Minho was a diligent driver — maybe too diligent. He wasn't made for routes that strayed from main roads and highways. It was funny to watch him get increasingly more befuddled and pissed off as he inched into gaps in the trees.
"The clearing is through the woods," I said. "We'll run — if that's okay with you?" His truck wouldn't make it through, that was for sure.
"That's fine." He parked against the forest edge.
I hopped out, ran to his side and knelt on the grass. He wrapped his arms around my neck, smiling into my shoulder like we were doing this for fun. I took off, weaved through the trees and came to a stop closer to the field.
"It's over," I said when he didn't stir.
"I like hugging you like this. I don't wanna stop." He pursed his lips against the nape of my neck, nuzzled into my shoulder.
I spun around, caught him and pulled him close. It took him a second to notice what I'd done, and then he flinched back, lips quirking up.
"Don't stop." I kissed him, kept his lip between mine and tugged.
He kissed me back, tangled his perfect fingers in my hair. I darted up to a hemlock, pushed him against it.
But he parted his lips, and his lovely taste burned down my throat. In an instant I was overtaken. He was caught, wasn't he? His neck, the flow of hot blood, was just a few inches away, a tilt and a bite from being mine...
So I dropped him. I tried to break his fall but I couldn't risk touching him for a moment longer. I sprinted away, fell to my knees, dug my fingers into the soil, gasped the clean air. Venom was dripping from my mouth. The hatred and disgust were just catching up to me, the full weight of shame. I'd come so close to hurting him. Hurting the love of my life. How could I be such a monster?
I found my feet slowly, turned back to him. He was sitting crosslegged at the base of the hemlock, staring at me, not amused. I approached carefully, afraid that I'd lost any control I'd ever actually had.
I sat in front of him, a safe distance. "Are you all right?" I'd dropped him like a rag doll. My poor love.
"My butt hurts."
His poor butt. "Is your butt okay?"
"I guess so."
"I won't say I'm sorry, I know you don't want to hear it. But I need you to know how much I hate myself for having to do that to you."
His eyebrows knitted together. "Don't say that, either."
How was I supposed to grovel when I couldn't say I hated myself or whinge or apologize? How else could I atone for my mistakes, for the colossal burden I was on everyone I cared about?
"Look," he said, "it's whatever — I understand."
"What can I do to make it better?"
"I don't know. I just — I just want you. So stay with me, and try to stay with me, and I'll try to keep my mouth closed. Okay?"
I nodded, feebly. "Are... we... okay?"
"Of course we are."
"You know I want to be close like that, right?"
He smirked. "Oh, I know."
I crumpled into a ball. He laughed at me.
~ * ~
We eventually made it to the field. It was a large lopsided circle, framed by trees and mountains. I could feel the rain in the air, but it would stay dry in the clearing. Felix was never wrong about these kind of things.
My family was scattered across the field, all in their own worlds. Haseong and Changbin noticed us, approached at a human pace.
"You made it!" Haseong shouted for Minho's ears. "How was the drive over?"
"Good," I said simply.
"Complicated," Minho chimed in.
"We made a few wrong turns."
"We literally had to drive through a waterfall and into a swamp."
"What the hell shortcut did you take him on, Jisung?" Changbin asked, dead serious. I just shook my head at him.
"I'm exaggerating," Minho said. "I just suck at driving."
"You suck at listening to my instructions."
"No, that was a conscious decision."
"And how was the run?" Haseong asked next. Do you two ever stop talking?
"Minho is very good at running," I said.
"I'm good at getting piggyback rides," he said. "I'm not as good at letting go."
I gently squeezed his hand.
Gross, Changbin thought. I slapped the back of his head.
Incoming! Felix came to a halt, kissed Changbin's cheek and patted his head where I had hit him. "Right" — a peal of thunder tore up from west — "now. Game's all set up."
He zoomed away and readied his stance in the outfield.
"See you soon," I said to Minho.
"Make a run or something."
I understood his sentiment. "My love." I kissed him, pivoted and ran, taking my place in left field. Hyunjin was at bat, with Seungmin behind him as catcher, and Jeongin was pitching. Chan was in the outfield with me and Felix.
"All right," Changbin called the game to order. "Batter up."
Jeongin pegged the ball — Hyunjin hesitated and Seungmin caught it. He flung the ball back to Jeongin, who wound up and hurled the ball with as much might as was in his little body. Hyunjin walloped it over the trees — the sound of an explosion accompanying it.
I kept low to the ground as I ran, the dirt kicking up behind my feet. Chan was at my side. I linked my hands together, and he leapt, used me as a springboard — I flung him into the sky. He was gone for a second, lost in the fog, and then he plummeted back to earth, somersaulted and righted himself, ball in hand.
"Out!" we heard Haseong call.
I was about to head back to the field, but Chan caught my arm. He put the baseball in my hand and gave me a giddy little smile.
"It'll impress him," he said. "Boys love boys who can do stuff."
I laughed, looked down, turning the ball over in my hands. "I think I'll take your advice this time."
He hugged me quickly, and we darted back toward the clearing. As we came through the trees, I heard Minho's lips pull up into a smile.
Hyunjin was dancing on home plate. "Good one, you guys!"
"You, too, buddy." I tossed the ball into the air and immediately fumbled it. I heard eight low cackles from all across the field.
I took a minute to check up on Minho. I ran over and hugged him, twirled him around.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"I don't know what's happening, but I love it."
"I won."
Jeongin groaned, Seungmin laughed and Chan rolled his eyes. They couldn't let me get away with anything. I smiled, long-suffering, at Minho and sprinted away again.
I got into position behind Jeongin, who was up to bat, but my eyes were on Minho. It was smartest to zone out when Felix was pitching. He was the master at misdirection, at stalling — he was warming up on the pitcher's mound now.
"Batter up," Changbin called. "You got this, prince."
"I'll make you proud, babe." Felix rubbed the ball, tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, and lashed his arm out at lightning speed. The ball flew a couple yards and puttered out on the grass.
"Felix," Jeongin growled.
"Bum throw, lemme go again."
"You do this every time," Seungmin groaned in the outfield.
"I do not! Jisung, tell them I don't do this every time."
I was still staring at Minho, drawing little hearts in the air, and he was drawing them back.
"See?" said Felix.
"Jisung, pay attention." Jeongin smacked my head.
"Just batter up, disappointments," Haseong ordered.
Jeongin beat the ground with the bat and held it way back over his shoulder. Felix craned back on one foot, squinting, and chucked the ball. Somehow it swerved straight up and landed a few feet behind him.
Jeongin threw his bat — it bounced and nearly decapitated Chan. "Foul play!"
"Foul play?" Changbin asked Haseong.
"Foul play?" Haseong asked Minho.
Minho blinked. "What's happening?"
"Overruled," Changbin shrugged. "I wanna see how this plays out."
"Conflict of interest!" Jeongin accused.
"What else is new?" Felix wound up. "Here comes mama!"
"WAIT, I'M NOT READY."
Felix hucked the ball — it missed my face by inches.
"Christ almighty, Felix!"
"Out," said Changbin.
Jeongin snarled, lunged at Felix, who narrowly escaped his grasp and bounded the other direction.
Chan was up to bat after that — cracking his knuckles, lunging onto one knee. I waved at Minho to pass the time. He waved back.
Then I heard Felix gasp. His vision leaked into my mind in an instant. Three strangers — the nomads he had seen before — were approaching. They had smelled us, heard the crack of the bat, our footsteps buzz against the ground.
They'd be in the field in minutes. And Minho was here.
I sprinted to his side. He was still smiling. He didn't realize everything was falling apart.
"Felix, what's wrong?" said Haseong.
Felix ran to Changbin, and the rest crowded in around us.
"I don't... I couldn't...," Felix stammered. His mind was flitting between the nomads' proximity and the different futures arising as a result.
"What happened?" said Chan.
"The nomads..." Minho is here. Oh God, Jisung... Felix looked up for a quarter of a second. I saw my own fear in his eyes.
Changbin was trying desperately to calm Felix down, to ease us all. "What changed?"
"They heard us playing. It changed their path."
We looked at Minho simultaneously. He was leaning forward, intrigued, like we were a soap opera playing on TV. He flinched back when he noticed our eyes on him.
"Are they close?" Chan asked, turning to me.
I tapped into their thoughts, looked through their eyes... "A minute — less. They wanna play."
"Can you make it?"
"No, not with—" I stopped myself. "But the last thing we need is for them to start hunting anyway." It was dangerous to have Minho here, but it was more dangerous to make him a moving target. Vampires love to chase their prey.
We all looked at Chan. He thought through plan after plan, only to disregard each one when he found it wouldn't work. I tried to follow along but horror was jamming the gears and levers in my head.
"We keep playing," Chan finally said. "They're only interested in playing with us, yeah?"
It was the best option, I knew that, but I wanted so desperately to fight him on it. I wanted to growl and whine until everything was okay again.
"Changbin, sub in," I said. "I'll call it now."
I took Minho's hand. He pulled it up to his heart, rubbed circles into my skin.
The rest of them took their positions, scanning the field, watching Minho out of the corner of their eyes. Their thoughts were anxious, calculating — savagely protective. Hyunjin was cracking his fingers and neck, Jeongin's hackles were standing on end. Chan was a militant peacenik but he seemed the most prepared for a fight as he whispered his battle plan — too quietly for Minho to hear.
"The nomads get too close, we protect Minho. They growl, we protect Minho. Jisung, Felix, Hyunjin — get him out of here as soon as possible. If worst comes to worst, I want Seungmin on the frontlines, Changbin making them lethargic and the rest tearing heads off. I don't want to fight, but Minho is ours. He's everything here."
"The vampires you were talking about," Minho said then, distracting me. "They're here."
"They are." I didn't say anything more. His breathing was even, his heart rate swelling above average. He couldn't panic — a fast-beating heart would be just that much more conspicuous.
A lull, listening to his heart, his breath, his fidgeting fingers, willing them to slow.
"My love," I said then, "I can't tell you how—"
"Don't apologize. Don't."
I turned to him. He was so obviously human. I pulled his hood up, brushed my hands down his arms and hugged him. I didn't want to make it too obvious that I was trying to cover his smell with a vampire's.
"Try to be quiet, breathe evenly, stand as still as you can." I rubbed his back. "We'll protect you."
"Will you stay with me?"
"Of course I will."
"I love you so much."
I held him tighter, like I could protect him. "I love you, too. More than anything."
———————————
apart from the drama at the end, it was really fun to write the brothers playing baseball. i still don't 100% understand how it works - sp0rts are complicated you guys
anyway, the song of the week is...
MAMAMOO - My Star
this song is super dramatic and super romantic. 'in the deep darkness that had nothing, the light that is you makes me exist.' it fits both minho and jisung tbh.
(does anyone here stan mmm?? who's your bias??)
plus HAPPY BIRTHDAY HWANG HYUNJIN!!! eat lots of good food sweetheart ❤️♥️💖❤️♥️💖❤️💖♥️
ok bye, see you next week <3