Seori
Oaths Beneath Moonlight
We met where we always did when everything felt like it was falling apart — the rooftop above Yuna’s apartment, where the city lights never reached, and the stars still felt like they belonged to us.
The night was cool. The kind that bit your skin just enough to remind you you were still alive.
I didn’t know how to start.
Didn’t know how to tell the only two people I trusted in this world that I had done the one thing I swore I never would.
I had fallen for a demon.
And worse — I was bonded to him. Yuna was the first to speak. She always was.
“You haven’t been sleeping,” she said gently, handing me a warm can of banana milk. “And I know that look. That’s your I kissed death and liked it face.”
I choked on a breathless laugh.
“Yuna—”
“Spit it out, babe,” she said, plopping down beside me. Her half-fae aura was practically glowing tonight, a shimmer under her skin only I knew to look for. “Whatever it is, Minji and I can take it.”
Minji sat quietly beside us, arms folded, eyes sharp as ever. She didn’t say anything — but the way she tilted her head told me she already knew.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” I finally whispered. “The mark… it reacted. On him. On me. It’s real.”
Minji went still. Her jaw tightened. Yuna’s eyes widened — but not in shock. In confirmation.
“We knew,” Yuna said, her voice quiet but unshaking. “We knew something was different.”
“Minji was the one who figured it out first,” she added, nudging her gently.
Minji turned to me, her voice soft.
“Marks don’t lie, Seori. You can’t fake that kind of bond. It’s ancient. It’s... sacred.” I pressed my face into my palms.
“What the hell do I do now?” I said, voice breaking. “I’m a hunter. I was raised to kill his kind. And now I’m bound to him. I feel him. I need him, and it terrifies me.”
Yuna didn’t hesitate.
“You survive.”
Minji added,
“And you don’t do it alone.”
Minji knelt first, right there on the rooftop, under the sharp white eye of the moon.
“I swear by fire and blood,” she said, taking my hand, “I will protect you, even from the darkness you choose to walk through.”
Yuna knelt beside her.
“And I swear by fae light and shadow — your secrets are mine, your fight is mine, your bond is sacred to me.”
The night pulsed with quiet magic — ancient, binding, true.
My throat closed with emotion.
“You don’t have to—”
“We do,” Minji said. “Because you’re ours.”
“And if anyone tries to tear you away from what you love,” Yuna added, “they’ll have to go through us first.”
“I don’t know if choosing him will destroy me,” I whispered.
“Then let us be your shield,” Minji said softly. “Even if you choose to burn.”
────────???────────
We were back on Yuna’s rooftop, steam curling from our ramen cups, sweat still clinging to our skin from training. For once, there were no ambushes. No curses. No fire.
Just us. And, somehow, them.
Yuna slurped her noodles dramatically and raised an eyebrow. “So… are you going to tell us what the hell those two other demons were doing crashing through the Guild like sexy shadows of death?”
Minji looked up from her cup.
“The one with the wings—Jisoo? I saw him through the flames. He looked… ancient. And unfairly hot.”
I choked.
“I mean,” Yuna continued, “you said Rheon had friends, plural. One was a whole fallen angel, and the other was straight out of a villain origin montage. Who are they?”
I groaned, setting my ramen aside.
“They’re Rheon’s inner circle. His best friends. The first is Jisoo. He’s a fallen angel—cocky, charming, flirts with death and everyone in the room.”
Minji blinked slowly.
“Flirts with everyone?”
I side-eyed her.
“Including me.”
She blushed.
“And what’s the second one’s deal?”
“Taeyang,” I said. “Berserker demon. Think brooding, violent, brooding again. If Rheon is the storm, Taeyang is the avalanche. He nearly strangled me last week.”
Yuna perked up.
“And you’re telling me he’s single?”
Minji choked on her drink.
Minji’s voice softened.
“I saw Jisoo pull a child from the fire before he vanished. His wings were shredded. And yet…”
I studied her.
“You like him.”
“I don’t even know him.”
“But you felt something.”
Her silence said enough.
“He’s dangerous,” I warned. “He makes you feel seen. Right before he undoes you.”
Minji’s smile was wistful.
“Maybe I want to be undone.”
Yuna leaned back, balancing her cup on her knee.
“Look, I’ve got a type. And that type is tall, glowering, and definitely plotting murder.”
“Yuna—”
“I mean, come on,” she said. “He’s the kind of man who growls instead of talks and probably doesn’t know how to flirt, only claim.”
I blinked.
“You’re thirsting after a berserker.”
“Girl, I want the berserker,” she grinned.
“You’re both hopeless,” I muttered.
Yuna smirked.
“Hopeless? Or finally on your level?”
Minji smiled softly.
“Maybe we were all destined to fall for monsters.”