wheein walks into the classroom, her books balancing themselves on her petite frame. twenty five other pairs of eyes stare at her as she enters the classroom, including the new professor’s. she’s late, but not by much. she doesn’t get why everyone is staring, nor does she care, really. ignoring the stares and the obvious glare from the professor, wheein drops herself on her seat, her books landing on the desk with a thud. 

“as i was saying, i’m your new professor for the year. you can call me miss solar, or professor solar,” the professor, now identified as miss solar, clears before continuing with her lesson. she starts to take their attendance. 

“ahn hyejin?” 

“here,” wheein’s best friend answers from the seat next to hers. for the next few minutes, wheein spaces out because her name won’t be called until ms solar gets to the names starting with “j”.

“jung wheein?”

“here,” she raises her hand half-heartedly, already bored. miss solar glances up at her, raising her eyebrows slightly, but not saying anything else. 

the class continues, miss solar is surprisingly good at her job, but wheein finds it hard to concentrate. she catches herself staring at her blonde-haired professor instead of listening to the lesson, her pencil sketching the faint outline of miss solar. 

sighing, wheein walks out of the classroom with hyejin after class. 

————————

that night, wheein receives a new file from her “boss”, supposedly. byulyi was more of a friend than a boss, but she was still the one paying wheein, so there wasn’t any complaints from wheein. 

she opens the file, excited for her new task. she hasn’t been assigned to hunt any vampires down for a while now, and the thought of it thrilled her. she wasn’t in any way a sadist, she just enjoyed the thrill of hunting down vampires. what happened to them after that wasn’t any of her concern. 

kim yongsun

• 200 year old vampire
• last seen near her apartment in seoul
• long blonde hair, approximately 161 cm in height

below the information was the address where she was last seen, and a list of the crimes she had done that made her wanted. 

wanted for

• turning humans into vampires without consent
• murder
• kidnapping of another vampire hunter
• putting vampires and vampire hunters at risk of being known

“jeez, this is the worst one yet,” wheein mutters to herself as she looks through the file. just below the list of crimes, there is a note from byulyi.

— this vampire is one of the most dangerous ones yet, approach with caution. good luck, wheein. 

two days later

wheein gears herself up for the hunt. she probably wasn’t going to bring her to byulyi today, the first time would always be to observe the target before acting. she would have to be very silent tonight. 

dressed in a full black outfit specially modified to withstand vampire attacks, wheein grabs a sleek dagger from the rack of weapons in the weaponry room. just in case, she takes a tranquilliser gun and hides another dagger in the back pocket of her outfit. deciding it would be safer to bring a short rope along, she ties it tightly around her waist and leaves. 

————————

wheein waits patiently for the woman to arrive at her apartment lobby. a streak of blonde hair comes into her view, followed by a slim figure dressed in a black coat. 

hidden behind a pillar, wheein peeks out to catch a glimpse of the woman’s face. 

miss solar?! 

she must be seeing things, there was no way her professor was a vampire! wheein shakes her head quickly and looks again. oh my god it is her! what do i do? sparing one last glance, wheein quickly retreats and heads back to her house. she doesn’t realise she’s been biting her lip until she tastes the metallic taste of blood. her mind is in a mess, still rearing from shock and not sure what to do now. wheein does the one thing she always does when she needs help. she calls hyejin. 

“h-hyejin can you please come over i know it’s almost midnight but i-i need help,” wheein is still breathless and lightheaded from the newfound information. 

“give me five minutes,” hyejin knows wheein wouldn’t call her this late at night sounding breathless unless it was something important, so she doesn’t question anything. 

***

“what’s wrong? are you okay?” hyejin lets herself in using the spare key and sits down beside wheein on her bed. 

“you know how i hunt vampires, right?” wheein asks. hyejin was also a close friend of byulyi, and though she didn’t much enjoy hunting down vampires as her night job, she would still support her friend who enjoyed it. 

“yeah, what about it?” 

“i-i was tasked to hunt down a vampire today and the vampire was miss solar,” wheein says quickly in one breath. 

“you what?” hyejin shakes her head, unbelieving. “you’re saying that miss solar is a vampire?” 

“yep,” wheein pouts slightly. “and i’m supposed to hunt her down and bring her to byulyi unnie,” with a big sigh, she falls back onto her bed, hyejin following soon after. “what am i supposed to do? i can’t possibly tell byulyi unnie that she’s my professor and i can’t hunt her down, can i? and besides, miss solar is wanted for a lot of things. hell, she’s wanted for murder, hyejin! she’s dangerous! how could someone like that be our professor? who even knows what else she could do?” wheein half-shouts in exasperation. 

“hey, come on now, wheein. i’m sure there’s a way out of this. there always is. remember when we moved from jeonju to seoul? we didn’t have anything, no apartment, no job, just a little bit of cash. and yet here we are, living in seoul with a purpose. you’ll get through this sooner or later, alright? for now, just sleep. i’ll be here when you wake up, okay?” hyejin’s comforting words always did make wheein feel better. 

“...okay,” wheein sighs again and closes her eyes, falling asleep in hyejin’s warm embrace.