"This girl's butt better not be here," Minji hisses as she spams the doorbell of Danah's house. "If she is, she better have a god-sent explanation on why she isn't responding to Wonyoung, Sullyoon, and I's calls."
Five minutes had passed, and no one has answered the door. Danah's favourite shoes weren't by the door, but Minji had looked everyone and she wasn't in any of the possible places.
It is when magical dust appears in front of her from behind her. She recognizes it, immediately, "Fuck."
The seven Vampire boys had just landed after flying using their bat forms.
"Minji," Jungwon sighs. His six other friends were behind him, looking at each other with worried expressions. The two didn't have a great past.
"What do you guys want?" she crosses her arms, turning around to face them. "Didn't you guys promise me that you'll never talk to me again?"
Heeseung notices Jungwon's at Minji's harsh words, so he decides to speak for him, "It's about Danah."
Hearing this, her shoulders drop. "What did you guys do to her?"
Niki crosses his arms. "Hey, it's not our faults."
"By the looks of your guilty faces, it seems like it is!" Minji's temper immediately rises.
"You don't have so be so angry, bro," Jake informs her to calm down.
"My bad, I should be so happy that my ex is standing in front of me right now!" Minji sarcastically remarks, gesturing towards Jungwon.
"This isn't going very well, is it." Sunghoon sends telepathy to his friends. The boys in the back simply look at each other, defeated.
"Let me explain," Jungwon begins. However, this leads her to assume that Jungwon was the main cause of her disappearance.
"I knew something was off!" Minji begins yelling. "I should've told her to stay away from you! What did you do to her? Did you put her under a spell?!"
At school, Minji had two major goals:
1. Graduate with many honours.
2. Make sure that none of her Human friends befriend Jungwon or any of his buddies.
She realizes that she failed the latter.
"We haven't done spells since the earlier Yang dynasty. Vampires change as generations evolve, you know." Jay snaps back. He was referring to Jungwon's ancestors, whom were the developers of the original Vampire magic.
"Whatever, can someone just explain to me why my best friend hasn't been answering my calls?! Don't tell me she's in your house or something."
"No," Jungwon realizes that he has to be straightforward in the situation. "Rose, from the Stray realm, has her."
Now, she was frozen. She gathers enough of her sanity to mutter, "W-what? Why would Rose the Ramen shop owner want her?"
"Because she and Jungwon killed Jett," Sunoo blurts. Sunghoon elbows him the gut, "Ow!"
"YOU TWO KILLED JETT?!" She was in disbelief. She had heard a bit about that couple from her parents. She could imagine Jett doing such heinous deeds because he was a horrible father and abusive husband but not Rose, his loving wife. His death was simply Rose's last straw.
"We have a plan to get Danah, but we need you to help," Jungwon was determined, and Minji could feel it. "In order for it to work, though, you need to return to the Vampire realm."
Now, she was silent. She gulps then quietly asks, "I have to go home?"
"I'm sorry. I know you hate it there," Jungwon looks down. "But if you love Danah, you'll do this with us. Right?"
"You guys have to bring us back here immediately when the conflict is over with," Minji demands. Jungwon smiles, seeing that she was going to agree in joining them.
"Of course," Heeseung says. "We live here too, you know."
"Okay." For Danah, she affirms internally.
Jungwon turns his head toward Sunoo's direction and nods. "Alright," Sunoo takes out his wand called a Realm Teleporter.
He begins doing the choreography required to create the the entrance. His arm and body moves gracefully, and with one last slash to the area in front of them, an entrance appears.
The seven boys naturally line up and in front of it, but Minji hesitates. They all look back at her. "You going to be okay?" Heeseung asks.
"Yeah," Minji pretends to be unhinged. "I'm perfect."
They all brush it off and begin entering one by one, leaving her to enter last.
She had not been in the Vampire realm since years ago, so it made her feel uneasy to return so suddenly. She was never happy there and didn't fit in with the customs.
Growing up, she always enjoyed watching Human TV shows or media rather than anything Vampire-related.
Furthermore, she never saw the point of having fangs in contrary to the seven boys who have it for things like self-defence, thus she shaved them off.
She takes one last glimpse at the Human realm, annoyedly exhaling out, "I'll be back soon."
With that, she disappears away from the place she called home, and back into the horrid place she was born in.
≡
"Don't lose hope, Danah." she assures herself in doubt. However, it felt like more of a manifestation. "Jungwon will come soon. He will come for you." She stares at the window, wishing he would pop up at any moment.
She then sighs to herself, Why would he even come for me? We barely know each other. She contradicts herself.
She felt like she was going insane; She hated it. She had been put in isolation for a while now, so she felt claustrophobic.
She sat on the side of the bed given to her by Rose. She didn't know why Rose was being so generous, but she definitely knew that she was up to no good.
Rose could be scheming anything. She could be trying to get on Danah's good side because she wanted something from her. But Danah internally kept note to never give her it. Whatever it could be.
Rose visited Danah often in her cell for whatever reason often asking her if she was hungry or to retell the poor Human about her plans to destroy the Royal Vampires. Why does want to be with me so much? Danah sighs.
I wish Rose would just let me be with who I wanted, Danah thought. Ironically, she's not aware that she and Rose wanted the same person — Yang Jungwon.
But:
Danah wanted to feel his warmth,
Rose wanted to light him on fire.
Therefore, clear difference.
"Any time now," Danah solemnly mutters. She hoped that these soliloquies would somehow reach Jungwon somewhere. Heck, she hoped it could reach anyone at this point.
Why couldn't Jungwon come to her rescue now? Why wasn't he coming for her like he usually did? He was always there for her.
"Fuck this, man." Danah tearfully gets up and walks toward the door that separated her from freedom. "I want to go home!" she yells, banging on the door.
It wasn't as if she has a family to go home to either. They were all workaholics therefore would never notice her lack of presence.
"Let me go home!" She wanted someone to hear her, to feel bad for her. Her cries could be heard around the Stray neighbourhood.
It took her a couple moments to realize that her fists were now bleeding profusely from all the splinters she got from banging the door. "Fuck," she hisses.
How was she going to clean this wound? She would have to ask Rose to end to it, but she didn't want help from her.
If only Jungwon was here, he'd probably clean me up with his dumb, emotionless face. It was cute to her, though, knowing that he did care for her. He just wasn't good at expressing it.
Now that was her breaking point. She misses him. So much. She falls to her knees, sobbing and weakening every second.
All she could do was let the blood drip to the floor. She faced the door, wishing Jungwon would open it.
She found it somewhat funny that she started despising doors when she loved them back in the Human realm. Oh, how she loved slamming it in her parents' and brother's faces.
Still in tears, she barely suppresses a grin. Danah didn't know that on the other side of the door was a Vampire with her hand on the doorknob.
Rose smelt Danah's blood. And she wanted it. She wanted a taste.
Don't get me wrong, Rose had been feasting on Human blood continuously ever since Jett's death in spite, as if she was proving herself to her dead husband.
However, there was just something about Danah's blood that she desired so deeply. It was possibly because Rose knew that Jungwon will want a sip of it too sooner or later to his own dismay.
Yang Jungwon is but a Vampire like I am, he will one day struggle to hold back when it comes to Choi Danah, Rose suspires.
She wanted to be the first to suck on Danah's virgin neck, but she wanted to wait for a bit. Danah was weakening, therefore her blood would probably taste rather staler than usual.
Rose smirks to herself, If Danah won't lose her life to me, she will simply lose it to Jungwon. That will definitely break him.
She couldn't help but think about how shocked and devastated Danah would be. She would never expect the one Vampire that she trusted to betray her like... but that's just how life goes. Vampires are above Humans in the food chain. Predator eat Pray.
Rose shook, hesitating on whether she should turn the knob and attack. "I'm hungry," she whispers to herself....
"...But I need her alive."