“The vampire is coming today!” Jinhwan exclaimed excitedly as he climbed the stairs leading up to the school grounds one by one. He tried to jump up two at a time, anxious not to be late, not wanting to miss the big vampire reveal, but failed. Bobby caught his arm just in time, pulling him up so that his face wouldn't have the edge of a step imprinted right on the middle of his pretty face.

“Should we be calling him 'the vampire'.” Bobby thought out loud, feeling it was a bit derogatory. He couldn't help thinking about how he himself would feel if somebody excitedly called him 'the Asian', wanting to gawk at his slanted eyes. He was curious though, that he couldn't deny.

“Why not? It is one, isn't it?” Jinhwan shrugged, thinking nothing of it. “What else should we call it? Creature of the night? The humanoid bat? The er of blood?” he added theatrically, his voice eerie as he imitated a creepy scene from a vampire movie.

“I don't know... we could just call him by his name..” he suggested, but Jinhwan had already started running towards the crowd that had gathered outside the front door.

“Is it really coming?”.

“Do you think it's safe?”.

“No, it will definitely bite us!”.

“Man, imagine if it has just been biding its time, playing the role of the nonexistent 'nice vampire', waiting for the perfect opportunity when the stupid humans lead it straight into an all you can eat buffet of young juicy blood, going on a rampage the second it gets here, us dry before even one drop of blood has the chance to hit the floor.”.

“I want to go home.”.

“I brought a stake, just in case. It's in my backpack, you want to see?”.

Bobby cringed as he navigated through the hushed whispers, not wanting to get caught in the stampede when the new boy finally arrived. Everyone was on edge, the atmosphere was vibrating. It would only take one tiny little grain of hate to start the storm and he had no intention of getting buried in it.

As he managed to escape into the school, he wondered if this 'Legend Integration Program' was really the way to go. The government had tried its best to assure their citizens that it was completely safe, that these so-called legends were normal people and not the horrific monsters they had been portrayed as in the stories. They were just like everybody else, except for this one tiny distinction, that was in fact huge. But it had only sparked a wave of fear instead. Learning that all your greatest nightmares were true tended to have that effect on people.

For thousands of years, these legends had lived relatively peacefully hiding among the rest of humanity, only a few souls knowing of their existence, using that knowledge to hunt them down in an attempt to eradicate them from this Earth. When the brutal truth eventually leaked out, the age of information leaving no stone unturned, the government officials assured everyone that the government had had nothing to do with the League of Legend Hunters, who were responsible for most of the killings. But they hardly managed to convince themselves, let alone anyone else. Over the hundreds or perhaps thousands of years since its foundation, the League had been so successful that no more than a handful of legends still existed, hunted to the brink of extinction.

The killing had to stop. They were, after all, human. Or that was what months and months of probably not so pleasant tests had revealed. Augmented humans. The next step in evolution. And everyone knew you couldn't stop progress, so it was either to jump aboard the train or get lost in the dust it left behind. It was then that the world kicked in gear, realizing that they had to right this terrible wrong by openly welcoming the legends and slowly integrating them into society, giving them a chance to lead a normal life, instead of living on the run in constant fear for their lives.

Given the remote location of their little town, their high school had been chosen to take part in this ambitious integration program and a teenage vampire was scheduled to arrive at any moment now. What was a teenage vampire anyway? Weren't vampires immortal? So how old was teenage? Eighteen? Fifty? A hundred? The curiosity gnawed at Bobby's gut, suggesting that he turn around and join the flock of fluttering students, each and every one of them burning in their skin to catch a glimpse of the vampire. No, for some reason, he didn't want to be one of them.

As he was walking down the corridor, heading for his classroom, he froze. It felt as if cold water was trickling down his spinal cord, giving him the shivers. He wasn't completely sure why he had stopped, it wasn't a conscious decision, but something was definitely up. The atmosphere was eerie. It was quiet, too quiet, unnaturally quiet. He realized he had been holding his breath when his lungs started screaming for oxygen. He took a big gulp of air and turned around, the breath getting caught in his throat as his eyes opened wide. There was a guy standing behind him. He was wearing the school uniform, but somehow it didn't feel like he belonged there. Darkness surrounded him as if it was following him, as if it... liked being around him.

Terrified of this prince of darkness, his brain was begging him to run away, but then he noticed that the bulb above them had gone out, casting a shadow around them and only them. He finally swallowed his breath, getting control back over his body. It had just been his overexcited imagination putting a gloomy filter over his eyes, filling in the blanks. He was still a bit jittery though and he couldn't shake the ominous feeling that was growing in his gut.

Taking a few steps back, he was just about to flee the scene under the pretense that he needed to get to class, when the guy took a step forwards into the light. Bobby gasped. His skin looked so pale and smooth, as if life hadn't touched it. He stopped his hand that was about to reach out and feel whether it was real. His eyes were out of this world beautiful, so powerful and haunting, looking right at him, stripping him bare, staring straight into his soul. He felt . Yet, after a moment or two, he stopped being intimidated and only saw the sadness that filled those gorgeous eyes of his, sadness and loneliness. His heart ached, the need to fix it eating at him. He wanted to make it better. So much so that a war broke out inside of him, fighting over the leadership of his body. One faction wanted to get the hell out of there, while the other wanted to extend the offer of friendship. Before they could come to a conclusion, the school bell rang and in the blink of an eye, the guy was gone.

Dazed and confused, he walked to class, wondering whether he had imagined the whole thing.