Taehyung felt extremely hungry as if he hadn’t eaten in forever. Lightheaded and famished, he staggered towards the building that finally came into view after what seemed like ages, barely having enough strength to walk. The heat from the scorching sun above him roasted his skin although he had applied special sunscreen made by Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau’s Division 4 – research and development. It was supposed to protect their fragile skin from the sunlight, but today’s ray seemed to be stronger than usual. Or, in his case, this particular day was the day where he was weaker than the other days.

Lifting his gaze from the ground, Taehyung could see that his friends were in no better condition than him. They were walking side by side and supporting each other, struggling to walk properly. The worst one was the youngest – Jungkook had practically passed out. He only regained his consciousness occasionally to mumble, “Blood… Blood…”

The group was walking in silence, not wanting to waste the little energy they had left to talk. After they entered the air-conditioned building of Blood Storing Center, Taehyung could finally breathe more easily and recover a bit of his strength. Indeed, staying out of the sun was the best option. Although, his hunger still remained unappeased.

Taehyung could barely hide his frustration when he saw the long line of queue. At this rate, Jungkook wouldn’t be able to hold out until it’s their turn. Fortunately, the oldest of the group, Seokjin, worked at Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau and every vampire who worked there had the privilege to be prioritized.

Seokjin, who was in a slight better shape than the rest of them, immediately rushed to the receptionist desk and cut in line, showing his Cuff – a military identity cuff bracelet made from silver that had to be worn by every vampire over sixteen years old in Shinsa. The nurse scanned his Cuff with a device that looked like a barcode scanner and then, his information was shown on the monitor screen sitting on the desk, facing them. They could see his name, age, profession, and other personal details, including his nourishment schedule, which was today – the seven of them had the same nourishment schedule.

The nurse disappeared into the room behind her and came back out minutes after, holding a plastic blood pouch along with a straw. Forgetting to say thank you, Seokjin snatched the pouch and the straw in a hurry and dashed to the waiting area, where the rest of the group were sitting limply, waiting for their turn to receive their share of food.

Taehyung and Jimin gently helped Jungkook sit up – the youngest had been lying down, sprawled over three chairs, too weak to move his own body. Seokjin crouched down in front of him so they were eye level. He the straw into the plastic blood pouch through the straw insertion section formed in the top.

As the smell of the blood escaped from the straw, they all clenched their fists to restrain themselves. Taehyung could feel his fangs growing inside his mouth, his mind going blank, unable to think of anything besides snatching the pouch and having the blood for himself. However, no matter how hungry they were, Jungkook had to be fed first.

“Jungkook, can you hear me?” Jimin asked, tapping Jungkook’s cheeks lightly to wake him up.

Seokjin brought the straw close to Jungkook’s mouth. “Drink this, Jungkook.”

Jungkook slowly opened his eyes and the moment he took a sip of the blood, he regained his strength at once as if he was revived from the brink of death. He straightened himself up, no longer needing to be propped by Jimin – though, the worrywart insisted to keep supporting him. In a split second, he finished his one liter of blood, his expression clearly saying that it wasn’t enough.

However, the government wouldn’t give them more than necessary. One liter of blood for a month was barely sufficient to keep them alive. They would always feel hungry and when the monthly nourishment schedule was near, they would be significantly weaker. In some vampire’s cases, for example Jungkook’s, they would be in a near-death situation.

When he had recovered and finally registered his surroundings, Jungkook had a guilty look on his face. “I’m really sorry, Seokjin. You always lose your privilege every month because of me. I should’ve been—”

Seokjin shushed him by putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. And I’m still perfectly fine. As you can see.” He suddenly stood up from his crouched position and shrugged, showing that he’s still in a good condition to Jungkook.

Taehyung, however, could tell that Seokjin was nowhere near fine. It probably took every ounce of energy he had left to stand up like that. As the oldest one, he always felt responsible for their well-being. He didn’t want Jungkook to worry about him and blame himself. Impressed with his acting, Taehyung had to admit that Seokjin was a decent actor.

Taehyung could understand why Seokjin did that, though. Jungkook suffered more than them. With his body condition, which made him need more blood than the others, he was always in severe pain whenever his nourishment schedule was coming. Taehyung felt bad for him and he’s willing to do anything to make him suffer less. If he had the privilege like Seokjin, he would totally did the same thing.

“If you want to blame someone,” Yoongi piped up irritably, “blame the stupid king. And the stupid minister.”

“They’re just trying to make peace with us,” Taehyung said. “Don’t you think it’s better like this? Living together in peace with the humans?”

Taehyung was probably the only one in the group who supported the treaty. The others had pretty strongly shown that they opposed it whenever he brought up the topic. Well, Jimin hadn’t really expressed his feelings towards the treaty, but to Taehyung’s relief, he didn’t seem to be against it.

They thought that supporting the treaty meant they acknowledged that they had lost to the humans – the humans were the ones offering the peace treaty in the first place. However, Taehyung only wanted to live in peace and sadly, his friends couldn’t understand that.

Yoongi scoffed so loud that the other vampires in the waiting area snapped their head towards them. “Do you even hear yourself, Taehyung? Peace? Are you calling this peace?” He laughed bitterly. “You’re being brainwashed, Taehyung. Snap out of it.”

Seokjin warily looked at the ceiling corners and hissed, “Keep it down, Yoongi. There are many CCTVs around. We’re being watched.”

“They did make a peace treaty, though,” Namjoon said matter-of-factly.

Ignoring Seokjin, Yoongi spat, “That peace treaty is bull, Namjoon. It’s totally biased towards the humans’ side. Tell me, what do we gain from it? A near-death experience every month? Constantly fighting and losing our lives in their stead? And what do they do for us in return? Donating a little amount of blood once a month! That’s it!”

Namjoon held up both hands in surrender. “Chill, man. I was just stating the fact. I don’t particularly like the peace treaty either.”

“I second that,” Hoseok chirped.

Jungkook also nodded vigorously. “I feel sorry for troubling you guys. If only they give me a bit more blood…”

As soon as the word “blood” was mentioned, something snapped inside Taehyung’s head. He suddenly felt a sharp, throbbing pain that he had to clutch his hands to his head and groaned in agony. Then he heard a voice screaming inside his mind.

Blood… Blood…

It was his hunger trying to take over him.

Taehyung’s smelling sense was intensified and all he could smell was blood. His gaze involuntarily tracked the source of the smell. It led him to the nurse behind the receptionist desk – she was a human. Realizing that, his fangs grew in an incredible speed, ready to attack.

Food! a voice inside him yelled. What are you waiting for? Go get her!

As if he was trapped inside his own body, Taehyung was paralyzed. His body wouldn’t move no matter how hard he forced it to. The delicious smell of blood kept distracting him and even though he wanted to look away, he couldn’t. He was too hungry to ignore the food in front of him. Just when he was about to take a step forward, he felt a stinging sensation on his face – someone had given him a strong slap.

“Taehyung!”

When he came to, Taehyung saw Jimin standing in front of him with a worried face. He guessed that he must have been the one slapping him and screaming his name. Then, he realized that he was already standing – though, he didn’t remember when he got to his feet – and half-way towards the receptionist desk, Jungkook and Hoseok holding both of his arms to restrain his moves.

Taehyung looked over Jimin’s shoulder and saw the nurse’s terrified face. The Blood Storing Center’s guard next to her was pointing his gun at his head. The other vampires in the waiting area were staring at him pitifully. And he finally understood.

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