Taehyung jumped up abruptly, throwing away his phone onto the desk as if it had just burned him.

"You okay?" A certain raven-haired boy stared at his slowly retreating figure in confusion, contemplating whether he should lay a hand on his shoulder to help him recover from whatever had just shocked him like that. Eventually, he chose not to.

"I-I," the redhead stammered. "I need to go." He was about to run away when he realized he had left his phone on the table, silently cursing at himself as he grabbed it and dashed out of the classroom as fast as he could without sparing him a single glance, vampire-speeding all the way towards a secluded area outside the university building with many willow trees shielding him, not a single soul present.

Dialling his friend's number desperately, he kept mumbling incoherent things over and over, his legs feeling wobblier than a pack of jelly.
Luckily, Mina picked up the phone only after the third ring.

"Thank god, Tae! What took you so long?," she exclaimed immediately.
"I had class. Mina, how can you be so sure of this? You have no idea how many Jeons live in this country, surely not each one of them can be part of them!" He could hear her sigh.

"No, Tae. There's more to it, I did my research clearly. You know why it took me so long to find all of this out? Because there's literally nothing on the Internet, every single website I clicked on just happened to be deleted. So I went all the way up to Daegu and paid the library a visit. You know, the one we used to go to. The town council from 1850, the founding members all wrote journals and published them, to warn everyone from supernatural creatures. And when they blew apart, all copies were burned. Except for the ones in that library," she explained, him listening with furrowed eyebrows and his breath hitching.

"Anyways, not the point. I don't know if you remember this, but the founding members formed this secret society. A secret society trying to prove that supernatural beings exist, wanting to expose us and burn us to ashes. And their leader? Jeon Jooil, the cruelest of them all. The ones that didn't support their decision got exiled and I'm sure you remember how screwed up everything was. We were one of the only ones who escaped. And that, only barely." The redhead interrupted her quietly, not exactly knowing where this was supposed to go.

"Of course, I remember everything. How could I forget, I was one of the vampires nearly staked to death and burned down. But what does this have to do with Jungkook? Just because his surname is Jeon? If I've learned anything from that experience, it's not to shit your pants every time you hear that damn surname. It's very unlikely for him to be related to a vampire hunt..." He stopped his protest mid-way, remembering the fact that he was related to Kim Seokjin.

"Wait, that's not all. I-- I can't even believe both of us forgot about this. About fifteen years ago, you met some toddler in the alleyway and brought him home with you, do you recall? You gave him a gemstone as a souvenir and you told me how his parents at the police station gave you sketchy vibes. I apologize for invading your privacy, but I kind of tracked down the gemstone you told me about, with a locator spell. A demantoid, was it? Regardless, Tae. That little boy is your uni friend Jeon Jungkook. It all adds up, and don't even get me started on his parents that you found so suspicious."
The vampire almost dropped his phone in shock. How? How could he have forgot?

"My name's Jungkook, Mister. And I think vampires do exist, no matter what you say."

Oh god. This was not good. Definetely not good.

"O-Oh my--," he stuttered, feeling not only stupid, but guilty. He should have read the signs.
"Fuck, I'm so sorry. I'm so dumb, I tried looking out for sketchy people when the main problem was right in front of me the entire time. God, how did I not realize? I was never good with names and knowing so many people kinda overlaps after a while, but this? Mina, this is all my fault. I should've--" She interrupted him hastily.

"No, Tae, this is not your fault. I should've helped you and moved to Seoul instead of letting you deal with this all by yourself. But the spirits don't like moving around, they are bound to nature and they don't like letting go, it was hard enough to move from Nishinomiya to Jinju, they only let you do that once in two hundred years or so and once you do, they keep plaguing you with creepy hallucinations. Plus, I can tell they'll hate the mountains of Seoul." She huffed.

"Anyways, back to the Jeons. They were the ones who formed the secret society to kill supernaturals, as I said. The Hunters, as they called it. When the town council and The Hunters blew up in 1864 and many members died, the Jeons obviously didn't like that and tried reviving their secret society but failed to succeed. Up until now, obviously. I think they may try to strike soon enough, they're powerful enough for sure. They've changed their name, and their initials. They're called Gloriam Hominum now officially." The vampire furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

(A/N: this name is basic google translated latin because i took french instead of latin at school so idk any shsjj but in case anyone knows actual latin and this is wrong please don't hesitate to correct me💕)

"Glori-what now?"
"It's Latin, it basically translates into the glory of human. Their initials used to be a scar on the left cheek, but I'm guessing they figured it'd be too eye-catching. They have tattoes now, on their arms. I heard they mix the ink with the ashes of a vampire they've killed in order to pledge themselves to the society and keep this world strictly occupied by human beings."
Taehyung felt sick, sick to the core.

"That's fucking disgusting. Don't they get it? Nature needs a balance, you need the supernatural to balance the natural. One can't exist without the other and without supernaturality, this world would crumble and go up in flames. But how can you be so sure this is Jeon Jungkook's family we're talking about?," he thought out loud, his hands aswell as lips slightly trembling as he waited for his friend's response.

"Because I looked up Jeon Jooil's entire family history, his ancestors and descendants. All the names add up and his great-grandson's name is Jeon Jungkook. Plus, after the council blew up, Jeon Jooil ordered his son Joohyun to take over his position, made destroying supernaturality the entire family's fate. Joohyun complied and when his attempts failed, he hated to disappoint his father and moved from Daegu to Seoul to try his luck there. And guess what? Jeon Jungkook's entire family lives in Seoul and Joohyun's son happens to be Jungkook's father Jeon Dantae." It took a while for Taehyung to process that information.

Eventually, he just let out a long breath. "Fuck, this is not good." Not only did he feel tense, he also felt a bit... crestfallen? After weeks of knowing the ravenette, he had finally learned to get used to him and at least remotely get along with him, and now it turned out that he was basically the enemy, the one he would have to fight. Also, he couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Had Jungkook known he was a vampire all along, had he only been nice to him to spy for his parents and reveal all sorts of information to them?
If that was the case, he was doomed. He did show Jungkook the alleyway he lived in, protection spells or not.

"So what are you saying? Do you want me to kill Jungkook? Or lock him up somewhere? Torture him into insanity? Or--"
"What? No! That's not what I'm saying, we don't even know if he's as evil as his family but he could be. Just... pretend you have the flu and ditch uni for a few days. I'll come to Seoul and we can figure something out together, okay?" Taehyung nodded despite knowing she couldn't see it, letting out a long breath.

"Okay. I think I need to go back, if I stay away for too long or randomly go away, it'll be suspicious. For today, I'll stay here but don't worry, I'm sure nothing will happen. Only two periods left." He hung up the phone after bidding goodbye, hoping that no one would notice that something was wrong for the rest of the day. He was a mediocore actor, after all. He could pretend that everything was fine.

But oh, who was he kidding?

Then, many things started to happen.

Walking back to the building as normally and unfazed as possible, flashbacks of all sort started plaguing him, to a point where it made his head ache. Moreover, a specific memory from year 1864, the year where all of it had found its climax.

Crazy how he could remember every specific detail from something that had happened a century and a half ago. Many people couldn't even remember the things they had done the day before!

-

"Taehyung. Taehyung, wake up! Open your eyes, please!"

The vampire let out a low groan as his eyelids slowly started fluttering. Every single inch of his body burned and his sight was blurry and uneven.

After a while, he realized that a woman was crouching over his body, grabbing his shoulders and shaking them with force. Despite the non-existent lighting, he could recognize her sickly pale face aswell as strands of her jet black hair, previously having been part of a tight bun, falling into it messily. "M-Mina?"
As he lifted his own shaky hands, a rush of panic surged through him as he didn't see the familiar amethyst gemstone decorating his ring finger.

"I know, they took your daylight ring off. I can still sense the full moon, we have about three hours before sunrise. You must help me, we need to get out of here. They will be here at dawn, to kill us. They weakened you with vervain, you need blood. Take my wrist but only drink a small amount, I need enough energy to get us out of here." She held out her wrist, motioning him to drink and not even flinching when she saw the red gleam start to flicker in his eyes.

He was about to protest but when the alluring smell of blood invaded his senses, the bloodthirst eventually took over and with one last approving glance from Mina, he allowed his fangs to grow and sunk them into the pale skin of her wrist, slightly wincing at the bitter taste of witches' blood but feeling a little strength flow back into his body.

About ten seconds later, she pulled back her wrist with a slight glare. "Enough. Stand up, we must find the entrance. We are inside the dungeon, the egress was sealed shut by seven witches, Tzuyu was one of them. Opening it alone is going to be a challenge that might cost me my life but it is worth a try, I know the spell. Now or never," she urged, gripping the fabric of her long skirt and pulling it up to not trip on it as she felt up the wall while walking along it.

She let out a breath of relief as she felt the wooden stick of a torch in her hands. "Incendia," she whispered, the stick lighting up below her palm and an orange flame illuminating the sinister dungeon. She cringed at all the dirt-coveres bodies laying there along with Taehyung who started standing up carefully.

"Come on." She grabbed his wrist, the torch grasped by her other hand, and led him along the dark dungeon, careful not to step on any bodies. Slowly coming back to his senses, Taehyung caught up as well as he could.

This was his only chance of survival, the least he could do was give it his all.

-

Taehyung shook his head at the memory, trying to focus on the present instead. It's all in the past, he told to himself. No need to think about it now.

To his huge shock, there seemed to be someone waiting for him inside the university building. A certain someone with slightly long raven hair and dark, expressive eyes.

Fuck, no. Not now.
But it got even worse.

"I know your secret, you know? I wasn't sure before but now I am. Definetely," he just said, sounding like he had waited a long time to say this. Taehyung scoffed, trying to sound dismissive when in reality, he could feel his hands starting to tremble again. It couldn't be, right? It just couldn't!
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have secrets," he spoke coolly, thinking about the most convenient way in order to escape.

Jungkook didn't respond for a while. "Of course you do," he spoke quietly. And his next move was something the redhead had not anticipated in the slightest.
The ravenette lunged at him, grabbed his arm before he could even react in the slightest (even with his vampire senses) and stabbed his skin with something, something sharp. A syringe! "Vampire."

In that exact moment, he started to feel the energy getting sucked out of him, the blood inside his veins flowing slower and slower and his mind starting to wear dreary, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. He tried to say something, anything, but his throat felt too weak to let out a single sound. Trying to catch a breath but failing, he felt his eyelids flutter close without him being able to fight it.

The last thing he registered was a hand on top of his head, laying there for a while, maybe even caressing a strand of his hair, and a hushed voice whispering a "Sorry" into his ear. And the next second, his mind went entirely blank and the last thing his eyes perceived was a pure, pure void of black.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: i'm sorry y'all probably didn't expect this but i've had this planned for a while, maybe not like this but hahaha yeahhh

i honestly don't have anything i wanna say rn so i just hope you're doing well and i hope you know you're amazing and gorgeous and you all deserve the best💜💜

it has come to my mind that this book has been getting quite the attention and i wanted to thank you like uwuwu i'm glad if you like reading it (it's fun to write), thank you loads for supporting it i love you💜💜💜)