“Ouch.” 

Ouch is an understatement. It’s not enough to express the pain that Byulyi is feeling but it’s the only thing that came to mind when she got slammed into the pavement.

Her opponent hovers above her, preparing to finally knock her out. Byulyi glances at her gun, which lays just beside her, faintly glowing under the dim streetlights. It’s so dark that she can barely make out the shape of her opponent. It definitely puts her at a disadvantage, especially when she knows he can see her perfectly clearly. She pushes him off of her with her remaining strength and rolls towards her gun as she hears the pavement receive the punch meant for her. When she turns back to face him, he’s already got another punch coming towards her, but she’s faster this time. Byulyi aims right for his heart and pulls the trigger. The sound of the shot echoes in the darkness as her opponent falls to the ground. She usually uses a silencer for her gun, but she forgot it tonight. It doesn’t matter anyway; in this part of the city, you’re most likely to find a cop selling weed than patrolling. Byulyi falls to the ground, exhausted and with a bloody nose and several cuts on her face, grimacing from the pain. This was a tough one, she thinks.

Suddenly, Byulyi heard someone clapping. She scrambled to get up as she heard them approach and squinted her eyes to try to identify them while pointing her gun in the general direction of the clapping.

“Wow, I didn’t expect to see you almost die tonight, miss incredible. That was quite a show.”

“Ugh, what do you want, Irene?” Byulyi sighed and pocketed her gun. She could recognize that annoying voice anywhere.

“Can’t I greet my favorite vampire hunter?”

“Cut the crap. I know you’re here to entice me to join your little club, and I already told you I’m not going to.”

“My ‘little club’, Moon, is the biggest vampire hunter’s association in the world. And we need someone like you in our association. Someone who can hunt more vampires in one night than most manage to in one month. You could do so much more with our technology and support, so why waste your potential? We could give you a good salary, you know that.”

“And yet I still refuse.”

“And yet you still refuse. Why?”

“Look shortie, I only want to kill vampires, not get involved in some shady business that sells their fangs and whatnot. All you care about is money. Besides, I work best alone.”

"And what do you care about, o great Moon Byulyi?" Irene said in a dramatic tone of voice.

What does she care about?

Vengeance.

That's the only thing Byulyi cares about.

"Irene, I don't have time for these kinds of questions." She sighed in annoyance.

“Suit yourself, then. I’ll see you around. Gonna take this one, if you don’t mind, by the way.” Irene pointed to the dead vampire on the ground. “He looks pretty big, lots of our customers would be interested in his-”

“I don’t want to know, thanks.” Byulyi said while walking away. She had planned to hunt a few more vampires tonight, but this previous guy left her too weak so she decided to go back home and rest for the rest of the night.

....................................................................................................................

Actually, Byulyi has considered joining Irene’s association thing. She desperately needs the money, for one. If she accepted, she could be driving a fancy car instead of walking, for instance. She wouldn’t have needed to get a roommate to help her pay rent. Byulyi was so desperate when getting a roommate that she hasn’t even met her in person, and her roommate is moving in tomorrow. They talked through videocall last night, and Byulyi might or might not have a small crush on her. Maybe her soon-to-be roommate’s beauty prevented Byulyi from being more careful and suspecting she might be a bad person, but she isn't really worried about that. Afterall, she fights with the vilest creatures on earth every night; her roommate couldn’t be worse than those things.

However, money isn’t her only motivation to accept Irene’s offer. Byulyi says she’d rather work alone, but truth be told, she does feel lonely sometimes and thinks she could use some hunting companions. She has been alone ever since she swore she would find and kill the vampire that killed her best friend; her only true friend, who could never be replaced by any number of hunting companions. Just by thinking about her, Byulyi can already feel tears gathering.

She remembers Wheein’s hugs and the way in which Wheein’s eyes would become half-moons and her adorable dimple would appear whenever she bought her food. Byulyi remembers Wheein's cute brake-pedal laugh whenever she told her a lame dad joke. Those memories are what help her not give up on life.

But those same memories that keep her alive are also the cause of the pain in her heart. And the only way Byulyi knows of to get rid of that pain is to hunt. That's when the pain can turn into hate.

In the middle of that thought, Byulyi arrived to her apartment. She was so tired she didn’t even bother eating or washing up, but went straight to her room and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

........................................................................................

Something felt cold. Right, it’s winter. Byulyi suddenly sat up. Her back was wet from the molten snow that had seeped in through her coat, so just how long had she been laying on the ground? Her head started pounding as she looked around, trying to remember what happened, but all she could see were trees, snow, and…is that blood? Whose blood? Her headache started getting stronger and her ears started ringing. Byulyi spotted a blue glove on the snow and suddenly her memories came rushing back. That was Wheein’ s glove. She was walking with her friend in the forest when someone got in their way. Or something. It wasn’t human. Her parents had always told her that vampires weren’t real but this thing looked just like one, there was no denying it this time. And he was after them. She told Wheein to run, but she knew there was no way they’d outrun that thing. Then he got to Wheein and Byul tripped and fainted. But why didn’t he kill her too? She fell to the ground, buried her face in her hands and cried her eyes out. She didn’t want to think anymore. No, she just couldn’t think anymore. All she could see was a bloody Wheein getting dragged away, leaving a crimson trail on the snow. All her ears were filled with were Wheein’s screams. Getting louder and louder. Telling her to run. Calling her name.

“RUN, UNNIE!”

“BYUL!”

“BYULYI!”

“Byulyi-ssi! Wake up!”

Byulyi woke up all sweaty and with wet trails of tears on her cheeks. She could still feel the dried blood on her nose and the pain in her back from yesterday’s fight.

“Are you okay?”

She fell down from the bed in surprise with a loud thud. Wasn't she supposed to be alone in the apartment?

The woman who woke her up walked to the side of the bed where Byulyi had fallen.

“It’s okay. It’s me, Yongsun. Your new roommate. You were having a nightmare so I woke you up. Your screams could be heard from the hallway.” Yongsun explained while helping Byulyi up.

Byulyi was glad Yongsun didn't ask her what the nightmare was about, because she wouldn't have wanted to answer that question.

Yongsun gasped when she got a closer look at Byulyi. “What happened to your face?!”

“Just fell off the stairs is all.” Byulyi answered with a slight blush on her face. I mean, could you blame her? She was still in yesterday's clothes with tons of bruises on her face, but Yongsun was looking like a goddess. Her black wavy hair fell onto the white crop top she was wearing and her light washed jeans hugged her perfect figure. Also, the way she frowned with concern was just so cute.

“Let me take care of that.” Yongsun said while signaling to Byulyi’ s numerous wounds and went to get her first aid kit from her luggage without even letting her respond. They both sat down on Byulyi’ s bed and Yongsun started disinfecting her wounds. Byulyi suddenly spoke up.

“Yongsun-ssi, I'm so sorry I wasn't awake to open the door for you. I guess I was too tired to- wait... how did you get in? I don’t remember giving you the keys.”

“Oh, um.” Yongsun suddenly had this guilty look on her face. “I might have broken in?”

Broken in? No way, Byulyi thought. Her door was super sturdy.

“All done.” Her thoughts were interrupted by Yongsun. Byulyi looked more closely at her. She looked too small to break a door, although Byulyi had to admit she did look strong. Her biceps and abs were perfectly defined. This girl definitely worked out. Yeah, that’s it. Yongsun was just too strong. And hot. Wait, what?

“Byul?!”

“Hm?” , Yongsun caught her staring at her abs.

“Can I call you that? Byul instead of Byulyi-ssi?” Yongsun smiled.

Byulyi thought about it for a moment. No one had called her Byul for a long time. Not since Wheein. Strangely though, she didn’t feel sad when Yongsun called her that even though it did remind her of Wheein. Hearing it from Yongsun’ s mouth felt different. New.

“Sure, unnie.”

“Great. You can also drop the honorifics, Byul.”

“So just Yongsun?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Yong? It’s shorter. Your name’s bigger than you are.” Byul smirked with her signature hamster smirk.

Yongsun made a big show of being offended and started hitting Byul on the arm.

“EXCUSE ME?! RESPECT YOUR ELDERS, YOU BRAT!”

“Ow, Yong, I’m injured here! You just bandaged my wounds!”

Yongsun started laughing with her weird but endearing dolphin laugh, which in turn caused Byul to get into an unstoppable laughing fit. She'd never heard someone laugh like that.

...................................................................................

The next day, Byul went to buy a new door and Yongsun insisted on tagging along.

They had been browsing through a selection of doors for quite some time before Yongsun lost her patience.

“What do you think about this one?” Yongsun asked while impatiently pointing to a random wooden door.

Byul seemed to seriously consider her suggestion. “Well, I think it’s better to get a metal door. Especially since I have a roommate who breaks doors, you know.”

“Yah, that only happened one time! I said I was sorry.” Yongsun said with an annoyed tone.

“I’m just teasing you.” Byulyi laughed at Yongsun’s reaction. “Besides, that’s a bedroom door, and we need a front door.”

Yongsun nodded like she understood but she didn’t really know anything about doors. Byul finally settled on one and was going to pay when Yongsun interrupted her.

“I’m paying.”

“Because you broke the door?” Byul smirked.

“Shut up and be grateful.” Yongsun rolled her eyes at Byul’s teasing. This was only her second day of knowing her but she could already tell Byul was going to be teasing her about anything and everything for the rest of their time as roommates.

As she was opening her wallet to find her credit card, the cashier started to make some small talk with Byul.

“This door is a good choice. Very easy to set up. Your boyfriend will have no trouble doing it,” he smiled.

Byul was about to reply that she didn’t have a boyfriend but Yongsun beat her to it. This was her chance to tease Byul back.

“Don’t worry, sir. My girlfriend will have no problem setting up the door. And if she needs help, I can do it too.” Yongsun stated matter-of-factly, never mind that she didn't know the first thing about installing a door.

The cashier gulped nervously and apologized. He quickly scanned the other items while Yongsun turned to look at a blushing Byul.

“What? You can tease other people confidently but you can’t take it?” Yongsun smirked.

Byul turned a deeper shade of red in embarrassment

“You’re bad.” 

“Thank you, I know.” Yongsun laughed.

.................................................................................

Byul started installing the door as soon as they arrived. Or more like Byul was struggling to to install the door.

“Easy to set up my , I bet he just wanted to know if I was single.” Byul mumbled under her breath. Yongsun was looking at her amusedly from the end of the hallway.

“Don’t flatter yourself, girlfriend.”

“Shut up. You should be setting this up. I didn't break the door.” Byul groaned as she dropped one of the screws on the floor.

Yongsun laughed and stood up to go help Byul. She held the door in place while Byul screwed it secure. It didn’t take them that long before it was done.

“Finally.” Byul said. “Now I just need to install the extra locks.”

“Paranoid, much?”

“Better safe than sorry.”

Byul streched her neck and suddenly noticed the clock on the wall. . She was going to be late for work. The locks would have to wait.

“I have to go to work, Yong. See you later.” Byul sped through the house to get her backpack and was back at the door in the blink of an eye.

“Okay! Bye!” Yongsun said just as Byul hopped out of the apartment on one shoe and in the process of putting on the other one.

Yongsun laughed at her roommate’s antics. Honestly, she had been worried about her roommate turning out to be a psycho or a weirdo but she seemed nice enough, if a little annoying. Not like she had any other options, though. This was the cheapest room near the hospital where she was currently an intern.

Yongsun went back to her room to study for a test, but didn’t get very far when she heard her stomach growling. She walked back to the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was almost completely empty, except for a carton of milk and some fruit. What did Byul eat? Did she even eat?

It was time to go shopping.

................................................................................

It was pretty late when Byul got back from her par-time dishwashing job. She found Yongsun watching tv in the living room.

“Hey, Yong.”

Yongsun looked up from the tv. “Oh, you’re back.”

Byul left her backpack next to the couch and walked toward the kitchen to get a drink.

 “I was hungry, but your fridge was empty so went out shopping and bought some food. I made you kimchi fried rice if you’re hungry. It’s in the microwave.,” Yongsun said from the living room

Byul was surprised; it had been a while someone had cooked for her. She heated up the food and started eating. After mostly surviving on instant noodles for years, this tasted like heaven.

“Wow, this is so good! You could be a successful professional chef!” Byul moaned from the dining room.

“Glad you like it.” Yongsun giggled at her roommate’s extra behavior as she turned off the tv and walked to her room. “I’m going to bed. Goodnight.”

“Goomfnigh!”

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full, kid! Don't you know your manners?!" Yongsun teasingly yelled from her room.

Byul laughed at that and retorted with a childish 'yes, mom!' before shoving the rest of the fried rice in . 

It had been a while since Byulyi had had that much fun. Or any kind of fun, really. She felt more comfortable with Yongsun than she had felt with anyone in such a long time and they just met. It surprised her, but it was a welcome surprise. Maybe getting a roommate wasn’t such a bad decision. Her financial problems had worked in her favor for once.