Joohyun comes home to their shared apartment after her shift to stop a fire before it begins.

"Seungwan-ah, are you free next Saturday?" Joohyun asks, peeking into the younger girl's room and gasps at the sight. "Yah, what the hell are you doing?" 

Behold, a soulless Son Seungwan holding a box of matches above a metal tub. Upon closer inspection, Joohyun sees notebooks and scrap papers that she recognises to be Seungwan's music sheets and lyric books.

The younger girl doesn't look up and strikes the match. "What does it look like?"

Joohyun rushes to her side and takes the matches out of her hand, blowing away the flame in one swift move. "It looks like you're about to do something incredibly rash, Seungwan. What happened?"

("Wendy-ssi. You're going to debut as a soloist in two months. Fix your voice by that time or it's over."

"What are you talking about?"

"The producers just told me they were unimpressed with your vocals. Not your technique but the voice itself. Something's changed and it does not fit with what we expect from you."

"Sir--"

"Take the day off and fix it.")

Seungwan shifts her gaze to Joohyun and deadpans, "I need my soul back."

Joohyun her head in confusion before it dawns on her and she asks, "Is this about what I said when I listened to your demos? Because it doesn't mean you should destroy years worth of hard work."

Seungwan scoffs, "I don't care. About what you said or about any of this."

The raven haired woman nods slowly and brings a hand to Seungwan's cheek. "Talk to me, Seungwan-ah."

I need to get my soul back, Seungwan says to herself mentally.

I need to get it back.

For myself.

("Your singing...It sounds different.")

For my career.

("You wouldn't be preparing for a solo debut right now if it weren't for Sooyoung.")

For...

("I just want you to be happy.")

For what?

She's been stubbornly rejecting Joy and Yeri's demands to restore her soul entirely due to her own pride. Which, Wendy thought should've disappeared along with the rest of her emotions so she doesn't really get why she still has an ego... But, what she does know, is that not caring about anything is kind of... Getting boring? 

Yes, her inhibitions are gone, theoretically she could do anything she wanted without a care in the world. But--

What does she want?

Do I really want to make music or is just because of the past two decades of musical interest stored in my memories?

In an admittedly hasty decision, Seungwan covers Joohyun's hand with her own, locks widened eyes with the older's worried ones and says, "I've had romantic feelings for you, unnie. For the last decade."

Joohyun doesn't move, doesn't blink, doesn't even breathe. She thinks even her brain activity is frozen, because her head is stuck in a single moment in time (3 seconds ago) when Son Seungwan confessed her feelings to her.

"W-Why didn't you say anything?" She musters out.

She's also felt the same for the last ten years? Joohyun doesn't know if she should rejoice or if she should toss them both into a volcano for their stupidity. 

Seungwan shrugs a bit and Joohyun smiles seeing the movement resemble an act of a small child. "Because I was terrified of rejection."

"And now..?"

"Now I'm not," Seungwan quips with a relaxed smile.

Joohyun brings her hand down and they lace fingers, hands dangling by their sides as Joohyun takes a step forward and opens . To also confess, perhaps?

But, Seungwan beats her to it, "I just wanted to get that out of my chest. Because I don't feel that way anymore."

Joohyun's heart stutters, it shrinks and grows violent in her chest, slithers around the bones that frame it, and injects a poison in her gut that has her knees quivering. 

"O-oh," is all the older woman can find herself to mutter. Really, what are you supposed to say in this situation?

"Yup, so you don't even have to worry about being awkward around me. Nothing's changed, right?"

Joohyun let's go of their hands, and Seungwan barely notices it to even chase after them. "Sure."

"I won't burn my things, thanks for coming in at just the right time," Wendy says and shoots her a smile, one much like the ones she usually sends Joohyun but it's laced with some kind of air that makes Joohyun want to lock herself in her room. "Oh, and what was the thing about Saturday?"

Joohyun's still half-dazed but manages to murmur, "Dinner. With the kids."

Seungwan chuckles and gives her a nod, "Sounds good, the five of us haven't gotten together in a while."

Maybe it's her sudden confession that's gotten her in such a good mood, but her sight is rose-tinted and she doesn't see the trembling of Joohyun's bottom lip.

She watches as Joohyun turns around with a  stiff nod and leaves her room.

Once Seungwan hears Joohyun's door shut, she whips out her phone and makes a single text to a group chat. She purses her lips in thought and looks around her room in expectation.

Seungwan leans on the edge of her desk and crosses her arms, flicking her eyes left and right. 

It's another minute of this before she yelps at a voice behind her.

"Hey, unnie," greets Joy.

"Yah!" Wendy jerks and turns, scowling at the sight of the two demons.

"No way, have you been waiting for us in that pose?" Yeri cackles. "What a dork, did you get your soul back or something?"

"She didn't, I'm sweating," Joy grumbles and fans herself. "Why the is your heater on?"

"It's winter," the human deadpans. "You guys don't have seasons in hell?"

"Oh, our winters are just a couple years of extra souls coming in. Usually from war or disease," Yeri explains with a slight wave of her hand. "Causes hell to be busier, louder and messier so we get an earful from Heaven."

Wendy snorts at that and Joy adds, "Angels are party poopers."

"Anyway, that's where that guy got the idea for the phrase 'winter is coming,' because he was making a deal and heard the demon say it."

"Don't tell me Game of Thrones was built on a deal with a demon?"

Joy has a tired hand in her hair and dramatically slumps in Wendy's seat at her desk. "Unnie, everything has been made by a deal. Ever heard about the election of one, Donald Trump?"

Seungwan's brows jump, touching her hairline. 

"Anyway, what'd you want to tell us that you couldn't just say in the group chat?" Yeri questions, immediately strutting to Wendy's bed and sinking her back into the centre of the mattress. She starts moving her limbs, like making a snow angel on top of the sheets. 

Wendy surveys the two demons; Joy's doodling something ographic inside a bar of her music sheets, and Yeri's changing the design of her bedsheets with each snap of her fingers.

"I want my soul back," Wendy announces, holding her breath in expectation. 

Nothing comes.

Joy's moved onto the next musical bar and scribbles, turning the treble clef into a dragon. Yeri's seemingly picked a blue design for Wendy's sheets and snaps her fingers again to match the pillowcase with it. 

"Guys?"

Joy let's our a noncommittal grunt and doesn't notice the curious gaze on her as she begins snooping around Wendy's drawers. 

"Unnie, can I redesign your room?" Yeri asks casually as if she hasn't already started.

"Sure... What-What are you guys doing? Didn't you hear me?"

"Unnie, do you have an eraser?" Joy has her brows pinched together as she closes the bottom drawer and looks up at Wendy in expectation.

Seungwan's eyes flicker to the drawing in front of Joy and sees the sketch on her music sheets. "Why does my treble clef have a ?"

The demon shrugs, "Why not?"

Wendy rolls her eyes and lifts up a piece of paper, revealing the small eraser beneath it before Joy snatches it with glee, muttering a small thanks.

Yeri snorts and decides to add, "Yeah, unnie. Have you ever thought to ask? Music has feelings too, you know?"

Wendy scowls at the two of them and snatches the pencil out of Joy's hand--not missing the fact that she's only used the eraser to fix the asymmetry of the on the treble clef--and launches it at Yeri's head. 

"Ow! What--"

"Hey, I was using that--"

"I said, I want my soul back!"

"Wait, are you being for real?" Yeri scoffs, narrowing her eyes in disbelief.

"Please tell me Yeri's whole Humanism talk with you wasn't what did it in," says Joy, waving her hand dramatically.

"Hey, that really riled her up!" Yeri protests.

"I decided that I've done everything I need to do without a soul, and it'd be better for everyone if I get it back now."

The demons share an unconvinced look and Yeri turns to her with a quirked brow. "What'd you do?"

What did I not do, Wendy wonders.

"Signed a contract with SM to debut as a soloist, got asked out on a date, stood-up said date, wrote three albums worth of songs, made a ton of money off of only one of them in an auction won by Rihanna of all people... Hm what else? Oh yes, I confessed my love for Joohyun just a moment ago and--"

"Wait what?" Joy and Yeri exclaim in unison.

"What?"

"What did she say?" Joy demands.

Wendy shrugs, "Nothing much, but I told her I don't feel anything for her anymore."

"Why the hell would you do that," Yeri says as she rolls across the bed, resting her temple on her palm.

Wendy blinks and glances at the demons' accusatory looks. If she wasn't slightly important to either of them, she'd be in annihilated into pieces right now, rotting in hell. "Because it's the truth..?"

"No, because you're missing a soul!" Joy yells and Wendy winces at the volume. She thinks of Irene just down the hall, wondering if her soundproofed walls could really keep the noise down that much especially for Joohyun's sensitive hearing.

"The Wendy with a soul would never lie, did you want me to do that instead?" Wendy retorts, crossing her arms and pacing around her room.

"Yes!" Yeri exclaims and with a snap of her fingers, changes Wendy's bedsheets into trash bags.