Chapter Text
When Zoey last saw Rumi last night, they were saying goodnight. She gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek before turning around to go to her own bedroom.
“Aren’t you going to bed?” She asked Mira when she realized she was going the opposite direction after Rumi had already closed her door.
“I will. I just have something to do first.” She pressed a kiss to Zoey’s forehead. “You should go rest though. See you in the morning.”
“Good night.” Zoey disappeared into her room.
Zoey knows people see her as naive, because that’s the truth — at least, to a certain extent.
But that doesn’t mean she’s completely oblivious.
Ever since she first arrived to the hanok at 12 years old, she had the feeling Rumi was hiding something.
One day, she accidentally walked in on Rumi changing as she was just pulling her hoodie up her arms.
And she saw them — the patterns they’ve been fiercely taught to fear.
Rumi looked panicked when she saw Zoey standing at her door.
Zoey shook away her shock and offered her a kind smile.
“Are you feeling okay?” She asked Rumi, pretending she didn’t see a thing.
And Rumi seemed to have believed her act.
“Just fine!” She replied, smiling a little too widely. “Let’s go, Celine is waiting.”
She never told anyone what she saw.
Sure, they were taught that demons are evil and have no soul, but she would rather trust her own experiences than blindly believe what someone told her, and her experiences have taught her that Rumi was good.
Rumi patches her up after particularly rough sparring sessions, comforts her when she’s feeling homesick and protects her when they go out on supervised hunts.
No amount of patterns she might have will change that.
Zoey kept that secret for years, afraid of what might happen if anyone else found out. She wasn’t sure why Rumi was hiding or who else knew about it, but she supposed that if she hid it even from her and Mira, then maybe there was a non-zero chance that someone would hurt her over it.
A demon living amongst hunters. A sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Well, that would be the case if hunters were wolves, which they weren’t, because they were protecting the sheep from being hurt by the actual wolves. So that would make hunters livestock guardian dogs, which would make Rumi a wolf in a guard dog’s clothing, which is a very a disturbing imagery, but then she thinks about a wolf pup being found by a pack of dogs who think that the pup is also a dog and take them home, and now the little pup is scared for their life that their pack will find out they’re actually a wolf and hurt them when they’ve done nothing but protect the sheep with their pack this entire time.
Rumi is a wolf pup. A very tragic wolf pup.
She didn’t want to believe the people who have been taking care of them for years would attempt to do the unthinkable to Rumi, but when the trial was announced, a part of her already expected the worst. Seeing Rumi chained up and muzzled, on her knees in front of everyone proved her suspicions right.
The eldest hunter, Hayeon, announces the beginning of the trial, and Zoey wants to scream at everyone for doing someone so cruel to her friend — she’s not even being treated as a culprit, just as evidence to Celine’s crime.
She swallows back her tears and lightly slaps her own cheeks a few times to help her focus, granting her a few weird looks.
“Celine,” Hayun starts. “The guild has been suspicious about Rumi for years and yesterday someone told us they saw patterns on Rumi’s arms. Is it true that you’ve been hiding this from everyone this entire time?” She inquired, her face unreadable.
“Yes, it is true,” Celine admits, but Zoey doesn’t think she looks very regretful; her posture is as elegant and her face is as neutral as ever. She looks at Hayeon in the eye and doesn’t waver an inch, the only sign that she could be in any distress being her hand occasionally moving to pat Rumi’s head.
On the other hand, the guilt she couldn’t see in Celine’s face was present in Mira’s.
Rumi whimpers as another hunter pulls up the sleeves of her hoodie, revealing demon patterns all over her arms.
There are quiet gasps in the crowd. Most of the others don’t look particularly hostile, some are even looking at Rumi with pity.
“I've known since you were a little girl, Celine,” Hayun analyzes Celine from head to toe. “And I must say, I’ve never thought you of all people would do something like this.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint,” Celine replies, politely bowing her head. “However, I am not sorry for my actions.”
“Really?” Hayun raises a brow impatiently. “How so? The Honmoon could have been destroyed because of your lies. How can you justify that?!”
Celine takes a step in front of Rumi protectively and speaks with her chest puffed.
“Rumi has always been a good kid. She doesn't deserve to pay the price for her mother’s mistake.” She runs her fingers through Rumi’s hair. “My lies gave her a chance to grow up, to prove to everyone she’s not a monster before all of you could have made your own assumptions. And I was the one who made her keep her nature a secret. Whatever punishment you may have in mind should be directed at me and not her.”
So Celine has known this entire time. Zoey had suspected this was the case, but wasn’t sure of it.
“I will decide on your punishment once the demon has been dealt with.” Hayun looks at the hunter who’s the nearest to her. “Minji, do it.”
From beside Zoey, Mira summons her gok-do before anyone else can do anything.
“Are you out of your minds?! You’ve all known Rumi ever since she was a kid! You’re just gonna ignore all of it because of a few lines on her skin?!” She shouts as she takes a few steps until she’s standing in front of Rumi, gok-do protectively blocking the way.
Zoey follows her lead and summons her shin-kal.
“If you wanna hurt her you’ll have to go through us!”
“I appreciate the gesture but this was a very poor decision,” Celine whispers at them, rubbing her temple.
“Don’t worry teacher! We’ve got this,” Zoey whispers back, winking at Celine.
Hayun sighs.
“Will you show Mira and Sohee their way out please?” She turns to two older hunters who grab them by their arms.
Zoey yelps as she feels herself being moved. Maybe they haven’t got this.
She struggles against the older woman’s hold as Mira does the same — if they’re going to be barred from the trial anyway, they might as well give them a hard time while doing so.
“LET THEM GO!”
Everything goes still for a moment as a voice that sounds like the combination of several voices combined shakes the Honmoon.