“Oh, God, what the hell, Seohyun!” Yuri exclaimed after seeing Seohyun with three bodies of dead animals surrounding her.

From the moment Seohyun disappeared in the forest, she ran to the farthest side and drank from the poor critters unfortunate enough to be spotted by her; she did this until the smell of human blood faded with the faint smell of animal blood. Her sisters weren’t able catch up with her sooner. When Seohyun became oblivious to her surroundings, no one could outrun her. Even Yuri, the fastest running vampire in town, had trouble keeping pace with her

“You’re a beast.” Yuri poked.

Taeyeon shut Yuri up before she could curse at the poor maknae further; Taeyeon’s had heart always soften for Seohyun when she was in delicate, troubled state.

She understood that their maknae grew up around human blood. Memories of her own parents feeding her human blood would always come to mind whenever she sensed human blood.

Taeyeon approached Seohyun to comfort her.

“Don’t.” Seohyun stopped her. “I’m okay, I just need some air.” She said as she stood up disappearing in the darkness once again within a matter of seconds.

“Aish, jinjja! I just got here and she’s gone again?” Tiffany sighed as she appeared after Yuri. “Damn these heels.”

“She’ll be fine, leave her be.” Taeyeon said as she turned to face Yuri and Tiffany. “Let’s go. Did the others hunt?”

“Yeah, of course. Sooyoung wouldn’t be the last to fill that bottomless pit of hers otherwise right?” Tiffany replied while brushing through her lush brown hair with her fingers, fixing them in place.

“I just heard my name again. Why, oh, why are you guys always talking about me?” Sooyoung suddenly appeared from the darkness, revealing her slender frame under the moonlight. She wiped her lips with her left arm. “That was delicious.”

“Yah! You’re wearing a white polo.” Tiffany pointed at the blood stained on Sooyoung’s top.

“Aish! Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Sooyoung slapped her forehead. “I have a midnight date with who-knows-who and I was supposed to have a romantic break up in the middle of the night with him.”

Tiffany, Yuri and Taeyeon chuckled at their sister’s cute stupidity. “Let’s just go back to our place so you can change before that date of yours.” Taeyeon said.

“Where are the others?” Yuri asked.

“They went back to house ahead of me. Oh, don’t ask… they’re going to change clothes too. They eat messier than me, you know.” Sooyoung giggled at the thought of her sisters.

“Come on, guys! You’re being slow.” Taeyeon called them as the three of them were all walking behind her.

“Slow huh?” Yuri mumbled, she exchanged looks with Tiffany and Sooyoung beside her. “Let’s race to the house!” In a blink of an eye, Taeyeon was left alone in the forest. She sighed, “Those girls would never really stop teasing me for being a shorty… aigoo.” She then followed her sisters and disappeared in a split of seconds too.

“Y-yah! TAEYEONIEEEE!” A sweet voice called after her. It was Sunny. “She should never curse herself for being a shorty.” She pouted her lips as she followed after Taeyeon.

Meanwhile…

Seohyun was sitting on a tree branch, looking across the empty horizon of the faraway city. With legs crossed, she sat like a mannequin—her pale white skin glowed in the dark as she had removed her thick layers of make-up. Her lips gleamed in crimson red, from all the blood that she just drank from earlier on. If the sight of her lips were a turn-on, her eyes would have definitely scare off mortals and vampires alike; her eyes sparkled in sanguine red, decorated by a heavy touch of gold within. It was almost a mesmerizing sight; if not for the fact that it wasn’t humanly possible, or that it was an indication of her superior strength, it would have surely been yet another one of her heartbreaking assets.

When she was younger, she used to feed on human blood and this was very much legal then. Her parents raised her well, teaching her everything they could. Ironically, her sweetest memories and her most bitter ones were all shed in human blood. Sweet because she would remember the times she spent with her parents and how they never hated her for being different. But because humans killed her parent right before her eyes, the same symbolic liquid tainted her memories as a child as well. She tried to protect her parents so much that she ended up killing those mortals; but it was too late to save her parent’s lives.

The smell of mortal blood always arouses Seohyun’s vampiric senses; she would always get the urge to rip through human whenever she smells their blood. She wanted to feed on them and watch them die gruesomely, that’s how it has always been. However, she had always been trying her best since she lived under the guidance of Soo Man.

Like a panorama, her past flashed through her mind, a past that shaped her into the being she now was; the perfect heartbreaker.

Seohyun was pulled back to reality by the sound of flapping wings. It was against the cold breeze that was hanging in the air of the night. She looked behind her, searched the forest with her keen eyes, but found nothing; save for the black shade of the towering trees behind her. She shrugged the thought off and rested her head on the trunk of the enormous tree, letting out a soft sigh.

She looked at the time on her classy leather watch; it’s already midnight, another day of forever.

Jumping onto her feet and landing on the ground, she bent down and dusted off her shoes. But as she glanced to the ground, another shadow formed from her back; there was someone else there. She continued to dust off her shoes but she stared at the shadow behind her, analysis ways to get to that figure behind her. It couldn’t be a human, it must not be; if it was, she would either have to kill that person or compel him or her into forgetting what they just saw. She had just jumped from a twenty-five feet off from the tree branch is it’s so humanely impossible.

Her identity as a vampire should never be exposed.

Seohyun stood up slowly, but she had even fully straightened herself, she had already pinned the figure against a tree someway to her left in one swift motion. With her arms now up against his neck, she took a closer look at the figure she had just assulted

“Omo! Kris, I’m so sorry!” Seohyun immediately eased her grip from Kris, eyes widening from the sight of him.

“Gw…gwaenchanh.” Kris rubbed his nape and popped them. “Wow, you’re incredibly strong.” Kris said, giving Seohyun an slightly amused smile.

“Your smile…” Seohyun muttered to herself. Kris shot her a look as if he heard her, “I said you’re incredibly tall.” They both chuckled.

There was an awkward silence. Kris cleared his throat, “So, what are you doing here?”

“Just having a feast, you know……” Seohyun trailed of in her speech.

“Alone? You hunt alone?” Kris seemed interested. But his face was visible again. That serious expressionof his had always been easy on the eye to Seohyun.

Kris was tall, body-built and incredibly handsome as what her sisters would say. But his face rarely lights up with sensible facial expressions. That’s why when Kris smiled at her, she couldn’t help but react to it.

“Well, of course,” Seohyun doesn’t have any plans on sharing with Kris her story. Aside from her eight sisters, all the other vampires under SM League were strangers to her; well except for her mentor, Kyuhyun, of course. “Sometimes it’s just fun doing things alone.”

Kris shifted his gaze from Seohyun to behind her. That was so abrupt that made Seohyun looked back too.

“What is it?” Seohyun asked, there seemed to be nothing in the blankness of the dark forest. Until there were brushing sounds of the leaves of the trees from a distance.

It was a mystery. Even the cold breeze earlier did not blow any winds at all. It continued for a few more seconds. Seohyun’s eyes sparkled in golden-red again. She’s ready to rip the heart out of whomever or whatever was out there.

Seohyun moved forward to jump towards whatever creature was there behind those trees in the distance. She lunged forward but Kris suddenly held back by her wrist. She turned around and glared at Kris.

Kris’ eyes widened a little. “Y-your eyes…” he was amused by the color of Seohyun’s eyes. It’s his first time seeing such color. It was bright and visible in the darkness. He wanted to stare at it for a little while longer, it was all so interesting to his eyes. But Seohyun denied him the chance to fully admire those eyes, turning away from Kris as she willed her eyes to gleam in their usual hue again. She then looked back at Kris.

“I’m sorry.” Seohyun said as she pulled her hands off Kris’ grip. Once again the leaves rustled. Seohyun felt the urge to jump to the tree across them.

“No, I’ll handle it.” Kris said, “Go now. I think I’m gonna have a midnight snack.”

“But, that could be a human.” Seohyun said. “Were you taught how to compel?”

“Don’t worry. You already said it, sometimes it’s just fun doing things alone.” Kris assured, looking again towrds the direction where the leaves were swaying.

“Now, go.”

It wasn’t as if Seohyun felt that Kris had authority over her, she was just not in the mood to let her pride get in the way; she was too preoccupied in her own thoughts to even contemplate in lecturing her junior. With that, she left the company of Kris out of the forest. In a matter of moments, she was surrounded by the familiar girly and pinkish environment; Tiffany went to great extremes to ensure their home was a pink as possible

Taeyeon was waiting in the terrace and she was relieved to see Seohyun on the porch. She quickly jumped down to her side. Seohyun jumped in surprise.

“Unnie~ You should really stop doing that!” She whined. Taeyeon ignored her and just pulled her into a tight embrace.

“I’m glad you’re back safely.” Taeyeon said hugging her sister as if she never wanted to let go.

“Jeongmal mianhae unnie,” Seohyun replied with obvious guilty for making Taeyeon worry that much. They stay locked in embrace for longer than both cared to admit.

“You can all go out now.” Kris said in his husky voice.

“Owww.YAH~!” Baekhyun rubbed the back of his head as if it was just hit by one of his brothers. “My wings kept on brushing with the leaves, I didn’t mean it.” He flapped his silver wings that lit up the whole forest.

“Control the flapping, dude. It literally makes you shine brighter.” Chanyeol appeared behind Baekhyun, swiftly flying over to Kris without flapping his wings as much as Baekhyun did.

“Seohyun almost got you, Baek. You should be more careful next time.” Kris said leaning on the tree’s trunk with his arms crossed on his chest.

The others started coming towards the three that gathered in the middle of darkness, lit by the wings of their approaching brothers.

 “I thought I saw a red and yellowish gleam of light here. I was holding my breath in the air.” Suho came down with his silver wings from above.

“I didn’t know Seohyun was still here, I’m sorry. We were almost caught off-guard.” Xiumin said who appeared with Luhan. Their golden wings were beautifully flailing in the darkness.

Kris just gave them an annoyed look. Then he looked in the distance. “Just what are those kids think they are doing?!” He suddenly walked along the branch that he was standing into, gazing in the empty horizon line that showed nothing but darkness.

“I couldn’t stop them, but we’ve tried.” Chen said as he landed on the branch of another tree across Kris. Chen came with D.O. whose silver wings furled down on his back as he landed beside Chen.

In the next moment, Kris’s eyes burned with bright silver sparkles. The other members widened their eyes and stole glances at each other.

It wasn’t a good sign.

“Hyung, relax. We’ll get those kids,” Chanyeol approached Kris. But he backed off at once when Kris’ bright golden wings unfurled. It expanded widely beneath his stiff shoulder blades from his back.

“There is no need.” Kris said with his eyes not glued on the little lights playing from afar. Without any more words, Kris took off. His enormous beautiful gold wings were slowly fading the distance until it played along with the other lights.

As soon as Kris reached his younger brothers playing in the middle of the midnight sky, they stopped. They gulped when they saw Kris’ slivery eyes staring down each of them.

“I believe you know what to do. I’ll forgive you this time.” Kris said in his low voice eyeing Tao, Lay, Kai and Sehun. The four of them looked down.

“Now go.”

Kai and Sehun flew towards the distant forest where their other brothers are. Their silver wings flapped and Tao and Lay followed. The skies simmered in a hue of gold and silver emitted by their wings as Kris trailed behind them.

One by one, they folded their wings as they re-entered the dark spectral forest. They had to hide their wings well once they were among other beings; they could not risk being since in their angelic forms.

Asides from the shine of the moon, the forest was pretty much pitch dark; well save for the silver gleam Kris exuded from his eyes.

“H-hyung, your eyes. Could you?” Suho said in his serene voice. He could not find the right words to say. “It creeps us out whenever it shimmers that way.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Kris looked away and blinked twice just as what Seohyun did with hers earlier. “I just can’t control it when emotions fill me up.” Just like that, the bright silver glitter of his eyes was gone.

“I actualy find it cool!” Baekhyun blurted out making everyone look at him. “Or not.”

Kris sighed, “Anyway, I heard from your mentors that you’ve all been working hard.”

“Of course, we’re working towards one goal.” Chanyeol said, his deep voice almost echoed in the woods. “We cannot fail.”

“Soften your hearts. Maybe one of these days we can be freed.” Luhan said, smiling at everyone to put up a lighter mood.

“It’s damn hard to find true love.” Tao scratched his head.

“Of all the mortals I dated, I never really felt anything… it’s almost ironic that I have to break their hearts instead.” Xiumin added, putting a devious smile on his face.

Suddenly, Kris’ phone rang. He looked at the caller and he turned to his brothers, “My mentor.” He sighed. “I have to leave first, remember to be careful. No one knows we’re not vampires like them.”

His brothers nodded at him. He disappeared in the west of the forest as he answered his mentor’s call.

“Just one of us has to fall in love and we’ll all go back to heaven. And the curse will forever be broken. Just one of us, one day we will return.” Kai mumbled as each of them separated and took off in their own separate way; wings unfolding across the wide midnight sky while all else were asleep.