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The first thing Jeongyeon sees once she opens her eyes is darkness. Wherever she is, there’s no windows to be seen, no hint of light; all she feels is a dull ache on the back of her head, a throbbing pain. When Jeongyeon brings her hand to it her hand comes back red and wet. Her eyes try to adjust to the lack of light but to no use— there’s an incoming headache she can feel on the tip of her nose, hammering her head on and on. There’s a leak somewhere that does nothing but make it worse; drops of water filling the silence, the smell of dampness strong and overpowering.
All in all, she’s had better Wednesdays.
There’s someone else here. She can’t see them as much as she can hear them, their breathing, their anxious pacing. Jeongyeon tries to remember just how she got into this situation but she comes empty-handed and exhausted. All she wants to do is close her eyes and sleep, but she can’t. She has to stay awake. She has to get out of here—whenever ‘here’ is.
"Who are you?" she asks, but gets no response. She supposes they aren’t friendly, then. One could only hope.
“She’s pretty, I swear,” her roommate Jihyo tells her between two needles and black thread as she sews the hole in her pants as hurriedly as she can before her date. “I met her in yoga class, and she’s totally your type. She’s blonde and wears so much red. And she’s a total sweetheart! You’ll love her.”
“Okay, that’s great,” Jeongyeon nods. “I just would’ve loved to have more time to prepare. You just told me half an hour ago that I’d be having a blind date and now you’re sewing my pants. Surely you can understand the whiplash I’m feeling.”
Jihyo rolls her eyes. “I’m gonna be honest here.”
“As you always are.”
Jihyo ignores her, as per usual. “This is the best way to get you to go on a date without you totally freaking out. Plus ever since you've graduated you’re always too busy at your job to find an actual date, which shouldn’t even be so demanding in the first place. How are you coming at like five AM every day if you’re an accountant?”
Nobody asks you questions when you say you’re an accountant, her sister Seungyeon had told her. “Just... accountant stuff. Also, I do not freak out.”
“You freak out about everything,” Jihyo replies, not even looking at her. She takes the pants off her lap and inspects them in the light, then gives a sharp nod, like that’ll have to do. “Okay, I’m done.”
Jeongyeon’s kinda glad she can finally step out of her gym shorts, which read ‘Enemy of The State’ on the back—she loves them, don’t get her wrong, Chaeyoung got them for her on her twentieth birthday and she basically wears them every day, but it does help her feel a bit more ready for the occasion. She’s already a bundle of nerves, she needs to feel prepared to feel better.
“Thanks,” Jeongyeon says, taking them from her. Jihyo dismisses it with a wave of her hand, oddly reminding Jeongyeon of her mother right then, staring at her sewing kit with a disapproving stare. Jeongyeon does not dwell on that thought.
She walks to their tiny bathroom and changes her clothes. She has a white blouse on, heels she borrowed from Nayeon a month ago that she never gave back, and starts fixing her makeup. The skirt she had put on before lies on the bathroom floor after Jihyo had voiced her disapproval at the outfit choice. That is a second date skirt, Jeongyeon, her voice echoes inside her head, which just reminds Jeongyeon that she has no idea what she’s even doing. It’s been way too long since her last date, even months, she figures. Jeongyeon just doesn’t have the time, the energy, the emotional stability, to be chasing girls.
Dating at twenty four is hard. It’s even harder when your job is to hunt vampires for a living.
The truth is Jeongyeon can be kind of a workaholic, which she supposes it’s what happens when you are raised by a family of vampire slayers who teach you to stab right in the chest just to make sure they are dead. Jeongyeon watched someone crumble into ashes in front of her very eyes when she was just thirteen. Not someone, a vampire. They are monsters, not people, and if she didn’t kill them some innocent person would end up as dinner.
Anyway, Jeongyeon’s glad she’s going on this date even if she doesn’t act like it. She’s been whining about being like a third wheel whenever she hangs out with Nayeon and Chaeyoung for entirely way too long now without trying to actually find someone, and Jihyo, her roommate sent from above and who knows her like the back of her hand since she was twelve, manages to somehow find her someone good. Which is good. It’s good. Why is she freaking out so much? She feels way too old for all of this.
She hears a faint knock on the door.
“Are you done?” Jihyo says. “Jisoo is coming and I have to take a shower, I’m all sweaty from yoga. Not the good kind.”
Jeongyeon wrinkles her nose. “There is not a good kind of sweaty, Jihyo. And if there is I don’t want to hear it!”
“Just brush your teeth and go, woman,” she responds, knocking on the door again, a bit more forcefully this time. “I will not smell like ass when my girlfriend gets here! And Mina is probably on her way to the restaurant too, and you will not make her wait.”
Jeongyeon realizes it’s the first time she’s ever heard the other girl’s name. Mina. It’s pretty. Before Jeongyeon can reply, the screen of her phone lights up, and Jeongyeon reads Chaeyoung’s name on the screen. Probably texting to ask how her date is going, because all Jeongyeon had managed to text her before all 5 feet 3 inches of Jihyo dived into her closet and started picking out outfits for her was ‘Jihyo set me up on a blind date and I’m going to die’.
Chae
7:21PM
How’s it going ?
The date, I mean
Jeongyeon
7:21PM
I haven’t left the apartment yet. Thinking of chickening out and robbing a bank. Maybe moving to Ecuador and starting a lamp selling business
Chae
7:22PM
II love lamps but I can’t come with you. Nayeon likes New York way too much
Jeongyeon
7:22PM
You should break up with her
Chae
7:24PM
No. But thank you for the suggestion. I’m sure she’ll love to hear it
Jeongyeon
7:24PM
I’ll just tell her to break up with you too
Chae
7:24PM
I know you’re stalling, you know. I know you too well. You shouldn’t have gone to high school with me, I know all of your tricks
Jeongyeon
7:25PM
I really don’t know why I’m friends with you
Also you used 'know' way too much
Chae
7:27PM
Best friends*
Just go on the damn date, coward. Nayeon’s cheering for you too
Chaeyoung sends her a picture of Nayeon waving and smiling at the camera, Chaeyoung planting a kiss to the top of her girlfriend's head. Of course, Nayeon is sitting, because her best friend is a hobbit and there’s no way she’d reach the top of her girlfriend’s head standing up. The photo makes her smile, the warmth that spreads across her belly easing her nerves a bit.
She wants a love like theirs. Chaeyoung had met Nayeon when Nayeon had just moved to New York fresh off the boat from Korea – Chae was almost done with her Liberal Arts Degree thesis back then, a whopping two years ago, and she had met Nayeon at this weird, niche restaurant that Jeongyeon will never go to or understand, and they had just clicked instantly. Chaeyoung had always been her best friend along with Jihyo, the three of them had gone to high school together. Which was hell for their teachers looking back on it now.
The two of them couldn’t have been more different if they tried—Nayeon came from a rich family, appeared to be slightly snobbish, but kind and very friendly. Chaeyoung was a sensitive, misunderstood artist who went to Goodwill to shop for clothes and did embroideries in her free time. Chaeyoung’s always been all about adventure and unique things though, and Nayeon seemed to be just as excited for a challenge as well.
“Are you sure about this?” Jeongyeon had asked her when Chaeyoung announced she’d move out of their apartment and into Nayeon’s in Soho, two months into their relationship.
“I’ve never been more sure of something in my life,” Chaeyoung had said.
It’s been almost two years since that day. Jeongyeon’s never seen her so determined before.
Jeongyeon
7:31PM
You guys are so cute. I’m gonna throw up
“Jeongyeon!” Jihyo exclaims again, so she locks her phone, puts it in her back pocket, and leaves the bathroom to the wrath of an annoyed and sweaty Park Jihyo.
“Don’t leave the conditioner on the bathroom floor like last time,” she reminds her before Jihyo closes the door right on her nose.
“Yeah, yeah,” she mutters.
She hears the shower start running, and Jeongyeon looks at the time on her phone. Seven thirty five. Jihyo said the girl would be there at eight, so she should really try to speed things up. Her own nerves won’t let her, though — it’s true, it’s been way too long since her last date, she feels rusty and underprepared. She kills vampires for a living and this is maybe the most nerve-wracking thing she has to do: show up to a blind date with a girl Jihyo met in yoga class.
Get it together, Jeongyeon. She knocks softly on the bathroom door before leaving, busying herself with her own lip.
“Her name’s Mina, right?” she asks her roommate, interrupting Jihyo’s rendition of Pocket Full of Sunshine. “I don’t want to get it mixed up.”
“Yeah, she’s Mina! She’s twenty three! Law degree!” Jihyo informs her, probably in the middle of shampoo. “I sent you the address of the restaurant, it’s a sushi place! Have fun and go already!”
“Okay,” she says to no one in particular since Jihyo starts blasting music right then just to make sure Jeongyeon knows it’s time to go.
She checks her phone and sees a new text from Jihyo that she hadn’t noticed before speaking to Chae: it’s the name and address of the restaurant she’s supposed to go, and attached is Mina’s contact number. Jeongyeon’s heard of the place before, it’s a pretty exclusive sushi restaurant that opened a few years ago, and feels impressed that her date somehow managed to score a table there when you need to make a reservation beforehand.
Jeongyeon saves her number as ‘Mina Blind Date’, for now. She’s not even sure what she’s expecting from this date, she’s way too busy to be dating; there’s been a huge rise in vampires in New York as of lately, and her family clan is not the only one that’s fighting them but it feels like it some days. There are too many of them to handle it.
Still, she deserves a date, right? To have a good time? Sometimes it feels like all Jeongyeon does is be a killing machine. Sometimes a girl just wants to eat California rolls with a pretty girl in a fancy sushi restaurant she’s never been able to get in, goddamn it. Jeongyeon shakes her head and grabs her keys.
She stops in her tracks when she’s turning the handle. Before she leaves, Jeongyeon grabs a stake from her room and puts it inside her purse. Just to be sure.
Jeongyeon steps outside the building, hugging herself in her coat. It’s almost winter now, the holidays are around the corner and so is snow. The air is freezing cold. New York almost always is. She hops on her motorcycle and drives for around ten minutes before she arrives—it’s not too far away, luckily, and given that it’s impossible to get in without a reservation, there’s almost no queue outside the restaurant. It’s called MiSaMo's: Sushi Restaurant and Bar.
She figures she should text Mina then, to let her know she’s here. She’d tell the restaurant receptionist her name to check for a reservation, but she just knows her first name, and for all she knows there might be five different Minas inside the restaurant today.
Jeongyeon
7:58 PM
Hi, I’m Jeongyeon, I hope Jihyo gave you my number or my name. I’m at MiSaMo’s already, just letting you know.
God, she is awkward. She adds a smiley face at the end to make it sound less formal. Her phone beeps almost right away.
Mina
7:58 PM
Hi Jeongyeon! I’m Mina! I’m already inside. Just tell the receptionist you’re with Myoui and she’ll guide you to my table. I’m blonde and I’m wearing a black dress :)
She doesn’t reply to that, she figures it would take more time to reply than to comply. She approaches the receptionist and does as Mina told her so, who nods with a perfect smile and right away guides her to her table.
Jeongyeon is inclined to believe Mina might be an important person as they wander off to a more private part of the restaurant. It’s a beautiful place, with cascades and greys and modern decor, the kind of place she’d think Nayeon would really enjoy and maybe write about on that blog of hers. It’s buzzing with life, thousands of young and snobbish looking young adults having dinner and chatting. She spots a beret or two.
The receptionist guides her to what looks like a VIP section and Jeongyeon’s nerves now settle in the pit of her stomach. Okay, this Mina girl is definitely important.
When she finally catches sight of her, it feels like the world stops for a second and a half. Mina’s sitting in one of the booths and she’s blonde, her hair cascading down her shoulders, and she’s wearing a black dress. Mina is just gorgeous, with a mole decorating her upper lip and the bridge of her nose. She’s wearing red lipstick; like she’s just had a sip of red wine. Jeongyeon suddenly feels like she’s on a date with a supermodel, Holy Hell, how did Jihyo meet this girl again?
“Over there,” the receptionist guides her. “That is your table, ma’am. Enjoy your dinner.”
Mina notices her too, then. She waves at her, a smile on her face.
Jeongyeon has this habit (that kind of comes with the business really) where she irrationally obsesses over people’s teeth. Just to check if a vampire is sloppy enough to let their fangs out, since they are almost always their pride and joy, as her father always used to say. Mina’s appear to be perfectly normal and she relaxes.
Jeongyeon smiles a little awkwardly (¿at this point it’s the only way she knows how to) and Mina stands up, extending her hand to shake it. Jeongyeon suddenly feels like she’s in for a job interview.
“Hi,” she greets. “I’m Mina. You must be Jeongyeon, right?”
Mina’s hands are soft and her voice even more so.
Jeongyeon nods. “Yeah, I’m Jeongyeon. You look… eh, wow. You look wow.” Real smooth.
Somehow Mina seems charmed by her lack of social skills and she smiles shyly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as they both sit down. “Thank you. You look really beautiful too.”
“Thank you,” she blushes.
There’s a moment of silence, where Mina looks down at the floor for a minute and Jeongyeon doesn’t know what to say or do. Mina doesn’t seem to, either, which seems strange. Before Jeongyeon walked in she looked like the poster for self-confidence but the second she saw Jeongyeon it faded. She doesn't know whether she should be flattered or worried.
“So—”
“I—”
Mina giggles, and so does Jeongyeon, who says, “Sorry. You go first.”
“No, it’s okay,” Mina shakes her head. “I was just going to apologize if I’m not the best conversationalist… it’s really not my forte, so I can be kind of awkward.”
Jeongyeon waves her away. “It’s okay, don’t worry. I’m not great at it either. I’m quite nervous, I haven’t been on a date for,” she makes a face. Why is she talking about this now? She should wait until dessert, at least. “Erm. A while now.”
Mina’s smile is so sweet, the way it gets so big you can see her gums and her eyes close; Jeongyeon thinks it might be the sweetest smile she’s seen in a while.
“Well that makes me feel better,” she says. “I haven’t really been on a date, so I was really nervous.”
“Really? Your first date?” Jeongyeon’s eyebrows fly to her forehead, and Mina giggles as she nods.
“I had a girlfriend, but we never went to dates to know each other,” she explains. “And I’ve never been on blind dates, so this is my first. I hope you don’t find it too weird...”
Jeongyeon shakes her head. “No, no! It’s fine. No pressure, I guess.”
“We haven’t even ordered yet, but it’s going well so far,” she reassures her with a smile. “What did you want to say?”
“How did you land a date in a place like this?” Jeongyeon asks, lowering her voice like it’s some kind of secret. “My friend’s girlfriend’s been trying to get in this place for months but it’s always packed to the brim.”
Mina tilts her head to the side. “I might own part of it.”
Jeongyeon blinks. “You’re kidding me.”
Mina throws her head back and laughs, and Jeongyeon can’t help but join in because she has a really contagious laugh and maybe, just maybe, this isn’t the trainwreck she thought it was going to be.
“MiSaMo’s?” she asks once her laughter dies down. “I own the Mi part. Well, it’s mostly my friends’, but I manage it.”
An old childhood memory returns to Jeongyeon; before she even knew vampires and vampire hunters were a thing, her father used to own a dinner, where he’d sit Jeongyeon and her two sisters on one of the tables, and make them try all his recipes and decide which ones would go into the menu. Jeongyeon had wanted to be a chef, a long, long time ago, before ‘accountancy’ had gotten in the way.
“That’s so cool,” Jeongyeon whispers, impressed. “Do you cook?”
Mina grows a bit embarrassed. “Oh, no. Not at all. Neither do Sana and Momo — the co-owners and my best friends — but we manage. Somehow this place just took off...” she shrugs. “Lucky, maybe.”
“New Yorkers do love their sushi,” Jeongyeon says, and Mina laughs again.
“We are all Japanese, we really got lucky there,” she giggles. “What about you? What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an accountant,” Jeongyeon swallows back the bitter taste lying leaves on her mouth. It’s for the best. People can’t know vampires are real; she can’t put her loved ones or civilians at risk. “Not half as interesting as owning a sushi place.”
“Co-owning. And I’m sure it’s interesting! You must know a lot… about… numbers…?” Mina offers, defending her honor.
“That’s like the number one item on every girl’s list,” Jeongyeon says, a smirk dancing on her lips as Mina giggles again. “Like, this lesbian has to know about numbers, how am I going to have a conversation with her if she doesn’t know about the economy and all that?”
“You’re not going to get me to admit it’s boring!” Mina says, lightly hitting her across the shoulder as she giggles some more. Jeongyeon’s heart jumps inside her ribcage; there’s something about Mina that feels so fresh, so new, but at the same time like she knows her. Like she can talk to her like she’s known her for years, no matter how weird that sounds.
“I’ll get it out of you,” Jeongyeon replies, her heart beating a bit faster. Then because she might owe Jihyo her life she says, “Probably by our second date.”
“Will there be one?” Mina asks. Her face gives nothing away, just the ghost of a smile dancing on her lips.
Jeongyeon’s insane. They haven’t even ordered yet. “I don’t know. Will there?”
“Maybe,” Mina smiles. It’s small, coy, cocky almost. She could melt icebergs with that smile. “What are you getting?”
Jeongyeon takes a glance at the menu, which she admittedly does not really understand. She’s never been big on sushi. “What do you recommend?” she asks instead, impressed at how smooth and flirty she’s coming across even if she feels completely clueless.
Mina perks up. “You want me to order? That’s a lot of power…” she says, hint of a smile on her lips.
“I’m not a sushi expert,” she shrugs. “I’m open to anything.”
Mina ends up ordering them something that feels entirely too dangerous—it’s fish that’s supposed to be poisonous if not cooked properly. Mina’s a lot more daring than she lets on, somehow. Jeongyeon, on the other hand, starts praying the moment she puts some on her mouth.
It tastes good though.
“How is it?” she asks, eager. “Do you like it?”
“It’s good,” Jeongyeon nods. Then she places her hand on her wrist to check her own pulse. “And I’m still alive. All in all, it’s a success.”
Mina looks slightly embarrassed. “Sorry. It’s a bit intense for a first date...”
“I’m not very adventurous,” Jeongyeon admits, playing with her chopsticks. “I’m not adventurous at all, really. So this entire night has been way out of my comfort zone, in all the ways possible.” Mina’s face falls, and she looks like she’s ready to embrace rejection, so before she can go ahead and ruin this very wonderful thing Jeongyeon continues. “But I don’t… mind. I liked it. It’s good, I think.”
Mina’s smile slowly returns to her features, a shy expression. “I’m happy about that. This is way out of my comfort zone as well. But I think it’s good, isn’t it? To be adventurous once in a while?”
If Jeongyeon gets to do so with Mina, she doesn’t think she minds it at all.
The dinner goes on, and Jeongyeon surprises herself by how she progressively feels more relaxed as time goes on. There’s just something about Mina… When she smiles at one of her stupid jokes, warmth spreads across Jeongyeon and she feels like she might be able to fly. Or maybe she did get poisoned after all. Jeongyeon talks about the time her and Chaeyoung snuck into a bachelorette party, and Mina talks about the day her and her friends moved to their apartment together only to find a meth lab where the bathroom should be.
Jeongyeon checks her phone once it beeps and realizes it’s almost one AM. “Shit,” she curses.
“Something wrong?”
“No, no, not at all,” she shakes her head, laughter bubbling up her chest in disbelief. “We’ve been talking for four hours.”
Mina blinks in surprise. “Oh!”
“My friend texted to ask where I am an hour ago…” Jeongyeon continues. “I didn’t realize we’ve been here for so long.”
Chae
9:32PM
SOOOO???? How’s the date going????
Is she actually a creep??? Does she click her tongue a lot???? ORRRR is she the perfect girl of your dreams???
Chae
9:56PM
I take your silence as your date going REALLY good??? ;) ;) ;)
Chae
10:32PM
Omfg so ACTUALLY really good
I had a bet with Jihyo and Nayeon to see how long you’d last and I lost like five bucks I honestly had thought you would dip before dessert. My bad
Nayeon
11:27PM
Chae fell asleep
Also I won the bet ;)
Jihyo
12:14AM
GET THAT (cat emoji) BITCHHHH
“I didn’t either,” Mina says, looking at her own phone. “You’re right. Time kind of flew by.”
“Happens when you’re having a good time,” Jeongyeon shrugs trying to play it cool, but her heart’s beating so loud inside her chest she’s afraid Mina might be able to hear it.
She smiles. “I guess so…”
“I should pay,” Jeongyeon says after staring at Mina’s lips for almost a whole minute. She pulls out her wallet from her purse, but Mina’s shaking her head already. It’s common courtesy for both parties to attempt to pay the bill on a date, so she didn’t pay much attention to the gesture until she feels a hand on her own stopping her.
“Of course not,” she says. “This is my restaurant, Jeong. You really think I’d make you pay? What kind of monster do you think I am?”
“I would if the date sucked,” Jeongyeon offers, half joke half fishing for validation. Mina smiles, coyly; Jeongyeon has gone two seconds without it and it had been the longest two seconds of her life.
“I guess you’re right,” Mina nods. “You can pay.”
For a second Jeongyeon’s blood goes cold; then Mina’s soft laugh fills the almost empty room, and she laughs along too because fuck she seriously almost got her. “You’re evil,” she settles on saying.
Mina’s coy smile forms into an innocent one, eyes big as a doe. “What? Me?”
Mina walks her out of the restaurant after she pays the bill, giggling along at some random story Jeongyeon tells her just to see her smile one last time they leave. There’s still people lining up outside the restaurant—it’s impressive. How did Jihyo land her a date with the newest millionaire in the neighborhood?
“And then—” Jeongyeon stops in her tracks once she realizes Mina has. When she looks to her left, Mina’s staring at her motorcycle like it’s a carriage. “Mina…?”
“Sorry,” she shakes her head, embarrassed. “I didn’t know you rode a motorcycle.”
“You like motorcycles?” Jeongyeon asks, and Mina nods.
“I always wanted one. I’ve never ridden one, though,” Mina says, observing it in awe. There’s really nothing special about it. It could be in way better condition, Jeongyeon got it as a gift for Christmas from her sisters when she moved out a couple of years ago. Still, the compliment helps for an ego boost.
“You want to?” Jeongyeon’s lips are moving before she can stop herself. When Mina looks at her all wide-eyed and O shaped mouth, Jeongyeon’s heartbeat quickens. “I can get you home if you want.”
“Oh, I live on the building over there,” Mina points at the building right next to the restaurant. “With Momo and Sana. But we can ride around the city for a while, if that’s okay with you…?”
“Yeah,” she nods. “I mean, it’d be my pleasure. New York’s really nice at this time of the year even though it’s freezing cold.”
Mina giggles and nods, clearly excited. “This is stupid, sorry I’m being such a nerd right now. But it’s really cool.”
Jeongyeon shakes her head, a smile on her features. “No—Don’t apologize. I like that you’re excited, my roommate calls this a death trap with wheels.”
Mina bursts out laughing then. “That sounds like Jihyo.”
“Yeah, that’s Jihyo,” she chuckles. “I have a spare helmet too, hold on.”
Five minutes later Mina has her helmet on, almost buzzing with excitement on the sidewalk. “This is the coolest thing ever,” she squeals, and Jeongyeon chuckles in amusement. Jeongyeon sits down, smirk hidden underneath her own helmet.
“You really like ‘em, huh?”
“Duh,” Mina replies, amused. She climbs on her seat, growing slightly embarrassed when Jeongyeon instructs her to wrap her arms around her waist (for safety of course) but she does so nonetheless. Mina’s… cold. Her skin is. It’s not as weird as Jeongyeon makes it out to be.
“Ready?”
“As I can be,” Mina nods, the smile evident even in her voice.
Jeongyeon drives off. She starts slow and not too fast because she hears and feels Mina flinch every time they take a turn, until Mina wraps her arms around her waist even tighter and starts laughing instead of sounding scared.
“I can handle myself, you know?” Mina teases, and Jeongyeon laughs. "Go a bit faster!"
“If you say so,” she says, as the landscape before them turns into a blur of neon lights, the buildings shaping into nothing but lines of light on their peripheral vision, shades of purples and blues.
Mina squeals and Jeongyeon joins her, laughing when Mina clings closer and flinching herself once she realizes just how fast she’s actually going—she’s glad they are both wearing helmets, the cold would’ve been unbearable blowing on their faces not to mention terribly dangerous, looking cool be damned.
After what feels like an entire lifetime, Jeongyeon drives them back to the restaurant, Mina giggling in delight even as they stop.
“That was crazy,” she says, still holding onto Jeongyeon’s waist. Jeongyeon takes off her helmet, giggling as well.
“I haven’t done that in years,” she admits. Mina lets go then to step off the motorcycle, and Jeongyeon pretends not to be disappointed by the loss of contact. “Speed. Just driving, not really caring where you’re going.”
“You should do it more,” Mina says, taking off her helmet. Her blonde hair is disheveled, cascading down her shoulders. “I’ve always wanted to do that! They always do it in movies.”
“Why don’t you get one?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” Mina shrugs, and Jeongyeon catches herself focusing on the way a stray strand of blonde hair lays disheveled on the side of her face. “I don’t think my thing is motorcycles. If I got one, you wouldn’t have to drive me anymore.”
“So that means you want to do this again…?” Jeongyeon replies. She means it as a statement, but it doesn’t really come off as one—her tone is hopeful and yet unsure at the same time, not confident. Jihyo always tells her that’s important, and God bless her, Jihyo has proved today that Jeongyeon needs to listen to her more.
“Does it?” Mina replies, and Jeongyeon rolls her eyes fondly, and she giggles. “Yeah, okay. I’d like that…”
Jeongyeon pretends that her heart doesn’t jump out her ribcage right then and there. Instead, she bites the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling from ear to ear, even if it doesn’t really work.
Jeongyeon struggles to stay awake. She wonders just for how long she’s been here, in this hidden place, if her friends even know she’s missing. Maybe she could’ve been here for minutes, hours, maybe weeks.
The person doesn’t say anything when she tries to speak to them. Jeongyeon’s tried to get them to reply again, she’s been given nothing but silence for the past hour. Although she’s not even sure if it’s been an hour; everything seems to go by so slowly, uneventfully.
“Can you please just tell me who you are?” Jeongyeon asks. The person, whoever they are, does not respond. Great, Jeongyeon thinks wryly.
She looks around to try and figure out where the hell she could be, but all she can really see is dark floors and dark walls. Her hands explore her face for further injuries and finds there’s something locked around her neck— she’s chained by the neck. Jeongyeon gulps, realizes she must’ve been out cold if she didn’t notice right away. Nothing else hurts right now, which she takes as good of a sign as that can be.
Jeongyeon bites her lip. In her line of work, there’s plenty of risks, more so than in any other, and she’s been in dire situations before but she’s never been chained by the neck without any recollection of what happened inside a dungeon. They don’t teach you how to get out of situations like this in Vampire Hunting 101.
“Why am I chained?” she asks the faint figure by the corner of the room. They don’t say anything back, not that she gives them much time to do so. “Who are you? Why am I here?”
The person doesn’t say anything, but she can feel how anxious they are. In the way they move and breathe, like they are unsure what to do, like they might run away any second now. “I don’t know why I’m here,” Jeongyeon continues, voice slightly softer. “Can you help me? I don’t—”
“Shut up,” the person says, although it’s not aggressive at all. Maybe they don’t intend it to be. Jeongyeon recognizes the voice somehow, can’t quite place it. “If you talk louder they’ll come here and kill you.”
She supposed as much. Still, Jeongyeon’s jaw clenches. “Then why haven’t you—?”
“Jeongyeon,” the person interrupts her, finally stepping closer. Jeongyeon recognizes her almost immediately, hair blonde and disheveled, lip bruised and eyes scared and pleading. By the way she says her name.
Jeongyeon feels like she’s been burnt, cowers into the corner of the room to keep herself from standing up and breaking her neck in the process. “Why haven’t you killed me yet?” Jeongyeon asks again, voice cracking – but Jeongyeon isn’t scared. She doesn’t scare her. In some strange way, Mina’s presence makes her feel comforted almost, like she can close her eyes around her, even if she’s uneasy. Sometimes it feels like Jeongyeon’s been awake for centuries.
“I’m trying to save you.”
Their fourth date is at a tea place. Mina mentions it in passing when they are texting once, about loving this sweet boba tea from a place down the block near her restaurant, and because Jeongyeon is pretty much whipped at this point, she decides she can pretend to like boba if it can make Mina happy.
Jihyo tells her that morning, “Nayeon and Chae are coming by to help you get ready because me and Jisoo are going to the movies.”
“I’m not twelve,” Joengyeon scoffs over her breakfast. “I don’t need help to get ready.”
“It’s just for morale boost,” Jihyo shakes her head, scrolling through Instagram on her phone and not looking up. “ Think of it as your own personal annoyig cheerleaders. You don’t need help with outfits, you do just fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Okay,” Jihyo sighs. “You’re good at fashion.”
Jeongyeon grins. “I am, aren’t I?”
Jihyo rolls her eyes. “Don’t let it get to your head, Coco Chanel.”
By that afternoon Jeongyeon has her outfit planned out, and she just waits for her friends on the living room couch, texting Mina and trying not to be a nervous mess like she always is whenever she thinks about or sees Mina. Nayeon starts fixing her jacket the second she steps into the apartment, Chaeyoung hanging by the doorframe watching her girlfriend with a stupid grin on her face.
“You look great,” Nayeon grins. “I can’t wait to meet Mina. You’ve got to introduce us when you can, you know?”
It’s not that she doesn’t want Mina to meet Chae and Nayeon, but it all feels so fresh and new, Jeongyeon is worried that maybe Mina thinks they are going too fast if she does introduce her to her friends. Jeongyeon’s already way too anxious about slipping up and revealing she’s a vampire slayer to her— potential girlfriend? Girl she goes on dates with and wants to kiss really badly? — and she can’t add potentially scaring Mina away because she’s kind of head over heels for her already.
“Maybe another day,” Jeongyeon flinches.
“We just want to meet Mina so badly!” Chaeyoung exclaims, as Nayeon sits down on the couch and starts flipping through Jihyo’s Sewing Weekly magazine. “You’ve met her friends, haven’t you? And Jihyo met her too!”
“Jihyo knew her before I did,” she shakes her head. “And I know of Sana and Momo, but no, I haven’t exactly met them yet—”
“Great! That’s perfect,” Chaeyoung nods her head enthusiastically. “We can have like a couples date, right? They can bring their girlfriends and I bring mine. Right, babe?”
Nayeon nods, a tight smile on her lips. “Sure. We can go to their restaurant where they never let me in, that would be really fun.”
“Or…” Chaeyoung says, sensing the bitterness in her girlfriend's tone. “We could go with you today.”
“I can’t take both of you on my motorcycle,” Jeongyeon mutters the first excuse that comes to mind.
“We can take a cab there,” Chae responds.
Jeongyeon shakes her head. “Mina likes my motorcycle.”
“Damn okay,” she mutters. “Me and Nayeon can take a cab.”
“Yeah, a cab home,” Jeongyeon replies.
“That was a good one,” Nayeon nods in approval at Jeongyeon, lifting her hand to high five her, which Jeongyeon does with a lot of pleasure.
“Meanie,” Chaeyoung pouts, dropping into the couch next to her girlfriend, who curls into her side almost immediately. “We just want to meet her. You haven’t had a girlfriend since college, bro, and you don’t even like boba. Mina has to be amazing.”
“That or a witch,” Nayeon adds.
“She is,” Jeongyeon grins, then stops. “Not—not a witch. She’s pretty amazing.”
Nayeon and Chaeyoung manage to coax her into talking about Mina for a bit more time, then Jeongyeon checks the time. “I should get going,” she tells them, standing up from her couch and fixing her jacket. Nayeon looks like she’s about to protest—she’s just fixed that—but Jeongyeon interrupts her. “Don’t make out on my couch.”
“Technically I chose it when we moved together,” Chaeyoung says. “So it’s actually mine.”
“Don’t make out on my couch,” she warns again as she closes the door behind her, ignoring Chae’s comment. Then she stops for a second after she closes the door only to open it again. “And don’t make out on my kitchen table either.”
Nayeon pouts as Jeongyeon closes the door behind her.
She drives for about half an hour until she arrives at the café Mina texted her to go—it’s Japanese themed, painted in pastel pinks and yellows, a few blocks away from Mina’s apartment. She spots Mina right away sitting by the window, as snow falls on the windowsill, as the glass tints with winter.
Mina smiles as soon as she sees her step into the café; she’s wearing a yellow jacket and pearl earrings. It never fails to surprise her, just how expensive and gorgeous she always looks. In a way she reminds her of Nayeon and her luxurious tastes and brands, the opposite of what Jeongyeon likes—she likes fashion a lot, but she can’t afford most of the clothes she likes, so she settles for more casual clothes most of the time, sometimes with a hint of classy colors. Nayeon says she’s really stylish for a starving accountant living in New York City, which she takes as a compliment, thank you very much.
“I already ordered for both us,” Mina tells her after they greet each other, sitting down on the table next to the window. “I hope that’s okay."
"It is, don't worry about it," Jeongyeon says, then her eyes focus on Mina's lock screen as a message pops up. "Oh, those are Dahyun and Momo, right? I saw them on your Instagram."
Mina smiles slightly. "Yeah, those are them. And look," she unlocks her phone, showing a picture of Sana and Tzuyu as her home screen. "My favorite couples. Dahyun and Momo met during a cruise ship, how romantic is that? Dahyun was there with her family. And Sana had always been head over heels for Tzuyu, and Tzuyu never gave her the time of day until prom. A rom-com."
Jeongyeon finds herself smiling as Mina rambles on and on about her best friends. "I'd love to meet them," she tells her.
"Me, Sana and Momo are like sisters," she nods. "They call me their little sis. It makes me happy."
"Do you have any siblings?"
Mina's face darkens ever so slightly. "Not really... My family died a long time ago. From an uncurable disease, they all died except for me."
"Oh," Jeongyeon says, slightly taken aback. She hadn't expected that. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
Mina shakes her head at her. "It's okay, don't worry. I just... haven't talked about them in a very long time. Sometimes I'm scared I'll forget them."
Jeongyeon feels her own heart sink into her chest. "Yeah. I unfortunately feel the same way. My parents died when I was about to graduate from college, almost a week before graduation. I still have my sisters, but sometimes I'm scared I'll forget the small things, you know?
Mina nods. "Like the way my mother used to hum when she did laundry, or how my dad used to ride a horse. He was the best rider in town, everyone always said that."
"See?" Jeongyeon smiles. "You won't forget them. They live with you. They are a part of you."
"What about yours?"
"What do you mean?"she asks, confused.
"The memories that live with you," Mina explais.
Jeongyeon wishes she had happier memories, but she doesn't. She remembers endless weeks of training, she remembers how to use a knife, but that's as happy as it gets. Her mother was obssessed with her job, the only thing her father knew what to talk about was vampires and how to behead them, and look where that got them both. Dead, killed by a clan of vampires in their own home.
Jeongyeon shrugs. "Maybe the time my father had a restaurant. My mom used to serve smoothies on roller skates and it was the coolest thing ever." Before they had been consumed by hatred. "He used to make us stacks of pancakes to eat before they opened."
"That sounds nice," Mina says, smiling for ear to ear.
When the waitress places one sweet boba tea on the table and one large coffee, Jeongyeon feels equal parts relieved and confused. Mina makes a face. "I know you’re not the biggest fan of boba, so I ordered you some coffee…”
“How did you know?”
“You told me you liked it, but then Jihyo spilled the beans bia text message,” Mina looks like she’s trying to bite back a smile.
Jeongyeon sighs. “Of course she did.”
“It’s fine that you don’t!” she reassures her, her hand suddenly reaching for hers across the table, and Jeongyeon’s heart skips a beat—it’s as cheesy as it sounds. “You don’t have to like it. I just want to hang out with you.”
Jeongyeon tries not to think too much about the hand on hers. “Okay,” she nods finally.
Mina starts telling her the story of how her and her friends Sana and Momo met, as her finger drags across the brim of her teacup as she rambles on and on, graceful as always. “And Momo was in that class too, and then I found out we were both… dancers, so we immediately clicked.”
“You guys met in college?”
“Not really,” Mina shakes her head. Jeongyeon tries not to think too much about the fact that she’s still holding her hand and not letting go, but it proves to be more difficult than she thought it’d be. There’s just something so intoxicating about Mina and her touch—it leaves her breathless and dazed. “We used to be neighbors, the three of us, and we were best friends growing up but then we drifted apart. Then I met them again in college and they had girlfriends and an apartment together, it was kind of shocking…”
“So you’re the only single one in your group?” Jeongyeon teases, even if the hand holding hers might give everyone else another idea. “Another thing we have in common.”
“Perpetually so,” Mina jokes, although she doesn’t look too invested in the joke. Her eyes drop to their hands for a millisecond and Jeongyeon has no time to think before her mouth starts moving on its own.
“You’re holding my hand,” She immediately regrets it, closing her eyes. Fuck, she thinks. She needs to get that filter Jihyo always tells her she’s missing.
Mina’s eyes drop to the table, where their hands are still entwined. She looks embarrassed and almost startled, like she had hoped Jeongyoen wouldn't notice somehow. Mina gulps. “Oh.”
“I don’t—”
“Do you mind?” Mina interrupts her, still not looking up.
“No,” she’s quick to respond, shaking her head so fast it might fall off. “No, I don’t mind.”
Mina slowly breaks into a small, relieved smile, still not looking up at Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon’s hit suddenly with an inexplicable fondness, as her heartbeat quickens and she finds the bravery to squeeze Mina’s hand. She’s cold but it’s winter; she’ll keep her warm.
Without noticing, Jeongyeon’s hands are moving without her even thinking about it, settling on Mina’s chin, and when Mina proves no opposition, she lifts her head so she’s staring up at her. Jeongyeon’s not sure what she’s trying to accomplish here—but when Mina’s brown eyes catch hers, she feels the world stop for an entire minute.
Mina says, “Jeongyeon?”
Jeongyeon doesn’t say anything to that, her eyes just drop to Mina’s lips, just in time as Jeongyeon asks, “Can I kiss you?”
She waits for Mina to nod before she closes the distance.
Mina’s lips are cold, as every part of her seems to be, but Jeongyeon doesn’t mind. She doesn’t push anything—at first their lips just touch, Jeongyeon tasting the trace of tea on Mina’s lips and the way she seems so nervous and fidgety. Jeongyeon swallows back her own nerves but they seem to creep up on her anyway; the kiss grows a bit clumsy in her hold, but then Mina takes the initiative and deepens the kiss.
Jeongyeon, understandably, melts. Mina’s amazing at this, which would normally make her self conscious just because she can never get out of her head, but this feels entirely natural. The way Mina’s lips fit with hers, the way she gently nibs at Jeongyeon’s lower lip—by the time they are done Jeongyeon feels like she’s floating and has a newfound appreciation for boba tea.
“Oh,” she says when they pull apart.
“Oh indeed,” Mina giggles, neither of them quite sure what to do next. Jeongyeon blushes up to her ears, scrambling to find something to say that isn’t either a declaration of love or completely lame. Fortunately for her, Mina is the one that breaks the silence that starts to dangerously approach uncomfortable territory. “I want to do that again.”
“Now?” Jeongyeon teases, trying to soothe the beat of her own heart.
“Mhm,” Mina nods. “And later… and every time I see you.”
“Does that mean we’re officially dating?” Jeongyeon asks, and she means for it to sound casual, teasing almost, but she sounds hopeful and unsure.
Mina smiles. “If you want us to.”
She doesn't really need to say yes. As they close the distance once again to seal the deal with a kiss, Jeongyeon thinks that she could love her. It’s too soon to think about being in love, about loving Mina that way, but she could. She can picture herself falling for Mina. For the first time in a long time, the thought doesn’t fill her with dread. She’s too distracted with Mina’s lips to worry about something like that.
Jeongyeon doesn’t flinch when Mina drops to her knees and starts fumbling with the chain on her neck, pulling out a key from her pocket in the blink of an eye. She asks, “How long have I been here?”
“About two days,” Mina replies, voice giving nothing away. She had looked so frightened and anxious before—now she seems cold, a bit distant. Maybe she’s just putting up a front. “After they knocked you out they took you here and this is where you’ve been, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. Not that I asked. But I— I tried to get you…” Mina’s hand twitches as she fumbles with the lock. She says, “Nevermind.”
“What?” Jeongyeon asks, pushing her luck.
“Pillows,” Mina says after a few seconds. “So you could be more comfortable. It was a stupid idea.”
Mina’s so close she can touch her, she realizes. Jeongyeon feels weak and exhausted and dirty and chained, but she wants to reach for Mina’s face, brush some of those matted locks away and tuck them behind her ear.
“What happened?” she asks instead. “I can’t remember anything.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Mina asks, as the weight on her neck starts to loosen slightly.
You, she thinks. “A party,” she says. “Maybe a club, it’s kind of blurry…”
She remembers flashing lights, electronic music that she never really got into, and bodies blending together as they danced. She remembers Sana and Momo dancing with them, as Mina and Jeongyeon locked their lips together. She remembers red lipstick and blonde hair, and margaritas, and Mina’s laugh. Mina. She remembers Mina.
Mina nods. “You’re okay. It was at a club.”
“What do you—?”
“I’ll tell you when I get the gigantic chain off your neck and when we’re not in immediate threat of being murdered, okay?” Mina snaps, taking Jeongyeon aback. Mina’s eyes soften almost immediately, and she shakes her head, apologetically. “It’s been a long two days,” she explains, sighing. Jeongyeon nods, doesn’t miss the fact that she doesn’t apologize. This hasn’t been her week either, judging by the fact she’s trapped in a dungeon.
Finally after a few seconds more, Jeongyeon feels like she can breathe again as the chain falls to the floor with a clank. Mina smiles to herself, victorious.
“Thank you,” she says, yet Mina avoids her eyes like the plague. “God, did it have to be a neck chain?” Jeongyeon whines, rubbing at her own neck, starching where it was tightest. “It’s very medieval.”
Mina rolls her eyes, and if Jeongyeon had blinked she would’ve missed it, but the hint of a smile flashes across her lips. “Sorry if our Vampire dungeon isn’t up to your standards.”
It’s almost a glimpse of the Mina she remembers, the one she spent over four months knowing, the Mina who smiled and giggled at every joke she made. In the blink of an eye she’s gone, replaced by the coldness she’s now growing to realize is here to stay. It’s strange to be around her now; thinking that the Mina she knew is gone. Jeongyeon shakes her head. This Mina… this is a monster. Whoever it is that she thought she knew was never really there.
“What next?” She asks, hands still on her neck.
Mina looks around the place, ready for their next move. “We try not to get killed.”
Jeongyeon watches as Mina puts on her red lipstick, what she now considers almost a staple of who she is. She can barely make out her face in the darkness of the club; the only times Jeongyeon can actually see her is when the neon lights catch her features. Still, she finds herself mesmerized, as she often is with her.
Nayeon and Chaeyoung are on the side of the dance floor making out, Jihyo is chatting with Momo and Dahyun, while Sana has dragged her girlfriend Tzuyu to the bathroom to help her fix her make up before she gets even more plastered. Mina had asked Jeongyeon to join her at the bar for some margaritas the second they had arrived, and she was still sipping her drink almost fifteen minutes later. Not that Jeongyeon cared—she found she was happy just existing by her side.
“It’s still impressive that you can get us in exclusive places like these on the regular,” she yells over the music, and Mina smirks and closes her hand mirror with a pop loud enough to hear even over the speakers.
“I have my contacts,” she says, smug as ever.
Jeongyeon raises an eyebrow at her. “Do you?”
Mina hums. “Mhmm."
"I used to hate places like this," Jeongyeon admits, stealing a sip from Mina's glass.
"Really?" Mina asks. "I used to, too. I'm too introverted for parties."
"You could've fooled anyone," Jeongyeon shakes her head. "You are a natural here. You look like you belong."
"Is that an insult?" Mina asks, eyebrow raised at her.
Jeongyeon smirks. "Don't know."
"Wanna dance?”
“Thought you’d never ask.”
Mina grabs Jeongyeon’s hand and pulls her towards the dance floor, a smirk on her lips. Jeongyeon wants to kiss it off, so she does so—she’s grown more confident now in the few months they’ve been dating. It’s just been five since they started dating, six months since they met, but somehow it feels like Jeongyeon’s known Mina for an entire lifetime. Jeongyeon thinks that if she believed in soulmates, Mina would be hers
Mina kisses back happily, giggling into the kiss as they dance. They don’t even break apart once Sana and Momo join them on the dancefloor, whistling at them and making Jeongyeon feel like she’s in High School again. Jeongyeon really likes them both—she met them around two months ago after dropping Mina off at her apartment after one of their date and they threatened her with a shovel in case she’d break Mina’s heart.
She likes them a lot.
“Leave something to the imagination,” Momo teases them once they break apart, elbowing Mina slightly.
“Like you’re not all over Dahyun all the time,” Sana tells her. “You guys are so cute!”
“We’re on a date,” Mina tells her best friends, pulling Jeongyeon closer to try and drag her away from her friends. "Stop bothering us."
“Shouldn’t have invited us then,” Momo says. “We’re going to bother you all night long, sis.”
“Why did you invite them?” Mina asks Jeongyeon, the tip of her nose resting lazily on the shell of Jeongyeon’s ear. She bites back a shiver; Mina’s skin is always so damn cold.
“They are fun,” she replies, giggling as she pushes Mina away slightly. “Plus I also invited Dahyun and Tzuyu to keep them entertained.”
“But they are so annoying,” Mina whines, dragging out the gs.
“I have to live with Jihyo,” Jeongyeon says, raising an eyebrow at her girlfriend. “And I’m friends with Nayeon and Chaeyoung. I have the monopoly on annoying friends.”
Mina rolls her eyes at her, taking her hand. “Let’s go somewhere more private.”
Jeongyeon’s not against the idea. Mina drags her across the dance floor once again, grip determined and walk even more so, until she finds the backdoor, somehow surprising Jeongyeon even more. When one thinks they know somebody…
“The alley?” she asks once they are outside. “You wanna do heroin?”
Mina shrugs. “Maybe.”
“I haven’t brought heroin money,” says Jeongyeon, pretending to go through her skirt’s pockets. “I only have enough for mushrooms and maybe cocaine. Would that be okay?”
Mina stifles a laugh with her hand, later bringing her lips to Jeongyeon’s until her back hits the alley’s wall. Normally, Jeongyeon would be a little more concerned by the choice of location, but it’s hard to think about it with Mina’s lips pressed on hers. She runs her fingers through Mina’s blonde locks as she hums into the kiss, tasting margarita on her tongue.
Then there’s a grunt. It sounds male, so it definitely didn’t come from either of them, so Jeongyeon breaks up the kiss with a frown. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Mina asks, although she seems nervous. “Don’t be paranoid—”
Another grunt cuts Mina off, and Jeongyeon’s hand flies to the knife she always keeps on her bag. Mina’s tense, although she doesn’t look scared, which is what makes it seem weirder.
“Jeongyeon, it’s probably a junkie—”
Jeongyeon motions for her to be quiet, takes her hand to keep her close to her as she approaches the source of the sounds. There’s this old mattress by the end of the alley, she can see a person crutching down there.
“Hello?” she calls. “Are you okay?”
The person slowly steps out of their hiding place, back turned to them. All Jeongyeon can make out is that they’re male and their hands are dripping wet, when an all too familiar iron smell hits her nostrils.
“Jeongyeon, we have to—!”
The man turns around then, flaring his fans and with blood dripping down his mouth and down his collar. Jeongyeon doesn’t think twice when he lounges at her, as she lifts her knife in the air, ready to strike. Mina stays back, Jeongyeon can barely hear her over the ringing of her own ears. She has to protect her. She’s going to have a hell lot of explaining to do after this.
The vampire attempts to tackle her, but she swiftly dodges him and manages to scratch his left arm with her knife. It’s not much—he doesn’t even hiss from the pain, they don’t feel any—but it’s a start.
“Mina!” she yells at her girlfriend, who stares at her unmovingly. “Hide! Get inside!”
Mina looks like she doesn’t know what to do. The vampire lounges for Jeongyeon once again, but she’s ready for it: she jumps and with both her legs kicks him in the chest hard enough to force him onto his knees, plunging the knife into his heart once she sees the opportunity to strike. The vampire grunts once again, and he screams as he crumbles into ashes.
Mina shrieks as the wind dusts the rest of him away. Jeongyeon’s heavy breathing is the only thing that can be heard for a few seconds.
“I can explain—”
Before she can finish her sentence, Jeongyeon feels a sharp pain as something collides with the back of her head, and the last thing she sees before the world turns black is Mina faring her bangs.
“You have a duty with this world,” her father tells her when she’s thirteen and scared, watches as he drags a man inside a cage to their living room. It’s summer, and cold sweat sticks to Jeongyeon’s forehead, as her mother holds her head in place so she can watch. “Your duty is to save it from its own monsters.”
He lifts the curtains, as a bloodshot scream fills the room with dread.
Mina helps Jeongyeon stand, wraps an arm around her shoulders to keep her steady, since the only time she attempts to her legs threaten to give up on her. Jeongyeon pretends not to want to throw up.
"So you and everyone else is..."
"A vampire," Mina finishes the sentence for her. It makes her shiver. Not just the word, the fact that people she considered friends, people she loved, are the same thing that she had sworn to destroy.
“Did you know about me before we went on a date?” Jeongyeon asks, voice tight. There’s this undeniable pit inside of her, filled with dread and betrayal and way too much that she can’t unpack right now. “Did you know I was a vampire hunter?”
“You mean a murderer?” Mina snaps back at her, but there’s barely any bite to it. She avoids looking at her, focuses on trying to get to the door in the darkness.
“Was it all just a ploy to kill me?” she asks, ignoring the snark.
Mina looks like she doesn’t want to answer. She does anyway. “Yes.”
She knew, somehow; when Jeongyeon woke up, as memories came back to her, as Mina unchained her, as Mina watched her fall to the floor, Jeongyeon knew. Still, the confirmations weighs down on her until she feels like her legs might give up on her again. She finds the strength to step away.
“How can I trust you now?” Jeongyeon shakes her head. “How do I know you’re not—not just leading me to my death?”
“The plan didn’t—” Mina shakes her head. “I delayed everything. The clan started to feel uneasy, it wasn’t supposed to last that long, but after the date—I couldn’t and… I just couldn’t.” Mina struggles to keep going, looking at the floor, seemingly a bit lost. “I don’t want any more death,” she settles on saying. “I’m tired of killing humans, I’m tired of humans killing us. I don’t want to participate in this anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because I you changed me,” Mina says, as the door opens. "Because I loved you."
Jeongyeon doesn’t have time to unpack any of that because Momo is entering the room, whispering to Mina that it’s safe to leave, and Jeongyeon finally steps into the light.
“We can trust her,” Mina reassures her. Momo glares at Jeongyeon, but otherwise lets them out without any questions.
I loved you, the words replay over and over inside her head. I loved you. Jeongyeon’s heart doesn’t beat any faster—it drops to the pit of her stomach, making her feel sick and lost.
Momo guides them out of what she now realizes is the basement for MiSaMo’s, finally realizing that it’s probably a vampire nest. Momo sneaks them out of the back, cleanly, and no one sees them leave.
“Sana’ll be here in a few minutes,” Momo nods. “I…”
Mina tears up in a second, letting go of Jeongyeon to wrap her arms around her best friend’s neck and bring her closer. “Thank you, Mo.”
Momo doesn’t say anything, she just hugs her back, buries her head on Mina’s neck and cries a few silent tears. Despite knowing what she is, the kind of monster life has taught her to eliminate, Jeongyeon looks away to give them some privacy.
“This isn’t goodbye,” Mina tells her. “One day.”
Momo laughs wryly, like she doesn’t quite believe her. “Once peace is made between vampires and humans. So probably in a thousand years. You know what vampires think about them.”
“You’ve lived longer,” Mina gifts her a sad smile. "And you've lived among them."
"They are still just walking sacks of blood." Momo turns to Jeongyeon, flaring her fangs slightly. “You’re scum, but… take care of her.” Her voice turns softer at the end, pleading.
Jeongyeon doesn’t know why, but she nods.
Sana arrives just then, Tzuyu on the backseat of the car she’s driving. It’s the first time Jeongyeon’s ever seen Sana so serious, no smile or smirk dancing on her lips. Instead, her brow is furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line. Mina helps her into the car slowly, even as both of her friends frown at the sight. Tzuyu seems the most angered out of all of them.
Mina and Momo speak some more, in hushed whispers. She can only listen to the words Japan and safe haven, but not really much else. They say their goodbyes again, some more tears are shed, and then Mina climbs into the car and they finally they drive off.
“Where are we going?” she asks, even if she feels intimidated to no end.
“The airport,” Mina nods at her. “You… we need to get out of here.”
“Wh—where?”
“Somewhere you can hide,” Mina gulps. “And somewhere I can hide too.”
“We’ll go separate ways?” Jeongyeon asks, and Mina doesn’t respond. “What about Chae and Jihyo and Nayeon?”
Sana speaks next. “I’ve told them you had a family emergency and had to run.” Jeongyeon feels her throat begin to close up, tears prickling at the corner of her eyes. Sana seems to notice this, because her frown softens ever so slightly. “I’ve left them a note telling them that you love them.”
“Thank you,” she says, genuinely. “For everything.”
“We’re not doing this for you,” Tzuyu says then, brows furrowed and lips drawn into a thin line. She has nothing but hatred in her heart for her, and Jeongyeon can understand why. “We’re doing this for Mina.”
They don’t say anything for the rest of the ride. Mina no longer seems anxious; she just looks out the window, lost in thought, her hand burning a hole on the seat next to Jeongyeon’s, but she doesn't do anything about it, no matter how badly she wants to reach out to her. Maybe it's in her very own DNA, this overwhelming need to comfort and protect people. Maybe it's just about Mina.
They drive for another few hours, as the dark night sky begins to tint light blue. Sana and Tzuyu say nothing when they arrive at the airport. Jeongyeon has no luggage and no money, but they give Mina a couple of credit cards and fake IDs for her to use.
"Are you sure about this?" Tzuyu whispers to her, hugging her tightly before letting go. "Giving your life away for a human? There won't be any going back now."
Mina nods, doesn't say yes. Jeongyeon doesn't know how to react to that; everything's so confusing, every single aspect of her life has changed in the past fourty eight hours and she's not sure how to react to any of it.
"Is she worth it?" Sana asks between tears.
"I don't want to be a monster anymore," Mina replies. "I don't want to kill anymore. I don't want blood."
“Where will you go?” Jeongyeon asks her, because somehow she cares still. She’s still not entirely sure she’s not being lead to her death, but she lets her guard down for a few minutes at least.
Mina look at her, like she’s surprised she cares. “Japan, maybe. Somewhere far.”
“And what about me?”
Mina swallows. “I don’t know. Wherever you want.”
Jeongyeon can’t stop herself from thinking that she wants to go wherever Mina goes, that she wants to stay here and go back in time. The past, she thinks, that’s where I want to go. A sense of dread washes over her, the fact that this is her last day with Mina sinking into her bones.
She tries to push the fondness away—Mina’s a vampire, a demon, a murderer—and she is, but she’s also Mina. Mina, who laughs at her stupid jokes, Mina who drinks boba tea, Mina who’s fascinated by motorcycles no matter how ugly they are. Mina’s heart isn’t twisted, she’s not some bloodthirsty creature—she’s Mina. Mina. Mina, Mina, Mina, her head replays her name over and over like a prayer.
There’s this inexplicable urge to kiss her in the pit of her stomach that makes her feel like an endless pit of a human, to wash her own mistakes away with her kiss, to feel her before it’s too late. “Mina,” she breathes. She’s not a monster.
Maybe Jeongyeon is.
“I’m sorry,” Jeongyeon says, tries to think about Mina with blood dripping down her lips to try and hate her a bit more, but she can’t.
Mina’s lips press together—not in annoyance. It’s something else. “It wasn’t your fault,” she ends up saying.
“Wasn’t it?” Jeongyeon asks. She thinks back on everything she’s done wrong, the girl she was before all of this, the person she’s leaving behind.
“I’ve hurt people too,” Mina says, eyes welling up with tears. “I’ve killed people. Sometimes I’m scared I will never stop. I almost let them kill you…”
I wish this never happened to us, she wants to say, wants to scream, wants to hold Mina’s hand even if she’s not who she thought she was. She wants to ask her if she still loves her, if she hates her, that she has ash stuck between her fingernails, that she can’t wash it away no matter how hard she wants to, that Mina’s her hands are filled with ghosts and her teeth are covered in blood. Jeongyeon wishes it was hers.
“I’m sorry,” is what she settles for, hopes Mina will understand it too, even if she’s just repeating herself.
“I know,” Mina tells her, nodding. “I’m sorry too.”
She grabs her hand.
Jeongyeon thinks back on a memory that now feels like a glimpse into another lifetime. Mina had taken Jeongyeon to Central Park after what was probably their tenth date—Mina had never seen it; well, she’s been there, but she hadn’t really seen it, you know? – and they laid on the grass, moon shining as winter started fading on the tress and on their skins. It was almost midnight, but Mina insisted that was the best time to visit.
“It’s been a while,” Jeongyeon had hummed to herself, not really expecting Mina to hear it, but she did anyway.
“Since what?” Mina asked, voice soft and sweet, smile even more so. Jeongyeon could’ve gotten lost in that smile, she wouldn’t half mind that even now.
Jeongyeon had shrugged, images of past locked deep inside her mind, key lost somewhere along the way. She had said, “Since I’ve been this happy.”
She had meant that.
“I want to go with you,” she tells Mina. "I want to go with you to Japan."
“Are you sure?” Mina asks her ten years later, as their little cottage by Kyoto coats in snow.
It’s not a special night by any means. Mina’s let her black hair grow out and there’s no trace of blonde to be seen, but she’s chopped almost all of it off, now stopping by her jaw. It suits her. Makes her look slightly older, wiser. Jeongyeon’s dyed hers brown and let it grow past her shoulders for once. She even got a few tattoos, which Mina traces with her fingers every once in a while, when the moonlight is shinning through their window.
Her neighbor gifted them some bread she tried baking the other day, and she's munching on the leftovers before bed. Mina's reading a book by the fireplace; although it's mostly for show than anything else. Mina doesn't need to keep herself warm, but she chooses to. The first years here had been nerve-wracking, looking after their own shadow, checking for fangs or knives, but after their third year Mina had declared that was no way of living, so they moved to the quieter countryside of Kyoto.
She spends her days listening to the stories of all the lives Mina has lived; about her time as a pirate, her time as a singer, her time as a lad,. About the loved ones she saw perish. About how Dahyun and Momo had met on a pirate ship Mina had looted, about how Sana had used to be Princess Tzuyu's maid and they fell in love and ran away together, only to be bitten by a vamire in the dead of the night.
In the morning Jeongyeon writes this letter that she knows she can never send, something along the lines of I miss you, and you’d love it here, the names of Chayeoung, Jihyo and Nayeon on the bottom, and pictures her and Mina have taken, polaroids by the waterfalls, by the street markets. It’s bittersweet but it helps. Mina tells her she does the same to Sana and Momo, sometimes Tzuyu and Dahyun too. Sometimes Jeongyeon buys strawberries because they remind her of Chaeyoung.
There’s nothing special about this night, yet it feels like there is. Maybe because the thought’s been lingering on the back of her head for so long, maybe because she’s finally found peace with that part of her life. She doesn’t think she can quite forgive herself yet, but maybe she can move on.
The cicadas make for great background music. Mina’s face is lit by the lights dancing around them, the sound of the village quiet and soothing. This is home. Mina is home. She could love this girl, she had thought one day, and she has. Jeongyeon does.
There’s so much they’ve both left behind—Jeongyeon wonders if her family ever heard about them, about the vampire and the hunter who ran away together, about the fact their sister fell in love with the one thing they taught her to hate and fear. Maybe it opened their eyes somehow, maybe they think of her as a lost cause.There’s so much she’s left behind for this life, and yet she feels no regret. This is living.
“Yes,” she says.
Mina sinks her teeth into Jeongyeon’s neck.