Hidden Patterns | Kpop Demon Hunters x Reader

[ 10 ] true form

As frustrating as it is, ever since Abby barged into his house spewing all that nonsense about smoothies, Jinu has been in a truly foul mood. He doesn't understand what Abby's deal is. One day he's loyal to Baby and supposedly against you, and the next he's sitting on Jinu's bench, sipping some stupid concoction and bragging about how you let him hang out in your apartment. With a thermos. A gifted thermos, no less.

Jinu grinds his teeth just thinking about it.

That idiot. That smug, clueless idiot. What was even the point of him coming here? So that he could rub it in? Pretend like he's suddenly so close to you?

No. No way.

Jinu realizes the thought is rather immature, but against his better judgment, he has the sudden urge to start some shit.

Which is why, in an act of remarkable pettiness, he goes looking for Baby.

It doesn't take long to find him. Predictable as ever, he's with Romance and Mystery, who are busy playing some board game like always. It's their go-to hobby, for some reason. Jinu doesn't get it, because Romance always tries to cheat. You'd think Mystery would have gotten tired of it by now.

Anyway, as expected, Baby is with them, sprawled across a rickety bed. A slasher novel sits in his lap, blood dripping across the cover—not real blood, just the kind printed onto pages, but still. It even has a ridiculous title, too. Serial Decapitations: Vol. 5. Every now and then, Baby laughs while reading, even though Jinu knows damn well there's nothing funny in those books. Just endless gore and death.

When Jinu steps into the room, Romance briefly glances up, then goes back to counting his pieces. Mystery also offers a lazy wave before rolling a dice.

But Baby?

Baby openly scoffs.

"Oh, it's you," he mutters, like Jinu's a worm that crawled up through the floorboards. "What a surprise. I thought you'd be off running around in the human realm with your new girlfriend. Seeing as you're so obsessed with her."

"She's not my girlfriend," Jinu denies, purely out of reflex. But weirdly, his cheeks heat up the second the words leave his mouth.

He hesitates for a few moments, however, soon enough, he decides he's going to do it.

He's going to ruin Abby's entire week.

"I'm not even the only one who spends time with [Name]," he says, keeping his tone as casual as he can. "Abby was just bragging to me about how he hung out at her apartment. She even gave him a thermos."

He lets the sentence hang, so that the full weight of every word can be properly appreciated.

And then, predictably, Baby explodes.

He hurls the book across the room so hard it creates a dent in the wall. "What?!"

Romance and Mystery immediately groan. "Oh no," they mutter in unison. "Here we go."

"We're leaving," Baby growls, already on his feet. "Right now. We need to go knock some sense into Abby. That infuriating, muscle-brained idiot."

Jinu watches them scramble out of the room, with Baby practically dragging the other two along, and he can't help it. Again, he knows what he just did was childish. He knows it all too well. But when he remembers how shamelessly Abby was showing off earlier, when he remembers how annoying it was to watch him brag about the time he spent with you...

Jinu's lips pull into a smirk.

And just any smirk, but a really big one.

Meanwhile, deep in another corner of the demon realm, Abby is balancing a boulder roughly the size of a garden shed across his shoulders, squatting in perfect form. Sweat drips down his brow. He's on his 150th rep, and he's nowhere near ready to stop.