By the time lunch came around, the news already spread through the whole school and many people were mourning or gossiping Soyou’s death. On the other hand, Yuna still couldn’t believe how many friends died, in just a few days.

“When I woke up this morning I was more than surprised. Soyou was such a nice girl. She shouldn’t have died like this,”

Hearing her friends speak about the tragic event, Jina lowered her head, feeling like a piece of trash. It wasn’t her fault but Joonyoung was pretty much flesh from flesh so it was the same thing.

“Have you heard how she died?” One of their friends asked Yuna, making her shake her head. “I heard the police might close the case because there aren’t any clues. She had a cut on her neck and died from blood loss.”

For some reason, guilt wasn’t making Jina feel any remorse for what happened to Soyou. If anything, she felt quite empty emotionally speaking.

At some point, Jina blocked the voices of her friends and started to think about her own stuff. She couldn’t shrug off the feeling that the worst has not came yet. Jina had to go have a chat with Myungsoo and ask him more about her past life since he seemed to remember it so well.

“See you in class. I have something to check out,” She mumbled, gathering her stuff and not once glancing back

She found Hongbin at her locker, waiting for her with a blank face. Even from afar, he looked like a model, standing there with his hands in his pockets, his eyes watching the passer byes; listening to their heart beast probably.

“Jina!”

The girl rolled her eyes and stopped running. The boy finally caught her and they both fell.

“Caught you,” He started, smirking at the girl below him.

“It wasn’t fair. I already stopped.” She whined, just like the princess she was.

The boy shrugged. They were still down when the boy that looked like Hongbin got a hold of her hand. Jina looked down at him and smiled when he pulled her hand closer to his lips, kissing it.

“A gentleman like always,” Jina chuckled, snatching her hand quickly and running far from him.

“Jina? What’s wrong?”

His voice brought her back to real world, remembering just who she was and what was the time. He probably noticed her coming and ran to her because she wasn’t anywhere near her locker.

Surprisingly, Hongbin was actually holding her hand, just like back then. Her eyes widened and snatched her hand back quickly, making him raise an eyebrow curiously.

“What happened?” He asked again. “Who killed Soyou?”

Now, that was the one hundred dollars question that only she and Myungsoo had the answer to. She truly didn’t want to tell him; after all, she saw how hard secrets could backfire and hurt her, automatically hurting collateral victims as well.

“It wasn’t Myungsoo,” she mumbled, already sensing that was the first idea Hongbin thought of.

“I know it wasn’t him. Was it you? I won’t judge you, Jina. You just arrived last week and many things happened. I know this is just the beginning-” She stopped him with a glare. He didn’t trust her at all, did he?

“It wasn’t me.” She snapped, making him take a step back. “It’s none of your business actually. I can handle this on my own,” Jina continued, glints of red forming around her iris.

“You went through this once, covering for whoever killed your sister, and it ended with you murdering a whole clan,” He hissed, pulling her closer. “We have to be ready for anything and I bet Soyou was just the first victim of many that will come,”  

“You don’t know that for sure. From what I remember, you were the trigger that got me lose my mind and you’re doing it again,” She spoke with such venom that it annoyed Hongbin even more. The thing was, she was right.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

While Jina was at school, Joonyoung flashed out of it, not seeing what good could get out of listening to stuff that he already studied; he would just have to bear the others and he wasn’t in the mood.

However, Joonyoung couldn’t risk and return to the bar so he opted for a small café, to clear his head. He stood there, looking at everyone around him, smelling the blood from every human who passed his table. With all those pulses around, taunting him, he closed his eyes and put his head between his hands, trying to concentrate on something else.

“Look what I found here~”

Joonyoung raised his head to meet a pair of mischievous eyes. Myungsoo sat across the older vampire and raised an eyebrow bemusedly.

“Your sister is worried about you.” He said chuckling.

Joonyoung shook his head and took a sip from his coffee, “Did she tell you to come and make me feel worse?”

Myungsoo smirked and leaned on his elbows, so he could have a bonding conversation with a vampire who was actually far older than he was.

“No. I have free time and thought why not search for Joonyoung and make his life miserable,” Myungsoo started jokingly, “Kid, you’re older than me, yet here you are wasting your time. You shouldn’t feel bad. That’s your life, you should be proud. A lot of teenagers would kill to be in your place.”

“I don’t think so. They think these creatures exist just in movies but movies and books make vampires’ life an incredible story. We don’t even have powers,” Joonyoung mumbled, feeling even worse in his skin.

“True. We can’t be killed with sticks by humans but we can be killed with sticks by other vampires. Also, we don’t wait a lifetime for our ‘destined love’,” He said, pointing the quoting signs. “We’re boring, indeed,” He said sarcastically. “See the happy part. You have a long, long time ahead for whatever you want to do. You can have any girl; you can party and don’t get drunk; you can be here and in the next second you can be in any other place. You can travel anywhere and be anyone,” Myungsoo suddenly leaned closer, his eyes changing a bit but not enough to grab attention.

Actually Joonyoung never thought about the positive facts of being a vampire; he only saw what books and movies showed him and they weren’t very well informed. Vampires were monsters and not all of them were handsome.

“You should enjoy it. You already finished school; you already did what a mere human can in its life. Now you can do what a vampire can,” He moved his eyebrows up and down, making Joonyoung chuckle.

“Like getting in jail again?”

Myungsoo looked flummoxed at Joonyoung and started to laugh, “Nice one. But I was talking more about traveling. Biting people for blood is not something you should be ashamed of. You killed that pretty girl, and? Pff, big thing! She had to die anyway,” That wasn’t a good way to express his thoughts, seeing as Joonyoung growled. “Vampires can block their emotions, if there are any to begin with. Most of the time, vampires feel only with their heads not with their hearts because they are dead They create them just to feel more human.” Myungsoo explained, making light in aspects that Joonyoung was still confused.

“And what should I do? Invent my own feelings?”

Myungsoo shrugged.

“You do feel something for Jina. She’s your sister and you have a strong connection but that’s all. As for the rest, you feel just what you want. You feel disappointed right now because you want to. You’ve been taught to invent emotions that, normally, humans feel when you kill someone, when you love someone and so on,”

That actually made a lot of sense now that Joonyoung was thinking about it. Myungsoo noticed how light came back in his eyes and how much he relaxed after a good, sincere talk.

“Well, my job here is done,” Myungsoo mumbled before asking for the note, paying for Joonyoung since the younger vampire didn’t actually consume anything.

Because Joonyoung was too lazy to go back to school, he chose to go home. He was ready to go in his room when his father came out of the kitchen.

“You’re not in school,” The elder trailed, waiting for some kind of elevate explanation.

“I have other things on my mind, dad,”

“Tomorrow we’ll have guests, Joon.” The vampire turned fully to his father. “Your cousins,” The man didn’t have time to continue because his vampire son flashed out of there.

Joonyoung did what he had to: call Jina and be sure she would come spiritually prepared for their cousins.
 

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

On the other side, Jina was back to her normal self. Of course her friends were a little skeptical as to why she didn’t show her remorse more visibly, as in cry or mourn or speak about what happened but she brushed them off.

“I feel bad in a way. One of my friends was killed and I don’t feel like crying after her,” Jina mumbled, playing with a pencil on the table.

They moved in the library, skipping the rest of the day for good reasons.

“That’s part of you. Vampires usually invent their own emotions and after a while they get accustomed to them and actually believe in them. For example: you and Joonyoung. You’ve been used and taught to believe you have the same feelings as a human.” Hongbin explained, still aware of her mood and standing across her not next to her.

“But what if the feelings are really deep? Then they exist?”

Hongbin shrugged again, “I never tried.”

“Then what about your so- called love for me? Was it all a lie?” That question only hit his pride and made him feel guilty once again.

“I-“

Luckily, her phone rung and the caller was more important than Hongbin.

“You’re not in school, Joon,” She started, just like a mother, making him scoff on the other side.  

“Tomorrow we have guests. Honor guests.” Jina raised one eyebrow and glanced curiously at Hongbin, waiting for Joonyoung to continue, ”Dad’s sister and her two daughters. That means cousin Yoona too.”

“Cousin Yoona?”She repeated, feeling like punching Hongbin in the face; he was the only one there and forgotten memories were enough of a reason to do so.

“Yes. The one with 100 kids and a y younger sister; that on,” 

“Is she coming with her entire family? Like, her entire family?”

”Yes.” Joonyoung stated firmly before hanging up.

Jina sighed and dropped her head on the table, startling Hongbin.

“Is it that bad?” He asked, her response being a loud groan. “I guess it is, then. If you want, I can help you. Just call me. Or even Myungsoo,” She glanced up at him skeptically. He stopped and reconsidered what he said, “Actually, scratch that. Don’t call Myungsoo.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

After school, Jina got literally dragged and shoved into Hongbin’s car, with a poor explanation that she ignored most of the ride home. Right before she got out, he grabbed her arm and stopped her,

“Don’t forget. I’m a phone call away.” He said, with those cute eyes and cute dimples, making Jina swallow and nod.

She took her bag and ran into the house, already expecting some kind of loud noise and girly voices.Thankfully, they were coming tomorrow and she still had silence for the moment. Unfortunately, they were coming.

“So tomorrow,”

She only entered the bathroom for a shower yet when she walked out Myungsoo was on her bed, looking through a magazine. It was amazing how the atmosphere around Myungsoo wasn’t expressing anything; he was either cold and merciless or playful and ignorant. On the other side, Hongbin was warm; only warm.

“Earth to Jina, Earth to Jina. Do you hear me?”

She rolled her eyes and shook his hand off her face.

“You spaced out,” He teased though it was completely true too. Jina pushed him away and went and jumped on the bed. “Huston, we have a problem,” He continued playfully.

“If you want to know, we do have a problem,” He raised his eyebrow curiously. “Tomorrow, annoying guests will come for undefined time,”

Right after she finished the last word, Joonyoung barged in her room, his eyes changing colors.

“I hate her! And she has 200 kids who don’t know how to contain their hormones! She has three girls! Three! And one actually had the guts to flirt with me! The oldest of the three is a and flirts with any guy she finds hot and the youngest is a freaking 9 years old kid! She also has a much younger boyfriend and she comes with her y sister who is a few years younger than her and even she flirted with me!”

Believe it or not, he said everything in one breath. Both Jina and Myungsoo remained dumbstruck, watching the vampire with wide eyes. Joonyoung sighed dramatically and jumped on the bed, next to his sister.

“If killing them sends me to Hell, then I’m taking the risk,” The boy moaned, rolling on the bed, even hitting Jina once or twice in the process.  

“It can’t be that bad, right?” Myungsoo asked Jina, who was far more responsible and mature.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” She finally said.