Warnings for this part: angst, mentions of violence, blood 

Minhyuk’s POV

I kicked a rock. Or it kind of just got in the way of my shoe. I didn’t purposefully kick it.

My gaze was on my feet. I felt somewhat sad.

Why am I like this?

Needless to say after recent events, I had a hard time expressing how much I cared about _____. I wasn’t used to feeling something so strong yet positive towards someone. It confused me which led to me getting easily frustrated.

I’ll tell her when we walk back to the apartment.

I was on my way to the store - which I could already see further down the street - where I assumed ______ was. She had run away so suddenly that I hadn’t known what to do. In the end, I had decided to go after her. It was dangerous for her to be alone.

If she has gotten herself in trouble, I swear…

Thinking about how there was a relatively high possibility of her having gotten in some sort of trouble made me feel annoyed. I was really hoping that she hadn’t gotten in any kind of trouble while I was gone.

I reached the store and was about to walk in when I noticed something that made me freeze. At first I saw _____, then the woman who had pierced the skin of ______’s neck with her teeth. The disgusting woman was clinging on to her like a leech and my blood started to boil.

My mind was blank and my heart raced as I rushed inside to get her off ______. It took one rough push to get her away from the almost completely lifeless ______. I was so furious that I didn’t even notice that I had caused _____ to fall to the floor. I quickly made sure the vampire would never see daylight again before rushing over to the girl who I prayed wasn’t dead. I stopped next to her, unable to do anything. I just stared at her.

No.

I was frozen to place.

Don’t.

She was barely breathing and it looked like she was having a lot of trouble with it. She sounded like she was in a ton of pain. Yet, I couldn’t help her.

Please.

I found my eyes watering, slowly filling up with tears while I helplessly watched her suffer. My throat felt sore, like someone was strangling me.

You can’t.

I wanted to wake up from the nightmare already. I had seen enough. I didn’t want to watch her suffer anymore. Yet, I could only stand there, frozen from the shock of seeing her in the state she was in.

My options were limited. Seeing her weak state, I assumed she had been poisoned already. If that was the case, I would have to… let her have her peace. The thought of having to kill her with my own hands terrified me enough to make my breath wheeze when I breathed in. I started to pant, I felt like I couldn’t breathe in enough air no matter how hard I tried.

I can’t do it.

Tears kept rolling down my cheeks as I flopped down on the floor next to her limp figure. My body was finally obeying me but when I saw her pale face, I felt helpless again. I observed her expression with sadness I had never felt before. I felt completely broken inside.

After traveling her lifeless face for too long, my gaze eventually found the bloody marks on her neck. They were cleaner than most bites I had seen but the sight of them still nauseated me. There was only a drop of blood on her skin and if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that the disgusting creature hadn’t even gotten started. But I knew the truth and it pained me. She had lost a lot of blood.

Very gently, I pulled her closer to me and looked down at her face. She looked rather peaceful despite what she had gone through.

A tear dropped on her cheek from mine. I wasn’t sobbing at all but tears kept pouring out of my eyes. I felt this incredibly strong, unexplainable pain and sadness inside myself. It was like someone was squeezing my heart tightly in their fist.

“Please, please, you can’t,” I pleaded, a little surprised at how different my voice sounded.

I hugged her figure and noticed that her body temperature had already started to drop. It only added to the sadness I felt and I kept crying while holding her who was only barely alive at this point.

If I had had the power to bring a person back to life, I would have brought back the nauseating vampire that was lying down a little further away from ______ and me. I would have brought her back and then killed her again. And again. And again.

After glancing at the already dead creature once with the most murderous glare I could pull off with my teary eyes, I returned to looking at ______. I gently swiped over the drop of blood on her neck with my finger. Then, reluctantly, I brought the finger up to my lips.

If there was poison in her blood, I would taste it. It had a very distinct taste which I would never miss in a hundred years. If we ever found someone that had been attacked by a vampire, it was a custom to taste the blood of the victim before giving them peace. If there wasn’t any poison in the blood, I would still have hope. Though, not very much.

I regretted putting the liquid in my mouth the second I tasted the iron. I was disgusted by the flavor and wanted to spit it out but I couldn’t have been more relieved.

“There’s no poison,” I said out loud.

My eyes filled with new tears, this time with those of relief.

I can still save you…

“Thank god,” I buried my face in my hands for a few seconds. “Thank you.”

The blue blood was not special only because of its color; it had some healing powers too. That was the reason why our kind healed quicker than humans. If I gave some of my blood to ______, there was a chance she would be able to recover from the horrible experience.

The only problem was that giving blood to humans was not accepted among our kind. It had to do with how some of us had died after the special traits of their blood had been found out by humans. It was also linked to how much our kind despised humans in general thanks to our scarred souls. Giving your blood to a human was usually something that eventually cost you your life if you were found out. It was almost like committing treason or something.

I didn’t care about anything like that at this point, though. If there was any chance I could save her, I would do anything. Even if it meant I would face problems later.

I got up from the floor and looked around the store. After finding a knife and a paper cup, I returned to her and sat down. Then I gently pulled her closer to me once again.

“Promise me you will survive,” I said, my eyes slowly becoming less teary. “No matter what happens, you must survive.”

Without any hesitation, I grabbed the knife I had found and cut my palm with it. Then I watched how the blue liquid slowly dripped in to the cup one drop at a time. I waited until the blood had filled a little less than half of the cup. Even a third of that would have been enough but I didn’t care. I hoped it would make the chances of her surviving a little better but I knew it wouldn’t make a difference. There was no way to guarantee that she would survive - our blood didn’t always work, it depended on the situation - no matter how much blood I gave to her.

“Promise me you won’t hate me after I do this,” I said quietly and grabbed the cup.

She was still having trouble breathing and it pained me to see her like that. Seeing her state, I started to wonder if she would even be able to drink the blood.

“I’d do anything to save you,” I said and brought the cup to her lips before tilting it slightly. “Don’t die on me.”

I watched her very carefully to make sure that she was swallowing the liquid. To my surprise, she could do it on her own. Despite that, I couldn’t feel relieved yet.

It took a bit but miraculously enough, she managed to down all the blood. I pretty much threw the cup away once she had finished and just watched her. My heart beat faster and faster as time passed. I couldn’t see anything happening.

Please.

I brought my fingers to her neck to test her pulse. It was weak and my heart ached when I discovered that.

I know you can do it.

Minutes passed by but nothing changed; her pulse wasn’t getting any stronger and I could feel her body temperature dropping.

Don’t leave me.

I could feel a painful lump form in my throat as I waited for a miracle to happen. Her breathing still sounded painful and it was irregular, which only added to the pain I felt in my heart. She was in a lot of pain but there was nothing I could do now. I just had to wait.

I don’t care what happens to me, just make sure she survives.

I had no idea who I was talking to in my head. Maybe it was to some god I didn’t even believe in. Or maybe it was to myself.

Tune passed. I was slowly starting to fall apart. She wasn’t getting any better no matter how long I waited. She was going to die in my arms.

“Please,” I started crying again and embraced her as if she would disappear if I let go. “Don’t leave me.”

The emotions I felt were indescribable. I felt like I could die from how much pain the sadness caused me. I felt like I was drowning under all the grief and anger. I was still angry at the vampire under all the sadness I felt for ______.

Minutes passed as I cried, not wanting to check her pulse. She felt cold in my arms and the thought made my breath wheeze. Reluctantly, after some time had passed, I placed my fingers on her neck to check her pulse.

If I had had the power to bring a person back to life, I would have brought ______ back.

Meanwhile…

You listened to the continuous thumping of a heart. Not yours; someone else’s. Your heart was beating too, but at a different pace. Yours was calmer.

Three. Four. Five.

You subconsciously started counting the beats of the other heartbeat. Even though it seemed more restless than your