Chapter 12: The World

Jingfei looked at Ying for a moment confused, before quickly following the other. "Chan….. Has a….Persona?" Jingfei asked, walking beside Ying. He noticed how the man walked. He walked confidently. As if he owned the place. As if he was the most powerful person here. He was, wasn't he? Ying hummed, finding a store that caught his eye. "Of course. Every vampire has a persona. You just need to find yours."

Jingfei only continued to look at him with confusion. "I have one?" Ying grabbed a hold of Jingfei's hand, pulling him into a store. Jingfei scanned the store slowly. It had many different styles, from leather pants and rock shirts to blazers and suits. Jingfei didn't know exactly what he liked, nor did know what he disliked. But neither of those styles really appealed to him. "Of course you have one. It's the way you act around non-vampires. Or, well the way you act around people you don't trust." Ying explained.

Ying stood in front of a wooden bench, taking a sip of his tumber and gesturing to the bench. "Sit, I'll dress you." Ying said, licking the red drop on his lips before taking another sip. Jingfei walked over, hesitantly sitting down and looking up at Ying, who looked back down at him. "Well, you're very cute. Like, Yang is cute. Like, the boy next door. But, you need to also look powerful. So…" Ying looked around for a moment, before his eyes went to a certain place.

Jingfei didn't know if he should look, or not. He kept his head down. "There. I'll be right back. I'm gonna give you an outfit, and you try it on. If you like, then we're good." Ying said quickly, before disappearing. Jingfei looked up, seeing Ying nowhere to be found. Jingfei knew the other would leave him, but he didn't know that Ying would disappear.

Jingfei shut his eyes and did as Ying told him before. Just tune it out. He lightly twisted his wrists, gripping the bench's wooden seat. He ignored the rhythmic sounds of their heartbeats, a soft song benign played with the metronome-like beats. He ignored the smell of softserve, sweet birthday cake flavor. He ignores the different people's smalltalk conversations from around the room. He ignored all of that. Just wanted to ignore-

He felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He looked up, seeing Ying, crouched down to be eye level. He had a soft frown on his face. "Sorry. I forgot about protecting you. I'm sorry." Ying apologized. Jingfei only shook his head softly, looking into the pale boy's red eyes. "No, no… I'm okay.." Jingfei whispered. Ying reached over, setting a small pile into the bench. "I think you cracked the wood." Ying laughed, as Jingfei's eyes widened. He quickly let go of the bench, seeing the slight dent.

"It's okay, they won't notice. Come on, I want you to go to the changing room and try this on." He handed Jingfei different articles of clothing. He didn't have time to look at one individually, as Ying only layered it with something else. Jingfei looked over towards the dressing room. He was supposed to walk all the way there? By himself. What if- "Jingfei, I'll be right here. I'll be watching you. Nothing will happen."

Jingfei looked up at Ying, before nodding. He trusted Ying.

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

Ying was silent, feeling the grooves from Jingfei's fingertips. He sighed softly. Jingfei walked in public. That was good. He actually walked outside. At least he's starting to understand that nothing bad will happen. At least Ying hoped that's what Jingfei thought. He knew the surrounding stores, and knew which one he was going to go to next. He just needed to wait for Jingfei.

Ying silently prayed, whenever he saw that hesitant look on Jingfei's face, he prayed. Prayed that Jingfei would understand, nothing will happen. It's alright to have fear, to have stress. Just a little though. Fear and stress drives vamplings to drink a lot of blood. Because they know what can happen if they don't drink enough. However, at a certain point, stress and fear are not the healthiest options. He wants Jingfei to have fun and hang out with humans as much as he hangs out with vampires, so if walking him everywhere is what he has to do, then it's what he's going to do.

A soft buzz came from his phone, a soft hum. He opened it, seeing an eight digit number. He didn't recognise the number, yet his phone said it was one he had dialed recently. Ying would have known if it was a number he recognised. He clicked the answer. "Hello?" He asked, his voice deepening slightly. He didn't know who it was, an intimidation was vampire's warfare. However, the voice was quick to answer. "Hello? Is this Jingfei's friend?" Jingfei's friend? Did this person know Jingfei- oh.

This must be the person Jingfei wanted to call a couple of nights ago. Ying clicked his tongue. "This is he." He responded simply. It was nice to know it wasn't some sort of emergency with the council. "Oh, great. I was just wondering if you knew where Jingfei was. I'm his roommate and he hasn't been here lately. I knew you were the last to see him, so I just thought… well yeah." Ying smiled. It was a friend that cared about him.

It was nice to know Jingfei had good friends. The vampling had told him before that recently he had been talking more with his friends, which was probably why the boy had contacted him worried about his friends whereabouts. "Everything is fine. He's with me. However he's in the dressing room. Would you like me to give him a message?" Ying asked. The other side was silent for a moment, before the boy answered. HIs voice is slightly darker. "Um… yeah." he said hesitantly.

Ying couldn't exactly find the reason why his sudden tone dropped, but he didn't ask. "Just, tell him I said to come back home. Me and Kai are worried, and so is BunBun. But that's it." The boy on the other side said, His voice was different. Still worried, but also hostile. Was he hostile to Ying? Why? Because Jingfei was hanging out with him? Or was it something else?

"Oh, yeah. Of course. I'll tell him." Ying answered, before the line clicked off. Ying widened his eyes, looking down at the phone. Did this man just…. Hang up on him? Ying sighed. Shaking his head. No need to be pissed by some human. He slid his phone back into his pocket. "Um, they fit well." Jingfei mumbled. Ying hummed, reaching down to grab his cup. "Well, that's good." He said, looking up. "Your friend called and told me to….."

"... told you what?"

Ying could only form two words. "Holy shit."