Warning : There are some mentions about abuse.

Sanghyuk never expected to find Hakyeon squished under a barrel.

He was taking a walk. Why?  He could not sleep. How can he sleep after spending a day experiencing nightmares?

So he left the magical tent that could fit five people comfortably ( Wonsik slept in another tent and his loud snoring proved why ) and took a walk to distract his mind, hoping the cold night air could sooth him. He did make sure to bring his crystal just in case.

“ Where are you going, Sanghyuk? Stay with me or....”

Tomorrow, they would reach the village and Taekwoon and Sanghyuk would return to their homes. He hoped that Hongbin could live free after revealing the truth of the hunters to the village leader.

He hoped his life could be that easy. Truthfully, he did not want to go home. It was not a home, it was just a house with nothing but pain and suffering. He had lived in terror throughout most of his life and his time in the old witch’s house reminded him of that.

“ Why there are other people in the barn?”

“ None of your business, kid. How about you do me a favour?”

After they left the house, Sanghyuk was ready to cry again, to curl up into a ball and thinking why he deserve that fate. But he did not because Hakyeon and Jaehwan did not cry even though they faced the same ordeal.

“ Please, stop. Stop. It hurts. I will do anything just please stop”, Sanghyuk dropped the knife, he could not do it anymore.

“Pick up the knife, Sanghyuk. Be a good boy or people will get hurt because of you”.

 Jaehwan was back into being his usual happy self, making random jokes and interesting spells for their entertainment that even Hongbin laughed. Hakyeon was a bit shaken and brooding but with Jaehwan’s jokes, he soon began to smile brightly just like the first time they met.

Sanghyuk watched with fear as the man buried the boy’s body. The boy looked sad as if he knew it was his fault that he died.

“You miss a spot, Sanghyuk. I told you I want 30 cuts today”.

Leaves  crunched under his feet, its sound reminding how autumn was near. He wondered how do they make themselves happy even after facing their nightmares? Sanghyuk kicked a rock angrily, wondering why he could not be like them, to be brave, to stop being afraid?

“ Should I tell them the truth?”, Sanghyuk said to himself, only to receive answers from the constant crik crik of the crickets.

Before he could think further on the topic, he heard a desperate cry for help.

He followed the voice and found Hakyeon squished under a barrel. Upon closer inspection, he realised it was not Hakyeon. He was an elf, guessing from the pointy ears. The only similarity between them was the eyes.

“ Help me, please!!! I can’t take it anymore!!! Oh, I see things fading. Is this the end? Please tell my girlfriend I love her”, the elf shouted, too dramatic on Sanghyuk’s opinion. But he pushed away the barrel and helped the elf to stand up.

“ Thank you for helping me. I really owe you one. This barrel is no joke”, the efl grinned before extending a hand. “ My name is Sungjae”.

“ Sanghyuk. Umm, you look like Hakyeon”, he pointed out shyly.

“ Oh, I get that a lot. Anyway, because you save me, I thought of inviting you to this party I’m heading. This barrel of mangoflower punch was for the drinks and I’m sure the hyungs intentionally picked this drink so I had to go far for it. Anyway, forget about that. Do you want to go?”.

“ I was travelling with my friends and I don’t want to make them worried”.

“ It’s okay. You just get a few drinks and I will send you back here”, Sungjae said, there was an earnest look in his eyes.

“ Okay”, Sanghyuk replied, feeling that accepting the invitation was a big step for him. Besides, he never been to a party and he would never go to one when he reached home.

Unknown to him, there was pair of eyes watching him from afar.

“ This is the best party ever!!!!!!”, Sanghyuk yelled over the lively music, holding up a glass of mangoflower punch. He never had so much fun before.

To his surprise, there were lesser people than he expected and the party was at an underground cavern. The elves was surprised to see him but they were friendly . To make things easier, Sungjae even gave him a pink-coloured cookie to loosen him up.

Then, everything was a blur to him. Music began to play and the elves started dancing. Sungjae dragged him to the middle and now the two of them were dancing like there was no tomorrow. Sungjae was a fun guy. He introduced him to his friends and he managed to make it not awkward and told him funny stories.

Sanghyuk felt a sense of euphoria. His head was spinning and he saw light swirling around his sight. But he liked it. It made him feel alive and free. Maybe he could stay here. He did not have to come home. He did not need to hurt himself for that person anymore. He did not want to come back.

Then, in his dazed state, he felt someone shaking him at the shoulders. He tried to push the person away but then he was pulled further away from the music. He had to leave now? He did not want to leave but a blast of cold air told him that he was outside.

He swayed left and right, trying to free himself from the person’s grip but failed. He slumped down on the ground with a groan, hoping the earth could just swallow him so he would not go anywhere. He heard people talking but he’s too upset to listen properly. But their voice so loud, it penetrated the veil of his haziness.

“ What in the world you gave him, Sungjae?”, he heard  a familiar voice but it sounded too angry to his liking.

“ I just gave him a lotus cookie. You know, the cookie that can makes you feel happy? I don’t know he is a human”, he heard Sungjae’s voice and wondered if he could bring Sanghyuk back to the party. He wanted more of the cookies.

“ He’s a human and you know what happens if humans take it. They began to feel weird and unnaturally euphoric. Oh, what am I going to do now?” said the first voice. “ Minhyuk, do you have anything that can help?”.

“ He just took one cookie so the effects won’t be that bad. But I do have a vial of moondew. That could do the trick. He would be back to himself in no time”. He faintly remembered that he was one of Sungjae’s friends.

“ Hyukkie, are you okay? We just wait for the moondew and we go back to camp. Then, we bring you home”, he knew that voice. It belonged to Hakyeon.

“ NO!!! I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME!”, he shouted, standing up to his feet and tried to push Hakyeon away. He did not want to go home and no one could tell him otherwise.

“ Hyukkie, that lotus cookie really affected you. How about....”

“ No. You don’t understand! You don’t understand what it feels like having a hell as a home! You don’t have someone who calls himself as a father and makes you cut yourself because if you don’t, then he will hurt other people and blame it on you”.

“ What happen to my brother?”, a girl asked when Sanghyuk sent food to the slaves one day. He kept quiet trying to ignore the stares on him.

“ He died, didn’t he?, she choked out the statement. She took his silent as a yes.

“ How could you let it happen? How could you?”, she broke into tears and threw the bowl at him.

You don’t know how is it to be alone and scared always being bullied because people think that you are weak.”

“ Hey, kid!  If you had nothing to do, come here! We need someone for target practice! We need to beat that Leo team and if we fail, it will be on you!”, shouted a boy with a scowl on his face.

Sanghyuk tried to run away but the boy’s goons cornered him and kicked him for their practice.

 You don’t know! You don’t know so don’t tell me I have to go home!!”, he ranted before lunging on Hakyeon and punching him, letting his anger out. He could hear Sungjae telling him to stop but he ignored it. He did not want to go home.

Then suddenly, he was on his back. Hakyeon was on top of him. He saw a glint of red eyes and white fangs before he felt a sharp pain on his neck. Then, nothing but darkness.

“Oh,you are up. Are you feeling okay?”, Sungjae asked him. Sanghyuk blinked his eyes and felt a terrible ache on his neck. He felt his neck and found it was wrapped in bandages.

“ Here, have a sip of this. I promise it was nothing you can’t drink”, Sungjae handed him a cup which Sanghyuk carefully took a sip from it. Whatever he was drinking, it made him feel refreshed and full of energy as if he had a good night sleep.

“ What happened?”, Sanghyuk sat up, noticing he was in a room with walls made from tree roots and dirt, indicating that they were underground.

Sungjae looked away, fidgeting nervously before he answered.

“ Umm, you got kind of drunk and you punched Hakyeon and...”, Sungjae stopped, unsure to continue.

“ Just tell me”, Sanghyuk said, impatient for an answer.

“ Before I tell you, you must know that Hakyeon hyung is one of the nicest people I have known and he will never wanted to hurt anyone. He didn’t meant to hurt you but the timing was terrible and he never had the chance to tell anybody about his condtion”.

“ What condition?”.

“ Please don’t freak out when I tell you he is a half vampire. I mean from what he told us, his father was a vampire and his mother was a Light elf.”

“ The important thing was because he was a half-vampire, he did not developed those vampire stuffs at the same time as the other vampires. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen recently and Hakyeon hyung was too scared to tell anyone”.

“Unfortunately for him, he got stubborn friends  who are ready to help him. But we did not expect him to attack you last night but it happened. We guessed that he was holding himself in but he also was tiring himself and sooner or later, he would snap”.

“ So it was my fault?”, Sanghyuk asked, vaguely remembering the things he said at him and also the punches.

“ No. Ask Hakyeon. I think he will say it was not your fault. Tell him, Hakyeon”, a new elf entered the room with Hakyeon in tow. He could not look at Sanghyuk, his face downwards.

The elf with brown hair just smiled sadly and pushed Hakyeon forward. Hakyeon glanced at the elf before facing Sanghyuk, his eyes were normal red from crying and he occasionally bit his lips.

“ Umm, it was not your fault, Hyukkie. It...it was mine and I didn’t mean to hurt you. I also didn’t tell you earlier because I thought you will get scared of me and I don’t want that. I want to be friends with you but it seemed I ended up hurting you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry”, Hakyeon slowly apologised.

Then Sanghyuk did a surprising thing. He laughed, really loud. He laughed even more at the shocked faces of everyone in the room.

“ This is the first time someone  didn’t mean to hurt me”, Sanghyuk said after he finished his laughing.

“ It’s ok. I don’t actually remember and yes it hurt but it will be gone just like other pain. If you think I’m scared of you, then you are right. But I live in fear throughout my life and I want to stop being scared. Besides, you are really kind and helpful and I won’t forget how you try your best to comfort me and you didn’t mind me hugging you. Also, Wonsik was scarier. But promise to not randomly bite my neck”, Sanghyuk said, hoping it could make Hakyeon feel better.

“ Hyukkie”, Hakyeon said with tears in his eyes before hugging Sanghyuk.

“ Awww, you are so sweet”, the brown-hair elf cooed.

“ Are you jealous, Minhyuk?”, Hakyeon gave him a look and then smiled.

“ Sungjae-ah. Give your hyung a hug”, Minhyuk asked only for Sungjae to run away with a laugh.

Hakyeon and Sanghyuk left the elves community with a few bottle of special drinks from Sungjae. He promised that it was for refreshment and healing only.

“ So if you are half-vampire now, then how are you going to feed? What about the sun?”, Sanghyuk asked, noticing that it was almost dawn.

“ For now, I just use Jaehwan’s jug but I guess I need training for that. About the sun, Eunji gave me a sun ring to keep me from being smoking hot”.

“ Seriously? Anyway, I guess Jaehwan and Wonsik knew about this. Are you going to tell Taekwoon?”.

“ Yeah, probably”.

“Hey, look. Jaehwan hyung is waving at us. He’s up early”.

Hakyeon frowned. “ There’s something wrong”, he muttered.

They ran towards a frantic Jaehwan with Taekwoon looking very serious than usual.

“ Where have you guys been? Wonsik and Hongbin are gone!!!!”

Yeah, so here's another chapter. I'm sorry if it feels a bit rushed but my holidays is going to end and if I can I want to finish it before that.

Anyway, if there's anything , you can leave a comment or a (private) message because I know I'm still lacking.

P.S N so hot with blonde hair!!!! Ok, sorry. Just want to put it there.

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