Taemin knocks on her front door, awaiting any response. “Vera?”

Seconds pass and finally Vera opens the door. “Oh hey. Just let me get my keys, ok?” Slipping them into her clutch, Vera comes back and rejoins him. “Thanks for waiting.”

He nods and offers her a hand, which she gladly accepts. “Are you ok?” he asks, turning to her as they walk the way to his mansion.

Thinking for awhile, the girl finally nods. “I think so. But I’m not completely sure.”

Trying to comfort her, Taemin rubs his thumb on the back of her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there,” and smiles.

She laughs and reaches to poke his cheeks. “Do you think they’ll like me?”

The vampire takes awhile to answer, but nods after some time. “If they try to, then yes.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then they’ll kill you,” he says, a serious tone in his voice.

She laughs at his comment and continues to walk.

“No, I’m serious. They just might,” he says, turning to her.

A shiver comes up her spine, but she walks closer to him. “Taemin-ah? Can I ask you a question?”

“What?” Curiously, he looks at her again.

“...How do you...not...” she sighs. “How do you restrain yourself when you’re with me?”

“Molla. I just see your face and I don’t feel like biting you,” Taemin responds, looking at the ground in front of them.

“Jinjja?” Vera asks, skeptical of his answer. It sounded too romantic to be true. Like something out of storybooks. Well, vampires were out of storybooks too, ne?^^

“Aniya,” he says, a smile rising to his cheeks.

The girl glares, but laughs at his joke. She was so close to believing him, and would’ve happily done so. “Then what?”

“The necklace I gave you,” he says, reaching out to it. “Inside the gem is a poison that keeps vampires away from the wearer.”

“Oh...cool?” she offers, awkwardly.

Taemin nods, noticing the awkward mood and they start to walk into silence.

Sensing the awkwardness, Vera assess the atmosphere and after deciding it appropriate, lays her head on his shoulder, hoping he won’t point it out.

A smile rises to his face again, but he stays silent, not wanting to embarrass her.

After spending a while in blissful silence, the two stop in front of the large ornate gates that separate SHINee’s mansion from the rest of the world. “We’re here,” Taemin says, letting go of Vera’s hands.

Shocked, the girl’s jaw drops in astonishment. “You live here?”

Laughing at her reaction, Taemin nods. Touching the gate with one of his hands, the gates begin to open as if under a spell. He pulls her through while she continues to ooh and ahh.

“Wow,” she says, still gaping despite her better efforts to stop. “Your parents must be rich!”

The once-happy vampire’s smile leaves his face as he becomes quiet.

“Taemin-ah? Gwenchanna? Did I say something wrong?” Vera starts to worry she did something disrespectful.

He shakes his head, but fits a smile on his face, for the both of the sakes, as they reach the double doors in front of the mansion. “I’ll tell you later, ok?”

Confused and curious, Vera wants to press the subject, but knowing it made Taemin uncomfortable and what laid in front of her, she puts a similar smile on her face and nods. “Ne.”

Taemin raises his hand to the door to push it open, but turns to her before he does. “Are you ready?”

A look of fear flashes in her eyes, and she nervously nods. “Ne.”

He gives her a reassuring smile and lightly squeezes her shaking hand as he pushes the door open, letting the aroma of Key’s cooking hit them both instantly. The two walk in and the doors close behind them silently. “Hyungs, I’m home,” Taemin says, smiling so as to not show the equal fear he has in the pit of his stomach. So he can look strong in front of Vera.

Key is the first one to see the couple, seeing as he knew they had arrived as soon as they were at the gates, because of his precognitive and mind reading powers. Walking in from the kitchen, he stops in front of them and crosses his arms over his chest. “Taemin-ah, go change into the outfit I picked out for you,” he commands, looking only at the 막내 for a second before piercing into Vera.

“Dae hyung,” Taemin bows and rushes upstairs to change, but not before he whispers “Hwaiting” to Vera and gives her hand another light squeeze.

Once Vera is left all alone with the blonde vampire with a piercing gaze, she struggles to keep calm. Slowly, she backs up and takes her shoes off, leaving only her socks.

Key analyzes the human, trying to find anything wrong with her. Of course, he starts on her outfit. Hmm...She’s wearing a Marc Jacobs polka dotted dress, with platform wedges. Her lacy socks add a cute, but on trend touch to the outfit. He continues to walk around and observe her until Minho calls from the dining room.

“Hyung! Dinner is ready!”

The meticulous vampire stops, his cold hand resting on Vera’s bare shoulder, and finally says something to her. “Time for dinner,” and gives her a little push in the direction.

Key opens the door to a dining room that most only encountered in movies or storybooks. The high ceiling housed a crystal chandelier that gave off dimmed light - for the sake of the vampires’ hypersensitive eyes - that added to the elegant atmosphere. The table, large enough to seat 10 people, was covered in a decadent array of food.

Keeping her amazement to herself, Vera starts to find a seat. But not before Key grabs her by the wrist to stop her.

“Everyone, this is Vera. Vera, please introduce yourself,” the blonde vampire clasps his hands and gives her a look, trying to find an error, since she passed his first test.

“Ne. Annyeong haseyo Vera-imnida,” and she gives the 3 seated SHINee a 90 degree bow.

The oldest nods and gives her an approving smile; the tallest gives her a nod and clasps his hands, while Jonghyun gives her a bored wave.

Giving a polite smile, Vera tries, again, to go for a seat, but Key tells her where her seat is. Sitting down, she realizes that her seat is farthest away from Taemin and feels her anxiety triple.

Onew, sensing this, turns to her and gives her a smile. “Annyeong Onew-imnida,” he whispers.

Shyly, she gives him a nod and a smile.

“Yah! Where is Taemin-goon?” Key whines, fork and knife in hand. “I’m hungry~.”

“We can wait a little longer,” Onew says, ignoring his own stomach’s rumblings.

Minho stands up out of his chair. “I’ll go check on him.”

As he says this, Taemin walks back down and joins them at the table, taking the empty seat next to Minho and diagonal from Vera. “Sorry I’m late,” he says, with a bashful smile.

“Good. Now we can eat,” Jonghyun says, a wide smile on his face as he reaches for some chicken.

“Yah! Let Onew hyung eat first!” Key says, smacking the Dino’s hand.

Onew gives out chicken to the entire table, receiving a quiet thanks from Vera, and then happily takes the biggest piece for himself.

The dinner went perfectly fine; despite Vera’s shyness and awkwardness around strangers, not to mention her fear of messing up, she was able to engage in conversation with the SHINee hyungs/oppas, gaining her another point in Key’s book. Or so she thought.

Lastly in the evening, after all the maids and butlers take away the food (and Vera ponders how vampires could have such a huge appetite for human food), a butler comes out with a notepad and pen. “What drinks should my masters, and guest mistress, like to have?”

The blonde asks for a beer, the oldest, as well as the tallest, ask for water, and the Dino asks for a beer, as well. “Umm...what are the options?” Vera asks, now intimidated by the silence.

The butler rattles off many things; Vera only knowing less than 1% of the options. “...I’ll take-”

Onew turns to her. “How old are you?”

“18...?”

He turns to face him. “She’ll have water.”

“And Master Taemin?”

“Can I have a b-”

“He’ll have BW,” Key answers for him, a smirk on his face.

BW? Vera glances toward Taemin, but ignores the thought when he happily shrugs.

Little did she know the following events that would take place after that: the 6 clinked their glasses and took their first drink. What is usually a happy occasion became a frightening one for Vera in 3, 2, 1...

Taemin, who was at first hesitant to drink the BW, slams the now empty glass down, almost shattering it, and his eyes slowly turn red. Abruptly, he pushes himself out from the table and stands up. Calmly and silently, he walks over to Vera.

“Taemin, are you ok?” she asks, hesitant, as she notices the change.

“Can I speak with you for a minute?” he asks, ignoring her question and the fear in her eyes. With the blood wine flowing through his veins, her fear actually fuelled his thirst for her blood.

“Umm...” Vera turns to look at the other 4-who were watching, except for Key, in shock- and reluctantly stands up. “Yes?”

Quickly, he grabs her wrist and starts to drag her out. “Hyungs, I’ll be back.”

Key watches the scene with a sick grin on his face. Let’s see if she’ll pass the final test.

“Hyungs, we have to stop him,” Minho says, standing up, with surprise in her round eyes. “He’s going to kill her.”

Onew and Jonghyun rise to their feet and start to join their fellow vampire when they notice Key’s just happily cackling. “Key, what are you doing? We have to stop him!” Jonghyun yells, walking towards him.

“So? She’s human! It’s bound to happen one of these days,” Key waves him off with the flick of a hand. “Let’s just see what happens,” and takes a sip of his drink.

“Hyung, you set this up? What do you have against him liking her? She’s a nice girl!” Minho yells, storming towards him, full of anger.

“I just told you! She’s human! Vampires are not meant to be in love with humans!” Key yells back at him. “Now if you would excuse me,” he says, standing up to walk to his room.

Minho lunges towards him and presses the vampire against the wall, while he firmly holds onto the collar of his shirt.

“Minho-goon!” Onew says, starting to run towards the two vampires, trying to stop the fight in progress. “Jonghyun, get Taemin away from Vera.”

Jonghyun runs out of the door the couple left from a few minutes ago and tries to find out where they could be, when he hears a yell. He boosts his speed and runs in the direction. “Vera! Taemin-ah!” As he runs up the staircase and tosses door after door open, he hears footsteps running down the stairs and then a door closing. “Vera? Taemin-ah?” he peeks out of the doors and sees Taemin rushing towards the stairs.

“Vera, wait,” Taemin yells, as Jonghyun grabs his arm.

“Taemin-ah,” Jonghyun looks the maknae in the eyes, checking whether his eyes are still red. “What are you doing?”

“I have to explain,” he says, pleading with his hyung to let him go.

“I’ll talk to her. You just go...calm down,” the Dino says, seeing the young vampire’s desperate eyes.

“No. I need to explain. She needs to hear it from me,” Taemin says, and rips himself from his hyungs grasp, running down the stairs, two steps at a time.

Sighing, Jonghyun runs his hands through his hair and lets it happen. Key-goon, what is with you these days?

Vera continues to run, but realizes she’s lost her way back home. She starts to look through her clutch, but remembers she left her phone at home. Angry at herself and a bit at Taemin, the girl blinks back the tears threatening to spill over her cheeks and stubbornly continues in her direction, even if she has no idea what direction that is.

With it being past 10, scary things are bound to happen in the dark. Especially if you’re a human like Vera, who has especially tantalizing blood. Vera continues to walk and starts to think she’s found her way back, when she hears footsteps. Light footsteps that could only be heard if in deep silence. Which she was, Vera was replaying what happened from beginning to end. But when she hears the footsteps, she quickens her speed. Not even trying to be subtle, the vampire appears in front of her, with sickly red eyes. He lunges in for a bite at her neck, when a hand wraps around Vera’s wrist, throwing her behind him.

“Taemin!” Vera jumps a bit, flinching, and lands badly on her ankle. While pain goes through her now throbbing ankle, she just stays quiet and tries not to get in the now fighting vampires’ way.

The two fight for a long time and after a power struggle, Taemin pins the vampire to the ground and, in simpler terms, kills him. Breathing heavily, he turns towards Vera and gives her a smile, as if he didn’t just fight to the death. “Gwenchanna?” he asks, rushing over to her, his smile leaving when he notices she’s on the ground.

“I’m fine,” Vera says, quickly rising to her feet, trying to hide the pain as she starts to walk off.

“Aniyo. You’re not. Let me help you,” he says, appearing next to her, despite being a couple feet away seconds before.

Stubbornly, Vera doesn’t accept any help from him until his 3rd offer. She sighs and offers her arm to him, but is surprised when he puts his arms under her knees and neck, carrying her “bridal style”. “...Can you put me down...?” she asks, feeling awkward at the sudden rise in altitude.

“Not until I get you home,” he says, looking ahead.

“.....”

Quickly switching the topic, Taemin smiles at her. “So did you enjoy the dinner?”

“....you don’t remember?”

He shakes his head. “No. What happened?”

“...you were kinda trying to attack me. So then I ran out...”

Taemin’s eyes widen and then he sighs, remembering. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t keep myself under control,” and he looks away from her.

What the heck is he talking about? “What do you mean? What is ‘BW’?”

“Basically, it’s blood with alcohol in it,” he says, quietly.

She nods and lets him carry her the rest of the way. When he stops in front of her front door, she tries to get out of his arms. “Well...see you to-” Suddenly, they’re standing in the middle of Vera’s room. “How did you do that?”

“It’s a vampire thing,” he says, laying her gently down on her bed. He gives her a small smile and then walks over to give her a hug. “I’m sorry for what happened, but I just wanted to say you looked really pretty tonight.”

“Goodnight, Taemin,” Vera smiles and savors the hug.

Walking out of her room and closing the door behind him, Taemin replays what happened earlier that night and sighs to himself. I have to find some way to stay calm around her. Something like that can’t happen again. As he ponders this walking down the stairs, the vampire feels chills go up his spine. Turning around, he’s face to face with the embroidered door from before. I have to be more careful he thinks, remembering what happened to him before. He tries to edge away, but bumps into someone.

“And who are you and why are you in my daughter’s house?” an authoritative voice says, scaring him even more.