Authoress Notes: Language lesson – Yeoboseyo: (Korean) Hello, to be used when answering phones – compare this to the Japanese 'Moshi moshi.'

Appa: (Korean) Dad. A casual term in comparison to 'abuji,' father.

Layers

Chapter Eleven

By: Brenli and Jael

4:30 AM. Milky white fingers were delicate about tapping the 'alarm off' button just before it could ring and rouse them both...

The morning after that not-so-happy night, Nema had tried to keep him in bed. She'd traced her fingers down the line of his tattoo and lower still, and he'd grumbled and pulled away from her. It had been the same the next morning, and the next... She quit trying, after that.

And maybe she was being obnoxious...? Too needy? But he awoke and left her and didn't come back until well after Nema had lain down to sleep.

So she was lonely. She wanted to believe that she had the right to a little loneliness.

Nema's hand hovered over the alarm clock, slowly retreating back across Michael's body. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to caress him and brush kisses all across his chest and hope that he'd stay in bed this one time, for only an hour. Or even half an hour... but she didn't risk it.

Instead, she gently slipped out of bed, leaving him there, wrapping herself up in the black fabric of that button-down shirt and silently sneaking to their window. Her ivory fingers curled around the heavy curtain and pulled it aside. Only a fraction. Enough for her tired ruby eyes to peek down into the big backyard.

Lilith was already out there, forming little fiery wisps in her golden palms and aiming them at nothing, throwing them at nothing as she sparred with the air, practicing high kicks. No doubt looking to impress her personal trainer with her readiness... She'd done the same, yesterday.

Nema couldn't begin to understand how her husband could be so blind. She wanted to ask him. She would have asked him if he wasn't dead tired during whatever little time they were together. Barely a week had gone by since Lilith had turned into a fire wielding fighter, and already the big-breasted hussy-

Nema stopped herself from that train of thought, lest she... she didn't even know what she would have done. But her body had grown so tense, she may as well have been carved out of ivory, after all. Hard and cold...

The curtain dropped back down, and Nema dressed herself in the dark. Silent hands pulled pieces of clothing that weren't her usual taste onto her form. A plain, red cotton tank top. A pair of black shorts. The knee-high boots, the flat-heeled ones that she'd owned since she was living in Assiah – admittedly, not worn as often anymore, in favor of the high-heeled ones that she felt made her look a little more regal, womanly. She peered at her face in the mirror as she pulled her long, snowy-white hair into a high ponytail. She didn't like what she saw. She looked tired and mean...

Grabbing the Angel Crystal earring from the polished oak of the vanity, Nema slipped the hook into her ear and looked down at Michael as he slept. Mouth slightly open. Bedsheets half-exposing his torso. Wonderful red hair looking like a mussed mess around his head... She stared and stared and realized she was nearly willing him to wake up, now. It had been months since he'd seen her dressed like this. Maybe he'd like it. Maybe he'd give her that amazing, wide smile of his and invite her to spar. Maybe his smile would be dark and he'd pull her back into bed, inviting her for a whole other kind of... sparring.

But Michael kept sleeping, unchecked by the alarm clock, and she gave up and left him there.

Nema had little occasion to actually wear her cross earring ever since she'd been wounded, and it felt heavy as it swung from her left ear. Her worn-in boots silently strode across the new carpeting, down the steps, through a parlor that led to the backyard...

However much the former Dragonmaster had suddenly taken to her training, she clearly wasn't observant enough to notice the addition of a second fighter. A sick kind of satisfaction seemed to bubble in Nema's stomach, one that she couldn't rationalize. It took pulling her earring from her ear, gently tossing it into the air so that the Angel Crystal could shift into the usual katana, and stabbing the sharp tip into the earth, before Lilith noticed her.

She turned to face the pale woman, the sloppy champagne blonde bun at the back of her head bouncing just a bit. Dark red cat eyes blinked at Nema, and the little ball of flame she'd been cradling in her hands flickered and died down. "... You joining us today?"

Lilith wasn't even trying to hide the disappointment, and Nema's felt her face harden into something both cold and angry. "Michael's still sleeping."

"... So just you?" Lilith's eyes traveled up and down Nema's form. She didn't exactly look like herself without the poofy skirts and the flowing hair... Her eyes were briefly drawn to the blue dragon etched around Nema's ivory thigh, immediately recognizing it as the same dragon upon Michael's body... but it was mostly the look in the Rabbit Queen's eyes that set the Evil girl on edge. Sharp but unreadable.

"Is that a problem?" Nema knew it was a problem.

Lilith blinked again, her head shaking just the slightest bit before recovering herself. Her stance shifted, feet planted more firmly against the ground. "Not at all. I've just never sparred with you, before."

They were dancing around their aggression, and Nema didn't mind. "It's good to spar with different partners. Not everyone fights in the same manner; you don't want to get caught in an old pattern."

Suddenly, a little ripple of laughter left Lilith's lips.

"Did I say something funny?"

Lilith stifled her laughter with a upwards tilt of her head. "No, of course not."

Ruby eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Strange that you didn't already know that. That's basic knowledge. Anyone who's been training for a long as you have should have known that, unless you're too stupid to remember." Maybe that was too mean. Maybe Nema didn't care.

Maybe Lilith didn't care, either. "It never came up. Your husband's too preoccupied to give me little lessons like those, I think." She was a little too nonchalant, shrugging, her smile aloof and provoking all at once.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here to teach you some lessons, isn't it? Arm yourself." Nema didn't wait for Lilith, immediately pulling her Angel Crystal katana from the ground and running toward the former Dragonmaster.

Lilith scrambled, but only briefly, tossing little balls of flame at the Violent Queen to try and quell her.

"Surely you're better than that, Lilith...! I've been dodging fire bigger and hotter than that for years!"

But those little fireballs had given Lilith the time she needed to grab a wide, curved sword from one of the several weapon-laden tables. "Forgive me for wanting to show Her Majesty a bit of mercy!" Lilith parried two wide, Angel Crystal slashes. She didn't relish how the blade seemed nearly invisible as Nema wielded it...

"Mercy, for me?" Their blades locked, pressing against each other.

Lilith could hear the steel of her sword of choice groan under the indestructible blade. "Of course. Powerless as you are, now."

A sudden sneer curled Nema's lips, and she pushed back on Lilith's sword, forcing the both of them apart. "You don't want to go against my power; you wouldn't be alive if you did...!"

"Threats like those are pretty empty these days, aren't they?" If Lilith had meant to say more, the words were lost when Nema closed the distance between them, swinging mercilessly. She tried to keep her face even, calculating – a thing she had seen Michael do frequently while he trained her – but this sword... funny, this sword had never failed her, before. But somehow Nema's katana was giving it Hell. It groaned and the strain echoed right down through her golden arm...

And when they pushed away from each other, Nema's boots crunching against the dirt, Lilith noticed that a small chunk had been taken out of the her blade... "I can think of plenty of threats that aren't so empty."

The women stood, swords brandished, eyes in different shades of red, but carrying the same fire steadily burning behind calmer, colder masks. "What is this really about? Another Angel's arrogance?"

A smile cracked Nema's mask, and it was mean, venomous. "Oh, don't talk to me about arrogance, please!"

"Why can't I?" Lilith shot back, her usual angry snarl beginning to bleed into her words, "You come here with shit to say to me but instead you're giving me this mock-sparring routine, showing off your fancy sword! Get to your fucking point!"

"You want me to get to the point?" Nema's boots scraped at the ground, and she all but crashed against the Evil, their blades locking, her foot connecting with Lilith's torso and sending her flying back.

Bark crunched under Lilith's own boots as she ricocheted off the tree and rebounded for Nema. Her wings spread from her back, propelled her faster. Steel met Angel Crystal again, but the katana fit into the notch it had carved out in the metal and purposely pulled the sword aside.

Cat eyed pupils narrowed into slits as she saw the ivory fist speeding toward her face, and Lilith reacted in haste, her free hand issuing forth a wave of fire. There wasn't time to think of anyone's safety. Clearly, Nema had very little interest in hers.

The Violent Queen had to bend backwards to avoid the heat, and was briefly beneath Lilith, who was baring down on her katana with her chewed-up sword, wings brandished. She pushed her off with her clear blade, her own dark wings unfurling from her back as they sped up into the air, blades still locked. Nema shook her katana free, only to crash against Lilith's sword, metal and crystal singing, screaming at each other like each woman wanted to scream at each other...

Eventually, the steel gave way to the Angel Crystal, cracking, snapping, and for the dangerous flash of a second, there was nothing that could have stopped Nema's blade from biting into Lilith's flesh.

A desperate wall of flame flared out around Lilith, and the two pulled back with large sweeps of their wings. They hovered there, the sun beginning to crest over the trees and scattered mansions sparsely dotted in the remote neighborhood. The light of dawn shone right through the expanses of skin between the sturdy, black, bony frame of Lilith's Evil wings, jewel tones all in teal, blue, purple, some burgundy shade... Nema had never seen an Evil's wings before, but found it ironic that they reminded her of stained glass windows in old cathedrals. "... Over 12 hours, Lilith." Nema finally spoke once she caught her breath. "Every single day. For over 12 hours?"

Lilith dropped the other half of the ruined sword and planted her golden hands on her generous hips. "So that's what this is about?"

"Angels have to sleep, too!"

"Don't tell me that. Tell your husband." She stared at the moody Rabbit with her crystal sword and her sour frown, and she had to do it. She just had to give her a cruel smile and add, "Michael just really... really... really enjoys sparring with me."

"Don't pin this on Michael. This has less to do with him and more with you."

"Are you sure about that?" Lilith saw the sun glinting off the Angel Crystal blade as it shook in Nema's hand. "If he really wanted to, he could end each day early. You and I both know that. He could end each day whenever he wanted to and come running home to you. Lonely injured woman that you've been, up until last week or so." The blade twitched upward, but Lilith kept right on speaking. "But he chokes every minute out of every day that he can... to spend with me."

"To train you." Nema corrected her coldly.

"To train me, yes. To grapple with me." Lilith paused and let that image twist into something unwelcome in the Rabbit Queen's mind. "By the way, don't you love how his body runs a little hotter than most? I love that."

Nema's sword was brandished and ready, but Lilith sank back down to the ground, her wings seeming to crackle and twitch as they disappeared. She followed her, her own wings shuddering in anger, shaking a few loose, dark feathers into the air. "I knew you were a spoiled little brat, but a whore in the making, too? Keep your filthy fucking hands off Michael!"

"It's not my problem if he doesn't want you anymore." Lilith gave her a chilly, cat-eyed glared over her golden shoulder as she crossed over to mansion. "Maybe he's bored? You clearly don't do much for him, anymore."

The nerve of this wretched...! "You don't know anything about Michael and I!" Lilith's honey-toned hand began to pull open the door, but Nema's snowy-white one slapped against it, shutting it all over again. "I fucking mean it, Lilith." The Rabbit Queen's voice was a low, warning hiss. "If you don't back the Hell off, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Lilith hissed right back, turning to deliver a dark red, cat-eyed glare. "Kill the Dragonmaster?"

Nema scoffed and lightly tossed her Angel Crystal katana into the air. The blade shrank and morphed back into her cross earring, and she spoke easily as she neatly slipped it back into her pierced left ear. "Don't be ridiculous; I wouldn't kill you." She met Lilith's moody glare with a glare of her own, brighter red against the former Dragonmaster's garnet irises. "But... maim you? Yeah. I might be open to that."

The pause between them burned cold, neither of them blinking. "... I think I'm done, today." Lilith pulled open the door again, but Nema slipped inside. Her pale shoulder roughly pushed against the Evil's arm.

"Oh, don't do that. You have to train. You have to become a fully capable and self-sufficient fighter...!" Nema wrapped all her anger in poisonous, sugared tones that matched the smile she gave her. "Please, as you were. I'm sure Michael will be joining you, soon. I'll even wake him up for you, after I've showered off." Every single word was an unspoken warning. Even the parting bow that she gave her before she walked away, the leftover habit from Japan, was a warning.

xXxXxXx

The Queen of Rabbits certainly knew how to ruin the day, didn't she? Lilith couldn't be sure, but Michael seemed annoyed that he'd slept through his alarm, and that annoyance showed itself off and on throughout the day. Maybe he'd argued with his pale wife a bit, before he showed up?

Well, all the better, then.

The former Dragonmaster plopped down in the chair before her vanity, wrapped up in a short robe as she toweled off her freshly washed hair. Her maroon eyes fixated on the earrings she always wore, even now – the earrings that encased the Shinryu – and she reached out to run a golden finger down the runes carved into the precious stone.

Praying to the Shinryu the way most Evils did was... not very rewarding, in Lilith's opinion. She was used to them literally answering her own, talking back to her. She missed Jade...

Against the odds, she missed Agate and Amber, too, but mostly she missed Jade. There was so much she needed to talk to her about, and it felt weird to realize she wanted to initiate those heart-to-hearts that she used to barely endure. But she needed to talk to Jade. Surely Jade could've made some sense about her body and all the strange ways it reacted and what to do about... him.

But no, she was left to her own devices, left to counsel herself. A sigh left her lips as she lifted one earring and closed her hands around it, in prayer. "I deserve what I want, don't I, Jade...?"

The rapping of knuckles upon her door made her jump and drop her earring, and it clattered against the other as it it landed on her vanity. "What?" She found herself snapping. If it was Nemaelle, Shinryu help her...!

A sigh and a soft, "Princess..." smoothly slipped through Lilith's door and into her ear.

"What do you want, lecher?" Lilith didn't understand why he didn't just go back to Sheol or Seoul or wherever; he had no obligation to stick around, and clearly it was dangerous to do so!

"Are you decent?"

"No!" She hissed at the door. "It's late and I'm about to go to bed!"

"Can you make yourself decent?"

The Evil gaped. "I'm not a part of your harem; you can't order me arou-"

"I'm not ordering you. I am asking you."

A pause.

"Please. I believe this is important."

Lilith's mouth pursed into a pout, and she stood with a growl. "Fine, hang on." She tore through the clothes that Jibril had been kind enough to give her a few months back, trying to find whatever looked nice. Truth to tell, she wasn't wild about Jibril's fashion choices. Everything was girly and flouncy and the silhouettes of most of these clothes reminded her of the formal, Princess attire the Elder Council wanted her to wear... She grabbed the only pair of jeans Jibril had for her – jeans she'd purposely ground holes and frayed edges into as soon as she received them – and stomped her way into them, and pulled a low-cut blouse over her head. She tried hard to accept the fact that her cleavage was on full display, and stood a few paces away from her door. "Come in."

After a brief moment of silence, she saw his trademark top hat slip through the wood of her door, followed by the rest of the Gehenna Vampire as he frowned at the floor. "You can unlock the door for me." His ink-black eyes seemed preoccupied, though Lilith couldn't be sure why.

"Or you can walk through the door; it's not like it's hard for you." The former Dragonmaster crossed her arms over her bosom and scowled.

Despite himself, Jinho tapped his cane against the floor and rested his hands upon it. "Point made." His face tilted up to look at her, and he continued, "I will try to keep this brief-"

"So make it brief." Lilith's garnet eyes narrowed into slits, trying to read him and utterly failing. He looked like he had a lot on his mind. That was it. She hated that she couldn't read him. Years of dealing with the Elders had made her think she was pretty damn good at it, but not with Jinho and his careful face and his impossibly dark eyes.

Jinho took a slow, gentle breath though his nose to keep from sighing all over again. Normally he was very proud of his patience, but Lilith certainly knew how to test it... "I spent a large part of the evening with Nemaelle-"

"Yeah? Did you bang the crazy out of her? Because she really needed it, today." Lilith said sourly, her fingers drumming against her crossed arms.

The corners of Jinho's lips turned down just slightly. "No, Lilith, I didn't."

"Pity."

His head tilted. "I have no interest in sleeping with Nema, and she's married, anyway."

Lilith let out a short little snort. "Because that means so much; being married."

"It does. To Nemaelle, it does." Jinho watched the Evil as she crossed back over to her vanity, grabbing her earrings. "Lilith, why are you doing this? Why Michael?"

"Is there something wrong with Michael?"

His dark brows furrowed together, and somehow even that came across as charming and smooth. "He's married." He wondered why the word didn't seem to reach her. That should have been all the reason in the world not to...

"So what if he's married?" Lilith snapped at him, glaring at him through her vanity mirror. "That's really fucking hilarious, coming from you!"

"Don't."

Lilith scoffed, but he had a way, sometimes. A way that made a single word sound like a lot of words were hiding within it. "... Why, has Michael said or done something to make her worry?" A wave of giddy warmth flooded her, and it was a very guilty pleasure.

"Not anything that you're thinking."

"Ohhhh, but he has done something?"

His cane tapped against the floor again, "Lilith, you have to stop this. You're being selfish and irrational."

Lilith turned to give him a cat-eyed glare. "Congratulations on saying the exact same thing the Elders have always said to me! That's old fucking news, Jinho!"

"Have you ever considered that they tell you that because it's true?" The words were out before Jinho could stop himself. He could have said worse... but he wasn't proud of it.

The former Dragonmaster's eyes widened for a moment, before narrowing all over again. "So what if it's true? If it's true, then I'm selfish and I'll do whatever I want, for myself. I feel warm when I'm with Michael; I feel good. I don't want to question or doubt this, Jinho. I want to just... feel it." Her back bumped against the vanity when the Gehenna Revenant crossed over to her, the white glove covering his hand giving a little wave. A smattering of pictures suddenly littered the vanity, a couple of newspaper articles... all of them of Michael and Nema. "Are you fucking serious right now, Jinho?"

"Look at them." He said simply, gesturing to the strange collage. He pointed out a wedding photo, tapping it, and then a photo of a heavily pregnant Nema. "You need to understand what you're attempting to interrupt, Lilith." He pulled the newspaper articles closer. One was a spread on their wedding, the other a picture of them with lips locked, wings spread. He saw Lilith's brow furrow at it, and answered her unspoken question. "There was extensive media coverage for the court case calling for the end of the Rabbit Hunting." He tapped the picture printed on the yellowing paper and added, "This was taken seconds after Michael's proposal to her. He had no way of knowing if their case would win. He risked persecution and possibly death in this moment."

She brushed the newspaper article away. "That's stupid."

"That's Heaven. Their culture did not support romantic and sexual bonds. Even now it's still a very new thing for the Angels." Lilith looked up at him, and he took a half step away from her, taking a short breath before he continued. "They have a story, Lilith. A very complex one that I only witnessed very small glimpses of... but they fought the world. They literally fought the world, for each other. That is the caliber of their devotion."

He watched as Lilith gave him furrowed brows and a pouted frown. "They apparently weren't always as gaga over each other as you're making them sound." She held up a single photo, a polaroid of the pair that looked as if they'd just barely been forced into the frame, Nema with her pale arms crossed over her chest... two of Michael's fingers sticking up behind her head in impromptu rabbit ears.

But Jinho only smiled. "From what I understand they would constantly fight, yes. I believe Setsuna took that picture just before he'd left on some sort of anniversary trip with Jibril... Strange, though. When I first met Michael, he didn't have animosity for anyone except for me." He plucked the picture from Lilith's fingers and held it up to her. "This photo has it's place, here." He flipped it over, laying it on the cool wood of the vanity so that the date showed, and then grabbed another photo, and another, flipping them over so the dates could be read. "That photo was the beginning of years spent together, Lilith. Years. And there had been a lot to contend with, along the way." He paused, looking at the back of her head as she stared at the pictures littering her vanity. "What you say you're feeling... that goodness. It's not anything more than a crush."

"Shut up, Jinho." Lilith swiped at the photos, pushing them into a messy pile and crossing the room with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"I gather you've never felt this way before." Again, she told him to shut up. Again, he persisted. "I know it must be very overwhelming for you, Lilith. I know it must feel strong." He waved his hand over the photos, and they disappeared. "But what you feel is likely to be fleeting. There's no longevity, there. It isn't love-"

"You think that I think this is love?" The Evil snapped at him, her lips snarling.

"Then you don't believe you're in love?" He merely countered.

"I don't know what I am; I don't like labels." Lilith glared at the Gehenna Vampire as she seethed, "Love, devotion, marriage, they're just words. And you should know, Jinho, seeing as you're Lucifer's favorite fucking liar – words mean different things to different people. Words don't mean much of anything!"

He finally released the sigh he'd been trying to keep locked inside. "Lilith-"

"No, I'm not done!" She snapped. "Look, this whole love story of theirs? It's real sweet, Jinho. But you know what? Love can die. Love dies all the fucking time."

"Then what exactly are you trying to pursue, here, Lilith?" Her mouth closed into a frustrated frown. "You say that love dies. You say that words and labels have no meaning. But then you speak of warmth, and feeling good. If nothing else, it's clear that you want this..."

"Stop trying to fucking read me!"

"You're not going to find what you're looking for, with him-"

"Oh, yeah?" Her eyes were wide and livid, her words quaking. "Am I supposed to find it with you? My sweet betrothed one?" She watched his dark eyes slip to the floor, watched him sigh and begin to speak. She spoke right over him, and it felt entirely too good to do so. "Do you even know how many others there were before you? And the Elder Council swore up and down that they would be loving and true, and where are they?"

"You pushed them away, Lilith. You've scared off every single one of them!"

"Good! That's what I want! I want all of you suitors to stand aside, and when I choose someone, I'll have that someone, and no one is going to stop me!"

Jinho blinked, and he couldn't keep the incredulous look off of his face. "That isn't how things work, Lilith. It isn't all you. You have to think of the other people-"

"No! No, I don't! I'm not compromising myself for other people!"

The Vampire's frown deepened. "Lilith, where are you going with this?"

"Nowhere!" Lilith yelled at him, her golden cheeks beginning to turn pink. "I want what I want and I don't want what I don't want. I want him. I don't want suitors with six fucking wives!"

One second, Jinho's ink-black eyes were wide and round, and the next they were thin slits. "Don't talk about my wives."

"I'll talk about them all I want to, lecher! I'll talk about how it's really fucking telling that the Council wants to lump me in with your list of whores!" Her body bumped against the vanity, her breath caught in her throat when that pristine, white glove closed around it.

"Stop talking about my wives." There was that tone she'd only heard once before, during that group meeting. That tone like the sure, steady stroke of a cold knife. "Now."

The former Dragonmaster still held her earrings in one hand, and they cut into her palm as it tightened. Her glare burned into him, and she wanted to dare him to do it. To go ahead and strangle her. Her brows quivered as they pinched together, but she steeled herself, just the same...

It took a beat of silence for Jinho to let her go, and he marched away from her, some Korean curse word slipping out of his mouth. His cane stabbing at the floor as he moved. "... He's married, Lilith. Michael is married and devoted to Nemaelle and you have to respect that."

"My mother was married; look what good that did her...!" The Dragonmaster's voice quivered, each word hissing in warning, in aggression and pain.

"What does that even mean?" Jinho was clearly shaken, removing his top hat, a hand running across his dark hair.

"Like you don't know?" Lilith said with a shaky breath.

They both needed the pause in order to get their bearings, though Jinho seemed to reach that point much sooner than Lilith could. "Lilith, I don't know what you're referring to. Queen Kurai was married and devoted to her King until her passing."

He stood, nearly at the opposite side of the room, watching as Lilith... stared at him. Her mouth opened, then closed. Her brows knit together. She took a couple breaths through her nose. "... You don't know."

Some icy feeling flooded his veins, and he couldn't explain why. "What don't I know...?"

Those four words sent the Evil into a fit, pacing, seething, gulping on her breaths. "Those fucking...! Horrible...! Stuffy...! Fucking men...!"

Jinho wasn't sure that he had the right to touch her after the way he'd handled her moments ago, but he reached out, anyway. This fit... didn't feel very much like her usual ones. "Lilith, what don't I know?"

She swatted his gloved hands away, her words coming through as snarls and hisses, "That's just like them! They'll talk your ear off all day long about all my power and my wealth and they'll even lie! They'll say whatever to you so that I look like a shiny golden trophy, but oh! They won't tell you the truth, no! Why would they do that?"

"Princess-"

"Princess!" Lilith bellowed, turned on her heel. She felt like her heart thundering against her skin, and opened up her palm to see that the posts of her earrings had broken her skin. She let out an angry growl and threw them at the vanity, listening to them clatter against the wood. "I am so disgusted with the Elders...!" She shut her eyes, covered her quivering mouth with her wounded hand.

Jinho watched her gasp on her own breaths... and when he caught the glimmer of tears lining her lashes, he reached out again, crossing over to her again. "Lilith, what have they kept from me-"

The moment his hand touched her shoulder, she flinched violently, her hands lifting, her body tensing. "Don't touch me; get away from me." She blinked out a few tears, and her hands helplessly fluttered across her face. This was miserable...! She wanted so badly to talk to Jade, now... to just... cry at her. "... Get away from me, lecher! Leave!"

Jinho could only manage a half-step backwards, frowning, not expecting their conversation to take this kind of turn. Lilith ended up pushing him out of the room, right through the wood of her door, screaming at him to leave, to get the fuck away from her...

He heard her let out an enraged scream, and normally, he would have sighed. Not this time. This time he was overwhelmed and confused and concerned... He strode back to his room, slipping through his door and immediately propping his cane against the small table set against the wall. His thoughts chased themselves in circles: he should figure this out, he shouldn't figure this out. He couldn't figure this out, could he? A large part of the reason he'd never returned to Gehenna after being selected as her suitor was because the Elder Council were pushy to the point of harassment. Too pushy. Outright eager to get marriage plans made and commenced and finalized and consummated...

His top hat dropped onto that small table, and his white gloves followed. He realized that he could disguise himself... And found himself pulling open his closet doors and staring at all his clothing. Several suits. Several pieces of clothing people wouldn't have normally thought he'd wear... He fished through those... He could make himself appear older... None of the clothes he had here would have worked for that. He couldn't go much younger; he had no clothes in the right sizes for that... Traveling light didn't do him any favors with his line of work.

Another Korean curse word came mumbling out of his mouth, and he sat upon his bed. Ink-black eyes read the glowing red numbers on the clock upon his bedside table – midnight... it would be around 8AM in Seoul... Would that be too early?

Jinho sighed, knowing he wouldn't get to sleep if he didn't at least call for the sake of calling... he missed them, after all.

The Gehenna Vampire was preparing for the call to go to voicemail, when he suddenly heard a slightly similar voice answer. Smooth like his own, but much heartier, even while speaking around a yawn. "Yeoboseyo...?"

Despite his raw nerves, Jinho had to smile. "Appa..."