Being friends with a vampire comes with a lot of scrutiny. After all, they are the only species on Earth that have experienced death, only to return with supernatural powers that thrive on human blood. That’s the stigma against half-blood vampires; as for pure-bloods, they’re like celebrities—except you wouldn't know who they are unless they choose to reveal themselves to you.

Choso remembered his freshman year of college. He had been sitting on a fallen tree log encircling a bonfire, surrounded by strangers who would eventually become his friends. The evening had reached its climax and began to wind down, but before the night ended entirely, the topic of vampires came up. He listened with rapt interest to the stories and personal experiences the group shared. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous that, for all 22 years of his life, he hadn’t had a single encounter with a vampire.

“Is there a way to know if someone is a pure-blood?” he recalls asking, before Geto, a black-haired man with small purple eyes, answered him.

“Unless they show you, you normally wouldn’t know.” His answer made Choso’s shoulders slump in disappointment, but that feeling was short-lived when he heard Geto continue. “However, I’ve read in a few books that, unlike half-bloods, pure-bloods possess beauty that’s otherworldly, and their eyes change based on their moods.”

*“...beauty that’s otherworldly.” Those words stuck with Choso as he advanced to his third year. Those exact words come to mind now as he stands face-to-face with you, waiting for you to relay to him what pastry you wanted. The moment you walked into the bakery, he could sense something different about you, however he couldn't just straight up ask a stranger if they're a vampire.