Drain me [SKZ fanfiction] Lee Felix

What a cliché

"Please, let me introduce you to her!"
Chris is begging her and she groans out loud with his heavy puppy eyes and pouting lips.
"Okay, fine! But only for a quick cup of coffee and then I'm off!" she warns him while Chris claps in his hands like an excited toddler before grabbing his phone to text his crush.
"She keeps a spot open for us at Loco's," he beams at her. "If we go now, we'll be there before it gets busy."
She lets herself pull off the couch and Chris gives her a smothering hug.
"Yeah, yeah, big bear. Get off me, you're cold," she tries to play off, while her cheeks are doing the total opposite of stating she's cold.
Chris releases her and gathers her stuff for her to hastily put it in her bag, already knowing where she normally puts her stuff.
"Let's go!" he beams and she grabs a tissue and pulls him by his neck to lower his face.
"Not so fast, idiot!" she scolds him, wiping away the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth from his last meal. "Did that granny's last meal consist of sugar or something?" she grumbles as Chris wiggles around and lets her clean him up.
"Her blood was a bit sweet," he shrugs, taking over the tissue to throw it away in the bin, together with the ziplock bag she used to gather the blood from her last embalming cliënt in.
"She probably had diabetes or something. What did she die from, you said?"
"Heart attack. Probably because of the high blood sugars taking its toll on her poor arteries," she answers before closing off her workplace and stepping towards the door.
"Will you walk with me?" she asks.
"Yeah! I'll wait for you on the street," he replies, vanishing with speed afterwards.
She can't help but chuckle at his hyperactive behavior before closing the door behind her, dropping off the keys and her clipboard with Radhi and making her way outside over the path through the treelines.
"Chris, calm down, would yah?" she scolds him when he jumps and down when he sees her coming close. "Are you really this excited for me to meet your crush?"
"Yeah!" he replies, almost dragging her with him towards the café he had mentioned Hyuna would be waiting at.
"She's so sweet and amazing and I know you will love her too!"
Inwardly she scoffs at his remark. As if she ever would love the girl. She would tolerate her, maybe accept her for being the new light in Chris's dead life, but loving her like a good friend? Nah.

Hyuna waves at them from her seat and points at the counter for them to order something before joining her.
Chris scoots her towards the table and tells her he will order for her and himself.
She awkwardly walks over where Hyuna is now standing with a beaming smile.
"Oh! It's so nice to finally meet you! I'm Hyuna Han Choi," she greets with a beautiful and gracious bow and a smile that can charm anyone within a hundred meter radius.
Lorey forces a small smile on her own lips and gives a bow back. "Lorey Pattens. Nice to finally meet you too."
Hyuna pulls away a chair for her to sit down while she does the same before she leans on the table and whispers; "Chan has told me a lot about you. How you're one of his only friends who isn't you know..."
"Chan?" is the gist she picks up from her words. "Oh, his Korean name. Right."
She giggles cutely and places a strand of her long, black hair behind her ear. "He says he likes it if I call him that."
She looks over to Chris who is waiting for their order and secretly glances over to them. He never let her call him by his Korean name, saying it felt weird and confusing as he preferred his English given name. And now this goofus giggles like a small child while he walks back and she calls him Chan and asks him if she can have a piece of his cake.
Lorey composes herself not to make a comment on the name thing while grabbing the cup he has placed in front of her.
At least he still knows her favorite is something with cinnamon.
"So tell me," Hyuna beams at her and Lorey has to put down her drink in order for her to focus on the girl. "Have you two always been close? Chan told me you've been friends since middle school."
Lorey nods and looks over to Chris who has his head leaning on his hand under his chin. Whipped.
"Pretty much. Couldn't separate from his lost ass as he had just moved into the area."
Chris sticks his tongue out to her and she sass her head back at him.
Hyuna smiles at them.
"Not even after discovering—," The pause in her sentence makes Lorey aware that she's just as cautious as she is, but where Lorey is worried, even skeptical of this girl, she seems more excited having another human around to talk about it.
"Yeah," she replies after a moment. "As I said, couldn't leave him. We've been together ever since."
"Best friends since ever!" he joins in.
It stings a little, but at the same time she pushes those feelings away to slap him when he tries to pull her in for a hug.
"Get off, you're cold I said," she grumbles while Chris pouts again.
He perks up when Hyuna places her hand on top of his and with that the winey bear is tamed instantly.
"Got him wrapped around your finger huh?" Lorey snickers at them and Hyuna denies it immediately.
"No! Other way around!" she tries to defend herself. "He got me enthralled the first time I saw him at the hospital garden."
Chris blushes at her words and Lorey takes another sip from her drink to withhold herself from making a weird face.
"He mentioned something about that, yeah. Sorry if I'm rude, but may I ask why you were there?"
The look Chris gives her tells her he wants her to stop asking. She knows it's too personal to ask right after formally meeting the girl, but at the same time her morbid curiosity for everything with sickness and death pops up.
"Personal check-ups," she says without hesitation. "I'm terminally ill, but they don't know how long it will take, so I have to stay there half of the week."
It's like she's hit with a cold wave of realism. This girl casually mentions she can die at any time, doesn't blink or seems sad about it, only looks at her with curious eyes and self awareness Lorey should be jealous of.
"Oh," is all she mutters, hiding her sudden blush behind her cup.
Hyuna gives her a small smile and waves it off. "Don't bother," she giggles. "I'm totally fine with the idea of dying. I mean, I at least know somewhat when it will happen, not everyone has that luxury."
Lorey's mind flashes back to Maria, the young girl who had died in a car accident a few weeks ago. Yeah, death is a funny thing, she thinks to herself.
"You work at a funeral home, right? You must've seen a variety of ages people die on."
Lorey simply nods and finishes her drink. It's as if the girl has read her mind.
Chris is eyeing her nervously when Hyuna places her hand on his again.
"Don't be nervous, Chan. I told you again and again I'm comfortable talking about it."
Lorey notices his little frown and how he wiggles a bit in his seat. He's never this nervous around her, always his idiot self. At the same time she can understand his uneasiness. The girl he likes doesn't have eternal life like he does and in fact will probably die in a blink of an eye for him. Hell, she knows Chris already hates the idea she herself will eventually die as she has not a single cell in her body craving to be turned into an eternal living being. She glances at Hyuna and can't help her curiosity.
"Don't you want to be turned?" she flaps out and both of them look at her.
Chris with a pleading look to change topics and Hyuna with surprise before she starts laughing. A loving, warm and kindling laugh.
"Gosh no!" she replies after wiping away a few tears that have left her eyes from laughing. "I know what living as a vampire entails," she looks at Chris before continuing. "And although I wouldn't mind having all the time in the world, I wished for something different."
The glint in her eyes seems to make Chris uncomfortable as he mutters at her to stop, but she doesn't seem like she wants to.
"See, I asked Chan the very first time I met him if he would kill me."