yohan rubs a hand down his face as he looks down at his phone, taking in his first look at the time in the last few hours. he's been out here for far too long and he if he's being honest, he's exhausted. but sleep seems to far out of his reach, his body tired but his mind thrumming with too much energy for him to find any solace in sleeping. he lets out a huff and turns the corner, making it his third lap around this particular neighborhood.
nights like this are far too much of an occurrence. it started out as a way for him to put his nose in situations where it absolutely didn't belong. as a teenager, he was angry all of the time, so mad with his hand in life and with how much his mom was suffering thanks to so many things out of his control. it was a way for him to let out his frustrations while also getting him out of the house when it felt too small, too stifling, too much that he just wanted to scream.
after his mom passed, his nights out of the house continued. at that point, his nightly excursions were a habit (though some would say it was his cheap way to process the heaviness of the guilt and grief).
before he knew it, yohan had messed up his entire circadian rhythm and now most nights were spent wandering the streets in various neighborhoods and quadrants. it leaves him feeling overly grateful in the mornings that he was able to snag as many closing shifts as he could get his hands on.
another turn, another loop, another unrecognizable side street and yohan sees his first sign of life in what feels like hours. yohan watches the stranger walk through the streets suspiciously, eyeing the fact that he's carrying something close, almost gently. it's clear (it's not) that they're simply up to no good. now, normally yohan might mind his business (he normally didn't), but blame it on lack of self control or another night of sleep deprivation, but yohan simply can't just turn around and walk away. no, instead he heads straight for this random stranger and does the only thing his brain is telling him to do, which is knock the item right out of their hands and onto the pavement below.
luce appreciates the solitude of his nightshifts. it’s calming in many ways — just him, all alone in the bakery, working to fulfill cake orders for the following day, as well as preparing any other baked goods, if he can spare the time.
tonight, he’d definitely had a lot of time to spare — so much so that he’d actually ran out of things to do. moments like that were rare, and so he’d decided to spend it wisely. there’s this lemon cupcake recipe he’d been trying to perfect, struggling with finding the right balance between tart and sweet, but with all the free time he’d had tonight, he thinks he got pretty damn close.
at least he thinks he did. with his affinity for sweets, luce is admittedly somewhat biased — the sweeter, the better. and so he’d decided to take some home, in hopes that garam would want to taste test them for him.
luce is about half of the way home, when he senses the presence of someone else. not unusual, and he wouldn’t have given it another thought if it wasn’t for the fact that they were reading right towards him. luce pauses, awaiting the stranger’s approach with a guarded expression on his face.
he doesn’t know what to expect, what the stranger’s intentions are, but he certainly wasn’t expecting what happens next. there’s movement, and the box luce had been carrying is knocked out of his hands. it happens fast, and is so unexpected, luce doesn’t react before it’s too late.
for a moment, he merely stands there, blinking between the stranger and the box on the ground, lemon cupcakes spilling out on the asphalt of the sidewalk. great. fucking fantastic. his gaze finally settles on the stranger, eyebrows furrowed in something between confusion and annoyance.
now, luce isn’t someone who tends to curse at people very often — he finds it volatile, too close to the version of himself that’s always lingering beneath the surface. the one that’s best kept hidden. but as he stands there, eyes fixed on the man in front of him, there’s no other words that come to mind, other than, “hey, what the fuck?”
it’s not often luce gets back from work before midnight. he’d picked up the closing shift that evening, fully prepared to work through the night, getting everything ready for the next day. safe to say he’d been surprised when his boss told him to take the night off, that she’d be keeping the bakery closed the next day, giving her employees some well deserved time off. this had only happened once before in the few years he’d worked there — nearly unheard of, in other words.
luce wonders what the hell he’s supposed to do with this sudden free time.
he’s still pondering his options — start a new book? watch a movie? … do a puzzle? — and wondering if he needs a new hobby, or maybe just more friends, when he slips into the elevator, the doors already halfway shut as he enters. phew. just barely made it.
there’s someone else in the elevator, he notes — luce has seen him before, frequently seen entering the apartment next to his, but he’s pretty sure he doesn’t live there. probably just visiting. a polite nod, nothing more, as he presses the button for the sixth floor, retreating into the corner opposite the familiar stranger. the hum of the elevator is soft, steady, as he grabs his phone out of his coat pocket, mindlessly scrolling through his instagram feed.
then, the lights flicker. once, twice. and with a low, mechanical sigh, everything stops. luce’s brow twitches as he looks up from his phone, gaze flickering to the elevator’s floor numbers — they’re only halfway to floor six. and they seem to have stopped moving. well, isn’t that just fucking fantastic? at least it solves his problem of not knowing what to do tonight.
luce is still staring at the unmoving numbers as he lets out a quiet, “for fuck’s sake,” murmured under his breath.
hiiii, sage (she/her, 25+) again for the third and final (for now??) time! this time with luce, who is honestly kind of a babygirl i won't lie... a reminder that this is a sideblog so i can't follow anyone, that will be from @zyradx <3
yoon haerang, now known as only luce (avoids giving his surname if he can), whose power is vampire physiology. he's not technically a vampire, so he can't turn anyone, but he has vampiric traits — such as drinking blood (doesn't need to, but vastly prefers it to food), enhanced speed/agility/senses, becomes stronger at night, aversion to light etc. more info can be found on his profile + background page here, and as always i'll leave a tl;dr plus some plot ideas under the cut! please leave a like if you'd like to plot with luce and i will shoot a message your way!
tl;dr
born yoon haerang, youngest son of the infamous yoon family in daegu. basically he comes from a long line of people with vampire physiology powers, and they're kind of obsessed with "preserving the bloodline" so to speak. very much thinks they're better than everyone else. and if anyone is born without the vampire physiology mutagen??? well bye !
his family holds some level of influence over other mutagens and even humans in daegu mostly just bc ppl are scared of them. which haerang's father especially loves like to him, fear = respect and that's the kind of mindset he was raising his children with.
haerang's older siblings are all like devoted to the family, but haerang always felt a bit like.... this ain't me guys... like i don't want to be like them...
too much of a coward to speak up and go against his father tho so he just went along with whatever weird shit his family was up to (think like... they had servants who "willingly" allowed for the family to drink their blood, weird ass rituals whenever they did that)
which worked out well enough for him UNTIL one of their servants like fucked up severely i'm gonna be real i haven't thought of specifically what they did, but the point is that haerang's father was like "well my youngest son is such a little bitch i need to toughen him up a bit" and asked haerang to kill this servant skldfjsm to which he was like no absolutely not.
TW ABUSE (verbal and physical) perhaps to no one's surprise his father did not take his disobedience well. u could argue he was already borderline verbally abusing his son but after that incident?? he DEFINITELY was, and got physical with it too, since haerang has accelerated healing he doesn't have any scars to show for it today though. END TW
started silently planning his escape, coordinating it with the d.m.h.o. behind his family's back, slowly scraping up some cash and whatever else he could get until he was finally able to leave daegu when he was 20
kept a low profile when he first arrived in district x, lived out of a sharehouse in the south side, took on odd jobs. this is also when he started going by luce (the italian word, from latin lux, it's symbolic of wanting to be the light his family rejects). avoids giving out his surname unless absolutely necessary (so like idk for current housing and employment i guess)
being alone felt like a breath of fresh air even tho he is still to this day terrified of his family following him. tho lowkey he also figures maybe his dad is like well good riddance he was a dud anyway... aksjdflks
he's still kind of figuring out who he is, but so far he has realized he loooves anything sweet like. he doesn't like most foods but anything that's sweet he LOVES. bc of that he ended up eventually taking a job in a bakery, and has worked his way up to becoming a cake decorator!!! his lil passion project he's like yay i left my evil family and now i make pretty cakes <3
he can never really escape the feral and predatory nature he's got going on underneath it all tho but he does his very best to suppress it... so to most people he just comes across as this kind of quiet, elegant and poised dude
plot ideas
it's been 6 years since he left daegu now, but if anyone is from there or has been there for whatever reason, and might have seen him there?? or anyone that might know of his family, his family is quite known and his mother and at least one of his sisters are public figures so. someone might recognize him somehow
someone he met when he first arrived in district x? could be someone he did odd jobs with/for, a possible roommate or something in the sharehouse he lived in, i'm down to brainstorm options!!
could be someone who's suspicious of the 'front' he puts up, like there's no way anyone is actually that seemingly perfect?? so they try to get him to crack in some way
also if someone pissed him off in some way that would be so funny. to me idk about him
top view towers neighbors!! he lives on the 6th floor and has lived there for the past 2?? years i think
customers at the bakery? he mostly works night shifts so the bakery isn't actually open at those times but. could be customers the rare times he picks up other shifts idk
not a relationship guy bc he's too repressed and emotionally avoidant for that but past one night stands? situationships? maybe one where they were really into him and he kinda broke their heart.. :/
idk i'm blanking on more but i would also love to just brainstorm things.. just throw him at ur muses and see what happens... pls plot with him 🥺
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