chapter 2 | hangover

Wonwoo shot up from the beeping of his alarm clock, the annoying buzz being the only thing keeping his eyes from drooping back closed. Pulling off the blanket with his aching arms, he trudged into the bathroom and felt around the wall in the dark for the small lightswitch. Immediately, he squinted his eyes shut from the blinding light and rubbed his sore eyelids. Starring himself down in the mirror, he pulled down the collar of his shirt revealing two deep puncture marks embedded into his tender skin. Wonwoo winced from the red tint that still remained from his own dried blood. Touching his own blood was bad enough. He would probably faint if he had to touch, or even lay eyes on someone else's blood. His entire body felt completely disgusting even after taking five showers the previous night after getting home even though he felt like he was going to collapse any moment.

Making sure he disinfected the handles first, he the cold water and washed his hands thoroughly. Turning the handle farther, he turned the water colder and splashed his face as an attempt to wake himself up from the daze he was concealed in. After drying his hands, Wonwoo brought up a hand to touch the two marks but retracted just as fast as he raised them from the sudden sting and the alarms going off in his mind saying “Germs! Too Many Germs!”

Wonwoo felt like he was suffering from a hangover even though he’s never had a drop of alcohol in his life and doesn’t really know what a hangover felt like. His head felt like someone had hit him with a hammer multiple times until he had passed out. Finally after some contemplation, he decided to wear a scarf today (that he made sure to wash yesterday) even though it was sixty degrees and the sun was shining high in the sky. His arms and legs still hurt as he changed into a sweater and a pair of tight jeans.

The memory of last night was a bit hazy in his mind. All he knows is that he’s extremely tired and definitely doesn’t want to hand in his photography project due today that he only spent an hour on out of the two weeks of time provided. Without a doubt, he was probably failing all the classes his parents worked so hard for and payed so much for. Wonwoo knows his parents aren’t proud of his behavior but they pity him so he just barely stays in school.

The clock read 7:45 and that was his cue to start leaving for his first class and maybe stop off at the cafe around the block for a quick breakfast if he was mentally ready for it. Taking a deep breath, Wonwoo reached out with his calloused hands to open his door handle to his dorm, the last sanitary thing he would be touching until he gets home. Luckily, he only had day classes today so that would mean no walking alone at night again. He would probably never be able to take that route again without being petrified.

Stumbling out the door, Wonwoo put all his strength together to make throught the rest of the day and clumsily placed the key into the door and locked it. Pulling up his black messenger bag by the strap and pulling the sleeves of his grey wool sweater down to cover his hands, he walk down the sidewalk looking at the people in the bustling city around him. Ignoring the messages in his mind, he pushed open the glass (and extremely filthy) doors of the cafe he went to almost every morning to get some nice, warm tea. Wonwoo didn’t like coffee because it was always just a bit too strong for him to handle. Tea was a nice alternative that never failed to tend to his very natural taste buds. He waved to Soonyoung, the barista who made his tea every morning which Wonwoo had made friends with overtime.

“Hey, you look pretty worn out today. Worked on a project all night?” Soonyoung asked as he cleaned the counters. The cafe was pretty empty at this time in the morning so there weren’t so many customers as usual.

“Yea, just some black and white photography study thing.” Wonwoo lied.

“Hope you get a good grade.” Soonyoung put away his rag. “The usual?” He asked.

“Yup.” Wonwoo took a seat near the counter and waited for his herbal tea. He didn’t dare place his hands anywhere except stuffed inside the sleeves of his sweater on his lap.

Even though Soonyoung was a wizard, using magic was prohibited at work but since there was hardly anyone inside he just lifted his hand around lazily to do things like pick up the cups and pour the water.

“You know, I’m pretty sure you can get fired for that.” Wonwoo teased sarcastically as he ran his eyes around the room.

“Yeah but no one is here and you’re too much of a wimp to ever file a complaint.” Soonyoung smirked as he leaned back on the counter with crossed arms and waited for the tea bag to soak.

Wonwoo pretended to look hurt but just grinned as he attempted to make an innocent face. When his tea was ready, he picked up the disposable cup and told Soonyoung to put it on his tab as usual. Soonyoung just smiled, nodding his head disapprovingly and waved goodbye, wishing Wonwoo last minute luck on his project. Wonwoo wished he was in fact home, working on a project last night.

When he arrived at his university it was already 8:30 and his art history class started at 8:40. He found a garbage can and threw out his cup and took his small bottle of hand sanitizer out of his bag to disinfect his hands from anything that might had been on that cup. Sighing, he walked to his first class to get this day over with so he can go home, take a nice hot shower and a long nap to rid of his fatigue.

Finally at 2:45, all Wonwoo’s classes were finished and that meant home, sweet home (or dorm in his situation). Holding the strap of his bag, he walked down the same side walk he came with his head down, staring at the cracks in the sidewalk.

With his amazing luck, he bumped straight into someone's shoulder. Time seemed to slow as the person turned his head and looked straight into Wonwoo’s eyes. His eyes widened at the incredibly familiar face. His pulse seemed to quicken and his mouth dried as the strangers black eyes flashed red and seemed to stare into his soul for what seemed like much more than a millisecond before turning back into a charcoal black and continued walking the opposite direction.

Wonwoo whipped his head forward and his grip on his bag tightened as he walked as fast as he could home without breaking into a sprint. The image of the way too familiar red eyes never left his mind the whole trip.

Fumbling in his pocket, he unlocked his door as quickly as possible and threw his bag right on the floor as soon as he walked in. Habitually, he walked to the bathroom and washed his hands quickly. His body felt completely disgusting, as if those deep red eyes were still watching him. Wonwoo stripped completely and turned the shower water on, not caring what temperature the water was.

He cleaned every part of his body he could for hours until his skin burned as much as the images in his mind. Laying on his bed, he pulled his hair at the head-splitting headache he was suffering from. It was as if that person, that thing was still in the room with him. Like he- it was inside of him Inside his mind.

At a sudden wave of pain like a punch to his head, Wonwoo grabbed the sides of his head and hissed. He squeezed his eyes shut until he saw black dots and shook his head side to side. After another shock, Wonwoo felt his consciousness slowly fade and he couldn’t open his eyes or move his limbs.

All he saw was black.

A dark side street late at night with a boy around twelve crying then flashed before his eyes. Another person was there too. He seemed to be holding the boy with his arms, making him unable to move or resist. As Wonwoo got a closer look, the person was on the boys neck, drinking his blood actually as silent tears dripped down his too-pale-to-be-human-anymore face.

Wonwoo felt like throwing up.

The next scene he saw was in a dark alley at around the same time as the last scene. It seemed to be an older version of the same boy before, now probably around fourteen or fifteen. Now there were three other people with him and they seemed to be provoking him. Stepping into him and pushing his shoulders farther back into the brick wall behind him. They hissed, revealing sharp fangs that brought back terrible memories of the night before to Wonwoo. The boy hissed back but he was obviously no match for all three of the other vampires. Images flashed in front of Wonwoo of the boy bleeding and getting bruised and tattered until it was completely black again.

He watched various scene’s of the boy approaching different, regular people in the middle of the night. Every few scene he seemed to grow a little older until Wonwoo saw a very familiar sight he wished he could forget. Everything was exactly how he remembered it and even better. He saw himself, pushed up against a wall with that thing-that boy on the tender skin on his neck.