Breathless—that was the only word that made sense anymore. Nothing in your life was moving the way it should. Not your voice, not the Honmoon, not your friends. You weren’t hitting the notes like before, they slipped further from reach each day as the strange patterns crept up your throat. Terrible timing. Your group had to postpone its performance, even though you were the one who begged to release their single first. But that wasn’t even the worst of it, not compared to what hung in front of you now. The Idol Awards. The Bangtan Boys. Two weeks to recover your voice. Two weeks to secure your freedom. Two weeks, to get rid of Bangtan for good.

And still, here you were. Waiting for him. A mistake you should’ve erased long ago. You could’ve destroyed him before, but it hadn’t been that simple. Ever since he figured out who you really were, ‘a hunter who’s half demon,’ his words had burned beneath your ribs. You tried to protect the Honmoon, to hide, to reject every invitation he sent to meet, but something in you had already cracked. And now, you leaned against a cold stone wall, waiting like you had before, except tonight, you needed answers. The usual dance of resistance and surrender was gone.

He came, and to your shock, began to unravel. He spoke of Gwi-ma whispering poison in his head, manipulating him into leaving his family condemning them to poverty without him. He spoke of being branded a monster long before he ever tasted the darkness. You stared at him, this infuriatingly handsome contradiction, a shadowed thing who should’ve been your enemy, yet, wasn’t. Because you saw more than his tainted half. You saw the part that still fought to be good. Or so you believed. “I’m no good.” his voice was low. Broken. But he was wrong. You knew fear like a second skin, tightening around your ribs, crushing. But with him, something shifted. When he looked at you, it was like he could see everything you were trying so hard to bury.

Silence stretched, thin, fragile, until you forced yourself to speak. “My voice, you helped it.” heat crept onto your cheeks, not from shyness, but disbelief. A demon helping a hunter, and a hunter helping a demon, it shouldn’t make sense. But with Jungkook, it did. Somehow, he had steadied your voice, and somehow, you silenced Gwi-ma. “Help me win the Idol Awards,” you said suddenly, your voice serious yet slightly shaky. “When the Honmoon seals, you’ll be free. We’ll be free. Together.” The air stilled. His gaze shifting, confusion, desperation, maybe hope flickering beneath it.

“Okay,” he breathed. “I’ll sabotage the Bangtan Boys, so Huntrix can win.” it was too easy, far too easy. But you wanted to believe that he agreed because he chose to. Because he wanted to help you, himself. Right?