What was the right course of action when one’s former lover leaves to start a whole other rival kingdom and now plans to marry another man? Chanyeol’s course of action was to storm into their castle and attempt to convince that former lover, Kyungsoo, to return to him.

 

Whether that was the right decision or otherwise, Chanyeol only knew that his feelings for Kyungsoo were strong and were what mattered. All reason was lost to Chanyeol and he only did what he wanted because he knew what he wanted.

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were both vampires from the kingdom of Nightsong. Vampires were one of the few races that co-existed alongside other races such as humans, elves, werewolves, and dwarves.

 

According to their tens of thousands of years of rich history, vampires all descended from a single progenitor, the first vampire named Lilu. It just so happened that Lilu happened to be Kyungsoo’s direct ancestor, thus making Kyungsoo vampire royalty.

 

 

 

Chanyeol was never concerned about the noble and structured lifestyle vampires liked to lead. In fact, he thought vampires were rather stiff and snobbish compared to the more simplistic lives the other races lived.

 

Chanyeol just didn’t understand why they had to speak formally, act a certain way and why stiff collars, cravats, and black velvet coats had to be a dress code for them when he once saw an elf hunting in the woods wearing nothing but a string of leaves around their waist.

 

 

 

 

But yet, Chanyeol didn’t say no when his older sister got him a job through connections in the royal family’s palace. Even if it meant he had to be subject even more to the pedantic customs that vampires had to follow and maintain. A job was a job after all and Chanyeol would take anything that got his mother to stop pestering him about finally moving out.

 

The monarch system was something else Chanyeol couldn’t agree with. If the dwarves could have a democratically elected council of leaders, why couldn’t the vampires do the same?

 

 

 

 

However, it was there at the palace where Chanyeol first met Kyungsoo, the second prince of the current Queen of the vampiric kingdom. Kyungsoo was a spare while his older brother was the heir. Kyungsoo wasn’t expected to take over the throne under any normal circumstances but he had duties to perform to assist the royal family.

 

 

 

 

It was Kyungsoo who first expressed an interest in Chanyeol and took the initial steps to get to know each other. Chanyeol was just confused why a prince would be interested in him and honestly missed all the messages and hints that Kyungsoo was giving him.

 

But Chanyeol did come to enjoy Kyungsoo’s company and began to see him as a friend until Kyungsoo became the first to confess his feelings for Chanyeol one cold and silent wintry night.

 

Chanyeol didn’t know how to turn down Kyungsoo and although he thoroughly enjoyed the latter’s company, he wasn’t sure if he truly wanted to be with a prince because it meant being tied down to this life he didn’t quite enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

It took some more time before Chanyeol could accept that he was now dating Kyungsoo and a bit more time before he realized he was head over heels in love. Then suddenly, all the stiffness in the vampiric culture that used to bother him no longer mattered because it meant that he could continue being with Kyungsoo.

 

A few years later after they began dating, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo married, thus making Chanyeol a member of the royal family where he was even more made to speak formally, dress formally and drink his cup of blood with one pinky up.

 

But Chanyeol accepted that as long as he could wake up every night next to Kyungsoo and spend the rest of his long life with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Together, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo raised two sons and a daughter until they themselves became adults. Almost a century since they were married, they still looked almost the same as they did when they first met, maybe only aged a bit in the range of a few years of a human’s lifespan. Vampires weren’t immortal, just very resilient and long-lived compared to most.

 

But things outside of their control fell apart and eventually drove Kyungsoo and Chanyeol away from each other.

 

 

 

 

The vampires were embroiled in civil war due to a difference in ideology and governance between Kyungsoo’s mother, the reigning Queen, and his grandfather, the abdicated former King who decided he wanted to return to power once more.

 

Kyungsoo took his mother’s side and so did Chanyeol. Their side won and Kyungsoo’s grandfather’s faction was pushed outside their kingdom to live in exile on an isle far up south where the sun shone bright, a punishment to the nocturnal race of vampires.

 

 

 

 

It seemed that it was peaceful again until Kyungsoo realized the absolute price of their victory which was devastation, great loss, and a permanent scar in the vampire’s legacy.

 

Kyungsoo was never just happy because his side won and day by day, he became more clear at the weakness of his mother’s reign and his grandfather’s regret at passing the throne to her. There was a huge price paid for the victory and Kyungsoo felt the utter brute of it.

 

But there wasn’t much Kyungsoo could do when he was merely a spare to the throne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chanyeol could see Kyungsoo’s change of heart and eventually found out he had been communicating with his grandfather who was now rebuilding a second vampire civilization with his followers far up south.

 

In this new kingdom, Kyungsoo was promised that he would have a say in rulemaking and also be appointed as its heir, where he could finally have the power he so needed to make his visions come true.

 

Chanyeol begged Kyungsoo to change his mind, fearing that he would lose Kyungsoo forever.

 

 

 

 

“Please do not leave me,” were Kyungsoo’s words to him that one night in their room when Chanyeol finally confronted Kyungsoo about his impending betrayal.

 

Snow fell outside as the silence enveloped the night and their actions changed the course of their lives forever and permanently.

 

 

 

“But you are the one who is about to leave me,” Chanyeol trembled, confused and fearful.

 

“You are aware of how I feel, that I do not belong here. I no longer derive happiness from my state, Chanyeol. I do not feel wanted as much as I am just needed and you are aware of this,” Kyungsoo uttered the words that Chanyeol felt like was more of him to say instead.

 

“I always want you, Kyungsoo, until the end of my time,” Chanyeol gasped in disbelief.

 

“You know I do not mean you, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo replied, grabbing Chanyeol’s hands with his own, “Come with me, Chanyeol. We’ll leave this all behind, we’ll make a place for ourselves, a place where we finally feel like we belong. Where nobody else has to die and lose their lives unnecessarily. Our children may leave with us if they wish to.”

 

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Chanyeol shook his head, still in the shock of the uncertainty.

 

“I am leaving this very night, Chanyeol. I have made up my mind and I want you with me. I believed you would go anywhere and do anything for me, so why won’t you make this sacrifice and leave with me?” Kyungsoo’s grasp on Chanyeol’s hands loosened but he still held them.

 

“I do love you very much Kyungsoo, truly and still, but this is a hard decision for me to make. I wish I had the answer to tell you why but it scares me to leave into the plane of the unknown,” Chanyeol spoke, exasperatedly, “It’s not as if you’re telling me to go leave with you into a nice and cozy house by a river. You’re basically telling me to uproot my entire life to go and build a different kingdom with you.”

 

“So you would stay here even if it means being without me? So you would choose to stay here over being with me?” Kyungsoo confronted, letting go of Chanyeol’s hands, “If so, then I do not understand your love. Had you been in my position, I wouldn’t have thought twice to leave when you asked to. Is that too much for me to ask of you!?”

 

“I’m afraid so,” Chanyeol admitted, strangely feeling calmer at the realization of his loss, “I apologize that I am not as strong as you need me to be. I do not have the strength to uproot my entire life to leave into an unknown place with you. Even if this life I lead now was not something I even dreamed of, I embraced it and became a part of it. I don’t think I can do that yet again, Kyungsoo. It’s not a commitment I can make.”

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo held back his tears but it was obvious to anyone that he too was devastated that they could not see eye to eye regarding this decision, and also maybe at the realization that their love wasn’t actually strong enough to overcome this adversity.

 

Kyungsoo never saw this coming or that their lives would eventually change this much, but he only blamed himself. After all, it was him who initiated their relationship and he also took fault for its end.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo left that night, leaving his wedding ring atop the fireplace in their study. Kyungsoo formally abdicated from his position on the throne and to add more salt to the wound, none of their children decided to leave with him.

 

Feeling betrayed and abandoned by his entire family gave Kyungsoo even further conviction that leaving was the right decision.

 

 

 

Together with his grandfather and the other vampires they convinced with their cause, they moved up far south of the continent where there was no winter and created the kingdom of Sunhold, a smaller vampiric kingdom that was roughly the size of one-tenth of the original vampire kingdom of Nightsong.

 

In an effort to abandon their former identities, Sunhold vampires made the painful sacrifice to be awake during the day and slept at night, essentially changing the basis of their racial identity. Their dark hair and eyes lightened with sun exposure, their skin color becoming more tanned until