Author's Note: Some things cropped up (okay, a lot of things) when I was writing this chapter so update was slower than I planned :S suddenly had a friend crashing at my place for a whole week so was busy accommodating and keeping my guilty pleasure a secret hurrhurrr and school's being mean.

This story might move a bit slow, which I hope you guys won't mind. I want to take a bit of time introducing Jay as a person, as well as the other characters and fleshing out each character of TVD and their relation to Jay haha

Jay's character will be revealed and fleshed out as the story progresses; so far I have kept things superficial in relation to the start of the story and how Jay is not acquainted with the other characters yet. I hope to make Jay a more complex character in the long-run with base human tendencies, as unappealing as it is haha :3

And thank you to all who favorite and alerted, and especially to the ones who took the time to drop a review! This story is certainly doing better than Eastern Sun In The Western Sky did in the first chapter, and I only hope more people will enjoy it as the story progresses!

Review Response Time!

Kellyxo- haha I'm glad you like her being an Asian! I'm honestly relieved to hear that :)

Royalrabbit- thank you! I hope I can keep delivering good chapters which you all will enjoy! :3

Guest- Thank you! I don't particularly like Elena, but I won't butcher her character just because of that haha I have seen a lot of stories which warped Elena and her two sidekicks into annoying characters and I always found that extremely OOC. I hope to avoid that here ^_^ Haha if you wish to picture Jay like Arden Cho, feel free to! Arden Cho has more Korean features though, and not enough of the baby fat I wanted Jay to have haha I'm searching for a good picture that can represent Jay and will post it when I do :3 currently, all I have is the drawn image in the story's image haha

Lauren Lydia Jane Mikaelson- thank you! I am glad you enjoyed the start, and I hope you will enjoy the chapters to come too!

TS13- thank you! I will keep trying to produce long chapters every time! And also try to make sure it is just as good haha

ShiloCoulter- thank you for your keen interest XD update has now been delivered!

Ase4ever- thank you for reviewing again! I was a bit sad about dropping Eastern Sun too but not many people seemed to enjoy it :S I hope the same thing won't happen here. And I'm glad you liked Jay's character so far! I haven't shown a lot of her character yet and have kept things mostly on the surface so far :3

Jennifer- I'm glad you like my story! Although…I wasn't sure if it was a typo on your part or something, but Jay is actually Asian haha not Caucasian, although you are free to imagine her as one, that has been born overseas XD

The doors flew open, a loud sound reverberating through the halls the moment they met with the wall.

Kol stalked into the mansion his elder brother Klaus has painstakingly designed and commissioned for their family. But really, who gives a crap? Kol can appreciate the beauty of the design and architecture, but this romantic idea Klaus has of them living together as a functional family will never come to pass. They may be able to stay under the same roof but things will never go back to the way they were before they were stabbed in the heart by their own flesh and blood. Things had changed for them as a family ever since, no matter how much Elijah wishes otherwise.

Behind him, said elder brother followed, gently closing the doors Kol had treated with such violence. Elijah, known as a noble and honorable vampire, had quickly and efficiently went out after his brother when he discovered Kol had left their mansion earlier on. Elijah was quick to know what his baby brother's intention had been and decided to quickly interfere before he ruined the unofficial peace treaty the Mikaelson family had with the town mayor and its residents.

The younger of the two fumed, angry and annoyed that he had been interrupted halfway through his lunch. It's not as if anyone here would miss the girl. Kol had chosen her mainly because he knew that the girl was not from these parts.

Humans all have a scent that was distinctive to each individual only, a scent that will always be there no matter how much scented soap you scrubbed on or how much perfume you sprayed.

And her scent had been distinctly different from those born here in the land of the free.

It was a scent that reminded him of the woods and something else that he could not pinpoint. It wasn't something he had paid attention to as he drank her blood, for he did not think her to live after being done; after over a century in that blasted coffin, courtesy of his equally blasted brother, he could care less about being inconspicuous and had just wanted to feed until every last drop was emptied from the cup, leaving nothing but cubes of bones clinking around in an empty vessel. That was if Elijah had not interfered.

"If our family is to embrace this town and hope to live here peacefully, we cannot go about feeding from its people as if they were cattle."

Ah, Kol had nearly forgotten about Elijah being there with him as he lost himself in his mental fury.

"It's just one meal. And it is the least I deserved after being locked in that box for over a century. Have you no love for your baby brother?" Kol asked Elijah, voice twined with that of innocent disappointment and eyes round as a cherub's baby eyes.

Elijah smiled, or rather, made something akin to a mix of a smirk and a scoff, as he tucked his hands in his pockets, quietly ambling towards Kol.

"Of course I do. But you don't take cookies out of the jar without permission." With a light tap on his shoulder, Elijah walked away, leaving Kol rolling his eyes at his back.

"It's not as if anyone would miss her!" Kol called out towards Elijah's back but the older of the two did not look back, instead continued making his way up the stairs. He was certain Elijah was aware that her scent was not from these parts.

"Her family in her motherland would." Elijah's voice reverberated back towards Kol from above the stairs, before his figure disappeared.

Figures.

Leave it to Elijah to think all the way to unknown families of his victims. Kol didn't think that far. The only thing her family would probably only know is that she either got murdered by a serial killer or by an animal. They would grieve and then be over it after a couple of months. Or maybe years.

Not his problem.

Kol retreated to the living room where he lounged across the couch, the sleek HDTV displaying some sort of reality TV show. He couldn't be bothered to find out what it was. Things had changed a lot since the time he had been daggered; some for the better and some for the worst. One of the worst seems to be that people's capacity for creating good entertainment has devolved.

His fingers ran across the remote, remaining on each channel for less than a few seconds before he switched to another. He finally stopped on a channel that was running a documentary on vampire bats, figuring it was better than the other shows going on.

The house was silent, save for the occasional sounds from the second floor that reached Kol's sharp hearing. Elijah was pretty much silent in whatever he does, so the sounds must have been from his mother, Esther Mikaelson. She was planning a ball, and invitations have already been sent. Preparations are still being done for the ball, and the phone in his mother's study constantly rang: people from the catering service, the tailors, the beauticians, the florists etc.

There was still some time till the actual date of the ball but Esther had not failed to regularly remind Kol and his siblings that they needed to get fitted before the ball. Kol still had the invitation handed to him by his mother to give to someone else; apparently, she was hoping that all of her children would bring somebody to the ball.

That was going to be a bit of a problem, especially for Finn and Kol, who had just awoken not too long ago from their slumber. They have no one here that they are acquainted with, unlike Rebekah who has her silly high school friends and Klaus and his…well, whoever that has the misfortune of catching his attention. Elijah will probably have no problem inviting anyone over, if he invites anyone that is. Kol is more than confident with his ability to find a date easily, but a part of him is more than amused at the thought of Finn attempting to find a date. That brother of his is stiffer than a pole, and he had been neutralized for the better part of the ages. In any case, Kol doubts that Finn will even attempt to find a date…or perhaps he will, if just to please their mother. He never really understood that estranged brother of his.

As the documentary displayed scenes of vampire bats feeding, Kol's thoughts were inevitably drawn to the most recent event in his life since his awakening. He had been on lockdown in the house when he first awoke, as they all tried to decide what to do with Klaus and then take in the fact that their mother is back from the dead. But of course, that has been settled by their mother who has decided that she wants them to be a whole family again. Then there was that bit of time where Rebekah, Elijah and a hesitant Klaus brought their outdated family members up to date on the world and its changes. So his first real live feed since awakening had been that girl. He had had to live off blood bags, bloody blood bags of all things, for his first meal and several days of meals following his awakening. One can easily imagine then the anticipation and vigor with which Kol went at on his first feed; the girl certainly would not have lived if Elijah hadn't been there.

Kol had tasted the blood of many types of people, from Europe to America and all the way to Africa even. He had tasted the occasional Oriental blood once in a while; he had never traversed far to the Eastern part of the world, so those that had been unfortunate to come across him were mainly merchants or politicians. Her blood had not been much different than that of those who had hailed from the East, but there was something a bit different to the taste of her blood, much like her scent.

There was a hint of something saccharine that reminded him of peaches, something…innocent and pure. Virgin blood, definitely. Mixed with a little of something else; something that eludes him.

It was rare that he tasted blood like that, and Kol made a reminder to seek her out again when hunger once again raised its head. There was something certainly different about her blood, much like how witch blood and warlock blood tasted different from ordinary humans.

Was she a witch then?

Kol doubted it. Instincts told him she was no witch, and he was very familiar with witches. A slight hint of curiosity arose within him at these thoughts and musings, and Kol wondered where she was from. She's not from America or Europe. China perhaps? She looked Chinese, though her eyes were wider than what he imagined those hailing from that ancient country would have. Maybe she was a mix.

Her blood had tasted slightly similar to this fat Chinese merchant he fed from ages ago, but it was certainly different.

Perhaps he is a little grateful that Elijah had stopped him from draining her in his feeding frenzy; it had been a while since he fed on something fresh. And as expected of his amazing luck, he struck gold on someone with rare blood. There is now something for him to look forward to in this mundane town.

Handsome, gifted and lucky; he is one amazing vampire, in his humble opinion.

He looked at the clock hanging on the wall in the room.

He'll just give it a couple of hours and then head back out to find his next meal, and hopefully it will be that girl –what was her name again? Jay, was it? – that will have the good fortune of meeting him again. Hopefully, Elijah won't be trailing after him this time.

~Scent of Joss Sticks, Smell of Blood~

Chapter 2: Déjà Vu

Jay stumbled out of the car after Clementine. John had called dibs on the front seat; so though she had enjoyed a couple of hours travelling from Whitmore to Mystic Falls sitting at the front of the car, Jay had to squeeze into the back with Clementine and Cecilie this time. It wasn't really that much of a squeeze, but Cecilie had this bad habit of putting her legs up on the seat which took up a lot of space. They had asked her to put her legs down but she would unconsciously bring them up again after several moments so they gave up telling her to put it down.

"The Mystic Grill? Isn't there any other place to eat?" Cecilie groaned. "We already ate here for lunch!"

"Late lunch," Clementine added, shutting the car door after Jay got out.

"The two of you ate here. Me and Jay hasn't tried it yet," John said.

Jay scratched her cheeks guiltily. "Actually…"

"Don't tell me you ate without me?!" John cried, a look of betrayal crossing his face dramatically.

"Oh, don't be a drama queen," Jay slapped John on the arm. "I only went in to get a drink…and fish and chips. I didn't eat the fish though."

"Why didn't you eat the fish?" Ryan asked incredulously. He loved the fish in fish and chips. "I know you're partly vegetarian and all but that's a waste."

"I fed the fish to a stray cat I found."

"Aww, Jay, you're so kind~!" Clementine sang, draping her long arms around the other girl.

"I would have eaten the fish." Ryan said as he watched the road for cars before crossing the street towards the Grill.

"So would I." Cecilie agreed.

"I would have eaten half the fish and gave the other half to a beggar," John added.

Jay laughed shortly but didn't bother to argue with them. She was used to this. They always had the same reaction whenever she split some of her food to any animals she came across, or purposely bought food just to feed those animals.

Jay ate meat but was working her way towards being a vegetarian. She grew up eating meat for far too long to suddenly cut it off from her diet immediately but as awareness of the meat industry grew, Jay also began making changes to her choice of food and where she bought her produce. She tried to avoid meat to the best of her abilities, or at least choose meals that had less meat in them.

She used to hate vegetables. But as she got used to eating them, she found she actually quite liked eating them although she had a tendency to go overboard with the dressings on her salad.

The bell chimed as Ryan opened the door and stepped into the establishment. The place was even more crowded than it had been earlier in the day. People off from a hard day's work now drank their worries and stress away and young adults had doubled in numbers, clearly intending to get the most out of the still early Friday night.

The waiter Jay met earlier noticed them at the entrance and his face instantly lit up in recognition. Jay had been self-absorbed enough to think that it was because of her until he called out the name that had been waiting to roll off his tongue.

"Ryan!"

"Matt!"

The two clapped each other on the back like brothers reunited, and Jay was very glad she didn't greet the waiter first. She would have looked like an idiot.

"You're back!" Matt laughed enthusiastically at Ryan, head shaking in slight disbelief at the sight of his friend.

"Of course I am. I love this town!"

"I thought you said it was boring?" Cecilie drawled from beside the male.

"Boring, but that does not mean I don't love it!" Ryan countered quickly.

It was then Matt noticed Jay standing slightly to the back and his eyes lit in recognition again.

"Jay?" Matt blinked rapidly before looking over at Ryan who looked back and forth between Jay and Matt.

"You two know each other?" Ryan asked curiously.

"We met when I came here earlier for a drink," Jay answered, shooting a smile at Matt.

"I didn't know you two knew each other," Matt's arms crossed before him as he regarded Ryan and the group of mainly strangers around him.

"We go to Whitmore together, all of us," Ryan gestured to their group of five. "Guys, this is Matt. I know him from high school."

"We used to play football together," Matt added, the joy of seeing his old friend and senior again clearly showing on his face.

"Nice to meet you Matt! I'm Clementine," the strawberry blonde of their group introduced herself eagerly.

"Call me John," their Korean friend said as he extended a hand out for Matt to shake.

"Cecilie." And that was all she said.

"Wow, I didn't think a whole group of you guys were here when you said assignment," Matt said in amusement as his eyes passed over the new faces and stopped on Jay.

Jay shrugged with a grin. "The ones on assignment are just me and John, really. Ryan's our driver and these two are just tagging along."

"Okay," Matt said with a laugh, turning around and gesturing for them to follow him. "Come on, I'll show you guys to a table."

Matt led them to a booth table, and the five of them squeezed in with the guys on one side and the girls on the other.

"I gotta get back to work but call me once you have decided on your orders."

"Sure, thanks bud," Ryan nodded his head at Matt who returned to the kitchen to bring the orders out.

"He's so cute!" Clementine squealed as soon as Matt was out of hearing range.

"Hey, hey! He's off limits!" Ryan lightly whacked Clementine's hand with the restaurant menu.

"Oh, you have the hots for him?" Cecilie asked with a smirk, arms crossed and settled into her place between Clementine and Jay.

"No, but I ain't gonna let a good guy like Matt fall into the clutches of people like you!"

Jay laughed, turning her body to the side so that her legs rested outside the confining space of the booth where Ryan's longer legs constantly kicked her unconsciously.

"Don't worry Ryan. He's a nice guy but not my type." Jay said lightly as the menu was passed to her from John.

"Really? What's your type then?" Clementine asked, the curiosity and excitement evident on her face. She really wanted to know.

"Hmmm~" Jay pondered on her answer as she looked over the menu. Her eyes unconsciously came up to follow the sound of the restaurant door bell chiming, where a tall male had just entered.

"I've never really thought about it before but I just know he's not my type."

"Come on, there must be something!" Clementine urged, hand reaching over Cecilie and poking Jay on the shoulder.

"Bet you're one of those masochistic ones that goes for the sadists." John said this with such a serious face that Jay could not help bursting out in laughter as her eyes ran down the length of the menu. Finally deciding on what she wanted for dinner, she closed the menu with a slap and passed it to Cecilie who took it from her with a grumble.

"Maybe I am," Jay replied back in jest.

She didn't know what her type of guy was to be honest. Maybe it was a nice guy like Matt but maybe it wasn't. She never had a boyfriend before so she wouldn't know. Dating wasn't something she did back in her country for she was hardly one of the more appealing girls. It wasn't until a year before her high school graduation that Jay finally hit the maturity to take better care of her looks.

Growing up under the influence of her elder brother had hardly been positive on her feminine side. She never took care of her appearance, and constantly told herself that what mattered was the inside. And what was inside did matter, of course. But it was rare of people to not judge someone by their looks first. And so the time leading up to her high school graduation, Jay changed the attitude in which she looked after herself. Her parents had been pleased with what she was doing, saying that even though it was true that what mattered was the heart of the person, it was also considered a polite gesture to present oneself nicely in a working environment. And considering the fact that they are hoping either Jay or her brother will take over their company one day, they had been overjoyed to find that at least one of their children was finally starting to look after their appearance. And that was when her vain side started to make itself known to her.

Matt had come over to take their orders, and Jay got herself a grilled chicken salad along with a mocktail. Ryan and John both got beers; there was this ongoing thing between them where Ryan constantly tried to out-drink John, to no avail. According to John, the Koreans were notorious for their drinking although Jay could not be too sure herself since she hardly knew any Koreans before John. Clementine and Cecilie ordered strawberry and chocolate milkshake respectively, in which they mixed a little bit of beer into it. Jay never understood why they did that.

They passed the time talking about Mystic Falls and Ryan's life here before he moved to Whitmore for his studies, about what Clementine and Cecilie did for the better part of the day and whether Jay and John found any good info that they were going to use for their assignment.

And during this whole time, Jay's eyes kept flickering to the bar where the tall male she spied walking into the restaurant sat alone, drinking a glass of whiskey.

Cecilie nudged Jay in her side, blonde head bobbing lightly in the male's direction. "Checking out hot stuffs over there?"

Jay felt a track of heat run across her cheeks, but she grinned nonetheless. "Was I that obvious?"

"Who are you guys talking about? Who?!" Clementine quickly butted in, eyes squinting in the direction Cecilie pointed to. John and Ryan both turned in their seats to look as well.

"Never seen that guy here before," Ryan mentioned as he tried to put a name to the face but came up with none.

"He's hot~" Clementine wagged her brows.

"He's okay," John said.

"No one asked you!" Cecilie rolled her eyes at John, and Jay patted his hand to console him.

Matt came by with their orders not long after, placing their dinners before each of them

"Hey, Matt," Ryan nodded his head to the direction of the bar. "See that dude over there in that black coat, drinking by himself?"

Matt turned around to look, spotting the described male not long after. "Yea, why?"

"You know who he is?"

Matt stared at the male for a moment longer but shook his head at the end. "Nope, never seen him before."

"Aww, guess we'll just have to go old school and flirt our way to a name!" Clementine winked at Jay, causing the girl to give her a ridiculous look in response.

"I'm not going to go and flirt!" She protested quickly.

"You guys interested in him?" Matt laughed, shaking his head.

"Jay is," John said, a piece of fry hanging from his lips.

"I just thought that he's good-looking, that's all!" Exasperated, Jay began eating her grilled chicken salad as she tried to ignore the people around her. She stabbed her fork into the chicken meat furiously, very much unlike the kindness she always showed animals.

"Sure, sure," Matt laughed, blues eye lighting up in mirth. "I'll let you know if I find out his name." He left, dodging Jay's hand which had shot out in an attempt to hit him on the arm, voice echoing back towards their table alongside the mirage of other voices.

Involuntarily, Jay's eyes flickered to the male by the bar again, only to freeze when her eyes met his. Her eyes quickly went back to her salad, lips furiously drinking from her blue striped straw.

Aww shit, did she just get caught checking him out?

Hesitantly, she brought her eyes back towards his general direction, instantly feeling the slight jump of her heart when she saw that he was still looking at her, and even smiling at her.

She pursed her lips to keep the smile from growing, and shyly dodged her head back down and away from his gaze.

"Why is your face red?" John asked, black eyes focused on her suspiciously.

"No reason. Isn't it kinda hot in here?" She faked cooling herself by fanning the top of her shirt.

"I feel fine," Ryan said through a mouthful of burger.

"Well, I'm feeling extremely stuffy between the two of you," Cecilie grumbled, edging around between Jay and Clementine in an attempt to make herself comfortable.

"Hey Jay, that hot guy from earlier is totally checking you out," Clementine reached over and rapidly slapped her on the shoulder to emphasize her point. Her blue eyes never once left the figure of the male, who Jay assumed is still looking at her if the extreme way Clementine's grin exploded on her face was any indication. Jay dared not turn around to look.

"Clementine, it's rude to stare at people…" Jay bit out quietly, fingers threading through her hair in an attempt to inconspicuously hide her face behind a curtain of hair.

Ryan looked over his shoulder to see that the male was indeed looking over at their table. He turned back around with a blank stare. "I don't like the way he's smirking as if he's the king of the world."

"Pssh, jealous cause you're not getting any attention?" Cecilie snapped two fingers in front of Ryan's face.

"As if I need attention from you guys!" Ryan retorted before downing the last gulps of his beer.

The conversation turned onto Ryan and his abilities at picking up girls instead, and Jay felt slightly relieved that the focus was no longer on her again. And yet her eyes could not resist the pull to just look over towards the bar once more.

She did not know what she was expecting to find or exactly what she wanted to find. But Jay could not help the slight disappointment in her heart when she saw that the male was no longer looking their way and was in fact getting ready to leave.

Slowing the disappointment, Jay chose to turn her attention back to her friends and enjoy her time here with them instead of wondering about a mysterious handsome stranger who she is likely not going to meet again. Rare were the times she received attention from the opposite sex, and this has perhaps made her too eager to jump and think into interactions with men too much.

Which was absolutely silly, and she mentally berated herself for it.

They will be returning to Whitmore on Sunday, so even if she did get to know anyone here, it will be for naught, in any case.

Inexperienced and single in a new country; Jay had a lot of opportunities, and she need not fret over one guy who deigned her worthy of one gaze from him.

With that mantra in mind, she pushed all thoughts of the dark eyes of the stranger by the bar to the back of her mind, and poured her entire presence into the now with her friends.

By the time they decided to leave the Mystic Grill, it was late and most of the patrons have already cleared out, with only a few more lonely drinkers still drinking their lonely hearts to sleep. A few couples still remained, whispering sweet nothings to each other. They were the only large group left and with their leave, most of the remaining noise in the restaurant goes with them.

Ryan bade Matt goodbye with promises of catching up soon before heading to the exit. The rest followed after him but Jay lingered slightly back.

"I'm gonna go use the restroom first."

"Alright. We'll wait for you at the car," Ryan told her before all four of them disappeared beyond the establishment door.

Emerging from the restroom later, Jay smiled and waved goodbye to Matt who gave her a quick but cheerful farewell.

She pushed open the doors, eyes focused on her hands pulling the hem of her shirt straight and the bell signaling her exit with its chime.

Cool winds caressed her face when she stepped outside. Spotting Ryan's car on the parked on the other side of the street, she made her way over but paused when she passed by the alley where she found the stray cat earlier in the day.

The cat was there once more, it's fur dry and patchy but looking slightly more energetic than previously. But what caused Jay to pause was the man crouched by the cat and scratching it by the back of its ear.

It was the same stranger by the bar with the dark eyes and coat.

The man noticed her presence and looked up at her from where he crouched, but his fingers continued scratching along the ears of the cat.

The cat purred against his large hands in bliss.

Jay had not thought to stop and chat with the male, merely pausing momentarily to look at the cat. She had not expected the man to take note of her presence nor bother to talk with her.

"Quite the little attention seeker, isn't she?"

His voice was British, or what she thought was British. She wasn't the greatest when it came to accents.

Jay smiled at the sight of the cat with its eyes closed in bliss, neck craning to push its small head against the heaven-giving fingers of the stranger.

"I just fed this very same cat earlier today," Jay said as she turned her body to face the two figures in the alleyway, eyes flickering quickly towards Ryan's car in the slight distance.

"Did you?" He said, eyes lighting up in surprise and what seemed to be amazement as he stopped his ministrations and stood up. He brushed his hands off against the back of his pants and Jay mentally noted his height, feeling slightly impressed and intimidated with how he can easily tower over her short figure.

Most men in her country were hardly tall, and the ones that were had been tall and thin, fitting into the category of skin and bones. But the stranger before her clearly had an athletic cut to his form, despite being garbed in a dark coat that enveloped him from shoulder to thighs.

"It still looks thoroughly famished."

Jay sighed, taking several steps to kneel before the cat which has warmed up to human presence significantly compared to when she first found it. She rubbed her knuckles on the area above and between its green eyes.

"Yea…it didn't finish the fish I gave it for some reason."

She no longer saw the abandoned box of fish in the alley. Someone must have cleaned it up.

"It seems to come here often. You can always come back to feed it."

Jay looked up at him beside her, his dark eyes shadowed by the darkness of the alley. Her nose scrunched in disappointment and she shook her head.

"I won't be here long enough to feed it properly. I leave Mystic Falls on Sunday."

His brows rose and his head tilted as he continued to look down at her. Lightly mussed brown hair waved in the soft winds that blew. "You don't live in Mystic Falls?"

"Nope. I study at Whitmore College."

"Well, that's too bad for this little minx then." He lightly nudged the cat in its side with his foot but elicited no response from the feline which was too absorbed in Jay's treatment of its forehead.

Giving one last pat on its head, Jay stood up. "I really wish someone would take it in though."

"Jay!"

She heard Ryan's voice calling her from beyond the alley, and she turned towards the source reflexively.

"Jay, huh?"

She back turned around to find the male with a charming smile with just a dash of mischief playing on his lips.

Unconsciously, Jay bit her lips and scratched the back of her neck. "Yea, that's my nickname."

Laughing, she rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Anyways, I really have to go. My friends are waiting for me."

"Right. Sorry for keeping you." His accented voice took on an apologetic tone and Jay wondered why he was so sincere.

"No, it's alright. It was my own fault," she laughed with a roll of her eyes. "I was the one who stopped to stare in the first place. Completely rude and unexpected of me, by the way," she quickly added at the end.

His shoulders raised and fell with a light laughter and then his hand extended towards her.

"Kol Mikaelson."

Eyes flickering to his hand before moving back to look at the man in his dark eyes, Jay took his hand.

"Jay."

She was about to shake his hand but was taken by surprise when his other hand suddenly came up to envelop her extended wrist and then lightly, just lightly, he brought her hands to his lips.

There was a soft sensation of something soft but chapped gliding over the skin of her knuckles, and Jay's heart leapt at the interaction: it was the first time someone ever kissed her on her hand and it made the girl within her flutter.

And though it was a silly notion, for she hardly knew him and she left Mystic Falls soon, she kind of wished she would see him again.

"Jay, huh?" He repeated again, as if her name was something strange and foreign which he had to experience repeatedly to familiarize with.

She laughed again and slowly walked backwards out of the alley.

"Sounds so weird when you keep saying it."

A smirk tugged at his lips.

Jay ran towards Ryan's car, meeting him halfway on the relatively empty road.

She left the alley with the man's presence in her mind: Kol Mikaelson.

The very same Kol Mikaelson who still remained in the alley after she left looked down at the cat in the alley with him.

It had long since tire of their attention towards it and now lounged lazily by the same dumpster where he attempted to drain the girl just hours before.

He raised his foot and brought it down, stopping just around the area above the head of the cat with dry and patchy fur.

He looked down at the sight of his large booted foot and the sight of the cat cleaning its body just beneath it, ignoring the large limb and the possibility of it coming down on its tiny head; the cat was obviously assuming that after a few moments of kind scratching, Kol was a human that could be trusted.

But Kol wasn't a human.

And he wasn't kind.

He wasn't a kind human like that girl Jay had been.

"This is your lucky day little minx." Kol said, eyes peering down at the grey cat which stopped momentarily in its ministrations to turn piercing green eyes up at Kol. He dropped his foot back to the ground.

"I'm in a good mood now."

The cat shook its head of invisible dust and went back to cleaning its body.

Its nimble body paused for a moment, head halfway bent over its exposed stomach. Then it went back to cleaning again, pink tongue darting out and running along its dry fur.

The presence standing before it was gone.

Dear Diary,

It's a Friday and we had spent the early part of the afternoon driving from Whitmore College to Mystic Falls. We're staying the weekend at Ryan's home, where his mother lives alone. is super sweet. She said that we are free to visit and stay over anytime, with or without Ryan. I think she's feeling lonely. Ryan's dad died a couple years back and now that her son has moved out, it must be very quiet at home for her. I think I might take her up on her offer. Mystic Falls is a really nice place.

It's neither large nor small, and it is neither noisy nor quiet. Mystic Falls has just about the right amount of everything. And there are a lot of woods here which I really want to explore. According to Ryan, there's a waterfall out there somewhere. Might make a good painting subject.

I found another stray cat today. I wish there was something I can do for all these animals. If I hit the lottery, the first thing I would do is build an animal shelter. I got the cat some fish I bought at the Mystic Grill but it didn't finish it. It just left. Which was kind of weird, as I could not remember anything that happened that might have caused it to flee. I remember watching it eating quite contently, but it's just blank after that. And I woke up next to a dumpster. Am I going crazy like grandpapa did?

I also found these red stains on my shirt today. My shirt was black, so I couldn't see clearly what the stains were but there were these real light red streaks on my skin too. I thought it might have been ketchup but I swear I just got that shirt cleaned before coming here. But it might have been the ketchup I used on the fish and chips. Strange though, I don't remember squeezing any on myself. I might be clumsy but I'm not stupid. Maybe I am going crazy like grandpapa.

I should remember to tell mum about this; I might need to go and get checkups. I hope not, though!

I really do miss home though. I'm thinking of going back for the holidays. I'm worried about grandmama. She's getting old and she's always overworking herself with looking after the temple, especially now that I'm not there to help her out anymore. I hope flight tickets are cheap.

We ate dinner at the Mystic Grill, because Ryan did not want to trouble his mother with any cooking and cleaning.

I saw this guy over there and he was really good-looking. Like, celebrity level good-looking. The waiter at the Mystic Grill, Matt, was really cute too but he was on a different level completely. He said his name was Kol Mikaelson.

Mikaelson.

Even his name is pretty cool. It feels all archaic and noble. I managed to get his name and even gave him my name but we leave Mystic Falls on Sunday. Which really sucks as I wanted to get to know him; he might be my first boyfriend material! I feel like moving here now. Huh, mum will kill me if I did.

Diary, I feel like a little school girl in those Japanese dramas, gushing in you about a random hot guy I met. So I'll stop now.

I'll write in you again soon.

Did anyone notice the slight overlapping with chapter one in terms of words and actions? XD

The show is called The Vampire Diaries but the diary aspect hardly appears anymore after season 1 :S In honor of the name, I made Jay a diary writer too hurr

Kol is hardly apologetic of course...it was all an act. I can totally imagine Kol acting all concerned when inside he's all "Rawwwr!" XD

Please review if you enjoyed this story and this chapter! What you liked about it, what you wish to see, questions about the characters etc anything goes in the reviews!

Read and Review~ R and R!