She wakes up in a warm bed, feeling a mass in her hand. She remembers what happened and looks at the girl holding her. Irene is sitting on a chair, her hand covering Seulgi’s. The latter can’t help but smile even though she shouldn’t. Yesterday the Irene she met was the Irene she knows, not a scary vampire who kills people. It was her Irene. She allows herself to forget everything for the last time and pretend that nothing changed. As Seulgi looks at her, she notices that the girl is wearing the necklace she bought her. It means that even though she threw it on the floor, she cared enough to pick it up and wear it. She caresses her hair, then her cheeks and admire her beauty. She looks so peaceful like that. She knows she should go, but she doesn’t want to. Still feeling tired and exhausted, she allows herself to fall asleep, not letting go of the hand holding hers and feeling the coldness of it.

When she wakes up the second time, Seulgi opens her eyes only to see Irene hovering over her. She gets startled and widen her eyes. Irene immediately understands the situation and sits back on the chair.

“I’m sorry Seulgi! I didn’t want to do anything weird I swear. I was trying to check the injury on your clavicle.”

Seulgi massages her forehead. She got scared and she still can’t trust Irene at 100% but she decides to give it a shot.

“It’s okay.”

“Thank you.”

They fell into silence and Seulgi notices that Irene is playing with her fingers, showing that she’s nervous. She grabs her hand to stop her from doing that.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Do you think we can talk...? Like I could explain you everything from the beginning. How I became what I am today.”

Seulgi hesitates, a part of her wants to hear the story but the other is telling her to refuse. But still Irene took care of her after she helped, she owes her and herself these explanations.

“Okay. Go ahead.”

“Thank you.” Irene smiles. “First of all, I wasn’t born as a vampire. Someone turned me into it.”

“How?” Seulgi interrupts.

Irene chuckles. “Don’t interrupt, be patient and I’ll answer most of your questions in my story.”

Seulgi nods.

“I was born around 300 years ago. In a wealthy family composed of my father, mother and my brother. My life was good, but since my father was rich, we had a lot of enemies. Like you I was destined to marry a man, and I did. I didn’t love him, but I think I can say that I liked him. Until he betrayed us. He went to my father’s office one day and threatened him. He told him that if he didn’t give him an enormous amount of money, he would make sure that I suffer, and that something worse than death will happen to me. My father didn’t take him seriously, and only told him to go away, and that next time he’ll talk to him like that, it would be over.”

Seulgi senses that it’s getting hard for her to continue and decides to squeeze her hand softly as an encouragement.

“That night, someone came in the bedroom and assaulted me. That person turned me into a vampire. My ex-husband family happened to have connections with vampires, since they were almost a weapon before. He ordered one of them to contaminate me. When my family found out they chased me away, saying I was a monster. My own family told me that if I’d come back, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.”

Seulgi can’t believe it; it must have been awful for her.

“So, I ran away, I lost everyone I cared about and everything that day. I ran and refused to drink blood for several days. I was feeling sick when I found out that I needed it to live. I was barely surviving until they found me. Joy, Sehun and Daehyun that you know as Lord Choi. They took me with them, and they saved me. Helped me to accept myself, and to realize who I am. Since then, we constantly try to find a safe place to stay and I never left their side, they are like my real family. I have to best honest; I have killed humans before, not a lot, but I still feel guilty today. It happened when I lost control over blood. When vampires are thirsty, they lose their minds and they only thing they seek is that liquid.”

“You didn’t lose control yesterday. It was hard to make you drink. Was it you? The dead animals on the land?”

“I have to agree your technique was hard to resist to. You managed to save me and thank you for that. As for the self-control I have now, it changed. I needed years of training to achieve that, I’m still not completely free from a total relapse.” she frowns. “A lot of vampires can’t stop their selves. And yes, it was me, but I thought I hid them well. I try to feed from them as much as possible.”

“I see. But who were the ones that attacked you?”

“The vampires are going to extinct. Probably me too.” Seulgi eyes widens at that. Irene continues. “There are different types of vampires. The main ones being the vampires that need human blood, and the ones that need vampire blood to survive. That’s why everyday a lot of vampires are dying, because they hunt us. It doesn’t help that their community is getting bigger and bigger. I heard that it happened being of a gene mutation. The ones seeking for vampire blood are way more wild and violent than us. If we can manage to get a bit of self-control, it’s impossible for them. The real problem is that they need regular vampire’s blood, not their congeners one. They are usually stronger and faster than us, giving them the advantage. It is as if natural selection was once again getting rid of the dangers for humanity, because they are totally harmless to regular humans.”

“Is it really that bad for you?”

“You saw how it was yesterday, I would have died if you didn’t help me. They even find us here.”

Seulgi stands up and back hugs her, while closing her eyes. She chooses to believe her story; she knows deep down she can trust her. Yes, Irene is a vampire, but she’s also someone who got betrayed by everyone. Seulgi felt bad when she remembers how awful she was to her.

“I’m not going to lie Irene, I’m still a bit uncomfortable with what you are, but if I can do anything to help you, please tell me. Please don’t leave.” Her tears start to fall.

Irene grabs Seulgi’s hands and kisses them.

“I would never want to leave if you’re here.”

“Why am I always coming back to you? Why can’t I detach myself from you?”

“Oh Seulgi, it is the same for me.” Irene says as she leans dangerously towards her. She suddenly stops. “When are you going to marry him?”

“In 15 days.”

“15...” Irene mutters.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“In another life.”

“What?”

“In another life, let’s be lovers, and let’s marry each other, have kids, and die together.”

Irene can’t hold her tears anymore. “That sounds like a great plan. I will find you. I promise.”

This time Seulgi is the one leaning to Irene. She slowly kisses her. “Irene you’re the one I love. I’m in love with you.” she whispers.

“I love you too, I love you so much.”

“Then, show me how much you love me.” Seulgi says as she pushes Irene on the bed.

Seulgi doesn’t go back to the mansion before a few hours, and when she arrives, she can’t stop smiling. That day she made love with Irene, the person she’s deeply in love with. It’s crazy how fast she accepted her true nature, she can’t even believe it herself. But after all Irene is still Irene, when she met her, she was already like that. She’s soon brought back to reality with Junmyeon visiting her and everyone talking about the wedding.

“Seulgi? Where were you? I was dead worried.” he says.

“I got lost yesterday and I had to sleep at the guest’s house, I was too tired to come back here.”

“But it’s already almost dinner time? You stayed there the whole time?”

“Of course not, I went in town, and I checked on the children after.” she must admit that she’s a great liar.

“Okay but for the love of God, please tell someone next time.”

“I will I promise.”

He kisses her. It still feels a bit uncomfortable to Seulgi, especially after receiving perfect ones from someone else.

In the next days, Seulgi tries to spend as much time as she can with Irene. She knows they don’t have forever. Irene’s family decided to extend their stay until the wedding. That way they can attend to the event. On the days following the event, they will leave to another land. The one that her mother found is a great opportunity.

She is way to busy to visit her on the day time so she sneaks out at night, sometimes she only stay for a few hours, sometimes she sleeps there, it depends on the fact that she can or not.

That night she’s in Irene’s room again.

“Irene?”

“Yes?”

They are cuddling when Irene turns her head towards Seulgi’s.

“You remember when we went to that church, the noise. Was it a vampire?”

Irene laughs. “No, I’m sorry Seulgi but that was just a regular noise.”

Seulgi starts to pout, and Irene kisses her.

“You’re so cute.”

They grew even closer in these few days. Seulgi is addicted, so addicted that she can’t even imagine how it will be when she’ll be married. So she simply doesn’t. She just enjoys her time with the girl.

“By the way.” Irene starts. She takes off a ring from her finger. “Please, take it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s my most treasured ring, I got it from my grandmother a long time ago. I was told to give it to someone I cherish. I want you to have it. Plus, I have this necklace.” she points at it. “So, take this ring. That way we both have a jewelry that makes us think of the other.” she smiles.

Seulgi feels teary eyed and takes it. She puts it on her finger and this time she initiates the kiss. Today she spends the whole night with her and only comes back the next morning.

It’s been three days since Seulgi cannot find Irene anywhere. She disappeared. When the guests came to her house, she tried to ask them where she was, but they only told her she went on a business trip, which is a lie obviously. A bad one even.

The wedding is now tomorrow. Tomorrow she’ll be married, tomorrow she will officially be the property of someone else. It’s making her sick, she wants to throw up consta