Welcome to the Gallery

Currently: while Mira, Rumi, and Zoey have wandered off to have gay breakdowns—er, put Rumi’s sword away, Minji, Miyeong, and Celine are working on lunch and continuing to plan how they’ll be getting rid of the wraiths. In Seoul, a grieving Bobby meets a nurse…

She looks over at her designated sous chef, but Minji-nim has slumped over her arms on the table, eyes closed at last.

Celine is glad. It's meant to be part of her duties, in carrying on the great Rumi-nim's work, to give comfort to those who she helps; Rumi-nim healed hearts and spirits, as well as protecting bodies from harm. Celine has always been much better at the practical side of things. She can offer food, a safe place to go, she can repair torn stuffed animals and glue together broken heirlooms like they were never damaged, but she's never known what to say to people, when they hurt. In the face of what Minji-nim has lost, any mere words Celine could think to offer feel dismissive and trite. But a nap will do her good.

Celine turns to Miyeong-nim instead. "Can you be trusted to chop kimchi?"

"Let's find out." The reporter's eyes sparkle as she takes the jar. "You can come over here and supervise, if you're worried."

Miyeong-nim really is a flirt. Celine should probably roll her eyes, but she finds herself smiling, just a little, instead, as she turns back to the skillet. It's been a while since anyone cared to flatter her that way. And despite first impressions, she's beginning to think Miyeong-nim's good opinion is more discerning than she likes to act.

Certainly, she has decent taste in women. Celine glances over at the table again. "Will she be alright there?" she asks Miyeong-nim. "She needs sleep, but I doubt she needs back problems."

The reporter stops squinting suspiciously at the kimchi and takes a look of her own. "She'll be okay, I've caught her napping in much worse positions than that. You wouldn't think a human could bend the way a nurse can bend when the only available flat surface is the top of a mini-fridge."

Her face has gone soft and warm, and her voice is so fond that it makes the words sound like something earthshaking and precious, instead of the off-hand anecdote to a near-stranger that it is.

Celine looks back at her, blushing slightly and says, voice stiff with embarrassment, “I hadn’t meant to presume. I apologize.”

“No, no, it’s just…” Miyeong stares at her, attempting to come up with something, anything beyond repeating, “…Minji? She’s so… and I’m…”

Why would someone like Minji, who is as selfless and competent and together as she could be, possibly get involved with Miyeong? (…Beyond getting dragged along with her in extenuating circumstances such as the ones they were under. Where it was the right thing to do.)

Celine frowns slightly. “You’re…?”

Miyeong’s face goes hot, feeling ridiculously adolescent at having Celine look at her as if she‘a more than just some worn out idiot who’d sold her soul for consistent employment years ago.

“I—I don’t even know if she—“ likes women. Miyeong takes a breath before she finishes that sentence in the stupidest way possible. “We’d known each other through work before now. Separate works. Wherein she did not like me very much.”

Celine just looks at her for another moment, still frowning, and nods. “…What sort of stories have you working at the hospital, then?”

Miyeong cringes at the thought of explaining about Yeonggi, though she knows Celine hadn’t meant it that way, and then it makes Celine wince and— “No, no! You didn’t—no, I was only—please, Celine-nim, forgive me, there’s just a bit of a story there, and one that involves me being a bit of an idiot.”

Matched with a smile, that, at least, finally has Celine loosening up instead of looking like she wants out of this conversation, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

So Miyeong deftly avoids the subject of how everything with Yeonggi ended, and gets into how it started—a tale involving missing IV bags, a caffeine allergy, and a source who exclusively spoke Spanish.

It makes Celine laugh, as she explains how she’d tried to bribe the handsome male nurse with coffee and he’d looked at her like he wanted to die.

She skips the part where he was so enthusiastic about helping her because the new operation was cutting in on his own illegal activities. Maybe once they’ve known each other more than a week… and she’s had a conversation with Celine where she doesn’t have to fight the urge to melt into the ground from embarrassment.

It’s funny, though. She’d never noticed that Minji was in the story so much too, exhaustedly trying to kick Miyeong out even then. “Since I still had the coffee, I tried the trick on the next nurse I saw.”

Celine, set up at her own cutting board next to Miyeong, follows her nod to Minji. “And I take it she refused?”

“Oh, no, she took it,” Miyeong says, feeling a fond smile tug at her lips. “It just meant that she smiled at me while directing me to the exit that day.”

Celine’s laughter feels distant, almost, as Miyeong puts down the knife.

Does she… have feelings for Minji?

But as soon as Rumi puts the sword away, she turns and all but marches out, a woman on a mission. Zoey turns to Mira, a silent question, but Mira just raises her eyebrows and shrugs a little, and then gestures broadly toward the door with a tiny little bow of her head, after you.

Fortunately, from behind, Mira won't be able to see the absurd blush that overtakes Zoey's entire face over such a completely normal gesture.

When they get to the kitchen, Minji is slumped asleep on the table, and the sweet smell of sauteed veggies fills the air. Celine and Miyeong are standing very close together at the counter; over the sizzling of oil, Zoey can just hear Celine walking Miyeong patiently through every step of holding her fingers curled, rocking the knife along its curve, letting the blade do the work. From her angle at the door, Zoey can just make out the edge of Miyeong's expression, serious and focused, and the tip of one ear, a brilliant red.

"Honorable shaman," says Rumi, keeping her voice low to not wake Minji and doing something really unfair to Zoey's guts as a bonus. Both women look up, Celine like a normal person and Miyeong with a little startled jump. "Can I assist in any way?"

Celine looks around thoughtfully. "There's not much else to do until it's time to fry the eggs. You three should get something to drink, though. Especially Rumi-nim. I'm sure you're dehydrated after that swordwork."

While Rumi is thanking Celine with more of that formal, archaic graciousness that should be goofy and awkward but is actually just really sweet and hot, Zoey starts digging in the fridge, Mira right behind her. "What do we think they drank to cool off in Rumi's day?" Mira murmurs, and from right over her shoulder that is also doing something really unfair to Zoey's guts, and this is the worst day. "Just water?"

There is bottled water in the fridge, but, "All that sweat," says Zoey, very cool and very calm and totally a medical professional about it, "we should give her something with some electrolytes."

They dig out a few choices for her, bokbunja and banana milk and a bottle of Bacchus that seems like an odd thing for Celine to keep on hand, considering her vibe. Zoey's usually pretty uncomfortable about sharing her drinks, but for some reason it feels totally normal when they sit down at the table, a respectful distance from the lump of unconscious nurse, and make Rumi try all three before deciding who gets what.

Her eyes go bright and she says, "An age of wonders," again, at the banana milk, and Zoey ends up with the energy drink. Probably for the best; her ADHD makes her functionally immune to caffeine, Mira should probably be avoiding it post-surgery, and Zoey's not sure she's ready for the Rumi On Red Bull experience.

"So not to in any way imply that we should be left here, because we are absolutely not doing that," says Zoey, once they're settled, "but, what's the plan for those of us without sacred weapons? I know we're looking for the wraiths, but what should Mira and I and our home invaders do when we find them?"

Miyeong just smiles shamelessly at the dig, and Celine looks over her shoulder at Mira. "Did you learn any rituals of control or banishment, from your family?"

Mira grimaces. "I tried to know as little about it as I could. Kinda wish I'd payed more attention, now."

"Well, I can teach you all a simple exorcism. Strong rituals take time we won't have to perform and even more to learn, but wraiths are only so powerful once their summoner is gone. The right words and a little mugwort can be enough to break their control on a person, particularly if any of you happen to be decent singers. And provided you can keep your own minds barred against the pain they feed on."

It takes a few minutes for the world to kick back into focus. She’d love to say that the vegetables suddenly taste like ash in her mouth, that everything turns blackened and sick, but… the world just keeps existing, same as it ever has. That’s the worst part.

The food tastes good. She just can’t let herself enjoy it.

They talk, and plan, and somehow it’s decided that they’ll be trying to make the last ferry out and staying the night in a hotel on the mainland, so they’ll have a whole day for Rumi and Celine-nim to take on the wraiths.

At least no one has much packing to do.

“Both of our cars only seat five,” Miyeong says, as if it wouldn’t be reasonable to at least pretend she hadn’t tracked them by car. “Do we want to split back according to how we came?”

“I should probably stick with you three,” Minji says, gesturing to younger group—or, wait, Rumi’s five hundred. Ugh. “No offense, but if anyone’s going to be needing medical attention, it’ll be one of you.”

Rumi looks mildly offended (as if the skin of her torso isn’t half-shredded), while Mira nods, conceding the point, and Zoey laughs a little, awkwardly.

“Yeah,” she says, “probably. But we shouldn’t have anyone riding solo, so do we want to have someone double-buckle, or…?”

“Celine-nim and I can ride together,” Miyeong volunteers.

A second later, she blushes vibrantly, turning to Celine-nim. “If—if you want, I mean! You don’t have to, I didn’t mean to speak for you—“

“I would be happy to,” Celine-nim says smoothly, which is nice. Miyeong deserves a win—getting to spend a few hours in a car with a beautiful woman before they all drive to their deaths is the least that could happen for her.

And then she gets another when Rumi volunteers to take Mira and Zoey out for knife practice.

“Go on,” Minji says, nodding after the not-actually-younger trio. “I know how much you like distance weaponry.”

“I’m offended by this,” Miyeong declares, but she marches after them to go find Celine-nim’s shinkal nonethless.

Minji smiles after her. She hopes Miyeong enjoys it—properly enjoys it, in the way that Minji wouldn’t be able to right now, even when she doesn’t think about Miyeong and Yeonggi soundly beating Seulgi at darts, the way she would always laugh about it.

“You don’t have to help with the dishes,” Celine says gently, but Minji shakes her head.

She's fairly sure Zoey would melt otherwise.

She doesn’t get too upset about it.

“Never really been great at throwing things,” Mira admits, as the knives run out and they pause to go get them back.

“You cannot curse yourself to failure before you begin,” Rumi says, all warmth and good intentions. “You merely need a bit of practice.”

But Zoey sees the way Mira’s jaw tightens (and then quickly loosens again as she loses some color, clearly regretting that move) and she knows the feeling. When you really just know something’s fucking hard and always will be and someone oh-so-sweetly denies it, like you’re just being mean to yourself and not able to accurately assess the situation… it sucks.

So she bites her tongue against the “You got this!” that she wants to chirp out—especially when Miyeong says exactly that and Mira’s jaw does that thing again—and, instead, just watches how Mira throws.

…Which is ridiculously badly. Because she just throws with her arm.

“Um,” Zoey says, carefully, “are you okay with constructive criticism or do you just want me to stand over to the side and not say anything? Because I’m totally good with not saying anything! I promise!”

Mira huffs before she can get any further. “Advice is fine.”

“Well, uh, I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but… you kinda gotta roll with it? Like, twist your hips and put all of you into it!” She offers her goofiest smile, exaggerating the shift of her body until it’s more of a joking bounce than an actual mock-throw as she mimes it for Mira—and then having to do it for real, however awkward that is.

But Mira’s smiling, nodding—though that might have something to do with Rumi coming over to try to help guide her through it with those calloused-but-still-so-gentle hands of hers. You know. If Zoey had to guess.

Just from the way Mira starts getting that really pretty blush, not any of her own thoughts on the matter, obviously.

At least she’s too distracted to be paying attention to Zoey as she throws again. Her lips tilt in a tiny smile as the knife clips the edge of the bag and she turns to high five Rumi.

And then she keeps turning and offers her hand to Zoey. To high five.

Right, because they should show Rumi, that was only invented in, like, the 1950s.

So Zoey grins and slaps her palm against Mira’s, and Mira—her voice is always kinda quiet, with the wires and all, but she tilts her head back and laughs and it’s so pretty and Zoey is so, so doomed.

And then! And then!!!!

She looks at Zoey and she smiles and she says, “Thanks. I always forget not to isolate everything when I’m not dancing.”

Or maybe it's Celine-nim, who has a warm steadiness to her presence, despite her silence. There's something in the way she holds herself, the way she seems so centered and in control, as though demon apocalypses are just another day. It makes the pressure seem a little lighter, just for her standing there.

She's also very hospitable, rewarding Minji for her assistance by leading them to the sitting room and producing a bottle of soju, then pouring out two shots. "I don't often have the occasion," she says, her smile small and wry, "but if there's ever been a situation that warrants a drink..."

Minji doesn't need to be told twice. She grabs a glass, says a dry, ironic "wihayeo," and throws it back without blinking. Celine-nim shows more restraint, and simply holds hers, maybe swirling it a little, contemplatively, while Minji pours herself another.

"The 'situation'," Minji repeats, as the second shot burns down her throat. "That's one word for it. We've got the impossible ancient hero. The murder of all my friends. The kid who got kidnapped for a sacrifice. The thing where we're setting a bunch of random civilians against fantasy monsters." She waves a hand, still wrapped around the glass, at Celine-nim. "You said you were part of an order, right? Aren't there other people who are, I don't know. Trained in this kind of stuff? How is this Miyeong's job, or those poor kids?"

The shaman takes her bitterness in stride, watching her calmly like she has every right to it, but makes no apologies.

"We've been spread very thin, over the years," she answers instead, matter-of-fact, "and we were never a large order to begin with. Anyone I called for help would have to travel too far to be timely, and would have to leave their own home defenseless."

Celine-nim finally takes her shot, the long column of her throat flexing elegantly as she swallows. Minji blinks and drops her eyes, pouring herself another.

"Still," she says, filling Celine's glass again too, once she puts it down, "you have Rumi, right? Shouldn't you two just... do your thing, and the rest of us just stay out of the way?"

For a moment, Celine-nim just watches Minji, a careful regard that seems to peel right into the heart of her. Minji has seen Miyeong strip informants of their layers with a look, leaving them cut open and exposed, but this feels different, somehow; like Minji's being understood, her deepest self handled with the care of a surgeon, everything closed up properly afterward and left healthier than she started.

"... when I first met Zoey," Celine-nim says, once her keen gaze has finished its search, "I knew she and I would someday do something important together. I understand why, now. She and Mira withstood the voice of no mere wraith, but of Gwi-Ma himself, for days, and remained steadfast enough despite it to bring Rumi-nim back up from the hells."

She drinks again, and this time Minji doesn't look away.

Celine smiles and shakes her head instead of answering, not knowing either way. She hopes so, at least, given how shortly post-surgery Mira had been when the two of them arrived at her office.

Minji-nim waits with that for a moment before she says, quietly, “One of the wraiths looked like a photographer Miyeong liked. We didn’t even know he was dead until…”

Until we explained what they were. Celine grimaces.

“And—fucking Yeonggi turned up, apparently—did—“ Minji-nim breathes, sharply. “Becoming a wraith. Does it mean something about you?”

She wishes she could say no. Wishes she had decent words, comforting hands, anything. She tells the truth. “Gwi-Ma can only take a person’s image to use as a wraith if they gave themself to him in life.”

Minji-nim covers her face with her hands for a long moment before making a sound, the kind that might be a sob and might be a laugh. “Miyeong always thought there was something about the way Yeonggi died. We all figured it was just—“

Celine thinks back to the way Miyeong-nim had been so startled by Celine’s mistake, earlier, hadn’t even thought to be offended as she looked down at Minji-nim as if she were somehow worth impossibly more. And she thinks she understands a little.

“He actually sold his soul to a demon?” Minji-nim asks, peering up at her. She doesn’t wait for an answer before she laughs again. “That son of a bitch, of course he did.”

“Many do,” Celine says. “Gwi-Ma is… clever. And it might not have been…”

Minji-nim shakes her head again. “I don’t need hope for Yeonggi’s memory.”

“But I need you to understand,” Celine replies, thinking, terribly, of Rumi-nim on the other side of that portal, bloody and resigned and smiling as she gave herself up. She thinks of— “I need you to understand that it is not a weakness of—he will not only take what is offered. Gwi-Ma is called the Devourer for a reason. He will take anything he can touch, freely given or otherwise.”

Her hand has found its way to Minji-nim’s shoulder, somehow, as she is very close to her face.

Celine jumps back against the arm of the couch.

Minji-nim’s mouth opens.

“We must hold onto each other,” Celine says, before she can hear some platitude. “We must.”

"Very good," is Rumi's assessment, as Zoey sinks one just a few centimeters off a bullseye and does a little whoop of glee. "You all show great promise. But in a true battle, your enemies will seldom remain still. I would like to advance to practice on moving targets, if you are amenable."

Zoey shoots a sly look at Miyeong, and then beams at Rumi, wide and innocent. "Sounds great, let's do it!"

Mira demurs, preferring to keep trying to consistently hit the stationary bags, but Miyeong rolls her shoulders competitively and agrees. Rumi has a little pile of squash that she's managed to collect from somewhere, green and round and overripe, and she lobs one slowly across the field of fire. Zoey whips a shinkal after it, a long clean release, and it sails just behind the vegetable, nearly clipping it.

Miyeong's lead might be in trouble.

One more round, and Miyeong's lead is definitely in trouble. She nicks a squash here and there, but mostly she goes wide in every direction, and Zoey, still hitting blunt-first a lot but still consistently hitting, is steadily closing the point gap. Rumi puts forward a valiant attempt to pretend she's impartial about it, but Mira makes no such pretense. She's entirely given up on her own practice to cheer Zoey on and trash-talk Miyeong, and Miyeong can't find it anything but charming. Watching the three of them fall all over each other in a fit of youthful hormones is almost more fun than the knife-throwing itself.

Though perhaps she shouldn't judge. At least they know what they're feeling. She lets her eyes flick over to the main building. Behind those walls is a woman who has somehow become the most stable presence in Miyeong's life for the better part of a decade, a reliable constant in all her rootless chaos, an irreplaceable comfort against her loneliness, and Miyeong never even noticed.

Honestly, she sort of wishes she still hadn't. It's not like there's anything to do with the information. Miyeong had her one shot, and it literally ended with a body count. Minji, who is in such terrible pain but still sent her out here to flex her projectile skills on undergrads for fun, deserves better from Miyeong than to hope to drag her down.

Even Mira is more like to hit the target than not, and she showed much promise when they went over how to stab an attacker, despite being quite stiff during Rumi’s explanation.

“I am very proud of you,” she tells them all, the same as she tells everyone she teaches, whether they be five years old or sixty-five.

“You’re a really good teacher,” Miyeong-nim says, warmly, and Mira and Zoey agree, and Zoey comes up to loop an arm over Rumi’s shoulder and pull her close in thanks.

And all of this is good, like the sun and the grass and the feeling of an overripe squash in her hand. Rumi holds it tight, tries to burn it into herself, because she knows from experience that weak words would not stop Gwi-Ma.

They use the washroom to quickly wipe off the worst of the sweat and, going last, Rumi has opportunity to see that Mira has, indeed, changed her clothes, which is presumably simply what is done when one sweats in this time. The amount of washing must be ridiculous, and Rumi has a million questions about how they prevent things from falling apart, but—

For now, she just jerks her head away, flushing, because Mira has walked out wearing what cannot qualify as a full garment in this day and age.

It covers barely more than the undergarments. It doesn’t even reach her knees.

It doesn’t even reach halfway to her knees!

You’ve spent how much time in brothels? Rumi scolds herself, angry and embarrassed. Get a hold of yourself; her body is nothing to do with you.

It's a logical division. Sensible. Minji's familiar enough with Miyeong's car to drive it without being distracted searching for the turn signal, and Celine's car is, well, Celine's. Plus if Rumi or Mira needs sudden medical aid, having Minji able to provide immediate guidance without needing to be flagged down from the other car is beneficial.

And Miyeong's not heartless; she has no intention to get in the way of young love and suggest Zoey ride with her and Celine.

So this is the most logical way to split up.

If the thought of being alone with Celine for a couple of hours ties a knot in her stomach, that's just...pre-wraith-hunting nerves. Yeah.

Celine nods, the motion more elegant than it has a right to be. "I'm fine with it."

Miyeong's heart jumps. The hot gorgeous TALL shaman's fine with it! She's fine with alone time with her! She is-

Lightheaded.

Maybe she should drive her own car with the girls. They have cellphones; Minji's only a call away-

But Minji's already holding her hand out for Miyeong's keys, and they're going to miss the ferry if they're not careful.

"I can drive!" Zoey's hand shoots up in the air. "Please? Rumi hasn't seen me drive yet and I'm really good! Mira! Tell them how good I am!"

"She didn't get us towed," Mira shrugs. "I think."

Miyeong blanches, thoughts of Celine momentarily suspended by thoughts of her car in the impound lot. Or worse.

Not that Zoey didn't seem responsible, but...she'd been that age once. She'd been that eager to drive to impress a crush once. She'd turned a car into an off-roader more than once.

But Minji- thank god for Minji- pockets the keys. "I'm giving you the aux."

"A role of great importance," Rumi nods seriously, perking Zoey up from the deflated slump she'd fallen into. "And you did exemplary with it yesterday.”

Miyeong mouths a ‘thank you’ to Minji as the girls pile in to the car, Mira and Zoey bouncing songs that Rumi just had to hear between them like juggling balls, and watches them crunch out of the gravel drive. She’d have a lot to worry about in the next few hours, but at least her car wasn’t one of them.

The sound of a car door opening pulls her attention back to her side.

“Ready?” Celine asks, one hand gripping the open door. There’s an inviting little smile on her lips, and her eyes catch the sun in such a way that they sparkle, igniting something in Miyeong’s chest.

Yes, a lot to worry about…

But: nope. They pile in (Minji driving, Rumi and Zoey in back, and Mira sitting shotgun to have some room for her legs) and get on the road and Rumi shows absolutely no signs of discomfort.

Zoey might be a bad person for being disappointed about that.

After a while, the conversation shifts back from music to demons. Minji missed Celine’s earlier advice about mugwort, after all.

“The first rule of wraith-hunting is,” Rumi says (and Zoey’s brain unhelpfully fills in to have fun and be yourself and we don’t talk about wraith-hunting), “that they are hollow. There is nothing in them, and any promises they make to you are false. Do not listen. Hold on to what is solid.”

She looks at Zoey while she says it, because Zoey’s the only one looking at her, and so Zoey is left with the intensity of Rumi’s gaze, the impossible, out-of-time person that she is, and the softness of her smile.

“You,” she says. “Music. The sun on the grass. Anything you have.”

And Zoey’s brain plays it again: You. You. You. She has you.

But before she can say something stupid—something like I have you—Minji says, fingers tapping against the steering wheel, “Celine mentioned—she mentioned that Gwi-Ma would… take people, earlier. Like… like they didn’t have to make a deal with him or anything?”

Rumi’s expression twists with a horrible kind of hope, and she doesn’t answer for a long moment before, finally, her voice thick with something Zoey can’t interpret, she says, “The knowledge that I have is different, but it has been many years.”

(Zoey thinks of the way she talked about her dad. Wonders if maybe…)

(But maybe not. They haven’t even known each other a week, after all.)

“No, she—she wasn’t clear,” Minji says. “I might have misunderstood.”

Rumi bites her lip. Hesitates, before adding, in a way that’s clearly meant to be reassuring, “You must fail for him to take you. But it does not mean you cannot be brought back. Fear is his hand. Do not play it.”

Perhaps the danger is finally hitting her, now that there aren't any distractions. Miyeong-nim strikes Celine as someone with disconcertingly little fear of risk, but her whole worldview has also just been upended. In Celine's experience, both the most brave and the most foolhardy come to that attitude largely through experience, and demons are well outside the experience of most.

But when Miyeong-nim finally speaks, it's to say, "So," drawing it out, and glancing toward the back of the car. "Do you happen to have permits? For the ancient magic sword, and pile of deadly sacred knives? More specifically, do you have permits on hand, in the car with us right now?"

She does, for the sword, actually, although she certainly doesn't keep it in the car. And the shinkal are another matter entirely.

Still, "I've never found the ferry staff particularly concerned with the contents of people's trunks during crossing."

Her reassurance is met only with a skeptical little hum. "If they do check it out, for whatever reason, go ahead and let me do the talking. I've got some ideas already, I'll loop you in when I decide on one."

Apparently Miyeong-nim is not, in fact, nervous about getting caught with weapons. Celine glances over, bemused, and finds a gleam in the reporter's eyes, even brighter than the anticipation in her voice.

"Fighting wraiths isn't enough excitement for you, you have to be maneuvering around the law, too?"

"I try to always be getting away with something. Keeps my skills sharp."

Celine can't help her smile. "And what skills are those?"

For some reason that makes Miyeong-nim start stumbling again, stuttering out an awkward, "Well, ah—I—you know—reporter things. …Talking. Persuasion, and such."

Celine considers that. She will admit that Miyeong-nim is actually quite a skilled storyteller, when she's not tripping over her tongue, but it was not her clumsy charm offensive at their first meeting that brought her into this adventure. It was so obviously a mask, and Celine hadn't liked that she couldn't see what was underneath. But Miyeong-nim's dogged persistence, her willingness to try anything other than turning away, had gotten them past it; had brought her all the way here, to the passenger seat of Celine's car.

Which is a recurring theme in the stories she's told so far, as well. Miyeong-nim simply does not give up on a story, no matter the expense to her time or dignity. It's an admirable trait, albeit a vexing one to be on the wrong side of. More admirable than mere persuasive charm, in Celine's opinion. Stubbornness has saved many souls from Gwi-Ma, and Miyeong-nim's may yet save more.

Which is why it's meant to be a compliment when she says, "Persistence seems to be a more reliable tool, for you."

But Miyeong folds her arms in Celine's peripheral vision and plays at being affronted. "I'll have you know," she huffs, "I am in fact incredibly charismatic, and regularly talk my way out of situations that would bewilder and terrify a lesser woman."

It's still a distraction, and Celine finds she still wants to know what's underneath it.

But she'd rather take the softer path to get there, now.

So she just says, dry, "And how often did you talk yourself into these situations, in the first place?"

She refuses to focus on how much she wishes to be a part of what's blossoming behind her, how much she wanted to see Rumi or Zoey (preferably 'and') look at her that way and say that Mira was worth holding onto.

Not that she begrudges them for it! She's genuinely glad they found each other to smile at like that and hold hands and blush over changing bandages. They deserve it. It's just...

Her life, or well what's left of it- an empty mansion populated by her brother's decaying body she never wants to go back to, a cave somewhere in the wilderness where her parents rot over the sigils they bickered over while carving them in the floor- is so bleak and empty by comparison.

Not that it was any different when her family was alive, they objectively sucked, but they were still alive. Which, to be honest, had its own set of problems but now they're dead and-

Ugh! She stopped herself just before making the mistake of clenching her jaw because Appa had officially beaten her for the last time and she still couldn't figure out how to feel about that. Why couldn't she have had a normal family? Or simpler feelings about her abnormal one?

Minji-nim glanced over at Mira, then the rearview mirror, then back at Mira.

Mira stared harder at the scenic view, carefully keeping her face turned towards alternating trees and fields. Like hell was she going to tip her emotional hand.

Minji, clearly a professional, didn't pry, just drummed her fingers on the wheel. "So. Is there a second rule about wraith hunting we should be aware of? Do they, like, fight back or anything?"

On impulse Mira flicks her eyes to the mirror; Rumi's face is puckered in a little thinking pout. It is, frankly, adorable, but before Mira can properly appreciate it her face darkens. The hand Zoey's not holding drifts to her side, to the bandages hidden under her shirt.

"Words are their first choice of weapon, but...when they fail, or sometimes to help ensure they fail, they will resort to...other measures."

Mira turns around and her eyes instantly find Zoey's; they were waiting for her, like she was about to lean forward to locate Mira, wanting to consult her.

She forces herself to not think too hard on that. Or the way the sun catches on Zoey's lashes.

It's clear they're both thinking the same thing.

They both saw the gashes on Rumi's side, long and jagged and- and claw-like. Mira had assumed they were from some weird underworld animal; clearly Zoey had done the same.

Now, though...

The last time she saw Jaeho's wraiths, they were pitiable things; deformed limbs and twisted forms that could hardly have won a fight against a dishrag (with the dishrag having the more favorable odds). But that was several years ago by now. She'd never given much thought to what they could do if conjured properly.

And clearly, judging by the hospital fire, he'd done things properly this time.

Rumi reaches forward to lay a hand on Zoey's shoulder, and fixes her gaze on Mira, intense and beautiful and determined.

“No,” Rumi hurries to reply, guilt immediately overtaking irritation. “I ought to have been more—“ (What’s the stupid word?) “—descriptive. Primarily, they will retain the forms they have, though their teeth may grow, and they will have claws. These are their weapons. One need not fear any venom or poison, but they are quite sharp. And wraiths very quick.”

“Oh,” Minji-nim says. “Lovely.”

Rumi and Jinu used to pause here to cheerfully tell any of the youths who wished to join them about all of the horrible injuries they had seen from wraiths until they went pale and nervous (or else their mothers decided that, no, they were not of an age to hunt wraiths).

Used to.

Without him, Rumi is adrift.

Her companions know what wraiths are, how to resist them, and how to kill them. They need to know…

Where to find them, Rumi, Jinu teases her. What, are you just going to give them a dog and a lantern and hope their souls don’t get eaten?

“The most difficult issue has always been the discernment of wraith from person,” Rumi explains. “A wraith has… patterns. Parts of the soul that are etched into it. For many, it would seem as if their loved one had miraculously returned to them.”

(She’d always been… distantly sad for such people. A part of her had, admittedly, thought some foolish.

Now, the very idea seems to wrench her heart out of her chest.

She would fall. She would fall so, so easily.)

“So we can’t hesitate?” Zoey asks.

“No!” Rumi yelps. (Hypocrite.) “No, you must always hesitate!”

Celine's hands clamp tighter on the wheel as she subtly sucks in a breath, hoping Miyeong-nim didn't notice but knowing that was likely a vain hope.

Fortunately her mentors had taught her many things, including the art of deflection.

She cleared her throat and looked sidelong at her traveling companion, watching her with an assessing eye. "What, drive down the mountain with someone who thinks it's normal to go knocking on strangers' doors before breakfast?"

Miyeong's fingers stumble over the bridge as she chokes on nothing and flushes crimson. "There were extenuating circumstances!" She sputters.

Celine felt a grin wriggle its way across her lips. "Do you mean impulsivity?"

"I am not-"

"Or a lack of regard for norms and etiquette?"

Miyeong opened her mouth to respond, then sat back, crossing her arms petulantly over her chest with a little 'hmph!' that tickled Celine's ears.

She chuckled. This was easily some of the most fun she'd had in a while. Plus she was spared from having to admit-

"I meant the whole wraith-slaying business," Miyeong clarified as the radio switched to a new song. "Have you ever done that?"

She spoke too soon.

"Not...exactly," she said slowly, focusing hard on the road unfurling before them.

Miyeong raised a brow, silently prodding her to continue.

Celine swallowed. "There's...not exactly much call for expunging wraiths. While I have a strong theoretical base, it's...not something I have much hands-on experience with."

“‘Much?’” Miyeong prodded.

“Well there was one time. When I was still in training. But I…really mostly just watched. From a very safe distance.”

She winced as she finished. Perhaps she shouldn't have admitted to that, and just given some roundabout half-truth focused on her expertise. But...it was surprisingly hard to do that with Miyeong's eyes on her, quiet and curious and looking at her like she wanted to know Celine, really know her.

Probably a reporter thing.

Miyeong was quiet a moment longer, letting the radio and hum of the engine fill the space; Celine fought the urge to squirm.

"Wow."

Celine looked over, expecting sarcasm or some hint of irony, and Miyeong was smiling. She reached a hand over the console, lighting it on Celine's knee, and-

-And she didn't catch what Miyeong said next, too focused on not veering into the other lane and trying to force her pulse back to something sensible.

🌑 trying to live but feeling so damaged 🌑

But imagine gumiho Celine who was taken from her family, mentors who hunted every gumiho who came close to the property until the skulk moved on, loathed to abandon their lost kit but finding it too dangerous to stay.

Her mother being the only gumiho to stay behind. Learning the habits of the hunters, hoping to be able to steal back her kit when the chance came.

But it never did.

She saw her kit slowly lose herself. Transforming less until she stopped entirely. Wearing her human face until it was just her face. Learning to be a hunter until eventually, the wildness left her entirely and she smelled like city and rubber and steel.

Celine grows up being taught that her purpose was to be useful. Her worth came from what she could give back to humanity and the hunters. That, even though she had been unfortunate enough to be born a demon, she had been given an opportunity to do some good. And with it, the hope that she would be human in the next life.

Post-movie, Huntr/x discovers that Celine is a gumiho (maybe she's a sad sack and can't find it in herself to maintain her human form or maybe she feels like such a horrible demon that she reverts to her fox form) and Rumi gets it in her head that she's going to find out what happened to Celine's family.

Celine said that the previous hunters killed all the gumiho in the area but gumiho are supposed to be sly, shifty, sneaky demons and Rumi is convinced that the hunters couldn't have killed *all* of them.

Second, the girls are about to be attacked by a gumiho. That’s exactly what’s going to happen. Her kit is starting to embrace her gumiho side again but whenever the hunters come around she reverts back. Clearly it’s their fault.

Oh combining your addition with @secondtolastrow 's addition 👀

Mother-fox knows that something has shifted in the hunter's den.

The scent of fox, strong and musky, grows stronger by the day ever since her grand-kit's scream split the sky open. And in the days since, watching from behind the treeline, where she has learned from years of watching is safe, she sees glimpses of a white fox behind the glass panes.

Thin, in fur and in body. Shoulders slumped, ears pinned back. Her kit had spent days in the window sill overlooking the front gate, looking so still that had it not been for the fog gathering on the cold glass, Mother-fox would have thought her kit dead.

She had not perked up until her own kit returned along with the short hunter and the pink-haired hunter.

(She had still not seen her kit leave the hunter's den.)

(Her kit had left the window.

She didn't know if her kit was still alive.)

So when the hunters had started to leave scraps of liver in the woods, when they had started to invade her territory; Her teeth ached to bite down. She wanted to shred flesh, feel warm blood spurt from their necks and drink deep.

It’s screaming for its child

She hears Mira and Zoey waking up, tries to gesture at them not to do something stupid even while she can’t take her eyes off the slavering maw in front of her

She takes a deep breath. “Are you talking about Celine? Can you—can you help her?”

The fox snarls, paces, disbelieving. “You want to help her?”

(Out of the corner of Rumi’s eyes, she catches Mira and Zoey exchanging a glance. The moment of understanding that passes between them)

This child in front of her might have spent her childhood riding astride gumiho, white fur clutched in small, child fists. She would have been presented to the skulk the night of her first full moon, would have been named underneath it's soft, white glow.

That image, and nothing less, is what stops Mother-fox from screaming further in this child's face.

It does not stop her from circling the camp and howling her frustration into the trees.

"Your kind's 'help' destroyed her!" She snarls. "Do you even know what she should be at her age?"

The girls shook their heads.

"She was supoosed to have grown into her tails decades ago!" Seven, eight tails maybe. Large, fluffy, and white. Her ninth tail would not have sprouted for decades. Mother-fox feared it never would. "You would help her kill what little part of her is still here!"

"That's not what we want!" The child protests. "We just want Celine to be okay again!"

"Yeah," the short hunter says. "We came back to talk to her and she was this fox. And now, she won't even come out from under her bed."

“And then she told us she was a gumiho!” Zoey adds hurriedly. “And the old Hunters just made her push all of that down so we never knew, not even Rumi.”

Mira nods, and Rumi does too, ugly anger welling up in her at the memory of what Celine’s mentors had apparently taught her. It’s very easy to understand the gumiho’s screaming when she thinks about them and what they did to Celine.

“We wouldn’t have known what to do even if it was a curse,” Rumi admits, “but… Celine said the old Hunters spent years driving the gumiho away from the hanok. I—every story says that gumiho are supposed to be tricky, and…”

The woman that the gumiho transforms into flares her tails almost aggressively, as if daring them to ignore the fact that they are still very much looking at a fox even as she gets right into Rumi’s face again, her breath full of carnivore-stink.

But Rumi doesn’t flinch. Won’t let herself.

“And?” she asks.

And Celine loved me enough that becoming what she hated didn’t matter.

Mother-fox scoffs, looking down her nose at the trio before her with disdain. Ignorance. She'd expect nothing less from a pack of Hunters.

She barks in laughter, sharp and harsh, like claws scrapping across stone.

So… hopefully this works?

Rumi picks her way back up into the house on careful feet, glancing out the window to see a flicker of white fur darting out of view, every time. It’s like she’s a little kid sneaking back from a midnight snack again, or a teenager who probably shouldn’t have stayed up quite that late with Mira and Zoey.

But it isn’t.

She nudges open the door to Celine’s room with her hip, calls out, “Hey, Celine.”

Like it’s normal. Like Celine might just be choosing her clothes for the day, ready to groan back at her about her lack of boundaries from inside the closet.

There’s no response.

“Brought you something,” she says, awkwardly setting the jacket down on the bed, for lack of anywhere better to put it. It feels important, but… it’s just a stupid windbreaker? So. Bed.

She kneels down to check when there’s not even a grumble at that, and spots the little silhouette after only a moment. Which is good.

“Turns out there was one gumiho still hanging around,” she says, straightening up a little first. Celine doesn’t like it when they look at her and talk to her at the same time.

There’s still no response.

No response to anything she says, not for the next half hour.

Eventually, she just gives up. Not—for good, not in general. This isn’t the first day they’ve had when Celine has refused to talk at all.

(But it still feels like defeat.)

She goes and eats some breakfast, even if stems so stressed that it tastes like dirt, because Zoey really does try so hard to keep them together, and she watches the fox out the windows, and she thinks about little baby Celine being taken from everything she knew and—

But every time the fox steps out from the treeline and greets Rumi at the boundaries of the hanok, at the stone walls encircling the property that have stood for as long as anyone can remember.

It shouldn't surprise her -- the fox had waited and watched for decades, she would hardly stop now -- but it did.

"Maybe you just have a thing about moms sticking around," Zoey had suggested. And Rumi's face had twitched so horrifically that Zoey had said, hastily, "Or not!"

Rumi didn't want to think about it.

"She's leaving her room more," Rumi says to the fox.

She's perched herself atop the stone wall, facing the forest, her legs dangling in the air, the heel of her sneakers scrapping against the stone and moss.

The fox is laying on the grass on the other side -- the forest side -- close enough for Rumi to dig her fingers into the thick fur around her neck.

Rumi does not do this.

"She's still not really taking care of herself but she's starting to eat again," she says. "Zoey wants to try and brush out some of the mats in her fur today. Mira thinks we should try to wash her since she's still not... turning back."

"There's nothing to turn back," the fox says, sharply. "She's what she would have been if she hadn't been stolen."

But she did get stolen, Rumi wants to say. She was stolen and she spent fourty years as a human and that's all I've ever known her as and I miss my Cece.

She swallows her words and it's like swallowing a peach pit.

"Right," she says, instead.

The fox huffs like Rumi had insulted her.

But it reminds her so much of Celine cutting down anyone who dared question the way she bucked industry norms with how she ran her company that she doesn't. Just lets the fox's accusation hang.

How would she answer that anyway? It's not like she can say "Yeah, well, I like your stolen daughter better the way she forced herself to be for most of her life, so if she could lose the tails and fur that'd be great."

"It's just...hard, I guess," she settles on at last, knocking her heel against the stone of the wall. "Getting used to it. For all of us."

The fox wrinkles her snout, like she's smelled something foul. "What was hard was watching how they changed her. This is things being set to rights-"

"WOULD YOU JUST STOP???"

The world seems to stop as Rumi's shout hangs in the air. The fox stares. This time Rumi holds her gaze.

Stupid? Probably. But she couldn't keep taking the fox's disparagements. Not when Celine was still spending most of her day under the bed and acting like- per Zoey- she was clinically depressed.

"I get that it was hard. And that what happened to Celine- and you- was wrong. The old Hunters shouldn't have done that. But it happened, and no matter what she should have been Celine was used to living as a human and now-"

Rumi's words catch on something in her chest, on the image of Celine pressed into a corner under her bed, shaking and sullen and not Celine, but she presses on. "Now she's stuck and depressed and-" And I don't know how to fix it. "-and needs to turn back."

For herself, and for me.

The fox rises to a sit and pins her ears back, tails flicking testily across the grass. A ridge of fur rises like so many bristling spears along her back, and her whiskers twitch as she suppresses the urge to curl a lip back from her fangs.

Rumi doesn't flinch.

Then-

Then the wind shifts; they're downwind of the hanok now, and something above Rumi's senses brushes past the fox. From the change in the fox's expression, though, she knows it caught Celine's scent: the building snarl smooths, the spears lower, and the ears droop like leaves after a torrential rain.

She slips into the treeline without another word.

In hindsight, Rumi should have known better than to think that Celine would take so well to therapy.

Her Cece is a woman who showed her affection through plates of cut fruit and her apology through increasingly elaborate meals. When this whole thing had started, before the idea was even broached with Celine, Rumi had guessed that Celine would last maybe two sessions before saying that it, "wasn't for her" and giving up.

Celine: I cannot do family therapy with Rumi because I don't deserve to be claimed as family :(

lol only these two could need therapy for being in therapy

Zoey: We're doing an intervention, right?

Bc like. There are fics where Rumi is raised to see herself as less than human and more of a weapon, or perhaps something to be sacrificed, that otherwise tend very close to canon (or might reflect the author’s reading of canon)

And main!Huntrix start off thinking “wow younger Celine is kind of in a not-great mood. We should be kinda gentle with her, this must be a really stressful situation”

Except it’s targeted. At Rumi. She needs to talk to Rumi alone. She needs to find out what’s happened to the Honmoon, what’s happened with their music, yes it’s… good… that they have such a strong relationship and haven’t hurt her but what is she doing with her patterns visible?

And Rumi knows she should be nice, Celine’s just freaking out, she’s always been a control freak, she just wants to make sure Rumi is okay, but—fuck, after everything? For this to be their first real talk?

She’s snapping right back at Celine

And like, Rumi and Celine have definitely argued before (Rumi did used to be a teenager and Mira can attest to the screaming matches Rumi used to get into with Celine. Never very often but on occasions, it did happen.)

"How dare you speak to me like this" is expected.

It’s every one of Rumi’s worst nightmares, spoken out loud.

(Mira might not have been wrong when she called Rumi, "a little dramatic" when they were kids.)

Having been raised by Celine her entire life, Rumi knows what Celine is going to do next;

Celine is going to make some excuse about how she, "must be more stressed than she thought" which would be as close to, "I'm sorry, I was wrong" as she would get.

And then Celine would leave in as dignified a manner as she could while Rumi bristles in irritation behind her.

And the next time Celine came over, she would come with so many tupperware containers filled with all of Rumi's favorite dishes that Rumi would be unable to resist opening the door.

Celine would fill their empty-but-for-takeout refrigerator with her cooking and Rumi would look on with fond annoyance that would (mostly) melt away when Celine slings an arm around her and pulls her close to kiss her on the forehead.

That's how this is supposed to go.

Which leaves Rumi flatfooted and off guard when, instead of what Celine is supposed to do, Celine instead crosses her arms and nods as though Rumi had actually apologized.

But she is trying so, so hard not to say that thing that she knows will hurt Celine (Are you regretting not lopping my head off when you had the chance?), because she knows that impulse just means she’s scared, so she throws her hands up and walks out, instead.

And Celine was the one who taught her to walk away—maybe not with that kind of huff, but she’d insistently chipped away at Rumi’s childish temper tantrums, who else would’ve?

And yet, somehow, Celine is the one following her down the hall with a sharp “Excuse you? I wasn’t done speaking.”

///

@zoloteh-volossya Not interrupting!

I feel like it would be creepy, to some degree, but it also wouldn’t be clearly established—it would be everything Rumi has wanted to hear from Celine, has hoped was true about Celine, has imagined was there between them because maybe, maybe if she were good enough then Celine would want her. And love her

Old Celine looks at her with those sad eyes and she tries to say, “I love you,” again, and Rumi thinks

Maybe she died. Like she was supposed to. Maybe she died like a good Hunter would, and that’s why Celine is looking at her this way.

It would be nice, she thinks, to die for Mira and Zoey.

She didn't have a location in mind as she turns a corner. Celine's steps behind her -- were they getting louder? -- driving her forward, through the halls and corners of her own home.

Why was Celine doing this? Why wasn't she just letting Rumi leave?

A hand grips her shoulder and spins Rumi around. She comes face to face with an extremely irritated Celine, a deep scowl on her face.

"How dare you walk away from me?" Celine says. "After everything you've been given? I didn't have to take you in, you know. And you can't even respect me enough to stay and listen?"

//

Oooh yeah.

This Rumi who has been told so many times to her face that she's a mistake (Miyeong's mistake, something that shouldn't have been able to exist and yet here she is) and that she has demon blood tainting her.

And sure, Celine isn't the warmest person around. And she's made it clear that if she weren't Miyeong's daughter, she wouldn't have taken Rumi in at all but --

There had to be some love there, Rumi thinks. Surely some part of Celine loves Rumi.

But Rumi had also long given up hope of hearing it from Celine.

So when Celine brushes Rumi's forehead with the palm of her hand and says, "You know I love you, right? You're the most precious person to me in this whole world."

Celine breathes sharply through her nose, a chilly look that Rumi has rarely seen—and never experienced for herself—settling over her features. “Clearly not. My Rumi has not been allowed to lapse into such… degeneracy.”

Funny, how long Rumi has wanted to Celine to call her that—my Rumi, my family, my daughter—and now that she hears it, it sits like a cold, ugly lump in her stomach. My Rumi the way one might say my dog or my sword.

“Degeneracy?”

Both of them snap towards the sound of Mira’s voice, staring. It’s like suddenly the world exists again, something more than just Rumi and Celine and this awful wrongness.

Except not, because the look on Mira’s face is—Rumi’s gone and brought this to her, too.

A little more shaken than she’d ever mean to be, Mira says, “You sound like my dad.”

///

“No,” Celine says, promises, her voice shaking. “No, Rumi-yah, no, you lived, you get to live, I promise you, you get to live as your whole self.”

Rumi judders back from her touch, from those gentle hands, catching on that last phrase. She’s a good Hunter. She is. She knows how to keep her guard up. “My whole self?”

But Celine only repeats, insistent, “You get to live.”

Then she steps towards Rumi, the look in her eyes fierce and uncompromising and utterly terrified, and Rumi can see the animal in it, the less than human thing, and she is a good Hunter.

When Celine speaks to Mira, she almost sounds like herself. Patient, kind, if a little exasperated. Hearing it tears at Rumi's insides.

Why Mira and not me, Rumi wants to say. 

"Then why say that to Rumi?" Mira demands. Her hands shake in the way they do when she nervous and upset and is trying to hide it. "You've always said we needed to be better -- just because we came from ... people like him didn't mean we had to be that way too. We could be better." 

Celine sighs. Almost fondly. 

"Mira, Rumi is different," she says. There was a tic in her eyelid as she said this; a small twitching in her lips that was the start of a frown.

"You told me I was a hunter, just like my mother." Rumi couldn't hide the hurt in her voice. 

"You are and I'm proud of what you've grown up to be." When Celine turns to face her, she's smiling. "But your mother's mistake... makes you less human, Rumi. You know that. It's not fair but you are a... bigger risk than a normal child like Mira was." 

//

For the second time this year, Celine finds herself staring at the glow of Rumi's sword. Only now, the tip is being pointed at her chest. 

"You can't fool me," Rumi hisses. "Demon. What did you do to Celine!?" 

Celine scrambles back. 

But the bottom of her stomach drops out nonetheless.

“Are you proud of me?” she asks, because she has always been too sharp, too ready to cut. “Or have I degenerated according to my nature?”

Celine’s expression tightens, and she almost looks like she’s going to snap back—but she doesn’t.

“How could you ask that?” she says, instead. “Of course I am proud of you.”

///

Something crashes down the hall, and Mira and Zoey exchange a wary look.

Well, Mira gives Zoey a wary look. And Zoey looks like she’s trying firmly to pretend that she didn’t hear anything.

Celine and Rumi are as close as Mira has ever seen to healthy, she thinks, sometimes, and then others… And old Celine is weird. Like, even weirder than Celine usually is.

“Do you think we should go check on them?” Mira asks.

Zoey jumps, and spins her wheels a bit—“What? No, why would we—I’m sure it’s nothing!”—before, as usual, giving in: “…Well, if you think we should, then I guess it can’t hurt?”

Of everything that could be waiting for them down the hall, Mira is not expecting to find Rumi, sword drawn, advancing on old Celine.

When she was younger, before she had met Mira and Zoey, and Celine -- and her mother, buried under a gravestone, that she would never meet -- was the single, most important person in her life, Rumi had dreamed of Celine saying that she was proud of her.

In her imagination, she had done something big and important; she'd sealed the honmoon gold.

And Celine would hold her close and whisper those words in her hair because Celine's love was never loud, not even in her imagination. But it was warm and it filled Rumi completely the rare moments it was directed at her.

And, in her imagination, now that she was free to be Rumi and Celine was free to just be Celine -- now that they didn't have to be mentor and student -- they could be... as close to a mother and daughter as they could be.

Her dreams had changed, of course. After she had met Mira and Zoey.

But this was the oldest. Her most closely held dream.

Rumi felt something inside her crumple. Some cornerstone of her very being giving way under the weight of the idea that Celine might not ever want her. That Celine hadn't even seen her as human.

"Because you always told me that I was a hunter, just like my mother," Rumi says. "That I was just as human as she was. That my father didn't -- that it didn't matter that he was a demon, it didn't change who I was."

She snorts to herself. It's a wet and ugly sound.

"You've been lying to me my entire life, you never loved me," Rumi says. "And now you're supposed to be proud of me?"

//

Mira blinks.

"Uh, Rumi, how do you know that?" She asks, slowly drawing her blade from the honmoon.

From the corner of her eye, she sees flashes of light as Zoey does the same.

Muscles in Celine's arm and shoulders twitch. She shifts her weight, tilts her body in response.

She does not look at them.

Don't get distracted by noise, Celine had taught them.

Mira's pole-arm was too long to be effective in the cramped spaces of a home and Zoey couldn't throw her knives without the risk of sending them into Rumi. They knew that. And Celine knew that.

"She --!" Rumi sputters. Her grip wavers before her knuckles tighten around the hilt of her sword again. "She said I get to live!"

The weight of Mira's gok-do disappears before she grips her hand tighter around the air and it settles inside her palms again. Her shoulder slump and she tilts her head.

"And that's...a bad thing?" Zoey asks. She's scratching her head with the base of a knife. The other hangs in her hand, attached to an arm dangling at her side. "Rumi are -- you know you can talk to us, right?"

And Rumi stares at her, even though tears are starting to blur her vision, and Celine stares back, and—

It’s so like Celine. The way Celine should be. After the Idol Awards, as they talked about everything, Mira had awkwardly asked some question that Rumi couldn’t even remember now, just the way she’d jumped on it: Celine would never lie to me! She hates lying. I just… made her…

Then Celine purses her lips and huffs through her nose and says, “Don’t start crying, Rumi. It doesn’t get you your way in my time, and you should know better than to think it will now.”

Like Rumi is doing this as some kind of personal attack on her. Like Rumi never should’ve expected anything more than what she got. Like ripping a hole in everything Rumi was—

“Hey, Rumi, c’mere,” Mira says, and suddenly she’s gently tugging Rumi close to her (wrong, wrong, Rumi is her unnie, she’s supposed to be taking care of Mira) and shooting a look at Celine. “I think you guys just need a minute, come on, let’s go find Zoey, yeah?”

And somehow all of the thoughts in Rumi’s head just come out as “Sorry,” muttered quiet and angry-sounding into Mira’s shoulder.

///

“Yes, it’s a bad thing!” Rumi looks an inch away from stomping her foot, which is just adds to the awful, surreal experience that coming into this room has been. She clenches her jaw, glaring at Celine. “I’m not suicidal; I’m just—I’m not—”

Celine (who, Zoey’s gonna be real, she kind of doubts is a demon) looks like she’s going to be sick.

“…Right,” Mira says, managing to stick surprisingly close to her promise of being nonjudgmental. “So why is you living… bad?”

“Celine would never say that,” Rumi snaps. “Not all of me!”

Celine flinches like she’s been slapped, and Zoey isn’t sure what, but she can tell that Rumi just said something important. Something true. Except it doesn’t make sense, because—

Celine is always telling them about the importance of having hope. How else can you inspire it in others?

Turning a corner, slipping out from under Celine's gaze, Rumi sags against Mira. She presses her face into Mira's shoulder and sucks in large, heaving breaths like she had been fished from a river.

Mira rubs circles on Rumi's back.

She doesn't say, "It's going to be okay" or "You're going to be fine" or some other platitude that sounds comforting in her head but she knows doesn't really help -- it didn't help when she still thought her parents actually cared about her and it wouldn't help Rumi now.

What she says is, "You know, I really didn't think the stick up her ass could get bigger."

Rumi snorts into her shoulder.

She feels Rumi shuddering and then, dampess on her shoulder.

"I thought she cared," Rumi says, brokenly, through angry gasps. "She said she loved me!"

"I know," Mira says. "I know."

"And *she* was the one who kept telling me my father didn't matter! It was all about my mother! Miyeong, Miyeong, Miyeong!"

Angrily, Rumi wipes at her eyes. It doesn't stop new tears from welling up and spilling over the sides of her eyelids.

"If she's always felt that way, then she should have told me as a kid!" Rumi scrapes the bottom of her shoe against the floor. "And I wouldn’t have spent my entire life trying to be her daughter!"

//

"Rumi, I --" Celine's throat bobs like she's trying to force back her own sick. And then, in a pained tone that Zoey had never heard from Celine, she says, "Rumi, something ... happened. You -- you came to me, asking to die and --"

At this, Rumi looks away before catching herself and snapping her gaze back onto Celine.

"-- and I've had to do a lot of reflecting. And I know how I've raised you is wrong, Rumi. I should have showed you how much I loved you. You never should have needed to wonder if I -- if I thought of you as my daughter."

Rumi breathes deep through her nose. Her eyes are rimmed red. But when she speaks, it's with a coldness that makes Zoey want to shiver.

"You can drop the act, demon," Rumi says. "I know Celine would never claim me as her child. I'm my mother's half-demon mistake and that's all I'll ever be to her."

Rumi, reading from where she’s flopped on Mira’s shoulder, makes a quiet sound, somewhere between angry and guilty.

“Come on,” Mira says, careful to keep her tone light. “She was being a dick.”

(She does not touch on the fact that if this is the shit baby Celine believes, then it’s probably what their Celine believes, and she probably wants that lady out of her house too.)

Rumi huffs snottily as the texts back from Zoey (beginning with several shocked and angry emojis) start to flood back at them. “Yeah. Yeah, she really—I mean, you didn’t even hear the part where she started telling me I had to put on some concealer, like my patterns being visible would bring on the apocalypse or something.”

Mira rolls her eyes, dutifully, even as she looks back down at those open mouthed emojis and wishes…

Wishes that they weren’t surprised. That it could be easier. That Celine would’ve just sucked instead of being the person who got her out of hell and made her think maybe she was worth something for all these years.

It’s really, really hard not to think everything I touch always goes to shit eventually right then.

///

Shaking, foolish, back in the night at the tree again, knowing she’ll fail, Celine does what she always has: she tries anyway.

“You are not a mistake,” she says, and she steps forward.

Rumi holds her sword between them with shaking hands, more like she’s warding Celine away than preparing to attack.

It doesn’t matter which, though. Celine still steps forward again, lets it hum with soul-warmth against her shirt. “I am so, so sorry that I made you think differently. I—“

“Stop saying that!” Rumi snarls, and she shifts, and—

—to Celine’s surprise, Zoey catches her wrist.

To everyone else’s, too, from the looks of them. Zoey included.

Rumi skitters back, spreading her hands, lowering her sword, eyes wide, and Celine knows that Mira and Zoey will love Rumi, just as she is, but—maybe they don’t. Not yet. She’s in between them before they can blink, Rumi at her back.

“Don’t hurt her, she’s not—she’s not a demon, she’s not going to hurt anyone, please, it’s Rumi—“

The hunters between these two worlds. Fortunate for the hunters that the demons above ground kept a wide berth from them and minding their own business. But, still they hunt them down.

Anyway... Just thinking of Rumi who is half human, half jeoseung saja. Celine's mama smelling that particular demon scent and she's a hunter too.

Because the child she carries reeks of Hunter; because the babe in her arms stinks of the jeoseung saja.

"Take it to its father's kind," they snarl. "There is no space for soul-stealers in our skulk. She will bring Gwi-Ma's pawns to our woods and the Hunters on their tails."

It's not like when her mentors' rejected Rumi; she had expected that. To have the gumiho turn, even after her mother had nuzzled her and wrapped her in her tails and healed something she hadn't known was broken, is painful in a different, deeper way.

Rumi asks, years later, if she has a halmeoni or aunts or cousins.

Celine reasons that it's not really a lie when she says 'no.'

And after that delay, we're back! Only sort of KPDH related, but if you know, you know ;)

Key theme of the story

Key setting

Pivotal event

Base it around the main character

Main theme

Key elements like objects and places

What’s special about your wip that can catch the reader’s attention

A title that gives away what kind of genre it is (something about love for romance, something about magic for fantasy etc)

Combine any of the above into an intriguing collocation

Currently: while Mira, Rumi, and Zoey have wandered off to have gay breakdowns—er, put Rumi’s sword away, Minji, Miyeong, and Celine are working on lunch and continuing to plan how they’ll be getting rid of the wraiths. In Seoul, a grieving Bobby meets a nurse…

She looks over at her designated sous chef, but Minji-nim has slumped over her arms on the table, eyes closed at last.

Celine is glad. It's meant to be part of her duties, in carrying on the great Rumi-nim's work, to give comfort to those who she helps; Rumi-nim healed hearts and spirits, as well as protecting bodies from harm. Celine has always been much better at the practical side of things. She can offer food, a safe place to go, she can repair torn stuffed animals and glue together broken heirlooms like they were never damaged, but she's never known what to say to people, when they hurt. In the face of what Minji-nim has lost, any mere words Celine could think to offer feel dismissive and trite. But a nap will do her good.

Celine turns to Miyeong-nim instead. "Can you be trusted to chop kimchi?"

"Let's find out." The reporter's eyes sparkle as she takes the jar. "You can come over here and supervise, if you're worried."

Miyeong-nim really is a flirt. Celine should probably roll her eyes, but she finds herself smiling, just a little, instead, as she turns back to the skillet. It's been a while since anyone cared to flatter her that way. And despite first impressions, she's beginning to think Miyeong-nim's good opinion is more discerning than she likes to act.

Certainly, she has decent taste in women. Celine glances over at the table again. "Will she be alright there?" she asks Miyeong-nim. "She needs sleep, but I doubt she needs back problems."

The reporter stops squinting suspiciously at the kimchi and takes a look of her own. "She'll be okay, I've caught her napping in much worse positions than that. You wouldn't think a human could bend the way a nurse can bend when the only available flat surface is the top of a mini-fridge."

Her face has gone soft and warm, and her voice is so fond that it makes the words sound like something earthshaking and precious, instead of the off-hand anecdote to a near-stranger that it is.

Celine looks back at her, blushing slightly and says, voice stiff with embarrassment, “I hadn’t meant to presume. I apologize.”

“No, no, it’s just…” Miyeong stares at her, attempting to come up with something, anything beyond repeating, “…Minji? She’s so… and I’m…”

Why would someone like Minji, who is as selfless and competent and together as she could be, possibly get involved with Miyeong? (…Beyond getting dragged along with her in extenuating circumstances such as the ones they were under. Where it was the right thing to do.)

Celine frowns slightly. “You’re…?”

Miyeong’s face goes hot, feeling ridiculously adolescent at having Celine look at her as if she‘a more than just some worn out idiot who’d sold her soul for consistent employment years ago.

“I—I don’t even know if she—“ likes women. Miyeong takes a breath before she finishes that sentence in the stupidest way possible. “We’d known each other through work before now. Separate works. Wherein she did not like me very much.”

Celine just looks at her for another moment, still frowning, and nods. “…What sort of stories have you working at the hospital, then?”

Miyeong cringes at the thought of explaining about Yeonggi, though she knows Celine hadn’t meant it that way, and then it makes Celine wince and— “No, no! You didn’t—no, I was only—please, Celine-nim, forgive me, there’s just a bit of a story there, and one that involves me being a bit of an idiot.”

Matched with a smile, that, at least, finally has Celine loosening up instead of looking like she wants out of this conversation, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

So Miyeong deftly avoids the subject of how everything with Yeonggi ended, and gets into how it started—a tale involving missing IV bags, a caffeine allergy, and a source who exclusively spoke Spanish.

It makes Celine laugh, as she explains how she’d tried to bribe the handsome male nurse with coffee and he’d looked at her like he wanted to die.

She skips the part where he was so enthusiastic about helping her because the new operation was cutting in on his own illegal activities. Maybe once they’ve known each other more than a week… and she’s had a conversation with Celine where she doesn’t have to fight the urge to melt into the ground from embarrassment.

It’s funny, though. She’d never noticed that Minji was in the story so much too, exhaustedly trying to kick Miyeong out even then. “Since I still had the coffee, I tried the trick on the next nurse I saw.”

Celine, set up at her own cutting board next to Miyeong, follows her nod to Minji. “And I take it she refused?”

“Oh, no, she took it,” Miyeong says, feeling a fond smile tug at her lips. “It just meant that she smiled at me while directing me to the exit that day.”

Celine’s laughter feels distant, almost, as Miyeong puts down the knife.

Does she… have feelings for Minji?

But as soon as Rumi puts the sword away, she turns and all but marches out, a woman on a mission. Zoey turns to Mira, a silent question, but Mira just raises her eyebrows and shrugs a little, and then gestures broadly toward the door with a tiny little bow of her head, after you.

Fortunately, from behind, Mira won't be able to see the absurd blush that overtakes Zoey's entire face over such a completely normal gesture.

When they get to the kitchen, Minji is slumped asleep on the table, and the sweet smell of sauteed veggies fills the air. Celine and Miyeong are standing very close together at the counter; over the sizzling of oil, Zoey can just hear Celine walking Miyeong patiently through every step of holding her fingers curled, rocking the knife along its curve, letting the blade do the work. From her angle at the door, Zoey can just make out the edge of Miyeong's expression, serious and focused, and the tip of one ear, a brilliant red.

"Honorable shaman," says Rumi, keeping her voice low to not wake Minji and doing something really unfair to Zoey's guts as a bonus. Both women look up, Celine like a normal person and Miyeong with a little startled jump. "Can I assist in any way?"

Celine looks around thoughtfully. "There's not much else to do until it's time to fry the eggs. You three should get something to drink, though. Especially Rumi-nim. I'm sure you're dehydrated after that swordwork."

While Rumi is thanking Celine with more of that formal, archaic graciousness that should be goofy and awkward but is actually just really sweet and hot, Zoey starts digging in the fridge, Mira right behind her. "What do we think they drank to cool off in Rumi's day?" Mira murmurs, and from right over her shoulder that is also doing something really unfair to Zoey's guts, and this is the worst day. "Just water?"

There is bottled water in the fridge, but, "All that sweat," says Zoey, very cool and very calm and totally a medical professional about it, "we should give her something with some electrolytes."

They dig out a few choices for her, bokbunja and banana milk and a bottle of Bacchus that seems like an odd thing for Celine to keep on hand, considering her vibe. Zoey's usually pretty uncomfortable about sharing her drinks, but for some reason it feels totally normal when they sit down at the table, a respectful distance from the lump of unconscious nurse, and make Rumi try all three before deciding who gets what.

Her eyes go bright and she says, "An age of wonders," again, at the banana milk, and Zoey ends up with the energy drink. Probably for the best; her ADHD makes her functionally immune to caffeine, Mira should probably be avoiding it post-surgery, and Zoey's not sure she's ready for the Rumi On Red Bull experience.

"So not to in any way imply that we should be left here, because we are absolutely not doing that," says Zoey, once they're settled, "but, what's the plan for those of us without sacred weapons? I know we're looking for the wraiths, but what should Mira and I and our home invaders do when we find them?"

Miyeong just smiles shamelessly at the dig, and Celine looks over her shoulder at Mira. "Did you learn any rituals of control or banishment, from your family?"

Mira grimaces. "I tried to know as little about it as I could. Kinda wish I'd payed more attention, now."

"Well, I can teach you all a simple exorcism. Strong rituals take time we won't have to perform and even more to learn, but wraiths are only so powerful once their summoner is gone. The right words and a little mugwort can be enough to break their control on a person, particularly if any of you happen to be decent singers. And provided you can keep your own minds barred against the pain they feed on."

It takes a few minutes for the world to kick back into focus. She’d love to say that the vegetables suddenly taste like ash in her mouth, that everything turns blackened and sick, but… the world just keeps existing, same as it ever has. That’s the worst part.

The food tastes good. She just can’t let herself enjoy it.

They talk, and plan, and somehow it’s decided that they’ll be trying to make the last ferry out and staying the night in a hotel on the mainland, so they’ll have a whole day for Rumi and Celine-nim to take on the wraiths.

At least no one has much packing to do.

“Both of our cars only seat five,” Miyeong says, as if it wouldn’t be reasonable to at least pretend she hadn’t tracked them by car. “Do we want to split back according to how we came?”

“I should probably stick with you three,” Minji says, gesturing to younger group—or, wait, Rumi’s five hundred. Ugh. “No offense, but if anyone’s going to be needing medical attention, it’ll be one of you.”

Rumi looks mildly offended (as if the skin of her torso isn’t half-shredded), while Mira nods, conceding the point, and Zoey laughs a little, awkwardly.

“Yeah,” she says, “probably. But we shouldn’t have anyone riding solo, so do we want to have someone double-buckle, or…?”

“Celine-nim and I can ride together,” Miyeong volunteers.

A second later, she blushes vibrantly, turning to Celine-nim. “If—if you want, I mean! You don’t have to, I didn’t mean to speak for you—“

“I would be happy to,” Celine-nim says smoothly, which is nice. Miyeong deserves a win—getting to spend a few hours in a car with a beautiful woman before they all drive to their deaths is the least that could happen for her.

And then she gets another when Rumi volunteers to take Mira and Zoey out for knife practice.

“Go on,” Minji says, nodding after the not-actually-younger trio. “I know how much you like distance weaponry.”

“I’m offended by this,” Miyeong declares, but she marches after them to go find Celine-nim’s shinkal nonethless.

Minji smiles after her. She hopes Miyeong enjoys it—properly enjoys it, in the way that Minji wouldn’t be able to right now, even when she doesn’t think about Miyeong and Yeonggi soundly beating Seulgi at darts, the way she would always laugh about it.

“You don’t have to help with the dishes,” Celine says gently, but Minji shakes her head.

She's fairly sure Zoey would melt otherwise.

She doesn’t get too upset about it.

“Never really been great at throwing things,” Mira admits, as the knives run out and they pause to go get them back.

“You cannot curse yourself to failure before you begin,” Rumi says, all warmth and good intentions. “You merely need a bit of practice.”

But Zoey sees the way Mira’s jaw tightens (and then quickly loosens again as she loses some color, clearly regretting that move) and she knows the feeling. When you really just know something’s fucking hard and always will be and someone oh-so-sweetly denies it, like you’re just being mean to yourself and not able to accurately assess the situation… it sucks.

So she bites her tongue against the “You got this!” that she wants to chirp out—especially when Miyeong says exactly that and Mira’s jaw does that thing again—and, instead, just watches how Mira throws.

…Which is ridiculously badly. Because she just throws with her arm.

“Um,” Zoey says, carefully, “are you okay with constructive criticism or do you just want me to stand over to the side and not say anything? Because I’m totally good with not saying anything! I promise!”

Mira huffs before she can get any further. “Advice is fine.”

“Well, uh, I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but… you kinda gotta roll with it? Like, twist your hips and put all of you into it!” She offers her goofiest smile, exaggerating the shift of her body until it’s more of a joking bounce than an actual mock-throw as she mimes it for Mira—and then having to do it for real, however awkward that is.

But Mira’s smiling, nodding—though that might have something to do with Rumi coming over to try to help guide her through it with those calloused-but-still-so-gentle hands of hers. You know. If Zoey had to guess.

Just from the way Mira starts getting that really pretty blush, not any of her own thoughts on the matter, obviously.

At least she’s too distracted to be paying attention to Zoey as she throws again. Her lips tilt in a tiny smile as the knife clips the edge of the bag and she turns to high five Rumi.

And then she keeps turning and offers her hand to Zoey. To high five.

Right, because they should show Rumi, that was only invented in, like, the 1950s.

So Zoey grins and slaps her palm against Mira’s, and Mira—her voice is always kinda quiet, with the wires and all, but she tilts her head back and laughs and it’s so pretty and Zoey is so, so doomed.

And then! And then!!!!

She looks at Zoey and she smiles and she says, “Thanks. I always forget not to isolate everything when I’m not dancing.”

Or maybe it's Celine-nim, who has a warm steadiness to her presence, despite her silence. There's something in the way she holds herself, the way she seems so centered and in control, as though demon apocalypses are just another day. It makes the pressure seem a little lighter, just for her standing there.

She's also very hospitable, rewarding Minji for her assistance by leading them to the sitting room and producing a bottle of soju, then pouring out two shots. "I don't often have the occasion," she says, her smile small and wry, "but if there's ever been a situation that warrants a drink..."

Minji doesn't need to be told twice. She grabs a glass, says a dry, ironic "wihayeo," and throws it back without blinking. Celine-nim shows more restraint, and simply holds hers, maybe swirling it a little, contemplatively, while Minji pours herself another.

"The 'situation'," Minji repeats, as the second shot burns down her throat. "That's one word for it. We've got the impossible ancient hero. The murder of all my friends. The kid who got kidnapped for a sacrifice. The thing where we're setting a bunch of random civilians against fantasy monsters." She waves a hand, still wrapped around the glass, at Celine-nim. "You said you were part of an order, right? Aren't there other people who are, I don't know. Trained in this kind of stuff? How is this Miyeong's job, or those poor kids?"

The shaman takes her bitterness in stride, watching her calmly like she has every right to it, but makes no apologies.

"We've been spread very thin, over the years," she answers instead, matter-of-fact, "and we were never a large order to begin with. Anyone I called for help would have to travel too far to be timely, and would have to leave their own home defenseless."

Celine-nim finally takes her shot, the long column of her throat flexing elegantly as she swallows. Minji blinks and drops her eyes, pouring herself another.

"Still," she says, filling Celine's glass again too, once she puts it down, "you have Rumi, right? Shouldn't you two just... do your thing, and the rest of us just stay out of the way?"

For a moment, Celine-nim just watches Minji, a careful regard that seems to peel right into the heart of her. Minji has seen Miyeong strip informants of their layers with a look, leaving them cut open and exposed, but this feels different, somehow; like Minji's being understood, her deepest self handled with the care of a surgeon, everything closed up properly afterward and left healthier than she started.

"... when I first met Zoey," Celine-nim says, once her keen gaze has finished its search, "I knew she and I would someday do something important together. I understand why, now. She and Mira withstood the voice of no mere wraith, but of Gwi-Ma himself, for days, and remained steadfast enough despite it to bring Rumi-nim back up from the hells."

She drinks again, and this time Minji doesn't look away.

Celine smiles and shakes her head instead of answering, not knowing either way. She hopes so, at least, given how shortly post-surgery Mira had been when the two of them arrived at her office.

Minji-nim waits with that for a moment before she says, quietly, “One of the wraiths looked like a photographer Miyeong liked. We didn’t even know he was dead until…”

Until we explained what they were. Celine grimaces.

“And—fucking Yeonggi turned up, apparently—did—“ Minji-nim breathes, sharply. “Becoming a wraith. Does it mean something about you?”

She wishes she could say no. Wishes she had decent words, comforting hands, anything. She tells the truth. “Gwi-Ma can only take a person’s image to use as a wraith if they gave themself to him in life.”

Minji-nim covers her face with her hands for a long moment before making a sound, the kind that might be a sob and might be a laugh. “Miyeong always thought there was something about the way Yeonggi died. We all figured it was just—“

Celine thinks back to the way Miyeong-nim had been so startled by Celine’s mistake, earlier, hadn’t even thought to be offended as she looked down at Minji-nim as if she were somehow worth impossibly more. And she thinks she understands a little.

“He actually sold his soul to a demon?” Minji-nim asks, peering up at her. She doesn’t wait for an answer before she laughs again. “That son of a bitch, of course he did.”

“Many do,” Celine says. “Gwi-Ma is… clever. And it might not have been…”

Minji-nim shakes her head again. “I don’t need hope for Yeonggi’s memory.”

“But I need you to understand,” Celine replies, thinking, terribly, of Rumi-nim on the other side of that portal, bloody and resigned and smiling as she gave herself up. She thinks of— “I need you to understand that it is not a weakness of—he will not only take what is offered. Gwi-Ma is called the Devourer for a reason. He will take anything he can touch, freely given or otherwise.”

Her hand has found its way to Minji-nim’s shoulder, somehow, as she is very close to her face.

Celine jumps back against the arm of the couch.

Minji-nim’s mouth opens.

“We must hold onto each other,” Celine says, before she can hear some platitude. “We must.”

"Very good," is Rumi's assessment, as Zoey sinks one just a few centimeters off a bullseye and does a little whoop of glee. "You all show great promise. But in a true battle, your enemies will seldom remain still. I would like to advance to practice on moving targets, if you are amenable."

Zoey shoots a sly look at Miyeong, and then beams at Rumi, wide and innocent. "Sounds great, let's do it!"

Mira demurs, preferring to keep trying to consistently hit the stationary bags, but Miyeong rolls her shoulders competitively and agrees. Rumi has a little pile of squash that she's managed to collect from somewhere, green and round and overripe, and she lobs one slowly across the field of fire. Zoey whips a shinkal after it, a long clean release, and it sails just behind the vegetable, nearly clipping it.

Miyeong's lead might be in trouble.

One more round, and Miyeong's lead is definitely in trouble. She nicks a squash here and there, but mostly she goes wide in every direction, and Zoey, still hitting blunt-first a lot but still consistently hitting, is steadily closing the point gap. Rumi puts forward a valiant attempt to pretend she's impartial about it, but Mira makes no such pretense. She's entirely given up on her own practice to cheer Zoey on and trash-talk Miyeong, and Miyeong can't find it anything but charming. Watching the three of them fall all over each other in a fit of youthful hormones is almost more fun than the knife-throwing itself.

Though perhaps she shouldn't judge. At least they know what they're feeling. She lets her eyes flick over to the main building. Behind those walls is a woman who has somehow become the most stable presence in Miyeong's life for the better part of a decade, a reliable constant in all her rootless chaos, an irreplaceable comfort against her loneliness, and Miyeong never even noticed.

Honestly, she sort of wishes she still hadn't. It's not like there's anything to do with the information. Miyeong had her one shot, and it literally ended with a body count. Minji, who is in such terrible pain but still sent her out here to flex her projectile skills on undergrads for fun, deserves better from Miyeong than to hope to drag her down.

Even Mira is more like to hit the target than not, and she showed much promise when they went over how to stab an attacker, despite being quite stiff during Rumi’s explanation.

“I am very proud of you,” she tells them all, the same as she tells everyone she teaches, whether they be five years old or sixty-five.

“You’re a really good teacher,” Miyeong-nim says, warmly, and Mira and Zoey agree, and Zoey comes up to loop an arm over Rumi’s shoulder and pull her close in thanks.

And all of this is good, like the sun and the grass and the feeling of an overripe squash in her hand. Rumi holds it tight, tries to burn it into herself, because she knows from experience that weak words would not stop Gwi-Ma.

They use the washroom to quickly wipe off the worst of the sweat and, going last, Rumi has opportunity to see that Mira has, indeed, changed her clothes, which is presumably simply what is done when one sweats in this time. The amount of washing must be ridiculous, and Rumi has a million questions about how they prevent things from falling apart, but—

For now, she just jerks her head away, flushing, because Mira has walked out wearing what cannot qualify as a full garment in this day and age.

It covers barely more than the undergarments. It doesn’t even reach her knees.

It doesn’t even reach halfway to her knees!

You’ve spent how much time in brothels? Rumi scolds herself, angry and embarrassed. Get a hold of yourself; her body is nothing to do with you.

It's a logical division. Sensible. Minji's familiar enough with Miyeong's car to drive it without being distracted searching for the turn signal, and Celine's car is, well, Celine's. Plus if Rumi or Mira needs sudden medical aid, having Minji able to provide immediate guidance without needing to be flagged down from the other car is beneficial.

And Miyeong's not heartless; she has no intention to get in the way of young love and suggest Zoey ride with her and Celine.

So this is the most logical way to split up.

If the thought of being alone with Celine for a couple of hours ties a knot in her stomach, that's just...pre-wraith-hunting nerves. Yeah.

Celine nods, the motion more elegant than it has a right to be. "I'm fine with it."

Miyeong's heart jumps. The hot gorgeous TALL shaman's fine with it! She's fine with alone time with her! She is-

Lightheaded.

Maybe she should drive her own car with the girls. They have cellphones; Minji's only a call away-

But Minji's already holding her hand out for Miyeong's keys, and they're going to miss the ferry if they're not careful.

"I can drive!" Zoey's hand shoots up in the air. "Please? Rumi hasn't seen me drive yet and I'm really good! Mira! Tell them how good I am!"

"She didn't get us towed," Mira shrugs. "I think."

Miyeong blanches, thoughts of Celine momentarily suspended by thoughts of her car in the impound lot. Or worse.

Not that Zoey didn't seem responsible, but...she'd been that age once. She'd been that eager to drive to impress a crush once. She'd turned a car into an off-roader more than once.

But Minji- thank god for Minji- pockets the keys. "I'm giving you the aux."

"A role of great importance," Rumi nods seriously, perking Zoey up from the deflated slump she'd fallen into. "And you did exemplary with it yesterday.”

Miyeong mouths a ‘thank you’ to Minji as the girls pile in to the car, Mira and Zoey bouncing songs that Rumi just had to hear between them like juggling balls, and watches them crunch out of the gravel drive. She’d have a lot to worry about in the next few hours, but at least her car wasn’t one of them.

The sound of a car door opening pulls her attention back to her side.

“Ready?” Celine asks, one hand gripping the open door. There’s an inviting little smile on her lips, and her eyes catch the sun in such a way that they sparkle, igniting something in Miyeong’s chest.

Yes, a lot to worry about…

But: nope. They pile in (Minji driving, Rumi and Zoey in back, and Mira sitting shotgun to have some room for her legs) and get on the road and Rumi shows absolutely no signs of discomfort.

Zoey might be a bad person for being disappointed about that.

After a while, the conversation shifts back from music to demons. Minji missed Celine’s earlier advice about mugwort, after all.

“The first rule of wraith-hunting is,” Rumi says (and Zoey’s brain unhelpfully fills in to have fun and be yourself and we don’t talk about wraith-hunting), “that they are hollow. There is nothing in them, and any promises they make to you are false. Do not listen. Hold on to what is solid.”

She looks at Zoey while she says it, because Zoey’s the only one looking at her, and so Zoey is left with the intensity of Rumi’s gaze, the impossible, out-of-time person that she is, and the softness of her smile.

“You,” she says. “Music. The sun on the grass. Anything you have.”

And Zoey’s brain plays it again: You. You. You. She has you.

But before she can say something stupid—something like I have you—Minji says, fingers tapping against the steering wheel, “Celine mentioned—she mentioned that Gwi-Ma would… take people, earlier. Like… like they didn’t have to make a deal with him or anything?”

Rumi’s expression twists with a horrible kind of hope, and she doesn’t answer for a long moment before, finally, her voice thick with something Zoey can’t interpret, she says, “The knowledge that I have is different, but it has been many years.”

(Zoey thinks of the way she talked about her dad. Wonders if maybe…)

(But maybe not. They haven’t even known each other a week, after all.)

“No, she—she wasn’t clear,” Minji says. “I might have misunderstood.”

Rumi bites her lip. Hesitates, before adding, in a way that’s clearly meant to be reassuring, “You must fail for him to take you. But it does not mean you cannot be brought back. Fear is his hand. Do not play it.”

Perhaps the danger is finally hitting her, now that there aren't any distractions. Miyeong-nim strikes Celine as someone with disconcertingly little fear of risk, but her whole worldview has also just been upended. In Celine's experience, both the most brave and the most foolhardy come to that attitude largely through experience, and demons are well outside the experience of most.

But when Miyeong-nim finally speaks, it's to say, "So," drawing it out, and glancing toward the back of the car. "Do you happen to have permits? For the ancient magic sword, and pile of deadly sacred knives? More specifically, do you have permits on hand, in the car with us right now?"

She does, for the sword, actually, although she certainly doesn't keep it in the car. And the shinkal are another matter entirely.

Still, "I've never found the ferry staff particularly concerned with the contents of people's trunks during crossing."

Her reassurance is met only with a skeptical little hum. "If they do check it out, for whatever reason, go ahead and let me do the talking. I've got some ideas already, I'll loop you in when I decide on one."

Apparently Miyeong-nim is not, in fact, nervous about getting caught with weapons. Celine glances over, bemused, and finds a gleam in the reporter's eyes, even brighter than the anticipation in her voice.

"Fighting wraiths isn't enough excitement for you, you have to be maneuvering around the law, too?"

"I try to always be getting away with something. Keeps my skills sharp."

Celine can't help her smile. "And what skills are those?"

For some reason that makes Miyeong-nim start stumbling again, stuttering out an awkward, "Well, ah—I—you know—reporter things. …Talking. Persuasion, and such."

Celine considers that. She will admit that Miyeong-nim is actually quite a skilled storyteller, when she's not tripping over her tongue, but it was not her clumsy charm offensive at their first meeting that brought her into this adventure. It was so obviously a mask, and Celine hadn't liked that she couldn't see what was underneath. But Miyeong-nim's dogged persistence, her willingness to try anything other than turning away, had gotten them past it; had brought her all the way here, to the passenger seat of Celine's car.

Which is a recurring theme in the stories she's told so far, as well. Miyeong-nim simply does not give up on a story, no matter the expense to her time or dignity. It's an admirable trait, albeit a vexing one to be on the wrong side of. More admirable than mere persuasive charm, in Celine's opinion. Stubbornness has saved many souls from Gwi-Ma, and Miyeong-nim's may yet save more.

Which is why it's meant to be a compliment when she says, "Persistence seems to be a more reliable tool, for you."

But Miyeong folds her arms in Celine's peripheral vision and plays at being affronted. "I'll have you know," she huffs, "I am in fact incredibly charismatic, and regularly talk my way out of situations that would bewilder and terrify a lesser woman."

It's still a distraction, and Celine finds she still wants to know what's underneath it.

But she'd rather take the softer path to get there, now.

So she just says, dry, "And how often did you talk yourself into these situations, in the first place?"

She refuses to focus on how much she wishes to be a part of what's blossoming behind her, how much she wanted to see Rumi or Zoey (preferably 'and') look at her that way and say that Mira was worth holding onto.

Not that she begrudges them for it! She's genuinely glad they found each other to smile at like that and hold hands and blush over changing bandages. They deserve it. It's just...

Her life, or well what's left of it- an empty mansion populated by her brother's decaying body she never wants to go back to, a cave somewhere in the wilderness where her parents rot over the sigils they bickered over while carving them in the floor- is so bleak and empty by comparison.

Not that it was any different when her family was alive, they objectively sucked, but they were still alive. Which, to be honest, had its own set of problems but now they're dead and-

Ugh! She stopped herself just before making the mistake of clenching her jaw because Appa had officially beaten her for the last time and she still couldn't figure out how to feel about that. Why couldn't she have had a normal family? Or simpler feelings about her abnormal one?

Minji-nim glanced over at Mira, then the rearview mirror, then back at Mira.

Mira stared harder at the scenic view, carefully keeping her face turned towards alternating trees and fields. Like hell was she going to tip her emotional hand.

Minji, clearly a professional, didn't pry, just drummed her fingers on the wheel. "So. Is there a second rule about wraith hunting we should be aware of? Do they, like, fight back or anything?"

On impulse Mira flicks her eyes to the mirror; Rumi's face is puckered in a little thinking pout. It is, frankly, adorable, but before Mira can properly appreciate it her face darkens. The hand Zoey's not holding drifts to her side, to the bandages hidden under her shirt.

"Words are their first choice of weapon, but...when they fail, or sometimes to help ensure they fail, they will resort to...other measures."

Mira turns around and her eyes instantly find Zoey's; they were waiting for her, like she was about to lean forward to locate Mira, wanting to consult her.

She forces herself to not think too hard on that. Or the way the sun catches on Zoey's lashes.

It's clear they're both thinking the same thing.

They both saw the gashes on Rumi's side, long and jagged and- and claw-like. Mira had assumed they were from some weird underworld animal; clearly Zoey had done the same.

Now, though...

The last time she saw Jaeho's wraiths, they were pitiable things; deformed limbs and twisted forms that could hardly have won a fight against a dishrag (with the dishrag having the more favorable odds). But that was several years ago by now. She'd never given much thought to what they could do if conjured properly.

And clearly, judging by the hospital fire, he'd done things properly this time.

Rumi reaches forward to lay a hand on Zoey's shoulder, and fixes her gaze on Mira, intense and beautiful and determined.

-

Zoey loves blasting music while she does things around the house, she says it's the easiest way to concentrate on the repetitive tasks. More often than not, the girls end up singing along, some other times they end up talking about the songs in her playlists.

Mira and Zoey are surprised by the number of times Rumi comments a song was either written or produced by Celine. They're even more surprised to find out she has not only sold lyrics in Korea but the rest of the world as well. It soon became a thing where Mira or Zoey would ask Rumi whether the song they're listening to was written by Celine or not.

Mira is the first to realise a lot of the songs are love songs, and she starts making jokes and asking if Rumi remembers who inspired those songs. If she had a stepdad or stepmum around at some point. Rumi always insists they're not love songs since most songs are from back in the day when she was writing for Sunlight Sisters, ideas Celine discarded for her group but were worth selling later on.

One evening Zoey is blasting and singing "Jenny" by Studio Killers. Mira is sitting on the couch mumbling the lyrics, finally paying attention to them, and jokingly asks Rumi if Celine wrote that one too.

To what Rumi happily replies, "I think so, yeah! 😄"

Both Mira and Zoey stop what they're doing and look at Rumi.

"You're kidding, right?" Mira asks, then turns to Zoey. "Zoey, please stop shaking."

"What?"

"Celine wrote Jenny?"

And there's only one thing to do when that happens ;)

Over on Jeju Celine gets a phone call.

Cow in the tide: Writing one sentence is more progress than writing no sentences

Horse staring at the sea from just above the tide: Every deranged story starts with a single deranged word

Leopard(?) staring at the tide from just beyond it: Write enough paragraphs, and you'll find places to use semicolons and emdashes

Hippopotamus raging at the crashing tide: If you love it, it's a good story

(Featuring mysterious disappearances, a co-worker over the radio who's personal life is also a disaster and who may or may not be flirting with her, and realizing that being in nature does not make her interpersonal problems go away)

"With the Honmoon a stranger to me secure and the girls no longer needing me the happiest they've been especially since I'm not around, I am committing myself to the noble defense of humanity's valuable natural treasures."

And if anyone questions her decision?

"So you don't want this beautiful unspoiled wilderness that is a hotbed of biodiversity protected?"

Zoey: YES! We do!!!

Rumi: ZO! We're trying to convince her to come back!

Rumi, who is losing her mind that she can't call Celine because Celine didn't bring her personal cell and she's reduced to sending messages by way of the main office (who may or may not relay the messages and Rumi, being like *Fine let Celine sit in a wooden shack all summer see if I care!*;

Rumi, being told that actually, it's an important job because she's looking out for wildfires, going, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE COULD BE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WILDFIRE"

Zoey, realizing she should not have said that, going, "Well, she probably won't be *in* a wildfire. Just, maybe, close by to one? They have helicopters!"

And it is a team effort (plus Bobby) to keep Rumi from flying out to the middle of nowhere and just kidnapping Celine back

Celine: ...

Celine: Well-

Rumi: Don't answer that!!!