Cursed Blood | Chaelisa

Chapter 24.

The next morning, Joy and Jisoo were waiting for me in front of the Ancient Hall. You might think Jisoo could take some vacation in the hospital, but she likes the place as much as she likes the needles.

"Chaeeyounggg!" Jisoo screamed my name as if it was the end of our civilization. She skipped down a few staircases and spread her arms out, intending to give me a bear hug as she normally did.

"Noooo!" I cried, holding my hands up to stop her. Jisoo came to a sudden halt.

"What?" She shrugged quizzically, looking a bit hurt. But I also felt my face blush in shame.

"Jisoo," Joy came from behind her, "I think it will be easy for Chaeyoung if we start a no-hug rule." Joy saved me the explanation.

Jisoo's face fell as she came to realize it too. She's always been a big hugger among us, but she nodded understandingly at last. I didn't mean to spoil our happy mood but being a little too different also hurts a little too much sometimes.

"Alright!" Joy tried to cheer us up, "Isn't it great? We're besties again!"

Then we made our way through the hall, I didn't see Jennie anywhere in the school. But I guess I didn't want to face her now, and definitely not when I was with Joy, she still had a hard time with her anger management.

Another period passed, then another. I still didn't catch a glimpse of Jennie. For a particular reason, I wasn't sure if it was a good thing. She might be around somewhere sucking people's energy, but let's hope she listened to my words.

After the end of morning classes, we went to have our lunches as usual. Conversations hovered in every corner of the hall. I tried to pick up bits and pieces from their daily talks, but no surprising news today. I decided that nothing was wrong at the Ultara Academy after all.

Joy and Jisoo were debating on whether or not to assassinate Jennie if she drained anyone out of energy again. Joy was on pro (which didn't surprise me) but Jisoo was on con. That was weird because Jisoo wasn't supposed to be a pro-peace, especially since she was the first victim among the three of us.

Jisoo acted as if all the stuff she had gone through was just the bad flu. But somehow, I had noticed the change in her. Jisoo looked quiet, in a more serene manner than she had ever been before as if she was holding secret thoughts or feelings.

Then we reached our lunch table and sat down. Finally, I was in my own place. It felt like I had found my way home again. As my two best friends were deeply engaged in their conversation, I started munching my lunch. But before I knew it, Jisoo had brought back her same old curiosity about my diet, except this time it was me as a representative of vampires.

"Are all vampires violently allergic to garlic?" She asked. I guess she didn't find it odd to talk about vampires in the middle of everything, but if you saw some nerds walking around the campus with handmade magic wands and told you that they had been practicing witchcraft, then talking about vampires is just as harmless as talking about the weather.

I looked at Jisoo and smirked. Then I picked up a piece of garlic bread from the basket and took a big bite of it in front of her.

"And you still can eat human food?" Jisoo gawked at me with wide-eyes.

"Of course, I can. I'm not dead!" I said, striving to keep my voice low. "Any living vampires would be so darn scrawny if they lived on blood alone. Well, unless they're the turned ones."

"Why?"

"Because they're dead people," I said. "Blood works like a charm to preserve them. The same way you preserve dead creatures with formaldehyde, so they can live as long as they continue to feed on blood. I guess they've gone through fossilization."