It was in the middle of November. The weather was now cold and snow should be coming pretty soon. Some supernatural creatures loved the cold and some would rather stay at home cuddled up in a blanket.
Seo Changbin didn't really like the cold of the winter but he enjoyed it way more than the annoying heat of summer. Why? Because he was a vampire. It couldn't be too cold for him because he had almost no body heat and couldn't really feel coldness either but he could feel heat and the burning rays of sunshine a lot easier than other supernatural creatures.
Changbin was sitting in the living room of his home, which was a big, luxurious, gothic castle build just for him, and watched a report about supernatural creatures made by humans because he had nothing better to do on this sunday evening. The report was stupid, had no real facts and was based on really old myths the humans told their children to scare them. For example, the report stated that vampires die when they came into contact with sunlight and claimed that you could also kill a vampire with a wooden stake. Both things were ridiculous to Changbin and also totally false in general. Vampires could be hurt by wooden stakes just like humans, but it didn't kill them like it was poisoned and the thing with the sunlight was also false. Vampires just reacted sensitive to heat but didn't burn to ashes at the contact of a single ray of sunshine. Changbin turned the TV off because he was fed up with the humans false information and started to ask himself why he even watched the report in the first place.
The black-haired vampire let himself fall to the side and hit the softness of the black couch he was sitting on. Now he was bored again. It was the biggest disadvantage of living alone in a gigantic castle outside of town. Changbin's parents were never here with him because they needed to reign over all vampires as the king and the queen in the main castle in Transylvania. Yes, Changbin could be referred to as the vampire prince. Some people even called him like that but Changbin thought it was ridicules and unnecessary. That was one of the reasons why nearly nobody in his school knew that he was the heir of the vampire throne and because he didn't want to be treated like a prince. You could say that Changbin hated being treated like royalty because he hated it that his parents were always far away from him because of their responsibilities as king and queen.
Still, someday he would also get that responsibility of ruling all vampires put on his shoulders. He was the only heir after all. He had no older or younger sibling who could take that responsibility from him. No, it was his duty, his destiny to someday rule over all vampires if he liked it or not.
Changbin sighed and sat up again. He was bored and he had nothing to do bu it was still too early to go to bed. As if the universe noticed the vampire's boredom Changbin's phone started ringing. The vampire picked it up from the coffee table in front of the couch and looked at the ID. It read "annoying chicken". The young prince groaned, asking himself what it could be that his "babysitter" wanted.
The young male debated if he should just let the phone keep ringing and therefore ignore it but he was really bored, so he just picked up. "What do you want?", Changbin asked after he put his phone on speaker and laid it on his lap. The vampire could hear a gasp from the other end of the line. "You really picked up? I am shook", Jae, Changbin's "babysitter" as his parents referred to him, said. Changbin rolled his eyes at the dramatic response of the older male.
"Do I need to repeat my question?", the young vampire asked, sounding a bit rude. There was a short silence and some background noises before Jae spoke up again. "Oh, yeah. I wanted to just call you and ask you if you want to hang out with me and my friends but I never thought that through because I was pretty sure you wouldn't pick up", the other explained. Changbin raised an eyebrow even though the other couldn't see it. Was he wanted now or not? Why was he even considering agreeing to this at all?
After thinking about it for a short minute Changbin decided that he would do probably anything to end his boredom, so why shouldn't he hang out with Jae and his friends. He knew them well enough to be himself with them around.
"You know what? I will surprise you again. Where are you?", Changbin asked after a short while. He heard another gasp and again some voices in the background. What was going on back there? Was this some kind of joke?
"We are at the Young Wing Park in the middle of Yellow Wood. But wait, are you really coming?", Jae questioned, maybe to be sure that he hadn't misinterpreted the young royal. "Yes. Otherwise I wouldn't ask. See you in a few", Changbin answered, being a little fed up now and wanted to hang up the call but Jae's "Stop stop stop. Don't hang up" let him stop the motion of his finger just before it hit the hang-up button.
"I should tell you that Wonpil brought one of his brothers along. Just that you know", Jae told the vampire. "I got no problem with that so see you", Changbin responded and ended the call without waiting. Actually he did have a little bit of a problem with that but if it was just Wonpil's little brother what did he have to fear? Wonpil was probably one of the nicest and funniest people he knew. His brother couldn't be much different.
The vampire put his phone back on the table and got up from the couch to walk upstairs to his room. The stair case was connected with the living room and kept in a rather dark color, letting it seem like you were walking into the darkness despite the whole castle being lit by magical candles that reacted to claps.
Changbin walked up the stairs turning right immediately after, entering a little corridor with multiple doors. The first floor of the castle had a lot of bed rooms but also some bathrooms along with one little living room. Changbin's room was the first room to the right.
The young vampire's room just screamed vampire royalty with the red and black furniture and golden designs on them. The young prince went to his walk-in closet and opened it. Changbin's cloths weren't all black like a lot of people would think if they saw him at school or generally in public. He had a lot of colors in his closet, from pink to baby blue to forest green but he preferred to wear black cloths when he went outside since it didn't draw much attention to him.
Right now though Changbin was wearing a oversized pink pullover with white sweatpants and he really didn't want to go outside this way. He picked a black ripped jeans, a black pullover and his favorite black leather jacket as his outfit. He changed into the black cloths, got his wallet and keys from his school bag, putting them into the pockets of jacket and walked down the stairs again to get his phone. After he got all of that, he walked out of the gigantic front doors.
The dark castle Changbin called his home had a certain elegance and power when you looked at it. It was located in a little forest on the edge of the little city called Yellow Wood and was known by children as a place where lost souls could eat you alive. To Changbin the castle felt empty and cold most of the time because he was often in there alone. After all Jae, his "babysitter" and the person his parents assigned to him to keep him company, was busy with university, resulting in him being busy a lot.
With a sigh the boy locked the massive, black doors of the castle and began running with a supernatural speed that was common for vampires. It didn't take him long to get to the heart of Yellow Wood, where the Young Wing park was located. It was already dark but the night sky was crystal clear. Thousands of stars were shining and made the dark night less scary.
Changbin walked in now normal speed into the park. He felt kind of crept out by the silence and coldness of the place even though he shouldn't be as a vampire. "Jae?", Changbin called out but there was no answer. The vampire huffed in annoyance because of that. Did Jae and his friends prank him or was this one of Jae's bad jokes?
"Park Jaehyung , I promise to rip your head off if this is a joke", Changbin called out again and made sure that it was loud. He didn't like jokes like that because behind a strong facade Changbin got really scared when he had to search for someone alone in the dark.
"Okay okay", someone said and came out of hiding behind a tree which was nearby. A blond male with the glasses had raised his hands in surrender and slowly walked over to Changbin. It was Jae.
Changbin snorted when he saw the older vampire and put his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, playing nervously with his keys while trying to seem like he was pissed. Internally he was glad that Jae gave up so quickly. He didn't want to be scared today.
"Where is the rest?", the Changbin asked. Jae just shrugged as an answer. "Didn't look where everybody hid", the older vampire said casually and pushed his round glasses back up his nose. Changbin really asked himself why he had come here, he should have stayed home and saved himself from the childish behavior of Jae and his friends. Why did his parents even send Jae out of all vampires to keep him company when he was clearly not qualified?
Suddenly the black-haired vampire heard something behind him. He turned around in lightning speed and punched whoever it was in the face. The person fell backwards and held his nose while cursing. It was Kang Younghyun, one of Jae's friends and another vampire that often visited Changbin along with Yoon Dowoon, another one of Jae's friends.
Jae laughed but he wasn't the only one. Changbin heard laughing coming from the branches of a tree near by but whoever was laughing, wasn't doing that for long because something cracked and shortly after that two young men fell down from the tree. Those were Dowoon and Kim Wonpil, which Changbin got to know through Jae, Younghyun and Dowoon.
Jae laughed even harder now and was joined by the two idiots that feel out of the tree. Good to know that they weren't hurt even though it wasn't clear why they were laughing. Maybe because Changbin punched Younghyun in the face or maybe because of their own stupidity, which lead to them falling out of a tree.
Changbin just sighed and asked himself how he had ended up with people that were older than him but a lot more childish. "Hey don't sigh like that. I have to put up with those four idiots all the time", Changbin heard someone say. He turned around to see Sungjin, a male werewolf who had his hands on his hip which made him look like a mother. Beside him was another male with red hair. He seemed younger than the rest. Even younger than Changbin himself but the vampire prince knew right away that this must be Wonpil's younger brother. They looked very similar with their blood red hair and dark eyes but he seemed familiar to Changbin, like he knew the redhead from somewhere but the vampire prince couldn't really say why.
"That's Seungmin by the way, Wonpil's younger brother. You maybe know him. You go the same school", Sungjin introduced the young redhead. "Nice to meet you. I a-", Changbin wanted to introduce himself but he was interrupted by Seungmin. "I already know who you are", the redhead said and smiled lightly. That smile seemed a little sarcastic to Changbin, making him think that the younger was pretty rude.
Jae, Wonpil and Dowoon's laughter died down after a little while. In the meantime Younghyun sat up and rubbed his now healed nose. It still hurt though. A vampire's healing powers were fast with healing wounds you could see with the open eye but they continued to hurt a little while longer.
"You know, Changbin. You could have put a little bit less strength into that punch", Younghyun complained, rubbing his nose a little bit. "Well I didn't know it was you. It could have been an enemy so I punched hard", Changbin scoffed, having little sympathy for the older because he had been scared by the older sneaking up to him if he was honest.
"Good boy. I taught you well", Jae praised and patted Changbin's head. The younger vampire glared at the older and Jae immediately removed his hand from Changbin's head. The others laughed at that.
The group decided to go back to the pick-nick blanket Sungjin had brought with him to sit down and continued to talk and joke around there. The cold bothered none of them. Sungjin had a pretty good body heat as a werewolf and the two Sanctus brothers wore quite warm cloths.
Changbin was one of the few people that knew that Wonpil was a demon, so he assumed that Seungmin was one too but he didn't bother asking the younger while they talked in the group. Wonpil had been pretty secretive about his real species for a long time but told his friends and Changbin that he was a real demon around a year ago. It was something that proved how much he trusted them. Back then Changbin had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that demons were a real thing but just knowing Wonpil's character helped him with that since the redhead was one of the nicest, most caring people Changbin knew, despite him begin a bit goofy and childish at times.
After that he just felt honored that he knew Wonpil's secret while the rest of the people that knew the redhead assumed that he was a warlock because of his hair and magic powers but who could blame them? In all of his documents Wonpil was marked down as a warlock.
The conversations died down after a while and a comfortable silence fell over the seven. Wonpil was laying on the blanket with his head resting on Dowoon's lap and his eyes closed. On the older demon's stomach was Seungmin's head who was slowly dozing off. The younger redhead looked really peaceful, almost cute while he was sleeping but when he was awake he was the absolute opposite. He was a troublemaker even Changbin already knew that from the previous conversations. He figured that the little redhead was probably one of the people that occasionally pulled huge pranks on certain groups of people. It made Changbin wonder if Seungmin was even the one, who pulled the pink liquid prank on him and the vampires that follow him around in the breaks.
Changbin lightly shook his head, shooing that thought away and took his eyes off the sleeping redhead before he got called out for it by Jae. Maybe the reason that didn't happen was that Dowoon was currently looking down at Wonpil, who had his head on his lap, like he was something very precious while he was gently running his fingers through the demon's red hair. Younghyun hit Jae's shoulder very often to keep the blond from saying something about the two and disturb their moment because apparently the rest thought this was really adorable and shouldn't be disturbed.
In the end Jae laid down like Wonpil and had his head on Younghyun's lap so he had to keep his mouth shut. Changbin was wide awake while the rest seemed to slowly doze off and looked up to the stars. It felt so peaceful but the most important thing to him was that had people around him. He wasn't alone like he would be back at home. A little smile made it's way onto Changbin's lips. "It could stay like that", he thought to himself.
The young vampire jumped a little bit when he felt someone's arms slither around his stomach. It was Sungjin. "You look cold", the werwolf mumbled while he dragged Changbin a little closer to him, so they both could be comfortable. The vampire didn't mind that, so he let it happen.
"I am not. Not really", Changbin whispered so he wouldn't disturb the others. Sungjin laid his head on the vampire's shoulder. "Then my gut feeling was wrong but this is comfortable", he answered in a quiet voice. Changbin nodded and laid back a little so his back and shoulders rested on Sungjin's chest. This really was comfortable and Sungjin made Changbin feel warm even though his body temperature stayed the same.
Ever since Changbin got to know Sungjin he really wished he could have an older brother just like him. He had such a caring and protective nature it let you feel safe all the time. You could say that he was the real babysitter among Jae's friends and probably the most mature one too since he was always the one, who thought ahead and took care of little but important things like bringing a blanket to the park.
"I really wish you were my brother", Changbin mumbled almost to himself. He could feel the werewolf laugh lightly but then he tightened his grip on Changbin just a bit more. "You would be nice little brother", Sungjin replied and Changbin could hear the smile in his voice, making the vampire prince smile too.
To Changbin's dismay they all had to go home at some point. They would have to go to school and university tomorrow. Dowoon was not very happy about the fact that they had to wake up Wonpil but in the end he did it himself because like hell would he have let Jae do that. The only one that they let continue sleeping was Seungmin mainly because Wonpil thought it was unnecessary to wake him if he could just carry the younger home and that was what he did. Dowoon went with Wonpil to make sure the two brothers would come home safe but it was obvious that he just wanted to be with Wonpil a little while longer.
"Should we bring you home? I mean I know you can take care of yourself. I felt that today but I figured we should ask", Younghyun asked Changbin after Dowoon, Wonpil and Seungmin were already gone. The vampire prince shook his head. "I am fine but thanks for inviting me today", he thanked the older males. They smiled a little after hearing that. "I will call you again if you pick up", Jae commented and ruffled Changbin 's hair. This time the young vampire just let it happen. With that said the four parted ways.
Changbin ran all the way up to the dark castle in his supernatural speed. He unlocked the front door and entered the house, letting the doors fall shut behind him. The halls were dark and they felt cold, like always when Changbin came home. He felt lonely and the warmth he had felt when Sungjin had hugged him was gone. He stood there in the middle of the entering hall. He could hear nothing. No wind, no bird, just nothing. He hated it. He hated this feeling of being alone and somehow regretted having turned down the offer of being brought home.