No More Lazy Days

Sundays are designated Neugdae's 'lazy days' as in he uses them as free days to laze about and do whatever he wanted. Most students make the mistake of using Saturdays to hang out with friends, go to parties or just goof off. Neugdae didn't fall into that trap and for almost the entirety of the day before he used it to finish up his assignments, doing laundry and packing his bags. Now he could use the day before the start of yet another hectic week at university to decompress and arrive fresh to restart the weekly grind. Such is the perks of not having much of a social life.

…God his life can be sad sometimes.

Today is a little different though as the previous day he did something different besides assignments and laundry. Meeting with Officer Hwa was a lot more stressful than he envisioned. Mostly due to the fact that he more or less confirmed the existence of spies within the police force and of course…the politics, ugh. Needless to say Neugdae opted to turn off his alarm and sleep in that day forgoing his morning jog. Because of this he ended up waking up at ten in the morning after which he did a little calisthenics before taking a hot shower and began preparing a late breakfast.

He was actually looking forward to spending the day doing absolutely nothing.

*Ding Dong*

'And of course the doorbell has to ring at that precise moment.'

It really felt like God was playing a joke on him.

He knew exactly who is at the door and he couldn't help but sigh in resignation. It's not as if he didn't expect it but it was so early he expected her to show up in the evening. Opening the door Neugdae is greeted with the sight of Hwang Soyun wearing the inspired disguise of a pair of cheep sunglasses, baseball cap and green hoodie. She also wore blue ripped jeans and boots.

Upon seeing him she gave a little wave "morning Sunbae, did you happen to catch the news last night?"

He raised an eyebrow "I did" he made way for her and jerked his head "get in."

She did so and after ensuring no one else was around he closed the door and turned to see Soyun with her glasses off admiring his apartment with awe.

"This place is huge~" he breathed.

Neugdae for his part grunted returning to the kitchen "tea?"

"Thank you."

As he prepared the good tea for his guest Neugdae made small conversation with her "I'm guessing you weren't the one to come up with that plan to fake your death."

"How would you know?"

"You don't strike me as the type" he said pouring the cup of tea.

"You don't know that."

"No offense but if you had that kind of plan in the pipeline you wouldn't have reacted the way you did that night after you revealed yourself" after carrying the tea inside and placing it on the table before the disguised vampire he looked her in the eye "you panicked and ran away."

"Ugh" she cringed.

"When you didn't show up the next day I honestly thought you left town since it made sense but instead I found you exactly where you said you lived and you looked surprised to see me."

Soyun gave a harsh sigh as rested her elbows on the table and leaned her forehead against her interlaced hands "I could have handled that better."

"You could have" he agreed going into the kitchen for his breakfast before taking his seat opposite her.

Soyun took a sip of tea and raised both brows "this is pretty good."

"I only use the best for guests. Speaking of you came just in time for breakfast, was that on purpose?"

"No but you didn't seem surprised to see me."

"I'm more surprised that the priest didn't come with you."

Soyun frowned "Father Joseph is recovering from yesterday."

"Is it serious?"

"He'll live" she answered simply taking another sip of tea.

Neugdae hummed as he ate some of his food "does he know about me?"

"He knows I know someone but I didn't give him your name. I figure you wouldn't have appreciated that."

Soyun's standing rose in Neugdae's eyes and he nodded "thank you."

"Are you going to tell me what your issue is with him?"

"I don't exactly have an issue with the man just the company he keeps…or used to in any case" he edged taking another few bites of his food.

"I always knew he wasn't a normal priest. I just thought he was ex-military…until yesterday…" she trailed off.

"Never thought a human could kill a single vampire let alone an army right?"

"How do you know that?"

"The police found a lot of clothes with no bodies and a few weapons scattered about. Plus a few witnesses reported hearing gunshots. I put the pieces together."

Her frown became more pronounced "I'm starting to become very concerned with the amount of secrets the people around me are keeping."

There was a pause of silence as Neugdae used his eating a portion of his breakfast as an excuse not to speak.

Swallowing he nodded "fair enough and I suppose if we're going to be working together you deserve the benefit of the doubt. What do want to know?"

"What exactly are you?"

"I'm an Esper."

"…" Soyun stared at him unblinkingly.

"…" Neugdae continued his meal.

The silence went on for a few more seconds before the vampire broke it "and?"

"What?"

"Can you prove it?"

Neugdae took another drink of his tea before holding out his cup. A moment later the kettle pot floated over and refilled both his and her cup before floating back to the table.

"How's that?"

Soyun's bewilderment lasted for a few seconds before she collected herself and nodded "okay, yeah. That works."

"Next question."

"Are there others like you…like us out there?" she asked with genuine curiosity "you said something about a hidden supernatural world…"

"You don't have to worry about that" he dismissed "it's really not as prevalent as you think especially in Korea. For reasons there isn't much of a supernatural presence in this country."

"Why is that?"

"From what I understand the local supernatural population went extinct a century or so ago. Vampires aren't exactly new but they've never had this much of a presence until that sudden outbreak a decade ago."

"Do you know anything about that?"

"About the incident itself, no" Neugdae shook his head "I know as much as what the public knows. The first outbreak occurred in a rural town and it spread like a virus. What I do know is that the public reveal of vampires was as much a surprise to the supernatural community as the mundane."

"So this wasn't something planned" Soyun hummed as she drank some more tea.

"There's an unspoken rule of secrecy" Neugdae began "if there is one thing that is agreed upon by the supernatural community at large is that everyone is better off if humans don't know about them."

"What did they about it? The other supernaturals I mean."

"Isn't that simple, for every supernatural race there is a community and each community has its leadership. Without getting too much into the history of their politics it's generally agreed that each community doesn't meddle in the affairs of the others. Vampires getting ousted is a matter for the vampire community and leadership to deal with."

"And how did deal with it?"

"By going public" he said with a serious gaze.

"They were already public."

"No that was a freak outbreak that couldn't be contained. Public perception of vampires at that point was that they were a new invasive species spreading like a virus and needed to be exterminated. They couldn't have the world actively go against them so the leaders of the vampire community decided to come out in a somewhat official capacity. You might remember this as the time when vampires started to suddenly pop up across the world specifically the ones in positions of power."

"I know what you mean."

Being an amnesiac Pureblood Soyun was very much interested in the public history of vampires. Just as Neugdae says following the reveal of vampires in Korea and the subsequent chaos that ensured that vampires suddenly started popping up in the public space all over the world. It wasn't just random individuals either but popular influencers, celebrities, businessmen and even a few politicians came out revealing themselves as vampires themselves or affiliated with them.

"Essentially the vampires that came out blamed the whole incident in Korea on 'renegades' and publically disavowed any who break the laws by attacking humans. Ever since then they've been maintaining friendly discourse with various governments and the public through several organizations, agents and celebrities. It's the reason why despite everything vampires aren't public enemy number one globally."

Ever since Neugdae brought up the legality involved in dealing with vampires Soyun has used the time to do further investigation into the matter and found that despite how bad things are in Korea they were actually in the minority when it came to terrible relations with the vampire community. In Europe and America especially vampires are more accepted by the general public. It actually brought into question why Father Joseph thought they would be worse off leaving Korea.

The thought pervaded into a single comment "it's amazing they've been able to achieve this much."

"Not really" Neugdae spoke causing her to perk up.

"What do you mean?"

"Well vampires have been manipulating the public perception of them for hundreds of years now. There's a reason why so much of the information about them, especially their weaknesses are wrong."

Soyun can understand that at least but all this talk has Soyun thinking about the global vampire community and their leaders.

Specifically she wanted to know "if there is some kind of a shadow government for the vampires and the outbreak here ended up exposing them why haven't they done anything about it?"

"Who says they haven't? I find it odd how that vampire epidemic suddenly tapered off after years of straight up mayhem."

Soyun did that find that odd because the way how it was reported back then it seems as if Korea would have been turned into a warzone. A state of emergency had been declared, the entire country was on lockdown, no one was allowed in or out of the country and the military had been deployed. But before it could escalate further it just suddenly stopped. No more attacks, little to no new sightings and there were even reported infighting amongst the vampires as opposed to them going after humans.

Of course the government and military took the credit for it in the end as they really did crack down hard on vampires at the time. She remembered the time of the events as when Father Joseph began to really drill the notion of keeping up her disguise. She had to learn how to master her disguise quickly and to that end he gave her the crucifix she still uses to this day.

"Then again I'm only speculating" Neugdae added after taking a few moments to finish his meal "I'm not very particular with how the Pureblood Council operates but I wouldn't put it past them to do something behind the scenes."

"Pureblood Council?" Soyun emphasized with widened eyes.

"That's what the leaders of vampire society call themselves. As I'm aware every vampire in existence is descended from them and as far as I know all Purebloods are related to each other."

Soyun felt her pulse "r=related? Then that means..." she trailed off suddenly unsure.

"Yeah I'm betting they're your family but ask me the specifics they keep their identities a secret" he then sighed "this brings us to your situation."

"What about it?"

He interlaced his fingers and pinned her with stern gaze "I'll be honest with you Soyun your existence as it is has me very concerned."

"Why?"

"The Pureblood Council keeps a lot of their inner workings a secret but the way how vampire communities operate out in the world isn't hard to figure out. Every country with a vampire presence has a Pureblood that acts as the leader. Underneath him are the Noble Bloods who control the various territories. Common Bloods work under Noble Bloods who in turn work under Purebloods and as far as I know that's how it's always worked."

Soyun understand where he was getting at essentially "the Noble Bloods serve the Purebloods but the ones in Korea don't do that, they're coming after instead."

"Exactly and that is not supposed to happen."

"Father Joseph told me that they need me for a reason."

"I can only imagine why since Noble Bloods need the blood of a Pureblood to survive but they'd never be able to beat you…at least not on their own."

That's when it dawned on her "you think there's another Pureblood?"

"I am certain there is another Pureblood" Neugdae scowled "which is a problem because multiple Purebloods typically don't pop up in the same country unless it's for a reason. The fact that this one is keeping tabs on you through the Noble Bloods instead of approaching you and that you're being taken care of by a human priest means that something shady is going on."

Given everything that he's said about the Pureblood Council and vampire society he had to ask "i-is it possible that the Pureblood Council doesn't know about me?"

"…it's possible" he eventually answered after pondering it "although given everything I know you might be at the center of a conspiracy. You said the priest found you homeless on the street."

"Yes" she said almost breathlessly as the memories surfaced.

"And you don't remember anything about your childhood?"

Soyun reflexively tried however it was to no avail "no matter how much I try I just get…blank."

Neugdae pursed his lips "let me try"

"Huh?"

"Your amnesia, I think I can help you with it."

"You can? How?"

He raised his hand and he plates before him gently levitated into the sink "let's just say I'm adept at going into people's minds."

"That…is not as reassuring as you think it sounds" her eyes narrowed in suspicion "wait does that mean you can read minds?"

"Yes it does."

'Can he hear my thoughts?'

Neugdae sighed "yes I can hear your thoughts."

Soyun recoiled then scowled "I don't know how I feel about that. Definitely nothing good though."

"Relax, I don't traipse through people's minds…anymore" he added in a mutter.

"I heard that."

"Of course you did, freaking bat."

Ignoring that Soyun continued "I just find it unnerving that you can have access to people's personal thoughts without them ever knowing."

"It's funny, I used to think telepathy would be a cool power to have but honestly people are the worst. You'd think people would be more interesting in their own head but honestly most thoughts are weird, creepy, sexual or an unholy combination of the three… but mostly sexual. I've since learned to stay out of people's heads if only for my own sanity"

"Have you…read my thoughts before?"

"More like I catch stray thoughts when you think out loud" he clarifies "I don't look deeper than surface thoughts unless it's for something really important or can't be helped. The experience is…not very comfortable or even subtle for that matter. It's the reason why I chose to approach you instead of poking through your head when I figured out you were a vampire."

Soyun stared at him for a long moment before eventually nodding to herself "okay. So you can help me regain my memories?"

"I can certainly try. The mind is a very complex thing and I don't know if your amnesia was caused by someone else putting in mental blocks or if you did because of trauma."

Soyun took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She couldn't remember her past but she could get impressions and could at least remember having nightmares from these impressions.

"It's definitely trauma" she answered with a scowl.

"Well…I definitely have my work cut out for me. That is, if you agree."

A chance to finally unlock that once thought hidden chapter of her life, figure out who she is and come to terms with her own identity?

"Do it."

~To Be Continued~