• 第五章 •
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Hoseok was working out in his room when the door was slammed opened rudely, irritating the man who was wearing only a pair of basketball shorts. He released a groan while letting himself fall back onto the floor, an eyebrow raised at Jungkook gleaming brightly at the door.
"What do you want?" Hoseok asked while moving on to do the burpees sets.
"So mean." Jungkook tutted. "Guess who I met today! I ran into Hana hyung! Moon Hana!"
Freezing at the mentioning of her name, Hoseok snapped his sharp gaze towards the younger vampire in the house. "You met her? How?"
"I kinda snatched her seat in the coffee shop near my dance studio." Jungkook stuck out his tongue bashfully. "When I realized that it was her, I somehow managed to convince her to go to the studio with me. And we hung out."
"How was it then?" Hoseok smiled softly when Jungkook broke into a radiant grin.
"It was awesome! I've missed her presence so much hyung." Jungkook giggled, his entire body pumping wild with serotonins and endorphins all around.
When they were still normal humans back then, Hoseok remembered the first official time for Jungkook to meet Hana. It was in Namjoon's house, occuring after the sudden ambush on the Crown Prince when the latter had insisted to meet Hana that night.
A sullen grimace formed on his face as he recalled to the time when Jungkook was badly injured from the fight, with a severe stab wound on the right side of his abdomen. If it weren't for Namjoon's father who was a famous physician back then, the youngest of the group wouldn't probably be alive until... his first death.
Growing up, Jungkook had always been on the shy side, and would rely on his older friends to protect him when in need, but little did they know that, they were actually his inspiration to be a fighter just as good as they were, hence leading him to keep pushing himself to the day when his swordsmanship actually exceeded his hyungs' levels.
Besides Hoseok who had been trained since young, Seokjin was the other one who was pretty damn good in sword fighting, since he was brought up in a well-known household full of swordsmen from one generation to the next generation. So one day, during a playful banter between the group of friends, when Jungkook who was the smallest that time managed to disarm Seokjin's sword within a short period, they knew, that the youngest would certainly grow to be the best fighter of all times.
However, no matter how strong he was on the outside, he was still a timid boy inside, and with that, it explained why he had gotten extremely afraid of Namjoon and Hana (especially Hana because she's a girl) when they were the first ones he saw upon waking up. He was about to go into defense mode by attacking them when Hana simply stopped him with a finger poked on his forehead.
Ever since then, slowly, but surely, he began to open up his heart to Hana and Namjoon, constantly following the two like a lost puppy since they would never say no to spending time with him to teach him new things. He admired them; he admired how bold Hana was for a girl in that era, and admired how smart Namjoon was despite being only a few years older than he was.
Jungkook and Hana were close friends, and it broke his heart when he could no longer see her when she was gone.
It did the same for Hoseok's heart too.
Shaking his head, Hoseok forced himself out of the nostalgic memory he had been visiting a lot lately, and flinched when Jungkook let out a squeal out of the blue. He watched the younger boy trudge over with his phone on his hand before shoving the screen in his face.
"A new update for the webtoon!" Jungkook chirped while lying down on Hoseok's bed, ignoring the latter's groan of protest.
Heaving a sigh, Hoseok rolled his eyes at the boy who was now busy reading the update, and he made a mental note to start reading the webtoon later. About to leave his room for a shower, he halted his footsteps abruptly when Jungkook gasped audibly to grab his attention.
"Hyung, you gotta look at this." He exasperated.
"What?" Hoseok glanced down at the phone, eyebrows knitting in confusion when all he saw was a girl dressed in a hanbok strolling next to a lake.
"This webtoon, focuses mainly on the brotherhood of a group of friends. Not even once did it mention on the topic of romance." Jungkook waved his hand around to emphasize his point. "And you know what?"
Hoseok gestured for him to continue.
"With these group of characters who look suspiciously like us, and now the girl being in the picture, I have a feeling this mysterious new character is gonna be Hana." Jungkook smirked when Hoseok's face paled even further. "This is why I've been chasing after this webtoon, it's literally the story of us hyung. I have a strong feeling it is."
Hoseok pondered on Jungkook's words. He really didn't want to believe him, since this would mean that their darkest secret was actually exposed.
"Who on earth is Lotus Flower? I want to meet them someday." Jungkook blurted out absentmindedly, missing the pain flickered on Hoseok's face.
"Kook..." Hoseok started weakly, his gaze falling onto Jungkook's innocent-like look. "Lotus flower is what I used to call Hana as. It's a nickname for her."
The phone held in Jungkook's hand slipped out of his grasp, falling onto the bed with a soft thud. His eyes darted from the phone screen to his hyung, his mouth agape in bafflement at the newfound information.
"You don't mean..."
Hoseok nodded with a sigh. "I think you know what I mean."
"Know what?" A new voice joined the two, and their eyes shifted towards Seokjin who had just returned back from work.
Seokjin worked as a martial arts trainer in his own gym located in some building in Gangnam, so it wouldn't be surprising to see celebrities getting trained under his guidance. The eldest of the group was practically a celebrity of his own, since he was what people would deem as handsome and he had an ageless and youthful look.
People called him The Handsome Vampire Trainer.
It became a running inside joke in the blood-sucking household.
"We have something to tell all of you." Hoseok answered, and gone was the mischievous glint in his eyes when he registered the words.
"Yoongi's still at work, but I'll inform Jimin to gather at the living room." Seokjin spoke, and climbed the stairs to reach the Jimin's sleeping chamber.
When they were all seated in the spacious living room, they waited for either Hoseok or Jungkook to speak with curious yet demanding eyes. Jungkook nudged his elbow onto Hoseok who was sitting next to him to make him talk.
"Just go straight to the point." Seokjin demanded.
"Remember me telling you all that Hana is... back?" Hoseok gawked at their reactions, and continued to speak when they nodded doubtfully. "Jungkook met her too today."
"Really?" Jimin blinked.
"Yeah. We even played Street Fighter together." Jungkook grinned a little at the memory of her screaming bloody murder when her character was getting kicked ass by his.
"So, Jungkook over here, discovered a webtoon which oddly tells the story of our past lives when we were still living in the Joseon era." Hoseok explained.
"What? How is that possible?" Jimin questioned.
"It is. I've been binge reading all the available chapters in one go. The story mainly revolves on the friendship between six people, five normal boys with a Crown Prince, but in today's update... the ending appeared with a girl." Jungkook piped in.
"Five normal boys..." Seokjin scanned the room, counting the people mentally in his head. "Five of us. And the Crown Prince."
"And the Crown Prince." Jungkook confirmed, stealing a glance at Hoseok who was noticeably uncomfortable with them emphasizing on the Crown Prince.
There were just way too many things which had happened between the two of them. Be it good or bad, there were just too much history between the royalty and his personal bodyguard.
Clearing his throat, Jungkook continued. "So, as I was saying, there was never a girl mentioned inside the story before. But that's not really important, what's really important is the author's nickname."
"What is it?" Seokjin asked with a stoic look.
"Lotus flower." Hoseok muttered, his heart aching at the thought of her.
"Isn't that... Hobi hyung's nickname for..."
Giving Jimin a sad smile, Hoseok nodded affirmatively. Jimin scoffed out loud incredulously, while Seokjin stared blankly at Hoseok for more elaboration, even though he kinda had a gist of the situation.
"It was a nickname I've given to the past Hana." Hoseok fiddled with the edge of a pillow on the sofa.
"So what we are trying to say is that, the Hana both Hobi hyung and I have met, is very likely to be related to this suspicious webtoon artist. We have to find out what's going on before it's too late." Jungkook summarized.
It took only a loud bang of the front door to make them jump and switch into defensive modes. In came a furious Yoongi, his irises shining a luminous silver with his fangs bared dangerously.
"Yoongi. Calm the hell down." Seokjin warned lowly, his own eyes flashing silver as well to intimidate the younger man.
Upon seeing Yoongi's eyes return back to its original dark brown shade, the boys finally relaxed and plopped back down onto the sofa. Only Yoongi remained standing, his face twisted together as if he was conflicted with something in his mind.
"What is it hyung?" Hoseok questioned and Yoongi gulped nervously.
"We have a major problem guys. There's a wild vampire on the loose."
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荷花 when translated means lotus flower. The 'Ha' in Hana's name is the same '荷' hence the nickname.
As promised, here's another character sketch – Seokjin's character, Jinwoo
It's a rough sketch of how I portray him to be – he rocks a mob of thick and luscious hair :p
Idk why wattpad doesn't allow me to post it vertically.
Fyi : the 'woo' from the name Jinwoo is written as '武' with the meaning of 'martial', which suits his character as he is from a household which practices swordsmanship :)
If you're interested in more sketches, leave a comment here on the character you want and I'll post it once this story exceeds 100 reads!
Alright, thank you for reading! And do vote if you liked this chapter! :))
Next update : 22/3/2021