Rosé, Mark, and Yugyeom stalked close to the security gate at the front of headquarters staying in the shadows of the nearby wall. They quickly ducked behind a pillar and watched the guards pace back and forth.

“How exactly are we going to get out of here?” Yugyeom asked in a hushed voice.

Rosé glanced at the clock on the wall just above the door on the opposite wall that is used by the guards. “At twelve o’clock every night, they switch guards. It’ll give us a thirty-second window to get out, so we’ll have to be quick.”

Mark frowned and looked down at her. “And how do you know this?”

An innocent smile played on Rosé’s lips. She didn’t reply straight away as the guards parted from the gate. “Let’s just say this isn’t my first time sneaking out of headquarters.” Rosé craned her neck to see the two guards disappear behind the door. “Let’s go.”

The three of them quickly stepped into view and ran to the door right next to the gate that usually served as a security emergency exit. Rosé pushed the door open and they filed out quietly and fled to the shadows of the trees and bushes just next to the path leading out.

Rosé exhaled the breath she had been holding. “Thank god the alarm didn’t go off,” she mumbled gaining herself looks from both boys.

“Alarm?” Mark asked. His voice sounding equal parts confused and annoyed.

Rosé shrugged. “Sometimes there’s an alarm. It’s broken. Been broken a while, in fact. It seems to only work when it wants to.”

“And you didn’t think to mention an alarm to us why?”

“I didn’t want you two to panic. Plus I figured you would have known there was going to be an alarm.” Rosé placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side looking at Mark with an eyebrow raised. How could he even be getting mad at her for not mentioning an alarm? He had to have known there was going to be an alarm. Unless he was dumb which was something he often was around Rosé and she had no idea why.

Mark opened his mouth to say something when Yugyeom’s hand covered his mouth quickly. “Can you two love birds stop fighting already? We need to hurry to catch up to Jiwoo or we won’t be there to help her if she gets in trouble.”

Without hearing an answer from the others, he started down the path. Rosé followed after him, nudging Mark with her shoulder for him to follow.

Mark rolled his eyes. “We’re not lovebirds,” he mumbled to himself and shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked behind Rosé.

Rosé grimaced as she yanked her throwing knife out of a dead vampire’s forehead. “Disgusting,” she commented as a long string of thick deep red ichor still connected the blade to the vampire’s dead body. She held back a gag and wiped it against the trunk of a tree. “Ew…”

Yugyeom huffed out a breath as he flicked his wrist to get the ichor off of his dagger. “There’s a river nearby. We can rest and clean off there.”

“Great. I really need to get this disgusting crap off of me.” Rosé shivered as she attempted to rub the blood from her arms only to smear it. She made a face only to jump in surprise when a loud gunshot sounded. Both she and Yugyeom looked at Mark with wide eyes.

“Hyung, what the hell?”

Mark held his gun against his shoulder and shrugged. “What? I had to make sure it was dead.”

Rosé shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. “What are we going to do with you, oppa?”

“What,” said Mark. “I swear I saw it move. Better safe than sorry anyway.” He plopped his gun back in its holster and walked past the other two hunters. “Come on. The river is this way.”

Rosé and Yugyeom exchanged irritated glances and followed after him. They each sat right next to the riverbank and cleaned their weapons. There was a long silence between them before Mark spoke up.

“So, Rosé, why did you break out of headquarters...however many times you did?” Mark asked, settling back against a rock when he finished cleaning himself off.

Rosé paused from cleaning the blood off of her arms and sighed. “At first,” she said resuming cleaning the blood off of her body,” it was to escape the stress. I couldn’t take the pressure of training and needed to relax.” She sat back on her legs and shook the water off of her hands. “And then I met this vampire girl while I was out. We became close friends. You would have liked her if you met her, she was really cool. We would meet every night and talk until one night she stopped coming. I didn’t know why until I got a letter from her. It only said ‘Sorry.’”

“Sorry?” repeated Yugyeom. He sat upon a rock to the right of Rosé drying off his blades on his shirt. “Why sorry?”

Rosé looked down into her lap. “She was one of the vampires responsible for the attack on Somi’s town.” She gently played with the bracelet on her wrist and frowned. “I thought that...if I hung out with her enough that maybe she’d change and not give in to her nature. But I was wrong. Vampires are all the same. They’re all monsters.” Rosé exhaled and looked up at Yugyeom. “Anyway, enough about me. You said you lost two partners to vampires, right? I know Jungkook, but who was the other?”

“Bambam. I don’t expect you to remember him. The accident happened before you came to headquarters,” Yugyeom replied. “I trained with Bambam a long time. He was my best friend. We ended up going on a mission together. Our first, and last, mission.” He chewed on his bottom lip at the memory. “It was the most horrific moment in my life and I just left him there… I was so scared, I ran. Every day after that was the worst time of my life. I still regret leaving him. I probably could have saved him if I stayed. Or I could have lost my own life. But it doesn’t matter anymore. I made my decision and I regret it all the time.”

Rosé reached over and gripped onto Yugyeom’s hand to comfort him. Yugyeom gave her a small smile and grasped her hand back.

“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through until now. Losing two of your partners must be hard,” she said squeezing his hand.

“Believe me, it is hard. Makes me feel like I’ve got some kind of curse or something,” Yugyeom admitted with a shrug. “I know I don’t. Unless you count the stupid vampire hunter leader as a curse… No offense to Jiwoo or Jungkook for their father being an …”

Rosé giggled softly. “Yeah, I know what you mean about him. But we’ll make it through. We’ve made it this far.”

Yugyeom nodded and shifted his gaze over to Mark who was completely quiet during the entire conversation. He seemed to be in deep thought as his eyes drooped sadly. “What are you thinking about, hyung?” he asked breaking Mark out of his trance.

“Huh? Oh, just…” Mark squeezed his knees and frowned slightly. “Just...I lost an ex to a vampire back then.”

“I didn’t know you had an ex.”

“I don’t like to talk about it… but since we’re all sharing heartbreaking stories that involve vampires, I might as well share mine.” He sighed and looked up at the sky that peeked out from behind the trees. “It was back before I ended up at headquarters when I was still living in my hometown. We were both young and stupid and wandered off where we weren’t supposed to. I’m sure you both can guess what happened next…”

Rosé reached over and placed a gentle hand on Mark’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry…”

Mark shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s not like you’re the vampire who attacked them.”

Rosé bit her bottom lip and looked back and forth between the boys. “Is this the reason why you two wanted to come with me? Because you don’t want me to experience the pain you two did?”

“It’s why I came,” Yugyeom said. “I can’t speak for Mark hyung but I think he came because he likes you and doesn’t want you to get hurt.”

Mark frowned and grabbed a small pebble, chucking it at Yugyeom. “Shut up. I do not like her.” Rosé frowned. “I mean… I do like you but I don’t like...like you in...that way.” He groaned. “Goddammit, Yugyeom. Look what you made me say. I sound stupid.”

Rosé giggled as they went back and forth arguing. How cute, she thought.

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double update since i was behind on updates orz 

i apologize

~jb