Dinner was quiet. They were all tired. Dahyun was actually hungry. And Momo’s thoughts were all over the place. 

“So what was the project about?” Tzuyu asked. 

The fairy lifted her head, still chewing on her food. Then she swallowed. “Which one?”

Momo swore she saw Tzuyu glance her way. She wasn’t sure if she should be grateful for the youngest’s words or absolutely mortified. 

“Literature.”

“Ah! It was Shakespeare. Still,” Dahyun frowned, “we needed three factors to write about. Irene chose love, about which I hadn’t much idea. So I chose revenge and we looked at the soliloquies together. Something that also helped me get a better grip on the English language.” A smile. “It can be rather beautiful.”

“Was she easy to work with?” Nayeon asked. 

Dahyun nodded. “Perfect actually. She didn’t know how to pick up on the subtleties of spite. I didn’t pick up on, well,” she laughed, “anything when it came to the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet.” 

Momo knew she was supposed to be happy that Dahyun was figuring things out organically, that she was getting to know other people. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but note the fact that Dahyun understood revenge and not love. Yet at the forefront of her mind was the word 'perfect'. To describe Irene. She almost felt ashamed that this was the thing she was focusing on. 

"Did perfect Irene help you figure it out?" Sana asked, a bite in her voice.

Dahyun looked taken aback. Her smile disappeared. "Not really, you can’t exactly ask what a healthy relationship is to look like out of nowhere.” 

“You could just ask us,” Chaeyoung said. “Maybe not Jeongyeon and Nayeon, because I don’t understand that relationship after centuries of living with it. But the rest of us have an idea.” 

Momo didn’t think she did. Not at all. 

“I’m sure you do, Chaeng,” Nayeon said. Then she threw a pointed look at Mina. “You’re not the best when it comes to acting on your feelings. Neither of you are.” 

The two girls blushed. Chaeyoung whacked the eldest vampire on the arm. 

Dahyun’s smile widened. Then her brow furrowed. 

“I know it’s mutual, causes or creates happiness in the other, involves communication,” she said slowly. “But these are all things not shown to you in a book or film. They're nothing like real life.”

Mina nudged her. “Also, most of us can’t see things the way you do.” 

“Right,” her eyes went to her lap, “I’ll show you how that looks one day. All of you if you’d like. Unless your experience with love is painful.” Her face fell. “Then I won’t even reach for it if you don’t want to.” 

Momo felt a pang of distant pain. One of loss and longing. She wondered if Dahyun had seen that yesterday. 

“Any questions?” Jeongyeon asked. “Contrary to what the cub says, we’re great at relationships.” She winked at Nayeon. Everyone but Dahyun rolled their eyes or gagged. 

“Why would a person not acknowledge the love they feel for another?” Dahyun asked. “That’s not quite the case in Hamlet, but I’ve seen it elsewhere.” The physics look appeared. “And then conflict arises from a refusal to communicate? I don’t understand why it’s difficult. If you love, you love, do you not? It’s not an emotion to reject.” 

The table went quiet. Why had they opened this conversation? Momo’s heart had sped up just from a simple question. Well, it wasn’t that simple. She glanced at Sana who was staring at the table. The other girl looked like she wanted to leave the room. Momo almost expected her to. 

“Should I,” Dahyun chewed on her lip, “make the question clearer? I’ve written it down. Maybe that’ll,” she started to stand. 

To everyone’s surprise, including her own, Momo spoke up. It was like jumping from a cliff and into the water. Once the first step was taken, you couldn't take it back. “People don’t face their feelings because they’re scared.”

Her eyes widened. “Fear and love?” she murmured. Then another flow of words followed, hardly above a whisper. Her language. “Why be afraid?” She sat back down, her eyes fixed on Momo. 

“It’s because,” she trailed off. Then she remembered what she’d told Sana. “Once you tell someone how you feel, you’re vulnerable to the person you love. You’re exposed.”

“To what? Fear?” The look in her eyes was one of burning curiosity. Momo felt nervous being at the centre of Dahyun’s attention. Yet she didn’t want to look away. 

“Getting hurt,” Sana said. They all looked at her. “Being dependent is never healthy, but falling in love will always make you rely on the other.”

"But they make you happy,” Dahyun said. She was looking at the space around them. "That's a good thing. A wonderful thing actually. It isn't something to avoid." Her eyes had completely glazed over. What was she looking at?

"Not always," Sana shook her head, "because if they can do that, they can take it away again.”

The fairy broke out of whatever trance she’d been in. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out. Her eyes flicked between Sana and Momo for a second. 

“Is that,” she cut herself off. “Thank you all for talking to me about this. If my questions are too much, never hesitate to tell me.” A broad smile broke out on her face. Momo could hear the fairy’s heart pounding. “I think I might have an idea,” she stood, “I’ll be back, but I have to—how to say it—dive into the emotions. It’s better if I’m alone.” And with that, she left.
______
Dahyun’s mind was buzzing. She hadn’t felt this invigorated, or this confused, in quite some time. 

Love and fear. It should have been a contradiction. It was a contradiction. But she knew they could exist parallel to one another. She hadn’t meant to, but she’d seen it happen in Chaeyoung and Mina, the remnants of it at least. She had also seen it in Sana and Momo, Sana especially. 

She wanted to tell each of them what an emotion like love could do for fear, hatred, and sadness—what it could do against it. At least what she suspected it could do. She almost had. Yet those were things where, even if they only had Dahyun's suspicions, their minds would be endangered. A mental fae could follow memories easily, but they needed the right thread to follow. If none of the girls knew the power of emotions like happiness or love, there was a far greater chance that they would be ignored by the rest. The less risky option would always be prioritised. Dahyun needed to make sure she chose that option. Now she just had to figure out a way of how to do that. 

Her feet brought her to an unfamiliar part of the forest. She had been here before, but not consciously. As she examined the calm around her, she also watched the animals around her. She thought of hunting. She hadn’t needed to hunt for the longest time. Eating the prepared foods of the humans was far easier, even if the first