The next afternoon, Minji was busy getting ready to meet up with the other demons, glad she still had a bikini in her wardrobe that she could wear today. She had prepared a few towels and sunscreen as well as something to eat and drink, but since she wasn’t sure what exactly the demons had planned for today, she was a bit nervous. Baëkhyun hadn’t told her much about this Suhø and his other friends, so she wasn’t sure what to expect. At least she had already met Sehůn, Chanyeøl, Chën, and Kāi… and as far as she knew, her friends Yixing and Jangmi would be there too. That didn’t sound bad at all, now that she thought about it.

The weather was gorgeous, perfect to go swimming. It was hot outside and there was no breeze to cool her down. She had put her long black hair up in a ponytail and wore her blue bikini under a light summer dress. Even Baëkhyun was dressed more casually today than usual, wearing short black trousers and a loose shirt. He seemed to look forward to meeting his friends since his mood was quite good today.

Minji walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of water from the fridge, but she got a huge scare when she ran right into Kāi who had appeared out of thin air. She collided with him, stumbling back, but he caught her and prevented her from falling.

“Oh wow, you’re so into me,” he commented with a seductive grin that made her blush. “Baëkhyun must be quite boring when you’re throwing yourself at me like that.”

“K-Kāi?!” she squeaked.

“The one and only!” he grinned proudly. “You’re not this time,” he remarked, sounding disappointed.

Her cheeks were colored red. “You ert! I’m not running around without clothes at home, what did you expect?”

“Hm, that’s odd.”

“What do you mean, odd?! It’s completely normal to wear clothes,” she screeched in embarrassment, inwardly cursing this unashamed demon. Only because he liked showing off his abs didn’t mean it was the same for everybody!

He chuckled lowly and waggled his eyebrows, leaning closer to her. “Oh, you know. I would have expected someone to make a move on you but you two are lamer than I thought. Shouldn’t you be all over each other? Maybe I could spice things up a bit!” His eyes gleamed with evil joy, promising nothing but chaos.

“W-What are you even—” she began but cut herself off when he got so close to her that their noses were touching, hypnotizing her with his strong gaze. Her words got stuck in .

“Get the away from her!” a very irritated voice boomed from behind her, causing the smirk on Kāi’s face to widen. He snickered mischievously, intent on causing trouble.

“Make me,” he grinned and stuck his tongue out childishly. “I’m taking her somewhere else,” he said, earning a growl from Baëkhyun. Rays of light appeared around his body, illuminating the kitchen. Minji stared at Kāi who put his arm loosely around her shoulders and winked at her, whispering, “We’re going to have some fun without this lame .”

Before Baëkhyun could do anything, Minji was surrounded by pitch-black darkness. Nausea washed over her, nearly making her vomit, but then her sight cleared and she found herself standing in paradise.

fell open in astonishment and she couldn’t believe her eyes. An endless white beach was in front of her, vibrant green palm trees offering shade from the sweltering sun. To her right, the bright blue ocean glimmered in a beautiful play of colors. It was turquoise near the beach and faded to dark blue farther away. Minji had never in her life set foot in such a beautiful place and was speechless. His teleportation ability certainly was useful. She was jealous of him, knowing that he could come by for a visit any time he wanted to.

“I take it you like the view,” Kāi laughed, standing next to her and watching her reaction.

“It’s incredible!” she breathed.

“Great, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear! Suhø chose this place, you should thank him later,” Kāi added, and Minji finally noticed the group of people standing not far from them. Some of them she recognized, others were unfamiliar to her. “Let’s go and meet them.”

He took her hand and pulled her after him enthusiastically. They walked up to the group who had already spotted them and waved at them. Minji saw Sehůn and Jangmi, Chanyeøl, Chën, Yixing, and three other men she had never seen before. Everybody wore either swimwear or light clothing suited to the hot weather. A small wooden cabin was behind them, its door open.

“Minji!” Jangmi yelled and embraced her friend who giggled in response. “Finally you’re here!”

“Hello Jangmi,” she smiled.

“Where did you leave Baëkhyun, though?” Yixing asked amusedly, one glance in Kāi’s smug face already telling him what he had planned. He could only roll his eyes at the shenanigans of the younger demon, knowing that he would be in deep trouble later on.

“Typical,” a dark-haired demon said, rolling his eyes annoyedly. He was accompanied by a man with dark red hair that formed two horns, his vibrant blue eyes taking Minji’s breath away. She couldn’t help but notice how attractive he was… and on top of that, just like a certain other demon, he seemed to be proud of his abs.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Suhø,” he said with a velvety voice and watched her calmly. “I’ve been waiting to get to know you.”

“I’m Minji,” she introduced herself. “I heard you chose this place. It’s very beautiful!”

He folded his arms in front of his bare chest. “I like to travel around a lot and found this spot by coincidence. I figured it would be the perfect place for a meet up with everyone.”

“Where are we, exactly?” she asked, not sure what to think of him yet. Suhø seemed to be well-mannered and much more polite than Baëkhyun, but at the same time, his gaze held a foreign coldness that intimidated her. She sensed that he was powerful, his water magic only waiting to be unleashed and she made a mental note not to anger him.

“This is one of the smaller islands of the Maldives,” he answered, his smirk widening when her jaw dropped.

“O-Oh wow, I never thought I would get to see a place like that with my own eyes.”

“You’re funny, Minji,” another unfamiliar demon chimed in, having light blue hair that appeared almost white in the bright light of the sun. He radiated a pleasant coldness that was a welcome change to the unbearable heat that surrounded them.

“I’m Xiůmin, by the way. If I had known that you’re bonded to my friend, I would have come by for a visit, but the idiot never told me!” he said, a pouty expression on his face that Minji found adorable. He wasn’t as intimidating as Suhø, on the contrary. Despite his frost magic, his personality was warm and inviting.

The last demon that she hadn’t met before took this as his cue to introduce himself, telling her that his name was D.Ø. “I’m surprised that Baëkhyun would agree to a bond, but you seem nice enough,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. A gleam appeared in his eyes when he watched her, gaze coming to rest on the star on her wrist. “Where is he, by the way? Did you leave him at home?” D.Ø. laughed, not even hiding his malicious joy, and the others soon joined in.

“Well, I wanted to mess with him a little,” Kāi grinned proudly. “You know how worked up he gets when I’m stealing from him. It’s hilarious and I can’t repeat it often enough!” 

“We talked about this before, though,” Chanyeøl said, sounding more serious than the playful green-haired demon. “Hands off his girl, Kāi. I’m keeping an eye on you.”

Minji blushed, feeling many amused pairs of eyes on herself. “When will you get him here, huh?” she asked Kāi and earned herself a cocky smirk.

“Are you missing him already?” he teased. “Aww, is it lonely without your demon boyfriend?”

Her eyes widened and she blushed furiously, the pink spreading to her ears. While she tried her hardest to come up with a witty reply, the whole group erupted in laughter.

“Don’t push it, Kāi. You shouldn’t make him wait,” Suhø said and threw him a harsh look that made him shut up.

“Okay, boss. No need to get angry with me,” Kāi cackled and then he was gone. Minji stared at the spot where he had been just seconds before and sighed. She finally got a break from this huge manchild…

“Took him long enough,” Chanyeøl said and Sehůn nodded in agreement.

“Don’t want to deal with pissed-off Baëkhyun for the remainder of the day. How about we go for a little swim until they are back?” Sehůn suggested. “I’m guessing they’ll be busy fighting for a while.”

“Yes, let’s go!” Jangmi added. “Come on, Minji!”

“Give me a moment,” she replied and quickly took her dress off, revealing her blue bikini underneath. Her friend pulled her along towards the water, Sehůn, and Chën following after them. Minji laughed, running into the cool ocean with them. The water was refreshing, splashing in all directions as she ran. Jangmi turned to her and unexpectedly splashed a load of water at her, drenching her completely and making her shudder from the sudden cold.

“You’re getting that back!” Minji giggled, throwing water at her friend who screeched loudly.

Sehůn soon took part in their water battle and Chën didn’t need to be asked twice either. With the two demons getting competitive, the calm ocean turned into a wild maelstrom, especially when Sehůn started using his wind magic to cause some more chaos.

“Take that!” Sehůn shouted, throwing Jangmi in the water headfirst. She resurfaced and glared at him, a challenging glint in her eyes.

“You better run, Sehůn,” Chën cackled, watching him smirk amusedly.

“We’ll see about that!”

Minji and Chën watched the couple chase each other down. They had so much fun that they never noticed how much time passed in the meantime, forgetting everything around them until Jangmi and Sehůn reached a stalemate and came back to them.

“Phew, you’re insane,” Jangmi said, wringing her wet hair when she stood close to Chën and Minji.

“Nothing new,” Sehůn said cheekily.

All three of them suddenly looked at Minji, and the wide grins on their faces should have told her that something was up, but she was too distracted by the beautiful view in front of her to notice.

“Got you,” a husky voice whispered in her ear as muscular arms wrapped around her waist from behind. She froze in surprise, cheeks going red when she felt Baëkhyun’s toned chest against her back. He hugged her, pushing her close to him and her heart fluttered nervously.

“W-Where did you come from?” she stuttered.

“Kāi finally decided to get me here too. I would have joined you sooner, but I had to kick his first,” he said, his breath fanning over her ear. She shuddered and bit her lower lip, trying hard not to melt. Even though she didn’t see his face, she could very well picture the evil grin he wore right now since his tone was dripping with malicious joy.

Sehůn, Chën, and Jangmi watched them gleefully but soon decided to leave them alone and give them some privacy. Minji and Baëkhyun didn’t even notice them anymore.

“Why didn’t you wait for me before going in the water, hm?” he asked, and she turned around in his embrace to look at him. His blue eyes reflected the bright sun rays and shimmered beautifully, taking her breath away. A mischievous spark lit them up and his lips formed a devilish smirk. That was the only warning she got before he lifted her and threw her over his shoulder effortlessly. She squeaked, the world turning around her. Putting her hands on his back, she squirmed around to get down, but his hold on her was secure and no matter what she did, she couldn’t make it budge.

“Let me go, demon!” she complained as he walked deeper into the water until it reached his chest, the waves lapping against his body.

“Nope,” he replied cockily. “This is your punishment.” Without warning, he threw her up in the air, and she hit the water, going under. As soon as her entire body was submerged and sunk lower, she opened her eyes and was met with a surprisingly beautiful sight. Sunrays broke through the ocean surface, looking like golden spotlights as they illuminated the blue waters. Far away from her, she spotted a swarm of exotic fishes and colorful corals covering the ground.

She stayed below the surface for as long as possible before her air ran out and she swam back to where the sea was shallow enough so her feet touched the ground. Immediately, she cupped her hands and threw a load of water at Baëkhyun whose precious hair was soaked in saltwater afterward. Wet strands stuck to his forehead and he glared at her, seeing it as a challenge.

“That was a bad idea, sugar,” he said huskily and lunged at her. She giggled, evading him by jumping into the deeper water where she had to swim. With quick , she moved away from him.

“Catch me if you can!” she shouted and swam through the waves, farther away from the beach.

“I’ll never let you win!” he yelled after her. “Give up!”

“No!” she chirped and looked back briefly to stick her tongue out at him. “Come on, you slowpoke demon!”

His eyes narrowed and he smirked, following her much faster than she had expected. She laughed elatedly, swimming as quickly as she could, her eyes set on the horizon that seemed unreachable. The sky was blue and not a cloud in sight, the view being so gorgeous that she got distracted by it. Minji had never had the opportunity to go on va