Episode 47: D r i n k U p
My life in this mansion continues to grow colder and sadder. I feel so lonely each day that goes by and it's driving me insane that there's nothing I can do by myself for myself. I'm just wallowing in my self-pity inside these four walls like it's become a daily routine. Even if I do get stronger, say I learn how to fight, or I manage to be on par with V, there's one thing I couldn't still do.
Stop his demon.
And until then, I didn't feel like I deserved to feel that way about him either.
I know V didn't mean to do it. I know he doesn't mean to be a jerk on purpose. I mean, no one really wakes up and plots how they'll piss off everyone around them. I knew that. But still, there's so much I could carry before I start to feel suffocated by all of this. Until when will I have to live thinking that this would be the moment he snapped and killed us all? How was this any different from how I used to live on my own? It sucked. And it sucked even more because when things got this bad I thought of him.
Jimin.
The traitor.
How could he leave me behind with only a stupid bracelete? If I ever see him again, I won't forg—
My thoughts were cut short. A knock came from the door but I honestly didn't feel like getting up and answering anyone. Especially if it's the wrong brother. I wasn't ready to face V and once I heard who it was I was relieved it wasn't him. Yet again, I kind of expected it to not be him. Since when did he come knocking and admitting his wrongdoings? No, that'd be unnatural. That's more of Jimin's job.
"Hanul?" Jin's voice came from the other side. Even though it wasn't V, I was still surprised that he would be the one to knock on my door. Jin usually minimized business with me.
Sera was sleeping again. She fell asleep so suddenly after I scolded her, I didn't even get a chance to bond with her. It's been so long since I talked with her and I felt even more terrible now that I think about how I've treated her all this time. She must've been lonely too.
"Are you not going to even shout back a reply?" His chirpy voice spoke up again.
"What is it," I mumbled, knowing how well his ears would pick it up.
"Well, open the door and I'll tell you what it is."
I looked up at the doorknob from the cradle of my knees and sighed, pushing the covers off me and standing up to open the door.
"Yes?" I looked up at his perky face. How was he always in such a care-free mood?
"Oh, you look...very..." an immediate rush of disappointment wavered over his face.
I rolled my eyes and got ready to shut the door again.
"Hold it!" He stopped it with his hand.
"What do you want. I'm sorry but I'm really not in the mood to handle your sarcasm."
"Would it kill you to enjoy life a little!" He scoffed. "Hurry up and change, we're going out."
I think it was my dumbfounded and confused glare that got him worked up.
"Clubbing! You know! Like the youth your age should be doing!"
"No." I lifted up my hand with rejection. "Definitely not at Lucifer's either. In fact, I want nothing to do with the supernatural for a whole day. Please."
"Well, that's going to be hard considering the fact that you're supernatural yourself." Well, he had a point there. "Besides, we're not going to Lucifer's. So relax. I'll take you to a normal club for once."
I lifted a brow at him. He had other clubs?
"It's a normal club, really! I go there sometimes to trick naive college youth into committing sins for me." He winked and flashed an evil smile.
"Gross. That's more of a reason I wouldn't want to come with you."
"I'm joking! Sheesh, let loose a little! Besides, I don't handle rejections well. So, you better choose correctly. Now, are you coming or are you coming?"
Why would I want to go clubbing? I've never gone anywhere with a proper social gathering, mainly because no one invited me and mostly because I didn't fit in well with other humans.
"I...don't know if--"
"Don't think about it! Just come! I'll come to pick you up in a few minutes, so be ready!" He winked. Before I could close the door, he stuck his head in and looked around until his gaze settled down on Sera, sleeping on her bed.
"Hey I've been meaning to ask but why do you keep looking at Ser--" before I could even finish my sentence he flashed a quick grin and disappeared.
____
"Why did you take me here?!" I yelled over the music, standing in front of the entrance of the loud night club.
"Because! You're miserable!" His body moved to the music, a few girls were already starting to shift over to him, despite me clearly already accompanying him. Nothing stopped these girls. Possibly, not even if they new he was a demon. I mean, after all, when Twilight was released girls were begging to be turned into monsters. I didn't get the whole concept of that obviously. I saw what real monsters looked like on a daily.
Spoiler. No, they didn't sparkle in the sun. Some burned though.
"But, Jin, you and I don't speak very much! So why?!" One of my ears clogged up, slowly adjusting to the volume and pressure of the basement club. Why would Jin do all of this for me?
"Huh?" He got distracted by two girls that came up and danced beside him.
"Forget it!" I grumbled, looking around the crowded dance floor. So this was how a normal Friday night looked like. This is how it felt to be around humans again. Well, it wasn't like this brought back any fond memories of them.
"Jin, we should--" as soon as I turned to look over at him, he was already being dragged into the crowd by three times the amount of girls I left him with before.
"Have fun!" He yelled and waved me away as he disappeared into the sea of bodies.
"Seriously?" I groaned, awkwardly standing alone. There was only one place that didn't gather so many bodies and that was the bar counter, which I assumed was made for the loners like me.
"What would you like to try today young lady?" The middle age man smiled, squeaking a glass clean before setting it down with the rest.
"Something...strong, I guess." I wasn't very fond of alcohol's taste, but after what happened to me I think I deserved a drink that wiped my mind blank.
"Strong?!" He exclaimed dramatically and roared out with laughter.
I glared up at him with confusion. Was he going to serve me or not? "Well...maybe--"
"Alright, you're in time to try signature drink then. Tell me if it's good. I was working on it this whole time."
"Signature drink?" I leaned over with curiosity.
"Yes, made for those who ail with both their mind and soul." He lightly tapped his chest and head at the same time then smiled. I don't know if it was my emotions peaking, but I almost teared up. Maybe that's exactly what I needed.
"Sure." I smiled back, watching him neatly pull out bottles and mix a few things around, entertaining me with a small show.
"And here you have it, the Lightning Strike." He grinned, pushing the swirling glass my way. I waited until it stopped spinning and looked up with excitement. I even clapped a little.
"Thank you." I held the liquid up, taking a closer look at it against the blare of the club's lights. The yellow liquid was slowly mixing into the clear alcohol settling on the bottom. It was seeping into the center slowly piercing its way down. "Lighting Strike, huh?"
"Yes," he winked. "I believe that when the heart and mind hurt at the same time the only way to describe it is as if you've just got struck by lightning, but slowly. Like this."
"Oh." That was a rather weird interpretation. But it put words to how I was feeling. The way my mind and heart were both clashing at each other. It really felt like a nasty and slow storm was constantly on max, taking its sweet time to pass through.
When I took a sip I felt a faint bitter honey and lemon after taste, but the initial feeling was the strong alcohol that shot up to my nose.
"Woah." I placed down the glass, already sensing the strong effects diffusing through my body.
"The first one is on the house. The next one is for a million bucks." He grinned.
"Huh?" I glanced up at him.
"I usually do this with the customers that I feel need it the most. But the safe limit is one glass, young lady." He held up one finger and bowed his head, returning back to the alcohol shelf as another customer came to be served.
I stood up with the glass, barely managing to get a good foothold already. This thing was really hitting me up strong. I couldn't begin to imagine how I'd feel in the morning. Probably nothing too good either way.
I was just too sad. "You know what," I mumbled to no one in particular. "I'm sick of myself!"
A guy sitting on the tables nearby turned to look at me with his girlfriend.
"I'm so tired of being sad all the damn time!" A tear slipped out of my eye. "I just want to be happy!" I screamed as loud as I could, but the music just drained away my voice.
"Then be happy." A voice told me from behind. I stumbled around in a stupid circle and looked up at the guy's face.
"Who...are you?"
"You don't know me?" He blinked and turned red. "Oh! Sorry. I guess you really didn't." He scratched his head. "Hi, I'm Daehyun." He stuck out his hand. Was I suppose to shake it? I don't know.
"Okay!" I yelled, fist-bumping his palm and grinning. "Oops." I held back my nausea. "Sorry." Here it is. The awkward shuffle and then turning his back to leave. It's coming anytime now.
Or maybe it didn't come.
He just laughed.
Huh? "Am I funny?" I stumbled closer, finally emptying the glass down. "Is there something funny?!" I screamed.
"I..." he held back his laugh. "No, it's just that you're...a little cute."
Hiccup. "Cute?" I mumbled to myself and grabbed my hair, gasping. "Me?! Cute!" I covered my face with it and laughed back at him. I think we both laughed for the longest. I don't know. I wasn't really aware of what the hell was going on anymore.
"Do you want to--"
"WHAT!" I yelled, jumping up on my tiptoes. The music changed and it was incredibly hard to hear anything but the music. "SHUT UP!" I screamed at the DJ.
"Dance!" He yelled back. "..want...DANCE!"
"DANCING?" I looked at the crowd. "Dance?" I did a small wave with my body. Apparently, I'm fucking hilarious. He recovered from his fit of laughter and nodded, holding my hand.
"Let's go!" He pulled me close after him. I quickly held onto his arm.
"Sorry. Excuse me! Sorry!" I bowed my head as people pushed into me and I pushed back. He stopped after we got a good spot, blending in with the rest of the crazy youth and turned to me, moving his body to the music.
"Like this?" I waved my upper body, honestly feeling like a fish out of water. He grinned, bopping his head. He seemed like a better dancer than me.
"Yeah." He scooted closer. Someone bumped me up to him from the back and for a few seconds, I was just randomly doing my awkward fish wave on this strange guy.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Who are you!" I screamed, stumbling a few steps back.
"I'm your classmate!" He yelled back. "From college, do you even remember?"
"C-college?" I blinked with confusion. Oh, that's right. I used to have a normal life. "OH MY GOD! College! FUCK!" I laughed, smacking my forehead. He chuckled. "Hey!"
"Yeah?"
"You're a little cute!" I grinned. His eyes widened with surprise.
"You think so?"
"I SAID SO!" I strongly nodded back.
"But..." his eyes wandered around the club as he continued to dance. "Honestly, I probably had a crush on you first."
I stopped dancing, looking up at him with a glare. He peeked down at me and quickly looked away.
"CRUSH!" I laughed again. God, he called me funny? This guy was freaking hilarious.
No.
He was weird. No one had a crush on me.
"Yeah! I...I knew you were in the grade above me. But I secretly had a crush on you Hanul!" He yelled back. "But...you disappeared from college for a long time! What happened to you?"
"LIAR!" I grinned, covering my mouth.
"No!" He shook his head. "Really!"
"No!" I laughed.
"Yes!" He laughed back.
"Shut up!" I smacked his chest.
"I'm serious!" He chuckled.
"Then you're blind!"
"I'm not blind!" He widened his eyes and fluttered his lashes, getting closer to my face. "You're just really cute."
I leaned back, exposing my double chin. "No way!"
"Yes, way! Why is it so hard to believe?" He cocked his head.
"Be...because." I shrugged, choosing to suddenly focus on my sloppy dancing than give an answer.
He grabbed my hand and stopped dancing. "I....you!"
"HUH!" I grabbed his other hand, trying to get close so I could hear him.
"I----"
"What?!"
He frowned and leaned down to me. For a second I saw his genuine eyes before I looked down to his full lips. "I love you!"
I let go of his hand, prying his grip away from my wrist as I backed up into the girl dancing behind me.
"HEY! Watch it!" She yelled at me.
His face slowly started to blur as I shook my head, walking backward away from him.
"Watch out loser!" A few people tossed me off them until I fell down to the floor on my butt. I sat there, being felt up by people's legs and feet.
"Are you okay?" He crouched down, sticking out his hand to me with a worried look.
"No." I shook my head, smacking his hand away as I got up on my own, wiping the sweat and tears off my face. "Leave me alone." I wiped my eyes, pushing my way out of the hot crowd until I was breathing in semi-fresh air from the sidelines. I looked back, but he wasn't there. He must've got lost trying to follow me.
"Idiot," I mumbled, wiping my eyes as I staggered away from the crowd. "Why the hell are you crying?!"
Some stranger. Some total stranger who claimed to be from my college. Some random ass guy said it! And...yet...he couldn't. He, the one I wanted to hear it from, wasn't able to say it.
"I love you!" I yelled with anger before I was tackled by a fit of laughter. I didn't care about the stares I was getting. No, I did care. I was just too concerned to even think of it for too long. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" The tears just kept falling and my snot trailed down my lips.
I kept walking until I noticed a familiar white shirt and pink pants stumbling against the wall with a woman in white.
"Jin!" I cried from the distance with a little relief, but I don't think he heard me. "Stupid! He's being a pervert with some girl!" I stormed over but seeing doubles of everything really made it hard for me to make out which one the real Jin was. "Wait up." I stumbled around, feeling my mouth getting really dry as I tried to keep up with him.
"Hanul!" Daehyun's voice loomed over from behind me.
"Nooo! Go away!" I panicked, briskly stumbling away. My breathing began to grow heavier and I felt the panic rise up to my head. "Jin!" I cried out. This time he turned his head at me, but his face looked different. It wasn't calm. It wasn't happy. It wasn't sly. It wasn't fun Jin. It was concerned Jin. Startled Jin. Lost Jin.
I blinked a few times, slowly trying to register who the girl he had slumped around his shoulders was.
"Oh my God!" I gasped, placing a hand to my mouth. Her outfit wasn't red and white. No. It was stained red. Red with her blood. "What did you do to that woman!" I pointed at him.
"Hanul, I'm very sorry, but I have to go." He urgently spoke. "Don't worry. Stay where you are I'll come get you in a bit."
"Wait!" I stumbled over quickly only to have him disappear out of sight.
"What the hell..." Daehyun muttered beside me, his face growing pale. "Did...did you see that?"
"See what?" I blinked slowly.
"He...what the hell!"
"What? You saw a ghost?" I teased.
"He just disappeared." He wiped his eyes. "I didn't even have that many drinks!"
"Nah!" I giggled. "You're just drunk!" He looked down at me with concern, before the look in his eyes shifted.
"Hanul, why don't we go somewhere else?" He grabbed my hand.
"Huh?" But Jin told me not to move from here. "No. Let's stay here." I grabbed his hand back. He glanced down at it, and if I wasn't drunk I would've been able to tell if he rolled his eyes at me or not. "Just let go of me actually."
"But, I know a quiet place. It's better. We can talk there. Okay?"
"No!" I grumbled, tugging my hand away. "Aren't you going to let go?" I threatened.
"Just listen to me!" He raised his voice.
"NO!" I yelled back. "Let go of me! Let go. Let go. LET GO!" I screamed and a sudden feeling tingled, zapping down my arm. He let out a startled yelp, quickly letting my arm go. "Hmph. Thank you."
"What the fuck!" He waved his hand around, staring at me. Just like how everyone else in college used to look at me. Like I was a freak.
"Daehyun! You seriously couldn't do the one job that your seniors assigned you to?" A familiar and obnoxious voice screeched from behind him. Just as the three musketeers grew closer, the familiar memories of the past flew inside my head like a fast forward film.
"You." I bittered spat, staring at my friendly college bully mate.
"Huh! Look! It really is her, girls." She stared me down. "Well, well. I can't believe my eyes. I thought I spotted an old friend, so I told Daehyun here to play a little prank on you."
I looked up at the boy who was smirking to himself.
"You're...not my...I'm not..your crush then?" I closed my eyes and bit down on my trembling lips.
"Hell no!" He scoffed and laughed with them. When I opened my eyes again, I laughed back.
"Hah! As if I'd fall for that!" I snorted, smacking my knee. The laugh was too good. As if for one second I'd believe someone from my college dared to crush on me. They seriously wouldn't be normal. In fact, I'd feel afraid if someone genuinely had liked me.
His face twitched with annoyance at my unexpected reaction but his smug smirk quickly flickered back on.
"Of course, I was just playing with you. I mean, seriously? The lunatic of our school. You think I'd be insane enough to have a crush on you. But when you're drunk like this, you're honestly a little cute." He laughed, creeping over to me.
"Shoo!" I waved him off with my hand. "May the demons kill you! Shoo!"
The girls obnoxiously laughed at me. "There she goes again! Demons and ghosts!"
"Shoo! There's three behind you!" I spat on the floor three times. Why wouldn't they go away! Just leave me alone!
"Aw, really? Does one look like a sexy babe?" He grinned, getting closer to my face.
"Leave...me...alone...." tears welled up in my eyes. "Just go away." I calmly shoved his chest away from me. He grabbed my arms and pinned me against the wall behind us.
"Hm, girls. You know, about that plan? I'm still down for it." He grinned at the three girls who began taking out their cellphones.
"Well, time to stir things up Daehyun! The college hasn't heard from our superstar in so long! This will be a huge shocker. Good girl gone bad style!"
I shut my eyes praying for anything and anyone to just come to me out of this mess. My breathing hitched and I didn't even feel like standing anymore. I slumped down but that gross bastard lifted me up from the hooks of my jeans and shoved me back into the wall.
"No time to faint now. You were just brimming with energy, Hanul." He teased. "Why don't you show me some of that?"
"Just...go," I mumbled, feeling tired, sick, disgusted, and sad. My arms relentlessly tried to twist out of his grip, but my vision was too hazy and that brought an even stronger headache brewing up there. I was barely conscious of my surroundings, and yet I was still able to feel scared about what was happening. I just wanted to disappear into thin air like Jin had done.
"Hey, hey! Cutie!" He grabbed my lulling chin, stabilizing it.
"Stop it." A tear slipped out of my eyes.
"Aw, she's crying." He pouted with an unapologetic gaze. "What am I suppose to do with a cry baby you guys!"
"Anything! Come on! This video is gonna get booooring!"
"Fine, fine!" His hands slipped down my body, slowly making their way over to the ends of my shirt.
"I'll give you two options. Would you like your left arm to get sliced off first, or would you rather have your right arm sliced off first?"
My eyes flashed open at the familiar voice. When my neck snapped up, I was staring back at V's deadly yellow eyes. There he was, standing right besides Daehyun's shocked face, glaring at him as he gripped on to his left arm.
"Wh-who the hell are you?!" He yelled, stumbling back from me, but V continued to grip on tightly to his arm.
"Oh my god..." The girls dropped their phones and looked up at V. "It...it's...him! Remember? His...eyes...and now he just..."
With one glare from V, their phones got smashed into pieces.
"Well then? You didn't pick a choice. Would you like me to choose for you?" V turned back to Daehyun.
"L-leave me alone!" He screeched, trying to pry his arm free from V's grip. "Who...who the fuck are you?!"
"Wrong answer." V soullessly replied. "Fine then, I guess I will pick for you. How about this? I rip both your arms off at the same time?"
My instincts caught the scent of his determination. He was dead serious.
"No!" I stumbled forward, quickly grabbing onto V's arm. "Don't!" I looked up at him with desperation.
He glared back down at me. "Are you even aware of what he was about to do to you? Why the hell should I spare this bastard's life?"
I looked back at Daehyun's pathetic face and back at the frozen, terrified girls. I was just sick of seeing everyone scared of me. But now...now it'll never leave their minds. This'll be etched into their memories forever.
"Please..." Daehyun begged. "Just let go of me, man!"
"Shut up! You're a disgusting swine!" I slapped the boy's face, then looked back up at V. "But...but that's not how I do things. I don't rip people's arms off!"
"NO!" Daehyun screamed just at the sound of the possibility. "Let go! You both are crazy! I can't believe this! This is all your fault!" He looked at me. "You freak!"
I shut my eyes and tugged on V's arm. "Come on. Let go of him. Now."
Daehyun dropped to the floor, scurrying back from us quickly. I looked down at him with a pang of sadness. His jeans were starting to grow a darker color as his lips trembled, looking up at the two of us.
V glanced up at the girls who didn't waste a second in screaming and running off.
"W-Wait! Wait for me!" Daehyun scrambled up to his feet, slipping and tripping before he took off running.