"sooyoung, this is a terrible idea."

a deliberate exhale slips from her nose as joohyun wonders why she even has to point things out like this to her beloved sister. it’s been an exhausting day and sooyoung decides it’s a good time to sit her down to talk about something that makes absolutely no sense — well, to joohyun at least, it’s a perfectly rational idea to sooyoung.

"why? are you scared? " sooyoung retorts with a teasing smirk along with her usual mocking tone that tends to get on her older sister’s nerves. being seated side by side on their small couch, sooyoung jabs a finger into her sister’s arm relentlessly.

joohyun glares at her younger sister; as usual, sooyoung is up to no good and she finds herself caught between leaving her to fend for herself or stepping in to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. the effects of her sternness haven't worked since sooyoung became a teenager. now that they’re much older, getting sooyoung to listen to her is a monumental task. so, as much of a pain in the her sister is, joohyun always finds herself picking the latter.

joohyun tries to reason, "what if you get hurt?"

sooyoung had just explained her grand plan, and it’s… dumb, perhaps ridiculous would be a better fit . while joohyun chalks  it up as a joke, sooyoung’s insistence and seriousness begin to freak her out. there’s no denying that the small voice in her head hurtling incessant strings of what ifs is also aiding in building up her anxiety. 

her sister turns with arched brows and a cocky smirk plastered across her face, " so you believe in demons? "

the older girl opens but no words come out — great, she has no comeback. if she didn't believe in demons, sooyoung would reason that there was nothing to worry about. if she did, then sooyoung would somehow find a way to get what she wants.

the real demon here is park sooyoung.

"i don't want you getting hurt if they are real." joohyun mutters while folding her arms.

sooyoung sighs and snuggles close to joohyun, resting her head on her shoulder, a familiar action that she does only when she needs something. "i need answers or i'll fail my finals, unnie.” sooyoung whines, “you can't help me and god won't either so i don't have many options left, do i?"

"you should've paid attention in class then, idiot. your actions have consequences." joohyun chides as she pushes sooyoung off her shoulder.

her sister grumbles with a roll of her eyes, "so are you going to help me or not?"

begrudgingly, joohyun nods, it’s not like she has much of a choice. "yes, fine. if it fails, you better hit the books. don't make your mom pay for an extra semester because you were too busy partying instead of studying."

"don't worry, it'll work. if it doesn't, i'll wing it."

a gasp of horror escapes joohyun as she widens her eyes, "yah! you can't just wing a demonic ritual!"

a beat of silence passes before her sister snorts, breaking into a loud bark of laughter. smacking joohyun on the arm relentlessly, sooyoung uses a hand to wipe away stray tears from her eyes.

"i was talking about my exams, unnie…"

"oh…"

"you definitely need sleep."

"i do and i would've been in bed already if you hadn't forced me to listen to you."

sooyoung lets out a forcibly loud yawn as she scrambles off the couch, "goodnight, unnie!"

sooyoung decides a saturday night would be perfect to summon demons since friday nights are party nights. instead of having a proper briefing, sooyoung merely texts joohyun a reddit link detailing instructions of the ritual she plans to do. the older girl had to scour the internet for the actual rules and precautions that sooyoung neglected to warn her about. every fibre of her being screams that this is a bad idea, even the comments under the ritual’s post are full of warnings. neither of them knows anything about the occult and if they somehow botch this, they could end up with a haunted apartment at best or worst case scenario — dead. neither sound appealing to joohyun and she fully dreads what’s about to come.

but sooyoung is determined, and joohyun knows that it’s too late to say anything. she can only hope and pray that the ritual is a sham that someone posted to get a couple of likes amongst occult enthusiasts. despite not being religious in the slightest, joohyun clutches a fresh copy of a bible while sooyoung steps into the kitchen at 3:30 am.

why did they decide the kitchen is a good place for a ritual? their apartment is small, and the bathroom is way too cramped. besides, neither one wants their rooms to be an entryway for demons — if they are real. with no other room available, the kitchen is the best place to summon demons. with towels and clothes taped against the windows to block out any and all light; mirrors and chairs, along with candles have all been put in place in preparation for the ritual.

joohyun sits on the floor with her back to the door while sooyoung flirts with supposed demons. when she said she would do anything to save her grades, joohyun certainly hadn’t expected a demonic ritual to be on that list. never underestimate park sooyoung, she supposes. she tries to press her ear against the thin wood but all she’s met with is a dreary bout of silence. maybe the ritual is a sham after all, the older girl muses as she begins to relax.

as her nerves dissipate, fatigue begins to seep into her. her eyelids begin to grow heavy, eyes stinging with the need to sleep. surely sooyoung would scream if anything went wrong — is her last thought before she surrenders to the darkness.

seungwan hates rituals — loathes them with every fibre of her being. it’s not very often that she gets summoned but when she does, things tend to get messy and she's not a fan of ruining her clothes. besides, it’s a hassle to have to travel from hell and back.

so whoever this mortal is, they better have a real ing good reason for pulling her to the realm of the living. bumping her head the moment she arrives makes for an even more unpleasant experience and seungwan wants to take their head off in one clean slice.

“yah, why are you here?”

“i got summoned,” seungwan grumbles, “why are you guys here too?”

it’s easy to guess what ritual was used to summon her given the setup, but it’s one she made lesser demons warp the rules of in internet forums. so, summoning her is no easy feat.

crawling out from under what seems to be a small dining table, seungwan finds her fellow kings in the middle of the room, surrounding a young girl with a singular candle in hand. with baal on her left and beelzebub on her right, the two kings are bound to their positions. the mortal couldn’t see or hear them unless they specifically spoke through the mirrors.

“we thought it would be fun, but this one’s asking math questions,” baal, or yerim as she prefers, sighs and nods towards the girl who seems to be asking questions like is this going to be on my finals?

beelzebub, or seulgi rather, is pretty good at math. she’s also probably the kindest and smartest one amongst the trio, so this mortal lucked out with her summoning. seulgi offers a wave to the devil before answering the mortal, “yes, it will.”

rules of a ritual forbid them to kill the summoners unless they messed up somehow, which in this case, though this girl might have summoned the devil herself, it’s not technically breaking the rules. she eyes the setup curiously, everything, as described on internet forums, is here, it seems like there’s nothing that could’ve pulled her here.

“this looks normal enough, how did i get summoned?”

“broken mirror.” seulgi nods her head towards the ground next to the mortal where fragments of a mirror are hurriedly swept to the side.

seungwan groans, eyeing the reflective glass with disdain, “so this was a fluke?”

“at least it isn’t some crazy satanist, she just needs help with calculus,” seulgi’s lips tug upwards into a small smile, “and i think she’s kinda cute.”

the devil wrinkles her nose slightly and the mortal asks yet another presumably stupid question. sighing, seungwan heads for the door. “have fun, i’ll be back after i scare her partner, if she even has one.”

she would be bound like yerim and seulgi if the mirror wasn’t shattered, but since it is, she’s free to roam as she pleases. in most cases, this spells danger for mortals — and more often than not, they don’t make it back to reddit to share this warning.

the partner of the mortal is slumped over just outside the kitchen door, snoring lightly as her bible threatens to slip out of her hand. cute, seungwan thinks as she crouches in front of her and stares intently. the moonlight catches her face in a way that makes her beauty rival an angel’s human form — maybe, she’ll let these two go.

standing up, a swift nudge from her causes the book to slip out of her hands. the girl jolts up in surprise and proceeds to let out a shrill shriek that catches even the devil by surprise. scrambling to her feet, the girl backs off until she’s far away enough.

seungwan takes the chance to tone down the red glow that emanates from her eyes, that way, she could still pass off as a human. or at least not freak the girl out even more.

“relax, i’m not going to hurt you.”

“who the are you and how did you get in?” she demands, grabbing the nearest object as a weapon — a ceramic mug isn't going to do much against her, and neither would the bible she was holding, but seungwan would give her points for trying.

her voice sends the demon’s heart to the depths of her stomach and seungwan tenses up. it takes a mug hitting her in the chest for her to snap out of her thoughts. hearing the mug shatter, the demon buries the urge to cry under a lighthearted tone.

“your friend summoned me by mistake,” the devil grimaces, “speaking of which, you should go get her before my kings get sick of her math questions.”

the girl freezes in her spot, despite trembling like a leaf, she still manages a quick glance at her phone.

4:34 am.

the devil backs away from the kitchen door and allows the mortal to take shaky steps towards her. 

“s-sooyoung! are you okay?”

so this is where the fates have sent her, seungwan purses her lips at the realisation and warmth coupled with grief fills her chest. hopefully, it won’t be the last time they cross paths. conflicted, seungwan slips back into the darkness and rejoins her fellow demons.

joohyun’s call is greeted with the door swinging open to reveal an unharmed sooyoung. the elder flicks the light switch on before scanning her sister’s body up and down.

“you would not believe what happened, unnie… it actually worked!” sooyoung beams while joohyun fumbles around.

hearing that sends chills down joohyun’s spine, she freezes in her spot and cranes her head up to look sooyoung in the eyes. she searches for the slightest hint of a lie, just in case this is an elaborate prank by sooyoung, but she doesn't find anything. the fact that sooyoung isn't bursting out in laughter solidifies that.

“t-they didn’t hurt you, right?” joohyun’s lips tremble as the words leave , and her grip on sooyoung’s arms tightens as she descends into a panic.

her sister bobs her head before pushing past her, "i'm perfectly fine, now i need to write everything down before i forget — yah! did you break this?”

joohyun’s gaze follows sooyoung’s figure as she carefully steps over the broken mug. the person or the thing that she threw said object at is no longer here.

"wait…" the realisation that her life, their lives, could have been in danger sets in. but she doesn't alert sooyoung instantly, at least one of them has to be calm and rational — she highly doubts it’ll be her either way.

"unnie?"

joohyun swallows her fear as she squeaks, "h-how many demons did you summon..?”

“two, and from what i heard, they were with me the whole time.”

"y-you didn't see anyone..?"

her younger sister shakes her head, her brows stitching together at joohyun's strange questions. "nope, why?"

“t-there… there was someone with me just now…”