Wheein had only been to a museum once with the Unnies, and it was, to say the least, an interesting experience. 

It was a little after she had just moved to Seoul, in an effort to be warm and welcoming Byul and Yong had taken it upon themselves to show her around, capping off the day with a visit to the National Museum of Korea. That had been a mistake, (Or not a mistake, depending on who you asked). 

As it turned out, despite both of them having lived through the majority of Korea’s entire history, Byul and Yong still had differing memories on how things actually panned out. Which led to the whole visit being just the two of them arguing over labels on historic pottery or trying to one up each other on who had befriended or interacted with more famous people. They had caused such a ruckus that the museum security had to politely them out. It had become the most hilarious experience of her life and suffice to say, Wheein had gotten quite the history lesson.

So when she heard about the new exhibit, she naturally got excited. 

It was hard to miss the advertisements for it. There was even an entire segment dedicated to it on the local news. How the National Museum of Korea was opening a new wing dedicated to never before seen historical artifacts found between the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.  The museum’s PR and marketing team had apparently gone all out, and just the day before the opening, Wheein finally caved.

“You guys wanna check out the new exhibit?” She asked at dinner. In response, all three of her roommates looked at her like she had grown a second head.

“The one at the National Museum?” Yong clarified around a mouthful of fried mackerel and kimchi. Wheein nodded.

“We already took you to the National Museum,” Byul added.

“Yes but--” Wheein looked to Hyejin for help. The vampire just shrugged. “It’s a new exhibit, which means it wasn’t there when we went three years ago. Besides, it could be fun. When was the last time the four of us really did something together?”

“We went on that camping trip last month.”

“We had that movie marathon just the other day.”

“We’re having dinner together right now,” That last one was from Hyejin, and Wheein had to glare at the vampire because this was the opposite of helping.

“Okay,” Wheein said, trying for a different approach, “When was the last time the four of us did something cultural together?”

Her question was met with silence, and gave herself an internal high five for that one. 

“In the middle of the day?” Hyejin whined, “that’s no fun for me.”

“We’ll pick a really cloudy day. It’s been raining the last few weeks anyway, we’ll just pick one where it isn’t pouring too hard but it’s still cloudy enough for you.” She realized she was probably pushing this too hard, but the longer she thought about going to a museum with the Unnies again, the more Wheein wanted to go. 

Hyejin nodded, already placated. Yong stared at her curiously, “You really want us to go to this?”

If her responding nod came too fast and bordered on desperate, Wheein was past the point of caring. 

Yong and Byul shared a look, and eventually the demon shrugged. “Okay Wheein-ah,” Yong said, “you make the arrangements, and we’ll go.”

--

As her luck would have it, the next week was a consistent streak of sunny days with very minimal rain showers that had Wheein glaring up at the sky any time she stepped foot out of the apartment. Luckily, the exhibit would be up for the next two months, so she was in no real rush, but as the sunny days grew more consistent, Wheein grew a bit more worried.

She took to keeping tabs on a weather app, just to check when the next heavy rainstorm would be. Finally, finally, her luck paid off and she had to double check both her app and actual meteorology websites to confirm that, yes, the next week would see Seoul under a constant stream of rain, and cloud cover. Perfect.

“I got us passes for this Thursday!” Wheein announced the next evening, and as if to underline her statement, a low rumble of thunder was heard from the outside.

“That’s not ominous at all,” Hyejin said in an undertone, but she was still smiling when she reached out a hand for the passes Wheein had printed out. “Why are you so hyped about this anyway?”

Wheein chanced a glance at the kitchen, where the Unnies were preparing popcorn for all four of them to share. “Just you wait Hyegi. It’s going to be the best day of your life.”

The vampire seemed unconvinced, but eventually Hyejin grinned. “If you say so.”

--

The museum was blessedly not as full as it would be on a normal day, and Wheein thanked the ever present threat of rain for that. Plus, most of Seoul’s population would have already been during the sunnier days so today, as all four of them entered through the glass doors, it was to the sight of just a dozen or so tourists and the occasional school group. 

“So where is this new exhibit?” Byul said, shrugging off her hood to put her horns on full display. It had started raining just as they had gotten off the train. 

“Wheein checked the museum map she was given at the entrance. “Third floor, but let’s just go through everything again. It has been a while you know.”

The demon shrugged, already pulling Yong by the hand, “Let’s see if they fixed any of the labels this time around.”

Wheein poked Hyejin’s side, “This is where the fun begins.”

The Unnies did not disappoint, barely two minutes in and the two were already picking a fight in front of an old tapestry of the tenth King of Goryeo. 

“He wasn’t so bad,” Byul said, already waving a hand dismissively, “There were far worse than Jeongjong.”

“Of course you would have known him personally,” Yong scoffs, “He was awful. He cared more about his armies than his people.”

“Give him some slack, his mother was a beast. Not many historians know that so of course it wouldn’t say so here.”

The sight of scandalized Museum historians and tour guides was already too much for Wheein to handle. She had to clamp a hand to to keep herself from cackling out loud. Beside her, Hyejin wasn’t even bothering. The vampire was outright laughing.

“You sly dog,” Hyejin said, in between giggles. Wheein slipped her a high five as they followed Yong and Byul throughout most of the first few exhibits. To their credit, the Unnies did know what they were talking about. It’s just that it’s hard to take them seriously when most of Yong’s comments about Korea in the early 900s are about how bland smoked meat was and how any time Byul sees a portrait of a royal, she immediately has a salacious story to match.

By the time they finally reach the third floor with the new exhibit, Yong had picked a small fight with an elementary school teacher for overromanticizing the first Japanese invasion and Byul had traumatized a group of tourists with a detailed description of exactly how Queen Gongye spent time with her handmaidens when her husband was off with his ministers. 

Wheein and Hyejin loved every second of it, so much so that when they finally entered the new exhibit, it was to their pleasant surprise that it was actually interesting.

The new exhibit was labelled ‘Citizen Stories’ and seemed to feature recovered letters, records, old toys, and paraphernalia that belonged to the common people during the earlier centuries. Despite her ulterior motives for having come to the museum, Wheein did find herself drawn to one or two pieces in the exhibit, such as scraps of fabric that had traces of a child’s doodles on it. 

“Glad we came?” Byul said, just to her right. 

Wheein smiled, “I always try to encourage the cultural growth of my roommates,” She replied, her voice lilting in the tone of the falsely innocent.

“Sure,” Byul agreed, playing along, “and watching me and Yong make a scene of exactly how old we are is just an added bonus, huh?”

Wheein didn’t bother hiding her laughter. “You knew?”

“I’m old, Wheein-ah, not blind.” Byul said pinching at her arm playfully, “You and Hyejin aren’t exactly subtle when you duck behind potter displays to hide how funny you think it is when I tell Yong that the 12th century vase she thinks was used for the Queen’s flowers in Goryeo was actually used for the Queen’s vomit during her later pregnancies.”

Wheein laughed again. That particular argument had been an echo of their first one from before, but it had been funny to hear it again. 

“I’m sorry for using you, Unnie,” She said, sincerely at least. “But you have to admit, you two are entertaining together. You could probably start a history podcast or something.”

Byul laughed but shook her head anyway. “People only think they want to know the truth about history, but if it came right down to it, if they really knew the things Unnie and I knew, they wouldn’t be able to bear it.” She winked at Wheein, “Trust me, the history books are better off this way.”

The words have her a little stunned but Wheein tried to take it all in stride. She forgot, sometimes, how much The Unnies really hid under the surface. How much they actually remembered , even in over her own century of life, there were things she had forgotten. Things that slipped through the cracks.

“You make it sound like it was all awful,” Wheein said, reproachfully.

Byul hummed, nodding her head, “Okay, I’ll give you that. It wasn’t all awful.” This she said with a vague little raise of her eyebrows, before she stalked off to another part of the exhibit.

What must it be like to be an angel, or a demon, and be able to remember everything? The concept made her head hurt to think about. So instead Wheein smiled and walked off to a display of recovered journals where Yong was standing.

She meant to startle Yong, the angel had always been easy to scare. But as she approached, Wheein realized that Yong looked a little stunned. She was hyper focused on one diary in particular, right in the very middle of the display, yellowed with age and propped open on a pedestal with printed boards surrounding it to highlight the translations of passages found in the journal. 

The angel had one hand pressed gently against the glass, her eyes wide as she stared at the artifact. Wheein tried to read over her shoulder. Yong’s wings blocked most of the view and the writing was in the old script, before Hangul, so she couldn’t exactly make out all of the characters. “Unnie?” She called out softly.

Yong jumped, staring at her wide-eyed as if caught in the act of something. 

“What’s that?” Wheein asked, motioning toward the journal.

Yong turned back to it and her expression went soft. She stepped aside just enough so that Wheein could read the museum’s accompanied label for the diary.

Diary of a Citizen

Dated: 1200s-1300s

Her eyes naturally drifted to some of the translated passages highlighted in the supplementary material. She was about to ask Yong what she’s meant to be looking for when Wheein finally saw it. She looked to Yong then over to Byul, who was shaking her head at a series of artistically rendered dioramas of the village layouts in the 13th century, then back to Yong again. 

The angel smiled.

“Is this--?” Wheein could barely form the words. It once again dawned on her that angels and demons had long memories. Looking at Yong now, she had no doubt that the angel could probably tell her the exact events that lead to this diary’s creation. That was probably a story for another time though. Right now, Yong looped their arms together and turned back to face the display.

“I wasn’t the nicest angel back then. Or at least, not to demons at least, definitely not to her.”

Wheein could only nod, still entranced by the highlighted text in the display that translated one of the passages as saying:

“Thinking about Yongsun takes up a lot of my days. Takes time away from doing my actual work. How bothersome. Still, it would be a lie to say that speaking to her does not make life on this Earth a little brighter. I long for the distant future. When she will finally deem me worthy of her friendship.”

Finally, Wheein said, “She was greasy even then, huh?”

Yong burst out laughing. “She really was!”