Momo was carrying Dahyun, but Sana held one of the fairy’s hands in her own, her hair as they went. It was a deep shade of blue. Sadness was what Sana had said the colour meant. Momo couldn’t stop scanning the girl’s face, upon which scars had spread the moment she fell asleep. She couldn’t even guess how those had gotten there. The sight saddened her, but it also made her angry. 

“Do you think they did that to her?” Sana’s hand paused at the scar across Dahyun’s jaw. A part of Momo expected her to be jealous of the tender look in the girl’s eyes. The other part thought this all felt completely normal. 

“If not them, who else?” She hardly knew who "them" was, only that they were Dahyun's own people. 

A sad smile. “Another story for another day?” The smile faded. “Or never.”

“What makes you say that?” Momo could hear the distant murmurs of the girls. Dahyun had run surprisingly fast and far. She’d thought they were going to have to tackle her at one point. She was glad they hadn’t needed to. 

“After today,” Sana trailed off, “what if she never shares anything about herself again? She was ready to leave. Forever.”

Her eyes burned at that thought. There had been so many tears today. Out of all of them, Dahyun had cried the most. She had never thought she’d see someone break down like that, especially not her. But she had. It had been different to when she'd had the fear attack. This had completely overwhelmed her. Everything she’d pushed down since her capture had been forced to the forefront. 

“I think she’d tell us” Momo said slowly. The fairy’s skin glowed in the moonlight. “But like everything else she does, it would take time.”

“And we have a lot of that.” Then Sana's gaze turned thoughtful, her hand lingering again on a scar. “Something I still can’t wrap my head around is how long she’s been here.” A chuckle. “I asked her that same thing, and she thought I meant her age.”

“She arrived,” Momo trailed off. When had Dahyun arrived? She'd thought the answer would be obvious. 

She smiled slightly. “You can’t tell either, right?”

But she had to have known that, right? It was a simple answer. Weeks? Months? 

“Another thing to figure out,” Sana sighed, “later.” 

Seconds of silence passed. Then the other vampire spoke again. 

“Do you think she’ll stay this time? Or run away the moment she thinks we’re in danger.”

Momo didn’t reply immediately. The first answer was no, but after tonight, after seeing how torn Dahyun was, how she couldn’t understand the fact that they didn’t want to go, her answer was probably wrong. And the deciding factor wasn't Dahyun thinking she was in danger, but worrying about them. 

“I want her to stay.” That was the only thing she could say. 

“Me too,” Sana said softly. 

Momo turned to face her. The other vampire’s eyes were still glassy, but the gaze was full of confusion. 

“We’re not going into it today,” she said. “But I think we’ll have to talk about,” how could she put it, “this. Soon.” 

Thankfully, Sana understood what she meant. “We will.” 

They walked on in silence. Dahyun’s breathing was even. It hadn’t been since this afternoon when the vampire attacked. Momo listened to it. As she did so, she was overcome with a feeling of warmth. With it came a degree of fear. How had a person managed to make her feel this way? She felt so at peace just hearing that her breathing was easy. She felt so happy that this girl trusted her enough to fall asleep like this. 

She wondered how Dahyun had managed to make her care. So much. Pull her in so far that the thought of her leaving hurt. Was this attachment? It was exactly the sort of dread she’d felt in the past. When she fell for a human. She'd known they would one day die. And they had. That grief had caused her to push many away, but why did she not want to do the same now?

When they reached the house, the other six girls ushered them in.

“And you really didn’t knock her out and bring her here?” Jeongyeon asked. Her eyes were puffy. Momo could count the times on her hand that the older vampire had cried in front of them.

“It took some time, but she agreed when she saw how much we wanted her to stay,” Sana replied, a small smile on her face. 

“So you let her look through your emotions?” Mina asked. “All of them?” 

They both nodded. They’d stood there, all three half in tears, silent as Dahyun peeled back the layers of their emotion. From what she’d told them about emotions, that was as close as exposing their souls to her. Or were those core emotions their souls?

The pink-haired vampire didn’t say anything more. There was just a thoughtful edge to her gaze. Again.

“Hungry?” Jihyo asked. “We’ve been craving that pizza.” 

Momo smiled slightly. They’d waited for them. 

“We should take her upstairs,” she nodded at Dahyun, “had a long day.”

“So have you,” Nayeon said. “So if you don’t come back down, I’ll know our pizza is safe.” She winked. 

Momo chuckled, giving her a pout. “One for the road?” 

Sana stuck a slice in , holding one for her self. It was cold, but still tasted great. 

The sounds of a movie started behind them. They were probably all drained by Dahyun’s story. Momo definitely was. While it was always obvious that something troubled the fairy, she'd never expected it to be so deeply ingrained in her. There was so much pain, so much guilt—it was eating away at her. Could they heal those wounds? Or would they remain like the scars scattered across Dahyun's body?

She set the fairy down on the bed, her slice of pizza already eaten. As she was pulling away, a hand closed around her wrist. Its grip was feeble. Momo could have gotten her to let go without any real effort. She didn’t. 

There was a murmur, but she couldn’t understand it. She’d heard the fae language before, so she recognised the way she drew out the words. She looked at Sana, whose hand had also not been let go of. She didn’t seem to know what Dahyun had said either. 

The next word was in English, but they understood that easily. 

“Stay.”

The vampires exchanged another look. Then both got on the