Some days passed by, Ahyoung was getting used to the school pretty well. She had started to get along not only with Sojin and Taekwoon but also with some of her classmates.

Her relationship with her parents also improved and she wasn’t as awkward with them as days ago. Sanghyuk and her grew to be really good friends and even when she sometimes tried to sneak and leave him behind, Sanghyuk most of times managed to catch her.

That day though, it was different, after the first period, Ahyoung and Sanghyuk were separated since the latter was called to the teacher’s room. Even when Sanghyuk asked her to remain in the classroom and almost begged her to not get in trouble, he should have known better that she wouldn’t actually attend that.

So the moment Sanghyuk was gone, Ahyoung smiled widely and went out of the classroom. She was a bit hungry so she decided to eat something, she went to the cafeteria and bought something; she wasn’t in the mood to eat there so she went to a more isolated place. She knew she could look for Sojin but she actually wanted to be alone for a while. Ahyoung found a place near one of the gardens and sat on a bench that was there, it was a cloudy day but the weather was nice. She was looking at the butterflies that flew in between the flowers when a voice broke that peace.

“You humans are really strange; you get mesmerized by things as insignificant as insects.”

Ahyoung sighed heavily and closed her eyes briefly.

My luck can’t be this bad. She thought in annoyance.

The girl opened her eyes and looked at her right side, from where she saw Jonghyun standing and looking at her with a smirk.

“And you are too conceited by labeling everything apart from you as insignificant.” Ahyoung replied looking away from him and centering her attention in her food.

“Oh?” Jonghyun asked with a chuckle. “That was really straightforward.”

Ahyoung just ignored him and kept eating while looking at the butterflies with a little smile. Jonghyun frowned while looking at her, it wasn’t common for him to be ignored. So he tried to get her attention back.

“So… what are you doing all alone here?”

What? Why did you even ask that, Jonghyun? He scolded himself.

Jonghyun was able to see how Ahyoung frowned in confusion. He wasn’t surprised; he also wanted to smack himself for making such a stupid question. The girl turned to him and signaled her food, as if the answer was obvious. Jonghyun just chuckled awkwardly and Ahyoung looked away again.

“Well, I’ll grant you the honor of my companionship then.” Jonghyun said trying to appear as confident as always.

The demon then approached her and was about to sit by her side when Ahyoung put a hand on his back, making him stop. Jonghyun looked at her with a surprised expression and the girl also looked at him in a serious way.

“Who allowed you to sit here?”

Jonghyun chuckled and turned completely to see her with crossed arms, he then approached her face before speaking.

“Oh sorry lady assassin’s heiress, but it’s not like you own this bench and I can sit wherever I want.”

“You got a point there.” Ahyoung answered keeping her gaze over him. “But there are some more benches around here and you must respect my space, you don’t necessarily have to seat by my side.”

“Maybe you’re right, but I’ve been using this bench for longer than you so I have more right over it.” Jonghyun smirked.

Ahyoung frowned and chuckled, she then looked away and shook her head in a negative way. The girl stood up in order to go to another bench when Jonghyun blocked her way before she could take a step.

“What are you doing?” He asked in a serious way.

“Going to another bench?” Ahyoung answered with irony.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Oh believe me, it’s not out of respect for you, I just want to get rid of you and eat in peace.”

Jonghyun frowned and looked straight at Ahyoung’s eyes, the girl also looked at him and never looked away.

“You’re weird.”

Ahyoung snorted with a smile and finally looked away.

“You’re not the first one to tell me that.”

“What about we sit down and talk for a bit? Get to know each other.”

The girl returned her surprised gaze to him, Jonghyun still had that smirk over his face though Ahyoung was confused by his sudden changes. But she gave it a second thought and came to the conclusion it was an excellent opportunity to get to know him better, she doubted she’d have a chance like that again.

Ahyoung then just sighed and went to sit on the bench again, Jonghyun just followed her with the eyes until the girl was sitting and chuckled, the demon then sat by her side, relieved he wasn’t stopped from doing it again.

“You’re the only one who dares to touch me, you know that?” Jonghyun suddenly said.

“Huh?” Ahyoung asked confused and looked at him with a frown.

“Yeah, I mean, you touched my back when you prevented me from sitting by your side just a moment ago. No one would’ve dared to do that.”

“Why so?” Ahyoung asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“Isn’t it obvious sweetie? They’re afraid they’ll lose their lives.” The demon answered with mischief and a little spark shone in his silver eyes.

“Really?” Ahyoung looked away and left her food aside. “I don’t see why though. By what I know, if you kill someone out of nowhere, that could create havoc in the balance of the powers. If you were just an ordinary High Status your threat could be taken a bit more seriously, but since you are the heir, you can’t do something like that without facing severe consequences.”

“A smart girl I see…” Jonghyun said while leaning on the bench. “You’re sharper than I thought, assassin girl.”

Ahyoung snorted and looked at him with a done look.

“And you’re dumber than I thought, demon boy.” She mocked him.

Both laughed a bit and the atmosphere felt lighter, Ahyoung still didn’t let her guard down though, even when Jonghyun didn’t seem as terrible as the first impression she had of him, he still had a lot of things she didn’t like at all.

“Aren’t you afraid of anything?” Jonghyun asked her with genuine interest.

“Of course I am.” Ahyoung answered and Jonghyun frowned at her by her sincerity. “But I can’t allow to be intimidated by the heir of demons, that’d be humiliating for me and the assassins.”

Jonghyun snorted.

I should’ve expected an answer like that. He thought amused.

“Not eating anymore?” Jonghyun looked at the food Ahyoung left aside.

“I’m not hungry after meeting you.” The girl answered, not looking at him.

Jonghyun then looked attentively at the girl, he traced her features with his eyes and he frowned a bit before speaking.

“You’re actually not that bad.”

Ahyoung frowned and looked at him, noticing he was staring at her.

“Excuse me?” She asked a bit angered, since she understood what he was referring to.

“I mean, you actually have quite the looks and your eyes have something that can become mesmerizing, also their color is really unique. All in all, you’re kind of pretty even when you’re a human.” Jonghyun explained nonchalantly.

Ahyoung snorted in disbelief and looked angered at him.

“What is that supposed to be? A compliment or something?”

“It is a compliment, after all, despite you being a human, I think you can be attractive for the other races as well.” Jonghyun answered as if it was obvious.

Ahyoung was done with him so she stood up and gave him a furious stare.

“If you’re going to make that kind of ‘compliments’ then keep your mouth shut.” She started to say with an angry voice. “I’m done with this attitude of yours, you aren’t better than everyone else just because you’re a demon, even if other people allow you to do this, not me. If you’re going to keep this up then we won’t ever have a proper conversation.”

Ahyoung turned his back to him and started to walk away.

“Stop right there!”

Out of impulse Ahyoung stopped, she scolded herself for doing it but another part of her wanted to know what Jonghyun had to say. She turned around and faced him, he was standing as well though he didn’t have an angered expression, as she had expected, but rather seemed to be confused. That caught her attention.

“It’s hard for me to understand you and I can see that our ways of seeing things are completely different.” He said in a serious way. “But that doesn’t give you the right to talk to me like that, we have a position to maintain at the eyes of everyone.”

Ahyoung snorted and rolled her eyes, after that she crossed her arms.

“That may be you, but not me. I don’t use my position to intimidate and look down on others. I’m not that despicable.” She hissed with narrowed eyes.

“I see we have completely opposite beliefs.” Jonghyun answered also crossing his arms. “It’ll be hard for us to get along.”

“Don’t worry, I‘ve heard enough, I don’t intend to get along with you at all.”

That was the last thing she said before turning her back to him again and walking away, she could feel his gaze over her back but she couldn’t care less, she was really done with him. Just before she could exit that area, she could feel another stare over her. She turned to her left side and was able to see the owner of that stare.

A beautiful girl of silver eyes and long brown hair looked attentively at her from afar.

She recognized her immediately, Tiffany.

>> “She’s Tiffany, the daughter of the second strongest family, and also… Jonghyun’s fiancée.”

Sanghyuk’s words came back to her mind and she sighed.

I just hope this doesn’t bring me problems, I’m not in the mood to get entangled in some kind of couple quarrel. She thought annoyed.

So she just ignored the girl and went to her classroom.

She wasn’t surprised to see Sanghyuk standing outside of the classroom with crossed arms and closed eyes. He was angry.

Ahyoung sighed and walked to him, she stopped when she was standing in front of him.

“Hey.”

Sanghyuk opened his eyes and gave her a serious look.

“Where were you?” He asked in his characteristic monotonous tone.

“Eating something, I found quite a good and calm spot, I’ll show it to you next time.” She answered nonchalantly.

Sanghyuk sighed and frowned.

“If you keep doing this, things won’t work out Ahyoung.”

“Listen, you won’t be with me forever, there’ll be times when we’ll be apart, just like today and I have to know how to take care by myself. I can’t always depend on you to go wherever I want.”

Sanghyuk narrowed his eyes. The girl had a point and he knew it, but the task that was assigned to him was to keep her safe no matter what, so it was kind of contradictory for him.

“Then let’s see how good you are to take care of yourself. What happened during the time I was away?”

Ahyoung thought about lying to him, she knew that if she was sincere with him, he’d be angry and probably would scold her or even tell her parents what she did. But she didn’t want to betray him, she didn’t want to lose his trust. The girl sighed heavily and looked away before answering.

“I encountered with Jonghyun and, well… things didn’t end precisely well.”

Sanghyuk stood straight and Ahyoung looked at him again, he had a concerned expression and widened eyes.

“Did he do something to you?”

Ahyoung could sense the hostility in his voice, the threaten hidden in those words. She hadn’t seen Sanghyuk like that before, she even felt a bit scared of the boy, it was new for her.

“He didn’t, actually, you could say that I was the one who did something to him.” The girl tried to calm him down.

Sanghyuk tilted his head in confusion and his frown deepened.

“I kind of said a lot of bad things to him.” Ahyoung continued, scratching her head lightly. “I thought for a moment that I misjudged him but in the end he ended up being the same scoundrel of our first meeting.”

Ahyoung then told him all that happened with the demon while Sanghyuk attentively listened to her. When she finished speaking, Sanghyuk was clearly calmer and had adopted his nonchalantly pose again.

“And what happened after that?”

“I just went away.” Ahyoung said positioning herself beside Sanghyuk and also leaning on the wall. “Oh right, I saw Tiffany looking at me from afar.”

“Did she saw all that happened between Jonghyun and you?”

“Don’t know, I didn’t notice her until that moment so I’m not sure.”

“Was she angry?”

Sanghyuk seemed even more interested in what happened with Tiffany than what happened with Jonghyun.

“I don’t think so.” Ahyoung answered in a thoughtful way moving her leg. “She didn’t seem like it, she just looked attentively at me.”

She saw how Sanghyuk just nodded but didn’t say anything else. She was now more intrigued about Tiffany. It was most likely she was making a movie in her head, but something told her that the demon girl was someone to be more aware of than Jonghyun and, by Sanghyuk’s expression, she somehow thought she wasn’t completely wrong.

“Anyway, just try to avoid her and not let her see you around Jonghyun anymore. That should be enough to keep her far from you.” Sanghyuk answered looking at the sky.

“Don’t worry, as I said, I don’t intend to involve myself with Jonghyun anymore and I don’t want to be entangled in some couple problem, thank you.” Ahyoung ironically answered.

Sanghyuk chuckled upon that statement and just shook his head lightly, after that, he signaled to her for them to go inside the classroom.

Ahyoung was quickly catching up with her classes, some were the same as the human world, like math, literature or science, while there were others of more specific knowledge like history. Ahyoung was amazed by the history of the new world she was coming to know. Even when she wasn’t interested in those kinds of lessons back in the human world, she started to grow fond of them in that new world.

And that was precisely the class she was in.

“We previously talked about the leaders of the demons. I hope you remember what we talked about them and the leaders of the vampires and assassins as well.” The teacher said while walking in front of the board. “Today we’ll talk about some laws of our world and the punishment that comes when those laws are broken.”

Ahyoung fixed her position and listened attentively to the teacher. She knew that was an important point to learn. It was something that they had in common with the human world, they had laws that helped to maintain order between the people and they had to be attended, despite one knowing them or not, since not knowing the law didn’t exempt you from fulfilling it.

The girl got her pen ready and listened to what the teacher was saying.

“Today we’ll talk about the two first and most important laws.” He started explaining. “Those are: Keeping the secrets of the leaders safe and No procreation between races.”

Ahyoung frowned to those two laws since she actually didn’t understand much.

“As you already know, when new leaders come to the power, secrets about the three races are revealed to them. No one aside from the actual and previous leaders knows those secrets. Therefore, it’s imperative for those secrets to remain unknown from the rest of us.” The teacher gave a further explanation to the first law. “Even when it has never happened before, there’s an established punishment to that. The leader or leaders that break this law will be immediately executed and their families will be banned from taking on the leadership for fifty generations.”

Woa that’s a lot of time, even for those who live for a thousand years. Ahyoung thought surprised while writing on her notebook.

“Now let’s move to the next law.” The teacher continued while writing the second law on the board. “The previous law mostly concerns to the heirs and those near the chance of becoming leaders, but this one concerns everyone so I advice you to keep it in mind.”

For some reason, the teacher’s voice sounded more serious and gloomier than before. Ahyoung frowned upon that change and read the second law written on the board.

“Procreation between races is completely and absolutely banned. As I said, this applies to everyone despite the status and race.” He made a pause in which looked at everyone in the classroom. “The punishment for breaking this law is the immediate execution, a public execution in which the two implicated ones are beheaded. And in case the offspring is born, the creature will be immediately destroyed.”

Ahyoung was writing everything down until the last part of the explanation of the punishment was said. She frowned and lifted her gaze, she was horrified by the punishment, it was clearly wrong and kind of exaggerated to her. And that wasn’t everything, she didn’t know what was so wrong about procreating between races, during science class it was never mentioned that they were so different that something like that could lead to disaster, though they didn’t talk about that exact topic either.

She somehow felt that asking about that topic may not be the best idea but she had so many questions that she couldn’t resist to lift her arm, she was able to see Sanghyuk looking attentively at her from the corner of the eye after she moved.

“Yes, miss Ahyoung?” The teacher asked when he saw her lifted hand.

“Has it ever happened before?”

She was able to see the little change on the teacher’s expression and she also didn’t miss the frown on Sanghyuk’s face.

“No, it’s never happened before.” The teacher simply answered.

“Oh. It’s just that since you said in the first law that it has never happened before but didn’t say the same about the second one, I thought something like that happened at some point.” She explained.

“Well if it had happened that’d have been a huge issue and probably would be recorded down in history.”

Ahyoung nodded in a thoughtful manner and she took that chance to ask the other thing she was wondering about.

“And, what is the reason behind that law? I mean, if it has never happened before then, why is it banned and established as one of the most important laws as if some disaster could happen because of it?”

The teacher frowned to her and her classmates also started to stare at her, Ahyoung then knew she touched a dangerous strand.

“You ask too many questions miss Ahyoung.” The teacher said in a serious way.

Ahyoung wasn’t stupid, she knew what that answer meant, ‘just shut your mouth already’, but she was the kind of person who would just be even more curious about a topic that is treated like a secret or something banned, evenmore if the reasons behind that were dumb or not enough.

The girl was about to open again to argue but Sanghyuk’s voice stopped her.

“Ahyoung.”

That was enough to briefly stop Ahyoung and make her look at him, Sanghyuk just said no with his head to her and she understood the message.

“Don’t you dare to ask further.”

Ahyoung sighed in frustration but knew there wasn’t more to do, so she stood from her seat and made a little bow towards the teacher.

“I apologize sir.” She said in a polite way.

“It’s okay miss Ahyoung, sit down.” He answered and Ahyoung sat again. “It’s expected that a future leader like you wants to know more and questions about the reason behind those things, those are qualities of a leader.”

Ahyoung smiled to him and nodded, even when he was complimenting her, it was as clear as water that he was also trying to desperately change the topic to prevent her from asking further. The girl decided to keep silent for the rest of the class, she’d have time to ask her parents about that later. Even when she didn’t give any signs of asking something again, she could feel Sanghyuk’s eyes over her as if watching over her, being ready to stop her at the slight sign of her trying to ask something else.

This really seems like a delicate matter. Ahyoung thought and focused on doing notes on her notebook.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Ahyoung said to herself that she wouldn’t open again until she was home, but she couldn’t do it. Sanghyuk has been abnormally silent since history class and even when they were already on the car going back to the assassin’s realm, the boy still didn’t say a thing to her. Sanghyuk seemed to snap out of his thoughts upon her question, since he blinked rapidly and shook his head slightly.

“Why do you ask that?” He asked back not averting his eyes from the road.

“I keep having the feeling I did something wrong since what happened at history class.” She admitted and looked down at her fingers with which she was playing nervously.

Sanghyuk sighed heavily before speaking again.

“It’s not that you did something wrong but there are still some things that you don’t know. And also… there are things you shouldn’t ask about.”

“The topic isn’t as simple as they all want to make it look like, right?”

“You can say so.” Sanghyuk simply answered.

Ahyoung acknowledged that she’d put Sanghyuk in an awkward position if she kept asking about that so she decided to keep her questions to her parents.

When they reached Ahyoung’s home, she noticed a blue car parked at the entrance of her house, she quickly recognized it.

“Oh it seems my uncle is here.”

Sanghyuk parked the car and looked at the blue car in front of them.

“Is that so?”

“What about you come with me? I can introduce him to you and also my aunt if she’s there as well.” Ahyoung said to him with a smile.

Sanghyuk smiled at her and denied with his head.

“Don’t worry, I already know them, they’re the seconds at lead after all. So I’ll pass.” The boy politely explained.

“Right, I forgot I’m the only one who doesn’t know everyone here.” She answered with embarrassment. “If that’s the case then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sanghyuk just nodded to her and then went away, Ahyoung looked at the car go until it couldn’t be seen anymore, she then walked to her house with a huge smile. She went inside and left her backpack near the door, she then walked to the living room and saw her parents, as well as her uncle and aunt gathered there.

“Uncle Ryeowook! Aunt Sooyoung!” Ahyoung said running and then sitting in between them.

“Hey there my little girl.” Sooyoung said hugging her.

“Come on, she isn’t that little anymore.” Ryeowook teased them.

“I don’t care, she’ll always be my little girl, right Ahyoung?”

“Of course.” Ahyoung answered with a big smile.

Even when during the time she lived in the human world she didn’t see them that often, Sooyoung and Ryeowook always made sure to let her know how much they loved her, and she also loved them dearly, even more because they used to spoil her a lot.

Ahyoung then looked at her uncle and frowned a bit, Ryeowook chuckled and asked her what was wrong, to which Ahyoung just kept staring at him until realization hit her.

“That’s right! It was you!” Everyone looked at her with confused expressions and the girl continued. “I knew I had seen that eye color before, you and Sanghyuk have golden eyes!”

“Sanghyuk?” Ryeowook asked confused.

“Yes, he’s my bodyguard, my dad said he’s the best among the youngsters, I thought you’d know him.” Ahyoung explained tilting her head in confusion.

Ryeowook then looked at Leeteuk as if waiting for an answer.

“He’s the one I talked you about, though it’s no surprise you don’t remember him since he wasn’t trained by you.”

Realization hit on Ryeowook and nodded while opening his mouth. He then looked at his niece and gave her a smile.

“So he also has golden eyes?”

“Well not as golden as yours but similar.” The girl explained. “Quite a rare eye color if you ask me.” She said in a thoughtful way.

“I guess we’re lucky to have them, right?” Ryeowook teased.

“Yeah.” Ahyoung answered with a pout. “It’s a beautiful color, I’m jealous of you.”

Ryeowook laughed and ruffled her hair.

“You don’t have to be jealous Ahyoung, your eye color is beautiful as well and also not that common.” Sooyoung pointed out.

Her aunt was right, even when she didn’t have golden eyes or another color as stunning as the red or silver, she was proud of her light brown eyes. As Sooyoung had said, even when they were a common color as for the brown, it was true that her shade of brown was really light and quite unique. She found them beautiful.

“Thank you aunt.” She politely said and then turned to look at her parents. “Mom, dad, I have a question about something I learned at school today.”

“Go ahead.” Leeteuk answered.

“Well, today at history class we spoke about the two most important laws of our world, and I’m quite interested in the second one. I questioned about it during class and it was quite of a mess, also Sanghyuk told me there are some things I shouldn’t ask about, so I thought about asking you.” She made a pause and looked at her parents who remained calm. “Why is it banned the procreation between races? It seems ridiculous to me, it sounds like the discrimination in the human world.”

Leeteuk sighed and Seohyun looked at her daughter with a little smile before answering.

“It actually has an explanation my dear. Demons, vampires and assassins are different, that law is merely a precaution, since we don’t know what could happen if something like that takes place, after all, it has never happened before.”

Ahyoung frowned, not convinced with that answer.

“It doesn’t seem that simple, if it’s just because of that then, why is it so imperative to follow that law and the punishment is so terrible and specific? Also, the teacher wouldn’t have reacted in such a manner.”

“That’s because of fear.” Ahyoung turned to see her uncle upon hearing his voice, he now had a serious expression. “People fear the unknown and do whatever it takes to keep being in the safe spot. Your teacher’s reaction is quite expected, you’re young and at that age is easy to do reckless things, maybe he just wanted to prevent you and your classmates from starting to have weird ideas.”

Sooyoung chuckled as well as Ahyoung’s parents. But the girl still seemed too interested in the topic, so Leeteuk spoke up.

“You’re giving it too much thought; it’s actually not that deep sweetie.”

Ahyoung smiled at him and nodded. She knew that she wasn’t giving it too much thought, that the topic wasn’t as simple as they tried to make it seem and that there was something bigger behind all that. But she also acknowledged she wouldn’t get answers from them, the only option she was left with was trying to find the answers on her own.

A/N: thank you so so much for reading, comments are appreciated ^^ stay safe and have a beautiful day <3