Moonlight filtered through the open windows, the pastel curtains fluttering with the wind. A silhouette loomed silently over Moonbyul's bed, almost threateningly. It was massive, nearly filling up the whole ceiling of her bedroom. Her eyebrows shot up, feeling a cold sense of fear crawl up her back and grip . Her vision blurred, and she gripped her bedsheets, her heart hammering in her chest.

 It was here again. 

The only thing she could think of was to escape. Hastily fumbling onto the wooden floor, she hurriedly sprinted towards the door, but instead of her superhuman speed, her feet felt like weights, and all of a sudden the exit seemed so much further than it originally was. The silhouette was slowly inching towards her, and time was ticking. Something trickled down the side of her face, and she wiped it down with her palm. She caught a glimpse of her hand, and slowly turned her palm face-up. Fresh, red blood greeted her sight, and another drop drizzled down the side of her face, landing and sliding off inbetween her shaking fingers. Seeing this, her stomach lurched, and a nauseous feeling erupted in her body.

Using the last of her strength, she staggered forward once again, feeling relieved when she gripped the cold metal handle of the door. Turning back and stumbling through the door, the sense of fear welcomed her back once again when she saw that the silhouette was no longer in her room. Her head slowly turned towards the front, the silhouette inches from her face. It was silent, and Moonbyul fumbled backwards, watching as the silhouette lifted up a hand and gripped .

"S-Stop..." she pleaded, tugging against the hand with the best of her strength. Her feet kicked out towards the silhouette, but all her feet landed on was simply thin air. She wanted to scream, but her vision was slowly turning black, and for once, she felt so weak, so human. She felt her senses growing blank on her, and she knew that any amount of pleading would not stop the silhouette from doing whatever it wanted to do. Perhaps it would finally kill her. Her arms landed on her sides, because she had already decided to finally give in to this monster.

"Fine, kill me," she managed to croak out, her eyelids fluttering shut. All of a sudden, the figure's grip on released, and it pulled back. She sputtered and coughed, her fingers sliding up her neck, feeling both relieved and confused.

"You and I both know that killing you would simply be the easy way out for you," the figure said. For the first time in her life, Moonbyul saw the edges of the silhouette's lips curve up into a smile, a horrifying smile. It had multiple rows of jagged teeth that looked more like razors instead of teeth. The teeth looked like they were moving somehow, like little worms. Upon focusing on them, she realised the teeth had faces, and they were all calling out for her. Screaming her name, pummeling and echoing against her eardrums.

That was the last thing she saw before she felt the floor collapse beneath her weight, and the darkness enveloped her into its arms as she fell into the deep, deep abyss below.

"Moonbyul!"

Perhaps if she simply shut out all her senses, they would stop calling out for her. She didn't want to open her eyes, she was afraid. 

"Moonbyul!"

So afraid.

"Moonbyul!"

But that voice was beginning to sound utterly familiar. You could even say that it made her feel safe and secure. She felt something wet drip down the side of her forehead, and she was terrified that it might be blood, but it felt cool against her skin. With her eyes still closed, she felt around, managing to grip around soft fabric. Finally, she slowly blinked open her eyes, focusing on whatever she was facing towards. It was white. Not black. The ceiling was white, the mini chandelier in her room was tinkling bright, even without having to turn the bulbs on it on. Still lying flat on the bed, she furrowed her brows. The curtains were fluttering against the wind, the window boasting a gorgeous view of the calm lake and the forestry around it.

No black silhouette, no monster teeth, and the floor was still intact.

She released a sigh of relief, her gaze floating to the person in front of her, which she hadn't noticed till only a few moments ago.

"Moonbyul," Wheein mumbled, giving her a look of both concern and sadness. "Are you alright?" the brunette reached over, taking Moonbyul's hand in hers, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"It came for me again, Wheein," the chrome-haired girl whispered, wrapping the sheets around herself, almost like a protective cocoon.

Wheein couldn't help but feel bad for the girl, she had these nightmares with the same shadow monster in them at least once every three months. To see someone so strong, so caring, and so precious to her and Hwasa crumble down and show them all her weaknesses, was completely and utterly heartbreaking. Whatever the rest of the vampire world thought, she and Hwasa knew that Moon Byulyi wasn't the kind of person they thought she was. She was kind, and brought smiles to peoples' faces. Squeezing Moonbyul's hand once again, she smiled. But she knew that she couldn't say that it would be okay, because it would never be. "I'll go get you some breakfast, maybe that'll make you feel better."

Moonbyul nodded her head, a wisp of breath escaping from her lips once again. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she didn't want to go to sleep and experience another bad dream. She knew that the chances of having the same nightmare were extremely low, but she really didn't feel like taking that gamble. Her head was pounding, and she felt a rush as her senses started returning to her. A slow vibration pierced the air, which caught her attention. Her slender fingers reached out and swiped right on the notification before tapping the password in.

Miss Moon Byulyi. Someone mentioned that you aren't in school today?

The girl shot up in bed, several strands of hair falling across her eyes. It was a text from Yongsun! Also, crap. She missed school, and there was no way she was going back in the middle of the day. She cleared and adjusted the cuffs of her white pajamas, as if Yongsun was actually speaking in front of her. A smile, the first of the day, greeted Moonbyul's lips as she started thinking of a proper reply. One that hopefully wasn't too lame or serious.

i'm sick today, down with a pretty bad flu. :(

Moonbyul had wondered whether it was too informal to add a sad face, but then again, Yongsun was a pretty chill teacher.

That's not good. Drink plenty of water and rest well, yeah? Class is going to be boring without you :(

Wait, what? She paused, re-reading the message once again. Yeah, she read it right. Yongsun had said that class would be boring without her. Now, she felt kind of glad that she didn't go to school.

is it because i scored well in math?

Look, she just wanted to know the reason, okay?

Maybe, maybe not. ;) Eric was pretty sad about your absence today.

What a tease. Come on, just look at that winky face. Also, does Yongsun seriously need to mention Eric? It wasn't that she disliked him, but still.

i see. what're you doing?

Really informal, but Moonbyul didn't want to reply that Eric message, and she didn't want to kill the conversation either by not having anything to reply.

Nothing much, just marking some papers. I don't have any classes on right now, so I'm just sitting in the teacher's room. Why not you go get some rest, sweetie?

What was up with Yongsun and pet names? A shade of cherry blossom pink painted across Moonbyul's cheeks, and she struggled to keep the heat from rising in her cheeks. Whether it was simply in her personality or that Yongsun was just trying to be nice, she seemed to actually care for her, and Moonbyul was appreciative of that. Warming up to the beings that she once hated with a passion was not easy.

sure. i'll talk to you later?

This time, the vibration from the message arrived a tad bit earlier than the others.

Yeah. Have a good rest, sweetie.

Moonbyul was excited for math class, and for only one reason: Kim Yongsun. After having a great breakfast with Wheein and the texts from a certain math teacher in the morning, she felt much better, even having the stomach to sip on some blood after that. But even if she did feel better, the uneasiness in her heart never exactly left, and she didn't get a wink of sleep last night. But after all, this was simply the price to pay for what she did in the past.

And as she opened the door to math class, a sense of guilt enveloped her. She had already figured out what this euphoria in her heart was, this rising feeling of heat in her cheeks and the tingles up her spine whenever she locked gazes with Yongsun. Even the bright shade of red that brushed over her cheeks whenever she thought of her. It was obvious by now. But deep inside her, Moonbyul knew that she could never shake off the heavy weight on her shoulders.  She didn't deserve to be cared for, to be loved. Which was why she had to keep a distance from people. The nightmares were here to remind her of that.

Hastily making her way to the seat while dodging everyone's gaze, her fingers drummed a rhythm against her thigh. Taking a seat before slinging her bag over her shoulder and onto her lap, she carefully placed her textbook on top right of her table, as well as her pencilcase. A few seconds afterwards, the scent of teenage-boy cologne started to overpower her senses. Not knowing whether she should be happy about her friend making his way over to her, she drummed another nervous rhythm onto the table.

"Hey!" Eric grinned, squatting down beside her table. His hands were full of hair wax, and his eyebrows were furrowed as he gelled up his hair. Considering how good-looking he was, Moonbyul was pretty sure that if Eric were to adjust his hair in front of some other random girl, they would probably blush or squeal. But then again, no offense to Eric, Moonbyul wasn't some other random girl.

"Hey, Eric!" Moonbyul decided to smile back, turning her attention to him.

His eyes crinkled into crescents, and they twinkled just as brightly as the stars as well. "Are you feeling better? Miss Kim said you were sick," he mumbled, flicking aside a loose strand of hair. "Look, if you need anything, like need someone to help you carry your books or walk you to class or something, I'm right here."

Moonbyul surprised herself by lightly flicking his forehead, something she would never expect herself to do. But this boy had warmed up to her, and she could tell that he genuinely cared about her. She snorted, playfully ruffling his hair. "I'm fine, don't worry about it. But I'll be sure to let you know if I need anything," she smirked, watching with an amused expression on her face as he started whining about how she had messed up his hair.

But something floated across the air and pierced into her nostrils, overpowering even Eric's horrible cologne and even riled up her vampiric senses.

Kim. Yong. Sun.

Her instincts started kicking in, throwing a rampage around her brain and body. She growled and cursed under her breath, her nails digging into her palm in an attempt to control herself. Her eyes trailed over the lass's neck, imagining just how amazing drinking Yongsun's blood would feel as she-

Wait, what the ?

Was she just thinking about doing inappropriate vampire-y things to her teacher?

Awkward.

Shaking her head, she immediately shooed Eric away from her seat, which wasn't needed, since he sat beside her in math class anyway. Luckily for her, he simply sat down in his seat, trying to gel his hair back to before she had messed it up. She decided to hold her breath, leading to a very uncomfortable sensation in her lungs, but she didn't have much of a choice, did she? Prancing on an innocent math teacher in front of a whole class of teenages wouldn't exactly be very good for the front-page newspaper headlines.

"Student Leaps Onto Teacher, All Of Her Blood—Do Vampires Exist?"

The chrome-haired girl shuddered at the thought. She shook her head once again, and mumbled several other funny headlines to herself. That is, until she noticed that Yongsun was staring directly at her. She felt her blood run cold, a tingle down her spine—and for some reason Moonbyul simply gave Yongsun a really stupid-looking grin, earning a semi-suppressed smile from her as she turned to write equations on the board.

"I graded your pop-quizzes from yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of you have scored pretty well," Yongsun said, turning around

Immediately, Eric's hand shot up, and he had a playfully cocky expression on his face. The class chuckled, and he quickly put down his hand, switching to an embarrassed chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"For once you're actually right, Eric," Yongsun shrugged, walking over to grab the thin stack of paper before passing them out. "You actually placed top in class! I'm proud of all of you, and I hope you work harder in the next few coming months to your finals."

Upon hearing this, Eric's smile immediately faded, and his face started turning into a lovely shade of red. Kind of looked like a tomato, Moonbyul noted. His friend behind him, Henry, started howling with laughter, and practically slapped Eric across the back.

Wiping the sweat from his face and pointing to Eric, Henry announced to the class, "This guy was so confident in failing yesterday that if he placed top in class for the quiz he said he would ask his crush out on a date."

"I ing hate you," Eric slumped back into his seat, his face in his hands. "Oh, god. I hate you so much, Henry."

"Settle down now," the sudden authority in Yongsun's voice startled the class, and the whispers and giggles swiftly died down. She waved the air in front of her with the remaining papers she had in her hand. Her expression was a little dull, and she seemed to be a little moody, even. Moonbyul furrowed her brows, wondering why was this the case. It couldn't have been simply because the class was noisy, because Yongsun doesn't mind a little chatter. Maybe she was just a little down today?

Their gazes met, with Moonbyul responding by raising a brow and giving her a tiny smile. Unlike the rest of the days though, Yongsun simply turned away. Obviously Moonbyul was confused, and maybe even a little pang of pain shot through her heart. Her smile faded away, and she stared down at her desk in embarrassment, pen in hand.

For the rest of the class, Yongsun pretty much ignored Moonbyul.

Her feet felt like boulders, she noticed, as she absentmindedly walked down the hallways. Ever since math class, she didn't feel right. Suddenly, someone tapped against her shoulder, waking her up from her trance. Her grip on one of her books slipped, and she quickly turned behind with a frown, which faded once she realised it was simply Eric. A small smile lit up her face instead, as she bent down to pick up her book.

"Let me get that for you," the brown-haired boy mumbled, gently swatting away her hand and picking up the book. He dusted it off and even blew on it before handing it to her, which she gratefully accepted, albeit a little embarrassed.

"Uh, Moonbyul-"

"Yeah?"

He paused, his eyes flickering towards the book in her hand.

"IrelyliekoyuadnIwsawondreigfnifyuowoudlogtuowhtime."

Moonbyul furrowed her eyebrows.

"I can't understand alien speech, Eric."

"Uh, I said... that I really liked you and I was wondering if you. Would. Go. Out. With. Me."

"Wait, what?" Moonbyul nearly lost her grip on her book again. Nothing made sense at all, and the more she thought about what happened the past few weeks the more everything didn't make sense. What about those looks that Yongsun and Eric gave each other? What about when Eric looked at her when he said he had someone he liked? What about-

"I know this is really weird, but-"

"I mean, what about Miss Kim?"

"What about her?"

"Don't you like her?"

An expression of pure confusion crossed his face, and stayed on for more than a few seconds. Now, he seemed just as confused as Moonbyul.

"Why would I like her?"

"I thought you did?"

He chuckled, and rapidly shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest in an 'X' shape.

"What are you talking about? Yongsun's my stepsister."