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A young adult.
Sitting by the river by himself. Crying.
Why is he crying?
Nobody knows, apparently only the young man knows. So Minho emerges from the shadow of the woods and slowly approaches the boy, silently, like an owl. The man's soft weeping is the only source of noise in the middle of the hushed forest. It’s dark yet the moon seems to shine the boy brightly amidst his dark surroundings.
Minho looms over the man, taking his appearance on his trembling body. The vampire tilts his head to the side and crouches beside the weeping man. His hand reached for the soft black hair and did the action startled the man.
A wide fox-like eye stared back at him, the moonlight reflecting brightly on his eyes that Minho can’t help but stare. The man’s face filled with tears and his cheeks reddened from the crying, softening his sharp face look.
“Who-who are you?” The young man's lips tremble as he asks, his voice also rasp Minho noticed.
“Pardon me, my name is Minho, I’m a vampire,” The vampire answered shortly, lacking any emotion behind his voice. The young man in front of him seems to tense as his eyes narrow at Minho, unsure and wary of the strangers in front of him.
“May I ask, what’s your name?”
“Why?” The young man’s voice was firm and demanding.
Minho doesn’t flinch, he answers with a calm voice, “Because I already told you my name.”
A scoff coming from the young man as he laughs bitterly, he harshly wipes down the tears on his face with the hem of his sleeves. He sounds so hurt, it intrigues Minho’s curiosity.
“Jeongin,” The man finally answers, “My name is Jeongin. I’m a human.”
“Why are you crying, Jeongin?”
The question seems to have the young man scoff again as he looks away to blinks his tears out. Minho frowned, why is he crying again?
“Are you hurt?” Minho asked again.
The young man shakes his head, “No. But I will be.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
“It’s not you,” Jeongin quickly responded. He took a deep breath and curled up, hugging his own knees, “I will be married tomorrow.”
Marriage? Isn’t that a good thing?
“Then why are you crying? You should be delighted.”
Jeongin shakes his head again, a little bit hard this time, “No! I don’t want to!”
“Why?”
“Why do you care?!” Jeongin's furious shout startled Minho, the vampire is confused by the sudden outburst.
“Because marriage is a happy occasion. Isn’t it?”
“No,” Jeongin rested his head on his knees, “Not this time.”
A frown appeared on Minho’s face. As if sensing the vampire confusion, Jeongin continues to elaborate on his condition.
“My parents sold me to some old rich bastard that lives by the hill,” A pause, “But honestly, I don’t know if that should be counted as sold or not. Because the douchebag decides to kill my parents if I somehow refuse or run away so I can’t do anything.”
No answer from Minho and it made Jeongin jittery, he lifted his head and stared at the vampire with an annoyed expression. About to confront the vampire but somehow the creature disappears from his side. As if vanished in thin air.
Looking around the forest he found no trace of the vampire whereabout and sighed. He lays down by the river, embracing the cold night that made his bone hurt. Praying that tomorrow never comes, somehow he died by the cold or the wild animal. He’s too much of a coward to drown himself in the river, it hurts his body and he never wants to feel it again.
So he closed his eyes.
***
A cold wet numbing envelopes his body and Jeongin gasps awake. He opened his eyes and found his mother holding an empty bucket alongside some of his neighboring villagers looking down at him. His mother is furious and slaps him the moment he sits up.
“Why are you here? Where have you been? How dare you try to run away!! Don’t you care that your parents are gonna get killed because of your selfishness?”
Something something, his mother screams and shouts in anger. Jeongin couldn’t care.
His mother bathed him on the river immediately. Scrubbing his skin with a harsh movement that causes his body reddenning. Washing his hair with no mercy as his hair is being pulled roughly for the hair ‘treatment’. Then as a cherry on top, the mother dumped him again with the cold river water without warning. He feels like he’s suffocating and freezing.
With minimal clothing, he’s being ushered back to his house in the village. His father immediately greeted him with relief and a hug, which helped ease the coldness in his body a little. But, the warm moment immediately disappears when his mother pulls him to his room, to be dolled up.
Some of the village girls help his mother to dress him up and put makeup on him, like a bride. He wants to throw up. Yet, he remained calm sitting on his bed as the white veil was put on his head and covered his face. His mother and the village girls leave him alone after.
He waits.
He waits for his inevitable doom, for his freedom to be taken away, for his humanity being stripped into some worthless toy that would be discarded at a certain age. Death would be a beautiful mercy for him.
Knocks on the door interrupted his depressive thoughts and he looked up to see his father enter his room with a solemn expression. His father, the only thing he lives for in this world. His gentle and calm father who always embraces him no matter how much he has aged. Wiped his tears from his face with a soft touch every time he cried. An angel soul trapped within the murky human world.
“I’m sorry,” His father said, crouching and cupping his son’s face as always. Jeongin lips tremble and his barrier crashes as he falls wailing into his father’s arms.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” His father continued and Jeongin shook his head.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I’m not strong enough.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I wish I could have done something.”
“It’s not your fault.”
A hand rested on Jeongin’s back head while his hands hugged his father tightly.
“You should have just ran away,” His father mumbled, staring at the walls, yet his gaze was distant.
“You will die,” Jeongin argues back in a whisper, “I don’t want to lose you. I want you to live.”
“I’d still want you to run away even if it cost my life. There won’t be much difference from giving you away to him, everyday knowing I can’t do anything to prevent the marriage, kills me. Everyday will feel like death to me.”
“Don’t say that please, don’t say that…” Jeongin breath hitched, “You’re the only one left I have since my mom died. She might be my mother because you married her but she acts nothing like a mother.”
His father fell silent, he kept hugging Jeongin tight. As if to carve in his mind what it feels to have his son in his arms for the last time before he’s taken away, before not knowing the destiny his son has after this.
***
The sounds of horses are coming up, the old bastard has come and the audacity he has to hold the marriage in the village church makes Jeongin want to slit open his throat. His hand trembles in his father's grip as he is being guided throughout the house. A carriage is waiting for him outside the house, so is his mother, so are the villagers who participate or are just curious about him.
The seer jumped down from his seat and made his way to open the door. Everyone is silent, expecting an empty carriage ready to be filled by Jeongin and his family but it seems that’s not the case.
The old rich son of a bitch is dead.
Shrink to his bone.
With a mark that looks like a bite mark near his neck and only Jeongin noticed it in the midst of chaos.
Everybody is screaming and shouting, some of them running away, some of them going to the carriage to assess the old man or once again, curious.
Jeongin feels haze and floaty from the shock, he feels himself being dragged back to the house by his father and back to his room. He sat on the bed before his father told him with a firm tone.
“Stay here!”
And the door to his bedroom being slammed shut.
The sound of chaos outside the house becomes a distant noise.
The young man sits and staring at the floor. His mind wonders of the blurry event in his memory.
What happened? The old man just died.
Where? On the carriage.
When? Jeongin doesn’t know.
Why? Jeongin doesn’t know.
How? A bite mark on his neck… shrunken to death..
Who… did this….?
…
…
…
A smirk appeared on Jeongin’s face followed by a breathy laugh, his body bent over, shaking violently.
***
The chaos managed to ease during the evening. Jeongin has been locking himself in his room and has made no move ever since from his bed. Instead, he stares at the dark forest from the window in his room. He can hear his parents arguing outside of his room about what’s going to happen to him, to them, more likely his mother only worries about herself. He takes a look at the door, listening to the muffled sound before deciding that he has had enough.
Standing up and walking fast but noiseless, he approaches the window and opens it quietly. Slowly climbing through the window and landing his feet gently on the ground, he closes the window and makes his way to the forest.
Pair of invincible eyes stare at him, Jeongin can feel it in his spine and feels the chills. He keeps going further and further deep into the woods. Something shifting at the corner of his eyes, lurking in the shadows of the forest following him every step he takes. As he feels he’s far enough from the village he stops and takes the serene view of the quiet dark forest.
“Minho,” He calls with a shaky voice.
Something shifted and moved beside him, closing their distance until it stopped meters away from him.
“Jeongin.”
The young man turned around, staring face to face with the vampire he met a night ago. The sharp gaze vampire had to him should scare him but it doesn't, instead he feels enchanted as moves closer.
“You did it,” Jeongin accused with a breathy voice.
..
..
“Yes, I did it,” Minho doesn’t deny it.
Jeongin's face breaks into a smile, “Thank you.”
The vampire seems surprised by the gratitude. Maybe he expects more of a negative reaction from the young human. An anger, a scream, shout, hatred or whatever but all he got was a smile. Minho is speechless for a moment.
“You’re.… welcome.”
“You’re not mad at me?” The vampire questioned further, still in disbelief of Jeongin’s reaction to him admitting killing his soon to be husband. The young man laughs and it surprises Minho, he lives as a lone vampire long enough to forget why this human would laugh at someone’s death.
“No! Why would I be mad at you? You free me from that bastard!”
Jeongin can see the confusion and tense gone from the vampire, now he looks at ease and relief.
“I don’t want you to be forced into a marriage that you did not want. I don’t know why.. I just… can’t let that man take you away.”
Minho’s eyes roam over Jeongin’s appearance, taking the sight of the boy’s supposed to be bridal suit for the marriage. His gaze softened.
“You look… beautiful..”
Oh. Now Jeongin doesn’t expect that.
“Th-thank you,” He stammered, feeling his cheeks heating up a bit and looking away. The vampire lowered his gaze to the ground.
Silence comes following after that, none of them knows what to talk or to bring up. Jeongin is still hiding his bashful face and Minho stares at the ground. It’s so awkward and quiet.
Eventually, a little light appears from the path of the village followed by the familiar frantic sound of Jeongin’s father. Calling his name.
“Father,” Jeongin's eyes widened as his father came to his view with a torch in his hand. The older man's attention immediately went straight to Minho. Jeongin looks back and forth at Minho and his father, “Father no- wait! I can explain-”
His father shakes his head with an understanding smile, while clearly this is a misunderstanding, “No need to.”
Jeongin can only sigh and gives up on attempting to clear the situation.
“I’m glad you found your own love, son.”
Jeongin groaned in his mind, forget the death of the cranky old rich, his father's misunderstanding is the new highlight for the day.
“Father… stop…” Jeongin hides his face from his father's teasing smile.
“I wish I could walk you to the altar, son but it seems tonight is our last chance to meet.”
What?
Jeongin snaps his head back to face his father who greets him with a melancholic smile.
“What?”
“The extended family of the Lord Ranton-” So that’s the dead bastard name “-is blaming you for the death of him. They’re looking for you.”
Jeongin clutches his head, so much is happening, too many. What is even going on now?
Seeing Jeongin on the verge of his mental breakdown, his father took pity and gave his attention to Minho. The vampire stares back at the old man with a tilted head and curious gaze.
“Can you take care of him?”
“WHAT!” Jeongin shouted, which was ignored by the other two.
Minho raised his head slightly, “You know I’m a vampire, right? It’s not wise to give your child to me. He will be in my possession to claim.”
“But you have to ask for his permission, isn’t that what I know?” Jeongin’s father smiled gently, which made his young son look at him speechless.
What does that mean? How does his father know all of this?
And he’s so calm?!
In Jeongin defense, he was depressed at the situation so meeting the vampire did not enhance his flight or fight survival skill. Now his father, standing straight in front of the creatures that feast on human’s blood and offering his son?! Making a deal?!
“That’s true,” Minho answered.
His father chuckled, “Well I guess I can leave my son in your hands, can I?”
Minho is silent. Both of the humans looked at him, waiting for his answer and decision.
“Yes.”
“What?!”
“Very well.”
“Father!”
Loud, faint, and distant angry shouting and screaming can be heard. Alongside with more light torches lighting up the dark forest coming up to them. Jeongin stares at the light stunned, horrified at the sight, horrified at his own fate.
“Jeongin, look at me,” he averted his eyes to his fathers’. Who stares at him with affection.
“It will be okay.”
“No, it’s not!”
“It is,” His father’s rough calloused hand, who works hard to meet their needs, who works hard to raise him, gently grabs his hand and moves it to Minho’s own. There, he clasped both hands, “It will be okay, you have each other.”
Jeongin's eyes sting, his vision blurry with tears. He shakes his head, but his father has pushed him and Minho to move forward. Walking away from the village Jeongin has called home and probably to never return. Minho gripped his arm and put his arms around Jeongin as he guided them forward into the woods. Jeongin looks back to see his father who’s in the same state of tears as him.
He then clutched his eyes and kept walking forward.