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"Why now?" She muttered, throwing her jacket to the floor, the cold air making the hairs on her arms stand up. "Why when I'm so close?"
The people were so happy, so relaxed... Rumi could feel the Golden Hunmoon between her fingers, the pull of its thread inside her, guiding her, talking to her.
"Why?" She was about to be the girl everyone saw and loved. To be a daughter Celine could love. To be a bandmate Zoey and Mira could be happy with. And just now, when she could feel freedom approaching, this was happening? "Why!?"
Rumi stepped back, panting, as purple waves swept through the streets of Seoul, moving smoothly through the Hunmoon.
"No..." With horror, she realized that her voice wasn't going away, her voice was changing. She was changing. "No, this- this can't be."
Her hand moved up to the patterns, which continued to ripple and grow across her skin, not just on her shoulder, but all the way up her arm. In the darkness, they glowed.
Bile rose in her throat. She looked so, so hideous. Was this what her father had looked like? Was this what Celine had always known she would become?
Is that why she couldn't love her? Because, despite all the years she raised her, she still reminded her of the creature who took her best friend away from her?
God, she was going to throw up. How could anyone love her when she was like this? When she looked like this?
So... rotten, evil.
What even would Zoey and Mira think if they saw her like this? If they knew she'd been lying to them for years?
Well, it's obvious, isn't it?
They would want her dead.
And...that didn't sound so bad right now. Not when she was failing, making mistakes, and ruining everything they'd worked for. Rumi was the leader, but where was she leading the girls when she was like this? Toward failure? They deserved better.
Her eyes wandered out into the street.
Perhaps, if the Hunmoon didn't need all three of them to turn golden, she could...
"No." She shook her head, exhaling. "Zoey and Mira trust me. I have to do this."
As long as the girls believed in her, as long as the girls depended on her, Rumi couldn't give up, not without a fight.
So she got up from the floor, rubbing her cold shoulders, and turned around to pick up her jacket.
Only to freeze at the sight of Mira and Zoey, wide-eyed, staring back at her.
They had followed her. They had seen her. How could Rumi not have noticed?
"M-Mira, Zoey?" She murmured, stepping back. Her heart pounded against her chest, and Rumi felt like she was standing between two predators, ready to be devoured. She should say something, anything, but the words were stuck in her throat.
"Why do you have patterns?" Zoey frowned at her, clenching her hands into fists.
Rumi opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Her breathing quickened.
This wasn't supposed to happen like this. Not now, not so soon.
"You sold your soul to Gwi-Ma?" Mira advanced on her, her brows furrowed, her back hunched. Rumi stepped back. "Why? What for?"
"I-"
Her words were cut off when Mira pushed her against the wall. She waited for the edge of a weapon, but it never came. It was just Mira, and nothing more.
Her stupid, cruel patterns glowed even brighter, flickering from an ugly shade of purple to a light pink. Mira's breath hit her face, hot against her cold skin.
"Why did you do it, Rumi?"
Her voice was tense. Despite having her cornered, her hands didn't touch her or hurt her in any way.
That was the most confusing part, Rumi decided, because now that the girls knew, they should kill her, or at the very least, attack her, but Zoey, behind Mira, still hasn't summoned her weapon.
No, she seemed ready to intervene, biting her lip as she did whenever she wasn't sure whether it was better to act, or let Rumi and Mira sort out their problems on their own.
"I asked you a question, answer it."
"I didn't." She managed to blurt out, breathless, as if she'd been running for hours hunting demons. She didn't know if it was the frigid air, or Mira's proximity, but she couldn't breathe. "I was born this way."
Mira's frown deepened, moving her face away from hers just a few inches further, her hands still on the wall, on either side of her head.
Taking advantage, Rumi inhaled deeply, her skin stinging.
"Born?" She mumbled, and for the first time, Rumi noticed that she sounded a little huskier than usual. If the girls had come here straight from practice, that meant they hadn't had time to drink water. Still, her voice sent a chill down her spine.
It was Zoey who concluded the obvious, approaching them.
"Your dad was a demon, that's why Celine or you never talked about him." Her hands were still fisted, but taking a deep breath, she opened them, moving each finger individually.
No signs of weapons, not yet. That didn't mean they wouldn't show up later, but for now she was...safe.
At least until the girls return to a Hunter's default method: hit first, questions later.
"Yes." She manages to whisper, her voice just as weak as before.
"Why did you never tell us? Why did you lie to us?" Mira asks, pressing their bodies together, and Rumi's breathing becomes ragged again.
"I wanted to tell you." Rumi turns her head, her throat dry, and her mind filled with guilt, but Mira doesn't allow it, grabbing her chin with one hand and forcing her to look at her.
From here, she notices how close their faces are, and how Mira's skin takes on the glow her patterns give her. Her stomach does another flip.
"Why didn't you do it?" Zoey looks at them both, her lips pursed in that way that always means she's hurt, and they need to fix it before they screw up any more. "You didn't trust us?"
"No! I trust you, and I trust Mira." Rumi needed Zoey to stop making that face right now, she hated it. "But Celine-"
"Celine?" Mira clicked her teeth together, in a way her dentist clearly wouldn't recommend, and spat out the word with a rage that she hadn't even given to the demons.
Suddenly, Rumi realized that Mira had never really been angry with her, at least not like that. Not in a way that made her need to take a slow, measured breath, to control her burning rage.
But if she wasn't angry with Rumi, why had she cornered her against a wall? Was it so that she wouldn't hurt them, or have room to summon her sword, in case Rumi was a threat?
"Celine forbade me to tell you." She blurted out, her eyes fixed on Mira's. Her mouth felt even drier, if that was possible. "She... said that you two were going to kill me, because it was your duty."
The reactions were immediate.
Zoey, wide-eyed, looking horrified in a way she hadn't even been when she'd learned she was a demon a few minutes earlier, lay against her side, hugging her with enough force to break her ribs.
"Rumi, how could you believe her? We would never do that to you! I could never—" her voice trembled. "I could never kill you, I love you."
Rumi shuddered at those joyful words. She'd heard Zoey say them more than once, but had never fully believed them, not until now.
Because now, Zoey could see her, all of her. Her patterns, her mistakes, her lies, and yet, she told her.
Because Zoey truly loved her, and nothing could change that.
Rumi blinked hard, but that didn't stop the hot tears from sliding down her cheeks. Mira, who still had her hand on her chin, moved it, gently wiping them away.
"Rumi, listen to me carefully." It wasn't an order, but Rumi followed it obediently. "I love you as much as I love Zoey, nothing, and no one, will change that, do you understand?"
"Y-yes."
"Good." Mira pressed her forehead together for a brief second. "I think we should continue this conversation at home. I have a feeling that when you talk to me about Celine, I'll want to destroy something."
Rumi smiled, too big and too forced.
"As long as it's not me, everything's fine."
Zoey and Mira looked at her, both frowning, though Zoey's frown looked more like a pout.
"Too soon?"
"Yeah." Zoey wiped her tears, pulling away from them. Mira followed her example, no longer cornering her. A small noise, a whimper, escaped her mouth at the loss of warmth. Immediately, Zoey and Mira took her hands. "I'd rather you didn't joke about how you thought we were going to kill you. It hurts."
Mira nodded, squeezing her hand.
"Okay, I won't." Rumi squeezed her hands, she didn't like to see her friends sad. "How about when we get home we order food? I'll pay."
"Only if you let us buy dessert. I think we'll need it."
"Oh, I'll take care of tidying up the couch! It'll be so comfortable, no one will want to get up!" Zoey swung her clasped hands. "That way, we can talk better."
"That sounds like a plan."