Ch.28Succubus! (3)

#028

Seeing Rascal’s mocking expression, Dexter was more curious than angry.

Rather than coincidentally having his back to Himena, it seemed like a deliberately chosen position to mock Dexter.

It looked like he was trying to provoke Dexter directly to establish dominance, but something about it seemed lacking to Dexter.

‘Isn’t this too obvious a ploy?’

Clearly, if Dexter were to make the first move and punch Rascal in the face, Rascal would use that as an excuse to condemn him.

‘Of course, I could just completely destroy him and be done with it.’

But if he did that, he might have to leave Earth again, the homeland he had just barely returned to.

“Why so quiet? Are you perhaps scared? Doesn’t match your size, does it?”

Rascal was now openly taunting him.

People around them were watching Dexter and Rascal, sensing the increasingly tense atmosphere.

There were too many eyes here to deal with this.

“Shall we step outside to talk for a moment?”

When Dexter tried to lead Rascal outside, Rascal stood his ground.

“How should I put this… You’re quite arrogant, aren’t you?”

‘Look at this bastard.’

Dexter was dumbfounded seeing someone clearly younger and seemingly weaker than himself acting so aggressively.

‘In space, he wouldn’t even be worth a single punch.’

Still, Dexter maintained his composure, smiling as he spoke.

“Isn’t it problematic to respond like this inside the restaurant? Let’s talk outside. Company matters might come up, and that wouldn’t be good for either of you.”

Dexter brought up OSA.

“I thought with those impressive muscles, your brain might be muscle too, but I see I was wrong.”

“Rascal, are you joking right now?”

“Ah, if I’ve offended you, I apologize, Ms. Ribero.”

Rascal was pretending to be mannerly, but Dexter, who already knew his true intentions, found it detestable.

When Himena also stood up, Rascal moved toward the restaurant exit.

Dexter went outside first, followed by the sound of Himena’s flats, which carried a lot of force.

He could hear particularly heavy, slow footsteps behind them, which were undoubtedly Rascal’s, causing Dexter to sigh quietly enough that Rascal couldn’t hear.

A restaurant employee stood speechless, watching Dexter exit with a stern expression, and couldn’t say anything to the two people following him either.

Once the three of them were on the roadside next to the restaurant, Himena spoke first.

“Mr. Rascal, what on earth are you doing?”

Despite hearing Himena’s angry voice, Rascal looked at her with the same gentle expression and said:

“No, Ms. Ribero. Think carefully.”

Rascal was speaking slowly and deliberately, like a kindergarten teacher instructing a small child.

“What reason is there to meet with a mere prison guard who only has physical strength?”

“What did you say?”

Himena’s eyes widened at Rascal’s offensive remark.

“Well, his body is nice and his face is quite handsome… but besides that, he’s below your class to be associating with you, Ms. Ribero.”

Dexter, who was listening quietly with his arms crossed, was thinking something completely different.

‘I thought Elijah was the most annoying bastard in this universe, but there’s someone even worse.’

“Especially a prison guard as an informant. He’s just someone who hangs around with criminal scum, isn’t he?”

‘A superiority complex too? This is truly vicious.’

Ironically, the person with the highest status in this situation wasn’t Rascal, but Himena, who had her hands on her hips and was grinding her teeth.

“Excuse me. Do you call that talking?”

“Yes, let’s say you were lucky enough to gather evidence with that guard nobody. Wouldn’t it have been much faster to do it with me rather than with someone like him?”

It seemed like he was trying to insult Dexter, but from Himena’s perspective, he was insulting not just Dexter but also Himena herself for requesting his help, which Rascal hadn’t considered.

“Mr. Rascal, he’s not just any prison guard. Dexter Hughes—don’t you know him? The one who was expelled to space due to headquarters’ mistake.”

“Ah, that person?”

Instead of apologizing for not recognizing him, Rascal snickered.

“The poor guy who touched a rescue beacon and spent 15 years floating in space? Must have struggled to survive out there, huh? Cleaning spaceship septic tanks, serving others, right? Haha!”

It was meant to be a joke with Rascal’s own sense of humor, but neither Himena nor Dexter found it funny at all.

Dexter still wasn’t participating in the conversation, just standing with his arms crossed, observing the two.

“Look at this. He’s staying quiet because he knows it’s true. Someone like that really doesn’t suit someone as perfect as you, Ms. Ribero…”

-SLAP!

Finally, Himena couldn’t contain her anger and slapped Rascal’s cheek.

“I can’t stand listening to this anymore, you son of a bitch.”

“Son of… what? Ms. Ribero. I don’t think you understand the situation. The one you should be slapping is not me but him…”

-SLAP!

Rascal received another slap in succession and looked at Himena with a dazed expression.

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?”

Himena finally exploded after listening quietly.

Not stopping at slapping his face, Himena kicked Rascal straight in the stomach as he stood there dumbfounded.

-THUD.

She kicked him without caring that she was wearing a skirt.

“Ugh.”

Rascal clutched his stomach with both arms and rolled on the ground ungracefully.

“Whether Hughes is a prison guard or not, who are you to care? Are you my boyfriend? And I hear you’ve been acting like you’re dating other agents too. That’s really uncomfortable, you know?”

“Ms. Ribero, wait. There’s some misunderstanding between us… urgh.”

-THUD!

Himena kicked the fallen Rascal once more.

Showing some consideration by kicking him in the buttocks, Himena then strode toward Rascal’s face, crouched down, and patted his cheek with one hand.

“This won’t happen twice. If you try this nonsense again, I’ll stomp your groin into oblivion even if it means leaving OSA, so be prepared.”

After Himena’s savage threat, Rascal nodded instead of answering and quickly ran away. Himena then looked at Dexter proudly.

“Now, shall we go eat?”

Dexter just swallowed hard and thought:

‘Why are all the women around me like this?’

* * *

-BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

“DAMN IT!”

Rascal was mercilessly pounding the steering wheel with both hands inside his car, snorting with rage.

Although Dexter hadn’t actually done anything, in Rascal’s memory, Dexter was laughing at him.

As the distorted memory surfaced, Rascal hit the steering wheel several more times.

-BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

“How dare, how dare he…?”

While not from a family like Himena’s, whose economic influence could sway small nations, Rascal also came from a well-known family in the United States.

With thick eyebrows and a strong jaw, Rascal—a handsome man by anyone’s standards—had never known failure.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that academics, romance, and even his job before joining OSA were all within Rascal’s grasp.

Rascal had always won and conquered.

The problem was Himena.

Rascal’s charms didn’t work on her.

Rascal had been infatuated with Himena since he first saw her shyly greeting people at OSA headquarters.

Unlike her dignified and intellectual appearance, her tomboy-like, energetic, and clumsy personality had brought out the dark desires hidden in Rascal’s heart.

Driven by a twisted desire to make her his, Rascal had approached Himena.

‘Ah, excuse me, but I find this a bit uncomfortable.’

When he casually asked if she wanted to go to a bar after work, Himena had responded with a frown.

Rascal couldn’t understand the annoyance and irritation etched on her face.

‘Why?’

Watching Himena walk away with dignified steps, Rascal couldn’t contain the anger slowly boiling inside him.

After pondering why he was angry, he realized that for the first time in his life, he had been ‘rejected.’

That’s how Rascal’s anger found its direction.

Fueled by rage at ‘being rejected’ and the desire to make Himena completely his, his twisted schemes began to take shape.

He couldn’t defeat the Ribero family, which was more powerful than his own, by putting Himena in external trouble.

‘Is there no other way?’

This time, he wanted to use behind-the-scenes manipulation within OSA to drive a wedge between Himena and other department members, hoping to give her a sense of frustration as she experienced investigation for the first time.

‘Then, ta-da! If I appear and help with the investigation, Himena will surely develop feelings for me.’

But Rascal’s intuition was wrong.

A prison guard who monitored criminal nobodies was helping with the investigation.

‘An orphan who worked as a space laborer, how dare you interfere with my plans?’

When he heard that Himena was meeting an “informant,” Rascal went to the location.

That smile that had seeped into Himena’s expression, which she had never shown to Rascal.

Rascal had never seen that smile despite all his scheming.

When Rascal appeared, the smile disappeared from Himena’s face, replaced by contempt and anger toward him.

‘Why?’

He wanted to ask but couldn’t.

It was because of this lower-class man with his obviously relaxed expression.

“DAMN IT ALL!”

-BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

Rascal was hitting the steering wheel with both fists so hard it might break.

It’s all Dexter Hughes’ fault.

It’s your fault.

* * *

The two people who had tried every beef dish on the menu came out of the restaurant with smiles.

“That was delicious! But I guess there’s no avoiding the meat smell on clothes… Other than that, it was great.”

“It was fun for me, being in a restaurant where you grill the meat yourself for the first time.”

Seeing Dexter’s satisfaction, Himena smiled gently, then paused as if trying to remember something she’d forgotten.

“Oh, but we didn’t originally meet to eat, did we? How did we end up like this?”

“It’s all because of that Rascal guy. But don’t worry. I wrote down what I investigated just in case.”

Dexter immediately ran to his pickup truck, took out a piece of paper from the dashboard, and handed it to Himena.

“This might be better than me explaining verbally. Read it first, then ask me if you have any questions.”

“I’m so grateful, really.”

Though her words expressed gratitude, her expression didn’t match at all.

Dexter wanted to ask about it but decided to make a different suggestion instead.

“Well, it might be a bit awkward to talk about aliens over the phone. It’s getting late, but should we have coffee and talk? What do you think?”

“Sounds good!! I know a nice café, how about we go there?”

“Is it an outdoor café? I think the meat smell hasn’t completely left our clothes yet.”

“Of course! I’ll guide you!”

Himena, who had looked quite disappointed, immediately brightened up with a grin and urged him to get in the car. Dexter smiled and followed her in his pickup truck.

“Marcus & Finder,” an urban coffee bar not far from the Strip, was open until 9 PM, quite late for a café.

‘I would have been fine with McDonald’s coffee.’

Given Himena’s personality, she would never be satisfied with coffee from a fast-food place and would never take him to such a location.

Even though Himena felt comfortable with Dexter, she still distinguished between places she would and wouldn’t take him.

At a time when lights would be off and businesses closed in other cities, people were still walking around with bright smiles here.

Passing through the Strip with its glittering lights and heading upward, they arrived at Marcus & Finder, where Himena wanted to go.

Seeming to have visited here several times before, Himena skillfully placed her order and said as she sat down:

“When coming to places like this, Hughes should take the lead, but I feel like I took away your chance.”

“Not at all. This is my first time in a place like this, so I probably would have been awkward. I’m actually grateful that you took the lead.”

Shortly after, a glass of iced hibiscus tea was placed in front of Himena, and a hot Americano in front of Dexter.

Himena was carefully examining the paper Dexter had given her, while Dexter sipped his coffee, waiting for her to speak.

Seeing that no one else was sitting nearby, as it was a bit late for coffee, Himena spoke first.

“I just don’t understand why these residents of the Succubus planet came to Earth… Why? And they even managed to evade OSA surveillance!”

“I know. Why did they come?”

Dexter didn’t have a clear answer either.

“Anyway, for the professor who escaped with the graduate student, it’s clear that they need something from humans.”

“We definitely need more evidence. The problem is that if you don’t know, I can’t figure it out either… As a newcomer, I can’t know what even our headquarters doesn’t know…”

Seeing Himena quickly shift from smiling to looking dejected, Dexter grinned and said:

“Well, it might be resolved sooner than we think. Don’t worry too much.”

As Dexter was comforting Himena, who was struggling with the paper, and drinking his coffee, they could see some commotion coming from the direction of the Strip.

“N-n-no, I can’t.”

“Aww, just one night, please? Can’t you?”

“I-I-I’m not even m-married, how could I…”

A stammering voice and a ham-like appearance.

“Officer Lawrence?”

And beside him were two blonde beauties with supermodel looks, each occupying one of Gomer’s arms, exuding a different charm from Himena’s.

Watching the helpless Gomer and the two beauties boldly seducing him, Dexter said:

“Now what’s going on there?”