"You can what?" she asked, staring at him incredulously. "What? How? And... a bat makes sense. But why a wolf?"  

"Why does a bat make sense, and a wolf doesn't?" he grumbled, glaring at her. "Vampires aren't equivalent to bats. You should know this. Don't tell me you watched those popular human movies about vampires?" 

Chaeyoung looked at the grass, suddenly unable to maintain eye contact with Juyeon. "Well..." 

"You did!" he exclaimed, his eyes round with shock. 

"I just wanted to see why the other kids were saying strange things about me," she mumbled, twisting a strand of grass around her index finger. "I wanted to see what they thought vampires were like, and why they were so scared of me," she said softly. She'd watched every vampire movie or show that she could get her hands on. She watched the popular ones and other ones that no one even knew about. 

"The human kids... Did they treat you badly?" Juyeon asked gently, and when she looked up at him, his eyes were sympathetic. 

Chaeyoung sighed, hiding her face behind her hands. "I don't want to talk about it," she mumbled. 

After a moment, she felt Juyeon's hand go on her shoulder as if he was trying to comfort her. She looked up again, smiling at him, feeling touched by the worry she saw in his eyes. 

"You don't have to worry about that here," he said softly. "No one will treat you differently. I'm sure Younghoon will make sure about it. Plus, I don't think anyone is looking at you strangely." 

"Does everyone know about me already?" 

Juyeon smiled at her. "Younghoon pretty much told everyone in the Palace. It's important that they know, all the staff members and those of us who are living with you, so that we can understand and help each other. But when he told all the elites... everyone was just curious. After all, you are the first known half-blood." 

"I guess that makes me pretty special, huh?" she joked. 

"Just a little," he said, and they both laughed. 

"I got bullied a lot," she finally told him. "I either got bullied or no one would speak to me. I was always alone, and it was difficult," she said, tears welling in her eyes as she told him. She wasn't even sure why she was telling him. She'd known him for less than a day, but somehow she already trusted him. Maybe it was simply because not many people were so nice to her right away. Maybe she was just latching onto him already because he was nice. "It was hard for my parents too, I know it was. They tried everything. I guess they waited so long to send me here because they were scared of breaking up the family. I'm kind of pretending this is like, a continuation of my going away to college experience," she said, trying to jokingly laugh everything off. Perhaps that would have worked if tears weren't streaming down her cheeks. 

Juyeon watched her for a moment, not saying anything. Then, "should I hug you?" 

Chaeyoung couldn't help laughing at that question. When she looked at him, his eyes looked lost. He looked like he wanted to comfort her but didn't know how to. "A hug sounds nice," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. 

He wrapped his arms around her, gently resting his chin on the top of her head.

"You don't have to be alone anymore," he whispered. "I'll be your friend." 

Chaeyoung smiled, leaning in his embrace. 

"My first friend," she whispered. "I'm glad my first friend is you."