A couple of weeks went by. You could say Jongin just about forgot the comments his father made regarding Sehun. Nothing had come of it so far. His friendship with Sehun continued and no one at home said a word.

He was more worried about Janggah, who he had gone a week without. That time had gone by slowly and now he had his dog again, but it still bothered him that it had come to that. It had been so dumb of him to blatantly break a rule like that, he said to himself. There was a voice within him, however, saying that it shouldn't have been so wrong - that if it was, his father shouldn't have taken it out on his dog.

There was also a reminder, a cruel voice never letting him forget that one day he'd be given away to a vampire, and just like his sister had to leave behind her Monggu, he would have to leave behind his Janggah.

He was thinking about that on the day he suddenly asked Sehun, "Do you have a dog?"

Jongin didn't start many conversations. Questions out of the blue were rare. Sehun always seemed pleased by them, although, Sehun had become rather good at leading entire one-sided conversations as well.

"No. Do you?" Sehun returned.

"Janggah," Jongin answered.

"What?"

"Her name."

"Small dog or big dog?"

Jongin gestured with his hands. It meant 'small.'

Sehun nodded, smiling. "Had her long?"

"Three years."

"That's cute," Sehun laughed lightly.

Jongin's perfect posture broke a bit as he relaxed. Maybe if the worst came up, Sehun would take care of Janggah. It wasn't the most comforting idea, but it was something.

The two of them had an eating contest today, so their food was all gone early. Jongin cleared off his desk and lowered his head, though he still looked at Sehun, and reached over to pat his knee.

Sehun was still adjusting to Jongin's touchy side, every bit to physical contact what Jongin was to sentences. The knee patting didn't look to bother him today though. Sehun just put a hand over Jongin's and patted back.

Jongin never wanted moments like these to end. There was such a contrast between school and home these days, it felt like flipping between dreams and nightmares. Jongin wondered, if he had been born to a different family, like Sehun's, if his wants could matter. If his wants mattered, he thought, maybe he would never have to leave this room.

But Kim Jongin's wants were meaningless. The bell rang as usual.

Sehun and Jongin met again after school, same as they always did, and walked out. Sehun wasn't particularly talkative, he'd just said a word or two about the girl he was interested at the moment - one that was different from just a couple of weeks ago.

They were trailing behind the bigger crowd as usual, but there were still plenty of students outside. A sea of their grey and blue uniforms - enough for someone not wearing one to stand out.

Sehun slowed down, noticably, so Jongin did too.

"Jaewoon?" Sehun questioned when they were closer to the scruffy looking man, who seemed like he hadn't washed in a few days.

Jaewoon looked right at Sehun and moved closer with a dangerous aura.

Jongin reached to grab Sehun's hand, feeling protective, but Sehun jerked it away and demanded, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"They took them," Jaewoon said, and stoped directly in front of Sehun. "They found out we have a friend that's friends with Kim Jongin. So they took Sangwan, Dongho, and Yongjin." His tone was stiff. He was trembling. "They took them because they think I can take him!" Jaewoon's voice was a growl and he only threw a look towards Jongin in order to emphasize 'him'.

A couple of students around looked in their direction or even moved closer to find out what was going on. Jongin watched them nervously.

"Calm down," Sehun instructed.

"You better make him come, Sehun." Jaewoon's tone was low and dangerous, a small bit more controlled than before. He pointed an angry finger. "You better make him come with me willingly, or someone is going to get hurt."

"Jongin?" Sehun frowned. "Look, don't tell me what I better do, okay?"

"This is your ing fault in the first place!" Jaewoon growled again and moved closer. He was an arm's reach away from Sehun, but reaching is as far as he got.

Jongin moved between them, knocking Jaewoon's arm away in the process. He held a hand against the strange, older man's chest and glared up at him without words, but the message should have been clear. ' off.'

Jaewoon didn't appear to be discouraged. Just pissed. He shoved at Jongin, but Jongin shoved back to a much more successful result. He angrily watched Jaewoon stumble backwards.

Then, to his surprise, Sehun grabbed him from behind and threw him out of the way. Jongin was so caught off guard that he barely managed to stay on his feet. He didn't hear what Sehun shouted, because he was overcoming a mild panic at the time. He had thought for a split second that he'd been set up - that Sehun's time of betrayal had come.

When he turned back, he was almost relieved to see Sehun attacking Jaewoon, although he was having very little luck. Jaewoon angrily held onto Sehun's wrists and pulled him several steps away.

A teacher would come out. They'd be in trouble. Jongin would be transferred, or home-schooled. Basic fears to anyone else were all Jongin could consider at the moment.

Fortunately, none of them would come true. Jaewoon must have been threatened by something Sehun did, or maybe he'd just started to come to some sort of senses about fighting a boy that much smaller than him right outside a school. He threw Sehun backwards and yelled. He shot a pained look at Jongin, shook his head, and hurried off.

With the danger further away, students gathered around to see what had happened, but Sehun brushed them off. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be staff around.

His, Sehun's, face was beet red as he collected himself from the ground.

Jongin went to him in a rush. He held out his arms, meaning to hug him, but Sehun pushed him away, saying, "Get off."

Jongin backed off and felt horribly concerned. After a moment, though, Sehun gave him a softened look.

"See you tomorrow," Sehun said through his teeth, and he started towards the gate again.

Jongin watched him and other students moving away. He felt a horrible, sinking feeling - and he couldn't just let him leave on a note like that. He ran to Sehun and lightly grabbed his arm.

"Please," he said, when Sehun looked back at him. It's all he said.

Sehun frowned at him, but he stopped walking.

The two of them eventually sat down on the sidewalk outside of their school's gate. A few other groups hung around, but none of them were close enough to be a bother. Jaewoon must have been a long walk off by now.

"You probably want to know who he was," Sehun suspected.

All Jongin wanted to know right now was that Sehun was okay, but he didn't say so.

"I said something about it already. I heard about you from my friends that I know are mixed up in vampires. He's one of them."

Jongin just listened.

"He did warn me, you know? He said I shouldn't get involved." Sehun shrugged. "I just didn't care. If you tell me not to do something, it's pretty much guaranteed I'll do it."

That wasn't hard for Jongin to believe.

"Honestly, if he came at me a little differently just now, I might have wanted to help him out." Sehun sounded bitter - as if he wished it had gone that way.

Jongin didn't feel threatened. He shifted a little closer to Sehun and put his chin on his shoulder. In a way, the honesty was comforting. On some level, also, he thought he wouldn't have minded if Sehun and his friend had taken him away. He almost wished it too.

"You probably don't know how lucky you are," Sehun muttered after a while. "Even people who don't know you want you."

Jongin didn't move. He just watched two birds land together on a telephone wire visible across the street, knowing now wasn't the time to accuse Sehun of being the lucky one.

The sun was nearly gone when Sehun got up and headed home. Jongin still didn't want to move. He sat outside of the gate and tried to count early stars, but he wasn't sure which of them were only lights. Probably most of them, he thought.

He wasn't particularly surprised when a black car parked in front of him and his mom came out of the passenger seat. She didn't say a word, but opened the back and pointed with a stern expression.

Jongin moved slow. He thought it would be easier to ask his muscles to lift a car than to ask them to take him into that one. Every second he took made an angrier looking mom, but Jongin couldn't be bothered to care.

The door shut behind him.

Jongin's dad drove several minutes before he spoke, in his calm, soft voice.

"Your friend impressed us today."

Jongin lifted his head, attentive, and his father explained a plot to him.

There was no reason for his father to tell him that it was their family who took Sehun's friends, wanting to test Sehun's loyalty to Jongin. No reason that Jongin could figure out, unless it was to make him feel controlled and trapped, helpless and hopeless.

Something felt significant about this night. Something in Jongin, however slight, changed.

One day, whatever it took, he wouldn't be controlled any more.