Year 1939
Seohyun cowers in the corner, watching with terrified eyes the man who entered the room with Sakura.
It's the woman she hates the most. She's the one who makes her hell every day, without any compassion for her. This Japanese female dog feeds off her hurt, taking sick satisfaction from it.
She had been cruelly abused by Japanese officers so far, and the sight of this young man not wearing his uniform made her even more uneasy.
Why did he choose her?
"She's very young, considered the prettiest girl in this brothel, as you would expect," Sakura says to him, clearly fascinated by his handsome appearance. "However, I wonder why you want to use my services? Your appearance makes it so that women from the upper classes would undoubtedly desire you," she adds cheekily, running her finger over his arm.
Jay smiles cynically.
- But I like the defenseless ones.
Sakura raises her eyebrows before glaring at the frightened Seohyun.
"Well, have fun then." He leaves the room, and Jay crouches down, carefully examining the defenseless sixteen-year-old, who is undoubtedly afraid of him.
"I won't hurt you," he says, but she continues to give him distrustful looks. "If you make a deal with me, I'll help you leave this place."
"Just help me die. After all this... I don't deserve to live anymore," she says in a tearful voice.
Jay rolls his eyes.
- Another girl would be grateful that I want to give her a chance at a new life. Don't you want to start all over again?
- Then you should have chosen another girl. I just want to die - she says in a hollow voice.
The man begins to lose patience. He bites his lip nervously, thinking of a solution.
- Okay, so I'll help you die quickly and completely painlessly, what do you think?
Seohyun looks at him with tearful eyes.
- What do you mean?
- Throw you under a car? At least it'll look like a hit-and-run accident.
- You're kidding me, right? - The sixteen-year-old girl presses her knees closer to her chest, hugging them with her arms. - What do you need me for? I'm just an object to satisfy the Japanese officers. I don't deserve to live, so why do you want to give me this chance?
- So you'd rather continue to be exploited by this scum? Are you really going to turn down the opportunity to help?
- I still don't understand, why me?
- Because you're young and pretty, and I find beautiful girls to whom I provide a new life in exchange for helping them.
- Help with what? - she asks in a frightened voice.
- In revenge on men who deserve it. You hate them, don't you? I imagine you'll enjoy it.
- What would I do?
"Seduce one of them. Your beauty alone is enough to do that. So how? Getting you out of here won't be a problem for me, considering I'm inhumanly fast," he says, smiling mischievously.
***
The freezing air is completely unnoticeable to Inha as she walks forward, wearing thin clothing and with a blank look in her eyes. At this point, she is not thinking about her safety, but about how cursed her life is.
She managed to meet her father after many years, but he was brutally murdered by Jay, whom she considered a friend.
Now she understands that he is a cruel vampire who will stop at nothing to fulfill the plan he has prepared.
To him, she's just a tool that he'll throw away when everything goes his way. The fact that he saved her that day was simply part of the plan. He needed her to carry it out.
Now she understands it. She knows that Jay is a real monster and not every vampire is good enough to trust him.
She experienced this first-hand.
If she failed now, he would kill her.
Shivering with cold, she stands in front of the door of the house that belongs to the vampire brothers. The words Wonsung told her echo in her head, but Jay's threats are louder than he.
Wonsung won't hurt her, even if his heart is broken. She's sure of it. Besides... Minki won't let him.
She raises her hand and bangs on the door, feeling like garbage.
How can she just come back here knowing that Minki knows everything? About her working with Jay?
She bursts into tears when he opens the door and looks at her with worried eyes. Without thinking, she runs into his arms, not caring that she is freezing and that he is freezing her body even more.
- Minki...
"What's wrong? Bunny, you need some warmth," he says caringly, stroking her hair with his hand. He closes the door behind her and ushers her inside, catching the attention of Wonsung, who doesn't look happy about her presence.
Inha cries in her beloved's arms. Her face pressed against his chest, she chokes on her tears, unable to recover.
- Cry as much as you have to. Pour out all your sadness - the man says in a calm voice, stroking her back with his hand.
- Minki, they killed my father. I managed to escape by a miracle - she says through tears. - Apart from you, I have no one left. I have no family, I am completely alone.
"I will never let anything happen to you. You will stay here, we will protect you," he says.
She knows full well who caused her father's death, but she can't say it out loud, not now that his brothers are here.
Wonsung, sitting on the couch, watches them with anger in his eyes. He can't stand that every time she chooses his older brother. He would do anything for her, at this point he would run and tear the Japanese to shreds, but she came to Minki once again.
If only she would turn to him... he would provide her with the best protection. He wouldn't hesitate to kill them all.
"I would rather not expose you to this... what if they discover your secret because of me?" she asks indistinctly, moving her face away from his chest. She lifts her head and looks at him with tearful eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you, either. I'll never forgive myself for that."
Minki takes her face in her hands and looks at her comfortingly.
- Don't worry, bunny. We're difficult to kill.
He often calls her bunny, her nickname meaning something sweet and easy to eat. It scared her at first, but she got used to it and thinks it's cute when he calls her that, because now she knows she'll never be his food.
- Can I really stay with you? - He glances at Wonsung, who is sitting on the couch angry as a wasp, accompanied by a disgruntled Tan, who at one point takes his coat with him and leaves the house without a word.
After this question, the boy stands up and, keeping his hands in his trouser pockets, approaches them. He lowers his head and whispers in her ear:
- I don't know if, because of a broken heart, one night I won't just decide to eat you, bunny - he emphasizes the last word. He heads for the stairs and, not paying attention to them anymore, goes up to the first floor.
- Wonsung hates me...
- Don't take his words to heart. You're hurt enough by your father's death...
Inha buries her face in her boyfriend's cold chest, and he hugs her tightly and kisses the top of her head as if to comfort her.
- It's Jay. He did it. He's furious that I've come over to your side, that I no longer want to be a part of his plan.
- I know, Inha, I know he did it. I felt it would happen...
***
Tan walks furiously down the sidewalk, aimlessly. The cold winter air doesn't bother him at all because his body temperature is low.
At one point, his attention is drawn to a young girl who runs out into the street, right in front of a car. Unable to control his pace, he teleports and takes her in his arms, carrying her safely to the sidewalk. She looks at him with frightened eyes, shaking in his arms.
Tan hates scared, whiny girls like Inha.
- Help me, please - she says these words in a trembling voice. - I just ran away from a brothel, they wanted to hurt me. I'm so afraid that they'll find me and force me to come back.
Damn it, Tan curses silently as he helps her to her feet. His gaze sweeps over her face, then down her body, noting that she's shaking like jelly.
She is clearly very young. Scared as hell, she looks to him for help.
He takes off his coat and throws it around her shoulders, furious with himself for what he's doing. He's supposed to avoid people and not help anyone, but this girl arouses compassion in him that he can't fight.
He can't leave her here. Furthermore, he wouldn't forgive himself.
He sighs heavily when he notices her watching him with big, innocent eyes, looking like a deer searching for help.
"I assume you hate men since you ran away from a place like that, but can you trust me? What if I turn out to be worse than the Japanese?" He tries to scare her, but she just looks at him, saying nothing. "You're not afraid of me?"
"You seem to be my only salvation, so how could I say I'm afraid of you?" she asks in a whisper.
Tan looks around the area, wondering where they could hide. At this point, he's not about to take her home like an abandoned puppy. It's bad enough that they already have one, and that's Inha.
Shouts can be heard in the distance. The boy looks at the terrified face of the teenager and sighs once again, regretting that he got involved in this.
- For now, I'll take you somewhere safe. It's the least I can do.
Jay, watching from the street across the street, smiles triumphantly. Playing with his brothers is the most fun he can have.
Let their suffering come, since they abandoned him like a useless dog.