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“Guys, our time to shine has come again!” Donghyuck’s words were followed by a chorus of groans.
Renjun lifted his head from where he was flopped down on the couch. "What have you done now?"
"Nothing!" Donghyuck protested, because really, he'd done nothing! "There's a rumour going around that that new club — you know the one that wants to get both human and supernatural creatures to come? — lets minors in just to make them slaves to the maffia that runs the place!"
Jeno looked up from his book and blinked quizzically at Donghyuck. "And?"
Donghyuck groaned and sat down on the floor with his face in his hands. Dramatically whipping his head up he exclaimed, "It's our opportunity to be heroes again!"
The front door to their dorm opened and closed, followed by Jaemin asking, "What is? You're very loud Donghyuck — I could hear you through the door."
Donghyuck had his back turned to the door, but twirled around to grin at Jaemin. "That new club is taking minors to slaves and we're gonna stop them!"
Nothing in Jaemin's facial expression changed to indicate his exasperation, but his voice betrayed him as he said, "And you think it's a good idea that we, a group of minors, go to a place that is said to take minors into slaves?"
"Well, we clearly know about it, so they won't be able to take us." In Donghyuck's mind it was a perfectly reasonable argument, but Jaemin looked sceptical. "Plus, we'll just go there and have a look around at first. They can't exactly take us in the middle of all the other visitors."
Jaemin sighed, and then proceeded to shock all the rest of them, including Donghyuck. "Fine. But we'll just stay for two hours, no longer! We still have that curfew at nine thirty."
They arrived at the club just shy of the clock turning seven. There were a lot of people outside, standing in two long queues, one of which ran along the side of the building, covered by the overhang of a roof. It seemed like some form of VIP line, but upon further inspection Donghyuck realised it was a queue reserved for humans.
Scoffing, he said, "They think they'll get more humans coming here by pretending to give them preferential treatment."
Jeno narrowed his eyes at Donghyuck and then said, "It seems like it works, though. And I don't think I would describe it as 'pretending to give preferential treatment' if that's the way society always works."
They walked over to the back of the line — the one not marked for humans. Renjun kept glancing around them with a frown, so Donghyuck felt the need to nudge him.
"Are you even sure they'll let us in?" he asked eventually. "Like, we're clearly minors, and no one else here seems to be, and I can't imagine that a club will let minors come in just like that."
Donghyuck waved his hand at him. "Don't worry about it."
When they reached the front of the line, the bouncer — a tall, grim looking man, probably a werewolf considering the way Jeno perked up after taking a whiff of the air — asked to see their IDs. Renjun threw a stink eye at Donghyuck, as if thinking his worry had been warranted, but the bouncer only took a quick look at their IDs before handing them back.
"Don't cause trouble with the humans," he muttered, and opened the door for them.
Donghyuck saw Jaemin and Jeno exchange a look , but they waited until the door had closed behind them to voice their surprise.
"What just happened?" Jaemin asked, his eyebrows left where they had risen up underneath his fringe from the moment the bouncer let them in. "We didn't have fake IDs, so why would they let us in?!"
"I told you there was something going on here," Donghyuck said, unable to keep the smugness out of his voice, even though he knew they would judge him for it.
"Then what do we do now?" Jaemin asked, eyeing the bar together with Jeno.
Renjun put his hand up in protest immediately. "No, we are not doing that. We can't get drunk just because we managed to get inside a club!"
"Since when are you the responsible one?" Donghyuck scoffed.
"Since I know we will get away late from here and the person at the gate will know if we're drunk, and I have an early class tomorrow and I don't want to be hungover for that." He continued before Donghyuck had time to protest that that doesn't have to affect the rest of them. "And I don't want to be the only sober one. I cannot deal with you drunk."
Donghyuck stomped his foot in frustration, but with more determination than before that he'd ignore them. "Go do whatever then, I'll investigate." He stomped off before any of them could protest, heading towards the loud dancefloor.
Half an hour later of looking around and he'd still not noticed any suspicious activities. He'd long lost Jaemin and Jeno, and had only caught a flash of Renjun ten minutes ago. He'd done several laps around the dancefloor, once passing by the bar but leaving quickly when one of the bartenders threw him a harsh glance. It was the most suspicious thing he'd noticed so far, but that was more likely because he looked so young.
There was a VIP area that he hadn't been able to access and a few doors to "backstage" areas. Donghyuck had contemplating sneaking in, but all the doors had been locked — he would need someone to open them and sneak in behind. And the opportunity to do so came ten minutes later, when a young girl walked over to one of the doors.
Donghyuck squinted his eyes as he walked closer, trying to avoid bumping into too many people. She didn't look to be much older than him — clearly suspicious.
She unlocked the door with a code — Donghyuck was too far away to see it — and strode in without looking behind. The door slowly started shutting, so Donghyuck hurried forward to slink in before it fully closed.
He found himself in a hallway, dimly lit and sparsely decorated. There were signs next to each door, but Donghyuck couldn't read what they said (possibly Chinese or Japanese based on the characters, of which he recognized only a few). One end of the hallway was eerily quiet, but he could hear voices coming from the direction the girl was walking.
Debating for just a moment on what to do, Donghyuck eventually decided to follow the girl. The other end was … too spooky, he decided with a shudder.
He kept what he hoped was a safe distance, walking as quietly as he could. If she could hear him, she at least didn't show it. She kept up a determined pace, walking the hallway until she came upon an open door, where she slowed down her steps and went inside.
Donghyuck slowed down, creeping up to the door. Glancing in, he couldn't see the girl anymore, lost in the proportionate sea of people in the small room. Most of them looked young, some maybe even younger than him. He couldn't tell if most of them were human or not, but some he could with certainty say they weren't human.
Just as he was contemplating what to do — this was clearly that suspicious thing he'd been looking for — the sound of a door opening and closing came from just behind him. With nowhere to hide, Donghyuck's heart started beating frantically, and he felt a drop of sweat run down his forehead.
"Are you new here?"
Donghyuck spun around to face the speaker, finding himself looking at a young woman, probably not many years above 20. She had several wrinkle-lines in her face, though, so maybe she really was even younger than she looked.
When Donghyuck didn't say anything she walked closer, asking him more questions. "You seem really young, so what are you doing here? How did you manage to get a debt like that?"
Donghyuck opened his mouth, but closed it just as quickly again, at a loss for what to say.
"Have you gotten an introduction already? Can you not speak, is that it? I'm so sorry for asking so many questions if that's the case."
"I can speak," Donghyuck finally managed to force out.
"That's good," she smiled. "You can head in, don't worry about being shy. You can ask me questions if you have some, too."
What the hell had he gotten himself mixed up in? "I don't really know… what's happening?" That was safe to say, right?
"Well, in general, you'll be here until you've worked off your debt. Depending on the situation they might let you out occasionally to not raise suspicions."
Donghyuck's eyes widened. "Oh." He had to get out of here, didn't he?
"Come on then, head in!" She put a hand to his back and started leading him inside the room. Her hand on his back was stiff, and the smile she gave him didn't reach her eyes.
The pudu side of him made Donghyuck want to shy away from the loud crowd of people. There was something eerie and lifeless over the loudness, as if something was missing. The crowd kept moving about, coming in and out of several different doorways, pushing into him over and over. He almost lost the young woman several times, and even though he was unsure of her sincerity in helping him, he didn't want to lose the one person that was showing some interest in his well-being.
She led him to one of the doorways and let her hand fall from his back. "I'm heading in here for a while. Stay back here and mingle a little — no one here will bite."
She turned around without waiting for an answer from him, but it wasn't like Donghyuck was just going to stay put there and wait. No, instead he waited just a moment before he followed her.
He came into another, even smaller room, with just a couch and another door, through which he could faintly hear the bass of music. It must lead back out into the club! Thankfully the door wasn't locked, and he stepped through to find himself in … what must have been a section of the VIP area.
The lighting was much lower, near what it was out in the club, with some spotlights flashing around. The music was way louder, and he could hear the shouts of people from the rest of the club, along with the buzz of conversation all around him.
It wasn't as crowded, but that might have had to do with the fact that it was a VIP area, and the curtain covered alcoves all along the walls. He shuddered just thinking about what might be going on behind them.
Before he could start looking for the young woman, a shadow fell over him and someone gripped his upper arm.
"You look really sweet," a sleazy voice whispered in his ear. "Shall we find out if you taste just as sweet?"
The person started dragging him back, pulling a surprised shout from his lips. He was pulled away before he could protest, and his trashing about did nothing but annoy the person grabbing him. They tightened their grip on his arm and came to a stop, jerking Donghyuck back into their grip. When he tried to turn around to catch a glimpse of his capturer, they gripped his shin harshly and angled his head up.
"So you're a feisty one, huh?" they whispered into his ear. "There's no use protesting."
And, he was right, wasn't he? They were still in full view of the people around them, and no one had reacted. Donghyuck had seen some of them glance over at his shout, but no one had moved to help him. Without his consent, a whimper escaped when he realised that even one of the guards looked over to them but simply turned away without doing anything. What the hell was this place?!
Despite this (or maybe because of this) Donghyuck trashed about even more when he felt lips against his neck, but fell completely limp when the lips parted and sharp teeth sank into his skin. It was a vampire.
They bite stung at first, and his head spun. But quickly the pain was washed away by a wave of euphoria, an airy feeling like the high of a drug (at least he imagined it to be like that). The lightness was quickly replaced by nausea, his stomach turning with each sway it felt like his head took. He really hated how it felt.
When the vampire finally released hum stumbled forward, his legs weak. He managed to steady himself before falling, but when he turned around to- ...something, the vampire was gone, lost in the crowd of people.
He raised a shaky hand up to touch his neck, and it came back speckled with a few tiny drops of blood. Huh. A low laugh tore from his throat, shaking him with how unstable he sounded. He really needed to find his friends again.
Donghyuck curled his shoulders up - in a way that the collar of his hoodie bunched up around his neck, hopefully hiding the bite wound, and headed for the exit back out into the club. Hopefully none of the guards would try to stop him.
He was close, maybe just a few meters away, when a fairly familiar mop of blonde curls caught his attention. Right by the exit (or entrance from their point of view) stood Bang Chan and another, stylish, guy. Donghyuck stumbled slightly from how his body almost wanted to collapse from the relief of seeing a familiar face.
He stumbled over to them, and before even saying hi, or letting them process that he’s there, he asked, “What are you doing here?”
Chan turned slightly to face him, and both his eyebrows were raised high on his forehead. “I feel like I should ask you that, considering this is a club and you are still in high school.” He seemed slightly awkward, but then again, they didn’t really know each other.
Chan’s friend raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at Chan’s words, and asked, “You’re still in high school? How did you get in here then?”
Donghyuck shook his head briefly, but stopped when it made his vision swim. “That’s not important - you need to help me find my friends and then get me out of here.”
Chan and his friend exchanged a look, but Donghyuck couldn’t read what it meant. Chan angled his head very slightly towards Donghyuck, and he was pretty sure Chan’s friend’s nostrils flared before he nodded slightly.
“What exactly happened,” Chan eventually asked.
Donghyuck shook his head and gripped his arm, starting to try to push him towards the exit. “Something bad is going on here.” He lowered his voice into a whisper, hoping that no one else around them could hear what he said. “I think some kind of mafia or something is taking young people and forcing them to work or something here. One of them thought that I … was one of them. She asked what they had on me, since I’m so young.”
“Just another reason why you shouldn’t be here ,” Chan’s friend muttered, but not low enough for Donghyuck not to hear.
Chan sighed, but started heading towards the exit, moving his arm so that Donghyuck lost his grip on it, but moving it to his back instead. It reminded him of the young woman, but everything about it felt so much more sincere.
“Where are the rest of your friends?” Chan’s friend asked, already with his phone out, for some reason. Maybe he wasn’t really interested in Donghyuck and his situation? Had he disturbed his time with Chan?
“I don’t know for sure, I haven’t seen them in a while.”
Chan’s friend looked up from his phone briefly and frowned at Donghyuck. “You went to a club — underage — and left your friends? To do what, snoop around?”
Donghycuk felt his cheeks flare up in heated embarrassment at how true the accusation was.
“Is it your… roommates, right?” Chan asked. “What were their names, Jaemin, Jeno? And someone on R … Renjun?”
Donghyuck nodded. “They’re probably all at the same place, at least.”
Chan nodded, looking thoughtful. They had by now left the VIP area, and was back out at the edge of the dancefloor. It was packed with people, and it was hard to see more than just the people closest to you.
“I’m Bambam, by the way,” Chan’s friend said suddenly. “Have you checked your phone to see if maybe they’ve tried to contact you?”
Donghyuck felt his eyes widen. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
He fished his phone out from his pocket, and found that he had one unread message in their group chat.
Jaemin: where are you? we’re waiting by the exit we came in through
Donghyuck typed out a response right away, and started trying to push his way through the crowd of people.
Haechan: i’ll be right there
“They’ve texted that they’re by the exit.”
He hoped that they would follow, but he didn’t look back to make sure that they did. Even if he lost them, he would soon be back with Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun, so it didn’t really matter, right? When he had pushed through the crowd to get to the other side of the dancefloor, and he could see three people he was pretty sure were his friends, he turned up his pace until he was almost running.
Renjun saw him first, nudging Jaemin that was standing next to him. Jaemin looked up and saw him, and nudged Jeno in turn. Donghyuck could see the relief blooming out on Jeno’s face, and he stepped away from the rest to meet up with Donghyuck, and to his surprise, he pulled him into a tight — albeit quick — hug.
WIth the music and chatter of people not exactly as loud anymore — considering they were further away from the source of it — Donghyuck could hear two sets of footsteps following, and that coupled with the surprise on Jaemin’s face made Donghyuck certain that Chan and Bambam had managed to follow him.
“Let’s step outside where we can actually hear what we’re thinking,” Bambam suggested, and they all did, Jeno still with a tight grip on one of Donghyuck’s arms.
Donghyuck was inclined to believe that maybe Bambam was maybe even older than Chan (who, now that he thought about it, he didn’t actually know how old he was) by the way he rounded them up and led them to the other side of the road and a bench where Donghyuck sat down.
“We have to figure out exactly what happened,” Bambam said, still with his phone in hand, “what you saw and heard. Anything you can think of, and then we’ll tell the police.” A small grin spread on his face. “They’ll surely love it if this is a mafia case and they can take down the club. Just imagine all the headlines! ‘Popular club was really a front for the mafia’.”
Donchyuck felt himself shudder at the mention of the possibility of a mafia. Jeno probably noticed, judging by the way he pulled him closer into his side.
True to his words, Bambam called the police, and Donghyuck tried to tell them as much as he knew. He, after just a moment's hesitation, didn’t mention the vampire of what had happened with them at all, however. Something about it made his skin crawl with unease, and he’d prefer to never think about it again, thank you very much.
After what felt like too long, the police finally decided that they were finished interrogating them, and let them go. They offered to drive them back to the dorm, and Donghyuck gratefully accepted. He wasn’t sure his shaky legs would actually handle walking all the way back to their dorm.
As soon as they got inside the door to their dorm, Donghyuck shook off Jeno’s arm and slank over to the couch. Before anyone could ask him any questions about what had happened, he’d turned into his pudu form, leaving only a pile of clothes on the floor.
“Chan-hyung told me about what happened.”
The words from that sweet voice somehow managed to pierce through the haze in his mind, and he stirred. He realised that he’d curled up on their couch, and one of the others must have wrapped him up in a pillow at some point. They weren’t hovering at least, meaning they had finally learnt that when he turned pudu he just wanted to be alone.
The new, sweet voice however, had not learnt that, though.
He blinked at Felix, who had crouched down next to him, and was staring unabashedly at him. For some reason, though, he didn’t mind. Rather, he felt a sudden urge to be wrapped up in his arms, to cling to his radiating comfort.
Felix cooed, and carefully reached his hand out to pet the top of his head. “How are you feeling?” he asked, but it didn’t sound like he expected an answer. “Chan-hyung told us a little about what happened, and it’s already all over the news. They didn’t mention you, just that a local high-schooler had helped them uncover the case. There is uproar everywhere of upset people, and one article even said that one person from the management has already been harassed.”
Donghyuck didn’t really care for most of it, but Felix’s voice was very soothing to listen to, and he felt himself relax, maybe even enough to turn back into human. Except he felt so tired and lethargic, and he felt gross by the way his stomach still churned with nausea and how sweat had clumped his fur up in some places. At least as a pudu he looked cute despite all of that.
Felix let him be for a while longer, only lightly petting the top of his head. Eventually he smiled brightly and asked, “Do you think you want to turn back to human soon? I want to make sure you’re okay.”
Really, Donghyuck had had no plan to do it any time soon, but with the way Felix asked, he couldn’t not turn back, right? He did make sure that he was securely wrapped up before turning, and was quick to secure the blanket after — it wasn’t like he wanted to show Felix that much right now…
Felix had already reached down on the floor to his clothes, and held them out for him to put on. The hoodie was easy, and he somehow managed with the pants too without disturbing the blanket, but Felix did briefly turn around though. Only when he’d gotten all the clothes on did he realise that he hadn’t been wearing sweatpants to the club. He was grateful though — sweatpants were infinitely more comfortable than skinny jeans.
“Thank you,” Donghyuck said, his voice low to keep it from breaking. He still felt unsteady, and a headache had started pounding behind his temples.
“Jaemin got the sweatpants,” Felix explained, as if he could read Donghyuck’s mind. More realistic was simply that he too thought sweatpants were more comfortable than jeans, though, wasn’t it? “How are you feeling? Chan-hyung wasn’t sure of everything that happened, he could just say that you had almost gotten mixed up in the ...business, or what you want to call it.”
Donghyuck moved the blanket to wrap it around his shoulders and curled up on the end of the couch. “I’m okay,” he lied, feeling a confusing mix of hunger and nausea. “I saw Chan-ssi and his friend and they helped me away from there.
Felix smiled — one of those bright smiles of his — clearly believing Donghyuck’s lie, but his smile quickly dimmed when his eyes landed on something near Donghyuck’s neck. He reached a hand out to poke at the collar of Donghyuck’s hoodie.
“What’s this?” he trailed off, and leaned closer, probably to get a closer look. Donghyuck felt his heart start beating quicker. “Is it blood?”
Donghyuck startled, and tried to turn to see if it was. Had the wound bled onto his hoodie? He couldn’t see anything, however, seeing as it was too close, and instead reached up to poke at the wound. There were just two tiny pinpricks, and they both felt scabbed over. It must be old blood then.
“Oh,” Felix breathed out next to him suddenly, reminding Donghyuck that, right, he wasn’t alone. “Did a vampire bite you? Chan-hyung and Seungmin have told me a bit about vampire bites.”
He was frowning, and Donghyuck felt his shoulders curl up, trying to curl into a smaller ball than he already was curled up as. “I’m fine.”
Felix shook his head and stood up ( no, don’t leave! Donghyuck had to stop his impulse to reach for him and keep him there). “You need something sugary,” he said, “you’re probably not actually feeling great.”
Then he left, leaving Donghyuck alone. He couldn’t really wallow in much self-pity, though, because Felix was soon back, with a juice packet and a bar of chocolate.
“Did you know that a vampire bite drains you of your blood sugar,” he asked, handing over the juice and chocolate to Donghyuck.
Donghyuck took the items, taking a bite of the chocolate and shaking his head. “I didn’t.”
Felix took a seat next to him, tugging Donghyuck’s arm not holding the chocolate into his arms and hugging it tight. He briefly nuzzled his head against Donghyuck’s shoulder before settling for resting his chin there. Donghyuck, a sucker for attention, really liked it.
(Donghyuck, with a crush on Felix, loved it.)
+ Bonus
“Did they really face that much backlash?”
“Yep!” Felix’s laugh was bright and pearly, and Donghyuck was lost. “They’ve already had to close the club.”