Jonghyun~

Music pulsed loudly in his ears, and Jonghyun threw his head back as his body automatically swayed with the beat. Sure, it was a bit cliche to go to the club when you were stressed, but it made Jonghyun feel better. He was in a sea full of drunk idiots, crazy people. Drunk teens were the closest thing to murderous demons in Jonghyun’s book, and he felt content in having the focus off of him.

After a while, though, he started to get sick of the smell of sweat, alcohol, and slurs around him. He pushed through the crowd, ignoring the desperate girls who clung to him or literally threw themselves in his path. He was sure one of them had passed out on the floor in the middle of it.

Finally, Jonghyun collapsed on a stool at the bar, resting his elbow on the counter and rotating his sore neck. He shook his head mutely when the bartender offered him a drink. He wasn’t stupid; drinking would most likely trigger his demon side. Plus, he tended to get emotional when he drank.

He wasn’t showing that in public.

Jonghyun gave another sympathetic smile and a rejection when yet another female tried to flirt with him. If only you knew who I really am.

Taeyeon knows who you are, Jonghyun reminded himself. And yet she still didn’t understand why he was so upset after meeting Se Kyung.

He was jealous. His ex-girlfriend had a normal, human life, and that was all he wanted. Someone to date (although not a relationship like Se Kyung and Doojoon. He was sure that Se Kyung had the singer whipped) and a nice career. He closed his eyes when he remembered what Se Kyung had commented about his love for singing.

He was surprised that she remembered; she had always told him to shut up when he started involuntarily humming to a good song. He’d lost his motivation to sing when he’d found his appetite for blood.

I wonder what that annoying girl is doing anyways. Probably eating. Or sleeping. Suspicious, Jonghyun pulled out his phone, ready to call home. His cell rang at the same time as he checked the screen.

“Onew?” he read off the name under his breath. With a reluctant groan, Jonghyun left the club and stood outside the entrance, eyes raking over the line that reached the end of the street. No way he was going to go back in if it would be that packed. “Hello?”

“Hey, Jjong. You know that Taeyeon thinks you look like a dinosaur, too?” was the first thing that Jonghyun heard. He grimaced as he pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the caller ID again. “Actually, she specifically said ‘stupid dino,’ but I’m not one to go into details.”

“Yah. This is what you disrupted my night for?” Jonghyun demanded, eye twitching at the memory of Taeyeon’s nickname for him.

“What, are you at a club again? Aigoo . . . so you aren’t with Taeyeon. You know that Taeyeon knows how to use a home phone? I didn’t know people still used those things, what with smart phones and all.”

"Hyung, what the heck are you saying?”

“You know Taeyeon can use the contacts in the home phone?” Jinki paused. “You know Taeyeon called me? I got really confused when my phone said ‘Jonghyun - Home’ and then I heard a girl’s voice. I thought something happened in your demon blood and you turned into a girl or something. You know you would make a really weird-looking girl? An image just popped in my head.”

“Hyung.”

“You know I may have unthinkingly given Taeyeon your old home address?”

“What?”

“You know Taeyeon is headed to your old burned down place right now actually?”

“What?”

“You know she’s probably looking for some evidence for that demon crap you put her to do? You know I have a feeling you ditched her, giving her the opportunity to run away in the first place?”

“WHAT?”

“ . . . You know you’re probably going to really hate my guts when we hang up?”

“Yeah, I know, Jinki!” Jonghyun shouted into the phone as he shoved it into his pocket. He looked up and down the street frantically, clenching his fists when he realized that there was already a group of scattered drunks calling for taxis. Why don’t I just get a job and get a car? Jonghyun scolded himself. He thought for a split second before he took off, sprinting towards where he would always remember where his childhood home was.

Taeyeon~

It was a bad neighborhood. Taeyeon could tell as soon as she got out of the taxi.

“Are you sure this is where you want to be?” the taxi driver inquired, looking back and forth down the eerie streets that screamed danger. His eyes landed on the charred remains of the house, where Taeyeon was walking to. “You know, I heard they never rebuilt this house because there was a haunted story going around it.”

After examining the damage, Taeyeon walked back to the taxi and smiled cheekily, slapping some won into the driver’s hands. He hesitated before taking out some change and giving it to her.

“In case, you know . . . I don’t know, you get jumped and need to use a payphone.”

Inside, those words made Taeyeon’s blood freeze, and she felt shivers tickle her spine. On the outside, though, she gave him another grin.

“I’m fine. Thank you. Be safe,” she said sweetly.

“I should be telling you that,” the driver mumbled as he drove off.

Without the headlights shining positivity on Taeyeon’s currently dark situation, it made the whole scene a lot worse than it probably was. Or maybe it was this bad. Hesitantly, Taeyeon walked up the pathway, her head going from side to side to examine the dead grass that had once been a lawn.

Weird. Footprints. Taeyeon bent down and examined the markings in the random patches of mud spotting the lawn. Some were obviously little kids, probably racing through the neighborhood or dared to enter the haunted area. Her eyes narrowed at one particular footprint. It was fresh, and she could tell that there were other footprints from the exact same person from different times across the lawn. Same size, same bare feet . . .

“Bare feet,” Taeyeon mouthed. She thought back to when Jonghyun had been demon. She supposed demons tended to run around without shoes? Or a shirt, for that matter? It could have been something else, but she made a note of the prints anyways.

Taeyeon brushed the dust off her jeans as she made her way to where the house must’ve been years ago.

“There’s probably nothing here after all that wreckage,” Taeyeon muttered, kneeling down and running two fingers through the dirt. When she rubbed the grains between her finger and thumb, she could see the black of the ash imprint onto her skin.

She continued to record her findings when she felt something pull at her intuition. Taeyeon stood up and looked around the dark neighborhood, the hair on the backs of her neck standing up. The dim streetlights helped none; it only gave the street a more ominous feel.

Was she being watched?

Taeyeon jerked her head over her shoulder, looking for a sign of a stranger, but her eyes caught something else. Squinting, Taeyeon walked closer to the bushes that bordered the line beside the neighboring house. It must have been something irrelevant, right?

She held the piece of paper up, trying to get some light from the streetlights. It looked like an arts and craft project from a school. It was a cut out hand, decorated to look like a . . . bird of some sort? A very little kid must have made this. Sloppily printed on the back in red paint was a bold J. Taeyeon tried her best to read the date.

“1980? No. 1986!” Taeyeon held up her fingers and counted furiously. “Didn’t Jonghyun say he was turned when he was six -” Taeyeon’s words broke into a gasp when she heard the echoes of footsteps sound through the air. What time was it? It had to be close to midnight . . .

Taeyeon shuddered. In neighborhoods like these, she knew people awake this late were people she didn’t want to associate with.

I better get home, Taeyeon thought, and then nearly cried out when she realized that no taxis or bus stops were anywhere near her. Trying to remember where she came from, she started walking down the street, eyes darting everywhere. Then she saw a figure, which had been running, stop at the end of the street in a pool of light. He stopped right at the edge, so only his legs were illuminated and his shadow was thrown across the glow of the lamp.

Taeyeon took a step back when he took one forward. That could be anyone; a gangster, a mugger, a . . . Oh, my god. Taeyeon panicked. What if he’s the demon? The stranger took another step forward.

“Got you! Finally,” Taeyeon heard. That voice sounded . . . He took another step forward.

Nope, nope, nope, nOOOPE! NOPE!

That was all Taeyeon could think as she turned around and raced the opposite way, away from the creeper. She heard a shout of disapproval, and then running steps sounded behind her.

“Nope, nope, nope, so much NOPE! NOPE, NOOOPE!” Was she saying that out loud? Yup, Taeyeon was definitely shrieking loud enough for her potential attacker to be weirded out. She glanced behind her to see that her potential attacker was still trying to catch up - and he was gaining on her. “No! NO! Go! A! Way!”

Sure, Kim Taeyeon, that will work out. Just tell the murderer-demon--gangster whatever to go away. That will work. A plus for effort.

“Yah, Kim Taeyeon! I’m sick of running all night! I’m tired, now stop before I strangle you!” Jonghyun’s voice roared.

Jonghyun?

Taeyeon skidded to a stop.

“Jonghyun?” she said tentatively, turning to look at her once “potential attacker.” He had stopped in the middle of a streetlight, resting his hands on his knees and panting angrily. Oh. Yes. It was Jonghyun.

Oh. Yes. She had snuck away from the house.

Oh. . She was screwed.

“Jonghyu~n!” Taeyeon called with a bright smile, jogging up merrily to the exhausted half-demon. Jonghyun glared up at her through his silver bangs. “Wow, it is so weird to run into you here. I mean, I didn’t think anyone else was here, and when I heard you coming . . . and I saw your shadow . . .” The weight of fear she had tried to forget suddenly came crashing down on her.

“Y-yah. Are those tears?” Jonghyun stuttered, straightening up to frown at her. “Stop that.”

“Wow, you’re so good with words,” Taeyeon attempted to sound sarcastic. She sighed heavily, shoulders moving with the exhale, and squeezed her eyes shut. “I was really scared. I mean, I know I’m living with a half-demon right now, but . . . I was still scared.”

She shocked herself, and probably Jonghyun because he froze, when she threw her arms around him.

“Thank you for coming for me,” she sobbed. “I thought you were some mugger gangster demon person!”

“Uh . . .,” was all she got in reply. Then Jonghyun pulled Taeyeon off to glower down at her. “Yah. You think just because you’re crying I’ll let you get away with this? You broke rule one, two, and five!”

“Eh?!” Taeyeon ran all the rules through her head. “Okay, one, I left without you. Five, I can’t hide anything from you. I got that. But why can’t I interact with Jinki?! Is he an unapproved human?”

“Yes - no - just - it doesn’t matter! You broke the rules.” Jonghyun twitched when Taeyeon stomped her foot like a child throwing a tantrum.

“Jjo~ng,” she groaned, eyebrows scrunching together and lips pulled into a pout. “I was doing it for you, though. It’s not like I went out like you.” She wrinkled her nose as she leaned toward him and sniffed. “Yah. You went to some club, didn’t you? I can smell it on you!”

“I didn’t drink, though!” Jonghyun argued. He reeled back when Taeyeon jumped around with her palms pressed to her cheeks, insisting about her being innocent and how she should be let off this time. “Are you using aegyo on me?” Taeyeon stopped her antics, staring at Jonghyun with wide eyes full of denial. “Aish . . . come on, we’re going home.”

“You’re not mad at me, right? I’m off the hook, right?” Taeyeon sang as she skipped behind Jonghyun.

“I really hate cutesy girls, got it? Stop acting like that,” Jonghyun ordered. Taeyeon frowned but stopped her skipping.

“Who said I wanted to please you? I can act the way I am.” Taeyeon quickened her pace, struggling to keep up with Jonghyun. He noticed this and sighed, taking her hand and pulling her so that she wasn’t jogging. His hand was warm, she noted. “I’m sorry.” Jonghyun seemed surprised by her genuine apology. “I really am. But I found some things!”

That perked him up. “Tell.”

Jonghyun~

“Footprints?” Jonghyun and Taeyeon were sitting on the couch in the apartment now.

“Yes. It seems as though the same bare-footed person has walked across that lawn multiple times. And look what I found in the bushes,” Taeyeon continued, pulling out the kiddie artwork. “Is this yours? It has a ‘J’ on it, and it was made in 1886, when you were six.”

Jonghyun took the small hand-shaped paper and examined the details.

“I remember the projects like these in elementary,” he mumbled. “I know because I didn’t go to kindergarten. I don’t remember if this is mine though. We all got to make our own designs; I thought I did a music note design or something.”

Taeyeon nodded, a bit disappointed at the lack of evidence that the craft brought.

“Ah. Jinki was in my same first grade class the year before, and we always shared each other’s artwork and compared them. You can ask him next time.” Taeyeon brightened at Jonghyun’s words. There was hope.

Taeyeon cleared . “Anyways, I’m sorry about today. It won’t happen again . . . Goodnight.”

“Wait. Taeyeon-ssi,” Jonghyun sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Tomorrow, let’s go buy you a phone. I’m going to start looking for a job, too, so I can at least buy a bike or something. I don’t know how long you’re staying with me, but we can’t have anything like what happened today happen again.”

“Because I broke the rules, you’re buying me a phone?” Taeyeon questioned. Jonghyun looked at her. “Not that I’m complaining! Just. Wondering.”

“I don’t know how long you’ll be taking to find the demon. And I mean, come on - demons. Do you want to go out without a way of communication?”

“Aah. Good point,” Taeyeon agreed, but Jonghyun didn’t fail to notice the glimmer in her eyes. Her narrowed his eyes at her. Taeyeon flinched. “I was just wondering if you would let me call Tiffany. And maybe sometimes takeout.” Jonghyun crossed his arms.

“I have to be there if you call Tiffany. And you can’t call some Chinese restaurant and babble about being kidnapped by a demon and beg for them to call the cops,” Jonghyun said firmly.

“I’m sure that I’d be put in the mental hospital rather than you in a jail cell,” Taeyeon snorted. One corner of her lips pulled up in a somehow innocent smirk, and she tilted her head to the side. “Hmm, Kim Jonghyun the half-demon is getting me a new phone? I have a feeling you’re more human than I thought!”

Jonghyun shook his head and left to his room, acting nonchalant. However, inside, that comment pleased him much more than he let on.

~~~~~~~

“Yah. How rich do you think I am?” Jonghyun deadpanned. He slapped Taeyeon’s hand away, where her finger had been pointing at a white smartphone. Taeyeon scowled at him, lips pursing as she brought her finger back to the previous choice.

“You’re the one who broke my iPhone! What’s wrong with buying me another one? This is an older version, too, so it’s cheaper.”

“Aish, seriously. Do you want to die?! Get one of these old phones,” Jonghyun insisted, gesturing to the other end of the display case. Taeyeon snorted.

“Flip phones? You expect me, a journalist, to do her research and catch up to today’s news . . . with a dumb phone?”

“You’re hurting the phones’ feelings. Don’t call them dumb without getting to know them.”

“Um,” the assistant who had come to help them said. “I’ll leave you two to consider your range of options. Call if you need help . . .”

The two ignored the poor employee, alternating in punching each other in the arms and knocking at the other’s forehead. In the end, Taeyeon convinced Jonghyun to get her a smartphone, although it was an old version. After a long time, she officially had a new phone. The first thing she did was dial Tiffany, whose number she would always remember.

As the phone rang, she and Jonghyun made their way through the street of Seoul, looking for a place to get lunch.

“Hello?” a weary voice answered.

“Tiffany! It sounds like your cold is gone.” Taeyeon jumped when a string of profanities was thrown at her.

“Where have you been?! It’s been three days, Taeyeon, three days. When did you clear out your place? I came yesterday and it was completely stripped of your belongings. Completely stripped! And then they tell me that you moved away? Moved away? I mean, I knew you were, but that soon? How did you find a place so soon? How?!”

“Tiffany. Tiffany . . . Tiffany~,” Taeyeon tried to in at one point in her best friend’s rant, earning a curious look from Jonghyun. “TIFFANY! I didn’t buy a new place. I moved in with a -” Pausing, Taeyeon took a good look at Jonghyun. She pursed her lips. “A ffeerrrrr--eeeee-yyyeeend-uh?”

“What?” Jonghyun and Tiffany said at the same time.

“A friend. I moved in with a friend,” Taeyeon confirmed with a shrug at Jonghyun. Was he a friend? Or her kidnapper? She still wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole situation. There was a suspicious silence.

“Oh - my - god,” Tiffany burst out in English. She tended to do that from time to time, seeing as she had been born in California. “It’s a guy, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve been so secretive!” Taeyeon closed her eyes and blew out threw her nose. Damn it. Tiffany and her ability to just know things. “Is this his phone? Why haven’t you had your phone on lately?”

“Oh. It broke.” Taeyeon looked at Jonghyun pointedly as they stopped at an intersection. “Some idiot I ran into basically cracked it in half and - ouch!” Jonghyun had flicked her temple. “Anyways, this is my new number. I just wanted to let you know in case -”

“Let me see the dude,” Tiffany interrupted eagerly.

“Eh?” was Taeyeon’s weak reply.

“I want to judge him. How do you know him? I thought you basically only talked to me.” Jonghyun felt a little guilty for listening in on this conversation now. It must’ve been really embarrassing, since Taeyeon ducked her head and stared at her shoes, but he couldn’t help his acute sense of hearing. “Where are you?”

“Um.” Taeyeon looked at Jonghyun for permission. He shook his head.

“I don’t want her following us to the apartment,” he mouthed.

“How about we meet at the cafe by the company building?” Taeyeon proposed instead.

(A/N: yes, I know, another cafe. Korean cliches)

“What, you won’t show me your place?” Tiffany whined.

“No,” Taeyeon answered at the same time Jonghyun mimed cutting someone’s throat with a threatening stare.

~~~~~~~

Tiffany was pretty, Jonghyun supposed, but she didn’t give the same kind of appeal that Taeyeon did. And she was much more judging with her eyes, despite the fact that Taeyeon was the one who wrote the articles. The first thing she said when she saw Jonghyun was “I rate him a strong seven, I guess. My Nickhun’s taller.”

Jonghyun put his best effort into not clawing at Taeyeon’s best friend-slash-editor. His eye twitched when Taeyeon snorted.

“Guess rule four doesn’t apply to her,” she muttered under her breath, knowing full well that Jonghyun could hear her. Did his eye twitch again? He thought it did. The whole meeting was basically an interview for Tiffany to make sure Jonghyun wasn’t some creeper that was after Taeyeon.

“She chose to live with me!” he wanted to scream at one point. But then he remembered that she only offered in fear for her life. Ah, well. Just a technicality.

“So,” Tiffany said loudly, interrupting Jonghyun’s thoughts. “The story. How’s it going? Is he helping you with it at all?”

“Sort of,” Taeyeon answered quietly. “I’ll keep you up to date from time to time.” Tiffany hesitated before reaching out across the table and placing her hand over Taeyeon’s.

“Sweetie. You know, this is the weirdest story you’ve taken on so far? You’re putting a lot up for this one. Is something going on?” Tiffany begged, genuine concern in her eyes. “It’s like this story has possessed you or something.”

A slow smile spread on both Jonghyun and Taeyeon’s faces.

“Possessed? Did you just say that?” Taeyeon giggled. Her giggles soon morphed into fits of laughter. To keep his image, Jonghyun managed to hold it in. Tiffany obviously did not like being laughed at.

“Fine, fine. I’m going to work on. Without you on my case with a new story, I have plenty of time to work on my other writers, thank you very much,” Tiffany harrumphed.

“Traitor!” Taeyeon called after her editor as she stalked out of the cafe, but she was wheezing through her chuckles. “Ah, I’m hungry. When is the food we ordered coming?” Taeyeon’s eyes brightened when a cafe worker brought them their salad and sandwiches. “I don’t normally eat healthy, but this will do.”

Jonghyun grimaced. Healthy would not do.

“Jjong? Taeyeon-ssi?” Jonghyun glanced up at the familiar voice in surprise.

“Jinki-hyung,” he greeted as Jinki clapped a hand on his shoulder. He sat across from Jonghyun and Taeyeon, where Tiffany had been before, grinning.

“What are you two doing here? It’s pretty far from where you live, Jjong.” Jinki raised his hand and ordered a tall cappuccino.

“I had to meet with another human,” Jonghyun said irritably. He glared accusingly at Taeyeon. “We’re here for lunch. Then . . . I’m going to look for a job.” Jinki’s eyebrows raised. “I don’t want you to keep having to pay for my expenses, hyung. I’m really thankful, and I’m going to try to earn my own money instead of using yours. By the way, I may have used your money to buy Taeyeon a phone.”

“What?!” Jinki and Taeyeon burst out at the same time. They both took turns giving Jonghyun bruises on his biceps and chest.

“Ah, that’s right. Jinki, thanks for giving me the address to the place.” An uncomfortable smile pulled at Jinki’s lips, and he shot Jonghyun an apologetic glance. “I found this piece of artwork that Jonghyun said was from first grade.”

“Mrs. Choi? Class 1-B?” Jinki tilted his head to the side questioningly.

“You remember her, too!” Jonghyun commented. “Do you remember when we had to trace our hands and make a design on the paper? It’s that thing! The laminated one. The one Taeyeon found has an ugly bird of some sort on the hand, and there’s a J on it. Do you think it’s mine, for Jonghyun?”

Jinki cleared his throat as his coffee arrived and stared into the brown, swirling liquid, deep in thought.

“I don’t know. It could be. I don’t even remember making those things . . . Taeyeon, are you trying to find the demon or find a way to make Jonghyun human?” Jinki suddenly asked.

Confused, Taeyeon glanced at Jonghyun. “Both, I suppose. Maybe if I find the demon, he’d know how to make Jonghyun human.”

“Ah,” Jinki said dully, seemingly dejected. “That’s worrisome. It’s dangerous to go after; I hope you realize that. I’m happy to come over and help whenever.” Jinki stopped when he noticed that Jonghyun was just squinting at Taeyeon, chiding at her unceremonious way of shoving salad and sandwiches into .

“You do the same thing!” she rebutted with full, causing Jonghyun to grimace and slap a hand over . As they continued arguing, Jonghyun heard Jinki start to snicker and glanced over, removing his hand from Taeyeon’s face.

“You look like a bickering couple,” Jinki noted, taking a long sip from his mug. Taeyeon started to choke on her food, slapping her chest with force. Although Jonghyun was a bit taken aback by the sudden comment, his concern for the choking girl got the better of him.

“This is what you get for eating like a pig!” he chastised, patting her back repeatedly.

“You’re the pig, you hog!” Taeyeon choked.

“That’s not even the same thing!”

A/N:

I noticed that there's a lot of cliches in this chapter.

But that's okay.

Because nothing is wrong with having a good old dose of Korean drama

Right?

Anyways, I'm trying SUPER hard to make my chapters more interesting

I can't

I'm sorry for my horrible skills

***note my excessive use of Onew gifs, no shame***

Anyways, I'm extremely grateful for all the readers, silent or not

Please don't be afraid to comment and criticize!

Also! Wondering! Are the long chapters too much? Is there not enough happening in my chapters?

I've been trying to make my chapters long because my first story ended too quickly,

but if that's too much, please tell me!

Thank you~ Thank you~