• 第十四章 •
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"No. This can't be happening all over again. There must be something to stop this. There must be!"
"Jin hyung, you have to calm down. You're hyperventilating."
Scrunching his eyebrows, Taehyung uttered a soft whimper when pain swarmed around his sinuses, reminding him of the assault which had resulted him with a broken nose. The voices which were speaking stopped as soon as they spotted him stirring awake, and he flinched when an unfamiliar face with puffy cheeks and teary eyes stared down at him.
"How are you feeling?" The man asked.
"Could've been better, definitely." Taehyung replied while trying to sit up on the sofa, his eyes scanning the men gathered inside the living room he was in. "Where am I?"
"Our house." Hoseok answered, and Taehyung gulped nervously when he recognized him as the vampire who had saved him.
"Y-you! You're not a human." Taehyung stammered, expecting Hoseok to deny immediately.
"None of us are." Hoseok gestured at the other men scattered all around the living room. "I wanted to send you back to your home but your phone died and I obviously don't know where you live."
Taehyung frowned. "Wait, are you implying that you are all vampires?"
He felt his stomach drop ten stories below when they all nodded, some hesitantly while some did it nonchalantly. A scoff escaped his mouth, and he quickly touched his neck area or anywhere exposed on him to check for any wounds.
"Why am I still alive?" Taehyung blurted out, and he watched Jungkook who had been sitting on the ground snort at his question.
Was his query that funny? He found it pretty important and serious.
"If you're wondering whether we drank your blood or not, the answer is a no. Don't worry." Seokjin pinched the space between his eyebrows when Taehyung gaped at him in doubt. "Ugh, this is frustrating."
"Don't all vampires kill?" Taehyung's eyes widened when a thought entered his mind. "What about the girl who was with you? Where is she?!"
Hoseok exhaled deeply. "She's back home, safe and sound. And as for you, I think you should stay here—"
Taehyung shook his head immediately. "Nope. I'm all good now. I live near to the convenience store. Thank you for saving me and bringing me back here. I shall take my leave now."
"Wait, but your nose—"
"I'll manage, really. Thank you for saving me, again." Taehyung gave a firm nod towards Hoseok, and took his leave quickly after Jimin opened the door for him.
Silence fell upon them as soon as the only human stepped out of the penthouse. Wordlessly, they sat down on the sofas, eyes shifting towards one another to make someone speak first.
"Honestly, I'm extremely unwilling for history to repeat itself all over again. Meeting the reincarnation of Hana is a blessing, but to meet the reincarnation of His Majesty is definitely something I'm still trying to process fully." Hoseok spoke up after a while with a disdainful frown on his face. "The last thing I need is to have my heart broken again."
Hearing his words and the vulnerability laced in his tone, the rest of the men sighed out deeply at the sympathy they felt for him. As his friends, they watched him spiral down into the depths of despair after losing the love of his life, and it took him years upon years to recover from the pain.
"We know hyung. We know." Jimin rested his head on Hoseok's shoulder as Jungkook curled out on the man's lap.
"But what we don't know is that whether it will repeat entirely again. Hoseok's a damn vampire now, no longer human like before, and I'm sure this fact plays a pivotal role in it." Yoongi tapped his chin while speaking out his thoughts.
"And the fact that that dude is no longer a King in this century." Seokjin added.
"I can try to find out the man's identity in this era, if you guys want me to." Jungkook offered, and he beamed when they nodded their heads. "Alright, I'll hit up someone I know to get a background check on him."
Hoseok ruffled Jungkook's hair gently. "I'm glad to have you guys with me. I can't imagine having to go through this all alone."
"To stay loyal to each other was what we have sworn together as our brotherhood promise." Jimin grinned cheekily, and he giggled when Jungkook poked his side to tickle him.
"Anyhow, the issue regarding the low-tier vampires roaming more daringly in the streets needs to be rectified as soon as possible. We can't allow more innocent humans to die in their hands." Hoseok glanced at Yoongi. "Hyung, do you think you can handle your team to increase the security?"
"Of course. We've been sending out more troops to stop these assaults but it seems that we've obviously underestimated their total amount." Yoongi groaned in irritation. "Freaking assholes. How I wish to kill them all off by piercing their hearts with a wooden stake."
"How did our species even spread out so quickly like wildfire?" Seokjin gasped dramatically and turned to narrow his eyes at Jimin who instantly had his arms raised up. "Park Jimin. What did you do."
"I didn't do anything wrong! I wouldn't be that stupid enough to leave my own blood in humans." Jimin defended himself, pouting when the rest started laughing.
"He was just joking, Jiminie." Yoongi chortled.
"Jiminie pabo." Jungkook smirked, earning a whack from Jimin before tumbling down onto the ground together to throw punches playfully at each other.
Hoseok thought that he was both mentally and physically tired by the time he returned to bed. He laid down comfortably on the furniture, and took out his phone to check on the messages Hana had sent him earlier.
After coming back to the city from her hometown, Hoseok felt the invisible and unexplainable bond shared between him with the girl grow stronger somehow. Theoretically speaking, they barely knew each other, but like a moth constantly drawn blindly to the flame, he was always so intrigued by her and would always find himself longing for her presence when she was not by his side.
Perhaps it was because he had waited for centuries to experience this kind of love again.
Perhaps it was because she was just plainly irresistible in his eyes.
He wondered. Did Hana feel the same way as him?
Being a man born in the Joseon era, he had came to learn the importance of believing in the red string of fate. Initially, he was skeptical over the random babble some old lady had told him when he was strolling in the marketplace one day, informing him that he would be meeting his other half a few weeks later.
He didn't want to believe the lady simply for two reasons.
One, her asking for a payment after 'seeing' his future for him which he didn't even ask for.
And two, the way she had described that his love story would end tragically no matter what.
Who in the right mind would ever want their love story to draw its curtains with a sad and heart-wrenching finale?
However, he was forced to trust the lady's words on the night he met Hana in that forest. He could still remember vividly how clingy the girl was when he brought her back to the town, and despite reminding himself again and again not to fall for the girl even if he were to see her again, still, he fell.
And he fell hard.
The second time he had bumped into her was when he was on a duty to accompany the Crown Prince disguised as a commoner for the royalty to roam around freely for the day. He had been tagging the royalty along with a hawk-like gaze scanning the crowd religiously for any suspicions, and Hana had been running on an errand for her parents at the marketplace to send rolls of silk cloths to another merchant.
Both were distracted with their tasks, eyes only falling onto each other when the tallest roll of cloths held in Hana's arms decided to grow legs and fall onto the ground, tripping the girl to lose her balance. Hoseok had been walking by that time, and his swift reaction caught the falling rolls of cloths professionally before using another arm to catch the similarly falling girl.
He remembered letting her go immediately the second he recognized her, as he was still reluctant to be associated with the girl so that he wouldn't end up being a sad old man in the future.
The third time happened a fortnight later, and he still remembered the way he was slapped with a surprise when he saw Jimin attempting to flirt with the girl at a restaurant. Even since a long time ago, Jimin had been quite the charmer wherever he went, so it shouldn't be anything shocking for him to sweet talk his way into Hana's heart, only to fail miserably when the girl stuffed a rice cake into his mouth to shut him up before storming out of the place after paying.
And of course, she caught Hoseok watching the entire scene earlier and gave him the deadliest glare he had ever seen in his life. Before turning to leave, Hana had spat these few words out loud boldly.
"Men are seriously good-for-nothing bunch of idiots."
Hoseok never knew that his stone cold heart wrapped with ice would eventually melt at the gentle touches and infectious giggles of hers the next time he saw her interacting with villagers. He never knew that someone who had grown up trained to be emotionless like him, would have his heart pumping extra furiously just at the thought of meeting the girl again, to have his mind occupied with her face and the expressions she made when she was happy, sad, upset, angry, anxious, scared and so much more.
Maybe, if he wasn't born into the Jung household which served the Kings loyally from a generation to the next, maybe, just maybe, that he would be able to live a happily married life with her until the day they part only to reach other again in the heaven above.
The love he had for her was wider than all seven seas combined, than the Milky Way and all other galaxies together.
The love he had for her was the entire universe, and all she needed to do was to tell him what she wanted for him to even pick the littlest star just to see her smile adorably again.
Oftentimes, he found himself pondering whether it was a curse to be turned into a vampire. Except being immortal, he had to bear the bittersweet memory with him stuck like a broken record on replay as the world continued to evolve and change to the day it was today.
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Things are gonna get more interesting :>
As usual, thank you for tuning in! Do vote if you like this chapter!
I've been watching Hospital Playlist these few days and omg it's such a nice drama. It made me shed tears multiple times :')
Next update : 3/5/2021 (Monday)