School Life

With the gates wide-open, waves of students came rushing into the campus, waving their hands to their friends. Soon enough, groups of bickering teens crowd the empty grounds. The harsh winter wind has been weighing on their skin since this morning. It was the start of the ‘ber’ months, and winter in Seoul is nothing to brag about. It was ing freezing, and this was just the beginning of the harsh winter.

Jeongin’s feet stopped right in front of the thin line separating him from the inside of his university. His grip tightened on the straps of his backpack. Jeongin wasn’t sure if he would get repelled back because no one invited him in. He had no close friends within his class and it would be strange to ask a random student to invite him in. He sighed and trailing his eyes to the students who were walking towards their respective classes.

“Jeongin.” Seungmin stood behind the boy, putting his hand on his shoulder. Jeongin, who was now getting used to people just appearing out of nowhere, turned around meeting the eyes of the witch.

He tiptoed towards the older man and gave him a brief hug. Pulling away as he saw the curious looks given to them by the students. Panic-stricken; the boy bowed. Jeongin forgot Seungmin was his upper-class man and also the student council president. “Sorry.” Seungmin hummed in response, noticing how the boy acted. He observed his surroundings and made out their current disposition.

He returned his attention to Jeongin’s whose head hung low. “It’s okay. Why are you just standing here, don’t you have class?” Jeongin played with his fingers, embarrassed of admitting his doubts to the witch. Seungmin’s eyes briefly grew wide in realization.

“Let’s go.” he grasped Jeongin’s hand. Dragging him inside the campus. Jeongin shut his eyes shut and prepared for the worst. He might rollback, or maybe even fly away a few feet. Different scenarios in his head played, and it was not helping at all. However, he didn’t feel the weird barrier preventing him from going in.

“Open your eyes, kid. Invitations don’t work in schools or any public establishments.” Seungmin knew Jeongin would be pondering over his ‘current status’ a lot. Especially the ‘you have to be invited in’ situation.

What he said was true, a vampire can enter any public establishment freely, without invitation. In spite of that, they cannot enter a private place or in simple words, a person’s home, without being invited in. However, centuries ago, vampires would try to gain entrance by tricking a person into believing they are someone else. Like a close relative or a friend of the owner.

Seungmin’s eyes trailed to Jeongin who was now calmly walking beside him, ‘he was a different case’ the witch thought. Is it even possible for a ‘bond-mate’ to have the same situation as a full vampire? It's just so weird. But at least he didn't get all the other similarities, it'll be a pain in the to handle another blood er.

He continued to eye the boy curiously, the constant stream of memories from yesterday’s ‘sleepover’ playing inside his head.

Seungmin couldn’t go to sleep. He doesn’t really need that much sleep also, but after what happened earlier, he was tired.

Unfortunately, not that tired of falling asleep. He was aware of the boy beside him tossing and turning from time to time. Jeongin couldn’t sleep either. At around 3am, he felt the bed shifting because of weight being lifted from it. He bolted upright once the door was closed with a soft thud. Slowly and softly, he followed him.

Halfway through the hall, he felt guilt. What the hell is he doing stalking him? This isn’t right. But, he was worried. Maybe some scary being was there waiting for someone to appear?

He noticed he was holding his breath for a while. He shook his head and continued. There’s no harm in peeking. Jeongin wouldn’t know he was following him. ‘

Taking careful steps, Seungmin peered through the wall separating the living room and the kitchen. He saw how Jeongin stopped dead in his tracks, he heard the boy call out to the other presence in the kitchen. ‘Chan?’ voice soft and low. Seungmin knitted his eyebrows.

What is that blood- idiot doing here? Seungmin knows he doesn’t need sleep but, out of all the places inside that ginormous house, why the kitchen?

Did Chan plan this? Did he lure the boy? Or maybe it was just a coincidence? When he was about to make his presence known, Jeongin welcomed Chan into an embrace. The doubt inside Seungmin’s head vanished, as he turned his back heading upstairs with a small smile on his face, he knew he had just lost to his own head. He finally knew he was worrying for nothing at all. How could he be so blind? Sure, Chan was scary and powerful, that vampire is not easy to deal with.

Contrary to his ‘intent to kill’ earlier that day, Chan will never hurt a human being.

And :Jeongin was no exception to that.

A few hours later, the sun seeped through the curtains in their room. Jeongin stirred awake, rubbing his eyes as they slowly adjusted to the sunlight. He sat upright and yawned, stretching both his arms in the air. His jaw was caught as his eyes noticed the ‘figures’ staring at him with googly eyes. “Isn’t he just so adorable!” Hyunjin’s voice was a few octaves higher, during that time he smacked Jisung and Changbin because he couldn’t contain his excitement.

The noise making Seungmin, who was really annoyed because he couldn’t get any sleep at all, threw a pillow hitting Hyunjin square in the face. The wolf stumbled, recovering after, while he whined about the witch enchanting the pillow (he didn't though but he was definitely tempted in doing so). Changbin and Jisung’s laughter can be heard in the background.

Seungmin really thought they could go home as soon as they woke up. But there he was, sitting on the couch, dumbfounded. Eyes traveling from Felix who was doing the fortnite dance because he won the game, to Jisung and Changbin groaning in frustration because they lost, to Woojin and Chan watching them with fatherly smiles, to Hyunjin drying Jeongin’s hair, and well, Minho who was throwing praises at himself as he checks his reflection on the small mirror in his hand. Seungmin scoffed out loud, making the rest look at him.

His pupils dilated and only a loud “NO!” was heard, as Minho pulled him into a human/non human pile on the floor.

“Seungmin!” The familiar figure running towards them made Seungmin halt in place, his daydreaming scene vanishing at the back of his head. Jeongin stopped as well.

The pretty girl stops in front of Seungmin, tucking a few strands of her hair behind her ear. She gave the witch a big smile. But the boy beside him didn’t go unnoticed, her eyes shifted to Jeongin for a second before she turned her attention to Seungmin. “Let’s walk together to the office!

“Yuna, can’t you see I’m with someone?” the girl’s smile wavered. She peered over the boy, this time holding her gaze. Annoyed by the fact that Seungmin was more interested in him than the vice president of the student council and from what she claimed that she was his ‘best friend’.

Seungmin gave her a cold stare, “I will be there before the meeting with the school journalists after lunch. See you.” He nonchalantly passed by her. Jeongin, who was unaware of the eerie tension, bowed at the girl before catching up with Seungmin.

He matched his pace with the witch, moving his eyes to Seungmin’s face. A small smile forming on his lips, Jeongin couldn’t help but feel accomplished. It’s really something he could brag about, his friendship with Seungmin. Well, the witch didn’t confirm it yet but nonetheless, he felt happy.

“Why are you smiling like an idiot, Jeongin?” the boy pouted.

Those were the last words they exchanged before they continued walking towards Jeongin’s class. Out of instinct, Jeongin stopped right in front of the door. One of his classmates bumping into him, no apology given. “Manners, Mr. Kevin.'' The familiar voice startled the boy, bowing 90 degrees before forcing a low ‘sorry’, directing it to Seungmin instead of Jeongin. The boy sped off apologizing again and again as he did so.

Jeongin stuck his foot through the door, continuing into a step when he felt no such barrier. He proceeded on walking towards his seat near the window, clearly unaware of the witch ambling behind him. As he turns to sit down, he notices Seungmin taking the chair from the empty seat in front of his desk. “Seungmin? Why are you still here?” he watched as the witch placed the chair near his table, sitting down facing him. Seungmin signals him to sit down also.

“To kill some time. Your class doesn’t start in 20 minutes, right?” All Jeongin could do was nod in awe. The buzzing of voices around them grew louder.

Seungmin gave him a smile, “Ignore them.” he smiled back, eagerly nodding his head. This time, the witch started the conversation. “I don’t know why me coming here is a big deal? Honestly, they treat me like I’m a dean in this university.” Seungmin complained.

“I guess you’re some kind of figure of authority? That’s why they respect you.” Jeongin responded. Seungmin rolled his eyes and groaned. “Respect? They’re terrified of me. Not that that’s bad. I like being feared.”

A twisted grin appeared on the witch’s face. Jeongin shivered. He couldn’t tell if Seungmin was messing with him or being serious. Morally, he doesn’t want to know.

“I just want to be treated like everyone else.”

“But you don’t want friends.”

“Exactly.” The witch’s statement left him confused. This conversation makes no sense at all.

Eventually they moved on with the topic. Seungmin asking the questions, of course.

He asked the boy about his major, and why he picked it. Seungmin forced himself to not break into a smile or even chuckle every once in a while. The glow on Jeongin’s face while he was talking about his love for his current program, made it a hard task to do so. He had to admit it was the shortest 20 minutes in his life.

And surviving for more than 500 years contained a lot of maddening long minutes, hours, and even days.

Seungmin wanted to hear more from the kid, weirdly enough, he embraced the term ‘friends’ very easily. His intentions were pure, as asked the boy if they were friends. Not letting Jeongin respond, he ended the conversation with somewhat a threat, “You will be my friend or else I’m gonna chuck you into the garbage shoot.” He had to admit he panicked just a little bit when Jeongin bit his lips, eyes turning glossy as the boy tried to hold back his tears. Seungmin swore he would kill everyone in the room, including himself, if they ever hurt the boy.

And in Chan's case… he would probably eliminate the country’s whole population.

“You have my number, right?” Fixing his wrinkled sweater, Seungmin stood up picking up his backpack in the process. “Text me when you’re done. Let’s get lunch outside.” and with that, he exited the room, after giving the boy a soft pat on the head.

He knew the consequences of his actions, but he couldn’t help himself. The sun shined through the windows; his eyes momentarily blinded by it. Seungmin shielded his face with his hand, a familiar insignia on his finger came to view. He smiled, running his thumb over the black ink.

-

Wasting no time, Jeongin’s classmates circled his desk. Throwing questions at him like there’s no tomorrow. He was overwhelmed by the amount of attention, but he was mindful of their intentions. Jeongin meekly smiled, answering only with the right words.

The words ‘He’s my friend’ felt like an alien language to him, but weirdly enough it rolled naturally from his tongue. But the queries from his curious classmates grew a bit personal. Some even asked him to do some favors only the student council can do. He declined politely.

Jeongin was thankful for the heavens when the professor walked in 5 minutes after. He pushed back all his thoughts and decided to focus on the lecture. Smiling slightly when he remembered the witch’s words before he left.

Students scrambled to their feet as they sped off towards their respective classes. But with the irregular schedules of a university student, some of them enjoy their free time. Seungmin walked past a group of students, greeting him with a smile and a bow.

He bowed in return, not forgetting about his attitude as someone in ‘authority’ as Jeongin stated. It was a pain in the he grew accustomed to. And he had a way to avoid them. The campus may be huge but Seungmin knows the path where he would encounter fewer students. Typical.

The student council has its own 2-story building near the faculty building. He pushed the door open, tapping his I.D. on one of the turnstiles provided. It was an open space on the first floor. A small reception desk was located beside the turnstiles and beyond that were a variety of desks.

Seungmin greeted some of the officers who were working. “Updates?” he listened attentively to some reports from the team. The office has been chaotic for the past 2 weeks. The event for next month was near and they had to prepare for it. His university was enormous, so it takes a lot of resources to plan an event.

After brief presentations, one of the officers approached Seungmin and handed a paper for him to sign. They don’t really have any assigned tables or desks for each officer so they can freely choose where to sit.

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