Second Chances (KPop Demon Hunters)-Chapter 62: Social Media)

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on
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Jinu learns social media from his sunbaes.
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It wasn't often that Mira found herself alone with Jinu. They had what she would call an uneasy alliance of sorts. He was a demon, but he was a good demon. Meanwhile, she was a total bitch at the best of times and the only people who had ever really enjoyed her company for longer periods of time were Rumi and Zoey.
Still, this wasn't anything too serious. Just business. That said…
"Rumi really should be the one helping you with this."
Jinu just shrugs.
"She's busy today apparently, and Bobby said you were the best when it came to this kind of thing."
Mira scoffs. She really doesn't think that's true, so maybe this was some scheme by Bobby and Rumi to try and get her and Jinu closer together. Pretty transparent in her opinion, but ultimately it wasn't a big deal. Jinu was good people, for all that he was a demon. It was her that tended to be the problem more often than not and she could probably rein herself in for a single conversation.
"Alright, well come and sit. You've got your official account set up and everything, right?"
Jinu nods easily as he comes to sit at the table with her. Mira pulls out her own phone. Today's lesson was going to be on official social media posts and all that sort of etiquette shit. Admittedly, Mira did have the best 'middle of the road' social media presence, probably. She didn't think that made her better than the other girls though, to be clear.
It was just that… well, Rumi barely posted at all and when she did post it was either to announce their upcoming stuff or to talk about her plants. As for Zoey, she posted multiple times a day, a sort of controlled chaos that very much toed the line of getting her into trouble more often than not. And Mira knew that if Zoey didn't have her alt account, she would have definitely gotten into trouble on her main by this point.
Frankly, it was a wonder that the younger hunter hadn't accidentally posted anything on the wrong account yet. Mira figured it was only a matter of time, but so far Zoey was managing to juggle it all with surprising skill.
Mira though… well, she posted maybe once a day at most, somewhere between three and seven times a week on average. Her posts were often just makeup tutorials or dance practice routines, easy stuff that let her get away with minimum engagement while keeping her online presence healthy and seemingly organic.
Of course, posting was just one side of things…
"Before we figure out your first official post, let's go over the more important stuff… how to interact with fans on your official social media account."
Jinu raises an eyebrow but nods his head, clearly listening carefully.
"First, you don't actually reply to fans, ever. You'll be tempted to, even when it comes to nice stuff like compliments, but that's a trap. It's always a trap, even if the original fan didn't intend for it to be. Someone else will definitely make it one."
That gets a furrowed brow from the demon, but he slowly nods again all the same.
"However, there is one way you're allowed to interact with fans… and that's through Likes. And in some rare cases, Reposts as well. Come here, let me show you."
Jinu scoots his chair over so they're side by side and Mira does her best to ignore their proximity as she shows him her phone. Fortunately for her, years of curating her online presence has left her with a decent list of fans she can rely on.
"A lot of our fans are super creative. Intensely so. They like to make music and art and dance too; they just don't have the resources we have. That doesn't stop them though. Like this one."
Bringing up one of her favorite fan artists, Mira is pleased to find they've posted something new that she can use as an example. Its artwork of her, Rumi, and Zoey altogether at the end of their live Golden Performance during the moment where they were holding their hands up in the air at the Idol Awards and smiling brightly. It's probably the biggest smile Mira has ever worn and the fan artist manages to capture that in a way that Mira can't even take offense to.
"Wow, that's amazing. You girls look spectacular there."
Mira smirks, preening a bit at the awe in Jinu's voice. Sure, she's not the artist, but the artist IS one of her favorites, and she IS one of the piece's subjects.
"Precisely. Something like this… nobody will bat an eyelash if I give it a Like and Repost it to my official account. It'll give the fan a ton of exposure as well, and hopefully that will translate into more business for her side hustle. Regardless, the important thing to remember is that everyone on this website can see everything you Like and everything you Repost all the time. So it's important not to Like or Repost the wrong things. They can also see who you're Following, but your Follows on your official account should be low anyways."
Jinu hums as she shows him the tab that shows everything she's Liked, nodding along. He seems to be soaking up her monologuing like a sponge at least, that's good.
"Got it. Do you have an example of something that you wouldn't Like and Repost on your official account?"
Mira pauses… and then flushes bright red. Finally though, she nods and quickly logs out of her official account, moving over to her own alt account.
"This is my alt account. You can get one of those once you've figured out how to handle things on your official. Anyways, nobody knows who I am on the alt account, which means I can Follow, Like, Repost, and even Reply to whoever the fuck I want. Like this artist who does… NSFW stuff."
"NSFW…? Oh. Oh my."
Mira blushes and hunches her shoulders in a little bit, but she doesn't swipe away from the incredibly detailed, incredibly well drawn
smut
of her, Rumi, and Zoey all together in a tangle of limbs and ecstasy. Instead she holds her breath for a moment, waiting for Jinu's reaction.
"… That's incredible. You girls look even better there! Damn!"
Mira bites her lower lip… and smiles as she nods.
"Heh. Yeah… y-yeah, we do."
For a while now, she's been seeing more and more 'Rujinu' showing up online. And while Mira knows rationally that there's no reason to be jealous when she's 'dating' Rumi just as much as Jinu is, there's still a part of her that dislikes how popular the heterosexual pairing has gotten in such a short amount of time.
But in the end just off his reactions to what she's shown him, Mira is reminded that Jinu has always been their biggest fan and something loosens up in her chest as they continue from there. She walks him through finding a few fans who have already made stunning artwork of him so he can Like and Repost them to his official account to start building hype for his first post. Then, they work together to plan out that first post.
A couple hours later, long after they've parted ways, Mira gets a notification on her phone and opens it to see Jinu's first ever official social media post. It's simple and understated, a picture of the fridge in his apartment with the drawing he'd gotten from the young girl at his fan signing clipped to it with a magnet.
The caption of the post is fairly straightforward as well and reads:
'My fans are the ones with the truly beautiful souls. Thank you for joining me on my journey and don't stop being wonderful <3'
Mira grins as she Likes and Reposts Jinu's message. And then for good measure, because sometimes rules are meant to be broken and she does have a bit of a reputation as a rebel to maintain, she Replies to the post as well for good measure. Nothing over the top. Just a simple…
'+1'
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Zoey waits in the dark for Jinu to arrive. When he finally enters her bedroom, its to find her in the shadows, surrounded by dimly lit candles. Fortunately, she's had the foresight to tape down the light switch because despite being four hundred years old, he still immediately goes for it.
When he can't make it work because of the aforementioned tape, Zoey lets out a rough chortle from under the sheet she's wrapped herself in.
"Ohoho… so you have come at long last for my knowledge. You wish to bite of my forbidden fruit, hmmm? Approach… approach and let me see how juicy a morsel you are."
Jinu raises an eyebrow at her 'old hag witch' act but nevertheless approaches the bed.
"… This seems a little over the top. All I asked for was help setting up an alt account."
Zoey croons, even as she lifts one 'gnarled' finger and beckons him forward onto the bed with it.
"Yessss… and you've come to the right place, young man. Oh yes indeed."
Jinu climbs onto the bed and sits before her cross-legged as he can't seem to decide between being amused or bemused.
"Maybe I should go to Rumi or Mira instead. They both have their own alt accounts, right?"
Zoey scoffs, unable to quite maintain character in the face of such blatant disrespect.
"Sure, they each have ONE alt account. But they don't have anything on me, you got that?"
Blinking rapidly, Jinu furrows his brow.
"Ah… why would you need more than one?"
"Ehehehe…
reasons
!"
Deciding the old hag witch act has run its course, Zoey throws off her sheet, revealing that she too is sitting cross-legged on the bed.
"Alright then young grasshopper! You want to know the joys of social media freedom! You've come to the right place, because you are looking at the Mistress of Mayhem! The Connoisseur of Chaos! The Beauty and Beast of Bedlam! … I'm both at the same time on that last one, if you didn't get that."
Jinu just stares dumbly, causing Zoey to huff and roll her eyes.
"Look… do you have your alt account ready?"
Holding up his phone, he slowly nods.
"Yes. What do I do now?"
Grinning wickedly, Zoey's eyes twinkle.
"That's the beautiful thing… you do whatever you want, Jinu!
Whatever you want
!"
Hopping around so they're sitting side by side, Zoey shoves her own phone in his face.
"Here, lemme show you. I'm on my turtle facts account right now, where I post multiple turtle facts every single day. However, I've also cultivated a bit of a reputation as a HUNTR/X fan, so most of my moots, that stands for mutuals, are in the fandom as well. Let's see…"
Zoey fiddles for a second… before groaning.
"Ughhh, Rujinu again, gross."
There, on her phone screen, is some… questionable fanart. Its Jinu as a bird person, like his arms are replaced with bird wings, and Rumi is riding his back or something. They both have poorly drawn cartoon faces that are smiling happily and there's a three-color heart in the background. A Stylized 'Rujinu' dominates the lower half of the picture while the caption reads 'Putting this on a shirt ASAP, hope I can wear it to the next HUNTR/X + Jinu fan signing!'
When Zoey glances over to Jinu to see his reaction, she's both surprised and pleased to see him staring at the picture in horror. Good… Rujinu was lame. But then, any two-person pairing that cut the others out was lame in Zoey's opinion! She's happy to see Jinu has good taste~
"No accounting for taste on the internet, I'm afraid. Some of my moots have definitely shown their true colors since you debuted. And they all used to be such huge polytrix fans too! What fair weather bitches, am I right? They were fine shipping me and the others but the moment a hot guy comes along, they switch up and get all heteronormative on me!"
Jinu blinks owlishly a few times before tilting his head in curiously.
"… Polytrix?"
Zoey's eyes light up at the interest in Jinu's voice and she nods excitedly as she navigates to the hashtag.
"Yeah! It's the best part of the fandom and I'm tooootally not biased or anything. Polytrix is where the fans basically fantasize about me, Mira, and Rumi all being together in a threeway relationship called a polycule. A Huntrix Polycule, ergo, Polytrix!"
Jinu hums as she shows him some of the posts under #polytrix for a few moments. Then, he gets this glint in his eye.
"… I know what I want to do with my alt account."
Oooh, that sounds fun!
"What do you have in mind, Jinu?"
"… Hm, it might already exist actually. And if it doesn't, it might take some work to get it set up. I've heard of Rujinu, Zojinu, and Mirjinu… but what about all four of us together?"
Zoey slowly blinks.
"All… four of us?"
Technically, that was already reality, her inner thoughts helpfully remind her. But never in a million years had she thought about that in an online shipping sense. And in fact, she was pretty sure no one else had either as of yet. Although…
It takes a bit of fiddling with the search terms, but eventually she finds some of it. Its just… unwieldly, that's the word for it. Not the artwork, the artwork is honestly fire. Some of it is of the three of them fighting Jinu in his Jeoseung Saja get up for instance. Some of it is… a lot raunchier.
But the tags… oh god the tags. Ruzomijinu is one attempt. Jizomirumi is another. They don't exactly… roll off the tongue, do they?
"Okay, here it goes. What do you think of this?"
Zoey looks over... and blinks. Jinu has taken the artwork they've scrounged together and is preparing to post it all together in one go with a simple caption.
"The one TRUE ship!"
And then, the hashtags… oh, the hashtags are a thing of beauty.
#polytrix #polytrix+ #polytrix_but_theres_a_catch #the_catch_is_jinu
Zoey gazes in awe at what Jinu has put together. He's a fucking natural! His first shitpost and… and it's incredible!
"D-Do it! Post it right this moment! That's perfect Jinu! Go, go, GO!"
Giggling evilly to himself, Jinu presses the post button. Zoey immediately gets on one of her bigger alt accounts dedicated to spreading polytrix and unrepentantly Likes and Reposts Jinu's alt account as well. Then, she gets on a few of her other smaller alt accounts to and uses them to spread it as well.
"Whoa, how many alt accounts do you even have, Zoey?"
Fifty-six. Or was it fifty-eight? Either way, Zoey doesn't actually tell him a number. She just smirks and preens under his awed gaze instead.
"Enough, Jinu. I have
enough
."
Enough is right too, because uh… by the end of the day, its gone viral in the shipping community. Specifically, #polytrix+ goes viral since the other two hashtags are a little bit too unwieldly. Still, the original post gets shared so many by so many people that everyone knows the plus sign in #polytrix+ stands for Jinu in no time at all!
There is a bit of a flame war of course, as the polytrix purists start to do battle with the polytrix+ truthers. Zoey's alt accounts lose some followers for promoting 'heresy'. But Zoey doesn't care. Oh no, she doesn't care one bit. Because in the end, it's glorious. There's so much more artwork of Jinu with her and the girls showing up! It starts to flood everywhere! And the best part is, nobody knows it's all real!
Truly, Jinu is the Master and Zoey finds that she has become the apprentice. He might not know technology very well yet, but he's nevertheless a four hundred year old troll who had nothing better to do down in the demon realm than come up with ways to fuck with people.
And it is
glorious.
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A/N: Rumi & Mira: "Uh, why is #polytrix+ trending?"
Zoey & Jinu: "… No reason."
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