“Dude...is that safe to wear around a little kid?”

Jongin looks at himself. “What’s wrong with it?” Sehun chokes. He can see Jongin’s left when he picks at the tattered shirt with a critical frown. “The blood is fake; he knows it is. It’s fine.”

That’s not the issue. Sehun had watched Jongin mix up the homemade blood using corn starch and water. He was the one to add the food coloring, aiming for the perfect blood red. As a vampire, he knows what good blood looks like and wishes there was a way to make it smell better, too. It’s supposedly edible but probably tastes awful. What a waste.

But what’s wrong with wearing board shorts, a shredded shirt exposing his chest and abs, and pretty much nothing else in late October?

Absolutely nothing, in Jongin’s mind. He’s been swimming with his sister’s kids; he’s even bathed with his sister’s kids. Casual near- is no big deal.

Sehun follows him inside, lifting his cloak over the cluster of eager Poodles that dance around his feet. A shriek announces the arrival of Jongin’s nephew, but he goes quiet and shy when he sees Sehun, clinging to Jongin’s leg and peeking out like a rabbit from its burrow.

He’s already in costume—a slightly fuzzy-looking light blue and white outfit with a hood and floppy fins sticking out.

Jongin takes the bodyboard from his nephew and pets his hair. “You gonna say ‘hi,’ Reonie?” The boy nods and bows slightly. Children usually like Sehun, because he’s tall, but some seem to be more sensitive than others and are wary of him.

Raeon is quiet for all of twenty seconds until Sehun draws his cloak up over his face and makes clawing motions with his fingers. “I vant your uncle’s blahd!”

“No!” Raeon giggles. “Uncle Jongin’s blood is mine!”

When his nephew eagerly announced he wanted to be a shark for Halloween, the second thing he said was supposedly, “And Uncle Jongin’s gonna be my victim!”

So Jongin’s a surfer under attack from a tiny, bloodthirsty shark.

It’d be cute, if Sehun was less gay or at least more in control of his hormones.

Why does blood look so good on him, anyway?