CH. 6 Breathe

Sunggyu popped open a bottle of wine and poured it gracefully into Woohyun’s wine glass. The two adults took the opportunities to enjoy themselves a little with Myungsoo’s frequent absence. The dining room was lit with romantic candles with candles on the counter, candles on the table. Woohyun himself was enjoying a raw steak on his plate while Gyu actually had two wine glasses, one filled with blood and the other with the finest wine.

“Yeobo,” Sunggyu began before he chuckled lamely.

Woohyun replied plaintively, “what.”

Sunggyu took his wife’s hand, making him drop his utensils. He held onto his wife’s hand with both of his. He gave Woohyun the “smoulder” look with those chinky little eyes of his.

“I…” Sunggyu started. “...love the way you smell.” He smiled. Woohyun smiled. Gyu continued, “I love the way you look even when you’re all sweaty in the kitchen. I love you even if you have harrier legs than mine, Nam Woohyun, I love you.” With that, Woohyun brought his husband’s hands upon his lips. Then they each picked up their wine glasses and brought them to their lips, but just before the wine left the glass, they heard several knocks rapping at the door.

Sunggyu hung his head. “Yah...Myungsoo-yah you have the worse timing.”

Woohyun insisted that they ignore the knocking, and so they did and continued with their romantic escape.

Not even thirty seconds later, the knocking evolved into loud banging that seemed as if the door would break down. “YAH. KIM SUNGGYU! OPEN THE DOOR!” *knock, knock, slam*

Sunggyu let out a very annoyed groan and turned to Woohyun. “Just a moment, honey.”

As he got closer to the door, the old vampire thought he could hear faint wimpers.

    “Hoya?”

    “Gyuuuuu,” Hoya sneered with narrowed eyes and threw Myungsoo at his father.

    “Myungsoo! What happened to him?”  Gyu questioned in alarm his old friend as he saw the state of his precious son in an absolute ragged mess. He had nothing on but a pair of black boxers and his face, especially eyes, were stained red. .

    “You ask him.” Hoya answered sternly.

    “OMO OMO MY PRECIOUS...My precious aegi! What did you do to him?!” Woohyun now made his way to the front door from the kitchen and immediately dashed towards a whimpering Myungsoo.

    “*hic hic hic* U...Uuummmmaaaaa!” Myungsoo cried his eyes still puffy from the garlic burn.

    “Shh, shhh, hush, tell me what happened?!” Woohyun ordered

    “Well, your son here……” Hoya began angrily.

    A hour later …

    Woohyun had his hand to his hips, his face now dark and stern carrying a deep frown as his nostrils began flaring. Myungsoo was kneeling on his knees with his hands behind his back in front of Woohyun, looking down at the floor the whole time. Sunggyu was sitting on the couch, suddenly pretending to read the newspaper, not daring to make eye contact with Woohyun. After Hoya’s story, the couple (mainly Woohyun) was speechless and extremely disappointed in Myungsoo.

    “Baby, you know Umma loves you, right?” Woohyun’s voice was soft.

    Myungsoo did nothing but just stare at the floor.
    “UMMA LOVES YOU, YOU KNOW THAT, HUH?!” His mother’s voice was now as stern as an iron grip which made the teenage child nod his head vigorously below his mother’s killer stare and popping veins.

    “Umma loves you, and umma did not teach you to stalk. Stalking is wrong. How could you do something like that? Nevermind that, why did you dare to even walk in on someone’s shower?” Woohyun scolded the boy.

    “...”

    “I don’t expect you to be perfect...bu..but I didn’t teach my son to be a ert! How could you do that and tarnish our family name!?”

    “Hhhhguuckkgyu,” Hoya needlessly commented through a fake cough. Sunggyu whipped his head at Hoya, giving him a stare that said “stay out of it”.

    “....” Myungsoo still remained silent. He was more saddened at the thought of Sungyeol hating him now.

    “Tell me….how long has this been going on?”

    “...since I was five…”

    “WHAT!!!”

    “...BECAUSE APPA DIDN’T WANT TO HELP ME GET THE FRISBEE THEN I WENT TO GET IT BY MYSELF THEN I SAW SUNGYEOL AT THE WINDOW...AND AND HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!“ Myungsoo ranted

    “MYUNGSOO! Snap out of it!”

    “I’m SORRY UMMA! But Appa likes beautiful people  too not just me! He always try to flirt with auntie Dongwoo!”

    “YAH, YOU RASCAL!” Sunggyu jumped from his seat.

    At that both Hoya and Woohyun narrowed their eyes at Sunggyu, who froze on the spot, looked around nervously, and brought his newspaper up to his face to shield himself before sitting down again..

    “ UGH! Like father like son! I should’ve known!”

    “Now now Woohyun, I have nothing to do with this...I didn’t tell him to stalk that little boy.” Sunggyu defended himself.

    “You’re despicable! HE LEARNED FROM YOU!!!! BECAUSE YOU’RE ALWAYS SO SLEEZY!!!!  I should never have left him home alone with you!” Woohyun shook his head, “ Anyways, YOU ARE GROUNDED MISTER! AND NO Bat-blood juice boxes for a month!”

    Somehow Woohyun’s lecture for his son turned into a lecture for Gyu. As the older couple argued Myungsoo scurried away into his bedroom away from his argumentative parents.

    Despite the brief lecture he got from Woohyun Umma, Myungsoo wasn’t bothered. He was more concern with his future with Sungyeol, so the vampire boy decided to go to bed early to ready himself for a new night. He can’t give up just yet. But before that, he sneaked into the library to see if he could find any books on what to do when a vampire came into contact with garlic and silently hoped that it wasn’t fatal for him.

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    To win a war, one has to know one's enemy like the back of his hands, and Sungjong did just that. Sungjong  has been studying Sungyeol's actions all day, and an evil plan was slowly formulating in his clever little head. After following Sungyeol all over town, he found some interesting facts about the beautiful boy. He found out what Sungyeol likes to eat, what he didn’t like, what his habits and pet peeves are. He found that Sungyeol was a rather kind being who liked to take care of stray animals (hence his naive friendliness to Myung kitty), give food to the poor, help out elderly people; Sungyeol had a big heart and all this just made him scoff even more. Why is everything about this boy so perfect?  If Myungsoo could follow Sungyeol in the day Sungjong was sure the handsome vampire would fall in love even more with the boy.

    Sungjong waited at the street corner where Myungsoo usually appeared near sunset with a large basket in his hands. He was sure this plan was going to work perfectly for him to steal away the handsome vampire from Sungyeol.

    “Hey there handsome young man! Come here come here!” A girly looking fairy called out. He was carrying a large basket of roses and motioned for Myungsoo to come closer.

    “Me?” Myungsoo looked left and right before pointing a finger to himself. He wasn’t sure if the florist was calling for someone else.

    “YES you! You look like a lovesick fellow in need of some help, and I have just the solution for you.” The florist  caught his attention and the teenager carried himself over to listen to other.

    “Here is what I have for you, yes JUST you! A special deal just for today, I’ll give you ALL these flowers for FREE!”

    “No thanks, don’t need them, don’t want them.”

    “DON'T YOU WANT TO  IMPRESS YOUR LOVER SILLY!?” Sungjong’s voice was beginning to strain due to the high pitch and the other boy’s denseness. “All pretty people loooooveee flowers, all lovers looove flowers, all angry spouses loooove flowers, so for the one you love just gift them these magical flowers and they’ll automatically fall in love with you.”

    Myungsoo backtracked. “What? Really? These magical flowers have that kind of effect?”

    “Of course! I wouldn’t lie to you, I’m a famous looove fairy Sungjong, the one of a kind magical fairy that solves all love problems,” Sungjong lied flatly. He bonked one of the flowers on Myungsoo’s head and pollen landed everywhere on his body. “See? Magical fairy dust!”

    “Wow! Thank you...Sung...Jong? “ Myungsoo naively said.

    “OF course of course! Now off you go! Go get ‘em tiger!” Sungjong said hastily pushing the large flower basket into Myungsoo’s arms. As he ran away making a turn into a shady corner, the fairy’s lips turned into a crooked smirk. “ Yes, go get ‘em tiger….muahahahahhaahha that silly little Sungyeol will surely fall heads over heels for you.”

    Myungsoo’s heart lifted, it was as if heaven had granted him a second chance. After all the years of stalk---- er...watching Sungyeol he found out that Sungyeol’s favorite color was pink, and surely Sungyeol would adore these pink roses. There were a hundred roses roughly counting (for a hundred apologies). Picking up his pace, he made his way to Sungyeol’s house.

    Little did Myungsoo knew the “good” fairy Sungjong had put some kind of hinx on them.

    When Myungsoo reached Sungyeol’s steps, he instinctively made his way into the backyard and was about to scale the special tree again. He almost touched the tree until he remembered what Woohyun Umma told him and threatened to do to his bat-blood juice boxes. Woohyun Umma also said that if he wanted to win over someone’s heart, he shouldn’t scare them and should take things slowly. Myungsoo decided to give Sungyeol more privacy, so the vampire decided to stay on ground level.

        “Hellooo.” Myungsoo called up at Sungyeol’s bedroom window from where he was. This was his definition of being less creepy which excluded the idea of simply walking up to the front door. He stood at the center of the grassy lawn on the side of Sungyeol’s house. Despite yesterday’s terrible incident, Myungsoo still didn’t want to give up on this (non-existing) relationship. He couldn’t just give up like that. The vampire was more determined than before to win Sungyeol’s heart. Sadly for Myungsoo, he received no response from the fair maiden, so he tried again.

    “Helloooooo” Myungsoo calls out again, the large bouquet was starting to wilt a little in his hands. “Hellooooooo, Sungyeolieeee”

    “OH MY GOD! It’s you again, why are you here?! Why are you in the backyard!?” The beautiful boy’s head emerge from bedroom window. Sungyeol scoffed at the sight of Myungsoo, his eyes were beaming with anger. “Do you know what time it is? You’re gonna wake all my neighbors.” He was about to shut the window but stopped.

“B..but I have something I want to give you! It’s an apology! Please come out! I really want to apologize! We really started off on the wrong path!” Myungsoo calls up desperately making the other boy feel sorry for him.

“F...Fine! Wait there!” Sungyeol said his eyes squinting, obviously he didn’t see the beautiful flowers in Myungsoo’s arms. Sungyeol decided to give Myungsoo a second chance since he knew Hoya Ahjusshi, and he assured himself that anyone who is acquainted to Hoya Ahjusshi must be a good person, right?   

Myungsoo sighed lovingly at the sight of Sungyeol wearing a lovely oversized night shirt. The moon made the fair boy glowed in the night as Myungsoo see him emerging from the back door walking (angrily) gracefully towards him with a bottle of dish soap in one hand. .

“What do you want?” Sungyeol asked impatiently.

“I’m really really sorry for the other day.” Myungsoo answered sincerely hiding the bouquet behind his back as a surprise. Sungyeol’s nose started getting runny. Maybe it’s the chilly air. Sungyeol could feel the sincerity in his voice and almost felt sorry for the other boy until...

“I have something for you, here” Myungsoo said shortly pulling out the cursed flowers from behind him.

“OH MY GOSH ROSES!!” Sungyeol screeched backing away but it was too late. “ A...AAA...AACHOOO! A AHCHOO! I...I..AHHHCHOOOO!! I’m ....ALLERGIC ...to ROSES!”

“W...WHAT!!!?” Myungsoo was dumbfounded.

“AAHHHCHOOO!! G..GET IT AWAY! PLEASE!” Sungyeol has long dropped his weapon and was now backing away from Myungsoo.

“OH MY GOSH! I’m so sorry!” Myungsoo yelled throwing the flowers a hundred feet away into the neighbor’s yard and made his way towards Sungyeol. The vampire started to panic as he saw Sungyeol eyes starting to water, turning red and puffy. .

“N...No…AAHHHCHOOO! Ge..get away...the pollen...is...on you! I can smell it! AHhhchoooo!”  

Myungsoo really didn’t know what to do but fidget as he watched Sungyeol sneezing frantically as he backed away blindly, stumbling over his own feet. The vampire wanted to help his love by coming closer, but the closer Myungsoo got, the more deadly Sungyeol’s allergies became. Sungyeol fell backwards, but before he could land on a heap of dirty decomposing leaves, Myungsoo caught him. Myungsoo smiled. This moment didn’t last long for Sungjong’s magical flowers were cursed and laced with a deadly pollen that caused the human boy to sneeze repeatedly and it became even worse and worse as itchy rashes began to appear. Normally, Sungyeol’s allergic symptoms were bad around regular roses, but they were now ten times as bad with these stupid roses that this stupid person brought him. Sungjong mades sure that this would happen.

“Accckkkk!” Sungyeol sneezed onto Myungsoo’s face, saliva spraying all over the latter’s face. He pushed Myungsoo off him, “I’m sorry please get away from me! A...A..ACHOOOO!” Sungyeol’s eyes were watering as if he was cryi

“Wa...wait ...wait...n.no..no Sungyeol! PLEASE! I’m Sorry I really didn’t know!!!” Myungsoo yelled after the tall boy, he ran after him,  but the one with the longer legs slammed the door abruptly in Myungsoo’s face.

    Myungsoo was on the verge of angry tears, tears that were angry of himself. Why did the world curse him? He was so close to clearing the misunderstanding, so close to having another chance, and now this terrible thing had to happen. It was as if he was reliving the horrible nightmare of yesterday (though it was incomparable to yesterday) as he watched Sungyeol run off into the house and switch on the bathroom lights.

“PLEASE!!! SUNGYEOL DON’T RUNAWAY FROM ME!!!!!” Myungsoo’s desperate voice echoed through the yard.

Myungsoo’s legs gave out as he plopped down dejectedly, leaning his back against the tree. He felt tears running down his face. Well...this is depressing. More than anything, he just wanted to see Sungyeol. He didn’t even have the will to go home. He sat there moping, even thinking of letting the sunrise burn him. That was how sad he was.

Sungyeol reached into his medicine cabinet and took some of the allergy medicine that he got from Lady Jang. It immediately soothed his pains and calmed his nerves. He was only sniffling now. The incident finally registered in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he started to feel bad for the strange boy since he just left him hanging like that. To think, Myungsoo really did make an effort, and he seemed sweet and innocent, not like a ert, when he came in the middle of the night just to deliver flowers. Even though it happened to be the worse possible flowers, it was the thought that counts. Sungyeol found himself going to his window to look down to see whether the boy had gone home. A small sympathetic smile crept up to his swollen eyes as he saw the boy sitting pitifully on his lawn. Myungsoo was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, picking patches out of the poor innocent grass.

    Despite his pity for the strange teenage boy, Sungyeol couldn’t forget for a fact that he was also the strange ert boy who stalked him through the windows and grabbed his in the showers, so with a scoff Sungyeol slammed his window shut, turned of his bedroom light, and went to sleep trying to ignore any creeping thoughts of that erted Kim Myungsoo.

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    * Ring ring ring*

Hoya sat in his living room armchair when the phone rang. Dongwoo had left to restock his medicine supplies, leaving Hoya alone, hungry, and bored. Well, he wasn’t exactly alone...

“Hello?” he picked up the phone.

    “U..um...h..hi Hoya Ahjusshi it’s Sungyeol. I was wondering if you’ve had dinner. I made a lot of food, and I have no one to share it with, so if you haven’t had dinner would you care to join me?” Sungyeol sounded sincerely sweet over the phone.

    “Oh...umm sure.” Hoya answered casually, minding is grumbling stomach.

    Myungsoo was lying on his stomach like a dead body on Uncle Hoya’s couch as he couldn’t help but overhear the conversation with the other person on the line. He listened with a blank, expressionless face. He had recently taken the habit of free loading at Hoya’s place since he discovered that Ho-jusshi lived next to his precious Sungyeollie. Besides, he didn’t want to be home since Woohyun was constantly interrogating him whenever he came back home. Woohyun doesn’t know that Hoya lived besides Sungyeol...yet. The younger man grinded his teeth and glared at Hoya Ahjusshi with jealousy as he eavesdropped with his supernatural powers. Why is ahjusshi the one that Yeollie cared about, huh? Why isn’t it Mingthoo that Yeollie wanted to invite over for dinner? Why didn’t Yeollie cook for Myunggie? Why? WHY?!?!

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    Sungyeol eagerly ran to open the door. As he passed the hallway, he stopped in front of the mirror to check his hair, making sure he looked perfect enough before greeting Hoya ahjusshi. The tall boy’s smile brightened upon seeing the older man, but it quickly turned into a frown as he saw the boy from a couple nights ago stick his head out from behind Hoya.

    “Hiiii Hoya Ahjusshi...oh ..h..hi Myungsoo?” Sungyeol step over to let his guest(s) in.

    “Hi Sungyeol.” Hoya greeted patting the younger boy’s head.

    “Hiii Sungyeolie!” Myungsoo smiled showing his full dimples sweetly, “ LOOK I SHOWERED! NO MORE POLLEN! SEE? I CAN STAY NEXT TO YOU NOW!”

    “Oh...um… ok...thanks Myungsoo....” Sungyeol said distancing himself from the teenage boy feeling a little cramped up  as the boy moved in closer to him. It wasn’t as if Sungyeol held grudges, but he also wasn’t comfortable being close to a stranger, especially strangers that apparently stalked him for years. In the shower.

    Sungyeol had the table perfectly set, ready for a three course meal; however, he wasn’t anticipating a third guest. Hoya sat at the table casually admiring the food that was prepared and ignored a spazzing Myungsoo that could barely contain himself. The child knocked down a wine glass but quickly caught it from falling with his super powers. Myungsoo begged and begged Hoya to let him tag along, blackmailing Hoya saying that he’d tell auntie Dongwoo that Hoya Ahjusshi was actually a very mean man. Hoya knew too well that out of everyone, Dongwoo defends and pampers Myungsoo the most ever since the kid was little.

    Flashback:

    “Ahjusshi, let me come!” Myungsoo suddenly appeared in a flash, standing at Hoya’s face the moment he set down the phone.

    “No.”

    “Plweaseee.”

    “No.”

    “I’ll tell Auntie Dongwoo you’ve been following my dad around to Palryongie’s Tavern to see those barmaids.”

    “Uuughhhhhhh” Hoya rolled his eyes and scoffed defeatedly.

End flashback.

Dinner was awkward. It was mostly Sungyeol and Hoya conversing with each other, Myungsoo being left out. He hardly had anything to say, and when he did, he only received a one worded answer from Sungyeol. This kind of hurt, but as long as he was with Sungyeol, he endured it. He was ecstatic however, when Sungyeol accepted his offer of helping with the dishes. Myungsoo was utterly desperate to rebuild his reputation with Sungyeol, but most of all, he wanted to be as close to his love as possible. He couldn’t stop chattering to the older boy, trying to evoke some type of emotion on his expressionless face. Well, Myungsoo got one when Sungyeol’s eyes widened when Myungsoo accidently dropped a dish and broke it.