Meant To Be » 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄

» VIII «

“I remember it vaguely,” the guy spoke weakly, “That lady suddenly grabbed me from the back and bit me on the neck. I felt a brief prick of pain and the rest of it was...weird.”

I stared at the TV as I stepped outside of my room with my uniform. The news was on and it seemed like the accident the previous day had gotten popular enough to be showed as a news story.

Chris turned his head from the television as he sat on the couch, “They said that there were five other occurrences like this in the past few days.”

“Oh...” I exclaimed, clearly speechless.

“Most of it happened nearby your school so you really should be careful even when you're inside the school.”

I rolled my eyes, “I doubt any of the students would have the same problem but alright. Are we going to stop using Korean for now by the way?”

“My bad. When do you want to leave for school?” He asked, switching languages.

៚ · •

I took a deep breath before stepping inside the classroom, praying in my head that I won't struggle with my sentences that day.

“Good morning, Emma,” Jay greeted with a smile.

“Good morning,” I smiled back and settled down behind him. Why do I feel like he's extra nice to me than he is to the others?

I slightly leaned at the side to check if Jake's bag was there. It was at that exact moment when Sunghoon walked in with Jake, cackling at the topic they were talking about.

Sunghoon instantly dropped his smile once he saw me looking at their side. What's up with him? Does he hate me? Jake, on the other hand, grinned wider.

“You reached earlier than me,” he beamed as he left Sunghoon standing alone and walked to my side. Jay watched him as he did before gesturing at Sunghoon to walk along and sit down.

“I...guess I did,” I grinned as well. His smile was so bright that I didn't notice Jay turning his chair around to face the two of us intently staring at each other.

“So, did you get home safely?” Jake asked. Jay scowled at the question, making the both of us to turn towards him, “Looks like she did. If she didn't, she won't be here right now.”

I stared at him in confusion while Jake merely smiled at the latter. “I just wanted to know if she didn't run into some creeps,” he spoke to Jay in Korean.

Jay frowned and shrugged before deciding to keep his mouth shut and continuing to listen to our conversation.

“So did you?” Jake asked, his smile never faltering.

I hummed while nodding, “It could've been really messy if I had reached home three to five minutes later though.”

“Huh? Why?”

“There was an accident nearby, including an ambulance. I'm pretty sure you've heard of it,” I grimaced.

“Wait, that was near your apartment?” Jay asked.

“Yeah. It was pretty traumatising. I looked it up in the internet but it didn't help at all.”

“Sounds like it. I highly doubt that it'll bother the public that much in the future but I kind of believe it's vampire-like creatures who are starting to emerge from the dark forests,” Jay spoke passionately.

“I actually thought it like that too!” I exclaimed, getting excited by the fact that someone had the same thoughts as I did.

“The pictures of the bite marks they uploaded looked all the same, with some teeth marks and two vividly bruised marks visible. And those two bruised marks are exactly where the canines are located at,” I stated with passion as well.

Jake gazed at me in awe, “You must really be into stuff like this.”

I instantly switched to my normal mode after hearing his voice. I chuckled in embarrassment, “Yeah, it's kind of weird but...we all have weird fantasies, don't we?”

He pulled up a gentle smile before bobbing his head once, “I guess we do.”

I turned to Jay in curiosity, “How long have you been into these type of stuff?”

“It hasn't been long, actually. I had a little peek at one of your books yesterday and I found it really interesting that I ended up searching it up. I stayed up till midnight reading articles about it,” Jay laughed proudly.

“Ah, I see,” I giggled in the middle, “I'm glad that you didn't find me strange for it. I have had some bad experiences in my past schools back in Australia. It's nice to finally meet someone who appreciates it.”

Jay smiled, “There's nothing strange about it. We're all different, after all.”

Jake briefly nodded before going to his seat in silence, seeming to be thinking deeply, while Jay and I continued to get immersed into the conversation.

P O V

“Mother?” Jake called out as soon as he stepped inside the house.

“You're home kind of late. Where were you?” She appeared in front of him, her arms folded.

“I was—”

“Don't tell me that you're one of those people who decided to cause a mess outside in public.”

“No? I was at a book cafe with my friends. Did something happen again?”

The mother sighed, “Unfortunately, yes. It was a girl who recently turned a few days ago and went insane because of hunger. Her colleagues thought that she was sick and decided to call 119. It was a big mistake.”

“What? Who bit her in the first place? And why did that person let her go days without blood? Didn't they tell her at least?” Jake asked, visibly displeased.

“I believe the one who bit her just wanted to create a bloodbath. She didn't seem to know what was wrong with herself either.”

“Gosh,” he sighed in disbelief, “Now we probably need to be more careful.”

“Probably.”

“By the way, something weird happened to me today, mother. I wanted to ask you about it,” he spoke before dropping his bag on a nearby chair.

“What is it?”

“Do you happen to know a girl named Emma Jones from Melbourne?”

“No...doesn't ring a bell. Why?”

“Well, she recently moved here in Seoul and attended the same school and grade as me. I thought it'd be nice and polite of me to help and guide her around since we're both from the same place.”

“Did you scare her off or something?”

“Not really. But I had this sudden urge to grab her and just...go wild and devour her blood. I'm concerned.”

“Is she that pretty?”

“Huh— no— she's...normal.”

“Hm...maybe ask your father about it the next time you get the chance to talk to him. He might know what's wrong.”

“The same thing happened to me with Youngjae before I started having feelings for her,” Jake muttered.

“I don't want to fall in love with a human again, mother. I'm afraid she'll end up leaving the same way Youngjae did.”

© 2022 -JAKISM