Cheng P.O.V.

I woke up abruptly, feeling disorientated and muddled after I spent all night alert trying to capture any unusual sound or movement around us, but everything stayed the same up until dawn, the time where Chin Mae started to have endless nightmares. I kept holding him in my arms, caressing his head and back so that he would calm down, but they just kept coming. 

I deeply exhaled as I checked my phone before tossing it aside, ignoring all the texts and calls from Emma and Hong Tao just to look at Chin Mae with a smile on my face. As I pushed aside some of his hair, he turned toward the weak sunlight coming from the window next to him, but the mumbles became a small lament, and before I could even register it, I crawled on him, repairing him from the daylight with my body. His face then relaxed as nothing happened. 

Was the sun hurting him now? 

Brushing one last time my fingers over his cheekbone, I stood up, walking to the window and removing the curtains that were stopping the rest of the sunlight from invading the room, letting it embrace Chin Mae’s tepid body. I tried to calm the turmoil in my heart, but I couldn’t back up now; I promised to help him.

If only I had connected the dots earlier, maybe yesterday's event could have been spared. The hints could have been his obsession with rare meat, or when he told me that staying directly under the sun gave him a migraine and dizziness... or when Doctor Xiao Luo was trying to warn me that something was wrong with him. But I didn't want to listen. How could I have believed in something such as vampirism?

“Mmmh…” he mumbled while moving his body uncomfortably, opening his sleepy eyes. Chin Mae lifted his upper body by pushing his forearms against the mattress and looked at me with a huge question mark written all over his face.

“Cheng? Are you okay?” he asked as he got near me, scratching the arm close to the sunlight that was slowly becoming red, so I pulled him against me where the sun wouldn’t reach him.

“Sorry, I am so sorry.” I kept repeating as I dragged him into the bathroom, wetting a towel and pressing it against his red skin. But… If he was a vampire, he should have burned as soon as the sunlight touched his skin.

“Cheng…” I heard him calling me, but I kept on damping his skin gently, “Cheng.” Chin Mae grabbed my wrist tightly, stopping me. “I am okay,” he removed the fabric from my hands and left it on the edge of the sink. “What’s happening?” he asked worriedly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Nothing, I was just lost in thoughts.” I gulped down and moved towards the bathroom door, trying to sway his question. “I will order something for breakfast. Do you want something?”

“Just a black coffee, thank you.” I nodded at his request and closing the bathroom door without thinking twice. Then, with a deep sigh, I grabbed the smartphone that I'd left alone on the bedsheet and placed my order in the app. I just hoped that things wouldn't get awkward between us, but how could I wish for something like that if I was doing it in the first place?

“Will be twenty minutes,” I advised him when he walked out from the bathroom after a few minutes, leaving me a bit dazed. Right, he showered last night too. Chin Mae faintly smiled and damped his air with a towel but my smartphone started to ring, catching his attention when I put it on silent mode, my chest feeling already oppressed as Hong Tao's name has appeared on the screen. 

"Are you not going to take it?" Chin Mae asked while moving closer to me, "Who is it?"

"I'll take a shower now, "I turned the screen over the bedsheet and flew away, disappearing behind the bathroom door and away from his tempting perfume that was already filling up my lungs. 

Turning off the faucet after a long hot shower, I wrapped a towel around my hips and walked off the bathroom, painfully admitting that got more sleepy. I couldn't wait for the day to be over already. I then strolled over the wardrobe, secretly admiring Chin Mae's half-naked body sitting on the edge of the bed with his phone in one hand. Was he writing to the guy he met last night?

"Your phone kept buzzing," he stated, trying to hide some bitterness in his voice. "It was Hong Tao. You should answer; maybe it's important."

"He can wait." I stated drily, meeting his eyes and enjoying seeing him blushing for a split second. I smirked “Come on; we're both men.” I chuckled, teasing him as I crawled on the bed and pushed him down on the mattress, sitting on his hips with my legs astride. But what I earned was just a grave look.

"How's your head?" he asked while I admired his outline, feeling empowered by seeing his hands still resting on the side of his body instead of pushing me away as always. Sitting that close to Chin Mae, I felt like I always belonged there with him, in that place and moment... Just like he was mine even before that moment, and I was only asleep, now waking up from a long nightmare that became of that entity because he wasn't in it.

"I will get something after breakfast," I placed both hands next to his head just to make him feel a bit trapped. Mh, I liked that position.

“I'm sorry, it's because I made you angry,” he acknowledged timorously, brushing a hand on my wet hair that was dripping on his face. “Agh, I am going to drown!” he chuckled, pulling up the small towel around my neck on my head to drying it out a bit.

"Don't worry about it.” I tried to reassure him, "You had many nightmares last night. Are you okay?" I promptly changed the conversation, managing to stop thinking about him touching me so openly and not having a reaction to it. 

"I think so," he huffed tiredly, letting his arms casually distend on the bed above his head. "It was like being into a horror movie", he confessed, trying to reassuring me with a smile. "But I felt your presence; I couldn't wake up, but...thanks to you, I didn't lose my mind in there," he added, genuinely grateful with a slight flush on his cheeks.

“Well, I am glad I've been helpful,” I answered, relieved, feeling drawn to Chin Mae's chocolate doe eyes that slowly turned serious as I leaned closer to him. He briefly dipped his lower lip inside his mouth, releasing it nervously as I was about to do something that would have ruined our relationship more than it already was. 

"Cheng," he whispered, feeling goosebumps all over my body as one of his hand's stroked against my nape, making my hair stand on end. Chin Mae lowered his eyes and looked at my lips getting closer, and I was surprised that he didn't complain nor tried to stop me. Was he allowing me to-

Three heavy knocks woke me up from what I think we would have regretted later. “I'll get it.” Chin Mae gently pushed me aside, disappearing into the living room. I cursed myself again, quickly changing into something comfortable and padding in the kitchen, quietly observing him displaying our breakfast orders on the table. 

I had to refrain from any irrational behaviours, especially if Chin Mae was originating them, just like before. He was clear, he didn't want to cross that line with me, and I had to respect it. The fact that he didn't fight back, as usual, worried me in a way: was he letting himself go and be carried by the events or was he tired to reject me and surrendering to my attempts to win his heart?

“Listen, I was expecting you to initiate the conversation about last night, but you didn't and... it worries me,” Chin Mae grabbed my usual handmade navy mug, pouring the coffee inside it as he discovered that I despised drinking from takeaway cups. We both sat down, and he hid one of his cheeks behind his coffee cup, avoiding my startled eyes. I gulped down the small piece of chocolate brownie that I was munching on as it suddenly became bigger. My saliva might have dried out at the same time because I had to chunk down my whole chai latte just to relieve the suffocating feeling left in my throat.

“Why?” I was finally able to ask, standing up to place my mug into the sink just to do something than look at his lost expression. But instead, Chin Mae slithered the chair on the floor, turning at me furious.

“I drank Brian’s blood, and you saw me. How come you are not confused and terrified like I am?” he nearly shouted, his chest wavering. His eyes locked with mine, but I just couldn't bring myself to talk; all the things I meant to ask or discuss with him seemed to have disappeared in a blow.

“Now I understand Xiao Luo’s words… When I was ill, he shouted something about my eyes, right? " he mumbled, stiffening up a bit. "And he told me to stay away from you because I was a monster. He tried to kill me with that wooden stake because he knew what I was already-!”

“Maybe he knew," I sprout suddenly, startling him a bit for my gloomy and robust voice. I didn't think about Xiao Luo at all recently, so I froze in place. Even though I ordered him not to report anything related to Chin Mae, I somehow sensed that he did and that my family and Hong Tao were just killing some time before they would act and do something to him. 

"And maybe I thought as well that something was eerie, but that didn’t authorize him to lay a hand on you. He learned his lesson anyway, so you don't have to worry about something like that happening again.” and I wished that not even a hair was twisted off him. So maybe it wasn't Chin Mae that had to be careful about himself, but me about my family and Hong Tao. 

“What do you mean?” he questioned me, holding me from running away by gently placing a hand around my wrist. The room seemed too bright for me to keep my eyes open, and my chest seemed not to be able to take in oxygen mixed with the addicting minty perfume coming from Chin Mae's body. 

Too many unsustainable emotions were running inside me, and the thought of being an adult and still not being able to protect the ones I loved made me suffer. I felt unworthy, useless and powerless against Hong Tao and my family, once again, like age wouldn't matter. Wei Qi disappearance happened when I was underage, and if something would happen to Chin Mae now that I was now considered an adult, I would never forgive myself.

“I saw your eyes turning a dark red rust colour, so I thought I imagined it. I couldn't possibly believe that vampires could exist." I explained, hoping that he wouldn't get angry. I hid him many things to him, but it was better to let it be that way for now. "And if you meant something about Xiao Luo, I just made him understand what his place was.” I stated without bothering to explain any further, “Shall we go to have a run? I didn’t exercise recently.”

“Don’t change the subject, Cheng. Please.” Chin Mae rubbed his cheek tiredly and I suffered seeing him like that, but all my attempts to love him were turned down, so besides being the idiot of the situation, I didn't know what else to do to comfort him.

“I don’t want you to know that I might be the real spoiled brat that you think I am.” I groaned, surrendering soon after at his sad puppy-eyes and forcing myself to be playful and indifferent to the whole situation. “I just have a very oppressive family, obsessively concerned about my safety, so I have bodyguards and a personal family doctor that followed me here in the UK, okay?"

"I just reminded Xiao Luo that he was my doctor and not my bodyguard; and that I've ordered him to cure you, not to hurt you. But he disobeyed me, so I had to punish him.” I silently mimicked a baby crying, happy to see Chin Mae's expression slightly lighten up but also remaining focused on the topic of the conversation.  

“What did you do?”Chin Mae worriedly grabbed my t-shirt, getting a bit closer. "Cheng, don't play with me."

“I am not playing; my bodyguards really taught him a lesson.” I grinned evilly, lifting Chin Mae on my shoulder and running into our bedroom, pinning him under my bodyweight.

“They hit him so hard and then pierced the same piece of wood he used that day in his shoulder." I explained while poking into his as a demonstration, "Maybe he thought that it wasn’t going to hurt you, you know?” I asked playfully and tried to make Chin Mae understand that nobody was getting it away if anybody would hurt him.

I pinched his cheeks when he was about to argue “Don’t worry; he won’t die. I just couldn't let him get away with it. You get it, right?” I defended myself; my smile slowly dissipated as the thought of being misunderstood killed me. I was told to behave in a certain way with them since I was little, and seeing me as someone they could step on would have been the death of me. I didn't know why, but I had to do it as instructed by my family.

“Well, not really, but I trust you," he admitted as he watched me backing up and sitting down on his hips, crossing my arms. "And we need to talk,” Chin Mae lifted his torso by supporting it with his forearms, taking his time before proceeding.

“Cheng, yesterday was my first time attacking someone,” he admitted, slowly looking up at me. “I don't know what to do.” The thought of not being able to control yourself was indeed a sensation I felt, but surely not as what Chin Mae experienced. I began to doubt my usefulness in that situation, but I was willing to do whatever just to stay beside him. 

“You didn’t have this urge of wanting blood before?” I sat beside him, watching him taking place in front of me and he shook his head curving down his shoulders.

"You become a vampire after you've been bitten and after you've drunk a vampire's blood. But it takes hours or even a day for the transformation to occur apparently," I asserted, trying to remember some of the books and movies that I came across.

"You had a bite on your nape when I first met you. If that was the mark that had transformed you, why has it been completed only now?" I looked at Chin Mae's disoriented expression as he was trying to recollect anything that happened to him, and surely it could be overwhelming, but he needed to ponder all the events moderately.

“Hey, you won’t be a danger to anybody, okay? I will be here.” I reassured him, getting a bit closer. “As both of us don’t know anything about it and don’t know any other vampires-” I continued sarcastically, making him chuckle a bit. “Let’s just try it out and make some attempts. It’s the only thing I thought of.” Chin Mae gave me his back to reach the edge of the bed where the sunlight was, moving his fingers in and out of the light.

“We could ask Xiao Luo to exempt you from attending classes for medical reasons, and I could help you since we share most of the classes," I opted, only wishing that the doctor would be cooperative.

"And for the feeding issue, we could test it out and buy you more meat. If it doesn't work and you need human blood, I will give you mine.” Chin Mae froze in place, grasping my hands. I knew he was against it, but I would do anything to keep him alive.

"It will be fine… Trust me on this, okay?" I affirmed resolutely, stopping him before he could call me out or talk back. "It will be just fine. I got you."