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Zoey is a bit disappointed that she didn't notice at first. It started off so small. The English blended in so quickly with the Korean that her brain didn't process the switch. Just a couple of words mixed into everyday sentences.
Zoey had grown up in America. Her first language is English. She had learned Korean later. Sitting on the floor of her grandma’s living room and sobbing over translations of English to Korean. She spent summers struggling through Korean folk lore stories from her grandma’s shelf.
She'd always had a little trouble learning. Diagnosed with dyslexia at eight. Korean was no different.
Now though she has spent so long speaking it that she grew into the language. Learned the slang and the honorifics. She spoke it so much that she knows it fluently.
It’s the only way she could speak with her girlfriends afterall. Neither of them know any English.
Not much more could be said for her girlfriend's language journey besides the plethora of other languages they know. English just didn’t click with them. They butcher the English language during interviews and confusedly look at Zoey when someone asks anything in English.
Zoey kind of likes it. Rumi and Mira are so independent. A product of their upbringing. They had to grow up like that to survive. Dependent on only themselves for comfort and praise. Dependent on themselves to learn what they wanted. You gain a small sense of self confidence like that and Zoey knows that depending on others for help is strange and alien to them.
So when they lean on Zoey in little ways like, looking at her when someone speaks in english, it fills the shorter girl with so much love she can’t help but happily grin. She wants them to depend on her more. Even if they don’t need it.
So she happily uses her English to her advantage, though she still forgets a word or two sometimes and it’s Mira and Rumi’s favorite game to try and guess what it is.
“No- no it’s like. It's like an orange but you have to put sugar on it for it to really be edible.” Zoey says, and watches Rumi raise an eyebrow.
“Is that a general consensus or a Zoey opinion because you think everything needs to be doused in sugar to be good.” The demon says, filling her mouth with more rice.
“General consensus” Zoey pouts, it’s a breakfast food!” She looks down at the traditional Korean breakfast that Rumi likes to make. Or that Rumi refuses to let anyone else make. As much as the older girl denies it, she loves to cook.
She started manically baking after Celine….
Mira started teaching Rumi how to make breakfast after they got a little too sick of muffins.
Zoey thinks it’s relaxing for her. That standing at the stove top at the beginning of the day is similar to a morning ritual. A morning prayer or meditation.
“A lemon?” Mira asks, scooping a spoonful of rice into her mouth as Rumi puts more food on her plate from the skillet.
“Eat this,” Rumi says, adding more meat. The demon is big on protein. She’s also keen on putting that protein to goo use.
“No, it’s called a grapefruit” Zoey says, but grapefruit is in english and the girls just look at each other and shrug.
“Rumi,” Mira complains childishly, stabbing her fork through the meat, “Zoey is using her strange made up American language again!”
“She’ll grow out of it,” Rumi says placatingly, “puppies just need to get it out of their system every once in a while.”
Zoey pouts as they mock her, turning back to her rice and kimchi petulantly and giving both her girlfriends the stink eye.
She’s not really that frustrated. Her girls can tell. She likes that they tease her. She had been bullied in high school in America and that isn't what this is. She knows they are listening they just don't know how to help,
She kisses her girls before they go their separate ways for the day. Holding Rumi’s head in her hands to steady her and letting Mira press her up against the kitchen counter after. She has a hard time pulling herself away every morning but when Rumi pulls Mira away from and backs herself up against the counter she has an especially hard time not asking them to take her to the bedroom.
She manages though, planting a kiss on her girls distracted cheeks and leaving them to make out in the kitchen until Mira has to breath and Rumi can’t stop herself from sinking her teeth into the taller girls neck.
Zoey has writing to do. A lot of writing. None of which will have anything to do with demonic fangs and long fingers.
Absolutely nothing to do with long pink and purple hair either.
When she eventually gets out of the studio, note books filled of writing she told herself she wound’t write and a beat still figuring itself out on the sound board, there is a bowl of grapefruits on the table, artfully displayed, and one in the fridge, cut in hald, with a light dusting of sugar on top with a note.
Jamong
It is written in Rumi’s fancy handwriting. Zoey bites her lip and blinks back the stinging in her eyes. She sometimes misses Rumi’s chicken scratch but the demon had been so embarrassed about it that she made Mira and Zoey buy her Sperian handwriting books. She writes like an 18th century victorian now.
Zoey thinks that this is the day it started. Where her girls felt the need to learn Zoey’s native language even if it was just to help her remember the name of a fruit.
-
Rumi grunts happily in bed, purring into Zoey’s side and shifting on top of her to press the smaller girl down into the mattress beneath her muscles and hips. Zoey grins happily, grunting and tucking her face into Rumi’s neck to bite at her skin where her shoulder meets her collarbone.
Rumi shivers, she isn't fully awake, and neither is Zoey , but they are both far more awake than Mira is, the girl is tucked up beneath ALL the blankets.
She will deny it with her life but Mira is the biggest blanket hog of all time.
Zoey and Rumi don’t mind all that much. They are big cuddlers and Mira isn't unless she’s awake. She’s a light sleeper and the movement of another sleeping body pressed against hers keeps her up in the night,
So while Rumi and Zoey are conserving warmth, or Zoey is sucking Rumi’s warmth out of her body. Stupid demonic heating and Rumi’s tendency to toss blankets away dramatically because she over heat. Mira is slowly wrapping herself up in all the blankets in the bed. Cacooning and ending the night as if she’s in a thick sleeping bag.
Rumi moans lightly as Zoey sucks a tired hickey into her neck. Zoey hadn't even been aware she had been doing it and pulls away with an apologetic kiss to her demon’s neck.
“Good morning.” Rumi mumbles into her ear, her voice scratching from sleep. Rumi tucks her muscled arms up and over Zoey’s shoulders, her hands caressing the back of Zoey’s head.
Zoey swears she hears “Joh-eun Achim”. It’s ‘good morning’ in Korean. She hears it every morning she's in bed next to the demon. It’s mumbled into her ear because Rumi is like an anxiously attached koala in her sleep.
She hears it the same today and notices no difference at all.
But what Rumi really says is, “good morning” in a horrible accented English that is quite literally dumb founding to Zoey’s unnoticed and half asleep ears.
But, something about the switch to english clicks something in Zoey’s brain and when she opens her mouth to speak-
“How did you sleep? Did you also have the dream about the flying kittens?” and she says it all in english. English Rumi can’t understand. Or doesn't understand yet. English Rumi doesn't really need to understand because Zoey asks a question like this every morning and Rumi’s response is always:
“Mhm.” and then a rumbling purr that lures Zoey back to sleep. Not until Mira wakes up enough to crave being held and will break out of her blankets like a butterfly, maneuvering Rumi enough to the side that Mira can use her as a blanket, half under the demon and half over Zoey. sandwiched between them and slowly waking them up with sweet gentle kisses.
“Mornin’.” Mira mumbles against her lips in easy korean and any lingering language dissonance Zoey feels is lost to the dream realm. Passed off as the confusion you will feel when you are between sleeping and waking.
-
Zoey giggles, holding the animal to the light in the window and eyeing in closely. She knows exactly what she’s doing and doesn’t feel any remorse at all. Mira and Rumi lean into each other behind her. Supporting the other’s weight. Mira’s arm is wrapped around Rumi’s shoulder and Rumi is holding Mira’s waist to her side tightly.
They look half dead. They don’t even look this tired after a full day of rehearsal or when they spend the afternoon sparring. They don't even look this tired on leg day.
Zoey is a little miffed because they don’t even look this tired after spending the day in bed with her.
They are being so damn dramatic. Blinking slowly and swaying side to side as if on a ship.
“Rumi, bub” Zoey says, turning to her and holding the turtle out for her to see. “What do you think of this color?”
Rumi blinks sluggishly and squints at the turtle Zoey is holding. She frowns.
“Baby, they are all green.” Rumi says, half exasperated and half whining. She gestures to the display case of stuffed turtles and Zoey turns to it confused.
“Rumi, these are all different colors.” Mira says, glancing at her. And she’s right, Zoey raises an eyebrow at the array of choices. There's a lot of orange in here but the turtles are all different colors. Even though Zoey doesn’t support a turtle being any color but green.
“There is no way you guys are seeing more than green and blue,” Rumi rolls her eyes, “look!” She picks up one bright orange turtle and another dark green one. Shoving it in their faces.
“Rumi…” Zoey’s arms slacken at her sides and she looks up at her girlfriend in shock. “are you color blind?”
‘How has this never come up?” Mira asks, turning to Zoey. She looks a little shocked as well. She pulls out her phone and no doubt starts looking up a colorblind test.
“I am not-” Rumi starts but her girlfriends talk over her.
“It must be a demon thing. Or a tiger thing?” Zoey insinuates, Leaning over Mira’s side and tries to help her pick out a good test.
“Maybe a cat thing?” Mira ponders. Rumi rolls her eyes and shoves them away, shoving the turtles back into the shelf and taking the one Zoey is holding in her hands, dramatically.
“If you want a turtle, I’ll buy you a damn turtle.” She stomps towards the check out counter and leaves Mira and Zoey chuckling behind her.
Zoey doesn't even notice that she had said turtle and not “Geobug-i”. She’s too busy laughing with Mira at the food court as Rumi tries to find the obvious number six in the circle of dots.
“It’s hard! Stop laughing!” Rumi wines as she squints at the screen. She tries to reach for Mira’s glasses as if they could help her see colors better.
-
The room is dark and solely illuminated by the screen in the corner. Zoey sits before it in her office chair and squeezes the turtle Rumi got her at the mall that one day.
“Chat, what I really wanted to say is that my tonsils are kinda touching each other today and that they are filled with tonsil stones. And i really dont know how to-” Zoey pauses her eyes on the chat but she’s not really reading it. She’s watching, confused, as a little bit of english starts to fly past.
“Like at what age am I too old to get my tonsils out. That such a little kid thing to do,”
Zoey watches as laughing emojis fill the chat and fly by. She screws up her face and raises an eyebrow
“Don’t you guys feel like getting your tonsils out is right behind mono in the teenager disease scale. I feel like I'm too old. I’m serious, after what age are you too old to get your tonsils out?”
Zoey squints at a message in english and reads aloud, “You don’t look a day over thirty queen.” Zoey jerks, offended. “Excuse me?” she says in english. “Carefil. Careful now, HEY easy, easy boy, woah!”
“Your english is very good” she reads aloud another and frowns at the chat, annoyed. “Thanks, I was born in California, America."
She sighs and leans back in her chair, swiveling back and forth. “Like it has to be after you're twenty right? It’s too late for me.” she hesitates,” Right now my tonsils are fucking making out. They want to kiss so bad. The sexual tension between my tonsils is so strong you could cut it with a canine tooth.”
Tigger1920:
“You could have some sexual tension with me, babe. Put your name in my iphone pro max”
“What does that even mean?” Zoey asks, watching that comment fly by. She swallows and sighs, “I think I'm too old. Like I have shit to do today. I sing for a living. I'm on my knees begging my tonsils to cut it up and then they start kissing! They start giving each other the sloppy!”
HongdaeGuy:
“You can get on your knees for me”’
WOAh!” zoey says, laughing at the comment and the one just beneath it that says.
Tigger1920:
“ I would get on my knees for you.”
HongedaeGuy:
“Exuse me, you are so beautiful.”
Zoey can hear the sound of giggling through the wall, she turns towards her door and nearly melts and the sound of Mira and Rumi talking somewhere in the apartment.
“Who are these English motherfuckers and where are they getting their horny pills because Jesus? You guys are like starving Victorian children.” Zoey mutters, watching the chat fly by with laughing emojis.
Zoey watches the chat for a second, deep in thought. “The first vibrator was invented in Victorian times. I know that’s fucking right. Those mother fuckers were freaky as shit. In America they teach you some crazy shit about the Victorians in high school.”
Zoey watches as shocked emoji filter onto the screen and she vaguely wonders if she’s allowed to say stuff like that on the internet. She might be getting canceled today.
“Guess what? They invented the first vibrator and then guess what. It was outlawed. Immediately.” Zoey hesitates before shrugging, “ I mean they did the right thing" Zoey jokes leaning back in their chair. “A woman's pleasure should be outlawed. What are we? Barbarians?”
“Truly so many things came about in the Victorian area where it was like…. Y'all were really onto something. A woman enjoying herself? Ahh naw, naw, We can’t have that. A woman enjoying herself? I don’t think so. Can’t have that.”
Zoey glances at her rainbow flag on her desk and giggles. “Don’t even get me started on gay people enjoying themselves. Not once, not twice. Never.”
HongdaeGuy:
“Dw baby you can enjoy yourself with me. Are you open minded?”
“What the fuck are you english speakers on?” Zoey laughs, trying to scroll up and see that message again but it’s lost to the chat ether.
Zoey pauses, straining her ears and hearing the distant sounds of her girlfriends laughing. They must be in the living room. Waiting for her to end the stream to watch their movies together. She’s feeling a little left out from all the way over here.
“Oh, I got to go.” Zoey says, looking on her stream to shut down the live. “I have some gorgeous co-idols calling my name right now.”
ArtyZara:
‘She heard her girlfriends like a damn blood hound”
“Yeah, i did, now im going to go snuggle with them” Zoey says, shutting down the chat and missing the-
Artyzara:
Wait- did- she just confirmed! She confirmed!!!
“Zoey!” Zoey hears Rumi’s clear yell. The girl perks up and sticks an ear in the air so she can hear- “get in here so we can give you a kiss!’
She doesn't even notice that Rumi said Kiss in English. She is so busy frantically ending her live and saying good bye to the viewers.
-
“Were you guys fucking with my stream?” Zoey asks, hopping on one foot to fix her uncomfortable sock and hesitanting in the doorway when she sees how Rumi and Mira are organized on the couch.
Rumi has her head resting in the taller girl's lap, her stomach fully out and exposed because she’s only wearing a sports bra. Her shirt is hanging on the side of the couch. Her phone is resting on her chest.
Mira is trailing her ringed fingers up and down Rumi’s stomach and over her abs. Tickling her and making her melt into her lap. Rumi is purring, her fingers clenching and unclenching against her chest. Zoey’s turtle stuffed animal from the aquarium is resting in her lap. Waiting for Zoey.
They look unspeakably cute. Cuteness aggression grips Zoey and she fights the urge to lean over Mira’s neck and sink her teeth in like Rumi does to them far too often.
“Oh my god,” Zoey whispers, abandoning her task of fixing her sock and scurrying over to hop over the back of the couch and melt in the cushions. She jostles Rumi and the demon lets out a confused, “Brrrt?”
Zoey lifts and drapes the girl's muscled legs over her lap, squeezing Rumi’s shins reassuringly.
“We want a cuddle” Mira says, holding a ramen in the air at the same time. Zoey grins and happily takes it. The dissonance of hearing an english word in the sentence of korean lost to the taste of burger flavored ramen.
-
Zoey can’t really see anything. She’s holding the screen of her phone out towards the darkness to light her way through the hallway. A tiktok playing near silently to keep the ghosts at bay.
She just needs a drink of water and then she can snuggle back into bed. She had gotten home late from the studio. Her girls were already asleep and she was so riled up she knew she would be scrolling through AO3 until late into the night so she snuggled into her own bed instead of cuddling up with them in Mira’s.
She regrets it now. She’s chilly and missing the warmth of her demon and Mira’s cocoon.
Zoey sighs and rubs her eyes, peering through the darkness with the other as she turns the corner-
“Oh my god!” Zoey screams, jumping and dropping her phone to clatter against the floor. It doesn’t matter. Even without the light two glowing eyes stare at her with wide pupils through the darkness. “Tempt me not Satan!”
The eyes reflect light that Zoey can’t see. She slaps her hand over her mouth and slams her hand against the wall to hit the light switch-
Rumi peers at her confused through the darkness. A bag of chips held in her hand.
“What’s wrong?” the demon asks. Adrenaline is rushing so quickly though Zoey that she doesn't even notice the English that left Rumi’s mouth. She instead presses both hands over her heart and stumbles into the wall, letting herself slide down to the floor.
“Oh my god” Zoey mumbles, hitting the tiles with a thump. Rumi, with utmost concern, crawls over to her, sitting on her haunches near her and pouting.
“Are you ok?” she asks, putting a hand on Zoey’s chest, over her heart, and rubbing soothing circles into her.
Zoey nods even though she clearly is not. Rumi sighs and bends, scooping a surprised ZOey into her arms and taking her own water battle from the kitchen counter.
“You just need to be cuddled,” Rumi says with a tired nod. For a second time Zoey doesn’t notice the English. She’s to busy trying to stop her heart from jumping out her throat.
-
Rumi stretches across them both. Her joints popping satisfyingly, letting the force of it steal the breath from her lungs and squeeze all her muscles. The sun is so warm on her skin that she can’t help but let out a slight whine.
“big stretch” “Mira says in english. Zoey doesn't even notice. She’s staring at how hot her girls look tangled together half naked on the couch. Her game of Minecraft forgotten as her character gets blown up by a creeper.
-
She doesn't expect the one that gets her. The first time she actually notices. She is so surprised all she can really do is stare.
“Asshole!”
What?
That was Zoey's first reaction too.
She can hear them giggle hysterically in the kitchen. Unsteady feet stumbling around and the sound of hands slapping down hard on knees. As if their laughs can’t be contained within the action of laughing.
She rounds the corner with a confused smile and she hears it. A horribly korean accented English. It takes Zoey a second to understand the words. To translate English to Korean in her head and straighten her back. They are swearing at each other,
They're laughing so hard after each sentence. Zoey stumbles around the hallway. A little potato drunk from doing nothing all day but pet her tiger girlfriend. She’s so intrigued she has to stop dead in her tracks in the kitchen and just watch them.
“Oh yeah? You are a big fat fatty” Mira says, she’s using the kitchen counter to keep herself standing and she has an arm wrapped around her torso as if she’s in pain. She nearly falls over, shoving Rumi’s shoulder and giggling as the older girl starts to cackle.
This is English. They’re speaking in English. Bad accented English but English. Zoey’s first language. And they’re doing so to sweat at each other.
“Look who is talking, dick head.” Rumi says with the widest smile. Mira guffaws.
“Ya dink” Mira pops the “k’ and Rumi finds it so funny that she collapses to the floor as Zoey finally feels herself rebooted. She smiles and laughs under her breath.
“What are you guys doing?” Zoey asks in Korean, watching them freeze light dears in headlights. They hadn’t even realized she was there but now that they do they grin gleefully.
“Zoey,” Mira gasps, turning to her and grabbing Rumi by the shoulder. The demon is trying to stumble to her feet.
Rumi opens her mouth and Zoey was hoping for an explanation but all she gets is- “you an asshole,” in horrible english from her teddy bear of a girlfriend.
Mira bursts out laughing. Her hand on Rumi’s shoulder slapping hysterically as she turns away to laugh in the corner.