“Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now? My roommate isn’t a damn vampire. They don't exist!” You rub your eyes in frustration, this conversation can not be real. 

 

“Minju, we’re studying in a centuries-old college campus, the dean is probably the devil reincarnate, and where the hell is your roommate? Does that not ring any fictional books to you?”  

 

“Look, Yujin, I love you and I know that you being in Summer Society makes you a little more vigilant than others, but I’m fine. Please just go to bed. It's like 4 AM, we got class tomorrow.”

 

“Fine. But if I get proof that she’s a vampire, promise me you’ll move to a different room?” she sighs and gives you her signature puppy eyes with the matching pout. You pat her head and reassure her, “yes Yujin I’ll move when you actually prove to me she’s a vampire. Goodnight.” she rolls her eyes at you and says goodnight before she grumpily leaves.

 

You close the door and look at the empty bed on the other side of the room, Chaewon can’t be a vampire right? Vampires don’t exist. You shake your head to get yourself together, “God, I need sleep.” You get back in bed and try to get a few more hours of sleep before class.

 

-- a week later --

 

You sit next to Yuri at your usual table in the cafeteria, Yena and Yujin are sitting on the other side, tinkering with a camera and programming stuff on their laptops. They’re both looking a little--questionable to say the least.

 

Yena, with dark circles under her eyes, small cuts, and burn marks on her hands, probably from soldering. Being the school’s star electronics engineer in the making, she’s always been tasked with doing stuff for the administrators. Though she wants to get rid of that name she has, she says it’ll look good on her resume. Latin honors and all. 

 

Yujin on the other hand, she’s the best underground programmer and hacker here. Yes, hackathons do exist, and A LOT of money goes into those contests. Who knows how much Yujin has in her bank account right now? Her eyes look tired, pupils move fast, reading all the code she’s written on her laptop, and her glasses at the tip of her nose. Oh, how computer science ruined her life.

 

Putting her and Yena on one team is an automatic loss for you. That’s just how it works. She’s exhausted though, also being in Summer Society has taken a huge toll on her, she loves serving the people on campus to the point that she’s forgetting about herself. STEM majors, living off coffee and blue light. Pure insanity. 

 

“Hey nerds, what are you two doing?” 

 

“Yena and I got a little project going, it’s a joint between CS and EE so we thought about a camera that can also capture thermals and automatically record when it detects movement in the area. Kinda like CCTV on steroids. Nothing too extravagant.” Yujin says as she looks up from her laptop.

 

“Told you we should’ve added a laser, that would make things so much more fun.” Yena side-eyes Yujin.

“So you do wanna get us almost expelled, again.” Yujin rolls her eyes in response. 

 

You like hearing those two talk smart, it’s entertaining and you learn a little something on the way. “Anyway, how’s the vampire, Min? Surprised you haven’t been bitten yet.” Yuri asks you, taking another bite of her sandwich.

 

“Again, she’s not a vampire. I haven’t even seen her lately honestly. She’s always asleep in the morning but at night she’s gone--”

“Vampire’s sleep schedule, continue.”

“And I’ve been getting these dreams, Imagine-imagine a wolf-sized cat. Yeah, basically that’s what it is. It follows me around and stuff.” 

“Vampires can shapeshift, you know. And they have telepathic powers. ”

“Is this really what you’re implying? She’s not a vampire!”

“Minju, she doesn’t go to her classes, she’s asleep during the day, and she’s getting in your dreams. She’s definitely a vampire. Tell me when you find blood in your room, This is so fun.” Yuri gets all giddy and does her little dance, Pre-meds are insane. 

 

“How do you even know this? Been watching too much Twilight?”

“Real funny, Min. But you know my love for the supernatural, and this whole situation you got here, too specific for it to be a coincidence. Besides, you know the news going around, who the knows what’s going on here.” 

 

The rumors, there’s been girls missing here and there, you didn’t want to believe them though, it’s scary. One of the reasons why the Summers have been going around 24/7, trying to save the only feeling of being safe on campus. 

 

You overhear the group of people at the other table, apparently, someone found a dead deer in the forest near the campus, the best part? Two small holes were found by its neck. Oh no.

Everyone else heard it, Yena and Yujin give each other the look. 

“Great, now there’s a vampire on the loose,” Yujin says to you with a mocking tone.

“It’s a coincidence, Yuj. They’re not real. It probably fought with some wolf or something.”

“Yujin’s right, I was reading about the history of the campus while in class and the first dean was Mircalla Karnstein.” Yena looks up and locks with your eyes.

“Okay? So what? And when did you read? All you do is stare at your computer.”  Yuri narrows her eyes at her girlfriend.

“If you rearrange the letters of ‘Mircalla’ you get ‘Carmilla’. Who’s the Carmilla Karnstein we know? The dean. The dean is a vampire.” 

“Wha- assuming that quickly? She could be the great-great-granddaughter or something.” you raise your eyebrow at her, not believing a word she’s saying.

“I expected you would say that, so here,” she says with a smirk.

 

Yena faces her laptop to everyone at the table, opening a slideshow.

“Our school is about 300 years old, and our main building is basically what’s left of a bombarded castle.”

  Next slide.

“Here are some portraits of Mircalla Karnstein over the years. Tell me, what do you notice?” 

You all put your face a little close to the screen, trying to understand the correlation of everything. 

“Oh my God, she literally doesn’t age,” Yujin says in shock.

“Exactly! And rumor has it, the little canal trail you see on the floor is actually for transporting blood from the dungeons to her room.” 

“You know what this can be connected to? Elizabeth Bathory.” Everyone looks at Yuri, waiting for an explanation.

“Oh basically Elizabeth Bathory bathes in the blood of young girls to stay young, sometimes she drinks it. She’s one of the original vampires per se.”

“Yah, Isn’t your dorm near the dungeons?” Yuri slaps your shoulder with her eyes wide.

“Ow! And yes, they’re near the dungeons. BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING, no I’m not gonna interrogate Chaewon about this.” you cross your arms and lay back into your seat.

“You don’t have to, we’ll film it.” Yujin puts the camera in front of you and gives you a smirk.

“NO! I’m not letting you put a camera in my room. Are you crazy? That's an invasion of privacy!”

“But it’s for science, Min. Plus, if we put a stop to the vampires then no more animals would die, and it could help with the missing girls, right? We could report it and everything would be fine. I won’t be exposing any names to the Summers unless necessary.”   

 

You think about it for a while, it would be good for everyone on campus right? Would it hurt anyone? Well, Chaewon but she’s the main suspect. 

 

“ it, fine. You can keep it there for a week but if you don’t find anything useful then you have to delete the files and remove the camera,” you say in a sigh and rest your head on your hand, why did I agree to this? 

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about it.” The nerds reassure you, and you give all your trust anyways.

 

 

It’s 2 AM and you’re cramming another essay due the next day, same old stuff. You hear a knock on the door and your roommate comes in. You don’t talk to her much since she’s asleep when you leave for class and she’s awake when you get to bed. But since the Fright Club’s got a little investigation going on, you start a conversation to squeeze some information out of her. 

“Hey, where you been?” you say to her with a smile, acting as friendly as possible.

“Uhm, with some friends. What have you been doing? You’re usually asleep at this time.” 

“Well, I got an essay, and unless you know anything about Thomas Aquinas, I gotta suffer by myself.”

“Oh the 5 ways guy? I hate that topic.”

“You know this? Help meee.” you say in a whine and pout at her, but she gives you a disgusted look and chuckles, “Fine, but only because you’re cute when you look like that.”

You didn’t expect an answer like that, but either way, you get an extra hand. You smile wide and both work into the night.

 

------

Your amazing roommate has now fallen asleep whilst typing her essay. You’ve told her almost everything you’ve known about Aquinas, going to this damn school for 150 years may have taught you a little something on the way. “Great, now how are you gonna get this done?” You grab a chair and sit next to her, careful to not wake her up. You stare at her for a bit, this is technically the first time you’ve been that close to her. You’ve been watching her dreams, there’s something about her, it reminds you of something in the past. She’s pretty, obviously. Too pretty that she may not be even human. Small face, big eyes, long black hair, actual perfection. Who knows, maybe you could be a kitsune in disguise. You snap out of your thoughts and read what she’s written. It’s good but incomplete. 

You end up finishing her essay, proofreading, and everything. It’s almost sunrise and you realize that Minju’s been sitting next to you the whole time, you tap her shoulder to wake her, 

“Hey princess, your back’s gonna die tomorrow, go to bed.” She sits up and stretches, her eyes barely open. “Wait, what? My essay-” she starts pulling herself together and checks the file. You stop her, “It’s fine. I finished it.” 

“What? No, wait you didn’t have to.”

“Bub, It’s fine. I didn’t do much, just proofread everything.” 

“Still, you didn’t have to. But thank you anyway, I really appreciate it.”

“It’s no big deal, now, go sleep yeah? You need it.” 

 

She lazily walks to her side of the room and basically collapses in bed. She fell asleep too quickly for her to even cover herself with a blanket, you walk up to her and pull it over her body anyways, “Goodnight, princess.”  

 

-----

You woke up late the next day, thankfully your essay was passed online so that’s not the biggest problem in the world. There’s a bad taste in your mouth though, and you immediately get up and spit into the sink, there’s blood everywhere. You immediately wash it out, you look up to see yourself in the mirror, it’s like a scene right out of a horror movie. Your mouth stained red, and blood dripping out the corners of your lips. You gargle and spit out mouthwash multiple times, trying to get rid of the taste of iron from your tongue. You find your phone and text the Fright Club, 

 

my dorm. now. 

 

A few minutes later they come through the door, “What the hell happened? Are you okay?” Yuri runs to you, kneeling by your feet and checking your body. “I’m fine, I just-I woke up today and my mouth was filled with blood. I don’t know what the is going on, I don’t know why. It just happened.”  

“Where the hell is Chaewon?” Yujin raises her voice, “Yujin please it’s not--” 

 

“YES IT IS! I’ve seen her--at night, walking throughout the halls, she’s dangerous, Minju. I can not afford for you to be even near her.”

 

Speaking of the devil--vampire rather, Chaewon walks through the doors. “Woah, the whole squad’s here, what’s going on?” Yujin jumps at her, and Chaewon's pinned against the wall, Yujin’s fist ready to punch her and the other arm across her neck, almost choking her. 

“What the is wrong with you? Buffy wannabe.” 

“Shut the up, Chaewon. I know who you are. Missing girls, dead animals, it all leads back to you.”

 

Chaewon laughs, unphased by the whole situation, “you think it’s me? Your proof is where?” 

“Where were you last night, Chaewon? Going around with your friends at 3 AM again? Finding more girls to kidnap?”

“I don’t know what the you’re talking about. Let go of me.” Chaewon tries to remove the arm blocking her airway, but Yujin pushes herself against her a little more. 

 

You get up and pull Yujin away from Chaewon, she takes a deep breath and fixes her clothes, “This is so stupid, I’m leaving.” She finds her bag and walks out of the room.

 

“This is ridiculous, Yujin. Chaewon was here last night, she helped me with my homework.” 

“So why the hell are you spitting out blood then? There is literally no medical explanation to this.” Yuri says, “I have never read or heard of anyone just randomly having a mouthful of blood. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s because it’s not medical. We’re dealing with the supernatural now.” Yena says as she takes a carton of juice and a glass from the fridge.

 

“When you said you see her at night, what was that supposed to mean?” You look to Yujin.

She sighs and sits next to you, “I’ve been watching Chaewon for a while now, and I’ve seen her at the same location as the missing girls. Kang Hyewon? Last known location was at the Underwater party and found Chaewon there too. Lee Chaeyeon? Last known location was at the Alphas party. They were all taken during the party, less suspicious to anyone else if they randomly left.”

 

“WHAT THE ? JESUS CHRIST.” Everyone snaps their head to the sound of Yena shouting from the small kitchen in your room, she turns and she’s holding a glass filled with blood. 

“Is this some kind of sick prank? What the is wrong with her?” You say and Yuri runs over to Yena, she swirls the glass around and examines it. “Nope, it’s real. This is actual blood.” 

“So now what? We report this to who exactly? The dean’s a vampire and Chaewon is probably one of her little playthings. Who are we supposed to run to now?” Yena says, she’s nervous, who wouldn’t be? Who knows what’s going on in this damn school? 

 

“Really with the vampire thing? I really don’t think that’s what’s going on right now.”

“Are you hearing yourself, Minju? Did you forget that you spat out blood earlier? And that there’s blood in a juice carton?” Yujin rubs her eyes in an attempt to calm herself down. 

“Maybe she just needs… help. You know what I mean? She’s basically nocturnal, she’s not attending her classes, and she’s doing some weird stuff. Shouldn’t we get her to the psychologist?” 

 

“Oh sweetie you’re too good for anyone.” Yuri chuckles and rubs the top of your head,

 

“I think we should just look out for her. Vampire or not, it’ll be better to just keep the camera here, check if anything’s weird then we’ll see what happens next.” Yena walks to one of the shelves where the camera was placed and checks if anything’s wrong, “It’s been 2 days since this was here right? Then we got 5 more to go.” 

 

“Okay. Great, now I gotta live with a suspected vampire.”

“You’ll be fine, Minju. Right now she hasn’t done anything to hurt you so that’s good to know.” Yuri says and gives you a hug, “Anyway, I got class. I’ll see you guys later?” Yena follows behind Yuri and holds her hand, “yeah me too, I’ll see ya’ll later.” 

Yujin stands up and gets her bag, “Call me if anything happens okay? I’ll ask if I can get placed here so I can be nearer to you in case.” 

“Yeah, I will. Thank you, Yuj.”

“I’m sorry for being unnecessarily violent earlier, I’m just--a little protective over you. You’re my best friend, I really don’t want anything bad happening. 

“I know, I get that. But you scare me sometimes, Yuj. You have a temper.”

“Sorry, Min. I’ll see ya.”

“Stay safe, Yuj.” You give her a hug before she leaves and she’s off to her classes.

 

----

A few hours later and Chaewon comes back to the room, taking off her jacket and laying on her bed, “Is your little defend squad gone? First time meeting them and I’m already on the hunt. The did I do to any of you?” 

“I apologize on behalf of Yujin, she’s a little paranoid.” disappointment leaves your mouth, you knew Yujin would be the type of person to do that, you never thought she would ACTUALLY do it.

“Great, she doesn’t have to release her trauma on me though.” 

“I know, I’m sorry.”

 

You’re both left in silence for a while, the little scene earlier caused some tension in the air. Staying in silence would probably be better for the both of you until she eventually breaks it.

 

“So why were they here?” She stands up to sit on the chair by her study table, rolling over next to your bed, you flinch at her sudden closeness to you. “And why do you seem so agitated?” 

“I um, I woke up with blood in my mouth, and I had a weird dream.”

“Wait, what? Blood in your mouth? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it was a whole mouthful, like someone poured it in. I tasted iron and blood started coming from my mouth as I spat into the sink.” Your eyebrows furrow at the thought of seeing all that blood, you’re not the squeamish type, so it doesn’t really bother you, it was just annoying. 

 

“And the dream? What was it?” Chaewon gives you a concerned look, her eyes sparkling and her expression is soft.

“God it was a weird one, there was a girl, she was crying, and asking for help. It felt so real like I was there. Are dreams supposed to feel that real?”

“Well, in the end, they’re just dreams, right? They’re just stuff in your head. The other night I dreamed about a girl, I didn’t know who she was, I just followed her around. Not real. It doesn’t matter.” 

“Well, hopefully it doesn’t haunt me every time I wanna go to bed.”

“I can get you something for that--the dreams. Don’t worry it’s not pills or some party drug, think of it as a dream catcher. I’ll go get it, gimme a sec.” 

 

Chaewon leaves you in your own thoughts, sadly. But emo hours are for later, now, you have to think about how you can help Yujin and the missing girls. Though Chaewon is a suspect for that, it’s best to not talk about it now. Also, the fact that she may be a vampire. You lay down on your bed and sigh, what the hell goes on in this damn school? 

 

Chaewon’s back a few minutes later, holding a weird charm bracelet thing. “Here, it’ll help you with the dreams.” she puts it on your wrist and gives you a soft smile, “I got stuff to do, so I’ll catch you later, bunny.” “Yeah, see you.” Chaewon leaves and you’re staring at the bracelet, it’s weird, honestly. There are beads, feathers, and it smells. You take it off and place it in a drawer, hoping Chaewon won’t find it in the meantime.  

 

 

----

 

“So, how’s the midterm going?” Yuri asks in a whisper, trying not to annoy the people near you.

“Well, not the best. Got this paper going and I’m trying to help Yujin find these girls, then there’s Chaewon. God, it’s very, very confusing. So many things going on at once.” 

“Hmm, true. Take it one by one, yeah? You don’t always have to be the hero, Min.”

“Well, how’s your midterm? Surprised I don’t see a bloodstain on you.” you examine her clothes, ready to if you see a single speck of red.

“What can I say, I’m trying to be more careful. Can’t be buying Hydrogen Peroxide every week to get rid of those damn stains.” you chuckle at her, Yuri’s a smart girl, and 99% of the time she knows what she’s doing, she’s just clumsy. 

“How are you and Yena? I don’t think you’ve been seeing her that much.”

“Eh, it’s not that bad, as long as I get to see her at least once a day then I’m fine. You know how she is, the moment she sits at her desk and starts talking to Holo it’s over. She’s gonna be there for a while. Who knows, maybe I’ll get replaced by a robot. Tony Stark wannabe, such a nerd.” she rolls her eyes at the thought, it’s funny, but not impossible.

 

//

  “That’s not how it works! It’s supposed to be battery, switch, then capacitor. Don’t you know how to read?” annoyance lingers at the end of Yuri’s sentence, scolding Yena. Yuri looks at you and rolls her eyes, you can’t help but chuckle at their little argument.

 

“No, it won’t! What’s the point of the directions saying that it should look like this when you’re doing it a different way! You’re so ing annoying, Yena. If my grades drop because of your foolishness, I’m gonna kill you.” 

 

“Fine, we’ll do it two ways. We’ll do the one following the directions, then we’ll do the way I want. If yours works and mine doesn’t, Then we’ll follow all the projects just the way you like it. But if mine also works, you’ll go out with me.” Yena taunts Yuri, she stretches her hand out for a handshake. A smirk forming at the corner of .

 

 Yuri’s caught off guard, her eyes go wide and she looks at you for confirmation. You nod at her excitedly, with matching two thumbs up. “Do it!” You mouth the words at her, she’s trying so hard not to blush right now. 

 

“Deal.” Yuri takes her hand, and Yena looks happy as ever.

 

There were two circuits on the table, Yuri’s version, and Yena’s version. The tension is unnecessarily thick for a school project, but in Yuri’s case, this is life or death.

 

“Minju, will you please do the honors?” Yena waves her hand above the circuits, “Right, let’s get this over with.” you say with a sigh.

You switch on Yuri’s circuit, a light flashes, it works, obviously.

 

Yena’s smile is slowly growing bigger and bigger, she knows her circuit works, “Yena’s turn. Get ready, Yul.” 

 

You switch on Yena’s circuit, and to no surprise, it lights up. 

“AHA! Can’t run away now, Jo Yuri. I win.” Yena puts her arms up in the air as she celebrates, 

“I was never thinking about running away anyways. Yuri says under her breath, she knows Yena would win, but she wanted an excuse for Yena to ask her on a date. 

 

“Oookay love birds, come on, let’s finish this before you guys can go have fun.” You say to them before they both get too distracted.

 

//

 

“Pfft, it’s one of the reasons why you love her. You’re so whipped.” you cross your arms and raise an eyebrow at her,

“Oh stop it, once you get a girlfriend it’s over for all of us. That is if you weren’t so damn blind!” Yuri whisper-shouts at you, collecting looks from the other students.

 

There’s clear confusion on your face, Yuri facepalms, and grunts in disappointment.

“Are you ing kidding me? Wow, I don’t know if college made you dumber or you’re really oblivious.” 

“Yeah, I’m not following, elaborate please?” 

 

“It’s not in my place to say, but she’ll kill for you.”

 

 

----

 

“Alright, so what can we do about the missing girls?” You say to Yujin as she paces around the room, “I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know where they’ve been taken. Everything just seems so vague, I don’t have any leads--if we’re not counting the people at the party.”

 

Chaewon enters the room but stops by the door when she sees Yujin, “I see you’ve invited Gal Gadot over,” she lays down on her bed and starts reading her book.

Yujin rolls her eyes and looks back at the drawing board in the middle of the room, “anyways, I can check the cameras for any footage from the night they disappeared, then I can ask the Alphas if they got information. You know how they are, they basically breathe off pretty girls. They know something one way or another.”

 

“Finally, some progress. I feel like we’ve been stuck here for the past few days without doing anything, I’m worried about them,” you say in a sigh, God where the hell are they? 

 

“They’re gonna be okay, Min. I won’t stop until I find them. I promise.” Yujin sits next to you and hugs your side, making you lean your head on her shoulder.

 

Chaewon fake gags from her side of the room, “oh sorry, this thing I’m reading, it’s kinda gross,” she says sarcastically. You feel Yujin’s grip on you get tighter, her eyes lock on to Chaewon, like a guard dog waiting for a command. “Yujin, don’t try anything stupid. You know how she is.” 

Yujin relaxes her body again, and Chaewon sticks her tongue out, mocking her.

“I don’t understand why you defend her.” 

“I don’t wanna report that a murder has occurred in my room thank you very much.” 

Yujin chuckles slightly and packs up her stuff, “I’ll keep you updated, you should really take a break from this, focus on your paper. See you around.” 

“Yeah, see you around, Yuj.” Yujin gives you a faint smile as she closes the door,

 

“Aw, sad your amazonian girlfriend left?” Chaewon says with a pout,

“First of all, she’s not my girlfriend. I’m just trying to help her with finding these girls. Maybe if you helped then more progress would actually occur.”

“You really think you could find them? You really are a child.” Chaewon laughs and goes back to reading her book,

“Wow, so much for sympathy. Do you give a about anyone, Chaewon?”

“What I can tell you now is that whatever you’re doing, useless. Stop trying to play Nancy Drew. You’re just trying to get yourself in trouble.”

“Expulsion is the least of my worries at this point, I’m basically studying in hell on Earth. Next thing you know there’s sirens wailing and--”

 

Great, sirens ACTUALLY wailing outside your window, WHAT THE GOES ON. The Fright Club passes by your room, “WELL WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STANDING THERE FOR? CAN YOU NOT HEAR THE SIRENS?” Yuri shouts into the room as she was standing by the window then bolts out, dragging Yena with her. 

“See what I mean, princess? Bet this one’s for you.” 

“Shut up, we are having this conversation later.” You run out of the room to look for Yuri, not minding that Chaewon isn’t following you.

 

Everyone gathers at the quadrangle, you find Yujin in the middle of the crowd, along with Yuri and Yena. You tug at Yujin’s shirt, “What’s going on?” 

“Dunno, but it’s an emergency.”

 

You see one of the people of the Dean’s council walk on the stage, he taps the mic and announces, “As many of us know, there have been reports of missing students on campus,” you hear everyone start murmuring next to you, “and we, the dean’s council, is doing its best to do something about it.”

“YEAH DO A BETTER JOB THEN!” one of the Alphas shouts from the back of the crowd. 

The representative clearly looking annoyed, continues his speech, “There have also been rumors of students going on their own investigation. If you know any of these students, please report these names to the council. They will be of useful help with the continued investigation.”

 

As you were going to raise your hand, the person to your left stops you, it’s Chaewon. When did she get here? “What are you doing? Let go of me!” you try to release yourself from her grip, but she’s unbelievably strong, not matching her petite and small stature. She puts her finger on her lips, a sign for you to be quiet. She whispers to your ear, “tell them your plan, and maybe you’ll be next. Don’t say a word.” 

 

“JUST MAKE THE ALPHAS GUARD THE SCHOOL, PSYCHO SUMMERS CAN’T DO !” the Alpha says, now realizing it’s Hwang Hyunjin that’s been shouting the whole time.

“As if you can do a better job!” heads turn to the other side of the crowd, Hwang Yeji, Hyunjin’s twin sister. 

“Has anything been better since the Summers were on guard, sis?” Hyunjin walks over to her, a circle opens in the middle of the crowd, we all know where this is going. 

More of the Alphas stand behind Hyunjin, and the Summers are doing the same. You see Yujin stand next to Yeji, already handing her a shield. Shields? Are those necessary? Everyone’s unphased by this whole situation, seems like the orgs have been going at this for several generations.

At this point, no one’s paying attention to the council rep and he just walks off the stage.

 

“Come on sis, let the Alphas handle this.”

“I am never letting you near a girl ever again.” 

There’s a single flying tomato heading straight to Yeji, her reflexes are fast though, and blocks herself using the shield. 

Next thing you know she’s running straight to Hyunjin and the rest of the Summers follow suit. 

 

Great, a fight has gone out between the two orgs, and everyone’s trying to not get hit by flying produce. You run back to your room, locking the door. You stand by the door and take a breather, I should really start working out again. 

 

You take a shower to freshen up, and a few minutes later there’s a knock on the door and an Alpha comes in, 

“Hey pretty lady, my name’s Hyunjin and I will be Alpha assigned to this dorm.”

“I thought Yujin--”

“Yeah well, the Psychos and Alphas have agreed on just assigning personnel to whoever. So I’m here to keep you safe, Hwang Hyunjin, at your service.”

“Yeah uh thanks, but I’m here in my room, so I really don’t need anyone to guard me over, thanks.”

“Yeah but what if you wanna--”

 

“What in the frilly hell is this?” Chaewon stomps over to you, “why is he here?”

“Summers and Alphas made a truce, and he’s here to keep us safe or whatever.”

“See what you did? Now look we got Org fights,” Chaewon stands next to Hyunjin, “and men in our rooms.” she bumps into Hyunjin’s shoulder and he falls over, “Yeah okay no, Hyunjin I think Chae and I are good by ourselves, we’ll call you if we need you Thanks.”

 

“Yeah-yeah okay, no problem.” Hyunjin leaves the room while massaging his shoulder, side-eyeing Chaewon.

“Was that really necessary, Chae?” 

“Did you really want him here?” 

“Well, not really. But still, kinda unnecessary to shove him to the side.”

“It was a little bump, he’s not gonna die.” Chaewon sits back on her bed and picks up her usual book.

 

 

----

 

Fright Club’s back in your room, a week has passed since the nerds installed a camera, “you got popcorn, babe?” Yena looks up to Yuri, “Yeah, here," she grabs a handful before passing the bowl to Yena.

“Again, if we don’t find anything you nerds are gonna delete all this footage and forget about it, okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah whatever start it, Yena,” Yujin says as she waves her hand in front of your face, with full of popcorn.

 

And there she is, Chaewon just returning to the room at around 3 AM, grabbing some stuff and leaving once again, it was a split second though, running so fast the camera can’t catch her movements exactly.

 

Next clip you can see her basically carrying a bag twice the size of her. It’s weird, how someone so small can carry something that big.

 

The next clip shows Chaewon just lighting things on fire, from her fingertips, no less. “SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION? THIS CAN’T BE REAL.” Yena says out loud, “THIS IS SO COOL.” Yujin rolls her eyes, “Hey, can you check the thermal cam? This is so ing weird.” 

 

You rewatch the clip, with the thermal version and Yujin pauses it. “Now, quick biology lesson, what’s wrong with this video?” 

“Besides spontaneous combustion? There’s more?” You say to her, massaging your temples, this is ing insane.

Yuri gasps, “she’s not radiating body heat.” 

“Ding ding ding! Exactly, what happens when you don’t have body heat?”

“Dead. You’re basically dead.” Yena stuffs with popcorn, “but I mean, we’ve always known she was a vampire, right? Since the blood in the carton?”

Everyone looks at her in disbelief, “Oh wow, really? You really thought she was human from the start?”

 

“Actually, I have to show something to everyone. Remember I said I would look for CCTV footage of the nights when the girls went missing? Here, look at this.”

 

Yujin shows everyone a bunch of pictures on her iPad, “guess who.” 

She zooms on every picture, Chaewon has been at every single party where the girls have gone missing. “, we’re dealing with a kidnapping vampire. How fun.” Yuri says as she paces around the room.

 

“So, what now? We can’t tell the ing dean, that’s for sure.” You say to Yujin, “Well, we can trap her. Get some information out of her, they’re probably still on the hunt for more girls.” 

“Easy for you to say, how are we gonna do that?” Yena leans back into her seat.

“Well…” Yujin points to you, a small smirk forming at the corner of her lips.

 

“Ya’ll be really willing to sacrifice me to a vampire? So much for childhood best friends guys.”

“Hey what can I say, you’re literally irresistible, who wouldn’t want you?” Yuri tells you nonchalantly, and Yena raises her eyebrow at her, “did you suddenly forget that your girlfriend is literally right here?” 

“You can’t blame me, look at her! You can’t tell me she’s not pretty. Right, Yuj?”

Yujin side-eyes you, “Uh yeah, sure. Pretty girl. A-anyway, uhm I got a plan.” 

 

-----

 

“You ready, Minguri?” Yuri sits next to you, tying up some rope to use for later, “Well besides the fact I’m being used as a bait to capture a vampire, doing pretty good actually.”

“Okay, plan recap, go,” Yujin asks you.

 

“Go to the Summers party, find Chaewon, lure her back here, then basically tie her up.”

“Okay, yeah. Easier said than done. Good luck agent.” you chuckle at Yujin’s response, “stay safe, okay?” 

“I will don’t worry.” you’re already walking down the hallway when Yuri yells, “don’t forget, you’re really hot tonight!”

 “I know, you made me wear this!” 

 

----

 

“So, are we not gonna talk about the elephant in the room?” Yuri asks you, crossing her arms,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you tell her, looking back at your laptop to avoid her eyes.

“Hey babe, Minju looked really good tonight, no?” You hear Yena from the other side of the room, probably finding food again.

“Of course, she’s a god, but she always looks good anyways.”

 

You’re really trying hard to not smile right now, but your friends know you too well, “HA! Caught in 4k, Yujinnie, don’t hide it now.” Yena calls you out.

Yuri pulls a chair and sits in front of you, “So, you really do like her huh? Last time you told me it was some girl named Wonyoung, but apparently, it’s our Minguri. Nice cover-up, hot stuff.” Ah , Yuri’s gonna put me in the hot seat. 

 

“So, how long has it been kid?”

“A while…”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“Around a year? I don’t remember. It’s just one day she calls my name and my heart drops, suddenly there are butterflies in my stomach, then boom, apparently I’m falling in love with my best friend.”

 

“What in the 50k words slow burn childhood friends to lovers AU is this…” Yena raises her eyebrow at you, “Pfft, ing whipped. You’re so cute, Yujinnie.” Yuri squeezes your cheeks and you push her away before she starts getting too excited. “You guys are acting like you didn’t live the enemies to lovers trope, off.” 

 

Yuri sits on Yena’s lap, “Hey, we weren’t enemies. Yena here was just way too annoying for anyone.” Yena rolls her eyes at Yuri’s comment, “yeah but you love me anyway,” “yeah, yeah. Don’t flatter yourself.” Yena kisses Yuri’s cheek and you let out a fake gag, “disgusting.” 

“You’re just jea--” 

“WAIT. SHH, listen.” you cover their mouths, “footsteps, they’re here.”  

 

 Everyone gets in their places, Yena and Yuri hide under the table in the kitchen, holding the rope and a necklace made of garlic. As you hide behind the bed, a made-up cross and a stake in each hand, (totally unnecessary, but it was cool).

 

---- 

“It was surprising enough that I found you at the party, but coming back here, with a stolen bottle of champagne no doubt, is something else. Maybe you’re not the snow princess that everyone says you are.” Chaewon smirks as she holds up the bottle of champagne, “shall we?”

 

“Well I didn’t bring it here for nothing, didn’t I?” you lock your eyes with hers, flipping your hair backward to expose your neck. 

 

//

 

“Remember, you’re hot. EXPLOIT YOUR INESS.” Yuri tells you as she picks your outfit, “Oh my God, I have never seen this before. Why do you have this?” 

She grabs a black skin-tight dress, “Oh, never had the chance to wear it.” 

“Well, now’s the chance! Who wouldn’t love a pretty girl in a dress?” she jumps around the room in excitement, knocking a few things off the table while she’s at it. 

“Calm down, Yul. Don’t fall in love with me now. Yena’s right there.” 

She giggles and hands you your outfit, “I won’t, but someone else will.” 

 

Yujin clears , “will you guys be any slower? Come on, we got a vampire to catch.”

“Okay Van Helsing just give me a sec.” you roll your eyes at Yujin, but end up laughing anyway.

 

“Everyone remembers their cue? When I say cheers, that’s when you attack, I guess.”

Everyone nods their head in unison, “Great, let’s kick some vampire !”

 

//

 

POP! You flinch at the sound of the bottle being opened. She chuckles and apologizes in a soft tone, “oh, my bad.”

 

“You look good by the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet.”

 

You look at yourself in the mirror, “Hm? it’s nothing much, just something I found in my closet.”

Chaewon walks up behind you, handing you a glass of champagne, “Maybe you should start dressing up like this more often.” she whispers in your ear, 

 

“Oh? And why should I, Ms. Kim?” 

“No reason, it’s just a sight that I like to see.” Chaewon’s fingertips go down from your shoulder to your arm, her touch is cold, and your heart starts beating faster. She’s never been that close to you before. 

 

“Hmm, I’ll think about it. Cheers?” You face her and place your glass in front of hers, “Cheers.”

 

clink. 

 

Yujin jumps out from behind the bed, “COME HERE, VAMPIRE BASTARD.”

 

---

 

“Congrats team, we actually pulled this off.” Yujin gives high fives to everyone, Chaewon’s sitting in her chair, bound in thick rope and wearing a garlic necklace.

 

 A notification comes from Yujin’s phone, “Ah, . It’s Yeji, two more girls, gone.”

Yujin stomps over to Chaewon and grabs Chaewon by her collar, “How the hell are there more girls gone when you’re sitting right here?” Her tone is low and serious, almost growling. 

 

Chaewon rolls her eyes and chuckles softly under the duct tape covering , the color of her eyes changes to red before it goes back to dark brown, a fist is formed next to Yujin’s face, her knuckles have turned white from holding it for so long. Yena stops her, grabbing her wrist and shaking her head, “it’s not worth it, Yuj.” 

Yujin lets go of Chaewon and she plops back in her chair, visibly annoyed by this whole situation, Yena pulls Yujin to the side for some one-on-one bro talk, 

 

“Now, first of all, you can’t deny the fact you’re a vampire, we know. But what we need to know now is where the hell are the missing girls? And how are there more disappearances when you’re sitting right here? Who are your accomplices? Start ing talking.”

 

“Uh, Minguri,” Yuri taps your shoulder and gestures to , obviously Chaewon won’t talk when there’s duct tape over her lips. “Oh right,” you rip the duct tape and she flinches, “sorry.”

 

“I don’t know anything about what happened to the girls, ing es.”

 

“You see, I knew you would say that. You’re probably a centuries-old vampire but I’m a teenager on the internet. Now, does anyone have ideas for interrogation?” 

 

“The should I know? I ain’t a criminology student.” Yuri says as she shrugs, “Holo, give examples of interrogation techniques,” Web pages on Yena’s computer start flooding the screen, “ Some interrogation techniques are as follows; direct approach, incentive approach, emotional approach, yes or no questions, and context manipulation. ” 

“Great, thanks Holo.”

“ No problem, Ms. Jo. ” 

 

“So we got these, but I don’t know if they’ll work on her…” Yena says as she scrolls through the different webpages, tapping her pencil on a piece of paper.

 

“So what, we starve her from basic needs until she says something?” Yuri says nonchalantly, I might actually think you were a serial killer in another life or a really good movie director. You look at Yujin and Yena, 

 

“I mean…” 

 

---- a week later ----

 

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. 

 

You run to the door before they open it, because apparently knocking hasn’t been the most popular thing around. 

 

“Hey what’s up? Oh, Chaewon? No, she’s not here, sorry.”

You lock the door and sit next to Chaewon, “you know, it hasn’t been easy basically keeping you hostage here. It’s been a week, start talking and I’ll give you this nice cup of… blood?” you bring the cup to her nose, is basically watering at the smell of it, but she resists and turns away. “Oh come on, I can’t keep you here forever.” 

 

Chaewon’s head drops and her body starts shaking aggressively, oh God, she’s having a seizure. You immediately put her lips on the rim of the cup, helping her drink a big gulp of blood, “First I get trapped and currently being held hostage by a bunch of children, next I’m being hand-fed like I’m an animal. What’s next, Stockholm Syndrome?”

 

“Well if you didn’t try to capture me and send me to get abducted last night, then maybe you wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”

 

“Wait, you thought I was trying to kidnap you?” she cringes at this whole conversation, “, please stake me. I would really want to die right now.”

 

Your eyes grow wide and you let out a soft gasp, “Oh so what you said last night… OH… Okay, I get it. Well, uh this is awkward.” 

 

“ it whatever, flirting later. It still doesn't prove the fact that you’re still one of the main suspects of the missing girls. We know you were at the parties, we know you’re a vampire. So, make me trust you. Tell me everything.”

 

“Everything? Like, everything about me? My tragic vampire backstory?” 

 

You nod and raise an eyebrow, “mhm, everything.”

 

“Well , you ready for a bedtime story, princess?”

 

-----

 

“Well, I was born in Seoul, back in 1821. I’m not a princess or daughter of some rich man that stories usually say, I was just a regular villager. When I was around 18 that’s when my she found me--”

 

“Pause, who’s she ?”

 

“My ‘death’ mother if you could say that. Anyway, she eventually found a likeness to me, and I became close to her as well. She told me that if I stayed with her, I could live forever and we can go everywhere together. 

 

And so I did, but then she told me that there was a catch, basically saying that I had to die to live forever. I was going to back out of it but she assured me of a better life and told me to trust her. So my (death) mother killed me, but she brought me back to life, as a vampire. We traveled the world together, Sailing across the world to go to Europe, the Americas, anywhere.

 

She used me though, for her ritual or whatever, to find a girl to befriend, then one day they go missing but show up the next with weird behavior like they were in their own world. It was like clockwork, doing that every 20 years or so.”

 

There’s a tone of sadness in her voice, damn, 200 years of living. That’s gotta be rough.

 

“That is until I met her , I was in Japan for a while, and mother had me on a task to look for another girl. Honda Hitomi, that’s her name. All I needed to do was to be her friend, give her to my mother, then onto the next one. But alas, I fell in love. I didn’t want to give her to some stupid sacrifice, I planned everything for our escape. Until my mother told her about my true self,”

 

//

 

“You’re a monster!” Hitomi steps away from you, “and you expected me to run away with you? How would I know that you aren’t just gonna end up making me just like you?!”

 

“Hitomi I-I would never do that.” tears stream down your face, you feel your lungs get tighter, it hurts so much.

 

“Liar. Everything you’ve told me from the start, it was all a big lie. I’d rather die than be near you ever again.” 

 

//

 

“As punishment for what I’ve done, I had to watch Hitomi be another one of mother’s sacrifices. After that, she buried me underground for another few centuries. That is until the wars came, and I had woken up in my deep slumber to find myself here in the modern age. I found my mother in Busan, and eventually, we came here to the university. With what happened in the past she thought I would be of greater use here. Same old , new century.”

 

“Okay wait--you still did confess to being an abductor though.” You pause Chaewon one more time, 

 

“Not necessarily, I was like you, a bait. I don’t know what mother does with the girls after I surrender them to her. I didn’t have a choice really. But there were times where if I could set them free, I would. Back into the safety of their own homes, never seen by mother ever again. Though she kept it from me--the things she did to them, I hid and I watched the whole ritual be performed. Tragic to say the least, but I could’ve saved so many girls. I could’ve saved Hitomi, but I was a coward, and I let myself be controlled by my own mother again. The End.”

 

You take a deep breath, “Wow, that was--dark.” 

 

“Heh, a little heavy isn’t it?” she chuckles softly, a shakiness in her voice can be heard, but you ignore it for the sake of her flashback.

 

“So, now we just find your mother and take the girls right? No more zombie-fied freshmen?” 

 

She shakes her head, “Every time you speak you sound a little dumber, but no, you’re already scared of her. It’ll be impossible for you to go against her.”

 

“What? I’ve never met your mom.” 

 

“Uh, yes you did. She’s the dean.”

 

 

----

 

“What do you MEAN you wanna untie her? Are you crazy?” The squad’s back in your room, as usual, and Yuri isn’t too fond of the idea of you untying the very angry lesbian vampire into the open world, “But she’s on our side! She won’t hurt any of us. Yujinnie? Yena?” 

 

“Hate to break it to you, Minju, but Yuri’s right, she did say she was an accomplice to basically kidnapping girls over the centuries, I really don’t think that’s the best idea.” You look over to Yena,

 

“Sorry Minguri, gotta agree with the girlfriend on this one. She is no doubt dangerous.”

 

“But Chaewon isn’t the villain anymore, it’s the dean. And we need her and basically everyone’s help to stop her.” 

 

Yujin grunts in frustration, “dammit, I hate it when you’re right. But I still don’t want her untied and I don’t trust her.” Yuri agrees with Yujin, “Same here, it’s just a big risk that we’re taking. No offense, Chae.”

Chaewon shrugs, “Oh I don’t really care, if you’re going after mother then be my guest.”

 

-- later that night --

 

A sudden cloud of black smoke appears in front of you, “What’s up ‘lil cub? Someone catch you by the tail? Aw.” 

 

“I’ll show you what this cat can do when you untie me, Hyunjin.” He smirks and looks over his shoulder, “mother told me to check up on this whole roommate situation, I thought you had it covered, but I guess not.” 

 

“Took a little rendezvous. Playing with her was fun, not gonna lie.” Hyunjin cuts the rope and you stretch your arms, “Of course, who wouldn’t fall for Kim Chaewon?” he rolls his eyes at you, “whatever, what does mother want from me?” 

 

“Ah yes, she said stop stalling. We still need a few more girls. You know what to do.”

 

Minju wakes up and turns on a lamp, “what the hell Chaewon can you-- Hyunjin?! Why is Chae-- Oh forget it, just run! She’s a vampire!”

Hyunjin lets out a soft laugh, “Cool, right? She’s not the only one.”

 

Minju bolts to the door, but Hyunjin stops her, she’s frozen in her place “Nuh-uh, let’s play, pretty lady.” You see Hyunjin’s fangs protrude, and he goes for her neck.

 

The only way to stop him? Punch him in the face, and he stumbles backward, “What the hell kitty?”

 “We don’t kill the targets.” you narrow your eyes at him, and Minju stands behind you,

“You’re falling aren’t you? Wait ‘til mother finds out you got another Hitomi on your hands.” Hyunjin laughs before he runs out the door, gone in a split second.

 

You look to Minju, who’s hiding behind your shoulder and holding your hand, “Uhm thanks for saving me I really thought--” you cup her cheeks and pull her face close to yours, but you aim for her neck, not her lips. Sorry, Minju. The taste of blood sends a shiver down your back and the adrenaline kicks in, you run to catch Hyunjin before he can say anything to mother. 

 

You walk back to your room and start packing a bag, “WAS THIS ING NECESSARY? ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Minju pushes you to the side, “Well you aren’t dead aren’t you?” 

“THEN WHAT WAS THE REASON? TO TURN ME INTO A VAMPIRE?” 

 

You take a step closer to her, anger’s filling you up, and your vision changes, everything gets a little blurry, , I’m hungry. It also probably means that your eye color changed, hopefully, Minju doesn’t notice it in the dark. “No , I needed the strength to chase after pretty boy before he can spill everything to mother.” 

 

“And? Did you catch him at least?” you pause and sigh, “no, so now I have to get away from here before she comes after me.” You continue to pack your bag, throwing every valuable-looking thing in it.

 

“So you’re running away, now they’re gonna go after me. , in a few days I’m probably dead.”

 

“Yeah well, there was a 0.1% chance of survival anyway, sorry not sorry princess.”

 

“They’re doing this on purpose you know, if you run away it’ll just prove that you’re guilty of everything you’ve done for the past 2 centuries. If we actually put a stop to this then we can actually turn things around. Get rid of this whole ritual thing. Save whoever, save Hitomi. Wouldn’t you want that?”

 

“Fine, I’m staying then. Only because I don’t have a better plan.”

Chaewon grunts and sits back on her bed, how are you doing this to me? Got me wrapped around your finger.

 

---- 

 

“I think I just failed my first exam ever. This is bad, Yul.” You walk along the halls next to Yuri, trying to avoid getting bumped by everyone passing in the opposite direction.

 

“Who cares? By the end of this month, this damn school probably won’t even exist.”

 

“Yeah but still, it’s bothering me. All this vampire crap and I can’t even get homework done.”  

 

“Who would’ve thought that we would add ‘saving the world’ to our to-do lists huh?” you chuckle softly, yeah, who would’ve thought that some kids with an internet connection would be saving the world?

 

“I mean, I feel like we’re doing a good thing about it. But I feel like everything’s in my hands now. I started this, and I dragged the Fright Club into this, now I gotta end it. I’m just worried about everyone. I’m sorry.”

 

You stop in front of the door to your dorm room, (which is apparently the squad’s headquarters). 

“Minju, I hope you know that I--we would always be by your side. If you asked me 3 weeks ago out of nowhere that if we would help you hunt vampires and save the world, I probably would have laughed my off…”

 

“ass, thanks for being such a great friend to me, Yul.” You roll your eyes, 

 

She laughs and hits your shoulder, it’s funny how we can actually make jokes out of this damn situation. How everyone else on campus is going to their regular day-to-day schedule, but everyone who has been inside your room knows what’s actually going on behind these walls. 

 

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. As I was saying, of course, I would say yes in a heartbeat, You’re my best friend and I will stand here next to you throughout every single battle.” 

 

You get shy and try to hide your face, “Stop being such a sweet talker Yuri.” “Oh whatever, you love me.” “I know, I really do.” You hug Yuri by the neck and she hugs you by the waist, she’s not always like this, but you always feel so giddy inside when you’re not at each other’s necks.

 

You open the door and Yuri gasps, “Minju, why is the angry vampire not tied to a chair?” 

 

“In which ing century did people forget to knock?” Chaewon retaliates Yuri’s statement,

 

“Don’t worry! We talked--”

 

“Holo, call Yujin, tell her it’s an emergency. Now.” she talks into her watch, she’s the local Pepper Potts now. “ Yes, Ms. Jo. Calling An Yujin. ”

 

Yuri steps away from you, “Oh don’t tell me you’ve turned into a zombie too. Come on I said all that sweet for nothing?” 

 

“What? No, I didn’t get zombie-fied my God,” Yuri crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, “how can I trust you then?” 

 

You walk over in front of Chaewon, “You are the most annoying roommate ever, and I ing hate all the that you put me through. I hate you and your vampire ,” You look to Yuri, “is that fine?” 

 

“For now, yes.” 

 

A few seconds later Yujin comes through the doors with a stake, and Yena following just behind her, “don’t ing touch her, Kim Chaewon.” Yujin tries to grab Chaewon’s arm but she blocks it and takes it behind her back, twisting it in the process. 

 

“Look Buffy, I have tolerated your bull ever since I met you. I honestly don’t understand myself on how I haven’t ing broken every single bone in your body.” Yujin struggles to get out of Chaewon’s grip,

 

Ah , I really gotta stop these two. “Chaewon, stop it! Yujin’s gonna stop trying to hunt you down, and she’s sorry. Right Yujin?” 

 

Yujin grunts in pain and falls to her knees, “Y-yeah, I’m sorry. THAT HURTS.” 

 

Chaewon lets go of Yujin and you kneel in front of her, “are you okay? This wasn’t supposed to happen, I’m sorry.”

 

“Yeah I’m fine, I was just worried about you.” Yujin stands up as she clutches her arm close to her chest,

 

“It’s okay, I’m okay, I can handle this.”

 

“Oh no you can’t, have you ever backtracked the events that have happened for the past few weeks? You’ve started a riot between Alphas and Summers, you’ve become vampire bait,” she pushes the hair blocking your neck and looks at the bandaid, “and you’ve been bitten by the said vampire. Is this how you’re handling this whole thing? Is this supposed to be under control?” 

 

Yuri and Yena check your neck to see your bite mark, but you just wave your hand in their face to stop them from annoying you.

 

“It’s just that you have to tell me every time--”

 

Your eyes grow bigger in disbelief, “OKAY PAUSE. Tell you? Like it’s required? Is that your job now?”

 

“YES. YOU--”

 

“No, no. I’m gonna stop you right there, An Yujin. I am not required to tell you anything, you aren’t my ing knight in shining armor.” 

 

Yena cuts through the drama, “so uhm, this isn’t our business now, Chaewon maybe you wanna?” and she points to the door, “no no, you can go. I gotta watch this.” Yena pushes Yuri out of the door and makes a run for it, WWIII is currently happening in your room and they don’t wanna be in the middle of the crossfire. 

 

“That’s not what I meant, Minju.” she tries to hold your hand but you pull away,

 

“That’s exactly what you meant! You’re like some guardian that has to check on me every single time to make sure I’m not doing something dumb. I’m not 5 years old, I can do whatever the I want and you can’t tell me , Yujin.” you’re shaking from how angry you are, you’ve never raised your voice like this to anyone before,

 

“Minju I’m doing this because I love--” Yujin says under her breath,

 

“YEAH ME TOO, YUJ. I love you, but I can’t do with you if you’re just gonna end up treating me like a damn child.” 

 

“Fine, okay. You’re old enough to do stuff by yourself, of course,” she stands up and looks at Chaewon, “hey fang face, if anything happens to her, I won’t hesitate in putting a stake through your heart.”

 

“Oh I’ll be waiting, don’t worry.” Chaewon says with her smug face, “Okay, I’ll see you around, Minju.” Yujin says as she walks out of the room.

 

“Yeah, I’ll see you.” 

 

You sit back on your bed and take a deep breath, Chaewon gives you a slow, sarcastic applause, “what a scene that was, bunny. Where’d you learn that from?”

 

“Oh shut up, I know you’re finding happiness in my pain. God, what has my life come to? All I wanted was to write papers, answer exams, and graduate. I didn’t sign up for hunting down zombie-fied missing girls, basically breaking up with my best friend, and flirting with a vampire.”

 

“Maybe in another life, you’ll get that dream, you’re not getting that here that’s for sure.”

 

Suddenly the floor shakes under your feet, you look over to the pictures on the wall and they start swinging side to side, “am I hallucinating or is there an earthquake happening right now?”

 

Chaewon looks out the window, “nope, there’s a big crater that just formed in the middle of the quadrangle.” 

 

“Is-is our school being slowly swallowed by a hole in the Earth?”

 

-- the next day --

 

Chaewon hands you a cup of coffee as you type away on your laptop, “good morning to you, princess. Why are you up so early?”

 

“Trying to recover my grades from Lit. Also, it’s 5 PM. I failed my exam yesterday so now I gotta one-up the whole thing so it’ll balance out.”

 

“Pfft, aren’t you a good girl? I liked you better when you were wearing that black dress.”

 

“Oh shut up I did for infor--”

 

Yuri and Yena come barging through the doors, “again, when did we collectively stop knocking on doors? For the love of the underworld.”

 

“Adds to the element of surprise,” Yuri says with matching jazz hands, “anywho, remember one of the missing girls came back all zombie-fied and ? Uhh what’s her name? Kang Hyewon! Yeah her, well her clothes had this weird goo thing on them, and I took them to the lab for some tests and it’s uhm, bodily fluids? Like a mixture of sweat, fat, and other gross stuff.”

 

You and Chaewon cringe at Yuri’s description, yep, totally not gross. “That’s not all though,” she pulls out her iPad and shows you a picture, “OOOKAY WHAT THE HELL IS THAT MONSTROSITY?!” You say with your eyes clothes, trying to get rid of the image already in your brain. “They’re parasites, and right now they’re probably eating away at those girls.” 

 

“So now, we need answers. How are these girls getting them, what does it do to them, and how do we make it stop?” Yena looks at Chaewon, begging for answers, “don’t ask me, I don’t know what my mother does to them, okay?”

 

“Ugh for the love of , there must be something, right? There must be a book on this. But I gotta hack the library and let Holo do his thing. And our best hacker is where…?” 

 

“Ah, Van Helsing and princess over here got into a little fight yesterday, so let’s not expect much from her right now.” Chaewon says as she flips through the pages of her book, “Ah I understand. Well, it won’t be the best but I’ll do what I can. Bye guys!” Yena drags Yuri out the door and makes a heart with her fingers, her small way of comforting you. 

 

----

 

It’s 2 AM and you’re wide awake, sitting by the window watching the stars, somewhere along a hundred years ago, you watched the stars with Hitomi. Who the said moving on was easy? “I’m doing this for you, Hitomi. To finally show you that I’m not the monster you thought I was. To prove to you I’m not my mother’s slave.” you whisper into the air, hopefully, she can hear you, wherever she is.    

 

You hear Minju’s sheets rustling, her voice slowly getting louder and louder, 

“No, don’t take me! Please!” you run over to her, “Minju, Minju, hey wake up. Minju wake up!” you grab her shoulders and shake her. 

She wakes up in a cold sweat and panting, “Hey, you okay? What happened?” She grabs your arm tightly, 

 

“, Chaewon, I-I oh God.”

 

“Okay calm down, take a deep breath. In, then out,” you coach her to breath slowly, her pace matching yours, “there ya go, good girl. Wanna tell me what happened?” 

 

“There was blood, so much blood. And there was the girl standing in the middle of it, she said don’t go into the light, and-and to save everyone, that it’s not too late... Is the dean doing this? Is she giving me nightmares on purpose?”

 

“No, as soon as I gave you the dreamcatcher it should have stopped. It’s not mother.”

 

“What if--what if it’s Hitomi? She’s trying to help us, using me as a connection to you.” 

 

“I-I don’t know, I haven’t seen her in any of my dreams. But I’ve heard other girls talk about her, that they’ve seen her in their dreams.”

 

“But this must be a clue right? We can connect this to that big crater in the middle of campus and the weird parasites.”

 

“I guess, but where are you getting any information on ancient vampire rituals?”

 

“Two words, grandma. Choi. Yena.”

 

----

 

You find yourselves in front of the library, it’s after hours but thanks to Chaewon, it was easy to steal a spare key from the janitors. You’re all armed with some kind of weapon, who knows what’s in there? Yena holding a bat, Yuri with a damn hockey stick, Chaewon in all her vampiric glory, and you wielding a can of deodorant and a lighter in case you needed to use a DIY flamethrower. 

 

You walk in and Yena plugs a USB stick into one of the computers, “okay Holo, do your thing. Find anything that can help us with vampiric rituals or anything alike.” 

 

After a few seconds of rapid computer noises going on, Holo finds something of use, “ Ms. Choi, There seems to be a book as old as the school. It seems to contain information you can use. Though you can only find it downstairs. ”

 

“Downstairs? But this is already the first floor, unless there’s some secret trapped door in here?” you say as you crawl on the floor, looking for something that resembles a handle or a manhole type of cover. “Now if I were some ancient underworld god where would I put the button that hides all my secrets…” You walk up to the main counter and find a plaque with a weird logo on the table, “hey Chaewon! Does this look familiar to you?” 

 

“I remember seeing it somewhere, but I’m not too sure,” she puts her hand over it, and it flushes through the table, of course, that was the secret door button. The bookshelf beside you opens slowly to a staircase heading downstairs. “Ladies first?” You say to Chaewon, pointing to the entrance, she sighs and starts going down the steps, “you’re lucky you’re cute,” you give her a faint smile as a thank you.

 

“Babe you’re literally cutting off the blood supply to my hand, LET GO OF ME.” Yuri whispers loudly to Yena, she’s shaking like she’s been left out in the cold for hours, “I’m scared, what the heck do you expect!?” 

 

“I know but I would like to leave this place still having my hearing intact, please,” Yuri says as she covers her ears, and moves farther away from her scaredy-cat girlfriend.

 

Chaewon turns to look at the lovebirds and everyone bumps into each other, “If you two dimwits don’t be quiet I’ll personally sew your mouths shut. Now is not the time to have your little lover’s quarrel.” 

 

You finally step foot into the hidden floor of the library, you keep getting a weird feeling, like someone--or thing is also there, but you stay close to Chaewon in case anything happens.

 

Yena talks into a small box--about the size of a deck of cards “Holo, go find the book,” a small drone takes off and zooms throughout the bookshelves. Chaewon finds a series of torches and snaps to one of them, sending all the torches into flames filling the whole room with a warm light. Yena looks at Chaewon in awe, “Spontaneous combustion, so ing cool.” Chaewon chuckles,  “it’s not that special, it’s a fun party trick though, imagine the faces of those half-drunk frat boys when they see me lighting cigarettes from my fingertips, ing hilarious.” 

You all split up and go through the individual bookshelves to find stuff that may come in handy. 

 

“I didn’t know you smoked,” you say to her while looking through the bookshelves, dragging your fingers along the spines of the books, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, princess. Just cause I told you my life story doesn’t mean anything. Besides, smoking can’t kill me, again.”

 

“ Ms. Choi, I have found the book, please refer to the flashing light for my exact location, ” Holo says from Yena’s watch, and a flashing red light pointed to the ceiling suddenly appears. You all run to the other side of the floor towards the light and find the book, Yuri grabs it out of the shelf and goes through the pages, “I-huh? I can’t read this. Anybody know how to read ancient?” Chaewon grabs the book from Yuri, “Oh, Sumerian. Yeah, I can read this. Come on, I hate the feeling of this place.”

 

A sudden gust of wind blows, and everyone starts shaking, “was it always this cold?” Yuri says as she hugs Yena, and she checks her watch, “it’s like -2 degrees, h-how did that even happen?” 

You start shaking too, Chaewon grabs you and puts you inside the left side of her leather jacket, she lights a small ball of fire from her hand to stay warm, “Quickly, we might get frostbite.” 

 

The sound of wood crashing into each other fills the room and you look out from the corner of the shelf, 

 

The bookshelves are falling onto each other like dominoes. 

 

“Run.”

 

You bolt through the maze of bookshelves, trying to avoid the apparent flying books that get in your way. Yena starts hitting books left and right with her bat but to everyone’s surprise (not), it forms a wall on each end of the hall, blocking the exit. It slowly closes in, and the bookshelves still continue to fall, “I REALLY DON’T WANT ‘DEATH BY BOOKS’ WRITTEN ON MY TOMBSTONE,” Yena says as she backs up against a shelf.

 

Chaewon brings her hands together and closes her eyes, a ball of fire forms as she separates them and she throws it at the wall of books, it burns to ashes immediately. She grabs your hand and runs toward the exit, Yena and Yuri following behind, basically falling over as you reach the door from where you entered.

 

“WOO! THAT WAS SO ING COOL!” Yena raises her arms as she breathes heavily, “YOU’RE A PSYCHO! WE COULD’VE DIED!” Yuri scolds her, rubbing her temples. Yena just laughs, she must find near-death experiences as fun as riding a roller-coaster. 

 

You suddenly realize that you actually fell on top of Chaewon, and she’s got her arms wrapped around you. You sit up and fix yourself, “you okay? Sorry.” Chaewon pushes herself up from the ground and grunts, “yeah, what a night. Damn.” 

 

“Awesome work team, Chaewon and I are gonna check out the book and I’ll update you if I find anything.”

 

“Noted, captain. I’ll see you whenever.” the couple salutes to you before you part ways with them. “God, I’m tired.” you yawn in front of Chaewon’s face and she gives you a disgusted look, “Me too, let’s get some sleep.” You walk back to the dorms, only realizing you were holding her hand the whole time when you had to open the door, accidentally breaking the touch between the interlocked fingers.

 

----

 

“Hey Min--” Yuri comes through the door dragging a girl along with her, “Will you children ever learn how to ing knock?” Chaewon says sternly, her patience is so thin when it comes to your friends, she’s annoyed at this whole situation, and she’s even more annoyed at the Fright Club.

 

“Get used to it, Chae. What’s up Yul? Who’s this?” you point to the girl standing next to Yuri, you’re not sure if she’s high, drunk, or everything all at once.

“This is Kang Hyewon, one of the girls, if you know what I mean. See anything weird?”

“Besides the fact that she looks high, nothing really.” Hyewon’s looking around your room, looking drowsy and heavy, she can barely keep her head up. “Haha, hey guys. My name’s Hyewon, and you--” she walks fast towards Chaewon and puts her face right in front of hers, basically an inch of space in between them, “you are super hot, we should make out, hehe.” She leans in for a kiss but Chaewon pushes her away, “yeah keep her on a leash please, thanks.”

“That’s exactly the point, this is one of the symptoms of the parasite. This was the zombie-fication thing Chaewon was talking about.”

“Okay and? How does that help?”

“Apparently she doesn’t recall what happened during the time she went missing but she has this,” Yuri plays an audio file from Hyewon’s phone, 

 

“Hey, this is Kang Hyewon. I’m not sure where I am, but it’s some underground cave thing? It’s dark on this side, but there’s this glowing bright light in the middle of the cave, and there are two other girls here,” a different voice can be heard, and Hyewon stops talking, “Mother keeps talking , we’re perfectly fine with the line up right now. We just need like 2 more before the full moon, then we’re done, basic stuff. Hey pretty girl, the Dean would like to see you now.” then the audio cuts off.

 

“Did-did she just record her own kidnapping?” you take the phone and send the audio file to your computer, “Hyunjin’s so ing stupid, he literally let a girl in with a recording device. What a genius,” Chaewon says as she facepalms herself. You cross your arms and narrow your eyes at her, shaking your head, “But yay, she’s alive, I guess.” you give her a faint smile, “that’s better.”

 

You listen to the audio again, “wait, she said something about a bright light, isn’t that the same thing the girl said in my dream?” Chaewon looks through the book you got from the library, she lands a certain page and flips it to its side, “I knew something was weird with this page, but here, it says something about parasites and sacrifices, but it mysteriously stops there.” 

 

Hyewon walks around the room and accidentally hits Chaewon’s glass filled with blood, basically covering the page in blood, “Oh wow, of course, blood activates the secrets. What else did I expect?” Chaewon reads the rest of the page, “Here, apparently the light’s called Immaru, and you need to sacrifice 5 girls.”

 

“Great, now we know what we’re dealing with, ish. And that we have to get the girls before the full moon, which is in 3 days. Which is also the deadline of my Lit paper, goddammit. My only redemption to my grade and it’s ed.” Chaewon rubs your back, “well I mean if we die to an ancient underworld god then you won’t have to do it anymore. Lucky you.” 

 

“Totally not helping, Chae.”

 

----

 

You find Yujin at the table in the cafeteria, the light of the laptop reflecting on her glasses can’t hide how tired she looks. “Hey, Yujin,” her head snaps up, locking eyes with you before she looks back down again, “hi, Minju.”

 

“How’s Hyewon?” she asks, not even looking up from her screen, “she’s, not doing so well, but we’re trying our best,” she just hums in response. “So uhm, as you know we’ve been stressed about all this vampire stuff, and I need your help.” you take a deep breath, 

 

“I need you to hack the school records and change my grade. An A or whatever.” 

 

“What?” she slams her laptop closed,

 

“How about a B?” 

 

Yujin takes off her glasses and sighs, “wow, I really thought--you were better than this, but now you’re so desperate that you came all the way here just to ask me to hack into the records.”

 

“Wait, you thought I was here to…?”

 

“Well not anymore! I can’t believe you, a little flirting with the dark side and now you can’t even do your homework? How dare you.”

 

“You don’t think trying to save the world isn’t worth you changing my grade? That’s so unfair Yujin.”

 

“Unfair?! You don’t--you know what? I’m not talking to you. you, Kim Minju. Don’t talk to me ever again.” Yujin picks up her laptop and her bag and walks away. You rub your eyes and let your hands go through your hair, , what am I gonna do now?

 

----

 

Minju comes back into the room and you jump to the sound of the door clam behind her, “Woah there tiger, I’m the one with anger issues, not you. What’s up?” 

 

She grunts in frustration and slams her hands on the table, “Yujin hates my guts, and I’m gonna ing fail Literature 1. How great,” Minju sighs and sits next to you on the bed, “found anything that could help us stop that stupid light thing?”

 

“Unlucky, it’s either not as strong as it should be or it’s something I technically can’t handle, like magic,” You flip through more of the pages, “Oh wait--look, There’s this, Darcassan’s Sword, basically made from the bones of a dead god of evil, it never breaks and it could basically kill anything.”

 

“That’s great! Where is it?” 

 

“Uhm, at the bottom of the ocean, in a cave near the coast? It’s not that far though.”

 

“Never ing mind then, what now?”

 

“I mean--I can get it. Water and pressure depth can’t really do anything to me, did you forget the fact that I’m technically dead?” 

 

The door suddenly opens and a tall figure stands right outside, they snap their fingers and suddenly Minju has fallen asleep next to you, you stand up and stand in front of Minju, taking in whatever is gonna get thrown at you next, “mother, how nice of you to drop by.”

 

“Chaewon, I thought Hyunjin told you to handle the roommate problem. What’s this I’m seeing? Another Hitomi?” her laugh is low and dark, echoing around the room.

 

“You know I never understood why you had to do that. Take the only girl I have ever loved and sacrifice her to some ing inanimate object.”

 

“Love? Darling she never loved you, the moment she knew what you were she threw away all the memories she had of you. I know your little plan, take Darcassan’s sword, pierce it through our god Immaru, and happily ever after, right?” you stay quiet, trying to ignore every word she’s been saying.

 

“I hope you remember that anyone that uses that sword dies from it. Oh darling, whatever happens, you still lose.”

 

“Then what are you here for? Why didn’t you just kill me when you had the chance?”

 

“Kill you? Oh child the number of things I did just to keep you alive and you want me to kill you? You are way too valuable for me to kill. Your brothers and sisters, never as good as you. Now here’s the thing, if your friend here keeps sticking her nose into our business, I’ll use her as a sacrifice. If not, then you can keep her, and everything goes back to what it used to be, and I’ll just use someone else. That girl, Yeji, would be a great candidate. She can go along with her brother, sacrifices don’t necessarily have to be girls”

 

 Mother stretches her hand out to you, “deal?” you look away and lower your voice, “fine,”

“See, I always knew you were a good girl. Take care darling.” she disappears into a puff of black smoke and Minju slowly regains consciousness, “What the hell just happened? I feel like I was asleep for a whole 24 hours,” she tries to stand up but loses her balance and stumbles backward onto the bed.

 

“You fell asleep on my shoulder, so to make things easier for you, I just made sure you had a really good nap.” 

 

“Oh really? Well, thanks I guess, I needed that.”

 

“Yeah, you really did.”

 

-----

 

At the end of the midterm week, there’s usually a big party to celebrate everyone’s survival. Which coincidentally is the same day of the ritual, with no new reports of more girls going missing and to stall the rest of your brothers and sisters, Minju’s keeping Hyewon in your room and the bickering couple is preparing for d-day. Carving stakes and crosses from wood they found in the nearby forest.

 

“You’re gonna go get that sword, right?” Minju looks at you, her high energy completely contrasting yours, every time you look at her it just reminds you of the events that happened yesterday. “yeah, I’ll in a while.”

 

“Ah , all this good news is bothering me, what-what if they somehow find all the girls they need tonight and continue with the ritual? What’s the plan then?” Minju says as she looks over to the drawing board, recalling the plan.

 

“Minju, the plan we have now is the best one we have. It keeps your friends safe, it keeps YOU safe. There’s nothing more we can do about it. ” 

 

She gets a random spark of an idea in her head, apparently, there’s still one last brain cell intact, and she gives you a smirk, “whatever you’re think--” you try to stop her train of thought before she says anything else, “no you’re right, that’s the only thing we can do, but what if there were more of us?” You try to cut her off but she holds your lips closed to stop you from talking, “I can ask the Summers for help and we can actually do something about this mess! Now I gotta go look for a bunch of Summers and you go get that sword.” 

Minju gives you a kiss on the cheek and leaves the room, you sigh and think to yourself for a second before getting reminded that there are actually three more people in the room, “don’t you have a sword to go get?” says Yuri as she carves more stakes, “yeah, I do.”

 

----

 

You come back to your room unsuccessful, going up to Yujin and the rest of her Summer Sisters was probably your first mistake but you took the chance anyway, and as every unspoken organization rule exists; when you mess with one, you mess with all of them. So the moment you step foot closer to Yujin her sisters were ready to chop your head off, luckily you’re not an almost 6-foot tall Amazonian woman, you hid behind a bush before trying to return to your dorm, limbs still attached. 

 

“Now which rabbit hole did you climb out of?” Yuri says as she picks out the leaves from your hair, “I got chased down by Summers okay, I tried to get some type of alliance going but of course, Yujin hates me.”

 

“Oh, by the way, I archived the latest update on the camera, I think you should check it out.” Yena passes you a USB stick, right, they never actually removed it since they found out Chaewon was a vampire, for safety measures of course. You plug it into your laptop and see the latest file, it was a video from yesterday, the thumbnail shows a preview of you passed out on the bed, and a dark figure standing in front of Chaewon,

 

“Chaewon, I thought Hyunjin told you to handle the roommate problem. What’s this I’m seeing? Another Hitomi?”

 

What the happened while I was asleep?

 

----

 

Chaewon comes back to the dorm no sword in hand, Yena and Yuri stop her by the door, “don’t take another step bloodsucker,” Yuri puts the pointed end of a stake right under her chin, “I thought we were over the killing part?! What the hell?!” You look to her in disappointment and play the video you say from earlier,

 

“if your friend here keeps sticking her nose into our business, I’ll use her as a sacrifice. If not, then you can keep her, and everything goes back to what it used to be, and I’ll just use someone else. That girl, Yeji, would be a great candidate. She can go along with her brother, sacrifices don’t necessarily have to be girls”

 

You fast forward the video a bit more,

 

“Deal?”

“Fine.”

 

“So, were you even gonna tell me? That she was the reason I passed out yesterday, and she was literally going to use Yeji as a sacrifice?! What was your plan? Show up here, and say ‘sorry princess no sword everyone has to die’?”

 

“She was going to leave us alone!”

 

“And in return, you’re gonna let her kill my friends? Are you ing insane? I know the sword would kill you in the process but that’s not the point, Chaewon. You really gave up, then and there.”

 

“I didn’t have a choice--”

 

“YES YOU DID! You could’ve done something! But you stood there, like a coward. After everything we’ve done, the hours of research, breaking into the library, and almost dying to magical books, it’s a waste. Me defending you in front of everyone that you weren’t like the other vampires out there, it’s all ing useless now right? Just cause you didn’t know how to stand your own ground.”

 

“Minju that’s not what--”

 

“Just go. That’s what you’ve always been good at, right? Running away?”

 

“Minju please--”

 

“We’re done, Chaewon. It’s over.”

 

-----

 

“Can’t believe I got my heart broken by a vampire, and I’m gonna fail my classes. Ouch.” you lightly punch your own chest, “like I got shot or something,” Yuri softly chuckles, “well, that’s what they’ve always been good at. Look at Twilight, Vampire Academy, all that .”

 

“Yuri let’s go to the partyyy,” Hyewon says to Yuri, still sounding drunk as ever, fortunately, she’s been tied up to stop from breaking everything inside your room, “there’s no party, Hyewon, stop it.”

 

“But the party with the pretty lights, I gotta go! I wanna see the pretty light!”

 

“Wait, light? Did she say light?” you roll your chair closer to Hyewon, “Oh she’s talking about Immaru. Do you know where the light is, Hyewon?”

 

“Yes! I gotta go to the party and see the light hehe.”

 

You pack a bag and shove some stakes inside, “look, I’m not gonna force the both of you to do anything. If we let this whole situation pass then we could go home safely and just accept the fact the world works like this.” 

 

“Minju, I told you, I’m your ride or die. So if you’re gonna do this, then I’ll do it with you. WE’RE gonna do this together. Right babe?”

 

“Of course, it’s always been us three--well four but I really don’t know where the hell Yujin is, and the rest of the world I guess.”

 

“You know what we should do? Film our last goodbyes. Who knows if we’ll survive or not?” Yuri says as she presses record on your laptop, “the fact that we’re kinda unphased by this whole situation is scaring me. But vlogging our last goodbyes? I think we’re actually insane,” you say as you fix your hair, you might die tonight so you at least look good when they play this video all over the internet.  

 

After filming your last goodbyes, you pull them in for a group hug and kiss each of their cheeks, “I love you guys.”  they groan in disgust and wipe the saliva. You look over to Hyewon, headbanging, and dancing in her own little world, “Come on Hyewonie, lead us to the party.”  

 

----

 

You come back to an empty dorm room, with a note left on your bed, 

 

In case you ever come back, ask Holo to show you the video. 

Minju

 

You tilt your head as you read the letter, what stupid this is ing girl do now? 

 

“Oh it, Holo, show me the damn video.”

 

Minju’s laptop turns on and plays the video automatically, “I think she would like for you to see this part, Ms. Kim.” Holo fast forwards the video and plays a certain part,

 

“And to Chaewon, if you’re ever watching this, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I said, and about that sword, you don’t have to do it. You don’t have to risk yourself to save me--”

 

“But I’m doing this for you, oblivious idiot,” you say under your breath, this girl can’t even tell that I liked her, how lovely.

 

“--even if I did hate you at one point, and the fact that you will always be the worst roommate, I hope to see you in another life. I will always love you, Kim Chaewon.”

 

“She’s trying to be the ing hero again, why do you this to yourself?” you say to yourself, and your nonexistent heart starts hurting, “I’m gonna sue you for emotional damages, Kim Minju.”

 

“Why the hell did I get a message from Holo saying, ‘Hi, it’s Minju, In a cave. Library. Bring stakes.’ Is this  some sick joke?” You turn your back to see Yujin standing by the door, “no jokes here, Van Helsing, they’re down there.” 

 

“What? Don’t tell me--”

 

“Yes, they’re under the library and attempting to fight some celestial god. Now my advice to you is to gather all the Alphas and Summer psychos you got, tell them the Hwang twins are down there and they’re gonna be sacrificed.”

 

You walk past her but and go in the opposite direction to the library, “now where are you going?” 

 

“Gonna go find a god-killing sword.”

 

-----

 

 

You find yourselves back in the library, using Hyewon as your human GPS to find where the ritual was taking place, as you go down the stairs you see that the once underground library has turned into a cave. You see the other girls that were taken were surrounding this crater, you jump to one of the vampires guarding the ritual and put a stake through their heart, finally using all those years of taekwondo to use. 

 

After a few minutes of staking and punching, your trio eventually gets stopped by more vampires, tying you up and keeping you in a cage. You hear a herd of footsteps going down the stairs, and through the entrance, you see Yujin, your original knight in shining armor. Behind her is a small army of Alphas and Summers armed with stakes and pitchforks, fighting vampires like it was the 19th century. Yujin frees you from your almost certain doom, “still hate me?”

She hands you a stake and furrows her eyebrows, “I would hate you more if you didn’t try to text me.” Yujin reaches her hand out to you to help you stand up, “I missed you,” “me too.” 

Yuri calls out to you, “HELLO! DID YOU FORGET ABOUT THE VAMPIRES?!” you exchange looks and run straight to another vampire with his back turned, grabbing him by the neck and stabbing him from behind.

 

Amidst all the chaos, more chaos starts. The ground starts shaking and a ball of light comes up from the crater, mesmerized by the sight, everyone stops fighting and walks towards the light. As you walk to the lip of the crater something grabs you from behind and you fall backward, you look to your left to see a big cat next to you, the same one from your dreams, its fur was black with streaks of gold, her coat shining in the light. The cat slowly shrinks and morphs into a human and you finally realize it was Chaewon. The same Chaewon following you in your dreams, the same one that was trying to keep you safe from the start. She had the sword in her hand, a golden glowing sword that didn’t even look real, like it was straight out from a comic book. 

 

The dean sees Chaewon from the other side of the crater and transforms into this cauldron of bats, attacking her from multiple angles at once. You run to the other people in the cave and help them snap out of their trance, not letting them fall into the crater and get eaten by the light. 

 

The dean transforms back into a human and Chaewon hits her with the other end of the sword, causing her to stumble. She then kicks her in the chest and falls into the crater, the light slowly filling the room. Chaewon falls to her knees and she reaches out to a ghostly figure coming from the light--assuming it was Hitomi-- she cries, after two centuries she hasn’t seen her first love. She then turns to you and says, “I don’t know why I’m only realizing this now, but I never wanted to be the hero in this story.”  

 

She jumps into the crater and pushes the sword straight into the source of light, the ground shakes and deafening screams fill the room, the light spasms and eventually falls into the darkness of the pit.

 

“Hey Holo, lead a way outside yeah?” Yena talks into her watch and the drone shines a light that leads everyone outside of the library, everything returns back to normal, all the captured girls aren’t zombies anymore and almost everyone’s alive. 

 

Everyone’s alive except Chaewon. 

 

-- a week later --

 

You try to take a nap after a busy day at school, post-midterms aren't always the best. You anxiously sit there waiting for all your grades to get sent to you via email for God’s sake. 

 

Ting! 

 

And there goes the email, you know you flunked, and you’ll probably be repeating the whole first half of the first term anyway, but you check it to see how bad it actually was. 

But it wasn’t actually as bad? A column of B’s somehow shows up on the PDF file and there’s only one thing that came to your head, Yujin. You chuckle softly, “I owe you big time, Yujinnie.”

 

You lock your phone and close your eyes, hoping that you might see a big black cat in your dreams again, who knew that one of the most dangerous people in this school is actually one of the people that kept you safe all this time.

 

You get up from your bed and walk over to her side of the room, seeing her leather jacket hung on the corner of her chair, you take it and put your arms through the sleeves, the warmth reminding you of that time in the library. You tear up at the thought, “we could’ve died, but I guess it was fun,” you say in a whisper.

 

Yuri and Yena comes through the door in a panic, “Okay so don’t freak out but the Alphas were back down in the cave doing some weird stuff and I just came here to tell you that--”

 

Yujin follows behind carrying a body, “Okay everyone move she’s a ‘lil heavier than she looks”, 

She places her on your bed and you finally realize who it was, “CHAEWON?! WHAT THE ?!”

 

“Okay I warned you to not freak out--” Yuri holds you and tries calming you down,

 

“QUICK I NEED BLOOD, CHECK THE FRIDGE THE CARTON’S STILL THERE.”

 

Yena runs to the fridge and passes you the carton, “Please don’t die, please don’t die, come on Chaewon.”

 

You put the carton to her lips and make her drink the blood, her eyes suddenly open glowing in bloodshot red, she slowly gets up and breathes heavily, “Woah, wasn’t that one hell of a ride.”

 

You hug her tightly and she weakly holds your waist, “Are you okay? Is there anything that hurts?” Chaewon chuckles softly, “Hey princess, how’s it going?” 

 

Yuri pushes Yena and Yujin out of the room, giving you and Chaewon some alone time.

 

“‘Hey princess’? You die to a ing god and all you’re gonna say to me is ‘hey princess’? You were dead for an entire week! I know it’s a lot to take in but is this supposed to be your coping mechanism? To--” Chaewon slowly gets up from the bed and cups your cheeks, a smirk forming from the corner of her lips,

 

“You talk too much.” she leans forward and closes the gap, the butterflies in your stomach are going crazy, holding her so close that you’re kind of suffocating her, but she doesn’t mind. Kissing a vampire was the least of your expectations but it felt good nonetheless. (Though the taste of blood in was a bit off) she pulls back with a smile so wide you can see her little fangs, since when did apparent murderers suddenly become so attractive?

 

“I see you have something that’s mine,” she pinches the corners of your shoulders, portraying to her jacket, “Well, it’s mine now,” you put your finger under her chin and tilt her head upwards, “Just like you.” pulling her in for another kiss.

 

I will love you now and in any other lifetime, Kim Chaewon.