chapter 6 | rough morning

“Yes, I’m fine, I promise.” Wonwoo lied into the phone as he balanced it between his ear and his shoulder, rubbing disinfectant onto some of his wounds that still hadn’t closed up. “I can’t talk that much right now, I’m studying for this huge test coming up. I’ll call when I get the time.” He continued to feed and feed the lie until the truth wouldn’t make sense anymore. “Yeah, alright, alright. Bye.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t like his stepmother. She was a wonderful person and cared for Wonwoo deeply like he was her own flesh and blood. It was more like he didn’t love her, he couldn’t love her. His cracked and leaking heart only had one place for the word mother and it was already reserved for someone else.

Quickly throwing away the tissue he was using to clean a large cut on his abdomen, he rushed to throw on a grey long sleeved shirt and a pair of tight jeans to head out. Stuffing all his books into his bag, Wonwoo quickly pulled the strap over his shoulder and slammed the door behind himself, deciding to skip saying hello to Soonyoung and drinking his morning tea. The previous night Wonwoo had found it very difficult to fall asleep as a million things he could never say ran through his head.

The moment he stepped into the classroom still out of breath, almost all eyes were on him. He was definitely thankful to those few understanding students that didn’t want to embarrass him further.

“Mr. Jeon, lets not let this happen again.” The professor rose his voice to be heard, never turning to look at Wonwoo like he already just knew it would be him and instead continued to write whatever he was explaining on the black board. Wonwoo scurried to his desk, embarrassed at how much sound his footsteps seemed to make against the linoleum floor and how loud the zipper of his bag was in the quiet ambiance of the classroom, the only sound being chalk scraping on the board.

“Rough morning?” A voice somewhere to Wonwoo’s left asked. He quickly looked up and just shyly nodded. The boy seemed to be around, maybe, 23 Wonwoo guessed. His obviously dyed, but still beautiful brown hair swept to the sides of his face and rested just above his shoulders. If Wonwoo hadn’t quickly lowered his eyes to the others chest he would have definitely mistaken the other student for a female.

The male just laughed. “Me too. I woke up really early because I forgot to do the project and I thought I would be able to do it this morning, but I never actually looked at the paper. I don’t think I would ever be able to get a picture of a sunset at 4 a.m.” The boy joked as Wonwoo’s eyes widened. “What project?” Wonwoo barely whispered as the words got caught in his throat, more as a question to himself than the brown haired boy.

The project that he said he would do last week. That one. “Hey, you okay?” The other asked when he saw the look on Wonwoo’s face.

“Next to present is Mr. Jeon. I hope you have a wonderful presentation after coming in late today.” Mr. Nam announced as he read from his laptop.

“Sir, I apologize, but I have not completed the whole project and I will bring everything in tomorrow.” Wonwoo nervously responded with his head in his hands as he thought about how he could have possibly forgotten about the last project of the semester. Suddenly, the face of a certain high schooler came to mind. This was Mingyu’s fault for distracting him and definitely not Wonwoo’s for putting off the project until last minute and always saying he would do it tomorrow.

“You better. Remember, Wednesday is the deadline.” Mr. Nam just pushed up his round glasses that were so thick, Wonwoo wondered how his eyesight was so bad and continued to call the next student.

Sighing a breath of relief, Wonwoo buried his face in his hands hoping he could suffocate himself for being so stupid and forgetful. “I guess you had a pretty bad morning too.” The boy laughed again and put a hand on Wonwoo’s shoulder in a comforting way. Wonwoo cringed at the act and towered away from the others hand. “I-I’m sorry. I h-have Mysophobia. I-” Wonwoo tried to explain for his reaction.

“Oh, it’s okay. No reason to explain yourself.” He smiled again, this time his thin lips curved up like he really meant it. “I’m Jeonghan, by the way.”

Wonwoo smiled at his kindness. “I’m Wonwoo.”

The rest of the class went fairly fast as Wonwoo felt a sense of enlightenment from the feeling of maybe a new friendship. No one had ever approached Wonwoo first and the idea that someone wanted to talk to him felt wonderful.

As soon as the professor said all his last statements and reminders and dismissed the class, Jeonghan was already up from his seat and standing in front of Wonwoo’s desk.

“Do you have any classes after this?” He asked as he ran his hand through the hair on the sides of his face to push it away. Wonwoo just lightly shook his head.

“Me neither. Wanna go get lunch together or something?” Jeonghan proposed.

“U-uhm sure.” Wonwoo mentally slapped himself for his constant stuttering. Cringing from the sound of the metal chair scraping against the floor, Wonwoo raised up from his seat and slung his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.” Wonwoo warmly smiled.

The new feeling of walking in the hallways and outside on the sidewalk with someone next to him made him feel warm all over. So this is how it feels to have friends.

It felt nice.

They stepped into the cafe near Wonwoo’s house that Soonyoung worked in. Like the gentleman he was, Jeonghan pulled out a seat for Wonwoo to sit in. The younger didn’t know if anyone had ever made his face so red from such a simple act.

“So what are you majoring in?” Jeonghan asked as soon as he was seated in front of the other boy on the other side of the cafe table.

“Photography. I really think it's amazing how people can use cameras to express ideas, trigger emotion, and convey information.” After hearing what he said, Wonwoo immediately recoiled. “I’m sorry. That sounded a little weird.” He softly laughed awkwardly.

“No, it’s okay. I actually really admire how you can feel that strongly about something. That’s really amazing.” The brown haired boy smiled reassuringly at the other. “I’m majoring in fashion design.” Jeonghan continued. After seeing the confused look on Wonwoo’s face he continued to explain. “Taking at least one photography class is required, but it turned out to actually be a lot of fun so I kept taking them.”

“But, I don’t think I’d ever like photography as much as you.” Wonwoo suddenly became shy from the small compliment, causing Jeonghan to chuckle.

After order their food, for Jeonghan a caesar salad that matched his skinny build, and a order of small french fries for Wonwoo.

“That can’t be all you're eating, right? Even I’m eating more.” Jeonghan asked skeptically, eyeing the small plate of fries.

“U-uhm, I haven’t been feeling that well lately so I’m not that hungry. I’ll be okay, I promise.” He lied again for the second time this day. It wasn’t like he wanted to lie, it just made everything a whole lot easier.

After a little more convincing, Jeonghan finally agreed reluctantly and started his salad. Once they were both finished the boys bid their goodbyes and agreed to definitely meet up another time. Wonwoo felt absolutely wonderful. He’d forgot what having friends felt like a long, long time ago.

When Wonwoo entered his apartment he thought nothing could ruin his wonderful mood. Checking his phone, he realized it was already three o’clock. Mingyu would be out of school soon. Scolding himself for thinking of the taller male, Wonwoo decided to take a nice, warm bath even though it was the middle of summer. The steaming water sizzled and stinged his wounds, but it felt nice in an odd way.

It was somehow four o’clock when Wonwoo drained the bath and got dressed to make himself some ramyun. This was the best day he’d had in a while, even if he had forgotten about his photography project. But maybe that was what made all this possible. If he had never forgotten to do his project, he would have never spoken to Jeonghan.

Everything was great until someone knocked on the door. Wondering who it could possibly be, Wonwoo rushed to open it and see what was the matter.

Mingyu stood there with red eyes almost as if his eyeballs were bleeding and could barely stay on his two feet even as he held the door frame with both hands.

“M-Mingyu-” Wonwoo squeaked, completely surprised by the youngers appearance. “W-what’s wrong?” He asked nervously as he led Mingyu inside, trying to ignore all the yells inside his head of don’t get too close to him, there are so many germs!

“Wonwoo, I-I haven’t fed in two weeks.” Mingyu weakly slurred as he tried to stand by himself but wavered backwards, his back making a thump against the solid wall behind him.

“Why didn’t you come here then?!” Wonwoo raised his voice, becoming nervous at the state Mingyu was in.

“I know you don’t like it.” Mingyu croaked out with a strained expression. “I don’t want to force you.” He confessed.

For some reason, this made Wonwoo very angry. “Who cares what I want? You could die right now!” Wonwoo exclaimed as he furiously pulled down the collar of his long sleeve, ignoring the alarms going off inside saying ‘His filthy hands all over you. Is that what you want?’  

Mingyu stood back with surprise written all over his face. “Wonwoo, is this really okay?” He asked weakly.

“Just hear the sound of your voice.” Wonwoo swallowed as he closed his eyes, trying to calm his nerves. He raised his head to give Mingyu a good access of his pale neck. The taller of the two stumbled forward and grabbed Wonwoo by his shoulders, turning him around into his previous position against the wall.

He quickly, but softly grazed his lips over the area the older's neck met his shoulder before and a particular area. He sunk his already growing fangs into Wonwoo’s tender skin as the other squeezed his eyes shut, hoping he could block everything out.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Mingyu asked, moving his mouth away momentarily so Wonwoo would hear him.

“Just shut up and drink my blood.” Wonwoo whined as he began to shiver, snapping his hand up to pull Mingyu’s head back down by the nape of his neck so he couldn’t see the expression on his face.