Nadir ◈ Seungjin

3 ◈ To Know A King

Seungmin folded his arms firmly over his chest, the support of the living room's wall he leaned on propping up his unsteady legs. He watched the scene with an expression he knew would come as unreadable, the movie unfolding before his eyes; The pack of the two patrol police sweeping through his and Minho's apartment space to inspect the potential threat, pulling apart the finest details of the rooms to find evidence of the previous engagement, checking each polished door jamb with scrutinizing eye and each wall with superstitious regard, as if the room would suddenly come alive and swallow the squad of trained professionals whole. As if the house would sprout hands from the corners to devour any heartbeat wasting away inside.

Unmoving, the miniscule separation if his joints and muscles tearing apart as they begged to move. Even a flinch or twitch of the nerves inside to restimulate them. Remind them their tendons and ropes were tied down to a living, functioning, conscious person, and not the cement statue they convinced themselves they unknowingly rooted their webs into. As if he dissolved slowly underneath the burning lights above him and what remained of him absorbed into the clean walls. He hadn't moved from that post since Minho insisted to make the initial phonecall to the police department. He hadn't entertained for a second, the idea of leaving the protection of the solid surface behind him shielding the nape of his neck.

From where he stood, he could watch everyone in the apartment. He could take note of the suddenly sobered up Minho chatting with one of the officers, their junior by three years, their words quiet and concealed underneath the hum of tense warbling hammering into his eardrums. He could observe the scarlet sunlight pouring blushing hues from the other side of the windows. Take note of how the golden beams scorned and scalded the shadows to retreat far from them, revealing the coming day with the raising curtain of the night. The slight warm from it's intrusion beginning to burn Seungmin's covered arms yet to have changed from yesterday's outfit.

A frown started to peel apart his exterior.

He glanced back, making a brief eye contact with Minho across the way. The older clamped a hand on the police officer's shoulder, a fast smile in her direction before turning to Seungmin. He wandered over, each and every one of his steps watched with the narrowed eyes. Picked apart, bit by bit, to confirm the vampire was the vampire and no one else. To confirm the cat-like smile and playful eyes were truly the Cheshire they claimed themselves to be. The tinted cheeks washed back to their proper color.

"You're..." Minho said with a pule. He slipped next to Seungmin, leaning beside him on the wall as he completed, "Very calm."

The frown tugging on his expression deepened down, sinking into the pits. His chest tumbled, a turbulence knocking his breathing off balance from where he stood, drenching him gently with a twisting dread. The type of feeling when plates slipped from his hands, when spiders inches across bare skin to look him intimately in his eyes, when the dark was his only friend to be by his side. Seungmin shook his head, knocking the feeling off the best he was able to as he ironed his lips back into their flat plain and tipped his chin back in his masked arrogance, "What point is there in being anything other than calm. Someone broke into our apartment. Alright. What good will it do if I become afraid and panic?"

"I mean... Considering you're afraid of the dark, you're handling this well," The vampire asserted.

Seungmin narrowed his eyes at the ground.

I'm not.

"I'm not afraid of the dark," The human scoffed back to him.

The swirling in his chest tumbled faster.

The words lingering sour twinges on his tongue from their rotten syllables. The taste of mold electrifying him to proclaim him as nothing more than a liar. Even if he felt a gaze train into the side of his head, knowing that if he turned his eyes to look he would meet a quirked eyebrow, a suspicious gaze, a twisted expression painting a disbelief towards the confession he was given. The eyes that stared him down silently prying but knowing they wouldn't be able to voice their skepticism. Not unless he wanted to be barricaded by retorts of, 'Do you not trust me?', to force his worry off. Not unless he wished to be pushed away, despite his attempts to draw closer to the lonesome form of the human to give him a chip of company.