On one of the last sunny days of the year, Hongjoong took Wooyoung out into the garden with him to play. The two chased each other with sticks, fought the Battle of Hastings, and dug out earthworms. Seonghwa was in the kitchen baking cookies while they played and watched them through the open window with fond smiles whenever Wooyoung squealed.

Hongjoong was far more used to kids than Seonghwa would have expected at first, and he was thankful that Wooyoung was happy with him. The demon never tired of their games, and Wooyoung got the chance to learn at least a few helpful things from him. Or, well, halfway helpful. Hongjoong did show him how to make fires with sticks in theory, but ultimately, the spark that had ignited the little bunch of wood had come from his hands, not from friction.

Once Seonghwa had collected all of his cookies in a big bowl for them to enjoy later, he joined the boys outside. Currently, they were hunched over something in the grass. Despite their age difference, the two backs next to each other as they sat on their haunches appeared to be the same size. When Seonghwa stepped in, he ran his hands through Wooyoung's hair to peek at whatever they were scrutinising so earnestly.

"I still can't believe that they are wild animals in your world. Humans have no concept at all of their true might, do they?" Hongjoong's voice was laced with wonder and a good part of disbelief. Seonghwa saw nothing spectacular in the area. Were they looking at that grasshopper?

"They are insects, not animals," Wooyoung smartly reminded him. "They live in all the gardens!"

Hongjoong shook his head.

"You should bow to them. Their existence in the cosmos is beyond even our understanding, and we should heed their might."

Seonghwa was confused enough to speak up.

"What are you two talking about?" Before Wooyoung could ask, Seonghwa handed him the small box with cookies he had brought for them. They were still warm, and Wooyoung happily munched on one while crumbs got stuck all over his face. Through stuffed cheeks, he commented on how good they were.

Hongjoong also snatched one before he rose his eyes at Seonghwa.

"The grasshopper. I'm teaching him to cower before them. He wouldn't want to get on their bad side."

"Trolling him again? If he tells his teachers, then-"

"No trolling!" Hongjoong looked unreasonably upset. His lips formed into a pout as he realised his disadvantage.

"Our world is ruled by a grasshopper - as you call them. They are mighty beings, and I will not stand for any disrespect on them!"

Unsure whether he was getting bamboozled or not, Seonghwa just nodded. Wooyoung shoved so many cookies into his mouth because he didn't want to share that he nearly choked on them. With tears in his eyes, he swallowed. Worriedly, Seonghwa rubbed his back and told him to slow down. The boy coughed before he chirped playfully.

"The neighbour's kid likes to rip out their legs! But daddy told me that is not okay!"

Within a second, Hongjoong stood. His dark eyes scanned the surrounding houses down their street.

"Your daddy is damn right with that. Where does this kid live? I just want to talk."

Seonghwa laid a hand on his warm chest, right over the centre where his heart was so he wouldn't move anywhere. Baring his teeth at him, Hongjoong, in return, grasped Seonghwa's wrist in his.

"I'm not joking! The great Queen knows of the treatment her children get! She will come to destroy your planet and eradicate your race if they don't get respected! Do you want Wooyoung to hurt? The kid needs to learn!"

With a shake of his head, Seonghwa used his other hand to grab Hongjoong's wrist. Immediately, the man's expression changed, and his lips fell shut.

"And that is not my business. And neither is it yours. We humans can't meddle with other people's kids even if threatened with extinction."

"Seonghwa."

Startled by the sudden call of his name, Seonghwa stepped back a bit, but he still held onto Hongjoong. The only time the demon had said his name before was when- He didn't want to think about it.

"What is it?"

"Don't grab me." The demon's voice had quietened and dropped to a mere whisper. All of his earlier anger had dissipated into thin air, and he looked rather... alarmed.

"Grab you?" Confused, Seonghwa looked at their hands. Was he squeezing Hongjoong too tightly? Did he not want another person to touch his heart spot?

"Don't grab my wrist, please."

Seonghwa dropped his hands as if he had burned them. The relief that crossed Hongjoong's features alleviated his tension, too, but the earlier seriousness and fun mood had disappeared. Hongjoong ruffled Wooyoung's messy black hair to distract himself.

"Sorry..." Seonghwa mumbled. He didn't know which line he had overstepped, but he didn't intend to trigger the man in any way.

"It's fine. Just don't do that." The smile that Hongjoong forced his lips into was soulless. No joy or mischief crossed his features.

Wooyoung tugged on the leg of Seonghwa's pants.

"Dad, can I get more?"

Distracted, Seonghwa reached for the empty box. Hongjoong took the moment to escape an explanation and begin to collect the playthings they had left strewn around the garden. Wooyoung's blue ball he loved so much got carried off to the garage.

"Ah, let's have dinner first, then you can eat more if they still fit." Seonghwa helped Wooyoung up from his sitting position. His eyes searched for Hongjoong in the garden, but he had quickly hidden away somewhere. Was Seonghwa supposed to go after him? Or did he need his space? Hongjoong usually never changed his mood so quickly, and the situation worried Seonghwa.

Maybe he should ask the man about it later. For now, he had to tend to his tiny muddy son.

"Hey, listen, champ. I have a spy mission that you need to help me with!"

Wooyoung gasped excitedly. Then, he ran into the house first and emerged seconds later to face Seonghwa with a pair of his father's sunglasses on his nose. Grave, he looked around.

"I'm Agent Woo; what's the mission?" He purposefully tried to make his voice sound deeper and more manly. Seonghwa chuckled at him as he pulled off their shoes.

"There's a package arriving for me in a few days, and you have to make sure Hongjoong doesn't see it, okay? Don't act suspicious, too; then he will want to open it! Just bring it into my room and put it in the closet if you find it first, alright?"

Bouncing on his toes, Wooyoung followed Seonghwa to the bathroom to change his clothes and wash off.

"Oh! Is it a present for him?! I can be veery secretive." Wooyoung looked around carefully. No Hongjoong in sight.

"Ah, uh, yeah. Something like that. Just don't get him interested in it."

"Got it, daddy! Am I allowed to run on the stairs if he comes after me?" Wooyoung's little trickster smile looked far too much like Hongjoong's. With a giggle, Seonghwa pulled a clean shirt over his head. Wooyoung flailed around like a bewildered octopus until he sorted his limbs correctly in their designated holes.

"Only up, alright? And grab the handrail if you do." Seonghwa didn't need to worry about that promise. If Hongjoong indeed came to hunt down Wooyoung, then no force on earth would slow him. Not even fast children's legs.

"Got it!" Wooyoung zoomed off to run into the kitchen first as if that would speed up the process of making food. Once he had distributed his clothes into the respective piles to wash later, Seonghwa followed him. He met Hongjoong in the corridor, and the demon pretended as if everything was fine as he passed Seonghwa.

"Hey, could you take care of the laundry while I cook?"

Hongjoong merely nodded even though he hated doing the laundry because the washing machine's intense whirring scared him. When he trudged off, Seonghwa looked after him concernedly.

Before he went down to the kitchen, he got the book about demons from his room. He hadn't gotten the chance to read it fully yet and mostly used it to inform himself on certain topics that seemed odd to him. This one, for example.

Wooyoung got tasked with preparing the salad. As he washed the ingredients on his big bowl of water on the ground, Seonghwa set the book down next to the pan so he could read while he mixed in the ingredients. He found the headline 'Emotional Discontent and its Causes' in the index. Sounded about right.

Emotional Discontent of your summoned creature of choice can be a common issue. You may not mistake this with the usual human discontent people might experience in your surroundings. Demons are fickle creatures that rarely experience mood changes because of mundane parts of life. They will not get sad over the death of a friend or a tragedy they see on TV. They do have emotional receptors, however. Similar to us, these are connected to their personal feelings that mostly concern their kind outside of the current happenings in their job. Simply said: you might hit certain nerves on your demon and their mood might change based on that. Cases of this occurring are limited since most demons and owners focus on their mundane lives in our world, but if you hit one of those nerves, you may have insulted your demon personally.

Seonghwa swallowed harshly after reading the paragraph several times. Had he hurt Hongjoong? Remorse ate at his heart like an ugly parasite.

The few cases recorded in our books are related to the demon's being, e.g. looking down on them because they act as servants, condemning their species, or making false assumptions based on them via the restricted knowledge humans have gathered on them. Other situations mention past difficulties demons may have gone through. The example of Beelzebub Satansson mentions a matter of severe trauma of Chihuahuas that got re-introduced to him when his owner got a dog of that certain kind. Please do not attempt to dig into your demon's personal worries. In case of an emergency, contact the representative of the responsible department.

Poor Beelzebub. Seonghwa hoped that his blatant disrespect towards Hongjoong's grasshopper ruler hadn't hurt the man's feelings. Maybe he had viewed the issue too much as a joke. He should apologise.

The suggestion to call Yeosang about those matters also didn't sound bad. Maybe Seonghwa would be able to dodge at least some pain for Hongjoong before he went ahead and put his foot in his mouth once more.

"Hey, Woo, could you get me the phone once you're done with this? I want to call Yeosang."

"Oh, can I call? Can I?"

Wooyoung adored to put numbers into a phone and do calls. Whenever possible, Seonghwa let him do the work of reading the digits and typing them to enjoy the button noises. Once Wooyoung said hi, Seonghwa usually took over.

On some days, it was also fine to let Wooyoung do it all. Whenever Seonghwa needed something from San, he just asked the boy to call, and he always enjoyed relaying the message very much. Seonghwa had decided to foster his passion for phone calls. Better than developing anxiety from it.

"Sure. I don't think Yeosang minds."

Excited, Wooyoung ditched the salad right where it was to get their home telephone from the living room. Seonghwa cleaned up after him and finished up.

All on his own, Wooyoung retrieved Yeosang's number from the fridge and giggled to himself as he put it in the phone. His little feet that couldn't reach the ground yet bounced in the air as he waited.

"Hello, this is Wooyoung! Can I speak to Yeosang, please?" Again, he attempted to lower his voice. Seonghwa dried off his hands, ready to take over.

"Hello, Yeosang! I'm good, how about you? Yay! My dada wanted to talk to you; I will give him the phone! Bye!" Wooyoung handed the thing over to glow in his seat with pride. As a reward, Seonghwa handed him a cookie from where he had hidden them on the top shelf.

"Hi, Yeosang." Seonghwa squeezed the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he stirred his pots. It was difficult, but he was fine as long as it didn't fall into the sauce.

"Hey. Anything I can help you with?"

A chair scraped over the ground when Wooyoung moved it. Then, seconds later, he appeared by Seonghwa's side to hold the phone for him. Thankful, Seonghwa hugged him with one arm once his hand was free. The boy patiently managed his comfort for him.

"I'm calling about Hongjoong. I think I insulted him earlier. Anything I can do to make it better?"

"You two still aren't sleeping with each other, right? Then a simple apology will do. He doesn't hold grudges."

Seonghwa didn't even know what the answer would have been if they did sleep with each other. Agitated, he stirred his rice.

"I want to know more about what the things are that he is sensitive about. I read in the book that they are rare, but it seems as if he has them."

"Yeah, Hongjoong... Wait, let me get his file... Ah yes. Yeah, a few that you could watch out for. Do you want to meet tomorrow so we could go over them? It's best if he isn't nearby. You could visit my office." A pen scraped over some paper in his background. Seonghwa glanced at the calendar that hung from the kitchen cupboard. No plans for tomorrow yet.

"Yeah, sounds good. Then I could come by at nine once I dropped Wooyoung off."

"Sure, that sounds great, then I will wait for you. See you tomorrow."

"Thanks. Have a nice evening."

That was Wooyoung's signal to end the call. Proud, he hopped from his chair and pushed it back into its place. Then, he carried the phone back where it had come from.

Hongjoong joined them for the conversation at dinner as usual. Not even later, when they were alone in bed, his behaviour was off. Seonghwa apologised to him still, but the demon shrugged it off. Tomorrow would bring more answers.