The Staggering Fall of Youth (sequel to SBA)

17 - Search Party

"SLEEPOVER!" Lucas shouted, slamming his pillow on the ground.

"GOODNIGHT!" Felix shouted as well, taking one of the blankets before covering his whole body with it.

Jungwoo stared at the box in his hands, sighing. "I guess it was a bad idea to head here first."

"Nonsense, I think we just need to warm up Minseok to the idea." Chen Le handed Jungwoo one of the water bottles that the two humans had given to them. "Plus, he seems busy, don't you think? Minseok looked upset earlier, I heard him throw his phone."

"The others back in Daegu." Jungwoo sighed, opening the cap of his water bottle. "This is apparently the biggest threat since who knows what. Maybe we'll finally die or something."

Chen Le looked up to stare at Jisung at the other side of the room, who was on his phone.

"I can't die yet," Chen Le muttered. "For once in my life, I have ambitions."

"I know." Jungwoo took a sip of his water, losing himself in though. For immortal creatures, it's interesting to see how they still need water. "Like tomorrow, maybe we can explore the city a little bit."

Chen Le beamed. "'Sounds good! Maybe we can persuade one of the humans to come with us. Despite being weaker, it's so cool how independent they seem to be."

***

Junmyeon had finished his shower, his towel wrapped around his body as he combed his hair, when his phone started ringing.

Confused, thinking momentarily it was Baekhyun being lazy to shout across the house from again, Junmyeon grabbed the phone that had been laying face down, and held a breath once he read the contact name, displaying it to be Yifan.

He could feel his chest pounding, watching his phone which continued to ring and vibrate. He didn't snap out of it, though, until it hung up and Yifan attempted to call him again.

"Oh, shit, he's-" Junmyeon pressed the button accepting the call and held it against his ear.

"Hello?"

"...hey." Junmyeon lifted up his towel which was starting to fall despite being alone. "Are you okay?"

Silence. Yifan didn't respond right away, so Junmyeon had a feeling he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Physically, yeah," Yifan admitted. "I guess not emotionally."

"And why is that?"

"Because..." for someone who has lived as long as Yifan had, you would think his social speaking skills would be better, but alas, they have not. "I think..."

Junmyeon listened intently to Yifan, even though the latter kept hesitating.

"Even though I'm a vampire," Yifan stated. "Compared to humans, we never becoming good at coping with loss."

Junmyeon frowned. Why was Yifan mentioning about loss? Did... something happened to him?

A million thoughts started running through Junmyeon's head, wondering what it in the world could possibly be going on in Daegu for Yifan to start mentioning about life and death-

"Yifan," Junmyeon asked him. "Are... you're not injured or anything, are you?"

"What?" Yifan asked quickly. "No, I- Junmyeon, I'm perfectly fine, I swear."

"But- are you sure? You're not- you're not injured and just calling me to talk to me before you pass out or something?"

Yifan stayed quiet from his end for a moment, which resulted in Junmyeon panicking even more. Why wasn't Yifan speaking? Was it that bad? How much blood loss was there? Who injured him? How did it happened-