The whole ride to school was deadly quiet, an unusual quiet that you were never accustomed to especially when Chanyeol was your companion. He was always loud, talking about things in a random manner that it sometimes hurt for you to listen to him ramble about things you weren’t really interested in.

Chanyeol drove uphill in lightning speed. Not long enough, Chanyeol pulled into a stop as he waited for the huge iron gates (the only thing that seemed to separate the huge brick walls that seemed to run endlessly around the foot of the mountain) of the school to open automatically, dividing the SMA logo in half, drove past them then through the dark roads ahead. Tall trees lined both sides of the road, and you felt your stomach make rapid flips when you saw many pairs of gleaming red orbs piercing you with their menacing stares and heard murmurs that almost blurred your hearing.

“They’re up and about,” Chanyeol informed you coldly. “Remember, fear means food.”

You gulped and tried to think of happy memories you had when you were in New York. Fear means food.

Chanyeol glanced at you sideways, the corners of his lips curving into a gentle smile. “Good girl. That should soften them awhile.”

You smiled back at him. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Chanyeol expertly stirred the wheel, turning left when you arrived at an intersection.

“For troubling you.”

Removing his other hand from the wheel, he clasped your cold, trembling hand and held it in his. You felt him give you a reassuring squeeze that said everything will be all right. You badly wanted to lean on his shoulders or bury your face in his chest and cry. “We’re all that’s left in our family now, Sunmi-ah. I’ll do anything for you. Don’t think too much, hm?”

You pressed his hand in return. His warmth somehow filled you in and made you feel stronger. It was barely enough to keep your wits together.

“I didn’t know SM Academy was located in a forest,” you said. “I didn’t even know that there was a forest in Seoul.”

Chanyeol laughed at your last remark. “It was all for accommodation. These grounds are usually used for training.”

Whatever that meant.

“Are you good?” you asked.

“I am,” Chanyeol answered you with a soft chuckle. You loosened your grip in his hand and punched him lightly on the arm with the other. “What? I’m telling you the truth, though.”

“You !” you protested.

Chanyeol shrugged. “, little cousin. .”

From where you were, you could see a small, two-storey brick house with smoke wafting from its chimney. The interior was lit dimly. As Chanyeol rounded the car about the small fountain, you saw a plump, jovial middle-aged man with dark hair slicked back against his forehead standing on the porch, flashing you his most amiable smile, not even attempting to hide his elongated fangs that glistened under the moonlight. He wore a black suit, a top hat sitting on his round head. He looked like a magician.

Another vampire, you thought smugly.

Chanyeol parked the car before hopping off then trotting towards the porch of the small house, standing beside the plump man after doing a low, polite bow. “Good evening, Lee-sonsaengnim!”

You followed suit but flinched midway when you felt the intense stare the man in question was giving you. He was examining you as if you were some exotic specimen being studied right under the microscope. Or if any description was any better, he was looking at you with his X-ray eyes. A shiver ran through the back of your spine as you thought it.

“Wonderful!” the man said, clapping his hands in glee. “Very wonderful, Chanyeol! Another Halfblood, I see.” He paused and looked you up and down. “No, no, no, no! She’s exactly the one I want! Very bright, Chanyeol. Very bright!"

You hid your hands in your coat pocket then balled them. You needed to do just that. You stood beside Chanyeol, but your cousin stepped aside so that you were facing the other vampire who continued to smile at you in a very disturbing manner, all teeth and wide, glistening dark eyes.

“Come in, come in, Miss...?” Sooman said, opening the door to his home wide enough for the three of you to enter.

Chanyeol entered first. As you walked past Sooman, you said in a very low voice, “Lu Shanmei. But, I go by Park Sunmi now.”

Sooman clicked his tongue and wiggled his brows. “Ah, I know that already,” he sang. “I was only wondering what you’d want me to call you, child. Perhaps, a little intimacy for the start of a new friendship?”

“Oh. Sunmi. I like it better,” you said with a small smile on y