The next two days, Lee Chanwoo did not attend university. As he should.

The day he returned, he wore a thick turtleneck pullover and avoided eye contact with most people, absolutely no bite mark in sight much to Taehyung's luck. Mrs. Park also seemed much more comfortable in class, smiling her usual warm smile and teaching without getting asked out by her overly assertive student at the end of every single course. For her, things couldn't be more positive right now.

As for Taehyung, the redhead definetely found himself to be struggling. A lot.
It seemed as if the two times he had lost control over himself and drunk his fellow co-students' blood without their permission were bound to turn into many, many more times. It was as if he was addicted to the warm, fresh blood straight from the human vein.

All the years he'd spent living off blood bags from local hospitals or animal blood from the woods ('blood dieting', as he liked to call it) had gone to waste and he was getting a little too used to receiving the extravagant liquid that was human blood. Attending Cheonsang University with its many human students and being around mortals constantly, hearing their pulses ring inside his ears and smelling the blood kept beneath those layers of skin did not do him any good.

It was like letting an alcohol-deprived alcoholic wander through the most jam-packed liqour store full of their favourite sorts of vodka every single day.

At some point, he started feeling like an addict.

Of course, he had lived for centuries, he had been there before. The craving for blood- it was frustrating and tiring, but also normal. However, he had never been forced to attend human university for the first time in his life. And that little factor changed everything for him, more than he thought he would.

Park Jimin and Lee Chanwoo soon weren't the only victims he had bitten: a nerdy-looking kid whose name he did not remember, another quite popular student whose name he also did not remember and two overly obnoxious members of 'The Wenches', their names Ailee and Wendy, made it to his gradually increasing list of bite victims. All of them wearing turtlenecks or scarfs the next few days, covering up the whole neck area seemed like a new fashion trend. Thank god it was the beginning of autumn.

At some point, he realized that he had to stop. He needed to learn how to self-control or certain people, certain people being Jeon Jungkook with his stupid, dark glare and his stupid, messy raven hair, would notice that something wasn't quite right. And with one tiny slip-up, his whole existence could be exposed within a tiny, tiny wink. And that would bring even more danger to him than whatever thing it was that forced him to attend this place in the first place.

Should he try compelling Jungkook? But how would he even get close enough to do that? The two of them were literally never left alone, wouldn't it be way too suspicious to try that?

Mina's plan for him to befriend Jungkook wasn't going all too smoothly either, by the way. Taehyung could only conclude that both of them were simply too stubborn, himself being far too prideful and Jungkook simply not liking him. Both of them avoided too much contact at any cost. But at least they weren't acting like literal arch enemies, they just didn't like talking to each other.

To attempt getting himself back under control, he called that one person that he knew would be able to help him. She always did.

"What do I do, Mina? I feel like I'm going insane all the time. Maybe I should quit university, I don't think anything suspicious is going on here in the first place. Perhaps your visions were false alarms?," he asked, holding the handle of his old-fashioned Vintage rotary telephone tightly, curling himself into a little ball on the velvety surface of his white-golden three seater-sofa.

"No, Tae. No backing out of this. I know what I saw and I know how serious it is, and it is serious. Just a matter of time until something bad happens. I'd come myself but tomorrow's a full moon and things are a little complicated here. Chae needs help. But, well, I advise you to discipline yourself, restrict yourself as much as you can, don't allow yourself to be stubborn. How about you try that squirrel diet again?," his friend answered him after a while, the redhead shaking his head profusely.

"That definetely won't work. Because as soon as I see all these kids and hear their pulses beating, I just start getting tempted. My eyes even turned red once, Jimin almost saw! I'm just worried about blowing my cover, you know? That Jeon kid may not hate me to death but he's still suspecting me for whatever kind of shit. It really sucks," he complained, the other line going silent for a short while.

"Okay, I have an idea. You know when students are most riled up and their pulses may beat the fastest? During lunch time, they get to catch up with their friends and they get excited by the thought of food. They're energetic and the temperature in cafeterias is high because the food needs to be prepared and maintained with lots of heat. Students start sweating, their hearts beat faster and their blood gets pumped harder. And that results in you getting tempted. Just be glad this isn't a high school, Tae, or gym class would drive you mad," she explained.

"Anyways, back to my idea. Bring a blood bag and drink it for lunch, that way you're feeding while being around people, it'll distract you just fine. You can pretend it's cherry juice or iced tea or something, just bring a straw and a lid so the smell doesn't spread. I'm obviously not a vampire and not an expert either but at least try it," she suggested. Taehyung, listening attentively, hummed.

"I don't know, I could try that. But is that really necessary? Maybe I can do this another way, after all..." All of a sudden, he could hear his doorbell ring shrilly and lifted himself with a sigh. "That must be the delivery guy, I bought some shoes yesterday. Be right back, just a second," he excused himself and vampire-speeded himself all the way through his huge lobby and opened the front door to receive his delivery, his first time shopping online after fifteen years of buying a phone and absolutely never using it.

"Ooh, my new stilettos. Thank you, you can go now," he spoke as soon as he faced a puzzled delivery man in a white shirt underneath a huge blue vest holding a parcel, probably astounded at how damn big and luxurious his mansion was.
"You live here alone, Sir?," he asked with his jaw almost hitting the floor.

The redhead rolled his eyes. "Yes, I do. Do you see anyone else here?" He stepped outside, ignoring the fact that he was only wearing slippers and silk pyjamas, and reaching for the parcel impatiently. However, he stopped his movements as he came closer towards the man and the sound of the human's fast pulse invaded his senses again. Delivery guy must've sprinted all the way here! He could feel his body getting numb, his teeth itching and his eyes threatening to change colour again.

"Fuck, not again," he mewled in agony, the familiar thirst creeping up his throat again and his legs growing unstable and weak. Grabbing the highly confused guy's shoulders with shaky hands, he couldn't help but lose control all over again, looking into the other's eyes intensively.
"Don't scream and don't move. An animal attacked you."

As he was worried that the man might faint and stay on his porch forever if he drunk straight from his neck, he grabbed his arm instead and dug his growing fangs into the delivery guy's wrist, savoring the taste of fresh blood at least for a short moment. When he felt at least remotely satiated, he grabbed the parcel and pushed the paralyzed male away. "Leave," he then demanded, his pupils dilating and constricting. And while watching him leave with unstable steps, he ran the back of his hand over his blood red lips to clean off the few droplets of blood still lingering while sighing.

Within a second, he stood in front of his telephone again, grabbing the handle and sighing once again. "Mina, I think I'll try what you suggested. No harm trying, right? Or I might really blow my secret at some point," he spoke into the mouthpiece, his stomach churning in discomfort.

°○●○●○°

"Oh! What's that, TaeTae?," everyone's favourite noodlehead asked the next day, pointing towards a large tea bottle that Taehyung was trying very desperately to hide as much as he could.

Once again feeling the urge to strangle the boy, the vampire laughed nervously. "Oh, this? This is just iced tea. I'm on a diet," he spoke as casually as he could.
"But we have iced tea here too!" Taehyung did not answer to that.

"Who the hell drinks iced tea while dieting? That stuff has so much sugar in it," Jungkook commented with a raised eyebrow, Taehyung having the urge to strangle him, too. Couldn't they just mind their own damn business?! This was torturous!

"Well, this is a very special sort of iced tea. I also... have diabetes," he spoke slowly, unpacking his straw, thrusting it into the tea bottle aggressively and taking a sip of mediocore-tasting blood in order to calm himself down.

Jesus fucking Christ. I can't do this.

"You do? Your body can't receive insuline through drinks, food or pills, you have to get it injected. Didn't your doctor tell you that? It'd come straight out again," Namjoon thought out loud, the redhead internally cussing him out for being smart and knowing literally everything.

"I... I have diabetes type two. I need to maintain a low-sugar diet and the cafeteria's drinks have like, tons of sugar in it. I also don't like drinking water. And for your information, the amount of sugar in this thing are very low. So I suggest not trying to taste it, it tastes weird," he said, emphasizing the low and shooting an annoyed glare at a suspicious-looking Jungoook.

"Oh sweetie, it must be so hard for you. Now I can see why you always skip dessert, I could never live without my daily vanilla pudding!," Jimin said in a sad tone, slightly pouting. The vampire repressed the urge to roll his eyes, wanting this to be over already.

"Oh, and there's been something I've been meaning to ask you for a while! How's your love life? Any boyfriends, ex-boyfriends?," the blonde boy chimed curiously with his chin propped in his palm, Taehyung feeling a bit caught off guard at that sudden question.

"Uh..." He felt all of the boys' attention avert onto him, that included Jungkook which made him feel uncomfortable yet again. "No boyfriends right now for sure. None needed, either," he said, remembering Mina advising him to not start anything that could result in literal death at the moment.
"Aw, that's too bad! There's this totally cute cousin of mine I would've loved to set you up with but of course, understandable. So, exes?," Jimin interrupted briefly.

"Quite a few, actually," the redhead remembered. The blonde's eyes widened.
"Ooh! You sound like you have experience. Which one was your favourite?," he kept asking. It actually took a while for the vampire to choose.

What was his name again? God, I really suck at remembering my exes' names. Think, Taehyung, think!

"Um, his name was Josh. He was from America." I think.
"We met when I studied for a year abroad," he added to make his little story sound more believable. Jimin appeared to be extremely interested whereas Jungkook had his eyebrow raised and Namjoon just looked awkward.

"Is that the one who tried to throw you off a ship?," the ravenette suddenly asked with amusement lacing his voice, Taehyung- once again- feeling caught off guard as he really did not expect him to remember that. He simply shook his head. "No, that was another one."

"Woah, woah, woah, what? A ship? Damn, what in the world? You gotta fill me in on that one sometime. Well, if you don't mind telling me, how did it end between you and Josh?" All of a sudden, the redhead felt a little pang in his heart, his very extentive past not being something he thought of very often and when he did, it could get quite sad.

"Um... Homophobia. I thought I could rely on him but turns out he was a coward," he, for the first time today, spoke truthfully, the corners of Jimin's mouth drooping in sadness.
"Oh no, that sounds horrible. If he chose his reputation over you, he didn't deserve you. And he wasn't the right one for sure. Sounds an awful lot like another Yuju-person to me, Jungkook. But hey, I'm sure you both will find true love at some point."

Taehyung almost scoffed.
True love? What a bunch of rainbow-fairytale fantasy bullshit. If that crap actually existed, I'd be the one to know, wouldn't I?

"And I always thought the West was so much more open-minded, what a pity," Jimin added, Namjoon shaking his head at that. "It always depends on where..."
And for the first time, Taehyung didn't feel completely out of place.

And maybe he had spoken too soon.

All of a sudden, the noodlehead slammed his palm onto the surface of the table. "This conversation is getting too depressing. I've been meaning to say this for a while, but we should really go bowling! It sounds like so much fun, especially since we've made a new friend. Saturday, eleven AM. Cancel all plans that you originally had, we're having a day full of fun!," he announced, brightly as always.

And Taehyung went back to wanting to strangle Jimin.

He could handle a few hours of university with these people five days an hour. But spending a whole Saturday bowling with them?! He'd rather be in hell!

However, he had no choice but to nod his head with a forced little smile, already dreading the upcoming Saturday with all his might.

At least he overcame his blood thirst for the rest of this day.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: i promise there will be taekook action soon, please have faith in me🥺 i just tend to drag things sometimes since i do have a thing for realistic storylines🥰
-wow anabel, this is a story about vampires and witches and you talk about being realistic- um anywaysss

i don't have much to say but i hope y'all aren't too stressed in school rn because we had a rehearsal maths exam kinda thing today and it wasn't even a real exam but for a moment, i remembered what school stress truly felt like and the feeling is very ew, luckily we have easter holidays starting from tomorrow like i'm VERY eager🤩

honestly idk what this chapter was but i hope you somehow liked it, i should go to sleep since it's 2:30am here but yeah, thank you lots for reading and byebye, i love you💜💜)