“What’s your name, boy?”

Hyun Suk felt ridiculous to ask that question when he claimed to be a father of that child. Youngmin was obviously scared of him, and he dismissed the kid quickly after giving a lame and ambiguous explanation for taking him away from his mother. He did not expect to gain the boy’s trust right away. Also, his heart was hurting too much to comfort the little one.

For the first time in centuries, his relationship with Kyung Min was ending in a really bad note. She was his wife, his lover, his one and only soulmate.

They met for the first time more than three hundreds years ago. At that time, she was from a different land, with a different family, but still the same sweet smile and beauty. There was no barrier restricting vampires from the human’s world then. Hyun Suk had approached her first, simply taking interest in her blood’s aroma. They had a conversation, and somehow, he didn’t kill her that day. Hyun Suk wasn’t type who liked to play around with his prey, so she was the first human that he did not attack right off the bat. There was just something about her smile that stopped his vicious nature from acting up.

“You sound like you just found your destined soul mate”, commented his elder brother with fake worried voice.

He carelessly dismissed that statement. Nevertheless, he came back to see her the next day, and again, he could not lay a hand on that beauty. Soon enough, he realized that indeed he was meant to be hers, and she his.

The two of them began a bitter sweet relationship. Human was mortal, which means that they had a short life-span, and their soul only stayed on Earth for limited time, before it had to take a rest again. And then after two decades, the soul would be reborn again.

Even though Hyun Suk knew each farewell was just temporary, it broke him each time she left, seeing her in pain and knowing that all their memories together in that life would soon be his memories alone. Yet, he still put on a gentle smile and promised to wait till she came back again.

Soon enough, Kyung Min was the only string attaching him to this world. One by one, his family left: his grandfather, his parents, his elder brother, all by their own choice. Unlike human, vampire could not be reborn. They turned into dust and their soul disappeared completely. Yet, many and many had let go of their lives, either fighting or living alone. Vampires had a secretive and independent nature and Hyun Suk soon realized that it was going to be the root of their extinction. After his father’s demise, he came back to Sacred, the big castle his ancestor had left, and continued his family’s dream of building a small “kingdom” where vampires could stop wandering aimlessly and settle down in a warm community. Of course, the responsibility did not stop him from seeing Kyung Min. Working was instead a way for him to forget his longing during the time her soul was resting.

People might think that a few decades would go by like a breeze for vampires who had live for centuries, but no matter how long you live, the clock did not tick any faster. Decades were still decades.

5 decades of loneliness.

Followed by 5 decades of love and contentment.

Then… loneliness again.

It was not the best happy-ever-after ending Hyun Suk could hope for, but the happiness of holding her in his arms and seeing her bright smile kept him holding on. He knew that she would always come back. She would accept him and love him like the first time.

Hyun Suk used to feel thankful for his life.

Until a day,

something unexpected happened.

“I’m pregnant”

Kyung Min looked at her lover, a wide smile decorated her face as she announced the wonderful news.

Hyun Suk, however, was in lost for words.

“Pregnant?... You?”

He asked again, couldn’t believe in his ears.

His lover nodded, letting out a soft happy squeal as she held onto his hands, unable to contain her excitement.

 “M-my child?”

He couldn’t remember the last time he had stuttered in his life. Kyungmin pouted and gave the five-hundred-year-old a smack on the head.

“Whose else?”

There was never a child between humans and vampires

…ever.

The vampire rushed back to Sacred, and started browsing through all the books he had kept. As he had expected, none of them mentioned a similar case in the past.

Hyun Suk’s joy of becoming a father soon became anxiety.

He couldn’t imagine how the baby would turn out to be. A creature between human and vampire sounded threatening to him, especially since the kid was inside Kyung Min. Even as an unborn, it could be strong enough to tear her apart from inside. The thought alone made him shudder.

That was not to mention how the Council and Tribunal would react if the news ever reached them. They might decide to harm the infant, or worse, the mother.

If Kyung Min was to get hurt in anyway, Hyun Suk would rather not have this addition to his family.

“Baby, I know you won’t like the sound of this.. but we need to get rid of this baby”

After a few days thinking over the issue, the vampire lord made his final decision and told his lover on the third night he visited her. At that point, Kyung Min had already started thinking about names for the baby, how he/she would look like, and what clothes she should prepared for the little one...

She was so happy. She was almost glowing in Hyun Suk’s eyes. Thus, it was really difficult to get his words out to tell her. However, the longer he waited, the more heart-broken she would be.

The human stared at him in complete shock. If it was not for his unusual nervous expression, she would bet she had heard him wrong.

“Are you crazy?”

She screeched, backing away from the door and the man she no longer knew, both arms covering her stomach protectively, “No! I would rather die. No!”

Hyun Suk tried to explain his reason but the vampire said, he still ended up being thrown out of the house. Well, technically he could break that flimsy wooden door easily, but the 3000-year-old always kept his patience when it came to Kyung Min. He decided to let her have some time to cool down her head, and that was his biggest mistake.

The next day, she was gone.

She left a short letter, saying she would trade her life for the baby, and told him not to look for them. (“You don’t deserve to be the father of this child”). Hyun Suk wanted to cry.

He had no idea where she could have gone to. Kyung Min was an orphan in that life, and after he brought her away from her small orphanage to live in a small hut in the forest, she only had him to rely on, besides a wizard couple, Nickhun and Tiffany, who occasionally came by the hut when they did their herbs hunt. Hyun Suk wanted to kill himself when he failed to pick up her scent, knowing who she had asked for help from.

For three months, Hyun Suk went on a frenzy search for his lover. He took a few soldiers with him every night, and carefully searched each corner of the Earth for her. Finally, even though her scent was hidden, he managed to pick up the sound of her voice from a house neat the North border of the large forest. Tell his servants to keep guard, he went to knock the door, “Kyung Min, it’s me”

He could hear a soft gasp from inside the house, certainly coming from his lover, and then..

“Who is it moomy?~”

Hyun Suk froze at the soft childish voice. She had given birth already? How could it be so fast?

He heard a few quick movements inside the house, before she finally opened the door for him.

She lost so much weight in just three months. And he could not help but blame that kid for torturing her that way. They got into another huge argument. Hyun Suk hated every second of that. Kyung Min refused to give answer to any question about the kid and simply wanted him out of her life. She told him the kid was a human, so he did not need to care.

However, Hyun suk knew better. No human could have grown so fast in that short amount of time. The child's growth speed resembled that of a new born vampire before the changing happened. Hyun Suk deduced that the child’s vampire blood could be awaken after his body finished the preparation stage. He tried to persuade Kyung Min to let him take the child away, but she refused, scared that he would harm his own fresh and blood. In the mid of everything, the child (or one of them as he later found out) appeared and Hyun Suk did not miss the chance to take him away. He should have checked the house more carefully, but he made a fatal mistake and left her side again. Kyung Min’s tearful face and angry voice hurt him. He buried himself in work, trying not to think about the mess of a family he was having.

And then when Kwangmin came into the picture, he realized it was already impossible to save anything.

His life was bound to doom since the day Kyung Min realized those children's existence.

Hyun Suk knew that the twins were innocent. He understood. However, he still blamed them, for making Kyung Min angry at him, for breaking his peace with her. Kwangmin even hurt her. He wanted nothing to do with that boy, even if he was his own son.

Nevertheless, he gave in to Youngmin’s pleading gaze and agreed to find the younger twin. The blonde (and most likely Kwangmin as well) took after Kyung Min too much that at time, the vampire lord had to avoid looking into his eyes. Those chestnut irises certainly knew how to make his inside softened. They reminded Hyun Suk that the kids were the result of his love with Kyung Min, and made him want to protect them from the world. It was unbelievable because besides Kyung Min he had never felt so strongly towards anyone.

“I do care for you both.”

At least that much was not a lie, wasn’t it? He did love them. He just hated them equally much. It was an internal fight that he had to go through every day, to care, or not to care.

"Thanks for telling me who your priorities are"

The door slammed shut after Youngmin, making Hyun Suk’s heart stung. Again, the old vampire realized how much he failed as a father. He told a mother to give up her child. And now, he practically confessed to his son that he would rather turn his sibling in for a death punishment.

He wished he could turn back time. If he was more honest with his feelings, more sincere, more persistent, things would not have become so complicated. For a vampire that had live far too long, Hyun Suk tended to kept things to himself and never discuss his inner thoughts openly with others. The years had taught him that understanding would build up eventually with time. Unfortunately, he forgot that life could turn upside down even in split second.

Every time he hurt the twins, he was hurting himself in the process. And yet, he had no idea how to stop.

He wished Kyung Min was still there to tell him what to do.

Youngmin POV:

When Minwoo delivered the news that Kwangmin had been found and the troop was bringing him back to the castle, I could not feel more relieved.

That joy, however, became anxiety when my father came and took me to meet my twin brother.

“You kept him in the dungeon?”, I asked, recognizing the old stairs that led to the abandoned basement.

Minwoo had led me there before when he introduced me to the castle. The dungeon was built at the lowest basement that was meant for imprisoning and torturing criminals who might threaten the safety of the castle. However, it had been abandoned for centuries, ever since the peace treaty between vampires, human and shape-shifters were achieved.

“In a cell, yes. You will understand once you see him”

Father’s response only deepened the frown on my face.

The nearer we got to the prison, the heavier the weight on my chest. I started to feel suffocated. My heart rate quickened and I started panting unwillingly. Minwoo held my right arm to keep me steady.

“What is happening to him?”, I asked my father, not caring if I sounded accusing.

Father just shrugged it off, telling me in a gentle tone, “You two are twins, so you are more affected by his feeling. Let me know if you want to leave-”

“HGWRARRRR!!”

The sudden loud cry cut him off and almost made me missed the last step. We quickened our pace towards the direction of the commotion. Key and a few soldiers were in front of the cell, all looking drained and battered.

“What’s happening here?”

My father asked first thing when we reached the cell. I could barely follow thei