- still i cling

For a moment, all Moojin can do is stare. Face a drawn blank to blanket the disbelief, but the effect is comically paradoxical.

His eyes turn back to the water. “…I see.”

Jisoo’s embarrassing flair for drama, ill-timed per usual. Some things just don’t change. In this case, it’s only  for the better that they don’t. A sure sign, if anything, that he’s somewhat holding it together. 

He holds his breath, lets the familiar nicotine-burn spread where it has to before he lets go. 

“That’s not news to anyone.” Sanity and the lack thereof has always been a long, winded spectrum. A balancing act all the same, no matter where you fell along it. “Paranoia’s hard to miss, but he wouldn’t have been what he was without it.” Wouldn’t have come this far, this fast. A perilous legacy that now bears its weight over their shoulders. One that Moojin still mulls over. 

He takes another drag, taps the ash off his cigarette mid-air. “So long it’s your own.” Moojin returns his eyes find Jisoo’s. His tongue curls around his next sentence, a warning truth. “They wouldn’t mind a puppet, you know. I doubt you’d like that.” 

paranoia. 

he supposes it’s the most accurate descriptor despite sounding entirely too tame to fully capture the essence of his father. the survival instincts of a man in power. would it be jisoo’s inevitable future - a prisoner to his own paranoia? 

he laughs again, devoid of all merriment. the same unhinged laughter of someone who’s lost everything. in jisoo’s case, it’s freedom. 

‘maybe i should leave the country.’ he’s wistful, he knows it’s fantasy. ‘to the states, europe... as far as i can go.’ the only appeal of running is escaping responsibility, moojin knows this. there’s no city in the world jisoo would prefer over seoul. 

‘i bet they’ve already planned ahead for that, taken into account my immaturity.’ he muses bitterly, carefully watching moojin. he wonders if the other had been instructed to prevent any flight risks. 

he shakes the speculation. paranoia.

jisoo paces the shore, finding it impossible to stay still. ‘i’d rather die than be told what to do by those geriatrics.’ he opens his mouth as if to say more before directing his gaze to moojin in a mixture of expectancy and impotence. 

miha looks down at her attire. did she really had to wear this? the dress was red, skin-tight, and way too short. while she didn’t mind a cute dress or two, even this was beyond her comfort zone. the young vampire gazes the man next to her. like her, he also looked the part ― wearing more leather than she was used of him. if they weren’t an awkward bunch of people, she would say they clearly fit in with the crowd.

the nightclub was packed, strobe lights creating this utter worldly effect on the dancefloor, bouncing on the walls, moving with the rhythm of the music. they managed to get intel, a friend of a friend with the possible information on her sire’s whereabouts. even so that her maker was in the club itself from time to time. chances where high here, and they weren’t going to let it pass them. not with their answers being so close.

to scan out the interior, they found themselves in the middle of it. pressed together unwillingly between the bodies of humans and vampires alike. ❛  didn’t even know this existed.  ❜ she moves her hips automaticallyto the beat while keeping an eye out for the possible vampire calling himself the duke ― totally original.

but she had trouble breathing, sweat mixed with fresh blood clouding her nostrils ― as vampires drank from humans freely, making her eyes shift between a glowing or a dull red. without really thinking about it, she moved closer to jun. she seeks him out, grasping for comfort that was within his scent. ❛  jun ― i don’t…  ❜ her arms wind up around him, her face buried between the juncture of his neck and shoulder. ❛   i’m sorry i just need a moment.  ❜ @unstatvsquo​

it’s beyond unorthodox, not that it mattered much anymore. jun had long since ventured past the parameters of the rules he’d once lived by, the code he once upheld. 

a club is not a location one would think to find him, on the job or otherwise. the disorienting music, lights, and swell of bodies might be a blessing to some hunters but to him leaves too much room for error. his eyes scan the crowd, jumping from face to face, attempting to discern one shadowy figure from the next within the burst of the strobe lights. 

he’s stiff as he observes, which he realizes is doing no favors in helping the pair “blend” in. though any attempt to loosen up wouldn’t be of much help, he’s never been much of a dancer. his head bobs a second offbeat, not from a lack of rhythm but rather a keen focus elsewhere. it’s miha’s voice that pulls him back from assessing the far corners of the club to the immediate space between them. 

he’s almost forgotten just how close they are. he detects her unrest and feigns a smile of confidence despite his own apprehension. ‘it’s complete pandemonium, huh?’ his heart races unwillingly, whether from the thrill of the chase or the proximity of miha’s body - he’s unsure. 

he nearly freezes as she wraps herself around him, imagining her lips brushing his neck - any other vampire that dared venture this close a year ago he would have instinctively thrown to the ground. but the comparison is unfair, jun realizes. miha is far more to him than that now. 

He remains in place, thumbing the fork of the lighter absently. The silence that settles bears a weight as heavy as the new reality between them. Moojin does nothing to break it, allows it to loom until it morphs into a thought worth voicing out loud. 

“Commemorate the old, ring in the new—what’s not to celebrate?”

Moojin moves closer to the water, Jisoo a constant in his periphery. A sight unchanging despite the years that have grown on them both. He watches as the stone skips once before it sinks into the river bed. There’s a pathetic joke here somewhere about hitting rock bottom, but he refrains from the gesture. 

“Your dad had to associate with them his whole life.” He stoops down, tosses him a second rock. “Dementia wasn’t anywhere close to what he had to show for it.” The slowest, most painstakingly of demises—among their sort, it’s out of place in any context. Most would prefer the opposite, the blow of the bullet above all else, its abrupt mercy. No need to let Death indulge for longer than it has to. 

Moojin straightens. The lighter strikes hot. His hands cup over the spark as he holds it to the end of his cigarette. 

“What will you do?” 

And what will you have to show for it? 

he flings another rock across the water, this time achieving three skips much to his satisfaction. ‘ i really can’t disagree with you there.’ he turns to moojin, arms spread out in grandeur. ‘i am a man to be celebrated.’

the burst of confidence subsides just as quickly as it surfaces.

‘dad’s still far from sane.’ a solemn pause. ‘was.’ he corrects. there’s no evidence of grief in his tone. jisoo could almost feel guilty about his total apathy to his father’s death if he thought the man would care. it’s laughable to even consider his father with wounded feelings, afterlife or otherwise.

ah, yes. what will he do?

the question is inevitable. it’s one he’s dodged all night, only with moojin there’s no foreseeable escape. his hands bury themselves deep within his coat pockets, the right fidgeting his cellphone he’s miraculously left untouched the entire evening.

jisoo shrugs with an almost unforgivable amount of nonchalance.

          he  isn’t  even  planning  on  staying  for  long  —  jacob’s  intentions  are,  for  once,  pure.  nestled  in  his  back  pocket  behind  a  pack  of  cigarettes  is  a  note,  folded  neatly  and  freshly  written.  he  figured  a  lot  of  people  would  be  at  lily’s  infamous  party  tonight  that  he  could  leave  his  little  love  note  in  her  room  undetected.

but  that’s  all  easy  stuff.

his  entrance  poses  as  the  most  difficult  part  here.  ❛  you  should  just  enjoy  it,  lil.  rats  have  been  around  for  ages,  y’know.  ❜  he  steps  forward  to  lean  against  the  door  frame  with  no  intentions  of  leaving  his  spot.  jacob  did  take  a  shower  today,  by  the  way.  ❛  my  friends  are  already  in  there.  you’ve  already  lost.  ❜

she wants to scream. she also loathes the idea of giving jacob the pleasure of such a reaction.

‘cut the crap, kim. what’s your angle here? what are you trying to gain.’ her eyes narrow as if she can intimidate him into giving her a straight answer. ‘you and i both know you’d be better off in someone’s basement smoking into oblivion. so, do you get off on getting on my nerves? seriously.’ 

she faintly hears someone calling her name from the crowd pulsing behind her. god, he’s wasted so much of her time already. they could stand there for hours. she stares him down for another second, pulse racing with rage.