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After the battle for the world’s souls at Namsan tower, Rumi could finally find the strength in her to embrace every part of her, and in a physical sense, that included her demon patterns.
They weren’t a deep purple anymore, now taking on a faint, iridescent look, reflecting the new Honmoon barrier that she’d built with her best friends, Mira and Zoey. Not completely golden, like they and every generation of hunters before them had worked so hard to accomplish, but there were bits of it interspersed in a rainbow-coloured Honmoon instead.
Rumi would ask Celine what it meant, but after their last… talk , Rumi wanted to put a bit of distance between them for now. Not for long, though. Because she knew even after everything, she loved Celine like a second mother, and she knew Celine loved her like the daughter she never had.
Still, what Celine said to her that night, and for years and years, about covering and hiding still creeped its way into her brain as she stared at herself in her bathroom mirror, fresh from the shower as she wrapped a towel around her body, her patterns from her chest upwards standing out to her.
Before, she’d take them in with shame, disgust at herself, and a determination to get rid of them as she’d hurriedly dress in clothes that would cover wherever the patterns would usually show.
But today, she smiled at her reflection, gently touching a mark that was below her eye. To her pleasant surprise, the small area she touched turned a more vibrant colour for just a second, the gradient becoming more visible before the colour faded back to its natural state. And Rumi let a small chuckle escape her at the new discovery. Usually, her patterns would spread and be more visible when she was stressed, but for now it seemed like the only change her new patterns made was just from touch.
Rumi decided she quite liked the way the patterns looked on her. The light colour reminded her a little bit of stretch marks, of her growth in both body and mind.
Hmm. Maybe Zoey could put it into better words than she could.
Speaking of…
“Rumi!” Zoey knocked on her bedroom door. “Are you up yet? Mira just finished cooking the eggs!”
“Coming!” Rumi yelled as she stepped out of the bathroom and headed for her closet, quickly picking out a loose-fitting crop top and jeans, and changed into them before opening the door to come face-to-face with Zoey’s sunny smile.
“Morning Rumi! Are you feeling okay? Usually I’m the last one of us to get up.”
“I’m alright, Zoe.” Rumi gave her a small smile as they made their way to their dining table downstairs together. “Still a little bit tired from… everything , but I am excited for today! Photoshoot for our Comeback announcement, and then the bathhouse to kick off our hiatus for the next three months.”
“Are you sure you’re good to go to the bathhouse with us today?” Zoey asked as they reached the dining table, food and drink already set up courtesy of Mira, who was now just placing the cutlery. “I know Mira and I kept asking you to come with us a lot over the years, but even though we know why now, you still don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“No, no! I really want to.” Then, she made sure to look Mira right in the eyes when she said, “I promise.”
Mira examined her for a moment, eyes seeming to roam over her exposed marks before grinning and taking her seat at the table, the other two girls following suit and digging into the rice, eggs and bacon that Mira had cooked for them, excited conversations about the day ahead and possible activities for them to take on during their hiatus flowing naturally between the three of them.
Once they’d finished their breakfast, the three girls headed down to the ground floor of their penthouse tower, where Bobby was waiting for them outside to drive them to Sunlight Entertainment’s building for their photoshoot.
“Morning Bobby!” The trio waved as he held open a back door so they could quickly get in the backseat before any fans happened to spot them. As much as they usually loved to interact with their fans, they were on a tight schedule for today.
“Morning girls!” Bobby hopped into the driver’s seat and buckled up, turning in his seat to face the back. “You three excited for your hiatus?”
“Yep!” Zoey perked. “We have so many plans that I’m not even sure we’ll get through them all before the three months are up. You got anything fun planned for your break Bobby?”
“Oh yeah, I’m planning on giving that fancy resort another try.” Bobby sighed wistfully at the faint memory of his few hours of luxury as he started to drive. “Hopefully I’ll be able to at least stay overnight this time, eh Rumi?” Rumi, who was sitting in the middle, caught Bobby’s eyes giving her a teasing look in the reflection of the rearview mirror.
“Heh… right.” Rumi grimaced. “Sorry about that Bobby, no more surprise releases while we’re on break and without your say-so, promise.”
“Oh take it easy Rumi, I was never mad at you for that. But while we are on the topic of you, I gotta say how much I love your new tattoos! Is it related to your new album by any chance?”
“Oh uh, no.” Rumi’s right hand touched her left forearm, watching the parts that had her patterns on them softly glow at the contact, and she smiled at the sight once again. “Just something I wanted to try out for me.” She shared a knowing look with the other girls, whose eyes seemed to be transfixed on her and her glowing patterns. “Do you think it looks good?”
“I think it looks great Rumi. And I'm sure the fans will love it too.”
“Well, we can all agree on that.” Mira said as she held Rumi’s right hand, smiling as the marks on her hand glowed under her touch. Zoey did the same with Rumi’s left hand, lips forming a near-quiet ooo at seeing the marks on that hand glow from her contact too.
“I hope so.” Rumi sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned back, allowing the physical contact from her girls to soothe her as she tried to relax her mind for the rest of the drive.
After another twenty minutes of driving, they arrived at Sunlight Entertainment’s building. Bobby parked in the carpark and they made their way up the lobby together, where a member of today’s makeup team was waiting for the girls. They waved goodbye to Bobby— he had a meeting to attend in half an hour— as they followed the makeup artist to one of the elevators and upstairs to one of the vanity rooms. And for about the next thirty minutes, the girl group had their makeup done side-by-side (no more separate rooms for Rumi!) as they made small conversation with the makeup team.
The whole time Rumi’s makeup was getting done, she realised that the patterns on her face didn’t glow once under their touches, so for now it looked like only her, Mira and Zoey could bring out that special effect, and that thought set off a little ping of thrill in her brain, because that just felt right , for one reason or another.
She also appreciated that the makeup artists didn’t make any attempts to cover up the patterns. In fact, they were rather fascinated by them, asking how her tattoo artist was able to achieve such a seamless flow of vibrant colours throughout her body, and could they maybe get the name of the place just in case they or their friends wanted to get their tattoos done there too?
Rumi hesitated for a moment before shooting a panicked look at Zoey in the reflection of their vanity, who responded with a small nod and immediately grabbed her phone for some hurried research. By the end of the session, Zoey was able to find a place that eh, didn’t quite ink tattoos that looked like Rumi’s, but it was the top-rated tattoo parlour in the city.
Once the makeup was finished, they headed down one floor to one of the photography rooms where their shoot was taking place. In one section of the room there were three racks of clothes, one for each girl and filled with simple, all-black outfits. When they picked their favourite outfits from the selection and got dressed, there was a small table with a vanity mirror attached where they could check if their makeup had smudged and to put on whatever golden jewellery that was laid out on the table that they’d like to wear.
Finally, they were all ready to go, and Zoey’s individual shoot was up first. For this shoot, a simple white backdrop had been set up to make it easier on the photo editors, and as Zoey got into position, Mira and Rumi sat down on two director’s chairs, shooting their friend encouraging looks and cheers as she ran through the motions with her signature Zoey enthusiasm.
After Zoey was done, it was Mira’s turn, and as soon as she struck her first pose, she reminded everyone in the room why she was the visual of HUNTR/X. Striking pose after stunning pose as the camera kept flashing. As amazing as it was to see in real-time, Mira’s skill in looking good for the cameras came at no surprise to Zoey and Rumi, since she was the one in the trio who got the most modelling gigs when they weren’t working on or promoting new songs. When Mira was done, she was met with a chorus of applause from the other two idols (plus one very loud wolf-whistle from Zoey).
And then it was Rumi’s turn.
When Rumi stood up from her seat and got into position behind the camera, the room suddenly got much more quiet, the energy more stilted.
The head photographer looked through the camera lens to check the settings and lighting. He had a slight frown on his face, then gestured to his two assistants to adjust the settings on the softboxes. That wasn’t really needed when Zoey and Mira were up here, and all three of their skin tones were very similar, but maybe he wanted her in different lighting because she was the leader? It wouldn’t be the first time Rumi’s promotional photos were just slightly different from her groupmates because of that fact, even though she much more preferred it when they all depicted to just be on equal ground, because that’s what feels more right to her, not one of them being placed above the other two.
After a few (uncomfortable) moments, it looked like she was finally ready, though the photographer still didn’t seem all that happy, as compared to the much better mood he was in with Zoey and Mira. Was it something she said? (Never mind that she hadn’t actually spoken a word to him.) Did her breath smell? Was there something weird on her face?
Her eyes met Mira and Zoey’s before she completely slipped into panic mode. Immediately, the two made a big show of clapping and cheering her on, not caring if anyone else in the room was bothered by the noise.
The sight calmed her, she knew if there was something wrong on her part, they would let her know. So there was really nothing for her left to do besides to take a deep breath, smile, and pose.
After a few minutes that passed by in flashes and directions from the photographer, the only thing left on the docket was group photos. Zoey and Mira stood on either side of her while the assistants adjusted the lighting settings again.
“You okay, Rumi?” Mira whispered.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s just… is it just me or does the photographer not like me?”
“We picked up on that too, what’s that weirdo’s problem?”
“Could it be because of…” Zoey trailed off, then drew a circle in the air with her finger around her face, a nonverbal clue. Ah. Her patterns.
“Well, he’s just gonna have to deal.” Mira huffed. “No way we’ll let anyone feel like you have to cover them up anymore.”
“That’s right! And besides, we’re almost done anyway. Remember where we’re going after this?”
“ Bathhouse .” All three of them whispered in unison, and broke down into quiet giggles as the photographer finally let them know they were ready to go again, and got into position, bodies facing the side as they turned their faces towards the camera.
“Thanks guys.” Rumi whispered as she placed her hand on Zoey’s shoulder as she felt Mira’s hand on her own. The others responded by giving a light squeeze to her hand and shoulder as the photographer counted down from three.
After a few hours spent unwinding in the bathhouse (that came with a good cathartic cry between the three of them), they left to wander the streets in search of a restaurant for their late lunch/early dinner.
Along the way, they watched as three young girls who by the looks of it, all seemed to be HUNTR/X fans, met and talked to each other for the first time. And, well, they just reminded the idols so much of themselves when they were six years younger— three girls with three different lives all united by their love for music and an invisible force pulling towards each other— that they just had to say hello.
After a couple minutes of talking (mostly on the idols’ part, the fans were mostly too starstruck to say much), the two groups parted ways. Walking down the street, Rumi spotted a familiar-looking blue tail in the corner of her eye. Which led her to look up and see…
A giant billboard with their faces on it, the picture being one of the many photos that was taken just this morning for their comeback teaser. The background was a simple orange one, not taking attention away from the girls. Zoey to the left, Rumi in the middle and Mira on the right, with Mira’s hand on Rumi’s back and Rumi’s hand on Zoey’s, with her hand on top of Rumi’s. Mira and Zoey looked amazing, as always, but Rumi…
“Oh Rumi.” Zoey gasped. “I’m so sorry.”
Rumi’s patterns were completely edited out of the photo. Her demon side, her growth all erased, like everything that she’d been through, especially on the night of the Idol Awards, never happened at all.
Rumi couldn’t speak, words failing her as she felt her throat start to tighten and eyes burn with unshed tears, not being able to look away from the billboard.
But she could feel Zoey’s and Mira’s touches, Zoey pulling her into a half-hug, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, while Mira kept one hand on her shoulder while she pulled out her phone with the other.
“I’m calling Bobby right now, there must be some explanation for this. Even though we’ll most likely hate it.”
Bobby picked up the video call by the seventh ring. “Hi girls! Sorry I can only talk for a few minutes, I’m in another meeting, what’s up?”
“Do you happen to know what this is all about?” Mira flipped the screen so Bobby could see the billboard.
“What do you– oh .”
“Yeah, oh .”
“Sorry girls, I was in back-to-back meetings all day, if the company did email me your photos to check it over, I haven’t seen them yet. It’s almost impressive how quickly they finished it.”
“Mhmm. Almost .” Mira spat out through gritted teeth.
“I do know that someone in the company had to approve the photos before they went out, and if it’s not me, then it must be someone higher up the ladder.”
“Like someone on the brand’s board” Zoey asked, still doing her best to comfort Rumi with her touch. “Or–”
“Celine.”
Rumi choked out her guardian’s name with great effort. As much as it hurt to admit, it would make sense if Celine allowed this. Maybe she disapproved of Rumi showing her new patterns and not hiding them like she had her old ones. Maybe she was angry at her for nearly dooming the world because she couldn’t keep her emotions in check for one more night. Maybe–
“Celine?” Zoey gave her a puzzled look, Mira (as well as Bobby, who was still on call) wearing a similar one. “Why would she do that?”
It occurred to Rumi that she still hadn’t told the others about her and Celine’s last… encounter , and why she was somewhat avoiding her now.
Well, looks like that little phase was coming to an end.
“I’m gonna call Celine.” Rumi spoke, feeling dread rising in her. “Today. But um… I’m sorry but, I want to go home now, I just don’t want to have to look at that anymore. But you two can stay out here if you–”
“Rumi, of course we’re coming home with you.” Zoey cut in. “We don’t need to go grocery shopping yet, so we’ve got enough ingredients left over for dinner. Right Mira?”
“Right, I can make us all gochujang noodles.” Mira added with a little smile directed to Rumi as she put her phone back in her pocket, having already hung up on Bobby. It was a well-known fact that Mira liked all things spicy, and that even though Zoey and Rumi had a slightly lower tolerance for it, they always liked the challenge.
“Thanks.” Rumi sniffled a bit, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to drop. “Let’s go home.”
Turns out, the rushed journey back to HUNTR/X Tower was not easy, as they came across at least five more billboards and posters with the same group photo, Rumi’s patterns still all gone.
Once they finally made it back home, Rumi quickly muttered that she’ll call Celine now, and she’ll let them know how it goes, immediately making a beeline for her room once she was done speaking, leaving the other two girls in the kitchen to make dinner.
“I wish there was more we could do.” Zoey sighed as she helped Mira find the needed ingredients for the noodle dish.
“Me too. I guess we’ll see how Rumi’s talk with Celine goes.”
“Have you noticed that Rumi’s been acting a little weird about Celine since That Night? Do you think they had a fight?”
Mira thought about it for a moment, a fight between a half-Demon-half-Hunter and a seasoned Hunter would not really go down well, so maybe it was something else?
“I don’t know but–” Mira sighed. “Now that we’ve talked about things with her, we just have to trust that she’ll tell us when she’s ready. Hopefully soon though.”
Zoey hummed in agreement as she handed Mira the last needed ingredient, and they started cooking together, Zoey cooking the udon noodles while Mira made the gochujang sauce.
Minutes passed by, spent cooking and thinking about Rumi. While Mira took over the cooking, Zoey scrolled through her phone, pointing out anything of interest to the other girl on social media, as was their usual routine whenever they prepped meals in the kitchen together.
When Mira was at the tail-end of the cooking process, stir frying the ingredients and getting ready to add the gochujang sauce, she heard a very loud gasp coming from her left.
“Mira!” Zoey turned her phone screen towards Mira, a giant grin on her face. “I think I know how we can cheer Rumi up!”
Rumi didn’t want to waste any time, as soon as she made it to her room, she flopped down on her bed, pulled out her phone, found Celine’s contact and started a video call.
Celine picked up quick, quicker than Rumi thought she would. The older woman’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw her face, but she quickly steeled herself, expression unreadable.
“Rumi. How are you?”
“Hi Celine, do you happen to know anything about the new comeback announcement posters? Specifically why my patterns were edited out? Did you really approve that?”
“Rumi, I–” Celine sighed. “I did approve the photos, I wanted them released as soon as possible, but I wouldn’t have if I’d known you have new patterns. I thought they would disappear when the new Honmoon was created.”
“So the patterns were already erased when you saw the photos, then.” Rumi said, not really a question.
“Yes. I’m sorry about this mess, Rumi. I’ll be calling that company immediately after this, and finding a new one so you and the others can retake your photos, if you’d like.”
“That’d… be great. Thanks. So…” Rumi took in a deep breath, and breathed out shakily. “You don’t mind my new patterns?”
“No, Rumi. I think you look nice. I really do.”
“Really?” Rumi subconsciously touched her face, patterns lighting up under her touch again. She wondered if Celine could see it through the screen. “I thought, since you hated my old ones that–”
“I never hated them, Rumi. And I never hated you for having them. Please believe me, I know I kept telling you to cover up, so you’d be safe, because I’ve always wanted what was best for you, but now I see that forcing you to hide a big part of who you are made you hate yourself, and I am so sorry I did that to you.”
Rumi couldn’t even tell her that it wasn’t true, because in a way, it was.
“I wanted to be the best guardian you could have after your mother passed away, but seeing you on That Night , I knew that I had failed. You don’t ever have to forgive me for hurting you, but I hope you know how sorry I am for that.”
“Celine–” Rumi sniffled, wiping away a stray tear. “I do forgive you. It did hurt when you told me to cover up, all the time, but especially on That Night, even after everything, but I knew why. And now I know that even after all that, if you still disapproved of me showing my patterns to everyone, it wouldn’t really matter, because I like them now, and now I’m learning to love all parts of myself. But that being said, I’m really glad you don’t have an issue with this.” Rumi ended with a wet chuckle as she wiped her face.
On her screen, her guardian looked dangerously close to tears too. “I’m glad. And I’m so happy and proud of you, my little superstar.”
Rumi figured that was a good note to end the call on, so the two said their goodbyes, Celine letting her know she’ll email her the details for the new shoot as soon as it was confirmed.
She flopped down on her bed again once the call ended with a satisfied sigh. That went even better than she thought it would! Maybe she could squeeze in a short nap before dinner.
But before she could actually get to that, she heard small, continuous taps coming from the right side of the room. She turned her head to find two strange and familiar creatures standing on her balcony, and she chuckled as she opened the balcony door.
“Back again, huh?” Rumi smirked as Derpy sauntered inside, Sussie balanced on his head, as per usual.
As Rumi closed the door, her stomach rumbled, reminding her of what (and who) was waiting for her outside this room. “Alright you two, it’s dinner time. Care to join me?”
The two seemed to have no problems with free home-cooked food, as they dutifully followed her out of the room and down the stairs.
Once they reached the kitchen, Rumi was immediately hit with the tantalising smell of tonight’s dinner. At the dining table, Mira and Zoey were waiting for her, matching big grins on their faces.
“So, how did the talk with Celine go?” Mira asked first, always straight to point.
“It actually went pretty well.” Rumi smiled. “She said that if we want, we can retake our promo photos with another company as soon as she sets up the appointment.”
“That’s great, and we’ll definitely do that, no way are we reusing the shots from that other place. Buttttt before we do that–”
“We have a super cool idea for what we could do for our new era!” Zoey jumped in, nearly vibrating from excitement. “Okay, so, I got the idea when I saw this tweet about us,” Zoey flipped her phone screen to Rumi, letting her see the tweet in question.
“And at first I was like, ‘omg that is so us!’, and then I remembered that tattoo parlor I searched up for our makeup artists from this morning, and how they thought your patterns were tattoos, and how when you talked to us about being half-Demon after That Night, Mira and I got to talking about how we could show you that we’re okay with who you really are, we were just shocked that you didn’t tell us before, because even though we said we are sometimes actions speak louder than words, right? And I–”
Mira fake-coughed.
“Sorry, we think that this could be it! We could get matching tattoos, something that represents each one of us like your patterns do for you, to show everyone that our bond is stronger than ever! Because, um, they were really sad when they thought we broke up at the Idol Awards, and then we kinda did , for a few hours after that. Sooo… what do you think?”
Rumi already knew that she’d like whatever Zoey had planned since she said she had one, but the passionate ramble just confirmed it. “I love that idea, Zoey.”
“Really?” The maknae of the group grinned.
“Really. Though, can we talk about it more after dinner? I’m really hungry, and so are those two.”
She jabbed her thumb in the tiger and magpie’s direction, the two of them now caught in the act attempting to steal some mouthfuls from the girls’ plates while they weren’t paying attention.
“Ugh, you two. ” Mira rolled her eyes as she shooed them away from the food. “Chill out, will you? I’ll get you your own plates, just no more stealing from ours.”
The other two girls snort-laughed at their antics, as they sat in their own seats, ready to enjoy the meal.
And three weeks later, when their tattoos had healed and they were out on the city streets again, they spotted the billboard again in the same place as last time, but now there was something new on it. A new promo poster that wasn’t afraid to show their new additions.
Zoey’s sun tattoo took up nearly all of her back, the detailed design complete with rays shooting off in every direction.
Mira’s thigh tattoos were the most complex of the three, her right thigh being adorned with flowers and a big heart with thin lines wrapping around it and trailing to her knee, while the left had just a thin and thick band, and the different phases of the moon wrapped around her thigh.
Rumi’s was the simplest; just various four-pointed stars that adorned her chest and shoulders, the biggest one being right in the middle and below her collarbones.
The words on the poster stayed the same: “HUNTR/X: COMEBACK”, a promise to their loving fans that they weren’t going anywhere.
And a promise to each other too, that even if there was something that happened to divide them once again, they’ll always fight to come back to each other, it was declared through words, actions, and now in ink on imperfect, but beautiful skin.