"Aren't you going to get sick?" Juyeon asked her. He was standing a few paces away, under the shelter of a nearby tree.  

Chaeyoung got up and walked under the tree to stand beside him. After a moment of awkwardly looking at each other, she sat down on the grass and patted the space beside her, prompting him to sit as well. 

"I'm half-human, remember?" she said, her voice holding a hint of teasing. "I don't get sick in the sunlight," she explained after a moment, her voice taking on a more serious note. "I might look like I'm getting sick, but I never actually feel or get sick. And it's strange, I guess, but I think I need the sunlight. The human part of me needs the sunlight. The vampire part of me needs the darkness. I suppose it's a little strange, right?" she half-joked. 

Juyeon wasn't smiling. His gaze was far away, and he looked thoughtful. "It makes sense, actually," he finally said. "Being the child of a human and a vampire, it makes sense that you'll need parts from both worlds." He turned his gaze to meet hers, and his eyes were curious. "Can I ask you a personal question?" 

"Go ahead," she said slowly, feeling a bit wary as she wondered what he was going to ask her. 

"Is it hard for your parents? Is it hard for your mother to live with a human, and likewise, is it hard for your father to be married to a vampire? Does your father's family even know?"

Chaeyoung looked down at the grass, thinking. "Honestly, I've wondered a lot about this too," she said after a moment of silence. "Whenever I'm going through a hard time I wonder if my mom has any regrets, because she seems to have it harder. People look at us differently, especially her, because her differences are harder to hide, you know?" she said, glancing at Juyeon with a small, sad smile on her face. She remembered when she was little and getting bullied in school, her mom came to defend her. When her mom found out what the children had done to her, she'd gotten so mad that her eyes had turned blood red. 

Her eyes didn't change back for hours. 

That was the first time she'd had to switch schools, the first time they had to flee to a new neighborhood. After that incident, her father came to try and take care of any issues related to school. 

Since her mother had resided in the vampire nation her entire life, only coming out to the human world once in a while, she could never really get a job in the human world. She had no degrees and no references that would be needed to get any sort of job. That, combined with the rumors that always surrounded her, resulted in her mother's decision to stay home. 

"I think it's hard," she continued, shaking her head slightly and trying to clear her thoughts. "Of course it is. Relationships, in general, are hard, aren't they?" she said, tilting her head slightly to the side as she looked at Juyeon. He nodded in agreement. "Every relationship is hard," she said again. "But my parents are making it work. My mom and dad often go out on dates during the night. On weekends, all of us go out during the night and go stargazing, or on late-night picnics, or just for walks, drinking in the moonlight," she said, a smile coming to her face as she reminisced all those memories. "My mom obviously has to drink human blood to survive, and so do I," she said. "Which can probably be a bit awkward for my dad, but he never says anything or lets it show." 

"Does she... Does she get the blood from him?" Juyeon asked tentatively. 

Chaeyoung shook her head. "She said she never has, and never will. She buys it in bulk, whenever she visits here. We keep it in the fridge and she incorporates it into the food that we eat. Except for my dad's food, obviously. I've never seen her drink it just like that," she said, her voice taking on a thoughtful note.  

"Hardly any of us do," Juyeon said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "We all put it in food, or drinks, just like your family does." 

"Really?" Chaeyoung asked, looking at him in surprise. "I assumed that my mom did that just so she wouldn't make my dad uncomfortable. Why does everyone else do that too?" 

Juyeon rolled his eyes at her, but no in a mean way. His expression simply told her that he was surprised at her utter lack of knowledge. 

"Vampires don't like drinking human blood," Juyeon explained. "Your mom is not a special exception. None of us like it. That's why we add it into food and drinks, like how your mom does for the two of you. We don't like it, but it's needed to survive," he said, shrugging. "It's a drawback from having powers, I guess. We needed something to even things out, perhaps." 

"That kind of makes sense," she said, nodding. 

"And the more powers you're gifted with, the less time you can go without drinking blood. The portions of blood in my food are probably larger than yours." 

"The more powers..." she mumbled, trying to think of other powers that vampires could have. "What other powers could you have besides the usual?" she said, referring to the memory manipulation and reading emotions. 

Juyeon blinked, looking at her like she truly was an idiot. "You didn't know?" he asked after a moment. 

"Didn't know what?" 

"Some vampires have the ability to morph, either into a wolf or a bat. I can morph into a wolf."