c038

Seven.

That is the number for tonight, from eight p.m. to ten p.m. Seven deaths in New Sinsi. It is not outrageously high, but it is not outrageously low for a two-hour time span, either. Seokga exchanges wary glances with Hani as Hyun-tae stands in the kitchen with them.

"It's possible that the seven will all be killed at the same time," Hyun-tae says before frowning in disapproval. "Dong-wook's hours are small. I never understand why he's so lazy when all he has is a two-hour shift," he adds under his breath before addressing Hani and Seokga again. "If they die by Ms. Somi's hand, it will be anywhere from eight to ten tonight."

It's currently six-thirty. Seokga rubs his temples wearily.

"Levels of caffeine peak in the bloodstream fifteen to forty-five minutes after consumption," Hyun-tae continues, as if reciting a paragraph from a textbook. "So—if we want to be at peak caffeination by, say, eight…we should begin drinking around seven-fifteen."

"It takes ten hours for caffeine to leave your system," Hani murmurs next to him. "We should be loaded for the night with fifteen cups each." Fifteen cups of potent black coffee are the maximum amount that they've decided that they will be able to consume without going into cardiac arrest—or, in the immortal Seokga's case, having non-deadly but very annoying and debilitating heart palpitations.

"My ringer is set to the loudest setting," Hyun-tae assures them. "When there is a call, we will hear it."

"If you're coming with us," Hani says, looking at the jeoseung saja, "you'll need weapons. I have a pair of silver daggers that you can borrow. Are you well-trained?"

"Yes." Hyun-tae nods. "I'm sure that I can use them should the need arise."

Seokga furrows his brows in confusion. He bought those daggers for Hani, not a lovesick reaper. "You cannot go into this weaponless, either, Hani." His heart feels tight, pinched in concern. His nerves are fraying, not in irritation but in fear.

He cares for her. Deeply. So, so deeply.

And after the time they spent in his bed…He would have damned this city, this world, to Jeoseung if it meant that he could spend an eternity with Hani atop those silky black sheets.

He needs her to be safe. He needs her to be okay. The very prospect of her being hurt—it sends a shard of glass into his chest, and he considers asking Hani if she would stay here, out of the fight, out of danger, but he knows it is impossible.

Her fire, her fierce courage…he adores it.

Adores her.

And he would never try to change her.

Seokga holds his breath, watching Hani with that awful pinching feeling in his chest. "I bought those daggers for you," he says and shoots Hyun-tae a scathing look. The jeoseung saja blinks, caught off guard. "They're a gift. They're yours." Fear makes his voice stiffer than he wishes. "Yours, Hani," he says, softer this time. "Please, use them."

"I have something else to use," she mumbles in return—and it does not escape Seokga's notice that she does not meet his gaze.

But Hyun-tae is bustling around his kitchen, opening and closing cabinet doors. "Where's the coffee?" the jeoseung saja asks and Seokga feels a surge of irritation as he riffles through his things.

"It's in the other cabinet. No, not that one," he growls. "That one—your left. No, your other left—" Muttering a string of curses, Seokga shoulders past Hyun-tae to open the door to his impressive stash of caffeine…

And freezes.

The cabinet is empty.

Hani makes a startled, choking noise. "You don't have any coffee?" she demands. "You?"

Seokga winces in response, and Hani presses a hand to her mouth, mirth sparkling in her eyes. It seems that Seokga has been drinking much more coffee than he realized. Yet he could have sworn he'd still had at least a couple of bags…

"Hwanin's tits," Hani says, shaking her head. "I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. The one time I need you to have coffee—"

"I'll go to the store," Seokga says grimly, tightening his hold on his cane. It's risky to venture out into New Sinsi, especially with the eoduksini fantasizing about all the ways it can get back at him for locking Gamangnara, but they don't have a choice. Besides, it's not as if New Sinsi has closed down. While creatures have been alerted to the eoduksini, the humans believe the darkness to be from a chemical malfunction, or some inane theory like that, and are going about their daily lives (with the increased risk of being murdered). The store will be open, and it will have coffee.

"I'm coming with you," Hani says, and looks to Hyun-tae expectantly, but the reaper cringes.

"I, uh, would rather not," he replies as he nervously pushes up his glasses. "If that's all right with you."

"It's more than fine," says Seokga, who does not like Hyun-tae and wants alone time with Hani, even if said alone time is in the middle of a shadow-covered city crawling with Unrulies. As if knowing precisely what he's thinking, Hani's gaze slides to him, and the corner of her mouth quirks up. There's a dimple there, and Seokga has the sudden urge to kiss it. Yet before he can reach for her, she's skipping for the door, tossing him a wry look over her shoulder.

"I want to drive."

Hani, it turns out, is terrible at driving in the dark. Beads of sweat pool on Seokga's neck as Hani tears through the city, bumping his cherished Jaguar XJS against curbs, flickering streetlamps, and a phallic statue constructed by a cheonyeo gwisin in his absence.

"Perhaps you should slow down," he manages to suggest through gritted teeth.

"We can't afford to be out in the open like this for long," she replies and promptly runs over the virgin ghost who had leapt in front of their car, attempting to defend the statue, which was of considerable length and girth. "Oopsies."

Seokga closes his eyes and tries not to be sick. When she finally skids to a stop outside of the Yum Mart closest to Seokga's apartment, he fumbles to open the passenger door and practically falls onto the pavement. He takes a moment to cherish the pavement. It's still. Unmoving. Steady. Seokga presses his cheek to the cold ground and vows to never let Hani drive his car again, no matter how much he likes her. Some lines should never be crossed.

A foot prods his back. "Seokga," Hani said, laughing. "A fallen god sprawled on top of a parking space is a little sad to see."

Seokga groans and hauls himself to his feet. The world is still spinning.

Inside the Yum Mart, fluorescent lights provide a welcome contrast to the blackness outside. On the speakers, tinny music plays.

"Ooh, I love this song," Hani says as she grabs a cart, balances a foot on the lower bar, and pushes off as if the cart is a scooter. Seokga, cane clicking on the floor, hurries to keep up with her. "It's ‘Good Bye' by Shin Hae Chul. Have you heard it?"

Yum Mart is mostly empty, save for the two bored-looking cashiers at the registers up front and a handful of NSU students stocking up on instant noodles, looking exhausted and dazed, as if running through flashcards in their heads.

"I hate music," he replies, still a bit grumpy, thanks to the car ride from hell. Hani gives him a that's so bullshit look as she pushes off toward the coffee aisle.

"Even TLC?" demands Hani, still looking back at him. When she rams into a cardboard display of Choco Pies, Seokga pinches the bridge of his nose in fond exasperation. Hani, he decides, should not be allowed to drive any sort of moving vehicle, even if the moving vehicle is a grocery cart.

Seokga would rather die than admit that he actually quite likes TLC. It just doesn't seem very trickster god of him to have their CD hidden somewhere deep inside his car. Instead, he shakes his head. "Here," he says gruffly, and steers Hani into the coffee aisle, lest she somehow destroy the entire store.

Yum Mart's coffee aisle is Seokga's happy place. He feels his irritation drain as he gazes up at the rows and rows and rows of coffee. He breathes deeply. How he loves coffee.

"This one looks good," Hani says, grabbing a bag of coffee beans. "Well, as good as coffee can look, anyway. I like that it says ‘intense bold.' It sounds promising." She tosses it into the cart, hesitates, and then sweeps four more bags into the cart. "Just in case," she says.

Seokga opens his mouth to reply, but words die on his tongue as the lights of the store flicker—once, twice—and then go out entirely.

"This can't be good," Hani mutters, and Seokga has to agree. The hair on the back of his neck is standing on end, and his ears strain to pick up on their suddenly silent surroundings. Shin Hae Chul's voice no longer streams from the speakers, and he hears nothing but a strange sort of whispering, as if many mouths in the store are moving, releasing hushed murmurs. The air suddenly smells stale, old, sickly. With no sun streaming in from the windows, the store is pitch-black.

For a moment.

The lights flare back on in a burst of blinding light, revealing a mottled face pressed inches away from Seokga's own. He shouts, stumbling back into the grocery cart with a rattle of metal, flicking his sword into existence as the demon before them drops back down to all fours and laughs. It is humanoid, but only vaguely. Disease has taken it, disfigured it.

"Hwanin's tits," Hani gags. "What is that?"

Seokga only has to take one look at the skin ruined by thousands of raised, pus-seeping bumps and the green-tinged saliva dripping from the blistered mouth to know. "Plague demon," he says as it grins, showcasing yellow teeth. "Unruly. Probably some bastard child of Manura, the smallpox goddess. It can't infect you unless it touches you."

"Fuck," Hani mutters. "Courtesy of the eoduksini, I'm guessing."

"Right," he says between his teeth moments before the demon lunges. The aisle is narrow, too narrow. Seokga moves to the side, but the demon comes too close for comfort and he grits his teeth, slashing his blade toward it while simultaneously dodging the swipes of its curled, black nails. It leers as it once again becomes bipedal, herding him so his back is pressed against a shelf, hand poised to rake down his cheek…

Something hits the demon, hard, in the head.

Growling, the plague demon jerks away to glower at Hani, who is hurling coffee bag after coffee bag toward the demon, and hitting with expert marksmanship each time.

"Disgusting!" she shouts, grabbing more bags off the shelf. "The least you could do is wear a mask!"

The demon snarls, a wet, sick sound, and drops back to its four limbs—leaving Seokga and prowling toward Hani, who swears. The aisle really is too narrow. Seokga meets her eye and mouths, Run.

Hani doesn't need to be told twice. The gumiho sprints out of the aisle, the plague demon scurrying after her, and Seokga chasing after it. The three of them run through the store, and Seokga barely has time to note that the other shoppers, and the cashiers, are lying limp on the floor, covered with boils. Shit.

Their feet pound on the linoleum floor as Hani takes them into the large space that's the fruit and vegetable section of Yum Mart. She leaps over the large stand of apples, the demon not far behind.

"SEOKGA!" Hani screeches. "DO SOMETHING! I don't know how to fight it if I can't risk touching it—"

Seokga tightens his grip on the sword as they run in circles around the giant bin of melons, arm rearing back. He has to be careful. He can't hit Hani.

"SEOKGA!" she howls.

He lets the sword fly through the air.

The blade buries itself in the fleshy neck. Panting, Seokga lurches away as green pus flies through the air, splattering the fresh produce—but thankfully not Hani, who dives behind a nearby display of persimmons. Groaning, the demon begins to dissolve into putrid-smelling ash.

When nothing but a puddle of pus and dust remains, Hani creeps out from behind her barricade. "Thank you," she says hoarsely. "That was unbelievably gross."

"Did it touch you?" Seokga asks, striding over to her, hands rising to her shoulders. He checks her frantically for any boils, any worrying discoloration. The demons are nasty things, their diseases even more so. He spins her around, lifting up her hair, checking the nape of her neck. There's nothing he can see, but—

"Seokga," she says gently, turning to cup his face in her hands, "I'm okay." Hani presses her lips to his, and he closes his eyes, relief washing over him. "But," she says mischievously as she pulls away, "if you want to check every single inch of me later, feel free."

He laughs. He can't help himself.

Hani smirks, looking pleased with herself, and then gestures to his pus-covered sword. "I'm guessing we need to clean that?"

She's right. "Plague demons," Seokga mutters. He can't pick up his sword until it's been disinfected. He hopes that there are antibacterial wipes and gloves around here, somewhere.

And there are. Hani goes to retrieve the coffee while Seokga painstakingly cleans his sword and returns it to its cane form. He calls the incident in to Shim, who passes the message along to an on-duty cleanup crew, and an ambulance for the demon's victims. The Magical Mishaps Unit of the New Sinsi Hospital, hidden away from mortal eyes by a glamour, should be able to treat them well enough before wiping their memories.

"The eoduksini knew where we were," Hani says as she dumps the bags of coffee beans into the car's trunk. Seokga scans the dark lot warily. "Dok-hyun is watching us."

"Let's go home," Seokga says quietly, and when Hani nods, he wonders when his house became their home. Something warm blooms in his chest.

Hani grins. "Can I drive?"

The warmth is overcome by fond annoyance. "Absolutely not," Seokga says, and is quick to claim the driver's seat.