Taemin and Vera laugh to themselves triumphantly as all of their friends turn to give them annoyed looks.

    “You know what, just do whatever you want,” a bitter Minho declares, walking out of the room first.

    “Yeah, we don’t care what you two do anymore,” Angel says, dragging Chaerin out with her.

    The unni shows a struggle to let go of Key, who she was hugging before her dongsaeng ripped her from his grasp. A pout briefly appears on her face before she wipes it off, hoping Vera wouldn’t notice and laugh at her for it. “Wait, but-but...I do...” she whispers, as she lets Angel drag her out.

    Key sends her a look that says “I never said we weren’t going to spy on them >D” before turning to yell at the still laughing couple. “If you ever try that on us again, I’ll never take you on a trip with us again.”

    Vera fakes shock, causing Taemin to laugh harder. “Oh~no~” she says, sarcastically.

    Now it’s Jonghyun’s turn to have some input. “Ok, fine. You two can do whatever. We won’t bother you anymore. But if I hear anything suspicious, you better expect to find at least me-”

    “-and me-” Chaerin adds from outside.

    “-in here ready to ask you about it,” and then he makes a face that shows that he is, in fact, watching them.

    Taemin makes a face at his hyung, before laughing again with Vera as he walks off, closing the door behind him. With everyone out of the room, the male happily sighs and runs his hands through his hair. “You’re pretty tired, huh?”

    Just living each day happy to be in another country and away from the constraints of her daily critics, Vera had forgotten how tired and jetlagged she was in attempt to soak up as much of Spain as she humanly could. Realizing this, she nods at his observation.

    “I don’t really have anything else planned for today, so...” he starts, fidgeting slightly.

    “I get to sleep in?” she asks, smiling to herself. Whether knowingly jetlagged or not, the girl couldn’t say no to sleep.

    He nods, smiling at her cuteness. “Yeah. I won’t bug you today, so do whatever you want.”

    “Thanks,” Vera smiles gratefully, plopping down on her bed. The second she does so, she yawns, her body finally remembering its tiredness.

    Taemin laughs at this and walks over to ruffle her hair. “Be sure to sleep a lot, ok?”

    She laughs, confused. “Why? Are you about to wake me up at 3am tomorrow or something?”

    “Well...” the vampire smirks.

    Vera sighs and leans back, so her back makes contact with the soft bed. “Ugh...” she groans.

    He smiles at her reaction and walks over so she can see him without having to sit up. “Let’s just say I have something really big planned for tomorrow, that requires waking up early.”

    Vera makes a face at him.

    “You’ll love it, promise!” the male leans in, inches away from straight-up kissing her, but feels that awkwardness Vera did earlier about skinship with the hyungs in close proximity. Sighing to himself, he puts a smile on his face and brushes back Vera’s hair before stepping back. “I’ll be going then.”

    She doesn’t answer, and at first he worries if she’s ok, but then realizes she’s fallen asleep. When he realizes this, his smile becomes natural and he feels warm all over.

    Walking out of her room, Taemin lightly closes the door, making sure even the door’s click is barely audible, and heads to his room. Stepping inside, his 2 hyungs tackle him with questions.

    “Yah! Why did you do that?” Minho asks, his fatherly ways coming out. “We thought you guys actually...y’know...”

    “Forget that,” Key says, pushing that thought aside before the maknae can answer. “We can deal with that later. Why are you here? I thought you said you wanted Vera to yourself.”

    “I gave her the day off,” he shrugs, still smiling to himself.

    The two scoff. “What are you now; her employer?”

    Taemin laughs at the joke, still too high to come down. “She hasn’t really gotten any sleep this whole trip, because of me, so I didn’t want her to collapse one day while we were having fun.”

    “Aigoo~. Our maknae finally grew up,” Minho teasingly ruffles his hair. “He actually cares about someone who’s not himself.”

    “Girls have that effect on people,” Key notes, dismissively. Though he acted indifferent, on the inside, he too, was proud of the younger vampire. “So is that it? You two aren’t doing anything else this week? You’re just going to let her rest?”

    “No...” Taemin answers, rocking on his heels.

    “What then?”

    “Tell us,” the tallest of the three demands, now interested.

    He just smiles and shakes his head. “I don’t know...A little of something and a little of nothing...” he responds with an elusive answer.

    The blonde glares at him, rolling his eyes. “Yah, Lee Taemin! Do anything weird with her and I’ll make sure you pay.”

    Taemin just laughs at his hyung’s somewhat empty threat. “I promise I’m doing nothing. I love Vera the way she is,” he declares before strolling into the bathroom.

    Key shakes his head at him as he walks away. “Who would’ve thought a human would make our Taemin start caring about others. To think he said he loves her, everything sure isn’t what they seem, huh, Minho.”

    At the youngest vampire’s final declaration, Minho is taken back to the last conversation he had with Chaerin. It was earlier this week, two days ago to be exact, and it was the day they were all at the beach. Everyone else was walking back towards the hotel for dinner, and even though Onew was with them from the beginning, he left after Vera yelled something about chicken. Finally, Minho had an opportunity to have a conversation with Chaerin, if not for a short while. Luckily, she started the conversation for him.

    “Oh hey, Minho. Wasn’t today so fun? I’m so glad we got to come all the way out here, even if the flight took ages,” she laughed, her almond eyes crinkling into crescents.

    With that playing over in his head, the lovesick vampire felt happy inside because of her happiness. He’s just that kind of guy.  The two actually had an entertaining conversation was they walked until his competitive nature took over. Meeting up with the group after being 5 minutes behind them-Minho had to slow his pace in order for Chaerin to keep up with his long legs-the first thing he, and in turn she, notices is Key.

Standing at the hotel’s doors, he had a scowl on his face and his arms were folded. Chaerin laughed when she noticed him and started to run towards him. “Op-”

Minho grabbed her back before she got very far.

“Wow, Minho. Is everything ok?” she turns back to him, questioning his sudden action.

“What do you like in Key?” The words fell from his words faster than he could recollect thinking them.

Taking it all in stride, Chaerin blurts out her answer as well, forgetting who she was speaking with. “I don’t know. Everything, maybe? I really think I love him...” she giggled.

And with that, Minho let go of her hand and watched as she ran over to Key, glomping the irritated vampire, laughing as he finally recognized her.

“Minho...” Key waves his hands in front of the male’s eyes, still waiting for the answer to his question. When there is no reply, he reads his friend’s mind and his eyes widen when he does. “Minho...”

“Hmm?” the dark haired male finally responds, out of his daze. “Were you saying something?”

The next morning finally comes and so does Vera’s rude awakening. Instead of waking her up by yelling or pulling her out of bed, Taemin had something else up his sleeve. Tiptoeing into her room, he walks softly, yet deftly, to make sure he doesn’t make any noise. Standing beside her bed, he vanishes briefly and reappears in her bed, only a couple inches away from her. And then he just waits. And waits. Until she comes over and pulls him towards her, thinking he was a stuffed animal of hers. While waiting, Taemin starts to slowly fall asleep. Thankfully, the second he does, she takes the bait.

With a smile on his face, he swallows back laughter as he hears her slowly waking up. “Morning, jagiya. Time to wake up.”

“What time is it?” she asks, sounding groggy.

“3 am,” he teases.

She groans and hits his chest, in attempt to get his coldness away from her. “Come back in 7 hours, please.”

He chuckles and hugs her tighter, knowing the cold will force her awake. “Just kidding.”

“What time is it, then? What, 2:59?” she mutters, sarcastically, too tired to open her eyes and glare at him.

“It’s 7 am,” he chuckles again.

“Still too early!”

“If you get up and come with me, I promise you’ll love what I planned for today.”

“Are you so sure I’ll love it? Don’t you mean like?”

“Well you’ll never know until you get out of bed, will you?” he responds quickly, before ripping the sheets off of her-leaving the blasting air conditioner to attack her.

“Andwae!” Vera lunges for the sheets and sulks when she sees their on the floor in a pile. Looking up at her smiling boyfriend, she just shakes her head and glares. “This better be the best present in the history of presents if you’re waking me up this early on a Wednesday morning.”

The male just smiles and hugs her again before she walks into the bathroom. “Get ready, quickly, ok? And don’t wear anything you wouldn’t want to get dirty. I’ll be outside.”

After finally waking up thanks to her hot shower, Vera makes a point of walking straight past Taemin when she exits her room. Waking me up at 7 am when I’m on vacation... she thinks, bitterly.

Laughing under his breath, Taemin easily catches up to her and wraps her in a back hug. “You’ll love it, I promise. Please just go with me and I promise I’ll never organize anything so early in the morning.”

She sighs. “Arasso, kaja.”

Waking up hours later, Chaerin runs out of her room, ready to bombard her younger friend with questions. “Vera~!!” she excitedly knocks on her door, but gets no answer. “That’s weird. Where could she be?” Maybe I’ll see if Taemin’s here... The unnie walks towards the shared room of Minho, Key, and Taemin and knocks on the door. Since it was left slightly ajar when Taemin was sneaking out, it opens quickly. She dashes in and stops when she sees a shirtless Minho backing her. “Hey, has anyone seen-”

“Taemin?” Key finishes for her, walking out. He sees that she’s stopped to admire Minho’s shirtlessness and that Minho has stopped, looking for something to cover up with. Scoffing, he says “Oh stop. She’s seen it all, already.”

“Jinjja?” Minho asks, with a shirt halfway on.

“Yup,” Chaerin smiles.

“That’s what happens when you’re around Jonghyun all the time,” Key smirks.

The girl sighs when Minho finishes putting his shirt on, but tries not to dwell on it. “So where’s Taemin?”

“He’s with Vera, I think,” Minho answers, eyeing her and Key.

“As usual,” Key responds, crossing his legs as he sits down.

“Do you have any idea where they are?”

“All I know is they must’ve left earlier,” the blonde shrugs. “He didn’t really say anything about it.”

“That’s all you know?” she gives them a sad look, but all they do is nod. Sighing, she also nods. “Well, I’ll go then,” and walks back towards the door.

Key starts to say something, but notices Minho wanted to say something but didn’t. Remembering what was on his mind the day before, he sighs and walks towards Chaerin. Closing the door behind him, he looks her in the eyes. “Chaerin-ssi?”

“Oh, dae?”

“I think you’re going to have to choose soon,” he says, elusively.

“Choose?” she looks at him, trying to understand what he means.

“We’re not officially anything yet. And I’m tired of all of my friends being let down. You have to pick.”

“...” Is he talking about Minho? Briefly the memory of the fateful day comes up, but then fades as quickly as it comes.

“Yes,” he answers her thoughts. “You can’t keep stringing us along, Chaerin. Please make your choice soon.”

Though wondering if he heard her thoughts, Chaerin just sighs and nods. “I’ll try. Give me some time, ok?”

“You have until the end of this week,” Key gives her a small smile and then walks back inside his room.

Minho looks up at him confused. “What was that?”

Key lets his smile fall. “Just getting myself ready.”

“For what?”

“Heartbreak.”

Chaerin shuffles back to her room and lays face down on her bed. “How in the world am I supposed to choose?”

Angel shifts around in her sleep, but overhears her unnie’s mumbling. “Choose? What do you need to choose?”

“I can’t tell you,” Chaerin says to her sheets.

“Why not?” Angel sits up now, curious.

“You won’t tell me what’s up with you, so I won’t tell you my problems,” she snaps at her.

The younger of the pair looks down sadly. “Sorry...it’s kind of a long story.”

Chaerin sits up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way, it’s just something I have to pick on my own.”

“I understand,” Angel says, settling back under her covers in attempts to fall back asleep.

“Ok! We’re here,” Taemin says, as he stops walking. A bright smile that could rival the sun’s own brightness is on his face.

“And where is ‘here’?” Vera asks, looking around at the almost desolate surroundings. All she could see was sparse grass, a narrow asphalt road, and plenty of sand. Are we even still in Spain?

He laughs, the sound almost swallowing up the silence that filled the area. “You’ll see,” and he starts walking again.

“You said we were here!” she grumbles, as her stomach echos her frustration. “If it was going to take this long, you could’ve at least let me eat first.”

“I didn’t want us to be late,” he grins, despite his own hunger.

“Late for what?”

The male just smiles and swings their hands as he leads her. Minutes pass by and they stop in front of a wooden cellar. “Ok, now we’re here.”

“A wine cellar? Why are we in front of a wine cellar?”

“Guess...” he pushes open the doors with his hand and walks her into the cool, dark cellar.

“No idea.”

“Let’s see if I can give you a hint.”

The vampire walks her through the narrow path between the million barrels of wine that were stacked on the shelves surrounding them with such as effortless gait that made it seem as if he owned the place. But of course that wasn’t true, because they were in Spain, not South Korea.

He stops them again in front of another pair of doors a couple minutes later. “Does this answer your question?” Letting go of her hand for the first time that morning, Taemin uses both hands to push open the doors that hid away the large orchard where grapes were being grown for bottling.

Vera looks at the tall trees with their branches full of full green leaves and dark purple grapes ready for picking. “We’re making our own wine?” she asks, with a surprised smile, for clarification.

Exasperated, Chaerin rips her hands out of her hair; it was already too tangled to tangle anymore. The only way she is going to be able to decide properly is if she took her mind off it for a little while. And so she goes to bother someone else about their lovelife.

“Angel~!” Jumping on her bed, the older of the two shakes her sleeping friend awake.

“What, what, what?” Angel wasn’t the type of person to take being shaken awake lightly. Only a select few got away with it. A few including...

“So how’s it going with you and Jonghyun?”

Just the sound of his name made her stomach drop. Slowly, she puts her head under her covers as she mumbles a quiet “Ok.”

“No really, are you ever going to tell him?” she asks, seriously. Just like Key was tired of his friends getting hurt, so was Chaerin. Angel and Jonghyun’s relationship problems had put a damper on the entire mood of this getaway. The only ones who weren’t affected were Taemin and Vera, but that’s because their relationship was storybook perfect.

“I don’t know. I know I should, but I really don’t know.”

“Can’t you at least tell me? Maybe it’s not as bad as you think. And if it is, maybe I can soften the blow when you tell him.”

That’s true. She is, like, the closest to him besides Key... Angel sighs again, ready to tell her, as she sits up in her bed. “Well, you see-”

At that moment, the door opens-Chaerin didn’t fully close it when she entered-and, speak of the devil, Jonghyun pokes his big blonde head inside. “Hey, have you seen my camera?”

“Taemin might’ve taken it,” Angel answers with a thought. As soon as the words fly out, she slaps her hand over and shoves her head back under her covers.

Before her dongsaengs actions can sink in and hurt Jonghyun, Chaerin puts the attention on herself. “Do you know where Taemin or Vera are? I haven’t seen or heard from them all morning.” Jonghyun opens his mouth to answer, but she stops him. “And don’t say they’re together! Minho and Key already told me that.”

The dino laughs at his close friend’s impatience. “Well then, I don’t know. Maybe they’re at the beach again? You know how enthusiastic Taeminnie was to teach her how to swim.”

“Oh yeah! Good point,” Chaerin giggles, taking her phone out. “Do you think he has his phone on him? Or should I call Vera?”

“You have a better chance getting Vera, since her phone’s always on her.”

“True.” Idly, she presses Vera’s number and calls her friend. Waiting for her to pick up, her eyes wander around the room, trying to get a sense of the room’s atmosphere. She notices Jonghyun standing awkwardly by the door and Angel still hiding under the covers, silently waiting for her estranged boyfriend to leave. Still wanting them to TALK to each other, the unnie comes up with a plan. Silently, she hangs up her phone and stands up.

“She didn’t pick up?” Jonghyun asks, walking in, finally. He reaches in his pocket to give her his phone. “Maybe try mine-”

“No, I don’t have any service,” she lies. “I’ll try outside.”

“I have service-”

Chaerin gives him a look that screams “I’M TRYING TO LEAVE YOU TWO ALONE. STOP TRYING TO ESCAPE.”

Finally, he gets it and gives her a smile as he nods. “Good luck on calling them,” the blonde says, before mouthing thanks as she closes the door behind her.

“Good, he’s finally out-”Angel sighs loudly, throwing off her sheets. It’s only until she is hit by the cold air conditioning does she realize Chaerin’s left her. With him. Her eyes widen as she’s frozen in place.

“How much are you going to pick?” Vera asks, as Taemin hands her a wicker basket to put the grapes in.

“I don’t know,” he shrugs, moving over to her right side. “A lot?”

“Well, I’m going to pick more than you,” she boasts, smiling innocently at him.

“Jeongmal?” he grins. “I don’t think so. I think I’ll bet you.”

“Oh really? Whoever picks the most gets to...?”

“Have a wish granted.”

“Fine,” Vera smiles. “On your mark, get set-”

“Go!” And Taemin dashes off, grabbing all the grapes in his sight. He zips off and grabs all the grapes that are at arms’ length, hoping dearly to beat Vera and get his wish.

Not letting his speed discourage her from trying, Vera’s tactic is to instead make sure to get grapes that were in good condition. She was sure that 9 out of 10 of Taemin’s grapes would be unripened or too small. Trying the grapes before putting them in her basket would be the best test.

After a few minutes, a beaming Taemin urges her to hurry up. “Pali ya!” It took practically all of his effort to not jump up and down like the little boy that lived inside his body.

“I’m coming!” Vera yells back, laughing and shaking her head at him. Finally filling her basket, and grabbing a lone bunch as a snack, she bounds over to her childish boyfriend. “Ok, I’m done.”

“I picked more than you,” he announces, happily ing his basket into her field of vision. Safe to say, most of them were squished.

The human swallows her laughter and just nods. “Can I see your hands?”

“Yeah, what for-” He shows her his hands, and lo and behold, they were stained a light purple from all the grapes he had picked, squished, and thrown into his basket. Now, he realizes his basket is slightly leaking. “I still picked more than you,” he says, bashfully.

“Mine are actually salvageable....” Vera says, finally allowing herself to laugh at him. “But we’ll see what we can do about yours.”

“Really?” The vampire looks up with hope shining his his chocolate brown eyes.

“Nope. I win,” she dances around with her basket over her head, taunting him and his impatience.

Taemin huffs, despite enjoying her weird dance. “Do I win anything?”

“This.” Vera stops abruptly and ignores her bout of dizziness to shove a grape into his mouth. “Aren’t they so sweet?”

He nods, finally swallowing it. “Really sweet. You tried some?”

She nods, taking some for herself. “While you were busy making grape juice and skipping around like Peter Pan.”

Chaerin smirks to herself as she looks back at the door to her hotel room. Jonghyun and Angel just had to make up, and if they did, she would be sure it would be because of her. Attending the task at hand, she decides to just text Vera, wanting to eavesdrop on her friends while avoiding the 91-liners in fear of being asked about her decision. “Hey Vera, where are you guys? And does Taemin have Jonghyun’s phone? Text me back with pictures. <3”

“Who ‘ya textin?” Onew suddenly pipes up, from behind Chaerin.

The human flinches, surprised by his silent entrance. “V-Vera,” she stutters, trying to slow her heart.”I’m texting..Vera.”

He giggles at her shock, not even putting together that it had to do with his entrance. The eldest vampire wasn’t one to really care about hiding his abilities from his two ignorant human friends. He more of just went with the flow and hoped no one minded. “Why, is she not here?”

Chaerin shakes her head. “Apparently her and Taemin are out.”

The older male nods and smiles sadly. “They’re always out and about, huh?”

Not catching the mood change, she just nods and smiles in agreement. “Yup. They’re so cute, aren’t they?”

Silence answers her and when Chaerin turns to look for her friend, he’s nowhere to be seen. “Hmm, that was strange...” Didn’t know someone could move so silently..

Wanting to go along with the plan Chaerin had set up for them, Jonghyun tries to approach Angel in a friendly manner, but not too overbearing. “Did you sleep well?” he asks, smiling brightly at her.

“Mmhmm,” the girl mutters, staring at him as she wonders whether to hide back under her sheets or face the cold.

“That’s good. Have you enjoyed the trip so far?” he asks, scooting closer to her.

“Mmhmm,” she answers, backing up at the same rate. While it was good to have a conversation with him again, she wished Chaerin hadn’t left her alone with him all of a sudden.

“Wanna know what my favorite part was, so far?” he pretends to ignore her movements and answers after she stares blankly at him like a deer in headlights. “When you tried to teach me how to ride a bike, but you couldn’t, so we just left the bike and went back home?”

“That didn’t happen during the trip...” she shrugs.

“Exactly. It happened a long time ago and I miss the times we were closer. Can’t you just tell me? I promise I won’t get mad at you, no matter what it is,” the male looks at her with pleading eyes that matched those of a puppy dog.

Angel exhales, as she bites her lip in thought. Should I...?

Onew sighs softly as he appears in Minho and Key’s room, hoping to find them either asleep or gone. Without any words, he lets himself fall to the ground.

“Yah! Lee Jinki-ssi-!” Minho starts, surprised by the eldest vampire’s sudden appearance. Standing up to walk over to him, his face falls when he notices Onew’s stupor. “Gwenchanna? You don’t look so good, did something happen?”

“Yeah, are you ok?” Key asks, watching the fallen leader. As Onew was skilled in manipulating people’s minds, his thought process was too complex for Key to read most of the time. He was the one of the few people whose thoughts were off limits.

Quickly, the brunette stands up and shakes his head, fitting a smile over his frown as he realizes his dongsaengs are watching him. “Of course, never could be better.”

Taking his lie as a truth, Minho nods and grins. “Watch your step, Onew. Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Dae,” he nods and starts for the door.

Key, on the other hand, still senses the awkward mood and follows his hyung to the door, blocking his pathways. “No really, hyung, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he responds, still smiling his fake smile. Honestly, he just wanted to get out of there fast enough so he could try to comfort himself, but Key was in the way.

“Hyung-” the blonde grabs his shoulder and looks him directly in the eye. Does he like someone...?

Onew escapes his friend’s gaze, letting his own fringe hang over his eyes. “There’s nothing. I just fell, that’s all. Nothing else,” he lies again. Lifting his head, he replaces the phony smile and disappears.

“What was that?” Minho asks, standing up again. He watched the scene unfold, but strained to hear the two. Though he wanted to interfere, he didn’t hoping to be enlightened somehow.

“Nothing. It was nothing,” Key brushes him off, walking past him while replacing the scene in his head. Do they not like him back?

After many failed attempts of trying to crush the grapes, Taera finally get it to work. “So what should we do now?” Vera asks, as Taemin comes back from giving the owner the barrel of stomped grapes. Using the towel they had been given earlier, she wipes her feet clean of the purple mess. “Head back to the hotel?”

Taemin offers an apprehensive look at her suggestion.

She laughs at his expression. “The others might wonder where we are.”

“That’s exactly why we can’t go yet,” he sits beside her.

“Why? Do you want to tell me something?” Her eyes dart away from him as she tries to suppress her curiosity.

He shakes his head, smiling mysteriously. “No. Not yet.”

“When~? I’m curious.”

Again, he just shakes his head and laughs at her impatience. “Soon...”