There's something off in the way he sends the email, making me automatically glance in the direction of his window.
For the first time, his curtains are drawn.
From. Jungkook
Elle...do you mind if I come?
My fingers are uncertain as I type yes. I'm not sure if my mother is in the house, but something sounds wrong. It might be just paranoia, and probably is, but I don't want to take any chances.
The moment I send the reply and get up to let him in the front door, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders.
When I look up, Jungkook buries his face on the narrow curve between my neck and shoulder. He looks upset, eyes tinged red and breaths uneven.
The sight makes me panic.
"Are you okay?" I ask, embracing him tightly. His body is trembling, and I throw my blanket around his shoulders. "Jungkook, what's wrong?"
His silence only makes everything worse. I can see the dark shade of his eyes fluctuate between silver-blue and the usual black, showing how exactly emotionally unstable he was. Silver-blue was his vampire colors, and he wouldn't show that unless he had lost control over himself.
I tug the blanket tighter around him even though I know he's not shivering from the physical cold, but from the one in his mind.
There was something very wrong here.
"Jungkook?" I ask, trying to sound soothing and gentle. "Will you tell me what's wrong? Where are your hyungs?"
He pushes away from me, pain filling his face. Something sparkles in the corners of his doe eyes as he speaks, voice traumatized.
"At the hospital."
What?
"What do you mean? Did someone get hurt?"
Then I realize I'm freaking him out even more, as the impending terror increases in my tone. I had to remain calm for his sake, even though the fear was killing me on the inside.
"They didn't tell me anything," Jungkook says, eyes narrowed to slits of anger. "Because I'm the maknae—because they think I'm too emotionally fragile to handle it. I'm always too young to know, but old enough to wait."
His eyes.
They were completely vampire.
His fists tremble, and I realize just how much the suspension is ripping him apart. The boys thought that it was better this way, by not telling him the truth.
But it wasn't the truth doing this to him, but the possibility of the worst.
Not knowing was worse than knowing sometimes, and that was exactly what was happening to Jungkook.
"Hey." I say urgently, already glimpsing the beginning of the fangs growing between his pressed lips. "Hey, Jungkook. It's okay. It's—"
"No," He snarls, his tone so feral it takes me aback. "Nothing's okay. Something has happened to V hyung, and no one—"
He stops all of a sudden, face horrified.
"I'm sorry." He breathes, the silver-blue of his eyes fading. His fangs retreat back inside his blood-red lips.
"I'm so sorry."
"No, it's okay." I assure him, voice urgent to let him know that he wasn't at fault. Never having any friends, my ability to comfort him was limited, but I try my best to ease his anger.
"When did they leave?"
"Last night," He murmurs, the shadows under his eyes darkening as he rubs his eyes. It wasn't hard to see that he hadn't gotten any sleep at all yesterday night. How could he, when one of his hyungs were in the hospital and he had no clue what happened?
"Last night?" I repeat numbly. "You should've come and talked to me! Did you stay up the entire time? Did you at least get some sleep?"
He blinks slowly.
"I didn't want to wake you," He whispers, and shakes his head to my last question.
Since he was here now, the rest must still be in the hospital. That fact sent chills down my spine—that meant that whatever had happened to Taehyung must be serious.
And I knew Jin would have definitely sent someone to check on Jungkook, but he hadn't. Which meant that he needed all the boys for something—and whatever that was, it had to be important.
But first, my priority was to help this boy get some sleep. He looked like he was about to collapse, and I couldn't have that.
"Here," I say, helping him down onto my bed. My eyes dart to the door to make sure it's locked, so that we would have at least some kind of warning when my mother came in.
Her finding out about this would be bad.
Very bad.
Whatever had plagued him during the long night had thankfully dissipated now, and his eyelids are heavy with sleep. By the time I adjust the pillow under his head, he's already relaxed into slumber.
Satisfied that he won't wake up any time soon, I tuck my blankets over his body, looking down at his peaceful expression.
My mother used to say that she was most happy when she tucked me into bed, and even more when I was already sleeping.
I think I get what she means.
"There we go," I breathe when he looks comfortable enough. When I step away, I can't help but sigh at the heaviness of the situation.
So V was in the hospital.
And the others were all unavailable, possibly in danger or something even worse.
I groan softly, understanding how Jungkook had felt when he was pacing in his bedroom, all alone in the large house. And if it was stressing me out this much already, I can't imagine how it had been for him the entire night.
My mind spins as I think. Vampires weren't arrested unless they were on a blood spree, and none of the boys were doing that. They were on animal blood, which kept them sustained to some level.
But just because they sacrificed their natural urges didn't mean it saved them from abuse from normal humans, hateful and scorning. It was most likely that V had gotten hurt from a human that had crossed the line.
And it was probably a vampire police, desperate to find an excuse to arrest him.
All I can hope for is that V didn't lose control of himself, attacked whoever had provoked him. If it came to that, it was close to certain that he would get suppressed.
Which basically meant killed in a weaker definition.
It had been just yesterday that I'd seen the boy play around with Jimin, eyes wide and lips bright with an innocent smile. It made me want to throw something when I think that someone actually had the nerve to hurt him on purpose.
A dazzle of sunlight shines through the heavy glass of my window, making Jungkook unconsciously flinch as his skin comes into contact. It didn't hurt him, but it made his flesh into a glowing shade of ethereal white that made it easy to tell him apart as a vampire.
I quickly draw the curtains, and Jungkook relaxes.
This was the reason why vampires usually stayed home during a sunny day, but had V somehow broken that pattern?
All of a sudden, a cold arm wraps around my waist.
I barely hold down a surprised gasp as Jungkook pulls me onto the bed, and a flash of horror crosses my face as I catch a look at him.
His eyes are the brightest shade of silver-blue, nearly glowing as he presses me down onto the mattress.
Must. Not. Scream.
"Jungkook." I say, not bothering to hide the note of urgency in my voice. His fangs were visible now, sharp and glinting in the narrow rays of sunlight that had seeped between the curtains.
"Jungkook, are you okay?"
He doesn't reply.
He only stares at me with his piercing silver eyes, beautiful and cold in the morning light. The hand holding my waist seems foreign, skin icy and winter against mine as I swallow.
Was he going to bite me?
Holy crap- am I going to die?
When he finally says something, it's the name of the flower that had been haunting me for the past few days. It's my smell, my fragrance- according to him.
A sudden thought strikes me, terrifying yet intriguing at the same time.
Was that how my blood smelled like?
"Gardenia." He hisses again as he presses his lips against the skin of my neck.