Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

2

When Jake comes to, he’s greeted by a slightly familiar gray washed ceiling, a thin blanket carefully tucked around his figure, and a lamp turned on by his bedside. He’s not in his apartment, that’s for sure. He isn’t exactly sure where he is. A raspy sound hikes up his throat and he has to put in effort to dislodge his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

He tries to get up, pushing himself up against the headboard, and he shivers almost immediately as the blanket falls off his shoulders. He glances down his bare arms, delayed in realizing that he was dressed in a big tank top that wasn’t his. Most of his skin has gone back to normal, but his fingertips are still gray—a residue of what had transpired.

Did someone find him? Bring him home with them perhaps? The memories of that day are foggy, and his mind refuses to allow him information.

Panic begins to rise up his chest. What if it was a human who helped him? What if, in his dazed state, he had hurt someone? What if—

“Jaeyun!” A familiar voice suddenly snaps him out of his down spiraling thoughts, and he looks up to see Heeseung standing by the doorway, immediately dropping the hamper of clothing in his hands.

“Hyung,” Jake manages to croak out, relief washing over him instantly.

“You’re up!” He says, eyes brightening as he enters the room, sitting on the edge of the bed.

He brushes Jake’s hair away from his face to press his palm against his forehead, then his neck. “Your fever died down, that’s good.” He breathes in repose, and Jake just blinks at him.

“What’s wrong?” Heeseung asks worriedly when he sees the perplexed look on his face.

“I’m glad to see you, hyung.” Jake admits, fearful that Heeseung might think otherwise. “But…how- where am I?” Although the place seems like something he’s seen before, the furniture and draperies similar to those in the basement, this room is new to him.

“You’re in our house.” Heeseung answers calmly, giving Jake a reassuring smile. He knows just how dreadful it is to experience what Jake went through. The least he can do is make him feel safe.

Jake’s brows quirk a little, not quite sure what to make of the situation. “Oh,”

“And this?” The vampire pup asks, pinching the fabric of the tank top between his fingers.

“That’s mine,” Heeseung says, eyes crinkling slightly with what Jake fails to read. Amusement? Fondness? Blood creeps up his neck almost instantly, and he finally catches a whiff of Heeseung’s pine scent that Jungwon mentioned. He smells like Heeseung right now and he doesn’t know what to make of it, and how to deal with how that makes him feel.

“You must be hungry, c’mon.” Heeseung says, beckoning him up. “Can you stand?” He takes Jake’s hand and helps him up, the younger learning that he does in fact have difficulty standing—like his bones would be pulverized to ash with the slightest weight put on them. There’s a sharp shooting pain up his back and he nearly toppled over if Heeseung wasn’t so quick to catch him. Before they exit the room, the older drapes a large cardigan over his frame, the smell of pine growing stronger.

There, Jake sees Jay hunched over a boiling pot, brows knitted in the middle of his forehead as he takes a sip of the soup he was concocting. The blond glances over to them, eyes widening for a fraction of a second before he schools his face once more. “You’re up. That’s good,”

A weak chuckle blubbers up Jake’s throat as Heeseung gently deposits him onto their couch. “That’s exactly what Heeseung hyung said,”

“You should eat.” Jay says, voice still as cold as ever. But he turns off the stove and prepares a bowl for Jake despite. 

“Do you remember anything?” Heeseung asks him, sitting next to him on the couch, placing a small blanket over Jake’s knees just as Jay places the soup on the coffee table before him, nearly shoving a spoon into his hands. His eyes flit between Heeseung on his left, and Jay on his right who is flumping down into an armchair.

“Not really,” Jake admits, taking shy sips of the soup before his face lights up at its savory flavor. It drops to his belly pleasantly, warmth spreading across his body, and immediately, he feels a thousand times better. 

He glances at Jay who only looks at him frigidly, quirking his brow as if to ask what he was looking at. 

“It tastes delicious,” Jake says with a meek smile. 

There’s satisfaction that courses through Jay at this confession, but he brushes it off. “Keep eating,”

Jake does as he’s told, emptying the bowl bit by bit. “Do you know how long you were out, Jaeyun-ah?” Heeseung asks, quick to hand him tissues to wipe the oil off the sides of his mouth.

“A day?” Jake guesses. “Two maybe?”

“Two weeks.” Jay supplies, almost cutting him off, crossing his arms and looking at Jake with an expression he can’t quite read.

“Two weeks?” He echoes in disbelief. “I was out for two weeks ?”

“It’s not surprising,” Jay sighs, resting his temple on the knuckles of his hand, bringing his right ankle up to rest on his other knee, dismal eyes still glued on Jake. “Others take months before they recover from something like that,”

Jake tries to wrap his mind around that, not quite understanding just how grave what he went through was. His head whips to the opposite side when Heeseung gets his attention with another question, the older’s hand on his forearm. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

He furrows his brows, trying to recall the moments before everything began to fall apart. “I just finished my long test,” He murmurs, retracing his steps. “I was on my way to the canteen,” That’s right, he was about to grab a bite, then he suddenly started to get nauseous.

“And then I–'' There's a shooting pain behind his eyes and he grips his head, grimacing at the sensation. 

“I–” his memories are clouded, and it seems the more he tries to remember, the more his migraine becomes harrowing.

Heeseung puts his hand over Jake’s, squeezing, hoping to drive a fragment of his pain away. 

There’s a horrible ringing in Jake’s ears as he attempts to relive that day. He shuts his eyes, still trying to remember despite. “I-I walked past a girl, and I was so hungry I-” The sequence of events flood in, and with that, the growing resentment he has for himself. His voice cracks and Heeseung’s heart breaks for him.

“I thought of biting her.” His eyes begin to sting, chest tightening at admitting it out loud. “But I ran to the bathroom and–” The tears are welling up now, the ringing progressing into a deafening sound in his ears. The scenes replay in his mind’s eye—him falling to his knees, his arms turning gray, the phone in his hands, the door nearly breaking when—

When he rushed in.

The ringing comes to a sudden halt and he snaps his head up to look at Jay. “—and you came,” He says in a breath.

There’s a pregnant pause as Jay stares at him, the look in his eyes still indecipherable. “I did.”

The door swings open and slams against the wall, and the last thing Jake sees before his world turns black, is Jay bursting in, out of breath.

He knew something was wrong—even before the storm lands, he’s caught a whiff of it oceans away. He could tell from the dark circles under Jake’s eyes, his rumbling stomach, his pale lips. Something was wrong. His languid steps, his slurred words, his phone suddenly ringing. Something was wrong. He picks up. His sobs, his voice barely there, his incoherent pleas.

He rushes to Jake’s building after a second of searching for his scent, not caring if he blew his cover with how fast he was running. Disguises be damned. Something was wrong.

Though he wishes otherwise, when he gets there and sees Jake lying unconscious on the bathroom floor, he is proven right.

He kneels next to Jake in a hurry, tongue clicking in dismay when he sees the state he is in. His hands are cold, too cold, graying at the tips and hardening at the surface. Shallow breaths escape through Jake’s chapped lips and the furrow in Jay’s brows deepen.

“Fuck,” He says under his breath, undoing the top buttons of Jake’s shirt to let him breathe easier. “I don’t have blood on me.” 

Usually, vampires carry with them the blood packaged in juice boxes from the local vamp store, disguised as raspberry orange juice, for easy access and portability. Of all the times he decides not to bring one, this happens.

He immediately calls Heeseung, thankful that his boyfriend is quick to answer. “I’m in the annex building, 6th floor bathroom. Bring blood. Hurry!”

“Jake.” Jay says, tapping the younger vamp’s hand, prompting him to open his eyes. “Don’t sleep.” 

The boy groans a little, but plunks back against the tiles a second later, limp.

While it isn’t detrimental for vampires to fast, it’s quite maiming to say the least. It takes a toll on their body, slowing down all its functions until it nearly shuts down completely. Going through the torments of dying all over again, but without the claim of death itself. They fall terribly ill afterwards, and recuperation doesn’t come easy. Sometimes, it doesn’t come at all, and they remain limp and lifeless, except, they never really die.

Jake’s lips are beginning to turn worryingly gray, and there’s this alarm creeping up in Jay’s chest that has him tapping the boy’s cheek. “Jake, hey,” He orders, watching him intently with panic steadily rising up his throat. His breaths are shallow, skin turning ashen. And all of the sudden, his eyes are rolling to the back of his head, body jerking violently as he begins to convulse against the bathroom floor.

“Jake!” Jay gathers him in his arms, hoping to cushion his head from the harsh surface of the tiles. Foam begins to form by the sides of his mouth and Jay’s stomach flips at the sight, the fear within him permeating. “Jake,” He tries to say calmly, more for himself than anything. It’s the first time he’s seen a vampire reach this point in fasting.

Jay is a thousand years old. Nothing ever surprises him anymore. But the mere sight of Jake—such an undeniably sweet person despite Jay’s attempts to distance himself and convince himself that he doesn’t like him, is a sight that makes his breath still with dread. 

His voice refuses to come out properly as he calls to the boy once more. “Jake, c’mon,” He says, trying to shake him awake, lolling his head to the side so he doesn’t choke. “Wake up.” 

“Jake, wake up.” There’s paralyzing fear, now gnawing at Jay because no matter how hard he shakes the boy, he doesn’t wake up.

“No, no. Jake, stay with me,” His tone desperate as he holds Jake in his arms, his tremors refusing to cease and for a moment, Jay forgets that they’re immortal, forgets that no matter his seizures, Jake won’t die. 

“Don’t die,” He’s holding onto Jake, whispering for him to stay awake. Stay alive. His voice shakes, glancing down at the boy in his arms through welling tears. And suddenly, it’s 1235 all over again.

Heeseung’s lying limp on the warstruck ground of the Jeolla province, his clothes dyed red—a testament of how hard he fought. “Don’t die,” Jongseong cries, hands fumbling to press against his injuries to stop the bleeding, but crimson seeps through the gaps in his fingers. Heeseung lifts his hand weakly and places it atop Jongseong’s, eyes glued to his master’s face, as if to cement everything in his mind, lest it be his last. 

Then he reaches for Jongseong’s face with what strength he has left, cupping his jaw and the scarlet on his hand is smeared against the nobleman’s cheek. He cries harder, clutching onto Heeseung’s hand as his tears begin to mix with the blood. 

“Jongseong-ah,” Heeseung croaks, but is cut off with the blood gurgling up his throat. He sputters, heaving with difficulty. But he shoulders past it, intent on using his last breath to tell Jongseong how he loves him. Jongseong hushes him, holding onto him as tightly as he could.

“Don’t die,” Jay cries.

Jake doesn’t have an arrow through his chest, or a spear through his stomach, but to Jay it is all the same. He feels that there is no difference as he watches life escape Jake in staggered gasps, just as he watched Heeseung almost take his last breath. 

He grabs Jake’s hand, his cold, gray, and decaying hand, and Jay finds a cry scratching up his throat. “Don’t die,” He says, eyes now clouded with tears as terror grips his being whole. He doesn’t want to watch someone dying in his arms again. “Don’t die,” He whispers, holding Jake flush against him.

Only seconds have passed since he arrived, but it all feels like an eternity to Jay. Heeseung is still nowhere in sight. He’s taking too long. Jake has been in pain for too long. 

Which is why in a surge of desperation, Jay bites down his wrist, ripping through his skin. His blood comes trickling down, and he presses it against Jake’s wizened lips, watching the blood drip down into his throat.

Jake stirs, but still doesn’t wake. Jay nips at his skin once more, dragging his fangs down his wrist and making more blood gush out. Jay’s panic is yet to die down as he holds Jake against him on the bathroom floor with trembling hands, feeding him his own blood from his wounded wrist, eyes still moist with the tears he had no clue of why he shed.

The door swings open, and in comes Heeseung, out of breath and disheveled. His eyes dart down to his lover kneeling on the damp floor, then to Jake lying limp in his arms, then to the marred wrist held against his mouth.

Jay looks over his shoulder, peering up at him with teary eyes, shaken. “I thought he was going to die,” he admits weakly and immediately, Heeseung drops down to his knees to bury Jay’s face in the crook of his neck. At this, the sobs Jay has been desperately trying to swallow down come bubbling up.

“He’s not going to die,” Heseung says, rubbing Jay’s back up and down in soothing patterns, combing through his hair and whispering words of comfort against his ear.

Dying is frightening. But to watch someone else die is a horror in its own. 

There are times when Jay would jolt up in the middle of his sleep, breaking out in cold sweat as he wakes from his dream—a nightmare where he relives Heeseung’s death time and time again. Most of it ends before he could turn Heeseung, and he watches his bloodied lover take his last breath in his arms.

In all of these, Heeseung is always quick to rise from his own slumber, holding him tightly and telling him that he’s here, he’s alive, he’s with him, he’s not going anywhere. And they sit there in their bed with darkness blanketing them as Heeseung chases away the remnants of Jay’s nightmares.

For him to almost witness that again, go through that again, watch someone nearly die in his arms again... Heeseung knows just how painful it is. 

Jay is proud and strong, and bold, and everything amazing. He does things with vigor, fights against injustice with passion. But he feels with just the same amount of fire. He loves, and protects, and laments with all of his heart.

But Jake knows nothing of this. Knows nothing of the panic riddled state Jay was in, nothing of the tears he had unconsciously shed. Knows nothing of the way they had to stay an hour more in the bathroom before Heeseung could calm him down. Nothing of the way Heeseung carried him up to their apartment. Knows nothing of the way Jay sat in their dining room silently that night, a glass of whiskey in his hands as the events of that day played in his head.

But Jake knows he is angry—empty eyes boring into him from across the living room. Jay isn’t usually like this. He nags and scolds and berates. But today he is quiet. Deafening silence hangs overhead, and with the way Jay is staring at him, Jake wishes he’d talk instead.

A million thoughts cross Jay’s mind in those few minutes of quiet, his chest mixing with an amalgam of emotions—anger, disappointment, frustration…worry. But he decides against voicing any of these out.

He takes a deep breath, then sighs, getting up from the couch. “Have another bowl.” He tells Jake. “After that, you feed.”

At the mention of feeding—of blood, Jake’s stomach swirls acridly and immediately feels bile rising up his throat, the thought of nearly attacking someone for it still fresh in his mind. “F-feed? Do I have to?”

Jay finally snaps, the silence pulled taut now shattering upon their feet. “Don’t give me that shit Jaeyun.” He snarls, and it has chills rolling down Jake’s spine. The first time Jay uses his real name, and it’s like this.

His lips begin to tremble and tears sting the back of his eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to look away from Jay’s rigid gaze. Jake clenches his fist, but Heeseung tightens his grip around the boy’s hand. The air stills in the apartment, tension running thick in the air as Jay stands across the living room, unyielding eyes pinning Jake down.

Jay is proud and strong, and bold, and everything amazing. He does things with vigor, fights against injustice with passion. But he feels with just the same amount of fire. He loves, and protects, and laments with all of his heart. But he also angers with all of it.

A million thoughts cross Jay’s mind in those few minutes of quiet, his chest mixing with an amalgam of emotions, anger, disappointment, frustration, worry…but one of it slips through his teeth despite his attempts to bite it back.

“Fine. Don’t feed. Starve yourself to death ,” He seethes. He grabs his jacket and is out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Jake flinches at the sound of it, heart hurting a lot more than it should. Unbearable silence blankets the room with Jay’s exit, and before he knows it, the tears are trickling down his cheeks.

“Oh, Jaeyun.” Heeseung says, inching closer and pulling him in for a hug, nudging him to burrow his face against his shoulder. Jake swallows down his sobs, figure shaking with the tears that rack him. “It’s alright, you can cry.”

With this, the dams break loose, and he clutches onto the fabric of Heeseung’s shirt as he cries. Is it so wrong to feel this way? To feel so scared of yourself, so horrified by your nature? Is it so wrong for Jake to fear that the more he indulges the creature within him, the more uncontrollable he will be?

Jake is quite the character. It’s not everyday you meet a human who turned into a vampire against his will and is taking everything in stride like the good sport he is. But behind all of this, unknown to many, is the difficulty of self acceptance. Jake hasn’t come to terms with who and what he is just yet, and he doesn’t think he’ll completely be able to any time soon.

“I don’t want to feed,” He shakes his head against the older’s shoulder. “Please don’t make me feed,”

The older boy doesn’t talk, instead allowing Jake his moment to cry everything out, all his frustrations, his sorrows, his grievances.

“Hyung, I–” He says through shaky sobs. “I almost bit someone,”

Heeseung’s eyes widen a fraction, remaining quiet as he holds Jake tightly, running his palms down his back. But he waits, as patient and gentle as ever, the palms of his hands pressed against Jake’s spine, grounding him, reminding him that he isn’t alone. It takes a while, but finally, Jake’s weeping softens.

There’s a deep sigh that escapes Heeseung’s lips as he pulls away, wiping Jake’s cheeks dry with the pad of his thumb. “Jaeyun-ah,” He begins, the vampire pup looks up to meet his eye. “But you didn’t, you were strong enough to snap out of it.”

Jake stares at him, a stray sob plashing up his throat, but he’s mostly calmed now. 

Heeseung takes his hand, sandwiching it between both of his, and the younger promptly wonders how he’s so warm. “Look, you’re kind. I know you think of others before anything else, but I want you to think of yourself too.”

See, Jake knows this, knows that if he just listened sooner, they wouldn’t be in this predicament, and he wouldn’t be such a burden. But he was so trying to convince himself that he can push his limits, he can suppress his nature, not knowing that trying to do so will only put him and the people around him in harm’s way.

If he had fed properly, his appetite wouldn’t have acted up, and he wouldn’t have tried to bite that girl. Even without Heeseung saying this, Jake knows.

He brushes his thumb against Jake’s knuckles absently, and the latter’s gaze fall on their linked hands, the gravity of Heeseung’s worlds barely starting to sink in. “It doesn’t make you less of a person if you do.”

Jake releases a heavy breath he didn’t even know he was holding. See, Jake knows this. Knows that he isn’t being selfish if he chooses to sustain himself properly. But the means to do so have just been so difficult for him to come to terms with. But Heeseung’s words, the words he needed to hear desperately, descend into the fissures of his mind, and he finally slumps in defeat, crestfallen eyes darting down the floor in pure shame. “I’m sorry,”

“Not to me.”Heeseung shakes his head. “To Jay,” 

His head whips up to look at the older vamp in confusion.

“He was really worried, y’know.” Heeseung sighs, forehead creased in understanding. Actually, worry is an understatement. The way Jay trembled was so much more than that. But Heeseung isn’t sure if he was in the position to disclose this.

Heeseung stands up to fetch him another bowl of soup. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of this Jaeyun-ah, but vampires actually do die. Well, we come close to it anyway.” Jake watches him hover over the pot, stirring it. “When we fail to sustain ourselves, our body shuts down and it’s like we die, but we don’t. We’ll just stay limp. What do humans call it?” He says, snapping his fingers until he’s finally thought of the word. “Vegetative state.”

He returns to Jake’s side, handing him the bowl. “Some vampires recover, but most don’t. But it takes months for those who do. So it’s a miracle that it only took you two weeks to get up again.”

Jake blinks at him, digesting both the warm broth and the words Heeseung was feeding him, sniffling in between sips still.

“Do you know why that is?” He shakes his head.

“Because Jay fed you his blood.”

The heart in his chest feels like it stops completely, plummeting down to his gut at this revelation. Jay, prominent, out-of-reach, pureblood Jay, giving him his blood. He can’t even begin to comprehend.

“That’s why it only took you two weeks. Without Jay you’d be out for months. Maybe even years.”

See, purebloods are revered for a reason. Aside from being royalty, they are portent in their wholeness. They are refined and poised, yet the quickest and strongest of them all. And their blood…a double edged sword that brings both life and death. When consumed, it breeds a surge of power, a miracle in itself that makes healing quick. But on the contrary, it is poison. Vampires are eternal. Well, they’re supposed to be. But the only way they could possibly die, is at the hands of a pureblood. 

Their blood is luxury, and yet Jay readily ripped his wrist open, just so Jake would stay safe.

At this, at the realization that Jay’s lividness came from a place of concern, the root of his anger stemming from disappointment—disappointment that Jake had failed to take care of himself, he curls into himself further with guilt.

“That’s why you should do your best to take care of yourself, okay?” Heeseung says, carding through Jake’s floppy hair, affection running through his veins and down his fingertips. Jake nods meekly.

“After you eat, do you think you can feed?” The older asks. “I know you don’t want to yet, but you really need to get blood in your system.”

Heeseung knows that Jake’s relationship with human blood isn’t at its best, and he understands. He’s gone through that himself, and Jay was there to help him through it. Now, it’s his turn.

“If you don’t want to drink human blood, you can have mine.” Jake looks up at him so fast that he swears his neck would’ve cracked, and he sees Heeseung’s gentle smile. 

Heeseung is always so kind to him, so ready to help and lend a hand, warmth brimming with the way he moves and lives, and Jake wonders what he did to deserve that. There’s something uncanny that blooms and bursts within his chest, and it gives him the biggest urge to leap forward and hug Heeseung until he’s gasping for air. But he isn’t sure if he’s in the place to do so. Then he wonders if he’ll ever be in the place to do so.

He returns the smile, just as fond and appreciative, then he answers sheepishly. “Thank you hyung, no need for that. I’ll feed.”

1

Even when the twilight passes and evening comes in shades of indigo, Jay doesn’t come home. And no matter how much Heeseung reassures him, telling him that Jay just needs to blow off some steam, Jake can’t help but blame himself.

A day later, Jay does come home, but reeking of his heady perfume mixed with the ashy smell of cigarettes. He pays Jake no mind, still cooking for all of them, but disappearing elsewhere after, only to show up hours later. Jake wants to near him, apologize to him, but couldn’t exactly find it in himself, couldn’t exactly muster up the courage to do so. Jay doesn’t make attempts to talk to him either. 

Jake returns to his own apartment the following day, finally nursed back to health with Jay’s somewhat reluctant cooking and the couple’s hefty stash of blood bags. But even as he exits their house, not a word from Jay.

The rest of the days whiz by and Heeseung drops by everyday to make sure he’s eating and feeding regularly, and with his aid, Jake is learning slowly how to accept the nature of who he is. Heeseung is an angel, Jake decides. The days where the older visits, they sit on the edge of his bed and Heeseung talks to him about things—what to do when the scent of a human’s blood is too pungent, how to improve his sense of smell, where to go when in need of emergency blood.

Two more weeks pass by like that, of him coming across them in the basement and on campus, of Heeseung’s face lighting up when they meet, and of Jay pretending he doesn’t exist.

Jay being cold to him was one thing, but him refusing to even look at him…Jake thinks this is more painful than collapsing on the bathroom floor.

_____

“You look horrible,”

“Gee, thanks Riki.” Jake groans, burying his face under his forearms. Riki is sitting by the edge of his bed, the mattress dipping under his weight.

“You’re welcome,”

“I thought you recovered?” Sunghoon supplies from his computer chair, twirling around. “Haven’t you yet?”

“I have,”

“Then why do you look like you’re a second away from dying?”

A sigh. “I don’t know,”

There’s a pause in the air, Riki pursing his lips in careful thought before reeling back in realization. “It looks like love sickness to me.”

Jake finally lifts his arm to look at the vamp in incredulity. “ Love sickness? Where did you even get that from?”

“Think about it.” Riki says, looking at both of them solemnly, hands out in vague motions. “You’re perfectly fine now. All recovered. Physically.” He gestures at Jake’s body. “ But emotionally?” He says, pointing to the vampire pup’s chest, voice earnest yet so unserious. “You’re not,”

Jake scoffs, rolling his eyes before covering them again with his elbow. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve heard.”

“No, wait. He’s right!” Sunghoon agrees, leaning forward in all seriousness, and it takes Jake every bit of his strength not to groan at the dumbness of the two combined. He really shouldn’t have let them in. “You’re like this because Jay is mad at you.”

At this, Jake freezes, guilty as charged. Sunghoon and Riki share a knowing glance, brows rising smugly. A beat, then Jake finally speaks again.

“Okay, fine. But to call it love sickness is a stretch.”

Riki scoffs. “Why? You have a crush on him anyway.”

Jake sits up and it’s the fastest they’ve ever seen him move. “I do not!”

“Jakey,” Sunghoon starts, again with that all-knowing tone of his that irks Jake to heights. “Don’t even try to lie. We can smell attraction too, y’know,”

Jake gasps. “We can?!”

“No. That’s a werewolf thing. But either way. You like Jay.”

Riki nods. “Heeseung hyung too,”

“I–” Jake sputters in aggravation, stuttering into silence when he couldn’t find the right words to defend himself with. Was he really that obvious? 

“Look, we get it.” Sunghoon says, trying to pacify him. “If anyone knows what you’re going through, it’s me.”

Riki laughs immediately and Sunghoon is quick to pin him with an offended glare. “Well, it's true. Sunoo hyung is somehow always mad at you. That’s why he never gives you an answer,”

It’s Sunghoon’s turn to flash red in irritation. “For the record, he hasn’t given me an answer yet. But he will soon. ” Riki rolls his eyes, teasing the blond and mocking his words with the opening and closing of his hand.

“Oh Sunghoon, you still have a lot to learn.” Riki says haughtily. “If you followed my example you would’ve been Sunoo hyung’s boyfriend ages ago.”

“Example? What example? You bribed Jungwon!” Sunghoon bites back. 

Riki gasps. “I bought him a pet bunny! A gift and a bribe are two different things!”

“Oh so you did bribe him,” Jake quips, surprisingly invested despite his sulking state.

“No!” Riki says, deeply slighted at their implications. “Jungwon liked me back even before I bought him Snowball!”

Sunghoon huffs, giving the computer chair another spin. “That’s what he said,”

“Single people, please shut up.” Riki chaffs, fully intent on boasting about the fact that he’s the only person in the room who is in a healthy, loving, and steady relationship. Jake realizes that they’ve forgotten the issue at hand.

“For the love of god,” He groans in suffering, not really liking the topic of love and partners when he is, in fact, very partnerless right now. Besides, he has more serious things to worry about. Like how to talk to Jay again. “If you’re just going to rave on and on about your boyfriend and your almost-boyfriend, please get out.”

Sunghoon clears his throat, trying to collect his bearings. “What we’re trying to say is, stop worrying. Heeseung hyung already has a soft spot for you. And just let Jay be mad, he won’t be able to resist you anyway. He can’t stay mad for much longer,”

Jake blinks at him, unimpressed. Staring at him like he just said the biggest bluff of the century. 

“What? It’s true!” Sunghoon says, wounded by Jake’s distrust. “They wouldn’t let you get this close to them if they didn’t at least like you one bit.” Riki nods in agreement.

Jake flumps back against his pillows with a grumble. “Stop leading me on, Sunghoon. It makes me feel awful.”

_____

“Hey,” Heeseung says, pulling out the chair next to Jay in their dining room, joining his boyfriend by the table.

Jay, hand full of a bottle of beer, looks up and smiles tightly at him. “Hey,”

Heeseung reaches out to comb through Jay’s hair, and he immediately relaxes upon the touch, leaning into the warmth of his palm with a tired sigh.

“What’s on your mind?”

Jay closes his eyes, relishing in the feeling of Heeseung’s fingertips against his scalp. “A lot,”

“Tell me,”

“I don’t know where to start,”

“One thing at a time, Jongseong-ah”

Jay sighs yet again and decides to kill his cig against the ashtray on their table. “I wonder if Jake’s okay now,”

A tender smile ploddingly spreads against Heeseung’s lips as he inches closer to Jay, arms winding around his waist. “Why don’t you ask him?”

“I’m–” Jay pauses. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’m mad at him,”

It’s obvious, Heeseung thinks. As obvious as the truth Jay so desperately wants to deny.

See, between the two of them, it’s Jay who is at the frontlines. Always first to act and first to charge. While Heeseung is right behind him, careful eyes observing. Dipping his toes into the waters before anything else while Jay readily dives into the sea headfirst. But because of this, because Jay is swept up in his current, he fails to notice the things around him, while Heeseung is quick to realize, quick to learn.

So swept up in trying to protect his coven, trying to keep new faces at bay, Jay fails to notice that despite his attempts to keep Jake at a safe distance, the boy has wormed through the walls he has built. Crawled into their lives and made a burrow in their minds shaped like him.

But Heeseung is quick to realize, quick to know, that Jake’s arrival isn’t like anyone else’s. This sweet little angel of a vampire from a humble province has waltzed into their basement and changed the current without even his own knowledge.

Jake is quite the character. It’s not everyday you meet a human who turned into a vampire against his will and is taking everything in stride like the good sport he is. Not everyday you meet someone like him, someone as genuine as he is. Someone as hardworking as he is, someone who’s so ready to go against all odds despite them being unfavorable to him. Heeseung thinks there isn’t a single bad bone in his body. He’s just…so pure and innocent and everything precious.

Heeseung is quick to realize, quick to accept, that something inside him stirs at the thought of the younger. Perhaps it was the way his voice sounds awfully lovely when he calls out to Heeseung in the hallways, or the way he immediately asks him if he wants ramyeon when they arrive in the basement. Perhaps it was the way he waited for him outside the student council office one rainy day knowing well enough that Heeseung didn’t have an umbrella.

Heeseung is quick to realize, quick to embrace, that the fondness blooming in his chest was nothing like a senior to an underclassman, or a friend to an acquaintance, or a mere covenmate to another.

“Why are you mad at him?”

“I–” He stills. “Don’t know,”

Because Jake scared him. With his dwindling consciousness and weakened breaths, teetering on the border of death. That was it. Jay was scared. He still is—scared of what that fear means for him.

See, Jake is radiant, absolutely brilliant in his own way that the people around him are left with no choice but to be drawn to him. Perhaps that’s why he’s intent on keeping a distance because getting any closer would be dangerous. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun. 

Heeseung is quick to realize—quick to accept, and Jay isn’t. There’s this gnawing voice at the back of his mind that tells him to face this head on, like how he usually would. But that’s the thing—Jake brings out a side of him that he doesn’t know what to do with, disrupts everything Jay has gotten used to, evokes feelings that have no place in his vocabulary.

But there are whispers nudging him to acknowledge that this twinge beneath his ribs when he sees Jake waiting for him in the basement, or when he hears him chuckle at Sunghoon’s dumb jokes, or when he watches Jake running up to him on campus, isn’t out of dislike. 

Deep down, he knows this, but there’s this overwhelming feeling of being filled to the brim and cracking under the pressure whenever his mind even touches this thought the slightest. So he smothers it down, all the affection nipping at his skin when he sees the way Jake’s eyes crinkle at the ends when he smiles. Bites back the grin slithering into his lips when Jake tells him something interesting. Swallows down all the kind words he’s had the urge to say to him. He stifles his emotions until they begin to wither, represses it until all these growing feelings have no room left to breathe.

But these feelings prove to be as strong as the one who caused it, creeping through the crevices of Jay’s head until he could no longer rid his mind of him. And he finds his thoughts straying to him—to the way he holds onto Jay’s sides when he hitches a ride on his bike, to the way his eyes light up when Jay arrives at the basement, to the way he hovers behind him when Jay is in front of the stove and cooking for them. 

And he finds himself waiting—seeing just how far Jake would go. Seeing If he’ll wrap his arms around Jay’s waist completely as they race down the highways. If he’ll stand up from the basement’s couch to greet him with a hug. If he’ll rest his chin on Jay’s shoulder as he peeks at the pot seated on the stove. When Jake does none of those, there’s this odd feeling of disappointment that percolates within.

“I think you know, you just don’t want to acknowledge it,” Heeseung pulls him even closer, nuzzling against his temple and telling him the words he needs to hear. 

“Maybe I’m better off not acknowledging it,” Jay sighs, taking a long swig of his beer and deciding that his thoughts have become too loud for him. “It’s too complicated,”

“It doesn’t have to be,”

He pulls away slightly to look at Heeseung, searching his face. Heeseung meets his eye with a reassuring smile, twining their hands together and squeezing. Heeseung knows him, has him memorized like the back of his hand. But Jay knows him just as well, grasps his entire thought process like it’s his own. 

And right now, even without a word said, Jay completely understands.

_____

The full moon dangles in the night sky, eerie and foreboding. Jake gulps at the sight.

They’re gathered around on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, the name of it going over his head in the face of anxiety. His palms are sweaty, his heart beating so fast it’s as if he’s alive again, and the coven—nearly within his grasp. He just has to pass this test, and all his worries will be eased. 

Sunoo will be facilitating this initiation, and he stands before Jake, red glaring eyes beneath his long, doll-like lashes. Everyone else is gathered, waiting for his signal. Perched on top of the ledge, the moon glowing behind him and highlighting his figure in ivory, Sunoo finally speaks.

“A few moons ago, Sunghoon brought a young vampire into our midst.” He says, voice velvet yet commanding, posture poised and neck craned—inhumanely porcelain skin rivaling the moonshine. Jake glances at Sunghoon who’s standing a few feet away. The young man nods at him reassuringly. “And tonight, we will be testing if he’s worthy.”

The drumming beneath Jake’s chest quickens its pace.

“Doth beest the predat’r, but doth not beest the prey.” Sunoo says, skirting along the building’s ledge with light, fluttery steps. Jake fears he might fall, but his attention is on the boy’s words; so difficult to understand.

“Hunter, doth not becometh the hunted.” He has this olden, almost poetic way of talking—as if his sentences belong to scrolls, words painted with ink. 

Sunoo fishes something from the inner pocket of his coat and dangles it in the air—seven necklaces in the shape of a downturned crescent moon—Hwanghon Brew’s signage. He nears Jake and beckons him to open the palm of his hand.

“Thou art blessed with this necklace—the crest of our coven. Wear it upon your chest as you are accompanied tonight by our brethren, in a game of tag.” 

Jake’s heart stutters. Tag. Okay, he can run. He used to play soccer anyway.

“We have come forward to join you on this game.” Sunoo pins him with an empty look, bright eyes almost looking luminescent under the creeping dark. One by one, other members of the coven walk up to stand beside Sunoo. First Jungwon, then Riki. From behind, Kai and Taehyun walk up, and finally Sunghoon.

These will be the people he’ll be chasing after, people who took it upon themselves and volunteered to play. It’s a very daunting thought, but seeing his friends in the line-up reassures Jake somehow, it makes him feel that he’ll be in good hands despite playing against them.

“The rest shall watch.” His gaze flickers to Jay and Heeseung, standing by the corner of the rooftop, listening and watching silently in the shadows. 

There’s only little time left before the clock strikes twelve, and Sunoo spends it briefing Jake with the instructions. “You have until dawn to find all six of us and collect all of our necklaces. But you must also protect yours whilst doing so.” Jake nods, face plastered with a mix of dread and determination. “If your necklace is taken by any of the oth’r players by sunrise, t’will beest considered a defeat.”

Sunoo drops the necklace in the palm of his hand before approaching the other boys that will be playing. Jake watches all six of them tie it around their neck, the arched moon of a pendant resting upon their chests almost tauntingly.

Five minutes prior to midnight, the players start leaving one by one to disperse through the city, waiting in the shadows for Jake to find, or to find Jake. Sunghoon is last to leap off the edge, clapping Jake on the back before doing so. “You got this,” And off he jumps into Seoul’s busy nightscape.

The rooftop immediately feels quieter now that a good portion of the coven has left. The clock is ticking and he stares at the necklace in his hand, breath shaky in nervousness. He can do this. He’s gone through so many things since he’s turned, a simple game of tag will not be what drags him down.

All of the sudden, someone takes the necklace from his palm, and when he looks up, it’s Jay. In the flesh. After two long weeks of gazing at him from a painful distance, he’s finally in front of him. He missed him.

The air hitches in his throat the moment the older’s gaze finally meets his, and for a moment, it feels like everything stills. Jay looks particularly beautiful in this light, like this is where he belongs—reigning over the nights of Seoul while bathed in glorious moonlight, the blurred glow of the cityscape behind him, the midnight gale caressing his cheek. This is his territory. This is his throne.

He’s royalty, seated on a pedestal given at birth with powerful regal blood flowing through his dead veins. Jake is again reminded why he seems so difficult to reach. Even if Jay doesn’t push him away, there’s already an ocean’s distance put between them by nature. He wonders briefly if he’ll ever be able to cross that, if he’ll ever be able to reach Jay, be seen as equal. 

And Jay’s right here, right now, standing close to him and looking him in the eye. Right in front of him, less than a foot away.

Quite ironic, isn’t it? Jay was so hell bent on putting distance between them and yet he finds himself being the one to cross that, being the one who decided that the silence has become unbearable. Doesn’t matter if there’s an ocean that stretches between them, Jake was ready to set sail anyway. But the expanse is too large for him to cross alone, and so he stops in the middle, doubtful and unsure. It’s just now that Jay decides to set his ego aside and tread the waters to meet him halfway.

The older vamp breaks eye contact, gazing down the necklace in his hands, undoing the knot with his lips pursed. Jake watches him quietly, still unable to comprehend that Jay’s here, not even a foot away. He tries to open his mouth to speak—to apologize for all the trouble he has caused, but when Jay faces him again, he finds himself unable to.

Wordlessly, Jay steps even closer, reaching around his shoulders to tie the necklace at the juncture of his spine. Jake stills in his spot, all oxygen in his lungs freezing as he feels his fingers brush against his nape, the older’s breath fanning his ear lightly. 

He then steps back, and immediately, Jake misses the proximity—wishing he took a little longer tying the ends of the necklace’s thread. Jake stares at him, waiting for him to meet his eye, but the older reaches out to fix the pendant upon his chest, eyes glued on his fingers adjusting the collar of Jake’s jacket, palming away the creases on his shoulders. Silence hangs over them like the stars dangling in the night sky. 

There’s a loud howl ripping across the skies and the moon has risen to its peak. It’s time.

Jay glances at the source of the sudden cry, stepping back at the sound, but Jake catches his hand before it completely leaves his shoulder. He startles at this, eyes darting down to their hands. Out of instinct, he tries to pull away, but Jake’s grip is unyielding, holding it close against his chest.

“I’m sorry,” Jake finally manages to push out, refusing to look away for even a millisecond.

A beat. Silence. 

Jay pauses, blinking at him before he sighs in resignation. The breeze blows between them and takes along with it his resolve that has now crumbled completely. His hand within Jake’s laxes. “Me too,” Jay admits, so softly that the younger barely caught it. Still, it’s loud and clear.

There’s this heady mix of so many emotions threatening to hike up Jake’s chest, but he pushes all of it down, deciding that it’s too early to cry. Instead, a soothed and sheepish laugh escapes his lips, the same time the ghost of a helpless smile appears on Jay’s face. 

The wind picks up and makes a mess out of Jake’s hair, but there’s a hand that pats it down. When he turns, he sees Heeseung, gazing at him with that look that’s always coated with such kindness. “That’s good, you’ve made up.”

“Hyung,” Jake says, voice riddled with relief that only Heeseung can cause by just his presence. 

“Jaeyun-ah,” He beams, arms wrapping around Jake’s shoulders in silent assurance. Heeseung is always so kind to him, so ready to help and lend a hand, warmth brimming with the way he moves and lives. There’s something uncanny that blooms and bursts within his chest, and it gives him the biggest urge to leap forward and hug Heeseung until he’s gasping for air. But he isn’t sure if he’s in the place to do so. Then he wonders if he’ll ever be in the place to do so.

But all these thoughts come to a halt when it’s Heeseung who steps forward and pulls him in an embrace. 

“We’re rooting for you.”

Jake is pressed flush against the older boy’s chest and only now does he realize the extent of Heeseung’s warmth. How cozy it is in his arms. Like he’s in the middle of pine woods all of the sudden, harrowed by winter, nestled inside a cabin with the hearth’s fire kindling before him. That’s how Heeseung feels to him. He tightens his hold for a millisecond and Jake revels in the touch.

There’s another howl that echoes through the horizon, and they pull away. Jay cranes his neck, tilting his head as if to listen to the whispers carried by the breeze. Heeseung puts a finger to his forehead, nodding firmly a few seconds later.

“It’s time,” Jay tells him, squeezing the hand that Jake still has wrapped around his. “Go,” He says, prompting the younger vamp off the building’s edge. 

Reluctantly, Jake walks to the ledge. And just before he jumps off, Jay nods at him. 

“We’ll be waiting,”

With the entirety of Seoul, he doesn’t know where to start. He walks through a dark alley just west of the center, hoping that someone is near. 

He careens his head to take a sniff, hoping to pick up a distinct scent—detect if a brethren is near. See, Heeseung has taught him this a week ago, but he hasn’t actually been able to put it into practice.

So he furrows his brows and closes his eyes, trying his best to focus on the wafting odors in his surroundings. One sniff, none. Another, there’s a little something there. On the third, he smells something tangy—like freshly peeled fruit.

There’s the sound of metal clanging to his right and when he opens his eyes, a hand suddenly swipes against his chest. He leaps back with agile steps, effectively putting a few feet between them. Jake blinks, eyes wide and surprised by his own reflexes. Who knew he could move that fast? 

“Ooh, that was quick,” Kai muses with a grin.

Jake regains his balance, clutching his necklace protectively. He can either choose to stay and try to get Kai’s pendant, or make a run for it. But with the other vampire’s towering build, he doubts he stands a chance.

He steps back, but bumps into something in doing so. He stops in his tracks, and oh so slowly, as if he just knows there’s something menacing behind him, he turns his head. He is met with Taehyun’s nonchalant smile. “Hello,”

Jake jolts and jumps away as far as he can from the two vamps. He has talked to them once or twice, and they’re really good guys. But two figures looming over him in the dead of the night isn’t exactly pleasant, and Jake finds himself running away like prey. 

Tweedledee and Tweedledum have cornered Alice.

The two jump into action, running through the streets and hopping from one ledge to another, movement completely in sync and Jake briefly wonders if they’re two parts of one soul—like twin siamese cats sauntering on either of his sides. He flees, skirting through intersections and running down back streets until he loses the two on his tail.

He skids to a stop breathlessly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that the coast is clear. He wipes the sweat off his forehead, clicking his tongue. His senses haven’t fully developed yet and he hasn’t completely gotten used to his newfound speed and strength since he rarely uses it anyway. He really should have trained at least a little before this.

Jake decides to seek refuge in the shadows and regroup. He can’t keep wandering around the streets aimlessly like this. If he wants to succeed, he needs to approach this with a strategy. Leaning against a brick wall, he closes his eyes and inhales deeply, the scents around him now more pronounced than before. This is what Heeseung talked about—being able to decipher which scent is which. There’s the smell of smog from a cab’s exhaust pipe down the street, the laundry detergent of the old woman living in the upstairs apartment, and the scent of white cotton; strong linen, and ivory floral. Underneath that is an aroma rich and ancient and otherworldly. The smell of old smoked wood pervading the air in dizzying amounts.

Jake’s brows raise in sudden realization. A vampire. 

This is what Jungwon was talking about. Despite having individual scents, they all have a tell tale sign of being a creature of the night—the smell of oud. The thick scent of a tree bark that surpasses time itself, opulent fragrances woven in between. And within it, is the smell of white roses, browning and withering and just a day away from dying. Quite literally what one would smell at a wake. Like death wrapped up in flowers.

A figure passes by, whizzing across the roof of the house across the street—silhouette almost looking like a wolf’s, and then, it’s gone in the blink of an eye. Jake emerges from the dark, craning his neck to follow the shadow. That was a vampire, he was sure of it, he smelled like one. Why it looked like a big dog is lost to him.

White Rabbit has passed Alice.

Either way, now that he seems to have unlocked a keener sense of smell, he’ll be able to track the rest of them down. He checks his watch. An hour had passed since midnight. He still has plenty of time left. He makes way to the center of the city, thinking that he’ll have a better scope to sniff them out from there. 

Jake jogs down the alley and finds himself in a populated street unlike the first ones he went through. The humans are going on about their lives, no plans of going home just yet. With these many people, he’ll have trouble picking up the others’ scent, which is why he fails to foresee his next encounter.

He only realizes that he has company when something incredibly fast barrels past him, so much so that it felt like a strong gust of wind had plagued his path. A block away, the blur stops and he sees a mop of red hair amongst the crowd, feline eyes crinkling at him with a smile. The boy lifts his fingers in the air, and between them, is a crescent pendant.

Cheshire Cat has acquired Alice’s moon.

Jake’s hand flies to his chest and finds it empty. “Jungwon!” He says, running after the boy immediately, and they break out into a chase, weaving through the crowds of Seoul. 

The leader seems to be going easy on him, running at a manageable pace despite having a knack for going fast. See, vampires develop gifts down the road, and this is Jungwon’s—moving at the speed of light, shifting in the blink of an eye. He looks over his shoulder every once in a while to see if Jake is still after him, and his face lightens up when he sees that the young vamp hasn’t given up just yet.

Jungwon leaps up a few ledges, hopping from one thing to another like a cat. Jake’s lungs feel like they’re on fire, but runs after him despite. Jungwon stops and perches on the top of an electric pole, waiting for him to catch up. And when he does, all of the sudden, the leader drops the necklace from above, and it lands perfectly around his neck. And just like that, the boy is gone. 

“What was that?” He murmurs to himself in exasperation. The boy led him through such an intense chase just to give his necklace back. Well, it’s not like he doesn’t appreciate it, but if Jungwon wasn’t intent on getting his pendant, then why run that fast anyway?

Cheshire Cat has parted with Alice. The moon has been returned.

Jake pauses to catch his breath, walking back to the central city district. His mind is going a mile a minute. So far, the only thing he can make use of are his senses. Now he needs to figure out how to utilize this quickly. He climbs up the rooftop of one of the buildings, taking a deep breath and channeling his focus.

The smell of fresh tangerine, and the aroma of lavender. If what he recalls is correct, then these are the scents of Kai and Taehyun. He picks up a few wafts throughout the city, almost skirting through the streets with his mind’s eye to track down the scent. He searches for the trace of oud and wilting roses underneath and finally, he finds the two.

He slinks against the shadows, moving as quickly and as silently as he can. Kai and Taehyun are walking down the street without much of a hurry, seemingly discussing what to do next. 

“Should we go after him?”

“I think we should stay. He’ll pass by eventually,”

“I think we should go after him.”

Preoccupied with their conversation, they fail to notice Jake’s presence. Seeing this window of opportunity, he quickly formulates a plan in his head.

He hears their discussion escalate, both disagreeing with the plan the other proposed. Jake runs past them, realizing that his speed has grown minutely. Ahead of them is a small footbridge that connects two sidewalks. Seizing the few seconds of distraction, Jake climbs up, and sneaks underneath, praying that the two are too preoccupied to take notice of him.

Kai is whining now, reasoning to Taehyun why his plan is foolproof. The latter schools his face, not really buying it yet, but he finds himself about to give in anyway. They pass by the bridge and Taehyun sighs relentingly.

“Okay fine—”

Jake swoops down from the underside of the bridge, hanging on a beam by his knees, and grabs their necklaces as quickly as he could. The thread snaps and he hurtles to the ground with such speed. The two whip their heads towards him, not expecting to be ambushed by the vampire pup at all.

Before Taehyun and Kai can even react, Jake leaps up to the nearest roof, and makes a run for it.

“I told you, we should have gone after him!”

Alice has acquired the twins’ moons. 

Jake breathes in relief when he’s managed to put a few miles between him and the two, now convinced that they aren’t going to be running after him anytime soon. He pauses by the foot of a streetlamp, opening his palms to assess the pendants he just managed to swipe. His chest feels like it’s going to burst right now from the adrenaline, but moreso from the pride of managing this feat.

The pendant is ivory, but when the light hits it just right, there’s a gleam of scarlet underneath. Jake marvels at this finding, turning his palm to scrutinize the red sheen. But he’s snapped out of his focus when something incredibly fast runs down the street adjacent to him, a blur of pitch-black knocking down the garbage bins by the side. The wind whizzes past him and leaves in its wake the same scent of white cotton, oud, and dying roses.

Jake perks up immediately. It’s the same vampire he saw running on the roof. He pockets the necklaces, and makes a run for it.

The shadow slithers between alleyways, making a home of the dark. Jake is quick on its tail, refusing to let the wolf-like creature out of his sight. Soon enough they find themselves running through a residential area nestled on the slope of a hill. He hops up to the ledge of a wall, eyes glued to it. They continue to skirt through the streets, Jake shouldering through his fatigue and staying hot on its trail. The vampire’s scent grows stronger now, and it smells awfully familiar.

The silhouette leaps up to a roof and Jake quickly mirrors this, opting for a higher building, the chase electrifying, stripping him of any fear he felt prior. They run through the night, footsteps pattering against the tiled roof of the village they were in.

Still indecipherable, the cloud of black shifts from one rooftop to another in agile steps. Jake balks at the thought of letting this slip past him. He’s going to get another moon and he’s going to do it now.

It turns round the corner and attempts to jump to a house across the street, but Jake is more agile than any of them had expected, diving from a nearby apartment building and successfully landing on the creature’s back, tackling it to the rooftops below. A pair of hands grip Jake’s jacket as they slide down the sloped canopy, their clothes catching on its tiles. A growl ripping from its throat, the vampire holds his deathly grip around Jake’s wrist as they stumble downhill, crashing against roof after roof. 

The White Rabbit and Alice are in a scuffle.

Jake grits his teeth, blindly clawing at the stranger as they continue to ungracefully barrel down the awnings of the residential area they found themselves in. He grunts at the impact of their fall, both unrelenting as they roll down still. Gravel dent Jake’s skin until it's scratched, and he knows well enough that his torso would be blooming bruises in the morning. The shadow tries to push Jake off, but he is unwavering, holding on stubbornly until they skid to a stop just by the edge of a roof. 

Chest heaving, Jake’s fingers are wound tightly around the shirt of the vampire he was pursuing. The smokey fog that enveloped the creature begins to clear, and what Jake sees, pinned underneath him, is his best friend. A fanged smile under his tired pants.

Sunghoon beams at him, something akin to pride flashing in his eyes.

Jake reaches for the pendant against his chest and tugs at it, the thread breaking immediately. “Thanks, Sunghoon.” He steps aside and helps the boy up, dusting each other off breathlessly.

“That was fun,” Sunghoon admits, a loud laugh blubbering up his throat. Jake nods, a smile on his face as he studies his newly acquired necklace. Three down, three more to go. He still has a few hours left. He can do this.

“Go,” Sunghoon prompts him. “The other three won’t be as easy as I was,” 

He has a lot of questions to ask, about gifts and whatnot, and why Sunghoon’s took the form of a wolf. But for now, Jake nods firmly, clapping Sunghoon’s shoulder before lolloping from one building to another.

Alice has acquired the White Rabbit’s moon. Heeseung reports, holding his fingers against his forehead to broadcast the status of the initiation. 

“Is he okay?” Jay asks, hand on Heeseung’s shoulder and desperately trying to find Jake with his squinted eyes. From what he’s heard it was quite the chase. Surely Jake wouldn’t be leaving unscathed. The couple are roosted on the peak of Lotte Tower to keep tabs on the event. The other vampires are stationed elsewhere all around the city, careful eyes observing from the dark, making sure that nothing goes wrong. They relay whatever information to Heeseung, who then spreads it throughout like a network.

“He’s over there,” Heeseung points out, motioning to a small figure in the distance, bounding on the canopies.

“I can’t see,” Jay complains.

“That’s because you’re old,”

He rolls his eyes, pretending he didn’t hear that. Well, sense of smell has always been Jay’s strong suit. Sharp eyesight was Heeseung’s.

He crosses his arms over his chest and begins to pace, to which Heeseung chuckles at, endeared. “Stop worrying will you? He’ll be fine.”

Jake runs into a park, steadying himself with his palms to his knees, puffing in exhaustion. He reaches into his pocket and fishes out the necklaces—the testament of his labor so far. He never even thought he’d be able to get one pendant, let alone three.

A grin pulls on the corner of his lips, tracing the linings of the crescent moons in disbelief.

Unbeknownst to him, behind him is someone lurking, footsteps unbelievably light, scent undetectable. Jake continues to admire the charms, not noticing a hand reaching out, carefully taking the thread of his necklace between his fingers and so slowly, so gingerly pulling on it.

When he finally realizes that his necklace was hiking up his chest ever so slightly, Jake freezes, breath hitching in his throat. Just when it reaches his collar bone, he jolts backward, facing the skulk. And there he sees him, feet planted firmly against the branch of a tree, soft hair billowing in the breeze, hanging upside down.

Sunoo.

The Red Queen has found Alice.

There’s just something undeniably eerie in the way their encounter starts off—Sunoo’s red eyes leveled with his, a stark contrast against the dark, a small, relaxed smile on his pink lips as if he isn’t hanging from a tree like a bat. A frightened cry comes from the back of Jake’s throat and if Sunghoon or Riki were around they would have busted their asses off, rolling around the floor and laughing at the sound he made.

“Hello Jake,” Sunoo grins at him, lethal pearly fangs glinting under the streetlamps and Jake isn’t sure why, but it brings chills down his spine, sends his heart plummeting, the immaculate cadence of the boy’s voice making something creep under his skin. Just something so unearthly about him that makes Jake forget that he is a friend.

And so he bolts. As fast as he can, as far away as he can.

Sunoo tilts his head in confusion, watching the vampire pup run down the street hurriedly. 

He detaches himself from the branch and lands on the ground, quite displeased that he wasn’t even able to show his gift much.

Sunghoon jumps down from the same tree, where he was perched on a higher point in hiding. He puts his hand on Sunoo’s shoulder as they watch Jake disappear into the corner. “What was that?” 

He looks at Sunghoon and shrugs silently in response, at a loss.

“I think he’s scared of you,” Sunghoon snickers.

Alice has fled from the Red Queen.

Jake’s running for his life as if Sunoo would eat him whole, and before he knows it, he’s stumbled upon empty alleys and barren streets. Unlike the center, the night life here is dwindling, the number of people roaming the streets significantly lesser.

Where is he? Heeseung asks the coven.

Beomgyu is quick to reply. He just passed me. I think he’s headed to the outskirts.

Heeseung purses his lips.

He slows down, looking around and realizing that he’s in a district unknown to him—nothing like the ones the coven has brought him to. Jake takes a moment to inhale, the cold air feeling sharp and crisp against his lungs. Craning his neck, he sniffs, hoping to catch something familiar, but instead, he is met with the breeze, devoid of anything other than the smell of damp pavement.

Overhead, the streetlamps that come sparsely flicker, a few moths lingering and trying to chase out the dying bulb. There’s a draft that picks up, steadily stringing along the leaves littered on the concrete. The trees nearby rustle at the disturbance and Jake whips around at the sound, the hair on his arms standing. This breeze is nothing shy of foreboding.

The wind twirls, almost encircling Jake tauntingly, and suddenly, out of nowhere, there’s the scent of ylang-ylang mixed with oud and dying roses. He’s lolled around by the force of the gale, not knowing what to do. It seems that even the wind is toying with him.

Finally, the flurry stops and leaves him disoriented. Tripping upon his own feet, Jake notices another pair in front of him, and when he looks up—cloaked in darkness, his mischievous smile piercing against the night, is Riki.

Alice has finally met the Mad Hatter.

“Riki!” He shouts, lunging forward to grab the necklace upon the vampire’s chest, but in the blink of an eye, he’s gone. Jake furrows his brows, glancing around to see him leaning against the alley’s wall a few feet away, hidden by the pitch black still.

Jake doesn’t waste a moment to come after him, but once he arrives at the corner Riki was standing in, there isn’t a single trace of him.

Riki’s laughter rings through the air and Jake careens his head so fast towards the sound in fear of losing him again. He looks over his shoulder and sees the vampire sauntering on the edge of a roof, a grin plastered on his face, obviously enjoying the game.

“How did you get there?” Jake complains in frustration.

“Take a wild guess,”

Jake places his hands on his hips and stares up at the boy in exasperation. Nonetheless, he humors him. “Speed?” Riki shakes his head. “Invisibility?” He sits on the ledge, eyes closed and finger wagging. “Teleportation?”

“Kind of.” Jake’s eyes brighten up. “But not quite,” He droops almost instantly and Riki has to bite back a laugh.

“How about a deal?” Riki offers and Jake immediately straightens up, losing all jest he held just a few seconds prior.

“If you manage to guess what my gift is, I’ll give you my moon.” The wheels are now turning incredibly fast in Jake’s head. There’s no way it’s that simple, right? There has got to be some kind of catch.

“ That is,” Ah, there it is. “If you manage to catch me.”

Dread crashes against Jake in heady amounts. Riki was a different breed of fast—Jungwon still leaves a trace of him despite his inhuman pace—a blur trailing him as he moves at the speed of light. But Riki…he just disappears and reappears out of nowhere, seemingly ripping through dimensions.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Riki supplies, then jumps down from the roof. Before Jake could even open his mouth to speak, the vampire is bolting down the street. Left with no other choice, Jake runs after him. His legs are starting to feel like mush beneath him, but giving up, now of all times, is not an option.

There’s a kindling that sparks in his gut, setting both his lungs and heart on fire as the rigid air whips against his cheek, but it pushes him forward. He grits his teeth, willing his eyes to focus on the figure in front of him. But no matter how hard he tries, Riki is an illusion himself, merely a visage that evades the light. 

One moment he’s just a few feet in front of Jake, and all of the sudden he’s slinking in an alleyway behind him. Jake turns around, but then Riki’s hopping on the posts of a gate on the other street. A galled grumble hikes up Jake’s throat as he clenches his fist, dashing through the paths, feeling awfully played with. 

Riki vanishes from his sight, but Jake hears his laughter in the distance. He follows the mocking trill, blindly relying on his still lackluster sense of hearing. Just when he thinks he arrived where Riki is, he hears that chuckle elsewhere—perhaps three blocks away. He leaps up the roof and heads straight to where he thinks the vampire is, only to find himself alone. And it continues like that, of Jake being hauled around by Riki’s voice fleeting through the night. 

He pauses for a second, trying to gather his bearings. He checks his watch. He only has two hours left. Clicking his tongue, he begins to doubt himself. There’s no way he’s going to be able to get the last three moons at this point. Especially since Sunoo, Riki, and Jungwon are proving to be forces to be reckoned with.

He’s about to lose a fragment of hope, when suddenly, a tall figure shrouded in darkness breezes past him.

“Riki!” He says, forcing himself back up to his feet in pursuit of the vampire. The figure pays him no mind, skirting along down the streets and leaving behind a trail of aroma—the stench of dying roses.

Jake huffs, trying his best to catch up to him. He takes a deep breath, and uses this to put back strength in his steps. He picks up his pace, the wind around him now gathering, and adrenaline courses through his veins. The distance between them grows smaller and smaller with each passing second and he thinks he can finally catch Riki.

With the last amount of energy he has left, he lunges forward, successfully managing to grab the vampire’s cloak. He crashes against the ground from the momentum he was unable to control, and the air stills after the pebbles crunch under his weight. The night is quiet—save for his heavy dissonant breathing and the cicadas singing in the distance.

Everything is silent. Too silent.

The feet before him freeze, before turning around painfully slow. Jake blinks, eyes glued on the man’s shoes, realizing that these weren’t Riki’s. The breath hitches in his throat, and he looks up ploddingly, the air so still it could shatter any moment, hackles rising in vigilance, movement mechanic it’s as if his very neck would creak.

Instead of Riki’s playful smile, something else greets him—a scowl hidden beneath ugly scars running down his face. All of the sudden, the smell of wilting roses hit him, along with it the putrid smell of something rotting.

Jake’s eyes flicker up to those of the stranger’s and his heart drops in realization.

This is no stranger.

A year ago, on his way home from his part time job. In the empty streets of Hadong. He’s met him before.

And now, on the empty outskirts of Seoul, he meets him again.

_____

Jake falls on his rear, inching back, so much dread piling up in his stomach that it begins to turn to bile. 

The man steps forward, almost leisurely, as if he had all the time in the world, his face still engulfed with shadow. The pebbles crunch against his boots, footsteps derisively slow, and he picks up his cloak from the pavement. He dusts it off. “Look what you’ve done,” He laments at the stains on the fabric.

Jake’s breath trembles, the heels of his feet struggling against the concrete as he desperately tries to get away. But his legs have cramped up from all the running, and his stamina decides to fail him now. The man—tall and grotesquely pale, with oily hair falling until his cheeks, squats down and levels himself with Jake. He takes his chin between his fingers and forces him to meet his eye.

And when he does, when he finally sees the entirety of Jake’s face under the flickering glow of the lamp overhead, a wave of familiarity swims through his marred features. Then it morphs to something malignant, before he schools his face into a practiced smile.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?” He tells Jake and with every word he says, the scent of rotting flesh wafts into the young vampire’s airways. He cards through Jake’s silken hair with his long bony fingers, then tugs—so strongly that Jake’s head is pulled back with such force. He yelps from the pain in his scalp, but stares at the man unwaveringly despite. He’s fought against him before, he can do it again.

“Yes, I remember.” The man muses to himself. He doesn’t look any older than the vampires Jake has met, perhaps physically just three or four years ahead. But the deeply etched scars that run diagonally down his face—from his left eye down to his chin, his hollowed cheeks, and his decaying skin suggest otherwise.

He then gasps softly, his open eye widening in epiphany. He leans in to whisper, as if he’d just figured out the answer to the most difficult question in the world. “Hadong.”

Jake swallows down the tremors that rack his body and glare at him. “That’s right,” He heaves, and finds a smirk hiking up his face despite his fears. “Fucked your face up pretty bad huh?”

Sometimes he can still feel it—the flesh underneath his fingernails as he desperately tries to put up a fight in that Hadong alley, fingers latching onto his attacker’s face and blood trickling down.

Something unreadable flashes across the man’s features, and he presses his lips into a tight line. A shiver rolls down Jake’s spine. “Looks like I went too easy on you,” 

“Where is he?” Jay asks him, checking the time on his phone, growing antsy with each minute that approaches sunrise. Heeseung puts his fingers to his forehead and immediately asks around.

“Riki, what's the status?”

“I dunno hyung, we were just running around the outskirts a while ago but I suddenly lost him.”

“Where are you right now?”

“Yongu-dong.”

Heeseung clicks his tongue, deciding to contact someone else. A moment later he taps into Yeonjun’s mind. “ Have you seen Jake?”

“Nope.” Yeonjun is quick to reply. “ The last time I saw him was with Jungwon in Itaewon.”

He furrows his brows, choosing to spread his scope further. “ Has anyone seen Jake?”

“No.” Says Sangwon from Namsan.

“Not here.” Soobin reports, stationed on the Hangang Bridge. 

Beomgyu joins in. “Not here either.” He’s standing on the peak of the Gocheok Sky Dome, the breeze ruffling through his hair, overlooking his part of the city.

“Fuck,” Heeseung mutters under his breath, catching Jay’s attention.

Jay furrows, not liking the expression on his boyfriend’s face. “Why? What’s wrong?”

The draft blows past them, carrying with it a silence discomforting. Heeseung faces him. “We don’t know where Jake is,” 

He’s rammed against the wall with such force that the concrete crumbles a little under his weight, debris dropping to the ground. He struggles to get up on his feet, wiping the blood trickling down his nose. The taste of metal swirls in his mouth and he spits it out. Sickening déjà vu rises up Jake’s chest like the acid in his stomach.

The man cracks his knuckles. “You shouldn’t even be alive,” He says through gritted teeth, stalking nearer. Jake puts up his fists, just as he did the night he got turned against his will.

“Well, I am. So deal with it,” 

He stares at him, a condescending laugh escaping his scarred, skewed lips. “Why do you humans think so highly of yourselves?” Even his voice is distorted—like the sound of the earth rumbling.

Jake’s brow twitches. Does this man not smell him? His eyes travel to the scars that run down the man’s face and thinks that perhaps, in his desperation to live that night, Jake had left his sense of smell impaired.

“You think you’re above everything else,” He spits, approaching and not even giving Jake a chance to swing—raising his foot in a speed Jake couldn’t dodge, and kicking him in the gut.

“Can you sniff him out?” Heeseung asks Jay, pocketing his phone after exchanging alarmed messages with Sunghoon and Jungwon.

Jay raises his nose and takes a long breath in, an amalgam of a thousand scents spreading within his lungs. None of them being Jake’s. “I can’t smell him,” He admits dejectedly. “He’s too far away.” With the whole expanse of Seoul, the distance that Jay’s senses could cover can only be so much.

Heeseung heaves a worried breath, looking at Jay with knitted brows, doe eyes swimming with concern. “What do we do?”

The older presses his lips into a line, eyes darting around in serious thought before meeting Heeseung’s. “Call the whole coven.”

Jake’s sent skidding across the ground, the pebbles grazing his skin and leaving it torn. He topples over, clutching his gut, gripping onto the fabric over where he had been kicked. Blood gurgles up his throat and drips down his chin. He sways, trembling as he tries to stand on his feet only to be knocked down again.

The man looks down at him spitefully, managing to make the glorious moonlight look ominous.

“I should have killed you right then and there,” He says, placing his foot against Jake’s neck and pressing down, enthralled by the breathless wheeze that erupts from the boy. “You give one human a chance to live and he thinks he’s on top of the world.”

Jake wants to laugh. It’s not that he was spared that night.

The wind howls a little, accompanying him on his way home from his part time job of manning the cashier in the local convenience store. Working a graveyard shift meant coming home on ungodly hours, and this was nothing surprising to Jake. He’s grown used to this routine of weaving through the empty streets at three in the morning. It never worried him to be out that late, since his town is relatively a small and quiet place anyway.

He walks to a shortcut—through an alley that will lead directly to his street. As he always does.

The lamps overhead flicker, a static buzz coming from its dwindling bulbs, cicadas singing from afar. He fishes out his phone, just about to text his mother that he’s on his way home, when suddenly, something heavy falls from the sky and crashes into him. He’s knocked down onto the ground, a pained groan sifting through his teeth. 

He blinks, grimacing at the ache he feels all over his body, and when his vision adjusts to the sudden force, he sees something…no—someone, pinning him down, hovering over him menacingly. Cloaked in black, the man’s pale skin stands out like the moon against the sky, gleaming eyes more beast than human.

The first thing Jake thinks of, is that perhaps this man had too much to drink. And yet, instead of liquor, he reeks of wilting roses and burnt wood—smells like he came straight from the wake of a deceased relative. Like the flowers thrown over a coffin before they lower it down.

“Excuse me, sir. Please get off me,” He says, taking hold of the hands the man has placed on his shoulders, and trying to push him away. But he has this crazed look in his eye that just seems to refuse reason. Jake gulps.

“Sir, please.” He tries again, but to no avail. The next thing he knows is that his hands have been seized and long fangs have sunken into the skin of his neck—a sharp stinging pain in the juncture of his shoulder, his very life being drained from him little by little. He’s held tightly, long bony fingers gripping his wrists until it feels like they would snap. The surroundings begin to turn hazy, and his consciousness slips away from him like sand between fingers. He lies there, limp, and Jake almost succumbs to his death, but then his phone rings. His mother is calling.

Something inside Jake’s head just…clicks into place. His mother is calling. She must be worried. She’s waiting for him to come home. There’s this surge of adrenaline that comes with a groan that rips through his chest as he lifts his arms, pushing this creature away with all the strength he could muster. The man fumbles back, a confused look on his face, his mouth smeared with Jake’s blood.

He lunges forward, but Jake is desperate to live. Desperate to come home.

He grabs a rock lying by his feet and swings the same time the man leaps forward, and he hits him square against his temple, managing to knock him off his feet. The will to live outweighs his fears by a ton, and even with blood trickling down the puncture wounds on his neck, Jake stands his ground. 

Scarlet drips down the man’s forehead and he wipes it with his hand, eyes landing on the liquid on his trembling fingers. His eyes dart to Jake—to this lowly human glaring at him with such burning furor. He growls and bares his teeth, darting forward and landing a hit on Jake’s face. He’s sent flying, no match to the creature’s inhuman strength.

He smirks at the sight of the human tumbling across the pavement. But this man has made a mistake of miscalculating. Jake is quite the character, it’s not everyday you meet a human with such tenacity, with vigor coursing through his veins. He stands up, unsteady on his feet, and yet he runs toward the man with abandon, swinging his foot like he would on a soccer match.

His aim is perfect, the balls of his foot landing on the creature’s jaw, and Jake swears he hears it crack. The man stumbles backward, cupping his chin and hissing in pain. More blood drips down his face, this time from his nose, and his eyes widen in horror, as if seeing his own bloodshed is completely new to him.

There’s a few seconds of silence—of the man staring at his blood in disbelief, holding his cheek in pure agony, then he snaps up to look at Jake with such anger that sends his heart plummeting six feet underground. The creature bolts forward, moving at a speed Jake never thought to be possible. But then again, in the face of a blood sucking monster, all belief goes down the drain—suspended at heights indescribable.

In the blink of an eye, the man crosses the distance, moving in a blur and slamming Jake against the concrete wall. There’s something protruding from it that hits his back, a tormented scream escaping him. The vampire smiles at this, holding Jake by his still bleeding neck. And at the sight of his wicked grin, something within Jake just snaps and breaks.

Dangling in the air, Jake gasps, bringing his hands against the man’s face in desperation to push him away. His hold on his neck only tightens, and so he claws harder, tears stinging the cuts on his cheek. With all his rage, a scream piercing through the otherwise quiet night, he digs his fingernails into the man’s skin—feeling it break under his touch.

Blood spurts out where he had scraped, and a panicked sound escapes the man’s throat. Still, he refuses to let Jake go. Jake grits his teeth, running out of oxygen and squirming against his unwavering hold. With what feels like his last breath, he drags his fingers down the man’s face—digging into his skin and leaving deeply etched wounds. He roars in pain—unable to stop Jake from gauging his eye out and effectively blinding him. The boy doesn’t stop. He, in his sheer will to live, summons about a strength that a human shouldn’t be able to possess in the first place. His nails trail down the monster’s nose, crushing it against his grip, leaving his sense of smell irreparable, splitting his lips until they’re bloodied and crooked.

“My face,” The vampire wails, accidentally letting Jake go when his hands fly to his mauled features. Jake falls to the ground, gasping for air, covered in a mixture of their blood. “YOU RUINED MY FACE!” He seethes, crying in torment, glaring at Jake through all the blood gushing down his face and the one eye that has been spared.

Jake stands up on his feet, albeit dazed and weakened. The man flinches backward. The only thing keeping Jake up, is not his strength or his endurance, but his raw willpower to come out of this alive. He takes a shaky step forward, unwilling to heed, scarlet dripping down all over him. Whether it’s his blood or the monster’s is lost to him.

He takes another step. The creature inches back. Another step forward, and the vampire is trembling underneath his cloak. Jake could barely keep himself upright, and yet he takes another step, ready to fight tooth and nail. See, this man has made a mistake of miscalculating. Jake is quite the character, it’s not everyday you meet a human with such tenacity, with vigor coursing through his veins.

There’s a look in Jake’s eyes that unnerves even this devil of a creature, that it has him backing away in fear. Another step forward, and all of the sudden, the monster flees into the night, retreating into the shadows.

All the adrenaline that coursed through Jake’s body leaves him all at once and he collapses against the pavement. He heaves, unable to believe that he’s still here, still alive despite him thinking this would be the night he dies. Unbeknownst to him, he was right all along. The vampire’s blood seeps into his wounds without his knowledge, fusing with his own cells, killing him from inside. 

Then his heart stops right then and there. He only wakes an hour later, hissing at the slight and sudden burn of the sun. He picks himself up from the pool of blood, finds a bathroom to clean himself in, and goes home to his worried mother.

“You didn’t let me live,” Jake laughs breathlessly, lifting the man’s foot off his neck and pushing him back with ease. “You ran away,”

The man is baffled, his face contorting, confused at Jake’s strength. He stills, watching the boy near him with intent that he didn’t have a year ago.

“Also,” Jake speaks with more confidence now, cracking his neck and knuckles, finally managing to put his fear of death behind him. “Who says I’m human?” He grins, and his fangs descend, fresh and sharp and glinting under the moonlight.

The man’s breath hitches, livid.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Jay says in a low voice, holding his knuckles to his lips with worry. They’re waiting for the other coven members in the city center. There’s a storm brewing an ocean away, and even before it arrives, Jay has caught wind of it. He doesn’t know what else to believe but his own instinct, and instinct tells him there’s something wrong.

Heeseung, though he doesn’t say anything, agrees, running his hand up and down Jay’s back to try and soothe him. He gazes at the horizon—the stars still twinkling against the velvet blue, and he wishes Jake is okay. Perhaps just lost. Heeseung clicks his tongue, telling himself that he should’ve seen to it that Jake was given a tour of the city before anything else. 

The other vampires arrive quickly, and Jay immediately issues orders. “Split up in eight groups. One for each direction. Be vigilant.” That’s all he says and they immediately spring into action, traveling in at least threes, determined to cover the whole expanse of Seoul to find Jake.

Jay leaps off the building and runs into the night, Heeseung and Sunghoon following close by. They head to the north eastern part of Seoul, while Sunoo, Jungwon, and Riki go to the north, west, and south respectively, leading their own tag teams. 

They traverse through the night with ease. Halfway through Sunghoon morphs into the shadow of a wolf for more speed. “No scent yet?” He asks.

Parallel to the roof he was running on, Jay shakes his head in dismay, the wind whipping through his hair.

The man’s nostrils flare at the revelation, fists tightening until they’re bone white, unable to wrap his mind around the fact that Jake is no longer mortal. He sheds his cloak and nears him, teeth grit and face twisted.

Jake readies himself for the man’s attack, but he is no match to his speed. With anger propelling him forward at new lengths, he hits Jake in the gut then across his temple within the blink of an eye, sending him barreling backwards into the pile of garbage bags sitting by the corner.

“That’s where you belong.” He says, noting the trash Jake fell upon. “You will never be a true vampire. You will never become one of us.”

See, in his eyes, humans are the lowest of lows—a mere species on the food chain. Below him. Beneath him. Humans have never been kind to him, even when he too, was one. And so, given all the reasons, he loathes them with all his heart and being. Which is why the thought of this human, who was just supposed to be his food that night, managing to defy all odds and turn into a vampire—stand on equal ground as him… It makes the blood within his dead veins boil and bubble.

He doesn’t even wait for Jake to get up, kicking him, the tip of his boot lodging itself between the younger vampire’s ribs. He yelps, blood sifting through his teeth as he clutches his side. He forces himself back on his feet, resolute on putting up a fight. He was able to do exactly that as a human, what more as an immortal?

But the man seems to have a newfound strength and speed, and manages to knock him down not even a second later. Jake crashes against the pavement headfirst, groaning in pain. He’s a vampire now, he should be able to fight back with more ease now. That’s what he thought, but Jake has made a mistake of miscalculating.

This is no ordinary vampire. He’s weathered time and the cruel world, stomped and trampled upon time and time again until his desperations birthed him into eternity, his veins containing nothing but abhorrence and anger. His fangs always sunken down in flesh—feeding on fresh human blood giving him more strength.

He sends Jake flying once more only to rush forward and ram his knee into his gut middair,  ripping a pained scream from the younger vampire. The oxygen is knocked out of his lungs, ribs cracking under the force. He falls to the pavement with a loud thud, a smirk hikes up the man’s lips. Seeing Jake in pain makes something in the marks on his face twitch with pleasure. See, vampires heal faster than humans, managing to recover from severe injuries, but deeper wounds still leave scars despite. That is, unless they manage to get a sip of pure blood. Unfortunately for him, no pureblood has been kind enough to offer that.

“Hyung, no sign of him in the south and west. Jungwon and I are on our way to you.” Riki reports to Heeseung. The older vampire hums in response, still running through the night in search of Jake. They’re nearing the borders of Seoul, and finally, Jay is beginning to pick up the boy’s scent.

Not even a minute later, Riki and Jungwon join the three of them, falling perfectly into pace as they weave quickly through the city. Someone runs up the building Sunghoon was running on, and when he turns, he’s delighted to see Sunoo sprinting next to him.

“He’s nowhere to be found in the north.” Sunoo says, face schooled, scarlet eyes sharp and focused. Sunghoon presses his lips into a tight line and looks forward, worry beginning to swirl in his gut. He hopes Jake is okay. 

Although nothing is mentioned, all members are desolate, a collective understanding folded within their silence. The outskirts of Seoul is a dangerous place, no longer within their territory—filled with rogues who turn against even their kind.

“It’s getting stronger!” Jay announces, referring to Jake’s scent, incredibly fast on the rooftops, his voice floating with the wind that passes them by. The rest nod firmly, preparing themselves for the worst that could possibly happen. Heeseung sends a signal to the rest of the coven.

Hang in there Jake, he thinks. We’re on our way.

He lies on the ground in a pool of his own blood, limp and broken. It was foolish of him to think that he stood a chance. That night in Hadong was a fluke—the gods of luck were simply on his side. This monster has been steadily making himself stronger with each drained corpse he leaves in his wake.

A gut wrenching laugh rings in the air as the man walks towards him, squatting down so nonchalantly. He slaps Jake across his face, his hair damp with crimson whipping against his cheek. Grabbing his face with one hand, the vampire squeezes so hard that it has him squirming in pain, feeling like his skull would be pulverized in a second.

“This is for breaking my jaw,” He snarls, and with a sudden twist, the bone in Jake’s chin cracks and an ear piercing scream bellows against his chest. “Next is your eye,” The man beams, insane, grabbing the collar of Jake’s shirt to pull him forward.

And as he does, the crescent necklace tumbles out from the hem, and the man’s eyes follow the movement, gaze landing onto the pendant gleaming red under the light.

His brow twitches. 

He knows that pendant. 

How could he forget?

His vision goes red and he snatches it from Jake’s neck, throwing it to the ground. He stomps on it with the heel of his boot, feral growls booming through the night like thunder. He tramples on it again and again with such rage until the moon is shattered into bits and pieces.

Jake watches him, barely conscious, through the blood dripping down his face. The next thing he sees is the man trudging towards him with indescribable madness—not even holding a wick to the anger he had before. He couldn’t react in time when the vampire brings his fist down against Jake’s face, all reason dead to him like the boy before him. 

Vampires are eternal. Well, they’re supposed to be. But perhaps if he crushes this boy’s skull and breaks his bones and squeezes his heart until it stops beating, then maybe he won’t be. He throws and swings and Jake’s vision goes black and all he hears is the man’s snarls and crazed roars, body going numb with the uncountable wallops against him.

His head lolls to the side, lank and resigned. He couldn’t even bring himself to try and stand up anymore. He isn’t strong enough for that. And so he lays there, limp and broken, in a pool of his own blood while the devil straddles him and mercilessly beats him up. Vampires are eternal. Well, they’re supposed to be. But perhaps…perhaps that isn’t true. And this is the way Jake dies.

The last of his consciousness begins to slip away from him, his world being completely engulfed in darkness. And just before he loses it completely, he feels the weight on him thrown off with such force, the shout of a voice familiar, hurried footsteps surrounding him. And then, a loud thud across the street.

Jay had grabbed the man by his clothes, his teeth bared and a vindictive roar rumbling up his chest, and sent him flying.

“Jaeyun-ah!” Jake hears someone say, but can’t open his eyes to look at who, can’t even recall the only person who calls him that in the midst of the blood gathering in his skull. He’s pulled into the arms of someone, of whom he doesn’t know. But there’s this sliver of the scent of pine—worming its way through the pungent smell of his own blood. And only then does he realize who it is.

“Hyung,” He croaks, and Heeseung holds his hand tightly. 

“I’m here,” He says, voice cracking and heart breaking at the sight of Jake, covered in his own blood, face marred and bruised and almost unrecognizable. Heeseung’s hands tremble, tracing the lines of his cheek.  “Hyung is here,” He says again, on the verge of tears. And vaguely, Jake hears pattering against the rooftops, loud footsteps against the concrete, pebbles crunching against shoes. “We all are,”

They’re running through the town, jumping from one rooftop to another, hopping on the street lamps that line the roads, tip-toeing on the ledges of the walls with such agility.

The whole coven is here.

The man lands against one of the dumpsters nearby, spine twisting visibly after being thrown in the air with Jay’s strength. See, everyone else’s gift is flashy, flamboyant even. But the most perilous is Jay’s. He is as strong as the land that holds the nation up, as powerful as the pillars that keep it upright. The man groans, wiping the blood trickling down his mouth with the back of his hand. His bones have broken from the impact of his fall, but that doesn’t stop him. He stands up, limping, and walks to face Jay.

Jake opens his eyes blearily, willing himself to watch the scene that unfolds. 

“Jay,” The man hisses, wrath swimming through his features.

The next thing Jake sees is Jay, stepping into his line of sight, his back towards them, placing himself in front of Jake with a hand held out protectively. “Khan,” He says, voice low and commanding, as if the land itself will bow down to him. He’s frightening. Jake has never heard him like this.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” He says, his grins reeking of rotting flesh.

Jay grimaces at the smell. “Fortunately,” Behind him are Riki and Sunghoon, on edge, ready to pounce if anything happens.

Jungwon rushes to Jake amidst the standstill, worry evident in his knitted brows. He whips out a handkerchief and gently prods against his face, wiping the blood away from his eyes. Jake hisses, the cuts on his skin stinging. Heeseung clutches his hand.

Khan sees all this—how the coven came to Jake’s rescue, how they immediately tend to him. He sees the way they’re gathered around him protectively, and he scowls, the spite in his stomach growing a hundredfold.

“Why are you here?” He snarls, “This is between him and me,” He points to Jake, still frail in Heeseung’s arms.

“Because he’s ours. We protect—”

“We protect, we keep safe, co-existence, harmless living. A bunch of bullshit.” Khan says, rolling his eye. “You’re still as self-righteous as ever, Jay.”

Sunghoon’s eye twitches, but from in front, Jay puts a hand out to placate him. Begrudgingly, he eases. But if it were him, he’d land a punch right about now. Actually, he’s wondering why Jay isn’t doing exactly that. Sunghoon glances at him briefly before training his eyes back to the man before them. Jay’s blood is pure and potent. If he wanted to, he could kill Khan on the spot. But that’s the thing. Jay doesn’t want to.

Jake coughs, and as he does, blood blubbers up his mouth, causing Heeseung’s concern to grow larger. “Jaeyun-ah,” He says, calling out softly while the younger slips in and out of consciousness. “Open your mouth for me,”

Albeit his state, he does as he’s told, lips parting and chest heaving. A moment later he feels blood trickle down his throat—sweet and comforting. The smell of pine is richer now with Heeseung’s wrist pressed against under his nose, feeding him. He isn’t a pureblood, and he won’t be able to speed the healing process up like Jay does, but he hopes that it will at least make up for all that Jake had lost and shed.

Khan sees this and scoffs, redirecting his attention to Jay. “Do you have a savior complex or something? Be honest,”

Jay just raises his brows, totally unimpressed by the jabs. 

“You’re so hellbent on ‘co-existing’ with the humans when they’ve been nothing but the bane of our existence. Vermins.” He gnarls. “And you, pathetically bending to their whim,”

The tension in the air grows thicker as more and more coven members step forward, littered along the streets and rooftops like menacing crows, ready to jump in as soon as Jay gives the signal. But Khan is insane, absolutely beyond reason, and sees no threat even when he is clearly outnumbered and outpowered.

“I mean, you just think you’re such a hotshot, aren’t you? Just because you’re a pureblood,” He rambles on, looking absolutely ridiculous, picking a fight everyone knows he has no capabilty of winning. “When in fact you’re the dirtiest of them all.”

“This fucker.” Riki mutters under his breath, cracking his knuckles. “He’s talking an awful lot for someone who looks like… that.” Sunghoon hears this and breathes through his lips, wearing a cross between a scowl and a smirk. Khan has no right talking about Jay’s lineage like that when he doesn’t even come up to the base of his feet. If anyone is vermin here, it’s him. If anyone is the dirtiest, it’s him. Lowest of lows, him.

“You’re just the elders’ pet. Y’know?” He continues, insides lit on fire with absolute hatred for the people standing before him. “And so is your stupid coven,”

Jungwon stands up from where he’s kneeling beside Jake, unable to keep still with what he’s hearing. “What did you say?”

“You’re all fucking dogs,” He heaves, face contorted as he spits through his teeth, then he points to Jay. “Especially you, you’re just the high council’s bitch.”

Not even a second after he says that, a blur comes whizzing down from one of the rooftops much to everyone’s surprise, and comes pouncing on Khan with livid fists.

“You motherfucker!” Sunoo growls, hitting the man across the face, eyes redder than they’ve ever seen before. See, Sunoo is as arcane as one can get, always preferring to shirk into the shadows. But he will not merely stand by when his coven is being ridiculed in his face. Especially not when it’s Jay. Jay who took him under his wing all those centuries ago, Jay who practically raised him. Jay who is his only family. 

Sunghoon shifts into a shadow and rushes forward, grabbing Sunoo by the waist even before Khan could hit him back. In the blink of an eye, he retreats to Jay’s side with Sunoo in tow, turning back to his human form. “Are you insane?” He tells Sunoo, heart racing at the thought that he might have ended up like Jake—all bloodied up and subjected to the rogue’s wrath.

“Let go of me!” Sunoo protests, wriggling against Sunghoon’s hold.

“Sunoo,” Jay says, eyes not leaving Khan. “It’s fine, you can calm down.”

He huffs, scowling at this, but listens nonetheless. Sunghoon keeps his tight hold on Sunoo’s wrist.

Khan laughs, more blood dripping down his nose from Sunoo’s blows. “You even need someone else to fight for you? Pathetic.”

A few beats of silence passes and Khan begins to grow uneasy under Jay’s unwavering glare. “Are you done now?” He asks, and the rogue doesn’t know what to make of it. It was at this moment that the coven members ease, collectively deciding to leave it all up to Jay.

“Did you think,” He cracks his knuckles and begins to take a step forward. Immediately, Khan flinches back. “That I was going to let you get out of this unscathed?” He’s even nearer now. “Did you think, that after hurting Jake, you were going to get out of this alive?”

There’s a repose in the silence that follows after, the coven members almost ready to welcome a funeral, resigned to the aftermath that will soon greet them. See, Jay is proud and strong, and bold, and everything amazing. He does things with vigor, fights against injustice with passion. But he feels with just the same amount of fire. He loves, and protects, and laments with all of his heart. He also angers with all of it.

And right now, is the most furious Jay has felt in a thousand years.

Jake takes a deep burdened breath and tries to open his eyes once more, and the sight that greets him is striking—Jay taking foreboding steps towards the rogue, thick nimbus clouds hanging overhead. In the distance, lightning strikes across the horizon, painting it an electric blue as if to pledge its allegiance to the pureblood. And as the skies crash and burn with every imminent step Jay takes, Jake is reminded of how these two people—one holding him close flush to his chest and calming him with his heartbeat, and the other, ready to wage a war for him, are always on either end of everything. 

Where Jay is the storm, Heeseung is the calm before that. 

Khan gulps, all bark and no bite, inching backwards, threatened. And still, despite knowing that he doesn’t stand a chance, malice courses through his veins like the wretched being that he is. He zeroes in on Jake, now slightly conscious, aided by Heeseung’s blood.

Indescribable fury and envy laps up his throat and he sees nothing but red, nothing but Jake, who has everything he’s ever wanted. And he wants nothing more than to strip him of all of that, take what he has, rid him of everything he’s gained. All is lost to him as he blazes forward, growling ferally as he shoulders through all the vampires standing between him and Jake, intent to grab him and sweep him off into the shadows. 

Sunghoon and Sunoo jump forward, refusing to let him get any closer, but he barrels through. Jungwon and Riki are quick to act, planning on closing his route off. But Khan is a creature of his own—his strength despite his broken limbs, his willpower driven by insanity.

But this man has made a mistake of miscalculating.

Before he could even step within a five-foot radius of Jake and Heeseung, Jay steps forward at lightning speed and blocks his path, and swings—fist digging so deep into Khan’s torso it's as if he’ll burst from the impact of it—and sends him tumbling backward, landing on one of the garbage bins with a loud clang and falling to the pavement after. He rolls around clutching his stomach and writhing in pain, coughing up more blood than he has ever shed in his whole life.

There’s a chorus of ooh ’s and Jay swears he hears Beomgyu clapping and having the time of his life somewhere in the back while perched on the peak of an electric post. With this, the coven members lax in their spots, all tension suspended in the air dissipating within a second, Jay’s authority shattering it effortlessly. They hop down from where they were watching, nearing each other and conversing as if a movie just finished. Show’s over.

Khan’s existence is totally ignored, and this infuriates him even further. But it’s not like he can stand up to do something about it. He moves, and feels a broken rib pierce through one of his organs.

“That wasn’t even a hundred percent of your strength, was it?” Heeseung asks Jay, pride swelling in his chest with how absolutely cool his boyfriend is. 

“Wasn’t even ten,” Jay shrugs with his adorably crooked smile—such a stark contrast to the pain he just inflicted on the rogue. “Any more than that he might’ve died on the spot.”

Riki comes running up to them with a whine. “He was talking all shit about you,” He throws Khan a disgusted look before whipping his head back towards his members. “You should’ve… y’know.” He cuts across his neck with his thumb and puts his tongue out for more emphasis, making a strangled sound from the back of his throat to match. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“Because they’ll be the ones to handle it instead,” Jay says, looking over his shoulder, anticipating someone’s arrival. And exactly on cue, a car wheels in, engine revving and black sheen glinting under the streetlamps. Red and blue lights are pinned on its roof, and sirens ring across the air. They squint against its blaring headlights, and it skids to a stop next to them.

The rest of them furrow their brows in confusion, having no inkling of who these people might be. The door opens, and out comes he, in all his pale glory, wavy locks down until the base of his neck, clad in a crisp black suit. No other than Yoongi—member of the high council. 

“Hyungnim,” Jay greets, bowing, and almost immediately, all his coven members follow. 

“Jongseong-ah,” Yoongi says, clapping him on the back without even looking at him.

From the passenger seat, Seokjin emerges, coughing and dusting off his own suit. “This place reeks,” He complains, before his face lights up in recognition. “Oh, hey Jay!”

“Hyungnim,” Jay repeats, again with a bow and his members echo all his actions. Seokjin slings his arm around the younger's shoulder, greeting him with much more enthusiasm than Yoongi did. 

“Is this him?” Yoongi says with his hands pocketed, walking closer to Khan who’s still on the ground, wriggling in agony. He pokes the rogue with the tip of his shoe like he’s some unknown specimen.

“That’s him,” Jay confirms. And while he’s off to answer the higher ups’ questions, the rest of them tend to Jake. Majority of the blood that painted his skin has been wiped off now, thanks to Sunoo and Jungwon’s help. His smaller cuts have closed up, but his body is still shattered and broken.

“I’m so sorry,” Riki says, kneeling next to Jake and taking his hand. “I shouldn’t have let you out of my sight.”

Jake smiles weakly. “That’s fine, it’s not your fault.”

“Jakey!” Sunghoon wails, pushing Riki away carelessly to take his spot, crying over the state his best friend is in. 

“Stop crying. It makes me feel like I’m going to die,” He scolds Sunghoon with all the strength he can muster, which isn’t much. But still, he smiles, a soft laugh escaping his lips, especially when he sees Riki glaring at Sunghoon for shoving him aside. They all sigh in ease at the sight of Jake’s weak laughter.

Jake’s eyes wander, and meets Heeseung’s, glancing down at him with what he can now read—absolute fondness. “Hyung,” He whispers, and Heeseung’s smile grows, relief swimming in his features. He might never talk about it, lest Jay ever teases him for it, but tonight, Heeseung thought his heart was going to stop. At the back of his mind, he knows that Jake dying was unlikely, but at the sight of him—features marred and covered in his own blood, there was a pungent fear that things would turn out differently. Fear that his immortality is no longer promised.

And it feels horrible, to watch someone you care for so dearly, bleed out in your arms. Heeseung thinks Jay is incredibly strong for going through this twice.

“You’re okay now,” He breathes, the tears he was trying to blink away trickle down his cheeks. An overwhelming sense of reassurance that Jake won’t be leaving his side anytime soon takes over him, and he has this urge to hug him even tighter. But he decides against that, and instead pulls Jake’s hand to his lips, placing a chaste kiss on his knuckles.

In the distance, they see Yoongi and Seokjin load a now unconscious, and all of the sudden, a more roughed up Khan into the back of their car, the latter shoving him inside without much of a care. Seokjin dusts his hands off with all the disgust in the world and Yoongi chuckles at him fondly. Jay bows, thanking them for their service, wishes them well, and off they drive. The rest of the coven disperses under Jungwon’s orders, reassuring them that they’ll take care of the rest.

Jay waves goodbye to the retreating car, and once the tail lights disappear around the corner, he finally walks towards them. He squats down, heart wrenched at the sight of Jake—lips busted, eyes bloodshot, purple bruises blooming on his skin. With a melancholic smile, he gently adjusts the collar of Jake’s shirt, lightly palming out the creases in his jacket just as he did right before the initiation. If Jay could go back to that very moment to stop Jake from going, he would.

Then he brushes his fringe away from his eyes, and the way Jake looks at him—still so pure and full of admiration—tugs at his heart strings even stronger. His hand trails down his skin, tracing his fresh scars benignly, and cups his face. Jake leans in to the touch, releasing a deep breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“C’mon,” Jay says, brushing the high of his cheek gingerly with his thumb. “Let’s go home.”

1

When Jay said home, Jake thought that they were going to bring him to his apartment, perhaps tend to him briefly, then give him space for recuperation. Little did he know that by home, Jay meant Heeseung and his home. 

All seven of them are in the couple’s apartment building, skirting up the flights of stairs, Sunghoon carefully carrying a finally conscious, but still very injured Jake on his back. 

“Careful! Careful!” There’s a sudden thud, but thankfully that was just Sunghoon’s elbow catching on the handrail. “I said be careful!” Riki snaps. He and Jungwon are right beside Sunghoon, making sure that he doesn’t accidentally bump Jake into corners as they go up the floors and break more of his bones. 

“I told you we should’ve just brought him through the window,”

“Are you insane? This is the rooftop!”

“So? We can all jump! Sunoo can run up the building,”

“The sun is up, people are going to see us!”

“Can you both shut up?” Jungwon hisses. “You’re going to wake the neighbors,” At this, both Riki and Sunghoon immediately droop, muttering under their breaths as they weave through the stairs.

At the end of their little crowd, is Heeseung and Jay, still quite on edge, ready to catch Jake from behind lest he passes out again.

Sunoo sidles up to Jay, holding his palm out. “Hyung,” He says, face schooled, bright eyes quite blank. Jay immediately understands, giving him the key to their unit.

Sunoo runs up on the walls, defying gravity as he treads down the ceiling to get ahead of them, their group managing to clog the hallways. He goes straight to the door by the end of the corridor—the only unit on the top floor, and detaches himself from the awning, landing on the floor nimbly. He unlocks the door and steps aside just in time for Sunghoon to come barreling in.

Jungwon and Riki slip through and move all the furniture away, clearing the path for Sunghoon. Sunoo grabs all the pillows he can find and dumps all of it on the sofa sitting in the center of the living room.

Despite all their noise on the way up, Jake managed to fall asleep, his body completely fatigued. Sunghoon begins to deposit him on the couch, and in a flash, Heeseung and Jay are right beside him, breathing down his neck and gently peeling Jake off his back.

“Careful, careful, careful,” Jay recites like a mantra as they put Jake against the cushions, handling him like the most fragile piece of China. Sunghoon rolls his eyes and takes a step back, watching the two eldest ones fuss over Jake.

“Thanks. You can go now,” Heeseung says, pressing his lips into a tight but genuine smile. “We got this,”

“Are you sure, hyung?” Jungwon asks, to which both Heeseung and Jay nod.

“Call us if anything happens,” Riki taps his finger on his forehead and looks at Heeseung. “Please,”

He nods again, taking a seat on the end of the couch where Jake’s head is resting against the pillows. With that, the four turn on their heels, on their way to the door. Riki’s arm immediately finds his way to Jungwon’s shoulders, the latter’s frame declining in exhaustion, leaning closer. Right behind them, Sunghoon subtly falls into step with Sunoo on the way out.

Right before they close the door behind them, Jungwon tells the couple once more to call and update them, and that they’ll be on standby, and then they say goodbye. The two wave, thank them again for their help, and tell them to take care. When the lock finally clicks, Jay and Heeseung deflate against the cushions, seated on either side of the youngest vampire.

“My god, what a night.” Jay sighs, slumping against the couch only to sit up again a moment later, undoing the laces of Jake’s boots and slipping them off his feet. 

“I feel so bad for him,” Heeseung laments as if Jake isn’t sleeping exactly in front of him. He cards through his hair. “He just wanted to join the coven.”

“That fucking Khan, I should have killed him with my own hands.” Jay seethes through gritted teeth, and yet, he peels off Jake’s socks with the gentlest of touches.

Heeseung stands up to get something from the bathroom. “But you wouldn’t,” He says, the sound of the shower turning on in the background.

“You’re right. I’d rather not get my hands dirty with the blood of the likes of him.”

The other snickers at this, emerging from the bath with a basin filled with warm water and a small damp towel. He kneels on the floor, the rips on his jeans rubbing against the carpet, and he takes Jake’s hand gingerly to wipe them clean.

They fall silent, sunrise beginning to trickle in through the windows in droplets of pale yellow. Heeseung wipes off the dried blood smeared against Jake’s skin, and Jay tries to shed off the younger’s stained jacket without rousing him.

After a while, it’s Heeseung who speaks again after much thought. “Did– did you see? Right before you punched him,” He pauses ponderingly, eyes glued on Jake’s knuckles as he wipes them absently. “He was still so… intent on getting to Jake.”

Jay scowls. “I saw,”

Heeseung sighs, the sight of Khan’s crazed eyes, of him barreling through the other vampires just to reach for Jake play in his mind. That struck a chord of fear in him—the thought that Khan, in his insanity, was going to grab Jake away from him and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

He stops wiping the inner parts of the younger one’s fingers and faces Jay. “I wonder why he was so mad,”

All of the sudden, Jake groans in his spot and stirs, grimacing at the feeling of his bruises brushing against the cushions. “Because,” He begins, voice raspy. “I ruined his face,”

Both Heeseung and Jay whip their heads towards him, pleasantly surprised that he’s finally awake. But it takes a moment for his words to sink in.

“What?” Jay questions. “What do you mean?”

“The scars,” Jake pushes himself up, Jay’s immediately by his side to aid him, holding his hands and helping him up. He finally sits upright against the soft pillows. “I did that,”

Confusion is written all over Jay’s face, brows knitted firmly in the middle of his forehead. “How? When?” Heeseung mirrors this and tilts his head, eyes darting around the room in thought.

Jake clutches his side. Most of his injuries on the surface have healed, but he still feels his broken ribs. “A year ago. When he tried to feed on me—”

“He what?!” Jay interrupts, angled eyes suddenly sharp and losing all its softness. 

“He tried to feed on me.” Jake continues, unfazed by Jay’s disbelief. “And I fought back. That’s how he got his scars.”

“He tried to feed on you?” Jay asks again, voice too loud for such an early hour in the morning. “When you were still human?”

Jake sighs, still quite tired. “Yeah, but I got turned because of it.”

Jay thought he couldn’t get any angrier, but there’s this indescribable rage that’s lapping up his chest like tongues of fire. He grabs his jacket off the table. “I should have killed him after all,” He seethes, nostrils flaring in pure rage. This goes against everything he lives by—feeding on a human and turning them against their will.

“C’mon,” Jay tells his boyfriend in a rush, slipping on his jacket with gritted teeth, shoving his feet into his boots with abandon. “I’m going to rip him open with my bare hands, that fucking rat.” He mutters under his breath, glancing again at Heeseung. But Heeseung is silent, brows furrowed as he blinks, seemingly deep in thought. This makes Jay stop in his tracks.

“That was you,” Heeseung gasps softly, his revelation almost a whisper. As if he’s scared that saying it any louder would change anything.

Jake turns to him, and it’s his turn to look baffled. 

“That was you,” Heeseung repeats, louder this time, big doe eyes staring at Jake in epiphany. 

“What are you talking about?” Jay says, inching closer.

Heeseung peers up at him from where he’s knelt. “A year ago. Hadong,”

A beat. Silence. And a second later, the confusion on Jay’s face morphs to realization. “Oh my god,” He runs his hands through his hair and paces. “That was him,” Slowly, in his mind, the pieces begin to fit together—why Khan was absolutely furious, why he was so hellbent in harming Jake.

Jake’s gaze darts between the two of them, muddled. Slight panic begins to course in his veins. “Why, what’s going on?”

“Jaeyun-ah,” Heeseung sighs and joins him by the couch, taking his hand in his. “Back then, there was someone. He joined the coven the same time Sunoo did. All was well for a while,”

Jake hangs onto every word that slides down Heeseung’s tongue, stomach swirling with anxiety of where this was headed.

“But a year ago, we kicked him out.” Heeseung trails off. 

Jake nods, prompting him to continue.

“Because he attacked a human in Hadong. ”

The breath in his throat hitches completely, eyes widening. He blinks. They stay quiet for a few seconds. “That was me…” He tries to wrap his mind around it but couldn’t completely. “He got kicked out because of me,”

“It’s not your fault,” Jay immediately says, tone more scolding than comforting, nagging Jake for even thinking for a second that it’s his. “Khan was a two-faced bastard to begin with,”

It all begins to make sense now—the absolute wrath in the way he hit Jake, the anger woven in the way his knuckles rapped against his skull. He was both vindictive and envious, feeling utterly wronged by someone who used to be a lumpen human, by someone who seems to have every last bit of fate and luck on his side.

First, is his life. He was never meant to get out of that Hadong alley alive. Not even as a human, moreso as a turned vampire. That was the second reason. And the third, and perhaps the heaviest of them all, is the moon around his neck—a telltale sign of which coven he belongs to.

There Jake stood, cared for by those he wanted to consider his family, protected by the very people who shunned him, surrounded by the coven that Khan used to call his .

The breath that crystalized in his throat leaves him in a rush, listless. It all makes sense now.

“And you,” Jay says, jutting his chin out towards his boyfriend, the suddenness of his voice snapping Jake from his stupor. “You knew of this?”

Heeseung slowly raises his hands in surrender, a sheepish smile pulling on his lips. “Babe, wait I can explain.” Jake chuckles at them.

“Explain what?” Jay sneers. “You knew how Jake was sired and you didn’t tell me?”

“It wasn’t my story to tell!” Heeseung defends hotly, squeezing Jake’s hand and asking for backup. “Jaeyun-ah, help me on this.”

He laughs heartily, only to stop abruptly to hiss in pain, folding over to clutch his side. Whatever faux fight the boyfriends are having is held on pause as they immediately inch closer to fuss over Jake. 

“Are you okay?” Jay asks, and Jake notes the way his eyes soften. 

“I’m fine.” He says, voice a little strained. “I’m sorry for not telling you. I wanted to…” He says, averting his gaze meekly. “But I couldn’t exactly. You just seemed so…far away, y’know?”

Heat rushes up to Jay’s face, his stubbornness of not acknowledging his feelings sooner biting him in the ass. Behind Jake, Heeseung grins at him smugly, to which he scrunches his nose in dismay.

“Sorry,” Jay says, coughing awkwardly, and for a moment, he ponders on what to say. “...but I’m here now.”

Jake’s heart soars, his eyes crinkling as he smiles. “I know,”

Just a few months ago, with an ocean of a distance between them, Jake wondered briefly if he’ll ever be able to cross that, if he’ll ever be able to reach Jay, be seen as equal. Stand close to him and look him in the eye.

Well, right now, he isn’t exactly looking Jay in the eye. The older is too busy looking everywhere else but at him. But really, the faint pink dusting his cheeks is more than enough. Jake thinks he’ll have more chances to look at him directly in the future anyway.

Heeseung chuckles, finding them both absolutely adorable and hilarious. He’ll be tucking this moment in the back of his mind to use for teasing later on.

Soon enough, just sitting there under the weight of their gazes becomes unbearable for Jay, and he stands up, movement jerky as he wriggles away from the awkward air. “Y-you need to eat.” He says, immediately grabbing the pots and pans he needs without much thought.

Jake smiles at him, something indescribably warm holding his heart and squeezing until it feels like it’ll burst. But then a thought suddenly occurs to him, shattering his little bubble of short-lived bliss, and he gasps.

Jay comes running in from the kitchen. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“The initiation!”

“What about it?” Heeseung raises his brows.

“I didn’t finish it,” Jake answers, shoulders slumping, crestfallen. “Does…does that mean I didn’t get in?” 

At this, Jay visibly relaxes, looking quite hilarious—holding a pot in his left hand and a ladle on his right, a pink apron haphazardly tied around his neck and waist. He sighs and breathes in relief, as if finding Jake’s cause of worry trivial.

“You got in.” He says. “You were already part in the first place. The initiation was just for formality's sake. And for a little fun. Well, it was supposed to be.”

“But Riki told me—!”

Jay looks at him and clicks his tongue,  shaking his head. “You need to stop hanging out with Riki. Sunghoon too. They’re a bad influence on you!” 

With the reassurance that he won’t have to part ways with them, Jake finds himself heaving a relieved sigh. But then his mind wanders elsewhere.

“...what about Khan?”

Jay quirks a brow, putting down the things he was holding on their dining table. “What about him?”

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“The high council will deal with him,” Heeseung supplies. See, the high council has a pact with the human government. Blood is made accessible to them, and in turn, not a single human harmed. Anyone who does otherwise will face the consequences.

The vampires lining the steel hallways bow to Yoongi, and to Seokjin who isn’t far behind. They open the door for them, and inside, is Khan, restrained in a chair. An attendant steps to Yoongi’s side, opening a velvet box and offering him the dagger within—its blade engraved with a downturned crescent moon. The family crest. He takes it, and with the pin on its handle, he nicks his thumb. His blood drips along the edges of the dagger, and he stalks towards the rogue.

And well, purebloods are revered for a reason. Aside from being royalty, they are portent in their wholeness. They are refined and poised, yet the quickest and strongest of them all. And their blood…a double edged sword that brings both life and death. When consumed, it breeds a surge of power, a miracle in itself that makes healing quick. But on the contrary, it is poison. Vampires are eternal. Well, they’re supposed to be. But the only way they could possibly die, is at the hands of a pureblood.

Jay goes back to the kitchen, and Jake is left wondering what their words mean exactly. Heeseung tells him not to worry about it.

Belatedly, he realizes that his hand was still perfectly within Heeseung’s hold. And he only becomes aware of this when the older taps his thumb against his knuckles to get his attention. He looks at him, and is greeted with such a gentle smile.

“How do you feel?” Heeseung asks in a whisper, as if divulging a top secret.

Jake decides to humor him, leaning forward to answer softly. “Like shit, hyung.”

He laughs, brushing away Jake’s hair from his face, the ends of it still matted with dried blood. Jake notices this too.

“Hyung, can I take a bath?”

“Are you healed enough to?”

“I think so?” Jake says. “Please? I feel like I stink.”

Heeseung chuckles. “That should be the last thing on your mind,” But still, he gets up to run a bath for him. He disappears into the bathroom, and the only thing Jake hears is the continuous trickling of water. Until it stops, and Heeseung reemerges.

“C’mon,” He says. And before Jake could even try to stand up on his own, Heeseung has slipped his hands under his knees and around his shoulders, picking him up like he doesn’t weigh anything. 

“Hyung,” He sputters, arms winding around the older’s neck on instinct. His face burns red. “I– I can walk!” 

“No, your bones are still broken,” Heeseung says, not even glancing at him as he carries him to the bath. “And even if they weren’t, you won’t be exerting the slightest effort for the next few weeks. Not on my watch anyway.”

He gapes at Heeseung, in disbelief of what he hears and where he is. Despite the loud thrumming in his chest, Jake feels oddly at peace like this. Well, Heeseung has always had a penchant for making him comfortable. 

Heeseung is always so kind to him, so ready to help and lend a hand, warmth brimming with the way he moves and lives, and Jake wonders what he did to deserve that. There’s something uncanny that blooms and bursts within his chest, and it gives him the biggest urge to leap forward and hug Heeseung until he’s gasping for air. 

Just a few months ago, he wasn't sure if he was in the place to do so. Then he wondered if he'd ever be in the place to do so.

He doesn’t exactly know the answer to that just yet, but in the spur of the moment, with so much affection overflowing from his core, he decides to save the thinking for later. He wraps his arms around the older tighter, pulling him closer, and nuzzles his face in the crook of his neck.

Heeseung’s eyes widen for a fraction of a second before they soften, and he presses his cheek against the crown of Jake’s head.

“Thank you, hyung.” He whispers.

“For what?” He asks, stepping inside the bathroom, careful not to bump into the doorways.

“For coming to save me,”

Heeseung deposits him briefly on a stool, checking the temperature of the water in the tub. “Not me,” He says with the smallest yet most genuine of smiles. “That was Jay,”

And Jake finds himself grinning, amused by their conversation that seemed to have taken place a month ago as well, but with different circumstances. And also at awe with how Heeseung will always somehow find a way to include Jay. There’s this certain kind of admiration that comes from watching the two of them from the outside, observing how they move like a well oiled clock, seeing their pure devotion towards each other. And it’s odd, because Jake has never felt the slightest bit of jealousy. In fact, he feels privileged to be able to see this type of love up close. Then he wonders briefly if he’ll ever be able to feel that.

He watches Heeseung prepare everything with care—from the soap, to the shampoo, to the towel. He even goes as far as placing a folded towel on the bottom of the tub, not minding it to be completely soaked. 

“What’s that for?” Jake quizzes.

“I’m sure it’ll be a pain in the ass to sit on the tub with all your bruises,”

Jake doesn’t ask any more after that, trusting that everything Heeseung does is with him in mind. And he sits there, gazing upon the older, and watching the way he simply does everything—with so much thought and love put into it. It’s palpable, for him at least, that despite Heeseung’s seemingly laxed attitude, he feels and loves just as hard as Jay does.

Heeseung gives him privacy to shed his clothing off, only returning now that he’s fully submerged in the soapy water. He rolls his sleeves up, and drizzles a hearty amount of shampoo onto his palms. He begins to lather in onto Jake’s hair, gently removing the bits of dried blood that clung to his strands. And as he massages his scalp with the pads of his fingers, Jake finds himself taking a deep and tired breath.

“Will I be going home after this?” He asks.

Heeseung stays quiet for a second. “Do you want to?”

“...I don’t.”

“Then stay,”

Jay’s standing in front of the stove again, cooking soup again, for Jake again. He really ought to nag him once he’s all better. He’s becoming too comfortable putting himself in harm’s way.

From behind, arms wind around his waist and he feels soft lips press against his temple. He immediately sighs, and all exhaustion is drained from his body. Heeseung is quite talented, Jay realizes. He has a knack for feeling like home, but a hundred times cozier, a thousand times warmer, a million times better.

He takes the ladle from Jay. “I’ll take care of this, go get changed first.”

He glances down at himself and realizes that he’s still in last night’s clothes, covered in the blood of who knows who. Heeseung on the other hand, has come out fresh from a shower after tending to Jake. And so he relents, hand reaching out to cup Heeseung’s nape, bringing him closer for a kiss. Their lips meet, slotting perfectly against each other, and Heeseung presses forward, the way he looks at him filled with so much love.

“Thanks,” 

“Go on,” Heeseung says, stirring the soup.

Jay enters their bedroom and forgoes going to the closet, instead grabbing his boyfriend’s shirt draped against the bedpost, and slips it on. The scent of pine is strong, filling his airways and giving him a sense of peace. Heeseung has been, and will always be the one grounding him. When he’s too busy being everyone else’s pillar, it is Heeseung who holds him up from behind.

When he comes back to the living room, he sees Jake seated on the couch, also in Heeseung’s shirt, and somehow it all becomes real for Jay. There’s a fond chuckle that wants to escape his lips. He never would have thought his heart would have room for one more, but watching Heeseung holding up a spoonful of soup for Jake, and the younger, glowing a beet red, adamantly refusing and saying that he can feed himself, makes Jay think that perhaps this is how it should have been all along. He honestly couldn’t imagine it any other way.

In an alternate universe, Jake never met Sunghoon, never got dragged into their frat party, never crossed their paths. Never hitched a ride on Jay’s bike, never cooked ramyeon for Heeseung. And the thought makes something unpleasant crawl beneath Jay’s skin. It feels all wrong.

“My arms aren’t broken! I can feed myself just fine!”

“Jaeyun, say ahh.” He says, as if talking to a child. Jake realizes that Heeseung also has a penchant for being such a tease.

“I’d give up if I were you,” Jay says, joining them by the couch, sitting on Jake’s left and draping his arm on the younger’s part of the backrest so naturally. “Sometimes, he’s more bullheaded than I am,”

Jake sighs, humoring Heeseung at the expense of his dignity. But after one bite, he grabs the bowl from the older one. “I’ll eat by myself, thank you.” Heeseung laughs, but then decides to let him be.

The couple decide to join him for breakfast, and Jake feels like he’s living a dream. Seated on their big couch, the view of Seoul being bathed in morning visible from the windows, clad in Heeseung’s shirt, eating Jay’s cooking. At some point he pinches himself to make sure that this isn’t a hallucination, but really, the stinging pain throughout his body is more than enough of a reminder that this is reality.

After breakfast, Heeseung puts away the dishes, and Jay brings his feet up and tucks it under his rear, facing Jake. The younger blinks at him in question, only watching silently as Jay cautiously takes his hand.

The older brings it closer to his face, the pads of his thumbs tracing the fresh scars that line Jake’s arm. “You’re still injured,” He notes. It wasn’t a question, but merely an observation, and Jake silently marvels at how Jay knows.

But then again, he’s lived for a thousand years, went through countless injuries himself. 

After much thought, Jay offers him his wrist out of the blue.

Jake tilts his head, brows quirking in puzzlement.

“You’ll heal faster if you drink my blood.” Jay says, and Jake searches his face for any signs of him joking, but instead he sees his eyes, glazed with seriousness.

“But—”

“But you have broken bones.” Jay interrupts him, and as the clock ticks it becomes progressively hard for Jake to hold his unyielding gaze. “That’s going to take a few weeks to heal on your own.”

Jake peers up at him, hesitating, and Jay softens at this. He inches closer, arm winding around his shoulders. “Are you scared?” He asks quietly.

“Just,” Jake looks at him, unsure. “Just a little,”

“It won’t hurt, I promise.”

“I know it won’t hurt me, but what about you?”

Jay huffs through a small smile, shifting even closer. In all honesty, he feels awfully vulnerable like this, like a teenage girl leaning in for a first kiss. But he welcomes the butterflies in his stomach and embraces this feeling. He offers his wrist again. “It doesn’t hurt me,”

Jake, although still skeptical, takes Jay’s wrist in his hands and brings him closer to his face. He glances at the older again. “Are you sure?”

He nods, wearing a reassuring smile that seems to work wonders, because Jake finds himself setting all the uncertainty aside, and sinks his fangs on Jay’s skin. The blood immediately fills his mouth and it’s a feeling like never before. It’s rich, and velvety and puts all the human blood to shame. 

It’s not the first time he’s drunk Jay’s blood, but it’s the first time he does it while conscious, and it’s dizzying. His eyes flutter shut, a pleased sound made from the back of his throat.

Jay shudders slightly at the feeling, Jake’s plump lips pressed against his wrist, sucking against his skin to get the blood out. With his other hand, he begins to comb gently through the younger’s hair.

Heeseung returns from the kitchen and sees this, wriggling his brows teasingly at Jay, to which he rolls his eyes, still fond. Then he sits on the other side of Jake, bringing his hand to massage his nape, and Jake purrs at the feeling.

Almost immediately, the bigger bruises that littered his skin begin to dissolve, the clotted blood dispersing until it’s gone completely. 

The sweet blood trickles down his throat and Jake finds himself craving for more, fingers tightening around Jay’s arm. A shaky breath seeps through Jay’s lips as he watches, something akin to desire beginning to swirl within his gut. His eyes zero in on Jake’s mouth, on the blood that escapes the corners of his sharp lips, and finds himself mesmerized.

After a while, much to Jay’s dismay, Jake detaches himself from the older’s wrist, and laps against it the puncture wounds to clean it up. But he fails to notice the blood that trickled down his chin, and the next thing he knows, Jay’s leaning forward to wipe it off with his thumb, pressing it against his own tongue a moment after.

And the sight of that—of Jay’s eyes gazing at him with want, sends something electrifying down his spine.

“Do you want more?” Jay asks, voice so quiet he could barely catch it.

From his left, Heeseung nudges him to face Jay completely, and it goes over his head, still in a haze after drinking from the pureblood. Heeseung scoots closer, and allows Jake to lie against his chest, his arms on either side of the younger one protectively.

“Jake,” Jay whispers, inching closer so slowly that it’s hypnotizing. “Do you want more?”

Jake’s eyes glint an icy blue and he gulps, nodding slowly, still entranced by the vampire in front of him. 

He crawls forward and places himself between Jake’s legs, steadying himself with a hand on Heeseung’s knee. “Here,” He says, craning his head and pulling down the collar of his shirt, offering Jake his neck—tan and smooth and spotless save for the heart shaped birthmark on the side.

The vampire pup blinks, hesitant, shaking away his haze to look at Jay. “Are you sure?”

Jay looks at him, eyes nothing but serious. “Yes,”

He doesn’t need to be told twice. He opens his mouth, incisors growing in length, full fangs finally dropping. All second thoughts he had a while ago are thrown out the window, his head filled with nothing but the taste of Jay’s blood. He wants more of it.

He digs his fangs right where the boy’s birthmark is, and Jay hisses at the sudden sting. But his gasps quickly make way for quiet moans, feeling Jake draw more blood from his veins. The wet noises Jake’s lips make against his skin makes something inside him tingle, and he finds himself biting down on his own lip.

Jake’s hands find themselves winding around Jay’s waist, clutching the fabric of Heeseung’s shirt.

“That’s it,” Jay says lowly, head falling back in pleasure, combing through Jake’s disheveled hair, fingertips grazing his scalp. “Good boy,”

And this only seems to rile him up, heavy pink flushing his cheeks as he takes his greedy fill of Jay’s blood, his plump lips pressing against the older vampire’s neck ardently. He drinks faster, bites harder, swallows down with so much want. And this almost has Jay writhing above him, whines and moans raking up his throat as he scoots forward to straddle the youngest completely. His breath trembles, and it’s embarrassing how lost he’s getting in the feeling of Jake’s lips on his neck, so lost that he has to steady himself with a hand to his shoulder.

He groans against Jay’s neck, the vibrations making something in their cores tighten. And he pulls the pureblood even closer, one hand against the base of his spine, the other clutching the expanse of his thigh.

Behind Jake, Heeseung begins to trace the highs and lows of the muscle in his back, deft fingers trailing down his chine. Jake hums against the pureblood’s neck at the sensation, and gasps slightly when he feels Heeseung pressing his lips against his nape. The boy’s kisses are wispy, like butterfly wings fluttering against his skin. The fleeting feeling is dizzying—teasing too.

“Fuck, Jake.” Jay whimpers, catching his breath as the boy continues feasting on his veins. He gasps and sighs, the feeling of Jake’s plump lips pressing against his jugular sending shivers down his limbs and all the way south.

Jake gulps, so intoxicated with the flavor of Jay’s blood that his lids flutter shut in pure ecstasy. Jay’s muttering things under his breath, biting his lips to suppress all the sounds escaping him, clutching the back of Jake’s neck to keep him exactly where he is.

Heeseung’s hands wind around Jake’s torso, around his quickly healing ribs, wandering across his chest as the sparks in his kisses begin to grow into larger flames. Jake becomes hyperaware—can feel the way the tip of Heeseung’s tongue stays in one spot, can sense the way he pelts against his neck so sensually.

“Hyung,” Jake moans between breaths, before the air is completely stolen from him with the way Jay cants his hips forward, grinding against Jake through their clothes. The breath hitches in his throat, and escapes him in staccatos.

He groans in pleasure, and a drip of blood trickles down the sharp corners of Jake’s lips. Jay’s eyes zero in on that. And he’s leaning forward, licking up a stripe against the boy’s chin, wiping the blood on his skin with the tip of his tongue.

Jake stares at him, the beating of his own heart deafening. But he is given no time to breathe, not when Jay lunges forward and captures his lips with his, hungry. The younger yields almost immediately, lashes brushing against Jay’s cheek as his lids flutter shut. He opens his mouth, allowing entrance for the pureblood’s tongue to lap against his.

A pleased sound erupts from his chest, and he grabs Heeseung’s hand—the one lingering on his stomach, and twines their fingers together, pulling him closer until he’s completely caged between the two.

Heeseung nuzzles against the crook of Jake’s neck, holding him flush against his chest as he inhales deeply, the younger’s scent permeating in his airways and making him burn with urge. He licks his neck, only to press his lips against the skin a moment later, replacing his bruises with faint purple marks made with longing.

“Hyung,” Jake whines when Jay pulls away for air. “Bite me,”

“What?” Heeseung questions. Jake tightens his hold on his hand. “ Bite me.” 

And at the same time Jay leans forward once more to kiss him messily, Heeseung sinks his fangs against his neck. Jake’s eyes roll to the back of his head, a guttural sound of pleasure escaping him, squeezing on Heeseung’s hand tighter. The feeling of both the older vampires’ lips on him overwhelming. Heeseung extracts more blood from his veins, the liquid pooling in his mouth before he swallows with relish. 

Jay nips down on Jake’s bottom lip, swallowing down his gasps and moans, cupping his face with his calloused hands. He inches back for air, and takes a moment to cement the view in his mind—the sight of Jake debauched beneath him—lips swollen and eyes unfocused, Heeseung’s arms wrapped around the youngest, lips pressed against the juncture of his neck, blood trickling down from where his mouth meets skin.

Jake whines at the sudden loss of Jay’s touch, free hand reaching up to wind around the other’s neck, tugging him down. Jay leans forward and indulges him, smirking against the kiss as he presses against him with fervor, impressed by his boldness. 

Well, Jake is quite the character anyway.

_____

“Do you think this is big enough?” Jay asks, knuckles against his lips in thought.

“Hmm,” Heeseung hums, staring at the display. He squints. “Is it? I’m not sure,”

From afar, Jake weaves through the people in a rush. “Sorry. Excuse me. Coming through. Sorry,” He says sheepishly, dodging the crowd, before finally catching sight of the two and running up to them.

“Hey,” He breathes, and they turn to him, Jay’s eyes softening, Heeseung’s face lighting up. “Sorry I’m late,”

Heeseung immediately takes his hand and laces their fingers. “That’s fine. How was your test?”

“Horrible. Please don’t ask,” Heeseung chuckles at this.

“Jake,” Jay says, grabbing his attention and pointing to the display. “Do you think this is big enough?”

The youngest purses his lips, tilting his head like a curious puppy. “I don’t know.” 

The eldest vampire groans and puts his palm against his face, exasperated. “Great. Now I’m stuck with two indecisive boyfriends.”

Jake knows it’s meant to be a jab, but really, with the way he’s called a boyfriend, Jay’s and Heeseung’s to be specific, he couldn’t care any less about the insult. Butterflies run rampant in his stomach and he giggles, draping an arm over Jay’s shoulder, nuzzling against his temple in apology for being unhelpful.

“We’ll take this one please,” Jay finally tells the attendant after much thought, pointing to the king-sized bed before them. The man nods, and immediately orders one of their stocks to be wrapped up.

“We should’ve just brought this through the window, it would’ve been easier that way.”

“This is the rooftop,” Riki sighs, feeling immense déjà vu.

“So? We can all jump!”

“Jump? While carrying a king-sized mattress? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Oh, for the love of god, shut up!” Jungwon berates, holding one of the corners of the mattress they were transporting up the stairs. Like it’s routine, Sunoo walks up the walls to get ahead, opening the door for them.

They barrel through the entryway, having difficulty finding the right angle to make the mattress fit through it. But once they do, they enter the apartment, and set it aside against one of the walls. Not far behind are Heeseung, Jay, and Jake, all carrying boxes of Jake’s things.

They go up and down the stairs until they’ve managed to carry all of the youngest’s belongings from the lobby to the rooftop, unloading his things one by one into his new home.

He’s leaning against the counter, watching his members pace around the apartment, wearing a smile that isn’t even the slightest bit enough to express how happy he is. Heeseung walks towards him, placing a hand against the countertop and caging him with his towering frame.

“You good?” He asks in a low voice, wearing a small grin of his own.

Jake beams, fixing the older’s cardigan. He makes a mental note to borrow that later on. “I am.”

“Good,” Heeseung says before leaning forward to kiss him square on the lips. Jake still has to get used to the unlimited supply of kisses he’s been getting lately, but it’s something he’d gladly take his time to familiarize himself with. He smiles against the older’s lips, standing on the tips of his toes to return the affection.

His heart melts into goo in the pits of his stomach and yet it’s Heeseung who picks up those pieces and reassembles them with his gentle touch. Heeseung’s love is warm and comforting, Jake learns. Like the kindling hearth in a fireplace, like the cozy mismatched furniture to their rustic home. Heeseung’s love makes him feel like no matter where he is, he has somewhere to belong. He places another sweet kiss against Jake’s cheek before stepping away.

But to his surprise, Heeseung suddenly picks him up and places him on the countertop. “Take it easy now, okay? We’ll do the rest.”

Jake realizes that as calm as Heeseung seems to be when compared to Jay, his words hold a certain authority that he himself finds difficult to disobey. He nods, and watches Heeseung retreat into one of the rooms holding a box.

On the other end of the living room, he sees Riki unpacking his soccer ball, and slipping it between Jay’s motorbike helmet and Heeseung’s guitar. And the sight just pulls so hard on his heartstrings—the sight of his belongings finding their place in his new house, much like him. And its so overwhelming, this feeling of a new chapter of his unfolding right before his eyes that he finds himself blinking away tears.

“Crybaby,” Jay teases, but without bite.

Jake looks at him, and wipes away his tears sheepishly. “Shut up,”

One corner of Jay’s lips hikes up, hand reaching out to ruffle the hair on the back of Jake’s head. “You can cry, y’know” He says. “There’s nothing wrong with that,”

Jake presses his lips together and looks at his boyfriend, touched. And with these words, his lips tremble and his eyes well up with more tears. Shyly, he tugs the older’s sleeve and pulls him closer. Jay rolls his eyes but lets himself be towed forward anyway, opening his arms for Jake, craning his neck to allow the younger space to burrow his face.

Jay, despite everything, has always had a special way of loving Jake. He’s not going to lie, finding the right way to express it wasn’t the easiest. And it’s not like they started off without a hitch. He had to unlearn being defensive, and instead replace that with the things he actually means. He’s still learning, finding the right way to hold the reins, figuring out how to properly make Jake feel loved.

But he feels it already, despite Jay thinking otherwise. He feels it in the way Jay cooks him his favorite meals, feels it in the way he gently fastens the strap of the helmet under his chin, feels it in the shy kisses Jay plants on the crown of his head when he thinks Jake is sleeping.

Jay pulls away and cups his face, his palms nearly engulfing his cheeks whole. He wipes Jake’s tears away with the pads of his thumbs before placing a quick peck on the corner of his lips. Then he looks away immediately, blood rushing up his neck and making him glow beet red.

Jake laughs fondly at the sight, but Jay walks away before he could even comment. “Shut up,” The older mutters, lips in a pout as he tries to hide his embarrassment.

The sun dips below the horizon and the late afternoon glow paints their apartment in warmth. Jay whips out a few cookies he bought the previous day and heats it in the oven for everyone to snack on. There are still half opened boxes strewn across the floor, but everyone stopped caring halfway through.

“I can’t believe it,” Sunghoon begins to speak and they all collectively groan, knowing that it’s going to be another sentimental speech of his. He does that a lot. When he gets drunk, he cries about how much he loves the coven.

“Just a few months ago, Jake was this lost kid in the black market. You should have seen him!” He says, and Jake covers his face with his hands shyly. On the couch next to him, Heeseung chuckles, squeezing his knee.

Sunghoon is on one of the smaller armchairs, seated so candidly as if it’s his own home. “And my god, Jakey. I can’t believe where you are now.” He says, gesturing to his new home.

Heeseung glances at Sunghoon in confusion, to which the blond is quick to explain. “Do you know why Jake wanted to join the coven?”

“Oh my god, Sunghoon shut up!”

“Do you want to know why Jake wanted to join the coven?” Sunghoon says, egging on the youngest’s embarrassment, pleased to hear everyone chuckling goodnaturedly.

Jay returns from the kitchen with a plate of cookies and places it on the coffee table. “Why?”

“Sunghoon, I swear to god—”

“Because he found you two hot,”

Riki howls teasingly, clapping his hands and cheering. If Jake had the ability to ask the ground to swallow him whole, he would. From one of the stools nearby, Sunoo laughs, watching everyone with a fond look.

“Do you guys know why Jay was so hesitant about Jake at first?” It’s Heeseung’s turn to tease and it has Jay glaring at him with so much intensity. But really, six centuries with him has desensitized Heeseung.

Jake peers up at his boyfriend. “Why?”

“Heeseung,” Jay says in warning, but is ignored.

“Because he found you cute,”

“Fucking hell, shut up!” Jay throws the potholder at Heeseung, which he catches with ease, a teasing laugh escaping his lips. “You’re one to talk!”

“What?” Heeseung challenges. “You have nothing on me, babe.” Which is true, unfortunately. Heeseung was so quick to acknowledge and embrace his feelings that Jay has literally nothing to use for leverage. So, he stutters into silence with a pout.

“Aww, Jaaaay.” Jake starts, standing up with open arms, and Jay has to swallow down the urge to smack them all. “My sweet honey boy Jay,” Smoke nearly erupts through the eldest’s nostrils.

Jake is growing bolder and bolder by the day. Gone is Jake who was walking on eggshells around him, all shy and careful. Riki and Sunghoon really are bad influences because now, the vampire pup has learned to be a menace of his own to Jay. Especially to Jay.

Riki is perched on the countertop, arms draped over Jungwon’s frame, who is standing in front of him between his legs and making an armrest out of his knees. “Sunghoon,” He says, and the mentioned whips his head towards him, a quizzical look on his face. “Jake got himself two boyfriends.” Sunghoon squints, having an inkling of where this is going to. “Catch up, maybe?”

The rest of them double over their seats, hearty laughter filling the apartment and Sunghoon sputters, red creeping up his neck. “H-hey!” He says, slighted. But when he turns and sees Sunoo chuckling quietly along with everyone, his embarrassment grows tenfold.

“Good bye,” He says, standing up dramatically. “I am leaving this coven, you’re all little shits. Except you, Sunoo.” He says the last part in a whisper, then makes a show of walking to the doorway. But Sunoo runs after him, hiding a smile behind his hands as he tugs Sunghoon back to place. And this has the others touting and applauding, completely amused by the show. It’s like they’re watching two teenagers skirt around each other bashfully.

Sunghoon is brought back to his seat by Sunoo, who taps his shoulder thrice before joining Jungwon in the kitchen. And this is enough to appease him, clutching the part Sunoo touched with a lovesick sigh.

“Simp,” Jay jabs.

Sunghoon makes a face at him. “Takes one to know one,”

The members begin to say their goodbyes just as the moon begins to rise, bright against the dark horizon. 

“Thanks for the help,” Jake says, clapping Riki and Sunghoon on their backs. 

“Anytime,”

“We got you,” They won’t be mentioning it anytime soon, maybe unless Sunghoon gets drunk, but both of them are incredibly proud of and happy for Jake.

They give him a half hug, and soon enough, they’re out to the hallways, Riki walking hand in hand with Jungwon, and Sunghoon mustering up enough courage to put his hand on Sunoo’s shoulders.

Heeseung closes the door behind them, and turns to his boyfriends, a content and fond sigh sifting through his lips. He steps forward and places his arms around each one of them, placing a kiss on Jay’s cheek, then on Jake’s temple.

“Want to test out the bed?” Heeseung says in a low voice and this has the other two wriggling in his hold and protesting, smacking his arm in complaint.

“You’re so–!” Jake says, unable to find the words through the heat rushing up his cheeks. Heeseung only laughs harder and tightens his hold around his boyfriends until they’re nearly crushed in his arms.

Jay pretends that he doesn’t like it, like being smothered is that last thing he’d want on earth, but really, his heart is nothing but full right now. Jake chuckles, brimming with indescribable affection for both of them.

With the warm bulbs hanging from the ceiling of their rustic apartment, the gray washed walls, the mismatched furniture, and the boxes littered across the floor, Jake has never felt more at home.

This is where he belongs.

The eldest detaches himself from their little group hug, much to Heeseung and Jake’s dismay, and picks up his apron from the countertop. He faces Jake and asks.

“Are you hungry?” 

Jake blinks, then nods slowly. Heeseung takes his hand and leads them forward.

“C’mon,” Jay says, tilting his head before walking into the kitchen, his hands shoved inside his pockets. “Follow me,”