Sehun, I’m not lying. I love you.

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

Yeah, I know.

Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. Before Hye Jin even opened (or thoughts) to continue the conversation – and maybe break down a bit more of the wall Sehun had put up between them – she heard her phone start to ring from somewhere in the room. And she was immediately filled with a sense of dread.

She didn’t have to look around the room to where her phone was to know who or what it was. This particular ringtone had a very specific purpose – it was calling all hunters back to League Headquarters. Something had happened.

She needed to get there quickly.

She opened the door to find Sehun patiently waiting for her in her tiny bathtub, looking cramped and uncomfortable. Her mind raced. She couldn’t yet trust him not to turn on her so she was reluctant to take off the handcuffs – but at the same time she couldn’t realistically bring him along with her to the Headquarters like that.

But what if this was all Superior’s strategy to get her to leave him – and the moment she was gone they would take him?

She couldn’t risk that either.

‘I don’t want to fight,’ she started off, ‘but if you pull a stunt – we’re going to have to – and I hate to say it, but I’m going to win.’

Sehun scoffed but didn’t argue.

He let her help him up to his feet – this time with considerably less protest than earlier – and she undid one handcuff… and attached it to her own wrist. He looked like he wanted to argue about it.

‘You either come with me with some sort of willingness, or I’m going to have to sedate you and take you in a trunk. Since you’re pretty tall, I can’t guarantee how comfortable that's going to be,’ Hye Jin said.

‘I think this will be fine,’ Sehun replied, after thinking about it.

‘I thought so.’

+++

They were just about to enter the building when Hye Jin felt something horribly wrong. The Headquarters were generally quiet at all times of the day but there was something else in the air – but she was probably just paranoid. After all it was already 3am or 4am... it was normal to be quiet.

She shook her head, in attempt to clear it of these thoughts.

‘Isn’t it a little bit too quiet?’ Sehun asked and she cast him an annoyed glare for making her think the thoughts all over again.

He’d said nothing the whole walk here. Just to be contrary he dragged his feet (Hye Jin assumed in petty protest) so that the silver handcuffs had burnt marks onto their skins. Talk about biting off your nose to spite your face… and now he decided to speak.

But before she could argue with him, she absently spotted one of the inner doors, which had bullet proof glass and swipe card access. It was sitting ajar, which was unusual. She put a hand out to stop Sehun from taking another step forward, ‘What the…’

She grabbed the handcuff key from the pocket and looked at Sehun, ‘If you move more than two metres away from me, I will tranquilise you.’

He nodded.

She prodded him forward, decided that it would be safer with him in front where she could see him. Not before turning around to glare at her, he started to make his way quietly forward. His breath caught and that alarmed her. When she finally saw what he’d seen, she too gasped.

She swore as she ran to the body on the ground, and discovered it to be one of the office ladies. She was dead, her lips already turning into a pale blue colour. Hye Jin bit her lip to keep from crying out; this was the same lady that had when she’d handed the yellow slip with Sehun’s name.

She was just a normal person working in this organization because she believed in what it was doing to protect humans…. She didn’t deserve this. As Hye Jin reached over to close her eyes, she noticed the slash mark on her neck. A vampire's mark.

Getting up to look for other casualties, she saw that there were some others who were still breathing. Some were healing quickly and she knew these were the vampires, they seemed shaken but only required rest. The humans among them had not been so lucky.

Boss.

Knowing that whoever had done this was long gone she started yelling, ‘Boss!! BOSS!!’

Frantic to find out what had become of him, she almost fell down the flight of stairs to the lower level where the meeting rooms were. If not for Sehun’s hands catching her by the shoulders, she would’ve tumbled clean.

‘Thank you,’ she managed to mutter as she ran down the stairs.

She looked through the meeting rooms but thankfully most of them were empty – they had a skeleton crew operating the Headquarters at this time of the night – but she knew that her Boss was a workaholic who had no family life.

‘Boss!!’

He was on the ground and while she was slapping his face to try and wake him up, her heart was in . This was all bringing memories of her parents and somewhere inside of her she knew she’d done the same thing to them… It brought back the harsh reality. Vampires died too.

‘Boss, please… wake up,’ she kept hitting him.

‘Stop…’ his voice was faint, but just enough that she paused mid-slap, ‘how many times are you going to slap me?’

‘Woke you up, didn’t it?’ she retorted, amazed that she could have such a witty comeback at a time like this.

‘Smart !’

‘What happened here Boss? Who did this?’ she asked him urgently, seeing him fight the need to sleep and rest.

‘I don’t know how it happened but it was Superior,’ he looked wearily at Sehun who was standing at Hye Jin’s shoulder, ‘but it makes no sense. The alarm that goes off when there’s forced entry didn’t go off – I didn’t know what was happening until I was knocked to the ground.’

‘That means…’

There was a chance that this was an inside job.

Hye Jin was both scared and angry at the same time.

‘Hye Jin… you need to go to see Hana. And you have to take him with you,’ he nodded briefly towards Sehun, ‘they want him – I think that’s why they came here. Hana may know why.’

Hye Jin nodded, ‘Okay. But we’ll wait for Kai to arrive. I forgot my phone at home but he would have gotten the same call right? He should be here soon.’

‘No, don’t wait for him – you need to move now. I’ll wait here and tell him,’ Boss said firmly, ‘when you find the nearest payphone, call for an ambulance.’

‘Okay…’ she eyed his healing injury and was glad that he was the healing type. She’d never known for sure if Boss was a vampire or a human (it just wasn’t something you spoke about). Satisfied that he would be okay, her mind went back to business, ‘how do we find Hana?’

‘Don’t worry about that. He will find you. Just get out of here, quickly.’

+++

Hye Jin wracked her brain to try and figure out where she should be waiting for Hana. She hated how cryptic Boss could be at times, especially at times like this when a sense of urgency seemed to be necessary.

They couldn’t go back to her apartment – or Sehun’s.

They couldn’t stay outside – while it was still dark, dawn would break soon.

Finally, Hye Jin decided on the safest place she knew (aside from the Headquarters) and they started heading for the University. She didn’t have the keys for the dojo, but she knew how to pick a lock, and within a few anxious minutes they were inside.

She could smell the distinct scent of sweat, used armour and wood and it was comforting.

Heading to the men's locker room, Hye Jin collapsed on one of the benches. Sehun did the same, across the room from her.

It was eerily quiet, and the only light filtering in was from the windows lining the top of the lockers.

‘Are you okay?’

Sehun had seen how shaken Hye Jin had become upon first finding that office lady – but even more so when she’d seen the man she called Boss. He’d never seen her like that, not with all the bullying he’d inflicted on her, not with anything that had happened between them.

He couldn’t help but ask the question.

She nodded so slightly, if it wasn't so still in the room, he would have missed it, 'I was just remembering my parents,’ she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper, echoed in the room.

‘They were vampires too?’

‘Yeah,’ when he didn’t think she’d add anything else, she kept going, ‘I received my Third Mark at fifteen. That’s the minimum age to be “turned”. My parents – typical vampire parents— their biggest fear was that I wouldn’t live long enough as human in order to be turned into a vampire.’

He heard the sadness in her voice and he knew something bad had happened to them.

‘When I was sixteen, I found them the way I found Boss tonight. The difference was that they were long gone. No amount of slapping was going to bring them back…’ she tried to add a weak joke.

Sehun felt something incredibly human in his heart. Something he hadn't felt in what felt like the longest time. He needed to act on it, if nothing more than to feel human again.

He crossed to Hye Jin’s side and sat next to her, taking her hand in his.

This was how Hana found them.

‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything.’

A/N: So we begin to come to a the of the story! 5 chapters to go from here!! xKei