12 Revelations

"How do I owe my life to you?" Taehyung asked.

His body felt tired again. He had used the energy gained from eating at Mrs. Lee's to get home and was on his last ounce of strength.

Taeyeon appeared to observe this as she stood up and put his arm around her neck.

"You'd better get to bed."

She helped him down the dark hallway and into his bedroom. Taehyung walked over to his bed by himself and sat down. His bed felt so comfortable and he didn't want to get up again.

"I would let you get to sleep, but I need to debrief you," Taeyeon said and threw his pyjamas at him. "I'm waiting outside so you can change."

Taehyung went along with her instructions without much thinking. His brain felt like a useless sponge that wasn't holding onto information after all the revelations of the day. He was extremely ready to curl up in bed and sleep.

"I have covered for you. Our parents won't find anything odd about you tomorrow," she explained softly. "Your little team of teenage boys have been informed you couldn't make tonight."

Taehyung nodded automatically and then his brain processed what she had said. Taeyeon knew about the Bulletproof Boy Scouts.

"You know what I did today?" he asked in disleflief.

"I made those USB drives so yes," she confirmed.

Taehyung sat there in shock. His stepsister was the computer expert working for the resistance. He wasn't the only Type AB working for them, let alone not the only member of the Kim household.

"I'm not the only Type AB working for the resistance?" was the first thing that landed out of his mouth.

Taeyeon sat down on the bed next to him.

"The resistance has different cells and is ruled by the main one. You are part of the Bulletproof Boy Scouts whose bank robbery provided most of the funding for the resistance," she explained. "I'm from another part as well. We all work independently from each other. The main one is the only one that that knows what's going on in all parts."

Taehyung nodded. That did make sense to his fatigue muddled mind. It would be hard for someone to bring them all down if they worked separately.

"I was unaware of your membership until it was mentioned that the other Type AB had an opportunity to get to the government office on a school trip. I worked out that it was you because of your newfound desire for studying and your late night trips."

His stepsister's position as the brainy one in the family was a well earned position. His sleepy mind moved onto something much more important.

"Why am I able to come back here?"

Taeyeon held up one manicured hand and pointed to her nail art that had scratched him the night before.

"I was concerned about your safety so I came up with a back up plan. I took a sample of your blood and analysed its composition. Those USB sticks were all primed to first make an update to Choi Minho's records. I knew he was a safe option because he lives in SKY Castle. Your blood sample became attached to his record. That's why when you were caught and they tested your blood, you became an AB+ to them. Your real blood type hasn't changed."

That did explain everything. He really did owe Taeyeon his life. He wouldn't be alive if she hadn't done that for him.

"Noona… vampires are real…" he said quietly. "I've seen them."

"They are," she agreed in a serious tone. "Right now the best thing you can do for that is go to sleep."

Taehyung nodded numbly and got into bed. Taeyeon stood up and turned the light off before leaving.

"Sleep well."

***

"Hot night with your crush?" Taemin teased outside the bathroom the next morning.

Taemin was not in the mood for his stepbrother's teasing at all. He was highly exhausted from the previous day and the five hours of sleep he'd had weren't cutting it. The only reason he wasn't asleep was that they were going out for his celebration lunch today.

"Yeah," he said blankly.

Taemin's comment had to be something to do with Taeyeon's cover story. He had left the school trip in the middle, one of the staff members accompanying them would have noticed that and so would the other students. Taeyeon's influence wouldn't have reached that far.

His panic started to return and he knew he needed to ask her as soon as he could. He walked down the hallway as calmly as he could and knocked on her bedroom door.

The door was opened a few seconds later by a messy haired Taeyeon. Her glare relaxed when she saw it was him.

"What do you want?" she asked and closed the door behind him.

"What's my cover story for school?" he asked immediately.

Taeyeon scratched her head and scowled. Taehyung took that to be that she was thinking about it and looked around her bedroom. He'd never seen it before. She was definitely the scholarly adopted child as she had books everywhere and her revision notes were covering most of the available wall space.

"Right about that," Taeyeon said, sounding more awake. "I texted one of the girls on the trip to tell the teacher that you had been asked to stay behind by the government staff. You might get a talking to from the teachers because the cover story was that you got caught chewing gum and leaving it on the floor. The girl won't say anything against it."

Taehyung was relieved to hear that it had all been accounted for. It was one less thing to worry about.

"How come you're that close with someone on the trip?" he asked out of interest.

Taeyeon gave him a look that indicated she thought the answer was too obvious to say. It was kinder than the look Mrs Choi had given him the day before.

"You must realise that before I knew you were going there the resistance, we had someone else in mind. One of the girls you went with was recruited by me to collect information."

That did admittedly make a lot of sense. He was just having a hard time thinking too deeply about it. He was so tired and off centre.

"Thank you for thinking of everything," he said and yawned. "Do you have anything to wake me up whilst you're at it?"

Taeyeon stared at his bloodshot eyes and frowned. Then she held up her phone and blinded his eyes with the light. Taehyung jumped back and covered his eyes with his arms. He couldn't see anything, all he could see was white when he blinked. The effect took a minute to disperse.

"Taehyung… did you have any injuries that you had before that you don't have now…?" her voice trailed off. "I'm going to check your shoulder."

He felt her gently pull down the neckline of his pyjama top to look at his right shoulder. She pulled it right back up after a second.

"The scratch mark should still be there. You've been given vampire blood."

Taehyung felt the rising panic from the previous day return in full force. That bag of red fluid in his arm had been blood. Vampire blood to be precise. It was no wonder he'd passed the doctor's vampire test.

"...When I woke up there was an IV with red fluid in my arm and the doctor scratched me and it healed. I forgot to tell you last night- I was too exhausted."

Taeyeon began pacing the room and frowned when she saw the time.

"For now we both need to get moving because Mother said we're leaving at 9. We might be able to group up in the shopping centre to talk," she said. "If not, it's going to have to wait until the afternoon. Taehyung, I know you are going to be exhausted, but you have to get through it."

***

"How was the government office?" his stepfather asked in the car.

It had been obvious that he'd been waiting for the chance to ask. Taehyung was surprised he'd managed to hold out this long.

"Tell me," Taemin urged. "It's not like I'm going to ever get the chance to go."

Taehyung obliged. It had been fascinating tour in a way. It was a shame about how it ended.

"The most exciting part was when we saw the place where they make all the… inspiring posters with messages."

"Did you see Bang Si Hyuk?" his stepmother asked eagerly.

Taehyung could see them all look at him, even the butler who was driving the car. He shook his head.

"Apparently he wasn't there."

Before his departure, the tour had passed a completely secured area and the guide had explained that Bang Si Hyuk's office was completely closed off to most personnel and she hadn't even been in there.

Taehyung saw it as Bang Si Hyuk not taking any more chances with assassination attempts.

"What's the plan for today?" Taemin asked. "I know we're going to a restaurant at 12, we've got two hours to fill before that."

"We're going shopping together," their stepmother said and linked her hand with Dr Kim's.

His stepfather didn't disagree so Taehhyung assumed they had made up.

"Taehyung and I are going shopping for books," Taeyeon said.

Naturally there had been no such mention of that so Taehyung knew it was their cover. It was well chosen as they all knew Taemin wouldn't want to join them in a bookshop.

"I'll go look at the shoes in the Gucci shop," Taemin said eagerly. "I'll see you on the food floor at 12."

When they entered the shopping complex, the family split off into their groups. Taehyung hadn't been to his place for a few years so he wasted a minute looking around at the sights. It was full of neon signs and advertisements for designer goods with the occasional sight of some government propaganda.

"The bookshop is on the second floor," Taeyeon said and led him to the escalators.

Their foster parents were busy checking out the map of the complex and Taemin had already made a beeline to the Gucci store. They were free to talk.

"Is it secure to talk about… certain matters here?" Taehyung asked in concern.

"It's no worse than talking about it at home," she said cryptically. "I have a signal jammer with me anyway. If there is something electronic listening to us, it won't pick anything up."

They reached the bookshop which looked rustic compared to the shops surrounding. There was no neon or LCD screens and he felt less tension when they entered. It was filled with bookshelves and wasn't overly busy. Taeyeon headed straight to the back and sat down at one of the tables that was surrounded by bookshelves filled with niche interest books.

Taehyung sat opposite her and waited for her to speak. She seemed to know everything he wanted to know.

"About what happened earlier...Taehyung, I don't know if you're a vampire or not," Taeyeon sighed. "I can't tell until you want blood."

That was not the more reassuring thing to hear.