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The human was weird. The human never did anything. He only sat by the shore, pants rolled up to his knees to prevent them from getting wet. His pale skin wasn't hard to spot in the dim moonlight.
Tonight too, the human was by the sea, staring into the distance. Yeosang leaned against a rock under the water, watching the odd human. The human was rather far away but Yeosang had always had an exceptionally good vision. He could see how the human's eyes were closed, head tilted upwards.
His legs… were beautiful. They were probably no different from any other human's but to Yeosang they were fascinating, as he had grown up in an environment where, pretty much, everyone and everything had a tail. This human's legs were long, his skin worryingly pale.
Yeosang used to observe the human even farther away but after a few weeks he had grown braver. He had also been curious about this guy's face, as he hadn't been able to make out his features so far away.
Yeosang wasn't scared of being caught. It had been a few months of silent and curious gazing and nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet. Besides, it was way too dark for anyone to see what was under the water. Yeosang was still cautious though.
It didn't take much time, maybe a week or so, for his childhood best friend to figure out what was going on. Wooyoung, said friend, had immediately tried to lock Yeosang into his own home to prevent him from going too far away from home. There was no such thing as locking one into a room under the water, though.
It was maybe a month ago that Wooyoung finally gave up and even asked to come with Yeosang. Yeosang had shook his head, telling him that it wasn't worth it. But… if it wasn't worth it, why did he then keep finding himself leaning against this same rock, eyes sharply looking at the human sitting on the sand, unmoving?
That had been something that Yeosang had thought about a lot but that he had never found a reasonable answer to. It didn't matter to Yeosang though, even if it did leave some uneasiness churning around. The human would eventually stop coming here to be by the sea and Yeosang could catch up on his sleep and get back to his normal routines.
Despite the human doing absolutely nothing, Yeosang still found him somewhat intriguing. If he didn't, he wouldn't be here watching the human's still figure. It was quite fascinating itself how the human didn't move an inch (not that Yeosang would even see it) for so long. He just sat there, leaning back, his palms sinking into the soft sand.
The human always wore thin clothes. Even with autumn coming up, there were no jackets to be seen with him. Yeosang couldn't understand how he didn't get cold. Wasn't it normal for humans to get cold? That was what he had learned, as to Yeosang coldness was rather normal.
Tonight, he had a simple, light long-sleeved shirt. If Yeosang didn't pay attention, he would think that the human had no shirt on. That was how pale he was. Sometimes Yeosang wondered if he was… healthy - with his colourless skin and strange tolerance to coldness and all.
His beautiful legs were wrapped in black pants which were rolled up as high as they allowed, a little below his knees this time; the colour was a stark contrast to his skin. Another weird thing about this human was that he never wore shoes. It would have been understandable if he lived nearby but there were no houses anywhere close to the sea (which was quite weird itself too).
The human always left with bare feet, his pants rolled back down and hair tousled by the wind, right when the first rays of sunlight were appearing. It was weird. Everything about this human was weird, yet Yeosang didn't seem appalled by this weird human's weird behaviour. On the contrary, he was even more interested, curious.
It was fascinating to look at his unmoving figure and sometimes Yeosang found himself holding his own breath too, unconsciously mimicking the human. The human shifted, moving a little closer to the water. His feet were completely soaked by the water, the wind occasionally pushing the waves further up.
Yeosang held his breath, his tail stopping its movements and making him sink down slowly when suddenly he wasn't looking at the human's closed eyes anymore. Instead, he was staring straight into the human's eyes as if the human had noticed him. He couldn't have but it seemed like it.
The human's eyes shone under the moonlight; Yeosang took the opportunity to observe his eyes after getting his tail to move slowly again. They were dark and that only made his eyes sparkle more.
Yeosang was so concentrated on the human's eyes that he didn't notice he had opened his mouth to say something for the very first time in the past few months.
"Hey!" Yeosang heard. A faint voice but he could still pick it up. "Hi!" the human repeated, Yeosang's eyes on his lips to confirm that yes, the human was talking.
To whom, Yeosang didn't know. There was no one around, at least he thought so. Yeosang tried to recall the human's voice, as he had been too shocked to make it out when he had opened his mouth. Luckily the human said, again: "Hi."
Yeosang was irritated that this guy was only greeting. Why couldn't he say something else? Something for a bit longer, so he could actually hear his voice better. All he knew for now was that it was low. He wanted to hear the different tones, accents.
"Are you not going to greet me back?" the human asked, wiggling his toes. He continued to stare at Yeosang. His left brow was raised, an amused smile on his lips.
He had a soft voice, Yeosang thought. The way even the sharper consonants came out of his mouth softly - no sharp edges, perfectly round and soft - was the proof. His low voice almost completely disappeared out of his hearing when the waves finally reached Yeosang's ears. His voice was mellow.
A laugh which Yeosang almost missed came out of the human's throat. "I can see you," he stated. His eyes continued to pierce into Yeosang's. "You look very concentrated. Won't you reply?"
Yeosang was truly confused. He looked around, figuring out that maybe there was another creature close to him, looking at the guy. He saw no one, nothing other than stray fish swimming. He turned his eyes back to the human.
"I'm talking to you," he said. "There's no one else around." Yeosang disagreed. Yeosang was here but no one needed to know. The human seemed to sigh. Yeosang couldn't hear it but by the way his chest deflated so quickly, he could only guess so.
"Your… tail is pretty," the human said at last, after a few silent minutes.
Yeosang unconsciously looked down at his own red, glimmering tail. His own tail was nothing compared to his friends'. His tail was just there, his scales reflecting light very poorly, almost as if they weren't supposed to. Instead of a beautiful deep red, he had a rather bright red colour covering his whole tail.
Wooyoung's tail was beautiful. It was black and sometimes Wooyoung seemed to only be a floating upper body with a few white streaks on his tail when it was especially dark. Yeosang often had to squint his eyes when the sunlight hit his tail but it was fascinating to see how even the black scales turned white.
He was pulled back to reality by the human's voice again: "Just because you're not answering, doesn't mean I've forgotten about you."
Yeosang had been aware that the guy was weird but was he seriously talking to himself now?
"Are you not even going to thank me?"
Yeosang sighed. Maybe Wooyoung was right and all humans were a bunch of dumb creatures, he thought. Wooyoung had told him a lot of things about humans; the things he had told didn't match the things he had learned. But then again, Wooyoung was a lot more adventurous than Yeosang and Yeosang wouldn't be surprised if Wooyoung had a few friends on land solely for the purpose of getting information on humans.
"How do I get your attention?" the human asked with a light tone. "Your tail is pretty," he repeated. "I quite like red."
Yeosang liked red too but he wasn't exactly fond of his own tail… Yeosang's tail stopped moving once again and as he sank down, the realization came: he had been the one the human had been talking to all along and he was the dumb one for not noticing and-
"Um, are you okay there?!"
Right, Yeosang thought and quickly swam up. A rush of something ran through Yeosang's body at the rather late realization. It was a… pleasant feeling.
"Are you going to come here?" the human asked, sounding hopeful, sitting a little closer into the water. The water threatened to soak his pants.
Yeosang didn't have a chance to think before he was already swimming towards the other one, his pace rather fast with how excited he was. The human's mouth was slightly open, his eyes sparkling as he kept his eyes on Yeosang.
When the water started to get slightly shallower, Yeosang saw the human grin, his long and sharp canines glinting in the moonlight. Yeosang came to a quick halt at the sight of the massive and dangerous-looking teeth.
Suddenly, among the excitement and eagerness, Yeosang heard Wooyoung's voice nagging at him for being so easy to fool and lure. Why hadn't Yeosang thought about how this stranger had even noticed him in the water in the first place before he had started to dumbly swim towards him?
Yeosang could only stare in disbelief as the truth was slowly unfolding right in front of him. The guy he had thought was a human for four long months was actually a vampire. A blood-sucking vampire! Everything weird about him now made sense: his snowy pale skin, figure as unmoving as dead.
Yeosang was just about to turn around and swim back home as quickly as possible, his muscles and ears going to probably complain for the next few days, when the other one yelled: "I- I swear I don't bite!"
Sure, you don't, Yeosang thought. He looked at the way the guy's expression turned from desperate to sheepish. "I mean- I can bite but I won't bite you," he corrected himself quickly. "I'm not dangerous either, I promise." By now, his pants were completely drenched, as he had slid further into the water.
Yeosang narrowed his eyes and despite the rational part of him telling him to go back home and never come back, the bigger part of him was urging him to swim a little closer to get a better look. He was left there staring at the vampire while he tried to make a decision.
"I swear," the other one said again. "At first I only came here to get away from the noisy city but then I noticed you," he explained. Yeosang pursed his lips. "I knew there was someone with me and I saw you."
Yeosang huffed. And he had thought that no one had noticed him.
"Then I kept coming back. Maybe because of you, I- I don't know," he shrugged. "It's quiet here at night," he added quietly. Obviously, Yeosang thought.
Yeosang slowly made his way towards the other one. He stopped soon again, keeping a big distance between them.
"H-hi," he slowly popped his head out of the water, feeling how his hair stuck to his forehead. He brought his hand up to get it out of his eyes.
"Hey," the other one smiled, his teeth, including his fangs, on display. "What's your name?" Yeosang blinked. "I'm Seonghwa," the vampire said after he noticed that Yeosang wasn't going to reply.
Yeosang nodded slowly. It didn't sound too bad to share his name. "I'm Yeosang."
"Yeosang?" Yeosang nodded. "That's my first time hearing that name," Seonghwa admitted. "It's pretty."
Yeosang quickly looked away, feeling the way his face started to heat up. Wow. "How old are you?" Yeosang asked, realizing right after that that was definitely not an ideal question to ask someone he had only just met. "I- I mean-"
Seonghwa laughed, warm and genuine, his head thrown back. "It's okay, I'd be curious too. I'm not too old. Around a century or so?"
"A century…" Yeosang mumbled to himself. "That's… long," he said.
Seonghwa smiled, bringing his hands onto his chest, on top of his slowly beating heart (or, Yeosang supposed so). "I'm assuming you're not too old." Yeosang shook his head. He felt himself blush again, which was weird. "May I ask you how old you are exactly?"
Yeosang bit his lip while he tried to recall. "Thirty-four?"
Seonghwa's eyes lit up. "Wow, you're so young," he mused. "There are many things you haven't experienced yet, right?"
Yeosang probably should have been offended by that but he only nodded. "Yeah. A lot." Why didn't Seonghwa seem threatening? He should be. He had the fangs and the inhumane speed and all. All he was doing right now was smile his stupidly charming smile.
Seonghwa seemed to ponder for a little while. "You've seen humans, right?" Yeosang nodded. He had seen a few when he had occasionally wandered near land. "What about vampires? Am I the first one you've seen?"
Yeosang didn't hesitate to nod again. It wasn't like vampires lived under the water and usually Yeosang was sleeping when vampires were awake and active. It had been pure luck that Yeosang had, well, slightly gotten lost back then and stumbled upon this guy he had thought to be human.
There was something that flashed in Seonghwa's eyes but Yeosang couldn't make it out, as he was distracted with the way Seonghwa rolled his pants further up.
"I feel… happy to hear that," Seonghwa said. "What do you think about me?"
"W-what?" Yeosang stuttered out. What kind of question was that?
Seonghwa looked a bit confused by Yeosang's reaction but he answered: "Am I scary?"
Oh. "Um," Yeosang thought. "You don't look scary. I think… only you being a vampire makes you scary."
"So you find me scary," Seonghwa stated, disappointment in his voice.
"I-I mean it's scary, you being a vampire."
"So… you don't find me scary?"
Yeosang thought about it. Did he find Seonghwa scary? One look at Seonghwa's harmless face and figure was enough for him to say: "No, I don't." There was nothing to be afraid about Seonghwa's big grin (although his deadly fangs were digging into his own lips) and friendly eyes. Even the way he spoke was warm and gave Yeosang a feeling of security.
They fell into a silence, Seonghwa closing his eyes, enjoying the moon shining and making his skin glow. Yeosang wouldn't be surprised if Seonghwa had kept his eyes partly open to see what Yeosang was doing. He would only find Yeosang staring at his own unmoving body, though.
"You won't disappear, right? When I come back tomorrow, you'll be here, right?" Seonghwa asked after long moments of silence.
Yeosang blinked. His hair had dried completely now and he was sure it was fluffy and tangled. "I don't think so."
Seonghwa bit his lip quite harshly, if the way the spot where his teeth dug into turned white was any indication. "Okay. I like you," he said. "I want to become friends." Even though his words were rather determined, he made them seem soft.
Yeosang quickly looked away. This vampire was something, Yeosang thought. How had he managed to make Yeosang blush three times in one day, in hours? He couldn't help but like the feeling of his cheeks dusting pink; it hadn't happened in so long, it almost felt unfamiliar.
"And…" Seonghwa trailed off. He looked up into the sky, Yeosang casting his eyes up too, curious. The sky was in a state of blues and reds mixing together, creating a big blur of colours. When had it happened and where had the moon disappeared? "I still like your tail."
Seonghwa was looking at it. Yeosang let his eyes linger on Seonghwa's face a bit longer before he glanced down at his own moving tail. He felt his chest warming up while he blinked rapidly. "Thank you," he breathed out, knowing that Seonghwa couldn't hear him. Or maybe he could - Yeosang wasn't sure what vampires were exactly capable of. He supposed he could find out more about them from Seonghwa.
"It's beautiful," Seonghwa said, his lips curling up into a smile.
Yeosang shrugged. "It's- It's nothing compared to the others'."
"It doesn't mean that I can't like yours."
Yeosang looked down. He told himself not to warm up too quickly. His habit of getting attached to people who were friendly to him, even for once, too quickly had ended up with him finding himself in miserable situations.
"Thank you," he ended up saying again.
Yeosang was left staring at the dazzling smile Seonghwa sent towards his way. After a few moments of Yeosang's heart beating unnecessarily fast - Yeosang wondered if Seonghwa could hear it - Seonghwa looked up again, his smile a bit fainter.
"I think it's time for me to go," he sighed loudly. "I wish I could stay." Yeosang squeezed his eyes shut at the feeling Seonghwa's words and tone created. "But I hope we can see tomorrow," Seonghwa said with so much hopefulness in his voice and eyes. Yeosang would never forgive himself if he disappointed Seonghwa now.
Yeosang nodded. "I- I'll come here tomorrow," he promised, voice wavering just a tiny bit.
Seonghwa let out a happy laugh, biting his lip again while he stood up. His pants started to dribble water which slid down against Seonghwa's long legs. They looked even more beautiful closer.
"See you tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and the day after the day after tomorrow and so on," Seonghwa smiled, his eyes sparkling so strongly even if the moon had long disappeared and the sun was still faint.
Yeosang bit the inside of his lip to stop the grin breaking onto his face. Instead, he nodded a little before Seonghwa waved and turned around to leave before it was too late and he burned his beautifully pale skin - again, that was an assumption.
Yeosang allowed his lips to finally tug up into a wide, content smile as he watched Seonghwa's disappearing figure. Seonghwa turned around once, stopping to gaze at Yeosang's grin before the smile on his own face widened.
Yeosang let out an amused huff of breath, only going under water when he no longer saw Seonghwa anymore. Yeosang felt the tip of his pointed ears heat up as he looked down at his own tail again.
Seonghwa found his tail beautiful. Seonghwa liked his tail. Seonghwa liked him. The vampire was weird, for sure. But Yeosang liked it. Weird.