About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Haneru was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of her – and I didn't know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her.

For several weeks now, I had been on this high school in this little harbor village, Mashike. Nearby Otaku, the island of Hokkaido, Japan. A huge high school with an exchange program and the perfect place for outsiders to get to know Japan – despite the fact it was cold, dark and depressing around here.

When at school, she had immediately caught my attention. This western, pale-faced girl – she looked so well taken care of, and her hair was always wonderful. Of course, those were mere details in comparison to her face, this divine face which belonged on the catwalk.

Haneru Dolcesconi, Croatian exchange student who had taught herself Japanese.

In this short time I had been here, I always wondered what a girl like Haneru was doing in a place like this. Most exchange students went to the south, or to the big cities. Only losers would go here, right?

No, she never talked to me, though I showed great interest in her. She seemed incredibly shy, starting to giggle neurotically, even when I just said "Hi."

And she was smaller than me; she was so cute, so perfect.

My biggest wish was to keep her fragile body to my own all day, to protect her and love her. But somehow, something told me she didn't need protection.

No, I'd never been insecure about my looks. But since Haneru Dolcesconi stepped into my life, I spent hours just looking at myself in the mirror, desperately trying to convince myself I was worth her.

I couldn't convince myself. There was I; this lightly tanned skin, dark eyes, dark hair, well trained body. I took care of myself swiftly enough, but it was never enough, never.

Even guys got jealous on girls like Haneru; this soft skin of hers, this shiny oak-colored hair, her pretty face and her incredible body.

I'd have girlfriends before, oh yes. Lots of them. But none of them had been like Haneru.

My mom in Germany, she had spoken to me over the phone lately. I had told her about Haneru, and she had just stated that she didn't tend to trust such girls. 'Girls like that are poisoned, I swear. They are unfriendly, rude, brainless or they have sex before marriage.'

Don't think I'd ever listen to my mom, and don't think I'd think sex before marriage was a sin.

Haneru was different from what my mom had warned me for anyway. She was sweet and shy and my friends claimed she'd never had a boyfriend. 'Nothing's good enough for her.' they had said.

But I thought there was more.

And then, that one day, I was serving the cafetaria, and she was right there, blushing.

Next to her best friend Yumna Reem. A tall, dark-skinned Afro-Norwegian.

Both of them made my heart thump, as both of them were perfect, cute and popular in their own way, but of course Haneru made my heart thump just a little, little hell of a lot higher.

'Could you, er, get me a sandwich?' she said muffled. Her face was all red and she wasn't even looking at me.

'Right away, ma'am.' I said, trying to make her laugh, in my crappy Japanese. I walked to the other side of the kitchen to get a sandwich, while I saw Yumna hit Haneru on her shoulder, laughing.

Hikaru, one of my friends, was serving the cafetaria too. 'That's your chance, mate.' he added while giving me the sandwich. 'You go for it.'

I could hear he was serious. That was a suprise; he had been into Haneru for two months and now he had finally seemed to give up.

I handed the sandwich to Haneru. She initially pushed it Yumna's way, who destroyed the covering plastic shockingly fast with her tall nails.

Haneru was about to turn around and walk away when I touched her shoulder. She moved her face to mine.

'Would you.. like to have a drink with me, Haneru?' I said. Now I could feel myself get super red. But those words had slipped now, I couldn't possibly take them back.

My breath stopped when I waited for her to answer.

'Well, er..' she began, but Yumna pushed her. 'Hane, please.'

'O.K. Sure. When and where?' she stuttered.

I felt like my heart could thump out of my chest. 'In the sake-bar, right after school?'

'Great. I'll be there.' she said, seemingly refinding her confidence before she ran away.

I could swear I heard someone scream next.

'You're causing quite the commotion, dude.' Hikaru said, cynically.

'You get why?' I asked and pulled my hand trough my hair. Would she really like me back?

My heart was seriously killing me when I finally entered the sake-bar.

I didn't lose time into searching for her. I could see where she was instantly; she sat at a small, wooden table, surrounded by friends, all exchange students.

Yumna was, of course, next to her, rubbing her arm, as if Haneru was nervous too. Couldn't imagine that.

And there was Serge, the French dude who made girls faint just by walking past. But he was so perfect, and showed so little interest in girls, there were plenty rumors about him being gay.

Next to him was a tiny Greek girl, Melita. Next to her, Timothy, the American, talking to Haneru's sister Malia, a girl not gifted with intelligence and with slight overweight. Timothy was so clearly annoyed.

The last person I saw, and the first person to see me, was Yumna's Taiwanese boyfriend Calvin Sean.

He was overly smart, just like Yumna, wore sexy glasses and was known for protecting Yumna with his life. Such a perfect boyfriend – whoever said something bad about Yumna could forget about their school reputation, and probably their health too.

All of them were stunning – all of them got me so jealous.

'Hi there.' I said, confused. I knew I talked to soft for anyone to hear me.

My shyness in situations with many people had overwhelmed me, but it seemed everyone had heard me loud and clear.

Yumna was the first one to get up and leave. She quickly said hi before being followed by Calvin.

Timothy and Malia winked me, while Melita could only give a distant glare. Serge was the last one to leave, with a mysterious Mona Lisa-smile, when I took place on the little table in front of Haneru.

'So er, hi.' I tried, and looked at Haneru.

She didn't look back, and spitted a tiny "Hi" while keeping her eyes on the ground.

'You would like me to order something?'

'Hm?' She looked up, blushing. 'Oh yes, sure, sure.' She looked away again.

I asked the waitress for two sake shots and turned back to her, trying to remember the opening sentences I had studied. 'You had a good day at school?' was the only one I could think of.

'Kinda. I had an A+ for Math.' she smiled. She looked like a doll when she smiled.

Her eyes finally met mine. I noticed her eyes were strangely coloured – they were amber brown with a strong yellow glance, and a certain desire in this glance. 'How was your day?'

'Nothing special. I messed up my test Japanese.' I said.

'Hahah.' she laughed, high pitched. 'So your Japanese is.. not so good?'

'It's crap. Gomenasai. You know, I'm German, Japanese is so difficult.'

'Ach so. Sollen wir Deutsch sprechen, dann?' she reacted, in fluent German.

'Sure, if you don't mind speaking German.' I laughed, utterly surprised. What kind of girl was she?

The waitress arrived with our shots. 'Please visit again.' she demanded before leaving.

In one movement, Haneru grabbed her shot and throw it into her throat, swallowing the whole shot at once. I gasped and stared with eyes wide open.

'You always do that?'

'Oops.' She put her hand for her mouth. 'I guess that was kind of impolite. Sorry, yeah, I'm used to that.'

'So shall we talk?' she continued.

'Yeah, so er..' Panicking, I thought of the talk subject list I had produced during History class.

'So why do you hang out with the other exchangées only?' I asked. 'I wanted to know that like forever.'

'Oh, that.' she said. She sounded like she was pleading guilty for something.

'Well, it's not like I don't like the Japanese. They just have – bad influence on me.'

I grinned. 'So why are you in Japan, then?'

'Sometimes, you need a change of environment.' she grinned back. 'And I love Japan. It's only – Japanese guys give in so quickly and so easy. That's not healthy. Not for me.'

It made me think of the call I had with my mother. 'Would you have sex before marriage?'

'You getting personal?'

'Sex is easy to talk about. Especially when nobody gets a word we're saying.' I laughed.

She laughed back. I had succeeded into making her laugh, I was a genius.

'Pfff. Well, I don't think I have anything against that, though it's kind of cool to get married as a virgin.'

'My parents are really strict in such things, you know. They want me to marry a virgin.' I said.

'Okay.' she reacted and fell silent. I took a small taste of my shot.

My fantasies took me somewhere else.

'I gotta leave.' she suddenly said. 'Sorry.'

'So fast already?' I asked. 'You're not enjoying yourself?'

''M sorry. I promised Melita and Serge to join them for their trip to Otaku tonight. We gotta leave in time.'

'Kay. Have fun, then.' I said. 'But that reminds me:'

'What?'

'Can I.. have your cell phone number?'

'Thought you'd never ask.' she said and grabbed my hand, leaving a small piece of paper in it with her number. Her touch felt stone cold, but I was astonished by this intimity, though it could barely be called intimity, for the rest of the evening.

'Something wrong?' my host father asked. 'You're so silent.'

'I dated a girl today.' I confessed and kept eating.

My host sister Erika squeeled in disbelief and dropped her cutlery.

'Oh my god FINALLY! Who's the lucky girl?'

'Calm down, Erika. He doesn't have to share his private life.'

'No, she may know. It was Haneru Dolcesconi, you know her?' I said. Of course she'd know her in a village as small as this.

'Oh yes. Yeah.' she said, and sounded disappointed.

'What's wrong?'

'I'd hoped you'd date a.. you know, a real girl.' she said.

'That's enough, Erika!' my host father shouted.

But I hadn't heard enough. 'What's wrong with Haneru?'

My host mother looked kind of worried. 'Nobody in the village really likes those immigrants. You know, Haneru and her sister Malia, this Yumna Reem, her boyfriend Calvin, this tall blonde guy.. Serge de la Romée.. and Timothy Jones.'

'Please don't forget this Melita Cephisso, she's the real wacko deal.' Erika added in an attempt to be funny.

'You should show some more respect, Erika!' my host father said. He was now really angry.

'Cephisso-dono may have her curiosities, she's wiser than her years and she discovered this horrible disease your mother had! If it wouldn't have been for her, your mom would've been dead! Off to your room, no more food until you learn to respect people who earn that.' He had difficulty keeping his anger under control.

While Erika sighingly climbed the stairs, he turned to his wife. 'And you should not forget that too, my dear. Those Europeans didn't bring us anything but good.'

She sighed. 'I'm sorry. But Stephen..' she went on to me.

'No, it's okay. Stop it.' I said and continued my dinner.

After finishing doing the dishes, I went to Erika's room and knocked on the door.

'Come in.' she said.

'Can I ask you something, Erika?'

'Anything!' she smiled and shut her television down. 'Whatcha wanna know?'

'Okay. So what's the big deal about those.. Europeans? You know which Europeans.' I asked.

Erika took a deep breath. 'Well, the funny thing is, as soon as the sun starts shining, Haneru, Melita, Malia and Serge are gone. They say they wanna take profit of any nice weather on the beach. And in the winter, they go hiking when the sun shines. That's weird, right?

'Though they're not the only ones being strange. Nobody can find Yumna, Calvin and Timothy in the weekends, it's as if they disappear. And once on a monday, Timothy returned to school with a blood spot in his shirt. He was so shocked when we told him and thought of a silly explanation fastly. It was so weird.'

'So you think they are a freakshow?'

'They are.'

'And what about Melita, then?' Not that I liked Melita anyway.

'Oh, Melita. She is quite something. She talks like she's lived for centuries, like a philosopher, always in a formal matter. She speaks impossibly many languages. And if she wants you to do something, you'll do it, whatever it is. But I kind of owe her, she discovered a tumor in my mom's head.'

'That's cool, yeah. What's her age?'

Erika laughed. 'We always joke about that. We say physically, she's about 24. Mentally, she should be like 120, or something.'

'And when did, The Europeans, move in?'

'Half a year ago. They live in host families outside the village's borders, next to eachother.'

'They came together?'

'Yeah, they said they already knew eachother. That's something to pull off if you're from five different countries, don't you think?'

Next morning I felt far from fantastic. The whole night, I had been dreaming about Haneru, restlessly.

Haneru and I had been living in a pink cloud castle, but Melita and Erika attempted to destroy it, together with my parents and host parents. Luckily, we were saved by the school teachers, who were wearing -

not that it was important anyway.

School had become difficult for me. The only thing I did was waiting for the breaks to come.

Hikaru was annoyed like hell with me, as I was not really there. I was dancing in my thoughts, not here, not in reality.

'You can't think of anything but that damn girl?' he asked. I was silent.

As soon as the break finally started and I spotted her, sitting at her favorite table, and again my blood started streaming quicker.

I just couldn't find the words to describe her, the graceful way she sat there. The school uniform she was wearing seemed to be designed for her divine body.

When she waved to me, my heart stopped and I choked, making my other friends Chen and Reon giggle like girls. Haneru threw a kiss hand to me, which almost had me faint.

'You know,' Chen started, 'I heard Melita doesn't like it you had a date with Haneru.'

'Bad for her. Why should she care about us? She's too old.' Reon said, clearly amused.

'Dunno.' Chen answered. 'She seemed super pissed yesterday.'

I didn't listen to them; my cell phone buzzed and I saw I had a new text message: See me after school in the supermarket ;)

I didn't have to look to know who that was from. Of course I accepted.

'Nice of you to come.' Haneru smiled when I pushed open the supermarket doors. She kind of scared me, because I hadn't seen her standing behind that door when I started pushing.

'Yeah.' I said and felt myself blushing. 'So what would you like us to do?'

'Don't really know. What about chatting and getting you some sweets?'

'Sounds good enough for me.' I said. If I would be an anime character, my eyes would've been replaced by thumping hearts right now.

So we moved to walk around in the store. 'So let's talk.' Haneru said.

'There's a lot I want to talk with you about.' I grinned and accidentally touched her hand.

So. Cold.

'Are you cold?' I asked, trying to sound casually.

'Not at all, thank you?' she answered, surprised.

That only made me more curious, but then she interrupted my thoughts with whispering: 'Melita.'

'What?'

'Don't you dare to turn around now. She's right behind you.'

We rounded the corner and as soon as we were 'safe', I peeked. In the supermarket's corner, past the pay desks, there was this tiny figure with her huge lips and straight black hair. Even though it was only for a second, her cold eyes met mine and made goosebumps run over my arms.

'Jeez. What's her problem?' I whispered, scared.

'I have no idea.' Haneru said with a faint tone of anger in her voice. 'She doesn't want us to interact. Not like I care.'