Siyeon and Minji were seated on the sofa of the living room with drinks in front of them on the coffee table, waiting for Han Dong to begin the conversation. They were both surprised to receive the text asking them to come to the apartment. It felt too sudden, unorganised, not like the kitsune at all. Gahyeon was there too, she greeted them before going to her room. Bora, however, was nowhere to be seen. That gave them some clue as to what was going on. Dong sat next to them. It was then that Minji noticed. But she didn't say anything. She waited. 

“Something happened between me and Bora. I think I messed up.”

The dryad eyed the kitsune's neck, growing more impatient. 

“What happened?” Siyeon asked, genuinely concerned. 

“She had a blood craze because of me.”

            Minji's whole body tensed in a second. Her only reaction was to stand up and walk away from the sofa. The two who were still sitting watched her, understanding but also worried. Many words crowded the dryad's mind, angry words, words that she knew she shouldn't say out loud, words that would vanish as soon as her anger would pass. 

“Is that what those marks on your neck are? Did she bite you?” 

            Dong stared at Minji with a hint of threat in her eyes. She wasn't going to let the young woman lash out as she did the first time she met Bora. 

“I told her it was ok.”

“You realise this is the exact reason I didn't want her here?” 

“Minji, she said she gave her consent,” Siyeon intervened. 

            The werewolf hated those kinds of situations when she couldn't be on her soulmate's side. She knew how much Minji hated to be cornered. She tried to calm her down, but she knew it was better for Han Dong to deal with the situation, because she was the one Minji was angry at. 

“Did you really have a choice?” 

“She didn't threaten me. She asked me to leave her alone. I'm the one who didn’t listen.”

            The dryad was spiralling. She wasn’t hearing what Dong was saying. She remembered the pain, the feeling of dying inside while those bloodless corpses were being buried under her tree. The hatred she felt, the bodies in decomposition poisoning her roots, the voices in her head asking her to avenge them. She couldn’t let that happen again. She couldn’t let Gahyeon suffer from that again. She had to do something. She had to make herself understood.

“Why am I the only one freaking out? What if Gahyeon had been in your place? Do you think she would have been fine with a blood er barely keeping it together in front of her?”

“Do not talk about Bora like that.”

            Han Dong’s voice had taken a deeper, more threatening edge. One thing that wasn’t commonly known about kitsunes was that their spiritual affinity was with fire, and although, unlike faes, they didn’t use their abilities as much, it was still visible sometimes in the way their emotions burst in the form of flames in their eyes. Minji knew, when Han Dong stared at her, that she was in front of a line that she’d better not cross. 

“Then stop pretending everything is fine,” she replied nonetheless. 

            If it weren’t for Siyeon’s arm raising in front of Han Dong, the conversation would have grown into a heated argument without any form of logic by the end of it. 

“She’s right, mom. Gahyeon has her own trauma to deal with. What makes you think she wouldn’t panic if Bora entered a blood craze in front of her? What would happen to their bond then?”

            Dong remembered the girl’s first reaction to the marks on her neck and it was true that she had been close to a panic attack. However, in the meantime, the bond between the two had only gotten stronger. At the time, she only praised Gahyeon’s maturity for handling this situation the way she did, but now that she was hearing Minji’s side, it could well be that the young one was keeping too many things to herself for the sake of others. 

“Gahyeon already knows.”

The two soulmates raised their brows in sync.

“And how did she react?” the werewolf asked. 

“She took it well. Maybe too well. But I’m confident their bond wouldn’t break. Bora would never hurt her. She would know how to control herself.”

“She just your blood,” Minji said in an accusing tone.

            Siyeon sensed in the way Dong repositioned herself that she was irritated. “Mom, please, don’t dismiss her feelings this time,” she whispered. 

            The two exchanged an agreeing stare. The kitsune knew perfectly what her daughter was talking about. She never truly cared as much as she should have about Minji's feelings towards the whole situation. The dryad was scared and angry, so angry, that her feelings weren’t acknowledged, that her doubts were never taken into consideration. How could she trust anyone if she was being ignored?

“Minji. I know you’re afraid and you have every right to be.” 

            Dong looked at the red-head who was still standing up. She seemed to be there and somewhere else at the same time. Her eyes were vacant; her body was still. Siyeon recognised those signs and walked to her. Minji reacted to the hands taking hers and to the soft voice whispering against her ear. 

“Love, everything is fine.”

            She was guided back to the sofa where Siyeon sat between her and Han Dong, never letting go of her hands. This connection was what kept her grounded. Otherwise her girlfriend knew she would be traveling back to her painful memories. Dong went back to their discussion. She was talking calmly, but not in a condescending way. Minji wasn’t a child. 

“This isn’t a replay of what happened to you.”

“How can you be so sure?”

            This had been the heart of the matter since the beginning. Han Dong had never explained why she trusted Bora. She asked Minji to trust in her judgement but for the dryad, trust wasn’t enough. She needed to understand why the kitsune had so much faith in the vampire.

“Because she froze, Minji. As soon as she smelled my blood she froze and started to shake like she was terrified. All I had to do was leave her alone and nothing would have happened.”

“Then why didn’t you?” 

            Why indeed? She had been asking herself the same question for the past three days and she was too afraid to come out with an actual answer. 

“I… don’t know.”

            Minji studied her, unconvinced. It wasn’t like the kitsune to not know something. Especially when the answer was obvious. 

“You have feelings for her.” 

            Dong blushed and tried to speak but was interrupted by Siyeon this time. 

“Don’t deny it. It’s been clear for a while.”

            Dong gave up. She stared back at the couple, fully acknowledging the allegation. Minji laughed. Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She felt so stupid for lashing out when everything was, in fact, so simple. 

“You’re not the type to let your feelings get the better of you,” the werewolf teased.

“I hurt her that night.”

Dong’s disheartened voice forced the couple to be serious. 

“So she really didn’t want to bite you,” Minji said, realising it for herself.

“She was scared and in pain. My actions only aggravated that. She hadn’t bitten anyone in three hundred years because of the guilt and I ruined everything.”

            Minji and Siyeon looked down, trying to look for the right words to say, but it was as Han Dong said, she had messed up. 

“Also, that’s not the only thing I did.” The two looked at her with expecting eyes, truly wondering what else she could have possibly done to make things worse. “After she drank my blood, Bora was so confused and full of hate against herself that I tried to comfort her and I… kissed her.”

“You did what?” Siyeon asked dumbfounded. 

“You heard what I said,” her mom answered with a roll of her eyes.

“Did you mean it?”

“What?” It was Han Dong’s turn to be taken aback by Siyeon's sudden decisiveness in her voice. 

“The kiss, did you mean it?”

            The kitsune peered into her daughter’s eyes. She knew she was only expecting one answer. No lies, no hesitations, no attempts to tell her off, only the truth. 

“Yes, I did, because I love her.”

            Her two guests froze, lips slightly parted. They shouldn’t be that surprised to hear that answer but after years of watching Han Dong isolating herself it still came as a shock to see her say those words so casually. 

            A shriek broke into their moment. They all knew from where it was coming, after all there was only one person in the house apart from them. 

“Gahyeon.”

            Siyeon’s body reacted before her mind could finish processing what she heard.She jumped from the couch and ran upstairs to where Gahyeon’s room was. Minji and Han Dong watched her. The kitsune thought about stopping her daughter and handling the situation instead but she decided against it. She knew what the werewolf was about to find upstairs. It was a scene that she and Bora had woken up to many times in two months. She also knew that what made Siyeon move wasn’t just fear for the girl. It was the desire to protect the pack. She needed to be able to handle it. 

            The young woman opened the door to Gahyeon’s room without knocking and immediately reached for the light to see what was going on, but when the lamp switched on all she saw was an empty bed and no sign of the girl. 

“Gahyeon? It’s me. It’s Siyeon.”

            There was no answer but she heard a whine and the girl’s shaky breath coming from the other side of the bed. Siyeon made her way around it and she finally saw her, sitting on the floor, her face hidden against her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. She looked so small. Like a lost child waiting for their parents all alone. The werewolf sat on her knees in front of her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

“Is it your nightmares?” she asked in a cooing voice

“Y-yes,” Gahyeon answered in a broken voice that made Siyeon’s heart sink. 

She saw that the girl was shaking.

“You can’t stay like that, you’re going to get cold.”

            She moved to Gahyeon’s side and made her wrap her arms around her neck then passed an arm under the girl’s knees to lift her. Her original plan was to put the girl back in her bed but as soon as she was in her arms, Gahyeon refused to let go. So instead Siyeon sat on the edge of the bed and hugged the young kitsune even closer to her. 

“I got you, little one.”

            Siyeon’s embrace was warm, warmer than Bora and surprisingly warmer than Han Dong. Gahyeon was soothed by her slow breathing and the movement of her chest heaving and dropping. Siyeon’s scent reminded her of the forest in Fall, a musky fragrance that smelt of cedar wood with a note of jasmine. It was appeasing. So appeasing she could fall back to sleep… The girl startled before her eyes closed. No. She couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to go back to her nightmare. Siyeon’s voice sounded again. Gahyeon could feel the vibrations against her chest. 

“Is it really just the nightmares?”

            The question didn’t sound obvious. Why would it be anything else? Before she got asked, Gahyeon hadn’t really tried to read into her own mental state too much. Her nightmares could mean many things. Sometimes they were just random, sometimes they were indicators of great anxiety or feelings of uncertainty. When she heard Siyeon ask, her brain immediately went to the answer. 

“I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“I’m scared that we’ll have to leave this place. That I’ll never get to see Han Dong again. That I’ll lose everything I have here.”

            Siyeon was listening carefully. She wasn’t expecting that kind of thought from Gahyeon and she didn’t really know how she could help her not feeling that way considering the whole situation. 

“You’re saying that because of what happened with Bora?”

“They haven’t spoken in days.”

            The werewolf paused. From Gahyeon’s perspective, this was indeed scary. She had gotten used to her life there, between Han Dong and Bora. She had even started to get closer to Siyeon and Minji and she was willing to spend more time with them. This stability was important to her.

“You’re not going to lose us Gahyeon. My mom really cares about you, Minji has been worried about you even before she met you and I’ll always be there for you.”

“But that’s the thing.” The kitsune was unexpectedly annoyed. “You want me, but you don’t want eomma.”

Siyeon arched an eyebrow.

“Eomma? It means ‘mom,’ right?” 

Gahyeon nodded on the defensive. 

“Have you used it with Bora yet?” 

A shy nod again. The werewolf smiled.

“She must have been extremely happy.” 

            Gahyeon’s lips curled into a cute smile. With her eyes half closed, she really looked like a smiling fox and it had the power to melt Siyeon’s heart instantly. 

“Family is one of the most important things to have,” the older woman went on. “Sometimes they’re related by blood. Sometimes they’re people you find along the way. No one here will ever take that away from you. I don’t know what will happen with my mom. You may not be able to see her as often as you want to, but she’ll always take the time for you. And Minji and I will always welcome you into our home, you and Bora.”

“Even Minji?”

Siyeon sighed. Of course she would be worried about that.

“I know why you’re worried. She doesn’t hate your mom. She just doesn't want you to live through the same traumas she's been through. She's mostly scared and it makes her say harsh things sometimes.”

            Gahyeon seemed to understand. She stayed silent for a short while as if she was debating something within herself. 

“Can I tell you something?” 

This wasn’t the kind of reaction she was expecting but Siyeon went along.

“Of course.”

“I'm scared about that too. I said I was fine and I told mom I trusted her and I meant it. I know she will never hurt me or put me in danger. But I don't know how I would react if she had a blood craze in front of me. I know it's stupid but before that, I never really thought about her as a vampire. She was just Bora. And now…  now I think about it sometimes and I hate it because I shouldn't. She's my mom. I shouldn't think of her as anything else.”

            Those feelings, the werewolf knew them too well. There was a part of herself she wished she could get rid of as well. That part that was always scared to be abandoned again, or worse. No matter how much she loved Han Dong, those fears stayed with her for most of her childhood and they still reappeared in her darkest moments when she was with Minjj. 

“I don't think I ever told you why I got separated from my pack,” Siyeon started. 

            She didn’t really know why she was starting this subject. She just felt like Gahyeon needed to hear it. 

“It's because they thought I was cursed. I'm a white wolf and white wolves are considered dangerous, unstable and violent. So when she saw me in that form for the first time, my biological mother tried to kill me. I was five.”

“That's horrible…” 

“Dong took me in when I ran away. She was kind to me. She never hurt me or acted violently but for months I thought she would try to kill me too if she ever saw my wolf form. I hid all that from her as long as I could until I broke into a tantrum and shapeshifted. I scratched her and tried to bite her because I was certain she was going to get rid of me. But instead she sat down and waited for me to calm down and when I shapeshifted back, she just hugged me.

“All that to say that Bora loves you. You have your doubts and fears and it's normal to have them. It doesn’t make you a horrible daughter just because you’re afraid. I’m sure if you talk to Bora and tell her what you’re afraid of, she’ll help you get your head around it and you’ll feel safer. She’s been protecting you all this time, Gahyeon. There’s no way she never thought about that herself.”

            Gahyeon’s tears began to run on her cheeks. She hugged Siyeon tightly, hiding her face against the woman’s neck. She didn’t know what else to do or say. To think that the older woman had been through all that on her own, that there was so much sadness within her all this time, it made her heart tighten within her chest. 

            Siyeon huffed at Gahyeon's display of empathy. She hadn't meant to cause this burst of emotions and in all honesty it didn't affect her that much anymore. The girl didn't need to worry about such things. She patted her head with an open palm to cheer her up. 

“I want to be your family too,” Siyeon was able to hear between the sobs. 

It triggered something in her. Her heart swelled with pure happiness. 

“I'd be very happy to share that bond with you.”

            Gahyeon didn't respond because as soon as her sobs ended, her respiration took the slow rhythm of sleep. 

            This time, Siyeon tucked the girl in her bed, waited for a moment to see if she didn't have another nightmare and, finally, left a kiss on her forehead before exiting the room. 

            She hadn't realised that more than an hour had passed. When she entered the living room again, Han Dong and Minji were discussing over a cup of tea. Her mom immediately asked her how Gahyeon was to which Siyeon responded:

“She went back to sleep. But I wouldn't say she's all right.” Han Dong tensed. “She’ll deal with it when she’s ready though. You can trust her with that.”

“Thank you.” 

            The kitsune was back to her poised self. It was easy to forget sometimes how much Gahyeon had grown. She didn’t need to worry as much as she used to. Especially since she had her own problems to deal with.  

“Bora sent me a text, she's coming back and she wants to talk.”

“Then you know what you have to do, right? Apologise and explain how you feel.”

            Siyeon’s straightforwardness had always been at odds with Han Dong’s way of handling things. There was a time when their two personalities would constantly lead to confrontation. However, at their current time they were more often complementary. The kitsune had learned to rely on it more.

“Do you think she'll forgive me?”

Minji huffed.

“Come on, Dong. I know you're not that blind.”

            It was true that there were amends that needed to be made, but Bora’s feelings had been clear for a while. This wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed and in all likelihood, Hand Dong would know how to do the right thing. 

“You're right. I just need to do my part,” the kitsune admitted with a vague smile. “Be safe on your way home, you two.”

“Thank you,” Minji replied. 

“It'll be fine.” Siyeon hugged her mom. “I love you.”

Dong was surprised by the sudden show of affection but hugged back. 

“I love you too.”

***

            Bora came home about half an hour later. The apartment was uncomfortably quiet. All the little noises that got unnoticed during the day were suddenly amplified by the silence of the night and came reinforcing Han Dong's insecurity. She couldn't even pretend to read in those conditions. 

            One thing that reassured her though was that Bora was in the same fragile state as she was when she met her eyes. 

“Hi,” Dong greeted first. 

“Hi,” the vampire answered just as shyly. “I'm home.”

“Welcome home.”

They both smiled, laughing at the banality of this greeting, but also relieved that it still came naturally to the both of them. 

“I know it's late. I just wanted to get this out of the way, but we can still do that tomorrow if you prefer.” 

“Now is good.” Dong rushed to say, but immediately calmed down to poorly hide her nervousness. “Please.”

            Bora saw it but said nothing. She nodded and went to sit next to her on the couch. There was an awkward silence during which both of them waited for the other to begin. Eventually, the vampire is the one who mustered the courage to start, but without looking directly at Han Dong. Her gaze was focused instead on her joined hands resting on her knees and wouldn’t budge from this sight.  

“About what happened —” 

“I'm sorry.” 

            The words ran out of the kitsune’s mouth. As soon as she heard Bora, something in her felt how wrong it was to let the other go on without properly apologizing first.  

“I put you in a terrifying situation and I completely ignored your fears. I should have never forced you to bite me. You weren't ready for that. And that kiss was out of line. I understand if it felt wrong. I’m really sorry for what I did.”

            Bora listened. Her eyes finally landed on Han Dong. She was unusually worked up and the vampire’s first instinct was to reassure her, but Yoohyeon’s words played in her mind: “Let her apologise.” Her friend was right. It would do no one good to deny she had been hurt because of the kitsune’s behaviour. 

“You're right,” she answered in a voice that was trying not to be too accusatory. “I was terrified. And you should have left when I told you to — Dong dropped her gaze and held her breath under the rightful reproach —  But I think that what terrified me the most wasn't that I could drink your blood so easily. It was that, during those few seconds, I only wanted you. I didn't just want blood. I wanted your blood. And then… you kissed me and I couldn't handle it. You can’t just do something like that without feelings behind it. I’m not your toy. I don’t want you to give me hopes just because you feel bad for me.”

            The conversation was suddenly going to an unexpected place in which Bora’s insecurities mixed with her own feelings and wants to create an ongoing spiral of self-depreciative mess. Dong had no choice but to wake up from her guilty phase to put a halt to this nonsense. 

“Wait. What are you talking about?”

There was surprise written on her face, but also something else that Bora couldn’t decipher. It wasn’t as if it could stop the vampire from rambling though.

“Your kiss. There’s no way it meant something. I mean —”

“You don’t get to decide how I feel,” Dong told her, deadpan. 

Now Bora could hear what she hadn’t been able to decipher. It was hurt. Han Dong was inexplicably hurt by her words.

“What?”

“It wasn’t pity, Bora,” Dong lost her cool. “I don’t pity you. I l— I like you. And that wasn’t how I wanted things to go down, but sooner or later I would have asked for that kiss. You can be sure of that.”

Bora.exe had stopped working and was experiencing a short delay.

“You like me?”

“Yes.”Han Dong huffed in disbelief. “Yes, Bora, I like you.”

“But your soulmate…”

“What about her? I’m still here, am I not? I’m still able to feel and care and love. Why should I stay stuck in the past when you’re right in front of me?”

Dong was staring at Bora, trying to convey with her eyes what her words were struggling to break out. 

“So that kiss…” the vampire blurted. 

“Was completely sincere,” the kitsune completed for her. “Even if it shouldn’t have happened like that.”

“And how should it have happened?”

            Han Dong blinked. Was Bora seriously flirting right now? One look at the other’s mischievous stare was enough to know that yes, she was. Her audacity made the kitsune huff. She could try to play her annoyed self, but the smile on her face was only growing larger. 

“Bora, I’ve really grown fond of you, of the way you’re not afraid to talk back, of how you silently care, of your surprising patience and the sincerity you put in everything you do. You mean more to me now than anyone has in a very long time. I like you. And I wanted to know if, by chance, you liked me too.”

            Bora held Han Dong’s chin with her fingers to bring her lips closer to hers and dived right into the kiss. Dong followed her lead, her fingers entangled into the vampire’s hair as she brought her closer. They weren’t gentle, weren’t really trying to be. They wanted to make the other theirs, by pulling and pushing, with nails digging into skin and cold fingers venturing under the hem of a shirt. When the kiss ended, there was no yielding, only an understanding that they would spend the rest of their eternity together.

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And that's it! Did you like the chapter?

We are now at the end of our journey. I didn't really know how to end this story so I decided to write a short epilogue to give a sort of closure. I hope you'll like it.