The calm morning sky quickly gave way to the scorching heat of the afternoon. Several people in gray alma mater jackets bustled about in front of their faculty building, which had a grayish roof topped with a large white octopus statue with its tentacles spreading everywhere.
Chen observed the octopus statue that he found strange for a moment before finally adjusting his minus glasses that had slipped down, he slightly raised his perfectly square backpack in bright yellow before stepping in. Black ankle-length pants wrapped around his porcelain-white legs, as well as a red checkered shirt that hid behind a gray alma mater that looked too big for his body.
“Please help me.” Chen flashed the best smile he had ever learned—unfortunately, no one cared—as he entered his classroom. He was a transfer student now.
“Okay, please sit in one of the remaining chairs, Chen.” The lecturer invited him. Chen’s reddish irises, which had already turned light brown, roamed over the two remaining chairs—one in front of his face in the very center, while the other was in the corner of the front window directly opposite the lecturer’s chair.
With confident steps, Chen approached the chair by the window. Turning his head, Chen caught a glimpse of his reflection, his sleek, jet-black hair parted in a side parting that made his face appear almost perfectly square.
"Kubro Siswo art is a special dance from Magelang Regency which is danced by young Muslim dancers, used as a medium for preaching with interpretations of Islamic poetry and dynamic movements."
Chen listened silently as the lecturer explained about the arts of Nusantara dance, doing his best to move normally and not too flashy or attract attention, while his eyes watched every movement of the dosan wearing a wide blue hijab combined with a white robe with an awkward expression. His ears focused on responding to all the sounds and his sharp sense of smell sorted through the millions of human odors that mixed with the scent of perfume to find the scent of the wild vampire he had to find immediately.
“Whose cigarette butt is this!”
Chen blinked several times rapidly—he had almost forgotten to blink for half an hour—when a cigarette butt flew in front of him and landed right on the shoulder of the lecturer who was writing something on the whiteboard with a black marker.
A man with dark circles under his eyes sitting two rows behind Chen pointed at him enthusiastically.
“He is, ma'am.”
Chen immediately stood up and glanced at the man. “It wasn’t me,” he replied in a low voice.
“All right, suck it, Mrs.—”
“I saw it.” A female student sitting two rows behind Chen raised her hand hesitantly. “Tao actually did it.”
Chen's vampire side had long since taken away his humanity. When the woman smiled sweetly at him after the entire class witnessed Tao being expelled by the lecturer, Chen didn't say a word to her in gratitude. All he did was return to his seat, watching the veiled lecturer continue teaching, ignoring the deafening looks of disappointment that filled his ears.
The atmosphere in the room gradually changed, as the sun circled the other side of the earth, leaving the moon to do its work. Chen's ears prickled, his nose itched, the scent of wild vampires wafting from almost every corner of the university, dubbed the best in Indonesia, disturbed his thoughts and grew stronger as he entered the classroom.
Most of the students had already gone home, but Chen was the only one who remained. As the night wore on, the scent of the vampires grew stronger, but Chen couldn't pinpoint their exact location.
“Here's the change.”
Chen stared at the five hundred dollar bill the old man selling the drink handed him with a blank expression. "Hmmm." Chen stuffed the change into his black pants pocket. His left hand held the bubbly drink without any intention of sipping its sweetness. He simply saw everyone else buying it, and Chen did so to appear more normal.
Chen pretended to be busy again with all the thick piles of books lined up beside his seat that he had taken from the library.Bubble TeaIt was on the door frame, Chen took a black-covered book with the titleOxford advanced learnes distionary of current Englishas reading.
It only took 16 minutes for Chen to carelessly put down the book and sprint towards the faculty's backyard, fearing no one would catch him. As soon as he arrived, Chen's eyes widened, but no matter how hard he looked, he saw only two humans in the process of becoming vampires.
“They are troublesome vampires.”
Chanyeol and Sehun arrived shortly after, each carrying a person and dashing off into the darkness. Chen observed the area for a while longer before finally joining his two friends; heading home.
***
There was nothing special about the vampire king's every move, no matter how much every vampire in the archipelago revered him as a great king. His heart had long since died and rotted, and all he could feel was anger and pride in protecting the entire colony that had trusted him as its leader.
“Ah… Chen.” Amidst the dim lighting of the large, stone-walled, stuffy hallway, Ailee walked over to Chen, who was staring at her as usual; expressionless. “I missed you.”
Chen glanced at Baekhyun who had already left Ailee, then he turned his attention to the beautiful vampire with eyes like butterfly wings and the status of his girlfriend.
“How’s your mission going?” Her slender fingers, long, black-polish nails, sensually stroked Chen’s jaw, removing the odd glasses that circled the man’s high nose and ruffling his hair. “Baekhyun said there are many new vampires that the wild vampires have created,” Ailee said with a worried tone, “don’t get hurt.”
“I will kill all the vampires involved.” Chen stared into Ailee’s reddish eyes, bringing both of his hands that were able to cup Ailee’s small face to gently caress her plump cheeks. “Without exception.”
“I will always support you no matter what,” Ailee promised, capturing her lover’s lips.
It's been nine days since Chen decided to intervene directly by disguising himself as a human with the help of Lay's strange potion at a university called KOCU where there are many wild vampires, Chen still stares at his empty palms. He hasn't succeeded at all. Chen still hasn't found anything about the vampires' whereabouts other than a pile of poor humans whose fates have changed. Meanwhile, the situation is getting more and more dire, and if this continues, Indonesia and the world will be in danger.
It was a cold day, with Jakarta once again being drenched by heavy rain from all night until noon. Like most people who seek shelter from the rain by seeking a dry place, Chen, who had been in the university courtyard, jumped out of the rain. When he arrived, his shoes and pants were...jeans-Her hair was partially soaked. She shook her head to dry it.
Chen walked along the corridor, walking towards his class, while people stole glances at him when his path was blocked by the crowd of people who were watching the bullying, a stupid monotonous spectacle that was always the favorite thing of the majority of campus residents that was always presented before his eyes was: when beautiful or handsome students with thick pockets bullied other students who were considered inferior.
Like now for example.
Dozens of people crowded in the middle of the corridor just to watch several women oppress other women who were already screaming for mercy.
Chen slipped past them, unconcerned that he knew the face of the bullied girl was the same one who had helped him on his first day of class. Because Chen wasn't here to be a prince on a white horse saving a poor girl from bullying.
Another man who probably didn't care about what was happening kept pace with Chen, his long neck turning back curiously several times.
"If I have nothing to do with them at all, but if you've been helped by Iken, why not owe a debt of gratitude, anyway?"
That was the longest sentence Chen had heard that afternoon from a man who had tattooed almost half of his left arm, and the man with porcelain-white skin—a skin color that was rare for most people in Southeast Asia—was just his, not interested in responding.
The man's plump body and tall stature tried to keep up with Chen's wide strides. "Okay, if you don't want to help, that's fine too." If only the Vampire could deafen him. "Hey, how about we just be friends?" Chen glanced over the tail of his glasses as the man also adjusted his glasses that had slipped down the bridge of his flat nose with his tan skin tone. "My name is Rafael Tan, what about you?"
Chen went down the stairs which were also crowded with people going in the opposite direction from them, meanwhile Rafael followed Chen behind him, Rafael gave up following Chen when the man had arrived in front of his own class while the nerdy figure who was actually cold continued walking towards his class.
However, Rafael was confused when a female friend suddenly entered the classroom, out of breath and looking panicked. "Hey, why do you look like you've been chased by a demon?"
“Asha...! Asha is a stranger—”
Rafael grabbed Lisa's shoulders and shook them. "Speak clearly!"
"Asha was suddenly attacked by a strange man on the rooftop when she was about to teach Iken a lesson there! Her neck was bitten, the man was really strange, I ran here to ask for help from you guys!" Lisa shouted.
"What?!"
Chen's steps suddenly became heavy when his nose faintly caught a familiar scent, his shoulders were nudged several times as people, including Rafael, ran hurriedly towards the stairs that connected to the rooftop. Chen stepped after them, but he couldn't be sure for sure whether the strange person meant a vampire when his sense of smell showed no reaction. He had thought about using himself as bait, but that was too high a risk, especially in a crowded place like this.
While everyone went upstairs to help, Chen remained at the bottom of the stairs and waited for what was actually happening until Chen heard a shrill scream, his legs could no longer hold themselves still and quickly climbed the stairs one by one. His two hands unconsciously pulled the people who were in his way out of the way, his eyes widened when he saw a woman who had been bullying him now lying with a lot of blood staining her bright yellow clothes.
Chen crouched down to grab the woman's nape to take her away when suddenly the woman's eyes opened, while her two free hands immediately pulled Chen's hair, brought their lips close until they were perfectly pressed together and kissed her forcefully.
***