Lovers in the Night | Yang Jungwon

XVIII

Later in that evening, Jungwon was walking Danah to her home. Throughout the walk, it was suffocatingly quiet for her. Jungwon was lost in thought as if coming up with a plan.

"What a scare," Danah tries lightening up the mood. He fakes a smile. "She had a grand entrance as well.

He nods, "Don't worry too much about it. Just bring that Vampire repellent around more often. Besides, if Rose was truly going to go through with war, it wouldn't be here."

So her name is Rose. "Where else would the war be held?" Judging from Jungwon's calm appearance, she didn't know what to expect anymore. Should she be worried or not?

"In the Vampire realm," he says. Danah didn't even know that existed. "I can take you one day."

She chuckles, "Wouldn't your Vampire friends go crazy if they saw a Human at their home? I'd be done for in a matter of seconds."

"I said I'd protect you, didn't I? I was serious when I said that," he reiterates. Chuckling, she puts her hand on his curly hair and began ruffling it.

"Yeah, don't touch my woman." she jokingly mocks him. She recollects the feelings she felt that time, her heart was fluttering and she felt cherished.

He furrows his brow, "What's so funny? I do anything for my friends." Ouch, did she just get friendzoned?

Danah's smile suddenly falls, and he doesn't realize this. She wanted to say what are we then? but it doesn't come out. "Right," she simply says.

All of a sudden, there was some awkwardness in the air. Jungwon notices but doesn't know as to why.

So, he opens his mouth to say something else but instead a sneeze comes out. "Bless you," Danah exclaims. They stop walking and he begins sniffling, heaving deeper breaths. "Are you okay?"

She was confused as to why he was suddenly acting up like this. "It's the cat from earlier," he breathes out. He begins itching on his skin from the places Danah had touched him earlier.

She gasps, "I'm so sorry. What can I do to help?" She takes a few steps back, not wanting him to getting sicker because of her.

"It's fine," He didn't want to worry her further. He sees that her house was just seconds away now, giving him the opportunity to set off. "It'll wear off. Vampires are tough, you know?"

She was skeptical by the way his voice shook, not trusting him completely. "If you say so," she clicks her tongue. "Thanks for everything."

"Of course." The ends of his lips upturn, and he waves at her. She hesitantly waves back, not sure if she should leave him be in his current state. With that, he transforms into a bat and goes for home.

After seeing him off, she walks into home and slowly closes the door behind her. "You're home," Yeonjun greets from the living room couch.

"You're home?" she mocks because her older brother is almost never home.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asks without looking at her.

What? "No." Did he see me with Jungwon or something?

"Oh." She wanted to press Yeonjun with questions, but the worrying thought of Jungwon and his cat allergy clouded her mind once again.

She brushes past him and goes up to her room.

"His allergies can't be that bad," Dana tries assure herself. But she knew, in her heart, that he was hiding the pain.

≡

"Are you insane, Won?!" Heeseung berates him while Sunoo pushes Jay out the room, knowing that he too was allergic to cats. "Why didn't you come immediately after reacting to cat fur?!"

His friends knew that he had stumbled across a cat and that he waited 30 minutes before returning home, but they didn't know why he would do all of that.

Jungwon was on his knees in bathroom, vomiting profusely against the toilet. "Fuck, where's the epipen?!" Jake frantically searches for the injection in Jungwon's room.

On the other hand, Sunghoon was in search for his friend's ointment, knowing he had rashes. "Where are they?" he rustles a hand through his hair in annoyance.

"I'll just get the allergy stuff from Jay hyung's room!" Niki yells and leaves to do so.

"Is he okay?!" Jay screams from outside of the house. Jay had a more severe allergy to cats, so he was pressured to exit the building by his friends.

"He's great!" Sunghoon tries to affirm his friend, although that was a lie and Jungwon was still exhibiting symptoms. "Better than ever!"

Jungwon's skin had turned paler than it already was, as if all life drained out of it. There were excessive amounts of sweat on him as well which was a worrying feat.

Heeseung decides to calm down and help his younger friend out. He goes on one knee and comfortingly pats Jungwon's back. "Breathe, Jungwon, breathe."

Jungwon was heaving, and his breaths now only came out in throaty coughs. "We found it," Jake enters the room with Sunghoon and Niki trailing behind him.

In Jake's hand, there was a large needle and Heeseung gulped when he saw it. Glad I don't have any allergies, he thinks to himself.

"Won, we need to do it now," Sunghoon delicately announces to his friend that was still throwing up. "By 'it' I mean sticking this needle in you."

Jungwon swallows saliva, silently nodding. "Okay," Heeseung loops his arms around Jungwon's arms from behind to keep him from moving and turns him around to face the three boys.

The poor Vampire could no longer keep his head up, letting his head loosely hang down. Niki pulls his friend's pants' hem up to make way for the injection whilst Sunghoon straightens his leg.

"I'll count from three," Jake informs them. "Three... two... one—" And he punctures the epipen into Jungwon's skin.

Jungwon groans in pain and immediately passes out right after. They momentarily scan him, seeing life come back to his face.

All four boys sigh in relief, falling to their asses. They haven't panicked this much in so long — They could've lost their beloved friend. "I almost had a heart attack," Sunghoon confesses.

"I know, hyung just came in and collapsed on me when I greeted him. I was so confused," Niki somehow makes the situation funny.

Jake drops the epipen on the ground and sighs. "We wouldn't have had to stick this epipen in him if he came back to us immediately after reacting," he pronounces. "What made him wait?"

"That's a question we can ask him for when he wakes up," Heeseung grunts as he gets up. Jungwon did just pass out onto him. "For now, let's take him to his bed."

"Can we come in now?!" Sunoo exclaims from outside. The four boys almost had forgotten that they made Jay leave the area and had Sunoo accompany him.

Niki looks out the window to see that Jay was pacing back in forth in front of the front door whilst Sunoo sat patiently.

"Not yet," Heeseung responds in the same volume. "We need to clear the place of cat fur for Jay!"

On Jake's back, Jungwon gets carried back into his room and plopped onto his bed. Without saying more, they apply the allergy ointment into their friend's skin.