Chapter 3

Days passed on, without him in school. It’s really strange that how a transferee could possibly be gone just after the first day of admission. And nobody seems to realize or even finds out that there has been a transfer student around. I’m getting scared – scared that it could be just all my imagination. But how could it be possible when he felt so… real?

“Oh, Jieun, that’s bad,” Luna teases.

“He could be your imaginary friend,” Jiyeon adds on and they both laugh.

I wrinkle my nose and puff loudly at them before encasing my lunchbox cover back.

I can swear that he is real. But… just what if he’s not? That thought makes my heart sank deep down as I could feel the awful taste in my mouth. I shake my head hard, wanting to get rid of all these thoughts and to get my good mood back. However, that attempt failed horribly.

A week has passed and still no signs of him. Maybe it’s just all in my mind. I can’t help but to think that way. I so wanted to believe that he actually exists but the doubts in me, I can’t simply ignore.

Getting out earlier than usual, I take the quiet route again. However this time, with the fresh memories of him in my mind. Why is he always asking if I’m bleeding? I look around and pick up a bigger leaf from the ground. And why did he take this route to school? I look up again, this time seeing all the trees that are blocking out most of the sunlight. He asks if I’m bleeding and he appears in dim places.

“A vampire?!” I suddenly exclaim.

“What vampire?” an abrupt voice shocks me even more when I could feel the whisper in my ear. I bounce up and hit a solid object which makes me yelp.

“That hurts,” the voice continues. I rub the tip of my head before turning around to look at the person whose voice belongs to.

I drop my hand instantly as I saw the male rubbing and his chin while he wince his eyes out in pain. “It’s you?”

“Y-y-ou.” I stutter out and this time pointing my finger out at him with eyes wide. I remember the thought I have a while ago and a lump start forming down my throat.

“Yeah?”

“Are you a vampire?” my tongue slips itself and let loose of my thoughts. I quickly reprimand myself for slipping out those thoughts so carelessly. But I feel more insulted when I hear his laughter roaring up the silent route.

With a deep breath, I crease my brows and fold my arms in front of my chest and give him an intense stare. “What?”

He cups his mouth while I watch him trying his best to suppress the laugh, “a TwiHeart here?”

“More of a Potterhead,” I roll my eyes and bit the insides of my mouth. Twilight? I scoff inwardly. I know the thoughts of him being a vampire sounds utterly ridiculous. But after coming up with a thousand and one stories, no idea sounds more convincing than him being a vampire. He keeps asking for blood and he keeps appearing in such places where sunlight could not be seen. There is a high probability of those myths being true right?

“Same,” he finally stops his deafening amusement this time and smile. “Nice to see you,” he pauses for a second before continuing, “not being on the ground again.”

“You remember me…?” I ask, sounding almost a little too thrilling about the idea that he actually does.

“It’s hard to forget,” he explains indifferently before giving a wink. “By the way, I’m a year three senior,” he brings up his hand, “Jang Wooyoung.”

My forehead wrinkles in confusion. Did he just lift up his hand? I shift my gaze to his long slender fingers and glare. I can’t help to notice how that hand, that same hand which was gloved-on a week ago, opening that door and getting into that beautiful car. “But you refused to help me-” and before I could finish what I was saying, he pulls me in, grabs my defenseless wrist and forces me into a handshake.

“Forget about what happen previously,” he continues shaking my weak hand, “and pretend that this is our first meeting, neh?” he lets go almost immediately after finishing his speech and turns his back around.

I watch him walking down the empty route, with him stepping on the leaves beneath him. Is he the same guy? I can’t help but to doubt. Just after a week, he seems like a different person. No scarves, no gloves, no hidden profile and no cold attitude.

“I can’t.”

I recall his words clearly, as if it is etched and burnt into the back of my head. That look in his eyes, that agonizing look, that slouching back which seemed like it has so many burdens on it. Till now, it is still deep down in my heart, bothering and affecting every single wonder on my mind. And yet, the same guy now seems so dissimilar.

The look is not an agonizing one anymore; it is bright, so bright that I can’t even bring myself to look into his eyes. The slouching back has straightens itself and has becomes such a youthful and gorgeous one. I can’t tell if this person is the same as the one I saw a week ago. The handshake that he initiated, he didn’t even want to help me up previously when we bumped into each other but yet, now he offered a handshake, introducing himself.

Pretend that this is our first meeting? The almost pleading tone in his voice. Only that look and that crack when he was saying that particular sentence. No, it seems more like a request, a desperate one too. I shake my head in frustration as I try to digest all that happened just few minutes ago. Unfathomable but yet intriguing. There must be something hidden between those lines. How I want to find out but can’t.

Being too absorbed with my own thoughts, I catch the familiar voice calling out, “Hey! I don’t wanna be late for school!”

I look up at the boy with glittering eyes as he waves his hand hard at me. I finally swallow that lump in my throat and pull the straps of my bag, “vampire or not, I’m going to find out the truth.”