It was after a week that Joohyun had finally stopped blaming herself for Hanbin's death, she even visited Heejin a few days ago but she had completely forgotten who Joohyun was. 

“So, Joohyun unnie...” 

“Hmm?” 

“When are you taking another request?” Yerim asked as they walked down the halls of the church's sanctuary. She has been staying at Joohyun's place for two weeks now and she has not even done a single thing about her field research. Her report was due the next two weeks so she was really starting to worry.

“I’m thinking maybe tomorrow. That is, if there are any requests from the church.” Joohyun replied. She was honestly thinking of taking one that day but she just was not feeling it.

“Why are you asking, Yerim?” Curious as to why Yerim was suddenly interested in her schedule, she decided to ask Yerim.

“It’s just you know, I only have two weeks left before my report’s due.”

‘Ah, so it’s about her field research.’ Joohyun thought to herself before she replied, “Should I just take a two weeks leave?” teasing Yerim.

“Come on! Don’t do this to me please?” Yerim pleaded with an aegyo voice before she was slapped on the forearm by Joohyun telling her to stop.

“I’ll see if there’s any tomorrow night so stop now, alright?” If there’s anything about Yerim's aegyo, it's that it was even worse than Seulgi's.

“Can it be in the afternoon? I only have classes in the morning.”

Yerim wanted to do it in afternoon so she could laze around all night. Who would want to do anything tiring at night anyways but, Joohyun had a different mindset. She much preferred to hunt demons at night as they are prone to be more active during the night and the risk of the general public getting involved at night would be lower compared to during the day. Although the city never sleeps, there would not be as much people going about at night time.

“I don’t like hunting for demons during the day, Yerim. It’s better to do it at night.”

“Sigh, okay then.” Sighing dejectedly, Yerim could only concede to Joohyun.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, Yerim. What were you doing with Jeongyeon and the others last week?” Joohyun had been wondering what Yerim was doing with a bunch of high ranked demon slayers especially the likes of Jeongyeon who was a candidate to replace Nayeon.

“You mean when we helped you kill the demon that day? They were out on a mission and I was just tagging along, I’m actually quite close with a few of them.”

“You’re close friends with them?”

“Yeah, epsecially Jeongyeon unnie and Saeron.” Joohyun had heard of Saeron as well, -from Sooyoung when she was gossiping as usual- she was quite an excellent rank A demon slayer who was catching up on the other rank S slayers in a very fast pace.

Although Saeron was a few years younger than her and had only started out for not more than two years, she was a young prodigy who excelled in all aspects during her academy years. When Saeron first started out as a demon slayer, she was already doing solo hunts. There were even rumours that in a year's time, she would be ascending to rank S.

Normally, the estimated time for an individual to reach rank S in their time serving as a demon slayer would be ten years and this includes being very talented and graduating at the top of the church’s academy. When a demon slayer wants to ascend to another rank, they have to do certain missions or hunts to prove that they are worthy. 

In the system, every single demon slayer has their own credit points for how many requests and hunts they took part and contributed to. The requests are categorized into different tiers for different demons, so different requests reward different credit points. 

Although the demons do not have ranks amongst themselves, the church however, does classify the demons into a tier list. Demons like Hanbin who have wings would be considered tier two demons and the likes of Taeyong -ones that have four wings- would be classified as tier one. As for Demon Lords, they were not put into the tier list as one Demon Lord by themselves would have been classified as a national level threat.

When the credit limit for a demon slayer's rank reaches its limits -the limit increases with each rank- the individual is eligible to take a special mission to upgrade their respective rank. For example, a rank C demon slayer would need to go for a solo mission if they want to ascend to rank B. All Saeron needs to do after she reaches the limit is to take on a tier one demon for her to ascend to rank S.

“How are you so close with them, the both of them have been demon slayers for years especially Jeongyeon, doesn’t she have five to six years under her belt?”

“We all came from the same orphan home.” 

“Oh...” Joohyun dragged her word feeling as though she might have touched a sensitive topic.

“It’s okay, it doesn’t really bother me that much. I've found a good family from that orphan home.” Yerim smiled as she recounted the times she had spent with Jeongyeon, Saeron and Nayeon at the orphan home the church owned.

The group of four started with Nayeon and Jeongyeon who had arrived around the same time. The both of them were already close friends with each other before Saeron had been sent to live with them in the same orphan home. The last to arrive would be Yerim. There was also a Seohyun unnie who acted as a big sister of the group but she had left the orphan home not long after Yerim had joined them so Yerim does not remember much of her.

“How come every one of them are prodigies, becoming demon slayers at such young ages and yet you’re still stuck at the academy at sixteen?”

“Hey! That hurt my feelings!” Yerim slapped Joohyun’s forearm dramatically before the both of them laughed.

“It’s because I only started attending the academy last year. I’ll be graduating in a few months.” 

“Then, you’re quite the smart one aren’t you.” Truth be told, even though Yerim was a clutz -she somehow always mess up the things in their now shared apartment- Yerim was quite the prodigy herself. 

Joining the church academy at the age of fifteen, Yerim was able to outclass every same year student -even the senior students sometimes- in terms of physicality