Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Hyunjin wonders how he got himself in this situation, how did he happen to stand in front of his enemy’s front door asking him for help, drenched to the bone due to the rain that poured down and with blood staining his expensive clothes.

Maybe it’s best to explain how they even became enemies in the first place but for that he needs to go back centuries ago. It’s so far back in time he can’t even remember the names of the ancestors that started this feud that lasts till this day. 

Something happened in the past that made the Hwang and the Seo clan’s declare enemies on each other. ‘Until eternity’ is written in one of the journals that belonged to Hyunjin’s great-great-great? uncle. Someone so far down the family tree line he doesn’t really remember who, but that’s not the point. However, in that journal and in so many others there is something missing, probably the most important piece of information of all. There are no records of how the feud started and for which reasons. Nonetheless neither family wanted to call truce, not wanting to be disrespectful to their ancestors.

Another fun fact is that the Seos and the Hwangs currently live in the same neighbourhood. I know right, what a plot twist. The fights between the two clans became less bloody, more harmless as the years went by, that way they could keep their real identities a secret from the humans that liked to gossip. That also meant that Hyunjin grew up listening to plan after plan and curse after curse against the Seo’s. He genuinely thought the whole feud thing was a bit dumb especially since the reason for the beginning of it was entirely unknown and those who started it were very dead but his family seemed to have fun coming up with strategies to sabotage the Seo’s so he never really said anything against it.

Besides, the kid, Seo Changbin, who was actually one year older than him, was his rival. However, this time if you ask him for it, there is a reason for the hatred. The guy just knew how to piss him off with his mere existence, make Hyunjin’s half dead cold heart beat stronger with how much he hated his guts. Seo Changbin always had this cocky bravado going on when they went to the same school and everybody adored him. Hyunjin was fine with that, he really was. But what made him lose his mind was that Seo Changbin was better than him at anything he got his hands on and he didn’t even put a grain of the effort that Hyunjin put in. They never competed much head to head since they were in different years at school but a bitter memory Hyunjin still carries to this day is walking up to the rankings of the several competitions their school had that were open to all years and seeing his name in second, while a familiar bastard grinned next to him. 

“Next time kiddo.” he said. Every. Single. Time. 

The entire school knew they couldn’t stand each other which always made for awkward situations since they had friends in common. One more thing that always got on Hyunjin’s nerves was how Changbin didn’t seem to care about this at all, for him the competition was all just a boring game. He was better than Hyunjin in all aspects, the only thing he has over Changbin is his height.

So back to the present.

Hyunjin stood there for a good few minutes pondering if he was ready to survive the shame of having to ask his biggest enemy for help. The porch of Changbin’s place was nice, there were a few flower pots there which he thought didn’t match Changbin’s dark, uncaring image at all. Maybe it belonged to one of the friends he moved in with.

Sorry about this, we’ll go back to the present in a brief moment.

Was it last year, or the year before that? Hyunjin doesn’t exactly remember when Changbin moved out of his parents home and together with another friend started living in a rundown house at the end of the neighbourhood. They had clearly worked on the place since it looked nothing like it did before. The walls had a nice coat of paint, the stone had been cleaned, the shrubbery was now under control.

The friend with whom Changbin lived with had his own little pack of blood suckers that followed his tail everywhere, a bunch of stray vampires that he had taken under his wing when they needed time away from their own clans. Jisung and Seungmin, Hyunjin’s best friends since childhood, spent a whole lot of time in this house. The clans weren’t exactly fond of Chan, their leader, since they saw him as a threat to their families because he was “a bad influence for their kids”, when the truth was very far from it. Hyunjin didn’t mind Chan, in fact, he quite liked him. After all he had seen the best how much Chan had helped Seungmin and especially Jisung when they got to those awkward vampire teenage years and he himself got some second hand advice that helped him a lot. Regardless of Hyunjin’s opinions, his family had been ecstatic when they heard the news of Changbin moving in with Chan because that was seen as a stain on the Seo’s reputation.

Now actually back to the present. 

Hyunjin was obviously doing everything he could to stall for time, playing in his head what he would say but time was cut short when the door in front of him opened with a grunt.

“What are you doing here?” A raspy low voice asked. Changbin was clad in a simple black tee and sweats, rubbing his eyes. Hyunjin immediately frowned at the tone. 

“I don’t have anywhere to go.” He replied as he looked to the side, not being able to match Changbin’s eyes. The other snickered and annoyance filled Hyunjin from the inside slowly, inch by inch until it made his muscles twitch. 

“What about your house? Or are you that afraid to appear with the tail between your legs?” Hyunjin gritted his teeth hard, his canines and his nails growing larger from the agitation. He forced them inside, told himself this was not worth it.

“No one’s home and for some reason I can’t walk in through the door.” He tapped his foot at the rhythm of the rain, already regretting coming over.

“Who did you piss off?” Changbin asked, the look of boredom in his face replaced by one of curiosity.

“What?”

“There’s a curse stench coming from you.”

Hyunjin frowned, not understanding why someone would throw a curse on him without him even noticing, mostly because he stayed far away from wizards due to one too many traumatizing encounters. Vampires might be vicious and hold grudges for all eternity but man wizards were straight up the devil when they felt like it. And then a lightbulb went up above his head. He had been out tonight looking for a meal when someone bumped into him out of nowhere which was quite shocking since with his heightened senses dodging everyone in a crowd was second nature.

“Come on in before anyone sees you and we both get in trouble.” Hyunjin hesitated for moments, pondering again what other options he had and the consequences this would all bring on him. In the end he knew this was his last resort and no other options were available. The consequences however, were endless.

Changbin grabbed his wrist and forced him to pass the threshold of the front door and as much as Hyunjin pulled against him, that grip would not relent. Well Changbin’s arm muscles weren’t all for show after all. The door closed behind his back with a loud noise and Hyunjin stood there examining it.

“Do you want my help or not?” Changbin was clearly irritated by now if the flare of his nostrils indicated something.

“When I tried to get home I couldn’t walk through the door, it was like there was a force pushing me away.” 

“Like that bullshit on books and TV?” This time Changbin was struggling to hold his composure, he looked ready to burst out laughing at any moment. Hyunjin thinks he now understands what’s going on and what the bastard of that wizard did to him.

“Yeah.” He mumbled meekly as Changbin gave him a chuckle but an unimpressed one. Hyunjin felt like he was being mocked but there was nothing he could do, he had meant it when he said he had nowhere else to go. 

“What else did they do to you?” The older vampire walked inside and Hyunjin scrambled to take off his dirty boots. There were a few pairs of shoes there of different sizes, a bunch of miscellaneous stuff on top of the shoe cabinet and polaroid photos stuck in the frame of the entrance mirror. On the other side of the wall were the stairs, the rooms of the others probably up. They must not be here tonight since he couldn’t feel any presence nearby. 

Hyunjin followed Changbin to the living room, clad in his humid socks. The space was a lot tidier than he imagined it would be and believe it or not that also pissed him off. Changbin had this image of a fratboy almost, so he expected the place to look like any other where a young guy lived mostly alone with a bunch of other friends coming over regularly, messy to no end, smelling like feet and with food containers everywhere. He wanted to at least be able to mock him for the filth but no, of course there was no filth, Changbin was just perfect like that. 

“I can’t drink, it makes me sick and if I try to use my powers I get paralised.” Hyunjin answered, standing in a corner taking in the space. There was a TV on an entertainment station whose glass panels did nothing to hide the mess of cables of the game consoles and in the middle of the room was a trunk that worked as a coffee table. Hyunjin recognized one of Seungmin’s books on top of it.

“That’s a pretty rough curse.” Changbin whistled as he folded a blanket. Maybe he was taking a rest when Hyunjin interrupted him by standing at his door. A thunder rumbled on the outside bringing a flash of light through the windows on the two sides of the living room and he saw Changbin’s eyes shine in that blink of a moment as the light vanished. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, it’s not like I can find the one who did this and ask him the specifics of the curse.” Hyunjin answered back with a bite. His stomach rumbled softly.

“Can’t your parents help?”

“They’re out of town.” Hyunjin stood awkwardly still as Changbin looked at the floor by his feet where a pool had formed. Hyunjin’s parents taught him well and he was educated enough to apologize when he should but this was his enemy. His enemy that was pushing a towel and clean clothes that barely fitted him into his hands. Hyunjin ended up apologizing. 

When he returned from the bathroom after having cleaned up the blood of his skin, (poor shirt had not survived), he found Changbin in the kitchen furiously typing on his phone. Hyunjin cleared his throat to grab his attention though that might have been a mistake because he had no idea what to say next.

“Is no one else here?” That was the best thing he could come up with. Changbin looked up from his phone with a mix of worry and annoyance. 

“They all went back to their clans for the weekend.”

“Right.”

There was an awkward silence that followed. Changbin was back to typing furiously at his phone. He sighed and looked Hyunjin straight in the eyes. Hyunjin’s stomach, with a mind of its own not understanding that this is probably the worst time possible to make itself known, rumbled loudly.

“A friend of mine told me that the little curse you have there can last up to a full week. He also said there is no way to get rid of it, only the one who cast it can undo it, but there’s a way to lessen the symptoms and get rid of some of them.”

“What is it?” Hyunjin was starting to lose patience with how long this was taking, the hunger not helping him one bit. Changbin took his sweet time to talk, making Hyunjin grow wrinkles on his forehead.

“Drink blood from a vampire.” 

Oh-no-no-no, Hyunjin could tell where this was going. Drinking blood from a vampire was already nasty by itself but drinking from his enemy? Nope, nu-uh, nein, never in a million years.

“Forget that.” 

“Do you think I also want this? When was the last time you fed?” Changbin crossed his arms, jutting his chin at Hyunjin, clearly also feeling aggravated.

“I don’t know, like three days ago?”

“Idiot you need to eat.”

“What are you, my mom?” Maybe it’s petty to call this a win but the way Changbin frowned in disgust made Hyunjin proud for some reason.

“Go to hell. Though you might actually go soon since you can’t feed.” Changbin raised a cocky brow at Hyunjin. Another growl came from the pits of Hyunjin’s stomach. As much as it pained him to admit it, Changbin was right. Once the curse dies it will be too late, a week without feeding was certain death and he was already feeling a bit weak.

They stayed under the yellow light of the kitchen staring at each other waiting for a single word or move. Again Hyunjin thought about his options. Maybe he could wait until Monday for one of his friends or his parents though that would be in two days, which meant he would have to spend two days in Changbin’s place and he would be one step too close to the grave for his taste. Hyunjin wondered if he could torment Changbin in hell.

“Fine, if you want to die, be my guest. Wait, no, at least die in your lawn or your family will acuse me of murder. Though I feel like they would still blame me for your stupi-”

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Hyunjin couldn’t hear that voice any longer. This is what nightmares were made out of, he was sure of it. But what he couldn’t quite understand was why was Changbin willingly putting himself up to this when they hated each other's guts? “Do you have a kink for being bitten?”

“What?!” The scandalized face Changbin made would have cracked Hyunjin up if he wasn’t so scandalized himself at how that question left his mouth. Freaking curse, apparently he couldn’t keep thoughts to himself now.

Changbin stomped ahead, urging Hyunjin to follow him upstairs as he grumbled under his breath. The hallway on the upper floor was a bit messier but even then Hyunjin couldn’t chastise the older vampire when half the stuff he recognized belonged to Jisung. 

They reached the door at the end of the corridor that opened with a grunt. The hinges clearly  needed some lubricant in this house. Inside the room were countless boxes and mismatched furniture covering the creaking floorboards and a small bed without covers by the wall furthest from the window. The space smelled a little musty and dusty, it was a room just used as storage it seemed.

“Why did we come here?” Hyunjin asked, not understanding why couldn’t he just drink a sip and go back to his home. Or lawn depending on how strong the curse is.

“You’ll see. You never drank from a vampire have you?”

“No?! Have you?” Hyunjin was shocked at the information. Maybe Changbin’s biting kink thing was true, which was something he didn’t want to know. At all. Well maybe he was a tiny bit curious. Just for blackmail purposes of course!

“It’s nasty I don’t recommend it.” Changbin made a face of disgust which made Hyunjin a bit concerned. But he could not show any more weakness in front of his enemy so he stood tall instead of cowering in a corner like he so much wished to do. “How do you want to do this?” Changbin was sitting on the bed after digging for a duvet from the wardrobe and putting it over the mattress. That just made Hyunjin even more confused.

He walked towards Changbin, standing in front of him looking down. Yeah, no this would not do it, he couldn’t do it like this, staring at those smug eyes who taunted Hyunjin like he was about to lose another track race competition.

He sat on his knees behind Changbin, the bed sinking under his weight. All Hyunjin could hear in the quiet silence was the rain aggressively hitting the window and Changbin’s calm heart beating slowly, pumping blood through his veins. Hyunjin licked his lips, his fangs coming out involuntarily.

“You sure about this?” Hyunjin didn’t know why he asked the question, giving space for Changbin to go back and leaving him quite literally to dry. He should just take advantage of him and do it without thinking twice. After all they were enemies.

“I wish for my life to continue peacefully and having your parents chasing me because of your dead ass does not go in tune with that plan so yes, I’m sure. And I also get some nice blackmail material.” 

There was that smugness that drove Hyunjin absolutely insane in the worst way possible. Of course Changbin was doing this for himself, that much Hyunjin could tell, though he doesn’t really know how the older vampire can get anything blackmail worthy out of this since he was the one submitting himself to Hyunjin. Ew, that word made Hyunjin coil in disgust, but the point still stands.

Changbin craned his neck to the side, giving Hyunjin a better view of the smooth cold skin where he would soon sink his fangs into. Licking his lips hungrily he forgot all that was around. The world was composed of just him, his hunger and the neck of his victim. As Hyunjin leaned in, a nice fragrance flooded his nose, a nice cologne with hints of citrus. Changbin smelled good but good god did his blood taste vile. 

“You taste freaking awful.” Hyunjin mouthed into Changbin’s shoulder. 

“Shut up, ungrateful brat.” Changbin winced as Hyunjin sank his teeth in deeper, trying to get more blood to come out. A damn burnt toast tasted better than whatever Changbin’s blood was composed of but still, Hyunjin couldn’t stop drinking. It was a drug to him, an addiction, bad but oh-so good. But like the brochures spread around in his school said, don’t do drugs kids.

Hyunjin sighed through his nose as his tongue swiped the blood out of the puncture wounds. He remebered reading somewhere that vampires and blood sucking was in essence homoerotic, he thinks it’s from a book writen by a human or maybe it was just from twitter. Anyway the point is that this all felt a little too homoerotic for his taste which made him frown in displeasure. No, not at the homo! He was cool with that, but at the homo with Changbin, his blood sworn enemy. And here Hyunjin was sucking his blood. He really needs to stop using intrinsically suggestive verbs and adjectives, good lord.

“It’s enough now.” Changbin pushed Hyunjin’s hand away that he unconsciously curled around the other's neck. He would feel extremely embarrassed about that if he wasn’t feeling so dizzy right now. Hyunjin pulled away, his back hitting the wall with a bit too much force as he fell back. Why was it so hot and stuffy in the room all the sudden? 

Changbin turned around and those eyes weren’t the ones Hyunjin was used to. They weren’t dark brown but a deep red, a colour that not many vampires carried. Hyunjin was sure his own were golden brown right now after stuffing himself with a meal. Changbin helped him lay down in bed and now he understood why they had gone up to this room.

“How are you feeling?” That freaking grin had made way to Changbin’s face, he was for sure having a blast seeing Hyunjin like this, a blob of limbs that could barely function.

“Like I freaking drank an entire bar. This is absolute hell.”

“So like you drank half a bottle then.” Hyunjin might be feeling like absolute hot garbage but he still had it in him to throw a kick to Changbin’s legs.

“Is this fun for you, seeing your enemy at your mercy?” Hyunjin scoffed in annoyance. He could feel his lids dropping and his words getting slurred. He was effectively drunk from Changbin’s blood. Freaking licking a toilet bowl almost sounded better than going through whatever this was. Almost. Hyunjin might be a bit impulsive and make rather questionable choices at times but he was not a complete dumbass.

“I don’t think of you as an enemy.”

Changbin’s words made his insides rumble with a quiet fury. The bastard didn’t even see Hyunjin as a worthy competitor. But this was good, the moment Changbin lets his guard down Hyunjin will strike back and the damn Seo will lose and regret it. Hyunjin doesn’t know how or what or when, but that moment will come, he just had to make a plan. Though not today. Nor tomorrow either with the way he was feeling.

“Rest for now kiddo.” Changbin swiped the hairs out of Hyunjin’s face and he almost leaned into the touch, searching for the cold hand against his burning skin. It felt strange, comforting, which was something Hyunjin never expected feeling coming from the other. He sighed in defeat and listened with heightened senses as Changbin walked out and closed the door.

The next morning Hyunjin woke up with the worst hangover in the century. Vampires don’t exactly sleep, they mostly just rest for a few hours but are very aware of what’s going on in the surroundings and only when they are badly injured do they sleep. Hyunjin felt like he had been run over by a truck (again) so he wasn't exactly surprised that he had fallen asleep and woke up still feeling like ass.

The day was nice, there was a beautiful sunshine outside just like he hated, so he got up and out of the bedroom that had way too much light even when filtered by the curtains. He trudged down the corridor and found his way to the kitchen hoping to get a glass of water to alleviate the disgusting bloody morning breath he had.

“Morning” He grumbled to his enemy that was watching something on his phone as he sipped on his coffee.

“Fuck you.”

Oh? That was a pleasant surprise, to hear such a nice thing as soon as they meet again. Though soon Hyunjin grimaced at the sight sitting in the chair in front of him. Changbin was a bit paler, dark sunken bags under his eyes but what caught his attention was the giant purple patch on his neck, the veins around looking almost black.

“Are you a vampire or a freaking snake?” Changbin asked, annoyed. Hyunjin knew the poison of his fangs was stronger than most and since it had been so long since he drank, it most likely got concentrated and released all at once. And the curse probably didn’t help either. Could this be considered a win? This was a win right, a little bit of vengeance from the humiliation? Hyunjin just shrugged in response. He got a glass of water and cleaned it down. He had manners at the end of the day. 

“I’m gonna go now, uhm…” The rest of the words got stuck on Hyunjin’s throat. This was already too much for his pride to take and uttering those two words would just make him combust and cease to exist. Maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration but the feeling was there.

“You’re welcome. You sure you won’t turn into ashes or shine like a diamond in the sun? Maybe we can figure out your little wizard’s favourite movie.” Hyunjin rubbed at his temples as Changbin grinned. He had been careful to test that theory before leaving the room upstairs and everything seemed normal so he just turned around and walked to the front door. 

“Bye.” He said with a huff.

“Want me to give you a ride?” 

“No need.” Hyunjin was about to put on his muddy boots when he realized he was still wearing the other’s clothes. Doing a one eighty he walked to the bathroom he had left them in, though he could not find them where he left them.

“In the washer. Your fancy white shirt might survive.” Changbin was leaning on the door blocking his path and Hyunjin furrowed his brows hoping the other would move without him having to ask. “Give me your phone.”

“What do you want it for?” Hyunjin didn't like where this was going but again he hated every single moment since the second he took a step into that front porch and there was nothing he could do about it.

“So you can call me before you pass out in the middle of the street and to know if this worked against the curse. I’m not moving until you give it to me.”

Hyunjin had no option other than to comply. When he received his phone back the new contact read Bestie ~~ .

“What the heck dude, bestie really?”

“That way if anyone sees this they won’t think it’s my number. You can change it to whatever you want just don’t get me in trouble.”

Hyunjin groaned internally because Changbin was indeed right. Without another word Changbin moved away and Hyunjin put on his shoes. 

“I hope your house doesn’t have many mirrors.” Changbin said, looking at their reflection. Well, at his reflection, Hyunjin’s was nowhere to be seen in the mirror. His eyes shifted to the glaring purple mark on Changbin’s neck on the reflection. For some reason it felt weird and awkward. Something about him being the cause for it made him feel sheepish.

Hyunjin sighed, resigned himself to his fate and opened the door to the dreaded outside world. The door closed behind his back with a soft thump and he went on his way. 

Contrary to what Changbin had said he did not pass out in the middle of the way to his home. Currently he was on his bed, already having changed clothes and having hidden the ones Changbin lent him in a bag inside his closet. He had been able to enter his house this time, the force was still there but he was able to push through it with his power. He had sent Changbin a message exactly five minutes ago saying that and now he was still holding his phone, the message app opened on his Bestie ~~ contact. He kept pressing the letters and the undo keys, rolling in his bed trying to get the courage to get those two words out. 

It took him a good five minutes but he did it, he put his pride aside.

to: Bestie ~~

thank you

sent: 11:54

Almost a week had gone by since the fiasco that was the weekend where Hyunjin had to… yeah, no, he’s not ever mentioning that again. 

Hyunjin was currently chilling in his bedroom with Jisung and Seungmin, the two of them talking about some gossip at their university. Hyunjin felt a little envious how they had a life beyond the clan's work but Hyunjin literally had all the time in the world to go to university whenever he felt like it. He thought of Changbin, how the older was already working and out of the comfort of his parents house, living a ‘normal adult’ life, whatever that is.

His memories traced back to when Changbin was a little kid with snot running down his nose. Hyunjin was sure he was the same at the time. He thought of how they grew up together but as enemies and went on such different paths. The thing with vampires is that they actually age, very slowly but they do. At least if one is born as a vampire like Hyunjin, Changbin and most of their friends. They age normally until they’re about mid-twenties and then it slows down considerably as time goes by. They can’t die from old age but they still can be killed. And also the older they get, the slower their hearts beat. 

Something that always has Hyunjin curling his toes at vampire movies and books is how supposedly their hearts don’t beat which would just mean that their blood doesn’t pump. That’s cool and all but it would result in the coagulation of their blood and death of their internal organs because they would receive no oxygen. And a decomposing body full of toxic gas trapped inside does not smell good, that much he can tell. Unless the insides are made of stone, then it would maybe make more sense. 

And that’s one of the reasons why vampires don’t exactly drink blood out of one another since it tastes quite stale and bad in general. Hyunjin licked his lips thinking about it and grimaced at the memory of the thick velvety texture on his tongue.

“You should have seen the teacher’s face, he was ready to burst. Hyuni?” Jisung waved in front of his face trying to get his attention. “All good?”

“Yeah, sorry. What do you want to do for the rest of the day?” Hyunjin shifted on the bed to rest in a better position. Seungmin was in his own little world reading some book at the end of the mattress. 

Despite the two vampires spending a lot of time at the infamous house at the end of the neighbourhood, Hyunjin’s parents had allowed them to still spend time together since they all grew up pretty much glued to each other. And as friends.

“Do you have it, the most recent one?” Jisung whispered very quietly so no one outside would catch up to it. Seungmin perked from behind his nerdy book, he too interested in the topic at hand.

“It’s on the bottom of the closet.” Hyunjin whispered back. Jisung threw a fist up in the air in celebration and went to dig up the most recent manga volume they liked to read. The reason for all this secrecy was due to their parents' distaste for the author. Apparently there was some kind of quarrel decades ago (how surprising), so all the author’s works were blacklisted. However the manga cafe from the town over had the volumes available for rent.

Jisung pulled something out of a brown paper bag and Hyunjin’s heart froze as he saw the fabric of an old band t-shirt unwrap.

“Why do you have Changbin hyung’s shirt with you? And pants too?” 

Hyunjin could feel his blood seize to circulate. Maybe the shock would turn him into an actual rock and that way he wouldn’t have to spill the beans. A cold sweat ran down his back. He had his pride but he could never lie to his friends, no matter how damaging it was for his image.

The beans fell all over. Hyunjin told them everything from him crossing paths with the wizard whose identity he had no clue about, to knocking on Changbin’s door, to getting absolutely plastered from Changbin’s blood. He thinks this is the most expressive he has ever seen Seungmin, his jaw wide open, eyes glistening with surprise and tears from trying to hold his laugh. Jisung was the exact same except he couldn’t stop laughing loudly. Oh, he was having the time of his life for sure.

Hyunjin hid his face in his pillow hoping the mattress would swallow him whole and he could disappear. In the meanwhile Jisung suffocated in his own spit, convulsing from the lack of air.

“Oh, no wonder he was wearing so many turtlenecks this week.” Seungmin said as a matter of fact. Hyunjin peaked from behind the pillow to become face-to.face with two pairs of sly eyes and grins that told him nothing good was coming.

“What happened next, anything frisky? The house was empty after all.” It was Hyunjin’s turn to be horrified at what they were implying.

“I hate you two. No, nothing happened, I slept and went back home in the morning. You know very well I hate his guts.”

“I mean you were conditioned to hate his guts. But don’t you think Changbin hyung is hot?” This time it was Seungmin and Hyunjin who turned to Jisung with an eyebrow raised at the last sentence.

“Anything you want to tell us Jisung?” It was Seungmin that spoke with that air of interrogation that always left them sweating, that demon smile gracing his heavenly features.

“It’s nothing like that! He’s like my brother but that doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes.” Seungmin shrugged half in agreement and Hyunjin was left there blinking to the wall, head empty. He did not expect the afternoon to turn out like that.

“So what’s next?” Jisung asked. If he had a tail, it would surely be wagging back and forth behind his back.

“What do you mean what’s next, I’m not going to do anything, nothing happened, nothing is going to happen, period.” 

“Come on Jinnie, isn’t this a good opportunity for the two of you to become closer?” Jisung asked a lot more quietly, the excitement from before now gone. Seungmin, who didn’t usually talk much, was also looking expectantly. Hyunjin felt a little guilty for putting his friends in this awkward position but he told himself there was nothing that could be done. He didn’t dare to risk disappointing his family and his clan for the sake of hanging out together with all of his friends and Changbin.

So he simply didn’t answer them. Hyunjin threw the shirt back to his closet and closed it a bit too harshly. He sat on the floor between them with the book open and hoped the tension would dissipate quickly. 

---

The day was ending, the sun had set already and now only the light of the moon engulfed the sky. Seungmin and Jisung had gone back home a while ago and he was left to mull over their words. That was until he received a notification that made him fall out of the bed.

from: Bestie ~~

you freaking told them???

received: 19:21

Hyunjin swallowed the lump that had formed on his throat. Dammit he should have asked them to pretend to not know anything but still, he was pretty surprised they were so quick to confront Changbin.

to: Bestie ~~

Jisung found your clothes 

I was cornered

sent: 19:23

If Changbin was truly their friend he would know how difficult it was to dodge Jisung’s questions and how impossible it was to lie to him and especially to Seungmin.

Hyunjin climbed up to the bed and cursed his luck. He looked at his messy closet, the bag with Changbin’s clothes still inside since his friends refused to take it back, saying Hyunjin should go and visit them someday. He knew what they were doing and right at this moment he was sure they were making plans to lock Hyunjin and Changbin together in one room hoping they would get along. 

Wishful thinking really, that would never happen in a million years…

---

Hyunjin kind of regrets saying that, now that he is locked in Jisung’s room with a lack of said Jisung but instead with Changbin by his side.

How did that happen? Well…

Han freaking Jisung messaged him at 2:07 p.m. on a Saturday, exactly one week after that whole shebang at Changbin’s place, begging Hyunjin to bring him his applied science book that somehow had gotten under his bed when they were there last time.

So there he was again, at that damn porch full of pretty flower pots that mocked him. How do flower pots mock a person? Hyunjin didn’t know but that’s the feeling he got from them.

A car stopped right next to the house, a head mop of curls exiting from the driver’s side.

“Oh, hey there! Hyunjin isn’t it?” Hyunjin recognized the man, Chan, who spoke with a nice smile and happy lilt tone.

“Yes. Bang Chan right?” Hyunjin internally fist bumped the air, this way he wouldn’t need to knock on the door or even to go in, he could just give Chan the book and run out of there. “I’ve come to bring Jisung his book but since you’re here-”

“Oh, no, please come on in. Actually I could use a hand bringing some stuff in if you don’t mind?” 

Dammit, there goes his plan. And he couldn’t deny Chan, the man had a heart of gold and as much as Hyunjin said to himself he had a neutral stance regarding the older, that was very much a lie. 

Chan grabbed the giant bags of groceries while Hyunjin was in charge of the baby lemon tree.

“You’re the one that takes care of all these plants?” Hyunjin asked as he followed Chan up the porch stairs.

“It’s mostly Felix. He always wanted a lemon tree so I got him one for his birthday.” 

Hyunjin hummed as Chan twisted the keys. Felix had gone to the same school as the lot of them and despite being in the same year as Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jisung, he was in a different class. Hyunjin remembers the day he almost got in trouble because some idiots were harassing Felix and being the hot headed Hyunjin was, he was very close to sinking a fist in one of the kid’s faces, only Felix had stopped him at the last second. 

If Seungmin was a (vampire) demon, Felix was the exact opposite, he was an absolute (vampire) angel. Somehow those two got along the best, maybe because they balanced each other’s energies. Despite that, Hyunjin had never been really close to Felix since the other was always by Changbin’s side. Changbin had somewhat taken Felix under his wing in school after the altercation so the idiots left them alone not wanting to get into big trouble. And as much as Hyunjin hated Changbin’s guts, he was thankful for him in that instance. 

Hyunjin slid his sneakers off and sighed. Here he was again. He immediately locked eyes with Changbin sitting at a desk at the corner of the living room looking at some papers. Both of them frowned at each other, Hyunjin more so than the other. 

Having noticed his presence, Jisung and Seungmin came running down the stairs waiting for Hyunjin to put the tree pot down so they could drag him to a corner of the sofa. Seungmin sat next to him with a grip on his shoulder so he could not move. He watched with chagrin as Jisung forced Changbin to sit on the other corner and then moved to stand in front of the TV to start whatever presentation he was about to do.

Hyunjin had a really bad feeling about this all, he should have known this was all a ploy for him to come over. When he looked at Changbin he also seemed suspicious of the whole thing.

“So, I’ve brought you all here together to try to find a solution for the little problem that is your families not standing each other’s necks. And that is a problem because?” Jisung asked the audience as if this was a lecture. University sure had changed him.

“Because we’re all friends!” Seungmin said on cue.

“Debatable.” Hyunjin muttered under his breath. He got an elbow to his ribs from the devil at his side.

“Correct. We don’t want to choose between our two friends and we know you two think this feud is a waste of time. So I come to you with a proposition. Your parents are more similar than you think and I’m sure they’d rather die than admit to it but... They love you and respect your decisions.” There was a pause for a dramatic effect that made Hyunjin’s eye twitch nervously.

“Why don’t you just fake date?” Jisung asked enthusiastically. Lord, what in the actual heavens. Or pits of hell, that sounded more appropriate.

“That’s freaking disgusting.” Hyunjin said without missing a beat.

“Says the one who was desperately lapping at my neck.” 

Hyunjin launched himself out of the sofa like a flying squirrel to go at Changbin’s throat. Wait, no, not in the way he did a week ago, the intent now was to fight him. Hyunjin was mid-flight when a pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind and landed him softly back at his spot on the sofa. Great, so Chan also probably knew about what had happened last week with the way he patted Hyunjin’s shoulder sympathetically. If the embarrassment didn’t kill him he would die trying to fight Changbin one-on-one some other day.

“Listen to yourself Jisung, you really think that will work? Do you want a war to start? You’ve been reading too many fanfics, forget it.” Changbin spat out.

“Is it so wrong to want my friends to get along?” Jisung’s eyes brimmed with unshed tears. He sniffled once, twice and then ran up the stairs to lock himself up in his room.

Hyunjin didn’t waste any time, he ran after him calling his name after sending a death glare to Changbin who at least looked remorseful for having blown up.

“Sungie, come on, open the door. He didn’t mean it like that I’m sure. Sungie please.” Hyunjin rested his head against the door. He could tell the other vampire was right next to it on the other side.

He heard two pairs of footsteps coming up the stairs and soon enough Changbin was by Jisung’s door, Seungmin trailing behind.

“Ji-” Before Changbin could continue, the door opened slowly. Jisung was hiding right behind it, inviting them in. Though as soon as Changbin and Hyunjin stepped inside Jisung ran out and the sound of a lock clicking echoed in their ears. They could also hear the high five Seungmin gave Jisung from the other side of the door. 

They knew this would happen, they knew that the whole fake dating plan was a hideous thing to begin with (though Hyunjin secretly loved reading fake dating stories, they just hit every single time). This was their end goal, they had read the two like a book and lured them right into the trap they had set. Hyunjin was kind of impressed but he was also fuming. He knew he should have never left his bed today.

“Han Jisung open this goddamn door!” Hyunjin banged on it with a closed fist, shaking the handle trying to get it to open. Behind him Changbin was making himself comfortable on Jisung’s half made bed, surrendering himself to his fate.

“Careful with the door, do you know how expensive those things are?”

“Fine, I’ll just yeet myself out of the window.” Hyunjin moved to look out the window. Problem was he was a bit of a coward when it came to heights so he had no other option than to sit down on the chair by the desk, the fake leader upholstery making a fart sound. 

There was a long silence that followed. Hyunjin was fiddling with his cuticles once in a while stealing glances at the vampire who was having a staring contest with the floor.

“Do you think Ji is mad?” Changbin asked, his voice softer than usual.

“Mad as in is he a madman or mad because you blew up at him?” Hyunjin played uninterested. He knew Jisung was fine but he wasn’t all that happy with how Changbin talked to his friend back there so he didn’t feel bad for dragging out the topic and making Changbin feel even more guilty. 

He knew Changbin was looking at him with that annoyed expression on his face but again, Hyunjin ignored him. After what he determined was enough time for Changbin to mull over his words he finally spoke.

“Sungie has thick skin. Besides, how do you think we got stuck in here? Pretty sure they had this all planned counting on your reaction.” 

Changbin gave him a noncommittal hum and went back to his staring contest. 

“Still, I have to apologize.”

That sentence made Hyunjin feel a mix of bad and mad. Bad because Changbin seemed like a nice person that truly regretted what he said and mad because Changbin seemed like a nice person that truly regretted what he said. Yes, those two different feelings coexist with the same exact sentence.

Hyunjin should not feel an ounce of compassion for his enemy. In fact, he should bask in the misery Changbin was going through yet something inside his heart did not want to comply with what his head was telling him. He blamed his stupid kind self.

“So what do you want to do now?” Changbin leaned back on his arms and Hyunjin’s eyes landed on the way his black shirt fitted nicely, showing off his build. This was all Jisung’s fault, ever since that day he said Changbin was hot and Hyunjin kind of agreed in his own head he occasionally caught himself thinking about it. 

“Wait for them to open the door? Unless you know how to pick a lock.” He grabbed a book out of the pile in Jisung’s desk and scrolled through the pages absentmindedly. This was truly going to be an awful time.

“Why do you hate me so much? I had the idea you also thought this whole thing is dumb?” Hyunjin tried to focus on the words that were written all over the pages, failing miserably. Did Changbin really not know or was he just trying to humiliate him? He thought of what to say but no matter how he phrased it in his head, it all sounded incredibly pathetic. “If you tell me I can unlock the door.”

Hyunjin closed the book and slammed it on the desk, his patience hanging by a thin thread read to break any second. His patience and his sanity. He might actually go berserk and fight Changbin today if he keeps on edging him on. And probably lose, he doubts he can win against all that muscle. Dammit he looked at his arms again.

“Of course you can, what can’t the great Seo Changbin do?”

“Is that it? You hate me because you’re envious?” Changbin had one corner of his lips up in amusement though Hyunjin couldn’t find where the funny thing was.

“Shut up.”

"Seriously?" The tone of the conversation suddenly changed. Changbin shifted to face Hyunjin properly, his gaze earnest.

“You’re not the one who had to grow being compared to you just for breathing.” Hyunjin finally answered crestfallen. Changbin had won, he had found out what was probably Hyunjin’s biggest insecurity and worst of all Hyunjin himself had given that information on a platter.

“I can’t cook for shit.” He looked up, not really getting what the vampire was saying.

“That’s not even a useful skill. Why are you telling me thi-”

“I can’t draw, I’ve heard you can, Jisung told me.” Changbin interrupted.

He understood now what Changbin's intentions were and anger simmered at the flower of his skin. He refused to be consoled by his enemy, he would not be able to call himself his rival of eternity if he accepted that. And Changbin got that message when Hyunjin growled low on his throat and his eyes shone as a threat. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for? Seo Changbin, you better watch your words.” The last thing Hyunjin wanted to hear right now was Changbin apologizing for being better than him at everything.

“If you want us to be enemies, fine. But you don’t have to hate me, you know? I don’t think I deserve it either.”

If Hyunjin was to be honest with himself, which doesn’t really happen much in regards to Changbin, he thinks he would enjoy having the older vampire as a friend. Changbin was nice to his friends and to people in general, even to those who wronged him, like Hyunjin. He was also attentive to others feelings and to the surroundings and overall he seemed like a cool person to hang out with from the stories he heard. There he admitted it.

“Fine. But don't get your ego inflated, I’m not doing this for you. It’s for Jisung and Seungmin.” 

“That’s cool with me. Have you met Felix?”

“Yeah, I talked to him once or twice.”

Changbin pulled out his phone to type on it and soon enough the lock turned and Felix appeared from the other side. Hyunjin sighed heavily, it seemed they could have totally avoided this conversation. He wondered if Changbin was also colluding with the two little devils he called best friends.

“Here is a reward for not killing one another. Sorry, Jisung made me say that.” Felix extended them two napkins with bloody brownies in it smelling absolutely delicious. Vampires couldn’t really eat much due to their sensitive stomachs but Hyunjin didn’t care, he would eat an entire tray of this without hesitation.

“You’ve got a bit of it here.” Changbin told him as he pointed to where the dessert had smeared. Hyunjin swiped his tongue over the corner of his lips and Changbin grimaced.

“What?”

“Nothing little snake.”

“What are you then, a rabbit?” Hyunjin said with an evil grin, making himself taller and creating a shadow over Changbin, like a predator hovering over his prey. Changbin pushed Hyunjin back and moved away grumbling, the tips of his ears red. Hyunjin preened at the victory.

“See, I told you it would work.” When Hyunjin turned to look at the people lounging in the kitchen circling the brownie tray like they were worshiping it, he could not believe what his ears and eyes were telling him. This was the angel Felix’s plan? Now that was what he called an unexpected turn of events. 

“Traitors.” He heard Changbin say as he dug out another brownie. 

“Indeed.” Hyunjin followed him and he also stole another one. He deserved it after what he went through.

“Look, you two are even agreeing on something!” Jisung said, his smile bright and cheery.

“Is your family okay with you coming to hang out with us?” Chan asked, appearing from the back door in the kitchen that led to a garden outside. Apparently everyone was in on this plan.

“Probably not, they let me hang around with Jisung and Seungmin because we grew up together and because our families get along but…” Hyunjin stopped there, not wishing to elaborate further. Everyone understood what he meant as he looked at Changbin and Chan.

“I understand. We should find out what happened between your families, maybe then we can put an end to all of this.” 

“Assuming they won’t hate each other’s guts even more.” Hyunjin added to what Chan has proposed. Unfortunately he didn’t see how this could end peacefully. Not in this century, not even in the next millennium.

“We won’t know if we don’t try.” Changbin said with determination. Hyunjin furrowed his brows. Something about the way Changbin spoke made him suspicious. Or maybe it was just because he never had a conversation with the enemy that lasted this long.

“Do you have any clue on how to figure out how this all started? It’s been centuries and no one found anything, I doubt it will be that easy.” Hyunjin mimicked Changbin’s pose, arms crossed over muscular chest. He cursed freaking Han Jisung in his mind, that question he made that day popping in his head once again.

“Don’t worry about that, I'm working on it.” An alarm bell rang in his head at Chanbin’s words.

“Who’s to say you’re not going to take advantage of the information?”

“Hyuni.” Jisung pulled at his sleeve, begging him to stop.

“Just because we tolerate each other now doesn't mean I trust you.”

“I don’t hate you Hwang and I don’t hate your family. I’ve told you before, I want to live in peace without having to worry that one day any of the people that are important to us will end up dead because of this. I don’t know about yours but my clan doesn’t shy away from getting their hands bloody.”

Hyunjin knows that. He knows that the Seo clan has a special quirk to them, that those with red eyes can suck the power of other vampires to get stronger and the more vampires they kill, the brighter the red of their irises becomes. And he knows that the leader of the Seo’s, Changbin's great-great grandmother, looks like a lovely lady but has eyes like the sun when it sets. Thinking about it now it makes sense that Changbin has experienced what it’s like to drink from another vampire. Hyunjin really doesn’t want to delve deeper into that.

Hyunjin huffed in defeat and Felix then moved to wrap an arm around his.

“Want to play some games with us?”

Hyunjin couldn't remember the last time he had so much fun. Ever since the day where he, by a higher power named Jisung, Seungmin and Felix, was forced to talk things through with Changbin, he spent a lot of time at his place, playing games with them, helping Felix baking, gardening with Chan or fixing things with him. Occasionally he would go through journals and old newspapers that Changbin had somehow gotten his hands on, trying to figure out anything about their families that wasn’t useless gossip. Needless to say, so far there wasn’t any success.

“If I have to read one more erotic poem about someone I’ve met when they were a grandma I am going to rip my eyes out.” Hyunjin groaned as he threw the journal at the desk, his eyes itchy from the cloud of dust in the room at the end of the corridor.

“Yeah? Want to read about drinking blood from a wolf and becoming a furry? Or how about the twenty pages of a tea menu? Maybe that would be more of thy taste, your royal highness.” Hyunjin elbowed Changbin at the comment.

“Can’t you just skip them?”

“Not when there is random information in the mix like the uncle that cheated with his mother-in-law’s brother. I read in his journal that he only married his wife to get close to him.”

“How are you retaining any of this information?”

“I don’t have a pea sized brain, can’t give advice on how to grow yours, sorry.” Changbin was already halfway out of the room knowing well by now that Hyunjin would chase him down.

It’s been about a month of this, of giving his parents half-truths, of telling them that he spends his days hanging with Jisung and Seungmin and hiding where they went and all the other people he hung out with. It has been a month of him enjoying Changbin’s company. They still fought sometimes but on those occasions Chan would throw Felix in between the two to mediate the situation. The fights would be the most random things, it was more of a way to keep the spirit of their initial relationship around, it was familiar in a sense.

“Changbin-hyung, can I get your keys for the shed? Chan-hyung stole mine and he isn’t home.” Felix asked, his gloves covered in dirt from changing a few potted flowers around.

Changbin pulled them out of his pockets and Hyunjin did a double take at the thing dangling from the ring of keys. Swiftly he stole it from Changbin’s fingers and extended his arm up as the other tried to grab them back. When Hyunjin finally saw what it was he burst out laughing. Hanging by the small chain was a walrus plushie charm.

“Hwang give that back.” There was a threat in that voice that Hyunjin knew was fake as he could detect the whimper behind it. Changbin stretched his arm to reach it again but Hyunjin dangled the keys away, using his height to his advantage. And then Changbin taekwondo-ed him to the floor. Freaking unfair. Seungmin and Jisung snickered from their place on the couch.

“Lix, here.” 

It didn’t escape Hyunjin how Changbin’s cheeks had a bit more colour to them, a feat that for vampires was quite challenging. Cute. 

Wait. How did that thought get there? Better yet, how to Ctrl + Z a thought?

The front door unlocked and from his position on the floor Hyunjin had a perfect view to the hallway entrance where Chan was now, followed by two other people.

“I don’t know if I want to know.” Chan said the moment he set eyes on Hyunjin sprawled on the floor, disappointment evident on his face but not a drop of surprise. The rest of them were the ones surprised to see Chan come home so early since it was still mid afternoon and Chan usually arrived from work at night.

Hyunjin got up and dusted his clothes, Changbin by his side sending him a death glare. He did what any reasonable adult would do and stuck his tongue out in response.

The figures behind Chan’s back walked inside the living room and Hyunjin’s brows flew up. There was one particular face there that he didn't exactly recognize but the smell, that he did. 

“Have we met before?” The guy had the audacity to ask.

“Yes mister wizard when you freaking cast a little spell on me.” Hyunjin spat out with a sickening sweet tone to it. If Chan wasn’t in between them Hyunjin would be flying to rip out the other’s throat, though he doubted Chan would appreciate getting every surface covered in sticky wizards blood. Nonetheless his eyes still shone as a threat.

“Minho I’ve told you you can’t just go around cursing everyone.” Chan rubbed at his temples. It seemed that this wasn’t the first time they were having this conversation.

“Yes I can.”

“Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.”

“So you cursed me to die just because you can?” Hyunjin took a step forward and Changbin gripped his shoulder hard, stopping him from moving altogether.

“The curse only lasted a day, what are you even on? And your shirt was hideous.”

“Let me get this straight-”

“Pfff, straight.” He loved his friends to death but sometimes he wished he had a control remote to mute them.

“Seungmin please. So, you cursed me because you hated my shirt?” Minho nodded once. “Freaking Seo Changbin, you told me it lasted a week!” He turned around feeling betrayed by the very one he called enemy. Thinking again, it kind of made sense he would be the one to make a fool out of Hyunjin just for funsies. 

“Hey, that's what my friend told me! And I even told you ‘it can’ not ‘it definitely does’.” Changbin put his hands in the air in defense. 

“Yeah I made it to just last one day.” Minho had the nerve to snicker after he said that.

“See, not my fault.” Changbin said, making Hyunjin groan in frustration.

“I hate you two.”

“Please all of you behave, especially you Lee Minho.” Chan pointed at said wizard who turned his head away and huffed like he was unbothered but the nervous bob of his adam apple gave him away. “Anyway we have some more important matters at hand. Gather the kids around.”

Hyunjin looked behind Chan’s shoulders where the second presence remained hidden, although a mop of black hair peaked over Chan’s head. He smelled a bit weird but Hyunjin couldn’t really put a finger on what it was.

When they were finally all sat on the couch Chan moved away and pulled the guy to sit down with him. Or should Hyunjin say the baby vampire?

“This is Jeongin, he was recently turned and this is also going to be his home from now on. Of course I know that since it was me that turned him I am responsible for him, but I might need help on the days that I can’t be around. At least for the first month it’s best if he’s always with someone since he still needs to learn how to use his powers and to feed and all of that.” Jeongin waved at all of them with a kind smile, his left eye shining purple. He probably doesn’t have control over it yet.

“What is the wizard’s involvement with this?” Seungmin asked, not happy about the presence of a wizard in their territory. He too had bonded with Hyunjin when it came to distaste for those particular magic users.

“He was the one who asked me to turn Jeongin and he also helped to augment the chances from the transfusion.” 

So that’s what that smell was, the smell of a disease, of a hospital, of a slow painful death.

There are two ways to be turned into a vampire. One could say one of them was more ethical than the other and Chan ended up choosing that one. Hyunjin wasn’t surprised at that, he had heard stories of how Chan was turned that gave him nightmares on the rare occasions that he fell asleep.

The first way to turn a human into a vampire is by killing them while they have big amounts of poison on their system. Hyunjin heard stories of how excruciating it is and he also read some explicit details that made him almost feel faint on some of the random journals that were in the pile he and Changbin had been researching on. Chan himself had a massive scar in his chest from when he was reborn, Hyunjin had seen it one day when the vampire had forgotten to bring a shirt after he showered and walked down the corridor topless. 

The other option, the blood transfusion, has a lot more chances of failure. Most of the time the humans get extremely sick from it and end up dying a lot later when the poison is already out of their system. The wizard had probably been there to monitor how the blood and the poison spread and if needed he most likely could have blocked Jeongin’s internal defenses so that Chan’s blood could take over faster.

Hyunjin was forced to have extra crash courses on how to control his poison levels because if he wasn’t careful he could have a line of blood suckers created by him trailing behind. Sometimes if the hunger took over it was easier for him to slip up and let out a lot more poison, like with what happened with Changbin. With vampires it’s fine, it just probably hurts a bit, or a lot, he has never been bitten by one so he can’t give a testimony on that. Anyway the other times that he did slip up he had to go on secret undercover missions to make sure his past meals/victims stayed well alive. And that was how he ended up getting run over by a truck once.  

“Twilight or Vampire Diaries?” Changbin asked out of nowhere.

“Vampire Diaries.” Minho answered without hesitation. Everyone had a confused expression on their faces except Changbin who chuckled and Hyunjin who sank in the sofa cursing under his breath. 

Jeongin was looking around the place like a curious animal in a new environment, sniffing the air, not yet used to his heightened senses that would only develop further. He was curious but also a bit timid, glued to Minho’s side like he was his owner, his safe place, his hand holding the end of the wizard’s shirt.

“I’m going to make some brownies. Jeongin want to help me out?” Felix, certified (vampire) angel, spoke, immediately clearing the air with his smile.

“Hyunjin, can you go with Jeongin tonight on a practice round to teach him how to feed?” He was back at his enemy’s house, currently playing a game with Jisung when Chan arrived with Minho and Jeongin in tow. “My boss gave me a bunch of work and you have the best mind control powers out of all of us if something happens.” Hyunjin nodded at Chan slowly, feeling shy from the compliment. He paused the game and passed the controller to Jeongin.

“I never really taught anyone, is it really okay?” As much as he felt proud to be assigned such an important task, Hyunjin couldn’t help but feel unsure.

“Changbin is going with you just in case anything goes wrong.” He wasn’t that pleased with the choice (they are still enemies even if it may not look like it), yet he felt relieved knowing it would be Changbin with him. That way in case anything does go wrong he can either blame Changbin or the vampire could make use of those muscles to keep Jeongin under control.  

“He is like my little brother, if anything happens to him you know how it will end up for you two.” Minho threatened. Hyunjin grimaced in his spot not really looking forward to the night. 

They went to a nearby area where there was a running circuit away from sight and security cameras. Hyunjin and Changbin had spent some time discussing what was the best spot and they ended up electing the park instead of the nightclub that was full of on goers but whose blood wasn’t the most savory of meals with all the alcohol in running in their veins. 

Chanbin and Hyunjin were currently huddled up on a park bench watching a funny video on the phone while Jeongin stood guard looking for his official first victim after having spent about a week drinking from blood bags to get used to the taste and texture.

“Are you two dating?”

“What the actual frick Yang Jeongin?” If Hyunjin’s hearing wasn’t so good he would have thought he heard it wrong but nope, Jeongin really asked that. He had absolutely no idea why he would even think that.

“We are blood sworn enemies.” Changbin said with a grin on his face while he threw an arm over Hyunjin’s shoulder. Jeongin seemed really confused and what he said next would have made Hyunjin flip a table had there been one.

“Oh, you look really close and the way everyone talks about you two gave me that impression.” He bets this is all Jisung’s doing. Wait no, maybe the devil, Seungmin. But last time it had been Felix who planned it all so he could not trust him either. 

There were footsteps in the gravel which brought the current conversation thankfully to an end.

The instructions apparently weren’t clear enough because Jeongin ended up biting more than he could drink and the poor human almost had to be sent to the hospital for blood loss. This all ended up with Hyunjin’s shirt being the sacrificial victim. Speaking of which, Changbin had somehow actually been able to save the shirt on that cursed day, no pun intended, with some baking powder and salt, a tip that Hyunjin saved for cases like this though he doubts he’s going to go through all that work. Just going back for a second, since the day he officially met Minho he made sure to never wear that or any other shirts that were similar to The one.

Exhausted from the events Hyunjin was desperately in need of a shower to decompress but as soon as he opened the door to his home he almost had a heart attack.

“Where have you been?” His mother’s voice echoed from the top of the stairs, scaring the living daylights out of him. There were only a few candles lit in one corner so she was hidden in the shadows and her bright golden eyes were enough to make him swallow nervously. He could tell she had her black hair loose and was wearing her favourite red lounge robe. She was like a powerful woman portrayed in movies, with her perfect manicure and perfect hair, standing at the top of the stairs in her magnificent mansion, looking like the queen she was, staring down at those that are not nearly at her level. 

“Feeding?” Hyunjin knew the moment he opened his mouth he was not going to get away so easily.

“All afternoon?”

“Did you come home early?” She probably did, that’s how she knows he wasn’t at home all day.

“Don’t dodge the question son.”

“I was with Jisung and Seungmin?” Ending the sentences with a question mark was a big ? but there was nothing he could do, he was a terrible liar, especially in front of his mother.

“Try again.” It almost sounded like the game Hyunjin had played this afternoon after he lost all three of his lives, but oh-no this was not a game. This was his mother, one of the leaders of the Hwang clan.

“Fine, I was at the manga cafe.”

“That’s not a crime, why did you avoid the question in the first place?” His mother would work well as a police interrogator, right now her gaze alone made him sweat buckets and vampires don’t really sweat much.

“I might have read something from someone I shouldn’t...” His mother sighed but said nothing more about the subject and thankfully the topic died down.

“Have you heard about the new boy of the scoundrels?” His father appeared out of nowhere by his side and at this moment he felt trapped, like a bat in a cage. He hated this, having to lie to his parents, deceiving them.“Heard he was a kid with some condition dying in a hospital so he turned him.” Hyunjin knew that already but said nothing more and went up to his room only to freeze on the first step of the stairs.

“Hyunjin, are you sure you know nothing about this boy?” This was it for him, it was over, they found out, he could tell from the tone of his mother’s voice.

“Infiltrating in the scoundrel's house, now that is a genius plan!” His father laughed as he patted his back with too much vigour and his mother... smiled? What the heck was going on? 

“I don’t know how you endure them, my poor child. So what have you found out?” She asked, her perfect white teeth on display.

“Not much yet. I don’t know how but they have lots of old journals, newspapers and letters from both clans and more. I've been reading through them all but I still haven’t found any useful information.

Why did Hyujin go to their house so frequently, wasn’t it to find Changbin’s weakness originally? The reason he went so often was to find the truth about the feud and if he could, use it against the Seo’s. It was not a lie, that was his plan all along right? So why did everything he said aloud and in his head sound either like a half truth or a straight up lie? 

However, the plan is not a lie if he makes it the truth. 

As he laid in his bed already bathed and clad in his pyjamas he thought about what he told his parents. They seemed so proud of him. They were always happy for him in his achievements whether they were good or mediocre, they were never condescending. But the thing that he had told Changbin about always being compared to him was true. His parents never told him that directly but they always talked about Changbin’s achievements the same amount as his or more. And that’s how the competition started, Hyunjin wanted to hear them talking about him winning, he didn’t want to hear the freaking Seo’s name anymore. He wonders if his parents even noticed they did that.

A notification pulled him out of his thoughts. He hadn’t changed the contact name. Bestie ~~ was written on his screen before his phone showed Hyunjin his reflection as it got tired of waiting for him to unlock it.

Changbin would often send him weird memes he found or photos of bizarre sentences or drawings on the journals he was reading when Hyunjin wasn’t there. This was his enemy, the man he hated the most in the world. The man who sent him things to make him laugh when they weren’t together, the man who would always get him his favourite snacks when Hyunjin himself knew Changbin didn’t like the particular brand much. The man who had saved his life. Well, kinda, he wasn’t going to die, the curse only lasted one day, but still. This was his enemy. 

“ you were conditioned to hate his guts… ”

“Shut up Han Jisung.” Hyunjin swatted the memory away.

Another notification sound, and another.

from: Bestie ~~

I think I found something

I’m pretty sure

received: 01:35

Hyunjin shot up from the bed and sprinted to his wardrobe grabbing the first thing he got his hands on. He wondered for a moment if his parents would realize he went out in the middle of the night. It would be impossible to go through the front door, the lock made too much noise, he had tried it once with Jisung and Seungmin when they were teens and were immediately caught. Looking out the window of his bedroom on the second floor he gulped. 

And then he jumped.

The fall wasn’t at all gracious nor was it silent but he was out of the cage, running to freedom, to Changbin’s house at the end of the neighborhood in naked feet, his shoes forgotten, properly stored on the cabinet by the front door. He totally hadn’t thought this through, mainly how would he get back home when he couldn’t exactly jump back to the window of his bedroom. He kind of envies the vampires in the movies and books that can do that.

He arrived slightly out of breath and pulled the key Chan had given him not long after he started spending most of his time with them. Changbin wasn’t downstairs in the living room so he climbed up the stairs (after he cleaned his feet, he wasn’t an animal) and focused on the presences around. Jeongin was in the room at the end of the corridor that had been converted to his bedroom, and Chan was at home too and by the light seeping under his bedroom door he was still working. 

Hyunjin knocked softly on the door from where he could feel the presence of the one he was looking for.

“Come in. And here I thought you left me on read to prepare an evil plan.”

Any other day Hyunjin would entertain the idea but today he wasn’t feeling all that well after the whole thing with his parents. 

“What did you find?” Changbin patted the spot next to him on his full size bed and Hyunjin sat there bouncing on the soft mattress.

“Look here!” He pointed to the end of a page of the journal with its pages yellowed, the thing smelling like dust and humidity. He wonders how that survived after reading the entry date of the part Changbin told him to read. 25.03.1871

“Vampire archives?” Hyunjin could barely read what was written there due to the archaic language.

“Somewhere in there is a letter from the ones who started this all with the reasons all explained. From what I understand it’s like a contract that was signed by both clans.”

“Vampire archives?” Again Hyunjin asked, doubting the existence of a place with such a ridiculous name.

“I know the name sounds uninspiring, and I know this sounds like a lame story with the worst plot in existence but it’s what I’ve found out.” Changbin smiled, so wide, so bright and Hyunjin wanted to...to punch it out of his face!

Hyunjin laid down on the bed and stretched himself, feeling the tiredness of a long day weighing down on him.

“Anything else?” He asked as he made himself comfortable.

“I don’t know if it’s just me reading into it too much but it seems like the one who wrote this couldn’t believe the reason that led to the start of the feud and I don’t know if it’s because it’s increadibily dumb or because it could lead to the ruin of a clan if it gets found out.”

Hyunjin hummed non-commitally, partially ignoring what Changbin said. This all meant their story would be over soon. Too soon. But that was for the best right?

“You really made yourself at home in my bed.”

“M’tired. I ran all the way here.”

“Did something happen? I’ve never seen you so quiet.” Changbin poked Hyujin’s cheek once, the second time he got a bite to his finger. “Forget what I said little snake.”

“Shut up. Anyway, do you know anything about the Vampire Archives? The name sounds so stupid said out loud.” It really did. Who would think of such a dumb name?

“I’ve heard about a place disguised as a museum that is full of old stuff that belonged to vampires. Maybe that’s the place? I don’t know, I need to ask around.”

“A place like that must be heavily guarded then, how do you expect us to get in?” Hyunjin sat back up, feeling the energy come back to him. The idea of sneaking in somewhere dangerous that they shouldn’t be in made him excited.

“I can get in alone as a night guard, I know a guy that owes me some favours.”

“Alone. So you can run with the contract hoping that it will destroy my clan?” Hyunjin’s voice was poisonous. In no absolute way could he trust Changbin. That’s what his parents’ voices in his head told him. He could feel his eyes shining. He was losing control for some reason that he could not pinpoint.

“Because the archives are most likely guarded by vampires and I’m pretty sure anyone around would know who you are since you spent most of your life in those socialite events. And I can get in and out without raising suspicion.”

“Do you think I’ll be touching vases and dropping statues or what?” Hyunjin’s nails started to dig out on the bed sheets, his fangs coming to poke his lips.

“I’m just saying I look the most normal of the two. Why are you so on edge?” Changbin didn’t move an inch, he was not like the vampire scums that ran away as soon as they could feel his anger.

“Seo Changbin, what are you implying?” Changbin blinked hard, and for a moment Hyunjin felt him stop breathing. With superspeed (not like the one in the movies, he was just quick that’s it) Changbin got up and left the room after saying the following.

“You’re too handsome to be a night guard.”

Hyunjin stood there frozen, watching as the door closed painfully slowly with a grunt. All of the freaking doors to this place needed some thick lubricant coat on the hinges. 

Anyway, he had heard that type of compliment all his life, so why did this one time make his half dead cold heart beat stronger? Probably because it came from his enemy, for sure. What’s the logic to that, well… he wasn’t that good at logic.

His back hit the bed again and he hid his face in his hands feeling embarrassed despite no one being there. Hyunjin heard Changbin come up the stairs after a while and pretended to be resting. 

“Why are you still here? Or does the princess need company to fall asleep.” Changbin said as if ten minutes ago nothing happened. 

Hyunjin sent him a menacing look but nothing like the one prior. Changbin slipped under the blankets, pushing Hyunjin to the corner. 

“Never expected you would willingly share a bed with the enemy.” That comment was the last drop in Hyunjin’s self restraint and he threw himself on top of Changbin and bit his shoulder half as a joke, half as revenge.

“Fucker.” 

Changbin started to wrestle him, limbs flying everywhere until Hyunjin who was at the end of the bed started to dangle dangerously close to the floor. So taking advantage of his long limbs, he wrapped his legs around Changbin when he felt the blanket slipping with him under his back, sending them both flying to the floor with Changbin’s weight crushing on him.

“Are you made out of lead or what?” Hyunjin grumbled, his hair all over his face covering his vision.

“Sorry not sorry.” Changbin swiped the hair away and only now did Hyunjin really take notice of how close they were and their position. And again that touch felt comforting but also intimate. Hyunjin couldn’t stare away from Changbin’s eyes. His enemy's eyes. His enemy, that was someone he now called friend. His enemy nonetheless. Hyunjin wonders how many times he said that word throughout this entire time. His guess would be around twenty-nine times but he had no way to know that.

Changbin seemed to finally take notice of their predicament and cleared his throat as he got up and extended a hand. Hyunjin avoided his gaze and his hand and got up on his own. 

“I’m going back.” He said meekly.

“You can stay. If you want.” The other said softly. He looked briefly at Changbin’s eyes. The air was weird, tense but comfortable, like there was something more to unveil there. Hyunjin walked to the door.

“Bye.”

from: Bestie ~~

I’m in

received: 21:26

Hyunjin groaned as the light of the phone hit his sensitive eyes. He had binge watched a series that ended up in disappointment and waste of time even for a vampire with an eternal life. 

Ever since that day he had not spoken to Changbin. He went once or twice to his home to be with his friends and to keep up with the plan of spying in on the Seo. Granted he had gone when Changbin was at work or at the gym and if anyone said Hyunjin was avoiding him they would end up with two little marks on their arm and a little bit of poison on their veins.

to: Bestie ~~

give me updates as you go

sent: 21:27

from: Bestie ~~

can’t

no personal phones down the archives allowed

received: 21:29

Hyunjin swallowed nervously. He didn’t even know why he was nervous in the first place. He should be rejoicing, celebrating even, considering the possibility of this all being over. He hadn’t told his parents about the archives but he had a hunch they knew of its existence. The only thing that didn’t make sense in this whole story is how no one has found the reason for the start of the feud between the Hwang’s and Seo’s when apparently it was just there, stored in a box, written in a contract that Changbin was about to get his hands on. 

He paced back and forth in his room, biting his nails as he waited for the sound of his phone getting a notification. He couldn’t even talk to his friends about this because they had no clue about it, this whole thing had somehow become a secret between him and Changbin. 

He jumped at the sound of his phone after quite some time.

from: Bestie ~~

I’m outside on a break

this place is a mess but I think I know where to find it

the shift finishes at 5 a.m.

received: 02:10

Three more hours to go. Three more hours to go over his final plan. Three more hours till he sees Changbin and… wins.

Hyunjin took his sweet time getting ready. He took a bath, applied lotion that he knew smelled good, put on his best clothes, his best cologne, applied makeup and styled his hair back to perfection.

This was it, the culmination of everything.

Hyunjin walked down the stairs with his head held high. If his mother was the queen, he was the crown prince who would take over one day. His mother was sitting in the living room, a cup of tea perched in her delicate and deadly hand. She smiled at him as he said goodbye. A smile of victory. He hasn’t told her anything but he had a feeling she knew what he was about to do. After all she was his mother, the one who taught him all he knew, the one who taught him how to execute a plan with extreme grace and elegance in the middle of a bloodbath as she walked around the crimson scenes with her long dresses, free from any stain.

He unlocked the door to Changbin’s place. It was empty as he had expected, today was the weekend after all. Hyunjin walked around the familiar space as he waited, like a ghost roaming the divisions of a house. 

He sat in the middle of the couch and leaned back, his arms over the top of the firm fabric like he owned the place. In his hand was a polaroid of him and all the people of this house, a polaroid that was previously seeing light in the frame of the hallway mirror. He put it in his dark pocket.

Hyunjin waited some more until he heard a car park in the front of the house and the keys jiggling before one of them turned the lock on the door. And so the show began.

“Hey, guess what?” Changbin said clearly with a smile on his face. Hyunjin could feel the excitement in the air even if he had his back turned to the older. He got up and walked over to him, under the small yellow light of the hallway. “What’s the occasion?” Changbin asked after eyeing Hyunjin up and down, half mesmerized, half confused.

“We are celebrating aren’t we?” Hyunjin said with fake enthusiasm.

Changbin nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving Hyunjin’s face. Hyunjin did his best to hide his nervous gulp.

“I think we might actually see the end of this.” Changbin extended him a piece of paper, a copy of the original. The document was a bit longer than the regular sheets of paper and even through the copy he could see how old and damaged it was. But the important part was there. Though he couldn’t understand any of it.  He thought his handwriting was bad but whoever wrote this takes the cake.

“This all started because a Seo cheated on a cricket game against a Hwang. Somehow it evolved into a fight, and a few people literally lost their heads. There is also something about a person who slept with someone’s mother but there are no names. It’s all a big mess honestly and so freaking stupid I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at how ridiculous this is.”

“I don’t know, pranks with smashed garlic seem pretty serious to me.” Hyunjin said with an eyebrow lift, finding amusement at how anticlimactic this was. “Wait but why cricket? Did that even exist in Korea back then?” 

(PSA: vampires don’t like garlic because it stinks but it doesn’t kill them nor makes them stronger).

“I think the clans all went on a trip to Europe, I think I’ve read about that in some journals, it wasn’t just our families. This is so freaking stupid it hurts.”

It was indeed stupid and Hyunjin had already prepared for that. But it was the Seo’s that started the fight. Even if it was stupid, this would be the final nail to their coffin. And Hyunjin would be the one with the hammer.

Changbin looked at him again, a small smile coming back to his lips. In the time they spent away Hyunjin had time to think, to plot, to realize things. 

He knew Changbin was attracted to him, the long looks, the small touches here and there, the shy compliments. And Hyunjin would be lying if he said he...No. Nothing of that now. Enemy. His enemy. That term was his mantra now, to keep him focused on the task at hand.  

Hyunjin very slowly, very faintly slid his hand over Changbin’s waist, stepping closer in the process. The light above his head made it so that he was now creating a shadow over Changbin, his dark red eyes glowing with interest. A prey and a predator. A snake and a rabbit. Hyunjin lowered his head as he pressed his hand more firmly, more certain. Too close. So close. Not close enough. 

Changbin’s eyes flickered to his lips. Hyunjin could hear Changbin’s heart beat strongly in the quiet night, faster than usual. He could see Changbin’s eyes flutter as he too got closer, his nose brushing against Hyunjin’s. 

Hyunjin snickered. 

In a quick sequence of movements he ripped the paper out of Changbin’s hands and stepped back. He could almost hear the shock from Changbin, hear the way his heart cracked. 

Hyunjin had lost every competition but the one that mattered the most, the one that counted the most, that one he won. 

“Checkmate.”

He stayed there with a smile on his face that felt a bit stiff from how long Changbin just froze there, not moving a muscle, not saying anything.

“It was my mistake to trust you, I guess, to think that you were different from them, from your parents and mine. You want to know why I moved out? Because I was so fucking alone all the time. All the bunch of you can think about is stupid vengeance and for what? It was my bad to think I finally had met someone who would understand me, someone who would love me back.” 

One would think all those words were said at a loud volume, the frustration and the years of living with that pain making him burst, making him scream. But Changbin spoke them softly, like he was sad, like he already knew this would happen and had accepted it all long ago. And that, that hurt Hyunjin for some reason he couldn’t pinpoint. This was it, he had won the last battle. 

So why did he feel like he lost it all?

Changbin turned around and up the stairs and locked himself in his room. Hyunjin stood there in place, paralyzed but this time it wasn’t from a curse. This time he couldn’t move because he didn’t know what to do. His heart told him to go up, to apologize for using Changbin’s feelings against him while his head kept telling him to go back home, tell everything to his parents. All of this because of an old piece of paper. He had hurt Changbin, he had hurt his… his enemy... 

Changbin wasn’t his enemy. Hyunjin’s biggest enemy was himself.

The light started filtering through the windows, a mellow blue since the sun was still hiding but ready to come out. A new day had started, the light making him unfreeze. The door grumbled as he closed it behind his back.

One week, two weeks, three. His phone never rang, Hyunjin had turned it off, this way he couldn’t be disappointed when he didn’t see Bestie ~~ light up his screen. To be honest he had absolutely no reason to be disappointed after what he did to Changbin. 

He kind of expected that things would go back to how they were before that day he asked for help, but he thought he would be happy about that. Hyunjin had calculated everything, he knew the moment he ripped the information from Changbin’s hands and toyed with his feelings that it was over. He calculated everything but boy-oh-boy was he bad at math.

Something he completely failed to calculate in that math equation was what he felt for Changbin. Fuck the word enemy (that should round up to thirthy five times by now), fuck the whole rivals thing and fuck Han Jisung this is all his fault. Yes, Changbin is hot! There, he finally said it. And he was kind, and sweet, and had a really pretty smile. And it took all of this for Hyunjin to realize he had a massive crush on Changbin, a crush that grew larger the more they were together, masked behind that dumb word that starts with an E and ends with a Y and no he is never saying that word again, he doesn’t feel like counting anymore.

Worse than hurting Changbin’s feelings was that he couldn’t talk to anyone. Something else he failed to add to the equation was Jisung and Seungmin, he had completely forgotten their position right in the middle of this all. The two of them were stuck between a sword and a wall. So he decided to pull the sword back and cut them off, not wanting them to have to choose between him and Changbin.

And it also didn’t feel right for him to burden them with his feelings after what he did to Changbin.

Hyunjin looked to the side. Inside the first drawer of his desk, locked by a key he wore on the chest all the time, was the cursed copy of the paper, along with a few drawings he didn’t want the world to see.

He should have gotten a clue to his feelings when he started to draw Changbin. His reasoning at the time had been so he could use it as a target to throw darts on it. He doesn’t even own darts. He also justified it as just being art, all the papers that pilled up inside were nothing more than practice. If that’s just art then he is just a damn fool.

Anyway, the paper with the clan’s secrets. The second he arrived home he bolted to his room and hid the thing in there. His mother had been in the living room waiting for his arrival so he went down the stairs and did the worst thing he could possibly do. He lied to her face, said they found nothing, that the whole thing led to a dead end, that it was the end. He would not go back to Changbin’s place anymore and he asked her to tell Jisung and Seungmin that he wasn’t feeling well whenever they came by. He didn’t have the guts to see their faces. It was surprisingly easy to be convincing, she probably thought he was feeling down because they found nothing.

Three weeks of feeling empty, watching any movies and series that were available whether they were good or terribly bad like most of them ended up being. 

There was a knock to his window and Hyunjin could not believe his eyes. Dangerously perched on a ladder was Jisung, waving at him as soon as he looked at him. 

Hyunjin considered turning his back and pretending he hadn't seen anything but when he took a glimpse of Jisung almost losing balance he relented and opened his window before the other fell flat on the floor. Seungmin was there two and he climbed up after Jisung a bit more steadily.

“What’s going on, why did you disappear, is everything okay?” Immediately Hyunjin was bombarded with questions on his whereabouts and on his health and as much as he appreciated them it was too much. Too much concern for him after everything he had done. 

“Did something happen between you and Changbin-hyung?” Jisung asked softly. He was usually a little fire, bright and blaring, which made Hyunjin almost tear up at the softness of his voice. Damn, he missed them so much.

“He hasn’t said anything but we can tell he looks a bit down.” It was Seungmin who spoke, his eyes gentle, nothing like the mischievous little devil he usually was.

“Can we not talk about it please? I’m sorry.” Hyunjin hugged his legs close to his chest, wishing he was a turtle that could just hide in its shell.

“Okay. Do you want to read this?” The two looked at each other with concern but dropped the subject. Jisung opened his bag and pulled a bunch of manga volumes out. They spent the rest of the afternoon huddled under the same blanket, their shoulders always bumping annoyingly. But it was comfortable, it was home, they were family. Though the moment they left, this time through the front door, the guilt went back to consume Hyunjin.

It was well into the night when there was a knock on the door and his mom’s head popped up. Hyunjin sat up on his bed and waited as she settled next to him.

“Jisung and Seungmin were here.” Hyunjin looked down to his hands. Everyone was talking to him so gently like he needed to be handled with care. Like he was the one suffering and not the one who made others suffer. “What are you thinking about?” She asked as she put her hands over his. 

He couldn’t do this anymore, he needed to talk, to admit to what he had done.

“I’ve hurt someone but to mend things I will end up hurting others that are also important to me. It’s just… endless and frustrating.”

“I see. But regardless of the people involved, what does your heart say?”

“I like him, mom.” His mom hugged him tight in her arms and he felt safe there, like nothing could break them apart. So that’s why he said those next words. “I like Changbin.” The caresses on his back stopped, he could feel her freeze and those arms that felt so safe started to feel constricting, suffocating, a cage. “Mom, please say something.”

“I have lived for centuries so there is nothing that really surprises me anymore but that one I was not expecting one bit. I’m so sorry, it must have been tough for you.”

What? His mom was cool with that? With liking one that carried the Seo surname?

“He seems like a decent kid compared to all the other Seo’s. Tell me more, what’s he like, what do you like about him.” 

It took a while for Hyunjin to process all of that and for his brain to go back to working. He would have wondered if this was a dream if he wasn’t a vampire. So he started from that day, from crossing paths with Minho and ending up asking Changbin for his help, though he omitted the part where he drank his blood, he felt that would be too embarrassing to tell his own mother. He spoke of all the times Changbin would treat him well and how he helped others. He also slipped some information about Chan, hoping she would see to him more kindly. But he never told her about what led to the rift. The copy of the contract would stay there, hidden with its contents unknown. 

Hyunjin took a breath of relief at the end of all that. His mother left after assuring him and telling him that everything would be fine, that she would do her best to support him. One hurdle had been crossed but it had been the most difficult of them all. With his mother’s support it would probably mean that everyone of the Hwang clan would have to accept it. He still couldn’t believe this had happened. He knew his parents loved him very much but he was scared that their hatred for the Seo’s would surpass that. It didn’t and that made Hyunjin tear up from happiness.

He wanted to run to Changbin’s embrace, apologize for what he had done and maybe kiss that disgustingly pretty mouth of his. Hyunjin still had some way to go when it came to using some positive adverbs and adjectives when talking about others but he would work on that another day, now he had to focus on calming his loud heart.

Instead he jumped out of the window for some unknown reason. Well, it was actually the quicker way down and the shorter path to the little house at the end of the neighbourhood. He had shoes this time, some slippers that were a running hazard, but he couldn’t slow down, he needed to see Changbin, to apologize, to conf-. Well, maybe another day, he doesn’t know if he can handle that right now. He was forever free, a bat roaming the streets on a summer’s night.

He dug up his keys that had miraculously not fallen out from his pockets. They were men’s pockets so of course they were deep enough to keep things safe. He did not hesitate to open up the door and to climb up the stairs looking for the one who warmed his cold heart. 

Changbin was in his bedroom reading a book, the door slightly ajar. Hyunjin got in and quietly leaned against the door after closing it. He forced the nervous lump in his throat down and for the first time ever he apologized to Changbin for a lifetime of wrongdoings.

“I’m sorry.” Hyunjin took a breath. “I understand if you never want to see my face, if you hate me that’s okay too. But I need to apologize for what I did to you.”

“Why didn’t you give them the document?” 

Because if he did, heads would probably roll down and Hyunjin never wanted that. Changbin moved to sit at one edge of the bed, looking out the window. Hyunjin just wished Changbin would look at him one last time.

“I don’t want a war, I want you.” Seeing the lack of response Hyunjin continued. “I jumped from my window on the second floor to see you. Two times now!” 

If that’s not the L word he doesn’t know what is. Love, not Loser, though the second one can also apply. That seemed to have done the trick and Hyunjin saw as Changbin struggled hard to hide his smile, to pretend that he was mad at him. And then Changbin let out a boisterous laugh.

“Shut up, this is embarrassing enough as it is.”

“Why, because I’m your ene-.”

“I don’t want to hear that word ever again.” Changbin had finally looked at him, had gotten up and stood in front of him, a safe distance in between the two. Hyunjin was scared of crossing the distance, of making a mistake. “I really like you.” 

He unglued himself out from the door and took a tentative step.

“How much?” Changbin too walked one step forward. It was like this was a dance where they would meet in the middle of the stage.

“Too much where it hurts to be away from you.” Close.

“Why did you do it?” So close

.

“I was confused. I wanted to make my parents proud.” Not close enough.

“I’m going to be honest with you. What you did really freaking hurt and I’m not talking about the document. I don’t care about it but…  Using my feelings like that. Please never do that again.” Hyunjin could read the pain in Changbin’s eyes and took a small step backwards, he was ashamed for what he had done. He was afraid of hurting Changbin again. 

Changbin followed him, took two steps closer.

This time Hyunjin’s hand grabbed Changbin’s waist more firmly and the older responded by putting his hands on Hyunjin’s shoulders, sliding them over his back and pulling him in for a hug. It almost felt more intimate than the kiss they shared afterwards, just breathing in the other’s presence, hearing their hearts beat in unison, both loudly and faster. Changbin still smelled like musk and citrus like on that day where Hyunjin had broken the thin skin at the neck.

“E word to lovers?” Changbin giggled, his cheeks tinted pink. Hyunjin was sure he was not much better.

“E word to lovers. Man, Jisung is going to love this.

Together they decided to reveal the dumb information they found out hidden away on the Vampire Archives. The fact they were able to gather together the important figures of the Seo and Hwang clans without starting an unintentional war was an achievement by itself honestly speaking. 

They had decided to announce they were dating first and foremost, that way the members on the reunion wouldn’t try to rip each other's throats as soon as they talked about the damn cricket game. All of this because of cricket seriously, out of all games. No one even knows how the heck cricket works!

Anyway there were a lot of dumb discussions during that meating and Hyunjin kind of regrets not bringing popcorn. The two were allowed to date and to visit each other’s families, though Hyunjin doubts he’s going to visit the Seo household that frequently, the leader Seo terrified him and oh she knew, he was sure everyone could smell his fear. Changbin just laughed in his face but he wasn’t much better when it came to introducing himself to Hyunjin’s mother. Hyunjin laughed right back at him because that’s what lovers do.

Despite all of this, the feud would keep on going. A new document was made where it specified the history of it all for future generations to come and rules were established for there to be a semblance of order. The reason the clans decided to not stop was because they had fun believe it or not. A life of eternity proved to be quite boring so this kept them all entertained apparently. 

They were also able to put a good word for Chan so from now on if something happened to anyone in that house there was an alliance of people that would be ready to help anytime.

That same day Hyunjin and Changbin walked hand in hand as they went back home, the familiar weight of the door and grunt of the hinges signaling their arrival to the six others that Hyunjin now also called family.

Fin

“See? The fake dating plan would have worked!”

“Oh shut up.”