Chapter Text
“Seonghwa?”
He woke up with a jump, feeling disoriented for a brief moment before his eyes immediately adjusted to the complete darkness in the room to focus on the figure leaning over him.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” said San in a whisper. “I can feel the sunrise coming so I’m going to head out. Wooyoung is tripping hard and refuses to move, is it okay if he stays here to sleep it off?”
Seonghwa blinked a few times to shake the drowsiness off and sat up, realizing that he had fallen asleep at some point during the night and half of his friends had already left by now.
“Yeah, of course,” he replied after clearing his throat and getting up to kneel where Wooyoung was spread out on the rug. “How much did he take?”
Seonghwa brushed off his friend’s red hair to put a hand against his forehead and check the temperature, which made Wooyoung groan and cling to his wrist to keep his cool palm against his feverish skin.
“Not much, but he’s not used to taking W3 so more than enough to leave him as high as a kite,” explained San while wrapping his jacket around him. “I had like three drops and I had to turn all the lights off because I could basically taste them. I could taste the light. Your stuff is way too strong.”
He snorted, mind going straight to the secret stash he kept in the fridge he had in the basement for personal use.
You have no idea.
“You’re just not used to it, you simply need to build up a tolerance until you can consume the more concentrated stuff,” he said as he walked his friend towards the front door.
“Vampires can’t build a tolerance for W, Seonghwa. You are a very weird exception.”
He didn’t even bother trying to hold the eye-roll back as he opened the door for San.
He really didn’t feel like being on the receiving end of this lecture for the millionth time at that specific moment.
Or ever, if Seonghwa was being completely honest.
“I’m not the only one who takes the strong stuff, San. They legally sell W up to a concentration of 5% for a reason.”
His friend lifted an eyebrow and gave him a knowing look, but didn’t say anything else before smiling and bringing him in for a hug.
He figured San was probably as tired of having this conversation as he was.
“Okay, then. I better leave before the sun comes up. Thank you for inviting us over, I had a lot of fun.”
Seonghwa returned the sentiment while he watched San head towards the sidewalk and waved one last time before closing the door behind him, walking back into the living room where Wooyoung was in the process of taking his clothes off.
“Come on, let’s get you to the guest room before you hurt yourself,” he said while grabbing his friend’s clammy hands to stop what he was doing and help him get up.
“—’s too hot,” mumbled Wooyoung as he let himself get dragged into the hallway, immediately clinging to him in an attempt to cool himself down using Seonghwa’s lack of body heat.
“I know,” he replied as he guided him towards the guest room.
His friend groaned again when he fell onto the bed, hands going straight to his t-shirt to take it off.
“Hurts.”
“I know,” he said again.
If there was anyone who knew how overwhelming it felt to have rough clothing brush against sensitive and feverish skin while high on W, it was Seonghwa.
Wooyoung whined again before rolling over to rest on his stomach and cover his ears with shaky hands.
“So noisy.”
I know.
Seonghwa helped his friend take his jeans off and carefully folded his clothes to put them aside in silence before opening the window to let the breeze come in, making sure the sun screen was firmly in place and walking out to grab some painkillers and water before coming back into the room.
“Someone is having very loud sex,” mumbled his friend with a giggle after Seonghwa coaxed him into swallowing the pills.
He chuckled and petted his red hair.
“Good night, Wooyoung.”
The other vampire muttered something in reply as he hugged the pillow and went back to his previous belly-down position.
Seonghwa closed the door behind him and went back to the living room to tidy things up, pressing the switch that turned the sun block films in all the windows on before grabbing the trash can to throw the empty blood bags and alcohol bottles inside. He did the same with the empty amber vials of W after, gathering all the leftovers with a dropper and emptying it under his tongue.
He closed his eyes to bask in the sparks that instantly spread through his body, heartbeat picking up speed in his chest and making blood rush through his veins much faster than normal for a vampire.
The vials he had brought out for the party had 3% of the active drug diluted in the mix, so it was nowhere near the potency Seonghwa needed to actually feel the effects of the W, but it was still enough to get his heart pumping and his senses to heighten slightly.
He finished tidying up the living room as the pleasant and gentle heat warmed him up from the inside and walked upstairs to his ensuite bathroom after he was done to remove his make-up, absently thinking that he needed to re-dye his pink hair while staring at his tired expression in the mirror before falling on the bed.
He laid there for a moment, feeling the effects of the W3 slowly fade away as the sun came up, knocking him out to the world as his human neighbors woke up and started out their day around him.
–
“What the fuck is this?!”
Seonghwa woke up startled and confused for the second time that day, bright artificial light hitting his eyes the moment he opened them and making him hiss in pain.
“Are you actually insane?! Do you have a fucking death wish?!”
When his eyes finally got adjusted to the light and stopped burning, he found Wooyoung standing next to his bed with an angry expression on his face and three familiar UV-protected black vials in his hand.
Shit.
“Why do you have that?” he asked.
“I woke up feeling starved and hungover, but you only have Type B blood in your kitchen so I figured you might have some O in the basement fridge and I found these there,” explained Wooyoung. “Don’t fucking try to change the subject, why do you have illegal W with a 20% purity label in your house? Do you have any idea of how dangerous this is? You could die, Seonghwa!”
He sighed and rubbed his temple, feeling equally embarrassed and annoyed as he chastised himself for not foreseeing that something like this could happen.
He was very aware of the optics of the situation and how Wooyoung was going to take this the wrong way, no matter what he said.
Seonghwa got up and slowly walked towards his friend with his hands raised, as if trying to carefully approach a skittish wild animal, but Wooyoung took several steps back to widen the distance between them once again.
“I know it looks really bad, but I have it completely under control,” he said, trying to push his frustration down and avoid raising his voice. “You know I have an unusually high tolerance for W, I’m perfectly fine. Please, just pretend you haven’t seen anything and forget this ever happened.”
Wooyoung stared at him for a moment before snorting in disbelief.
“Are you listening to yourself? You sound like an addict, do we need to have an intervention or something?”
Seonghwa could feel his jaw tensing up as he stared down at the hand holding the vials, which made his friend take yet another step back.
“This is rich coming from you, considering you use W as well!” he replied.
“I use the regular stuff recreationally just like any other vampire, Seonghwa, I don’t have W20 in my fridge! This is way over the legal concentration limit, which means that you had to go out of your way to find some sketchy dealer who would sell it to you,” exclaimed Wooyoung before turning around and walking out of his bedroom.
“Fuck,” he whispered, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath he didn't really need before rushing after his friend, finding him pacing around in his living room with the dark vials still firmly grasped in his hand.
“The synthetic mix simply can’t be this strong, so there are only two real options here: 1) They scammed you and this is laced with who knows what, or 2) This has ‘the real stuff’ in it,” added Wooyoung before raising his arms in the air. “Do you know what that means, Seonghwa? That it has actual werewolf cum in it! A substance that is literally considered toxic waste even if the mutt it came from is completely healthy, which is probably not the case because no sane lycan would risk his life just to get some money on the side!”
“I know, okay? I’m very aware of the dangers and illegality of what I’m doing, but I swear the effects W20 has on me are basically the same ones W5 would have on someone like you,” said Seonghwa as he got closer to him. “Ignore the numbers on the label for a second and simply look at me, do you really think that I have a drug problem?”
“You clearly do!” replied his friend immediately. “Sure, you might be a very high functioning addict with a weirdly high tolerance for it, but you’re still putting literal mutt cum in your body! One of the very few substances that can actually kill vampires, Seonghwa!”
“Stop calling them ‘mutts’, that’s incredibly offensive,” he exclaimed much louder than he had meant to, forcing him to purposely lower the tone of his voice before he continued talking. “You do know that this is not actual werewolf semen, right? This stuff is still processed and diluted even if it does have actual cum in very small quantities in it instead of the synthetic substitute. Nobody is selling unprocessed werecum out there, not even in the black market. W20 is literally the most potent thing you can get anywhere, and I wouldn't be stupid enough to try to get the real thing even if it was actually available anyway.”
Except for the fact that I totally would.
Wooyoung stared at him in silence for a moment, disappointment shining in his eyes in a way that told Seonghwa that his friend had caught his lie and had heard his unspoken words very clearly even if he hadn’t actually said them out loud - but instead of calling him out on his bullshit, the other vampire simply chuckled and walked towards the balcony.
He opened the inner door and pressed the switch next to it, which made Seonghwa immediately rush forward with a gasp as the solar panel started to move up to let a thin sliver of evening sunlight get into the living room.
He went straight for Wooyoung’s hands to try to stop him, but his friend managed to throw the bottles through the small gap under the blinds before Seonghwa could catch the W.
“No!”
He pushed his arm through the opening to try to grab the vials before the UV could destroy their content, a stinging sensation spreading through the limb as the light hit his skin. Seonghwa whined as he stared at the small bottles shining under the sun and quickly dragged his arm back when it started hurting, tiny red bumps showing up instantly as he cradled it against his own chest.
“Why the fuck did you do that?! Do you know how expensive and hard to get that shit is?!” yelled Seonghwa, fangs instantly dropping from their hiding place inside his gums in his anger.
Wooyoung simply stared at him in silence before hitting the switch once more to close the blinds and fill the living room with darkness.
“Take a good look at yourself and tell me again that ‘you have it under control’.”
His friend didn’t even wait for his reply before silently walking towards the hallway and locking himself in the guest room, leaving him behind so he could deal with both his burnt arm and guilty conscience completely alone.
–
Seonghwa had been obsessed with werewolves his whole life.
He knew the intense and incomprehensible pull he felt towards the lycans was confusing for other members of his own breed, and he honestly couldn’t even blame them – not even Seonghwa himself could begin to understand why he felt the way he did.
Vampires and werewolves had a tense history, to say the least.
One might rationally think that they would get along considering both species had to fight tooth and nail to defend their existence and get enough rights to avoid having humans hunting them down for sport, but the truth was that they had been sabotaging each other since the Dawn of Time.
No matter how many times they tried to fix things between them, they would end up on bad terms over and over again for one reason or another.
To make things worse, it was almost like they had been especially designed by the gods or genetics or whatever to be mortal enemies since they were quite literally toxic for each other.
Quickest way to kill a werewolf? Put some vampire blood on the blade and that will get the job done. Do you actually want to get rid of a vampire without any hassle? Werewolf blood is the answer! In fact, any type of bodily fluid will do the trick for both of them if you use them in the right way.
They had almost driven each other to extinction several times throughout history, but had chosen to put their differences aside to (separately) fight a more dangerous common enemy. After 'The Truce' with the humans had been finally negotiated and signed, vampires and werewolves never really resumed the most violent side of their age-old animosity, but they hadn’t really become allies either – they had simply chosen to …ignore each other.
His kind had managed to carve themselves a space in the so-called ‘Civilized Society’ alongside humans in fairly recent history, while lycans had chosen to create their own communities outside the cities and towns instead - settling down far away from the other species even if there wasn’t anything legally preventing them from living among them.
Seonghwa had grown up near several packs down south and there were even more of them around Seoul, particularly in the Bukhansan Protected Area - and yet, he had never come across any werewolf in his entire life, not even in passing. In fact, nobody he knew (be it human or vampire) had ever met a lycan.
The official explanation behind their decision to live isolated was that they were sensitive beings who got overwhelmed by the smells and noises of cities and preferred to keep to themselves in smaller groups, but everybody knew the real reason behind that excuse. Everybody knew that things would be very tense if they ever were to change their mind.
Despite all the efforts behind the assimilation attempts and informational campaigns, both humans and vampires continued to see werewolves as dangerous and animalistic monsters who could easily kill them all if they wanted to.
The real apex predator of all the humanoid species.
While vampires still faced tons of institutional discrimination and their mere existence was frown upon by some people, it was nothing compared to the extreme bigotry lycans had to deal with. Sure, they still had to deal with so-called 'hunters' who committed hate crimes against them for the mere reason of being a different species from time to time, but it was very well-known that werewolves had it even worse when it came to these deranged humans who saw themselves as brave vigilantes who wanted to save humanity from the 'monsters that lived among them'.
Decades and decades of all that discrimination, mistrust and ostracization had almost turned werewolves into a living myth, mysterious beings who existed outside society with their own barbaric rules and customs. They protected their packs with their lives, but they guarded their secrets even more fiercely, so it was incredibly hard to separate what was real and what was pure fiction when it came to them.
Seonghwa had always felt a deep sense of guilt and sadness while thinking about the amount of suffering that his own species had inflicted on werewolves throughout history. He obviously knew that thousands of years of war couldn’t sorely be blamed on them, but he still condemned his kind for backstabbing lycans just to get on the good side of humans and not using their privileged position to extend a helping hand to people who were basically on the exact same boat as them.
He felt like he had the right to feel like there was a lot of entitlement and dishonesty going on, but he digressed.
He couldn’t really act like he himself wasn’t a filthy hypocrite as well, considering he paid humans stupidly high amounts of money to get drugs laced with werewolf semen. His dealer had always defended that his goods were ‘ethically sourced’, but Seonghwa simply couldn’t know for sure if that was really the case or not.
He had read about the disgusting things humans had done with vampires in the name of science and knowledge in the past, and yet, once again, it was nothing compared to what they've done to werewolves just to harvest every ounce of liquid they could get from them in order to sell it either as a dangerous poison or a lucrative drug - and he despised himself for being part of the demand that incentivized that type of behavior.
But he still did it anyway.
He wished he had a good excuse for it, but the truth was that he simply couldn’t help himself. He had tried to get clean on several occasions, and yet he always ended up falling back into the habit.
No matter how hard he tried to stop it, there was an urge inside him that pressed him to keep going further and further in search of …something.
Seonghwa didn’t know what he was looking for at the bottom of the W vial exactly, all he knew was that, in his quest, he had somehow been capable of building up a tolerance for the drug that shouldn’t even be possible for a vampire.
Maybe the urge that made him increase the dosage and the purity level was simply his brain looking for the ultimate high.
Maybe Wooyoung was right when he called him an addict.
Maybe he was also right when he said Seonghwa didn’t actually have everything under control.
–
He didn’t know how long he spent kneeling in his dark living room, but it had been long enough for the fangs to retreat back and for the rash on his skin to disappear as it went back to its smooth paleness.
Feeling ashamed and guilty, Seonghwa got up and silently walked down the hallway until he was standing right in front of the guest room. He stood there for a moment, but he never got the chance to actually knock before Wooyoung opened the door and stared at him with a tired expression and no trace of the disappointment he had shown while standing in front of that balcony.
They simply looked at each other without saying anything, eyes speaking louder than words, before his friend sighed and grabbed Seonghwa’s right arm to check on it. Wooyoung brushed his fingers against the newly healed skin before pulling on the limb, making the other vampire stumble into the room and fall on the bed next to him.
His friend wrapped his arms around him immediately and Seonghwa was quick to return the embrace, grip so unnaturally tight that he knew he’d probably be breaking at least one bone if the other vampire were a human.
“Sorry for losing my shit when I saw the vials. It’s not that I don’t trust you to know your limits and make your own choices, I just…” whispered Wooyoung into his pink hair. “I just don't want to lose you. I want to believe that you do have everything under control, I really do, but I’m afraid that you’re going to get too overconfident and make a mistake you can’t come back from.”
Seonghwa didn’t know how to reply, so he simply tightened his grip even more.
“I know you have …a thing for werewolves and this is the only way you can indulge in it, but be careful. That’s all I ask, please,” added Wooyoung as he also increased the intensity of the hug. “I won’t hesitate to kick your ass and drag you to a rehab facility myself if I have to. I’ll enlist everyone’s help too. Yeosang and San have enough muscle to carry you all the way there if needed, and Jongho might be a human but he’s basically as strong as we are so don’t test us because we will do it.”
Seonghwa couldn’t help but laugh, fully aware that his friends would be perfectly capable of doing such a thing, which made Wooyoung echo the sound.
“And I completely believe that,” he replied. “I promise I’m being careful and I will ask for help the moment I feel like I’m slipping.”
His friend sighed and rubbed his cheek against his hair, choosing to stay quiet and not add anything else as they laid embraced in the darkness.
He knew his lukewarm words weren’t enough to reassure Wooyoung, but it was all he could offer to try to convince both of them that everything was okay.
–
Seonghwa couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t fixated with werewolves.
He could clearly recall constantly babbling about them while hugging his gray husky plushie as a wide-eyed child, vivid memories that were as pristine in his mind as the uncomfortable reactions and loud reprimands he got from his parents whenever he asked innocent questions about the mysterious lycans.
His family, as well as any other vampire around him, had always shown enough poorly-concealed bigotry to make a very young Seonghwa realize that he should never share his candid fascination about werewolves with other members of his species – let alone open up about any of his confusing thoughts and blurry dreams.
He never could remember much after waking up, but he could recall some foggy images from these recurring and repetitive dreams.
Dreams of dense forest over his head, cold soil under his naked feet, and fragrant woodsy scent filling the air. Dreams of excited childish screams as he ran through the foliage while the moonlight seeped through the branches.
Dreams of flashes of gray and white fur running after him. Dreams of a wolf pup playfully hunting him down and roughhousing with him, nipping at his neck while Seonghwa’s happy laugh traveled around them.
Dreams that had quickly shifted in nature as he matured and learned more about his own sexuality and desires.
Seonghwa had purchased his first dose of W1 the day he turned a legal adult, after years of failed attempts at trying to get his hands on the drug under the watchful gaze of his over-controlling parents – and he had been immediately hooked.
He had meant it when he told Wooyoung he wouldn’t consider himself an addict, but he also couldn’t deny that he had been exponentially amping up the percentage of purity to the point that he had been consuming the most potent stuff available for a year now.
He had tried to stick to the synthetic legal stuff for as long as possible to avoid playing into the dubious morality of the black market, but W5 had stopped being effective by the time he graduated university, so he had been forced to seek out humans who would sell him the illegal stuff laced with real werecum.
Trying out the different products available in his area had led him to his current dealer and his downright explosive, mouthwatering, and completely mind-blowing W20 – and he couldn’t even pretend that both his desperation and withdrawal symptoms hadn't increased exponentially since he started using this particular mix.
Just a bit, though.
Definitely not enough to be considered an actual addiction.
Seonghwa could perfectly understand why his friends were worried about him, though, even if they weren’t even aware of the real extent of his W use. He had also seen the kind of effects the most concentrated variants had on other vampires.
He had seen the covens full of sickness-ridden and emaciated bodies with muted yellowed skin and vacant eyes, he had seen the graphics that showed the way the mortality rate increased side by side with the higher percentages of purity.
He was very aware of the fact that he was playing around with literal poison that could kill him, but he also felt that there was something different about him and his abnormal tolerance to the drug.
Maybe it really was just the delusions and wishful thinkings of an addict, but, for some reason, Seonghwa simply didn’t react to W the way other vampires did and he never had. He still felt most of the physical effects, from the fast-paced heartbeat and the heightened senses to the feelings of euphoria, but they were always milder and lasted a lot less time when it came to him.
There was also the very obvious fact that, for other vampires, W was more of an hallucinogen than an aphrodisiac – which was definitely not the case for Seonghwa.
There was a reason why he had bought his first dildo, his first knotting dildo, soon after he took his very first dose of W. He didn’t even know if that particular myth about werewolves’ anatomy was true, but he chose to believe it because the things he did in the privacy of his own home were nobody else’s business but his own.
In the end, not even Seonghwa himself could deny that there was probably something very wrong with him. A loose wire in his brain that made him pay no attention to other vampires, or even humans, because he was too busy fantasizing about yellow eyes and bicolor fur while high on W.
And the worst part was that he couldn’t even bring himself to care about it.
–
“Oh, hell no. Go away! I told you I wouldn’t sell you anything.”
Seonghwa sighed and held back the urge to throw a tantrum right then and there, at the entrance of the park where he had ambushed his dealer completely unannounced.
The human, on the other hand, simply rolled his eyes at his lack of response and walked past him to head towards his usual bench.
“Please. I swear my friend did destroy the vials last week before I even had the chance to open them,” explained the vampire, but the other man ignored him completely as he sat down while typing on his phone. “Come on, Sejun. Sell me one at least, I’ll pay double. Triple.”
The dealer gave him a look that told Seonghwa he didn’t believe his very real explanation before he continued texting whoever he was talking to.
“I’m a paying customer! You’re not my mom. Your job here is to give me goods and get money in exchange for them, not to make moral judgements about my decisions.”
“Well, yeah, but dead vampires are terrible customers so I’d rather not risk it,” replied Sejun while putting his phone in his pocket. “And you know very well that I mean the 'actually deceased' kind of dead here, not the 'technically undead' state you're in at all times. I’m not exactly dealing with weed over here, dude, I do care about the kind and amount of W my customers put in their bodies because I don’t feel like being charged with involuntary manslaughter with a side of speciesist hate crime.”
Seonghwa sighed and sat down next to him, resting back against the bench and staring up at the bright half-moon.
He had tried to be good and stick to legal W after his embarrassing altercation with Wooyoung, he really did, but he had found himself texting Sejun only a few days later. His dealer had replied a simple ‘no’ before switching to simply ignoring every one of his following texts, going as far as to blocking Seonghwa when he had started to get more insistent.
The human had even blocked him a second time when the vampire had called him using his actual personal number instead of the secret pre-paid phone he used for the deals, secrecy and safety falling down his priority list fairly quickly in his desperation.
Seonghwa knew he could simply reach out to any of the other dealers he’s bought from in the past instead, but a deep feeling of wrongness assaulted him every time he even considered that idea.
Other people’s W didn’t have the right effects on him, even if they were processed in the exact same way and had the exact same percentage of purity. They did make him feel high and get all the other basic physical reactions to it, but he felt like something important was missing even if he couldn’t exactly put his finger on what it was.
Sejun’s stuff simply hit differently, for some reason. There was just something special about it, something that made Seonghwa crave it so desperately that he had irrationally and impulsively shown up unannounced in their usual spot just for the remote possibility of getting his hands on some of it.
“Look, even if you’re telling the truth and you actually never consumed the last batch I gave you, I still can’t sell you more,” said Sejun suddenly after a moment of silence. “As you can probably imagine, there's a huge demand but very limited supply due to the lack of the ‘main ingredient’. We’ve known each other for a while, I really like you as a person and you’re a very loyal customer, but we’re genuinely fully booked and I have every single vial accounted for. We work with a single provider so we get a fairly small amount of, you know, fluids per month and we can only do so much with it.”
Seonghwa looked at the human so fast that he heard a crack coming from his own neck, staring at him with stunned eyes as he tried to process the meaning behind those words.
“Wait, you create the W yourself?” he asked.
Sejun’s eyes widened when he realized what he had said.
“Fuck,” whispered the dealer. “I mean, I don’t do it myself because I’m just a dumb seller and not a chemist, but …yes.”
“I asked you about it once and you told me that you guys simply moved the final product!” exclaimed Seonghwa.
The dealer chuckled. “I don’t remember that conversation, but of course I lied to you! Do you think I’m actually going around advertising something like this to addicts with supernatural strength who are probably dying to eat me for breakfast?”
Seonghwa briefly wondered how Sejun had even been capable of lying to him, considering vampires could very easily pick up on physical cues that gave people away (especially humans) when they were lying, but his brain was too busy repeating the word ‘fluids’ over and over again.
“...so you work with actual werewolf semen?” he whispered, even though there was nobody else anywhere near them in the silent park.
Sejun groaned. “Goddammit, of course you’d choose to fixate on that. Don’t even think about it, Seonghwa!”
The vampire turned around his whole body to face him directly and scooted closer.
“Please, I’ll pay you anything you want.”
“Do you have a death wish? Is that it?” replied the human straight away.
“You don’t have to give me much, just a bit. Come on, you know better than anyone that I’m pretty much immune to W. I’ll be fine, you have nothing to worry about.”
“No!”
Sejun sighed dramatically before digging through his backpack to grab the small insulated bag he had inside, checking the vials he had neatly arranged in it before taking one and handing it his way.
“Here,” said the dealer after dropping the small bottle on Seonghwa’s hand. “It’s nowhere near the regular amount because it’s just the stuff we had left after filling all the other vials, but at least it’s something. Just take that and forget I ever said anything else.”
He wrapped his fingers around the bottle without looking at it, eyes still fixed on Sejun.
“Please,” said the vampire again. “Only a little bit. I promise I won’t make a habit of it, I’ll go back to W20 right after. I just want to try it so bad. This might be the only chance I will ever get to get my hands on some of it. Please. Just once and I’ll leave you alone afterwards, I swear.”
The human groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“Fuck my life,” whispered Sejun before glaring at Seonghwa. “Listen, it is true that you’re suspiciously high functioning considering you single-handedly ingest three times the amount of W any other customer takes while still looking way more lucid and healthier than any of them, but it’s still literal poison that will kill you if you take it raw. The stuff you take is still super diluted and processed, you know? There's a 20% concentration limit for a reason."
“Exactly! I can consume all of that without any issues whatsoever, this would just be like amping it up just another notch. Nothing I can’t take, I’ll be completely fine,” he replied before he got distracted by the presence of another vampire nearby, moving towards them supernaturally fast.
Sejun sighed again and opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t get the chance to get the words out before a woman appeared in front of them.
“Holy shit,” yelled the human, startled. “You guys really need to stop doing that, you’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days!”
The stranger ignored him to stare directly at Seonghwa, a look he returned just as intensely.
Vampires weren’t pack animals the way humans or werewolves were. They were capable of creating covens with trusted members of their species, but they weren’t overly comfortable around unknown individuals.
Especially unknown individuals who radiated unstable energy the way this woman was.
Seonghwa didn’t even have to look at her to feel the uncontained tension in her body and smell the addiction rushing through her veins, but the sunken cheeks, dull skin and bloodshot eyes were the most obvious giveaway.
He looked away while she and Sejun did their transaction in an attempt of giving her some semblance of privacy, confusion and anxiety bubbling inside him as he stared at the sky.
Is that really where I’m headed if I continue going down this path?
He put the small bottle he was still gripping in his hand inside his pocket and waited until the other vampire had vanished, as quickly as she had appeared, before turning around to look at the dealer again.
“You’re going to scare my customers away,” said Sejun while he zipped the insulated bag close again to put it in his backpack. “You have your vial with leftovers, so please leave now.”
He stared at him for a while before pushing a hand through his pink hair, trying to figure out how to keep pushing without being too aggressive.
“Does that mean that you deal with the werewolf directly? Is he …being coerced? Is he fairly compensated?” asked Seonghwa, desperate to know more about the faceless ‘provider’.
Sejun stared at him with disbelief.
“I like you and all, dude, but you really are a very odd vampire,” muttered the human before rolling his eyes. “Yes, I work directly with the werewolf. No, he’s not being coerced – at least not by us, I don’t know the reasons behind his decision to do this. Yes, he’s definitely fairly compensated.”
“...what is he like?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?” asked Sejun before laughing. “I don’t know, he’s kind of an asshole? He’s always on the defensive and ready to take absolutely everything as a personal attack, but I guess I can’t really fault him for it considering how werewolves get treated by, well, every other humanoid species. He doesn’t talk much and when he does it’s exclusively about business, so it’s not like I know a lot about the guy even if we’ve technically known each other for a year now. He shows up, drops the juice, gets his money and any important updates, and leaves.”
“Is he hot?” blurted out Seonghwa before he could even think properly about the question.
The human laughed again and gave him a knowing look.
“I’ve never seen him without a face mask and the hood of his baggy sweaters pulled all the way up, but …yeah, I suppose he does look kinda hot. A lot smaller than I expected a werewolf to be, if I’m being honest, but I guess it makes sense that they’re not the barbaric and bulky beasts we’ve been told about.”
Seonghwa bit his lip and cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed by the fact that he could feel the spark of arousal starting to heat him up from the inside at the most basic and generic description possible.
“Can you at least think about the possibility of selling me some of it? I will pay whatever you want. Just a few drops, that’s all I ask,” he said, unable to stop himself.
Sejun groaned loudly. “My fucking big and stupid mouth. You’re never going to let this go now, aren’t you?”
“Please,” begged Seonghwa.
“Okay, I’ll think about it and discuss it with the others. I mean, if there's a vampire out there who can take actual raw lycan juice without overdosing, it's definitely you,” said the dealer before shrugging. “The last word isn’t ours, though, it’s his. We’d have to ask him for an extra dose just for you and, like I just mentioned, he’s very fussy about pretty much everything. One of his requirements is that he gets to look at our client list and distribution schedule, which is only fair considering we’re dealing with his literal hazardous bodily fluids and he’s risking his life by doing this. I’ll put on a good word for you, but I’ll be completely honest: he’s always thought that you were very sus, so I can’t promise that he’ll be receptive even if you offer a lot of money.”
For some reason, the mere idea of the faceless werewolf whose processed cum he’d been ingesting for a year knowing about his existence was enough to make the underlying arousal he had been feeling flare up inside him.
“Oh, he knows about me?” he asked, feeling stupidly breathless even though he didn’t even need that much oxygen to begin with.
Sejun made a vague hand gesture.
“Well, kind of. He knows of you, he can see that the code name we use for you is all over the place in the schedule. He doesn’t have any kind of personal information, of course, but he does know that you consume much more than other vampires. I won’t go into details, but believe me when I say that you owe me because it took me a lot of effort to convince him of the fact that you’re actually being safe and somehow don’t suffer any of the usual negative side effects.”
Seonghwa nodded, hand going into the pocket to play with the vial nervously.
“Now leave, I’m supposed to do another sale soon and I don’t want to make any more of my customers uncomfortable,” said Sejun while sitting back and pulling out my phone.
The vampire was half-tempted to complain, but he was suddenly extremely hyper aware of the W he had tucked in his pocket.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. Consider it a gift for your loyalty as a customer,” replied Sejun.
“Thank you,” said Seonghwa while getting up and fidgeting with the sleeve of his jacket. “And thank you for the chat, I enjoyed it. I don’t know why we’ve never really sat down to talk like that before.”
“Because you’re always too focused on getting your shit and immediately fucking off right after to get high.”
Seonghwa bit his lip as shame hit him right in the chest.
He could admit to himself that Sejun wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah…”
The human laughed and made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
He squashed the need to defend himself once again and instead focused on zipping up the jacket, stopping when he felt the presence of another vampire heading towards the park.
“I think your next customer is here,” said Seonghwa. “Thank you again for the vial, and …let me know your final decision regarding what we discussed.”
The human sighed dramatically.
“Oh my God, I’m regretting this already. Yes, I will let you know. Now do your vampiric thing and poof out of here.”
Seonghwa snorted, but did exactly that and used his superhuman speed to get out of the park while making sure he wouldn’t cross paths with the other vampire.
The conversation they'd just had took a backseat in his mind as he walked into his house, attention firmly focused on the vial that suddenly seemed to weigh a ton in his pocket. He lifted the little bottle to try to see how much W there was against the light, whining in disappointment when he realized that it was barely a single dose.
Thanks to Wooyoung’s antics, he hadn’t gotten high in weeks and now he wouldn’t even be able to do it again for a while either.
Seonghwa could feel the desperation and disappointing rushing in his veins, but he hadn’t even thought he’d be able to get his hands on any W that night, so he would take everything he could get at this point.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
He forced himself to take it easy as he went through his night routine while being hyper aware of the vial resting on his bed, making sure to finish all his chores and put both phones on airplane mode to avoid any possible distractions.
If this was the only hit Seonghwa was going to get in a while, he was determined to make the most of the experience.
Feeling the energy buzzing under his skin, he laid down a towel on the bed and grabbed both his favorite dildo and the lube before taking all his clothes off and laying down.
He usually got too aroused and impatient to bother using toys after taking W20, simply using his hands to get himself off quickly and efficiently instead, but he was determined to drag it out for as long as he could this time.
Seonghwa sighed and dragged his hands over his body until he reached his dick, cool skin sitting unresponsive under his touch despite the arousal that had been slowly rising inside him since he left that park.
Contrary to human pop culture, vampires weren’t overly sexual beings.
Not necessarily because of lack of sex drive, but because they had trouble kick-starting their bodies in order to get things going - courtesy of the slow-paced heartbeats and blood flow. For vampires, getting physically excited was a tedious and long process even after taking stimulants such as W and other similar drugs, but most of them didn’t seem to care too much about it and were content with taking their time during love-making.
Seonghwa was an anomaly when it came to that as well, though.
He had struggled quite a bit to make his body keep up with his extremely high libido as a teenager, but using W had been the assistance he had needed to make his dick come to life when he needed it the most. He didn't know why he had such an unusual reaction to the drug on top of the abnormal tolerance levels, but he wasn't going to complain about it.
Seonghwa was probably the horniest vampire to ever exist, and he couldn’t even bring himself to be ashamed.
The vampire pumped his limp cock a few more times before grabbing the vial and opening it, groaning when the smell hit his nose. W didn’t have a particularly pleasant scent, too similar to the sterile and synthetic odor you’d find in a chemistry class or a hospital, but his brain had developed a Pavlovian response to it by now.
Nothing about the substance gave away the fact that there was cum somewhere in there, too processed and mixed with other watery substances to even make it have the right texture, and yet Seonghwa could almost swear that he could faintly taste it.
Without wasting any more time, he tipped the bottle over his open mouth, waiting for the liquid like he was a starved man and moaning the moment it hit his tongue as instant electricity spread from that point to the rest of his body while bringing a rush of heat with it.
Seonghwa brought the vial closer to his mouth when the W stopped flowing, sucking on it to try to get every single drop before tossing the empty container to the side.
His back arched as another moan escaped his lips, brain sending sparks through every nerve as goosebumps spread over his overheated and sensitive skin. The familiar loud rushing of blood filled his ears to overpower every other sound, and perspiration started to gather on him as his body struggled to stay cool.
He squirmed once again and rested his right palm on his chest, feeling the abnormally fast heartbeat and breathing pattern for a moment before dragging both hands up and down his torso, enjoying the way every patch of sweaty skin seemed to sing under his own touch.
Seonghwa whined as his fingertips brushed his nipple, action quickly sending a wave of pleasure through his veins that ended up pooling in his groin, so he lifted his other hand to take care of the neglected left nub too. He played with them until they were tingly and sore under his rough ministrations, quickly dragging his palms over his stomach to stop on his hard dick.
Swallowing the excess of saliva that was pooling in his mouth, he blindly looked for the lube before pouring a healthy amount over his throbbing dick and immediately starting to jerk himself off right after.
He could barely hear his desperate panting and moans over the noise of his own blood rushing in his ears while he struggled to establish a slow pace on his dick, clinging to his consciousness as he remembered that he wanted to drag this out as much as possible today.
Seonghwa was leaking copious amounts of pre-cum by the time he forced himself to stop jerking off, almost feeling like every single part of his body was an hypersensitive and exposed nerve, cursing out loud when he opened his eyes and the artificial light hit his blown-out pupils.
He grabbed the dildo and lathered it with lube, wrapping his hand around the knot at the base to make sure it was also properly slicked even though he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to take it.
Knots required a lot of time and preparation, and he wasn’t feeling particularly patient right now.
He dropped the dildo on his stomach and brought his wet fingers to his hole, opening his legs wide to give himself easier access as he slipped two of them inside the moment he found it. Seonghwa whined and gripped his thigh with his other hand to try to stop himself from rubbing that special spot inside him, focusing on stretching himself properly instead.
“Please.”
The word came out breathless and pained, making him realize that he had been muttering and begging as his brain struggled to deal with the myriad of overwhelming sensations. Seonghwa had been taking W20 for a year now, but he still felt like his heart was going to explode in his chest every time while his body got overheated in ways it wasn’t naturally built to deal with.
He could feel his awareness slipping away when he reached the peak of the high, W settling into his every cell as his trembling hands brought the dildo between his legs and carelessly pressed the tip against his entrance.
“Please. Oh God, please.”
A loud pained groan echoed in the room followed by heavy panting while Seonghwa pushed the toy inside way faster than he should, burning sensation worsening when he started to fuck himself without giving his body any time to adjust.
He whined as his dick continued to drool on his abdomen, back sticking to the towel he had laid out as sweat poured from him.
“That’s it, open up for me.”
He pressed his knees against his chest to push the toy deeper, reality shifting as a familiar faceless male figure leaned over him to pin him down with supernatural force while he pounded the vampire roughly.
“Aw, poor baby. Is it too much for you?”
The hallucination on top of him looked a bit sharper this time around, a clear figure kneeling between Seonghwa’s legs instead of the usual blurry humanoid blob.
The face of the imaginary werewolf was hidden by the hood of an oversized sweatshirt, but he could still get a glimpse of both his smirk and the small frame hidden under the fabric.
Lycans were the only creatures capable of matching, and even surpassing, vampires’ strength - and he knew that the invisible man would be able to easily overpower him even if he was physically smaller than him.
Not that Seonghwa would even try to fight him off anyway.
“How are you going to take my knot if you can’t even take this?
He could absently feel his dry throat starting to hurt from the harsh panting and the pained moans, but he could only focus on maintaining the brutal pace of the toy fucking in and out of him, whining as he tried to angle both the dildo and his hips in the right way to hit the bundle of nerves inside him despite the awkward position.
A playful laugh resonated loud and clear in his mind after he let out a moan that ripped through him the moment he brushed his prostate, body moving on its own in order to chase the orgasm that he could feel looming in the distance.
He moved his left hand from where he was gripping his thigh to his dick, furiously jerking himself off while he pushed the dildo even deeper. Seonghwa whined as what could only be tears started to run down his face, frustration growing brighter inside him when his body refused to let knot inside no matter how much he pushed.
Please.
Pain shot up his back quickly as his hole stretched around the inflated bump, but he started sobbing when it refused to let the thickest part in, regardless of how bad he needed it inside him.
“Look at you. You’re filled to the brim, but you still want more.”
Seonghwa could hear himself whimpering out loud, broken and nonsensical words leaving his sore throat as the hallucination became his reality.
He cried as the werewolf continued to fuck roughly into him while pinning him down, teasingly refusing to properly give the vampire his knot no matter how much he begged for it. The pain that spread from his hole was almost excruciating as the inflated bump stretched him to his limit, but he could only lay there and take it as the man pressed his wrists against the mattress, completely immobilizing him as he pounded him so hard that he could feel all the air leaving his chest with each thrust.
The lycan even had the nerve to laugh again when Seonghwa weakly lifted his head to get closer to his neck, desperately trying to get access to the warm blood he could smell flowing under the skin, just to be denied once again when the werewolf moved out of reach with a chuckle.
“Such a greedy vampire.”
His orgasm hit him out of nowhere when the man sank his own sharp teeth in the vampire's neck instead, pleasure ripping through him painfully as his thighs started shaking. His right hand milked every drop of cum from his dick as the left one kept the dildo pressed deep inside him, in an attempt to trick his delirious brain into thinking he had actually been knotted.
Seonghwa came back to himself moments later, aftershocks still running under his skin while the pool of cum started to cool on his stomach. His dick was still hard in his fist so he couldn’t help but lazily play with the wet tip again, even if the touch was more painful than pleasurable in his current overstimulated state.
He whined softly, sensations amplified even more by the strong taste of blood in his mouth. He could only assume that his fangs had dropped at some point during his trip and cut through his lower lip, based on the sore tingly sensation he could feel there, so he sleepily lapped at the wound to open it up again.
He sighed contently as he lowered his shaky legs to the bed, dildo still nestled deep inside him as he allowed himself to get lost in the taste of blood, the pleasant satisfaction of his recent orgasm, and the lingering effects of the drug.
–
Honey Boy
So I have both good news and bad news
The good news is that we’re willing to sell you raw lycan juice!
The bad news is that the werewolf wants to personally talk to you first
He thinks you’re even MORE sus now
Would you be up for that?
Seonghwa’s eyes moved from his phone screen to the computer, trying not to openly show just how much he was freaking out in front of his boss.
“Can you pay attention to what I’m saying?” asked his manager, clearly annoyed.
“Yes, sorry,” he replied, taking a deep breath to give himself a semblance to calmness.
“You were telling me that the manuscript will be ready before the deadline?”
“Yes,” said Seonghwa, trying to focus on the conversation. “As I was saying, I only have four chapters left to revise so it will be ready for publication way before the pre-established date.”
“Great,” replied his manager flatly while he typed something on the keyboard.
Seonghwa would usually eat up the almost-compliment, considering how rare it was to hear anything positive coming from his very bigoted human boss, but he was too distracted by the texts waiting for him on his phone to even care about that.
In fact, he was so hyped that he could barely recall the rest of the conversation by the time they hung up, and he was grabbing his pre-paid phone before he even clicked on the red disconnect button on the video call.
Mars
Yes
I’m most definitely up for that
How does he want to do this?
I’m fine with whatever makes him feel safer and more comfortable
Feel free to give him my phone number so we can schedule something directly
The reply was almost immediate, but Seonghwa still felt like it took Sejun years to answer.
Honey Boy
Dude
I need you to listen
Your interaction won’t be like whatever porn scenario you’ve made up in your head
I meant it when I said he’s a paranoid asshole who is more than ready to shut everything down if he remotely feels like there’s something fishy going on
And he seems particularly prejudiced when it comes to vampires
Convincing him to even consider the sale in the first place was very difficult and I’m putting my ass on the line here
So I need you to NOT come across as a desperate addict with no self-preservation
Just stay level-headed and reply to any questions he might have without going overboard if you want to improve your chances
Seonghwa got up and started pacing, trying to squash the nervousness that had started to bubble inside him.
He felt like he should be offended by Sejun’s words, but deep down he was fully aware of how his ‘fixation’ came across to other people.
He himself didn’t even know how he’d actually behave in a conversation with a real werewolf while discussing the topic of buying his literal cum, so he couldn’t even blame the human for not trusting him.
Mars
I promise I’ll try to stay level-headed and reply to his questions without going overboard
Honey Boy
Good
And prepare yourself for rejection, ok?
Take it gracefully if he chooses not to go ahead with it
Don’t freak out and don’t insist
If he says no, this whole conversation is over on all fronts
Promise me you’ll accept his choice without arguing and just move on
Seonghwa stared at the screen for a moment, trying to swallow that bitter pill. He might be a potential addict, but he’d never try to force anyone to give a literal part of themselves just to fuel his depravity.
Even if he had never wanted anything more in his life.
He would probably be satisfied just with having the chance to talk to this particular werewolf, as pathetic as that was.
He had been consuming the diluted cum of that man for a year now, after all. He was probably allowed to feel like he had some kind of (one-sided) connection with him.
Mars
I promise I’ll accept his decision without pushing
Honey Boy
Ok
I’m trusting you here
Should I give him this number then?
Mars
Yes, please
What should I call him? Or myself?
Honey Boy
Your code name is still mars
And he calls himself captain
He didn’t know why, but that single innocent nickname was enough to make him feel slightly warmer.
Your fetish is getting out of control, Park Seonghwa. You’re seriously fucked up in the head.
He took another deep breath and tried to calm down to avoid embarrassing himself any further.
Mars
Got it
Thank you for everything
I know I’m asking for a lot but I really appreciate everything you've done for me
Honey Boy
Sure
Anything for my favorite customer ;)
I’ll give him your contact number and he’ll reach out…
Well
Whenever he feels like it
Seonghwa spent the rest of the night failing to stay calm, going out to the gym and run errands in an attempt to keep himself busy and avoid downright freaking out while he waited for the werewolf (Captain) to contact him.
He knew lycans had the same circadian rhythm as humans, so it’s not like he was expecting him to reach out at 3AM in the morning, but the vampire still carried both his phones with him as he went out about his day after work. Just in case.
Despite spending the whole night on high alert and ready to bolt the moment his ears caught the smallest hint of a notification going off, Seonghwa still felt his heart stop completely before it picked up the pace when he heard the device vibrate on his bathroom shelf while he was washing up.
He couldn’t even bring himself to feel ashamed as he flailed and rushed out of the shower, soapy and wet, to grab his phone with a shaky hand.
On the screen, a couple of messages from an unknown contact stared back at him and he clicked on the notification with skyrocketed anxiety levels.
Captain
So what’s your deal exactly?
Are you suicidal?
Seonghwa blinked as he stared at the messages, trying to figure out how to respond to that.
He didn’t know what he had been expecting as an introduction, but that certainly wasn’t it.
The vampire dried his hands quickly, typing and deleting his reply several times before settling for his final answer.
Mars
Hello, Captain
It’s a pleasure to meet you
I can promise you I don’t have suicidal thoughts of any kind
Captain
No need for all that formal shit
Are you reselling the stuff you buy from us then?
Mars
I’m not!
Everything I buy is for personal use only
Captain
Bullshit
No single leech can consume that much w without dying
Expiring
Whatever you undead freaks call it
Seonghwa could feel the pout on lips trembling as his stomach dropped at the unnecessarily aggressive tone and shameless use of slurs.
He hadn’t exactly expected to have a friendly conversation with the man, but he had hoped it would at least be civil.
Mars
I know it sounds weird but it’s true
I swear I’m being completely honest in all my answers
It’s for personal use only
I’m not using it as a way to self-harm
Captain
Sejun tells me you’re the most high functioning addict he’s ever seen
No visible side effects whatsoever
You have to be hiding something
Mars
I swear I’m not hiding anything
Captain
You said you were being completely honest
Mars
And I am!
Captain
I’m not stupid
You’re clearly hiding something
Do you expect me to believe that you can consume 3 times the amount of drug any regular leech uses without overdosing?
Seonghwa groaned and pushed his free hand in his wet hair in frustration.
Sejun really wasn’t kidding when he described Captain as a paranoid jerk who was always on the defensive.
Mars
Just tell me what can I do to prove that I’m being honest here
I’m pretty much immune to W for some reason, that’s all I know
I build up a tolerance really fast so I’ve had to increase the dosage to get the same effects over time
The amount I take is nowhere near enough to make me overdose or even get side effects
Captain
I’m no expert in vampire biology but even I know that it doesn't work like that
I also know for a fact that we are as toxic to you as you are to us
We can’t build a tolerance to each other, we’re literal poison for one another
We’ve been using our blood as weapons to kill each other since the beginning of time
Mars
I’m very aware of that
I’m not pretending I know why I’m built this way
It’s not like I can go to my doctor and discuss this particular issue with her
Genetics are weird, okay? For some reason I’ve evolved to have this very specific quirk
His message got read straight away, but the werewolf didn’t reply even though he was still online.
Seonghwa anxiously re-read the whole exchange they’ve had so far as he waited for a reply, wondering what he’d said to ruin the mood even more so quickly.
Captain
This whole thing was a huge mistake
Keep your money
He whined and pulled on his hair, frantically trying to come up with proof that he was being completely honest.
He could faintly recall the promise he’d made to Sejun, but Seonghwa couldn’t bring himself to drop it just yet.
He had to try one last time.
Mars
Please, tell me how can I prove it to you
Captain
Look
Just stick to W20
Believe it or not, I’m doing you a favor here
Mars
Please
I’m begging you
Captain
You’re only making yourself look worse
I’m not doing this
I’m not going to be an accomplice in your journey to self-destruction
If you’re so adamant on overdosing, you’ll have to find someone else
“For fuck’s sake.”
Seonghwa wouldn’t be able to explain why he did what he did next because, in a desperate last attempt to convince Captain that he was being serious, he pressed the video call button in their chat.
He snapped out of his impulsive state the moment he heard the first ringtone echo inside the bathroom, fear rising inside him as he stared at his disheveled reflection on the screen.
His finger hovered over the red ‘end call’ button immediately after, heart beating painfully in his chest when he realized that Captain hadn’t just rejected the call straight away.
He hadn’t accepted it either, though.
The werewolf actually took so long to reply that it was more than enough time to make Seonghwa fully absorb what he had done, and he cursed out loud as he tried to futelly style his messy hair in a somewhat flattering way.
He hadn’t just broken his promise to Sejun and kept pushing after getting a rejection, he had also been stupid enough to initiate a video call while he stood naked and unprepared in his bathroom: face bare and tired, and soapy wet pink hair sticking weirdly to his head as it dripped down his chest.
No chance whatsoever to make himself look attractive, or at least half-decently good.
“Oh my God,” he whispered before whining and lowering his finger towards the red button once again. “Oh my God. What did you do, you stupid fool?!?”
He got interrupted before he could correct his impulsive move when the call connected through and the timer on the screen started counting the seconds.
“Huh,” said Seonghwa, stupidly, as he stared at his own pathetic reflection.
His first (and possibly only) chance to actually talk to a werewolf and he looked like a drowned rat.
“I…” he added before clearing his throat and laughing awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I honestly don’t know why I did that.”
His embarrassing explanation was met with silence as Captain's muted microphone and camera icons glared at him with obvious distrust, and he could almost feel his skin getting warmer from the shame.
Well, I’m already fucked so I might as well just sink further down.
“I guess I just wanted to show you that I look healthy?” explained Seonghwa, tone hesitant and insecure to his own ears. “I mean, do you really think I look like someone who is on a ‘journey to self-destruction’, as you put it?”
He focused on the timer to avoid looking at his little reflection in the corner, licking his lips and taking a shaky breath as he tried to calm down and come up with a convincing explanation that made some sense.
“I swear that I really don’t know why I’m immune to it. I know it sounds like a bad excuse, and believe me when I say my life would be much easier if I wasn’t the way I am, but…” said the vampire, stopping when he realized that he was rambling. “I’m sorry. You’re right, this was a mistake and I’m just making myself look even worse. I apologize for pushing after you said ‘no’, that was really shitty of me.”
As expected, he was met with silence once again, and reality came crashing down on him like a bucket of ice water.
Seonghwa had spent years romanticizing how a potential conversation with a werewolf would go, to the point that he had somehow convinced himself that he wouldn’t come across as the freak he really was.
What was there to romanticize about? He was a desperate addict with a fetish, willing to literally pay any sum of money for the chance to get this random man to sell him some of his semen.
He should have expected this outcome, considering the years of history that preceded both of them, but he had still severely underestimated the fact that werewolves and vampires were just meant to stand on opposite sides of the spectrum no matter what.
Embarrassed by his own behavior, he cleared his throat once again to break the uncomfortable silence.
“So, yeah. I…I’m sorry, again. Thank you for even giving me the chance to explain myself. I, huh, I hope you’re being safe. I'm sure you probably have your reasons to do something like this, but be careful out there. Humans are assholes and, well, vampires can be even worse,” said Seonghwa before awkwardly waving at the camera. “Anyway, sorry. Bye.”
He pressed the disconnect button before he could continue to make a fool of himself, closing his eyes and chastising himself for being an idiot.
He didn't know how long he stood there, trying to control the grip on his phone as he stared at the bloody tears falling on the floor after sliding down his jaw, but his feet were surrounded by red dots by the time he snapped out of it.
You’re beyond pathetic, Park Seonghwa.
–
He groaned when his alarm went off, pressing his eyes tightly shut to make himself fall unconscious once again to try to get some very needed sleep after spending half of the day tossing and turning - despite the drowsy spell the sun had on vampires during the day.
Seonghwa’s mind went straight to his embarrassing behavior from that morning, remembering the way he had licked his proverbial wounds while showering again to wash away the dried out shampoo and the blood that had covered his face after he cried.
Captain hadn’t said anything else after hanging up, and the vampire hadn’t even had the nerve to check if the werewolf had blocked him after his shameful stunt before putting the device on airplane mode and stashing it in a drawer.
With a sigh, he grabbed his personal phone from the bedside table and checked his emails, mindlessly scrolling down Twitter before caving in and getting up to get his second device from the drawer.
Seonghwa knew he wouldn’t have a message from Captain waiting for him when he turned it on, but he was still disappointed to see the lack of communication from the werewolf.
He did have a notification from Sejun, though, and he had to take a deep breath he didn’t actually need before opening it up.
He didn’t know how many details the werewolf had shared with the dealer, but he could only hope that the human would be sympathetic with his shitty behavior.
Honey Boy
I’m honestly speechless
I’ll admit I didn’t think this would actually work
We were expecting him to aggressively shut you down so we could all leave this issue behind
I don’t know how you managed to convince him but congrats I guess!!
Holy shit.
Seonghwa re-read the words three times as his brain worked overtime to try to make sense of what he was seeing, reading it one last time just to make sure before he continued scrolling.
Honey Boy
Let’s just hope none of us will regret this…
Anyway
He asked me to send you this, it’s his latest health check up
Some of the results in his blood work are all over the place but I can assure you that’s normal in werewolves
Their fluids are fairly abrasive as you already know
He’s in perfect health, no illnesses or STIs
It’s recent too and we conducted it ourselves so you can trust the validity
Did he discuss the price with you?
“Oh my God,” he whispered as he started pacing around.
Captain had actually agreed to do this.
He had actually changed his mind after witnessing Seonghwa’s embarrassing meltdown for some reason, and it didn’t seem like Sejun even knew it had happened.
Why?
With shaky fingers, he quickly typed his reply.
Mars
Hi Sejun
Thank you for sending me the report
No, we didn’t discuss the price
I honestly wasn’t even sure he had actually agreed to it…
The communication with him wasn’t precisely easy
He opened the health check-up while he waited, somewhat embarrassed to admit to himself that he hadn’t even considered the need to make sure that the werewolf was healthy.
Seonghwa could feel his gums tingling as he stared at the B next to ‘Blood Type’, before desperately pushing that dangerous train of thought away.
Of course Captain had his favorite blood type to drink.
He managed to tear his eyes away from that single letter to read the rest of the report, noticing with interest that werewolves’ lab results actually seemed to be very similar to vampires.
He read the whole thing twice before he gave in and opened Captain’s chat, unable to stop himself from doing it any longer and surprised at the fact that the other man hadn’t blocked him just yet, and quickly wrote the question before he lost his courage.
Mars
Why did you change your mind?
Taking a deep breath, he put the phone down and walked into his kitchen to take a blood bag out of his fridge and pour it into a mug before shoving it into the microwave. The machine barely had enough time to do its work before Seonghwa jumped at the sound of a notification going off in his room, immediately grabbing his lukewarm breakfast and rushing to grab his phone.
When he saw who the message was from, he put the mug down on his desk with so much force that half of the blood spilled over.
Captain
That's my business
And I don't like people butting into it
Seonghwa sighed.
He had hoped the change of heart meant that the werewolf would be a bit less antagonistic with him, but he should have known that wouldn’t be the case.
Mars
I'm sorry, I’m not trying to get into your business
I’m just trying to be friendly
Thank you for reconsidering your decision, especially after that video call…
Captain
I’m not interested in being friendly with leeches
This is a business transaction and we already discussed everything we needed to discuss
I’m just the provider here
Any other issue related to the sale should be discussed through Sejun from now on
Our conversation ends here
Seonghwa sighed again before playfully hissing at his phone, frustrated with the unwillingness the lycan kept showing.
The vampire knew he shouldn’t be greedy and should simply appreciate this unexpected stroke of luck, but controlling himself was a lot harder than he expected now that he had the werewolf’s number in his contact list.
A second notification popped off before he could give into the temptation of continuing the conversation, so he aggressively pushed his finger against it instead.
Honey Boy
Lmao
I told you!!
Talking to him is extremely hard sometimes
One wrong move and he’ll storm off without any other word
I genuinely thought he’d tell you to fuck off after like two sentences so you did much better than expected
Anyway
So the price
As you can imagine it's higher than regular w20
We’ve settled for ₩300,000
Are you ok with that?
“What the…”
Seonghwa stared at the amount in shock for a second before swallowing and biting his tongue.
It was way more than he had been expecting, but he wasn’t going to fight the only opportunity he’d ever get.
Mars
Yes, that’s fine
Honey Boy
Awesome!
We’ll have to figure out logistics first
Werecum might be practically radioactive but it’s still a lot more perishable than processed w obviously lmao
I’ll talk to captain and get back to you
Mars
Sure, no problem
Thank you for everything again, I don’t know how will I ever be able to pay you back
I can’t even put into words how grateful I am
Honey Boy
Whatever makes you happy, dude
I aim to please my customers
Pay me back by not dying on me, ok?
We’re all counting on your abnormal immunity to pull this off safely
He snorted and looked up to the ceiling, trying to not let the sudden wave of fear and nervousness get the best of him.
Yeah, me too.
–
Seonghwa stared at his reflection on his phone once again, carefully fixing the strands of freshly-dyed pink hair that had moved from their original place when he traveled towards the park.
He didn’t know why he’d made such a big deal with his appearance, considering he was simply meeting Sejun at their usual spot just like he had done dozens of times before, but he had felt the stupid need to look extra good this time around.
It was a very special occasion, after all.
He took another deep breath and carefully whipped away the smudge of eyeliner from the corner of his eye before locking his phone and calmly walking the rest of the way towards the entrance, trying to look as normal and calm as he could in his current anxious state.
He stopped walking the moment he set a foot inside the park, the fine hairs on his nape and arms standing up in alert before he could even realize why.
Seonghwa could feel his heart picking up speed as his senses heightened, invisible alarm bells going off in his head as he looked around, trying to pinpoint why his body was reacting in such an unusual way.
There was an unfamiliar but electric tension flickering around him, an invisible force that was triggering his fight-or-flight response in a really weird way – something that almost felt defensive and aggressive, but not really at the same time.
The pressure on the back of his neck got worse as he walked deeper into the park, as the strange woodsy musk that was floating in the air got stronger.
A scent that was like nothing he’d ever smelt before, and yet it also felt extremely familiar.
“Dude, what are you doing?”
Seonghwa snapped out of his trance, not even noticing that he had wandered off the trail following the scent until Sejun talked to him from the end of the empty walking path.
Shaking his head slightly to see if that helped recenter his agitated senses, he got back on track acting as calm and normal as possible while he headed towards the human, who was staring at him with sheer confusion on his face.
The last thing Seonghwa needed right now was to have Sejun thinking there was something wrong going on and break the deal altogether.
Get your shit together, it’s probably just the lingering presence of another vampire.
“Huh, hi,” he said as he stood in front of the dealer.
“Are you okay? What was that?”
“Yeah, sorry,” explained Seonghwa, eyes immediately moving to the insulated bag sitting innocently next to the human. “I thought I saw something, but it was nothing.”
Sejun frowned at him, hesitation visible on his face as he whispered: “Are we busted? Should we flee?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied, eyes going back to the bag.
The dealer chuckled and rolled his eyes.
“Whatever, let’s just do this before you jump out of your skin. I can see you downright vibrating with my very human eyes,” said Sejun as he opened the bag and looked inside, pausing his search to stare at the vampire with a rare serious expression on his face. “Are you sure you want to do this? It could go …really wrong, I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything like this before.”
“I’m very sure,” he replied.
“Can you at least reconsider my offer? I’m willing to keep you company after you take it, just in case you need help,” added the human.
Seonghwa smiled softly.
“I really appreciate that, Sejun. I already have a friend who is going to keep an eye on me, as I explained in my text.”
The other man stared at him, face openly telling him that he didn’t believe his lie.
“Look. I’ll be safe, I promise. I just…” added Seonghwa after a moment of silence. “I have a very peculiar reaction to W, and I can only imagine it’s going to be even stronger after taking the real stuff. I’d rather not have people seeing me in that state, no offense.”
Sejun looked confused for a second before bursting into a loud laughter.
“What the fuck, dude. You really are an odd one, I’ve never heard of that particular 'side effect' before,” said the human as he grabbed something from the bag and stared at him again, the smile fading away to leave behind the same worried expression. “Just be careful, please. This shit is corrosive as fuck, the chemist has burnt herself more times than I can count and she always wears all the proper equipment. And don't drop it, it's in a glass container because of the exact same reason, it eats through plastic."
Seonghwa could barely hear what Sejun was saying over the white noise ringing in his ears, eyes focused on the little glass vial in the human’s hand.
“I’ll be careful,” he heard himself say, hands patting his jacket in order to retrieve the cash and hand it to him.
The dealer gave him one last look before sighing and grabbing the money from Seonghwa’s hand, putting the small bottle there instead.
The vampire swallowed, mouth tingly and uncomfortable as he brought the cold vial closer to him, somewhat disappointed by the fact that he couldn't smell anything through the glass.
“Remember what I told you yesterday: he freezes the samples before delivering them to us to avoid spoiling and to kill as much sperm as possible. I know you probably are rushing home to take it straight away, but take it easy today, okay? This is going straight from him to you, so it’s still kind of frozen,” added Sejun as he closed the bag without taking his eyes off the other man. “And promise me that you will text me when you come down from the high to let me know you’re doing well, please.”
“Yes, I remember. And I promise I will text you the moment I’m back to my senses,” replied Seonghwa, carefully placing the precious cargo in the pocket of his jacket. “I…I’m leaving now. Thank you for everything once again, Sejun. I know this whole thing is very weird and kind of embarrassing, but I appreciate what you’ve done for me.”
The human chuckled. “I don’t kinkshame, dude. Whatever floats your boat as long as you don’t hurt yourself in irreversible ways.”
Seonghwa snorted and fidgeted with his sleeve. “Did …Captain say anything about our conversation? About me?”
Sejun raised his eyebrow and smirked knowingly.
“No, sorry to disappoint you. We talked business as usual,” replied the dealer.
The vampire nodded silently before waving awkwardly and turning around to leave, hyper aware of the fact that the strange energy he had been feeling was getting stronger as he headed towards the entrance of the park again.
He stared at the line of trees while he walked to the exit, senses trying to pinpoint where the weird feeling was coming from.
Vampires' senses were much sharper than humans’ overall, but they mainly relied on their sight to hunt so their hearing and smelling faculties were pretty average in the scheme of things, especially compared to werewolves.
He was definitely picking up something in the air, though, but it was so faint that it was impossible to properly trace it.
Whatever it was had either disappeared a long time ago, or was incredibly skilled at hiding.
Perhaps an ancient vampire had been to the park recently and I’m simply feeling the lingering energy they left behind?
With that train of thought, he turned around once again when he reached the main doors to give the trees one last look, just to feel all the air leave his lungs with a punch as he made direct eye contact with…
A dog.
The animal was looking straight at him from behind the bushes, yellow eyes reflecting the light in a way that made them shine impossibly bright.
Seonghwa felt like the world was fading away around him as they stared at each other, mind reeling while he absorbed every small detail about the dog in what seemed like slow motion.
Images flashed behind his eyes as he stared at the almost familiar grayish fur pattern, blurry memories of the wolf he’d been dreaming about since he was a kid mixing with the animal that stood mere meters away from him.
Before he even realized what he was doing, Seonghwa was walking towards the dog, legs weak and shaky under his weight as he slowly got closer. He barely even noticed that he had stepped on a stick until it snapped under his foot, but the sudden sharp noise seemed to make the animal snap out of the daze they had both found themselves into.
After a slow blink and an almost sluggish head shake, it quickly walked backwards to completely fade into the darkness with its eyes still fixed on Seonghwa.
“No!"
The sudden disappearance made the world shatter around Seonghwa as he rushed forward, stepping into the small clearing the animal had been standing on to find it empty.
The tunnel vision he’d felt during their staring match was gone now, bringing awareness of his surroundings back once again and replacing the daze with a deep sense of loss and confusion.
The strong woodsy scent that had been drawing him in was a lot more concentrated in this spot, and he had the obvious realization that he had been smelling the animal all along.
His mind reeled as he tried to crush the crazy ideas that poured into his brain while the overwhelming feelings started to fade away.
Don’t be silly. It's just your obsession projecting what you think the wolf of your dreams looks like on every wolf-like creature you see, as you always do.
It had to be a dog.
A husky or some other breed that resembled wolves.
Your mind is playing tricks on you, you can’t even remember more than some disconnected blurry images after you wake up. It’s just a dog.
There weren’t any wolves roaming the streets of Seoul, he’d know about it – especially considering the sheer size of this particular animal and how paranoid 'hunters' could be when it came to any type of suspicious activity.
It had managed to stay hidden from a predator like Seonghwa, though.
It was clearly smart enough to use the foliage and wind direction to successfully hide from a vampire, but it’d be impossible to fly under the radar for too long in such a small city with people walking around 24/7.
And yet…
He had seen intelligence and awareness behind those eyes.
He had seen something almost human in them.
“You’re embarrassing, Park Seonghwa,” he whispered in the silence of the night. “Your pathethic wishful thinking is getting out of hand.”
The vampire sighed and stared up at the moon before closing his eyes tightly, trying to stop himself from creating even more impossible scenarios in his mind.
What are the odds of a wolf showing up right here, right now, though? What if it's him?
He snorted out loud at the absurdity of that. Seonghwa didn't even know why he was entertaining this specific wild train of thought.
The idea of the dog being the wolf from his dreams was simply impossible and ludicrous, but the idea of the animal being him was even more nonsensical.
Werewolves couldn’t turn into literal wolves.
While it was true that their biology was pretty much a mystery, humans had still managed to hunt them down and experiment on them enough times throughout history to know if that was an actual real thing or not by now.
Seonghwa had read every single piece of literature there was about werewolves, and the only real proof he had of the shapeshifting myth were his own dreams and some ancient vampire writings mentioning that some lycans would literally turn into wolves in the middle of the battlefield.
None of them were exceptionally reliable sources.
Vampires turning into bats was just a hilarious human fantasy, why would that be any different with werewolves?
Evolving to have higher strength, sharper senses and a longer lifespan was one thing – but being able to physically shapeshift into a whole different being was a very different one.
His chaotic thoughts were interrupted when he felt a group of vampires walking nearby, and Seonghwa opened his eyes to stare at the moon one last time and use his supernatural speed to flee the park before they got too close, hand firmly wrapped around the vial in his pocket as he repeated the mantra in his head:
You're overthinkng a random encounter with a dog.
That can't be a wolf.
Werewolves can’t turn into wolves .
It wasn’t the wolf of your dreams.
And it most definitely wasn’t him.
–
Seonghwa had almost convinced himself of the fact that it had been an inconsequential moment by the time he got home, trying to focus all his attention on the little bottle he had paid ₩300,000 for instead of the eerie encounter with the dog.
He carefully put his jacket and shoes to the side before sitting on the couch, lifting the cool vial in the air to try to see the contents against the light.
He couldn’t see much through the thick dark glass, but it felt really cold to the touch even if it didn't seem to be frozen anymore. And he still couldn’t smell anything either when he lifted it to his nose, much to his disappointment.
Cursing his own vampiric nature and the lack of body heat, he stopped his bouncing leg and thought about his options before getting up to head into the bathroom. Once there, he placed the vial on the counter and turned the shower much hotter than usual before stepping inside, hoping the steam would speed up the process.
He tried not to rush, taking his time to wash his body and letting his soapy hands wander between his legs, bypassing the limp cock to stop over his hole and pressing a finger inside.
Seonghwa didn’t know how he’d react to actual werecum, but, based on his experience with W, he could only imagine that being stretched out beforehand would come in handy.
He didn’t even bother applying skincare or using the hair drier after coming out of the shower, patting himself dry instead and grabbing the vial before walking naked into his bedroom. He laid the towel down on the bed and reached into his closet to get his toy box out of the drawer, carelessly throwing the contents on the bed before checking both phones and turning them off.
He had been waiting for this moment for a really long time, all his life really, and he wasn’t going to let anyone nor anything interrupt him.
Taking a deep breath, more for emotional than physical reasons, he picked up the vial and lifted it up to try to see through the material. It seemed to be completely unfrozen by now, content moving slowly as he shifted the bottle around.
His heart picked up the moment he saw the obvious thickness of the liquid, something that clearly signaled that it wasn't W.
If Seonghwa were a different person, he’d probably feel embarrassed by the sheer level of excitement rushing under his skin at the knowledge that he was about to consume literal semen like it was some kind of ambrosia.
A unknown werewolf’s semen, someone he hadn’t even seen before and yet seemed to hate his guts.
If Seonghwa were a different person, he’d probably feel scared by the fact that he was playing with literal poison too. He was holding in his hand something that was considered toxic waste, something that ate its way through most types of materials and could easily kill humans and vampires alike.
But Seonghwa wasn’t a different person, and he couldn’t even bring himself to care about any of that as he grabbed the lid with his other shaky hand, taking another deep breath while he opened the bottle.
He was immediately shocked by how firmly shut it was, quickly realizing that this was the reason why he hadn’t been able to smell the contents inside even after they warmed up. He couldn’t even focus on the fact that only a werewolf would have been able to close the lid this tightly, because he could definitely smell it now that the cap had loosened up.
A groan escaped his throat as he dropped the lid and brought the vial closer to his face, eyes rolling back in his head and goosebumps erupting all over his body as the mouthwatering musky scent seemed to scratch all the right places in his brain – places only W was capable of reaching.
With shaky hands, he grabbed the glass dropper and gathered the content inside, whining at the way the color and texture clearly confirmed that this was something very different to the stuff he was used to.
This obviously wasn’t W.
This was the real deal.
Closing his eyes, he rested his other hand on his chest, fascinated by the way the mere scent of it had made his heart speed up to push blood through his whole body – especially between his legs.
Seonghwa licked his fangs as they dropped painfully fast and tried to get his body under control while he situated the dropper over his open mouth.
As he squeezed the fluid on his tongue, he had one last fleeting thought before everything became fuzzy.
I might die today.
Words that got lost into the ether when static noise took over his brain.
It was like every particle in his body started vibrating the moment the cum made contact with his tongue, taste buds exploding at the intense flavor of it.
He fell back on the bed, completely blacking out as the most intense pleasure he had felt in his life spread through every single cell. For an undetermined amount of time, all he could do was lie there as he trembled and spasmed violently, briefly feeling like this could really be his final moment on Earth before his body actually gave up on him.
With a whine, he managed to weakly lift his hand to place it on his chest in an attempt to calm the painfully fast heartbeat, moaning out loud when his heated palm brushed against the goosebumps on his equally hot skin.
Seonghwa could absently hear himself mumbling something, but he couldn’t recognize the words that were coming out of him as he lowered his hand to the place where he needed it the most.
He couldn’t even feel surprised when he came across a puddle of cum on his belly, he simply wrapped his hand around the scorching hot erection and jerked himself off, feeling like he was coming again after two pumps.
Everything became blurry after that, desperation intensifying and growing bigger as Seonghwa’s body seemed to become even more heated and sensitive after every orgasm.
It didn't take long for his brain to get completely disconnected from his body, but there was a clear and unprompted thought that managed to get past the white noise and the loud rush of blood in his ears before everything went black.
I found you.
–
"I found you."
Seonghwa didn't know if the words had come from himself or the wolf that stood in front of him, its yellow eyes fixed on him and head tilted to the side, but that didn't matter much anyway.
He knew they both echoed the sentiment behind the phrase regardless.
"I finally found you."
He felt his own lips moving along with the words this time around, but the voice felt foreign and yet familiar to his ears as he was saying them.
Everything about this place always felt foreign but familiar to him, in a way that had become deeply comforting and grounding over the years.
A forest Seonghwa had never visited and yet felt like home, all the way from the tall trees and the moon that seeped through the branches to the open clearing they were standing on.
The wolf continued to stand immobile in front of him, completely surrounded by blooming white flowers while it stared at the vampire like it was seeing him for the first time, even though they met in this exact place every single night.
"I've been looking for you all my life."
The words came out of his own mouth once again, but he clearly recognized them as completely detached from himself this time, so he giggled.
"I've always been here, you silly wolf."
-
The first thing Seonghwa felt when he woke up was pain.
A weak groan escaped his lips as he shifted on the bed and opened his eyes, bright artificial light hitting his sensitive dilated pupils and making the pain spread through his whole skull.
His brain struggled to figure out what had happened for a few seconds until everything came back to him in a rush, bits and pieces of the previous night slowly coming together when he looked down at the patches of dried blood, lube and semen that covered both his own body and the blankets.
Holy shit.
He had done it.
Seonghwa had survived ingesting actual werecum.
He’d always known that’d be the case, but he’d be lying if he said that a tiny part of him hadn't been afraid his immunity wouldn’t go that far.
A part small enough to get easily overpower by the bigger, more relevant one that was occupied by his quest of going further in search of that something.
He laughed as his head fell back on the bed, glee and pride exploding inside him while he tried to remember what had happened exactly over the …night? Day? He didn’t even know how long he’d been completely out of it.
With some effort, he moved his hand down between his legs to place it against his tender hole gently, hissing as electric sparks spread from that area all the way up his back.
Vampires very rarely had the chance to feel pain for long periods of time, since the tissues would bind back together extremely quickly after being damaged. W-induced hangovers were the closest they could get as the chemicals in it overran their natural healing process, but that meant that Seonghwa’s high tolerance usually got in the way of it as well.
Because of that, he had never had the chance to feel sore before – and he couldn’t deny that he was absolutely loving the feeling.
He didn’t know if it was because the werewolf cum had interfered with his own biology in a way that slowed the healing process even more than regular W, or if he had simply been particularly brutal while pleasuring himself while he was out of it, but he found himself wishing that the feeling would stay for a long time.
He weakly lifted his arms to look at the dried blood there, realizing that not all of that could be tears and he must have (messily) bitten himself several times during the trip.
Seonghwa didn’t bother leaving the bed after, unable to move while trying to put the delirious and disconnected pieces of frenetic memories together with little success. He couldn’t remember much of it, just a bunch of blurry images of the faceless werewolf fucking him roughly mixed in with the combo of desperation, pain, and pleasure.
More pleasure than he ever thought would be possible.
So much pleasure that neither his body nor his mind had known how to deal with it.
And that’s when he realized that he was royally fucked.
He had promised Sejun (and himself) that this would be a one-time thing, something he wanted to experience once in his life and wouldn’t try to repeat ever again even if he managed to survive the attempt – but he already knew that he would never be able to move on from this.
There was no way Seonghwa could go back to W20 now and still be satisfied.
Nothing would ever be enough after this, he’d spend the rest of his life comparing every trip to the one that made him lose his mind so much that he had blacked out for a good part of a day.
…I’m screwed.
–
He fell back asleep at some point after that, exhausted and aching as he drifted away on disgusting blankets covered by a myriad of dried fluids.
He woke up when his internal clock was telling him it was night time once again and he managed to get up on shaky legs, feeling a bit less sore this time around.
He stripped the bed and picked up the toys in his arms, unsure of which ones he’d used and deciding to just play it safe, before walking into the bathroom and dumping them in the sink.
Seonghwa gasped when he saw his own reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing himself while he stared at it: eyes shining in a dull shade of red, lips bruised and swollen, hair oily and matted, and patches of caked blood and cum going all the way from his chin to his navel.
He curiously pressed a finger against his pink and warm cheek, fascinated by the white imprint that showed up momentarily on the bright blush. A subtle shade of red that seemed to spread all over his overheated skin.
It had been more than 24 hours since he took the cum, but his body still hadn’t gone back to normal.
He got in the shower and spent an embarrassing amount of time scrubbing himself clean before doing the same with his dildos, wrapping the robe around him and walking into the kitchen after he was done.
He was feeling downright ravenous, so he took the time to cook some kimchi rice on top of the Type B blood bag he poured in his big mug.
Once he was feeling clean and fed, he walked into his room and switched on his main phone, ignoring the missed call from his mom and replying to his friends a long time after the conversations about Jongho’s birthday had ended without waiting for his input.
He suddenly felt really grateful by the fact that his friends were used to Seonghwa ignoring his phone for hours on end, since he tended to hyper focus on his manuscrits when he had approaching deadlines.
After that, he grabbed his second phone and did the same, sitting down on the stripped-bare bed as the notifications started rolling in and feeling his heart skip a beat when he saw a familiar name pop up.
With a gasp, he flailed in shock so hard that he dropped his phone on the floor before quickly leaning over to grab it, bypassing Sejun’s chat to press a shaky finger on the only other active conversation.
Captain
What the fuck are you
Seonghwa frowned and re-read the question twice before typing his answer.
Mars
What do you mean?
Much to his surprise, Captain read his message straight away, but didn’t expand on his question even though he was online the whole time Seonghwa spent waiting for his reply.
Were you there last night? Are you the wolf I saw?
Now that his brain wasn’t preoccupied with the cum and the wild trip it had sent him into, he couldn’t help but think about ‘the dog’ from the park and their weird encounter.
After several minutes of silence, it didn’t seem like the werewolf was going to explain himself, so Seonghwa used the opportunity to say something he felt like he should say.
Mars
I know this is really awkward but I want to let you know that I…
Well
I took it last night
And I’m perfectly fine, so you don’t need to worry about my 'self-destruction' anymore hehe
He stared at the screen, waiting to see if Captain would finally say something else, but he never did even though he had read his messages immediately once again.
Seonghwa debated for a moment if having a stranger complimenting your cum would be too weird or not, even if the other man was well aware of the ‘line of work’ he had chosen, but he decided he might as well make the most of it if this was the last conversation he would ever have with the werewolf.
Mars
It was an wonderful experience
And while I still do feel some lingering effects, they're all positive and they’re fading away quickly
I’ll be back to normal in no time
I know you don’t really care about me, but I wanted to let you know that it went well and you don’t need to worry about it potentially getting you in trouble
Seonghwa sighed when he saw the ‘read’ symbol and the lack of response it came with, staring at the ‘online’ sign under Captain’s name for a while before switching over to Sejun’s conversation in defeat.
Honey Boy
I know you’re probably as high as a kite right now but
Remember to text me when you go back to your senses!
It’s been hours, dude
Are you okay?
Omg I shouldn’t have let you convince me to do this
I’m officially worried now
WTF I CAN SEE THAT YOU’RE ONLINE
JUST REPLY TO ME AND LET ME KNOW YOU’RE ALIVE, ASSHOLE
Mars
Sorry
It took me a lot longer than usual to come down from the high
I’m alive and well, I promise
Seonghwa reopened the chat with Captain once again just to find no reply whatsoever, as expected, before switching back to Sejun’s.
Honey Boy
DUDE
I WAS SCARED SHITLESS
NOT COOL
Mars
Sorry!
I really wasn’t in the right state of mind to text you
But I’m good now
Honey Boy
Holy shit
You did it
You really did it
You can actually consume raw lycan juice without dying
You are a medical anomaly my dude
My colleagues from the makeshift science department would love to run some tests
Mars
I’m afraid I’ll have to pass lol
Honey Boy
Yeah can’t blame you for that
So how was it? As good as you thought it’d be?
Mars
It was fucking amazing, Sejun
Like nothing I’ve felt before
A true religious experience
Honey Boy
Wow
Having a religious experience while swallowing cum
Can’t say that I relate to that if I’m being honest but I wouldn’t complain
That shit can be nasty
Seonghwa laughed, typing his witty comeback with a smile that quickly disappeared when Sejun continued talking before he could hit send.
Honey Boy
I don’t want to ruin the afterglow or whatever but…
You do remember that it was a one time thing right?
We’re playing with fire here
It didn’t harm you this time but we’re not willing to push our luck again
It’s still a substance that can kill you
You got your wish
You got the chance to try it and now we can go back to the way things were before
We put this behind and stick to w20
You promised
Tell me that you understand
The vampire stared at the words on the screen, the pleasant tingly sensation he’d been feeling since he woke up getting quickly replaced by the bitter reality.
Mars
Yes
I understand
–
Seonghwa had lowkey expected his life to be irreversibly turned upside down after going through something like that, but things had fallen back into place disappointingly fast after his transformative experience.
He had expected to carry some kind of negative side effect with him after consuming literal deadly poison, even if it was just having his so-called addiction growing ten notches afterwards – but that couldn’t be the furthest from the truth.
In fact, he felt more clarity and stability than he had in a really long time.
For the first time in years, Seonghwa didn’t feel the desperate need for that something running under his skin. He wasn’t constantly chasing a ghost he couldn’t see or understand. He wasn’t counting down the hours and the days until his next fix anymore because he finally felt sharp, content, and satisfied.
His dreams were still as confusing as ever but a bit more lucid and intense now too, glimpses of bicolor fur and yellow eyes sticking with him longer after waking up, but he couldn’t possibly know if it was connected to the werecum or just his overactive imagination clinging to the encounter with the dog (wolf?) from the park and projecting it while he was asleep.
Because of this satisfied sense of contentment, his second phone had been silent since his last conversation with Sejun, so Seonghwa was shocked to see the LED light blinking when he stumbled into his bedroom after coming home from Jongho’s birthday.
Expecting to find a message from the dealer, he grabbed it and plopped down on the bed in an attempt to stop the room from spinning around in his tipsy state – only to sit straight back up when he saw the name of the texter, nausea hitting him instantly at the fast sudden movement.
Captain
Are you still alive?
Seonghwa took several deep breaths to try to calm himself down before typing, deleting his message twice because of the typos that kept coming up in his hurry.
Mars
Hi
Yes, still alive
He stared at the screen for a while, knowing that he should probably get up and get ready for bed because it was 5AM and he wasn't going to get a reply any time soon, but not wanting to potentially miss a message from Captain either.
In a sudden and stupid rush of bravery, Seonghwa opened the camera app and fixed both his hair and make-up before snapping a bunch of pictures.
He settled for what he thought was the most flattering one: fluffy pink hair styled perfectly, smokey make-up framing his sleepy eyes, pouty red lips standing out against his pale skin, and lace black collar hugging his long neck nicely.
He didn’t know if that’d be enough to replace the embarrassing first impression he’d made on the werewolf during that disastrous video call, but Seonghwa could only hope that the other man couldn’t remember much of his drowned rat look by this point.
Mars
See? Alive and well
Coming home from pretending to be a functional member of society at my feund’s birthday
*friend, sorry
I’m a bit tipsy
Captain had sent the texts hours ago and the vampire expected him to be sleeping by now, so Seonghwa was shocked to see the other man coming online soon after he sent the picture.
He stared at the ‘typing…’ symbol blinking at him as the werewolf seemed to struggle with what to say next.
Captain
Can vampires get drunk?
In response, Seonghwa’s body proceeded to inhale deeply just to choke on that air straight away.
Oh my God, is he trying to start an actual non-confrontational conversation with me?!
Mars
Sometimes
If we drink alcohol spiked with certain substances
“Like the synthetic replica of your cum,” whispered Seonghwa in his empty bedroom.
Captain
Certain substances…
Right
Just like us then
We have to spike it with a specific type of plant too in order to feel the effects
Mars
Oh, really? That’s very interesting!
Sometimes I feel like our species are way more similar than we think
Captain
Yeah, maybe
“Oh my God, we’re actually talking to each other,” said Seonghwa before letting out an excited squail and falling back on the bed while flailing.
Captain
So
You weren’t lying, you do have an abnormal tolerance to our…
Fluids
Mars
Yes, I told you I was being honest
I really don’t know why I’m like this, it’s been like that since I tried W for the first time
Genetics are wild, some people get to be really tall or really strong and I get to have this very specific weird immunity
Captain
Just genetics?
Is that what you believe is happening here?
Seonghwa frowned, unsure of where that question was even coming from, but still feeling like his answer would make or break the tentative truce they seemed to be in.
Mars
I mean
What else could it possibly be?
I haven’t done anything to make this happen on purpose, my body is just wired that way
Captain
You don’t have any other theories?
Could it potentially be linked to something else that might explain this type of anomaly?
I don’t know, maybe something in the vampire lore?
His mind went straight to the confusing dreams he’d been having since he was a kid, his lack of sexual or romantic interest for member of his species, his abnormal tolerance for W.
All the embarrassing behavior born from his lifelong obsession with werewolves.
Nothing in the lore, I’m afraid. I’m just a pathetic weirdo with a very unusual fetish and a very overactive imagination.
Mars
…no?
Am I missing something?
Do YOU know why I’m like this?
Have you seen it before or something?
Captain
I’ve never interacted with any other vampire before you
Everything I know about your kind is based on our own folklore
I don’t know what’s normal and what’s not for you
Mars
That’s fair
Everything I know about you guys is based on what humans and other vampires have written about too
The answer is no, I don’t have any other theories
I’ve spent years trying to figure it out but I haven’t been able to find anything that could potentially explain it
That’s why I think it’s probably just a physiological quirk
Captain
Right
Seonghwa bit his lip as he scrolled back to re-read the conversation, somehow feeling like he had failed a very important test.
Mars
Sorry to disappoint
I wish I had a better answer but that’s all I have
Captain
No, don’t say sorry
Fuck
I’m not making any sense, aren’t I?
I honestly don’t even know where I’m trying to get with all of this
His frown deepened as his fingers hovered over the screen.
Seonghwa didn’t want to risk ruining the conversation even more, but the sudden drastic and unexpected change in the werewolf’s behavior was giving his tipsy brain some serious whiplash and he didn’t know how to deal with that.
The other man kept talking before he could come up with a satisfactory answer, though.
Captain
Just ignore everything I’ve said
I shouldn’t have texted you in the first place
The full moon makes me do stupid shit sometimes
The sun is coming up and you’re drunk, just go to sleep
I apologize for how crazy I must sound right now
Actually
I apologize for my behavior overall
I feel like I’ve been kind of an asshole to you for no reason when you’ve been nothing but nice since the beginning
So
I’m sorry
Seonghwa blinked as he re-read the nervous rant, mind working overtime as he tried to figure out what the fuck was happening.
Talking to this man was turning out to be a real emotional rollercoaster every single time.
Mars
No need to apologize
I think your anger towards vampires is very valid
I’m aware you didn’t get the best first impression of me either because of the context
So I don’t blame you for being a bit distrustful
As per usual, the werewolf read the messages straight away but didn’t reply, so Seonghwa rolled his eyes and decided to give him the easy way out.
You're lucky I really want to keep talking to you...
Mars
Fine, I accept your apology
No hard feelings on my part
Captain
You’re very confusing
Seonghwa laughed, but the sound got interrupted by a yawn as the approaching sunrise started to make him feel drowsy.
He needed to cut this short before he had the chance to make a fool of himself …again.
Mars
Yeah, well
So are you
I need to go to sleep now
But…
If you ever change your mind about not wanting to be friendly with a vampire, feel free to reach out ;)
Did that sound cool and casual? I feel like it sounded cool and casual. Good job, Seonghwa.
He stared as the ‘typing…’ symbol came and went a couple of times before the other man finally settled for his reply.
Captain
Good night
Good morning?
…sleep well
Seonghwa laughed again while rolling around in bed, hand firmly wrapped around the phone as a warm happy feeling spread all over his body.
Tonight, he’d probably have to re-read the conversation and overthink every single word to try to figure out what could have possibly brought this up in the first place, but right now he’d allow himself to simply enjoy the silly giddiness a bunch of random texts had awakened in him.
–
Captain
Do vampires have mates?
Seonghwa stared at his phone with a frown on his face, taken aback by the randomness of the message.
Mates?
Captain hadn’t texted him since that fateful night a week ago, and the vampire had been trying to be respectful of the other man’s space and boundaries even if he had been dying to push and figure out what had sparked the apparent sudden change in behavior.
His hands moved away from his keyboard to grab his phone, and he hummed while trying to figure out what the werewolf meant exactly before settling for the only answer he could come up with.
Mars
Mates as in friends?
Captain
What
No
Mates as in soulmates
Predestined life partners chosen by the gods
Mars
Oh
I mean it’s a beautiful concept but most of us see it as a romantic fantasy
I wouldn’t say vampires believe in soulmates more often than regular humans
That’s such a random question tho…
Can I ask why you brought it up?
He realized that he had been working for three hours straight without any breaks before getting the text, so he decided to bring the phone to the kitchen with him to refill his coffee while he waited for the reply.
Seonghwa stared at the ‘typing…’ symbol come and go, but he was getting used to the other man’s hesitancy by now so he could only snort at how predictable it was becoming.
Captain
Nevermind
“And he has the nerve to call me confusing…” whispered Seonghwa after he grabbed his mug and walked back into his office.
He was starting to realize that this puzzling randomness was all he was going to get from the werewolf, at least for now – and he was more than willing to put up with that if it meant they would continue talking.
The vampire was still staring at the phone as he sat down again, manuscript completely forgotten while he tried to crush the embarrassingly giddy feeling he felt at the mere idea of Captain being somewhat curious about him beyond their initial tense business transaction.
Maybe it was just his fixation latching onto the first werewolf that came his way, but Seonghwa felt like something about this mysterious and confusing man genuinely drew him in.
Weird ass random conversations and all.
Mars
I guess that means werewolves do believe in soulmates then?
That’s actually kind of wholesome
Captain never replied to his question, but that didn’t stop Seonghwa from erupting in a giggle as he spun around in his office chair.
–
“I don’t know why I was expecting you to look any different at this point, but I’m still shocked by the fact that you seem to be completely healthy.”
Seonghwa forced himself to look away from the dark spot between the bushes he had been staring at, trying to focus on the conversation and ignore the way the fine hairs on his nape were standing up in warning.
He snorted as he handed Sejun the money, who grabbed it without looking away from the vampire's face.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to run some tests? We might be able to figure out why you’re like this,” asked the dealer.
“Very sure,” he replied.
Nothing good ever came from humans probing vampires in a lab.
Hundreds of years of history can vouch for that.
Sejun stared at him for a bit longer before shrugging and putting the money in his bag, grabbing the vials right after to hand them over to Seonghwa.
“Fair. Well, here is your W20,” said the human before closing the insulated bag. “Pleasure doing business with you, as usual.”
The vampire grabbed it with a polite bow, staring at the cool vials in his hand before biting his lip.
His apparent serene satisfaction had ended up fading away to leave his very cells vibrating in need for a new dose again, but Seonghwa still wasn’t sure W would be enough after having a taste of the real thing anymore – even if it was W20.
“I…” he started saying, getting distracted for a moment when the sound of ruffling leaves traveled all the way from the bushes. “I know you said that you wouldn’t be up for it, but—”
“No,” interrupted Sejun with a firm tone. “We had a deal, Seonghwa. You promised. I thought we were on the same page with this. We’re not risking it, you’ll have to stick to 20% if you want to continue buying from us.”
The vampire looked at the vials in his hand in silence, nodding after a moment.
“I should have known you wouldn’t let this go that easily,” said the human before sighing. “Believe it or not, we’re doing this for your safety. It’d be very easy for us to just take your money and let you deal with the consequences yourself, but that’s not how we roll. I know it’s in your nature to keep ramping things up in search of a bigger high because that’s what you do, but this is where we draw the line.”
He nodded again, trying to ignore both the hot embarrassment and the presence he could feel at the edge of the clearing.
“Seonghwa,” added Sejun. “Promise me that this is the last time we discuss this issue.”
“I promise,” he replied, feeling the sudden need to flee this conversation. “Sorry I even brought it up in the first place. I…I’m leaving now, then.”
The human stared at him for a bit longer before rolling his eyes and making a dismissive gesture with his hand.
“Whatever, see you next month. Have fun.”
“Thanks, I will,” replied Seonghwa in a whisper before turning around with his proverbial tail between his legs and walking through the path.
He could feel the presence moving along with him, the now recognizable woodsy scent easily traveling to the vampire as the wind shifted.
Looks like someone isn't even trying to hide this time around.
Seonghwa stopped at the entrance and turned around to look at the same spot between the bushes from last time, finding the wolf already staring back at him there.
He had tried to get himself ready and brace for the intensity he now knew he’d feel the moment their eyes met, but the charged energy still managed to steal his breath away. The world seemed to fade away around him as he stared into the yellow eyes, and the vampire had to force himself to stay rooted in place to avoid spooking the wolf all over again.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
He hadn't meant to ask that question out loud, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Seonghwa didn’t know how or why he knew it, but the firm conviction sat in his brain with total conviction this time.
Somehow, against all rational thought, werewolves were capable of shapeshifting into a whole different being.
The wolf didn’t acknowledge what the vampire had said, so they simply stared at each other in silence until Seonghwa chuckled and forced himself to look away before he did something stupid like trying to approach him once again.
“Be careful out here, Captain” he said, trying to sound less shaken than he felt as the words pushed through his dry throat. “All sorts of dangerous creatures come out at night.”
With a shaky sigh, he closed his eyes and used his supernatural speed to leave the park, afraid of what he’d do if he stayed close to the wolf for a second longer.
His heart was beating painfully hard by the time he got home, the vials in his pocket completely forgotten as his brain struggled to understand why Captain had showed up at the pick-up spot once again.
As a completely normal-looking wolf, which apparently lycans could somehow magically turn into.
Seonghwa ended up not taking the W that night, feeling confused and overwhelmed while he spent hours trying to keep himself occupied to avoid typing countless questions on his phone that he would just cowardly delete before sending.
He had been too much of a wimp to actually reach out to the werewolf, but the other man clearly hadn't felt the same way because the vampire had a bunch of notifications waiting for him when he woke up the following night.
Captain
I know
I’m one of those dangerous creatures who come out at night
Seonghwa laughed out loud, smiling and flailing under his covers at the unexpected turn of events.
Captain had texted him completely unprompted once again.
He was openly acknowledging that he was indeed the wolf Seonghwa had seen twice at the park now, possibly because he had been as curious about the vampire as he himself was about Captain.
He had no idea where this heading or how he was going to navigate the other man’s animosity-turned-to-curiosity, but he was more than willing to find out.
Mars
What a coincidence
So am I
–
Captain
Does the full moon have any effect on vampires?
Seonghwa grabbed his phone with a smile on his face, finally having the chance to reply to the other man after hanging up on the video call with his boss.
It had been a couple of days since that fateful day at the park, and none of them had acknowledged their meeting or even talked about anything at all after that brief exchange. Captain had left his last message on read, but Seonghwa was getting used to the werewolf’s habit of fleeing whenever he felt like cutting the conversation short.
Just like he was also getting used to the random questions he kept throwing his way.
Mars
Yeah, a bit
I suspect it’s not on the same magnitude as werewolves tho
We feel thirstier and hungrier so we usually gorge on blood more than usual
We are stronger too I guess
Just more in tune with our instincts overall, but not that noticeable in regular day to day life
Captain
Oh
Yeah, it’s definitely a lot more than that for us
Our wolf is right under the surface around that time, so we’re also a lot more in tune with our instincts and our senses
We get a bit more animalistic
The Moon is our main goddess too, so we have specific traditions and rituals to celebrate Her
For most of us it’s just an excuse to let loose and party really
Seonghwa bit his lip as the smile broke on his face.
Captain had never been that open and talkative before, let alone this willing to talk about werewolves’ culture.
He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he felt like they could really leave behind the intense awkwardness that always ended up taking over their conversations and maybe establish something that resembled an actual friendship – one that wouldn’t be impacted by the way Seonghwa's brain was going wild with the dark implications of lycans being ‘more animalistic’ during the full moon.
Don’t be weird. Keep it innocent and platonic.
Or as innocent and platonic as he could keep it while consuming a drug that had the man’s processed cum as the main ingredient.
Mars
That sounds nice!
We definitely don’t have anything like that
No gods or rituals, we’ve mainly blended with humans throughout history
We’re not social creatures who bond easily with each other either, we don’t really have an actual vampire culture per se
Captain
That’s kind of sad
But that might just be the pack creature in me talking
So what are you up to?
Mars
You’re awfully curious about me for someone who said he didn’t want to be friendly with a vampire
Captain
I’m sorry…
Let me know if I make you feel uncomfortable or something
I just
Seonghwa watched as the other man typed something just to delete it straight away a bunch of times, and he cursed at himself out loud before groaning and hitting his forehead at his stupid joke.
He really had to learn how to tread lightly if he wanted to avoid having the other man volting and dropping their conversations altogether every single time.
Captain
I never imagined I’d find myself in such a bizarre and confusing situation
My life has been turned upside down and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now
I don’t understand what’s happening
But I feel like getting to know you better is the very obvious first step
He sighed before frowning, unsure about the meaning behind the other man’s words.
Why do you always speak in riddles…
As usual, Seonghwa had no idea what the werewolf was talking about.
He was starting to feel like they were always having two different conversations at the same time, like he was completely missing the secret code that would help him decipher what Captain truly meant.
It was like that important key was stuck somewhere in his brain, an answer that was hiding in plain sight and yet he couldn’t access it anyway.
Still, the werewolf was making the effort of sticking around to open up about his feelings instead of running, so Seonghwa owed him the same courtesy.
Mars
You don’t make me feel uncomfortable, I enjoy our random conversations
I’m just very confused because I don’t understand what’s happening either
You went from not wanting to talk to me and calling me a leech to casually asking me what I’m up to
I like this new you a whole lot more, don’t get me wrong
I really want to know you better as well, but it’s giving me some serious whiplash
Captain
I give myself whiplash too, if that makes you feel better
I’ve heard all sorts of bad things about vampires since I was kid and I’ve never even given any of it a second thought
But then you crashed into my life and now I’m forced to actually look at it and try to unpack years of blind hatred
There are two very distinct and opposed parts of me fighting each other inside me when it comes to you
I really am trying my best here…
Seonghwa gave the werewolf some time to expand on his feelings as he got up to prepare another coffee, but the other man never said anything else even though he was online, so the vampire decided to change the topic altogether before it was too late.
Captain was obviously struggling with a lot of internal conflict right now.
He didn’t understand any of it, but he could sympathize and try to make things as painless as possible for him.
Mars
You asked me what I was up to
Well, I just finished a work meeting and I’m taking a little coffee break
What about you?
Seonghwa was expecting the werewolf to completely ignore him and use the tense awkwardness as an excuse to put an end to the conversation once again, but instead the other man took the olive branch the vampire was handing his way without much hesitation.
Captain
Oh
You drink coffee?
Does that mean you can eat regular food?
Mars
Yes, we can drink coffee and eat regular food lol
We can’t thrive on it because we can’t absorb the nutrients the same way other species do
But food is yummy and we eat it anyway
Captain
Makes sense
I’ve always thought you only drank blood
Mars
Nah, we need blood to survive but it’d be boring to just stick to it when there are many delicious foods out there
Like strawberries won’t give me much nutritional value but I will still wolf down a whole box in a sitting regardless
Captain
Lmao
The idea of a vampire eating strawberries is so bizarre to me
Every little piece of information you share just blows my mind
You're very different to the idea I had of vampires
Mars
Well, that’s what I’m here for lol
I’m your friendly neighborhood vampire, ready to answer all your budding questions!
Captain
You’re going to regret saying that
Mars
Doubt it!
Anyway, you never answered my question
What are you up to?
Why are you even awake?
Captain
I felt inspired so I was working on some music
Thought about you and figured out that you’d be awake since you sleep during the day and all that
Seonghwa bit his lip as he stared at the texts, mantra getting louder in his head while he tried to keep himself from reading too much into the messages.
Innocent and platonic.
Innocent.And.Platonic.
INNOCENT AND PLATONIC.
Mars
Omg you’re a composer?!
That’s really cool!
Captain
I wouldn’t consider myself a composer, no
It’s just a silly hobby
I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it
“Would you show me some of your mu—”
Seonghwa stared at the message he was typing and deleted it before he could hit send, feeling like such a request would probably come across too strong at this point of their tentative friendship.
One step at a time.
Mars
I have the feeling you’re underselling it
But if you enjoy it, who cares about everything else!
I also like music a lot
I’ve tried writing lyrics because it’s close enough to my actual job
But it’s a lot harder than it looks T.T
Captain
What do you do for work?
Mars
I’m an editor
I read people’s manuscripts to fix grammar mistakes and suggest changes that would improve the story before publishing them as books
Captain
Really?
I don’t know what I was expecting but that wasn’t it
That’s such a human job
Mars
All our jobs are human jobs lol
We just have to stick to the night shifts
Don’t you guys have so-called human jobs too?
Captain
Not really
We have a very traditional way of living by human standards, I guess you could say
Most of us don’t have jobs in the way you think of them, they’re mainly pack-focused duties and responsibilities
We all play our part to keep the group running smoothly, but money is not really a thing inside the pack
Mars
Oh
That actually sounds kind of nice
Money is the root of all evils in human-vampire society lol
What’s your duty then?
Captain
I’m a trader, I do business with humans
I sell them handcrafted materials, furs, produce and stuff like that to get the money we need to buy the things we can’t make inside the pack
It’s not a very sought-after job because my people hate venturing into your settlements and we get to encounter hunters every now and then
But I kind of love it
Mars
Omg
Please be careful...
Hunters are more of a bigoted nuisance for vampires at this point, but I know they can be much worse for werewolves
Captain
Nah, they're kind of stupid, to be honest
Very easy to identify too, thanks to their ridiculous patches and hats
Smart enough to not venture into pack territory because we're legally allowed to defend ourselves using the force we deem necessary
And yet they never recognize ME for what I am when we cross paths in the city lmao
Their name is very misleading, they're actually very bad at hunting
Mars
...sounds like them, yeah
Captain
They used to be a much bigger problem when I was younger, but at this point they really are just an annoying inconvenience for us in the grand scheme of things
I feel very drawn to big cities and what they offer so running into them is more than worth it, I’m fascinated by human culture and all the cool things they've created
Hence why I do have an actual secret job that gives me real money I can spend buying musical instruments and fancy computers
Mars
And here I was thinking there was a deeper reason to do what you do…
Captain
No deep reason, I’m afraid
Just me wanting to save up so I can spoil my future mate
And maybe buy one or two cool gadgets in the meantime
Seonghwa stopped and stared at that word.
Mate.
Captain had mentioned it before when he had implied that werewolves believed in soulmates, and this only confirmed that the term was definitely a common thing for them.
Seonghwa had dug into lycan literature just to see if he could find anything about it, but there were only a bunch of passing mentions that didn't explain anything at all.
Based on the limited sources, there wasn't anything magical about the so-called werewolf 'mates'. The term seemed to be a mere substitute for 'romantic partner' or 'spouse', more related to the way scientists used the word to refer to animal couples than actual 'soulmates' in the spiritual way human and vampires understood it.
And yet, it still sat heavily in Seonghwa’s stomach in a way that he surely didn’t want to look too close into.
He had been working really hard to stop his over-imaginative mind from creating all types of wild and impossible (and filthy) scenarios involving Captain now that the other man was slowly becoming a real person in his head and not just the erotic faceless provider behind his drugs, so he felt pretty stupid for being upset at the idea of this complete stranger having a partner.
This new thing between them was born out of pure curiosity, and Seonghwa refused to make it even weirder than it already was.
Innocent and platonic.
In an attempt to ignore that sinking feeling, he chose to focus on the other part of the conversation.
Mars
You chose a very dangerous job to fund your hobbies
I don’t want to scare you, but vampire authorities take the war on drugs very seriously
Just be careful
Captain
Thank you, but I’m not scared of vampire authorities
My own pack leaders would get to me first if I got exposed
It’s not like I have many other options anyway, who would hire a werewolf for a regular 9 to 5 in the city?
Nobody here bats an eye if I come back smelling like humans, they have no reason to believe there’s something illegal going on
Plus, I won’t be doing this forever
It was always supposed to be a temporary job until I found my mate
Mars
I don’t know if that makes me feel any better
I know this type of business was also frowned upon among werewolves but I don’t know the real scale of it
It’s a very lucrative market, I’ve never understood why your kind chose to not exploit it yourselves
Captain
There is a reason why it’s considered so taboo
But that’s a story for another time
I’m afraid I have to go now, I need to get ready for my early morning pack duties and I'm not allowed to carry my phone around with me
Seonghwa watched as the werewolf hesitated to send his next message, ‘typing…’ symbol coming and going.
Captain
Thanks for humoring my random curiosity once again
Good luck with your book
Mars
Anytime
Thank you, good luck with your early morning pack duties :)
Seonghwa smiled into his coffee and leaned back into the chair, re-reading their conversation and feeling like they had gotten past a very important obstacle that was preventing this from getting somewhere.
He still didn’t know how they had gone from that tense first interaction to this, but he felt like the answer laid somewhere beneath the prickly and confusing exterior of the werewolf - and he was more than ready to patiently dig until he found it.
He was a vampire, after all. Time wasn't really an issue for him.
–
Captain
I have another one
It’s probably a stupid one but I swear it’s completely genuine
Can vampires turn into actual bats?
Seonghwa laughed into his bibimbap, lightly tapping his chest when he started to choke on it.
It seemed like the heart-to-heart chat they'd had the previous week had been the proverbial green light Captain had needed to text him whenever he felt like it, sending him increasingly more random and hilarious questions on a daily basis while Seonghwa tried (and failed) to focus on behaving like a productive member of society and not being stuck to his phone during every waking moment.
He felt like nobody could blame him for finding talking to a mysterious werewolf a lot more interesting than the boring and cheesy romantic novel he was editing right now.
Mars
I’m amazed by the fact that you keep coming up with all of these
No, we can’t turn into bats lmao
Captain
Huh
No bats, no garlic aversion, no issues with wood crosses, no exploding in the sunlight, no eternal life since you actually age at the exact same pace than werewolves
Everything I’ve ever known really is a lie
My kind has really made you all look a lot cooler than you actually are
Mars
I can’t even deny that
I can confirm we really are a lot less cool than everyone think we are
Seonghwa chuckled and quickly tidied up the kitchen before loading the dishwasher and moving to the living room, where he carefully moved his finger over his vinyl collection before settling for one and putting it on the player, laying on the fluffy pillow nest he had spread out on the floor with his phone.
He had expected that the awkwardness of their first interactions would stay around for a while as they got used to one another, but it looked like the werewolf had grown comfortable after a few conversations and that in turn made Seonghwa feel like didn’t have to walk on eggshells all the time anymore.
Plus, in a very unsurprising turn of events, his random conversations with Captain had definitely become his favorite part of the day over the last week.
The vampire had been inexplicably drawn to this man when he was just a mysterious sexy fantasy, but that was nothing compared to the complete fascination he felt now that he had learned a lot more about the werewolf as a person.
In fact, he had been so engrossed in their daily chats that he could barely feel the relentless need (desperation) for W he used to feel at all times. He'd actually been dosifying the last batch he got from Sejun, taking smaller amounts over the course of several days instead of going overboard on a single one until he ended up blacking out.
He had been masturbating a whole lot more over the last week because of this as well, and Seonghwa simply refused to look too deep into the way the faceless unknown werewolf had quickly been morphing into what he imagined Captain to be.
Innocent and platonic.
Captain
Between you and me
I prefer this version to the bloodthirsty one that massacred my ancestors
Mars
Yeah, me too
You should go to sleep tho, it’s really late
Captain
I don’t really feel like sleeping right now
I've always been a pretty nocturnal person anyway
Am I keeping you from something?
Mars
No, I’m done with work for the day so I’m just unwinding right now
Impulsively, he snapped a picture of his current setting: fairy lights casting a dim glow over the record player in the background while his long legs rested on top of a fluffy pillow, pink Spongebob Squarepants pajamas and matching bunny slippers framed at the center of the photo.
Mars
See?
Captain
Looks cozy
Love the outfit, very traditionally vampiric lol
Seonghwa laughed, but the sound died in his throat when a picture popped up in the chat, heart beating faster in his chest as he waited for it to load. He had sent the other man a bunch of pictures over the duration of their short quasi-friendship, but it was the first time Captain had ever sent him one back, so he was unsure of what to expect.
It definitely wasn't this, though.
A sight that literally took his breath away as he zoomed in to take in all the details.
The werewolf was in what seemed to be a big open clearing inside a dense forest that was painted by the red-ish colors of the autumn, crescent moon shining in the upper corner while surrounded by what looked like hundreds of stars. The brightness of the sky was perfectly matched by the bottom half of the picture, made up of thick green vines covered by countless splashes of white in the forms of big blooming flowers.
A sight so powerful that it made him freeze, heart pounding painfully hard in his chest as overwhelming and somewhat confusing emotions took over him as he stared at the picture.
...huh, can some random landscape be so beautiful that it makes you want to cry?
Captain
I’m also unwinding
Mars
Wow, that’s a GORGEOUS view
Literally breathtaking
Captain
Isn’t it? It’s my favorite spot in pack territory
Nobody ever comes here either so it’s like my private little secret place
He couldn’t help but close his eyes and press the phone against his chest as his heart fluttered at the idea of the other man sharing his beautiful special spot with him.
Driven by the overwhelming feeling the picture had awaken in him and the intense need to do something more, Seonghwa pushed his finger over the call button and nervously waited to see what Captain would do.
He didn’t have to wait for long, though, because the werewolf answered the call after two tones.
“Hi,” said Seonghwa, feeling stupidly breathless. “Sorry for impulsively calling you without any warning for the second time.”
The line was completely silent for a while, save for his background music and the faint noise of the animals in the forest filtering through the phone’s speakers, until a chuckle rang loud and clear over every other sound.
“Hi,” replied Captain, the smile evident in his voice. “I’ve been impulsively texting you for over a week now so it seems fair.”
Seonghwa could feel a shaky sigh leaving his chest as the werewolf's voice seemed to caress his senses, goosebumps erupting all over his body as the melodic tone scratched all the right places in his brain.
Of course he has a really nice voice too.
“Yeah, I guess we are even,” he replied with an awkward laugh that ended up in an equally awkward silence that seemed to last forever until he cleared his throat. “So, huh, how come nobody else goes to that beautiful place? I wouldn’t be able to stay away if I lived anywhere nearby.”
Captain laughed, the sound pleasant and clear in a way that made shivers travel down Seonghwa’s spine.
“The flowers,” said the werewolf simply.
He frowned. “What? The ones in the picture? But they’re so pretty! I’ve never seen flowers that bloomed that much at night, especially during this time of the year.”
“They're called moonflowers precisely because they only bloom at night, and they will continue to grow until frost so they'll be around for a bit longer,” explained Captain. “They’re beautiful, yeah, but they’re also very toxic for us and have a really strong scent that my people find nauseating. Our elders say it's a big warning sign that tells us to stay very far away.”
“Oh my God, why are you surrounding yourself with dangerous smelly flowers?!”
The werewolf snorted.
“It’s okay, they’re not toxic to the touch or anything. Most werewolves would never come anywhere near these flowers willingly, but I’m a bit of an anomaly in that sense. I’ve always been weirdly drawn to them, to the point that my parents often talk about the times I got myself sick by trying to eat them as a little pup. They don’t even know how I managed to track them down every time,” added Captain.
“Please, tell me that you don’t try to eat them anymore,” said Seonghwa light-heartedly, feeling somewhat worried about the newfound information.
“Don’t worry, I’m an adult with enough self-control and self-preservation to not do that now …even if I still kind of want to sink my teeth in them,” said Captain before laughing lightly, tone swifting into a more serious one as he continued talking. “I can’t help it, though. It’s my absolutely favorite scent in the whole world, and I've been craving it even more recently.”
“Oh?” he replied, curiosity spiking inside him. “Why is that?”
Captain fell silent before chuckling.
“A story for another time,” replied the werewolf playfully.
Seonghwa could feel himself pouting.
“You keep saying that every time I ask you something! I reply to your random questions all the time!” he exclaimed.
“I reply to your questions too!” said Captain. “I just need some time to organize my thoughts and figure out a few things first. I promise I will give you all the answers when the right time comes.”
As per usual, Seonghwa didn't understand what was going on, but he was like 99.9% sure that the other man's mysterious behavior wasn't because of nefarious reasons so he chose to let it go.
“Fine, I’m starting to feel like you just enjoy teasing me," he muttered before sighing dramatically. "Okay. I have a different question, then. You asked about us turning into bats earlier so I'll turn that around to you: how come you are capable of shapeshifting? I know we haven't actually addressed the fact that you're the wolf I keep seeing, but I mean …you basically confirmed it that night.”
Captain stayed quiet for a moment.
“Yeah, that was a risky and stupid move on my part. I didn't think you'd be able to notice my presence that first time, I'm pretty good at hiding my position and I've managed to fly under vampires' radars before,” explained the werewolf. “I…I would be in some serious trouble if this information spreads, it's something we've fought really hard to keep a secret and it needs to stay that way.”
“I swear I won't tell a soul, your secret is safe with me.”
The line stayed silent for a while, the harmonious mix of the background music and the noises of the forest filling the void until the other man started talking again.
“A small percentage of us can shapeshift into actual wolves, but most can’t,” said Captain before going quiet for a while again. “Ah, how do I explain this? Basically there’s two types of werewolves based on how connected we are with our animal side, to put it in very simple terms. Weres like me are called ‘alphas’ and we are a small minority compared to regular lycans, there are a bunch of physiological differences, but one of the main identifiers is our ability to shift into our wolf form. I don’t know how that works exactly, we call it Moon Magic, but I rationally know that there must be a scientific explanation behind it.”
For a while, Seonghwa was too stunned to even talk.
He had known that Captain had this ability for a while, but he was having trouble wrapping his head around it now that it was 100% confirmed.
“That’s …fascinating. I think we can just call it magic because it’s honestly the only thing that makes sense. It’s a truly otherworldly concept, I wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t because I’ve seen you with my own two eyes,” replied the vampire, fighting really hard against the need to drill the other man for more details.
“How did you even know it was me?”
“I honestly don’t know, I could just …feel it,” he said, sensing the energy that always seemed to linger between them sizzling as the silence got even more charged, making him laugh awkwardly and try to break that tension. “So you’re also a bit of a special genetic anomaly, then. Just like me. Your superpowers are way more impressive than mine, though. I can’t even brag about it without sounding like a total weirdo.”
Captain laughed at his stupid joke, and the vampire found himself growing more and more addicted to the sound.
He was lowkey aware that he should probably put some distance between them to avoid the inevitable heartbreak he was heading towards, but he was choosing to ignore how badly this could potentially explode on his face for the sake of learning more about this captivating werewolf instead.
Innocent and platonic, Park Seonghwa. Keep it innocent and platonic.
–
“Tell me about your coven. That’s what you call your version of packs, right?”
Seonghwa smiled and got more comfortable in the cocoon of blankets, getting lulled by the approaching sunrise and the melodic tone of Captain’s voice.
“Mhm, kind of? A coven is really just a group of friends, nothing like the complex formations you guys have,” he explained. “I do have a coven, though. It’s made up of Wooyoung, San, Yeosang and Jongho. Most of us have known each other for a long time, we grew up together. Jongho is human, but we met him in university and he’s like a little brother to all of us anyway, so he’s an honorary baby vampire.”
The other man hummed before speaking.
“Vampires really are seen as upgraded humans with enhanced senses, aren’t they? You clearly can live among them without any major issue.”
Seonghwa bit his lip, unsure of how to proceed.
“We do get discriminated against often, but things have improved a lot. I’m very aware that it’s nothing compared to what you go through,” he said.
The werewolf chuckled.
“Hey, that’s okay. It was just an observation, I’m not blaming you personally for centuries of discrimination. It’s not like we are completely innocent either, we have done some really fucked up shit in the past,” added Captain before laughing. “It’s better this way, to be honest. I can’t imagine my kind being able to deal with city life, everything is very noisy and stinky. Only freaks like me enjoy that type of stuff.”
He laughed too when he realized that the mood hadn't accidentally been ruined.
“Doesn’t that stuff bother you, anyway? I’ve always wondered about that, since you also have heightened senses,” asked the werewolf.
“Not as heightened as you. Our main feature is the eyesight, but our nose is nowhere near as developed as yours. We really are just enhanced humans, in a weird way. Some people are smelly, but that’s on the individual and not the species as a whole,” he explained.
“Oh shit, I wish! Both species stink for us as a whole. Humans are bad, but vampires are just…” said the other man before cutting himself off suddenly. “Not you, though! Other vampires I’ve accidentally come across with before. You smell …nice. Like really nice, actually.”
Seonghwa snorted, feeling amused by the clear nervousness as Captain over-explained himself.
“It’s fine, our species’ hatred for each other’s scents is very well-documented. I already know that vampires stink of carcasses to werewolves, just like you guys supposedly smell bad to us too,” he said as he played around with the blanket. “You don’t have to lie to make me feel better, but I appreciate it.”
“I promise I’m not lying, you do have a really pleasant scent. It actually really threw me off the first time I saw you in that park, if I’m being honest. I don’t run into vampires often because I mainly venture into cities during the day precisely to avoid them, but the ones I’ve encountered have definitely smelled very different from you.”
Seonghwa couldn’t help the big smile from spreading over his face, choosing to play into what was probably a white lie and allow himself to believe Captain actually meant it, letting himself enjoy the butterflies that took off in his stomach.
“You actually have a nice scent too,” he replied before he lost the sudden wave of bravery. “I haven’t been able to smell you properly up close, but …it’s really nice.”
The werewolf didn’t reply straight away, but when he did he sounded kind of breathless.
“Really? You like my scent?”
“Yeah, it’s really lovely. You smell woodsy, like a forest,” explained Seonghwa.
He tried not to think about the forest in his dreams and the way Captain’s scent always reminded him of it because the thought always made him feel weirdly anxious, so instead he asked something he suddenly really needed to know.
“Let’s say I believe you when you say I don’t smell like a corpse. What do I smell like, then? Can it be compared with anything? You can be honest, I won’t be offended.”
The werewolf stayed quiet for a bit before replying in a soft voice.
“Flowers.”
Seonghwa could almost feel his heart skipping a beat, silence hanging heavily around them as the line got filled with the sound of an owl hooting in the distance and the noise of the needle occasionally scratching the record he had been playing earlier in the night.
“You really don’t have to lie, I know we stink. I might not smell that bad to you, but saying I smell like flowers is a reach.”
“Yeah. Vampires usually do stink, that’s true, but you don’t. Not to me, anyway,” said Captain with a much firmer tone. “You really do smell like flowers, Seonghwa.”
It took him a moment to register the word, and he inhaled deeply when he did, white noise ringing in his ears as his brain forgot all about the rest of the conversation they were having in order to loop Captain saying his name on repeat.
“Oh,” added the werewolf when he realized what he had said. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to drop it like that. We can pretend it never happened if it makes you uncomfortable, but that’s your name, right? Seonghwa? I heard Sejun calling you that at the park.”
“Y-yes,” he replied. “My name is Seonghwa. You can call me that, I don’t mind.”
Captain stayed quiet for a bit as the tension got even more charged.
“Well, Seonghwa. Since I know your real name now, I guess it’s only fair that I introduce myself too,” said the werewolf again, letting the silence fill the air before continuing. “I…I’m Hongjoong.”
“Hongjoong,” he repeated without thinking, instantly loving the way the word felt in his mouth. “Nice to officially meet you. I guess this means that we’ve moved on from ‘business transaction’ to ‘acquaintances’? Dare I say …almost friends?”
The laughter this time was particularly bright and loud, and the vampire could almost feel his chest growing ten sizes bigger at the beautiful sound.
Oh, no…
There was absolutely nothing innocent and platonic about the way he felt. He had reached the point where he couldn’t even lie to himself about it anymore.
In the most predictable and Seonghwa-like way possible, he had ended up crushing hard on a man he barely knew and who wasn't even from the same species as him. A man he had never seen outside wolf form and whose cum he treated (and craved) as an actual drug. A man he would never be able to kiss without causing him physical harm, let alone doing something more with him.
A man who candidly talked about wanting to settle down with a perfect partner, someone he called his literal soulmate.
…I’m officially screwed.
“Yes, Seonghwa. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve officially moved on from ‘business transaction’.”