Chapter 9: Morning After Disaster (Why Is This on Twitter?!)
When I woke up this morning, two things immediately felt wrong:
My neck hurt.
Something warm was pressed against my side.
For half a second, I thought I was hugging a pillow.Then the pillow breathed.
I froze.Slowly, very slowly, I looked down.
Silver hair. Perfect jawline. A vampire idol in my bed.Riku Kurosawa.
And—oh god—his arm was draped over my waist like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Brain: Panic. Run. Call the police. Or an exorcist. Or both.Body: …don't move. Don't wake him up. You might die.
I carefully tried to shimmy out of his grip. Bad idea. His arm tightened around me like a freaking snake.
"Mmh…" His voice was low, rough with sleep. "Stay."
I stopped breathing. My entire soul left my body.
After what felt like an eternity, I managed to wriggle free and stumble into the bathroom. I splashed water on my face, stared at my reflection, and—…yep. There it was.
Two perfect little fang marks on my neck.
I looked like a freaking vampire snack pack.
"What is my life," I whispered to the mirror. "What is happening to me—"
And then my phone buzzed.
Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.
I grabbed it, still dripping water, and opened the notifications.
Twitter:#RikuSpotted#VampireIdolAndBoyfriend#WhoIsThisGuy
My blood ran cold.
I clicked one.
The top tweet was a blurry photo of me and Riku from yesterday at the mall.Hand in hand.His face half-hidden by sunglasses, mine in full panic mode.
…Except that wasn't the worst part.
The next photo was from THIS MORNING.Taken through MY WINDOW.Me and Riku. In bed. Together.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?!"
I nearly dropped my phone. Someone had been outside my apartment? Watching us? Posting this to millions of people?!
The comments were a nightmare:"IS RIKU DATING A RANDOM GUY?!""They're cute tho '"WHO IS HE? FIND HIM."
I was going to vomit.
"Haruto."
I froze. Slowly turned.
Riku was leaning against the doorframe, hair messy, wearing a loose black T-shirt that did NOTHING to hide how annoyingly perfect he was.
He was also holding his phone.And his expression could have frozen hell over.
"…We have a problem," he said flatly.
"No kidding!" I shrieked, waving my phone like a lunatic. "What the hell is THIS?!"
He scrolled silently, then looked up at me with that unnervingly calm face he uses when the world is on fire.
"This is… inconvenient."
"INCONVENIENT?!" My voice cracked. "We're TRENDING! People think we're DATING! They're trying to DOX me! I'm gonna DIE!"
"You're not going to die," he said coolly. Then, after a beat, his lips curved into the faintest smirk. "Not from this, anyway."
"RIKU THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"
Before I could have a complete meltdown, his phone rang. He answered."…Yes."A pause."I see."Another pause. His jaw tightened slightly."Understood."
He hung up.
"…That was my agency," he said calmly.
My stomach dropped. "And?"
"They want to see us."
"US?!"
"Yes." His crimson eyes glinted faintly in the morning light. "Haruto… it seems we're going public."
TO BE CONTINUED…