Blood Ties (Kyuhyun/Sungmin, PG-13) for everyone
Title: Blood Ties
Author: mysapphiresky
Recipient: the community
Characters/Pairings: Kyuhyun, Sungmin / KyuMin
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Angst, romance
Humans are blessed in this world- they’re the top of the food chain, they rule the cities and much of nature, and they need fear no one but what’s inside themselves. Not all are so lucky though- a rare few who have something special running through their veins find that it’s a painful curse. They’re called the H, because they’re human, and yet not fully so.
People speculate- what does the ‘H’ stand for? ‘Hidden’, because those people are doomed to forever have to hide? ‘Hook’, because they are the only prey of what is known only as the V. ‘Haunted’, for they are cursed from birth. But most people simply say they’re the Hunted; the prey, the hapless victims.
V. There is no doubt what the ‘V’ stands for- they are the Vampires, creatures of the dark.
The V are known to be heartless and cruel- they feed on their prey, the H, without qualm or scruple. Their bite causes incredible, agonizing pain, and even after they’re done feeding, their victim is condemned to a life of pain from the poison in their blood until the day they die. The merciful kill their prey, but most H end their lives on their own when they can bear the pain no longer.
And I? I am different. Yes, I am a V- in fact, I belong to a long line of feared and revered V. But unlike the rest of my kind, I do not feed at all. I sat there as a child as my mother and my father fed on their victims, and watched in horror as their victims howled and writhed in pain. The images were burnt into my head, and try as I might I could not escape the terrible images of innocents screaming in terror. At that point, young as I was, I swore never to feed. I would never put someone else, another living being, through that pain. I choose instead to starve, living in a perpetual state of gnawing hunger that no amount of human food can sate, but at least I live without my conscience stained red.
I work at a flower shop that I set up painstakingly with my own hands. I like being around flowers- they are beautiful, an innocent and delightful, in a way my tainted soul will never be. I tend to each flower with the same loving care, and each customer I treat like family. I have never met a H, for they are as rare as we are, and chances of a V and a H meeting face to face by accident are next to nothing. I pray I will never meet a H, for although I do not actively seek them out, I fear that if I come across one, I may not be able to hold myself back enough.
Alas, it seems my prayers are in vain, because one day the most delicious smell wafts into my nostrils, and I know immediately that a H has entered my shop. “Get out,” I am tempted to growl, but I do my best to resist. I look up with my usual smile, hoping the young man does not see the tensing of my body or the raggedness of my breathing. My eyes gleam for a second, and I hide them behind raven black bangs. It takes all my effort to stop my pupils from glowing blood red and my fangs from showing, for years of hunger have made me oversensitive.
“Hello, I’d like to buy a bouquet of roses for my mother,” the young man says, and I nod and practically flee into the back room to compose myself. The appearance of a H in my shop has reminded me that I’m hungry, so hungry, but I have to resist that delicious smell that’s not just the young man’s cologne. I stand there, my hands on my knees to steady myself, and take a few deep but shaky breaths.
Finally, I pull myself together enough to put together a beautiful bouquet, wrapped with creamy white organza paper and tied with a silky pink bow. When I emerge from the back room, the young man is at the other end of the shop examining a vase of calla lilies, but when he sees me he smiles and strides forward, and I gulp and clench my fists under the counter as his scent wafts towards me.
“This is beautiful, Sungmin, thank you,” he says with genuine pleasure, and my breath hitches and my eyes widen. “H-How- How do you-“ I start, but he just grins and points to the nametag pinned to my gardener’s apron. I blink in surprise, forgetting even my hunger in my embarrassment, but the young man just chuckles. “I’m Cho Kyuhyun. There, now we’re equal.”
Equal. A H and a V. How could we possibly be in any way equal? He has rich blood running through his veins, warm red liquid that I crave but will not take by force. His heart beats fast, while mine… do I even have a heart? I have heard all sorts of stories, some saying that V have hearts, but those hearts pump no longer. Others say there’s an empty void in the middle of our chests, because creatures like us are heartless, in the literal sense. But how can I be heartless if I hate to see others suffer?
Kyuhyun must have seen my sudden inner turmoil, because he suddenly reaches out and touches my cold cheek. “Hey, you okay?” he asks in concern, and I blink once before realising what he’s doing and jerking backwards. “Y-Yeah,” I stammer shakily, ducking my head and pressing buttons on the cash register to hide my growing discomfort. Kyuhyun is way too close for me to be entirely comfortable, and yet something is pounding in my chest in a way that I’ve never felt before. The hunger is still there, but I’ve gotten used to it- no, this pounding isn’t hunger. It’s…
It’s want.
The realization strikes me like a blow to the head. I want Kyuhyun. I want to be near him, despite his scent that forces me to suppress my instincts with every ounce of my effort. I want to get to know him as a friend, I want to be able to chat and laugh and have lunch with him like normal friends.
I want to kiss him.
No, no, I can’t. I shake my head firmly, then realise in embarrassment that Kyuhyun’s still there, staring at me with worry now. “You sure you’re okay?” he asks in concern, and I gulp and nod. His hand is resting lightly on my shoulder and he’s peering forward over the counter at me. Close up, I can see traces of acne scarring on that otherwise flawless face, but that little imperfection just makes him all the more special.
“Um, here, your roses,” I say blankly, thrusting the bouquet up wildly at him to hide my flushed face. He takes it, his fingers brushing against mine in the process, and my heart starts to thump wildly in my chest. There, that settles it- I do have a heart after all. A rather prominent one, from the way it’s pounding in my body. I’m certain Kyuhyun can sense how worked up I’m getting, because he smiles and brushes my bangs out of my eyes.
“If you’re free now, would you like to grab lunch with me?” Kyuhyun asks, a tinge of hope in his voice. I gulp as a small wave of his smell drifts past me, but my want to be close to him overrides any hunger in my body. I nod, almost too eagerly, and he laughs and flushes just a little as well. I flash him a sheepish smile and pull off my apron, hanging it neatly on the hook behind the counter before running my fingers through my messy hair. Kyuhyun reaches up and touches my head, and a tingle courses through my body.
“There we go,” he says as he combs a stray lock of my hair into place, and smiles down at me like it’s the most natural thing to do. I can’t help but smile back, almost dizzy with the combined effect of his scent and his smiling face. We head out of my shop together, and I’m so distracted that I nearly forget to lock the front door.
“Are you usually this distracted?” Kyuhyun asks me after he points out that my shop sign is still turned to ‘open’, and that my door has been left wide open without anyone inside to tend the shop. I flush in mortification, but he just laughs and nudges my side. “I think that’s cute.”
Cute.
Oh my god. He called me cute. Well, he called my awkwardness cute, but still. I think I might have a crush on Kyuhyun. Oh hell. A V has a crush on a H. There’s probably a flock of pigs flying over Seoul right now. I can’t help it- I glance up. Nope, no pigs, but that action has definitely caught Kyuhyun’s attention.
“What are you doing?” he asks curiously. “Looking for pigs,” I mutter before I can think about what I’m saying, and I hear a snort of laughter from beside me and I flush. “Shut up,” I mumble, walking faster so I can hide my mortified face from Kyuhyun.
Kyuhyun easily catches up to me and grabs my elbow, an almost fond grin on his face. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re really cute,” he says again. I turn red, or as red as I can get, but I can’t help smiling. “But you laughed at me, and for that you’re paying for lunch,” I say, and he immediately nods willingly. This time, it’s a face-splitting grin I have to suppress, which I have to say is much easier than the urge to pounce on Kyuhyun and suck him dry.
We have lunch, then Kyuhyun walks me back to my flower shop- and stays there until I remind him that he still has to deliver the roses to his mother. He finally leaves, but not before pressing a light kiss to the back of my hand, and I have to resist the urge to swoon like a teenage girl. Not that I have anything against teenage girls, of course. It’s just the swooning. I don’t ever swoon.
Kyuhyun comes back in the next day, which doesn’t really surprise me because he said he would be, but it does take me by surprise when he sidles up next to me behind the counter, that scent filling my nostrils and making my head spin, and pulls up a chair and plants himself unceremoniously next to me. “I’m helping you with the shop,” he insists when I finally pull myself together enough to ask him what he’s doing.
Well, this is definitely a surprise. I stare at him curiously, and he shrugs and turns away to hide his face. I briefly consider how much I’d have to struggle to keep myself in check with him constantly around me, but ultimately I know I want this. I grin and nudge him. “Pay will be minimal,” I say with a twinkle in my eye, and he immediately brightens up and nods.
I grab an extra apron and hand it to him, and take a large white card and write his name on it in huge letters and pin it to his apron. When he protests in indignation, I simply say, “well you didn’t give me any warning, so this will have to do,” and he immediately shuts up and pouts. My eyes are drawn to his lips, and without realising it I lick my own longingly.
Within seconds, I snap out of my stupor and turn bright red, because Kyuhyun’s staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. To hide my embarrassment, which seems to be a recurring emotion whenever Kyuhyun’s around, I grab him by the apron strings and yank him out of the back room. “Come on, I have to teach you how to run the shop,” I say sharply, my cheeks just slightly warmer than usual.
Kyuhyun’s a pretty darn fast learner, I have to say, and he works the cash register faster than I ever did. Even though I wasn’t even looking to hire anyone, Kyuhyun is quickly turning out to be an asset. We work really well in tandem, and after a few days I eventually get used to the delicious scent that follows Kyuhyun everywhere. I’m still hungry, but I’d rather die than have anything bad happen to Kyuhyun, and that alone helps me rein in my instincts.
One day, while we’re having dinner together, Kyuhyun leans over and presses a kiss to my cheek. I stiffen in shock, because even though he’d been flirting around with me, and I with him, I hadn’t expected this at all. I look at him with wide eyes, my hands shaking with fear, and one word escapes my trembling lips- “don’t.”
Kyuhyun’s face falls, and I duck my head and bury my face in my hands. On one hand, I wish he’d just kiss me on the lips, because I… I love him. I, Lee Sungmin, a V, love Cho Kyuhyun, a H.
And yet I know this wouldn’t ever work out between us, because a kiss on the lips from a H would kill me- literally. This is why V and H can never ever be together- one kiss on the lips from a H, and a V would crumble into dust, gone forever. This was, as legend said, the one weapon the H had against us, because nature was fair. No one had ever heard of it happening, though, because never in history had a H ever had the chance to kiss a V on the lips. No V would ever let that happen.
“Sungmin, are you okay?” Kyuhyun asks me in concern, and I look up at him through blurry eyes. Since when was my vision so bad? I’ve always had perfect eyesight, so why can’t I see him properly? I squint and blink rapidly to try and clear my vision, but then I feel wetness travelling down my cheeks and I realise I’m crying.
“Sungmin, what’s wrong?” Kyuhyun repeats, stroking his thumbs over my cheeks to wipe away my tears. I immediately jerk back and rub my eyes with the back of my hand. “Please don’t,” I beg, shying away from Kyuhyun, “please don’t love me. You can’t love me.”
“Can’t we at least talk?” Kyuhyun pleads, and after a few moments of hesitation, I nod. What have I got to lose? Kyuhyun has to find out eventually; I can’t keep hiding from him forever. Either he dies, or he leaves, or I die. And in any case, I’ll die inside anyway.
We head back to the shop, because I live upstairs, and the moment I get the door unlocked and enter the store, I collapse in the middle of the floor and start sobbing. I vaguely hear a switch being flipped on and light flooding the room, but I just curl up into myself in a miserable ball and let my tears flow. My heart’s pounding with the love I have for Kyuhyun, but I know nothing good’s going to come out of this.
“Sungmin,” Kyuhyun whispers, wrapping warm arms around my cold body. His scent washes over me, overwhelmingly strong, and my eyes flash red before I can stop them. Kyuhyun, who’s looking into my eyes, immediately shrinks back in fear. “Oh my god,” he murmurs, scrambling away from me, and I shut my eyes and curl back into myself. “You hate me now,” I mumble, rocking myself back and forth in an attempt to calm myself down, but it’s not working, and words of pain and sorrow spill out of my mouth like a waterfall. “You hate me, and you’re terrified of me, and- oh god, it’s all my fault. I should never have let you into my life. Now you’re going to leave me and I might as well die now because it’s not going to be worth living without you,” I sob.
Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I shrink back immediately. It’s Kyuhyun’s hand; it has to be, and yet why isn’t he fleeing out the door like a scared rabbit? He has to know who I am- has to know who he is, and yet he’s still here. Why is he still here?
“Why are you still here?” I say in shock, lifting my head and glancing in his general direction. I don’t dare to look up at him, because I know my pupils are still blood red, and I don’t want to terrify him more than I already have. To my absolute shock, Kyuhyun is looking right at me, and instead of sheer fear in his eyes, it’s more of a mixture of trepidation and genuine curiosity.
“You know I have feelings for you, right?” Kyuhyun says softly, and I jerk up involuntarily. “You can’t,” I mutter, clenching my hands into fists, “you know who I am, and therefore you know who you are. You can’t have feelings for me and expect things to work out.”
At that, Kyuhyun smiles wanly and sits down in front of me. “Sungmin, I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” he says, taking both my hands in his, “but I want you to listen to all I have to say now, okay? Don’t run from me or interrupt me. I have to tell you the whole story.” I nod, surprised, but settle into a more comfortable position, still hiccoughing from my crying earlier.
“I knew who you were even before I stepped into your shop,” Kyuhyun says, looking straight at me. I look up at him in shock and bite my lip, but obediently keep silent. It’s clearly taking Kyuhyun a tremendous amount of effort to confess this, but he plows doggedly on. “I know you’re a V. I came to Seoul to seek you out, because your parents killed mine. I wanted to take revenge by killing you, but then you acted like you did during our first meeting and I was caught off guard. I hadn’t expected you to act so… normal.
When you showed no sign of trying to attack me, I realised it was the perfect opportunity- I could befriend you, and take you by surprise when you least expected it,” Kyuhyun says almost bitterly, and I can feel my heart sink and almost shatter into a thousand pieces. But Kyuhyun’s still talking, and I force myself to listen to him.
“But then I realised you weren’t like other Vs, Sungmin. You never ever fed off any of us, I could tell, because there was always this emptiness deep in your eyes that I could recognize as hunger. I’d seen that look before, but never for such long periods at a time. At that point, I realised you weren’t like your parents, and killing you wouldn’t solve anything. And then there’s the fact that I really did fall for you along the way,” Kyuhyun finishes with a crooked smile, leaning in to kiss me on the cheek again.
I feel myself flushing, my face burning up. Never have I ever felt such warmth coming from my own cold body, and it’s all because of Kyuhyun. I look up at him, my eyes finally back to their normal warm brown, and whisper, “kiss me.”
“What?! No!” Kyuhyun cries out in horror, shrinking backwards. I keep a tight grip on his hands, forcing him to look at me. “Kyuhyun, I’d rather die than live without you. I love you with my life- or what miserable excuse of a life I have. I don’t mind dying, as long as I can feel your lips on mine just once,” I plead, feeling my self-restraint ebbing away. My eyes flash blood red again as his scent wafts past, but this time I don’t try to hide it. I let my fangs show, but turn away from Kyuhyun so he won’t have to see me like this.
“Sungmin, I can’t,” Kyuhyun says, pain in his voice, but I shake my head. “Yes you can. If you love me, if you truly love me, then let me die. The world would be better off with one less V, anyway. I’m a monster, no matter how you look at it, and monsters deserve to die,” I say, my voice breaking.
When Kyuhyun continues to deny me what I want, I lose it, and reveal my true power for the first time. Kyuhyun cries out in shock as he’s flung roughly backwards, held immobile against the counter. I stand up on shaky legs and take the few steps over to him, running my fingers over his cheek and through his hair. “I love you,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to his jawline.
“No, Sungmin, you can’t! Please, don’t,” Kyuhyun begs, but I shake my head again. “Promise me you’ll move on,” I say, broken and hurting. I lean forward, wrapping my arms around Kyuhyun, and kiss him fully on the mouth.
The moment our lips touch, the most excruciating pain shoots through my body, and I have to fight the urge to scream. I keep kissing him, even as I feel him struggling to pull back. My power is already weakening- I can feel it being sapped from my body with every second our lips remain connected. Finally, I am unable to hold myself up, and I pull away from Kyuhyun. He immediately pushes himself forward, because I no longer have the strength to hold him immobile, and at the same time my knees give way and I collapse to the floor.
The next thing I know, my eyes are fluttering open and Kyuhyun is standing above me with shock and relief written all over his face. Did I pass out? Was everything that just happened a dream? I struggle to sit up in what I realise is a bed, my bed, and Kyuhyun quickly helps me up and pushes pillows behind me so I can lean comfortably.
“What happened?” I ask blankly. I feel fine- did the kiss not happen at all, in the end? Kyuhyun shakes his head, and points to the mirror above my dressing table at the other end of the room. I climb shakily off the bed and cross the room, and the moment I glimpse my reflection, my knees buckle and Kyuhyun has to hold me up.
“What happened?” I can’t help but ask again, running my fingers through my now white-blond hair and leaning closer to stare at my smoky, icy blue eyes. “I- I don’t understand. Was everything just a dream?” My head is spinning and I’m depending on Kyuhyun to hold me upright, because all of a sudden everything’s turned topsy turvy.
“I did some research while you were out cold, love,” Kyuhyun says, helping me to my bed. Warmth floods through my body at his term of endearment, and to my shock, this time it’s genuine warmth I feel, coursing through my body and warming my very soul. Almost as an afterthought, I place my hands to my cheeks, and nearly faint in shock- I’m warm.
“The legend that says a kiss from a H would kill any V is indeed true, but there’s another legend that goes further back, one that almost no one knows. It says that if true love lies beneath the kiss, if the feelings felt by both parties are true, then the part of the V that is a monster dies, and is reborn as a soul lighter even than a human soul. You, my love, are no longer a V. You are an R now, the first of its kind possibly- you’re Redeemed.”
The words that come out of Kyuhyun’s mouth are so strange, so foreign, and yet I know they’re true, because the evidence is right here in this room. My skin is as pale as before, my lips still that red, but my hair, my eyes… it’s all evidence that the legend is true.
With a delighted, disbelieving laugh, I throw myself into Kyuhyun’s arms. “My love,” I whisper, burying my face in his shoulder as he holds me tight in his arms. I’ve never felt this warm before, never felt this loved. I can still smell Kyuhyun’s scent, but while before it made me hunger beyond anything, now all I feel is sheer delight and want. That same want, to be beside him, to be with him, to stay by his side for eternity, is still there, and yet it’s so much more.
Kyuhyun pulls me slightly away from him, enough to press our lips together, and this time there’s no pain. Instead, sheer joy courses through me as I kiss the first and only one I’ve truly loved. I sacrificed myself for love, and yet thanks to that love, I’ve been redeemed.
This entry was originally posted at http://sujuexchange.dreamwidth.org/15185.html.
Author: mysapphiresky
Recipient: the community
Characters/Pairings: Kyuhyun, Sungmin / KyuMin
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Angst, romance
Humans are blessed in this world- they’re the top of the food chain, they rule the cities and much of nature, and they need fear no one but what’s inside themselves. Not all are so lucky though- a rare few who have something special running through their veins find that it’s a painful curse. They’re called the H, because they’re human, and yet not fully so.
People speculate- what does the ‘H’ stand for? ‘Hidden’, because those people are doomed to forever have to hide? ‘Hook’, because they are the only prey of what is known only as the V. ‘Haunted’, for they are cursed from birth. But most people simply say they’re the Hunted; the prey, the hapless victims.
V. There is no doubt what the ‘V’ stands for- they are the Vampires, creatures of the dark.
The V are known to be heartless and cruel- they feed on their prey, the H, without qualm or scruple. Their bite causes incredible, agonizing pain, and even after they’re done feeding, their victim is condemned to a life of pain from the poison in their blood until the day they die. The merciful kill their prey, but most H end their lives on their own when they can bear the pain no longer.
And I? I am different. Yes, I am a V- in fact, I belong to a long line of feared and revered V. But unlike the rest of my kind, I do not feed at all. I sat there as a child as my mother and my father fed on their victims, and watched in horror as their victims howled and writhed in pain. The images were burnt into my head, and try as I might I could not escape the terrible images of innocents screaming in terror. At that point, young as I was, I swore never to feed. I would never put someone else, another living being, through that pain. I choose instead to starve, living in a perpetual state of gnawing hunger that no amount of human food can sate, but at least I live without my conscience stained red.
I work at a flower shop that I set up painstakingly with my own hands. I like being around flowers- they are beautiful, an innocent and delightful, in a way my tainted soul will never be. I tend to each flower with the same loving care, and each customer I treat like family. I have never met a H, for they are as rare as we are, and chances of a V and a H meeting face to face by accident are next to nothing. I pray I will never meet a H, for although I do not actively seek them out, I fear that if I come across one, I may not be able to hold myself back enough.
Alas, it seems my prayers are in vain, because one day the most delicious smell wafts into my nostrils, and I know immediately that a H has entered my shop. “Get out,” I am tempted to growl, but I do my best to resist. I look up with my usual smile, hoping the young man does not see the tensing of my body or the raggedness of my breathing. My eyes gleam for a second, and I hide them behind raven black bangs. It takes all my effort to stop my pupils from glowing blood red and my fangs from showing, for years of hunger have made me oversensitive.
“Hello, I’d like to buy a bouquet of roses for my mother,” the young man says, and I nod and practically flee into the back room to compose myself. The appearance of a H in my shop has reminded me that I’m hungry, so hungry, but I have to resist that delicious smell that’s not just the young man’s cologne. I stand there, my hands on my knees to steady myself, and take a few deep but shaky breaths.
Finally, I pull myself together enough to put together a beautiful bouquet, wrapped with creamy white organza paper and tied with a silky pink bow. When I emerge from the back room, the young man is at the other end of the shop examining a vase of calla lilies, but when he sees me he smiles and strides forward, and I gulp and clench my fists under the counter as his scent wafts towards me.
“This is beautiful, Sungmin, thank you,” he says with genuine pleasure, and my breath hitches and my eyes widen. “H-How- How do you-“ I start, but he just grins and points to the nametag pinned to my gardener’s apron. I blink in surprise, forgetting even my hunger in my embarrassment, but the young man just chuckles. “I’m Cho Kyuhyun. There, now we’re equal.”
Equal. A H and a V. How could we possibly be in any way equal? He has rich blood running through his veins, warm red liquid that I crave but will not take by force. His heart beats fast, while mine… do I even have a heart? I have heard all sorts of stories, some saying that V have hearts, but those hearts pump no longer. Others say there’s an empty void in the middle of our chests, because creatures like us are heartless, in the literal sense. But how can I be heartless if I hate to see others suffer?
Kyuhyun must have seen my sudden inner turmoil, because he suddenly reaches out and touches my cold cheek. “Hey, you okay?” he asks in concern, and I blink once before realising what he’s doing and jerking backwards. “Y-Yeah,” I stammer shakily, ducking my head and pressing buttons on the cash register to hide my growing discomfort. Kyuhyun is way too close for me to be entirely comfortable, and yet something is pounding in my chest in a way that I’ve never felt before. The hunger is still there, but I’ve gotten used to it- no, this pounding isn’t hunger. It’s…
It’s want.
The realization strikes me like a blow to the head. I want Kyuhyun. I want to be near him, despite his scent that forces me to suppress my instincts with every ounce of my effort. I want to get to know him as a friend, I want to be able to chat and laugh and have lunch with him like normal friends.
I want to kiss him.
No, no, I can’t. I shake my head firmly, then realise in embarrassment that Kyuhyun’s still there, staring at me with worry now. “You sure you’re okay?” he asks in concern, and I gulp and nod. His hand is resting lightly on my shoulder and he’s peering forward over the counter at me. Close up, I can see traces of acne scarring on that otherwise flawless face, but that little imperfection just makes him all the more special.
“Um, here, your roses,” I say blankly, thrusting the bouquet up wildly at him to hide my flushed face. He takes it, his fingers brushing against mine in the process, and my heart starts to thump wildly in my chest. There, that settles it- I do have a heart after all. A rather prominent one, from the way it’s pounding in my body. I’m certain Kyuhyun can sense how worked up I’m getting, because he smiles and brushes my bangs out of my eyes.
“If you’re free now, would you like to grab lunch with me?” Kyuhyun asks, a tinge of hope in his voice. I gulp as a small wave of his smell drifts past me, but my want to be close to him overrides any hunger in my body. I nod, almost too eagerly, and he laughs and flushes just a little as well. I flash him a sheepish smile and pull off my apron, hanging it neatly on the hook behind the counter before running my fingers through my messy hair. Kyuhyun reaches up and touches my head, and a tingle courses through my body.
“There we go,” he says as he combs a stray lock of my hair into place, and smiles down at me like it’s the most natural thing to do. I can’t help but smile back, almost dizzy with the combined effect of his scent and his smiling face. We head out of my shop together, and I’m so distracted that I nearly forget to lock the front door.
“Are you usually this distracted?” Kyuhyun asks me after he points out that my shop sign is still turned to ‘open’, and that my door has been left wide open without anyone inside to tend the shop. I flush in mortification, but he just laughs and nudges my side. “I think that’s cute.”
Cute.
Oh my god. He called me cute. Well, he called my awkwardness cute, but still. I think I might have a crush on Kyuhyun. Oh hell. A V has a crush on a H. There’s probably a flock of pigs flying over Seoul right now. I can’t help it- I glance up. Nope, no pigs, but that action has definitely caught Kyuhyun’s attention.
“What are you doing?” he asks curiously. “Looking for pigs,” I mutter before I can think about what I’m saying, and I hear a snort of laughter from beside me and I flush. “Shut up,” I mumble, walking faster so I can hide my mortified face from Kyuhyun.
Kyuhyun easily catches up to me and grabs my elbow, an almost fond grin on his face. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re really cute,” he says again. I turn red, or as red as I can get, but I can’t help smiling. “But you laughed at me, and for that you’re paying for lunch,” I say, and he immediately nods willingly. This time, it’s a face-splitting grin I have to suppress, which I have to say is much easier than the urge to pounce on Kyuhyun and suck him dry.
We have lunch, then Kyuhyun walks me back to my flower shop- and stays there until I remind him that he still has to deliver the roses to his mother. He finally leaves, but not before pressing a light kiss to the back of my hand, and I have to resist the urge to swoon like a teenage girl. Not that I have anything against teenage girls, of course. It’s just the swooning. I don’t ever swoon.
Kyuhyun comes back in the next day, which doesn’t really surprise me because he said he would be, but it does take me by surprise when he sidles up next to me behind the counter, that scent filling my nostrils and making my head spin, and pulls up a chair and plants himself unceremoniously next to me. “I’m helping you with the shop,” he insists when I finally pull myself together enough to ask him what he’s doing.
Well, this is definitely a surprise. I stare at him curiously, and he shrugs and turns away to hide his face. I briefly consider how much I’d have to struggle to keep myself in check with him constantly around me, but ultimately I know I want this. I grin and nudge him. “Pay will be minimal,” I say with a twinkle in my eye, and he immediately brightens up and nods.
I grab an extra apron and hand it to him, and take a large white card and write his name on it in huge letters and pin it to his apron. When he protests in indignation, I simply say, “well you didn’t give me any warning, so this will have to do,” and he immediately shuts up and pouts. My eyes are drawn to his lips, and without realising it I lick my own longingly.
Within seconds, I snap out of my stupor and turn bright red, because Kyuhyun’s staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. To hide my embarrassment, which seems to be a recurring emotion whenever Kyuhyun’s around, I grab him by the apron strings and yank him out of the back room. “Come on, I have to teach you how to run the shop,” I say sharply, my cheeks just slightly warmer than usual.
Kyuhyun’s a pretty darn fast learner, I have to say, and he works the cash register faster than I ever did. Even though I wasn’t even looking to hire anyone, Kyuhyun is quickly turning out to be an asset. We work really well in tandem, and after a few days I eventually get used to the delicious scent that follows Kyuhyun everywhere. I’m still hungry, but I’d rather die than have anything bad happen to Kyuhyun, and that alone helps me rein in my instincts.
One day, while we’re having dinner together, Kyuhyun leans over and presses a kiss to my cheek. I stiffen in shock, because even though he’d been flirting around with me, and I with him, I hadn’t expected this at all. I look at him with wide eyes, my hands shaking with fear, and one word escapes my trembling lips- “don’t.”
Kyuhyun’s face falls, and I duck my head and bury my face in my hands. On one hand, I wish he’d just kiss me on the lips, because I… I love him. I, Lee Sungmin, a V, love Cho Kyuhyun, a H.
And yet I know this wouldn’t ever work out between us, because a kiss on the lips from a H would kill me- literally. This is why V and H can never ever be together- one kiss on the lips from a H, and a V would crumble into dust, gone forever. This was, as legend said, the one weapon the H had against us, because nature was fair. No one had ever heard of it happening, though, because never in history had a H ever had the chance to kiss a V on the lips. No V would ever let that happen.
“Sungmin, are you okay?” Kyuhyun asks me in concern, and I look up at him through blurry eyes. Since when was my vision so bad? I’ve always had perfect eyesight, so why can’t I see him properly? I squint and blink rapidly to try and clear my vision, but then I feel wetness travelling down my cheeks and I realise I’m crying.
“Sungmin, what’s wrong?” Kyuhyun repeats, stroking his thumbs over my cheeks to wipe away my tears. I immediately jerk back and rub my eyes with the back of my hand. “Please don’t,” I beg, shying away from Kyuhyun, “please don’t love me. You can’t love me.”
“Can’t we at least talk?” Kyuhyun pleads, and after a few moments of hesitation, I nod. What have I got to lose? Kyuhyun has to find out eventually; I can’t keep hiding from him forever. Either he dies, or he leaves, or I die. And in any case, I’ll die inside anyway.
We head back to the shop, because I live upstairs, and the moment I get the door unlocked and enter the store, I collapse in the middle of the floor and start sobbing. I vaguely hear a switch being flipped on and light flooding the room, but I just curl up into myself in a miserable ball and let my tears flow. My heart’s pounding with the love I have for Kyuhyun, but I know nothing good’s going to come out of this.
“Sungmin,” Kyuhyun whispers, wrapping warm arms around my cold body. His scent washes over me, overwhelmingly strong, and my eyes flash red before I can stop them. Kyuhyun, who’s looking into my eyes, immediately shrinks back in fear. “Oh my god,” he murmurs, scrambling away from me, and I shut my eyes and curl back into myself. “You hate me now,” I mumble, rocking myself back and forth in an attempt to calm myself down, but it’s not working, and words of pain and sorrow spill out of my mouth like a waterfall. “You hate me, and you’re terrified of me, and- oh god, it’s all my fault. I should never have let you into my life. Now you’re going to leave me and I might as well die now because it’s not going to be worth living without you,” I sob.
Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I shrink back immediately. It’s Kyuhyun’s hand; it has to be, and yet why isn’t he fleeing out the door like a scared rabbit? He has to know who I am- has to know who he is, and yet he’s still here. Why is he still here?
“Why are you still here?” I say in shock, lifting my head and glancing in his general direction. I don’t dare to look up at him, because I know my pupils are still blood red, and I don’t want to terrify him more than I already have. To my absolute shock, Kyuhyun is looking right at me, and instead of sheer fear in his eyes, it’s more of a mixture of trepidation and genuine curiosity.
“You know I have feelings for you, right?” Kyuhyun says softly, and I jerk up involuntarily. “You can’t,” I mutter, clenching my hands into fists, “you know who I am, and therefore you know who you are. You can’t have feelings for me and expect things to work out.”
At that, Kyuhyun smiles wanly and sits down in front of me. “Sungmin, I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” he says, taking both my hands in his, “but I want you to listen to all I have to say now, okay? Don’t run from me or interrupt me. I have to tell you the whole story.” I nod, surprised, but settle into a more comfortable position, still hiccoughing from my crying earlier.
“I knew who you were even before I stepped into your shop,” Kyuhyun says, looking straight at me. I look up at him in shock and bite my lip, but obediently keep silent. It’s clearly taking Kyuhyun a tremendous amount of effort to confess this, but he plows doggedly on. “I know you’re a V. I came to Seoul to seek you out, because your parents killed mine. I wanted to take revenge by killing you, but then you acted like you did during our first meeting and I was caught off guard. I hadn’t expected you to act so… normal.
When you showed no sign of trying to attack me, I realised it was the perfect opportunity- I could befriend you, and take you by surprise when you least expected it,” Kyuhyun says almost bitterly, and I can feel my heart sink and almost shatter into a thousand pieces. But Kyuhyun’s still talking, and I force myself to listen to him.
“But then I realised you weren’t like other Vs, Sungmin. You never ever fed off any of us, I could tell, because there was always this emptiness deep in your eyes that I could recognize as hunger. I’d seen that look before, but never for such long periods at a time. At that point, I realised you weren’t like your parents, and killing you wouldn’t solve anything. And then there’s the fact that I really did fall for you along the way,” Kyuhyun finishes with a crooked smile, leaning in to kiss me on the cheek again.
I feel myself flushing, my face burning up. Never have I ever felt such warmth coming from my own cold body, and it’s all because of Kyuhyun. I look up at him, my eyes finally back to their normal warm brown, and whisper, “kiss me.”
“What?! No!” Kyuhyun cries out in horror, shrinking backwards. I keep a tight grip on his hands, forcing him to look at me. “Kyuhyun, I’d rather die than live without you. I love you with my life- or what miserable excuse of a life I have. I don’t mind dying, as long as I can feel your lips on mine just once,” I plead, feeling my self-restraint ebbing away. My eyes flash blood red again as his scent wafts past, but this time I don’t try to hide it. I let my fangs show, but turn away from Kyuhyun so he won’t have to see me like this.
“Sungmin, I can’t,” Kyuhyun says, pain in his voice, but I shake my head. “Yes you can. If you love me, if you truly love me, then let me die. The world would be better off with one less V, anyway. I’m a monster, no matter how you look at it, and monsters deserve to die,” I say, my voice breaking.
When Kyuhyun continues to deny me what I want, I lose it, and reveal my true power for the first time. Kyuhyun cries out in shock as he’s flung roughly backwards, held immobile against the counter. I stand up on shaky legs and take the few steps over to him, running my fingers over his cheek and through his hair. “I love you,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to his jawline.
“No, Sungmin, you can’t! Please, don’t,” Kyuhyun begs, but I shake my head again. “Promise me you’ll move on,” I say, broken and hurting. I lean forward, wrapping my arms around Kyuhyun, and kiss him fully on the mouth.
The moment our lips touch, the most excruciating pain shoots through my body, and I have to fight the urge to scream. I keep kissing him, even as I feel him struggling to pull back. My power is already weakening- I can feel it being sapped from my body with every second our lips remain connected. Finally, I am unable to hold myself up, and I pull away from Kyuhyun. He immediately pushes himself forward, because I no longer have the strength to hold him immobile, and at the same time my knees give way and I collapse to the floor.
The next thing I know, my eyes are fluttering open and Kyuhyun is standing above me with shock and relief written all over his face. Did I pass out? Was everything that just happened a dream? I struggle to sit up in what I realise is a bed, my bed, and Kyuhyun quickly helps me up and pushes pillows behind me so I can lean comfortably.
“What happened?” I ask blankly. I feel fine- did the kiss not happen at all, in the end? Kyuhyun shakes his head, and points to the mirror above my dressing table at the other end of the room. I climb shakily off the bed and cross the room, and the moment I glimpse my reflection, my knees buckle and Kyuhyun has to hold me up.
“What happened?” I can’t help but ask again, running my fingers through my now white-blond hair and leaning closer to stare at my smoky, icy blue eyes. “I- I don’t understand. Was everything just a dream?” My head is spinning and I’m depending on Kyuhyun to hold me upright, because all of a sudden everything’s turned topsy turvy.
“I did some research while you were out cold, love,” Kyuhyun says, helping me to my bed. Warmth floods through my body at his term of endearment, and to my shock, this time it’s genuine warmth I feel, coursing through my body and warming my very soul. Almost as an afterthought, I place my hands to my cheeks, and nearly faint in shock- I’m warm.
“The legend that says a kiss from a H would kill any V is indeed true, but there’s another legend that goes further back, one that almost no one knows. It says that if true love lies beneath the kiss, if the feelings felt by both parties are true, then the part of the V that is a monster dies, and is reborn as a soul lighter even than a human soul. You, my love, are no longer a V. You are an R now, the first of its kind possibly- you’re Redeemed.”
The words that come out of Kyuhyun’s mouth are so strange, so foreign, and yet I know they’re true, because the evidence is right here in this room. My skin is as pale as before, my lips still that red, but my hair, my eyes… it’s all evidence that the legend is true.
With a delighted, disbelieving laugh, I throw myself into Kyuhyun’s arms. “My love,” I whisper, burying my face in his shoulder as he holds me tight in his arms. I’ve never felt this warm before, never felt this loved. I can still smell Kyuhyun’s scent, but while before it made me hunger beyond anything, now all I feel is sheer delight and want. That same want, to be beside him, to be with him, to stay by his side for eternity, is still there, and yet it’s so much more.
Kyuhyun pulls me slightly away from him, enough to press our lips together, and this time there’s no pain. Instead, sheer joy courses through me as I kiss the first and only one I’ve truly loved. I sacrificed myself for love, and yet thanks to that love, I’ve been redeemed.
This entry was originally posted at http://sujuexchange.dreamwidth.org/15185.html.