—Your friend is upset and you won’t even comfort him?
“Doesn’t it hurt less when you yell?”
—It hurts. Don’t change the subject.
“If you’re that upset, stalk him in the hotel lobby or something.”
When I relayed Deputy Manager Choi Ji-sook’s plan as is, Seong-jin giggled.
—I’m so upset I’ll definitely see that bastard’s face.
“I won’t stop you.”
—Don’t stop me. More than that, when are you really coming to visit? They say you get discharged quickly from appendicitis. Come today. Borrow a bunch of manga. It’s boring at night.
“I can’t because I’m working overtime today.”
—Then come after you finish overtime. Sleep here. It’s a single room so there’s nothing inconvenient. It’s really warm here. There’s even a shower. It’ll be better than that storage-like goshiwon.
“A single room for just appendicitis, how extravagant.”
—All I have is money. How about it? You’ll come, right? Huh? I’m bored.
I was swayed. A single room with a shower, a warm hospital room. The refrigerator would probably be full too. It would definitely be full of things better than cup ramen packed with seasoning.
“I’ll come tomorrow.”
—Then buy me cheesecake. Tera’s cheesecake. Not a slice, buy a whole one. This hyung-nim wants to eat cheesecake.
“What cheesecake when you can’t even fart.”
—Stop nagging and just buy the cake. Tera’s cheesecake. If you don’t buy it, I’ll kick you out?
Seong-jin, who only said what he wanted to say, hung up abruptly. I looked at the screen showing a call time of 3 minutes and 17 seconds and chuckled.
Asking me to buy expensive handmade cheesecake for someone who wouldn’t spare even 10 won.
The hospital visit gift will be canned peaches.
Having made that decision, I stuck my chopsticks into the cup noodles that had been sitting for three minutes.
It had been a long day.
* * *
The main duty of agents belonging to the vampire department was to call vampires monthly to verify their residences and contact information, ask about their well-being, and check their condition.
Most vampires residing in Korea were VS or VSL. Their abilities were insignificant compared to high-ranking vampires, but it was true that they were physically far superior to ordinary humans. And when starved for blood, they would lose their reason and attack humans.
Unlike in movies, not all humans who are fed upon become vampires. To turn a human into a vampire, a specific ritual must be performed, but since it was classified as top secret, the details of what and how it was needed were not known.
Usually, when vampires feed, they drink blood to the limit, so most humans die on the spot. In other words, it becomes murder. Then naturally, state authority pursues and hunts down the murderer. Since it’s a special murder case, they do so with all their passion. In a small country like Korea, it’s not easy to live in hiding, so for a vampire to obtain blood by attacking ordinary people could essentially be considered an act of throwing away one’s life.
That said, there was no active blood market like in foreign countries, so it was impossible to obtain blood through underground means. And this was also a big problem because of the ‘Rule of Three.’ The reason hasn’t been clearly revealed, but if a vampire drinks the blood of the same human three times, they can only drink that human’s blood for the rest of their life. If that person dies, the vampire starves to death. There were several such cases in foreign countries.
Because of this, even though domestic vampires found it annoying to be treated as potential criminals and monitored by the state, they thought selling a bit of freedom to receive a stable blood supply was a pretty decent deal. And although the relationship with agents was structured as monitor and monitored, their relationship wasn’t that bad. After all, when you contact someone regularly for years, even if just for work, you usually become closer than casual friends.
In fact, their lives weren’t much different from those of ordinary people. Lower-ranking vampires had the constraint of difficulty being active during the day—though dramatic situations like turning to ash in sunlight as commonly known don’t occur, their skin swells and becomes raw like having a sun allergy—so they couldn’t have ordinary jobs that required working during the day. Therefore, most of them worked in occupations active at night. They were all ordinary citizens who paid their taxes faithfully and were enrolled in insurance.
Of course, since a high proportion worked in nighttime occupations, they tended to get involved in incidents and accidents more frequently than ordinary people, but most cases were resolved smoothly at their level without the Management Bureau’s intervention. However, if they needed to be active during the day or if an incident was serious, a call would come to the Management Bureau.
Besides that, there were often cases where vampires contacted us first to report their current situation, chat, or provide tips.
Especially in my case, thanks to my reputation as a kind manager, I received calls that exceeded the average number.
—I just saw something terrifying. At the, the intersection with the clock tower, at a coffee shop, there was a vampire at the coffee shop, I saw an incredibly strong vampire. I, I’m not lying. I swear. A blonde foreigner with red eyes. I swear it’s a vampire that can’t possibly exist in Korea. Our eyes met, and I thought I’d die of fear.
Seo In-hee-ssi was one of the vampires I managed. She had been running a small restaurant that only opened late at night without moving residences for nearly 10 years, and she had never caused any problems until now. It had been two years since I took charge of her, but this was the first time she had called me first.
Just from Seo In-hee-ssi’s trembling voice shouting that she saw an incredible vampire, I could tell she was frightened.
—This kind of thing, I should call Unhyuk-ssi about it, right?
“Yes. That’s right. And the person In-hee-ssi saw is a vampire tourist from abroad. As In-hee-ssi said, incredibly strong. We’re aware of them on our end, so it’s okay. You can just pass by.”
—Huh? Huh? Is that so?
“Yes. You were very surprised, weren’t you?”
—Yeah, yes. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a scary vampire.
I gently soothed the panicked Seo In-hee-ssi and hung up the phone. Then Deputy Manager Choi Ji-sook, who had been listening to the conversation beside me, chuckled.
“That again, right? Where was it this time?”
“Insa-dong, she said.”
“Our vampire-nim. He’s busy. Yesterday it was Samcheong-dong.”
I know, I answered while smiling bitterly. It had been a week since Rashanin came to Korea. I couldn’t know where he was or what he was doing during the day, but after sunset, just like a moment ago, I would receive several tip-off calls a day. Saying they saw an amazing vampire in Samcheong-dong, in Sindang-dong, in Myeong-dong.
“He must stand out quite a bit. I’d like to see him once, where did she say?”
“She said the clock tower intersection. You could go check it out after you finish work.”
It was almost time to leave work. Deputy Manager Choi Ji-sook laughed, saying that’s tempting.
“But I can’t. It’s Friday. I have to see my husband.”
“Didn’t you say handsome men are the world’s treasure?”
“Hohoho. It’s been a week since I’ve seen him, and if I don’t take care of my hubby, he’ll sulk.”
Deputy Manager Choi Ji-sook’s principle was that a nearby hubby takes priority over a distant handsome man. I encouraged her and turned my head to the monitor to complete the report I had been writing before receiving In-hee-ssi’s call.
Every time a tip-off call came in, I had to write a report. Friday afternoon with less than an hour left until the end of work. I couldn’t welcome the increase in miscellaneous tasks.
Damn vampire.
I cursed inwardly at Rashanin, who must be in Insa-dong.
*
Saturday weekend evening. Running into Rashanin on the streets of Hongdae was purely coincidental.
I disliked crowded places, so I avoided busy districts when possible. But today I had no choice. Last week, when I brought canned peaches as a get-well gift, Seong-jin got angry, saying he’d cut off our friendship. The luxurious private hospital room’s refrigerator was stocked full of expensive and delicious snacks, and crucially, even though he hadn’t even farted yet, he tormented me by demanding I bring him cake. In the end, I promised to buy and bring cheesecake the next time I visited.
During the week, he became even more spirited after farting, and while walking through the teeming crowds of the busy district to buy cake from the shop Seong-jin had designated, I spotted Rashanin.
The man was sitting casually on knee-high flower bed bricks across the two-lane street where vehicle traffic was restricted. The busy district after sunset was filled with people who came out to enjoy the night. Even among them, the man sitting on the flower bed wall wearing a dark gray suit stood out prominently.
Should I say it was like a tiger crouching among gorgeously adorned peacocks?
No… more than that.
I stopped at the strange feeling. The expression had disappeared from Rashanin’s face. His face, showing no emotion, looked not like a living creature but like a statue carved from marble. The Rashanin I met last Friday had been a man who constantly wore a subtle smile. He was so leisurely that he was even cheeky, which had twisted my insides a bit.
But why does he have that face now?
Making everyone who sees him feel strange.
I was staring blankly at Rashanin when someone lightly bumped my shoulder as they passed, and I snapped back to my senses. It felt like I had unintentionally seen another side of the man. I wondered whether to go over and acknowledge him, but I didn’t have the courage to speak to a man absorbed in his own world.
It seemed better for my well-being to pretend I didn’t see him, to act like I didn’t know him, and I was about to turn my steps when the women near Rashanin entered my field of vision. Even at a glance, they weren’t trying to ask for directions. It was a pickup attempt. Young ladies with good figures and cute, charming outfits. They might have had some confidence, or they might have been smitten by Rashanin’s face. But they picked the wrong target. He was a vampire.
Suddenly I remembered him saying he would obtain blood through illegal methods. Surely he wasn’t waiting for prey to fall into his trap like this. While I was suspecting that, the situation was taking a strange turn. This time, men who looked like touts drumming up business approached and spoke to him. It wasn’t even funny. Like a newborn calf that doesn’t know to fear a tiger, if they approached like that after only seeing a handsome face, they’d be in for a rude awakening.
