the impossible ; chenji

things get worser

chenle

Jisung is late again.

Chenle waits by the bike racks, phone in hand, pretending to scroll instead of watching that point in the distance where Jisung rides over the hill every day. The bell rang five minutes ago. Chenle will probably get in trouble once he shows up in class with nothing but a lame bathroom emergency excuse. But he'll wait. He always waits.

He's been worried about Jisung, since what happened at the party. He seemed totally convinced that the cat could talk. That he was a vampire. That he was just a little tipsy, not completely off his ass. Maybe he's more sensitive to alcohol than either of them knew. Chenle feels bad that he didn't... protect him. And for other things too.

Maybe if he just played along with the vampire thing, there wouldn't be this odd, unspoken wedge between them.

A shadow catches his eye. He looks down and sees a cat. Golden eyes, black fur, perched on the curb, tail twitching side to side. It's the same one from the party, he thinks. She must be a wanderer.

He crouches down and lets her smell his hand. She doesn't seem to object, so he pats her.

"You don't speak, do you?" Chenle says.

She purrs.

He glances up at the road. Empty. He sighs.

"Why do we wait for him, hm? I mean. I know why I do. But what's your excuse?"

She's looking up at him with strangely human eyes, tail suddenly still. It's a little unsettling. Chenle stands up and moves to the other side of the bike rack.

Eventually Jisung does come pedalling over the hill. He locks up his bike, paying the cat no mind. Then Chenle realizes the cat is gone. She's vanished. Weird.

"Am I late?" Jisung asks.

"Only extremely. What happened?"

"Just... tired."

As if to demonstrate, he trips over the curb and Chenle barely manages to keep him from face-planting. Jisung all but shoves him away, face screwed up like he's in pain.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, sorry."

"You're sure?"

"Just. Tired. Okay?"

"O... kay."

Chenle walks him to class silently, ignoring that something about this feels very, very wrong.

jisung

The sleepy spells, the heaviness, the hunger — everything is getting worse.

It ebbs and flows. Jisung woke up groggy, like always, but not fat-tongued and floundering like he was at the party. He got dressed and ate breakfast and made it out the door without a problem. Then, riding through the neighbourhood, passing a dog-walker and mailman and group of joggers — the scent of humans hit him like a big rig and left him slouched against his handlebars.

He'd nearly lost all will to pedal by the time he got to school, and then there was Chenle, leaning coolly against the bike rack, as if he were waiting to punish Jisung with all his... unbearable aromatic perfection.

Is it random that Chenle's blood is like kryptonite to him? Or is it just because he's Chenle, and Jisung tends to like everything about him a little more than normal?

Riding home after school is even more of a challenge, the scent of humans still muddling his brain. It's like his feet have been replaced by cinder blocks, his stomach a sinkhole. All he can think about is blood. Chenle's blood. The rhythm of it, hot and steady under his skin. The column of his neck, the faint blue of his veins when he tilts his head back... .

"Mrrrow! Slow down, youngling! I'm unaccustomed to such speeds!"

Jisung swerves wildly, stuttering to a stop at the edge of trees beside the road. Nibbles the cat leaps off the rack behind him, hackles smoothing out.

"What are you doing here?" Jisung says, looking around for witnesses. The mountainside is deserted as usual.

"I told you, there's more we need to discuss."

"I don't think I want to discuss any more."

"Cutting off your education now would be unwise."

"What more is there to know? Being a vampire isn't complicated, it's not cool — it's just making everybody think you're drunk or lying or losing your mind."

"Hmph." Her walk takes on a contrary sway, tail fluffed up. "I'm sure a young, impressionable human such as yourself would prefer superpowers, but vampires are gifted in something far more useful."

Jisung scoffs, pushing his bike along. "What, super-smelling? That sucks too."

"Healing. Tell me, the fatal blow, the one that ended your life that night — was it painful? Did it even bleed? And have you suffered any lasting injuries since? Nose bleeds, paper cuts, splinters? No, they've healed before you even realize what's happened."

Jisung feels the back of his head. The bump is gone. "Huh. I guess you're right. Does that mean I'm indestructible?"

"As per my earlier concern for your road safety, no. A splinter is not the same as a devastating car crash."

"What about immortality? That's a classic vampire thing, isn't it?"

"In a sense, yes. You'll age, but you won't die as humans do. Three hundred years or so and you'll be a pile of dust. It may be wise to 'take matters into your own hands,' so to speak, once the time has come. Blood is life in essence. Deprive yourself and you'll waste away."

"Because I haven't fed yet, does that mean...?"

"That you're wasting away now? Yes, very astute. This lethargy you're feeling is essentially your body decomposing."

Jisung gulps. "Okay, that's terrifying."

"Not at all. All living things rot. That's what life is — an inevitable path toward death."

"If you're being pessimistic about it, I guess."

"The hunger is taking its toll on you." Nibbles is trotting along on the other side of his bike, studying him. "All you have to do is feed."

"Easy for you to say. Having to hurt people to stay alive... that's awful. And unfair."

She tuts with her cat-lips and tiny fangs. "You'll hardly be hurting them."

"Isn't biting part of the whole thing?"

"Nothing about being a vampire is violent or frenzied, youngling. The want is silent, the sating is gentle. It's not an unpleasant experience, for you nor your prey. Rather like anesthesia, I'm told. You just need to find someone you trust. That one from this morning, for example, the one with the pretty fur."

"You mean hair?"

"Right, hair, that's it. He waited for you."

"Chenle?"

"Yes. You were late, and he waited. Did you even realize?"

He... did not.

Then Nibbles stops, and Jisung does too. They're standing on the spot where he had swerved to save her all that time ago. (Well, five days ago.) There's a small dent in the guard rail where his front tire had smashed into it. The steep rocky slope seems to tumble down and down without an end.

He should have died that night. Even though his life is a little weird now, he's happy to be alive.

"Thanks for bringing me back," he says.

She looks up at him, eyes glowing in the dusk light. Her tail raises a little higher. "Thank you for swerving."