It’s another lazy afternoon. Minjeong is bundled up in strong arms as she sits in Karina’s lap. The two of them are lying on the couch watching a Shin-chan cartoon playing on the flatscreen TV. Although Minjeong would much rather be watching some action, she knows how much the demon has taken a liking to the silly cartoon, and so she pretends to also really enjoy it even though she’s bored half to death most of the time. 

She’s zoning out for the most part, thinking about what to ask Rina to make for dinner, what to write for her next book, how the movie is going along and like five other things at once, but her train of thought is paused when she hears some light sniffling. Minjeong’s features scrunch for a moment in confusion, before she pulls away to assess the situation, her eyes meeting with her demon girlfriend’s, which happen to be orange as is normal, but still lightly glassy. 

“Are you…crying???” Minjeong quickly turns over to face Karina, still sitting crisscrossed in her lap as she gently cups her face. Thats odd. Minjeong isn’t sure if the cartoon is having a sad moment or something, though she’s pretty sure the show is for kids and wouldn't be showing anything particularly dramatic enough to cause tears.

Karina laughs and cries at the same time, wiping away at the beginnings of her tears before she wraps her arms around Minjeong and pulls her closer for a hug. As a reflex, Minjeong wraps her legs around Karina’s waist. 

“Y-Yeah-” The demon sniffs, letting out another watery laugh. 

“What’s wrong?” Minjeong asks, though considerably less concerned because Karina doesn’t seem very distraught. Is this some sort of demon thing she doesn’t understand?

The demon just lets out a smile, and in a small voice, she murmurs, “I’m just really happy.”

“...Yeah?”

“I mean, Shin-chan is playing on TV, and I’m here with my girlfriend. And we’re watching together. Like. Wow. Does life get better than this?”

A blush forms on Minjeong’s face, which is admittedly very embarrassing, but she wasn’t expecting an answer like that at all. Something so silly and heartfelt and so full of pure honesty. Minjeong stays quiet for a moment, trying to ignore the rush of butterflies that flutter against her stomach and her uncontrollable urge to coo and awww because she needs to have some goddamn respect! GET IT TOGETHER! GET OFF THE FLOOR RIGHT NOW. 

Stupid dorky charm. Stupid sparkling eyes. Stupid demon Karina.

That was so ing cringe. And lame. And stupid.

And so stinking cute. Karina is so stinking cute. 

And the cuteness aggression comes out in the form of a verbal attack. “You’re such a ing loser, Karina.” 

For such mean words, Karina looks at her as if she’s just finished singing the sweetest love song. With honeyed eyes and a sweet smile, she moves forward to plant a chaste kiss on Minjeong’s lips. 

“And I love you too.” She declares before she shifts Minjeong around so she can watch the TV again. Minjeong rolls her eyes, but the goofy smile on her own face shows the truth. She’s down horrendous herself, even if she’s not crying tears of joy like her (pathetic) girlfriend. 

She finally returns her attention to the show, watching as Shin-chan talks to his dad about a fight he had with his sister. Minjeong suddenly gets an idea.

Thinking about it, Minjeong and Jimin have been seeing each other for the better part of half a year now… and the relationship is pretty serious. Karina has seen Minjeong’s father a few times before, admittedly just a brief moment on a video call where she shyly bows and gives a wave before she runs away to another part of the house. She wonders if they’ve even heard each other’s voices. 

“Do you want to meet my dad this weekend?” 

Karina peels her eyes away from the cartoon playing on the flatscreen TV, her full attention now on Minjeong. Her brows furrowed for a second, wondering if she heard that correctly. 

“Is this your way of saying you want marry-age?”

Minjeong almost chokes on her own spit. Okay wow, that's one way to jump the gun. 

“Um… this is my way of asking if you want to meet my dad???” She replies after a moment of silence.

“Oh.” Karina is silent for a moment and looks back at the cartoon, but she’s in deep thought. “After that will we be closer to marry-age?”

Minjeong opens to say something but nothing comes out. She takes in a breath and purses her lips, finally sighing through her nose. “I mean I guess we can say it's one step closer. One step of many, many, many, manyyyyy small steps. But yes!”

Minjeong can feel Karina’s fingers drumming against her thighs. She fidgets quite a bit when she’s nervous (she says she’s making ASMR to calm down, the silly thing). 

“You okay?”

In the smallest of voices, Karina murmurs, almost pathetically. “....I wanna be closer to marrying you… but I also really want your dad to like me…”

Seeing Karina’s cute pout, she pokes at the protruding lip. “He will like you! C’mon, you’re Karina of the Nightosphere! Yu Jimin, the charmer to everyone else! Why should you be worried?”

“Cause that’s your dad! He brought and raised my favourite person into the world! He’s very important!!!” 

“You’re right Rina, he is very important. So I only wanted to introduce you to him if I think we would last for a long time… I know this probably won’t help your nerves very much, but I’ve never brought anyone home before.”

“Really?”

“Well yeah, He lives all the way in Yangsan. That’s like four whole hours away by train. I wasn’t gonna take any old fling down there.”

Karina doesn’t say anything back. Her lips are pursed as she stretches the corners of . She’s worried and Minjeong can notice it so easily. She traces a thumb over her tightly knit brows and watches as it slowly relaxes, the corners of her downturned lips curving up back to neutral as well. She then wraps her arms around the demon’s shoulders to pull her closer. 

“Hey.” She starts gently, waiting to see those familiar orange eyes meet with hers. “I want my dad to see the amazing demon I’ve come to know, but if you don’t want to, you know I’d never force it, right?” 

Karina’s own eyes soften with Minjeong’s sincere stare. She can still feel the nervousness in her chest, bubbling up like a shaken can of soda, but Minjeong carefully releases the pressure before it explodes and makes a mess. “I know.” She says with a small smile. “You’re very considerate like that, and I love that about you. And I do want to meet him, it’s just that I want to make a good first impression, you know?”

“Well, my dad already has a good impression of you! He thinks you’re really pretty, first of all, you know, cause he has eyes. He thinks you’re really cute whenever you run away from the camera after saying hi. And I always send him pictures of all the elaborate food you make me. He thinks you’re a MasterChef! So please don’t worry too too much okay?”

“Okay okay, I’ll try. But can you hold my hand if I get too nervous?”

Minjeong’s smile grows wider as she takes hold of the demon’s small hands and brings them to her lips, tickling back of them with quick kisses. 

“Of course, you silly thing.”

𓆩♡𓆪

“Karina,” Minjeong calls out to the living room from their shared bedroom, knelt over a near-empty suitcase as she packs some things away. “Dad said we should stay for a few days so let's pack some extra stuff.”

A scream is heard in reply “FEW DAYS?”  Minjeong rolls her eyes as she feels a stampede of steps make their way towards her, voice getting closer. “Oh my god. Wait I need to make sure I look decent!”

“Baby, you always look decent, just pack some casual clothes it’s not that serious,” Minjeong says, still not looking up. 

When she finally turns around she sees Karina dressed impeccably in a three-piece suit, adjusting her Windsor knot in the mirror. Surely this wasn’t the same loser who was waddling into her bedroom.

“What the are you wearing!” She almost yelps in surprise. This is not casual at all! 

“What the are you wearing?” She repeats again, though this time quieter, lower almost growling, realising how utterly scrumptious she looks. She’s so fine for no goddamn reason it's actually insane. The way the suit is perfectly tailored and hugs her curves just perf- Focus! Kim Minjeong! Focus! 

“Babe,” She starts, reaching forward to undo the buttons of Karina’s blazer (because if she sees it for a moment more she really is going to combust.) My dad is going to be making dinner for us at home or we’ll be going to a few local restaurants, we aren’t going anywhere that needs all this. 

Karina stands still and lets Minjeong slip her fingers through the tie to loosen it. “I just want to make a good impression.” She says softly. 

“You will. Don’t worry.” Minjeong makes the mistake of looking up from the knot to see Karina now in a white dress shirt and loosened tie, one of her sleeves rolled up to her forearm where she was trying to attach a cufflink. She chews at her bottom lip as her face grows slightly pink. 

“...Karina, do you want some ramen?”

“Wait do you mean for real or this like last time?” Karina is pretty sure she knows the answer based on the bright red aura that's bouncing off of Minjeong, but she wants to make sure.

Because the last time Minjeong asked for ramen, she disappeared into her room. Karina didn’t know any better and started working on a bowl of shoyu ramen, which ended up taking around five hours. When she finally made her way to the bedroom in a tall white chef hat, apron and all, you could only imagine the demon's shock when she found her lingerie-clad girlfriend smelling just amazing sleeping soundly on linen sheets, she had to clutch onto that bowl for dear life to avoid spilling soup everywhere!

Let’s just say that meticulously crafted bowl of ramen was sadly wasted, but it was all for a good cause.

Minjeong giggles as she recalls the memory herself. With a smile, she undoes the knot fully, but grabs both ends of the tie as it rests on the demon’s shoulders. Without any words, she pulls Karina towards the bed. 

Packing could wait. Minjeong could not. 

𓆩♡𓆪

The two of them just about manage to pack everything in time. Minjeong was dead to the world for the next few hours, but told Karina to pack before she passed out so that they could leave for the morning. Karina takes charge of carrying their suitcase and Minjeong’s handbag, whilst Minjeong navigates the way to the right platform. Karina has never been on a train before, only ever stepping into taxis and buses. When a train pulls away from the platform she's shocked to see how quickly it zooms by, her hair getting tousled by the sudden breeze due to the high-speed rail.

“Woah!”

Minjeong laughs as she readjusts Karina’s windswept hair. “We’re getting on the next one.”

“This is so exciting!” Karina is basically vibrating with enthusiasm, seeming to have completely forgotten that this train will take her one step closer to Minjeong’s father.

When they finally board, the two manage to snag a seat with a table, which gives them a little more space. They decided to slide their luggage under the table so they wouldn’t have to keep turning back to the luggage rack to keep an eye on it.

As the KTX pulls away from the station, the demon is surprised with how surprisingly quiet and smooth the ride is, considering how loud it was earlier. She silently takes in the scenery and leans her head against the glass, watching as the rows of trees swoosh by her. Minjeong smiles as she watches Karina. She loves watching her experience new things. Moments like this are becoming rarer nowadays as the demon gains more exposure and experience. Minjeong must admit, Karina is becoming really good at this whole ‘human’ thing, to the point that sometimes she forgets that the demon hasn’t been on the earth for twenty-plus years like herself.  It's only small moments like this, where it's clear she’s experiencing her first life, eyes sparkling with wonder, where Minjeong remembers.

A few hours pass by just like that. Some gentle stares, soft discussion and nothing too hectic. They had a light lunch of some triangular kimbap from the convenience store. Karina always finds the way Minjeong eats to be super endearing. She’s not a particularly clean eater, but she eats with such joy to the point where it's infectious. She does that thing where she looks kinda pissed off but that just means the food is tasty. Karina flicks away at the stray grains of rice that stick to the corner of her girlfriend's mouth, and passes over her favourite drink to wash it all down. 

Minjeong smacks her lips but like any girl, feels the need for a sweet treat. She was a little silly and didn’t pack any snacks for the trip, but she remembered she threw in a few jellies for her dad. She’s sure he wouldn’t mind a few missing packets. She reaches for the luggage but is surprised with just how heavy it is. “Babe. what the hell did you put in here.”

“..Oh, I uh-”

Minjeong’s eyes almost pop out of her sockets due to the sudden shock, quickly zipping up the luggage as fast as she can. 

“What the was that!?” She whisper-screams in terror.

“It’s nothing! I just-”

Minjeong does not look impressed. With a look of full disapproval, she s the suitcase and reaches for the offending object, which lands on the table with an audible clunk. She stares at Karina with her arms crossed. Karina sheepishly avoids her gaze.

The whisper-screaming continues. “A ing SWORD. Are you serious!?” 

At that very moment, a ticket master walks down the cabin and gives a perplexed look. 

“Cosplay,” Minjeong replies without any hesitation as she hands over two tickets, complete with a fake sweet smile as if she wasn’t confused as hell about her own girlfriend’s antics. 

He nods and accepts the tickets without a hitch. 

Once he’s out of the cabin, Minjeong facepalms, hard. Her hands landing on her own face with an audible clap. She slowly pulls her hands down as she sighs, resting her head on her palm. 

It appears Minjeong might be half Italian with the way she's flailing around her hands since she can't raise her voice above any more decibels (Would that make her Minjeongella?). “I told you to pack some casual clothes and you bring a ing sword?”

And not just any sword. It’s small enough to fit into the luggage, but it's definitely too small to be a knife. It's not made from any discernable metals, but instead crafted from what appears to be some kind of red gemstone, clearly not something of this world. 

“...I thought your dad might like it?”

“What?”

“Your dad used to be in the military, right? Doesn’t he like stuff like this?”

“My dad retired and started a farm when my mum passed away, remember?”

“Yeah, I know but-”

“I can’t believe you just threw a sword into the luggage like that!”

“Don’t dads like it when they know their daughters are being protected? This is like, you know, something to show that I can protect you!”

“How does giving my dad a sword show that you can protect me?”

“I got it myself! I went into the Nightosphere and fought a five-headed red lizard thing. It was superrr gross.”

“You fought a what?”

“Five-headed red lizard. I think it was bearded but I’m not too sure. It really wasn’t a big deal. Okay other than it’s spit that’s like, super corrosive, but