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When Derpy flew back onto Rumi’s balcony, she slipped inside as quietly as she could not before giving the tiger a goodnight pat. The rush of the wind was still in her veins, but as soon as the door clicked shut, the silence settled in.
She leaned against it, exhaling.
For a moment, everything from before replayed in her mind. Singing Free had felt… real. Like something inside her had finally cracked open.
And then there was Jinu.
The way he looked at her. The way he understood without her having to explain everything, and the way he looked when he removed his wall for her to see. It made her chest tighten in a way she didn’t quite know how to deal with.
Rumi pressed a hand to her face, groaning softly.
“Get it together,” she muttered to herself.
Still, a small smile tugged at her lips as she changed quickly and collapsed into bed.
When she woke up the next morning, she felt refreshed. She walked out of her room with a slight skip and was immediately greeted by Mira, who was eyeing her with a raised eyebrow.
“What?”
“Is there anything you want to tell me?” Mira asked.
Rumi frowned, her thoughts racing through everything that had happened the night before. Did Mira see her sneaking out? Did she see her with Jinu?
“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.
Mira held up her phone and turned the screen towards her.
Rumi took in the content and widened her eyes.
The phone screen shows a picture of the Han river. It was kind of blurry but you can still make out a certain blue tiger carrying someone with a purple braid on its back, flying across the water with a goofy grin.
Someone had captured Rumi riding Derpy.
Seeing her freeze, Mira pressed on. “Aren’t you going to explain this?”
Rumi quickly tried to come up with a cover story.
“I was taking a walk outside—” she paused as Mira narrowed her eyes, “because I couldn’t sleep,” she added quickly. “Then I saw this tiger thing just sitting in the middle of the road. When it saw me, it just came up to me.”
“And you didn’t kill it? It could’ve been sent by Gwi-ma to destroy the Honmoon,” Mira said.
“I was going to,” Rumi replied, “but it just started purring and flopped onto its back. It didn’t seem dangerous.” She hesitated. “It even let me ride it.”
Mira stared at her for a long moment before sighing.
“Fine. But next time, be careful. You can’t trust a demonic creature like that. Just because it’s cute doesn’t mean it’s harmless.”
“You could say that to Zoey,” Rumi muttered quietly, not loud enough for Mira to hear.
Rumi grabbed her breakfast while Mira went back to scrolling on her phone.
A moment later, Zoey came out of her room.
“Good morning, girls!” she said brightly.
They greeted her as she began chatting nonstop while brewing her coffee.
Suddenly, the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Bobby stepped out, looking like he hadn’t slept all night.
“Girls!” he rushed over in a frenzy.
The girls stiffened at his appearance. Mira shot Rumi a side glance, and Rumi tensed. They both had a pretty good idea what this was about. Zoey, however, looked concerned.
“What is it, Bobby?” Zoey asked.
“You won’t believe it. A fan edit blew up overnight!” he said.
He showed them the same picture Mira had shown Rumi earlier. Then he swiped to a video capturing the moment, ending just as Derpy disappeared behind a building. The title read:
“Is that Rumi of Huntr/x riding on a flying tiger?”
Zoey screamed at the sight of the tiger.
“I know, right?” Bobby said, misreading her reaction. “It looks so real! I don’t even know where they got that filter from.”
Mira and Rumi could only stare in surprise at his response before a wave of relief washed over them.
Rumi leaned towards Mira and whispered, “At least this won’t turn into a PR nightmare.”