Minjeong is blessed to live in the estate that she has. Top-notch facilities like both an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, gym, private rooms for movie screenings, the whole works. Her modern two-story apartment on the seventeenth floor overlooks the bustling city and yet despite the comfort that Minjeong lives in, one thing she hates about her home, specifically her room, is how she always wakes up because the sun streams into her room so aggressively. 

Minjeong is forced to blink away her sleep, groaning once she recognises the familiar throb of a hangover, as if a rubber band has been tightly coiled around her head.

When she’s finally cognisant, she almost jumps out of her skin when she finds a pair of dark orange eyes staring at her.

Karina’s face is completely emotionless, but with the slight rise and fall of her chest, coupled with the occasional blink, tells Minjeong that the demon is indeed not a jpeg file. 

“Jesus Christ you scared the out of me!”

“I do believe humans usually greet others with a simple good morning?”

It wasn’t enough for Karina’s low voice to already be so attractive already with its deep and rich quality, but in the morning it was even deadlier, huskier with a slight rasp.  

Minjeong tries to move her arms to rub at her eyes, but then realises that they are tightly wrapped around Karina’s waist.

Her snatched, toned, unreal waist. 

She likes that. She decides to keep them there. 

She doesn’t say or do anything for the moment, but her head is moving at a million miles an hour in an effort to reflect on her actions. In truth, Minjeong wasn’t and hadn’t been ‘all there’ for a while. When she went to sleep drunk off her rocker last night, she was damn sure that everything was a hallucination or some sort of dream and that she’d wake up with everything close to normal.

Queue waking up next to Karina. That is not normal.

Minjeong brings a slow hand up to Jimin’s face, feeling the soft skin of her cheek. The moment could have been sweet, but not when she followed the action with the firmest pinch she could muster.

Karina doesn’t flinch, doesn’t yell, doesn’t do anything. 

Minjeong squeezes her face and inspects, playing around as she watches the demon’s plump lips stretch out into a thin line. She even repositions her hand down to her pointed chin and squeezes again to make Karina’s face bunch up and turn into a cute pout. 

Minjeong smiles to herself. Karina doesn’t know why her insides start feeling funny.

“What are you doing?” She asks, still void of emotion.

Minjeong’s facial assault seizes. “I’m seeing if I’m awake for real or if this is some dream.”

“So why are you pinching me? Aren’t you the one who is supposed to be pinched?”

Oh. She’s right about that. 

Minjeong releases her hold when she realises that she’s doing everything all topsy turvy and there is no real merit to her actions. “I- Sorry, my head’s a mess right now,” she admits truthfully as she presses against her temples.

Sickness isn’t something that Karina has a primary experience with. Being an immortal demon, she doesn’t have to worry about colds, fevers or pandemics of any kind- but she knows that humans have to value health to a great degree because they can die. Wait, does that mean Minjeong is going to die? Die like… Right now??

Karina’s eyes show emotion for the first time since Minjeong has woken up, her orange eyes are left wide in concern, even if it was only for a flash. 

“Are you okay?” she asks, reaching out to touch Minjeong’s forehead to see if she has a fever. 

Minjeong almost choked at the concern being shown to her, but that was thrown out the window when two strong hands grabbed her by the waist and turned her over. A hand travels up her shirt, past the small of her back and lands flat around her shoulder blades.

Minjeong doesn’t want to think about how the demon’s strength makes her stomach turn inside out, or the way she finds Karina’s concern for her to be something heart-fluttering.

Human bodies are always a little warm, but Karina doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Yay! Minjeong is not dying! The demon lets out a sigh of relief. 

“You’re okay.” 

Karina places her hands back on Minjeong’s hips again and turns her over so they’re facing again.

She yelps at how effortlessly Karina throws her around like she’s nothing.

“O-Oh, Minjeong…” The look of concern returns but looks even more severe. Karina inspects closer, her eyes in a slight squint and her lips pursed, creating a small dimple on her cheek. Before Minjeong knows it, the demon’s hands come back towards her face. 

“Your cheeks are warm.” 

Minjeong’s heart hammers in her chest, threatening to break free. “I-It’s just the hangover!” She dismisses, peeling the demon’s hands away from her cheeks. 

“So human cheeks get all warm when they’ve had too much to drink, even after sleeping?”

“Yep. Alcohol can make people blush, like when we’re embarrassed, or when someone attractive gets too close.”

Karina knows she’s attractive. She smirks and it's devilishly charming, especially for Minjeong’s recovering brain.

“Am I too close?” She dares to tease.

Minjeong looks on in disgust at the audacity- and that's a lot coming from her considering she assaulted her with a frying pan yesterday.

“Can you shut the up?”

“What?! I swear you said something like ‘You’re ing hot and I’m a stressed homoual on a deadline’, that means you find me attractive, right?” Her smirk has formed into a full-on grin now.

Minjeong doesn’t answer. For a writer who is supposed to have mastery over language, she really is struggling to find the right words, left tongue-tied brain fried.

“Your face is doing that thing again-  it’s turning red.”

“Rina!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re even redder now, Fascinating!” She says condescendingly.

“Are you embarrassed?”

Minjeong wants to scream, she wants to hide, but she can’t because the devil incarnate is right next to her and is so annoying. Her head is spinning, her cheeks are warm and she’s damn near close to breaking out into a cold sweat.

“It’s the hangover. , I already said it's the hangover, stop pestering me!” She barely manages to say without a stammer. 

Although Minjeong might be lying about the cause of her reddened cheeks, her hangover really is being a pain right now and Karina is NOT helping. She clutches the top of her head as it continues to throb uncomfortably. 

“Does it hurt?”

“dOeS iT hUrt? Yes, don’t ask me such a stupid question!”

“I can make it go away if you want.”

Minjeong raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Really?”

The demon smirks, always the opportunist. 

“If you admit that you’re blushing cause you think I’m hot.”

The writer grimaces and lets out a displeased groan. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

“That was close, maybe try changing the second word in that sentence. You can do it! Fighting!” She blinks for extra effect and the writer questions if demons have a thing for being the absolute worst.

Minjeong pouts, feeling defeated.

“Come on, admit it. It’s just us here.”

“Okay fine. You’re hot. Super hot. Waking up