For some background info on this drabble: it takes place after Junhong has met Youngjae. He's travelled to... some place in Canada (I'm not sure why haha) with Daehyun to find Jongup (for some reason). They're visiting Jongup's house, a cabin in the woods on the edge of a small town. As a small side note, I'm pretty sure there's some inaccuracy in what's mentioned religion wise; if I have an idea, I usually write it out first, then fact check it later. Sorry about any inaccuracies! Also, Azazel is just a placeholder name. I was going to change it, but I didn't get there LOL

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure of the circumstances of this scene in particular, but here it is! Enjoy!!   (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

“There’s no God,” he said quietly, securing a few more bracelets on his wrist. “Some of us believe in the Goddess, but I don’t. There’s no higher deity than us, and I think that’s the most terrifying thing of them all.”

“You don’t believe in the Goddess.” Daehyun reiterated. The yellow light reflected off of his hair, turning it into brilliant red. “She’s the Mother. She made us, she made everything. How could you not believe in our Mother?”

“My mother wasn’t one of us. It was my father who gave me this.” Jongup shook the bracelets, admiring how well they covered up his past. “Your mother, his mother, their mother. She’s not mine. What kind of mother would let these kinds of things happen to her children? If she was really the one who made us, then she’s long gone by now.”

Daehyun looked back at him, tight lipped. It was the first time Junhong had seen him at a loss for words.

Junhong felt a bit ignorant to ask, but he hoped it’d help ease the tension. “Who’s the Goddess?”

When Daehyun refused to say a word, Jongup shifted his position to face Junhong. “She’s something that pseudo-witches believe in. It’s something the pagans made up so they’d have someone to worship. She’s like Mother Earth, but a little more magical. Some of us were tricked into believing in her. No one’s more powerful than we are, though. We’re the deities everyone believes in.”

“Bull,” Daehyun spat. “That’s bull. There’s no way it could be us. We’re just lesser versions of her. She’s the Mother for a reason.”

“Then what about Azazel?” He retaliated. “How do you justify Azazel’s existence? He’s more powerful than she was ever written to be.”

Daehyun’s eyes went wide and he quickly looked from Jongup to Junhong, then back again. “Not here,” he said, voice hushed. “Not in front of him.”

“Who’s Azazel?”

It fell on deaf ears. Daehyun refused to look at him and Jongup, for once, wasn’t explaining what Daehyun refused to disclose. Junhong asked again. He wanted to know, he had to know. It was making up for lost time. He needed to know everything.

Finally, Daehyun sighed. “Azazel is,” he paused, trying to choose his words carefully. “Azazel is like one of us, a witch.”

Junhong looked back at him, and it was obvious that Daehyun knew that wasn’t enough.

“He’s bad,” Jongup said, ignoring Daehyun’s struggle to find the right words to say. “He’s the worst of us. We know that because everyone knows about him. I live in the middle of nowhere, and even I know about all of things that he’s done.”

Junhong was on the edge of his seat, he needed to know more. “What’s he done?”

“Stop.” It was bitter and firm and it came from Daehyun. “Just stop talking about him. Azazel isn’t anyone you should know about. God, if Yongguk knew we were talking about him, he’d have a goddamn cow. Maybe an entire field of them.”

“So, what? He’s just going to live in ignorance then? Is ignorance better than knowing the truth, even if it’s hard to swallow? You’re a coward, Daehyun,” Jongup said, the edge in voice coming back. “He’s going to find out. Wouldn’t it be better if he didn’t learn the hard way?”

“But now isn’t the time. This is supposed to be a positive experience. About the good things magic can do.”

“And what the hell is good about magic?” Jongup stood, and Junhong never thought he’d hear him yell. “What’s good about hiding or being taken advantage of or killing? Why would you bring back something that’s dead just to torture it more? What’s the use in seeing the future if it’s only bad things; horrible things that you wish you could forget. Is healing even as pure a practice as you all make it out to be? Last I checked, the more someone uses healing magic or potions or herbs on you, your skin gets thicker and heavier and if it happens enough you can’t die. You have to live on this ing Earth for the rest of time.

“Do you know why we have to do this? Do you know why I can’t go a week without burning something down? Because that energy builds up to the point where it’d kill me or everything around us. We’re gods, all of us. We’re bastard children of a woman who lived before time could even be recorded. Gods aren’t meant to be stuck on Earth. They’re meant to be somewhere big and otherworldly that won’t subject us to these things. Remember Jesus? Remember what they did to him? He had these fantastical powers and they killed him for it. Water into wine, right? That’s magic, and that’s what gets us killed.

“Stupid birthday party magicians think that they can do anything and call it magic, but they don’t know, and neither do you. All you do is see things, your power acts on it’s own. Wait until Junhong grows older,” he forced out, voice finally wavering. “Wait until he can’t go a day without reanimating some poor soul only to kill it again. You think Yongguk is this amazing, selfless man, but he’s keeping things from you. He doesn’t tell you about how hard it is to swallow the disgusting amount of power that builds up after a while, how you just have to do something so you don’t hurt anyone around you, or how it just hurts so much you want to die. What’s so good about magic? What’s so great about being some godly being condemned to Earth because your ‘mother’ thought it was a good idea? You don’t know anything because you’re a coward. You see the bad, but you don’t really want to see it so you just cover your eyes and face the other way. It’d just be better if Azazel had his way and wiped us all out.”