It was understandable up to opening the door lock. Since it would open just by pressing a button and lowering the handle, a smart cat might be able to do it. But wasn’t it a bit unusual to close the open door and leave?
“…Kkamang must have been a really smart cat.”
Surim scratched his cheek and pouted his lips.
“Yesterday he meowed so prettily that I thought he wanted to live together, but as soon as morning came, he left without a word…”
Of course cats couldn’t speak, but still, couldn’t he at least meow? Surim trudged toward the kitchen, brazenly demanding an impossible wish. He was thirsty.
After pouring and drinking a glass of cold water and coming to his senses a bit, Surim let out a deep sigh and turned around, then stopped short at seeing the cup on the dining table. It was Song Hanyeong’s cup.
Suddenly, yesterday’s events that he’d forgotten flashed through his mind.
“Yesterday at the laboratory, Song Hanyeong…”
Had been drinking blood. Whether it was cloned blood or real blood, he didn’t know, but he’d definitely drunk the transparent red substance in the test tube.
He’d tried to run away in shock, but Song Hanyeong called him… And then what happened after that?
“Ungh…”
A stinging pain swept through his head. Surim clutched his head and leaned against the dining table. The memories that had been sunk deep in confusion were slowly rising up.
Song Hanyeong had threatened him, and Surim had begged him not to kill him. Then Song Hanyeong demanded blood from him.
Right, blood.
“What the hell…?”
What exactly was Song Hanyeong? What kind of being was he that he drank blood and also asked for blood? Was he even human?
The moment that question came to mind, an eerie chill swept over his entire body. Surim looked down at himself with a confused gaze while hugging both his arms.
More precisely, at his left forearm where the needle was inserted each time blood was drawn once a week. Could it have been a contract to drink blood from the very beginning?
No, that wasn’t it. The fact that blood was being cloned at Research Lab 0 was true. It was certain that it was blood collection to clone blood and make artificial blood.
But then what about yesterday’s events…
Questions he couldn’t conclude floated around in his head.
“I’d rather have the nonsense that he’s actually a vampire.”
Surim let out an empty laugh and sighed deeply. It was an absurd story, but that’s why he felt a bit better. Right, even a vampire seemed better than something like a pleasure killer. At least a vampire’s survival activity was like a lion catching a buffalo in the wild—they’d die if they didn’t eat. Wasn’t that better than butchering and eating people for some kind of pleasure?
Above all, if he imagined Song Hanyeong as a vampire…
“It suits him…”
Surim, who had slumped his upper body over the dining table, muttered as if lamenting. Especially his characteristic cold face and the atmosphere that intimidated people. His skin, which was pale enough to look somewhat pallid, also played a part.
Swallowing dry saliva, Surim recalled the fear he’d felt when Song Hanyeong called his name yesterday. Each time the familiar footsteps approached, his heart beat louder, and eventually the thump-thump-thump sound of his heartbeat wouldn’t leave his ears. He was scared. He was frightened. It was chillingly creepy.
However, the problem was that Song Hanyeong had kissed Surim in that state. Of course, what followed wasn’t a sweet kiss but the act of biting his tongue to draw blood and drinking it, but anyway, hadn’t their lips touched each other?
That act couldn’t have left Surim feeling nothing. It was a time he absolutely couldn’t say had only been fear and fright. No, rather, even the fear and fright seemed to have been devoured by his wildly beating heart.
Because his tongue was so…
“Hm…?”
Surim suddenly realized his tongue didn’t hurt at all. Yesterday it had been riddled with holes and aching, but. Surim ran to the living room mirror to check his tongue.
“…There’s… no wound.”
His neck was the same. He hadn’t checked for wounds, but though he had a clear memory of Song Hanyeong biting him, his neck was smooth without any wounds.
What on earth had happened?
Surim examined his body in confusion, then soon returned to sit at the dining table again. He needed mental and physical stability. Only when he rolled Song Hanyeong’s chopsticks with his fingertips did his mind settle down a bit.
“My memories after being bitten are a bit vague…”
Had he lost consciousness after being devoured like that? When he opened his eyes again, he was in the passenger seat of a car. Song Hanyeong had taken him home after he’d fainted. Just like he’d brought drunk Surim home before.
Yesterday he’d run away frantically, shocked and scared, but thinking about it now, it was strange.
Why had he done that? Song Hanyeong could have just left Surim on the research lab floor and departed. If he’d simply thought of him as only food or a sacrifice, wouldn’t it not matter if he didn’t bother with such kindness?
That’s when it happened.
Ding-dong, the bell rang. Surim went to the entrance without much thought and opened the door, then jumped in surprise and pulled the door closed again. However, the door caught in between wouldn’t budge at all.
“I-I can’t anymore. I have a headache right now, I’m dizzy, I have a fever…”
At those words, Song Hanyeong opened the door wide and stepped inside with a stride. When Song Hanyeong applied force, Surim couldn’t resist at all and let go of the door.
Song Hanyeong checked the frightened Surim’s forehead, then spat out curtly.
“You don’t have a fever.”
“……”
If he’d rather been denounced as a liar, he wouldn’t have felt like this. Surim’s face turned red as he stumbled backward.
Song Hanyeong paid no attention and held out the shopping bag he was carrying. Surim awkwardly stood there and took it.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Lunchboxes for you to eat over the weekend.”
“…You’re bringing livestock feed now?”
At the somewhat rebellious question, Song Hanyeong chuckled.
“Yes. I need to fatten you up to eat you again.”
At the poor joke, Surim was so dumbfounded he couldn’t retort at all. As he stared blankly with an incredulous face, Song Hanyeong soon turned around. He left just like that without even saying goodbye.
“…What a weird person.”
Surim, who’d put down the heavy shopping bag, grumbled while twitching his lips. As he took out the shopping bag’s contents, three sheets of paper fell out with a thud. Checking them, they were printed papers with maps showing which lunchbox was from which restaurant. He’d clearly put them in deliberately to prove they were food Surim could eat.
Surim felt a very strange feeling squirming in his chest as he took out and checked three containers of porridge and three regular lunchboxes. It was an emotion difficult to define with a single word.
“Really such a weird person…”
* * *
‘It’s Song Hanyeong…!’
Surim looked around frantically and then shoved himself under an empty desk. As he hid in the cramped space hugging his knees and holding his breath, self-loathing surged over him rapidly.
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this again…’
When he’d just stolen the cup, it was different from now because he’d been desperate with the thought that he couldn’t become a stalker like this, and he’d had almost no interaction with Song Hanyeong. Now he was running away from someone whose face he met every weekday, someone he ate lunch with. He felt he was doing something stupid and foolish.
But even so, he couldn’t not do this. Because this was an extremely instinctive action. The moment he heard the sound of Song Hanyeong’s shoe heels from afar, his body had moved on its own.
He was confused about what to say when he faced Song Hanyeong. He wasn’t usually the type to avoid human relationships, but strangely, he kept running away when it came to Song Hanyeong.
‘I’m scared, but I don’t want the relationship to end either.’
Yes, that was it.
Surim knew he should confront him, demanding what the hell that was, asking if he was crazy, saying he’d report him to the police. The problem was that if he did that, he’d never be able to face Song Hanyeong again.
Surim covered his face with both hands and groaned with an expression he couldn’t show to others. Seeing that bizarre scene and even after being victimized, the fact that his feelings of liking Song Hanyeong remained unchanged was both bewildering and at the same time quite fortunate.
“Haah…”
Surim, who’d let out a deep sigh without realizing it, reflexively covered his mouth. Then after waiting a bit, the familiar sound of footsteps gradually approached.
“……”
And didn’t move away. Surim pulled his toes further inside the desk. Could he have seen him hiding? As he held his breath for a moment, Song Hanyeong’s shoes approached right in front of the desk.
“……”
“……”
It was a distance where he couldn’t have failed to see the crouched figure under the desk. Surim had no choice but to sheepishly try to pull himself out from his hiding place, when crash—he banged his head under the desk.
“Ungh…”
As Surim groaned and rubbed the top of his head, a low sigh continued at length, then Song Hanyeong turned around. He tapped Surim’s toes with his foot and moved away.
It was an attitude as if he knew he was there but was letting it slide.
“…You idiot…”
Muttering and blaming himself, Surim crawled out from under the desk. When he sneakily half-raised his body, Song Hanyeong had already reached his seat.
