“Unnie, is this what hell feels like?” Wheein said, lying stomach down on the floor in the middle of their living room. Byul could only grunt in reply.

A particularly nasty heatwave was passing through Seoul that summer, with temperatures so oppressive that the evening news has been reporting people passing out or collapsing in the middle of the street for the past week. Then, as if the universe just wanted to sprinkle a little bit more misery into everyone’s summer, the South Korean government announced rolling blackouts for the next few weeks. 

Which at present, the entire city of Seoul was under at that very moment. 

“We have air conditioning in Hell,” the demon said.

“Climate change .” Wheein replied.

“So do blackouts,” Byul agreed.

The power had died out somewhere in the middle of the night, while most of them had been asleep. Byul had woken up drenched in sweat and it took everything she had not to push Yong off their bed just so that she wouldn’t have to feel the angel’s residual body heat. Now it was already a little past noon and there was still no sign of it returning.

“Do something, Unnie, please.” Wheein said, the words a little muffled since she had her cheek pressed against the floor tiles too. 

Even using her demonic powers felt like too much energy to exert, but still, Byul half-heartedly snapped her fingers so that an ice-cold glass of water materialized just to the left of Wheein’s head. 

“I meant about the electricity,” Wheein grumbled, but she gamely pressed the glass against the side of her face anyway, relishing in the dewy condensation before downing the contents of the glass in a few gulps.

“I’m too overheated to use up that much power,” Byul said, which was partly true. It wasn’t that the heat was particularly troublesome for her, really. As a demon, she was practically born of sulfur and ash from the deepest pits of Hell. But it was the principle of the thing. When in Rome and all that. While on Earth, suffer as the humans do. 

It was at that moment that Hyejin’s door opened, the vampire stumbling out with a curtain of her long black hair protecting her face from the worst of the sunlight.

“Go back to sleep,” Byul said, not even lifting her head from the sofa.

“Unnie, it’s the middle of the day in the hottest summer in recorded history, and my room is outfitted with black out curtains.” Hyejin deadpanned, “I’d rather take my chances out here than bake to death in there.”

The vampire took the extra effort to push the coffee table a little closer to Byul before plopping down on the floor beside Wheein. “This .”

None of them had moved by the time Yong returned with groceries. “The supermarket had air conditioning so I almost didn’t want to leave,” she said as she opened the door and toed off her shoes. She paused, taking in the sight of all her roommates in various states of the doldrums. “Are you guys okay?”

“Do we look okay?” Wheein barked from the floor, lifting her head up to pout at the angel. “I hope you brought ice cream Unnie,” 

“I did,” Yong said, pulling out four individually wrapped popsicles and one giant tub of ice cream, from one of her bags, “let’s just hope the freezer starts working again soon so that it can keep until dinner.”

“Screw dinner,” Byul was already on her feet and walking toward Yong, “I’m taking mine now,” she swiped a popsicle from the table and made quick work of ripping off the plastic and popping it into . Wheein and Hyejin weren’t far behind.

“What are you doing up?” Yong said as she handed the vampire her frozen treat before taking the giant tub to the freezer to hopefully preserve it in what residual chill was left. 

“She got tired of hotboxing,” Wheein said with a snicker, gamely dodging the playful swipe Hyejin took at her.

With popsicles in hand, the mood in the apartment was already improving. Perhaps the day wasn’t going to be ruined after all. Yongsun smiled to herself, popping open the freezer to---

“!!”

The angel jumped back at the gush of blood that streamed from the top level of their freezer, dropping the tub of ice cream in her hands and scrambling back as far as she could before crashing into Byul’s waiting arms.

“What happened?”

“Gross!!”

“My blood!”

Hyejin pushed her way past the others to the refrigerator, hands carefully handling bag after bag of thawed blood from their now tepid freezer until coming across one bag that was leaking quite profusely. When she pulled it out to show the other girls, more blood splattered along the walls and their counters.

"What are you doing? Don't wave it around!!" Wheein yelled, lifting her arms so that the carnage wouldn't reach her popsicle. The same couldn't be said of her shirt though, which now had blood splatter along the sides.

Already, their kitchen has started to look like a scene from a slasher film.

“Damn, everything’s thawed,” Hyejin said, be the wasted bag in her hands before tossing it to the sink. "If the electricity doesn't turn back soon I'm going to lose this whole batch.

"Just call the blood bank and ask for a refund," Byul said, trying in vain to rinse off the blood that had splattered on her shorts. The demon contemplated snapping it away as a quick fix, then decided it was too much trouble for a ratty pair that she only wore at home anyway.

The four of them stared at the gory mess that was now their kitchen. Hyejin had the worst of it, blood all over her hands and her clothes, the sight of it in stark contrast with the fact that she still had a mango popsicle in . Then, unfazed at all, the vampire unceremoniously wiped her hands on the sides of her shirt and hip checked the fridge closed. “So, ice cream?”

“What?” Yongsun said, finally getting over the worst of the shock. “You want to just leave our kitchen looking like a crime scene while we eat ice cream?” There was also a bit of blood splattered on Yong’s dress and on her feet, as well as streaks of it on the floor from when she’d backed away from the fridge in fright. Hyejin, Byul, and Wheein shared a look before all three simultaneously nodded and headed toward the living room.

“Yeahp,”

“Grab some spoons, Yong-unnie. The power isn’t going to come back any time soon.”

“But--I don’t--” Yong stared helplessly at their kitchen fingers itching to clear the mess away.

“Leave it, we can clean it later!” Byul said, picking up the tub of ice cream off the floor and grabbing spoons from one of their kitchen drawers. 

“Aish,” Yong laughed despite herself, walking over to join her roommates. When in Rome, indeed. She took the spoon Wheein handed her and plopped down on the floor with the rest of them. All four supernatural beings surrounded the tub of ice cream like it was some kind of holy grail. There was blood on the sides and the lid, but the cold of the ice cream had already dried it to a tacky, sticky brown. Blessedly, when they opened the tub, the contents were blood-free

“Good choice on the cookie dough,” Wheein said, in between polishing off her own popsicle and digging into some ice cream.

“We’ve probably ruined all our appetites for dinner.” Yong said, she scooped some of the ice cream onto her popsicle and took a bite. Her face at the jarring combination of watermelon and cookie dough made Byul laugh. 

“You know,” Hyejin said, tossing her popsicle stick to the side, “If someone walked in on us right now, it would be quite the sight.”

The four of them paused to look around. Bloody kitchen, blood stained clothes, and an angel, a demon, a vampire, and a werewolf sharing a tub of ice cream. It was like something out of a surrealist nightmare. The silence lasted for just a beat before everyone broke into hysterical laughter. “We look like serial killers,” Byul laughed, tears already forming in the corner of her eyes. 

“So,” Yong began, after the laughter had died down, “Who’s going to clean up the kitchen?” They four shared a look before-- “ROCK PAPER SCISSORS!”

Between their laughter, the ice cream, and the cries of four supernatural creatures playing the world’s loudest game of rock, paper, scissors, the summer heat wave was already barely noticeable.