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"Come on, don't be such a wimp!"
Seungcheol glared at his friend.
"We're not five, Joshua. I'm not afraid to go into the cemetery.”
“During the day maybe, but at this hour on October 31? I don't believe you.”
“We're adults."
Joshua sighed deeply. Junhui, beside him, chuckled.
"Don't use the 'we're too mature for this' card to get out of the situation! You've accepted the challenge."
Seungcheol rolled his eyes. He'd been drunk the night he'd proudly proclaimed he could spend the entire night in the graveyard on Halloween all by himself. Now sober, he bitterly regretted it. Not because spending a night in a graveyard was going to be uncomfortable, but because he was actually scared.
Seungcheol was the world's biggest wimp. Even walking on a dead leaf could scare him!
He glanced at the rusty cemetery gate and shivered.
It was particularly cold and windy at the end of October. It had rained the previous evening, and tonight was the first time in the last two weeks that so many people had taken to the streets. Most people preferred to stay at home in such inclement weather, but some gave in to the excitement of Halloween and took to the streets in search of candy. This was not the case for Seungcheol and his friends, who preferred to meet at a bar to escape the incessant ringing of their doorbells.
"Well, have you made up your mind?" urged Joshua, impatiently.
Seungcheol rolled his eyes. Annoyed, he wagged his finger at Joshua as he backtracked towards the cemetery.
"I'm not staying all night, it's too cold. See you in an hour!"
Joshua, calmed at last, was probably in a merciful mood, since he didn't object. The poor guy was just as freezing anyway, and his down jacket and scarf seemed almost useless.
Seungcheol pushed open one of the gates, slipped inside and dramatically slammed the gate behind him. He heard Junhui wish him luck, but refused to reply. Out of sight, Seungcheol let out a dry sob. He was scared to death.
He scanned the entrance to the cemetery. There was nothing and no one there except the perfectly aligned tombs and the old streetlamps that only partially illuminated the area. No doubt they had done a better job when the cemetery was brand new. Some of the vaults were decorated with statues that made Seungcheol's blood run cold. He'd never thought angels could be so frightening...
He pulled his down jacket tighter around him, tucked his head between his shoulders and started forward. He didn't really know where he was going, but it was too cold to stand still for an hour. He began to follow the few streetlamps along the main alley, taking care to stay under the light of each one for a few seconds before continuing on his way.
Arriving at an intersection, he stopped.
He squinted.
Something in the alley opposite was coming towards him fast. Far less brightly lit than the others, the alley only allowed him to see an enormous mass with a multitude of limbs sticking out here and there, heading towards him at full speed.
Seungcheol's legs buckled beneath him and he fell onto his buttocks. He stared, paralyzed, at the thing hurtling towards him.
Sobbing, he couldn't find the strength to run away. All he could do was roll into a ball. Awaiting with dread the moment when the thing would strike his tiny body with its devastating own.
"aaaaaaAAAAAAH!" cried the thing in a voice so distorted it sounded like several. His whole body tensed, his insides shook and his trembling fingers closed, paralyzed, on a few strands of his hair.
The ground began to tremble. More intensely with every second, with every inch conquered by the monster. Until, for a second, there was nothing anymore.
Seungcheol opened his eyes. He had just enough time to see a leg pass over his head before the ground began to shake again. His ears stopped ringing and he finally heard the jumble of laughter and shouting.
He turned around.
The horror he'd thought he'd seen was really just a bunch of teenagers having fun scaring each other. They didn't stop to check that they hadn't killed Seungcheol, but one of them had the presence of mind to turn around and apologize with a wave of his hand.
Seungcheol remained seated for a good five minutes, until his legs stopped shaking. Leaning on a nearby grave, he slowly got to his feet.
"I've had my fill of fright tonight," he grumbled. He decided that nothing could frighten him for the rest of the evening. He resumed his walk, ignoring as best he could all the little things that might startle him.
Arriving at the second crossroads, he realized he was now in the vaults section. He had never ventured this far before, and was surprised to discover just how beautiful this area was. Virtually all the vaults had lovely statues on their roofs or forecourts. Most of them were angels; some with their wings spread, others folded back, all dressed in long robes and sporting a melancholy countenance. Some of the vaults were decorated with animal statues or more obscure figures that Seungcheol couldn't identify.
Like, for example, the figure of a long-haired man leaning against the doorframe of a high vault that was already overhung by the statue of two swans, their heads leaning against each other in all the elegance attributed to them.
Seungcheol took a closer look at the statue. He opened his eyes wide in the hope of getting a better look; the streetlamps were still struggling to do their job.
The statue was both magnificent and strange. The man was leaning against the wall, motionless; the clothes carved into the stone with divine precision, betraying the period of his death. His long hair was pulled back into a low ponytail that the sculptor had bothered to detail with great care, making some strands pass over the man's shoulder and others spread out on the floor. No doubt this man had been loved by the gods themselves, so that he himself had been depicted so divinely.
Seungcheol frowned.
Why put two statues on one vault? Wasn't it outrageously expensive? Why bother painting the hair and clothes black? Was it to symbolize the death of this individual? It seemed to Seungcheol that he'd already read somewhere that this was a practice that quickly went out of fashion.
Suddenly, the statue's lips parted and a sigh took shape in the air, making the beautiful face disappear briefly behind a thin whitish veil. The pupils opened and deep-black eyes rested on him.
Seungcheol recoiled and, because he was unlucky, slipped on a wet patch of earth and fell on his bottom in the grass. The statue, which turned out to be a man, began to move. On his knees and on one hand, he held out the other to Seungcheol.
With his face finally bathed in artificial light, Seungcheol was able to observe him perfectly. He didn't miss how the light reflected in his eyes, as it would in those of cats; nor the sense of danger that ruffled the hairs on the back of his neck when said eyes began to stare intently at him.
"A v-vampire." stammered Seungcheol a little stupidly. There's no such thing as vampires. He blushed with embarrassment. He'd only thought that because the setting lent itself to it.
The strange man pouted.
"You really can't hide anything from humans these days."
Huh? Clearly the man was mocking Seungcheol. There was no way he'd actually come across a vampire. Because vampires don't exist. It's as simple as that.
Nervously, Seungcheol laughed. The man smiled, revealing long, murderous canines.
He was indeed a vampire. Seungcheol had found a way to bump into a vampire on Halloween. Both surprising and at the same time not at all, taking into account Seungcheol's bad luck and knack for getting himself into unlikely situations.
"So, what brings you here, mortal?"
"A stupid bet with my friends."
The vampire looked Seungcheol up and down, eyebrows furrowed. He sighed, then gave a small smile that was surely meant to be reassuring.
"You're scared to death, it's not a very nice thing to do to you. But that's the Halloween spirit, I guess..."
He wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand towards Seungcheol. Seungcheol hesitated for a moment. Was it a good idea to trust such a dangerous being? He'd have killed you by now if he'd wanted to, he thought. He placed his hand in the vampire's. He didn't have time to react to the coolness of his fingers breaking through the fabric of his gloves, before he found himself sitting on the grave, next to the vampire.
"Yoon Jeonghan", the vampire introduced himself. He slid down the grave until he could lean against the wall again. "And who are you?"
"Choi Seungcheol." He sat down next to him, against the grate that prevented any outsiders from accessing the coffins.
"Pleased to meet you. Tell me Choi Seungcheol, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm an artist."
"Ooh exciting! What kind of art?"
"I'm a plastic artist."
"I've never heard that term before," the vampire pouted again.
Seungcheol chuckled, unaware of the space closing between them with each question.
"I use the materials around me to make works that deal with specific subjects."
"Like what?"
Seungcheol felt the vampire's breath on his lips. Unsettled he pulled away a little while giving an embarrassed laugh.
"I'm talking about pollution, capitalism... love too."
"Love." repeated Jeonghan. Gently, he lifted his hand and placed his fingertips on Seungcheol's cheek, startling him.
Jeonghan chuckled.
"You're beautiful, Choi Seungcheol," he confided. Then he withdrew his fingers from the human's cheek and resumed his original position against the vault.
Seungcheol didn't know what to say. Should he tell the vampire that he was far more handsome than he was? All that crossed his lips was the realization he made to himself the moment Jeonghan's fingers made contact with the warm skin of his face.
"Your hands are frozen," he said, removing his gloves and placing them on Jeonghan's hands. The vampire watched, curious.
Seungcheol had just enough time to put a glove on him before the vampire stopped him. There was no point in doing this. He wouldn't get warm. He hadn't done that for years.
He grabbed Seungcheol's wrist and handed him back his glove. Yet he didn't immediately let go of the human.
"You're so... warm," Jeonghan exclaimed. He very slowly removed his fingers from Seungcheol's wrist.
"That's how humans work." Seungcheol shrugged.
Jeonghan looked up at the sky, as if searching for something. Then he looked defeatist, and Seungcheol understood. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in contact with a warm human body. So Seungcheol took Jeonghan's hand in his again and held it firmly, letting the vampire know that there was no appeal.
Jeonghan looked surprised again, then pleased. Seungcheol smiled; the vampire was so cute that they immediately felt more at ease. He didn't seem like a closed-off person, and since the human had an hour to kill, he was going to make the most of it.
"Soooo, mister the vampire. How come you're not currently traumatizing all the neighborhood kids? It's your day, after all."
"Ah, but who's to say I haven't already? Didn't you pass a bunch of kids on the way here?"
"That was you?! They almost killed me!"
"Me? All I did was move a few leaves and throw some pebbles on the ground! They did all the rest of the work by themselves!"
Seungcheol pushed Jeonghan with his free hand, who pretended to collapse.
"It's been a long time since I stopped scaring everyone who passes through this cemetery. The regulars think I'm one too, and I think the gardian suspects I'm not human, but we haven't talked about it until now."
"So you don't see many people?"
"I tend to keep to myself. But I'm not really alone." Seungcheol refrained from pointing out that he was rather talkative. He opted for another approach:
"Why don't you tell me everything you've been dying to say for the longest time?"
Jeonghan seemed to love the idea.
"Where to start?" he wondered aloud, clapping his hands in excitement. He suddenly laid his hands flat on the stone and leaned towards Seungcheol. "Old Lee Sukhee banged the gardener the very night of her husband's funeral!"
He placed his hands over his mouth and jumped with excitement.
Seungcheol didn't know this people (and he had a hunch they were long dead) but he nonetheless assumed a look of shock that made Jeonghan burst into a very ungainly laugh.
"It was Kim Yasoo herself who drove her father's car into a tree! Not some thugs! The postman was banging all five women at once and they didn't mind at all!" the vampire shouted, getting more and more excited. "The watermelon that Mister Kwang entered in the most beautiful watermelon contest was actually a cucumber!!!"
Seungcheol burst out laughing again.
The vampire was unbearable! In the space of a quarter of an hour, Seungcheol learned more about this city 250 years ago than he knew now.
Out of breath and tired of shouting, Jeonghan sat back down.
"What can you tell me about yourself now?" asked Seungcheol, arranging a lock of Jeonghan's messy hair after being shaken in all directions.
That was all it took to get Jeonghan going again.
He knew that Jeonghan's favorite color was purple, that he'd once had a pet rabbit, and that he'd only been wearing his hair long for about fifty years. He told him about his parents and their farm, his little sister and their favorite ducks; he told him about his circus beginnings and his meeting, during a performance, with the man who had made him a vampire. Then he quickly moved on to the few years he'd spent with him before he was murdered by their neighbor's daughter, a devout Christian who disapproved of their customs and pierced him through the heart with a silver bar, not suspecting for a second that she'd killed one of the two monsters who made the town's drunkards disappear. He quickly changed the subject to brag about how he'd rebuilt himself so well in a new town; how he'd made the smart choice to become the owner of two blocks of flats and how from then on, he only got richer and richer.
There were a few grey areas in what he said, which Seungcheol was careful not to pick up on out of respect for Jeonghan's privacy.
After a good two hours, their discussion took a more serious turn.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing like a good coffee and a good croissant in the morning."
"Why should I bother with a crumbling croissant when I could just eat my cereal with milk and move on?"
"Breakfast is an art, Seungcheol! You, of all people, should know that!"
"True, I've never tried incorporating Coco pops into my artwork... Good idea Jeonghan!"
The vampire waved his hand, which Seungcheol translated into "thank you, you flatter me!". He wanted to say something but, cutting short their heated discussion, a voice called out:
"Oh Jeonghan... You always knew how to please me."
Jeonghan hurriedly raised his head. Seungcheol followed his gaze but saw nothing. It was far too dark in the alley opposite.
They stood still for a moment, until a silhouette appeared in the darkness in the shape of a man. He had the same unreal beauty as Jeonghan, but was considerably less pale. He wore modern clothes: a heavy down jacket over a tight-fitting undershirt, jogging pants and big, flashy sneakers. A pair of heart-shaped glasses rested on his nose and he had a lollipop in his mouth.
His red eyes locked on Seungcheol, who tensed. Another vampire.
"He looks delicious." he took a few steps forward, hands behind his back, body undulating like a snake between the graves. "Fresh and athletic as I like them." he laughed, satisfied. "His heart beats as fast as a little rabbit's. He's perfect."
Seungcheol felt his legs start to shake. His whole body was screaming at him to leave, to run as far away as possible from the monster in front of him. But he couldn't move. It was as if he were paralyzed by the intruder's gaze. He felt as if he were drowning.
A hand came to rest on his shoulder and he gasped. He took a deep breath, bringing a hand to his throat.
What had just happened?
The stranger rounded a grave. Agilely, Jeonghan drew a gun from behind his back and pointed it at the other vampire without hesitation.
It clearly wasn't from this era. A thin strip of leather decorated the stock, with Jeonghan's name engraved and painted in gold. The barrel emitted a strange green color that came to color Jeonghan's determined face.
"I wouldn't take another step if I were you, Mingyu." Jeonghan smiled confidently. "This gun might just be the weapon that gets the better of you."
His hand tightened around the weapon and Mingyu took a step back.
"You wouldn't dare. You'd miss me too much."
Jeonghan grinned. He pulled Seungcheol closer to him and a rocky laugh rose up his throat.
"Don't count on that too much."
Mingyu shook his head from left to right, looking mad.
"Let's go back to our former glory, Jeonghan. You're not meant to live like this! You were made for splendor, gold, glitter! Idolatry! You were made for ME!"
POW!
The return of the revolver sent Jeonghan and Seungcheol crashing into the stone of the vault, and the bullet was lost between the tombs. Mingyu, as upright as ever, brought his hand to his cheek where he wiped away a bead of black blood. A green smoke with a chemical odor briefly rose from the wound.
"The next one will go straight into your skull. Maybe you'll understand the word 'no' then," Jeonghan threatened in a voice so deep and bold that Seungcheol's heart began to race.
Jeonghan and Mingyu stared at each other until Mingyu lowered his eyes and hands and took several defeated steps back.
"Good, Yoon Jeonghan. I'll disappear from your life."
"Finally."
"But don't come crawling to my feet when you can't do without me anymore."
Mingyu backed away, leaving behind only the luminous furrow of his blood-red eyes.
Jeonghan's hand slipped from Seungcheol's shoulder and came to rest in his back, on the cold stone of the vault.
"Is he gone?" asked Seungcheol, ignoring as he could the disappointment of no longer being so close to the vampire.
"I can't feel him in the cemetery anymore," replied Jeonghan. He laid the revolver back beside him, then ran a hand through his hair. "Kim Mingyu is a jerk who's never forgotten me. I dread the moment when he realizes he'll never be able to get close to me again." He shook his head from right to left as if to chase away a bad vision, and Seungcheol could hear screams and cries of terror as distinctly as if they were a memory.
Kim Mingyu is a bloodthirsty being, he realized.
"Why shouldn't he be able to approach you? Is it a spell or... Witches exist?!"
Jeonghan gave a little laugh that made Seungcheol blush. But soon the amusement gave way to something darker.
"Tonight is my last night, Seungcheol," Jeonghan confided. His frozen fingers once again wrapped around the human's warm wrist.
The human's heart raced. He couldn't hide his panic.
"Why do you say that? Vampires are immortal!"
Jeonghan gave a sad laugh. His fingers returned to his own thigh, leaving a phantom sensation on Seungcheol's wrist. A draught ran down the aisle and the young man tucked his head into his shoulders.
"When they consumed fresh blood, yes."
"You haven't..."
"Not for over two hundred years. Believe me, if I was in tip-top shape, we wouldn't have had time to talk so much. If you know what I mean."
Seungcheol observed Jeonghan's pale complexion, the bags under his eyes that betrayed his sickly state, his chapped lips and his long hair that was particularly dry over the last thirty centimeters. Seungcheol might never have met other vampires before, but he was sure they weren't supposed to look so faded.
"Why haven't you been drinking blood all this time? There are always people coming here at night."
"I'm not stuck in this cemetery, I chose to die here. I like the statues and the gardian maintains it often enough for my taste, that's all."
The vault they were sitting on belonged to a family other than Jeonghan's. The last person to be buried there was a woman who had lived for some forty years. Jeonghan waited here for his final moments, but he would have no official resting place. He would just... disappear.
Seungcheol's vision blurred with tears.
He hadn't known the vampire very long, but he hated the idea of him dying. He didn't like the idea of death in general; he couldn't stand the tears, the sobs, the wails of despair... He was under 30 and yet he'd been to over twenty funerals. His family was large, and for a time, on a strangely regular basis, one member died. When he was still a boy, the children of his hometown used to call him "the cursed one", just as their parents called his. They thought they'd upset the gods or some more demonic power. But nothing of the sort. Many of them were old, others unlucky or clumsy, and sometimes simply victims of other people. Seungcheol probably belonged to the luckiest branch of his family. After all, he'd stumbled across a vampire who seemed to lack the thirst for blood. In any case, he had bad memories of all those funerals, and he had no wish to attend his new friend's so soon.
"I don't want you to die," he said, despite the lump that had formed in his throat.
Jeonghan raised his eyebrows in surprise. Yet he didn't take his eyes off the angel statue perched above the vault opposite.
"I'm dangerous, Seungcheol. The world would be better off without a predator like me in it."
"If you really were a predator, you wouldn't be sitting here chatting with me but somewhere else in the world going on a rampage."
"Who's to say that wasn't the life I led at one time?"
"Was it?"
"No."
Seungcheol laughed. A crystalline sound he'd never heard before answered him. Jeonghan laughed too, in a more elegant way than before.
"There was a time when I was rich. That's what Mingyu was talking about. For a long time, we pretended to be the descendants of ourselves, which enabled us to continue our business without any problems. I just got tired of it. One day..." he looked down at their bound hands. Deep in thought, he withdrew his hand from Seungcheol's. "I saw my reflection in the mirror... I'd just gutted someone completely, I had blood all over me and it hit me. I realized that, contrary to what I thought, I wasn't at all the same person I was before I became a vampire. We're not supposed to do that. We can very well live with at least a liter of blood in us, but that day a ferocious thirst took hold of me and I killed an innocent. It scared me. I left everything behind, Mingyu included, to find a place where I could die in peace."
Seungcheol understood Jeonghan's feelings perfectly, or at least he tried to - he'd never killed anyone, after all.
He said softly: "Instead of ending your life in an act of a life for a life, wouldn't it be better for you to use all your wealth, your means, your knowledge to improve people's lives? You've seen so much since you were born. You know how people have lived, you can imagine how they will live, you could even see it if you stayed alive until then!"
"Do you really mean what you're saying, or is it to avoid being the last person a man would have seen?"
"If it were up to me," Seungcheol confided, "I wouldn't be the last person you'd see. I'd leave here with you and introduce you to my friends, because I think that, even if we don't know each other very well, you're someone exceptional enough that more than one person should remember you."
"I understand the sentiment, but it doesn't mean much to me because I know what I'm worth, I know what I've done, the life I've led, and the unhappiness I've caused and will cause in the future. I'd rather die than kill someone again."
"If you die tonight, you'll kill more people than if you stay alive. Starting with yourself."
Jeonghan stood still. Suddenly, his eyes misted over and he began to cry.
"I don't want to die," he sobbed. When you've lived as long as he has, the very idea of closing your eyes one day and never opening them again is a haunting that never really leaves you. "I want to live! I want to keep discovering things! Meet people!" He shouted, raising his arms to the sky as if begging the heavens to lengthen the night of October 31 so he could live a few more hours.
"Then drink my blood," ordered Seungcheol.
Jeonghan lowered his arms, wiped his eyes and nose and shook his head.
"If I do that, I'll kill you! I've been starving for 200 years." He stepped back from Seungcheol. "I refuse to kill my first friend of the 21st century."
Seungcheol chuckled as he noted the strangeness of this sentence. Vampires really were something else!
"Don't be afraid. I trust you." Don't get me wrong, the idea of Jeonghan's fangs sinking into his flesh, particularly frightened Seungcheol. But he wouldn't go back on his proposal. That his friend would die was worse than that! So... a little lie to reassure them both was not too much to ask.
Jeonghan refused for the umpteenth time, tucking his head between his shoulders. Seungcheol leaned towards him, his eyes wide open and fixed in those still moist of his new friend. He awkwardly flattened the hood of his down jacket and began to stroke his neck in what he hoped was a tantalizing manner.
All this provoked in Jeonghan was ostentatious embarrassment. This also made Seungcheol uncomfortable early on. He left his neck alone, but not Jeonghan.
"Drink my blood."
"Seungcheol!"
"Drink my blood."
"Never! Never! Stop it!"
Seungcheol grabbed Jeonghan's hands, preventing him from covering his face.
"You, stop it! There's no one here but me! We won't have time to find you someone else before daybreak, so stop throwing tantrums and drink. My. Blood!"
Jeonghan growled in despair, and the next thing he knew, his fangs were digging into Seungcheol's neck and blood was spurting into his mouth.
If Seungcheol had to describe the process, he'd surely compare it to giving blood. First he felt a sharp pain where Jeonghan had bitten him, then it stopped. There was a moment when Seungcheol felt nothing, then his head began to spin and he felt light-headed. Then his vision blurred and his head tilted back, leaving Jeonghan free to ravage his throat. What changed from a classic blood donation was the sensation of pleasure Seungcheol suddenly felt.
It began in his lower belly and spread like raging fire from his inner thighs to his head. He grabbed Jeonghan's shoulders and dug his nails in. He tried to free his neck a little more so that Jeonghan could intensify the sensation, to no avail. He shook himself, begging for more. Eventually, he lost his words, forgot his name. He was about to explode.
Everything stopped.
"Oh. My God," he said between jerky breaths. He'd never felt anything like it before. He rested his head on Jeonghan's shoulder, seeking support for his trembling body. "What was that?" he asked the vampire, but received no answer.
Once again in control of his body, he stepped back from Jeonghan to see his face. He hadn't sensed how much Jeonghan's body was trembling from his own agitation, but now it was painfully obvious.
The vampire was staring at his hands covered in Seungcheol's blood, which he hadn't managed to drink. He was visibly shocked by the sight. Surely it reminded him of his last victim.
Seungcheol tightened his grip on Jeonghan's shoulders and began to shake him back and forth, hoping to bring him to his senses.
"Hey. Hey, look at me. Jeonghan! Yoon Jeonghan!" he shouted into the vampire's ears.
The night demon froze. He slowly raised his wavering gaze to Seungcheol.
"You didn't hurt me. I'm alive! I'm alive!" reassured the human, wrapping his warm hands around Jeonghan's face.
Jeonghan ran a trembling hand through his dark hair. He encircled Seungcheol's wrist with his other hand and sighed with relief as he felt the pulse beat vigorously. He grabbed the human by the shoulders and pinned him in a strong hug. Much stronger than all the previous ones.
Stepping aside, Seungcheol detailed his face. It was still the Jeonghan he'd met a few hours earlier, but he looked better. His eyes were no longer sunken, his lips were quite red and his hair had regained a certain shine. He was magnificent before and even more so now.
So reassured, Seungcheol gave free rein to his desires.
He placed a kiss on Jeonghan's sanguine lips. Tasting his own blood, he deepened the kiss. Jeonghan would live on. He would experience everything he had deprived himself of for the past two centuries. Seungcheol could continue to see him.
They parted, the human breathless.
"Welcome to the 21st century Yoon Jeonghan."
Jeonghan grinned broadly, his eyes moist.
"Thank you so much, Choi Seungcheol."
Seungcheol helped Jeonghan to his feet.
Jeonghan placed another kiss on his lips, pulling him in the vague direction of the exit.
"It's six in the morning."
They walked silently up the main aisle of the cemetery, hand in hand. As they had been practically all night. The silence was filled with all sorts of little sounds that Seungcheol hadn't heard when he'd arrived because of fear; and, looking up at the black sky, he realized that flying around them were a multitude of little fruit bats feasting on the spoiled fruit still hanging on the cemetery trees.
"I'm not alone," Jeonghan had said earlier, and Seungcheol finally understood what he was implying.
"What do you plan to do now?" Seungcheol broke the stillness as they reached the gate.
Jeonghan seemed to meditate for a moment.
"Rebuild myself," he answered at last. It was a vague answer, yet very clear. Seungcheol smiled.
"OK. Good luck, then."
Jeonghan put his hand on one of the gate leaves and pulled it effortlessly toward him; Seungcheol caught sight of the cobblestones and the bright, warm lights of the street lamps.
"This is where we part ways," Jeonghan announced mournfully. He set his bewitching eyes on Seungcheol, who stood still.
He detailed his facial features. his tanned (alive) skin , his eyes as black as a moonless night, his eyelashes as long as eternity and his lips, full and red like the forbidden fruit. His hair was as black as Jeonghan's, but shone with health and softness.
He leaned towards him and placed his frozen lips on his forehead. Then, leaving Seungcheol no time to react, he disappeared into the dark night.
"We'll meet again," he promised into the echoing night. The wind deposited his promise in Seungcheol's ear.
Seungcheol didn't take a last look at the cemetery as he closed the door, for he knew there was nothing left to find there.
2 weeks later
Seungcheol held the café door open to let his friends in. Joshua, laughing his head off, was reminiscing about his late Halloween evening with a completely disinterested Seungkwan. Honestly, what did he care that Junhui and Joshua had gotten so horny while waiting for Seungcheol to come out of the cemetery that they'd left him behind to have their little fun at home?
"Anyway! The most important thing is that Seungcheol really did see a ghost!"
"Really?" Seungkwan found a new interest in the conversation. Seungcheol rolled his eyes.
"Not a ghost, a vampire," he corrected, deciding that this would be his last intervention.
This café was open at night for people who didn't live at the same pace as the rest of society. It was often night-shift workers or overworked students who passed through. Seungcheol had discovered this place when he was still at university and had never stopped going there; he had written his best dissertation there and would undoubtedly write other texts of just as good quality.
He never went with his friends, however tonight was an exception. Seungkwan had just returned from Paris where he'd had to travel for work; the flight had been long and, out of pity for their friend, Seungcheol and Joshua had come to pick him up at the airport. The only problem was that they weren't tired; Seungkwan had slept the whole flight, and Seungcheol and Joshua had taken a very long nap from early afternoon to early night. So Seungcheol had told them about this café where they could enjoy good French toast and warm up with coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
"A vampire? You're full of it."
"Yes, it was one! He showed us the bite marks. Seungcheol, show Seungkwan."
Seungcheol rose from his chair, hand resting where Jeonghan's lips had touched his skin.
"They've already disappeared," he sighed. He didn't wait for Joshua's reply and headed for the counter to place his order.
The employee who ran the food section was busy organizing the wall of loose tea bags behind the counter. His long black hair tied back in a ponytail created a lump of nostalgia in Seungcheol's throat, and he had to rasp it before calling out to the employee.
"Excuse me, would it be possible to have two muffins and ..."
The person turned sharply towards him, then stood still. The tea bag he was holding slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.
Both were startled, and the employee disappeared for a brief second to retrieve the bag. When he straightened up, the look of surprise had given way to a more relaxed one.
"And a slice of lemon pie, I presume," Jeonghan said with a smile.
Seungcheol gave a small laugh. He didn't remembered when he had give that piece of information to the vampire.
"Exactly." he pretended to read the name on the pin hanging from the vampire's shirt. "Jeonghan."
Jeonghan placed the two muffins and the slice of pie on a tray, along with some cutlery. He scribbled a number sequence on a napkin and added it to the whole. He slid the tray towards Seungcheol.
Their faces separated by only a few centimetres, he murmured:
"I told you we'd meet again."
THE END