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There may be just one thing Youngjae hates more than vampires and those are bad grades, and that may also just say something giant about the fact that Youngjae is currently not feeling the best and slamming his silver knife into the bark of a tree he found in the forest just outside his backyard, feeling rather angry and unfair and that is mainly because of the fact that his teacher just gave him a big fat zero on an assignment that Youngjae never got to hand in because he had been recovering from an attack that his friend Yugyeom didn’t manage to prevent.
The knife his the wood for the nth time and the bark finally breaks into small splinters that rain over Youngjae’s feet. He pulls his knife free from the wood one more time and carves a few curse words into the wood before stepping back.
“You know, you can stop assaulting that tree any time. It didn’t do anything wrong,” Jinyoung speaks up, glancing up from behind his book. Youngjae pauses in wanting to throw the knife at the wood and turns.
“How about you put your snotty ass nose in that book again and we’ll all be fine,” Youngjae says sarcastically. Jinyoung rolls his eyes but does what Youngjae says anyway.
It might seem harsh to speak like that from the outside, but that’s how Jinyoung and Youngjae have always conversated. It has shocked Jinyoung’s grandmother (whom Jinyoung lives with) the first time she heard her grandson talk like that to his best friend, but after a long ten minutes of scolding and being told to use proper manners, she had left the room.
Yugyeom and Kunpimook have been trying to talk with the two older Hunters like that but it generally ends in either Jinyoung or Youngjae giving them harsh glares.
It’s not that they don’t like the two younger Hunters, it’s just that Youngjae hasn’t known them for that long, he puts more trust in Jinyoung than he does Yugyeom and Kunpimook. Of course, they’re great Hunters, but just something about them is off about how suddenly they came into Youngjae’s life.
It was on a Saturday morning two years ago, Youngjae still remembers that clearly as he eyes both younger boys and tosses his knife without looking into the bark. There was a knock on the door and Youngjae’s mom wasn’t home so he had to open up himself, which he didn’t like at all because he was still asleep when the knocking sounded. All he saw was Yugyeom bleeding and Kunpimook desperately trying to talk Youngjae into letting them stay for the night and since then they’ve stuck around quite often.
Youngjae wrenches the knife from the wood once more. He’ll figure it out eventually if something is really wrong with them.
The following morning Youngjae’s mom returns home from her business trip to China. Though it’s a Wednesday and she usually never comes home until Fridays, she’s still there, which makes Youngjae a little happier than usual.
Ever since his father left them to live with the coven around town, Youngjae has despised vampires. Not only because his father was unwillingly turned, but also because his father was the sweetest man on earth and it pained Youngjae to let go. And he was only seven at that time. It’s been ten years since Youngjae’s father left. He still wonders what he looks like now, or if he’s been killed by a Hunter already. Maybe Youngjae’s killed him without knowing who he really is.
Nah, he’s never really killed older vampires. He normally hunts the younger ones because they are the only ones wanting to come out to hunt food for the older vampires. It’s vampire law, or something. Yugyeom explained it once, Youngjae doesn’t exactly remember what the youngest on their team said.
But Youngjae’s happiness is blown away in the wind when he gets to school – he’s almost finished his last year, luckily – and he has Gym in first period, and unluckily they’re playing basketball.
Youngjae absolutely hates basketball.
Soccer’s way better.
But that aside, he gets hit in the face with a basketball by some girl in his class – he believes her name is Im Yoona but he doesn’t really know – and he finds himself in the nurse’s office with an icepack pressed against his throbbing and probably about-to-bruise cheek while Jinyoung grins at him mockingly from the desk of the front lady where he helps out during first period.
The rest of his day is lame. Yugyeom pries on about how he got the forming bruise on his cheek. Kunpimook steals from his fries during lunch. In Art class the girl next to him cries because she spilled a cup of dirty paint-water over her drawing that she had been working on for ages.
As said; lame.
But that doesn’t exactly mean it’s not fun. After school is over Youngjae hangs out in the parking lot by Jinyoung’s car with Yugyeom and Kunpimook, waiting for all the students – or most of the students – to leave so they themselves can get to the forbidden section at the forest where the coven is rumoured to be located.
They’d been waiting for ages to finally pluck up the courage to get there just weeks before. At first Kunpimook was hesitant because he didn’t want his parents to worry. Then Yugyeom kept saying he didn’t want to come face-to-face with a group of vampires that could recognize him. Then Youngjae’s mom didn’t approve of it because who would want their son to go out and risk his life?
No-one, that’s for sure.
“Let’s go,” Jinyoung says, peering at the final car that is leaving the parking lot. The car stops briefly at the from of the school to let some girls inside and then it disappears in the low-hanging clouds that have formed throughout the day.
Each takes their own weapons from the trunk of Jinyoung’s car and once that is finished they stream into the forest in usual formation; Jinyoung at the front, then Yugyeom and Kunpimook, and Youngjae at the end. It’s proven to be the most useful whenever they go out to hunt.
The longer they walk through the forest, the darker it becomes, until Youngjae can barely see through the trees anymore as they’re surrounded by a wall of darkness. The path becomes muddier, too, due to the heavy rainfall from that morning. It’s odd as well, seeing as most of the rain would’ve had to go through a bed of new leaves capping the ground.
“Did anyone get the garlic?” Jinyoung stands still in a small clearing. “Yugyeom?”
“Sorry,” Yugyeom’s voice rings from the darkness as he, Kunpimook, and Youngjae step into the clearing as well. “Forgot.”
“Why do you always forget?” Jinyoung sighs. “Stay here, don’t do anything stupid.”
“Just make it your own task then, obviously I always forget!” Yugyeom shouts after Jinyoung. Youngjae rolls his eyes and bumps his shoulder into Yugyeom’s as he walks into the middle of the clearing.
“Seriously,” Yugyeom huffs and rubs his shoulder where Youngjae bumped him and looks up. “Why’s he always freaking out? We’ve already got silver and I’m pretty sure Kun’s got the water.”
“And you never carry any of it,” Youngjae says sarcastically. “Whatever your problem may be with that.”
“Right,” Yugyeom groans. “How hard can you bump shoulders, seriously!”
“Weakling,” Youngjae snorts. “Kun, you have the stake, right?”
Kunpimook nods and Youngjae turns around. It’s quite silent in the forest, quite uncomfortable as well. A light rain falls from the sky and it’s audible on the leaves, ticking against them quite loudly and creating an eerie sound to fill the previous quietness. Youngjae hopes that Jinyoung will return soon.
A twig snaps and Youngjae spins around sharply, eyes boring through the impenetrable darkness. He can’t see shit.
As expected.
It’s dark, probably the middle of the night. What’d he think would happen? Sudden increased eyesight?
The Hunter takes a few careful steps forward toward the bushes, silver knife held out in front of him. When he is within armlength, he shoves the bush aside and in response, he is pushed back against a tree close-by, long, sharp, pointy teeth that are stained yellow near his face. Yugyeom yelps in alarm and Kunpimook threatens to stab the vampire that is close to digging his teeth into Youngjae’s neck with the stake he holds.
“Don’t. Not yet.”
The vampire huffs but leans back, scrunching up his nose at Youngjae and muttering, “Filthy Hunter,” underneath his breath. Even though he isn’t as close to Youngjae anymore, he still looks damn scary.
But Youngjae has to admit it; he damn hot as well.
“Never thought I’d see you again, Yugyeom.”
The vampire holding Youngjae against the tree snaps his head around and scans his blood-red eyes over the clearing before they fall on Yugyeom.
Yugyeom straightens, “Mark.”
“So I see that I didn’t kill you after all,” A vampire Youngjae hasn’t seen before steps forward and holds Yugyeom by the shoulder. “You’re now going around with the people that hunt you. Never expected it of you.”
“Shut up,” Yugyeom hisses and pulls his shoulder free from the vampire’s hand.
“Jaebum, let him go. A friend of Yugyeom’s is a friend of ours.”
“They’re Hunters, Mark,” ‘Jaebum’ says sharply. “Do you really think they won’t stab us when we’re not looking? They’ve got a fourth one, for Heaven’s sake.”
“Yugyeom, what does this mean?” Youngjae asks, still held tightly against the tree. Jaebum’s arm is pressing against his neck and he can feel sweat beginning to build up by his hairline.
“Jaebum, let him go, you’re going to choke him to death.”
“Yugyeom,” Youngjae warns. “What the fuck are they talking about?”
“I’ll explain later –”
“Jaebum,” Mark warns again.
“Yugy –”
“I said I’d explain later!” Yugyeom explodes, eyes turning a slow shade of red. Youngjae’s eyes widen and he sets a step back out of fear.
“You’re a vampire?”
“Yes I am, I was bitten when I was eleven and kidnapped into the coven and two years ago I got in a fight with Mark and he nearly killed me so I left,” Yugyeom snaps. Then, a lot of things happen at once.
Jinyoung returns and yells in alarm and swiftly takes out his silver dagger and throws it at Jaebum, getting the vampire in the thigh. Jaebum screams out in pain – Youngjae can imagine that it burns like hell – and he jumps back from Youngjae, finally letting the Hunter breathe.
Immediately, Youngjae attacks Yugyeom, despite Kunpimook attempting to get Youngjae off. Youngjae kicks the younger Hunter in the stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground at the strong force.
Youngjae places his knife at Yugyeom’s throat, “Give me one good reason not to kill you right now.”
“I never bit you,” Yugyeom says immediately, swallowing thickly. “I never bit you, and never intended to. I helped you kill vampires, helped you hunt.”
“I said one reason, not two, you idiot,” Youngjae hisses sharply, pressing the knife deeper against Yugyeom’s throat.
He is picked up around the waist and his arms are twisted behind his back and held in place, pinned against his spine, and he can feel hot breath on his exposed shoulder, sending shivers down his spine out of fear of what will happen next.
Probably death.
Or turning into a vampire.
Either way, he doesn’t feel up to both those options.
“Too bad you’ll have to leave so soon, cutie,” Jaebum whispers chillingly in Youngjae’s ear.
Youngjae feels the canine teeth probing at his skin, and he jams his elbow back into Jaebum’s stomach powerfully, before wrenching one of his hands free with easy and using it to grasp at the dagger Jinyoung had injured the vampire with earlier and twists it around in the wound, causing Jaebum to snarl and let go. Youngjae quickly feels for his neck and finds nothing that could hint at being bitten. It’d hurt a lot, anyway, but that’s just what he assumes from when he saw his dad get bitten and sucked the life out of him.
Not really a pleasant thought or sight from memory.
Youngjae swiftly breaks off a branch from the tree Jaebum had previously pushed him against when he initially wanted to bite Youngjae and drives the sharp point close to Jaebum, poking when the vampire comes closer. Youngjae doesn’t want to die. Not today.
“Alright,” Jaebum puts his hands up in defence. “You got me.”
“Fucking stay away,” Youngjae says carefully, continuing to probe the stick toward Jaebum. “I won’t hesitate, I’ve done this many times before.”
“Okay, I trust you on that,” Jaebum says casually, slowly walking to the side. “Just lower that thing and I’ll stay away.”
“How can I know for sure that you won’t attack me, huh?”
“I’m a man of my words,” Jaebum shrugs, eyes never leaving Youngjae’s. “Cutie.”
“I swear to God –”
Youngjae jabs the stick into Jaebum’s arm and the new, small puncture wound doesn’t even seem to bother him.
“I am not cute,” Youngjae hisses. “Now get the fuck away from me or I’ll drive this through your heart without hesitation.”
“And if you do that, I’ll make sure one of your friends won’t make it out alive from this place,” Mark’s voice speaks up, and Youngjae glances beside him. Jinyoung is held at bay by Yugyeom, the younger Hunter – vampire? – keeping him in place in a headlock while Mark is holding Kunpimook by the arm. “And I’m afraid this stick here will have to go first.”
Youngjae takes a deep, shaky breath and huffs it out again, and then he throws the branch on the ground. “Fine. Have it your way. Let him go.”
Mark thrusts Kunpimook toward Youngjae, who catches the younger Hunter. He glares at Yugyeom, who lets go of Jinyoung.
“How about both parties leave this place and we never meet again,” Mark says. “We won’t hunt you, and you guys won’t kill us. Fair deal?”
“I don’t make deals with vampires,” Youngjae bites. Then, he harshly grabs Yugyeom by the elbow and drags him away.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us anything?” Jinyoung seethes, pacing in front of his open car-trunk. He stops and looks at Yugyeom. “All this time I thought you were just forgetful, that you always prefer just a normal metal knife over a silver one.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Yugyeom attempts, but Jinyoung ignores him.
“And you?” Jinyoung looks at Kunpimook. “Are you a vampire?”
“If I was, would I really be holding this right now?” Kunpimook waves the garlic in the air in front of Jinyoung’s nose and Yugyeom shies away when it gets close to him. “Don’t be irrational. Let’s just go home and sleep over it, we can think of what to do tomorrow. It’s already late, anyway.”
Youngjae glances through the window and looks at the small, digital clock built into the car’s dashboard. It reads that it’s just past twelve. He didn’t know that they were out in the forest for that long. It’s not the best, either, because he still has a lot of homework to finish.
This will be a long night.
“Mr. Choi…”
“Yes, sir?” Youngjae looks up at his calculus teacher, Mr. Shin, with high hopes, praying that he’ll have a good score on this test.
“Here you go.”
Youngjae takes the small slip of paper containing his percentage. Eighty percent. Not too bad if you consider how much he tried to stomp into his head in one night the night he found out Yugyeom is a vampire.
Of course, it’s a lot of adjusting to knowing that one of your friends and a fellow Hunter is a vampire, but Kunpimook – who had known from the beginning – assures Jinyoung and Youngjae that Yugyeom means no harm and can actually be a help.
Mr. Shin returns back to the front of the class and notes a few things down on the whiteboard. Out of boredom and not wanting to write down everything, Youngjae glances out the window beside him, where his eyes land on a certain person he hadn’t expected to show up and would rather not have near him right now.
Jaebum.
“Hey Youngjae, there’s a party tomorrow night at my house,” a random girl says as she walks beside Youngjae after school. Youngjae really doesn’t know what her business is here but his mind can’t really comprehend anything else she is saying other than picking up small bits of when and where the party is. Maybe he’ll go, maybe he won’t. But currently, his mind is stuck on Jaebum and what the vampire’s business was at Youngjae’s school. Youngjae is still baffled on how quick Jaebum had left, just as quick as he had appeared.
In the end, he somehow loses the girl and goes straight outside without going to his locker like he usually would to meet with Jinyoung, Kunpimook, and Yugyeom. His intent is to find Jaebum and find out why Jaebum found it necessary to come to school when he’s obviously too old to be in school. Jaebum’s obviously a skilled vampire and judging by how he looks, he’s a lot older than Youngjae, too. Or maybe not a lot, Youngjae doesn’t exactly know yet.
Yet. Because Youngjae definitely will get to know Jaebum better before he kills him. After all, they hadn’t made that deal. Youngjae doesn’t make deals with vampires.
“Come out, fucker,” Youngjae hisses, nearing where he saw Jaebum. He can feel the vampire’s presence. “I know that you’re here.”
“Such a smart cutie,” Jaebum’s voice calls out, and Youngjae swears that it sounds like the vampire is grinning. With a snap of his fingers, Jaebum appears out of thin air and places his hands behind his back as he steps forward to Youngjae. “I can call you that, right? You wouldn’t… kill me over it?”
“Why the fuck are you here?” Youngjae spits. He eyes the tree close-by. If Jaebum decides to attack him suddenly, then Youngjae can’t run to the branch that quick.
“Your brain seems to work quick,” Jaebum says.
“Are you reading my mind?” Youngjae snaps his head to the vampire quickly. “I fucking know that vampires can read minds.”
“Some vampires can, others can’t. Also, stop saying fuck in every sentence. Doesn’t suit your cute appearance.”
“Don’t call me cute and don’t dodge my questions. Why are you here?”
“I don’t really know,” Jaebum says coolly. “I just felt like coming.”
“Then leave me alone, I don’t need you in my life and never will. Besides, I could always kill you if I wanted to. We never made that deal, after all.”
Youngjae glares at Jaebum with slightly raised eyebrows and Jaebum nods, smiling. “Fine then. Until next time, Youngjae.”
Youngjae wonders one thing as Jaebum leaves. How does he know his name?
Youngjae is borderline wasted.
He should’ve known that coming to that party was a completely bad idea, especially when that girl tried to continuously ask him out on dates and continued to shove bottles and bottles of beer into his face and eventually even slip in some pill that made his drink taste salty and caused him to put it away and turn around and leave, because he knew very well what that pill was and he already knew what the consequences of that pill would be even if he wasn’t under the influence of alcohol.
So now he’s staggering about the streets in the middle of the night, shivering in the cool, early-March air. He’d never have expected to be at this point and he wants to turn around and go home and cuddle up underneath his blanket.
But he can’t really do that when his brain keeps making him sing old, annoying songs really loudly, can he?
There was already one guy yelling at him to go home and go to sleep, or to stop singing songs, at least, but it doesn’t really stop Youngjae.
This is the first time since he stopped his alcohol-addiction a year ago that he has gotten drunk again. Of course, he’d have a beer with his friends once in a while, but that was it, he never took this much alcohol and even though he knows it’s rotting his brains, Youngjae couldn’t stop this evening.
His alcohol-addiction was caused by his mom, who had a horrible past with alcohol after Youngjae’s dad was taken away from them. She’d drink continuously and even give Youngjae some even though he was only ten at the time. Then, when he was fifteen, he started taking beer bottles from his mom, who had already sobered up when Youngjae was twelve and promised to never get an addiction like that again. But taking those beer bottles every now and then lead to drinking almost every day and being threatened to get kicked out of school.
Not really the best situation.
But his alcohol-problem also caused the same situation as the one Youngjae ran away from tonight. Though he doesn’t remember much from that night, Youngjae does know that he got into a party somehow, when he was sixteen, and that he had been so influenced by alcohol that he didn’t really mind the sudden salty taste of a drink a guy gave him. The next day, he woke up in the hospital and was told by the doctors that there were traces of sex on his body and traces of alcohol and a rape-drug in his system and that he’d be put into therapy and rehabilitation to heal over what happened.
So no surprise that Youngjae is scared shitless and singing songs to cover that fear.
He stumbles over his feet a couple of times and also smacks face-first into a lamp-post, with his bruised cheek from when he was hit in the face with a basketball some days ago, but he doesn’t even feel the pain over his intoxication.
After ten more minutes of talking smack in between lines of songs and dancing around and stumbling around the unfamiliar street he’s walking in, Youngjae finds a small corner in a fence connecting to a house and sits down, conducting an invisible marching band with his hands before they stutter and he passes out.
Salt. Something with salt surfaces in Youngjae’s mind. Seawater – that’s salty, right? He doesn’t really know, he’s hardly been to the sea and the last time he did was when he was three. The water was salty, right? And he drank it? Yes, he remembers not liking the overly salty taste of sea water. And his mom told him not to drink it. Yeah, that’s what he remembers. And not to pee in it because that’d be disgusting. Youngjae did anyway, being the stubborn toddler he is.
“Thinking about salt?”
Youngjae’s eyes spring open. Suddenly, he is extremely aware of the fact that salt is irrelevant and that he is in a dangerous place and that sweet voice he heard is a familiar voice that he also connects with danger. Though his brain is still a puddle of pudding, he does connect that voice to a hot vampire’s face. He doesn’t exactly know why he immediately thinks of that.
“I mean, I’m flattered by the compliment, but you should probably drink some water and take some painkillers for that headache. I’m sure it’ll kick in sooner or later.”
“What – headache?” Youngjae frowns through his muddled brain and sees Jaebum standing in the doorway, shirt in hand and hair wet. It’s quite a shocking sight, not only to see a vampire in your doorway but to also see him half-naked.
“I mean, you were pretty drunk when I picked you up last night. Also, this isn’t your bedroom. It’s mine. We’re in the coven right now.”
“What?” Youngjae jumps up and out of the bed he has previously lain in. “Coven? Why am I in a coven? And how was I drunk?”
“You were at a party, it was on your mind the whole time when we spoke outside of your school,” Jaebum shrugs. “I thought you’d have stopped drinking after the rape-incident.”
“How do you know of that?” Youngjae hisses. “Not even my best friends know.”
“I can read your mind.” Jaebum pushes away from the doorframe he was leaning on and steps dangerously close to Youngjae, prodding his temple. “Did you forget that already?”
“How can I know that you’re speaking the truth?” Youngjae asks. “What if you did something to me, huh?”
“I mean, you were sweating a lot so I brought you cold towels almost every hour,” Jaebum says. Youngjae looks at him unconvinced. “Also, I never bit you or had sex with you while you were asleep.”
Youngjae hand travels to his neck immediately, scanning around to make sure that he really isn’t bitten.
“Where is the exit of this place?” Youngjae asks, looking at Jaebum sharply. “I want to leave. Now. And I thought I told you to leave me alone.”
“I don’t think exiting is a good idea right now,” Jaebum says. “It’s close to nighttime, once the sun is down almost every vampire in the coven will be awake and I’m ninety-nine point nine percent sure that you don’t want to be in the middle of that. We can sense that you’re not a vampire. Also, if I hadn’t brought you here then someone else could’ve done horrible things to you.”
Youngjae opens his mouth to counter, but closes when he realizes that Jaebum is right. Call him crazy, but somehow he trusts Jaebum, despite the fact that the vampire had almost bitten him when first meeting. And it’s also kind of crazy that this is only the third time they’ve had a real face-to-face conversation – scratch that. This is the third time that they’ve actually been standing face-to-face. This is the third time they’ve met. And somehow Youngjae is already falling for Jaebum.
“Once again, I am really flattered –”
“Shut your mouth and don’t tell anyone what you read in my mind, or however the fuck that works,” Youngjae warns. “I’m serious.”
Jaebum hums, reaching up with his hand to brush his finger over Youngjae’s neck-vein. “I’m sure of that, cutie. I don’t think that killing me is kind to do after I most likely saved you from another situation that already scarred you.”
Youngjae is fairly uncomfortable with the sudden contact but somehow doesn’t mind it at all. He can grow used to it.
“You know, it took a lot of will-power not to bite you…” Jaebum trails off and looks Youngjae straight in the eyes. “One sip wouldn’t hurt, right?”
Youngjae really hates himself for falling for Jaebum so quick. No, never mind that. He hates Jaebum for being so hot and attractive and he doesn’t even give a fuck that Jaebum can read his mind right now.
But it’s also kind of crazy that Jaebum is a second away from starting the process of turning Youngjae into a vampire and that Youngjae wouldn’t even mind, despite that he’s still in school and despite the fact that he’s a Hunter and he is supposed to be having Jaebum pinned down right now, not have it the opposite. Because Jaebum is still a vampire and Youngjae is still a Hunter.
“Do it.”
Youngjae really hates himself for saying those words. He’s only known Jaebum for what, three hours total? It’s totally crazy that Youngjae’s melting in Jaebum’s fingers already.
But those thoughts that are clouding Youngjae’s mind don’t matter anymore when two canine teeth break through his skin and puncture his veins.
The initial feeling melts Youngjae’s brain even more and for a moment, Jaebum stills, carefully reaching out to hold Youngjae around the waist when the Hunter’s knees begin to buckle. Then, Youngjae can slowly feel the blood beginning to be drained from his veins.
Somehow, it doesn’t hurt as much as Youngjae had expected it to. Instead, ecstasy fills his veins in the place of the lost blood.
The feeling leaves sooner than Youngjae wants it to and Jaebum leaves his neck, looking at the twin puncture wounds before drawing his eyes to Youngjae.
“Get on the bed,” Jaebum says, gently guiding Youngjae to his bed. He disappears through the door he initially came from.
Less than a minute later, Jaebum returns, holding his left wrist tightly. He pushes Youngjae down against the mattress and steps over him, sitting over Youngjae’s stomach with his knees planted on either side of Youngjae’s chest. He presses his wrist to Youngjae’s chapped lips.
“Drink,” Jaebum says. “It’ll make you stronger.”
Youngjae looks at Jaebum with troubled eyes. He shouldn't have let Jaebum feed off of him. Jaebum only wants to turn him into a vampire, separate him from his friends.
“You won’t turn until you die,” Jaebum says, reaching out to push hair from Youngjae’s forehead. “That day won’t come for a long time, I promise you. I’m not trying to turn you into a vampire.”
Jaebum’s eyes press on and Youngjae finally gives in, parting his lips. Immediately, a bile taste fills his mouth and he almost chokes on it. If this is what vampires drink daily he doesn’t even want to ever die. But from this moment forward it’ll be inevitable that Youngjae will be a vampire.
But aside from that, Jaebum looks ethereal above him, in the dim light. The only visible light from underneath the crack of his door shines on his pale skin, making it almost glowing. The whole look seems almost strangely natural on Jaebum.
Eventually, Jaebum moves his wrist away, covering the bleeding cut he made with his hand again, which is stained with dried blood. He reaches out and wipes some blood from around Youngjae’s mouth.
“Take care of your wound,” Jaebum says, leaving Youngjae on his bed as he walks toward the door again. Youngjae quickly jumps up and follows the vampire.
“Why?”
“It’ll get infected and swell up if you don’t.” Jaebum opens the door, revealing a bathroom. There’s no mirror – not that Youngjae expected one – and Jaebum opens a cabinet door and takes out a bottle of some strange blue liquid, a gauze, some bandages, and cotton pads, along with medical tape. He then washes his hand and wrist from the blood and bandages it up.
“Have you done this before?”
“No, but my friend has,” Jaebum mutters. “How do you think Yugyeom became a vampire?”
“Who bit him?”
“Who do you think?” Jaebum asks. “Sit down.”
“Mark?”
“Exactly. Those two never got along very well, especially since Mark is Yugyeom’s sire but Yugyeom went around with that stick.”
“His name’s Kunpimook,” Youngjae defends when Jaebum begins cleaning off the blood around the twin puncture marks in Youngjae’s neck with a wet cloth.
“Right, him.”
“Wait – when I die and become a vampire, you’ll become my sire?”
“Exactly,” Jaebum nods. “I’m not like Mark, though. You go around and fuck whoever you’d like, I could care less about that. Unless you’re into me…”
Youngjae swallows thickly, “Never.”
“Okay.”
Jaebum disinfects and puts a gauze over the punctures and instructs Youngjae to hold it in place while he tapes it down. Youngjae observes Jaebum’s face while the vampire does so. He seems so focused and so worried that it’ll get infected, but it looks hot, how his brows furrow together.
Youngjae should really stop thinking about these things if Jaebum can read his mind with ease.
“Where the hell have you been – Choi Youngjae, what’s that?” Jinyoung points at the gauze covering Youngjae’s neck and narrows his eyes. “Did you go out hunting by yourself?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that,” Youngjae scoffs. “It’s a long story.”
“Tell me,” Jinyoung crosses his arms. “Does it include an explanation as to where you were? You disappeared on Saturday and it’s fucking Monday evening.”
“I was in the coven.”
Jinyoung’s eyes pile out of his sockets.
“What?”
“Yeah, I got drunk off my ass at this party and Jaebum took me to his coven.”
“Jaebum as in the vampire that tried to bite you back in that clearing last Wednesday?” Jinyoung asks, and Youngjae nods. “Jesus, what’d he do?”
“Nothing. He took care of me. And then he kind of bit me –”
“He did what?” Jinyoung exclaims. “Youngjae! You could’ve stopped him!”
“I asked him to.”
“Why in the name of God would you do that?” Jinyoung asks in exasperation. “Youngjae!”
“I don’t know, okay? But it felt strangely nice – anyway, he cut his wrist and made me drink some of his blood and then he told me to stay until it’d be Sunday morning so he could help me get out of the coven but there was something going on and he had to leave so I was stuck there until now.”
“You’re a vampire?”
“No, not yet,” Youngjae says quickly. “Only when I die I turn into a vampire.”
Jinyoung breathes a sigh of relief, “That’s good. But you seriously let him drink your blood and then you drank his blood? Really? I thought you were smarter than this Youngjae, honestly.”
“No need to drag my ass for it anymore,” Youngjae rolls his eyes. “It’s actually hurting pretty bad right now so I already got my payback for letting it happen.”
Jinyoung sighs, “I’ll call Yugyeom, see if he can help you figure something out, or something. But please be careful then, I don’t want you to turn into a vampire.”
Youngjae nods.
That night, Youngjae is woken up by a ticking against his window. At first, he pushes his pillow over his ears in hopes that the bird that is ticking its beak against the glass will leave soon. When the ticking won’t stop, he grumbles in annoyance and stands up.
Youngjae staggers toward his window and opens the curtains, expecting to see a bird. Instead, he sees a small stone rise up and tick against the glass before it bounces back and falls back to the ground. Youngjae follows the stone with his eyes to see it being caught by Jaebum.
Youngjae pushes his window open, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you,” Jaebum says coolly. “You took a long time to wake up.”
“Shut up. Why were you waiting?”
“Just because,” Jaebum shrugs. “Come down, I’m bored and want to talk to someone.”
“Jaebum,” Youngjae groans, glancing at his clock. “It’s three in the morning, I have school tomorrow.”
“You’ve stayed up late before, have you?” Jaebum questions and Youngjae bites his tongue awkwardly before reaching out to grab a sweater to pull over his shirt, not bothering changing his shorts into sweatpants. He then does what he normally does when he goes out hunting; he opens his window fully and carefully steps out into the darkness.
“Catch me if I fall,” Youngjae whispers to Jaebum. He swiftly jumps off his windowsill down to the ground. Even though his room is on the second floor, it doesn’t hurt one bit to land on the ground, and Jaebum looks a bit forlorn that he held out his arms for nothing. “What’d you want to talk about?”
“About what happened Saturday.”
“Why?” Youngjae asks. “I thought it’s pretty clear –”
“No, not that,” Jaebum bites. “I’ve been on your mind even though you said on Saturday that you’re not into me. Why?”
“Stop reading my mind!” Youngjae says exasperatedly. “It’s getting frustrating!”
“Stop thinking about me then,” Jaebum tuts. “Then we wouldn’t have this problem. Have you been cleaning the wound?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Jaebum’s silent and then he stuffs his hands in his pockets and turns around, beginning to leave Youngjae’s house.
“Hey – wait!”
Youngjae groans and follows after Jaebum, running hurriedly.
“What?” Jaebum turns around.
“You can’t just leave quickly like this. Why do you even care that I think about you? Of course I’d think about you, you’re the one that’ll eventually have turned me into a vampire when I die.”
Jaebum sighs and shakes his head, “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“‘Because’ isn’t an answer,” Youngjae says, grabbing Jaebum by the shoulder and turning the vampire around. “Tell me why.”
“Because I do, okay?” Jaebum presses. “I care about what you think of me because I do.”
“That still isn’t a proper answer,” Youngjae complains. He looks at Jaebum pointedly. “Don’t tell me that you woke me up in the middle of the night while I have a unit final in calculus tomorrow that’s important because it’ll determine most of my mark just to ask if I cleaned my wounds. Couldn’t you have picked a better time? If you were reading my thoughts, then you would’ve read my worries over that stupid unit final.”
Jaebum looks at Youngjae and huffs before grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him close, briefly pressing their lips together for a few seconds.
“That’s why, okay?” Jaebum mutters silently when he moves back. “Good luck on your final tomorrow.”
Then, he lets go of Youngjae and turns around and leaves briskly.
The whole time that Youngjae is sitting his final, his thoughts drift back to that early morning when Jaebum kissed him. Youngjae doesn’t even exactly know if that could count as a real kiss – of course, it’s mouth to mouth and it as definitely not an accident, but Youngjae’s never kissed someone before.
The vampire that’ll turn him into a vampire gave him his first kiss.
Youngjae realizes that as he gnaws on the metal end of his pencil that is missing the eraser from when Yugyeom peeled it out in frustration over some homework when he was borrowing Youngjae’s pencil.
It blows his mind how much things have happened in the past week – they’ve fought two vampires, they found out Yugyeom is a vampire, Youngjae got drunk and the last time that happened was a year ago, he drank blood and was drunk from, and he kissed Jaebum.
Quite a lot.
But it doesn’t matter because what does matter is that Youngjae only has ten more minutes until the bell and he still has five questions to finish.
Of course, Jinyoung’s asking all about the fact of why Youngjae looks so tired yet so strangely happy during lunch, and after a long hesitating pause of debating with himself whether to tell his friends, Youngjae decides to do so, recounting the events that happened the night before.
“You know,” Jinyoung says slowly as if he’s gnawing on a piece of caramel. “I’m actually doubting that Jaebum’s bad for you. You seem perfectly happy.”
“Of course he’s happy,” Yugyeom grins. “Boy’s finally getting some D.”
A stone rolls in Youngjae’s stomach but he rolls his eyes anyway, grinning back. “Not yet Yugyeom, not yet. But at least it’s before you.”
“Hah!” Kunpimook yells loudly. “Got your ass dragged, boy.”
“Oh, just wait, I’ll drag your ass and show Youngjae that he’s wrong –”
The rest of Yugyeom’s words are muffled as Jinyoung places his hands over the younger’s mouth.
“Anyway,” Youngjae says, glancing at the clock. “I still have some time so I’m gonna go to the store.”
“Be careful,” Jinyoung says, looking at Youngjae as he stands up and begins to make his way to the doors out to the street.
Youngjae knows what Jinyoung means – make sure not to get run over by a fucking truck or else I’ll kill you. Exactly what Jinyoung means and what Jinyoung’ll always mean.
Unfortunately, that truck just so happens to turn the corner at full-speed while Youngjae stands in the middle of the road, and he doesn’t realize that he is practically meeting death until he can feel the metal of the bumper collide with his thigh and his head slam into the ground.