For nearly a year, Sehun and Jongin spent every single lunch period together, except for a few times that Sehun skipped school, or that Jongin was absent for more mysterious reasons. They spent after school together every day too, just for a few minutes, until they got beyond that gate.

Sehun didn't see Jaewoon or any of those guys again, no matter how often he went to their apartment. He would have thought they were avoiding him like the plague, but he heard from some neighbors that they'd disappeared altogether.

They were dead. It didn't take a genius. They were killed by whoever had wanted Kim Jongin, which Sehun still knew frustratingly little about.

Not that Jongin had stayed completely shut up.

"My sister left," Jongin said one day, during a very depressing lunch.

"She ran away?"

"No. My parents gave her away."

"Oh." Sehun didn't know what it meant, and questions were hard for Jongin to answer. He hugged Jongin that day, until it got too hot to be against each other any more, which actually didn't take long.

Jongin never talked about either of his sisters again, but a few days after he had come in with a bruise on his cheek. When Sehun asked what it was from, Jongin answered with surprising honesty. "A vampire."

After that day, Sehun had been motivated to find out more on his own. Eventually, he had come up with a few things about the Kim family. He knew they were rich, that they were charitable. He even knew where Jongin lived, but he didn't dare to visit.

He knew if he stuck to Jongin long enough, he might be looked at as half as important. He might even catch the attention of a vampire. Which he wanted. At least, he was pretty sure he wanted it. He used to be a lot more certain.

Now he thought maybe wanting to be a vampire had been childish to begin with, no different than the kids who say they're going to become astronauts or superman.

No. It probably had a lot to do with how very mortal Sehun felt.

It was April. Oh Sehun was going to turn 17 at midnight. He laid in the dark of his room, holding a thin, bent hospital bracelet up where he could read his older brother's name on it in the light from his window.

He had been 17 too.

Sehun glanced to his digital clock. 11:54PM.

A bit later, it was 11:55PM.

Then Sehun was asleep, an old hospital bracelet lost to the floor, left behind for dreams of a woman with thick thighs in tight black pants.

After about year with Jongin, Sehun and him had started spending some time apart. Sehun had made other friends. He'd become something like a popular kid again. He had interesting stories to tell about the cool, quiet, Jongin and he knew a whole lot about every girl that any other student could be interested in.

Sehun still dropped in on Jongin's lunch sometimes - every once in a while with a few other guys, which Jongin didn't care for, especially when they wanted to try Jongin's food.

But Sehun spent the most time with Jongin on their way to the gate, which became a longer trip every day. They touched each other freely now - Sehun was over his awkwardness about that. They got more violent as they got older. Jongin sometimes jumped Sehun by surprise and tried to take him to the ground. Sehun liked the fight, truth be told, but he'd like it more if Jongin wasn't so much better than him at it.

On the other hand, Jongin wasn't much more talkative. Somewhat, sure, but he was definitely still more of a listener.

Today was one of Jongin's more talkative days.

"Happy birthday," Jongin said quietly at lunch, while a light rain drenched the window next to them. He offered Sehun a complete lunch box.

Sehun dropped into the chair he usually sat in, grinning at his lunch. "Cool."

"Where are your friends?" Jongin asked, curious.

"Busy not giving me presents," Sehun told Jongin.

"Hm," Jongin had a sort of smugness to his smile.

"I'm going out with them tonight," Sehun mused. "To a bar."

Jongin raised a brow, wondering how that was going to work.

"Woohyun knows a place that will let us in," Sehun explained. He looked a bit smug himself, leaning back in his chair. "A few girls might come along with us too." He glanced at Jongin. "You know, you could come."

No. They both knew he couldn't.

"You'd be invited, anyway." Sehun said.

"Don't get in trouble," Jongin said, seriously.

"Jongin... we're going to drink. The point of it is getting in trouble."

They didn't get in trouble that night, though. They didn't get in trouble on Woohyun's birthday either, or any other day that they mixed themselves up in crowds that they shouldn't. Sehun was completely frustrated with the lack of trouble he got into after he turned 17.

Bodies were still stacking up in the news, maybe now more than ever - but he hadn't heard the word 'vampire' in months.

Sehun found Jongin to be becoming a man a bit late in life. He walked into the classroom to have lunch with him once, and Jongin was acting oddly, legs twitching and hands oddly positioned in his lap.

"Think about your dad ," Sehun suggested out of the blue, which made Jongin look literally sick. Sehun had been certain he had both scarred and helped Jongin at the same time.

The teasing took a while to stop.

In October, the school had a costume competition, and the girls were doing makeup on anyone who had dared not wear a costume. Sehun had a classy fake mustache, and no trouble selling  the costumeless Jongin out.

Sehun realized, as the girls squeezed his face and giggled, applying cat whiskers and pink lipstick for some reason, it was the most Sehun had seen Jongin interact with anyone else in school.

He didn't appear to like it much.

The first snow of the year came in early December. It had come overnight, and was being rained on during a dark day. The last day, in fact, before they went on a week long break.

"What are you going to do for Winter break?" Sehun asked Jongin as they headed to the doors together, each of them wearing coats that made it hard for Jongin to successfully rub on Sehun. They just held gloved hands.

"Family stuff," Jongin answered, frowning.

"Am I invited?" Sehun asked.

Jongin didn't find it funny.

"Fine," Sehun said. "Don't count on a Christmas present."

Jongin kissed Sehun's cold cheek before they parted at the gate.

A few girls saw it and giggled. At least Sehun's face warmed up some.

Winter break was somewhat eventful. Sehun met a college girl, leading to something like a holiday romance, without much of the romance. He liked her a lot, compared to most of the women he had known, but at the end of their time together, she wouldn't even tell him how to stay in touch. She needed to focus on her studies and all that.

He might have been depressed about it, just a bit. Back in school, however, his mood seemed nothing to Jongin's sudden distance.

"I'll be 18 soon," Jongin said as they headed toward the gate.

"Huh." Sehun had asked before, but Jongin hadn't told him. "When's your birthday?"

"Next week."

"Cool. But I'm not going to make you lunch or anything."

Jongin didn't smile.

In fact, Sehun thought he did one better. On the first day of next week, since he couldn't know Jongin's exact date of birth, he stole a cake from his own mother. It was a box in a plastic bag, and every single person in the hall asked him about it. He didn't mind explaining. "Jongin's birthday cake. Want to help surprise him?"

Several of the students figured they might as well.

Sehun sort of liked that it would irk Jongin a bit when he showed up with a big group.

He told them to stay back, though, while he opened the door. He pushed it open slowly at first, trying to spot Jongin in his regular desk.

He wasn't there, and his voice was distinctly closer to the front of the door. Sehun let the door open completely, and stared shocked.

"Please help me," Jongin was sobbing, trembling as he held the hands of a strange short man with a guest pass that named him 'Suho'. "Please..."

As emotional as Sehun had seen Jongin before, he had never seen tears before. He felt the other students pushing at his back so they could see what was happening, but Sehun was stiff, and Jongin didn't seem to even notice the door was open.

"Leave him alone," said a girl that Sehun had dated before quietly. She wriggled her way through and pulled the door shut in all of their faces.

Several students wandered on, but Sehun couldn't move from in front of the closed door, listening to the agonized gasps and sobs inside.

"Please help me..."