Archive of Our Own

It was after dark when Hoseok finally left the office that night.  It was late spring, so that meant it was definitely late.  Maybe not “work until I fall asleep in my office” Min Yoongi late and maybe not “I just got an idea and have to keep working on it now ,” Kim Namjoon late but definitely “I like sleep and not living at the studio” Jung Hoseok late.

Granted, Namjoon wasn’t exactly around to stay late now.  He worked remotely most of the time and if he did stop by, it was after dark.  It had to be.

Hoseok missed him sometimes during the day, although he tried not to think about it.  It skated dangerously close to regretting Namjoon’s choices for him and that wasn’t something Hoseok was willing to do.  Understand?  Sort of.  Not on a gut level but not getting something intuitively didn’t mean you didn’t get it intellectually and more importantly, it didn’t mean you couldn’t respect other people’s life decisions.  Or death decisions.  Whichever one was more accurate.

He was a little selfishly annoyed that the balance of their bizarre little pack had shifted from three mortal humans and four vampires to two humans and five vampires but what could you do.  Sure, it’d be nice if more of his closest friends were more…alive.  But there really wasn’t a lot that could be done about it.  Better to just appreciate the important people in his life and ignore the parts that didn’t have anything to do with him.

After all, they were their vampires.  Their stupid, stupid vampires.

Hoseok usually took the side streets to the train station from the studio.  They were the kind of narrow streets carved out long before cars had been a part of city life and ran vaguely perpendicular to wider streets full of stores, bars, and restaurants and populated by people out having a good time.  Yes, the streets he walked down were small and mostly unlit but the part of the city he was in wasn’t dangerous and the fact that they were mostly empty meant he usually got to the train with less hassle than if he took a more direct route.

He walked along, happily tuning out most of the world with a pair of giant headphones perched over his ears.  Whether it was his tiredness, the darkness, or just ordinary distractedness (or, most likely, a combination of all three) he didn’t notice three black-clad figures until they’d basically cornered him.  He swiveled around in surprise and the next thing he knew there was a stocky, slightly round man on one side, a smaller woman on the other, and a tall, thin man in front of him.

Behind him was a wall.  Because of course there was.

At least he had the presence of mind to pull his headphones down so they hung on his neck, giving him back one of his senses. 

He gave the people around him a second glance.  They weren’t just in black but a strange, stylish black.  He noticed lace and leather as though they were floating through time and their eyes were rimmed with black.

He hoped they weren’t what he thought they might be.

“We know who your friends are,” the man in front of him said, tipping ever slightly toward Hoseok while he spoke.  He had a strange cadence and his vowels came out slightly twisted.

“Which friends?”  Hoseok asked cautiously.

“The vampires,” the woman to his right said evenly.

Hope drained away.  They were exactly what he’d been afraid of.

He was fucked.

This was how he died, wasn’t it?  He fell in with the wrong crowd and now his bloodless body was going to be found in some dark alley by a bus boy taking out the trash.

“We want to meet them,” the thin man said leaning forward just the slightest bit, his odd accent striking Hoseok all over again.  Where was he from?  And when?

But then what he'd said sunk in and Hoseok’s mind scrambled and reordered itself.  Of course, they didn’t want him.  He was just a twenty-something guy with a cool job and weird friends.  He hadn’t had centuries to make enemies and get on immortal bad sides. 

Shit.  He had to warn his friends.

Hoseok glanced around looking for a way out.  There wasn’t much of one but maybe if he surprised them enough, he could get by.

He didn’t waste any more time thinking and ran straight at them, dashing between the woman and the tall man, hoping that would throw them off enough for him to make it to the main street. 

It must have worked because somehow he was able to madly sprint out of the side street and then up the first flight of stairs he saw without being caught.  He all but tumbled through the door and after taking a moment to enjoy a sliver of relief that his gambit had worked, he looked around to see where he’d wandered into.

A noraebang.  This would work.

“I need a room,” he panted, leaning a bit too far over the front counter.  “It’s a really long story and I’ll pay whatever you need but I need a room as fast as possible.”

The young woman behind the desk raised a cynical eyebrow.  It was pierced and somehow that made the gesture look even more dismissive.  Hoseok fumbled a credit card out of his wallet and held it out to her in desperation. 

She took the card from him and gestured with her head.  “Room three’s open.  If you need drinks or anything, press the button on the wall and someone will come in.”

“Thanks,” Hoseok called back, already halfway down the hall before she’d finished her instructions.  The second he was in the room, Hoseok slammed the door shut, locked it, and then collapsed on the vinyl seating and tried to catch his breath.

He was probably safe enough for the moment.  It seemed like he’d been able to lose the vampires and even if he hadn’t, they’d have to rip open the door to get to him, which seemed like more drama than these particular vampires were in the mood for given that they’d waited until Hoseok was alone and relatively secluded before confronting him.

As the rise and fall of his chest finally slowed, Hoseok pulled his thoughts together and then took out his phone.  Time to call for back-up.  He’d get one of the vampires to come pick him up and then everything would be fine.

He went to call Seokjin first, in part because he was most likely to pick up and partly because, as unlikely as it seemed, Hoseok was vaguely aware that Seokjin could be intimidating to other vampires.  (He’d never asked for details about what had happened in the mansion garden.  He had the broad strokes and didn’t want to dig much deeper.  Some things he felt better not knowing.)  Most of all, though, because Seokjin would probably be able to unwind whatever was going on.  But then he stopped himself before dialing and reconsidered.  If this was some kind of trap then he’d be leading his friends right into it, a nice little piece of human cheese sitting on a mousetrap. 

Rearranging his thoughts a little, Hoseok picked his phone up and called Seokjin.  He shut his eyes and listened.  One ring.  Two.  Three.

“Hwobi!”  There was the usual cute nickname and excited tone Hoseok had come to expect but there was a hollowness behind it, like someone not entirely committed to delivering a line.

“Where are you?” 

“At home?”  The answer came out like a question.

“Great.  I’m coming over.”

“What’s going on?”

Hoseok paused again.  If he told Seokjin everything now, he would probably insist on coming to get him.  Which was the same problem all over again.  Cheese in the mousetrap.

“Can I explain once I get there?”

There was quiet on the other end of the phone until Hoseok barely heard Yoongi’s voice in the background.

“ What’s going on? ”

“Hobi’s coming over.”  Seokjin answered before switching his attention back to Hoseok.   "See you, soon.”

*     *     *

Hoseok’s escape from the noraebang did not end up being nearly as dramatic as he’d expected.  He’d called an Uber, paid the woman at the front desk and as soon as the app told him his car was there, he’d gone downstairs, gotten in and drove away.  He’d glanced nervously around, half-expecting one of the vampires to leap out and attack him before he could get in the car.  But he didn’t manage to see any of them hiding in the shadows or anywhere else.

He felt reasonably sure he hadn’t been followed to Seokjin’s building but just to be on the safe side, he hit the close button the second he made it to the elevator.  Even if they were tailing him, they wouldn’t know exactly what apartment he was going to.

Thankfully, Seokjin had pulled his usual trick and was standing in the doorway of his apartment when Hoseok got out of the elevator.  There was a distracted look on his face and instead of greeting Hoseok the usual ironically cutesy nickname, all that came out was a “hey.” 

Hoseok slipped past Seokjin and shut the door behind him.

“Okay so, I was walking to the subway from work tonight and…”  He trailed off before he could finish.  Yoongi was seated on the couch and Seokjin sat down as far away from Yoongi as he could get on the other end.  There was a tension between them and it was obvious that something uncomfortable was going on.

Which was weird.  One of the defining features of Seokjin and Yoongi’s relationship was how relaxed they were around each other.  And honestly, it was a trait that made Hoseok happy and relieved in a secondhand kind of way.  Seokjin could be so closed off and it took Yoongi awhile to be comfortable around people and let his guard down.  He’d been glad for both of them that it’d been so easy for them to quickly skip over all that and fall into a friendship.

So again, this was really weird.

“Sorry, what was that?”  Yoongi looked at Hoseok, clearly trying to give him his full attention.  “You were leaving work and?”

“And I was cornered by three vampires,” Hoseok said urgently.

“Oh?”  Seokjin gave him a skeptical look and Hoseok felt a twinge of annoyance.

“Yeah.  And they want to see you guys.  I mean, not you two, but the vampires in general.”

“Ah.”  Seokjin nodded but didn’t say anything else.

Hoseok waited for a few beats but neither Seokjin nor Yoongi added anything else.

“…shouldn’t we do something?”  Hoseok finally prompted.

Seokjin shrugged.  “Eh.  I’m not worried.”

Hoseok stared at him incredulously.  How Seokjin wasn’t snapping into action or at least an explanation was beyond him.

He glanced over at Yoongi who was picking at the label on his beer bottle absently.  For the first time Hoseok noticed his cheeks were a bit flushed and he looked like he’d been combing his hands through his hair.  Whatever was going on must be pretty personal to get Yoongi that worked up.

Which was probably why Seokjin was acting so blasé.  His mind was still on whatever had been happening before Hoseok had showed up.  And Hoseok really didn’t have the heart pull Seokjin away before they had a chance to fix things.

Alright then, change of plans.  Forget insight and context, time go for muscle.

“So, what’s Jungkook up to?”

*     *     *

Jungkook, apparently, was in the middle of planning something with Taehyung.  Jungkook happily sent him an address but when Hoseok looked it up on his phone it was a church.  Ironically, not that far from the label’s offices.

Hoseok texted back making sure Jungkook hadn’t made a typo.  He texted back that he hadn’t and then followed up with a message that they were downstairs and Hoseok should come in the back.

He was still confused but decided that he’d rather be confused than stick around in the pervasive tension that was smothering Seokjin’s apartment, although he also made a note to himself to ask each of his friends separately if they needed to talk.

Besides, Hoseok still needed to warn his friends and make a plan.  No matter what else was happening, that was the most important thing.

*     *     *

The driver dropped Hoseok off a few blocks from the church.  Not having seen the vampires again, he felt a little more relaxed and decided that grabbing a cup of coffee was a good idea if he was going to keep running around all night.  And he hadn’t seen the vampires near Seokjin’s, so he could only assume he’d lost them for now.

Once iced coffee was in hand, Hoseok stepped out onto the street.  This time there was a very unpleasant surprise calling out to him from down the block.

“There you are!”  One of the black-clad figures shouted at him. 

A shock of terror ran down Hoseok’s spine and his fight or flight instinct kicked in immediately.

Of course, for Hoseok, that meant flight. 

He was a fast runner.  He was long and lean and knew how to throw his body into a cadence that would propel him forward.  He was still no match for vampire speed, though, so he took off in the direction of where he knew there would be people looking out for him, tearing down the street toward the church.  He remembered Jungkook’s instructions about going in the back but he wasn’t willing to spend the time figuring out where and what door to go into.  Instead, he sprang up the stairs in front, pulled open one of the heavy wooden doors, and dashed into the sanctuary.

It was late, so no one was in the pews, which was one small thing going right, Hoseok thought.  He carefully backed away down the aisle, facing the doors, his chest heaving with anxiety while he tried to catch his breath.  As the large wooden doors remained steadfastly still, something dawned on him, while his thoughts slowed to a more practical tempo and the rabbit beat of his heart began to relax.

He was in a church.  It was entirely possible that he was safe here because vampires couldn’t come into churches.  Of course, he reasoned, given that Jungkook and Taehyung were apparently downstairs out of their own free will, it must not be the entire building.  Just the sanctuary.

Lucky him. 

Hoseok sat down in one of the pews and breathed heavily.  His face was covered with the kind of clammy sweat that came from exerting himself in warm, very humid weather.  He wiped his face off with his t-shirt, leaving an abstract damp shape on the bottom.  Somehow, he’d managed to hold on to his iced coffee.  He finished it all in two long, cold swallows and then idly wondered what he should do with the cup.  He wasn’t about to litter in a church, that was for sure.  That just felt…wrong.

He glanced over his shoulder at the heavy doors in the back of the sanctuary.  If no one was coming, he should find Jungkook and Taehyung.  Obviously, they weren’t—and couldn’t be—in the sanctuary, so Hoseok was going to need to poke around a bit.  He looked around near the altar and found a door, leading to…backstage?  What the heck did they even call the part of the church that wasn’t the sanctuary?  In any event, it looked something like a backstage.  Leaving behind the stained glass and high vaulted ceiling of the room behind him felt like a hard break back into a dismal reality of beige carpet and cream-colored walls that could probably use a new coat.  There were a few somewhat worn-out chairs and a handful of choir robes hanging on a garment rack on the far side of the room.  There was an open doorway to his left leading into other parts of the church but everything beyond was pitch black and obviously uninhabited.  There was a door on the right side of the room, though, and he was delighted as soon as he opened it.

Stairs.  With a light at the bottom.  Jungkook and Taehyung were supposed to be downstairs.  Jackpot. 

The stairs were covered with an even more worn version of the beige carpet and it was all Hoseok could do not to shudder on his way down them.  If religion was this tasteless, he was definitely never converting.  His appreciation of color and sense of style forbid it.

There was a light coming from a room to the left of the bottom of the stairs and Hoseok called out cautiously.

“Kookie?  Tae?”

“We’re in here!”  Taehyung’s voice boomed out from the room, completely breaking any sense of caution or stealth.

As he walked into the room, Hoseok’s sense of relief at being safely with his friends was immediately swept away by yet another a wave of confusion. 

Jungkook and Taehyung were standing in the middle of the church kitchen leaning over a table.  Spread out on the table were several large sheets of paper, like the kind used by architects, showing some kind of a floor plan and schematics.  Jungkook looked up and grinned at him happily.

“Hey, hyung!” 

Taehyung made a “hm” noise with a nod and didn’t look up.

“What, um?  Are you…?  Why?”  Hoseok stuttered, not sure where to begin with his questions.  Which, come to think of it, really just boiled down to “what are you doing?” and “why the heck are you doing it in a church basement?”

Luckily, Taehyung came to his rescue.  Sort of.

“We’re working on getting Jungkook a little nest egg for the future.”  He finally looked up and gave Hoseok one of his odder smiles.  “Immortality is a long time, it’s good to have things set up so you don’t have to worry.”

“Ah.”  Hoseok nodded.  “And how?”

“I got all of my money stealing from rich people who annoyed me,” Taehyung said, going back to looking at whatever it was he was studying.  “Not a lot, just a little here and there.  Sort of like an undead Robin Hood.  Except without the whole giving to the poor thing.  Most of the time.  Things are a bit trickier now, though.”

Hoseok stepped forward and leaned over to look at the plans.  He felt like he’d stepped into a heist movie, except rather than being in some kind of dingy warehouse he was in a well-worn but spotless kitchen with far too many coffee mugs, a couple of crosses, and a painting of Jesus on the far wall.

The Jesus in the painting had a look on his face like whatever was going on, Hoseok should just roll with it.

“We’re stealing art,” Jungkook said excitedly in a tone that suggested they were really planning to ride the teacups at Disneyland.

“From where?”  Hoseok scanned the floorplans trying to see if he could figure out the museum or gallery.

“Warehouse,” Taehyung replied absently.  “Just storage for rich people buying art as an investment.”  There was an unhappy twist to his mouth.  “Disgusting.”

“And you’re going to steal it,” Hoseok clarified.

“Just a few pieces,” Taehyung shrugged.

“We’re going to ask Namjoon which ones he thinks we should take,” Jungkook added.

“To pick out the most valuable ones?”

“To pick out which ones most need to be liberated,” Taehyung replied absently.  Then he straightened up and finally gave Hoseok his full attention.  “Anyway.  What’s up?”

“So earlier this evening I…” Hoseok paused, remembering dashing into the sanctuary.  “I’m sorry, why are you in a church basement?”

“Oh, it’s always good to plan these sorts of things out away from home.  For sensible reasons.  And a church is the last place most people would think of to look for this precise brand of nefariousness.”

“Ah.  And this particular church because…?”

“I’m friendly with the pastor,” Taehyung said with a wave.  “Very interesting fellow.  He comes over for dinner once or twice a month and I make a healthy donation to his church to say thank you."  There must have been a look of alarm on Hoseok’s face because Taehyung gave him a pat on the shoulder and his most reassuring tone of voice.  "Don't worry, it's one of those community-minded, progressive, queer affirming churches."

Hoseok’s head was still tangled up trying to unwind the whole thing.  Which, frankly, was a sensation he’d gotten used to but that didn’t make it at all less likely that he was going to get hung up on the whole thing.

“So…” he ventured slowly, “you two are planning an art heist in a church basement because you’re, um, ‘ friendly ’ with the pastor.”

“Yup!” Jungkook chirped.

“Uh-huh.”  Hoseok’s brain was nudging past the confusion to a place he’d started calling, “sure, why not” but there was another hitch along the way.

“Aren’t you worried about being in a church, though?”

“Worried?”  Jungkook’s eyebrows knit together, clearly lost.

“I don’t know what kind thing of it is or how it affects you but since you can’t go into the sanctuary…”

Taehyung cut him off with a laugh.  “You need to stop believing everything you read.”

Hoseok glared at him in annoyance.  “That isn’t why I thought that.”

“Why did you then?”

“Because these people were chasing me—vampires,” Hoseok amended, “and once I got into the sanctuary, they didn’t try to follow me.”

“Oh, they weren’t vampires then.”  Jungkook dropped to a crouch and went back to staring at the plans with his chin resting on his hands, as though he were a child staring at a diorama.  “If they were and they were chasing you, you’d be dead.”

“No, trust me,” Hoseok pushed back, vividly recalling the all-black get-ups and creepy way they spoke.  “They’re vampires.  And they want to find you.”

“Okay,” Taehyung said absently, going back to tracing a line in the schematics.  “If they want to say hi, I’m sure they’ll drop by.”

Hoseok stared in disbelief.  His friends were in danger and they didn’t even care.

Then he sighed.  Of course, they didn’t.  Taehyung was wrapped up in his own thoughts and Jungkook had terrible instincts when it came to self-preservation.

His stupid, stupid vampires.

Which meant Hoseok only had one more place to turn.

He sighed again in resignation and texted Namjoon.

*     *     *

Hoseok loved Namjoon, with all his heart.  He loved his compassion, his creative drive—he even loved his passive-aggression and sarcasm (directed at other people, of course.)  What he did not love was that Namjoon liked to hang out in parks.  Or rather to hang out in the middle of what was a currently very dark and empty park.

If that wasn’t an invitation to eat him and pitch his body wherever was convenient, Hoseok wasn’t sure what was.  So, he was relieved when Namjoon said he’d meet him at one of the entrances.  Yes, it was probably more convenient for Hoseok to find him but it also meant, it was much more likely that Hoseok was going to make it through the night with his neck intact.  The other vampires might not be after him , per se, but he imagined that it would only be a matter of time before they got frustrated and called it a night.

Besides, he was pretty sure he was delicious.  He didn’t like to think about it (although he knew Jungkook would say it was a compliment) but he’d been told he had good vibes a lot and he assumed that probably translated into an enticing meal.

Who knew there was a downside to joie de vivre .

Leaving the church for the park, he repeated the whole “call an uber and dash to the car” routine, breathing a sigh of relief when the other vampires seemed nowhere in sight.  He had some time to catch his breath and think a bit while he rode to the other side of the river where Namjoon was. 

He still wasn’t entirely sure what the other vampires wanted other than that they wanted to talk to his friends and they seemed very threatening.  He also hadn’t been able to get Seokjin, Yoongi, Jungkook or Taehyung to appreciate the gravity of the situation.  Which was frustrating and a little frightening.  He wasn’t sure how they’d managed to survive in a universe full of undead predators, to be honest.  Yet at the same time, if they weren’t the sort of eccentric, non-violent (relatively) creatures they were, Hoseok wouldn’t be even half as close to them as he was.

His stupid, stupid vampires.

They finally arrived at the park and Hoseok cautiously got out of the car, glancing around for Namjoon, who was nowhere in sight.  He felt his heart drop.  And then something clearly supernatural moved in the shadows beneath a tree and soundlessly and gracefully slipped into the light.  Hoseok stumbled backwards on terrified impulse.

Namjoon waved at him sheepishly.

“Hi.  Sorry.  I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.  I was just looking at the tree and I haven’t figured out how to make noise when I move, yet.”  He grimaced watching Hoseok force his breath to slow with a hand on his visibly rising and falling chest.  “Really, really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Hoseok got out, calming down.  “It’s just been a weird night.”

“You okay?”

“Uh…” Hoseok genuinely wasn’t sure how to answer that and sort of stood there dumbly wondering whether or not he was.

“Come on,” Namjoon gave him a comforting clap on the shoulder that was just a bit too hard, “let’s go find Jimin.”

Namjoon happily chatted at Hoseok as they made their way further into the park where Jimin was waiting, oblivious to how tired and washed over by fear he was.  But maybe that was Hoseok’s fault.  He mostly stayed quiet with a nod or an “uh-huh” while all the running around and high-pitched emotions settled heavily into his body and let Namjoon’s monologue about the trees and the stars and the nighttime roll off his back. 

Hopefully he could talk to Jimin.  Jimin was sensible, Hoseok told himself.  Jimin would understand they were in danger. 

When they got there Jimin was laying out on a blanket in the middle of a clearing, with his hands behind his head, staring at the stars with a beatific little smile on his face.  He sat up quickly, however, and started making grabby hands at Hoseok.

“Hobi!  Hobi!  Hobi!  Come lay down next to me!”

“Actually,” Hoseok said, sitting down and trying to rush through the happy, clinging hug Jimin was giving him, “I needed to talk to you guys about something important.”

Namjoon sat across from them cross-legged so they were in a little circle and nodded.  “Middle of an empty park is probably the best place for important.  What’s up?”

Hoseok internally gave a sigh of relief.  Finally, someone was going to listen to him.  He considered his words carefully, not wanting how terrifying and urgent everything was to get lost again.  He opened his mouth but before he could get a word out, Jimin turned to Namjoon.

“Is it?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”  Namjoon tilted his head a bit, like he was genuinely curious rather than defensive.

“I don’t know.  It just feels so removed from everything.  Nothing’s urgent when you’re alone in the middle of a bunch of trees.”

“That’s why it’s good,” Namjoon countered.  “Important things get all the space they need.”

“Actually…” Hoseok started.  ‘I don’t know how much time we have’ was supposed to be the rest of that sentence but Jimin leapfrogged over him before he could get it out.

“But that’s just it.  When things are a bit far away, they aren’t quite as real.  And if you’re going to talk about important things, you should be able to feel just how big they are.”  Jimin leaned forward toward Namjoon a bit, clearly engaging with the question seriously now.

“Speaking of which…”  Hoseok tried again.

“I don’t know if I agree but fair point.”  Namjoon gave him a small nod.  “I do want to point out that this is where I asked you to turn me into a vampire, though, and I’d say that’s pretty important.”

Caught off-guard, Hoseok didn’t say anything else but glanced around the clearing.  So, this was the famous spot, huh.  The grass was a little patchy but it was nice enough, he supposed.

“Okay,” Jimin gently shoved Namjoon’s knee, “that’s playing dirty.”

“Why’s that?”  Hoseok watched him playfully shove Jimin’s knee back.  A little too fast.  A little too unnaturally smooth.

Hoseok was really looking forward to when Namjoon figured out how to act like a normal person again.  This whole thing made hanging out in public really awkward at the moment.

“Because something important happening isn’t thinking about something important…”

“And that’s playing dirty?” Namjoon cut in.

“No, it’s playing dirty to try and make me forget my train of thought by being romantic.”

They gazed at each other softly and Hoseok wondered how long the honeymoon period was supposed to last when you were immortal. 

He coughed to remind them he was here.

“Anyway,” Jimin shook his head, like he was trying to loosen a thought and turned back to Hoseok.  “Did you want to say something or were you just bored and looking to hang out?”

“Vampires,” Hoseok blurted out, finally getting a moment to say something directly.  “There’s vampires.”

Jimin raised his eyebrows.  Namjoon bit his bottom lip holding back a laugh.

“I mean, yeah?  Hi?”  Jimin replied, sounding confused.

There was a slight gust of wind and the leaves in the trees around rustled, making Hoseok tense up involuntarily.

“No, other vampires.”  Hoseok implored them.  “And they wanted to see you.”

“Huh.”  Namjoon glanced around.  “So why aren’t they here?”

Hoseok gawked at them.  “Because I took an uber,” he said with a sense of exasperation.

“And…?”  Jimin’s eyebrows knit together, his look of confusion deepening. 

“So I lost them.  They tried to tail me but I lost them.”

“Um…” 

For the first time in his life he thought Namjoon might be looking at him like he was incompetent. 

“I took two ubers,” Hoseok clarified.  “And ran into a church.”

“Huh.”  Namjoon said again.

“I guess they’ll find us if they find us, then,” Jimin shrugged after a period of silence.

Hoseok stared in stunned disbelief remembering the way they’d cornered him and the way the tall one had leaned forward threateningly. 

And his last hope just didn’t seem to care.

“You’re not worried?”  Hoseok asked a little quietly, trying not to sound defeated.

“Not all vampires are trying to attack each other.  In fact, usually no,” Jimin said by way of explanation, laying back down on the ground.

“Seriously, you’re not…” Hoseok tried.

“Wanna look at the stars with us?”  Namjoon asked cheerfully.

I can’t believe this, Hoseok thought, his mind running in circles.  He thought he might be angry if he weren’t so scared by his friends’ total lack of self-preservation.

There was only one thing left to do, he thought grimly.  He was going to have to figure out a way to take the other vampires on himself.

“Oh, do you want some honey butter almonds?”  Jimin dug in his bag and pulled out a small packet and held it out to Hoseok.  “They were giving out samples at the store and I didn’t have the heart to say no.”

*     *     *

It was genuinely late now.  Not leaving the studio late-late but Hoseok-should have been in bed hours ago late.  But he couldn’t go home and sleep, not yet.  Not when no one else was willing to recognize the danger they were in.

Namjoon walked with Hoseok to the edge of the park so Hoseok could jump in yet another cab.  And while Hoseok was grateful not to be alone in the dark, he barely listened to Namjoon because he was desperately trying to form a plan in his head. 

There were three things that he knew of that could hurt vampires:  fire, silver, sunlight.  (And Seokjin’s shower singing, if you believed Jungkook, but Hoseok was pretty sure that was a joke.)  His best bet would be to make sure the vampires were outside when the sun came up.  And that meant he’d need to catch their attention while not being captured or killed himself.

The best bet was probably to go back to the neighborhood where he’d seen them twice.  Aside from not having any other ideas about luring them out, it was also a neighborhood he knew pretty well and he was going to need all the advantages he could get.  But he needed to prepare. 

He had the car drop him off at one of the night markets and headed straight to where he knew he’d find at least a few stalls selling cheap, wholesale jewelry to tourists and happy-go-lucky shoppers in the mood for an impulse buy.  After too much uncomfortable jostling and slipping through the crowd, he finally found a stall with a large box of sterling silver rings jangling around loosely, waiting to be picked through. 

Hoseok picked up the box and all but shoved it at the shopkeeper.  “I want to buy all of them.”

The seller was a middle-aged woman a few years older than his mother.  She raised her eyebrows at him, although the rest of her face looked placid.  He had a vague feeling like he was about to be given a lecture and sent to his room.

She said a number.  Hoseok’s stomach flipped.

A lot of cheap things still meant a lot of money at the end of the day.

He fished out his credit card and wondered if he could get Jimin or someone else to reimburse him when this was all over.  Maybe Jungkook would be feeling extra generous after he and Taehyung fenced a few paintings or whatever the hell it was they were planning to do.

That is, if he was still alive, a tiny voice in his head interjected.  His stomach flipped again followed by a wave of heavy nausea.  Hoseok pushed it down and pinched his lips together in determination, handing the woman his card, not even bothering to haggle.  He was probably being taken to the cleaners on top of everything but he didn’t have the energy for anything else but his current mission.

Walking out of the market and past the food stalls, though, made him realize that he’d skipped dinner and been running around for hours, so he let himself pause and get some chicken skewers and then a couple bungeoppang.

He wondered to himself if he was just as bad as Seokjin or Taehyung or Namjoon, lost their inscrutable feelings, intricate plans, and dreamy star-gazing.  He should be racing to beat the clock before any of his friends got hurt but instead, he was standing around eating street food, like any other market goer.

By the time he finished eating, he was willing to push that feeling aside.  Maybe it was a rationalization but he didn’t need any more disadvantages and that included being hungry.

After exiting the market, Hoseok walked a couple of blocks to the nearest convenience store.  He bought some lighter fluid and a pair of lighters, the metal rectangular kind that just kept burning after you lit it once.  They had a name but for the life of him, his tired, panicked brain couldn’t remember what it was.  He’d never lit anything more dramatic than a scented candle, so it wasn’t exactly front of mind.

Supplies in hand, he called what he hoped was the final cab he was going to use tonight.

It was time to jump out of the fancy lighter and into the fire.  Or some other metaphor that was thematic and worked better.  This was the kind of thing he’d normally text Namjoon about.

Instead, Hoseok spent the cab ride stacking as many rings as he could on his fingers on both hands, creating a sort of improvised silver version of brass knuckles.  He made sure the cap on the lighter fluid was open and stuffed it in his back pocket.  One lighter went in his front pocket and he held the other tightly in the palm of his hand.

The streets were mostly empty when Hoseok stepped out of the car and onto the slim sidewalk.  This neighborhood catered more to the afterwork crowd and while a few places were still open and serving drinks and the 24 hour coffee shops were still half full, it still felt dead compared to how it all looked early in the evening.  With most of the signs shut off the streets were darker while the remaining few cast off fluorescent lights that cut sharply into the night.

Hoseok thought about walking around, trying to find the vampires in whatever corner of the neighborhood they were lurking in.  But he wasn’t a complete idiot.  There was no good ending to that, only throwing himself into a surprise with a probably deadly ending.

He decided to stick to the more well-lit areas, more or less drifting around keeping one set of people in sight or another.  He figured if the vampires were willing to come after him outside a coffee shop, a few people wouldn’t deter them completely.  But they also might serve as a warning sign or a distraction.

All Hoseok had to do was get them to come out and then keep them busy until sunrise.

He could do that.  Right?  Right?

A small part of his brain reminded him that he was a scary movie, heights, and bugs hating coward.  When other boys had been excited about taking Taekwondo he’d flinched at just the idea of getting hit and persuaded his mom to sign him up for dance lessons instead.

In his defense, though, he’d ended up being very, very good at dance.

The rest of his brain swung around and glared at that part in Yoongi’s voice.  Or at least it would have, if facial expressions had voices.

Jung Hoseok once knocked out two guys with a frying pan to protect his friends.  He could do this.  He really didn’t want to make a habit of it but right now he was the guy in the place and so it looked like it was up to him.

After a very dull hour of wandering up and down mostly empty streets, Hoseok was almost ready to give up.  They might be watching him pacing around and laughing.  They might have given up on following him.  They might have just gone somewhere else. 

The smart thing was starting to look like just going home and checking in with everyone tomorrow.

But then the universe finally cut him a break.

Hoseok was carefully looking around, trying one more time to see if he saw any movements in the shadows when three black lace-and-leather clad figures stepped out of an underground bar, red lights and bass-heavy music pounding out before the door shut behind them.

A shot of adrenaline ran up his spine and he felt himself tense and stand a little taller.  He clenched his fists, feeling the silver dig into his skin.

“Hey, you!”  He shouted.  Come on, he thought.  Time for you to chase your mouse.

They turned to look in his direction all at once.  The tall one’s eyebrows shot up.  “Hey!”  He shouted in response.

He started to jog towards Hoseok and Hoseok crouched slightly with his shoulders forward.  Hoseok might not be a fighter but he was a dancer.  He knew the swing of an arm was very weak compared to the force of an entire body.

So he leapt forward in a mad half dash, throwing everything he had into one powerful, silver-covered punch.

The vampire dropped to the street immediately and stared up at Hoseok with one shaky hand over his cheek.  Hoseok pulled the lighter out of his pocket, sparked it, and held the bottle of lighter fluid out in front of him next to the flame.  The woman shrieked and rushed over to where the vampire was now half-sitting, half-laying.

“Dennis!”

Hoseok watched the tableau, still on guard, while adrenaline slowly drained from his system.

Dennis?

Dennis blinked and pulled his hand away from his cheek.  There was blood on his fingers and while Hoseok couldn’t see that well, it was obvious it came from several deep scratches on his face.

“ What the fuck, man! ”  He shouted up at Hoseok.

“You guys have been tailing me all night!”  Hoseok protested.  He lowered his hands, anyway, and clicked the top over the lighter, putting it out. 

“We just wanted to talk to you,” Dennis said miserably, accepting a small package of tissues from somewhere in the small purse the woman was carrying.

In the haze of panic clearing and leaving only pure confusion in its wake Hoseok finally pinned the vague differences in vowels and cadences that made up his accent.

American.  Korean-American.

Hoseok sighed and stuffed the lighter in his pocket. 

“Can we get a cup of coffee?”

*     *     *

“Okay,” Hoseok started out, feeling surprisingly calm and under control now.  “Obviously, I got the wrong impression but you guys did corner me in a dark side street and kind of threateningly tell me you know I have vampire friends and you wanted to see them.”

They were sitting at a slightly wobbly table in an all-night coffee shop.  Hoseok had another iced coffee in front of him and the girl and the stocky guy (that Hoseok now knew were called Ha-joon and Jin-hwan) had some frothy, sugary thing and a black Americano respectively.  From the way he drank it, Hoseok had a suspicion that Jin-hwan didn’t really like black coffee that much and was drinking it for some imagined aesthetic instead.  Dennis was sitting exactly opposite from him, holding a glass of ice wrapped in a pair of napkins up to his swollen cheek.

The three were much less intimidating now that Hoseok was looking at them under the bright lights of the shop.  They were kids in the end of their teens.  Twenty at the most.  And he could see the lace and leather clothes that had set off alarm bells in Hoseok’s head in the half-dark were just dramatic club outfits or maybe overly elaborate street fashion.

Goths.  Hoseok had spent his entire night running from goths.

“I think I deserve to know what all of that was all about.”  Hoseok leaned back in his chair and stared levelly at the kids, trying to look intimidating.  They must have already been nervous because it seemed like it was working.

“A few weeks ago I ran into a vampire at a club,” Ha-joon started, swirling her drink around with a stir-stick.  “Like, a real vampire.  He fed on a friend of mine and I saw it.  I couldn’t totally tell what was going on but it looked like way more than a hickey.  And then after he was done he brought her over to me and told me to take her home.  He said something about her having way too much to drink and for a half a second I was like, ‘oh shit did she get roofied or something?’  But she wasn’t really out-of-it, out-of-it, you know?  Just kinda woozy and shit.  She confirmed it on the way back to her place, though.  She told me what happened and I think she was really happy that I actually believed her.”  Her voice became more energetic while she talked until she was actually leaning forward with her hands on the table, eyes wide and wild, framed by a significant amount of eyeliner and eyeshadow.  “I mean.  Vampires are real .  You can’t tell me that’s not the coolest thing ever.”

Hoseok could, in fact, tell them that wasn’t the coolest thing ever but he kept his mouth shut.

“Then we saw you around here a couple of weeks ago,” she gestured at the boys beside her, “Jin-hwan, Dennis and me.  You were walking with the vampire from the club.”

And there it was.  Hoseok let out a long internal sigh.  That had to have been Jungkook.  They must have been leaving together after a late night recording.  He wondered if he should let Seokjin know or if he should just be a good friend to Jungkook and spare him a lecture about his table manners.

“Okay…”  Hoseok sipped on his iced coffee, trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.  “And you cornered me in the dark and threatened me because…?”

“No one threatened you,” Jin-hwan said, sounding confused.

Hoseok tried to think back to what they’d said.  He was right.  There hadn’t been a threat.  It’d just sounded creepy.

“And we thought it’d be weird to bring up vampires around a whole bunch of other people,” the boy finished.

“Also we’re kind of socially awkward,” Dennis interjected apologetically with the half of his mouth not smushed against a cup of ice.

Hoseok stared at them.  As annoyed as he’d felt with everyone’s apathy and refusal to be helpful, it’d turned out that the most inept people had been the ones he’d been running from.

And, of course, he’d been able to outrun them.  It was hard to run in giant, chunky, lace-up boots.

"Okay, so if I believe you on all of that, what do you want me to do?"

"We want to know everything," Ha-joon leaned forward again, her excitement returning.  "Like, why are they here ?  How do you know them?  What are they like?"

"Uh, well, I guess they live here because Seoul's a pretty good city?  And I know them because one of my best friends had a vampire roommate."

They stared at him blankly.

"And…?" Ha-joon prodded, obviously hoping for something more interesting.

"They're a couple now?" Hoseok went on, uncertain.  “And they have a really weird cat.”  He was struggling to figure out how to answer their broad question in a way that didn't seem utterly mundane.  "Um, Taehyung used to own a cabaret bar but it burned down.” he added.  That was interesting.  “Oh and one of our friends is, like, really, really old?"

They perked up at that, so Hoseok kept going without really thinking.

"He's kind of a homebody, though. He really likes video games and fishing.  We like to go out for drinks together and just make each other laugh a lot."  He left out the bit about the intentionally cutesy nicknames.  That seemed a little too embarrassing right now.  "Oh and Jungkook, the kid you saw with me, he records vocals at the record label I work for.  After dark.  Obviously."

There was an uncomfortable silence and the kids all glanced at each other like they were trying to communicate something with their eyes, despite several layers of eye liner.

So much eyeliner.

Hoseok glanced over at the one holding the glass to his cheek. He was starting to look pretty disappointed.

Poor guy.  He really hadn’t deserved the punch he’d gotten.

Hoseok wracked his brain.  There had to be some way he could make it up to them.

He took a long drink from his iced coffee, imagining that the sucking noise of the straw against the ice in a mostly empty cup made him seem thoughtful.

And then he finally, finally had what might be a brilliant idea

“You know what?  One of you give me your number.  You can meet all of them."

*     *     *

“Just going over this one more time,” Taehyung said slowly, as though he’d really been having trouble understanding and not finding the whole thing absurd.  They were in Jimin and Namjoon’s apartment, standing around in the kitchen with Jungkook and Yoongi, while Jimin, Namjoon, and Seokjin chatted with Ha-joon, Jin-hwan, and Dennis in the living room.  At least Jimin and Namjoon were, anyway.  The last Hoseok had seen Seokjin he’d had his face buried in his Switch and wasn’t up for more communication than a weak wave and a grunt.  “You invited three young people over tonight to talk to us.”

“Right,” Hoseok confirmed.

“And you’d like us to scare them.”

“Right,” Hoseok confirmed again.  “Because they’re goths, so they’re into that, I guess.”

“But no lunging at them or floating or anything.”

“Nope,” Hoseok shook his head.  “Just talking.  Give them your creepiest stories.  I wanna freak them out but in a fun way, okay?”

“Grrrr,”  Jungkook said unconvincingly.  “I mean, um.  Boo!  Spooky!”  He tried again raising his hands claw-like, like a monster in a B-movie.

“Oh yeah, this is going to work.”  Yoongi said flatly, taking a few beers out of the fridge.  He gave a few to Jungkook and then handed one to Hoseok with an unimpressed look on his face that said, “have you met our friends?”

Hoseok flashed him his own look, eyes darting sideways, that said, “yes and our friends are fucking vampires.”

Yoongi tipped his head slightly to the side and took a drink of his beer, which Hoseok took to mean, “okay you have a point.”.

“Should we have gotten cheese cubes?”  Taehyung interjected, breaking up their silent conversation.

“Huh?”  Hoseok glanced at him confused.

“When humans gather, they often have cheese cubes,” Taehyung said simply.

Hoseok stayed quiet, waiting for him to explain.

“Nevermind,” Taehyung sighed.  “You’re not Namjoon.  I forgot that was a Namjoon joke.”

Hoseok stood there for a moment vaguely remembering them laughing about something like that.  But the ‘you’re not Namjoon’ comment stuck with him.

No, Hoseok was not an overly intellectual musician with a love for trees and an inability to finish most household tasks without breaking something, who’d decided to become a vampire.  And thank god for that.  He was a pretty big fan of being human.

And it was probably being human that made him so sympathetic to a few kids who’d scared the bejeezus out of him just because they had a very weird idea of fun.  And maybe he still felt a little guilty about punching one of them in the face.  While wearing a gauntlet worth of silver rings.

“Come on,” he gestured at the door with his head and the three other men followed him into the living room.

Jimin and Namjoon were happily relaying the story of how they’d adopted Bari.

Absolutely terrifying, Hoseok thought to himself with an inward sigh.

“Here,” Jungkook held out three beers to the kids and they all took them with a slightly frozen look like they weren’t sure if they were allowed to say no.

“So, um,” Hosoek said, after settling into a couch on the other side of Jimin.  “These are the vampires.”  He gestured at his friends sitting around the room.  “Except, Yoongi,” Hoseok amended.  “He’s just pale because he never goes outside.”

Yoongi flipped him off while he took another drink of his beer.  Hoseok laughed.

“So,” Seokjin said, not looking up from his game, “is it time for 20 questions?”

Jin-hwan, Ha-Joon, and Dennis all glanced at each other, their awkward discomfort giving way to an excited look Hoseok could see glittering in their eyes.

“How many people have you killed?”  Ha-joon spit out, almost like she couldn’t stop herself.

“Um,” Jimin leaned forward, “recently?  Or over the course of our lifetimes?”

Ha-joon looked like she wasn’t sure how to answer so Namjoon jumped in to help her out.

“We try not to kill people,” Namjoon said gently. 

“Really?  Why?”

That would not have been Hoseok’s follow up question but he guessed curiosity didn’t always make sense.

“It’s complicated,” Seokjin said, still not looking up from his video game.

“I’m trying to be more responsible,” Jungkook sat up a little straighter, as though he was proud of himself.  Which he should be, Hoseok thought approvingly.  The kid had gone through hell and back and managed to come out the other side. 

“I only drink from people I like,” Taehyung replied airily, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.  “And I don’t make a habit of killing people I like.”  He sounded a little cross, as though someone suggested he should.

Hoseok elbowed Jimin, hoping he could jump in and make things a little less awkward.

“I believe in affirmative consent.”  Jimin leaned in a little and smiled.  He looked adorable.  Then he glanced at Namjoon.

Namjoon just shrugged.

“I used to be a vegetarian.”

The kids all deflated a little in disappointed disbelief.  Dennis picked at the label on the beer bottle.

“Jimin and I have gone on a few rampages,” Taehyung offered, cutting the silence.

“We have?”  Jimin looked at him questioningly.

“Well, if we define a rampage as biting a lot of people in one night, sure.”

Jimin looked away thoughtfully for a moment and then his head snapped back toward Taehyung.

“That time in the airport in Berlin!”  He exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

“Oh no,” Taehyung corrected him, “that ended up being just the one flight attendant.  Actually, I thought she was a bit flavorless but you enjoyed her.”

“Hmmm.”  Jimin sank back into the couch, thinking. 

“What about that time in Shang-hai?”  Taehyung suggested.

“Do three university students count as a rampage?”

“I guess not,” Taehyung sighed, sounding dejected.

“Wait, wait!”  Jimin sat up again and bounced a bit.  “There was that time in London in the early 70s.  When you got into the whole glam rock thing.  There was that party and I think we probably bit like twelve people that night.”

“And no one noticed?”  Namjoon asked, a bit disbelieving. 

“Of course, no one noticed.”  Taehyung replied.  “It was the 70s and it was really more of an orgy.  There was a lot going on.”

“And there was a lot of cocaine around,” Jimin chimed in.

“Does that count?”  Jimin glanced over at Yoongi with an inquisitive look, more or less checking in to see if that counted as a rampage to a human audience.

“I have no idea.  So I’ll say sure.”  Yoongi took a drink of his beer and then made a face, a thought clearly coming to mind.  “Just no details.  At least not while I’m around.”

“About the rampage?”

“About the orgy.”

“We did say it was the 70’s,” Taehyung cut in, as though that explained everything.

Hoseok looked back over at the goths across the room.  They seemed more confused than anything.

“So, uh,” Hoseok asked.  “Next question?”

The rest of the evening went more or less the same way.  Some question would be asked about something dark and terrifying or seductive but the answers quickly veered left into something sillier or more absurd.  Jimin and Taehyung had plenty of stories but they’d never been interested in much other than art and parties and even something seemingly more blood thirsty could devolve into Taehyung cheerfully explaining how he’d helped one of his regular ‘victims’ get into a master’s program.  For his part, Jungkook was usually pretty eager to tell a good hunting story but, as much as they still creeped him out, Hoseok knew when he told stories he sounded a lot more like a kid who’d gone to Lotte World than a monster in the dark.  Namjoon kept apologizing and explaining that he was new at this.  Seokjin didn’t say much of anything but at least after the second meaningful look from Hoseok, he put his Switch down and slipped it between the couch cushions.

All and all, Hoseok felt like it was the most he’d ever let someone down trying to do a nice thing. 

He probably should have told everyone to be as creepy and fanged as they wanted and stayed out of the room for half an hour.

Eventually, though, all awkward things must end.  (Thank god for that, Hoseok, thought.)  And the kids were making their way to the door, giving a few more uncomfortable and confused rounds of thank yous.  Hoseok could tell that they wanted to be happy but they had the look of people who’d seen daydreams run into reality and discovered that reality isn’t especially sexy, just…weird.

Then Seokjin jumped off the couch and headed toward the door. 

“Wait a minute.”

Jin-hwan, Ha-joon and Dennis paused in the middle of putting their shoes on and looked up at him.

“You’re very young, less than seconds old in the scheme of things.  That’s not your fault but it does make me want to make sure you know exactly what you’ve learned tonight.”

“Oh?”  Ha-joon looked up at him, the laces of her tall boots still in her hands.

“Yes.”  Seokjin straightened up and Hoseok watched him curiously.  “Things are a lot less interesting when they’re exactly what you expect them to be.  It’s the unexpected that’s interesting.  Which means you’ll be thinking about this encounter for days, weeks, months.  Years.”  A little smile twisted his mouth, much colder than the one he usually wore.  “Because instead of whatever demonic thrill you wanted to find, you’ve discovered that the undead are people, every bit as different from one another as the living.  And do you know what that means for you?”

“What?”  She asked, not having moved an inch.  None of them had.

“You have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your lives now.  Most vampires are much, much crueler than the ones in this room.  And you have to live with the knowledge that the monsters aren’t obvious.  You have to live the rest of your lives probably won’t even recognize them.  Because of tonight, you’ll spend the rest of your lives never really trusting a new face at night, because from where you’re sitting, the monsters and the men all look exactly the same.  And you know that means you are never safe, not really.  You’re small and weak and you know you can’t even detect the demons you know for certain are real.  That’s your reality now.  And you can’t unknow it.  And that will never change.”

Seokjin gave them another smile.  This one was one of his cheerful broad, inviting grins.  “Good night!”  He held the door open for them and then shut it behind them with one last cheerful wave goodbye.

“People.”  Jimin piped up, as soon as Seokjin had turned back to face the group.

“What?”

“Monsters and people not monsters and men,” Jimin clarified.  “The way you phrased it left out women and non-binary people.”

Seokjin didn’t respond but he didn’t move either, like he wasn’t sure what his next line was supposed to be.

“Congrats,” Yoongi said dryly, turning toward Jimin.  “You broke the Old Man.”

Hoseok had an idle thought about how Yoongi was probably the only person in the world allowed to call Seokjin old, even as a joke.  Hoseok made a mental note to get one of them alone and ask what the hell was going on with their emotional ups and downs lately but quickly pushed that aside as another problem for another time.  Instead, his mind slid past to the actual content of what Seokjin had just said to the kids as they were leaving.  It gave him a cold feeling and put an uneasy twist in his gut in a way he hadn’t really felt around the vampires in years now.

“Do you really think all that, though?”  Hoseok asked, his eyebrows knitting together to match the knot in his stomach.

Seokjin looked surprised.

“God no.  You said you wanted to scare them, though.  So I did.  Kind of like a creepy to-go box.”

Hoseok pressed his lips together, not sure if he wanted to laugh or tell Seokjin he might have gone a bit too far. 

“Hwobi!”  Seokjin’s eyebrows shot up and he hurried over to sit next to Hoseok, pulling him into an awkward hug and loosely shaking him a bit.  “I can’t believe you’d think I’m actually mean and scary.”

Hoseok really did laugh at that, everything settling inside him back into the comfortable position it had been before.  Scary?  Possibly in another context.  Hoseok wasn’t under any real delusions that any of the vampires were harmless.  But mean?

Hoseok maneuvered himself just enough to squeeze Seokjin’s face between his hands.

“Not my Jwan,” he teased.  “Not my Jwan who still owes me several drinks.”

Jimin scooted over so that he was cuddled up to Hoseok’s other side.  “I want drinks, too.”

“There’s a place in Hongdae that I’ve been wanting to check out,” Taehyung offered.  Yoongi made a face.

“Too far and too crowded.”

“Is the place down the street with all the pinball machines open again?”  Jungkook asked.  “Or are they still doing renovations?”

“Nope,” Jimin shook his head.  “I think they reopened last week?”

“Sounds good to me,” Yoongi shrugged.

“Me too.”  Taehyung stood up making an exaggerated stretch for effect, like an acting student doing a not entirely convincing pantomime.  “Don’t let Namjoon play any pinball though.  He’ll probably hit a button too hard and break the flipper.”

Namjoon looked sideways with a carefully schooled expression Hoseok recognized from broken coffee mugs and misplaced glasses as hidden embarrassment.  For the first time it occurred to him that maybe getting used to being a vampire was kind of hard.

“Great.”  Seokjin stood up and gestured dramatically at the door.  “We have a plan.  Drinks.  Pinball.  Depending on who.”

Hoseok joined the small gaggle of vampires and Yoongi near the door slipping their shoes back on and heading out of the apartment.  He lingered, though, realizing that he was alone in what he was feeling. 

The whole incident was over now, wrapped up and done.  He felt like a weight had been lifted off of him.  But he also felt hollow and exhausted in a way that wasn’t physical.  It reminded him of what Yoongi had described as the aftermath of a panic attack once when Hoseok asked him what they were like.

No matter how slowly he tied his shoelaces, though, eventually they were tied and he was out of excuses to sit by the open door waiting for his head to clear itself.

But when he stood up, Namjoon was there, where apparently he’d been waiting in perfect silence.

“Hey, you ready to go?”  Hoseok said casually.  Namjoon didn’t need to know about the empty mess inside him.

“I wanted to say something first.”  Namjoon looked serious, so Hoseok just nodded and let him keep going.  “I just…what you did in the past couple of days, it was really impressive.”

Hoseok cocked his head in response.  “I panicked because I thought three goths were vampires and then decked one of the kids in the face.  I don’t get how that’s impressive but I’ll take it.”  He ended the sentence on a cheerful tone but Namjoon wasn’t ready to let him get off with that.

“But that’s not true.”  Namjoon paused and glanced up at the corner of the ceiling, reconsidering his words.  “I suppose that’s objectively true but it’s not true in the way that counts.”

“I don’t know if that’s a thing but thanks,” Hoseok laughed, trying to lighten things up again.

“Hoseok, from your perspective that night you were ready to fight three vampires for your friends.  And then when it turned out you were wrong, you didn’t hold it against the kids for creeping you out.  You were sympathetic and that made you want them to be happy.”  He laid a hand on Hoseok’s shoulder, delicately, as though he were secretly made of glass.  “You are mind-blowingly brave, resourceful, and kind.”  Namjoon smiled gently.  “And I really, really hope you know that.”

There was something in Namjoon’s eyes now since he’d been turned. Hoseok was sure it was something that had always been there but it was more visible now. A sharp glint that seemed to suggest he was seeing things in a way no one else was.

Whatever he was seeing, Hoseok made the choice to trust it.

He pulled Namjoon into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around his friend.  Namjoon hugged him back, very gently at first before gradually easing into a firmer hug.

“Hwobi!”  Seokjin’s voice echoed down the hallway.  “Come on!  You said I owe you drinks!”

Hoseok let Namjoon go and burst out laughing, like he almost always did when he heard that nickname.

“Hooooooooooooobi!”  Jimin’s voice came next, a long drawn-out yell.

“Let’s go before they send a search party,” Namjoon said with a nod of his head in the direction of their friends.

Hoseok threw an arm over Namjoon’s shoulder.  A bit of a trick to do comfortably with how much taller Namjoon was (not that much but definitely enough) but he managed it.  “Onward and upward!” He grinned.

As they walked out the door Hoseok wondered what he would have done had it all been real.  If his instinct for flight rather than fight would have taken over eventually.  But then they rounded the corner of the hallway and Hoseok caught sight of his friends waiting by the elevator.

Something in his heart stilled and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’d do it all again if he had to.

“Stop moving your arm!”  Jungkook shouted through giggles.  He was currently thumb wrestling Taehyung in a what looked like what was one over-enthusiastic tug away into becoming just a wrestling match.

“You started it!”  Taehyung giggled back, moving his arm up and trying to twist Jungkook’s wrist so he could pin his thumb.  Jungkook wiggled around in response, copying Taehyung’s move and sending them both crashing together, narrowly avoiding banging each other in the head.

Hoseok sighed with a little smile.

His stupid, stupid vampires.