Love.
 

What does Joohyun know about love? Almost slim-to-none, she would say.
 

If you asked her about infatuation, about crushes and a bit of longing and spacing out imagining an unrealistic future about someone she barely knows, then you can get something out of her. She’d been infatuated with one of the baristas in a café she frequented back when she was a human and still had the ability to swallow down the vile taste of coffee. She’d also had a crush on one of her popular schoolmates who had nice hair and a smile that seemed to light up the entire room.
 

But love?
 

What is that, even?
 

It’s preposterously abstract to Joohyun. If she were human, she’d be more willing to value love, to treat it as something to fantasize about, to lose sleep over. But to vow yourself over to someone for eternity? To pledge that your feelings will never change in the next few hundred years is disconcerting and irrational.
 

At least that’s what she used to say.
 

Now such words don’t fall past her lips, lest they make her a hypocrite.
 

She remains silent throughout her friends’ discourse, suddenly fascinated with the swirl and color of her drink.
 

When her friends mention the word ‘love,’ over and over again, she sees a pair of brown eyes that crinkle at the corners in the most endearing way, sees full lips giving way to a loud, hearty laugh that rivals her own, feels the phantom touch of fingers against hers reminding her of the sun, evoking the warmth it had brought her all those years ago without the pain it came with now.
 

Quietly, Joohyun sighs in defeat – no, in surrender.
 

Maybe she knows more about love than she lets herself believe.

***

Joohyun shuts the door to their flat in a huff, head pounding and fangs fully extending, her irritation growing when she finds herself alone with no roommate to cheer her up with teasing jokes and sunny smiles (oh who was she kidding, Seungwan just had to be there and she’ll be a little happier).
 

She drops her bag on the floor, making a beeline for the fridge and taking out the first blood bag she sees, her lips before plunging her fangs into the plastic. The liquid is far too cold for her liking, but her eyes shut in bliss as the blood flows through her, quenching her thirst almost immediately.
 

As her mind clears, she’s hit with a surge of regret; she should’ve known better than to leave the flat for school without drinking first, but she thought that she had some extra blood juice boxes with her in her schoolbag. Only halfway through the night did she realize that she’d drunk the last of it a few days ago, and it had all gone downhill from there.
 

Her back hits the door of the fridge as she slides to the floor, feeling worse than she had felt moments ago, and she only has a fleeting thought of something’s not right before everything goes black.

***

Joohyun opens her eyes to a bright streak of white, and for a split-second she thinks she’s in heaven. Or hell. But then her skull feels like it’s about to crack in half, and she surmises that she’s not dead. Yet.
 

“Gruughr,” she moans incoherently, tasting metal and feeling weightless, instinctively inching closer to the crook of warmth beside her, cuddling herself against it in a sigh.
 

“Unnie.” The voice comes from above her, most likely from the beacon of warmth she’d all but thrown herself against (which she maybe would’ve, if she had the strength to).
 

Her lips lift upon hearing the sound, drifting off to sleep again, dreaming of cozy hugs and soft lullabies.

***

Joohyun wakes again a few hours later; her fever has lowered significantly, and the feeling of ice in her veins is almost bearable. The warmth she’d been drawn to is gone, except for a weight on her hand that’s akin to it.
 

Her eyes flutter open, the room bathed in a soft glow from a lamp on the end table, making her sigh in relief at not having to experience the painful glare of fluorescent. She looks up and her eyes meet warm decadent brown. Worried warm decadent brown.
 

“Unnie,” Seungwan whispers, almost afraid.
 

“Hi,” Joohyun croaks out, yelping a little in surprise when Seungwan swoops down and hugs her gently, like she might break. Her scent envelops Joohyun, and Seungwan has never smelled so good, so comforting, to Joohyun, until now.
 

Like home.
 

The thought scares Joohyun and she starts to cower against it, but Seungwan nuzzles her neck with a soft whine, wrapping her hands around her as best as she can, given the circumstances. Joohyun gives an answering whimper in return, scandalized at herself and incredibly embarrassed, but Seungwan seems to bask in it, pulling her in tight before giving her enough space so they're able to look at each other.
 

“Please don’t scare me like that ever again,” Seungwan whispers, gently brushing some of Joohyun’s hair back from her face. Her eyes are bloodshot, a mixture of pain, concern, and relief swirling in them.
 

“…What happened? What did I drink…?” Pieces of the puzzle float around Joohyun’s mind, not quite in their right places to form the bigger picture.
 

“The doctor said the blood you drank was infected with leptospirosis,” Seungwan explains. “It was an acute case, but your symptoms were getting worse so they chose to transfuse the blood out and replace it.”
 

Usually, Joohyun would know that something’s wrong with the blood at the taste of a single drop, but her thirst must have eradicated her better senses. A fresh wave of guilt pounds into her head: for risking herself, for making Seungwan worry.
 

“You…brought me here? …Where is here?”
 

“You’re in the hospital wing of your university. I-I came in and saw you in our room like…like that,” Seungwan visibly shudders at the memory and Joohyun’s heart twinges, “And I didn’t know where else to go, so I brought you to your campus.”
 

Seungwan must have carried her here, a wolf amongst a hundred vampires, lost but determined.
 

Joohyun loves her a little harder for it.
 

“Thank you,” Joohyun says softly.
 

Seungwan shakes her head. “Just…please…don’t do that again. I don’t- I already-” She cuts herself off, swallowing, finding courage. “I can’t fathom you not being here. With me. I’d already pictured us, fifty, a hundred years from now. Roommates forever.” She cracks a tentative smile.
 

Seungwan’s words bring a radiant smile to Joohyun’s face, and if she weren’t so weak, she would have tackled her into a hug. “Really?” she asks shyly.
 

“Yeah, is that weird?” Seungwan winces, blushing.
 

“No,” says Joohyun, quick to interfere, “it’s nice.” She smiles again, soft and hopeful. “Something to look forward to.”

***

“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”
 

Huddled close to Seungwan, cheek pressed against her roommate’s warm blue sweater, Joohyun looks up at the moon, its crescent shape glowing amidst the sparse stars dotting the sky. “Yeah, it is,” she agrees. It’s not a bad sight to see for the rest of their endless nights. “But do you ever hate it? The moon?” And what it does to you?
 

It takes a while for Seungwan to answer. “I’m not ashamed of what I am,” she finally says. Her voice is low, but it cuts through like steel, and Joohyun realizes she may have unintentionally hit a nerve.
 

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs, lowering the hand she had wound around Seungwan’s arm to lock their fingers together in apology. “That’s not what I…”
 

“I know,” Seungwan tells her, eyes softening. She bites her lip in thought and Joohyun is momentarily distracted, something stirring in her stomach at the sight. “It’s not like I was turned, you know? I have a good family and a good pack.” Seungwan opens to say something further, but thinks better of it.
 

Joohyun nudges her, perceptive as ever, but Seungwan seems keen on changing the subject, her ears pink.
 

“Are you okay with…what you are?” Seungwan asks instead, rubbing her thumb against the back of her hand absentmindedly.
 

Vampires can never be born into being, unlike werewolves. They have to be turned, willingly or otherwise, and Seungwan knows Joohyun is a victim of the latter, but she’s never asked her something beyond the fact, something like this.
 

It’s a struggle for Joohyun to find the words, but she takes strength from Seungwan’s warmth and proximity. “It was…hard at first, but I’ve accepted it. It was a long time ago, and I had several chances to take my anger out at the world, at everyone, but I never went through with it. With any of it.” She feels Seungwan squeeze her fingers lightly, and Joohyun closes her eyes for a moment, relishing in the comfort she’d never truly felt; not on her own, not with anyone else, not like this.
 

“You’re amazing,” Seungwan murmurs against her temple, lips like molten honey as they tentatively brush against her skin.
 

It’s a kiss of comfort, tender and fond, but it turns Joohyun’s insides into liquid fire and her hands shake to reign in her desire.
 

“Cold?” Seungwan must have felt her shiver, lips regrettably pulling away as she turns to face her. But Joohyun can only hide so much away. Their eyes lock and Seungwan sees. Her pupils must be blown wide, what’s left of her irises glowing gold as her teeth ache and blood pounds in her ears. “Oh,” Seungwan breathes out, and suddenly her eyes are matching hers and she’s breathing out in puffs of steam and Joohyun doesn’t know whose hand is squeezing harder than the other’s.
 

“Seungwan…” she says. And that’s all she can say, because Seungwan is tugging her close, and then she’s kissing her like there’s no tomorrow.
 

The cold of Joohyun’s lips are burned away by Seungwan’s achingly soft ones, and they tug and nip and with so much passion in every touch, drawing a deep purr from within .
 

Seungwan chuckles at the sound, breath puffing against Joohyun’s mouth, and Joohyun retaliates by pulling her in flush against her, every part of them touching from head to toe, and now it’s Seungwan’s turn to groan, the sound ending in Joohyun’s throat as she kisses her deeply.
 

They’re only forced to break away when a couple of (human) wolf whistles from accidental onlookers flit through their lust-filled heads, and they finally remember that they’re in a very public space, even though it’s the middle of the night. Especially because it’s the middle of the night.
 

They make their way back to the building of their flat, pretending that their pace hasn’t doubled and ignoring how their eyes haven’t stopped glowing gold, arguing about who has wanted to kiss whom the longest the entire way.

fin.

A/N:

So…in the midst of writing this, things didn’t go as planned (pretends to be Shocked) and now the heat cuddling scene didn’t happen pre-relationship…lmao…so...an epilogue will really need to happen just so I can deliver what I promised and not screw you guys (and myself) over ;_;

Super credits to @seungvvannie for sharing with me some Japanese moon trivia, about how the words “I love you” can be translated to “the moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” since before, the Japanese hesitated in expressing their feelings of love directly. So yeah Seungwan was a hardcore lowkey otaku here idk lol

Thank you for reading this dumb story – I ENJOYED WRITING IT TOO IF YOU CAN’T TELL BY MY SPEEDY UPDATES (at least speedy for me) – and if you wanna see some things in the epilogue, feel free to leave a comment because I will try to insert it as long as it can work for the story. ^^