A/N: Everything bolded is a flashback from before. :D Enjoy this very long chapter. :P

“Can I go up?” Vera asks, looking up at the mocking staircase. Having arrived a few minutes earlier, unannounced, now the human girl stands in front of Jonghyun and Onew, the only awake or caring vampires of the SHINee residency.

“His room is the one in the middle-” Onew starts, having forgotten she’s been here before.

“Thanks,” Vera says, politely, as she starts towards the grand staircase. She turns to the left and continues up, stopping only once she’s arrived in front of the ornate double doors in front of Taemin’s room. Knocking hesitantly on the door, she leans on it, hoping to hear any stirrings or sign on life.

The second Vera gets comfortable against the door, it opens, letting out a apron-wearing Key. “Yah, why are you here?” he asks, his question harsh, but less so than his earlier statements. No matter how hard Key tried to ignore the fact he approved of-and even supported-Vera and Taemin’s relationship, he couldn’t bring himself to openly admit that, especially not to Vera. He was too prideful.

“I came to see Taemin...” she says, trying to sound hesitant, but it probably came off more sarcastic.

“He’s inside,” Key says, but only after passing her those he add a quick “Good luck”.

The girl nods and slowly pushes the doors open. “Taemin~?” When she opens the door, and finally walks in, she notices a bundled up Taemin lying on his fluffy bed, surrounded by many unidentifiable things. “Taemin?” she whispers, a bit louder.

Walking towards the bed, Vera finally realizes that he was sound asleep, and unable to hear her. She nods to herself noting this, but starts to sit on the edge of the bed when she notices something. Underneath the thick sheets, peeking out from underneath was Taemin’s bare chest, wrapped tightly in bandages. She started to reach out to touch them, but noticed something else. As the vampire slept, his chest was still; there was no moving up and down. Of course, if she didn’t know he was already technically “dead”, this would’ve scared her. But still, this worries her for some reason, surprising her. Vera had never seen him asleep and seeing him so still made her feel uneasy. So she straightens up and starts to get off the bed.

All of a sudden, a pale arm shoots out of the sheets and wraps itself around Vera’s waist as another hand snakes out and grabs her wrist, pulling her down. “Vera’s here,” Taemin says, smiling softly, as his eyes flutter open.

When Vera’s heart rate slows down, she offers him a smile. “Yeah. I’m here.”

Taemin turns to face her, a smile on his face, despite the waves of pain going through his body at that slight movement. “So how are you?”

“I’m fine. What about you?” she asks, her tone concerned.

“I’m ok, now that you’re here,” he smiles, a pale red color tinting his cheeks at his forwardness.

Vera smiles at him blushing, but feels a pang in her soul similar to when she first witnessed the scene.

“Come down, Vera! Breakfast is ready!” her father yelled, as he dried the last dish.

“Good morning, Dad!” Vera yelled, running down the stairs and tossing her things aside when she noticed he was making her pancakes. A wide smile on her face, the girl rushed to get a plate and grab the freshly cooked pancake off of the tall stack next to her father.

“Morning. Did you sleep well?” he asked, calmly as he took a pancake and poured a small puddle of syrup onto it.

Chewing on the sweet breakfast, Vera nodded. “Kinda. Only you turned the tv too loud, I heard loud fighting.”

“...” He expertly cut a piece of his pancake and put it in his mouth.

“Something about vampires,” she casually dropped, observing her father’s suspiciously cool-headed and taciturn replies.

He nodded.

Vera finished her pancake and put the empty plate in the sink, washing her hands free of the sticky syrup. Usually, she could easily clear 3-4 servings, but with the glaring truth, she had lost her appetite. “Bye Dad,” she said, gathering her things and walking towards the door.

“See you, Ver-”

The front door closed on him and as Vera stood against it, she felt so empty and helpless. More than she ever had in her life.

“Taemin? You’re my best friend, right?” she looks up to him, her eyes now refocusing and realizing that his were watching her, confused.

“I am?” Taemin asks, a bit out of it.

In place of a nod, Vera pushes some of her hair behind her ear. “And you’d tell me anything, right?”

“...Ne,” he says, a bit hesitant as he searches her eyes for info on this new sentiment of hers.

“Because you’re hiding something from me. I know you probably can’t answer all my questions, but...you still look weak. Are you sure you don’t...need my...blood?” she asks the last part quietly, secretly hoping it won’t come to that. I’ll ask him about it later. Maybe he’ll explain when the time comes.

---

Flashback to earlier months....

Vera waves at her group of friends as she starts off towards the airport terminal, when someone rests their hand on her shoulder. She turns around, her long hair temporarily blurring her sight, and sees Taemin standing behind her. "?" she gives him a quizzical look.

"...your luggage looked heavy," he whispers, sounding breathless, for some reason. He was still doing his human act so the surrounding patrons wouldn't get suspicious.

"I mean, it's not, but-" she starts walking, knowing that he would follow either way. Suddenly, her hands are empty. "What are you doing?" she asks, watching him as he walks with her towards the correct door, carrying her things in his slim, yet strong, arms.

"It looked really heavy and since it's such a long flight, I'd rather carry it for you," he says, calmly, looking straight ahead.

"..." Despite her inner counterargument, Vera just clamps closed and walks alongside him.

Taemin notices this and feels the weight of her things get slightly heavier. Trying to keep his mind off things, he changes the topic after much too long of an awkward silence. "You have all  your things, right? You have your passport? You didn't leave anything?"

Vera laughs at his useless worries. "Taemin, waegurae? If the situation was switched, I would have to ask you that, since you lose things so easily. Of course I have everything."

Smiling, the vampire nods and continues to walk, his worries dissipating as they walk. They quickly escalate when they end up in front of the door to Vera's plane. He tries to stall. "Is this your plane?"

Taking a quick glance, the brunette nods. "Yeah, I should be going then. Wouldn't wanna miss the flight," she says, grabbing her things and starting to walk through the door.

Fortunately, Taemin grabs her wrist, stopping her from walking any farther. "Wait," he says, timidly.

"What?" she asks, turning to him, waiting for the 4 words she's been waiting for him to say since she told him she would be visiting America. "I’ll...come...with...you..."

He doesn't say anything, but only pulls her to him, locking her in a tight hug. "I'll miss you."

While her heart sinks, the butterflies flapping around in her stomach settle down in his comforting cold hug. "I'll only be gone for 2 weeks."

"I know, but still..." he says, softly, partially hoping she doesn't hear, but she does.

"I'll call you, ok?"

He nods, silently, as the previous encounter replays in his mind.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling her anxieties, Vera drops her things, allowing her arms to be free. The second they hit the floor, she wraps her arms around him literally as tight as she can and breathes in his soothing scent. "Bye, Taemin."

"Bye, Vera," he whispers.

The person over the intercom announces that Vera's flight will be leaving in exactly 1 minute, forcing the two to break and Vera to enter her plane, leaving Korea, her friends, and SHINee behind.

For America.

Conversation on her last night

"You're going back so soon?" Vera's mother asks, frowning. "Why can't you stay longer?"

"I like Korea, mom. You know that," she responds, smiling.

"Of course, but..." she shakes her head, knowing this isn't the right time to tell her. "You should visit more often."

"I can't mom, sorry. I'm so busy lately," the daughter says, rubbing her eyes.

Nodding, the mother lightly pats her back. "Fine, but stay safe ok? Goodnight."

"Goodnight mom. Don't forget to close the door," Vera settles under her covers and closes her eyes, waiting to hear that she is alone.

Her mother, instead of leaving, makes noises so it seems she's leaving. As Vera starts to get comfortable, she holds her hand over her daughter's forehead. I'm sorry, but it's for your own good. Choking down the tears that stung her eyes, she swipes her hands over the girl's resting body and says a few words. As the pesky tears start to fall down her face, the woman quietly walks out of the room, allowing the spell to take effect.

The Nightmare

Vera's POV

I'm outside and it's really dark outside. I have no idea why I'm out so late, but for some reason, I'm running. From my perspective, I'm not running from someone, but that's only because I came so late into this dream. I keep running and try not to stop, even though my legs are starting to hurt, and I'm starting to lose my breath. Suddenly, I'm falling and I'm now on the ground. Remembering all the horror movies, I quickly scramble to my feet and get back up, even while my legs hurt so much. Even with all my effort, I suddenly bump into someone. The person I was running away from. The second I bump into his cold chest, I instantly back up and try to find a way out of this situation.

But he looks down at me with a curiously confused look on his face. "Vera, gwenchanna?"

I don't respond to him, but keep backing up. Unfortunately, I back up into a wall, hitting my back hard on the rough brick surface. Weakly, my body slides down the hall, inadvertently cutting the bare skin on my back. I wince silently at the pain.

Taemin flashes over to me and kneels beside me. "Vera, are you ok?" he asks again, trying to pull me up.

This would be a kind gesture, if I hadn't noticed his eyes were dark red. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I tried to keep my heart rate down so he wouldn't notice my fear. I just keep my head down and try not to make eye contact.

Having finally pulled me back up, he notices something wet on his hand and looks at it. "Oh, Vera, you're bleeding," he says, bringing his bloodied hand to his mouth before up the blood.

"I'll just go home and clean up, then," I say, slowly, as I try to sneak out.

In a blink of an eye, Taemin grabs my wrist and shakes his head. "I can't let you go home like that."

"...why not?"

"I've been waiting too long for this," he says, his voice deepening.

Knowing what comes next, I try to pull away from him, but his grip tightens, threatening to break my wrist in two. Looking at his face, I see no tension; it's all so easy for him. In seconds, I could be dead before he even bites me. Fear fills my veins as blood exits them. I feel cold all over and I feel my heartbeat increase against my will. "Taemin...let go. You're hurting me..."

"I know," he smirks. "I know it hurts."

"Please...stop," I say, my words shaking.

"It hurts inside, Vera. Knowing you’re a human, but I can't bite you. You should know how much it hurts."

"Taemin, please, let go," I say, tears stinging my eyes. "I'm sorry."

"No Vera, I'm sorry. That's the only reason I was so close to you. So I could bite you. But it's been too long. And I'm too thirsty."

"Taemin, I'm sorry. Just let go, please," I say, feeling his grip tighten.

"I can't. I just can't. Because this is the end," he says, his lips now attached my neck. Wasting no time, he starts to the blood on the back of my neck, his venom painfully sealing the wounds.

I feel my body temperature lower little by little and keep my mouth closed to suppress my inner screams, knowing no one will come to save me. Just as tears start to fall from my closed eyes, his fangs pierce my skin.

In seconds, the idea of even screaming just vanishes as I feel myself weakening; too weak to even scream.

Opening my eyes, I see the world fading and I black out.

The Aftermath

The bell rings and Vera gets her things out for the day, ready to learn. The second she picks up her pencil to copy notes, she feels coldness on her shoulders.

"Vera!" Taemin says, smiling brightly. "You didn't say you were back."

Startled, she shoots him a glare and shakes his hands off of her. Refocusing on the board, she writes her notes down and tries not to notice him.

"Vera, what happened?" he asks, worried why she's ignoring him. "Did something happen?"

She just continues to take notes, but has a hard time focusing with the guy from her nightmares talking to her. The dream just kept replaying in her mind, and when she looked down, she noticed she had written down some of the dialogue from it, instead of the actual notes. "I can't let you go home like that....I've been waiting too long for this." "Knowing you're a human, but I can't bite you." "It hurts." "...this is the end."

Suddenly, a hand appears on her back and pulls her closer to the coldness. Turning to the right, she sees Taemin's wrapped his arm around her as he reads her notebook. "Did you have a nightmare?" he asks, cautiously, looking up from the notebook. "Did I attack you?"

Instinctively, the traumatized girl pushes him away from her; she pushes so hard he falls out of the chair.

"Vera-ssi, Taemin-goon," the teacher says, folding her arms over her chest. "Is there a problem?"

Vera stands up. "Park sunsaengnim, may I be excused?"

"No, I'm in the middle of my lesson, you may not-"

But Vera just walks out, while she was in the middle of her lecture, taking her backpack with her.

Taemin stands up. "Can I go see what's wrong?"

The teacher just waves him off, annoyed, but lets him go.

Closing the door behind her, the girl walks for awhile around the halls trying to clear her head. She passes by a couple of familiar classes, including Mr. Kim's, and just sighs. "Maybe I shouldn't have come back," she says, pushing her bangs out of her face. Deciding to hide out in the bathroom, Vera looks into the mirror. When she looks, she notices two things: she looks unnaturally pale and the light's keep flickering on and off. Looking up at the light fixtures, she see's nothing wrong with them; when she looks down at her arms, they're the regular skin color. Putting pieces together  Vera decides to get out of the bathroom before something weird happens and bumps into someone. "Mianhae," she says, bowing deeply. When she rises up, she sees a familiar redhead smirk at her. Shivering, Vera speedwalks out of her way and starts off to somewhere else when she bumps into someone else. "Sorry!" she blurts out, in English, until she realizes she bumped into Taemin, who was running in search for her. Upon seeing him, she starts towards the other direction and puts her hood on, trying to hide herself more.

"Vera, wait! Can we talk?" Taemin asks, more of yells, as he chases her.

She starts to run, picking up her pace, trying vainly to escape the vampire.

"Vera!" the vampire doubles his speed, surprised that he still can't keep up with her. The fact that she's the daughter of powerful vampire hunters never crossing his mind.

Vera struggles to keep her breathing stable, but nevertheless keeps running, to make sure her dream doesn't happen. Just leave me alone!

Finding no other solution, Taemin decides to just flash in front of her. "Vera," he says, holding his arms out like one would in the presence of an angry bull.

At her speed, she runs into Taemin hard and ends up sending the two to the ground. "Oh my gosh no," Vera says, starting to get up.

"Vera, wait. Please. I won't hurt you," he says, looking up at her with gentle eyes.

While her brain says run, she just slides off of him and sits across from him in a corner. She wraps her long arms around her equally long legs and stares at him like a child standing up to the monster under their bed. "Talk," she says, in a quiet voice.

"What happened?" he asks, watching her reaction.

Without a word, she unwraps her arms to take something out of her backpack. She writes something on a piece of paper and slides it over to him.

"'You bit me. And I died'," he reads, before pulling something out of his pocket. A pen. He writes something else on it and slides it over to her.

"When you were in America?"

She nods. "That's why I don't want to be around you anymore. Bye," she crumples the paper in her fist and gets up after zipping her backpack. With her Converse silently clicking on the freshly-waxed floor, the brunette starts to the school entrance, leaving her boyfriend and best friend behind with one thing in mind. Looks like I'll go back to America-

Just as she raises her hand to push open the front door, Vera feels arms encircle her waist and pressure against her back. "But Vera, I don't want to hurt you."

Vera stumbles a bit, but stays standing, but pushes his arms off her. She turns to glare at him. "Says the guy trying to kill me in a running hug."

He laughs, guilty as charged, but quickly stops. "I'm serious, though. Wish I could've went with you."

"Why, so you could actually kill me?" she jokes, but keeps the same fierce glare. "Why didn't you come? I'm sure my parents would've loved to meet you."

Taemin's face pales, but he coughs to cover it. "So I could've made you feel better."

"...so I could've kicked the mess out of you?"

He laughs, shaking his head. "No~." Exasperated, he sighs. "I just want you to be safe, ok? If that means just being friends-"

"What are you talking about? Of course we're friends."

"...?" he looks at her blankly.

She grabs his hand. "Promise me you won't bite me?"

He nods, swallowing.

"Under no circumstances?"

"Under no circumstances," he says, nodding.

She shakes his hand and starts to walk away when he pulls her into a hug. "No~ stop~."

"Why~? I missed you," Taemin says, squeezing her tight.

"But I feel so warm. Why do I feel so warm?"

"Because your body's trying to overcompensate for my coldness~" he says, stilling holding her tight.

"That was the smartest thing you ever said. What did you do while I was gone, study?"

---

For a split second, Taemin ponders the idea of biting her and drinking her blood. Knowing that while he could kill her out of lack of self-restraint, drinking human blood-her’s in particular-would allow him to heal faster. Continuing to smile at her, the vampire smiles breezily and shakes his head. “No, I’ll be fine without your blood. Thanks, though.”

The human nods and internally sighs at this news. “Oh, ok. I should be going then,” and makes the mistake of trying to get up.

“No~. Stay, I missed you. And you’re really warm,” Taemin reasons, holding onto her for dear life.

“Ok,” and Vera peacefully obliges, happy to spend more time with him and not at her house.

Cheerful, Taemin hugs her close to him, forgetting his injuries in the process. “Ugh~”

“Sorry,” she whispers, situating herself away from the bandages, and eventually him. Drifting off to sleep, she feels a comforting, yet chilly, feeling wash over her as Taemin gives her a back hug. A sleepy smile rises to her face.

Waking up hours later, Vera starts to stretch a bit, but stops when she realizes where she is. With Taemin’s arms still around her, she slowly turns to face him. While before seeing him sleep so still frightened her, it now relaxes her to see how peaceful he looked asleep. Sighing blissfully, she pushes back his straight-across bangs that fell into his eyes as he slept. “Can I just stay here?” she whispers out loud to herself.

Waking up, Taemin opens his eyes and holds onto the hand that was trailing his face. “Hmm? Did you say something?”

Vera’s smile changes direction. “Do I have to go to school today?” she rhetorically asks, already knowing the inevitable response.

“I’m fine, you don't have to stay with me.”

“But-” she starts.

“If you get lonely, you can just summon me. You remember how to, right?” he wraps her hand around the ruby on the necklace around her neck.

“I remember, but-”

“You can walk home by yourself, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“Then you’ll be fine,” he says, offering a charming smile.

“-_- You know, I hate you sometimes,” she steps out of the bed, offering the vampire a light glare.

“Annyeong~” he says sweetly as he continues to smile, ignoring her complaints.