Chapter 4
The three girls sat silently on the dock, Yuri on one side of Chaewon and Yena on the other side, curled up in a ball resting her head in Chaewon’s lap. “So” Chaewon broke the silence “You’re a newly realized witch, that means you probably don’t know a lot about supernaturals. Do you have any questions?” at this Yena sat up straight and looked expectantly at the youngest.
“Well all I know about is the witch gene, I think that’s what it’s called? I don’t know much about other species though.” Yuri replied honestly. Chaewon gave her a small smile “Well the good news is that you have two other species sitting right in front of you, willing to tell you anything your heart desires to know.” Yuri smiled.
“Well I would like to know how you two became, well, you two.” she giggled out motioning to the couple with her hands “And Chaewon, is it true? Are you really… dead?” she whispered that last part as if it were a secret.
Chaewon chuckled “To answer your first question; a vampire must be turned by another vampire by dying after consuming each other's blood. To answer your second question; yes, I am what most humans would consider dead.”
Yuri nodded as a way to show she understood the girl’s explanation and decided to ask a follow-up question “So how did you umm get turned?” the vampire tensed.
“Technically it’s considered rude to ask a girl how she died, but you look like you can keep a secret.” Yuri watched as Yena intertwined her fingers with her girlfriend giving Chaewon’s hand a light squeeze of support.
“It was my eighteenth birthday, I was the youngest out of my friend group so they were excited to take me to my first club, even if I couldn’t legally drink like the rest of them.” Chaewon smiled fondly at the memories of her friends, “But just because I legally couldn’t drink didn’t stop me from taking a few shots and dancing wildly on strangers.” Yena let out a quiet rumble at the mention of her girlfriend dancing with others.
“Oh shut up you big oaf! I’m telling my superhero origin story, we don’t have time for your stupid wolfie hormones getting mad cause I once held hands with someone else.” Chaewon snapped at her girlfriend then continued on with her story.
“As I was saying, little eighteen-year-old Chaewon was in a club for the first time and obviously was not remembering the golden rule of stranger danger.” she paused for a moment and suddenly got serious “I’m sorry for having such a goofy tone, it’s a coping mechanism, I guess even now I’m still not fully used to it, the whole being immortal thing.” Yena cuddled into the vampire to show support whereas Yuri settled for grabbing Chaewon’s hand and giving it a squeeze similar to the one Yena had given it earlier.
“I ended up drunk and separated from my friends, there was this strange guy who’d been eyeing me the whole night, he came up to me and asked me if I needed help. I thought he was just going to help me call a cab or something, I was wrong, he pulled me into an alleyway and started touching me. I was drunk and didn’t know what to do, but what I did know is that I was a lesbian and did not want any man near me, so logically in my inebriated state I did the only thing I could think of, I bit him. Not my smartest move” Chaewon laughed, but this time it wasn’t full of happiness like the laughs Yuri has heard throughout the night, no, this was a laugh filled with spite. “Anyway, long story short, getting bit by a human pissed him off, he said some stupid corny shit like “I’ll show you a real bite”, and then poof vampire Chaewon was born. The end.”
Yuri didn’t know how to react so she settled with the most generic thing she could think of, “I’m so sorry.” Chaewon smiled lightly at her “Don’t be. I’m actually kinda glad it happened, I mean if it didn’t I would have never came here and met Yena.”
At the mention of her name Yena decided it was her turn for storytime, “I guess now that you know how vampires are turned you probably want to know about werewolves, so umm similar to witches, wolves have this gene, right? Well, it’s only activated one of two ways; the first is if a person who has the gene gets bitten by a wolf with an already activated gene, the bite triggers the other wolf’s gene to activate.” Yena took a shaky breath and looked at Chaewon for reassurance, “The um second is through extreme trauma, the wolf gene gets activated for survival needs.” Yuri noticed a switch in Yena’s demeanor, she had seen many different sides of Yena today, but none of them seemed this vulnerable.
Chaewon took over from there, “Yena’s family owned a small convenience store, one day there was an armed robbery, she was the only survivor. That robbery and her having to experience seeing her family murdered triggered Yena’s wolf gene making her a product of the survival method. Her wolf is more feral and on edge, her emotions and impulses are harder to handle, you witnessed a small example of that earlier today.” Chaewon pulled Yena into her lap and continued on while stroking her girlfriend’s hair lovingly.
“A lot of people here don’t know why Yena and I room together, we know you got some of the information from Hitomi earlier today, thanks to our amplified hearing.” Yuri’s cheeks flushed remembering her first encounter with the couple. “Besides a few friends, only the representatives and staff know the reason why we room together; Yena is Enozi’s first survival method case and they had no idea how to approach her. She was unsociable and aggressive towards her peers, her wolf was terrified, and always tried to protect Yena and itself from anything it deemed a threat.”
Yena, whose head was currently snuggled into her girlfriend’s chest, finally spoke up “You’re making it seem like I’m some sort of monster.” Chaewon grabbed Yena’s chin and made the older girl look into her eyes “You aren’t a monster, you went through something terrible and of course it had effects on you. You might be different but you are not a monster.” Chaewon gave Yena a quick kiss before returning her attention to Yuri.
Yuri who was in awe of the two girls for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight, in awe of how Chaewon looked at Yena with so much love, and how Yena returned the favor by looking at Chaewon like she was the only thing keeping her grounded.
“Yena and her wolf were trapped in that state of fear for a little over six months until one day a beautiful, amazing, hot, sexy, smart, kind, caring..” Chaewon was cut off by Yena once again “We get it, you’re full of yourself, moving on!” Yuri let out a light giggle as the vampire continued with her tale.
“Ah yes, well six months later I arrived and I took it upon myself to befriend Yena, I guess it was more of a “us loners have to stick together” thing. Soon enough her wolf started to feel safer and Yena started opening up more to me and eventually a select few of the other students. By this time I think we had been dating for a few months, and it was actually Chaeyeon’s idea to have us room together to keep Yena’s wolf calmer. The headmaster had no choice but to agree, I mean it was that or have to deal with me getting pissed off that I don’t get my night time cuddles and an angry wolfie Yena.” Chaewon finished with a smile.
Once again Yuri couldn't process the strength of Yena and Chaewon, the way she saw them before, and the way the school sees them, couldn't be more wrong. “Why are you telling me all of this?” Yuri finally asked the question that had been nagging at her for quite a while.
Yena got up from her spot in Chaewon’s arms and moved to sit in front of Yuri, “To be honest, I don’t completely know the answer to that. Maybe because sometimes you need someone to open up to, even if it’s only a little.”
Yuri shivered, she didn’t know if it was from the night’s breeze or the girl’s honest words, either way, it sparked something in the young witch, “I had a best friend growing up, her name was Gyuri, we would do everything together.” Chaewon scooted closer to hear Yuri who was barely speaking above a whisper. “Gyuri and I were neighbors so we would walk to school together every day. On our way to school, we always passed this old vacant house, it always gave me the creeps but Gyuri was braver than me, she would always try to coax me into going in with her.” the young witch continued with nervous breaths.
“About two weeks ago we heard that city hall was finally going to bulldoze it down and build some sort of shopping center over it. Personally I was excited that stupid house would be gone, Gyuri on the other hand wasn’t so keen on the idea. I remember her inviting me over for one of our weekly sleepovers, everything was normal until she woke me up super late after her parents had gone to bed. She wanted to give the house a sending off party or something like that.”
Yuri paused, before she could start again Yena spoke up, “You don’t have to tell us if you aren’t ready.” Chaewon quickly agreed “Yeah, just because we shared our stories doesn’t mean you have to tell us yours.”
Yuri firmly responded “No. I need to tell someone, I can’t keep this to myself anymore.” The couple nodded in understanding as Yuri started speaking again, “I thought we would just go in the house and maybe split a beer she had stolen from her parents or something, so I reluctantly agreed to go into that nightmare maker, but of course Gyuri wasn’t the traditional type. Instead of pulling some cheap alcoholic drink that we would both pretend to like from her bag, she pulled out a fucking ouija board and a ton of candles, which basically had fire hazard written all over it.” Yuri added a bit of sarcasm to try and lighten her mood, anything to prepare her for what happens next.
“I didn’t want to but Gyuri promised it would be fine, that she had bought the board at Walmart so how real could it even be, so I gave in. There was a spirit, I can’t remember his name, but he was so mad.” tears started to slowly fall from the witch’s eyes, this was the first time she really told anyone the full extent of the truth. “He was so mad and kept saying stuff about how he was insulted by a witch summoning him in such a juvenile way, of course I didn’t know what he was talking about and started to get scared, like the most terrified I had ever been in my life. He said he wanted to punish me, I turned to Gyuri for help, she was braver, she would know what to do, but her eyes were a glossy white and her lips were this sickening purple, like life itself had been sucked from her.”
Yena and Chaewon each wrapped their arms around a now sobbing Yuri. “I didn’t know what to do, I felt all these emotions and rage. The candles; I guess my powers made them explode? I remember the house going up in flames, and I remember being drained from all my energy as I made the fire spread not knowing how to control it. The next morning I woke up in the middle of ash, I had burned the house to the ground. By then there were cops and firefighters and ambulances all around me trying to make sure I was ok but the only thing on my mind was Gyuri. I kept asking everyone where she was but they looked at me with pity and like I was crazy, an EMT finally told me that there were no other remains found in the ash. Like Gyuri was never there in the first place.”
Yuri finally crumbled and let her tears fall free, she had been holding all this fear and guilt inside. Her parents treated her like a time bomb when Yuri told them what had happened and sent her off to a school halfway across the country, she had no one, she was alone.
Chaewon spoke up, “You’re not alone Yuri, you have people at this school just like you, and if you want us, you have Yena and I.” Yuri let out a small smile, though still crying “You read my thoughts?”
“I normally don’t, yours were just so loud. I’m sorry.” Chaewon admitted, Yuri took her hand “Don’t be, it was sweet.”
Yena whined in protest, “Hey! I can be sweet too!” Yuri giggled at the wolf’s antics as she pushed herself up and onto her feet, extending a hand towards both Yena and Chaewon, “Come on you two, we should head back. In case you forgot tomorrow, or rather today, is my first official day as a student at Enozi.”
The girls each took the hand that was offered to them, “She’s right, we can’t have our Yul late on her first day.” Yena said towards her girlfriend who nodded in agreement, “Yup! We have to set up our Yul for success.”
Yuri let out a silent thanks to the night for hiding her light blush in its darkness. The walk back to campus went smoothly, the two girls holding Yuri’s hands chatted amongst themselves letting out the occasional laugh or playful whine, of course, Yuri had no idea what they were talking about. The only thing running through her mind were two words;
our Yul.