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Stepping out onto the balcony for the first time since the concert, Rumi is certainly glad to be home sweet home. She slides open the glass door, treading into the open night air of South Korea. A chilling frost runs across her bare arms, a sensation almost alien to her, the girl by now so used to covering her arms in shame. But no more. These symbols represent the truth, the symbols of a promise made decades ago between a human woman and her demon lover. She would bear those marks. She would be the promise of a world united against them. They did not belong there.
But as she leans across the rail, she stares out at the city's horizon, the neon lights glistening off her eyes, creating a dazzling technicolor, pastel screen that her friends distinctly notice as they appear at either side of her. She inhales deeply through her nose as the affectionate Zoey, a short-haired brunette, lays her head on her friend's bare shoulder, and as Mira, the decidedly less-affectionate, but still loyal friend, joins on the opposite side. Rumi speaks.
"You know, I wonder if Jinu really is gone, like, for good."
Mira shrugs, a nearly perpetual sneer fixed to her seemingly permanent deadpan expression.
"I dunno. Maybe. You know, they say the spirit never really dies, just moves on in a different form."
Zoey turns to face Rumi, her cute, child-like smile and infectiously optimistic demeanor never ceasing to surprise her friends.
"You really did like him. Didn't ya?"
Mira rolls her eyes.
"She obviously had a huge crush. Anyone with a pair of working eyes could see that."
She retorts, ignoring the outright hypocrisy of her own attraction to those forbidden washboard abs. The soft ambiance of the night air and the traffic below is shattered by the sound of something clay rolling along the floor of the balcony, and the girls turn to their left, peering over their shoulders, a pair of massive, yellow eyes stares at them from the dark. Rumi turns immediately, an expression of curiosity worn on her face, and approaches the eyes.
"It can't be."
She says, strolling over with no sense of danger. Alert, Zoey and Mira draw their weapons, assuming a battle position and crying out to their friend.
"Rumi! What are you doing?!"
The purple-haired girl simply raises her hand, signaling to her friends to lower their weapons and assume a position of ease.
"Guys, it's okay... Come out, big fella. We're not gonna hurt you."
She says, and the eyes seem to back away, as if somewhat frightened of the other two. The massive eyes turn to her when another set of eyes, a much tinier set of six, reveal themselves.
"Rumi... that's a lot of eyes. And none of them look friendly. They look like... demon eyes."
Rumi continues to approach, unwavering in her certainty, as she peers over her shoulder momentarily before turning back with a smile.
"They are."
She advances ever closer toward the darkness until she's within mere inches. Rumi reaches her palm toward the darkness, placing her hand down onto a surface. She closes her eyes as she comes in contact with something soft and warm, a forehead. The massive eyes close as the creature within the darkness rolls its head, reciprocating the affection with a guttural trill. Rumi turns to her friends as they stand there in silence, brandishing their glowing weapons with awkward readiness and sneers planted on their faces.
"Uh, Rumi? Is there something we should know about?"
Rumi merely snickers as she rises from her kneeling position, approaching the two with a bashful smile.
"You can put your weapons away. They're not dangerous."
She reunites with her friends as they sheath their weapons.
"Come on out."
She says calmly, as if addressing a nervous child. From the darkness, a massive blue tiger treads, a silly little magpie situated atop its head with a little hat on top of the bird. They approach hesitantly, nervous, having seen what those girls have done with those swords, magical weapons that have rendered many demons into little more than a red mist, a trail of demon carnage left in the wake of the trio of popstars. Mira folds her arms, turning and tilting her head toward Rumi with sass and raising her brow.
"First, you hide tattoos, now you're keeping secret pets."
Rumi leans toward Mira with a smirk.
"They were Jinu's. They're harmless, I promise... Well, unless you're a potted plant."
Zoey turns to her friend with a childishly naïve expression of wonder before returning them to the creatures, approaching slowly. The large cat starts to back away, raising its paw. Zoey raises her hand in surrender, signaling peace. Mira scoffs.
"Zoey, what are you doing?"
The brunette turns to her friend, a cat-like smile on her face.
"They're so cute, though."
She says as she reaches ever closer, the tiger reluctantly accepts as the palm of the young girl makes contact with its head. The magpie, curious, darts its head before leaping onto the finger of the girl, to which she rises slowly, the magpie continuing to dart around. Zoey chuckles. Mira folds her arms. Rumi and Zoey turn to her, their expressions of glee guilt-tripping the pink-haired sour puss. She sighs, facepalming and shaking her head. She scoffs.
"Fine. But I'm not feeding or picking up after them."
She heads toward the glass balcony door, shooting the blue cat and the magpie one final look before closing her eyes with a smile and heading indoors.
"And you're right. They are cute."
And so, it appears as though the stray duo has found themselves a new home among Huntr/x. As Rumi lies in bed that night, running her slender finger along her phone, something soft and warm nuzzles her, the ever-affectionate beast staring at her as it sits mere inches from her face, the unnerving yellow glow of the eyes somehow bringing her comfort when most others would find them disturbing. And she remembers what that boy did for her, the young man known as Jinu, and she vows to take care of them. After all. It's the least she could do. This is her vow to Jinu, a sacred, self-assumed covenant to the man who gave his life to save the world, a demon, but a human at heart. And she wonders. What became of him? What happens next? The only thing she can be certain of is that she will never fight her battles alone again.