Nadir ◈ Seungjin

27 ◈ Jörmungandr

"Number?"

"Two."

"One!" Jisung shifted the flashlight directly into the vampire's eyes.

Hyunjin winced back, face scrunching up as he grabbed the other's wrist and pointed the beam of light back to the marina docks, "Zero, stupid, please get it out of my eyes."

Pushing their chatter to the back of his mind, Seungmin ripped his eyes off of the pair strolling along behind him. As causally as if they were taking a midday picnic through a city park. He pointed both him and his phone's flashlight onto the docks ahead of him. Beneath the soles of their shoes, the ocean waves which lapped up at the pine planks creaking with every step they took navigating deeper into the marina. The clear view of the wrapping pathways, moored off pleasure boats with alabaster hauls and pointed bows slicing through the night as they rocked gently with the breaker water, the few lamplights hung atop guiding posts keeping the steady grounds from washing out to an unforgiving sea. Farther out, the sky, as it stretched down, engulfing the wide horizon in a blended tangle, impossible to make out where the night began and the ocean ended.

The four of them walked along, flashlights waving as they checked the docks. The boats. The larger parked yachts. Searching each carefully for a sign. Sights out of the ordinary for the port city's impossibly large marina space, sounds which wouldn't fit in with the wet sloshing of waves and the groans of boats stuck tirelessly against the beating borne, smells of soaking blood or paradise delight for a certain vampire walking with Jisung. Minho having set off a few lengths ahead of them after the human continued to poke fun at him for not knowing what a hypotenuse was, more of their ceaseless bickering back and forth before the older vampire gave up with a bellow rumbling in his chest and a hiss that threatened to kill him when he wasn't looking.

Seungmin turned around to the other two to ensure they were still following after, only to catch Jisung making the same two finger swiping gesture at his back. Stopping when he realized his movements had been caught.

The other human simply grinned at him.

Seungmin halted in his tracks, a bite back to the overly cheerful pull of his lips, "Can I help you?"

"Eh? Actually, you know, not really. You're kind of meh," The other human mocked with a laughter slammed from his chest. A throaty sound that sounded purposefully forced, purposefully timed to echo in the absence of cluttered white noise this far out from the rest of the port city, purposefully meant to spat directly into the painful clench of his head. Jisung bounced a bit on his heel, bringing himself closer to his once closest friend. In his hand, he flipped the flashlight over his grip with an estranged ease. As if the tool was a dagger, a weapon balanced perfectly to spin around his hands while he continued to jeer through his pleasant snile, "You're the last person I'd count on, Seungmin. Right now, you're pretty much better off being caught by the Mimic and killed. You're better off dead at this point. But I want to count in you. I do."

Then, as if the light was his blade to cut through the night, Jisung spun the flashlight into an underhand grip. Stepping closer.

And closer.

Each step causing Seungmin to root farther down into the docks, tensing up underneath the placid grin which told, "Hyunjin agrees."

"What?" The vampire startled. He pulled his eyes off the boat he was staring at, taking a moment to look between them before he wandered over, "What are you saying I agree with now?"

"Seungmin, and him relying on others."

Even if their words made his skin crawl.

"Oh, yeah. You can be strong if you weren't afraid. If you weren't weighed down by them."