NAPE - 36

The sudden distance made Doyoon feel bewildered. What on earth was the reason? Just as he became very curious, his phone rang loudly in his pocket. Checking it, he saw it was the chairman of the association. Normally, he would have ignored it, but now he had to answer.

“Hello?”

- Kwon Doyoon, what in the world are you doing? Not only did you bring an outsider into the association building, but you even took them into the archives?

No sooner had he answered than the chairman’s sharp voice rang out. Doyoon, conscious of the living room, turned down the phone volume as much as possible.

“You saw everything on CCTV, right? Did you get a clear shot of their face?”

- Did you think you wouldn’t be caught? Do you think I gave you my key for that? It’s a good thing today was the day we changed security companies, so you weren’t conspicuous, or you would have been caught by other hunters! Do you know how much trouble that would cause?

Her voice still boomed loudly. Doyoon sighed, closing his eyes tightly as if enduring, and took out a cigarette.

“Did I ask for the key card?”

- What?

“You told me to come and go as I pleased. You said you’d take responsibility for any problems that arose while I was handling things, and besides, nothing happened, so why are you getting annoyed preemptively?”

A testy voice came from between his lips as he held the cigarette. Normally, he would have said something appropriate to reassure the other person, but he wasn’t in the mood today. His nerves were completely focused elsewhere. Acrid smoke rose hazily into the air.

- No, of course, I gave it to you... but still, bringing someone of unknown identity, you should have at least said something beforehand...

“Didn’t you say you trusted me with it? Is this how you show trust? Surely you don’t think I was leisurely giving an outsider a tour, do you?”

- It’s not that, but... you know. Things are sensitive about outsiders coming in these days...

At his rather confident attitude, the chairman quickly backed down. She knew that when the usually laid-back Kwon Doyoon became this sharp, there was no benefit in confronting him. If they became enemies, the association would be the one to lose out.

“I’ll report after everything is finished, so just wait.”

Doyoon said cynically and stubbed out his cigarette on the desk. The person on the other end of the line groaned.

- Please, just help me out. You know how sensitive the hunters are these days, right? A few days ago, a group of hybrid vampires caused trouble in the association’s front yard. I don’t know if they were starving or on drugs, but they wouldn’t listen to anything. The government is making a big deal out of it because of that. They’re threatening to take over management and operations themselves if this keeps happening. The hunters themselves are grinding their teeth, saying their prestige has fallen. They say we have to produce some results. Big, visible results, if possible.

“A group of hybrid vampires... is that the gang fight the media was talking about?”

Doyoon’s eyes sharpened.

- Yeah. Everyone was about to die from being so frantic because of that.

“...And nothing else happened that day?”

- That was a big deal. I was so busy running around trying to smooth things over everywhere, I was completely out of it.

“By the way, why did you change the security company for the association? Wasn’t it a place you had a long-standing relationship with?”

- I guess it’s because the representative there changed recently. They became negligent in their management. Troubles kept happening. They wouldn’t come quickly when things broke down... Their contract period was also up, so we didn’t renew it.

Doyoon paused in thought. A slight frown creased his brow.

“Anyway. It looks like I won’t be going into the association anymore. I’ll return the key card through Hunter Lee Nam-won soon, so don’t worry.”

- Okay. Anyway, I’ll trust Hunter Kwon Doyoon and wait. I won’t ask who the woman you were with is, so please hurry and catch the trainer. Huh? This isn’t like you, dragging things out like this.

“I’m not dragging things out... Anyway, I’ll hang up now.”

- You trust me, really?

The chairman added more and more pleas before hanging up. Doyoon pulled out a wet wipe and rubbed away the cigarette mark left on the desk. He threw the tissue in the trash and quietly pondered the conversation he had just had. There was a hint of suspicion in the chairman’s voice urging him to quickly catch the trainer.

Perhaps she had noticed that he had other intentions. He wondered if he should delay things further or not. If the trainer’s actions became known to the world... great chaos would descend upon the human world. That was exactly what Doyoon wanted.

But... if that happened, Bibi would also come under the spotlight. He used to not care at all, but now he was very reluctant. The boundary between his original purpose and his personal feelings had become blurred.

Leaving his complicated thoughts behind, he poured himself a glass of whiskey and went out to the living room. He saw Bibi, who had come down from the refrigerator and was now huddled in front of the window. Her slumped, thin shoulders tugged at his heart. She had been so listless since encountering Choi Haejin. Had there been bad memories?

Well, she probably hadn’t received very good treatment from her former masters. Doyoon hoped that nothing bad would happen to this child anymore.

“Bibi.”

At Doyoon’s call, her lifeless, dark red eyes turned towards him.

“Shall we sleep together?”

Come to think of it, this was the first time Doyoon had made such a suggestion. He was nervous that she might refuse, but fortunately, Bibi got up wearily and headed to the bedroom.

The two lay side by side in bed. In the darkness, neither of them slept. They simply listened to each other’s breathing, lost in their own thoughts. Bibi didn’t speak again and seemed to be trying to create distance again. Had meeting Choi Haejin made her strongly aware of her position as a hunting dog?

Doyoon felt a tightness in his chest. He had thought that Bibi had almost completely opened her heart to him recently... It felt like everything had returned to its original state. It was as if he had encountered an insurmountable wall for the first time. It felt like he was losing to a human he had never even met, the trainer.

“Bibi, earlier I said it was a family that doesn’t exist in this world, right?”

He had made up his mind about something. Doyoon abruptly sat up and looked beside him. Bibi’s eyes were wide open. Her expression lacked expectation. She had been very disappointed to hear at the Hunter Association that the family whose crest she remembered didn’t exist in the world... It seemed she had quietly given up on finding the person who gave birth to her.

“To be precise, it no longer exists. It existed and then disappeared.”

Bibi’s eyes widened at the unexpected fact.

“The reason it disappeared now... is because the entire family was executed for starting the Vampire Wars.”

It wasn’t good news. No, the situation could actually get worse. If Bibi was the last descendant of the vampires who started the war... it meant that there was no one left in this world who would recognize her. And that wasn’t the only bad news.

“This has to stay between you and me. There’s no statute of limitations in the vampire world. If anyone finds out that any of that lineage remains, the executioners will personally come to eliminate them.”

Executioners. Bibi recalled the terrifying image of black figures torturing her with hot pokers. She shuddered involuntarily.

“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen. It’s not even certain. What I mean is, we need to find more clues.”

Doyoon raised one corner of his mouth as if to reassure her.

“So, trust me. You have to choose me in any situation. We share an important secret, and this is for your sake.”

Bibi forced a reassuring expression and nodded. Having lived like a ghost, adhering only to rules, she had for the first time grasped a clue to the starting point of her existence as ‘herself,’ not just a hunting dog. Questions she had never thought of before arose one after another.

If she really was from the rebellious family that started the war... then how did she become a hunting dog in the hands of the trainer?

She had thought that living as a hunting dog was fate and destiny. But for the first time, she felt that something had to change. No, perhaps the change had already begun. Until now, she had only kept secrets with the trainer... but now she was sharing them with Doyoon as well.

“Think about what the trainer told you, what that bastard taught you, even if it’s just a little. Is it really right that you should be treated like a hunting dog? Don’t you think it’s abnormal that a bastard would take in a girl from a ruined family and raise her as a hunting dog?”

Bibi frowned. Anyone who spoke ill of the trainer shouldn’t be forgiven. No matter if they were the master. But... but Doyoon was a good master. He wasn’t a cunning person who would manipulate a hunting dog for his own convenience. Everything he said was for her sake.

“I understand you. It probably won’t be easy for you to accept my words right away.”

Doyoon stroked Bibi’s cheek, which held a confused expression. A faint smile appeared at the soft, squishy feel of her cheek.

At first, he had tried to make this child his hunting dog because she was useful. But at some point, emotions had arisen and were taking root and sprouting. Now, Doyoon wasn’t trying to keep Bibi by his side because she was useful. It was because of some stickier, more interesting emotion.

That’s why he genuinely wanted to find the trainer. The desire to find that bastard who created Bibi’s world and crush him was overwhelming the long-held purpose he had carried.