Alea had her wrist in N’s grip as they walking to the backyard of the dorm. It was almost midnight, so the air was cold enough to make their teeth chatter. Or maybe it’s just Alea, because not yet used to this cold air. N’s step suddenly stop and Alea bump into his back, “Hey what—” her words stuck as N turned to face him and stared down to her eyes, “Do you really don’t remember?”

“About what? Ah, you meant the black magic class? I told you that I don’t remember anything after facing the reaper.”

N closed his eyes and sighed deeply, “Next time, don’t let it takeover yourself. It’s dangerous if they figure out what you are.”

“Okay.” Alea nodded, but stopped when she realized that something was wrong with that sentence, “Wait, what are you talking about? Did you just say that you know what am I?”

“Nope.” N shook his head as he turned around, “I’ll show you something. Follow me.”

“Where exactly will we go?”

“Just follow me, and you will know.” N said as he dragged her back along with him. Alea sighed, thinking it might be time to give up and follow him voluntarily.

“But is it true that vampires do not need to sleep?” She asked suddenly, “maybe this sounds silly, but I’m still curious about it since knowing that vampires really exist in the real world.”

“Who said? Movies? Dramas?” N chuckled. “You can see with your own eyes what that vampire is doing.” N said, pointing to the snoring vampire aka Ravi.

Alea rolled her eyes, “Heol.”

N left Alea who still could not believe she was watching a sleeping vampire – and even snore. He stopped under a Sansuyu tree, snapped his finger three times while whistling. As a result, a small serpentine animal popped out from behind the twigs. “Alea, look at this!”

“Wow, isn’t it occamy?” Alea was now screaming in joy.

“You are right. But how do you know?”

“I’ve seen it in movies.” She answered without taking his eyes off the cute animal that swirled in N’s palm.

She finally broke the eye contact with the cute occamy when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and found a teenage boy – whom she recognized as MJ, one of her classmates – standing not far from them. For a moment he looked at Alea sharply, there was a sign of anger from his expression. He then looked away and walked over to the bench where Ravi had fallen asleep. “Wonshik hyung, wake up! Samchoon is here.”

Ravi gasped, rubbing his eyes which were too heavy to be left open, “Uh? My dad?”

“He’s in your room now.” After seeing Ravi nodding, he turned and walked away, but for some reason still turning his head to throw a cynical look at Alea before he disappeared down the hall.

“What’s wrong with him? He’s not usually behaved that cold.” Ravi grunted, apparently not pleased that someone was interrupting his sleep.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s going through puberty.” N replied with a shrug. “Do you want to hold it?” He asked after turning back to Alea who was staring at the occamy without blinking. Seeing her nodding enthusiastically made him smile, despite trying to hide it. It has been a long time, but he still found it cute. If only she remembered it.

“Hello? Will you lend it to me or not? Isn’t this why you brought me here?” Alea waved her hand in front of N’s face, making him back to his sense.

“Ah, sorry.” He said as he put the little animal in Alea’s palm. But wait! What expression is this? Is the occamy being ... angry?

“Ouch!” Alea cried as she threw the animal to the ground. Sure enough, the animal disliked Alea and instantly turned into its gigantic form – even before it hit the ground – and looked at Alea angrily.

“Hey, calm down, good boy. She wouldn’t hurt you.” N tried to calm the occamy back into his little form, but then he heard a very familiar voice shouting angry at him, and it’s Leo.

“Cha Hakyeon! Are you crazy? What do you think you’re doing?”

“I just tried to show this occamy to–” N did not finish his words after seeing the occamy’s teeth marks on one of Alea’s fingers, “oh no, what have I done? Lea-ya, are you okay? I’m so sorry, I don’t remember–”

Leo interrupts him by saying, “You know very well that occamies will surely consider her as their enemy because she’s an ev–forget it, you’re lucky this time because she’s okay.” Luckily, Alea did not listen to him because she was still shocked, or maybe Leo's voice was too soft – for an angry person – and only heard by N, who had been used to hear his soft voice for a dozen years.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. I once raised a cat and it often scratches me when it was angry, so it’s nothing.” Alea said, trying to fix this tense atmosphere or something.

“Let’s go back to the dorm, hmm? I’m so tired.” She suggested after a few minutes had passed and the two creatures in front of her still looked at each other, Leo with his angry eyes and N with his regretful eyes.

“I'll take her to the dorm.” Leo said coldly, and then pulled Alea’s hand to go with him. Alea was still looking at N who mumbled her apology, which even Alea herself did not understand why N and Leo were overreacting to this trivial matter. Or maybe it’s not trivial, if only she knew what their reasons were.

***

“Rain-ah, should we go back to the dorm? Your dad will get angry if he finds us sneaking out.” Shannon suggested after several times turning to Rain.

Rain snorted in annoyance, “No one will know if you can shut your mouth. Do you realize that your voice is so loud? We might get caught because of your mouth.”

Shannon scratched the back of her neck, “Oops, sorry. But can’t we just leave tomorrow morning? Besides, the train will only leave for the city in the morning.”

“Are you crazy? We will obviously be caught if we leave tomorrow morning. My uncle is leaving for the city tomorrow morning. It would not be funny if my uncle saw us on the train.” Rain spontaneously covered with both her hands, aware that her voice was also quite loud now. “Have you never heard that there is a bus that operates at midnight in this area? I heard it belonged to Sanha’s father. And I would definitely choose to leave for the city with it despite having to pay a more expensive fare than being caught by my uncle on the train tomorrow morning.” She continued, slightly above a whisper.

Shannon pouted, “I hate the fact that you're always right.”

They continued to sneak forward until they reached the path that was not far from the gate. Rain smiled that their plan had worked so easily, but suddenly almost toppled when she bumped into Shannon’s wing. “Aish. You startled me. Why did you suddenly stop, huh?”

She was still frozen in place, one of her hands trying to cover . She raised her other hand and pointed forwards, “I think we just got caught.”

“Or maybe not. Look, he's not even looking at us.” Rain said when she saw that there was only a teenager who was crouching while scratching the ground with a little twig in his hand.

“But who is he? Is he also trying to sneak out?”

“I’d better stop hanging out with you or I'll be a fool too.” Rain said before hitting Shannon’s head. “Oh, I know who he is. He’s Jackson, a turned vampire, the new one. I heard that he’s quite dangerous. Hmm... maybe one level above Haebin eonni?”

“But what is he doing here? Is he... lost?” Without a second thought Shannon walked over to him. “Excuse me. May I help you?”

“Yah, what are you doing, stupid? He could have report–oh, no. SHANNON, BACK OFF!” And it was way too late, because Jackson had jumped to attack Shannon. And all of this went so slowly for Rain, because before she could digest what had just happened, Jackson had jumped at her. And moment later, there was only a deafening scream from Rain that filled the air.

From a distance, behind one of the dozens of trees that lined up neatly on the left side of the path, a furry creature was smirking eerily, enjoying his masterpiece. His eyes widened to see three other students coming. One of them even cried when he saw his younger sister lying on the ground, injured. So how does it feel, Lee Hongbin? Sad? Hurt? Angry, to the point of wanting to kill me? Well, I'm just playing around. Wait until the time comes, and all of you will regret for being born as the descendants of the traitors.

***

After the tray was filled with food, Alea bowed slightly to thank the waitress and walked toward Haebin who was waving at her. She couldn't wait to eat her lunch, really. The smell of the health room was disgusting. She had insisted that she was all right, but it looked like Prof. Seo has an overwhelming worried disease for forcing her to visit the medical building this morning, of course in the aftermath of the reaper incident yesterday. At least he could find out the latest news about Shannon and Rain, who were being treated for the attack last night.

“How’s Rain?” Haebin asked after Alea put her tray on the table and sat down across her. Does this fox now have mind-reading skills? How did she know I was thinking about that fairy?

“She is okay. Fortunately, Hongbin Seonbae got there in time so they did not get infected. But one of the nurses said that Shannon's wound was bad enough to be treated for a few more days.”

“It’s a relief. I can’t imagine if they are infected.” Nah, if only you know her further, you would know that beneath her horrible impression when transformed into a hairy five-tailed, yellow-eyed beast, Haebin had a motherly and loving attitude.

“Jackson was really out of mind. How could he do it to them?” The sentence came from Sejeong, a friend of Haebin who had attended the same school as her before coming to this monster prison.

“Hey, I have great news. Do you know that last night Jackson attacked Rain and Shannon? But after being asked he confessed that he did not remember anything.” Suga said after struggling to swallow all the food that filled his mouth.

“He does not remember anything? How could it be?” Haebin asked. But she somehow knew what it felt like to wake up and remember nothing after making a big mess.

“He said the last thing he can remember is that he went to toilet and meet someone there. But he does not remember who he met.” Suga continued before he shoved a spoon full of rice into his mouth.

“What? Was he bewitched?” Alea asked aloud. She just realized that her voice was so loud after seeing almost everyone in the room was staring at her. She forced a smile and bowed slightly to apologize.

“He could have lied. He was cold and haughty from the first day I saw him.” Sejeong blurted.

Suddenly someone stood and slammed his glass to the table until the glass broke and made a group of girls screaming in fear, “Can you guys stop talking about Jackson? Although he was new, he wouldn’t attack his own friends. He must be bewitched. He is not a person like Han Haebin who was attack her own roommates.”

Suga shrank in his place while pretending to be busy eating his lunch in silence, while on the other side Sejeong gritted her teeth in anger, “Shut up! It has nothing to do with Haebin eonni. You also know, she didn’t do it on purpose.”

He smirked, “Who can prove it? She could have lied to avoid punishment.”

Sejeong stood up, slamming her chopstick on the table, “I said shut up bitc–” Haebin grabbed her wrist, stopping her from saying anything worse. Sejeong glances at her, reluctantly sit back to her seat.

“What is it, you hypocrite fox? You’re still wandering around in front of your ex-victim after almost killing her? Oh yeah, how foolish they are for believing you. But don’t ever think that everyone in this school believes in your stupid reason, because I absolutely never believe.” His words may be so harsh in Haebin’s ears that his cheeks are getting wet from tears.

Alea cleared , lifting her face to look at him. “We apologize for offending you by talking about your friend. But you also shouldn’t say such rude things to Haebin. You need to apologize to her.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, you stupid smurf.” Alea swallowed hard. Okay, maybe this word is a bit harsh too. All this time I thinks that my hair color is pretty cool – or maybe I have given up because I couldn't turn it back to its original color – and I started to like it. But get the nickname 'smurf'? Sorry dude, but that hurts my heart. You have insulted my masterpiece.

He smiled triumphantly at the sight of Alea standing up and walking toward him. But when Alea kicked the leg of the table in front of him and made the rest of the food on his tray scatter to the floor and some splashed into his face was beyond his expectations. Furiously he wiped his face, and began to push her. He pushed her back violently, until her back hit the wall and couldn’t go anywhere. Alea grab his hand, but he only raised his other hand to strike. Before he could make a physical contact with Alea, Ravi caught his wrist, bringing the fight to a stop.

“Do you want to die?” he snapped intimidatingly, “I really hate being bothered when I’m trying to nap.” Ravi threw the younger vampire’s hand roughly.

Luckily Ravi is the president of his division, so he does not dare to fight him. So he turned and left – and nudged Haebin’s shoulder on his way – while grumbling under his fangs that had appeared out of anger.

“Hey, Im Jaebum-ssi, you forget something.” Ravi called, and he stopped at his spot.

“What?” He asked in an icy voice.

“They’ve apologized to you. But you have not apologized to them yet.” Ravi said, but the younger vampire just stared at them in disgust for the response.

"Are you okay?" Ravi asked Haebin after Jaebum or whoever he is disappeared from behind the big door, while Alea snorted at the worried tone in Ravi's voice just now. Are you serious? Because physically, I'm the one who's hurt here, man.

“Don’t think too much about his words. He often said rude thing”. Well, Ravi was now patting Haebin's back. Alea rolled her eyes. I'm not being psychic, but there seems to be a spark or something here.

***