He suddenly had in 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.

How many bottles of soju had she drunk? Hye Jin tried counting the small green bottles on her table but kept losing count after four. What came after four again?

It was exhausting.

It felt like the equivalent of sending text messages that were going unanswered.

She didn’t think there was any room for doubt, or self-pity – and there definitely wasn’t any room to consider giving up –but for tonight… she let the weakness win. She went out drinking.

She had hoped that Kai would be here to commiserate with her, but despite the numerous calls or texts she sent, he wasn't responding.

So after she consumed her heart's content of meat (and triple the amount of soju) she managed to somehow pay her tab, hoping that the ahjusshi didn’t short-change her, and stagger home. With each step she felt regret for getting drunk (especially since majority of the walk was uphill) and by the time she got outside of her apartment she had sobered up enough due to the discomfort in her stomach.

Uh-oh, she thought as she felt her stomach churn one too many times.

But then her senses spiked and her hearing strained to pick up on the faint noise she thought she'd heard. Her key stopped halfway in the keyhole. Something wasn’t right here.

Cautiously she opened the door until it was ajar, trying to sense any movements when suddenly she was grabbed from somewhere and thrown across her room.

She swore, as she struggled to get up, but once again she was picked up and thrown the other way.

Hye Jin willed her mind to completely clear up and come up with a plan, which was really difficult under the influence. Her eyes darted across the room, which was lathered in darkness, and her vampire vision activated.

‘Sehun,’ she whispered, as she saw who her attacker was. He was perched at the top corner of her room, waiting to swoop back down at her.

But this was not the normal Sehun she knew – while he looked almost like that first night he’d been affected by the moon – there was a murderous intent in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

Sehun, can you understand me?

That seemed to anger him and as expected, he swooped towards her. But Hye Jin was prepared and rolled sideway towards where she stowed her weapons. She wasn’t going to go all “silver katana” on him – she didn’t want to kill him after all – so she reached one lower, a titanium blade that wasn’t going to permanent damage on a vampire.

Sehun, if you can hear me from in there – try and break through the surface.

She wasn’t sure if that would work, and it certainly didn’t seem like it did when he tried to grab her and she parried him by cutting him on the forearm – causing him to howl with pain.

He knocked her to the ground; he was fast. She was face down and couldn’t quite reach her blade, so she did the next best thing which was kick it well away from him – just in case he had enough presence of mind to use it.

He wrapped one of her white socks around her neck and began to strangle her.

Death by sock, she thought in a darkly humourous moment, but was able to scrape enough with her nails to yank down enough to bring him closer to her. He lurched forward and she her head upwards to reverse head- him.

Scampering out from underneath him she was able to grab her blade and turn just in time to her blade into his torso.

Looking bewildered and partially scared, Sehun froze and looked down at his injury. The sight of this blade sticking out of his stomach seemed to subdue him and he dropped down to the ground and began to lose consciousness.

Hye Jin managed to use the last of her strength to grab her silver handcuffs – which had a burning effect on her hands too – and with shaking hands, applied it on him. She then proceeded to collapse on the ground next to him.

+++

Sehun woke up, feeling exhausted.

He had no recollection of why he was so sore, and he could still feel the remnants of anger pulsing through his brain. There was an urge to hurt Hye Jin, but it was somehow easier for his common sense to suppress that. When he finally looked around to figure out where he was, his heart stopped at the sight of her, lying lifelessly next to him.

Her face was unmarked but he could see dried blood on her face and on her clothes. He looked down and saw that there was a lot of blood pooled around him but though he couldn't lift his shirt because he realised he was handcuffed - he knew he wasn't injured.

When she stirred, he let out the breath that he hadn’t realised he was holding.

‘Sehun.’

It was the first word out of her lips as she gained consciousness, and he felt a tug at his heart.

When she saw him he noticed that she reached out her hand, as if to touch his face, but when he flinched she withdrew her hand.

‘Are you… are you back to normal?’ she asked cautiously.

‘If by that you mean am I still a monster that doesn’t have the urge to currently kill you, then yes.’

‘I’m sorry I stabbed you.’

‘Of all the things you could be sorry for, I’m surprised that you chose that.’

There was silence.

He didn’t mean to be hateful, but in a way he kind of did. While he knew that a large part of his animosity was from whatever was controlling his mind, he knew that a lot of it was his own.

He also knew that he needed answers.

‘So you weren’t in trouble from Ri-ah that time. After I was bitten the first time,’ Sehun tried to ignore how she looked so pathetically glad that he was willing to converse with her.

‘No, I wasn't in trouble. I was supposed to protect you. They wanted you for some reason but because I hated you,’ she seemed to hesitate at saying those words, ‘I didn’t move fast enough. I let them get you.’

Sehun didn’t say anything. With each new thing she revealed to him, he felt hatred grow. He was afraid of how much he was going to hate her, especially because there was some other part of him that continued to be drawn to her.

‘When you said you were only on the Second Mark, I knew I had to protect you,’ she continued, ‘I wanted to make amends, but keeping you close to me didn’t work. I wanted you to live a normal life, but I was foolish to think that they would just leave you alone and in the end… Ironically, I took away that normal life.’

Sehun thought he would feel better from this admission of guilt. But instead he felt nothing. Nothing was going to make anything better. No amount of tears, or yelling or anger was going to change what he was now.

‘I’m sorry, Sehun.’

They continued to sit there in somber silence until she finally got up, ‘I guess I should clean this place up. I’ll help you up,’ because his arms were behind his back, he wouldn’t be able to get up off the ground.

He tried to stubbornly refuse her assistance but Hye Jin insisted. But his general dislike of her touch wasn’t lost on her and she let go the moment he gained enough balance.

+++

Hye Jin’s heart was in overdrive. Having Sehun in her tiny living space – all she wanted to do was to be near him. But he obviously was not interested in that, so she kept busy restoring her apartment to pre-fight. Luckily she had wooden floorboards, so she was able to mop up his blood quite easily and had finished throwing out the broken shards of whatever they’d knocked over when someone knocked on the door.

Sehun looked set to call out but Hye Jin rushed over and clamped a hand over his mouth.

She reached nearby to grab a sock – coincidentally the pair of the one he’d tried to strangle her with—and shoved it in his mouth. She pushed him into the bathroom and forced him into a sitting position into her bathtub and hoped he would behave.

Approaching the door cautiously, she placed her hand on the concealed dagger in her back pocket.

When she peered cautiously to find Kai there, she breathed a sigh of relief and opened it fully.

‘Kai! Why are you here so late?’ she looked at the clock and noted that it was already close to 2am.

He looked at her weirdly, ‘You sent me like twenty drunken messages and texts… and you’re asking me why I’m here?’

Oh yeah, she’d forgotten about that.

‘I thought you could use the company, are you okay?’

She nodded. ‘Listen, I have— ,’ Sehun in the bathroom.

‘—I have something to tell you too,’ Kai interrupted.

‘Okay but –,’

‘—No, let me go first. Please.’

Kai seemed unsure of himself, a little bit frazzled, and Hye Jin thought it was best to wait patiently until he was ready to speak. Casting a quick glance at the bathroom door and reassuring herself he couldn't get out of the tub while handcuffed, she was still surprised that Sehun was being so quiet, given that it was Kai who was out here.

‘I’ve gotten to know you since this whole thing with Sehun.’

‘Okay…’

‘You were just a girl who was helping me protect my best friend. I knew how much you liked him – it wasn’t anything more than that,’ Kai insisted, as if it was very important for Hye Jin to understand, ‘but after he disappeared I had to take care of you and slowly… it’s started to change.’

 ‘Kai--,’ she wanted him to stop speaking, this wasn't going to end well.

‘He’s gone, Hye Jin. I see you so sad, when you get your hopes up that he’ll come back and then he rejects you. I can’t stand it. He’s my best friend, but I can’t stand seeing you like this.’

Hye Jin shook her head. She didn’t want to hear this, and she especially didn’t want to hear it while Sehun was in the other room hearing it too.

‘Choose me.’

Hye Jin looked up at Kai’s earnest eyes. She would’ve been lost without him all this time. He’d done so much for her and selfishly she’d been depending on him for strength.

He started to draw closer as if to kiss her, but despite his attractive face, his full lips, and those eyes that were almost begging, she just couldn’t do it.

‘STOP!’

Her hands up against his chest, she pushed back, holding him at arm’s length.

‘I’m sorry Kai. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and I feel like you’ve become my closest friend. But I love Sehun, even if he hates me. Even if he’ll always hate me. I don’t want to give up trying to make him remember… I’m sorry,’ she finished lamely.

Kai's grip seemed to tighten on her wrists, but just like that - he let go and took a step back. He looked as though he wanted to say more but decided against it – Hye Jin hoped it was because he could see the conviction in her eyes, ‘I’ll go ahead.’

‘Okay, good night.’

She waited for him to leave before she went to the bathroom door. She didn’t open it straight away. Suddenly exhausted, she leaned her forehead against it.

Sehun, I’m not lying. I love you.

She’d almost given up on a response when finally she heard it.

Yeah, I know.

A/N: And here we go!!!! Thank you for your lovely comments :) Although this is for a contest, more important are the readers who are hopefully enjoying it! xkei