Jongin waits outside while Sehun settles the bill and apologizes again for the broken glass. The brunette closes his eyes and takes a deep breath of the cold winter air, then opening them again to focus on his hands. His skin that had always been a shade tanner than most of his friends' is an unnatural pale. Instead of blue veins showing obviously through the white flesh, however, he can barely make out their outline against the skin of his wrists. He hears Sehun approaching from behind him and turns to watch the younger man push out of the restaurant. Anger bubbles up again despite himself and he settles a glare on his friend.

    “Well?”

    “Well what?”

    “Don’t with me right now, Sehun. Is it true about Chanyeol’s pool party? You’re in love with Kyungsoo?”

    “High school was a long time ago, Jongin.”

Jongin feels hot rage as he takes a menacing step towards the taller man but is stopped in his tracks by a flash in his face and the sound of a camera shutter going off. He blinks, slightly disoriented as Sehun considers the screen of his phone.

    “I had a crush,” he holds his thumb and forefinger a centimeter apart for emphasis, “a tiny crush on Kyungsoo Hyung for, like, a second in high school. I hit on him while we were both trashed at the party, and he responded by throwing up on me and crying about how you were too straight to ever love him back. I just needed to say something that you would’ve never been able to guess.”

    “Kyungsoo thought I was straight?”

    “You wore socks with slides and said like ‘that’s rad, bro’.”

    “Is that a straight thing to do?” Jongin blinks in confusion. 

    “Jongin,” Sehun says, exasperated, “we honestly have bigger things to worry about. Look at this.”

He hands Jongin his phone and grabs the older man around the elbow as he takes it, guiding him to start walking down the sidewalk. The city streets are full of people bundled against the cold, getting off of work and looking for a place to eat or grab a drink. Their voices are loud in Jongin’s ears, smells disorienting as he forces himself to focus on the screen in his hand. 

It’s a picture of himself, expression thunderous as he stepped towards Sehun, and eyes an iridescent red. He stops in his tracks, shocked, but Sehun tugs him doggedly forward. 

    “Do they… look like that now?” He asked, hand subconsciously rising to touch the skin under his eyes as if he could feel a difference. 

Sehun spares Jongin a glance without slowing their pace. He leads them to make another sharp turn.

    “Not right now, just earlier when you were trying to castrate me. You do have some crazy eye bags going, though.”

    “Makes sense, I didn’t really sleep last night.”

    “Hmm,” is all the younger man responds. Then, “come in here.”

He pulls Jongin sharply into the city library, throwing a friendly nod at the woman at the front desk. 

    “The library?” Asks Jongin.

    “What better place to get information? Plus nobody really comes here, it’s always empty as hell.”

    “That’s kind of sad.”

    “Isn’t it? Computers will be the end of us,” Sehun laments before shoving his friend into a computer desk at a secluded corner of the already desolate library. Jongin raises an eyebrow at his friend at the irony. 

Ignoring the other man, Sehun opens a browser and begins to type ‘vampire’ into the search engine. 

    “Wikipedia or Britannica?” Sehun murmurs to himself before clicking on the latter. “More trustworthy, right?”

Jongin just rolls his eyes wondering how trustworthy any information they’ll find on supposedly mystical creatures could be. He leans closer to read over Sehun’s shoulder anyway. 

    “‘Characteristics vary across cultures'… blah blah blah… ‘consumption of human blood or other essence’… blah blah… actually wait. Vampires can feed on more than just blood? I didn’t know that. Would you say you’ve been, like, feeding off the office vibes?”

    “If I were, I’d be dead.”

    “I mean, you might kind of be.”

    “Sehun,” says Jongin despondently. 

    “Right, sorry.” He turns to the computer but then sharply back at his friend with a  curious expression. “Wait. Not to freak you out or anything, but do you think you… did?” He asks hesitantly.