The kitchen looked like a war zone. In their endeavor to make a strawberry shortcake together, Baëkhyun and Minji had created a mess with the ingredients. She wasn’t happy with him and his antics since they had caused the major part of this disaster.

“I told you not to open the flour yet!” she nagged at him. “It was so obvious you would knock it over!”

“It was an accident,” he growled. “Also, you knocked over the milk!”

“But that was because I flinched when you suddenly broke the cup! What are you, Hulk?! How is that possible with your bare hands?”

In her exasperation, and faced with his grumpy scowl, Minji began to laugh. She couldn’t believe what a stubborn idiot he was and the entire situation was more than hilarious in her eyes. They had just planned to make a simple cake, and now half of the ingredients were all over the floor along with shards of the shattered cup.

“Minji!” he complained. “Not my fault cups are so fragile.”

“We need to clean up before we can finish this,” she sighed and bent down to pick the shards up, but he was faster and swatted her hand away.

“No, you won’t touch this,” he said. “Sit on the chair and let me do it.”

Astonished, she straightened up, meeting his unrelenting eyes that told her he wouldn’t tolerate a no for an answer. To underline his point, he nodded his chin towards the chairs and table.

“Okay, you win,” she mumbled and carefully navigated past the shards on the ground to a chair where she sat down and watched him. The left sleeve of his black hoodie was covered in flour, the sight reminding her of snow. He was unphased by his messy appearance, flicking his braids over his shoulder as he bent down to collect the shards with his hands.

“Don’t cut yourself,” she reminded him, earning an amused gaze.

“You think this would be enough to hurt me?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as if she had suggested something ridiculous.

“Anyone can cut themselves.”

“I’m not anyone,” he replied arrogantly. “I’m superior to regular humans.”

“Oh, I forgot,” she retorted, a cheeky undertone in her voice. “You are actually a century-old vampire, isn’t that right?”

“Can you get any more random?” he chuckled. “I’m no ing leech.”

“Then what are you?” she asked jokingly.

“Many things.”

“Oh, how mysterious of you, Hyunnie.”

He smirked as he threw the shards in the trash. “Do you like mysterious men?” he asked.

“Only if their name is Hyunnie.”

He groaned, the sly smirk falling off his face. “Minji, can you not call me that? It destroys my demonic pride.”

“Y-Your what?” she gasped. “What does that mean?”

Realizing his mistake too late, he cursed inwardly. “Nothing… just forget about it.”

“Do you believe in demons?” she prodded carefully, recalling that he had made a comment similar to this one before.

“No,” he muttered. “Why would I?”

“You seem to like them…”

“I don’t think I do,” he replied as he dumped the shards in the trash. Looking around in the chaos, he wasn’t sure where to continue since their cake still was far from done. The dough had been sitting in a bowl untouched for a while, waiting to be baked.

She noticed his clueless expression and got up, deciding to help him out. If they didn’t hurry up, they wouldn’t be done with the cake any time soon. Minji grabbed the bowl with the dough and pushed it into his hands, telling him to put it into the cake pan and in the oven. In the meantime, she went to cut the strawberries she wanted to use as decoration later.

As she worked, she was once again reminded of the bandage on her left wrist. It had been bothering her for the past days since always got in the way and annoyed her greatly. She didn’t get why Baëkhyun wanted her to wear it since she didn’t feel any pain in her wrist anymore. Shouldn’t it be fine to take it off?

He caught her playing around with the bandage, his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Didn’t I tell you to leave it alone?”

Like a kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar, she quickly let go of the bandage. “But Baëkhyun,” she whined. “Why can’t I remove it?”

“It’s too soon,” he muttered seriously, his brows knitting. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Understand what?” she asked, raising her voice. Why couldn’t he just tell her? How bad could it be?

He took both of her hands, standing in front of her and watching her seriously. “Please, trust me on this. You will understand my reasoning when you remember everything.”

She heaved a sigh, frustrated and annoyed. Why was he so reluctant to answer such a simple question? It was mind-boggling!

“Let’s finish the cake, okay?” he said, and she nodded, making a mental note to bring the issue up again later.

While they waited until they could remove the cake from the oven, they began to clean up the kitchen, getting rid of the mess they had created. Minji prepared strawberry cream and put all the fruits in a small bowl. By the time the cake came out of the oven, the kitchen was spotless, a delicious smell hanging in the air. It was mouth-watering.

Minji added the pink cream once the cake had cooled down, Baëkhyun curiously looking over her shoulder. At last, she decorated their creation with a few strawberries—and then it was done.

“Perfect,” she whispered. “Now we only need to try it.”

“If it tastes the way it looks, it will be amazing,” Baëkhyun said.

“I will make coffee, and then we can try it,” she smiled. “Please put it in the fridge until then.”

With how longingly he stared at the cake, it was a wonder he didn’t just eat it right then and there. But he held himself back and put it in the fridge as she had told him to.

When she turned around to get two coffee cups, her eyes got stuck on something very peculiar. A small cat scurried through the doorway into the kitchen and it was glowing. She gasped and walked backward, away from the creature.

“What is that?” she asked, staring accusingly at Baëkhyun who looked uncomfortable and didn’t answer her. “There is a glowing, translucent cat in my flat and I want to know why!” she demanded hysterically, backing away from the animal. “What the is wrong with my head?”

“Calm down, okay?” he said. “I could tell you, but it would probably freak you out.”

“That’s reassuring to hear,” she answered sarcastically.

“All you need to know is that you don’t need to worry about it. The cat is a stray you took in. You named it Mochi.”

“Mochi,” she echoed, and the cat promptly perked up its ears, running to her and rubbing its body against her legs. She assumed it wanted to be picked up, looking at her with pleading golden eyes. However, Minji was reluctant to touch it. Whatever this cat was, it couldn’t be a regular animal, and she didn’t understand why she would ever let it enter her flat.

She was about to go full panic mode, and Baëkhyun’s peculiar evasiveness didn’t help at all. More than ever, she got the suspicion that he was keeping very crucial information from her, and she found herself wondering whether it had been a mistake to trust him so quickly.

She should know better.

Perhaps what was hidden on her wrist was even more peculiar than that cat, and perhaps he didn’t want her to see it because it was something bad…? She needed to get to the bottom of this. There was no way around it. She wouldn’t wait any longer, her patience had run out.

“I think I need some time alone,” she said to Baëkhyun.

He didn’t look too happy with the situation, but he nodded, frowning. Minji didn’t waste a second and hurried to her bedroom. He looked after her with a conflicted expression, wishing he could give her the answers she sought. If she at least remembered the existence of demons, all this wouldn’t be so complicated.

Minji closed the door behind her and grabbed a pair of scissors from her desk. No more excuses, the bandage had to go. Her hand was trembling in nervousness. Anxiously, she cut the bandage open, shaking it off.

Instantly, her wide eyes were drawn to a shining star on her skin. The sight was oddly familiar—and it plunged her right into a memory.

“Please, just go and leave me alone. I don’t want this,” she forced out, her voice shaking in terror. He stared at her wrist with narrowed blood-red eyes. As his anger grew, his eyes glowed brighter.

“What have you done?” he snarled, holding her wrist in an iron grip and pulling it towards him. “How is this possible? I’m not some low-class demon, this should never happen…”

He glared at the mark on her skin in disbelief, and she followed his gaze, terrified by what she saw. Now that he had touched her, the mark had changed. It wasn’t just a tattoo anymore. It appeared like a shining star, radiating blinding white light that reflected in her wide brown eyes.

What was that? Shocked, Minji stumbled back and hit the wall. The scissors clattered to the ground. This wasn’t the same person who had been with her for the past few days, or was it? This Baëkhyun had looked livid and ready to kill her—his eyes had been red. And this time, she hadn’t imagined it.

Her thoughts were going on a rampage in her mind. She was frozen by fear. Why had he yelled at her like that? How was he connected to this weird light on her wrist? She bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood, clawing at the light. It didn’t vanish no matter what she did, and it made her panic. Her breathing accelerated, became uneven.

“Hey, what are you do—” Baëkhyun started when he abruptly entered the bedroom. He noticed the missing bandage immediately, cursing under his breath.

“No, stop! Don’t come any closer!” she yelled hysterically, shocking him. He didn’t move and just stared at her, not knowing how to deal with this.

“Just what are you? Where does this thing on my wrist come from?” She covered it up with her hand because the sight freaked her out. At this point, she deeply regretted letting him into her flat without knowing anything about him. What the hell had she been thinking? How could she have been so stupid?

“Calm down, Minji,” he said and held his hands in front of him, the palms facing her. It was a gesture meant to calm her, but she was too anxious to care about it.

“I can’t! Who are you really?” she demanded to know. “You lied to me, didn’t you?”

“No, I just omitted a few things,” he sighed. “Let’s talk about this, okay? You must have remembered something… and I’m guessing it wasn’t one of the good memories.”

“It wasn’t!” she yelled, moving away when he took a step closer. “Stay where you are!”

“Fine,” he sighed defeatedly. “Whatever you saw, I’m sorry about it, but you don’t need to be scared. I would never hurt you.”

Her chest rose and fell with each rapid breath she took. All she could think of was how she could get him out of her flat, and how she could get rid of this freaky light on her wrist. Fingernails raking over her skin, she scratched at the damn thing. The scratches burned, but she didn’t care. She wanted the weird light to be gone.

“Minji, stop that!”

She ignored him, and Baëkhyun was at a loss for what to do. He’d never had to deal with a situation like this before, and he at comforting people. But he couldn’t let her hurt herself either, so he decided to interfere, whether she liked it or not. He strode through the room and took both of her wrists, holding them in between their bodies. She started struggling immediately, kicking and screaming at him to let go.

“Calm down,” he told her. “I won’t let go until you calm the down!”

She glared at him defiantly, while he grew more and more exasperated. How to deal with a human who didn’t believe a word he said? How to convince her otherwise?

“I am not here to hurt you,” he repeated. “If I wanted to, why would I take care of you? Why would I help you regain your memory? I wouldn’t bother to do any of this if I for some reason intended to harm you.”

He had a point, and even in her frantic state, she knew that what he said made sense. She drew in a breath, but her anxiety wasn’t easy to overcome.

“This is ed up,” she stuttered. “W-What are you?”

He exhaled and bit his lip. Conflict shone in his ruby eyes. It was clear he didn’t want to tell her, but he was driven into a corner now. He knew that he had to answer her. The damage was done and keeping more secrets would only aggravate it. She would either understand and accept the truth, or she would hate him. He hoped it wasn’t the latter, but given how she looked at him now, he was doubtful.

“I’m not human,” he began, slowly easing into the topic. His hold on her wrists was firm yet gentle. She quivered, causing him to sigh. “The truth is that I’m a demon.”

Aghast, her eyes widened considerably. He hated how scared she looked. The warmth in her gaze was long gone, instead he was faced with mistrust and doubts. He sensed the whirlwind of emotions in her—it was devastating.

“Why… why would I want to… to be with such a creature?” she hissed, appalled at herself and him. Her shock had her forget all the happy memories she had seen before. This was very hard to swallow for her. It wasn’t just the fact that demons were real, it was the fact that she had been so close to him without having an idea about his true i