Jeongyeon - The Mediator

 

Jeongyeon lay out in the garden, watching the clouds.

 

She didn’t sleep very well the night before and so decided to hide from Jihyo to get out of combat training. See, out of everyone Jeongyeon was the least adept at fighting. She missed every shot with a pistol, nearly cut her hand off whilst learning to sword fight and has (as eloquently put by Nayeon) the punch of a six year old girl. Yoo Jeongyeon was the embodiment of wrong place, wrong time. Unlike everyone else she had never had cause to get involved with the hunters. It wasn’t a part of her family history, like Jihyo. Nor had she ever been a victim to a demon, like Tzuyu or Nayeon had. 

 

To be honest, Jeongyeon often questioned why she had agreed to follow Nayeon here in the first place. Especially in moments like this, where she found herself in a rare moment of quiet reflection. A second or two of peace before the next mission often saw Jeongyeon out in the gardens, cloud watching as she thought over her life. See, she always felt as though her presence was tolerated as opposed to required. Usually Jeongyeon would just run the radio to keep the ground team (normally made up of Nayeon, Jihyo and Sana) and base in contact. It felt like giving a kid an “important role” so that they felt included.

 

However, no matter how bad she felt, it wasn’t like Jeongyeon could ever just walk away. After the things she’d seen and horrors she had witnessed, how could anyone just go back to normal life after all of that. So Jeongyeon was now stuck feeling like the spare part in a world she was trapped in. So going back to the initial question, why had she followed her best friend into this world? Well that was probably the easiest answer of all…

 

Because Yoo Jeongyeon was hopelessly in love with Im Nayeon. She always had been.

 

Nayeon had no idea of course. If she did, Jeongyeon hated to think how it would ruin their friendship. When they were younger, Nayeon was always convinced she was straight. Then she met Mina when they joined the Hunters and started talking to Jeongyeon about the possibility that she could be biual. That had hurt. The fact that even with Jeongyeon being an option to Nayeon, she was still rejected. It was a pain Jeongyeon could never put into words - so she never did. Instead she was supportive of her best friend's relationship.

 

Though Jeongyeon and Mina would never really get along outside of polite civility. Mina being a psychic meant she already had a strong inkling that Jeongyeon’s feelings were less than platonic. Whilst Mina wouldn’t hold it against her, it meant things between the two of them were strained. Nayeon had questioned it a few times, but Jeongyeon didn’t know what Mina had said to appease her. The worst part was Nayeon’s fascination with Jeongyeon’s love life. Jeongyeon had never dated and it seemed to bother Nayeon immensely. Something about the lack of double dates, something else about wanting to see Jeongyeon happy. Either way it was getting harder and harder to justify why there was no woman in Jeongyeon’s life.

 

“Chaeyoung, calm down!”

 

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down Dahyun!”

 

Jeongyeon’s peace was suddenly shattered by two bickering librarians. The duo were walking out the back door, Chaeyoung storming down the grass with Dahyun chasing behind. Neither seemed to notice the brooding woman laid in the grass a few feet away. Dahyun and Chaeyoung bickered like this sometimes. Chaeyoung was very hot headed about certain topics and Dahyun would have to take her off to calm her down. The duo were close friends, actually they reminded Jeongyeon of herself and Nayeon when they were younger. Though usually they were both joined by Tzuyu as a little trio but Tzuyu couldn’t really be much of a friend to anyone.

 

“Sana is just trying to rile you up for fun.” Dahyun tried to soothe, “Evil Vampire, remember?”

 

“I don’t give a what she’s trying to do - I’m just sick of her using Tzuyu as her own personal juicebox!”

 

“I know.”

 

“And for her to sit there giggling with our friend’s blood around just to get a reaction is…just…ARG!”

 

Chaeyoung panted after her rant, letting silence fill the area. Have heard enough, Jeongyeon cleared and sat up - earning the attention of the younger duo.

 

“Oh! Sorry, we didn’t see you there.” Dahyun said,

 

“It’s okay, I was just hiding from Jihyo.” Jeongyeon half-lied, trying to seem nonchalant, “What’s wrong?”

 

“Sana fed from Tzuyu again.” Chaeyoung growled out,

 

Jeongyeon had guessed as much, the whole feeding from Tzuyu thing was a sore spot. Most of the group never mentioned it because of its controversy.  Sensing a deeper talk was required, Jeongyeon stood up and made her way over to them. 

 

“You know why she has to do that though right?” Jeongyeon asked gently,

 

“Yeah but…” Chaeyoung huffed, “Can’t she just go after old people? Or get supply from blood banks?”

 

“The blood banks leave a trail and old people would mean a higher body count.” Dahyun calmly explained, “We have been over this.”

 

“But!...but…but it’s not fair.” Chaeyoung deflated, “Before Tzuyu and I met she was a newly graduated exchange student here for college. Now she’s…”

 

“Now she’s Tzuyu.”

 

“All because of me.”

 

“No.” Jeongyeon spoke up firmly, “Not all because of you.”

 

Both girls turned to stare at her.

 

“What happened was horrific, but you couldn’t have done anything. None of us could. You don’t get to shoulder the burden on your own when rightfully we should share it.”

 

“But–”

 

“We all screwed up that day. We were all immature and naive. All we can do is support the new Tzuyu and learn from what happened.” Jeongyeon explained further, “It’s either we move forward or we let it consume us and keep us here.”

 

Chaeyoung blinked, teary eyed and looked down, “I just feel so guilty.”

 

Dahyun pulled her friend into a hug, letting the small firecracker finally relax and allow tears to fall. Over the crying girl’s shoulder, Dahyun locked eyes with Jeongyeon and gave a small smile. Mouthing “thank you”. Jeongyeon nodded and turned to leave them again. This time she decided to head back inside. The way out into the gardens was through the kitchen so that was Jeongyeon’s destination. There, as Chaeyoung had ranted, stood Sana with blood trickling from the corner of whilst she waiting for coffee to brew. The vampire sent a look Jeongyeon’s way followed by a bloody smile.

 

“Bringing some coffee up to Chewy. Hopefully it should stop the wooziness.” Sana told her,

 

Jeongyeon nodded, “Yeah about that…Chaeyoung’s pretty upset.”

 

That gained an eyeroll, “She’s ridiculous, Tzuyu’s fine and I’m not on a rampage - what more does she want?”

 

“Maybe not to see it all over your mouth like a toddler that just drank chocolate milk?” Was the snapped response, 

 

A hand went up to Sana’s face, wiping some of the blood from the corner of , “Oops.”

 

Very unconvincing.

 

“Just try to be a bit more sensitive?” Jeongyeon asked, “Look I get that vampires are aged beyond the need for social niceties but you’re not living with vampires. We’re human, blood and bone and complex emotional reactions that aren’t always completely logical. Could you at least try?”

 

Sana was silent for a moment. Picking up the brewed coffee and turning to look at Jeongyeon. Previous mischief gone and replaced by the most serious look Jeongyeon had ever seen from her. 

 

“I know I don’t live with vampires.”

 

Then she her heel and stormed out.

 

Jeongyeon sighed, letting her go and slumping down in a stool at the island. Now that she was alone again, her mind drifted back to her earlier thoughts. About purpose and her role in the group. Truth was the only reason they let her hold the radio was because she knew how it worked. Jihyo and Nayeon were both great monster hunters but they were equally useless with technology. Though even then Jeongyeon was no expert, Chaeyoung was great with computers and so was Mina. Miles better than Jeongyeon ever could be. She wasn’t the leader, the brains, the heart - she was nothing.

 

Jeongyeon was just there.

 

Forever a spare part.