Yuri cannot seem to focus. Never in her million times in handling a flask did she ever lose the focus necessary to get the chemicals going. And as the umpteenth time of trying to get a grasp of the instructions scribbled in a brown piece of parchment Kwon Yuri finally gave in, taking off the lab glass from her face.

“Woah, easy there buddy, that is school property.” Taeyeon smiled at Yuri, surprised at her best friend’s sudden outburst.

“Can she please stop staring at me? I can’t ing concentrate!” Yuri hissed back eyeing Jessica from the other side of the isle. The strawberry blonde girl seems to be so engrossed in giving Yuri the combination of smirks and eye . More importantly, she is not a fan of charity, of help. From the looks of it, Miss Jung’s lab partner is utterly struggling. Even though scrawny little Chen is delighted enough to have the headmaster’s daughter as his lab partner, but still his grades and the future of experiment still lies to cooperation.

“Oh, Miss Jung has an eye for you.” Taeyeon teased as she grabbed the bluish chemical from the board.

Yuri returned her eye protector, never failing to give Jessica one brief of a glare, the girl is somewhat getting into her skin, not in terms of Kwon Yuri being annoyed but her being the girl who allows distraction. Jessica is a distraction, she needs to graduate and find a job so that she can live off her life like an ordinary human. That is the ulterior plan, not like this. Not like this in where she is caught being high in terms of attraction for this ridiculously beautiful girl she managed to meet one day.

“Shut up. What are you doing after this? We could eat some tacos, I hear its Pol’s new specialty.” Yuri leaned on the bar. Casually taking some small peeks at the girl who is still staring right back at her. The atmosphere is uncomfortable. Jessica smirked, like she is hearing all the conversation Yuri is throwing at Taeyeon. Weird. It is not weird at all, for Jessica Jung is a vampire. And of course, she hears.

“Ah, about that. I want you to meet someone.” Taeyeon wiped her hands with the towel.

“Oh yeah? You’ve met someone already? That’s fast. And to think, you still haven’t break things up with Miss Hwang.”

“Come on. He is just a friend who needs company in his own little adventures in Lacey Woods. Might as well dub me as a good citizen of this town.” Taeyeon shook her head in denial.

“And you want me to accompany you in accompanying him? Am I a third wheel or something?”

“One more word about that Yuri Kwon and I will yell at Miss Jung over there to stop staring at you. You want a challenge?” Taeyeon stood up from her seat, ready to run on Jessica’s direction when Yuri held her arms in a haste.

“Alright. You win. So after this?”

“Yes, he said to meet us in the entrance. Bring your camera too.”

~~

“What do you think you are doing?” Soohyuk grabbed Key’s jacket who only gave him a surrender gesture. The time right now is clearly not for misunderstandings and pride related confrontations.

“I just told you to get on with your job because Lady Amanda is here to perform the ritual.”

“You told her that I am slacking in my job are you? I am doing a background check on her! I tend to know my victims before I kill them.” Soohyuk, for the first time showed an expression of fear. The queen of Veiss does not tolerate any delayed in a given task, once it is given get on with it.

“And that is the problem, she is not yours to kill. I didn’t threw you off the bus if that’s what you’re fuming. Just get on with it. Bring her to the woods and your job ends. You can scurry back to the ends of the world doing anything you want.”

Soohyuk glanced at his watch, only an hour left before Kim Taeyeon’s last class ends. He better meet her to the entrance of Lacey woods. Full smile and all. but a thought came to his mind, once again grabbing the teenager’s black jacket he said,

“Taeyeon says she will invite her best friend. What are we going to do about that? I can’t actually deny that invitation, she will get suspicious.”

“Easy, compulsion. If she resists or if you just feel like it, kill her.” Key shrugged.

“What about Jessica’s blood? It is needed for the ritual.”

“No such thing needed.” Key glared at Soohyuk, his red eyes piercing through. It is a sign of frustration at the endless barrage of questions. But then again, the ritual requires the Veiss princess’ blood in order for the heir to be full transitioned. And why is it not necessary anymore?

“What do you mean?”

“The whole meaning of the ritual revolves around the heir, obviously. The heir’s apparent bloodline will fall on whoever turns her. In this case, we might get the upper hand in doing so. Which means the heir’s essence will be entirely evil, impure. But Jessica’s blood will make a balance out of that, she is the offspring of two essence, the good and the bad. Lady Amanda does not want an for her heir.”

“Are you clearly out of your mind? The gods made this rule and you are going to revert it in your very own classic? What makes you think that it will turn out the way you want it to be?” Soohyuk thundered, this kind of tweaking the fundamentals have reached its mentality.

“I don’t. I am merely just following orders.”

“Jessica’s blood is needed Key. We can’t control the heir if she is pure evil, even we have the capacity to feel something. But she will have no humanity.”

“Let’s just pray Lady Amanda’s plan will not screw us all up.” Key remarked, dashing his way towards a small petite girl. His lunch is served.

~~

Taeyeon and Yuri both arrived at their dorm room to pick up some stuffs needed for the Lacey Woods escapade. Flashlights, mosquito repellants and food, just in case. It is a fact that Yuri feels a little bit disappointed with her bestfriend, her friend is pretty much special for her not to mention any names until she is face to face with him. Much taken into consideration, Taeyeon has finally found a man. It is better rather than scraping yet another American girl and be cheated on again.

“Ready?” Taeyeon asked. Grabbing her camera by the bedside.

“Yes, but can I ask you something?”

Taeyeon nodded.

“Where is Tiffany?”

“I don’t know. And I am not planning to know. Let’s go.”

~~

“Unnie.” Yoona called onto Tiffany, the sulking pink lady. Tiffany and Sooyoung have been feasting on blood ever since their break starts. 50 bloodbags and the pigs are not done yet.

“Unnie!” This time a little louder causing Tiffany to be by her side in a second. Both hands glued with bloodbags.

“What?”

“Where are they going?” Yoona pointed her index finger outside leading Tiffany’s eyes to the two figures which are apparently ready for what looks like a hike in the wilderness. It is not odd seeing Taeyeon and Yuri together, they all need space after all of the outbursts and secret revelation.

“Probably hiking.” Tiffany replied, keeping her eyes onto the two who stopped by to greet a friend.

“And is Miss Jessica Jung their friend now?” Choi Sooyoung butted in, in her hands a gallon of blood.

“What?” Tiffany and Yoona chorused. Sooyoung then rolled her eyes, pointing her puckered lips at the tall tree located just behind Yuri and Taeyeon. The blonde vampire is standing at one of the tree’s thick branch, the draping leaves obscuring her from any human eye, except the three of them are not humans.

“Oh my god. What is she doing? Is she spying them? How can our princess be this creepy?” Yoona laughed. The three of them looked exactly like paparazzis. Tiffany knew something is not right. Escaping herself from the tiny space provided by the two giants, she heaved a sigh.

“Where are you going?” Sooyoung turned.

“Technically, Taeyeon is still my girlfriend so it is my responsibility to know why Miss Jung is spying on my girlfriend.” Tiffany retorted back hotly, crossing her arms as she took a sip out of her blood bag like a child. Sooyoung raised an eyebrow obviously amused how Tiffany Hwang is capable of jealousy with this age and mentality.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe Jessica is spying on Yuri not Taeyeon? Not everyone is infatuated with little Kim you know. Yuri Kwon is quite a catch. Oh, Yoong they are moving!” Sooyoung continually tapped the younger vampire by the shoulders. Getting excited as they noticed how Jessica effortlessly flew from one branch to the other, this movie is better live, they thought.

“Where did she go?” Yoona noticed the silence behind her. The vampire in a Lacey uniform who is sipping her ration of blood just moments ago is nowhere in sight. Tiffany just vanished into thin air.

“Over there, making herself the new character.” Sooyoung shook her head, watching as Tiffany grabbed Jessica’s blazer. Now a brunette and a blonde is following the tanned and the pale. Contrasting and very interesting.

“Grab another gallon of blood from Jinki’s reserve. We should check them out too!” Sooyoung ordered Yoona.

~~

The Lacey Woods is not exactly like all the locals knew it would be. It is a camping site. True it is, yet behind all the cu