Track 162 | AFTERGLOW by Taylor Swift

Not you. Rara thought. Anyone, but you.

Hyorin was the one who liked adding insult to the injury; her heart may even be more poisonous than Haejung’s.

“Killing Rara would be too easy.” She said in a steel tone. “Don’t you think?”

“Why do you think so, Hyorin?” Haejung inquired.

“Baekhyun will eventually move on from her death, like all mourning people do. Time heals all wounds. They become scabs. But aren’t we aiming for a wound that will remain hurting, something that platelets cannot take care of?”

Hyorin’s vile and nasty words intrigued Haejung; it even excited her. “What do you suggest then?”

“Let me erase Rara’s memories of being a vampire. Put that side to sleep mode.” Hyorin said. “Let Baekhyun walk on this earth knowing she is within reach, but cannot be touched, lest we’ll harm what Rara wanted to protect.” Rara’s face fell once she said those words, as opposed to Haejung’s, whose face lit up like a Christmas tree. Hyorin turned to Rara and looked at her with total indifference. “And let Rara live completely unaware of the phenomenal love that Baekhyun has, and will always have for her.” What the hell...Rara cursed in her head.

“Nothing will hurt more than being trapped in a cycle—wanting to do something so bad knowing it comes with a huge price, so you decide to remain motionless but you wonder, what if? What if she remembers me? What if she loves me all the same?” Hyorin’s mouth was like a rifle that shot bullet after bullet with no pauses. “And nothing will make you feel worse and deeply remorseful other than forgetting something truly epic—like once possessing a love that people write and dream about.”

Those sentences were one stone and it hit two birds critically, and those birds were undoubtedly Baekhyun and Rara.

As Baekhyun listened to what Hyorin had to say while he attended to Rara’s great grandfather, he tried to convince himself that this was better, way better than Rara dying. However, he wasn’t sure about living comfortably with the fact that she’ll forget him forever. And what’s even worse, she’s supposed to be untouchable; otherwise, the council will go after their family. It was better than having to visit her grave but what he was about to face came close. Very close.

“Marvelous.” Haejung remarked, clearly awestruck. “Proceed to the Animus Chamber, Hyorin. Take Rara with you.” She ordered. “Bora and I will speak with our guests for a while.”

This time, nobody opposed. It seemed like everything died down, and the verdict has been decided and is unchangeable.

The Animus Chamber was the only other room in the entire castle besides Cruor Hall that was not penetrable to anyone. It blocked the outside noise. Everything that will happen there will only exist in those four walls. It was ideal for interrogation; not even Luhan’s telepathy can infiltrate the Animus Chamber. Rara trailed behind Haejung as they walked through the hallways of the castle. “You couldn’t just let me die peacefully, can you?” Rara whispered in an angry tone.

“There is no easy way out.” Hyorin replied numbly as she pushed in keys inside the handle of two magisterial double doors. The doors creaked open and when they entered, Rara looked around at the classical paintings on the ceiling, and the golden accents of the entire chamber. The interior dripped of luxury and royalty, but it was empty. All that there was a large long table and one chair on one end. Hyorin closed the doors, and locked them.

“I knew there was no easy way out.” Rara grumbled. “But you didn’t have to choose the hardest path.”

“It is not easy, I admit,” Hyorin replied silently. “But it is the only way that promises the highest chance for you to reunite with Baekhyun.”

Rara was dumbstruck with what Hyorin had just said. Did she just imply that she chose such consequence just so she could end up with the very person they tried so hard to separate her from? “What?”

Hyorin smiled at her a little. “Can I ask you something?”

“...Sure.” Rara said unsurely.

“You are quite adept with black fire, yes?”

Rara nodded. “My skills kind of corroded at some point,” Hyorin knew that point was when she was pregnant. To chip away from her vampire roots meant to slowly lose her superhuman abilities and that included wielding fire. “but I’m good. Not as good as I was before, but you get the idea.”

“Back at Cruor Hall, the goal was to win against Baekhyun, isn’t it?” She asked. “Then why didn’t you attack him immediately using the most powerful type of fire? Isn’t it the only color he can’t dissolve? Wouldn’t it be easier to win that way, and without cheating? Why did you bother with the weaker types of fire? And why didn’t I see purple ones?”

Rara remained silent as Hyorin asked her all those questions.

“And Baekhyun, who was a werewolf, whose eyes are supposed to be keen as a sniper, why didn’t he slash deeper through your neck?” She questioned. “Why miss the vital arteries?” She added. “Why couldn’t he use light beams as an offensive weapon?”

“Why were you crying when he blinded you?”

“Why was he crying when he returned your eyesight?”

Silence turned into quiet tears. Rara knew exactly what the answers were but she’d rather keep it to herself rather than getting them out of . The fact that she even thought about the answers made her feel like there were iron thorns choking .

“You didn’t want to end it directly with black fire because you couldn’t do it. You resorted to orange and blue flames because it had the least damage to Baekhyun, and it was easy for him to disintegrate those flames. As much as possible, you shouldn’t have to use purple and black, not because you didn’t have enough strength to muster such fire, but because you aren’t capable of hurting him.”

Correct. Rara thought. I couldn’t find enough cruelty to pull that one off.

“Baekhyun probably aimed for that part of your neck purposely, because there’s not much damage it could do to your blood circulation.” She said. “And he didn’t like doing a lot of damage to you as much as you tried going easy with him.”

Yes. That is something that Baekhyun would do.

“Seeing you capture Baekhyun while being blind made me conclude that you weren’t crying because without your sense of sight, it could very well lead to your loss or because Baekhyun’s words about your flaws prior to taking away the light from your eyes deeply pained you, but it was because you loved him dearly that you could handpick his breathing in a concert crowd. And it hurt you because it suddenly dawned on you: you love him this much and you have to let him go.”

Rara closed her eyes deliberately, letting the tears fall. She put it into words...she put it into words...

“I’m pretty sure Baekhyun was hesitant to return your eyesight. Above all, I knew he didn’t want you to see him crumbling because then the pain it would cause you was a thousand times worse than his. And that was the reason why he was crying. Because he was going to hurt you with his own doing.”

Hyorin watched Rara wipe her tears with the sleeves of her shirt. She looked down, grinning at the floor. Despite the fact that the entire day had been thoroughly depressing, there was a pleasant feeling radiating inside her heart. “It all boils down to one thing: you did the things you did because love each other beyond comprehension. There is no other explanation for it.”

“I’ve never seen that kind of love with my two eyes before. And I’ve lived for a long, long time.” She said. “I decided that I’d like to see it more in the future.” She continued. “I said what I said, there is nothing more regretful than forgetting about something extraordinary such as the love you share with Baekhyun, but if you died, then you would have forgotten about it completely. So I couldn’t let you die.”

Admiration filled Rara; Hyorin had intentionally done this because she found their love worth saving. However, her relief didn’t last long, because even though she was grateful, what waited for her in the future was still the same as dying; only that her vampire side would die. She’d be human again, and not only for two months at most, but for who knows how long. “I would never remember it, anyway.” Rara muttered. “And Baekhyun would nev