Are You There - Chapter 39: Chapter 39

Jooheon laughs outright, finding the words still tumbling from Changkyun's lips beyond absurd. Changkyun gives pause, furrowing his brows into one line. "What're you laughing at?"
Jooheon's eyes take a long roll, mirroring his disbelief perfectly. "I think you hit your head," he murmurs, swiping away imaginary tears from beneath his eyes. "Or you've read too many of those comics you're selling."
Changkyun is admittedly embarrassed. He has never had to speak about his vampiric disease with someone that did not already know. He has found solace in that safety net, and now he is realizing just how impossible it must have been growing up this way. How much Hyungwon must have dreaded living like this for centuries.
"How 'bout this-" Jooheon sits upright, that joking grin pressed into his lips as he stares down at Changkyun still in the hospital bed. "Find some way to prove it to me. It has to be complete proof though, not something circumstantial."
Changkyun nods, his ears tinged pink at the top. He almost feels shameful of his vampiric livelihood. To be disregarded as a joke, he truly hates this. He feels as if he has been stuffed back into the closet and has to come out all over again. It had been hard enough the first time, he does not want to go through that struggle once more.
"You stabbed me yesterday," Changkyun says softly, recalling the moment the blade had gone through his chest. Tugging his hospital gown down at the collar, he bares his clean chest to Jooheon. Only the Mark rests on his skin, any remnants of the wound long since cleared away. "But there's not even a scratch."
Jooheon admits that the skin is smooth, unweathered, and unmarked. But he cannot help the skeptic inside that questions Changkyun. "I barely know what I did yesterday, you might have convinced me that I stabbed you."
Changkyun feels as if he will choke a lung at this rate. He has never scoffed so hard before this conversation, but it almost hurts to speak next. "Did you also imagine the huge knife you pulled out of my side yesterday?" Changkyun shuffles under his bedclothes, tugging the corners up to reveal the right half of his abdomen.
Changkyun has yet to see his newest scar, but it is almost terrifying to catch a glimpse of now. The blade that had cut through him had done more damage than anyone expected. The blessed metal, surely pressing into his skin in a line before piercing him, had withered and burned at his skin. The actual stab wound was only three inches wide, but the burn had opened the cut wider and kept him from healing.
The scar is just as unsettling as he would have assumed. The thick line at the center surrounded by a lighter shade of beige coiling outwards. It almost resembles a cloud if Changkyun choeses not to think too hard on it, but he knows what left it behind and why it remains. Compared to the scar up his left side, where blessed water had doused across his clothing, this one is horrific and mangled. The new one to match on his arm is more subdued than this one, and he wonders if it will ever smooth over like the others did. Probably not after the amount of damage it caused.
Jooheon blatantly stares, clearly confused as to just how the wound could have closed with no visible stitching in only a few hours.
He wants to reach out and touch it, but a thought crosses his mind quickly, halting him. "It's a skin graft, right?"
Changkyun lets his gown and his covers fall at his side, his hand limp with exhaustion. "Clearly you don't know what a skin graft actually looks like." Changkyun rolls onto his side, the IV still itching at his left arm tugs uncomfortably. Annoyed, he yanks it from the crook of his elbow, tossing the needle aside. The bag is empty anyhow. He and Jooheon both watch a drop of blood well up on Changkyun's skin, the vampire merely wiping it away with a finger and leaving the small mark to heal in seconds. Jooheon stares for too long as the skin meets together around the small needle prick, covering what was once a hole in only an instant.
Peering at Changkyun curiously, Jooheon's lips part. "Okay that-" He points a finger at the vampire's arm, gesturing wildly as he searches for the right words. "That was weird."
Changkyun glances down, realizing a moment late that this is evidence enough to prove his bloodline. His lips break apart in a bright smile, and he settles into his covers despite the clear disbelief still stained into Jooheon's expression. "And here I thought I was gonna have to drain a nurse just to prove it to you."
Jooheon shakes his head, his lips pursed as he puts things together. "I'll humor you for a second. Sure, you can be a vampire." He says it so flippantly that he has to laugh at himself, he cannot handle the absurdity otherwise. "But I wanna know who you are."
Changkyun's head tilts, to the left then the right, a puppy given a command he cannot interpret. "I'm still Changkyun-"
"No, no." Jooheon's hands clasp together before his chest, nearly in prayer as he asks the same question he has wanted an answer to since the night before last. "Who are you to me, and why do I feel like I've known you all my life?"
[ x ]
"It is rare that we gain two requests within one day to meet with us."
Standing behind his dais, Hyungwon does not know what to say to that. The Counsel is of course not a group to take requests, choosing to retrieve creatures for themselves. Hyungwon knows already of the fae that requested a meeting yesterday after healing his telepath without his permission, only hours before Hyungwon came along to her with the injured vampire.
"I thank you for accepting me today." Hyungwon bows his head, careful to avoid the eyes of his bloodline. None are half-bloods as he is, and all look down upon him. While cases for vampires should be dealt with by vampires, he speaks exclusively to the head of the fae bloodline, a woman Hoseok had somehow recognized when he and Hoseok arrived six months ago. "Ms. Kang."
The waifish woman smiles politely, though she is everything but comfortable with this situation. Unlike most of her bloodline, she is often associated with vampires and succubi alike, friends of the enemy despite their histories. But here, with eyes of her fellow Counsel members hovering over her in judgement, she feels anxious.
"Please state, for the Counsel, what you request of us today." Her eyes do not waver from the vampire's small face, holding his gaze carefully. "We will discuss together whether we can help you or not."
Hyungwon treads on thin ice before the Counsel. He has done many wrongs over his lifetime, starting with being born in the first place. He has been hunted before, he has been punished before, and he has been sentenced to death before. He has been given three death sentences from what he can remember, but each were sidelined when he gave over enough to heed him life.
He knows if he had not turned over his pledged fae last Halloween, he would be dead by now. The Counsel does not often bargain, especially not with half-bloods, but he cannot help but try. "I would like to request protection for my youngest Claim. Changkyun."
A muttering sweeps over the long table, each Counsel member whispering as one. Hyungwon can pinpoint a few words, hating each one more than the last. Half-blood. Murder. Wasteful. Useless.
"He's just been attacked unlawfully by a Rogue, and it took hours for him to be healed by a specialized fae." Hyungwon should not be speaking out of turn. He knows as much, and he knows that the Counsel will not hesitate to drop him for something as simple as using his voice, but he does so anyway. After the desperate fight he had gone through to help his youngest last night, he is determined to win today.
But the Counsel is not on his side, and a resounding shake of heads filters around the table. Three of each bloodline frown, decided already that a half-blood is not worth the efforts of protection. The youngest face on the Counsel, a woman of Hyungwon's own bloodline, speaks up when he scoffs.
"Do not expect us to treat your Claim any gentler than we have you. You created him knowing that it was against the law, and however unlawful you may think his attack yesterday was, I can assure you it was not." She straightens in her seat, her chin high and her fingers folded neatly atop the long table. "If a Rogue has taken to your Claim, that is none of our concern. You, like he, should have been disposed of when you were created."
Hyungwon's stomach wrenches, twisting in a paralyzing disgust that is almost tangible. "Then may I request that you turn him?"
Another whisper, this one considerably louder, overtakes the Counsel. This is a new request to hear for most apart from the vampires themselves. The threat of the half-bloods abilities had always been against the Counsel's best interests. Unlike true vampires, created by other true vampires, the half-blood is guided by human tendencies. They develop different abilities, and are dangerous to the rest of the race.
The idea to begin hunting them and turning them into full-blooded vampires has been rising in recent decades, but nothing has been done of it. Rogues are still hunting them into extinction, whether under orders or not. The Counsel has been weeding out half-bloods around the world, each installment of their nine members working harder than the last to remove the vampires that should never have been born. Hyungwon figures it is only a matter of time before other races, such as the fae, begin sifting through their own half-blood populations. He wonders if Minhyuk will be brought before these nine faces and killed for existing.
The whispers end with a finality that almost startles Hyungwon back from his dais. Nine pairs of eyes land on him at once, and he feels his spine stiffen, his hands clenching around the wood between he and the Counsel.
"We have agreed that while your request is noble, we will find no use for your Claim under a proper bloodline." Ms. Kang Jihyun, with her round lips, attempts to smile at Hyungwon. "Unless you can provide reasons that would sway our decision, we will leave him as a half-blood and will approve no protection for him in the future."
Hyungwon wracks his brain for a reason to keep Changkyun alive. He is still young, and has not had the chance to develop any astounding abilities yet. His glamours are incredible, but most vampires can steady their own over years of practice, so Changkyun's will not be a turning point for his survival. He still cannot control his fading, and while his hold over emotions is quaint, it is not strong. He cannot compare to the incubi in that forte.
"Can you give me just one week? Seven days so I can help him hone in his abilities. He's still young-"
"Chae Hyungwon, please leave now. Your escort will walk you back the way you've just come." Kang Jihyun, with a curt nod towards his escort, dismisses the vampire without another glance. But he is far from done with this fight.
"I request one week. And if I cannot prove to you that he is worthy of a change, I'll sacrifice myself."
No whisper lifts this time. The vampires seated at the table had expected this of Hyungwon. They all three have dealt with his dramatics for far too long now. When at the brink of death, he would ever-so-elegantly announce that he could not be killed, and he always had his reasons. It usually came in the form of information.
Much like his ability to see traces of the future, Hyungwon has hidden his ability to see into the past through touch of well-liven objects for centuries. Behind the walls of his antiques shop, he spends most of his time either buying, selling, or reading into the old lives of each piece. While furniture cannot speak, traces of souls are left behind, and his ability grasps onto those slivers and clings on. He has seen horrible things, most of the Counsel members quite easily stuck under his nail for the information he holds against them.
Even the dais he grips now, he can see memory after memory of pain, terror, and anguish.
But Hyungwon has given up most of his secrets to the Counsel before him. He has nothing much left to offer, nothing but his own death. The Counsel argues in silence, their eyes speaking volumes as they glance about one another.
"We will give you exactly one week." Glancing at her watch, Kang Jihyun nods. "On April the twenty-first, at eleven-fifteen A.M., you will be required to come forward again with your Claim. If he can prove himself worthy of full change, he will be granted one and you will be spared. If he cannot prove himself, we cannot guarantee his safety nor yours."
Hyungwon nods, understanding what he has just done to himself, yet feels suddenly so unsure. He bows his head in departure before turning and allowing the short escort who brought him inside to lead him back out. He does not need the man's company, and he really does not want it. He rather wants to wander the corridors alone so he can cry, but he swallows it for the moment and follows along quietly. Wrapped tight in his own thoughts, Hyungwon walks like a mortal towards his antiques shop. Changkyun cannot just be taught a gift, not without a fully healed body and a completely blind mind.
But with everything striking down against him all at once, Hyungwon can guarantee neither for his youngest during this next week.
[ x ]
Pouting his lips together to keep from crying out, Kihyun folds his hands behind his back. He cannot touch Hyunwoo, not while the broad man is avoiding him. Not when the incubus' emotions can get the better of him, and he may take more energy from the older than either realize. "Can we talk about-"
Kihyun stops, his lips pursing together when Hyunwoo turns himself away from the smaller man. The older lifts his book closer to his face, fixing it with all his attention and sparing none for Kihyun who only whines between his teeth.
"Please?" Kihyun's left hand reaches out to tug at the larger man's sleeve, but his right comes down to snatch them both away. He cannot touch him. He must not touch his lover. "Hyunwoo, please just talk to me!" Kihyun's voice, easy to rise when emotional, is a near shout at the broad back of his the older.
Hyunwoo's shoulders bunch up, startled by the small man's volume. He drops his book into his lap, his eyes glancing out over the stretch of store across his counter. There are two customers lingering near the main door, their eyes on Kihyun in fright. Both employees know that starting a fight here will drive the patrons away, so Hyunwoo acts as the bigger person quietly.
Turning on his stool, he spares a dark glower for Kihyun who practically beams at the small triumph. "Have you started counseling or something?"
Kihyun blanches instantaneously, his smile dropping as quickly as it had appeared. After not hearing Hyunwoo speak to him, and pretending he could not hear Kihyun whenever he spoke, this is not what the incubus wants to hear. The first words to leave the broad man's dark lips should be sweet, or quiet, or even disdainful. Not accusatory, or anything of the sort.
"Counseling can't exactly cure me, y'know."
Giving up too soon, Kihyun turns towards the store's office to speak with their manager. If Hyunwoo does not want him around, the incubus figures he should simply disappear. Hyunwoo watches the small man's departure, his gut twisting painfully. Though he does not understand the story Kihyun has weaved for him, he does not like ignoring him like this. He simply knows not how he is meant to listen when Kihyun cannot even speak the truth. An incubus?
The dark man has read enough comic books and novels behind this store counter, but he will not for any reason start believing in faerie tales. Creatures of other worlds are fiction, and he refuses to be strung along on a silly bedtime story by someone who supposedly loves him. That is not how relationships work. Yet somehow it still hurts. It hurts Hyunwoo to know that Kihyun is unhappy. Knowing that he himself is hurting. Hiding behind a lie to better cover the pain. Hyunwoo wants to truth. He wants to help.
He wants to love Kihyun.