For the first time in his life, Jihun is pretty sure he hates the sun.

It isn’t something major, just a strange uncomfortable shadow weighing him down as they scan through aisles and aisles of canned goods. He’s never been a social person, doesn’t like going out nor does he enjoy being surrounded by strangers. But, he’s never felt like this. He’s suddenly out of his element here, it’s like he can’t seem to focus on anything aside from wanting to go home.

“I wish we had a goddamn rice cooker,” Heejun says, looking down at what meager groceries they can afford. “Then we could have rice all the time.”

“Don’t you get sick of that stuff?” Jihun asks, his head feeling light.

“It’s comforting,” he replies, putting a can of sweet corn back on the shelf. “You okay?”

“Peachy,” he jokes, holding up a can of peaches. Heejun rolls his eyes dismissively.

They check out their items without trouble, Heejun being tirelessly frugal and Jihun simply wanting to get the hell out of there. It’s a hindrance however Jihun can’t stop but notice the help wanted sign as they depart.

“I think I’ll take a job at the used bookstore,” says Heejun, two bags stuffed to the brim with groceries in his arms. “Working around food just makes me hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” Jihun grumbles, rubbing his temples as he follows behind Heejun. “I’ll come back to apply at the market then.”

“Are you seriously okay?” Heejun stops in his tracks and Jihun almost bumps into him.

He could lie, of course. It isn’t serious after all, but lying in this situation to Heejun just seems unfair. Telling the truth doesn’t feel quite right either, he can’t keep worrying Heejun, he has to make everything seem as okay as possible. He brushes past Heejun, leading the way back to their new home. “I’m just feeling tired,” he decides to say, figuring that it’s both truthful and yet not exactly the right answer.

-

The witch lives right dab in the center of town, though small it’s still bustling during rush hour and she pulls in quite the business from humans as a fortune teller. By appearance she seems normal enough, golden hair and a pretty smile that is warm and welcoming at first, if not alarming to those that know what goes on behind her beaded curtains.

Seungjun isn’t quite sure when she sleeps (or if she sleeps at all), the charms hanging over her front door humming softly as he approaches, an offering in tow. He doesn’t bother knocking, the large wooden door swinging open as soon as his foot passes an invisible threshold, the place welcoming home an old friend. It smells, his nose much more acute than that of a human and he gags for show.

“Are you burning something back there?”

He hears a few metallic objects clang about and what could possibly be some feral animal growl before a young woman appears before him, hair curled and golden, eyes round and inquisitive.

“I thought it would for sure be Inseong this time,” she mumbles softly, voice sweet and alluring. Seungjun furrows his brow at her distastefully.

“Isn’t it after hours for humans? Please remove that enchantment, it’s nauseating.”

Her petite lips twitch, an almost mischievous quirk as she lifts her hand in the air, revealing a large violet gem set on a golden band. She removes the ring ceremoniously and away melts her pleasant smile as her golden hair fades into a depressing black shade, the tips turning a murky green and her round eyes becoming sharp and icy. She sighs, placing the ring in a secure pouch as she saunters over to Seungjun, staring at the burlap sack hanging by his side.

“What is it this time?” She frowns, voice smooth and husky. “Not another dead swamp animal, I’ve got about twenty of those.”

“Some kind of cursed relic from three hundred years ago,” he answers, tossing the sack at the witch, who catches it with ease.

She glances inside, a quick exchange of looks with Seungjun before closing the sack back up, turning to pass through the beaded curtains. “Payment accepted,” she calls over her shoulder, Seungjun taking that as the okay to follow.

The front of the shop is decorated in a rather gaudy fashion, used to attract and fool humans. The back however is something Seungjun always finds unpleasant, pungent smells and clashing color schemes upon other things. He may be an undead monster, but Seungjun has always had quite the exquisite taste.

“So,” says the witch, hair curling in messy tufts as the rest of her enchantment begins to wear off. “It’s rare for you to personally stop by.”

“I was sent by Yuji,” he explains, eyes scanning over the ugly assortment of shrunken heads. What use could those possibly have? “I need information on a hunter with a siren spell.”

“Well,” she drawls, crushing dried bones into a small mixing bowl. “There are lots of hunters out there nowadays. Lots of siren spells too.”

“This one will be a strong one. Something that could drive off Inseong or I.”

Her dainty hand pauses mid-air, back still facing Seungjun as she looks up, eyes meeting a crude drawing of some sort of creature. “This is a spell you ran into? You faced this spell personally?”

“Yes,” he answers, watching her carefully.

Suddenly unaffected, she resumes whatever it is she was previously doing, humming softly to a jazzy tune that Seungjun doesn’t know the name of. She keeps him waiting for a bit like that, mixing this and that and as she finishes up she finally says, “I know of a spell.” Her head begins to bob in replacement of the humming. “Not the one you’re looking for– no, but I know of a spell that should allow me to see any that have recently come in contact with you. I should be able to figure out this siren spell through that.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” He asks, arms opening up in welcome. The sooner this is over the sooner he can leave.

She turns to face him, lips curved in a playful smirk. “It’ll cost you big.”

“I’ve already paid you,” he says, eyes pointing to the burlap sack abandoned in the corner of the room.

“That was for the information, not for me to perform a spell.” The witch her lips, chuckling, “And I’ve already told you all the information I know regarding the matter.”

“You’ve told me nothing,” he deadpans.

“That was all I knew regarding the matter.”

He groans, annoyed at the turn of events, but pushes down his pride anyways, locking eyes with her. “What do you want?”

Honestly, Seungjun prefers her in her natural state, but sometimes he wishes she could mix in a bit of that honey-esque attitude with her business deals.

“Your blood.”

-

The only thing Jihun has to be thankful about for working at the rundown grocery store is the fact that they have a nighttime shift doing stock. He had dreaded working in the day hours, having to man down a register or worse– customer service. Thank God for shipments coming in the middle of the night.

There’s four other workers aside from him– a burly older fellow that Jihun learns is the night manager, a woman in her mid-thirties who talks about nothing but her newborn baby, a young lady who could be more disinterested in them all, and another new employee that’s even taller than Jihun. He wears a friendly grin that for some unexplainable reason sends an uncomfortable buzz to go off in Jihun’s head.

“Well,” the manager says, not much for talking it seems. “We’ll have you do inventory for the time being.”

It’s a bit of insult to his lack of muscles, Jihun realizes as he watches the manager take off with the other new recruit to unload boxes, but he figures that taking it easy couldn’t be the worst thing. The woman in her thirties prattles on about her baby and begins gossiping about the manager while Jihun politely throws in nods here and there with the occasional “oh I see” and “you don’t say” while trying to sort out the list given to him. Work speeds by when he begins to drown her out with thoughts of whatever the hell it must be that Heejun’s doing about now– sleeping probably.

Despite hardly getting a wink of sleep last night and being awake all day, Jihun strangely doesn’t feel any signs of exhaustion even skipping his lunch break to loiter in the back alley of the loading dock. It would be suspicious to stay with the others during this time, his stomach still as silent as when he woke. He still isn’t sure how he’s going to get them out of this new mess, their previous problem still needing resolving as well.

It was supposed to be simple. They were going to track down the vampires that ruined their lives, extract revenge and then move on. At least, that was as simple as Jihun had pictured it to be, his brow furrowing in worry that perhaps he’s ed up somewhere along the way and has dragged Heejun down another path not meant for him.

This is his fault– again.

“Yo–” A voice calls out to him, nearly giving him a heart attack in the silence of the night. His wards haven’t made a peep in days, but Jihun isn’t used to being around humans who aren’t Heejun anymore. “Break’s over, they’re wondering where you are.”

“Oh,” he pauses. Blinks. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

The guy laughs, it’s the other new employee. “Don’t gotta apologize to me.”

“Right. Sorry.”

He shakes his head, grin still intact. “I’m Youjin by the way, didn’t get to introduce myself earlier”

“Jihun.”

“Nice to meet you, Jihun.”

“Same.”

“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” Youjin chuckles, albeit awkwardly. God, it’s times like these that make Jihun wish he had more friends to socialize with besides Heejun.

“Sorry about that,” Jihun mumbles sheepishly, but Youjin simply shakes his head.

“It’s alright, I’m actually not either. I just figured it’d be nice to make some friends here, I’ve just moved from the city.”

“You’re from the city?”

“Born and raised. There were some circumstances and I had to come move out here, but a small town like this isn’t so bad.”

“I find small towns to be the best, actually.”

“You move around much?”

Jihun blinks down at the floor. “Yeah. My roommate and I are childhood friends, we’ve lived in a few different towns these last few years.” What is he saying? The words escape his mouth before he can even think about it, “But we were raised in the city.”

“Oh.” Youjin nods, smiling. “We’re all city boys then.”

“Yeah,” Jihun says, mirroring Youjin’s smile. There isn’t anything suspicious about what he just said, right? Of course not, it’s just small talk. He isn’t one to talk about himself (or Heejun) but it isn’t like he’s just spilled his guts out to a complete stranger. Get a grip, he thinks to himself. There’s nothing strange about any of this.

“I can’t believe we’ve still got four more hours until work’s over,” groans Youjin, stretching. Jihun blinks up at him. “Good luck with the chatterbox.”

Jihun chuckles softly. “You too with those boxes.”

-

“My blood?”

This is perplexing and possibly not the way Seungjun was expecting things to go tonight. He knows that on occasion blood can be used as payment, but he also knows it isn’t something for his kind to give up so easily when asked. There’s a lot of things that can be done with his blood and he’s just recently done one of them.

The witch only smiles at him, her face lacking any true emotion and he fears she may be seeing right through him. He’s always hated the magical type, never got along with the sorcerers back in his time and has always wished Yuji didn’t deal in witches. They clearly cannot be trusted by either side.

“Just a small sample, nothing compared to what you can store.”

And he can store a fine amount as long as he remembers to feed and he is always well fed in the home of his maker. This is something rather personal though, something he’s going to give up to the witch instead of an arbitrary lamp or dead creature that Yuji obtains from unknown sources. This is his deal with the witch.

“This spell of your’s, will it take long?”

“Have places to be, do we?” She asks, a brow arching up in mock curiosity.

He scoffs. “I have a curfew you know. Don’t want to combust into flames on my way back.”

“It will take as long as it needs to take to find any traces of magic that have recently come in contact with you, which should be rather quick unless you get zapped daily with curses. I don’t think vampires deal with magic that often.”

They really don’t, he snorts to himself. Most spells and enchantments simply fizz out with them and there is no possible way for the undead to wield any sort of magic– that is something for the living. All the more reason Seungjun must figure out this siren spell. If his pet– his human were to get a hold of that dangerous spell (and he can admit that even a monster like him worries over things like this) it would surely folly Seungjun’s brilliant plan.

“One vial,” he says, rolling his sleeve up and pulling forth his arm. The witch’s smile widens.

She moves quickly, a small dagger with strange encryptions digging into his skin, slicing open flesh as a fine line of blood begins to seep out. She’s precise as she stores every last drop into a tiny glass vial before Seungjun’s skin sews itself back together, wound never there.

-

Their new life becomes a well oiled machine of nothing but routine. Heejun works random shifts spread throughout the week and Jihun finds himself working almost every night doing stock. The manager was quick to notice how much energy he had over the others, regretting not putting him immediately on stocking duties before Youjin threw out his back carrying a shipment of toilet paper of all things. He took a week off, leaving Jihun to fill in his place.

The days begin to repeat themselves like that, Jihun feeling less and less connected to the world of light as most of his time is absorbed in work. It was difficult living like this, trying to blend in as much as possible while figuring out how they were going to track a pair of bloodsuckers that could turn up at any moment. His wards were dead silent in the days that followed and not a single peep from Heejun’s as well. It was worrying, of course, they felt like sitting ducks.

“We have zero leads,” Heejun says, yawning as he rests his head against the front counter. He’s manning the store alone today, quickly earning the trust of the old woman who owns the used bookstore, giving Jihun the chance to loiter whenever. “We could go back to the crime scene.”

“Already went, there’s nothing there.”

“You went without me?”

“You were at work,” he says defensively, dodging the glare Heejun gives him.

“Did you go to the old hideout by yourself too then?”

“I’m not stupid,” Jihun says, very well knowing that despite the vampires not being able to go out in the daylight, they can still lay traps during the night. “Besides I highly doubt there’s anything there as well.”

“We don’t know anyone in this town,” Heejun sighs. “We have no way of gathering info.”

“It’s been really quiet too.”

“I asked a few customers about that, actually. They said things like that out here are rare. Isn’t that strange? We’re out here in the sticks and no vampires are here wreaking havoc? Even the rumor that lead us here is seen as thin smoke by most. Murders and disappearances just aren’t an occurrence I guess.”  

“We should be thankful for that,” Jihun mumbles. “But that is strange. Something has to be keeping them away.”

Heejun blinks up at him, raising his head. “You think those two vampires have marked this territory.”

He bites his bottom lip. Clearly, Heejun can read minds. “It’s just a thought. Older vampires don’t need to feed as often, right? Which means they don’t hunt as often. But what vampire would want some low level weaklings feeding where they squat? It’s gotta be those two keeping the balance around here.”

“What balance?” Heejun frowns. “You think they own this place? That they’re doing everyone a favor by not letting other vampires eat them?”

“That’s not what I said,” snaps Jihun. “But it’s gotta be because of those two.”

“Then how the do we find them? They’re hiding and clearly we aren’t going to find some other vampire to spill the beans.”

“We’ve only got one choice, don’t you think?” Jihun says, a dark expression on his face. He can’t believe the things his mind makes up sometimes.

Heejun isn’t as quick to follow this time, but he’s still looking upset nonetheless.

“We have to bait them.”

-

There’s something quite satisfying about blending in with humans, the sights and sounds of their mundane movements so exciting to Seungjun. He isn’t extremely interested in these humans per se, but he’s always liked seeing just, well– how human humans are.

“Of all the places,” Inseong grumbles by his side, a silky monochrome shirt draping his slender frame, matching the maroon one Seungjun is wearing. “Why am I even here?”

“It’s weird if I come by myself,” he explains as someone shouts drunken cheers. A few girls at the table beside them whoop back. He loves drunk humans the most, they do the silliest things.

“A bar is the last place I’d rather be at,” he huffs, glaring when a stranger bumps into them. “Everyone is so unruly.”

“You’re one to talk,” Seungjun laughs. He can still recall what Inseong was like when he was a human. A tan young man who enjoyed pulling pranks and shouting any time given. As distant as the memory has become, Seungjun still remembers it well. Of course when he met the naive little human Inseong, he had already been turned, frightening the poor boy who thought he was going to be eaten on the spot. Seungjun was bad at blending in with humans back then, he didn’t have the special charm Hyeyeon had given him yet and he was lacking a certain finesse that took years to master.

“Aren’t you the least bit concerned about your human?” Inseong asks, shuffling away from the nearest person. “It’s been awhile since you’ve gone to him, hasn’t it?”

True, Seungjun was keeping a distance, especially after what had happened with the witch. He easily located the new dwelling in which his human was residing in now, even finding his workplace while he was at it. But, he didn’t have the luxury of watching him all through the night anymore, not the with the date of Solji’s arrival coming closer and closer. He was going to have to tread very carefully from now

“You just want me to tell you so you can scare that little small one.”

“He’s hardly small,” Inseong mumbles, flicking a stray peanut away.

“You should be able to find them easily enough,” Seungjun comments, watching some drunkards passby. “They’re not very cautious.”

“So then they aren’t with the Hunter’s Association?” Inseong asks, glancing up at Seungjun. “They had wards.”

“I’m curious about that too,” confesses Seungjun. They weren’t very strong wards, but they did manage to send a small buzz through Seungjun, his skin tingling as he touched his human’s skin. Most people didn’t have wards on them, not the way hunters do. There are wards for homes, buildings, and even places like the very bar Seungjun and Inseong were in. Of course, wards could be broken with magic and other simple charms, weaker ones were the easiest to compete against. His human had an interesting one, a tattoo on his forearm and metal studs in his ears– the type that hunters usually have on them.

“Is it possible to get them from a witch?”

Seungjun had considered that– but, “No. Witches don’t work with that kind of magic. And if they did, they wouldn’t do it for some silly vigilante barely two decades old.”

“A sorcerer?” Inseong questions, pursing his lips. Virtually the same thing, most sorcerers kept to themselves and were known to be grumpy old men. However a few were beginning to form pacts with humans, mainly hunters in exchange for what witches would want from vampires. Different magic called for different occupations, but it was all hocus pocus to Seungjun in the end.

“I don’t know about that one,” he answers honestly, quite stumped as well. “It’s clear they aren’t real hunters though.”

“Then the siren is unrelated to them as well.”

“Probably,” Seungjun shrugs. Perhaps they were just two boys in the wrong place at the wrong time, though Seungjun believes himself to have been in the right place at the right time.

“This is the worst,” Inseong groans as another drunkard bumps into him. “I’m leaving.”

“Actually,” Seungjun stands, dusting his pants off. “I’m going too. You’ve made me think about my human and now I’m depressed not being able to see him.”

“Oh, please.”

They’re outside in the fresh night air when something brushes past Seungjun, a familiar scent that has his hair standing on end.

He’s close.

He can smell it, the scent of the human connected to him, the trail so close and so so so tempting to run towards. It’s calling him, whispering softly and warmly to him, urging him to give chase. Instinctively his fangs slip out and he can see Inseong shift uncomfortably beside him. Can he smell it too this time? No, that’s impossible. But Inseong isn’t human, his senses are sharp too, he should be able to feel something.

It’s as if there’s adrenaline taking over in that moment and Seungjun gives in to temptation. He had been trying so hard to stay away, to give himself time to figure out the source of the siren spell before meeting with his human again. It’s ironic, really, the opposite effect that Seungjun wanted. His human was supposed to come to him first, but Seungjun finds himself moving too fast, anticipation rushing through him.

Yes, humans really are so exciting.