TICK TACK
Disclaimer: I do not know the boys, and I haven't the slightest clue as to what their nightly habits are like. This is pure fictional and meant to entertain.
Pairing: ?
RP UKISS
Rating: PG-13
AN: I watched the Tick Tack music video and loved the song, and the video too, I only felt it could have used a little more of a story. So this is what I came with. English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize for all the mistakes that are in the story.
Warning: I was forgeting this important part: This story contains boy love... kind of, so if it's not your cup of tea, you can go back now :)
Hope you like it!
Kevin laughed again at his friends antics, Dongho seemed to be letting go now, with a little alcohol in his system, not that Kevin approved, he had turned into Dongho's Alexander when this one had left the group, but he had to admit that seeing this side of Dongho wasn't so bad, tomorrow the hangover will lecture him by itself, but tonight he wanted to enjoy, with the rest of his friends.
His eyes traveled to the rest of his bandmates. He smiled softly, they all seemed to be having fun, and Kevin was invaded with that warm feeling in his chest that only brotherly love seemed to give, even at seeing Jaesob, with whom, everyone knew, he wasn't that close to; truth was they all deserved it, they had earn this down time.
He took another sip of his beer, smiling softly. He was getting lightheaded.
Kevin turned to look for one of his fellow members, he needed air, and he needed someone to take care of Dongho while he was outside. It was fun, but the feeling of losing control over himself wasn't something he liked.
He caught Kiseop's eyes, telling him, with a look towards Dongho, to look after him.
"I'll be right back" He muttered to his friend, walking outside.
The air was warm, and the wind was being gentle that night, inviting almost, and Kevin wasn't someone to resist, he took the elevator to the top floor, where he knew he would be able to clear his head from the alcohol drowsiness.
The doors opened, letting in the unmistakable smell of the night, something Kevin couldn't quite placed, but had always been very aware of and familiar with. He breath in deeply, enjoying the calmness that was around him and the odd sensation of being safe, despite the place he really was at (the top floor of a bulding in somewhere at the middle of the night). He was feeling a lot better now, more clear headed, still he stayed a little bit longer, basking in the silence that the night--
*Thump*
Kevin opened his eyes, he hadn't realized he had close them, and listened intently, he was sure he had heard something...
*Thump*
There it was again, it sounded like the rustling of fabric... And movement... Steps.. And he could faintly hear someone murmuring.
Against his better judgment, since the whole situation was looking kind of dangerous, and because instead of fish, they should have named Kevin as "kitten", he approached, his curiosity, and lack of self preservation, getting the best of him.
He didn't have to walk too much, since the building wasn't that big, hiding behind a ventilation duct, Kevin could see clearly the four figures standing a few meters away from him, and one more, back against the wall, looking frantically in between the faces of those that were around him.
Kevin squinted his eyes, the forms seemed familiar, he knew them, but couldn't be quite sure with the dancing of the moonlight shadow around their faces.
"My sister..." the boy against the wall spoke, and Kevin was almost frenetic, he had heard the voice before, but couldn't place it, yet the desperation behind each word was driving him mad, this person whoever it was, needed help.
"She won't know" Said another voice, the owner took a steps towards the boy, and Kevin cursed silently, at hearing that voice, one he could place instantly since the time he had been forced to make fun of him and his Korean, he had felt so bad afterwards, that he was sure he wouldn't be able to forget that voice. MBLAQ's Lee Joon. Now he knew a least one of the people up there, and with that he could almost guess who the other ones were.
Kevin was contemplating leaving at the moment, it was probably a "band thing" and he was just overreacting, and evesdropping when it wasn't his business, he had almost turned around, when the scared voice reach him again.
"I don't wanna lose her" he said, and Kevin couldn't see him while he was facing down, looking at his shoes, but the undertone of sadness and desperation didn't go unnoticed by the vocalist.
"So your having second thoughts" A third voice spoke, this time the owner took a step forward, his face being bathed by the moonlight and allowing Kevin to see who it was. The bearded boy: G.O, at least Kevin thought that was his name. "There's not turning back now Sanghyun" He said, in an almost conciliatory tone, that it did nothing but to raise Kevin's suspicions further.
"I know" the one Kevin now knew it was Cheundoong, said " I know that, but... Won't she be able to tell? I mean, she knows me since we were kids..."
"We have waited long enough, Sunghyun, and we have given you plenty of time to say your humanly goodbyes to her" Kevin was sure that was the leader, the cold *I'm a bad boy* leader, Seungho "You know we can afford to lose more time, Soohyun almost has his coven completed, and that will leave us in the same place we are now. Under them."
At the name of his own band leader and friend, Kevin's ears perked up. What he firstly thought was an MBLAQ matter, was turning into a different, completely unexpected direction, and suddenly the name of his friend was being involved, along with words Kevin had never heard normal people speaking with. Covens were for the avid mass of Twilight readers, in which he didn't count himself on, and somehow, these guys didn't strike him as much of a twilight readers.
Or readers in general for that matter.
So, what were they talking about and how did Soohyun fit in there?
Too much alcohol rolling around in the party.
He didn't have more time to think about it, Joon had taken a step forward grabbing Cheundong by the neck.
It was getting out of control.
"You knew what you were getting yourself into, we never lied to you" Joon said, face to face with the younger boy " We were patient and understanding, but time is up, if you are going to keep playing games, it won't be with us" And when Joon took a step aside and let his leader take his place, earning a whimper from the dongsaeng, Kevin let all his precautions take a jump from the rooftop.
"That's enough guys" He said coming out from his hiding place, at the looks he received from the other boys there, he started having second thoughts on his decision... too late "I'm sure that whatever this is it can wait till tomorrow, when everyone's heads are more--" Kevin didn't have time for anything else, in a matter of seconds, he was being pinned to the opposite wall of Cheundong by non other than Lee Joon, who moments before had been standing METERS away from Kevin.
"Look what we have here, brothers" Lee Joon said, leaning his head to the side, as if to look better at Kevin, who by now was struggling with his breathing abilities. Up close, Joon didn't seem like Joon at all, there was some kind of sleeping fury on his features, that was scaring Kevin.
One more figure, one that had almost gone unnoticed by Kevin, approached them, and to Kevin utter disbelief, lean in to breath into his neck.
"He's still human" Said the deep voice of Cheolyong.
"What the hell are you talking about?! What have you been really drinking?! Of course I'm human as are you. And you" He said grabbing Lee Joon's hand and trying to rip it away from his neck, needless to say, unsuccessfully "Let me go!"
"Maybe your games weren't such a waste of time, after all Cheundong" He said laughing softly, and completely ignoring Kevin's protests "I wonder what would happen if we turn this one too."
Kevin rolled his eyes, whatever this was, it was getting completely insane, and ridiculous, and everyone will be really ashamed when they woke up tomorrow... and still the vocalist couldn't help, but wish he had let someone know where he will be.
He fought harder Joon's grasp on his neck, and his fight became almost frantic when the dancer closed the space between him and Kevin's neck, he only heard Seungho muttering a softly and completely out of place "Be gentle" before closing his eyes. Whatever they were playing at, they now considered Kevin a playmate.
Somewhere a door burst open, and Kevin heard, at the same time he felt Joon's breath ghost across his neck, Soohyun's voice.
"Put him down now, Changsun"
Kevin looked past Joon's shoulder, and saw the five figures of his bandmates approaching, sighing in relief, but not for too long; there was an edge of danger in the air, like the clashing of two unknown forces, that was making difficult for him to breath, and of course, Joon's grasp, that hadn't diminished a bit.
He was gasping now.
"Seungho, tell your child to stop this now, we didn't came here looking for a fight" Said Soonhyun, in a calm demanding voice, that Kevin had never heard him use; at his right, Eli took a step forward and the leader lifted an arm to stop his advancement.
Eli. Kevin's Eli, even if he woukd never say it out loud. Somehow Eli had always been his safekeeper, someone that would always step up front to make sure he was alright, and he was here now, and Kevin would have felt so much better if it weren't for the look on his friend's eyes, that glinted with red anger that had even Kevin feeling afraid. And Kevin had never been afraid of Eli, since he had met him. Not once.
"Then probably you should tell yours the same" Seungho spoke with coldness, nothing strange there, thought Kevin. "Besides, he was the one who came minding other people's business, if you had stake your claim before, and could keep him in a leash, this wouldn't be happening. Do you think him worth it, Changsun?"
Joon tilted Kevin's head to the side exposing the skin of his neck, which earn him a growl from the direction of his bandmates, but the singer couldn't identified from whom it came or even if it had been human at all.
~I'm about to pass out from lack of oxygen and I'm starting to hear strange sounds...~
"Maybe" Answered Changsun, locking eyes with Kevin, who gave the dancer his best *WTF* glare. Joon laughed.
"If you are expecting to fight his mate, you will be fighting all of us" To Kevin utter disbelief, was Jaesob who spoke, he tried to turn his head to look at his bandmate, but Changsun turned his head roughly, which made Kevin whimper slightly in pain.
And that's when all hell broke lose.
One minute he had been in Joon's grasp, been stare at, like some kind of dessert on a bakery windowshell, and the next he was on the floor, crawling away, just by instinct, from the sounds of flesh connecting to flesh.
The movements were too fast for Kevin to see, and he was wondering if he had somehow became blind by the lack of oxygen, when Mir's face showed up right in front of him, in a vicious snarl, but before he could do anything, Kiseop appeared, face contorted in a mad growl, eyes bloodshot, baring his fangs at the MBLAQ's maknae.
Fangs.
Real fangs.
Not the tiny kind, fake plastic ones.
Very real and authentic fangs.
Kevin had had enough.
He stood up awkwardly, and was about to run from the madness, when his eyes caught sight of Cheundoong on the floor clutching his head as in pain.
He run up to the rapper and took him by the arm, pulling him up, with all the strength he could conjure, and dragged him to the emergency stairs. Just as Kevin opened the door, Dongho's face appeared.
Dongho's very normal and human and lovely face.
"Hyung?" he asked, but Kevin didn't gave him time of anything else, grabbing his dongsaeng with his one free arm, he dragged, both Cheundoong and Dongho out of the place.
They moved more to Kevin's accord than by their one choice, and Kevin ran downstairs, until he couldn't hear anymore sounds of the fight that was taking place above them, and only then, he found a room where to rest at. And with a little luck, a place to gather his mind into a logical train of thought.
First things first.
"Are you okay?" He asked Cheundoong, after sitting him in an empty rusty couch. The rapper nodded barely, but for Kevin it was something. "What the hell happened upstairs.?" he asked, he needed to know exactly what had happened, regardless of the odd situation, he had left his friends there alone...
~If I'm honest with myself, I probably wouldn't make that much of a difference~ He thought, looking at the ceiling.
Cheundoong stayed silent for a couple of minutes, and just when Kevin was about to slap him he looked up at the singer.
"You really don't know?" he asked with a hint of unbelieving, and not with sarcasm, as Kevin had first thought.
"I have no idea, man. Are they on drugs or something? It sounded as if their fight was kind of territorial. You wanted to get out? That's why they became so violent?" Kevin's brain had already supplied him with a ton of logical and rational possibilities at what was happening. "If they haven't told you, you will not believe it coming from me" Cheundoong said, passing a hand over his short hair. "They're not humans"
~And here we go again~ thought Kevin rolling his eyes and giving and exasperated sigh. After this he was raising a votation to eliminate the whole *idol* term from the Korean industry, it just gave the singers a complex.
"If they like to behave as if the ground they step on doesn't deserve them, doesn't mean they're not humans, they're just stupid" Kevin said, looking at Dongho for some kind of support.
Cheundoon stood up in front of him, forcing Kevin to look up due to their heights differences.
"Who's more stupid? They who fight over what is rightfully theirs? Or you? Whose mind it's to narrow to see what it is in front of you? You saw what they're capable of" He finished, sitting again and giving Kevin room to breath once more.
He hadn't seen anything.
~And that's just it. I couldn't see anything~ Kevin thought.
And he felt like screaming ~I'm lacking of the psychological tools to understand this~
This was becoming to bizarre and nightmarish for his rational brain to handle.
He took two deep breaths trying to calm himself down, but before he could say anything, Dongho spoke.
"What are they?" Cheundoong raised his head to look at the younger one, there was some kind of understanding there, that made Kevin uneasy. Dongho was to young for this shit.
"Vampires"
Heavy silence filled the room. And not even the breathing of his three occupants made some attempt to break it.
"Ha!" Was Kevin who cut it abruptly "Don't you thing, if such things were even real, we would've noticed before? We have spent three, THREE YEARS!! with them, don't they get cooked in the sun and all that bullshit? I have never seen them sleep at day or in a coffin, for that matter, Kiseop loves garlic even!"
Kevin finished sitting on the floor, legs crossed, trying to digest and give sense to what he was hearing, and decide his next curse of action. Cheundoong needed psiquiatric attention ASAP, but that wasn't his first concern at the moment. He needed to contact their manager, and get little Dongho out of there, and fast.
"They are thousands of years older, Kevin, thousands and not hundreds." Spoke Cheundoong, with his face down, that made hard for Kevin to understand what he was saying "Your vampires are the older ones out there, mine are just a couple of hundreds, but that's enough time to make them immune to sunlight and strong enough to camouflage his sleeping habits. You could never notice unless you were looking for it. Or do you stay up at night to see which one of them takes a stroll out in the city?"
Kevin opened his mouth to retort, closed it, and opened it again.
He ended up closing it again.
~My vampires?~
There had to be something to say to that, but in fact Kevin had never stayed up to see what his bandmates did at night, they didn't even lived together, like most of the idol bands in Korea, and when booked in a room, he was usually the first one to go to bed...
"I know my friends, and they wouldn't hurt a fly. They're not capable of killing, even Jeasob, whose pretty much an ass all the time" He finished, with a proud nod, looking once again at Dongho for confirmation, who nodded in return.
"Seungho, Byunghee, and Changsun never killed either, they had Cheolyong and me, they didn't have to hunt"
The heaviness of that statement left Kevin without words, if this was some kind of a gothic trend followed by some of the K-pop industry artists, and one Kevin had never heard of, it was going too far.
"The drank from you?" Asked Dongho, but it had come out more like a statement. "Did you let them?"
Again, Kevin noticed, their cross looks, making him feel uncomfortable.
"At first we didn't notice, they would do it at night, and wouldn't let us woke up through it, as the time passed, and they let us know what they were... We kind of let them..."
"Didn't notice?! You kind of let them?!" Yelled-whispered Kevin, unwilling to believe in this form of cannibalism happening so near them "What the hell, man?!" He finished in English, which he knew that to Dongho only denoted how stress out he really was.
"Don't judge me, by the way your friends behave around you, they had done the same. They're far too territorial with you" Cheundoong said, looking at Kevin, who shook his head, shaking his arms in a negative gesture.
"No, I would have noticed. I don't usually drink enough alcohol to be comatose and I'm not that much of a heavy sleeper. Dongho?" He asked, and the younger one shook his head.
"You won't accept it, right?" Said Cheundoong slumping defeated in the couch.
Kevin sighed, he felt bad for the rapper, he was too caught up in this mess already. He stood up, dusting off his back pockets. He now had his logical (and safe) train of thought.
"It doesn't matter how deep they got you into this, it isn't real. We are gonna get you help, Cheundoong, for you and the rest of our friends " He said grabbing his cellphone, his sense of security back on full force.
"What are you doing?" Asked Dongho, moving next to his hyung.
"Shit" Muttered Kevin in English, as he checked his phone. No signal here " I'm calling Kibum, so he can get us out of here, once in a safe place I'm contacting manager-nim, and let him take care of the rest. Come on" He said opening slightly the door to see if there was anyone out, it was still nine wackos against the three of them. "There was a phone in the room where the party was at, we just have to get there"
He said stepping out, and rolling his eyes at Cheundoong's "Will never make it" statement. They moved swiftly, following Kevin through the way downstairs, not a single sound was heard, and far from striking Kevin as odd, he was growing anxious by it.
~There was a party going on in this building, there was music and chatter. Noise. How the hell did it get so silent all of the sudden?~
Just when they were two floors from their destination, a sweet, soft and melodic whistle reach them, Kevin would have kept going if it weren't for Cheundoong who had stopped, as if glued to the floor. His eyes trained on the flight of stairs above them. Dongho, just behind him, had stumbled with the immobile mass that was now MBLAQ's rapper.
"Move it, Cheundoong, we're almost there" Kevin said trying to pull the older one along.
"I told you will never make it" He said in a doomed tone, casting his eyes down, and clasping Kevin's hand tight "They are here" He said looking directly into Kevin's eyes, and the singer could see the traces of madness mingled with resignation; he returned the hold on Cheundoong's hand trying to impress some kind of strenght, and pulled him once more.
"We should hurry then, before they catch us" And he turned to take the way downstairs again, stopping dead on his tracks by the figure right in front of him.
"How..?" Said Kevin looking back the way they had come, surely if at any point Joon had caught up with them they would have noticed, there was no way... unless he had been flying, which was impossible...
Cheundoong grabbed his hand tighter, and Kevin winced slightly in pain, more preoccupied for the fear that the rapper was showing, albeit just to him, but it meant he really didn't wanted to go with his bandmate.
"Time to go back, Cheundoong. Seungho's orders. You can come and play with the pet later, I promise"
Kevin push them backwards little by little, the door that connected the emergency stairs with the floor they were at the moment, was just behind Dongho, they just had to move a little more... Joon took a step forward, and Kevin immediately stood in between the dancer and the rapper. Joon smiled not kindly, showing the traces of a fading scar in the right corner of his lips... A scar that hadn't been there moments before.
"The pet still wants to come and play with me?" Joon asked in mocking tenderness, he reach out to run a finger across Kevin's jawline, making the singer move his head away abruptly. ~What's with the awkward touches tonight?!~
"Maybe we can obviate Soonhyun's request this time. By the time he founds you, it will be too late." He said apparently to Kevin, moving his eyes away to look at Cheundoong "What do you say, Thunder?"
But Cheundoong didn't have to answer Kevin had pushed them far enough, that Dongho had felt the doorknob pressing against his back, opening the door they had stumbled backwards in a mass of bodies and extremities. Kevin stood up fast, and closed the door before Joon could enter, and the smile on this one hadn't faltered for a bit.
Kevin's blood ran out cold as he took a step away from the door. There was a strange pull compelling him to open the door again. To run towards the dancer.
He shook his head trying to get rid of the strange feeling.
Something was even more wrong than he had first thought.
Someone grabbed his hand bringing him back to the moment, startling him, Kevin raised his head to look right into the worried eyes of their maknae.
"Hyung, we have to move" He said now and both Cheundoong and Dongho pull a dazed Kevin with them.
The far he moved from the door the clearer his head got, Kevin noticed after the first dozen of steps where Cheundoong and Dongho had almost carried him for. Now a good twenty meters away from his source of confusion, Kevin was ready to think again. But apparently, Cheundoong had beat him to it.
"I need to go with them" He said stopping suddenly. He turned to look at Dongho, who remained stoic. Kevin, not so much. He took Cheundoong by both arms and turned him around to look him in the eye.
"Listen, I know they're our friends and that you are worried for them, I am too, but going back...to whatever we have with them isn't gonna solve any of this. If we want to help them we need to get help for ourselves first"
Cheundoong smiled, squeezing gently Kevin's forearms, as in reassurance.
"You are lucky Kevin, I wish minemhad gone to the extent your friends are going to keep you sheltered. They really love you, you know. Seungho said they weren't always this sweet, at least not until they met you." Kevin frowned, and Cheundoong smiled sadly "I'm going to miss my sister, but they are right, there's no turning back now; and before you say anything again, I can't keep going, Changsun has a vendetta with you, and I'm worried that it may be turning into an obsession."
Kevin kept silent, just a few minutes ago, he probably would have told Cheungdoong to wait there while he kicked some sense into Joon's thick head, but now, after the incident at the stairs...
~I hate to admit it, but I might be getting a little afraid of Joon. Stupid t.v golden bell show, it only gives you enemies...~
A shiver ran down his spine with the feeling of being watched, making him turn abruptly to find himself face to face with Joon, whose smile kept on going directly at Kevin.
"I'm going back, hyung. I won't play anymore stupid games" Said Cheundoong immediately coming to stand between his friend and the singer.
"Too bad. But a taste wouldn't mind you, right?" Said Joon reaching around the rapper to run his hand down the white column that was Kevin's neck, this one wanted to turn away, to scream something related to the awkward touches of the night, but his limbs felt heavier with each movement of Joon, and his mind was starting to drift of, barely registering Dongho bating Joon's hand away from his neck, and the "Don't touch him" that came with the action.
The next thing Kevin noticed was that they were alone. Just him and Dongho, who was kneeling in front of him, since at some point his legs had stopped functioning and he was now resting on the floor.
He looked around.
No trace of Cheundoong.
"Where's Cheundoong?" He asked Dongho.
"Gone with Changsun" Answered the maknae, not looking a bit troubled, and as if he wanted to add something else.
Kevin rested his head against the wall. This night was turning from bad to worst. Still if Cheundong had left, it didn't mean it all had been for nothing. Kevin now felt towards the older rapper something akin to what he felt towards Dongho, a sense of protectiveness, and he was going to honor that. Kevin took out his cellphone and checked it again, still no signal. He got up with the help of the maknae, and started again his journey.
"If there was a phone downstairs, there's got to be one on this floor too. I should have thought about it earlier. Come on, we're looking for it. Kibum will now what to do." Dongho didn't say anything, which was fine by Kevin, he needed the maknae to follow his directions. He was calling his long time friend, the only support he had in this country that wasn't Eli, who by now had fallen from his trust chart to the very bottom.
"Maybe we should look for the others, hyung, they might be in trouble" Finally spoke the maknae, after having registered the first two rooms.
"Oh, they are in trouble alright, if manager-nim doesn't send them to some kind of celebrity rehab, I'm going to kill them, all by myself, and with my own skinny arms" He said bitterly "Besides, I'm pretty sure they had the upper hand with Joon and the others, if not, I'm going to revive them and kill them again for letting themselves get their asses kicked" He opened the fourth door, and gave a tiny yell of success, there, just by the window and over a tiny table was a phone.
~Finally, something's going right~
He picked up the phone and dialed the number he knew better than his own.
The dial tone sounded one, two, three, four times when a familiar voice answered groggily.
"Hello?" Kevin sighed in relief at hearing his friend's voice.
"Hyung..." and then the call was over.
Kevin turned to look at Dongho just to find him holding the telephone cord in his hand, looking apologetically at his friend.
"Sorry, dongsaeng, I have let you do things your own way in the hopes understanding and acceptance will get to you quicker, but I cannot let you make that call"
~Dongsaeng?~
"Dongho...you too?"
His friend only answer was a slightly nod, to which Kevin backed from, and ran towards the door, opening it quickly and colliding in his rush with a hard wall.
Looking up, he found Jaesob's face looking at him with a mixture of relief and anger.
"Let us take you home" He said "We will talk in the morning when you'll be more rested and clear headed."
Kevin wanted to scream in frustration, frustration and not fear. He pushed Jaesob's body away and turned for the emergency exit. Again. Only this time, he walked instead of running, furious footsteps, that were followed by his bandmate's more softer ones.
He opened the door and this time, just as he was expecting, came face to face with Eli. Anger came flashing through him with full force.
"Move away!" He shouted at the rapper in English, enfasizing his anger by speaking in the foreign language. Hoon and Kiseop where just behind the rapper blocking the way up and having the decency to look uncomfortable at the rare display of fury from their singer, Soohyun came forward from behind Eli.
"Please Kevin" He said in his best calming voice, which usually worked wonders in Kevin, but not tonight.
"Please?! Please, what?!" Yelled Kevin, this time not worried about who the hell heard, the building seemed to be deserted anyway, and Cheundoong was gone, which meant that the other MBLAQ members were gone too. And now, surrounded by his friends, the whole imminent sensation of danger seemed pretty stupid "I don't even know what bothers me more, your stupid games, or the fact that I was left out!"
"What games are you talking about?" Said Kiseop from his right.
"He doesn't believe it yet" Provided Dongho from his left.
"After all that has happened tonight?" It was Jaesob "Is he that dense?"
"He's not dense, AJ" This time it was Eli who spoke" It's a lot to take in for him"
"And he's obviously mad at us, because we been lying to him" Added Hoon.
Kevin was fuming.
Ire, anger, fury, whatever name you wanted to put it.
~I'm here, and they're talking as if I couldn't listen!~
"I'M RIGHT HERE!!! Stop talking about me as if I was a child!" He yelled while turning to face his friends. They all look the same way, with guilt overflowing their expressions, that it almost made Kevin felt bad.
Almost.
"I'm sorry, we assure it is not intentional, it's just that...to us you are really a child" Said Soohyun trying to reach Kevin' shoulder with his hand, but the singer moved away before his friend was able to touch him.
"Don't touch me!" He said again in English, his speaking abilities were lacking even more with each passing moment, fluctuating between his mother tongue and the one that made him feel safer. "You keep on with your bullshit! You been lying to me all of this time, the least you could do now is to tell me the truth!"
Kevin hated himself more than ever. The tears were making their way to the corners of his eyes, making them itch. And whatever excuse he tried to find, it wouldn't help to deny the truth behind them, he was being weak, he was stress out and tired, he was afraid and angry. And he hated himself for it.
~They know I know. Why do they keep playing this stupid game?~
"We are not lying to you now. Please Kevin, you have to believe us." Finally it was Eli who spoke, and his voice was command enough to make him turn, but the unbelief didn't leave his face.
"Sorry Kev, I'm just doing this to show you the truth" Said Jaesob with a tenderness Kevin hadn't seen him display towards him... and as the only warning before literally jumping him. They had been this close before, on photoshoots and fanmeetings, but there was something disturbingly intimate in the way Jaesob's arms where placed around his waist.
And the breath traveling through his neck was the only warning he had before the worst kind of pain he had felt in his life came to be known to him.
Kevin wasn't sure if he screamed or if he just gasped... He wasn't even sure for how long Jaesob's lips had been glued to the wound on his neck, and as Jaesob was forcefully pulled away from him by and angry Soonhyun and Eli, he was sure of two things.
One: Jaesob wasn't wearing any fake fangs.
Two: There was no way a human could drink that blood like that, trend or no trend.
He took a hand to the still seeping wound on his neck; he could barely feel the two tiny punctures through the cold that seemed to be seeping from the wound; he looked at his hand and saw it red with blood, turning to look at Jaesob he found him looking expectantly at him, but without a drop of blood staining his perfect face.
Kevin took a step backwards and away from the UKiss unit.
What couldn't make sense was making perfect sense now.
And many things where falling into place for Kevin.
The way Hoon and AJ had seemed to click with the rest of the group as if they had always belong there.
The unnatural charm his bandmates possessed.
The way the used to treat him as if he were the maknae and not Dongho.
The territorial ways that Kevin had always disregarded as a cultural thing.
He took two more steps backwards, and all of the six remaining figures seemed to prepare to launch themselves after the singer.
"This cannot be possible" Kevin said "How..? When..? Why..?"
He took one more step back, but this time not finding the floor beneath his feet.
His friends yelled his name.
Somewhere a cellphone was ringing.
And Kevin kept falling.
He woke up with a start.
"Easy sweetie, easy. You hit your head pretty hard" Kevin heard the familiar voice of his mother. He turned to look at his right and could see her perfectly.
"Mom?" He asked out loud to reassure himself, she just smiled, helping him to lean on the pillows behind him, once more.
"Let me get the doctors and we will talk" She said going out, but in seconds she was back, with a man in white coat, that introduced himself as Dr. Whatever. Kevin's attention was somewhere else.
"I hit my head?" He asked his mother while the doctor checked him.
"You don't remember?" She asked to what he shook his head "You fell, honey. Back at the party you were attending with you friends, remember? Eli said you went out to get fresh air, when the time passed and you didn't get back, they went to look for you, and found you on the floor unconscious."
Kevin stared at his mother for an uncomfortable eternity, trying to process what he was hearing. His head hurt, and so did his back, and now the he was moving a little more, his right ankle felt sore too.
Not his neck.
~Then... Was it all a dream? Have I really been dreaming all this time?~
His answer came knocking on the door in the face of Soonhyun and Eli.
Soonhyun and his eternal warm smile and mischievous eyes, that just invited you to laugh with him. And Eli.
Eli with the handsome face and the sad eyes, and the always present feeling of safness that came with his strong built.
And he looked a little tired too.
And vampires didn't look tired.
"You look tired" Kevin told him, and his answer was Eli's smile reaching his eyes, in full glory.
"I've been kind of worried, you know?" He answered the singer, with a little shrug, taking a seat on the site opposite to the one his mother was occupying at the moment.
And Kevin felt bad for dreaming such complex and ungrateful things.
These were his friends, who had obviously rescued him from dying due to his bad alcohol resistance, and not wanting him to believe in nonsense or turn him into a Korean version of twilight.
It had all been a dream.
Kevin breath a sigh of relief.
"You have your flight still scheduled for tomorrow, right Mam?" Said Soonhyun to his mother, who nodded shyly.
"Yes, but I'm canceling it today, I can't leave Kevin alone while he's recovering"
"You're leaving?" Said Kevin surprised, removing his gaze that had been locked with Eli's till then "Where?"
"Oh honey" His mother said, tenderly running her hand through his hair "You must have forgotten that your sister and me were supposed to spend a few weeks with you father back in U.S. I did told you though, but I'm not going now"
The singer felt even worst now, his mother rarely got to spend time with his dad because of him, and now being the cause for postponing the trip...
"It's O.K "He said in English "Go, I may not remember, but I now how much you want to see dad, I can take care of myself, and besides I can have Eli cooking for me and Kibum attending at my necessities" He finished with a smile, Soonhyun laughed.
"Actually, we kind of have everything set up. We're taking our old room from the company complex, so we can all stay there and keep and eye on Kevin, you go, we'll take care of your son. We owe it to him, after all"
Kevin smiled at Soonhyun who returned the gesture.
"See? I'm fine already anyway, right doc?"
The doctor, who until then had kept quiet smiled.
"Yes, in fact we can discharge you today, just make sure to follow the instructions we give you, yes?"
And that was it, a little reluctantly, his mother left some hours after his friends had left saying that their manager will come to pick him up in the afternoon, they will go ahead to get everything ready.
His manager wasn't that talkative regularly, but Kevin was used to his silence, and by the time he came for him, the singer couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. With the help of the man, and putting as little pressure as he could on his injured ankle, they finally made it to the van.
A thought came to Kevin.
"Hyung?" He asked, the manager made an acknowledgment sound "Do you think you can get me Cheundoong's phone number, you know? The rapper from MBLAQ?"
Manager-nim stop his actions abruptly, turning to look at Kevin, who was a little puzzled by the behavior.
"Why would you want his number, you don't know him" It was a statement that stroke Kevin as odd, but ignored it nonetheless. His dream was still fresh, and who knew, maybe his subconscious was trying to tell him that the rapper was kind of alone?
"No, but...he was at the party right? He seemed like a nice guy" He supplied lamely.
"I see what I can do, but after the whole golden star bell, I wouldn't put my hopes too high" He finished starting the engine of the van. Kevin only winced at the reminder.
It turned out they were all ready there, and as much as Kevin wanted to answer their questions, he still was a little tired, hospitals tended to do that to their patients, so he went to get a quick nap.
But what it was supposed to be a quick nap, turned into a full sleeping session, by the time he woke up the apartment was in silence and covered in darkness.
~I need a shower~
He got up, and using the wall as a crutch made his way to the living room to see if there was anyone there to let them know.
As he walked through the corridor, he could hear Soonhyun's voice over the phone...most likely.
"No... Kibum, you really think that?... We're not incommunicating him, he needs his rest...No, you cannot see him still... Because he just got out of the hospital that's why... Don't try it, his cellphone broke on the fall... We will let you know when you can see him... Because I say so, and you'll have to deal with it."
Soonhyun hang up violently, by his tone they had been more like arguing than doing any actual talk, and as much as he didn't want to think about his nightmare, the whole think just kept reminding him of it.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" A voice spoke close to his ear, which made Kevin jump, turning around quickly, it was Hoon.
"I just got up, I thought I was alone, and I wanted to take a shower" He rambled more than speak, trying to calm his nerves. Hoon smiled.
"Aren't you hungry?" He asked.
"Now that you mention it, yes, but I really wanted to take a shower first. Have you guys already eaten?"
"Me and Dongho grabbed a snack while you were sleeping" Hoon said.
And the whole context of that sentence made Kevin shiver in fear.
"Are you ok? Are you coming down with a fever?" Hoon reached out to place his hand on Kevin's forehead, but this one moved out of the way, laughing nervously.
"I think I'm gonna shower first" The singer said, stumbling towards the bathroom.
He was breathing fast, and he knew his heartbeat could be heard by all the other occupants of the floor, grasping the sides of the sink, he tried to calm himself.
He looked at his reflection, and turned his head enough so he could see his neck. There was nothing but white unmarked skin.
Not even a scratch.
Big, deep breaths.
Big, deep breaths.
~Calm down Woo, you're making an ass out of yourself. Just coincidence nothing else. Hoon doesn't know about crazy nightmares due to alcohol induced stupidities. Breath~
After a few moments, Kevin started to calm down, and actually he felt stupid. He had completely overreacted and probably been rude to Hoon, who had been anything but nice.
He would have to apologize later with the singer.
He stripped slowly, his ankle was hurting, in fact his whole leg was hurting now; when only his boxers remained he stopped.
There on his inner tight, barely visible, was a red patch of bruised skin, he touched it gasping at how tender and cold it was.. It only needed to be bleeding to make his nightmare true.
He put pressure there, wincing a little by the pain, and gasped when two tiny drops of blood emerged from the abused skin.
He stumbled and fell backwards hitting the bathroom wall with a deaf thump. Sliding down, he ended up in the floor legs slightly parted, watching it as it stopped bleeding.
A knock on the door startled him.
"Kev, you ok?" Came Eli's voice through the other side of the door.
Kevin closed his eyes, tears already forming, but refusing to let them fall.
~No, Eli, I'm scared... I don't know what's happening to me~
"Ne, I just tripped, but I'm fine" He answered barely containing the crack in his voice. For a moment it seemed like Eli had left.
"Do you want me to help you?"
And this time Kevin squeezed his eyes and did let the tears fall down at the genuine concern in his favorite person's voice.
~Yes please, I think I'm going crazy...~
"No, thanks. I'm about to finish anyway" He said barely proud of how confident he managed to sound.
There was silence, but this time Kevin was keeping watch on the shadow barely showing underneath the door. It didn't move for awhile, and then shifted a little bit, getting close to the door crack, and finally step back.
"Ok, but call me once you get out, I'm carrying you to bed, to prevent anymore accidents"
"Ok"
Kevin hit his head against the wall three times, and stared at the ceiling; he couldn't stay there all night, and would have to come out eventually.
Back to square one.
He was calling Kibum, and see if he had tried to communicate with him last night at all. The silence was overwhelming, and Kevin could hear the ticking of the clock on the living room.
Tick. Tack.
Tick. Tack.
Tick. Tack.
"Kimi dake wo aishiteru. Sono kimochi wa kawaranai oh. Bokura ni wa kasanette kita. Suteki na omoide mo arukeredo. I must be up by now. Kono yoni asurosu gosenai.Tada ookina uso tsuko tameni.." He sang softly.
Tick. Tack.
Tick. Tack.
Lies. And more lies.
He had to call Kibum.