Yongguk released a slow breath, a habit he still maintained from when he was human. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back until it rested against the wall of the barn he had hidden in.

A small smile pulled at the corners of his lips. You were odd, to say the least. He had fully expected you to bolt, but you had taken mercy on him, offering yourself to him even though you had known he could have killed you.

"What're you so smiley about?" A familiar voice pulled him from his reverie and his eyes flew open.

"Himchan." Yongguk greeted the man who lounged in the shadows. He was the closest friend he had in this world, but they definitely had their differences..

"I heard you were dead this morning," Himchan said, pushing away from the beam he leaned on to offer Yongguk a hand up.

"I was, nearly. Thanks for flying to my rescue," Yongguk said with no small amount of sarcasm.

"I wasn't in the area. I got here as soon as I could. I barely got to this barn before the sun was too strong. Didn't think I'd see you here," Himchan said, pulling up his sleeve. His skin was angry and blistered, and Yongguk winced, both touched that Himchan had braved the sun for him, and sympathetic to the pain of the burn.

"Didn't think I'd be here," Yongguk replied honestly. Himchan eyed the hole in his friend’s shirt as he carefully rolled his sleeve back down.

"So who'd you piss off? And how are you still here?"

“Just some newborn, he came out of it worse than me,” Yongguk said. Himchan nodded, understanding the implication. He walked over to the ladder leading to the hayloft, swiftly climbing it. Yongguk followed.

“And you? How’d you get out of it? With the way you drink, and the size of that hole, you should have been…” Himchan trailed off, watching Yongguk scale the ladder to join him.

"More dead?" Yongguk's lips quirked in a sardonic grin as he reached his hands up to lean on a rafter. "And there's nothing wrong with the way I drink--"

Himchan scoffed, interrupting him. "Stealing it from hospitals? Where it tastes like and barely does anything? Yongguk, that's no way to live."

"So I should kill people? Like you do?"

"It's in our nature, Bang. We're just the next step in the food chain," Himchan stated flatly. "If it bothers you so much, just don't drink them dry."

Yongguk blinked slowly, knowing Himchan knew the answer.

"Oh, that's right, Bang Yongguk is more righteous than the rest of us. He'd never drink from someone who wasn't willing, even if they'd live." Himchan hissed, crossing his arms, his eyes flashing irritably.

Yongguk sighed. Their conversations always turned to this argument. "I don't think I'm better than you, Himchan. I just... Can't. We were all human once."

Himchan's angry expression softened, and he turned away, risking glancing out of a crack in the wall. "Not all of us remember that far back, Bang. I've been around a lot longer than you. Honestly, I worry about you."

"You worry about me?"

Himchan turned back and stared pointedly at his chest. Yongguk pressed his lips together, unable to respond.

“So. How’d you survive?” Himchan needled.

Yongguk sighed. “I managed to drag myself about a mile away, but the sun was starting to come up. Then a girl came along--”

Himchan’s eyes widened. “You didnt.”

“No,” Yongguk cut him off flatly. “I didn’t kill her. She offered.”

“Offered?” Himchan asked, surprised.

Yongguk nodded. “I drank enough to heal, then I made sure she got home.”

“So, you didn’t kill her, you clearly exposed us to her, and then you let her go?” Himchan asked in disbelief.

“I… yes,” Yongguk responded hesitantly.

Himchan’s face pulled into an angry snarl. Yongguk took a startled step backward. "We have rules about this for a reason, Yongguk. Some of us drink while people are asleep. Some of us masquerade as humans who want to be like us. But we don't just expose ourselves. Do you realize what you could have done?"

Yongguk was quick to hold up a hand to forestall anything else he might say. “I know. Let me deal with this, Himchan.”

Himchan gave him a hard look, considering the lanky man. “One chance, Bang. If it even seems like she might something up, I’ll get rid of her.”

Yongguk breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Himchan."

"I'm only doing this because I trust you, against my better judgement. I don't know anyone else who'd be stupid enough to."

"Good thing you're pretty stupid," Yongguk said with a grin, and Himchan laughed and shoved him. The two hunkered down in the hayloft to to wait out the sun.