"That's impossible…we can't…can we?" Chan Yeol sputtered incoherently, though there was a glimmer of hope in his voice that maybe Kai wasn't speaking nonsense.

"Right?" Kai agreed. "We're like the undead, so how can we un-undie?"

"But the story you mentioned, what's that about?" Chan Yeol pressed on, still holding onto that small ray of hope.

Only when they had returned to the comfort of his penthouse apartment did Kai regale to Chan Yeol of his run-in with a gypsy witch in the nineteenth century (before Chan Yeol was even born) during which time he was in Romania. She travelled with her family in a caravan, telling fortunes and performing tricks of the eye to make a humble living.

"Just for the heck of it, I decided to get my fortune told by her. Not that I thought any of it was real, but back then, there was no TV or video games for entertainment, and I wanted to see what kind of crazy future she would make up for me," Kai explained.

However, the gypsy was more attune to the supernatural world than Kai had assumed. She immediately knew what he was, though she showed no sign of fear. And while Kai attempted to compel her to forget about the existence of vampires, her magic protected her from any kind of hypnosis.

"She said I didn't have to worry though, as long as I didn't harm her or her family, she had no interest in interfering with our kind. And then she offered to tell me something only someone like me would be interested in, in exchange for my blood."

"She asked for your blood?" Chan Yeol asked in shock.

It turned out that the gypsy witch's mother was ill and she had heard of the extraordinary healing powers of vampire blood. Her own witch powers were not at the level of curing her mother of the particular ailment she had contracted, but vampire blood is known to be able to save a person seconds from death and would surely cure her. What she didn't know was how precious the act of giving blood is for a non-Original vampire. Their whole being relies on the intake of blood, so the willful offering of blood from their body is simply unnatural. In its own right, it is the most altruistic act that can be committed by a turned vampire because doing so requires supreme selflessness.

"I told her that there was no way she had any information that could compare to the value of my blood," Kai continued, "and she said she was willing to impart part of the secret she knew. If it piqued my curiosity enough to know more, then I'd give my blood for the rest."

It is known to many of the vampire community that upon the creation of the Original vampires, warriors came into existence, known as Hunters. They were immortal beings whose sole purpose was to stake the Originals into an eternal sleep using the wood from ancient willow tree that gave them the life they bare. Only upon the completion of this task could they become mortal, liberated from the mouse chase that defined their entity so that they may finally die in peace.

"The gypsy's secret though, regarded the existence of hunters after a different target."

Chan Yeol raised a brow in confusion.

"She said that nature is always trying to create balance. When the Originals came into being, so did the Hunters, to restore the balance that was lost by these creatures that obstructed the natural cycle of life and death with their immortality. But the Original vampires aren't the only ones circumventing nature's creed."

Kai paused to give Chan Yeol time to digest what he had just said and after a few seconds, his eyes widened with enlightenment. "You mean there are hunters after us?"

"Well, not exactly hunters per se."

As the Originals discovered their powers, they found that they could produce more like them, by killing humans who had ingested their blood. These “turned” vampires however, had their limitations. They were immortal, yes, but not invincible. They could still be killed, but only by torturous and painful methods, such as being burned alive, or torn apart by their limbs. In addition, these non-Originals could not create more vampires by the same means; their blood could heal, but not produce.

The Originals passed on this gift of immortality to many humans over the centuries, creating a population of vampires that, while the number was negligible compared to the population of humans, continued to grow as time passed.

Yet to these particular vampires, nature decided to give a chance to reclaim their humanity, in the form of a test. Should they be faced with this test, the ending result would be either death or rebirth. And these tests came in the form of humans. For every turned vampire, there exists one human soul which would be reincarnated every hundred years or so with blood more tempting than the most aged wine, more fragrant than the sacred flower in the Garden of Eden, and more delectable than the sweetest honey.

"You described it to a tee," Chan Yeol uttered throatily as he listened to Kai's description. His mouth had already gone dry with thirst as he recalled the scent of Jung Ah's blood. "She smelled exactly as you said."

"If that's the case, then she's your test," Kai stated.

"How does the test work?" Chan Yeol pleaded. “What determines whether you die or you're reborn?"

Kai rubbed the back of his neck and smiled guiltily. "That…I don't know. That part was what the gypsy would have revealed if I gave her my blood."

"And you didn't?!" Chan Yeol angrily snapped at him. "This is crucial information, how could you turn her down like that?!"

Kai immediately frowned and stood up as he defensively shot back, "Hey! Would you have been able to give your blood to some strange woman you'd just met?!"

Chan Yeol was stumped for a comeback. As upright as he was when it came to his blood source, even he wouldn't have been able to heal a complete stranger. The thought of blood being taken from his body was sickening to imagine.

"Besides, I thought she was fooling me." Kai sat back down and sighed. "I thought it was all a hoax. Granted the rest of her knowledge on the Originals was impressively accurate and the concept of some force existing to eradicate the turned sounded logical, but at the time, and up until now, I've never come across a human with blood that smelled so drastically different from others. Obviously there are slight differences from human to human, but not to the point that there was one person who could make me go insane with thirst for their blood. So I refused her offer for the rest of the tale thinking she was duping me…and let her mother die." Kai looked down at his feet morosely. "I feel bad about it, but only we can understand what it means to draw our own blood."

Chan Yeol understood, he did, but understanding didn't help him on revealing the details he needed for regaining his humanity, whether it be in the form of life or death, he just wanted to end this pointless existence and be mortal again.

"All this time, I thought it was just a story she made up so she could save her mother, but it looks like it might be true after hearing about you and that girl," Kai softly admitted.

"But that gypsy's dead now," Chan Yeol dejectedly remarked. "There's no way of finding out the rest of the secret."

"Maybe not," Kai said with optimism, gaining Chan Yeol's undivided attention once again. "I remember her name, and with today's technology, I'm sure I could locate her present-day descendants fairly quickly. Gypsy witches are known for continuing their practice and lifestyle throughout generations, so I'm sure one of her posterity would know about this as well."

Kai stood up and went to his room with Chan Yeol following. "I'll track them down and find out how these tests work," he said as he pulled out a duffel bag and started stuffing it with clothes. He went to his night table and pulled out his passport and then turned to Chan Yeol who stood at the doorway, watching. "It's probably better for you to stay here; I can feed easily, but you'll only slow us down if we have to take time for you to hunt."

Chan Yeol stared at his friend with gratitude. "I don't know how to thank you for doing this for me."

Kai smiled. "This is for me too. I don't have any intention of becoming mortal again, so if there really is someone out there who has the power to make me one, I'd like to know how and make sure it never happens to me."

Kai made his way to the front door, explaining that he'd take the next flight out to Romania and hire someone there to help him locate the gypsy's family. "I'll keep in touch," he said as he opened the door. Just before heading out though, he had one final word of advice. "In the meantime, you should stay away from that girl. Until we know how exactly these tests of nature work, don't tempt yourself by getting close to her, or it might end badly for both of you."

Chan Yeol nodded and wished Kai luck as he finally left. The hour was extremely late now and he decided to turn in.

However, as he lay in bed, his thoughts kept circling around the idea of becoming human again, and the key to his mortality was this Jeon Jung Ah, which made him naturally curious about her: who she was, how she came to be in her current situation, what happened to her parents.

Chan Yeol sighed deeply. Curiosity would only make avoiding her difficult. He had to stop thinking about her. He turned to his side and closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind so he could sleep, only to reopen them a few minutes later.

He sat up in his bed and glanced at the clock, which read 5:15 AM. On this day in summer, the sun should already have risen, which, as Chan Yeol peeked through the curtain of the window by his bed, it surely had.

Thus his first night back in Korea had ended. He could only imagine what the coming days would hold.

January 9, 2014, 2:21 AM