The car ride started off silent and remained that way for at least half an hour, though it felt much longer. Youngjae had no idea how to start a conversation with Geo, and she seemed to not know what to do with him either. So, they sat in silence at Youngjae drove around Seoul. Several times, the both of them tried to start a conversation, their mouths open and eyebrows raised in interest, but in the end they backed out. They knew that the only reason that the two of them were paired together was becuase he was seemingly the only one who would tolerate her. Truth be told, that's just how he was with everyone. He was a little bit scared of Geo. She didn't pose any immediate threat; in fact she had been quite a tolerable person. But he'd never know, one day she could freak out and hex all of them. 

The awkward tension built to an unbearable point so Youngjae decided to ask her the one thing he always wondered.

"So, did you give yourself your English name?"

Instead of being relieved at the opportunity to break the silence, she looked like a rabbit caught in headlights. Personal subject, maybe? Youngjae thought.

"I mean... Were you always called Geo or were you just known as Soojung?" He tried to make it less awkward, but it didn't help. Thankfully, after a few minutes, Geo smiled at him.

"Actually I lived in England for a little while. 'Geovanna' was given to me by the family I stayed with. Since then, that's what I've been going with. It's much nicer than 'Soojung', at least to me. What about you?"

"Sorry?"

"If you could give yourself an English name, what would it be?"

Youngjae pondered the question. One name of all the English names stood out to him the most. "Ryan."

Geo raised her eyesbrow in surprise. "Ryan?"

"Yeah. My name would be Ryan Choi." He broke out into a cheeky grin. 

"DC Comics Ryan Choi? As in Atom?"

Youngjae laughed out. "Yes! Finally, someone who pays as much attention as me!"

The two of them laughed until they could no longer continue becuase it would be too uncomfortable and borderline psychotic. Once again, they sat in silence, but they were much more at ease now. 

"Look, seeing as we literally have no clue what we're doing, is there any where you want to go? Like visit your family or...?" Youngjae asked.

Geo smiled. "That'd be nice, actually. They could maybe help us for whatever we're looking for. Thanks, Youngjae."

He smiled warmly back at her. Despite there being a constant rivalry between hunters and witches for centuries, and Youngjae being one who fought against them, he couldn't shake the feeling of a budding friendship with this one. He knew that they were still human. Witches got their powers either through biology; humans born with the ability to access the powers of the supernatural universe - naturals - or through ongoing practice and training - students - and even through demonic forces - borrowers. No matter how they got their power, they were still human. They shared the weakness of mortality through ageing, diseases, etc. But they could overcome that, ageing in particular, if they were powerful enough. Youngjae didn't know how old Geo was. While she looked 19, who knew if she actually was. She could be more powerful than he imagined and she could just have overcome the ageing weakness. Not that she wouldn't be able to die if they killed her.

Geo hadn't been evil, not in the time that they knew her at least, nor did she display any signs of being so. And she didn't seem to be someone who would turn around and suddenly hex them. They'd been around her for at least a week already. She'd made friends with the hunters despite the obvious initial awkwardness. She gave them the answer. If she was going to hurt them, she would have done it by now.

But then again, betrayal is a human survival instinct.

Youngjae pulled into the driveway Geo led him to. For some reason he thought that a witch's den would be... A lot more dark and ancient than whatever he was looking at. He'd never come across a coven, just witches wreaking havoc, so he always had a preconceived idea on what they'd look like. He pictured an abandoned warehouse, leaves and vines growing over the walls, rusted doors that squealed when opened without magic. The inside would be filled with cobwebs with an altar covered in a red table cloth with a goblet in the centre, surrounded by ingredients for hex bags, potions, anything. Herbs, a cauldron, thousands and thousands of candles giving the only light in the dark room. Around the altar would be the witches themselves, cloaked and their faces made up with white face paint and black triangles and swirls all over their faces, lips also black. Their eyes would be wide, eyebrows most probably gone - either shaven off because they were crazy or covered with the white paint - and hair shaved or back in the hood of the cloaks. They would chant gibberish to the goblet in the centre of the altar, hands doing strange movements. 

What he imagined was not what he saw at all; a fantasy of his ideal coven in which he would burst through and gank all the witches causing hell. Instead, he saw a normal one storey house, surrounded by happy neighbours. There was no sense of danger or fear. The house he pulled into took his breath away. It was simply beautiful. 

The house on the left was blue/grey horizontal planks rather than bricks with white t, a white brick walk up in the centre on grass, in line with the door. There were two very large windows next to the rosewood door which had a wreath on it. On both sides of the door were small lights, rectangular in dark blue cases. Three windows were present on the left section of the house, one on the right section. On top of the roof, also a blue/grey colour, were dormers; little faux windows that add dimmension to the house. They were cute, like little houses on top of the roof. It was a cute little home, clean and nicely renovated. 

On the right side was another long house, three sections, the one on the far right obvious as it jutted out. It was a very light grey colour, planked like the other neighbour house. The far left only had one window, where as the right had two. The roof was a darker grey. The door was pine, the frame white and four little window openings lining the sides. The walk up, brick as well, was red. It was pretty, but not as pretty as the left neighbour. 

In the middle of the two was another silvery blue planked house. Large indows were apparently a huge thing in the street; as were horizontal planks instead of bricks. It was a long house, one window on the far left, two on the far right. The centre, the main house front, was in similar fashion to the blue/grey house. It had lantern heads next to a wooden door that was in the centre of two large windows. All the windows were bordered with white, dark blue boards on either side, attached to the windows. There were house plants next to the door, creating symmetry in the porch. The porch was wooden, a little bit of a lighter brown than the door. The pillars and the fence surrounding the porch were white, just like the roof. The walk up wasn't brick like the other two houses, it was smooth pavement that was light in colour. 

Youngjae walked behind Geo in quiet awe at the house. He couldn't believe that this is the house she lived in. She walked to the door, and unlocked it with her key. When she opened it, he heard music and conversational chatter. For some reason he expected silence. He followed her inside and saw that the house was an open layout. The dining, living area and kitchen were all present, and Jesus Christ, could these witches decorate.

The talking stopped as the two new individuals got further into the house and he saw that there were at least five other people, a mix of male and female, who stared at Geo. Youngjae saw that she had tensed. Because he was behind her, he couldn't see her facial expression, but he guessed that it was something pained. The other five witches were in shock at their member having come back, and with a strange man nonetheless. 

One of the girls started walking toward Geovanna, short hair dyed light brown. She was wearing a plain black short sleeved shirt, which showed off a tattoo sleeve. She broke off into a run toward the other girl, and Youngjae feared that they would start fighting. Instead, Geo was swept up into a bear hug and carried off, twirling. She and the other girl were laughing, squeezing each other like best friends who hadn't seen each other in years. The other four witches cheered and ran toward her as well, and Youngjae had no choice but to step back and laugh at the group. They were all so happy to see their friend back; he could almost forget that they weren't witches.

"Park Soojung! Where the hell have you been?!" One of the guys asked. 

Geo laughed as he rubbed the top of her head with his knuckles. "Sorry, N! I was busy!"

"Yah! Soojung eonnie!" A girl hugged Geo around her waist. "You promised to teach me how to make lasagna and then you just left!"

Geo bowed her head. "Doyeon-ah. I'm sorry, okay? I'm here now, it's okay."

The six of them started to playfully complain about their friend who left without their knowledge apparently, laughing and catching up. Youngjae felt uncomfortable at the back, watching and staying quiet. He cleared his throat and at last, Geo remembered he was there. Her eyes widened and she untangled herself from her friends and turned toward him.

"Okay, so I know I haven't been here for a week or so, but there's a good reason!" She stoof in front of Youngjae, failing to shield him with her short height.

"Please, dear god, don't tell me he's now your boyfriend," one of the guys mumbled.

Geo shook her head vigorously. "Mino, shut up. Look, I know you guys told me not to, but I think we all needed to find a way to stop Herodias -"

"Oh , Soojung, no, what did you do?" The short haired girl - Amber, Youngjae heard Geo call her - grumbled.

Geo took a deep breath. "Well, you weren't gonna help me so... I got outside help."

The other witches held their breaths as she turned to Youngjae, gesturing him to walk forward. When he didn't, she shoved him forward. 

"This is Choi Youngjae," the others gasped, "And he has promised to help us, and so have the other five, without killing us."

The others roared in annoynace. 

"Damn it, Soojung, we told you not to go for a reason!" N yelled.

"Do you seriously think you can trust a hunter? They've been on our asses for years, years," Amber told her off.

"I know, I know, which is why I went off by myself!" Geo yelled out. "Look, we've all talked it out. We're all on the same side here. Please, just, listen to me. We've already found a Nephilim. And I found one of the Cambions. Now we just need to find the other ones and the Nephaelem."

N crossed his arms over his chest. "Soojung, what on earth possessed you to do this? Don't you think that you should have at least informed someone?"

"I knew you'd say no. So I went anyway."

Mino ruffled his hair in annoyance. "Soojung, this is the third time you've done this in fifty years! You need to stop!"

Geo shrugged helplessly. "I know that this is a solid plan and that it will work. You just needed to trust me, but you didn't so I did it myself."

"Soojung, the last time you had a plan that you swore would work we wound up dying and coming back every. Single. Day," Doyeon looked at her judgmentally. Youngjae guessed that Geo wasn't actually the 'eonnie' in their relationship.

"Not to mention that you blew up that guy's house while cooking up a simple potion," another boy said.

"Rocky, that was a difficult one for me!"

"It was tea, Soojung. How did you manage to screw up leaving a tea bag inside a cup of hot water?"

"It was tricky! And, by the way, I don't think that it was actual tea leaves in there, so it wasn't my fault."

The witches went back to bickering, Youngjae feeling awkward once again. Even though his presence should have been met with them screaming at him in fear and using magic to scare him, they looked over him and saw Geo as a child that needed to be told off. He decided to take things into his own hands, to get the case moving forward. He clapped his hands the way teachers did in a classroom - the clap, clap, clapclapclap. The witches looked to him. Youngjae looked into each of their eyes, wide and unblinking. 

"Okay, now that I have your attention," he smoothed his hair. "We need your help in tracking down the second Cambion. Now I promise I won't hurt you. You guys are actually hilarious and I am a fair person. Please, if it wasn't an emergency, I wouldn't be here. Please."

His words had a calming effect on all of them. They looked to each other and he saw their shoulders release the tension. Amber was the first to look at him and nod. The others followed suit. 

"Alrighty then, to the internet or tracking spells we go! Soojung, lead the way," Youngjae smiled brightly, and followed Geo as she brought him into an office room that was to the left of the entryway. He sat down as he was joined with the other five witches and watched as they got everything ready. They worked perfectly together, in sync and little spoken communication, showing just how well they knew each other. Something inside him calmed. He was usually on edge with witches, but these didn't give him a wide berth and rather treated him like a regular person. He felt a familiar yet alien emotion. It was warm, and happy, something that he hadn't felt in years. Strangely, he felt like he was at home. 

So, basically, Soojung is the moon moon of the witches. I feel like I should explain the ending and so I shall - Youngjae felt like he was seeing a family and bc he hadn't been with his own in ages and they were ignoring him + his status, he felt like he was accepted. The house is homey which gives the feeling of being inside a family home which is why he felt like he was at home - you feel me? If not, basically the house has an aura and it makes him feel at home and the witches are a family that give off a vibe that he could belong if they weren't witches and he weren't a hunter. 

Thanks for reading btw ^^ hope it was enjoyable :D

Oh! And if you were unable to picture the house (understandable, my description was horrible seeing as I know nothing about houses), this is the link: https://magnoliamarket.com/our-show/episode-17-carriage-house/

I've been watching a lot of these renovation shows lately... It's a new obsession while I wait for all the new seasons of shows.