(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Jinu make sure everyone knows the rest of his crimes.

-x-X-x-

Jinu can’t help but be a little frustrated, even as his words hang in the air. Obviously, he knew Rumi was compromised where he was concerned. He’d known that from the moment she got her memories back. Sure, the first thing she’d done was slap him… but the next thing she’d done was kiss him! After everything he’d done to her, she still had feelings for him!

But Mira and Zoey? They should have been up in arms at this point. Instead, they were talking about how ‘sick’ he was for getting away with mocking Gwi-Ma. No more. They needed to understand and the time for show and tell was over. He was just going to lay it all on the table.

“No more illusions. Here’s what happened next. Gwi-Ma gave me his approval, so I took the rest of the Saja Boys topside and we held a public concert where we launched our first song. Combined with a bit of demon charm magic, we were rivaling you girls within days and everyone who sung OUR music instead of yours helped us weaken the Honmoon. They were also basically offering up their souls on a silver platter to any demon who wanted to bring them to Gwi-Ma.”

Jinu grimaces but soldiers on before he can be interrupted again.

“You ladies tries to stop us of course, but we lured you into a trap that made it look like you were supporting our new group. That’s where I first found out about Rumi’s patterns by sheer happenstance as well. From there, I spent most of my time trying to manipulate her into telling me her darkest shame so I could use it against her. Eventually, I succeeded and did exactly that.”

Rumi opens her mouth, but Jinu gives her a Look which to his internal surprise, actually keeps her quiet. Mira and Zoey both have frowns now. Good.

“The Rumi of that timeline was trying to get me to side with her. She even offered to let me stay on this side of the Honmoon if I helped her turn it golden. I promised her I would help and then I used her worst insecurities against her to tear her down at the most effective possible moment. It worked all too well and the other version of HUNTR/X broke up the night of the Idol Awards.”

Mira and Zoey’s eyes widen at that, an audible gasp leaving Zoey’s lips. Yeah, Jinu is finally getting through to them here. He’d thought that would hit hard. After all, it would have to be bad for them to break up. And it was bad. It was terrible, what he’d done.

“The only reason we’re all here is because despite everything I did to her, Rumi came back. She came back for you two, she came back for the people of Seoul, and she sang her damn heart out to save everyone. I realized in that moment just how much of a monster I was… so yeah, I stopped Gwi-Ma from killing her at the cost of my own life.”

Jinu stares at Rumi fondly for a moment before marshaling himself.

“… After everything, it was the bare minimum I could do. Simple math, really, given she was going to go on to save everyone else. But it doesn’t absolve me of anything. It doesn’t make up for all the harm I did before that moment. So… yeah. Now you both know the truth.”

For a long moment, silence reigns in the penthouse. Mira and Zoey stare at him, clearly processing everything he’s told them. Rumi, meanwhile, is looking at him like he’s breaking her heart. Jinu doesn’t know why. All he’s done is tell the truth.

“Alright so what’s he leaving out?”

“Yeah Rumi, what’s the rest of it?”

What. Jinu stares, nonplussed, as both Mira and Zoey turn to their leader. Rumi straightens and then perks up, giving him a smug smirk.

“A lot of stuff! Like how he COULD have exposed Future Rumi to you both as a half-demon immediately but didn’t.”

Jinu squawks.

“I was holding that information in reserve to better manipulate and break you down later!”

“There’s also the fact that Future Rumi was using him just as much as he was using her. She’s the one who chose to meet up with him behind her Mira and Zoey’s backs. She’s the one who came up with a plan that frankly feels crazy knowing what we know now.”

Scowling, Jinu can’t help but come to Rumi’s defense. Even if the one he’s defending her from… is herself?

“Her plan wasn’t that crazy!”

Of course, Rumi just raises an eyebrow at him before turning to her girls with a huff.

“Like he said, Future Rumi promised him that he could stay on this side of the Honmoon once we turned it golden. As though that was just going to work. She was clearly desperate, but she was also lying as much to Jinu as she was to herself when she made that promise. It doesn’t surprise me that Jinu didn’t trust her.”

“I did trust her!”

He doesn’t mean to have an outburst, but he can’t help himself. He’s offended by the insinuation that the Other Rumi hadn’t managed to convince him. She had it just… hadn’t stuck.

Of course, suddenly Rumi is looking at him in confusion.

“… What do you mean, Jinu? You didn’t… you betrayed us at the Idol Awards. So clearly you didn’t believe it…”

Cringing, Jinu looks down at his hands. He should just agree with her… but it comes spilling out all the same.

“I did believe it. For a second. After… after the last time we spoke. When Gwi-Ma’s voice went quiet for a moment. I wasn’t lying then. I was telling the truth when I said I would help.”

Even Rumi with all of her future knowledge is staring at him wide eyed now. Jinu swallows hard.

“… But as soon as you left, Gwi-Ma came roaring back and dragged me down to the demon realm. He made sure of my loyalty… and I gave up again. I stopped believing until… until Namsan Tower.”

“O-Oh…”

Jinu huffs, still staring down at his hands.

“Look, sure her plan probably wouldn’t have worked. I know that Rainbow is better than Gold now after seeing it with my own two eyes. But in that moment, I did believe in her. And I chose to betray her… to betray you anyways. I hurt you. You can’t just forgive me for that. I don’t deserve it.”

“Fuck that!”

His head snaps up at Rumi’s hoarse shout. She glares daggers at him, her iridescent patterns roiling across her flesh as she bares her teeth.

“You don’t get to decide what I can and can’t forgive! And even now you’re leaving out an awful lot, aren’t you? You’ve told us all of the bad shit you did, but you’re ignoring the good shit too!”

Jinu furrows his brow and sits back, baffled.

“What? No, I didn’t leave anything out. There was no ‘good shit’.”

“Then what do you call these past few days, huh?! Everything you’ve done since coming back in time! If we have to acknowledge what you did in the other timeline, then YOU have to acknowledge everything you’ve done in this timeline!”

That’s… that’s neither here nor there! All of that can’t possibly count! But Rumi is on a roll now.

“Helping us close Honmoon Tears! Saving Bobby! Fighting Gwi-Ma and his demons every chance you could! You’ve bled for us, Jinu! You’ve bled for humanity! And without you, I would probably still be lying to Mira and Zoey until everything blew up in my face, just like it did to Future Rumi at the Idol Awards. You may have lit the fuse, but I’m the one who provided the bomb!”

Jinu just stares, mouth agape. He doesn’t… she’s not…

“She’s right, you know.”

Mira suddenly cuts in, her tone incredibly dry even as she leans into Rumi’s side. Jinu blinks rapidly, not expecting HER of all people to just be… fine with all of this.

“You fucked up a lot it sounds like. Did a lot of damage. But then you helped save the day. And when you found yourself back in time, what did you do? You didn’t fuck off and hide. You didn’t take the selfish path. You came and helped us figure our shit out.”

Zoey pushes into Rumi’s other side in an equal show of support, even as she nods energetically.

“I seriously need to make you guys all watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Sure, it’s a bit dated, but you fit Angel to a tee, Jinu! He had a bad past too, and sometimes he lost his soul and went evil again, but he never gave up. He never stopped trying to be better! He deserved his shots at redemption, and you do too!”

Mira rolls her eyes at Zoey’s references. Rumi lets out a wet laugh. Jinu just stares. Finally, Rumi looks him right in the eye.

“I have the Rainbow Honmoon now. So if you wanted, you could run away. Leave us all hanging, even. Is that what you’re going to do, Jinu?”

Stiffening, Jinu frowns.

“What? No, I’m not… not unless you don’t want me around anymore. That’s all this was about. Making sure you all could make an informed choice about whether I should stick around you or fuck off. I know you’re compromised when it comes to me, so I just think it should be put to a vote at the very least.”

“I vote you stay!”

“Same.”

Zoey and Mira’s answers come so fast Jinu gets whiplash just looking at them both. But between Zoey’s big wide smile and Mira’s smirk… he can tell they mean it. Which is frankly baffling. Rumi huffs in amusement.

“Heh. There you have it Jinu. You aren’t going anywhere, got it?”

“… Yeah. Got it.”

Before anyone can say anything else, Rumi’s phone suddenly goes off and she’s forced to finally unwind her arms from her girls’ shoulders to pull it out of her pocket and look at it.

“It’s Bobby, they made it back to the city and are on their way from the helipad to the tower.”

Then, she winces.

“Ah… oops.”

Jinu raises an eyebrow while Mira and Zoey lean in to read over Rumi’s shoulders, only to both cringe in unison.

“Oh yeah.”

“Whoops.”

Rumi looks up at him apologetically.

“Sorry, I didn’t think… I told Bobby to move things around so Celine’s apartment was the one directly across from his so that she would always have his help if she needed him. But uh… that was the apartment YOU were staying in.”

Oh, was it? Jinu hadn’t actually noticed, but then to be fair one morning Bobby had come to his door and the next morning Jinu had headed up to the penthouse without even seeing the other man. And it’d only been two mornings.

He just shrugs.

“That’s fine. I can go back to the park if needed.”

“What?! No! You’re not going to be homeless; we have plenty of space in the Tower. Heck, you could stay up here in the penthouse if you wanted!”

There’s a pause as Rumi seems to realize what she’s said and goes bright red. Both Mira and Zoey give her weird looks.

“Uh… there’s only three bedrooms up here in the penthouse, Rumi.”

“I mean, Jinu could borrow mine if he wanted, I could share with Mira for the time being…”

“N-No, no, it’s… I wasn’t thinking. We’ll just have the staff move Jinu’s things from the shopping trip into another guest apartment. There’s plenty of them after all.”

Mira and Zoey share another look at this before ultimately shrugging and dropping it. From there, everything moves rather quickly. The rest of the day is… nice for all that Jinu feels a bit like he’s adrift now. He doesn’t exactly have a point anymore, but for some reason they want him around anyways. So… he stays.

-x-X-x-

Later that night, Jinu lays on his bed in the new apartment he’s been given within the depths of HUNTR/X Tower and just sort of stares at the ceiling. It’s just as nice as the previous one and is actually a few more floors up the tower, though Jinu isn’t sure that really matters.

At least… not until there’s suddenly a familiar tapping at the window. Looking over, he sits up and stares, baffled, at the sight of Rumi once more clinging to the outside of the tower using her sword. The look she gives him makes it obvious she’s not going to be happy if he leaves her hanging so he climbs off the bed and opens the window, helping her insides.

“What’s going on? Why did you sneak down here? You-mmph!”

And then she kisses him again! Seriously?! Jinu tries not to enjoy it too much, but as his hands go to her waist to pull her away, he finds he can’t quite do it for a second. Eventually though, he does come back to his senses and disengages from her.

“Rumi…”

“Shut up. You spent all day doing your best to drive me away and make my girls hate you. So the least you can do is let me have this.”

She doesn’t go for another kiss though, thankfully. Instead she wraps her arms around him and lays her head on his chest, letting out a shuddering breath. Jinu hesitates for just a moment, but standing there awkwardly makes him feel like more of an ass than hugging her back would so…

He wraps his arms around her and just holds her for a moment as the silence drags on. Until finally, Rumi finds her voice.

“The K-Dramas always made the male lead making the ultimate sacrifice sound so damn romantic. But it’s not, you know. It’s not fucking romantic to remember watching you DIE in front of me, Jinu.”

Jinu grimaces.

“Better me than you. Literally, you were the only one who could stop him. I’d gladly do it all over again a million times.”

Of course, that’s decidedly NOT what Rumi wants to hear right now. She pulls back just enough to smack his chest with the bottom of her closed fists while puffing out her cheeks.

“Stop. Being. So. Dumb!”

Jinu just rolls his eyes.

“I can’t believe this is what you’re mad about. You do know I betrayed you, right? I told two random demons your worst insecurities and then had them wear your friends’ faces so they could throw your own words back at you. And you’re angrier that I gave my life for you.”

Rumi pouts before getting a confused look in her eyes.

“Hey, wait… actually if the Saja Boys were constructs, what the hell were those two? How did ‘random demons’ perform Takedown that well?”

Grimacing in remembrance, Jinu chuckles and shakes his head.

“Those two were… the best of the worst. Remember how I said I spent years holding tryouts? Yeah, those two were still trash, but they weren’t completely hopeless. So I kept them in reserve and had them spying on you girls while you were rehearsing Takedown at the arena leading up to the Idol Awards. They were so happy when they got their big moment…”

Of course, their happiness had come at Rumi’s expense. Massively. Jinu keeps waiting for her to hate him for that but instead, she just hums.

“… You wanted me to kill you that night, didn’t you?”

Wait, what? Jinu freezes up, even as Rumi looks up into his eyes.

“The way you let me confront you backstage. You made sure I’d see you with them. You made a whole performance out of snapping your fingers and sending them away so I’d know you controlled them. Then, you just stood there and let me shove you. But you wanted more than that. You wanted me to pull my sword out and cut you down right then and there.”

Like a punch to the gut, all of the air is driven out of Jinu’s lungs by Rumi’s words. Because the truth is… she’s hit the nail right on the head.

“… yes.”

Rumi nods, as if she was expecting as much. Then, she seems to make a decision, because she grabs his hand and starts pulling him back towards the bed.

“Rumi, what-?”

“I’m sleeping here tonight. With you. In this bed. Clothes on, so don’t get yourself all twisted into knots you old man.”

That doesn’t necessarily make it better, does it? And yet, Jinu doesn’t stop Rumi from pulling him onto the bed. He doesn’t stop her from dragging him down beside her, nor does he put up any sort of fight when she wraps him up in her arms again.

They lay there facing each other, iridescent patterns glowing across his face and her neck and arms. Rumi is quiet for a moment before giving him a determined glare.

“You might not believe it yet, but you deserve more than to wallow in your pain and your misery, Jinu. You deserve happiness. Your little sister thought so, and I think so too. So I’m going to prove it to you, no matter how long it takes. Alright?”

He’d tensed up when she parroted his words from backstage at the Idol Awards, but by the time she’s done talking, he’s relaxed again. Chuckling softly at her resolved expression, Jinu slowly nods.

“… Alright.”

-x-X-x-

“Rumi’s not in her room.”

Mira turns to look at Zoey as the younger woman comes to stand in her doorway. Fuck, Zoey looks just as miserable as Mira feels in this moment, laying on her bed staring up at the ceiling. With a sigh, Mira pats the bed beside her. Zoey scurries over, climbing in and cuddling up to her side.

“Probably with Jinu, I imagine.”

Zoey huffs.

“Yeah. Can’t really blame her either. He’s like the ultimate bad boy. Not to mention those stupidly sexy abs. But yeah, he’s all dark, but trying so hard to be good. And she’s our Buffy so it makes a lot of sense she’d fall for the demon version of Angel…”

Mira just snorts, not even bothering to call Zoey out on the dated references at this point. Fuck, she’s even starting to vaguely understand them just by context clues and exposure alone.

For a moment, the two of them are quiet. And then Zoey speaks up.

“Hey Mira… you’re still Bi, right?”

Mira turns her head and stares.

“Uh… yeah Zo, I’m still bisexual. That’s not exactly the kind of thing that you switch off and on. Unless you…?”

“Oh! N-No, I’m still bisexual too. And I guess Rumi has finally proven once and for all that she’s not ace…”

That draws a full blown scoff out of Mira even as Zoey’s words hit her like a blast from the past. It had been late in their training but just before their debut. They’d gotten Rumi, their straight laced fearless leader, to sneak out of the compound and over to Jeju Island’s nearest town with them for once. Once there, they’d bought some alcohol then parkoured their way up onto the tallest roof in the settlement and got pretty buzzed.

It was on that rooftop under the stars where they’d talked to each other about all kinds of things. And it was there that their respective sexualities had come up once they were all appropriately tipsy. For Zoey and Mira, it was simple enough. They were bisexual and had known that long before they even met each other.

Rumi though, was a little harder to figure out. She claimed she was bisexual too, but she was also so prudish it was kind of difficult to understand if she was maybe just asexual and didn’t get it. She denied it again and again, but neither Mira nor Zoey had ever seen her so much as show attraction in a guy or girl before, let alone date. Until now.

“I guess we know why now. She was forced ace by having to keep her patterns secret, not because she didn’t actually feel attraction towards anyone.”

Zoey hums and nods in agreement with Mira’s conjecture. Silence falls between them again. Until finally, they turn to one another and speak at the same time.

“I think I’m jealous of Jinu.”

“I might hate Jinu for stealing Rumi out from under us.”

They both pause and then go wide eyed as they parse each other’s statements. Then, Mira jolts when she parses the final word of Zoey’s sentence in particular.

“Wait… us?”

Zoey squirms and glances towards the door, looking like she might bolt. Before that can happen, Mira grabs her by the arms and pins her to the bed, looming over her.

“Zoey… what do you mean by us?”

Freezing like a rabbit caught in a hunter’s snare, Zoey is absurdly still for a long moment… before she leans up and gives Mira a quick peck on the lips, causing Mira to freeze in turn.

“T-That. That’s what I mean by us…”

Part of her wonders if this is a bad idea, all things considered. But given Rumi is probably in Jinu’s bed right now… Mira leans down and kisses Zoey right back. And it’s not a quick peck this time.

Things… only escalate from there.

-x-X-x-

A/N: That’s right. The first people to have sex in this fic are not Rumi and Jinu… but Mira and Zoey. Those stinkers!

Not to worry, the smut will be going up on its own immediately following this post as a .5 chapter. I’m thinking I’m going to try having the smut chapters be separate from the plot chapters for this story to allow people who want to read just the fade to black part of the story to do so.

Just wanted you guys to have proper notice!

Shoot me a Comment or Like over on the Patreon or drop a message in the Discord if you’re enjoying the story! Knowing you guys are liking this (and also what you’re liking in particular) makes it all the more fun for me!