Back in the tent, Jina was a bit worried where her brother went and truthfully, she was worried that he was going to get drunk all alone in the forest. Trying to shake those thoughts out of her head, she found an easy target she could concentrate on: Soyou.

With eyes full of mischievousness, Jina crawled next to Soyou and patted her back, getting her attention.

“So you have a crush on my brother?” Jina whispered, Soyou blushing right away.

“What makes you think that?” The victim muttered embarrassed.

“Maybe you staring at him, thinking we don’t see it.” Soyou blushed harder.

“Did he notice?”

Jina kept shut for a moment. She wasn’t sure how to explain why Soyou was probably having a crush on the wrong person. Joonyoung was so deep in his research that he was definitely going to ignore Soyou, or any other girl for that matter. Besides that, he has always been a flirt. He wasn’t boyfriend material.

“Lately, he has been very busy,” Jina trailed, watching her friend closely for a reaction. Soyou seemed to have understood. “You should talk to him, get to know him. He’s very different from what you imagine. You might not like him as much after you get to meet him.” Jina continued when she saw Soyou nodding along

Jina couldn’t lie to her even if that meant disappointing her friend.

“Roy! Ow!”

Everyone turned their heads towards Yuna.

“What happened?” Seulgi went closer.

“I wanted to go to Jina but because the tent is a little small I tripped and fell on Roy. Look what you did!” TYuna whined and pointed at her leg. It was just a scratch but it still bled a little.

For the first time in her life, jina started to feel a strange need to taste it. Everything seemed to fade away and the only thing she could see was the scratch; her eyes moved slowly upwards, on Yuna’s chest where her heart was pumping loudly. Jina wasn’t sure if it was indeed Yuna’s heart or her heart, pumping in excitement

Later, everyone was busy doing something; preparing their sleeping bags or just gossiping. At one moment, while everyone was enjoying the silence of the nature, Jina started to feel sick. She had a knot in her stomach and her head was always turning towards the zipper. She heard the branches move with the wind and thanks to her incredibly sixth sense, she heard footsteps coming towards them. That person was aware of the teenagers and his whole energy was scary.

Someone was approaching quickly and even the others started to feel a bit paranoid.

“Doesn’t something seem strange?” Seulgi asked while grabbing onto her sleeping bag.

Jina could hear the others talk in the background but her ears were listening to what was happening outside. Suddenly, the presence just vanished. Something took the tent and threw it to the side. The girls screamed, clinging to each other.

“Stop yelling. It was just the wind!” Theo got the chance to say before he got taken by something from above.

The girls screamed even louder. It wasn’t a joke anymore and everyone was scared less.

“Let’s stay together! Don’t run!”

They didn’t run but they gathered under the closest tree they could find.

“Something took Theo. I can’t believe it,” Seulgi was in Roy’s arms. Jihoon was stronger and smarter than the others; he was one of those people who had an answer for everything weird so he tried to reassure everyone that it was only a bear.

“It took him from above. Plus, in these woods there aren’t any bears.” Soyou mumbled, shaking from head to toe.

Jina took a few steps back and closed her eyes. She didn’t know how to tell them that the presence was still there, somewhere.

“I’m scared,” Yuna chocked out. They all nodded slowly. Jina opened her eyes and glanced around.

“Maybe if we keep silent, whatever that was will go away and leave us alone,” She mumbled.

Unfortunately, Theo’s body dropped from the tree, scaring them. His body was bloody and his eyes were still open, staring ahead creepily. Jihoon walked closer and closed his eyes. After he finished, he turned to the rest of the gang and smiled sadly. Unfortunately, something took him too.

“What’s going on?!” Yuna was really scared. Jina frowned and went closer to Theo’s body. “Jina! Are you crazy?! Didn’t you see what happened to Jihoon?” Yuna screamed after her.

Jina admitted that everything was very weird and scary but she couldn’t contain her curiosity. She looked up and saw black clouds covering the sky quickly. There was going to be a storm later, if it wasn’t one already.Jina surveyed the sight but she couldn’t see anything remotely dangerous. There was nothing. Until she felt it again, the presence.

“Jina!” She turned to look at her friends when something came from behind.

It happened in a second. Something threw her into a few trees but still, she was alive and it didn’t even hurt as bad as she thought. The thing that killed Theo and Jihoon flashed in front of her with incredible speed. She could see the murderer and he was a man; a man with red eyes and fangs.

He frowned when he got a good look at her face and retracted his arm from her neck.

“Jung Jina?”

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

“Jung Jina?”

His eyes changed rapidly to normal and hugged her tightly. If that wasn’t weird, Jina didn’t know what was. A stranger, who wanted to kill her, just spontaneously recognized her and wrapped his hands around her like they were friends.

“What-“ She squirmed in his arms when she finally registered in what kind of situation she was. “ What do you think you’re doing?! Who are you? What are you?!”

The boy tilted his head to the side after he let her go. He was as tall as Joonyoung, maybe. He  wore a black shirt and black jeans, to get lost easier in the darkness. But his face, his face was probably the best thing about him; he was super handsome with a tinge of danger. She couldn’t help but feel drawn to him immediately.

He smiled boyishly and scratched the back of his head.

“I forgot you don’t remember,” He mumbled, a bit ashamed that he almost killed her. “My name is Kim Myungsoo but you used to call me L in letters. It’s been such a long time,” He continued with a soft look at her.

 Jina only watched him in amazement, completely lost.

“I’m Myungsoo and I’m a vampire. I’ve been your best friend for as long as I can remember,” She understood that part, he didn’t have to use a tone like he was explaining it to a child.  “Lee Dongha erased your memories and you left with that vampire slayer. Weird, huh?” Myungsoo continued, like it was nothing serious.

“Yes you are,” Jina responded, her head not even grasping what he was talking about.

Myungsoo chuckled and ruffled her hair. He approached her, making her take a step back, and leaned against the tree. He patted the place next to him, encouraging her to come and sit next to him. Normally, she wouldn’t go and sit near a weird stranger but she felt drawn to him; like he casted some kind of spell over her.

“Let’s take it slowly. Have you had weird flashbacks with a girl who looks like you and a boy who looks like your brother?” He asked, knowing she will nod, which she did. “They are you and your brother. It really happened somewhere in 1597. Those flashbacks are memories; pieces of your past,”

“Do you really think I believe this?”

“I guess not. But, look at your necklace; that ouroboros. Do you know who gave it to you?” Jina shook her head. “You trust it, don’t you? It emits comfort.” She grabbed the ouroboros and stared at it. “I gave it to you. It means immortality. You’re immortal.”

 Myungsoo touched the ouroboros and she suddenly felt her head hurt, like he was forcefully pushing something inside her mind.

“I got you a present!” A boy, who looked like Myungsoo told Jina enthusiastically. He grabbed something from his pocket. It was a silver pendant. “This is an ouroboros. It’s a serpent eating its own tail and it represents immortality. You’re a vampire, you can’t die. Sometimes I wish I would be one too,” He trailed, jokingly.

Jina smiled softly at her friend before hugging and kissing him on the cheek.

“It’s beautiful,” She whispered. She grabbed the pendant and squeezed it in her small hands.

“After 1000 years I won’t be here anymore. I bet everything will change but not you. I want you to remember me. Through this pendant I will be immortal too; an immortal memory.” Myungsoo continued, Jina’s smile dropping at his words.

Her only friend was a human. He wasn’t going to survive the usual course of life; he was going to die sooner or later. She frowned when she realized just how fragile was Myungsoo’s life.

“Maybe not,” She mumbled under her breath.

Myungsoo didn’t have time to say anything when Jina tilted his head to the side and pushed her fangs through his neck.

“You changed me.” He chuckled when he noticed her faint blush.  

“I remember,” She choked, a bit flustered. “I mean, I had a flashback.” She looked up at him. “You have blood on your face,” She stopped when she realized what she said. “You killed my friends!” She screamed in anger. He smiled nervously.

“You see, that’s another story. I need to feed and-”

“But they were my friends! Were you going to kill everyone?!” Jina interfered.

“Well, yes. But I didn’t!” He said proudly while raising his finger and pointing at her. “You saved them. I was ready to kill you, but you’re Jung Jina.” She rolled her eyes at his logic.

“My friends probably think I’m dead.” She mumbled while rubbing her forehead. It was so troublesome.

“Sorry to tell you but you are dead. You’ve been for a long time,” He started, in the most normal way possible; like it was a conversation about something common.

“If you’re trying to help, you’re doing a very bad work at it,”

“I don’t intend to. I’m realistic. You were born in-um- a long time ago,”  He had no idea when she was born and even though it was wrong, Jina couldn’t help but chuckle.

“If I’m a vampire, why don’t I shine in the light? Why don’t I die in the light? Why can I enter the church? Why don’t I have golden or red eyes? Why don’t I kill people like you for blood? Why-” Myungsoo covered with his hand.

“I got it. Well, we’re neither in Twilight nor in any other vampire book. For example, vampires can’t go out on days because the sun light kills us but we found a trick to survive. There are two stones that help us: Lapis Lazuli, but is rare and Amethyst. Most vampires use amethyst, including me but I think you have both. If I remember correctly, your parents melted a Lapis stone and put it in the ouroboros. They did the same to your brother, but I don’t know for sure what his pendant is. I think it’s an endless knot?” That definitely grabbed her attention. “So it is,” He trailed when he saw her reaction. She nodded.

“It has our initials on it.”

“J and J, an Endless Knot, bound to a forever brotherhood, or something like that. Your brother used logic too much. How is he now?”

Jina chuckled and rubbed her forehead. That brother of hers was so different from the one she dreamed about.

“Joonyoung’s life is a taboo subject, even for his family.” Jina responded, making Myungsoo raise an eyebrow intrigued.

“He sounds like a real vampire,” .

“What about my other questions?” She asked, ignoring his statement. He got on his feet and started to pace in front of her.

“Firstly, we’re not a fairytale. I don’t know if in this big, big world witches and werewolves are real and I don’t care, truthfully. I do know there aren’t too many vampires alive. You can actually count them on your fingers; 30 in total. However, there is a small amount that does this idiotically thing with animal blood. They’ve been reading too many books but the rest are normal. Shining in the light is pure stupidity. Vampires don’t shine at all. You can enter the church; we all can. Where did you hear that, anyway?” She shrugged. “No vampire has golden eyes. Your eyes change to black if you’re hungry or when you attack. You can also use it whenever you want to scare someone,” He flashed in front of her looking as evil as he managed. It didn’t scare her; not even a little. “You’re not scared. I guess that’s normal since you created me in the first place.” She scoffed and got on her feet. He continued, “I’ve been watching you for the past decades, caring about your safety.”

“You had no idea where I was or if I was alive. You found out today.”

He tilted his head to the side and pouted.

“Details,” He mumbled.

“What now? Do you want to go search for the tooth fairy?” She asked bemusedly, rubbing her neck since she got thrown pretty hard. He glared playfully at her and pushed her jokingly. She lost her balance and fell. Myungsoo looked up at the sky before he left her there, all alone.

She didn’t understand why he just left until she heard someone scream her name. It was Seulgi’s voice.

“I’m here!” Jina screamed back.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

“My God! You’re alive! I’m so glad!” Seulgi and Soyou pulled her in a tight hug.

They found her quickly after Jina gave a sign of life.

“Where is Yuna?” Jina asked “Is she dead, too?” She continued when she saw Soyou’s sad expression. Seulgi shook her head.

“No, thank God. No one died after that incident. By the way, what happened?” Seulgi asked curiously.

Jina had no idea what to say since she couldn’t tell her friends and the police officers that she met an old acquaintance who randomly killed two humans. Therefore, she decided to go with the easy answer.

“It was indeed an animal. It was a wolf. Yes. A wolf” Jina wasn’t a good liar and everyone knew wolves don’t exist in that forest.

“Wolf?” Soyou asked again, unsure. Jina nodded. They bought it, in the end.

“What happened after I was pushed?” Jina changed the subject quickly.

“Yuna fainted and when we tried to come after you, we found Jihoon’s body hanging in a tree. Roy called 911 and the ambulance came too. They’re home. Coming here was a bad idea.”

It was indeed. They lost two friends and they were only in the nearby woods.
 

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

When Jina got home her father pulled her into a tight hug. He was worried, mostly because she came home in a police car. He gave her that parental look and silently went inside. She had a lot to think about.

That night she couldn’t sleep at all. Joonyoung wasn’t home and it was midnight already. She sighed and closed her journal before she left it on the desk and went on the balcony. She closed her eyes and relaxed. Just like before, she felt someone sneak behind her but this time, she could recognize the presence. When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t even surpised.

“This was supposed to scare you,” Myungsoo said and pointed to him. “Aren’t you surprised to see me here? Or even a little curious how I got here?” She shook her head and walked past him. He rolled his eyes and jumped on her bed. “You’re no fun!” Myungsoo screamed.