Jungkook finally walked out of the room when he started to feel more rested and found Yoongi sitting at the table in the kitchen drinking what smelled like alcohol. Whiskey, Jungkook guessed from the smell as he sat across the table from the other and they glanced awkwardly at each other for a moment of silence. Yoongi downed the rest of the liquid in his cup and slid over a bottle of water to Jungkook without a word.

“Thanks,” Jungkook said and took a sip of the water. He didn’t realize how thirsty he really was until he realized he had drunk more than half of the water in the bottle. Then again he hadn’t had water since he locked himself in his room after almost attacking Taehyung yesterday.

Another silence.

Jungkook looked around the kitchen trying to find something to talk about but didn’t find anything particularly interesting and cleared his throat. “So, uh, where is this place?”

“It’s my dad’s cabin in the most secluded part of the woods,” Yoongi replied to Jungkook’s relief. He had to keep the conversation going or it would end up being awkward again.

“Your dad? Where is he?”

“Dead, I’m assuming. He told me he’d be back but it’s been about a month now. Usually, he comes back within a week or two so it was strange to me. So I can only guess that he’s dead. He was a crazy man who liked to research vampires and rogue vampires and such so who knows? Maybe a slayer offed him or another vampire did. It’s not my concern.”

“A slayer? Is...uh, was your dad a vampire? I thought you were just human.” Jungkook stared at Yoongi across the table. Nothing about the male told him he was a vampire. He didn’t have the fangs and his blood actually sustained Jungkook. Vampire blood isn’t sustainable to other vampires so there would be no possible way that Yoongi was a vampire.

“Yeah, my dad was a vampire. I’m half. That’s why I said I was a living, breathing abomination, but I guess you didn’t pay attention to that part.”

“You are? But you don’t have the fangs.”

Yoongi tapped his finger subconsciously on the empty glass he was holding. “I actually took more to my human blood. That’s why I don’t have the fangs and that’s why my blood is different.”

Jungkook nodded slowly. “I see. That’s rare, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. I’ve never met another like me though my dad says he met one like me and when he went to find him again, he disappeared.”

“Oh, I see. Uh, so, your dad’s been gone for a month right? Why didn’t you come to the Slayer Headquarters?”

“Becoming a slayer was never what I wanted for myself. Plus my dad hated slayers. He hated your dad the most. Dead or not, my dad would never let me go there anyway. I don’t have any desire to go either.”

“Okay, but what if I told you that my dad is dead? Would you come?”

“He is?”

“Yeah, I—” Jungkook paused debating if he should continue his sentence. “I killed him.”

Yoongi frowned. “You killed your dad?”

“When I was a rogue vampire, yeah.”

There was an awkward, deathly silence between the two before Yoongi broke it. “Regardless if your dad is dead, and you slayers are accepting vampires to become slayers now, I would rather stay here. I don’t trust people anymore. The last time I did, I got my heart broken and was used for my blood,” said Yoongi. “I’m actually surprised you managed to stop yourself from drinking more of my blood. Usually, my blood is highly addictive to vampires, though, I think it may be because your body has never tasted blood before.”

“Right…” Jungkook finished the rest of his water when something clicked in his head. “Wait, I have a question. If I can only stomach your blood and if your blood is helping to keep my rogue vampire down and I leave you here, how am I going to feed?”

Yoongi made a face. “Are you implying that you want me to go with you? To headquarters? Around people?”

“I mean, you’ll have to. At least until the rogue vampire stops wanting to come back and I’ve switched over to regular blood. Please? I’ll protect you. We’ll just stick with each other at all times. You don’t even have to talk to anyone. You could even stay in my dorm room if you like. And it’s not like I can stay here. I have to run headquarters with my sister.”

Yoongi chewed on his bottom lip. “I don’t know… I kinda like it out here. I’m safe here.”

“I managed to get out here. And that cut there—” Jungkook pointed to Yoongi’s elbow. “—that’s what led me here. If that were to happen again, a vampire much worse than me could come along.”

Yoongi groaned knowing Jungkook was right. “Fine. I’ll come. I’ll go pack some clothes. But just so we’re clear, I’m only coming to help until your rogue vampire is completely gone so don’t go falling for me or anything.”

Jungkook snorted. “Not a chance.”

Yoongi stood from his chair and looked at Jungkook. “Another thing, I’m coming to help you in every aspect of this. I know how vampires get and you won’t be any different so don’t be getting shy or anything. Alright?”

Jungkook rose an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Yoongi didn’t respond to the question and walked away to go to his room to pack. Jungkook frowned. “What does he mean by that?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Taehyung groaned as he sat himself down on the ground. He gulped down the rest of his water and then laid on the grass. “Ugh, I’m done.”

“Oh, come on. Just one more round.” Jimin grinned as he looked down at Taehyung. “I’m on a winning streak~”

“No, I’m done. I already owe you so many more kisses, you might as well say I owe you a round or two of .”

Jimin laughed and helped Taehyung up to his feet. “They’re just kisses. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Says the one who got upset for yesterday. I only owed you a kiss and you got mad at me for ‘leaving you hanging.’”

Jimin shrugged. “Because you did leave me hanging.”

Jiwoo came jogging up to them, waving her arm. “Hey, guys, dinner time. Hoseok oppa, Bambam, and Yugyeom just came back with the food.”

Jimin and Taehyung followed Jiwoo to the usual dinner table that they sit at with the others just outside of the mess hall. Around the table sat Jackson with an empty spot next to him for Jiwoo, Yugyeom and Bambam next to them and Hoseok at the end. Jimin sat next to Taehyung in their usual spots across from Hoseok. Taehyung looked at the empty seat next to him where Jungkook usually sat and sighed softly.

‘He’s not back yet. Where is he,’ Taehyung wondered and looked up as Hoseok set a plate in front of him with a big lump of rice, a pile of kimchi next to a large kalbi piece and a few mandu on it.

“I saved you the best plate,” Hoseok whispered and winked playfully.

Taehyung beamed. “Thanks, hyung~!”

Hoseok smiled and ruffled Taehyung’s hair before taking his seat.

“Let’s all dig in,” he said with a grin.

Everyone began to eat, save for the vampires who all drank the blood they got.

In the middle of eating, Hoseok looked up and frowned seeing Jungkook walking toward them with someone he didn’t know. He couldn’t help but stare at this stranger. His dark hair fell perfectly around his piercing, yet soft eyes. He noticed how the other male slowed in his steps and looked at Jungkook nervously. He seemed to be whining about something by the way he spoke with a pout and how he tugged on Jungkook’s shirt sleeve.

Hoseok couldn’t help but feel a strange pang of jealousy in his chest seeing this and didn’t know why he felt the way he did. He was quickly snapped out of his trance of this stranger when Yugyeom yelled out for Jungkook. Everyone looked to where Yugyeom pointed as Jungkook dragged Yoongi over who seemed reluctant to meet everyone.

“Hey,” said Jungkook.

“Where did you go?” Jiwoo asked as she appeared at Jungkook’s side in the blink of an eye. “How come you weren’t training with Taehyung and Jimin today? Why weren’t you in your room when I went to check? Why did you leave your phone—” Her questions stopped when her eyes landed on Yoongi. He quickly looked away from her and looked down to his feet. “Who’s this?”

“This is Yoongi. He’s here to train.”

Yoongi’s head snapped up as he looked at Jungkook with wide eyes. “I...uh, yeah. I want to become a slayer. I’m human.”

Hoseok noticed a hesitation in Yoongi’s voice as he spoke. It was obvious he was lying but Jiwoo didn’t seem to notice. Hoseok quietly shoved a ball of rice into his mouth to keep from saying something.

“Oh? And why do you want to become a slayer?”

Yoongi rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “My… mom was killed by vampires,” he lied. “And my dad...well, I don’t know what happened to him. He disappeared a month ago.”

‘Just tell a half-truth and they won’t realize,’ Yoongi thought to himself. His eyes looked around the table slowly as he examined the others. When he made eye contact with Hoseok, for some reason, he felt a wave of calm wash over him. There was a feeling about Hoseok that made him feel serene and at peace, almost like how he felt when he was at home.

“Right,” Jungkook said. He looked at Yoongi curiously wondering why he had lied but brushed it off quickly. “Anyway, he’s going to be in my room until we set up another room for him, okay?” He grabbed Yoongi’s arm and started to pull him away.

Yoongi glanced back at everyone one last time seeing a mix of expressions from them before following Jungkook along.

Jiwoo frowned. “What was that about?”

Jimin rolled his eyes and said nothing as he drank the rest of the blood from his carton. Taehyung noticed the tense and hostile aura exuding off of Jimin and pursed his lips together tightly.

“So what do we think of him?” Jiwoo asked as she sat back in her seat.

There was a string of overlapping replies. Jimin stayed quiet tapping his finger against the empty carton in his hand. Taehyung smiled trying to change the tense atmosphere. “I don’t think we can properly judge him on such a short conversation like that, so to me, he’s not that bad. Let’s give him a chance first.”

Jimin rolled his eyes and looked away.

“What about you, Hoseok oppa?” Jiwoo asked as he was the only person who hadn’t said anything yet.

“He’s cute,” said Hoseok without thinking. His eyes widened when he realized what he had said and cleared his throat. He looked away from the judging stares of everyone and cursed under his breath.

“I don’t think your sister and your friends like me very much,” Yoongi said as Jungkook opened the door into his dorm.

“Don’t worry. They’ll lighten up.” Jungkook the lights and shut the door behind Yoongi. “So, uh, make yourself at home.”

Yoongi blinked looking around the room. There was a medium sized wardrobe against one of the walls next to a door that Yoongi guessed was a closet and a black couch against the same wall, a small table next to the couch with a lamp on it, a desk with a computer system in the back corner of the room and a load of exercise equipment spread throughout the room. The walls were mostly bare white save for the two windows on the back wall and a huge mirror above the couch.

“There’s a problem,” Yoongi said as Jungkook opened the door into the bathroom.

“What?” Jungkook asked as he went into the bathroom for a moment.

“You don’t have a bed.”

Jungkook walked back out of the bathroom as he pulled his shirt off. “Oh, right, I took those out when Yugyeom went to dorm with Bambam. And since I don’t sleep, I don’t exactly need one.” He put his shirt over his shoulder and walked to the couch and pulled off the cushions and folded out the bed from inside. “There.”

Yoongi grimaced. “You vampires are such barbarians.” He dropped his bag next to the couch and flopped down on the bed. “I’m suddenly regretting leaving home.”

Jungkook chuckled and pulled open his closet door, putting on a clean shirt. “Then hopefully you won’t be here long. You can go back to your secluded life.”

Jungkook pulled pillows and a comforter from the closet and tossed them to Yoongi who set them on the bed and slid under the blanket silently.

“And that’s just the way I like it.” Yoongi threw his arm over his eyes as he lay comfortably on the pillow. “I have a question.”

“What’s that?” Jungkook asked as he picked up his phone to check it. He erased the notifications and opened it up to check on a gaming forum to see what was new.

“I thought slayers didn’t use technology. Why do you guys have phones and computers now?”

“Oh, not long before my dad died, we had only adopted in the computers, but we had only used them for profiling the vampires we were hunting and printing out files for them. After he died, my sister and I decided it would be easier for us to communicate with each other if we adopted phones into headquarters,” Jungkook explained. “It’s really convenient especially when we go on missions and get split up or have to split up. And we had recently installed wifi routers so we can explore the internet and play games and stuff.”

“Is that what you do on your computer there? Play games?”

Jungkook nodded. “Yeah. I got really into video games since I can’t sleep anymore. It’s a lot of fun and keeps me occupied throughout the night.”

“Right…I have another condition and you’re definitely going to hate it.”

“What’s that?”

“While I sleep, you’re going to have to be quiet. I like to sleep the most in the world and believe me, you don’t want to be waking me up in the middle of the night without good reason,” said Yoongi.

“So, no exercising?”

“No.”

“No video games?”

“No.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

Jungkook pouted. “So what am I supposed to do all night?”

“I don’t know, read a book, lay down next to me and relax or watch me sleep. I don’t care. Just don’t disturb me unless it’s urgent.”

“What is urgent in your definition?”

“Like if the building is on fire or… I don’t know, when your vampire urges and desires need tending to.”

“What’s that mean?”

Yoongi stared at Jungkook dumbfounded. There was no way that he didn’t know what it meant. He couldn’t be that innocent, could he? “You’ll know what I mean when it happens.”

Jungkook groaned and sat on the foot of the bed. “Fine…” He glanced over the time on his phone. “How do you like being woken up early?”

“I hate it.”

“Well, you’ll have to get used to it. If we want to keep up the ruse to everyone about your training to be a slayer, you have to train with me. That means waking up early.”

Yoongi rolled his eyes. “Couldn’t you just tell everyone that I’m your new lover or play toy or whatever?”

“What? No way. That’s too much. We just met.”

Yoongi snorted. “They would’ve believed it anyway. Vampires have needs, you know.”

“I know… But s-still.”

“Whatever…”

“I meant to ask,” said Jungkook to change the subject of their conversation. He looked back at Yoongi as the other sat up on the bed. “You said your dad did research. What kind? I know you said he researched vampires and rogue vampires, but is there anything else?”

“Yeah, rituals and other stuff like that. Once he researched werewolves but Seoul isn’t a good place to study werewolves since there aren’t many around. So, he mostly researched rituals and rogue vampires. He got himself in a lot of trouble for the stuff he researched.”

“Rituals? Like the one the rogue vampires were involved with not long ago?”

“You know about it?”

“Of course I do. I...was the one who completed the ritual…by almost killing my sister...”

Yoongi chuckled. “Wow, you had quite the adventure as a rogue vampire, huh?”

“It’s nothing I’m proud of, okay?” Jungkook sighed. “Anyway, that ritual, did you happen to read in your dad’s research about what it was for?”

Yoongi nodded. “Yeah, he was gone so long I had loads of time to snoop on his research. It was for power. Obviously, there was a side effect to it if you’re all of a sudden a regular vampire now after completing the ritual.”

“Yeah, we all turned back to normal after being stabbed by slayer weapons.”

“That’s not too surprising. Rogue vampires are more susceptible to vampire weaknesses.” Yoongi sat back against the couch and hummed softly in thought.

“But why didn’t we just burst into ash like the rogue vampire we kill?”

“Not sure. My dad’s research ended when he died. There’s really nothing more I can tell you.”

Jungkook sighed. “Damn.”

“There is something weird about that ritual though. It’s old. Old as in made back when people thought you killed vampires with a wooden stake to the heart.”

“Okay, and why is that weird?”

“Well, rogue vampires are more recent, right? That’s what my dad’s research told me, at least.”

“Right, yeah, rogue vampires are more recent.”

“Okay, and the ritual is old, and according to his research, that ritual is the reason why vampires now have powers.”

Jungkook frowned. “So, you’re saying that that ritual was used before? By normal vampires?”

Yoongi nodded. “It didn’t specify if you had to be a rogue vampire or a normal vampire to do the ritual. Hell, for all I know, it could be used by a human. All you need for the ritual to work is human and vampire sacrifices.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened. “What? Really? Oh my god. I need to tell Jaebum hyung when he comes back. That ritual is worse than we thought.”

“Jaebum? As in, Lim Jaebum?”

“Yeah, you know him?”

Yoongi stiffened and clenched his jaw. “Yeah, I know him.”

“Okay, then. Great. We can tell him, Youngjae hyung and Jinyoung hyung about the ritual together when they come back.”

Yoongi nodded slightly and crossed his arms across his chest. “Sure. Let’s do that.”

Jungkook didn’t notice the hostility in Yoongi’s voice making the other glad he didn’t. He wasn’t in the mood to answer more questions especially if he had to answer questions about Jaebum. He wasn’t sure if he could answer them without sounding like an about it anyway. Jungkook seemed to have trust in Jaebum and Yoongi didn’t want to ruin it.