Chapter Text
Ever since they moved into the hanok, Celine-imo has had to drop Rumi off to school and then pick her up again. Rumi doesn't mind. It's nice to have the time to switch from School Brain to Home Brain without having to think about anything, and it means that she gets guaranteed time to talk to Imo almost every day, even when she's really busy.
But today, when Rumi goes out to the pickup, Celine-imo isn't there. Instead, their neighbor Park-ssi waves her over, and says, "Your imo isn't feeling good today, Rumi-ya, so she sent me to come get you."
Rumi likes Park-ssi pretty well. She's really old, like maybe twice as old as Celine-imo, and she lives a little way down the mountain from Rumi with her husband Lee-ssi. Sometimes Celine-imo takes Rumi over to their house, and Celine-imo fixes things for them, like doors and fences and the stove, once. If Rumi is good, Imo lets her help by holding things or handing them over at the right times, which is fun because she gets to learn what's happening and Imo says thank you a lot. And then Park-ssi will make a big dinner, with lots of meat and special sauces and funny vegetables. And even though Celine-imo never buys any of that stuff for Rumi and her, she still says Rumi should always eat as much as she wants because it's polite and shows appreciation, and sometimes Rumi even gets to take home some leftovers just for her.
But Imo also says to always be really careful of demons, so Rumi stops in front of Park-ssi, too far away to reach her. She narrows her eyes, folds her arms, and tries to look big.
"What's the secret word?"
"Your imo wants you to be really safe, huh?" Park-ssi smiles down at her. "She said that if you asked that I should tell you burgundy, and that we could buy a little bingsu on our way out of town because you were clever and remembered what to ask."
"Really?"
"Really."
Rumi hops into Park-ssi's car, excited for bingsu, but part of her is a little disappointed that they're going to have to change the secret word, now. When Imo asked her to come up with something she could remember she'd had to think really hard, and then she'd thought about how every time Burgundy gets torn and Imo has to stitch him up she tells Rumi it's because he's a strong warrior with lots of battle scars and that's how he can protect Rumi from nightmares, and Rumi thought that it would be easy to remember that the secret word was something that kept her safe. And ever since then, sometimes when she's thought about it, she's hugged Burgundy and told him he was keeping her safe another way too, and she thought he must be pretty proud about that, and now he can't, anymore.
But Park-ssi really does get her bingsu, and she eats it while they drive back to the hanok and Park-ssi asks her about her classes, and that's pretty nice. Park-ssi remembers about Jimin's birthday party, too, and wants to know if she had fun, and Rumi gets to tell her about how they all went roller skating and Rumi didn't fall even once.
It's weird once they get into the angeori, though. Park-ssi doesn't turn on any music, like Celine-imo usually does, and the kitchen is still kind of messy from breakfast, and Rumi doesn't see her imo anywhere. Park-ssi waits for Rumi to hang her bag and coat up on their hooks, and then they go into the kitchen and Park-ssi takes a napkin out of the napkin drawer and fills it with ice from the freezer, and says, "Come on, Rumi-ya, let's go check on your imo."
They go all the way to Imo's room, and the door is a little ajar, and Park-ssi knocks on it but she just opens it all the way right after, like the knocking was a warning, instead of a question, which is really rude. Celine-imo would never do that and she'd make Rumi apologize and go back down the hall and come back and do it again if she did, but Park-ssi is old and sometimes old people get to be rude even when it isn't fair.
Inside, Imo is on the bed, curled up under her blanket, humming to herself, but it doesn't sound good, like it usually does. It's breathy and sometimes a little flat or sharp and it keeps going quieter or stopping entirely, like it's hard for her to do it, and the Honmoon is bad too, floating around her, flickery like Imo's music can't hold onto it.
"Someone's come to see you, Baem-ah," says Park-ssi, and Rumi should have told her not to interrupt the music, but Imo smiles when she rolls over, eyes crinkling when they meet Rumi's, and she can't be upset. Park-ssi goes over to the bed and takes a wet napkin away from Imo, one of the nice green ones with the little embroidered letters, and gives her the new one, full of ice from the fridge. "Here," she says, laying it across Imo's forehead, "let's change that out, hm? Keep those scales nice and cool."
Celine-imo lifts a hand to the new compress, looking startled and then just as quickly, relieved. "Thank you very much, Park-ssi," she says, formal, but kind of shaky, just like her humming was.
"You're very welcome, Baem-ah. How about I give you and your seedling a minute to catch up? When you're done, Rumi-ya, I'll be in the kitchen. You can come and help me make your imo some soup."
"Okay, Park-ssi," says Rumi, but she doesn't go any further into the room, even when she hears Park-ssi go back down the hall, because it's Celine-imo's private space and Imo always says that it's important to respect people's private spaces and not go in them without permission unless it's an emergency.
But Celine-imo sits up a little, pushing the blanket off herself and beckoning Rumi forward. Her legs are all tangled in the sheets, and she isn't wearing a shirt and there's sweat on her throat and shoulders and damp in her hair, and the bandages Rumi helped her wrap around her hurt side aren't clean, anymore. There are long rusty lines where the scratches were, and gross yellow stains around that, and threads of the Honmoon, blue and blue-green and flickering, wrap around where she was hurt, too, lingering from her bad humming.
Rumi trots up to her, even though the colors on the bandages make her nervous, and Celine-imo takes her hand (Imo's hand is sweaty, but Rumi doesn't try to make her let go). "Hey, Ru-ya," she says, like nothing is wrong, like her voice is normal instead of soft and a little scrapey. "How was school today?"
"I don't want to talk about school," says Rumi, which is rude, but Imo is sick. "What's wrong with you? Why didn't you pick me up? When are you going to be okay again? Does it hurt?"
"It's okay, Rumi, I'm going to be just fine before you know it," soothes Celine-imo. "I just have a little infection. Do you remember what an infection is?"
Rumi twists a little, not letting go of Imo's hand. "Like when I got bad dirt in my cut and my finger got all hot and puffy?"
"Exactly like that," says Celine-imo, and even though she's still kind of scared, Rumi preens a little. "Sometimes with demons, no matter how well we clean the scratches, something bad can get left behind. And when it's a big hurt that gets infected, like that, instead of just a little cut like your finger, it can make your whole body hot, and you can get dizzy and tired while you try to heal, so it isn't safe to drive or move around very much."
"But you're going to be okay?"
"I promise. Park-ssi brought me some medicine, and the Honmoon is helping. Why don't you go give her a hand in the kitchen, and then you can do some of your math problems."
"But I want to stay here with you."
Celine-imo smiles again. She looks really tired. "You're sweet, Ru-ya, but your schoolwork is more important. I just need to rest and heal, and that's easiest when I know you're behaving, understand? And looking out for your future."
She squeezes Rumi's hand, and lets go, and Rumi knows better than to argue, even if she wants to, because she thinks that maybe Imo wants her to stay too, and it's really silly to send her away if they both want her there. But Rumi supposes someone has to make sure that Park-ssi makes the soup the way Celine-imo likes it, without any of the fancy stuff in it that Park-ssi always puts.
So she goes back into the kitchen, hearing Imo's bad humming start up again behind her as she leaves. Rumi recognizes it now— it's the secret song, the one Rumi's eomma wrote, that isn't on any album or tape, that's just for the people who are special to her (Celine-imo never said it was a secret, exactly, but she never sings it when other people can hear, so Rumi doesn't either; it's something just for them, but not scary and bad like her patterns, it's good, it's special like Celine-imo always says that Rumi and her eomma are). Rumi's not upset that Park-ssi interrupted it anymore. She does like Park-ssi but the secret song isn't for her, and Rumi hopes she didn't hear almost any of it.
Park-ssi doesn't act like she heard any secrets she shouldn't have, when Rumi sits down at the counter. She just smiles at Rumi and says, "Everything okay, Rumi? Your imo is going to be fine, but it's still alright to be scared for her."
"I'm not," says Rumi, and she doesn't want to be and she's trying really hard not to so it isn't really a lie. But she doesn't want to talk about it, either, so before Park-ssi can ask anything else, Rumi asks her a question first. "Why do you call Celine-imo 'little snake'?"
(Rumi asked Celine-imo that, once, forever ago, but Imo just said it was because Park-ssi is a stubborn old woman and that didn't answer anything at all.)
Park-ssi smiles kind of soft, like when she talks about her son, who teaches at a school down in the city and loves kids and treats women really well and just needs someone sensible in his life to keep his head out of the clouds (Rumi knows because Park-ssi and Lee-ssi tell Celine-imo all the time, when they visit, even though Rumi has never had to tell Imo anything more than once for her to remember just fine).
"The snake is a very special creature, Rumi-ya. It's wise, and clever, and always thinking ahead, and it can shed its skin and change into a whole new person, any time it needs to. It could turn from a serious young girl into a beautiful, popular idol, and then into a simple guardian of its own serious young girl, hm? And most of all, the snake is a protector. It stays low in the grass in the garden, hidden away, and hunts all the vermin and evil things that try to cross into its home. Does that sound like anyone you know?"
If Park-ssi knows that Celine-imo hunts evil things— Rumi tugs at her sleeves to make sure they're down to her elbows, just in case, but only because Imo would want her to; Rumi is too excited to worry. "You know about Hunters?"
"Hmm," Park-ssi says, smiling over the soup. "I know what everyone on this mountain knows, which is that the women who live on this compound are very special. Clever, quiet snakes, and fierce, brave tigers, and strong, proud crows, and all of them are our guardians, our protectors, so we try to protect them, in turn, when we can. And maybe you'll be one too someday, hm, Rumi-ya? Would you like to be a mighty tiger, when you get big, or maybe a clever fox?"
She reaches out and boops her finger on Rumi's nose, and Rumi wrinkles her face and tries to rub the feeling off her skin.
Rumi thinks about it, though. She thinks maybe she might like to be a phoenix. She just learned about them, and how whenever they get hurt, they just burn themselves all up into ashes and turn right into an egg and grow big again like nothing even happened, and if she could do that, she could get rid of her patterns, and she wouldn't have to have infections or sprained wrists from climbing trees, and maybe she could teach Celine-imo how to do it too and then even when a demon hurt her she could just make it go away right then, and she wouldn't have to be all sweaty and bad at singing and she could come pick up Rumi like she was supposed to and talk to her all the way home, and that would be better, even if it meant Rumi didn't get bingsu for remembering the secret word.
But Rumi just says that she doesn't want to be a fox, because foxes smell bad, and Park-ssi laughs and tells a story about a fox that got under the porch at her brother's house and wouldn't come out, and then Park-ssi takes the soup to Celine-imo and Rumi goes to her room to do her math problems, and then Park-ssi calls her for dinner and they talk about Rumi's music lessons over bulgogi. And then Rumi goes back to her room and puts on her Bulbasaur pajamas with the wrong color top button that Celine-imo took from another shirt, and she thinks that will be the end of her night, until she hears the crash.
Or maybe it's more of a thud?
It's loud, whatever it is, and it's followed immediately by Celine-imo's voice, sharp and noisy and afraid, and Rumi is running before her feet are even under her and she trips, and picks herself back up, and runs, and catches herself on Celine-imo's door with bruising speed and redirects into the room, and her imo is on the floor.
Celine-imo is on the floor, and she's shaking all over, and pale, and scared. Rumi didn't think Imo could be scared. Her imo isn't afraid of anything, not storms or the dark or weird noises in the woods or deep water or even demons, but she's looking at Rumi now like she's just seen all of it at once and a ghost too, and she says, "Rumi," desperate, voice cracking, and throws her arms around her. "Rumi, I thought— oh, god. Rumi. You're okay," and she stops hugging her, pulls back, runs her hands up and down Rumi's arms and legs like she might be hurt, somehow, and didn't know, and then hugs Rumi tight again. "Rumi, thank the Honmoon," and she's so hot and she's shaking and Rumi wants to hide, and cry, and scream, but she doesn't do any of those things; she hugs Imo, like a snake, like a tiger, like someone brave, and says, "I'm here, Imo, I'm okay."
And then Park-ssi is there, and she kneels down on the floor with them and wraps a blanket around Celine-imo and says, "It's alright, Baem-ah, you just had a fever nightmare. You're home, you're safe, and your Rumi is right here with you."
Celine-imo backs up a little again, her hands on Rumi's shoulders, and her eyes search Rumi's, and she isn't shaking anymore. Rumi didn't notice when she stopped.
"Yes," Imo says, "we're alright, you're right, thank you, Park-ssi. I'm very sorry, Rumi-ya. I didn't mean to scare you."
"… you had a nightmare?"
Celine-imo hesitates, then nods.
"… do you want me to stay with you?"
Jimin had a sleepover, a couple months ago, and Sooyin said then that they were all too grown up to get in bed with their parents now and if they had a nightmare they should just go back to sleep and not go bother anyone like when they were little kids, and Rumi doesn't want to bother Celine-imo when she's sick… but she's not Imo's parent, and her imo is the one who had the nightmare, and it wouldn't be bothering Rumi, so maybe it's okay?
Celine-imo doesn't say anything, she just looks at Rumi like she's proud and sad at the same time, which doesn't make sense, but Park-ssi says, "I think that sounds like it might be very nice, Rumi-ya."
And Celine-imo's eyes flick up toward Park-ssi, and she sighs really hard, but she takes her hands off Rumi's shoulders and takes Rumi's hands instead, and lets Park-ssi help her up and lead them both back over to the bed.
And Rumi watches as Celine-imo drinks a little cup of some bad-smelling medicine, and makes a face, and gets into the bed on her good side, and Rumi curls up in front of her, and Park-ssi wishes them a good night, and turns off the light. And Celine-imo starts humming her eomma's secret song, still kind of badly, and Rumi hums it too, and the Honmoon lights up blue and green and soft around them as Rumi drifts off to sleep.