I wake up the next morning, feeling a sore spot on my neck and remembering last night’s events. My cheeks flare as I recall the way I reacted when Daehyun was drinking my blood. I have never felt so embarrassed in my life! I mean, there’s nothing ual about his actions, but I was acting like an idiot and let my emotions take over me. Good thing I didn’t pin him down or any of the liking or else I’ll truly regret that night.

  As I try sitting up, I find my head spinning and my stomach feeling sick. “Ugh. What the hell?” I groan as the my stomach does somersaults the more I move. It doesn’t hit me until my body lurches forward and something forces it’s way up my throat. I run to the bathroom and throw up whatever it is in the toilet.

  I don’t know what hits me, but I don’t feel so good after that. I wash my mouth to get rid of the nasty taste on my tongue and rub the temple of my forehead. It feels like someone is crushing me in between their palms.

  I sluggishly walk to my room and lie on my bed. I don’t know why I’m suddenly feeling sick, but now I don’t feel like getting up. Wrapping the covers around me, I curl myself in a ball and clutch my stomach. Did I eat something bad last night? I can’t recall because everything I ate last night was made by L, and I have never felt sick from his food. It must be something else.

  “Ugh,” I groan. What am I going to do if Daehyun or Zelo sees me like this? I definitely need to keep my composure. They can’t see me like this. I shoot up from my bed and immediately regret it as my head spins and stomach churns. I massage my head. How did I suddenly get sick without a warning?

  A knock comes from my door. I stand and pretend opening the blinds. “Come in!”

  Zelo emerges from behind the door and says quietly, “I see you’re awake. Young Master is still in his room. He wants to speak to you before he leaves to visit the bank.”

  “Ah, alright.” My heart pounds as the events from last night flashes in my head. I shouldn’t be thinking too much about it. Daehyun probably saw nothing wrong with my blood especially on a night like that. Ah, what am I saying? He’s a vampire for Pete’s sake! Of course it’s normal. I’m the one acting abnormal.

  I falter a bit as I walk up to Zelo. Just as I pass through the door, my head throbs and my knees buckle. Zelo catches me and looks at me with worry. “Are you okay, Youngjae?”

  “Yeah.” I get out of his grasp and make my way to Daehyun’s room. “Don’t worry about me. Go ahead and do whatever duty you need to do.” I try to shooing him away. I don’t want him to know that I’m feeling unwell. In fact, I don’t want anyone to know.

  Zelo reluctantly takes a few steps back before making his way down the corridor.

  When he’s gone, I knock lightly on Daehyun’s door. There’s no answer. I assume he’s letting me in and walk inside to see him sitting at the edge of his bed with a candle lit on his bedside table. His eyes reflect the soft orange glow as he gazes deeply at it.

  I clear my throat. “You wanted to see me?”

  His eyes never leave the flame. “Yes. How are you feeling?” He asks as if knowing my condition.

  I shift my weight. “Fine.”

  His dark eyes tear away from the candle to me. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” My stomach hurts a little and my head is throbbing, but that’s about it. Nothing too serious.

  Daehyun squints his eyes and stands. His steps are graceful towards me and he raises his hand. I flinch. He’s not wearing his gloves, so I can feel his cold hands on my cheek and his rough thumb rubs just below my eyes. “Don’t lie to me,” he murmurs, “You look pale.”

  “I said it’s nothing.” Can he please stop touching me like this? My emotions are going everywhere because of him.

  He pulls his hand away. “Is this your first time being bitten?”

  “Yes and no.”

  He tilts his head to the side.

  I cross my arms over my chest and raise my shoulders while dropping my head. “I haven’t been bitten before, but I had my blood . I know it sounds confusing, but I usually cut myself beforehand.”

  He still has that questioning look on his face, but doesn’t ask anymore questions. Instead, “If this is your first time being bitten, then you’re probably feeling the side effects of it. When you’re first bitten by a vampire, you get symptoms of nausea and possibly a fever. Weaker humans usually die from it, but most don’t. I’m surprised you’re handling it well.”

  That’s only because I’m doing my best to ignore it. My stomach is hurting so much. I just want to go to the restroom, but here I am talking to Jung Daehyun about being sick because I got bitten by him. I did hear about this from Yongguk long ago, but I didn’t pay much attention to it since I didn’t plan on ever getting bitten. “Well-” a wave of pain strikes my head and I groan.

  Daehyun takes my cheeks in between his hands and stares at me with concern. “You really are stubborn, Youngjae. See? Have you not noticed your face is really hot?”

  Well, first of all you’re really close to me while holding my head, and second of all, this is definitely not how you check someone’s temperature. “I told you I’m fi-” Uh-oh. Something boils inside my stomach and forces it’s way up out of my body. My body lurches forward and I  bend down but throw up all over Daehyun’s feet. .

  To my surprise, Daehyun remains calm, but his body stiffens.

  “I’m so sorry.” Something else is making it’s way up again. This time, I run out and manage to go the bathroom in time. I’m leaning over the toilet while excreting whatever I had for dinner last night. This is so embarrassing. I can’t believe I just threw up all over Daehyun’s feet. He must hate me right now.

  Next thing I know, Daehyun stands next to me and makes his way to the bathtub where he quietly washes his feet with soap and water. I can’t help but watch him with guilt shown all over my face. He must be thinking of a master plan to kill me for doing that. “Uhm, Daehyun. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to-” Again, I can’t control my body and have my head over the toilet.

  He dries his feet. “No. It’s fine. I’ll have someone clean the floor. I need you to rest. I’ll ask L to prepare something for your fever and water to keep you hydrated,” He pauses, “And I’ll take care you until you’re better.”

  What? “Wait, don’t you have to go to the bank today? There must be some reports that you need to look over. What if your father-” I’m over the toilet again.

  “The reports and my father can wait. I’m the one who caused you to be sick, so it’s my responsibility to take care of you.”

  Damn everything stinks right now. I flush the toilet. “Zelo can take care of me. You have your own matters to attend to.” I mainly just don’t want him to see this pathetic side of me. I normally show him my strengths but here I am throwing up everything I ate yesterday.

  He shakes his head. “Don’t worry. I’ve done it before. Knowing you, you’ll probably feel better by the end of the Night.”

  “No, really, it’s fine. I can take care of it myself if you don’t want Zelo to.” I stand, but my knees give in once more.

  Daehyun catches me and our faces are so close to each other, our lips are nearly touching. I press my lips together and make sure I breathe through my nose to avoid him from smelling my breath. Realizing I had a better option, I push him off, only having him grab my arm.

  “When you don’t need to be stubborn, you always end up not listening to me,” Daehyun states, clearly annoyed.

  “Well-” I bite my tongue. I really don’t have an excuse this time. Maybe it is best if I do rest instead of fight him. This will be a better option for my stomach and for my heart. Since his hand is still grabbing my arm, I pull away. He really needs to stop touching me. It doesn’t help that his gloves are off, so the skin-to-skin contact is just unbearable. Ah, I’m really acting like a child right now.

  I wash my mouth and walk back to my room with Daehyun behind me to make sure I don’t fall on my knees. I manage to get there with no problems whatsoever and sit at the edge of my bed.

  Daehyun lights a candle even though the Moonlight is enough to see the whole room. “I’ll be back. Just don’t do anything crazy while you’re in here.”

  “Oh, you bet I will. I’ll have a party all by myself,” I remark sarcastically.

  He smiles which melts my heart and leaves.

  Oh my, what is wrong with me? He probably thinks I’m a real big idiot right now. To not further embarrass myself, I should just listen to him and not complain. It’ll make his and my life easier. And don’t worry Youngjae, he’s only taking care of you for today. After this, everything will go back to normal.

  I trace my bruise thoughtfully. This is happening because I let him bite my neck. I should’ve just let him all the blood out from my wrist and refuse those pleading eyes. Then, none of this would happen.

  As I’m lost in thought, Daehyun returns with a glass of water and a pill in his other hand. “Zelo will be bringing up the soup, and here.” He hands me the two items, “Take this for your headache.”

  I pop the pill and drink the water, feeling the pill go down my throat to my stomach. “Thank you.” What now? It’s not like I’m dying here.

  Daehyun sits next to me. I stiffen as our thighs touch, but he doesn’t seem to care. “I’m surprised that I didn’t get sick after drinking your blood. So that does confirm that your blood is special.”

  “Ah.” I really don’t know how to respond to this. I mean, yes, my blood is special, but I can’t tell him why. I’m not supposed to tell anyone.

  He leans back, bending his elbows to prop himself up. His shirt rides up a little and I can see part of his skin showing. I do my best to look at his face or anywhere else as long as it’s not that little bit of flesh just below his belly button.

  Daehyun continues to talk, “The last time I had to take care of someone was actually the previous owner of The Red Rose.” He chuckles as if something funny happened, but the smile on his face disappears. “Now that I think about it, she kind of reminds me of the woman I saw the night I became sick of drinking human blood. I mean, it’s just her long, black hair, but I feel like I remember seeing green eyes underneath a mask. I could be wrong.”

  “Ah.”

  “You don’t care, do you?”

  “No! That’s not what I mean at all! I just don’t know how to respond.” Why am I being so shy now? “I wasn’t there, so I can’t vouch for you. There’s a ton of people who have black hair, so you may never know. I mean, if she was his Doll, wouldn’t she have an emblem tattooed on her neck? Did the owner of The Red Rose have one?”

  He shakes his head thoughtfully. “No. But I can’t recall if the other woman had it. It doesn’t matter. What we need to worry about is you. You should lay down.”

  “I’m fine.” My headache is subsiding. It’s still there, but not as painful as earlier.

  “Suit yourself, but I’m laying down.” He plops on his bed, causing the shirt to ride up even more. This time I don’t ignore what I see because most of his stomach is showing, including parts of his abs.

  I blush and quickly turn away.

  This time Daehyun notices and sits back up, resting his head on my shoulder. “Liked what you saw?” He whispers and blows on my ear.

  This makes me go absolutely crazy. Does he not realize what he’s doing to me? I push his head off my shoulder. “Like hell I did.”

  He smirks and lies back down, pulling down his shirt as he does so. Placing his hands behind his head, he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “Looks like today will be a relaxing day despite you being sick.”

  “I told you, I’m not that sick. I can take care of myself. See? I don’t have a headache after taking those pills.”

  “Yeah, but you have a fever.”

  That ‘fever’ was more like my cheeks burning up after touching me. “Whatever. You probably think my skin feels ten times hotter because your hands are super cold.”

  He raises his ungloved hands up to his face. “You’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean I can’t worry about you. There are some humans who had worse side effects and I want to make sure I’m here just in case that happens.”

  “Okay. Do whatever you like.”

  Zelo comes knocking and enters the room with a tray of soup, napkins, and silverware. As he sets down the tray on the bedside table next to me, he scolds me, “You lied to me and said nothing was wrong.”

  “Wow. You even lied to Zelo,” Daehyun comments.

  I ignore him. “Sorry. I just don’t want anyone to worry, especially you.”

  He purses his lips.

  “Thank you, Zelo. I’ll take care of him, and I’ll punish him for lying to you,” Daehyun states, causing me to blush. Damnit. I really am a ert.

  Zelo bows and leaves the room.

  We stay in our positions for a while, not talking or moving.

  Daehyun sits up again. “You’re not going to eat? Or are you waiting for me to feed you?”

  I glare at him. Why would I want him to feed me? If I’m stubborn enough to want to take care of myself, why should I let him feed me? I take the bowl and place it on my lap. As I reach out for the spoon, Daehyun reaches over and grabs the bowl from me, brushing my inner thigh by accident. Damnit, Youngjae. Stop overthinking things.

  “Hey!” I snap and attempt to take it from him.

  “Do you want me to spill this hot soup over you? I mean, I wouldn’t mind because then, I can help you change,” he threatens.

  I pull my hand away.

  “Good. Now hand me the spoon, so I can feed you.”

  “I can feed-” I stop as he raises his eyebrows. I hand him the spoon, making sure it slaps against his hand as I do so. And he says I’m stubborn.

  He scoops a spoonful of soup and blows gently on it. I watch as his lips make a slight ‘o’ and as he touches the tip of the spoon with those same lips to test if it’s hot. When he knows it’s bearable, he moves the spoon towards my mouth while having the bowl below it just in case I spill.

  “I feel like a child,” I say, but still eat it anyways.

  Daehyun gives a satisfying smile and does this until I’m nearly done with the bowl.

  By the time we get ⅔ of it done, I tell him, “I’m getting full. Thanks.”

  He leans over me to place the bowl back on the tray. As he does so, I get a whiff of the peppermint smell. It’s so soothing to the point I find myself closing my eyes and just taking a deep breath.

  “You’re recovering pretty quickly. That’s no fun.” Daehyun falls back on the bed.

  I’m about to answer him until he grabs my arm and pushes me down next to him. What the hell? I try to get up, but he places his hand on my chest, preventing me from doing so. My heart is going crazy! I swat his hand away and roll to my side to yell at him. I don’t do so as I find myself staring at Daehyun’s side profile.

  “It's nice to relax,” Daehyun comments and turns his head towards me.

  I blush upon seeing how close his face is to mine. Those thick lips, those deep brown eyes, that pale skin that glistens in the Moonlight… They’re all so captivating. I force myself to stop looking and lie on my back. “Everyone needs to relax once in awhile especially after last night. Last night was definitely crazy.”

  “Yeah, it sure was.”

  We stare at the ceiling.

  “Daehyun?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why do a lot of people not like your uncle? Based on what you tell me, he seems like a great guy.”

  “He’s different that’s why. He’s different just like me. I guess you can say similar people attract each other.”

  “Don’t they usually say opposites attract?”

  Daehyun laughs. “Yeah, but I think you’re closer to people who share the same pain as you.” Again, he raises his hands to his face.

  I find myself doing the same and notice how different our scars are. His are mostly burn marks caused by his father while mine are cuts along my body from the past I never want to emerge. I take his hands and trace the burn marks. Some sort of sadness courses through me. “I don’t understand why your father would do this to you.”

  “He was disciplining me because I’m going to inherit the bank.”

  “Still. A father shouldn’t do something like this to their own child, even if you’re not borne from the original wife.”

  “You tell me not to worry, but look at you worrying about me. I thought you’re annoyed by me.”

  “I am!” I shoot, but still hold his hands. “I’m always annoyed by you, but that doesn’t mean I hate you. If I truly hated you, I wouldn’t be here, letting you drink my blood, taking care of me, and lying next to me. If I hated you, I would’ve ran away a long time ago. But I’ll probably take Zelo with me. And L because he makes pretty damn good food.”

  He laughs full heartedly, causing the whole bed to shake. “True. I can definitely see that happening with an attitude like yours.”

  “Exactly.” I find myself playing with his fingers like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Realizing what I was doing, I release him and place my hands on the bed next to me.

  He chuckles. “The Night just started and I already feel like sleeping.” He closes his eyes.

  Wait a minute. I prop myself up with my elbows. “You’re not sleeping here.”

  “Sorry. Couldn’t hear you. My mind went blank for a while. What did you say?”

  I take a pillow and hit him with it. “You know what I said.”

  “It’s not like I’ll do anything unless you want to.”

  I hit him again.

  “Alright, alright. I understand. You’re just being shy.”

  Another hit.

  “Stop! That actually hurts when you hit my face. Maybe you really weren’t sick,” he mumbles the last few words.

  I drop the pillow. “You’re still not sleeping here. And I told you, I’ll be fine.”

  “Then can you pretend to be sick? I don’t feel like going to the bank.”

  “You need to! What if a fire starts and all the records are gone? You’ll have no idea where the bank stands and your father might get angry. You don't want that. You should just go. I’m fine. See?” I spread my arms out as if that would prove anything.

  He heaves a sigh and sits up. “Fine, but when I come back, just pretend to be sick so I can feed you again.” Knowing I will hit him with the pillow, he gets up and runs to the door. With a single wave of a hand and a few words of something like, “I’ll see you later,” he leaves me in my room all alone.

  The candle is still lit and smell of the soup fills my nostrils. I lie back on my bed and pull the covers, where Daehyun lay, close to my face. The smell of the soup is replaced by his peppermint scent. It gives me comfort and I can’t help but grin as I close my eyes and imagine his bright smile. Oh, how I want to continue seeing that smile. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure he’s happy. And one day, I will tell him everything about my past.

Author's Note:

  So this is just a filler chapter because I'm pretty sure you guys are tired of the constant angst. I tried to make this a little more light hearted than usual. Haha Youngjae and Daehyun are both a bit stubborn aren't they? I also have a question, would you mind a slightly rated scene or keep it very vague, like, skip to the next morning before anything happens? (Most likely it'll be more PG-13 rather than R because I want to keep this as less rated as possible haha) Hope you enjoyed!

With Love,

LokiCraze123

(P.S. I'm heading back to university, so I won't be on as much as usual. However, I've been writing this fic throughout my break and am practically finished with it. They're just hidden. This also means, I will be able to have weekly updates for you guys if I have a chance (: Thank you for reading!)