Luhan watched in silence as Bora and N talked quietly about their plans to reseal Shin. They weren’t standing close together, in fact Bora had only turned her chair around slightly and there was a desk between them, but Luhan felt jealous. They were only whispering so that the others in the room, the human students, couldn’t hear them but Luhan was still jealous.

He was jealous that she was talking to N and not him.

He was jealous that she wasn’t sitting beside him.

Heck, he was even jealous that she wasn’t talking about him.

Luhan sighed, ruffling his blond hair in frustration. Were these heightened emotions he was feeling anything like what N felt when their positions were reversed? He finally got why the red haired vampire got so irritated when Bora showed Luhan attention. He’d never felt this jealous before when Bora had paid more attention to N before becoming a hybrid. Sure, he’d been a little envious of the other, but not like what he was feeling now.

Tao patted his hyung’s shoulder, trying to comfort the other. He was sure he’d be going through the same thing if someone was that close to Gayun. Thankfully, the only person who seemed to be able to stand her for very long other than himself was Bora. Since Gayun was always so harsh and cynical with her words and actions, only a few people dared to spend more than a few minutes with her at a time. But there were two people she was kind – or kindish – to. Bora and himself.

Tao honestly had no idea why she was nicer to him then everyone else. He’d simply never asked and she hadn’t volunteered the information. When he’d asked her to hang out with him the first time, he’d figured that she’d just laugh and mock him for a while. Instead, she’d nodded in agreement and the pair found themselves becoming friends. Now that Tao thought about it, it did seem rather strange that she’d so willingly become his friend. Hadn’t she known Leo, Ken, N, Suji, and Jiwook for much longer? Why would she befriend him over any of them?

Glancing over at her, he started to wonder about that.

Finally, school ended for the day and Gayun made her way over to him. As she walked, all the other students – the human ones – parted to let her through. Gayun had taken so much joy in any suffering that came their way that everyone feared her. In fact, many people had warned him to stay away from her so she didn’t do anything to him. Tao had just laughed them off, but now he wondered why she didn’t treat him the same way she treated them.

“Come on,” she told him upon arriving at his desk, “we have plans, right?” Tao nodded, gathering his things before rushing to follow Gayun who hadn’t bothered to wait for him. This was, of course, normal for the vampire girl. Gayun never waited for anyone or anything. Even Bora sometimes had to rush to keep up with her.

“Gayun?” Tao asked as they walked through the halls, “can I ask you something?” she started to nod, but suddenly she froze and her eyes locked onto a small girl walking down the hallway, head hung low like she was scared or ashamed. Tao watched the girl too, knowing that something bad was about to happen to the girl.

No one – not even Bora – knew how Gayun did it. But somehow, she could always tell when something bad was going to happen to someone. If she wasn’t such a cold, sadistic person maybe she would use this gift to help people. But instead she just watched. Taking joy in the other person’s suffering.

As predicted, something bad happened to the girl, but for once Gayun’s response was different. Tao and Gayun watched as a group of boys – jocks – approached the girl, pushing her into the wall and laughing at her pained expression before taunting her. Tao looked to his left, expecting to find Gayun wearing her signature smirk, but instead he didn’t find her at all.

Instead of enjoying the show, Gayun was storming over to the boys, pushing them aside as she made her way to the girl. At first, the boys protested her intrusion, but they all shut up when the realized just who she was. When Gayun got to the girl, she spun around to face the boys – the bullies – and glared at them. Several backed away, fearing Gayun thanks to the stories they had heard about her, but one stayed standing, looking down at her with a sneer.

“Trying to help the wangdda, psycho?” he laughed. Gayun’s glare just darkened. Receiving no response, the boy kept taunting her, trying in vain to get some kind of reaction from the vampire. Finally, he lost his temper and pushed Gayun back into the wall. Tao moved to step in then, but Gayun recovered quicker and pushed the boy back, making his stumble across the hallway.

Everyone stopped, watching the scene before them play out. Everyone knew that the boy in question held power thanks to his family being so rich. In their eyes, Gayun had just messed with the wrong person and she would end up paying for that for a long time to come.

“I suggest you stay away from this girl, trash,” Gayun hissed, locking eyes with the boy. Tao watched as a dazed look came over the boy’s face before he started nodding, voicing his agreement moments later upon her demand. So this was what compulsion could do? Somehow, Tao had expected it to be more dramatic.

“Thank you,” the girl said, looking down shyly when Gayun turned to face her.

“Don’t worry about it,” the older shrugged before walking off, calling for Tao to follow her. Slowly, he started to follow her. Wasn’t it the norm for Gayun to watch and enjoy the suffering of others? What made this one girl so different from anyone else? Then a realization hit Tao and he felt stupid for not realizing it before.

All the other times Gayun had enjoy people’s suffer was because the person themselves had done something to bring suffering to them. Tripping, failing a test, or falling asleep in class. But this girl hadn’t bought her suffering on herself. She’d done nothing wrong and was an innocent victim. Gayun had once been a victim. Back when she was still human. Tao remembered how she had told the group about her late husband, a man who often beat her for no reason.

Gayun’s own parents, her village, had all know what was going on. But they hadn’t done anything. They had just let Gayun suffer beatings that left terrible bruises and scars all over her body. When Gayun had shared her story, she’d even shown the ones that littered her back, the ones that contributed to her death. Knowing this, it made all the sense  in the world why she had stood up for a girl being victimised. Gayun had been there, with no one willing to help her, and she refused to let another person suffer through anything close to what she had.

“Gayun?” Tao asked, catching up to her, “that was a good thing you did.” She turned, blinking innocent at him.

“What are you talking about?” Gayun replied, “I didn’t do anything.” He opened his mouth, ready to tell her how proud he was of her for doing what she did, for standing up for an innocent girl, but instead closed it. Gayun hated being reminded of her days as a victim and, even more than that, she hated being thought of as good. Thus, Tao told her to forget about it and dropped the whole matter.

A/N: I know a lot of you probably asked “why are Tao and Gayun friends?” when that first came up, so I thought I’d give you guys a look at their relationship (I kind of shined some light on it in the Halloween Special, but I’m gonna give them even more love). Well that and I’ve been neglecting a couple of my vampire girls: Gayun, Hanbi, Suji (somewhat), and Nara. So, I’m going to be giving them some attention (they do play a role in this story, too. It can’t all be just about Bora with no one else having experiences and growing as people lol). I know you all want to see Bora’s love triangle move forewords, but I wanna give the other girls some love for a bit. Thank you so much to my subscribers. And thanks to my comment leavers. Please leave a comment below *points down* if you have time!!