Yong Hwa felt that he had known a little of piece of Shin Hye and her harabeoji, so he thought it would be fair that harabeoji would know a piece of him as well.

 

As they were near the house, Yong Hwa held her arm.

 

"Ye?" she asked as she turned to him.

 

"Ah...anio...gwaenchanha..." he said.

 

But Yong Hwa silently scratched her without her knowing. Finally, they arrived.

 

"Annyeonghaseyo?" Yong Hwa greeted the old man.

 

Harabeoji smiled at him, then noticed Shin Hye's arm.

 

"Eo, Shin Hye-ya, your arm!" the old man said, pointing.

 

She saw her arm and wondered where she got wounded.

 

"Wash up real well," Harabeoji said.

 

"I'll treat her wound," Yong Hwa offered.

 

"Ah, geurae, geurae," the old man said.

 

"But Yong Hwa, I can do this on my own," she insisted.

 

"Anio, Seonsaengnim, let me do," he offered.

 

The two of them went to the washroom to wash her arm, and he got the medicine kit. Of course, the old man watched because of cultural reasons. You know, girls should be taken cared of and watched over by family members.

 

The old man, however,  noticed Yong Hwa looking at the wound and his lips. He noticed that the lips of the young man were so dry that Yong Hwa had to . But Yong Hwa just looked at the wound and got uneasy. Finally, the old man watched silently as the student tended to his teacher's wounds.

 

*****

 

Gam Dong invited Yong Hwa for dinner, and the student agreed. The three of them were joined by some henchmen, who were as amiable as Harabeoji.

 

"You are very childish, Shin Hye-ya," the old man said before laughing.

 

"Harabeoji!" she pouted like a little kid.

 

"Do not answer back, arasseo?"

 

"Harabeoji! You are treating me like a kid!"

 

"Because you are so cute, and you act like a kid sometimes," a henchman said.

 

"Seonsaengnim also talks to herself," Yong Hwa said.

 

Everyone on the table looked at him.

 

"You are not supposed to talk when the adults are talking!" Shin Hye scolded him, with that affectionate cute pout reserved only when she gets embarrassed in front of her grandfather.

 

"Ah, she does?" the old man said before laughing.

 

Soon, the other henchmen were also laughing, making her blush in anger and shame. She shot Yong Hwa an angry glare, while he took his gaze away and bit his lips before turning to her again.

 

Later on, the old man invited Yong Hwa to the front porch for a chat, for he had grown fond of the young man. Yong Hwa sat across him and told him.

 

"I never knew my own grandparents," he said to Gam Dong.

 

"You can treat me as your own harabeoji," Gam Dong said.

 

"Ne, gamsahamnida," Yong Hwa said with a bow.

 

Then, innocently, he related to the old man that he had seen Shin Hye fighting against some guys who accused her of leading the gang soon. The old man knitted his eyebrows and asked with a deep voice.

 

"What have you known of the gang that you said?" he asked Yong Hwa.

 

Yong Hwa was not afraid of the old man's threatening voice. Of course, he seemed not to be afraid of authorities.

 

"Moreugesseumnida," he said. "But Seonsaengnim said that the gang was only fulfilling and protecting the real sense of justice."

 

He even pointed the emblem by the door.

 

"I think the emblem is the symbol of the group," Yong Hwa said foolishly, greatly raising the ire of the old man.

 

"Shin Hye!" the old man growled.

 

Shin Hye came out from the kitchen and hurriedly went to the front porch.

 

"Ne, Harabeoji?" she asked.

 

Harabeoji had her sit next to Yong Hwa and berate her for fighting foolishly. He told his granddaughter that a stranger had learned unknowingly of the gang. Yong Hwa thought that if the gang upheld justice, there is no reason why Harabeoji should be this angry for the gang to be exposed.

 

"Joesonghamnida," Shin Hye said repeatedly, bowing on the floor. "I was wrong, I was wrong..."

 

Harabeoji told Yong Hwa of the same condition that Soo Hyun had shared Shin Hye regarding those who knew about the gang: that the person has the option to pledge his life and keep quiet, or join the gang. Yong Hwa was undaunted.

 

"I promise," he said. "To keep quiet about it and not let even my cousins know."

 

But he promised so carelessly that Harabeoji was taken aback. Among the two conditions, most people would opt to join for fear of their own lives. Those who promised but have carelessly shared the secret were hunted by the Yakuza, not the gang themselves, and killed.

 

"I don't care," Yong Hwa said confidently but dryly. "I am not the least worried. Besides, I am not the type to share secrets, even to my cousins."

 

The old man grew gentle because Yong Hwa was pledging his young life, so he coaxed the young man if he could join instead.

 

"Join?" Yong Hwa asked. "And be married to someone whom I have not met at all?"

 

For Yong Hwa have derived the theory that Soo Hyun might also be a gang member. He remembered her saying that she was being betrothed against her will. Harabeoji turned to Shin Hye, who bowed down in apology.

 

"Soo Hyun-ssi asked me this morning why I was with his fiance," Yong Hwa said.

 

Of course, he did not tell the old man about Shin Hye begging him to take her away.

 

"Soo Hyun did?" the old man asked him, and Yong Hwa nodded.

 

The two of them looked at the old man looking confused.

 

"That child will have problems... he might even expose us unwittingly," Gam Dong said.

 

He had been wrong in choosing Soo Hyun though he had known the young man quite a bit--just a bit. Then, he turned back to Yong Hwa and convinced him to join, but Yong Hwa politely declined.

 

"I cannot convince you, then," the old man said. "But I just noticed something in you..."

 

He narrated how he had seen Yong Hwa his lips many times while he was tending to Shin Hye's wound. That was not something human. And it occured to him that Yong Hwa's tanned skin was not a natural tan, for he still looked as if he had lost lots of blood.

 

"Are you a vampire?" the old man asked him directly.

 

"Ne," Yong Hwa replied.

 

Shin Hye looked at him, then at Gam Dong, who looked uneasy.

 

"That is why you are so confident to just pledge your life," Gam Dong said. "Because even if people will hunt you down, you will hunt them instead."

 

"Majayo (That's right)," Yong Hwa said. "I am confident that I cannot easily be targeted, and hunt people during new moon."

 

The old man was not able to convince Yong Hwa because the vampire was certainly stronger than he thought. But he had not known that his own granddaughter had fought the vampires by herself.

 

"Arasseo, I will not force you," Gam Dong said.

 

Yong Hwa bowed down. He did not not reveal his plan of revealing himself a bit after knowing a bit of Shin Hye.

 

"Harabeoji, can I call on a meeting?" Shin Hye asked.

 

"I will do that for you," Gam Dong said before calling a henchman.

 

The henchman came in while eating and holding a large bowl filled with spicy and yummy tteokbokki, and the old man whacked a rolled newspaper at him.

 

"We have just finished dinner, and here you are eating again?" the old man grumbled at the skinny guy.

 

"Boss, I am very hungry, hmmmmmm...." the henchman answered in a sing-song voice. "You see that I am getting skinny? Hmmmmm...."

 

The old man instructed the henchman as necessary, then the man went away while holding his bowl.

 

"Meeting, meeting, meeting...hmmmm..." the man said while saying it in a sing-song voice.

 

The old man and the young people stood up, with the gangster accompanying Yong Hwa to the door.

 

"I am thankful for you for taking care of my granddaughter," Gam Dong said.

 

"Animnida," Yong Hwa said with a bow.

 

Shin Hye looked at him and asked him for his mobile phone number.

 

"Waeyo?" Yong Hwa asked.

 

"As a teacher, I have the right to call you in case you and your cousins will skip class again! Hmph!"

 

Gam Dong laughed because his granddaughter was so childish even around her own students. And so, Yong Hwa and Shin Hye exchanged numbers. Then, as Yong Hwa left, she kept her eyes on him, and felt her chest beating hard.

 

"Boss, I have called the assembly already, hmmmm...." the skinny man said when he came back.

 

"Gaja, Shin Hye-ya," Gam Dong said.

 

"Ne, Harabeoji," she said.

 

*****

 

The whole assembly were astonished as to why another meeting had been held again. They found it unusual to hold a meeting more than once a month. Gam Dong took his place and apologized for having a meeting called again, and told everyone that it was Shin Hye's idea. Shin Hye took the stage and spoke without delay.

 

"I am calling on this assembly for a very important announcement because I do not want to delay this any further," she said. "I am breaking off the engagement."

 

The people murmured among themselves, and Soo Hyun stood up in anger. The lawyers smiled among themselves, watching the little twerp being crushed.

 

"Ssaem!"

 

"Joesonghamnida, Soo Hyun-ssi," she said grimly. "I am breaking it off because I want to concentrate on being a teacher."

 

Soo Hyun slumped into his seat and angrily eyed his homeroom teacher. There was no way he was going to get embarrassed. And to do that, he had to bribe his classmates into messing up even more so that Shin Hye will have a hard time and give up teaching, and run back to him. Shin Hye was not aware of that, but she was just happy to have that load taken away from her mind and heart.

 

And she did not reveal that a certain vampire had known the secret.

 

****

 

That night, as she was lying on bed, her phone rang. She took her phone and saw that it was Yong Hwa.

 

"Yeoboseyo?" she answered.

 

"Ssaem," he said over the other line, grim as usual.

 

"Wae geurae?"

 

"Ah, munjeneun eopseumnida (I have no problem)," he said. "I just want to know how you are after the meeting."

 

She just told him that she broke off the engagement because she wanted to concentrate on being a teacher, for teaching is her life.

 

"Good for you, Ssaem," he said.

 

"Gomawo," she said.

 

She did not reveal that another reason why she broke off the engagement was because she had fallen for him.

 

"Ssaem, I know you are strong, stronger than me, but I will promise you that I will help you no matter what it is," he said.

 

"You promising that, sounds like you are my namchin (boyfriend)," she .

 

"Ah...geurae...yo?" he asked sheepishly, almost forgetting his jondaemal.

 

She bit her lips and shivered. Why does flirting with a student feel so wrong and yet so right? If he were just her age, she would really be flirting with him.

 

"Good night, Ssaem," he said over the phone.

 

"Good night, Yong Hwa," she said.

 

When they hung up, she hid herself behind her pillow and screamed giddily. He was so romantic it was impossible not to spazz. As for Yong Hwa, solemn as ever, he etched her name on air.

 

"Ssaem is so beautiful, no matter what she does," he thought.

 

He did not notice that, for the first time, his lips quivered into a smile.

 

 

 

~~~~