Taemin was trying to forget his conversation with Krystal but there was something that didn’t make sense to him. He was almost sure that she was planning something and the said plan involved Minho and Kibum, so he needed to talk to one of them. Kibum seemed to be the best choice, so Taemin decided to go visit him and talk to him until he found something about his afternoon.

He left downtown and headed to Kibum’s house. Taemin was about to appear uninvited but that was part of his plan. If he told Kibum he was going to his house, the human would probably run home if he was there in the first place. Besides, Kibum’s grandmother was always saying he should visit more often, so it was a big deal. He walked in the shadows so that he could move faster without attracting curious’ eyes. In no time, he arrived at Kibum’s front door and he rang the bell, hearing rushed footsteps from the inside the house. Kibum’s grandmother opened the door and a smile immediately appeared on her face when she saw him.

“Taemin.” She greeted, opening her arms for him to hug her. “How are you? Finally paying us a visit?” The old lady rushed him inside the house and patted his back. “I haven’t seen you lately.”

“I’ve been busy.”

She smiled fondly at him, once again. “I hope you’re taking good care of yourself.”

“I am. Don’t worry, Mrs. Kim.”

“I suppose you’re here to see Kibum, right? I know you didn’t come to see me.”

Taemin chuckled at that and grinned. “I really need to talk to Kibum.”

“Well then, don’t waste more time with this old lady.” She laughed, apparently amused. “You know the way, Taemin.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Kim.” Taemin bowed and then turned to the stairs, climbing them and quickly reaching Kibum’s room. He knocked on the door and waited for the other’s permission to enter. When Kibum hummed from the inside, he opened the door and peeked.

“Hi?” Kibum’s head turned to him when he heard his voice and Taemin was surprised by the changes on the other.

Before he had time to say anything, Kibum was up and right in front of him, pulling him into the room and closing the door. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Nothing, I-“ Taemin interrupted himself, shocked by the other’s reaction. “I just came to see you.”

“To see me? Are you sure?” Kibum asked, rolling his eyes. “I think you’re just trying to find something else to mess with my life.”

“What do you mean?” Taemin asked, feeling already guilty because, in a way, Kibum was right. “I’m your friend.”

“Are you? I wasn’t really sure when you decided to talk to Jonghyun about me and Minho.” He said, still sarcastic. “But, as you can see, I’m fine. Anything else?”

“Your hair… The color suits you.”

“Thank you.” Kibum said, looking at him, waiting for Taemin to keep talking or to give up and go away. However, when Taemin decided to go away, Kibum’s phone beeped with a new message and Taemin noticed him gulping when he looked at the screen.

“Who is it?” Taemin asked, once Kibum ignored the message and kept looking at him. “Is Minho, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think I have to tell you who texted me.” Kibum was nervous, Taemin could tell. “And now, if you don’t have anything to say-“ Kibum stopped talking when Taemin moved really fast and grabbed his phone.

“I knew it.” Taemin said, throwing the phone on Kibum’s bed. “Are you two insane? What do you think you’re doing? Jonghyun gave him an order! He wasn’t supposed to be able to talk to you.”

“Taemin.” Kibum said, now really calm and pondering on his words. “I promise I’ll tell you everything and I’ll do whatever you want, but please don’t tell anything to Jonghyun.”

“You know I can’t do it.” Taemin said, noticing that something was different about his friend, and it clearly wasn’t just the hair. “It is all for your own good. You can’t be with him, why don’t you just stop this?”

“You’re not going to tell a soul.”

Taemin shivered. Something was really wrong. Kibum’s low voice was frightening and so was the way he was looking at him, so he instinctively took a step back.

“I’m warning you.” Kibum continued, still focused on Taemin.

“And what are you going to do to stop me?” Taemin asked, sounding more confident than he actually was. “You’re a human…” He stopped talking when Kibum walked in his direction and wrapped his hands around his neck. “Kibum, what are you doing? You’re hurting me.”

Kibum seemed to be deaf because he didn’t give any sign that he heard Taemin’s words. “Kibum! What happened to you? How are you so strong?” Taemin felt something on his throat that was preventing him from talking and started to panic. Soon, Kibum let go of his neck but kept looking at him and Taemin was feeling the same thing he was feeling for some minutes now. He didn’t know where the pain was coming from because all his body seemed to be burning and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Not even scream for help. The minutes felt like hours until he heard Kibum’s grandmother’s voice screaming.

“Oh my God, Kibum!” She screamed, entering the room with her eyes wide open. “What are you doing? Taemin is your friend!”

As he heard the old lady’s words, the pain started to disappear, leaving him breathless on the floor, looking at Kibum. In that moment, although Taemin had no clue what was going on with Kibum, he was sure that Jonghyun was right. And was sure that, if he decided to tell him anything, Kibum wouldn’t let him go again.

Kibum was still looking at him completely shocked and kept taking little steps backwards. He stared at his hands, like he was expecting something to come out from them and when nothing did, his eyes turned to Taemin, who flinched and moved closer to Mrs. Kim, seeking protection.

“T-Taemin, I’m sorry, I don’t know…” Kibum’s eyes started to tear up and it seemed like he wanted to approach the other but he decided against it, standing the farthest away from Taemin. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m so sorry, I’m-“

When Kibum fell on his knees and curled up against the wall, Taemin felt the old lady’s hands on his shoulders. “Taemin, sweetie, it’s better if you go now, okay?” She led him out of the bedroom but he kept looking back at the human on the ground. “I’m really sorry for what happened.”

“What’s wrong with him? Is he going to be okay?”

“I hope so, Taemin, I hope so.”

**

Inside of the room, Kibum was still curled up next to the wall, his body was trembling and he couldn’t stop crying. He never felt so powerless of his body and mind and that scared him to no end. He didn’t want to hurt Taemin, he was just a little angry that the other was so controlling but things ran out of control.

Kibum didn’t even know how he was able to do that. One minute, he was angry and in the next, he had his hands around Taemin’s neck. It was like something or someone had taken control of his body.

Still crying, he crawled to the side of the bed to grab his phone and dialed Minho’s number. He was the only one he wanted to talk to at that moment.

“Miss me already?” Minho’s cheery voice did worse to Kibum and he broke down, sobbing loudly on the phone, unable to talk. “Kibum? What’s wrong? Kibum? Talk to me!”

“C-can you… Can you come here?”

There was a rustling sound on the other side. “Yes, of course. Give me 5 minutes and I’ll be there.”

Kibum hummed and nodded, even though Minho couldn’t see it, and disconnected the call, still crying, while he waited for the other to arrive.

**

Minho never walked so fast in his life. He had said he would be at Kibum’s house in 5 minutes but it had already passed 15 and only then he was able to leave his home. He had to dodge Jonghyun’s questions and made sure he didn’t suspect anything.

He was moving so fast that he didn’t bother being cautious of human’s eyes because they couldn’t even catch the movement. His mind was set on Kibum and finding out what happened with him.

When he was approaching the place, the front door opened and Kibum’s grandmother waved at hi, which made him run to her. As soon as he was in her reach, the old lady grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

“Thank God, you’re here.” She said, still grabbing him and the both of them started to climb the stairs. “He doesn’t talk to me. You need to help him.” She was about to cry when they reached the door of Kibum’s room. “Help my baby, Minho, I think you’re the only one who can do it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him.”

Minho did a small bow and watched as she went back downstairs. He waited until she could no longer hear her and pushed the door open, finding the room dark with only a few candles lightening it.

He frowned and looked everywhere, finding it strange that Kibum was not anywhere. “Bum?”

Minho caught some movement from his left side but when he looked, nothing was there. Suddenly, a sound of someone laughing was heard and Minho closed the door behind him, taking a step into the room.

“Kibum? Are you here?”

Minho felt hands on his shoulders and jumped in fear. “Sit on the chair, baby.”

When he turned back to look at Kibum, glad to have finally found him, there was no one behind him and he frowned again. Minho decided to walk to the chair, like Kibum had asked, and sat on it but immediately regretted it as rope appeared literally out of nowhere and tied his hands to the chair.

Minho tried to pull them but the know was too tight. He started to panic because he couldn’t move freely when a shadow appeared upon him. When Minho looked up, his eyes widened and he didn’t know what to feel.

Kibum was in front of him, in his bright red hair, dressed in all black. His jeans looked like they were painted on his skin for how tight they were and he only used a blazer with nothing under it, displaying his lean upper body.

No matter how Minho was by the view, something was putting him off. Kibum’s expression was actually scaring him because he had never seen him like that.

“What’s going on?”

Kibum grinned and stepped closer. “Do you like the little surprise I prepared for you, baby? Since you took so long to get here, I had the time to set everything up.”

“I’m sorry, I had to-“

“Shut up.” Kibum demanded, voice cold. There was a whip on his hand and he placed the end of it on Minho’s lips. “No talking unless asked to, okay, baby?” When Minho didn’t answer, Kibum grabbed his chin forcefully and grinned. “I asked you a question. Answer me.”

Minho nodded. “Okay, Kibum.”

“Good.” He laughed and began to walk around the chair, the end of the whip, always in contact with Minho. “You know, Minho, today I almost killed Taemin.”

“What? Are you-“

“Ah, ah, ah! No talking, remember?” He was suddenly in front of Minho, touching his lips with his pointer finger and shaking his head. “As I was saying… He angered me so much that I did a little magic trick and he was almost gone.” Kibum shrugged like it was not a big thing and sighed. “But then the old woman came in and made me stop. It made me feel bad about myself. I hated it.” After the second turn, Kibum stopped again in front of him and pushed Minho’s legs apart, placing himself between them. “I came to the conclusion that it’s always your fault, you know? Every time I do this is because of something related to you. And I hate it, Minho, I hate it so much.” He was whispering, his lips millimeters apart from Minho’s. “That’s why… To end all of this I’ll have to kill the source of the problem. And that is you, baby.”

With that, Kibum pushed his lips against Minho’s but the vampire pulled away, too scared to even react to the kiss.

“Kibum… Please, you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“And you do? Do you know what it’s like to feel like this?” Kibum screamed at his face. “I feel like a bad person. And I’m not a bad person, Minho.”

“You’re not, you’re not a bad person.”

“So why do I enjoy to hurt people? Why does it give me pleasure? I don’t want to feel like this.”

“It’s-“

“Don’t try to tell me what it is, Minho! You don’t know anything about what I’m feeling.”

Minho sighed, trying to take control of the situation. “Kibum, I might not know what’s going on with you right now, but I do know the feeling of not wanting to hurt people even though our whole body screams to do so. I’ve also felt like that before.” He continued and the change around Kibum was visible. He released the ropes around Minho’s wrists and started to pay close attention to what he was saying. “Come here, look at me.” Minho said and extended his hand that Kibum quickly took. “I know it’s hard, okay? I know but I also know it gets better and that you’re stronger than that feeling.” He pulled Kibum to him and the human sat on his lap. “Look at me, baby. Come on, Bum, I’m here for you, you know that, right? I’ll help you, I’ll help you with everything I can help. I love you.” Minho said for the first time and Kibum choked, feeling his tears, once again, run down his cheeks. “I love you. Everything’s going to be okay.”

When Kibum put his head on his neck and grabbed the hem of his t-shirt while his sobs shook his entire body, Minho knew he was back. 

Kibum is getting worse day by day and no one knows how to help him :(

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