Of course Jonghyun found strange that Taekwoon asked for his attention at the end of classes, however, it was even stranger that Sojin didn’t remain with him.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” Jonghyun asked the vampire once the classroom was empty, aside from Hyeri who remained sitting at her place.

“Actually this was Sojin’s idea, but we indeed have something to tell you and Ahyoung as well.”

“Ahyoung?” The demon repeated.

As if Hyeri was instructed to do something, she immediately stood from her chair and went out of the classroom before Taekwoon could call her name. The vampire looked at Jonghyun with confusion.

“Where is she going?”

“To look for Ahyoung, where else?” The demon asked as if it was obvious.

“Well, Sojin already went to look for her.”

“It’s okay, in case Hyeri finds her first you can always tell Sojin to come back with your powerful telepathy.” Jonghyun answered with a mischievous smile.

“Just make sure to not say that in front of other people.” Taekwoon said in a calm but at the same time threatening tone.

Jonghyun chuckled and sat over one of the desks.

“Relax, I’m not that stupid.”

“I guess you’re not anymore.” Taekwoon chuckled.

Jonghyun snorted and looked away, thinking how much he had change, if Taekwoon had said something like that some months ago, he for sure would’ve started a fight with him, but now, he guess he can even consider the vampire a friend. Well, nothing could surprise him now, being friends with a vampire was nothing compared with being lovers with an assassin, the heiress of the assassins to be precise.

Ahyoung and Sanghyuk went out of the classroom. She thought about looking for Jonghyun but remembered how they had to keep their relationship a secret and decided it would be best to not let people see them together that much, even if it was already the end of the day and almost everyone were already on their way back home.

The girl sighed and Sanghyuk turned to see her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Sanghyuk huffed and shook his head.

“I don’t know how you two plan to keep your relationship a secret when you’re that obvious.”

“Me neither.” The girl answered overwhelmed and touching her forehead.

Sanghyuk chuckled and patted her back, then both continued walking, until Sanghyuk stopped some meters from the parking lot. Ahyoung also stopped and looked at him.

“Is something the matter?”

“Three seconds.”

“What?” The girl frowned in confusion. “What do you mean with t-?”

“Ahyoung”

“Ahyoung”

Ahyoung jolted upon feeling a hand on each of her shoulders and turned to see to her sides alternately, seeing Sojin at her right and Hyeri at her left.

“Girls you’re going to give her a heart attack if you approach her like that.” Sanghyuk said with a smirk.

The girls took her hands off her and Ahyoung chuckled, only then did she notice the presence of Jaehwan, who just nodded to her with a smile as a greeting, she did the same.

“It seems like both of you have something to tell me.” She said to the girls.

“You can go first.” Hyeri told Sojin.

“I have something to talk to you about but not here. Taekwoon is waiting with Jonghyun at our classroom.”

“Oh, it seems we came here for the same thing.” Hyeri said with a smile.

“Um, why with Jonghyun? Did something happen?”

Sojin sighed before answering.

“I’ll tell you everything once we’re there, alright?”

Ahyoung nodded and looked at Sanghyuk.

“Let’s go.”

Sanghyuk nodded and they all went to the classroom. When they were there, almost all of the students were gone from the school, Ahyoung felt relieved to see that, though she was aware that each encounter they had like that, there could be people listening to them.

While she was immersed in her thoughts, she noticed that Jaehwan, once again, wasn’t going inside the classroom and he started to walk away, she turned to see Hyeri.

“He still isn’t allowed to be near Jonghyun?” She asked with a bit of disappointment and angriness. “I thought that would’ve changed.”

Hyeri showed her a little smile before answering.

“It’s not because of the status but because he still doesn’t trust him enough.”

“But he trusts you, how is it different?” Ahyoung lifted an eyebrow.

“The fact that he trusts me doesn’t mean he has to trust my boyfriend. Jonghyun has always been cautious about who he gets along with and now that you two are in a relationship, he has become even more wary.”

Ahyoung just nodded to her. She could understand Jonghyun’s point of view, however, she still felt bad about Jaehwan, she hoped the day would come when Jonghyun could accept him; it was true she also didn’t know him very well but by the few times she had seen him, he seem like a nice person.

Without further delay, everyone went inside the classroom. Ahyoung smiled when she saw Taekwoon and Jonghyun talking casually to each other, it was nice seeing Jonghyun being more open to other people. The moment Jonghyun saw Ahyoung, he stood from the desk he was sitting on and walked to her.

“I missed you.” He said to her with a little smile.

“I missed you too.” Ahyoung briefly answered him, a little blush over her cheeks.

Jonghyun smiled and took her hand, guiding her to the center of the classroom, where he was previously sitting. Sojin walked to Taekwoon positioning herself beside him, meanwhile Hyeri and Sanghyuk remained one step behind from their heirs.

“Something happened, right?” Ahyoung was the first one to speak.

Sojin and Taekwoon exchanged a look and he nodded to her, Sojin then looked towards Ahyoung and Jonghyun.

“We can’t remain still for longer.”

“What do you mean?” Jonghyun asked.

“Tiffany has gained more allies, she’s gaining more and more strength with each passing day and we can’t wait for her to harm Ahyoung.”

“Allies?” Ahyoung frowned.

“We think that what Tiffany is plotting is something bigger than what we thought.” Taekwoon made a pause. “We were looking for you yesterday but you were already gone.”

“Wonshik confirmed me yesterday that he’s with Tiffany. Though I don’t know what are they planning to do.” Sojin said.

“What I think is that Tiffany is just using Ahyoung as an excuse to do something bigger. Something as elaborated as this can’t be just because she wants to harm a single person.” Jonghyun interceded with a serious voice.

Everyone turned to see him, Ahyoung could feel his hand securing hers with a feeling of protectiveness.

“Did something happen?” Taekwoon asked him.

“Tiffany also threatened me, about doing something against Ahyoung.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Ahyoung frowned to him.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” Jonghyun answered almost with a regretful tone.

Ahyoung sighed and showed him a little smile, Jonghyun seemed more at ease upon seeing that.

“What other ulterior intention can she have?” Sojin asked with crossed arms.

“Actually… Jonghyun may be right.” Taekwoon answered with a thoughtful expression. “What is your theory?” He asked looking at Jonghyun.

“I have the feeling that she’ll use Ahyoung to provoke something against the pact between races.”

“What?” Ahyoung asked with surprise and widened eyes.

“Our demon heir is completely right.”

Everyone turned to the opened window and saw Ren coming inside from there with his characteristic smirk. Ahyoung sighed and Sanghyuk was the one to speak.

“Will you ever enter places like a normal person?”

“Do I seem like a normal person to you?” Ren retorted with irony while closing the window again. “By the way, do something with that guy outside, he almost killed me when I first tried to sneak in here, thankfully he knew my name, otherwise things could have gone really bad.”

“Which guy?” Jonghyun asked immediately adopting a threatening posture.

“Relax, he’s talking about Jaehwan, he told me he’d be near here to watch no one would be around while we spoke.” Hyeri explained.

Everyone seemed to relax, Jonghyun included, he then looked at Hyeri.

“Did you ask him to do that?”

“No, it was his idea.”

“I see.” Jonghyun nodded.

“Well, as I was saying, the demon heir is right but also Ms. vampire heiress is right. Tiffany has been recruiting people to make an alliance and now she’s ready for the next step. The last person she recruited, just this morning, was Hakyeon.”

Ahyoung frowned upon hearing that name. She remembered how she and Sanghyuk actually saw Minah and Hakyeon having a discussion that morning.

“How do you know that?” Sanghyuk asked him.

“Remember you asked me to go to Minah and Hakyeon? I told Baekho to take care of that instead of me, I didn’t even have to ask him twice; however, I followed him and after their encounter, I followed Hakyeon. Wonshik managed to convince him to join them, well, it’s not like he needed that much effort, that guy accepted almost immediately.”

“And what’s their goal? Ahyoung?” Hyeri asked him with crossed arms.

“Of course.” He said with a smile, Jonghyun frowned upon that. “But she’s only one piece of the chess.” Everyone remained silent, waiting for him to finish what he was saying, the silence was almost crushing and the room started to feel smaller than what it actually was. “By what I could hear, their main goal is to destroy the powerful families.”

“They must have gone nuts.” Sanghyuk said with a chuckle.

“No, it actually has perfect sense.” Taekwoon said and everyone looked at him. “By what we know, she has people of each race in her alliance, even a High Status vampire like Wonshik, why would you need such a strong alliance just to attack an assassin? Even if Ahyoung is the heiress, it’s way too much.”

“Do you think this has to do with the rebellions?” Sojin asked her fiancé.

Taekwoon nodded to her and she sighed heavily.

“If we think about it, everything falls in place, but Tiffany couldn’t have planned all of this alone.”

“Which rebellions are you talking about?” Jonghyun asked the vampires.

“There have been rebellions on our realm for quite a while now, our parents have been dealing with them; rumors say that Wonshik’s family was the one who started them.”

“Wait, but the rebellions started before Jonghyun and I were even together. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Ahyoung explained.

“It’s way too perfect to be a coincidence.” Sanghyuk said and Ahyoung turned to see him.

Ahyoung sighed and Sanghyuk looked at her with a saddened expression. She knew what that expression meant, big troubles were to come.

“I agree.” Jonghyun spoke up. “However, we can’t make rash decisions right now.”

“What are you talking about?” Sojin interrupted him. “We can’t deal with this alone, we have to bring our parents into this before it’s too late.”

“No Sojin, think about it for a moment, they need something really big to start a revolution like that. Even if they have strong allies and a High Status that has started some rebellions in his realm, none of the leaders are colluded with them, which means that if they dare to cause trouble, they most likely will be executed.”

“Are you really that naïve? They don’t need anything, if they took the time to plan this for so long, it means they already have a way.”

“Then why haven’t they moved?” Ahyoung asked and everyone turned their attention to her. “It’s not like not having Hakyeon was a crucial point. If you ask me there’s just two options, either they have what’s needed but can’t do it for some reason or, as Jonghyun said, they still don’t have what’s needed to start attacking; and in both options, they’re unable to move, which means we have time to study the situation and come with a solution.”

“So your plan is to give them enough time to get what they need to start moving?” Sojin asked in an ironical way.

“I think the same as her.” Jonghyun immediately interceded. “We need to plan our moves, it’s the only way we can stop whatever is going on with minimum consequences.”

“I don’t know, it’s way too risky.” Sojin said with concern. “I don’t want to wait for Tiffany to do something against Ahyoung. Since she’s also a target of her wicked plot, I don’t want to even imagine what she has in mind.”

“Don’t worry about it, I can protect her.” Sanghyuk firmly said.

“Don’t forget I’m also her bodyguard, and definitely not an easy one to beat.” Ren smirked and crossed his arms.

“And she has me.” Jonghyun said with determination. “I won’t let Tiffany touch even a strand of Ahyoung’s hair.”

Ahyoung didn’t know what to say, a warm feeling installed in her chest after hearing all of them were willing to protect her with a powerful determination. However, her heart also hurt since the reason why they said that wasn’t because of something good. They all were in the middle of an imminent revolution, each one of them was walking over thin ice which could break at any moment. She didn’t want anyone to be in danger because of her, but she now knew that this wasn’t only because of her, something bigger was chasing them and time was running out.

Sojin sighed heavily, lowering her head; Taekwoon took her hand to try to give her some reassurance. The vampire then lifted her gaze and saw the determined look of all the people standing in front of her.

“We’ll do as you say.” She said in surrender. “Taekwoon and I will also protect Ahyoung from any harm. I just have one request.” Everyone remained silent to listen to what the heiress was going to ask for. “At any sign of a move, even the slightest one, from Tiffany and her people, we have to inform each other, and in case it’s something we can’t deal with, we immediately will bring our parents into this.”

Sojin expected to hear some complains about her request, but for her surprise, what she received were firm nods. It gave her a breath to know that they were all willing to prioritize their safety.

“Let’s observe them cautiously for some weeks, we’ll keep in touch in a discreet way, we can’t let them know that we’re aware of their moves.” Jonghyun explained.

Everyone nodded and the topic came to an end, though they weren’t in the best mood and the atmosphere was still tense.

“We’ll leave first.” Taekwoon announced, taking Sojin’s hand. “We still need to solve some things back at home.”

The vampires bid farewell and then went outside of the classroom, the next one to speak was Ren.

“I’ll also be going, I’m going to see if I can get to know something more.” He smiled and went away as well.

Ahyoung sighed and then looked at Jonghyun, who was also looking at her fondly. The girl immediately blushed but didn’t look away.

“We’ll give you two some space.” Sanghyuk said, making the two look at him. “Take your time.”

Hyeri smiled to them and the two bodyguards went out of the classroom. After they closed the door, Ahyoung giggled.

“What?” Jonghyun asked with a smile.

“They really know how to read the atmosphere.” She answered with a smile.

“They’re good at their jobs.” Jonghyun answered.

The demon then approached his face to hers, Ahyoung’s heart skipped a bit, she still hasn’t got used to having someone as handsome as Jonghyun so close to her. She closed her eyes and was able to feel Jonghyun’s breath when he chuckled. Then their lips met. Ahyoung could swear that she’d never have enough of Jonghyun’s kisses. They were everything she needed to have a good day or to brighten a gloomy day. The demon kissed her with delicacy but he always managed to convey how in love he was with her.

They broke the kiss and looked at each other’s eyes, then smiled, Ahyoung suddenly embraced him and Jonghyun was taken aback, since it took a second for him to return the hug.

“What is it?” Jonghyun asked with a soothing voice.

“Nothing in particular, I’m just worried.”

“About the whole thing with Tiffany?”

Ahyoung didn’t answer immediately, she kept some seconds silent before speaking again.

“Don’t you have a bad feeling about all of this?” She asked without answering the question the demon made to her. “I mean, I can’t get this feeling out of my chest, somehow I feel like our lives will change because of this. You could say that I’m afraid.”

Jonghyun then broke the embrace and took her face in between his hands, making her look directly at his eyes.

“Now listen here, even if the world crumbles down tomorrow, we have each other. I won’t leave you alone no matter what; whatever awaits for us tomorrow, I’ll face it with you.”

Ahyoung smiled fondly to him and also put her hands over his cheeks.

“I love you Jonghyun, I love you so much.” She sincerely said.

Jonghyun widened his eyes for a moment, it was the first time that Ahyoung actually told him she loved him, and it was so sincere and full of emotions that his reaction to that was to embrace her tightly. He could feel Ahyoung relax in his arms and chest and he could swear that was the best feeling in the world, they blended so perfectly together that it was as if they were made exactly for each other.

“I love you too Ahyoung, with all my might.”

They remained like that for a couple of seconds more, then they separated and Jonghyun spoke again.

“What about having a date?”

“What?” Ahyoung asked with a chuckle. “Come on, you aren’t serious.”

“I am, let’s go on a date on the weekend.”

Ahyoung looked at him and studied his expression, the demon was showing her a smile and seemed to even be excited about the idea. Yes, he wasn’t joking.

“Jonghyun, with everything that’s happening right now, there’s no way we can think about having a date.” She tried to reason with him.

“Being one more reason why to have this date while we still can. Come on, it’ll be fun, I really want to spend a whole day with you.”

Ahyoung couldn’t keep turning him down upon seeing him try so hard, not to mention the look he was giving her, like a little puppy. It was something Ahyoung never thought she would see.

“What happened to that intimidating and prideful demon I first met? I never thought you could have a side like this.” Ahyoung said with a smile.

“Look at what you’ve done to me.” Jonghyun said with a smirk.

“But I really like it.” She stood in her tip toes and gave him a peck on the lips. “You win, let’s have a date.”

A/N: Tsuki here with a new chapter! We're near the end of this first part ^^/ Next chapter will be a fluffy one so please expect it!

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