The 7 Princes of Hell || ENHYPEN FF

Curiosity Kills a Cat

In the depths of the darkest corners of the Earth, a place where kids and adults alike fear the most. A haunted asylum that is known to be abandoned, forgotten, and is trying to remain standing as its structure is close to collapse.

It is the hiding haven of one particular Archangel, where he meets the celestial being he dreads the most.

The Archangel abruptly arrives inside the asylum and is getting ready to be reprimanded.

"You almost got caught?!" The dreadful voice of the higher celestial creature echos through the entire structure, producing a sense of tension.

The Archangel replies truthfully, "I have no idea how they found our building, okay."

Then a boulder was fired at him, forcing the Archangel to fly upwards to avoid the startling action, "Such an imbecile! The military has the entire building under control. What if they find the gates there?!"

"I can assure you that they won't find those gates. Besides, one of the princes can't even fight back against me--"

"That's what you're boasting about? Once you retake the gates of Hell, that's when you should be out here boasting!" The celestial entity sighs in displeasure at their current predicament. They anticipated a smooth journey from Earth to Hell, but the Seven Princes made it a rough trip for them.

The Archangel clears his throat, completely confident with the plan he has in mind, "He has this under control. Worry not. We still have a chance here."

-

The Prince of Sloth, ironically, couldn't sleep for hours because of what he saw in one of the documents he read. Thoughts after thoughts, his mind overflowing with 'what ifs'. A never ending night that has him worrying for the future of their mission to find the gates of Hell, making him stay up until four in the morning.

His kitten jumps up onto his chest, tucking its tiny head in, and settles down. Riki came to the realization that there was nothing he could do to silence his thoughts, so he puts his cat on his pillow, got out of bed, and started spilling everything that had been occupying his head for all these hours.

He scatters the papers all over his desk, writing down the things that made sense in this theory of his.

-

Riki had been working on his theory for an hour with no noticeable improvement. He repeatedly exposes holes in his ideas and makes implausible claims. He comes to a dead end, but to find the answer he seeks, he must continue searching for that one missing piece of the puzzle.

He got startled by a knock at his door and clutched his chest as his heart began to skip a beat. He was theorizing in such an intense time, but that moment was abruptly erased by the commotion.

"Niki, it's me!"

'Jesus, take me now.' Sunoo's visit, in Riki's judgment, wasn't the ideal time. His working theory shouldn't be revealed to him for reasons Riki decides to keep to himself. 'It's five in the morning, why is he here?'

"Are you awake? Let's go to my restaurant and have breakfast!"

Riki forced himself to keep silent in the hopes that Sunoo would leave.

"I guess he's not awake yet... I-I'll just go ahead."

Riki answered the door out of guilt, which caused Sunoo to look back at him. Belphegor notices that Sunoo's attire is a bit too much as he is covering most of his face with a facemask, and a hat.

"You know what time it is, right? Also, why are you wearing a mask? I could barely recognize you." Riki questions.

"Yeah, I should ask you the same thing: Why are you still awake at this hour? Just by looking at your face, you look agitated." Sunoo turns the question to him, completely ignoring Riki's other question.

Riki shrugs, "It's something you don't have to know."

"Oh! Now I'm curious!" Sunoo attempted pushing Riki out of the way, resulting him to only be blocked by Riki's tall frame, "Can I please see it?"

"Curiosity can kill a cat, and you don't want my cat to die, do you?" Riki halts him from entering his apartment, but Sunoo's curiosity is already fixated on his secret. He must enter. Sunoo shifts into his demon form and pushes Riki aside with his curled horns. Beelzebub has a skull of a ram for a head, having its large horns as an advantage to shove Riki out of the way.

"Dude, did you have to go that far just to feed your curiosity?" Riki starts asking, visibly irritated at Sunoo for putting the boot into his apartment just to see what Riki is up to.

"Sorry, I'm a really curious person." Sunoo apologizes while reverting back fo his human form.

"Yeah, no shit!" Riki quickly rushes towards the papers that are scattered across his desk, shoving it all back inside his drawer.

"Come on, Niki. What are you hiding that is too good to be shared?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you should go and ask your buddy Sunghoon instead!"

Sunoo gasps at this, "Jake is right."

Riki raised an eyebrow at him, "What?"

"Were you actually J-E-alous of Sunghoon?"

"J-E what?" Riki questions.

"Were you jealous?"

Riki slams his palm against his desk, showing how he doesn't buy into the bullshit he's hearing, "Why the hell would I be jealous of that little shit?!"

"Just tell me what you're working on!" Sunoo insists, extremely curious of what Riki is hiding from him.

"I can't just reveal it to you, Kim Sunoo." He starts walking towards him as he says, "The other princes don't take me seriously, they think I'm just some sort of kid that needs help from the elders! You wouldn't understand since you probably think the same as them." He stops right in front of Sunoo, as they stare down at each other.

"The same as them? I've been told that I don't look as promising as the others, Niki, even before we escaped from Hell. After all, I am a prince, but I am not treated as such! That's why I'm wearing so much cover, because my appearance makes me look weak!" Sunoo collapsed on his knees, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Why am I like this? Why do I look like this?" Riki watches Sunoo bawl as he pours out all of the suffering and despair that has been thrown at him. Even in Hell, the celestials referred to him as the weaker prince. He had to have kept it to himself his entire life.

Riki kneels in front of him, afraid to admit that he was a bit harsh to him, "Sorry. You don't need these." He says while taking off Sunoo's mask and hat, "You don't have to make an image for them. We don't have to make an image for them. We can only prove them wrong if you and I work together."

Sunoo looks up at him, enthralled by the things Riki is conveying.

"Let's pay the military a visit."

-

a/n: oh to have a riki to my sunoo