Meridian ◈ Seungjin

33 ◈ Above Bound

Hyunjin managed to catch him by his locker.

"God, what do you want now?"

"Can we talk?"

"About?"

"Minho."

Jisung scanned the vampire a few times. An easy scowl settled on his features as he asked, "What about him?"

"I want to know what you'd been telling him," The vampire muttered. He leaned against the row of lockers, close enough to the other to ensure he was perfectly aware of the looming presence but far enough to not impose on his space as the human busied himself with rotating the contents of his locker with the contents of his bookbag. His arms folded over his chest, tightly tying his lungs off into an unbreakable knot before he murmured to the motionless  hallway enclosing them in, "He has a lot of faith in you."

"Why should it matter? I'm living a normal life," Jisung tossed him a look from the corner of his eye, sort of carless, rushed, as if he didn't mind who else saw the hurried press against the vampire's question. He pinned on to the end, "You and Seungmin are the ones sneaking around, stealing things, listening to private conversations." 

Hyunjin tongued at the back of his fangs, "Private, huh?"

"I warned you. Not my fault vampires are loud," The human snapped at him.

"Bite your tongue next time."

"Bite your own, and bleed to death."

The vampire raked his eyes over the human's smaller form. Smaller, lighter, weaker, breakable, vulnerable, so similar to the others, so familiarly different, so, so easily killed off with the wrong flinch in the wrong direction, or the right snap in the right location. Too hard of a bite, too hard of a press, too strong of a hit, he would fall in minutes. And despite that, despite knowing the mortality, a finality to his every word and threat, an impossible ending to his assembly line packed of provocations senselessly numbed to his own self preservation, all of the human from his head to his toes had been crammed with more venom than he could have ever wanted to bargain for. Hyunjin turned his own red eyes away from the slim cage of the human, another mumble on the edge of his up-turning lips, "Violent."

"Let me know when you're done fucking around. Otherwise, leave me the hell alone," Jisung responded, though the previous ichor in his tone drained long enough for the other to understand the comment wasn't as malicious as it seemed. The human slammed the locker door close, the metal rattling with the vicious hit as he sent one last semi-smirk, semi-scowl to the vampire before turning on his heel and trudging away from the locker.

Begrudgingly, Hyunjin watched him escape. He watched the brown in the humans hair curl and bounce as he walked, not entirely the same. He watched the pull of his shoulders, back, not the same, less confident with that twinge of aromatic suspicion hunching them into shifty eyes. He watched the sway of the human's steps, how they seemed unsure, too unsure to truly belong to his own progressing mind and get all the more trustful that they would carry him exactly where he was supposed to go. None of it was the same. He knew that. Hyunjin, leaning against the lockers, the cool metal seeping through the navy fabric of his blazer, observing the details of the smaller human until he had picked him apart more viciously than any vulture, he knew that it wouldn't be the same. They were both humans, sure, but there was an almost intoxicating quality to the one he compared Jisung to.

He released a hand from the impressive knot across his chest, coming to bring it to scratch at the back of his ear in an idle way.

A painful reminder to himself, to not wander too far down that winding and twisted train track of chugging thought, else he wished to wander lost along the iron ties longer than he could be rescued from the overgrown path. Overgrown, and overdone path. And yet, still, he lingered on the idea. He hesitated at the foot of the pathway. He waited, feeling the dumb grin on his lips as he thought of the arrogant human and how much he'd like to slug him in the face at any one given chance. Really just, sling a fist around and pop the human in the jaw. After all this time, Hyunjin couldn't decide if it was more tempting to hit the human or if it was more tempting to touch his hair. The curl of the brown, the subtle bounce as he tilted his chin up and walked, to learn how the strands felt to be brushed back underneath the comb of his fingertips.