When Darkness Finally Meets the Light
Pairings: Saja Boys x fem!Reader
Tags: Reincarnation, Soulmates, Polyamory
Rating: T
Summary:
The longer you are a demon the easier it is to only feel negative emotions or, worse, no emotions at all.
But there’s a legend, a whispered story of hope amongst demons, about finding a soulmate. They’re not once in a lifetime, as in if you miss them they never come back. No, many souls are old. They’ve seen multiple lifetimes. The older the soul, the more powerful they are up until a point- there comes a time when a soul reaches its epitome and moves on after their death, their final experience.
You find a soul like that, who’s also your soulmate, they say it can bring back your soul, your emotions.
Your desire to live.
But can it truly heal the curse of being controlled by Gwi-ma?
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(masterlist)
Word Count: 2.3k
For as long as you can remember, you've had vivid dreams.
When you've talked with your friends and family about the dreams they remember, they always recount stories that were borderline nonsensical. Apparently that's what dreams are supposed to be - they don't always make sense.
Your dreams feel like reality. They linger, too. You've always been able to recall your dreams with stark clarity.
Of course, you're sure that your collection of dream journals help with that.
You didn't have dreams every night, but you still had 3 journals full already. Recently, however, it did feel like you were dreaming more often than usual.
Like last night.
You were a maid for an emperor. As the 3rd daughter of an impoverished family, you'd been given away once you were old enough to work as they couldn't afford to provide for you. You'd made friends with some of the maids and despite the emperor's harsh temper, you kept your head down and made sure to do your job. There were other servants in the palace besides the maids. You didn't see the groundskeepers much, but you often interacted with the kitchen staff and occasionally with some of the other servants. Most of them you didn't speak with, you were simply friendly because you were all in the same boat. There was one, however, that caught your attention. He was one of the servants who seemed to work in the eastern half of the palace. You saw him most often in the mornings when you were preparing the emperor's bath. His hair was a light silver, almost purple in tone. It was long and silky, but always pulled up out of his face so he could work. The two of you exchanged pleasantries at best, until one day you noticed his hair was chopped off. You stopped mid-stride and stared for a moment. “What happened to your hair?” The man paused where he was polishing the stone flooring, glancing up once before looking back down. “His Highness said it was distracting.” Your heart clenched. You gripped the edge of your skirt, frowning slightly. You knew you couldn’t speak out against the emperor, but you couldn’t help it when you whispered, “I’m sorry.” You heard him sigh softly. “It’s what his Highness wanted,” he said, as if he was trying to convince himself. “For what it’s worth, I think you still look very nice,” you said without thinking, then blushed at how the words sounded. Not that you were lying. The man laughed a little, finally looking up at you with a small smile. “Thank you.” The two of you started talking more often after that, more than just exchanging pleasantries. You learned that he had been a servant since he was a young boy. He started outside working in the gardens but was moved indoors a few years ago when they became short staffed. You learned about his family and you told him about yours in return. After talking with him for over a week, you finally decided to ask his name. Most of the staff of the emperor had an understanding that you didn’t get close to the servants that weren’t within your group. The emperor wanted to be the highest focus, so blossoming friendships were seen as competition. But you had to know. “You don’t have to share, but I’d love to know what to call you,” you said softly as you worked beside him one morning. The air was quiet for a moment save for the sound of him polishing the stones. Just as you thought he wasn’t going to answer and you turned to leave, he spoke up. “My name is-”
“Ugh!” You groaned as you stared at your dream journal, which was splayed open in front of you. Your pen tapped rapidly against the wood of your desk as you tried to recall his name.
What was his name??
Your dreams usually concluded nicely, but this one seemed to just stop in the middle. You felt like the name was there. It was on the tip of your tongue but it wasn't coming through.
“Dude, how are you up this early?” Your roommate, Ari, groaned as she slunk into the kitchen and fumbled with the coffee maker. She still had on some of her makeup from the concert last night, though it was smudged from sleep.
You shrugged. “I don't know, I just kinda am.”
“Did you sleep at all? I was up for hours thinking about that entrance,” she said, slowly perking up as the smell of coffee filled the room. “The way they dive bombed the stage? The backlighting from the smoke? That was so cool!”
You grinned. “Yeah it was awesome, I'm glad we got seats.”
“Last show of their world tour, wouldn't have missed it for the world.” Ari grabbed her favorite purple mug, pouring herself a cup the second the coffee maker beeped. She started humming “How It's Done” to herself as she held the warm mug close to her face.
“I'm just glad we have a couple days to recover before going back to work,” you sighed, staring back at your notebook, willing the remainder of the dream to come to you.
Why were you so hung up on knowing his name?
“Well,” Ari said around a yawn, “I need to run some errands today. You down to join?”
You nodded, closing your notebook. Maybe some air would help jog your memory. “Yeah I'm down. You wanna head out soon?”
Ari waved you off as she sipped more of her coffee. “No rush, maybe in like 30 mins we can go?”
“Sounds good to me.”
The errands turned out to be going to the mall for some clothes shopping and swinging by the convenience store after for a few essentials.
The mall was a little more crowded than usual, but it was a weekend, so you weren’t exactly surprised. Ari knew exactly where she wanted to go, so it made it easy to maneuver through the crowds. As you two went along, she was humming along to the new Huntr/x release, which you’d both listened to on your walk here.
“We’re goin’ up, up, up, it’s our moment-” Ari sang as she made a sharp right into your favorite clothing store.
“Okay, I just need a few new shirts, and a jacket,” Ari said, turning to face you. “Do you need anything?”
“Honestly my shorts collection is running a bit thin,” you admitted.
“Great! Wanna meet up at the dressing rooms then?”
You nodded and the two of you split off to find your own things.
As you make your way towards the pants section, softly humming “Golden” to yourself, you overhear some people nearby.
“Is this really what we need to wear?”
“I think the sweater looks nice.”
Something about the voices caught your attention. You glanced over to your left and spotted a group of boys who were sifting through the clothing racks. The ones who’d just spoken were clearly the long, pink haired boy and the pouty-looking blue haired one. The pink-haired one was holding a sweater up to his body while the blue-haired one was rolling his eyes.
“Ah come on Baby, it’s not that bad.” The man with the broad shoulders piped up, stepping closer to the two.
You didn’t mean to stare, truly, but you felt almost drawn to them. It wasn’t until the blue-haired one, Baby, looked up and met your gaze that you realized you were still just standing, in the middle of the aisle, practically gawking at them.
You flushed and quickly turned away, back on your path to try on some shorts.
They were just boys. Cute boys, yes, but that wasn't an excuse to just stare at them all day. Besides, you didn't want to make Ari wait on you.
By the time you reached the right section, you managed to refocus your thoughts. It took a while to find a few pairs that fit your vibe and size, but once you did you made your way over to the dressing room.
The men and women's dressing rooms were right next to each other, just in separate hallways. You glanced around, not seeing Ari yet, and decided to sit on one of the benches nearby.
You pulled out your phone, setting your chosen shorts across your lap as you checked your notifications. You didn't have any texts from Ari, but you weren't worried yet.
Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed people milling about. You didn't pay them much mind, however, so you didn't notice the man approach you until he cleared his throat.
You jumped slightly, looking up to meet the brown eyes of a handsome man. He chuckled softly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to ask if I could sit here?”
His black bangs framed his face well as he smiled down at you. You didn't normally get flustered this easily, but you felt the blush creeping up anyways.
“Go ahead, I don't mind,” you answered, scooting over slightly to make sure he had room to sit.
“Thank you,” he said as he sat down smoothly. The way he moved was so graceful. “I'm Jinu by the way.”
“Y/N,” you offered in return.
“You waiting on somebody, too?” He asked.
You nodded. “Yeah my friend, Ari, and I came here together. We needed different stuff so we just agreed to meet-up at the dressing rooms.”
Jinu nodded, tilting his head back to gesture towards the men's dressing rooms. “I'm with some friends, too. They're just a bit pickier with their looks.”
You laughed. “Happens to the best of us. Sometimes the selections just aren't selecting.”
Jinu laughed, too. “Yeah that's true.”
“Y/N!”
You looked over and saw Ari wave at you. You smiled and waved back before turning to Jinu. “That's my cue. It was nice meeting you.”
Your heart tugged at the thought of leaving. You swore you saw a look of panic cross Jinu's face, but it was gone so fast you weren't certain.
“Do you have an Instagram?” He said as you stood up.
You nodded, feeling the heat return to your cheeks as you opened your phone. “Uh, yeah I do. It's @ y/n.forreal.”
Jinu typed into his phone and you quickly got a new follow notification from @ jinusaja. “I got it,” you told him.
Jinu smiled. “Well have fun, it was nice meeting you, too.”
You waved goodbye and scurried over to Ari who was now looking at you mischievously.
“Who was that cutie?” She teased, nudging you with her elbow.
“His name was Jinu. We were just talking,” you said, trying to play it cool.
“Don't act like I didn't see him stop you and get out his phone.” Ari laughed. “Did you get his number?”
“He followed me on Insta.”
Ari gave a dramatic, “Ooooh,” at that. You laughed and playfully shoved her before the two of you finally slipped into the dressing rooms to try on your clothes. After some back and forth, you both were happy with the clothing pieces you chose and headed to the check out.
“And now we just need to go to the corner store,” Ari said cheerfully as you both adjusted your shopping bags on your arms.
The two of you walked out of the mall, chatting about your plans for the week, when you felt your phone buzz. You shifted your bag onto your other arm so you could easily fish your phone out.
It was a DM notification.
From Jinu.
“Sorry about the follow spam. My friends got nosy.”
You checked your other Instagram notifications and realized that you had, indeed, been followed by four other people. They all had “saja” in their usernames, too. You clicked on @ babysaja out of curiosity, and your eyes widened in shock when you recognized the face staring back at you.
It was one of the boys you’d been staring at in the store.
You swiped back to your DMs and quickly typed out a reply. “Tell your friends I’m sorry for staring at them earlier.”
Jinu reacted to your message with a laughing emoji. “Baby mentioned that he saw you in the store today. I’m sure they didn’t mind.”
Before you could type out a reply, Jinu sent another message. “If you wanna ‘make it up’ to them, though, you could come to our show tomorrow~”
“Oh yeah? What kind of show?”
“I guess you could call us an aspiring boy band. I know, a bit cheesy, but we’re putting on our first show tomorrow downtown.” Jinu texted back. “It’s totally free.”
He sent a picture of a flyer that detailed the date, time, and location.
You glanced at Ari, still holding your phone. “Wanna go see a free show tomorrow?”
She glanced down at your phone and then back up at you, smirking. “Is that Jinu.”
You spluttered. “Yes, it is. Apparently he’s in an ‘aspiring boy band.’”
“Well, that could be super cringe, or super hot - guess we'll just have to see their show!” Ari laughed. “What time?”
You showed her the flyer and she shrugged. “Sure, why not. I wanna get a better look at this guy anyways. And who knows, maybe you can set me up with one of his friends.” She teased, elbowing your side playfully.
Something in you twisted at that thought, though you weren’t sure why. Why wouldn’t you want your friend to shoot her shot? It’s not like you knew these guys.
You glanced back down at your phone and quickly typed out a reply. “Sure! I’ll bring my friend Ari, too.”
“The more the merrier :)”
Well, looks like you had plans tomorrow now, too.
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