IV
Jay and Jake were waiting for Jungwon outside a classroom, where the latter was still stuck in even though it was well into late afternoon. It was on the third floor, so while waiting they leaned on the railing that opened the view of the lawn below; people watching. Dusk was approaching and there were plenty of students out and about.
“What is taking your roommate so long? Is he in detention or something?”
“Nah, he texted me and it seems his teacher is giving them an earful because they did horribly on their last quiz.”
Jay had never met Jungwon, but since they both agreed to go with him, this endeavor had now turned into a meet and greet of the two people Jake spent most of his time with.
“What did Yunah mean that day during lunch?” he asked.
“About what? Heeseung and I having a very sad dating lives?”
Jake nodded.
“Well, you know me, I have very high standards, I’m too big of a catch to just date anyone-” he winked, giving Jake the reflex to barf. “. And as for Heeseung… I’m not sure, I think he simply isn’t ready to settle down. He ends up ghosting every girl or boy that confesses to him.”
That’s awful, Jake thought. He wasn’t surprised by the fact there was a harem of people that had asked for Heeseung’s affection, that much he understood. But the older didn’t strike him as the type to play with other people’s feelings. Jake wasn’t stupid; but he also didn’t want to judge Heeseung too quickly.
Right before Jake could waste more time stewing in his own thoughts, Jungwon emerged from the door behind them, exasperation written all over his face. That must have been a dreadful lecture to sit through.
“Sorry to make you wait, I didn’t th– Ah, hello.” he noticed Jay standing there and offered a polite smile, dimples showing in all their glory. It seemed to take him a second, but after looking at Jay his face brightened up in recognition, “Oh wait, It’s you!”
“Pardon?”
“Yeah, you. Remember ninth grade? P.E class? you created a tornado inside the gym and sent half the students flying, me included!”
Jay seemed mortified. He was smiling and nodding as if he found the whole story fascinating, but Jake knew him well enough to know he was dying of embarrassment deep down.
“Ha ha. Yeah, that's me. My bad, I hope you weren’t holding a grudge over… that ”
Jungwon waved him off. “It’s nothing, I’m not surprised you didn’t even remember I was there.”
Well, at least the introductions were done with. Jungwon was eager to get going so he hurried the other two off to the library. The shape-shifter was pretty much leading the way.
Despite being students here for longer, neither Jay nor Jungwon had ventured to that place before. The closer they got to the library the more Jake realized just how far removed it was from the other buildings, it almost felt as if they were going off school grounds. The closest building was the unclassifieds’ dorms and they’ve already walked past it.
When they were close enough Jungwon pointed at the building and picked up his pace, the other two behind him. From outside it didn’t look that formidable: a two story brick building with its good share of smaller wings and boarded up windows.
As they approached it, the grass grew taller and it became trickier to walk through, especially for Jay and Jungwon. It was very clear why they called it the old library, it looked like no one had looked after it in ages. If there ever was a paved path that led you to the entrance, it was long overtaken by weeds and dirt.
Once they walked up the steps and got to the door, Jungwon tried it and when it didn’t move he turned to look at Jake, as if he knew any better what to do about it.
“Let me,” said Jay. He pushed them to the side and lifted a hand to the lock. Jake saw the tone of the metal turn paler, more opaque. A prickling sensation filled the air for a second. Jay gave it a small push and Crack !
“-once you freeze something enough it becomes brittle. Just like that, we’re in! You can thank me later.”
Yeah, Jake could've guessed as much, but more importantly “You just broke the lock, doesn’t that count as damaging school property?”
Jay turned to look at him wide eyed, clearly not having thought of that before. Genius.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like the administration cares about this place.” said Jungwon, giving Jay a comforting pat on the shoulder.
The three of them stepped inside, and not even five seconds after, the door closed with a thud behind them. “Not creepy at all” he heard Jay mutter next to him.
With the only entrance shut, the whole place was now engulfed in darkness. Jake’s eyes adapted quickly to the pitch black. But as he watched his companions feeling the air with outstretched hands and looking into empty corners, their steps hesitant, it became evident that wasn’t the case for them.
Before someone could trip over nothing, Jake took out his phone and turned on the flashlight, with the others following suit.
It was bigger than it looked from the outside, their beams of light could only go so far before they disappeared in the darkness. The dust had everything coated in a fine sickly veil, and Jake had to stifle a couple of sneezes.
“So… as far as I know we are not here to sightsee, right? let’s take that book of yours and get going before we catch some lung disease.” Jay coughed to emphasize his point.
Jake told them that it was supposed to be easy; just look for the physics section and there should be about a dozen books to choose from. What he had not accounted for is that the light switches would be useless and they’d have nothing but their phones to find their way.
Divide and conquer they said. So the three of them decided to go different ways to cover more bookshelves and whoever finds the books first would call for the others.
Given the hour it was probably already as dark outside as it was inside the library. Jake was sweeping his flashlight past the lettering above the shelves; history, philosophy, mathematics… he was probably close already.
Then something in the air shifted and the hairs at the back of his neck stood up. He tensed all over and instinctively turned his light off. He could focus better simply using his vision anyways. Was there someone else in here?
As he started walking backwards very slowly towards a more open area, Jake thought that he should have asked more specifics about what exactly was it that haunted this place. Silly him.
He tried to tune his hearing to the more subtle sounds around him: the steps of his friends somewhere else in the library, one pair was more swift and careless, the other more heavy. And he swore he could hear something else. Wind? But there were barely any windows, and certainly none open. Wheezing? Okay, he better not think too much about it. As much as he was the one who wanted to come here, now he was just as eager to get out.
As he finally made it into the reading hall, he could hear the heavy set of footsteps fall in sync behind him; Jay, he thought. His friend probably had no luck wherever he had been searching and decided to tag along Jake. But before he could turn around to tell him anything, Jake heard a shout: “What the hell was that?!” it was Jay’s voice and he sounded very far away . Fuck, fuck, fuck!
He bolted forward, without sparing a look behind him. His heartbeat spiked as he made his way towards the entrance; strides wide. Before he knew it he was in front of the door. Thanks to Jay for breaking the lock, because all it took was a swift kick from Jake and it flew open. There, the moonlit night welcomed him out. And he could breathe again.
Jake put a hand on his chest to calm his heart down. God, was that a fright. Outside the library the night was contrastingly peaceful; all the lights in the school buildings and dorms were still on, and here on the periphery the noise didn’t reach, so it was quiet. A bit too quiet.
Oh shoot, his friends.
Jay and Jungwon were still inside. He was heavily debating whether or not to go back in to get his friends. He really didn’t want to, but what if they needed his help? Damn it.
Being the true and selfless friend that he was, Jake marched to the door, mentally readying himself. When he heard something barreling towards him on the other side and so he jumped out of the way. Through the door, the first thing to appear was Jay; running so fast he tumbled over as soon as he got a foot out of the building. And five seconds later Jungwon appeared, tripping over and falling on top of the boy already sprawled on the floor.
“Sorry, sorry. Ugh– ouch.” said Jugwon, quickly getting off the wizard and shaking the dust off his clothes.
Jake extended a hand towards his mate, hosting Jay off the ground with ease. Still, he glowered at him.
“I’m never following you anywhere ever again, that shit was terrifying.”
“So you felt it too?” he declared, happy to know that it wasn’t just him going insane.
“Felt it? I saw it. Something was peering down at me from on top of the bookshelves.”
“So, this place is like haunted haunted.” Jungwon looked slightly shaken up, but not particularly upset.
The route back was spent mostly rambling about what they thought had happened inside. Jay swore he saw the shadow of some entity looking down at him. And around the time Jake heard footsteps following him? Yeah, neither of the other two was anywhere near where he was. Besides feeling a bit queasy, Jungwon stated not having experienced anything weird, but he did seem very thrilled to hear about what the others saw.
Jake was left bone tired after whatever the hell that was. He bid his goodbyes to Jay and headed with Jungwon back to their room. He wasn’t about to give up on the idea of getting that book, but it proved to be more of a challenge than expected. Shouldn’t the administration hire an exorcist to deal with this? They had literal wizards in here, surely they can get hold of some ghostbusters.
The plans for how he could browse the library again, without risking a cardiac arrest this time, could wait. Right now Jake had to worry about an assignment for his ‘Interspecies Diplomacy’ class and definitely get some top notch sleep after that.
…
Jake wasn’t incredibly proud of it, but for the past thirty minutes he had been scrolling over and over the same set of pictures in Heeseung’s Instagram profile. Yes, he’d cracked under pressure and created an account. He was in his room waiting for Sunghoon, so they could start their tutoring session, and it didn’t seem like a bad idea to check Heeseung’s posts in the meantime. Despite what Jay had told him yesterday, Jake decided to approach this crush (yeah, he had fully accepted it) with an open mind. And he was debating whether that was a good idea or not. Because as he watched the pictures that the older had uploaded, he had to physically stop himself from kicking his feet. It was embarrassing. It wasn’t as if the other was posting thirst traps or anything, they were all the pretty standard blurry, not looking at the camera, in a hoodie type of pics.
He looked at the time and turned the phone off to recover his cool. This was going to be his first time tutoring Sunghoon and since they both preferred a quiet place over some of the more common and crowded study areas, they settled on meeting in Jake’s room. Jake was glad he didn’t have to go back to the ghouls’ quarters. Why were vampires classified as ghouls anyway? Jake guessed they did feed off people in a sense, and they were technically undead. But considering their popularity, you’d think they had a division of their own.
According to what he has learned in history class, there was a centuries old animosity between werewolves and vampires. But it got resolved decades ago and nowadays it’s mostly played for laughs. Jake was a non confrontational dude, so this was great news for him.
There was a knock on their door; three concise taps. Jungwon went to answer first and opened it to reveal Sunghoon standing on the other side. Jake got up to welcome his… student?
“Hello there. This is my roommate, Jungwon. I hope you don’t mind him being here with us.”
The vampire said it was fine and stepped inside. Somehow the guy looked out of place; with his clothes perfectly pressed, backpack properly on both shoulders and awkwardly looking around while standing with his back squared in the middle of the room.
Is not like their dorm was messy or anything, but it certainly looked more uncoordinated and chaotic than what he had seen Sunghoon’s do. He signaled for the taller to take a seat near his desk as Jake pulled Jungwon’s chair over to borrow for the time being.
It only took fifteen minutes of covering some assignments for Jake to realize why Sunghoon needed his help. The boy was earnest, that much was clear. But he certainly didn’t have the sharpest mind for numbers and problems. See! This is why they need to reopen the old library. Though to be fair, a book alone wouldn’t do much for Sunghoon’s math.
Jungwon was happily using the fact that Jake had “stolen” his desk chair as an excuse to put off his own homework. He could see in his peripheral vision how the mimic was laying stomach first on the bed, looking up to spy on them from time to time.
Eventually, like the merciful tutor that he was, Jake suggested that they should take a little break from the notes and exercises; Sunghoon strongly agreed.
For a second he considered offering to Sunghoon one of the snacks he had stocked from the vending machines, but then he remembered that the other had very particular food preferences and decided against it.
After a couple of minutes of flipping through his own undone assignments, Jake suddenly felt Sunghoon’s gaze boring into him. But he waited for the other to speak first.
“So… how is the music club doing?” Sunghoon finally asked.
Jake turned to look at him and his shoulders seemed more tense than when he had asked him to solve a derivative of logarithmic function on the spot.
“Everything is fine, we are a bit busy with the preparations for the opening festival and stuff. But nothing to complain about.”
Sunghoon nodded, apparently satisfied with the information. He still seemed restless though.
“By the way-” Jake started. “-are you really immortal? you know, like the movies”
He didn’t know much about vampires, and this seemed like as good a time as any to get his questions answered. Sunghoon looked a bit puzzled for a second, but followed the trail of conversation.
“We are not immortal. We don’t age, which is different. If you meet someone who looks the same now as they did eighty years ago you do get the feeling that they live forever. Yet, there are plenty of ways for us to die.”
“Like the sun.” Jake provided quickly. Sunghoon frowned.
“Wha- No . The sun makes us sick, that’s for sure. But that’s about it. It makes you very weak and dizzy. The burning alive part is a myth. Same as turning into bats!” Sunghoon added that last comment with a tad of exasperation.
Well, there goes a fantasy ruined. But he could see there was more Sunghoon wanted to say, so he started to give out more prompts.
“And, since you are no longer the treasurer. Are you in another club now?”
He nodded, “I’m in the calligraphy club, it's okay, I guess. By the way–” he cleared his throat, “Do people from other clubs, maybe… I don’t know, pass by to say hi to you guys?”
Jake raised an eyebrow, “People as in… who?”
“I don’t know. Well– maybe. Someone like, I guess, Sunoo?”
At that, his roommate perked up. He rolled over the covers to accommodate himself better for the conversion. Face propped up on his hand.
“Wait. You mean Kim Sunoo?”
Hoon nodded.
“He is in my club! What a coincidence. Personally, I don’t think he’s been going over to other clubs after classes, but who knows.”
Noticing that he now had Sunghoon’s full attention, Jungwon kept going, “-Right, we also have a lot of classes together. Him and I. It doesn't mean he tells me all about his whereabouts though. Are Sunoo and you friends?”
Jake could feel an awkward silence coming, so he was quick to cut in “So, I’ve heard Sunoo is among the unclassified. Do you know what he is exactly? Since you are in the same club and all.”
Jungwon turned his face towards him, “Yeah, he is an illusionist.”
“Wait, then why isn’t he with the witches?”
His roomate shook his head as if Jake was slow, “Illusions aren’t magic. Magic users can manipulate energy, Sunoo makes you think he can”
Jake wasn’t following. Jungwon started to gesture with his hands for emphasis, clearly having paid plenty attention to whatever class this differentiation was pertinent to.
“... someone like Jay, for example, is able to conjure fire. Meanwhile an illusionist is able to make you see the fire. In a sense, Sunoo’s thing is getting in people’s heads.”
“It sure is.” Sunghoon mumbled next to him, apparently surprising himself by having spoken out loud. His eyes darted for a moment before settling with a frown. “I mean– Yeah, it’s not hard. Just picture it as someone who is able to give others super realistic hallucinations.”
Not that solid of an explanation in Jake’s opinion, but whatever.
And with that, their little break was over. Now Sunghoon turned around and was eager to go back to bussing himself with derivatives.The room was filled with a hushed type of silence once again.
When Sunghoon was collecting his things in his bag and readying to leave, Jungwon took notice and casually mentioned, “Would you like me to let Sunoo know you said hi or something?”, trying to be polite. The vampire looked horrified at the proposition, he shook his head and responded “Not at all.”
As he accompanied the other all the way out of the room and to the first floor, Jake had to wonder; what could possibly be the thing that caused friction between the former members of the music club? From what he’s seen, Sunghoon was a very decent guy. And Jungwon wouldn't associate himself with someone that wasn’t anything short of good-natured, so Sunoo surely couldn’t be that bad. Neither did any of the other club members seem to have any grievances of their own against them. He could simply ask Sunghoon about it, as they have now reached the doorway that led the way out. But he doubted the guy would appreciate the question. So he let him leave and went back to his room with his doubts unresolved.
…
Jake could feel a dull ache forming in the front of his skull. He was standing next to the big window in the music room. He stared down at the courtyard, envying all the people who were unaware of just how noisy the world could get, especially with sharpened hearing. Everyone was currently practicing whatever piece they had the most issues with, resulting in a cacophony of instruments all going at different paces and playing completely different melodies.
He plopped down in one of the shabby couches with an audible groan and violin still in hand.
“Getting nowhere?” inquired Jay, who had already been sitting there with his guitar. Jake had the suspicion that the other had in fact everything mastered already, and was just there to entertain himself.
He shook his head, “Nah, I’m doing well enough. It’s just-” he motioned to his ears, Jay hummed in understanding. “-I think I’ll have to ask Jungwon for a Tylenol once I get back.”
In cue, he saw Jay's ears almost physically perk up. Taking the guitar off his lap and laying it next to them over the cushions, he positioned himself in what Jake presumed was supposed to be a nonchalant posture.
“Of course, you should do that, absolutely. Tylenol… By the way, do you think there’s a chance Jungwon still resents me for what happened that one time? Has he told you anything that implies he hates my guts?”
“You mean the time you sent him to the infirmary via tornado?”
He tried to give it some thought. Jay did end up breaking Jungwon’s arm, or so his roommate remembered. Jake did as any good friend would and tried to defend Jay by explaining that around that time the wizard was having a rough time getting a grasp of his abilities. But honestly, the explanation seemed a bit pointless, Jungwon could have guessed as much, and there wasn’t any hint of him holding a grudge about it. So he shook his head at Jay’s expectant expression.
“Good, I think I never apologized and I, you know, don’t want him to think I’m a dick.” He shifted a bit awkwardly in his seat. “Ahem. I know Sunghoon went to your dorm. Just asking, what did Jungwon think of him?”
That was an odd question. And Jake’s expression must have shown as much, because Jay hurried to elaborate.
“-it’s not, you know. People have this weird idea that Sunghoon is like, hot .” Jay said it like it was a conspiracy theory he didn’t buy into. “-With him being tall, rich and all that. I was wondering if Jungwon seems to agree with that sentiment, or maybe…”
Jake thought back at yesterday’s events; Sunghoon standing awkwardly in their room, clearly not knowing what to do with himself. Yeah, whatever irresistible charms Sunghoon was said to have did seem to be lost on Jake, and likely they were lost on Jungwon as well. So he told Jay as much.
He knew he didn’t imagine the relief in his friend's face.
“I see. It makes sense–” he continued. “I can’t picture Jungwon tumbling over himself for someone like Sunghoon. But if a brooding vampire is not exactly his type, I wonder what his type is.”
He thought the last bit was a rhetorical question. But as the other turned to look at him expectantly, Jake realized he was supposed to provide an answer. Him and Jungwon never really talked about stuff like that. He didn’t have the faintest idea of what his roommate was into, in fact he didn’t even know if Jungwon had ever dated someone before.
But that wasn’t what Jake was thinking about right now. What he was focused on was the fact that Jay had an obvious crush on his roommate. He wasn’t born yesterday. It was easy to recognize when his best friend was acting weird, and this whole conversation was reeking of infatuation. Jake wouldn’t tell Jay that he knows for the moment being, he wanted to enjoy seeing his mate being a mess for a bit longer.
Instead of going on about Jungwon, and risking Jay noticing that he noticed, Jake steered the conversation in a different direction.
“But what about Sunghoon and Sunoo? What started the beef between those two? He didn’t give much away yesterday.”
Jay sighed and looked up at the roof like a martyr, “That's also what I want to know, honestly. Sure, they are both very strong headed and couldn’t be more different from each other. But they alway got along. In fact, they always seemed to enjoy each other’s company better than anyone else’s. Did you know Sunoo actually signed up for night classes last year? Only so he could do the group assignments with Sunghoon. Then, for god knows what reason, one day Sunghoon’s jabs at Sunoo stopped trying to be funny. And the other wouldn’t let it slide, like, at all.” He slumped back into the cushioned nest that they made, “- I don’t know man. I’m still holding hope that they’ll make up before we have to graduate. They’re both my friends after all.”
Not long after, Yunah caught sight of them and chastised them for gossiping during precious practice hours. Jake would hardly call what they were doing gossiping, but he got up and cradled his violin once again without much protest.
Jake went over the now familiar tunes over and over again as the sun started to dip.
One by one the other members called it a day and spilled out of the room to go tent to their own affairs. To be honest, Jake was stalling. There wasn’t much left for him to practice since like, around half an hour ago. He noticed that as everyone was leaving, eventually it would be down to him and Heeseung, who still looked pretty preoccupied in his seat by one of the desks.
The older had already put his bass away, and was currently flipping the pages of a book, two empty soda cans next to him. Jake allowed himself to stare for a moment. His big brown eyes were narrowed in focus, or maybe confusion? the broad set of his shoulders visible through the thin fabric of his t-shirt. And his hands, oh lord, the unmistakable nimble hands of a musician, and certainly way bigger than Jake’s own. He would be lying if he said that he hasn’t spent hours thinking about those same hands during ungodly hours of the night.
Feeling now a little warm in the face, despite the cool evening, Jake drifted quietly in Heeseung’s direction. And for a second he thought that Heeseung hadn’t noticed him looming nearby, until the quick phump! of the book slamming closed startled Jake, and Heeseung started laughing with the mirth of someone that clearly did it on purpose.
“Jesus! my heart!” said Jake, grabbing at the aforementioned part of his chest.
The other boy looked up at him, a deceivingly innocent smile adorning his face.
When Heeseung stretched his arms up to the roof, letting a halfhearted yawn out, Jake took it as permission for him to lean on the desk and stand a bit closer.
“I heard that your excursion to the old library didn’t go as planned?” Heeseung started conversationally.
“Oh, yeah it was…” Jake thought back at the way the door shut on them, his heart threatening to come out of his throat, the oppressing feeling of being watched and the complete darkness. “...more difficult than expected. Our nerves got the best of us.” He chuckled it off.
The other raised an eyebrow at him, “Honestly I'm a little hurt you took Jay instead of me. I’m definitely better suited for the job than him.” He opened his arms to show himself as proof of this statement.
It took him a minute to catch the meaning behind that. But when the realization hit him, it was painfully obvious. How could he have forgotten about that? As if reading his mind, the other tapped the cover of the book he had just been reading: Do's and Don'ts of undeath magic . Heeseung was a necromancer.
“Spooky and ghostly things are kind of my element.” he provided.
Jake had completely forgotten about that bit of information. Probably because it was hard for him to relate Heeseung with anything ominous and creepy. Besides, Heeseung didn’t smell like death ; the boy smelled like smoke, greenery and a faint touch of fabric softener. Jake couldn’t picture him performing rituals in a cemetery.
“So? Would you like to go with me to the library next time?”
“Only if you want me to.”
Of course Jake wanted him too.