On The Line | Chensung

How Do Reflections Work?

"Do you have a reflection?" Jisung asked, swatting the flies buzzing around him as he trudged through the forest mud. After stepping over a giant fallen log, he looked up curiously at the boy he was following, Chenle huffing loudly and continuing to ignore him.

Jisung had taken it upon himself to ask as many damn questions as possible. Not only because it was bothering Chenle and there was something entertaining in annoying him, but because he didn't know any better. Were the stories real? What other myths were fake?

"If you don't have a working heart, how does your body get blood?" he asked, tripping over rocks and twigs as they made their way deeper into the woods, Jisung blindly following Chenle somewhere. Maybe another reason he kept asking questions cause he was also scared out of his mind, but he was a firm believer that if the vibes were off, nothing could hurt him. Unfortunately, it's not like he had 'Caramelldansen' on his phone, and they were too far in to get a decent enough connection to the internet.
"Do you ever shut up?" Chenle snapped, pushing one of the branches away to get past, the trees and plants getting thicker and denser.
Jisung looked up after carefully avoiding an ant hill, only to be smacked in the chest by the branch Chenle had moved earlier. He cussed quietly under his breath.
"Sorry," Chenle muttered as they kept walking, though Jisung couldn't hear any actual sympathy whatsoever. So heartless these vampires. Oh wait.

"But dude," Jisung spoke as they finally reached some sort of clearing. Chenle gestured for the camera bag, Jisung swinging it to him as he continued. "Don't your cells need oxygen?" He was sure that's how it worked, though it had been a while since he had done body systems, and quite frankly he couldn't really care less. He had to breathe or else he died, that's all that mattered.
Chenle lowered the camera, turning his head and staring at him with a kind of done expression, "Jisung, shut up."
He went to raise the camera once again when Jisung started again, "Do you not breathe then?"
Chenle dropped the camera, it swaying from his neck as he snapped his head back at him.
"Jisung."
"And do you actually have a reflection? How do you do your hair?"
"Ji-"
"Like you could look like a mess and you wouldn-"
"OH MY GOSH JISUNG SHUT UP!"

Jisung snapped his mouth shut, carefully moving his hands behind his back as Chenle glared at him for a few moments. Well, again, he assumed glared. With a deep sigh, Chenle turned back, focusing the camera lens on the river that ran through the area, being the only life you could see in the place.

"What kind of SPF do you wear?"

Chenle dropped the camera, speeding over and punching a large tree in one strike. The trunk snapped, and the whole tree fell from the place the boy had struck. Jisung flinched as the tree toppled down, taking down a few others and landing with a loud 'thud' that shook the entire forest floor.
Jisung looked at the tree in bewilderment, slowly turning to see a seething Chenle burning holes into the stump with his eyes, though he was pretty damn sure Chenle would rather burn holes in him.

"The tree didn't deserve that, hyung," Jisung clicked his tongue, looking back at the once standing tree in sadness.
Chenle scoffed, shoving his hands in pockets and walking right up to Jisung's face, "Why the hell won't you stop talking, you overgrown chick?!"
"Oh I don't know," Jisung threw his hands in the air, his turn now to glare at the older boy, "probably cause I don't know why the heck we're here and I want to know shit cause it's not like I've met a vampire now have I." He walked backwards away from the boy, glancing around at his surroundings. Sure, the place was gorgeous, a place where you would imagine fairies and unicorns would live. Dark green leaves crowding every corner, twisting amongst each other, barely letting the light in, the only spots of sun coming in bouncing off bushes and overgrown grass. He got it, he understood why anyone would want to photograph it, but it had to mean something for it to be part of the project. "What does this place mean to you? Why do you think of comfort here?"

Chenle looked at him, both staring at one another and more than ever did he wish that Chenle would remove his damn glasses so he could get a sense of what this kid was feeling. Chenle turned his head, looking down at the area he had photographed, watching the water rushing down the stream.
Jisung moved his head in the same direction, wondering about the significance. Maybe it's cause it was really the only life here. The only thing that felt like it was moving. He couldn't hear birds or see any insects around, the place looked abandoned by any sort of life form that weren't the plants. If he tried to listen for something, anything that wasn't the river, the best he could make out was a car a few kilometres away.

"This is the only thing I can think of," Chenle spoke quietly, "the only place or thing that provides comfort." he looked up to Jisung, carefully pulling the glasses off his face, gripping them tightly as he spoke. "Vampire kids are stupidly sheltered while growing up. Before we learn anything to do with normal human life, we have to learn to be a vampire. Hunt, feed, things to survive." He puffed his cheeks, sighing, "this was the place I'd go to escape, sometimes practice, but more just to shut down the world around me." He looked back to the stream, falling into a soft smile, "this is my comfort."

Jisung nodded, smiling to himself as the elder gazed to the running water. There was no silver in his eyes, no malice. He wasn't really that scary at all, was he. A sheltered kid with a cursed kind of fate. It was strange to think about, this kid's biggest issue wasn't the fact that he was a supernatural creature, it was that he didn't feel like himself. No comfort, nothing nor nowhere were he could breathe in his own skin. Cliché, but still sad.

It was also the first time Jisung could hear anything in his voice. Even when he had yelled at him, his tone was flat. Yet as he spoke about the river, the forest and the memories attached, Jisung finally heard a change. It was sadness, but it was still an emotion, and he felt sort of proud of Chenle for expressing it. He wondered what else this kid had buried. But at the same time, sadness wasn't great now was it?

"Sorry," Jisung muttered out, Chenle snapping out his daze and looking up at him, his eyes soft, and Jisung just about melted at the sight. "I-I shouldn't have asked."
Chenle waved dismissively, flicking his sunglasses open and sliding them back up, "I get why you asked, it's understandable." Jisung exhaled internally, hearing the monotonous sound coming from the boy's lips.

Chenle took the camera back in his hands, looking at the screen before nodding to himself. He swung the camera sash off his neck, crouching down and carefully unscrewed the lens of the camera, placing each of the parts into the bag. After moving some of the things around, he flipped the top down, zipping it up. He stood up, handing the bag to Jisung, hands meeting cloth, before he turned around and began walking back out of the forest.

Jisung blinked, his head following the older boy. He watched him stop in his tracks for a few moments before carefully walking backwards. He walked back in front of Jisung, swivelling on his heels to face him. "And I don't have blood at all, but I do need to breathe, don't ask how that works, cause I don't know either. Yes I have a reflection and we have specialised sunscreen that's SPF 150, just so it blocks all UV." He nodded calmly before turning back and heading out.

Jisung watched him yet again, this time bursting into soft giggles before bumbling after him.