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Through the window, Chaeryeong watches Ryujin pull herself out of bed and peel her sweaty shirt away from her body. Gross.
Still, she tracks her to class, following far enough behind that she’s hidden from view by the bustling students. None of this is new to her. She’d done this part before. Tracking a target is easy.
Chaeryeong waits behind Ryujin in line for a breakfast sandwich from the university cafe and nearly shrivels out of her skin when Ryujin belches into her elbow, loud even through the layers of denim and her arm. Chaeryeong shudders.
Everything about Ryujin screams INEDIBLE and TERRIBLE TASTE, but something calls Chaeryeong to her. And that means Ryujin is going to get disappeared, and Chaeryeong is going to drink her blood.
It wouldn’t be hard, either, Chaeryeong thinks as she watches Ryujin dive through a ceiling-high stack of solo cups. She’s nestled herself in the corner with a drink that tastes like sand—like all food does—just watching Ryujin.
Shin Ryujin has the worst survival instincts I have ever seen. She takes another sip and grimaces, looking at the beverage just to check if the host hadn’t slipped some sand in there as a joke.
When she looks up again, Ryujin is gone. Shit. Chaeryeong pushes herself off the wall and looks around the room, eyes focused on an open window near the back of the frat house.
Chaeryeong is impossibly fast. It’s how she manages to climb through the window just in time to see the railing Ryujin is leaning against creak, shudder, and give way.
Chaeryeong is strong. It’s how she manages to catch Ryujin from her twelve-foot fall from the balcony.
Ryujin blinks up at her. “Shit, thanks.” She looks up at the height of the balcony. “How did you..?”
Chaeryeong realizes what she’s done now. Shit. She scrambled for an excuse. She settles on, “CrossFit.”
Ryujin nods slowly. “Hm. Didn’t know it did that.” It’s clear she doesn’t really believe it, but Chaeryeong is thankful when she drops it.
She looks down at Ryujin. She could do it now. Kill her. The broken bannister is right there. No one would suspect a thing. It would be a tragedy, sure, but one able to be explained away by drinking and a poorly-maintained house. She lets her nose brush against Ryujin’s neck for a second, taking in the life thrumming under her skin. Holy shit. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was.
“Uh,” Ryujin starts, wiggling in her hold, “you can put me down. I’m all good.”
“Oh,” Chaeryeong snaps herself out of it. “Sorry.”
Chaeryeong watches her make her way back inside, grabbing another beer from the bucket before high fiving a few guys. Chaeryeong wrinkles her nose. The alcohol in her blood wouldn’t have tasted good anyway.
Chaeryeong’s stomach growls on the way home and she kicks a rock in frustration, watching it bounce off the curb. She definitely could have killed Ryujin right there, she thinks. She should have. Everything had been laid out so perfectly for her. Plausible death, heavy drinking, daredevil victim…Chaeryeong sighs. She’s so hungry.
But what if she’d messed up? Chaeryeong reasons. Ryujin had the worst survival instincts she’d ever seen in a person. Even tonight. Anyone else would have stopped leaning on a banister creaking that heavily, not leaned further into it.
She was so out of practice feasting on humans…even with a target as easy as Ryujin, she’s sure it wouldn’t be easy. Humans had a pesky ability to claw themselves back from death in survival situations. It would be so embarrassing to mess up on this girl who, again, had the worst survival instincts Chaeryeong had literally ever witnessed.
Chaeryeong watches Ryujin sleep in the early hours of the morning, her “dilf” bro tank and dick joke boxers rumpled from her awkward sleeping position. Chaeryeong wonders once again why she felt so drawn to Ryujin. Everything about her was so not something Chaeryeong looked for in a victim. She creeps closer to the bed, as if a closer look will answer her question.
And it does as Chaeryeong gets a nose full of Ryujin’s smell. Her blood. Chaeryeong has to swallow the saliva collected in her mouth. Ryujin was her…filet mignon. Her Wagyu beef, her whatever. She stumbles back, breathing in the less…Ryujin-y air from the other side of the room.
She could kill her now. Feast now. The party was the previous night. A girl not returning from a party? Stranger things had happened.
But—Chaeryeong sniffs again, sneakily this time—the alcohol in Ryujin’s system would sour the taste. It would be a shame to ruin a perfect meal by not being patient enough, no matter how little alcohol remained.
Ryujin peels herself out of bed and groans. Chaeryeong watches her stumble to her dresser and pull out a nearly-empty bottle of vodka.
She takes a swig out of the bottle, wincing at the burn. Chaeryeong winces along with her. Half in sympathy, the other half because she can smell the alcohol through Ryujin’s pores, clouding the scent of her irresistible blood.
Still, she follows Ryujin to class. She’s got nothing better to do.
Chaeryeong ducks behind a tall freshman when Ryujin glances behind her, and she ducks behind a tree when Ryujin turns around while eating lunch on the quad. In fact, she’s a little worried her cover is blown when Ryujin finally meets her eyes and raises her eyebrows. She ducks her head, a quick, hopefully-casual nod, and scurries off to the class they share.
“Hey,” Ryujin slides into the seat next to Chaeryeong and startles her so badly she snaps her pencil at the grip.
She surreptitiously hides the remnants in her lap before returning Ryujin’s greeting.
“Can I sit here?”
Chaeryeong nods. It’s not like she has much of a choice. What kind of weirdo would refuse? She hopes she’s subtle with the way she covers her nose with her sleeve. It won’t do her any good to be drooling on her keyboard.
What Chaeryeong doesn’t expect is how smart Ryujin is, taking careful notes with tabs and highlights, even linking side research when she can. It’s so unexpected that Chaeryeong finds herself staring at Ryujin’s screen the whole class.
“Can I take you out?” Ryujin asks, voice artificially deep. The way she does when she’s flirting. Chaeryeong checks behind her to make sure she’s not talking to someone else.
“Me? Why?” Chaeryeong realizes belatedly it’s a weird thing to say to a date invite, but it’s too late to think of something else, so she sticks by it.
Ryujin furrows her eyebrows. “I mean, you like me, right? You’ve been following me for a few weeks now. Like, since that party.” She frowns, “It’s a little hazy, but I think you caught me from a fall, so thank you. I’ll pay for the meal for that.”
“I don’t like you, though.”
“Yes, you do.” Ryujin looks confused. “It’s not like it’s uncommon. Plenty of people on campus do. You don’t need to be embarrassed about it.” She pulls out a smile Chaeryeong thinks is supposed to be charming. “The difference is I think you’re really cute, too. So?”
So. Chaeryeong is regretting not disappearing Ryujin when she had the chance. She knew she was a bit of a partier and a player, but not that she was a jerk. But maybe…disappearing her after a date wouldn’t be so bad. Sure, she’d have to ingest a little human food and endure Ryujin’s company for the night, but at the very least she’d get some blood in her system and save the next poor girl from the same cocky attitude.
Chaeryeong shows up early to the date, just to prepare. Usually, her feeding is quick and simple. Men are stupid. It’s easy to lure them to a dark alley. Women are easily charmed. She can take them on a walk in a secluded park, walk them back to their apartments, get invited up. She checks that her disposable poncho is in her bag—just in case Ryujin got feisty during the feeding. It’s unseemly to walk around with bloodstains on your clothing. She’d found that out the hard way after a particularly tricky victim had managed to get halfway down the alley before she’d caught up to him.
She loiters a few blocks away from the cafe where she’s meeting Ryujin, making note of the busy areas and the promising alley around the corner from the cafe. Sure, she’d probably have to really work to get Ryujin to follow her in, but frankly, she seems the type to get handsy on the first date. Chaeryeong could pull it off with some effort. Her stomach rumbles just thinking about it.
Chaeryeong spots Ryujin strolling up to the cafe, so she makes her way over too, slowly, to be just a moment later than Ryujin.
“Glad you came!” Ryujin opens her arms. A hugger. Of course. Chaeryeong accepts the hug. It’d be weird not to. She surreptitiously smells Ryujin’s hair as she does so. Smelling her meal.
Ryujin smells so good. So good. Chaeryeong’s mouth starts to water and she has to clench her jaw to prevent her fangs from growing out. She almost forgets to let go of Ryujin at the appropriate time.
Oh boy. She hadn’t factored in just how hungry she was.
The date is…Ryujin is…Ryujin is delightful. That’s the worst part. Chaeryeong doesn’t get close to her victims. No one benefitted from something like that. Chaeryeong doesn’t like the flash of betrayal in their eyes when they see her face stained with their blood, and she’s sure they don’t like being killed by a friend. She’s beginning to wonder how the hell she’d even managed to convince herself that this could possibly be an effective way to corner Ryujin.
Ryujin is the perfect gentlewoman, pulling out her seat, telling her the best stuff on the menu and her hack for the the best coffee. Insisting on paying, even after Chaeryeong had handed the cashier her card. She’d even listened to Chaeryeong complain about her roommate, a messy freshman named Yuna who partied more than she went to class and still managed to take 6 classes that semester.
Worst of all, Ryujin is genuinely funny. Like, at this point in her immortal life, Chaeryeong has probably heard every joke in existence fifty times, reskinned for whatever era it’s told in. They might have been funny the first few times, but nothing truly tickled her funny bone anymore. Except, apparently, Ryujin. Chaeryeong is baffled. Ryujin isn't even telling particularly good jokes. They’re all the usual, but her casual banter and sly ways of sneaking them in catch Chaeryeong off guard and she finds herself genuinely laughing. Yuck.
“Hey, uh.” The cashier approaches their table. “I’m sorry to do this, but we’re closing up…” She trails off, glancing between the two of them.
“We’re so sorry.” Ryujin stands, bowing. There’s a slight blush on her face, and Chaeryeong studies the way it changes Ryujin’s appearance before her vampire instincts kick in and she views it like she should: the presence of blood. She stands up too and dons her sweater.
Ryujin turns to her, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Sorry to run. Study group. This was so much fun. Are you free…” She trails off, checking her watch, then looking back up at Chaeryeong. “I don’t know my schedule. Can I text you?”
Chaeryeong nods, not even sure what to say, and Ryujin is gone. Second date it is. She could do a second date.
“Okay,” Chaeryeong takes a deep breath. “I have to admit something.”
Ryujin lolls her head over, crunching on a pretzel stick, reading for class facedown on her chest.
“I…” Chaeryeong squeezes her eyes shut. “I’m a vampire.”
Ryujin blinks at her. She’s stopped chewing her pretzel stick, and there’s a few crumbs stuck to the corner of her lips. “I can’t tell if you’re messing with me.”
Chaeryeong shakes her head slowly. “I was planning on killing you for your blood. The dating you was a complete mistake.”
“Hold on,” Ryujin sits up. “Let’s say you really are a vampire.” She swallows her mouthful of pretzel. “You were gonna kill me?”
Chaeryeong nods, knowing it’s exactly as bad as it sounds. She prepares herself to be kicked out of Ryujin’s dorm, have the campus security called on her, definitely be expelled.
“Are you telling me I saved my own life by the sheer amount of sexiness and charm I possess?”
“What?”
Ryujin nods. “I saved my own life by flirting with you!”
Chaeryeong opens her mouth to refute the claim, and when she finds she can’t, a wicked, shit-eating grin begins to crawl across Ryujin’s face.
Chaeryeong lets her head fall back against the back of the sofa. Oh, she was never gonna hear the end of this.