Chapter Fourteen: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”

                “Alright. That’s enough for now,” Seunghyun said as he reached out to pry the book Gayun had been reading from her hands. He wrestled the very interesting work of literature away from her, causing the girl to gasp with righteous indignation before reaching to get it back. Unfortunately, for fear of upturning the sleepy kitten on her lap, all she could do was reach as far as she could while Seunghyun held it tauntingly just out of her reach.

                “Give it back!” she demanded, “I only have fifty more pages to go!”

                “You can wait for an hour,” he laughed before marking her spot by dog-earing the book. He set it down on top of the shelf of books behind him where Gayun couldn’t reach without a stepstool.

                “Why an hour?” she asked, becoming more and more exasperated with his actions.

                “I figured that’s about as long as it would take to go buy you some new dining room furniture,” he replied, his lips tilted up into a crooked smile that made Gayun’s heart quicken. She shook her head and decided that she really needed to cut down on her caffeine intake.

                “You’re doing what?” she asked, her brow furrowing as she tried to figure out if he was teasing or not.

              “Buying you a table and chairs like how you commanded me,” he cocked an eyebrow at her, “Don’t you remember? Or were you so dazzled by my dashing good looks that you simply forget.”

                “Your ugly face was so startling that my mind went blank,” she retorted before gently moving the cat off of her lap. While Seunghyun waited patiently for her, she went back upstairs to grab a pair of shoes along with her bag. Even though he said he was paying, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure that the demon wasn’t lying in some way. He was being way too nice; there had to be a catch somewhere.

                “Took you long enough,” he commented once she finally descended down the stairs. Instead of coming up with a witty response like always, Gayun stuck her tongue out at him before walking out the door with him on her heels. She turned the sign and locked the door before the two of them began walking towards the furniture store a few blocks away.

                “How are we going to get the stuff back home?” she asked after it occurred to her that she definitely didn’t have a car, which would make transporting something large and heavy especially difficult.

                “Well, I could use magic or I could go get my car and drive it back,” he said but how was she supposed to know he had a car. She’d never seen it before.

                “If you have a car, why do we order takeout?” she asked, “You could drive us to the food.”

                “I thought you wanted to cook at home,” he teased, his lips pulling back to reveal his sparkling white teeth. A group of teenage girls stopped in their tracks to stare at him with wide eyes and open mouths. Gayun half worried that a bug would aimlessly fly in to one of their gaping mouths and choke one of the poor girls.

                “Yeah but eating out is nice too.” She whacked his arm when he winked at the underage youth. He winced but let out a rather loud laugh as they finally passed them completely. However, Gayun could still feel their eyes on their backs for another minute or so.

                “Fine,” he made an exaggerated sigh, “I’ll take you out next Friday then.”

                “How can you afford to take me out when you never work?” she asked, “You drive us there and I’ll pay.” That sounded like a good compromise. Otherwise, it would feel too much like a date and Gayun wasn’t sure about that just yet.

                “I’ve been around for a very long time,” he said, his voice holding a faint trace of nostalgia and something a little more unsettling, “I don’t need to have a job now to take you out. I’ve got plenty of money stored away. Besides, if I run out of cash I can always flirt with the wait staff or manager and get the check cleared.”

                 “That scares me a little bit,” she admitted as they rounded the corner towards the furniture store.

                “That’s what scares you?” he snorted, “I remember when we first met and my appearance almost made you piss your pants with fear.”

                “Yeah but then I realized you’re just a jerk with horns.”

                “A cute jerk,” he corrected.

                “With horns,” she reminded before they stepped through the automatic doors. They were really working on getting rid of their bed frames at the moment so the front display was of a cozy looking bed with a rainbow stripped bedspread. She wondered how quickly her cats would ruin it.

                They walked right past it and towards the back where all of the dining room furniture would be. Unfortunately, many of the tables were either too big or too small for the purpose hers was supposed to serve. Instead of getting impatient with her, Seunghyun stood by as Gayun weighed the option of how many books she could fit on a table while being able to still eat at it and have it fit in her apartment.

                Finally, she settled on a lovely dark washed table and decided to buy three of the matching chairs. There’d be one for her, one for Seunghyun, and one for her Tolkien books. “Are you sure you don’t want four?” Seunghyun asked after she made her decision.

                “Why would I need four? There’s only two of use and one set of novels.”

                “What if we have guests?” he asked as they walked towards the front of the store with the lot numbers of the furniture stored in his latest model phone. “What if your mom comes over?”

                “I never get guests,” she paused, “If she comes over then I’ll move the books or we can all go out somewhere in your car.”

                “You’re really stuck on that car thing aren’t you?”

                “You have no idea how much I hate taking buses and taxis,” she sighed.

                “Is that why you never go any-” Before he could finish, Gayun sent an elbow to his ribs. He winced but she didn’t hit him that hard. If he was as strong of a demon as he claimed to be, one human shouldn’t be able to do too much damage.

                “You should probably get your car after you…” Gayun trailed off when she made eye contact with a rather muscular man dressed in black with a clerical collar. Her brown eyes widened when she realized she had met him once before.

                The priest’s eyes paused on her for a moment before flitting over towards the demon beside her, causing Seunghyun to tense. The incubus’ eyes flashed purple as the priest’s hand immediately went to his gold and silver rosary as Latin spewed from his lips.

                “One day!” Gayun exclaimed, “Can’t I have just one normal day?” 

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sorry that I haven't updated in a while but nursing school is hitting me hard; I've had at least one exam every week for the past three weeks and that'll remain true for the next two as well OTL 

Wish me luck guys!

As always comment, subscribe, and upvote to motivate me to take breaks and work on this more ;)