Euphoria

2 - midnight panic

Over the next few weeks, Jeongguk's appearances in your apartment become increasingly frequent until it's a daily occurrence, regardless of whether Seokjin is there or not. Jin is like an older brother to you, and you know he would never allow you to bring home a boy he hasn't given his stamp of approval, let alone a vampire he's never even met.

But the thrill of breaking the rules has always excited you, hasn't it?

Slowly but surely, you and Jeongguk grow steadily closer. You learn a lot about him: he likes photography, but a part of the curse of vampirism makes it impossible to appear when not seen by the naked eye; impossible to be caught on camera; or reflected in your bedroom mirror, for that matter. He's unintentionally scared you one too many times for you to be comfortable stepping out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around you anymore. He adopted a tiny white dog called Gureum, but he wasn't able to visit ever since he 'died' and was turned - Gureum barked every time Jeongguk even came close. Jeongguk had sniffed himself, wondering if he smelled any different. He couldn't tell.

He also learned a bit about you - like your opinion on pineapples on pizza, which had baffled him endlessly. He'd looked at you, distrustful, wondering how you could possibly not like pineapples on pizza. Equally horrified, you'd turned to him, asking how could a fruit like pineapple possibly belong on pizza? After a lengthy debate, both of you had reached a final decision to agree to disagree. You'd even told him you were saving up to get two tattoos - a fleur-de-lis with mismatched angel wings, a personal choice; and a dragon, a symbol of your family. He'd nodded in approval, lifting up the sleeve of his hoodie to reveal an armful of tattoos. You'd asked about some of them - the tiger lily was his birth flower, and the 'please love me' inked behind it was "wishful thinking"; a skeletal hand making the rocker sign and a lyric by Nirvana was for how he'd wanted to be a singer. Ironically, the lyric said 'better be dead than cool', and Jeongguk had laughed at his own expense.

At one point, both of you had bonded over contact lenses - you had a pair of red ones you'd used the previous year for Halloween, and Jeongguk had screamed when he saw you with them on, thinking you'd been turned and he wasn't there to protect you. You thanked him for the sentiment, plucking the lenses off your eyes as he fell onto the bed in relief. He told you his eyes weren't naturally blue, but brown - he'd been wearing blue contacts when he was turned, and now the color had merged onto his eyes.

Soon, you find yourself anticipating Jeongguk's midnight meetings with you, excitement making you shiver when night falls. You're not surprised when you find yourself falling for Jeongguk, hard. He's basically perfect: he's cuddly (but lean and muscular underneath), just how you like him; always buying you little trinkets that reminded him of you; even going to far as to bring you flowers, sometimes braiding them into your hair. His good looks are just a bonus. His only flaw so far is his love of pineapples on pizza.

On nights like this, you find yourself thinking - what if he was a human? What if the two of you could be something more than just friends? What if he could be yours?

You're rudely interrupted from your blissful, wistful daydream by the sound of harsh knocking on your bedroom window. Your apartment isn't far from the ground - anybody with a good grip could probably make their way out without much sweating. It's probably a prank - one of your exes was petty enough to throw pebbles at your window until Seokjin opened the window and screamed until he fled.

More than a little cranky and annoyed, you barely think about the consequences before you throw the window open and yell out into the gloom: "Who the fück is knocking on my window at one a.m?"

A pair of familiar but haggard-looking blue eyes stare into yours. In the dark, his eyes look purple, until you realize that they're tinged with red. Even though you know full well that it's Jeongguk and he wouldn't hurt you, you can't help but fear for your life: it reminds you of the first time you 'met' him, the vampire starving and driven to kill by the blood-lust that controlled him.