Chapter Text
It had barely been a day since the Saja Boys had failed their mission and they were already getting chewed out by Gwi-Ma. Mystery tried to not flinch as the demon lord got more and more fiery (literally) the more he screamed. In the world of screamers, Gwi-Ma must have a first place medal for every year of his existence. Half way through, Mystery glanced at the other remaining Saja Boys to see how they were holding up. Romance looked like he hadn’t blinked in ten minutes out of fear and Abby's normal arrogant smirk was gone. He looked like a puppy being told no. The only one who was unaffected was Baby. If anything, he looked bored of the demon lord.
Like this flaming mess of shrieks of fury had happened a thousand times before.
Which, to be fair, it had, but they had only been on the short end of the stick a couple of times. That was not enough to ever get used to this.
As if Baby looking bored wasn’t surprising enough, Mystery was pretty sure Baby was also mocking Gwi-Ma like a teenager. He looked like he was mouthing ‘blah, blah, blah’ before scoffing and rolling his eyes. What?! At this point Mystery was writing Baby’s eulogy in his head.
Baby was an amazing demon. We gather here today in memory of him and his very foolish actions. Let this be a lesson to not mock the ruler of demons while he is very angry because you might end up like our friend here.
Eventually Gwi-Ma noticed what Baby was doing. Despite being a literal wall of fire, he seemed to somehow glare at Baby (or at least gave a very strong vibe that he was doing so). Baby rolled his eyes again and made a motion of zipping his lips and crossing his arms. Gwi-Ma huffed before continuing to chew the Saja Boys out. Mystery had to keep his jaw from dropping. How. Was. Baby. Not. Dead?
He couldn’t really ask though, because now Gwi-Ma was giving another speech about their great failures. “Seriously!” he roared. “I gave you one order , and you still messed up! Horribly! I should end your trivial little afterlives right now! If you-”
Baby cleared his throat, “Um, Your Fireness? I think we get the point. Can you just let us off with a warning?” He pulled out the puppy dog eyes.
Mystery, Romance, and Abby all stared at the younger demon, horrified. Mystery was pretty sure they were all thinking the same thing; Rest in pieces, Baby. Mystery glanced at the crowd of demons around them. They, too, were gawking at Baby. Nobody interrupted Gwi-Ma. Not unless they had a death wish. Mystery was just wondering what would be an appropriate funeral outfit for a demon when-
Gwi-Ma grunted, “...Fine. I suppose I can let you all go. But if this happens again, I swear on the collapsing of the Honmoon-”
“Great! Thanks, Your Fireness!” Baby snapped and did finger guns at Gwi-Ma before simply walking away.
They were all left staring in disbelief.
…
“What just happened?” Abby asked as soon as they had left the Stone Steps of Fiery Doom(™). “How did that happened?”
“It’s ‘happen,’ not ‘happened,’” Baby corrected in a bland tone.
“Now is not the time for that!” Abby all but yelled at him. “How are you-” he jabbed a finger at Baby’s chest- “not extra dead by now?!”
Romance watched as Baby just rolled his eyes and pushed the accusing finger away from him. He gave a slightly smug smirk.
“Heh,” he said. Without saying anything else, he turned and vanished into a puff of pink smoke going off to who-knows-where.
The three stood there in silence for a moment. “...He wasn’t wrong about your grammar though-” Mystery said, breaking the silence.
Abby glared at him, “Oh, shut up.”
Romance laughed, but on the inside the gears in his head were turning. Baby got away with essentially disrespecting Gwi-Ma (or at least what Gwi-Ma sees as disrespect) not just once but twice. Then Romance realized something. “Now that you mention it, he’s done that a few times in the past, hasn’t he? I mean, slightly smaller things, but still. Think about it.”
The other two stopped bickering as they thought about what Romance said.
“...I guess,” Mystery muttered, “there was that one time he zoned out during one of Gwi-Ma’s meetings.”
“And the other time when he offered him a book called ‘How to become less ugly overnight.’” Abby realized.
They all came to a realization at the same time.
“...Favoritism?”
Romance gasped, “That’s why Gwi-Ma only hyped up Baby during his rap solo in ‘Your Idol’!”
Mystery groaned, “How didn’t we realize this before?”
“I dunno, maybe it’s because someone was too busy looking at his abs all the time,” Romance shot Abby a glare. Clearly someone was upset about not being the favorite.
Abby put his hands up. “How does that have to do with anything? Also, I’m the guy with the brawns, not the brains. That was, uh, I think Jinu’s job?” (Most of them don’t have the brains, including Jinu. They’re all living off of two brain cells and Baby took one and a half)
Jinu wasn’t here anymore, though. That silence hung in the air like a suffocating two-ton walrus. They stood there in their own swimming thoughts.
“So, ummm…” Abby was the first to break the silence. “This is awkward, do you guys want to go stab-”
A sudden floosh of flame lit up the entire area and caused every demon nearby to block their ears from the deafening noise. That would be Gwi-Ma. Romance turned his head to look towards the Stone Step of Fiery Doom(™) where it had come from.
A familiar silhouette rose out of the flames, floating for a few seconds before descending down to touch the ground. Then the shadowy figure tripped over their feet and probably would’ve tumbled down the steps if it weren’t for Baby catching him. They exchanged a few words, then climbed down the stairs and headed towards the rest of the boys, who were currently in shock for the second or third time that day.
“Hey,” Baby said as if this happens on a daily basis. “So, we got Jinu back now.” Jinu gave a tentative wave.
The other Saja Boys were stunned into silence. They were sure they would never see their old leader again unless Rumi’s sword was plunged into them. Seeing him again… it was a lot. Eventually Abby walked forward-
-and slapped his face.
Jinu yelped and instinctively held the part of his face that was smacked. “OW!” He glared at Abby, “What was that for?”
“ Dying. ” Romance said, glaring at Jinu.
Jinu pinched the bridge of his nose, “For the record, I technically-”
Mystery rolled his eyes, “Spare us the technicalities.”
“Fair enough…” Jinu said. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean for it to happen it just-”
Baby spoke up for the first time since he arrived, sarcastic as always, “He just accidentally sacrificed himself for his totally not girlfriend, muttered some sweet crap to her, and quite literally although accidentally gave his soul to her. It’s not that hard to understand.” Baby rolled his eyes.
“Wait, why did Gwi-Ma bring you back?” Mystery asked, genuinely confused.
Jinu thought for a moment, “I- don’t know. I only remember appearing at the stairs.”
Everyone wondered in silence. Gwi-Ma never brought demons back to life, especially if they disobeyed him. Trying to think of a reason why the demon lord would do something like that puzzled them.
Well. Almost all of them.
Baby scoffed like the answer was right in front of them. “It was easy. I just told Gwi-Ma he should bring Jinu back in order to torture him. And when he started rattling off ways he could do so, I brought up the fact Jinu hates us and spending an eternity with us would be more torturing than anything he could think of.”
The other four demons paused.
“...But as far as I’m aware, he doesn’t totally-” Romance started.
The maknae shrugged, cutting Romance off, “Yeah, but Gwi-Ma doesn’t need to know that, does he?”
Baby smirked at their uneasy faces. It seemed like they were not used to hiding things from the Demon King. All of them were wondering how Baby was still alive. None of them had answers.
“So Baby, how are you still-” Jinu had started to ask.
Baby smirked. “Nunya.”
Mystery, Romance and Abby groaned. That was the oldest joke in the book. There’s no way Jinu-
“Nunya what?” Jinu asked, genuinely confused.
The other three demons stared at Jinu with varying degrees of ‘lord save this man’ on their faces. While that may be the oldest joke in the book, they forgot that Jinu was the oldest geezer to ever geez.
Baby stifled a snicker, “Nunya business.”
And in a poof of smoke, the maknae was gone.
The remaining Saja Boys collectively groaned. Mystery muttered something about educating Jinu’s old man ass while Abby looked like he wanted to punch a wall or hated life (possibly both). Romance pinched the bridge of his nose, “Jinu, how did you fall for that?”
Jinu glared at Romance, “I’m four hundred-something years old, give me a break.”
Abby sighed, cursed and did something weird like he usually does before looking to where Baby disappeared to, “Where did Baby go to?”
“Dunno,” Romance shrugged. “Somewhere over the rainboooowwww.”
Mystery smacked the back of his head, “No.”
They stood there in silence. Jinu spoke up, “Ok, so what now?”
The four demons exchanged glances with each other.
“Theory time?”
“Theory time.”
…
Mystery and the other Saja Boys were back in their hideout area. Their minds were still trying to piece together what just happened. Jinu was back. Instead of being cursed, or double cursed since he was already a demon, he was allowed to live. He was supposed to stay with them. Baby had managed to convince Gwi-Ma. He literally walked straight up to the fiery king himself and stated ‘he stays with us.’
Okay, so maybe that was exaggerating a bit. It went more like Gwi-Ma listened to Baby and didn’t kill-him-obliterate-his-demon-form-to-ashes like he would have if any of the other Saja Boys had asked. And on top of that, he agreed to the request. What!?
“Okay, so what just happened!?” Jinu exclaimed, not in his normal, ‘I am totally calm and not at all worried about anything voice’, but an actual shocked tone.
Romance sighed, looking tired and confused, “We think it's favoritism.”
Jinu looked very startled. It was like this never occurred to him before. Then the realization hit. His expression was almost laughable. It was like the others could see the gears turning in his head. “So that’s how he got away from punishments before. Wait, that actually explains a lot.”
“No.” “Yeah, not really.” “Not at all.”
The others replies didn’t help the problem/mystery at hand. Abby broke the silence, “So what do you think is actually going on between him and Gwi-Ma?”
“That is the first ever intellectual question I have ever heard from your mouth.” Romance said, smirking and plopping down on a beanbag. Abby swung at him but wasn’t expecting him to be at knee level. “One, you missed. Two, we need ideas as to what the heck is going on with Baby. Any ideas on how to brainstorm?”
Mystery scoffed, “Easy, just do what we usually do, sit on the beanbags, argue, fight, and talk. It can’t be harder than writing a song right?”
Spoiler alert: it turned out to be much harder than that. So. Much. Harder.
They had been sitting on their beanbags with pens and paper for about six hours. They got nowhere. Baby still hadn’t come back from the meeting Gwi-Ma had summoned him to. No one was that worried. If he wasn’t reduced to ashes for speaking out against Gwi-Ma, then he would probably not be dead. Or at least that’s what they hoped. So far, all their theories stopped Gwi-Ma from striking Baby down.
Abby sighed and threw down his papers and pens, “This is hopeless! There’s no way we can figure out what is going on with Baby. Six hours, and all we have to show is a single idea. Favoritism.”
Mystery watched uninterested, but Romance shot up, “Gwi-Ma likes cute things! That’s why!”
“Cute? He’s literally fire.” Mystery said, deadpan.
Romance sighed, “Welp, that’s all I got left.”
“Do you think Baby bribed him?” Jinu asked. He seemed genuinely curious.
Mystery was smiling under that mop of hair he had over his face or smirking, “Baby. We are all talking about the same person right? Baby. The dark hearted pretty boy? The one who probably took the most souls in the human world? Even if he would stoop so low, what would he bribe the literal Demon King with?” He listed stuff on his claws, counting each idea. “Candy? Soda? Baby bottles? Caffeine? A fire extinguisher? Another book on how to look less ugly?”
“Then maybe he threatened him with a fire extinguisher! I mean he’s gotten away with other things, so why not that?” Jinu replied, unaffected by the clear sarcasm directed at him. He seemed to just be speaking his thoughts.
Abby, Romance, and Mystery stared at him. Abby spoke first, “I may be stupid sometimes, but even I haven’t come up with a conclusion that dumb.”
Romance snorted, “How would he have survived without losing a couple fingers or, I don't know, some hearts.”
“Oh. That’s also true.” Jinu admitted. He looked very lost and confused.
Rolling his eyes, Abby commented, “He needs those fingers for chugging hot sauce.”
They all collectively nodded their heads. Then Baby entered. They all could hear his footsteps from the hallway. Papers were shoved in weird places, Abby scribbled a rough picture of his abs over the list he was holding, and Jinu scrambled up to toss them a bunch of soda cans. Baby walked in, looking absolutely perfect as usual. He had his typical lollipop in hand and strolled up to the beanbags.
“What’cha doin’?” he asked, like he hadn’t just been to a six and a half hour meeting with Gwi-Ma.
“Nothing. Whaaaaat? Absolutely nothing. Of course we aren’t talking about-” Jinu slapped his hand over Romance’s mouth as the others stopped their denial to look at him.
Baby shrugged, stole one of the soda cans before walking out.
“Right. So any other brilliant ideas?” Mystery asked, getting up to check if Baby was gone.
“Ummmmm…. Do we think this is a sugar-”
“ROMANCE NO-”
All the other Saja boys yelled in perfect unison. Abby even grabbed Romance and gagged him.
“OOOkkaaaayyyyyy. We’ll continue this discussion later.” Jinu decided, giving Abby and Romance weird looks.
….
They had to resort to pulling out the board.
….
Yes. The board.
….
The same board they had to stare at for hours upon end to figure out “Your Idol” lyrics. The board that used to have all of their past lives posted on it to remind them of everything. The very board that Romance tried to destroy. The very board that Mystery tried to destroy. The very board Baby tried to destroy. The very board Abby had tried to destroy. The very board Jinu had tried to destroy. The one they used for emergencies only.
Somehow in the few hours they had been pondering, the situation had drastically changed to what was considered an emergency. Oop.