Shine Bright Like A Diamond

Chapter Three:

“Congratulations King Yang, on raising such a fine prince” Another up greeted the king, raising his wine glass in greeting, and barely darting their eyes to the young prince. Ji Yong politely bowed his head in acknowledgement as his father once again thanked the person for such a high praise, and moved on to someone else. Ji Yong turned his head a bit, tugging on the long sleeve of his turtle neck shirt. He was wearing a light blue and pink robe that his mother had specially made for him, and it wrapped around him, reaching past his knees and barely showing that he was wearing black jeans and black boots.

“You know you don’t have to follow me around all night,” King Yang slightly chuckled as he turned his head towards Ji Yong, tucking his hands into his own royal deep blue robes. Tonight’s celebration was all about Ji Yong’s birthday and King Yang just wanted to make sure that his eldest and first son enjoyed it to the fullest. He was starting to fear that Ji Yong was not enjoying himself as much as he should, and it worried him that perhaps he was growing just a tad too fast.  

“It feels as if I do,” Ji Yong sheepishly smiled up at his father while King Yang shook his head.

“Is it that, or are you avoiding having to talk to Prince Seven” King Yang asked as he kept walking, every now and then smiling to someone that greeted and bowed to him and Ji Yong. He could nearly laugh when Ji Yong scoffed at the suggestion of such a thing. Another thing that worried him about his son, it seemed that Ji Yong had yet to meet someone he would consider worthy of being his mate.

“Prince Seven is the least of my concerns, believe me.”

“I don’t know, he seems pretty persistent in getting to be mated with you” King Yang said, “Haven’t you considered the possibilities if you accept? He isn’t a bad guy you know”

“I know, and no” Ji Yong straight up answered, “And I never will.”

“Never say never my son,” King Yang said as he paused once again and turned to look at Ji Yong with a soft warm smile. Ji Yong paused and looked up at his father again, a pout puffing his cheeks.

“I never want to get mated,” the young prince huffed.

King Yang chuckled and walked towards Ji Yong, gently placing both his hands on each of Ji Yong’s shoulders as he leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Son, when you meet the one, you will not say never. But for now and go enjoy your birthday party,” The man patted Ji Yong’s cheek softly, and pushed him towards the crowd. Ji Yong slightly glared at his father as he wiped his cheek and headed into the sea of people.

His eyes darted around searching for his brothers, and he sighed in relief when he saw that Seungri was with his mother, and Daesung was with his own. Young Bae on the other hand was well trapped by Prince Tablo and Prince Seven, as both of them seemed to be interrogating him about something. Even here, standing in the massive sea of people that all were here to wish him a happy birthday, and his family not so far away, Ji Yong felt like he stood alone. He felt so lonely, that he couldn’t stand it so he decided to leave.

No one noticed when Ji Yong slipped out of the castle and rushed off.

It was one in the morning, and the streets were all dark and vastly empty. No one came out during the night anymore anyways. Not even vampires stayed out past midnight. Night clubs ended at midnight as well, and thus it was almost like a curfew kind of thing. Under the rule of the king, Ji Yong would have to say that it was. Although tonight’s excuse for such empty streets would probably have to be his own birthday celebration-one that he could not seem to enjoy.

Besides, going out at night sometimes became tedious. He wasn’t going to lie though, there were fancy brothels that were still open, but they were like hotels where you could rent a room with a woman or several women who would service you during your stay in any way that you wished. There were also males for those who claimed were not into men, but would come and get their fix in the need to be with a male for one night, because in the morning they had to be normal for their wives and kids.

Ji Yong had never gone to one, and never felt the need to go to one. In fact, the thought of being with someone rarely entered his mind, if not at all. He was pretty much happy being with himself. He didn’t care if he ended up alone anyways. 

All he could think about right now was going to set that slave free. It was all he could think about and anticipate as the day had ended. It was as if from the moment that he had laid his eyes on that slave, he couldn’t shake him out of his head. The thought didn’t bother him as much as it seemed to keep away the drowning thoughts that usually filled him with so much sadness. He wanted to bury the feeling away any way possible, and if he could use this as a distraction, then he was going to grasp it with both hands and not let go.

When he had returned home earlier he had felt an unfound anger that had made the other three stay away from him. That anger was for real, lighting a fire in the pit of his stomach and he found that he liked it. It empowered him!

He was sure that his siblings were still unaware of his departure-but probably hopping that he had not gone.  Ji Yong knew they were worried, but he didn’t care right now.  

Using his full speed, Ji Yong rushed through the streets until he reached the building in question. Looking around, he discretely snuck around the building looking at all the doors, although he was disappointed to not find any window opening, he did find a backdoor. A mischievous smile appeared on his lips as he pulled on his gloves, then reached his hand down to the door knob, and easily twisted, braking the bolts that held it until it just fell off.

Dusting his hands off at how simple that had been, he slowly pulled the door open and sighed in relief when it didn’t make any strange noises. He was also glad that there were no weird wired alarms, at least he hoped, but his ears had yet to pick up on one.

In fact, as he looked inside, it all felt so drafty and muted.

The darkness surrounded the entire building, but it was no problem for Ji Yong, because he could see clearly in the dark. As he walked inside, he wondered where he was, seeing as there was only equipment there for cages, and other things, and headed to the next door he found. Inside the next room, a little smaller than the other one there was sound proof foam on every wall, and what seemed to be an old, unused recording sound studio from the past- When humans freely ruled everything and were not under the monarchy of the Dark Castle. There even seem to be scrapped cages.

When he spotted another door, he went through it and gasped when he found the room of the deformed human slaves. They were all sleeping, and seemed comfortable. Ji Yong wondered if there truly was nothing that could be done to help them.

Why did humans have to suffer so much like this?

It wasn’t like he didn’t understand the basis of the human biology, starting all with a little thing called DNA. It was more something that he had never experience and would never experience, because from the beginning, Ji Yong had been born a vampire.

The whole vampire bite turning you into a vampire was a myth- or if you rather, pure human fantasy of wishing to be something more than they were. If Ji Yong bit someone, and injected his own special serum that was stored within his fangs and released to the human blood stream, it would turn the person into a sort of mindless zombie state. The person then would have a mind made a mush, and set at one only mission and that was to tare their teeth through warm flesh and destroy everything living and warm in their path.

It was like asking for a cannibalistic massacre fit for zombies, except that they died after a few hours.

So sure, Vampires rarely had to deal with deformities that had to deal with their physical appearance, but there were also things that they could never fix either. One of their biggest problems was the inability for their bodies to make new blood for themselves, and thus had to take it from humans. Becoming a vampire, or being a vampire didn’t always mean beauty. That was something that was always in the eye of the beholder-it was up to you to decide what was beauty, or handsome, or whatever- because being a vampire wasn’t that fun.

As he glanced around though, he couldn’t find the cage that he was looking for. He turned corners and peaked here and there, but he couldn’t find trace of him. Frowning a little, he started thinking until he rushed to the other side of the room, and his eyebrows shot up a bit when he found the black curtain. The sparkle that shone across his eyes was breathtaking, but no one was there to see the zeal that Ji Yong was currently feeling as he walked closer.  

He looked around himself, making sure that no one was there with him before he ducked down into the curtain and nodded his head when he found the cage that he had been looking for. His eyes briefly sparkled even brighter as he set his eyes on the slave.

“Damn” He muttered as he reached for the locks, and started to undo them, “I should have asked someone for help, now I’ll have to carry him back myself,” Ji Yong grimaced as he looked at the poor slave. He really didn’t look that touchable, nor did he smell that pleasant. Funnily enough though, he still wanted him, more than when he had first seen him. Swallowing hard, he opened the cage and took a step into it but stopped when he heard the curtain ruffle. Ji Yong turned around, and bared his fangs as he spotted his intruder.

“I’m shocked at you!”

“Young Bae,” Ji Yong glared at the mohawked man. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you!” Young Bae snapped as he moved to the cage opening, “I was hoping that you would have changed your mind, and kept tabs on you. When I figured you had run out, at your own birthday celebration no less! I knew I would find you here. I can’t believe you managed to brake in so easily!” He was seriously starting to believe that thievery was either in Ji Yong’s genes or he had practiced how to do it.

“Shut up and make yourself useful by helping me.” Ji Yong hissed, moving around and unknowingly scattering the salt that was around the slave to the side.

Young Bae frowned and shook his head, walking around and also helping to scatter the salt. “I’m here to stop you Ji Yong, there is no way that I’m going to let you steal this slave!” While Young Bae was making his speech Ji Yong had undone the golden collar from around the slaves neck, and much too both their surprise the body fell stiffly down onto the metallic floor of the cage.

Ji Yong felt his heart ache at the sound of the body crashing onto the floor. He swiftly dropped down to his hunches and touched the cold skin, “Young Bae, I think he’s dead,” he said, his voice shaking with palpable sadness. Young Bae had never heard Ji Yong sound so devastated, that he found himself surprised and worried.

“What?” Young Bae walked onto the cage and moved in close. He dropped to his knees, pressing his hands onto the top of the slaves head. The hair, everything about him, was cold. “Turn him around,”

Ji Yong nodded his head, first using his sharp nails to rip the rope around the slaves arms, then he flipped the slave over as Young Bae looked him over. He was about to press his fingers into the slave’s neck when he gasped at the sight of his face. “Ji Yong, his…his” he said in a shaky tone.

“I know that’s why I want him out of here. Now is he alive or dead?” he desperately asked, his eyes pleading. Young Bae swallowed hard, and pressed his fingers to the slaves neck. For a moment he feared having to give Ji Yong the bad news that he was dead when he felt a faint pulse against his fingers. He wouldn’t be able to explain it, but he had never felt so freaking happy and relieved to feel a heart pulse.

It was there, but slipping and he didn’t know how long they had before the slave died.

“He’s alive, barely,” he said, for a moment feeling glad as a brief smile spread his lips replaced by worry, “But not for long, you’re right we have to help him. Come on,” he stood up, his back to Ji Yong and signaling to help him place the slave on his back. Ji Yong moved quickly to do so. Using the rope from before, Ji Yong secured the slaves limp body around Young Bae and soon both of them were running out of the shop with the slave in tow.

When they reached the Dark palace, the slave had been quickly taken to the dungeon, or in other words what would be their own play room and had been dubbed the dungeon when young. Daesung and Seungri were there, and surprised both, Ji Yong and Young Bae, with their presence. “What are you guys doing here?” Ji Yong hissed as he removed the books and magazines in the centre large coffee table that was kept there.

“Waiting for you both,” Daesung said, smiling.

“And we were curious about the slave,” Seungri added, with a serious look to his face. “We somehow knew you were going to bring him here, if you wanted to keep him hidden from father and your party guests”

“Right,” Young Bae said, with a sigh as Ji Yong moved to undo the ropes around the slave so Young Bae could place him down.

Ji Yong looked at the slave now on the table and moved in close to the slave.

First thing was first, getting his eyes unSewn. Gently, he pressed his hand on the center of the slave’s chest, being careful as his eyes calculated every last vein and bony joint. He was barely even aware that Young Bae, Seungri, and Daesung were now watching him. Instead he focused on the body before him, wondering if his pain receptors worked.

Forcing his nails to grow, the sharp like claws in his hands were what he needed so he could undo every last string that shut the eyes of this slave. He started with the left eye, gently muttering to himself as he concentrated on removing every last stitch. The strings slowly became undone, and he made sure to remove every last stitch, cleanly.

When he was done with both eyes, his fingers then moved to the lips. He heard the others hiss as they imagine how painful it was going to be to get his lips undone. Ji Yong was particular about it, running his sharp nail in the line between the pale lips, trying to undo the glue as gently as possible. The slave under him scrunched up his face, but he could barely move.

Well, he could feel pain.

“I’m scared,” Seungri whisper, his heart pounding fast as he watched the slave move a bit but then lay perfectly still.

“I’m kind of scared as well,” Daesung admitted. Looking at each other, both of them moved close to Young Bae and each held on to an arm.

“Relax,” Young Bae said in a relaxing tone, “Ji Yong knows what he doing.” The other two nodded at that. It felt like it was the longest thing that they had watched, but finally Ji Yong had managed to get the slaves mouth open, with tare and blood. Blood that now pleasantly coated the bowed lips. Tilting his head a bit and allowing curiosity to take over Ji Yong opened the mouth to look at the teeth and nodded-human.

He leaned in and sniffed his breath.

“Ji Yong, what are you doing?” Young Bae asked, exasperated by Ji Yong’s actions.

“Checking his dental health, duh,” Ji Yong said.

“And?” Seungri asked, at the edge of his feet.

“And it smells like a new born baby’s mouth,” Ji Yong scrunched up his nose as he pondered, “Is that even normal?”

“Might explain that he has never eaten anything seeing as he is thin and close to death…but then it is also weird since his mouth was Sewn shut, shouldn’t it stink up?” Daesung asked. “Especially with the last meal that he ate…”

“That’s what I would have thought as well,”

Seungri moved in close, and sniffed the slave’s mouth. “It really smells clean, heady, and sweet,” he said, his eyes going slightly wide with awe. “Just like a new born,”

“Can’t say that for the rest of him though,” Young Bae said as he shook his head at how weird Ji Yong, and Seungri were. It was no mystery that small babies taken in were usually checked for their dental health to determine their age, but he didn’t think that they would use it on the slave.

“Yeah, well maybe we should feed him.” Seungri said, “Start getting him used to things again.”

“Let’s start with a bit of water,” Young Bae decided, “It’s better not to shock his body by suddenly giving him food.”

“I’ll go get the water,” Daesung called, as he ran out of the living room and towards the kitchen. He feared that someone would notice that they were missing so he decided to go check and see how the celebration was progressing.

“We should get him bathed as well,” Ji Yong suggested as he started to look at the tattered clothes on the slave.

“Who’s going to give him clothes?” Seungri asked.

Both of them snapped their heads up towards Young Bae whose eyes widened and he backed up, “Hey, don’t look at me, I have no spare clothes.” He hissed.

“My clothes are all brand named and expensive!” Ji Yong reasoned.

“And since I do my shopping with Ji Yong, I have very expensive clothes to!” Seungri stated.

Young Bae grimaced at both of them, and was glad when Daesung returned with a glass of water. Ji Yong was quick to take it, and Daesung helped by moving in to hold the head of the comatose human. At first the water fell from the side of the guy’s lips, and Young Bae decided to help by massaging his throat. It was a struggle, but they got him to swallow some water-and Ji Yong made sure he got plenty because soon after the guy was coughing, and wheezing. He even managed to sit up on his own as he bent over, his hand coming up to his lips.

This caused Seungri to jump back, and move as far away as he could.

“He’s awake,” Daesung said with disbelief.

“What now?” Seungri asked.

“Well, I don’t know,” Young Bae answered when everyone turned to look at him. Why did they expect him to have the answer? “We can take him to the medical ward; maybe Chaerin can do something for him.”

“No.” Ji Yong hissed, bearing his fangs.

“What?”

“Not Chaerin,” Ji Yong sighed, “She’ll tell on us, let’s go to Gummy-noona.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s get him to her,”

“,” Seungri hissed as the slave toppled off of the table. Seungri jumped on Young Bae, holding him tight.

“Let’s carry him upstairs,” Ji Yong said, moving to grab the slave, and tugged him into his arms. Balefully he noted that the slave had lost consciousness again. Young Bae moved to help Ji Yong. Seungri and Daesung made sure that no one walked out of the large living room and saw them. When they reached the medical ward, they were glad to find that Gummy was there as usual.

“Oh my, what happened?” she asked, looking worried as she made sure that the slave was placed on the bed carefully.

“We don’t know, we found him passed out in the streets!” Ji Yong was quick to lie, making his brothers look at him in utter disbelief, even more so when Gummy completely bought his story. “Can you tell what is wrong with him?”

Gummy looked him over, pressing her fingers over the cold skin, before she quickly started to tend to the slave. She cleaned parts of his skin using alcohol wipes, and set an IV on his arm. She the monitor and connected the machine to him so it could keep track of his heart beats and bit her lip at how low it was, but at least still stable. She then used a needle to pull blood off of him, “I’ll have to test his blood to find out for sure, but for tonight this is as much as I can do without risking his life,” she sadly said. “You should all go back to the celebration before the king notices that you are missing”

“Yes, thank you.” Young Bae said, “And could you please not tell the others about him. We don’t want anyone getting curious or panicking,”

“Sure,” Gummy smiled.

Daesung and Seungri moved to leave. Young Bae moved to follow behind them. Ji Yong nodded his head, and pulled a chair to sit next to the slave.

“G-dragon-ssi?” Gummy blinked in confusion.

“What are you doing Ji Yong?” Young Bae asked, once more thrown by Ji Yong’s actions.

“I’m going to spend the night here.” He said, his eyes trained on the slave.

“Look, I know you are worried, but he will be just fine. He’s going to be under Gummy noona’s care.”

“I don’t care,” Ji Yong hissed, and didn’t budge.

Gummy saw the conflict between them and sighed. “It’s alright, G-dragon can stay. I’ll keep an eye on him as well,” she offered, smiling, “You three go on now.”

They all hesitated, before nodding and biding both her and Ji Yong a goodnight.

 “This is new of you,” Gummy said once they were alone.

“What is?” Ji Yong asked, perplexed by what she had just said.

“For you to want to stay close to someone,” she grinned, “I think it’s rather sweet of you,”

Ji Yong felt himself blush. “I’m just worried,” he said, “And I know I won’t be able to enjoy the celebration, if I’m this worried, so it’s only logical”

Gummy nodded her head, before she started to leave, “I’ll go get these test done. I’ll be right back, but if you need me for anything don’t hesitate to come,” she walked out of the room and Ji Yong remained seated.

His hands clenched and unclenched as he watched the sleeping slave. He was sure that by now everyone thought that he was crazy, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Something inside just told him that this slave was more important than that. He couldn’t leave him alone. Before long, Ji Yong snoozed off in his chair, hearing the sound of the heart beat monitor beep every now and then at the slow heart rate. For now, that was comforting.

Meanwhile, as Young Bae, Daesung, and Seungri made their way back to the celebration they watched as people all pull each other into the dance floor and they started dancing. The music was suddenly blasted to a loud octive, and it slightly hurt their ears, so they had to mute their hearing. Happy couples bounced by them and would look at them with large grins and something else in their eyes.

“Why are they creeping me out?” Seungri asked, as he pressed himself to Young Bae’s side, and nestled into him.

“Hey kids.” Dong Wook appeared suddenly behind them, his hair slightly ruffled and that amazing tanned skin of his looking slightly slick and sweaty. The man’s vest was slightly open showing those hard tone muscles of his. “Where’s G-dragon? I really want to give him something to remember this night.” He drawled in a seductive tone, smirking widely.

“He’s feeling I’ll,” Young Bae said. “He went to bed,”

Dong Wook eyes widened and he looked around, “Well maybe I should go upstairs and make sure that he is alright,” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Take him a glass full of blood,”

“No!” Seungri hissed, “Stay away from my brother, especially when he ill. All he wants today is for people to enjoy his birthday and you will only upset him even more if you go and bother him!” Seungri held his glare and Dong Wook sighed as he heard the younger’s words.

“Fine, I’ll leave him alone. But tomorrow, be sure that I will be taking him out and hanging out with him all day,” Dong Wook gave them a sharp look, “G-dragon will be my mate and he’s gonna see what he’s been missing and pushing away and regret it. He’s going to fall in love with me” with that he walked back into the crowd, where he was pulled in by some girls and asked to dance.

“Why is Prince Seven so persistent?” Daesung asked, feeling worried even more about Ji Yong.

“Well, when he wants something he goes for it. He’s used to getting what he wants and Ji Yong just challenged him that he can’t” Young Bae answered him.

“Well, if worse comes to worse, I will propose to Ji Yong- Hyung and he will be married to me!” Seungri said with large conviction.

“Don’t be silly Ri,” Young Bae chuckled as he leaned down to the shorter boy, “You and Ji are family, Dong Wook would just want both of you, now come, dance with me” he offered his hand and Seungri blushed as he took it, with a large grin on his face. Daesung smiled as he watched them head towards the sea of swaying bodies.

He knew that Young Bae and Seungri both had a crush on each other, and both would flirt together and even make moves on the other, but they were far from dating. The king also had yet to approve it, but he was sure that their father would want them to be happy. Speaking of his father, Daesung searched for him, narrowing his eyes as his vision worked to help him spot him, but as soon as he did he regretted it.

His father was with all three of his wives having a weird make out sessions, and that was something he had not wanted to see. Making a face, he headed off to the side to get a drink, and hopefully find someone to dance with.

Even so, all of the brothers kept in mind that Ji Yong was in the medical ward, and very much with stolen goods that they could all get punished with.

And it terrified them a bit.