sadly not a bot

When, every year, without fail, Rumi would get sick with a summer fever that would leave her listless and bedridden, Celine was the one sitting at her bedside, coaxing her to eat just a little more so her body could be strong enough to fight off the virus.

When Rumi would get nightmares that her patterns had spread to all of her and that Gwi-ma had pulled her down into the dark, it was Celine who rocked her back to sleep, humming lullabies long into the night.

When Rumi punched a boy for making fun of a girl he thought wasn't a girl, it was Celine who showed up with a lawyer threatening legal action if the school didn't do something about it's bullying problem. (And it was Celine who gently bandaged Rumi's wrist and told her that the next time she needs to punch someone, to lock her wrist and throw her weight behind it.)

But Celine didn't call herself Rumi's mother and she didn't let Rumi call her that either.

The late Miyeong would always be Rumi's mother and Celine wouldn't do anything to take that away from her.

And it wasn't as if Rumi believed having someone (living) to call "mom" would fix everything;

Zoey's mom had always been a little disappointed and embarrassed that her daughter was an entertainer with only a high school diploma instead of something more prestigious like doctor or engineer.

Mira's mother didn't seem to like children at all and seemed to only have them because having children was simply what one did once one was married. And regardless, most of the child-rearing she left to nannies and, later, to Celine.

But Rumi wanted --

Rumi wanted to be claimed. Rumi wanted Celine to be selfish and say that Rumi was her legacy, the continuation of her family. That Celine's family was Rumi's family and that Celine's ancestors were Rumi's ancestors.

That they were tied together in the ways families were tied together; in obligation and duties that implied forever.

"Mother-daughter photo recreations are trending right now," Rumi said. "The social media people think it would be good if we got in on it. Get some positive press going after, you know --"

The Idol Awards may have been six months ago but the "Official Inquiry" into the code violations and disappearances surrounding Namsan tower were still on-going.

Celine had been trying to keep Rumi separate from the state of the company, telling her to not worry about it, that however the company was doing, the fans still loved Huntr/x. Rumi assumed that this was Celine's way of protecting her somehow.

But Rumi wasn't stupid.

She knew knew how hard the last few months had been, how often Celine stayed up, working into the small hours of the morning.

"I'll tell them to stop bothering you three," Celine said in a croaky rasp that Rumi recognized as too little sleep and too many cups of coffee.

"We want to do it," Rumi said.

The scratching of Celine's pen stopped. Then she set it down and looked up from the legal pad she had been writing on.

"It's a mother-daughter photo recreation," Celine said.

Rumi nodded. "Yes."

"It's a mother-daughter photo recreation," Celine repeated. "Rumi, how--?"

Rumi crossed her arms and tucked them tightly against her chest. It was a preemptive attempt shield herself from a rejection she knew was coming and Celine hated herself for causing it.

"We thought maybe we could take them with you," Rumi said. "Well, Mira and I, anyways. Since Zoey still, you know, talks to her mom."

"Rumi --"

A deep scowl appears on Rumi's face. Darker and angrier than the looks she'd given Celine whenever Celine had told her that she couldn't tell Mira and Zoey about her patterns.

Then Rumi's face twitches and the look fades away, replaced by disappointment.

"You know what, forget it," Rumi said with a sharp laugh. "I don't know why I thought -- you've never wanted to be a mom. You've always been honest about that."

"Rumi, that's not true," Celine said.

But Rumi is shaking her head.

"But it is," Rumi insisted, voice tight. "You've always said I was your ward. You've only ever called yourself my guardian. And that's fine!"

It did not sound fine.

"You said it yourself, you never thought about having kids. I know you never wanted a daughter." Rumi blinked and wiped at her eyes harshly. "Not everyone wants kids and you shouldn't have had to raise one."

Celine stood up and tried to maneuver around her desk.

She froze when Rumi took a step back.

"Rumi, I was twenty-two during that interview," Celine said. "I wasn't ready to be a parent --"

"And you shouldn't have had to be!" Rumi said. The words rushed out of her. "I'm sorry I kept trying to force you to be my mom, Celine. I -- It won't happen again."

Stiffly, she bowed and retreated to the door. Her hand fumbled behind her for a moment before it hit on the door handle.

"I'm always going to appreciate you taking me in, Celine," Rumi mumbled, eyes lowered as though she couldn't bear to look at her.

"Rumi, wait!"

There's so much of the Celine Miyeong knows and loves loved but everything about her is muted, like the color is drained from her soul. When she smiles at her Rumi, or even her Zoey and Mira, there’s a flicker of the Celine Miyeong knew.  Celine had always been serious, the most focused, the hardest worker, the most dedicated to their cause and fans. Still, even back then she had a silly side that seemed to have died in this new Celine.  

Despite being the youngest of the three of them, she had been the leader and took care of them. It had been a little frustrating, yeah Celine was taller than her and Hana so the fans never knew, but it still felt a little silly being taken care of by someone younger than her. Still, it had been nice to be protected by Celine, at least until the day Celine acted as their shield for the last time.  

Unlike Hana, Miyeong didn’t care if Celine was a demon, she loved one demon already, she loved a half demon, and she had loved Celine before that love had existed.  As long as Celine existed Miyeong thought they could save her and bring her back to them.  

For so long, Miyeong blamed herself for what happened to Celine, Hana had been all too happy to agree with her.  If she hadn’t held her tongue about her feelings for all of them, maybe Hana and Celine wouldn’t have left her and Ryon alone in disgust.  If she had been the one to stay behind instead of Celine things could be better.  That last one she always shook away.  Maybe it was cowardice, but that night she didn’t care about anything other than Rumi, giving birth to her safely.  She didn’t have the strength to sacrifice herself if it meant putting her unborn baby in danger.  

It was her fault that Celine had been taken that night, Hana had screamed it at her that night, had whispered it after a heated night under the blankets, Gwi-Ma had laughed at her as he whispered it to her, telling her how Celine had died crying and alone, slowly.

The hell on earth that followed that night had been her fault as well, and as selfish as it was, Miyeong accepted it.  Because Rumi was alive and healthy, as selfish as miyeong feels, she can't regret her choices, which adds to her guilt.

Main Celine comes down to the kitchen and sees miyeong alone and she freezes. She mutters an apology and tries to leave but miyeong stops her.  Miyeong says that she loves cooking, but adding 4 extra mouths is a bit much for her, and huntrix eats a lot more than othertrix. Miyeong knows it's a dirty trick, in their time together, queenceline could never deny miyeong anything, she assumes main celine is the same.

Celine apologizes for her girls and steps in to help her.  Miyeong tries to make conversation, but celine gives her 1 word responses. Eventually miyeong tells Celine that she did a good job and tries to thank her, but celine cuts her off.  Celine begs her to stop.

This pisses miyeong off since celine was willing to talk to Hana, why not her.  Eventually she forces celine to turn around and look at her and she sees celine is weeping and it makes her stop.

The dam just breaks and celine collapses saying that othermiyeong isn't Her. She failed Her, she caused Her death, she raised Her daughter to hate herself. Celine says Her miyeong bled out in her arms asking her for one thing, ‘love rumi and keep her safe,’ and celine couldn't even do that right.

Celine promises that she tried, that she didn't mean to make rumi hate herself. She didn't mean to fail, it doesn't matter but again she promises she tried.

Miyeong is understandably shocked, since main celine came to their world she seemed perfect, strong, untouchable, beautiful, a being who haunted her dreams made flesh. Now it's a shock to see her fall apart miyeong can barely understand what she's saying.  

Miyeong sits down beside her, letting their shoulders touch but no more. She mentions that she is grateful that celine raised rumi when she couldn't. Main rumi is happy and healthy, which celine says is in spite of her.

Miyeong says that she feels like she failed her daughter too.  She loves rumi, but regrets that because of her, rumi's life was harder than it should have been. So was hana's and of course her celine.  Sunlight sisters fell apart because she couldn't keep her legs together, she bitterly repeats the same line that had been in all the magazines once the vultures and ‘fans’ realized she was pregnant and unmarried at the time.  Her choices had almost ruined the honmoon and for a time she considered letting it break.

That shocks celine, miyeong actually laughs at this. She asks if celine is really surprised? They called her a whore for sleeping with a guy at 24. She gave the world her best years, her blood, sweat, and tears protecting them, but because she married her husband after her daughter was born, because she wasn't pure in their eyes anymore she was trash.

She is sorry that her choices made her daughter’s journey tougher but not sorry for her daughter.

Celine mentions their label told her to trash Miyeong s name.  It would have made it easier for them if they were all just paying for Miyeong s mistakes, that taking is rumi was an act of kindness, charity. Celine sounds angry, she refused and left the label and started out on her own.  She refused to drag Miyeong's name through the mud, she refused to see her daughter as a charity case, but celine stops herself. She looks guilty, and miyeong realizes she feels guilty over calling rumi her daughter. 

Miyeong tries to tell Celine that she forgives her, that she always intended rumi to be their child, that she's love her and Hana as much as ryon, but celine stops her. Celine just says that her Miyeong is dead, and that other Miyeong's Celine is a demon. Neither of them are the right person for what miyeong is gonna say.

Miyeong relates and asks if Celine is gonna mope or help her finish breakfast. The piranhas are going to be up soon and need to be fed. She does tell celine she's grateful she defended her name even in death and gives her a hug that stuns Celine but she sinks into it. 

The two of them are cooking now. It's still awkward but there's been a bit of weight taken off their shoulders. Miyeong realizes that Celine is a better cook than her and more experienced at making food in bulk than Miyeong is.  Celine admits she never put rumi on a diet like they had, she always ate more than a human girl would and never gained weight.  She does admit that she almost punched a guy who called Rumi fat when she sang at her school's talent show. As if six year olds aren't meant to be a little chubby.

Miyeong says that not even Hana would have put the girls on a diet like they did.  Celine mentions she wasn’t able to drink anything cold for years after Miyeong died, she wasn’t able to try and ice coffee until 5 or so years ago and the two of them drift off into talking.  

Little do they know both Rumi’s were eavesdropping on their moms talking.  Main Rumi is freaking out especially and the two of them crawl away to think.

So you might have noticed that I'm a bit of a Celine fangirl. She just has so much potential to be interesting because of what had to have happened for the KPDH movie to exist. That being said I would do the character a disservice if I ignored the stuff she put Rumi through. I wholeheartedly believe she loves Rumi and would burn the world down for her, but it doesn't change she also hurt her daughter a lot. whatever her good intentions, even if she put down the blade, celine had a hand in her daughter asking her to kill her. I refuse the notion that Celine was the only cause because that is just untrue, but it happened, if Rumi died that night Celine's hands wouldn't be clean and she knows it.

as a writer, I refuse the idea of absolution, I believe in redemption but that it is something you have to try to achieve and earn. Just keep this in mind for future chapters.

Seeing how I did a part with Celine interacting with other Hana, I think to help blend Celine making her interact with Other Miyeong was fun.

First and foremost was the sheer euphoria of being able to look at each other and think “That’s my wife~”, which was typically accompanied by a massively dopey grin. As such they simply refused to take their respective rings off unless forced to by outside forces. One such force happened to be out of the necessity of doing a photoshoot in which the simple wedding bands clashed with the photographer’s vision.

The second factor was that the marks started off small and pale and lined up in such a way with the rings that their first thoughts were simply that their habit of leaving the rings on constantly had naturally resulted in a tan line.

Make-up touched up Zoey and Mira’s hands— Rumi’s wasn’t nearly as noticeable for some reason —the shoot finished successfully, they slipped their rings back on and carried on as normal.

Mira, the one with the most photoshoots of the three of them, was the first to clock that something was amiss.

Some time after their wedding, she pulled her ring off for yet another shoot, fully expecting to see the ‘tan line’ that had been there before.

What she hadn’t expected, was the fact that it had grown.

Instead of lying under the band, as it had before, the streak seemed to be stretching down her finger in what could almost be dubbed a line down towards her knuckle. The color, she thought, seemed to have changed as well. Where before it had simply been paler than the skin around it, now it had an almost pinkish tinge to it; less flushed skin and more faded ink.

Rubbing the finger with the opposite hand yielded no further information. It didn’t feel inflamed; there was no swelling; and the texture felt the same as it always had.

An allergic reaction? She wondered, before the director started getting antsy and so Mira allowed the make-up crew to simply even out her fingers color and went out to do her job.

She didn’t think about it as the shoot ended— a cursory hand washing was not good enough to remove the make-up lingering on her hand —and so completely forgot about it as she returned her ring to its rightful place and went home to her girls.

===

Zoey was the next to notice.

She’d been doing a ‘let’s play’ gaming stream, her setup done like normal, down to the wristwatch on her left wrist she always donned solely because using it to set her timer was more effective than anything else.

When it began vibrating three hours into her stream, Zoey cursed out the boss she’d been trying to deal with, just barely managing to get in the final blow as it continued to shake on her wrist.

“Annnnnd down he goes! Whoo, and not a minute too soon!” she giggled as the boss finally went down. “Alright, I gotta cut it here! Rumi and Mira will make bad faces at me if I don’t. Thank you all so much for watching, and I’ll catch you next time! Sweet dreams, hunters!”

She shut down the stream with a final grin and wave, finally having a hand free to reach over and click the alarming watch off.

But as she looked down to do so, her eye got caught on her ring.

She smiled at first, as she always did, but then her gaze noticed the knuckle right next to the ring. It almost looked like she had scribbled on her skin with a marker and then had lazily tried to rub it out. Which was not unusual, but marks like that were typically done on the inside of her forearms; not right next to her fingers, let alone her wedding ring.

She didn’t remember using a marker that specific shade of teal either, nice as it was even while looking so washed out.

She rubbed it with a finger, puzzled when-

“Zoey? You better be off that stream!” called Mira from somewhere else in the living room.

“I am!” the maknae called back.

“Then hurry up and get out here-” Rumi joined in, smile in her voice, “-or else I’ll let Mir eat all the shrimp crackers!”

“-Oh like you’re not eating just as many!”

“Ack! Wait- I’m coming, I’m coming!” Zoey shrieked, leaping out of her seat and dashing out of her room; watch alarm shut off and the odd color on her hand completely forgotten.

===

Rumi was the last to notice, but the first to actually understand what she was looking at.

They were all in bed; exchanging the lazy kind of kisses that came with the knowledge that they had all the time in the world.

Rumi had just pulled back from Mira’s lips, cradling the dancer’s left cheek with her hand lovingly. Mira had raised her own left hand up, holding Rumi’s in place against her face— her eyes full of nothing but adoration and love and meeting an equal amount of both in Rumi’s eyes —when an unexpected spot of color caught the half-demon’s attention.

“What happened to your finger, Mira?” Rumi asked softly, intertwining their fingers so she could bring the redhead’s hand in for a closer look.

“Hm? ...Oh...” Mira murmured as she also got a good look at the back of her hand, “...I forgot about that...”

Where before the odd line she had notice had barely begun to point down towards the end of her finger, a thorn poking out from beneath the band, now it had truly started to zigzag its way away from the palm of her hand.

“I noticed it at my last shoot a few weeks ago,” she admitted to Rumi’s questioning glance, “Make-up had to cover it, and I just...forgot. It wasn’t that big before, though. Or that deep in color,” she brought her hand closer to her own face, realizing the pale pink from before had since darkened into an almost pure dark magenta without her noticing.

“...Mine neither,” Zoey confessed, holding up her own hand for the others inspection. Like Mira’s, her mark had also gotten darker, now an almost rich vibrant teal as it danced its way halfway across the back of her hand.

As the trio stared at the hands the marks seemed like they almost flickered with light, and Rumi felt her face pale and she realized what she was looking at.

Without a word, she raised her own left hand up, holding it right next to those of her wives.

The marks were different, in both placement and hue, but there was no mistaking the iconic way all three dipped and jolted across their skin.

Patterns.

Demon patterns.

“Oh no...” Rumi breathed, a mounting horror beginning to brew in her gut.

Said brewing was rudely interrupted by Zoey throwing her head back and cackling for all she was worth.

“Z-Zoey?!”

“Care to share what the hell is so amusing?!” Mira rasped out.

“O-Our vows!” Zoey gasped, almost tipping backwards with the force of her own laughter.

“What?!”

“Our- Rumi, at our wedding! You-Your vows were that you would be ours so long as we were yours!”

“S-So?!”

“Rumi-” Zoey giggled, cradling the singer’s face gently, “-Vows are a promise; a deal. And since we agreed to said deal-”

“-we made a deal with a demon,” Mira finished, shoulders sagging in relief.

“Well, half-demon,” Zoey shrugged, “But apparently that’s close enough.” She started giggling again and Mira wound up joining in with her own light chuckles.

“I am so-”

“Don’t!” Zoey barked, eyes turning dead serious, “Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Choi-Ryu Rumi-”

“Oooh, she brought out the full name~” Mira cackled.

“If this-” Zoey held up her hand for Rumi to see, “-means that we are bound together forever? Great! I was planning on staying with you for that long anyway!”

“Same,” Mira nodded, “Mildly annoyed at the spontaneous tattoo forming on my hand of all places, but I’m far from mad about it. I do like the color.”

“Right?! Mine reminds me of the ocean!”

“Ooh, you’re right.”

Rumi’s head ping-ponged back and forth between them.

“So...this-this is okay?”

Mira and Zoey’s eyes softened as they leaned into their wife.

“More than okay.”

“We’re yours.”

“And you’re ours.”

And that, was more than enough.