You swallowed hard, but blinked at him calmly.  “What are you?”

“You’re the little cryptozoologist.  You tell me.” His pupils slitted, a curious light glowing from them, like cat’s eyes at night.

Your heart pounded, but you forced yourself to breathe normally as you examined his face, his teeth, thought back over your interactions.  Finally you came to a conclusion.

You ran.

You didn’t make it three steps before you were slammed against the wall.  Despite the seeming violence of his actions, Junmyeon’s hand was between your head and the wall, ensuring that you wouldn’t hurt yourself. As you stood caged between it, and the muscles of Junmyeon’s arms, straining his suit jacket, you idly thought about how well it was made, and then marveled to yourself about how you were thinking of fine tailoring in your last moments.

When you looked up, you were arrested by his dark eyes, staring intensely down at you as if you were the only thing in the world that mattered.  “What am I, Agasshi?” he rumbled, his cool breath whispering over your mouth.  

Your hands had initially braced themselves against his chest in an effort to push him away, but his body was like iron.  Now, relaxing in his hold, you blinked up at him, then glanced down at his mouth.

Slowly, he turned his head, coming closer, his impossibly red mouth opening slightly, as he neared.  

Shivering, you slid your hands up his chest, wrapped them around his shoulders, as you lifted your mouth to his, watched him close his eyes.

“What am I to you?” he groaned, his mouth only a thought away from yours.

“A man,” you whispered.

Then you kneed him in the crotch.

He went down groaning, and you sprinted away.  Unfortunately, you were clumsy in your terror, and tripped over one of the boxes, falling into a full-length hallway mirror before crashing to the floor.  Fortunately, your arms kept your head from breaking the glass, but unfortunately, they took serious damage. As you lay there, dazed, on the floor, you winced as the adrenaline faded, and the sharp agony of countless lacerations filtered through your senses.

Suddenly, the danger of your situation shot through your mind, and you rolled over, painfully crawled to your knees as you disbelievingly eyed the blood streaming down your arms, soaking into the sleeves of your shredded shirt.  

But then…

But then…

As you watched, the lacerations began to fill, to close from the inside out, accompanied by–

An overwhelming feeling of great heat at every wound.

You fell onto your bottom, eyes widening as you watched yourself heal within seconds.  

This frightened you more than anything you had experienced yet, and your eyes involuntarily filled with tears in reaction to your fear.  Holding up your arms, you turned them over, the only evidence of your injuries being the bloody strips of your top. “Wha…wha…wha…” you panted, unable to even finish the thought.

Suddenly, Junmyeon’s face filled your vision, and you looked up at him desperately, holding onto him as a misguided port of normalcy in a world that was breaking apart like puzzle pieces before your eyes.  You opened your mouth to speak, but nothing came out but sharp, staccato pants, as the warmth of tears slowly tracked down your cheeks.

Surprisingly, his gaze was somewhat sad, and he looked away, guilt written across his features.  He swallowed. “Think… Think hard, little cryptozoologist.” His voice lowered to a rasping whisper.  “What am I?”

Your mind raced.  “The juice!” you blurted.  

He closed his eyes.

“It was…” you didn’t want to say it.  The word lodged itself in your throat, overwhelming and dry, like a piece of bread too big to swallow.

“Not completely,” he murmured, before turning back to you, his visage now comfortingly normal.  “Tart cherry juice really is good for inflammation.”

You looked at him as if he had gone insane.

Junmyeon sighed, smiled ruefully, before looking off into the distance.  “My blood is better.”

“Your,” you swallowed involuntarily, “blood?!  You gave me your blood?! YOU LET ME DRINK BLOOD!??”

When he shrugged, it was somewhat sullen.  “It’s not that bad. I do it all the time.”

You stared at him, mouth ajar, 404 error.

Smiling weakly, he gestured to himself.  “Cryptid designation: Vampire.”

The room began to spin, and you closed your eyes, feeling your balance start to tilt.  You heard a quick rustling noise, and then you were wrapped with something soft and silky before being lifted into Junmyeon’s arms.  You briefly opened your eyes to see Junmyeon in shirtsleeves, carrying you toward the sofa. You wanted to struggle, to break free from his hold, but some strong, unnamed emotion held you back.  His blood, you thought bitterly.  He has bound me to himself by ties of blood.  Despite your hope that he would place you on the sofa and move away, he sat, and situated you on his lap, your legs dangling to one side, your back cradled by his arm, your face buried in the side of his neck.  It was a comfortable position, and oddly enough, you felt safe, and secure.

You hated it.

You hated the betrayal of your emotions brought on by his poisoning of your body.  You hated the lack of autonomy, of clarity of thought, and purpose.  

Slowly, he began to rock back and forth, and unsurprisingly, you despised how much you didn’t hate it.  How comforting it was.  Finally, the dizziness passed, and the realization that you were curled up in your landlord’s lap crept over you, making you begin to fidget in discomfort.  

“Ah, you don’t want to do that,” he murmured.

You froze, before gathering up your courage to ask, “Are you going to hurt me?”

Pushing you slightly forward, he cupped your cheeks in his large, cold hands, looking into your eyes, a stricken expression on his face.  “No. Absolutely not. Never. I would never hurt you. I will never do anything to hurt you. I love you.”

You stared at him for a moment, your blood running cold.  Then, slowly, you began to climb off of his lap, watching him warily.  

He made no move to stop you.

‘You love me?” you asked lowly.

Junmyeon’s eyes gleamed.  “Yes. I love you. You’re my mate.  How could I not?”

“Say something that makes sense,” you rasped.  “How can I be your mate? We just met! I’m human!”

A dark look slid over his eyes, as he stilled completely.  “For now,” he murmured.

“Forever!” you snapped.  “Until the day I die.”

Tilting his head, he smiled at you, the look indulgent.  “Yes, my love. Until the day you die.”

“That’s not–I didn’t–  You know what I meant!” you spluttered.

“Yes.  I did. And I know what I mean.”  His voice was firm, as if he had the final say in the matter.

“Junmyeonsshi–”

“Call me Junmyeon.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then, call me Oppa.”

“Alright listen, Junmyeon, we haven’t even known each other a full week.  You are my landlord. Until ten minutes ago, I wasn’t entirely sure that people like you existed.  We’ve had a total of–what–five conversations? You know next to nothing about me–there is no way that you can be in love with me!  What you’re feeling is infatuation–”

“As you said, until ten minutes ago, you weren’t even sure that vampires existed, and now you’re telling me that I don’t know what I’m talking about?  You think that you know my culture better than I?”

You backtracked.  “Right, that’s fair enough, but I still stand by my assertion that you can’t truly love me–you don’t know anything about me!”

“You’re an only child.  Your parents are divorced.  You don’t like carrots, or onions, or beef, and you have a sweet tooth, but you don’t like chocolate.  You sleep with a night light because, despite your track of academic study, you’re still a little afraid of the dark.  You don’t have any pets, due to your allergies, but you would love to have a cat, or maybe a big dog. You love music, but,” and here he smiled, “you can’t sing at all, though every night in the shower you try.”  When he saw the horrified look on your face, he shrugged. “You have this cute little habit of talking to yourself when you’re alone… And you never look outside your windows at night.”

“You’ve been stalking me?!”

“Watching you.  I had to know more about you,” he made as if to stand, and you took a cautious step backwards.  At that he sighed, eased back onto the couch. “It’s not just the way you look. I had to know you.  I love everything about you–the way you smell, the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh, the little dance you do when you’re making something delicious–”

“This is not normal!”

“For you.  For now.”

“You’ve invaded my privacy, you’ve looked at me without my permission, you’ve seen things that I have never shown to anyone–”

“I looked away.”

“What?”

“Whenever you weren’t dressed.  I looked away. I love you. I respect you.”

“Stop using words you don’t know!  Love? What you’re describing is obsession!“

His smile was tight as he looked past you, in thought.  “You are human. You are small, and your definition of love is small.  But that will change.” He looked back at you, his eyes confident as he stood, stepped forward, loomed over you.  “You will come to me.”

You gaped up at him, speechless at his utter single-mindedness in the face of all evidence to the contrary.  Finally coming back to yourself, you took a deep breath. “I’m going to break my lease. I’m not going to stay here.”

Leaning down, he grabbed his suit jacket, casually tossed it over his arm.  “You can’t afford to break the lease. Don’t you remember? Break the lease, and I’m due three times the amount of your rent.  Are you really prepared to pay for three years of rent at once?”

Glaring at him in frustration, you said nothing, having momentarily forgotten that particular contractual clause.

“I’m not unreasonable,” he said mildly.  “I’ll stop watching you, if it bothers you so much.  And I won’t step foot in here without your permission.”

“Well, you don’t have it!  In fact, you have your rent–I don’t see any reason that we should cross one another’s paths before the year is up!”

His eyes grew heavy lidded then, as he lazily slid them down, then back up your body.  “You’ll come to me,” he repeated very quietly. “I will wait for you.”

Stepping aside as an indication for him to leave, you crossed your arms.  “Please leave.”

Junmyeon started to walk past you, then paused, as if in contemplation.  Swiftly turning, he retrac