It’s not her fault, not really, but every time Ahra stares at Sihoo’s empty desk and at Mari’s forlorn expression - a crack in her carefree façade -  the guilt just materialises and causes a horrible feeling to spread from the pits of her stomach.

Maybe she’s overthinking, but she’s actually worried for him. What if he doesn’t come back?

It’s probably foolish to worry. Han Sihoo is probably playing some emo guitar chords in the midst of Hongdae, or working… still, call it a sore spot, a phobia, but those four months in which he had suddenly just… disappeared… still has her thinking endlessly.

She wonders how Aekyung knew about it, but then again, Aekyung isn’t the queen of gossip for nothing. And she’s still seething at Ahra for keeping Sihoo’s ‘condition’ from her.

Ahra turns the record button on her phone on as the teacher goes on about the mechanism of quantum physics, or something, because she knows she just can’t concentrate anymore – and the same goes for like the rest of the class, because they’re either gossiping at a breakneck speed or texting the people from other classes about the news.

She gets texts like [“If you knew, why didn’t you say it?”] and [“Why would you cover for that bastard?”] that flood her kaktalk as the teacher rambles on. The physics teacher looks equally restless as he finally gives up and dumps them two worksheets to work on, and then proceeds to sit down and massage his own temples.

She gets another message, and it’s from the class group on Kaktalk.

[“The band members… especially Jo Ahra… I expected more from you.”]

Some guys write replies like, [“I mean, I could stand Baek Mari because Jaemin kept her on a leash, but this guy is wild. Savage. Literally the only person he’s polite to is Mari, but then again they’re of the same sickening breed.”]

[“Yeah, he’s a freaking delinquent! Did you see his test scores? Why is he even here?”]

Ahra waits tirelessly for the bell to ring. The messages don’t stop; her pocket keeps vibrating.

[“He went away for four months, why did he even come back?”]

[“It’s better if he doesn’t come back at all!”]

It’s the last freaking straw. She’s packing her belongings, and her fist is curled. Her perfectly manicured nails dig against her flesh; and she’s tempted to lash out at them with her 6 years of karate experience.

She almost types “fiGHT ME” when the bell rings.

Those dimwits were saved by the bell, she thinks as she flies out of the classroom with her backpack already slung on her shoulders. It scares her when she thinks about her recently developed and highly volatile protective-ness over Han Sihoo, the unemotional vampire, but she can think about it later. She guesses.

By the time Ahra is done with night study, it’s already 8:30 p.m.

But that means Sihoo is working, and that means that she doesn’t need to slog through the streets of Hongdae to find him by hearing out for someone’s emo guitar-playing. Tsk.

She heads over to that Redeye accessory shop, or something, and when she stands at the door, the manager comes over.

“Oh, you’re that student’s girlfriend, right?”

Who? Me?

“Uh-”

“Haha, the last time we met, that kid said he had to ask from you for permission before he could start working here,” she explains.

“Oh… okay but I’m not-”

The manager clearly ignores her justifications as she walks ahead to where Sihoo is.

“Your girlfriend is here, kid!”

Ahra almost wants to facepalm, but she realises Mari is here too. Talking to Sihoo. About what? She doesn’t know. Her pride, however, causes her to plaster on a polite smile and waves to Mari.

“Hi.”

Mari gapes at the both of them in shock.

Sihoo just shrugs his shoulders and gives Mari the “Is there a problem?” look.

They sit on the same bench in the nearby park, with the same awkward distance between them from the first time she saw him drinking blood alone in the indoor basketball court.

“It wasn’t intentional, it was because of a mistake they found out this way,” she says, not really looking at him. “I just thought you might misunderstand.”

Sihoo stares resignedly at the playground in front of them. “It doesn’t matter either way.”

“But it matters to me. I don’t want you to misunderstand it.”

He turns to look at her. Slowly. It’s crazy how intense his gaze can get, and it makes her want to squirm in her seat. Her eyes dart to the floor once again.

“Anyway, just come to school tomorrow. If you’re absent for too many days without a valid excuse, your name will go under the list for disciplinary action.”

He glances at her sceptically.

She crosses her legs over one another and regains composure. “Just don’t give them a reason to kick you out.”

Sihoo thinks it over for a while, before leaning over. The emo-kid look on him is slightly shattered by the cracking of a side-smile; and as much as it makes her cheeks burn unpleasantly when he counters with “Why would you worry about that?”, her heart fills with some sort of warmth, and she has the urge to fist-pump the air at this achievement.

The question of “why would you worry about that?” hangs in the air, unanswered. But the horrible little smirk on his face scares her - she’s afraid that they both know the reason why.

He swears he doesn’t know what he’s doing, walking up the hill to the school gates and taking in horrified looks and scandalous whispers all around him. It’s practically suicide, why did I listen to her-

“Han Sihoo!” an all-too-familiar voice calls out.

It’s Jaemin, and he makes them both sit on the steps of some garden courtyard area, away from the usual crowd of students.

Mari had thanked him yesterday about a gazillion things, but mainly, for playing the successful role of cupid between her and Jaemin. And now, Jaemin is doing the same.

“It’s getting hard to watch you two,” Sihoo says as he cringes, “all that mushiness – what even happened to make you guys thank me like this?”

Jaemin asks him to just accept the thanks and says that he is the cringe-worthy one by acting all cool and . Sihoo almost wants to counter with but I AM cool wtf

After a brief silence, Jaemin speaks.

“Didn’t you like Mari? But why?”

Is he getting Jae-lous LOL, Sihoo muses.

Sihoo of course, replies with some sophisticated allegory of how the vampire bats would vomit out their own blood to feed another starving one. You know, to show that his test scores don’t prove and that it’s just kinship between him and Mari as people in the blood-feeding species, for god’s sake.

“It’s loyalty between each other by becoming one with the blood. Not like you could understand though,” Sihoo says, and almost adds because you’re the most basic kind of Plebeian. “You humans have multiple tastes to eat like, anything.”

Jaemin does the side-eye thing and smiles, half-stifling a laugh. Yeah yeah, thanks for realising I’m not hostile and I won’t steal your gf, bro. Sihoo smirks, because it’s probably the first time Jaemin doesn’t respond with some kind of ‘holier-than-thou’ comment.

Jaemin’s gaze becomes steely when he says contemplatively, “Let’s do band again.”

 wat.

“You know, Orange Marmalade.”

hahaha but no son, no. I don’t mind playing your guitar but did you actually think people could stand the sight of me on stage, now that they know about me being a vampire? yeah I didn’t think so,

“I have no desire to. By now, there should be chaos.”

And dang, there’s chaos alright. Parents call teachers at every turn they can get, and he and Mari are once again isolated in the classroom.

This time, they’re all outside and they’re both inside. Their classmates look on in distaste, in fear, like leaving him and Mari together would cause them to join forces and terrorize the city like some kind of Power Rangers power combination ritual.

When Jaemin and the rest of the band gang arrive, they try to tell them to go inside. He can hear Minsun and Aekyung challenge them with their reply; “We’re different from you all. You guys have been weird recently. Are you into the vampires?”

Aekyung directs that to Ahra especially, talking about it like it’s some kind of unholy .

“Yeah, you got that right,” Jaemin interjects proudly, with an unbelievable amount of chill in his voice. “I’m into vampires, alright.”

Mari stares at her notebook timidly, but a hint of a smile forms at the side of her lips when she hears Jaemin say it. Oh my god, get a room.

 “Jung Jaemin,” Aekyung’s judgemental voice resounds from outside the classroom, “you don’t seem to be in your right mind these days,” but once again, she looks at Ahra as she says it.

“That’s enough, Aekyung!” Ahra bursts, and damn right that’s enough.

Sihoo packs his stuff, slings his bag over his back and goes through the entrance of the door. They immediately gape at him. Of course. Over one day, his existence in the class has become some sort of freak show to them.

There’s this stern, pleading look in Ahra’s eyes that begs him not to go, and he feels the need to justify himself, sort of.

“I’m not being absent without a valid reason;” he says only to her, giving no s to the rest of his classmates watching on, “I’m just checking out early.”

He walks away, and the hordes of students immediately part like the Red Sea for him to pass through.