Chapter
Why Not?
All it took was a single glance; just a single glance, for Sehun to tell that that man was a vampire.
He certainly did have the obvious air of a vampire around him - pale skin, statuesque figure, muscles that looked like they were sculpted from marble peeking out from the sleek black ensemble he was wearing and of course that evil, hungry looking glint in his eyes as he looked at the girls surrounding him. An evil, hungry looking red- well, okay, they weren't red yet. They were only liable to turn into red when a vampire was feeding or starving. But even if they weren't red, the gaggle of girls surrounding the man was very telling. Vampires seemed to secrete some kind of pheromone that attracted all the girls. Damn vampires - seemed like Sehun wasn't getting any tonight.
"Why the glum face?"
Sehun turned around and blinked when he realized a cute looking girl was talking to him. Wha-? A cute looking girl talking to him when there was a vampire around? He almost felt proud of himself when he took a closer look and realized that this ‘girl’ was, although shorter than him, still pretty tall. There was a hint of an adam's apple on his throat and a voice much deeper than a girl's. Also... guy clothes and a very flat chest.
Right… cute guy then. Too bad Sehun was straight.
"Hello?"
"Huh?" Sehun blinked, realizing that in checking the gender of this person who'd talked to him, he'd forgotten to reply the question posed to him. "Oh! Nah, I was just bummed about the fact that there's a vampire here."
"A vampire?" the cute guy blinked, an odd, hesitant expression coming over his face. "Why...? Do you hate vampires... Because they blood or... Something?"
"What? No?" He gave the guy an odd look. Sure, some of the really old folk were still prejudiced against vampires. But after they'd slowly made their presence known since a century ago, most people had come to accept them. Plus, the vampires had gave them no reason for humans to fear them - in fact, vampires had brought with them ancient medicines and technologies, improving standard of life in general. Sehun quite liked them. Except... "They just keep stealing my potential dates. Unfair competition really."
"Oh..." Sehun thought the guy seemed oddly relieved. "That's all?"
"What do you mean ''that's all'? It's quite a serious problem!"
The guy held up his hands, as if pacifying Sehun. "Oh, no, no, no. No. You see, I'm just making sure because well... Circumstances."
Sehun followed the guy's line of sight and blinked when he realized the guy was staring at the vampire. Staring closely, he realized that this guy was wearing a small ornate earring on his left ear. And glancing over, he noticed the matching earring on the vampire's right. "Wait... Are you that vampire's bonded?"
The guy blinked, then shrugged, a small smile on his face. But there was an affirmative look on his face, so Sehun took it as yes.
"Oh... That's cool. First time I've met an actual bonded."
"Really?" the guy blinked, "they're quite common now aren't they? Some of them have been getting 2 or 3 now even."
"Eh? Vampires can get more than one bonded?" that was the first he'd heard of it.
"Yeah, only older vampires do it though. It already takes a certain amount of skill to maintain just one bonded. Another person's thoughts in your head can get a little messy, let alone 2 more. Only the older ones are crazy enough to try."
"Huh." that was interesting. Well, if he couldn't get any girls, then, why not learn something new. Maybe he could learn enough to become a bonded himself. Sure, he'd have to let a vampire bite him, but that was a small thing to the perks he could get - comfort, someone to pay his way, a longer life, and apparently, some excellent . "I'm Sehun by the way."
The cute guy smiled, a glint in his eye, as he offered his hand. "Baehyun. Nice to meet you."
Seemed like it'd be an interesting night.
~*~
Sehun groaned as he woke up, squinting into the sudden light that assaulted his eyes. Argh... He felt horrible. Sluggish even. Wait when had he even fallen asleep?!"Hey... Uhm... Sorry, could you hold still? I... I'm already having a problem... Cleaning you up."
Sehun turned to stare at the unfamiliar voice, eyes widening when he realized-
"You're the vampire from earlier!"
The vampire paused, staring at Sehun with a... long suffering look. "I-look. Let me... Just. Clean you up. And then I'll explain."
Clean him up? Clean him up from what?
It was then that he realized; one, he was stark ; two, he had a very alarming ache in his lower back; and three, when lifted a hand to inspect the sharp pain in his neck, he realized there were two holes in his neck that were still bleeding sluggishly.
Eyes flicking back at the vampire, he stated what seemed obvious from the situation. "Y-you! You had with me and drank from me"
The vampire's lips thinned as he shook his head. "No... I didn't..."
"Then how do you explain this?!" Sehun waved his bloodied hand at the vampire, who tried to look away. "Hey! Don't look away! Explain why I have two holes seeping blood on my neck if you didn't bite me?!"
Sehun hadn't known what response to expect, but it certainly not had been for the vampire to turn curiously pale, swaying as if he was about to-
"Whoa!" Sehun's eyes widened when the vampire's knees buckled, the suddenly slack form falling. But before Sehun could react, a pair of strong arms caught the body before it had an unfortunate meeting with the floor.
"Oh... Tsk, tsk, Sehunnie-ah. How could you upset Tao like that, waving blood in front of his nose? He gets faint at the sight of blood, don't you know?"
Obviously, Sehun didn't know. That was unfair to think that he did. Anyway, that wasn't the point. The point was that why was a vampire fainting at the sight of blood?
"Oh... Did you forget...? I thought I told you last night. Tao's not a vampire. I am."
Huh? Forgot? Forgot what? But Sehun forgot about his initial question when he realized that his mental question had been answered in a very much verbal way. Staring at Baekhyun blankly, it took a while to process what had just happened.
"Wait. How did- hah? What the...?!"
Baekhyun smiled patronizingly, even as he easily held the weight of the much taller, fainted man in his arms. “Vampire, remember? We have a little bit of mind-reading powers. Don't worry, we usually don't use them. In fact, we practice blocking out people's thoughts - becomes really noisy if we don't. But yours are so loud, I can't help overhearing."
Oh. Ok. So that expl- no! Wait. That didn't explain anything!
"Aren't you this vampire's bonded?!" Sehun gestured at Tao. "Why is it suddenly the otherway around?!"
"Hmmm...? I thought we covered this last night? I've always been a vampire. Been one for 300 years in fact. And Tao has been my bonded for 50 of those years." Baekhyun gave Sehun a kind smile, as if an adult patronizing a belligerent child.
Sehun couldn't believe it. "But I asked. And you said you were."
"Uh-uh. I didn't say I was. I only shrugged. You were the one who assumed I meant yes."
“I-” Sehun paused mid-protest when he realized. Crap. Baekhyun was right. He’d just assumed the shrug meant a positive. When it could have meant like… ‘no, that’s not the case, but if you want to presume, I’m not going to stop you’.
“Tehee. Well, take heart. You aren’t the first one to get confused.” Baekhyun smiled as moved over to one of the ornate chairs in the room, easily sitting down, and arranging the still unconscious Tao on his lap.
“Well, that’s because you keep up the facade. Is it on purpose? Seems to be on purpose.” Sehun folding his arms. As much as their natural facial features were sort of contradictory to their real rolls (Tao was still taller and more statuesque while Baekhyun just looked so… soft and sweet), Tao had been dressed up in a way that screamed ‘300 year old vampire’, while Baekhyun’s casual suit had said ‘lowly but well kept human’.
Baekhyun laughed, “yeah… guilty as charged. Although forty years ago, it wasn’t like that - people still naturally presumed despite us not making a conscious effort.
“But… why?”
“Why I keep up the pretense? Well, I find that it’s easier to talk to people if they don’t see me as vampire but just another ‘human’. It’s a little hard to get to know people when all they want to do is… get into my pants: ironically.” Baekhyun paused, smiling when Tao unconsciously clung to him, kissing the top of the man’s head fondly. “Tao doesn’t really like the fawning attention, but he’s always spoils me so, giving into my whims.”
Sehun frowned, unable to comprehend the vampire’s motives. “But… why wouldn’t you want to talk to people who are trying to get into your pants? Isn’t that what you want out of talking to humans? Get a meal and a little bit on the side?”
“Uh.”Baekhyun frowned replying slowly, as if he wasn't sure why Sehun was asking all this. “well, I guess that would have been my motive if I didn’t have a bonded. But like I said earlier, vampires get a bonded so that they can get a regular, primary source of food. No need for hunting after that. And the after effect is that other people’s blood becomes less… appealing after that. Although, the young vampires do then to still hunt because just one bonded usually isn’t enough to sustain their bloodlust. The older vampires do it just for kicks sometimes, or they just miss the thrill of hunting.”
“So you were doing it for kicks or the thrill of hunting?”
“No, no-” Baekhyun blinked, then paused, speaking more to himself. “Huh. Now that you mention it, I was going back to the old way we used to hunt. We’ve turned pretty lazy now huh? Making full use of our allure now that vampires and feeding aren’t taboo…”
"Erm..."
"Oh right. Sorry." Baekhyun had the grace to look sheepish. "I get lost in my own thoughts sometimes. What was your question again?"
"Were you hunting for kicks or for the thrill of hunting."
"Ohhhh. Right. No. Neither. In any case, I wasn't hunting."
"Neither? Wasn't hunting?" Sehun repeated incredulously. "Then what was with all this?!" he gestured to himself - his state of undress and his bitten neck.
Baekhyun blinked, looking mildly disappointed. "Seems like you really forgot..." he sighed, suddenly looking much older than his appearance betrayed. "I'm looking for a second bonded."
Sehun blinked back. What had he forgotten. "A second... What...?"
"Bonded. We talked a bit about the subject last night, unless you forgot that too."
Now that Baekhyun mentioned it, he did sort of remember a little bit. It was hazy though. "Uh... You said something about older vampires sometimes getting a second bonded because it helped lessen the burden on the first. And... Being a show of power or something... And..." 'I guess I'm just lonely. It'd be nice if I could give Tao a human companion too.' "Yeah."
"Yep."
"But... What does that have to do with me?"
"..." Baekhyun sighed, any hope that had been on his face had faded off. "I... Was hoping that you might become my second bonded."
Later, Sehun would be horribly teased for his reaction, but at that time, he instinctively gathered up the haphazard bed covers and pressed them to his bare chest. "Y-y-your... Doesn't that mean I have to have with you?!"
"Uh... It doesn't mean that you have to, but Tao will attest to the fact that it's pretty hard not to when you have someone else's thoughts in your mind. And humans are much weaker willed sooooo..."
"But the point is that I'd still have with you!"
Baekhyun's eyebrow furrowed. "And the problem with that is...?"
"I'm straight!"
The amount of disbelief on Baekhyun's face at Sehun's declaration was rather alarming actually. "Didn't seem like that to me."
"I really am!"
"Well, your certainly was when I pressed my tongue against it."
"Oh gods..." Sehun buried his face in his hands. Did he really? Why couldn't he remember anything?
"Yes, why can't you remember anything? You barely drank one bottle of soju, and you still managed to carry an apparent lucid conversation last night... Unless... You were actually drunk after that bottle and just normally very good at hiding it?"
Sehun's cheeks burned red. He was notorious among his peers for his inability to hold his alcohol, especially since it was coupled with the fact that he always seemed entirely lucid while drunk. Intelligent even. But once he became sober...
Well, let's just say that some of the things he'd agreed to do while drunk weren't things you wanted to write home about.
"I-!" Sehun quickly got up from the bed, ignoring the twinge of pain. He quickly located his clothes, running to them and putting them on in record time. "I'll just be going now yeah? Nice to meet you, Baekhyun-sshi."
Baekhyun seemed somewhat amused. "You mean I was right?"
"I... Goodbye!" Sehun quickly ran out the door, not wanting to stay in that room any longer. He could feel Baekhyun's eyes on him when he ran out, even when he threw the door closed behind him. It was as if Baekhyun's eyes were burning through the door.
He wasn't very sure how he got home. Only that he did. Probably called a cab or something. And once he did, he ran to his bed, dived under the covers, and closed his eyes, willing himself to go back to sleep, hoping that maybe when he woke up, it'd all become like a bad dream that would dissipate with the morning's rays.
~*~
Unfortunately, when Sehun woke up, it was night time. And instead of forgetting, Sehun began to remember over the next few days what had happened while he’d been drunk.There had been the conversation; him slowly growing more comfortable the more he talked with Baekhyun. Baekhyun had told him about a lot of things; interesting things - about vampires, the bonded, a little bit of how he’d met with Tao (at a party not too different from this, except the music had been different as had the fashion). And he on his part, had told Baekhyun a lot of things as well. Things like his studies in university, his friends, his hobbies, the arguments with his family, his lack of a direction in life, even the random thought that popped up in his head sometimes: the thought where he wished that he wasn’t a guy, so that it’d be more socially acceptable to wish that he could have someone to take care of him, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about the future - money, work - things like that.
It had been then, that Baekhyun had suddenly taken Sehun’s hand in his own. And oh crap… Baekhyun had been telling the truth: he had told Sehun that he really was the vampire of the pair and not Tao then. But to Sehun’s defense, Baekhyun barely gave Sehun time to think after he flashed his fangs. Because then, there’s hands sneaking into his shirt and breath against his jaw and whispers about how being a vampire could get terribly lonely and . Even if he hadn’t been drunk, he’d have been sorely tempted.
What happened after the touches has Sehun blushing at the most unfortunate times during class whenever he remembers. It’s a source of amusement for his friends, and irritation for his teachers, especially when he pauses halfway answering a question or while giving a presentation, and blushed like the nose of rudolph the reindeer, stuttering like a car low on fuel. Because he remembered the slide of cool hands up his heated skin, pulling off his top, and the lips that lock onto his jaw, . And then a hand sneaking into his pants while fangs graze against his neck, his heart palpitating from anticipation and then the sharp pain that shoots through his nerves at the bite. But not only that. Because it’s inconceivable but there is also pleasure and fuc-
Sehun slammed his head against the bathroom wall. Crap, crap, crappity crap. Even cold showers don’t work anymore. He had a raging hard-on even with the freezing cold water plastering his hair down to his scalp.
Whimpering, Sehun took himself into hand, but he had a feeling that very soon, even his trusty buddy Mr Right Hand wouldn’t be able to satisfy him anymore.
He needed to find Baekhyun again. And soon.
Really soon.
~*~
"...He doesn't want to see you."Sehun stared at Tao, suddenly feeling as if the tall human bonded had become a physical wall. It had been no easy feat coming to this point. Finding information on Baekhyun had been like trying to find information on an urban myth. There had been too many versions of single events, too many contradictions in the numerous tales. And so, Sehun had been struck by a of genius and had started to look for Tao instead. After all, from what Baekhyun had said, it seemed that Tao had been the figurehead of the duo: the one who made himself visible to everyone so that the actual master could operate without being seen. As it was, it didn’t take too long after to figure out where Tao would next appear. After all, even if Tao was only a social butterfly in name, all the more he would have to maintain appearances. But getting to this particular party had taken Sehun more favours than he’d liked. After all that effort, getting denied like this was more than a bit of cold water in his face.
Tao’s eyebrow rose at the floundered expression on Sehun’s face. “...You ran away.”
Sehun blinked. “Uh…”
“And you expected that Baekhyun would still want to meet with you?”
Well, no… yes… Actually Sehun didn’t think that far. But now that Tao said it, if someone had ran away from him the way he had on Baekhyun, Sehun would have probably started the second cold war.
“...” Seeing that Sehun had gotten his point, Tao had begun to turn away. And maybe Sehun should have let him, but somehow, he just…
“Wait!” Tao paused, but he didn’t turn around. Still, Sehun grabbed that opportunity to speak. “Please… I just want to talk to him again.”
“...” Tao turned around slowly, giving Sehun a level gaze, before he sighed. “This isn’t a good place to talk. Follow me.”
“E-eh?” But Tao was already moving off, and Sehun had no choice but to follow him, lest he get left behind.
Tao led him up to one of the hotel rooms that was prepared for the guests. It was an opulent room with all the finishings one would expect from one of the most expensive hotels in the world, but at the moment, Sehun really couldn’t care less. He stood close to the entrance, watching as Tao walked towards the bed, removing his jacket and removing his tie, wondering what Tao wanted to talk to him about.
“...You seem rather desperate to talk to Baekhyun.”
Sehun jumped when Tao suddenly spoke again. The tall man had settled down on the bed, palms together, looking up thoughtfully at Sehun. “U-uh… I wouldn’t call it desperate…”
“Really? Then what else would you call it? You just followed a stranger in an unfamiliar place to his room where there isn’t anybody else around to call for help. Unless you’re always this foolhardy… which isn’t that hard to believe actually.”
Now that Tao pointed it out, Sehun realized that maybe coming up here hadn’t been the best of ideas.
Tao must have saw this realization in his expression because he smirked, "regretting following me already?"
A little. But then again, Sehun oddly, didn't feel as threatened as he should be. And so, swallowing, he went over instead, seating himself down at Tao's right. At Tao's surprised expression, he said, "I... Somehow I don't think that you'll hurt me."
Tao blinked, and Sehun relaxed somewhat when the other man grinned at him. "I'm beginning to see why Baekhyun would want to make you his second bonded. Spunky, got some fight in ya, and yet you're oddly naive. And of course you've got a really nice ."
Sehun coloured at that. He didn't know how to react to that compliment, especially with it coming from guy.
But Tao was still continuing, "but what I don't see is... What do you see in Baekhyun?"
"Huh?" Sehun didn't really get the question at first. "Well... He's cute..."
"Yes, and he sort of indirectly promised that he'd take care of you for the rest of your life when he asked you to be his bonded," Tao snorted. "But he's also impulsive, whimsical and high-maintenance. He can be infuriatingly cryptic at times, and also has a low sense of self-preservation. He could talk the ear off a donkey and has this infuriating habit of ignoring you if what you're talking about doesn't interest him. Did I mention he also has an insatiable ual appetite and that's really the main reason he's getting second bonded?"
Sehun stared, stunned being the mildest of feelings he was feeling right now. "I... Sounds like you don't really like him."
"Oh no. I love him. I would follow that man to the ends of the earth if he asked," the conviction at which Tao said that boggled Sehun's mind. "But that doesn't mean that I'm blind to his faults."
Tao turned fully so that he could look into Sehun's eyes. “Do you think, despite after hearing about all his faults, that you could grow to love him?”
“I-” Sehun’s mind hurt. Love? He’d barely gone beyond the level of lust. He’d met the guy once. He wasn’t about to swear undying love for someone he’d met once, no matter how good the had been.
“You’re thinking that you’ve only met him once, and that you’d need a couple more times meeting him to even think about it, am I right?” Tao snorted ruefully, “unfortunately, that idiot doesn’t work that way. His sense of logic has been long warped by time and old age. If he sees something he likes, he just takes it - damn the consequences. He makes a mistake, whatever, he’ll outlive it. You meet him again, that’s it. He opens his mouth, bats those eyelashes of his, and bam, you’re going to be his bonded. It’s nearly impossible to refuse that man.”
“So, if you don’t think that you’re going to be able to come to love him, I suggest you stop now. Because once you meet him again, that's it. You're going to be signing the rest of your life away. And if you can't find it in yourself to love him, you're going to hate him. And if that's the case... Well, let's say I've seen it happen with other bonded before and it wasn't pretty."
"..." Sehun didn't know what to say to that. He certainly hadn't thought that far into the future. Heck, if he could think that far, he wouldn't be drifting so much in his life.
"..." Tao looked at the troubled look on Sehun's face, and his eyebrow rose, "do you really need think so hard? I thought it'd be a simple choice, since you aren't even gay. Or biual even."
Tao… was right. It should have been an easy choice to just walk away. But somehow… it wasn’t. And that very fact that he was hesitated made it even clearer. “I… Baekhyun’s… special… isn’t he?”
“...I can’t deny that.” Tao raised an eyebrow. “But ‘special’ can’t carry a relationship for even ten years, let alone fifty or one hundred. Lust and can only go so far, however talented Baekhyun is with his hands and tongue.”
Sehun turned red again, remember exactly how talented Baekhyun’s hands and tongue were. “I-I-I… no… I mean. Y-yes. There’s that, but… what I meant was. Even though… I’m straight. I think, if it’s Baekhyun… I might be able to not care that… he’s a guy.”
Sehun had never been particularly clever, or intelligent. But if there was one thing that he was, it was a good judge of character. And somehow, despite having only met him once, and being drunk and highly distracted by… other things… Sehun felt that, even if not lovers, he could at the very least be Baekhyun’s friend.
“Huh.” Tao’s eyes softened a little, even as he kept a level gaze. Then he sighed. “Well, I suppose that’s good. But then, we have another problem.”
“...What?” Sehun turned to stare at Tao, his tone flat with disbelief. Did he just kill the moment of revelation that Sehun just had?
“You do remember that Baekhyun asked you to be his second bonded, meaning he has a first bonded. Me.” Tao’s lips curled upwards. “And although I know of second bondeds who only have relationships with their bonded vampire and have nothing to do with their counterparts, it’s not going to be like that with me and Baekhyun. Oh… nothing like that at all.”
Sehun gulped when Tao suddenly was on his knees, bending over Sehun, hand pushing down on Sehun’s chest. Suddenly, the feeling of safety that Sehun had being around Tao dissipated like birds fleeing from a gunshot. “Baekhyun is quite a ert you see. He likes to watch. If you’re going to become his second bonded, then you’ll not only have to be okay to have ual relations with him, but me as well.”
“W-what? Wait. What?” It wasn’t that Sehun didn’t understand what Tao was saying. It was just that the question had come up from so left field that Sehun didn’t have the mental capability to answer. Also, it was getting increasingly harder to muster that mental capability the closer Tao got and Sehun realized that… . No wonder people kept thinking Tao was a vampire - he was gorgeous. And … why was his skin tingling with the hand wrapping around his waist.
“So… can you get up with me is what I’m really asking.” Tao grinned when Sehun let out a strangled whimper. “Well, let’s find that out right now, shall we?”
~*~
“So, do you approve?”Sehun winced a little as he began to stir, woken by the hushed voices coming from the other side of the room. What…? Where? Who?
“It never was whether I approved or not. I couldn’t stop you from taking what you wanted. I just wanted to make sure the boy was mentally prepared.”
He knew those voices. That was… Tao… and Baekhyun? Baekhyun was here? Sehun thought that Baekhyun hadn’t wanted to see him.
“Mah… you underestimate how important you are to me, Tao. If you were really that opposed to it, I wouldn’t have done it in the end.” From where Sehun was lying, he could see the two others on the other side of the room, slightly blocked by a folding screen. Baekhyun seemed to be sitting on Tao’s lap, pressing his lips against the bonded’s neck.
“Huh. I’d believe you, if I hadn’t seen the look on your face when you were talking about the boy. You’re entirely smitten.”
The boy? Sehun frowned. Were they talking about him?
“Why? Are you jealous?” Baekhyun straightened, looking down at Tao and seeing the answer there. “Huh. You are!”
“W-what! No!” Tao flushed, and it seemed odd to Sehun that such a self-assured man could be reduced to such a childish and insecure expression. “I-I’m not.”
Baekhyun chuckled, “sure. Sure. Whatever you say.” He pressed a soft kiss to Tao’s lips, saying in a carrying whisper. “But know that even if I’m enamoured with Sehun know, I would never stop loving you. After all, you’re the one who taught this stone heart how to love.”
“Nonsense.” Tao mumbled, but he didn’t protest too much even as Baekhyun kissed him sweetly, hands going around his waist.
Sehun bit back his whine of embarrassment, looking longingly at the door. He tried to calculate if he could get his clothes, wear them and sneak out of the building all while the two of them were preoccupied with each other.
"As much as I would like to continue, our little guest has already woken up from the exertion you put him through last night. And I think if we continue, he really is going to run away."
"Huh? He's awake?" was what Sehun heard. But he wasn't really paying attention because Baekhyun was suddenly beside him with a cheeky and gawd-stop-smiling-like-that-you'll-give-me-diabetes sort of smile. "Good morning. I see you really enjoyed last night with my bonded."
Sehun's hand automatically went up to where Baekhyun was staring, feeling the bump and slight burn of where Tao has made a rather large love bite besides the one Baekhyun had given him.
"And that answers Tao's question for you last night sufficiently enough I think." Baekhyun seemed satisfied. Then he hesitated. "So... What do you think? Do you think you'd be okay becoming my second bonded."
And Sehun stared into Baekhyun's eyes, wondering if he was crazy. Because although they'd met for only one night, and it went against everything sensible that Sehun had ever been thought, he was actually thinking of answering 'yes'.
Because, somehow, Sehun realised that most relationships largely failed or worked on whether or not the people involved could gel. Like with a recipe or a chemical reaction, if all the ingredients you needed were there, then the probability of success would increase. And somehow, Sehun thought, that with Baekhyun, that success might actually be achievable.
Of course, there would always be obstacles - your rogue elements. But then, looking at the tall human man peering at them from behind the folding screen, he thought those may not be too impossible to work through.
"Why not?"
~*~
“So… it’s a little early. But anyone?”“Three- WHAT?”
Tao gave a long suffering sight.
-
END
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