“You smell like... human...”

Even though her nose told her so. Even though she said those words by herself. Even though the sad smile of SinB and how Eunha avoiding making eye contact with her told everything. Yerin could not force herself to believe it. She prayed for it to be another mistake, another fake identity they set up. She prayed that the dark orbs were just another magic that this era was able to perform. However, she could not lie to herself anymore. The fact that her used-to-be half-blood sister was now a mere human was undeniable. Yerin could not make herself to believe the fact. But after a while putting all the pieces together, it finally made sense to her. Eunha’s guilt. Yewon’s unbelievable story. And the change in SinB’s scent.

No. Actually, she dared to say that she was the only one who gave out a different scent from the others in this room. Tracing her gaze from the pink-haired girl to the two shortest girls in the room then finally stopped on the detectives. They were all humans. Or it was what her vampiric smelling sense was trying to convince her.

“I told you before, that SinB is special, did I?” Breaking the cold atmosphere, Eunha spoke carefully in a low voice. “Her blood possesses such a great power that whoever tasted her blood will be given a great boost in their biological system. For a vampire like me, not only my strength is boosted but also my scent as a vampire is erased. My craving for blood is also decreased to the point that I only require an amount of blood occasionally to maintain my abilities. The only traits you can distinguish me from a normal human are my eye colors, and vampiric senses and powers. That’s how I’m able to adapt  my new life and mingle with the human society.”

Eunha gazed at the young doctor, sighing heavily. “For a human, the effect is even more fruitful. I know about Yewon-ssi, the only human SinB used to give her blood too. But I just recently found out about the effect that the blood did on her body recently. I did my research and background check on her to be more certain and finally, I found my conclusion. Yewon-ssi is bound to SinB’s soul.”

Eunha emphasized the last word, which made Yerin dumbfounded for a moment. The pink-haired girl reassuring the blond girl with a firm grip on her hands before taking the lead to explain to the raven-haired girl.

“Previously, I introduced myself as both Oh Haneul and Hwang Eunbi. Both of them are my real identity. My body, my life belongs to a girl name Oh Haneul whom you’re looking at right now.” SinB smiled weakly. “However, my mind and my memories belong to the one hybrid girl who used to be your sister, Hwang Eunbi. I’m carrying the memories of 600 years since the time I can remember. It’s the price I have to pay for such a great power I possess.”

“SinB...” Yerin said softly in concern.

“I’m immortal. But not like you, or Eunha-unnie. Not like Yewon whose life is bound to mine. I can die. I can be killed by any causes just like a normal human. However, death means to me as my physical body perishes. My soul lives on and reincarnates to another body, carrying all the memories from my past life. I may have different faces, different names, but I’m still fully aware of myself being Hwang Eunbi. I’ve been always reborn as a human. But whoever I become, the blood running inside my body remains the same one that Organization has been seeking for. The only proof for my vampire persona’s existence. Every time I died, I found myself waking up in another place, another family, with strangers who called themselves as my parents. I grew up, pretending I was a normal child until Eunha-unnie found me and we faked our relationship to avoid suspicions. We would have a peaceful life before the Organization found me and we were forced to run away again.”

SinB sighed heavily. Her body was slightly trembling as she recalled her past. The raven-haired girl wrapped her arms around the young girl’s slim waist, consoling and encouraging her to continue.

“The real price I have to pay for the fate I’m forced to have since I was born is crueler. My recovery rate is the same for humans. And my blood can’t cure myself. Therefore, when I suffer a life-threatening wound, the only way for me to end the pain is to rip off my heart from my chest and crush it into pieces.” Hearing that, Yerin’s face was painted in horror and fear. SinB ignored the pain on her hands from the tight grips of the blond girl. “Only by doing that, I’m able to reincarnate. I can’t die because of aging either if I want to live on. So I don’t think there are any lives that I’ve been living which I managed to stay alive for more than 40 years. I think I’ve already lost count on how many times I have reincarnated.”

No words could describe how Yerin felt. She could not imagine how SinB went through everything. Just by hearing the story, she already felt how harsh it sounded like. And yet both SinB and Eunha had to repeat that loop for god knows how many times it had been. Agony. The blond gently pulled both of the girls into her arms, allowing the pink-haired girl to rest her head onto her shoulder. Eunha melted as she felt the vulnerable girl in front of her shaking softly, following a long and audible sigh from the younger girl.

“Did it hurt a lot?”

Yerin whispered with care. SinB just nodded, burying her face deeper into the crook of the white soft neck. The blond girl bit her lips, trying to hold back her anger and sorrow. She felt so useless. Guilty. There was no way she could soothe the pain SinB was suffering. She unconsciously put the burden and responsibility to the two girls who were her only family, her most favorite people in the world. Moreover, she felt sorry for Eunha. The petite girl must have witnessed everything and yet she managed to stay strong, keep her composure and carry her duty as SinB’s protector flawlessly. Now Yerin understood why SinB and Eunha could not hold back their tears when she returned.

As the atmosphere was too emotional, the senior detective could not bring herself to break it. After hearing all the stories, she understood the whole situation. Witnessing everything with her own eyes, if SinB’s blood was that precious, looking how it affected a human-like Yewon, Sojung knew why there were so many people desire her. Both humans and vampires. That was why they needed to catch her alive since their lives would be bound to the girl. The longer the girl lived, the same thing happened to them. But that meaned SinB would go through unbearable pain so many times, just to satisfy their selfishness. Rubbing her temples gently to ease a slight headache, the purple-haired girl darted her gaze to the young doctor, who seemed to be empathized with the vampire sisters. Suddenly, she remembered something. The last question she had in mind. She turned to her partner, who quickly noticed her and bit her lips in uneasiness. Since the beginning of this whole thing, Yuna had been strangely calm. Way too calm for a young girl who just learned about a hidden supernatural world. Furthermore, Eunha confirmed that besides SinB, Yewon and Yuna were also their targets.

It was pretty clear why SinB was chased. For Yewon, Sojung guessed that because she was the only human who had drank SinB’s blood. Therefore, the Organization would want to capture her and do some experiments on her to be more accurate on how SinB’s blood worked on the human body. But what about Yuna? What did she have to do with this? Now that she actually thought about it, she knew very little about the girl. Besides she was a junior detective with an amazing record. She knew nothing about her background, her family, and her past even though they had been working together for more than a year. She was hurt a little. But she was a thoughtful person. Yuna must have a reason to hide her real identity from her. However, the truth was revealed. She wanted to know everything, including about the people she would be working with.

“Yuna, how about you?”

Sojung carefully asked. Her voice was as friendly as possible since she would not want to sound like she was interrogating the girl. The question caught everyone’s attention as the vampires slowly broke their embrace and turned to the detectives. Yerin and SinB were as curious as Sojung since they did not know anything about Yuna. But for Eunha, she was the one who knew the most. Yuna flinched slightly at the sudden question, looking at the composed raven-haired. The red-haired received a green light from the girl, sighing heavily. Carefully, she raised her hands up to her eyes and took out which had been contact lens all the time, revealing a pair of pure crimson orbs, just like’s Eunha. The sight startled almost everyone.

“What is the meaning of this?” Sojung exclaimed in disbelief. She stared at the crimson orbs. Yuna smiled weakly before her angelic voice spoke up.

“My real name is Yuju. And I’m a vampire working as a spy for the Jung family.” Yuju shot an apologetic gaze toward the blond girl. “I’ve been working under Jung Yonghyun’s command, Yerin-nim.”

Yerin was left dumbfounded at the mention of her father. She could not catch the piece of the information. Since when her family had a spy? And what did her father have anything related to this? Why didn’t she know anything about this matter? Moreover, was this girl even telling the truth?

Noticing how the blond girl looked at her with a skeptical gaze, Yuna stood up. In slow motion, she undid the two top buttons of her shirt, revealing her attractive collarbones to everyone. A red cross, the family crest of the Jung clan was tattooed just right above her cleavage. It was the same symbol used to be on SinB’s eyepatch, proving that Yuna really knew her father.

“I honestly don't know exactly what were Uncle Yonghyun’s real intentions behind this.” Eunha sighed. “But Yuju-ssi was the last member of a special squad established by Uncle in secret, far away from the Vampire Council’s eyes. The squad consisted of orphaned vampires who were rescued prisoners of Yunkyu. Instead of sending them to the Council’s medical center, Uncle Yonghyun brought them back to a secured place, giving them a new name, a new life. Raising and training all of them by himself. Once they all grew up, he assigned different missions to each one of them. For Yuju, her mission had been one and only since she was taken in by Uncle.”

Eunha paused, wondering if she should continue. Seeing that, Yuna decided to talk for herself.

“My mission was to assassinate Mr. Kim since Yonghyun-nim had evidence to prove his betrayal. But as you might know, I failed in my task, leading to the fall of the Vampire world and the death of your father.”

Kneeling on her knees, Yuna bowed at the blond girl. Her forehead touched the floor.

“It was my fault that your father passed away. I don’t have any excuse for my failure. I will accept any punishment for my act, Yerin-nim.”

Looking at the bowing girl, Yerin felt numb. She should be angry at the girl who indirectly caused the death of her dear father. She should be in rage and take revenge on the girl. However, being the kind and reasonable girl, she knew that the real culprit was always their common enemy, Mr. K. Seeing the shaky fists of the red-haired girl when she mentioned about Yonghyun, Yerin knew that the girl cared and loved her father as much as she did. Slowly approaching Yuna, the blond girl lowed herself to the detective’s level, lifting her head up gently.

“I’m not mad at you. And I’m sure my father would never blame you for anything. Mr. K is still alive, which means your mission hasn’t been completed yet. Therefore, you haven’t, failed anything. Keep your head up, Yuju-ssi.”

Yerin’s words touched the deepest corner in her heart. Yuna held back her tears, mumbling her gratitude several times to the older girl. Then she apologized to the senior detective for keeping secrets from her, who just shrugged it off thoughtfully. Sojung knew how complicated it was and she completely understood the girl’s reasons. But then another question came up in her mind.

“Does it mean that the Organization knew about Yuna’s real identity so they’re seeking for her too?”

“Not really. For now, she isn’t targeted by the Organization. Only Yewon and SinB are.” Eunha answered. “However, the reason why she is involved in this mess is for the similarities she shares with me. Yuju-ssi is the first person who was exposed to SinB’s blood.”

SinB darted her gaze from Eunha to Yuna, not knowing what to say anymore. Despite being so close to the petite girl, Eunha was hiding more things then she could ever imagine.

“It was the Council’s policy. When the rescued Yunkyu’s prisoners were brought back to the medical center, they would be going through several check-ups before undergoing rehabilitation. They also took a blood sample for poison detecting. Although it sounded really outrageous, Uncle Yonghyun took SinB’s blood sample back to his hidden camp and tested it on Yuju-ssi. That was how he found out about SinB’s true ability."

Inhumane. Of course, they were not human literally but it wasn’t a moral thing to do. To do an experiment on a person. She knew her father had his reason to do such things. But she could not find any excuses to defend his illegal acts. The whole thing was more messed up than she expected. Disappointment. Yerin rubbed her nose bridge gently. It had been a really gloomy conversation since the beginning but it started to become overwhelming by many senses. Seeing the exhaustion on everyone’s face, Eunha decided to end the conversation, saving the rest for later. Since Yewon was confirmed to be another target, Eunha invited her to stay in her mansion. At least the young doctor would be well guarded by her telepathy than going back to her own apartment. As for the two detectives, the raven-haired girl also asked them to move in also since the Organization had seen their faces. There were only three rooms in the mansion but they were grand enough for two people sharing each comfortably.

After everyone had agreed on the deal, Eunha called Yuna and Yerin to go out with her. She needed to take care of everyone’s paper to erase any visible traces they left behind as well as Yewon’s and SinB’s resignation. The Organization knew where they worked so they could not continue their jobs anymore. However, Eunha clearly could handle everything by herself, except for one thing that she needed Yuna’s help. She needed to create a new identity for Yerin in order for her to start her new life after the long sleep. But the blond girl did not want to leave the house at all as she was afraid of leaving SinB alone in the house.

“You’re being over-protective, Yerin-unnie. This house is surrounded by my barrier. If any intruders show up within the 50-meter radius area, I will be alerted and we will come back immediately. Besides, my barrier isn’t that easy to penetrate.” Eunha shrugged.

“But do I really have to go? It’s just paperwork, isn’t it?” Yerin whined.

“I hate to break it to you but yes, you have to. Registering citizenship requires your physcial presence. Furthermore, you need a makeover.” Yuna replied with a grin on her face. “No offense but your hair really stands out a lot.”

“What’s wrong with my hair? Yours is red and SinB’s is pink. Not to mention the giraffe has two colors.”

“Giraffe?” Sojung arced her brow in annoyance.

“True but these colors are this year’s trend. And no matter how you look at us, we still have the face of a Korean. But you... with your blond hair, and your fair skin, you look more like a foreigner than an Asian girl.”

“Korean? Foreigner? Asian?”

Yerin gave the girls a confusing face. Eunha and Yuna looked at each other then sighed in unison while Yewon and SinB giggled in amusement. Sojung decided to stay quiet as she was still bothered by how the blond girl mentioned about her previously.

“It seems that the story time hasn’t ended yet.” Eunha shook her head lightly then dragged the blond girl upstairs to get change. “Let’s get changed then go out as soon as possible. I’ll update all the information for you on our way.”

The blond girl protested but since the raven-haired girl was stronger than her at the moment, she just silently went with the flow. As the two girls were about to leave, Sojung stopped Eunha from her track with another curious question of hers.

“Wait. What about me?”

“What about you?” Eunha stared back at her.

“What am I related to this whole situation?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Of course.”

Eunha smirked. She answered casually then disappeared along with Yerin behind the wall, leaving a giraffe dumbfounded, not sure how to react.

“Nothing. You’re just an unfortunate human girl who accidentally gets caught in everything.”