Minho slipped into the common room. Waving the lit screen of his phone in the direction of his three friends, the pack lounging bored for the hundredth time in that week alone, he asked, "Has anyone heard from Jisung?"

"No, none of us talk with him," Jeongin shook his head in denial.

The older huffed in frustration. He shifted on his heel, his weight swaying from side to side as he returned his attention back to the glow of his phone. His steps shifted, the gentle rocking of his weight back and forth allowing him to wander around the occupied furniture, the other wandering students fluttering through the common room barely avoiding his distracted presence. They sent him glares and scowls as they narrowed their gazes to the vampire, might murmurs slipping between other friend groups attempting to entertain themselves at the expense of the upperclassman. He hardly seemed to notice them. A light frown overtook his lips as his fingers began to angrily pound on the screen.

Hyunjin watched him for a few beats; Noting the pull of the frown on his features, how it seemed to envelop him, roping and tying him to only what the connection through the screen could provide; Observing the rapid pace he seemed to be typing on his screen with, a sort of panicked flurry consuming him as he stumbled around the furniture, wandering, but too distracted to even have a seat with the group of friends. After Minho nearly broke his hip bumping into the side of the padded chair he occupied, Hyunjin swallowed back a teasing laugh prepared to mock the older. He piped the question, "Something up?"

"I'm trying to text him and he's left me on read for a while now," Minho answered. His typing came to a stop as he leaned his elbows on the back of Chan's seat, his weight shifting fully to support him as he readjusted the grip on his phone and began swiping upward, eyes seemingly searching for an important something that screen contained hidden from their eyes. Chan leaned back, glancing over to the screen of the phone as Minho gently tipped it towards his friend as if to prove a point. While Chan busied himself with reading the contents present to him on the screen, Minho wondered, "Maybe there's an issue over in the human dorms."

Seungmin set a box of folders down on the table as he told, "Jisung is fine. He's taking a nap in our dorm. "

"That makes sense," Minho grumbled.

He paused.

Wait.

Hyunjin shifted up in his seat.

Seungmin?

Their gazes chased over to the human, standing casually in the center of the vampire dorm common room.

"We're supposed to be on lockdown," Chan started with a firm hiss. He moved Minho's phone away from him as his eyes widened, the swift interrogation tumbling from his lips already, "How the hell did you get in here?"

Seungmin folded his arms over his chest. A smirk peeled back his features.

"The front door."

Minho glanced down to the phone in his hands. Then to the blanking Chan. Finally to the human. He carefully interjected, "Is... is it not locked? They said it was locked?"

"No, you're correct the front door was locked."

"How did you...?"

"I knocked. The faculty checking the door saw me with the box, I told them some made-up story about how I needed to deliver a few papers, and they let me in."

"That easily?"

"Carrying things. Makes you look as if you have a purpose. Always works. In reality, those are folders and papers I stole from people's dorms while they weren't watching," Seungmin finalized as he gestured to the box he set on the coffee table, the smirk on his lips growing with pride each passing second. Each passing question that the two 'responsible and mature' vampires flung at him with those baffled looks turning their features pale. The human seemed to inflate a little larger. He seemed to tip his chin a little higher. He seemed to become more insufferable by the second, a visible snob, an absolute and utter pain to deal with on every occasion, yet from his spot by the side, watching Seungmin become evermore arrogant in himself, watching Seungmin showcase his stubborn brilliance,

Hyunjin couldn't help but allow himself to smile as he realized,

He's amazing.

Seungmin caught his line of sight, trailed unbreakably on his side profile. He shifted ever so slightly towards Hyunjin. For a moment, his eyes raked over the vampire's grin, a grin he guessed must have looked completely foolish and immature to the human. Yet, instead of Seungmin's praiseworthy vanity slipping and turning to the irritated scowl he thought it would have become, as the human looked at the vampire, his smirk just grew wider. Became more powerful, more dominant, more accented. As if he knew the true extent of wonder happening behind the vampire's otherwise unenthusiastic eyes.

"You are..." Chan trailed the end of his sentence off, like the powdered contrail of a jet engine tumbling from the blue horizon of the sky. His gaze shifted between Hyunjin and Seungmin, that motion repeating, circulating a few times, before finally settling on the latter of the two to scan him over. To do a complete checking sweep of the human, from the top of his fluffy hair, to the tips of his shoe's soles, investigating him in his every unwavering fiber despite being surrounded by vampires, despite being trapped in a lion's den with predators, his head held high with undying persistence. With one final rake threading through the human, Chan cleared his throat in conclusion, "Well, you're confident."

"Thank you," The human nodded.

Chan clicked his tongue. His nose scrunched as he hissed, "That wasn't a compliment."

"I didn't take it as one," Seungmin smiled at him.

Not bothering to wait for another response from the vampire, Seungmin shifted his back to their incredulous gazes, his steps crossing over one another as he approached Hyunjin. He folded his arms over again, his hand below the other gesturing lightly with two fingers at the vampire he was attempting to approach. The gesture a minor wiggle that was hardly noticeable to catch. A very simple prompt directed towards Hyunjin, a simple beckoning call which pulled his attention from the stunned Chan behind to the human coming closer to him. Upon seeing the calling motion, Hyunjin responded to it's ask by sliding up from his seat with a light sigh. Grabbing onto the human's shoulder, he pulled them both from the group.

Behind them, he heard Jeongin whisper,

"That was cool."

Chan groaned.

"Yeah. Don't encourage him."

Hyunjin quirked a smile as he listened in, still pulling the human after him into one of the many branching hallways. Close enough to keep a watchful eye over his friends in the common room, but deep enough into the outlets for their conversation to be concealed under the electric humming of the lights above and the muttered conversations of the other students roaming free. When they had been at a distance they deemed to be acceptable, Seungmin unfurled from the vampire and slotted himself up against a spot on the wall. His arms folded over, almost expectantly as the vampire leaned next to him and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Faculty is busy with the police. As of right now, the students are unsupervised. All that's stopping us is the security cameras outside, and an honor system. Fortunately, you know I don't give enough of a shit to respect honor systems," Seungmin explained, the hints of his smirk beginning to fold over his expression once again. The human scanned over the vampire for a moment, before he undid the thread of his folded arms and set his hands behind the small on his back, between the spine and the wall as he uttered, "Besides, I wanted to check in on you and see how you're feeling."

Another smile pulled on Hyunjin's lips, "You wanted to know how I was doing?"

"Is that so unusual?"

"You're being nice to me."

"Yes, I am," Seungmin scoffed at him, his gaze dropping to the floor as he tipped his head away. He snapped, "If you aren't going to be appreciative of me being kind-"

"No, no. I appreciate it," Hyunjin scratched at a certain spot behind his ear, the pad of his finger digging sharply into the abused skin to distract him. The vampire shifted on his feet a few times. First to the left, then to the right, gauging the appropriate response to the human's question. Especially considering the way his head bowed, the way his eyes narrowed, how his body seemed to writhe against the support of the wall and the balance of his hands beneath, as if he was being inspected under a scrutinizing light picking him apart. For the human to seem so, weak? Vulnerable? It was different. A pleasant change that reminded Hyunjin of the human's fragile mortality, one that could be ripped from his shifting body at any unprompted response.

Hyunjin cleared his throat, an awkward shift of his own matching Seungmin as he found it within himself to answer, "I'm doing fine. You?"

"I'm alright," Seungmin nodded. He leaned in to the presence of the other, his voice dimming quiet, "But if I had to listen to Jisung snore any longer I would have committed a murder myself."

The vampire, knowingly, winced an apology, "Sorry."

"No need to be. He hasn't been sleeping well since Changbin's attack, it's these constant nightmares during the night so he stays up texting on his phone," Seungmin elaborated, his eyebrows knotting together tightly as his lips drew thin. If Hyunjin wasn't entirely crazy, he would have pinpointed that look to be a faint reflection of sympathy. Seungmin was being plagued by sympathy at his words, by his thoughts, no doubt angled toward the anxious human he informed the vampire of. He shook his head, that expression rendering to dust as he turned the corner of his lips up in a weak way, "I would much rather leave the dorm for a while and let him rest while he isn't troubled."

"You would think being alone right now would scare him."

"I don't think he is not afraid, my assumption is what lurks in the night scares him more. Regardless, he is safe behind a locked door, and a tied down window, sleeping fine."

"Everyone is scared," Hyunjin concluded. Although a minor flicker in the back of his mind told him the situation was similar on the vampire side of the dorm buildings, he never chose to vocalize that realization. He didn't need to. It seemed to already be understood. Even if it wasn't understood, he never found the igniting spark in his chest which told him to do more than nod his head in agreement. He balled his hand into a fist, the tight clutch coming to tap the human's shoulder in a meager but playful punch as he added on, "Everyone but you, who's fearlessly breaking into the vampire dorms to talk to me."

"Don't sound so disappointed. I sincerely believed you would appreciate the gesture," Seungmin scoffed half-heartedly. He rolled his eyes as well, though the motion hadn't seemed malicious in the slightest.

Hyunjin simply forced another smile through in response. The hand he lifted drifting down to the ground, it's descent calling his eyes to the pits as well, calling his gaze to examine the bustling hallways and common room within his line of sight, only to find everything as it should be; Chan relaxing, munching on a bag of microwaved popcorn, though the young vampire wasn't entirely sure where he would have gotten the bag from; Minho and Jeongin watching something on the former's phone as they sat on the floor together, that pastime being the only preoccupying entertainment for the past few days; The other students wandering here and there, never stopping, some standing, as they kept their ricocheting glances concealed beneath their whispers. As everything should be.

His eyes raked over the other faces of the students he hadn't known. Coming to learn their features, their expression, their details, though none of it would be of any importance to him soon enough. He wouldn't need to know, or memorize their names, or their features. Despite that, he continued that process.

Until his eyes landed on a pair of green converse strolling down the adjacent hallway.

"Anyway, there is a matter I'd like to discuss with you," Seungmin started again.

Hyunjin shifted away from the human as he kept his gaze trained on the owner of those shoes coming closer.

"Hyunjin?"

They stopped.

Felix locked eyes with Hyunjin.

The former, face draining to a ghastly pale as his body seemed to freeze, wheeled around on his heel and briskly started back down the hall he had previously came from.

"Hold that thought," Hyunjin murmured.

He shoved himself from the human completely, instead stepping from the threshold of the hallway he occupied into the common room. The other's made quick comments. Flung sentences. Ones which flew over his head, in one ear and out the other, their words like ghoulish ghosts passing by for a fast scare, he didn't pay them any mind as he kept the bounding steps of the green converse in his line of sight. He followed after, quickly, his own pace set as brisk as the younger vampire as he passed the common room and entered the dark length of the adjacent corridor.

Felix tossed a glance over his shoulder.

Come on Felix,

His pace quickened more.

Hyunjin followed suit.

You're obviously acting weird.

Another gaze tossed over his shoulder at Hyunjin.

Without warning, Felix broke into a sprint.

"Shit," Hyunjin hissed under his breath and kicked up his own speed to pursue Felix.

♢♢♢