Lovers in the Night II | Yang Jungwon

XI

"I'm still waiting for that answer, by the way." Yona rolls her eyes. Jungwon notices this gesture and pouts, "I'm serious."

"What are you in a rush for?" she jabs as she treads along the Romance aisle. "You're acting as if I have a deadline."

Their class was pacing around the school library. It was an assignment of theirs to look for a book to borrow during silent reading. "Maybe I should give you one," he huffs. "You're so perfect, you know? I want you to be mine as soon as possible."

Part of the reason she didn't want to accept his confession yet was because she didn't know why the hell he liked her so much, also she didn't know why she liked him so much either. Although she believed that some things didn't need explanations, this one did. It was too fantastical for her comfort.

It came out of no where. It was natural, yet it was unnatural at the same time. Her trail of thought switches gears when she catches a glimpse of her best friend across the library hanging out with Grace. "Grace," she scowls. "She is always one upping me in everything. She stole my best friend."

Jungwon stands directly behind her to see the two girls walking around together and giggling. He whispers into Yona's ear, "And I stole Jieum's best friend."

When she revolves her body to send him a playful expression, she is met with his face inches apart from hers. Her breath hitches and his eyes narrow. Nervous, she takes a few steps away from him. She couldn't lie, she hated how submissive Jungwon made her feel.

The way she reacted reminded the boy of the girl he missed so much: Danah. Danah was always the type to get flustered by flirtations but would be able to snap back cutely. On the other hand, Yona wasn't shy to show disgusted facial expressions.

He couldn't lie that Yona's facial expressions made him smile. Noticing her discomfort, he decides to switch the topic. "For the assignment, what elder are you going to ask?"

She thinks for a bit, "Probably my great grandma. I live with her, so it's convenient. You?"

"Lucky. I'd probably have to roam around the street and look for one." Right, he ran away from home. That was also something Yona wondered a lot about. There was no way an 18 year old could be as mature as him to fend for entirely himself alone.

Whenever she asked him how or why he does it, he gives her a vague answer or switches the topic. He was seriously a mysterious person.

From the corner of his eye, he notices a familiar book. "Ooh, The Yang Dynasty." When he grew up in the Vampire realm, his teachers would make their class study these novels because its themes dwelled upon the Human depiction of Vampires.

Yona notices him pulling the book out of its place. "You're into fantasy?" she queries.

He flips through the book to feel its essence. "Fantasy?" He notices the aisle he took it from was, indeed,  Fantasy. His lineage was seen as a fantasy to modern society?

"Yeah, cause of the whole Vampire stuff." She was brushing this off as nothing, but Jungwon felt like he received a jab in the gut.

It catches him off guard because this made him realize that, since the 90-ish years the Vampire and Human realm disconnected, the Vampires have become Human folklore.  "Vampires are real," he purses his lips into a thin line.

She then furrows her eyebrows, observing him closely. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, they are. I was—" He cuts himself off before he says too much. Now wasn't the right time. The 'was' in his sentence felt like a stab to the heart.

He was a Vampire before he denounced it. He was the future King of the Vampires. Fuck, the person in front of him was Danah.

He lost everything for her who didn't even recognize him. He finishes harshly, "You know what, forget it."

It was her turn in the moment to notice the discomfort in his face. She decides to change the topic, "Are you going to read that?"

"No," he deadpans. This was the first time she had seen Jungwon ticked off like this, so she changes her approach.

She slowly says, "I've never read that book cause, you know, it isn't really a trend to read books from a hundred years ago."

He was still getting used to the time jump from the last time he was here. "You should check it out," he attempts to smile. "It's pretty cool."

"Sure," she takes the book from him. "Is it cool because you have the same last name as these Vampires?"

He wanted to say, It's cool because I was one of those Vampires, but he couldn't. "I guess so."

"I'll read it," she then heads to the library clerk to sign it out. He follows after her.

He could recall his name being on the last page of that book. I'll reveal my identity to her when she finishes it.

=

"I'm home," Yona calls with the book in her hand. She lets her backpack fall off to the ground, and she heads to her grandmama to kiss her cheek.

"Hello, dear." An immediate response, that was rare. This would be a convenient time to spark up a conversation.

Yona remembers that their teacher assigned them to ask an elder to tell them a story about their youth, so takes a seat on the floor in front of her great grandmother.

Grandmama cheerfully exclaims, "You've come to sit?" She probably just took her new medication. This was good timing, Yona decides to ask her to tell a story before it wore off. "How are you?" Grandmama continues.

"Great," Yona gleams. She did have a pretty good day thanks to a lovely boy. "Say, Grandmama. I have a favour to ask you."

"What is it, Yona?" The way Grandmama said her name caused shivers down her spine. It wasn't often she'd remember her own granddaughter's name.

"Can you tell me about your teenage years?" Whenever Yona asked Grandmama about her teenage years, she'd emotionally shut down, so Yona hoped she would be able to do this successfully.

"What part, dear?" Grandmama looked like she was perfectly functioning which was great.

"Anything is fine. Maybe your high school life?"

"Sure," Grandmama straightens her posture and thinks for a bit. "You've caught me unprepared, so my story may be messy."

"No worries." This'd be the first time Grandmama would talk about her life, so Yona was genuinely interested.

"Once upon a time, when I was a teenager," Grandmama slowly begins. "There were Vampires."