the (h/c)-haired demon’s lips stretch into a wide smile.

“Oh, we love you too!” the four girls sitting right next to each other said at the same time, adoration for their fans clear in their voices.

The camera switched to a panning of three men sobbing their eyes out as well, and Zoey ended up having to put her face in Soo-yeon’s shoulder to muffle her sobs as well.

She glanced at the other two girls, who were sobbing right beside her, and with a sigh she took out two tissues and handed them to Rumi and Mira while rubbing Zoey’s head. “There, there,” she said in a motherly tone, chuckling.

“That’s so sweet!”

Yet again, the camera panned to another man, wearing a purple HUNTR/X t-shirt, wearing a bright smile as he rolled it up to reveal a big heart tattooed on the side of his body, "HUNTR/X" scribbled through the middle. “Yo! I just got this!”

Soo-yeon raised an eyebrow at the tattoo, not sure what to make of it. Well, it sure was...

‘That’s...interesting.’

Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at Zoey and Rumi’s reactions. Both girls were looking at the phone, clearly as unsure of what to make of this as she was, but Mira smirked. “Sick.”

‘Of course Mira would find it sick.’

“Gimme that!” Bobby snatched the phone out of the man’s hand and looked toward the screen with a panicked expression. “Why are you so late?”

“Late?” Rumi cocked an eyebrow.

“Fifty thousand fans are waiting for you,” Bobby clarified, glancing toward the crowd, then back at the phone screen again. “They made cute signs and everything!”

While the three other girls got up to glimpse out of the window, Soo-yeon caught a glimpse of the flight attendants again. Still, from the corner of the eye she could just catch the light of the beacon shooting out of the top of the stadium and illuminating the whole area. For a moment, she was lost in her thoughts, transported to a dream she had a few nights ago. In this dream, she was twelve years old and talking to a boy who appeared to be her brother. She barely remembered her dreams, much to her obvious annoyance, but in this dream, he was talking about how positively amazing it would be to see a sight like this. 

“How can you be late?” Bobby was going on as Soo-yeon snapped out of her thoughts, mentally bashing her head on the wall. (‘Get it together, you stupid bitch, you’re not in Nostalgia City anymore.’) One of the male flight attendants was bashing two parts of the seatbelt together, clearly not sure about how it worked. She gave him a deadpan look. 

“Keep your shirt on, Bobby,” she said, snatching Rumi’s phone out of the latter’s hand. “Don’t sweat, we’ll be there in three.” 

And then her thumb pressed the ‘end call’ button.

She dragged her hand down her face as Rumi and Mira groaned in unison, Zoey looking like she was about to commit mass genocide, hand still full of chips.

“I didn’t even get to finish my ramyeon!”

“How am I supposed to fight demons on an empty stomach?!”

“I know, Soo-yeon, girl, trust me. I know. Why do they always have to interrupt our snacking?!”

“THEY WILL FEEL MY WRATH!”

Soo-yeon, in an attempt to clear her head, inhaled and exhaled before standing up. “Um, excuse me?”

“Please take your seat,” the flight attendant said hurriedly, almost as if she was in a hurry to get the girls to sit back down.

“Yeah, we don’t have time.” Rumi narrowed her eyes at her, wearing a deadpan expression. “You’re a demon, right?”

“W-what do you mean?” The flight attendant’s eyes darted from Soo-yeon to Rumi. 

“Your smile’s too big, you’re watering plants with coffee, and last but certainly not least, those guys have no clue what they’re doing.” Soo-yeon motioned to the two guys at the front. One of them clearly had no idea how to put a seatbelt on and the other was just staring at them before, realizing that she’d called him out, pressing on random controls. “If you’re going to pretend to be human, at least educate yourselves on basic etiquette and contraptions. This is embarrassing.”

“Oh, we were just—”

Rumi grabbed the flight attendant’s arms, pushing up her sleeve to reveal deep purple patterns branching and swirling over the flesh. “Oh, look! Patterns.”

“Oh, these?” The smile on the flight attendant's face became more strained. “These are just—”

“What? Temporary tattoos? Halloween’s over, sweetheart.” Soo-yeon stepped forward immediately, and the flight attendant stumbled back, a flash of pink light twisting around her and revealing her demon form. Her eyes were pitch black with yellow irises, her fangs had grown to meet her bottom lip, and faint purple-pink markings swirled around her arms and legs. 

She’d stumbled back into the man who had no idea how the seatbelt worked, and he transformed into his own demon form, which consisted of pale blue skin with blue markings swirling around the top of his arms and one eye in the middle of his forehead, orange iris glaring menacingly at Soo-yeon.

“The rest of you can come out.” Rumi planted her hands on her hips as Mira continued to sip her drink, Zoey continued to eat her chips, and Soo-yeon a strand of her (h/c) hair around her finger in a bored manner while checking her fingernails. “We’re in a hurry!”

The pilot stumbled out of the cockpit, now taking the form of a horned demon with spiky hair, a curly beard, and white and blue freckles. 

“Oh, you got the patterns,” Mira said in a deadpan, disdainful tone. “Now you gotta die.”

“The only ones dying tonight are your—” the demon started, but Mira let out a deliberate burp while Soo-yeon had to stifle her laugh while she checking my eyeliner in the compact mirror to make sure it didn’t get too smudged.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” she innocently asked as she shut the compact mirror and put it in her pocket. 

“Uh...I said...” The demon looked from Soo-yeon to the three of them, then back to Soo-yeon (he squinted at her, but she narrowed her eyes at him and raised an eyebrow challengingly, making him switch to continuing his sentence). “The only ones dying tonight are your—”

Just like that, all four stomachs grumbled in unison, and Rumi lowered her fist from her mouth. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Your fans! We’re gonna eat your fans!” the demon finally snapped, yelling the last two sentences. 

“Whoa!” all four of the girls’ voices rang out in unison, along with all different protests. A smirk curled Soo-yeon’s lips—if these losers really thought that they would manage to win against her, a demon who’d been alive just as long as they had, if not longer, they were so dead wrong it was laughable. She might not be proud of being a demon, but it could come in handy in cases like this.

“Not our fans,” Rumi stated, protectiveness and determination in her tone.

“When you mess with our fans...” Zoey started.

“We need to make it hurt.” Mira cracked her knuckles like she was itching for a fight.

Soo-yeon tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling. 

If they wanted a fight, they’d give it to them.