Nine Lives

"Remind me why we're here, again?"

Sia Lee felt uneasy as she stood at the night club entrance. No, not because it was a club, but it was a human club.

"To have a good time," said Baryu, earning him a shake of the head from Sihwan.

"Mostly because our managers agreed to have us show up here on opening night, for good publicity," said Sihwan.

Right, Sia did remember he manager saying something along those lines. The spring catalogue she had modelled for recently had been a huge hit, and she was getting demands for public appearances almost every day now. This happened to be one of those requests. Nine Lives' opening night had included invites to almost every major entertainer that was popular in Korea right now. There were many other vampires in the industry besides her (such as Baryu) but there were also still many humans in it too (such as Sihwan).

"If I told my dad I was coming to a place like this he'd burn me," Sia groaned. She thanked the heavens that he only saw the pictures of her that he showed him. "Having vampires and humans together in a club is just a spell for disaster."

"Lighten up, Simba," the blond said. "Sihwan's not worrying about it, so don't have to either."

"Yeah, but Sihwan knows that if someone's been touching him for a bit too long then they're probably a vampire. And he's got us if anyone tries anything. There'll be humans here who have no clue. Having a hangover is bad enough, just think about having a hangover and getting drained by a vampire." Even without going in, she was sure at least one of the humans was going to end up like that tomorrow morning. She felt sorry for them already.

"Wow, looks like your dad's lectures are finally starting to work on you." Baryu laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders. "If it actually bothers you so much we'll just stay for an hour max. We can go and get drinks somewhere else."

"If it's just an hour…" She looked over at Sihwan for approval. He was the most level-headed one of their trio, after all.

"That sounds fine with me."

Baryu grinned. "That's more like it. Let's go."

The three of them entered the club. As with most venues like this, the club was comprised of a dark room lit with bright green, purple and blue strobe lights. It was jam packed with people, some crowded around the bar and most on the dancefloor. The DJ was on an elevated platform near the back of the room. Sia noticed that both on the platform and on the bar there was a funky gold statue of a cat. "Interesting deco they have there," she commented, nodding over to the cat statue by the bar.

"There are supposed to be nine of them around the club," said Sihwan. "There's only two or three big private rooms and I think there's one in each."

Sihwan sure did know a lot-

"Wow, really? I didn't know that. You sure know a lot."

"I get it! That's why they call it Nine Lives, right?"

Two girls walked straight up to them. Sia recognised them as a pair of girls from another modelling agency. One of them had immediately placed a hand on Sihwan's arm.

Rather than looking affronted, Sihwan seemed to be amused.

Sia cleared her throat pointedly.

"Oh. Sia Lee. Did you want something?"

The one touching Sihwan looked at her as if she hadn't noticed her before. Which was just complete bull because vampires always noticed the others of their kind. Lack of scent and all. No, this girl said that on purpose – the modelling industry was competitive, after all.

Smirking, Sia took note of the dress the other girl was wearing. The girl probably thought was ahead in the game, since the dress was from a brand that hadn't released the full line yet for this season. Sia didn't know what strings the girl had pulled to get the dress, but she was going to have a real laugh when the girl realised in about two weeks that Sia was the one who modeled for them. She had a real feeling this year's spring collection was going to be her favourite yet.

"No, not me." She grabbed the back of Baryu's shirt (the little devil had been trying to escape!) and pushed him towards the girls. "Baryu wanted to talk to you two. He asked if I could introduce him."

Sihwan was forgotten almost instantly. Of course, a human celebrity was a good catch if you were hungry, but having a fellow vampire celebrity ask after you was even better.

"You owe me a kiss for this one," Baryu whispered to Sia before putting on an enthusiastic smile and turning towards the two girls.

She aimed a light kick at the back of his heel and he stumbled, though he managed to catch himself in time. He threw a pout over his shoulder at Sia, who rolled her eyes. "You're not getting one," she mouthed. Seriously, Baryu's jokes were getting old.

"Thanks for that." Sihwan rubbed his arms. "Even though I'm used to it, it felt a bit strange when someone new tried to drain me."

"And Baryu said you didn't have to worry," said Sia, crossing her arms.

"I don't," he said, chuckling. "Even though felt weird, she wasn't really sapping that much energy from me. Baryu would have stepped in if she took too much. Though I'm sure he knew that you were going to get me out of that mess right away."

"Ugh, he needs to stop relying on us so much."

Her human friend merely laughed.

"So what about you, then? Have you got your fill of human energy for today?"

"Er, just about enough," said Sia, hesitantly. "I had a solo photoshoot today." In general, she got her energy from touching the models she worked with during their photoshoots together. Today touching her make-up artist' arm had to suffice. Fine, maybe she was alike with those girls in the case she used her job to get a free meal pass. But she only did it when it was necessary – just enough to survive and only as far as work required.

"Hm. Well as thanks for saving me you could get a little booster." Sihwan offered her his hand.

She smiled. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'd feel bad taking energy from a friend. Unlike Baryu over there."

"Yeah. He calls me his personal battery pack, sometimes," he said dryly. "I mean, it could be worse though. At least you guys don't need to drink blood anymore, or I may just get second thoughts about hanging out with you two."

"Haha, that's true."

If Sihwan was okay with it, then Sia was okay with it. It made her happy to think that Sihwan considered her close enough that he'd offer her his energy. Of course, she still wouldn't ever take him up on it, but it was the thought that counted.

"C'mon Sihwan. Let's go to the bar and get us some drinks."

"Are the drinks on you?"

"Nope, they're on Baryu. We're gonna leave it on his tab."

"I'm with you on that one."

A/N: Tadaa! Here I am with entry number nine! I've officially gone further than I had last year! -throws confetti into the air-. The prompt this time was 'Hunters in the Dark' and what better way to fit the prompt then to write about vampires! Or like...vampire-human friendships.

Anyway, I wanted to write about Sia and Sihwan's friendship because I just really love the relationship they have there. That and I just generally wanted to write about Sihwan. Things I need: How Sihwan found out about vampires and how did he end up being with Baryu's battery pack - I mean friend. I was sorely tempted to also somehow write Jiho into the fic but I couldn't really find a good way to do it, since this would probably be set before Sia met him. I'll write another fic next time about Sia and Jiho...'cause they're just too cute together ;-;

Also...I think I might have just written the first unTOUCHable fanfic on this site o.O It doesn't even have a category within the Manhwa section (though I've gone and requested for it just before posting this). Yay for the first then xD

This was part of the Twelve Shots of Summer Challenge which you should look up here on ffnet to go read all the other amazing entries by my friends :D

Thanks for reading!

- Dina