Knock Knock...
"Come in, the door is open."
A purple-haired girl poked her head inside the office, glancing over to see a familiar teacher sitting behind a large desk.
"Hello... Am I bothering you?"
The older woman gave her a warm smile, "not at all Sakura, what brings you here?"
The Japanese girl slid inside, closing the door behind her as she walked up to the new headmaster.
"Well... I have to tell you something. Or well, I've been meaning to, I just haven't found the right time..."
"Is this about your father?"
Sakura bowed her head, "he's... not my father."
The Korean woman tilted her head, "he's not?"
"I um- for you to understand I'd have to tell you everything."
"Sit, sit, no need to be awkward around me."
Sakura sat down in front of the winged adult, the latter leaning on her desk in full attention.
Just like the old headmaster did...
But unlike him, her eyes were filled with warmth.
She made Sakura feel comfortable... Safe.
"Lee-sseunsaengnim... I'm... He's..."
The Japanese girl sighed, staring at her clenched hands on her lap, "we're both undead."
"... Come again?"
"We're both vampires. I don't know his story but he turned me into one a really really long time ago..."
Sakura finally looked up, although her eyes couldn't stay focused for very long, "I lived in Japan in the 1700s when Nakamikado was Japan's emperor. I came to Korea alongside my family in 1720, where I met that man, and that was when I was eighteen... He... used his ability to lure me here... I... I remember him biting me and well... That's all I remember until I woke up on the first day of school this year. When I woke up, he told me that I had to pretend to be his daughter or else he'd... kill me."
The room was silent for a while, the teacher's eyes boring into Sakura as she fidgeted around.
She sighed sorrowfully, garnering the Japanese girl's attention once more, "I'm very sorry to hear your story... It must have been hard going along with what he wanted... let alone fitting into this time period."
The woman gave Sakura a light smile, "I assume that you didn't have any supernatural abilities beforehand?"
Sakura shook her head, "no, I didn't even know that people with these abilities existed until I woke up here."
Miss Lee nodded, "a vampire... Well, Sakura, I'm fine with you being who you are... Seeing as though you didn't want to be like this nor have you intentionally hurt anyone but..."
She gazed at the girl, "you must be careful around others."
Sakura nodded, "yes I know. The only ones that know are you and my friends."
The teacher chuckled, "your friends are an amusing group... I trust them and I'm sure you do too..."
"Yes, I do... Thank you for understanding, Lee-sseunsaengnim."
The woman grinned, "of course, is there anything else you wanted to say?"
"Two things actually... The first one is, can I go outside?"
"What?"
"That man threatened that I couldn't leave the school grounds."
She gave Sakura a soft smile, "Sakura dear... You're free now, you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want. No one can force you to do something you don't want to do, or stop you from doing something that's harmless."
The purple-haired girl grinned, "thank you, I'll keep that in mind."
"Now, what was the other thing you wanted to say?"
"Oh, can I look around the office? I-if you don't mind... I saw him reading a book about vampires before and I wanted to read it to see if there's anything I could do to help control myself better..."
'Or maybe even cure myself...'
The woman glanced at the watch on her wrist, "well, it's lunchtime right now... I have a meeting with the staff if you'd like to look around now."
Sakura bowed as the teacher stood up, "thank you again, I'll make sure to put everything back where they were before."
Miss Lee chuckled, patting the girl's shoulder before passing by her, "I hope you find what you're looking for. You may keep that book if you find it, I have no need for it."
The Japanese girl thanked her again, watching as the woman's lilac wings fluttered past the closing door.
Sakura began to look around the office, brushing her fingertip against the dusty spines of hard-covered books as she walked along the bookshelves that lined the back of the room.
Finding nothing that fit what she was looking for, she went back to the large oak desk, opening up the drawers to find papers of students, staff, and the school. The last drawer was empty, but as the Japanese girl looked closer, she noticed that the bottom of the space was much higher than the bottom of the desk.
She pressed the slab of oak, her eyes widening in surprise as it tilted from the weight. She pushed it to one side until she was able to grab at the other end, pulling the fake board away to reveal a hard-covered book that was covered in black velvet with gold embroidery bordering the edges. There was no title nor author, and Sakura let out a small cough from the dust that flew up as she held the book.
She sat down on the floor and leaned against the desk, propping the book on her legs as she flipped to the table of contents.
"The history of vampires... Vampirification... Vampiric powers and abilities... Myths and truths about vampires... Where vampires originated..."
Sakura mumbled the chapters under her breath, a few catching her eye as she took note on which page they started on.
She carefully flipped each page, the yellowing paper crumbly and chipped at some edges from age. The book was handwritten for the most part, many diagrams filling the pages.
"All vampires used to be human, but the very first vampire was not considered a vampire in their time. He, instead, was one of the very few with a special gift, but unlike those who had helpful powers, his gift brought harm and death. As many humans are, he craved power, which his gift helped bring to him. By intaking one's blood, he himself grew stronger, and he spent his days branching out his gift to gain new abilities, becoming corrupt from the new sense of entitlement this phenomena brought to him...
"One day, a man he had been drinking out of was saved by his friend. The attacker had been fatally injured before fleeing the scene, causing some of his vampiric blood to stain the man. The man's wound took time to heal, and it was a while before he regained consciousness, but when he did, destruction awoke inside. This man, who was saved by his friend, is the first vampire. Before, the man had no special gift, and he was a kind man. But as the mark of vampire fangs and blood seeped into his own, he became a monster."
'So vampires originated from someone's quirk...'
Sakura turned to the next page, Vampirification.
"Vampirification, noun, when a vampire turns a human being into one of his or her own kind by giving the human their blood... Vampirification can happen in two ways, by fangs, or by injuries.
"If the vampire is not drinking one's blood, small tubes will open up in both of their fangs, connecting to the nearest blood vessel. This tube is a passage for the vampire's blood to travel into the puncture mark they had made in the human's skin. The insertion of blood will begin the vampirification process immediately.
"If there is an open wound on a vampire, and their blood happens to be taken in by the human, whether by mouth or by the human's open injury, this would also start the process. Vampirification is not noticable physically until the one undergoing the process has woken up. Waking up after the process may take from a few days to many years. Vampirification can not be undone, once one is a vampire, they can not change back."
'They can't change back...'
The Japanese girl sighed, nodding to herself as she skimmed through the rest of the book. She was about to put the book away when she paused, opening back up to the last page. Her enhanced eyesight enabled her to see a small flap jutting out from the middle of the page, so ever so carefully, she peeled at the paper, revealing a secret message scribbled in graphite.
The original 'vampire' is nowhere to be found after 1650. Do NOT come across a man named Heo Mok Enozi if you value your life.
"E-Enozi..."
Sakura gawked at the name written on the page, "it's him..."
'The headmaster was the one with a vampire quirk...'
Sakura slowly closed the book, trying to process everything she read when the office door suddenly opened.
"Sakura? Are you still here?"
The said girl closed the drawer, brushing herself off as she stood back up, "hello, Lee-sseunsaengnim."
The young teacher smiled, "did you find what you were looking for?"
Sakura nodded, holding up the black velvet-covered book for her to see.
The winged woman smiled, "good to see you found it. Lunch is about to end in around ten minutes, Chaeyeon bumped into me earlier asking where you were so you should head over to your friends if you're done here."
The Japanese girl returned her smile, bowing respectfully, "thank you again Lee-sseunsaengnim, I'll be on my way now."
Miss Lee chuckled, waving Sakura goodbye as the fourth year student headed out the door.
'I should put the book away first...'
Sakura turned into the '100's' hallway, walking inside her shared dorm to drop the book off at her desk before heading back to the cafeteria.
...
"Saku-unnie!" "Kkura-unnie!"
The girl jumped from her name being yelled out, glancing over to see Hyewon and Yujin waving over at her with big grins.
A few students spared small glances at the group of girls and as Sakura walked closer, the chaos began.
"Don't be so loud!"
"Ow!"
Hyewon rubbed her head as she glared at Yena, "don't hit me you duck fuck I'm older than you! And don't act like you weren't being loud too!"
"Yah Kang Hyewon, there's kids around."
"We're not kids!"
"And Yena only I can bonk my girlfriend in the head."
"Wh-"
Sakura watched as Eunbi, Hyewon, and Yena bickered at each other, turning to see the two tall maknaes doing the same.
Wonyoung grabbed and slightly pulled at Yujin's ear, "be quiet, people are looking at you."
"Ahhh ow ow ow- Wonnie stobbbbb."
As the bunny let go, the puppy rubbed her ear, pouting at her, "are you jealous because other people are looking at me?"
A muscle in Wonyoung's mouth twitched as she flustered up, looking away, "no it's just embarrassing."
"Uhhh Wonyoung are you okay? You're really red."
The said girl covered her face from Yuri's question, "I'm fine!"
Yujin snickered at that, rubbing the maknae's head as she winked at the hamster, "she's fine Yuri-unnie."
Sakura slowed to a stop as she arrived, an eyebrow quirked in amusement, "uhhh hey guys."
Chaeyeon sighed as the girl sat down next to her, "thank God you're here, it was utter chaos without you."
"Looks like utter chaos right now, and you think I'd be able to calm them down?"
The winged girl chuckled at that, "probably not, even Eunbi-unnie can't right now."
The two giggled, the havoc only ending as a certain angel questioned Sakura.
"Where were you, Kkura-unnie?"
That made everyone else quiet down, staring at the Japanese girl with curiosity.
"Oh, I was just talking to Lee-sseunsaengnim."
Nako piped up, "we saw her a few minutes ago though?"
"Ah yeah, she left for some kind of staff meeting, but I stayed because I was trying to find something in the office."
Hitomi raised an eyebrow, "what were you looking for Kkura-chan?"
"Ah, just a book, about uh... you know..."
As Sakura glanced around, the girls realized what she was mentioning, all of them nodding in understanding.
"Did you find it?"
The second oldest nodded, "yeah I did. I left it in my dorm."
With that, the interview ended, leading to the girls conversing and laughing with (and at) each other throughout the rest of lunch.
It's been three weeks since that day...
It'd be a lie to say that all the trauma has healed, but even with nightmares rising during some of the girls' sleep, all were comforted knowing that they had each other...