Chapter 8 – The Bond of Hongryeon

R​​e​ad ​o‌n‌ ​​K​a‌t‍R‌​ea‌di‍n‌g‍C‌a‍​f‌e‌

Her name is Hongryeon, a high school student and vampire hunter.  

Her hobbies include embroidery, and she loves daggers and cute creatures.  

Her school life is neither good nor bad, and she’s adapted fairly well, aside from being slightly lacking in common sense.  

During parent-teacher conferences, the crazy bald uncle who shows up elicits both fear and sympathy, but he’s still her only family.  

Even if they’re not related by blood, they live together, so they’re family.  

Should she call him her uncle? Their relationship is complicated, and it’s hard to explain.  

Anyway, she and that crazy uncle are vampire hunters.  

Among mercenaries, vampire hunters are a minority, but since vampires are plentiful, making a living isn’t too hard.  

Plus, they’re strong enough to survive in the “survival of the fittest” world of this industry.  

They’re definitely not weak. They could easily handle ordinary vampires and have even faced a Vampire Lord a few times.  

Of course, those times involved multiple vampire hunters, so it’s hard to say they faced them alone.  

Still, they’ve survived in this dark world. That alone is proof enough of their strength.  

But recently, something strange happened. Strange? More like something absurd.  

That day, not only Hongryeon and her uncle but two other vampire hunters were taking turns guarding the blood donation center for a lead.  

It should’ve been a quiet day, but outside was unusually noisy.  

And then, a girl stormed into the blood donation center.  

She looked like a white fluffy creature, her face flushed and panting, which caught everyone’s attention.  

But Hongryeon knew.  

Such an unreal level of beauty is usually the exclusive domain of Vampire Lords.  

In other words, it was clearly a Vampire Lord, so the reasonable thing to do was turn around and run.  

But there aren’t many wise vampire hunters.  

Hongryeon herself, the bald uncle, and the two other vampire hunters there that day were no exception.  

Plus, even if it was a Vampire Lord, with so many openings, how could they possibly lose?  

…That was a miscalculation.  

They must’ve completely misjudged their opponent.  

When they came to their senses, the surroundings were a mess, the building’s outer wall was blown away, and chaos reigned.  

They had only swung a street lamp, so how did things get so out of hand?  

Fortunately, no one was mortally wounded, but wouldn’t this leave some trauma?  

To be defeated by a vampire wielding a street lamp, full of openings—it was enough to crack their pride.  

But if they were that sane, they wouldn’t have survived as vampire hunters.  

Hongryeon was lucky, only her left arm was shattered, and with her monstrous recovery ability, she’d be fully healed in two days.  

So, returning to work immediately wouldn’t be a problem. Plus, her heart was racing now.  

Hongryeon recalled a conversation with her uncle when she was taken to the hospital.  

-“This time, it’s certain. I’ve found my fated partner! So what if she’s a Vampire Lord? She’s cute!”  

So far, Hongryeon’s fated partners had been three small animals and one sentient being.  

Of those, the three animals thankfully stayed by her side for life, but the nameless black-haired vampire burned herself to ashes the moment her life ended.  

But it didn’t matter.  

Fated partners can appear at any time.  

The concept of fate was that empty.  

It was almost like a paranoid habit.  

Anyway, that day, the white vampire she found at the blood donation center also captured her heart.  

She casually called her a fated partner too.  

And today, Hongryeon met that fated partner again.  

At the salon she always frequented.  

In the lounge of Round Ark.  

She hadn’t yet tried taxidermy on something human-like, but with her embroidery skills, it should be possible.  

But the moment she tried to approach her.  

‘Huh, what?’  

Hongryeon realized her body wasn’t moving.  

And for some reason, cold sweat began dripping down the back of her neck.  

‘This can’t be happening.’  

A hot emotion enveloped her entire body.  

‘Why is this happening?’  

This hot emotion.  

It must be love!  

She didn’t know for sure, but it had to be.  

Hongryeon thought so.  

With only love and fate as her vocabulary for such emotions.  

Her fated partner was right in front of her.  

This might be her only chance to keep her by her side forever.  

She’s a Vampire Lord, right? So she must be strong.  

That’s why she has to act before she’s noticed. Should she attack?  

But Hongryeon’s body remained frozen.  

As if her body remembered something, it refused to move.  

‘What should I do?’  

In reality, it was fear ingrained in her body.  

After being hit by a street lamp and having her bones shattered, would she be crazy enough to approach again?  

But since she couldn’t properly recognize this “fear”, she only felt her body refusing to move.  

Hongryeon thought, completely excluding the concept of fear.  

She stared blankly at the Vampire Lord.  

‘What should I do? If I don’t act, I’ll lose her right in front of my eyes.’  

“How can I… keep her here?”  

Her body wouldn’t move.  

So, physically, she couldn’t hold her.  

‘I need to make the Vampire Lord stay here voluntarily.’  

Without even touching her.  

Make the Vampire Lord come to her willingly.  

‘I need to win her heart…!’  

Finally, Hongryeon’s brain began to think again after a long time.  

She started considering more peaceful methods of negotiation.  

Like an alien making first contact with a sentient being.  

A way to use emotions to achieve a physical outcome.  

‘But….’  

However, as this was her first attempt, there were many errors.  

Hongryeon gnawed on her nails.  

‘How do you win someone’s heart?’  

Heart.  

Love.  

The heart.  

‘Do I need to win her heart?’  

It’s probably the same thing.  

Strangely, she thought so.  

But that couldn’t be it.  

This was a peaceful negotiation.  

‘The heart….’  

Hongryeon thought.  

‘The heart is something you can’t even touch, so how do you win it?’  

Hongryeon didn’t understand people. She knew humans as a species, but she didn’t understand their behaviors, emotions, or thoughts.  

She was ignorant about humans.  

But she knew one thing.  

‘It’s about mutual understanding.’  

Make the Vampire Lord understand her heart.  

Even if by force.  

Life is naturally drawn to things it feels a connection with.  

That’s what understanding is.  

Force her heart into the Vampire Lord, even if it’s against her will.  

‘But will that really work?’  

After watching a few romantic comedies, she vaguely knew that “force” rarely leads to good outcomes.  

So, instead of force, she needed a gentler approach.  

‘Communication… that’s it. For now.’  

Here, Hongryeon fully grasped the concept of “understanding.”  

Understanding only happens when the other person willingly accepts your thoughts.  

‘Got it!’  

The plan was set.  

Time to put it into action.  

But.  

“…!”  

She froze!  

Hongryeon tried to get up but stopped again.  

She had made her decision, but she saw two people approaching the Vampire Lord.  

Hongryeon pulled her tattered hood lower and glared at the two.  

‘Who are they?’  

Do they know her?  

No.  

The Vampire Lord’s eyes grew cold.  

So why were they by her side?  

What right did they have?  

What was their goal?  

‘She’s uncomfortable.’  

It definitely wasn’t for the purpose of understanding, like Hongryeon.  

The Vampire Lord was getting annoyed.  

The man in the aloha shirt started tapping the Vampire Lord’s head without a response.  

The tapping grew harder, and he even started drinking the brandy she had ordered, then grabbed her hair and began twisting it.  

The Vampire Lord remained expressionless.  

She just kept her mouth shut and endured their actions.  

‘Those bastards…!’  

The moment Hongryeon couldn’t take it anymore and tried to intervene.  

Zap!  

A silent message passed between the bartender and the Vampire Lord.  

It was a kind of agreement exchanged through mere eye movements.  

And then, the Vampire Lord, who hadn’t moved even when her drink was taken, acted.  

Whoosh!  

The Vampire Lord grabbed the chair the hunched woman was sitting on.  

And then, she swung it.  

Faster than the blink of an eye.  

Boom-!  

Crash!!  

“Ahhh!!”  

In an instant, all the glass in the lounge shattered.  

The people in the lounge were blown back by the tremendous wind pressure.  

Incredible destructive power!  

Thud, thud…  

“Cough, ugh….”  

“Ugh… what….”  

And moments later, when the noise subsided.  

Looking up, the lounge was in complete disarray.  

“Wow….”  

A massive hole in the shape of a person was blown through one wall of the salon.  

“….”  

The Vampire Lord glanced at the man in the aloha shirt, who had flown through five walls, then turned to the woman who had been knocked to the ground after losing her chair.  

Crack!  

Like hitting home runs in baseball, the Vampire Lord continued her assault.  

“….”  

And then, silence.  

“Cough, cough.”  

Thud, thud.  

Only the sound of someone coughing and debris falling echoed loudly.