He was beyond tired and stressed. The Christmas specials were quickly approaching, translating to increased schedules as well as headaches. Between all the recordings, practices, and worry over the time limit on spending time with his girl, he had little to no sleep. Onew barely had the time to return to the mansion, but it was now or never.

She was writing notes on the bed when she heard a light knocking. Luna woke abruptly from her nap next to the door.

"Hey. Can I come in?" Onew's voice broke through her headphones.

She hesitated for a full minute before answering in the affirmative. 'Hey, maybe I took so long to answer, he left,' she thought in passing. But the door did open, and Luna grumbled as she had to move from her spot.

He paused in the middle of the room and shifted his weight a little while repeating, "Hey..." 'Oh God. I'm acting like a rookie in front of the camera for the first time...,' he groaned inwardly.

She echoed a "hey." Then was startled as he bowed suddenly and his introduction stumbled from his mouth.

"I'm Lee Jinki. Third youngest of the Nidnortol clan and only son of Lee Moon Gi and Im Soon Hi, former Ruling Lord and Lady of Asia and the North Pacific demon territories. I'm currently 214 years old and working as leader of the kpop idol group SHINee while posing as a human. Nice to meet you." And just as suddenly as he gave his introduction, he his hand in front of her with a lowered head.

She leaned back a bit at his uncalled for behavior and stared at the offered hand before looking at his face and shifting eyes.

".....I figured....I'd introduce myself properly and as the true me....," Onew mumbled quietly.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Guess it's my turn," the leader sighed as he microwaved some leftovers in the SHINee dorm.

"Don't be so nervous, hyung. This is your chance!" Key said while styling his hair before his own personal shopping outing. He was truly lucky to be able to pop in and out of any store in the short breaks that they were allotted.

"Chance for what?"

"Look. She thought she knew who you were but you weren't that person. Now she thinks you're something or someone else but she still doesn't know you. This is your chance to reintroduce yourself. At least then, if she still hates you, she'll hate the true you." Key explained.

"Gee....that makes me feel so much better," Onew answered with tight lips.

 

"Don't be so negative. You'll get frown lines." Key shrugged on a black leather jacket. "Just be honest. No more lies. It's your chance to start over."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Let's start over," the demon boy continued. "Nice to meet you.

'I sound stupid....'

She looked at him confusedly and cautiously shook his hand when he didn't drop it throughout the long silence. With an unsure tone, she replied, "Umm...nice to meet you?"

"I grew up in what's now Seoul, South Korea and still live there. Where are you from? How old are you? What are your hobbies?"

She lifted an eyebrow at the questions tumbling from his mouth. "I'm from Seoul as well....I'm the same age as you. I mean, human you...." She would play along for now. "I currently, well not currently," Onew inwardly flinched, "study animal behavior and general biology at Kankook University while working part time for SM entertainment as basically an errand girl. So that's where most of all my time goes." Her eyes daggered into his. "And your hobbies?"

'Tell the truth,' he reminded himself. "When I'm not doing SHINee activities, I travel Asia to meet with family and allies of ours. "

"And what do you do with your friends and family?" She prompted.

"Either talk and relax or....go hunting" his eyes shifted to the side. "For humans....," he trailed off. "But I haven't done hunts since becoming a Shinee member."

"Hmm..." she looked doubtful and then remembered the question she tried to ask Key.  "Wait...you're royalty?"

He was quiet for a moment. "My family is pretty powerful. My mother can create complicated large scale illusions for multiple people within a 500m radius. Maybe more now. My father can see into the minds of multiple people at a time within a 200m radius. That, coupled with all the brain/mind related abilities of everyone else in my clan, we effectively could take over the demonic world. As well as control some other supernatural beings."

Nothing could surprise her anymore. "So why'd you stop?"

"Politics started to make my father's head hurt. And my mother got sick of fending off marriage proposals for me. She ran out of room to put all the gift offerings that came with the females that tried to vy for my attention...," Onew trailed off. 'I sound pompous...' “And honestly, they were getting old and wanted to live a little more humbly. They inherited the territories from my grandfather who terrorized everyone. Every demon likes the taste of terror, but Grandpa truly loved to indulge. Unfortunately, I hung out with him a lot while I was growing up…” He left it at that to let her imagine.

And she did imagine a little Onew cackling and running through fields of dead people with an old guy in tow. Her brows furrowed at the thought of an evil child. She wouldn’t touch the topic of  that relationship for now.

"So what did you do while you guys ruled?"

"I was.....a general of our militia..."

Her lips parted slightly and with wide eyes she asked, "What?"

“Don’t get me wrong though. I wasn’t invincible. There are plenty of demons out there who are stronger than me. I was just particularly...influential and active for my age. It was wise to pledge loyalty to my clan or at least become allies. Minho’s family was our ally but he was off traveling and training every time their clan visited so I never met him. Jonghyun’s immediate family were living south of the equator at the time of our rule. Taemin’s family pledged loyalty to us but Taemin was still very young and only remembers the end of my family’s rule. We never met back then. Key’s family tried to remain as neutral as possible but they eventually got pressured into pledging loyalty to us. He did come to palace parties and gatherings as a little brat but I happened to be out on security business each time he visited."

"So you didn't meet until you all joined the company?" She realized.

"Yeah. Key recognized me right away. I had a reputation. It was really a coincidence that all of us got put into a group together."

“Hmm...so...a general huh?”

"Yeah...I was a leader before SHINee too. I wasn’t a good demon. I was a great demon. I led my squad through so many successful battles against rebellious demons….And to celebrate….we’d go slaughter a lot of living things.” He sat down on the coffee table and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I was evil. I don’t get the same thrill anymore, but back then, I would try to make blood literally rain down. I killed indiscriminately.” His eyes glazed over. “Man, woman, child, dog. Other demons who even looked at me funny if I was in any mood that wasn’t happy. . I even killed demons in our own militia sometimes. Appa would scold me for that.” He glanced up to gauge how disgusted or scared she was. She was still wide eyed but said nothing for a moment.

Then, her eyes narrowed and darkened. “You’re evil,” she quietly stated. “And you kill people. Those are my people. And I just don’t understand you. How do you expect me to not fear you or be angry at you. How do you expect me not to hate you?” She challenged.

During much of the conversation, Onew’s head hung and it just sank lower. “I know. Deep down. I know that no matter what I say, we wronged you. But-”

“Wronged me?! That-that’s not even. That doesn’t even cover it! You KILL humans! And you LIKE it!”

There’s no denying it, so he just said the only thing he could. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“BEING SORRY DOESN’T DO ANYTHING!” she shouted.

Have you ever just been so stressed, you just started crying? Well, the stress must have finally caught up to the SHINee leader. His voice cracked a “I c-can’t be anything but sorry! I’M SORRY!” His eyes teared up and he didn’t even care. “I can’t change that I’m a demon! I But I WANT TO! For the life I’ve made as the human Lee Jinki! And for YOU! And I HAVE changed! You’ve changed me!” Tears slipped the rim of his eyes and he flicked them away in embarrassment. “S-so please. Just please. Don’t hate me. No matter what you choose to do, just don’t hate me. I’m sorry.”

She looked at him incredulously as he literally begged on his knees in front of her. “You, you have no right to cry. I’ve been through hell these past few months. So YOU have NO right to cry! You DAMN, SELFISH, EVIL DEMON!”

And he just started crying more as tears dropped to the ground. “I’m sorry,” he kept repeating.

“Stop crying,” she whispered with dead eyes. But he didn’t. “Stop. Crying.”

He continued his mantra. “I’m sorry,” only pausing once as a loud slap rocked his head to the side pushed him to the ground. “Please forgive me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m SO sorry.” The tears increased and he looked absolutely miserable. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry…”

It wasn't fair. She should have been the one on the ground in tears. She was the one who was away from her family. Her friends. Her normal life.

She dropped to her knees next to his fallen form and gripped his arm to pull him into a sitting position. With her nails digging into his arm, she whispered, “Stop. Crying.” He looked into her indifferent eyes and just couldn’t stop. He looked pathetic. The great, young general of a powerful ruling family was reduced to a snivelling boy struck down by a human girl. His face was red and swollen from the crying and dark eye circles emerged as his makeup slipped away. “You aren’t allowed to cry.”

Onew fell into her lap at her tug, and shock paused his snivels for a mere moment before they renewed with twice the force as he cried against her. One of her hands lay on top of his tousled hair while the other lay gently on his back. The demon boy probably cried more at that moment than he had ever in his entire life combined. Although she permitted him to cry into her, her eyes held no pity nor gentleness. She gazed down at the quivering boy with a mixture of sadness and loss. “I should be the one crying,” she said to no one as Onew’s muffled cries filled her shirt. Her eyes wetted and her own silent tears dripped down onto the back of Onew’s shirt.

The ordeal must have continued for a long while because Key found them asleep on top of each other on the floor.

“WHAT THE HELL IS G-,” Key fell silent as he took in the scene. Puffy, tear-stained faces. Onew’s twisted, death grip of the exhausted faced girl’s shirt. The mirror demon sighed and shook his head. He dragged the blanket off the bed and draped it as best as he could over them and left the room, closing the door after his exit. He’d ask Onew what happened later.

Taemin walked by. “I smell salt. Has she started crying again?” He whispered worriedly. “She hasn’t done that in a while.”

“I have no idea what happened. Let’s just let them rest.” Key patted the maknae on the back and strolled away with shopping bags in hand.

“‘Them’?” Taemin questioned and then followed Kibum to pester the older demon.

THEA's Corner <3

Ugh...so tired. Well, I have lots of free time (kind of) with my new job so MAYBE I'll actually get this story finished.

Follow me on Tumblr http://strive4l1fe.tumblr.com/ for see my interested, what's going on in my life (that is keeping me from updating) , and occasional teasers for new chapters!

Posted: 20 Sept 2013