The boys called for me from our balcony, repeatedly until I finally responded. I wiped away every tear and calmed myself down before saying goodbye to the King. He expressed great sorrow for finding out about my past. No matter how much I told him that it was not his fault, he just continued to apologize. I always knew that my past would be revealed one day… but I secretly hoped it would after a month. I also thought about dying without telling anyone. All other options were running through my mind, and the fact that the cat’s out of the bag now… It just put a whole new twist on my life. There was too much on my shoulders already.

I knocked on my bedroom door repeatedly. Honestly, I was scared to step foot into my room again. There were a lot of possibilities that could have happened because I trusted the boys in somehow cleaning my bedroom. They could have completely demolished and made the room worse.

Sunggyu slightly opened the door, poking his head out to see if it was me. “Well, took you long enough!”

I softly smiled. “I was having a chat with the King.”

“Ooooh~ interesting! Come in come in!” Dongwoo pushed his older brother aside. He took a hold of my hand and pulled me into the room.

They had completely redecorated the room itself. All of the walls were painted a solid white. My bed was no longer existent. Half of the floor was covered in soft and featherlike blankets. You’d think it would feel hard because you are still leaning against then hardwood floor, but it didn’t. It was even softer than my old bed, like a cloud was plucked from the sky and placed in my room. It was a huge area too, enough to fit maybe twenty people.

“What did you guys do with my bed?” was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

“We got rid of it, clearly,” Woohyun grinned.

“But how?” I asked. It was a huge bed, I kid you not.

“We just tore it apart,” Dongwoo flexed his biceps. “No problem for the seven of us. The stench of blood would have stayed for a while if we didn’t just dispose of it.”

“So you guys bleached the place? Was it really that bad?”

“Bleached and painted!” Sungjong jumped up. “And yes, it was that horrible. The seven of us just eh. Don’t like the smell of his blood.”

I turned my back slightly to see they had built a book shelf for me. The seven of them really outdid themselves with this. Was this the surprise they were always hinting at? I placed myself right in the middle of the soft cloud. All of the boys formed a circle around me, that’s how much space was left.

“Like it?” Sungyeol asked me.

“Of course I do! It’s so comfortable and less of a hassle to care for,” I nodded.

“Good, we went through hell touching that disgusting blood,” Hoya grumbled.

“Stop complaining! It’s just blood!” I threw a pillow at him.

“Yah~!” Hoya averted the pillow.

I giggled lightly. They were such comfortable people to be around. I honestly couldn’t be sad or upset around any of them. All of them bring such a different light and sort of happiness into my life, that overshadows everything else that could possibly be happening in my life. The worry about tomorrow completely flushed out of my body.

“What did you and our Father talk about?” asked Myungsoo.

All of their eyes were focused on me. I knew they could tell when I was lying, so I had to keep my cool. Try to avoid looking into their eyes for longer than three seconds. And do not start fidgeting. “I asked him how his trip to headquarters was.”

“Just how the trip was?” Woohyun questioned.

“And what they did while they were there,” I said. “The Queen told me it was urgent so that’s why the King left so early with Mrs. Moon.”

“What was it about?” asked Sungjong. “Father just left so abruptly, he never briefed us like he normally would.”

“I don’t know,” I lied. Today was the day to practice my lying skills. “He didn’t tell me a single detail. All he and Mrs. Moon said was that it was first priority and was taken care of during their visit.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I would love to tell them. But today just wasn’t the day. Now that the King knew, I understood that it wouldn’t be long before they had to find out. A part of me wanted to just blurt it out right now. I hated keeping secrets, especially from the eight people who meant the most to me. Another little corner of me kept yelling that I needed to get the hell out of here. It told me to just run out and run, run as far as I could as fast as I could. One more little itty bitty piece regretted every single part of this journey. If I just kept my out of the kingdom walls, if I just turn my back to them from the start, if I just stopped being so hardheaded towards Damien’s outlandish warnings… so many ‘ifs’ that went through my mind. But none of it mattered.

I will never regret meeting the seven Princes.

“Bet it’s about that creepy scientist,” Dongwoo whispered. He didn’t really subtly whisper, more like loudly whisper.

“Huh?” I tilted my head, snapping out of my little train of thoughts. What did he mean? Who was that?

“Father’s been in a lot of stress over the past couple of months over this scientist that’s gone rogue,” Sunggyu informed me.

“I don’t know what gone rogue means,” I made a face.

“Gone rogue,” Woohyun pretended he had a pair of glasses on his face, “simply means that he had basically gone insane. He was once one of the head vampire hunter officials for decades.”

“Stop acting like a smartbutt,” Sungyeol smacked his older brother lightly on the head. “Anyway, Father started noticing that things changed. Prisoners would suddenly disappear, and we aren’t just talking about a few, I mean they’d disappear in multiples of ten. All of their trials were headed by that one scientist.”

“He… became obsessed. His main fascination was just how did vampires come about and what makes us so different from humans. Main goal: create a whole new super race that will overtake and overrun the entire world,” Myungsoo continued.

“Wait, wait, rewind,” I put my hands up in the air and motioned stop a couple of times. “If this has been going on for decades, why did he just get caught now?”

“His execution was issued about a decade ago. And then, he disappeared off the face of the earth. Only recently has traces of him been revealed,” Hoya added. “Guess he got sloppy. And Father declared a ‘cease to capture and transport’ decree for his immediate execution.”

“So he went into hiding that easily?” I asked. “I couldn’t even properly win a game of hide-and-seek when I was little. How does someone go unseen for a decade?”

“Oh trust us,” Sungjong grinned. “We know you at hiding games.”

All of the boys let out a little laugh under their breaths. I didn’t get it. What did they mean?

“You don’t remember?” asked Sunggyu.

“Remember what?” I needed more hints to figure out what they meant.

“Our first meeting,” Dongwoo heaved.

“Of course I remember, it was only what, two maybe three months ago,” I nodded with a smile. A part of me felt like that’s not what they meant.

“No no,” Woohyun sighed lightly. “When we were younger. About…  twelve years ago actually.”

I nodded no. “Well, it’s understandable,” Myungsoo patted me on the head. “You probably didn’t know it was us.”

“Remind me,” I smiled sweetly. I wanted to make sure it was me that they were talking about. I mean, a lot of girls in the village looked like me.

“It was getting dark,” Sunggyu closed his eyes. “The seven of us sneaked out of the palace for the first time. We were extremely bored in the kingdom walls, and just climbed over the walls. What convinced us to finally do it though, was the voice and giggle of one little girl.”

“She just wouldn’t stop giggling while hiding behind some boxes,” laughed Dongwoo. “I bet she would have been such a good hide-and-seeker if she just knew how to be quiet. But nope, continued to make noise behind the cardboard contraptions.”

That moment came back to mind. I chose to hide behind the boxes because they were right beside the kingdom walls. Damien, who was the seeker, would be tempted to check everywhere else, then there. Which was precisely why I kept giggling. I wasn’t going to lose with that tactic.

“And then this boy scared the living lights out of me,” I remember bits and pieces.

“Hey hey,” Hoya scratched the back of his head, “I only came up behind you because I thought something was wrong with you. None of us had ever heard such a giggle. Curiosity overpowered all of our actions.”

“And you made me jump like a frog!” I threw another pillow at him. “If I wasn’t so determined to win that damn game, I’m pretty sure I would’ve screamed bloody murder.”

“Good thing you didn’t,” Sungyeol said, “or else those seven boys would’ve gotten in the biggest trouble. Ever.”

I recalled that moment with Hoya. I was leaning against the wall, keeping most of my head concealed behind the boxes, until I heard this boy behind me. Upon turning around, I saw Hoya, and I sprang up like a frog. He was just crouched down, looking at where I was. Something about him was so mischievous. Upon looking around, I noticed the six others behind him.

There was one boy, with dark hair and chubby cheeks. It looked like he just had lines for eyes, as if he was squinting at me at all times. Another had red hair, similar like that of a rose, and a large grin. Next, was a boy who leaned against the wall, his foot as a balance. He had a childish grin. After him was the tallest of them all. He just had an expression on his face that seemed to express mischief and confidence. Then, there was one with a pokerface. His expression didn’t seem to change much, well for now. Lastly, was someone who looked like the youngest. He looked so cute and squishy, I wanted to pick him up and just hug him.

“Hey!” the redhead lifted his hands to his ears. “Don’t yell!”

“You don’t control me,” I pouted while crossing my arms.

“Yah!” he responded. “Do you not know who I am!?”

“I don’t!” I stared him down.

“Dong Dong!” the chinky one hit the redhead. “Stop it!”

The redhead rubbed the area where he was it. He made a face towards the other after turning away. “Aish, fine.”

The one who was right behind me, with dark blonde hair and a cute grin, waddled a bit closer. He stood up swiftly and brushed some of his hair. “What are you doing?”

“I’m hiding,” I told him.

“From what?” asked the tallest.

“From Dame-wee-yen,” I whispered.

“What’s a Dam-wee-yin?” asked the cutest.

“He’s my best friend,” I replied.

“I don’t like him,” the one who looked frozen announced.

“But you don’t even know him!” I pleaded.

“Doesn’t matter. I hate him.”

“He never did anything wrong to you!”

“So.”

“What do you mean, so? That’s woo-de.”

“I don’t like him because that means you can’t have any more best friends,” he moped.

“Who says I can’t have more than one?” I took a step back. “No one made woo-le about that! I can have as many as I want!”

“Shh shh!” the redhead brought his finger up to his mouth. “Someone’s coming!”

The seven of us lined up perfectly behind the boxes. I heard footsteps running back and fourth right infront of us. At that point, I knew that Damien was trying his best to look for me. But with my new—friends—it was impossible. We stayed perfectly still for about three minutes before breaking out into laughter.

“You have a cute laugh,” the mischievous one grinned.

I felt my cheeks redden. My eyes trailed off from them to my feet. “Thank you.” I began to fiddle my toes.

“No problem,” he gestured.

“Who are you guys?” I asked them. “I’ve never seen you before. And I know everyone here.” I put emphasis on everyone. Obviously, I couldn’t have possibly known every single person in the village at that age, but hey, it made me seem much more important.

“We aw youw fwends,” the cutest tottered to my side.

“My friends?”

He nodded his head. “Yes, fwends.”

“Promise?”

The chinkiest, obviously the leader, picked up the smallest and put him to the side a bit. “We’ll only promise if you promise us something!”

“Okay,” I nodded.

“You have to promise to never stop laughing,” he blinked, or winked, I wasn’t really sure.

What a silly promise to make. But I got friends out of it so I nodded. “I promise!” I lifted my hand and stuck out my pinky finger. All of them looked astonished by my gesture. “You don’t know what a pinky promise is?”

“What’s that?” asked the tallest, with the chubbiest cheeks in the bunch.

“You guys don’t know a lot,” I sighed.

“Hey! Watch it!” the redhead exclaimed.

“A pinky promise is a special kind of promise,” I whispered, just loud enough for all of them to hear. “It’s one that can never be broken. Or else you’ll get in big trouble.”

“Big twobl?” the youngest tilted his head.

“Super big trouble!” I motioned with my hands. “Like super super super super super super huge trouble, that your parents would make you eat your vegetables. For a month. That’s how bad it would be.”

All of them took a step back in fear. “We don’t want to pinky promise,” the mischievous, sly looking one nodded his head no repeatedly.

“But if you don’t pinky promise,” I sniffled. “Then you guys don’t really want to be friends…”

“We do we do!” the one who scared me earlier pleaded. He followed my gesture of raising his hand and sticking out his pinky finger. “I pinky promise!”

We intertwined pinky fingers before I kissed my thumb while still attached. He tilted his head. “It’s to seal the deal. Once that happens. There’s no take-backsies.”

He nodded his head and then kissed his thumb. “Permanent promise.”

I did that with each and every one of them. That was when I made a promise with seven boys, seven strangers, seven friends. And I didn’t even know who they were or a single one of their names.

I dropped out of my trance as soon as I remembered all that was attached to that simple memory. Honestly, I was surprised. How could I have forgotten about that?! I… I never took the time to figure out their names. To figure out who the heck they were. When one is young, I guess that stuff never truly mattered. The only thing we wanted were friends and lots of it.

“Remember it now?” asked Sungyeol.

“Yeah,” I smiled as I looked down at my hands. “I do! I can’t believe none of you bothered to introduce yourselves!”

“Hey hey!” Dongwoo has always been so defensive. “You never asked us!”

“Then how did you guys know it was me?” One of my eyebrows raised.

“After we left, that’s when you got caught, right?” Woohyun grinned, just like he used to years before. “Well, Damien yelled your name. So yeah. Always been stuck with the seven of us ever since.”

“Oh wow,” I smacked my hand against my forehead. “Wait wait! Sungjong couldn’t have been old enough to climb a wall about twenty to thirty feet high! How did you guys even…?”

“Built a staircase of some sort, made from a variety of things like shelves and suitcases,” Hoya chuckled. “It wasn’t the sturdiest, but didn’t matter. It lasted as long as we needed for it to. We carried him like an assembly line from the bottom to the top and vice versa, in a basket of all things.”

“I was so cute wasn’t I?” Sungjong sighed. “Oh back in the good old days when I complained and got everything I wanted.”

“You still do that and you still get what you want, alright,” Myungsoo hit him lightly on his arm.

“Don’t be mad because I stole the youngest spot, okay,” Sungjong stuck out his tongue.

“I’m not mad about that! I’m mad because you always took what was mine!”

“Yah! Be happy you didn’t always get the hand-me-downs!”

“We don’t get hand-me-downs smartbutt!” Sungyeol barged in. “All of our clothes were always new and clean.”

“Yah!” Sunggyu yelled.

“No one asked for your opinion, pudgey!” Sungjong yelled.

“Pudgey? You know what ladybug!?”

“Ladybug!!?!?!”

“Yeah, ladybug!? Go work on your damn florals!”

“Go read some dictionaries and thesauruses to find a real word to describe me, thank you very much!” Sungjong flipped his hair.

“Yaaaaaah!” Sunggyu tried once more.

“And you!” Woohyun decided to join the fight by pointing at Hoya. “You were such a flirt back then!”

“Flirt?Me? You have got to be joking Woohyun!” Hoya yelled. “You’re the one talking about how cute her laugh was and all that jazz. You made things so awkward!”

“You’re just mad that I said it before you did!” Woohyun teased his younger sibling.

“And you’re just mad that you didn’t make the promise first!” Hoya fought back.

“Youuuuu!” Dongwoo pointed to Myungsoo.

“What?!” Myungsoo yelled.

“You are so damn reserved! Even then! You were always so like ‘I hate life and people’ back then!” Dongwoo exclaimed fervently. “What the hell was up with that?!”

“At least I wasn’t so easily offended,” Myungsoo scoffed. “Or is. Actually yeah, you take insults to heart! Grow a pair of balls!”

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!” Sunggyu yelled even louder than everyone.

I covered my ears at that point. Never in my time here have I witnessed them arguing this much. But it was a cute kind of arguing. This was a way to relieve some stress and issues they had against each other. It was the best method to let things go and start fresh.

And I had to admit, it was really interesting.

“How about we just let this time be about Sophia, alright?” Sunggyu took control. All of the boys nodded in agreement after hugely sighing simultaneously. “So, Sophia, what would you like to do tomorrow?”

“Actually,” my eyes trailed off to the ceiling to avoid looking them in the eyes, “I’m going to headquarters.”

“Vampire… hunter… headquarters?” Sungyeol’s eyes enlarged as I looked back at him. I shouldn’t have done that.

“Any other headquarters you guys know about?” I asked.

“But why?” Woohyun questioned me in return.

“The King wanted to give me a grand tour,” I definitely made that lie up on the spot. “And it was a good way to see the other side of this… supernatural world we live in.”

All of the boys looked at each other intently before turning back to stare me down. I was confused. Was something wrong with me going to headquarters? Does that mean they know? Or is it something else?

“Count us in!” all seven of them exclaimed at the same time. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

one of the longer chapters. I didn't expect it to be that long, but hey. When I start writing, it's hard for me to come to a complete stop cuz I have to explain every little thing properly. ANYWAYYYYYYYYYYYS, did you guys pay attention to when she was talking to Myungsoo in the kitchen (The chapter where he made up with her and confessed blah blah blah) and he mumbled about it not being their first encounter? Well this explains what happened there! And in a very cute way :3 I oversimplified simply because you are looking at it from a five year old's mind. And well, five year olds don't pay that much attention to details.

Soooo, keep an eye out on those hints I've dropped in this chapter. Because they will be extremely important in the next upcoming ones. Trust me. 

And i'm glad to hear that you guys are responding nicely to my polls. Please don't forget to drop why and as what below! One more chapter after this before I make my final decision. KK. FIGHTING!

@xadrimusicx~I'm glad to hear your feedback. :3 hehe~ don't worry, your comments are being taken into account and I'm planning something extra special muiahahhaha

@saranghaeKVAD~GIRL YOU AND I THINK SO ALIKE LOL. I wanted to add a lighter tone to the chapter so.... ycentral was where it went lololololol. And thank you so much for your feedback! I am taking all comments into consideration, since there was only two, and so far. BEAST is truly winning. :3 

@applepearles~OMG DID YOU WATCH THEIR JOINT PERF WHEN THEY FIRST DEBUTED?! i DIEEEEEED. teenfinite foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr <3 hehehehehehehe. thank you for your feedback!

@shaneru-chi~ more suspense coming up pretty soon! trust me :3

@marshmallow3594~I'm so glad you decided to stick around and read :D Idk how to properly promote me story ;w; sobs. YOU BETTER BE GETTING UP ON TIME OR ELSE NO MORE FANFIC READING FOR YOU LATE AT NIGHT. loljk. 

@beautydarkangel~UPDATEEEEEEEEEEED~

@parktaemi~ then you're going to be dead for a while ;w; sobs. I APOLOGIZE HAJKDHFKAJ

@oknamstar~oh daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang. someone hates them some vampire hunting damien lol. anthony and isaiah are definitely some of my favorite characters :D GIRL NOT LIKE THAT LOL.