Since Donghyun was 7 years old, he used to follow his father inside the wood.

“Hyunnie, wait for daddy here with Dongdong okay? I need to pick some herbs. Don’t go off anywhere alone!”, said his father each time before he left.

And then Donghyun would nodded as his father promptly left him alone with the horse. The boy doesn’t like to be alone, but daddy need to get some medicine to save people, so he must be a good boy. Thus, everyday Donghyun would played around the same spot and talked to Dongdong (the horse) until his father came back.

One time, it was getting dark but his father still did not return. The twelve-year-old was starting to feel scared when a voice suddenly came from behind him.

“Are you lost?”

Donghyun let out a loud squeak, which was quite embarrassing, considering the person who asked that question was just a child like him.

The boy dressed in a very nice black suit which made him look like a rich kid that did not belong to that poor area. His hair is light brownish and his face is really small and cute. Even through the lack of light, Donghyun realized how pretty the younger was. His face was almost glowing in the darkness.

“I… I’m not!…” Donghyun stated defensively, “I just need to wait for my daddy. Then we can go home together”

“I see”, the younger looking boy nodded, casually taking a sit next to the human. Donghyun realized the boy was shorter than him.

“What’s your name?”, asked the ebony head, curious about the first friend he had met inside the forest, “I’m Donghyun. But daddy and mommy call me Donghyunnie”

A smile broke through Minwoo’s face and it did some funny thing to Donghyun’s stomach. The seven-year-old blamed it on his hunger.

“Well then Donghyunnie. I’m Minwoo…”, answered the mysterious boy.

“…And  what is his name?”, he asked, referring to Dongdong.

Donghyun watched in awe as the horse went over to the stranger’s side and let him caressed his mane, purring softly at the touch.

“He is Dongdong”, the ebony boy told his new friend, “he usually doesn’t like strangers though. You are lucky…”

Minwoo hummed, the soft smile still linger on his lips, though it looked somewhat sadder.

“They are just naturally attracted to my kind”

“Huh?”

Donghyun was about to ask what he mean when he heard his father’s voice calling.

“Donghyun! Donghyunnie are you there?”

“That’s my dad”, Donghyun told Minwoo excitedly, who just smiled back wordlessly.

“I’m over here DADDY!!”, the elder yelled out happily towards the direction where his father’s voice came from, eager to tell him about his new friend.

However, when he looked back, Minwoo had disappeared.

---------------------------------

Time passed quickly until Donghyun turned nine. He still went with his father into the wood. However, that one day, he waited and waited, but his dad did not come back to get him. It was already pitch dark, and really cold, and Donghyun was starting to freak out.

“Daddy? Where are you?”

He called out, getting more and more desperate and scared each second.

“DADDY!!!”

He cried, tears seeping out of his eyes. He could hardly see anything in the darkness. He only had Dongdong for company, but the slow old horse did not help him feel any safer.

“Donghyun?”

Donghyun startled, but quickly recognized the voice. They had met occasionally, though the elder never had the chance to introduce him to his father.

“Minwoo? Is that you?”

Words could not explain how relieved he felt seeing the younger’s face under the moon light.

“Donghyun you should go home. It’s very late now”, said Minwoo, his expression remained calm in contrast to Donghyun’s tear-stricken face.

“But daddy told me to wait here”, insisted the older boy.

“It’s not safe to stay” Minwoo told him, “you can leave a note in case your father comes back. I will help you get home. I know the way”

“Are you sure?” Donghyun asked sceptically, not believing how the younger could see anything in this darkness.

“I’m sure. Let’s go”

Donghyun resisted a gasp when the younger boy took his hand and pulled him along. Minwoo’s skin was soft but freezing cold. Yet, it still managed to leave tickles on the elder’s skin.

At nine year-old, Donghyun realized he had this crush on a stranger boy in the wood he had barely spoken to.

---------------------------------

Donghyun had vague memory about how his father’s funeral went by.

His house was a mess. His mother had always been sick. Even with his patients’ donation and their relative support, it was impossible for his mother to take care of two children. As a result, Donghyun had to part with his mom and little sister and went to stay with his old grandmother.

Her farm was near the forest, so every day Donghyun was reminded about his father, Minwoo, and that fateful day.

It was convenient, so he went to find Minwoo in the wood almost every day. The younger boy did not turn up all the time, but more than often, they met. Most of those times, it was just Donghyun weeping about his father, and how life was so unfair to take away someone so kind, and how he missed his family. Minwoo did not talk a lot, but he was still there for him, listening to his rants and cries and offering him the comfort he needed.

Soon enough, Donghyun noticed that his crush would only show up after sun set, spend roundly an hour with him before announcing that time was up and walked the elder to the main passage so he would not be lost. Minwoo seemed immune to darkness, and there were so many other things the younger did not share: about where he came from, what his family did and so on. Even when Donghyun tried to ask him, Minwoo would avoid the topic.

The elder wanted to wait patiently for him to open up. However, he could not stop his curiosity.

---------------------------------

When Donghyun was eleven, he realized that his crush for Minwoo was a little more complicated than he thought it was. He did not have any close friend to talk to, but he read up a lot of book, and soon enough, he stumbled across an old encyclopaedia of mythical creatures.

That night, he waited patiently at the same spot to meet the “younger” boy again. This time Donghyun actually had a solid purpose other than just seeing that pretty smile. In all honesty, the human was disappointed. Too many things was kept secret from him. He could only hope that not all the assumptions he had generated about Minwoo in the past hours were true.

Donghyun did not panic when the sun came down and the blonde still did not appear. He knew Minwoo would show up eventually.

“You seem nervous. Do you have questions?”                                                                                              

As expected, the brown-hair boy appeared, smiling softly in amusement at how easy it was to read the human.

“Yes. I want to know… Who are you really?”, asked Donghyun.

Minwoo did not answer him, instead he directed the question back to the elder, “What do you think I am?”

Donghyun swallowed, whispering the question as if feeling afraid someone might hear them, “Y-you drink blood, don’t you?”

Minwoo looked straight into the human’s eyes, and then slowly, he nodded.

“Y-you…”, Donghyun stuttered, dreading his own assumption, “…that day, did you know what happened to my father?”

After a few seconds of silence, Minwoo nodded again. Donghyun had a feeling that the vampire obviously knew where the conversation was heading, yet he remained silent, waiting for him to man the hell up and admit his suspicion.

“D-did you… I mean were you involved in anyway…”

Minwoo let out a soft chuckle. There was no humour in his tone.

“Let me guess... You think I kill your father?”

The taller boy froze.

Yes.

Yes, that was what he wanted to ask, though it was not exactly what he meant did he? Now that it was said, the thought sounded downright ridiculous.

“After 4 years… You think I’m a monster.”

Minwoo muttered in his usual soft voice. He sounded calm, yet the words pierced Donghyun’s heart.

“No! That’s not what I-”

When the human realized how much he wanted to take back those words, he was already standing alone. The vampire disappeared once again into the darkness, just like smoke.

“Minnie? Minnie!”

He called his friend’s name and waited there for a long time, yet the mysterious boy did not appear again that night.

---------------------------------

“Minwoo!”

Donghyun came back to the forest the next day, and the next, and the next...

Soon enough, it had been five days since the last time he saw Minwoo. Even though the younger refused to show up, he did not want to lose his chance to apologize. The forest was really cold, and dark, and full of dangerous creatures, but it would not stop the stubborn boy.

Minwoo did not have to say anything for him to understand that he was hurt. Donghyun was clearly not thinking straight, too shocked by what he discovered. Minwoo had been nothing but gentle and kind to him, he would never see Minwoo as anything other than that.

“MINWOO! I’M SORRY. PLEASE COME OU-”

“Are you an idiot?”

A cold, irritated voice cut him off and Donghyun had never felt so happy seeing the younger’s annoyed face, “Do you know what time it is? Go home!”

“..B-but I want to apologize” He forgot all the worry he used to have on the vampire and hugged his friend tightly, “I’m sorry Minwoo. I did not mean to blame you”

“It’s okay” Minwoo sighed, softening at the contact, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your father. I just thought that night was not the right time to …”

“I know. It’s okay” Donghyun hushed him, “You have nothing to apologize for. It’s me who should say sorry. I should have trust you.”

“It’s okay. Don’t sweat it”

And things seemed to be back to normal again. They sat down and watched the stars together.

“You didn’t come to see me for days.. Were you that angry?”, asked Donghyun.

 “No… I couldn’t come here because of another reason”, sighed the vampire, resting his head against the huge tree they were hiding under.

“What’s wrong? You look tired”, the human wiped away his stupid tears because his crush’s problem was obviously more important.

Minwoo knew for a fact he did not “look” tired. Vampires always seemed emotionless to creatures except their own kind. However, Donghyun had learnt to read his mood fairly quickly.

“I just got a new job, taking care of a new master. He is still very young. And he has been trying to sneak out the past few nights.”

The human laughed, trying to lighten the mood, “So you are now babysitting a baby?”

“Don’t talk that way about my master”, Minwoo scold the human, “This job is something I’m proud of. My family has done this duty for generation. Our masters belong to one of the most powerful bloodlines in history”

“So your parents and hyung are all servants to this scary family?”

Minwoo huffed, still offended by the way Donghyun spoke about his masters, “Yes, I was a footman before this. I guarded the main castle gate.”

“Oh? You get promoted? That’s great”, asked Donghyun, taking a sip of water. His throat was hurting after shouting for too long.

“Not really”, Minwoo shrugged, “My father committed suicide. So I took over his position”

Donghyun choke on his drink.

“Don’t worry. I’m okay”, Minwoo told the elder before his human brain could figure what to say in that situation, “A lot of vampires suicide, so it’s not a surprise. We even did a proper farewell for him. He lived for almost three hundred years. And ever since my mom died, he had been quite out of it.”

Donghyun still did not know what to say, “You mean.. you all let him go, just like that?”

“Yeah”, Minwoo nodded nonchalantly, “It’s his life, so only him should decide”

…

But what about your feelings?

Donghyun wanted to ask, but decided against it in the end.

He wondered how it felt like living for that long.

He wanted to promise to always be there for the younger. But he realized his human life was probably just a very very tiny existence compared to Minwoo’s.

---------------------------------

Their friendship came back to normal after that day, as if Donghyun never found out anything about his friend’s identity.

They still met frequently in the wood, looking at the stars, and talking nonsense. Donghyun was curious about the night world and asked a lot of questions. Many was left unanswered but he did manage to draw out some fundamental stuff from Minwoo. Basically, besides human, there were also vampires, werewolves, other shape shifters and wizards.

“Is human the weakest?”

“No”, the younger shook his head, “human hunted and ate many of those weak shape shifters. You don’t realize it most of the time though.”

Donghyun frowned, reconsidering become a vegetarian because he could not imagine eating something that could talk and cry.

“Werewolves are your natural enemy”

Minwoo nodded while Donghyun tried to recall the stuff he read in that book, “They only turn to wolf during full moon though, right?”

“They can transform to human or wolf anytime they want”, Minwoo corrected him, “They are slightly different from usual shape-shifters. The shape-shifters are born animals, then they learned to transform to human form when they grew up, while werewolves are born human, then they gain their wolf form after Changing”

“What is Changing?”

“It’s something complicated. I would rather not explain”, Minwoo sighed, “Vampires have similar Changing. It’s not a pretty experience. Your body matures and you gain new powers. But it did funny thing to your brain during the process, making you went out of control. Every full moon, a new werewolf would be born. That’s why we had to be extra careful during those days. My cousin was killed by a werewolf in his first day of Changing”

Donghyun gulped, “… Did you.. erm.. take revenge for her?”

He asked, thought the human could not image Minwoo fighting against big giant wolves. The petite vampire looked like he needed more protection than Donghyun himself.

“No. They also killed my mom. But I don’t feel like avenging her either”, Minwoo told him, “I don’t hate them because they did something to my family. Rather, I hate them because I’m born to feel that way towards them, my mom or cousin’s deaths didn’t really affect it. We live too long to hold grudges against anyone”

Donghyun did not get it. No matter how it was, the human t