Meant To Be » 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄

» XXIII «

“I shouldn't be surprised that you live here but you actually live here?” I asked while following Heeseung from behind.

He merely hummed and continued to walk on the deserted pathway. I turned around to see a bunch of trees standing close to each other. This must be a hideout for them, the forest is far behind us.

The pathway led us straight to a city of some sort as the moon shone bright above us and made it easier for me to look around my surroundings in awe.

“Does this path have a closing time?” I asked out of the blue.

“No, it's open all the time.”

“How come people never discover it?”

“We're the only ones who have the ability to enter it.”

“How old are you?”

He turned back at me, “I'm the same age as you. I haven't been here for long.”

“Really? I expected you to be more than a 100 years old.”

“I would've already died,” he snickered.

“How so? I thought you have an eternal life.”

“We do, but if you're born like this and never have someone to live off to, you die.”

“So...you used Youngjae for that?” I grimaced.

He sighed, “Why do you think I'm still alive?”

“Something's not adding up, if you had been living off of Youngjae this whole time, she'd be dead already...and you'd soon die too.”

“Come on, think harder. You're better than that,” he smirked.

“Unless,” I pointed at him with wide eyes, “You turned her?!”

He chuckled, “She was the one who agreed when I asked her if she wanted to live an eternal life with me.”

I covered my mouth with both hands in awe, “So you're practically married to her? At the age of what, 19?”

“No,” he furrowed his brows, “That's a bit too early.”

“I have so many questions, may I ask more? I really don't want to bother you with more of my questions.”

“I honestly don't care. You came here to clear your doubts, didn't you?”

“Oh, then, why did you pick Youngjae, a human, instead of someone like you to live off to? I'm pretty sure that way it wouldn't have attracted any media's attention.”

“We can't just choose who we wish to live with for the rest of our lives. Fate has already picked someone for us, we simply follow the signs and fall in love with the right person, whether or not they're our kind.”

“Wow, how did you know she was the one?”

“Long story short, I bit her once and after that I could sense her when she's bleeding.”

I gave him a side-eye, my mouth agape a little. He noticed it and shook his head, “If you're thinking about her menstrual cycle, no, anything else but that.”

I released a breath out of relief, “Okay, but how did you know she was the one who was bleeding?”

“She's the only person I have ever bitten in my whole life.”

I exclaimed, “First bite and you got it right?”

He shrugged coolly, “All thanks to my mother, I highly believe that our parents can feel it when they're with someone who'll join the family later.”

“Huh?”

“My mother and Youngjae's mother were actually the ones who were behind my first experience drinking someone's blood. The missing cases were all planned too.”

“What? They found your mother's body—”

“She faked her death so that people would conclude that Youngjae and I were dead too. She's very much alive right now.”

I was indeed fascinated to have my doubts cleared at last. I never knew I would find out the truth from Heeseung himself but there I was, walking into the city while he gladly answered my meaningless queries.

I looked around and saw that every person in there had glued their eyes on me as if they knew I wasn't one of them. It sent shivers down my spine and I walked closer to Heeseung.

“You'll be fine as long as you stick with me,” he uttered and allowed me to lock arms with him.

“Can't you just do the thing you did back in my room? I feel uncomfortable,” I grimaced.

“We're almost there now. They're not going to do anything to you if you're with me so don't pay much heed to them,” he sighed.

I was avoiding eye contacts as much as I could when Jake appeared from one of the corners and called me out, “It took you two forever to reach. I thought something bad happened.”

I immediately removed my arm from Heeseung and rushed to Jake, hugging him at once and sighing in relief, “Thank goodness you're here.”

He patted my head with a chuckle, “People here can be strange towards foreigners, don't mind them. They just love to weird out and scare off outsiders.”

Heeseung smiled and walked past us, “Let's get going if we don't want your cousin to find out you're not home.”

I pulled away from Jake and he instantly intertwined his fingers with mine with a reassuring smile, “You ready?”

“Ready as I'll ever be, let's go,” I walked off, pulling him behind as I followed Heeseung.

P O V

“When did you guys decide to come back here? The last time I came, you were still in hiding,” Jake asked as they entered the mansion.

“Just today, we felt it was unnecessary for us to keep on hiding even from our own kind. We wouldn't be making an appearance out there anymore though,” Heeseung answered with a sigh.

“Yeah, it would just raise more questions,” Jake muttered as they were led into a dining area, where some other people had already sat down and made themselves comfortable as they chatted with one another.

The first person Emma noticed was Sunoo, who was sitting among a group of strangers and laughing along with them, “Sunoo isn't one of y'all, right?”

Heeseung laughed, “I brought him too because I didn't want you to feel alone being the only normal human being around. Plus, he really misses Youngjae.”

“Youngjae,” Jake mumbled while he kept his eyes on a particular figure.

Emma looked at him in concern and then at the feminine figure which was sitting beside Sunoo the whole time. She had a genuine smile on her face while the boy next to her continued to talk about the occurrences she had missed in school.

She eventually turned her head and met eyes with her past lover at once. She paused as she took her time to gaze at his visuals and soon enough she was filled with enthusiasm. She immediately got up from her seat and rushed to Jake, “Jaeyun?!”

Emma scooted away from Jake with a dumbfounded expression on her face as Jake readily engulfed the other girl into a hug, holding her tight.

“I missed you so much, Youngjae. Why did you leave me without saying anything? Do you know how bad I felt? You didn't even give me the chance to apologise,” Jake started letting out his tears along with all the emotions he had felt.

“I'm so sorry, Jaeyun,” Youngjae sobbed as well upon hearing his voice again, “Every single day I wished I could've seen you one last time so that I could apologise.”

They both embraced each other while Emma and Heeseung watched from a distance. Heeseung pulled up a small smile as he watched the scene while on the other hand, Emma stared with an expressionless face, thinking if they both were still discreetly in love with each other.

© 2023 -JAKISM