Promise (Ateez au)

Chapter XV

It was dark when he entered the building as silently as possible. The only sound made came from the rats that were trying to escape the bag he was carrying. He hoped no one would hear him, as the guards were fast asleep too. Every step he took sounded louder in the empty hallway. He had to be quick if he didn't want to get caught. He hurried down the stairs to the basement, but hoped Hongjoong wasn't there because it wouldn't be the first time he arrived at work, only to see the older fast asleep in the lab. But luckily for him, it looked like it wasn't one of those nights.
The blonde carefully opened the door to, what he called, the prison. The small amount of light from the safety lights woke the vampires up. Yunho had to silence them, as they immediately crowled towards their cell doors.

"If you want food, you have to be quiet. I'm risking my life right now." The blonde whispered, to which they luckily listened.
He opened the bag carefully, letting the rats run free before getting their blood sucked out by the thirsty vampires. It hurt Yunho to see how badly they got taken care of. They didn't do anything wrong, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
His feet unconciously had brought him to a cell where a small figure was sitting against the wall, his knees brought up against his chest. The boy couldn't be any older than eight, but was still stuck here nonetheless. He got bitten, but won't turn until he's an adult. His still human body had gotten skinier each time he saw him, as he didn't receive the food and water he should get. Even a small child like him got treated like a wild animal, locked up only to get tested on.
Yunho kneeled down, gaining attention from the boy who finally looked up.

"Do you want this, little boy?" Yunho took a piece of candy out of his pocket, holding it out for the boy to take. But he didn't move a bit. The trust all of them had in humans was close to, if not zero. And Yunho understood. The circumstances they had to live in were awful, and that because of people like Yunho himself.

"What is your name?" He tried again, carefully putting the candy down on the cold floor. He was glad he finally gained some interest from the boy, who looked at the brunette with big, innocent eyes.

"Why are you asking?" The child asked with a small voice, not understanding why the man was so nice to him.

"I just want to help you. What they do to you ... I don't accept it either. Yes, I wanted this job to learn more about your kind, but in a good way. I want to find a solution to help you deal with it better or even make you human again. My parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents were researchers on this subject. This without causing harm to any of you. But there is still so much left unanswered, and I have to figure it out to help you. All of you." Yunho didn't know why he was telling all of this to such a young child. He wouldn't understand after all.

"Mingi."

"What?"

"You asked for my name. It's Mingi. Song Mingi." The boy let out, a little smile appearing on his face.

"Nice to meet you Mingi. My name is-"

"Jung Yunho. I know. Everyone here knows. Are you being sincere or are you just trying to fool us in order for them to get information out of us, because we know nothing more than you do. It's pointless if that's the plan. It took only a few seconds for our lives to change like this so why would we know anything about it?" There was a slight bit of pain behind those words. Yunho wondered if his parents knew about him being locked up here, or if they just forgot about his existence.

"I promise that I'm being sincere. Why else would I sneak in here to bring you food and talk to you. In the middle of the night for gods sake." But Yunho saw that the kid was still hesitant to trust him.
"I'll prove it to you. I promise, I'll prove it. I ... Can I ask one question? It's something I've been wondering about for a fair amount of time now."

"I-" Suddenly they heard a loud slam of a door, almost immediately followed by quick footsteps coming it their direction.
Yunho knew he had to hide, but sadly there were no hiding spots near him. But just at the same time as the door opened, he got pulled backwards into a corner between the wall and one of the cells.

"Don't move." Yunho immediately recognised that voice, letting his body relax a bit while being held by his savior.
The door opened slowly, letting some light sip into the dark room. Yunho couldn't see who it was, but it wasn't hard to recognise the voice.

"So, it's true what they said." The dangerous tone in his voice was a reason for the brunette to be scared. Definitely when he heard him coming closer to their hiding spot.
"A stupid rat outbreak. Did you enjoy your festive meal? Because that'll be the last one for a while. You're all so greedy, eating all of them in one go. You're worse than hyenas, who eat the corpses of animals who have just passed away." He was now almost in front of where Yunho was standing. He was trying to hold his breath, not wanting the older to sense his presence.
"You disgust me. Not because of what you are now, but because you once were equal to me, a human. You are not worthy of being a slight bit similar to us." Just when Yunho thought he would get caught, an almost girllike scream was heard from the other side of the room.
"What now?" He turned around and made his way back to where the screaming boy was.
"What's wrong with you now?" There wasn't a slight bit of empathy in his voice, making sure they knew he hated them.

"I-I think it bit me. T-the rat." Mingi stuttered while holding his finger up for the man to see. A small trail of blood ran down it.

"Why don't you drink it? It'll be your first meal as one of them."

"I'm just as much of a human as you are, hyung. P-please, make it stop." The boy let tears roll down his face and the vulnerable side of him made even Hongjoong a tiny bit soft.

"Get up." He coldly demanded, taking the keys to open the cell. A small smile was sent in Yunho's direction by Mingi before he walked through the door. Yunho could finally let the breath escape that he forgot he was holding.

"T-thank you, Jongho." He whispered to the pink-eyed vampire, who he had started to care about a lot. He trusted him enough to leave his cell open once in a while. It wasn't the first time he had saved his life, and it would definitely not be the last one.

"You're lucky I was here. Knowing you, you would've made up the weirdest excuses as to why you are here." The vampire smiled, staring in Yunho's eyes. The brunette didn't want to admit it, but he made his heart beat faster just by this. The way his strong arms were still wrapped around his waist, making him feel safe and protected, and how his lips looked so kissable in that moment. Or in any moment to be honest. But when those exact lips touched his own, he felt like he was going to explode. He got surprised by it, but he didn't hesitate to kiss back.
He admitted it. He was in love with a vampire.

🌹

A little flashback for you all 💖
I hope this was okay and gave you a little more information about where our baby Jongho was and what Yunho and Mingi's relationship is like.
I'll try to get back to you next week 💖