Shadow | Huang Renjun

36

Nervous, Eunah adjusts her pale pink handbag over her shoulder and tucks some stray hair behind her ear. Beside her, Renjun poorly pretends to not be staring while Jisung and Donghyuck try their best not to laugh.
Miyeon is figuring out a map on her phone, wanting to find the right place before everyone teleports.

Today is the day they go check the mausoleum in China.

Jisung hasn't met Eunah before now, and certainly hasn't seen firsthand how Renjun acts around her. Donghyuck sometimes gossips about it, to embarrass said Demon, but it's strange to see with his own eyes after knowing Renjun to be an Angel-hater and overall loner for their entire friendship.
She must've done something special.

He steps towards her, noting the increase in caution when he does so, and holds out his hand. Eunah gingerly takes it, her light shake seeming unusual when compared to how he's been told she usually acts.
Maybe it's the whole... Archdemon thing.

"Nice to meet you, Jisung," she mutters with a slight bow of her head.

"You, too. I've heard a lot about you."

"You– you have?"
She glances towards Donghyuck, who is sporting a sheepish yet innocent grin.

"All good things, don't worry."

"Oh, that's– that's okay, then."

Their awkward introduction is interrupted by a loud 'aha!' from Miyeon. She joins the group, holding out her phone to show the marker on the map with coordinates.
Renjun leans over Eunah's shoulder to get a better look, hand gently coming to rest on her lower back to keep himself from knocking into her. She blinks, a brief fluttering sensation in her chest at his touch.

Not the time, Eunah...

Shaking off the feeling, she makes a mental note of the location.

Teleporting isn't as precise as that, only really needing a rough estimate or a visual, but coordinates can be a lifesaver if it's somewhere she's never been before.
She's not sure if it's the same for the others, but it would make sense.

"You all got the coords?" Miyeon asks, receiving unanimous agreement.
"Let's go, then."

The Nightmare links arms with her boyfriend, while the others separate to avoid clashing during the teleport.

Eunah has only heard of clashing from books. It's a side effect of getting too close to another entity while teleporting, if the two are from opposite domains.
It's much more than an injury, instead taking the entities' body parts and fusing them together.
The images she saw were almost vomit-inducing, with vaguely Human forms made of a mash-up of misplaced and deformed limbs– all belonging to different people.

Sometimes, she wishes her teleporting wasn't so... visible. It's hard to hide yourself when you arrive in a bright beam of light and have to fold giant, white wings every time.

The rest of the group arrive subtly in swirls of smoke, immediately folding their own black wings while Eunah stands off to the side in embarrassment. She really looks like the odd one out now.

"You okay?"

Renjun's question startles her, hand flying to her chest as her body jolts. She turns his way, a playful glare now etched onto her features, and lightly pushes him by the arm.

"Don't do that... You'll give me a heart attack."

"As if you haven't snuck up on me before..."

"So?"

"Hypocrite."

Jisung raises his brows, while Donghyuck and Miyeon try to hold back smug smiles.

"C'mon, lovebirds. We've got a mausoleum to find," Donghyuck comments, earning himself some less playful glares from the two as their cheeks flush pink.