fic: Catalyst :: chapter four
She’d hate him. She surely would. Call him a monster, all kinds of names, and she’d try to run. As far as possible. Futilely. It downright killed him that he'd have to contain her.
CHAPTER FOUR
"You," Yang Hyunsuk pointed at Seunghyun, "in my office. Now. The rest of you, take a breather." He left just as quickly as he came, on a subdued chorus of yes, sajangnim's.
Seunghyun was grateful for the interruption - anything to get out of dance training - but nevertheless sighed as he picked up his things to follow. He knew what this was about, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
He was ready for anything.
"Sit," the president ordered when Seunghyun stood at his door minutes later. The ride up had been a tense affair, the silence thick enough to slice clean through, and Seunghyun had been bright enough to avoid moving a millimetre. Steepling his fingers now, the president watched Seunghyun carry out his order owlishly. "Now, can you please explain to me why you thought it'd be a great idea to lead Park Bom through her transition when you hadn't fed in, what was it, three months?"
"Maybe two," Seunghyun mumbled.
"I don't give a rat's ass if it was two months or three," the president snapped. "Answer the question."
Seunghyun cast his eyes down, rubbing his neck with hot embarrassment crawling up his face. "I wasn't thinking, sajangnim," he replied softly.
Hyunsuk hyung sighed, quiet a few moments. "Pride, wasn't it," he said at length, seeming to be talking to himself. "You felt like you were strong enough to get her through it. But you weren't, Seunghyun. You could have killed yourself and her along with you. And then where would we be?"
The consequences would have been disastrous. The end of BIGBANG, probably. 2NE1's future, just at the tips of their fingers, irremediably crushed. Bom, dead before she could even taste that which she'd been working herself to the brink for. In retrospect now, Seunghyun felt the full weight of his stupidity and wanted to thrash himself. He hadn't been thinking straight; he'd just been thinking of himself and getting through Bom's transition as quickly as possible. He'd been realising the danger he'd put her through ever since.
The president sighed, the room suddenly much smaller than Seunghyun had realised. "All right. I've put Teddy in charge of Bom."
Frowning, Seunghyun's head shot up in surprise. "Doesn't she need my blood for the next weeks?" Otherwise her body could resist the change...
Yang Hyunsuk's lips flattened. "Be that as it may, she doesn't need a wildcard right now. Teddy's blood should be potent enough. He's responsible, at least."
Seunghyun found himself shaking his head. "No. That's not true." He swallowed, loathe to tell just how wrong his president was. It wouldn't be enough; he knew firsthand. "I fed," he said. "I'll do it."
The president was silent a moment, studying Seunghyun with piercing, sceptical eyes. He'd be kicked out, he'd be kicked out, he'd be - "Will you?"
Seunghyun blinked, bewildered.
"Will you feed regularly?"
He cleared his throat, averting his eyes, but forced himself to accept the condition. "Yes. I will."
The president rocked back in his chair, an enigmatic look playing in his frank gaze for a few moments. "The girls are with Teddy right now. Do not disappoint me, keun Seunghyun."
#
Seunghyun knocked lightly. Heavy bass churned out through the door, along with Chaerin's distinctive sharp, cutting vocals. He turned the knob, slipping his head in as the music blasted out of the studio and into the hall.
Teddy spied him, turning back to his controls with a wry twist of the mouth. Minzy, Dara and Bom strained their necks from the couch behind their producer to see the newcomer. He noticed they all looked a little beat.
"Hey," Seunghyun greeted awkwardly in the silence punctuated with Teddy's instructions to Chae. "Umm, could we talk?" he asked, directing his gaze to Bom.
She was wearing a thick hoodie drawn up over her head, and bowed her head timidly when she realised he was talking to her.
Teddy was the one who answered for her, still with his back to Seunghyun. He sighed. "Go. I won't need you for a while."
Bom quietly stood, ducking neatly under Seunghyun's outstretched arm as he widened the door's gap for her. "Where?" she asked in a tiny voice when the door clicked back closed, shoving her hands in her hoodie pockets.
"Here's fine," he said, opening the next-door studio for her. She slipped in, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Take a seat," he motioned to the couch, grabbing a chair and sitting astride it to face her. There she sighed, staring at her shoes as he hunted for the right words to begin.
"If it's about last night..." She trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words as well.
Seunghyun looked up, meeting her tired eyes. "Are you okay?"
She shrugged, a slow lift and fall of the shoulder. "Confused," she murmured.
Crossing his arms over the back of his chair, he nodded slowly. "What do you want to know?"
"Teddy answered a lot of question," she replied, still in that quiet tone of hers. "But..."
Seunghyun just looked at her.
She frowned. "You're all like this?" she asked.
"Who?"
"The five of you. Teddy. Sajangnim... Dongwook? Gummy unnie?"
Seunghyun swalled. Here it was, the accusation. The loss of trust. "Yeah," he breathed.
Her eyes flitted over his face, searching... he didn't know for what. "How could I not know?" She worried her lip. "How -"
He looked away first. "You weren't supposed to know."
She was quiet a few moments. At length, though, she drew her bent legs closer under her. "I don't know how I feel about this. I haven't been able to process it... talk about... it..."
"Why?" he asked. But then again, it wasn't like they'd been much better either. Hey, guys, let's talk about our transitions. You begin, hyung. But weren't girls different? "You and the girls..."
"I don't know..." she trailed off. "It just feels like I'm... different. Like..." She bit her lip. "Like I've become someone else. It's insane, isn't it?"
Seunghyun felt himself smile a little. "You're still the same, Bom," he assured her. "You're still you."
"With fangs," she deadpanned wryly. "And..."
"And?" he repeated softly when she trailed off with a troubled look.
"And..." She bit her lip in confusion again, drawing his eyes to her plump mouth and the small glistening points punching out of her mouth. She was about to speak when he interrupted her.
"You need to feed," he said, standing from the chair and pushing his sleeve up his arm before sitting next to her. "Go ahead," he encouraged her when she just stared at his proferred arm with fearful doubt.
"Wait. No." She swallowed hard. "H - how do I... I'll hurt you."
He shook his head then, holding her gaze, he lifted his wrist to his mouth and waited for his fangs to punch out before striking himself cleanly.
Bom's eyes went wide when Seunghyun leaned closer. At his encouragement she hesitantly approached her mouth, tasting him delicately, warily. Seunghyun squeezed his eyes shut as she sighed feelingly, cradling him closer to her mouth, and began to drink in earnest. His entire body felt like it was in the grips of an electrical shock as she did, her tongue stroking delicately against his puncture wounds and driving him insane.
He took a slow, shaky breath.
#
"You taste..." Bom looked off, searching for the right word, "a bit like wine. Rich. Thick." She moved her head slightly, agreeing with herself, then glanced at him next to her. "You're still bleeding," she remarked idly.
With his eyes still closed, Seunghyun lifted his arm and sealed his wound with a swipe of his tongue. "Thanks, I guess."
She smiled. "You're welcome." Inhaling deeply, she moved about some more, and Seunghyun felt her mood change as tangibly as if he could touch it. "Tell me something," she began hesitantly.
"Mm," he hummed when she didn't continue.
"Last night... I can't remember a lot - it's mostly fragments. But... you left?" She voiced it as a cross between a question and a statement, and Seunghyun, uncomfortable, detected the bit of hurt in there as well.
"I had to feed," he explained awkwardly.
"Oh." She cleared her throat. "Oh... W - who?"
Seunghyun's eyes snapped open and he was momentarily blinded by the lighting. He stood up abruptly - he had to leave. "I'd better let you go back to recording," he muttered gruffly, rolling his sleeve back over his arm. "I'll see you later."
#
"Yo." Ji grabbed him by the sleeve as he passed by their group's official unofficial recording room on the way out. "I need you in here."
Goddamn. "If it's about the gangsta lyrics," he grunted threateningly, "I'm not in the mood."
Ji shook his head wildly, kind of... not quite sanely. "No, no, no. I've been playing around with the Lollipop track and something's been bothering me. Maybe I'm going nuts but I'd appreciate a fresh perspective."
"I'm hardly a fresh set of ears," Seunghyun scoffed. "I've only heard it a hundred times, remember?"
But Ji made even more dismissive gestures. "Nah, I just need some help," he pleaded, nodding meaningfully at a cleaning staff member who was busily sweeping the hall and paying them absolutely no mind.
Oh, what the hell. "Fine," he sighed, slipping inside, asking, "What now?" as his childhood friend beelined to the controls fretfully. "And you'd better not lay it on me again about Bom."
Ji whirled. "How's she?" he asked, fiddling with buttons behind him at random.
Seunghyun's arm tingled where she'd fed from him. He rubbed it absently. "She's fine," he said with subtle warning.
"That's good," Ji mumbled. "Listen, I think Chae's avoiding me."
"She's recording with Teddy right now. Why?" He'd figured from the start that Ji would be the one turning Chaerin. Leader to leader... something like that. Not that it meant anything blood-wise, but he'd thought the president would have naturally gravitated toward that decision. Looked like he'd been right, if Ji's body language meant anything. Not that the president's choice for Bom had made any sense.
"I went to see the girls this morning and Chae just hung back," Ji said. "Well, they kind of all looked at me like I'd suddenly become a stranger, but Chae just flat-out said hi and disappeared in the kitchen."
"Well..." Seunghyun shrugged, a bit at a loss himself - since when had he become a shrink? Girls... girls were so maddening sometimes. "Did you try to talk to her alone?" he ventured. "They ought to feel a bit tired and confused right now," he said, remembering the drawn look in their eyes when he'd visited Teddy's studio earlier. They'd sincerely looked like someone had just come and shaken their world upside down and sideways. Which they had, hadn't they. "Just... answer her questions."
Yeah, like you did...
Ji nodded slowly, looking a bit small himself. Finally he looked up after a moment, his eyes hollow. "She was so scared," his friend said, rubbing his sternum as if remembering physically hurt. "When... when she realised what... you know... what she'd done."
Seunghyun laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, feeling his pain. "She'll come around."
Jiyong sighed gustily. "I hope you're right, hyung." Then he shook his head, seemingly to shake his thoughts into a semblance of order. "Anyway. Let's work on that song, yeah?" He turned, flipping switches and pressing buttons, the control board and brand-new Mac humming to life before them.
#
Jaewook made a face as Seunghyun walked in, shucking his boots, later that evening. "You're late." But, used to it, he just growled some more to himself and wasted no time starting the music for the group of eight already clustered on the dance floor, dressed to the nines in old sweats and shapeless shirts.
Serious-business dance choreography planning in progress.
Seunghyun slid over on his socks to join his members as the girls began twisting to the cute bubblegum beat. "What'd I miss?"
Seungri tsk'ed. "Just follow us, hyung."
It was a strange session, sort of lifeless in retrospect, where everyone merely did their thing and didn't exactly give their all but rolled along just to etch the moves into their brain. No joking around. No camaraderie. No oomph in the dancing. Just minding their own business, cooped up in their own head.
Bom avoided him, a difficult feat since they were to be paired together for the purpose of the music video. The utmost of her interaction with him was a pointed, "No, you're supposed to stand on my right." Idiot, he supposed, was of course implied.
"Well," Jaewook uttered wearily when midnight rolled around and they all lay about completely pooped out, "I guess that's as far as you're going to get tonight. You guys look like crap. Get some sleep!"
Fat chance. Seunghyun needed to feed again. He could feel all the signs - tingling veins, aching teeth... Waving his goodbye to Wook, he fiddled with his phone. Sometimes he wished he were more like Seungri, with the long contact list bursting at the seams. He probably even categorised them by taste. Honey, ginger, roses...
Idly he wondered what Bom tasted like.
... and promptly dropped that thought. What the hell?
Daesung plopped down next to him. "Yah, aren't you coming?"
Seunghyun cleared his scattered brain. "Mm? Where?"
"Ooh, hyung, were you on Mars again?" his dongsaeng teased lightly.
Seunghyun smiled, glad for the distraction. "I even saw some green guys this time," he joked.
"We're heading home," Daesung said. "Coming?"
Glancing down at his phone, Seunghyun hesitated. He shouldn't be taking chances right now. God knew he still didn't feel like he was operating at 100%.
Do not disappoint me, Seunghyun.
"Raincheck," he said. "I'm heading out tonight."
Daesung's smile faded. "Oh, all right. Well, don't stay out too late."
"Yes, mum," Seunghyun teased, watching Daesung head out with the others. Bom re-entered the room at that moment, coming to collect her things after a bathroom break, and he saw her pull up short just inside the studio when she saw him sitting by himself, still delaying his damn phone call.
"Aren't you leaving?" she asked, somewhat coldly, bending down to grab her bag and coat.
"In a bit," he replied.
She spied what he was holding, her eyes tracking back to his face, realisation slowing her quick movements as she wrapped her scarf around her throat. "You're heading out," she guessed.
"Yeah."
She paused, her hands lingering on the end tails of her scarf. The thing was so thick it must have felt like the tropics underneath, but she didn't seem to mind. "Teddy explained to us about... about needing to feed on the opposite sex. On other v... on, um, people like us."
"Yeah," he answered carefully, wondering what she was getting at.
"Right." She bit her lip, dropping her head, but ploughed on nevertheless. "So, I was wondering who you feed from."
Seunghyun's defenses went up like whoa. Not again. "That's none of your business," he said firmly, willing her to fucking please drop the subject.
But she squared her shoulders. "I have a right to know who I'm indirectly feeding on. Or do you keep a harem?" she said testily.
Seunghyung laughed hollowly. "Sure. I keep it under my bed, to keep the dust bunnies company." Sighing, he rubbed his face. "You're feeding on me, Bom."
"And you feed on God knows who. I'm asking who."
Christ, wasn't it enough that he now had the president breathing down his neck? "You want their addresses? Blood types? Pedigrees?" Seunghyun asked, feeling like he'd entered a twilight zone. Suddenly he was accountable for what he drank, how much, how often, and from whom.
Bom stared at him a lont time, accusation in her eyes, until the fight suddenly, literally, went out of her. "Nevermind. You know what - maybe I'll drink from someone else then."
"You can't." Genuine surprise flitted over her face. "I mean," he stammered, "you shouldn't. Not now." At the silent question in her eyes, Seunghyun wanted to thrash himself stupid for not telling her before now. What else had he forgotten to say? Surely a lot. "You need my blood for now, until your body has properly adjusted to... you know. Then... you're free to choose whoever."
Her eyes seemed to assess him a moment, and the scrutiny made him uneasy. Dimly he remembered hearing, from Ji probably, that she'd studied Psychology for a bit in the States before switching to Music across the country. Something like that. She didn't seem like much with her bubbly appearance but he'd always felt there was a perceptiveness to her that belied her exterior. Like now.
"I don't think you do, though," she said softly.
Seunghyun grabbed his things and stood. "For someone without a degree, you sure like to think you're all that," he drawled cuttingly as he passed her.
But, frankly, she was right, and that was what rankled.
Author's note: I'm gonna be a big tease and show you what I was working on last night, yeah? Last scene, chapter... hang on, what chapter am I at? *riffles through papers* Ah, last page of chapter six :) To be honest it's not so much a teaser since there's not much of great substance in there. I guess you could say it's a tension-relief kind of scene.
As you can see in that pic, I'm a slow updater specifically because I prefer writing and editing on paper before typing. I began doing that years ago when I started getting migraines from staying on the computer too long (I'm a graphic designer so my job is basically... well, I'm on the computer all day). Besides, I just feel like my thoughts are less scattered that way... nothing like good old paper and pencil (I also prefer reading physical books rather than ebooks, but that's neither here nor there). But anyhow, yeah, I now wear glasses and my wisdom teeth that weren't helping with the migraines have been out for about a year, but the habit has stuck and that's why I'm a slow updater...
CHAPTER FOUR
"You," Yang Hyunsuk pointed at Seunghyun, "in my office. Now. The rest of you, take a breather." He left just as quickly as he came, on a subdued chorus of yes, sajangnim's.
Seunghyun was grateful for the interruption - anything to get out of dance training - but nevertheless sighed as he picked up his things to follow. He knew what this was about, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
He was ready for anything.
"Sit," the president ordered when Seunghyun stood at his door minutes later. The ride up had been a tense affair, the silence thick enough to slice clean through, and Seunghyun had been bright enough to avoid moving a millimetre. Steepling his fingers now, the president watched Seunghyun carry out his order owlishly. "Now, can you please explain to me why you thought it'd be a great idea to lead Park Bom through her transition when you hadn't fed in, what was it, three months?"
"Maybe two," Seunghyun mumbled.
"I don't give a rat's ass if it was two months or three," the president snapped. "Answer the question."
Seunghyun cast his eyes down, rubbing his neck with hot embarrassment crawling up his face. "I wasn't thinking, sajangnim," he replied softly.
Hyunsuk hyung sighed, quiet a few moments. "Pride, wasn't it," he said at length, seeming to be talking to himself. "You felt like you were strong enough to get her through it. But you weren't, Seunghyun. You could have killed yourself and her along with you. And then where would we be?"
The consequences would have been disastrous. The end of BIGBANG, probably. 2NE1's future, just at the tips of their fingers, irremediably crushed. Bom, dead before she could even taste that which she'd been working herself to the brink for. In retrospect now, Seunghyun felt the full weight of his stupidity and wanted to thrash himself. He hadn't been thinking straight; he'd just been thinking of himself and getting through Bom's transition as quickly as possible. He'd been realising the danger he'd put her through ever since.
The president sighed, the room suddenly much smaller than Seunghyun had realised. "All right. I've put Teddy in charge of Bom."
Frowning, Seunghyun's head shot up in surprise. "Doesn't she need my blood for the next weeks?" Otherwise her body could resist the change...
Yang Hyunsuk's lips flattened. "Be that as it may, she doesn't need a wildcard right now. Teddy's blood should be potent enough. He's responsible, at least."
Seunghyun found himself shaking his head. "No. That's not true." He swallowed, loathe to tell just how wrong his president was. It wouldn't be enough; he knew firsthand. "I fed," he said. "I'll do it."
The president was silent a moment, studying Seunghyun with piercing, sceptical eyes. He'd be kicked out, he'd be kicked out, he'd be - "Will you?"
Seunghyun blinked, bewildered.
"Will you feed regularly?"
He cleared his throat, averting his eyes, but forced himself to accept the condition. "Yes. I will."
The president rocked back in his chair, an enigmatic look playing in his frank gaze for a few moments. "The girls are with Teddy right now. Do not disappoint me, keun Seunghyun."
#
Seunghyun knocked lightly. Heavy bass churned out through the door, along with Chaerin's distinctive sharp, cutting vocals. He turned the knob, slipping his head in as the music blasted out of the studio and into the hall.
Teddy spied him, turning back to his controls with a wry twist of the mouth. Minzy, Dara and Bom strained their necks from the couch behind their producer to see the newcomer. He noticed they all looked a little beat.
"Hey," Seunghyun greeted awkwardly in the silence punctuated with Teddy's instructions to Chae. "Umm, could we talk?" he asked, directing his gaze to Bom.
She was wearing a thick hoodie drawn up over her head, and bowed her head timidly when she realised he was talking to her.
Teddy was the one who answered for her, still with his back to Seunghyun. He sighed. "Go. I won't need you for a while."
Bom quietly stood, ducking neatly under Seunghyun's outstretched arm as he widened the door's gap for her. "Where?" she asked in a tiny voice when the door clicked back closed, shoving her hands in her hoodie pockets.
"Here's fine," he said, opening the next-door studio for her. She slipped in, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Take a seat," he motioned to the couch, grabbing a chair and sitting astride it to face her. There she sighed, staring at her shoes as he hunted for the right words to begin.
"If it's about last night..." She trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words as well.
Seunghyun looked up, meeting her tired eyes. "Are you okay?"
She shrugged, a slow lift and fall of the shoulder. "Confused," she murmured.
Crossing his arms over the back of his chair, he nodded slowly. "What do you want to know?"
"Teddy answered a lot of question," she replied, still in that quiet tone of hers. "But..."
Seunghyun just looked at her.
She frowned. "You're all like this?" she asked.
"Who?"
"The five of you. Teddy. Sajangnim... Dongwook? Gummy unnie?"
Seunghyun swalled. Here it was, the accusation. The loss of trust. "Yeah," he breathed.
Her eyes flitted over his face, searching... he didn't know for what. "How could I not know?" She worried her lip. "How -"
He looked away first. "You weren't supposed to know."
She was quiet a few moments. At length, though, she drew her bent legs closer under her. "I don't know how I feel about this. I haven't been able to process it... talk about... it..."
"Why?" he asked. But then again, it wasn't like they'd been much better either. Hey, guys, let's talk about our transitions. You begin, hyung. But weren't girls different? "You and the girls..."
"I don't know..." she trailed off. "It just feels like I'm... different. Like..." She bit her lip. "Like I've become someone else. It's insane, isn't it?"
Seunghyun felt himself smile a little. "You're still the same, Bom," he assured her. "You're still you."
"With fangs," she deadpanned wryly. "And..."
"And?" he repeated softly when she trailed off with a troubled look.
"And..." She bit her lip in confusion again, drawing his eyes to her plump mouth and the small glistening points punching out of her mouth. She was about to speak when he interrupted her.
"You need to feed," he said, standing from the chair and pushing his sleeve up his arm before sitting next to her. "Go ahead," he encouraged her when she just stared at his proferred arm with fearful doubt.
"Wait. No." She swallowed hard. "H - how do I... I'll hurt you."
He shook his head then, holding her gaze, he lifted his wrist to his mouth and waited for his fangs to punch out before striking himself cleanly.
Bom's eyes went wide when Seunghyun leaned closer. At his encouragement she hesitantly approached her mouth, tasting him delicately, warily. Seunghyun squeezed his eyes shut as she sighed feelingly, cradling him closer to her mouth, and began to drink in earnest. His entire body felt like it was in the grips of an electrical shock as she did, her tongue stroking delicately against his puncture wounds and driving him insane.
He took a slow, shaky breath.
#
"You taste..." Bom looked off, searching for the right word, "a bit like wine. Rich. Thick." She moved her head slightly, agreeing with herself, then glanced at him next to her. "You're still bleeding," she remarked idly.
With his eyes still closed, Seunghyun lifted his arm and sealed his wound with a swipe of his tongue. "Thanks, I guess."
She smiled. "You're welcome." Inhaling deeply, she moved about some more, and Seunghyun felt her mood change as tangibly as if he could touch it. "Tell me something," she began hesitantly.
"Mm," he hummed when she didn't continue.
"Last night... I can't remember a lot - it's mostly fragments. But... you left?" She voiced it as a cross between a question and a statement, and Seunghyun, uncomfortable, detected the bit of hurt in there as well.
"I had to feed," he explained awkwardly.
"Oh." She cleared her throat. "Oh... W - who?"
Seunghyun's eyes snapped open and he was momentarily blinded by the lighting. He stood up abruptly - he had to leave. "I'd better let you go back to recording," he muttered gruffly, rolling his sleeve back over his arm. "I'll see you later."
#
"Yo." Ji grabbed him by the sleeve as he passed by their group's official unofficial recording room on the way out. "I need you in here."
Goddamn. "If it's about the gangsta lyrics," he grunted threateningly, "I'm not in the mood."
Ji shook his head wildly, kind of... not quite sanely. "No, no, no. I've been playing around with the Lollipop track and something's been bothering me. Maybe I'm going nuts but I'd appreciate a fresh perspective."
"I'm hardly a fresh set of ears," Seunghyun scoffed. "I've only heard it a hundred times, remember?"
But Ji made even more dismissive gestures. "Nah, I just need some help," he pleaded, nodding meaningfully at a cleaning staff member who was busily sweeping the hall and paying them absolutely no mind.
Oh, what the hell. "Fine," he sighed, slipping inside, asking, "What now?" as his childhood friend beelined to the controls fretfully. "And you'd better not lay it on me again about Bom."
Ji whirled. "How's she?" he asked, fiddling with buttons behind him at random.
Seunghyun's arm tingled where she'd fed from him. He rubbed it absently. "She's fine," he said with subtle warning.
"That's good," Ji mumbled. "Listen, I think Chae's avoiding me."
"She's recording with Teddy right now. Why?" He'd figured from the start that Ji would be the one turning Chaerin. Leader to leader... something like that. Not that it meant anything blood-wise, but he'd thought the president would have naturally gravitated toward that decision. Looked like he'd been right, if Ji's body language meant anything. Not that the president's choice for Bom had made any sense.
"I went to see the girls this morning and Chae just hung back," Ji said. "Well, they kind of all looked at me like I'd suddenly become a stranger, but Chae just flat-out said hi and disappeared in the kitchen."
"Well..." Seunghyun shrugged, a bit at a loss himself - since when had he become a shrink? Girls... girls were so maddening sometimes. "Did you try to talk to her alone?" he ventured. "They ought to feel a bit tired and confused right now," he said, remembering the drawn look in their eyes when he'd visited Teddy's studio earlier. They'd sincerely looked like someone had just come and shaken their world upside down and sideways. Which they had, hadn't they. "Just... answer her questions."
Yeah, like you did...
Ji nodded slowly, looking a bit small himself. Finally he looked up after a moment, his eyes hollow. "She was so scared," his friend said, rubbing his sternum as if remembering physically hurt. "When... when she realised what... you know... what she'd done."
Seunghyun laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, feeling his pain. "She'll come around."
Jiyong sighed gustily. "I hope you're right, hyung." Then he shook his head, seemingly to shake his thoughts into a semblance of order. "Anyway. Let's work on that song, yeah?" He turned, flipping switches and pressing buttons, the control board and brand-new Mac humming to life before them.
#
Jaewook made a face as Seunghyun walked in, shucking his boots, later that evening. "You're late." But, used to it, he just growled some more to himself and wasted no time starting the music for the group of eight already clustered on the dance floor, dressed to the nines in old sweats and shapeless shirts.
Serious-business dance choreography planning in progress.
Seunghyun slid over on his socks to join his members as the girls began twisting to the cute bubblegum beat. "What'd I miss?"
Seungri tsk'ed. "Just follow us, hyung."
It was a strange session, sort of lifeless in retrospect, where everyone merely did their thing and didn't exactly give their all but rolled along just to etch the moves into their brain. No joking around. No camaraderie. No oomph in the dancing. Just minding their own business, cooped up in their own head.
Bom avoided him, a difficult feat since they were to be paired together for the purpose of the music video. The utmost of her interaction with him was a pointed, "No, you're supposed to stand on my right." Idiot, he supposed, was of course implied.
"Well," Jaewook uttered wearily when midnight rolled around and they all lay about completely pooped out, "I guess that's as far as you're going to get tonight. You guys look like crap. Get some sleep!"
Fat chance. Seunghyun needed to feed again. He could feel all the signs - tingling veins, aching teeth... Waving his goodbye to Wook, he fiddled with his phone. Sometimes he wished he were more like Seungri, with the long contact list bursting at the seams. He probably even categorised them by taste. Honey, ginger, roses...
Idly he wondered what Bom tasted like.
... and promptly dropped that thought. What the hell?
Daesung plopped down next to him. "Yah, aren't you coming?"
Seunghyun cleared his scattered brain. "Mm? Where?"
"Ooh, hyung, were you on Mars again?" his dongsaeng teased lightly.
Seunghyun smiled, glad for the distraction. "I even saw some green guys this time," he joked.
"We're heading home," Daesung said. "Coming?"
Glancing down at his phone, Seunghyun hesitated. He shouldn't be taking chances right now. God knew he still didn't feel like he was operating at 100%.
Do not disappoint me, Seunghyun.
"Raincheck," he said. "I'm heading out tonight."
Daesung's smile faded. "Oh, all right. Well, don't stay out too late."
"Yes, mum," Seunghyun teased, watching Daesung head out with the others. Bom re-entered the room at that moment, coming to collect her things after a bathroom break, and he saw her pull up short just inside the studio when she saw him sitting by himself, still delaying his damn phone call.
"Aren't you leaving?" she asked, somewhat coldly, bending down to grab her bag and coat.
"In a bit," he replied.
She spied what he was holding, her eyes tracking back to his face, realisation slowing her quick movements as she wrapped her scarf around her throat. "You're heading out," she guessed.
"Yeah."
She paused, her hands lingering on the end tails of her scarf. The thing was so thick it must have felt like the tropics underneath, but she didn't seem to mind. "Teddy explained to us about... about needing to feed on the opposite sex. On other v... on, um, people like us."
"Yeah," he answered carefully, wondering what she was getting at.
"Right." She bit her lip, dropping her head, but ploughed on nevertheless. "So, I was wondering who you feed from."
Seunghyun's defenses went up like whoa. Not again. "That's none of your business," he said firmly, willing her to fucking please drop the subject.
But she squared her shoulders. "I have a right to know who I'm indirectly feeding on. Or do you keep a harem?" she said testily.
Seunghyung laughed hollowly. "Sure. I keep it under my bed, to keep the dust bunnies company." Sighing, he rubbed his face. "You're feeding on me, Bom."
"And you feed on God knows who. I'm asking who."
Christ, wasn't it enough that he now had the president breathing down his neck? "You want their addresses? Blood types? Pedigrees?" Seunghyun asked, feeling like he'd entered a twilight zone. Suddenly he was accountable for what he drank, how much, how often, and from whom.
Bom stared at him a lont time, accusation in her eyes, until the fight suddenly, literally, went out of her. "Nevermind. You know what - maybe I'll drink from someone else then."
"You can't." Genuine surprise flitted over her face. "I mean," he stammered, "you shouldn't. Not now." At the silent question in her eyes, Seunghyun wanted to thrash himself stupid for not telling her before now. What else had he forgotten to say? Surely a lot. "You need my blood for now, until your body has properly adjusted to... you know. Then... you're free to choose whoever."
Her eyes seemed to assess him a moment, and the scrutiny made him uneasy. Dimly he remembered hearing, from Ji probably, that she'd studied Psychology for a bit in the States before switching to Music across the country. Something like that. She didn't seem like much with her bubbly appearance but he'd always felt there was a perceptiveness to her that belied her exterior. Like now.
"I don't think you do, though," she said softly.
Seunghyun grabbed his things and stood. "For someone without a degree, you sure like to think you're all that," he drawled cuttingly as he passed her.
But, frankly, she was right, and that was what rankled.
Author's note: I'm gonna be a big tease and show you what I was working on last night, yeah? Last scene, chapter... hang on, what chapter am I at? *riffles through papers* Ah, last page of chapter six :) To be honest it's not so much a teaser since there's not much of great substance in there. I guess you could say it's a tension-relief kind of scene.
As you can see in that pic, I'm a slow updater specifically because I prefer writing and editing on paper before typing. I began doing that years ago when I started getting migraines from staying on the computer too long (I'm a graphic designer so my job is basically... well, I'm on the computer all day). Besides, I just feel like my thoughts are less scattered that way... nothing like good old paper and pencil (I also prefer reading physical books rather than ebooks, but that's neither here nor there). But anyhow, yeah, I now wear glasses and my wisdom teeth that weren't helping with the migraines have been out for about a year, but the habit has stuck and that's why I'm a slow updater...