“I’m turning human,” Irene announces, walking into the house and throwing her jacket on the sofa.

Her father stands up, gentle eyes wide. “What did you say, Hyun?”

Irene waves at her father, gesturing for him to sit down; which he does. Irene sits down next to him, laying her head against his shoulder. She loves the warmth that always exudes from her father, comforting and gentle like his whole being.

Her father is still human, but hasn’t aged a bit since Irene had been born. The reason being the vampire blood he drinks to be immortal. Her mother supplies her father with the blood, and therefore, had kept the man alive for all of these years.

Irene has no complaint on that. She loves her father with all of her heart.

“Do you know a Kang Seulgi, Dad?”

Irene feels her father stiffen, surprise emanating from him. She takes that as a yes.

“I met her today. There’s something about her that I can’t shake off,” Irene continues, still laying on her father’s shoulder.

“So, you finally met her.”

Irene lifts her head, looking at the man with curious eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Irene’s father turns and gently takes a hold of Irene’s hand. “Just don’t lose her, honey.”

He gives her a final pat before standing up and moving out of the living room. Irene sits still, dumbfounded.

It’s only the third day of bloodlessness, and Irene already feels like digging herself a hole and dying in it. She can smell a person from a mile away, hear the blood pumping through their veins. It’s torturous, but thinking of Seulgi and the odd pull she feels to her, she stays vigilant.

Seulgi knows she has her head in the clouds because her co-workers are giving her weird looks. Which is odd because Seulgi’s usually the one giving the judgmental eyes at the others around her. She’s worked at the restaurant so long, she’s the senior among them so power play isn’t a problem.

Today’s the day. Today’s the day the vampire - Irene - is supposed to show up. Seulgi can’t concentrate on anything, really. She can’t decide if Irene had been lying that day or not. The vampire was and still is confusing. She’d seemed to be too innocent, too open for someone who’d lived as long as her. Seulgi knows Irene isn’t really twenty-five, vampires never look their age. And, anyhow, behind her unnaturally colored eyes and bright exterior, Seulgi had seen the wisdom and knowledge hidden from the outside world.

“Kang Seulgi! Table four! Come on, get your head in the game!”

Seulgi scrambles towards her designated table, fumbling with her notepad and pen before even looking up. She freezes on the spot.

“Hey, how’s it been going?”

“Y-You . . .”

It’s Irene. Well, she looks like Irene, but doesn’t at the same time. The woman in front of her doesn’t have the bright blonde hair, electric blue eyes, or unnaturally colorless skin. The woman in front of her, instead, has flowing locks of caramel brown, eyes of warm chestnut, and skin that hints at blood flowing under it, though still pale.

She’s beautiful.

Maybe not ethereal as she had been before, but beautiful nonetheless.

“Hello? Kang Seulgi? You okay?”

Seulgi snaps out of it, hastily clearing before looking at her notepad, doing her best to avoid eye contact with the woman in front of her.

“W-What would you like?”

Seulgi feels soft fingers flutter over her hand in a successful attempt to catch her attention, and she nearly gasps at the warmth of them so unlike the icy cold she’d felt before. Seulgi’s tricked into looking at Irene who’s grinning at her teasingly, bright whites glinting under fluorescent lights.

“What would you recommend?” Irene asks, perfectly tuned voice soft and sultry.

Seulgi feels herself fluster at the mere question as she fights to keep up her walls of ice and stone from melting and crumbling into nothing. She’s kept it up too long to have it come crashing down now. Especially not in front of Irene.

“We have a special that consists of steak and potatoes. Would you like that?”

“Yeah, that’d be fine,” Irene says, eyes not leaving Seulgi for even a second.

Seulgi can feel her gaze on her, and it takes everything in her not to shift uncomfortably before nodding at Irene and whipping around to make her way back to the counter. But just as she does, a hand on her wrist yanks her back, body slamming into Irene just as one of her co-workers rushes past with a tray full of piping hot food in his hands.

“Be careful!” Irene hisses.

Seulgi looks up at Irene with wide eyes to see the woman looking down at her with eyes full of a mixture of anger and concern. Seulgi can see the customers around them begin to take notice, and she quickly pulls away from the woman.

“Thanks,” she murmurs before rushing off again.

When Seulgi makes her way back to Irene’s table with a tray of her food in her hands, she spots the woman spinning a fork on the table, seemingly amused with it. Seulgi shakes her head, containing the grin threatening to escape onto her lips.

Childish.

“Here’s your food,” Seulgi says, setting the plate down. “Enjoy.”

“Excuse me,” Irene says, words oddly formal.

Seulgi looks back with a raised brow. Irene’s smiling up at her,