Hon on my Moon till I Golden

BUT HEY! what if her demon side clashes with her human side, huh? then what?

that leaves us with rumi who takes weeks to recover while mira and zoey are fine after mere days. she just waves it off, says something about being susceptible to demon attacks. but she's still rumi, ready to jump head first into any danger to protect her bandmates and the rest of the world.

mira and zoey try to combat this by forming a triangle in which rumi is behind the lines, but this renders her close-range weapon useless and only makes it harder for them as a team (something about her having to step forward, having to sacrifice herself, it is unavoidable).

imagine how angry that would make mira and zoey.

rumi is heaving, hands on her knees as she catches her breath. she doesn't even register the steps behind her before she is lightly pushed forward.

she turns around with a frown, only to meet mira with a scowl on her face.

rumi already knows what she has to say.

"are you stupid, rumi? do you want to get killed or something?"

maybe she does, damn it. maybe she does.

"we always fight like this. i'm on the front lines."

mira's hands fly to her face as she groans, anger seeping from every inch of her body. zoey appears next to her then, face smeared with dirt and specks of blood.

she is quiet beside her. which already speaks volumes.

"we need to change something. we need to change our strategy and—"

"there's nothing to change," rumi bites back, "i am meant to slash from up close. you cannot fight against what the honmoon has given me."

mira takes that as a challenge, obviously. her tone is steelier, colder, when she replies.

"throw it, then. learn how to throw it. you can summon it back anyway."

zoey glances at mira—though she doesn't catch it—and her nose scrunches in uncertainty. whether it's due to throwing being her thing or the banality of the idea, rumi doesn't know.

a headache is thumping on her temples. whatever new tactic mira is thinking of now is lost to the drumming inside rumi's head. she hears bits, and bits, and impatience washes over her.

because mira is stubborn, so stubborn, and she doesn't understand. rumi was born cursed and she was forced to deal with it, and deal with it she will. it is her role to fight upfront, no matter the cost. be it deeper gashes, duller aches.

be it her life.

"—you can be behind us, throw it, take out bigger crowds since the saingeom is wider—"

"I'M THE FIRST LINE OF ATTACK!" rumi snaps, heaving again. one hand hurringly runs down her scalp as she searches for words, any words that could paint the picture for them.

mira is frozen in place. zoey frowns, finally, but quickly averts her gaze to the ground. the battered soil, the stains of blood and sweat.

"i'm the leader of this group, yeah? i'm the leader, meaning i lead, meaning it's my decision," she points to herself, voice frayed at the edges, "i decide where i stand and you," her finger is now facing mira, "do not tell me what to do or how to do it. you stay back, behind me and keep quiet."

she tugs at her shirt, though it is wrinkled beyond saving.

"now, if you'll excuse me," she contains every sob, every wince, every pained plead she wants to scream to the world, "i am going to patch myself up."

it is a cycle she is well accustomed to. almost die-gauze and disinfectant-almost die-gauze and disinfectant. a routine as familiar as any. someone has to be the lamb.

and mira and zoey can't do anything about it. not even post-movie when they're closer (read: polytrix). rumi still fights like she has 9 lives and not one half of it.

add onto this chronic pains from her demon side like patterns itching and burning under her skin plus ailments like fangs pushing against her neighbouring teeth and yeah. she's constantly antsy (and for a good reason) and maybe just wants to die a little bit more.

Some people did find this funny XDD

right around the first time rumi’s patterns spread, when she was 7 or 8, she stopped asking celine to do it. despite how long of a task it had become, celine was genuinely disappointed the first night she wasnt asked.

decades later, rumi and her wives and their 3 year old daughters come to visit jeju for a few days. like their mama, the triplets have started to amass a collection of their own plushies. celine also cant help but notice that a few of rumi’s old teddy bears have made their way into her daughters’ possession, passed down to them. they have names for each and every one of their plushies, some of them more unique than others (hani has a stuffed frog named sir cornellius wobblytoe hoppington xiv, while jihae has a stuffed cat named meowmeow. aeri’s two favorite plushies are a stuffed turtle named shelldon jr, who is the son of zoey’s stuffed turtle, shelldon sr, and a stuffed alligator named bear), but they have kept the same names that rumi had for her teddy bears.

one night, celine walks to the bedroom her granddaughters are staying so she can wish them goodnight, and she sees rumi in there.

the sight of what she’s doing sends her mind back decades in time. tears form in her eyes.

rumi is kissing her daughters’ plushies, and wishing each and every one of them goodnight. the three of them watch her with expressions that celine distinctly remembers seeing on rumi herself while she watched celine kiss her teddy bears. they even hand the next one to be kissed off the same way she used to.

they seem to have a bit of order to it. each girl gets a turn handing off a plushie to rumi, who kisses the toy and wishes it goodnight, then hands it off to mira, who does the same and then hands it to zoey, who does the same, before she hands it back to whoever’s plushie it is. each girl waited patiently for their turn, so there was no fighting about who got to go next.

"hmm.. probably zoey. she gave me half of her choco pie earlier"

and a few minutes later, mira comes out from her room and gives rumi some snack or whatever, and just stays sitting there, out of the camera's view, just patiently waiting

"hmm, mira? you need anything else?" "who's your bias now?" "what?"

and zoey zooming out of her room "no mira! she already said i was her bias for today!" "im just asking, and she said you were at that moment. not right now!"

and so rumi's live just becomes a zoemira fighting ground to see who is actually rumi's bias.

mira: oh... definitely zoey

zoey: :D !!!

interviewer: why?

mira: hmm..i would like to see what it's like living at such short height

zoey: excuse me?!

rumi: yeah, she's right