there is always a consequence no matter the action, it’ll only be a matter of time before they befall joohyun.

her night has gone from bad to a little better before crash landing in a living nightmare. her younger siblings, along with a handful of residents falling victim to the devil’s wrath and she feels responsible. seungwan was here because of her — because she cared too much.

balling her hands, joohyun’s nails unconsciously dig into her palm. she should’ve known — seungwan is usually cheery, yet before they arrived for dinner, she looked upset. the multiple glares at her father throughout dinner, the frown that gradually reappeared. the signs were all there, but she had been too caught up with her own thoughts to notice them. 

if she didn’t send seungwan away for the night, maybe this could’ve been prevented.

“did you find her?”

seulgi’s voice stops her from spiralling into unending guilt and joohyun lifts her head. 

in the short span of time that joohyun spent questioning if she heard seungwan’s voice, the ring hanging around her neck started to heat up. her uneasiness grew because of it, and calling out seungwan’s name yielded no replies. the nagging feeling that something was wrong was beginning to eat at her and joohyun knew she had to do something.

call it a of luck but seulgi had been sneaking out of sooyoung’s room when joohyun crossed paths with her. the memory of her pleading for seulgi to send her to her father’s place is blurred by panic, though she remembers insisting that seungwan might hurt someone.

turns out, she was right, but she was a few minutes too late.

“i told her to leave.” the mortal murmurs quietly, crouching down to pick up the devil’s jacket. it’s still warm from the fire she caused, and while the fact sickens joohyun, she doesn’t hand it over to seulgi.

the demon purses her lips as she watches joohyun with concerned eyes. an apology lingers on her tongue but seulgi decides against it, what good would it do to confess that she might have put the idea into seungwan’s head by challenging her earlier?

there’s not much she can do except help clean up her best friend’s mess.

“let me take you home.” seulgi offers in a gentle voice, “i’ll deal with this and seungwan later.”

the events of tonight have left her drained and joohyun caves without resistance.

the mortal spends most of the night tossing and turning, catching a mere hour of sleep when she ultimately gives in to the fatigue. 

when she wakes, all she can think of is seungwan.

joohyun wants to understand why the devil did it. she refuses to deny the fact that part of it came from a place of love, but the destruction she caused felt anything but. she’s always thought seungwan’s feelings were perpetually reassuring, but every pro has its own con. too much love and the devil will punish anyone who wrongs her lover.

a slither of doubt forces her to question if seungwan is truly right for her, perhaps part of her felt it was necessary to try to reciprocate her feelings. or worse, her feelings are merely a byproduct of lilith’s. 

heartache flitters between her ribs, and the uncertainty threatens to consume her. if joohyun could wish for things to return to normal, she would, but forgiveness is something she cannot willingly give to seungwan at this point. some time apart would do them good, even if it torments her to make that choice.

seulgi swings by to give her an update when she’s in the midst of making breakfast. all the victims have been treated, and none of them will have any lasting physical damage but her hands are tied when it comes to erasing trauma.

nobody in hell has seen seungwan, and seulgi brushes it off by reassuring joohyun that the devil is probably moping around somewhere. the demon promises to keep a lookout and talk to her the first chance she gets. 

joohyun thanks seulgi for her effort with a faint smile, her heart too heavy for anything beyond that. she spends the rest of the day busying herself with chores and whatnot, anything to stop thinking of seungwan. it works to some extent, in moments where she loses focus, her thoughts waste no time in drifting towards the demon.

her bed is too empty and too cold for a winter’s night; her hand instinctively reaches for the ring around her neck, hoping that a trace of seungwan would be enough to satiate her longing. her fingers brushing against a cool ring causes a slight furrow of her brows and she pulls it out of her shirt to inspect it.

the black ring crafted by daedalus is hard to see in the dark without the glow of its engravings. joohyun fumbles with it, examining its full circumference for any trace of magic but she feels none. 

there is no warmth, no glow — no seungwan.

joohyun chalks it up to a fluke, there are a lot of things she doesn’t understand about magic, and this is probably one of them as well.

her worries are practically forgotten by the following morning when she spots sooyoung flicking through some papers at the dining table. her sister would never be this studious during christmas break, it piques her interest and joohyun saunters over to her with a quirked brow.

“what’s all of this?” she motions to the mess on the table and sooyoung looks up with a grim expression, no snarky remarks aching to leave her lips. 

she scans the table before picking a specific piece of paper and handing it to her sister.

“i don’t know, but it seems like scarily accurate fanfic.”

the comment leaves joohyun a little confused but she understands why within seconds of skimming through the content. the existence of a magical file with her information isn’t new knowledge to joohyun, and somehow she manages to connect the dots. the redacted file that seungwan neglected to return — except, this isn’t her file, this is her father’s.

joohyun stitches her brows, “where did you find this?” 

jabbing a finger towards the kitchen, sooyung mutters, “one of the kitchen drawers, i was looking for some cling wrap.”

there are two demons in this house now but joohyun knows for a fact that this is seungwan’s doing. sighing, she settles into a seat across from her sister who is busy pouring her eyes over every word.

sooyoung doesn’t look up as she asks, “did you know our father sold his soul?”

“what?”

“he sold his soul to seulgi,” she exhales slowly, “and i’m going to ing murder her.”

joohyun is stunned into silence by the information, and she stares at sooyoung, jaw agape. it seems like having contracts with demons run in the family.

“did you hear me, unnie?” sooyoung grumbles, “seulgi is why he has a new family.”

“i heard you.”

sooyoung motions her hands, expecting more of a reaction from her sister, “aren’t you pissed?”

releasing a sigh, joohyun raises her shoulders weakly. seulgi granted their father a couple of wishes, at least she didn’t try to hurt his family.

“what do you want me to do about it, sooyoung? he seems better off now. besides, unlike seulgi, seungwan tried to burn his family alive the night before.”

“and i thought i hated him,” sooyoung grimaces, “are they alright?”

joohyun nods, “seulgi helped to make sure they were fine.”

“still doesn’t erase the fact that she made his life better.” sooyoung mutters grudgingly, “he was so miserable that he had to sell his soul.”

the mortal expels an exasperated sigh, looking at her sister before the words leave her lips. “he called me before seungwan tried to kill him,” the rest of her sentence is held back by the sudden tightness of , “he… he apologized and told me he was happy for me.”

the soft collapse of sooyoung’s bitter expression is coupled with her reaching a hand out to joohyun. she could give two s about her relationship with her father but she recognizes that this is important to joohyun.

“explains why i haven’t seen seungwan around.” sooyoung hums, “and it’s way too ing overdue but i’m glad he finally reached out to you.”

joohyun scoffs lightly and leans back in her chair, “me too, sooyoung.”

there’s a way out of this mess, all she needs is a reminder that things will get better.

a moment of quiet is all they get before the sound of a demon arriving by teleportation interrupts it. sooyoung’s eyes darkening tells joohyun that it’s probably seulgi and while she’s fine with their father selling his soul, her sister is definitely not.

“good morning…” seulgi greets them with a nervous gulp, “what’s up?”

sooyoung stands from her seat and aggressively taps on the pieces of paper before storming off into her room. a slam of the door causes the two to jump slightly and seulgi winces when she peers at the papers.

one look and seulgi knows she’s in deep trouble — why did seungwan leave this file lying around?

the demon turns to joohyun apologetically, “this was way before you entered a pact with seungwan.”

“it’s fine,” joohyun waves to extenuate the situation and quickly switches the topic, “i have something to ask you.”

lifting the chain from her neck, she hands seungwan’s ring over to the demon king. seulgi pulls it in for a closer look and though the ring still has the faintest trace of seungwan’s magic, it’s fading with every second.

“seungwan gave me this ring a while ago, she said it was imbued with her magic. it used to be warm and the runes would glow with some blue magic but it stopped out of nowhere.” joohyun explains.

the protection runes are familiar to seulgi and she’s aware that anything a demon imbues with their magic is meant to act as a teleportation point. it makes no sense to revoke her magic, not when she once tore the heavens apart for her soul.

the sudden disappearance of her magic is worrying, and nobody has seen her for the past two days. the memory of her best friend attempting to burn her own soul makes her stomach clench with fear. looking up from the ring, seulgi feels her body grow cold at the thought of losing her best friend.

“what did seungwan say before she left?”

the sudden urgency from seulgi frightens jooyhun a little, but thankfully, their last conversation is still fresh in her memory.

“she didn’t finish her sentence, but she said if she doesn’t come back…” joohyun trails off slightly when she recalls the actions of the devil, she was shaking when she took off her leather jacket. that jacket is currently tucked away in joohyun’s wardrobe because she couldn’t stand to look at it when she left it hanging on a chair.

the only time seungwan willingly left it behind was when she fought yongsun as an angel and she almost died then.

releasing the breath she has been unconsciously holding, joohyun looks up at seulgi with sheer terror in her eyes.

“seulgi…” joohyun whispers, “what does this mean?”

the demon king’s expression matches the mortal’s, “what did you say to her? exact words, joohyun.”

“i command you to leave, lucifer.”

the words send seulgi’s heart slamming against her ribs and the mystery of her best friend’s disappearance is solved. she stays silent even as a wet streak appears on her cheek, returning the ring to joohyun, the gravity of the situation doesn’t set in until seulgi begins to explain.

“it wasn’t a wish, joohyun. there is a hidden clause when it comes to pacts, anything our charge orders, or commands, we have to obey.” she murmurs, “when you ordered seungwan to leave, you didn’t specify where. with no location, she cannot stay here, or anywhere.”

“w-where did she go then?”

joohyun has a semblance of an answer, but she prays with every fibre of her being that it’s the wrong one. seulgi has difficulty meeting her gaze, with a little effort, the dreaded answer leaves her lips with a shaky breath.

“she’s dead, joohyun. you killed her.”

end notes:

giggling when i read comments cuz u guys trust me too much at this point u would never believe that i'd actually kill her

be prepared to loop glimpse of us is all i'm sayin