Yoomi extremely despised this time of the month. No, it’s not period. It’s her schedule for getting a liter of her blood taken, which was obligatory for every resident over sixteen years old in Shinsa Kingdom – where she currently lived.

Shinsa Kingdom only consisted of one country – which had the same name, Shinsa – that was divided into twenty sections. She had never visited any neighboring countries, so she wasn’t sure whether her country of birth could be considered big or not. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t. Shinsa currently wasn’t quite in a good term with any neighboring countries.

“Kwon Yoomi,” a nurse called, fixating her gaze on her digital tablet, jotting down something on it with the stylus.

With a long sigh, Yoomi stood up from her seat in the waiting room and reluctantly followed the nurse to the blood donation room. Although she’d been doing this routinely every month for five years, she still couldn’t get used to it.

“You look awful, girl.” Jisoo put down her phone on her desk and got up to her feet to greet Yoomi. “It’s still early in the morning. How would you survive the rest of your day?”

“I hate this.” Yoomi scrunched her nose in disgust as Jisoo guided her to the blood donor couch. “I don’t get why I have to do this.”

As soon as Yoomi put her hand on the armrest, it detected her fingerprints and the monitor next to her showed her information: name, age, profession, blood donation schedule, etc. Jisoo approached the monitor and tapped something on the screen before she took the blood donation kit from the table beside the couch.

“Just think of it as a way to keep the peace,” Jisoo said while cleaning Yoomi’s arm with antiseptic. “Speaking of it, doesn’t today mark the end of your internship? It means you’re an official peacekeeper from today onwards, right?”

“Yeah, finally,” Yoomi muttered, sounding way too gloomy that Jisoo frowned.

“Be happy a bit, will you?” Jisoo stopped talking to concentrate in drawing blood from Yoomi’s vein, so there’s a five-minute silence before continuing, “After three years, you’re finally no longer a trainee! Meet me here at noon, I’ll buy you lunch.”

Yoomi groaned. “Not fast food again!”

Applying Band-Aid to her arm, Jisoo said, “I promise this one is better than the others!”

Jisoo moved Yoomi’s blood from the tubes to a plastic pouch and stuck a label with identity of the blood donor on it. She filled a glass of water and gave it to Yoomi, along with a pill – a special pill for accelerating blood regeneration – and refreshments. Yoomi took the pill, swallowed it and started eating a bread.

“You’re a doctor. Why would you eat fast food so much?” Yoomi asked while munching her food.

“For your information, I’m a phlebotomist, not a doctor,” Jisoo said, storing Yoomi’s pouch of blood in a portable refrigerator.

Yoomi arched her brow. “But you graduated from medical school. And you’re wearing a doctor coat.”

“This is a lab coat,” Jisoo corrected and then shrugged. “Well, you can say I’m a medical laboratory scientist. But not a doctor. I’m not as heroic as them. Or as heroic as you.”

Yoomi sat up and reached out her hands to rest them on Jisoo’s shoulders. “Trust me. You’re as heroic. You make those pills. Without those pills, most of us would probably have died already. No one can handle having their blood taken once a month without them. You study medical. You know it better than me.”

“Okay, okay. Fine. We’re all heroic.” Jisoo chuckled, pinching Yoomi’s cheeks. “Now, isn’t it time for you to go to work? Our peacekeeper has to go out there and saves the world.”

Rolling her eyes, Yoomi said, “It’s kingdom, actually.”

Jisoo pulled Yoomi up and pushed her gently towards the door. “Forget the details. Just go. You don’t want to be late to your inauguration ceremony.”

Reminiscing the brief talk she’d just had with Jisoo, Yoomi couldn’t help but smile as she walked out from Blood Storing Center. Although she hated donating her blood, she liked meeting Jisoo. She had to admit, Jisoo always managed to brighten up her day, especially when it’s her blood donation schedule.

The two of them almost had nothing in common, but they got along just fine. They’d met each other seven years ago when they became classmates at first year of high school. Since then, they’d been hanging out together whenever they had free time and eventually, they’d become best friends.

After around half-an-hour car ride, Yoomi arrived at the headquarters of Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau, barely in time for the inauguration ceremony of the newly appointed peacekeepers. Her workplace was only a fifteen-minute walk away from the royal palace, meaning that her every move was strictly supervised by the King himself and the Minister of Public Safety – who had established Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau.

The headquarters was huge, though it was only half as large as the palace’s main building. Even if it seemed shabby compared to the castle, the headquarters itself looked grand because of its dome roof and silver structures – almost the entire building was made from silver for safety purpose.

Fixing her knee length silver coat – part of the peacekeeper uniform – and taking a deep breath, Yoomi walked to the auditorium where the ceremony was held. The hallway leading to the auditorium was very crowded with peacekeepers and soon-to-be peacekeepers who were also wearing the official uniform. She bumped into a lot of people and almost fell down while weaving her way through the crowd.

“Yoomi! Here!”

Instinctively, Yoomi snapped her head towards the voice to find Sungjae waving his hand enthusiastically at her as she entered the auditorium. It was so large that five hundred people could easily fit in there. Letting out a sigh of relief, she approached him and gratefully sat down on a seat he’d saved for her, right next to him. If he hadn’t, there would probably be no seats left for her, judging from the number of people inside the auditorium.

“Where have you been? About five people asked me if this seat—” Sungjae dramatically pointed at her chair. “—is taken.”

Sighing again, Yoomi leant her back against the comfortable auditorium seat. “Today is my blood donation schedule.”

Sungjae made a big O with his mouth. “So that’s why you look like .”

“Thanks,” Yoomi said sarcastically.

Before Sungjae could say another word, the Head of Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau walked up on the stage and the entire audience in the auditorium quieted down in an instant. Chief Do Kyungsoo’s stern face managed to intimidate them all as he positioned himself in front of the microphone.

“Welcome to the 8th inauguration ceremony of Shinsa Peacekeeping Bureau,” Chief Do said stiffly, staring hard at them. “Before we start, it’s our tradition to retell the history of our organization, although I’m very sure each one of you already know.”

“I’m sick of hearing this,” Sungjae whispered to Yoomi and she nodded, agreeing with his opinion.

Even Chief Do himself seemed reluctant to read the script.

“Ten years ago,” he began, “our Shinsa Kingdom was attacked by the vampires. The war went on for days and we lost so many people because of it. The King and the Minister of Public Safety found a way to stop the war by forming an alliance between Shinsa Kingdom and the vampires. The vampires agreed and the peace treaty was established.”

The huge LCD screen behind him lit up and showed the treaty.

Treaty of Peace

Between

Shinsa Kingdom and The Vampires

Shinsa Kingdom and The Vampires agree to share residency and maintain an alliance between the two parties under these conditions:

Signed at Shinsa, 11th November 2040.

The peace treaty – which was known as The Shinsa Treaty – could be seen everywhere in the country. Yoomi had seen it so often she could recite it without looking. All other citizens most likely could, too.

King Dongho was a very wise and trustworthy king, but this was the only decision of his that Yoomi couldn’t agree on. Succumbing to the enemy of the kingdom wasn’t quite a remarkable move for a king who should put the well-being of his subjects first. It’s unfair to the people who had suffered and lost their family. How would you feel if your family’s killer were pardoned of their crime and were welcomed to live side by side with you?

“This peace treaty is the stupidest thing His Majesty could have ever done,” Sungjae muttered to her ear so low it was barely audible. Like Yoomi, he also saw this treaty as a mistake.

At this point, Yoomi no longer paid attention to Chief Do’s speech about the treaty and listened to Sungjae instead. Discussing about the doubtful justice for the people in Shinsa Kingdom was one topic she enjoyed. The only reason she had signed up for this job was to enforce justice in her country. She wanted to make sure that no one – especially vampires – went unpunished for the crimes they did again.

“I know, right?” Yoomi said in a hushed voice. “Why would you let monsters who prey on humans live in your country?”

Sungjae shrugged. “Well, the vampires are quite useful in our war against Wolsan’s werewolves.”

“Speaking of Wolsan, their king did the same stupid thing, too. He went as far as making a deal with the werewolves only to beat us.” Yoomi shook her head in disbelief.

Sungjae added, “And King Dongho made a d