"Jerk!", was all she said and head upstairs, grumpily stomping her feet as she walks upstairs her dark blue skirt that goes upon her knees was swiftly blown by the breeze from the hole of the large window by the side. I obliviously raise a brow, the box I was holding being lifted as my shoulders move up and down, and without even looking, I know Top's behind me, witnessing everything.

"What did I do now?" I ask, staring at the staircase in front of me. "Is she on her period?"


"Don't ask me," Top says, walking beside me, and says again, as he lift his shoulders up. "I just told her the truth."


"Truth about what?" I ask, raising a brow and he advances forward, holding a stack of papers in one hand while his other hand holds a pen. He shrugs, his shoulders moving up and down and say, "You'll find it if you talk to her."


Then he left me here, forlorn, perplexed and he goes upstairs, so carefully his feet don’t make any noise at all. Daesung's voice wakes me up in my thoughts, high and lively as can be. "Hyung! Glad that I finally found you. Here are the music sheets and the guitar you requested. I asked the fat ahjumma at the shop nearby to loan me these things in exchange of a recording of my voice."


"Ah, thanks. Here's the food you wanted." I say, handing him the small box of dry goods I bought at the nearby supermarket and Daesung accepted it with glee. He skipped, going inside the kitchen and the oak door automatically closed when he got inside. 


My eyes landed at the staircase, and I left the box on top of the center table of the living room--except for the guitar, before I climbed up the stairs. It's easy to track Dara. The whole second floor is very cooperative by the way, because it was eerily quiet that not even a single noise can be heard except for Dara's faint cry. I followed the noise.


I clip the capo on the second fret and make my way to where Dara is hiding--at the ballroom. The door silently opens when it felt my presence, and I see Dara hurled up in a corner, hugging her knees. I step inside, and the door half-closes to avoid some noise. Then, I lift the guitar, ing my head between the straps to wear it and play.


You're the one who told me 
That you love me too 
And you said that your love will never change 
But whenever I come close to you, you go away 
My heart aches every time you're with somebody 
Didn't they know that we promise to each other 
That I am yours and you are only mine

Whatever happens, my love is still yours 
And whatever they'll say 
You're still the one I love 
I will wait any time 
Until I die and go up to heaven 
And if I didn't see you, I'll go and ask God
That please find her and tell her 
The promise that she forgot 
That I am yours and you are mine


After my song, Dara wipes her tears using her sleeves, and as she sits on the dusty wooden floor, her knee-length dress is getting filthier, though she doesn't seem to be bothered by it. 


"You lied," She says, her voice raspy and husky. "You told me that you don't know Chaerin."


"You're crying about that?" I ask, and she shot a glare at me, which gave me an idea that the question isn't nice to be asked. She trembles, her shoulders quivering and I walk towards her, but quickly stopped when she says, "I hate liars, and they’re just up to no good. But every time that someone special to me lies, it's-it's like they distrust me as much as I distrust the mayor."


I felt guilty for lying to her about my sister, and guilty for keeping to her that I am Kwon Jiyong. If she knew I am the guy she'll be marrying, would she even take it? I'm a monster. I'm not normal. Everyone is scared of me, and so she is, before she met me. Even if I can't prevail destiny and still marry her, I can't guarantee that she will love me as much as I love her. It would be too much for her and for me.


I walk towards her, and sit beside her, moving my body near as possible that our arms touch. She suddenly jerks her arm up, probably because she felt electrocuted like I did, but places it back to where it was before. 


"Do you know why did she become your sister?" She asks, which made me feel she had already forgiven me, and I shake my head, my lips gnarled. Then, I use my right palm to push her head to my shoulders, and when she had rested her head on top, I slide my hand towards her shoulder.


"The man guiding this house told me she's my sister, but the story behind it, he didn't tell. He said, it was too much for me to know, but-um, why are you smiling?" I ask as she smiles at me with her eyebrows wiggling, and she pokes my cheek, before laughing hysterically. 


When she's finished, she rests her head back to my shoulder, looks up and says, "You look cute when your mascara is messed up."


I pat my eyes, afraid that what she said is true and she says, "Why're you so afraid that your mascara will smudge?"


"I have to look ugly always," I say, and when I feel that my mascara wasn't smudged at all, I stop. "Or we'll be in big trouble."


"But-" She hesitates. "-You're so much handsome if you have no heavy mascara and a piercing at your lower lip!"


She turns her body facing me and crosses her arms, pouting like she used to when I don't listen to her at all. 


"I don't want to talk about the reason." I say, and she sighs in disappointment. 


"I wish I know," She mumbles and at the edge of my eyes, I see her eyebrows furrowed. "It's hard to-hey, why are you smiling?"


I cover my mouth, trying to resist my laugh, and say, "You're cute when your eyebrows are all smudge up."


"You're kidding."


"No, I'm not."


"Yes you are."


"No, I'm not."


"You're full of denial."


"So are you."


"I am not."


She's glaring at me, her lips gnarled-like she's used to when she's angry at Top whenever he forgets to clean up his workplace. The creak of the door stopped her from glaring, and we both turned our heads towards it.




It was Dara's mother.



"Omma...” She mutters and then, looks at me, then back to her mother. I give her an assuring smile, and she runs up to her mother, giving her a big bear hug. 


"Dara, I missed you." Her mother softly says, rubbing the top of Dara's head, and as she turns to me, she says, "Hello, Jiyong."


"Hey, ahjumma." I wave a hand at her.


"Can me and Dara talk for a second? Please?" She asks, and I smile, standing up from my seat. I just paused when Dara grabs my shirt, and mutters, "Please, wait for me outside."


I turn my head at her; pat her head and say, "I will."


She smiles-horrified, terrified-and I leave her there, the doors automatically closing behind me. Then, I turned my body towards the ballroom-just in time to see Dara's mother transforming into some kind of a monster. And it had just hit me. It's too early for Dara's mother to visit. 






It was Grim the Reaper. 

Panic starts to grow inside me, slowly eating my capacity to think of how I’ll save Dara from near death. She isn’t supposed to be killed, the rules don’t apply to her. Dara is innocent; she’s pure. Did Grim turned a blind eye?

Without calling any help, I kicked the door and it flew open, not breaking but jut opening abruptly. I caught sight of Dara, surrendering herself to Grim as she knelt in front of him, her hands pinned on her back joined by Grim’s black mist while Grim held his scythe in the air, about to slice Dara’s neck.

My face turned pale, and I jump onto Dara, hugging her tightly. She buried her head on my chest, cuddling closer as her tears wet my clothes.  I felt the scythe swipe the air, missing us both.

“Get out of there, G-Dragon!” Grim shouted, angrily as he grit his teeth.

“No, I won’t! She’s innocent! The rules don’t match to her!” I shouted back, hugging Dara much tighter.

“GD, it’s okay. I’ll accept it.” Dara whispered against my ear, her eyes closed in complete surrender.

“No, I won’t give you up to Grim.” I told her, and turned to Grim, my face almost blotchy just by the thought of losing Dara. “You’re turning a blind eye Grim. This isn’t supposed to be. Innocents aren’t supposed to slaughter. We’re created to let  justice and equality remain, Grim. We’re supposed to be the epitome of it.”

Grim closed his eyes. “I’m doing my job, GD. Every VIP needs to be killed.”

“Then, kill me also.” I said, turning back to Dara. She touched my cheeks with both of her hands, shaking her head but I just smiled, hugging her tightly. Dara buried her head in the crook of my neck.

“I can’t kill you, GD. You know I can’t.” Grim said. “We’ve been friends since we’re kids.”

“I can’t also take Dara being killed for something she hasn’t done.” I countered; closing my eyes when I felt Dara closed hers.

“If that’s the case.” Grim breathed out. We both waited for the impact to come, our arms trembling with too much pressure around each other. I felt Dara’s small arms almost fell off my waist, but she intertwined her hands to prevent it.

But after a few seconds, no impact came. Instead, a loud CLANG! was heard around the room followed by a THUD.

We both pulled out of the hug, opening our eyes, and I turned towards Grim with Dara’s hand still intertwined with mine. Grim was on his knees, his black silk robe showing different pictures of people in agony, distress and dying. He looked up, and I saw his mask, where his face hides beneath. I felt Dara shudder beside me, so using my hand she was holding; I pulled out and used it to bring her closer to me.

“I’m sorry.” Grim muttered, and for a moment, I saw his golden eyes behind his mask, on the verge of crying.

Dara hugged me from the side and cried. I rub her back and told Grim, “You should have listened earlier; at least there won’t be too much damage.”

He grabbed his scythe from the floor. “I just got blind by my job, GD. You know that it is my job to maintain the balance between life and death in this house. I’ve been used to kill VIP criminals that I got blinded to this innocent girl. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I muttered. “Just make sure to check people twice.”

Grim smirked. “Oh sure, I will.” He took out an iPad from the inside pockets of his robe. “I’m going to check the innocents from the guilty in this list of criminals all around town. I’m going for a wild guess on who’s going to be the VIP next year.”

He showed us an application which takes a record of the list of criminals with their corresponding picture. The guilty ones have a black background, while the innocent ones have a background of white. Dara is at the white one, and Grim deleted her from his list.

Dara looked up to me with a worried look, and I smiled back at her, rubbing her hair. She fidgeted for a second; hesitating and then, she quickly ran outside, the door automatically closing behind her. Maybe from fear, I don’t know. Grim always intimidates people.

“I see, you’ve met her already, huh?” Grim said, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. He took out a loaf of bread from the inside pockets of his robe, and took a bite. I almost vomited on my spot.

“She’s the VIP this year.” I said, also crossing my legs and held my feet down as I rock my body back and forth.

“Yeah, I see.” He said, taking a bite again from his bread. “How long do you intend to keep the truth from her?”

“Maybe until I made sure she loves me,” I shrugged. “Or I never will.”

“Well, I say you go on and tell her you’re Kwon Jiyong and you both start again from scratch. Fall in love, or whatever. You just got to make the best of your life.” He stood up and shove the bread back inside his robe. “Prove the world there’s no firm line between monsters and humans. You have to prove them, unlike me.”

Grim momentarily took off his mask to make me see how he used to be back then, when he wasn’t still a monster. His facial features weren’t unlike ours, it was alike to the people outside the mansion and his deep dark brown eyes were sparkling. He was still human beneath the mask, but then he took the job of being Grim the Reaper, so he needs to hide his true form.

“Minho,” I breathed out.

“Yeah, I missed showing my handsome face to other people.” He smiled, and wore the mask again, turning Grim.

“Promise me, GD that you’ll fight for your love unlike what I did.” He said as his body slowly turns into black sand being blown by the wind. “You’re going to fight for Dara.”

I gulped. “I promise.”

“Make sure you erase that ing firm line between monsters and humans.” He said, and completely disappeared with the last black sand. The few black sand started to move in the air and form the words, “You know where to start.”

I gulped.

When I went to the kitchen, Dara was talking with the others, which are Top, Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri. She was at the center, and they look serious with what they’re watching. There were a lot of grunts and moans.

“What are you doing?” I asked, sitting across Dara and gestured that I need water. Seconds later, a glass appeared in front of me and slowly being filled with water.

I grabbed the cup and drank the water as I looked at Dara. Her eyebrows were scrunched up with her lips pursed into a deep firm line, and her face was blushing deeply.

“What’s with the moan and groans?” I asked, momentarily pausing from drinking.

“I’m showing her the differences of boys to men.” Top explained as he laughed at Dara’s reaction when she suddenly gasped in shock.

Dara peered above the laptop and asked, “GD, do men really have to put those in?”

I choke, forgetting to gulp the water down my throat, causing for me to cough continuously. Abruptly, I looked at Top with a raised brow. “You let her see those kinds of things?”

Top shrugged. “She wanted to know more about us, and I asked her to ask a question. She asked what we do together, so I let her watch these videos.”

I turned to Dara again, and as another groan came out of the video, she gasped with her face flushed then, quickly covered her eyes. “It’s too much! It’s too much! That’ll hurt! The hymen will break!”

Seungri laughed at Dara’s reaction. “Of course it’ll break, how can he fully inside when he’ll not let the hymen break?”

“Why are they doing it when they’re not yet married?” Dar asked, peering through the gaps between her fingers, and when the character from the video grunted loudly, she covered her eyes again.

“Well, sometimes, people do it for pleasure and not for making babies. That’s where contraceptives apply.” Top explained.

“You don’t know this kind of thing?” Seungri asked Dara, closing the laptop so she could uncover her eyes and she did when the laptop made a loud click when it closed.

Dara fidgeted under the table. “My mother said that babies come from strong love and will of the married couple. I thought I was made from will… and love.” She bit her lip, and bowed her head down.

“Yeah, saying that makes me cringe. My parents like it hard and fast so I was born from pleasure and lust. It’s not desirable, but yeah that’s how you will put it if I’m on Dara’s condition of believing babies coming from strong wills and love.” Seungri said, and shook his head. “I hate my life.”

“Well, at least that would explain why you change girlfriends every month.” Top said, and Seungri answered with just another sigh and shaking of head.

Dara used her hands to cool her face up. “I have one more question. Where do baby monsters come from?”

Top clicked his tongue, and opened the laptop again, covering the screen with his hand so Dara wouldn’t look at the video again. After a few clicks, he showed all of us a cartoon imitation of where baby monsters come from. He just searched it on MonTube. He played it and the video explained everything itself.

Baby monsters are descendants of, well, monsters like how humans became the descendants of, well, humans. You can’t be a monster when you have both human parents, and you can’t be defined human when you’re a descendant of both monster parents. The video showed two human parents with an arrow connecting them and a baby monster below their picture, and then the video marked it ‘x’. It showed another set of family, where two monster parents with an arrow also connecting them to a human baby, then the video marked it yet again, another ‘x’.

It showed another set of family, two monster parents being connected to a monster baby. But then, two monster parents can automatically have a monster baby. The video marked the family with a check mark, and showed different names of training centers. We belonged to YG. Then, the baby will be automatically be put in the corresponding training center where he or she fits. If he doesn’t belong to anything, then the baby will be put to different trainings such as working in clubs, pubs, motels and other leisure areas. The other babies that were put into the prestigious training centers will be trained not only to read and write but also to be the best monsters the race has ever had. But then, The video showed another set of family where there’s a human parent and a monster parent, When a monster parent got romantically involved with a human parent, their baby will be automatically be a monster because the genetic components of monsters are far more dominant that of humans. These types of cases are very rare for monsters are highly prohibited to mingle with humans because they only serve to scare, not to love them. If you want to know about training assignments, click on the link on your screen. Thank you for watching.

The video ended, and Dara just commented, “So, where training center did you guys come from?”

“We’re from YG. It’s located at the main town of us monsters. Our leisure activities are located there, but then we can’t wait for another three months until we buy food and clothes so we sneak out of the mansion at night.” Taeyang said.

“Many things happen there every time the monsters from different haunted houses are gathered. It’s like a molecular explosion, monsters are scattered everywhere and there’s a lot of ual stuff.” Seungri said, doing a kind of gesture where he looks like he’s making miniature rainbows. 

“That’s the only day Seungri meets up with his current girlfriend. She’s the only one who hasn’t been replaced with another one since three months ago.” Daesung added, before drinking his can of beer.

“She has a name, and I wouldn’t mind if you’ll state it, Dae. It’s so beautiful; I could compare her name with rainbows.” Seungri said, fantasizing about his girlfriend once more.

“What’s her name?” Dara asked, poking Seungri’s arm.

“CR.” He said, softly still on a daydream.

Dara scoffed. “Comfort room?”

Seungri jerked up, and rapidly shook his head. “No! That’s a nickname!”

“What’s her real name?” She asked again, looking up at him.

Seungri sat back to his seat, dejectedly with a large frown plastered upon his face. “I don’t know.” He shook his head with a pout.

“When’s the day where you’ll visit the town?” Dara asked, grinning widely as if she’s planning to come with us.

“Tonight.” I said, and Dara squealed. “But you won’t come with us.” She pouted.