Sacrifices || Jackson Wang \ Han Sanghyuk au

• Chapter 5 •

That night Hyuk did nothing but secluded himself in my bedroom, not hesitating from pulling the bottles of gin and other intoxicants out of the fridge and ignoring both Leo and I. "What's wrong with him?" Leo questioned, his elbows resting on the kitchen table.

I sighed as I lifted myself up, now sitting on the cool tile of the kitchen counter, my feet dangling and swinging out. "You know how he told us he had a friend named Gongchan earlier this morning?" I questioned and watched as Leo nodded carefully, waiting on me to tell more. "Well, he took me to see him. He hadn't drank before we got there and he ended up attacking him. It's been about six hours into vampyrism and Hyuk doesn't ever want to touch human blood again."

My older brother chuckled lightly before adjusting his stance and bringing a hand up to swipe at his hair. "Newborns are emotional, Yue. You know he doesn't mean it. There really isn't any other choice.." He trailed off the last sentence into silence.

"Leo, I think he's serious. He doesn't want to hurt anyone and I think that-" The words were tumbling out of my mouth as fast as they formed in my head until Leo slammed his hand down on the counter, making me jump.

"He has no other choice! I don't want to talk to you about this." He snapped out unexpectedly. He was rough, but I knew that deep down, behind the rude words, were pain and lessons learned.

I shoved the subject aside, if Hyuk didn't want to feed from humans, that would be none of Leo's concern anyway. My head switched and filed through topics until one that was prodding at me all day arose. "Who is going to train him?"

Neither Leo nor I were anywhere near qualified enough to teach Hyuk how to fight or defend himself like Lord N would expect him to. In fact, Leo and I had yet to come across any instance in which violence with another immortal was necessary. We settled into silence again before I heard him groan slightly, somehow knowing exactly who he thought we needed. Who I thought we needed.

"Just call him, Yue."

And so I did, my fingers gliding over the dial pad a total of four different times, each to a disconnected number until one rang promise. "Hey." Hoseok's voice hadn't changed since the fifty years, give or take, that he ripped and mauled his way through Seoul, pit stopping at the house to say a few hellos.

"It's Yue." I skipped the 'hey, hello, how are you's. We'd never been like that, with forty some decades tucked under your belt, you learned to get straight to the point.

"Obviously. What do you need, Princess?" He had called me that since we were small, based off of how well Leo treated me. All he ever wanted was his big brother to love him like he loved me, and now that all of his resentment was heightened, he liked to make his jealousy evident.

"I'm in a bit of a situation, and you need to help me." At this point, cooperation wasn't an option on his part.

"Need, huh?" His voice hung in the line. "That's pretty demanding. What is it?"

I started speaking but the sounds of Hyuk's voice boomed throughout the house, making me stop, followed by a huge clash of glass breaking. "Why can't I get drunk?" He screamed loudly. I'd only known the boy for a few days, but I knew that this wasn't his normal demeanor. Hyuk was kind and so naturally curious, and now he was throwing bottles against walls. He was angry with himself.

"Is that your problem?" His sarcastic laugh never seemed to do anything but cause me irritation. He loved me, but he also loved when I came running to him for help, something that only happens maybe once every century. He lived off of his pride and ego.

"I need you to help train a newborn." It was a simple request but I knew he'd ask a million questions before actually agreeing.

I paced around the house, the cellphone glued to my ear as I started explaining all of the details of Hyuk and the situation I placed both of us in. Hoseok seemed to only be particularly interested in one aspect of the story. "He didn't take to the memory alterations? And he has sweet blood?" I reassured him again, waiting on the rest of whatever he wanted to say. "I wonder if he has an ability. An ability would be useful to N, you know." I hated how he never used the term Lord, like he was supposed to. It was respectful and Hoseok lacked just that, respect.

"Maybe." I threw the thought aside, as of right now my only concern was getting Hoseok here to teach the kid to fight.

"How many days did you say he gave you?"

I thought back before groaning, realizing I was already two days in. "Twenty one, but tomorrow will be nineteen."

"I can't do it alone, Yue." His voice was heavy and strong, I wasn't exactly sure what he was implying.

"Yeah, Leo and I are here too. We will help." The suggestion was ignored as my brother continued.

"You guys are hardly vampyres. I mean, you run a bar for Christ's sake. I will need to bring someone with me. If that's cool, I'll do it." Each of Hoseok's friends never stayed long enough for me to actually care to get to know them. They were all like him though, they all held the same desire to rip through whole towns like it was a game, which never really excited me. I did know of one guy that had joined Hoseok's clan, but I silently hoped that it wasn't him. Our history was hard an complicated and I wanted nothing more than to just forget it. Hoseok was cold, but he wouldn't do that to me..

"Fine."

I could basically hear the grin in his tone. "Alright baby sister. I'll be there tomorrow morning."

***

The next morning Hyuk had fallen asleep on my bed, far from intoxicated. The joys of being half dead. I, on the other hand, still had yet to sleep, my eyes basically unwavering at the drive way waiting for my brother to get here.

It wasn't until the clock read over eleven, and Hyuk had still yet to come out, that I heard the roll of gravel under tires wake me up from drifting off on the front step. I pulled myself up immediately, wiping the drowsiness of two sleepless night from my eyes as I felt Leo walk and stand beside me. Our eyes never left the black truck until we saw the familiarity of Hoseok's timberlands step out of the car.

I couldn't stand how everything had corrupted my brother, how he was basically the type of our kind that Leo refused to associate with. But no matter what he did when he was away, it always warmed my heart when he visited, a slight bit of useless hope burning into me that maybe he'd change back to the awkward personality human Hoseok held. It was a stupid dream.

"Awe, baby sister!" He yelled, and wrapped his arms around me, swinging me and then setting me down. "Leo." His voice was cold towards his Hyung. I was sure he was only here for me.

My head snapped back upward towards the car as I heard more rustling. I shut my eyes tight after I saw the hint of blond hair, my fist tightened and held at my sides. Leo's hand rubbed circles on my back and I heard Hoseok sigh. "I had to, Yue. He can help a lot."

Before I realized the amount of anger that was welling up in me, I rushed over to the man that stepped out and stood only centimeters from his face. "Yue." His voice was as low as I remembered, and it was nothing I could ever forget. It was scarred into my head for a good two centuries and replayed in my mind pretty much every night. Every broken promise, every heartache.

"Jackson." My breath was hot, just like my anger as I slammed my hands against his chest, sending him reeling backwards, landing on the rough gravel. I wasn't one to disrespect anyone, but spitting in his face filled my head with a sense of respect for myself that made everything okay.

"I hate you."