Lovers in the Night | Yang Jungwon

XXVIII

The next morning, Danah awoke in Jungwon's room, but he wasn't next to her. Is it morning right now? Danah couldn't tell since this realm didn't have a sun. However, the moon was brighter than usual so she assumed it was morning.

She gets up, stretching. This is when she notices him standing with his back facing towards her, dusting his desk top. Clean freak, she rolls her eyes.

She only notices now how broad his shoulders were. Jungwon stood tall, focused on his task, so Danah took this opportunity to surprise him.

Quietly, she sneakily hops off the bed and tip-toes her way towards the man. When she reaches him, she loops her arms around his waist and hugs him.

He raises his eyebrows but somehow didn't seem very surprised. "You're awake," he says as if telling himself so.

"Good morning, I think." She still wasn't so sure how to greet him since the Vampire realm didn't have a sun. "Did I surprise you?"

"Yup, I didn't expect you at all." he informs her and she internally celebrates. That was a lie, however. Vampires have above-average hearing, so his ears were instantly notified the moment Danah woke up.

Regardless, Danah would never know that. He simply wanted her to feel proud of herself. Oblivious, she retreats her arms and stands beside him. "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning," Jungwon responds blankly. Danah nods, watching him rearranging the objects on his desk top.

She notices a bottle of Vampire repellent on the desk. "Why do you have that?" she points at it.

"Oh, Principal Bang gave it to me before the Night of the Vampires. He told me to keep it because he didn't want his top student dead," he tells her. "I kept it for fun."

She couldn't help but grin at his monotone expression. Even yesterday, when they finally met after a her kidnapping, he struggled to convey how glad he was to see her.

She had slowly grown to understand him, but she would still continue to make fun of him for it. "You're so inexpressive," she pokes fun at him. "It's hilarious."

"I'm usually not a very expressive person," he shrugs.

"I never noticed," she sarcastically remarks and moves closer to his body. Jungwon gives her an offended side-eye, but he felt calm under her touch. She notices this. "It's okay, though. Actions speak louder than words anyway."

Hearing this, Jungwon couldn't help but crack a smile. He was thankful that someone like her existed and understood him well. So, he wanted to show her some appreciation.

"Let me take you out," Jungwon says which, to Danah, came out of nowhere. "You've only been seeing the worst of the Vampires, so let me show you the beauty of my home."

He wasn't wrong, though. In her life, the only good thing that came out of Vampire land was him, Minji, and one day off of school. "When?"

"Now."

≡

"Shouldn't we have at least five guards accompany your adventure?" Queen Yang worriedly advises as Danah and Jungwon stood by the door.

"I do not think it'll be needed," Danah softly smiles. She wanted some alone time with Jungwon.

"What if something bad happens?" Queen Yang presses on. This makes Danah worry a bit since she was a Human openly venturing a world of Vampires.

Danah was already nervous and the way Queen Yang was hinting that there was something to be in fear for didn't help. "We can handle ourselves," Jungwon confidently states.

"They'll be fine," King Yang soothes his wife. "Our son is the finest fighter we know." He places a hand on her shoulder.

This somewhat comforts her. She exhales out, "Right. Off you go then," she give a defeated smile.

One side of Jungwon's lips lift. "Thank you, mommy." He turns around and gestures Danah to follow him with a head tilt. "L e t apostrophe s g o!"

"Why are you spelling in English?" Danah raises an eyebrow.

"I like spelling in English," he frowns.

"Nerd." Sometimes she wonders how her classmate turned out to be a prince.

"No you," he scoffs. "Anyway, you ready?" He puts his hands on the fancy doorknobs.

Right. Danah hesitantly nods, and Jungwon opens the large royal doors. At this, she is met with an extravagant site.

Her eyes widen, not expecting this at all. The outside looked exactly like the layout of Britain to her. There were modern buildings and Vampires who looked like Humans casually walking around.

"Stay close to me," Jungwon whispers in her ear. He stuffs both his hands in his jacket's pockets and descends down the stairs. Danah catches up to him.

After descending down the stairs, they head towards the left side of the street. Where are we going? Danah thinks. "Is this a date?" she couldn't help but ask.

Jungwon smirks, "I guess so." Danah's face transforms into a tomato.

They're not even official yet. Danah hasn't even fully processed what happened last night between them. Everything was so sudden.

"Hey, Prince Jungwon!" a few Vampires call out to Jungwon with bright expression plastered onto their faces. He gladly returns the greeting.

"You usually never casually leave the castle unless it is to go to Earth," another citizen carrying newspapers claims. "Is there a special event?"

"Yup," Jungwon tilts his head toward Danah and the citizen gasps, getting it. Danah doesn't notice this, however. She was too busy in thought.

"What will your family say about this?" she continues to queries. I wonder if his parents are strict about relationships due to his status.

"They don't care, they like Humans." Holy shit, right. It was as if Danah had forgotten that Jungwon wasn't a Human like she was, and now she was overly aware of the species around her.

They both pass by multiple Vampires who didn't even bat an eye at Danah. Still, she didn't feel very safe anymore. "What if someone tries to eat me during our lovely date?"

"No one will," he assures her but slightly frowns.

"But everyone here is a Vampire. Vampires eat people," Danah insensitively proclaims.

"That's speciesism," Jungwon was now genuinely hurt. "You can't assume all Vampires eat Humans just because you've mostly met Strays."

"How can you say so?" Danah was a bit ignorant.

"That's like me saying all Humans are colonizers after they raided ancient Vampire homes back in the Human realm," Jungwon attempts educating her. "Besides, isn't Minji your best friend who is also a Vampire? She hasn't tried eating you, has she?"

Danah thinks for a bit, "You're right. She hasn't. And you haven't yet." She was slowly comprehending the faultiness of her mindset.

"Yet?" Jungwon repeats. He was glad that she was slowly getting it, but redirecting perspectives usually take a while.

"Sorry, you haven't." she corrects herself. She felt bad that she only realized now that she had been generalizing all Vampires to be bad.

"Better," he was partly satisfied. "You need to become comfortable with us since you're stuck here until we take care of Rose."

Danah sighs, "Noted." She makes sure her jacket covered the back packet of her pants which held the Vampire repellent from earlier. She instantly felt bad for bringing it without his consent.

The next thing Jungwon does catches her off guard. He pecks her on the side of her head and intertwines their hands. "Enough pep talk. Let's have some fun."