Jimin smiled as soon as Minjeong opened the door for her.

"Hi."

"Jimin!" Minjeong quickly pulled her in.

"I thought you won't be able to come since it's late already."

Jimin hummed, sitting down on Minjeong's couch, before pulling her to sit beside her.

"Sorry. The dinner took a little long."

"It's okay."

Minjeong leaned her body against Jimin, and smiled at her.

"How was work earlier?" Jimin asked.

"Okay, but luckily we don't really have too many customers. Yunjin had to leave early too, she got an emergency."

"Hmm."

"And someone else came in to cover Yunjin, it's Yunjin's friend." Minjeong told her.

"Okay."

"How about you? how's dinner?"

Jimin kept her poker face, as she remembered what happened earlier.

"So, it's true that you have awakened." Irene said, she destroyed the silver around Jimin's ankle in no time. She scoops some of the liquid into a small tube before she pours something else on the leftover liquid on Jimin's skin.

"It's good to see you again, Irene." Jimin said, finally moved after Irene's help.

She looked at her with a serious face. Irene nodded in understanding. Irene then slit her wrist a little, giving it to Jimin. Jimin on her blood, and Irene took out a small red potion as she pulled her wrist, letting Jimin drank the potion now. 

"I will look into this liquid." Irene told her, as she watched Jimin's wound slowly healed.

When Jimin got hurt, her wound will heal by itself, just like the other vampires. Only when the vampires got exposed to the witches' liquid type of weapon that they need Irene to heal them. 

"Your father is calling for all of us, Jimin." Mark said.

"Let's go."

All of them left the forest together like a wind, and appeared in the living room of the Yoo castle, where Mr and Mrs Yoo were waiting for their return along with the other vampires.

"What happened?" Jimin's father asked, reaching out his hand, and Jimin just put her hand on her father's hand.

Mr Yoo closed his eyes as he watched a vision of what happened to Jimin out in the forest back then. Mr Yoo growled, taking a step forward to check his daughter.

"I'm okay, father. Irene managed to heal me." Jimin assured him.

"Irene." Mr Yoo looked at her.

"I need to examine what they used to hurt Jimin first. I will come back once I have the result." Irene said.

"So, it's the humans?" Mr Yoo asked.

"Yes, father, but..."

"But?"

"It seems like they work with the witches." Jimin said.

"Yes, the liquid seems familiar, and I caught a hint of witches' scent too." Irene said.

"Oh no." Mrs Yoo frowned.

"Jimin, I think it's best if you stay in the castle most of the time." Mr Yoo said.

Jimin remains unfazed as she stood tall in front of her father.

"I can't. I have to see Minjeong."

"But, your safety-"

"I will be fine, father."

"Sigh. Just, please be safe."

"I will."

"Jimin?" Minjeong shook Jimin's shoulder.

"Dinner was okay." Jimin answered.

Jimin, we managed to track the human's scent at some place. It was around the hospital's area, the forest, and... Minjeong's workplace. But we can't track where they go off to, after they ran away earlier. And we can't track the witch who attacked you. 

Jimin glanced at Minjeong's closed windows, and saw Aeri's shadow there. 

Smart, but careless. Keep trying to track them.

Okay.

.....

Jimin appeared in Irene's study room as she called Jimin to come over. Irene gestured her to sit on the chair in front of her desk.

"What did you find?" Jimin asked.

"It's true, it's the witches. This liquid, they used this before. You're lucky the liquid wasn't the strong one." Irene explained.

"Hmm. I kind of suspected that, yes."

Thud!

Jimin glanced at Aeri who just came, she approached them.

"They didn't plan to do a full attack. They just wanted to see."

"To see what exactly?" Jimin raised her eyebrows.

"They know they can't win against you. They just wanted to see if their liquid will work." Aeri said.

"And they might revise back, maybe produce another one, that will successfully hurt you more." Irene said.

"Yes. It seems like they studied about Jimin really well, but not all of us, not me." Aeri said.

Jimin looked at her, waiting for her to continue. Aeri then told her that she went back to the forest, and tried to see a past vision where the humans were at, during that night. She saw a vision where they were talking in whispers, spoiling a few details of their plan.

"Jimin. They knew that you've awakened, and they are going to plan a way to get rid of you, for good this time." Aeri said seriously.

Jimin scoffed in disbelief. Those witches never learn.

"The human works with them, because they have learned about our existent, and they want all of us gone too." Aeri told her.

"So, that's why they are targeting Jimin, now that Jimin's awake." Irene nodded, slowly understanding of the whole situation.

"Yes, because Jimin is our future Queen. So, they need to kill Jimin, as it's the only way to wipe off the entire vampire family." Aeri said.

Jimin crossed her arms. She knows, she knows that damn well. Her presence threatened the whole witch community, especially when the news of her strength spread, and they managed to witness of how powerful Jimin is. The witches tried any ways to fight her, thus the strongest of them all, Stella managed to spell a curse on her.

"You need your human's blood as soon as possible." Irene said.

"It's not that easy. She has to give me her blood willingly." Jimin replied.

"You still can get her blood though."

Jimin glared at Irene.

"I can, but if I did without her will, she'll die, and I'll lose her instead. I don't plan on losing her, Irene Bae." Jimin growled.

"The curse is still in my body. I heard the whispers of Stella's mantra every single night when I'm alone. I got just a few drops of Minjeong's blood, and it managed to awaken me. I got her love, but not fully, because she does not know who I am yet." Jimin added.

"I need her to accept me for who I am, to still love me despite of knowing the real me, and to have her willingly give her blood to me. Only then, the curse will finally get lifted, and I'll be free completely from it." 

"But-" Irene frowned, she thought the curse was gone already.

"Stella slipped in another curse through her mind before she put me to sleep a decade ago, I heard her." Jimin sighed. 

Irene and Aeri looked at her.

"I will slowly grow weak if Minjeong decided to leave me, but I have faith in her. She's got a beautiful heart. After all, it's because of her pure heart that her blood woke me up."

"What's your plan now then?" Irene asked.

"The humans, Irene. We need to get rid of those humans first. Then, we'll deal with the witches. We can't let them work together, or the humans will only distract us or interfere." 

.....

A man in his early 30's was facing a fair skin woman, sitting behind a desk was seen in a small room.

"Create a stronger one."

"Then, we'll need a vampire's blood."

"We'll get one for you."

"Okay."

"Remember, we want all of them gone."

"Then you have to do everything as I say. Their youngest Yoo must die, it is the only way."

The human slammed his palm on the desk.

"You witch. I've done all that I could, so you do your part too."

"You don't want to fight me, human. I can give you a slow, painful death if you like."

The human hissed before stepping back. 

"Our deal is clear. You help me, and I'll help you. We have one goal, to kill Yoo Jimin, and for us witches to save our sister next."

"Fine. We'll use the weapons you give us to catch the vampires, and give you their blood." The human said.

"Great." The witch smiled.

The witch stopped smiling as soon as the human left. Not long after that, other four witches came out from their hiding.

"The humans are so impatient." Said the first one who came out.

"And dumb, too careless." The second one said.

"Leader, are you going to let that human speak rudely to you all the time?" The long hair one asked.

The witch who was meeting with the human earlier only laughed at the question.

"Let them feel like they are on top of us. I can just do anything to them if I want to. For now, we need them. We can't go out carelessly and hunt the vampires, or the vampires will be able to track us. We need to be careful, Stella needs us." The leader said.

"Remember, we will be focusing on getting rid of Yoo Jimin." The leader said again.

"Why can't we just kill the king and queen first?" The youngest whined.

"No, we can't hurt them for as long as they are still the king and queen, because they will stay in the castle. Our power won't work at all. However, we better keep it like that. We can't let Jimin take over the throne." The leader replied, frowning as she remembered what she had studied.

"Why?" The youngest asked again.

"If she's taking the throne, it only means that she managed to claim her human completely." The leader stood up, her hands on her hips.

"And that won't be good for us all."

"Why she needs to mate with the human before taking the throne fully?" The second one asked.

"A king, or a queen needs their mate or partner. If they were to die or in pain, only their partner's blood could save them or heal them." The leader answered.

"And the Yoo's cannot just mate with someone carelessly. It's another curse directed at them centuries ago by our great sisters. They only be able to continue their legacy if they married with their true mate, and stay loyal to them." The long hair added.

"That's why Jimin is very protective now over her human?" The first one asked this time.

"Yes, but we can't do anything to her human. She will know right away, and we can't fight her. Remember? We can't use our power out in the public, or they will be able to track us. Like I said, we need to be careful of our plan, because we need to save Stella first." The leader answered again.

"That's why, we need to kill her before she becomes the queen officially. If she dies, that's the end for the vampires, because they need Yoo's blood to continue their powerful bloodline to rule them, and protect them. The others are nothing against us, we need to get rid of the last Yoo once and for all." The long hair said.

Everyone nodded, and chatted for a bit before retreating back inside their hideout, leaving the leader and the long hair one left. 

"Leader. You almost exposed yourself that night." 

"I know, but it's best if I do it myself."

"For the time being, stay here, don't go out yet until I make sure they fail to track you."

"Yes."

"And please, do not do it again without telling me." The long hair said. 

The leader sighed, and looked at her with a smile. 

"I won't, Yunjin ah."