A/N: 21/3/2020: This edit cleaned up grammatical errors and I added a little more towards the end to make it a little more meaty. Enjoy!

The news was blowing up. There was no one on campus who wasn't talking about it. Vampires had been running rampant in the city, bodies of victims shrivelled up, blood dry to the bone. Humans were cautioned to travel in groups, and not to be out late. Rumor had it, they prefered women's blood over men's because it was sweeter. Of the almost five hundred victims, four fifths were women between the ages of eighteen and twenty five. They hunted in a group of at least two, easily overcoming any woman they came across before they her dry. They said you could feel yourself dry up as they your blood, your very life force siphoned out of what would eventually just be a hollow husk of what it once used to be.

The government’s plan of action was to send the priests out into their local communities and sprinkle holy water on every surface of the building in an attempt to weaken the vampire population, in addition to sending out extra military patrol. Gahyeon had seen the priest earlier this morning at her apartment, holding his prayer beads as he signed a cross in front of a bucket of water. Holy water was said to weaken vampires, who could then be easily captured and executed by military personnel, equipped with blessed wooden stakes to be driven through the heart. It was easy when the vampires hadn't drank blood in a fortnight, but there were also rumors that stronger vampires needed more drastic measures, so their heads had to be chopped off, before it was burned, along with their bodies. They would writhe and wriggle for a long time, screaming, until they turned to ashes. 

Gahyeon shivered in the cold library as she shook off the thoughts and quickly stuffed her books into her bag. It was getting late, and she didn't have Minji to walk home with—her group was pulling an all-nighter for a project on campus. They were safe there, as long as they stayed inside where there was campus security. Gahyeon zipped up her jacket and pulled up the hood as she skipped down the library steps. Her apartment was on the other side of campus, and it was already getting late. 

Gahyeon quickened her footsteps as the streets started to grow quiet. She was getting nervous; she had never walked home this late at night before, and the news of rampant vampires was not making it any better. She wondered where her other housemate was. She hadn’t heard from Yubin all day and the older girl was usually quite prompt with her replies, even when she was busy. Yubin also hadn’t been feeling well lately and Gahyeon was worried.

She crossed the street when she saw her building, and reached into her pocket for her keys, fumbling for it with cold fingers. Too impatient for the elevator, she ran up the staircase, and let go of the breath she was holding only when she entered the safety of her apartment and shut the door behind her. She felt at ease that her building was sprinkled with holy water earlier that day and that would deter the vampires from coming in, the weaker ones at least.

She flipped the lights and gasped at the sight in the living room—a body sprawled on the living room floor. She rushed forward and grabbed the shoulders of the unconscious girl to flip her over.

"Yubin. Yubin! What's wrong?" Gahyeon shook the older girl, who just groaned in reply. Yubin looked like she was straining against something, her eyebrows were furrowed and she was gritting her teeth so hard a vein was popping out of her temple. She cracked an eye open and almost snarled at the light. That was when Gahyeon saw it—canines that extended just a tad too long and irises a bright shade of red.

“Yubin…?”

“Light…turn off the light…”

Gahyeon went to turn off the light, opting for a dimmer one instead. Rooted to the ground, Gahyeon just watched as Yubin pushed herself up onto her knees in the living room.

"Yubin…?"

The girl in question merely tucked her legs underneath her and rested her palms on her thighs. She sighed. 

"You weren't supposed to find out." When Yubin looked up, Gahyeon could still see the red irises, but they were darker now, less bright. "Not like this anyway."

Gahyeon quirked an eyebrow and gulped, suddenly dry. 

"Are you afraid?" Yubin asked.

Memories rushed through her mind, when Gahyeon first moved into the apartment it was Yubin who greeted her at the door with a smile. Yubin helped her during orientation week, and it was also Yubin who would stay on campus to walk back with her to the apartment late at night when Minji couldn't. Yubin had been nothing but gentle, polite, and kind towards her.

"It's okay. Everyone is afraid."

"I'm not." The words came out of before she even thought about it. Yubin cocked her head. "I'm not afraid of you, Yubin."

"You should be."

"I'm not afraid of you," Gahyeon repeated herself, slowly this time. Yubin was quiet as she watched Gahyeon make her way into the living room to kneel in front of her.

"Tell me," Gahyeon whispered, taking one of Yubin's hands into her own, "how did you become a vampire?"

Yubin's eyes flashed a bright red, her nostrils flared and she gritted her teeth. She pulled her hand back and took a deep breath. Gahyeon was afraid she had angered the vampire, so she let her hands rest in her lap instead, waiting.

"It was 1739, the town I lived in was ravaged by an unknown disease. My mother, father, and brother died. I was the only one left. Doctors have fled the town, there was no one left to help us. I was ready to die on the streets...A woman came to me one night, and asked if I wanted to live. She was the one who turned me."

"I'm sorry," was all Gahyeon managed to say. She was about to reach out for the other girl, but stopped herself. 

In that moment, the sound of a handbell rang through the open apartment window, and Yubin's eyes burned a bright red, her hands flying to as she doubled over.

Gahyeon sprang forward, grabbing Yubin's shoulders.

"What's wrong?"

"The window..." Yubin choked, "...water…" the vampire burst into a coughing fit.

Gahyeon quickly closed the window in the living room and drew the curtains. She went back to Yubin and wrapped her arm around her shoulders, picking her up to drag the vampire into her room. Now Gahyeon knew why Yubin picked the room farthest from the windows.

She set Yubin down against the bed, the vampire looking only slightly better. She wasn't looking good, and if this were to continue, the vampire wouldn't survive long before the military finds her and drives a stake through her heart. Gahyeon didn't have it in her to lose Yubin. 

Gahyeon cupped a hand against Yubin's cheek, and the vampire moved sharply from her touch. 

"Don't do that," Yubin snarled. "I can smell your blood."

"I'm sorry...When was the last time you...drank?" Gahyeon had a little difficulty finding the right words.

Yubin was slightly cautious answering the question. "A moon ago."

That was two weeks longer than most vampires can endure, and she was in no condition to hunt. Yubin needed blood now if she were to survive.

Gahyeon took a deep breath. "Where is the best place for you to draw blood?"

Red eyes snapped to her. "Don't even think about it."

"Yubin, please. You've gone too long without drinking."

"I will not drink your blood, Gahyeon!" Gahyeon startled at the sudden outburst. Yubin, immediately realizing her mistake, apologized. "I'm sorry…"

Emotions swelled in Gahyeon's chest, the very ones she had been trying to supress the moment she met Yubin. In the time she has been housemates with the vampire, the feelings only grew with the kind and warm gestures she received. Gahyeon could not deny it anymore—she was hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Yubin. 

"Yubin, please drink?"

The vampire shook her head. "No. I swore not to drink a human's blood. I will not drink yours."

"But you won't be able to survive if you don't drink."

"Why does it matter to you whether I survive this or not?"

"Because I…" Gahyeon's heart pounded in her ears and her heart was in . "I love you…"

Yubin raised her eyebrows in surprise, and the look on her face was one Gahyeon couldn’t quite put into words, with the other girl’s expressions switching from shock to confusion and to what Gahyeon hoped she saw was—understanding. She reached out again for Yubin’s hand, relieved that Yubin didn’t resist this time. 

“Yubin…you’ve done so many things for me. At least let me do this for you?”

Yubin contemplated for a long time staring at their joined hands. She took a deep breath. “I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t trust myself right now.”

“I trust you,” Gahyeon said, shifting closer. “You won’t hurt me…”

“You don’t know that.”

“I trust you,” Gahyeon repeated herself as she looked into Yubin’s eyes, hoping she could convey the feelings deep down in her heart. 

The vampire gulped and her lips as she slowly nodded. “You might want to take off your sweater…don’t want blood on it.”

Gahyeon nodded, swiftly pulling the clothing off. Yubin patted the space next to her and Gahyeon sat with her back against the side of the bed. Yubin knelt next to her, reaching out to move her hair to one side. Yubin cupped her jaw, and Gahyeon tilted her head back and to the side to rest on the bed while Yubin wrapped an arm around her waist, and Gayeon rested her hands on her shoulder. They were so close, she could feel Yubin’s cool breath on her neck. Gahyeon shivered. 

“This, might hurt…”

“Okay…” Gahyeon breathed. 

The warning didn’t help much when sharp fangs pierced through her skin, puncturing into her vein. Gahyeon gasped from the pain shooting through her body, her hands Yubin’s shirt. Then she felt the first pull of her blood, her life being out of her, her grip on Yubin’s shirt already weakening. 

“Yu…Yubin…”

Another , and Gahyeon was groaning from the effort of staying awake. She tried to move her legs to push against Yubin’s, weakly punching her shoulder. When the third pull came, her vision started to dim, and she could barely push. 

Stop, Yubin, please stop.

In the darkness, she heard her own breathing, the slow, faint beat of her heart, then, “Gahyeon, stay with me,” the warm whisper in her ear. A cold tongue on her neck, a kiss. “Gahyeon, I love you.” She forced her eyes to open, and all that filled her vision were eyes with bright golden irises looking back at her. Her fingers touched cold skin, alive, pressing against her, and she gave into the darkness. 

***

Gahyeon woke up with a gasp, shooting up. Minji was there immediately, pressing the back of her hand against her forehead, giving her a look over for any visible wounds. There were words coming out of , but Gahyeon didn’t register any of them as she looked around her room. 

“Where’s Yubin?”

Minji stopped in the middle of her sentence and looked at her with concern. “Gahyeon, are you okay?” 

“Did you see Yubin when you got home this morning?”

“Gahyeon, you’ve been out for three days.”

“Where’s Yubin?”

Her room door opened, and a tuft of short brown hair appeared between the cracks.

“Minji, she’s awake? Should I get the soup?”

Gahyeon’s heart leapt at the sight and the voice. She threw off the covers and ran for the door, grabbed the handle and threw it open. In front of her was Yubin, calm as usual, and her eyes were back to their warm brown. She was okay—Yubin was okay. The vampire smiled at her, patted her head, and gently nudged her towards the direction of the bed. 

“Get some more rest. We got some soup for you.”

Minji tucked her back into bed, and Yubin came back with a bowl of soup, they refused to leave her alone until she was done with her soup and she was ordered to rest by the oldest. Gahyeon had tried to protest but Minji had given here that glare that meant her word was final, and Yubin looked back with an understanding smile. She had tilted her head, as if she was saying, Go to sleep, we’ll talk later, and Gahyeon admitted defeat, shrinking down into the sheets, drifting straight to slumber.

***

When Gahyeon finally cracked her eyes open again, her room was bathed in a warm light from her desk lamp, and Yubin was sitting next to her with a book. Gahyeon reached out for her hand, and Yubin took it without hesitation with a small smile on her face.

“How are you feeling?” the older girl asked.

“Still a little dizzy,” Gahyeon croaked.

Yubin closed the book she was reading and set it on the desk, getting down from the chair to kneel next to the bed. “I’m sorry, I took a little too much blood.”

Gahyeon gave a little shake of her head. “It’s okay. As long as you’re okay…”

Gahyeon shifted to the side of her bed a little, and patted the space next to her. Yubin shook her head. “You need to keep warm; I won’t be able to help you with that.”

“Please?” Gahyeon asked softly, her eyebrows raised a little in plea. 

Yubin sighed and gave in, slipping underneath the covers. Gahyeon laid her head on Yubin’s shoulder and draped an arm over her stomach. “Would you tell me a story?”

“What would you like to hear?”

“After you were turned, what did you do? How did you survive? Where did you go? How did you end up in Korea?”

Yubin chuckled and her head. “One question at a time, Gahyeon.”

“Tell me?”

“Let’s start when I was in Hungary…”

***

It had been a year since Yubin told Gahyeon the story of her youth, and since they started dating each other. Night after night Gahyeon would ask for stories, and Yubin never disappointed. Gahyeon thought about them all the time—living during the Hungarian rule in historical Transylvania, princes overthrown, territories constantly changing, surviving one era, and diving into another. Moving with the times, and how every change was “modern”, though Yubin was not fazed by it anymore. The younger girl wondered what Yubin had seen through those eyes, what she thought, how she felt, how she adapted and changed, and she wanted to be with the vampire through it all. 

One time Yubin told her that her ‘mother’ was in town. Since her real parents were gone, and she was a newly turned vampire, the lady who turned her had taken the young Yubin under her wing, and Yubin had always treated her like her real mother. Taeyeon was what she was going by now, and Gahyeon admired the woman’s ancient ethereal beauty as she sat across from her at the cafe. Next to her was another very beautiful lady, who went by the name of Miyoung. Yubin told her that Taeyeon and Miyoung had been together for hundreds of years now, and they had been travelling the world, having to move ever so often so no one would raise any suspicions.

It must be nice, Gahyeon thought, to know that someone would always be with you wherever you went. You would always come home to someone, and there would always be someone who would be there for you. She watched as Miyoung talked, and how she glanced at Taeyeon in the middle of a story and she knew exactly the next words to say. How much time did you have to spend with someone to develop a bond with them, to be able to decipher thoughts with just a glance? 

Gahyeon turned to Yubin who was listening to Taeyeon intently, chin resting on interlaced fingers, a smile on her face. The vampire felt like an ancient book with foreign inscriptions that confused Gahyeon deeply. It frustrated her that she could never tell what Yubin was thinking. Sometimes, when she looked into Yubin’s eyes, she would see so many things, and she wondered how long it would take her to crack the code of Yubin’s many small, subtle puzzles of expressions. 

Gahyeon looked down at her hands that were wringing themselves tired in her lap. She the side of her lip, a habit of hers when she was getting anxious. A cold hand wrapped themselves around her fist, pads of fingers gently brushing against her knuckles, as if they were telling her to relax. Gahyeon let out a sigh, prying open her hands with shaking fingers, and cold fingers immediately found their space between hers. It grasped her tightly, reassuringly. Gayeon looked up, and Yubin was smiling at her. Gahyeon smiled back gratefully. Yubin was always there, had always been there from the beginning, and now as Gahyeon held the cold hand in hers, she felt like she could never be there for the older girl. She wanted to change that, she wanted Yubin to be able to trust her, depend on her, come to her for anything, even the smallest things—she wanted to be Yubin’s everything, like how Yubin was everything to her. 

Her stomach felt like there was a flurry of butterflies floating about as they stepped through their apartment door that night. Gahyeon had been thinking about this for a very long time now. Tonight was the night. 

Yubin had barely set the keys down on the kitchen counter when Gahyeon said, “Yubin, I want you to turn me.”

Yubin stopped midway taking off her coat and raised an eyebrow. "Gahyeon, do you know what you're asking for?"

"Yes." Gahyeon said it with as much conviction as she could muster.

Yubin sighed and hung her coat. She made the short trek to where Gahyeon stood in the center of the living room. Despite still having her coat, Gahyeon shivered under Yubin's touch when the vampire pressed cold lips against her warm ones. Her heart raced in her ribcage, pounding in her ears. When Yubin pulled away Gahyeon was weak in the knees, desperately holding onto Yubin. The vampire placed two fingers over Gahyeon’s heart and the younger girl shivered again, coldness piercing through her shirt. 

“Do you feel that heart beating? You will never feel it again.” Yubin leaned in for another kiss that made Gahyeon’s chest swell and surge with emotions. “You feel that warmth? You’ll never feel it again.” This time the vampire threaded their fingers together and held it behind her back so Gahyeon was pulled flush against her. “You will never be able to hold hands with someone else, feel their warmth, grow old with them, have a family, live a normal life. You’ll be alone, forever. Do you know what you’re asking for?” Yubin asked the question so quietly that the weight of what Gahyeon was asking for pressed heavily against her. 

“I…” Gahyeon her lips, throat suddenly dry. What happened to her conviction? She unthreaded her fingers and wrapped her arms tightly around Yubin’s waist. She laid her head above a still heart. “Miyoung gave it up for Taeyeon, didn’t she? Won’t you let me do the same for you?”

Yubin untangled her arms from her waist and pulled away, her face twisted in pain. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Gahyeon asked, stepping a little closer. 

“Because… I…” tears brimmed from the corner of the vampire’s eyes, “… I don’t want to put you through what I went through.” Yubin choked on her last words, tears now freely streaming down her cheeks. She held a fist to , trying desperately to not let a sound out. “Gahyeon… I want you to live a normal life…” Yubin shook her head. “I don’t want you to have this life. I love you, so much…”

Gahyeon, vision blurred from her own tears, lips quivering, reached out to cup cold cheeks in her warm hands, brushing stray tears away with her thumb. “Yubin, I love you.” Her voice cracked and Gaheyon took a deep breath to calm herself. “I want this—I want to be with you, let me be with you—let me share your burden. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Gahyeon tiptoed to press a kiss. Cold and salty. A cold forehead fell to her shoulder, and Gahyeon let Yubin cry in the crook of her neck as she rubbed small circles on her back. 

“Let me share eternity with you.”

***

Gahyeon leaned against the headboard, grinning into a kiss Yubin was pressing against her. The older girl pulled away but remained close enough to brush her lips as she asked, “Are you sure about this?”

Gahyeon cupped Yubin’s jaw, and the vampire leaned into the touch. “I’m sure.”

Cold lips traced a trail from the corner of her lips, to her jaw, the back of her ear, down her neck. Yubin held her tightly. “This is going to hurt.”

Gahyeon panted as lips hovered over her pulse. “Okay.”

The adrenaline running through her body didn’t register the pain. Then it came bursting through searing hot and white. Gahyeon felt her heartbeat slow, her hands growing cold, the edges of her vision grow dim. The human instinct in her desperately held onto what little life she now had, but a distant voice echoed in her being—let go.

And Gahyeon was dead to the world. 

When she opened her eyes again, brown orbs stared at her. Gahyeon smiled with the knowledge that she would wake up to the sight every day for the rest of her life. She rushed forward, engulfing Yubin in a hug. 

The first of eternity.

A/N:

21/3/2020: I edited the fic so I lost my previous A/N /)_(\ sigh.