A Doll

"This."

Tritan looked up with a smile when he heard Elyna's sweet voice. Tritan's gaze softened sincerely when he saw Elyna. Tritan is a pure-blood vampire who is vulnerable to the sun. However, in order to get close to Elyna, he is willing to go to a school that is occupied by mixed races, including humans, who are his food.

"Thank you for lending me these clothes. Val said I should return them," said Elyna honestly. Tritan stared at her for a long time, and if someone looked closely, his face changed slightly when Elyna said Val's name.

"Just keep it. You can use it in case your clothes get dirty again," replied Tritan softly.

"B, but..."

"Our family is not poor enough to accept help from someone like you."

Someone spoke sharply from behind. A miracle happened when Eir came before the bell rang for the first time. Her eyes were still looking intently at everyone, including Elyna, who was also looking at her in surprise.

Tritan's face changed again. He glanced coldly at Eir. His smile disappeared. If Elyna wasn't there, Eir would probably have lost her eyes for daring to look at Elyna impolitely.

"Are you stupid enough to not understand our instructions? I heard my brother ask you to throw away his clothes yesterday."

Elyna lowered her head. She knew she was wrong. However, since Tritan gave her new clothes, Elyna felt bad if she just threw them away.

When no one was looking, Elyna washed the clothes herself and secretly brought them the next day. She was about to return the clothes to Tritan, but unfortunately, Eir caught her.

"Hey," Tritan's words sounded dangerous. Eir's body flinched when she knew Tritan was using his power on her. The special ability of vampires. Which, in Tritan's case, is shadow control.

"How dare you speak rudely to Elyna," Tritan hissed sharply. He ignored the whispers of humans who began to gossip about what was happening, especially since Eir's words seemed to indicate that Elyna and Eir were also related.

Eir's heart felt like it was about to break because of the entanglement of her own shadow. Ordinary humans might not be able to see the form of Tritan's power. But Elyna could, and she was very surprised when Tritan suddenly attacked Eir.

"Tritan, stop that!"

Elyna pushed Tritan to distract him. But for Tritan, it was a gesture that Elyna rejected him outright. His expression changed to disappointment after that. Tritan withdrew his power at that moment. Once freed, Eir, who had been unable to breathe, finally fell to the floor and coughed loudly.

"Eir, are you okay?"

Eir pushed Elyna's hand away when the girl wanted to touch her. She couldn't speak yet because she drained her power. Eir broke out in a cold sweat. It was a miracle that she didn't immediately faint after feeling Tritan's direct power.

"Eir!"

From outside, Jake and Hera suddenly entered their classroom with panicked faces. Every member of the pack had received a signal that Eir was in danger. Therefore, those who were closest immediately came to save the girl.

"You!"

Without needing to be told, Jake already knew who had threatened Eir's life as soon as he entered Eir and Elyna's classroom. Jake tried to push Tritan away. But his hand stopped in the middle of the road. Just like Eir, Jake also immediately turned pale as his body was directly affected by Tritan's power.

"Tritan!"

Once again, only Elyna's voice managed to control Tritan's emotions. Jake's body immediately fell to the floor like Eir. Both of them were panting, while Hera could only stare warily as she stood in front of her two exhausted pack mates.

"Stop it. You hurt my family..."

Elyna didn't understand why Tritan, who was kind to her, had to hurt the people she loved. Tritan's actions disappointed her. The disappointment made her heart ache so that she unconsciously started to shed tears.

"I-"

Tritan looked at the people who were looking at him, then at Elyna, who was looking at him disappointedly. Tritan bit his lip in frustration. Elyna had disappointed him.

"I... I was just trying to protect you."

Tritan's shoulders dropped. Tritan wanted to take slow steps to approach Elyna again. But with the werewolves surrounding him, Tritan knew that his plan would never work.

In the end, he was forced to push through the process of returning Elyna's memories. Even if it would burden Elyna, Tritan knew it was better than letting Elyna be trapped in a false memory forever.

Tritan took something from his bag. As soon as he showed Elyna the doll he was holding, Tritan knew that hope was still there when Elyna looked shocked when she saw the doll's existence.

"You used to always bring this doll wherever you went. Even when your mother intended to wash it and take it off your hands, you would cry loudly until you had a fever from crying too long and making your mother panic. You named this doll Tian. You said the name reminded you of... me," Tritan explained sadly. Elyna looked at Tritan with a surprised look. Apart from her mother, no one should know about that memory.

"I... was just trying to protect you," Tritan whispered before time seemed to stop while Tritan transformed into his perfect vampire form.

"Wait!"

Elyna knew Tritan was disappointed in her. Because of that, he chose to leave rather than hurt her feelings. Tritan's figure shot past the window of their classroom. The sound of breaking glass was heard, followed by the screams of the students, which was a sign that time had returned to normal.

***

"Hey."

Elyna gasped in surprise when Emma nudged her waist gently. Their class was temporarily freed because of the incident of the classroom glass breaking 'suddenly'. Therefore, Elyna was just sitting in the park with Emma while Hera took Jake and Eir to the academy clinic.

"Are you okay? You've been daydreaming since earlier."

Elyna was silent. She looked at the doll in her hands, then shook her head.

"It's okay. I was just... thinking about something."

"Ah, have you also thought about how a strong window could suddenly break?"

Elyna smiled. Rather than thinking about that, she thought more about Tritan's relationship with her.

"The teachers said it was probably because of the strong wind that suddenly passed. But is that possible? I would believe more if they said that it was a ghost who had broken the glass."

Elyna smiled slightly. She had no intention of confirming Emma's speculation because it was better for everyone not to know what was going on at that time.

"Yes. Maybe it was a ghost who broke the glass."

Elyna's grip on the doll tightened. Her heart ached even more when she remembered how Tritan looked disappointed in her at the last second.