Meridian ◈ Seungjin

15 ◈ Revolver

"I'll assume you always enter without asking?"

The muscles on the nape of Hyunjin's neck strained as he lifted from the hands encompassing his head; A light layer of sweat building on the creased palms burning from the friction of another fever stabbing into his temples, the weak grip his fingers kept tangled in the back of his hair releasing to lay themselves on the chill of the communal desk he sat patiently at to wait for the one currently leaning against the door. A smile, lips tight against the teeth of that consuming beast of a human, chin tucked in a way that shadowed the condescending taunts in the intensity of his eyes as he stared down the visitor in the dorm room.

His dorm room. Not Hyunjin's. He didn't belong in this room, nor this building, simply existing in it brought tremors to his leg and a jolting feeling to dive for the window behind the desk. He pressed his palm against the wooden surface. Against that heat, it was cool. Frozen. For a second, he was tempted to lay his forehead along it for a hint of relief.

He stopped himself. His eyes drifted to the other addition in the room, raking over the form of the human that had annoyed him to the ends of the world, chased him through the nine layers of Hell his fangs were born of until he was cornered in the umbral cover of the dorms. An ache tugged at the edge of his vision, a permanent sickness settling in, and an undeniable gluttony tore into his gut.

Still, he let himself watch the human, Seungmin. Ever confident, ever knowing, ever jeering, pressing his back flush against the door of the room as one of his hands rested on the metal knob opening into this inferno Hyunjin purposefully trapped himself within.

Options ran thin. Where else was he supposed to go? Besides here, giving in to the twitching joints shocking themselves with volts of grime and the clogging lump in his throat begging for a drop of ichor.

His eyes narrowed at Seungmin. The other's wound were tightly bound, the bandages yet to be removed from their duty around his throat and palm hanging limply by his side. He let his gaze drift to the one on the metal doorknob. A perfect incision discolored the back of his hand. Nearly healed and old enough to not have been from the most recent events in the dance room, he could recognize the laceration almost instantly. A rounded shape, almost torn, as if an animal hesitated to bite, and retreated against the skin instead. There was only one way he could have received the mark, and instantly, Hyunjin knew.

"You did this. You're the reason I'm feeling like this. When you cut your hand on my fang in the dance room," Hyunjin realized. He watched the hand slip from the metal knob, trailed after the scabbed skin. There was a reason vampires were banned from ever touching human blood, there was a reason they had been 'tamed' as his friends would say, there was a reason they followed the authorities, and were at the end of a barrel whenever there was wrong. The bullet that pierced them, encased in decrepit silver, wedged itself between his teeth and the harder he bit, the more he could taste blood in his mouth.

The more he could hear the other's heartbeat. The more he could smell the sage aroma of the human. The more he could become a him which was outlawed. This was why. The wound on the back of his hand drifted down, and Hyunjin could imagine it; A cold revolver aimed at the vampire's head as he braced himself in the desk chair, hammer cocked, cornering him, trigger twitching under his fingers, him centered in the reticle, the crosshair tangled around his skull.

"It wasn't a conscious choice. In fact, this was complete accident. I'll admit this isn't what I was hoping for, and it's the complete opposite of a favorable outcome for me, but it doesn't matter now," Seungmin confessed to him. Although he revealed his defeat, as small as he made it seem despite the obvious threats waiting to be pinned against the other, he didn't lose his air. He didn't lose the quirk in his features, nor the condescension waiting on the serrated blades of his edges prepared to cut through him. The human seemed to brush it off, ignoring the imminent flurry of anger beginning to brew inside the sharpened eyes of the vampire. He simply scanned him over, hip buckling to prop an elbow on the doorknob as he leered, "You should have come to me sooner."