"I'm just saying Soojung, you can't let that guy do that kind of stuff to you while you sit there and do nothing. It makes him feel empowered, and he's only going to keep doing it if you don't stand up for yourself. If I were you, I would've told him off or kicked his myself already - you know what, let me kick his for you." Jiae insisted as she and Myungeun followed their friend up the stairs.

The shortest girl remained silent, listening but more focused on leading her talkative friends to her bedroom on the second story of her house. She didn't think of anything to say until they were all standing inside of her room. She took immediate notice of the other girls' reactions to their new environment. She quirked a brow at the face that Jiae in particular was making. "What is it?"

"Soojung, I love you, but you have some really weird...habits. Are you a vampire or something? Like why is it so freaking dark in your room? I can barely see a damn thing."

"Oh." Soojung was so used to these conditions in her room that she had forgotten how unusual they would be for others. She pointed to the corner of her room, where a cylindrical object sat on her desk, entirely covered by a thick-looking sheet. "I keep it dark in here for my pet bat."

Jiae scoffed in disbelief. "A pet bat? Really? Are those even legal?" Soojung shrugged. "And why haven't you ever mentioned that you have a pet, moreover an exotic one?"

"It never came up I guess."

Seeing that Soojung was beginning to have some trouble keeping up with Jiae's questions, Myungeun clasped her hands together and cheerfully suggested: "I think we should start on our homework now so we can finish it earlier. The sun is setting faster nowadays and we shouldn't be walking home in the dark." Soojung and Jiae exchanged relenting looks before nodding in agreement with the youngest of their group.

"We can do our homework downstairs. I'll prepare snacks for the three of us." Soojung said as she stood by the door and waited for both of her friends to leave.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. No offense, but your room was giving me the creeps." Myungeun nudged Jiae in the side, prompting the older girl to give the younger a questioning look. Soojung paid attention to neither of them.

She took one last glance at her room - namely at the veiled cage in the corner - before she gently closed the door and escorted her friends to the ground floor.

Soojung's friends took their leave just as the sun was starting to set. Fortunately, they had finished all of their homework on time and Soojung was pretty much free for the remainder of the day. Her parents were also on vacation (on a weekend cruise to an island with a name she couldn't pronounce), so there was no one around to give her commands or restrain her from doing as she pleased. After packing her things neatly into her bookbag, she headed up the stairs and entered her room. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the cage in the corner, and she dropped her bag on the floor before approaching it.

She tugged the sheet off of the cage, revealing the furry mammal hanging upside down. Her pet bat was awake at last, and it peered up at her with its beady black eyes. A small smile began to form on her lips, and she opened the cage door to let the animal out. It sat perched on her desk until she carefully wrapped her fingers around it, carrying it with her towards her bed. She sat down on the center of her bed and placed the bat in front of her.

"Cute." Soojung remarked with apparent fondness as she softly the fur of the bat that seemed to enjoy the physical contact. She rubbed the area behind its ear, and the mammal turned to nuzzle its snout into her finger. Her warm smile grew wider at this gesture. There was nothing else that put her at this much ease as playing with the nocturnal creature. This exchange of affections continued for a bit, Soojung petting the bat that was curled up on the seat of her lap while it snuggled cutely into her touches.

Soojung didn't even flinch as the adorable mammal was suddenly replaced  by a girl around her age, her head resting on her lap, her lips curled into a grin, and her crimson eyes staring up at her. Her form would have been bared for Soojung to see if it wasn't for the blanket she covered herself with. Soojung's precious pink blanket that she slept with every night. Like the darkness of her room, Soojung had also grown accustomed to the abrupt transformations of her supposed pet bat into a bloodsucking entity - an annoying, bloodsucking entity.

"Why'd you stop?"

"You should know well by now that you aren't nearly as cute in this form." Soojung's hands fell to her sides, and she merely looked down at Mijoo with an indifferent expression.

"Should I change back then?" Mijoo offered, still wearing a grin on her pale face. "That felt fairly pleasant, and it'd be a shame to end it so soon."

Soojung sighed. She weaved her fingers into Mijoo's long, dark locks, and the vampire closed her eyes with visible enjoyment. "This is fine. Whatever."

Eyes still closed, Mijoo murmured, "I'm still not sure as to why you'd allow me to remain around you when I could easily attack you at any given moment and drain your blood vessels completely dry."

"There's no way I could've known that the injured bat I brought home to treat was actually a freeloading vampire. I only keep you around because you're cute...only in your bat form though."

"Well, I stay because you're always cute." There was a predatory glint in Mijoo's red eyes that Soojung decided to ignore.

"As a vampi