In spring when the days began to get longer than the nights and the temperature began to get warmer by the day, Kyungsoo was the same as ever. Chanyeol even more so.

He was still stuck within the many walls of the mansion he lived in. In fact, Kyungsoo had only left the mansion probably once or twice since he moved there with his family in the summer of the previous year.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, had yet to leave the mansion in over a century-and-a-half.

In that aspect, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were very much alike.

When all they did was stay home, they soon ran out of things to do and talk about. There were far more things to do and talk to each other about, but not while they were still confined within the mansion that seemed ever too small now in perspective.

The world out there was much more a larger place with vast opportunities for either of them.

Chanyeol had been out in the world once but that was a long time ago and he had forgotten about it for the most part.

Meanwhile, Kyungsoo had yet to be out there to experience the world and experience a taste of how it was like.

By then, Kyungsoo was rather sick of spending almost his entire day studying.

There were only a few months left before he had to leave for boarding school, and he wasn’t set on studying for the remaining time he had here since he could do all the studying he wanted later on when he was back in school.

For now, Kyungsoo wanted to cherish the limited time he had left with his best friend, Chanyeol. Since he wouldn’t be getting to spend all the time he wanted to with Chanyeol once he was away.

One morning that same spring, Kyungsoo, and Chanyeol had been playing billiards on the billiards table available in the mansion’s drawing room.

Billiards was one of the few games that Chanyeol was familiar with and had already existed around the time before his hibernation, and even longer before that.

Although Chanyeol had mostly forgotten all the rules and methods of its play, he still recognized the table and its setup, bringing a sense of comforting familiarity to him.

After a few hours and several rounds of billiards, Kyungsoo continued playing against himself while Chanyeol sat on an armchair, watching and observing Kyungsoo.

The one thing that struck Chanyeol’s attention was Kyungsoo’s legs and posture.

Kyungsoo’s legs were continuously jittering and shaking while he stood. Although it was subtle, slight and hard to notice at first, Kyungsoo’s legs would continue to shake even more the longer he spent standing up.

At some point, when Kyungsoo had been standing up too long, he gave up and plopped down on the floor beside the chair that Chanyeol was seated on.

“Ugh, I can’t feel my legs anymore,“ Kyungsoo grunted, stretching his legs in front of him on the floor with the cue stick rested on his lap.

“Tired, huh?” Chanyeol asked, leaning forward on the chair to be closer to talk to Kyungsoo.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo sighed, resting his back on the sides of the chair.

“How long can you usually stand up or walk before your legs get tired?” Chanyeol questioned, pressing his palms together.

“Not very long at all,” Kyungsoo answered, rolling the cue stick back and forth on his lap, “I didn’t learn to walk until I was over two years old which is considered very late for development. I had lots of surgeries at that age because of my heart problem so I grew up very slow.”

“I see,” Chanyeol nodded, “Then what about after that? You’re eighteen-years-old now. You had time to catch up but you still move around like a fawn that had just learned to walk sometimes- no offense though.”

Kyungsoo dryly chuckled as he ran his thumb on the small circular surface of the end of the cue stick, “I don’t know the exact answer to your question but I know that children like me are supposed to go for physical therapy to help them walk. I guess my parents didn’t care to get that for me because they gave up on me- that I would ever be able to walk.”

Upon hearing that, Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows, forming deep wrinkles on his forehead. Chanyeol found himself speechless for a few seconds, with his mouth slightly hung open in astonishment.

Suddenly, Chanyeol began to understand a lot of things that were unexplained- especially regarding Kyungsoo’s relationship with his parents.

Chanyeol resumed, “Kyungsoo, I don’t want to be the person to be breaking this news to you, but what your parents did to you were child neglect and abuse. That is by all means, wrong, especially considering how wealthy and capable your parents were to provide care or someone to care for you.”

Kyungsoo merely shrugged, “I realized that a while ago but I can’t do much about it. I don’t blame them either but I just need to finish school and once I’ll graduate, I’ll move away from them and find my own way in this world.” Kyungsoo tilted his chin upwards to look at Chanyeol hovering above him, “When I finally leave, do you want to come with me?”

“Of course, I’m not staying in this hole without you,” Chanyeol smiled softly and very reassuringly.

Kyungsoo laughed, “Where did you learn to talk like that?”

“From you, of course,” Chanyeol snickered, making it sound very obvious.

“Cool,” Kyungsoo smiled back, lifting two thumbs up.

“Very cool,” Chanyeol responded before lifting himself up from the armchair, pushing himself up with his arms on the armrest, “-but first, we’ll need to do something about those legs of yours.”

“What is it?” Kyungsoo asked, putting the cue stick away on the floor.

With Chanyeol’s help, Kyungsoo got back to standing on his feet again. Kyungsoo’s legs felt less tired after the brief rest, but they still felt sore and weary.

“Since you never got all those walking practice and therapy to strengthen your legs, I’m just going to help you with that,” Chanyeol announced, with his arm around Kyungsoo’s waist to help the latter stand up.

“Do you think this will work? I think I’m fine though,” Kyungsoo expressed, tilting his head up to look at the taller Chanyeol pressed to his side.

“No, you are not fine as it is. You’re not used to walking so your legs never got the time to develop strength. From today onwards, we are going to practice that. Good legs are important for running away from humans who want to kill you,” Chanyeol replied.

“I don’t need to run away from humans though,” Kyungsoo clarified.

“Everyone has their demons, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol explained.

Chanyeol took the first step, taking smaller strides to make up for the obvious difference in leg length so Kyungsoo could still walk easily.

Chanyeol instructed Kyungsoo to follow suit, while he had his arm wrapped around Kyungsoo to help and support him while standing up.

They would do this almost every day and every time, they would walk even further than the last time around the spacious mansion that had more than enough room for them.

Even at night when Chanyeol couldn’t show himself because Kyungsoo’s family was home; Chanyeol would be in Kyungsoo’s room, helping the latter to walk in circles around the room.

After some time, Chanyeol would let go of Kyungsoo and allow him to walk alone and unaided. Chanyeol would still be close by to make sure Kyungsoo was safe and to catch him whenever he fell.

They didn’t just do walking. Chanyeol would make Kyungsoo climb up and down stairs too, which the mansion happened to have an abundance of.

Chanyeol would also follow suit, walking slow and slightly a few steps behind Kyungsoo while they were climbing up and down the stairs.

 Chanyeol never left Kyungsoo to do it alone, always slightly behind so Kyungsoo could look back and see that Chanyeol was right there with him.

Every time Kyungsoo felt like giving up and like he couldn’t go any further, he would look behind and see Chanyeol smiling back at him.

“You can do it,” Chanyeol would cheer on every time.

And just like a kindling a dying fire, Chanyeol made Kyungsoo felt like he could go just a bit more.

Chanyeol eventually stopped coming down from the rafters and sneaking down the corridor to visit Kyungsoo at night, because it was not possible to wait until everyone was in their rooms to not notice him.

This way, Chanyeol could come anytime even when Kyungsoo’s family were still up and about around the residence. They lived there after all.

Chanyeol found an alternative way by going out to the roof and scaling the building through its structure until he arrived on the small balcony outside Kyungsoo’s room.

Kyungsoo was pleasantly surprised to see Chanyeol knocking on the glass one moonless night, while he was waiting for his parents and younger sister to go to bed so Chanyeol could visit him.

“That must be convenient- to just climb and go anywhere you want to go,” Kyungsoo expressed, rather amazed at Chanyeol’s physical capability as he unlocked the windows for Chanyeol to climb in.

“Maybe you can do it too one day if we keep working on your legs,” Chanyeol replied, sitting on the ledge of the half-opened window with the night sky overhead outside.

Kyungsoo chuckled lightly, “Not to that extent, I don’t think so. I’m only human.”

“Only?” Chanyeol reiterated, leaning his back on the window sill as he was still seated on the ledge, “You’re greater than that.”

Kyungsoo couldn’t help but smile as he conveyed, “I still wish I was as cool like a vampire like you.”

“-and I wish I could die naturally like a human would,” Chanyeol shrugged, “We’ll always want things we can’t have but why would we want things that we already possess anyway. There’s where the feeling of want arises from.”

“You’re weird, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo teased, chortling.

“-probably not as weird as you when you thought that it would be interesting to be friends with a vampire,” Chanyeol retorted, playfully tossing the banter around.

Eventually, spring too came and gone, bringing in the hottest season of the year. With the arrival of summer, it also marked the last remaining few months left for Kyungsoo at the mansion before he was shipped away to boarding school.

Now that the beginning of school was drawing near, Kyungsoo once again began to worry about his studies and not wanting to be left behind because of the one year he took off from school.

Kyungsoo yelled, slamming down a book on his desk, looking rather panicked and scared.

Chanyeol, who was playing games on Kyungsoo’s tablet looked up and responded, “What’s wrong, Kyungsoo?”

“! How did I miss something as important as that?” Kyungsoo panicked, picking up the book again and quickly flipping through the pages, seemingly looking for something.

“What is it?” Chanyeol scrunched his nose, putting the tablet away and paying full attention to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo frantically answered, “I didn’t read the school’s syllabus properly and I only realized now that there are music lessons and classes that I have to attend as part of the course so I can graduate high school.”

“-and?” Chanyeol continued asking, not understanding what the problem was yet.

“I used to play the piano many years ago as a child but my parents stopped sending me to music lessons after that. I’m really rusty- in fact, I think I’ve forgotten a whole lot about it. And the school expects me to be able to play an instrument with at least intermediate level to even pass the unit. I spent months preparing for all of the other subjects but not this!” Kyungsoo agitatedly had to explain, almost at the point of ripping his own hair out due to the stress.

“Oh, that’s simple,” Chanyeol dismissed, waving his hand away, “Don’t worry. Like I have informed you prior to this, I can assist in tutoring you in any subject but history. Don’t your parents own a grand piano too- the one in the hall on the floor below?”

“So you can teach me how to play on that piano again?” Kyungsoo sounded slightly more hopeful now.

Chanyeol scratched his chin, “I’ll see if I can actually remember some things like reading sheet music. My muscle memory is better so I think I can help you with it, depending on how much it has changed within the past 150 years or so too.”

Kyungsoo sighed in great relief, placing a hand over his chest, “Thank you so much. I thought I would die there.”

Hearing that, Chanyeol chuckled to himself, maybe a bit dryly.

Kyungsoo insisted that their piano lessons had to begin on the same day too, being worried about not having enough time before the start of the school year.

Unless they were taking their walks around the mansion, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo seldom came around to the part of the mansion where the grand piano was located at.

The piano was in the main hall, just below the staircase that was somewhat near the main entrance of the mansion on the ground floor.

Kyungsoo walked as fast as his two legs could bring him to get to the piano. Chanyeol habitually walked behind Kyungsoo, a few steps lagging behind so he could keep an eye on Kyungsoo.

Once they were there, Kyungsoo attempted to lift the piano’s lid but soon found that he wasn’t capable of doing so. Not that that was surprising to him.

“Let me get that,” Chanyeol offered, lifting up the lid covering the piano keys and pulling the stool out from under the piano before ushering for Kyungsoo to sit on it beside him.

“Okay, if I remember, this is the middle C key and this is the D, E and so on,” Kyungsoo tried to recall, pointing and hovering his finger above the keys.

Kyungsoo continued muttering to himself as he tried to remember whatever it is he learned many years ago.

Chanyeol hummed in thought at the keys for a bit while in silence as he tried to recall the keys and of how to even start playing the piano.

“Right,” Chanyeol sat upright, snapping from his temporary trance and cracking his knuckles, “I think I remember this.”

“Nice,” Kyungsoo responded before his inquisitiveness made him ask, “How does a vampire know how to play the piano anyway?”

“I don’t remember exactly how I learned to play the piano but I do know that it was because of me trying to blend in with humans. I can’t recall the details though so I am unable to tell you more than that,” Chanyeol revealed.