"Now kiss me."
I didn't question her order. My head started moving towards her face. I closed my eyes and my heart was beating rapidly fast. The only thing I seemed to keep control over were my thoughts.
What am I doing? I can't kiss her! But I want to...
I got closer and closer to her. The anticipation grew and I wondered how her lips would taste and when I could feel her warm breath on my lips, I got shoved back.
"See? You had no control over your actions, right?" I opened my eyes to see her look at me with a cheeky grin.
"What just happened?" Her eyes were back to normal and no red shimmer was left.
"What do you think happened?" She asked me back.
"I don't know. My body was moving on its own. I didn't want to...kiss...you." She fake gasped with one hand on her mouth.
"How dare you say that!" Then she turned away, crossed her arms and pouted.
"Hey, I didn't mean to...I just." I sighed, not knowing what to say. I could've said that deep down I liked it, but what would it make me look like?
I didn't want to be perceived as a guy who would kiss someone without meaning to it.
"So you had no control over your actions." Dahyun spoke up, drawing my intention to her. "Sana controlled your mind. But not really your mind. She ordered something and you couldn't help but to comply. That's the skill I was talking about."
"What do you mean she controlled my mind, but didn't? I'm confused."
"That's a question we can't answer. We don't know what's happening. But we can't possibly get in your head and control you." That left me with more questions. When even they couldn't answer it, who could?
"Hmm. So basically you could make me do everything you want?"
"Not really. You could work against it with all your willpower if you really didn't want to do something. And it works better the closer you are. It's not possible for us to tell you something to do from the other end of the room." Then she smirked and glanced over to Sana. "And it benefits the process if the human is attracted to the vampire."
What does she mean by that?
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sana looking innocently at me and it clicked.
Ooohhh...shit.
I felt my face heating up. "Seeing that you instantly acted when Sana said it..." Dahyun didn't need to finish the sentence for everyone to know what she was implying.
Sana then clung again onto my arm. "I find you attractive, too. I can't wait for our first kiss and the first-"
Suddenly Tzuyu made gagging noises. We all turned our attention onto her.
"Can you please shut up and change the topic? You two interacting that way is disgusting."
"You two"? I didn't do anything.
"Excuse me? Sana said that. I didn't do anything."
"Whatever. Just don't act like that in my presence." Sana just stuck out her tongue towards the Taiwanese girl.
Dahyun cleared her throat. "Please don't fight. But Tzuyu's right, let's talk about something different. Have you any more questions, Seungjae?"
After thinking for a moment, one question popped into my mind.
"You're nine. Is that normal? Like, how did you all end up together?"
"Ah, good question." Dahyun grabbed her chin and pursed her lips. "Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo kind of started the group. I think they all seeked refuge at the same place with their families back then in the 1880s and fate brought them together. I don't know the exact year. Unfortunately they're the only survivors of that group. Everyone else was killed during the Korean War."
"Oh, wow. That's, just wow."
"Yeah, well, soon they kind of found me. I was bitten and turned into a vampire in 1940 when I was 12. I got sent into a hospital but a vampire family stole me from my parents. They explained what happened to me and that I couldn't return to them. I still hate them for it, though they were in the right." She wiped a single tear away and Momo caressed her back, showing her support.
"Must've been very hard for you. Sorry to hear this."
"I learned to live like that and now living with all the girls here together isn't bad either. Anyway, my vampire...guardians and I stumbled upon Nayeon, Jihyo and Jeongyeon in 1959. They were only a few years older than me, well, the state their bodies were in was only a few human years further than me. We befriended each other and eventually I joined them when they wanted to move on to a different city. My guardians realized and understood that I didn't really want to be with them." Again a pause from her to take a breath.
"Momo and Sana are actually childhood friends. They were born as vampires and we met them in 1965 when we moved to Japan. But I think they could tell you their story themselves, if they like to." Dahyun first turned to Momo before giving Sana a questioning look.
The short black haired Japanese gave the cut spider monkey next to me an reassuring nod.
"We were both born in 1780." Sana started. "Though we are vampires, we lived a pretty quiet life. Nothing noteworthy happened. We moved places quite frequently and luckily had no problems of being hunted or something like that. At least until World War 2 broke out." Her voice became quiet and her grip on me got tighter.
"You don't have to tell me. I think I know what happened and I want you to know that I'm sorry. I know what it feels like to lose it's parents.
I caressed one of Sana's hands and nodded towards Momo.
After a couple of minutes in which nobody said a word, Sana went on.
"So, we met the four after school one day. Momo and I were on our way back home when we saw three young women and a teenager arguing where to eat. They asked us for recommendations and something felt off about them. We ended up eating with them and when we noticed holes in their stories, we got more suspicious. For example, our little Dubu here told a school story about her time before she got turned and said by accident it happened in 1937." She grinned cheekily at the blue haired one.
"Please don't remind me of that. I still can't believe I made such a rookie mistake back then."
"Rookie mistake my ass." Sana replied. "You were blinded by our beauty."
"You wish." I had to chuckle at their frantics and it went on for a good ten minutes. Basically what I learned was that Dahyun was a nervous wreck and couldn't answer some questions about their past. The four Korean girls told the Japanese ones that Dahyun was the cousin of Jihyo, but she didn't know which of her parents were related to which part of Jihyos parents. That got Sana and Momo thinking that the four girls had something to hide and it was only one of the few things that was sketchy about their stories.
"And it got proven-" Sana was curling up in laughter and everyone but Dahyun already joined her. "-when the other three had enough and wanted to leave. Momo told them it was nice meeting vampires and it was always her dream speaking to one and Dahyun just said she was glad to fulfill her wish." Laughing, Sana slid off the couch and still couldn't stop. The look Dahyun had on her face was priceless. It must be one of the things your friends keep telling you for years and they still find it funny. Considering that this happened 55 years ago, I can't imagine how often Dahyun had to hear this story.
After everyone calmed down, Momo continued telling the story.
"In the end we invited them to live with us and I still remember how Dahyun got scolded by the other three. Sana and I weren't able to sleep until deep into the night. A good thing our neighbors couldn't understand Korean." And again we all fell into a fit of laughter.
When Dahyun stood up to leave, Momo begged her to stay. "You can keep going to tell the stories. I'm sorry, okay? But it's your own fault being so dense back then." Dahyun sighed deeply before sitting back down. Without minding the still giggling Japanese girls she started to continue with her story.
"The next one to join us was Tzuyu. It was in 1982 and she decided to study for a couple of years in Korea. Sana met her in university and one day she noticed Tzuyu's eyes glowing when she got angry at a guy."
"Her eyes started to glow because she was angry?" I asked, remembering Sana and Mina's eyes glowed earlier. "So was Sana...angry at me? You know when she controlled my mind."
Dahyun laughed. "No. The color of our eyes intensifies and they start to glow when we experience strong emotions, not just anger. But what she felt while looking at you can only she herself answer." As on cue I turned to the girl next to me. She gave me a weird look, blinking fast and pouting slightly.
"You didn't feel anger, right?" She shook her head no.
"Then what?"
"Try to guess."
Emotions, emotions, emotions. Happiness? Sadness? Fear? Wait...
"Don't tell me it was..." I gulped before finishing my sentence. "...lust." She didn't say anything at first. Her mouth only formed to a sly grin.
"Carry on, Dahyunnie." She then averted her attention to the story teller.
Oh my...so Sana felt lust earlier? That's...what am I going to do? That's one hell of a day for me so far.
I decided to not mind it.
It will only get worse if I keep thinking about it.
"Where was I?"
"Sana saw Tzuyu's eyes glowing." I reminded Dahyun.
"Ah right." She snapped her fingers. "Tzuyu was so angry at some guy that her eyes started to glow and Sana saw that. Obviously she instantly recognized her as a fellow vampire. She went over to Tzuyu and calmed her down, before she did something regretful or others would notice."
"Sorry to interrupt you." I said and looked at Tzuyu. "But what did he do?"
She side eyed Sana and me and deadpanly said. "He flirted with an annoying girl in my presence." The look she gave us was a warning that wasn't entirely meant as a joke.
I decided to be careful around her. After all Tzuyu seemed the least fond of me at that moment, other than Jihyo maybe.
As Tzuyu didn't seem to answer my question properly, I looked back at Dahyun.
"That guy didn't stop making advances. She already rejected him multiple times before."
"Yeah, I don't like talking to annoying boys." Tzuyu added. Then she turned and threateningly pointed one finger at me. Her voice stern. "So don't ever talk to me unless it's an emergency. Even then only when one of the girls is in danger. If it's you, well, good luck dealing with it without me." And with that she stood up and walked towards the stairs.
"Do you head to your room?" Dahyun asked her.
"Of course I do. Where do you think I'd be going otherwise?"
Ooookay, sounds like she's annoyed by something. Maybe by me? Yeah, probably.
"Long story short, I brought her home and introduced her to the others." Sana said, seemingly unfazed by Tzuyu's behaviour.
"Okay, I see. I guess her parents are also dead?" At least that was my conclusion. Why should she come alone to Korea instead of staying with her family.
"Actually, we don't know. She never talked about her family and always avoids answering our questions." Sana informed me and Momo added.
"She surely is one mysterious individual."
"Anyway, who joined next?"
"Our youngest, Chaeyoung. And we celebrated her birthday on friday." Storyteller Dahyun began. "It was an awesome party. Actually we celebrated until yesterday."
"Three days?" I asked, perplexed.
"Yep. We closed the restaurant for the weekend and partied all along. That's why Momo craved blood so much this morning."
"Ah right, what happens when you don't drink blood?" That question was followed by silence. Dahyun took a moment before answering.
"We...would go kind of crazy. Like, we can survive without blood for three days. Same goes for water, like humans. But for blood we would do anything...anything that gives us blood..." I thought I understood what she meant, but I wanted to be sure, so I asked for clarification.
"You mean...killing people?"
"If it's necessary." She answered and that gave me a whole new perspective of them. The whole day I didn't really think about being in danger with them. Sure I panicked a bit at the beginning, but when I saw that they are otherwise completely normal humans, I got surprisingly fast comfortable around them.
But learning or rather being reminded that they need blood to survive, gave me the chills. That must've reflected in my expression because Dahyun frantically waved her hands and assured me that I didn't need to fear any harm.
"No, no, no! No reason to be afraid. We have enough blood in stock. Because we have a restaurant it's really easy for us to buy lots of blood without drawing attention."
Then Sana cutely said something to me and I didn't know if I liked it or not.
"Don't worry, oppa. I won't let anyone bite you. I'm the only one who'd gonna feed of you." At first I thought I'd do anything to never let that happen. But when I imagined Sana biting my neck and sucking the blood out of it, for some reason I got turned on.
What does it feel like? Does it hurt? Does it feel good? Would it be...a sexual act? It sounded sexual the way she said it. But what if they all start to miss the taste of human blood? What if they start to crave it again, now they're having one around them?
To not get into an embarrassing situation I stood up and excused myself to the bathroom.
After locking the downstairs bathroom door behind me I went over to the basin. I turned the cold water on and washed my face, freshening up a bit.
Okay Seungjae, calm down. There's no need to worry. Be grateful that they took you in and don't overcomplicate things. They seem harmless. Don't make them uncomfortable by thinking of them like...bloodthirsty creatures...You got this!
After that little pep talk I went back to the girls.
"Are you okay, oppa?" Sana asked me, worried. "You walked away so fast I thought I said something false."
"No, no. I just had to go to the toilet, everything's fine."
"You sure?" I sat back down next to her and she hesitantly grasped onto my right arm.
"Yep, 100%. It's all good." To reassure her I gave her a warm smile. Though it was a bit acted, I didn't want her or them in general to feel bad.
"So, Chaeyoung. How old did she turn by the way?"
"It was her 60th birthday." Dahyun replied with a bright grin. As I knew that Jeongyeon was 243 it didn't surprise in the slightest.
"So that means that she got turned, too, right?"
"Exactly. She was 17 and it was actually her boyfriend who did it."
"Oh wow. Then I guess she was taken away from her parents like you?"
"Yeah." But then I realized something.
"Wait a minute, how is it so easy to take you away from your parents? Don't the doctors get suspicious? Or are there perhaps...vampire doctors?"
"There are. Many vampires around the world got into the police or became doctors so they can identify newly infected people and take care of them. At least that's what we think."
"So you don't know?"
"No, but it would make sense."
"Yeah, probably. But what happens when you guys have to go see a doctor?"
"Ah, about that, we have to hope that we never ever get into a situation like that. When someone breaks his arm, we could easily go to the hospital. They fix it and you get a cast. But when blood tests need to be done we're fucked. We don't know if it's safe. Either you gamble with a huge risk that the doctors find something inhuman or you gamble that you survive it without a doctor's help. Luckily we never were in that kind of situation."
"Oh, and what about a dentist?"
"Funny that you ask. Momo and Jihyo did study dentistry in the 80s. We met two vampire guys who happened to have studied it. We kept in touch over the years, always telling the other party where we move and if we need something to get done we can trust them. At the moment they're residing near Daegu with their own dentist office. But to prevent caries we have to take very good care of our teeth. They suggested that some of us should study it, too, to at least check on our teeth every now and then." I was quite astonished hearing that.
These girls definitely know how to survive.
"Did you guys ever have to get something done?" I asked, directed at Momo.
"Nothing major. Only some smaller holes here and there.
"Well, then let's hope you all stay healthy." They agreed with a unified hum.
"And how does that work with infected humans now? We got a bit carried away."
It was Dahyun's turn again. "They get to know about people with biting wounds and check on them. If the bitemarks get confirmed they let them vanish. From one night to the other they disappear from the hospital and they never see their parents again."
"Hmm, but how do they do this?"
"I have no clue. When you get bitten and the venom spreads, you fall into a comatose state. In my case I woke up and was in some hospital-like room. First I thought I was in an actual hospital. The last I remembered was that I was attacked by someone. So I woke up and there was already my new family, my guardians. They told me what apparently happened to me and that's it. It was just one room in the basement of the doctors house. They took me with them and that's it. The same goes for Chaeyoung, only that she had to wait for her new family for some days."
"And they never told you anything?"
"No, nothing about the...adoption process."
"Wow. That's...hard."
"Yeah, it is, but as a vampire it's the only way to live on, without the public learning about us."
"Probably."
"But now Chaeyoung is with us. She joined us in 1990. She already moved out and lived alone. We became aware of her true form after she joined me on my part time job." Suddenly Momo cleared her throat.
"She became aware of your true form."
"It doesn't matter who became aware of whom!"
"It does!" Sana joined forces with her Japanese fellow. Her tone was that of a mother scolding her daughter. "Dahyunnie here told her a lecture about the Korean War. Chaeyoung just started studying history and asked Dahyunnie for help." Meanwhile the blue haired girl massaged her temples, maybe questioning her life choices and Momo was laughing again.
"Halfway through the speech she changed the point of view. Like she experienced it. When she slipped back then in front of Momo and me, we pushed her a bit, we already had a hunch and just wanted to clarify and she wasn't a vampire for too long. How can someone possibly be so dense? Making such a mistake that every human would question it. Imagine Chaeyoung wasn't a vampire. Or someone overheard their conversation." Then Dahyun jumped up from her seat and screamed at Sana.
"How can someone be so dense? Ask that yourself! At least twice a week you break something or hurt yourself! As long as I've known you, you are so clumsy it's not even funny anymore!" That triggered Sana and she stood up, too.
"Don't get personal!"
"You did it first!"
"Because you deserved it!"
"I already apologized! And since then it never happened again!" I just jerked my head left and right, depending on whose turn it was. Whereas Momo was bent over still laughing. "And you!" Now Dahyun's attention was on her. "How can you down a full bottle of blood and not notice that a human is standing two meters away from you?!" The laughing girl was unfazed by it and just continued.
Before it would escalate I intervened. "Hey, girls. Please calm-" But I was interrupted by Jeongyeon who just came down the stairs.
"HEY! Can you please shut the fuck up!" From one second to the other Momo stopped laughing and Dahyun and Sana's gazes were directed to the floor. "We already told you to leave that topic alone! Dahyun already apologized more than enough and you both aren't error-free either! Do I have to remind you about the incident in that nightclub?"
"No." Sana and Momo both said meekly. "I'm sorry, unnie."
"Don't apologize to me. You have to be sorry to Dahyun."
"I'm sorry, Dahyunnie." Sana said and Momo added.
"Me too. I didn't think much."
"You never do." Dahyun murmured.
"Dahyun!"
"It's okay girls. Sorry for screaming at you two."
Jeongyeon sighed deeply. "Good. So, what were you talking about before it escalated?" She sat down between Momo and Dahyun and the other three girls also sat back down, but neither answered her, so I rose to speak.
"They told me all about vampires and how you got together."
"I understand. I guess they just told you about Chaeyoung."
"Yep."
"And what did they tell you about vampires?"
"I think...everything?"
"Glowing eyes?" I nodded. "How we can turn humans?"
"Kind of."
"Mind control?" I answered after a short glance over to Sana.
"They showed me."
"Oh? How?"
"Sana...she...t-told...m-me to...kiss her." Jeongyeon only shook her head and grinned.
"Sana...you know how convincing you can be. Please be gentle with him."
"I will." She answered and side hugged me.
Wait what? That sounds like we are already together.
"Uhm, can I say something about that, too? I mean, I also have an opinion."
"Why?" Sana pouted and it was one of the cutest sights ever. "Don't you like me back? Or do you like someone else?"
"Uhm, well, yes? No! I mean, I don't know..."
How can someone answer that? I got kicked out by my long term girlfriend two weeks ago, then I met these vampire girls and especially Sana and Mina are making me feel weird things. Then I realize that my ex-girlfriend must've never truly loved me and all that in one day.
Weren't they vampires I could imagine being together with one of them, absolutely. Even though they're way above my league.
But they are vampires, almost immortal. When I turn 80 in 60 years their bodies will be not even 30. At least that's what I got so far. That would never work.
"Hello? Seungjae?" Sana shook me. "Did you hear me?"
"Hmm? Sorry, no. I was in thought."
"I asked why you don't know."
"Because we are not the same. When I'm old and grey you guys would be still...young."
Wait, was that an indirect congestion?
To my surprise she giggled dirtily.
"But it would still be many years..." Then she whispered into my ear. Her voice so soft and seductive, I could've never imagined it. "...in which we could have a lot of fun. And isn't it every man's dream to be 50 years old and have a wife half their age?" After that comment I had to gulp.
"Did...did you say wife?" She grinned brightly and nodded.
"Oh! Hey Tzuyu!" Dahyun shouted out of nowhere and we both quickly retracted. Sana even let go of my arm.
But there was no Tzuyu. Only Dahyun, Momo and Jeongyeon laughing at us.
Sana grabbed a cushion and threw it at Dahyun. "You're so mean!"
Then Jeongyeon said, still laughing. "I don't care what you do. You both are so cute together." Hearing that I felt my face heating up. "As long as Sana doesn't get pregnant, I'm fine with it."