“Pfuah!”
Da-hong flopped down onto the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.
She was stuffed.
Mala tang.
Tteokbokki.
Fried chicken.
Jajangmyeon.
It was the most she’d eaten since coming to Earth.
Not bad at all.
Se-ha spoke as he cleared the table.
“I’ll handle the dishes. You just rest, Da-hong.”
“Okay.”
Da-hong let her eyes drift shut.
She could hear Se-ha moving toward the kitchen.
The clinking of bowls.
The sound of water running.
Da-hong raised her arms and stretched.
“Mmmmmm!”
Her body felt pleasantly heavy.
Come to think of it—hearing the water reminded her of something.
“I want to take a shower.”
Da-hong murmured.
At that, Se-ha’s hands froze mid-air, apron strings dangling forgotten.
“…A shower?”
“Yeah.”
“R-right now?”
“Yeah.”
“H-here?”
“Is there somewhere else?”
Se-ha stood there, apron still clutched in his hands, completely rigid.
His eyes were darting wildly.
Da-hong rose from the sofa and walked over.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“O-over there. End of the hallway…”
“Towel?”
“I-I’ll get one for you!”
Se-ha bolted toward the bathroom.
A pair of crimson eyes followed him quietly.
Thud.
Thump.
Rattle.
Se-ha burst into his room and yanked open the dresser drawer, pulling out a towel.
*Calm down.
Yu Se-ha….
It’s just a shower.
Everyone does it.
It’s nothing, it’s nothing…*
He gripped the towel tight.
Breathe in—breathe out.
He took a slow, deep breath.
Then, from behind him, Da-hong’s voice came.
“What’s wrong?”
He jumped a foot off the ground.
“N-nothing! Nothing at all!”
“Your face is red.”
“N-no it’s not!?”
“Your ears too.”
“They are NOT red!”
Se-ha shoved the towel at her without meeting her eyes.
Da-hong took it and asked.
“What about a change of clothes?”
“…Huh?”
“Clothes. You know. Clothes.”
“Oh, uh, that’s…”
Se-ha’s eyes spun in his head.
“I-if you don’t mind wearing mine…”
Hmmmm.
Da-hong smiled—a slow, playful curl of her lips.
Her hand drifted up toward the buttons of her shirt.
Click.
One button came undone.
Se-ha’s eyes went wide.
Da-hong looked at him and said,
“Want to wash up together?”
“…Huh?”
Se-ha’s brain stopped.
“I need someone to scrub my back.”
“…”
“You don’t want to?”
Da-hong took one step closer.
Se-ha tried to step back, but the dresser was right behind him.
“Se-ha?”
Da-hong tilted her head and leaned in, expression curious.
Her warm breath brushed across the tip of his nose.
“N-n-n-no, I mean, I just—that is, I…”
Se-ha babbled incoherently.
Half-formed sounds spilled out of his mouth.
He felt like his head was about to explode.
And then.
“Pfft—ahahahaha!!!”
Da-hong burst out laughing.
“I’m kidding.”
“…?”
“Look at your face.”
Still laughing, she pushed open the bathroom door.
“Thanks for the towel.”
Click.
The door shut.
—Ahahaha!
“…”
Se-ha was left standing alone outside.
He stayed there for a long, long moment.
From his neck to the tips of his ears, completely red.
“…Oh.”
The strength drained out of him.
Slowly, he slid down the wall and slumped against it.
He buried his face in his hands.
*A joke….
It was a joke.
Right.
Of course it was a joke.*
“Haah…!”
Se-ha let out a long sigh and rubbed his face with both hands.
…Might as well do the dishes.
He dragged himself to his feet and shuffled toward the kitchen.
But.
The moment he picked up a bowl.
Shhhhhh—
From far down the hallway, the sound of the shower turning on reached him.
Se-ha’s hands stopped.
The sound of the water felt impossibly loud.
*Right now, in our bathroom…*
Without meaning to, a certain image of Da-hong’s very generous figure surfaced in his mind.
It was far too much stimulation for a teenage boy.
“Ughhhhhhh!!”
Se-ha wrenched the faucet on full blast.
WHOOOOSH!
Water poured out.
But the sound of the shower still wouldn’t leave his ears.
And to make it worse, Da-hong’s sweet, contented humming was drifting out along with it.
Se-ha finally shoved his head directly under the faucet.
Ice-cold water cascaded over him.
“GYAAAAAAH!!”
***
The bathroom was thick with steam.
Da-hong stood with her eyes closed.
Warm water ran down from the top of her head.
Her white hair, soaked through, clung to her back.
A rivulet traced down her collarbone, passed through the valley between two hills, and reached her feet.
Steam rose from her skin.
Da-hong didn’t move for a long time.
She just stood there, eyes closed, letting the water fall over her.
There is no rain in Hell.
There is heat, but not like this.
The heat that scorches flesh and the warmth that wraps around you are entirely different things.
“…”
Water droplets gathered on her long lashes, then slid away.
They traced down her pale cheek and fell from the tip of her chin.
Not bad.
No—if she was being honest.
Quite good.
Ramen had been like that.
Sunlight had been like that.
Stars had been like that.
Morning coffee had been like that.
Mala tang had been like that.
And this too.
One by one, one by one.
Sensations she had forgotten were coming back.
Da-hong cupped her own chest in her hands.
A body that had changed somewhere along the way.
But in Hell, she’d had no room to think about it—every single day had been too brutal.
Dangers scattered everywhere, demons and monsters hunting her life…
After she’d grown strong enough, she’d been busy fighting off the demons that came seeking her.
And after that, she’d been so mentally exhausted that nothing had seemed to matter.
But now it was different.
It meant she finally had the space to think about her own changes.
*Why did my body change?*
From a human man, to a female demon.
Honestly, she had no desire to go back to being male now.
She’d already decided that the moment she became a demon, the human she had been was as good as dead—so there was nothing left to miss.
Still…
*Is there some reason for it?*
At that moment.
She sensed something.
Along the outer wall of the building.
Down the hallway.
The ones that had been following her during the day.
Their numbers had grown.
Da-hong’s eyes slowly opened.
Through the steam, she could see the tiled wall.
Her mood dropped quickly.
…It had been nice.
It was an unpleasant feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Shhhhhh—
The water kept running.
But it wasn’t as good as before.
“Haah.”
Da-hong sighed.
***
Eleven o’clock at night.
“Da-hong, aren’t you going to sleep?”
Se-ha asked through a yawn, standing at the bedroom door.
Da-hong didn’t take her eyes off the TV.
“Just finishing this.”
“What are you watching?”
“A movie.”
Se-ha glanced at the TV mounted on the living room wall.
On screen, a masked killer stood in front of a door, chainsaw in hand.
With a bone-chilling sound, the door began to be sawed through.
Se-ha looked at the screen and grimaced.
“Ugh, you’re watching something scary. I’ll go to bed first, then. Don’t stay up too late.”
“Okay.”
The bedroom door closed.
Da-hong kept her eyes on the TV.
The masked killer on screen was cutting through the door.
Da-hong picked up the remote and turned the volume down a little.
***
Past midnight.
The apartment hallway.
Five shadowy figures moved in silence.
Every one of them wore black clothes, a mask, and a cap pulled low.
One raised a hand toward the light fixture—the bulb flickered, then popped out with a dull thud.
They nodded to each other and began to move.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
Swift, precise movements, like soldiers with special training.
The one who appeared to be the leader stopped in front of a particular door.
He crouched down and examined the door lock.
An old-model electronic lock—easy enough to disable with a stun gun.
A hand signal passed between them, and one of the figures reached to his hip and produced a stun gun, stepping forward.
Just as he moved to press it against the lock.
It was gone.
The stun gun.
“…?”
He tilted his head.
Then.
“Looking for this?”
A voice came from the darkness.
They all spun around at once.
Someone was standing in the dark.
Click.
Moonlight filtering through the window revealed the owner of the voice.
A woman.
White hair.
Crimson eyes.
Horns.
And in her hand.
She was holding an arm—the arm that had been gripping the stun gun.
The arm’s owner looked down at his own forearm.
It was gone.
His arm.
“!!!”
He tried to scream.
Slash!
The hallway wall turned red.
Thud.
The figure crumpled lifelessly to the floor.
“—!”
The nearest Hunter reflexively lunged at Da-hong.
Da-hong didn’t move.
The Hunter swung his blade—but lost his balance and toppled past her.
“!?”
He pushed himself up and spun around in confusion.
Behind him, two feet stood motionless.
He looked down at his own ankles as he lay sprawled on the floor.
They were gone.
*When did she…?*
Crack.
Before he could finish the thought, a blade drove into his throat.
The same blade he’d been holding a moment ago.
The remaining two came at her simultaneously.
One used his massive frame to charge, while the other unleashed fire from his hands.
Da-hong flicked her fingers as if snapping someone on the forehead.
The flames the fire-caster had launched exploded like ignited dust, engulfing their own master.
“Wha—what!? AAAARGH!!!”
The fire-caster began thrashing wildly, trying to beat the flames off his own body.
“Damn it—!”
The leader rushed to help him.
In that moment.
The hulking figure, grown gorilla-massive, shaped both fists into hammers and brought them crashing down on Da-hong.
Da-hong flowed past the strike like water, then gave his side a light, almost casual swat.
CRACK—!
“Guh—!”
The sound of ribs shattering wholesale—and the giant vomited blood and chunks of flesh.
His organs had all burst.
As the hulk collapsed, Da-hong’s hand closed around his tree-trunk neck.
“Kkk…”
“AAAARGH! Please—let me go——!”
Meanwhile, the fire-caster had crumpled into a charred heap.
The leader had tried to smother the flames, but they refused to stop consuming their owner.
If anything, they burned faster.
“…”
The leader’s voice died in his throat.
In an instant, four A-rank Hunters had gone down.
“Gone down” was hardly the right phrase.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
Crack.
Crunch.
Something solid snapped, and the hulk’s body went limp.
Thud.
A pair of blood-red eyes turned toward him from the darkness.
The leader slowly raised both hands above his head.
“I—I surrender. Let me live and I’ll tell you who ordered this.”
A smile.
The demon smiled.
“Don’t need to.”
“Wait—!”
Slash.