Yes! time to rummage through my bookmarks collection!
the birds and the bees and the demons - yeahnoyeah - KPop Demon Hunters (2025) [Archive of Our Own] this one is funny and also so emotional
The Care & Keeping of You One & Two - Shia_NoBuff - KPop Demon Hunters (2025) [Archive of Our Own]
mini series - might have missed you - 2ndtolastrow - KPop Demon Hunters (2025) [Archive of Our Own]
who we're born to be - arendellesfirstwinter - KPop Demon Hunters (2025) [Archive of Our Own] this one will make you cry! (and also want to put some horrid children in the bin) blame @arendellesfirstwinter !!!
to listen to your messages, press - - jtl07 - KPop Demon Hunters (2025) [Archive of Our Own]
Zoey (through tears during pr): yeah that was actually the set up for our next comeback! (Sobs) sorry! So yeah we were planning it for a while, its kind of an au where rumi represents [x] and mira and I are against her! (Cries)
guy.exe polytrix au where music education major rumi is invited to attend a gala or something being hosted by her record label ceo adoptive mother celine and is told to bring a plus one a few months in advance
but rumi is a capital s Shut In and has no one to bring, and she’s desperate for her mothers approval, so she makes a list of all the traits she thinks celine would like her to have in a partner and then starts going on dates with random people online who she thinks meets her standards
and they all suck.
because most of those traits are things shes really not that interested in so theyre not really people shed be that into
but in the meantime, between these dates, she meets reluctant business major mira and marine biology major zoey. she keeps running into them on the way to and home from these dates. she even sees them one night while waiting for a date to show up, only for her to get stood up.
they end up treating her to some dinner to make her feel better and after that they become fast friends who quickly become attached at the hip
suddenly shes even less interested in these stupid dates. all she can think about when she sees a guy order a certain soup at a restaurant is how zoey told her about the unethical practices behind the making of that soup. another guy tells her about his business ventures and she suddenly remembers mira’s stories about jackasses she’s met in the past who were just like this guy
the gala thing is approaching quickly, though, and she needs to find someone soon, so she goes to a speed dating event of all things and keeps grilling the guys shes talking to about the list of traits (its the saja boys just imagine the saja boys) until finally she meets jinu, who sees her going through the list and is like “yknow for how high your standards are, it sure doesnt sound like this stuff is actually stuff you’re interested in.”
“oh. well not really, i guess. its more like what i think my sorta not really mom would want me to like in a partner.”
“…have you tried making a list of stuff youd like?”
and that genuinely blows her mind
she goes home that night and writes out a list of things she genuinely would like in a partner and when she reviews it and the list of stuff for celine (the combined list of traits are all the ones in guy.exe) she stops dead in her tracks bc Wait a Damn minute
and then she starts to sort the lists, bc she realizes that half of the traits shed like in a partner fit zoey and the other half fit mira, and the same goes for the two halves of the trait she thinks celine would like her to have in her partner
and shes like “Oh! My picture perfect guy is actually two picture perfect girls!” and also “Oh my fucking god im in love w my best friends”
when she goes to tell them theyre like “thank fucking god we were wondering when you were gonna ask to be our third”
rumi: ??? huh??? youre dating????
mira: you didnt know?!
rumi: no?!
zoey: why did you think we kiss every time we say bye to each other??
rumi: YOUVE KISSED ME WHEN SAYING BYE TO ME!!!?!
mira: tbf we also thought we were dating you until you told us you were looking to get a date to your moms things and didnt ask either of us
rumi: okay so what youre saying is we all suck at communication
mira: basically yes
And then rumi asks celine if she can have a plus two instead of a plus one
celine: ah, so youre poly? just like your mother and i were
How about a reality where Rumi figures out she’s gay at a super young age.
Celine is still involved in the industry, in a more administrative role than when she was an idol, but she still has work friends and occasionally attends awards events. She always brings Rumi along, (because Celine may be a calm and collected badass about anything else, but when it comes to Rumi, she’s a total softie with separation anxiety).
Rumi adores going to grown up events with her Eomma. She loves picking out sparkly dresses and twirling in front of the mirror. She makes every person on Celine’s team call her Princess Rumi and demands Celine put her down so she can do a proper bow/curtsey before insisting she be carried to their next location because she’s royalty.
But as much as she enjoys showing off to the staff backstage, she likes the actual awards ceremonies even more. Usually a child wouldn’t be welcome at these events, but Rumi is the picture of politeness, sitting with her hands in her lap, oohing and ahhing over the attendees, judging every outfit as they step on stage. When she really likes a dress, she pulls on Celine’s sleeve and loudly whispers, “That’s a pretty one!” She stares at the elaborate hair and makeup, making mental notes of what she likes and doesn’t. When one of Celine’s old friends stops by to say hi after the event, Rumi is entranced by her long, intricate braid swishing around her hips and the way her lavender purple dress sparkles. She wonders if Celine also likes the specific shade of purple because when the woman reaches out and delicately grazes Celine’s arm, her Eomma turns bright red and suddenly declares that it’s way past Rumi’s bedtime.
On the way home, Rumi asks Celine why she wears pants instead a dress like all the other pretty ladies at the party. Celine shouldn’t be surprised that Rumi’s so observant and curious, but the question catches her off guard. She stills for a second and grasps the necklace with the aqua blue stone she always wears, the one Rumi has seen in old pictures of a woman Celine says is her real Eomma, before telling Rumi that sometimes, people are just more comfortable and feel more like themselves in different types of outfits. Rumi makes Celine promise to always let her wear pretty princess dresses for their two person dance parties they have in the kitchen after these events. Celine obviously agrees.
On the rare occasion that she interacts with other kids, usually the offspring of various idols, Rumi is entranced by their moms with their long, shiny black hair and delicate gold jewelry they wear on their hands. She comes home from play dates talking about how she wants to grow up to be just as beautiful and nice as so-and-so’s Eomma.
It isn’t until she shares this sentiment with other girls her age, who make fun of her and tell her how weird she is for gushing about their moms, that she realizes not everyone appreciates women the way she does. She also starts noticing that any time she shows Celine a new group of pretty, female idols, Celine’s eyes flash with something far away and bad, some emotion seven-year-old Rumi can’t quite put her finger on but thinks it means that what she’s doing is hurting her Eomma.
Her patterns, once regulated to a small spot under her right collarbone, begin to spread. She knows it’s connected to her being half-demon like Celine’s always explained, but maybe it’s also because there’s something else deep inside her that was made wrong.
She starts spending less time dancing in pretty dresses and more time training in athletic wear, convincing Celine to spar with her despite her small stature. She’s good at this, at taking all her emotions she’s not supposed to have in her little body and using them to fight bad guys, to fight the bad things in her that seem to never totally go away. Rumi figures maybe she wasn’t made for soft things like love, but rather as a weapon to be used during times of struggle and war.
The next time Celine invites her to a work event, Rumi turns it down, saying she doesn’t feel like giving up time she could be practicing her flips in their home gym instead.
It continues like this until Rumi is trading anything that makes her happy for anything that makes her feel strong and safe and secure. She thinks that maybe one day, she’ll meet the other trainees Celine has told her about and get to turn the Honmoon gold. Maybe, if she can turn the Honmoon gold, her patterns, and all the confusing, smoldering feelings she’s tucked away for the past decade will fade too.
When Rumi meets Mira and Zoey, she’s enchanted by them, by the way Mira’s long legs move with such precision and grace, by the way she can see Zoey’s tongue moving at the speed of light every time she raps.
Rumi’s stomach drops when she realizes that no matter the color of the Honmoon, she’ll never be able to turn off this hidden, shamed part of her she hoped no one would ever see.
Celine straightened at Zoey's question and, shading her eyes, looked out across the planting beds towards the woods bordering the grounds of the hanok. Boughs laden with crimson-tipped buds waving gently in the breeze; a sparrow darting amidst the dappled shadows; the Honmoon shimmering peacefully above; overall a peaceful albeit unremarkable scene.
And yet Zoey had glimpsed something obviously unusual.
"What's what?" Celine turned from the vista to where Zoey was supposed to be planting carrots. The young woman was staring at Celine with-
Uh oh.
-with her Sunlight Sisters Fangirl(tm) look.
Celine suppressed a groan. She loved Zoey, really; in a surprisingly short time her and Mira had become like daughters to her, to the point where they opted to spend parents' day with her and she had ceased objecting. She loved her enthusiasm for music, her zest for life, and how passionate she was about her special interests.
She just…didn't always love being one of those special interests.
Wordlessly, Zoey lifted an arm, bent it at the elbow, and pointed at the small of her own back.
That was all it took for realization to click and Celine to mentally hurl every curse in the book and then some at her teenage self.
And also at herself for pairing low-rise jeans with a decision to show her support of Rumi by showing more skin.
A very bad combination.
"Nothing important," Celine said lightly, stepping around the planting box to work on the one behind Zoey, taking care to hike up the waistband of her jeans.
"It's something…" Mira, from where she was helping Rumi stake tomatoes (in the loosest sense possible, what with 'official stake holder' being something of an empty title), said in a singsong.
"It's really not." Celine knelt by her strategically chosen bed and started re-smoothing dirt over hills of beans.
Apparently, for the Youth of Today, that was akin to an incriminating remark. Zoey spun away from her carrots and, leaning on the edge of the box, shoved her face so close that Celine could count her freckles. "OMG. Do you have a tramp stamp?!?"
Snap! went the stake Rumi was positioning.
Celine blinked, years of being first an idol then a CEO and never letting herself be caught off-guard by a question dissolved in an instant. A heat that had nothing to do with the late-morning sun rose up her neck.
"You do!" Mira sounded far too delighted.
Silence was also incriminating.
"Girls! Come on!" Rumi- may the Honmoon bless and keep Rumi a thousand times over- shot her girls a withering look. "This is Celine you're talking about. Celine, who you both agreed is a stick in the mud."
Celine supposed she should take offense at that, but she was an intelligent woman; intelligent enough to not challenge her defense.
Rumi made a sound like the very idea was ridiculous. "You probably saw a mole or scar or something. She wouldn't get a tattoo. Especially a tramp stamp. Right, Celine?"
"And remember!" Before Celine could agree, Mira ducked her chin to peer over her glasses at Celine. "No more secrets. No more lies."
Celine cringed like Mira's words were a whip biting a reminder across her back. Right.
She cursed her one-year-ago self.
Rumi blanched, Celine's abstaining from instant agreement crashing over her like icemelt. "Right?" The desperation in her voice was palpable.
Sighing heavily, Celine stood. May as well get this over with. Turning around, she shifted her stance and, deafening her ears to the sounds Zoey was making behind her, tugged down her jeans just enough to show it.
That goddamn tramp stamp.
The tomato stakes clattered to the ground.
"I was…impulsive, in my youth," she said, rubbing her neck awkwardly as she felt all three girls stare.
"And you wound up with a tramp stamp how?" Mira asked, apparently the only member of Huntrix whose brain was functioning at the moment.
Oh how she wished she hadn't asked…
"I was young. I wanted to be cool. And sexy. I thought this was a good way to do it."
Mira barked a laugh; Zoey made another sound Celine chose to not hear; Rumi was still silent.
"And if you must know," Celine continued, deciding she may as well give the full story and create a teachable moment. "I chose a place of poor repute and it got infected, so my mentors found out." And Honmoon, how she wished she could forget that day. "If you get tattoos- when you are no longer under contract- choose your parlor wisely and ask to see all their licenses."
"Yes ma'am." Mira was not even bothering to hide the laughter in her voice.
Deciding she'd given them ample time for ogling Celine turned back around. She was met with one smirk, one fangirl whose face was a danger to the naked eye, and one Rumi redder than the future tomatoes.
Time to get things back on track.
And off her…vestige of undeveloped critical thinking skills.
Before she disappeared into the woods and never rejoined society.
Clearing her throat, she tipped her head at Zoey's bare planting bed. "Now, I would like to have carrots come-"
"THAT IS SO COOL!!!!" Zoey shrieked loud enough Celine swore the Honmoon flinched. "You don't know how many headcanons this matches up with!"
Oh, she knew. She wished she didn't.
"Ugh…" Rumi rubbed her eyes as Zoey continued babbling about how "I always pegged you as the one to have a secret tattoo" and "it really suits you" (should she take that as a compliment…?). "I did not need to see that…"
"What?" Mira poked Rumi with a tomato stake. "You don't think she looks hot with it?"
Celine fought the urge to pull her shoulders up to her ears. Could this get any more embarrassing?
"Why didn't you get it removed?" Rumi asked, pointedly ignoring Mira's question. "We're rich!"
Celine winced. Apparently, it could. "Well, your mother liked it…"
It was hard to tell what was louder: Zoey's scream, or Rumi's.
love the idea of mira being initially against keeping derpy and sussie on the grounds of them not knowing what they are, but being outvoted by rumi (whose grown exceptionally fond of them) and zoey (who thinks they’re so fucking charming).
and mira eventually goes to zoey in particular (bc whatever yeah sure of course RUMI is fond of them, she knew them for longer than mira did but why is zoey so charmed by them, other her being zoey who loves everyone and is such a sweetheart it makes miras heart hurt sometimes thinking about the ways in which world has hurt her and the more she thinks about the more it already makes sense but STILL) and asks her whats so charming about their new weird spirit animals. and zoey stares at her like “babe. derpy is just rumi, but as a big blue tiger.”
and mira would argue but then she thinks about derpy, and the quiet, polite way he picks up things he knocks down, and the way he stares with his big, dumbass smile, and the noises he makes when you pet him in just the right spot, and how just stretches out on top of them no matter how inconvenient it is to have him there, and the way clings to them when they try to get up, and how much he loves to nap.
and then she thinks about rumi, and how shes always been so quiet and polite, and how she has that big, dumbass smile she pulls out whenever she’s really excited about something, and the noises she makes when they scratch or massage or rub just the right spot, and how she loves to nap atop them no matter how inconvenient it is (the inconvenience never really mattered to mira or zoey, her bridging the gap any time she would before the idol awards always felt like a win to them, and now that she’s doing it more, the idea of holding their girlfriend couldn’t be anything further from an inconvenience to them), and the way she clings to them when they try to get up (they were always way more reluctant to do that before, because those instances were fewer and further between, but now they have the security of knowing they’ll get to have rumi in their lap again soon, they’ll even get to hold her in bed), and how (now that she’s loosened up and isnt so deadset on achieving the golden honmoon, and is taking better care of herself) she’s developed a love of napping.
hell, they even stretch out in the same way and yawn similarly
and she realizes that zoey’s right.
“but,” she stutters out, “how are you so fond of the bird?”
and zoey laughs and drags her down for a kiss (very pleasant) and then says “because, jagiya, hes just like you” (unpleasant)
and then zoey laughs again when mira and sussie, whose been beefing with mira since he arrived and who was in the room with them just hanging out, both let out identical squawks of indignation and storm (or fly) away at the exact same time because theyre both so offended
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?"
"Around the time mum was pregnant and they were on hiatus living together, yes. She had a lot of free time. Why?"
