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The Honmoon was bored–which was still a pretty new experience for it.
Up until about a year ago, the Honmoon had all the sentience of a high-end home security system–blocking most intruders, able to send alerts, capable of being used by those who created it for various functions. It was effective, but it didn't need to think.
A lot of things had changed the night of the Idol Awards, when Huntrix was set to face off against the Saja Boys.
Rumi's secret was exposed on stage and the girls she loved raised their weapons on her. The Honmoon had been torn apart, left hanging like a tattered blanket over an unprotected world on the verge of a demon apocalypse.
Then Rumi had returned, and a new Honmoon was made from the old.
On being torn apart and remade, a few new features had been woven into the fabric of its being. It could allow for some flexibility in terms of what was allowed to pass through the barrier, rather than just assuming anything demonic was bad. It was able to bind its chosen Hunters even closer together, allowing them to sense each other's souls and emotions.
Importantly, it also became sentient–able to feel and think, not just react.
As its chosen sang This is What it Sounds Like, the light building around them, the Honmoon began to feel.
The first song it sang was the Hunter’s Mantra, joining in with the stadium in a bid to drive Gwi-ma out of this world forever. It was a celebration and a promise to the world it protected–a callback to the blood and tears poured into it, to the lives lost keeping the world safe.
The second song it sang was a jubilant proclamation to its Hunters–I am here!
“Yeah the party don't start till I walk in”
Still reeling from the events of the day, Zoey had asked the other Hunters, with no small amount of confusion, if they could also hear Kesha's Tik Tok being played inside their heads.
Its Hunters were smart though, and figured it out pretty quickly.
Being woven together by the love shared between Rumi, Zoey, and Mira, it had some traits of each embedded into it. It adored cute animals, didn't care to be told what to do, and was deeply curious.
To its great delight (one of many new emotions it added to the list it was making), it could now communicate more directly with its Hunters–not just alerting them to demon incursions but directly making its interests known.
However, this communication could only be done via song.
Just as only Hunters could see the Honmoon, only Hunters were able to hear these songs. This had proved useful in terms of not confusing the general public, but it had taken some time for the girls to get used to not reacting to occasionally intrusive music.
The Honmoon still existed as a worldwide magical barrier, but its mind was a more finite, fixed point. It could spread itself thin to cross vast distances quickly, then coalesce in one spot to actually focus on something.
So far, things had been going great.
Mostly.
Apparently the girls didn't appreciate it being around when they were doing whatever it was that involved so much lube and colorful silicone. They especially hadn't appreciated it trying to set the mood with music. It had been quickly banned from their bedrooms, which still seemed like an overreaction.
It had also discovered it didn't appreciate being bored. It never experienced boredom before it could think, but now it could think. Think about how bored it was.
Rumi and Zoey had been doing chores all day. It had hung around them for a while, offering background music–until the vacuum came out. The Honmoon was not hanging around when the vacuum was going.
Nasty thing.
So it left, looking for something more interesting. For a while it simply drifted over Seoul like a sulking, musical cloud. It considered what else it might do, letting its mind wander. A bright spark, glittering pink, drew its attention south.
Mira.
—
Mira was mid-photoshoot when the Honmoon arrived (as much as the sentient part of an incorporeal planetary barrier can arrive).
It was a Calvin Klein shoot, and Mira was draped off a bed wearing branded boxers and a sports bra, a leather jacket draped loosely over her shoulders. Her makeup was subtle, just enough to smooth her face and highlight her features, with a dash of red on her lips. As the photographer clicked away, her eyes flicked towards where the Honmoon was watching and she spoke under her breath. “Hey there. Decided to skip out on the girls?”
The Honmoon was considering how to answer when the photographer asked Mira to change position. Suddenly a great deal more Mira was on display, as she twisted to put her pale thighs over the bed and fanned her hair out on the floor beneath her.
The thump-clap intro of River by Bishop Briggs echoed in the studio, heard only by one of the humans in the room, and Mira barely held back a snort.
The director tilted his head at the look on her face. “Everything okay, Mira-nim?”
She waved him off. “I'm fine, just had a funny thought.”
Sotto voce she added, “Guessing that reaction is courtesy of Zoey and Rumi.” It had been interesting seeing bits of themselves reflected in this new Honmoon, expressed in sometimes unexpected ways.
The Honmoon unapologetically continued, “Shut your mouth and run me like a river.”
As the photoshoot wore on, the Honmoon hovered around, emoting appreciative songs with each new series of photos. The shoot finally wrapped up for the day in the early afternoon.
Mira waved at the Honmoon as she climbed into her rental car, slipping on a pair of sunglasses. “You might as well find someone else to stalk for the rest of the day,”
Rude.
“I'm planning to hit a local bath house and chill in the hotel.”
Hotel rooms–yet another place it had been banned unless it was an emergency. It sighed internally, pulling back from Mira and once again letting its mind wander along its ley lines, seeking something else worthwhile to do.
A flicker on Jeju Island drew its attention, and it shifted its focus yet again.
—
Oceans were nothing for a newly-self-aware metaphysical worldwide shield, and within moments it was at the Hunter’s compound on Jeju.
Even in the winter, Celine was busy with her gardens. Currently, she was working in one of her large greenhouses, where she was able to sustainably grow many of the herbs and vegetables that she used year-round. The interior of the greenhouse was warm and humid, and she wore a tank top along with baggy pants. Her face and clothes were streaked with dirt, and a sheen of sweat made her glow under the artificial lights.
Celine hadn't noticed the newcomer’s arrival, lost in the tranquil, almost meditative practice of tending her plants.
The Honmoon watched a bead of sweat trail down her neck and chest, before disappearing into the valley between her breasts.
A heavily synthesized electric guitar riff broke the quiet peace of the greenhouse.
Celine recognized the song immediately–Sexyback, by Justin Timberlake.
She grimaced.
With some level of difficulty, she schooled her face back to neutral. The Honmoon was the manifestation of centuries of work, generations of Hunter's blood and sweat–she would treat it with the respect and dignity befitting it. “Good evening, Honmoon-nim. I am-”
The volume of the music increased as Celine spoke, wiping the dirt from her hands onto a towel. “Dirty baaabe, you see these shackles baby I'm your slaaave”
“Honored by your presence.”
“I'll let you whip me if I misbehaaave”
Celine felt her eye twitch. Of all the things the Honmoon had picked up from Zoey, Celine desperately wished her teenage crush on the older Sunlight Sister had not been one of them. “Do you think, perhaps, you could not…” She gestured vaguely. “With the music today?”
The volume lowered, but Celine could, deeply unfortunately, still hear Justin ‘taking them to the chorus.’
She needed a distraction.
In the year or so they'd been getting to know the Honmoon, they'd found that while it could be nosy and overly curious at times, it was also easily distracted–especially by cute animals. Celine tapped her chin and sucked in a breath, as if just realizing something very exciting. “You know what, we actually have some special new friends in the compound right now.”
The music slowed, distorting slightly as the Honmoon listened closely.
“We have a litter of kittens out in the shed behind the hanok, I bet they-”
The Honmoon was gone so quickly, Celine felt her ears pop. She sighed in relief, turning back to trim her cucumber vines. That should buy her at least a few hours of peace, at least.
—
A synthy, fun K-pop beat emanated from the shed. Lee Young Ji’s song, My Cat, had been playing on a loop for several hours now.
“My cat in my room, she my drop top, 따르릉 벨이 울리면 바로 출발해”
The Honmoon had been enthralled the entire time, unblinkingly taking in every second. The kittens tumbled in play? A euphoric delight. The kittens nursed from their mother? Ground-breaking experience. The kittens slept? An earth-shattering revelation that could bring the Honmoon to its non-existent knees.
Perhaps this was why it hadn’t noticed the subtle vibrations along its threads, even as they grew more intense, until it was startled by the sound of tires squealing as Celine’s car peeled out of the compound. Finally stirred away from its hyperfocus on the kittens, the Honmoon became aware that it had missed something.
Something big.
It expanded its thoughts, searching for the source of the distress and quickly pinpointed it–a dull green and flickering purple spark in the distance.
Within a few minutes it had arrived at the location, taking in the scene. A supernatural blizzard was raging through Bukhansan park, whiting out the sky, the air crackling with cold. Zoey and Rumi were tucked into a tiny alcove created by fallen stonework, trapped by the fierce storm. Zoey appeared to be injured and unconscious, while Rumi was awake. Despite being conscious, something felt wrong about Rumi, her soul rippling like overheated air.
The Honmoon was baffled–how did this even happen? They had been vacuuming! It had only been one day! How did they-
Rumi stirred, turning bloodshot eyes towards the Honmoon. Her patterns looked like the inside of the toaster, which was more than mildly concerning. “Oh. Hey.”
Its thoughts were whirling–there was clearly a lot going on here. Fuck. Okay, one thing at a time.
Zoey was unconscious, so it should probably check on that.
It hovered over Zoey, noting the gash across her forehead, the bleeding long stopped.
“Annie, are you okay? So, Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?”
Rumi took a long moment to process the Honmoon’s song–longer than she should have taken. “Zoey? Should be okay, needs to rest. Hurt.” Rumi pulled her in tighter. “Keepin’ her warm. No worries.”
The Honmoon actually had several worries.
Namely,
“When did you get hot all the sudden? I could look you up and down all day” Sabrina Carpenter’s breathy soprano managed to sound more concerned than usual filtered through the Honmoon.
Rumi’s eyelids began to droop and her patterns flared even hotter. “Keepin’ warm. ‘S fine.”
Even as someone new to being a ‘someone’ and not a ‘something’, the Honmoon knew that things were not fine. They were very unfine. Concerningly unfine.
A crisp hip-hop beat fought against the howling wind, as singer RM from BTS rapped the first lines from the song Danger.
“You’re in danger! You’re in danger! You’re in danger! YOU’RE IN DANGER!”
“Mira’s comin’, ‘s fine.”
Mira!
At least one of its Hunters wasn’t currently trying to become a popsicle or an overcooked corndog–maybe she could help. The Honmoon zeroed in on her, and whisked itself away.
—
Mira was already on a high-speed rail racing back to Seoul, a bra strap hanging out of her hastily packed bag. Her soul-bond had alerted her to something going on with her girls, and the train had been the fastest option as apparently the airport was closed due to a freak snowstorm.
The train was mostly quiet, with passengers focused on their phones and books to pass the two and a half hour ride. The steady background murmur of conversation and movement was not enough to divert Mira from her growing dread. She needed something to distract her from the pit of anxiety forming in her-
Mira nearly faceplanted out of her seat, barely catching herself as she lurched forward.
“HELP! Not just anybody!”
She pulled herself back into her seat, getting a couple of odd looks from neighboring passengers before they returned to their own, less supernatural distractions.
“HELP! You know I need someone!”
“Yes, thank you, I’m aware there’s a problem and I’m going as fast as I can.” Mira growled under her breath. Having The Beatles blasted into her brain wasn’t helping with her current stress level.
“HELLLLLLP!”
Mira gave the Honmoon a withering side-eye. A man who happened to be standing in that direction caught the look and crumpled under the pressure. She sighed. “Listen, I don't know what's going on, and this isn't really helping. How about you go check in on them and see if you can help them, then come back and try to tell me more specifically what's happening so I can prepare. Okay?”
She felt the Honmoon reluctantly withdraw, and leaned back in her seat. Hopefully the Honmoon would be back in a bit with some good news. She'd accept listening to whatever saccharine pop song the Honmoon dug up for the rest of the train ride if it meant the girls managed to get out of whatever situation was setting off alarm bells in her soul. For now, there was nothing to do but wait.
—
It didn't take long for the Honmoon to reach Rumi and Zoey again, but somehow Rumi already looked worse. She was usually not nearly this sweaty and mumbly. Zoey was still asleep, but Rumi acknowledged the Honmoon with a nod.
It settled down near them, glad it couldn't feel the icy wind.
It tentatively let a song drift to the half-demon shivering in the snow.
“Hello, how are you? It's so typical of me to talk about myself, I'm sorry”
Rumi didn't respond, her eyes glassy and distant.
Okay. That wasn't… ideal. Maybe Adele wasn’t the right pick.
For a long while it just floated there, uncertain what to do next. Mira told it to try to help them and then return to tell Mira what was going on. But how was it supposed to help? It couldn’t physically interact with them, it couldn’t stop the snow or warm the space around them.
It watched Rumi, noting her blank, fixed stare. She must be so bored. Stuck in the snow with nothing to do.
The Honmoon hated being bored.
Maybe a distraction would help her. A game of some kind, perhaps? Surely Rumi would appreciate that.
“Do you wanna build a snowman?”
Rumi slowly lifted her head. The Honmoon was delighted–it's working!
“Come on let's go and play”
Rumi burst into tears.
The song screeched to a halt with the distinct sound of a record being forcibly stopped by someone with no respect for how hard it is to get scratches out of vinyl.
Tears poured down Rumi’s face, nearly steaming off her too-hot cheeks. Fuck, okay, not the reaction it had hoped for. It attempted an ethereal version of patting her on the back, but the tears only got worse.
“Ever’one keeps tellin’ me I haf to coshplay as Elsa but I don' wanna!” Rumi sobbed as the Honmoon tried to soothe its Hunter.
It swirled around, unsettled. What did she want, how could it fix this? Maybe a different song from Frozen? It was just about to key up Let it Go when-
“I wanna be Anna!” Rumi then dissolved into incoherent weeping and rambling. The Honmoon played a few random notes, but Rumi didn't respond, lost again in her fever.
It pulled back, frantically assessing the situation.
The day had been going so well, how had everything gone wrong? It ran through the events of the day, looking for the fatal flaw that had led to this. Everything had been fine when it had left Rumi and Zoey. Visiting Mira had been great. Maybe if it hadn't spent so much time with the kittens…
Yes!
That was why all this happened, because of the kittens. The kittens Celine told them about.
Celine.
Gardening in her tank top, sweat dripping from her muscular arms. The Honmoon’s thoughts stalled.
Meanwhile, at the very edge of her hearing, a feverish Rumi heard something.
A song.
For a brief, shining moment, the heat delirium broke. Rumi whipped her head to face the Honmoon, a trail of blood running from her nose. “NO. Absolutely not. That is not the last thing I think about before having a heat stroke.”
A gust of wind battered the pair, and Rumi’s patterns flared red hot against the snow, heat roiling off her skin.
The Honmoon had a growing concern that Rumi was going to literally ignite.
“Go both'r Mira. Me an’ the sun,” She squeezed Zoey, who was notably not the sun. “‘R doin’ jus’ fine.”
The Honmoon hesitated, reluctant to leave the clearly delusional half-demon and unconscious Zoey alone, but there was little it could do here.
The only one who could help them now was Mira.
It needed to return to her, and figure out how to tell her what was happening while also conveying the gravity of the situation. Rumi’s life was on the line, and the Honmoon couldn’t afford to fumble this.
—
The Honmoon found Mira still on the train, her posture tense enough to cut glass. The handle of her suitcase was never going to fully recover from the white-knuckle grip it had endured for almost 2 hours now. Dark brown eyes flicked to the Honmoon as it arrived. “How are th-”
“She's just a girl and she's on fire, hotter than a fantasy”
Mira's brow furrowed. “Okay, so probably a temperature thing?”
“This girl is on fire”
As Girl On Fire continued to play, Alicia Keys’ soulful voice filling the train car, Mira tried to figure out what this could mean.
She had been looking at the reports about the unexpected, massive blizzard centered directly over Bukhansan park. The very suspiciously unexpected blizzard.
“This girl is on fire!”
Rumi had shot her a quick text that they were headed to the park to look for some disturbance in the Honmoon. There was no way this wasn't related somehow. Which meant they were probably trapped out in the snow.
“She's walkin’ on fire!”
So the ‘fire’ thing probably wasn't a literal fire, unless they'd somehow lost control of a fire they'd set to keep warm. They had to be keeping warm somehow, otherwi-
Oh no.
That fucking self-sacrificing idiot, I'm going to-
“THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE!”
“Yes, I get it!” Mira shouted, startling several nearby passengers. Her face flushed, and she sank down into her seat, letting her coat envelop her.
An older woman with warm eyes leaned over to her. “Are you okay sweetie?”
“This girl is on fire,” the song continued, slightly louder and faster.
Mira smiled, strained, her voice cracking. “Just fine, thanks!” Still looking a bit concerned, the older woman relented and leaned back into her own spot.
Mira checked her phone–still another 45 minutes before they arrived in Seoul.
Girl on Fire started again–for the third time.
Under her breath, she mumbled to the Honmoon. “I am literally begging you not to play that the rest of this ride.”
“She's just a girl and she's on fire”
Mira's face settled into her palms with a groan.
—
“Please Rumi, you have to stop!”
Tears ran down Zoey’s face, leaving quickly cooling trails. The storm had finally abated, but the air was still frigid and they were no less trapped than before. Rumi was completely delirious, heat radiating from her damp skin, her soul flickering like a flame in her chest. She kept mumbling fragments of some old folk tale, and trying to convince Zoey that setting herself on fire was a normal thing that she should totally be doing.
Frustrated, Zoey took Rumi's face in her hands. Yellow eyes shot through with red stared blearily back at her. “Rumi, I love you so much but you are not a flaming space dog or whatever you keep going on about. I need you to stop.”
A distant sound caught her attention, and she let go of Rumi, who face-planted into the snow with a sizzle. Zoey winced. Could help cool her off, at least.
It sounded like… music?
Music approaching fast, blasting like the speakers of an insecure guy with a new car stereo system.
“Is that-”
“THIS GIRL IS ON FIIIIIIIRE!!!”
Solid song, honestly.
Mira appeared out of the darkness, riding on Derpy like a knight in disheveled armor. She was radiant in the moonlight, drawing Zoey to her like a lighthouse, and looking so, so…
Incredibly stressed.
“LOOKS LIKE A GIRL BUT SHE'S A FLAME”
Derpy landed, and Mira hopped off him, immediately grabbing Zoey and looking her up and down. “You good?”
Zoey smiled nervously and shrugged. “Heh, I mean mostly, what's a little frostbite between frien-”
Mira bodily tossed her onto Derpy's back. He turned his enormous head to stare at his new passenger, letting out a curious mrrp.
“HOTTEST OF THE HOTTEST GIRLS SAY”
Mira lifted Rumi up out of the snow by the shoulders, staring at her. “Are you good?”
Rumi grinned, fangs and tusks on display and eyes unfocused. “Moon! I luf you!”
Mira's eyes narrowed. “Yeah, that's about what I expected.” She hefted Rumi over one shoulder, and she promptly vomited down Mira's back.
For a long minute, Mira simply stood there. Eyes defeated, lips drawn tight, a low groan building in her chest.
“THIS GIRL IS ON FIIIIIIRE!”
The groan grew into a growl, finally bursting out. “ENOUGH!” Mira waved her free hand through the air as if trying to slice it apart. “THAT'S IT, I'VE GOT THEM, WE’RE GOOD NOW.” She jabbed a finger into the air near where the Honmoon was currently keeping its consciousness. “I want nothing. Not a peep. I want to drive this tiger home in complete silence or so help me I will invite Gwi-ma back myself.”
The music stopped.
Then, softly.
Despite the exhaustion and concussion, Zoey perked up. “Oh my god, Hearts2Hearts! I love this song! 꽤나 뻔뻔한 attitude, I’m not bad, you can’t make ac-”
Mira screamed, swiping her hand through the air a few more times for good measure, before stomping over to Derpy and tossing Rumi over his back like a sack of rice. A deep purr rumbled through him as Mira climbed on, gripping his fur as he leapt off the ground.
The Honmoon trailed behind them, finally, blessedly silent.
—
A couple of weeks later, things were mostly back to normal. Zoey had completely healed, and Rumi had woken up from her coma not much worse for the wear. Yet another near death experience to add to her chalkboard.
The Honmoon had worried it would get kicked out of the infirmary room just like the bedrooms, but so far it had been allowed to stay as long as the volume stayed reasonable. According to Mira, excessively loud music or anything by Alicia Keys might slow Rumi’s healing, and the Honmoon didn't want to be responsible for that.
The girls were, of course, extra affectionate with each other after such a scare. They'd just woken up, soft morning light streaming in the window, all three of them crammed into Rumi’s extra-wide hospital bed. As of yet they hadn't moved to fully get up, instead holding each other and whispering softly between them.
Gently, quietly, Happy Happy by TWICE filtered into the space.
“I feel happy happy happy, 逢えてよかった”
Rumi smiled. “Yeah, we're happy too, Honmoon.”
“Yeah,” Mira added. “And I'm sorry for snapping at you. I know you were freaked out too, and me yelling at you didn't help.”
The song played a little brighter, the Honmoon shimmering.
Zoey rolled up to sit on the edge of the bed. “Plus we know like, you are still figuring out how to exist like this. And that's okay!” She grinned. “We can all figure it out together.”
Mira and Rumi nodded in agreement, then a knock drew their attention. The door opened slightly, and Celine leaned inside. “Would you girls like any tea?” I'm ma-”
Mira choked back a laugh, clapping a hand over her face to muffle a snort. Zoey turned away, shoulders hunched as her face flushed bright red.
Celine and Rumi’s eyes met, their faces matching masks of despair.
“Them other fuckers don’t know how to act”
Rumi took a steadying breath. “I'd like to go back into the coma now, please.”