‘The forest is your end but her beginning.’

Chunji mulled the message over and over again. He couldn’t decipher it and didn’t want to. So he stood up and went outside. The others barely gave notice. They knew how Chunji got when he needed to think about something. They’ll just ask him about it later. 

Outside, he crumpled the leaf into nothing but dust. As long as he remembers the message, then in his mind, everything will be okay. Chunji started walking. To where, he didn’t know. He just let the sidewalk lead him places. Eventually, that sidewalk turned into a trail of dirt. The buildings turned into trees. The trail stopped at the shore of a beach.

The moon was shining brightly and the starts twinkled. Chunji squinted his eyes. The stars were indeed twinkling, as if they could change the brightness on their own. He’s never seen the stars do that since he was young. Since he was still human. 

He looked out at the lake. It was calm and peaceful. In a way, it mocked the vampire. It stayed calm until something came along and intruded. It could be peaceful as long as something doesn’t cause any disturbances. Once something touches the lake, ripples cause the calming lake to go away. Chunji was the same way. He could be calm forever if things didn’t piss him off. After that, everything pisses Chunji off. It’s like the ripples in the water. They only get bigger and bigger.

Frustrates with the self realization, he grabbed the closest rock and threw it as hard as he could. He expected it to go in the lake. He expected it to be a more humanly throw. However, the rock didn’t even touch the lake. It landed on the other side and crashed into some tree. He was surprised by his own strength. He grabbed another rock. Same result. It landed on the other side of the lake into a tree.

Throw after throw, he slowly made a tree topple over. He wasn’t out of breath. Heck, he was just getting warmed up. However, he knew people would wonder what that thunderous noise was. So he stopped. And a voice was heard.

“How do you do that?” 

Chunji tensed. He was so caught up in his inner raging that he didn’t notice that other presence. And not just any other presence. It was Hyuni. He looked at her for a millisecond then turned his gaze back to the lake.

“How do I do what?” he asked her. Hyuni frowned.

“I saw you. And those rocks,” she said. Chunji laughed. It was without humour and a little taunting.

“You saw nothing. I was just standing here, looking out onto the lake,” he told her. With that, he walked off. Normally, he tried to pry answers out of her. Or at least, that’s what he thought he would do if he ever talking to her again. No, he had to go be an just like she did when they first met. 

Chunji walked out of the forest but not without hearing footsteps behind him. “I know what I saw.” Hyuni had somehow caught up to him and spoke to him with unfurled determination.

“Yeah, and I know what I saw, too. But you didn’t talk to me. So why on earth should I talk to you?” he grumbled, suddenly in a sourer mood. Hyuni stopped in her tracks. 

“…Fine. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. For the exchange of you telling me everything I want to know, too,” she bargained. Chunji slowed to a stop and chewed on his lip. In the end, he turned around and smirked at her.

“You want to know? Fine. I’m a vampire, a bloodthirsty demon who the life out of innocent people. It’s the innocent blood that tastes the sweetest. I burn in the sunlight because the sun is a holy gift of God. Holy water burns my skin like acid. Garlic can kill me,” he retorted mockingly. Hyuni crossed her arms and looked at him with a ‘seriously?’ look. “Okay, okay. I am a vampire. I drink blood but only to survive. I don’t hunt people. I just go to blood banks. They know what I am and what I need. I burn in the sunlight because my skin cells are too weak to protect my inside tissues. I literally burn from the inside out if I stay in the sun for too long.”

“So… it’s a genetic thing? You were all legend-y before and now, you’re talking like a scientist,” she told him, still with her arms crossed. 

“If I told you that, I’m telling you too much. If people figured out my origin, my mo-- the person would be charged for illegal distributing of unstable chemicals. But yeah, I’m a lab rat. I didn’t come from hocus-pocus magic. I came from science,” he explained. Hyuni squinted her eyes at him.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked with a dangerous tone in her voice. Chunji sighed.

“Does Cora noona lie?” he asked instead of answering her question.

“No. Never in her life,” she mumbled.

“Then ask her. Tell her that I already told you but you don’t believe me.” With that, he was gone, walking down the streets. Hyuni was left stunned and a little confused. Vampires exist? Chunji was a vampire? And it wasn’t all about legends and Dracula. There was literally a science behind it. That intrigued her but it was also the most confusing thing.

A science of vampirism. A way to inject… what did he say? Unstable chemicals? He got injected with unstable chemicals and became like this. He became a vampire. Maybe he just liked the way it sounded and that’s why he called himself that. After all, he couldn’t be a vampire by the means of science. He did tell her that he drank blood and he burned in the sunlight. Those are the main characteristics of a vampire. 

So he was? Or he wasn’t? Hyuni sighed and continued watching Chunji disappear into the crowd. There was only one way to know for sure. But she had no idea where to start looking for Cora. She sighed and stared at the crowd, looking for Chunji. Where he’d go, Cora will be. So, on a whim, she began following him. Hopefully, he was bluffing. She wouldn’t know what she’d do if he was telling the truth. After all, vampires don’t exist. They’re just legends.