we dreamin' hard, we came so far

The setting sun was fondly overlooking the buzzing streets of Seoul, neon lights and street lamps dotting the canvas of the dark streets, the city centre ready for another night without dismay.

You watched the lights flicker, the waves of sound carried over to the fortress walls you stood by, your heart heavy and light at the same time. You saw the threads over your beloved city - something invisible to the human eyes -, shining in blue and purple as opposed to the golden colour you fought for. It was hard to not let flashbacks occupy your mind when you were ruminating over the change in colour despite the otherwise peaceful state of the world. It was hard to not let memories of him come back to haunt you when you often dreamed of your last encounter, of the way he looked at you with his human eyes when he said that you set him free.

Then, his body evaporated into nothingness, and you awoke in cold sweat, your mind unable to accept the fact that he was gone. He really was the only one who could understand the shame you carried with you, the mistake you were from the moment you were born, and the struggle you had trying to keep your demon side at bay.

A day didn’t go by without you hoping that he would eventually appear, teasing you that you were worried about him when you should have known that he could take care of himself, just like many other people who came back to life seemingly out of nowhere. So many people had gone missing while ENHYPEN were recruiting their souls for Gwima, and after sealing the Honmoon, a lot of them were back, but it didn’t really make sense.

The Honmoon was supposed to erase all demons, and yet, if they were back, it meant that they were stripped of their patterns, but could come back as humans. It also didn’t make sense because you still had your patterns, so what changed, and why were you still carrying those marks on your skin?

That’s why you had to believe that Heeseung was also alive; maybe his body was trapped somewhere, ready to be freed. Maybe he was hiding somewhere. Even if you felt his demon power strengthen your own power when you faced off against Gwima, you kept holding onto the hope that maybe, even if it would be highly unlikely, he was still out there, just as a human this time.

Though he had lied to you about his past, and betrayed you at the Idol Awards, he had still sacrificed himself to save you, to save HUNTR/X, and consequently, to save the world.

“I just need a sign,” you whispered into the night sky, to the walls around you that once saw you and Heeseung walking these same stairs on your not-date date, the day he had taken the bracelet from you, the day you had started to understand that maybe, just maybe, he was not all bad.

As if woken from a stupor, your body tensed, your whole being buzzing.

“The bracelet!” You mumbled to yourself, thoughts racing in your brain. “I could swear he had it on him when they performed ‘Bad Desire’, and yet, he didn’t leave it behind when he…”

When he turned into nothing, you wanted to say, because you wanted to avoid even just the possibility of him dead, dead because of you. For you.

“But Gwima could have burnt it with him,” you concluded to yourself, your voice breaking by the end.

Hopes were crushed so often these days, and yet, you could not get used to it. With HUNTR/X being on a three-month long hiatus to recover from the great battle, you had even more time to think, and to overthink. Somehow, these thoughts always circled back to Heeseung, and though something in you told you that he had to be alive, you could feel it, another part of you wasn’t sure whether it was just your delusional self talking or not. You didn’t even know if you could trust yourself anymore.

You looked up at the crescent moon above you with a sigh, wondering what else you could have overseen. It was as if the underworld opened up when you sealed the Honmoon, but it stayed intact ever since. Many people came back that day, without seemingly any idea of where they had been according to the news reports you had kept watching over and over again. These people had no idea what had happened in the first place, had no idea who ENHYPEN was, and yet, you had a feeling that they were demons once, their souls sipped off by the ENHYPEN members or Gwima’s other minions.

Something was not right, and you were ready to get to the bottom of this.

If not for yourself, then for Heeseung.

“Today, hundreds of people previously labelled as missing persons have mysteriously returned. After last month’s incident, on the day when HUNTR/X and ENHYPEN had a mega concert, the same happened, and now, another batch of people came back to their friends and families without seemingly any memories of their previous whereabouts. The authorities are clueless, and are asking the public to come forward with any information…”

You insisted on watching the daily news before Haewon could return to her sappy TV show, and Youngji could return to dissing the said TV show. You didn’t say it out loud, but it was because you wanted to make sure that you knew Heeseung was back if, for whatever reason, it made it to the news. However, there was no news of ENHYPEN since the so-called mega concert (as they called the epic battle between you demon hunters and the demon king, Gwima), and people merely said that they disbanded since they only remembered the songs sung at the concert and not what happened. That’s how humans were shielded from the truth of the event of the day.

“Am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that it happened today?” Youngji asked between two handfuls of peanut-flavoured balls.

“As long as they come back unharmed, it’s all good, right?” Haewon chirped in with her usual bubbliness, but the way they both glanced at you cautiously, you knew that they were waiting for you to say the obvious.

“Something’s not right. The concert was almost a month ago. Why did they come back on that day and today, and not in between? What could the two days have in common?” You mused out loud, looking out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of your place. The threads over the city seemed the same, so it couldn’t be that demons entered the world disguised as humans who knew nothing about their time spent missing. The night sky looked the same, the stars and the full moon illuminating the buzzing city below.

You looked back at the girls, and then back to the world outside, a thought forming in your head.

“Wait… it’s a full moon today. Was it a full moon on the day of the battle?” You quirked an eyebrow in question, desperately reaching for your phone on the dining table to check the facts, but Haewon was faster.

“It was a full moon, but… do you think it could be because of that?” She asked as she looked up from her phone, her big doe eyes shining with uncertainty.

“I mean, we were appointed Hunters on the first full moon of the year because Celine said that during a full moon, there is a slight crack between the human realm and the underworld, and that’s when the power assigning ritual from a previous Hunter can be executed,” Youngji weighed in, her stoic face growing more and more certain with each of her words. You felt the same way, and with thrilling excitement rushing through your veins, you followed her train of thoughts.

“So maybe when we sealed the Honmoon, we actually managed to open an alternative gate for the souls to come back from the underworld, stripped off their patterns, and it opens during full moons?” You inquired, your voice full of hope. So much hope that you forgot to mask your feelings, and blurted out the following. “So maybe we can even bring Heeseung back?”

“Y/N… Don’t take this the wrong way, but he was a demon, and he lied to you,” Youngji stated, her voice void of malice but also empathy. You didn’t like the way she still referred to him like that, as if his sacrifice wasn’t enough to make them change their mind about his good side.

“You don’t get it! He was the only one who understood me!”

“But still… he’s dead,” the rapper girl spelled it out for you, pushing the dagger deeper into your heart. Haewon sensed that you were nearing a breakdown, so she tried to stop you from spiraling by shifting the conversation.

“Okay, he might not be dead, actually, but we can’t enter the underworld. We are demon hunters.”

She was right. Though demons could come back to the human realm to tempt humans, demon hunters couldn’t enter the underworld. You were still humans after all, even if you were gifted.

“But I’m part demon, remember?” You shrieked, suddenly desperate.

You had to try. Maybe you could even set more souls free at the next full moon, you didn’t have to wait for them to spill through to the human realm. Maybe this also meant that Heeseung could get a second chance, and come back as a human being. So maybe you could finally be free.

“Y/N, no! It’s too dangerous,” Youngji insisted, rising from the couch she was sitting on. Though her voice was harsh, you knew that she came from a good place. The battle against Gwima happened not too long ago. “Besides, what guarantees that you will come back if you can even get in? What if you get stuck there?”

“We can’t lose you,” Haewon added, her eyes turning watery.

You were too angry to care about their expressions, and too tired to continue this conversation. They couldn’t understand, of course, they couldn’t! They didn’t grow up being told that they had to hide who they really were, thinking that they were a mistake because a demon and a demon hunter shouldn’t have had a child. The only one who understood you was Heeseung, and he was gone.

You had to at least try. Because of him. For him.

You tried to dig up everything you could on the full moon, and how it might affect the human realm and the spirit realm. Though there were folklore-focused theories, you were more interested in the ones that were related to you and other demon hunters. Some might think that you didn't have anything to go by, but oh boy, you did.

You had a full-on book with hundreds of pages (a kind of demon hunter codex), but unfortunately, most of it was quite outdated. For instance, there was no information on demon hunters who were also part demon, so you couldn't read about anything related to yourself. On most days, you didn't mind because you kept your demon side at bay, but other days, you were afraid that if you got just a bit too angry, a bit too overwhelmed, it would come out, and you wouldn't know what to do to make it stop. That was your biggest fear: a complete lack of control. The only one who could and would be willing to help you how to tame it was gone.

It hurt that Youngji and Haewon didn't understand why it was so important for you to research as much as you could about full moons. What happened a month ago had never happened before, so you couldn't even ask Celine why the Honmoon didn't turn gold, and why it led to missing people coming back to life. It did confirm though that the barrier of the human realm and the spirit realm was the closest to each other during full moon, and that it didn't mean the visible full moon - often for 2-3 days at a time -, but the actual astronomical sense which lasted for a few hours max. However, there was no mention of any portal or gate where you could actually enter the other realm during this time, so you were completely clueless as to where you should even be to achieve what you wanted to achieve.

You were starting to lose hope when one day, while flipping through the pages of the demon hunter book, you managed to doze off. Your energy was a bit drained since the big battle, so you often found yourself taking a nap during the day, so it wasn't surprising. What was surprising was that you had a new dream with Heeseung, not just the recollection of your last encounter.

In this dream, you couldn't see anything around Heeseung, it was as if he was standing in a dark fog. He seemed absentminded, his head turned towards the left, but you couldn't see what he was looking at. He wore human clothes: black pants with a black shirt tucked inside, and his posture was sagged, undefeated even.

"Heeseung?" You called out, your heart in your throat as you waited for his reaction.

He slowly turned his head, searching for the source of the voice. When his eyes settled on you, his features softened, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Y/N?" He breathed your name so desperately, you wished you could jump into his arms and hug him, then never let him go.

However, your dream self didn't budge, you stayed frozen in place.

"It's me."

"I can't believe it's you," he said, his eyes turning watery. The fact that you could see him again was enough to churn your heart, but the way he looked at you made you even more emotional. He looked like a completely different person; not the way he actually looked, but the way he carried himself, and the facial expressions he displayed. Long gone was the flirty, smug idol member, he was just a boy now, lost and confused.

"How did you find me?" Heeseung inquired, and though he seemed to want to move towards you too, he couldn't. It was as if an invisible force was keeping you two apart.

"I... I don't know. It's just a dream after all," you pointed out, your voice wavering feebly. You didn't know why you knew it was a dream.

"It's not, not for me," he replied, his eyebrows raised quizzically. You looked back at him, dumbfounded, before you tried your luck with a question.

"Where are you?"

"It seems like I'm somewhere in between. From time to time, grim reapers come to help people through the river, but they never seem to notice me," he shared, his confused state evident in the way he was completely the opposite of the 'mind the face, I need it to steal your fans' demon you met.

He reached his hand to ruffle his hair, and that's when you saw it. The bracelet the older lady had given you, and the one he had taken from you. It was now shining in a purple colour instead of its original blue.

"The bracelet..." You mumbled out loud, and the boy instinctively looked down at his hand. He seemed almost coy when his eyes caught sight of the bracelet.

You weren't sure whether it was because of the bracelet that the grim reapers didn't come for him, but one thing was for sure, and that it was somehow, the bracelet had a fraction of your power inside, that's why it was glowing purple. Maybe that's why you could communicate in the first place.

"I'm gonna get you, Heeseung. I'm coming for you."

"Y/N... I..." He started, stumbling upon his words. "I'm sorry," he blurted out the words you least expected given the circumstances. You felt like tearing up, the memories of him lying to you, betraying you engraved into your mind, and yet, you would not be able to hate him. Not when he saved you too.

The fog around him started growing thicker and thicker, and you desperately tried to hold onto him for a bit longer, calling out his name, but it was to no avail. He no longer heard you or saw you, and soon enough, you woke up from your nap.

The day of the next full moon had come, and yet, you were nowhere near close to the actual solution regarding how to bring Heeseung back.

Not to mention the way Haewon and Youngji reacted when you said that you saw Heeseung in your dreams, but felt like it was real because your weary self could not make up all of the things he said. You had a feeling it was real no matter how crazy it sounded, but all it led to was Haewon prompting you to visit Dr Han yet again. Not like his tonics worked last time, but still…

You went for her sake, got some herbal medicine for insomnia that did absolutely nothing to help you fall asleep or to dream about something else other than Heeseung. You wished you could have said so much more, so many other things than you had done in your dream, and all that regret and guilt only added oil to the fire: you just wanted to set him free even more. Even if he might eventually come back, what was the guarantee that he ever will? What if he was suffering in the meantime, he just didn't want to tell you?

Yet, when the day of the full moon came, you were in your room, clutching a pillow to your chest, your tears silently streaming down your face. It was so much better last month when you had not known that you could do something to bring him back than now when you were fully aware of it, yet unable to do anything.

There was a knock on the door, and Haewon's cheerful voice filled the room when you told her that she could come in.

"Hey! Just wanted to check on you to see if you were doing... okay," she faltered when she saw the state you were in, and after you did not reply, she dared to ask a question. "Should I leave instead? Or should I call Celine to see if she could help?"

"No need, Haewon," you mumbled, defeated. From the way Celine treated you as a mistake and something to fix, you had a feeling that she would be the last person on Earth who would be willing to help you bring a demon back from the spirit realm. Even if he was no longer a demon as his powers left his body when Gwima absorbed him.

"Okay. Just let me know if you need anything. I'll be watching my show in the living room like usual," she pointed out, her favourite pastime activity on hiatus being watching her beloved Kdramas on the fluffy couch in the living room. Meanwhile you were usually in your room, contemplating about different plans and reliving your memories with Heeseung.

"Thanks, I will," you told a fib between two sobs, and listened to her shuffling out of your room and into the living room. Only then did you notice a familiar blub of blue on your terrace.

"What?" You blinked in confusion, making sure that you were awake and not just slipping into a dream, but there it was, or there they were, to be precise. Heeseung's tiger with the magpie resting on its head with the hat that was made for the tiger but the magpie took it.

"That's impossible," you mumbled to yourself, but still, you leaped to your feet, opening the terrace door to get outside. You closed the door behind you immediately, afraid that the girls might hear something. "How did you get here?" You asked Heeseung's pets even though you knew they couldn't speak.

However, as usual, the tiger opened its mouth with a little blue card on its tongue with the words 'save the date' written on it. You felt oddly emotional at the sight, remembering the times you had met Heeseung by the fortress walls through these invitation cards.

"Heeseung is gone. How could we meet?" You whispered more to yourself than the animals when you got the saliva-coated card and flipped it, only to be greeted by a blank page.

The tiger started making noises at the same time as the magpie started chirping loudly. You tried to shush them, but they wouldn't stop until you got on the tiger to be carried to wherever they wanted you to go. You told yourself that leaving the house for once couldn't hurt, and that maybe, just maybe, they would be able to give you a hint as to where Heeseung was.

You let the breeze ruffle your hair as you jumped from building to building, bridge to bridge. Seoul was beautiful in the moonlight-lit night, illuminated by bright neon lights, street lamps and bright spots, like tiny little fireflies. You felt like you could get lost in the journey when the tiger came to a halt at a cemetery on the outskirts of Seoul, and you jumped off with a huff. You had never been here before, and it didn't look like anyone was here in recent years, but you couldn't blame anyone. The nearest house was pretty far away.

"Not creepy at all, huh?" You looked at the tiger that just kept smiling at you like usual. The magpie chirped instead as a reaction, hopping off with you and flying over to one specific tomb.

It could hardly be called a grave, it was really just a stone, but the words carved into it were more interesting:

In memory of the Lee family, circa 1600

Erected by Lee Heeseung, the sorrowful son and brother

‘I am deeply ashamed of how our ways parted’

"Is this...?" You exclaimed, adrenaline rushing through your veins at the thought of discovering Heeseung's family's grave that he himself erected.

The magpie chirped in agreement, and the tiger gently placed a paw on the stone. You felt like tearing up at the sight because it seemed like they missed him just as much as you did.

You looked up at the sky to blink back the tears, but to no avail. The sobs came on violently, and all you could do was to let them as you weeped above the grave, leaning against the tiger's fluffy side. You didn't even notice a blue and purple light swimming around you until the magpie bit you, and you leaned back with a whimper.

"Ouch! What was that-" You exclaimed indignantly when the words froze on your lips, the sight around you rendering you speechless. What was going on?

The colourful swirls of energy started dancing around you and the pets until it became one giant tornado of light. You shielded your eyes from the brightness, and the next thing you knew was that you were flying, swept in the tornado, and thrown around and around until you lost count. Then, suddenly, you hit the ground with a loud thud, the tiger and the bird following you.

You looked around, your heart in your throat, but all you could see was darkness. Then, the tiger snuggled up to you, and you followed it through the thick darkness until you reached a slightly brighter land, and under a tree, there was a man playing the bipa. You were wondering why the melody was familiar until he started singing, and you knew that it was him, that it was Heeseung.

"Heeseung!" You shouted, desperate, trying to hold onto this moment because any minute, you felt like you could wake up and he could be gone yet again. You didn't feel like you would be able to survive losing him once more.

He immediately stopped playing, put the bipa down, and looked around restlessly until his eyes found yours.

"Y/N?" He breathed out in disbelief, and as soon as you ran up to him, he embraced you tightly, desperately, as if never wanted to let you go. Then, he let out a light giggle. "I can't believe you're here," he swirled you around in joy, his giggle filling up your lungs with carefree air and your heart with hope.

However, before you could respond, he spoke up again, this time concerned.

"But... if you are here, does that mean you are...?"

"No, I'm not dead. I came to bring you back, and your pets helped me. They brought me to your family's grave, and then, I was crying, and suddenly, there was this blue-purple light, and we were transported here. I don't know why or how it happened, it just did," you explained thoroughly, your voice filled with emotion.

You just couldn’t believe it. Everything happened so fast, and even if you were set on bringing him back, you were losing hope that you could actually succeed. Yet, now, he was there right in front of you; the same handsome features, the same dark orbs, the same mystery lingering around him.

"It was the bracelet," Heeseung pointed out as he showed you the blue bracelet shining bright on his wrist. "This is the reason the grim reapers didn't come for me. I realised that it must have some of your humanity in it because it shines brighter when they come for their next batch of people," he concluded, so sure of himself that you didn't even dare to go against him. Why would you? It made sense after all. All the blue and purple colours, him wearing the bracelet when you met him in your dreams, and his bracelet shining now that you were here. He also disappeared into thin air while wearing the bracelet, and this was how his demon powers were stripped off him.

It was all just unbelievable. This was something that you could not read about in the demon hunter codex, so you couldn't prepare yourself for any plan. The plan seemed to fall through even before coming to the spirit realm after all.

Speaking of which…

"We must hurry. The crack between the human and the spirit realm is only there for 2 hours 50 minutes today."

"Wow, that sounds oddly specific," Heeseung snickered, but there was a proud smile in the corner of his lips.

"It's the full moon. The Honmoon was sealed on a full moon, and since then, people come back from the spirit realm during full moons only," you explained briefly. "It's a long story, but trust me, we need to hurry. I don't know if time goes by differently here than on Earth," you added, and reached your hand out to Heeseung. He quirked an eyebrow in question, teasing. Now, he was back to his old self, the boy you had fallen in love with.

"We need to hurry, but you want to be lovey-dovey?"

"Shut up," you nudged his shoulder with a lopsided smile, but when you retreated it, he grabbed it, and intertwined your fingers. You immediately felt electrified from head to toe, and didn't dare meet his eyes because you were afraid that you would immediately blush. Ah, the effect he had on you!

"How are we gonna get out of here?"

"I'm part demon, remember?" You reminded him, but this time, there was no shame in it. You had learned how to accept yourself - all parts of you -, and he was the reason why. He had to know it, or else, he wouldn't be giving you that look of both admiration and contemplation.

"At least, I hope it will work. Your pets led me here, so they can show the way out, right?" You asked as you looked at the tiger and the magpie, and they both nodded in their own silly ways.

So you both mounted the tiger, and with Heeseung's hands around your waist, the magpie on his shoulder, you started going through the thick fog of darkness again.

"By the way, it's Derby and Sussie."

"What?" You exclaimed, dumbfounded.

"The tiger is called Derby and the bird is called Sussie," he explained, and you could feel him smiling. Well, you felt like you took another step into your relationship; now you knew the names of his pets.

Derby jumped through the darkness with ease, and it felt like flying once again, except now you felt much lighter, as if a weight was lifted off your shoulders. Everything was going to be okay, and you could finally make up for the time wasted when Heeseung had been stuck here, and everything could go back to the way things would have been if it had not been for him sacrificing himself for you and the girls.

Your momentary happiness slipped through your fingers as you literally drifted into darkness, and instead of the cemetery ground you expected, next time you opened your eyes, you were in your bed.

Your chest felt heavy, your body weary as if you had been running nonstop for hours. You felt a strange sense of looming doom, feeling like something was off. To make matters worse, you would have believed that you had merely been sleeping and dreaming of Heeseung yet again if it had not been for him crouching beside your bed and a dull ache running through your body when you tried to push yourself up.

This was definitely not how you should have gotten back to your own room.

"W-what happened?" You stuttered feebly, your throat feeling dry and raw.

"Oh, thank god, you're awake!" Heeseung sighed, his hair messy as if he had run his hands through it too many times. His eyes were tired, concerned even, and you wondered what had happened really for he never really let this side of him shown. He was usually cool and composed, but now he was… human. “I thought I lost you,” he whispered, his voice breaking by the end. He reached out to hold your hand, to anchor himself to the present, and as much as you wanted to soak in his care, his attention, you hated how worried he looked.

You were physically fine after all, weren’t you?

“Now you know how it feels,” you tried with a playful smile, and even if it was just for a little bit, at least his smile easened. That much was enough for you right now. “So what happened?”

Heeseung took in a big breath before he told you that you had managed to pass out on the way back from the underworld. It happened after you had crossed the line between the two worlds. He had no idea why it had happened, or if any human doctor could have helped, so he had let Derby take you back here. Haewon and Youngji had already been waiting for you, saying something about Celine warning them that it could happen that you would get hurt during the travel between the two worlds. Your throat closed up when you listened to him because you had a feeling that the girls had been throwing accusatory sentences at him and Youngji might have even yelled at him for bringing you back unconscious, but he hadn’t dared to touch up on that.

Instead, he asked if you were okay and if your powers were okay. When you asked what he meant by that, he looked away for a moment before he looked back at you. The girls had gotten worried after they had found your room empty, so they had asked Celine about possible consequences of you entering the spirit realm, and the woman said that there was a chance that you might lose your powers upon returning because a demon hunter was not supposed to enter and thus not supposed to leave the place. You were already touched by the underworld, and someone like that could not carry the mission of being a demon hunter anymore.

“Can you… try to use your powers now?” Heeseung inquired fearfully, looking up from under his long eyelashes, his eyes shining with concern.

You bobbed your head, and after closing your eyes, you tried to pull on the threads of your power. However, instead of the familiar warmth rushing through your veins, you felt… nothing. There was nothing there to reach for, to hold onto, to ignite. You tried harder, drops of sweat rolling down your cheeks in the process, but to no avail…

You opened your eyes to find Heeseung’s worried gaze on you, and though you should have felt immense pain, you actually felt a bit of relief instead. It’s not like you had not prepared yourself for such a scenario; you had gone into it fully knowing that you might not be the same afterwards. It was a mix of everything, really, this feeling was a giant mixing pot of many different shades of emotions, and you couldn’t quite put your finger on how exactly you were feeling, but one thing was for sure: you wouldn’t have changed a thing.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I would have stopped you if I had known it would-” He started, his voice dripping with desperation, his words bleeding out for the two of you.

You cut him off, squeezing his hands in yours.

“Heeseung, stop! It was my choice, and I take full responsibility for it,” you reassured him, but it didn’t seem to ease his nerves. So instead, you reached your free hand out to touch his face, to push the fringe out of his eyes, and then to rest your palm on his cheek. It was still unbelievable that he was there, that he was really there with you, and this feeling of belonging beside him didn’t fade. Even if he was no longer a demon and you were no longer a demon hunter, he was the first one who accepted you for who you were and protected your secret. “I would have done it again if it meant bringing you back,” you confessed tenderly, your voice as steady as it could be.

He leaned into your touch, and you felt like you could get lost in his eyes, in this moment, in him. However, such happiness was not yet yours to take as your bedroom door flew open, and Haewon literally yeeted herself into the room with Youngji running after her like a madman. Heeseung immediately announced that he would let you have some privacy.

“This was the first sensible thing that left this guy’s mouth,” Youngji commented as she watched him leave, but Haewon was already jumping onto your bed, hugging you. You let her do so, listening to the many (gentle) reprimandings from her, Youngji chirping in with a few remarks like “she told her so” that you would leave no matter what and that Heeseung looked a bit less annoying now that he wasn’t a demon.

Your heart was light when you listened to their banter, but you could sense that there was a bit of a tension in the air. You didn’t even need to ask why they were acting cautious, they told you about it themselves, and after discussing with them that you didn’t feel your powers anymore, a moment of silence fell over the room.

Despite preparing yourself for different outcomes, this was definitely not the most likely one. However, it made sense that you could no longer be a demon hunter, and when Haewon accidentally dropped a comment about you not being a demon anymore either, you got to know that your demon side was also taken from you when you came back to the human realm. It probably had something to do with the full moon’s effect rather than the trip back from the underworld solely, but now, that was a part that you didn’t mind. Though you had learned how to accept yourself with all sides, you were glad that now both you and Heeseung were one and the same, not on the two sides of the battlefield.

But still… it was a weird feeling to know that you were no longer a demon and no longer a demon hunter. You could no longer slay the bad guys, and you would not be able to enter the spirit realm anymore to bring back more trapped humans. Also, there was the question of what was to come. Would they choose someone else to take your place in HUNTR/X? What would you do with yourself after this?

“We have to ask Celine, but just because you are no longer a demon hunter doesn’t mean that you aren’t our friend,” Youngji pointed out, and though she tried to seem unaffected, you could tell that she was actually being very much caring.

“A sister I never had,” Haewon added with teary eyes, and you felt like crying, too. You had been afraid of losing their friendship over your true colours, and now that you weren’t a demon hunter anymore alongside them, they would have every reason to abandon you.

But they wouldn’t.

“I love you, girls!”

“We love you, too,” they echoed in unison, and a big group hug followed.

The beginning and an end to something that you would never see coming just a couple of months ago.

You were walking alongside the big glass tanks, holding hands with Heeseung, and when you looked at him, it seemed like the world stopped around you even though the chattering of excited kids and their parents running after them filled the aquarium with a lot of noise.

It felt deliberating to be so free, to be on a date just like an ordinary girl. Humans forgot how the ENHYPEN members looked like when the Honmoon was sealed, and after a girl was chosen for your place in HUNTR/X, you cut your hair short and dyed it black, so no one could really recognise you. Sometimes you felt like you didn’t recognise yourself either, but it was a good kind of change. A change that you oh so desperately needed.

“So does that mean we aren’t enemies now?” Heeseung teased you as you reached a part of the aquarium where you walked on a bridge above the turtles’ place.

“I still haven’t forgiven you for your comment on my pants!” You exclaimed, giving him a side eye, referring to the time he had commented on your teddy bear and choo choo train pants. Those were your absolute favourite PJ pants.

“Oh, come on! It was cute. Unexpected… but cute,” he giggled like a teenage boy in love, and you smacked him in the chest.

“Shut up or I’ll buy you the same one!” You warned him, but there was no malice in your voice.

Even if there was, that was just something he had to put up with now that you were officially together, and you were also about to start living together. Living ordinary lives, working ordinary jobs, but that’s just the way you liked it.

The way you liked him.

Sure, there would probably always be times you would miss being a demon hunter, but for so long, you craved the attention and constant validation from your fans because you couldn’t believe that you could truly be loved for who you really were. But when it came to Heeseung, he had always accepted you the way you were, and thanks to him, you had learned how to do that for yourself, so now, it was enough to have him beside you, to remind you of being enough.

No more hiding, now you were truly shining.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this story of mine! Let me know what you think!

The last scene was actually inspired by the fact that the creators of the movie said that there was a scene where Jinu and Rumi go on an aquarium date (and kiss!), but it was cut out at the end.

Also, this story could have been waaaay longer, but I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless. *-*

Header taken from the 'Bad Desire' MV

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