too fragile for your love (too strong for your heart)

wandering through the woods (we step into the sky) pt two

ni-ki refuses to leave his side during the entirety of their journey to jake's rented basement.

"since it's a weekend tomorrow, we'll come and pick you up at around eight," he says, over the sound of the van's engine. "i'm sure you need some time to yourself before you meet the whole coven."

jake nods, and tries his best to look like he's unaffected by everything that has happened to him, until now. it's a little hard, considering the guy named park sunghoon has been glaring daggers at him since ni-ki introduced them, and every time he looks away, he can feel lee heeseung's clinical stare sweeping over him, like he's examining him for any blemishes before he can buy the final product, but he thinks he's doing alright.

at least, he hasn't reverted to using his aussie version of english yet, like he does when he's extremely stressed.

"what's your name?" sunghoon asks, abruptly as ni-ki moves his hand to grasp jake's sleeve.

he chances a glance at the blond man, taking in his moles and perfect jawline as he represses the urge to straight up demand what his deal is. "jake," he says, instead. "sim jake. nice to meet you."

from the driver's seat, park jay huffs out a laugh. "he threw you into a wall, man. you can let him know that he's a giant douchebag."

"yeah, well. that's not the problem here," jake says firmly, surprising himself. "i can understand that you wanted to protect ni-ki. but, can you please stop looking at me like i murdered your parents or something?"

jay bursts into guffaws, slapping the steering wheel uproariously, while sunghoon simply glares harder.

"jake," heeseung says, leaning forward, his silver hair falling into his eyes charmingly. "is that the name you were born with?"

"um, my korean name is jaeyun, if that's what you want to know," he says, shrugging. "but, no one calls me that anymore."

"then, i hope you won't mind if I do," heeseung says, inclining his head, from where he sits beside sunghoon with an impeccable posture. "jaeyun-ah."

if jake had a working heart, he's pretty sure that it would have skipped a beat.

he looks away, choosing to fiddle with the hem of his hoodie instead of meeting heeseung's eyes. "i don't mind," he mumbles. "it's fine."

long after he waves goodbye to ni-ki, watching the van turn the corner of his street and disappear from sight, the memory of heeseung's lips shaping the letters of his name keeps him company in the dark.

***

"i don't see why we have to take him there," sunghoon complains, shooting a derisive look in jake's direction. "it's not like he's one of us."

"he's a potential coven member!" ni-ki protests. "i know that you like to live in denial, hyung, but can you stop being so rude to jake hyung? he's done nothing to deserve your bitchy behaviour!"

it hasn't even been ten minutes since jake has been picked up by jay, sunghoon and ni-ki but an argument has already broken out between the two of them. sunghoon seems to live in a state of perpetual stone-cold silence, unless ni-ki is involved while the younger boy seems to relish challenging the older vampire every step of the way.

if jake didn't know better, he would almost think-

"sunghoon, quit whining," jay says, irritation lancing through his words like it's a personal attack. "it's heeseung hyung who asked me to take jake to his apartment. if you want to go against him, you're welcome to do so."