“Hey you. Drawing girl.”

Chaeyoung lifted her head up from her sketchbook, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

She was sitting on the bench at her secret hideout-

Well, not so secret anymore now that a random guy had stumbled inside.

It was a small garden located at a corner of the whole campus.

Son Chaeyoung had chosen it as her hiding spot during her spare classes due to how empty and peaceful it was.

She thought she could keep the place all to herself, making it her safe little heaven before she was forced to return back to hell- aka her classes.

Yet here she was, squinting her eyes at a distant boy who was heading straight for her.

The guy soon reached her side, standing right in front of her.

“Uh, can I help you?” Chaeyoung asked as she put her sketchbook down.

The girl had no clue to who he was.

She also didn’t care.

She merely wanted to focus on her artwork.

“Are you the chick who’s trying to get into Myoui Mina’s pants?”

“… The ?” Chaeyoung couldn’t help but splutter out in even more confusion.

The guy sighed from her response and placed his foot onto the bench Chaeyoung was sitting on, right next to her leg.

“Give it up, kiddo.”

“So are you like, another admirer of hers or what?”

“No, I work for her family.”

“To spy on her for them?”

“To be her bodyguard while she’s abroad studying.”

“Okay. So?”

“I’m here to take care of her well-being.”

“And?”

“I must protect her from unsuitable partner choices.”

“And?”

“You fall into such a category.”

Chaeyoung frowned her brows. “Okay…? Can you leave now? I would really like to spend my time drawing than to listen to you.”

“You aren’t thinking of  giving up, are you?” the guy lowered his back to observe Chaeyoung’s facial features. “Don’t waste your time. Such a fragile little human like you can never become Myoui Mina’s partner.”

His word choices caught Chaeyoung’s attention.

Her heartbeat increased its pace.

She finally realised a fact from when he said he worked for Mina’s family.

Chaeyoung somehow met another demon.

And they were all alone.

And he doesn’t seem to be as nice as Momo or Mina.

The short female let out a deep sigh before glancing straight into the man’s eyes.

“Look dude, I honestly don’t know why you’re wasting your time on me. Even if I do like her it’s not like I could get her.”

“I must make sure that Mina-sama wouldn’t be bothered by her many admirers. Your unneccessary feelings are hinderous.”

“So you go around the school telling people to quit it?” Chaeyoung couldn’t help but let out a tiny snicker. “Wow. That’s some serious dedication right there. Mina-sshi has a crap ton of admirers for you to scold.”

“Are you doubting my loyalty and capability of serving the Myoui clan?”

“… I didn’t say sh*t, dude. Chill.” Chaeyoung huffed, slightly annoyed. “Can you please leave me alone now? I’d really appreciate some alone time if you wouldn’t mind.”

“I won’t leave until you swear that you would give up on your stupid little crush. Her parents’ were already disappointed enough to find out that she was associating herself with a demi-demon. They would definitely not allow for their daughter to taint their royal bloodline by mingling with foolish humans!”

“Mate, I couldn’t care less about what her parents think.” Chaeyoung finally snapped back. “I don’t have a say on who she falls for, so stop wasting both of our times and off already.”

The girl instantly regretted adding in some foul words into her sentences, as in a blink of an eye, Chaeyoung found herself getting lifted up from the floor by her collar, choking her uncomfortably.

She gulped in fear as she saw the crimson-coloured eyes staring back at her.

Chaeyoung was now mentally preparing herself for her early death.

She was almost certain that she was going to get eaten alive based on the growing pair of fangs coming out from the guy’s mouth.

“Well, I guess this death is considered interesting compared to all the other possible ways I could go.” Chaeyoung still managed to comment despite her situation, already giving up struggling. “Can you like, act fast if you’re going to eat me? So it doesn’t hurt?”

“No one’s eating anyone today.”

Chaeyoung felt her heart skip a beat upon hearing the distinct soft voice.

The voice that soothes her soul.

The voice that made the butterflies within her stomach go wild.

Her lips had already arched into a grin before she could even see the person.

Well, she didn’t need to see.

She knew it was her.

“M-M-Mina-sama!” the man gasped upon seeing the girl’s sudden appearance.

Myoui Mina simply gave him a cold stare while approaching towards them.

“Release her. Now.”

A bit too straightforward, the guy instantly released his grasp of the petite girl, causing her to fall straight onto the ground with a painful groan.

Mina let out a tiny gasp before rushing over to help her up.

“A-All good.” Chaeyoung flashed her a shy smile as she felt her body getting supported up by the school’s goddess.

She prayed that her crush wouldn’t remember the image of her falling flat onto the floor like a ragdoll for long.

She’d die of embarrassment first before any demon could get a chomp of her.

Both of the demons took notice of the fresh wounds on Chaeyoung’s leg, which formed thanks to the sudden drop.

Her knees now had cuts and dirt on it.

Fresh blood slowly appeared out of the wounds.

As one pair of eyes turned brown, another’s turned crimson.

Chaeyoung’s eyes widened upon seeing Mina’s red eyes for the first time.

They were similar to Momo’s, though the shade of hers reminded the artist more of the blood on her knee.

The description was also pretty suitable for Mina’s current expression.

She seemed bloodthirsty- but not for Chaeyoung, of course.

It’s merely a description.

She’s a demon, not a goddamn vampire.

Wrong supernatural being.

“You hurt her.” Mina said ever so quietly, yet it was enough to make Chaeyoung’s whole body shiver in fright-

And she wasn’t even the one who’s receiving that line.

The human was actually fearing for the male demon’s life, even though he was the one who seemed like he wanted to eat her alive-

Not to mention he’s also the one who also dropped her .

“I mean- she’s only a human, Mina-sama.” the guy desperately tried to reason, obviously cowering before the superior demon. “They’re simply useless pieces of rubbish. Why do you bother caring fo-”

Chaeyoung merely blinked and the guy was suddenly gone.

She lowered her head to find him on the floor.

His head somehow had poked into the ground while his body laid lifelessly on the flat surface.

He looked like an awkward ostrich- that was in serious pain.

The human made a painful face from the sight of him, unable to figure out how one’s face was capable of digging a hole into the concrete ground.

“The next time you insult Chaeyoungie, your head will be dislocated from your body.” Mina stormed, rubbing her red knuckles.

That answered Chaeyoung’s curiousity on what had happened.

She kept on forgetting the fact that the stunning female was a demon with supernatural strength.

Mina grabbed hold of the human’s hand before leading her away from the violent crime scene.

It wasn’t until they made it to another secluded area of the school that she finally stopped on her tracks.

The two had walked in complete silence since Mina had led Chaeyoung without a single word, while Chaeyoung didn’t really know what to say after witnessing such a violent scene.

She was also afraid to speak up knowing how her crush may be in a foul mood.

Knowing herself, Chaeyoung wasn’t willing to risk the chance of upsetting Mina even more by accidentally commenting something stupid.

Eventually, Chaeyoung still mustered up some courage to break the silence after they’ve stood awkwardly in their spots for around twenty seconds.

“T-Thanks for saving my back there, Mina-sshi.”

She was blushing quite a bit since her hand was still occupied by her crush.

Of course, she didn’t mind at all.

Mina could chomp it off and Chaeyoung would still thank her for it.

Hearing the short girl’s voice, Mina turned herself around to finally face her upfront.

Chaeyoung got to witness her eyes turn back to its original colour.

instantly arched into a smile.

“Your red eyes were really pretty- well, your eyes are always beautiful, what am I saying.” the human then blurted out, making the demon blush from the random compliment.

“Does it hurt?” Mina diverted her attention back to Chaeyoung’s wounds instead of responding.

“Nah, don’t worry. It’s just a scratch. I’m not as weak as I may look.” the petite human grinned brightly, making Mina’s heart flutter even more.

As Chaeyoung saw a hint of sorrow appear within the demon’s eyes, she felt Mina’s grip tightened on her hand.

Chaeyoung panicked from her crush’s sudden solemn mood. “H-Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry… for getting you injured…”

“What are you saying? Of course it’s not your fault. He dropped me, not you.”

“But he approached you because of me.”

“It’s fine, he’s the only one that has been this violent with me.”

“Wait- so you’re saying that this wasn’t the first time someone has bothered you like this?”

“Ah-”

Chaeyoung cussed within her mind for speaking without thinking again.

Mina took another step towards her, staring straight into her eyes.

“It’s not, is it?”

The human could only smile back at her sheepishly, unable to hide anything from her crush.

“… He’s probably the fifth one… maybe?

“Oh my gosh.” Mina gasped in disbelief. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”

“Don’t apologise! If you do, there’s around 1500 other people you owe an apology to.” Chaeyoung chuckled. “Those dudes hunt down all your admirers, not just me.”

Mina looked down and mumbled ever so quietly.

“It’s just you…”

“… Huh?”

The timid demon’s sorrow was now replaced with shyness.

She finally let the human’s hand go and instead played with the hem of her shirt.

Chaeyoung was still focused on what she had just said.

“What do you mean that it’s just me?”

“F-Forget about that, please. Pretend I never said a thing.”

“But I’m curious!” Chaeyoung begged with her puppy-eyes.

The flustered demon screamed internally, both from her cuteness and from regretting her own comment.

“I-I’ll explain it to you next time, okay?”

And just like that, Mina ran away.

Chaeyoung blinked as she could only stand there, confused as .

Dahyun’s body jerked from the sound of her alarm ringing loudly next to her head.

She slowly pushed herself upwards from her bed, confused to why it was still so dark.

Grabbing her phone to turn the alarm off, she realised it was 3 AM.

“Why the heck did I… oh.”

Plucking herself away from her comfy bed, the pale student made her way to her desk and took the sealed letter before making her way out to the living room.

Her whole body was against the idea of waking up and moving around at three in the morning, but Dahyun was determined to accomplish her promise.

“Tzuyu? Are you there?”

After sitting in silence for a solid minute, she actually showed up.

“Unusual for you to be asking for me- or a ghost in general.” Tzuyu raised her eyebrow as she stood before the sleepy human. “Finally gotten over your fear of us, or is this a self-challenge?”

“No, I actually have something to give you…” Dahyun rubbed her eyes with one hand while the other had extended itself out with the said-letter.

Tzuyu reached and grabbed it with her fingertips, making Dahyun instinctively let go-

Only for the card to flutter straight down onto the floor.

The ghost was unable to interact with the envelop now that their worlds were different.

Nayeon wasn’t there to cast her magic either.

The two simply stared at the letter on the floor for a few seconds.

“Oops, I forgot that was a problem.” Kim Dahyun blinked. “Damn, what do I do now?”

“What even is that?” the young ghost took a step closer with curiosity as Dahyun picked it up from the ground. “A letter?”

“Yup, for you.” the home-owner smiled faintly. “The writer wasn’t ready to give it to you before, and unfortunately she never had the chance to ever do so…” her voice trailed away as the sadness of the story kicked in.

Tzuyu didn’t take notice of Dahyun’s abrupt sadness and sat herself besides the short female, staring at the item within her hands.

She could guess who wrote it, yet she was clueless to what it may be about.

“Can you read it to me?” the ghost suddenly asked, “Since I can’t touch it myself.”

“Are you sure you’d want me to see it though?”

“I mean, if it was written in Korean I would struggle to understand it properly anyways.” Tzuyu grinned slightly. “I can ask you to be my dictionary while you’re at it.”

“I guess I’m merely a tool for you to use, huh. How nice of you.” Dahyun managed to joke. “If you’re really okay with it, I’ll open it now.”

“Go for it.”

Slowly, the university student ripped open the old envelop.

She took out the letter within which had obviously oxidized.

The whole piece of paper was incredibly yellow due to its ancient age.

It made the girl incredibly cautious as she handled it, not wanting to accidentally give it a tear.

“Oh wow, that’s a lot of writing.” Dahyun marvelled as she briefly scanned it though.

“Ha, good luck.”

“Thanks I guess.”

Dahyun cleared before she opened to read for her ghost.

The neat handwriting wrote:

Hello, my dear Tzuyu!

By the time you see this, you’re 19 years old!

How did you like my little treasure hunt? Creative, right?

I designed it so that it would lead you back to where we first hang out as friends!

I still remember how long it took for you to warm up to me, even when I tried so hard to make you feel less shy.

You’re super adorable when you’re all awkward and embarrassed though.

I can’t believe how long it has been ever since you’ve entered my life, Tzuyu-ah.

The brave little 13-year old who came to Korea all by herself, now finally a woman.

How does it feel to be an adult like me?

I’ve actually been wanting to tell you something for quite a while now, but I never found the courage nor the timing to do so.

We’re both so busy with our own things- but that might just be an excuse I use for myself.

Still, I thought that it would be best to wait until you were older so that you could process my words a little better.

I guess I worried too much as you obviously act more mature than me haha, but I still waited.

Chou Tzuyu, I don’t know when it happened, but I was scared by it at first.

The thought of how I might ruin everything we had in between us terrified me, so I decided to ignore myself.

I pretended that everything was normal and that I was satisfied with our lives.

But then it kicked back in again, a lot stronger this time.

I couldn’t pretend anymore, so I acknowledged it despite not knowing what to do.

I still was too big of a scaredy-cat to take action.

Eventually I chose to accept it fully and to simply enjoy every moment for now.

I treasured all sorts of feelings that I had gotten throughout the journey, because the memories of the process were just as precious and important.

Despite still not doing anything about the issue, I was a lot happier.

But I knew there was something that could make me even happier than that.

So I continued to wait patiently.

I chose your 19^th birthday to be the day I face the issue. 

And with you reading this right now, it meant that the day has arrived.

Please know that you’re not obliged to do anything about it if you don’t want to.

All I’d like for you is to understand my true thoughts.

I’ve been hiding it away from you for so long that I started to feel bad, for both you and myself.

You definitely deserve to know about this, and that’s why I’m coming out clean to you right now.

Tzuyu-ah, I love you.

Not like how we usually say it.

But as an adult, like the woman you’ve just become.

I have feelings for you.

Romantic thoughts about you.

Because I like you.

I love you.

From:  Minatozaki Sana