Archive of Our Own

“Ay, bye dude!” Shin Hoseok, Son Hyunwoo’s best friend shouts from the car.

“Bye!” Hyungwon, Hoseok’s boyfriend, adds as he gets out of the back and sits in the passenger seat where Hyunwoo had been previously sitting.

Not one for shouting, Hyunwoo just waves goodbye and treks up the stairs to his house. His parents’ car is in the driveway, so they must have taken a taxi to the airport. Hyunwoo’s aunt is having a baby, and she lives in Jeju, so Hyunwoo’s parents flew out to be with her for a week.

Hyunwoo stayed home, because of school, and his parents trusted him enough to do so. He was generally a good kid—good grades, in a couple of extra curriculars. His peers and teachers spoke highly of him for being a mature and responsible guy, and the neighborhood moms love him when he babysits their kids.

He unlocks the door and toes off his shoes, not bothering to unlace them. After setting down his backpack in the living room, he goes into the kitchen to make a snack. It’s a Thursday, and he has a big AP US History test the next day, so he figures that he’ll make a lot of food now and eat it during the night as he studies, something he may or may not have pushed off in favor of perfecting the new routine that his dance crew is doing.

He makes some toast first, because you really can’t go wrong with toast. He then got out the box of chocolate puff cereal and just pulled the whole bag out of the box, because it wasn’t like the box really did anything. Then, he rummaged around in the cupboards until he found some bags of chips, and carried all of that up to his room. After taking a couple liter bottles of water up to his room, he settled down and took out his notebook and pens.

The first four hours of studying passed without a hitch. Hyunwoo managed to power through two lessons worth of notes, end-of-the-lesson review, and flashcards for that lesson’s important dates. It was about nine at night, and Hyunwoo could hear his stomach grumbling.  He decided to take a break, and went downstairs to cook some real food.

Ah yes, real food—ramen. It was fast and reliable, with a nice taste, so Hyunwoo wasn’t complaining about the lack of nutritional value. Just to be healthy, he tossed in a handful of kimchi that always seemed to be in the fridge. After the three minutes that it took to boil the soup and noodles, he just lugged the whole pot up to his room. He settled down again, alternating between shoving noodles into his mouth and watching the APUSH review videos in the playlist he had created just for this on YouTube.

Out of nowhere, the doorbell rang, making Hyunwoo jolt in his seat, effectively knocking over the pot of ramen—all over his notes.

The doorbell rang again, twice, with a kind of urgency that made Hyunwoo get up, admittedly grumbling, and race to the door.

He opened it and was greeted by--

“HYUNWOO!” Someone squealed loudly, and threw their arms around his neck. Hyunwoo stumbled back a couple of feet, but the person didn’t—they were still standing at the entrance.

It was weird, because with the force that the person had tackled him, they should have both been inside the house. Hyunwoo cocked his head, puzzled.

“Hyunwoo?” The stranger repeated, making him look up. The person who had rang the doorbell and tackled him was probably about his age, sporting a wide smile, sparkling eyes, and silvery-white hair. He was dressed a bit strangely, with a loose black t-shirt that showed off his collarbones, shredded black jeans, black leather boots, and a long black coat that fitted his slim body. An earring dangled from one of his ears, a black cross at the end. Several chains were draped around his neck with different charms hanging off of them, and a thick velvet choker was wrapped around his neck. Hyunwoo swallowed hard.

“Do I know you?” He opted to say in his quiet rumble, “How do you know me?”

“You mean you don’t know who I am?” The stranger pouted, and Hyunwoo started at his lips for maybe a little bit longer than what could be considered normal. “I’m Lee Minhyuk! I used to live in that house!” Minhyuk’s finger is pointed to the house to the left of Hyunwoo’s.

Memory floods back to Hyunwoo—he was a year older than Minhyuk, and Minhyuk had moved into the house next to theirs when Hyunwoo was five and Minhyuk was four. Hyunwoo often played with Minhyuk, and throughout elementary and middle school the two were friends and walked to school every day together.

When Hyunwoo was a freshman in high school and Minhyuk was an eigth grader, Minhyuk moved away mysteriously. Hyunwoo’s parents didn’t know what happen, Minhyuk’s teachers didn’t know what happened, even the principal or any of the other neighbors.

Hyunwoo just remembers looking out his window the night before he moved away and seeing three men dressed in long black coats standing on Minhyuk’s porch.

Now that he thinks about it, those coats looked pretty similar to the one Minhyuk has on right now.

“Come on in, are you ok?” Hyunwoo opens the door wider, and Minhyuk bounds in, inspecting the house.

“Wow, it really hasn’t changed here, has it?” Minhyuk says in awe, trailing a hand on the wooden bookcase in the hallway. Hyunwoo watches a bit fondly, remembering his childhood days spent with Minhyuk. They’d been a good duo, Minhyuk’s craziness complimenting Hyunwoo’s more grounded self.

“Not really,” Hyunwoo responds, “Not to seem rude or anything, I’m glad you’re dropping in, but um, why are you here?”

“Hey, where are your parents?” Minhyuk comments, looking around in confusion. He has a good point, but Hyunwoo narrows his eyes in suspicion—it’s the second time he’s evaded the question. Hyunwoo leads Minhyuk upstairs to his room.

“They’re in Jeju, visiting my aunt who just had a baby,” Hyunwoo replies, opening the door to his room, “I was actually studying before you came.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Minhyuk doesn’t sound too sorry as he takes a seat on Hyunwoo’s bed. Hyunwoo sat in his spinning wheely chair, the one he loves and always sits in to study at his desk. His notes are still on his desk, covered in ramen and kimchi.

“Seriously dude,” Hyunwoo spins in his chair to face Minhyuk, “Why are you here? No more trying to dodge the question.” Minhyuk looks down at his fingers, which are twisting in Hyunwoo’s blanket.

“Okay, so I really don’t know how to tell you this, you’re the first person who I’ve told, actually,” Minhyuk confesses, making Hyunwoo both curious and concerned, “I don’t really know where to start, so I guess, do you have a mirror?” Hyunwoo looks at Minhyuk like he’s crazy.

“In the bathroom,” Hyunwoo responds. Minhyuk nods and gets up, motioning for Hyunwoo to follow. Hyunwoo leads Minhyuk to the bathroom, where the entire wall above the sink is covered in mirrors.

Minhyuk enters the bathroom first, followed by Hyunwoo.

“Look at the mirror, Hyunwoo.”

The only person in the mirror is Hyunwoo, even though Hyunwoo can feel Minhyuk’s body pressed against his side, cramped in the small bathroom. Hyunwoo looks down at Minhyuk’s face, speechless. Minhyuk doesn’t seem to meet his eyes.

“Yeah, so, uh, I’m a vampire.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Hyunwoo barks in response, gaping at Minhyuk. The two are now seated on Hyunwoo’s bed, facing each other.

“I’m a vampire. You know, Count Dracula, bats, fangs, I want-to-suck-your-blood shit,” Minhyuk elaborates, waving his hands around. Hyunwoo groans, burying his face in a pillow. “Sorry for not telling you earlier.”

“Telling me earl- you mean you were bitten as a child?” Hyunwoo yanks the pillow off his face to stare at Minhyuk, “I thought maybe you were here because you were just bitten and you needed help or something.”

“I mean I do need help,” Minhyuk clarified, “But no, I’ve been a vampire my whole life, I was born as one. See, vampires are pretty big on the whole bloodline hierarchy thing, and my family is a pretty influential one. When you’re just a kid, you don’t have any of the attributes of a vampire, but as you grow older, you start getting the vampire traits.” He starts explaining, waving his hands as well, “I started not showing up in pictures and mirrors when I was fifteen, I think? My fangs started growing in when I was twelve, and my light sensitivity has been around since I was seven.”

“How did you not, you know,” Hyunwoo gestures up at the sky vaguely, making Minhyuk smile.

“Combust in front of you when we were playing outside?” Minhyuk chuckles at that, “See this charm?” He points to one of the ones on his neck, “It lessens my light sensitivity. You probably recognize it.” Hyunwoo does, actually. Minhyuk always used to wear it when they would play, but he didn’t think very much of it.

“And the fangs?” Hyunwoo peers nonchalantly at Minhyuk’s mouth, trying not to act as curious as he really was.

“I have total control over them. I will them to appear and to disappear,” Minhyuk responses, “Look.” He ducks his head, and when he raises them, the irises of his eyes are barely tinged with red, and his canines have been replaced with long, pointed fangs that send a shiver down Hyunwoo’s spine. He can feel himself blushing a bit, and Minhyuk stiffens, fangs disappearing instantly.

“But why do you need my help?” Hyunwoo crosses his arms as he leans back, “It seems to me like you and your parents have everything under control.”

Minhyuk goes back to twisting the blanket in his fingers, “Not quite. I have two dilemmas, actually, but I think you can help me with both of them. It’s a big favor, but I’d be forever grateful if you helped me.”

“You don’t…” Hyunwoo backed up a bit on the bed, heart pounding faster, “You don’t want to suck my blood, do you?”

“What?” Minhyuk wrinkled his nose, “Ew, no, God, no! It’s not like that. See, you know how I was telling you that vampires grow into their traits as they grow older?” Hyunwoo nods. “They receive their full traits, the ability to have wings and the ability to turn a human into a vampire, on their eighteenth birthday. Now, mind you, the vampire society, I guess, there’s a lot of vampire culture, like how I said bloodline hierarchy is important. The coming of age, 18^th birthday thing has developed over time into a like “Presenting” thing, kind of like a quincenera or a sweet sixteen back in the old days.”

“I don’t get it,” Hyunwoo wrinkles his forehead.

Minhyuk sighed, “Way back when, a sweet sixteen was for the girl’s family to present the daughter to the other families to attract potential husbands. Now, a blood-born vampire’s 18^th birthday, especially one of a bloodline as important as mine, is a huge deal because it means that the vampire is being presented to find a mate.”

“Ok, and?” Hyunwoo still doesn’t really understand what the dilemma is. Yeah, that sucks, but that’s life.

“So, the thing is, vampires are okay with gay people, it’s just that the custom of presenting your son or daughter only allows for the presented son or daughter to mate with someone of the opposite gender. There’s this whole official ceremony that has to happen, and it’s super bound to custom.” Minhyuk carries on, “Hyunwoo, I’m gay as hell.”

“Oh!” Hyunwoo understands a little bit now, but he pretends to understand all of it. Luckily for him, Minhyuk picks up on that.

“If I’m presented on my 18^th birthday, I’ll be matched up with some random girl. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like that.” Minhyuk sighs, setting the mangled blanket down. “In vampire culture, if you’re dating another vampire at the time of the presentation, you’re expected to break up because it doesn’t honor how the customs are supposed to work. But, if the vampire is dating a human, then they’re presented, but not available for mating because humans aren’t bound to the same customs as vampires are under vampire law.”

A lightbulb flashes on in Hyunwoo’s mind.

“You want me to date you?”

“Fake! Fake date me.” Minhyuk’s cheeks are a pale pink as he continues, “But that’s not my only concern. When I turn 18, if I’m not mated, meaning I haven’t had sex with the girl I legally mate with, people will be able to smell it. I said this before, but vampires are okay with gay stuff. Really ok. Like, I’d become a target for other vampires in a twenty-mile radius. They can smell the fact that I’m young, of-age, and from an influential status, and if they have sex with me, I become theirs, essentially. That sex doesn’t have to be consensual.”

“But why me? Surely you have friends now who would be willing to help,” Hyunwoo responds, not totally understanding everything still.

Minhyuk turns even brighter pink at that, not quite meeting Hyunwoo’s eyes, “You… you were the only human friend I’ve ever had. My parents made us move to Hollywood and go to a school with only vampires, so I never got to meet anyone normal after we moved away.” Hyunwoo nods, eyes carefully watching Minhyuk. “Also, you have a really strong scent.”

“A strong what?”

“A strong scent,” Minhyuk repeats, blushing even harder, “Like, vampires can smell you for miles. It’s not a good or bad scent, it’s just a very human scent. It means you’re a very steady, grounded person. But anyways, if I spend time around you and if you fake date me, it would be easy for other vampires to smell you on me and believe that I’m in a relationship because your scent is so strong.”

“Ok, so correct me if I’m wrong, but you want to fake date me to get a bunch of straight vampires off of you and you want to smell like me?” Hyunwoo asks bluntly, cocking his head.

“When you say it like that, it sounds kind of stupid,” Minhyuk groaned, getting up to pace around the room, “But yeah, basically. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I really don’t have anyone else to ask and I don’t want to disappoint my parents or anyone and I’m just really worried and stressed about this, and also I really don’t want to get raped by someone? And like—“

“Hey,” Hyunwoo says gently, getting up on his feet, “I’ll do it.”

Minhyuk turns to face him, eyes wide open, “Really? You will?”

“Yeah,” Hyunwoo nods with a small smile, “You sound like you’re really worried, and I don’t have much that I’m doing, just school work, for the next couple of weeks or so. I don’t want you to have to worry so much.”

“You’re so nice,” Minhyuk threw himself into Hyunwoo’s arms, hugging him tightly. Hyunwoo looks down at the younger with a fond expression, patting his back and running a timid hand through his silvery hair a couple of times. Minhyuk burrows his head further into Hyunwoo’s chest, and the two stand there for a while.

After a while, Hyunwoo gets Minhyuk to calm down and explain the details to him.

“So my birthday is November 3, next week on Thursday. The presentation will be taking place in LA, Hollywood, actually,” Minhyuk says to Hyunwoo. Hyunwoo’s house is in Orange Country, which is about an hour’s drive away from Hollywood. “I’ll have my assistant send you what to wear and help you style your hair and stuff. Even if vampires aren’t judgy about gay people, they’re judgy about how people dress and act. From what I remember, you have a good set of manners on you, so I think you’ll be okay on that aspect.”

Hyunwoo simply nods. On his desk, his APUSH notes sit, soggy and forgotten. At this point, he’s accepted his failing grade in APUSH anyways.

“You can drive, right?” Minhyuk asks Hyunwoo, glancing out of Hyunwoo’s window down at the car in the driveway, “My parents would probably prefer it if you could pick me up—it would look more formal that way. It’ll be fairly late at night, starting at around 11.”

“Is there, uh, anything I should know about for this? Any weird rituals or something?” Hyunwoo doesn’t really want to pass out from shock in front of his now fake-boyfriend’s family.

Minhyuk giggles at this, “Honestly, no. it’ll probably just seem like a party for a bunch of really rich elite people to you, because that’s essentially what it is. The dishes and drinks that have blood in them will be marked, so you don’t need to worry about that. There will be food for humans there too.” Hyunwoo perks up a bit at that—he’s never one to turn down free food. He is a growing boy after all.

“Hey man, I appreciate you taking the time to explain all this to me, but is there any way we can continue this conversation later?” Hyunwoo asks once he’s seen the time on his alarm clock next to his bed. “Its four in the morning and I have a test tomorrow, so I should probably get a little bit of sleep.”

“Oh, yeah, oh my god, I’m sorry!” Minhyuk scrambled off Hyunwoo’s bed, “Wow, I didn’t mean to keep you up so late!” Hyunwoo’s lips quirk up into a small smile, something that’s been happening often lately.

“Well, I’m gonna head to bed now, so if you need to stay the night feel free to, if not you can grab some food or something and head on out,” Hyunwoo left his room to go brush his teeth and wash his face. As he swished mouth wash around in his mouth, he watched his reflection, thinking hard about what had happened.

First of all, Minhyuk was back. That was nice—he’d missed the younger boy a lot when he had left so abruptly; Minhyuk was a big part of his childhood growing up.

Then, Minhyuk was a vampire. In a way, Hyunwoo almost wasn’t surprised that vampires existed. He generally had a mindset of “maybe there are things out there, but as long as they don’t bother me, I’m fine”, so while the news startled him, it wasn’t enough to make him freak out. He trusted Minhyuk to not go bat-shit crazy on him and drink all of his blood either.

And now, now, Hyunwoo is Minhyuk’s fake boyfriend. There’s no use in denying it—as a kid, Hyunwoo had something akin to a crush on Minhyuk, something he would never admit in a thousand years. Seeing Minhyuk like this, dressed the way he was and looking incredibly handsome, had partially reminded him of the crush he had harbored. When he was how kind and genuine Minhyuk still was, he really remembered just why he had liked Minhyuk so much.

Silently, still deep in thought, Hyunwoo padded back to his room and pulled off his shirt, rummaging around in a drawer for a clean pair of sweats.

“Uh, Hyunwoo?” Minhyuk squeaked from the bed, making Hyunwoo jump in shock.

“Oh, Minhyuk, sorry!” Hyunwoo smiled easily at the younger, “I didn’t know you were still here.” Minhyuk gulped a bit, eyes flickering down to Hyunwoo’s bare chest and then back up to his eyes.

“Yeah, uh, sorry bout that,” Minhyuk replied, eyes trained somewhere on the ceiling as his cheeks were tinged a bright pink.

“If you want I can grab a pull out mattress and you can sleep on my bed, if you want to stay over. It’s kind of far to Hollywood, so you can stay the night,” Hyunwoo comments as he pulls off his jeans and yanks on the sweats.

“We can, um,” Minhyuk blushes a bit more, “Your bed is kinda big, we can sleep in it like we used to when we were kids? Like, if you’re ok with it? I totally get it if you’re not, I mean what straight guy would want to share a bed with a gay guy, wow, what was I thinking, I’m so stupid, oh god—“ Minhyuk’s rambling is cut off when Hyunwoo throws a pair of basketball shorts at Minhyuk’s face

“Minhyuk, chill,” Hyunwoo grins lazily, “Just change into those and we can go to bed. I don’t mind.”

A couple minutes later, the two are in Hyunwoo’s bed, and Hyunwoo tugs the covers over their bodies. As Hyunwoo is about to drift off to sleep, he mutters something to Minhyuk that without his slightly heightened vampire hearing, he wouldn’t have heard.

“I like guys too, just saying.”

Minhyuk grins widely at that and hugs Hyunwoo’s broad back, snuggling closer to his childhood friend, soaking in the memories of them being in the same position as children. He can hear Hyunwoo’s heart beating faster, blood coursing through his veins. He smells good, so, so good, but not in a way that drives Minhyuk crazy. It’s comforting, and Hyunwoo’s scent sends a wave of calm over Minhyuk.

Minhyuk burrows his nose into the nape of Hyunwoo’s neck and breathes in deeply, sighing as he allows himself to relax.

When Hyunwoo wakes up, the first thing he registers is the super bright sun in his eyes.

The second thing is the fact that he and Minhyuk are spooning, and that Minhyuk is the little spoon.

The third thing is that Minhyuk is shirtless.

The fourth thing is that Minhyuk’s left hand is gripping Hyunwoo’s forearm and he’s grinding his ass back into Hyunwoo’s crotch area, whimpering slightly.

Oh yes, the fifth thing? Hyunwoo has morning wood.

Eyes wide, Hyunwoo rips himself away from Minhyuk (making sure that the covers are still covering Minhyuk’s body though, he’s a good guy) and races into the bathroom. He peels off his clothing and jumps into the shower, turning the cold knob on all the way.

As he soaps up his hair, shivering a bit from the cold shower, he tries to block the memory of Minhyuk grinding against him from his mind.  Once he was done, he pulled on the clean boxers and tank top that he’d yanked into the bathroom it him. With a frown, he trekked back to the bedroom—he’d forgotten to bring pants.

Minhyuk was still lying in bed, peacefully sleeping. He was dressed only in his loose black t-shirt and the black basketball shorts Hyunwoo had given him the night before. His two necklaces were still around his neck, but the choker had been taken off.

He’d also kicked the covers off, and was lying sprawled out on the bed. His silvery white hair was spread around his head, and Hyunwoo couldn’t help but stare at the beautiful sight for a bit longer. He looked so… so perfect.

The image was marred by Minhyuk moaning a bit, scrunching up his face and rolling over in response to the sun that was blazing through Hyunwoo’s window.

With a fond smile, Hyunwoo reached up to close the curtains, casting shadows over Minhyuk. The peaceful smile returned to Minhyuk’s face as he continued to sleep.

Once Hyunwoo was done getting ready for school, he left a note on Minhyuk’s folded coat and grabbed his backpack, getting into Hoseok’s car with a wide smile.

“Why are you so smiley today?” Hoseok observed as he started the car up.

“No reason,” Hyunwoo responded, glancing up at his bedroom window with a grin.

“Ok, well stop, it’s freaking me out,” Hoseok rolled his eyes, driving down the road to school with ease.

When Minhyuk finally got up, he noticed that Hyunwoo was gone. Probably went to school, Minhyuk thought to himself, I should probably get to school too. He collected his things and picked up the note that Hyunwoo had left on his coat, reading it with a wide smile.

Minhyukkie! Sorry I had to leave, I wish I could have given you some food or something, but I had to go to school. Anyways, here’s my number so that we can discuss our plans, and hopefully catch up!

Hope to talk to you soon

-hyunwoo

Friday, 9:43 am

Hey!

It’s Minhyuk      

9:47

Hey

Sorry for the late response

I was answering the teacher

Oh yikes

What class?

Chem

Seriously?

No way omg

Im in chem too

@ my school

Obv

We don’t go to the same school

Srry for spamming omg

Lol its ok

This class is boring so I don’t

Mind

Hey, are u free this Monday?

That’s the only day that my parents aren’t making me prepare for the presentation

We could hang out maybe?

Uh

I’m kind of babysitting that night?

Oh

Rip

It ok

Nah I mean ms kwon brings her kids over to my house so

U can come over it u want

My friend hoseok has been over a few times while im babysitting

Ms kwon is ok w it

As long as theres not drugs or alcohol or anything

Like I watch the kids until the morning bc its easier

Oh wow

That’s cool

Ur so responsible omg

(´ ∇ ﾉ｀*) ノ

Did u just

Use

An emoticon

Um yes

Do u have a problem

No its just like

Why don’t u just use an emoji ?

It adds emPHASIS

oK

lol k

whatever u say

ah shit I gtg

teacher

byehd

lmao k byehd

Minhyuk sighed happily and set his phone on his desk, head propped up in his hands as he started dreamily out the window, thinking of how nice Hyunwoo would look in a suit, and how they would get to spend the whole night together, and how he was going over to Hyunwoo’s place again on Monday (granted, there would be kids, so no sexy times for Minhyuk, but he wasn’t trying to rush things). This crush on Hyunwoo was getting out of hand.

Minhyuk was honestly a little surprised at himself. Yeah, he’d been pining over the guy since the fifth grade, and yeah when he moved away he religiously stalked Hyunwoo’s SNS in order to make sure that he was ok, and yeah maybe he’d jerked off to the guy’s dance videos on YouTube a couple of times, but to show up at his house of fucking nowhere?

That was a new one.

It’s just that, well, Hyunwoo was such boyfriend material. Like, the dude hadn’t seen him in what, four years? And he welcomes him into his house with open arms, doesn’t try and stab the guy with a silver stake when he finds out that he’s a vampire, and lets him sleep in his bed—and cuddle.

Sure, Minhyuk has tried dating other guys (all vampires, of course), but he’s never gotten to cuddle. They always just wanted to fuck him and leave, in part to his pretty face but slightly clingy personality, and in part to his blood line. Yeah sure, Minhyuk’s friends let him cuddle, but platonic cuddle isn’t the same as a romantic one.

“Dude, you good?” Kihyun, one of Minhyuk’s friends in the same class as him, waves a hand in front of Minhyuk’s face, “You’ve been staring out of that window the whole class period, and the bell rang five minutes ago.”

“Oh shit, really?” Minhyuk scrambled out of his seat and joined Kihyun to walk down to the cafeteria.

“So why’d you come to class so late?” Kihyun glanced over at Minhyuk slyly as they got into the long line for food.

“Probably because he was fucking one of his boy toys like the slut he is,” someone snickered behind the two friends. Minhyuk stiffened, and his grip on his lunch tray got tighter. Kihyun spun around, ready to give them a piece of his mind, when another one of Minhyuk’s friends beat him to it.

“Dude, why don’t you shut the fuck up with your hyper masculinity and stop shaming others because of your insecurities?” Jooheon snapped, shoving Kim Mingyu and Yoon Jeonghan aside to join Kihyun and Minhyuk, giving the two a glare.

Jeonghan just sniffed, and levelly met Jooheon’s angry stare.

“Honey-ah, it’s not worth it,” Minhyuk hissed, tugging Jooheon’s sleeve towards the lunch ladies.

Jooheon gave the two boys one last scathing glance before storming off behind Minhyuk. Once the three got their lunches, they joined Changkyun at their usual table.

“So, you still haven’t told me where you were last night,” Kihyun commented as he cut up his rare (practically raw, really) steak, drenched in fresh cow blood. “Feeling like spilling the tea?”

Minhyuk smiled, leaning in for dramatic effect, “You know the guy I was talking about? The human one?”

“You mean the one you stalk?” Changkyun retorted bluntly.

“Ye-I mean, NO, I don’t stalk him!”

“Um, you kind of do,” Changkyun motioned to Minhyuk’s phone, “You literally have notifications turned on for all of the guy’s social media.”

“That’s not stalking, it’s just making sure he’s okay,” Minhyuk waved his hand passively, “Anywho, getting to the point, I kind of went to his house and asked him to be my boyfriend.”

“What?” His three friends chorused, staring at Minhyuk in shock.

“Well, fake boyfriend. I explained to him the whole presentation thing, and yeah. He agreed to it,” Minhyuk grinned widely, stuffing food into his mouth.

“Yeah, I do smell human on you,” Jooheon wrinkled his nose, “In fact, it’s pretty strong.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing,” Minhyuk nodded, “Hyunwoo has a really, really strong human scent, so once I’m presented, if I just hang out with Hyunwoo for even a little bit, his scent will probably be on me for a while. No vampires will try and mess with me then.”

“That’s actually pretty intelligent,”Kihyun mused, observing Minhyuk, “I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, but what are you gonna do when he finds out that you’ve literally been crushing on the guy since elementary school?” Changkyun, ever the realist, butted in.

“I’ll do what any respectable vampire would do,” Minhyuk exclaimed, “I’ll just seduce him!”

“Oh my god,” The three friends groaned, collectively facepalming.

Back at Hyunwoo’s school, he was explaining everything a little differently.

“You’re trying to tell me that your childhood friend—and first fucking love, ya big sap—showed up at your house last night to tell you that he’s actually super rich and elite and wants you to be his fake boyfriend so that he’s not in an arranged marriage after this party thing,” Hoseok narrowed his eyes at Hyunwoo as he bit into his sandwich.

“Uh, yeah,” Hyunwoo nodded, taking a sip of his protein shake. Hyungwon, who was sitting next to Hyunwoo, wrinkled his nose at it.

“Okay,” Hoseok nodded, leaning back, “It’s Thursday, right?”

“Yeah, but he’s coming over on Monday to chill, that’s the only day his parents would let him,” Hyunwoo added, taking a big bite out of his salad. Again, Hyungwon wrinkled his nose (Hoseok and Hyunwoo were quite possible the most irritating people when it came to working out and dieting—they ate fucking rabbit food and lean chicken and protein shakes and insisted on physical activity every day. Fuck that).

“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Hoseok wriggled his eyebrows before frowining, “Wait, don’t you babysit the Kwon kids on Mondays?”

“Yeah, but you know how Ms. Kwon doesn’t mind if I have friends over while I babysit,” Hyunwoo nodded as he spoke, “As long as nothing wild happens.”

“So you won’t be getting the D?” Hoseok groaned, “Aw man, I was so happy for you!”

“Do you only think with your dick?” Hyungwon snapped, rolling his eyes.

“Uh, yes?” Hoseok snickered at Hyungwon’s exasperated face. “You seem surprised.”

“Yeah, I don’t really know why I am anymore.”

Hyunwoo does end up failing his AP US History test, but it’s because Minhyuk is excitedly texting him pictures of a stray cat that’s outside of Minhyuk’s classroom window. It’s a cute cat, but Minhyuk’s excitement is cuter. Somehow, Hyunwoo doesn’t really mind that he failed the test.

That weekend, Hyunwoo spends most of his time either at the gym with Hoseok (because not matter what happens, Hyunwoo is primarily a gym fiend) and texting Minhyuk while rolling around on his bed squealing.

Most people see Hyunwoo and his quiet exterior and think that he’s some kind of cool cassanova or something. Hyungwon and Hoseok know better—really, he’s just a huge dork who has 0 experience dating or doing anything romance-y.

“The reason why all the girls love him is because he never talks,” Hoseok had once reasoned during lunch a while back.

“Hey!” Hyunwoo frowns, not quite sure what Hoseok meant by that. Hyungwon snickered along with his boyfriend.

“Hi everyone, I’m Hyunwoo,” Hyungwon said in a deep voice, imitating Hyunwoo.

“Everyone, to get broader back muscles, you have to do a handstand and do push-ups,” Hoseok adds in an incredibly stupid sounding voice, clearly also trying to imitate Hyunwoo. “You say shit like that, but only around us, see? If chicks heard you, they’d think that you’re a dork.”

“Yeah, also since you don’t really go to parties, they don’t really have to see that side of you,” Hyungwon grins at his friend, “You know, you’re really good at dancing choreographed things, and freestyling and shit, but when it comes to party dancing?” Hyungwon shakes his head, playfully making a “no-no” gesture.

“What do you mean, party dancing?” Hyunwoo explodes, frowning even deeper.

“’What do you mean, party dancing’,” Hoseok imitates again, “This is exactly what we’re talking about, buddy.”

Hyunwoo wrinkles his nose at the memory and checks his phone to see if Minhyuk has responded yet (he has).

My friends are really excited to meet u!!

Oh cool

Do they

Like

Know?

Yeah haha

They would have known if I had a real bf

And they would have known that I was lying

So yeah

No worries (:

Oh but my parents don’t kno so u’ll have to keep it

On the down low

For like

Most of the night

All of the night

Sorry haha

Free food?

Like I said, no worries

Oh shit, Hyunwoo thought to himself. Parents.

Would Minhyuk’s parents like him? Would he be good enough for the presumably prestigious Lee family? What if he was totally different from how they remembered? What if they wanted someone charismatic and outgoing to date Minhyuk?

My parents always loved u, so u don’t have to worry!

They’re excited to know that ur coming tbh

They didn’t know that I remembered u lmao rip

Oh man

Haha well hopefully everything goes well

Wyd rn?

Homework ):

Hbu?

Im just watching tv

I finished all my hw @ school

Ohhh

I tried but my friends kept bugging me

(; ﹏;)

More emoticons?

More judgement?

Saturday 3:40

Hyunwoo?

Ya hold up

Srry

K

໒( ͡ᵔ ▾ ͡ᵔ ) ७

Omg did u look up emoticons

Maybe?

That one’s kind of ugly

Wow more judgement

Hahahahaha

Minhyuk u should do ur hw!

So u have more time to do other stuff later

Its better to get it done now right

Yeah

I guess

K ttyl

Thx for motivating me!

( ❁ ´ ▽` ❁)* ✲ﾟ*

Minhyuk tossed his phone onto Kihyun’s bed and pulled his notebook towards him. The four friends were all over at Kihyun’s house, supposedly doing homework. Changkyun and Kihyun were playing some PC game on Kihyun’s computer, Jooheon was watching funny cat videos on his phone, and Minhyuk was—or had been—texting Hyunwoo.

“What’s wrong, lover boy?” Changkyun teased his friend, who was staring blearily out the window, “Mr. Human didn’t send you a dick pic?”

“That’s not the problem,” Minhyuk whined.

“So it’s a potential problem, then?”

“Changkyun, please kindly go shut the fuck up,” Minhyuk responded, leaning his head against Kihyun’s bed; he was sitting on the floor with his back propped up agains the bed, so if he leaned his head back, it rested on the bed’s surface. “Hyunwoo is like, serious boyfriend material. Like, encourages me to do my homework, finds cute emoticons just for me serious boyfriend material.”

“Oh man, I totally see the boyfriend material in that one,” Kihyun drawls sarcastically, barely looking up from the computer monitor as he mashed his fingers into the keyboard, “What a catch, eh?”

“Stop making fun of me!” Minhyuk buried his head in his notes, trying to get at least a bit of studying done before he went home for the night.

The four boys parted as the night got later, and Minhyuk got home around the same time as his parents, and the family ate dinner together.

Once dinner was done and he was excused, he brushed his teeth and changed into sleeping clothes, and then promptly dove into bed. He rolled over to plug his phone into the charger and checked to see if he had any messages (from Hyunwoo).

Hey, so what time do u think you’ll be @ my house on Monday?

Minhyuk quickly typed out a response.

School ends at 3:15 and it takes about an hour driving

So probably 4:15 ish

I’ll probably drive there by myself

Does that time work for u?

Yup, I’ll probably go for a jog w/ a friend before u come over

And ms kwon drops soonyoung over at 4:30 so that’s good timing

Oh hey did u managed to power thru ur hw?

Yup! Thanks for asking

Minhyuk squealed and shoved his face into his pillow to muffle the sounds. Hyunwoo was just so cute.

Im looking forward to Monday

It should be fun, we haven’t talked properly in so long

Yeah ikr

Its crazy

That like

Something like this would reunite us

Lol

Im happy to help

As long as it keeps u safe

(;

Shit I mean (“

Fuck

No (:

)))):

Honestly, how was one guy so incredibly dorky and adorable, especially with that face?  Minhyuk smiled down at his phone.

Cute

ヾ( ＾ ∇ ＾)

Hyunwoo, who was spread-eagled on the couch because he was too lazy to drag his ass upstairs to his room, started down at his phone with a wide-eyed expression. Minhyuk had just called him cute and he had no idea how to respond.

Better use an emoticon.

＼(;´□｀)/

Soon, before he knew it, the weekend was over and it was Monday. Once school had ended, Hoseok and Hyunwoo drove out to a trail that they knew of and jogged for a little while, working up a light sweat. Hyunwoo didn’t put too much effort into his appearance, just some grey sweats and a white loose tank top. Hoseok drove Hyunwoo to his house, and as Hyunwoo was pulling his keys out of his pocket, he saw Minhyuk pull into the driveway.

He had a black Prius, and somehow Hyunwoo wasn’t surprised by that. Minhyuk waved excitedly, stumbling out of the car.

“I stopped for ice cream,” He exclaimed, holding up a plastic WalMart bag. Hyunwoo cracked a grin and opened the door, yanking his shoes off as he dumped his backpack by the door.

“Uh, Hyunwoo?” Minhyuk was just standing outside the door on the poor awkwardly, clutching the ice cream, “I need to be invited in. You know, the whole vampire thing?”

“Oh! Oh yeah, sorry, that was insensitive of me,” Hyunwoo smiled sheepishly, “Please come in.”

“Thanks, and don’t worry, it wasn’t insensitive of you, I never actually told you before,” Minhyuk shrugged it off.

“Wait,” Hyunwoo paused in the kitchen, motioning for Minhyuk to hand him the ice cream so that he could put it into the freezer, “Is that why when you came there the other night and you like, tackled me, you couldn’t come in?” Minhyuk just nods, hip leaning against the island in the middle of the kitchen, a small half-smirk on his face. “Ah, makes sense. I was a bit confused.”

As Hyunwoo moves around the kitchen, Minhyuk observes the older. He’s very deliberate in what he does, and every move seems calculated, at least, for a while. Minhyuk holds back a snicker as Hyunwoo slips a bit on a patch of water on the floor, grabbing onto Minhyuk’s shoulder for support.

“You good?” Minhyuk asks as he tries to hold in the laughter. Hyunwoo always looked so… stoic, and here he was, glaring at a puddle of water on the floor.

“Yeah, yeah,” Hyunwoo grumbles as he bent over to mop up the water with a paper towel. Minhyuk stares as Hyunwoo bends over, tank-top riding up a bit to reveal his underwear waistband—fucking Calvin Klein underwear.

Minhyuk swallows hard as Hyunwoo straightens up again, looking over at Minhyuk with an adorable proud expression on his face. The guy is just too cute—it’s official, Minhyuk is gonna die.

“Well,” Hyunwoo starts and glances down at his watch, “Soonyoung should be here any minute. You ready for him? The kid can get pretty hyper sometimes.”

“Well, I can get pretty hyper sometimes, so we should be a good match,” Minhyuk winks at Hyunwoo and watches in amusement as bright pink dusts the apples of Hyunwoo’s tan cheeks.

True to Hyunwoo’s word, the doorbell rings, followed by loud chanting of “HYUN-WOO! HYUN-WOO! OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR!”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Hyunwoo grunts, and goes to open the door to reveal a tiny kid with extremely fluffy bleached blonde hair and an adorable little sweat headband. “Hi, Ms. Kwon,” Hyunwoo first greets the kid’s mom, who is standing behind him, and then bends down to the kid’s level. “Soonyoung, how’s it going?” The two hi-five, Hyunwoo’s enormous hand nearly engulfing the kid’s, and Minhyuk wants to scream and internally combust from the cuteness.

“I’ll be by tomorrow before school starts to pick him up, okay?” Ms. Kwon smiles kindly at Hyunwoo and passes him the payment, along with Soonyoung’s backpack and night bag. “Be good, okay sweetie?”

Soonyoung glares up at his mom, “Mom, of course I’ll be good! I love Hyunwoo!” Ms. Kwon smiles and pecks her son on the top of his head. Once she was gone, Soonyoung turned to Minhyuk, eyes narrows.

“And who are you exactly,” He asked suspiciously, looking Minhyuk up and down.

“Soonyoung, chill, Minhyuk is one of my friend’s,” Hyunwoo chuckles a bit at Minhyuk, who is glaring back at the kid. “He brought ice cream, too.”

“What flavor?” Soonyoung shoots at Minhyuk, who crouches down a bit to be at the kid’s eye level.

“Cookies and cream, what else?” Minhyuk narrows his eyes at Soonyoung, who gives Minhyuk a huge grin when he says that, eyes curving up cutely.

“We can be friends!” Soonyoung pats Minhyuk on the head, “You have the same taste in ice cream as Hyunwoo and I do. No eating it all, though!”

Hyunwoo offers Minhyuk a seat on a stool that is pulled up at the island table in the kitchen, and Minhyuk watches fondly as Hyunwoo and Soonyoung work to get the ice cream out, along with bowls, an ice cream-scooper, spoons, and toppings for their ice cream. It feels strangely domestic, and Minhyuk can feel a pang in his heart. He’ll never be able to experience a family like this—not with a human, at least.

“Here!” Minhyuk is interrupted by Soonyoung proudly holding up a bowl of ice cream, drenched in sprinkles and chocolate sauce. The pang in his heart turns into a wave of emotions, and Minhyuk does his best to smile down at Soonyoung.

Hyunwoo noticed the slight change in Minhyuk’s attitude and slid into the stool next to his after setting Soonyoung in one across from them, and patted Minhyuk on the back.

Boyfriend material, boyfriend material, boyfriend material, Minhyuk screamed in his head as he shoved a huge spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, smiling sheepishly at Hyunwoo.

Soonyoung started chattering about something, dancing from what it sounds like, and the two sit there and listen to him, nodding occasionally. Minhyuk learns that Hyunwoo is also a dancer, and that the two go to the same studio. It’s unbearably cute.

In his excitement, Soonyoung accidentally hits his bowl of ice cream, and it ends up landing all over his shirt. He looks like he’s about to cry, and Minhyuk worriedly looks over at Hyunwoo, who looks pretty calm about the whole thing.

“Soonyoung, come here, we’ll wash your shirt for you,” He says calmly, getting up, “No worries, I have to wash this shirt and a couple others too. Why don’t you go to the bathroom, I’ll let you wear one of my t-shirts?”

“Really?” Soonyoung exclaims happily, grinning up at Hyunwoo, who just smiles and nods. Hyunwoo disappears upstairs for a bit, and comes down a few minutes later with an armful of dirty t-shirts. He hands one to Soonyoung, who has taken his shirt off, and Soonyoung pulls the shirt over his head. It’s about twenty sizes too big, and goes down past his knees. Minhyuk squeals at the adorableness and pats Soonyoung’s head.

The three go out into the garage where Hyunwoo’s washing machine is, and Soonyoung watches worriedly as Hyunwoo dumps all the t-shirts in and pours detergent into the washing machine.

“Will my shirt be okay?” Soonyoung asks, looking up at Hyunwoo with round eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Hyunwoo ruffles Soonyoung’s hair, “In fact, I should wash this shirt too.” Minhyuk almost stops breathing when Hyunwoo fucking pulls the tank top over his head and chucks it into the washing machine and starts it up. “See? No worries.”

When the machine starts up, it starts making loud rumbling noises, and Soonyoung shrieks in fear, grabbing onto the closest thing, which ends up being the hem of Minhyuk’s shirt. Minhyuk’s heart twinges again, and he bends down to wrap his arms around Soonyoung, who curls into him. It’s weird; Minhyu almost feels… protective of him?

“Soonyoungie, look, it’s okay,” Hyunwoo says, and then starts moving back and forth on his feet with a stupid grin, pretending to be a washing machine. Soonyoung starts giggling at Hyunwoo’s antics, and copies Hyunwoo’s movements. “It’s a new dance, see?”

Soonyoung is soon full-out laughing, and Minhyuk can’t help but pick the kid up and spin his around a bit. When Soonyoung has calmed down, three go back inside the house, Soonyoung situated on Minhyuk’s hip, clutching onto him like a monkey. It’s insanely adorable, especially when he refuses to let go and buries his face into Minhyuk’s neck.

The three decided to watch a movie, and Minhyuk and Hyunwoo sit on Hyunwoo’s bed, watching Finding Dory on Hyunwoo’s laptop. Soonyoung is snuggled up in Minhyuk’s lap, arms still wrapped around his neck.

About halfway through the movie, Soonyoung’s head crashes into Minhyuk’s chest.

“Hey Hyunwoo?”

“Yeah?” Hyunwoo tears his eyes away from the laptop screen (he’d been pretty into the movie, not gonna lie).

“I think Soonyoung fell asleep,” Minhyuk whispers, looking down at Soonyoung, whose eyes are closed and is breathing evenly. One of his tiny hands is clutching Minhyuk’s charms that dangle from his neck.

“Here, I can take him. We can put him in my parents’ room,” Hyunwoo gets up off the bed and holds his arms out. Minhyuk carefully untangles his necklaces and transfers Soonyoung to Hyunwoo’s arms. Hyunwoo walks over to his parents room, Minhyuk following, and sets Soonyoung down on the bed, carefully pulling the covers over Soonyoung’s small body.

Just as he’s about to leave, Soonyoung calls for Hyunwoo sleepily.

“Where are you going?”

Hyunwoo goes over to Soonyoung’s side and smooths his hair out of his face, looking down at the toddler fondly, “I’m right here baby, I’m right here.”

Minhyuk’s heart clenches as Hyunwoo kneels down and continues to pet Soonyoung’s hair until he falls back asleep.

Fuck boyfriend material, the guy is total dad material, Minhyuk screams in his head.

Once Hyunwoo is done, the two leave the room and Hyunwoo quietly shuts the door.

“So, do you want to finish the movie?” Minhyuk asks with a grin, “I can leave any time, really, because I drove here.”

“Yeah sure,” Hyunwoo nods, “But do you wanna make some food first? I’m kind of hungry, and the ice cream really wasn’t that much food.”

Minhyuk agrees to this, and the two trek down to the kitchen. Hyunwoo pulls open the fridge and looks inside, bending over a bit.

“Since my parents haven’t been home, we don’t have much in the way of food,” Hyunwoo comments, gesturing towards the slightly barren fridge. Minhyuk nods, trying not to laugh at the look of total concentration on Hyunwoo’s face as he tries to figure out what to cook. “Like, nothing. I don’t even think we have cereal.”

“Do you have flour?” Minhyuk asked, an idea popping into his head. Hyunwoo nodded. “Eggs? Milk? Baking soda?” Hyunwoo nodded again to all of these. “We could make pancakes!”

“Pancakes?” Hyunwoo looks at Minhyuk with a  face somewhere between enjoyment and fond exasperation, “Minhyuk, it’s nine o’clock at night, who eats pancakes this late?”

“We could,” Minhyuk retorts, crossing his arms, “Unless you have a better idea.” Hyunwoo pauses for a moment and sighs, getting up to grab the ingredients for Minhyuk.

“You can just sit there, I can make them since I’m the one who wanted them,” Minhyuk gestures to one of the stools. Hyunwoo takes a seat as Minhyuk mixes all the ingredients in a bowl and heats up a frying pan.

Pancakes don’t take very long to make, and soon there’s a plate stacked high of steaming, fresh pancakes. Minhyuk set the plate down on the countertop and pulled up another stool across from Hyunwoo.

“You can just eat these straight, there’s some sugar in them so it should be enough,” Minhyuk grabs one and takes a bite, sighing happily at the taste. Hyunwoo nods and nibbles on one, trying out the tase.

“These are really good,” Hyunwoo comments quietly, smiling at Minhyuk. The two are quiet for a bit, until Hyunwoo blurts something out, “Wait, you can eat human food?”

Minhyuk giggles at that, “Yeah, I had a packet of blood on the drive over here, so I’m fine. And vampires can eat human food. We need other vitamins and minerals to survive, but we have a larger need for the supplements found in human blood.”

“Ah,” Hyunwoo says through a mouthful of pancake, “Interesting.”

The two continue their meal, talking about how life had gone for each of them after Minhyuk moved away. Soon the pancakes are gone, and Minhyuk gets up to wash the dishes.

“Hey, I’m gonna throw the trash away, ok?” Hyunwoo says as he pulls the trashbag out of the trash can. Minhyuk nods, and he hears Hyunwoo unlock the front door to go throw the trash out.

As he’s finishing rinsing off the dishes, he hears a loud cry coming from Hyunwoo’s parents’ room. Abandoning the dishes quickly, Minhyuk raced into Hyunwoo’s room.

“Appa! Appa!” Soonyoung is curled up in the bed, sobbing. Minhyuk dashed over to the bed sat on the side of it, gently shaking Soonyoung awake.

Distraught, Soonyoung crawls into Minhyuk’s arm and tangles his hand in Minhyuk’s necklaces again, resting his head against Minhyuk’s chest as he hugs him tightly. Minhyuk wraps his arms around Soonyoung and draws him closer, an even stronger urge of protecting the young child flooding through him.

“Appa,” Soonyoung says against Minhyuk’s chest. Minhyuk’s grip on the young boy tightens, and he brings his hand up to Soonyoung’s hair, gently petting it. He can feel Soonyoung’s tears soaking through his t-shirt.

“Minhyuk?” He hears Hyunwoo yell urgently, opening and closing doors loudly. Minhyuk scooped Soonyoung up, supporting him with his hip, and goes out into the living room.

“Hyunwoo, I’m right here,” Minhyuk says gently. Hyunwoo relaxes, until he sees Soonyoung.

“What happened?” Hyunwoo asks, striding over to join Minhyuk, who carries the trembling boy back to Hyunwoo’s parents’ room.

“I dunno, I was just finishing with the dishes when I heard him crying,” Minhyuk sits down on the bed and tries to lay Soonyoung down, but the boy refuses to let go of Minhyuk. “He was calling for his dad in Korean.”

Blearily, Soonyoung looks up at Minhyuk, blinking several times. “Appa?”

Minhyuk smooths the sweat-soaked hair out of Soonyoung’s face gently, “No sweetie, it’s Minhyuk.” Soonyoung looks up at Minhyuk, mouth wobbling as tears threaten to spill from his eyes again.

“Y-you smell like my dad,” Soonyoung says in a quiet voice as he buries his head into Minhyuk’s neck again, sniffling. Minhyuk freezes.

Minhyuk gets up again with Soonyoung in his arms, “Hyunwoo, where’s the bathroom again? I’ll try and clean Soonyoung up a bit, see if that calms him down.”

Hyunwoo guides Minhyuk to the bathroom, and has Minhyuk sit down on the toilet. Hyunwoo grabs a washcloth and wets it with some warm water, handing it to Minhyuk. Since the bathroom is pretty small, he moves out of the small, cramped area to let Minhyuk comfort Soonyoung. When he does this, Minhyuk almost screams out of shock.

The toilet that Minhyuk is perched on is facing the mirror. Obviously, there’s nothing in the place where Minhyuk should be, but that’s not the problem. There’s no sign of anyone in the bathroom, despite Soonyoung being curled up against Minhyuk’s chest.

“Hyunwoo?” Minhyuk says urgently, and points to the mirror. He covers Soonyoung’s ears so that he can’t hear, “I think the kid’s a vampire.”

“Holy shit,” Hyunwoo whispers, running a hand through his hair.

“That’s why he said I smelled like his dad, it’s because he can smell the vampire in me,” Minhyuk adds. “You should ask his mom about this. If he’s really a born vampire and has his smell developed already, he could be in danger.”

“Really?” Hyunwoo asks, concerned.

Minhyuk just nods as he presses the warm washcloth to Soonyoung’s face, wiping away his tears and sweat. The poor kid’s eyes are puffy from crying, and his nose is dripping snot. Minhyuk presses a kiss to Soonyoung’s head, understanding now why he had felt so protective of the child.

Soonyoung snuggles into Minhyuk’s chest again as Minhyuk carefully wipes away the snot and sweat.

“If you want, you can stay the night again,” Hyunwoo says quietly as Minhyuk carries Soonyoung back upstairs, “Only if you want to, obviously, I don’t want to force you to do anything.”

Minhyuk smiles at Hyunwoo as he shifts his grip on Soonyoung, “Nah, I’ll stay. I wanna make sure this lil guy is okay. Also, I want to have a talk with his mom tomorrow.”

“You can either sleep in my parents’ bed or in, uh, in mine again,” Hyunwoo cards a finger through his hair and blushes a bit.

“Is it ok if I sleep in yours?” Minhyuk asks quietly, “It would feel weird sleeping in your parents’ bed.”

Soonyoung tugs on Minhyuk’s shirt to get his attention, “Minhyukkie,” he says slowly, voice slightly muffled because his face is still buried in Minhyuk’s chest, “Can I sleep with you too?”

Minhyuk raises an eyebrow at Hyunwoo, who nods. “Yeah,” Hyunwoo reaches out to pat Soonyoung’s head gently.

Minhyuk doesn’t really change or brush his teeth, due to the tight grip that Soonyoung has on him. Instead, he opts to slide into Hyunwoo’s bed, watching quietly as Hyunwoo gets ready for bed as well. The pangs in his chest are intense now, and Minhyuk tightens his grip on Soonyoung.

“Minhyuk?” Soonyoung says sleepily, “Did you know my dad?”

“Know your dad?” Minhyuk looks down at Soonyoung, “No, why do you ask?”

Soonyoung looks away, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Minhyuk hugs Soonyoung closely again, letting his tiny head rest against Minhyuk’s chest. “Well, you smell like my dad. And um, the necklaces that you wear, Daddy used to wear those necklaces too. When he left to go on a trip, Mommy told me that he gave them to me.”

Minhyuk can feel his breath caught in the back of his throat, “Baby, how long ago did your dad go on this trip?”

“I dunno exactly,” Soonyoung fiddles with the necklace, “A long, long time ago. I barely remember Daddy, but Mommy says that he’s in a much better place now, and that he’s happy. If he’s happy where he is, then I’m ok with not having Daddy here. I just, sometimes I just really miss him.”

Minhyuk doesn’t know what to say, so he opts to just stroke Soonyoung’s light bleached hair. He’s also a little curious what mom would bleach their four year old son’s hair.

“Scooch over a bit,” Hyunwoo rumbles out, and lifts the covers to lie next to Minhyuk, “Good night, everyone.” He leans over to turn off the lamp on his nightstand, making it dark.

“Good night!” Soonyoung chirps from between the two. Long after Hyunwoo and Soonyoung have fallen asleep, Minhyuk lays in bed, thinking.

One of two things had to have happened to Soonyoung’s dad. Either he was killed by vampire hunters or he was killed by another vampire for betraying the coven. No matter which way, that put Soonyoung at extreme risk, especially because his mom wasn’t a vampire and didn’t have any smell, not the way Hyunwoo did.

Maybe that was why Soonyoung’s mom had Hyunwoo babysit him, so that Hyunwoo’s strong scent would protect Soonyoung. For a boy at the age of four, born a vampire, to start developing his vampire powers that young meant that he was from an extremely influential bloodline, even more influential than Minhyuk’s bloodline.

Kwon.

Kwon.

Where had he heard that name before?

Just before Minhyuk was about to fall asleep, he realized where he had heard it. Kwon Jiyong, the “king” of vampires, from the Andong Kwon vampire clan which acted as the ruling clan of all vampires. There had been rumors that a little less than five years ago, Jiyong had an affair with a human.

“Minhyuk.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Minhyuk!”

“Mmmmm.”

“Minhyuk, Ms. Kwon is here, you still wanna talk to her?”

Minhyuk jolted out of bed to come face-to-face with Hyunwoo, who was dressed and ready for school.

“Shit, is she still here?” Minhyuk asked, getting out of bed quickly and throwing his sweatshirt on.

“Yeah, she’s downstairs,” Hyunwoo said, and watched as Minhyuk raced down the stairs.

“Hyunwoo, can you distract Soonyoung while I talk to her?” Minhyuk called up. Hyunwoo nodded and went out to the living room, picking Soonyoung up.

“Why don’t we go get some cereal, buddy?”

“Ms. Kwon, why don’t you sit down?” Minhyuk was in the living room, and gestured to the couch. Once Ms. Kwon was seated, Minhyuk took a seat next to her. “Now, Ms. Kwon, I want you to understand that with what I’m about to say, I want your son safe. Last night, I was taking care of your son who had a bit of a breakdown and I noticed that he doesn’t show up in mirrors.”

Ms. Kwon froze before getting to her feet, scrambling back.

“Y-you know!” She gasped, clutching her chest, “You’re a hunter, get away! Where’s my son?”

“Ms. Kwon,” Minhyuk said sternly, his commanding tone making her freeze. In another room, Hyunwoo stilled, hearing the irritation in his voice. Looking straight at the woman, Minhyuk willed his fangs to appear.

“My name is Lee Minhyuk, of the Yi Wanyong clan,” He says quietly, helping her to her feet, “Is your husband, by chance, Kwon Jiyong?” Ms. Kwon stills, staring down at her fingers, twisting in her lap. “You need to be honest with me. There may be things about the coven and about vampire law that you are unaware of. I can help.”

“Yes,” Ms. Kwon whispered, “No one is supposed to know. We were married for about half a year, five years ago. I got pregnant, and since Jiyong is a vampire, there was a 50/50 chance that Soonyoung would be a vampire. A year after he was born, as you probably know, Jiyong’s father died and he had to assume his role as leader. Because Jiyong was gone and Soonyoung has such a strong scent, we were vulnerable to hunters attacking us. When Jiyong visited once, he suggested that we move into the house next door—the one that I believe you used to live in. Your parents were the ones that suggested it, because of how strong Hyunwoo’s scent is.” Ms. Kwon looked at Minhyuk with tear filled eyes. “If Jiyong had been anyone else—if he had been you, we would have been allowed to mate by vampire law. But because of the stupid coven and their needy ways, Jiyong is only allowed to mate with another vampire because he can only produce pure children.”

Minhyuk freezes, and his blood runs cold.

“Who told you that?” Minhyuk asks urgently, “Who said that to you, who told you that the law says that?”

“Jiyong, why?” Ms. Kwon looks at Minhyuk with a confused expression.

“Ms. Kwon—“

“Yuri,” Ms. Kwon, or rather Yuri, says gently.

“Yuri, there is no coven law saying that the leader cannot bear children with half-lineage,” Minhyuk says slowly, “That used to be the case, hundreds of years ago, but not anymore. Times have changed, and while yes, there are the thousand-year old conservatives who say that half children aren’t valid, they don’t matter. Since 1600, half-lineage children have been able to assume the throne. In fact, Jiyong’s father is half human.”

“What?” Yuri’s face is drained of color completely, “You’re saying that Jiyong lied to me? Why the hell should I believe you?”

Minhyuk gets up and grabs his backpack, which is sitting on the floor of the living room. Luckily, inside is his Coven Law textbook, which he grabs and hands to Yuri.

“Look up the Andong Kwon clan,” Minhyuk says quietly. With shaking hands, Yuri does as Minhyuk says. He closes his eyes, a harsh headache coming on.

“Oh god,” Yuri whispers, “I think I’m gonna be sick.” Minhyuk rushes her to the bathroom and holds up her hair as she throws up into the toilet bowl. When she’s done and she’s rinsed her mouth out, Minhyuk gives her a hug.

“Yuri, I’m sorry,” He says, “I can give you my phone number, if you’d like. Jiyong may not be the person you know, and you should be careful. My family is a power family—not as powerful as his, but I can provide you and your son with protection. Stay safe.”

Yuri nods, meeting Minhyuk’s level gaze, and goes into the kitchen to get Soonyoung. As they’re leaving, Soonyoung waves the two teens goodbye.

“So what happened?” Hyunwoo asks curiously, “I have a couple minutes before my friend comes to pick me up for school, so spill.”

“Essentially, Yuri and the, like, kind of the vampires fucked, Yuri gets pregnant, Jiyong pretends to be in love with her and says all this crap about how they have to hide, because Yuri is a human she doesn’t know any better, and Yuri and Soonyoung haven’t seen Jiyong in like fucking four years. Also, they get attacked by vampire hunters.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Minhyuk turned to Hyunwoo, “I didn’t realize that they moved in to my old house. Apparently my parents told them to, they knew that your scent was so strong, so they told Jiyong to move them there for Soonyoung’s protection.”

“Really?” Hyunwoo smiles a bit, “So technically, when we were younger, I was protecting you?”

“Yes, you big dork, you were,” Minhyuk bumps Hyunwoo’s hip with his own. “Listen, I should probably get going now. I’m gonna be late for school as it is.”

Hyunwoo nods and hands Minhyuk his backpack. He watches from the front steps as Minhyuk throws his backpack into the car and jams the keys into the ignition, powering up the car. He spazzes for a second, and accidentally turns on the window wipers, making Hyunwoo snort quite unattractively.

Hyunwoo waves as Minhyuk backs out of the driveway and onto the street, Minhyuk waving back. A couple of minutes later, Hoseok pulls up and of course, makes a comment about the dopey grin on Hyunwoo’s face, which to Hoseok and Hyungwon’s dismay, stays there until the day of Minhyuk’s presentation.

When Hyunwoo gets home from school on Thursday, the day of Minhyuk’s presentation, there are two guys, probably in their twenties, standing on the front steps of Hyunwoo’s house. They’re both wearing black suits with black collared shirts. One of them is holding a large black bag and the other is carrying a black clothing bag in one hand and a shoe bag in the other.

“Son Hyunwoo?” The first asks, staring straight at Hyunwoo, who nods. “I’m Mingyu, this is Junhui. We’re Minhyuk’s stylists, we’re here to help you prepare for his presentation.”

Hyunwoo nods and invites them in, taking note of the charms dangling around their necks—vampires.

“So, uh,” Hyunwoo eyes the bags suspiciously, ”What exactly are you planning on doing to me?”

The two stylists look Hyunwoo up and down, taking in his body shape, face and hair.

“Dye your hair, probably gel it, get you into the suit and get some makeup on your face,” The first, Mingyu, responds quickly, spotting the stools in the kitchen. They’re just the right height that if Hyunwoo sits in one, Mingyu and Junhui will be able to work on him easily.

“Makeup?” Hyunwoo asks, reaching up to touch his skin.

“Uh yeah, makeup,” Junhui wrinkles his nose, “I dunno about you hyper masculine human, but us vampires understand the need for covering pores and pimples, so for tonight, you will too. Mingyu, get the hair dye.”

The two get to work immediately, first dying small portions of Hyunwoo’s hair. They rinse the dye off in the kitchen sink and Mingyu takes over, working gel through Hyunwoo’s hair. After this, Junhui takes over. He spreads different lotions and creams over his face, and then dumps a plastic bag out on the counter. A ton of makeup products fall out, and Junhui rummages around until he finds a shade that matches Hyunwoo’s skin. He dots it all over Hyunwoo’s face, and then proceeds to pound a strange shaped pink sponge into Hyunwoo’s face, mashing the makeup into his skin. It’s not a pleasant feeling.

Hyunwoo is the subject to eyelinger, which Junhui complains about because apparently, Hyunwoo has a hard time keeping his eyelids still. Once that is done, he brushes a really gross powder all over his face that makes Hyunwoo sneeze, then adds a tiny bit of tinted chapstick.

“Okay, hair and makeup are done,” Mingyu says, leaning back to take in the full effect, “Can you go and get changed by yourself, or do we have to help you with that too?”

Hyunwoo rolled his eyes and took the clothing and shoe bags that Junhui was holding out to him. The first thing he noticed when he got into the bathroom was how different he looked. His hair was gelled up nicely, and had a lighter chestnut brown tone. His skin looked flawless and airbrushed, and his eyes stood out nicely without being too overdone. Mingyu and Junhui had done a good job, and he didn’t feel totally stupid wearing makeup.

Hyunwoo carefully took the clothing out of the bag—an immaculate, deepest black suit and crips, starched white collared shirt. A solid black tie was also included—clearly, they were going for a classic look.

Hyunwoo does his best to climb into the suit without messing up the immaculately sharp folds. After tying the tie, he bends down to  pull on the polished, soft black wing-tip shoes that were in the shoe bag.

Once he got out of the bathroom, Mingyu pushed Hyunwoo towards the door and Junhui handed him his cell phone.

“Dude, you have forty-five minutes to drive to Arcadia and pick Minhyuk up, better get that ass in motion,” Mingyu says, “Hope you have your license.”

“Wait, there’s no way my car can get to Arcadia in that amount of time,” Hyunwoo says in panic. The three are standing outside, and Hyunwoo had just finished locking the door.

“Yeah, you’re not taking your car,” Junhui snorted, “You think you were gonna pick up Lee Minhyuk in that?” ‘That’ is an old, beat up 1994 Camry Toyota. One side is smashed in, and the paint is peeling in multiple sports.

“You’re taking that,” Mingyu points down the street to a car that Hyunwoo hadn’t noticed before, “Here’s the keys. Go get ‘em. Luckily for you, we’re vampires, so we can teleport and shit.” With that, Mingyu and Junhui are gone, leaving Hyunwoo clutching his keys, the car keys and his phone.

Hyunwoo clicks the automatic key, and the lights of probably the nicest Mercedes he’s ever seen flash. With a small “fuck yeah”, Hyunwoo slides into the driver seat and pulls up Google maps, typing in Minhyuk’s address, which he had sent the night before.

The car is amazing, and he arrives in Arcadia with time to spare. It turns out that Minhyuk lives in something akin to a mansion, and Hyunwoo watches in awe as huge iron-wraught gates slide open to allow him inside the huge complex.

He drives down the main driveway, and turns around the huge fountain that is smack dab in the middle of the small cul-de-sac that is created out of the driveway, which loops around the fountain and in front of the main entrance to the huge mansion.

Hyunwoo is about to send Minhyuk a text saying that he’s there when there’s a knock on the car window.

Minhyuk is standing there, waving excitedly with a huge smile on his face.

“Hyunwoo!” Is the first thing he exclaims when he clambers into the passenger seat, “You look amazing!”

“Thanks,” Hyunwoo replies quietly, glancing over at Minhyuk as he starts the car up and drives around the fountain. Minhyuk looks gorgeous in a similar suit as Hyunwoo’s, the same midnight-black fabric. The lapels are shaped a bit differently, and Minhyuk’s tie is a deep blood-red. Fitting. “You too.”

Minhyuk gives Hyunwoo a thumbs up and unlocks his phone, “I can navigate to the venue, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Hyunwoo nods, “I’m not too good with directions, especially if I haven’t been there before. I’m kind of surprised that I didn’t get lost on the way here but your house kind of only had one road.” Minhyuk giggles at that, an incredibly beautiful sound that Hyunwoo finds he wants to hear more often.

“The Presentation is being held at Shrine Auditorium,” Minhyuk begins to say, only for Hyunwoo to interrupt him.

“I’m sorry, did you say the Shrine Auditorium? As in where the fucking Emmys are held?”

“Yeah,” Minhyuk laughed, partially from embarrassment, “Like I said, my family is pretty influential.”

“I guess so,” Hyunwoo mutters under his breath.

“Anyways, you’re gonna take a left here.”

The fifteen minute car ride is filled by pleasant chatter, mostly on Minhyuk’s side.

“Yeah, so you’ll probably meet a lot of my extended family,” Minhyuk nods his head, sighing a bit, “They can be very, ah, aggressive. And rude. And sexual. Same goes for my friends.”

“They don’t sound all too different from my friends,” Hyunwoo comments, lips quirking up into a small smile. “Hey,” They reached a red light, and Hyunwoo reaches over to pat Minhyuk on the forearm. “Don’t stress to much about this. Like you said, it’s foolproof. Don’t worry, we can make it believable.”

Minhyuk smiles over at Hyunwoo.

After a few more minutes, they pull up to the auditorium. They’re a few minutes late, late enough for there to be loud music and throngs of people going in and out.

“Just think of it as a party for super rich people,” Minhyuk says, “Also, you should probably get out and open my car door, I think the valet is trying to get in.”

“Oh! Right!” Hyunwoo bolts out of his seat, almost knocking over the valet as he dashes to open Minhyuk’s door. As Minhyuk gets out, he notices that the buzz and ebb of the crowd’s conversation is hushed instantly. Minhyuk smiles widely up at Hyunwoo and he feels his heart beat faster, half from just how handsome Minhyuk looks, but also from nerves. He hadn’t realized how many people there would be—and Hyunwoo isn’t a people person.. The valet speeds away with the car and Minhyuk steps towards Hyunwoo, reaching down to grab his hand.

“Don’t worry,” Minhyuk says quietly, and the two walk up the stairs, heads turning to watch the couple intently.

“Minhyuk, hey bro!” A tall guy is the first person to cut off their path. He has a head of clearly dyed hair, and a rectangular smile.

“Hi Taehyung,” Minhyuk says stiffly, bowing slightly to the guy—Taehyung. His grip on Hyunwoo’s hand tightens.

“My, my, my, what do we have here?” Another person says, and Hyunwoo feels someone throw their arm around his neck. He jolts at the sudden contant.

“Jimin, hands off. Now,” Minhyuk growls, eyes suddenly red as he glares at the second guy.

“Hey, I’m just sayin’, he’s a cutie,” Jimin smirks, slinking around to join Taehyung, the two looking the Hyunwoo up and down.

“Yeah, well you’re done saying shit, now move,” Minhyuk hisses, and stalks off between the two of them, dragging an oblivious Hyunwoo behind them. “God, I fucking hate them.”

“Language, my dear,” A lilting, teasing voice says, “Minhyuk, we’ve been over this.”

“Oh can it, Kihyun,” Minhyuk sighs, but smiles at the new face, or rather, new faces. Three new guys have approached Minhyuk, but Hyunwoo can tell that Minhyuk is much more comfortable around them. Minhyuk turns to Hyunwoo. “Hyunwoo, these are my best friends in school, Kihyun—“ The guy with the lilting voice nods, “Jooheon—“ The second guy, whose hair is dyed a bright red, smiles, and deep dimples appeared in his cheeks, “And Changkyun.” The last guy shoots Hyunwoo a peace sign, followed by finger guns. “Changkyun, stop.”

“What?” Changkyun rolls his eyes, “You can try and contain me, but you will never succeed.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hyunwoo rumbles, “I’m Son Hyunwoo.”

“Ah, the elusive boyfriend,” Kihyun smiles gently at Hyunwoo, “You’re a human, right?” Hyunwoo nods. “It’s pretty easy to tell from your scent, but I figured it would be courteous to ask. How are you finding the coven so far?”

“He just got here,” Minhyuk butts in, “He’s only met you and the terror twins.”

“Oh god, those brats,” Changkyun rolls his eyes again—Hyunwoo can tell that this will be a reoccurring thing. Changkyun and Hyungwon would get along very well. “What did they say.”

“Nothing too bad,” Minhyuk shrugs, “I think they knew that they’re on my turf, metaphorically. They wouldn’t start shit tonight.”

“Yeah, well, speaking of which, happy birthday man!” Jooheon crows loudly, punching Minhyuk on the arm. Minhyuk clutches it, face wincing in pain.

“Hey man, just because you just got your vamp strength doesn’t mean you need to break my fucking arm,” Minhyuk whines, rubbing it. Hyunwoo looks down at him in concern.

“You okay?” He asks quietly.

“Yeah,” Minhyuk smiles up at Hyunwoo, body leaning into Hyunwoo’s larger one slightly, “Thanks.”

Minhyuk’s three friends watched the couple fondly.

“We’ll let you guys find your seats and say hi to the Lees,” Kihyun said, shepherding the other two again.

“What? I wanted to talk to Minhyuk more!”

“Let them be.”

Minhyuk and Hyunwoo are totally oblivious to the three bickering as Minhyuk leads Hyunwoo to where his parents are sitting regally at a table. Hyunwoo recognizes them, but it’s weird to see them in such nice, fancy clothes. He’s used to seeing Minhyuk’s dad in old ratty jeans and baseball caps, and here he is in a tuxedo. His memories of Minhyuk’s mom are her in the garden, clad in floral pants and a huge floppy straw hat, and here she is in a beautiful gown, thousands of crystals sewn into it that shimmer with her every move. Hyunwoo is stunned by the sheer beauty of the couple, and he can see where Minhyuk got it from.

“Hyuwnoo,” Minhyuk’s mom makes a noise at the back of her throat and gets up gracefully, walking around the table to hug Hyunwoo tightly, “It’s so nice to see you.” Hyunwoo is suddenly hyperaware that all eyes in the room are on him.

When Minhyuk’s mom releases him, Minhyuk grabs Hyunwoo’s hand again, and he relaxes a bit as Minhyuk’s father greets him.

“It’s nice to see you, son, you’ve grown up nicely,” He shakes Hyunwoo’s had firmly, skin a tad cold. “I couldn’t ask for a more respectable human than you to mate with Minhyuk.”

“Dad,” Minhyuk whines, cheeks red, “Stop it.”

“What? It’s true,” Minhyuk’s dad winks at Hyunwoo, a familiar mischievious grin on his lips, one that Hyunwoo sees on Minhyuk, “He’s handsome, he’s smart, he’s tall and he has wonderful manners. What’s there not to like.”

“Nothing,” Minhyuk mumbles. Hyunwoo doesn’t hear it (as a human, his hearing isn’t great), but Minhyuk’s parents do, and find it adorable.

“Why don’t you two sit down?” Minhyuk’s mother asks gently. Hyunwoo nods and follows Minhyuk’s parents to the table, first pulling Minhyuk’s chair out before sitting down himself. The action doesn’t go unnoticed by Minhyuk’s mom, who smiles to herself.

The four sit for a while, and Minhyuk’s parents ask Hyunwoo a lot of questions about his life, how he’s doing in school, if there are any extracurriculars. They seem pleased with his responses, and the Lee family manages to distract Hyunwoo from the fact that thousands of people are watching his every move. They’re genuinely kind and nice people, and the four find themselves reminiscing the past.

“Ah, I wish we could visit your parents sometime and catch up,” Minhyuk’s dad says wistfully. As Minhyuk’s mom agrees, a tall slender man comes up to Minhyuk’s dad and says something into his ear. Minhyuk’s dad looks over at Minhyuk, and then at Hyunwoo.

“Well boys, it’s time for the ceremony.” Minhyuk’s dad rises to his feet, and Hyunwoo scrambles up as well, following Minhyuk down a dark corridor.

“Ceremony?” Hyunwoo looks alarmed, so Minhyuk pats his bicep.

“It’s all me, you just stand there and look handsome,” Minhyuk reaches up to pat Hyunwoo’s cheek, “Shouldn’t be a problem.” Hyunwoo blushes, in a daze, and isn’t really aware that Minhyuk is now dragging Hyunwoo onto a huge stage, facing the entire crowd of tables full of elite vampires.

The ceremony begins, and Hyunwoo lowkey spaces out. He’s just standing there awkwardly. First, Minhyuk’s father combines some herbs and dark liquids into a bowl and mixes them over a candle’s flame, and Minhyuk drinks it. Then, he does some other weird shit, gets another necklace placed around his neck by his mom.

“Excuse me,” someone mutters, and the tall lanky man from before is pushing past Hyunwoo, a brazier of red hot coals in his hands. Hyunwoo jumps.

“Holy shit,” He mutters. The crowd erupts in titters and laughter—right. Vampire superhearing. Well, fuck.

Minhyuk’s father takes an elaborately carved bronze knife out of a velvet box and hands it to Minhyuk. Minhyuk holds his right hand over the coals, and with his left hand, he slices the knife across the palm of his right hand, letting crimson blood drip onto the coals. Hyunwoo assumes it’s part of this ceremony shit, but he wants to rush over and clean the wound on Minhyuk’s hand, not watch as he bleeds out on a bunch of hot rocks.

“I present to you today, Lee Minhyuk, first born son to Lee Siwon and Minhee of the Yi Wanyong clan,” Minhyuk’s father raises Minhyuk’s right hand, where the wound has completely disappeared. “Dum vivunt in sanguine Patriarchus!”

“Dum vivunt in sanguine Patriarchus!” The crowd choruses back.

With those words, Minhyuk’s head shoots up, eyes crimson red. Leathery bats wings shoot out of his back and beat once, twice, and then Minhyuk collapses. The crowd goes wild.

“This is where you come in, my boy,” Minhyuk’s father grins good-naturedly at Hyunwoo, “When it’s a human-mate ceremony, really the only thing the human does is cart the vampire away.”

Hyunwoo gapes at Minhyuk’s dad, still a little confused on everything that just happened. Well, like Minhyuk said, he got his wings. But seeing Minhyuk with actual wings is a little disconcerting. Hyunwoo waits in a small room off to the side for Minhyuk to come to. He hears the sound of the party starting up again, and people talking and having a good time.He looks closely at Minhyuk, who is licking his chapped lips. Hyunwoo gets up, figuring he should get a glass of water or something. As he’s leaving the small room, he runs into two elegantly dressed guys, around his age.

“Look who it is,” One of them sneers at Hyunwoo, “Loverboy in the flesh. You stink worse than I imagined.”

“I wonder what he sees in you?” The other purrs, leaning in close, “Has he drank you blood yet? Has he fucked you? You’re pretty muscular, it makes sense that Minhyuk would go for a guy like you, seeing what a fucking bitch that pussy is.”

Hyunwoo narrowed his eyes and drew his shoulders back, leveling his gaze with the two boys.“I don’t know who the hell the two of you are, but let me make something extremely clear,” He says quietly, exuding rage and confidence, “I may not be a vampire, but I am a human who enjoys this thing called boxing. I am also Minhyuk’s boyfriend, and if I ever hear you say anything rude about him again, you’ll see why us humans enjoy boxing.” He pauses, stepping forward and cocks his head. “Oh wait, you won’t see why humans enjoy it—I will.”

The two just sneered at him and stalk off, complaining loudly about how “ it wasn’t worth their time”. Hyunwoo let out a deep breath of air and unclenched his fists.

Time to go find the water, Hyunwoo thought to himself, starting down the corridor towards the main auditorium.

Back inside the room, Minhyuk slumped against the door. He had heard the whole conversation, and he fought to not squeal at how sexy Hyunwoo had sounded. He could have easily stood up for himself, but the fact that Hyunwoo cared enough about him to make those kind of threats—and call him his boyfriend without being around Minhyuk—meant a lot to him. That low, menacing voice was also doing a lot for Minhyuk.

“Minhyuk-ah?” Hyunwoo knocked at the door, and Minhyuk scrambled to sit on the bed. Hyunwoo entered, a plastic cup of water in his hand, “Here, I thought it might help.” Minhyuk smiled gratefully to Hyunwoo- the guy was so thoughtful. “That was uh, some ceremony,” Hyunwoo said stiffly, trying to create conversation.

Minhyuk chuckled, and nodded.“Yeah, it hurt more than I expected,” Minhyuk sighed, looking down at his palm.

“Oh yeah, are you okay?” Hyunwoo asked, reaching out to take Minhyuk’s right hand. He examined it, calloused fingers gently running over the tender, puffy part where Minhyuk had cut and healed himself.

“Yeah, it barely hurts,” Minhyuk assured Hyunwoo. Without thinking, Hyunwoo raised Minhyuk’s open palm to his lips, barely brushing a kiss against it. Minhyuk didn’t think his heart had ever beat that fast before.

“O-Oh! Sorry,” Hyunwoo dropped Minhyuk’s hand, turning bright red, “Oh god, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Minhyuk smiled up at Hyunwoo and slid off the bed he had been perched on, lacing his fingers with Hyunwoo’s. “Let’s go?” Hyunwoo nodded in agreement, and they left the room, starting down corridor towards the party.As they turned a corner, Minhyuk stuck out a hand to stop Hyunwoo, gesturing to his ear. Hyunwoo looked at Minhyuk, puzzled, until Minhyuk remembered that Hyunwoo couldn’t hear or smell like Minhyuk could.

“It’s Jiyong,” Minhyuk whispered into Hyunwoo’s ear, “He’s making out with some chick, they’re like a minute away from fucking.” Hyunwoo tried to stay focused on the task at hand and ignore the shiver that sped down his spine when Minhyuk’s lips brushed against the shell of his ear. “Just follow my lead.” He marched forward, hang clenched onto Hyunwoo’s. Sensing Minhyuk’s tension, Hyunwoo released Minhyuk’s hand in favor of wrapping an arm around his waist, trying to calm him down a bit. Hyunwoo felt Minhyuk’s body relax into his own.

As the two walked past the man who Hyunwoo presumed to be Jiyong, Minhyuk nodded stiffly.

“Kwon.”

“Lee. Congratulations to you and your mate.”

Minhyuk nodded again and walked straight past, sagging into Hyunwoo. As they entered the party, with the loud noises even to Hyunwoo’s ears, Minhyuk stiffened again.

“Hey, is there any way we can bounce?” Hyunwoo suggested, “You can come over to my place, I forgot to give you your birthday gift.”Minhyuk smiled up at Hyunwoo, grateful at how easily Hyunwoo could read his mood.

“I’d like that. Lemme just ask my parents.” After getting permission from his parents, Hyunwoo and Minhyuk got the car from the valet and sped off into the night. When they were on the freeway, Minhyuk rolled down the windows and blasted music from the radio—Sistar’s new song, I Like That. The two belted out the song as they zipped down the freeway, balmy air caressing their cheeks. When Hyunwoo finally pulled up into the driveway, the two looked over at Yuri’s house, both knowing that Jiyong wasn’t truly Yuri’s husband anymore. With a sigh, Hyunwoo got out of the car and helped Minhyuk out.

The two sat down at the stools in the kitchen, and Hyunwoo went to get Minhyuk’s present, which was wrapped in some tissue paper.

“It’s kind of, uh, stupid,” Hyunwoo said shyly, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched Minhyuk demolish the tissue paper in his excitement.

“If it came from you, it’s perfect,” Minhyuk said in a moment of emotion before tearing away the last bit of wrapping paper. “Hyunwoo, oh my god.” He holds up a baseball cap with a cute little stack of cartoon pancakes on the front. “Hyunwoo, this is so cute!”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Hyunwoo replies shyly, obviously pleased with Minhyuk’s reaction nonetheless.

“No, it really is perfect,” Minhyuk hops down from his stool to stand in front of Hyunwoo, and jams the hat onto his head. “Hyunwoo, no one has ever gotten me a birthday present before. No one ever cared.”

Hyunwoo stares down at Minhyuk, who is standing right in front of him. The lighting makes him look angelic, his skin glowing and eyes twinkling—or maybe that’s how he always looks. Hyunwoo’s eyes dart down to his lips and back to his sparkling eyes.

“Hyunwoo?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you? Like, outside of this whole fake mate thing, or like fake boyfriend thing, or fake whatever thing, because you look really hot, I mean, you always look really hot, and I really like you and I really wa—mmphoin!”

Hyunwoo yanks Minhyuk towards him and presses his lips firmly against Minhyuk’s, effectively shutting him up.

“You were rambling,” Hyunwoo mumbles against Minhyuk.“You’re such a dork,” Minhyuk laughs, and winds his arms around Hyunwoo’s neck, pulling him closer so that he can kiss him more aggresisvely. The hat, which had been sitting on Minhyuk’s head, knocks into Hyunwoo’s forehead and falls to the floor from the force of it all. Minhyuk pushes forward a bit, until Hyunwoo’s back hits the counter. Hyunwoo makes a small noise of surprise, and Minhyuk takes the opportunity to lean up a bit further and take Hyunwoo’s bottom lip between his lips, biting down, but not hard enough to draw blood. Hyunwoo wraps his arms around Minhyuk’s waist, hands heavy, and draws him closer, deepening the kiss. Minhyuk inhales Hyunwoo’s scent, a deep, earthy and soothing smell that’s laced with something a bit more sharp now.

His lips are soft—super soft—and smooth, and Minhyuk just wants to bite down and never let go. He doesn’t, though, because that would be creepy. Minhyuk does bite down on Hyunwoo’s soft bottom lip again and pull slightly. He swipes over the tender area with his tongue, soothing it. The two part for air momentarily, eyes meeting, before smiling and crashing lips again, open-mouthed this time. It’s hot, both in a sensual way and in a temperature way—Hyunwoo’s body is heating to Minhyuk’s sensitive touch, and he craves more. Minhyuk tangles his fingers into the short hairs at the nape of Hyunwoo’s neck, and the older groans slightly into the kiss. Minhyuk can feel one of his large hands on his ass, the other still curled into Minhyuk’s waist.

Minhyuk reaches up to loosen Hyunwoo’s neck tie with trembling fingers, and Hyunwoo smiles gently, reaching up to yank the tie off swiftly. It’s probably the sexiest thing Minhyuk has ever seen in his life, and he leans forward to connect their lips again, fingers working quickly to unbutton Hyunwoo’s shirt at least a little bit.

Minhyuk wraps his legs around Hyunwoo and is surprised and way too turned on when Hyunwoo just lifts him up effortlessly. Minhyuk grinds down into Hyunwoo slightly, arms gripping Hyunwoo’s straining biceps.

“Upstairs?” Hyunwoo pants, detaching his lips from Minhyuk. Minhyuk nods, and Hyunwoo starts up the stairs. Minhyuk gets pretty bored pretty fast, and latches his mouth onto the spot right underneath Hyunwoo’s ear, sucking and nibbling. He works his way down Hyunwoo’s sharp jawline and down his neck as Hyunwoo sets Minhyuk down on his feet, now that they’re in Hyunwoo’s room.

“God,” Minhyuk groans as he reaches his collarbone, “Do you have any idea how hot you look in a suit? It’s like you were—“ Minhyuk bit down on the tan skin between his two collarbones, and then continues talking, lips moving against his skin, “It’s like you were made to wear suits.” Minhyuk manages to work Hyunwoo’s shirt off of him and drinks in the sight of Hyunwoo’s bare chest, his beautiful tan skin slightly covered in sweat.

Wordlessly, Hyunwoo reaches over and helps Minhyuk out of his blazer first, and then his tie. The two start kissing again, slowly working the buttons of Minhyuk’s shirt. When he finally tosses it to the floor and their bare chests meet, Minhyuk wraps his legs around Hyunwoo’s waist again, grinding down experimentally a couple of times. Hyunwoo picks Minhyuk up and carries him over to the bed, gently setting him down. Minhyuk reaches out to pull Hyunwoo down with him, the two landing on the soft mattress easily. Minhyuk tangles his legs with Hyunwoo’s easily, and the two kiss for a little while longer before their intensity from before tapers off.

“Wow,” Hyunwoo mutter. He’s lying on his back now, Minhyuk on his back as well. Minhyuk’s head is resting on Hyunwoo’s chest, and Hyunwoo is holding Minhyuk into his side tightly.

“Yeah,” Minhyuk is still breathing heavily from that, but at least he doesn’t have a hard-on anymore (he had to think about having straight sex though). “Uh, just to be clear, I don’t want to have sex. Right now.”

“I don’t either,” Hyunwoo responds gently, “And even if I did, I would never pressure you into anything.”

“You know Hyunwoo, you’re a fucking dream,” Minhyuk rolls over onto his stomach, propping himself up with his elbows, “Can you just date me already?” Hyunwoo turns bright red at this.

“Are you serious?” He asks, frowning a bit.

“I wouldn’t fucking play you like this,” Minhyuk whines, scrunching his nose, “Son Hyunwoo, will you be my legit boyfriend? Like, my main squeeze? My bae? My boo-thang?”

“Yes,” Hyunwoo says exasperatedly, “And you call me a dork.”

Minhyuk giggles excitedly and leans down, pressing a quick kiss to Hyunwoo’s lips, then his nose, then raises his hand to kiss his calloused fingers. The two spend the rest of the night snuggling and kissing before drifting off to sleep, happily cuddled up together.

Their first official date ends up being two days later, on a Saturday. Hyunwoo is taking Soonyoung to get pancakes, because he’s babysitting him, and he asks if Minhyuk wants to come along—Minhyuk has never responded to a text that fast before.

“Minhyuk!” Soonyoung cries when he sees him, waving his chubby little hand adorably. Minhyuk smiles widely and goes to join the two at the booth that Soonyoung picked out.

”Hi, Minhyuk!”

“Hey, baby,” Minhyuk smiles at the boy, “Hey, babe,” Minhyuk also presses a kiss to Hyunwoo’s cheek, making Soonyoung squeal.“Did you guys get married?” Soonyoung asks seriously, leaning forward. Hyunwoo choke on his mediocre coffee and Minhyuk snickers.

“No sweetie, we didn’t get married,” Minhyuk reaches down and holds up Hyunwoo’ s hand, which is tightly laced with his own, “We’re dating!”

From across the diner, Changkyun and Kihyun spot the three as they’re entering.

“Hey, we should go say hi,” Kihyun gestures to them. The two make their way over, and greetings are exchanged, along with a lot of cooing over Soonyoung, who beams from all the attention.

“Do you guys want to sit with us?” Hyunwoo asks quietly. Changkyun and Kihyun immediately agree, and slide into the booth. Soonyoung looks a little overwhelmed sitting next to two strangers, so Hyunwoo picks him up and sits him in between Minhyuk and Hyunwoo.Minhyuk watches this exchange with a fond expression.

“You okay with this?” Hyunwoo leans in to murmur in Minhyuk’s ear.

“Yeah, I’m okay with this,” Minhyuk smiles back at Hyunwoo, absorbing everything. As the waitress brought out everyone’s food, Minhyuk sat back, taking it all in. Changkyun and Kihyun, bickering and teasing each other. Hyunwoo quietly watching, smiling as he carefully cut up Soonyoung’s pancakes up into perfect bite sizes. The way that Hyunwoo glanced at Minhyuk, making sure he was okay.

For the first time in a long while, Minhyuk felt wanted, like he belonged.

A week later, the next Saturday, Hyunwoo was sprawled out on his bed. His parents were back home from Jeju, and Hyunwoo had informed his parents about Minhyuk and him dating. They didn’t really give too much  of a reaction—it was more of a “as long as no one gets an STD” type of thing.It’s still pretty early in the morning and Minhyuk hasn’t texted him yet—he’s probably still asleep.

Hyunwoo leans back on his bed, phone on his chest. He’s just drifting back to sleep when his phone vibrates, and he quickly unlocks it.

from Minhyuk

look out ur window lolol

Puzzled, Hyunwoo slowly pushes himself out of bed and to the window, where he looks through the dirty glass. In the house facing his, Yuri’s, Minhyuk’s smiling face is greeting him from the opposite window.

Barely thinking, Hyunwoo rushes out of the house, dressed in only boxers and some stupid Pokemon t-shirt. Minhyuk meets him down there with a huge grin.

“My parents agreed to let me stay in Yuri’s house for the rest of the school year,” Minhyuk says excitedly, “So that I can protect her and Soonyoung.”

“It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that your boyfriend lives next door?” Hyunwoo teases, stepping closer to Minhyuk and looking down to meet him in the eye.

“Absolutely not,” Minhyuk teases back.

“Just kiss already!” Soonyoung’s high-pitched voice complains, making the two boys look down in surprise and amusement. Minhyuk scoops Soonyoung up in his arms and leans in to Hyunwoo.

“Yeah Hyunwoo, just kiss me already.” Hyunwoo looks at Minhyuk with pure love and adoration and pulls him close, kissing him deeply.

“Ewww! You guys are so gross!”

“Soonyoung, you’re the one who wanted us to kiss in the first place.”