It was weird being here with the BLE team. They were so welcoming, but would they remain that way if they knew how he felt about HanYin? Or would he be ostracized or made to leave? He didn’t know the answers to those questions, and so he wouldn’t take the risk. Just like he didn’t know what HanYin’s response to his overtures would be, should he be foolish enough to make them. It was best to not take the risk of being mocked, beaten, or worse.
Jin-woo
“WHERE DID Jong-in dongsaeng go?” HanYin asked as he served himself some dumplings. “He was here just a few minutes ago.”
“He, um, he needed a few moments to himself,” Jin-woo said, feeling guilty for upsetting his friend.
“Is he all right?” HanYin asked, pausing and looking around for Jong-in.
“He’ll be okay.” Jin-woo tried to give a reassuring smile, but he was worried too. “He’s probably sitting in a quiet corner somewhere with the music turned up. Don’t worry. He won’t be late. He’s really good with time management.”
“Oh,” HanYin said. “I was hoping to see what other types of food he likes. I tend to make food for everyone when we’re shooting. I don’t want to make something he doesn’t like or is allergic to.”
“That’s very sweet. He really likes the steamed dumplings. On the rare occasions we go out, he always wants crispy, crunchy fried chicken and kimchi fried rice. He loves it,” Jin-woo said. “They asked you about that in an interview one time, didn’t they?”
“Yes. Apparently it was just such an odd concept that an idol would do something nice for the crew,” HanYin said. “BLE is family, and I like to see my family happy.”
“Everyone does seem to get along really well,” Jin-woo said.
“So what do you think of the experience so far?”
“It’s amazing.” Jin-woo laughed. “There’s so much energy here, so much positive support from everyone. And everyone is being so nice. I know I ask a lot of questions, and I know it can get really annoying sometimes, but it’s just because I want to know about all of it.”
“You can’t expect to learn if you don’t ask any questions,” HanYin said with a nod. “Soon-joon-nim tells us that all the time. No one here will be bothered by your questions. And honestly, everyone already adores you three!”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Cheongul said as he approached.
“You like him, admit it.” HanYin poked Cheongul in the arm, furrowing his brow when Cheongul winced. “What happened? Why did you wince?”
“It’s nothing,” Cheongul said, rubbing his upper arm.
HanYin said, “Roll up your sleeve and let me see.”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“You don’t wince for nothing,” HanYin said. “Don’t make me force the issue, Cheongul-a. You know I will. It’s just easier to do as I ask now, rather than when I have you pinned.”
“That happened once,” Cheongul pointed out. “It’s truly nothing. I just have a bruise, and you managed to hit right on it.”
“How did you get a bruise?”
“Min-su-ya packs a wallop.” Jin-woo smiled. At HanYin’s confused look, he explained, “Cheongul hyung startled her earlier today, and she smacked him. Only her smacks to anywhere, except the head, tend to involve a closed fist.”
“Oh, Ki-tae-ya is going to love this.”
“Where is Ki-tae hyung, anyway? He disappeared when they called break,” Jin-woo asked. He tried to be nonchalant about it but wasn’t sure he succeeded.
“Ki-tae-ya hasn’t been sleeping well lately,” Cheongul said quietly, shooting a glance at HanYin. “He probably went to lie down in the dressing room.”
“Is he all right?” Jin-woo asked, looking up in surprise. “He seemed very energetic when we started this morning.”
“All part of being in this industry. We have a job to do, and that sometimes means working when we’re exhausted, sick, or just plain need downtime. That doesn’t happen often. Soon-joon-nim doesn’t allow it. I think it mostly happens on tour. We’ve never been so bad off that we couldn’t perform, but he would have no problem canceling and compensating people if we were,” HanYin said. “Still, we have a responsibility to our fans to give them 100 percent, at the very least. We just try to take care of ourselves so that we don’t get sick or worn down too often.”
“Still, you should rest when you need to,” Jin-woo said. “You can’t give that 100 percent if you’re hospitalized.”
He wondered if Ki-tae did get tired or if he just pretended to hide his secret. He didn’t seem tired when he was onstage, but Jin-woo had seen a number of backstage videos and some candid shots, not to mention fancams following Ki-tae everywhere, where Ki-tae just looked exhausted. Did Vampires get exhausted? Did they get sick? The sunlight thing was complete crap because Ki-tae had done outdoor concerts on more than one occasion, looking hot as hell literally and figuratively standing in the bright light. He was going to have to pin Ki-tae down and ask all the questions swirling around in his head: Did Ki-tae have any special powers? Could he control people’s minds? How often did he have to have blood? He’d seen Ki-tae eat. Did it do anything for him? Did it make him sick? Dammit, there were just so many questions.
“Very true, so we work with Soon-joon-nim and make adjustments when necessary,” Cheongul said with a smile. “Ki-tae-ya is just a little more stubborn than the rest of us when it comes to working and his health. He pushes himself very hard. Ofttimes we have to make him take breaks because he gets so focused on what he’s doing he’ll forget to eat or sleep. Granted, the results are amazing, but then he crashes for at least two days.”
“I knew idols worked hard, but I didn’t realize how hard,” Jin-woo said quietly as he looked down at his cheese puffs. “I’ve heard of idols fainting onstage and such. I always thought it was because they were sick and those lights are stupid hot. It never occurred to me it might be because they’re pushing themselves for their fans.”
“We’re here because of our fans. We can do no less than give our all,” HanYin said. “Some fans understand, and some don’t. I’m glad you’re one of the ones who does.”
“Me too.” Jin-woo smiled at them.
He was just about to say more when they announced lunch was over and everyone needed to return to the set. Jin-woo put the cover back on his cheese puffs and set them with his things. He grabbed his notebook and a pencil and shoved the pencil behind his ear. He’d been taking notes and comments since they began filming. It was fascinating to watch the crew plot out the filming schedule. Seeing his storyboards next to theirs made him feel giddy.
Much like a film production, the video wasn’t shot in order either. Since Bam Kiseu had other commitments to prepare for, they had to work on the shots with the band in them first. Some of it was done on a green screen, as arranging to use historical or near-historical sites was time-consuming. They could recreate those sites on the computer in postproduction, which was a bit more cost-effective than on-site shoots… and involved less paperwork.
Each morning Jin-woo and Min-su would sit down with the director and go over the boards for the day. Jin-woo often found himself so caught up in the conversation that he would ramble and Min-su would be forced to rein him in, but the director didn’t seem to mind. Once that meeting concluded, he would go to the set and help get everything ready. That’s when he’d see Jong-in working with the sound crew.
What made it even more special was if he wanted to make a change to what they were shooting, maybe change how the band entered the shot or how the camera panned, they would listen to him. His ideas were not always implemented, but often the director would have them shoot it the way he suggested. When they did the final editing, they would choose the best shots, so the director was happy to have a lot of material for the editors to work with.
The hard part came when Ki-tae stepped on set. The first time Jin-woo saw him in costume, he barely caught his whimper in time. Ki-tae in modern clothing was hot and distracting. Ki-tae dressed in
a period costume was incredibly sexy and alluring, especially after he’d already been to makeup and had the wig in place. Apparently long sapphire hair and curving black horns were a turn-on for Jin-woo. Who knew?
Shooting a music video was more hectic than Jin-woo had thought, and as the days passed, Jin-woo and Ki-tae were only able to find brief moments of privacy. Ki-tae would catch him backstage and steal heated kisses. They’d find an empty dressing room on break and engage in some heavy petting. While Jin-woo loved to give blowjobs, he had yet to experience one from Ki-tae, which seemed to bother Ki-tae a lot. The last few times they had been able to catch a moment, Ki-tae had refused to let him go down on him.
“Am I doing something wrong?” Jin-woo finally asked. “Don’t you like when I do that?”
“I love when you do that,” Ki-tae said, caressing his cheek. “What I don’t like is not being able to return it. I enjoy the dry humping, too, but I want to give you as much pleasure as you give me. I want to take you to bed and make you scream all night long. I want to make you cum so hard you pass out again.”
“You talk like that, and I can’t think straight for imagining it,” Jin-woo whispered, laying his forehead against Ki-tae’s chest. “I… I want that too, but there’s just… no time.”
“We’re almost done with filming. Postproduction will take….” Ki-tae paused for a moment.
“Postproduction should only take about a week, week and a half at most, only because we have classes. Soon-joon-nim said that was a priority, and our on-site mentors had other projects they could work on but would save this for when we’re there. Normally shooting wouldn’t take this long either, but these aren’t normal circumstances,” Jin-woo said, trying to focus while Ki-tae teased his hands along his spine. It was very difficult to think with Ki-tae’s touch on his skin.
“We have public appearances the beginning of next week. HanYin-a has some commercials to shoot. Cheongul-a will be working on the charity events, and I have three magazine spreads to do. I believe we have a group interview two weeks from now, and then there’s the meet and greets all over the country. Dammit, I don’t get to spend enough time with you,” Ki-tae complained with a growl.
“Somewhere in there you have to eat, right?” Jin-woo asked. “Look at your schedule tomorrow, and we’ll see about having dinner together.”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” Ki-tae said with a smile as he kissed Jin-woo’s nose, laughing when Jin-woo scrunched it up in response.
“Nope,” Jin-woo said.
“What do you mean, ‘nope’? You just said you wanted to have dinner together,” Ki-tae said, looking confused.
“I want dinner with just you, not you and any fans or businesspeople that conveniently happen to show up,” Jin-woo teased with a smile. “So we’ll set up a date, and then you’ll come to my place, and I will make dinner for you. A nice, quiet, private dinner.”
Jin-woo punctuated the last four words with a fleeting kiss. Then he found himself scooped up into Ki-tae’s arms and kissed breathless. When Ki-tae finally released his mouth, Jin-woo couldn’t help but tease him. “You’re determined I walk out of this room with a hard-on tenting my pants, aren’t you?”
“If I must suffer, so do you,” Ki-tae growled as he nibbled on Jin-woo’s neck. “Your scent alone is like a kick to the gut. It gets me hard so fast. Your voice is a caress, sweet and sensual. I love the needy sounds you make when I touch you just so.”
Ki-tae skimmed his hands down to cup Jin-woo’s ass. He slid his nails over the sensitive inner area where thigh met buttock, making Jin-woo whimper and bite his lip. “I love the way you catch your bottom lip between your teeth when you look at me. It reminds me of all the wicked things you’ve done with that sweet-looking mouth. The way you suck my cock all the way down is nothing short of mind-melting.”
“See? You’re doing it again.” Jin-woo was panting. His entire body tingled, and he dug his fingers into Ki-tae’s shoulders. Letting his head fall back, he tried to regain some semblance of control, but it was useless. With Ki-tae so close, he could feel the heat of their cocks pressed together. “You’re going to make a mess of me.”
“Not today, unfortunately,” Ki-tae said, his voice strained as he stepped back. “We have five minutes before break is over, and then it’s work for the rest of the day.”
“You’re an evil bastard. You know that, right?” Jin-woo chuckled. “I want to cum so badly right now.”
“I want to watch you cum. Hell, I want to make you cum, but we’re out of time, sweetling,” Ki-tae said as he pulled Jin-woo close once more and stroked his hair as if gentling him.
It took them the full five minutes they had left, but they managed to regain control of themselves. Jin-woo reminded Ki-tae to check his schedule so they could set up their date and then headed to the set. He paused to adjust himself, muttering at the unfairness of time when horny. It was going to be a bitch to work for the next several moments, but hopefully no one would notice.
Ki-tae
KI-TAE WALKED into the dressing room and found Cheongul and HanYin smirking at him. “What?”
“You were with Jin-woo dongsaeng again,” Cheongul said. “The perfume fills the air.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You reek of pheromones and Jin-woo dongsaeng,” HanYin said with a laugh. “Fortunately for both of you, only Cheongul and I have to suffer with it. Although I think several members of the crew have suspicions.”
“Has anyone said anything?”
“No, no one,” Cheongul said. “It’s a matter of time, though. You two keep sneaking off together. You hide being a Vampire better than your attraction to Jin-woo dongsaeng.”
“So much for being discreet,” Ki-tae muttered, running a hand through his hair.
“You guys are discreet, but people here notice things,” HanYin said before biting off the end of a Pocky stick. “Jin-woo dongsaeng can hide his emotions pretty well, I must say. It’s only in the unguarded moments, when he thinks no one is watching, that his feelings for you show on his face.”
“Feelings for me?” Ki-tae whispered.
“He’s falling for you, Ki-tae,” Cheongul said softly. “You know you have to make a decision about him soon. The temptation to feed from his neck will grow too strong.”
“Do you know what my choices are?” Ki-tae asked quietly, coldly.
“No, neither you nor Abeoji will tell us, which really pisses me off because I want to help you,” HanYin said.
“That’s exactly why I asked him not to tell you. This is something only I can do,” Ki-tae said tightly. The very idea of hurting Jin-woo made him sick, but to turn him? Would that be the right thing to do?
“What are they, Ki-tae?” HanYin asked softly. “What are the choices you have to break the binding between you and Jin-woo dongsaeng?”
“I can either turn him into one of us… or kill him. Both can only be done by me, otherwise the bind remains, and that could kill me too.”
“What the fuck?” HanYin shot to his feet. “There’s got to be another way.”
“I said the same thing to Abeoji,” Ki-tae said as he sat in his chair. “He said he would reach out to some of his connections, but so far, he hasn’t heard anything from them. I should leave Jin-woo-ya alone, but I can’t seem to do that. It’s like I have this invisible thread always pulling me to him, and the thing is, I really don’t want to fight it. I want to be with him, but is it something I truly feel, or is it the bond?”
“We will be able to find out soon, Adeul,” Soon-joon said as he closed the door behind him. “I have received word from my old teacher. It was not what I expected, however.”
“What do you mean?”
“She is traveling here to meet with you. She did not give specifics, only that she would need to see you first before she could say anything,” Soon-joon said. “She will arrive in about two weeks’ time, as she prefers not use any modern form of transportation.”
“At least I’ll finally know,” Ki-tae said quietly.
“You’ve gotten rather close to Jin-woo dongsaeng these last few weeks,” Soon-joon said as he walked over and laid a hand on Ki-tae’s shoulder.
“It was Cheongul’s idea,” Ki-tae said, smiling. “At first I thought I would be able to stay away from him, but it was as if Fate laughed. He won the competition, which meant I would be around him constantly. Jin-woo-ya is a good man. He’s sweet and kind and funny, and he’s talented. I can’t deny I find him incredibly attractive either.”
“Even if you did deny it, we’d know it’s a lie.” HanYin smiled before pinching his nose. Ki-tae threw a makeup sponge at him, which he easily batted away.
“This bond… perhaps it is not a bad thing,” Soon-joon said carefully, watching Ki-tae’s face. “It is not like the one you experienced.”
“I…. It terrifies me,” Ki-tae whispered. “I don’t want to go back to that. I don’t want to lose… me again.”
“I know, Adeul,” Soon-joon said. “This bond is different though. We will wait until Godaeui-nim arrives.”
There was a knock on the door before anyone could say anything else. The stage manager’s voice came through. “We’re ready for you.”
“We’ll be right out,” Cheongul called as he rose from his chair and straightened his robes. “Are my horns on straight?”
Night Kiss Page 13