Free Third Vampire Shadows (An Urban Paranormal Romance Novel) by Zhu Hsia Page A

important they were to each other was the same song playing at that very moment... When they had just realized how immature their relationship seemed to be.
    “Let’s still be friends,” Hyeon Jin mumbled, flashing a wide smile that was obviously forced.
    Park Juno’s expression didn’t change. He looked at her with the same sad smile, wondering what to say, what to do, and what to think.
    The song ended. Park Juno still remained silent. He wanted badly to say something, to say that it wasn’t what he wanted, to say that he just wanted her to tell him that he was still important to her. But she took it differently and it hurt him so much that she spoke those words—words that weren’t supposed to be spoken in the first place.
    Hyeon Jin stood up and collected her things.
    “I should be going now.”
    Park Juno was still quiet.
    She started to walk away, taking tiny steps in case he wanted to say something. But he stayed quiet.
    “I’ll… see you around.”
    With that, she headed outside, not daring to look back as she blinked away the hot tears. He didn’t know how shattered she was on that day. How difficult it was for her to put up her ‘I-don’t-care’ face and walk away from him like it was nothing. He was her first love and she thought she would never love the same way again. Ever.
    •••
    Hyeon Jin awoke with a start, as though an invisible force had shaken her. She found herself in a sitting position, breathing heavily, and cold sweat had formed on her forehead even though her room was air-conditioned. It had been two days, but she still felt somewhat affected by that stupid ‘Of Course’ game. It was as if she had completely lost track of what she was supposed to do. She had even overlooked her plan of exposing Mun Oh with Shin Erin’s help. Although the fact that her best friend never seemed to remember Mun Oh’s face or even show any signs that she liked him was more than enough evidence that her plan wasn’t going to work out. Needless to say, seeing Park Juno more often than she intended to was like scratching closed wounds and letting them bleed once more.
    She looked around her. A sliver of moonlight shone through the glass window at the foot of her bed, giving off a lustrous effect to the quiet room. A movement right below her bed caught her eye, but she quickly realized it was only the sleeping pest—Mun Oh. They had a silent agreement that he would only enter the room one hour after Hyeon Jin entered. That way, any unnecessary arguments would be avoided.
    Slowly, she got up and carefully made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her. She headed toward the kitchen, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She pulled open the refrigerator door and searched for what her late mother would always give her whenever she couldn’t sleep: a glass of strawberry milk.
    Although she was way past crying her eyes out whenever she missed her mother, she would still shed a tear every now and then, especially when she remembered the little things her mom would do for her.
    Sighing, she raised the glass to her lips to drink, but almost spit it out when she saw someone watching her from the kitchen counter.
    “What the hell?!” she sputtered, wiping her lips. “I almost had a heart attack! Are you trying to kill me?”
    “Tempting,” Mun Oh simply said with a smirk as he walked towards her. “Strawberry milk in the middle of the night? You sure are a weird one.” He grabbed the glass and tasted it, causing Jin to make a face at him.
    “That’s mine, you jerk. Why are YOU awake?”
    “You woke me up with your crying and sleep talking.”
    Hyeon Jin was appalled. “I was not crying and sleep talking!”
    “Yes, you were.” He took another sip of the strawberry milk.
    “No, I was not,” Hyeon Jin said adamantly. She started to turn away from him, not wanting to admit that it was true. Her dream had been so vivid that she felt like she must have been acting it out while