story time! i wrote jisung's final chapter at about the same time as i wrote minho's (march of last year), and when i went back to edit it....... it was garbage. hot stinking garbage in a flaming dumpster and i couldn't use it. so enjoy this ot9 mess of a first hunt instead — it takes place right after minho wakes up.
hope you enjoy!
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My love was a human. He ate food, bite by bite, with a utensil. He scratched his nose and fidgeted and breathed without thinking about it. I'd never seen him do anything inhuman — apart from having the patience to love me back. He was flesh, blood, boney elbows, stubby fingers and flushed ears.
Now Minho sprinted forward, too fast to see, and nearly barrelled into a tree trunk. He did a wonky somersault and landed on his butt, but he was standing in a millisecond, looking back at us with something like shyness on his lovely face. Seven of us bit back laughter — Seungmin snorted and clapped his hands.
"Someone tell me what to do," Minho ordered. "I think I might pass out. Can vampires do that? I think I'm gonna pass out." He pitched to the side.
Hyunjin flashed over, picked him up, twirled him around. "You're so bad at this! It's adorable!" Hyunjin let him down, and he slumped to the mossy forest floor.
"You wanted to hunt, right?" Felix said, tapping Minho's leg with his shoe. "Get on up, fresh meat."
"Jisung, they're being mean to me," he called for me.
I crouched down next to him. "Do you feel okay?"
"I'm overwhelmed again."
"Why?"
"I could climb that tree if I wanted — straight up. That's crazy."
"I'll help you if you wanna climb a tree, my love."
"No, no. It's just tripping me out."
"Can I help you up?"
He held out his hands, and I pulled him up. His eyes were all I could look at, flaming red. That was tripping me out.
"You must be thirsty," I said.
He winced. "Yeah, but now I'm not sure if I'm ready. I made an ass of myself just there."
"You're learning how to move, it'll take time. Luckily, hunting isn't the same. It's instinct — once you have the smell, the taste, in your system, you'll be on autopilot."
"Maybe I don't want to be on autopilot. I'm supposed to hunt animals, right? How can I do that in good conscience — I'm an animal person."
"Were you a vegetarian when you were a human?" Jeongin asked.
"No."
"That's killing animals."
"It's called living in denial, Jeongin," Minho huffed. "What if I, like, eat a baby bunny in a crazy-murder-frenzy?"
"Then you better be ready for a wicked hairball," Seungmin said.
"Seungmin, don't scare the fresh meat," Haseong ordered.
"Don't worry, Minho," Changbin chimed in. "Eventually it isn't as painful, watching the life drain from their eyes."
Minho blinked.
Felix held his finger to Changbin's lips. "Babe, shh, you're not helping."
"And it's not that bad," I lied.
Minho grunted at the sky. "Can't I just kill humans? Humans suck, I wouldn't mind killing them."
Chan eyed Minho warily. "It's your choice in the end, no one will judge you."
Minho shook his head quickly. "No, I don't mean — not for the blood. It just seems like it'd be easier."
"At least animals don't beg for mercy as you do it," Changbin sighed.
Felix elbowed him. "Enough talking, we're going in circles. Let's just get this show on the road, yeah, Minho?"
Minho gulped. "Yeah."
Felix ran into the trees, and the rest followed after. I took Minho's hand and kissed it.
"You'll be okay, my love," I said. "Follow me?"
He nodded.
I bolted into the forest, and he followed. He stopped every few seconds to climb over a fallen tree — he didn't trust himself airborne. I kept my ears on him, led him down the easiest route.
I caught up to our family at the edge of a river. Chan did a backflip over the harsh, running water, and Jeongin leapt so high that he melted into the grey clouds. Minho came skidding after me, a blur of arms and legs, and nearly went careening into the water. I grabbed his ankles and towed him back.
"Jesus Christ!" he yelped.
"There's a river."
"Yeah! I saw that!"
"Just take it slow, okay?"
I sprang forward, flew over the twenty yards of water, and landed on the other side.
Minho crossed his arms, marched back a few steps. And a couple more. He gauged how far he had to cover, fingers squared in front of his face like he was directing a movie.
He sprinted toward the river and leapt with all the strength in his body. It was more strength than he expected. He shot into the clouds, disappeared — the shout of a curse fading with him. A second later, he plummeted back down to earth, headfirst.
I ran into the woods, arms out. I couldn't hear him falling anymore.
"I'm up here."
I stopped and backed up. Minho was sitting on a tree branch forty feet up, shaking pine needles out of his hair.
"You okay?" I said.
He pushed himself off the branch and dropped to the ground. His landing didn't make a sound. He walked up and wound his arms around my neck.
"I handled that very well and you should be proud of me."
"I was already proud of you."
"Did you know there's a sun up there? It's just been behind the clouds this whole time."
"Never would've guessed." I kissed him.
"Guys, guys!" Felix shrieked, whipping through the trees. "We found a big one, follow me!"
He ran off, and we followed. We dropped down behind a rotting log, next to the other seven.
"Smell that?" Hyunjin said. I did. Warm blood, a lot of it. Carnivore. It was somewhere in the trees, skulking in the branches.
Minho wrinkled his nose. "That smells bad, though. What is it?"
"A mountain lion."
He sighed and closed his eyes. "Of course it is."
"You gonna go for it?" Jeongin asked.
"Isn't there anything smaller I could eat?"
"Trust us, you don't want smaller," said Seungmin.
"Have any of you ever heard of baby steps? Consider me the baby."
"No, Jeongin's the baby," Felix said.
"I will end your bloodline," the Baby growled.
"There's a murder of crows half a mile east," I said. "We could try those."
"I'm into that," Minho said. "Crows aren't that cute."
"They are when you get a good look at them," Changbin said. We all shushed him.
We took off in the direction of the murder. We travelled in a pack this time, Haseong and Chan in front, Minho and I falling to the back, the rest in between.
We crowded around an ancient Douglas fir. Black spots hovered in the branches, a wall of squawks echoing in all directions. We looked at Minho.
"What?" he said.
"Go ahead." Felix gestured up the tree.
Minho turned to me, grimacing.
"It's easy, my love."
"But you're all gonna be watching."
"We won't look. Just trust your instincts."
Minho harrumphed. "Fine. Look away, please."
The eight of us turned and wandered away from the tree. I heard Minho jump up and scratch the tree with his fingernails. He eventually got the hang of it, grabbing branches to help himself up.
Do you think he'll actually catch one? Seungmin thought.
I shrugged.
He's quite resistant to feeding, Felix thought. We could find him a human — just one or two. Everyone needs training wheels.
"You're psychotic," I whispered.
"What?" Minho said from above.
"Nothing. You're doing great, love."
He was on a branch now — I heard it creaking. He shimmied around the trunk, snuck up on a crow and pounced. Squawking, wings flapping, branches breaking. Minho plunged through the air.
"SHIT — HELP!"
I turned. He was on the ground, eyes shut, cringing away from the crow in his hands. The bird was thrashing and screeching, trying to free its wings.
"What do I do what do I do what do I do?!"
Seungmin walked over and took the crow from Minho.
"No one look," he said.
We all turned away, I covered my ears. A second later, I looked back, and Seungmin was holding a dead crow.
"You killed it." Minho looked traumatized.
"That's the point. Now you drink it."
"How am I supposed to drink it?"
"Want me to get you a bendy straw?"
"I believe in you, Minho," said Jeongin.
"I'm proud of you," I said.
"You look cool," said Changbin.
Minho sighed and took the bird from Seungmin. "Don't look."
We all turned. It was a moment before I heard the sound of skin splitting. Blood rushing. Dripping. The smell made me thirstier than I already was — I hadn't fed since Minho started changing.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. Minho was standing there, a scruffy, bloodless crow in his hands. His eyes were unnerved and repentant, teeth stained with blood.
"Can we bury it or something?" he said.
We sat in a circle, and Minho dug a hole with his hands. He placed the crow in the little grave and covered it up again. His hand found mine and squeezed. The nine of us bowed our heads and went silent.
Felix broke it. "We're not gonna do this every time we have lunch, are we?"
"Shhh."
It was a few more minutes before we stood. Minho still held my hand tight, swallowing, eyes on the ground.
"Don't be afraid to cry, my love," I said, combing his hair out of his face.
"I'm not crying. My throat feels better, actually. I want more... blood." He smiled a little.
"Finally!" Seungmin exclaimed. "I'm starving!"
Our brothers pivoted back into the forest in unison. I ran slower, waiting for Minho to catch up. He ran at my side, getting more comfortable on his feet. There was a herd of grazing deer in a glade up ahead — Chan and Haseong led the pack in that direction.
The nine of us crouched down behind a row of bushes. I was about to give Minho a pep talk, try to coax him into murdering Bambi, but suddenly he wasn't by my side. He shot across the glade and rammed into a stag. They crashed to the forest floor — a pile of fangs and hooves, snarling and bleating — until Minho managed to pin it down. He hunkered over the writhing deer and tore into its jugular. Blood poured from where he struggled to keep his lips closed over the wound. The light in the stag's eyes waned, disappeared, and its body sagged.
Felix clopped my jaw shut. Forget what I said earlier. His instincts are — he clicked his tongue — intact.
Seungmin nudged me. "What's that look? Tell me you're not making a big deal out of this, too."
"He looks like a vampire, doesn't he?" We were still watching him, bent over the corpse. I looked away. "You know, the way he moves."
"Because he is one," said Jeongin.
"I never thought he'd be."
"Jisung, you can't flipflop now," Haseong said in a stern voice. "Minho needs us — he needs you the most. You can't go into your shell."
"I swear I won't. I couldn't. It's just weird to see him like this."
"You know it could've been so much worse."
I nodded. "Do you think he'll... fall apart soon?"
"I'm not sure. Each of you had some sort of breakdown after you woke, none of you were this... stable. Maybe the shock will catch up to him later. We'll leave you two alone if he starts showing signs."
"Thank you." I bit the insides of my cheeks. "I'm nervous."
Haseong looked at me, strangely affectionate, and patted my back. "I understand. I was nervous when you woke, too — all of you. I worried that I wouldn't be able to help you, that I would... fail you. Trust me, all you have to do is care, all you have to do is love him. And I think you have that down pat by now."
I smiled and went back to watching Minho.
He sat up on his haunches, hands hovering, like habit was telling him to wash the dishes. He looked back at us — mouth covered in blood, dripping down his neck, onto his shirt.
Felix put his hands up and clapped. We joined in. Minho smiled bashfully and bowed a little.
"All right, I'm thirsty, who's coming with?" Felix walked over to Minho, pat-patted him on the head, and the rest followed, giving him high-fives. Our brothers disappeared into the forest, chasing the herd of deer.
I flitted up to Minho, helped him to his feet. "How does that feel, love?"
He cupped his hands around his neck. "So much better."
"Good."
I looked down to pull my sleeve over my hand, but when I looked up, Minho wasn't in front of me. I spun around a few times and saw him a few yards away, in a small grove. The clouds curled back in the wind, and a ray of sunshine reached toward the ground, gripping the hemlocks in honeyed light.
Minho stepped into the sun, chin tipped up, and his face — his perfect caramel skin — shone. His lips, smeared red with blood, twisted up into a smile.
I sidled up next to him and touched his arm. He turned to me. His eyes were vibrant red, blood dripping from his chin, and now this — sparkling like a vampire. My love was a vampire.
I should have spiralled. I knew I should have. My humanity, my soul, my redemption — now the same creature as I was. I had fallen in love with him because of his flesh and blood, his warmth and soft edges — I should have felt like I'd lost him.
His dark lashes fluttered. "What? Am I dribbling?" He licked his lips.
I hadn't lost him. He moved differently, his heart now sat idle, his skin no longer burning hot to the touch. But he was Minho. Death couldn't steal his humanity. Death couldn't steal him from me.
I pulled my sleeve over my hand and wiped the blood off his face.
"You're shiny," I said.
"It kinda tickles," he smiled.
"Are you still thirsty?"
"Yeah, actually. But I don't want something big. It feels..." He folded his arms over his stomach. "Sloshy."
"Now I wanna shake you around."
"Don't — seriously, I might throw up." His eyebrows lowered. "Can vampires throw up?"
"No. You could do a handstand until it—"
"I have a feeling whatever you're about to say is gross, so I'm gonna stop you right there."
I smiled and stepped closer, cupped his face in my hands. "It's weird at first. It'll get better."
His arms looped around my back and tugged me closer. I stumbled forward into him. Either he hadn't yet realized he was so much stronger than me, or he was deliberately throwing me around like a rag doll.
"It couldn't possibly get better, Jisungie," he said.
I let my head rest on his shoulder, cuddling into his arms. The same arms I knew, I loved — that I would love for the rest of eternity.
"Let's catch up to the others," he murmured, letting me go. "I wanna see what I did wrong."
"You didn't do anything wrong."
"Are you seeing me right now?" He pulled his blood-stained shirt out. "Shit, this is yours — sorry."
"Do you understand how little this shirt means to me?"
"Very little?"
"Exactly."
Minho's eyebrow popped. "I can hear them. Who the hell is laughing?"
"Chan, probably. He finds it funny that Haseong refuses to hunt without a napkin in his collar."
"Like a bib?"
"Call it a bib and he'll kill you."
"Okay then." He took my hand and led me the way our brothers had gone. "Is there anything else I should know?"
"Well, Changbin slurps really loudly, and Hyunjin has this necklace made out of bones — don't ask. We pray after we're done, everyone except Haseong and Seungmin — secular humanist and apatheist, respectively — and Felix just does it because he likes to be included."
"Er. Okay." Minho nodded. "Do you have any quirks?"
"You mean deep-rooted inadequacies? Yeah, I guess I get... sad when I hunt. But I won't today. Today is the best day of my life, why would I be sad?"
"You're allowed to be sad, Jisungie."
"So are you. You know that, right?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, I know."
A mossy, fallen tree was in our path. I was about to climb over it, but Minho tapped my shoulder.
"Lemme carry you."
"Why?"
"Because." He opened his arms. Plenty of reasons. He looped his arms under me and hoisted me up. I understood now why he'd linked his hands behind my neck while I'd had him like this. Looking up at him, feeling his arms around me, it was impossible not to touch him back.
Minho leapt gently over the log and landed with a little thump. He was about to put me down, but I shook my head and nestled into the crook of his neck.
"Don't put me down."
"'Course." He boosted me up cozier in his arms and kept walking. "You're putting a lot of trust in me. Remember what you did when you were holding me like this?"
"I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to settle the score."
"I won't. You're literally so tiny right now."
I felt tiny. I had been holding him for days — to be held was such a relief.
"Jisungie, was it weird for you?" Minho asked suddenly. "To see me eat— er, drinking?"
"Um. Yeah, actually. I mean, it wasn't that different from watching you eat at Ma's diner."
He laughed. "So there's no problem?"
"Why would there be a problem?"
"I was expecting more bellyaching."
I looked up at him. "I'm so sorry, love. I've been such a moaner. I'm working on changing, I want to change for you."
He shook his head like I was being thick. "I'm not some pillar of self-betterment, Jisung, I'm... not okay, either. I love you and your sadness. Don't push yourself too hard to change. I'm just here to remind you why you try."
I couldn't do much other than curl up against his shoulder and whisper, "You don't know how much I love you."
"It's not as much as I love you."
Everything was perfect, his arms around me, the quiet of the forest. His thumb rubbed soft circles into my thigh. I reached up and carded my fingers through his hair.
A corpse fell through the air and splatted in front of us. I screeched and Minho dropped me.
Felix leapt down from a red alder, laughing. He picked up the dead deer, shrivelled like a raisin, and draped it over his shoulders.
"We got another fraidy cat," he said. "This is gonna be so much fun for me."
Minho was doubled over — he straightened out to point at Felix. "I'm gonna get you back for that."
"You can try, Miracle boy."
I got to my feet and brushed the dirt off my ass. "Bro, we were having a moment."
Felix shrugged — the deer fell off his shoulders. "Last time I checked, you have an eternity of moments for me not to ruin. Pace yourselves." He slung his arms around our necks and pulled us forward. "C'mon, we're waiting for you."
The three of us made our way through the forest. We stepped down into a small, hollowed-out grove to see the others kneeling in a circle, praying. Haseong stood by, dabbing his face with a napkin, and Seungmin was hanging upside down from a tree branch.
"You guys didn't wait for me!" Felix shrieked. He dropped down next to Chan and prayed aggressively.
Hyunjin ran over and twirled Minho around like a hurricane. "Buddy!"
"Ahh — again?!" Minho hung on for dear life. "Dude, I'm fragile!"
"I'm running low on hugs, goddamnit!"
I wrapped my arms around Hyunjin's waist and twirled him, too — a double-twirl for Minho. I heard him huff, but it came out more of a growl. The low, croaking sound hissed up his throat and reverberated in the ground beneath our feet.
Minho's eyebrows bounced. "Wow, that was scary, wasn't it?"
"You're positively terrifying." I put Hyunjin down, and Hyunjin put Minho down.
"We were just finishing up," Haseong said. "Any idea what to do next?"
"You wanted to keep hunting, right?" I said to Minho.
"Not anymore." He smacked Hyunjin's arm.
"Yow!"
"Er, sorry."
"Then what do you wanna do?" I asked.
Minho opened his mouth but didn't say anything. "Um."
"My love?"
"I... just realized that I have no idea what to do. Like, do we go back to your place and — sit? Or is there a vampire registry I have to apply for? I'm not gonna sleep tonight, am I? What are we gonna do all that time?"
"That's totally up to you, Minho," Chan said. "It's a lot, realizing you have a forever to live — we know. You can just wander for a while."
"What did you all do when you woke up?"
Felix ticked off his fingers. "Ventured from town to town committing dastardly deeds, tagged along with a band of bloodthirsty vampires that only kept us around for our gifts, hid ourselves from civilization, etcetera. And crying."
"A lot of crying," Changbin muttered.
"But after that," Haseong coughed, "we put our lives back together. That takes time."
Minho shrugged. "I'm feeling okay. This doesn't really feel like the time to be sad." A smile budded on his face. "I wanna do something fun."
We exchanged looks.
"Like what?" Jeongin said warily.
"I wanna, like, jump over something. Or run across something. See something beautiful. Be really high up. Or low down. In a cave, maybe. With a waterfall! Waterfalls are awesome!"
"So you want to" — Seungmin laughed once — "go sightseeing?"
"Yeah, but, like, extreme sightseeing. Oh oh! Let's climb Everest — vampires don't get cold, right?"
"Everest doesn't live up to the hype," Hyunjin said. "Isn't steep enough, dead humans all over the place. Besides, we already put a pride flag at the top, and Yetis aren't even that scary in real life."
"Sure you don't want some downtime, Minho?" Felix asked. "R&R? Cuddles? The vampire world might be coldhearted and savage but we sure do know how to cuddle a brother."
"Guys, trust me, I just..." Minho swallowed, looked down. "I want to be okay. For a minute. Please?"
We exchanged looks again. Felix broke the short silence.
"Grundarfjordur!"
"What did you just say?"
"Grundarfjordur, Iceland. Beautiful spot to watch the sun set. We could make it there in time if we hurry. What do you think, Minho? Up for a swim?"
Minho smiled. "That's exactly what I want."
"Narwhals are a native species there," Haseong said. "Unicorns of the sea, they say. I wonder if they fight with their horns."
"Haseong, please don't fight a narwhal," Jeongin said.
"I won't, I won't. I mean, unless it starts something."
"We should go now," said Chan. "We're only as fast as our slowest swimmer."
"This is bringing me back a little bit," Felix said to Changbin, taking his hand. "How 'bout you, angelfish?"
"Hopefully there won't be as much floundering this time. Like, the fish."
"Good God, I love how your mind works."
The two ghosted into the forest, pointed northeast, and the other five followed. Minho was about to take off, but I caught his hand. He looked back at me.
"Jisungie?"
"I think I've already said this, but freaking out is natural. Being sad and regretful and angry is natural. It doesn't have to be a big deal if you want to... mourn, Minho. Don't keep it in. Please don't be afraid to fall apart."
He looked down again. "It's... not necessary. I just wanna be happy with you. I wanna hang out with you guys and watch the sun go down in Gryffindor or whatever. Let me be stupid and happy for a sec, okay?"
I hugged him, holding him to me. "I'm here to catch you."
"I know you are."
I held him tighter. We hugged for a minute, listening to our hearts not beating and the absence of our breath.
"C'mon, let's run," Minho said. "I wanna see how fast we can make it to the water."
"Forty-five minutes is my record."
He whipped into the trees and was back in a second. "Race ya." He sprinted away again.
I shot after him, shadowed him. He felt the high of running, too — he kept giggling and using his hands to go faster. Soon we were out of the forest, over the Canadian boarder, and we caught up with our family in Manitoba. We came to a halt at a sharp cliff in Newfoundland, wind blowing at our backs.
Felix's feet had barely stopped moving before Minho raced up and shoved him off the edge.
"Holy shi—"
His body gave a little splash in the rough waters.
"He had it coming," said Minho.
"I love you so much," I said back.
Chan and Changbin dived in next, screaming bloody murder. Haseong did a perfect backflip, whirled at the speed of light and pierced the water with barely a splash. Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jeongin jumped in next, hand in hand in hand, and landed on top of Felix.
Minho grabbed my hand and we leapt over the edge.
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shout out to Manitoba -- my mom was born there! :D
honestly, i never thought i'd write a first-time-hunting scene because the one in breaking dawn traumatized me ("iT wAS a SuRPRisInGLy sEnSuaL eXPerIEncE tO oBSeRvE eDWaRd hUnTiNG") but here i am. it was actually a great opportunity to get more ot9 interaction into the book, and as i said before, jisung's pov of the final chapter was a DISGRACE.
technically this is the last chapter, but i'm gonna do the whole goodbye-and-thank-you speech in the last epilogue. i have a memory of saying in an old outro that there were three epilogues, but i recently added an end part to epilogue 2 and it got too long to fit in with the others so.... there's four epilogues now. oof.
it's time for the song of the week -- the final instalment! TTTTTTT
Cash Cash - Jewel (ft Nikki Vianna)
i associate this song with young love and new beginnings, so using it in the final chapter felt right. the story isn't over, it never will be — it's just the beginning :D. 'I used to have a heart of stone, rolling, rolling, rolling on my own / but now, all of me, all of me, all of me shines for you.' also they vampires and they sparkly
some of you guys took the time to comment songs that reminded you of my story, and i couldn't be more honoured or appreciative! here's the complete reader-made playlist. (i won't say who recommended them just in case y'all wanna stay anonymous.)
~ Painkiller - Ruel
~ Endless Love - Colde
~ If we were vampires - Jason Isbell & the 400 Unite
~ We Must Love - ONF
~ Plz Don't Be Sad - Highlight
~ Words don't Come Easy - MAMAMOO
~ Demons - Imagine Dragons
(the power this playlist holds, honestly)
i hope y'all are looking forward to the first epilogue! the word "epilogue" doesn't quite fit it tho, i think a more proper term would be "origin story"..........
bye~