Since [Y/n] had arrived at this place, she'd never once used the bath in her en-suite - only the shower as it was quicker and easier for her. Only now did she realise quite what she'd been missing out on. Every muscle in her aching body relaxed thanks to the warm water that flowed over her. She let out a soft sigh, content with the comfort of the water. It'd been a while since she'd been able to just think without fearing for her life. The threat wasn't gone, but just for a moment she could pretend it was.

"[Y/n]! It's been so long!" a certain short-haired brunette called as she bounded over to her friend. Her arms flung themselves around the girl and a kiss was placed on each cheek in turn. Sally walked a little behind her, a soft smile on her face.

"Hey Tara! Hey Sally," [Y/n] grinned. "Summer was soooooo long, I was bored out of my mind without you guys!" [Y/n] frowned. "Never thought I'd get excited to go back to school," she pouted. Sally giggled and Tara pulled a face at the mention of the building they stood before.

"Sweetie, we were with one another practically every day," Sally laughed, shaking her head.

"That's nowhere near enough!" [Y/n] rolled her eyes playfully, crossing her arms over her chest, though quickly unfolding them as she pulled both girls into a bear hug. "Ugh, I missed you every minute~!" She was about to continue but was cut short by the ringing of a bell from inside the school building. Tara let out an agonised groan and [Y/n] allowed the two to escape from her clutches, the three girls turning to look at the school building with dismay. [Y/n]'s shoulders sagged. "Okay, I take back my excitement for school. To Groundhog Day we go," she sighed. This earned light laughter from both girls, as well as someone else who seemed to be approaching from behind them.

"Don't look too happy about school, [Y/n]," Damien chuckled. [Y/n] spun around to greet her other friend with a bright smile.

"Ayyyy! It's everyone's favourite vampire wannabe!" she joked, a bright smile on her face. Damien rolled his eyes but accepted the hi-five that [Y/n] sent his way. "By the way, I found your YouTube channel," [Y/n] winked jokingly. Damien's face instantly seemed to become panicked.

"YouTube channel...? Ahaha, I have a couple... um, which one?" he questioned. [Y/n] beamed a bright smile at him and gave him a thumbs up before grabbing Tara and Sally by the wrists and running off, dragging the two girls with her. The run was short lived as [Y/n] didn't care to have the whole school think she was some idiot, but turning to see Damien standing in shocked and confused silence was a brilliant start to her school year.

"Hey [Y/n], you decent?" Seishin's voice called from the other side of the en-suite door. [Y/n] instinctively curled up into herself and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"No," she responded quietly, but loud enough for him to hear her.

"When you are, Laion's going to be in the living room. He wants to give you some salve for your scars and such," Seishin muttered, though he didn't seem too pleased about it. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, though," he hummed.

"Thanks," [Y/n] responded blandly.

"Oh, and [Y/n]?" Seishin added, though his voice seemed slightly stiff and hesitant. [Y/n] let out a 'hm?' to instigate that she wanted him to continue. She could just about hear him take in a slightly sharp breath from the other side of the door. "I'm... sorry that we put you through that."

His footsteps slowly retreated and her bedroom door shut behind him soon afterwards.

* * *

"Hi... I came- um- to inquire about [Y/n] [L/n]?"

A brunette girl stood by the counter of a police station office, her hands nervously fidgeting with old bits of paper in her pockets. She still wore her school uniform and her school bag was slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were averted to the ground and a sympathetic look formed on the policewoman's face.

"You're Tara Lazenby, correct?" the policewoman asked, her voice soft and sympathetic. Tara nodded her head succinctly and the police woman gave her the best smile she could, though her eyes were sad and her head was spinning with all the things she 'knew' but couldn't say. "Tara, we're still searching very hard for [Y/n]. I believe we're sending an officer to your school soon to talk to the students about pupil safety and—"

"You've found nothing?!" Tara snapped, her eyes filled with tears. "Still?! It's been two months... I miss her! I... I—"

"Tara, sweetheart, calm down," the policewoman said softly. She stepped out from behind the counter and placed her hands on Tara's shoulders. "Wherever she is now, I'm sure she doesn't want you to react like this. Focus on your studies and your life. Let us handle Miss [L/n]'s case and you handle yourself." Tara's gaze averted to the laminate floor once more and a few teardrops splattered against the clinical white plastic. "Would you like a drink? There's a coffee machine over there that makes hot chocolate," the officer smiled, pointing to a coffee machine behind her counter. Tara slowly shook her head.

"No thank you, but thank you for the offer," Tara dipped her head, "and thank you for your help. Good evening, officer." With that, Tara walked back through the building an over to the entrance. Pushing the door open, she was greeted by two individuals outside the building. Damien and Sally stood down the path, waiting anxiously for Tara's report.

"Well?" Damien pressed when Tara didn't speak. The girl shook her head. Sally and Damien looked at one another, fear and worry on their faces. The blonde walked over to Tara and wrapped her arms around the girl, which only made the tears flow more.

"Sweetie, don't beat yourself up over this. [Y/n] is fine. They'll find her—"

"How do you know that?!" Tara snapped, pushing Sally away from her. "What if she's not?! What if— what if she's trapped somewhere by... by some freak— what— what if she's dead?! Sally, do you know the chances of finding a missing person alive after a month? Hell... after a week..." she tailed off. "What if they never find her...?"

"Tara, taking your anger out on Sally isn't going to help anyone," Damien said firmly. "You know as well as we do that there's nothing we can do. We graduate soon, anyway. Focus on passing your exams," he sighed. "I wish there was more we could do to help, but there isn't. [Y/n] wouldn't want you to—"

"What's all this bullshit about what [Y/n] would and wouldn't want?!" Tara hissed, taking a few steps away from them. "Damn right we're gonna graduate soon, and when we do I'm gonna join the police force and find [Y/n] myself." Damien and Sally exchanged a glance once more. Before they knew it, Tara had stormed off in the other direction.

* * *

"Kori, you've got a new job," Kaist's voice disturbed Kori's peaceful silence as the boy signed paper upon paper of confidentiality and rights. The grey haired boy raised a brow at Kaist and stared at him for a long while, his gaze radiating malice. A look of 'you made me sign all this shit, one job at a time please.' "Well?" Kaist pressed, holding out the job details in his hand. Kori rolled his eyes before taking the notes. His eyes flicked over them for a while and grew increasingly wider as he read more and more.

"No," he eventually spat, pushing the papers back at Kaist, "no way. This isn't spying on some random low-class workers anymore..." he growled out. "I could die! Have you seen that thing?"

"Your motivates for most things revolve around [Y/n], right?" Kaist drawled blandly. Kori furrowed his brow. "Well, as you can see in your notes and as you probably already know, this man is quite closely affiliated with her."

"Yeah, and he's fucking creepy, so no." He paused, leaning his head back and groaning. "Why does everything have to involve this bastard?! I thought I'd be free of him now." Kaist let out a dull laugh.

"He's not as strong as you think he is," he shrugged, "there's a reason he's not an official elite, you know."

"So why the hell is everyone else in this goddamn kingdom terrified of him?" Kori rolled his eyes. Kaist shrugged his shoulders and placed the notes on the side, looking at them for a moment before wandering off and picking up a book from his bookshelf. The action just made Kori more annoyed as it made him think of Seishin. Before he knew it, his grip had gotten stronger and stronger and his pen splintered in his hand. Ink splattered over the papers he'd spent so long trying to sign. Letting out a frustrated stream of curses, the boy stood up and went to find another pen to rewrite the papers with.

* * *

"Why the hell did you do that?" Aytsa hissed. Rayne cracked his neck and turned to look at the angered boy who stood in the doorway of his basement.

"I merely did what I said I would do. Nothing more, nothing less," Rayne shrugged, a wry smile on his face as he mixed some mess of substances in a jar. Aytsa furiously powered on towards the man, his eyes wide with anger. He grabbed Rayne by his collar, causing the jar of liquid to crash to the floor and spill. Rayne rolled his eyes but didn't speak, waiting for Aytsa to get whatever he wanted to say off his chest.

"You tortured her! You— you said you don't even like her, you didn't want to torture her or hurt her— it wasn't an experiment, so why did you do it?! You don't even view her as human..." he tailed off.

"It sounds to me like you're less upset with the fact that I tortured her and more upset with the fact that I tortured her," Rayne speculated amusedly.

"Don't use your fancy psychology shit on me! Answer my question," Aytsa hissed.

"Very well. I didn't do much at all. You are right - I hate her and I do not view her as human. I also don't really enjoy doing things for other people, but I guess watching her suffer for what she's done isn't entirely pointless. Even still, I did not want to, so I did hardly anything at all. Do you really think watching a cat die, having a few nails removed and getting stabbed in the spine is torture?" Rayne questioned. Aytsa's eyes were narrowed. "After all, I've done so much worse to you for so much less."

"Shut up. I don't care," Aytsa growled.

"But you asked?" Rayne laughed. "Aytsa, you should learn how to make up your mind. Stop being so bipolar and decide whether you want to be this side of you, or the side of you that you show [Y/n]. But try not to be inconsistent," he shrugged.

"I hardly think you're fit to call me bipolar," Aytsa spat, though decided he didn't have much else to say on the subject. He turned around and began to walk up the stairs, but quickly did he have to spin around to catch an object being hurled at him at quite a high speed. Sadly, he wasn't quite quick enough. The object lodged itself in his shoulder and caused him to fall to his knees on the stairs, using the wall to prop him up so he didn't fall. "What the fuck was that for?" Aytsa hissed, his eyes wide and angered.

"Well, I was merely trying to prove a point. If you want to call me bipolar then surely I should act the part, no?" Rayne smiled, walking over to Aytsa slowly and calculatingly as he always did. When he got to the boy, he pulled the metal spike from his shoulder harshly, a condescending "oops," escaping him in response to his own actions. Aytsa bent to cover the bleeding wound, his eyes dark and cold. His body really needed to make blood faster - he was on the verge of passing out, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Rayne had removed the plug keeping all that blood in.

Eventually his head slumped forwards. Only then did Rayne pick him up and sit him down on a chair to patch up his wound.