Hot Takes not included @phoebe-drawz - Tumblr Blog

Second Chances Are Often Undeserved, And Yet They're Given To Us Anyway

Chapter 3 (also on AO3)

“Remind me again why I’m being dragged along for this?” Mira said, still standing outside of the van, the only one other than Rumi.

And Rumi, arms crossed and voice flat, said, “Because we’re getting ice cream afterwards and if you miss it you’ll be upset.”

There was a pause then before Mira opened her mouth, then closed it, then her eyes narrowed just a little more than they were already before she slowly, finally, climbed into the van and took her seat.

“Thank you,” Rumi sighed as she, too, finally climbed into the passenger seat.

“Alright, let’s aim for at least two weeks worth of clothing for you guys to start with,” Rumi said once Bobby got the van going, twisting around to look back at the others. “Though it definitely doesn’t hurt to get more.”

“Aren’t you supposed to have people for this?” Abby asked. “Jinu said there’s supposed to be people for this.”

“Well, yeah, but I ordered those new beds and things for you guys,” Rumi said, “And I scheduled it all to be delivered today. But all of us can’t be there for it because if people find out we have a bunch of guys living with us it’ll be a PR nightmare.”

“Plus, it’s fun to go shopping ourselves every once in a while,” Zoey added. “It’s a good bonding experience!”

“I don’t wanna bond with these guys, I’m just here for the ice cream,” Mira stated, pointedly looking out the window.

Rumi shook her head and turned to face forward in her seat as the boys and Zoey started chatting.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Everyone clambered out of the van a few blocks from the shopping district they were heading to. Bobby had parked in front of a dead end alleyway so that everyone could check themselves over and make sure enough was covered up as to not be recognized—usually not necessary, but with four extra demons in tow, it’s better to be as safe as possible.

“Alright everyone, I’m going to give the delivery guys a call to make sure they’re still on schedule,” Bobby said as he took out his phone and popped the driver’s door open. “Just let me know when you’re all good to go and I’ll head back to the penthouse, and I’ll see you all again tonight.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know when we’re finishing up,” Rumi said as she gave Bobby a hug.

“Thanks for driving us, Bobby!” Zoey said, giving him a hug next. “See you tonight!”

“Don’t let the delivery team scratch the floor,” Mira told him once Zoey stepped back. “We still have a mark on the floor from the last team.”

“Not to worry, I’ll be sure to supervise the whole process,” Bobby assured before getting back inside the van. Then he hit the call button on his phone and closed the door.

“Alright!” Rumi said, putting her hands on her hips. “Time to shop for clothes. Do any of you know your sizes?”

She got no answers from any of the boys and her shoulders dropped.

“Oookay, well, not a big issue. It should be easy enough to figure out. Just, don’t pop any buttons.”

“No promises,” Abby said with a grin.

“Hey,” Mira said, stepping up next to Rumi. “Before we start, there’s one very important rule to follow: no names. We don’t want to cause a scene.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Romance said with a little solute and a way too salacious smile, which Mira groaned at.

Rumi rolled her eyes and tucked her braid away into the hood of her jacket. Then she took a bunch of face masks out of her pocket and handed them out to the boys.

“You guys will have to keep these on until we’re done,” she said before putting a mask on herself. “The less there is of your faces showing, the better. But once we figure out your hair we shouldn’t need the masks anymore, I think.”

Zoey hopped over and straightened her bucket hat, then crossed her arms and gave the boys a once over.

All four boys had changed their clothing to something more plain and unassuming after stepping out of the van. All colors were muted (or changed entirely), as previously suggested, but in addition to that, Romance and Mystery added hats to their outfits—a ball cap and beanie respectively. Abby switched into a dark gray hoodie, with the hood currently up, and Baby ditched the sweater to just go with an untucked collared button-up, with plain white sneakers. But perhaps more should be done. Just to be safe.

“I guess they’re not too obvious with the masks…but covering up some more wouldn’t hurt,” Zoey said, the corner of her lip pulling up a little. “Maybe tuck some more hair in?”

“Maybe a few pairs of glasses could help,” Rumi suggested instead.

“Oh yeah, good idea! If it works for Mira, then it should work for these guys,” Zoey agreed with a nod.

Mira made a low, thoughtful hum. “Glasses on Romance and Baby?”

“Do they have to be as big as yours?” Baby said, his hidden smirk clear in his voice, and Mira glared at him about it.

“Maybe Baby should have a hat too, instead of glasses,” Rumi said, squinting just a little. “…Though that might make him more obvious, actually…”

“If the rest of them are hidden enough then Baby should be fine,” Mira stated, followed by her giving Baby a smack on the head when he gave himself a pair of glasses that looked suspiciously similar to her own.

He flinched at the smack but snickered all the same before tapping his finger against his glasses. They changed to something smaller afterwards—rectangular with a half frame on the bottom—and Mira hmphed and turned away.

“Not even going to have any fun with it?” Romance said, now wearing red-tinted shades. “You’re always so boring.”

“You look like an idiot,” Baby stated.

“The point isn’t to look good, it’s to look different,” Romance said with click of his tongue.

“That’s right,” Rumi said, “And hopefully you guys look different enough now that we can get started.”

“I’ll let Bobby know!” Zoey said before going over to the van to tap on the driver’s side window.

And once Bobby gave them a wave and drove off, the group set out.

The clothing and apparel store was their first stop; the building was tall, with three large floors of all the clothing the boys would need, and then some.

Rumi and Zoey each grabbed a cart when they arrived, while Mira picked up a basket, for herself. So Abby grabbed a cart in her stead.

“First thing we should worry about is shirts and pants, then we can get underwear and the smaller stuff,” Rumi said as they walked into the store, looking at her phone. Apparently she had transferred her notes there at some point. “You guys will probably need a couple more pairs of shoes, too.”

“This sounds like it’ll take a while…” Baby sighed, hunching over a bit.

“Once we figure out your sizes it shouldn’t be too bad,” Rumi assured.

“They could probably just all start with larges for shirts,” Zoey said, then glanced at Baby. “A large might be too big for you, actually…”

Baby pulled a face.

“Knucklehead will probably need extra large, if just to avoid the buttons popping off,” Mira said offhandedly, eyes skimming the promotional racks placed at the entrance of the store.

“Does she mean me?” Abby asked quietly, leaning towards Romance, who shrugged.

“Context says yes,” Romance said back, “But I don’t know what a ‘knucklehead’ is, so I’m not positive.”

Zoey giggled softly while Mira let out a barely audible groan.

Rumi shook her head and led the group to the men’s section to begin looking for shirts, while Mira announced that she was going to do her own thing before walking away.

“Zoey, you help those two,” Rumi said, gesturing to Baby and Mystery, explaining further when Zoey gave her a confused look, “You’re just going to get distracted by Abby. Don’t tell me you won’t.”

Zoey’s face grew hot but she didn’t deny it. She couldn’t, and she knew it. So she just nodded in defeat.

“Okay, so you can kind of estimate sizes by just holding the shirts up in front of yourself,” Rumi said, demonstrating by taking a random shirt off a rack and holding it up to lay against her front. “And if we’re not sure then we can pick two sizes to try on.”

“Okay, so large and extra large is what we want,” Romance confirmed to himself before turning his attention to a rack, while Abby remained where he was with his hands on his shopping cart. He looked unsure about something.

Romance noticed shortly before Rumi did, and before she could ask about it, Romance was already holding a shirt out to Abby.

“You can find the size on this,” he said, lifting a tag up that was attached to the sleeve. “Right here, ‘large’,” he added, tapping his nail next to a size indicator.

“Oh,” Abby murmured, leaning a little closer to inspect the tag. Then he nodded and Romance returned the shirt to the rack.

Then he grabbed another and held that out. “And this is the bigger size. ‘Extra large.’”

Abby nodded again, while Rumi watched with mild confusion. But Abby left the cart to start looking at shirts now at least, so she supposed she wouldn’t bring it up.

With those two busy, Rumi turned her attention over to Zoey, Mystery, and Baby, who had moved to the opposite side of the walkway.

Baby was going through shirts with vague interest, while Zoey had her attention on Mystery. He was focused on people walking past and looking uncomfortable.

“Is he okay?” Rumi asked Zoey as she weaved through a group of people passing by.

“I dunno!” Zoey admitted, deflating. “He won’t even look at me, let alone talk.”

Baby glanced over at them.

A few more people passed by, talking a bit loudly as they did, and then a sound started vibrating out from Mystery’s chest.

Well. That wasn’t good.

“Hey, no, no growling!” Zoey quietly scolded, shaking Mystery’s shoulder slightly. “You’re going to cause a scene, which is something you were explicitly told not to do.”

Mystery turned his head to look at Zoey for a second, but his attention was quickly taken by more people walking by. And that low rumble in his chest started up again, which Zoey hissed another scolding at, while Rumi watched in a quiet panic.

“If you don’t want him to growl then you’ll need to hold his hand.”

“W-what?!” Zoey squeaked, face instantly going red.

“If you don’t want him to growl,” Baby said again, still filing through shirts, “Then you’ll need to hold his hand. Give him a point of physical contact to focus on and he’ll stop. Otherwise, the only other way to get him to quiet down is to completely remove him from the situation.”

He paused to inspect a shirt more closely, then glanced over at Mystery and Zoey as the growling grew louder.

“Oof, he’s tense,” he remarked, then went back to the shirts. “I’d hurry up; he’s about to start barking.”

“Oh gosh,” Zoey wheezed out before she forced herself to latch onto Mystery’s hand, her own shaking with embarrassment.

As soon as their hands touched, Mystery’s growling faded off and his shoulders relaxed a little. Then Zoey felt his fingers flex a few times before fully lacing between hers, and the remaining tension in his body released with an exhale.

“…Thanks,” he murmured, turning his head away.

Zoey’s free hand came up to her mouth as she watched him, her face still a little red. “U-um…you’re welcome…”

“You’ll probably need to keep that up for most of this shopping trip,” Baby said over his shoulder. “He’s not good with crowds, and there’s a hell of a lot of people here.”

“What do you mean he’s not good with crowds? You performed in front of massive crowds multiple times,” Rumi pointed out.

“…Different,” Mystery said softly.

Baby elaborated for him: “He likes performing, putting on a show for people is fun for him. It’s an entirely different headspace he gets in, and the performance is also something that he can focus on. But being in and around a lot of people outside of that requires a lot of a different kind of energy, which he runs out of pretty quick. He needs something to ground him then.”

“Oh…that sounds tough,” Zoey said, frowning a little.

“Did he tell you all that?” Rumi asked, getting a shrug from Baby in response.

“Some of it,” he said, “But most I just figured out by watching him.”

“You figured that all out just by watching him?” Rumi said.

“You can figure out a lot by just observing others. And I’ve had a lot of time to observe,” Baby stated before finally pulling a shirt from the rack. “It’s how I stayed sane down there.”

“What?”

“Later.” He held the shirt up to Rumi—it was a light orange checkered button up. “How do you feel about this?”

“I think you could pull it off with the right pants,” Romance said from behind Rumi, causing her to yelp and spin around.

“Dude,” she huffed as Romance let out a breathy laugh.

“My apologies,” he said with a little bow. Then, “I wanted to check over on this side for anything I might like.”

“How’s the other one making out?” Rumi asked, looking back to Abby and the carts. There were several shirts in the carts and Abby seemed to be taking his time looking through the racks.

“He’s found a few things that he thinks he’ll like, but…” Romance hummed. “We’ll probably need to experiment some.”

“He’s not great when it comes to fashion,” Mystery stated simply, and Baby let out a long suffering sigh.

It took probably over an hour after that before the group was able to move on from the shirts, with the pants shopping thankfully going much faster. Far fewer colors and designs to choose from made for an easy run through.

And then things got a little…weird? When they reached the underwear section.

“Weird” because Rumi and Zoey had to keep reminding Baby to focus on the task, because he kept getting distracted by all the large photo prints of the clothing models. And the other three demons in the group didn’t help with that much.

“We gotta get out of here,” Rumi groaned as Zoey leaned against her, am arm around her shoulders. Mystery hovered close too, since yes, Zoey still had to hold his hand.

“What’s with him?” Zoey whined, watching as Romance snapped his fingers next to Baby’s ear—which was as much help as he was willing to offer. Apparently, he found this situation too amusing to do anything more. “This was supposed to be the fastest stop!”

Mystery made a quiet snort.

“What?” Rumi said and Mystery cleared his throat.

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Rumi narrowed her eyes a little but dropped it.

“At this point we should just grab something for him and move on,” Abby said as he walked over. “I could easily drag him away if needed.”

“Maybe we should do that…” Zoey grumbled. “We’ve already been stuck in this section for a half hour. We still need to get shoes and pajamas!”

Rumi scrubbed her hands over her cheeks, no regard for her mask, and opened her mouth to speak. But before she could say anything, she was interrupted by her phone ringing.

With a huff she fished it out of her pocket, and her breath hitched when she saw who was calling.

“Shit. It’s Celine,” she whispered to Zoey. “I gotta take this. I’ll be right back.”

Zoey gave her a worried look and a nod before Rumi went hurrying off to the bathroom, answering the call as she went.

Then Zoey sighed. “When Rumi gets back we’re dragging Baby out of here,” she muttered, just loud enough for Mystery and Abby to hear.

And Rumi returned around ten-ish minutes later, looking a little frazzled.

“You okay?” Zoey asked.

Rumi made a frustrated sound into her hands.

“Celine asked to come over for dinner in two weeks. Friday.”

“Is…is that good or bad?”

“It’s definitely good,” Rumi said, and it was! After everything that happened, Celine had been trying really hard to mend things with her. But that didn’t mean things weren’t, well, awkward, to say the least.

They had only been able to see each other in person once between the fight at Namsan Tower and the comeback tour, and it wasn’t even for an hour. And then Celine’s schedule hadn’t allowed for any free time to meet since the tour ended. And sure, the two of them had been talking more and more consistently through text, but calls were still rare, and this was—

“Fuck, I forgot to tell her about the guys,” Rumi hissed. Great. Fantastic.

“Can you call her back real quick? Or text her?” Zoey said, but Rumi shook her head.

“She said she was going to be busy the rest of the day, she just wanted to call me real quick to talk about dinner before she forgot,” Rumi explained. “Her phone is probably already turned off.”

“Oh…” Zoey sighed again. “We’ll just have to remember to tell her tonight, then, I guess.”

“He’s distracted again,” Mystery stated, turned towards Baby.

Both Rumi and Zoey groaned.

“Get him,” Zoey deadpanned, giving Abby a shove.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Abby walked off to join Romance and whisper something to him. Then he grabbed Baby under the armpits and lifted him up as if he weighed nothing.

“Hey! Put me down!” he snapped as Abby locked his arms around the smaller demon’s chest.

“No-can-do,” Abby said as he started walking back to the girls and Mystery. “You’re taking too long, and I got orders to take you outta here.”

Romance followed languidly behind and tossed an armful of basic boxers into one of their carts. “Those should fit.”

Abby dropped Baby onto his feet once they reached the others, at which point Baby punched him in the chest. Not that it did anything past making a ‘thump’ sound, but still. The intent was there.

“Okay, let’s hurry up and get you guys some pajamas and new shoes so that we can move on from this store,” Rumi said. “We’ll just have to find Mira before we leave, then.”

Baby grumbled something as they started to move on, gently shoved along by Abby, who he narrowed his eyes at.

“Hey, don’t give me that look,” Abby said, though he was obviously amused. “It ain’t my fault you took so long.”

Pajamas took nearly another hour, much of which was spent by Romance complaining about how boring the adult sets were compared to the children’s.

“I know, it’s so unfair!” Zoey said after one of Romance’s complaints. “It’s so hard to find something cute!”

“Online is usually better for that sort of thing, unfortunately,” Rumi added. “We can look around online some other time.”

Romance sighed and placed another pair of pajamas in a cart.

Shoes (and socks), thankfully, went much faster. Sizing was easy enough, and the boys were able to each find a couple new pairs of sneakers before too long. Colorful ones, of course.

And, somehow, Romance also ended up with a pair of shiny black thick-heeled boots. Which the girls allowed because, admittedly, they did look good on him. And with the right outfit, they’d look great.

But that’s something to worry about later.

“Okay, finally done,” Rumi said, leaning heavily on her cart. “Now we just have to make sure everything fits. Just a few items each to make sure you guys have the right sizes picked out.”

“I’ll go get Mira once the boys are set up,” Zoey said as they made their way to the dressing rooms.

“We’ll probably have to meet her at checkout,” Rumi sighed.

They got to the dressing rooms a minute or so later and each of the boys got a room, though Romance ended up joining Abby to “ensure that he doesn’t pop any buttons” which Abby complained about, while Mystery took his items without a fuss.

(Well, okay, he made a little fuss, about having to let go of Zoey’s hand. But after that he was fine.)

“So after the phones what are we going to do?” Baby asked as he collected his stuff. “Was that it?”

“We’ll have to stop at the general store and pick up basic necessities for you guys,” Rumi said. “Like toothbrushes and stuff for the shower and all that.”

“Hm. Okay,” Baby said with a shrug. He took a moment to straighten out the stack of clothes in his arms. “…You really don’t have to do all this.”

“It’s not a problem.”

Baby made a little huff and walked into his designated dressing room.

“Hey, so…since we have some time, I have a follow-up question in regards to earlier. Before we left,” Rumi said, leaning against the wall.

“…Go ahead.”

“If you’re so opposed to us helping you, then why did you accept my offer?”

Baby sighed after a moment and Rumi heard him sit heavily on the dressing room bench.

“With Gwi-ma and Jinu gone, I became the group leader by default, because I’m the oldest. And that means I’m in charge of taking care of us all,” Baby said, and it sounded like he was talking into his hands. “My job right now is keeping my friends safe, but I don’t know how to do that up here.

“We’re completely lost on our own, we don’t know how to act up here, how anything works. We only managed before because of Jinu, and he didn’t teach anything more than the bare minimum of what he knew to any of us. Didn’t think he needed to. So even if I disagree with you, accepting your help, at least for the time being, was the best thing I could do for my friends. Even if you’re doing more than you should.”

“You care about the others a lot, huh?”

“They’re the only friends I’ve ever had, so. Yeah.” A beat passed. “Can you explain why you were so quick to offer your help, though? There has to be more to it than what you said in the hall.”

“Well…I think Jinu would have wanted us to help his friends,” Rumi said. “And. I dunno. Maybe there’s some feeling of obligation to it. The want to make up for all the misunderstandings. It’s an opportunity to learn the truth about all this, I guess.”

She heard a faint hum.

A short silence followed before Rumi heard the bench squeak as Baby stood up, and when she heard clothing rustling she took out her phone to wait.

Though only a few minutes went by before Baby said, “Tomorrow I want to look at that sword of yours.”

“My sword?”

“Mn. Abby, he mentioned Jinu—.”

“Oh, shit,” Rumi gasped, “That’s right, I totally forgot about that.”

“Well, it’s been pretty busy since last night. It’s not your fault that you forgot.”

There was another stretch of silence as more clothing rustled around, then a pause. Then the door to the dressing room rattled as Baby dropped his weight against it.

“...I miss him.”

He said it so softly that Rumi almost didn’t hear it over her own breathing.

He sounded so…empty.

Rumi blinked a few times, her vision having gone blurry. She exhaled softly.

“Yeah,” she murmured, “I miss him, too.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They did end up having to meet Mira at checkout. She bought some makeup and new clothes of her own, though less than what Rumi was expecting; she only had one bag’s worth of items. Usually she had at least three.

The boys, meanwhile, each had two.

Most of the clothing they all picked out fit, though they’ll definitely have to take everything to get tailored later. And while Abby did pop a button on one shirt, it was one he kept, so they can just fix that when they get home.

Overall not too much had to be put back. Most of it was what Abby had; he ended up mostly with the extra large sizes for his shirts, with a few larges that ran big, if only to prevent the loss of more buttons (and seam rips, which was certainly not out of the question with the smaller shirts).

His stuff will definitely need tailoring.

And speaking of Abby, he somehow ended up carrying six of the group’s nine bags, with Romance holding the other three.

“I don’t mind,” Abby assured when Rumi offered to take a few, “They’re not heavy.”

Rumi wasn’t thrilled about it, but he refused to give her even one of the bags, so she had no choice but to give up.

“You guys can just pick whatever phone you like the look of best and we can get them all set up tomorrow,” Rumi said as the group meandered to the next store. “And Bobby can add them to our plan once the sim cards are active.”

“Pardon?” Romance said.

“…I’ll explain later.”

When they entered the electronics store Zoey immediately took Mystery’s hand and Mira gave her an unimpressed look, eyebrow raised.

“Uh—he gets agitated in crowds,” Zoey quickly explained, not that that really explained much of anything.

“Whatever,” Mira said with a roll of her eyes. “Let’s just hurry this up. I want ice cream.”

They took the boys to the phone section, at which point Abby finally relinquished the bags over to Rumi.

“How do we even use these things?” Abby muttered as he picked up a display phone and started tapping around on it. “Weird.”

“You know what’s weird? You saying shit like that,” Mira said quietly. “At least pretend like you know what’s up.”

“Geez, alright,” Abby grumbled and put the phone back on the stand just as Romance walked over.

“Just worry about the look right now and we can help you guys figure the rest out later,” Rumi said and Abby nodded at her before reaching for a different phone.

“Mira, help them,” Rumi added, which got a groan in response, before she went to find Baby.

Meanwhile Zoey had led Mystery over to a specific brand display that included cases to go with the phones.

“This is the brand that my phone is!” she said, holding her own up next to one on display while Mystery nodded along. “And once you have your phone picked out then I can help you find a cute case for it!”

“Does the case protect it?” Mystery asked.

“Yep, that’s right!” Zoey said. “The rubber ones are best, though, so you should get one of those. You guys will probably want screen protectors too, just in case.”

Elsewhere, Rumi found Baby looking at some kind of new flip phone model.

“Jinu had something like this, I think,” he said when Rumi walked up to him.

Rumi couldn’t help but be surprised by that. “Jinu had a phone?”

“Yeah, didn’t use it much though,” Baby said with a shrug. “I don’t think he really knew how to use it. He never did anything but answer a few calls with it. For ‘marketing’, or whatever.”

“Huh. I’m kind of surprised he even figured out that much,” Rumi said with a little snort. “And what about the rest of you?”

“None of us had anything. At most, I played around with Jinu’s phone a bit, but couldn’t figure it out.”

Rumi hummed. “Well, hopefully it won’t be too hard for you guys to figure it all out now that you’ll have your own. It’s pretty straight forward for the most part, especially after Bobby removes all the built-in factory crap.”

Baby made a sound of acknowledgement and put the phone back.

Somewhere around forty minutes later, four new phones were picked out: Baby decided to stick with a flip phone, one with the screen on the outside, because it’s smaller; Abby and Romance ended up choosing identical phones, apparently because Mira was getting impatient with them; and Zoey ended up choosing a model nearly identical to her own phone for Mystery because he doesn’t “really know anything about this stuff, so I let her pick for me” so of course she picked her phone.

“Oh, we can’t forget to get cases,” Zoey said, but then she gave a scrutinizing look at Baby’s choice. “I don’t think there’s cases for that.”

He shrugged. “The cases are for protection, right? So I’ll just be careful.”

“I don’t think there’s time for that, actually,” Rumi said as she collected the phones, the bags returning to Abby. “It’s like…after five already? Geez.”

Mira groaned. (There’s been quite a lot of groaning today.)

“Oh, yeah, maybe we should wait on the cases then,” Zoey said. “I guess we can just look for those online.”

“That’d be best, I think,” Rumi said with a nod. Then, “I’ll go pay for these and the sim cards. You guys can go ahead and wait outside if you want.”

And when Rumi rejoined the group, the first thing she said was, “The guy at checkout looked at me like I was crazy.”

“To be fair, most people don’t buy three million won worth of smartphones in one go like it’s nothing,” Mira pointed out, and Rumi made a face like she hadn’t considered that.

Then her own phone rang a moment later and she quickly shuffled the bags in her hands around to pull it out.

“Hi, Bobby~!” all three girls sang when Rumi answered, Mira and Zoey automatically leaning into view of the camera.

“Hey, girls! Just calling to let you know that everything’s moved in and set up for the boys,” Bobby said with a smile. “And no incidents this time! So, whenever you’re done with your shopping, just let me know and I can pick everyone up for ice cream.”

“That’s great!” Rumi said. “We’re actually almost done I think, there’s just one last store we need to go through.”

“Oh, then how about I head back to where I dropped you all off in, say, a half hour? How long do you think you’ll be?”

“A half hour before leaving should be fine,” Mira said and Zoey nodded in agreement. “Just give us a heads up before you head out.”

“Will do! See you girls then,” Bobby said before giving a wave and hanging up.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” Mira said, waving everyone in the general direction of their next and final stop. “Rumi, you got a list of shit they need for this too?”

“Oh, yeah,” Rumi said with a little shake of her phone. “Should be a quick in-and-out.”

“So what is it that we’re getting now again?” Abby asked after collecting the newest bag from Rumi.

“General hygiene things,” Rumi answered. “Soap, shampoo, toothpaste, all that stuff. We don’t exactly have guests very often, so we don’t have any extra stuff for you guys.”

Abby nodded, though it was clear he was only partially following along.

Romance leaned over and whispered something to him and he nodded back, and Mira gave them a questioning look. Romance only smiled at her.

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t speak up about it, and in another few minutes they arrived at the last store.

Mystery had started to get antsy on their walk over, so he ended up staying outside with Zoey and Abby to keep him company while the others followed Rumi inside.

“Is he gunna be okay?” she asked Romance, glancing back to the doors.

“He should be alright,” Romance assured her. “Though he’ll likely be quite tired by the time we all return home. Often how it goes.”

“Not your home,” Mira huffed.

“…Temporary residence,” Romance corrected, and Mira gave him a curt nod.

Rumi pursed her lips. “Has it always been like that?” she asked then, looking back to Romance.

“Oh, yes, I believe so,” Romance said. “Long as I’ve known him, anyway. He’s usually better at hiding it, though. But since—” He cleared his throat and leaned down closer to Rumi to speak quieter. “—Since we all woke up, without Gwi-ma, he’s had much less energy.”

“This is something to talk about later,” Baby cut in. “We can answer questions tonight, when it won’t risk drawing unwanted attention. I had enough of that last week.”

“Mm. Right,” Romance said, standing straight again.

Rumi’s lips thinned. “I think we can wait on the questioning until tomorrow. Mostly because we need time to actually think of questions.”

“Hey, give me your list,” Mira said to Rumi, interrupting any further conversation. “I’ll get half of it, it’ll go faster.”

“Oh, sure,” Rumi said, taking her phone out. “I’ll text it to you.”

“I thought you didn’t want to help,” Baby said, earning a quick glare.

“I don’t wanna leave Zoey out there with those two for too long,” Mira said, and Baby made a little sneer.

“They’re not gunna do anything to her.”

“That’s not—” Mira took a deep breath and retrieved her phone from her pocket. “Whatever.”

Rumi sighed. “Okay, let’s just focus on getting what we need here, alright? Zoe can handle herself.”

Mira muttered something but nodded. “I’ll meet you back outside.”

She didn’t wait for a response before veering off.

“You can’t blame her for being cautious,” Romance said, watching her go. “I would be too, were I in her place.”

“I…I don’t think that’s it,” Rumi said with a frown. “I’ll ask her about it later, I guess.”

“Will she even want to talk about it?” Baby asked, inspecting a bottle of something that he picked up off a shelf. “She doesn’t seem like someone who’s very open to discussing her feelings.”

“She’s working on it,” Rumi said, opening her list back up. “We all are.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They did indeed meet Mira back outside, waiting with Zoey and the others.

“So this was the last store we needed to go to, right?” Baby asked.

“Yeah, we can head back to meet up with Bobby now,” Rumi said. “He’s already on his way.”

“And then we get ice cream?” Abby asked, sounding excited. “Is it very different from bingsu? It sounds similar.”

“What’s bingsu?” Baby asked next, and that’s when the girls started shoving, because those questions got some Weird Looks and boy they didn’t have time for that.

“What happened to not wanting to draw unwanted attention?” Mira hissed as they hurried away. “Ask questions later.”

“Sorry,” Abby said while Baby just rolled his eyes.

They arrived back at the alley pretty quickly after that, before Bobby. All the bags were set to the side as they waited, and then Zoey came up to Rumi and Mira.

“Hey, um,” she said quietly, glancing at the boys, “I wanna talk to you guys about something.”

“You okay?” Mira asked, and Zoey quickly held her hands up.

“Yeah, yes, I’m fine, it’s just—just, come on,” she said, gesturing further down the alley.

Mira frowned but followed Zoey without another word, while Rumi told the boys to give them a few minutes. That got a couple raised eyebrows but otherwise they let it be.

That done, Rumi left to join Mira and Zoey, far enough back that the boys wouldn’t hear them.

“Alright, what’s on your mind?”

Zoey wet her lips and glanced at the boys one more time before she spoke.

“Listen. I know I was kind of the one to start this whole thing, in a way…but. I’m kind of realizing how…hard, this is going to be, I think,” she said, tugging her jacket down. “I—I don’t want to, like, kick the guys out or anything. That would be…cruel, right? But…”

She paused to adjust her hat, just to have something else to do.

“…Um…so,” she continued, holding her hands against her chest now, “When you guys were in the store, a lady walked by with her dog, and I, um, asked to pet it. But then the guys also wanted to pet it. And after the lady left, Mystery started talking about the dog he had as…a kid…and, I don’t know, it just…made me feel. Bad? Like, physically. You know what I mean?”

“…I’m not sure I’m following,” Rumi said, apologetic.

“I know what she means,” Mira cut in. “You’re learning that these guys are all a hell of a lot more human than you thought, and it’s making you feel guilty.”

Zoey hugged herself and looked back to the boys one more time, who were now talking amongst themselves. She sighed. “…Yeah.”

Mira shoved her hands into her pockets, following Zoey’s gaze. “Yeah.”

Rumi said nothing, a few moments of silence falling between the three as they watched the boys, before they all seemed to notice something.

“Bobby is here!” Romance called to the girls a second later, a smile on his face as he waved at them, and the van pulled up.

“Hey, it’ll be okay. We’ll figure it all out,” Rumi said, throwing her arms around Zoey and Mira’s shoulders. “But for now, let’s go get some ice cream.”

The boys already had all the bags set up in the back of the van when the three rejoined them, and all but Romance, who was talking to Bobby, had taken their seats already.

“I want shotgun,” Mira said, quickly pushing past to get to the seat while Rumi made an offended sound at her.

“Oh, too good for us now, huh?” Abby said from the back, and without missing a beat Mira said “yup” and Abby made an offended sound of his own as Romance got into the van to sit beside him.

“You kind of asked for that,” he said as Rumi and Zoey took the last two seats, Rumi in the middle with Baby and Mystery, and Zoey in the back.

Abby huffed and Zoey giggled, and when everyone confirmed that they were buckled in, Bobby started up the van and they left the alley.

“Here, this is bingsu,” Rumi said, holding her phone over in front of Baby, and Mystery also leaned over to see. “Traditionally it was made with ice but nowadays most places use frozen milk, and you eat it with sweet stuff like red beans or fruit.”

“Lemme see,” Abby said, looking over the back of the seat. Rumi held her phone up and he nodded after a moment. “That looks right. I’ve never had fruit though, just the red beans.”

“What about the ice cream?” Mystery asked when Rumi brought her phone back to herself.

“You can just wait until we get to the shop to figure that one out,” Mira said over her shoulder. “It’s not gunna take too long to get there.”

“Oh! Mira, turn the radio up!” Zoey suddenly called, then began to sing along with the song playing once it was louder.

Rumi pocketed her phone and jumped in too, followed by Mira, while the boys looked a bit overwhelmed with the sudden noise.

“Fair warning,” Bobby said with a laugh, “Quiet car rides are pretty rare with the girls.”

Three songs and more singing later, they reached the ice cream shop.

It was a little shop a couple blocks back from the main storefronts in the area, with several tables set up outside and a window counter to order at. Not too many people were around either, which was probably for the best.

Everyone filed out of the van and went over to the ice cream shop, where the boys all huddled together some feet back to study the available flavors.

Except Abby, who was busy looking at the area around them with much more interest than what he gave to the menu.

“Did you already pick something out…?” Zoey questioned, and Abby gave her a bit of a confused look.

“I’ll just get whatever Romance gets,” he said with a half-shrug, and then Zoey raised a brow at Romance.

“We usually like the same things,” Romance explained.

“Oh, um, okay,” Zoey said, still a bit confused, but it was her turn to order now so she let it go.

Meanwhile Baby and Mystery were murmuring to each other, with Baby looking especially perplexed about everything being offered.

“You can always just choose something at random,” Mystery was saying when Rumi came over.

“But what if I don’t like it?” Baby argued. “I’m not doing that.”

“Uh, you guys having some trouble?” Rumi asked, then stifled a laugh when both boys startled at her voice.

“We don’t know what to pick,” Mystery said after a moment.

“I don’t even know what most of this stuff is,” Baby said, looking back to the menu. “Mystery is a bit more familiar with some of what’s on there, but not really enough to be of much help.”

“Why not just go with something simple, then?” Rumi suggested. “Like plain chocolate or vanilla, or maybe peach or something? The fruit flavors have actual pieces of fruit mixed in if that sounds like something you guys might like.”

The two looked at each other and shrugged.

“I don’t know if I’ve had a peach before, but it could be good,” Mystery said and Baby shrugged again.

“I guess that would be okay,” Baby agreed, though he was clearly still a bit skeptical.

“Listen, if you don’t like it then it’s not a big deal,” Rumi said. “Someone else can have it and you can just try another flavor. Sound good?”

Baby exhaled. “Alright.”

So Rumi took them up and helped them order, with Mystery getting the peach and Baby ended up getting cherry at Rumi’s suggestion. That way they could switch if one of them didn’t like what they got.

And Rumi got something that Baby said sounded like a terrible idea.

(It was three scoops of ice cream with five toppings of your choice served on a large brownie. It’s what she always gets.)

Mira and Zoey’s choices weren’t any less.

Bobby was the last to get his ice cream, paying for the group before joining everyone at the table they picked out, away from the few people still around.

“I gotta be honest here, you guys are way different from what I was expecting,” Bobby said as he sat down beside Baby.

“In what way?” Romance asked from across the table.

“Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re all just regular old humans,” Bobby explained. “You really aren’t very different from anyone else.”

“Well,” Baby said, “That might be because we all used to be regular old humans, at some point.”

“Oh, wow, really?” Bobby said, sounding quite fascinated. “But how could regular people turn into demons? The girls didn’t tell me anything about that.”

“That’s because we don’t really know much about it ourselves,” Mira said. “What we know is what Rumi knows, and she doesn’t know much at all.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Rumi said, rubbing her neck with a sheepish smile. “Jinu didn’t really go into detail.”

“There’s really not much to it: it happens through lies and deception,” Baby said, poking at his ice cream. “Gwi-ma would come to you when you were at your most miserable and make you an offer you couldn’t refuse. He’d promise to make your life better, and for a while it would be.

“But there would always be a catch. There would always be something to plant a seed of guilt, of shame, something that festers and grows alongside the patterns that slowly envelope your entire being. And then, when you’re nothing more than a walking manifestation of your own misery, Gwi-ma drags you under.”

He shoved his spoon into his mouth when he was finished and Mystery placed a comforting hand on his back.

“For some people, it happens fast,” Romance continued. “For others, it could take decades. It took almost ten years for me. The time didn’t matter to Gwi-ma, though, as long as he got you in the end.”

“Wow…that sounds terrible,” Bobby said. “I can’t imagine what that would be like.”

“Okay, so, here’s my question,” Mira said then, crossing her arms. Seems she finished her ice cream already. “How could you guys do it? Taking souls, I mean. If you really were all human before, then wouldn’t that be…you know, hard?”

“The threat of death is a very powerful motivator, I’m afraid, and people will do anything to stay alive if they’re desperate enough,” Romance said after a few seconds, a vacant expression on his face. “…And, well, here we are. Still alive, and carrying everything we’ve done on our backs.”

There was a pause in the conversation then, until Rumi cleared her throat.

“Okay, it’s getting late, so how about we talk more about this another time? It’s probably best to talk about it at home, anyway, like with the other stuff,” she suggested, glancing around.

“I think that would be for the best,” Zoey said. “And maybe we shouldn’t end the day on something so, um, depressing, anyway.”

The others agreed and the conversation turned to lighter topics after that, including Abby getting a “brain freeze”, which the girls had to explain what that was through their laughing.

By the time they all finally got back to the penthouse it was nearly eight—they passed a lot more time than expected at the ice cream shop—and it was decided that they’d go through and separate everything they bought in the morning.

“Alright, now for actual food,” Mira said, heading straight to the kitchen after the elevator opened up and everyone filed out.

“Mira, you really don’t need to make anything,” Rumi said. “We have plenty of snacks or instant stuff we co—”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Mira interrupted, already pulling stuff out of the fridge. “There’s things in here that’re gunna go bad if they’re not used tonight. And I’m not freezing any of it.”

Rumi knew she wasn’t going to win this, so she just let Mira do her thing and went to join Abby and Zoey on the couch, where Derpy was enjoying a double belly rub.

“Where’d the other guys go?” Rumi asked over Derpy’s loud purring.

“Mystery is probably going to sleep,” Abby answered, “And Romance wanted t—what’s Mira doing?”

Zoey followed his gaze to the kitchen and frowned. “Is she seriously going to cook something?”

“She said stuff was going to go bad if she didn’t,” Rumi said with a shrug.

“Mira cooks?” Abby asked, the big, blue tiger apparently forgotten.

Derpy groaned and shifted around so that Zoey could have his full belly, which she accepted happily.

“Mira cooks a lot, yeah,” Rumi said, crossing her arms over the back of the couch. “She’s really good at it, too. I think she took classes for it at some point?”

“I wonder what she’s going to make?” Zoey said, peeking over the couch. She was at a bad angle to see much of anything, though, so she quickly gave up went back to Derpy.

“…Does she…usually cook by herself?” Abby murmured, looking really interested in what Mira was doing now.

Zoey paused in her Derpy-petting to glance between Abby and Mira and something clicked.

“Oh! You should totally ask if you can help!” she said, but Abby immediately shot it down.

“No, no, I would just get in the way,” he said, waving his hands. “And I mean, I don’t want to annoy her or anything, you know? Besides I’m sure she’s fine by herself—”

He ended abruptly and looked back to Mira. “…You think she’d let me?”

“Well you won’t know unless you ask, right?” Rumi said, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Go on.”

Abby looked at Rumi, then Zoey, then nodded and got up.

“Okay, I’ll go ask,” he said. “Worst thing she can do is say no…right?”

“You got this,” Zoey said with a smile.

Mira was just about to get to work when Abby wandered over, looking nervous. She spared him only a glance as he hovered awkwardly a few feet away, silently watching as she grabbed some scallions and started slicing.

He looked like he wanted to say something but was holding back, wringing his hands. And Mira tried to ignore him as she moved on to chopping some peppers, but the eyes on her were just. Really distracting.

After the peppers she moved on to slicing carrots, but only got through one before she finally had enough of the staring.

She rammed the point of her knife into the cutting board and rounded on Abby with a scowl.

“Dude, what.”

Abby flinched back, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“I-I, I, uh,” he stammered, hands close to his chest, “A-are you, um. Preparing…dinner?”

“Man, what does it look like I’m doing??”

Abby opened his mouth, then closed it and cleared his throat. “Right. Uh…c-could I…um, help…?”

“Y—” Mira stared at him for a moment, a baffled expression on her face, before she looked over at Zoey and Rumi.

They didn’t say anything, but they were giving her thumbs ups and encouraging nods, so she wet her lips and turned back to Abby.

“…You really want to help?”

“I do, I want to help,” Abby said, in earnest, and looking very serious.

Mira blinked and glanced back at Zoey and Rumi one more time, then once more turned back to Abby.

“I…I guess that’s fine, if you help,” she finally said. “Just, uh, wash your hands first.”

Abby straightened up with a big grin on his face and hurried around to join Mira on the other side of the counter.

“So…you, uh…like to…cook?” Mira tried, handing Abby a knife and a few small mushrooms. “Just, um, slice these.”

“Oh yeah, for sure!” Abby said, taking the items and getting right to work. “I used to cook all the time with my mom, actually, and I really enjoyed it. I was pretty good at it, too! Or, that’s what my mom said, anyway. But…”

He suddenly looked sheepish as he presented the mushrooms, sliced in all kinds of wonky and wavy sizes.

“I’m kind of out of practice…”

Mira looked at the mushroom for a moment before simply saying, “Huh.”

Then she took the mushroom slices and replaced them with a few radishes and said, “I guess we’ll just have to work on that, then.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Okay, fine. I’ll help.”