Archive of Our Own

sight

This hell he's fallen into is anything but sunshine and roses, but in hindsight, Jinu knows it could've been much much worse. The older demon, the one with the very face of a youth, took him under his wing against his own will. It was Jinu who came onto him in that ‘irritating’ way of his, though Jinu would argue that it’s more of him being persistent.

It’s not his fault, Jinu would argue every time. He fell into this hell lost and confused, and so he latched onto the first demon he deemed safe. Or as safe as can be. 

Baby found him to be an utter nuisance. 

He’s the type who would rather be left alone, and left alone Jinu doesn’t do. 

Jinu bothers him at every turn, always joining him at the hip whenever he’s within sight, always asking, always chattering like a bird.

“Why can’t you be like that magpie? See? Quiet.” Baby asks him one day when Jinu invites himself to his walk. The taller man stops, his smile frozen and eyes wide and questioning as he looks at Baby.

There, Baby points at a magpie with a gat on his head….. Wait, that’s the one he made for the familiar Jinu’s taken under his wing, Derpy. 

“Give me that!” Jinu screeches, setting into a sprint as he chases after the bird, forgetting at the moment that demons can fly and teleport, something that Baby hasn’t bothered to tell him. The magpie seems to know of this as well, choosing instead to fly within the demon’s height when she could have easily soared higher. It’s a funny sight.

When Jinu finds him again, it’s with a vengeance. He shares what he learned.

Fun fact: Magpies are bold, noisy as they squawk about. Harsh sounding despite belonging to a group under songbirds.

“So. Exactly like you.” Baby drawls, lounging lazily against a tree. 

Jinu stops again mid-lecture, stupefied.

“Are insults all you do?”

“I’d say it’s the same level of your persistence.”

Jinu gasps, scrunches his nose to show his offense. The older demon simply laughs at him. 

How rude. Aren’t elders supposed to be the bigger person, or something? And yet it feels like he’s just found a baby-faced grandpa to bully him for trying to make (friends) allies.

When Jinu says this to Baby, he chases him off to a cliff. Demons don’t die from tall heights, but it still hurts. His back is sore for an entire week.

Gwi-Ma taunts him over something as miniscule as that too.

His rocky relationship with Baby stays more or less the same. Jinu’s found his footing in the underworld well on his own, but it doesn’t hurt to form allies while he’s under here. So he checks up on people he likes well enough, offers his assistance with reaping souls, puts on the charm he’s carefully crafted during his stay in the palace. It works surprisingly helpful in his years as a demon. 

Having said that, dealing with their so-called king called Gwi-Ma is as irritatingly daunting as ever.

Jinu hates him. He’s greedy, constantly pressing his buttons as he plagues his mind with tragedies he’s lived through over and over. 

The patterns swarming over his skin is ever present, the king’s grating voice seeping into his mind as he walks his way back through the honmoon's tears back to the underworld, but then he looks to his left to find the familiar face he's found company in, a teal-haired reaper, just five inches shorter than him. Button nose, plump limps that are ever so noticeable, standing tall and firm as the demon marks flicker over him too with his own shame, but he barely does much of a flinch compared to Jinu.

"Ignore him. He'll make it hurt, he won't stop with the visions, with the voices, he won't hesitate to punish you as he sees fit. But he won't kill you. You don't have to be scared of him." —is Baby's way of greeting when he strolls by his side.

"How do you know that?"

Baby looks at him, and he's not smiling, but there's a twinkle in his tired eyes that speaks of mischief.

"He won't kill you because that's what you want. And he can't have that."

Ah.

Jinu's reminded that all reapers find their end in a similar action, a last act of defiance in hopes to escape the cruel life they've led, or when the shame of their deal comes over them.

Because not all reapers made a deal with Gwi-Ma, but all of them died by their very own hands. It's the demons, the ones who died of natural and unnatural causes alike, who are far more determined to live compared to the rest of them.

Maybe that explains why Baby is such a prick (pricklier than usual) whenever he's made an audience with the king, constantly goading him on enough that maybe one day he'll snap and burn him to smithereens in that grandeur podium of his like he does with a hundred other demons. And yet he never does.

The realization hits him like ice-water submerging him deep into its waters, a gnawing pit of despair at his stomach. It's an unspoken, open-secret thing, that none of them particularly likes being here, but hearing it out loud makes Jinu squirm. None of them wanted to be here, and they all tried to find an out within their own terms, and look where it got them.

His mouth feels dry, but he tries to find the words anyway.

"Well for what it's worth, I'm glad you're here with me. It…. It helps, even now." Even when Jinu doesn’t need him. 

It feels raw, too vulnerable of a thing to admit, not here, not with everything and nothing they've achieved in this afterlife, but he wants to say it anyway.

Baby doesn't laugh at him or make fun of him like he'd expect he would, doesn't scoff at him or brush him off like how he tends to be in that cold way of his. Instead Baby looks him over, with a lax smile on his face, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

Jinu has to remind himself that he doesn't have his beating heart, not even his own soul, anymore, so it doesn't make sense that whatever thing is on the insides of his chest feels like it's going to burst.

It's illogical, he's seen kisaeng, female entertainers, concubines, princesses, and queens, a dozen other beauties that he's had the privilege to be in the same room with from his days at the palace. And yet somehow, none of them measure up to the demon beside him, clad in simple robes, purple skin and ugly marks that remind him of the demon king.

Baby's quite the looker, and seeing this loosened up version of him does strange things to his stomach in a not-so-bad way.

Baby taps a hand on his shoulder, and it stays a second longer than it usually would, lingering, when he juts his head forward.

“Well if I’m not around, you won’t have a demon to bother.” 

The older reaper walks in the path leading to the house he's made for himself, the complete opposite direction of Jinu's, but he doesn't make a mention of it, and he simply follows.

After all, there's a spare room for him, and it doesn't have his name on it, but it's a close thing.

As they walk, there's an ample amount of space between them, their trudge slows as their hands sway, the knuckles of their talons just the barest millimeter away from touching.

hearing

Jinu can take pain. It's a familiar thing, all throughout his human and after life both. He's taken beatings and whips, felt unbearable hunger, fire in his lungs as it seeps through and over his skin. It flares up like a pounding headache slamming against your skull until you're left with barely a shell of yourself.

…..Jinu can take pain, he only needs some bit of time to collect himself through it.

Within the same breath, he would take those and so much worse compared to the flashbacks of his past life. A recollection of every missed mark, every mistake he's made in his life that led to him in this moment, every memory those very decisions caused, the people he's hurt and those who've hurt him, and he can't take it, he can't take it still without wanting to scream his voice hoarse.

Atleast with pain, he can escape into the very depths of his mind, tap out and disconnect in real time and wait until the hurt is, not gone per say, but not present and consistent anymore. Because his mind is filled with voices, anguished cries of his own, his mother and sister, of nameless voices he may or may not recognize, he doesn't know anymore, and half the time those voices are paired with visions too, and it takes everything in Jinu not to break again.

He's learning to deal with the flare up of patterns better and better, able to trudge through it and not try to tear and rip out his skin from the very feel of it, but the flashbacks, he can't take.

Jinu doesn't even know where he is at this point. All he knows is that it's dark, his eyes unseeing as his mind is stuck elsewhere, covering his ears with both hands. Vaguely, he feels his very own claws drip with red as it digs into his skin.

Tears pool in his eyes, his breathing starts to quicken, taking harsh breaths, mouth parched. All he sees are his shame, a snapshot recollection of every mistake and hardship that he went through, reminding him of his every failure.

"Leave it. Leave them behind."

What.

Jinu looks up, and he sees Baby.

Jinu looks up and he sees.

The reaper standing before him drops into a crouch, laying an arm over his knee as cerulean eyes stare into amber, cold and unyielding, almost like it's staring into his very soul.

That doesn't even make sense. Jinu doesn't have that anymore. Does he?

Nonetheless, Baby looks at him with a strong resolve. Mouth in a firm line, he looks at Jinu like he knows everything, when Jinu knows for sure he knows nothing. They don't talk about their past, neither of them talk about what they see.

"Leave them behind," Baby repeats. "It's all done and gone now. You're on your own. You're free, so act like it."

The words are harsh and clinical, detached and so uncaring that it takes Jinu out for a loop.

Baby's voice is also solid, commanding in its naturally deep tone. It feels like butter, soft and smooth, cooled down.

Hearing that rich voice speak such things is such a whiplash that Jinu's panic is replaced with horrifying shock.

Jinu swallows the lump in his throat, his voice still raspy from hours of screaming himself hoarse maybe, but his offense to what was said to him is greater.

Still rattled, he glares right at Baby.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

He's still gasping for air, but he's present in the moment now. His claws unfasten itself from his bleeding head and down at his sides. He's trying to catch his breath, a slow set of inhales to exhales with all his might.

Baby looks him over, and it's only when he nods to himself that he softens a bit, moving to scoot beside Jinu and lean against the rock behind him. A rock. They're behind a huge rock by one of the cliff's edge.

"No, there's something wrong with you." The reaper says, as if that explains anything. Then, he looks up front at the ground, tapping his tongue continuously, beckoning a finger over.

A compact portal swirls from the ground, and from it comes up a small blue tiger with its wide unfocused yellow eyes, a perpetual grin stuck to his face. From a quick look, the tiny thing looks as joyful as it always does, but upon a closer look, his fur is raised, paws spread out wide from stress.

Oh. He scared Derpy.

Derpy walks over to Jinu, rolling its back as Baby's hand glides over their body in a quick pet as he strolls to its owner. Jinu moves his position to catch him in his lap, cradling his head while he hugs him, towering over and closing them in.

"You scared your stupid cat."

Jinu's eye twitches.

"It's a tiger, and Derpy's not stupid."

Baby chuckles, low and deep, short as it is. Jinu hates that his voice sounds comforting as much as the words he speaks are irritating.

"Don't give your pets stupid names then. Speaking of.." On cue, the magpie that's always with the tiger finds its way on the top of Jinu's head.

"These little guys came to get me, but I bet Susie was the brains of the operation."

Jinu glowers at that, further offended at the jab on Derpy's intelligence. He's about to snipe back when the magpie flies over to Derpy, and steals his hat.

"Stop stealing Derpy's hat!"

Jinu takes the gat back from Susie's head and places it back on Derpy's. Baby laughs. The older demon takes Jinu's own human-sized gat from the ground and puts it over Jinu's head and face, covering his vision.

"You look dumb as hell when you cry."

Jinu squawks, ripping the gat off his face, glowering at Baby with bloodshot eyes.

The older reaper looks far from guilty. Instead he lazily bumps his shoulder against Jinu's, pausing just a bit as he thinks it over, then fully pushing him off that Jinu hits the ground, Derpy safe in his arms, similar to that of a cat pushing books and cups off the table to gain your attention.

Impossible. Jinu realizes that he's stuck clinging onto an impossibly immature demon, and finds to his dawning horror that it isn't all that bad, all things considered. 

Baby's voice is unfair in every which way, there's just something about how his voice goes gravelly deep, dry as he is with his words, but Jinu's learned to spot the earnestness that drips with each syllable as much as he tries to hide it. His voice helps with pulling him back down to earth when the shame is over-flooding what's left of his sense of sanity, keeping Jinu calm when the world and his mind is much too loud.

Later on, Jinu finds unconventional ways to get Baby to speak more, from nothing to everything. He takes scrolls and books from the human world and ask the reaper how to pronounce this word and that, until eventually he's reading a whole line, stanza, paragraphs upon paragraphs, before eventually Baby catches on that he's been 'tricked' to reading for him and promptly throwing the book at Jinu's head.

taste and smell

Baby doesn't treat him nor spoil him. In fact it's far from that. As old as he is (to this day he refuses to share exactly how many centuries old he is, mostly just so he can make fun of Jinu for it), he matches Jinu in terms of childishness. Half the time, Jinu finds himself looking after the older demon himself.

They've come to take after each other, trade arguments and spats on the daily like it's a supposed part of their routine at this point.

But Baby's attentive, always paying attention to his surroundings especially when they're up and above, gets crossed and peevish towards him and the other reapers outside of their small group.

Time passes and so on, and the souls they gather dwindle more and more.

At this point, it's safer to visit the human realm and avoid taking souls at all. The Sunlight Sisters have a terrifying sense of work ethic. They make use of any and all forms of media they can in the modern world to broaden their reach as technology continues to advance, their songs always playing on the radio to background music in stores.

Gwi-Ma continues to become more desperate than ever as he manically sends in hoards of demons attack this generation's hunters with barely a strategy to it whatsoever, and Jinu…… goes to visit a bakery-cafe with Baby, opting out of the purple skin and patterns and shifting back to fair, light skin, talons and claws in as they play human.

Of course, Gwi-Ma doesn't approve. The king's been roaring in his ears full blast the moment he's entered the cafe. Although it seems the king is much too rattled to fully focus on him at the moment though, not when there's a set of hunters to focus on with their concert day.

"Let me get this straight: The hunters are on 'tour,' and you want to….. buy a milkshake?"

"It sounds childish when you put it like that."

"Jinu, it sounds dumb as hell no matter how I put it."

"I'm not the one collecting trinkets and keychains as tokens of the human world." When he says this, Baby turns away, hiding the keychain, hanging by the loop of his pants, a petulant pout set on his face. His ears are red too. He got that one when he thought Jinu wasn’t looking.

Having said that, Baby doesn’t make a move to leave the table they’re sitting on anyway. Instead he lets his eyes roam about, taking in every flash of color of the decor and smell of the freshly baked goods. It doesn’t escape Jinu’s notice that he’s ready to bolt, careful, always careful of crossing paths with the hunters.

The wait is too long, but it’s well-worth it when a plate of blueberry cheesecake is put in front of them, a chocolate milkshake for Jinu, a caramel-flavoured vanilla milkshake for Baby.

Jinu takes the drink without a second thought. He doesn’t think of himself as someone with a sweet tooth, but he also never had the privilege to develop a taste for anything in his human days. It feels like each sip is a burst of happiness popping down his tongue with an array of flavours, and he lights up as he continues to drink.

Baby looks at him with careful scrutiny for a long while, dubious at the milkshake and cake laid in front of him like it’ll grow a set of eyes and mouth to swallow him whole instead.

He looks at Jinu, then back at the sweets, then finally reaching a hand out for the drink and takes a slow, careful, sip.

Jinu wishes he made the effort to purchase a camera, because the way Baby perks up is priceless. Those huge round eyes somehow widen even more, those shiny blues seeming to take a glow, a hint of pink creeping up on his cheeks, jaw dropped in awe. Baby's eyes flutter to a close as both hands grip at the drink, and if Jinu looks under the table, he’d see his feet swaying back and forth airily.

His heart swells up with pride. He’d say I told you so if only it won’t ruin the moment. 

Getting brave, Jinu stabs a fork onto a slice of the blueberry cheesecake, bringing it up to Baby’s lips.

He doesn’t dare to breathe when Baby opens his eyes, eyeing at the cake as he takes a sniff before opening his mouth to take a bite. 

Jinu would like to argue that he is not seeing things, and that those are definitely stars shining in the demon’s eyes. At this moment, he truly looks like any other human, just living in the moment. 

His awe is mildly interrupted when Baby makes a noise, pouting, staring right at him as if he’s waiting for… something.

Ah.

Jinu pulls the fork back to take another slice for Baby to eat. This time he takes his time munching on the cake, and Jinu can’t even be annoyed at the fact that this is supposed to be his cake in the first place. 

……Within the same breath, Jinu takes a slice of his own using the same fork, the same one that’s been in Baby’s mouth. Vaguely, he wonders if Baby's mouth would taste as sweet as the cake. No, it’d probably be sweeter. His mouth sets into a grin. 

The rest of their time at the cafe is spent in silence, just them in their own world with their shakes and cake as Jinu continues to feed the rest of them to Baby. He’s probably had a total of two bites, but he feels full anyway. 

It’s Baby who breaks the silence, looking for once like he’s actually happy rather than his disinterested self.

“I haven’t eaten anything like that in so long.” Baby takes the menu, flips over to pages he didn’t care to check before, eyes practically bulging right out of its sockets at every scan. “‘You think they got anything spicy?”

Jinu smiles.

touch

“Is this really necessary?” Baby drawls out, but he lays his hand out for Jinu to take anyway. The older demon looks at his other hand, examining Jinu’s handiwork on his nails. It’s messy and all over the place as icy mint manicure spills over to his skin, at some nails, Jinu had to redo because he keeps messing it up….. It looks bad.

“It looks like shit.”

Jinu visibly droops, though that hardly bothers the other reaper. Never one to mince words. This bastard. 

“Rude. That’s no way to talk to your hyung.”

As predicted, Baby grabs at the nearest blunt object, this time a pink nail polish, to throw at Jinu's head. This one's expected and very easy to dodge. He continues with the manicure. He'll reprimand Baby for the shattered nail polish on the floor later. As if the reaper would feel any guilt about it.

"Ha ha. You're eating this shit up. You're giving me the maknae role just to piss me off, aren't you?"

"Not at all. While you're older than most of us, you have the cutest face. You're also pretty good at playing up an act. So by industry's standards, you're perfect for it."

Baby doesn't look impressed at the admission, he won't even comment on him being called cute either.

"You're depriving Abby of the maknae role, and you know it."

"Oh trust me, Abby's going to have a blast being the visual."

Baby clicks his tongue at him, but says nothing more. It was easy enough to recruit Baby into the idol plan, harder and longer to get him to agree to being the group maknae.

It took him years to perfect this craft. Over time, he's taken to notice at what the hunters have been doing when they aren't busy fighting against demons. He's watched over and learned the evolution of modern K-pop culture, music and genre, how a fanbase is lured in and maintained, all the way down to a band's respective role, from attitude to fashion and looks. Admittedly….. it was rather difficult to follow along, especially with the digital age. Trends and styles seem to come and ago all too soon. If Jinu so much as blinks, another generation is seemingly on the way.

This is what he said to Baby as part of his convincing, but he was easily ignored for it. There was one effective way, and it was annoying the hell out of the older demon until he gives.

It's all well and worth it, but.

Jinu lets out a sigh.

He should've expected Baby to be complaining at every step of the way. It has its own sets of ups and downs, especially with the way the older demon seems to grasps K-Pop culture much quicker than he does, eager as he is to collaborate and offer his help with creating lyrics to some of the songs Jinu's been working on for a full album.

And now they're just a few days away from their debut. Everything seems to be in order. All that's left is execution and…. their nails.

Jinu frowns at the color of mint spilling into the crevice between Baby's nail and skin, the nails itself smudged and overlayered with his many attempts. The splashes of black that he hopes look liked checkered tiles looks more like chicken scratch scrawls.

Baby's lips curl into a grin.

"Gonna give up?"

Jinu's stare hardens. He draws in Baby's hand, taking the acetone to start over.

"No. Not yet."

A sound of a laugh, dark and rich, the one that does strange things to Jinu, coursing through the air and directing straight to his stomach in flutters.

……..So what if he's shit at doing nails? He was busy!

They set into an easy silence, with Baby scrolling mindlessly at his acquired phone, focusing the pads of his fingers onto the handheld device to prevent his polished nails being messed with.

Jinu has a small smile on his face.

"What the hell are you smiling about?"

"Nothing, hyung."

"Don't do that." Baby scrunches his eyes at him, cringing. "You haven't called me that in a long time."

"Hm," Jinu turns over Baby's hand, letting his thumb brush to and fro over the digit of his fingers. It's entirely unnecessary, but Baby doesn't complain since it's soothing.

"I'm just testing it out for the last time. Better get used to calling me the 'hyung' instead then."

Baby blows up a breath at him, showing exactly just how he feels by giving him the middle finger. And at that Jinu juts his tongue out at him.

They argue back and forth, until finally their manicure session turns into an easy silence. It's always one or the other with the both of them.

When he's finally done, Jinu purses his lips at his work, disappointed himself.

"…..Maybe I should have Ro do the nails." Last time he checked, Romance has been looking up tutorials and has been merrily using Mystery as a lab rat. Jinu's lucky to be able to get one of the many shades of pink, and one mint blue colored nail polish.

Baby lifts up his hand, looking up at it against the light as he openly judges with his entire expression. If it were anyone else, maybe Abby or Mystery, they would have tried to be nice about it, consoling. But unfortunately this is Baby.

"You should have."

His words are uncaring and straight to the point, but even so, Jinu's hand is still placed over his, warm and so achingly human like to the touch. Baby doesn't make an effort to move away or stand up.

Demons usually run either too hot and too cold, and Baby's always complained about how frosty he feels all over in the decades to hundreds of years he's known him. And yet somehow, at this moment, he's fire to the touch. A quiet flame beneath the snowstorm.

Quietly, Jinu wonders if the rest of Baby's skin burns just as much, or if it's just him projecting.

Jinu swallows the lump in his throat, playing with the puff of cotton between his fingers.

"Let me try again."

Baby looks at him with nothing but contempt, but again, he offers his other hand for an nth redo.

Jinu's mind is eerily silent in these sorts of intervals. He's been noticing that lately. Whether it's because of Baby or the Saja Boys plan in action, he can't say for certain.

+1

Anxiety drips into his lungs. It feels as if he's made hollow, feeling nothing and everything all at once. White noise consumes his very mind, dripping with darkness as it devours him inside out.

This is far from the best time to have a breakdown himself. Not now, not when Jinu's still on his lap, sobbing as patterns flicker through fair skin over and over, every flinch prominent as his memory washes over him in waves.

Baby's not the best when it comes to comforting someone. He never knows the right words to say or the right thing to do, especially for someone as crass as he is. He likes to make up for it with snapping someone out simply by being his usual indifferent self. It's worked like a charm a few times, but not now.

There's nothing Baby can do. No amount of insults or distractions like his usual ones before can pull anyone out of an episode this bad.

There's no other way out of it but to go through it.

When the sobs subside, the other reaper goes silent, soft, manual breaths being the only indication that Jinu is still awake.

Baby lets the quiet go on for a while longer, but there's a selfish part of him that wants answers too.

"Jinu." Baby speaks into the air.

Right on call, Jinu shifts in his position a bit, adjusting so that bloodshot eyes look at him silently.

"Do you really believe her? How you and us demons can be free with that proposition of hers?"

Gwi-Ma clearly doesn't think it's possible, but of course he doesn't. He controls his subjects through their fear and shame. No weakness to be exposed. Whether it's true or false, it doesn't matter.

But for just a moment, Baby likes to believe. If he closes his eyes he can see it perfectly. The Saja Boys can let themselves lose and stay on this side of the realm as the honmoon turns gold, and their patterns could fade along with their shame, and they never have to see Gwi-Ma again, maybe.

It's too good to be true.

Baby keeps his eyes open, batting away at the fairy tale that will never happen.

He finds himself speaking again, answering for Jinu.

"You don't. You don't believe it even if you want to."

A single tear spills through the corner of Jinu's eye. He takes a shuddering breath before he talks.

"When—when I sang with her, it was gone. It was all gone. My shame, my regrets and weaknesses, those voices in my ears. I couldn't hear any of it anymore. Not even when I know for sure that he was trying to reach me."

Jinu moves some more, this time he hides his face into Baby's lap, hiding his face before he mutters his embarrassment.

"For a moment— in that moment in time, I really thought I could be free for good."

Jinu doesn't say anything more, and Baby sits with that, trying to control his own breathing as whispers continue to bother him, more prominent now as a shadow. It doesn't go away.

"Let's do it then."

A confused noise makes it way.

"What?"

"Let's do it. Let the hunters win and turn the honmoon gold, see where it will take us. We're already in hell, and we can barely die. How much worse could it get?" Here, Baby smiles with his teeth, conniving and arrogant as he likes to be seen. But this time it's all bark and no bite.

He doesn't believe it, not an ounce. But in his eyes there's nothing to lose and nothing to gain. He'll follow where Jinu's heart leads. That's where he prefers to be anyways. Whether or not he gets to keep it.

Baby looks down at the demon, caressing his head every so delicately as he speaks.

"Give me a cue, and I'll follow you. Whatever you want to do, I'm right behind you."

At this, Jinu gets off of him, wiping his face while he mulls over what he's said.

It's a bit awkward, they don't talk much their raw, honest feelings, not the real subject of the matter. It gets tiring to do so, especially when your regrets and shame are laid in front of a podium for all to witness. It's why nothing's ever happened between them. Even from then and now, it's too fragile to risk anything.

Demons don't get to be happy.

"You're only saying that to make me feel better."

"I am."

That gets a laugh out of him.

From this position, Baby only realizes now that they're a breathswidth apart. Even at his lowest, there's still a certain beauty to Jinu that never fails to take Baby's attention, from the way soft amber eyes seem to suck him in, the smell of his scent still reminiscent of the hot springs to a demon with a keen nose, it urges Baby to pry closer, to find out if his expanse of his skin is rough or soft to the touch, if his lips tastes as irritatingly sweet as he naturally is, that if Baby just decided to lean forward just a bit—

Then, Jinu's expression breaks, looking at Baby with the saddest eyes he's ever seen on a man. Fear draws across his face as purple patterns flicker on with a flinch.

Jinu looks away.

"I… I think we should go with the original plan. There's no guarantee that we'll be safe up there even with the honmoon being gold. It's not worth a risk."

If Baby was less tired, he would argue some more.

If Baby hasn't been through this himself a thousand times before, he'd protest more. He'd lose his shit and finally chase something he wants.

But he's a realist and much too detached. He knows damn well that either direction would still end badly. They will never escape Gwi-Ma.

Atleast this way, he gets to ensure Jinu's safety.

"Whatever you say, hyung."