Chapter Text
He was about to leave. His plan, no matter how reluctant he was to execute it, had worked. The concert halls were deserted, the fans' faith was crumbling, and the Saja Boys were ready to pick up the pieces.
“Jinu!” He heard the clicking of her heels as she searched the corridors under the stage. He didn’t want to see her. “Jinu!” But her voice was like a siren's call, unrelenting. “Where are you?” The echo of her calls getting closer. Jinu shifted his stance, waiting. “Jinu!” She called again.
Turning the corner, their eyes met. He watched, stoic and unfeeling, as she approached. Her breath was ragged, wisps of hair out of place. “Say you didn’t do this.” She begged, demanded.
He raised his hand, snapping his fingers. He knew without looking that the figures behind him changed back to the demons they were, then disappeared. “How could you do this?” The disbelief was evident. The distress more so as she pushed against his unmoving chest.
“It was all a lie.” He said simply.
Her reply was unexpected. Jinu had thought she would get angry. Attack him. Not fight for him. “It was real! What we had was real. I know it was.” Rumi’s voice was urgent.
Jinu couldn’t handle this; it was too much, she was too much. What they had was real. But what he was wasn’t. “The things I said? I just needed you to trust me. That's all.” He turned to leave. Intending, hoping that she would let it go. He needed her to.
He should have known better. Her hand encircled his wrist, so very remnant of the night before. He closed his eyes because this pain was different from the last time, yet so very similar. “NO, No, I know your story. You were a good person, and you still are. You just made a mistake!” Her voice was filled with such conviction, such hope.
It ate at him. It broke him.
“I left them!” He yelled, turning on her. Jinu felt his demon power surge through his patterns, and he knew his eyes flickered.
He didn’t care. She needed to understand.
He saw the doubt creep into her features and stepped closer. “That's right. I lied to you,” he continued angrily. Angry at Gwi-Ma, at the world, at himself. “I only made a deal with Gwi-Ma to get myself out of that miserable life. I left my sister, my mother. Alone, while I slept on silk sheets in the palace with my belly full every night.”
Back then, he had been full of selflessness; he had just wanted to get out of the life he was living by any means he could. It wasn’t until later that he realized what he had done, what he had lost.
Tears started forming in his eyes, but they weren’t for his past family.
“I left them,” He said, voice breaking, "I left them,” he repeated.
‘Just like I’m leaving you.’
She shook her head slightly, and for a second, he thought she finally would get it. That she would leave him before he was forced to leave her.
“But that's not all you are.” She pleaded, “This is just your demon talking. You have to fight it!”
“That's not how it works!”
“Yes, it is!” The echo of her demon voice bounced off the walls, the Honmoon shimmering pink with her distress.
Jinu couldn’t allow this to continue. “Listen to yourself.” He said, voice patronizing, “Is it working? You're a demon, just like me. All we get to do is live with our pain, our misery. That's all we deserve.”
He pulled on his powers, leaving her behind with a cloud of smoke.