NAPE - 13

These days, cream pudding with corn was trending on social media. In front of the pudding shops that had sprung up like mushrooms after rain near universities, young people lined up to wait every time. To be honest, the taste was all pretty similar, so it probably wasn’t worth that much, but it must have been due to the cute compulsion unique to humans: if someone else eats it, I have to eat it too.

Doyoon wasn’t particularly fond of food, but recently, perhaps because he had someone to feed, he found himself paying attention to dessert shops. The pudding shop that was always bustling was strangely quiet today. It was a rare opportunity; should he buy some?

When Bibi ate something, she let her guard down. The sight of her lowering her long eyelashes and stuffing food into her cheeks until they bulged, looked just like a squirrel waking up from hibernation. Recalling that image, Doyoon unconsciously chuckled.

“Everything you have.”

In a place overwhelmingly filled with female customers, Doyoon stood out noticeably. Many eyes were drawn to him in his black coat. The clerk handed him the bag of pudding with an excessively friendly smile.

“Oh? Professor! Hello!”

Someone approached and greeted him loudly. It was a familiar face. Doyoon nodded, acknowledging him.

“Ah, Assistant Lee.”

“Are you buying pudding too, Professor?”

Assistant Lee stared curiously at the bag in Doyoon’s hand, as if amazed. It was the look of someone admiring, “Even the professor is human.”

“It’s not for me.”

“Oh, I see. Then goodbye… Oh, right, Professor! By any chance… do you have a family member who studied in London?”

Assistant Lee, who was about to say goodbye and leave, clapped his hands and approached again. Doyoon tilted his head with an annoyed expression.

“London?”

“Yes. It’s nothing much… I was organizing photo materials for the lecture, and my grandmother saw them and suddenly said that the person in the picture looked exactly like her first love she met in London. I told her she might be mistaken, but she was so sure.”

Assistant Lee scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. A slight smile faded from Doyoon’s face. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

“I guess so? Well, it’s unlikely. My grandmother said something about them being a count or something.”

“You should help her get a dementia check.”

Assistant Lee rolled his eyes, looking embarrassed at Doyoon’s cold attitude. He looked regretful for having said something silly.

“More importantly, Assistant Lee, you’re graduating soon. Congratulations sincerely.”

It was a tone that anyone could tell lacked sincerity.

“No, it’s all thanks to you, Professor. Thank you. At first, I thought you found me annoying, but now that I think about it, it all seems to have had a purpose… Oh, right, I heard you’re retiring in two years due to health reasons. And that’s why you’re not taking on any more students starting this semester. So, I’m your last student. It’s an honor.”

Assistant Lee respectfully clasped his hands together with a reverent expression. Doyoon smiled blandly, his face devoid of emotion.

“I was thinking I should make Assistant Lee redo his graduation thesis and keep him around for another year. But he managed to pass.”

“Ah… haha…”

“Actually, I was even considering rejecting your thesis and making you stay for another semester.”

“...Th-that’s a joke, right? Haha. I, I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I’ll be going now.”

Assistant Lee bowed deeply and hurriedly left the shop. Doyoon watched his retreating figure, then carefully held the bag of pudding and got into the car parked on the roadside.

“London, huh.”

He spoke the name of the city he had just heard aloud. London. A familiar name. The navel of the global industrial revolution, and the birthplace of all kinds of evil. A city where everything was controlled by those who hid in the shadows. He felt a slightly nostalgic feeling, as if recalling a long-lost toy.

Beep beep. Beep beep.

While lost in thought, his phone rang. The name ‘Association President’ appeared on the screen. Doyoon frowned deeply. It was a voice he disliked hearing even more than Namwon singing.

“What is it?”

Doyoon answered the phone curtly.

• Are you busy? Let’s meet.

A deep female voice pierced Doyoon’s ears.

“What’s the matter?”

• The hybrid vampire who became a hunting dog. Let’s meet where we always do. You hate coming to the association.

The call ended before he could even answer. Doyoon put on his sunglasses, shielding his eyes from the afternoon sunlight, and got into the car. He hesitated, looking at the bag of pudding he had placed on the passenger seat. Meeting the association president would take longer than usual. The clerk had just made it and said it was delicious… Oh well.

He turned the car towards the Han River. He wondered what the association president would say. Maybe he could get some useful information. He intended to deny having the hunting dog Bibi at home.

Doyoon was intrigued by Bibi as a person, beyond just her being a ‘hunting dog’ or a ‘pureblood’. Observing the changes in her from when they first met and she was wary and hissing was a unique amusement in his monotonous daily life.

Bibi, with her large, sorrowful eyes, small nose, and fluffy hair like a puppy, was very funny to watch. She would hold a whole cake and gobble it down, pick out clothes with cubic zirconia to wear, worry about killing him but not actually do anything, and even touch various household appliances while imitating humans, despite having lived as a hunting dog.

Actually, that last part was Doyoon’s intention. Vampires had a habit of imitating humans. He had deliberately left the television on, hoping for that, and it had been quite effective.

Bibi not only washed herself like ordinary humans but also tried on various clothes from the closet and slept in her own designated bedroom. Now, she would answer Doyoon about one out of every ten times he spoke to her, and she no longer hid. It was a remarkable improvement compared to when they first met.

Sometimes, when he let her drink his blood, she would comically stick her head forward, careful not to touch him, but since they weren’t going to have sex anyway, it didn’t matter.

In fact, what troubled Doyoon was the sensation of being sucked by a vampire. It wasn’t just a pleasant feeling; it was similar to sexual pleasure, and he had almost gotten an erection in an unwanted situation. Getting aroused in an unwanted situation seemed a bit embarrassing. Should he give it to her differently in the future? Maybe just pour a little into a glass? He needed to come up with a solution.

Doyoon hummed as he turned the steering wheel. If things continued like this, wouldn’t the hunting dog Bibi accept him as her master? To think he would acquire a pureblood vampire without going through the association. He was lucky.

Han River Park Parking Lot

A tall woman in a brown coat approached a dark blue Bentley. The woman, who had her hair tied back, had a piercing in her lip, and her sharp eyes and prominent nose resembled a rough pirate. Looking around, the woman lowered her head and tapped on the driver’s side window.

“Get in.”

Doyoon, sitting in the driver’s seat, rolled down the window and nodded. The woman shook her head.

“Come out. The weather’s nice, let’s talk while walking a bit.”

“I don’t like it, it’s cold.”

“Huh? What’s cold? You’ll sweat anyway while walking.”

“I said it’s cold.”

“Ugh.”

The woman gave up on the argument, grumbling as she got into the car. She immediately snatched Doyoon’s sunglasses off his face. A snort escaped her lips as his handsome face was revealed.

“Long time no see? Judging by your good looks, you’re still eating and living well. So, I heard you teach philosophy or something at the university. Are you preaching well? In my opinion, it’s just one step away from being a cult.”

At the woman’s sarcasm, Doyoon raised the corner of his lips as if agreeing.

“You look good too, Association President. Is the corpse business booming?”

“Hey, corpse business? To the president of the Hunter Association?”

“Isn’t taking out organs from vampire corpses and selling them all over the place just one step away from the corpse business?”

The association president didn’t strongly deny it and simply shrugged. The corpse of a vampire hit by a silver bullet would turn into white bones within tens of minutes.

But the story was different in the case of beheading. The corpse would not only be preserved perfectly as if it were alive, but it also boasted a powerful vitality as if it wanted to live. The organs taken from those corpses were one of the association’s lucrative sources of income.

“You never give in, do you? Anyway. Let’s skip the preamble and get straight to the point.”

The association president’s face became quite serious.

“You probably already know. There’s someone raising newborn hybrid vampires as hunting dogs. We generally call that person the Trainer. A very cunning and shrewd bastard. Since vampires living hidden in modern society get eliminated for murder and corpse desecration if they directly go out to get blood, they brainwash young hybrid vampires and make them hunt instead. If they happen to get caught, they can just deny it wasn’t them. Unsociable hybrid vampires… in other words, hunting dogs… won’t even be able to defend themselves.”

It was all information he already knew. What kind of expression would the association president make if he told her that hunting dog was in his house? He was curious, but he held back.

“So?”

“Help me find him.”

“You know I’m busy.”

“You’re a vampire hunter. Do some work, will you?”

“Why are you doing this? Have I ever not done my job properly?”

Doyoon smiled blandly, without any hint of sarcasm.