‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything.’

Hye Jin and Sehun sprang apart, as if they were high school kids caught making out by a parent.

They both had to activate their vampire vision – Hye Jin’s customary pink and she noticed that Sehun’s eyes went green – to look around the room and find through the darkness... an old man. To be brutally honest, if they’d not known that Hana would look for them, they would have thought he was the school’s janitor.

In fact…

‘You ARE the school janitor!’ Hye Jin exclaimed.

She remembered him from the numerous times she’d had to ask for his help to clean up whatever mess Sehun had created for her – most recently the paint that he’d thrown at her locker.

‘I have a number of roles to keep myself busy, one of them is being a janitor,’ Hana conceded.

‘But… why?’ it seemed like such a strange (and unnecessary) thing to do.

‘I’ve been watching you,’ Hye Jin was momentarily confused until she realised that he wasn’t addressing her at all, but Sehun who was standing quietly off by her side. Hana eyed him sorrowfully, as if he had some deep-set regret, ‘I apologise that we were not able to keep you safe.’

Hye Jin realised now that the order she'd received - to protect Sehun - must have come from Hana himself, and not for hte first time she felt a heavy guilt rest on her shoulders, ‘I’m sure you know that it was my fault…’ she whispered.

Hana cast her a pitying glance, ‘I can feel your regret, my child. But I am also a believer in fate – when you live a life like mine… seeing many good and bad things happen for seemingly no rhyme or reason – it is the one thing you learn to believe in.’

It was a cold comfort for her, and she could only imagine what Sehun would make of this "fate" rubbish.

As if reading her mind, Hana turned to face Sehun, ‘We chose to protect you because it became known to me that Dul developed an interest in you. Do you know why?’

‘No I don’t,’ Sehun said defensively, ‘I know nothing about this world that I’ve been dragged into – and I would very much like to know why.’

Hana paused to consider this, buying time by sitting down on the bench, ‘Pardon me, at my age it is hard to remain standing for long periods of time.’

Both Hye Jin and Sehun were too wound up to join him; they chose to remain standing while waiting for him.

‘They may have found out about your lineage.’

‘My what?’

‘His what?’

They both exclaimed at the same time.

‘I don’t know if anyone has told you about the three master vampires,’ Hana replied, and at Sehun’s blank stare he continued, ‘Hana, Dul and Set. Obviously these are not our real names. But to protect our identities and those around us, we surrendered those original names. I don’t even remember my real name anymore…’ he stopped himself, as if realising he was veering off track.

‘Over time, despite creating more vampires to keep us company, we became lonely. We began to crave the simplest and yet most special of emotions… love.’

Hye Jin didn’t like where this was going but a quick glance to Sehun showed that he hadn’t yet succeeded in putting the puzzle pieces together. He was frowning, as if concentrating hard to process this new information.

‘So we married and made our own families… and with this happiness we lived a life of peace. Dul was not so lucky. His family was exposed to the humans and they— fearing what they did not understand — massacred his family. He lost his wife, his children and most of his grandchildren. Only one child survived despite their injuries. I believe you have met this granddaughter.’

Hye Jin nodded, momentarily felt sorry for the master vampire and even Ri-ah, despite everything she'd done.

‘His anger grew until it manifested into what it is today – an insatiable desire to enslave mankind. Not wanting to but having no choice, Set and I decided to bind his powers so that he could not build the army he so wanted to build. This lasted for years until Set disappeared…’

‘What? What do you mean, he disappeared?’ Hye Jin asked. While she knew that Set was not an active player in the battle between the League and Superior, the idea of just "disappearing" seemed unbelievable.

‘I do not know what happened to our old friend,’ Hana admitted, ‘but only by working together with anyone of direct lineage to him can Dul be bound again. He knows this and I can imagine he will do anything to prevent it from happening..’

‘So he thinks that Sehun is…’

Hana shrugged, ‘We do not know for sure. The thing I do know is that they have moved with haste this evening. They are headed for the village of Joam-ri.’

The name didn’t ring a bell for Hye Jin, but then again geography wasn’t exactly her strong point.

‘The location of Ahjumma’s safe house,’ Hana provided helpfully.

Hye Jin gasped, ‘What? What would they need there?’

For Sehun’s benefit, Hana explained, ‘we house defectors from Dul at our safe house which is run by a woman we simply call Ahjumma. No one knows the location – it is not written down anywhere in our files. Only a handful of people know where it is.’

‘I didn’t know where it is,’ Hye Jin said, more to herself, ‘but what would they be doing there?’ she repeated the question that remained unanswered.

Again Hana shrugged, 'I suspect that they believe someone there knows who Set’s heir is – whether it is Sehun-ssi, or someone else. Unfortunately I am not allowed to leave Seoul and find out myself. It was an undertaking I made when binding Dul, and likewise – he cannot leave Seoul either. But I have no doubt that others have gone for him.’

Hye Jin cast a glance at Sehun, to see how he was taking the news that he could potentially be a master vampire’s heir. It would have been too much for anyone.

Sehun stood as if frozen, blood had drained from his face.

His eyes no longer held the vampiric green, instead they were decidedly human.

‘Sehun?’ Hye Jin asked, worriedly.

‘That’s where my family is,’ Sehun whispered. It took awhile for the meaning of the words to sink in before Hye Jin’s expression changed into one of horror at the implications of this, ‘my mother, my father, my little sister…’

 Hye Jin refused to allow the fear to win over her. This was not the time. If Sehun’s family was there, then she had to ensure they were safe. She owed him.

No longer caring if he rejected her again, she reached over and grabbed his hand decisively – similar to what he’d done earlier, ‘Sehun, listen to me – we’re going to make sure they’re okay.’

As if trying to shake off the daze, he looked down at her and blinked.

And then he nodded slowly.

 ‘We will go to Joam-ri,’ Hye Jin said for Hana’s benefit.

Hana didn’t bother to give permission because he knew that Hye Jin wasn’t asking for it, she was stating it.

A/N: And a double update for today because the deadline looms closer! Hope you enjoyed xkei