And with their backs to each other, she heard him speak.

‘Thanks for ruining my life.’

‘Hye Jin!! Are you okay? What are you doing there?’

Kai was walking to his next class when he’d heard the flurry of excitement. At the mention of Sehun's name he rushed to find his best friend but found he was too late. Instead Hye Jin was sitting on the ground, looking thoroughly devastated. She didn't look alright, however she didn't answer him, methodically rubbing her ankle while staring off somewhere.

‘Did you see Sehun, did he come back?’ he persisted.

Hye Jin looked up at him, her eyes glazed over, ‘Yeah, he came back. I think… I think he’ll be happy to see you though.’

Kai chose not to comment on that, ‘Let’s get you up – people are staring.’

‘What’s new?’ she whispered, even though she didn’t resist him when he brought her to her feet.

He walked her outside, which was probably drawing attention anyway. People were probably jumping to conclusions as to why Hye Jin's boyfriend was suddenly acting like she was the scum of the earth and why her best friend’s boyfriend was the one holding her around the shoulders.

‘Stay here. I’ll get you something to drink.’

She didn’t protest which was even more worrying – exactly what had gone down between her and Sehun? As much as he wanted to see his best friend, he just couldn’t seem to leave Hye Jin alone. Gone was her tough, emotionless face and instead she looked like a kicked puppy.

When he returned she was in the exact same spot that he’d left her.

‘Here you go,’ he passed her an orange juice. Initially he wanted to get her a coffee to shock her out of her daze, but when he remembered how happy she always became after the first swig of orange juice, he found himself pressing the button for that instead.

How do you even remember that about her?

‘I’ve decided,’ she said, after giving her trademark satisfied sigh when she finally started drinking.

‘What is it?’ he asked, amazed at how animated she suddenly looked. It was as though the juice had magical powers. It was the equivalent of a prince kissing a sleeping princess. Kai contemplated whether he was actually becoming jealous of a can of orange juice.

‘I’m going to make him remember me.’

'What? How?'

'I don't know,' she shrugged, 'but I'm not going to give up on him. He's too important.'

Kai wondered why he felt so conflicted about that.

+++

Hye Jin’s plans were demolished when she found out from Suho-sunbae that the earlier talk that she’d caught the end of was actually Sehun withdrawing from the kendo club. It knocked the wind out of her because honestly, a lot of her plans to “make him remember” involved some bonding moments as they sparred against each other.

Despite anything that happened between them, she knew that Sehun had a deep respect for their training. He wouldn’t do anything as disrespectful as refuse to play against her if they so happened to coincidentally (not) rotate with each other.

And then of course they’d have to say thank you to each other at the end of training, again something he wouldn’t be able to avoid, and then she would go from there.

Admittedly it wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one she had. And now it was in pieces.

‘Did you see Sehun-sunbae’s new girlfriend?’ Hye Jin’s ears perked up at that, while she tried to look like she wasn't listening to the hurried gossip around her, ‘she’s come to pick him up – she’s gorgeous!! Pale skin, dead-straight long black hair, she looks like a doll.’

She’s a vampire, of course she looks like that, Hye Jin thought irritably.

She grimaced, for a moment regretting her choice to bleach some of her hair – which she’d chosen to do to look "not-so-dead" - sorry, that she couldn't pull off the y-dead-person look.

Through this self-pity she saw Sehun enter the corridor from one of the classrooms and inwardly called out to him.

Sehun!!

It confused her when he turned and threw her a look that would’ve killed a lesser person (except ha-ha they both couldn't die so readily), ‘Didn’t I tell you not to talk to me?’

What? Hye Jin didn’t quite understand. She looked around her and noticed that the bystanders looked equally confused. None of them had heard her say anything. Sehun noticed everyone staring at him as if he were crazy, and made a sound of annoyance, ‘What do you want?’ he practically growled.

The bystanders dispersed awkwardly.

Haha! Sehun, you’re such a jerk! What a way to embarrass yourself.

‘Excuse me?’ Sehun’s eyes narrowed.

Hye Jin’s eyes widened. Again she hadn’t said anything out loud.

And then when the penny finally dropped for him, she saw all emotion leave his face.

He was staring at her intently.

‘No, I can’t read your mind,’ she finally said, after enjoying his gorgeous face peacefully and without insults being thrown at her.

‘If you can’t read my mind then how do you know what I was thinking?’ he retorted, not believing her.

Because I can see it written all over your face- you never did have a good poker face.

‘Don’t pretend like you know me. You know nothing about me.’

Why don’t you try it? Isn’t this a lovely way to communicate?

‘Shut up. Just shut up. Go away. Stay out of my head.’

I can’t read your mind. I can just speak to you – maybe this is a side effect of giving you the Third Mark, she told him gleefully. She was halfway through being excited by this new development when he stopped her angrily.

‘I don’t need any reminders of how you ruined my life,’ he said coldly.

‘The fact that you can talk about it as if it were nothing just shows me how little you cared for my wishes. I told you that I didn’t want to become a vampire. I told you that I would rather die. You told me that you understood. But you put your own selfish wishes first. And it makes me hate you. I hate you, Han Hye Jin. I really hate you.’

+++

At first, it was absolutely devastating for Hye Jin to hear those words from Sehun. But then she saw the positive in it (which in itself was a positive, considering how pessimistic she generally was): this gave her a constant communication channel to him.

As long as he didn’t figure out how to shut her out… all she had to do was talk to him in her head.

It started off with the simple stuff…

Sehun, please talk to me. Let’s be mature adults about this.

That earned her a head full of spaghetti in the cafeteria.

You’re not really dating her, are you? – one day when Ri-ah came to pick him up from university – Besides, why is she even here? Doesn’t she trust that you’ll come back to her side at the end of the day?

That one earned her stone cold silence, but the next morning there was red paint dripping from her locker.

Hey, what’s the answer to “who was the King during the rebellion in 1530”?

That was when she began to realise that try as he may, he didn’t have any way to block her out and eventually she might be able to wear him down. Your thoughts had to be directed specifically to that person, or else they wouldn’t be able to hear your thoughts, which was really handy.

She tried that one by thinking, He looks really hot. Look at that ! She could usually tell when he was ignoring her, but he looked too quiet to be doing it on purpose.

+++

Sehun would never have told Hye Jin, but he was getting used to her voice in his head. In fact, it drowned out the nightmares that made sleeping unbearable.

Once in awhile he’d hear her voice, just saying something random like Sehun, you free? You wanna talk? As if she was just sending him instant messages on his phone, and it was enough to calm him back down to sleep.

Sehun, I’m eating at the BBQ place we went to just before we started going out. Meat, meat, meat. I love meat… I love you…

It always shook him when she said “I love you”. Part of him became angry, but a different part of him was being stirred up.

‘You’re thinking of that again, aren’t you?’

Damn, he’d completely forgotten that he was sitting next to Ri-ah and she was running her hands over his face and neck, his shoulders and his torso. He didn’t mind her touching him. It meant nothing to him. This body wasn’t his anymore. It was a vessel he couldn't get rid off because it was too damn strong.

He hadn’t adjusted to his crazy speed or strength, or his ability to heal. Whenever she ran her sharp fingers sadistically over his chest and drew blood – he always averted his eyes so that he didn’t have to see how his skin healed almost instantaneously.

Which only made her do it even more…

‘That’s none of your business.’

‘Have you forgotten where your loyalty lies?’

The word “loyalty” was a trigger word. He'd figured it out however he was powerless to stop it. It was as if the last remaining human side of him was instantly thrown into a cage where he lacked control and could only look on. It caused the hatred to course through him, and once again he felt that undeniable anger towards Hye Jin, towards the League. The people he believed put him into this predicament in the first place…

Sehun… are you there?

It was the wrong moment to come into his thoughts, because he suddenly had an incredible urge to destroy Hye Jin.

‘I haven’t forgotten,’ he responded to Ri-ah as he detached himself from her, his lips turning menacing.

A/N: I really wish I could keep this light hearted, but the story is just getting darker! xKei