Chapter Text
"Seriously,what is your problem?"
Mira asks Rumi,her voice betraying her anger,as she uses her wooldo to turn the demons around them to ashes.
"It's the song,I told you-" Mira cuts her off.
"I'm not talking about the song,I'm talking about you! Why are you questioning everything we stand for when we're so close to sealing the Honmoon?What are you hiding from us?!"
Mira grabs her shoulder.
Something in Rumi snaps.
"Not everything is about your insecurities Mira!"
Everything goes quiet."Mira,I didn't mean-"
"Will you two stop fighting and look?" Zoey interrupts them. More demons.
"The tear..." Rumi says. "It's huge..." Mira realises,before turning to the purple haired singer."If you're with us,prove it." Rumi nods.
They sing Takedown as they fight.
"A demon with no feeling don't deserve to live ,it's so obvious..." Rumi sings, to the surprise of the other 2 members,since Rumi had expressed how she didn't like the lyrics. It's almost like she...related to it?
"Imma gear up-"
Rumi barely has time to lift her head up and try to protect herself with her blade that she is sent flying by a huge oni,the spikes of it's weapon stabbing her side.
"RUMI!!"
Mira and Zoey yell in worry as Rumi lands a few feet away from them.
She slowly gets up on her knees,her head spinning as Mira and Zoey clears the last demons around.
She doesn't have time to focus on wether she's hurt or not that something crosses her mind.
"The passengers!" She exclaims. They had to check on them.
As they enter the train cabin,it's empty. They were too late.
'Join The Pride!'
As they exit the train,the girl band is quiet, their failures heavy on their shoulders .
"Whatever you think about the song now,it doesn't matter." Rumi lifts her head to look at her,trying to focus on her words,and not on how the adrenaline is fading and she's starting to realise she might be hurt. She drowns out the rest of her words,even as Zoey joins in.
"-our side,but it's really hard to understand this time. We can't win this without your voice Rumi."
The only thing giving her purpose. Her voice.
They start to walk away and she follows. The walk back to the tower is mostly quiet. Rumi thinks about the Idol Awards,Jinu, how she snapped at Mira.
It's so obvious..
Rumi walks behind her sisters,the distance hurting more than her side.
The pain had starting to throb,making it harder to ignore.She looks down at it. Her white sweater is stained with her own blood around her side. When did she get so reckless? She's supposed to be their leader.
She leans against a wall,catching her breath,weirdly tired after only walking for a bit. She can't- she can't afford to be hurt. Not now,when they're so close. If she's unconscious,she can't make sure she's covered up,hidden.
Cover those up.
"Rumi?" She hears Zoey voice,and swears. She's loosing the battle. The corner of her visions are darkening,her ears ringing,the blood staining her sweater more and more.
She looks up at Zoey and Mira as they run to her,with one thought in mind.
Please,please don't find out about them. Not now.
And before any of them can reach her, darkness enveloped her,the pain fading,their voices drowning out.
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Mira was mad at Rumi at first. She was being secretive,not telling them the truth. She's supposed to be an expert at reading people. And yet, she can't see through one of the most important person in her world. It was infuriating.
But as soon as she heard Zoey's shaky voice and saw Rumi collapsing,that anger immediately turned to raw fear. She was at her side in a second. Okay, Mira, think.
She can't afford to let her emotions in the way- not when Rumi was in danger. Later, she told herself.
Mira lifted Rumi's sweatshirt and put pressure against the wound with her own shirt she immediately took off. They had trained for moments like this. Except she never thought she'd actually have to tend to such injuries, especially when it was Rumi.
The next few minutes was a blur- Rumi not waking up,Mira lifting her into her arms and sprinting to the tower,Zoey trying and failing to contain her tears-and they finally made it to the medbay.
As soon as Rumi is laid down on the bed,too still, too pale, Mira doesn't wait a second. "Zoey,I know this is a lot but I need to focus for me okay? Can you get the first aid kit?" Zoey nodded, swallowed hard and left.
Mira doesn't understand how it happened- sure,they all had hurt themselves on hunt at least once,Rumi especially since she has the annoying tendency to protect them at all costs,but she had always insisted that she was fine,that she'd patch herself up.
She sighs as she removes the sweater from Rumi's form,putting it away. "I swear Rumi,when you'll wake up you'll hear me-"
Mira's breath catched in her throat as she turned back to Rumi who was only in a sport bra now.Her eyes immediately caught them. Glowing. Purple. Real.
Zoey entered the room at the same time,freezing in the doorstep. "Are these?-..." The maknae spoke up,voice shaky. But she didn't get to finish her sentence because Rumi's eyes fluttered open at that exact moment.
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Rumi wasn't sure what she felt first- the stinging,burning sensation on her side or the eyes on her.
She immediately sat up,gasping, covering her arms. Her eyes landed on her sisters. Their widened eyes. Mira's clenched fists,Zoey's tears.
They saw.
They know.
"No,no..." She barely managed to mumble,her mouth dry.
Mira mumbled something along the lines of "we'll deal with this later" and "let me patch you up first."
But she couldn't. She couldn't stay here,I'm front of them,exposed.
She stood up from the bed, causing more blood to soak through the bandage Mira had provisionally wrapped around the wound waiting for proper care. And before Mira or Zoey could react,she was out of the door.
She ran to the closest room, which happened to be her bathroom,and locked the door.
Cover those up.
Nothing can change until your patterns are gone.
She ran her hand around her hair,messing her braid up,her chest rising up and down too quickly,the air not fully filling her lungs.
How could she? How could she have thought this would work out? That they'd understand? She saw it in their eyes. They know she's a mistake.
An abomination, a disgusting hybride who should've never seen the day.
She grasps her side,the tile under her slowly getting stained with blood-she doesn't bother stopping the bleeding.
She deserves it. She deserves to bleed out alone.
Her faults and fears must never be seen.
Celine would be more disappointed than ever.
They were banging on the door. They wanted to kill her.
Hunters kill all demons. Everything that has patterns.
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Zoey didn't know how to react at first. Seeing the purple lines along Rumi's arms,her brain stopped working. She froze,and now,because of that,Rumi was locked in the bathroom,bleeding alone.
She was standing behind Mira,who was actively banging on the door,yelling at Rumi to «stop being an idiot and let her in.»
Zoey stepped in. "Mira,stop,you're scaring her!" She didn't understand it either. How did she had patterns? But she knew it could wait. She just wanted her sister to be safe.
Zoey approached the door,trying to reason with Rumi. "Rumi,please...let us take care of you first we'll talk later okay? Just open the door please we need to know-"
"GO AWAY!"
Pink ripples shook the Honmoon and both Zoey and Mira both took a step back from the door.
It took a second for any of them to talk or move again. Then Mira moved forward,back to the door. "You're not scarring us,okay? We wanna help you but we can't if you don't let us!"
Zoey knows she should do something. But what? She can't call Bobby- he loves his girls too much,he'd freak out over any of them being hurt- let alone explaining the whole demon-hunters thing.
She thought about Celine. But who knows how she'll react? Did she already know about them?
She was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of the door opening,but she didn't expect the sight before her.
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Rumi was still laying against the bathtub,starring at the door.
She has no idea for how long she was there- but one thing was sure. They never left her. They stopped banging,they never tried to kick the door down, simply talking to her.
Like she deserved to be talked to as softly as they did. Like they truly cared,even after seeing the disgusting marks on her body.
But Rumi couldn't understand their words anymore,the blood loss getting to her. The demonic yell that escaped her had drained all the energy she had left.
What was she supposed to do? Use her last remaining strength to open the door? What would happen then? Would they draw their weapons? Would they simply patch her up and then never dare to look at her again?
She wouldn't be able to handle it. She can't. She can't bare the thought of them seeing her like that,of them knowing how unfixable she was.
There was only one thing to do. But she can't do it herself.
Coward.
.
She crawled to the door and slowly opened it,remaining on her knees and summoning her saingeom. She slowly lifted it up,her eyes fixed to the floor.
"Do what should've been done a long time ago." She mumbled,her voice weak,her whole body barely hanging on. "Before I destroy what I swore to protect..."
When none of them moved,she spoke up again. "Please....DO IT!!!.." another pink wave shook the Honmoon. How was she even doing that?
She expected them to take it and do it. Or worse, summoning their own weapons to do so. Maybe even running away from her. But instead,she felt two pair of arms wrapping around her.
Rumi froze,her saingeom disappearing back into the Honmoon.
Her sisters were crying and hugging her,after she simply asked them to do their duty.
It didn't make sense.
She shouldn't be.
Was never supposed to be.
"Youre an idiot if you think for a second we'd do that." Mira said,the shakiness of her voice indicating that she was still holding it in. Because there was so much to say,to ask,but Rumi was still bleeding.
Zoey did the same. She needed Rumi safe before she could even begin to think about the purple lines.