Lay shoved his phone in his pocket and pulled out the apartment keys from his other pocket. His hands clenched around the doorknob as he swung the front door open. He felt the cold metal crush under his grasp. He groaned in frustration. Without bothering to turn the light on, Lay slipped his shoes off and shut the door, with more force than he expected. Making his way to his room, Lay let out a thankful sigh that his roommates were both out for the night. Luhan had been gone for a few days now since he was back in China taking care of family situations. Jongin had briefly mentioned something about a dance competition in Busan.

          Lay stumbled into his room and flopped face down onto the bed. He wanted to sleep so badly, but his brain would not allow it. He attempted to process exactly what was going on with him, thinking of Soyoung and how confused she must be. Everything in him wanted to call her right now and explain what had happened. But that would be impossible. He himself did not know what happened.

          “Welcome to the family,” the young man stated cheekily.

        Lay glared up at him. With a look of pity, the man held out his hand, volunteering to help Lay up.

          For a reason unknown to him, Lay took his hand. An odd tingling sensation ran through his body. He looked at the young man and opened his mouth to question him.

          “Yeah, that's normal. It'll pass soon enough,” he responded airily before Lay could even ask.

“How-”

          “You're my fifth. Same thing happened to the four before you.”

          “What-”

          “I usually don't prey on visibly harmless humans, but it's been a while, you know?”

          Umm...no I dont? Lay thought.

          “Still confused?”, the young man asked with a raised eyebrow.

          “Slightly”, Lay replied with a hint of sarcasm, but if the young man noticed, he ignored it. Instead he held out his hand again obviously expecting Lay to take it in a handshake.

               Lay gingerly shook the strangers hand.

          “The name's Tao. There. We're not strangers anymore.”

          This Tao character was definitely playing mind games with Lay.

          “If that's what you want to think”, Tao countered out loud. He then smiled widely, revealing his exceptionally long set of canine teeth causing Lay to jerk back in shock.

          Tao erupted in laughter.

          “Ah, now you're catching on.”

          As if he had willed it, Tao's eyes took on a dark red gleam.

          “You're not..not..Korean,” Lay stammered out.

          “Neither are you. But that's not what we're getting at here,” Tao replied with a mischievous grin.

          Lay reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, ready to dial emergency services. Why hadn't he thought of it before? Surely the police would want to be informed of a mad man with strange eyes, going around biting people then staying until they are oriented only to play riddles with them.

          “That won't help you much, Yixing”. Tao had leaned against wall on the other side of the alley, totally unconcerned.

          Lay came to a halt hearing Tao use his real name. He hadn't used his real name ever since coming to Korea, and only did so for legal documents.

          “Wondering how I know it, hmm?”

          “Do I know you from somewhere?” Lay's brows knitted together as quickly scanned the dusty memories of his birthplace.

          “That would be a negative.” Tao took a breath, clearly becoming impatient with Lay.

          “Like I said before, Yixing, welcome to the family. You are the fifth. You are now one of us.”

          Tao grinned widely again, not because of anything particularly amusing that had occurred, but only to reinforce the facts to Lay of his new identity.

          Lay let out a long whine into his pillow. Once again, he was thankful that his roommates weren't here. He reached out his hand, feeling the desk beside his bed. Finally his hand landed on the flat, rectangular object that turned out to be his laptop. He pulled it onto his bed and opened it in front of him.

          With a determined visage, Lay opened a search engine. He drummed his fingers on his mattress. He didn't even know where to begin.

          Fangs.

          Red Eyes.

          Neck Bites.

          Several times he typed in these such key phrases.

          “Vampire? Are you serious?” Lay scoffed out loud to know one in particular. The only thing that came to mind when he thought of vampires were those silly movies and shows that Soyoung would make him watch.

           Honestly he thought they were garbage.

           He laughed again to himself, closed his computer down, and flopped into his pillow.

           There was no way that guy was a vampire.

           There's no way I'm a vampire.

           Soyoung tucked her chin into her jacket, the brisk fall air hitting her face. She adjusted her satchel and began to climb the stairs of the Communications building. A friendly arm threw itself over her shoulder. She grinned.

           “Good morning to you too, Chanyeol.”

           “How'd you know it was me?” His jovial voice boomed in her ear.

           “You do the same thing every morning, silly”, Soyoung retorted, lightly slapping his stomach with the back of her hand.

           Chanyeol let his arm fall off her shoulder as he crumpled over in mock pain. Soyoung scoffed and pushed the large doors open, leaving him outside.

           “Aren't you extra friendly today?” Chanyeol joked when he had caught up to her.

           Soyoung ignored his snide remark. She and Chanyeol weaved through the students who were also making their way to their respective classes.

           “Where's Baek?”

           “Glad to know my company is appreciated”, he commented drily. “But if you must know, he went to see another professor about some assignment or something of the sort.”

           “He might be late”, Soyoung stated with concern.

           “All the teachers love him, he'll survive,” Chanyeol shrugged. Soyoung nodded in agreement.

           Finally reaching their first lecture room of the day, Chan and Soyoung made their way to their seats. The room was still relatively empty. Not even the professor had arrived yet. It was Monday, so that definitely would affect attendance.

           Soyoung took advantage of the few free minutes she had before class and pulled her phone from the front pocket of her satchel, hoping to check on Lay. Besides his extremely brief text last night, she had not heard from him. She wondered if he would even be awake this early. It was 9:23, which wasn't particularly early, but being a musician who played in the evenings gave Lay the privilege of sleeping in longer.

           She decided to send the text anyway. If anything, he'd get it when he woke up.

           To: Lay Oppa

           From: Soyoung

How are you feeling?

           Soyoung began to put her phone away when it vibrated in her hand. Apparently Lay was awake.

           From: Lay Oppa

           To: Soyoung

Better than yesterday, although I couldn't really sleep. Shouldn't you be in class or are you slacking?

           Soyoung smiled at his humour.

           “Ooh, who are you talking to Im Soyoung?” A chipper voice sang out.  She looked up to see Baekhyun sidling up the aisle and taking the seat in front of Chanyeol, who was sitting across from her.

           Soyoung stuck her tongue out, “None of your business, Byun Baekhyun.”

           Chanyeol and Baekhyun made eye contact with each other at the same time. Both turned to her and raised one eyebrow interrogatively.

           Soyoung laughed, “You guys are stupid.” She returned her focus back to her phone and typed out a quick reply to Lay.

           To: Lay Oppa

           From: Soyoung

           Get some rest before you go to work! And eat something!

           Soyoung knew Lay had a tendency to forget about taking care of himself and instead concentrated on his work. Soyoung worried about this all the time, and It was to the point that he would about how she acted more like his mother than his girlfriend.

           “How was your weekend anyways? Did you spend it with lover-boy there?” Chanyeol voiced, interrupting her thoughts.

           Soyoung cringed, “Really Chanyeol? 'Lover-boy'? Who says that? Why do you have to be soo..”

           “Awesome?”

           “Actu-”

           “Fantastic?”

           “Not rea-”

           “The most astoundingly splendid person you've ever met?”

           Baekhyun laughed at their exchange while Soyoung glared at both of them. Chanyeol widened his smile into a toothy grin and she wondered how she ever became friends with these two. Most of the time she was glad she did because they made her university experience better than she thought it was going to be. Moving from the country to the city had been a big change for her. Meeting her friends made that transition so much smoother.

           And Lay.

           Especially Lay.

           Soyoung made a mental note to stop by the coffeeshop later with a smoothie and lunch box for him.

           Eventually their fellow classmates swarmed in, filling up the empty seats and the professor appeared. Soyoung slipped her phone back in her satchel and turned her attention to the front.