After Dark Games

We Want to Meet Her

Tiffany rushed through the door and slammed it, leaning on it heavily. She brought her arm up and inspected the burn. It didn't look like more than a 1st degree and would probably heal by the afternoon.

"You're three minutes late."

She quickly put her arm down and started to walk away. Seunghyun stopped her, catching her by her hurt arm.

"You are to go to sleep immediately. Understand?" He squeezed and Tiffany bared her fangs at the pain.

"Yes."

Seunghyun let go and Tiffany retreated to her room.

"She's rebelling against you because you're an ass. Why don't you get that yet?"

Yuri waltzed into the room from her hiding place in the hall.

"Why are you awake?" she asked, looking into the direction Tiffany had gone.

Seunghyun turned and began walking. He could go to sleep now that Tiffany was home.

"Why are you?"

Yuri curled her lip angrily. He was out of sight before she could think of an excuse.

*

"Oh, full house baby!" Jiyong threw his cards down on the table and raised his hands in victory. Taek checked Jiyong's cards and once he had seen for himself that Jiyong's hand was indeed a full house he produced his wallet.

"How the hell do you keep winning?" he wondered aloud as he pushed a twenty into Jiyong's hand.

Jiyong started boasting that he simply had the best poker face and it helped that Taek was naturally stupid. Their bickering turned into a shouting fight that probably would have turned into an actual fight if Tiffany hadn't stepped into the room. None of them missed the glow on her skin which meant one of two things-or both in her case.

"Ooh, looks like someone got lucky," Jiyong sang.

Tiffany knew it was pointless to try to deny it so she sat down at their table and decided it was best to ignore them. But it was hard to hide her smile.

"Let me see your arm."

Her brother's low voice destroyed the playful air Jiyong had created.

"It's fine." She looked at him directly in the eye and kept the stare until he backed off. They had all learned that to earn Seunghyun's respect you had to know when to stand your ground.

"So why are we here?" Yuri asked, taking a chair next to Tiffany. They gathered the cards and Yuri started shuffling them.

"I wanted to discuss Tiffany's new relationship."

Taek signaled to Yuri to add him when she started passing the cards out as he asked, "And you need all of us here to do that?"

"I need all of you here because this could affectall of us."

"You're being paranoid. She's a teenager; let her do what she wants. It's not like this girl is going to hurt her anyway."

Tiffany gave Jiyoung a smile in gratitude for being on her side.

"I don't have a problem with her seeing the girl-"

"Jessica," Tiffany stated. "Her name is Jessica."

Seunghyun continued, "I just wanted to ask if it would be alright if you could introduce her to us. She obviously means something to you if you haven't killed her yet."

This was Seunghyun's way of reinstating his authority-seemingly harmless words that cut like knives. Tiffany gritted her teeth and tried not to show how bothered she was by the comment.

"I'll ask her but if she says no I'm not going to drag her here."

"Well I hope she says yes 'cause if there's some chick out there who's turned you into a one woman vampire, then I got to meet her," Yuri joked, bumping her elbow into Tiffany's side playfully.

"Then it's settled." Seunghyun stood, discarding his hand into the pile. He was the one who taught them how to play poker but he never actually played with them.

"That's it? You told us to free up our entire night for something that lasted five minutes?" Yuri questioned in disbelief.

"Use this opportunity to talk about the week you've had. No one's ever here anymore," he told her and walked out of the room.

"And somehow that doesn't apply to him," Yuri grumbled.

They were used to it. Seunghyun often encouraged them to bond; he thought it was a good way of making sure no one got separated from the pack. As self proclaimed leader of their little nest, he also believed he knew each of them well enough and that he didn't need to get to know them any further. Tiffany knew it was only because he didn't like getting attached, which was something she couldn't blame him for.

*