Minah’s body ached, and she felt a chill ebbing through her. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a smooth ceiling. It hurt to lift her head, so she only turned it slightly and caught sight of the blue curtains dividing her bed from the rest of the room. This isn’t my house, the tea shop, or the three: the three locations I frequent.
Her head hurt as she dug into her memories. What happened to land her here? I remember… being in the school building, the men chasing us… We got to the classroom, and the lights finally came on. Things felt safe, but then Jaeyun had been acting strange.
He bit me.
The door opened, and the nurse entered. “You’re finally up.”
Minah tried to sit up but the nurse quickly dashed to her side and eased her back onto the hospital bed. “Take it easy. You’re still missing a lot of blood. From witness’ reports, a vampire bit you. I hardly believed it—I mean, a vampire, here?—but the marks on your shoulder are proof.”
“Marks?” With a trembling hand Minah reached up and touched her shoulder, but she only felt a thick bandage. “Subin and Harin—my classmates—are they alright?”
“Yes, well, they’re in better shape than you. They brought you in last night and left.” The nurse checked something on her clipboard then pressed a hand to Minah’s forehead. “You’re still feverish. I think you should stay here for the weekend. I couldn’t figure out how to contact your parents. Perhaps you could send them a letter? We need to tell them about your condition, and about the bill, naturally.”
“The bill?” Minah gasped. Right, hospital visits aren’t free.
The nurse glanced at the clipboard again. “I estimate the treatment so far will cost 832 silvers, plus staying another two nights…”
“No, I’ll go home today,” Minah said.
“But you’re still unwell,” the nurse said.
“I can’t afford 832 silvers,” Minah cried. “That’s basically my mother’s entire salary!”
The nurse looked puzzled. “What about your father, then? You’re a student of Nacheon Academy, aren’t you? It’s a top school. Aren’t your parents rich?”
Minah blurted out, “We’re dirt poor. I’m a scholarship student.” Why did I just say that? Nobody is supposed to learn of that. Nobody. “Uh, just ignore me. I’m just spouting nonsense, probably a side effect of being bitten. In any case, I’ll be going home immediately.” Minah pressed a hand against the bed to propel herself up, and swung her legs over the bed. Just those actions made her exhausted, but she still stood up. The moment she put pressure on her legs, a dizzy spell shot through her skull and she nearly collapsed into the curtain.
Grabbing her from behind, the nurse lifted her like a rag doll back onto the bed. “No getting up until I say so!”
“You can’t keep me here.” Minah said, though her breath came out breathy and delicate.
“Yes, I can. It’d be medically irresponsible of me to let you go home in this state. Besides, minors require parents to pick them up.”
Minah suddenly quieted, then she said, “Nobody’s picking me up.”
“Just tell me how to get in contact with your parents,” the nurse commanded.
Minah scoffed then told her the address of her mother’s headquarters.
The nurse put her hands on her hips. “That’s in another city.”
“Correct. She’s a journalist. She does reports on the eastern port cities. She only comes back a couple times a month.”
The nurse sighed. “Your father, then?”
Minah didn’t respond, and eventually the nurse jotted the address onto a paper and left. Settling back into bed, Minah closed her tired eyes and slept.
Since the room lacked any view of the outside, Minah couldn’t tell the time. She heard coughing from the bed beyond the curtain. She had been stuck here for the entire weekend while other patients came and left. Will they really keep me here until my mother returns to the city? Depending on her workload that could be by the end of the week or by the end of the semester! Minah considered making a run for it once she recovered enough.
Finally the door opened and the nurse entered. Teacher An stepped in behind her.
Minah sat straight up, her head throbbing, but otherwise she felt better than earlier today. “What are you doing here?” Minah asked.
“I’m here to bring you to school,” Teacher An said.
The nurse started, “Generally a family member needs to sign out a minor—”
“But legally it can be any adult that claims guardianship of the child,” Teacher An finished. “I insisted upon collecting you since school is important and all, and I’m sure you dislike being caged up in here.”
“I dislike it very much,” Minah said. Getting out of bed, she felt a bit weak, but she could stand. Minah received her uniform back, which was bloody. Teacher An handed Minah her athletic uniform from her locker. “Put this on for the day. We’ll get your uniform mixed in the meantime, though you have spares at home, right?”
Minah nodded and found a bathroom to change in. By the time she exited Teacher An had signed all the papers and they boarded a carriage to school.
Upon stepping out, Minah took a deep breath, the air of the campus fresh and familiar unlike the strange smells of the sterile hospital. Here, she could smell the woods surrounding the school. In the school building, she could smell the light aroma of ink and papers mixed with sweat from students already beginning their morning exercises.
Reaching the classroom, Minah took her chair. Subin gasped and turned around in her seat at the front. “You’re alive!”
Half the class spun their attention to Minah.
“Does it still hurt?” Harin asked, eying the bandage around Minah’s shoulder.
“A little,” Minah admitted. Her classmates continued staring at her, and Minah wished they’d stop. She didn’t usually mind people noticing her, and she liked being noticed during trainings and such, but right now, it felt like their attention fixed on her bandages rather than her…
The bell rung, and they stood up and greeted Teacher An as she entered carrying a basket of things from the teachers’ office. She began taking attendance going from the front of the class to the back until she got to, “Tang Jaeyun? He’s missing? Oh, here it is.” She checked the documents in her arms. “He’s sick.” After finishing the attendance, Teacher An launched directly into math class.
Minah glimpsed the empty desk to her right. Jaeyun’s sick? She doubted that.
By the time lunch rolled around, Minah felt sleepy even though she’s done nothing but sleep the entire weekend. Perhaps a bit of food will perk me up… Minah reached for her bag. Then it hit her. She hadn’t prepared any lunch since she’d been at the hospital that morning! Her stomach rumbled. Stretching her arms over her desk, Minah moaned, “How am I going to last until after school without lunch?”
Having packed her school supplies into her bag, Harin stood up. She told Minah, “You need to eat something, especially after your ordeal. There’s yummy food in the dining hall.”
Minah shook her head. The dining hall charged double the price of regular food. “Um, I forgot my wallet too.”
“Honestly, why did you even come to school if you’re going to be this scatter-brained?” Subin huffed. “Fine. As thanks for gifting us the play tickets, I’ll treat you just this once.”
“No,” Minah began to deny the offer, but she felt so hungry… “Alright, I’ll go with you.”
In the dining hall downstairs, Minah joined the line with the others and looked up at the menu displayed above the counter. They had all kinds of dishes here, from noodle soups to fried dumplings. Still feeling a bit sick, Minah got pork porridge.
Once she got her dish she began instinctively heading upstairs, but Subin stopped her. “Where are you going? We’re sitting here.” She pointed to a table by them.
“Oh, I usually eat in the classroom,” Minah mumbled, but she sat obediently across from Subin and Harin.
Another girl named Chunhei said, “Come to think of it, I rarely see you at all outside of classes. You don’t come to club meetings either. Are you even in a club?”
Minah shook her head. I go to the tea shop to earn rent money most afternoons. “I’m, uh, busy.”
“You don’t strike me as that much of a nerd,” Subin said. “Your test scores aren’t even as good as Harin’s…”
You didn’t need to say it like that. “Well, I don’t study,” Minah admitted. “I’m usually with Jaeyun… Have either of you seen him? What happened that night?”
“When you didn’t come back,” Subin said, “Harin and I wandered around looking for you. We found you motionless in a pool of your blood, and Jaeyun had apparently just vanished… Do you remember anything about the vampire?”
All the girls sat at the edge of their seats, and she didn’t like them all staring at her like that. “I… No, I don’t remember anything.”
“I can’t believe you actually got bit by one!” Chunhei said. “So terrifying!”
“What do you think happened to it?” Hyunok asked. “Do you think it’s still prowling the city?”
“You fought it off, right?” Chunhei asked Minah. “You’re super skilled in fighting. You defeated him, right?”
“Didn’t you hear Subin?” Hyunok said. “If she didn’t find Minah, Minah would likely be dead.”
“Oh, right,” Chunhei said, her face falling for some reason.
“I punched him pretty hard,” Minah said. She hadn’t, and she didn’t know why she felt the need to claim that she had. “Then I think he heard Subin and Harin approaching and decided he couldn’t take on all of us, so he fled. We scared him off.”
“Ooh,” Chunhei exclaimed. “The vampire isn’t all that brave. Did you get a good look at him? What did he look like?”
“Um, a monster,” Minah said. “Red eyes and sharp teeth. That’s all I got.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?” Chunhei said.
“What?” Harin squeaked. “He better not!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be prepared next time,” Minah said. “We’ve already defeated him once after all.” She put on a smile, and the girls returned it.
As people finished eating, they dispersed. Minah told Subin, “Thank you for the delicious meal. I’ll pay you back.”
“It only cost 1 silver,” Subin said.
Minah almost choked. A silver? That usually bought groceries for the entire day. She wished she had just skipped a meal.
Subin suddenly asked, “Did you really fight off the vampire?”
Minah touched the bandage on her shoulder but said nothing.
In the afternoon, they returned to the classroom to reconvene with Teacher An, who took them outside to the field. She sent the students running through an obstacle course, but since Minah didn’t feel hearty enough to do all that, she got sent to Class 2B—which had a flipped schedule and ran outdoor training in the mornings—to study with them.
Once the training session ended, Minah walked back to her classroom. Strange. It’s usually noisy this time of day since students are excited to be let off from school, but it’s silent. When Minah reached the classroom and opened the door, she discovered why.
In his shiny armor, a paladin stood at the front with Teacher An. “Hello. Who might you be?” he asked.
“Hwang Minah,” Minah said. She got a pointed look from Teacher An and said, “Pardon me for not bowing. I have bandages on my midsection.” She feigned awkwardness as she hobbled to her chair and sat. In reality she’d mainly healed other than her shoulder, but she didn’t feel like giving the “proper respect” to this random paladin commandeering her classroom.
“Ah,” the paladin said. “I am questioning the students of this school following the attack last week. I’m told you encountered the vampire personally. What can you tell me about him?”
“Um, not much,” Minah said. She recalled the events of that night in the simplest and shortest terms possible. “I practically ran right into the vampire.”
“Hmm, interesting. Did you recognize him?”
“No.”
“Alright. Well I suppose that’s all I came to ask. If anyone has any other comments, it is your obligation to contact a paladin headquarters immediately.”
When the paladin left, Minah let out a sigh of relief. Was this the reason Jaeyun skipped today? He feared the paladin coming here?
When class ended, Minah packed up her things.
“Are you heading home?” Subin asked.
“Um, yes, I suppose so,” Minah said. She likely wasn’t going to be of much use at the tea shop like this, although she really needed the money.
“Well, if you aren’t doing anything, you could come study with us,” Subin offered. “We might go back to that tea shop.”
“Oh, uh…” If Minah showed up even as a guest, her boss or the other staff might talk to her. “I’m sick of that shop. Let’s go to a different one.”
“Alright. I heard of a good one up north,” Subin said. Exiting the school building, they passed through the school gates and waved a carriage parked in the street to them. Minah hoped Subin wouldn’t bring them to an expensive place. Why did I suggest going to another location instead of just insisting on going home? She asked herself.
The carriage pulled up a cute tea shop with a red roof. A waitress sat them and gave them a menu. They weren’t more expensive than the things at her location at full price—but she wouldn’t get an employee discount here! Maybe she should’ve risked bringing them to her place after all. “I don’t know if I’ll have anything,” Minah said.
“You should at least get a drink,” Subin said. “It’s good to keep up your health.”
That did sound nice. Minah ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. It came on a little metal tray.
After they ate, the girls pulled out their notebooks from their bags and spread them out. Minah listened to Subin help Harin through their worksheet for math, and before she realized it, Minah had almost finished all of her homework in a fraction of the time. “You really deserve to be top student,” Minah said dreamily to Subin.
Subin smiled. “In middle school I used to be top of everything: academics, combat, magic. Here I struggle to maintain my position as the top student of academics. To be honest, I felt really annoyed after Jaeyun transferred in last year. Magic came so easily to him. His techniques could use improvement, but he’s better than most of the teachers in terms of raw strength. As for fighting, you’re really good. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you if you could tutor me in fighting. Not right now, obviously. But someday. We could set up a weekly study session.”
Minah’s mouth dropped open. She pointed to herself. “You’re asking for my help?”
“I’ll teach you any subject you’d like in exchange,” Subin said. “To get into a good college, students must excel at everything. As the most talented students in our year, we should become allies.”
“But why me?” Harin said. “I’m—“ She stopped herself before she could spout about all the things that made her different from people like Subin and Harin. “I’m not your friend.”
Subin shrugged. “It’s simply the logical thing to do.”
“We’ve been meaning to ask you for a while,” Harin spoke up, “but you keep to yourself so much. We were really surprised when you asked us to see a play with you.”
Subin shot a look at Harin. “You’re likely busy with private training lessons or something, but please consider it.”
Getting close to these girls—she couldn’t fathom it. If they discovered she learned combat from after-school lessons hosted by charitable organizations rather than private lessons, they’d never look at her the same. Minah did breeze through her homework with ease, and maybe it’d be nice to talk to someone other than just Jaeyun, considering he didn’t even come to school, and a part of Minah feared Jaeyun might not come back…
“We can try it out, I guess,” Minah said.
“Great!” Subin and Harin said.
With it drawing close to evening, the store prepared to close. Subin said, “We’ll take a carriage home. Will you as well?”
“I’ll just walk,” Minah said.
“Really? With your injuries?” Harin said.
“I like walking,” Minah said.
“What if the vampire’s still out there? Or that criminal gang,” Harin said.
“It’ll be fine. I live nearby.” She really didn’t.
“In that case, we’ll walk with you,” Subin said.
“No!” Minah immediately said. “Um, my house is currently getting repainted. It’s really ugly, and the fumes are a little toxic… And um, it’s getting dark so you both should hurry home. But next time.”
“Oh, alright,” Subin said, concern creasing her forehead. “We’ll, we’ll see you at school.”
They parted in the street. To get to her house in the southern most district of the city, Minah walked past lumber mills and blacksmiths, and the smell of wood, metal, and sweat filled her nose. Past them, the houses became smaller and cruder than the houses near the school. Children with dirt on their faces littered the street kicking around a ball—the last game before nightfall. Their mothers kept an eye on them while hanging the laundry to dry.
Minah stopped by the market to buy ingredients for dinner. She didn’t look forward to cooking for herself, but she had no choice. In the market, she passed by a stall selling sweet-smelling soups and dumplings. She could buy something to eat at home, but it was cheaper to make it herself from scratch.
She began to move on when she heard a gasp. The man exclaimed, “What happened to you?”
Not feeling like going over the vampire attack for the hundredth time that day, Minah simply said, “Somebody tried to kidnap me, but I’m alright. She puffed out her chest as much as she could without hurting herself. “I’m a student at Nacheon Academy after all!”
“Oh my goodness! Even if you say you’re alright, you’re all bandaged up! Here,” the man said, handing a box of vegetable dumplings to Minah. “Take it. On the house.”
“I couldn’t,” Minah said, pushing it back to the man.
The man smiled. “People like us need to help each other. You helped take care of my daughter when my wife and I caught the flu last year.”
Minah put the dumplings in her bag. “Thank you.” She felt comfortable here among these people, rather than her schoolmates. “By the way, did the blackout happen here too?”
“No, not here, but it took a large part of the city according what I’ve heard,” the man said. “A technical glitch. Still, what if it’s a part of something larger? Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Minah frowned. “Yes, I hope it’s just a coincidence…”
Her dinner figured out, Minah went home and ate. Then lied down for an early sleep since she was so exhausted.
Then suddenly a drop of water splashed onto her nose.
Did she imagine it? She wiped it off and settled for sleep again. Then she heard rattling and opened her eyes as a torrent of water rushed into her room. The pipes had burst.