Codename Vestia

Chapter 7: Joonie

Doyeong opened his eyes. The familiar scenery of the log cabin came into view.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

As he swallowed a sigh, he felt something warm against his back.

Doyeong turned around, puzzled, and flinched. Gamal was clinging tightly to his back, fast asleep.

Doyeong quickly sat up.

“What the…?”

Gamal woke up at the sound, her eyes slowly blinking open. At first, she looked confused, but as soon as she realized the situation, she quickly got up and stepped back a few paces.

“Sorry.”

Doyeong frowned as if he’d seen something suspicious and asked,

“Why were you clinging to my back?”

Gamal hesitated like a child who had done something wrong.

“Well… the Major’s breathing was soothing. I must have dozed off listening to it…”

So, she seemed to be saying that she unconsciously moved closer while listening to his breathing.

In truth, Doyeong was startled because, upon waking, an incredibly beautiful woman he had never seen before was stuck to his back. However, Gamal appeared to think that he was shocked because a vampire like her had been so close to him.

Not that he felt any need to correct her misunderstanding.

“You’re really something.”

So, Doyeong scolded her needlessly and waved his hand.

“It’s warm. Give me some water.”

Gamal quickly got up, poured some water, and handed it to him. Since she could still hold a water bowl even with her hands tied, he drank the water directly, but Gamal kept staring at him.

With eyes full of intent, as if she were trying to bore a hole through him. Doyeong paused while drinking and raised his eyes.

“What?”

“It’s fascinating. Watching you drink water.”

The way Gamal said it, she really looked like a child witnessing something for the first time. But Doyeong responded more cynically.

“It’s not like I’m drinking water through my nose, so what’s so fascinating?”

Gamal was surprised.

“You can drink through your nose?”

“Do you think I can?”

Realizing he was teasing her, Gamal pouted and asked,

“Major, aren’t you afraid of me?”

Doyeong looked her up and down.

“I’d love to know what part of this bumbling idiot I’m supposed to be scared of.”

“I’m not a bumbling idiot.”

Her puffed-up cheeks were so plump that he felt an urge to pinch them. Doyeong, too lazy to reply, simply waved his hand.

“I see vampires every day, so why would I be scared?”

After all, he worked with vampires, joked around with them, arm-wrestled, and played card games. The reason people feared wild beasts like lions and tigers was because they couldn’t communicate with them. If you could talk a wild beast into sitting quietly by your side, there would be no reason to fear it.

Gamal, still fascinated, asked,

“Every day? How?”

Doyeong couldn’t exactly tell her that it was because he was part of a military unit where humans and vampires worked together, so instead, he asked her back.

“You’re not telling me you don’t know that vampires and humans live together out there, right?”

“I know that, but…”

‘So, she does know. That means there’s some way she’s getting news from outside,’ Doyeong thought. At that moment, Gamal spoke up.

“Even so, people are still scared of vampires.”

“Why? Did you get chased out of a village, pelted with stones or something?”

Gamal nodded. Since Doyeong knew many vampires, he’d heard various stories and was well aware of the struggles they faced before their existence was officially acknowledged.

In reality, there weren’t many true vampires among those targeted during witch hunts—mostly because of the difference in power—but he had heard of plenty who were driven out of villages after their peculiarities were exposed.

Doyeong brought his arms forward, resting them on his thighs, and asked,

“Is that what happened? You were hurt by humans so much that you kept looking for more and more remote places, until you ended up on this deserted island?”

If that were the case, it would make a bit more sense why she was living alone in a place like this.

“That’s… partly true…”

But Gamal hesitated, and Doyeong furrowed his brow.

“So, is it true or not?”

Gamal turned her head sharply to the side.

“I don’t know.”

‘Is she sulking now?’ Doyeong was taken aback.

But as Gamal knelt, her thighs were exposed. Doyeong felt a sudden urge to smack some sense into himself. No matter how many times he reminded himself, “She’s a vampire,” he couldn’t stop thinking about how he wanted to touch those radiant, smooth thighs.

‘She must have had it easy.’

Although, in reality, she’d been through a lot—getting captured and beaten by terrorists, barely managing to escape, swimming for her life to this deserted island, and ending up in a fight with a vampire that left her leg fractured.

Doyeong sighed and looked at Gamal.

“Aren’t you going to give me breakfast? Are you planning to starve me? Don’t you even know about the Geneva Convention’s Third Protocol (regarding the treatment of prisoners)?”

—

“Major!”

From a distance, Gamal came running, holding a gigantic fish that looked like something out of a prehistoric fossil. She was soaking wet, clearly having dived into the water to catch it herself. If he said the sight of her running, all excited and dripping, didn’t seem a bit like an eager puppy, he’d be lying. No, she looked very cute.

Come to think of it, she kind of resembled Yeonha.

Yeonha had been Doyeong’s former teammate and friend, a non-commissioned officer of the ERU (Emergency Response Unit) Team 3 that he led when he was stationed at the MCTC Seoul branch.

To digress briefly, Doyeong had been reassigned two years ago to the Central Guard Division’s Task Force—Pacific Team 1. His achievements at the Seoul branch had been the reason for the transfer.

Joining the TF team from a permanent branch was quite a promotion, and Doyeong’s aptitude was better suited to the TF side rather than the more SWAT-like (Special Weapons and Tactics, a U.S. police counter-terrorism unit) permanent branch.

Though, thanks to a mission for the TF that led him to infiltrate enemy territory incorrectly, he was now in this miserable situation.

Anyway, like Gamal, Yeonha was also a female vampire, and her appearance had been frozen at nineteen, giving her a certain immaturity in mental age, which made her somewhat naive. Although she had grown up a bit after getting married, he realized that because of their similarities, he had unintentionally ended up scolding Gamal like he used to with Yeonha.

“Look! It’s huge!”

Gamal ran over to Doyeong, who was sitting under the shade of a tree, holding out the fish with a beaming smile.

The difference from Yeonha was that Gamal had a more mature body and exuded a stronger sense of innocent charm. It was probably emphasized because her speech wasn’t entirely fluent.

When Doyeong didn’t respond and just stared at her, Gamal tilted her head and asked,

“Major, are you hurt?”

Doyeong sighed and straightened his arms, resting them on his bent knees. His hands were still bound.

“If you were in my situation, would you have any energy?”

“You don’t like the rope?”

“If I say I like it, be sure to doubt me. Next time, I might want to tie you up.”

Gamal tilted her head again.

“What do you mean? Your words are too difficult.”

Doyeong thought there was no point in explaining, so he didn’t respond.

Gamal began to ponder. If Doyeong had intended to do something, he wouldn’t have missed such a perfect opportunity last night. She had fallen into a deep sleep herself because she knew he was lying right next to her.

Suddenly, Gamal knelt down in front of him, and Doyeong looked at her. She held out her pinky finger to him.

“Then, promise. Don’t run.”

Behind Gamal, the bright sunlight glistened on the sparkling white sand. Even though it was just a promise made with pinkies, her deep red eyes, shaded beneath the tree, were serious, as if it was something incredibly important.

“Even if I wanted to, I can’t run.”

Despite his words, Doyeong linked his pinky with hers.

For some reason, Gamal felt overwhelmed and kept her pinky hooked with his. At that, Doyeong flashed one of his typical expressions—raising his eyes with a sharp, intense look that sent a shiver down the spine.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Gamal withdrew her hand and untied the rope. Finally, freed, Doyeong stretched his slightly numb hands.

He had succeeded in getting his arms free. Although he couldn’t immediately run because of the state of his legs, at least he had passed the first hurdle.

“Major, are you going to eat this? I’ll cook it for you.”

Gamal skillfully prepared the fish for grilling, resembling Tarzan taking care of a stranded Jane.

Doyeong couldn’t help but scoff at the thought that crossed his mind.

“So, does that make me Jane? Huh? Am I supposed to be Jane here?”

The situation felt more like he was dealing with a Little Mermaid who had collected every trinket imaginable, rather than a rugged Tarzan.

As he watched Gamal grilling the fish, Doyeong asked,

“When were you born?”

He didn’t expect her to answer, but it wasn’t like he had anything else to do anyway.

“The 14th century, before Christos.”

This time, Gamal did answer. Doyeong had no idea what determined when she would speak and when she wouldn’t. Still, setting that aside, Doyeong frowned.

“Christos? You mean Christ?”

He wasn’t sure what language she was using, but he could guess based on context. He later found out it was ancient Greek.

Gamal nodded.

“If you’re talking about the man who was nailed to a cross, then yes.”

Doyeong stared at her.

“The 14th century B.C.? So, you’ve lived for over three thousand years?”

“Yeah.”

Doyeong waved his hand dismissively.

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have even asked.”

Gamal looked puzzled.

“Why?”

Leaning his chin on the hand propped against the uninjured leg, Doyeong sighed.

“Is it even possible to live for three thousand years? Someone like you?”

Technically, Luas was supposed to live forever, but it was rare for anyone to survive even a thousand years. People used to joke that it would take a miracle for Luas to make it to his eleventh sixtieth birthday.

Gamal, however, looked sulky.

“I’m not stupid.”

“If you’d said half of that, I might have pretended to believe you.”

“No, it’s three thousand three hundred fifty years. But I slept a long time. Over there.”

She pointed toward the mountain in the center of the island, as if to prove her innocence.

“One day, there was a storm. A big storm. Very big.”

She stretched out her hands dramatically, as if recounting a fairy tale, to illustrate the storm, probably meaning a typhoon.

“It opened the place where I was sleeping. My body…”

She seemed to struggle to find the right words, contemplating how to explain, before making a motion as if her body was being flung forward. Then she twirled her fingers in circles.

“I rolled out. I woke up in a pile of dirt. So I got up.”

Doyeong furrowed his brow. The way she was telling it made it sound less like a lie than he would have expected.

It was a world where vampires existed. Even if that made anything seem possible, believing the number “three thousand” still felt like a stretch. Was the being sitting in front of him with that blank expression really as old as an ancient mummy?

Doyeong looked Gamal up and down, openly scrutinizing her. She didn’t seem particularly offended; she just looked puzzled, as if she couldn’t understand why he was doing it. Seeing her like this made it hard to believe…

“When did you wake up?”

Still not letting go of his doubts, Doyeong asked. Gamal tilted her head one way, then the other, as if counting numbers in her head.

“About four hundred years ago?”

Like bears entering hibernation when food became scarce, vampires also deliberately went into long periods of sleep. But that was a thing of the past.

In the modern world, where food was plentiful, there was no real need for vampires to hibernate anymore, and very few of them did.

Back in the old days, there wasn’t much difference between a hundred and two hundred years. Farmers continued to till the land, and kings continued to wage wars.

But these days, everything changed so quickly that, the moment they fell asleep, there was no telling what kind of world they’d wake up to. That unpredictability was probably the biggest reason why vampires no longer hibernated.

As Doyeong pondered, he asked again,

“When did you come to this island?”