Lovers in the Night | Yang Jungwon

XXXI

Jungwon was in the Royal spar room, preparing weapons and defence utilities for Danah to try. He pulls out a large wagon filled with his personal weaponries from the supply room he shared with his family members.

He sighs, wondering which to start with. Everything was somewhat dusty and needed to be cleaned. As he looks through them, he notices his favourite pair of machetes.

He grabs them and throws them in the air to catch them. He remembers slitting throats of Strays with them whilst using his super speed to catch them off guard. He was looking forward to using them again.

He puts them down again to look for more.
One thing that catches his eye was a wooden bow and arrow. It was his Grandma's. He takes it from the pile and smiles to himself, wanting to give it to Danah.

Jungwon hears footsteps towards the direction of the door. He looks up to Minji, leaning against the doorframe. She didn't look very happy. Jungwon scoffs with an amused grin, "What do you want?"

He knew that Minji was here for him and nobody else. It was her superpower to track people, so she definitely purposefully tracked him. But why?

"I heard you're going to train Danah how to fight," she crosses her arms. She said it as if she wanted him to tell her it wasn't true.

"I am," he replies, staring straight into Minji's eyes. He wanted her to know that he was serious about it.

"You're putting her in danger." She was definitely still mad about that day.

"She's already in danger," Jungwon sighs. He continues to shuffle through his weapons. "I'm helping her fight it."

"She's in danger because of you. This is all your fault," she harshly states. He pauses. "I'm thankful that you saved her from Jett, but that should've been your first and last interaction with her."

Jungwon was put to silence by this. He knew she was right, and he hated it. If he had stopped visiting Danah, she wouldn't have grown attached to him to the point she'd go anywhere just to be with him.

"Now she's stuck here in our lifeless realm. Do you even know how much she loves the sun?" He did not know that, learning this made him feel bad.

That hit him. He and Danah did not know much about one another, yet they were so drawn to each other. It was as if infatuation had a chokehold on both of them.

"You bit her," Minji grits her teeth. Jungwon closes his eyes, begging his mind to silence the flashbacks that were replaying. "If you really loved her, you would—"

"Why do you hate me so much?" He finally looks at her. "Never mind, I already know." Once again, his eyes fall to the weapons in front of him to avoid eye contact.

Minji was at loss for words for a moment. She started feeling bad, but she was hiding it. "This isn't about us, this is about Danah. We don't exist. Never did."

Minji has always been a blunt person, too blunt. She had always struggled sugarcoating her words.

Jungwon was not usually one to be affected by harsh words, but Minji was a different story. After all, they were younger and Minji was Jungwon's first love. Well, it was one-sided.

Jungwon brings up something that felt illegal to mention, "You left me alone at the altar; You made me look like a fool." He felt cold.

Minji cringed at the thought of their wedding day. That was the day she escaped with her parents to the Human realm. She and Jungwon were too young, she wasn't ready to get married. She resented him for it when it wasn't exactly his fault.

And when he moved to her Human school out of the blue, her hatred for him hardened even more. He didn't even want to go to the Human realm, he had to for his training.

She had hated him from the start because of who he was. She vowed to marry a Human since she was a child, so getting forced to marry a Vampire Prince was way off her list.

Jungwon, however, was head over heels for Minji when his father introduced him to her. As a prince, he was fond of her rebellious nature. Although he had moved on already, he couldn't help but hold a grudge.

After she left him during their arranged wedding, the king blamed it on him. Minji's family was important to the Royals because her mother was the General of their army, so Jungwon's father was infuriated.

"My father made my life hell after you left," Jungwon informs her coldly.

Minji felt bad, but she chose her happiness over Jungwon's, and she was undeniably glad that she did. "He made my life hell when he arranged our marriage," she defends herself.

Jungwon chuckles, "I guess we have something in common." He was always good at making light of a tough situation. Minji cracks a smile.

She explains herself, "I knew we both wouldn't be happy as a married couple in the long run, so I left."

Minji wasn't the only Vampire who'd run away from the empire. In fact, a lot of the population preferred to live on the Earth which is why a lot of them were there. Unfortunately, Humans weren't very accepting of them.

Their ideals were too different. "I know," Jungwon chuckles. "But you know how much I hate to look like a fool."

"I guess I should've taken your feelings to account," Minji clicks her tongue.

"Me too," he agrees. "We both love Danah, so for the sake of her, we should act cordial with each other."

Minji thinks about it for a bit, "Maybe." Jungwon knew it was subliminally a "yes."

From afar, Danah was listening to the conversation. She couldn't help but feel happy now that the two people she loved the most were unconsciously receiving closure from each other.

She had just come from showering and didn't expect to see Minji and Jungwon conversing, but she was proud.

At least they'll be arguing less.

"Eavesdropping?" Heeseung, too, was leaning against the doorframe opposite from her.

"Holy shit," Danah stumbles back but was quiet enough for the two in the room to not hear her. "You scared me."

He simply grins, "Oops." With that, he just walks off, leaving Danah dumbfounded.

What the heck just happened, she tilts her head.

Heeseung was definitely hard for her to read. She could tell that he didn't trust her completely yet which was understandable. She was a Human in a Vampire realm, after all.

Vampire and Humans have always had conflicting ideals, which is why there has been a divide between those who believe in equality and those who don't.