𝟏𝟓𝟗𝟐 | 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐞

- ♦♦♦ -

Not many things had surprised Seonghwa throughout the decades he had been living, but the low guttural sound vibrating against the walls made shivers run down his spine and hit his core with something terrifyingly mad thrilling.

Seonghwa shuddered while his instincts drew a hand and straightened his stature with dripping accuracy in marking the details of the other's fangs. A hiss woke from his throat, cast against the man as a threat, and Seonghwa quietly tensed his every muscle, taut with anticipation.

Anticipation of something that never happened.

Seonghwa got up from the floor when Yunho never moved away from the doorway, staying there as if he waited for Seonghwa to be the one approaching. His steps echoed in the hollow home, following a straight line right up to the tall man, and soon he grasped his fingers around Yunho's bloodied face. Immediately, Seonghwa noticed that the smells of the liquid was not his nor were they Yunho's own, and with silent eyes he lined his gaze along the trail of blood left on the floor going all the way to the open door Seonghwa had left closed earlier. Fleetly, he saw the state of the room, nearly having a cardiac arrest because of the mess of bowls and red and bodies tossed all over the place. He moved back to Yunho's showing fangs there just seemed to always have been there, because, after all, Yunho wanted to live.

He tucked his face a little more down, detecting the other's face closer even if the closeness had not been if any necessary; Seonghwa just had a hard time keeping his startled fascination and pride at place in his cold chest. Because he could not understand how this was even possible.

"Did you ruin my workspace?" he asked, voice a bit stern if not scolding.

The moment of quietness turned into rumbles of low growling and Seonghwa gradually tightened his fingers around Yunho's face, his eyes glaring into the red orbs of the bloodthirsty creature in front of him. But he got no answer, and Seonghwa decided to let go of him again, sighing deeply with some unknown feeling pressing in his chest.

Stepping around Yunho, he followed the trail of blood into the messy room, perceiving how hunger had raged around. How nice of him to leave him more to clean up.

Seonghwa was not one very fond of having guests.

He crouched down and slid his pointer finger through a pool of blood, slowly feeling the rich liquid spreading across his fingertips. Right behind him, or, that was what his sharp hearing told him, the other was growling. But Seonghwa ignored it, though his throat tightened to hold himself from triggering those same sounds. He turned around, one of his knees leaning down onto the floor as he licked his fingers clean again. Yunho's eyes were drawn intensely at the act, and somehow Seonghwa couldn't help himself but feel some kind of pity for the poor man.

"Have you not ruined enough, you think?" Seonghwa asked him, squinting his eyes in an evaluative way and raising himself from the floor again. He brushed a neat hand down his ropes which only stained the fabric with red.

Suddenly he strode forward and grabbed Yunho in his torn clothes before he pulled him further into the room with such strength that made the taller man trip over his own feet and fall over one of the corpses with lost balance.

"Clean it up!" Seonghwa snarled at him, jerking his hands off again to fold them tight to his body. His eyes seemed to be burning red with a hot temper and glaring might.

"Finish it before dawn," he continued with a purse of his lips, "And then I may consider keeping you alive."

It seemed as if Yunho had quite difficulty understanding the task Seonghwa was putting him into, considering the intense red eyes there came closer Seonghwa. The man was tall when standing this healthy on his legs, even taller than Seonghwa himself who in general was considered on the taller side of humans height.

But Seonghwa felt not threatened by the giant.

His pursed lips were sent into a snarl themselves as he let his instinctive mind rule his acts - soon long fangs pressed out of his mouth, glaring at the newborn with a foreign power that Seonghwa was to experience for the first time. His stance was full and solid in the way he pushed back his shoulders and angled his chin slightly down. Seonghwa would kill if he absolutely needed to.

For a moment, Yunho's expression flicked with a familiar emotion that Seonghwa had seen him with before. Fear, of dying.

Pleading eyes collided with his own and the man stumbled back pathetically. Seonghwa did not feel sorry for him, though. Instead, he went to grab the bucket and cloth he had left in the hallway and threw it all in the direction of Yunho, splashing water all over him.

"Find your place and better respect me. For I end lives and I do it great," he said and heaved a hand toward the madness of the morgue.

♦

Seonghwa left the other to himself after that. A few times he even considered leaving the entire property for the matter of finding out how Yunho would react to being left alone in the cottage. He pondered on the thought for a long while before he eventually figured he should try. To test Yunho's worth. If he found the man had fled the place when he came back, then he would hunt him down and instantly kill him for good. Although, he should be aware enough to know that Seonghwa had saved his life, after all, running off would be like pushing Seonghwa underneath water in order to save his own breath. Seonghwa would not tolerate such disrespect.

The sun was still hanging high in the sky, although the wind was harsh this day. Seonghwa descended the mountains he lived in with no haste. He had every time in the world, as death never would be touching him. That is, for now at least.

A stake to his heart could do the harm like the old myths always told, but ripping his head off of his body sounded more realistic. He had seen it happen before, though he barely remembered it.

He sat down at the bare rocks, eyes scouting the town below the lands, seeing how lifeless it looked, despite the fire making buildings crumble in defeat. He didn't really feel sad about it, humans were weak and stupid. They served him nothing else but meals, literally, they were his meals. Or their blood was, he never chewed on the meat.

Seonghwa still wondered why he had saved Yunho - what might have made him do it. Perhaps his life was starting to grow boring - cycles were the same, he rested, he woke, and he gathered dead people to feed on their blood. Townsfolk all knew who he was, but rarely dared question what was hidden underneath his facade. Then war would break out and the humans would soon forget about him again, as resources of food would be full and Seonghwa didn't need to participate in civilization. The town would be rebuilt, and Seonghwa's food stockings would have emptied so he again was forced out of his safe space. It kept repeating itself. At times, when he would feel a little tinge of exploration would he travel the world and seek knowledge of foreign cultures, languages, and histories. He would see how different nature could act and feel how temperatures changed whether he decided to go south or north.

However, those enthralling powers would never be enough to have Seonghwa explore forever as he always would return home again. This time, the feeling was different than the urge to explore what he had never seen. Instead, it felt like a foreign sensation was growing in his chest the more he was pondering why he had made the decision of keeping Yunho. It felt odd, and alarmingly unsafe when it kept pushing with the organ in his chest like he had no control over it, at all. And he wanted to know how to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. Was it a setback of turning someone? Or was it just him acting up about nothing?

Seonghwa didn't know.

Soon he left the rocks, too, continuing down the slopes of the mountains as he wanted to have a glance at the burning town. Life was a disaster; what terrors met him down there only proved him right. The aftermath of warriors plundering homes, and murdering defenseless children before raping terrified women, killed every hope in humanity.

♦

Yunho was nowhere to be seen when he returned to the hanok. Cautiously, Seonghwa entered his home, feeling how a sudden disappointment stroke him like never before. His eyes raked through the different rooms as he stepped around the place. A snarl left his lips the more the thought of having to hunt him down irked him. To be honest with himself, had Seonghwa believed that his threat would have been more than enough to keep the fledgling in his home, but somehow, he had been wrong.

Having checked the different rooms, only one was left, and Seonghwa hadn't still caught the scent of Yunho anywhere. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to smell him inside here as well, considering the odours of blood and rot was so strong in here.

Seonghwa swiftly latched the heavy wooden door into the morgue, slightly worrying about what he should expect to be met with. If the place still wasn't tidied any bit, Yunho had for sure fled his hanok.

But as he pushed the door to the side, blood had been washed away, bowls gathered and neatly placed underneath draining bodies. Seonghwa furrowed his brows as he let his sight embrace the surprise that encountered him. His hand let go of the door and he took a few more steps inside, turning his head to the corners of the morgue but without finding any living dead.

"Yunho?" he called, waiting a minute before repeating himself again, maybe a bit firmer, "Jeong Yunho?"

But no answer came to him.

Turning around on his heels, Seonghwa went for the door again before a drop of liquid hit his cheek. Seonghwa stopped in his track, his eyes scrutinizing the slightest as he wiped the stain with his thumb until it was coloured a deep red. Lifting his stance another time, Seonghwa leaned his head back taking his sight to a place he hadn't looked before.

And there he was.

Yunho's big, widened eyes were staring right down at him as his long limbs were clinging to the roof's beams. The smell of fear was strong.

And blood was dripping from his mouth. For a moment, Seonghwa only studied the other as he left any questions in the hind of his head.

"Yunho, get down from there," Seonghwa ordered, his voice sturdier than before. But Yunho didn't move a single muscle, eyes rattling in his skull as the man looked to be pondering his options. Even if Seonghwa knew there only was one. Yunho must be a very stubborn being.

"If you won't listen, then I will come after you and pull you down myself." Seonghwa would be true to his words.

The options were clearer now, and Yunho seemed to understand. Seonghwa took a step back before the other effortlessly jumped and landed on the wooden boards in front of him.

"Good, I make the rules around here, and you listen, understood?"

Instantly, Yunho nodded, surely afraid of doing anything than listening to what this grand vampire told him. Seonghwa gestured for him to follow, "Let us find you something else to wear than those ruined attires."

∞