So, Taehyung and Jungkook walked all the way to Taehyung's mansion with the little girl between them, hands linked with each other. If you didn't know any better, you would automatically assume that Ahjin was their daughter.

"Ahjin, this is my home. It looks even better from the inside," Taehyung told her as they stood at the front gate, nudging her a little. She looked at the mansion wide-eyed, not believing that two people lived in this gigantic building.
"Yours?," she asked. "You live in here alone? With him?" The redhead shook his head a little.

"Not entirely. It used to be me, but now, two of my friends moved in and live here with me. And, of course. Due to some... circumstances. Him." He smiled at Jungkook and would've held his hand affectionately if it weren't for the girl filling the space between them. He still couldn't believe himself for how much he had suddenly changed. Few years- or even months- ago, he would have perceived any sort of affection, physical or emotional, as distasteful and unnecessary (if you counted out Mina, who he really did care about). However, now he found himself receiving and giving affection fully out of free will.

Whether that was character development or just a foolish decision, he did not know. But he did not care, either. How Jungkook had changed him, he wasn't all too sure. But there was no point denying that he did.

When little Ahjin entered the mansion, she couldn't believe her eyes. Everything was so divinely beautiful, the rooms simply seemed to glow of luxury with all their glittering chandeliers, old paintings on the ceilings, perfectly polished furniture and just the perfect decoration on top. Adding to that, all the candles were lit and added to the rooms' powerful, almost royal ambience.

Growing up in the orphanage while receiving little to no affection, Ahjin wasn't like other children and didn't smile, laugh or cry as much as the others. To everyone, she appeared rather stoic. But in that moment, she couldn't help but open her eyes and mouth wide, eyes glittering brightly in admiration and mouth almost drooling. This was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. Could this be the most beautiful moment of her life?

The three of them were greeted by Mina and Chaeyoung, both girls wearing comfortable pyjamas and very surprised to see a little girl in their company.
"Don't tell me you guys are already planning on adoption. You haven't even been dating for a year," Mina said with a shake of her head but smiled at the little girl warmly, holding out her perfectly slender hand to shake Ahjin's hand, which she then did.

"Wha--" Taehyung blushed in embarrassment. "No! We found her in the woods by herself and figured we'd let her stay for a night!," he protested.
"You found her in-- Oh no, poor little thing! Are you okay, sweetie? Do you want something to drink, how about some warm milk? And we have chocolate cake left! Chae, can you give it to me, please?" It seemed that Mina, just like Taehyung, had a soft spot for children.

Holding the little girl's hand, she led her into the living room and surprisingly, Ahjin seemed to like her a lot. She now smiled for the first time since they had arrived. Turning around to face Taehyung and Jungkook, she also smiled at them and mouthed a little "Thank you".

Taehyung opened his mouth to speak but then immediately closed it afterwards. "Well, I guess that's that, then." Chaeyoung had disappeared into the kitchen to get the chocolate cake already, leaving the two of them alone.
"Jesus Christ, Mina and Chaeyoung are a mess. I bet tomorrow they're gonna ask me if they can be Ahjin's moms." He sighed.

Jungkook chuckled. "So, what are we gonna do now?" The redhead couldn't help but smile a little. "I don't know, what do you wanna do? Don't get any ideas now, we have a kid here!"

The other grinned. "I think you're the one getting ideas here. Anyways, I wanna hear a story. If you're cool with that." He pulled the older into his bedroom, closing the door and sitting on the bed.

"Well, I-- What kind of story do you want to hear?" Jungkook smiled when Taehyung also sat on the bed and shrugged. "Any story. Your favourite one. You know my interest is always piqued when it comes to old vampire stories about certain pretty vampires." He winked playfully, which made the other look down almost shyly.

"Okay, so my favourite one. It happened just moments after I turned into a vampire, there's something hilarious and something touching about it." All of a sudden, Taehyung lied down and turned around so his head was now on Jungkook's lap as he told his story, something he usually didn't do.

But wow, what a story it was.

-

It was peculiar. He had been running for minutes, for hours, and he still wasn't tired. His entire body was covered in sweat, the lumps he wore were clinging on to it, a stench of poison still portruding from them.

He wanted to run, he wanted to scream although his throat was sore and damaged from all the screaming he just did. All of this, it had to be a nightmare. He was supposed to be dead. Just where did the nightmare begin?, he asked himself. And how long until he would finally wake up again?

He was starting to feel the edge of the forest approach. He had never been to this part of the forest yet, but something inside his head told him that this was the right way to go. Not that there was a right way, away was all he wanted to be. Alone and isolated, so no one was in danger. Maybe then he would be able to make sense of things that had just occured. Although that was very unlikely.

He stopped his running momentarily. The edge was right in front of him, one step and he would set foot in the bright day, the brimming sun already visible through the thick branches of the forest. Would the sunlight cleanse the evil out of him, the evil he just commited? He surely hoped so.

Not knowing what to expect, he took a few hesitant steps forward- and immediately started screaming.

Because the sunlight was burning him. Why was it burning him?!
In horror, Taehyung looked around himself for an explanation as to why mere sunlight was making his skin flame up, blister and smoke as if it were pure fire.

Just a few feet away, he could see a little harbour. Not many people were there, just a few men with staffs in their hands, looking out for ships to arrive and wondering why someone was screaming like that in broad daylight.
A harbour... which meant sea, water!

Taehyung did not waste another second to sprint to the edge and jump right into the water. Despite the warm temperature, the water was cold. Apart from that, he had no idea how to swim! The only time he had ever been in any sort of water was to wash himself in the little pond next to the forest he had lived in. A pond, in which the water barely reached his waist.
Here, it was much deeper. How deep was water supposed to be?

Feeling himself get dragged deeper and deeper into the green-blue mixture that was supposed to be the ocean, the vampire shouted for help but got surprised by water bubbles coming out of his mouth instead of clear shouts. Adding to that, he could not breathe. Why couldn't he breathe?!
He flapped around with his arms and legs wildly, not knowing what was worse- sunlight burning him or water suffocating him and dragging him deeper and deeper into the scary nothingness that he had heard so many stories of.

The flapping was extremely difficult and tired him out as he could not breathe in order to think properly. At times, he even fell unconscious. However, for some strange reason he regained consciousness each time, continuing to flail around aggressively and make his way towards the surface.
But what was the point? Was burning in the sun any better?

He didn't care. Anything was better than this.

After more and more attempts and a significant amount of time having passed, he finally reached the surface again, sputtering and coughing. The water tasted very different from the water from the lake, saltier somehow.

He was about to draw breath again when all of a sudden, he felt the sun burn his head and shrieked, ducking under the water again but feeling himself experience a horrible dilemma as he didn't want to semi-drown for half an hour again! What in the world was he supposed to do? What was happening to him?

"What in the world seems to be happening here?," a voice spoke out all of a sudden, him jerking back, trying to cover his face and flailing around while the evil sun kept trying to burn him and the cool water seemingly healing them.
"Help me," he managed to rasp out, his throat full of salt water and his voice not coming out as anything more than a gargle.

That's when he saw it. A pale white hand, stretched out towards him and as he looked further, a figure crouched over the edge of the harbour, probably having seen him.
Were they here to help him? Or was he dead, and they were trying to bring him to heaven? But then, why did the hand look so soft and graceful?

"Please do come out. The sun will not harm you any further." Taehyung gasped. How did this person know?!

And then, all of a sudden, he felt it. He wasn't burning anymore, the sunrays weren't torturing him anymore! He stopped flailing around and looked around him, blinking in order to see properly again.

The hand stretched out towards him belonged to a woman, the first woman he had ever seen apart from his mother and the other women living around him. This strange woman was his saviour, he was sure of it. Or was he hallucinating?

Taking the hand and feeling himself get pulled out of the water by a strong force, a strength he didn't now a woman could possess. People were looking at him strangely, wondering what had happened to him and why he had thrown such a fit in the water. If only they knew...

"Wh-Who... Who are you?," he panted as soon as he caught his breath again, scrutinizing the woman's appearance. She looked noble and yet common at the same time. There was something very different about her, and he still wondered how she had known about the sun burning him. And he also wondered how and why the sun had just almost burned him to crisps.

"It doesn't matter. You must be new, skilled vampires who don't possess daylight rings would never show their faces in broad daylight." Taehyung wondered if the water had affected his hearing. Vampires? What were those? And what was a daylight ring supposed to be? She must be superstitious!

"You speak nothing but nonsense," he exclaimed. He then gasped. "You must be the one who cursed me! What do you seek from me?! What are you? I never did you any harm, please leave me alone!" To his surprise, she stayed perfectly calm.

"The transformation must have been recent. It is quite amusing, the moment I enter this country, I meet a young vampire. I wonder what else I'll find here," she spoke, and he wasn't sure if with him or herself. All he knew was that he should probably be afraid of his woman.

"Do not be afraid," she suddenly said, as if reading his very thoughts. "It is not me that cursed vampires to burn in the sun, that is simply one of nature's principles. However, I see that you need guidance and while I journey around this strange land to follow the calls of my ancestors, I do not mind aiding you. In my town, there were vampires aswell." Taehyung had no idea what she was saying but started weighing out his options. His life was hopeless as it was and he had no plans of what to do next, should he take the offer?

Perhaps this strange, superstitious woman knew how to help his situation after all. But what was there to be helped. Wasn't he practically already dead? Where would he go from here?

Out of a little bag she was carrying, she pulled out a small item. It turned out to be a ring, a beautiful purple gemstone glittering beautifully in the cursed sunlight. He could barely keep his eyes of it.
"Something inside me knew it was wise of me to bring this for cases like these. I cannot block the sun's powers forever, but this can. Please accept my gift," she offered, almost smiling a little.

He tried to think this thoroughly through. But simply the mention of the word 'sun' made fear and anxiety rush through every single one of his veins again and since he didn't want what just had happened to ever happen again, he was prepared to do anything for it. Even if it was superstition. What were the odds?

And as he took a ring, he knew a new alliance had been formed. Or a companionship, a friendship. He did not know.

-

"So that's how you guys met! She found you drowning in the harbour and saved you with her powers. I have to say, I didn't really expect this." Jungkook eyes shone out of admiration and amusement at the same time.

"Mina tends to appear when people need help the most, sometimes I think of her as a fairy godmother. Please don't tell her I said that," Taehyung laughed, thinking of the old days.
"I know I said it was actually a sad story, it gets sadder as it progresses. But that's the beauty of it, now that I look back."

Taehyung slightly shifted his head on the other's lap, smiling at him and holding his hand as the two of them listened to Mina and Chaeyoung pamper the little girl downstairs, offering more sweets, hot drinks and even a spa every fifteen seconds.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: i had no idea this chapter would turn out like this but i guess we all needed a little break from the drama XD

also random tmi storytime: a few days ago i sat in my bed and there comes this MF SPIDER DANGLING DOWN FROM NOWHERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THAT TRAUMATIZED ME😭😭 even more tmi but i killed that thing with a pair of underwear while half screaming my ass off

anyways later that night i watched lord of the rings and when i read the books i hoped they would leave out that spider cave scene so badly but no they had to include it and i'm scarred😔 i always complain about the harry potter spider scenes being disgusting but lord of the rings is that multiplied by 500 like ajsjfsjsk i'm very sorry i needed to let out my hate for spiders and spider scenes somewhere😭

thank you very much for reading and i hope you somehow had a little fun doing so, good day to you and bye i love you💜💜🥰)