Promise

26: Heated

"I don't know what that stuff is, but it sure as hell isn't hunters venom as you guys were calling it." Wooyoung explained with a seriousness to his voice, looking down at the vile full of green liquid that was placed near the center of the table.

The entire group was gathered around the table in the dark corner, for the most part working together and on separate tasks at the same time. This green vile in question was picked off of one of the bodies that were taken out earlier, and the vampires were sure that it was a deadly toxin to them.

"Are you sure?" Jongho was the one to question, eyeballing the vile as if it would grow a sense of consciousness and attack him.

"Pretty sure." Wooyoung mirrored, nodded his head. He looked around at the others, eyes lingering on San the longest. "Listen, I've been around that stuff before, had it injected in me against my will, I know what hunters venom looks like, and that isn't it." Wooyoung reiterated, taking in a deep breath after memories he wanted forgotten resurfaced. "Hunters always carry that stuff in something that can easily be injected, not ingested. And it's a fucking blue liquid, not green. I have no idea what this green stuff is, sure it smells like hunters venom, but it was ingested by humans. Sure, I wouldn't trust it in the slightest, and I think you were right to not collect blood from those bodies, but this is something new to me that we're dealing with."

"I can't help but agree." Hongjoong followed up with a meek nod. Both hands were resting on the edge of the table, allowing his body to lean onto them. Despite the nonchalant stance, his aura was still as powerful as ever. "I vaguely remember seeing hunters venom in its original form, in its container, and it most certainly wasn't green. Whatever this stuff is could still be a threat to us, but not in the way hunters venom is." He paused, tapping his fingers a few times. "I'd say there's a few options to what we're dealing with here. One, this is an entirely new thing that we need to learn about. Two, this is in fact some kind of knock off of hunters venom, and that leads to further options, its being made to be consumed by humans to get to more vampires, or there was a leak in the hunters associations and this stuff is being sold illegally, via a recipe or an actual substance. There could be other things, but that's what comes to my mind at this moment in time."

Wooyoung watched the other vampires as Hongjoong spoke, and it made him feel something strange. He noticed after Hongjoong's clarification the others seemed to relax a little. It made him feel, like even after these months they've been together, there's still a part of some of these vampires that doesn't trust him. And he didn't know what to do with that. Sure, he has to respect it. But at the same time, he trusts every single one of them with his life.

It made him think, did he take things too fast? Did he really let himself drop all of his shields for people that haven't considered dropping theirs for him?

Then again, there were two that didn't change in the slightest. San, of course, and Yeosang. Their dementors remained the same from when Wooyoung last spoke, to when Hongjoong finished speaking. To him, that had to mean something. They trusted him completely. San he expected, but it meant something more from Yeosang in that moment.

But then the thoughts came back. Perhaps Yeosang wasn't paying full attention since he was face-first in his laptop, constantly typing away and only glancing up once every five or so minutes. He didn't give any kind of acknowledgment to anything being said.

Shit.

He felt like he needed to escape at that moment.

Taking one step backwards, he froze when a hand caught his left wrist. He looked down at it, trailing up the arm, only to meet San's gaze. Wooyoung bit his lip sheepishly, lowering his gaze again and simply stared at the edge of the table, jaw becoming tense. San's hand delicately moved from his wrist down to his hand, forcing his fingers out of the fist they were locked in, only to interlock their fingers out of sight from the others.