"Hey." Mina snapped out of her reverie when Jihyo clapped her hands together at her face. "W-were you saying something?" Jihyo scoffed. It was early, their shared class isn't starting in 45 minutes. Jihyo wasn't surprised when Mina picked up her call an hour ago, asking Mina if they could come to school earlier. Judging from Mina's frequent yawns, Jihyo knew she stayed up all night again to review for today's exam. 

"I was trying to quiz- you know what, nevermind." Jihyo went back to reading her notes and leaves Mina staring blankly at the empty whiteboard.

Jihyo almost dropped her notes when Mina jolted beside her.

"We have exams today?" Mina paled. "...yes?" Jihyo answered deliberately. "No." Mina buries her face to her palms. Jihyo was baffled. She reviewed... Didn't she?

"Hey," Jihyo soothed her. "What's wrong?" Mina looks like she would cry any second now. "I... forgot. I haven't reviewed, Ji." That's new. Mina never forgets anything. In fact, Jijyo can bet Mina still remembers the exact date and the time when they first met. She raised her brow at her.

"You picked up my call earlier." Mina feels that Jihyo is now being weirded out.

"I did." Mina croaked. "That means you had stayed up all night." Mina braced herself for a lie. She cleared in hopes that she might sound more convincing.

"I.. didn't. I woke up to my ringtone." But Jihyo knows her so well. Mina's every nook and cranny. She doubts she'll survive this conversation today without telling her about Jeongyeon. "But your phone is always on silent. And even if I burn your house down, you could have still been unbothered and continued dreaming away." When Mina doesn't answer, Jihyo inched closer to her. Mina looked away so Jihyo doesn't see how nervous she is. She can't tell her yet. Not now. So when Jihyo says, "You.... You played video games all night?" Mina could have laughed at her face if she didn't have a secret to keep. So Mina acts like she's caught. She fiddles on the loose thread on the sleeve of her sweater. Good thing she decided to wear a turtle neck sweater today to hide the marks Jeongyeon made on her neck and shoulders.

"Yes." Mina fake-confessed and side-eyed a frustrated Jihyo, eyes closed, palm on her forehead. She seems to buy it so Mina sighed, slightly relieved. She feels guilty hiding something from her bestfriend but it needs to be done. Atleast until everything's clear between Jeongyeon and her.

Mina looks at Jihyo beside her. Jihyo continues to internalize and Mina tries to do the same until she sees two noisy girls and a tall one that she could recognize anywhere. Dahyun is chatting animatedly with Chaeyoung while the latter laughs at her antics, throwing her head back and clutching her stomach. While as stoic as ever, Jeongyeon, remains looking gloomy as always. She looks dashing in her black leather jacket with a black v-neck shirt underneath that showcases a small little red mark on her collarbone contrast to her very pale skin. Mina is surged with pride thinking she had marked the Yoo Jeongyeon and seeing her putting it on display it like that. Mina's. The tiny mark seems to say.

Their eyes met for a brief moment and Mina tensed as she sees a familiar glint in Jeongyeon's eyes. Get ahold of yourself. Mina looked away and tried to concentrate on reviewing. She locked away all thought of Jeongyeon at the back of her head but it still threatens to come out. How she knew Mina's name when she didn't even tell her. How she magically appeared on her windowsill last night when she's rooming on the ninth floor. Why she leaves before Mina wakes up. Why they don't talk about it... Mina squeezed her eyes shut briefly. Later. She'll deal with Jeongyeon later. 

-

Sana is seething. She slapped the girl in front of her. The sound echoed in every corner of the forest. The girl staggers and fights not to fall down. She didn't bother to fix her disheveled hair before bowing down to beg for Sana's forgiveness. 

"Please forgive me, Lady. I will make sure this never happens again." Sana grabs a handful of her silky, black hair. "Yes," Sana breathed as she forced the girl to look at her. The girl stared back with the same ferrocity but with unmistaken respect and adoration to the orange-haired girl. "Because I will personally come for your neck the next time you mess up, Momo-chan." Sana smiled sweetly at her but her words drips with poison. Sana lets go of Momo's hair and rubbed gently at the girl's swollen cheek. Momo inhales sharply.

"Get up." Sana commanded Momo which the latter complies. Sana turns to the blackened spot on the ground. Some unburnt pieces still lies around but already devoid of the scent of Mina's blood.

"I'll have to praise my sister's genius. I don't know how she managed to remove the stench of that 's blood on the way here." Sana giggles and teased Momo. "She threw you off. The best tracker in the whole clan."

While Sana pokes fun at Momo for being outsmarted by Yoo Jeongyeon, she wasn't amused. She took pride in her tracking skills. She's best at it. Yoo Jeongyeon sure knows how to push my buttons.

Seeing Momo glaring at the burnt ground as she clutches at a piece of burnt fabric in her hand, Sana touches Momo's shoulder subtly to calm her down.

"You are going to find her for me." Momo turns to Sana and her anger dissipates instantly when she realized how Sana looked at her. It was that look. The look she gave Momo when she was about to die. The look she gave Momo when Sana acknowledged her tracking skills and took her under her wing.
The look she gives Momo whenever Sana wanted her under her sheets and beneath her warmth.

"Yes." Momo replied as she turned her face to kiss Sana's palm pressed to her swollen cheek. And when Sana smiles, Momo knows she'd follow her even to the deepest parts of hell.

-

The sound of the clock is extra loud today, Mina thinks. She's been waiting for Jeongyeon to appear on her window for hours now. She even left it open for her. She shivers when the cold air blew. She pulled her blanket up to her chest. 

It's really late and Mina knows it's logic that she has to go to sleep now. But she waits, again, for another hour. When she's tired playing with the games in her phone, she checks the time. 2:04. Mina sighs. Maybe she isn't coming tonight.

She gets up and walked to the window. She peered outside to see any sign of Jeongyeon. Nothing. She sighed for the nth time today. Disappointed, she slid her window down, locked it and drew the curtains. She feels exhausted. She didn't get a wink of sleep last night until today.

She settles on the bed and had her blanket wrapped around her snugly. She switches off her lamp and drifted off to sleep.

~~~

"I'm Yeongyeon. Can I your blood?" A pale young girl short golden hair came up to her. She looks scared as she looked up to an older girl with orange hair that was holding the girl- Yeongyeon's hand.

"Jeongyeon, that's not how we talk to other people." The older girl smiled at her, her glassy eyes shining. "Hello, I'm Sana. What's your name?"

"Mina." She said. "You're so pwetty." She said and smiled at Sana. Yeongyeon scoffed. "No, she's not."

"She is, you loser." She said and stuck out her tongue at the blonde girl.

"Sana, when can I off her blood? I'm getting impatient." Yeongyeon asks Sana.

"Soon, Jeongie. Why don't you become friends first?" Sana smiled at them. "Mina, do you want to be friends with Jeongyeon?"

"Yes." She answered deliberately.

-

"Jeongyeon, do you want to have dinner here?" Yeongyeon whips up her head and looked out of the window and realized its already evening.

"I would have to decline, Mrs. Myoui. I have to get back home now." She was always sad when Yeongyeon leaves. "Okay, darling. You get home safely." Her mom retreats from the room as Yeongyeon collects her stuff and puts it in her bag.

"You're leaving again?" She asks Yeongyeon. "Yes." Yeongyeon replied. "You're coming to play with me again tomorrow right?" Yeongyeon stared at her. "I don't think so. Sana didn't get me, I guess we're leaving for good."

"B-but you said you'd be here everyday. You promised." She was close to crying. "I'll come back if you give me permission to drink your blood." Yeongyeon replied.

"O-okay." She didn't think Yeongyeon would come for her that fast. She felt something painful in her neck as she tried to push Yeongyeon away. She sees Sana behind Yeongyeon, applauding her and telling Yeongyeon something about draining something. She didn't catch the words as her world slips away.

~~~

Jeongyeon gasped and sits up suddenly. Earning a brief look from Dahyun and Chaeyoung who both lounges on the feet of the couch, smashing the consoles with their thumbs.

"I'm going to ask Mina to move in with us." Jeongyeon deadpans.

"You? Ask? That's new." Chaeyoung scoffed. Jeongyeon hits the back of her head causing her to lose control of her avatar in Mario Kart and making Dahyun bag another win. Dahyun made a little victory dance to tease Chaeyoung. "That's not fair! Unnie!" Chaeyoung glared at Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon stood up and went out through their window. "There's a door, you know?!" Chaeyoung shouted before Jeongyeon disappears.

"Chaeyoung, my bro. You know what happens when that unnie uses the door. Let it go." Chaeyoung exasperatedly grabbed the console on the floor. "Let's have another go at this."

-

Jeongyeon looks up at Mina's window. She sees that the curtains were drawn and Mina probably locked the window, too. But Jeongyeon could sense her in there, so she climbs.

When she was adjacent to her window, she flicked her finger slightly to the right and heard the lock click. She pulled the window up and pushed her way in.

Once she was in, she closed the window and stood at the foot of Mina's bed. She stared at the sleeping girl for a minute then walked around to sit on the bed beside her. She carefully tucked Mina's hair under her ear.

She quietly removes her jacket and slipped under Mina's blanket. Jeongyeon snickers. Mina sleeps like a log. That's why she never notice when Jeongyeon leaves.

Jeongyeon lays on her side, facing Mina. She rests her head on her left arm as she watches Mina sleep. She stayed in that position of who knows how long. The next minute she blinks, her eyes stays closed.

She feels a slight movement beside her. Jeongyeon's eyes flew open and sees Mina, her head propped up by her right arm as she looks down at Jeongyeon. Mina fiddles with Jeongyeon's cheek.

"Slept well?" Mina whispered. Jeongyeon rubs her eyes and yawned. Mina finds sleepy Jeongyeon cute. She giggles.

Jeongyeon pulled Mina down to the bed with her and pulled her close, draped her right arm over Mina's ribs and released a contented sigh.

"Jeongyeon...ssi?" Mina whispered her name tentatively. She resorted to using honorifics because she wasn't sure what to think of this. They weren't close, they haven't even had a single casual conversation at uni. Mina can't actually believe that she lets a stranger intrude her space, and to make it worse (or better), that certain person made Mina come for five times in a row.

But its times like these, when Jeongyeon holds her close, Mina feels she that she knew Jeongyeon all her life. And Mina is scared of the possibility that she may willingly give up everything for Jeongyeon at this point. So when Jeongyeon doesn't respond, Mina bunches up Jeongyeon's shirt in her hand and willed Jeongyeon to answer. Jeongyeon hummed and Mina feels the vibrations in Jeongyeon's chest. Mina is close to being riled up again, and Jeongyeon knows, so she gently traced soothing circles on Mina's thigh.

"We should talk." Mina demanded. Jeongyeon peeled herself away from the girl and looks at her in the eyes. "What is this?" 

"What do you mean?" Jeongyeon deadpans. Mina gets up from her position and looks at the other girl.

"This. Whatever we have right now." Mina bites her lip and fiddles with her fingers, not knowing how to continue.

Jeongyeon pushes herself up, too, rested her hand over Mina's. Mina shivered from her touch. "You are mine." The words Mina wants to hear tumbled from Jeongyeon's lips.

And Mina warmed to them. Believed them like it was the utter truth. Like everything fell into place.

Like she was meant to be Jeongyeon's.

So Mina leans in and Jeongyeon does, too. But they are interrupted by Mina's buzzing phone. Mina automatically inch away from Jeongyeon to attend to her phone. She peeks at the screen to see the caller ID. When she saw who was calling, she put her finger to her lips to send a signal to Jeongyeon not to make any sound. Jeongyeon just nodded as Mina answered the call.

"Hey, Ji. What's up?" Mina plays with her bottom lip, a nervous mannerism. Though Mina doesn't put her phone on speaker, Jeongyeon hears the caller's voice clearly but didn't pay attention to it. 

Jeongyeon leans into Mina instead and started nibbling on her neck. She hears Mina gasp.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." Mina stutters as she tries to push away Jeongyeon, who's now starting to Mina's shirt.

Mina grabs a handful of Jeongyeon's shirt when Jeongyeon started to nip lovingly at Mina's collarbone and unintentionally moaned into the phone.

"Mina, are you really okay?" Jeongyeon snickers at Mina's skin, popping the second button on her shirt.

Mina has had it when Jeongyeon tries to cup her through her bra.

"I'll call you back." Mina ended the call and slapped Jeongyeon's hand away. She quickly fixed her shirt and threw Jeongyeon a pointed look. 

"What the hell?" Mina was not amused but the other girl certainly is.

"What?" Jeongyeon deadpans, one side of quirking up.

Mina gets the feeling that she's not going to win in this conversation, so she gives it up instead.

She sighed as she laid beside Jeongyeon. She reached for Jeongyeon's right hand as Jeongyeon turned to face her. Mina fiddled with Jeongyeon's cold fingers.

"Jihyo wants me to help with the decorations for the intramurals." Mina said, still busy memorizing every detail on Jeongyeon's hand.

"What time will you be needed?" Jeongyeon mumbles as she buries her nose in Mina's hair.

Mina poked Jeongyeon's palm five times. Jeongyeon hummed, understanding.

"I'll pick you up after, then." It's Mina's turn to hum.

Then, she remembered. She hasn't told Jihyo about Jeongyeon yet.

Jeongyeon feels Mina's sudden worry.

"I can tell you haven't told Jihyo yet." Mina caressed Jeongyeon's hand absentmindedly. 

"I want to wait until I'm sure of what I am to you before I tell on to Jihyo." Mina sighed.

It had been just three days since Mina met Jeongyeon, but in her whole life, she hasn't been this certain of what she wants at the moment.

"I want you, Jeongyeon."

It wasn't a question but Jeongyeon felt the need to answer. To assure the the girl that Jeongyeon was hers, too.

"And I, you." 

Jeongyeon held Mina closer, lifts Mina's face up to her and kisses her gently. Like her life depends on her.

Because it does.

And because it was her that is completely under Mina's mercy.

--

Mina rolled her shoulders and stretched out her limbs. She checked for the time on her phone.

7:32 PM

She has 28 minutes to tell Jihyo about Jeongyeon, assuming Jeongyeon arrives on time to pick her up. 

She looks at her best friend, situated few feet from her, brows furrowed as she concentrated to the task at hand.

When they met at the student council room at 5, Jihyo instantly blabbered about Nayeon tricking her into letting the short hair girl ditch with her newfound "girltoy", as Jihyo coins it. These kind of stories wasn't new to Mina but she listened to Jihyo anyway.

She listened to ger bestfriends rants and classroom shenanigans. Sometimes Jihyo talked too much leaving Mina disinterested at some of her stories, only humming and nodding to look interested and polite.

She remained partially interested, nevertheless, to find the right moment to slip a certain person in the conversation.

But Mina didn't get that chance up until now. So she musters up her confidence and called Jihyo's attention.

"I need to tell you something. I feel bad that I kept this from you for so long." Even if Mina thinks back that she only met Jeongyeon three days ago, her bestfriend code with Jihyo was violated when she didn't tell her about Jeongyeon immediately. Mina just hopes Jihyo understands that she just wanted to be sure before she could tell her.

Jihyo turned her head and faced Mina. Mina breathed before she spoke.

"I'm going out with Jeongyeon." Mina could tell Jihyo was more surprised than mad, evident from her slack jaws and wide eyes.

"Mina, that's-" Jihyo covered with her hands. "Since when? And how did you two even meet? You've been with me like, almost all the time and I didn't even notice?" Jihyo scoots closer to Mina.

"Its a long story. Wait- you're not mad, are you?" Mina pouts her lips subtly and Jihyo coos at her.

"Of course not. Oh my god, Mina." Jihyo gushes. "You are going to tell me everything." When Jihyo locked eyes with Mina and squeezed her hands over the younger's lap, Mina knows there's no way out.

-

"You had ?!" Mina covered her bestfriend's mouth in panic and cranes her neck to look out of the windows to see if someone could have gotten air of what she said. Jihyo slapped Mina's hands away gently.

"Relax, the closest classes going on around here is two floors below us." Jihyo giggled at her paled bestfriend. "I just can't believe you've had with her. Tell me, was she any good? I'm going to get paid so much for the exchange of this information." Heat creeps up on Mina's cheeks and tinged them  pink. She didn't have to answer it but this is Jihyo, her bestfriend, she's getting it out of Mina one way or another.

Mina cleared before answering. "She's... amazing." Mina said in a tiny voice while picking at an invisible stain on her shirt. Jihyo scoffed. "You're going to tell me how amazing she is Mina. How many-" Mina will not Jihyo continue her question. "Five. In a row." She said abruptly just to stop her bestfriend from spewing any more indecent words.

Mina was blushing hard from confessing everything to Jihyo. While Mina waits for Jihyo to calm down, a voice resounded from behind them.

"There you are. I've been looking for you."