Kyuhyun must have lied to him. There was no other chance. Blood creatures of the night? Manipulating and creating fire out of thin air? No way!

Ryeowook coughed, the dust that had collected in their library not helping his general condition, then he turned back to the rows of books. No, if Kyuhyun had said the truth, there had to be some kind of reference in the books! But of course he couldn’t just ask someone for help.

Unlike the night before, Ryeowook banned all inappropriate thoughts from his mind and focused solely on the task at hand, on finding facts. The historical section of their library was the most detailed and well-equipped one, but no matter how often he had walked back and forth there, he couldn’t find any books that might hold the information he was looking for.

“Are you looking for something specific? Maybe I could help you?”

Ryeowook jumped at the voice and spun around. His eyes briefly met their historian’s before the latter bowed and Ryeowook looked away. Something about the historian had always been uncanny to him. One thing was definitely that he never heard the historian approach, he always seemed to appear out of the blue, but there was something else, something that Ryeowook simply couldn’t pinpoint… “I don’t think so, but thank you.”

“You’ve been tracing these shelves all morning, my prince. Didn’t the doctor advise you to rest?”

Ryeowook almost scoffed at those words. Of course the doctor had told him to rest, but what did it matter when he was most likely dying anyway? Unless…

“I can turn you. You could live an eternal life—but you have to leave everything you know behind.”

“My prince?”

Ryeowook flinched and hurried to chase the uncertainty from his heart. “I think I’m just in the wrong aisle.”

“Maybe I can assist you to find the right aisle?”

“You can’t tell anyone—not if you want to come with me, at least. If anyone has any suspicions, escape will become impossible.”

“Thank you, but I’ll manage.” Ryeowook flashed the historian a brief smile, then he briskly turned around and went to another aisle.

His eyes skimmed over the titles while he walked through the aisles slowly, trying to find anything that could be helpful for him, yet the majority of the books he found were either targeting Confucius’ teachings or their dynasty’s chronicles, neither seeming helpful. No, if vampires—the word still sounded foreign to him—were mentioned in any of those, Ryeowook would have long since heard of them.

He came to a sudden stand. Foreign? If the word was foreign…

He exited the aisle he had just entered and went to the library’s second floor and all the way to the end where the foreign scriptures were kept. Not the ones that originated from China or Japan, but the ones that came from even further away, written in languages that were so unlike his own. He looked through the scriptures and didn’t take too long until he found one about magical creatures. He took it from the shelf and, lacking any better alternatives, sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the shelf.

☆ ☆ ☆

“So this is where you are.” Ryeowook jumped and quickly looked up, finding Jungsu smiling warmly at him. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, no, it’s okay.”

“What were you doing here?” Jungsu elegantly sat down next to Ryeowook who glanced at the latest scripture that he had been reading.

“I had a strange thought last night and got the urge to read up on mythical creatures because of that.”

“Is that what you’ve been doing all day?”

“All day?” Ryeowook looked at his brother in surprise, finding the other smile warmly at him as he nodded.

“Father sent us out to get you for dinner. We thought you were asleep earlier, so we didn’t look for you earlier, but we got worried when we realized that none of us had seen you today.”

“I’ve been here all day…” Ryeowook mumbled and looked back at the scripture. Next to the text, an image depicted a truly horrible creature. It seemed like all the authors shared the same impression: vampires were purely evil, ugly, undead, couldn’t walk in the sun, terrorizing the world with their thirst for blood… Could Kyuhyun really belong to such a category?

“What’s troubling you?”

Ryeowook blinked and looked back at his brother, then he shook his head. “Nothing. I think I’ve been reading about strange creatures of the night too much.”

“Then shall we get going? Dinner is certainly already waiting.”

“Do you think Hyukjae and Donghae have already given up on finding me?” Ryeowook got up, stretching his stiff body.

“Father told us that we won’t start dinner before we found you, so I don’t think they’ve given up yet.”

That was true. If it was about food, the twins would probably make the impossible possible.

Ryeowook put away the scripture, then the two brothers got going. “Have you found out anything interesting?” Leeteuk asked.

“Many gruesome details that I hadn’t wanted to know.”

“You should have looked for more wholesome creatures then.”

“I have a feeling that I would have still found out gruesome details about those with how much I’ve been reading. Remember what we read about fairies?”

“Don’t remind me.”

Ryeowook laughed softly, ending in a coughing fit. “Hyung, you can’t make me laugh. It just makes me cough and coughing feels uncomfortable.”

“You shouldn’t be laughing about this in the first place…” Leeteuk grumbled, but Ryeowook knew that his brother didn’t really mind it—both of them had been scarred by the gruesome image one of the European authors had painted of fairies, but since that one awful research had happened years earlier, it had become more of an inside joke by that point.

☆ ☆ ☆

That night, Ryeowook went to bed early, but he couldn’t fall asleep. He watched as darkness stole the colors from his room, filling his heart as well. Wasn’t he betraying Kyuhyun in a way? Then again, Kyuhyun had told him to only come when he was completely sure of his answer, and Ryeowook felt like he was still very far from ‘sure’. He had a lot of questions left unanswered, but it seemed like the only one who could provide any help was Kyuhyun himself.

Vampires were supposed to be ugly and look undead—but Kyuhyun’s appearance was far from that. Vampires couldn’t go out during the day? They had met on the market place and at the hospital many times while the sun was still out. Vampires were gruesome? Well, Kyuhyun did enjoy teasing him, but gruesome? Of course Ryeowook couldn’t be certain about that part, there was too much that he still didn’t know about Kyuhyun, but he was certain that the other’s character was a far cry from the awful descriptions he had read.

But could Kyuhyun really be a vampire then? If his existence debunked the entire literary field, how could both coexist?

Those thoughts kept him awake long after sunset and tinted his dreams in the dark red of blood until the early morning sun finally released him from the recurring nightmare that turned Kyuhyun into the exact creature that Ryeowook had read about all day.

☆ ☆ ☆

Ryeowook felt even worse during the next day. The feeling of having betrayed Kyuhyun felt like a weight on his shoulders, even though the other had given him a clear time limit of three nights to think about everything properly before making his decision. The fever seemed to be even higher than before and the coughing was annoying, hurting in his chest and his head with its consistency and sometimes also its severity. The short amount of sleep made him cranky and on top of that, the discrepancy regarding the definition of ‘vampire’ still wouldn’t leave his mind.

To distract himself, Ryeowook turned to Confucius’ teachings, forcing himself to make sense of the familiar characters in front of him and to fill in by memory for the parts that were too difficult to read. The Classics and the related teachings had been the basis of his life growing up, they would certainly also hold answers for his current situation, wouldn’t they?

In the afternoon, someone suddenly knocked on the door. “Young prince? Scholar Shim’s son Shim Changmin has come to visit you,” the guard in charge of him announced.

Ryeowook’s lips immediately curved into a small smile. “He may come in,” he called back and closed the book he had been reading, placing it on the side of his desk. The door was opened and Changmin came into the room, bowing before he came to the desk and sat down. “I’m sorry that I can’t give you a proper reception.” Ryeowook briefly glanced down at himself. He had put on a set of clothes that was just tolerable for being worn in private but that certainly didn’t pass for proper clothing that a prince should show himself in.

“Don’t worry about it.” Changmin smiled at him before turning serious again. “How are you?”

Ryeowook shrugged and looked away. “Not really good… but I’m doing whatever I can.”

“There’s still no successful treatment?”

Ryeowook wanted to shake his head, but a thought hindered him.

“How would turning me into a… vampire… save me?”

“I’m not completely certain about the details, but when we bite someone, our bodies release a kind of poison. That poison can be used to turn the other person into a vampire. In a way, you would die and then be revived by the poison? I’m sorry, that sounds terrible. Don’t get me wrong, the turning isn’t exactly a comfortable experience… Anyway, I’m getting off topic. Once the process is over, you’ll definitely feel much better. And one of the things that changes is that we become pretty much immune to diseases. Because of that, I am positive that turning you will be the same as saving you.”

Ryeowook had frowned, Kyuhyun’s lack of certainty making him insecure as well. “But you’re not sure.”

“Since I have been turned, I haven’t caught a single disease. And I’ve been walking the earth as a vampire for long enough by now to say that this is pretty good proof.”

Another memory came to Ryeowook’s mind and unlike the last time those thoughts had crossed his mind, he could finally ask about them: “Is this also what you meant when you said that you couldn’t tell me how you’re protecting yourself against this disease but that I shouldn’t be worried about you?”

Kyuhyun’s face seemed to light up with relief. “Yes, exactly.”

“Wouldn’t it also work then if you don’t turn me and only… You know…”

“Feed from you? No. I’ve already seen a few people whom I’ve fed from come to the hospital eventually, displaying the same symptoms as all the others.”

Ryeowook pushed the reminder of the palette of feelings he had felt after that statement aside, but the worry remained. “Changmin…” he started slowly, trying to sort his thoughts and put them into a sentence that would make sense without revealing too much. “If there was a cure… but with a lot of consequences… would you still attempt it?”

“You’ve heard of something?”

Ryeowook remained silent, playing with the fabric of his sleeves. How should he respond to that? He could neither deny nor confirm it without seeming strange.

“What kinds of consequences do you mean?”

Ryeowook faked a smile as he looked up, shaking his head. “It’s nothing, probably just a rumor.”

“I think I would go for it. I’m not sure if you’re in the right position to do so, but on the other hand… I guess it’s better to try and not succeed than to not have tried and…” This time, Changmin was the one who averted his eyes, but Ryeowook’s smile turned real.

Thank you, he thought before switching the topic. “So how is life? Outside the court walls, I mean.”

“It is… a little more boring than it would be with you. More and more people are getting sick, but there are also some people recovering. Oh, and did you know that Jeongmin will get married soon?”

“Oh really?” Ryeowook was surprised to hear that, but then realized that Jeongmin, one of the boys who was in the same class as him and Changmin, was indeed old enough to get married.

Changmin nodded and told him more about that as well as other news that he had heard until he had to leave, responsibility calling him in the form of one of his father’s servants.

Once Ryeowook was on his own again, his thoughts went back to Kyuhyun’s offer. Changmin had said that he would attempt any chance for a cure. Of course Changmin couldn’t know the exact severity of the consequences, but was he wrong?

But can I leave my family and my people behind like this?

Ryeowook’s eyes went over to the small stone that sat next to the candle on his desk. While, in order to destroy any evidence of his secret meetups with Kyuhyun, he had burned the small piece of parchment that had been wrapped around it when it came flying through his window, he had kept the stone, somehow feeling too attached to it to throw it away.

Could he really just leave his family? But knowing that there was another option, could he choose a certain death without regretting it? Ryeowook had made an oath to protect his people and lead them in justice and give them a helping hand at any possible chance. He could only help if he was alive, but did that justify running away with someone whom he had only met recently? On top of that, someone who broke into court and claimed to be something impossible?

He was too tired to find an answer, so he did the only thing that might help—he took a nap.

That evening, he packed a small backpack with the things Kyuhyun had told him about—just in case. Ryeowook’s heart hurt no matter which decision he tried to make; both staying and leaving seemed impossible. But time was slipping through his fingers. He had to make a decision!

☆ ☆ ☆

Somehow, he ended up sleeping not only for the majority of the night but also for a good part of the day afterwards. His dreams were a promiscuous mess that featured both Kyuhyun as well as literary vampires but also just about anything else, as it seemed, yet Ryeowook could barely remember the dreams after he woke up just to fall asleep again. He felt too hot, yet too cold, and the coughing made his sleep even more restless than the feverish dreams.

By the time that the evening sun shone its low, warm light onto the court area, Ryeowook finally knew his answer.