Chapter Text
“Your jacket looked fine the first fifteen times you adjusted it.”
Jinu jumped and looked back at Baby, quickly feeling a blush crawl up his neck.
“Yeah, I was just-”
“And why do you care so much anyway?” Blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Our goal is to stop the hunters, remember? They want to kill us. Besides, you know what Gwi-Ma will do to us if we fail.”
Jinu’s eyes dropped to the ground.
“I know-”
“Leave him alone, Baby.” Jinu was interrupted yet again, this time by the teasing of Romance’s voice.
“There’s nothing wrong with making sure you look nice. Besides, maybe he can trick the hunter into falling in love. She’s part demon, so it’s obviously not impossible for a hunter to fall for someone like us. And if she falls in love, she’ll be caught off guard and won’t be able to stop our plan.”
Baby scowled as Romance got more excited about the new development to their plan. Abby laughed and joined his fellow pink-haired demon in creating increasingly more outrageous senarios in which they will defeat the hunters. Jinu, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
A calmer, quieter tone rang out through the chaos.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
Four pairs of eyes snapped to the timid demon curled up on the couch. Jinu laughed awkwardly.
“Look, Mystery, it’ll be fine. I’m just going to go, gain Rumi’s trust, and come back here so we can make a plan to take the hunters down at the Idol awards. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
The intensity of Mystery’s stare was felt even through his curtain of hair.
“What if she isn’t the only hunter there, Jinu? What if it’s a trap? What if they kill you? Or worse, what if they capture you?”
Any trace of the humor felt just moments ago rushed out of the room, sobering each demon immediately.
They all knew what Mystery meant. The HUNTR organization was well-known among the demon population for their cruelty, rivaling even that of Gwi-Ma. Their goal was to rid the world of demons. However, while there is an idol group each generation that works to strengthen the honmoon, the barrier between the worlds, the majority of the organization devotes their time to figuring our how to kill demons for good. The problem is, demons can’t die. When they’re ‘killed’ by the hunters, they regenerate in the underworld after about a month. Once the hunters figured this out, they began capturing demons to try to find a way to kill them that would stick. Nothing was off limits.
After all, demons don’t have feelings.
Except the hunters have that wrong. Although they can’t die, demons feel the same things physically and emotionally that humans do. They feel every heartbreak, every shame, every bruise. Jinu had heard and seen many of the demons who had been captured by the hunters, and their stories were enough to send a shiver down the spines of even the most cold-hearted demons.
Jinu closed his eyes and took a breath.
“Look, I’m sure it will be fine, but if it makes you feel better, one of you can watch from the shadows to be sure nothing goes wrong.”
Mystery’s demeanor didn’t change, but Abby perked up.
“I’ll go with you, Jinu. Don’t worry guys, nothing will happen to him while I’m there.” Abby puffed out his chest to make himself look tougher, and Jinu couldn’t help but quietly laugh in amusement.
“See, Mystery,” he smirked. “Everything will be just fine.”
The two demons disappeared in a puff of pink smoke, leaving three demons to glance worriedly at each other in their wake.
---
Jinu glanced at his watch. Rumi should be showing up any minute now. He looked over at Abby, who seemed to be glancing nervously around from his hiding spot. Smiling to himself, Jinu shook his head.
He appreciates the sentiment from his fellow Saja Boys, but for some reason, he doesn’t think it’s necessary with Rumi. Granted, she is a hunter, but she seems different than the others. Even her friends, while yes they go out of their way to kill demons, they do it quickly, not dragging it out for entertainment or ‘educational’ purposes. Jinu wouldn’t be surprised if the three of them had no idea what HUNTR does behind closed doors.
The dark-haired demon goes to check his watch again when a movement to his left catches his eye.
Finally, he thinks. He smiles and turns to the direction the movement came from. He opens his mouth to make a joke
Only to be met with a band shooting out and latching around his neck. Jinu feels his eyes widen as he quickly grabs at the collar to try to get it off, but then electricity shoots out and he gasps, falling to his knees. He feels his magic leave him and watches patterns crawl over his skin without the spell to hide them.
“Amazing shot,” a voice calls out. Jinu grunts and tries to take a look at his attackers, but he doesn’t get far before a gloved hand grabs his chin and wrenches it up. The face in front of him, notably not Rumi’s, breaks into a wide smile.
“Well, would you look at that. It’s not often that we get our hands on a Jeoseung saja around here.” Jinu’s heart drops, at least as much as it can while he’s being electrocuted.
Hunters.
The man in front of him pulls Jinu forward and whispers into his ear.
“I’ve been dreaming of the day I get one of you in my lab for years. And with a pretty little songbird like you? Just imagine all the fun we can have.” The man leans back, studying Jinu’s face with a look that made him feel like an animal in a zoo.
“Look at those patterns,” he breathes, trailing a thumb under Jinu’s eye and down his cheek. “Beautiful.”
Jinu feels nausea crawl up his throat and tries to jerk out of the hold the hunter has on him, but it’s a little hard to control his movements at the moment and the hand is painfully tight. Panicking, he tries to teleport away, but nothing happens.
The hunter notices his escape attempt and laughs, throwing Jinu on the ground.
“Look, it’s trying to get away. Stupid demon, that collar emits a pulse that prevents all your abilities from working. You’re not getting away that easily.”
Jinu twitches helplessly on the ground, desperately trying to think of a way out of the hunter’s grasp.
Pink smoke suddenly fills his vision, and hands are grabbing his shoulders before a feeling of weightlessness overcomes him for a moment and the walls of the apartment the Saja Boys are staying at appear around him.
“Jinu!” Someone shouts. Jinu is rolled onto his back and Abby’s face comes into view.
“Jinu I’m so sorry.” The demon looks like he’s about to cry. “I don’t know where they came from. I was trying to watch but then they got you and I didn’t know what to do and-”
“Abby, calm down,” the voice from earlier, Romance, instructs. “What matters now is helping get this off Jinu. Do either of you know how to get it off?”
Abby shakes his head and Jinu grunts, sharply pulling his head to one side. Tears pool in Abby’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jinu. This is all my fault. I know you probably hate me now-”
“Abby. Not helping.” This time it’s Baby who pulls Abby out of his spiral.
Jinu tries to look at Abby and tell him it’s not his fault, but he’s still a prisoner to the currents running through his body.
“Anyone have any ideas?” Romance asks hopefully. The Saja Boys stare at each other for several moments before Mystery speaks up.
“Rubber is supposed to stop electricity.”
“Where would we even get rubber thin enough to get under the collar?” Baby counters. Abby’s face lights up.
“What about those exercise bands I have? I think those are made of rubber.”
Jinu’s back arches and he lets out a whine. The other four demons look at him in concern before Baby shrugs.
“We don’t have any better ideas right now.”
Abby immediately races into his room and grabs the first band he sees. When he comes back, Romance is sitting Jinu up and pressing him against his chest. The pink haired demon’s face scrunches up.
“Ouch, you shocked me.” Jinu whined again and tried to move away before Romance tightened his grip.
“Stop, it’s not your fault. Let us help you, idiot.” A smile ghosted over Jinu’s face.
Abby knelt down next to them and Mystery took the band from his grasp. He touched the band and immediately pulled his hand back, grumbling under his breath. A puff of pink appeared as Mystery disappeared and just as quickly reappeared with the gloves he wore when they performed Soda Pop pulled over his fingers.
He reached out and touched the collar again, winced, and pulled the collar out as gently as possible so the band could fit underneath. Jinu let out a harsh breath and closed his eyes.
Mystery worked quickly, minding the prongs that were sending out the shock. In what felt like forever but realistically was only a minute, the exercise band covered all of Jinu’s skin that was trapped under the collar.
Jinu’s body instantly relaxed and he laid there panting as his eyes bounced around before rolling back into unconciousness.
The four remaining demons looked at each other as they silently acknowledged how close they had gotten to losing their friend brother.
---
Celine’s eyes widen as she watches another demon, one of those cursed Saja Boys, snatch Jinu away from them. She didn’t expect him to bring a friend to his supposed meeting with Rumi. Maybe she underestimated the demon’s intelligence.
No matter, it won’t happen again.
“Pull up the tracker,” she commands. “If we’re lucky, there will be three other Jeoseung saja wherever those two went.”
Jason is essentially fuming at the loss of his prey.
“Find them now,” he says lowly to the person holding the tracker. “No demon outsmarts me and gets away with it.”
Celine will admit, there has to be something wrong with Jason. He tends to forget that they’re trying to figure out how to rid the world of demons for good and has a little too much fun with his so-called ‘research’. Then again, any demon he gets ahold of doesn’t cause anymore trouble in the human world, so she guesses he does his job well enough. She would almost feel bad for Jinu if he hadn’t been a danger to Rumi.
Or been a demon.
Nevertheless, the second Rumi told her that the new boy band that had risen to an almost impossible level of fame in less than 2 weeks was none other than a group of demons, Celine knew they had to be stopped as soon as possible.
The second she found out that the leader knew about Rumi’s patterns and had been attempting to meet up with her? Celine knew she had to stop him immediately.
She swore that she would protect Rumi, and she can’t do that if even a single being knows that Rumi is part demon. She doesn’t even trust Zoey and Mira, not completely. There’s never been a half-demon before that Celine knows about, and who knows what the higher ups at HUNTR would try to do to her if they found out. Nothing good at the very least. Celine cannot have anything happen to Rumi.
So, she sent an invitation to Jinu to meet up, and signed it with Rumi’s name.
The demon was stupid enough to believe it, or so she thought. She curses her oversight that allowed that demon to escape, even if it was only a matter of time before they got ahold of him again.
Mark her words, Jinu will be caught by the end of the night. And if she has it her way, he won’t ever get the chance to expose Rumi’s secret.
“I’ve got something. The tracker says the demon is about 20 minutes from here.”
Celine relaxes minutely. Rumi isn’t safe until that wretched demon can’t say a thing about her patterns, but finding him means they’re one step closer to locking that secret back up. She hopes he didn’t tell his bandmates. The odds of catching all of them tonight are quite low, and no one can know.
“Go now. There’s no time to waste. Lives are at stake.”
Celine sees Jason’s face break into a predatory grin, and she tries not to imagine that look turned toward Rumi.
She would hunt down every single demon, even kill Gwi-Ma herself, if that’s what it took to keep Rumi safe.
---
The Saja boys had situated Jinu into a more comfortable position on the couch. He kept twitching every couple of minutes or so, but Romance hoped that would stop soon. He hoped Jinu would wake soon. He hoped they could figure out a way to keep Jinu away from the hunters. He hoped that Jinu’s genius plan didn’t destroy him.
But hoping never worked out well for Romance.
The air was tense as the boys stared at Jinu like that would solve all their problems. It wouldn’t, but it gave them something to focus on besides the alarms ringing warnings in their heads.
The first order of business when Jinu wakes up is figuring out how to get that collar off. It has to be uncomfortable, and, judging by the lavender hue of Jinu’s skin and the patterns jutting across his face, it somehow disabled his magic.
He hadn’t known the hunters had that kind of technology.
However, not only do their performances heavily rely on magic, but it would probably draw way too much attention if Jinu suddenly shows up to every event as a demon with an exercise band underneath a metal collar wrapped around his neck.
Scratch that, it would definitely draw too much attention.
And that would lead to questions they can’t answer, which would lead to the failure of Jinu’s plan. And if Jinu’s plan fails…
Romance would rather not think about what Gwi-Ma would do to them.
Romance’s attention is drawn back to Jinu as his breath stutters and eyes scrunch up.
“Jinu!” Abby started. “Are you okay?”
Their leader groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
“Ow. Remind me to never do that again.”
The Saja boys stared at him in shock before Baby broke the silence by throwing a pillow at Jinu’s face.
“You idiot!”
“Hey! In my defense-”
“No! There is no defense! You’re an idiot!” Romance laughed and put a hand on Baby’s shoulder to calm him down.
“What he means to say is we’re glad you’re okay.” He paused. “But you are an idiot.”
Jinu raises a hand in exaperation.
“How was I supposed to know that Rumi wasn’t actually going to be there?”
“She’s a hunter! She probably planned this all along to capture you!” Baby shouts back. Jinu’s eyes dim and he deflates a little at that.
“Right.”
Pity fills Romance’s heart. He knows how easy it is to feel wanted, and how hard it is when the person you want most doesn’t share the same sentiment. Unfortunately, enemies to lovers doesn’t usually work out.
Which reminds him, the second order of business is going to be making sure Jinu never goes near that Rumi ever again.
Jinu shifts uncomfortably on the couch, and Romance rushes over.
“What do you need? Food? Water? The hunters to feel our wrath?” Jinu laughs a bit at his antics, and for a second Romance thinks everything is going to be just fine.
But then Mystery glances out the window and goes still.
“Do you think the collar might have a tracker in it?”
Dread fills Romance’s stomach, and he watches horror paint the other’s faces. Jinu goes pale and he closes his eyes in what looks like resignation.
“You guys have to get out of here.”
The boys immediately protest.
“And leave you for the hunters? You can’t ask us to do that.”
Jinu opens his eyes, and Romance had never known the demon could be so serious.
“We don’t know how to get this collar off. Everywhere I go, the hunters will follow. I can’t have you all be taken because I was an idiot.” Abby begins pacing.
“There has to be another way.”
Jinu looks down, and, if Romance isn’t mistaken, his eyes begin to fill with tears.
“Another way, sure, but not enough time to find it.” Jinu takes a breath and looks back up.
“Please,” he begs.
Romance takes a step back. How can Jinu ask them to just surrender him to a fate worse than death? There has to be a way out for all of them. If they just had more time-
But they’re out of time. The window is suddenly broken and a net is flying straight towards him. He freezes, indecision paralyzing him.
Romance is shoved, hard. He falls to the ground and looks up only to see Jinu writhing yet again, but this time under an electrified net. For a second, that’s all that he can focus on. He vaguely feels his eyes as wide as they’ll go and air weakly being pulled into his tight chest, but his ears are filled nothing but the sound of Jinu’s gasping and pleading for them to just go, get out, please-
Romance lays there, horrified at the turn this day had taken, watching hunters flood into their home. They were supposed to be safe here.
A hand grabs his shoulder, and suddenly Jinu and their apartment are both gone.
Mystery stumbles away, falling to his hands and knees and retching.
Baby steps back from Abby and hides his face in his hands.
Abby runs a few feet away from the group.
“We have to go back! We- He-” Romance watches the weight of what just happened fall on Abby’s shoulders as he falls to his knees and lets out a sob.
And Romance? Romance is numb. Jinu took that net for him. Maybe they could have all gotten out if he hadn’t been so cowardly. If Romance had been better, maybe his family would still be whole.
Something hardens in Romance’s chest.
He’s going to destroy the hunters, tear their whole organization to the ground, save Jinu in a way he couldn’t today, even if it’s the last thing he does.