Believe it or not, it’s been two months since the hospital incident.

Seungri, alongside Jiyong and their team had since finished their tour in Europe for some of its finest haunted locations. As soon as it’s over, he busied himself with editing and combing through mountains of footage and audio recordings, so it’s possible he just lost the track of time. 

Seungri wasn’t complaining, of course. It was tiring as heck hearing statics and looking for something in dark footage meticulously, but the astounding number of proofs they gathered throughout their trips (Paris catacomb, especially, was a rewarding success) made it all worth it.

Seungri wasn’t the only one who’s busy, though. Jiyong too, was so into the new collection of his brand lately, they barely had time for each other. The last time they met was probably weeks ago, with the last one ended up in a disagreement. 

Nothing major, just a tiny yet annoying misunderstanding that just won’t get away, which was Jiyong blaming himself over the show that happened in the hospital, claiming that the link between them strengthened the influence over Seungri and it was too strong for Seungri to handle it.

Demonic influence, Jiyong called it, and though Seungri knew it from his research before, it felt even more surreal hearing about it, with him being the subject of it. 

Honestly, at first Seungri believed him. Jiyong's influence could be meddling with his brain, messing it all up but when he thought more about it, it’s just a mere theory that Jiyong himself wasn’t sure about. Sure, he had his doubts, but it’s been two months, but nothing like that ever happened to him again, so it couldn’t be possible if the link was faulty towards him. 

If anything, the link worked perfectly for him. Seungri no longer had bad dreams and he got too see a ghost once, so he just didn’t get why Jiyong couldn’t just dismiss that theory.

Seungri did miss Jiyong like crazy, however. 

These past few weeks had been lonely (it's just him and his laptops and his PC) and he missed Jiyong’s touch on him, so when one night Jiyong texted him to come to his house, he couldn’t say no. He just got better from a massive headache —he got a lot of that recently, sometimes accompanied with nosebleeds, and he blamed it on irregular sleeping patterns and climate change— but still, he put on his shoes and dashed there. 

It was just a regular night of them hanging out in front of Jiyong’s enormous flat screen, watching a movie, but it felt special, because one, every alone time with Jiyong was special, and two, because Jiyong already sent everybody home so they got to cuddle on Jiyong’s couch without any interruption.

The thing about cuddling, though, was that it would always evolve to something more. At least for them, it was. They barely got to the 15 minutes mark of the movie before the cuddle session turned intense and their clothes started flying everywhere. 

Seungri fell asleep right after that, his energy drained, and Jiyong must’ve moved him, because when he woke up the next morning, he’s on Jiyong’s bed, with Jiyong on his right side and Jiyong’s arm across his torso. 

“Morning.” Jiyong greeted him, but Seungri didn’t reply, only burying his face on Jiyong’s shoulder before inhaling deep. His eyes stayed shut, letting himself to be lost in Jiyong’s scent.

Jiyong lay on his back then, and once Seungri who was quick to take the bait and rested his head on the chest, he ran his hand through Seungri’s crazy hair softly. 

“Ri,” Jiyong mumbled, his low voice was perfect.

Seungri, still hazy in the morning bliss and last night memory, only hummed as an answer.

“Move in with me.”

Seungri raised his head and snapped his neck towards Jiyong, eyes wide in bewilderment. “What did you just say?”

“Move in with me.”

Jiyong’s smile when he said that again almost made Seungri said yes, right there and then, with no follow ups. Living together? yeah, my dude. But of course, one side of his brain, the logical one, the one that always ruin fun things for him but also save his life countless times, stopped him from doing so.

“Dude, there’s like no way in hell I’m gonna live together with a freaking demon. No way— my moral compass won’t allow that!”

“Oh!—“ Jiyong looked and sounded offended as he went on, but the humour behind his smile wasn’t to be ignored, “—so you’re okay with ing a demon but draws the line on living together with one? Your moral compass is a ing roulette wheel, dude!”

Seungri snorted but offer no reply, only placing his head back on Jiyong’s chest. 

Jiyong took one of Seungri’s hands, the one with the burnt scar at the wrist and started rubbing on it mindlessly. “Is it because of this that you said no?”

“No. That’s your theory, not mine.” Seungri pulled his hand away and hid it under the blanket. 

“Then, why?”

Seungri thought the answer would be obvious that he didn’t have to say anything but the hint of guilt in Jiyong’s voice was back, so Seungri felt like he needed to explain himself. 

“How can we live together, man? What will people say? We caused enough suspicion around your employees here already—“

“Living together doesn’t necessarily mean we have something goin’ on, Ri. We could be just two regular dudes staying in the same house. Housemate.”

Seungri pushed himself slightly away from Jiyong to stare at that man and surprising himself when he could see Jiyong’s actually serious about this.

“In case you forgot, you have one room in your penthouse and that room —this room— belongs to you. How would you explain that— what, we just say, “oh, yeah, we’re roommates, sleeping in one bed, but no homo, though!” when people ask?”

Jiyong merely shrugged. “No one would dare to ask.”

“That’s how rumours start and that’s just the last thing I want now.”

“Fine, let’s move away to a new house. I’ll buy one— two rooms house won’t be that hard to find.”

“Look at you sugar-daddying me.” Seungri bit back a grin but failed completely. “You think you can buy me with real estates talk? I’m worth much more than that.”

Jiyong grinned. “I don’t know about sugar, but I sure am your daddy.”

Seungri almost choked on air because of that. “Stop—“ he shook his head slightly, his cheeks became dusty pink, “—don’t say stuffs like that.”

“Not into , checked.” Jiyong drew a check sign in the air using his index finger. 

Seungri laughed. Jiyong too but his ended with a heavy sigh. 

“What’s wrong?” Seungri brushed Jiyong’s arm that wasn’t around his shoulder. “I thought you’re afraid to be that close to me? Isn’t living together beat that exact purpose?”

“I know. It’s just—“ Jiyong pulled Seungri closer, “—the feeling of waking up to each other is amazing.”

“I know, but living together, buying house together, is a big deal, at least for a human like me—“ Jiyong rolled his eyes, but Seungri didn’t stop, “—so let’s wait until we’re sure and confident about it, okay”

“Fine.”

Seungri closed his eyes again, feeling the calmness radiating from Jiyong’s steady breaths running through his body when that man kissed the top of his head. He raised his chin, planning to return the favour, when suddenly his stomach let out a loud grumble. 

A giggle escaped Jiyong’s teeth. “Human feeding time?” He asked.

“Stop saying it like that.” Seungri took turn to roll his eyes. “But, can we?”

“If the demon tummy has spoken, sure.”

In the kitchen, while Seungri’s busy making french toast, he remembered to ask Jiyong something, so he turned to that man sitting on one of the kitchen stools, and raised his eyebrows.

“You know there’s a few comments saying that we’re faking evidences in our latest video?”

“Paris catacomb? Really?” 

Seungri nodded a few times in response.

“Wow.”

“I know.” 

“Are you mad because of that?”

“Surprisingly, no.” Seungri shook his head. “I can’t help but think that’s like the highest compliment the show could ever get. We got so much evidences that people were like, nuh-uh, there’s now way all that were true!”

Jiyong put on a slight smile. “Well, if you’re okay with that—“

“I was just wondering,” Seungri cleared his throat, “if that’s your doing. You know, the increase in number of evidences—“

Jiyong’s eyes narrowed. He looked perplexed for a second, before scoffing out in disbelief. “What do you think happened? I summoned them? Like I called them to come to us?”

“No, I don’t know. Maybe you have the power to attract them like a magnet or something...”

“The only magnet I’ve been is just for your , Ri.”

Seungri bursted out laughing, barely able to put his done french toast onto a plate properly. He scrunched up his face, still feeling the cringe whenever Jiyong tried to flirt with him.

Jiyong echoed his laughter, and at the end of it, he added, “maybe you’re just lucky.”

And insanely enough, as of now, him cooking breakfast in Jiyong’s kitchen while still in his boxer, Jiyong’s eyes never left him, them fooling around, Seungri must agreed. 

He did feel lucky.

Everything in his life was going well now and Seungri hoped they stayed that way a little longer—

Something warm dripped down Seungri’s chest. When he looked down, the colour red startled him into releasing the pan he’s been holding this whole time mid air into the sink, producing a noisy echo of metal clanking.

“Ri, what did I say about throwing dishes in the sink?”

Seungri was too distracted to answer, wiping the area above his lips using the back of his hand, only to see more blood there as he pulled it away. “You gotta be kidding me....”

It could be because Seungri didn’t respond to him, or Seungri’s panic exclaim, or maybe Jiyong could even smelled the blood like a hellhound, that suddenly Jiyong’s in the kitchen standing beside him, eyes wide in shock seeing Seungri’s being half bloody. 

“Great. ing amazing,” Seungri muttered as he moved away from Jiyong and threw his head back instinctively. 

A sudden, throbbing pain crept into his temples and across his forehead, making him stumbled over his own feet. He would’ve fall if Jiyong wasn’t fast enough to catch him and nudge him to lean on the counter. He tried to reach for the kitchen towel but he’s an inch short away. He let out a frustrated grunt and turned to Jiyong, who still stared at the blood dripping off his nose, the dark eyes were unreadable.

“Do you wanna in’ help, or something?” Seungri snapped after a few, awkward, silent moments of looking at each other. 

Jiyong’s eyebrows lifted a bit. The hardened expression he had on before faded away. “Only if I can it off.”

Seungri hated that that made him laugh because he really wanted to be pissed off right now. “ you, Ji,” he grumbled, fighting his smile down, taking the kitchen towel Jiyong held out and shoving it into his nose.

“Maybe later. But with less blood involved.” 

Seungri couldn’t hold back his embarrassing snort. 

“Or more. Don’t really know what you’re into, yet.”

Seungri shook his head. “I knew you were a in’ vampire.”

“Let me drink your nose blood, Ri.”

Seungri didn’t get to stare at him for saying that stupid joke because Jiyong quickly pointed at the kitchen stool, telling him to sit without actually saying anything. He obeyed him, now only watching Jiyong cleaned the mess that he caused. Jiyong did it fairly quickly, only stopping to drop the plate of french toast Seungri left earlier at the counter near him. 

“Do you have a lot of nosebleeds?” Jiyong suddenly asked as he threw dirty dishes inside the dishwasher. 

For some reason, the question made Seungri’s heart beat faster, made him feel a little icy with panic, and he didn’t know why. He quickly tallied the amount of nosebleeds that he’s had lately, which was fairly a handful of them but this was only the second one that Jiyong had seen.

“Uhh, not really.” Seungri declared, sniffling involuntarily. “It’s the air, I guess.” 

Seungri knew Jiyong saw through the hesitation in his sentences, but for some reasons Jiyong decided not to press it, instead only asking, “you have a humidifier?”

“I've never really needed one before.”

“We’ll get you one.”

There wasn’t much to say in response to that, so Seungri just nodded.

*****

Seungri wasn’t allowed to cook again for lunch, so that afternoon, they headed out for sushi a few blocks away. He wanted to complain, almost begged Jiyong to just have them delivered, but now that they’re out on the sidewalk, he glad he followed through the plan. 

Today’s weather was good. The sun was shining, and even though the glare of the sun was a little too much for his liking, it’s the perfect weather to have a little walk around. 

He glanced at Jiyong strutting alongside him in silence. His eyes fell at Jiyong’s swinging hand, couldn’t help to think how good would it feel if they could linked their fingers together like a real couple out here. 

Seungri exhaled that sad thought away, avoiding it like it’s a disease because he didn’t want his emo thoughts to ruin a fine day they’re about to be having. 

Up ahead, the sound of nearby sirens got progressively louder. An ambulance, with its flashing lights on, came weaving in and out of traffic from behind them, and turned at the traffic signal on the next cross street. 

There’s a low murmur among the people they passed as they walked on, and Seungri felt that morbid sense of wanting to look, of being unable to look away from a total train wreck in progress.

Seungri glanced at Jiyong again, only to see him already looking in that direction. Jiyong’s eyes flickered black, so quickly that Seungri almost thought he’s imagining it, except for how Jiyong immediately dropped his head, to cover the slip, rubbing at his brow.

Seungri tugged Jiyong’s arm a little. “The was that?” he whispered.

“Nothing,” Jiyong whispered back faintly, looking over at him.

“I thought you said you never lie to me.”

“Nothing I could say while standing in the middle of the sidewalk,” Jiyong retorted dryly.

Seungri hadn’t realised that they had stopped moving. He stepped closer to the curb, pulling Jiyong along with him, keeping them out of the way of other pedestrians.

“Did someone just die, over there?” Seungri asked, quietly, his eyes scanning Jiyong’s face for any hint of deception although there’s a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach at the idea.

Jiyong gave a cursory glance around before he gave a little nod. “Yes. And that doesn’t count as a lie. I was going to tell you, when we were in a more private setting than on a sidewalk full of people in the middle of ing Seoul.”

Seungri held his gaze for a moment before he conceded. “Fair enough.” He looked toward the cross street again, where the traffic was beginning to backup. Biting his lip for a moment, he looked back at Jiyong. “Who died?”

Jiyong stayed in silence for a long time, his eyes went back and forth from across the street to Seungri, and started to shake his head. “No, no, no, let’s not do this—I don’t want to that with you anymore.” Jiyong rasped before walking away from him.

“Wait—“ Seungri went after him. “I didn’t say anything.”

“One look, Ri. That’s all it takes for me to know what were you thinking.” Jiyong fastened his pace, avoiding Seungri’s eyes altogether. 

Seungri wasn’t backing down, though, and now that Jiyong already knew what he’s hinting at, there’s no point of hiding it anymore. “Ji, come on.” 

“No!”

“Just one time!”

This cat and mouse chase wasn’t the best thing to do while they’re in public, but Jiyong kept ignoring him and rushing away, forcing Seungri to tug on his shirt to stop him. 

Jiyong did, turning to him with burning eyes. He looked like he’s about to spit actual fire from his mouth, but he looked around and pulled Seungri into a hidden alley nearby. 

“Did you forget what happened the last time I let you see?!”

“I didn’t! I just—“

Jiyong was about to yell again, but realised there still could be a few pairs of eyes watching them, so he exhaled harshly before muttering, “I don’t want to see you get hurt anymore. Can’t one time be enough for you?”

“That’s just the thing, though, Ji!” Seungri kept his voice low, but he spoke urgently. “I want to do this because I want to show you that it’s not you that’s hurting me! I want to prove it to you that your theory’s wrong, so you don’t have to feel guilty anymore! So that we don’t have to fight anymore!”

“Ri, I—“

“Please.”

Jiyong pushed his hair back in frustration, but he did look like he’s considering it. “What if it got too much for you this time too?”

“I’m confident that I can do it. I know what to expect now, so I can— if it’s get too much, then— I have you. You prevent it from being too much for me. You can do that, right? Pull out before it got worse?”

Pull out was probably not the appropriate word to use now, as both Jiyong and Seungri got flustered because of it. Jiyong chuckled a little before sighing, his eyes were back on Seungri. 

“You really want to do this?”

“Yes.”

“What if I burn you again? What if you can see it this time and it’s not at all what you think it is?”

Seungri thought about the gutsy gore of an accident for a second. “Well, is it...bad?”

“A little bloody, but not bad.”

Seungri got nervous. He wanted to do it, but thinking about a fresh bloody corpse made his stomach curled. 

Jiyong blew out a breath, gazing away towards the accident scene again. “We’re wasting time. We don’t have to do it if you really don’t want to, but the window’s about to close.”

Traffic had come to a standstill in front of them and Seungri could see flashing lights in his peripheral vision. His heart was starting to pound and his palms were getting sweaty, started to lose his confidence he had when he talked Jiyong into this earlier. 

He felt a little sick at the thought of going to the scene of an accident specifically to see a newly dead person. Or their ghost, but— Jiyong’s guilty eyes was haunting, and he figured he had to do at least this to erase it. 

“Okay.”

Jiyong pulled him to cross the road, leading him around one corner and through the throng of people gathering on the sidewal