“You are batshit crazy!” Sounds from the distance and Joonghyuk can recognize the voice of Han Sooyung. And if she’s talking like that it must be towards Dokja.
So he takes a turn to change the street he’s walking, pulling Mia with him.
“Oh, you know that person,” she concludes easily as they follow the loudly complaining voice. If there were any monsters in the area, they are definitely also doing the same, but Joonghyuk honestly doubts there are any left.
Then they walk out of the narrow alley and out into wider street and;
Now, Joonghyuk promised himself to not be surprised by anything Dokja is doing. But a werewolf on a leash is still a bit… too much of unexpected thing to find.
[Dokja, what are you doing this time?]
He sends in his direction, which only causes his dumbass to look around and then wave at them with a wide smile on his face.
“Joonghyuk-ah, Mia-ya! Come, join us!”
Mia tugs on his sleeve and as he leans closer as she wants him to she whispers,
“Oppa, what are they doing?”
“We’ll find out.” He straightens up and walks to Dokja, pulling sword out and pointing it at the werewolf.
“What. Are. You. Doing?”
Werewolf makes kind of pathetic whine and takes a step back while Dokja still with a smile places his hand on the blade of the sword, pushing it down. Joongyuk lets it be moved in fear that otherwise he’ll cut his palm.
“I got us someone who knows directions since I’m all out of battery,” he declares shamelessly.
“And there's a bunch of constellations that found it hilarious.” Han Sooyung interjects with a smile, like she wasn’t just criticizing it a few seconds before. “Ooh, are you jealous of this guy?” She points at the werewolf.
Werewolf. On a leash. Held by Dokja. And… it’s really not a time to go there. Mia is right behind him and watching.
“You’re absurd.” He holds glare on Han Sooyoung for a moment to make sure she has no doubts of his disapproval. Until her smile vanishes.
Then he takes a quick step around Dokja to behead the werewolf in one firm strike.
“Hey…” Of course the little rat is protesting but it’s easy to dismiss, just like brushing away the monster death notification.
“I know the way.”
As Joonghyuk starts walking, with long strides, with Mia following behind him running to catch up, he can hear Dokja whispering,
“You are so damn lucky he likes you from last regression,” to Han Sooyoung, probably thinking he’s being all sneaky about it.
Mia grabs his left hand, and he can feel her warmth as she clings to him.
“Those people are strange.”
“Wait, last regression? What do you mean ‘last regression’ you freaky greased rat??” Han Sooyoung is not trying to be subtle at all on the other hand, grabbing Dokja by the collar as two of them are dragging their feet.
“Hey, hey… You know exactly what this means,” Dokja placates her at the same time as he pulls her hand off him, “Now we got to try stuff we didn’t last time,” he sums up with another smile of the customer service quality.
He had a point there. Even if it is hard to understand some of his decisions.
Joonghyuk makes a mental note to get spare batteries for Dokja as soon as possible. Just in case.
“They can help us reach the end of this apocalypse.” Joonghyuk assures his sister and smiles a little before he recalls one of things he saw Dokja do…
[Could you be Mia’s sponsor?] he asks over ‘Midday tryst’, not wanting constellations to overhear.
[It’s not impossible, but I’m not a constellation. No good stigma to give. All I could get her is the same stuff you could.]
[If it’s about coins I can pay you back. I have a sponsor. I’m not putting Mia in their hands too.]
[Alright, I’ll talk with Mia about this.]
“HEY, What are you plotting, you bastard?” Han Sooyung seems to have noticed something about the exchange and Joonghyuk has to tell himself that cutting off her hands for touching Dokja like this would be counter-productive.
“You’ll know once we're working on hatching the meteorite.”
Sooyung looks like she wants to argue more, then looks in the direction of Joonghyuk and just shuts her mouth, letting herself fall step behind Dokja instead so there isn’t a clear line to glare at her anymore.
When they get to the meteorite the first thing they do is to look at it closely to confirm it is the correct shade of muted yellow. There shouldn’t be another one around, but keeping the bases covered is important. They quickly agreed on taking turns supplying it with magic power so it hatches quicker.
Mia hearing them talk about it insists she’s also going to help.
“Oh, right!” Dokja makes gesture in the air like he’s pulling something down and they all hear the information about an AD playing in the channel.
It’s still ridiculous how he got dokkaebi to do that for him and somehow didn’t piss off constellations following him in the process.
“Mia, your brother did already tell you that he doesn’t really trust constellation sponsors, right? But it’s easier to get stronger with a sponsor supporting you.” He seems to be taking time, despite how easily constellations could get upset at the AD break.
“He did. So what? I’m not getting a sponsor.” Mia crosses her arms. And she had a good point even if the main reason was that there were no decent constellations offering to sponsor her so far.
“What if I was your sponsor?” He is already reaching into ‘Dokkaebi Bag’, likely to pull out the contract. Which wasn't a big issue, since he might use it later for Yoosung if Mia doesn’t want it.
“You can do that?!” Han Sooyung interrupts the situation loudly and Joonghyuk just grabs her by the scruff of her neck and lifts her up to get her away from them.
She is trying to kick and twist in his grip, and even split off the avatar specifically for the purpose of kicking him in the shin. Like a kid.
Mia is giving them a look, like she is expecting big brother to try stopping her.
“He’s not bad. And the contract will end if we kill him for good.” He informs her calmly, still keeping real Han Sooyung off the ground, even if she’s slowly starting to wiggle out of her shirt to get away. This eventuality won’t matter, but it can help Mia get more confident.
“You won’t be ordering me to do stuff, right?” Mia asks as she reaches out for Dokja to show her the contract. The sound of a stream coming back online interrupts them in the middle of this. Mia seems to ignore the notification as she nods.
And then as she reaches for the screen she frowns.
“What’s this ‘constellation who doesn’t yet have a name’ stuff? Aren’t you an incarnation like everyone?”
That’s far too early. He has no right to have enough stories yet .
YOU ARE READING
Say it Again
FanfictionStart of the 4th regression(allegedly). If KDJ was there again after the irregular 3rd ended when Yoo Jonghyuk failed to resist activation of his stigma. He might be a little bit feral about that. Not going to let Kim Dokja go ever again. almost eve...
