𝟏𝟔𝟑𝟕 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

- ♦♦♦ -

Seonghwa was right.

Yunho had not awakened and Seonghwa had not seen San ever since the incident. But his senses told him the young boy was just hiding somewhere in the hanok - scared to admit the fault he was at. Seonghwa did not care as long as he stayed within the property. What bothered him was how the gnawing sensation carved the insides of his stomach like carving a spell into a piece of wood - only waiting for the curse to bring hell. And Seonghwa would if he did not decide on what to do with their lack of blood supplies.

His fingers curled around the needle before putting his sewing project down onto the soban. He should be going instead of keeping himself distracted from his worries. It was a strange occurrence as he had never born himself in this way before; he was a man of doing deeds long before their limits. Prompt and precise. But now he was finding his mind scattered all over the place while he hesitated. He should not be waiting any longer.

But it would be a challenge if they were forced to move out of the area when San had yet to get used to his new.. appearance. Traveling would not be a pretty sight when first they would encounter humans. Seonghwa knew that.

Seonghwa got up from his seat when he finally forced himself to make a move. His eyes had a distant glaze across them as he silently moved toward the door. His dull senses sharpened the moment he recognised trodden grass rising again. Seonghwa had been right. What reason was there to go and cast disaster in an entire village when the food willingly came stepping up to his front door?

Grumbles of voices cluttered on the other side of the door, discussing the current situation back and forth before one of the men was pushed closer to the wooden frame and knocked on it. A muffled sound alerted Seonghwa's curiosity.

The thumping onto the wood was like a waking sound going through the entire home and he was sure the others heard by now - even if Yunho still lay in a deep sleep. Seonghwa waited a short moment before delicately reaching his hand out and pulling the door open. He put a welcoming taut smile on his lips as his gaze raked across the men coming to sight in front of him. A young face was among them.

"I have been looking forward to your return," Seonghwa answered, leaning his head to the side as he observed them both suddenly freeze.

San's father pressed his lips into a thin line, "Where is my son. I know you are hiding him." It was not a question and Seonghwa wanted to laugh at the human's bravery. He leaned forward, a smirk growing on his face as he lifted his brows in exaggeration, "Wrong."

"Wrong?" the man's mouth was as biting as his own, "How dare you speak to me like that?"

Seonghwa's eyes did not waver. "Wrong, Sir Choi. Your son is not here anymore."

For a moment the man in front of him just stared at him, full of rage which he pointlessly tried to hold back. Seonghwa's eyes wandered to the other man in the back, slipping down to the fingers digging into the shoulders of a boy.

Sir Choi mumbled a curse under his breath, that surely should not have been heard by any other. Then he turned around and grabbed a fistful of the boy's hair, making him groan in pain. "Call my son here, or we will do this the hard way."

Seonghwa's demeanor did not change at the rough hand in front of him, surely to the human's displeasure. His soft lips moved slickly as words slithered out of him like he tried to deceive them of the truth that no one could refuse but the world should better not know, "Your son has already died."

Choi San is dead.

A scream ruptured down his spine as the boy threw himself forward with the sole hold of Sir Choi's fist in his hair, "NO! SAN! My San!!"

Brows raised on the man in front of Seonghwa before he yanked the boy back. His hatred returned to face Seonghwa who calmly rested against the frame of the door, eyes examining the next move.

"You.. killed my only son? Are you completely out of your mind?!"

The boy was sobbing loudly, his voice dry and raw by the time it drowned in his pained screams.

"I did not kill your son - he was already dying when I found him." Suddenly the man of great honour sent a knee into the boy's side, harshly kicking him over and over until the poor body nearly fell to the ground. The man hysterically muttered the same curses again as he made the boy curl at his feet in the belief that it would attract his son to come out from his hide. Seonghwa could only stare at the madness happening as he waited for the first drop of blood to spill.

There.

Red dripped from his nose down into the grass in front of the doorstep.

San's fingers curled around Seonghwa's arm as he peeked over his shoulder at his father beating the boy down into the ground.

"By dear grace- Sir-" the other man called, eyes widened as they looked at Seonghwa. And what there was creeping on his back. "Sir! Your son, he's here!" The man bluntly stopped and heaved his body up from the ground. But not even the slightest of relief shone on his face. And Seonghwa squinted his eyes as the sight did not quite sit right with him.

"San," the man voiced his son's name like a curse, "San, come here. Now!"

San's hand clenched around Seonghwa's arm the more the man in front of them grew impatient with the lack of response. A low rumble simmered in his throat and Seonghwa sensed the tautness of muscles working under the pulsing nerves.

His fledgling would not hold back.

When Sir Choi stepped forward and motioned his hand to pull his son out of the building he froze mid-air. His former frustrated expression changed with the single flick of San's one finger. He looked horrified now.

As he was looking his undead son in the eyes and recognising what terrors he had become.

His lips quivered but with no sound clinging on to them. Seonghwa could read what was mouthed.

"W-what.."

"Your son has died and has now resurrected as whom you made him to be; a monster," Seonghwa moved his foot over the doorstep and out in the free, causing the humans to stumble back in a panic when San let out a louder snarl.

Sir Choi's subordinate yelped, "What have you done to him?!"

Terrified faces turned to him and Seonghwa savored the way the air trembled around him with great enjoyment. The corners of his lips lifted and he could not be more pleased by the following gasps trading with the air the moment his heavy fangs were revealed.

"Sir- run! RUN!!"

Suddenly San's fingers tore off Seonghwa's arm and his body darted into the man who called himself his father. His frail body clumsily fell to the ground with a huff before his limbs kicked off into the grass. San did not let him get too far before he caught him with a single hand around his ear pulling his entire weight around onto his back. The man screamed when the skin started to tear and his ear fell off. Irritated by the pleading calls of his name, San grabbed the man around his throat and started forcing his weight down onto his airways, making him choke all while San punched his other fist into the man's chest. The crunching sound revealed how ribs were broken. San punched again and blood splattered all over the ground, hitting him in the face as he likely had smashed his father's heart against the ground and stopped its beating. The man lay still after that.

First, then, Seonghwa realised something odd about this happening. San was not only killing because of bloodlust.

A shrill scream echoed through the forest when San caught the other man who had escaped the resident. Soon the body was being dragged back to the front door, San's hand clamped around his foot as the man scraped across the ground. Seonghwa stared at the scene with a delinquent look in his eyes. San killed the man with no mercy.

Seonghwa moved when the ragged breathing turned painful and whisking eyes tried to escape this place. He could not keep the beaten boy like this when he knew he was not the one at fault for this brutality. But San sunk down to the ground beside him before Seonghwa got to him, his elbows touching the grass as he leaned forward with blood painting his lips, "Run.." he huskily told him. His shoulders jerked when his mouth nearly touched the ground, "Please run, I don't want to hurt you."

The boy's eyes dilated as he drew in another shaky breath, slowly pushing himself up with his trembling arms. Tears were sliding down his cheeks as he silently cried. "San.." he mouthed, "What has happened to you?"

His fledgling growled into the earth and Seonghwa noticed his fingers digging into the grass as he strained against every one of his instincts, "Go, please. I will kill you if you don't run now."

Standing between a mix of hesitance and fear, the young lad stood for a moment on his wobbly legs before he finally made his decision and limped away into the forest without looking back. Seonghwa furrowed his brows but quick hands wrapped around his wrists, holding him back from capturing the running boy.

San's slim eyes were dead serious, "Let him run. He does not deserve to die this day."

It startled Seonghwa afterward how San's words seemed to be enough to convince him to do something that he otherwise had promised himself above all would never happen. If that boy would walk around and spread tales of what bloodthirsty creatures he had encountered here it would not take long before hunters would find their hide. Seonghwa would not save San if he was caught like Yunho was.

Seonghwa looked over at the younger gazing at the drops of blood still running down his hands. His knees fell to the ground but he did not even seem to notice how his body was moving by itself as he was too engrossed with keeping his eyes on the red rolling between his fingers. San leaned forward, his tongue coming out as he flatly pressed it to the back of his hand and licked the blood off it. The motion continued and Seonghwa stared all the while with an odd sensation crawling underneath his skin.

Something that he could not quite explain what felt like.

Through fluttering eyelashes, San suddenly gazed up at him as he sucked on his fingers. Seonghwa quickly broke the eye contact and instead went to pull one of the bodies inside.

∞