Boisterous laughter filled the room, “I have always wanted to say that before.” The blonde haired, red tailed man leaned back onto the palms of his hands that rested on the top of the dresser, “I’m the devil.” He laughed again, enjoying his own joke.

I, however, did not find this to be funny at all.  My grandfather was gone. The shrine was a wreck. And there was a mysterious blonde laughing as his what I think is a tail waved back and forth, in the room. On a scale of one to ten of how funny this situation is, I would give it a one. And that’s because realistically, the scale can’t go lower.

The blonde however seemed to be enjoying himself and his next words simply affirmed this obvious fact, “You should’ve seen your face. Running around, yelling for that old man. Looks like you’re a bit more filial than I thought.”

Now this was getting annoying. He was talking as though he actually knew me. I for one have never seen him in my life. What drew my attention more though was the fact that he mentioned my grandfather. “Where is grandpa?” I asked him as I stood up slowly from my backpack.

His laughter faded at that question and he looked down at me, his eyes locking with mine. And for a moment, I felt an electric shock run down my spine. There was something about him that was different. As if the tail didn’t already give him away, his eyes seemed to look right through me. As though he knew everything about me. As though because of that, he knew exactly how to deal with me. And I have to admit, the next thing he said stunned me speechless.

He grinned, his gums showing above his teeth, as he shrugged his shoulders, “I dunno.”

There was silence as he looked down at me, his smile showing no sign of fading. I was lost in him for a second. In that large, inhuman grin. It was as though something drew me to him. The same something that made him different. I walked closer to him and his eyes watched me. Watched my every move as I came to a stop in front of him, my eyes never leaving his own. He leaned forward, towards me, until the tip of his nose was only a few inches away from my own.

And as I stared up at those deep pools of pitch black, my hand lifted from my side, reaching upwards.

And I slowly let my fingers skim down the length of his red tail. All the while, his smile got wider. And as I let my fingers wrap around that red, leathery feeling tail of his, I gripped down hard. I glanced towards him and he was still grinning from ear to ear, but it was different. As though he was edging me on. I didn’t smile back. No.

Instead, I scowled and without hesitation yanked downwards on it as I took a step back. He went falling off of the dresser along with it and landed onto the floor of the room with a loud thud. He groaned in pain only to do so again when I put the heel of my foot onto his tail, pinching it to the ground.

“Where is my grandfather?” I asked as I leaned down to him, my heel still firm on his tail. As I pressed down more, he groaned once more. Somehow, it caused him immense pain, and I was certainly not going to let up on the only leverage I seemed to have in this situation.

He didn’t answer. Not right away anyway. This only caused me to put more pressure down on it and that caused another moan to be produced from his lips.

“Are you not going to answer?” I growled through clenched teeth. He whined softly which caused me to almost put all of my strength in my heel. Almost. Because then, he finally spoke up.

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” His hands went into the air, his palms up towards me, “Stop. Stop.” He took a deep breath as though regaining himself. When he finished, he unclenched his eyes as he looked up at me. His voice was a rough whisper as he spoke, “I don’t think you know exactly what you’re doing right now.”

I let my heel reduce the pressure on his tail, just a bit. It was an act of mercy that looking back on, I should have never committed.

As soon as I let up on him, his grimace of pain was gone and what replaced it was that same large, devilish grin. His hand grabbed onto my ankle and yanked me downwards. I yelped as I fell to the ground, expecting to hit the floor hard. Instead, I didn’t. I was caught by something. Or rather, by someone. The same someone that now hovered over me, their dark eyes looking me over as the pain he experienced moments ago failed to make itself known on his face. As though he were never in pain in the first place.

“You don’t get to do that unless you make tribute first you know. Silly girl.” His eyes glazed over me once, and despite my tries to push him away, he remained there. Moments went by. Moments that felt like I had experienced many lifetimes before he finally spoke up, “Your grandfather you ask? I just now stumbled upon this hilarious situation, so you can’t exactly expect me to know the answer to that question. But it should be obvious shouldn’t it? Where all do old people go when something happens?”

“Sora, what are you doing here?”

“Hello Miss Kwon, I was wondering if my grandfather was brought here.”

Miss Kwon, a family friend who happened to be a nurse at the local hospital, blinked a few times at me as though she were trying to remember if he had been. “Well, I just got off of my break, so let me check.” She looked to her computer and began to check the patient logs.

All the while, I attempted to ignore the ramblings of the blonde haired, red tailed, devil of a man who stood behind me.

“Look at you, going all sweet all of a sudden. Do you normally experience violent tendencies?”

Miss Kwon didn’t look up at him. Not at all. In fact, no one paid attention to him. Mostly because I was the only one who could see him. He told me in simple words, “I’m a demon,” as though that somehow explained everything. He had apparently chosen to appear to me at the shrine earlier. I honestly wish he would just hurry up and disappear.

“I wonder what that old man got himself into this time. I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

That’s right. That’s the only reason he followed in the first place. He just wanted to see my grandfather. My grandfather who was involved with this “demon” in some way. For some reason, it wasn’t surprising. He always did practice weird things and the shrine clearly wasn’t Catholic or Protestant. Though it was slightly hard to wrap my mind around the whole idea, I never was the kind of person to reject what was so obviously displayed in front of me.

The guy had a red tail. No one else could see him but me. He said he’s a demon.

No reason to reject that.

What I was still trying to come to terms with was that this was reality. That this wasn’t a dream. That I wouldn’t wake up to find myself passed out on the couch after binging on junk food with Sehun late one night. Maybe that’s why it was all so easy to accept. Because it wasn’t real at all.

“Oh, he was brought here around an hour ago.” Miss Kwon drew me out of my thoughts with her voice, “He’s on the fifth floor. Room 510. Do give him my regards.” She waved as I bowed politely before leaving.

The blonde was still following me, his hands in the pockets of his bright red pants as he skipped along down the hall of the hospital. Now that I saw it, his white shirt with spots of black and military colored vest weren’t exactly what I pictured a demon to wear. Not that I know enough about demons and junk to actually know if they have fashion sense or not. Apparently, he noticed the stare I was giving him.

“What? Changed your mind about that tribute?” He broke out into a devious grin as he once more said those words I didn’t understand. Tribute for what exactly? And why did he look at me in that twisted way everytime he said it?

I decided to ignore him as we finally reached the elevator. I can’t exactly say I was all too thrilled to have to then ride up in silence once it got there. Not to mention the fact that there were two young women who had rushed to get on right before the doors closed. I didn’t press the door open button. I would have, but Mr. Demon went and did it first. As soon as they got on, I could see him, looking at them out of the corner of his eyes. Checking them out so obviously. The worst part was that they couldn’t see him doing it. As they got off on the third floor and the doors closed behind them, his lips broke out into a smile.

“It’s amazing today isn’t it? The length of those skirts just keep getting shorter and shorter.” He looked at me, as though expecting an answer. Pigs would fly before I ever acknowledged his comment. Though I guess since demons apparently exist, pigs flying isn’t so unrealistic.

I glanced at him as the elevator went past the forth floor only to see out of the corner of my eye him looking down, towards the skirt I was wearing today. I inched forward slowly and I saw it, the look he threw at me as though he noticed I had done it to get away from him.

“Though I guess not everyone is following the trend.” He laughed as the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal the fifth floor. I stepped off without a second thought, trying to put as much distance between myself and him.

Laughter filled the room now. Not coming from me. Not coming from my now scowling grandfather who sat up in his hospital bed. From the only person, or perhaps not even a person, who could ever make such a noise.

The blonde haired demon next to me.

And my grandfather looked on, the deep wrinkles on his forehead becoming deeper as his eyebrows furrowed downwards. He looked to me afterwards, reprimanding me with his eyes. “Sora. Do you see him?”

I didn’t have to answer the question because Mr. Demon was oh so kind enough to do it for me. “She does she does. Didn’t take much on my part either to make it happen old man.” He bounded over to my grandfather’s bedside and sat right down at the end of the hospital bed, making himself at home. My grandfather looked on at him disdainfully before turning back to me. His eyes went soft, and honestly it was the first time he ever looked at me like that.

His harsh glances and stern tone were another reason Sehun never wanted to clean the shrine with me after all.

It was odd because it seemed as though he were saying sorry, “How is the shrine?”

It took me a moment to register what he asked but once more, I didn’t have to answer.

“A mess old man. One big, fat mess. Who’d you piss of this time?”

My grandfather ignored his words, and I have to admit it felt quite gratifying to watch him do it, “Sora, this is Bang Yongguk.” I nodded once, feeling as though I shouldn’t say anything in response. Even as the demon whose name it was he just spoke eyed me now as though trying to gauge my reaction. My grandfather spoke again, just as I thought he would, “He’s a demon.”

“That I am.” The demon, Bang Yongguk, proclaimed proudly as he crossed his arms against his chest.

Before I could ask what this was all about. Why my grandfather knew demons. What the shrine was really worshipping. If this was all a dream as I kept trying to tell myself it was, he spoke again. He said something that only further confused me and sent Bang Yongguk into an angered frenzy.

“Though I should say that he’s your demon now.”