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A fierce wind blew through the forest, and Jungwon shivered, tugging his scarf tighter around his neck. Above him, somewhere, Ni-ki sat on a tree branch. The sun had long set, and it was hard to tell where Ni-ki was, but Jungwon could feel the other’s presence still there.
Jungwon looked into the pitch darkness, feeling the wintery breeze on his face. It was silent, and it Jungwon weren’t leaning on the tree trunk behind him, he’d think he was in the middle of nothingness.
There was the sound of fabric brushing against the branches.
“Why are you still here?” Jungwon asked, his voice sharp in the otherwise silent night. “I know you could have left me here once I couldn’t see anything. I wouldn’t have known you were gone until it was too late.”
There was a shuffle of movement from above, then a drawn out sigh.
“Do you want me to leave you here?” snapped Ni-ki.
“No.” Jungwon answered easily. “I have no way of going back home.”
“Then why would you ask me to leave?”
“I never did.”
Silence.
“Do you hate me?” Ni-ki finally asked, sounding tired.
Jungwon thought upon that for a minute. It wasn’t a very difficult question, yet it made him have to think about it. He wanted to be as truthful as he could possibly be, and it was a thin line between whether he liked or disliked the other.
“No, not really.” He replied.
“Do you hate all vampires?” Ni-ki wondered.
Again, Jungwon had to think about his answer.
“I… don’t hate all vampires.” He said carefully. “Just some.”
“Like…?”
“Like the ones wandering around and feeding off of unsuspecting victims.”
“And am I included in that category?”
“You seem like a decent being. So, no. I don’t consider you a monster.”
Again, silence.
There was a bubble of black fog beside him, but Jungwon was fairly used to seeing it happen. Ni-ki emerged from the fog, having teleported down to the ground again.
The two remained silent, standing next to each other at the base of the tree.
“Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable to sit on a tree branch?” Jungwon broke the silence, mildly curious. “I wouldn’t be able to last there past a minute.”
Ni-ki let out a soft, breathy laugh. “It’s not uncomfortable. At least, not for me. But maybe it’s because I’m used to it.”
Jungwon took in that information. “Why do you sit on trees? Every time I see you, you’re always up there at some point.”
“It’s…” Ni-ki seemed to hesitate with his answer. “It’s a defense mechanism. An instinct.”
“And why’s that?” Jungwon inquired.
Ni-ki shuffled in the darkness, blessed with night vision, as he adjusted the scarf around Jungwon’s neck. He let the vampire do so without a single protest.
“Not everyone likes vampires like you and the other four do.” He murmured. “Some aim to kill vampires when we have done nothing wrong.”
This was new information to Jungwon, and his eyes widened.
“So… you’ve been killed before?” He asked in a hushed voice.
“Not necessarily. Vampires are in the between of life and death, so I can’t die. But it does hurt.”
“What have you been killed by?” Jungwon questioned, not afraid to be blunt and insensitive.
“A knife, a gun, a stone.” Ni-ki listed casually, as if listing random food items. “And the likes of that. Humans aren’t very creative. And they rarely think to look up in the trees.”
Jungwon snorted. “Not creative? We can, when we want to be.”
“Oh really? When? I’ve lived for ceuntries, and I’ve seen no such progress in humans.”
“Art?”
“No. The same ideas and concepts.”
“Music?”
“The same ideas. Perhaps a little change, but it’s not progress in the eyes of mine.”
“Then what would you consider progress?”
Ni-ki was silent.
“Maybe a change in thinking. A change in pace of things.” He finally answered, his voice quiet in the night.
Jungwon and Ni-ki both remained silent. The wind picked up again, fluttering Jungwon’s scarf as if inviting it to dance.
“If you don’t hate me, then why do you avoid me?” Ni-ki cut the silence again.
“I don’t hate you. And I’m not avoiding you. I’m just not like Heeseung or Jay hyung. I don’t know how to approach you. You feel so different.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” Ni-ki asked, his voice less hostile and more friendly.
It felt like his words just now were a lie. Ni-ki didn’t feel different. He felt familiar— too familiar, that it made Jungwon feel discomfort.
“Good way. You’re different in a good way.” Jungwon answered easily, not knowing whether this was a lie too. Was it horrible to admit he didn’t avoid Ni-ki on purpose?
Ni-ki let out a sigh. “Alright. It’s getting late. Jake hyung will scold me if you catch a cold from standing out here.”
A hand clasped Jungwon’s, warm for a supposed undead being. It was soft, like a marble statue’s hand in his, except it was warm like a human’s.
Jungwon closed his eyes and let Ni-ki’s black fog envelop him. Then they were whisked away from the forest, and into the foyer of a cold house.
Turning his head, he found a picture frame of Ni-ki and Sunghoon together. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had expected the vampire to teleport them back to the shared house of Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunoo, and himself— but they were in the vampire brothers’ mansion.
“You brought me here. Why?” he asked.
Ni-ki rolled his eyes as he started walking down the hall.
“I was hungry.” He said simply.
Jungwon followed the vampire into the kitchen. It wasn’t the first time he was over at the mansion, but it definitely felt all strange to him. The walls were black and there was nothing that served warmth or comfort to him.
Ni-ki grabbed a blood bag out of the fridge, startling Jungwon momentarily. He should be used to it, but not when he kept seeing Ni-ki as a fellow human.
It was easy to forget that Nishimura Riki (going by the name, Ni-ki) wasn’t human. And neither was his older brother, Sunghoon.
If it weren’t for the fact that he had sharp fangs poking out of his mouth occasionally, and the way he moved so gracefully, it would seem as if he were a normal human teenager.
He ate human food normally like everyone else, he ran and walked, and he had emotions. He loved playing basketball with Heeseung, and talking about the latest fashion designs with Jay.
So sometimes, Jungwon forgot he wasn’t a normal human boy. Sure, he teleported around a lot, and talked like an 18th ceuntry aristocrat sometimes, but otherwise, he felt so normal.
Even talking about vampires with Ni-ki, he had momentarily forgotten what Ni-ki truly was.
And it terrified him that he could easily forget something so important. That Ni-ki wasn’t like him, and he couldn’t get caught up with the other.
Huh, that was a new thought.
“Maybe I like him.” He said out loud.
Ni-ki turned to him. “Hm?”
“Nothing.”
The vampire gave him a strange look.
“I don’t hate you.” Jungwon said slowly, his brows furrowed as he tried to figure out the mess of thoughts inside his brain. “Definitely not hate. More… scared?”
“Scared that I’m a vampire?” Ni-ki raised an eyebrow.
“No, not that. I forget you’re a vampire most of the time. I think— no, I am afraid of who you are. As a person.” Jungwon blurted out. “And I’m scared that I might get too close to you. And that you’ll hate me.” He admitted.
“Why would I hate you?”
Jungwon squirmed. “I— I don’t know. Maybe because I’m a human.”
“Then that’d be rude of me, you know, to hate you just because of what you are.” Ni-ki scoffed. “If you and the others aren’t afraid of me because I’m a vampire, then why should I hate you because you’re a human?”
“Humans killed you before though.”
Ni-ki shook his head, an amused look stretching across his pale, vampire face.
“So that’s why you kept avoiding me? Because you thought I’d hate you if you got too friendly with me.” He asked, moving closer.
“I don’t know.” Jungwon grumbled. “I can’t even translate what I’m feeling.”
Ni-ki let out a genuine laugh.
“What do you know… you’re actually kinda adorable.”
“Excuse me?!” Jungwon’s face flushed red.
Ni-ki smiled, one that wasn’t his usual smirk, and he gingerly patted Jungwon’s hair.
“So… you’re saying you don’t hate me?” Ni-ki asked softly.
“Yeah… I guess not.” Jungwon breathed.
“Do you like me then?”
Soft, breathless… almost too quiet to hear. But Jungwon heard it.
“Yeah. I like you.”
Ni-ki was closer than before, his eyes round and deep. Jungwon looked straight into them.
“As a friend and person? Or as…” The vampire trailed off.
Jungwon’s eyes trailed down to the vampire’s lips. Then back to Ni-ki’s midnight eyes.
“Can I?” He whispered.
Ni-ki nodded, his eyes locked with Jungwon’s.
And Jungwon slowly leaned in, closing his eyes. He felt the soft lips of Ni-ki’s on his own, and then he felt Ni-ki kissing back.
It was a chaste kiss, light and quick— as if it never had happened. But Jungwon could still feel it… the feeling of the other’s lips on his.
Ni-ki’s eyes were wide, but not with surprise… more with… excitement and wonder.
“Does that answer your question?” Jungwon asked.
Ni-ki let out a soft laugh and nodded. “Yeah…” He breathed.
“And if you two don’t mind, I’d like to read my book in peace.”
Ni-ki and Jungwon flew backwards, their heads both whirling towards the voice. Sunghoon stood there in the doorway of the kitchen, with an unimpressed look, a book in one hand, and the other on his hip.
“As most people tend to do, they forget I exist. But I’m, for the matter, still right there.”
Ni-ki and Jungwon both let out nervous laughs.
“But, uh, I guess congrats on getting together.”
With that, Sunghoon turned and walked off.
“We’re not— We just— It’s not— We aren’t—” Jungwon squeaked pathetically.
Ni-ki simply sighed.