Loud knocking woke Byul up. She groggily walked to the door and opened it to find Yongsun and Wheein outside the apartment.

"Guys, it's like ten A.M.! What the hell?!" she groaned.

"Why didn't you answer my texts last night, unnie?! I thought that something bad had happened to you!" Wheein said.

"Seriously?" Byul sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I just fell asleep while we were texting. I'm completely fine."

"You are?" Wheein asked, guiltily looking to the side.

Yongsun rolled her eyes. "Wheein dragged me here, telling me that it was vital that we check up on you."

"Well, I was just worried. Can I not be worried for her?" Wheein defended herself.

"Right. She was 'just worried'." Yongsun said sarcastically, making apostrophe signs with her fingers. " When I told her that I had a morning class and I couldn't come, I believe her exact words were, 'Yongsun unnie, if we don't go check up on Byul unnie right now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life!' and 'How can you be so heartless?!'"

Wheein's face reddened in embarrassement. "I'm sorry."

Byul chuckled. "It's okay. Come on in, since you're already here."

Wheein smiled and pushed an annoyed Yongsun inside. Byul ordered some breakfast for all of them, and they sat down together at the dining room table. 

"So, Byul unnie, you went to work yesterday?" Wheein asked while chewing on a pancake.

"Wheein, please don't talk with your mouth full, but yeah, I did go to work. And my boss had found out about the vamipre thing. She scolded me for not telling her about it too."

Wheein laughed at the clear annoyment in Byul's voice. "You never let yourself get scolded by anyone."

Byul sighed, dramatically hanging her head down in fake desperation. "I know. It's so annoying."

"So, what did you think about the thing I told you from the footage?" Wheein asked, choosing to ignore Byul's dramatics, otherwise the conversation wouldn't progress. 

"Ah, that." Byul looked up. "I have an idea of who it could be."

"You do?!" Yongsun and Wheein said in unison.

"I'm not sure, though. It's just a guess. I don't even think it's right, but I'm still going to ask him about it today."

"What the hell, Byul?! That's so stupid! The guy wants to harm you and you're going to talk to him?!" Yongsun exclaimed.

Byul waved her off. "If he wanted to kill me he could've killed me a long time ago. It can't be him."

"I'm going with you." Wheein said.

"There's no need-"

"I am going."

Byul rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Should I go with you guys, too?" Yongsun asked.

"No, unnie. You have a class like in an hour, remember? I'll go and protect Byul unnie."  Wheein answered.

"Alright. But be careful and don't let Byul out of your sight. She's always getting hurt or in trouble."

"I'll be the best bodyguard ever. You don't need to worry."

Byul, who had been sourly watching their conversation, groaned. "I hate being babysitted! I'm not a kid!"

Wheein laughed. "Well, unnie, sometimes you just have to let others take care of you."

After finishing breakfast, Yongsun left for class and Byul and Wheein drove to the vampire hunter's association, where Byul expected to find Hajoon. Byul made Wheein stay in the car to wait for her as she wanted to confront him alone.

Byul found Hajoon in the gym, working out. He smiled when he noticed her.

"Byulyi! What a surprise! You never show up here unless it's for work." 

"Ah, yeah. Well, I had something to ask you."

"Sure, what is it?" He asked, getting off the running mat.

Byul tried smiling too, but she felt guilty about what she was going to ask. Hajoon had always been kind to her, and asking him something like this seemed like an insult. But she had to do it anyway, so she took a deep breath and started talking.

"You know the wanted post Irene mentioned yesterday?" She paused, waiting for a reaction, and when Hajoon nodded, she continued. "Well, I found the camera footage of the person who posted it."

Byul then stopped, waiting again for some kind of reaction, but Hajoon seemed calm. He took his water bottle and drank some water, patiently waiting for her to continue.

"The guy who posted my photo, you know, he had a ring just like yours." she said, pointing to Hajoon's hand.

"And you think it's me?"

Byul nodded.

Hajoon left his water bottle on the bench that was behind him and calmly sat next to it, motioning for Byulyi to do the same, so she sat down too.

"Byulyi, remember what I told you about you losing your passion for killing vampires?"

Byul was confused at the sudden change of topic. "Yeah?"

"Honestly, I was kind of jealous. Why did I have to be the assistant of someone who didn't even hunt to the best of their capability?" He said, clenching his fist.

When he saw Byul frowning, though, he sighed and unclenched his fist.

"I like your company and going hunting with you, Byulyi, I really do, so I tried to not make it bother me. Maybe you were going through a hard time. Maybe you'd gotten tired of Irene's bossiness. I don't know. I just wanted us to have fun hunting again. I wanted to be able to bring at least six dead vampires back to the association per hunt, like we used to do."

Byul knew she was guilty of that. After meeting Yongsun, she hadn't been as hardworking as she used to be, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A healthy work-life balance is a must-have right? He didn't have the right to be upset about it.

"I tried to cheer you up." Hajoon continued, "I worked harder, trying to make up for the dedication that you lacked and waited for you to get better again. But it was like each day you stopped caring about your job more and more. And I wanted to find out what was distracting you."

Byul didn't like where this was going.

"Following you home one day, I found out you had a girlfriend." 

"What?" Now, she didn't expect that.

"Yeah, the girl you used to live with." He replied matter-of-factly, as if it were something obvious.

Byul frowned. Was he talking about Yongsun?

"That was just my roommate, Hajoon." she chuckled, hoping this was just some big misunderstanding, and that things would be normal again.

"Yeah, right." he scoffed. "Anyway, back to the point. I did post your photo."

Byul was speechless for a moment. After the initial shock and feelings of betrayal faded, though, she was outraged.

"What the , Hajoon?! Why would you do that?! Do you have any idea how distressing it is to have people following you and trying to kill you?! I got attacked twice. Twice! What the hell is your problem?!"

Hajoon ignored all of Byul's questions and continued his monologue, unaffected. "I thought that having vampires after you would make you hate them more. That it would make you care about your job again and forget about your girlfriend. And that night, when you got attacked, I knew they were coming for you. That's why I left."

Every word he uttered just fueled Byul's anger. "So you were just watching me while I was getting beat up? What the is wrong with you?!"

"But your girlfriend came to save you, didn't she?" Hajoon continued speaking calmly, as if Byul's anger didn't affect him. 

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, Byulyi." He scooted closer to her. "She turned out to be a vampire, right? But even after knowing that she was a monster, you still liked her, didn't you? You went after her."

That was enough. Byul's rage exploded out of her. "She is not a monster! You don't know her!"

Hajoon held her by the shoulders, carressing them consolingly. "Byulyi, I just want to help you. Scum like her killed your grandmother, you know. Scum like her killed my mother. And Irene and Seulgi and the other hunters, your true friends; they were all hurt by those monsters too. You need to wake up."

"But Yongsun's different!" she yelled, shaking him off.

Hajoon only looked at her with pity.

"Byulyi, just imagine how different your life would have been if vampires didn't exist." he said.

That really got her thinking. She thought about all the ways in which her life would be better if vampires didn't exist, and it made her momentarily forget why she even confronted Hajoon in the first place. 

After a few moments of silence, though, Hajoon resumed speaking.

"You know, my life would have been very different for sure." he said, smiling wistfully."Right now, I'd probably be watching some corny romance drama with my mother. She would be constantly critizing the actors while eating fried chicken. She enjoyed fried chicken so much, you know?" he said, chuckling sadly. Byul could clearly see the pain in his eyes, and almost feel it through his voice. "When I was a kid, we never had the money for it so she would try to make it herself, but she always said that the restaurant bought tasted best. And so the day I got my first paycheck, the first thing I did was to buy her some." his face suddenly contorted in anger. "I ran home excitedly, only to find one of those monsters hunched over her dead body. Those monsters stole my life away! Didn't the same thing happen to you, Byulyi?! How could you betray the association like that?! Betray your grandmother?! You've betrayed yourself!"

"I-" Byul wanted to defend herself, but couldn't find the words to continue.

It was true, she had kind of betrayed Hajoon. And she had definitely betrayed herself. How could she forget so easily the promise she had made herself to find and kill the vampire who had hurt Wheein? How could she forget so easily what had happened to her grandmother? 

Like Hajoon, Byul's life would also be really different if vampires didn't exist. She wouldn't have been separated from Wheein for so many years. She would still be able to visit her grandmother and spend evenings talking with her. She wouldn't have spent so many nights roaming the streets of Seoul, becoming a heartless killer.

But thinking about 'what ifs' is pointless. Although many years were lost, Byul had met Wheein again, and their friendship had picked up right where it had left. As for her grandmother, true, she would never see her again, and it hurt, but she could at least start to try to live a life her grandmother would be proud of, and her grandmother would definitely not be proud of her if she knew the way she'd wasted so many nights seeking revenge. And although she had become a killer, she wasn't that heartless anymore. And that was thanks to Yongsun. 

Hajoon had a point, but he wasn't right.

"It's true our lives would've been very different, but the past can't be changed, Hajoon."

"The past can't be changed, but we can make those monsters pay for what they did to us! We can give future generations a better life than we had, Byulyi! Do you not realize how important that is?!"

"I do." Byul sighed.

"And?"

"And there has to be another way to change this situation, Hajoon. I don't think I can keep killing like this, and I will definitely not stop seeing Yonsgun."

Hajoon nodded and looked down sadly. Byul felt bad for him for a split second, but her pity turned to fear as she heard what he said next. "Yeah, I knew you wouldn't want to get rid of her. That's why I did it for you."

"What are you talking about?" she said, standing up brusquely. Hajoon stood up too.

"I sent some hunters after her. Since I know she's a pureblood, though, I knew that some puny hunters wouldn't be enough to kill her. So I stole some of the new secret drug our chemists made. They should already have her right now."

"What?! You shouldn't have done that!" 

"I just want to help!"

Byul threw herself on him in a blind rage. Half of her hits didn't even meet their target. "Where are they going to take her?!"

Hajoon stopped her punches by grabbing her. "Byulyi, calm down. She won't die in pain. And then you'll be able to hunt like we did before."

Byul wrestled herself out from his grip and took a step back. "Tell me where she is!"

"I won't." Hajoon said, walking towards her again. "You will stay here until those hunters are done."

Seeing that he wouldn't give up, Byul looked around the gym. She was so far from the exit, and the gym was completely empty. No one would help. So she slowly started walking backwards to get away from Hajoon until her back hit a rack of weights.

"Byulyi, it'll be okay. Just trust me, please."

Byul nodded, pretending to agree with him, but she was secretly grabbing a ten-kilogram weight behind her back. When he was close enough, she bashed him over the head with it.

He fell to the floor, head bleeding and unconcious, but still breathing. 

Byul then ran out of the gym, the only thing on her mind to find Yongsun and make sure she's okay.

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating in so long. I'm having a massive writer's block. Like, I know how I want to end my story and how to get there, but when I try to write it down, it just won't come out. Anyway, I'm really sorry.

On another note, though, who else is excited for the Mamamoo+ comeback this month?!!!!! I can't wait to see the concept they come up with and hear the music. I doubt it'll be a full album since they're so busy with the world tour, but I hope it'll be a mini album at least. I loved Better but it was just the one songTT. Imagine having a full album one day, though!!!! I'd die, lol. Anyway, let's stream and vote when the music comes out, everyone. I hope we can give them a win (although I'm not sure whether they're promoting on music shows or not this time?)