Ahyoung and Jonghyun knew they couldn’t stay there forever, even if they wanted to, so they broke the embrace and smiled at each other.

“Guess we should go to our next class.” Jonghyun said.

Ahyoung nodded to him and they walked towards the place where their bodyguards were waiting for them, however, when Ahyoung noticed the absence of Sanghyuk a frown was shown on her face.

“Where’s Sanghyuk?”

Hyeri chuckled nervously and scratched her head a bit.

“Well, he actually is following Sunny, apparently she saw you.” The demon explained.

Jonghyun sighed heavily and Ahyoung widened her eyes in surprise. She was aware that sooner or later Tiffany and the rest would get to know about their relationship, she just didn’t expect it would be that soon.

“What should we do?” She asked to no one in particular.

Jonghyun turned to see her and noticed how anxious the girl was becoming, so he took her hand, what made Ahyoung turn to see him.

“Don’t worry, they’d know it sooner or later anyway.”

“What I’m worried about is that this is way too soon.”

Jonghyun was about to say something else when the bell that announced the end of the first class rang. The three of them turned to the building where the classrooms were.

“We should go now, if we skip one more class then it will be suspicious.” Hyeri stated and turned to see Ahyoung. “Since Sanghyuk isn’t here I’ll you to your classroom.”

Ahyoung denied with her head before answering.

“Don’t, if you do that, we’ll only provoke gossip. I can go by myself.”

Hyeri turned to see Jonghyun, as if waiting for instructions and the demon denied with his head before talking.

“Ahyoung, seeing how things are now, I don’t think it’s convenient for you to-”

“Are you insane?!”

From one moment to another, Sojin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stepped in the conversation, interrupting Jonghyun and holding Ahyoung by her shoulders, separating her from the demon. Ahyoung could see the mix of emotions in Sojin’s eyes, concern, angriness and distress.

“Sojin?!” Ahyoung said her name in confusion.

“Are you aware of what you just did?!” Sojin asked with raised voice.

Jonghyun frowned upon the scene, he didn’t like the way Sojin was talking to Ahyoung, even if they were friends, it was just wrong. Jonghyun took one step towards them but a hand on his chest prevented him from walking further, he turned to his side to see Taekwoon looking at him with a serious face. The demon narrowed his eyes.

Ahyoung snapped out of her confusion and became angry by the way Sojin was almost screaming at her, so she brushed the vampire’s hands off her and glared at her.

“What’s gotten into you?!” What is this all about?!” Ahyoung asked her in the same tone.

“You don’t know what you just did!”

Ahyoung frowned and looked at her in confusion, she then looked at Jonghyun and noticed he had the same confused expression as her.

“Sojin.” Taekwoon said with a serious voice.

There it was, the only voice that was able to calm Sojin down by just saying her name. After hearing Taekwoon’s voice, Sojin sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a moment. Ahyoung turned to see Jonghyun again and saw that Taekwoon had already took his hand off from Jonghyun, who was just looking at Sojin still with confusion. Ahyoung was glad that Jonghyun had already changed, otherwise, he would have fought Sojin and Taekwoon the moment they stepped in.

“Can you now tell me what’s with all of this?” Ahyoung asked Sojin in a clam voice.

“You answer me first.” Sojin said still with closed eyes, she then opened them and looked at Ahyoung with a complete serious gaze. “Are you two together now?”

Ahyoung changed her expression to a surprised one and averted Sojin’s gaze out of impulse. The vampire huffed and smirked.

“You don’t even know how to hide it.”

“All of this was because of that?” Jonghyun asked with seriousness.

Sojin turned around to face Jonghyun who was now frowning at her.

“Does it seem like a simple matter to you?” The vampire asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“What are you trying to say?”

“The heir of the demons and the heiress of the assassins in a relationship.” Sojin said with irony. “Such great news.”

Jonghyun snorted and also looked away.

“Well that’s our problem anyway.” Ahyoung spoke up and Sojin looked back at her. “Your reaction is out of place if you ask me.” The girl finished looking straight at the vampire’s eyes.

“I’m just too worried.” Sojin said after a sigh. Ahyoung waited for her to keep talking. “We saw Sunny and Tiffany talking, I guess they already know what’s going on, and that isn’t good news at all.”

Ahyoung narrowed her eyes, studying Sojin, just when she was about to say something else, Sanghyuk came back.

“You’re right. Tiffany and Sunny already know about your relationship.” All of them turned to see the assassin. “Tiffany isn’t pleased with it at all, however, she doesn’t seem to want to do something for now.”

“Why? It’d be the best timing to do something against them now.” Hyeri thought aloud.

Everyone thought the same thing and shared the same confusion, but they kept silent for the time being.

“Let me deal with Tiffany.” Jonghyun spoke up and everyone turned their attention to him. “I’ll assume the responsibility for my actions, so stay calm for the time being.”

Ahyoung frowned at him and Jonghyun smiled at her, trying to reassure her. The demon then looked at Sojin and Taekwoon.

“I suggest that you two also stay alert, we believe that Wonshik is also allied with Tiffany, since we don’t know what he has in mind, it’ll be better to be prepared for anything he may come up with.”

“Thanks for letting us know that, we’ll keep an eye on him.” Taekwoon answered with sincere gratitude.

Jonghyun nodded to him, Ahyoung couldn’t help but to think that those two actually understood each other really well, she thought that they could maybe be friends in a near time if things continued like that.

After that, they all agreed to also stay still until Jonghyun dealt with that issue. They then started to walk towards their classrooms, however, Ahyoung stopped and looked at Sojin’s back in front of her.

“Sojin.” Ahyoung called her.

The vampire turned around, Ahyoung remained silent, Sojin realized the assassin wanted to talk to her, so she walked to Ahyoung. The rest kept on in their way, only the two remained there.

“What is it?” Sojin asked her.

“Is it really all because of Tiffany?” Sojin frowned in confusion and Ahyoung continued. “I still think your reaction was out of place.”

“I guess I just got too emotional.” Sojin said with a smile.

Ahyoung sighed and tilted her head a bit with a frown.

“No, there’s something else.”

Sojin looked at her with a surprised expression, Ahyoung crossed her arms.

“I’ve thought this for a while, you know something I don’t, or maybe I should say, you know a lot more things that I don’t”

“Why do you think that?”

“I heard you talking with my parents, the day I enrolled in here. I didn’t say anything back then, but I heard almost all of it.”

Sojin frowned at her and narrowed her eyes, as if studying Ahyoung, as if she was looking for something in her eyes.

“How much did you heard?” The vampire asked in a more serious way.

“Enough to know that you, along my parents, are still hiding something from me, and it’s something big.” Sojin just remained silent and Ahyoung sighed in frustration. “My mother said I had the right to know about my own existence, what did she meant with that? And also who are the people to whom my parents swore to keep me safe? Why is this place dangerous for me? What this secret is that is imperative for it not to leak? What do you have to protect me from?”

Sojin sighed heavily and looked at Ahyoung with understanding, the vampire then took Ahyoung’s right hand before speaking.

“I can’t answer those questions to you right now. You have to trust me, it still isn’t the right time for you to know everything.”

“So you do are hiding something from me.” Ahyoung said with a little bit of resentment.

“There’s no use to deny it anymore, besides, you’ve known it for quite a while now.”

“I’m just tired of all this secrecy.”

“I know, and I’d love to tell you everything, believe me, but there’s a reason why you still can’t know.”

Ahyoung remembered the few lines she managed to read from her grandfather’s diary and the other book sent to her the other day, she thought of asking Sojin if she knew something about that but refrained from doing so. She knew that even if Sojin knew something, she most probably wouldn’t tell her a thing.

In that moment, another thought crossed her mind. What if the secret about her existence had to do with what happened in the previous change of leadership? One could think that those two things were unrelated, but the more she thought of it, the more she realized that may be the case.

Both topics were treated with extreme caution, everyone tried their best for them to remain secret, her parents were especially careful to select the information she had access to and, by what she could read in her grandfather’s diary, something big happened during the time of the change of leadership. She knew the same as everyone, that there was a fight for power during the time the actual generation of leaders were going to take over the positions, but she still had the feeling there was something else behind that, something bigger.

It happened because of love, I don’t think it was because of a whim, those two youngsters didn’t provoke all of this out of a mere banal feeling. All of this bloodshed, was it worth it? Is love really worthwhile of all this suffering?

Those lines came back to her mind. Who were those two ‘youngsters’? What bloodshed was he referring to? What in the world happened back then?

“Ahyoung?”

It wasn’t until she heard Sojin’s voice that she realized she got immersed in her thoughts, the vampire was looking at her with a worried expression, so Ahyoung showed her a little smile.

“Thanks for being sincere with me, I’ll trust you, I know you’ll tell me everything when the time comes.”

Sojin also smiled at her and gave her a little hug before answering.

“I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark, thanks for trusting in me.”

Ahyoung returned the hug and they then went to their respective classrooms, just in time for the next class to start.

Jonghyun arrived home and went straight to his room as usual. Nobody actually greeted him nor asked him anything, his parents were so busy on their own things and he hated the servants to bother him. The demon was thinking about how to deal with all the Tiffany topic, he had to tell his parents, however, that was simpler said than done. He was sure his father would be completely against the idea and probably would force him to marry Tiffany in the next second.

The demon sighed heavily and sat on the edge of his bed, then closed his eyes for a moment. In the middle of all those negative thoughts, Ahyoung’s smile crossed his mind and made him smile immediately. A bit of the girl’s scent was still in his shirt so he could smell it.

That was all he needed to strengthen his resolution, it didn’t matter that his parents would be against the idea, he’d fight for what he wanted, even against them. He stood up with determination, however, he froze when he heard a familiar voice in the lobby downstairs.

Tiffany barged into Jonghyun’s house, throwing two servants in the air when they tried to stop her.

Hyoyeon, Jonghyun’s mother, was the one to go there to see what was happening. She calmly walked to the lobby and looked at the servants who were on the floor.

“So, you can’t even prevent a young demon from barging into the house?”

The servants immediately stood, to then put a knee on the ground and lower their heads towards the demon leader.

“Apologies my lady, we can’t do much since we can’t touch Ms. Tiffany.” One of the servants answered.

“Scram.” Hyoyeon said.

The two servants immediately rushed out of the place and Hyoyeon then looked at Tiffany from head to toes.

“What brings you here Tiffany? You better have a good reason to enter my house like this or the consequences may be severe.” Hyoyeon said in a calm but threatening way.

“Do you know what your son wants to do?” Tiffany asked with angriness.

Hyoyeon didn’t answer, instead, she lifted an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

“He wants to break our engagement!”

“Oh? Why so?”

“Hasn’t he told you anything?” Tiffany narrowed her eyes.

“That’s the reason why you are here screaming and hurting the people in my house?”

“Does it seem like an insignificant matter?”

“Listen Tiffany, even when you’re betrothed to my son and you’re the daughter of Eunjung and Sungjong, you have no right to come inside my house the way you did, so for now, retreat on your own, unless you want me to chase you away.”

“You can’t do that.”

Hyoyeon smiled to her and took a step towards the girl.

“I can do more than that.”

Tiffany huffed and turned around, then went away. Hyoyeon then turned around and looked at the second floor, no one was there, or at least, not in a visible way.

“Come to your father’s studio, he wants to have a talk with you.” Hyoyeon said and started to walk towards the studio.

Jonghyun, who was leaning behind a wall upstairs, sighed heavily and then started to go down, attending his mother’s order.

He hated to talk with his father, they didn’t quite have a good relationship, though it also wasn’t terrible; actually they didn’t have a relationship to begin with. Jonghyun never felt like his son but as any other demon under his rules. He followed his mother until both of them were inside his father’s studio.

“So, you can’t even control your fiancée?” His father asked, not lifting his eyes from the book he was reading.

“I don’t even talk to her, I really dislike Tiffany.” The demon answered after an angry sigh.

“You don’t have to like her to control her.” Siwon turned the page of the book he was reading.

“That’s the kind of relationship you have with my mother?”

Siwon finally looked up at his son with a frown and left the book over his desk.

“Dare to say that again.” He angrily said.

Jonghyun snorted and looked away, even when he wasn’t actually scared of his father he didn’t want to provoke an unnecessary fight. Siwon seemed to get what his son was thinking so he left that topic aside, then looked at Hyoyeon.

“So, what did Tiffany want?”

“It seems Jonghyun wants to break their engagement.” Hyoyeon calmly answered.

“Really?” Siwon lifted an eyebrow. “Why so?” He asked now looking at Jonghyun.

“As I said, I don’t even like her.” Jonghyun firmly stated.

“That’s it?” Siwon ironically asked. “That girl wouldn’t have that reaction just because of that, you must’ve done something else.”

Of course his father would have known that, he was an extremely sharp person.

“I love someone else.”

“Love?” Siwon chuckled. “A demon talking about love.”

“Just because you don’t know that feeling doesn’t mean I can’t feel it.”

“Love isn’t in demons nature.” Siwon said with a dark tone.

“Turns out in mine it is.” Jonghyun retorted.

Siwon frowned and looked attentively at his son, then narrowed his eyes.

“Who is it?”

There it was, the question Jonghyun wanted to avoid the most; the most complicated thing wasn’t the fact that he wanted to break the engagement with Tiffany, but who did he fell in love with.

“Ahyoung.”

“Ahyoung?” Siwon asked in confusion, after thinking about it for some seconds, realization hit him. “Isn’t that the name of the daughter of Seohyun and Leeteuk?”

“What? The heiress of the assassins?” Hyoyeon asked surprised, widening her eyes.

Jonghyun turned around to face his mother, it was the first time he saw her with another expression rather than her usual stoic face. He frowned upon that.

“Have you lost your mind?” Siwon asked.

Jonghyun looked back at his father, who was now directing him a gaze of disbelief.

“I’ve never been so clear about something in my life.” Jonghyun firmly answered.

“Nonsense!” Siwon stood from his seat and threw away all the things that were over his desk. “Are you trying to bring dishonor to this family? Are you trying to shame yourself?”

“I’m not asking for permission from you, I’ve made my decision.”

Siwon narrowed his eyes towards his son.

“And I don’t intend to let this relationship of yours go on further, I won’t acknowledge it.”

“If that’s the case then I’ll fight you if it’s needed.” Jonghyun answered frowning.

Siwon laughed upon his son’s statement and denied with his head.

“Do you really think you can stand a chance against me kid?”

“Maybe I don’t, but I rather die than submit to you and your desires.”

Siwon sighed and smirked to his son, then turned around, giving his back to him.

“We’ll see how strong your resolution is, don’t expect me to support you.”

Jonghyun knew that was the end of the conversation, however, he still had something else to say.

“I’ll stay firm in my decision and I’ll carry on with this, even despite you.”

The demon turned around and went out of the studio. Siwon chuckled and turned around to see the opened door of his studio.

“Interesting.” He then looked at Hyoyeon, who was silently looking at him. “Go to him.”

Hyoyeon nodded and followed Jonghyun. She didn’t even have to look for long, she knew exactly where her son was. Hyoyeon went to the roof and was able to see him, looking at the sunset in front of him. She sighed with a little smile and walked to him.

“Let me guess, he told you to come to me and try to convince me to change my mind.” Jonghyun said when his mother was already by his side.

“He did tell me to come to you, but he didn’t say anything about changing your mind.”

Jonghyun huffed and smirked.

“Well, he doesn’t have to explicitly say it for you to understand it, right?”

Hyoyeon didn’t answer him, what gave Jonghyun his answer. After all, it has always been like that, his mother did whatever his father wanted, even so, a lot of demons were scared of her powers. By what he had heard, his mother was also a really powerful demon; that was the reason why he didn’t understand why she always chose to stay by his father’s side.

“Are you serious about it?” Hyoyeon calmly asked, looking also at the sunset in front of them.

“Absolutely.” Jonghyun answered, he didn’t need her to clarify what she was talking about.

“You’re aware that this is not only stupid but also risky?”

 “You’re also against the idea, huh?”

Jonghyun turned to see his mother and Hyoyeon did the same.

“To be honest, I don’t care who you choose to spend your life with. But if you insist in spending it with the heiress of the assassins, then your father will be the less concerning thing at your surroundings.”

“You say it as if you’ve experienced it.”

Hyoyeon snorted with a little nostalgic smile, Jonghyun narrowed his eyes to her upon that, it was the second time in the day, his mother was being open with her feelings, letting him see them.

“Well, I didn’t experience it, but I know the story of two people deeply in love with each other.” She started to say, not looking at her son, while Jonghyun had his complete attention on her. “But that love led them to their death, just because of the difference of their races.”

Hyoyeon looked at his son with a saddened expression and Jonghyun sighed.

“That won’t happen to us.”

“I hope so, my son. I really hope so.” She said, looking now at the missing sun.

The night started to fall.

A/N: So, we finally met Jonghyun's parents. The revelation of some secrets is approaching! Stay tuned to get to know all of them ^^

As always, thank you so so much for reading, comments are appreciated ^^ stay safe and have a beautiful day <3