Chapter Text
*
Buttons were silly things. They were so stubborn. Always refusing to go in their holes. Maybe they were scared, and needed encouragement too.
“You can do it,” Rumi whispered, echoing what Celine had told her about doing up shirts.
The last button squeezed through the gap, and Rumi ran to her desk to grab her hairbrush. Her little hand brought the brush to her head in clumsy strokes, catching the bristles in the long purple strands.
“Rumi!” Celine’s voice came from the hallway. “You’re going to be late for school.” She popped her head through the open door and sighed. “Here, stand still.”
Celine smoothed Rumi’s collar, and straightened the rolled hem of her sleeve. Her fingers lingered beneath the fabric. “That’s a nasty bruise. How did you get that?”
Rumi looked down at the dark purple splodge on her arm. It had been there a while, but it wasn’t that big before. “I don’t know.”
Celine smiled at her and gave her an affectionate tap on the nose. “Clumsy girl. Your mother bruised easily too.”
She took the brush out of Rumi’s hand and with only a few, quick passes, rid her hair of tangles. Her deft fingers wove it into a braid with swift ease.
“I don’t want to go to school,” Rumi whined as Celine slid glitter snaps into her hair.
“You love school.”
“Not on Tuesdays. We have to talk in front of everyone and it makes me sad.”
“Everyone gets scared of public speaking, but you need to build your confidence so you can grow up to be successful.”
“Like you and my mum?” Rumi looked up at her. Celine was so tall.
She smiled. “Yes.”
Rumi wanted to be tall and pretty and sing for people too. That’s what she was going to be when she grew up. That or a bus driver. Or an octopus.
*
It wasn’t her fault. He started it. He was an awful boy and the teachers never did anything when Rumi told them he and the other boys were being mean to her. She’d been near the monkey bars, watching the older girls be daring. They were so amazing. She couldn’t even reach the bars yet.
That was when one of the boys told her off for being in the way of their game. And that her hair was stupid. Which they said to most of the girls, usually right before they stole their cute clips and scrunchies right out of it. She didn’t understand what their problem with narwhales, frills, and pompoms was, but boys were immature like that.
They were also very annoying. So she told them so. That it was in fact them who had the stupid, boring hair and that the playground was for everyone. They didn’t like that much.
One of them picked up a piece of gravel and threw it at her. The rest liked that idea and bent to collect sticks and whatever they could find to lob at her. So she ran. But they chased her. She was a fast runner, the fastest of all the girls in her class. But then her foot slipped in the lose dirt and she stumbled. It let the quickest of them catch up and that awful Hyun-woo grabbed her braid. He yanked it hard and she had to stop. Only Rumi didn’t stop. She spun around and swiped at him with her nails, dragging them across his cheek. Her body moved on its own. He’d hurt her. And he was going to pay for it. Teeth bared, she lunged at him, knocking him to the ground. She followed him down, pinning him in the dirt. An arm swung at her to fight her off, so she snatched it and sank her teeth deep into its flesh. He wailed and thrashed. She kept biting.
Until someone hauled her off and marched her to the office. And now the adults were all angry with her and not listening. Didn’t they see that this was his doing?
Rumi sank deeper into her plastic chair, feeling ashamed and still seething with the unfairness of it all.
At last, Celine burst through the door. It was as bad as she imagined. Her guardian’s face was like stone, eyebrows heavy over her narrowed eyes. She stopped in front of Rumi and bent over.
“What happened, Rumi?”
“He started it. I told you he’s mean to us. He always pulls our hair.”
“Rumi.”
“He threw rocks at me!”
Her lips formed a firm line and she put her hand across Rumi’s back to guide her up. She kept it there as they walked around the corner where Hyun-woo was sitting, still being seen to by a teacher.
Coddled, more like it.
His face had a triplet of red lines and his arm bore angry marks from her nails. It was the bites the teacher was dabbing at with antiseptic. Crescents of dark indents, half of them sporting a gap from her missing front tooth.
Rumi glared at him as they passed, but he was busy crying.
Wuss.
Once they were outside Celine took her hand, firmly. “I want you to be able to defend yourself. I do. There are bad things in our world, Rumi. We know that more than anyone.” She sighed. “But you took it too far.”
Rumi hung her head in shame. “But he hurt me. It made me sad.”
“You can’t bite people. It’s not socially acceptable.”
They walked the short distance to the subway station in silence. Rumi held tightly to Celine’s hand and watched her feet carefully as she went down the steps. It wasn’t so busy in the middle of the day. There were even free seats so they didn’t have to stand. Celine’s work was in a building on the other side of Seoul. Her job was to make new K-pop idols. Well, she said it was a bunch of other complicated stuff, but that was the only bit Rumi understood or cared about.
Her favourite thing was when Celine took her to the studios. She’d sit quietly in the corner with her colouring book and cute plastic animals, happily watching the rehearsals. Sometimes her toys formed their own girl group and danced along. She didn’t have any toys today.
“I need you to be quiet.” Celine told her as they walked down the hallway. “We’re getting ready to debut a new girl group.”
Rumi squealed. “Are they hunters?”
“No, they’re just normal girls. It will be a few more years before new hunters arise.”
Rumi hung back as Celine greeted people in the studio and apologised for her absence. She gave them all a shy bow and went to her spot in the corner. It was horribly boring until the girls came in for rehearsal. When they spotted Rumi, their faces lit up and they rushed to greet her with excitement.
“Ah, Rumi-ya!” Yuri waved both hands.
She also recognised Nari, but wasn’t sure if she’d met the other three members.
Celine stepped in before Yuri could get to her. “Don’t talk to her, girls. She’s in trouble for fighting at school.”
“Oh, really? She’s a warrior. I wish I was that bold when I was young.”
Rumi giggled. The older girls were so cool. They could sing in such a pretty way and their dances looked fun. They always greeted her with smiles, and sometimes she even got to dance with them once they were finished. It made her feel so happy when they were nice to her. If she tried hard enough, she could imagine they really were her big sisters. She couldn’t wait to be beautiful and talented, and surrounded by friends! It must be so much fun.
*
As soon as Celine opened the door to the apartment, Rumi charged inside. She readied her stance and kicked at an invisible intruder. A whole family of giant wizard moles could have broken in while they were out. Rumi would get them though.
Celine closed the door behind them and set down her bag. “Did you use martial arts moves when you fought that boy?”
Rumi wriggled, eager to get out of her taekwondo uniform. “Nope.”
“You just went with instinct?”
“Yeah.”
Celine sighed and turned on the hot water heater. “Go wash up.”
Rumi ran to her room, already stripping off her belt. She flung her uniform on the floor and skipped naked to the bathroom. She quickly showered and was half way back to her room when Celine called out.
“Did you move the pin back?”
Rumi raced to switch the water back to the faucet before Celine could find out she forgot again. She hated getting a surprise attack from the shower.
Once she was back in her room, Rumi shimmied into her comfy pyjamas. She hummed the lyrics of the new group’s debut song and danced for the toys on her bed. She loved singing. Especially K-Pop because it was so cheerful, and she’d been involved in it her whole life. It felt like home.
Celine poked her head into the room. “You like the song?”
Rumi spun around, grinning at her. “Yes!”
A frown crept across Celine’s face. “Have you still got that bruise?” She came over and grasped Rumi’s arm. Her fingers traced the mark, her face twisting. “No,” she mumbled rubbing at the skin. “Oh, no. I know what this is. Shit.” She tore herself away from Rumi, one hand over her mouth, the other dragging through her hair. “Fuck.” She hurried out of the room. “Fu-uck. You stupid bitch, Mi-yeong!”
The sound of something ceramic breaking came from the living area. Rumi crept to the doorway to peer out, but she couldn’t see Celine. Something glass smashed against the kitchen cupboards, followed by something rectangular that made a dull thud. Rumi knew what that was. The photo frame from the bookshelf, the one that held a picture of the Sunlight Sisters.
Rumi backed away, all the way to the far side of her bed, where she could crouch behind it against the wall. Celine was crying now, and mumbling things. She was making a lot of noise. The neighbours would be angry. She always told Rumi she needed to be quiet in the apartment.
Her arm reached onto the bed to grab her pink fox plushie. She hugged it and buried her face in her knees. Why was Celine so upset about the bruise? Had she done something wrong?
She lifted her head to look at the mark. It reached further across her arm than before and it wasn’t a straight line anymore. Now it bent at an angle.
Rumi sat there for a long time. Long after Celine went quiet. And much later than when she first decided she should go check on her. Eventually, her cramped feet and boredom made her stand up and tip-toe the few metres to peek around the corner, her fox still held tightly to her chest. Her guardian was sitting on the floor, arms crossed over her knees, staring out the window.
“Celine?”
The woman flinched and turned her head to look at her. She scrambled to her feet, swiping at her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Rumi stepped into the room but went no further. “Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry.”
Celine’s eyes met hers briefly, before finding the floor. “No, Rumi.”
“Are you mad at my mum?”
She let out a breath. “No, I’m not angry at your mother. Or you. This is…it’s complicated. Let’s go to bed. It’s late.”
“But we haven’t had dinner.”
Celine raked a hand through her hair. She walked into the kitchen and took an apple from the bowl. “Here. Just go to bed, please.”
Apple in hand, Rumi slunk back to her room and closed the door. She buried herself under the covers with several of her toys in her arms.
*
Gravel crunched beneath the wheels of the taxi as it pulled into the driveway. Celine paid the driver and ushered Rumi to get out. The driver hurried to fetch their cases from the boot, before he bid them goodbye and drove away. Rumi turned around to take in the huge entrance to the property. They usually only went to Jeju during holidays. It wasn’t a holiday, which meant Rumi would miss school.
Rumi tried to drag her suitcase, but the wheels got stuck in the gravel. Celine unlocked the big gate, then came over to lift Rumi’s case, placing it inside the gate with hers so she could close it again. Rumi usually ran to the house when she got here, but that might make Celine mad today. There was tension in her that warned not to misbehave.
Rumi left her shoes by the step and waited patiently for Celine to open the door to the house. Once inside, she took her suitcase to the room she usually slept in. Celine was already in the kitchen, making tea, when she came out.
“May I please go play outside?” Rumi asked.
“Celine briefly looked her way. “Of course you can.”
The hunters’ training grounds were huge. She wasn’t allowed go as far as the forest by herself, or the cemetery. But she could run around the orchard and overgrown field. She just had to watch for snakes.
It was only a couple of hours later that she heard another car. Rumi stopped poking at the mouldy tangerine she’d found and threw the stick aside. She snuck quietly through the trees until she could see the small blue vehicle that had just pulled into the shed. It was old, the paint faded, and the doors made a loud thunk when they closed. Its occupants were already walking towards the house.
They were home.
Rumi ran down the hill through the swaying wild grass, her feet nimble and light, hair beating rhythmically against her back. She pulled up just short of the training room, slapping both hands on the wall like she did at school.
“I win!”
Her laugh was short, dampened by what was coming. Rumi chewed on her index finger as she crept around the corner of the building and across the courtyard, past the stone fish pond which had been empty for as long as she could remember. She didn’t want to go in. They were scary.
Rumi left her shoes by the step and slid the door open. The adults were in the living area, sitting around a traditional table. They stopped talking when she came in. Celine got up and walked towards her.
“Rumi, you remember my mentors?” She gestured to the two older ladies who were staring at her with disdain.
She nodded and gave the retired hunters a bow. She tried to smile at them in a friendly way, but their faces didn’t change from their aged, stern expressions.
“Let’s not waste any time. Come here, child.” Hye-jeong got to her feet and Rumi hurried over to her.
Celine came up behind Rumi and lifted her right sleeve. Hye-jeong seized her arm, squeezing it tightly while she bent to inspect her bruise.
“How long’s it been there?” she asked Celine.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s been there for ages. You just didn’t notice,” Rumi said with a giggle.
Yoon-hee’s soft, weathered fingers touched Rumi’s skin. “I told you years ago I could see shadows on that arm.”
“I thought it was a birthmark.”
Hye-jeong sneered. “It’s a pattern.”
“I know what it is,” Celine hissed.
Rumi gasped. “You wanna see a cool magic trick?”
The adults stared at her. Rumi ignored them and ran to the freezer. She scooped out a handful of ice cubes and held them to her arm. “One day when it was really hot, before I ate my ice block, I held it up to my face and arms because it was nice and cold and it did this cool thing. Look!”
She took the hand cupping the ice away from her arm to show them. All her skin had gone pale from the ice, except for a few pink zigzags next to her bruise. It lasted only a moment, before the skin flushed and hid them again.
Celine’s hands formed fists by her sides. Hye-jeong looked at Yoon-hee and shook her head. The smile fell from Rumi’s face. The adults did not like her magic trick.
Hye-jeong turned away and walked a lap around the kitchen island. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Did you know, Celine? From the beginning?”
Celine paced restlessly in front of her. “She told me the baby might not be his. And I, like a fool, believed her.”
“Celine!” Hye-jeong slammed her hand on the bench. “Do you know what you’ve done? What risk you’ve put us at?”
“Why wouldn’t I trust her?”
“Because of the circumstances!”
“You should have told us,” Yoon-hee said quietly.
“I thought it could be okay. She seemed normal, and so much like her mother. I even thought maybe she could be…like us. I see the honmoon quiver when she sings.”
One of the melting ice cubes slipped from Rumi’s hand. They were talking about her.
Celine beckoned to her. “Sing something for us.”
Rumi stuffed what was left of the ice into her pocket and came over to them. She scrunched her wet hands in the skirt of her dress and sang a few lines from a song she’d learnt at school about the moon.
Hye-jeong turned to Celine. “Your denial knows no bounds apparently. I see a single thread straining, like it wants to get away from her. That’s not what the honmoon looks like when it resonates with someone. You’ll see it one day.”
Yoon-hee shook her head. “I don’t know what it’s doing. But I’d think it would light up more, even at her age. It could be that it recognises her mother, but also wants to avoid her because…” She glanced at Rumi. “You should leave us now.”
Rumi exited the hanok, but she didn’t go play. She was clever and knew they were talking about important things. She pretended to wander off, then as quietly as she could she circled around the back of the house. The walls were old and easy to hear through.
*
Why can’t it have just been okay? Why can’t she have just been a normal, human child? Then the past could have stayed where it was. Buried, hidden shamefully where Celine could try to forget it. She missed Mi-yeong every day. The pain of losing her, and the rawness of her betrayal never got easier. But neither did the seething resentment for what she’d left Celine to deal with. All alone. She was the one still here, trying to do the right thing. When it just felt like punishment. She never wanted children. Never wanted…this.
“Did you tell Soon-ja?” Celine asked.
“Of course we didn’t,” Hye-jeong hissed. “She is old and frail. If we told her something like this it could end her. She doesn’t need to be upset like that. She earned her peace. I thought we had too.”
Celine was relieved in a way. The scorn was enough coming from her own mentors without adding one from the previous generation as well. And all for other people’s mistakes. She didn’t know whether to scream, cry, or laugh.
“Your generation really made a mess of things. Maybe we should take over training the next trio. Then again, we trained you and look how you turned out. You should have killed that thing the moment you saw it.”
Celine’s head shot up, eyes wide. “She’s half human! She’s Mi-yeong’s.”
“It’s also half demon, who went feral and mauled another child.”
“It was self-defence.”
Hye-jeong wandered over to sit on the couch. “How many times in your life has someone provoked you? There’s a right way to respond. Reputation is everything. It reflects on the company, on our current idols, on future hunters. The media is always watching.”
Celine’s stared out the window, at the grass and overcast sky, the same one they’d trained beneath as teenagers. She took a seat across from her former mentor, her throat feeling like it was going to close over. “I promised her.”
It had seemed like such a simple request at the time; “Look after Rumi.” This perfect, normal, little bundle of chubby limbs and sweet smiles. Not the harbinger of misfortune she was now ladened with.
“The honmoon, the fate of the world, is at stake. It’s bigger than the promises of failed hunters. You’re the only one here if you hadn’t noticed. Where’s your third member?”
“Don’t talk about her,” Celine snapped.
Hye-jeong waved her hand at her. “You will listen to us if you want our help to train the next girls. And you’ll need it seeing as you’re without your demon fucker and drunken headcase.”
Celine glared at her with venom, holding herself back from saying anything. Her hands sat balled on her thighs and she focused on them while she calmed her breathing. Then she leaned forward and whispered, “Do you want to murder a six-year-old?” She held Hye-jeong’s gaze for a second, then switched to Yoon-hee, where she stood by the edge of the couch. “Do you?”
The kinder of her mentors bit her lip and looked away. “We slay demons, Celine. It’s our job. We can only hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Hye-jeong got up and went into the kitchen. “Only a fool gives a fox sanctuary by letting it rest in their chicken coop.”
“We have already established that I am a fool,” Celine muttered to herself.
Yoon-hee sat beside her, placing a hand on her arm. “We swore to do whatever it takes to protect the honmoon. No matter the personal cost. But no one could tell us how great that price would be.”
Hye-jeong set a glass of water on the coffee table. “Keep that thing controlled, or I’ll do it for you.”
They were right. Rumi may only be six, but she wouldn’t always be. She had half her friend’s DNA and may look like her, but she could have his personality, his bad traits, the very worst of evil—all in a pretty package.
*
Rumi sat on the edge of the fish pond, kicking her heels against the stone. She didn’t feel like playing anymore. Her tummy felt icky after hearing the adults talking about her. The door behind her slid open and shut. Shoes scraped on the stone pavers.
“Rumi?” Celine said, her voice soft. Rumi slid off the edge and stood facing her. “Let’s go visit your mother.”
She followed Celine away from the house, up the hill and down the winding path into the hunters’ cemetery. As they got near the dangsan tree, Rumi ran ahead to find her mother’s grave. Celine went to the tree first and stared at it for a while, before she came over and sat next to Rumi. She immediately went to work pulling weeds from around the stone.
“Celine, why is everyone so upset?”
Her fingers paused, then came to rest in the grass. “Do you remember how I told you that demons have patterns all over their bodies?”
Rumi nodded.
“That’s what’s on your arm, Rumi. Patterns. Because your father was a demon.”
Her dad was a demon? But demons were bad. Hunters killed demons.
“Do hunters kill all demons?”
“Yes.”
“Everything that has patterns?” Rumi lifted her sleeve.
Celine pushed it back down. “You have to hide them. You can’t let anyone see. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Celine.”
“You’re not like them. You have your mother’s light.” She reached to brush some moss from the gravestone. “You must always choose her light over the darkness, then everything will be okay.”
Rumi tugged a weed out of the ground. “I heard you talking about the honmoon. Can I see it?”
“The honmoon is something only hunters can see.”
“Can I be a hunter?”
Celine stopped working and looked into the sky. “I don’t think so, Rumi.”
*
No one wanted to be Rumi’s friend anymore. The other kids were a bit scared of her. But that was okay. She was used to not having friends. And the boys left her alone too. There was the odd teasing comment, but she could handle that. Everything was fine.
Until Min-seo arrived.
The new girl in her class got a lot of attention. Rumi didn’t really care, but the girl wasn’t very nice, so it seemed undeserved. She was what Celine would call spoiled, and Rumi finally understood why that was a bad thing. Min-seo liked to show off her new toys and accessories and acted like they made her better than other people.
They’d just finished a lesson and were about to go to lunch. Rumi was packing away her coloured pencils when Min-seo paused behind her on her way to the door.
“What’s that supposed to be?” she asked, leaning over to snatch Rumi’s drawing from her desk.
“It’s a dog.” Rumi held out her hand for her to give it back.
“It looks like a camel.” She turned around to show some of the other girls and they giggled.
Rumi tried to ignore them. She pulled the paper out of Min-seo’s hand and took her bag off the hook on the side of her desk to hide it inside.
“Oh, how cute!” Min-seo’s hands were suddenly tugging on her bear keychain. “Can I borrow it?”
“No.”
“I’ll be your best friend.”
That was a lie.
Before Rumi could reply, Min-seo unclipped the bear and held it to her chest.
“Give it back.” Rumi reached for it, but the girl took a step back. “Give it back now!”
Min-seo giggled. “It’s mine now.”
Rumi’s chest tightened. Electricity surged down her arms. Her fingers found a desk, the edge of a plastic ruler. They wrapped around it and she swung it as hard as she could at the girl’s shoulder.
Min-seo screamed and dropped the keychain. She cowered away, clutching her arm. Rumi scooped up her bear, holding it protectively in one hand while she shoved Min-seo with the other, sending her sprawling on the floor.
Hands clamped on Rumi’s shoulders and dragged her away. She sneered at the crying girl on the ground, triumphant. The feeling didn’t last long. As soon as she was outside, she realised what awaited her.
Celine didn’t ask her what happened this time, didn’t even speak to her. Instead of taking Rumi to work, she took her home. Celine shut her in her room and spent a long time on the telephone. Sitting on the fluffy rug by her bed, Rumi cradled her fox toy and sucked on the sleeve of her sweater. She wished Celine wasn’t so disappointed in her. But she didn’t feel guilty. That girl deserved to get pushed.