The serial kisser || ATEEZ OT8

17| Melting a frozen heart

𝟏𝟔𝟔𝟎 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

13 years later.

- ♦♦♦ -

Seonghwa did not know why they hadn't moved on yet, as the years only continued passing by. One after another. And Seonghwa barely even noticed the change through the blur of blood oozing out on the floor of their shared home.

San had grown more confident; his stance more sturdy and he dared look Seonghwa in the eyes - a development, even if it was only for a few mere seconds. As Seonghwa watched how his fledglings grew on each other it did not come to his mind that he was starting to show signs of attachment unlike any he had experienced before.

They were little but genuine, and Seonghwa was too ignorant to see the changes. It had slowly started when he offered them his blood to drink even if it was the time yet. Greedily like little monsters, hands clawed the offer with starving hunger as teeth pierced through hair and hide until Seonghwa pried them off again. An unknowing hand would brush over a cheek or two as the ancient vampire lost himself to the depths of his head. The notice of an eye was a ghost to his dreams.

The acts grew in size. When Seonghwa started keeping track of when his fledglings came home from their nightly wanders in the forest it was as if a gush of something familiar troubled with falling into place. It had already fallen into his habit of making sure to take an extra walk past Yunho's chamber to make sure they both had come home to the hanok, knowing they both were safe and sound and out of any hunter's reach. He could find himself unable to find any rest before hearing the familiar soft murmurs within the building.

Seonghwa had slowly come to a point in his drabbles of time where both of his fledglings were involved in his view of life. At first, he had not even realised their names dripping in ink on the parchment before he startledly rushed back to the phrase of beautifully sculpted letters of how he supposed Jeong Yunho was spelled. His eyes ran like the dripping ink, trailing down to the Choi San later on in the same sentence. Unsure of their names' spelling, Seonghwa read the sentence again, and again; growing more uncertain of why he even wrote it down to begin with.

When Jeong Yunho has been the first to find the path of mine pointless wanders, Choi San will be the one breaching and discovering mine deepest secrets that not even I knew still were to be found in the remnants of my accursed soul.

Seonghwa's face gradually changed the more he let his sight dance across the letters. Feeling like a fool.

♦

Seonghwa did not know what to expect when a knock landed on his door. It was the first time it had happened and only reluctantly with a pinch of disconcertment, he stood and walked toward the door. The air crowded with buzzing as the wood turned on its screeching hinges and his nostrils filled with freshly cut greeneries and the sweetness of pollen. When his sight lifted to the shyness of a hesitant tug on lips, Seonghwa towered over him with the confidence the other lacked.

San hid behind the sprouts of flowers, his eyes sheepishly glancing up at his sire from where he tilted his head to the side, a strand of outgrown hair falling into his eyes.

"For you," he breathed with bravery. Seonghwa stared at his crumpling form, drawing a line down to the multitude of colours. San swallowed with a sound.

When Seonghwa still made no sign of taking the flowers he had gathered, the younger elaborated himself, "Seonghwa-ssi.. these are for you."

San held out the flowers for him, implying he should take them. A moment after Seonghwa reached for them, taking them though still dazed by it all; and certainly not knowing what to do with the flowers. Once his senses cleared a little more again, San had already disappeared - leaving Seonghwa with an untamed fuss in his chest.