“Honey, eat something, you look terrible.” Bobby's mom looked at him with worried eyes. Still, she didn't come close to being as worried as he was. He hadn't slept at all, not a fraction of a second. Every time he closed his eyes, his brain showed him one terrifying scenario after another. A dungeon where BI was tied up and left to rot. Did vampires die from starvation, or did they just live forever in a state of extreme hunger? Either way was horrific beyond imagination. Another scenario that had appeared all too vividly before his mind's eye was a torture chamber where they had brought all the most horrifying contraptions invented in the last one thousand years, trying them out on BI, who of course didn't even give them the satisfaction of screaming in pain, but you could see the terror in his eyes. The hairs at the back of Bobby's neck stood on end. The look in his eyes. BI's torture tortured him.

Maybe they were forcing him to kill people against his will to tarnish the vampires' reputation, maybe even rupturing the treaty, the thin veil that kept their world from falling into a vortex of chaos and civil wars. Perhaps they were coercing him into making more vampires, unregistered ones that they could use for experiments without getting into trouble with the government. Bobby's stomach churned. All these thoughts about killing people or making them into vampires made him realize that BI actually had the capability of doing so.

Had he killed people? Had he brutally taken an innocent person's life by biting them in the neck and out all of their blood? Was there any chance that he hadn't done exactly that? Did it hurt? Bobby didn't want to think about it. It made him feel sick. He couldn't believe BI harbored such an evil monster inside, but then again, he had to eat, didn't he? And it was no different from the brutal slaughter of cows, pigs and chickens for the sole reason of feeding the human population, that was growing ever bigger. Maybe nature had created vampires and other mutant beings that preyed on humans to balance out the destructive power of human kind, to keep them in check. Evolution. It wasn't a static process that some species could win or master, it was a flowing river of change, and eventually the top of the food pole became the bottom and life carried on, only in a slightly different form.

He was giving himself a headache, his brain in overdrive, thinking in circles. He had gotten up a little past four o'clock in the morning, since he hadn't been able to stand another second of being alone with his own thoughts. Also, it was better to keep his eyes open at all times, the wild horrors that hid behind his eyelids were worse than any horror film he had ever seen. Even so, the thoughts haunted him, all the way to school. They were like ghosts stuck to his heels, following him everywhere.

“Bobby!” Jinhwan yelled at him and punched his arm.

“Yeah?” he said confused, realizing he had disappeared into his own little world, neither awake nor asleep. Jinhwan nodded in the direction of the teacher who was staring at him with worried eyes.

“You don't look so good, go visit the nurse real quick.” she said softly. He had expected her to be mad, to yell at him, but she looked like she felt sorry for him and was worried there was something very wrong with him. Had she heard about the incident with BI? Was she worried he too was turning into a vampire? Was he? There hadn't been any mixing of their blood, but maybe that wasn't needed. Maybe it was some kind of change in the brain or the DNA, something that happened to the body when it had too much contact with a vampire. No, that couldn't be. Why would they let him stay in the cafeteria day after day then? Maybe they didn't know. There were wild stories going around about why BI hadn't shown up yesterday, but none of them had included him and equally few made any sense at all. They all sounded like the script to a third rate scifi movie that would never get picked up.

“Now, what can I do for you, young man?” a plump, middle-aged woman looked at him with a kind smile.

“Dunno... guess I'm just tired...” Bobby shrugged tiredly, not really knowing what he was doing there. The only reason he was there, was that it gave him an excuse not to be in class.

“Hmm, yeah, you don't look so hot. Have you been eating properly? Sleeping?” the nurse looked concerned. She took his blood pressure and did some simple tests. He just went along with it.

“Maybe you should take this afternoon off and go home and get some sleep, hmm?” the nurse suggested.

“NO!!” he protested a little to hard. “Eh.. they have my favorite food for lunch today.” he quickly added, trying not to raise suspicions.

“Well, well, never have I ever met anyone with such a passion for meatloaf.” she chuckled heartily. “Alright, I'm not one to keep a man from his meatloaf, but you have to promise me to take it easy, eat well and get a good night's sleep tonight, alright?” she said as she patted his shoulder lightly.

Finally, finally, it was lunch. He wasn't sure why he thought today would be any different from yesterday, but he wanted to be optimistic. He needed to be optimistic because the alternative was too terrifying. He wasn't sure why exactly he was so invested, but he liked to think that he was a decent person, and decent people cared whether other people were okay. And it wasn't like BI had anyone else in his corner. He was all he had, and he was as useless as could be. He sighed.

Before he could stop and chicken out, he charged into the food hall, his heart freezing mid-beat when he saw a familiar dark figure sitting at the far corner table. The humongous, throbbing knot that had taken root in his stomach untangled in under a second, releasing a wave of relief so strong that it nearly knocked him over. He was okay. At least he looked okay. No, better than okay. He had forgotten just how unbelievably beautiful he was. His memory hadn't done him justice, not by a long shot.

BI didn't look like he had noticed his arrival, which was odd, for he always seemed to have a sixth sense about his whereabouts, knowing where he would be before he even made the decision to go there himself. Something was off. He had the feeling that he was being watched, but no matter how often he turned his head, he couldn't find so much as one set of eyes looking his way. That worried him, rather than consoling him. He was used to being the sidekick of nearly every whisper in the hallways, gossip hungry eyes following him everywhere. Maybe he was just being paranoid and overly sensitive, but his spider sense was definitely tingling. Whether he actually had a spider sense was a matter for a different debate.

Swallowing the dread that had gotten stuck in his throat, he tried to walk as casually as he possibly could, crossing the hall. What if he wasn't paranoid? What if they were being watched? What if BI was under 24/7 observation every single day for the rest of his life? Something akin to anger started bubbling up in his gut. Why did someone have the power to take control of another's life like that? Sure, he was a vampire, a beast that preyed on humans, but that didn't mean he didn't have a right to live his life. He wondered whether there was someone working on a cure. If there was a cure, would he want it?

Reaching BI's table, he had a vaguely formed plan in his head. It was crazy, but he felt like he had to do something.

“Come on.” he said in a slightly less authoritative tone than he had wanted and grabbed BI's surprisingly muscular arm, he could feel the well defined shape of his bicep under his fingers. BI was a pretty lean guy, but he possessed this invisible vampiric strength that was easy to underestimate. And of course he didn't budge when he pulled on him as hard as he could, not even a fraction of an inch. Embarrassed, he used one of the table legs as support, pushing his feet against it as he pulled harder than he had ever pulled before. He could almost see a grin forming on BI's forever expressionless face as he failed completely. He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he sat down beside him. He suddenly realized how close he really was. Usually he didn't dare sit anywhere but opposite him, the spot furthest away from the magnetic field that surrounded him and constantly tried to pull him in, but he had been distracted by his utter defeat. He resisted the urge to lean in and smell him, amazed at what ridiculous thoughts BI was able to plant in his head.

“Please come with me?” he tried another approach, a softer one.

“No.” BI folded his arms, leaning back half an inch. His eyes were ablaze, but it looked more like curiosity than anger.

“Ah, thanks for that elaborate answer. Helpful. Why won't you come with me? I have something to show you.” he asked sincerely. BI just shrugged, hurting his feelings a tiny bit. He was being for real, and he was actually doing this for him, but he couldn't even dignify his question with an answer. There was no way he was backing out.

“If you don't come with me, I'll tell you a really long, reeeeally boring story every day for the rest of the school year.” he threatened, but BI almost looked amused. It gave him the confidence to follow his instincts.

“No, scratch that. If you don't come with me now, I will never sit down at this table ever again.” he said fiercely, looking him straight in the eyes, hoping he didn't notice how much he was praying for this to work, for the last thing he wanted was to be forced to make good on his word. And worse yet, that would mean he meant nothing to him, that this strange vibe they had between them was just in his head.

“On one condition.” BI said calmly, leaning in closer. Bobby stopped breathing, trying not to notice how incredible he smelled. “This is the last time you can ever use this threat.” he said, putting special emphasis on 'last' and 'ever', making it sound more like a death threat than a condition.

“Deal!” Bobby giggled, feeling as if a ton of weight was lifted off his shoulders, discovering that his gut was actually filled with Helium, making it hard to stay grounded. BI wasn't as indifferent as he made it seem.

“We've gotta be quick though, it's going to end like last time.” BI stood up so fast it made Bobby doubt if he had ever been seated.

“I'm counting on it.” he smiled, grabbing his wrist and rushing out of the food hall.

“What?” BI said confused as he let him whisk him away.