When Ji Hyun returned to her room, she was just a bundle of jittery nerves. She hadn’t let it show, but Kris’s question had hit her hard. “Did anything happen?” There obviously had been a trigger, the trigger being her paternal family’s death.

And perhaps the worst was the composed demeanor of her human family when they heard about it, the way they insisted that it was a mere accident.

She replied “not much”, because compared to the disappearances of Witches all over this truly was not.

Did their lack of reaction mean anything, or was she reading too deep into it?

She could suddenly feel eyes on her, like someone was watching her but it didn’t fill her with fear or annoyance. In fact, Ji Hyun felt no fear. Looking up, she looked right into Chanyeol’s eyes.

The man was seated on the sturdy tree branch, a paper bag in one hand and a hesitant smile on his face. He was actually pretty balanced, which meant he had been there for quite a while and the girl contemplated over whether to chase him away or open the windows.

There was absolutely no way she could let him in, especially not if her ultimate goal was to perhaps destroy the Vampire Court entirely.

Perhaps. Then, she would rebuild it.

Haven’t you already let him in though? A tiny voice screamed in her mind and Ji Hyun bit on her bottom lip. Then, she opened the windows.

“I’m sorry for what I did.” He spoke before she could, and Ji Hyun tilted her head, confused. What exactly was he referring to? His gaze fixated on her forearm, flickered to the wardrobe then back to her eyes. And she nodded her head with a small frown.

“You should be.” It was strange, but Chanyeol seemed to relax at that. But before she could ask why, the paper bag in his hand caught her attention. Seeing where her eyes were, the Guard smiled.

“It’s to carry food—you didn’t really eat during dinner.” And I usually eat a lot. A growl from her stomach reminded her of that, and she smirked.

“Damn, you’re attentive.”  The girl’s smirk was so wicked yet delicious, and every time Chanyeol found it harder to keep himself in check. There was a line he had to keep—this was his future Queen. No matter how much she drew to him, he had to stand behind that line.

Sending food late at night was not crossing the line, Chanyeol told himself. Unfortunately, though, it was toeing the line.

“Tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you.” Currently, the bag was empty. He watched, as something like resignation flashed past her eyes. Then her captivating green eyes darkened.

“I want you to stay away from me, Chanyeol.” Earlier on, when she’d joked and said that he should be sorry, he relaxed. Because he thought that all was well.

But no, all was not well.

Both of them were quiet, and the girl bit on her bottom lip and looked away. His forearms burned, where she had touched him when feeling his temperature. His hands burned, where he’d grabbed her just some time ago. Something else deep inside of him rampaged, and all he wanted to do was pin her on the couch.

But he wouldn’t.

“I understand, Miss.”

That night, Ji Hyun didn’t sleep. And she knew the Guards outside her door knew as well—perks of vampiric hearing. She had been awake, thinking about what to do next. How was she supposed to find information about the thousands of Witches that had simply disappeared?

Where had they gone?

What had happened to them?

Most importantly, what if more were vanishing at this instant?

And what was she supposed to do to help them?

How was she supposed to face Chanyeol? How was she supposed to be friendly with the Crown Prince, when all she could think of were the bodies drained of blood, hanging from the ceiling?

Someone knocked on the door, and when she opened the door a blonde head popped in.

“Hey, Halfling.” The Guards at the door visibly tensed at that, but all Ji Hyun did was raise an eyebrow. She had an accent she could not place. Someone from lands far away. The girl outside her door folded her arms.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” She was in a simple brown cloak, possibly just for the sake of covering her nightclothes. Her skin was tanned, long wiry muscles covering the span of her arms. The sides of her eyes slanted upwards when she smiled, her full lips curling like a feral animal seeing prey.

“Who are you?” The moment Ji Hyun asked that, she regretted it. She was quite obviously royalty.

“I’m a werewolf diplomat. You may call me ‘oh great Princess’.” The girl before her batted her eyelashes, but her statement was so sudden and unexpected that Ji Hyun laughed.

“Well then, come on in, oh great Princess.” She even extended an arm, the way footmen did and the girl grinned.

Something told her that this Princess was not good influence. But Ji Hyun smiled wide, because she didn’t have much good either.

It turned out, that her late-night visitor was the youngest of the werewolf royal family. With two older brothers and one older sister, the girl was only 15 years old. And here I thought, with her makeup and eye rolls, she was at least my age. There were tensions between werewolves and vampires, particularly high in the cities and she had come to convince the Vampire King that her people meant no harm.

That tension was, really, no surprise. Coexistence was difficult, when they were all so different. ‘Peace’ hung from a worn, thin string.

Ji Hyun remained silent as she finished her rehearsed speech, before frowning.

“Self introductions usually include names, oh Princess.” She smiled anyway, strangely comforted by her mere presence and she wondered why that was so. The girl before her leaned in, placing her hand beside as she gave a conspiring whisper, “you missed out the ‘great’.”

Then, she moved back and grinned.

“My name is Krystal. Call me whatever you like—the werewolves aren’t that strict on formalities.” Krystal waved her hand, but Ji Hyun remained frozen.

Krystal. The name clicked, and Ji Hyun swallowed in recognition. She was the second daughter, who had been said to be behind the many rebellions in Tierre, a land under the Vampire Court’s reign. The werewolves had willingly handed their lands over to the vampires, for what reason she did not know.

The Vampire Court had absolute control over what used to belong to humans and werewolves.

All that was left were the witches’. Perhaps that was why the witches were disappearing, perhaps they were all already— Ji Hyun refused to continue the thought.

“I think I’ll just call you Princess. It sounds nicer that way.” She smiled, and kept it up even when the younger Princess leaned in and took a whiff of her.

“You smell quite positively delicious. What’s that perfume?”

“My natural scent,” came Ji Hyun’s immediate reply and the girl before her rolled her eyes for possibly the tenth time that day.

“Ha, ha. Now, really?” Her company was like hugging a flame, yet never getting burnt by it. Warm, maybe even hot, but not scalding.

And so the two girls talked deep into the night, both slowly dropping their own inhibitions.

Honestly I have one specific direction as to where this fic is heading, but I haven't thought about the details. So everything is a little jumbled up right now, and I apologise for that.