It was nearing the final of the year. Everyone was busy studying for the finals not excluding Kai. Kai grabbed a seat in the crowded library and plopped his head down the table, dark circles emerging from around his eyes. Sign of sleep deprived.

 

Kai thought about taking a nap, just for a while. Enough to make up all the studying (and gaming) that he managed to pull an all-nighter. His eyes were droopy all day and everyone had asked, he just shrug and sleep on them.

 

“Jongin, Jongin,” he felt a poke on his waist. He groaned and swat the hand away, indicating he doesn’t want any disturbance in his wonderful nap time.

 

“Jongin,” once again, a poke. Kai wasn’t really paying attention to the person who is calling him by his real name. Usually, he would ask them to call him by ‘Kai’ instead but for now, sleep was the most important.

 

A poke.

 

A groan.

 

A swat.

 

Double poke.

 

Kai finally lifted his head off the table and glanced to the side, “What?”

 

Sehun’s pouty face greeted him and he poked Kai continuously, “Wake up, wake up. The library is not the place to sleep.”

 

Kai almost giggled when Sehun poked his waist, jolting his body. “Stop it, Sehun-ah,” he mumbled and grabbed Sehun by the shoulder to join him sleeping. “Just sleep with me, I’m too tired.”

 

Sehun shifted closer and pushed Kai’s hair out of his face. “Okay,” he muttered and together they huddled up against each other and slept the whole night there.

 

---

 

The finals soon were over and the group of friends went out to celebrate it. They all decided to use Suho and D.O’s room as the venue of the party.

 

“Let’s play truth or dare!” Baekhyun shouted from Suho’s bed cuddled up against Chanyeol who is still eating.

 

“No eating in beds, Park Chanyeol!” D.O snatched the pizza from Chanyeol’s hands leaving his mouth open and eyes blinking.

 

“Grab a bottle, hurry,” Luhan clapped excitedly. And he pushed everyone down on the floor to make a circle. Sehun ended up between Tao and Suho, glancing towards Kai who is sitting directly across him.

 

D.O came back from nowhere carrying a bottle and took his seat beside Suho before placing the bottle in the middle.

 

“Can I go first?” Luhan volunteered and everyone agreed to it. Just letting the enthusiastic kid do his thing.

 

Luhan spun the bottle and everyone waited nervously.

 

The bottle finally stopped at Sehun.

 

“Okay, Sehunnie. Truth or dare?” Everyone stared at Sehun waiting for his decision. Sehun thought carefully and yelled a ‘dare’ causing everyone to ‘whoooo’ at him for being brave enough to start the game with a dare.

 

“Give him a hard one, Luhan,” Tao said and earned a smack from Sehun.

 

“Okay, okay. I dare you to…” Luhan’s eyes searched the room for something and he snapped his fingers. Everyone gave each other a knowing glance, expecting it to be hard and shameful for Sehun. “... flick someone who has been annoying you lately,” Luhan continued and everyone groaned.

 

“That’s the worst I’ve ever heard, Luhan!” Chanyeol moaned in despair.

 

“...every time they call your name,” Luhan finished.

 

“Luhan, you’re so lame. You should’ve given Sehun-” Kai paused in the middle of his sentence as Sehun flicked him hard on his forehead.

 

“Ouch. What the hell, Sehun?” another flick, hard, making his forehead marred red.

 

“Looks like we know who the brat is,”  Baekhyun laughed, and everyone exploded in laughter. Sehun squeezed in between Kai and D.O, too lazy to go back to his place. Or not.

 

Sehun spun the bottle and the bottle went off a bit off balance.

 

The bottle stopped and pointed at Tao.

 

“Truth or dare, panda?” a glint of naughtiness crossed everyone’s eyes as they’ve been dying for Tao to confess something.

 

“Umm, truth,” Tao squeaked. Everyone turned to Sehun and gave Sehun the ‘ask-him-that-thing-or-else look and Sehun chuckled, half pitying Tao.

 

“What was the sound I heard last time?” Sehun asked and the colour from Tao’s face drained.

 

He has been listening? I thought he was dead asleep, Tao thought and panic stricken in him.

 

Sehun went for no mercy because Tao had been avoiding him every time he asked.

 

“I-I was not doing anything,” Tao spoke too fast and his mind whirred to make up a story. Every second passed and he’s failing as all the ideas are bulls. He’s just not good at lying!

 

“You obviously made out with Kris,” Baekhyun spoke and Tao nearly had a heart attack. “Not that I saw or anything, but, uh, yeah, I think I did saw, once.”

 

Tao horrifyingly shrieked and threw his hands over Baekhyun’s mouth to stop him from talking.

 

“Oh, come one, Tao. Just tell us!” Luhan chimed in.

 

“We won’t judge you or anything,” D.O added in.

 

“We’ll support you inside and out,” Suho patted his back.

 

Tao huffed a sigh, “Alright, since I trust you guys with all my life.” Everyone kind of leaned in, Chanyeol almost fell forward. “I’m dating Kris gege,” he finally said and everyone cheered.

 

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Luhan was too excited he hugged Kai’s neck.

 

“How is he in bed- oof,” D.O shoved a slice of pizza into Chanyeol’s mouth before Tao could hear it. He’s already red and embarrassed.

 

“Moving on with the game, guys!” Sehun urged Tao to spin the bottle and everyone settled down, except it didn’t escape Sehun’s eyes that Luhan’s arms are still around Kai’s neck, rubbing once in awhile affectionately.

 

---

 

Weekend came and Sehun decided to use his short school break to go back to his house, back to his parents, annoying Hweji, and all the thing he has left at home.

 

However, he can only stay for one night as fledgling can’t be away too long from Vampyres.

 

Kai was dancing, his usual weekend routine, in the Dancing Room. He had just finished choreographing a song and was dancing all out causing him to tire himself.

 

He plopped down on the floor and panted hard. Sweat trickling down his forehead, his tank already drenched in sweat.

 

“Here,” someone held out a bottle of cool water and Kai glanced up. He thanked Luhan with a smile and gulped down the water, finishing it off in once. He aimed and threw the bottle towards the trash can in a corner of the room, missing by a distance.

 

Luhan chuckled at that. “You better throw it properly later,” Luhan said.

 

Luhan took out Kai’s mini towel from the bag and sat down in front of him. Kai was about to take it away from him but Luhan said no.

 

The older blonde carefully dabbed the sweat off Kai’s forehead, trailing it down his cheek and neck. He went up again and dried Kai’s hair who was already dripping back the sweat on his face. Luhan wiped Kai’s face in one go and without both of them realizing, Luhan was leaning closer to Kai.

 

Kai blinked at Luhan blankly, didn’t know what to do. Their eyes met and Kai saw something inside of Luhan’s doe eyes. Longing and yearning. But he could be wrong.

 

Luhan’s gaze dropped to Kai’s plump lips and his own parted to form a word, but it never did come out.

 

Kai moved his hand to Luhan’s shoulder to push him away gently, but Luhan got it wrong. Instead, Luhan leaned in closer, eyes closing, and pressed their lips together.

 

Kai was caught off guard and he didn’t know what to do, his hand lingered on Luhan’s shoulder, frozen.

 

Receiving no response, Luhan pulled away from the soft lips and his eyes fluttered open only to stare at Kai’s shocked expression.

 

“I… I-” Luhan started, trying to explain himself.

 

Luhan looked around warily, he began to feel the layers of sweat forming on the back of his neck. Kai hadn’t said a word, hadn’t move a muscle and Luhan wondered if the younger one was still breathing or not.

 

---

 

“You’ll have the solo!” Sehun almost choke on his apple juice. He stared at Kai disbelievingly. “It’s a good opportunity, you’re good at dancing, you know,” Kai continued.

 

Sehun set his glass down and furrowed his eyebrows.

 

He just told Kai that he’ll be joining the dance show this weekend. Kai was really happy, he went straight to Sehun and hugged him, spinning him around.

 

Then, he had the crazy idea of letting Sehun have his dance solo part of the stage.

 

“But what about you?” Sehun’s tongue darted out and his lower lips.

 

Kai just grinned, “I’ve done it all my life, it’s getting boring to dance for people. Once in awhile, I want to be the audience and cheer for someone,” Kai simply stated and gave Sehun an assuring smile.

 

“You’ll be there, right?” Sehun stared at Kai’s handsome face.

 

“Of course, everyone will,” Kai nodded.

 

Sehun lifted up his pinky finger, “Promise?”

 

“Promise.” Kai laced his pinky with Sehun’s and stamped it with their thumbs.

 

Kai’s phone suddenly rang and he fumbled with his jacket to find it.

 

“Luhan hyung?” he answered. He slapped his forehead and muttered a ‘sorry’ and ‘i forgot’ before giving signal to Sehun that he had to go.

 

Kai laughed at what Luhan was saying through the phone making Sehun frown.

 

He thought that finally he get to spend time with Kai since he just got back.

 

Sehun can only shrug it off.

 

---

 

Sehun was in his Vamp Socio class when suddenly the door shot open, a fledgling who he recognized as Onew bursted in.

 

“Mr. Zhang,” he paused to catch his breath. “They… They need you in the infirmary… now,” he managed to say within pants.

 

Lay excused himself for a moment and left his student with some question to solve while he’s gone.

 

“What do you think happened?” his deskmate, Junhong, poked him.

 

Sehun shrugged, “I have no idea.” But at the back of his mind, he was sure that it’s the same thing that had happened to him a few weeks ago.

 

After school has ended, Sehun overheard some student saying that a weird creature has attacked a student outside of the school.

 

Sehun frowned, thinking that he could be wrong because the red fledgling that attacked him doesn’t sound like what they described.

 

---

 

“This really isn’t a good idea.” Lay mumbled as he paced around in Kris’ room.

 

“We don’t have a choice.” Kris wasn’t nervous, he was sprawling himself on the couch for goddess sake!

 

“We do, you know, like maybe forgetting this whole stupid idea?”

 

“Oh come on, admit it that you actually want to break in but just afraid we’re gonna be find out.”

 

“Well yeah!” Lay yelled in nervousness when a second after that, there was a knock on the door, scaring the crap out of both of them. “Who is it?” Lay whispered to Kris.

 

“How should i know. I need to open it first.” Kris rolled his eyes but still not moving in opening it.

 

“Go and open it!”

 

“All your worries have made me wary too.”

 

“Like how?” Another knock resounded through the room.

 

Kris whispered “What if it’s the High Priestess? Vampyres are intuitive after all.”

 

Lay’s eyes quickly got wide. “Stop it! Stop scaring me!”

 

Kris took a deep breath and went to the door when he glanced back and Lay wasn’t there. “What are you doing?” he hissed at Lay who was opening his closet door.

 

“Hiding. If you get caught, at least i’ll still be there to carry out the mission.” Was his final words before he closed himself in.

 

Kris shook his head and braved for the worse. But it was only Tao.

 

“Oh, it’s you.” Kris said relieved but Tao frowned.

 

“Were you expecting someone else?”

 

“Well no, not exactly.”

 

“It sure looked like you were.” Tao was about to go in when Kris put his arm on the other side of the doorway, fully blocking the door with his tall figure. “Care to let me in?”

 

“Umm… no…” Kris said nervously.

 

Tao just narrowed his eyes further. “And why not?”

 

“Because i’m busy right now and need to sleep soon.” Was Kris’ lame excuse.

 

“But we always meet up during this time.” Tao gave Kris his infamous pout and sad eyes which Kris looked away from immediately.

 

“Uhh… Later. Okay?” And to save himself Kris wanted to slam the door shut but halfway Tao’s hand block it.

 

“You’re being really weird Kris.”

 

“I’m just… Really tired right now.”

 

Tao shook his head sadly. “Not just today, but for the past week. You’ve been spaced, indifferent, you don’t even pretend anymore to listen to me speak.”

 

“I’m sorry… It’s just that a lot has been going on. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

 

“Yeah… Fine then…” Tao turned to walk away but Kris went to grab his arm before Tao shrugged it away.

 

“Zitao, don’t be like this.” Kris said irritably.

 

Tao ignored him by walking away. Kris sighs as he closed the door.

 

“Wow, that’s rough.” Lay said as he climbed out of the closet.

 

“Let’s just do this, so i can get back to my sulking boyfriend as soon as possible.” Kris and Lay stepped out of the room and headed for the High Priestess’.

 

---

 

“There’s nothing in here.” Lay muttered as he was inspecting the High Priestess’ bookshelf.

 

“There should be, i can feel it.”

 

“Well i can’t find anything.” Lay stomped his feet in a silly way when he felt the ground beneath it was uneven. “Huh?” He whispered to himself and crouched down to check under the carpet. “Oh my freaking Goddess, Kris! Come here!”

 

“A trap door? Didn’t expect that.” Kris said as he tried to open it.

 

“I thought underground was empty.”

 

“Me too. And we need a key to open this.” Kris got up to search around again.

 

“No need. This is an old lock. just give me something to pick it.” Then, Kris gave some wild small metal rods out of nowhere.

 

“Thanks.” Only a few seconds was needed until Lay managed to unlock it.

 

“Come on.” Kris went down first, leading the charge.

 

“What is this place?”

 

“Not a normal basement at least.”

 

“With blue coloured flames on the torches, yeah i would say it isn’t.” Lay said staring at the said blue flames torch.

 

“Here, there’s a room.” Kris said, he almost missed it as it was covered with a black curtain.

 

What greeted them was shocking. There were many red candles flaming about, the walls of the room had many forbidden spells on it. Lay quickly averted his attention to the book in the middle of the room.

 

“Oh Goddess, Kris this isn’t good.”

 

“What?”

 

“This book is the book of Azaroth. It’s supposed to be kept in the Vampyre Council’s library.”

 

“Well, it’s not anymore.”

 

“And all those spells on the wall. They mean something…”

 

“What?”

 

“Just give me a sec..” Lay stared at the words written there. It was in an ancient language but Lay was familiar with them as he often need to refer to it, as him being the Ritual and Spells teacher.

 

“Confine. Obey. Control. Revive…” Somehow everything clicked. “Kris…”

 

“Yeah?” He was still busy looking through the book even though he didn't understand a thing.

 

“This are the spells for raising the dead.”

 

“What?!”

 

Lay pushed Kris away. “Yes, and it turns out that during the equinox, the spell can get the strongest and be permanent.”

 

“Well, when’s the equinox?”

“Tonight. I think Hyeri’s on her way there. We need to stop her, let’s go.” Kris and Lay ran as fast as the could. If they don’t stop her in time, the House of Night would probably be doomed.