"We need to make a plan. Stat!" Sooyoung hisses. After dinner at Seungwan and Joohyun's place, the two demons left back to hell. They're in the devil's office, having a drink on the sofa. 

"I had plans, you just didn't like any of them," Yeri shoots back, taking a sip of hell's finest beer. It's golden, with a smell much akin the what human's know as urine, if you add in some chunks of fermented ovaries. "And I still think we should tell Joohyun unnie."

The king of hell doesn't even glance at her second-in-command. "No way. That girl would her pants at the sight of a small insect, you wanna tell her that we're demons and we took her roommate's soul?"

Yeri scrunches her nose in disagreement. "You took her soul, not me."

"Yeah well, you spent half a day trying to figure out how to send it to limbo. Which you still haven't done, by the way." Joy doesn't mean to let out that level of snark but she's been quite frustrated about it all. She doesn't want any annoying angels bothering her. 

The smaller demon slams her glass against the table after downing it down . "Okay, why don't you give it a shot then, supreme ruler? I'd love to see you vanish into thin air the moment you touch it!"

Joy let's the piercing bang of Yeri's glass and the shrill poison in her word's linger for a moment; she decides there's no point in arguing. 

"Still nothing from Momo?" The devil frowns, deescalating whatever tense atmosphere was thickening in Joy's office moments ago.

Yeri shakes her head and refills her glass. "Not even ashes. Oh, that reminds me, Mina's organising Momo's funeral and she asked if she could borrow purgatory for a day. She wants it to be where Momo died."

Sooyoung finishes her own drink and slides the glass across the table for Yeri to refill after her own. "Am I hearing this right? A demon died in purgatory because of a wayward soul... and Mina wants to hold a funeral there? With funeral goers--other demons--at the demon-murdering hotspot?"

Yeri pouts her lip in thought and clicks her tongue, "Okay, guess that's a no." 

Their glasses clink on impact and here in Joy's office, is a single moment of peace that they wouldn't know how much they'd miss until it's too late.

The liquid burns their throat in all the best ways.

Joy hisses a little at the taste and grunts out, "Be honest, was that Sana's idea?"

"Yeah. She asked me to say it was Mina."

Huffing, Joy rejects that idea with a wave of her hand. "Back to Seungwan and Joohyun. We need to work this out."

"Hold on, there's one more thing--a lot of demons have been asking questions about the sudden temperature increase in purgatory. They can even feel it in Limbo. Rumours are spreading fast about Seungwan's soul."

"They think it's because of unnie's soul?"

"Well, is it not? Do you have any other explanation?"

Sooyoung side glances the half-full jug of the golden liquid beside their glasses. If this conversation lasts another half hour, it'll all be gone, she thinks to herself. 

"No. I guess I don't. Once we return it to Seungwan, we'll know if it is."

"And if we can't?"

"I'm the king of hell, Yerim. I can do anything," Sooyoung mumbles and swirls the glass in thought, "Now let's figure out a plan..."

It takes several days for Joy and Yeri's plot to play out. Does it work? Well... Sort of. It starts off quite rough to say the least...

***

Two figures sit on a bench outside a hospital; with two pairs of hands, each gripping a newspaper (it's upside down), and two sets of holes poked out to resemble eyes at the centre.

"This is a risky plan, unnie. It's not gonna work."

"Not with that attitude. And you helped me come up with it! So sharpen your horns and stretch your tail; phase one is about to begin."

Their bickering comes to a close the moment their target arrives.

"Cabbage is in sight, I repeat--"

"What are you doing?" Joy mutters, not tearing her gaze away. 

Yeri scoffs as if Joy was not in fact the king of hell, and just some plain idiot. "Code names, duh. I repeat: Cabbage is in sight."

There, in the cafeteria sits Bae Joohyun, head of cardio, yet resident heart stopper. She's alone in the cafeteria, on her phone. So, she's oblivious to the murmurs and eyes directed towards her. 

"Are they talking about unnie?" Yeri mumbles with a bothered wrinkle pinching her forehead.

"Think so, should we get closer?" 

"Wait, what if she sees us?" 

Suddenly, Joy shifts and exclaims, "Oh, Seungwan's here!"

Yeri copies her movement and searches for the sight of the soulless woman. "What where? I can't find her!"

"She's walking inside now," Joy replies but feels Yeri's frantic movement beside her as she tries and fails to look for Wendy.

"Why does she have to be so small?" 

There's a moment where they go back to observing Joohyun until Seungwan enters the cafeteria.

"Ah! I have a visual on the Olaf. I repeat--"

"Yeah, I see her."

They watch as Joohyun looks up and waves Seungwan over to her table. They talk for a moment, Joohyun smiles and pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. 

"What do you think they're saying?"

Joy clears and in a deep voice, she says, "Hello Irene. According to society and my memory, I should bring you food when you have a long shift. Here, you go. Please enjoy."

Yeri snorts at Joy's attempt to mimic Wendy but continues, swallowing tightly before she mutters softly, "Oh, Seungwan-ah!" 

The devil turns to her subordinate in disbelief. Yeri sounds like a dying whale. 

"Thank you for this. I always love your cooking. How shall I ever repay you?" Yeri exclaims.

No wonder the only role she got in school plays was a prop tree, Sooyoung thinks to herself, she's ing terrible.

"With..." Joy smirks and says the next word in English, "!"

"Unnie, you're such a -- why's Joohyun leaving already?"

Joy pulls down the newspapers and rubs her eyes. "What is she doing?"

"Should we do something?"

"We're not trapping them in an elevator, Yeri."

Just then, Wendy sends a text message in their shared group chat. Yeri takes out her phone and they huddle their heads over the screen.

[Two demons and a soulless ]

Wanimal: 

  ok, I brought her lunch like you guys said

"When did you change her contact name to that?" Joy asks.

Yeri begins typing a response and replies, "Since I saw her without a soul. So... Last night."

good

what happened?

Wanimal: 

  she ran away

wtf

what did you do

Wanimal: 

  nothing 

  i asked her if she knew karina and she just left

why would u do that

ur an idiot

Wanimal: 

  what

"Yeah, she's never getting her soul back," Joy mutters and pulls out her phone to also reply.

joy to the world (not):

  unnie you can't just say that

Wanimal: 

  why not? they work at the same hospital

  i thought they might know each other

  isn't that what people do these days with potential lovers?

what

Wanimal: 

  stalking

what

joy to the world (not):

  is that why you went to visit joohyun?

  not to see her, but...

  to stalk another doctor???

Wanimal: 

  yeah

  why else

"She's very... Bold, this Wendy-without-a-soul," Yeri comments. 

"She doesn't care for any repercussions. She's shameless."

"Oh, so she's like you?" 

"Shut up."

Phase One is a slight failure, but they move onto Phase Two still with optimism in their steps.

***

"Oh, there she is," Yeri whispers to Joy.

"Wendy!" Someone calls out for the short-haired woman as the elevator doors close behind her. 

"Jisoo, hey," Seungwan replies, taking a stride to meet the manager in the middle of a hallway on the tenth floor.

"It's true," Jisoo whispers as if her excitement is crawling out of her ears in spider legs. "They want you to debut as a soloist!"

Seungwan lets out a content grunt, "Of course they are," they start walking down the hall and Seungwan imagines her own album cover framed on the wall, right beside all the others. "Who wouldn't?"

Next to her, Jisoo raises her brows to her hairline in suprise. "I don't know what's gotten into you, Wendy. Past couple of days, you've been very confident. It's-It's..."

"Attractive?" Wendy smirks and enters ever so casually into Jisoo's space. 

Wait a second, Yeri thinks, what's going on?

Yeri glances at Sooyoung who wears an equally vexed expression. "Is she ing flirting?" says Joy with a volume ever so slightly inappropriate, given the fact that they're supposed to remain undetected... Hiding in the vents of SM Entertainment.

The younger shushes her and they go back to squinting through the horizontal lines of the vent's grates. We should've just set up a secret camera, Yeri thinks with a scowl.

"Someone could see us, Wendy," Jisoo points out but doesn't back away from her. "Your career is just about to flourish--"

"Wouldn't you like to find out what it feels like, Jisoo? To flourish? To feel yourself blossoming?"

"What do you mean? What's with this flower imagery--"

"You like roses right?" Her index and thumb plays with the ends of Jisoo's hair; pressing back and forth gently. 

"I guess--"

She looks up from her hands and stares into the manager's eyes, letting the ends wrap around her pointer finger like a stifling hug. "If you were a flower, you'd be the prettiest rose in my garden."

"What makes you think I want to be in your garden?" Jisoo thinks she knows what Wendy's talking about now... Sort of. Her lyrics are really poetic sometimes, but does she have to talk in riddles and Shakespeare? But, Jisoo can admit--it's kind of a turn-on.

"Because I'd take care of my pretty flowers, Jisoo," Seungwan begins to slowly back the other woman against the wall. Jisoo lets out a soft gasp at the feeling and looks around frantically. Somebody's bound to catch them, Jisoo wonders how Seungwan's not worried at all.

"I would touch your petals softly, just the way I know you'd like. With my hands, gentle yet firm--enough as to almost taste the colours beneath my fingertips," as to punctuate this...strangely conversation about flowers, Seungwan lifts her hand to innocently push back stray hairs behind Jisoo's ear. That was a lie, there's never anything innocent with that kind of move; Seungwan's index traces the curve of Jisoo's ear. "Like this," she whispers. 

"I...I'm really confused," Yeri mumbles.

Joy swallows, and takes a shaky breath before husking, "Confused, or possibly aroused?"

"What? No!" Yeri shuts her eyes, scrunching her nose and sighs, "Both, maybe?"

"Me too...Maybe."

In the darkness of the vents, it's impossible to see the blushes on their cheeks.

"W-Where the hell is that girl? She's the instigator of phase two," Joy grumbles and summons her phone before there are footsteps down in the hallway and their attention returns to the scene below them.

"Someone's coming," Jisoo whispers and pushes Seungwan away with enough force that it sends her to the other side of the hallway.

"I especially like it when my pretty flowers have thorns," Wendy winks and steps back with the momentum of the push.

The footsteps resound and they look to the corner to see a woman in uniform, holding a bundle of flowers. "Son Seungwan?" She calls out, eyes darting between the two.

"That's me," Wendy replies and approaches the girl, eyeing her name tag. "What can I do for you, Sana-ssi?"

The brunette smiles politely and reveals a clipboard. "Please sign for these flowers, ma'am."

With a pointed brow, Wendy asks, "Oh my, do I have myself a secret admirer? It doesn't happen to be you, Sana-ssi, does it?"

Jisoo squints at Wendy's behaviour and folds her arms over her chest. She wonders unhappily how Wendy suddenly turned into some kind of chronic flirter. A player, even.

"We've only just met," Sana points out, holding the clipboard slightly closer to Wendy's face.

"You're right. We should get to know each other," Wendy smoothly remarks. "If I put my signature here," She gestures to the clipboard, "will you write your phone number--" her hand shuffles in her back pocket before she reveals her cell phone, "--here?" 

"Okay, I know losing your soul changes a person, but this is actually insane how different she is," Yeri comments.

Joy nods her agreement. "Yeah, but then again, unnie's always been pretty greasy. She was just lacking confidence."

"I guess... Wait, why is Sana actually putting in her number?"

They watch Sana take the other's phone, as Seungwan signs the paper and holds the bundle of flowers (finally, they also notice that Jisoo is long gone).

"Joohyun?" Seungwan mumbles, glancing at the card attached to the bundle of flowers.

"There's no way it's her real number. She's probably putting in a helpline or something," Joy snickers, "That's what I do with the creeps at modelling gigs."

"Oh, to where?"

"Erectile dysfunction support," answers Joy proudly.

Yeri cackles. And finally, does their obnoxious commentary bite them in the because Seungwan hears them and twists her head up to the vent.

"Did you hear that?" She asks Sana, walking directly below the vent.

Sana shakes her head furiously. "Hear what?"

Abort, abort, abort, Sana yells internally.

"Never mind," she says after staring up at the grate for a while. "Thank you for the flowers, Sana-ssi."

"Oh, I didn't--"

"I know. Next time I see you though, you should," Wendy flashes her dimple which deepens after seeing Sana's cheeks turn a shade similar to the flowers in Wendy's arm. "Text me."

With that, Sana gives her a slight nod and leaves around the same corner she came from... That is until she teleports into the vent with Yeri and Sooyoung.

If the sound of metal creaking beneath the added weight doesn't tell Seungwan that she's being spied on, it's definitely the fact that Sana's sudden appearance causes both Yeri and Sooyoung to yelp.

Time seems to freeze for a moment as the three exchange widen eyes and anxious expressions. 

"Nobody move," Joy whispers, doing her best not to look through the grate.

A good minute passes as the demons hold their breath and are frozen in (quite uncomfortable) position. Joy has her head in Yeri's armpit and Sana is i