FATE | 박성훈 [EN-]

Chapter 44: Distorted Paintings

A few days had passed by and although you were trying your best to just stay inside of your room and not bother anyone, Ni-ki kept insisting you to get out and get to know the rest of his friends.

"I'm not sure Ni-ki...you know how much they hate me for everything that happened." they specifically told you that they hated you and instead of trying to get on their good side, you'd always just make them hate you even more.

You wanted them to hate you as much as you hated them, so they could have a taste to see what true hatred really felt like.

And that part of you is still who you were, even though you had been forced to communicate with Ni-ki and the rest of the vampires, didn't necessarily mean that you weren't still a bit...off about them and about yourself as well.

Oddly enough, you always felt comforted by not only Ni-ki's presence, but the rest of the vampires and especially Sunghoon, even with how much you hated him. This feeling was something hard to get used to, especially when you were that the rest (well, except for Ni-ki) weren't feeling this way for you.

How could you feel something that they weren't feeling? It felt awkward to know that you were starting to enjoy their presence, while most still hated yours.

"Y/N, most of us don't hate you as much as you think we do and this is coming from someone who actively despised you."

"That night at a party was all a lie, it was a facade, a play that we did to fool everyone, including you." your heart fell towards the very bottom of your stomach, as the image of Sunghoon grabbing onto you and your waist...made your heart flutter a bit. You knew well that he was just using to you to his advantage, to cause fear amongst you and your friends.

"I still have no clue on how quickly you changed your mind about me, by the way." he let out a small chuckle, looking at you with a small smile, as you gave him a fake grin.

"You being true to yourself, that's what changed my mind. You actively hated us and showed it frequently...you didn't lie to us, Y/N."

"What? What do you mean I didn't lie to you?"

"You didn't try to take advantage of our friendship and stab us in the back...unlike last time." you could hear him mutter those final words to himself, barely making it coherent for you, so you decided to ignore it and just thought you heard wrongly.

"That's why I befriended you so quickly, I didn't care whether or not you hated me...I just knew I couldn't hate you."

"And I'm sure that the same thing will happen with the rest...although I have to admit, with Sunghoon, Sunoo and Jungwon, it might take some time before they actually start to accept you."

"Jungwon can be cold sometimes, especially when it comes to meeting and befriending new people and with Sunoo and Sunghoon...well, that's not my story to tell."

"But anyways...at least give them one chance and if they make you uncomfortable in anyway, just tell me and you can go right back to your room."

"I don't know-"

"Pretty please?" he gave you those stupid puppy eyes that kept reminding you of Mark's, yet Ni-ki's was even more worse; He kept looking at you like if you had run over his dog.

"Fine, but don't feel surprised when they don't accept me." you honestly had no choice but to say yes, as you just didn't want to deal with a sulky vampire right now. His eyes lit up as soon as you gave him the approval, quickly dragging you out of your room and down towards the extremely long hallway that was filled with creepy paintings.

"You guys really need to change those, especially that one, it's creeping the f*ck out of me." you pointed towards a painting that actually looked pretty stunning, except for how distorted the faces appeared to look. There stood seven men, wearing extremely old and vintage clothing and from first glance, you believed it was the vampires.

You couldn't really tell with how blurred and off their faces looked, but that's what you obviously assumed. They had no expression, nothing that could even give a hint on who they were.

What felt odd though was that there, right in the middle, stood an eighth person...which was the one who creeped you out the most. Looking at them made you feel weird about yourself, it was just a feeling that you couldn't really describe.

"You wouldn't believe who painted all of these." he commented, suddenly stopping his tracks to look and admire at all of the paintings this hallway had.

"Well now you got me curious, so who painted them?"

"A random human that we then bit after they finished a painting." you gave him a heavy glare and unlike him who was laughing his as* off, you actually felt bad for them, whoever that human was.

"So your telling me that the human got bitten, but did they also get their blood sucked out of their body?"

"No, we decided to just turn them into a vampire." you furrowed your eyebrows at his statement, as you began to think about what this truly meant. They had the power to turn anyone into a vampire but they also could suck the blood out of them, which would then mean that...

"So this means that you have to suck most of the blood to in term kill the human? If you don't, then they'll turn into a vampire." he gave you a slight nod. This meant that they had the choice on whether or not to give life back to their victims.

They had a choice on whether or not to kill Siyeon...so what exactly did they choose?

"The amount of blood on one single body isn't enough to calm the hunger of seven vampires, so we would have to hunt for groups. It just isn't smart to just drink the blood of one human, it would leave us starving for more and..."

"And?"

"We'll kill anyone who gets in our way, we won't be able to contain ourselves and fight the temptation, now that we've had a taste." in that moment, you were starting to feel the clear differences and dangers between you and him, you and his friends. You being there, inside of their home, was nd was basically the same as having a battle with the temptation.

"Oh..." you then started to create some space between you two, as you began to have a sick feeling inside of you. Anger? Disgust? Anxiousness? You weren't exactly sure.

"But don't worry, all of us swore not to drink any human blood while you've been here. I'm sure you'd feel uncomfortable and scared if we did."

"I'm not worried...who told you I'm worried?!" you awkwardly laughed, still not daring to even get closer to him.

"I can tell you're starting to get scared of me, Y/N. I can tell from the way you're looking at me, from the way you're now acting around me." he began to walk towards you, as you started to take some steps back, until you reached the wall.

"See? You're only proving my point." you could tell that he was hurt by the way you were acting with him, but this was the way you were meant to feel around.

After all, he was a vampire and you were a human...

"I'm sorry Ni-ki." you suddenly pulled him towards a close hug, taking him by surprised, as a small smile started to appear on both of your faces.

"I know you'd never hurt me, you're my friend after all..."

But maybe, a vampire and a human can really be friends, if they try.