Work Text:
“He is late… And to think he said am single and can’t even show up on time.” The purple-haired girl scoffed internally.
“Not his type, huh?” She grumbled under her breath as she kicked a rock lightly.
He sent her that ‘Save the Date’ card through his big blue, adorable tiger and hat-wearing diva of a three-eyed, well, actually six-eyed magpie. He didn’t write much, just asking her to meet, giving her the location and time. So, here she was, outside of an Aquarium at 12 noon on Wednesday. There weren’t many people here since it was middle of the day on a workday, most people were at their jobs, there were mostly tourists only, who may not even know her, that too not many tourists so there wasn’t much fear of her being caught by a fan, but still she wore a hoodie and styled her hair differently, instead of her usual Dutch braid she wore a normal braid, to disguise herself.
What if he is ghosting me? What if this was supposed to be some sick prank from the beginning? What if this was some trick to defeat us… The panic starts rising in her chest until a hand taps her shoulder, causing her to jump. It was him…
“He didn’t bail on me.” Relief washes over her.
“Jinu! I thought a fan caught me,” Rumi whispered sharply, so she doesn’t attract attention, still slightly shaken, “And where were you? You are ten minutes late, weren’t you the one lecturing me about being late that day?” she said accusingly.
“Seems like someone was waiting,” Jinu smirked his usual smirk, he gives when he knows he is getting under her skin.
“Well, yes! Do you know how hard it was for me to lie to Mira and Zoey and convince them to not come with me? And wear this hoodie in this heat just so no one recognizes me.”
An Idol of a K-pop group as famous as Huntr/x being sighted with a man without any business was trouble enough, but the man being another rising Idol from a supposed rival group was whole another scandal. But these two, not only were they idols, but also one was a demon, and the other was a hunter who was supposed to kill demons; getting caught wouldn’t just be a scandal, it would be a disaster. But to Jinu, this didn’t seem like a big trouble; he just chuckled, seeing her frustration.
“Really, and you are not even hiding yourself properly.” She complained, pointing directly at his face.
“Whoa, whoa, hold on, Rumi,” Jinu said, raising his hands partly in surrender and partly to stop her complaints, “there aren’t many people here, I specifically chose this place and this time so we wouldn’t be caught. And for the late part, I swear I got ready way before time, but…”
He got ready 30 minutes before time, wearing a plain white shirt and jeans, he didn’t plan to look this simple, but wearing anything else has risk of getting attention, and looking like he was trying too hard, which he was but he didn’t want her to freak out thinking he was planning something more than just a normal meeting, even though he actually just wanted to spend time with her without caring about Gwi-Ma or his memories, or Honmoon, just the two of them… So, anything too much could give the impression he was dressed up for something special and end up making things awkward, especially considering the way she reacted the last time he misunderstood her message about the save-the-date card. He still didn’t understand what he had misunderstood, though.
Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why he wanted to meet her. Why did he want to spend time with her? Was it because Gwi-Ma’s voices calmed down a bit every time he was with her? Or is it supposed to be another plan of his to get her to trust him that he made without even realizing it? She was doing something to him. He never felt this way in all his life…
A sound of a low whistle breaks Jinu’s train of thought, and he turns around to see Romance leaning against the door frame, judging Jinu’s look.
“And, where are YOU headed?” Romance asked in his usual teasing tone.
“Just outside,” Jinu replied uninterested, so that he wouldn’t give anything away about his meeting with Rumi.
“Outside, huh?” Romance raises an eyebrow, unconvinced, “Why?”
“For a walk, for fresh air, you don’t get that down in the demon world.” Jinu shrugged.
“Well then, take us with you, we don’t get fresh air as well, you know.”
“Are you a child? You can go by yourself. Why do I have to take you?” Jinu asked, irritated.
“We can, but that’s not the point. The point is, why and where are YOU going alone?” Romance said, moving towards Jinu with a smirk.
“I told you I am going for a walk.”
“At this hour?”
“Try handling demons like you four; you would need air at unconventional hours as well. And there’s nothing unconventional about this hour anyway.”
“Yes, bu-“Romance was about to say before Baby barged into the room, pointing at Jinu.
“Where did you keep my hot sauce bottles?” He asked with a sense of fury in his voice.
“I didn’t keep it anywhere,” Jinu replied
“Then who did?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Hot sauce can wait-“ Romance tried to interject, but Baby immediately cut him off.
“NO! Hot sauce cannot wait!”
“Jiiinnnuuu!” Abby’s voice cut through the commotion, “Where’s the remote? Mystery and I have searched the whole house.”
“How. Am. I. Supposed. To. Know?” Jinu said, frustrated, “How will Mystery even see the TV with his hair?” Jinu said.
“I can perfectly see everything,” Mystery said calmly, as he spawned in the middle of the room with purple smoke, startling everyone. He looks around, confused as to why everyone looks so shocked and scared, “What?” he asked innocently, as if he wasn’t the reason for everyone’s reaction.
“I will definitely get a heart attack living with this guy.” Romance said, clutching his chest.
“Huh?” Mystery says confused, but then turns to Abby, “Abby, no sign of the remote in the living room.” He tells him, who was also clutching his chest.
“Uhh… yeah, remote, Jinu.” He said, collecting himself.
“And my hot sauce?” Baby inserted.
“Why and how am I supposed to know where these things are?” Jinu asked, annoyed, as he was getting late.
The boys shared looks and then, in perfect unison and a straight face, said, “Because you are Jinu.”
“SERIOUSLY!” Jinu yells.
“It took me 15 minutes to find the remote, an additional 10 to find hot sauce, and 15 minutes to get Romance off my back,” Jinu explains to Rumi with a straight face after narrating the entire incident as to why he is late.
“Ok, that’s understandable.” Rumi says, “So... now that you are here, what now?” She asks sheepishly after a pause.
“Oh, yeah, we’ll go inside,” Jinu said nervously.
“Oh, ok, umm… You have the tickets?”
“Uh… wait, I thought we’d just teleport…”
Rumi looks at him, clearly looking done, “I can’t teleport.”
“You are a demon; you should be able to.”
“HALF demon and no, I can’t.”
“Can’t or you haven’t even tried yet.”
“In either case, you have to buy the tickets; there are people here we can’t teleport in front of them.”
“Ok, ok, I will get the tickets.” Jinu says as he leaves, but stops mid-track and turns back, “Or we can just flaunt our popularity and get inside for free…”
“Jiiinuuuu...” Rumi glares at him.
“Ok, going, tigress.” Jinu teases her before turning away to get the tickets, leaving behind a blushing Rumi.
A few minutes later, Jinu returns with the tickets. Since there were fewer people here, there was no line in front of the ticket counter; the only time taken was due to the employee at the ticket counter asking for a selfie with Jinu in return for not letting anyone else know he was here.
Rumi and Jinu get inside, and there are small exhibits of turtles and a few fish at the start. The small turtles immediately pulled Jinu’s attention.
“They are cute.” He said, eyes sparkling.
Rumi just chuckled, seeing him like this, making Jinu get back to his previous demeanour, “I didn’t know you were such a softie.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Jinu says, turning away to hide his pink cheeks.
“Mhmm-hmm.” Rumi chuckles. He really is very cute.
They start moving forward to other exhibits, leaving the adorable turtles behind.
“But it makes sense, you know. You being a softie.” She says, smiling, as they pass an eel exhibit.
“I am not a softie.” Jinu insists.
“Uhh-huh,” She says, leaning to see the eels, “I think your tiger and bird would disagree.”
Jinu leans towards the eel exhibit, pretending he didn’t hear her, “Are these the edible kind of eels?”
Rumi snaps her head towards Jinu, looking horrified, “Why would you ask that in an aquarium?”
“No, I meant aren’t their blood poisonous or something, that’s what my mother used to tell me whenever I asked if we could have them when I was a kid, I saw a few kids talk about how good it was, so… I guess they weren’t poisonous, we just didn’t had money.”
Rumi looked at Jinu, sadness evident in her eyes, “Jinu…”
“Let’s move to the other exhibit, ok?” He said as he started moving forward.
Rumi followed him, wanting to say something, but decided not to as it was clear that Jinu didn’t want to talk. They kept moving forward, stopping at exhibits, until they reached an intersection, one way leading to the water tunnel other to the penguin exhibit.”
“So where should we go first?” Jinu asked as Rumi leaned to look at the map between the intersection, “I think the penguin exhibit, since it won’t take much time.”
“As you say.” Jinu says, as they are walking, he asks, “By the way, what are penguins?”
“They are birds that don’t fly and live in the coldest area of the earth.” She explains vaguely, smiling, it was like explaining to a 5-year-old, except she was explaining to a 400-year-old, equally cute though, “Here we are.” She exclaims as they reach the penguin exhibit.
Jinu just stares at the black and white flightless birds in awe, “I have never seen birds like this.”
Rumi chuckles, “Figures, since when you were human, I don’t think people knew these existed.”
She turns around to face him but her breath hitches when she sees how close she is to him, and since he was looking down at her and she was looking up, their faces were pretty close, not a lot because of their height difference but close enough for their heart to race faster than ever, and their breathing to stop.
They, however, didn’t move as if they wanted to stay like this forever, close the remaining distance between them, lean forward, and touch their lips with the others. Jinu’s eyes landed on Rumi’s mouth; his lips parted. They kept staring at each other for a few more moments, then he leaned forward and so did Rumi… And suddenly laughter belonging to other visitors echoed through the almost empty aquarium, causing them to move apart, their faces crimson as the realisation dawned on them of what was about to happen.
Jinu was about to kiss her! AND SHE WAS ABOUT TO LET HIM!
“I-I… uhh. Penguins!... t-tell me something a-about them.” He stutters, trying to change the topic.
“Yeah… umm p-penguins yes.” Rumi also stutters, “I have heard that male penguins often bring the best pebble they can find and give them to the female penguin they want, like an engagement ring. If the female accepts it, they spend their entire life together, sort of like marriages, penguin marriage, I guess.” She explains hurriedly the first thing that comes to her mind.
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds…”
“Romantic?”
“Please don’t say that, it reminds me of my Romance.”
Rumi burst into laughter, breaking the tension caused by their almost kiss, making Jinu laugh as well.
“Beautiful.” He whispers absent-mindedly, looking at her.
“Huh?”
“The penguin marriage, it’s beautiful.” He explains hurriedly.
“Oh, yeah.” She says, her cheeks heating up, “Soo… shall we go to the next exhibit now?”
“Yeah… yeah, definitely.”
“Whoa.” It is the first thing that comes out of his mouth when they reach the aquarium tunnel. He was in awe, like a little kid, “What’s that?” He asks, pointing towards a flat, diamond-like creature, “That diamondy thing with horns…? I think.” He says as his face scrunches up in confusion.
Rumi chuckles, “That’s a Manta Ray.”
“Manta- what?”
“Manta Ray”
“Ohh…” is all he manages to say. His eyes keep wandering to different fish
Rumi smiles softly at him, “This is the first time you have been to an aquarium, right?”
“Yeah,”
“It’s been a long time since I got here, too. Celine used to take me here when I was little, then I went with Zoey and Mira once before our debut. After that, it was almost impossible to come; people might recognize us.”
“Celine?” Jinu asks, hearing the name first time.
“My mentor and guardian.” She replies, staring at her arms where her demon marks are supposed to be, her smile faltering.
“She is the one who taught you how to hate yourself?” Jinu asks bitterly.
“What? No, she didn’t teach me to hate myself.” Rumi says, offended and angry, even if a part of her agreed unknowingly, he doesn’t know Celine.
“She taught you to hate demons, right? Knowing you’re a half-demon. She must’ve also told you to hide the marks.” Jinu asks as a matter-of-factly.
“As a hunter, I am supposed to hate demons. How will I kill them if I didn’t?” Rumi says without thinking.
“But you are a demon too…” Jinu says after a pause stone faced.
“No! I am not a demon, I just have a few cracks, which will heal once Honmoon seals, and I think yours will too.” She mumbles, looking down, with as much certainty and confidence as she could muster, even if she wasn’t sure she believed what she was saying.
Jinu sighs before approaching Rumi, who was now looking blankly at the water tank in front of her, “Why don’t you make your braid like that more?” He asks casually, maybe to change the subject. Rumi wasn’t sure.
“This is much messier for performances and practices.” She answers referring to strands of hair coming loose and falling on her face, looking up at Jinu he was standing right in front of her looking at her with such soft and tender expression, for moment Rumi forgot everything about her marks, Honmoon, Gwi-ma, Celine, everything, all she could see, feel, all she wanted to see and feel was his gaze on her as if she was the only person in the entire world.
“You should let your hair down sometimes, Rumi.” He says softly, gently tugging a strand of her hair behind her ear, which was falling on her face.
“We can forget about the demons and the hunters today, just until we are here, Ok?” He asks.
“Ok…” She whispers, leaning into his touch.
“And just so you know…” his hand sliding down on her neck, “As far as I’m concerned, you’re just as beautiful with the cracks showing.” He whispers softly before leaning to her, their lips inches apart.
“May I?” He asks just as tenderly, with slight nervousness. But that nervousness quickly fades as soon as Rumi nods before leaning forward to touch her lips with his.
It started out slow, as if they were memorizing the feel of each other. Jinu’s hands went from her neck to her waist, while Rumi first grabbed his face and then moved to his hair, pulling him closer, tangling her fingers in his soft locks. His hair was so soft; all she wanted to do was run her hand through his hair all her life. They moulded with each other perfectly, like they were made for just each other, like two puzzle pieces finally fitting together.
After what felt like an eternity, yet still not enough, they broke apart to breathe. And for a moment, they just stared at each other, faces flushed.
“So… Can I call today a “date” date?” Jinu asks, smiling sheepishly.
Rumi smiled so hard her cheeks hurt before nodding, “Yes… Yes, you can.” She says before pulling him back for another kiss.
They knew this was probably wrong. A demon and a hunter, he was supposed to stop her, and she was supposed to kill him, but right now, as their lips moved against each other's, as their hearts raced, and breath entangled, they didn’t care anymore.
Maybe after this, Gwi-Ma would pull Jinu back and manipulate or torture him again, Rumi would have to go back and hide her marks again, but right now it didn’t matter; for the first time, all the voices died down like they never existed to begin with, and all the scars and cracks seemed beautiful.
For the first time, they both felt Free.
……….
Later, Jinu returned to his place. Surprisingly, Gwi-Ma hadn’t pulled him back to the demon world; maybe he didn’t know… or maybe he was planning something, and the thought of it being a possibility scared him, but he decided to ignore this and not ruin his perfect day.
The boys were busy watching a movie about a giant shark, and Derpy, his tiger, and Sussie, his bird, were playing with a ball. Jinu didn’t say anything as he slipped in as quietly as possible, trying his best to hide his smile. He still felt her petals’ softness on his, and he was lost in the thought of his Rumi, touching and tapping his lips unknowingly, when Romance asked, smirking, “So, Jinu… How was the date?”
“Good.” Jinu replied without thinking, but soon the realisation dawned on him of what he just blurted out, “What? What date?” He quickly asked, pretending to be confused, but the redness of his cheek was already betraying him. Other Saja boys also noticed.
“One with the hunter…” Abby said, turning towards Jinu, matching Romance’s teasing smirk.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Jinu said as he tried to flee the room.
“We saw your card, ‘Save the date’ one, no need to pretend.” Mystery deadpans, still looking at the television, or it appeared he was looking at the TV, but with his enormous bangs, it was hard to tell. He wasn’t teasing Jinu like the other two, but even he smiled slightly, feeling the embarrassment in his voice.
“What?” Jinu asked, horrified.
“Yup, gross…” Baby mumbled uninterested, not bothering to look at Jinu.
“Derpy dropped your letter last night while fixing a tipped-over vase. I went to help him, and Mystery was passing by, and he saw the card. I wasn’t trying to peek or anything, but… You know curiosity.” Romance explained.
“The fact that you still send letters instead of text is concerning.” Baby said.
“Did you kiss?” Abby questioned.
And just like that, Jinu was surrounded by teasing and questions. He sighed heavily, “Derpyyy…” He said, exasperated.
Of course, his big blue ball of fluff does something like that. He looked over at his tiger and bird playing with the ball, and they looked so adorable that he couldn’t even be mad at Derpy.
Rumi was right, he really is a softie.