“Bye, Taeyeon. Thanks for coming when I called.”

Feeling dazed after everything, I simply wave back at him as Yoona starts her bike (which remained magically scratch-free after slamming into the grey vulk wall) and say, “Bye.”

The voice in my helmet speaks again. “Taeyeon.”

“Ms Pink?”

“What is taking you so long.”

“Ice cream.” The word finds its way out before I realize I have spoken.

“Come back now.”

“Yes, Ms Pink.”

Shortly, after getting back to Ms Pink’s apartment (Summer’s to be exact), I going about doing things, not feeling like myself. It is as though I am outside of my body, watching myself. Taeyeon is telling Ms Pink about her lecture. Taeyeon is telling Ms Pink about the ice cream she did not have. Taeyeon is entering the bedroom. Taeyeon is changing into a big, loose t-shirt (pink, of course) that falls to her thighs. Taeyeon is walking out to the living room. Is this what it is like to be possessed? It certainly feels like it.

“What is wrong?” Ms Pink asks. She has noticed the oddity. “Are you sick?” she asks, raising a hand to Taeyeon’s forehead.

“Ms Tiffany Pink.”

Ms Pink looks at Taeyeon, her eyes narrowed and suspicious. “Taeyeon?”

“What happened to Yoohuan exactly? I want to know everything about her.” Taeyeon almost gasps at herself then suddenly, I am back in my own body, seeing things from inside out.

“There is no need to talk about this,” Ms Pink answers.

“I need to know,” I steamroll on, unable to stop now.

“You don’t need to know.”

“If I don’t know, I can’t stay here anymore.”

Ms Pink’s eyes are orbs of dense pink. “You are asking for a spanking.”

“Why did you stop talking to Helene for such a long time?”

“Taeyeon.”

Ms Pink’s voice is so harsh that I don’t even recognise it anymore. Perhaps Max is right. I really don’t know Ms Pink at all. “I don’t know who you really are. I don’t know what the truth is anymore.”

“What kind of truth are you looking for.”

I lock my eyes with Ms Pink’s, holding them steadfast. “The truth.”

“There are many truths.”

“I don’t want to play games. I just want to know if you really stopped talking to Helene for a hundred years because of Yoohuan.”

The way Ms Pink looks at me is beyond strange and conflicted. I don’t get it. Why would she look at me like that? Unless . . .

“Who told you to ask me this question?”

“That is not important.”

“It is very important.”

“If you’re not going to answer my question, I’m not going to answer yours.”

A fiery force field encroaches my personal space. It is Ms Pink’s anger—recognizable by its intensity. But I am not affected by it. I am able to project a wall of my own, protecting myself from the fire.

“Taeyeon, who did you talk to today?”

I want to tell Ms Pink but something stops me from saying his name. Instead, I say, “The truth, Ms Pink. Tell me the truth.”

“You can’t handle the truth.”

“I have proven that I can handle more than you think,” I retort, maintaining my fiercest stare. Then, after the longest stare, just as my eyes are beginning to burn, Ms Pink finally speaks.

“Fine. I will give you the truth.”

X

Ms Pink takes my hand and pulls me into the bedroom. Then her hands are on my waist, tossing me onto the bed, leaving me to bounce on it as she shuts the door. Before I can sit up, Ms Pink is arched over me, her breath hitting me slow and steady, but hard.

“Truth. Humans and their quest for truth. In the first place, there is no truth. There is only real. Like this—” Ms Pink’s eyes are flashing pink in varying intensities and my mind blanks out when she kisses me—hard. Lips crash down on mine, almost cutting them against teeth, rubbing over them, taking and owning. When her lips leave, I and left gasping for breath, my chest heaving as though I had gone for a hundred metre sprint. “This is real.”

Ms Pink rises and gets off the bed, pacing around the bed as anger and frustration pour out from her in strong waves that press against my senses. “Questions. So many questions. These answers mean nothing. If you trust me, you don’t need answers to validate your stand. If you believe in me, you will not waver.” She turns and freezes me as I am sitting up with her eyes. “There’s something inside you. And you’re not strong enough to resist it. It feeds on your insecurities. It feeds on your doubts.” She comes back to me, pulling me to the edge of the bed by my shoulders. “Tell me. Are your feelings for me real?”

I stare deep into her eyes, pondering the question in my mind. Are my feelings for Ms Pink real? Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they be? But that’s doesn’t mean I don’t need to know what happened. “My feelings are real. But that is a separate issue. I still want to know.”

“Why does it still matter? Humans are impossible.” Ms Pink’s voice is rising, a departure from her usual dominant, controlled self. “This happened more than a hundred years ago.”

My voice rises as well. “If it doesn’t matter, why can’t you tell me? Why is it so difficult for you to tell me about your past? I want to know because it has made you who you are today. It is the reason why I have to deal with the way you are now.”

“If you don’t trust me, there is no point in talking.”

“I trust you!” I yell, as Ms Pink’s stubbornness gets on my nerves. “You keep saying I don’t believe in you but you don’t believe in me either!”

“Wrong.”

I stick out my chin. “If you believed in me, you wouldn’t have broken it off for sixty days!” I throw my weight into my fists and hit Ms Pink, my frustrations spilling over my hands.

Ms Pink captures my wrists before I can touch her and holds them over my head. “That’s not why I did it.”

“I don’t care why you did it! You said there is only real. And the only real I had for sixty days was a break up!”

“We are back together. Move on.”

I struggle against her hold even though I know I am physically no match for her. “I can’t move on. I’m only human. I’m not a vampire who has lived for a two hundred years and can compartmentalize all these things neatly. I’m only human and it’s all a mess in my head. I wanna know the truth! Give me the truth!”

“It was my fault! I was ambitious. I wanted to be powerful. Yoohuan died because I wanted to take over the world!”

“So it’s true. You wanted power. And you did horrible things to get it.”

Ms Pink looks me straight in the eye. “Yes. I did horrible things. I was an evil vampire. I still am.” She hauls me to my feet and holds me close. “Are you afraid of me? Do you regret everything now?”

“No.” I stand my ground, unflinching. “I just want to know. I want to know how you grew up. I want to know your happiness and sadness. I want to know everything.”

“Learning my past is like doing a history major in university. There’s almost three hundred years of it.”

“Just the salient points,” I correct myself. “Not everything is significant.”

The pink in Ms Pink’s eyes is dimming and my senses are not as hard pressed as they were a moment ago. Ms Pink is calming down. “Fine. Sit down.” I do as I am told but Ms Pink remains standing. “I will only say this once.”

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