It was early morning when Chani woke his mother with his coughing. Rushing to his side, his mother checked his forehead. “You’re not doing any better,” she said through his fits of coughs and wheezes. Retrieving another pillow, she helped prop his head on it so Chani could sit up higher and be able to breathe. His lungs were hurting so badly that he knew he had pneumonia; he had suffered from it before as a child.

As the day went on, Chani’s mother felt that he wasn’t going to recover. It was getting harder for him to breathe by the hour. To prepare for the worst, Chani’s mother wrote a letter to Minnie which asked her to come home soon due to Chani’s condition. Their mother spared no time to send the message and found a rider to deliver it immediately.

…

Sighing, Minnie stood from off the ground as she was almost finished with the bushes for the day. It was the last day she would have to atone for her crime, and she was wondering why Chani had stopped writing back. Breaking her from her thought, the sound of galloping horse hooves alerted her toward the garden entrance. As if someone had read her thoughts, the rider approached her with a letter addressed to her. She thanked the rider who left just as quickly as he was there.

A bad feeling crept its way into her mind as she began to open and retrieve the contents of the envelope. Scanning over the words, she felt sudden regret. Within a moment, Taeyang was behind her with a hand on her shoulder. “What is it?” he asked quietly. She turned to look at him with a sullen expression, “It’s my brother, Chani. He’s- He’ll probably die from pneumonia, and it’s all my fault.”

Crestfallen, her eyes darted to the dirt beneath her feet. She willed herself not to cry because she hated showing weakness. However, Taeyang could sense how she was feeling and gently hugged her. Then, he placed his chin on her head, “He’s going to be okay.” “No, he won’t. I have to go-” she began. “Wait until the morning. You’ve just finished work, and you need rest first or something could happen to you on the way back,” he proposed.

As tears began to form at the corners of her eyes, Minnie nodded before burying her face in his shirt to cry silent tears. Taeyang patted her back reassuringly and helped her get back to her room.

…

Opening her eyes to a dull pain forming in her head, Minnie stared up at the elaborate design of the ceiling in her line of sight. She felt exhausted from crying last night and knew that it would be hard for her to travel with too much haste in her condition. However, she willed herself to sit up anyway.

Then, she realized her right hand was being held by someone else’s. She immediately noticed Taeyang kneeling by her side at the edge of the bed with his head resting by their hands. After wondering why he was in her room, she came to the conclusion that he must have fallen asleep while being worried about her. Even still, Taeyang looked very peaceful right now. Trying not to wake him up, she pet his hair with the tips of her fingers.

In an instant, Taeyang’s eyes opened with no signs of fatigue at all. He sat up to face her properly. "Are you sure you're going to be alright?" he asked with concern. Minnie grimaced as she moved closer to him, "Yes."

Without another word, Taeyang swept her up in his arms. As they locked eyes, Minnie noticed how the light of the sun made Taeyang’s dark eyes look red. She would have liked to stay longer just to continue admiring the shine of his eyes, but she needed to get ready to leave soon.

Fighting against her own thoughts, she gave him a chaste kiss which he returned gladly. When they broke apart, Minnie noticed that the pain in her head was now nonexistent. “Is this what vampire kisses do?” she asked teasingly. “No, it’s just me,” he stated. She hit his arm playfully as if she didn’t believe him. “It’s true,” he explained, “Healing is one of my abilities.” She looked into his eyes again, “I know.” Then, they embraced each other for a short while before he left her to get ready.

Minnie packed a few things she was given and remembered to bring along her poison perfume as well. Taking one last long look at her room, Minnie went into the hall with her things. As she started on her way toward the castle  entrance, Inseong stopped her and gave her some breakfast to eat on the way back.

As she came into contact with the sunlight, Minnie had to squint to see where she was going. Standing by one of the rose bushes, Taeyang stood waiting for her. As she approached, he smiled and acknowledged her presence.

"The roses are healthy again," he praised, "You could be a gardener yet." Minnie rolled her eyes and broke into a smile. Taeyang smiled at his joke and spotted the poison in her hands, “Don’t kill anyone with that.” Minnie hugged the bottle with dangerous contents, “I make no promises.”

As the two made eye contact, Taeyang gave her a concerned look, “Be careful.” Minnie didn’t answer for a moment as she didn’t want to have to leave. When Taeyang still expected a reply, she finally said, “I’ll try.”

Zuho appeared from the castle as well because they had decided that he would help Minnie home. Just before Zuho had approached them, Taeyang and Minnie hugged each other again. He decided to discreetly wait for them to say their goodbyes without getting in the way.

Without alerting anyone, a powerful force had just finished forming in the crypt nearby. In one fell blast, an enormous coffin lid flew across the chamber of the crypt. Within seconds, a tall man with dark hair emerged and collected the remaining energy from the area around him. His fancy clothes were tattered, but he seemed to pay them no mind as he sensed something more intriguing which he wanted to investigate.

“Come back when you’re ready,” Taeyang told Minnie before pulling her into a soft hug. Right after this happened, the stern voice of a man was heard shouting, “Taeyang!”

Looking up in terror, Taeyang was faced with seeing none other than his father. Minnie could see a resemblance in their features, but she could also tell that they were not on good terms based on Taeyang’s reaction. His father’s state of clothing made him appear even more menacing as well.

“How did you- You were dead,” Taeyang was confused. Grinning wickedly, his father glared at him, “I guess I didn’t die as you hoped? Maybe, if you had stayed to watch long enough, you would have seen that my heart wasn’t damaged.” A pant of guilt hit Taeyang as he realized his father’s words were true.

“Anyway, I see that you still sympathize with the humans. They’re mere peasants. WE are royalty,” Taeyang’s father continued. Zuho, who had sped to Taeyang and Minnie’s aid, scoffed while rolling his eyes. This further enraged the evil king, and he charged toward the three with fury in his eyes.

Within seconds, Taeyang had taken Minnie’s bottle of poison from her hands and gave it to Zuho. Taeyang jumped away with Minnie from where they had been standing. Zuho knew what he had to do and tossed the dangerous substance at Taeyang’s father. When the glass broke, the king was immediately affected by a violet cloud of poison. Falling to the ground, he appeared to have been defeated, but they knew all too well that it wouldn’t last.

“I’ll go with you. We need to get you home safely,” Taeyang explained to Minnie. She nodded in a daze as she was in slight shock from when Taeyang had jumped with her earlier. He turned to Zuho, “You know what to do.” “Yeah,” Zuho started toward Taeyang’s father.

Without another word, Taeyang carried Minnie on his back as he proceeded to run as fast as he could down the dirt road. He hoped they could get far enough away that his father wouldn’t be able to track them, but he knew his father wouldn’t stop looking for them.