Chapter 6: Having a Heart
“Just to inform you guys, we’ll be going to the forest tomorrow.” TaeYeon said while typing on her laptop.
Tiffany stared at her, slightly mused by the fact that vampires do have technologies in their world. But of course, like what TaeYeon had said and as much as she hates to admit it, she still has a lot more to learn about vampires.
“Hey, did you hear what I said?” TaeYeon looked at Tiffany.
“H–huh?”
“Guess not.” She then resumed back to typing. “I'm not gonna repeat what I've said so ask the others.”
Tiffany narrowed her eyes at TaeYeon but chose not to retort back. Such a mean person.
“We’ll be going to the forest tomorrow.” Sooyoung said. “So do prepare yourselves.”
Tiffany smiled sincerely at Sooyoung. Having to live a few days in the house, Tiffany
realised that the people here were really nice. In fact, they treated Jessica and her like their own family. Maybe, with the exception of TaeYeon for Tiffany as the girl would be cold towards her although she would talk to Jessica.
“Maybe she's just not used to strangers living in her house,” was what Jessica said to her.
But she didn't believe that was the case since TaeYeon still treated Jessica pretty well.
“Why are we going to the forest?” Jessica asked and broke Tiffany’s train of thoughts.
“To hunt, of course.” Sooyoung replied.
“What? Why do we have to hunt?”
Sooyoung chuckled at Jessica. “Not you, silly. I meant us.”
“Us?” Jessica frowned. “Oh. You meant you guys... I see.”
“Jess, you sure are slow.” Tiffany poked Jessica's forehead. She then turned to Sooyoung.
“But wait... didn't you say that you don't hurt human-beings?”
“We’re gonna hunt for animals, not humans.”
“I see.”
“Wait, I have a question.” Jessica raised her hand like how an elementary kid would do when she wants to ask her question to the teacher.
Sooyoung smiled at the sight. “Yeah?”
“Update me on why the two of us have to go as well?”
“We can't leave you two alone.”
“Why? You don't trust us? You think that we’d escape while you're gone?” She raised her eyebrow.
“It's not that. It's just safer to be with us since... there could be some unexpected events that could happen.” Sooyoung joked.
“Wh–what events?”
“I don't know.” She shrugged. “Maybe some other vampires would break into the house?”
Jessica and Tiffany gasped together.
“Stop scaring them, Sooyoung.” TaeYeon voiced out and closed the laptop. “The reason why you two have to follow along is because my father had instructed us to stay with you two at all times. And very unfortunately, going hunting means having a pretty long distance away from the house, so, we have to bring you along.”
“Oh.” Jessica responded. “That was a better explanation than Sooyoung’s.”
The said woman gasped and turned to Jessica. “How could you say such things?!” She pretended to be hurt. “You're taking sides’ too early, young lady.”
Tiffany laughed at Sooyoung while Jessica remained a cool and calm face. Sooyoung then sulked when she realised that Jessica wasn't going to react to her joke.
“To make it better, Seohyun will be tagging along.” TaeYeon added.
“That's good.” Tiffany nodded.
“You don't mind?” Sooyoung asked. “I mean... you're not afraid of us anymore?”
Tiffany shrugged. “All of you seem nice.” Except for Kim TaeYeon.
“Not all vampires are like us, just for your information.” TaeYeon spoke. “Not all clans are the same.”
Tiffany nearly scoffed at what TaeYeon said but held it in. No trouble, Tiffany. Just hold it.
Yeah, that's right. Hold it in.
“Rest early. We'll have to head out in the morning.” TaeYeon informed them.
“What? In the morning?” Jessica groaned. “What about my sleep? I'll be sleep-deprived.”
“You're always sleep deprived.” Tiffany said. “Even if you sleep for one whole day, you'll still be tired and will be able to sleep anywhere. Remember that time when you slept in the bat– Mmphh!” Jessica had her hand clasped over Tiffany’s mouth to prevent her for saying anything more.
“Huh?” Sooyoung raised her eyebrow.
Even TaeYeon got curious of what Tiffany was about to say because of the big reaction from Jessica.
“Nothing! Nothing.” Jessica laughed and waved her hand around.
Tiffany took the chance to quickly pull away Jessica's hand. “You slept in the bathtub with a toothbrush in your mouth!”
There was silence for a while.
Before laughter erupted from the two vampires.
Tiffany cocked an eyebrow up when she saw how TaeYeon was laughing so hard until she had to hold onto her stomach.
Interesting. Maybe I do have more to know... Especially you, Kim TaeYeon.
---The next morning, all of them got up early and as expected, Jessica was the last who got out of bed and Tiffany had to drag her off the bed. She ended up being on the floor with a nagging Tiffany, but surprisingly, she was still able to sleep for fifteen minutes more before Tiffany got out of the bathroom.
They went to the forest by car and reached in just twenty minutes.
“You can put your stuffs into the tent now.” TaeYeon patted her hands after she was done pitching the tent.
The others went inside to place their stuffs before gathering up again.
“So... Who do you want to, sort of, partner up with?” Sooyoung asked.
“We have to go too?” Jessica complained. “Which meant that we'll have to watch you suck the animals' blood?” She grumbled under her breath.
“We can't leave you two alone. There's some other ‘creatures’ here.” Seohyun explained.
“Then, I'll go with you, Seohyun.” Tiffany said.
“Sorry... That's not possible because I have to stay here for lookout.”
“Then why can't we stay with you?”
“That's because if in any events, something or someone does come, I wouldn't be able to protect the two of you as... I'm not good at fighting, you see.” Seohyun grinned sheepishly.
“It's better to be safe than to be sorry.”
“I guess there's no choice then...” Tiffany said.
“I'll tag with Sooyoung.” Jessica announced oh so suddenly.
Tiffany's eyes widened and she turned to look at her friend abruptly. “There's no way I'm going with... her! I'm tagging with Sooyoung!”
TaeYeon didn't seem affected by Tiffany's words as she kept her calm posture.
“Hey, that's not a very nice thing to say.” Jessica scolded.
Tiffany bit her lips and looked at TaeYeon who was still looking all cold, that was when she felt a little guilty of what came out of her mouth.
“Okay, that's decided then.” Tiffany heard Sooyoung said and so she quickly looked at the tall girl.
“What? Decide what?” She asked.
“That I'm going with Sooyoung and you're going with TaeYeon.” Jessica smirked.
“Wh–what? When?!”
“A while ago. I think you've been day dreaming a lot these days, Tiff. Better get your mind working quickly.”
“B–but...”
“Alright, have fun!” Jessica waved and walked away with Sooyoung beside her. It wasn't until very soon that she turned around. “And no fighting!” She warned the two who was staring at them with widened eyes.
---After Sooyoung and Jessica had left, the two were left in awkward silence. TaeYeon was the one who spoke first and said, “follow me,” to Tiffany before she started to walk.
Tiffany followed behind Taeyeon like a lost puppy since she had no idea where she was because every tree looked the same to her. While walking, she would then occasionally kick the pebbles that were on the ground while mumbling to herself, something like, “why am I here”.
She was so lost in her little world of complains that she didn't realise TaeYeon had stopped walking. Thus, she ended up bumping into TaeYeon’s back.
“Owh!” Tiffany rubbed her forehead. “Your body is so hard!”
“Shhh!” TaeYeon grabbed Tiffany by her hand, startling the girl, before she pulled Tiffany towards a nearby bush.
When TaeYeon was looking around the place cautiously, Tiffany kept her eyes locked at the pair of hands. It's cold...
Her fingers felt tingly for a reason and most importantly, she was having butterflies in her stomach. She gulped. What is this?
TaeYeon turned to look at Tiffany for a moment and saw the latter staring at their hands.
That was when she realised she was still holding onto Tiffany’s hand. She quickly let go and mumbled a “sorry” to Tiffany before turning away.
“I–it's okay.”
Tiffany still kept her eyes on TaeYeon the whole time. She noticed how the latter would frown in concentration and then would unknowingly pout, which Tiffany found that it was very cute.
“Come on,” TaeYeon got up from her position and started to walk towards the direction of a deer, carefully, with Tiffany following from behind.
TaeYeon tried to not make a single sound so that she wouldn't alert the animal. She took slow and careful steps before grabbing the deer when she was near it.
The deer resisted and moved around but TaeYeon still kept her hold onto it. She caressed the body of the deer gently and cooed, “it's alright...” The deer then relaxed and didn't move that much.
Tiffany who was watching was astonished at the change in TaeYeon. From the cold person she was, TaeYeon was now being extra careful with the deer she was handling and Tiffany was shocked at how tender TaeYeon actually was.
“Are you gonna kill it?” Tiffany asked, in curiosity and also she really wants to know what TaeYeon would do.
TaeYeon shook her head. “No.” She then soothed the deer’s skin. “Now, this would hurt a little.”
TaeYeon bared her fangs and let it sink into the deer’s skin. The deer snorted loudly and moved, with its legs kicking around.
TaeYeon pulled away after a while. “Go,” She patted the deer’s head and watched it run off.
TaeYeon got up from her squatting position and turned to see Tiffany staring at her. “What?
Shocked?” She asked, in concern.
“N–no...” Tiffany turned away to hide the blush that was slowly creeping up her cheeks.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah.” TaeYeon answered. “Let’s get going.”
After hearing the reply from TaeYeon, Tiffany quickly walked away. Her mind was so full of thoughts that she didn't realise there was a tree branch in front of her and she ended up tripping over it.
She shut her eyes, placed her arms to protect her face and was ready for the pain to rush up her arms but she found herself landing onto something soft and cold.
Opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was TaeYeon’s face and she gasped loudly. Her arms were against TaeYeon’s chest and the strange thing for her was that she could feel TaeYeon’s heartbeat. It was beating very slowly, but she could still feel it.
She has a heart? Tiffany asked herself. It beats... very slowly though. Slower than how normal heart beats.
Tiffany then looked up to see TaeYeon staring at her. The familiar feeling of her face heating up was happening again. Oh no, not again...
TaeYeon looked into Tiffany’s eyes. Pretty eyes... No, Kim TaeYeon, what are you thinking?
Stop it.
Tiffany thought she saw TaeYeon’s eyes changing into pink for a split second but then it soon disappeared when she heard Sooyoung shouting.
“Guys! Where are you?”
Tiffany then quickly pushed herself off TaeYeon and patted herself as she watched TaeYeon got up, still with that same calm look on her face.
As they were walking back, Tiffany couldn't help but ask. “Vampires have hearts too?”
“Huh?” TaeYeon turned to look at her.
“I–I kinda felt it earlier.”
“Oh.” She then looked ahead again. “We do have, because we aren't actually ‘dead’ yet.”
“But why does it beats so...”
“Slowly?” TaeYeon continued and Tiffany nodded. “We don't need as much oxygen as humans, so our blood doesn't flow that fast too, because of that, our heart doesn't really pump that much blood around our body, so our hearts naturally beats this slow.”
Blood... They have blood too. “You have bl–”
“What took you two so long?” Jessica shouted, successfully cutting off Tiffany's sentence.
TaeYeon shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
“Hey.” Tiffany felt a touch on her arm. She turned to see Jessica.
“What?” She asked, a little grouchy.
“Woah. Who offended you?” Jessica asked, clearly not aware of the situation.
“No one.”
“You sure? Because by your tone, I'm sure someone did something to make you this irritated.”
“I'm not irritated.”
“Is it TaeYeon?” Jessica narrowed her eyes. “Did you two fight again?” She then pointed at Tiffany accusingly.
“Wh–what?” Tiffany raised her eyebrow. “Of course not! We don't always fight, you know?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh yeah?” Jessica was still suspicious. “Then what did you two do? Talk?” Before Tiffany could reply, Jessica then gasped. “Oh my god.”
“What's wro–”
“DID YOU TWO KISS?” All eyes went to Jessica. Tiffany had her eyes widened as she saw everyone now looking at them. She quickly shook her head and clasped a hand over Jessica’s mouth. “Mmphh!”
“We did not!” Tiffany then released her hand. “We just... talked. More than we usually do.”
“Are you serious?” Jessica asked sceptically.
“Yeah, why?”
“Woah. I think the world’s gonna end soon. You two?” She pointed at Tiffany and then to TaeYeon who was packing up her stuffs already. “Talk? That's some impossible there.”
“Hey!” Tiffany couldn't help but feel a little offended. “Aren't you always hoping that we wouldn't bicker anymore?” She frowned.
“I do, but this is just weird.”
“No, you're the one who's weird.”
“You are.”
“What the heck?” Tiffany slapped Jessica’s arm.
“Oh, don't ‘what the heck’ me, young lady.” There was a smirk on Jessica’s face and Tiffany felt a little scared of what's coming up next. “If only you could see how your face turned beet red when you were on top of TaeYeon.”
Tiffany had her mouth opened but no words came out. She didn't expect anyone to see that and most importantly, she wouldn't have expected Jessica to be the one who saw it. Her best friend would probably scrutinise her.
“I was actually looking around the place until I came upon you two. I must have been too lucky. You've been caught red handed, Tiff.” Jessica laughed at the shocked look on Tiffany.
“Now, don't do too much kinky stuffs, alright?” She winked.
“What the– Where the heck are you thinking?!”
Jessica rubbed her arm and pouted. “Geez. I was just playing around. No need to get so violent.”
“And whose fault is it?”
“My fault. Totally, hundred percent, my fault. Happy?”
“Totally. It feels good to have you admit to your wrongs like finally.”
Jessica rolled her eyes.